Disclaimer: Don't own these boys and girls. But I own Kat Ace Wylde.
Distribution: Flights.
Rating: PG
Contents: Science-fiction genre action
Summary: In a future I've cooked up, the WWF stands for the World Watch Flyers. Earth is under attack for its precious reserves of water which are owned by none other than the titan himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. So to protect his investment, Vince set up his own defense corps, a paramilitary group whose main goal is to protect the water. But as the fight for water escalates, Vince has no choice but to ally himself with Earth's Defense Alliance. We join him as he introduces his men to the EDA liaison.

"Ms Bélanger," Vince said with an affable smile, "this is really unnecessary. My squadron's victories over the enemy speak for themselves."
"Your squadron Mr. McMahon, until now, had but one concern and that was to protect your water reserves. Now they have to consider human life as more important than water."
"Now now Ms Bélanger, we both know the old home truth, Without water, there is no life."
"And without humans, who would you sell your water to?" Ms Bélanger asked, the green flecks shining in the velvet of her brown eyes.
"I'm sure I'd find buyers," he said with a grin that left the young woman feeling dirty for standing too close to him. "Now, I believe you wanted to meet my boys?"
"Yes please. I want to make sure they understand our revised..."
"Take that back, you son of a Morellian neutered dog!"
Two men came barreling out a room, throwing punches at each other even as they fell in front of their boss and his companion. More men came out of the room, cheering on the fighters. Vince looked on like a father at misbehaving children while Ms Bélanger was thoroughly horrified.
Then, the men realized their boss was there and that there was a beautiful woman with him. Slowly, the attention went from the fight to Vince's companion until no one was paying attention to the fighters. Ms Bélanger looked up at the wall of testosterone standing in front of her and she had to stop herself from reacting to them. They were, without a doubt, the motleyiest group she'd seen and yet she knew they were just like other men and interested in one thing only, the one thing they'd never get from her.
"All right boys," Vince said, "stop those two idiots from killing each other! The last thing I need is to lose two fighters."
Yet another man came out of the room, carrying a bucket of water and summarily dumped it on the fighters. Without a look at Vince or his companion, he went back into the room.
"Come now Ms Bélanger," said Vince, pushing her past the wall of men and into the room, "let's introduce you to my boys."
The room was a modified hangar that suited all of the boys' needs in one room. There were bunks lining the large room, messy with blankets and sheets hanging off them. There were several large tables in the room as well, various holoscreens, computers access panels and on the one bare wall, a man stood on a scaffold finishing a mural of a naked woman in a very suggestive position.
The men turned from what they were doing to watch Vince and silence settled over the room as the boss swept plates, books and papers off a table and climbed on top of it, pulling Ms Bélanger up along with him.
"Who's the babe, boss?"
"Finally replacing your wife with the newer model?"
"Or is she coming to play with us?"
That last comment was greeted with raucous laughter that made the young woman shudder and when she looked down she saw two of the younger men trying to look up her skirt. She jumped out of their line of vision and bumped into McMahon who just grinned at her.
"She's the new girlfriend!" the mural artist shouted. "Look at them all cozy!"
"Shut up," Vince shouted with a grin, "you bunch of sexless, perverted losers!"
"Hey, you made the no sex rule!"
"Keeps you boys sharper," Vince reasoned.
"Keeps us hornier," said a man as he wrapped a meaty hand around Ms Bélanger's slim ankle.
"Oh, you... let go of me!"
"Let go of her," Vince commanded. "Enough! Now I want all of you to shut up and listen, is that clear?"
"Now boys, this is Ms Sherrie Bélanger. Ms Bélanger is our EDA liaison. She'll be making sure we adapt to the EDA way of fighting off the nasty critters from space?"
"And get ourselves shot down like those EDA idiots?"
"Now boys, you know the pressure's on now and that the Dubbas are pushing to destroy Earth. We're being heroes."
The sarcasm in Vince's voice made the young woman at his side look at him strangely. And it made her wonder about his motives.
"Now," Vince said, turning to smile at Sherrie, "let me introduce you to my boys. First of all, my son Shane. He's the commander of this squadron, you'll be working very closely with him. Then there's my son-in-law, Hunter. He's our top number one."
"Number one?"
"Yeah. It's a simple rating system. Now, Shane, Hunter, Steve, Rock, Taker, they're all number ones," Vince explained, pointing to the men assembled around them. "Now, Kurt, Jericho, Kane, Gunn, Guerrero, Malenko, Benoît, Saturn, Raven, Blackman and Holly..."
"Me?" asked a pint-sized man, getting up quickly and grinning.
"No," Vince snapped, "the one who's man-sized. Now, they're all number twos. The number ones fly the top of the line flyers, the Platinums. The number twos man our support fliers, the Golds. And the threes..."
"The threes?" Sherrie asked, raising a fine eyebrow, "who are the threes?"
"There are. Stand up and be counted Threes!"
Up stood ten pairs of men.
"The threes," Vince went on, "man the heavy artillery vessels. They work in pairs. And to improve their connection, to make sure they work as one, we've implanted chips into their cerebellums. Keeps them on the same wave length."
"That's barbaric."
"Hey, it works and they agreed to it. Signed contracts and everything. And the good ones get a shot at being number twos. Now, you got Test and Albert, Faarooq and Bradshaw, D'von and Buh-buh, Chaz and D'Lo, Edge and Christian, Goodfather and Bull, Val and Steven, Scott and Sexay, Haku and Rikishi and Jeff and Matt."
Sherrie looked at the number threes, looking for a sign that they were being forced into this manipulation by their money-hungry employer but they all looked perfectly fine.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," she whispered.
"Now, why don't you tell the boys what your task here is going to be?"
"Well, at first, I'm going to simply observe and as time goes by, I will see how we can streamline operations to improve our efficiency."
"Take over," shouted Steve, "looks like Vince went ahead and sold us out to the EDA."
"Austin, I would sell you to the Dubbas if it could help. But it won't so I won't. I didn't sell your asses out to anybody. We're just going to have to work with the officials a bit more."
"Yeah right."
"So is that all of them?" Sherrie asked.
"No, it's not," said a strange voice from above, "he forgot me."
With a piercing cry that had Sherrie scurrying back into the unforgiving wall of Vince's body, a figure dressed in baby blue coveralls leapt from a gangplank almost twenty feet above and landed as delicately as a ballerina on the floor next to Sherrie. The face that looked up at her was full of mischief and unlike the other faces, was that of a woman.
"I'm Ace," she drawled confidently.
"Ace?"
"Yeah, and in case you're wondering, they don't have a rating for me yet but if they did, it'd have to be zero because I'm too good to be a three, a two or even a one. And I fly the one ship these boys get a hard-on just thinking about. I fly the Diamond."
The Diamond. Sherrie had heard a lot about that ship. It was the one ship that had never been hit, the one ship that seemed to frighten the Dubbas. It had been in the sky for three years now and had brought down more enemy ships than any of the EDA's squadrons. And the mystery surrounding its pilot opened the door to many theories but none would have had this stunning young woman as its pilot.
"Show off," Raven snickered.
"Baby, you're just mad because you know you will never do anything to my beautiful machine except watch it fly by you."
"Bitch!"
"Thank you. So," Ace asked, turning around to face Sherrie, "you going to make us meet EDA standards?"
"That is one of my objectives."
"Well, question is, will the EDA live up to our standards?"
Ace's words made the room full of men laugh and Sherrie feel smaller. Ace graciously leapt on top of the long table and stalked to Sherrie. At the last moment, Vince stepped in Ace's way.
"Enough Wylde," he said, "you've made your point."
"Have I really?"
Leaning to the side, Sherrie observed Ace, saw the striking violet eyes in the oval brown face, observed her long legs, the muscles playing on the baby blue overalls, the short cap of jet black hair, curls plastered to her well-shaped skull.
"Yes."
"So, were you or weren't you planning on introducing me to the little lady Vince, or were you planning on having me be your nasty little secret?"
"Wylde," Vince growled, "consider this to be your last warning."
"My last warning? Before what? What is it exactly are you going to do to me Mr. McMahon?"
"Actually," Sherrie said, "I was going to ask you about the Diamond's pilot. Simply for verification purposes."
"You were?"
"Of course. There is a great deal of mystery surrounding that ship and its pilot. All we know is that the Diamond is one of your ships. We couldn't not ask you about it."
"See Vince, I just saved you having to lie about me."
"Now Mr. McMahon, would you have really lied to us about the pilot of the Diamond?"
With both women staring at him from both sides, Vince started to sweat heavily. That's when his sons, Shane and Hunter, stepped in and plucked the women off the table.
"Ms Bélanger, if you'll allow me to show you to your office," Shane said, leading her away.
"B-b-b-but I had m-more questions to ask..."
"And I'll do my best to answer them," said Shane in a tone that brooked no replies.
While Shane hustled Sherrie out of the room, Hunter brought Ace down to his side, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, her eyes briefly flashing in anger.
"You," said Vince, looking down at Ace, "are getting to be a lot more trouble than you're worth."
"So fire my ass!"
"You and I both know I can't do that, Kat."
"Then stop coddling me and install the satisfaction component to my system."
"I can't do that."
"Of course not, you stingy bastard. But think about it. Right now, I'm blasting those bastards out of our sky because I was trained to do it. Imagine what I'd do if I were doing it for fun?"
Vince looked down at Ace and took a deep breath, "The techs are still working on the design."
"Liar! The techs are trying to find their assholes without a mirror and working on the propulsion systems, but they are not working on my satisfaction component."
"How the hell..."
"Now Vince, think about it for a second. You think your techs' schedule is a mystery to me?"
Vince's face red when as once again he realized how important Ace was to his operation.
"I'll send the orders through today."
"Good boy," she sighed, patting his cheek. "I'll let the techs know."
With a series of graceful leaps, Ace was back on the gangplank from which she'd originally appeared and disappearing down a corridor. Vince watched her go, his mind on her and the Diamond, wondering if he'd created a monster.

"The stingy bastard finally said yes," Kat announced, entering the lab.
"Good stuff," Chyna said, smiling up at her from her computer. "Well, as you know, the first model's ready for the first run."
"I'm still unsure about this," Linda said, wringing her hands. "Look at what it did to Sable."
"Yeah well, she's not me," Kat said, going over to Linda, "I'm a thousand times the woman she was."
"Kat's right Mom. Her systems are far more developed than anything we could have done with Sable."
"Don't get me wrong, Kat more than deserves the Satisfaction Component. It's just that..."
"Linda, I am not going to break. Now, let's just run the simulation, okay?"
"Fine. Lita, Trish, Molly, let's get Kat into the simulation cockpit with the SC, all right?"
With the three women's help, fifteen minutes later, Kat was strapped into the cockpit, her blue coveralls replaced by a skintight body suit made of black Lycra and that was crisscrossed with thin wires.
"I'm ready," Kat shouted from the cockpit, giving the women in the control booth, Stephanie, Linda and Chyna, the thumbs up while Molly, Lita and Trish hurried out of the simulation room.
Within seconds, the simulation room became as dark as the deepest night and Kat was flying through it aboard her baby, her Diamond. She checked her radars and saw four enemy ships bearing down upon her. She knew this was only a simulation but she immediately felt blood rushing through her veins as she checked her weapon systems.
"Come on, you mangy little bastards, try me on for size. That's right. You think it's a big bad man manning this baby? This terror of the night skies? Oh no, it's me, the Ace herself, Kat Ace Wylde and I'm about to make you regret you ever hatched. All right, bastard one, try me up front and keep me busy while all three of your buddies take my flanks and back, sure, why not? And BAM! You're out of the game two! What, you thought I was going to go for one first? Tsk, too fucking easy. Me likes a big bad challenge. Now three, you want me? What, you... Oh God..."

