Chapter 5

Ambient, returning from the bathroom, saw Hiltz still in the kitchen - where he was continuing to feverishly pore over the schematic from earlier, pointing to various batches of scribbles, rubbing his chin, and nodding to himself - and trudged back to the living room. The cupcakes were barely of any concern to him now, after that fiasco Specular had just witnessed. There would be no recovery after such a disaster, so he may as well apologize for, well, everything ever, and offer to escort her home, an offer she would surely refuse. And why shouldn't she?

Specular was still perched on the couch where he'd left her, staring off into space, her phone sitting untouched beside her.

"Roagh?" he ventured uncertainly. She gazed blankly at him. He gulped. Of course she wanted to leave, see how bored she looked! But he should ask her anyway, so as to be polite, and not make any assumptions. "Raaergh raaoiggh rrreeargh?"

Specular appeared momentarily offended by his question and opened her mouth to answer, but at that very moment, Hiltz came galloping out of the kitchen so hastily that he wasn't able (or didn't try; unclear) to stop before crashing headlong into Ambient with an exaggerated metallic clang. Ambient's memory banks were close to overloading from despair by this point, and so he could literally do nothing but gaze in wonder down at the redhead's sprawled form.

Hiltz was back on his feet almost immediately, however, apparently none the worse for wear, and issued forth the most deranged round of giggles Ambient had yet heard from him, which was really saying something. "Ambient! Ambient!" Hiltz gasped, as though he had just run a great distance instead of down the hall to deliver this important impending informational tidbit. "Upon completion of acquiring all the materials needed for phase one, I took the liberty of extrapolating next steps in your glorious master pla -" He stopped speaking suddenly and gawked wide-eyed at Specular, perhaps only now noticing the presence of a hulking azure dinosauric robot nestled in the corner of his living room couch. "Why, Ambient," he said, a hideous grin blooming across his face like an unsightly stain spreading over carpet, "you were one step ahead of me all along, weren't you? Of course, it all makes sense now! Your combined powers controlling the Death Stinger would surely be enough to overcome the jamming effects of the rarehertz! Brilliant, I say, Ambient. Brilliant! I would have expected nothing less."

Specular tilted her head in bewilderment. "Rugh?"

"Come now, what's your name, my sweet? Surely you detest the Guardian Force as much as I do?"

Ambient could endure not a moment more. He positioned himself behind Hiltz, looming ominously over the clueless maniac, and was just about to open up his chest plates and bear Hiltz off to who knew where, when suddenly the front door crashed open again, for what seemed like the millionth time, although this time it had been kicked down. Ambient groaned. What fresh hell was this now? But then he looked, and gasped.

"The Guardian Force has arrived!" Van Flyheight announced theatrically, striking a hero's pose in the doorway.

"We're here to rescue the innocent and punish evil-doers!" Fiona continued, mirroring Van's pose.

"RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" Zeke added with a bellow from behind them both, just for that extra dramatic flourish. He then gave Ambient a quick, furtive wink.

Ambient would have wept with joy, were organoids capable of tears. His dear friend had made good on his promise! With the Guardian Force here, Hiltz would be too preoccupied to continue ruining date night with Specular!

Specular, meanwhile, simply sat on the couch blinking and stupefied at what was happening in the hallway before her.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hiltz cried in an agony. "Not the Guardian Force! Our master plan isn't ready yet! How did you find my hidden lair?!"

"Oh, Hiltz," Fiona giggled, as though he were a silly, naughty, harmless child. "Yours is the only house in town with a giant 'Hiltz's Hidden Lair' sign out front!"

Hiltz cursed to himself while everyone stared at him. "How could I have been so foolish?! I underestimated their intelligence-gathering capabilities severely! This will not do at all, no... OH!" He stopped suddenly, not noticing everyone staring at him. "Note to self! Yes. Must recruit more Helcat spies to even the intelligence gap." He pulled a small spiral-bound notebook and pen out of his pocket and began furiously scribbling as all assembled continued to stare.

"Alright then!" he finally said, putting away his notebook and pen a few minutes later. "Now that the Guardian Force has been kind enough to deliver itself directly to my doorstep, I believe it is time that we destroy you once and for all!"

