Chapter 8 Z not EZ continued Too

"You must be slippin' Z," Vinny teased,"Tommy's frequency was pretty easy to detect, only took me a second or two."

"We'll see who's slipping, Vinny, as soon as you and your baby brother come out from under mama's apron to play with the big boys," Z chided as he and his team, Stew and Stan, who were laughing like hyenas, staked out positions on the other side of the asteroid. Vinny directed Tommy to the right with his eyes, then swung his ship around to the left side of the asteroid. Stew was so busy wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes that he missed a perfect opportunity to blast Vinny who emerged from behind the asteroid, directly in front of him. Both pilots unloaded their weapons at the same time but Vinny was quicker on his shields leaving a stunned and slightly disabled Stew with tears of a different nature. Vinny quickly turned his attention to Z who was slightly above him and to his right. Knowing he couldn't get his guns trained in on Z in time, Vinny put full power to his shields just in time to survive a phazer blast that rocked his ship enough to leave him prey to Stan who was hovering just in front of him, so close that Vinny could see him grinning,"See ya later V...," Stan's taunting was cut short by sudden death as his ship was cut in two from below by Tommy's advancing fighter. Z unloaded zenon rays from guns positioned on both wings that would have sliced directly through Tommy's wings if he hadn't rolled between the beams just in time. Z still had position on Vinny, but Vinny was trained in on Stew who was mostly disabled but still a minor threat. Vinny could take him out, but he'd be demolished by Z if he diverted too much power away from his shields. He thought about Tommy's comment behind the asteroid and took a chance,"now", Vinny calmly said as he unloaded upon Stew, blasting him to pieces.

"Now it's your turn," Z said as he blasted Vinny's ship in half, "like I said, it's all about the pilot!" He laughed with confidence as he turned his ship up to find Tommy hovering just above him.

"Sometimes it's both," Tommy said as a projection device robotically retracted itself back into his ship. Z turned a disbelieving eye to his right as Vinny's ship cruised into view. Both Tommy and Vinny unloaded everything they had into Z who had activated his shields a bit too late.

His ship rocked then exploded as a barely audible yet deeply meaningful "whoa" escaped his lips.

Tommy turned to Vinny and said, "that felt good."

"Damn Tommy," Vinny hooted,"you must've met up with Farb the Almighty himself, drank from the Cup of the Sacred Seven and been imbued with the gift by the Council, all at once! I just can't explain it any other way! You're back from the dead, dining with your mortal enemy and trouncing Z all in one night. Before I wake up and discover that I'm dreaming all of this shit, there's one more thing we have GOT to do.

Chapter 8 Z not EZ continued

As they finally cleared the asteroid belt, Tommy calmly said."Hey Vinny, it appears as though that ass we're supposed to kick just showed up." Vinny quickly signalled Tommy back into the belt.

"I can't believe that Z jumped in early," Vinny said," must be desperate for more Gear Points, trying to surprise us just out of the belt. If we had been any slower his plan would have worked," he continued as he tucked in behind the largest asteroid at the end of the belt.

"A desperate foe is only half the challenge," Tommy replied.

Vinny burst out laughing,"Tommy!?! Did you really just call Z half a challenge, this is priceless. A whole different fighter, complete with funky helmet and dinosaur-style joystick action, flying skill like I've never witnessed before - and  now you dismiss Z, the highest ranked pilot in the system, as half a challenge. If I wasn't worried you'd dump your whole status, I'd send you out there alone, you cocky son of my mother!"

Blue wasn't too sure just how good Tommy was supposed to be, so he assumed it would be best to let Vinny lead. Still, he wasn't about to miss out on this chance to fly, fight and win in a ship that he designed in a game that kicked ass on anything he had ever played. If the opportunity presented itself, he was going blast Z and the other two fighters he brought with him out of space, straight to "Game Over". "I hear ya, Vinny - I got your back - but if I get the chance, I'll assume you wouldn't mind if I make Z wait a little longer for those points would ya?"

Vinny chuckled, "stop Bastin' with me bro, Varst NO! We want to keep that bastard Z from getting ANY more points than he already has. Farb knows he's got enough to spare."

"Hello Boys!" A new voice invaded Blue's head. "Took me awhile to figure out your new frequency, Tommy. I just think it's my job to let you know, it's not the fighter that wins the battle, it's the pilot. But judging by that heap you're flying, I don't think I have to worry about either."

Chapter 8 Z not EZ

Vinny shot off so quickly that Blue wasn't sure he'd be able to catch up, and how do you find a guy in the middle of space. Blue intuitively leaned into the gentle banking of his craft as he pivoted seventy-five degrees to the right, punching the thrusters without even glancing at his console. In less than a heartbeat, Blue was deftly maneuvering his craft into position over Vinny's right wing. Together, they bobbed and weaved their way through an asteroid belt, strewn with the wreckage of less fortunate travellers.