Her flow of words was stopped by the burst of unexpected pleasure that rocked through her body. She gasped loudly and fell head first against her controls. She felt her eyes roll to the back of her head as wondrous sensations made her feel every nerve in her body. She barely realized her ship had been blown to smithereens by the enemy. "Get her out of there," Linda sighed. "And get her to the infirmary."

Kat came too and found Dr. Snow looking down at her, flashing a pen light in her eyes.
"Back to the world of the living are you?" Snow asked sarcastically.
"My ship! I blew up my ship," she exclaimed, sitting up and swinging her legs out of bed.
"Whoa there! Hold on a second," he said, pushing her back into the bed. "Your ship's fine. It was just a simulation. You were trying out your first SC, remember?"
"The SC-- it fucked me up! I lost control!" Kat snapped. "I have to get back to the lab and..."
"Not quite yet, young lady. I have more tests to run. I have to find out exactly how the SC affected you."
"It fuckin' knocked me out, all right? What else do you need to know?"
"Everything."
Taking a wire from the large computer that occupied a full wall of the infirmary, Dr. Snow lifted Kat's sleeve and ran his thumb along the inside of her arm until the nail of his thumb found its target a mere inch under her elbow. He quickly lifted a panel and revealed the insides. Mixed in with the veins and muscle tissue were silicon ships and fiber optics wires. Snow looked at the cyborg's impassive face and sighed. She was still too human to be the perfect cyborg he'd dreamt of creating but she was close.

"Have a seat," Shane told Sherrie as he led her into a very utilitarian office.
"Thank you."
"Would you like something to drink?"
"Tea, no, coffee would be welcome."
"Coming up."
Shane went to the distributor and placed an order for two cups of coffee. He showed her to her seat behind the desk while he sat in front of it, stretching his long legs in front of him. He watched her eyes close in obvious pleasure as she drank the sweet smelling brew.
"Wait," she said, looking up at him, "this is real water?"
"Think about where you are Ms Bélanger and ask that question again."
"Wow! I hope I get to keep this job forever. Just for the coffee."
Shane chuckled and looked at the woman sitting across from him. She was young, too young even. But then again, when the EDA's headquarters had fallen to enemy fire, most of the senior staff had died and the younger staff spread across the world had to rally and take over their fallen comrades' posts.
But she looked the part of an older EDA official behind her wire-rimmed glasses, her hair pulled into a severe bun at the back of her head and in a boxy green suit that had him guessing whether or not she had any womanly curves. But her reaction to the boys and to Ace, that was all the proof he needed to know that she was young, as young as some Jeff Hardy probably, if not younger.
"So how long can we expect to have you with us?"
"As long as it is necessary Mr. McMahon," she snapped, her tone all business as she pushed her glasses back along her nose.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm just curious, you see."
"Of course you are."
"Listen, you and I are going to be working very closely, don't you think we should at least be friendly."
"Oh, I can be very friendly Mr. McMahon."
"How about you start by calling me Shane and I can call you-- what?"
"Well Shane," she smiled, putting down the coffee cup, "you can call me Ms Bélanger."
"So it's going to be like that?" he asked with a cocky smile.
"It's going to be like that."

"So what happened?" Vince asked his wife and daughter as they sat down at the conference table.
"Well, Kat's nervous system, as you know, is heightened in order to increase her response time," Stephanie began. "Well, the SC, at its lowest level, threw her nervous system completely out of whack."
"What are you saying?" Vince asked.
"Well," Linda went on, "we used the boys' SC system as a template. Since the female body is very different from the male body when it comes to sexual satisfaction, we have to build a far more delicate system for Kat."
"How long will it..."
"I believe I should be here for this meeting," Kat said, opening the door to the conference room. "This is about me, isn't it?"
"Yes, of course," Vince said, "but..."
"But what? I'm not letting you weasel out of my SC Vince. Linda, can you give it to me?"
"The SC? Yes. It's just going to take a lot of testing than we'd thought."
"All right. Every time I'm not up there, I'm in your lab, how's that?"
"Sounds great," Stephanie said. "The way I see it Dad, if we're going to have any more women flying our ships, we're going to have to rig up personalized SC suits for them too. Not every woman has the same erogenous zones. Unlike the majority of men."
"Before you start planning more SC suits, Steph, let's make sure we can Kat into one that..."
"ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE!!! ALL FLYERS TO THEIR SHIPS!"
Kat bolted out of her chair, Vince after her. While she headed to the main hangar, Vince headed to the control room from where he'd be able to keep an eye on this.

In Sherrie's nondescript office, Shane took the time to put his halfway full cup down on the desk before rushing out of it, shouting orders.
Sherrie followed him to the hangar where the ships were stored and stood back while the pilots ran by her, putting on their helmets and rushing to their ships. One man, the one Vince had referred to as being the non-man-sized Holly brushed past her and took her hand.
"Come with me. You don't want to be out there when those ships tear out of here."
Sherrie allowed herself to be dragged to the control room when the little Holly took his seat.
"Dad," Shane's voice resonated through the control room, "we have everybody."
"Then go! And son?"
"Yeah?"
"Kill those fucking Dubbas!"
Her heart jumping wildly from her throat to her feet, Sherrie watched the first ships power out of the hangars, the Platinums, followed by the Golds and the silver ships carrying huge guns. Then, she spotted the sleekest ship of them all, so bright it glowed. The Diamond with Ace at its commands.
"Watch them go, Ms Bélanger," Vince said, coming up behind her, "and tell me we need any help from the precious EDA. More like your EDA is going to need our help."
"Just show me to my station," Sherrie snapped, "I'll start coordinating with the EDA right now."
"You do that," he said, showing her to an empty console.

"All right boys," Shane started, "and girl," he added before Kat could snap back at him, "I just got word from our EDA liaison. We're going to be their second line."
"Second line?" Hunter scoffed, "you all know what that means?"
"We're going to have to fight through the debris of EDA ships."
"I can hear you," Ms Bélanger's voice announced loud and clear.
"Fuck Shane-O, why didn't you tell us?" Austin asked.
"He didn't know. Now, give the EDA flyers from credit. We are not completely inept."
"Please."
"We managed to keep the Dubbas away from most of..."
"I cut her off," Ace announced, "that babbling of hers annoyed me."
"Shane," Test asked, "I'm getting transmission from EDA artillery, they want us to take-- the last fucking line."
"Not going to happen," Shane said, "we're going to give the EDA a chance. Five minutes. If they can't hold their own, fuck that shit and we go in like we always do."
"Guns a-blazing?" Rocky asked.
"Oh yeah, the only way we can do it!"

"They cut me off," Sherrie shouted as she heard the banter from the WWF pilots over the speakers, "they cut me off!"
"Yeah," the little Holly said with a nod, "they do that to me a lot too. But they do better their own way."
"How did she do it?"
"Kat? I mean, uh, Ace well, um, she--," Crash looked over his shoulder and saw Vince shaking his head at him, "she-- um, she's real good with computers."
"I'll bet."

The WWF watched the EDA's first attack and some of their hearts tightened as the saw the first ship disintegrate. Growling Shane flicked open his microphone.
"Ace, put our EDA liaison back on."
"Done."
"Ms Bélanger, can you hear me?"
"Yes I can."
"Ace asked you a question before about whether or not the EDA flyers could live up to our standards. Allow me to give you a chance to mull over your answer. Hunter, let's mess with Dubba's intel on our tactics."
"Whatcha got in mind little boss man?"
"You head up left flank with Taker. Take Kurt, Gunn, Malenko, Saturn and Blackman along. Test, Faarooq, Chaz, GoodFather and Haku, you boys keep their asses in two cheeks. The rest, you're with me and Rock."
"What about me?" Steve growled. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Sit there and knit?"
"No, you and Holly are going to be checking out the loveliest ass we have on this team."
"Ooh," Ace said gleefully, "that's me, right?"
"You're right baby girl, that's you. Now, let's stop playing around and start kicking Dubba ass!"
With a war cry that had Sherrie throwing down her earphones, the WWF started working. As she watched them, she had to grudgingly admit that they were far better at their job than the EDA flyers. And they took a lot of risks. Ever the Silvers, specially the ones manned by the younger crews of Test and Albert, Jeff and Matt and Edge and Christian. Their flying often had Sherrie's breath stopping in her throat.
"Impressive, aren't they?" Crash asked her.
"Yeah. You could say that."
"One day, I'll get up there and kill myself some of those Dubba bastards."
"With any luck, by the time you're ready to get out there, there won't be any need for you to go out there to kill any Dubbas."
"I hope I don't get that unlucky."
"How come you're not up there yet."
"Gotta have a partner to get up there. And I don't, not anymore."
"Who was your partner before?"
"My cousin Bob. The man-sized Holly."
"Oh."
"But he got good really fast. And Vince bumped him up to a two spot when Jarrett was brought down by Dubba flyers."
"And you got left behind?"
"Yeah."
"All right," Vince said, "we're engaging the Dubbas right now. Crash, bring down the screen. Let's see what we're dealing with here. Ms Bélanger, you'll want to see this."
Sherrie went to stand next to Vince and watched at the control room's lights dimmed and the walls went opaque and became a mirror of the night sky. Then she saw tiny dots of colored light zoom across the screen.
"That's us," Vince explained. "The white dots are the Platinums, the yellow ones are the Golds and the grey ones are the Silvers. And the rainbow, that's Ace in her Diamond. The red lights, that's your EDA flyers and the green ones, that's the enemy."
"The Dubbas."
"Right, the fucking Dubbas."
"Mr. McMahon," Crash said, "the EDA flyers have pulled back. It's just us and them, sir."
Sherrie watched the ships identified at the Platinums and was impressed at how well they cut down the enemy's first offensive line. Their shooting was precise, unrisky, and incredibly accurate. They took a few hits but they were no match for the Dubbas. The Silvers maneuvers were riskier and more dangerous, made Sherrie's stomach queasy just to look at it.
But what really caught her attention was Ace and her Diamond. It was like watching a ballet of sorts. Her accuracy was amazing and frightening. As she made her ship twist this way and that, one had to wonder if she really was in control of her ship. And her cohorts did too.
"God damn it Kat, another maneuver like that, and I swear you won't have to worry about Dubba being on your tail, you'll have to worry about me."
"Steve, you jealous cause I can kick Dubba's ass with my eyes closed and you can't?"
"I'd like to see you try that!"
"Watch me!"
Ace flicked on her onboard camera and grinned at it before closing her eyes.
"What the hell is she doing?" Sherrie asked. "What if she hits one of the WWF ships?"
"She won't," Vince said calmly.
"But if she..."
"She won't," Crash grinned at her. "She won't."
"All right Kat," Shane said after a few minutes, "you can shoot down Dubba with your eyes closed! Good stuff, now open 'em! I need you to lead Test and Faarooq. We're taking down their mother ship."
"Cool shit! Do I get to keep Steve and Bob?"
"Yeah. Just bring them down in one piece."
"Will do. All right boys, we're going to play fuck Dubba. The goal of the game is simple. Let's make Dubba wonder why it's shooting itself up the ass. You with me?"
"Oh yeah!" Faarooq, Test, Albert and Bradshaw shouted with glee.
"Don't you boys go and get me shot up all the way into hell, all right?" Steve added.
"Sure thing old man," Albert teased.
"Watch your ass when we get home Bertie boy, I'll kick it."
"Promises, promises."
All through this exchange, Sherrie was shocked to see how well they moved. Compared to them, the EDA flyers were rank amateurs.
"Damn it," Holly swore, "I've been hit!"
"Val, bring him back here ASAP," Vince ordered.
"I can go on Shane!"
"Bob, if you don't make it, I'm going to have to put up with your annoying cousins blaming me for not saving your ill-tempered ass. Now, back to HQ for you. Val, drop him off at twenty clicks and come back. We need your ass!"
"Will do. Lead the way Holly," Val said. "Steven, take over the..."
"... Rear guns. Yes, I know. Val, be careful of that..."
"... Dubba artillery ship. Yes."
"See Ms Bélanger," Vince said, coming to stand next to her console, "that's the advantage of the chip."
"I see."
"Changing your opinion on my boys young lady?"
"The fight's not over yet McMahon. I'll reserve judgment until then."
"Won't be long now," Vince said, pointing to Ace's ship. "She's made it past the defense grid, it's all over now."

