CX went unconscious for a few minutes. When he came to, he found himself inside a very tacky, brightly lit throne room. More tin soldiers were on hand. He was dropped on his head before a staircase that led up to a seat on which a guy who looked suspiciously like the Supreme O'Nay was glaring down at him. Even in his battered state, CX laughed out loud at this man's outfit.
That was a mistake. The man apparently liked his clothes, as girly as they were. CX started into his "Do you know who I am?" routine again, but the guy on the throne would have none of it. He clapped his hands twice, and CX was lifted to his feet. Bleeding, his new uniform ripped, he was dragged to a curtain that opened to reveal a small, caged-in arena.
He was thrown inside, landing facedown. He looked up to see a huge hairy robot standing over him. What hell is this? Before the next thought went through his head, this monster picked him up, held him in midair with one arm, and swatted him across the arena with the other. CX landed in a heap again, only to have the monster pick him up a second time and hurl him to the other side of the cage. Stunned, dazed, eyes blurry, CX couldn't prevent the monster from kicking him, punching him, and momentarily sitting on him, before lifting him off the ground a third time and dropping him into a hole that had suddenly opened up in the arena floor.
The next thing CX knew, he was sliding in darkness for a few seconds before he hit a pool of inky black water. Three men in ridiculous fin costumes pounced on him immediately, slapping him, kicking him, splashing him. He screamed again, and that was enough to drive them off. Or so he thought. Actually, they swam away into the darkness, and the next sound he heard was that of water rushing. The water in the pool was suddenly going down very, very quickly. Before CX could even catch his breath, all the water drained out of the pool, and he crashed hard to the concrete bottom below.
Unable to get his feet under him, he tumbled through the hatch that had let the water out and found himself in a very wet tunnel. He was in a full panic now, wondering what would befall him next. He was suffering from a multitude of cuts, gashes, bruises, and fractures, both big and small. His uniform was in tatters. His boots were gone. His right eye was so puffed, he couldn't see anything out of it. His ears were ringing. His lips were cracked and bleeding. And all this had happened in the course of just two minutes!
Hearing frightening noises all around him now, he collapsed to the floor and began to cry.
He lay there for just a few seconds, finally retrieving his super quadtrol. After letting the water drain off it, he asked it just one question: "How do I get out of here?"
The reply: "Get up, turn right, start running."
He did as told.
CX ran and ran and ran. He ran until his lungs ached and his knees felt like they were going to separate from his body. The tunnels were dark, covered with weird silk that blew into ghostly formations as he scrambled by. Just when it seemed he couldn't run anymore, he reached an intersection of two tunnels.
Again he asked the super quadtrol, "What should I do? How do I escape?"
The quad replied, "Take a left." He did so, and found twelve buckethead soldiers waiting halfway down the tunnel for him.
He tried to turn around, but his feet failed him. The soldiers were on him in seconds. They fell atop him, crushing him, pounding him again, dragging him along the floor. It was only that he was still wet and slimy that he was able to squirm away after a few minutes of torturous beating. But the soldiers were soon on him again.
Through bleary eyes, he spotted a jail cell close by. It had bars that might protect him, so he leaped for it, slamming the door behind him. The soldiers mindlessly began banging on the door, but they were simply too clumsy to open it.
CX smiled for a moment, temporarily safe — or so he thought. He turned and that's when he first realized he was not alone in the cell. There was a man standing right in back of him. A man with a very familiar face.
"You?"
Hunter smiled: "Me…"
Hunter hit Commander X five times hard, right in the face. That was it. The SSG officer collapsed to the floor, rolled himself up into a ball, and pleaded for Hunter to stop.
Hunter picked him up off the floor. "I hear you like to torture people." He punched him five more times, again, all five right on the nose.
"No more!" CX was begging.
Hunter reared back, ready to deliver the knockout blow, when he said, 'Tell me…"
CX could hardly speak. 'Tell you? Tell you what?"
Hunter let CX drop to the floor.
"Everything…" he said. "The BG repair. The 066 Warehouse. The magilla."
CX was confused. "But why did you put me through… all this?"
Hunter was right in his face. "Would you have told me what I wanted to know if we hadn't?"
Even CX saw the logic in that. He shook his head numbly. "I would have killed myself first."
Hunter grabbed him again. "That's right, butt head," he hissed. "Now, spill!"
The plan worked. Battered and bruised physically and psychologically, CX told Hunter everything he knew. They were soon joined in the cell by Zoloff and Annie as well.
Although they got a wealth of information from the SSG inquisitor, all of it was troubling. The SSG was very close to manipulating the Big Generator to do their bidding. CX said such domination of its power flow was days if not hours away. Furthermore, the SSG was indeed working on a new weapon down on the surface of Saturn, one of
frightening proportions, though the details were such deep secrets that CX, by virtue of his position, would not have had access to them. All he knew was that it might be a craft of some kind that didn't rely on the BG for its power.
As far as the mysterious magilla went, CX had never even heard of it.
10
There was no need for parachutes to get down from Ping's Palace this time.
Zoloff had simply waved his hand, and the four of them found themselves on the ground of Adventure Land, standing atop the pastoral hill where the ticket booth was located. Hunter took a long look around as he shook off the mild effects of the sudden transfer. It seemed like he'd stood on this very hill just hours before, looking off into the distance, trying to catch one last glimpse of Annie. Now she was here with him, glued to his side, holding on so tight it seemed like she'd never let go.
Strange how things turn out, he thought.
Getting rid of Commander X was their first priority. Both Hunter and Zoloff agreed blasting him with a death ray was too good for him. Instead, with another wave of his hand, Zoloff had magically dressed the battered little man in the uniform of a Nazi private. Then, by quick manipulation of the Adventure Land PC, the Mad Russian sent the sadistic SSG officer to the Land of Mirrors, where he'd be exiled forever, caught in the endless war between the fascists. Annie slapped him hard across the face just as he was fading away. After what he'd been through with these three, CX almost looked happy to go.
But even with his inglorious departure, Hunter and friends still had a major problem on their hands: what to do about the mystery inside Warehouse 066. They agreed it was probably a more immediate threat than what would eventually happen with the Big Generator. And if what CX said was true, it was something that could prove devastating for Doomsday 212 and many other planets of the mid-Two Arm. Hunter felt it was his duty to investigate. Zoloff felt obliged to look into it, too.
They'd confiscated CX's super-quadtrol before he was sent on his way. It pinpointed the location of Warehouse 066. It was in Saturn's eastern hemisphere, about halfway between the equator and the north pole. Like much of the surface of the big ringed planet, this area was crowded with the bureaucratic offices of the SG, some so big, they literally ran for miles in all directions. In the middle of this sprawl was the building in question.