The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 36: The Kakamaqumania

"Gango," said Zoop in Kakamaquan tongue. "What you're doing is wrong. We're not allowed to take part in the errands of the ancients!"

"A joke?" standing by the shambles of the tank, Gango replied. "Do you not understand that I'm helping the prophet? What greater deed a Kakamquan could do in his life, than fight for the man who put words into the book?" A caged lion roared in the background.

"Fight for George Bottlemore, perhaps?"

"For the man of fairy tales? Gango does not believe in fairy tales. He believes in the Book of Orders. He fights for the man who will transform this world to ours. Look at them, Zoop, look at how ugly our ancestors are, how annoying the shining thing in the sky is. There is too much green, too much blue. It hurts my eyes. The world is much better back at home, much prettier."

Zoop glanced at the sun in the sky through his glasses, then looked Gango into the eyes and said, "You stupid, you blind, I got no comments."

Ä long minute of tense silence passed between the two. Gango ended it with a raise of his hand and a shout, "Attack!"

And so the great civil battle of Kakamaquans at Alfonso's mansion began.As Zoop took a long sip of coffee from the tube, the dozen Kakamaquans came at him; a few of them used their dissaperators to appear behind his back. After a short pause, all at once, they dashed toward him.

The metabolism of Kakamaquan was much faster than that of a man. The caffeine instantly entered Zoop's bloodstream and, depending if you looked from his eyes or the outside, slowed the time down or sped him up.

After a click of his weapon, Zoop teleported ten steps back. Before the Kamaquan closest to him could turn around at his turtle speed, Zoop slapped him in the back and the poor fellow flew by Gango's shoulder. General's face whitened. He did not expect such feats from the squishy scientist.

While Gango figured what was going on here, one of his men got teleported into the lion's cage. Before the poor guy had his pants full, Gango teleported him back onto the battlefield.

Zoop backed off from the crowd of hostiles and checked the charge meter on his dissaperator. One tenth of the meter was gone. There were at least six dissaperators in the hands of his foes including the one Gango held. He figured, it was best to preserve the power of teleportation and use the physical advantage provided by the caffeine instead.

The scientist charged forward against the barrage of barely visible projectiles. One after another they bounced against the shiny armor, the helm, the plating on his arms. With the tiny shoulder, he slammed into one of the fighters and sent him rolling to Gango's direction. But when the target landed at the spot Gango's feet should have been, Gango was no longer there. He was standing behind Zoop, who was taking another sip and planning his next move.

Gango extended his hand to reach one of the coffee thermoses attached to Zoop's back, but the moment he touched it with his fingers, the scientist was on the way towards another, little assuming soldier.

"Get him!" growled the general.

Those who were on the ground picked themselves up, and those close to Zoop ran at him. The scientist fired his weapon to seemingly random direction. Little did they expect what would happen next. The moment they were about to put their hands on Zoop, the scientist was gone. A lion roared in his place. The soldiers screamed and trembled and backed off from the beast. The memories, terrible memories of the experience with another animal of such size returned to them.

Gango, standing from further away, saw the true purpose of this diversion. One, two, three, four of his soldiers wielding steel pipes appeared in the empty cage. After realizing what had happened, they banged their weapons against the steel cage and shouted for help. As Gango fired at his men, Zoop reflected the incoming projectiles with quick movements of his hands.