"Ace," Shane said, "make it a clean sweep down the middle. And hit their reactors."
"Now Shane, my boy, would I go about it any other way?"
With Faarooq's ship keeping a tight watch on her six, Ace cut an impressive swath through Dubba's last line of defense to its main artillery ship. She went in shooting and as the first decks exploded, she sunk her Diamond into the ball of exploding debris.
"What is she doing?" Sherrie asked Crash.
"Killing Dubba the best way she knows how."
Less than thirty seconds later, Sherrie watched as a large explosion made the Dubba ship wobble like a baby on its first legs. And out of that ball of fire came Ace's Diamond, primed for more action.
"Did you see that? God damn it do I ever rock!!!"
"Good shit Ace," Shane chuckled. "Now, let's finish up Dubba and go home. I ain't done chatting up that cute EDA liaison yet."
"I heard that," Sherrie snapped.
"I know you did sweetheart. Why do you think I said it?"
The control room exploded in laughter as Sherrie blushed to a dull red.
Within minutes, the sky was empty of Dubba ships. Only a few EDA flyers remained with the WWF ships. And while the Diamond, the Platinums, the Golds and the Silvers went home, the EDA ships stayed to clear the sky of debris.
"Gotta run," Crash said. "This is when I get to work."
Sherrie followed him and watched as the ships landed in their assigned spaces. As soon as the pilots were out, Crash set a series of repair bots to each of the ships, repairing micro-fractures that could cost lives in a battle in the sky. Bob Holly was already working on his ship, manning a repair bot and handling it very deftly.
"Do all the pilots work on their ships?"
"Oh yeah. Unless they take hits like Bob, they won't work on it right away. They have to debrief first. But as soon as that's done, they're on their babies until they purr like kittens."
"And you," Sherrie asked.
"Me, I do whatever they can't do or I help them do what they can't do themselves."
"Anyone else work with you?"
"No. We're a closed crew. Vince won't let anyone in anymore. Not after the Shawn Stasiak incident."
Stasiak. The mention of that name made Sherrie's back bristle in anger.
The man had worked for Vince for years, been trained by him and then, when the Dubbas had offered him a good position in exchange for Vince's secrets, he'd turned his back on his mentor all too fast, betraying even the planet that had given him life.
"But what if one of you dies?"
"Crash," Shane said, coming up behind them, "go tell Bob to get down from there. Time for debriefing."
"Okay."
"You were listening," she accused him, turning around to face him.
"Yes, I was."
"Why are you keeping things from me commander McMahon? Specially when we're supposed to be working together? I'm bound to discover your secrets. All of them."
"Well, get out your pipe Sherlock. It's bound to be interesting."
"Sherlock?"
"Don't tell me you never read Doyle? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"
"I suppose I won't tell you then."
"Public education?" he asked, leading her into a small auditorium where all the pilots had gathered.
"No. Private school. Catholic private school actually."
"And no Doyle?"
"No Doyle."
"Shame," he said, shaking his head, "pure shame."
"Shane," his father shouted from the dais, "we're waiting for you and Ms Bélanger."
"Of course you are."
Shane led Sherrie to a chair on the dais and extracted a small remote from his pocket. When he clicked on it, a large screen appeared and Sherrie recognized it right away. This was going to be a play by play of the fight. She quickly extracted a laser pointer from one of the numerous pockets of her suit and prepared herself.
"All right," Shane said, "let's start as soon as the Dubbas cleared out the EDA flyers for us."
"Let's not," the young EDA liaison said, "I'd like to hear your pilots' take on the EDA flyers."
"Trust me," Vince said, "that something you don't want to hear."
"But I do," she replied smoothly, turning to the WWF flyers, "come on, let's hear it."
"Go ahead," Hunter said, pushing Ace forward.
"Why me?"
"Because you're you."
"Fine. Wanna see what's wrong with your flyers, darling? Well, pull up a chair, this is going to take a while."
Sherrie handed Ace the pointer and sat down.
"All right, first things first, your flyers are shaky and it shows. Look at that first line. It's shaky and the Dubbas know it. The ships don't hold their position. That's weakness. Either your boys can't hold their machines correctly or they're afraid of the enemy. And they don't work as a team. When one goes down, they stick to their position. No one fills that gap and wouldn't you know it, gives Dubba the perfect way to penetrate their defenses and shoot up their asses."
"I see," Sherrie said, watching the Dubba ships proceed exactly as Ace had predicted.
"That's not the most important thing. You guys have the flyers to kick ass. Their specs are the same as ours. But our guys are better."
"Your guys are mavericks."
"Exactly."
"That can get them killed."
"Do my boys look dead to you?" Kat asked, turning around to her boys who responded by offering to prove to Sherrie just how alive they were.
"So what do you suppose we do then?"
"Your boys aren't hungry enough. They don't want this enough. You got to dangle a fucking carrot in front of their faces."
"What dangles in front of your face Ms Wylde?"
"Nothing for now. But soon, something as good as what these boys get."
"And what exactly is that?"
"All right," Vince intervened, "that's enough. Shane, finish the debriefing. Ace, you and I have to have a little chat."
Vince roughly escorted Kat out of the auditorium and slammed the door shut after them.
"What the fuck are you doing Ace?" he asked her, his eyes blazing with fury.
"She asked me to tell her what was wrong with her boys. I gave her an answer. Well, I tried to give her an answer. You stopped me before I could."
"What are you trying to do to me here?"
"Isn't this going to be an alliance between the EDA and us? I mean, I thought that's what it was going to be. Was I wrong?"
"Don't play dumb with me. You know exactly what I'm talking about Ace."
"You mean we're not going to tell the nice little EDA lady about the SC or about the fact that I have cybernetic implants?"
"My patience has its limits, little girl. You don't want to test them."
"Oh but I do old man, I do."
"I made you kid," Vince said, putting his hand around Kat's throat, "and I can..."
"What?" Kat asked, twisting her arm around Vince's free arm and tweaking the pressure. "What? You can destroy me? How Vince? How do you think you can destroy me, exactly?"
Vince's eyes went wide as pain rocked through his body as Kat slowly increased the pressure she applied to his arm. She shoved him against the wall and brought her face within an inch of his.
"Face facts Vince my boy. You can't get rid of me unless you kill me. And you know you don't want to do that just yet. Now, I'm going to pamper my baby for a while. If I were you, I'd pay the techs a visit and tell them to keep on working on my SC. I'll be doing a trial run later."
Ace released Vince and hopped down the corridor in direction of the hangar. The WWF boss watched her go and grabbed his communicator from his waist, flicking it on angrily.
"Snow," he shouted through the communicator, "my office, now!"
"Sure thing boss!"

Vince was examining the bruises his encounter with Kat had left along his arm when Snow came into the office.
"I'm here boss. What can I do you for?"
"Control your fucking monster, that's what you can do for me, you idiot brainiac."
"I take it you're having problems with my little darling slip of a girl."
"Your darling slip of a girl tried to kill me, you freak!"
"Kat? Please, she wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Snow, you don't get it! I want her under control and I want that now!"
"All she wants is her SC, Vince. Give it to her and she'll be happy."
"Since when do you call me Vince, you freak of nature?"
"Since you have to understand that you don't hold all the cards anymore," Snow said, producing a photon disrupter from the pocket of his lab coat.
"What the hell is this snow?" Vince asked, his eyes going wide with fear.
"This is my way of getting what's rightfully mine Vince. You've been shitting all over me ever since I've been working for you and I'm damn tired of it."
"And you think killing me is going to help your situation?"
"Killing you? Now, now Vince, that would be stupid. No, no, my associates and I have something much more profitable in mind."
"Your associates?"
"Did I stutter? Yes, my associates. Now, Vince my man, here's what's going to happen..."

"We think we might have it Kat," Chyna said, coming up to her as she came into the lab.
"Have my SC?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Well," Trish said, "we studied your all of your physical responses to the last tests and we were able to pinpoint the areas of your body that are the most-- responsive to direct stimulation. So if you're willing and able, we'd like to work on that today."
"Oh, I'm game."
Minutes later, Kat was strapped into her simulation cockpit and blasting out of the WWF HQ, direction Dubba ass kicking central.
They came at her fast, their guns a-blazing. And she responded in kind. First Dubba ship that went down, Ace braced herself and felt a wave of pleasure emanating from a point deep inside her belly, radiating outward.
"That was good," she shouted.
"Can you keep going?" Linda's voice asked.
"Oh yeah."
"Good, we'll increase dosage as we go along."
"Good stuff."
With every Dubba ship that was blown into smithereens, the level of pleasure that was transferred to Kat's body increased. Finally, she came face to face with a major artillery ship. She'd gotten rid of all of its defenses so it was just her against the big guns!
"All right," Stephanie's voice came in loud and clear through her headset, "this is where we're really going to test the limits of the SC suit."
"What do you mean?" Kat asked, dodging enemy fire, but not yet returning it.
"The bigger the ship you bring down, the bigger the reward."
"Yeah, but last time..."
"Last time, we didn't know how this would affect you. We know now."
"What does that mean?"
"Just try it, OK? And while we're at it-- kill the fucking Dubba bastards!"
Ace's Diamond went in and she went in hard. The Dubba ship never had a chance. She was driven and focused and every hit counted. And when she sent in the last photon bomb that tore the Dubba ship apart, she let out a war cry that made all the techs smile gratefully. But soon enough, the war cry turned into a long moan. The moan became in turns a gasp, a cry, a grunt, a groan, a squeak as feelings of unprecedented pleasure ran through every particle of her body.
"Switching to autopilot," Stephanie announced, a smile on her lips.
Sounds of Kat's pleasure filled the lab and had the techs grinning in joy.

