Curse of the Cuttlefish, Pt. 2

BotP

One thing I can't figure out: Shaggy often sounded slightly squeaky; Mark never does.

I just knew Zark would get the job of exposition. :sigh:

What was Zark doing on an oil break when you would have thought he'd be stuck by his monitors until the situation on Arcturus was resolved?

Spectran spies learn everything? Could have fooled me.

The dog…is…flying. And Adrea is saying…."Cool."

Zoltar: "Destroy every building in the city until the tapes are found."

Ummm….Considering the tapes are of a size to be relatively portable, how smart is that? Altho the "Give everyone notice so they can take refuge" (besides Gatch being Franked) can be construed to be something on the line of "I'm a great and powerful warrior, but look how kind I am to the civilians of my enemies. I let them get to where they'll be safe before I attack."

Scads of destruction on the (robot) army and air force.

Yes, Zark, we understand that kindly Zoltar gave the civilians enough time to evacuate.

Hey, they cut out one of the best scenes! G-1, 2, and 5 facing down the PDOS in the city courtyard. And in GoS, G-2 has a great line. BTW, if the area's supposed to be evacuated, what are all those people doing there? They can't all be the "too stubborn to leave" kind. (Where you have to knock `em out and haul `em off. You know, like G-1 and G-2.) Too poor to get out by themselves?

Anderson's telling this guy that two members of G-Force may have been captured by Spectran spies. Even if the guy he's talking to has the necessary security clearance, what about the half dozen around him?

Don't tell me: there's NO contingency plan in case the tapes do fall in Zoltar's hands….stinky government planning?

G-3 and 4 in the cell…"Broop-toot…think-tank Zark never fails." So much to say, so little room…

The Spectran soldiers here seem a lot more worried than their Galactor counterparts about killing the wrong girl and boy. Shades of interplanetary vs. terrorist relations?

S-9: "I never make mistakes." She's right about them, unfortunately. Now the guys gotta prove her wrong. And here they come, dummies at the ready.

They're crediting Zark with the dummy idea? Granted, takes one to…nevermind.

Mark says that they'd better start combing every street and alley. Cut to the next scene. This still of the city is used near the beginning of the GoS version, Pt 1, while Ace is talking about the model of the wonderful pollution free city. Model city or alien, LawnPark or Bomber's Bay, it still looks weird.

Why is Tiny flying the Phoenix in his civilian clothes?

Zark: A chill in his trigatron? My immediate reaction: Cringe and groan.

Princess and Keyop helpless? Outnumbered and outgunned, maybe, but helpless? Where's the Zark smacker?

What's with the extendable legs on the trashcan?

At least Mark has the grace to acknowledge that taking the wristbands landed them in this mess.

I guess Zark's good for something -target practice.

So Mark finally figured out about keeping the wristband out of sight in his pocket. And I'm not surprised that Tiny was contacted first; he's the one who principally flies the Phoenix.

What's Big 10? Is it like `roger'? And why is G-5 still in civvie mode?

Why didn't they show G-1 invading the `castle'? Is it because he cut himself on the glass and bleeding or that they didn't want to show the great leader getting fooled by a couple of dummies?

When Mark is talking about going on the squid to get Prin and Key, his face and restrained trembling convey an emotion his voice doesn't.

In between Mark getting upset about asking for the bands in the first place and this point, I get the feeling that there were some clipped clips in GoS. I'll find out for sure soon enough.

Zoltar's gloating that with only three members on board the Phoenix, he'll clobber the ship. Nevermind that often Tiny's the only one on board, and he manages to keep it in one piece and then some.

And the big Z also bragged about tearing apart the city to find the tapes, never mind that, in the great tradition of good guy government documents, it's most likely to be in the big building with the special (in this case, atom) symbol on it. Zark says the Spectran spies must have found out that they were in the Federation Building. First place to look, if you ask me.

Love nondescript suitcases. You can put papers or traps in them, and who's the wiser? Until it's too late.


What's with Keyop's somewhat inane dialogue at times?

Rescue, Swan sets bomb, and how did Mark get the tape off without her flinching?

One thing I never, ever got. I understand why the squid's tentacles were hollow –lighter, lower material costs, easier to make flexible-and why there had to be different textured spots on the tentacles –for gripping and such. But instead of ridges or something like that, there were big holes on/in the tentacles. Big enough for a human to climb in. If this was a cost-saving move, it was also a big blunder. (Fanfic Chihuahua mech.)