"C'mon, Fiona! Let's get in the Blade Liger!" Van shouted far more loudly than was necessary.

"Catch us if you can, Hiltz!" Fiona taunted as she dashed out the door after him, Zeke remaining behind to ensure their foe did not attempt escape. The Blade Liger, it should be noted, had been conveniently parked nearby, on the neighbor's front lawn.

Hiltz, meanwhile, was also preparing for battle. "It is time to resurrect the unholy beast! The messenger of doom! The harbinger of destruction! The cursed scorpion! The deadly monster! The wicked bug! The corrupted creepy-crawly...the DEATH STINGER!" He took a deep breath and screamed, "AMBIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNT!" as though his organoid weren't already standing right next to him.

Ambient half-cringed, half-hunched to protect himself against the cacophony. Things truly couldn't get any worse, he decided. He opened one squeezed-shut eye to look into the adjacent room and see how Specular was getting on, if indeed she was even still there, and he certainly couldn't blame her if she wasn't.

Specular, he saw, was on her feet, tail lashing back and forth as she gazed in horror at the front door.

What now? he wondered as he turned his head miserably to see what disaster awaited him next.

There was a creepy young woman with blue hair standing on the threshold. Her dead eyes blazed cerulean. "NOW, SPECULAR!" she screamed.

"Roooogh!" Specular cried in despair.

Reese's eyes returned to normal. "Oh my beautiful Specular, I was reading your mind and saw that you were in some kind of trouble. I had to come as quickly as I could." She turned a hateful glare on Ambient and Hiltz. "None of these pathetic males are good enough for you! Come, darling."

Before Reese got even one foot out the front door again, or Specular was able to utter a growl of protest, a black Nissan GT-R with dark-tinted windows and blacked out lights and rims came screeching up to the curb out front. The bass on the vehicle's sound system was so powerful that the ground shook, but not much of the music itself could be heard until the passenger door swung open and a black organoid dove out, roaring a challenge to all assembled.

With the car door now ajar, it became evident that the music was Linkin Park's "Crawling."

"These woooouuuuunds they willlllllll not heeeeeeeeal," sang Raven from the driver's seat before he noticed that his passenger had disembarked. "Hey Shadow, be good, a'right? Text me if you need a ride home la - whoa." He stopped speaking suddenly and lifted his black shades up onto the top of his head to the better stare at Reese.

She was staring back at him, and, almost robotically, bore herself down the front walkway to his car. She leaned down to look into the cabin.

"Hi, I'm Raven," said Raven.

"Hi, I'm Reese," said Reese. "Nice ride."

"Thanks. My Breaker's in the shop. You like GT-Rs?"

"I love GT-Rs."

"You like Linkin Park?"

"I love Linkin Park," she breathed.

Those who were paying close attention instead of simply watching the proceedings, awestruck, might have noticed the liveliness in Raven's violet eyes, and the lack of eerie glow emanating from Reese's.

"You doing anything right now? I was just heading to my support group on the other side of town. You could come if you wanted. I get the feeling...that you have tons of issues, too."

Without even a spoken word of assent, let alone a backward glance at Specular (or anybody else, for that matter), Reese climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door. The GT-R roared off down the block and its round taillights soon disappeared into the dusk.

Shadow hurried over to Specular's side. "Reaaergh?" she asked, checking her all over for signs of injury.

"Ragh, ragh," Specular replied, lightly pushing her away with a sort of loving irritation.

All was quiet for a moment and Ambient looked around. The situation had gone so far off the rails that he really and truly, genuinely did not know what to do now. The Blade Liger stepped onto the front lawn, facing the house, and aimed its chest-mounted cannons squarely at the front door. "You ready to fight, Hiltz?" Van's voice came over the loudspeaker.

Hiltz! Ambient swung around. Where was that loon, anyway? He saw him sneakily tiptoeing (in plain sight) towards Specular and Shadow, kneading his hands gleefully and giggling something to himself about three organoids reconstituting the Death Stinger being better than two, and finally, Ambient had had enough. He caught Zeke's eye and they both nodded to each other. Zeke hustled to the front door and bellowed for Van and Fiona, while Ambient advanced upon Hiltz so as to spare the girls any further hassle, but he needn't have bothered.