"Oh fuck yeah!" Kat finally groaned as she slumped back into her seat, her eyes closed and her tongue feverishly wetting her lips.
"So," Stephanie asked, "do you think we got it?"
"Oh baby," Kat whispered, "you fucking got it!"

"People are going to look for me Snow," Vince said, watching the doctor as he secured his bindings.
"And with the logs I cooked up, they'll just think you're at the new EDA headquarters, ironing out a few details about your new EDA alliance."
"They're going to need me."
"Actually, that's your mistake Vince. The WWF doesn't need you. Your wife, your kids can run everything without you. You like to delude yourself into believing you're needed."
"This company is nothing without me."
"Really? Is that why the techs have been running SC simulations for my Kat for months now, without your approval? Is that why your son doesn't even need your sound advice in the heat of battle? Is that why your daughter knows about all of your business deals better than you do? No Vince, they don't need you. They'll miss you, of course. But need you? You're deluding yourself."
"What do you want Snow?"
"I want the recognition you won't give me. I want the whole world to know what I've gone with Kat. I want them to know who's behind the pilot that'll save Earth from the Dubbas. I want the recognition I deserve."
"Recognition? Is that what you think you'll get Snow?" Vince asked. "Then you're crazier than I ever get you credit for. First of all, your creation is nothing more than an abomination."
"And you think I'm crazy," Snow scoffed, his bravado slowly dissipating.
"Oh really? You think I kept Kat a secret for myself? No Snow, I was protecting you too, you demented fool. Can't you see that humanity is not ready for cybernetic technology? They rejected cybernetic implants to prolong life! You think they'll take kindly to this half-woman, half-robot freak you've created? They'll be scared of her and of the man who created her."
"No! I'll be revered for my work."
"You are a sick, demented fool if you believe that."
"I am not! And if they think that of me, what will they think of you? You hired me to do this to her."
"Why do you think I'm keeping Kat under cover? I know what they'll think of both of us Snow. I know revealing Kat will ruin us both!"
"Oh sweet mother of God," Snow sighed, "what am I going to do? I have to think, I have to think!"
"Start by untying me," Vince ordered, "and you and I can figure this out together."
"No," Snow shouted, leveling the disrupter back to Vince, "you're going to try to trick me, to confuse me."
"Come on now Al. It's me, Vince, your buddy, untie me and I'll help you."
Snow looked up at his boss and shook his head, "I don't think so. I'm not completely dumb, you know, you greedy bastard. This is nothing more than a simple change in my plans. But you're not going to be sticking around, do you hear me?" Snow cuffed the side of Vince's head one time and down the head of the WWF went. "Perfect time to try out my cloaking device," Snow told himself as he rolled Vince's inanimate body into an empty torpedo case. He shut the glass casing on the torpedo, tapped in coordinates and slid in the cloaking disk.
"All right boss man," Snow said as he placed the torpedo in the appropriate chute, "let's see how well you handle this situation."
With a gleeful laugh, Snow tapped in the command and out the torpedo went, losing itself into the inky sky.

"Shane," Stephanie shouted, rushing into her brother's office, "we got it! We got it! Kat's SC works!"
"Her SC?" Sherrie asked, looking up from a console in Shane's office from where she'd been working. "What's her SC?"
"Nothing more than a component to increase her efficiency. Come on Stephanie, let's leave Ms Bélanger to work without anymore disturbances."
"No, no," Sherrie protested, "I believe I should be made aware of this."
"Fine, we'll tell you all about it in five minutes. For now, let's let you finish going over the pilots' health reports and meet us in the conference room, OK?"
"Sure. Just make sure you don't start without me."
"Wouldn't dream of it Ms Bélanger."
"I am so sorry Shane," Stephanie whispered as Shane led her away. "Had I known she was there..."
"It's OK. Now, we just have to find Dad. We have to figure out how much we can tell her."
"Dad's gone. He left an hour ago to go to the EDA headquarters."
"What for?"
"His message said something about fine tuning the agreement we had with them."
"Well, let's get in touch with him."
"I tried. The communicator. You know how obsessed the EDA is about protecting themselves."
"Yeah. So what do we do?"
"Let's get Mom on this. If we can't consult with Dad on this, Mom's our next best bet."
"Right."

"You know," Sherrie said, coming into the conference room, "seeing the three of you on the other side of that table might make a girl insecure."
"And what does it do to you?" Shane asked.
"Makes me wonder what you're hiding."
"Well, have a seat and we'll explain everything to you."
"Steph, explain about the SC," Linda said, "and then I'll explain about Kat."
"Explain about Kat? What is there to explain?"
"You'll know soon enough."
Stephanie went into details about the SC and about their effects on their male flyers. Sherrie took everything in silently, her face impassible.
"So you're rewarding them with sexual gratification?" she asked Shane.
"Yes."
"I see. That's-- truly fascinating."
"Don't you mean disgusting?" Stephanie asked, "I mean, the EDA has a steadfast rule against such procedures."
"And the EDA's been losing more pilots to the Dubbas than you have. It's worth thinking about."
"Really?" All three McMahons looked like they were in shock.
"Really. Now, what about Kat Ace Wylde? What do I have to know about her?"
"That's more complicated," Linda said, "Kat was the first woman to complete our training. And her scores were too high for us to ignore. But we had no room for her on the team. We would have matched her with Stasiak but he left us high and dry."
"Why not just put her with Crash Holly?"
"Bob and Crash were still a team back then. And Kat proved she had the ability to fly a Gold or a Platinum."
"So why didn't she?"
"We thought about it. But we were developing a new flyer, a new model. And she helped build it. It was going to be the next wave of flyers. Allowed for a complete pilot-ship interface."
"What are we talking about here?"
"Cybernetic implants."
"Like the threes have?"
"No. We're talking about something far more invasive."
"How much more invasive?"
"We needed to created a cybernetic being. Completely. With implants throughout her body."
"You're telling me that Kat is a..." Sherrie couldn't allow the words past her throat.
"A cyborg," Kat drawled from the conference room door, "yes I am. Shocking ain't it?"
"Oh yeah, it's shocking all right! How could you let them do this to you? Was being a WWF flyer that important to you?"
"Oh hell yeah, it was and it still is. See, up there, I make a fucking difference. The EDA would have taken one look at me and I would have been out on my ass. Here, my fucked up techniques work like a charm."
"I don't know what to say."
"But we know what you're going to do," Steph said bitterly. "You're going to run to your office, get in touch with your EDA cronies and have them arrest Dad for what he did to Kat."
"How the hell could I get them to arrest your father?"
"He's at the EDA HQ right now."
"No he's not. Your father can't go to the EDA HQ. That was part of the agreement. The top EDA officials are too proud to let Vince into their HQ."
"Then where the fuck is he?" Shane asked.
"You telling me boss man is missing?" Kat asked.
"Seems that way."
Shane and Kat rushed out of the room, Stephanie and Linda after them, leaving a despondent Sherrie sitting at the table.
"Will you people ever learn to tell me what the fuck is going on around here?" she sighed, going after Kat and Shane.
By the time she made it to the control room, Kat was already hooked, literally into one of the consoles, a wire protruding from her neck.
"All right," she told Shane, "send me all the surveillance tapes you got."
"Will do."
Kat sat still as the images flashed into her brain. Then, her fingers starting moving across the console in front of her. She pulled the wire from her neck and bolted out of her chair.
"Snow," she shouted to Shane as she ran in front of him.
"Snow?" he asked, following her.
"Snow."
"Who the hell is Snow?" Sherrie asked, running out of the control room after them.

"How the hell does this damn machine work?" Snow shouted at the controls.
"You are not this ship's primary user," the Diamond's computer beeped at him.
"Tell me something I don't know. Now, tell me how to fly this piece of crap shit."
"You do not have the necessary command codes to fly this machine."
"Oh but I do," Snow giggled, sliding a disk into the appropriate slot. "I do."
"Command codes accepted. Prepare for takeoff sequence."
Al knew a lot about the Diamond but he'd forgotten one very important thing. At takeoff, Kat got plugged into the machine, became one with it.
And when the wires literally attacked him, searching out the slots installed along Kat's neck and arms for connection, he was not prepared for it. His body jerked in the cockpit, initially rejecting the forceful implantation, but it didn't kill him. No, but the Diamond did keep him alive enough for him to order the departure sequence.

Crash looked up from where he was fixing his cousin's ship and saw the Diamond take off. He leapt off the scaffold, ten feet as it was from the ground and landed running. But he couldn't run fast enough to the hangar doors control to stop the Diamond for taking off.
"Control room," he shouted into his communicator.
"What's up Crash," JR asked him. "We're a little busy here."
"We're about to get busier. Kat's taken the Diamond out without permission."
"Kat? That's impossible. She just tore out of here with Shane. No way she could have made it to the hangar that fast. Where's the Diamond now?"
"That's the problem JR, I'm not picking it up on radar. It's gone. The Diamond's gone."

Kat sat at the conference table, her head buried in her arms, sobbing silently. No one knew what to say. They'd never seen her like this. Shane took one last look at her before taking a deep breath.
"All right, here's what we know. Snow shipped Dad out of here in a torpedo and protected it with a cloaking device. He used that same cloaking device to leave with the Diamond. And we have to clue where either of them could be."
"We might," Stephanie said, coming forward, "most of you will be angry to know this but Dad had us equip all of you with locator chips. Himself included."
"You're telling me we got more than one implant in our fucking bodies?" Albert asked. "Your father just doesn't get tired of fucking with our bodies!"
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Stephanie began, "but..."
"Wait a minute," Kat said, lifting her head for the very first time, "what about Snow?"
"Excuse me," Stephanie asked, "but what about him?"
"Does he have a locator chip too?"
"Of course, it's standard procedure."
"We might get the bastard yet," Kat shouted, leaping on top of the conference table.
She cut through the pilot and ran to the control room. Lawler and JR looked up when they saw her and shrugged. They knew better than to get in the way of that young lady.
Kat sat at a console, plugged herself in and started typing. Just as Shane and the rest of the WWF team rushed in, she had her answer.
"Give me a star map," she shouted to Lawler, "sector 4, coordinates 3, 34, 16. That's where Snow is. And that's where my Diamond is."
"How do you know?" Shane asked.
"There's a tracker on my ship too. See, your dad was always afraid I'd flip out one day and take off with the Diamond, maybe sell myself and my secrets to the Dubbas. So he installed a tracking device on it. One that Snow didn't even know about. One he didn't cloak. He couldn't cloak it."
"So what do you expect us to do? Go in guns a-blazing, just to get your ship out?" Shane asked.
"No. Activate the auto-destruct," Kat whispered, tears running down her cheeks. "That's a Dubba sector. If they get their hands on the Diamond's computer, they'll have access to everything of mine. Including the location of this base."
"We can't do that Kat," Linda intervened. "Your link to the Diamond is too strong. It might kill you."
"And if Dubba finds us out, Earth dies."
Kat gave a watery smile and punched in a few keys. Right away, the main computer began the countdown. Silence fell in the control room and everyone stood to attention as the countdown wound down.
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... The Diamond has been destroyed."
Kat closed her eyes and braced herself against the back of her chair. Then, she turned around to face the control room.
"See, no big deal. I'm fine. Diamond's just a ship, no more. Anyhow, I think I need to get some sleep. It's been one hell of a day."
Kat made it to the control room door before she started trembling. She tried holding on to a console but she couldn't control herself. The shaking went on for a good minute before Linda figured out what was happening.
"Rocky, Hunter, hold on to her right now!" she snapped, rushing to Kat's side. She applied a device to the young woman's neck and Kat stopped trembling right away. She raised unseeing eyes to Linda's face.
"Help me."

