“Well, my good friend Mandy…” he looks around in suspense, “was a Zombie.” Everyone gasps. “Now, I have to say that the subjects they chose to revive are kind of tricky. If you want me to believe that a colony that fails at being able to leave the planet, due to the time difference from the rest of the universe, actually left the Storyboard and went to dig up these people’s bones and successfully transported them back and had the sufficient data to resurrect that person? PAH! I’ve been to the Drawing Board, and let me tell you, I’ve talked to both Mandy and her supposed original form, having them stand right next to each other. As much as I like my friend, even she gladly admits she and her teammates are different from Misa and the originals, and she’s fine with that. She’s Mandy. But on the battlefield, Mandy…is Lady Z. I quickly found out just how unqualified I was for military combat, ha ha!”
“Whatever, Axer,” Roxy debates. “That’s exactly why she came crawling to your door, to recruit your muscles to be part of her little gang.”
“They asked you, too,” he retorts.
Giggling, she says, “See? They needed us.”
Axer takes over again. “Anyway, I got to meet her associates, Axer, Raptor and Rachel Winslet. Axer was supposed to be Acer of Acer and Buddy while Raptor, well you know who he is, I’m sure. Rachel was a clone of the first Wolf Woman, even though she used the codename of her successor, Coyote. This team of clones was my country’s secret method of fighting the war without actually entering it. Yes, this group was genuinely the equivalent of a small army. Oh! And I got to meet General William of our nation’s military, but let’s not lose focus. The Zombies were looking for the Ultimate Machine that Cigular had been looking for before being destroyed. Roxy, explain it. I trust you.”
“Aw!! You get two points for that!” She kisses him and gives her best lesson about the Ultimate Machine that she can. “You know about the iu-rating, which gauges the strength of an individual, and you know that SG technology substantially multiplies our power so that we don’t need things like tanks and guns. WE are the weapon. Also, Ruyngardians grow stronger at a much quicker rate than traditional Earth humans, so there’s that. Well, what’s the only way to make a tank that matches your own power, or even multiplies it in addition to your SG tech?”
“The Powered,” the class deduces in horror.
“The Powered,” Roxy confirms. “The Ultimate Machine, or what I’m going to call the Ultimate Machine Jr., was simply a Powered that multiplied a pilot’s strength by a crazy higher amount than any other Powered. Thus, whoever got this machine would be the unstoppable ruler of Ruyngard. Oh, and it gets even more interesting. Out of all the other nations, Astro Scotia had the Zombies, and of the Zombies, their main member, Axer, also called Zombie One, was rated as the most powerful person on the planet. If our country got UM2, we’d never have to worry about the other countries endangering the lives of the colonists.” Then, firmly gripping her husband by his shoulders so that she can hold herself up on him as his cheerleader, she proudly, and quite loudly, asks the kids, “Does anyone want to guess which lazy bum, not having a single day of military training in his life just HAPPENED to be THE second highest iu-rating on the whole planet of New Ruyngard?!”
“Really?!” the kids say. “Are you serious?” “Were you really that strong, Axer?”
“Ha ha, apparently,” he says, holding his wife’s balancing hands. “That’s why Mandy recruited me. All the time we were together, I was just a normal boy that could help her forget her stressful life as a clone and a military tool. But when I applied for a job with the military, my iu-rating was so high that it made its way to General William, meaning poor Mandy had to give up her one escape from the constant reminders of her pseudo-existence. She was still happy because she knew it would be nice to have a friend working with her. And when I convinced the group to let our neighborhood friends help, I think she would’ve kissed me, if that were allowable, ha ha!”
Inner Man Theatre 