Planet Protectors: Red Alert/ Chapter Two

Right in the middle of Dorm 39 lied Rufus; who'd just had a short nap from the orders of Cindy. He promptly got up, got ready and headed out for the kitchen, tripping over a conveniently placed stool in the hall and venting a short bust of frustration at it before realizing that it is, in fact, a stool, and not a member of the crew. Not that he'd shout at anyone anyway. He continued to head from the kitchen into the lounge where Cindy told him to go earlier; before bumping into someone green.

It was Jack.

He wasn't surprised; he's used to Rufus' lack of focus and is regularly clashing with him.

"Hey... looks like you're awake now." He said, chuckling a little.

“...Sorta... Wait... Weren't you supposed to be with Scott's group??" Rufus replied with concern.

"Uh... About that... Well; when you left, and the ship began to separate I was sorta dilly-dallying in the middle... Cindy quickly pulled me in however now the groups are five to three... I need to find a way to get back to them..."

"Oh... Where's Cindy? She told me to meet her here..." Rufus continued, looking around and finding Melissa next to them. He didn't mean to show disinterest but didn't want another thing to stress about.

"She just went to fetch us some supplies. We're working on the communicator, so we can talk to Scott's group!" Melissa looked down at Jack who was half way into the lounge's computer desk.

"OH! Yeah... Sorry I haven't been here to work with you... What's the problem with it? It was working fine last time..." Rufus voiced concern.

"When WAS the last time we used it?" Jack asked, crawling out of the desk.

Rufus began to swipe fingers in various directions at almost lightning speed on the communicator's touch screen.

“...Looks like... a year ago..." He replied.

"Explains it." Melissa said, now crawling into the same space Jack was in to see if she could solve the problem.

Cindy came rushing in holding an umbrella, rubber duck, sponge, bucket and a shoe rack.

"Will any of this help??" She said, almost out of breath.

"Probably not... Thanks though..." Rufus sighed.

Cindy only just noticed Rufus. "Oh Rufus!! You're up. Everything good? Y'know, other than this busted communicator."

"I guess..." He replied.

"Have we tried turning it off and on again?" Cindy looked over at Jack who was a little too comfortable in the lounge's chair, sipping a soda.

"Are you kidding?" Jack raised concern, whilst spinning around in the chair like a child. "It's not that easy... Right Rufus?"

"Any idea's good I guess..." Rufus replied whilst pulling the now stuck Melissa out of the desk.

Melissa turned the communicator off and on again.

It worked.

Cindy smirked at Jack.

Jack's spinning chair suddenly came to a halt. "Oh... dang." He whispered.

Rufus started the swiping again and connected to Scott's group. The communicator cast a screen onto the wall which slowly displayed a live video of Scott's crew. The first thing that the five saw was Sonar punching their communicator in frustration whilst Casey and Scott were in complete panic behind her.

"Guys?!? Hey!! What's going on??" Cindy screamed twice and asked.

Sonar stopped.

"There. I fixed it." She said.

"I dunno if smashing it to pieces would be 'fixing it’..." Casey rolled her eyes.

Scott went forth to get a better view of Cindy's group, extremely relieved to see Jack present.

"Jack! Thank goodness you're okay." He stopped to finally take a breath.

"I'm fine. How am I going to get back to you though?" Jack asked.

"That's where I figured you guys would pitch in.." Scott said. "After all, there is three engineers in your group now..." He continued.

"Got any ideas, Lil' Pup?" Sonar asked.

"Uh..." Rufus stumbled, looking for some blueprint files he had stashed inside the communicator. He swiped them into the corner of both screens for the entire group to see.

"These are my plans for teleportation... Maybe it could help Jack get to you three..." He continued. "It won't work now due to the ship moving however I could test it if we both land somewhere..." He finished.

"There's a fly-thru near us." Cindy assured her group. "We can stop there Rufus. Are you sure this will work?"

"Nope... That's why I'm gonna test it on some objects first." He replied to her.

"Sounds like a good idea... I don't know how fond I am of teleporting let alone thousands of miles away though..." Jack looked behind Scott's group, noticing their window and how different the atmosphere was by them.

"It sounds like fun!! You'll be all like... fshwooo! woo woo! fswwwhhhaahaha! kerblamo! whooe!" Melissa giggled.

Casey chuckled "Yeah! and If it works I'm teleporting the heck outta here too. No offence to you Sonar."

Scott tried to hold his anger back but looked like a puppy having a tantrum.

"Casey; you may not realize it... But you are a valuable asset to the group and I need you to stay with Scott, no matter how annoying he can be." She chuckled.