Vince regained consciousness thanks to a fetid odor that quickly had him emptying his stomach all over his shoes. He tried to wipe his mouth and realized he was unable to do so, spread-eagle as he was, detained by chains that cut into his wrists and ankles. He raised his head and the sight that awaited him made him retch violently. Standing there was Snow, or the man he had once known as Al Snow. That man was gone now-- in a way. What stood in front of him was... No, it was impossible...
"You didn't know it could happen, did you boss?" Snow asked, "you didn't know the Diamond would do this to me, would you?"
"The Diamond? You flew the Diamond? It's..."
"Supposed to only allow cybernetic beings to fly it, right? Well, guess what? Your precious Diamond turned me into a cybernetic being. No, I'm not as sophisticated as my Kat but with the knowledge I have inside of my head, and with some help from my new best friends, that really shouldn't be much of a problem."
"Snow..."
"See boss, I'm not the useless sap you thought I was. I'm actually smarter than you, aren't I? Way smarter than you. See, when you turned me down and you told me that they wouldn't be willing to accept me, I realized you were right. So I decided to take that knowledge to the only beings in the universe who would want to buy it."
"Dubba..."
"That's right boss. Dubba central. If you'll allow me, I'll introduce you to the main Dubba guy, the one who wants all the knowledge you have inside your pretty little head."
Snow walked away, out of Vince's range and the older man started thinking. If he knew his daughter, she would have told them about his tracking device and-- the Diamond! Snow had flown into Dubba space with the Diamond and if the Dubbas got their hands on that ship, were somehow able to fly it...
Suddenly, he heard a loud rumble that had wherever he was shake right down to its core. Minutes later, Snow came running in and he was not alone.

With him with a pair of behemoths, humanoids as far as Vince could gather but he couldn't gather much else. He'd heard tales of Dubbas, rumors really for no human had ever survived an encounter with them.
Though humans, his WWF, in particular, had the upper hand on Dubbas in the sky, it became clear to him as he saw them that fighting them one on one would be useless, specially on hand to hand combat. Their skin, or rather their hide, was thick and of a color that was a nasty mix of beige and orange, and their hair protruded from various portions of their anatomies in unsightly clumps, looking greasy and unkempt. But it was their eyes that froze Vince to the deepest corners of his soul. They were red, looking bloodshot, much like the eyes of addicts.
"What did you do?" Snow growled at him. "What in God's name did you do?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The Diamond? What did you do to the Diamond?"
"I didn't do a damn thing-- she exploded, didn't she?" Vince asked, his eyes glowing. "All right Kat!"
"What did she do?" Snow asked, coming closer, "what the hell did that little bitch do?"
"She shut you down Snow. You and whatever plans you had for her ship."
"What is he talking about?" one of the Dubbas asked Snow, buffeting him in the shoulder.
"Auto-destruct," Vince gloated. "She made the Diamond explode before you can get anything from it!"
"No!" Snow shouted, rushing to Vince. "She couldn't do that! Don't you understand, it'll kill her. She needs the Diamond! Without it, she'll die."
"A sacrifice of war," Vince said. "So Snow, I guess this was a waste of your time and of theirs."
"I will kill you McMahon. I will tear you limb from limb and when I get to your heart, I will make sure you are still alive enough to see me eat it."
Before he could make good on his threat, Snow was plucked off his feet by the tallest Dubba.
"You said you would help us!"
"I can. I-I-I... Vince... He can give all the information. He knows everything about the WWF defense systems! He created them himself."
The Dubba let go of Snow and turned on Vince.
"They call me Rusher. I am the Dubba who will wrench knowledge from your mind and use it against your people."
"Never," Vince growled, doing his best to pull his head out from Rusher's grasp.
"Soon," Rusher assured him, the putrid hide of his face parting slightly to reveal several grime-infested fangs.
Rusher applied two hand-like organs to Vince's face and while his companion escorted Snow away, the man less likely to become the WWF's employee of the month heard his boss' heart-wrenching cry.

"Will she be all right?" Sherrie asked Linda.
"I truly don't know," the older woman answered, gently pushing stray locks of Kat's hair off her forehead. "Her connection to the Diamond goes beyond the physical and the technical. It's emotional too."
"I can imagine. She's been flying for the Diamond for three years now, no?"
"That you know of. For two years before that, she was helping us build the ship. It is-- was a part of her."
"And she destroyed it."
"Yes. You see, I have gotten to know Kat fairly well over the past years and she has as noble a soul as any knight from any ancient fairy tale. And if destroying the Diamond was the only way to save Earth, well, as far as she was concerned, it was a worthy sacrifice."
"Mom," Stephanie said, rushing in, "we need you! You too Ms Bélanger, there's a transmission coming in from deep within Dubba space on one of our encrypted frequencies."
"What could it mean?" Sherrie asked.
"I don't know."
"I don't want to leave Kat alone," Linda whispered.
"Go," Sherrie offered. "It might be news from your husband. I will stay here. Your control room can patch the transmission through here, can't they?"
"Yes, of course, but..."
"If anything happens with Kat, I'll alert you."
As Stephanie and Linda hurried out of the infirmary, Sherrie pulled up a chair next to Kat and turned on the holoscreen by the bed. The transmission came in garbled at first but slowly became clearer.
"Snow," Kat gasped behind her.
Sherrie turned around and saw that Kat had rolled to her side and was now watching the transmission.
"I'll tell you all about it," Sherrie whispered. "You need to rest now."
"No! I have to hear what he has to say."
"Hello boys and girls," Snow said, his face coming close to the screen, "did you miss me? Of course you did. I'm Snow the Magnificent! And I got my hands on the one man you all love and adore. None other than the titan himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. And we're on our way to you. Now unless you prepare the last two remaining icebergs for transportation, we'll be dropping his lovely corpse over your current location."
"Let us see him," Shane asked, his voice hard.
"But of course McMahon Jr. Wanna see Dada?"
"Snow..." Shane growled.
"No need to get growly on me now. There he is. He's about as eager to see you as you are to see him."
Vince's face appeared on the screen and it was clear he hadn't been treated to the best the Dubbas could offer. There were a pair of bruises turning purple under his right eye and a cut above his left one, not to mention that his lips were caked with blood streaming from his nose.
"Shane," he rasped, managing to open one eye, "let them kill me. Don't give them anything. Make them pay through the nose. Make those Dubba bas--"
"Well," Snow said, cuffing Vince on the side of the head and pushing him away, "that's enough of that. Seems pretty simple to me. You want dear old Papa back, you give us the water-- and..."
"And what Snow?"
"My lovely Kat. I'm sure you're watching darling and dear Al wants you back. See, I told my Dubba friends about you and about all the wonderful things you could do and they want you to join their ranks. So you take one of those heavy artillery ships and bring us those icebergs. We'll have drinks. On the rocks."
The transmission ended. Kat pushed herself upright in the bed and swung her legs off it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sherrie asked, rushing to her side. "You're not well enough to get out of bed. Not until Linda and Stephanie come up with a way to replace the link you had to your Diamond."
"Tell me something Ms Bélanger, how badly do you want to save Earth?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"The one that requires an answer. So tell me. All this talk about saving the Earth? Is it bull or what?"
"It's not bull. I meant every word!"
"Good. Because you and I are about to do just that."
"How?"
"Amethyst."

"See," Kat told Sherrie as she led her down to the true underground levels of the WWF HQ, "old Vince, he's a romantic. And when he saw how I handled the Diamond, his mind got to thinking."
"Thinking? About what?"
"About how the Diamond would only serve as a defensive ship. About how he needed a ship that would truly destroy Dubba and make it forget it ever wanted our water."
"You mean to tell me..."
"That he made that ship."
The elevator doors opened and Kat, her arm still slung around Sherrie's shoulders walked into the largest hangar Sherrie had ever seen. And in it was a ship that made her jaw drop.
"Beautiful, isn't she?"
"That's the Amethyst?" Sherrie asked.
"Yes. She was built for me. Originally Vince wanted Shane to pilot it but Linda changed his mind. You see, the Amethyst needs a crew of two. A pilot and gunner."
"I see. Why couldn't Vince just pick one of the men?"
"There's something else," Kat said slowly, moving away from Sherrie, "actually, two other things."
"What?"
"Number one, my link to the Amethyst has to be a notch deeper than my link to the Diamond. Not more implants, but improving the ones I have by 100 or 200%. Quicker response time."
"Can you stand that?"
"Yeah."
"So, what else is there?"
"I need a gunner."
"Yeah, and?"
"Gunner has to have cybernetic implants too."
"Why?"
"To increase efficiency. The Amethyst can shoot 1,000,000 rounds a second. Do you realize what that means? It's an attack vessel. It doesn't wait for Dubba. It kills it."
Sherrie took a deep breath and started making her way around the ship, her face set.
"Who do you think would be the best person to gun this ship?" she asked Kat.
"You."
Sherrie turned around so quickly that she hit her head on one of the many scaffolds.
"What are you? Insane?"
"I checked your files Ms Bélanger. You're a crack shot. Came in first on all the gunning simulations at the EDA academy."
"Those were simulations. Nothing concrete. I have no experience-- out there. In real space."
"It's not that much difference."
"You're just saying that because you need me out there."
"That's true," Kat said, her eyes blazing so darkly they almost looked blue. "I need you out there. I don't need an ego like my boys have. Lord knows I love them but I'll kill them if I'm stuck in a ship with them. You-- you, I might allow to live."
"Oh great!"
"Kat!" said a burly man coming out of a small room of the hangar. "With the mess up top, we didn't expect you down here."
"I know. Mick, I'd like to introduce you to Ms Bélanger. She's the EDA liaison."
"Ma'am," he said, smiling and showing off the gaps his missing teeth had left behind.
"Mick."
"Mick, I'm considering Sherrie as the Amethyst's gunner."
"Kat, Vince never approved of..."
"Vince is in Dubba hands. And Snow's there, helping them get knowledge out of Vince's head. We need to do something!"
"And you think this is the right solution?" Mick asked.
"You got something else in mind?"
"She's right Mick," said a voice emerging from the cockpit. "I mean Vince ain't my favorite guy in the whole world. Hell, I hate his guts, but we can't let Dubba have him."
Sherrie looked up and saw the possibly sexiest man she'd ever seen slide down the Amethyst's hull and land next to her, flashing her a smile that had her knees turning to cotton.
"Play down the charm cowboy," Kat chuckled. "Mike, this is Ms Bélanger, the..."
"... EDA liaison," he completed, picking up Sherrie's hand and brushing her knuckles over his lips, "had I known EDA women were this beautiful, I would have given up the WWF for them a long time ago."
"Down boy," Kat said, slapping him upside the head. "This is business, not pleasure."
"But business can always turn into pleasure," he grinned.
"Mick, take Ms Bélanger into your office and explain the full extent of the cybernetic procedure. If she agrees, I want her to know exactly what she's getting into."
"All right. Come along Ms Bélanger."
"How are you doing?" Mike asked Kat as soon as they were alone.
"I feel like shit."
"So why are you here? Let Shane and them save Vince. You're just an employee."
"Mike, if you could do what I can do, would you stay here and twiddle your thumbs? Or would you try to save the old man's ass?"
"I guess. Anyhow, let's get your ass into the cockpit, start getting you used to this baby."
"She might say no, you know," Kat said, joining Mike on a scaffold circling and strapping herself in.
"She might. But she won't. Now, let's get to work if we want to have this baby in the sky ASAP."
"All right."

