"Who the hell are you?"
    "And why are you inside our craft? Are you some sort of new enemy? That's it, you're a bounty head and we get to bring you in and claim the prize."
    "Calm down Kei. I think he's just a scared young man who played with some weird technology and wound up here. Isn't that right?"
    Yuri leaned over to look Alex in the face. She batted her eyes at him, and a sweatdrop formed on his head when he realized that when she leaned over like that one could get a good glimpse down her top. He blushed and averted his gaze at the floor.
    "Well.... it's sorta like that," he replied.
    "Alex, download some data and change your outfit," Star whispered in his ear, "Those are Kei and Yuri, the Lovely Angels."
    Alex gasped, then slid his left sleeve up and clicked the wristband that resided there. There was a bit of a humming noise before the band glowed. He then stood up as a wave of light washed over his body, removing his armor and warrior outfit and replacing it with a pair of green cargo pants, black leather boots, a silver poly-silk shirt, and black trench coat. He smiled at the two Lovely Angels before Star's transformation into human form took affect.
    "Miss Kei, Miss Yuri, I'm Xander, this is Star, and we're going to be joining you for your next mission," Alex grinned.
    "What?! No WAY!!" Kei and Yuri screeched in unison.

<Music: Loving Thrills>

    Warrior Saturn presents, for your reading pleasure:
        CROSSOVER WARS CHAPTER 5:
            LOVING THRILLS

    "Did you really..."
    "Come from 3WA Headquarters?"
    It had been the same questions for the past fifteen minutes, and Alex was fast growing tired. No, he didn't come from HQ. He was dropped off in mid transit during their hyperspace jump. The panther turned human Star was his partner, and the transformation was a trade secret. His weapons credentials included heavy weaponry, beam weaponry, and most types of firearms. The one question he couldn't answer was what his and Star's codename was, and that kept taking them back to square one.
    "So, what's your codename?" Yuri asked for the third time since she and Kei had begun the questioning. Kei had also asked the question three times, so this meant that it was the sixth round of questioning.
    "Our codename is..." Alex began to say.
    "Thrillseekers," Star replied quickly.
    "Thrillseekers," Kei said, pondering the validity for a moment. "Sounds cool," she said after a moment, giving them a big thumbs up. "Welcome aboard."
    "Thanks," Alex said, half to Kei, half to Star, who was blowing on his fingernails due to his quick thinking.
    “You are in so much trouble when we get home,” Star muttered as Alex smiled nervously at the girls, who were fawning all over him.
    “Tell me about it,” Alex sighed before taking a seat. “So, Kei, Yuri, what’s the mission?”
    Yuri pouted at him. “We were sorta hoping you could tell us,” she said, fidgeting, “we’re sorta, well...”
    “What helium head is trying to say is that we’re BORED,” Kei grumbled, “how the hell are we supposed to entertain ourselves when the ratzafrazin 3WA hasn’t given us missions for, like, two weeks.”
    Alex’s eyebrow twitched at this revelation. Yuri he knew was a little more level headed than her partner, even if she was starting to whine. Kei, on the other hand, liked to blow things up, had a short temper, and enjoyed shooting at anything that pissed her off. ‘I’m screwed,’ he thought as Kei opened a mini fridge, pulled out a can, and popped the top before downing the contents.
    “Kei, show our guest some manners,” Yuri hissed as her partner belched loudly.
    Kei shrugged and tossed a couple of cans to Alex and Star. “Sorry about that,” she said, oblivious to the stares from the newcomer and the death glare from her partner, “forgot to offer you a soda.”
    Alex popped open his can and took a few swallows of the drink, one eyebrow rising when his palate declared it to be delicious. He finished his can as his wrist band began to beep.
    “Looks like HQ finally has something for us,” Yuri said as she hopped into her seat.
    “Go ahead chief,” both Alex and Yuri said in unison.
    The man who popped up on their screens breathed a sigh of relief. “About time I raised someone,” he muttered, “we’ve got a situation on one of the arcade asteroids. Some megalomaniac calling himself Hardwire is threatening to infect the entire arcade network with a super virus unless someone challenges him and wins.”
    “Challenges him to what?” Kei asked, “You and I both know we’re not exactly geniuses, so a battle of the minds is out.”
    “We could probably handle ourselves on any of the games,” Yuri said, “except for the maze crawls and RPGs. Yuck.”