"Fine..." She said, growing impatient and crawling onto Sonar's shoulders.

Melissa went to stop the ship so that it would land to the fly-thru.

"There's a fly-thru about 10 minutes away from us." Sonar checked the tiny tablet in her big hands.

"Call us when you get there." Cindy said, turning the communicator off.

"Hey... where's Polly?.." Rufus asked, still in a sleepy state; barely even aware of what he had himself into.

"She's downstairs giving a prep talk to the other members of the crew." Jack said, holding Rufus who he'd noticed had started losing balance. "Are you sure you're okay? Here; sit on this spinny chair. It's super fun." Jack plonked Rufus down on the chair, hoping he was okay. Cindy went over to them.

"I'll look after him; you just focus on making sure this darn ship lands..." Cindy said, pushing Jack in a friendly way.

Cindy noticed that Rufus wasn't ill physically; rather not feeling well mentally. She quickly ran to her dorm and came back with her hair tied in a pony tail and Scott's goofy looking reading glasses on.

She made a loud, fake cough before pulling a stool to sit beside Rufus.

"Hello, Mr. ...Rufus..." She said in an extremely formal tone. "I am Mrs. ...Cindy and I am your guidance today. How can I help?" She chuckled.

Rufus took one look at her in those goofy reading glasses and couldn't help but laugh. He decided to play along.

"I'm still really tired..." He started, "And I barely feel alive. All this stuff has happened, and my mind hasn't even realized it yet." He finished.

"Nothing's gonna happen to you Rufus. You have me, Polly and Melissa to look out for you. I don't expect you to suddenly fight; we haven't even got there yet..." Cindy said whilst untying her hair and placing Scott's glasses on the side.

"Yeah... I better get to work now though." He got up and started collecting resources from his dorm.

Meanwhile, the ship had landed at the fly-thru. It was a small section of land afloat containing a restaurant and a place to park. It was one of many within the galaxy.

Melissa and Jack went out to grab the group lunch whilst Rufus was still collecting resources within the ship. Cindy was busy calling Scott's group on the communicator.

"Have you landed yet?" She asked Scott, who was keeping an eye on Casey who was crawling all over the room's walls.

"Oh... Yeah, just landing now. We're on a fly-thru too." He replied, moving his focus onto Cindy.

Casey called everyone back into the ship.

“...Are all these... sticky things really necessary?" Jack asked Rufus, who was sticking lots of plugs all over him.

"Well... If you only put a few on then there's a chance of you being partly teleported..." Rufus said, sticking the final plug fight onto Jack's nose.

"Eurgh. splattered Jack particles all over..." Melissa added, eating a burger she got from the fly-thru.

"Scott, Jack will be heading over to you any time now." Cindy said, with somewhat nervous-ness.

"Okay... You're hooked up now... But first, I want to try it with a simple item." Rufus said, taking one of Melissa's fries that she just bought.

"Hey! I was gonna eat that... I don't wanna if it's been teleported." Melissa moaned.

"It's not gonna taste any different..." Rufus said to her.

"But still... It’s... teleported... and gunky..." She finished.

Jack, trying to itch the plugs off whilst Rufus was moaning at him, noticed that Cindy was getting a little impatient.

"Teleport that fry then!" He shouted, imagining himself to sound much cooler in his head.

Rufus hit the button on his tablet and within an instant the fry lost its colour and distorted into nothingness.

The group anxiously turned on the communicator in hopes that the teleportation worked.

There was nothing.

"Did uh... a fry teleport to you recently." Cindy asked Sonar, the only one on the communicator.

"So that's where it came from. Yeah; Casey ate it." She replied, trying to hide Scott and Casey fighting behind her.

Rufus began to shake in excitement. "It actually worked!! I did it!!"

"Good job!" Cindy shouted. The group hugged Rufus whilst he tried to get them off, blushing. "Okay... Okay... Now for Jack..." He gulped.

"No worries! It's only a living being, no big deal..." Melissa said. "Oh... wait..."

"Just go for it." Sonar mumbled whilst moaning at the 'team members' she's with.

Rufus pressed the button once more and within a flash Jack was away from Cindy's group and conveniently landed into Sonar's arms.

"Nice catch." Cindy said, whilst patting Rufus on the head.

"You did good, Lil' Pup." Sonar smiled at Rufus whilst putting the dazed and close to puking Jack down.

"I feel... scrambled..." He said, whilst tumbling over and falling asleep in almost seconds.

With Jack on the appropriate side, the two groups began to set course for their respective locations once again.