Thank you. Yah, the ship has sailed....very corny. But I love it!
“Ummm…Ok.” He replied. Lauren would be with him, and that was enough reason in itself to go.
Still holding onto her intently, Todd began to walk towards the hilly area; the place where Trof had been plotting just a few hours before. The earth on the mounds was charred and burnt, but recognizable. And it actually looked…joyous.
The remaining beasts had set up a sort of camp in the few hours that Todd had been passed out, which they were readily attending to.
“Todd! Ah, Captain Todd. It seems as though you are finally awake.”
A green crocodile slithered beside the two, lab coat fluttering gently in the wind.
“So good to see you alive and well. We have Artimus back at the spaceship, over there-”
He pulled their shoulders around and pointed one long finger towards a blackened
hill. “-who will all but momentarily undergo the process of reconstructing his lost body. I am afraid to state, however, that after this one last recovery, the LTM will be destroyed. The technology stored within itself could potentially become dangerous. We already saw what happened when I tried to bring back the, um…’other’ Todd. Who knows what lurks in other parallel universes? As for the dead animals leftover from the fight…”
He paused and sniffed quietly.
“Those that were lost have been burned down to nothing. There are no other bodies left to rebuild.”
This struck Todd like a knife to the heart. All of those animals were just, gone? With no hope of ever getting them back? The Fear he had seen go down, the one that had questioned Artimus’ rights earlier on, would never be alive again? It was almost too much to bear the pain of the losses. All he could be grateful for was that his Tox friend was alive.
“How are the others?” The teen questioned the Frocodilian.
“Alive.” He replied. “Dreyfus and Caleb escaped with minor burns and wounds, nothing too serious. Kit, however, was not quite so lucky. I’m afraid that what is left of our DNA transplanting machines cannot build back as much tissue as he lost. The Tox will have to live out the rest of his days as a half-machine, with a body made of metal. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem all that upset when I told him he was going to be a cyborg. It matches his eye, I guess.”
Todd could imagine that quite clearly.
“The other animals, the ones that survived, have all been treated already to the best extent possible. The troublemakers are also healed, but kept aside. We will consult with a higher court to reach a decision as to what their punishment shall be.”
The teenaged boy nodded his head soundly. Not that this wasn’t particularly interesting; his mind was simply too focused on what Lauren wanted to show him to pay much attention.
“And you said the LTM is going to be chopped up? So, no more coming back to life stuff?”
Drake sighed wearily.
“That’s what it means.”
The scientist looked down as he breathed out, and caught a glimpse of the two sets of intertwining fingers. Immediately, he shot a startled glance at Lauren, whose expressions remained placid. She revealed no anger towards his surprise, and no hurt. Only a smile crept across her lips, a soundless motion that seemed to swell with happiness. Drake too grinned, leaving Todd very confused at what messages the two were conveying. The Biological Engineer left him no time for questioning, though.
“Well, I’m off.” He chuckled deeply. “I can see you two wish to be left alone. Professional help is needed to revive our friend Artimus, anyways.”
He turned around quickly and headed towards a nearby camp, his scaled tail dragging noisily across the grass after him. Once he had left, the blonde turned back to her comrade.
“Let’s go.” Was all she said.
Todd tried to read her face, sneaking glances every now and then to see what emotions were on it. But he couldn’t. Finally, unable to restrain himself any longer, he dared question.
“Lauren?” He asked. “Lauren, pleeeeeeease tell me where we’re going.”
All she could do was shake her head.
“Pretty please?”
“No.”
“What if I gave you a marshmallow?”
“What’s a marshmallow?”
He stopped for a moment, flabbergasted. How could anyone not know what that was or how it tasted?
“Well, it’s this big, puffy square of white stuff that tastes really good.”
She listened intently, glad that he was preoccupied enough not to ask her anymore about where they were going. As her partner had begun to plunge into full-fledged hand motions to help with the story, they had reached their destination.
“Underneath the ship?” He breathed.
The sun shining down cast their shadows across the glinting metal, revealing a large door on the bottom of the hull.
“Mmmhmm.” Lauren mumbled. “We don’t often come here.”
Her reply confused the teen. Why wouldn’t they go into a certain part of their very own ship? Maybe there were lions hiding in there. Yah, that had to be it. Lions on tricycles…Cool.
Saying nothing, the woman gripped Todd’s hand tightly, and opened the door. Inside it was dim, too dim to see the lions. As she pulled him into the room, however, he could see that there were no animals inside, even in the darkness. A light was turned on, casting a glow over what truly filled the room.
“Wow.”
Ooooh....cliffhangar. What is inside? Haha, when I was writing this I actually remember typing out Lauren wanting to show Todd something before I even knew what it was. Just made stuff up as I went along, I guess.
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