THE ELEMENT GUARDIANS

Chapter 10: The Invaders’ Headquarters

Before being transported from the secure galaxy to Planet Element by Master Ribbit’s newly invented method, the team decided to discuss the status of Dan’s sister-in-law “Grossman.” During the Guardians’ stay in the secure galaxy, so as not to disturb or distract from the important training, it was decided that she would not be mentioned. 

In another galaxy, Dan’s wife, Queen Frenzy, had to be careful because her sister Grossman hated her, and kidnapping the wife of a Guardian would indeed be a lethal downfall for the entire planet Element. This possibility was so serious that Master Topaz’s security team was patrolling Dan’s home to ensure the safety of Queen Frenzy and her daughters. Similar attention was provided to Master Topaz and the other Guardians’ families as well. 

            After a long absence from their families and friends, the five Guardians, Lilley, and Quincey returned to Element with priceless experiences that would help them to better defend their planet from the enemy’s invasion. Master Topaz temporarily quartered Master Ribbit, Lilley, and Quincey in her temple while the Guardians rushed to their homes. 

When asked by their respective families why they were wearing strange bracelets, the heroes gave out the same answer: “For health reasons, because without it, our lives would be in serious danger. We may even die if it’s removed. In that beautiful secure galaxy, we ran into a disease that has no cure but is not contagious. It is expected to last forever, but the good news is that this device will protect us for just as long.” As they told the white lie concocted by Master Topaz, the Guardians avoided, for security reasons, divulging the real reason for their wearing, around their wrists, the most destructive weapon ever built. 

However, one unanswered question that was always inside the Guardians’ minds was this: Why hadn’t Master Ribbit trained them to transport themselves through other universes? They knew their capability was not limited, because by now they could use the bracelet and their brains as a vehicle for transports. They could transport themselves locally, so why not further?

After resting at home with their families, Jason gathered the Guardians at his temple and decided to discuss with them the matter of intergalactic transport. It was agreed that they would contact Master Ribbit for a clarification of that issue. Master Topaz agreed to host the summit because it was, after all, a reasonable request.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for approaching me,” said Master Ribbit. “The reason you couldn’t utilize intergalactic transport yourself was because your bracelets weren’t equipped with the known coordinates of all known universes. They weren’t programmed because an order sent to me prohibited me from mapping them while in the secure galaxy.

“Naturally, you’re now asking yourselves, why was such an order given? It was because our spy and counterspy agencies indicated that security was calculated to be only ninety-nine percent guaranteed for your landing. As you know, that level is unacceptable because our standards ask for accuracy of only one hundred percent. 

“While you were at home, without you noticing, your bracelets have been programmed to complete such travel as needed. Tomorrow, you five Guardians will travel to the secure galaxy and then return to Element. It will take approximately six seconds round trip. It will require less than five minutes to teach you how to become astronauts.”

***

            And so it was done the following day. The coordinates from the bracelet indicated exactly the desired universe, galaxy, planet, and location where they were to emerge. It was so easy that, as a reward for their perfect performances, Master Ribbit permitted the Guardians to bring their families with them to visit the secure galaxy. It would also give the younger family members an idea of where they would go if the war forced them to move. 

For safety reasons, the Element Guardians chose to move themselves and their families to Master Topaz’s temple. In that location, they could be better protected and perform their normal tasks as well. This assembly of leaders formed the strategic military headquarters. As a matter of fact, the moment they completed the move from their houses to Master Topaz’s temple, they were informed that the enemy would invade Element within a year or two at most.

This information came from the Universal Intelligence Service, a coalition of secret agents operating in all universes. Many years ago, it was this intelligence agency that received the news that a female named Grossman on the planet Element had viciously assassinated her father in front of her sister. This news had shaken the agency to its core, because Grossman was the sister-in-law of the Guardian Dan, whom Master Ribbit had recommended for the position of Earth Guardian.

Grossman had avoided capture because she had escaped from Element immediately after assassinating her father. Her accomplice, a male named Sax-a-Lar, was an inhabitant of the evil planet Dark Sky. He was a spy for his government and had witnessed and reported the murder. Instinctively, Sax-a-Lar had recognized in Grossman the evil soul he shared. He assisted her escape from Element to Dark Sky. She remained there as a well-known resident, going on to become one of the greatest killers ever recorded on that planet. 

Due to Dark Sky’s evil standards of accomplishment, Grossman was appointed general of an army called Dark Realm whose final goal was to annihilate Element and all of its people. Her hatred for that planet was as great as the hate of the evil spirit for God. Being that this hatred toward Element was no secret to the Universal Intelligence Service, the service assigned some agents to the planet Dark Sky. These spies were smartly positioned as officers of the Dark Realm army, whose dreadful reputation preceded them. They would not stop until they had conquered the planet and enslaved and abused its population. 

Because of their agents inside the enemy’s forces, the Universal Intelligence Service was able to prepare full and accurate reports regarding their plans for the invasion, their present army’s power, their geographic location, the location of their headquarters, and other important data. The latest report indicated that not too long ago, Dark Realm had invaded Volga, a planet not too far away from Element. It was official: Volga was where the invaders had established their headquarters. 