    “And you’re no good on the dance games,” Kei said, earning a glare from her partner.
    “Um, you have us here too,” Alex said, “and if we pooled our talents we could win.”
    “Is this a hostage situation?” Star asked.
    The chief checked his notes. “The arcade was evacuated, so there are no hostages. However, nobody has taken him up on his challenge and he’s getting cranky.”
    “Tell him we accept,” Kei said, smacking her console, “not only that, but we’ll kick his butt and bring him to justice.”
    The chief nodded. “Will do. Good luck to you Angels. And be extra careful in there ‘Seekers. He’s got an array of armaments to make R&D jealous. HQ out.”
    “What’s on your mind?” Kei asked as Alex began to access information on the arcade.
    “I’m trying to see what we could challenge him to in the way of games,” Alex replied as he also pulled up a file on Hardwire. He made a face as he viewed the attached photo. “Not what I’d call prime beef.”
    “More like rump roast,” Yuri said, “yuck times three. I think I dated someone like him in high school.”
    “How do we fight somone who can become one with the hardware?” Kei asked as she snatched one of the holo-screens to read up on the arcade’s internal systems. “The asteroid’s core doubles as a power station, transforming gasses into energy, like the core of a star.”
    “A class 4 plasma power center,” Yuri said, “if it blows up, it blows up real good.”
    “Shutting it down should be one of the priorities,” Star said, “though fighting that tub of rump roast is high on the list.”
    “Approaching arcade asteroid X-4,” the ship’s computer announced, “beginning docking procedures.”
    The screens flashed as Hardwire’s image appeared on them. “I’d like to personally welcome the Lovely Angels and Thrill Seekers to my arcade.... and their doom!”
    “Oh, stuff it!” Kei and Yuri growled, both of them flipping off the super villain.
    “We are so toast,” Alex sighed, “burnt and crispy.”
    “Look alive,” Kei said as the screens went blank, the ship shuddering as docking completed.
    “Alex, what do we do about weapons?” Star asked as Kei drew her hand cannon and Yuri readied her plasma blade.
    “Wing it,” Alex replied, “my spell book is with Cacao and Parfait, and I can only use a handful of my magic without it.”
    Star’s eyebrow began to twitch, his anger manifesting as an astral mallet. The hammer changed shape into a war hammer with a glowing head. “That works,” the guardian said as he joined the two Lovely Angels.
    Alex shrugged and pulled a handheld device from his pocket. Two beams of energy were emitted b y the device, changing it into a large beam boomerang. “Works for me,” he decided, joining the other three at the airlock.
    They stood on opposite sides of the airlock as the doors hissed and clanked before opening. A hail of laser fire met the release of the airlock, peppering the opposite wall with burn marks.
    “This sucks,” Kei growled, “I can’t even get a shot off in retaliation.”
    “We don’t have defensive capabilities,” Yuri whined, “that rump roast is going to win.”
    Alex looked at his handheld device and pressed a couple of buttons, the energy reconfiguring into a shield. “Best of both worlds,” he said as he took Kei’s hand and leapt out into the passageway. “All yours Kei.”
    Kei grinned and began firing like the wild woman she was, her blasts hitting the marks to take out the turret drones blocking their advance.
    “Jump,” Star instructed as some of the drones upgraded their defenses. The guardian spun his hammer around before slamming it into the ground, a shockwave racing beneath Alex and Kei to shatter the barriers and take out the drones.
    “Surrender Hardwire and we may go easy on you!” Kei yelled as they charged down the passageways.
    “Not a chance, my dearest Kei,” Hardwire’s voice boomed through the deserted arcade, “You’ll have to find me to take me down, and between here and there I’ve set some ingenious traps and obstacles.”
    “Typical video game villain,” Star sighed, “probably uses the arcade corridors as a maze to confuse us.”
    “So, what do we do?” Yuri asked as they rounded a corner to find the floor covered in flashing arrows. “Oh, hell.”
    “Dance game,” Kei said as she holstered her hand cannon and cracked her knuckles. “This ought to be fun.”
    A holo-screen appeared at the end of the hall, arrows scrolling up to meet a status bar with four stars at the top. “Looks like you get four mistakes before it’s ‘game over’,” Alex said, “are you sure you can do it?”
    Kei shrugged. “Piece of cake,” she said, “how hard can it be?”