Sherrie was awed by the information Mick gave her. She finally sat back, kind of dazed and looked at him.
"Just give me a bottom line."
"We can give you the cybernetic implants."
"Okay."
"Process is painless, you can be out while we do it. Now, you have a forty-eight hour window. If you get back to us, we can remove them without anymore damage to your body."
"And if not?"
"Then you have to keep them."
"And become as attached to the Amethyst as Kat was to the Diamond? Is that right?"
"It's a possibility. But it's not a sure thing."
"It's scary."
"Of course it is. But I'll be honest with you Sherrie. Mike and I, we trust Kat and she's been working on the Amethyst a lot. She knew she needed a gunner from the get-go and she waited. Bided her time. This is not something she takes lightly. It's important to her. The fact that she brought you here to us? That tells me two things. One, she trusts you. That's big. Two, she thinks you the right person for the job. That's big too."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" Sherrie growled, stalking the room. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to be the hated EDA liaison. I was supposed to whip the WWF into shape, make them match EDA standards. Now, I have to go out there and save Mr. McMahon? I was not supposed to be a hero!"
"But maybe you were meant to be a hero," Mick said quietly.
"How did she know?" Sherrie asked him. "How did she know I was going to say yes?"
"Her instincts are amazing!" Mick said with a grin.

"All right," Mike said, "we're going to stay here with you, OK? With both of you. So if you have any questions, let us know."
"It'll be all right, Sherrie," Kat's voice said from her implant booth. "Fall asleep if you want to. It might help."
"I'm not sure I want to," the young woman answered, "fall asleep that is."
"Well," Mike said, "maybe now would be the best time to tell you what the EDA doesn't know about the Dubbas."
"We know everything about the Dubbas," Sherrie protested.
Mike, Mick and Kat chuckled. Sherrie sighed and refused to look down as implants sunk into her skin.
"About three hundred and thirty years ago," Mike began, "Earth's prisons were overflowing to the point that every other week there was a prison breakout. Now, in order to keep the most dangerous of these criminals from endangering innocent humans, the first penal colony was opened on the moon. It was a rough place and the guards and the warden soon became as crooked as the criminals they were supposed to keep us from. So in order to keep them there, Earth cut them off completely."
"What do you mean?" Sherrie asked.
"We sent out several nuclear bombs to wipe them off the face of the moon. Problem was-- the criminals weren't the only beings on the moon."
"Aliens?"
"Aliens. We don't really know where they came from but they landed before the nuclear bombs hit and they were closing in on the penal colony."
"Shit!"
"Yeah. There was a strange genetic mutation and the two races mixed somehow, creating the Dubbas."
"So you're telling me the Dubbas are part human?"
"Yes."
"How do you know all of this?"
"We captured a Dubba ship," Mick explained, "and translated the database."
"And you didn't think the EDA should know this information?"
"Hey, Vince's decision," Mick shrugged.
"I'm going to have one hell of a conversation with that man on the way back from Dubba Central. What else?"
"Dubba don't carry photon weapons like we do. No sir. They carry swords. Another proof of their human heritage."
"How come?"
"No weapons allowed on the penal colony. At the end, they'd fashioned old fashioned swords."
"Damn it! So in a hand to hand combat..."
"We can't go hand to hand with Dubba," Kat clarified, her voice sounding stronger. "We're going to have to use swords."
"I don't know how to use a sword!" Sherrie protested.
"Part of the implants. It'll become second nature to you."
"These implants do a lot, don't they?"
"Ms Bélanger," Kat said, turning to look at her, "it's not too late to back out of this, you know."
"I know. And you know what, I want to do this. I think I'm more than due for some excitement. And I want to kick Dubba ass. It's one thing to sit around and coordinate. Going in and doing what you do. Well, that's something I've been wanting to do ever since I joined the EDA."
"All right. If you're sure."
"I'm sure."
Sherrie fell asleep during the implant procedure, as did Kat. In the meantime, Mick and Mike kept at work on the Amethyst. Finally, the implants were in and both young women regained consciousness. Kat got up first and hurried into a sonic shower.
When she came out, Sherrie was lying in the implant tube, blinking up at the ceiling.
"How are you feeling?"
"Strange. Not a bad strange," she quickly said, "but strange nonetheless. I can feel everything. My heart beating, my lungs, my stomach-- everything."
"Yes. That's normal."
"It is? I mean, do you still feel everything?"
"As a matter of fact I do. But after a while, you put it in the back of your head. It stops mattering."
"How?"
"I don't know. It just does. Your body's more sensitive, because of the implants. Your hearing is better, your tactile functions are increased, your sense of smell too. Everything."
"And my strength?"
"You wouldn't be able to take me on because of my new implants but the bigger boys, like Taker, Kane, Test, Albert? You can wipe the floor with them."
"Come on, I'm barely a whisper over five feet. These boys are like two feet taller than me."
"Strength, power. You have that over them now. They don't stand a chance."
"Really?"
"Really."
"That's amazing."
"It's not bad."
"Not bad! Kat, I can kill them!" Sherrie grinned, sitting up.
"Calm down. That's something I have to tell you about the implants. Don't get disillusioned with the power. It's an easy drug. But it's deceptive. And treacherous."
"I won't."
"I didn't think I would. But it happened to me."
"What happened to you?"
"I got disillusioned. Thought I could do it all."
"But you can."
"No, I can't. That's why we have to do this within the next forty-eight hours. Let's go. There's a shower through there," Kat told her sharply, "you'll find a flight suit and boots through there."
"Yes ma'am."
"Where's the girl?" Mick asked Kat as she walked back into the hangar.
"Showering and getting ready. How's my new baby?"
"Purring like a kitten," Mike said. "We installed an SC for her too. The probe we did during the implant gave us the necessary information."
"Good," Kat said, "I'll explain and monitor on the way."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Not telling her about it?"
"Mick, I wish I didn't have to keep this from her but I want her back here in those forty-eight hours so you can take away the implants."
"All right. I understand."
"No, you don't," Kat muttered. "But you care. That's enough."

Sherrie sat in her part of the cockpit, familiarizing herself with the equipment while Kat prepared the takeoff sequence.
"How you doing up there Ms Bélanger?" Mike asked.
"I think you can all call me by my first name now," Sherrie said, "after all, I don't think we can be very formal in this situation."
"Good point. How you doing Sherrie?"
"So far so good. The guns are fairly standard. I'll be able to handle them."
"Good."
"All right. I'm ready to go," Kat shouted. "Sherrie?"
"I'm on your cue!"
"Then Mick, Mike, get out of here!"
As soon as the two men were out of the way in the hangar's small control room, Kat started the engine and blasted out into the night sky.
"Wow!" she screamed in delight, "this baby packs a punch! How you doing Gunner?"
"I want to stay up here forever," Sherrie sighed as she watched, wide-eyed, as they plunged into the night sky.

"Shane, we have another unauthorized takeoff," Crash shouted from his console.
"What?! Which ship?"
"The Amethyst," Crash said slowly.
"That's impossible! Only Kat can-- Crash, locate Kat!"
"Already did. She's on board the Amethyst," Crash said slowly.
"She can't fly that ship alone! She needs a gunner."
"I ran a scan," Stephanie said. "Ms Bélanger is no longer in our HQ."
"Patch me to the underground hangar," Shane shouted.
"You have Mick and Mike online," Crash announced.
"Tell me you didn't do it," Shane glared at both men. "Tell me you didn't do it."
"All right," Mick said, "then we won't tell you."
"Idiots! She's an EDA liaison! She's not a WWF employee!"
"She agreed Shane," Mike said. "Kat and us, we gave her all the information. And she said yes."
"And if she gets killed up there? Uh? What happens then boys?"
"She won't. Kat's with her. Kat won't let anything happen to her. You know that."
"Yeah, I think I do." Sighing, Shane shut down the communication screen. Suddenly, he felt much older than his thirty years. Much older. Then a hand settled on his shoulder. He looked up and saw his sister smiling down at her. "How did I lose control?" he asked her.
"Kat's a force of nature," she said with a smile. "Like a tornado. You can't stop tornadoes."
"So what do I do now?"
"You do what people have always done with tornadoes."
"And what's that?"
"Chase after them."
Shane saw the smile cruising his sister's lips and smiled right back at her.
"Go kiss your husband," he told her. "Because I'm taking him on a ride straight to hell, right into Dubba Central."
"ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE! ALERT ONE!!! ALL FLYERS TO THEIR SHIPS!"

"We're going after Vince?" Steve asked once they blasted out of the WWF HQ.
"Yeah. Kat already took our EDA liaison out there and we're going to make sure we bring all three of them back alive."
"The EDA liaison?" Matt Hardy shouted, "what is Kat? Crazy? That's going to..."
"... Have the EDA on our beautiful asses if that chick comes back with a single hair missing on her head," his brother continued.
"I hear you boys," Shane said, "but what's done is done. Right now, we have to make sure they make it out in one piece."
"Isn't that just like women," Val began. "To make messes..."
"... And have us clean up after them," Steven continued.
"Ain't that..."
"The truth," Albert chuckled.
"Huh boys," Trish's voice came into their speakers, "bear in mind, it's women who are in charge of your SCs."
"Shit," Test and Albert swore at the same time.
"We're sorry," Val and Steven were quick to apologize.
"So what do you think girls?" Trish asked, "should we let them have their satisfaction or not?"
"We'll think about it," Lita answered back.
"I hate women," Hunter growled.
"Even me?" Stephanie asked.
"You can't win this one Hunter," Steve said, "face it. Just tell her the truth."
"Of course not you," Hunter relented. "You're my favorite woman."
"Good boy," Stephanie said with a smile, "you're definitely getting your SC."
"What about the rest of us?" Rocky asked.
"Forget it," Linda chuckled, cutting off the transmission.
The banter had two purposes, relaxing the men before what was going to be one of the deadliest battle they were going to be into, and making them aware of the women they were going to come home to.

"Rusher," Stasiak shouted from his position at radar, "we have a problem."
"A problem?" the Dubba asked, releasing his hold on a rapidly weakening Vince.
"Yes. We have a ship coming in on radar and it's coming in fast."
"Configuration?"
"Unknown."
"Unknown? How could that be?"
Rusher turned to Vince and plucked the man off his feet, lifting him far above his head.
"What is this ship approaching on us?"
"..."
"McMahon! Answer me right this minute, is that clear?"
"You're killing him," Snow intervened. "Let me try."
"No!" Rusher growled, "you explain this ship. Stasiak, show the ship on screen."
"Sure thing boss!"
When Snow saw the ship, understanding brought him low.
"It's impossible," he whispered, running a hand over his rapidly sweating face. "It's impossible. The Amethyst was nothing more than a project. And Mick would have told me about it..."
"Not when I swore him to a loyalty agreement," Vince rasped, sitting up from the floor where he'd been laying. "See, that still means something to some people."
"But..."
"What is it?" Rusher asked Snow, shaking him roughly.
"The Amethyst," the doctor explained. "It's a ship."
"I can see that!"
Just then, two small Dubba flyers bore down on the Amethyst.
"These two flyers will dispatch this ship out of our skies," Rusher grinned, "it'll be easy enough."
Snow shook his head while Vince let out a snort of laughter. The Amethyst was coming, the eldest McMahon thought. He was as good as saved.