Volga’s economic status was in line with its surrounding planets, because it was very rich in previous materials, thus trading with other planets was not a problem. Geographically, Volga also possessed the same balanced composition of territories as Element. In broad terms, however, Volga was a strange planet where uncommon events often occurred. For instance, some of the planet’s inhabitants had been born genetically and biologically malformed—in other words, humanely speaking, not too pleasant to look at. But the major problem was that their average IQ jumped from generation to generation by a considerable number, either in a positive or negative direction. These jumps also influenced their standard of living and their average life expectancy. 

At the time of the Dark Realm invasion, Volga had a dominant generation with middling IQs, a negative downswing from the previous one. But the Universal Genetics Team, after centuries of research, had discovered a remedy for the IQ deficiency in Volga. Supplementing such a finding was that their cure lasted only five years. This news could not have pleased Grossman, because the main reason for her invading that planet was the low IQ of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, she had already developed in her mind a plan that would delay the time to remedy the problem from five years to ten. A simple lawsuit served to the pharmaceutical company accusing them of something irregular would do it.

***

Long ago, the Integrated Universal Intelligence Agency received the news that a female named Grossman, resident on the planet Element, had viciously murdered her father in front of her sister, Queen Frenzy. The news that she was now a wanted murderer came as a shock to the scientist Master Ribbit, because Grossman was the sister-in-law of the Guardian Dan, whom he had vouched for from the beginning. 

Grossman escaped from Planet Element immediately after assassinating her father. Her accomplice, a male named Sax-a-Lar, was an inhabitant of the planet Dark Sky. He provided assistance for her to escape to the planet, and when Grossman was accused in a court of law, she denied the killing. Sax-a-Lar falsely testified that she did not kill her father, claiming that both of them were far away at the time of the killing.           

Grossman  was appointed general of an army whose final goal was to annihilate Element and all who lived there. But in order to accomplish her evil intentions, she needed an army much bigger than the one she was commanding on Dark Sky. Regardless of her evil heart, Grossman was an intelligent, beautiful person with a gift for analysis. 

When she analyzed the overall requirements for an invasion of Element, she realized how lucky she was to be geographically close to Volga. The present condition of the planet Volga would provide her with two important things: additional people for her army and money, lots of money, to fund the latest weapons technology that would be needed for the war against Element.

Invading Volga became a necessity, and it was done very quickly and easily. Before this invasion, Grossman had married Sax-a-Lar, by now second in command in Dark Realm. From a political point of view, it was a perfect marriage, because Sax-a-Lar continued to lead the intelligence network for Dark Realm and recruit young Volga men to bolster the army. He also traveled constantly from Dark Sky to Element to recruit the politically unsatisfied Element citizens that wished to become spies for Dark Realm. These followers, usually students in technical fields, were well paid. These were the spies who had discovered the existence of the Element Swords during the Guardians’ hunt to get them. Only Master Ribbit’s immense intelligence prevented the spies from understanding what those blades were meant for.

Spying in the fifteenth millennium was a serious business. The methods of traveling from one planet to another were many. The WARP method (utilizing light) was the most commonly used method, but far slower than Ribbit’s brain-based displacement. In addition, those utilizing WARP for constant trips had to have great physical and mental ability, because frequent transport impacted their nervous systems. 

The Ribbit method, using the brain for almost instantaneous transfer, would not be in the market for another thousand years and was known to only a select few people on Element. All the members the team and their entire families were transported to the secure galaxy utilizing this method. No spies knew the coordinates of this galaxy, no one other than the team. 

Here in this galaxy, the team was now going over their tasks, including preparations for the oncoming war, taking into consideration the events in Volga. In addition, they presented the spying assignments that would involve Lilley and Quincey. Because they were known personalities in Element, the enemy’s spies would certainly recognize them if they went undercover. Avoiding this danger wasn’t difficult; it was agreed that both Lilley’s and Quincey’s  appearance would be changed to look different from their actual forms. As a test, the Guardians watched as Master Ribbit told the ladies to demonstrate their transformative powers. Lilley’s father was not surprised to see his daughter changing her appearance, but Quester didn’t know if he should have been crying or laughing, seeing his future wife looking so different from her natural figure. Quincey went from having red hair to now having short black hair.  She was as tall as an sss and built like one too.  She sure can knock me down to the ground thought Quester to himself!

At the same time, in a fortress-like structure in Volga’s capital, Grossman and her husband, Sax-a-Lar planned to meet with Trigger Finger, the evil producer of special illegal military hardware. These weapons were forbidden by Universal law for use in combat because they were mortally painful. The development of such armaments was very expensive, but the immediate delivery justified the cost, which wasn’t a problem for the general anyway. Prior to the meeting with Trigger Finger, Grossman had arranged an encounter with the management of Volga’s national bank to ensure that her immense account was in order.