    She stepped onto the first arrow, looking down before up at the screen, where more arrows began to fly. “Oh hell,” she muttered as she leapt from arrow to arrow to cross the hallway sized grid. By the time she was halfway down the hall she only had two stars left and nowhere to return to. “Help!” she cried.
    “Hold on Kei,” Yuri called back as she tried to think of how to save her partner. She heard the music playing in the background as she watched the arrows scroll up the screen. A few beats later she started to dance, her feet going in time to the arrows.
    “Yuri, what the hell are you doing?!” Kei shouted when she saw this, “This isn’t the time for a dance party!”
    “Oh yes it is,” Yuri replied as she recognized a pattern to the arrows. She leapt into the air and flipped forward, landing on an up arrow. She spun around and leapt to her right to hit a right and down before cartwheeling forward, her hand hitting down while she hit and up and right when she flipped to her feet. She turned and flipped backwards to nail a left and up before losing her balance to make them lose another star.
    “Up to us,” Alex said as he and Star began to match the pattern. An idea occurred to him, and he looked at Yuri, who seemed to have rethought her previous plan.
    “Each of us should take one type of arrow,” Yuri said, “Kei, take the ups. Xander, the lefts. Star, the downs. And I’ll take the rights.”
    They all counted four beats before watching the screen and hitting the required type of arrow at the right moment. They slowly crossed the hallway, all four of them collapsing once they were clear.
    “I’m going to kick his fat ass from here to Alpha Centauri and back,” Kei growled as she pulled herself to her feet. “Fat boy is going down!”
    “We still don’t know where he’s holed himself up,” Yuri sighed, “for all we know he’s in the engineering section and has plugged into the core.”
    Alex threw his boomerang over Yuri’s head, taking out a cannon drone before it could eavesdrop further. “I vote for the ops center,” he said, checking a nearby sign for direction.
    “Most likely place for any villain to be,” Kei said as they resumed their charge through the arcade.
    They stopped when a large robot panda blocked their path, a monitor in its stomach displaying the rules for their next challenge.
    “A racing game?” Yuri cried, “Oh, ick!”
    “My type of game again,” Kei said, cracking her knuckles once more.
    “We have to have at least two of us in the top three,” Star said as he read the conditions for victory, “and I don’t know about you, but I never was good at racing type games.”
    “Nor am I,” Alex said as they each took a seat in a nearby racing game, the panda taking the fifth spot.
    The machine beeped and five digital cars left the starting line, all tearing up the straightaway. Kei was true to her word about being in her element, taking an early lead, the panda hot on her tail.
    “I think not,” Star said as the panda’s car moved to bump Kei out of the way. The guardian turned his wheel sharply, his car taking out the panda’s to allow Yuri to take second and Alex to place third. The guardian finished fourth, with the panda’s car crossing over the finish line to burst into flames.
    “Not bad angels,” Hardwire said, “you pass this round. There will be one final challenge before you reach me. But first, this message will self destruct in... oh, how about now.”
    The panda’s eyes glowed before it exploded, Alex hurling his boomerang into the path of the blast to protect them.
    “His ass is MINE!” Kei growled as she dusted herself off.
    “Only if we can have whatever’s left,” Alex said as he examined the end of his trench coat.
    “He... is... DEAD!” Yuri growled, her eyes filled with flame as she looked at the ends of her hair. She released an ear splitting scream before running off, her sword blazing a trail of destruction in her wake.
    “Think we should follow her?” Star asked as they watched the purple haired girl decimate anything in her path.
    “Only if we want Hardwire to still be alive when we reach ops,” Kei replied. “Yo, helium head, hold up!”
    They caught up to Yuri a few minutes later, the purple haired girl glaring at an energy barrier that stood in their path. Four targets were placed around the room, and it was apparent by their configuration that all needed to be hit simultaneously to trigger the barrier’s shutdown.
    “Think they’re in synch?” Star asked when he saw Yuri still foaming at the mouth. “Take deep breaths, and think in fours.”
    “Like the dance game,” Kei said, “that should work.”
    Yuri began to hum a song as they tried to synch their breathing. “Hold me and love me,” she sang under her breath, “I just want to hold you for a minute.
    Kei started to tap her foot in time to Yuri’s singing, the melody flowing through her mind since she’d listened to her partner’s pop songs far too often. Her eyes snapped open as she took aim with her hand cannon. “Now!”