"All right Ms Bélanger," Kat said with a grin, "two Dubba flyers coming in at ten and two."
"I think we're past you calling me Ms anything."
"All right then Sherrie. Man those guns and show me how good you can be. All right?"
"All right. Come on Dubba," Sherrie giggled, "let me show you what EDA liaisons can do."
Sherrie put on her targeting goggles and curled her fingers around the guns' command and then she let loose. Within three shots, Kat was flying through Dubba debris.
"Color me impressed Bélanger. That was good shooting."
"I wasted a shot."
"Bélanger, first live shots, you get two out of three. Girl, I got your call sign."
"A call sign? So soon?"
"Oh yeah. I'm Ace, and you can't beat me, but you're good. You got a good eye, a great eye."
"Thanks."
"Eyes like a cat-- Cat's Eye. That's it babe, you're Cat's Eye."
"I am? Just like that?"
"Just like that... Now Cat's Eys, more Dubba incoming. You ready for them?"
"Tell Dubba to just bring it!"
"Whooooooo hoooooooooooooooooo!"

"What the hell is that ship?" Rusher growled as he watched the Amethyst cut through three lines of his defense like a sword through a human bone.
"It's the end of you," Vince muttered.
"I can hear you human."
"Good."
"Do you want to die?" Rusher asked, plucking Vince off his feet.
"Perhaps. If I die with you and the rest of you motherfuckin' Dubbas? You bet I want to die!"
"Nasher!" Rusher shouted, "hold on to this human and be ready to kill him when it becomes necessary!"
"You can't kill him," Snow whined. "He's our only bargaining chip!"
"There's always you," Rusher chortled.
"Me? They won't bargain for me. They won't do a damn thing to keep me alive. They'll let you kill me first."
"So why wait for them? Nasher, dispatch this human."
"No!" Snow barely managed to squirm out of Nasher's massive grip to plant himself in front of Rusher. "You need me too."
"Why?"
"Because I can tell you how to destroy the cyborg."
"The one you said pilots the Diamond ship?"
"Exactly."
"Snow, don't!"
"Anything to survive boss. You can understand that, can't you?"
"And if he can't," Stasiak said from his station, "I sure as hell can."

"Well, Kat's been by here for sure," Hunter said as he watched the Dubba debris pass him by.
"Yeah," Shane said, "but chances are Kat was flying that ship. Which means..."
"Ms Bélanger?" Rock asked.
"That's what I'm thinking."
"Who knew EDA chicks could be this kickass," Gunn chuckled.
"Apparently, Kat knew."
"Boys, let's kick it into overdrive and make sure we got something to do. Can't have chicks beating us to the punch."
"That's it," Chyna's voice came through the microphones, "we're cutting off all SCs."
"Damn it Billy!"
The ladies on the other end of the line laughed tightly as they watched the ships of the WWF sink deeper and deeper into Dubba territory.

"He's coming toward us," Kat shouted to Sherrie over the sound of the gunning turrets.
"Who? Vince?" Sherrie shouted back as she mowed down two more Dubba ships.
"Yeah."
"So what do we do?"
"You keep doing what you're doing. Our goal here is to have that one ship with as little defense onto it as we can manage it."
"All right. I just hope you know what you're doing out there!"
"Cat's Eye, come on, it's me Ace. I was born knowing what I'm doing."
"Is that so?" said a familiar voice, "could have fooled me."
"Shane-O, good of you to join this little party. We were starting to miss you."
"Then you should have waited for me, for us."
"So much more fun for you boys to play catch up than try to ruin ours."
"How you doing Ms Bélanger?" Shane asked.
"Oh Cat's Eye is doing just fine!" Kat answered with a grin.
"Who's Cat's Eye?" Hunter asked.
"That would be me, handsome," Sherrie answered, "the stuck-up EDA liaison. Sherrie Cat's Eye Bélanger."
"What did you do to her Kat?" Shane wanted to know.
"Not a damn thing, little man. She just proved to have an incredible eye. She shot down ninety five percent of the Dubba ships we came across on first try."
"Ninety-five percent?" Rocky shouted, "damn!"
"And on second try? Ninety eight percent."
"That's why we flew in clear?"
"Oh yeah. Cat's Eye Bélanger is amazing!"
"Damn Ace, you're almost making me blush!"
"But not quite?"
"Not quite!"
The men flying the Platinums, the Golds and Silvers shook their heads at the easy going banter between the two women.
"Say Cat's Eye," Jericho asked, "when we get..."
"No time to kid around, J," Kat shouted, "we're coming up on Vince's location. Shane, we're going to clear most of the Dubba flyers from there but we're going to need you boys to keep them at bay for us."
"What are you going to do?" Shane asked.
"We're going in," Kat said. "Establishing radio silence, now."
"He was going to say something," Sherrie chuckled.
"And I established radio silence."
"Would the two happen to be related?"
"You're a smart chick Cat's Eye... you figure it out!"
"I'd rather not!"
"All right, there it is," Kat said, "at two o'clock. Ugly Central. You ready?"
"No."
"Too late. I'm hailing them. This is the WWF ship Amethyst. Requesting permission to board."
"Amethyst. Wait for our response."
"Are you ready for this?" Kat asked Sherrie.
"Too late to say no, isn't it?"
"Truth? Yeah."
"All right then, I'm ready."
"Change your clothes, I'll man the guns til then."
"Kat," Sherrie asked, "this plan of yours borders on the slightly insane. You know that, right?"
"Which is exactly why it'll work. No one ever expects crazy."
"Why did I say yes?" Sherrie muttered.
"You want to be a hero, just like the rest of us."
Sherrie sighed and finished changing.
"This is Stasiak, granting you the right to board Dubba ship Bisher."
"Thank you," Kat said biting back a scathing comment. "You done up there?"
"Yeah."
"All right. Fly this baby while I change."
"Will do."

"What the hell is she doing?" Jericho asked.
"Fuckin' bitch! Shane, she's boarding that Dubba ship!"
"Relax Steve, ain't no way Kat's betraying us to Dubba."
"Wanna bet?"
No, Shane whispered to himself, I wouldn't.

The docking bay was empty when Kat landed the Amethyst. Both women eased out of the ship and jumped onto the slightly slimy floor. Their matching apparel was meant to shock and surprise and it succeeded. Both were wearing ankle-length black dresses under chain-mail robes with hoods that hid most of their faces. Then Kat opened a hidden compartment and handed Sherrie a pair of vicious-looking sabers. Taking two sabers for herself, she started to head out of the bay.
"Ladies," said Stasiak, making his approach, "welcome to our flagship, the Bisher. I'd like to remind you that you are our honored guests. No need for you to carry weapons as vicious as these."
"Thank you for caring, traitor," Sherrie sneered.
"Now now, darling Ms Bélanger, I didn't know EDA liaison had such filthy vocabularies."
"Guess you don't know much, do you, asshole?"
Kat turned to Sherrie and grinned like the cat who'd swallowed the canary.

"All right," Shane said. "Let's give the girls a fighting chance and keep Dubbas off that ship."
"If they want our help," Steve muttered.
"Austin, I've had it with your disparaging comments."
"Put away the pricey words, son. You're just as scared as we all are that she's selling her fucking secrets to Dubba."
"We gotta trust her Steve. We don't have a choice."
"You might not have a choice, Shane-O," Steve muttered under his breath, "but I sure as hell am giving myself a choice."

Kat and Sherrie's noses wrinkled in disgust at the putridly humid smell that filled the ship. On the way to the main bridge, they had the chance to observe Dubbas up close and personal and it was not a pretty sight.
As she watched them, Sherrie thought to the information she'd gotten on the origins of Dubba. There was no denying their human origin. But there was also evidence of their alien history. They were all freakishly tall, most of them being as tall as Test, or taller. Not to mention how they were all built like tree trunks and had very long mop-like hair.
But most frightening of all were the incredibly long swords they wore strapped to their sides, much like gunslingers of the wild West had worn their Colts. They all stopped to look at the trio of humans that made their way across the ship. And where Stasiak was completely comfortable with the stares, Kat and Sherrie most certainly were not. Ace's hand often strayed to the dagger strapped to her side whereas Sherrie kept her hand on her disrupter all times.
"Ladies," Stasiak said, opening a door, "my boss and yours await. If you'll just step inside."
"You first maggot," Kat said with a grin. "Wouldn't want to get caught in a Dubba trap, now would I?"
Letting Stasiak walk in front of her, Kat stepped onto the main bridge of the Dubba ship with Sherrie at her back. She assessed the situation as coldly as possible and prayed Sherrie wouldn't react to the sight of Vince. If that pain in the ass was still alive, it was only because he was too stubborn to die. His face was nothing more than a mass of bruised flesh and from the blood that had seeped through his clothes, they'd done as good a job on the rest of him.
Then Kat's eyes moved on to Snow. The man stood there, staring at her, taunting her.
"You stole my Diamond, you son of a bitch," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, I stole your Diamond, you dumb cunt!"
"I'm going to have to kill you for it now," she said with a grin, "you do know that, don't you?"
"You're welcome to try."
"Oh, I'll kill you, don't doubt it. And I'll save you for last. I'll relish it. I know I will."
"You have problems, you know that, don't you? Some homicidal tendencies. You should get that fixed."
"Why get it fixed? I love my homicidal tendencies."
"Let us know when you're done with your chitchat," Rusher said. "Then we'll start discussing why you didn't bring the icebergs like we'd discussed."
"Oh, that's because I'm more interested in killing Dubba than in saving Vince."
"What?"
Snow turned around so fast that had his body not been full of cybernetic implants, his neck would have snapped.
"You're surprised? Come on, the man robbed me of what little humanity I had and you expect me to haul ass here to save him?"
"What about his son? Doesn't he want you to save his daddy?"
"Well, think about it. I'm here and he's there, on his ship, playing cowboys and Indians with your boys. He has no control over what I do here."
"You're ready to let her do this Ms Bélanger?" Snow asked, turning to Sherrie, "you're willing to allow her to let us kill Vince?"
"First of all, you, of all people, should know that once this girl's got something on her mind, there's no way to change it. And now that I know all about the way he's manipulated his employees, I don't think I'd mind him dying."
"As a matter of fact," Kat said, making her way to Vince as she pulled her dagger from its sheath, "why spare myself the joy of killing him?"
Kat made her way to where Vince was standing, carefully handling her knife, running the tip over his throat.
"I'd love to be finally rid of you Vince, I would really love it. No more rules, no more secrets, no more limits."
"Kat," he rasped, "don't."
"Don't? Why not?"
"Kat," Sherrie shouted, "get it over with already."
"Sorry Sherrie, got lost in the moment. Sorry Vince, your show ends now."
And with a quick flick of her wrist, Kat slid the dagger right into Vince's heart. There was a bloody gurgle and fresh blood welled out of the WWF's main man's mouth. Kat extracted the blade and wiped it on Vince's dirty clothes.
"Now that that's taken care of," Kat said, looking at Rusher and Snow, "who wants to die first?"
Four of the Dubbas, still in shock over Kat's cold murder of Vince, couldn't move fast enough to avoid Sherrie and Kat's deadly sword swipes.
As the four heads fell to the ground, the two women were already moving on to new victims. Snow watched, understanding slowly dawning upon him as Kat and Sherrie moved around the bridge, leaving a trail of dead Dubbas behind them.
"They're both cyborgs," he screamed, pulling on Rusher's arms.
"Both of them? You said there was one cyborg, not two."
"I didn't know. Bélanger must have had the implants after I left."
"So what do we do now?" Nasher asked, eyes wide as Kat and Sherrie got closer and closer.
"We can't do anything," Snow cried, "they're too strong for us. We don't stand a chance."
"You don't have enough faith in us," Rusher said. "Nasher, bring out your recruits."
And out came four huge Dubbas, armed with very frightening swords.
"Kat," Sherrie screamed over the cry of dying Dubbas, "look at these four."
"Wow, they're big."
One of the Dubbas threw a sword to Stasiak who joined them, a twisted grin on his face.
"Ladies, allow me to introduce my new best friends. Plumber, Jinder, Seaner, Miker. When I joined the Dubba forces, I trained with them and let me tell you--"
A blast from Sherrie's disrupter went a long way to stopping Stasiak's long winded speech and ending his life.
"All right," Kat said, "Sherrie, you take the two on the left, I take the two on the right. That good?"
"No! Kat, they're monsters."
"And when we think about it, so are we. Now, let's go!"
As the girls fought against the Dubbas, Snow made his way to the communications station and quickly got a frequency to the WWF ships.
"Shane! Shane! You have to get me out of there. Kat's gone nuts," Snow shouted over his communication device.
"I knew it!" Steve sneered.
"Nuts? What are you talking about Snow?" Shane asked, "and why would you come to us for help when you brought my father to Dubba central?"
"I brought him here as a bargaining chip. But Kat is the one who killed him."
"What?"
"That's it," Steve said, "I'm going in. I'm killing that treacherous bitch if it's the last thing I do."
"I don't believe you," Shane said, "there is no way in hell Kat would have killed my father."
"Oh really? Then look at this!"
Snow typed in the cues from the surveillance tapes and showed Shane the footage of his father's murder.
"I'm killing her! Steve, save some of her for me. I'm killing that bitch myself!"
"Hurry up then son, we ain't got all day."
"Hunter, keep those Dubba ships at a distance. I'm bringing my father back to Earth where he can be buried where he belongs."
"Shane, that tape could have been doctored," Hunter reasoned, "please don't..."
"I'm commander here Hunter. What I say goes. McMahon out."