The second exaggerated metallic clang of the day rang out around the first floor of the house, as Specular whipped herself in a circle and smashed her tail decisively into Hiltz's waist, sending him flying right out of the room and into the wall of the entry hallway.

Van and Fiona rushed back into the house just then, and saw Hiltz's ragdoll-like body on the floor. "Sorry, Zeke," Van said, shaking his head. "I thought for sure he'd take the bait and leave the house." He nudged Hiltz with his boot; the ancient Zoidian was out cold. "What should we do with him now?"

"Reaiiragh?" Zeke suggested with a sneaky-looking smile.

Fiona snapped her fingers. "That's right!" She grinned at Ambient. "Don't worry Ambient, we'll take care of everything."

Ambient scratched his head. What had Zeke meant by "our really, really, really big friend"?

Van grinned now, too. "This mate of ours has a real scarcity problem with her ammo, see. I'm sure Hiltz could find a way to lend his, uh, 'talents.'" And with that cryptic remark, he scooped Hiltz's floppy body up over one shoulder, and headed back out the front door.

"Coming, Zeke?" Fiona asked, turning.

"Roooiiargh, ragh raagh."

"Oh! I see." Fiona beamed widely at him. "We'll see you later, then." She trotted out the door after Van, waving over her shoulder. "Byeeeeeee!"

Zeke turned to Shadow. Ambient, still thoroughly confused, watched him, and then started. Was Zeke blushing? There seemed to be a bit of a pinkish hue to his silver sheet metal...

"Reoogh," Zeke said to Shadow, holding out one paw.

"Reoogh," Shadow replied, taking his paw in her own.

Ambient blinked. Casting a glance at Specular, he noted that she seemed just as thunderstruck as he himself was. Had those two been secretly dating under their friends' very noses?!

Zeke accompanied Shadow to the front door and clapped Ambient on the back as he went by. "Rrerrgggh," he said breezily.

All's well now, indeed, Ambient thought dazedly as he watched their mutual friends set off into the twilight together.

It was just him and Specular left. He dared meet her eyes; their amber depths were not unfriendly. Suddenly, he couldn't wait a moment longer to apologize, to explain everything. "Raaegh!" he began. He hadn't been blowing her off at Death Saurer's party; quite the opposite! "Raaooiorgh raghergh rioriagh!" He'd been too much of a coward to risk being snubbed while his friends were there! "Roareggh raoghh raerrrgh rorargh!" He had misread her signals at the time and only after the fact realized what had been happening! "Rruereghghh rraerigh ruogh raghh!" And...

Before she could respond to anything from the monologue thus far, he galloped back into the kitchen and retrieved his naked desserts.

"Roiuergh?" he asked her, holding up the tray. Cupcakes?

Specular smiled and took the tray in one paw and then his paw in the other, and guided him over to the couch. She seemed not only happy, but relieved, he realized. He tried not to let his paw shake in hers.

They sat down, facing each other. Specular placed the cupcakes on the coffee table and took his other paw in hers now, too. "Rauargergh riigh riiiggh," she told him, gazing deeply into his eyes.

She was used to crazy ancient Zoidians, too? Ambient suddenly felt a sense of blank calm melting soothingly over him and sighed blissfully. Somehow, against all odds, things had worked out, after all.

He picked up the remote and flipped on the TV and DVD player and felt his blue date nuzzle comfortably up against him for the movie.

Specular, meanwhile, was quite pleased with matters. Not only had Ambient somehow managed this sequence of disasters with aplomb, but he was the first organoid she had ever met who would be able to truly empathize with her "crazy ancient Zoidian caretaker" problems. And that sweet gesture of the cupcakes! They were her favorite kind: sans frosting. She hated how frosting always got stuck to her claws. How annoying! So...had he known? Or perhaps, it was a sign.

And after all that fruitless worrying! He had been into her too, all along.

She snuggled up closer to him. Forget Reese and her awful advice about mind control; Specular preferred the genuine article.