PT, PT, every day . . .
Who: Zacks & Cubies (and an innocent bystander or two)
Where: Just off the Promenade
When: Whenever's most inconvenient
Zack whipped around the corner and scrambled down the passageway, his
heart thudding. NewZack sprinted past him, obviously in better shape.
With Cubie as an ex-wife, Zack guessed that was the motivation behind
NewZack's physical fitness regime. Unfortunately it made him the
unfortunate recipient of the theory that in order to avoid being mugged, you
need only outrun one of the friends you were out with.
Zack's Cubie had put up a great fight, but her batteries had been low
to begin with, and she'd only been able to shield the Zacks' escape before
powering down.
NewZack darted down an adjoining passage, and Zack continued on.
Perhaps NewCubie would track her ex-husband and leave the Blue Dwarf couple
alone.
A beam of orange light seared past him, slamming into the far bulkhead
and burning a hole through into the gym's female showers. Zack dove through
the hole, landing in a shower stall that was quite occupied. The woman
screamed bloody murder, and Zack covered his eyes, then nearly knocked
himself senseless trying to maneuver out of the shower. After weathering
several impacts with the walls of the stall and the scrub brush of the
hapless showerer, Zack managed to stumble through the dressing room,
battered all the way by an assortment of boots and shoes hurled at him by
the patrons of the women's changing room. Finally he found a door and
bolted through it, one hand waving frantically in front of him.
"Open your eyes, you idiot!"
Zack cracked one eye open, and found himself standing in the middle of
the gym floor. He looked at the controller glove in his left hand. "Cubie?
Cubie's voice piped out of it. "Yeah, it's me. I'm too weak to even
project an image, but my short-range sensors are still operating. There's
an air duct twenty meters to your left. Get into it."
Zack spotted the air vent and sprinted for it. Behind him, he heard
more screams from the women's locker room. He skidded to a halt in front of
the vent and popped off the access cover with the sonic screwdriver that
Stewie had given him as a parting gift. He was halfway in when he heard
NewCubie shout.
"Freeze, Zack! Twitch, and you'll be half the man that you were a
minute ago!"
Zack looked back at her. "I'm fleeing into an airduct to hide from my
double's ex-wife - how much of a man was I a minute ago?"
"Point taken. Still, it would probably sting a little." She waved her
VBG-9000 at him, and he reluctantly eased out of the vent and took a couple
steps toward her.
Zack played his last card. "You know, I'm not your ex-husband. Why
are you trying to kill me?"
NewCubie shrugged. "Yeah. It's pretty obvious. My Zack didn't fare
well at the vend-o-divorce. He could never afford a suit like that."
Zack blushed. "Thanks."
"I'm still going to kill you, though."
"Wh-why?!"
NewCubie smiled. "Practice."
Zack nodded slowly, then stared past her in shock. "What the smeg?!"
NewCubie whipped around, bringing the VBG-9000 to bear on the new
threat.
Three female crewmen in towels were peering out at her from the doorway
to the women's locker room. Their eyes bulged as they looked down the
barrel of the VBG, and they ducked back inside.
NewCubie turned and glared at Zack. "You're as naive as my Zack if you
think . . ." Her threat trailed off as she noticed a distinct lack of Zack.
Furious, she fired several rounds into the vent, then shifted form into a
mechanical centipede and plunged into the smoking hole. "Hope you got that
suit cheap, Zack! I'm about to void its warranty!"
The gym was empty for several seconds, then a section of the wall five
meters away from the vent shimmered, and Zack appeared. He grinned at his
glove. "Cubie, that's awesome! Chameleon abilities! SaWEET!"
Another explosion from the vent brought him back to reality, and he
sprinted out of the gym and back toward the Promenade.
"I assume you've got a plan?" Cubie's voice echoed off the bulkheads.
"Same one I always have, dear. Run and hide."
~Zack & Cubie~