That time bomb hurt.

Why did Zoltar have the idea that he could carry that building out of the atmosphere, all the way thru space, and back to Spectra?

Hmm, a green goon with brains. He was resetting the course before Zoltar spoke. Maybe he'll get a good seat in the escape ship.

I notice they left out the part where the two coffin shaped boxes are put in the crumbling building.

Tentacle makes contact with trap, Chem LX-10, according to Princess. Apparently so new that not too many know about it. (And Zark gets the credit for idea and execution…is this one reason why he makes so many gag?)

Ink attack. Tiny dodges a missile…Pretty smart attack, firing the missile behind the ink screen.

Never could figure out how Phoenix got hung up on that rock. I mean, it was powerful enough to shatter it in the first place. I also didn't think the bird missiles could follow a target. (Nice shot, G-2!)

More LX-10 capsules are released into the water. Probably time for the mech of the week to explode…

Yep.

That's a cute exchange: Keyop: "Doot…about Spectra spies?"
Prin: "Demoted to janitors, I hope."

Zark…arch supports….oh-kaaaayyyyy….Gag, Susan…Zark, a genius?

Four more mini-tootsie rolls, two mini-Krackle bars, a Hershey's kiss, and one mini Hershey's bar…Just this episode! Zark owes me….Susan too.

GoS up next…Where's my jasmine tea?

__________________
Candi

Hollywood is a land of money and cowardice.

-Henry A. Lee, Cracked.com columnist

Well, Galactor's brain is functioning at this time –to a point. He says that all they have to do is drop the tower (uranium warehouse) on the "nuclear power center" and the explosion will destroy LawnPark.

Galactor orders the prisoners put in the building so that they'll blow up too. Two GGs enter a room with machinery on the walls and in the middle two coffins with the stamp of Galactor on the lids. As they bend over to drag (not push, drag) the coffins, two birds clobber them.

And how did G-1 get the tape off of G-3's mouth without her even flinching?

Awww….G-3 gives G-1 a big hug.

Two G-forcers out of the boxes, two soldiers into the boxes.

Pewee asks what took them so long. Ace tells the truth; the guys had trouble locating them. No reason to go into WHY! At least Ace has the courtesy to apologize for taking the bands in the first place!

In this case, when G-3's bomb goes off, it fries the controls for the tentacles. The squid can't drop the tower because of complete control loss; can't even detach the things. Even Galactor has the sense to realize the squid is effectively crippled. And he sees the Phoenix fly by his viewscreen just as he realizes this. Love his expression.

And Ace announces to Galactor that all five are on board and they're ready and willing to fire bird missiles at the squid if Galactor doesn't set the building down in a safe place and surrender (as if). BUT apparently Dirk's analysis earlier didn't or couldn't include an in-depth scan of the materials the squid armor's made of.

One of the squid's tentacles touches the plutonium and turns to mush…

Here Aggie shows how smart she -or any G-3- can be. She figures out that since plutonium is being stored in the building, anything that dissolves like that on contact must contain uranium. And not just any uranium, but uranium 238. (Definitely better than mooning about how smart Zark is. But how much of that is Gatchascience?)
And Ace realizes really quickly that (uranium + plutonium)critical mass + energy = BOOM! He says, "If it collides with a building, there will be a big atomic explosion." (Gatchascience again? Or just realizing that under the circumstances, the reactor powering the squid might be sufficient energy?)

So Galactor tries to get away as the Phoenix is trying to get far enough away to launch a bird missile. At a good distance (hopefully) Dirk says, "Let me fire the bird missile now!"

Ace replies: "NO! There's too much of a risk that we'll hit the building by mistake!"

Dirk: (in a `just great' tone) "Right." And if he's agreeing about not firing a bird missile, than Ace is right, for once.

Owls are really good at ducking squid missiles. :-)

So Galactor thinks there's a better chance of getting away from G-force underwater. Phoenix pursues, Ace tells Hootie how to do his job. (credit: Ayako for that paraphrase.) Hootie just says roger.

Galactor's bragging about how underwater he's in control. What part of plane/spaceship/submarine is he missing?

Ace orders Dirk to fire. Dirk says roger while pressing "the wed button." :-P

Galactor tells his men to manuever the squid out of the way of the bird missile.