"Freshies, " laughed Vinny as he expertly dodged a chunk of fighter by slinking to the left. As he did so, he realized that the chunk was sure to nail Tommy head-on. He spun his head around so quickly that it felt as though it might snap right off. However, he had no time to think about that right now. His mind was far too busy trying to muster up the resources to comprehend the images his eyes were feeding his brain. Indeed,the chunk was slamming into the nose of Tommy's craft with untold force and speed. However, instead of exploding, caving in or otherwise smashing to bits. Tommy's craft seemed to roll effortlessly over the debris. Seemingly effortless movements rarely are but often look so when performed by a practiced, well-disciplined individual. In this case though, practice and discipline were in short supply. Fortunately, Blue was flying with a boatload, rather a shipload, of intuition. As the creator of this fighter, he knew everything it was capable of. Recognizing that there was no way out of the collision, he acted quickly and instinctively to maneuver the craft in such a way as to allow the collision yet soften it's effect. Blue engaged the fore and aft thrusters simultaneously, directing the angle of their bursts, while pivoting the wing section, catapulting the fighter ass over elbow as Frank used to say. Then, just as quickly, Blue reversed the maneuver, righting the fighter just in time to rotate forty-five degrees to the right to avoid a smaller yet equally inconvenient chunk of "Freshie" fighter, which luckily for Vinny, had a second earlier, only narrowly grazed the surface of his fighters right wing. With ice cold delivery, masking his racing heartbeat, Blue said,"Yeah, it's as though they' ve never seen as asteroid belt before."

A single, deeply meaningful word escaped Vinny's lips, "whoa!"

Chapter 8 Z continued

Blue was far too excited by the thrill of being inside his own creation to even consider who Z might be or what he and Vinny were about to be up against. He wanted to see what his baby could do. "Vinny," he called through his headset, "hang on for a second, I gotta try something." Blue grabbed the joystick in front of him and eased it back slightly. The nose of the craft rose up up slightly, noiselessly, effortlessly and exactly how he had envisioned it would. As Blue maneuvered, he realized that his ship, although cool in his mind, futuristic even, seemed a bit old school compared to Vinny's which was sleeker and , frankly, cooler. Still, Blue was in his element. Blue could see very clearly what his fighter was capable of and that, he figured, would be good enough for any space battle. Regardless, he wanted to give it a little test. Instantly, he slammed the stick forward and to the right, breaking into an incredible dive, breaking the speed of sound in what seemed like a second at the very most. He didn't feel a thing. The craft cradled him completely, making his every move effortless, responding to his slightest touch. Suddenly, he ripped the stick straight back, burying his left foot into the floor, just like popping the clutch on his '65 Mustang convertible. Except that the Mustang couldn't instantly reverse it's direction without losing speed. The fighter did just that. All without sending Blue's balls up into his throat. Without the slightest difficulty, Blue stopped the fighter in exactly the same spot from where he had begun and hovered there grinning.

"What in Farb's name? - How in the Bastin' Farbunkle? - Tommy, that was bastin' amazing!" Vinny shouted, causing Blue's ears to ring, but it was cool, in fact, nothing could be cooler, thought Blue.

"Thank you God-Farb or whoever the Fuck-Bast you are!" Blue silently prayed for the first time in twenty-some years. As he let out a barely audible but deeply meaningful, "whoa".

"Farb-Damn-it Tommy!, let's go kick some ass!" Vinny laughed as he turned his craft and raced off through the stars.

Chapter 8 Vinny and Tommy against Z and the Boys

As if on cue, Blue felt himself falling into a seat which seemed to sweep him off his feet, up into the eternal blackness. The seat transformed to fit his body, just like the one on the VinnCycle. The moment he began to feel comfortable, a console appeared in front of him. As he became aware of it, the console became more complete. In fact, it became familiar. He had drawn something like this before when he had been contracted to do some work on a film. It was Sci-Fi, a Star Wars type deal, with all of the major special effects being produced by Industrial Light Magic. For some stupid reason, the production company thought that ILM was going to actually create the spaceships, weapons and fancy gadgets for twelve million dollars, only to find out that the twelve million was really only going to cover what it would take to make all of those things look like they were actually doing something. By the time this memory told itself to Tommy's brain, Blue began to notice stars all around him. He looked out to see that he was in a ship of his own creation. It was mind blowing. Something he had drawn for a movie was here, in some sort of thoroughly realistic holographic game in his house, within a parallel universe. Suddenly, he was hit. The stars around him bouncing and twirling everywhere as if he and his ship were inside of a giant snow globe being shaken up by a very naughty little giant. The ship quickly righted itself and Blue felt as though he was perfectly stationary. The stars lay still around him. Just off to his left, in his peripheral vision, blue could see movement. Something rising into view, quickly yet silently.

It was Vinny, in a one man spacecraft, a fighter of some kind, unlike anything Blue had ever seen in any movie or game. Blue could see right in to Vinny who was laughing his ass off. Vinny motioned to his mouth from inside of his cockpit, signalling to Tommy that he wanted to talk. Instinctively, Blue reached up to find that he was wearing a helmet. His fingers glided upward along it's surface until he felt a small button just above his ear. He pressed it, releasing a small earphone/microphone combination unit which lowered automatically into place. Still laughing, Vinny asked, "What in Farb's name is that?"

