When I Met Myself

An Old Enemy

"Ugh. Five hours, and not a sign of one Machite. By the sun!"

I veered the spaceship behind an asteroid as the monitors suddenly picked up some movement nearby. Using the X-Ray mode, I saw two Machite Sentry Pods circling the area. Unthinkingly, I blew them to smithereens. Thankfully, I'd made no noise, and nobody noticed. When the next two Sentry Pods came, I instantly used my grapple hooks to reel them in, and once they were inside the ship, I knocked them both out. I noticed that they looked greener than before, and made a note of that in my report. My work being done there, I quickly returned to Morfus.

"The report." I said, as I flung it in front of him. 

"That's not a report- THAT'S TWO MACHITES! BY THE SUN, MELSUR, YOU BROUGHT TWO MACHITES!"

I grinned. "You like it?"

"No, this is an act of war!"

I raised my eyebrow. "I thought war had already been declared?"

"Oh. Yes. I suppose you're right."

I laughed, and rolled my eyes. 

"Anyway, interrogate these people, get Blemat to read their minds. Meanwhile..." I walked to the door.

"Yes?"

"Meanwhile, I'll go get myself a cup of apple cider." Saying so, I swaggered out of the room. Walking down the hallway, I met a few Hofros, who I grinned at. They looked at me as though I had gone insane, and quickly scampered away. I laughed to myself, and teleported myself to the bar.

"One apple cider, please."

"Think fast!" he flung the bottle at me, and I again executed the familiar smooth grab-and-open motion. 

"Too slow, old man." I laughed, and took a huge swig again. As I placed it on the table, he smiled at me.

"It's good to see you smile again, Melsur. The last few weeks have been bad for you, haven't they?"

I sheepishly smiled at him, and said, "Yeah"

"Well, it's good to have you back!"

Nodding at him, I got up and began walking back. As I was walking back, I tripped over someone's foot and almost crashed to the floor. I was prepared for a profuse apology when I heard a short, bark-like laugh, and I whirled upon the person, ready to give him a piece of my mind and my fist.

"Listen here, you little-" I began, when I saw who it was and staggered back.

It was Charkas! 

"Ah, Cadet Melsur. Still as stupid and blind as ever, I see."

"It's 'sir' to you, Charkas. I'm a fully qualified Time Warrior now. It's good to see that you're still the same idiot I knew."

One of Charkas' friends laughed, and asked him, "You know this loser?"

"Yeah, met him at my first briefing."

"He's the guy you beat up?"

I laughed scornfully. "Charkas has been feeding you a huge truckload of pretty lies, it seems. Oh well, let me prove just one of his lies wrong. Come on, Charkas. If you beat me up once before, you can do it again! Come on, boy, come on!" I patted my knees as though I was speaking to a dog or a baby.

He angrily growled, and charged towards me. I deftly sidestepped him, and he crashed into the table nearby.

"Whoaa, watch it!" a tiny Diavolokian yelped.

As he was recovering his bearings, I smashed my fist into his jaw, and heard a satisfying crunch. Smiling at his roar of pain, I kicked him square in the solar plexus and as he was falling, executed a flying kick. He then aimed his right fist at my face, but I once more leaped out of the way. He then staggered to his feet, and let loose a screech that forced me to close my ears to save them from being blown up. While I was clutching them, he picked two chairs up, and slammed them into my face. Feeling my nose break, I roared in anger and flung myself at him, releasing some of my pent-up anger upon the Machites. His entire body crumpled in an instant, and I quickly got an Emergency Kit out, and healed my nose, cleaning up the nose-bleed. I winked at his friends, who were watching me, mouth agape, and strutted off, back to my room.

"Well, that was fun!"