    She opened fire while the others threw their weapons at their designated targets. All four exploded, the barrier instantly dropping. They retrieved their gear and took several more steps before coming face to face with Hardwire, who was sitting in a command chair. Two holo- screens floated in front of him, game controllers at the ready.
    “Welcome Lovely Angels, Thrill seekers,” he said, “to the final game. The winner takes it all while the loser has to....”
    He stopped as a bolt from Kei’s hand cannon split his hair down the middle. “Shaddup,” she growled, “let’s get this game on!”
    “This time it’s a one player game,” Hardwire said as they approached, “so choose wisely.”
    “This looks too simple,” Yuri said as she studied the controller, “one button on a joystick.”
    “How retro,” Alex said, raising an eyebrow when he saw the graphics come up on the screen. “Space Invaders? Are you bloody serious?!”
    “This one’s mine,” Star said as he took the controller. “I didn’t spend all that time with Luna and Serena for nothing.”
    “Game start,” Hardwire said, the screens flashing before the game software loaded.
    The aliens at the top of the screen began their attack, destroying the city below as the player tanks moved from side to side in order to destroy the threat. Hardwire’s tank moved quickly, clearing levels in the blink of an eye. On the other side Star moved his tank with a calculated accuracy that is found only in long time gamers.
    “He’s winning,” Yuri squeaked when she saw Hardwire’s score.
    Star took a deep breath before setting his controller down. “Here goes nothing,” he said as he leapt toward the ceiling and flipped backward, his fingertips poised to continue the assault.
    “The legendary moonsault strike?” Kei asked in surprise, “I didn’t know anyone knew about that attack.”
    Star hit the button with the full force of his being, clearing levels with one strike while unlocking several hidden messages, most of them Hardwire’s long kept secrets.
    “The one hit kill that saved the arcade,” Star said confidently, “game over.”
    Hardwire stared at the screen that flashed the word ‘Loss’ for all to see. An evil smile crossed his lips as he sent a command through the arcade’s network.
    “The core will go thermal in two minutes,” the super villain stated, “we all lose.”
    Alex’s beam boomerang whistled through the air, cutting Hardwire’s links to the asteroid’s systems. “Yuri, what’s the situation?”
    “We’re locked out of the command grid,” Yuri replied as the screens began to flash red, a countdown beginning. “And we’re screwed, since the ship is, like, miles away from us.”
    “The ship,” Kei said, smacking her palm before pressing her wristband. The band began to flash as the ship’s remote system was brought online. “That ought to help something.”
    “But the ship’s outside,” Star said, his eyes widening when he saw the grin on Kei’s face as she took aim with he cannon. “You can’t be serious.”
    “She is,” Yuri sighed as she helped Alex to tie Hardwire up in his own wires and drag the villain over to Kei. “Can you create an airtight bubble around us?”
    “I can try,” Alex replied, “though that’ll drain the last of the power cell.”
    “Better than dying,” Star said.
    The timer beeped one minute, and Kei’s band beeped to signal their ship’s arrival. She took aim and fired, blasting holes clear through several levels of the arcade to the outer wall, which required a few extra shots to puncture.
    There was a sudden escape of air as the vacuum of space entered the arcade, pulling up anything that wasn’t bolted down. A bubble of green energy wrapped around them as they were pulled through the various holes and out into the cold emptiness of space, where the Lovely Angel was waiting to catch them.
    “Remote start,” Kei directed once they were in the cargo hold, “Get us the hell out of here!”
    The ship entered warp seconds before the arcade’s core collapsed in upon itself, going nova before creating a tiny pulsar that quickly fizzled out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “That wasn’t fun in the least,” Yuri stated once they had dropped Hardwire at a high security installation.
    “I dunno,” Kei said as she reclined in her seat, “I kinda had fun.”
    “You’d have fun in a supernova,” Yuri sighed.
    Kei grinned. “Now you’re talking! Bring on the big bang for all I care. Just make the bangs big.”
    “I don’t know if I should fear for my life or not,” Alex remarked as he and Star leaned against the bulkheads behind the command chairs.
    “Well, you know what they say about redheads having violent tempers,” Star sighed.
    Alex rolled his eyes and winced as something bounced off of his head before sliding under Yuri’s chair.
    Yuri looked down as something hit her foot. “What’s this?” she asked, picking up a small notebook that had a pair of tigers on the cover. She flipped it open and read, “Property of Alexander West.”