Plutonium in the wa-ter….BOOM! (Man, what the radioactivity's gonna do to that part of the ocean….hope the Research or Science or whatever Institute has a way to clean it up.)

Computor is patently upset with Galactor. When Galactor insists he can get G-force next time, Computor says, "that is what you always say…next time." And I wonder if the way Galactor (and Zoltar) are holding their heads in this shot is one of the things that gave people the idea for the GBC to have telepathic powers.

The city is rather fried.

Ace is saying they need to get back and report to Dr. Brighthead, and that they can leave the disaster relief to the UN. (That's gotta be a bone pitched to the "everything's gonna be all right" folks. At least it's not 'everyone got out okay'.)

Pewee whines about not getting the mayor's personal thanks that's offered. Dirk points out that they're not supposed to receive special honors as long as the team is undercover. And he doesn't look any happier than Pewee does (altho his annoyance no doubt stems more from Galactor getting away AGAIN). Pewee whines about wanting a medal to put with his softball trophy. Aggie promises Pewee a double banana split.

Ace-as-narrator goes on about how they helped LawnPark without giving away their true identities. (!)(So many words, so little time… Good thing most of Galactor is STU-PID.) And of course, the usual folderol about how everything was soon back to normal, warm fuzzies all around.

__________________
Candi

Hollywood is a land of money and cowardice.

-Henry A. Lee, Cracked.com columnist

Dirk admits that he misses PeeWee? This *is* a red letter day!

__________________

“You will do as I command!” continues Zoltar, as we see still more unevacuees peering from windows. Does this mean that when Zark says that everyone’s evacuated a city, he’s wrong too? “Turn over the Conway Tapes –turn them over to me, or else!”

Zoltar is waving a fist in the air now. “Convince your leaders to give me the secret tapes, and I will show you all mercy! Your planet will no longer be a member of the Federation, but will be subject to Spectra!” He practically snarls this last phrase –hardly sounding merciful!

Now we cut to waves breaking against a rocky cliff, and high above, on top of the cliff, is the large mansion where Keyop and Princess are being held captive. It’s night now and the moon is out.

They’re sitting in a dungeon-like room in the basement, with a high-up window that’s on ground level with the outside, and they’re both looking morose.

“Really the pits… and no radios,” burbles Keyop. He gets up and starts banging on the very solid-looking wall with his fists, as if frustrated (though he isn’t saying anything.)

“Don’t let it get you down, Keyop,” says Princess, now standing and putting her hands on his shoulders, “Mark, Jason and Tiny are looking for us, and good old Zark probably is burning up his circuits searching for us.”

Keyop looks up, frowning, but then he looks more cheerful, “Good old… think-tank Zark… never fails.” And now he’s smiling. I guess Mark, Jason and Tiny don’t compare to Zark. Ugh.

Princess is patting Keyop on the head comfortingly, “There, that’s a lot better, Keyop.”

“Hang loose,” he replies, but then a sound outside their door grabs their attention.

In comes Agent S-9, flanked by two of her servants, or Spectran soldiers in civvies.

“Sorry to disturb your rest,” she says, clearly not sorry at all, “But this is the end of the line.”

Keyop grimaces, and Princess holds out a hand casually and says “You’re making a terrible mistake. My brother and I are only-”

“You think I’m a fool?” demands S-9, “I know who you are. You’re the ones called Princess and Keyop.”

Keyop and Princess look startled to hear her using their real names. Way to go with keeping your secret identities under wraps guys –somehow she’s learned your names!

“Never heard of them,” says Keyop, looking smug.
S-9 frowns. “Well you’ll never hear of them again.”

This unnerves Keyop a little and reaches for Princess. “She’s mean,” he says.

“Zoltar has given orders to get rid of you,” declares S-9, “With you two out of the way, G-Force’s powers will be crippled and the Federation helpless to stop us!”

Seems to me that keeping them alive and using them as bargaining chips to get… oh, say the Conway Tapes might be a better strategy. Or interrogating them for information on Galaxy Security and G-Force.

“Wait, we should check with Zoltar,” says one of the men (who’s probably thinking along the same lines I am.

S-9 doesn’t like this though. “How dare you question me? I’m in charge!” retorts S-9 (and now she’s got a gun pointed at Keyop and Princess, though she didn’t just a moment before –she’s quick draw!)

