The prompt for this week is: Vanquish Now someone go write something.

Ermmm you vanquished EW's prompt??? Yeah yeah lame, I know I ll come back with more later!

LOL DT

Actually my pro pt was up about 6 minutes earlier but who's counting....,though I was tempted to respond with the dueling banjos..

Damn there's no banjo emoticon ...

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k2: And a sticky situation gets stickier.

It certainly seems like Charlie has much more power within Galactor than it appeared at first.

k2p2 -- unfortunately Charlie's view about the value of resources over people is validated every day today...You captured this very well.

This is a continuation of a story called " A dog with a bone", in which Riga is overrun by Spectra. //Slumped on the couch in his office, Anderson was reliving the last 48 hours -- and was not feeling any better about them. A day. Less than a day. That's all it had taken Spectra to vanquish the Rigan defences and overrun the planet. But it wasn't only the fact that now the Spectran forces had control of Riga that was making his stomach twist. His friend Cronus had gone after a Spectran weapon called the X-3, and was now missing, presumed dead, when he tried stop the X-3 from reaching the Earth. Mark had gone after Cronus, and now knew the truth about his father. He had also gone after Cronus. The result was that then the rest of G-Force had to come after them and save them. A small knock was heard on the door. "Come in," he said, resigned to the fact that the rest period was over. Mark entered the office, his face beaming. This surprised Anderson -- the boy was supposed to be in shock, not smiling like this. "Chief, my father's alive!" Mark blurted out. "He's coming back to Earth as we speak!" Anderson swung his legs on the floor, all thoughts of rest forgotten -- as was his tiredness. "What are waiting for then, Mark? We've got a planet to free!"//

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k2 - eeek, looks like Jun has really got herself into a tight situation there, now what will she say to alert her teammates to her predicament? DT - isn't it great how one bit of good news can energise a person and give them the motivation they need to act

KT -- something tells me the next instalment will be in the Rubber Room By the way, I love your new avatar!

DT: A huge rollercoaster for all of them. Always curious to see how an author will handle Mark's reaction in the long run to dad's and the Chief's lies! KT: Uh oh, and he was doing so well there!

Jeremy had pulled off the Galactor copy of the Eagle's helmet and carried it by its visor as he escorted Jinpei to the dining area. Jinpei did the same, taking the opportunity to take in as many of the Texican's features as possible. Without the helmet, Jeremy was the plainest human being to ever walk the earth -- Jinpei was sure that guy would be nothing but a blank spot in any video footage. They entered a room that had a round table just large enough to seat the five members of the false Science Ninja Team. The other three imposters were already seated; only the faux Condor kept his helmet on as he ate what looked like some sort of sausage dish. Jinpei sat where a steaming bowl of noodles had been served, and Jeremy sat in front of a plate heaped with barbequed baby back ribs. The fake Ryu was shovelling down something drowning in tomato sauce. The top third of his face looked like it had been clawed by a bear. Jun's impersonator was clearly from Ameris -- she had a plate of Calihornia and Mishiganha rolls before her. Jinpei tried not to smirk as he wondered if she'd think temaki were little ice cream cones. "Are you thinking you are going to make the boy vanquish with a look, Aradia?" The man with the clawed face spoke with some sort of eastern European accent. "What?" she glared at him. "Vanquish!" he replied, "You know, disappear." "I think you mean 'vanish', Misha." Jeremy said. "Oh." "I just wanna know," Aradia said as set her venomous eyes on Jinpei, "is what that little shit thinks he's lookin' at." Jinpei swallowed what was in his mouth to give himself time to come up with an answer. "Interesting haircut." Aradia had short black hair; it looked like she'd grabbed a pair of scissors and blindly chopped away. "Ah!" Misha laughed, "Maybe she can do something with your mess after dinner!" "Couldn't hurt!" Jeremy added, rubbing the boy's head without cleaning the barbeque off his fingers first. "Yeah," Aradia smirked, "I'll do that."

EW: Nice to see your story progressing. I hate to think of what that duplicate team might be up to!

Daniella, I can see how Anderson is renewed by this news! KT, is Julia drinking while pregnant????? And Joe is just terrible! I really have lost all respect for him. I can't believe he would even consider getting into that mess again! EW, I have a feeling Jinpei is going to bond with these imposters, despite himself.