On the bridge of the Dubba ship, Kat sunk her sword in Miker's middle and pulled the hilt upward, effectively splitting his torso into two separate body parts. She'd already disposed of Jinder. She turned to Sherrie and saw her strike a deadly blow to Plumber. And she also saw Seaner sneak up behind her, his sword raised.
"Sherrie!" she screamed.
The EDA liaison smelled Seaner coming and rolled out of the way, but not before he managed to slice a chunk of her arm.
"That was mean," Sherrie cried out, twirling both of her sabers, their hilts slick with Dubba blood, in a scissor movement that left Seaner headless. "And I punish mean boys."
"All right," Kat said, pushing her chain mail hood off her face, "there's two of you and two of us. Fair fight?"
"With a pair of cyborgs?" Nasher laughed, "I think not."
"Oh come on, you've got a cyborg too. Snow, where are you hiding, you rotten little piece of shit?"
"I'm a doctor," Snow protested, coming out of hiding from under a console, "I'm not a fighter."
"Then you are of no use to us," Rusher said, slicing off his head with a swipe of his sword.
"Damn," Kat swore, "I wanted to do that."
"Sorry. But as it was enjoyable, I'll enjoy doing it to you."
"Big words," Sherrie smiled, "but can you live up to them?"
"Sherrie, you take Rusher, I'll take Nasher, all right?"
"Why? I wanted to kill the biggest ugly!"
"Well, his height advantage is way too massive."
"I can take him, I promise."
"All right then. Boys, meet your killers."
The fight that ensued was harsh and often had Kat and Sherrie loosing their footing to Rusher and Nasher. They found their strength depleting and by the end, sheer force of will kept them going. Sherrie managed to rid herself of Nasher first and when she turned to see how her partner was doing, she found Kat in a particularly bad position, the only thing keeping her alive being her hand clasped on the blade of Rusher's sword.
"Need a hand?" Sherrie asked.
"If you wouldn't mind."
"Not at all."
Sherrie ran and sunk both of her sabers into Rusher's back. The Dubba blinked a few times at Kat, disbelief making his features that much more horrible, and slid down to the floor.
"Well that was unpleasant," Kat said, straightening up. "All right, grab Vince while I hook myself up and try to figure out the destruct sequence."
"OK."
Kat scanned the consoles and finally found a port she could hook up to. Her fingers sailing over a console, she searched through the database and ended up swearing a blue streak.
"These bastards don't have a self-destruct sequence."
"So what do we do?"
"Well, give me a second-- I think-- yeah, I got it. The oldest trick in the book."
"Prostitution?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter Ms Bélanger. I'm talking starships here. We overheat their reactor core and before we do that, we send it toward that little planet over there."
"What is that place?" Sherrie asked, peering at the small planet.
"The Dubba home world. We end all of our problems in one final stroke. The ship's core will kill that planet and our problem in one swift stroke."
"Kat, that might mean ending millions of lives."
"The lives of a people who wouldn't mind killing us for our water."
"I don't know about this."
"I do. Now, get Vince's body to the Amethyst. The clock is ticking."
"Kat..."
"Go Sherrie, just go!"
As soon as Sherrie left, Vince's body dragging behind her, Kat entered the coordinates for the Dubba home world. And then, she raised the reactor's temperature. By her calculations, Sherrie and her had three minutes to get out safely. She bolted out of the bridge and found Sherrie a few decks below, struggling to pull Vince behind her.
"Let him go," Kat shouted. "We have two minutes before this place goes to the dogs. I'll take Vince."
Not one to rethink those kinds of orders, Sherrie bolted down the stairs, Kat, Vince over her shoulder, hot on her trail. They entered the docking bay and stopped dead in their tracks.
"Shane, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"I'm taking my father back home for a decent burial and I'm leaving your treacherous ass here to burn with Dubba."
"Excuse me Shane," Sherrie interrupted, "but you couldn't be..."
"Shut up! You're probably in on it too! Steve, take my dad's body and load it into my cargo hold."
"Pleasure," Steve said, plucking Vince out of Kat's arms.
"Fine Shane," Kat said, "if you think I killed your father..."
"Think? I know you killed him, you bitch. Snow showed me the footage."
"Thank God that idiot's dead. Shane, listen, I didn't kill your father!"
"You did! I saw you do it! You put a knife in his heart, you bitch!"
"I have had enough! I'm getting on board the Amethyst and I'm getting my ass out of here Shane. And I suggest you do the same. This ship's headed for the Dubba home world and the landing's going to be ugly. Come on Sherrie."
"You are staying on this ship and you are going to die for my father's murder!"
"Enough!" Kat growled, running to Shane and clocking him.
"You bitch!" Steve shouted.
"Steve, you wanna be smart and get into your ship, all right?" Sherrie ordered him, her disrupter aimed at him. "Get on and get off this flying coffin."
"But..."
"Do it. You'll get it later."
Meanwhile, Kat got Shane into his ship and set the autopilot to follow Steve's ship. Once both of the Platinums were flying out of the docking bay, she ran to the Amethyst where Sherrie had already started the takeoff sequence.
"All right Ace," Sherrie shouted, "get my ass out of here!"
"Yes, Ms Bélanger!"
By the time the Amethyst flew off the Dubba mothership, the core had already started to blow.
"We did it!" Sherrie screamed, "we fuckin' did it! That fucked up plan of yours worked!"
"Never doubt me," Kat shouted, "I was born..."
"Knowing what you were doing. Whoooooooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo!"
"Now, let's get Vince back home. I'm patching through Shane's commands and piggybacking him onto us. We're faster than the Platinums. And the sooner we get Vince home, the better."
"What the fuck are you doing now?" Steve asked when he realized he was no longer in control of Shane's ship.
"What I do best," Kat snickered, "running circles around you!"

Kat and Sherrie were pacing in front of Mick and Mike's lab when Linda, Stephanie and Shane came running to the underground hangar.
"Taker, Kane," Shane said, "detain them. We're handing them over to the authorities for treason and my father's murder."
"Don't do this Shane," Kat said.
"I'll do whatever I damn well please, you damn bitch! You're nothing more than a murderer."
"You think so but that's because you don't know everything, Shane. Hell, you don't know shit!"
"Get your hands off me," Sherrie told Taker as he approached her. "I can break you. And I will if I have to."
"Don't resist arrest Kat," Shane said, "it'll make things worse. As it is, you might only get time for killing my father but..."
"Killing me? Hell, she saved me."
The numbers of jaws that dropped when Vince came out of the lab would have made the book of records.
"Dad?"
"Yes son, I'm alive."
"But I saw her kill you."
"Actually, when Kat pushed that dagger in me, she started a regeneration process Mick and Mike have been working on. It involves a lot of cybernetic technology and in a way, it saved me."
"Vince," Linda asked, "are you telling me that-- you're a cyborg too?"
"Not as evolved as Kat or Sherrie but just the necessary to keep me alive."
"Sherrie," Kat cried, checking her watch, "it's been fifty hours since the implants. That means... Mick, can't you do..."
"I'm sorry Kat. Any attempt to remove the implants now would result in loss of life."
"Oh Sherrie, I'm sorry. I didn't..."
"It's okay Kat. Now that I have them, I can't imagine living without them."
"But the EDA..."
"Oh, they'll probably fire me after this. But I have a feeling I'll get a job in the WWF, right Mr. McMahon?"
"You bet."
"Kat," Shane said, "I'm sorry. I thought..."
"I know what you thought Shane. And although I don't like your father, I owe him my life."
"And I just thought you'd killed him."
"The images were deceiving. It's OK Shane."
"Yeah. I know."
As the rest of the crew started walking away, Kat, Sherrie and Vince stayed behind.
"I can't believe I'm asking you anything," Vince said, "but will I ever get used to being part robot?"
"You will. Just takes time."
"And me?" Sherrie asked.
"You, you're a natural. I'll teach you everything I know."
"Cool. First off, I want you to show me how to beat up the big guys."
"My, Ms Bélanger, what a bloodthirsty little woman you are."
"I know. I love it."
"Me too."
As he watched his two cyborgs walk away, Vince grinned and looked at the star chart pinned to the wall. Absently, he ran his fingers over Earth, then to the Dubba home world and then, to a planet that seemed too far to be a threat. But he knew better. The Dubbas were just the beginning. He shrugged. Let his boys and girls enjoy tonight. The bad news would come soon enough.

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