“I think we should make sure who they are before we do anything,” continues the man.

“I never make mistakes!” insists S-9.

“Maybe you’d better take a look at what’s coming through on our monitor,” he says, “It looks like G-Force.”

“G-Force?” says S-9, eyes widening, and she looks like she’s finally taking what he’s saying seriously.

So now we see a monitor, but it’s getting very poor quality images –lots of wavy lines and static. However, what it’s showing is the Phoenix, and then the bridge of the Phoenix, and all five G-Force members appear to be present and accounted for.

“It’s not possible,” declares S-9, seeing this, “Princess and Keyop are my prisoners!”

But now we cut to the bridge of Phoenix. “Those Spectra spies captured the wrong Princess and Keyop,” Tiny is saying to Mark.

“I hope they don’t hurt the other ones,” replies Mark, smiling.

We the backs of the chairs that “Princess” and “Keyop” are somehow sitting in, and “Keyop” appears to be swaying slightly.

“We’re being watched!” announces Jason, and Mark immediately says “Cut transmission!”

Back at the mansion, S-9 is seeing a blank screen now (still with wavy lines though). She puts her hand to her chin, pondering…

“I simply can’t believe it,” she thinks.

And now we’re back on the bridge of the Phoenix, and the trick is revealed. Jason is holding two “dummies” of Princess and Keyop. “I’d like to have seen Zoltar’s face when he cut in on us,” Jason is saying (Sorry Jason, but I don’t think Zoltar saw this).

“Good old Zark,” says a smiling Tiny, “Always comes up with a bright idea.”

Ugh, why did they have to make this Zark’s idea?

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” says Mark, “We may have bought Princess and Keyop a little time with the two dummies we put in their place, but Zoltar won’t be fooled long. We’d better start combing every street and alley.”

And now we see the city again –and it looks like all the fires have been put out.

Jason’s walking down a street, casting suspicious sidelong glances at things. Tiny’s in the Phoenix, searching around underwater.

We cut to Zark, who’s busy at his monitors. “I can’t understand it,” he says, “I’ve had my scanners probing every street and alley in Bombers Bay. I’m so worried about Princess and Keyop! Of course, we robots aren’t supposed to be programmed for emotions, but there’s a chill in my trigatron.”

Turning to face forward, Zark reminds us that without their wrist communicators, she and Keyop “are almost helpless!”

So now Zark extends his legs to make himself taller and to get a closer look at his bio-scanner (which he wipes with a hanyky.) “This is the newest thing, you know,” he adds, “I feed bio-data into my computers, on Princess and Keyop, and the bio-scanner will zero in on them.”

Hmm, will this work? Zark hasn’t taken credit for inventing it, so maybe not.

And we’re back to the city, on Arcturus, where the sun is beginning to set.

Mark, Jason and Tiny are all standing on a bridge, leaning against its railing and looking depressed. Tiny says he’s worn out from searching all over the place underwater in the Phoenix.

“And we’ve scoured the city. It seems to have swallowed them up,” says Jason, “Not much more we can do.”

Zoltar then announces a red alert, and that everyone is on emergency stand-by.

He sees the Phoenix flying past on a view screen and snarls “G-Force! Always G-Force!” while slamming his fist down.

The Phoenix is actually now flying circles around the cuttlefish, and suddenly a staticky and wavy-lined image of Mark appears on Zoltar’s view screen.

“Don’t let it get you down, Zoltar,” says Mark tauntingly, “You can’t always get what you want. I’d invite you aboard the Phoenix, but I don’t think Keyop or Princess would like it.”

“You may have rescued your companions,” replies Zoltar, pointing a finger angrily, “But I have the Conway Tapes! Do not forget that!”

“Guess again, Zoltar,” says Mark, as we see all of G-Force on the bridge now in Zoltar’s view, “The Conway Tapes are back at Center Neptune, safe and sound. What you’ve stolen are nothing but some dangerous chemicals.”

Zoltar recoils at this news.

“You’re just trying to fake me out,” he says, rallying.

“You can’t get away this time, Zoltar,” says Mark, “I suggest you surrender your ship.”