Ok this one is kinda silly. ************************************ Bradbury's Jar Prompt#181--Vanquish The only sound was the buzzing of cicadas on the hot summer breeze. Joe rocked back in one of the chairs on the porch of Ken's airfield shack, the two from legs leaving the floor. He reached down to the cooler beside him, and grabbed a longneck, twisting the top off with the bottle opener on his keychain. The beer felt like a little bit of heaven as it trickled down his parched throat. Ken was sprawled out in a lounge chair next to him, shirtless, wrung out from the heat. A smear of axle grease marred his cheekbone. The two of them had been working on Ken's Cessna in one of the empty hangars. The noontime heat quickly became unbearable, the metal building turning into an oven. Joe had made a quip about roasted Eagle and Condor, and Ken merely grunted at him as he fought with a stubborn bolt. Not that it was much cooler outside. It must've been close to 100 degrees with the heat index. So, they retreated to the porch, where they set themselves up with some beer and snacks, deciding they would think about returning to their work once the sun went down. Joe glanced across the airfield to where he parked the G2, under one of the few trees that dotted Ken's place. The heat waves shimmered across the tarmac of the airstrip, their hypnotic dance slowly teasing him towards sleep. Until a shrill noise shattered the silence. His eyebrow shot up. What the hell? He looked over at Ken, who was half asleep himself. "You paid your phone bill?" "Huh? Did I?" The phone continued to ring. "I guess I did." The angry ringing droned on. And on. And on. "You gonna get that?" Joe asked, wincing at the noise. "Too hot. You get it..." Joe snorted. "It's your house you get it." "Come on Joe! You're drinking my beer..." "No I'm not, I brought my own!" "Joe...." "Ken. Do you really want me answering your phone?" Ken pondered the question, staring out at the dust eddies that rolled over the airfield, as the phone continued to ring in the background. "You're right." he sighed and rose from his chair. Joe glanced over at him as he walked into the house. "Ken, bring more beer from the fridge when you come back...." "You said you brought your own!" Joe glanced down at the cooler next to him and frowned. "Yeah... well.....it's all gone..." He heard Ken's muffled curses as he stepped into the kitchen and picked up the phone. Joe sighed and leaned his head back, letting the slight breeze that had stirred up, wash over him. The silence didn't last for too long: "What? Why are you yelling at me?" "I didn't do anything!" "Wait. Hold on a minute. What?" "No. No, you've got it all wrong!" "I never said that!" "You assumed that!" "Well how am I supposed to know what you're thinking!?" "Are you serious? Fine." "Fine." "Who the hell was that?" Joe asked as Ken returned to the porch. "Jun." "What the hell was that all about?" Ken ran a hand through his sweaty hair, as he dropped a few beers into the cooler and leaned back against the doorway. "What else? She's angry with me because she saw me at the movies with a woman. " "Oh?" When Ken wasn't forthcoming he prodded. "Well, that can't be all of it. Spill it..." "It was some chick I helped last week when her car broke down a half a mile from here. " Ken shrugged. "I called her a tow truck." Joe waited. "And?" Ken sighed. "And she took me out to the movies and dinner as a thank you. "He looked up to see Joe smirking at him. "Hey, it was a free meal!" "And?" "And Jun is angry because she was under the assumption that we were going to the movies that night. I never said that, I said I'd like to see the movie sometime." "Ken, you know how Jun is when it comes to uh, this stuff. "Joe told him. "Oh! And here forth I'm banished from the Snack! Can you believe that?" "Well, now Jun also knows you paid your phone bill before you paid your tab." Joe chuckled knocking back more of his beer. Ken fixed him with a glare. "Shut up. This is all your fault." "My fault? How is this my fault?" "You made me get up and answer the phone!" "It was getting on my nerves!" Joe retorted incredulously. "And you're getting on mine!" Ken huffed, folding back into his chair and propping his feet up on the rickety railing surrounding the porch. The two of them were silent, each with their own thoughts. The silence stretched out, the sound of the cicadas filling it once more. "Ken?" "What?" "You need to buy an answering machine." "No. I'm just not going to pay my phone bill again...." Ken snickered tiredly. Joe reached down next to him, hand dipping into the cooler once more, his fingers closing about two bottle necks. He reached out, and poked Ken in the arm with one of them. "Here. Help me vanquish some of these beers...."

Redbird: Hehehe. Silly but cute! Love the bickering, and poor Ken, he can't catch a break.

Redbird - I could totally picture that entire scene in my head. Great job!

Thanks CW & Mylari. It kinda came out of nowhere and was fun to write!