"Something I dreamed up awhile ago," Blue countered, "keeps me focused!"

"Great, you're going to need it, little bro, I've plugged us in for the Gamma Run. "Z" and the boys are going to be jumping in. My guess is somewhere near Omegalux," Vinny continued", so I'm going to need some serious back-up on this, it's T-Bone Time!"

Blue had no idea what to expect but he didn't care. He was floating in the middle of outer space, in a ship that he designed and it was real, or virtually real. Plus, he was about as high as he could ever remember being.

"Vinny", Blue called out through his headset,"hang on a second, I gotta try something."

Chapter 8 Vinny wants to Play -Tommy goes along

"Yes," exclaimed Vinny as he quickly disappeared behind a pillar. Blue wasn't sure whether he was supposed to follow Vinny or not but he didn't want to appear timid in the eyes of his brand new big brother. So he followed Vinny around the pillar. What he saw there was beyond his comprehension.

Imagine total blackness.

Now, imagine total blackness again because whatever blackness you just imagined is not as black as the blackness that Blue was now looking at. Blue let his jaw drop open because the only thing that wasn't black was really busy doing something else and would never notice that Tommy was behaving as if he had never seen this room before, even though it was in his own house, because Tommy was Blue, who was now closing his jaw because Vinny, the unblack, was approaching, beaming, "you gotta hit this shit before we start!"

Tommy, of course, had to hit that shit but Blue was pretty damn sure, by the look on Vinny's face that the shit in question was going to mess with his mind at least as much as the jumpjuice did and probably more. "You go first, Vinny, it's your shit man!" he managed as he tried to focus on anything at all in the room around him. There was absolutely nothing, other than the entryway through which they had come. Blue eyed it longingly.

"My shit?!, Funny Tommy, but varst, you don't have to ask me twice," Vinny laughed as he sparked up a bowl. "kmphff - kmphff- kmphff.. Phaaaaahh", he breathed as he handed Tommy a gorgeous little glass pipe, crystallized little buds still slightly glowing, while milky white smoke swirled its way around a small chamber, midway through the pipe, "you finish 'er off".

Blue hadn't smoked pot in about ten years, mostly because he had been holding down a corporate design gig, working for a guy who made it his business to know everything he could about his employees' personal lives in case he ever had to come up with a reason to fire them. Blue had pretty much said his farewells to his job the moment he and Leer boarded the star cruiser in what used to be his living room. But the boss wasn't the reason he hadn't "hit this shit" yet. He remembered how pot made him feel... he loved to smoke pot. He loved it so much that he had decided that he couldn't smoke it anymore. He knew that didn't make much sense, nor did he have the time to explain it. Add to that the fact that Vinny would be about the last person Blue would care to explain it to and... the crystalline particles crackled with blue flame as the tiny purple hairs were engulfed with the glow as Tommy inhaled, filling the chamber with even more swirling white smoke until he deftly released his index finger from the carburetor, allowing the pipe to release, filling his lungs with smoke from its cache. The room fell into complete darkness as the fire extinguished. Blue's host body was a seasoned veteran of this ritual and Tommy held the vaporous prize in his lungs long enough for Vinny's hand to materialize from the infinite blackness, landing upon Tommy's shoulder to squeeze him affectionately as Vinny whispered softly into his ear, " there ain't a soul alive who can make love to the crystal princess like T-bone..."But now, little brother, " it's time to die!"

Chapter 8 Vinny wants to Play

It took Blue all of about two seconds to realize that he had just dodged a major bullet on the God thing. Shaking off the ride, he turned his attention to the house to which Vinny had just seemingly time-warped him. It took half of two seconds to re-evaluate his position on "crime don't pay". Partially regaining his balance, he slowly slumped his way toward the front door.

"Bastin' farbunkle, Tommy!," Vinny laughed,"you really are messed up. You never use your front door. If I didn't know better, I'd say you aren't Tommy Levito!"

Blue laughs an exhausted sort of chuckle,"Look Vinny, I can't remember half the things I should, damn near didn't recognize you, had trouble figuring out what went down with Alonso and company, so do me a favor, help me get back in the swing of things. I just feel way too..  different, ya' know?"

Tommy looked at Vinny. The two men stood just outside a side door that Vinny had meandered over to while Tommy was explaining his dilemma.The next thing Blue knew, Vinny had him by the back of the neck. Suddenly, Vinny held Tommy's face about six inches from a narrow mirror on the door. "Welcome home, Tommy," said the door, as it slid open.

"I guess your house knows it's you, eh Bro?" Vinny smiled and breathed a heavy, satisfied sigh, "Ah the T-bone shack - I love hangin' out at your place, man. Hey, I know you're tired but we gotta hit at least one round, whaddya' say?"

Blue had no idea what Vinny meant, however, he figured it couldn't be worse than what he had experienced over the most recent twenty four hours of his and Tommy's combined life, so he said "sure".