    “My spell book,” Alex said, hopping up to retrieve the notebook. “Um, Miss Yuri, may I have that please?”
    Yuri handed him the book before asking, “Do you prefer to go by Xander or Alex?”
    “Generally Alex, though Xander works too,” Alex replied, blushing.
    “You never did explain how you did the teleport trick that got you here,” Kei said, “since we don’t have tech like that in the 3WA.”
    “Would you believe it’s magic?” Star asked.
    “After how you helped us handle Hardwire, I’d believe you were Santa,” the redhead replied. “Why?”
    “Because mine is on the fritz,” Alex replied, “we’re trying to get to a convention of sorts and we keep ending up in all the wrong places.”
    “Though we’re making the most of the stops,” Star added, looking up as Alex’s wristband beeped. “Is it time to go so soon?”
    Alex nodded. “Afraid so,” he said, “I’ve got energy enough to ‘port again, and with my spells I should be better prepared for our next adventure.”
    Yuri pouted before hopping up to hug both of them. “We’ll never forget you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
    Kei stood up and strode back to the two travelers. She blushed before kissing both of them on the cheeks. “That’s just my way of saying thanks for the saves,” she said.
    “If you ever find yourself on earth in the year 2000 or so, look us up,” Alex said as a ring of light formed around his and Star’s feet. “We’ll do lunch or something.”
    “Safe journeying,” Yuri said, watching as they vanished in a shower of glitter and phoenix feathers. Once they were gone she turned to Kei and asked, “Think we’ll see them again?”
    Kei shrugged. “Who knows,” she said, “the universe may get bored some day and throw us back in time.”
    Yuri giggled. “You’re right,” she said, hopping back into her seat, “So, what’s our next adventure going to be?”
    “How about an official vacation?” Kei replied, “After fighting Hardwire I could really go for one.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “Prepare yourself A-ko, because today is the day that I win and C-ko will be my friend!”
    A-ko rolled her eyes, the breeze blowing her auburn tresses behind her. “Honestly B-ko, give it up already,” she said, adopting a martial artist’s beginning stance, “We both know how this is going to end.”
    B-ko glared at A-ko, the same breeze playing with her own silver locks. “Today is the day things change,” she growled, “En garde!”
    The two combatants charged at one another, fists ready to strike. They didn’t veer off as a ring of golden light appeared in their path. Their follow through was flawless, their fists connecting, not with each other, but with the face of the young man who had magically appeared in the line of their fight.
    “I hate my life,” Alex grumbled as he slumped to the ground and passed out, Star hopping off of his shoulder to land beside him.
    “Dear gods, you’ve killed him,” the guardian said, looking up at the two girls. “What?” he asked, “Never saw a talking cat before?”
    “Not recently, no,” A-ko replied, poking Alex with her toe. “I mean, we’ve had the cross dressing aliens and B-ko’s father and his financial group, but no talking cats.”
    “And he’s not dead,” B-ko confirmed, data scrolling down her face mask, “stunned, yes. But still alive.”
    “So, who are you?” A-ko asked as Alex began to stir.
    “I’m Star,” the cat replied, “and the man you punched is Alex.”
    “Yo,” Alex said as he cracked his jaw back into place, “we’re traveling, and apparently we’re stuck here for a while.”
    A girl with curly blond hair ran up to them, out of breath from rushing. “A-ko, B-ko, c’mon,” she said, “Miss Ayumi is going to have a fit if we’re all late again.”
    “Call for us at roll,” A-ko said, helping Alex to his feet. “B-ko and I have something to take care of.”
    “Right,” the blond girl said before running off again.
    “That was C-ko Kotobuki,” A-ko said, “I’m A-ko Megami, and this is B-ko Daitokouji.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” B-ko said, “but A-ko, why did you tell C-ko to call for me?”
    A-ko sighed. “Because we need to find something for him to wear to get him through school today.”
    B-ko rolled her eyes. “He’s a guy.”
    “I know.”
    “We’re in an all girls school.”
    “I know.”
    “So what is your brilliant plan?” B-ko asked, “And don’t say cross dressing.”
    A-ko shrugged. “Then you come up with something.”
    “I think we were better off with Kei and Yuri,” Star whispered.
    “I think I should have stayed home,” Alex replied. To the girls he said, “Lead on, but keep the humiliation to less than life threatening please.”


----To be continued in ‘Crossover Wars episode 6: Project A cup’