Zoltar, clenched fist shaking, insists that he does have the Conway Tapes and that he will destroy them. As he says this, we see one of the cuttlefish’s tentacles smash one of the ‘Tapes” cases inside the vault, inside the building the cuttlesfish is still carrying.

The tentacle begins to glow orange and rapidly disintegrate, and this disintegration is spreading up the entire tentacle.

In the Phoenix, Princess sees this and points it out to Mark. “Looks like Zark pulled a fast one on Spectra,” she comments, “That has to be Chem LX-10 destroying that tentacle. So new, only a handful of security people in the Federation knew of it!”

“Zark really saved the day by switching the Conway Tapes with those chemicals,” says Mark, hitting his fist into the palm of his other hand.

“Then we don’t have to stop Zoltar,” says Princess, “If he doesn’t have the Tapes.”

“We can’t let him get away,” says Mark, eyes narrowing, “He’ll only come back.”

On the bridge of the Cuttlefish, a soldier informs Zoltar that the Phoenix is coming up fast on them.

Zoltar order the cuttlefish’s black “squid ink” to be ejected, which hides the cuttlefish from view.

“He’s hiding behind the oil screen,” notes Jason, on the Phoenix, but Mark tells him to keep tracking and to not let him get away.

Suddenly a missile comes shooting from the cuttlefish, right towards the Phoenix, startling Mark. “Look out!” he cries as Tiny quickly swerves them out of the incoming missile’s way and everyone else tries to keep from falling out of their chairs.

And then they dodge a second missile.

“You won’t be so lucky the next time,” rants Zoltar, on the cuttlefish, “Take my word for it!”

But now the cuttlefish has come out from its dark, concealing cloud, still clutching the building with its tentacles.

Mark remarks “That was close,” to Tiny, but he says “A miss is as good as a mile.”

The cuttlefish plunges into the sea, taking the building with it, so the Phoenix pursues.

The cuttlefish is now stationary on the sea bottom. “There it is!” cries Princess, when they spot it on the view screen. Suddenly the top, pointy part of the cuttlefish detaches from the part that’s clutching the building and comes flying at the Phoenix.

“Let’s get out of here!” cries Tiny, but in the process of evading it, the end of one of the Phoenix’s wings hits some rocks. Mark, Tiny and Jason all fall on the floor. Apparently the Phoenix is stuck on the rocks and Zoltar, seeing this, directs the top piece of the cuttlefish towards it again.

“Give it full power!” Mark tells Tiny. Tiny does, and gets the Phoenix out of the way of the incoming portion of the cuttlefish, just in the nick of time.

“Fire missile!” yells Mark, and Jason obliges.

Zoltar, who I think is inside the top part of the cuttlefish that is attacking the Phoenix sees the incoming missile on a radar screen and orders evasive action. But the missile is still following it, despite its turning and looping.

The top part of the cuttlefish is now heading towards its tentacle part, and the stolen Federation building, but we see some more cases of Chem LX-10 breaking open in the water.

“Something’s wrong –blast out of here!” yells an anxiously sweating Zoltar.

Just as the Phoenix is breaking the surface to take to the sky, the cuttlefish top strikes one of the cases of Chem LX-10 and a massive explosion results, bursting forth from the sea into the sky.

The Phoenix is spinning around as it flies through the air, but then it stabilizes and flies on smoothly. On its bridge, everyone is draped over their consoles or chairs, or on the floor.

Underwater, wreckage from the cuttlefish is falling to the sea floor but a red escape rocket emerges from the wreckage to speed on its way, staying underwater. Inside it, Zoltar is kneeling in despair, head on a console.

“I see you have failed once again, Zoltar,” says the Luminous One from one of the walls.

“Oh mighty spirit, it was not my fault,” says Zoltar, looking up, “It was my men who failed me. Please do not be too hard on me!”

The Luminous One turns black, with wavy white lines. “Excuses, excuses,” he says, “I will deal with you later!”

Zoltar is covering his ears, as if the L.O. is emitting an unpleasant noise along with the strange visuals.

Now we see all of G-Force standing outside somewhere, watching… something burn –the remainder of some part of the cuttlefish, I will have to assume, though it sure looked like it all exploded underwater.

“I don’t see how Zoltar could have escaped that one,” comments Mark speculatively.

“I don’t know about Zoltar, Mark,” says Jason, frowning, “Somehow he always manages to get away.”

“About Spectra spies?” burbles Keyop worriedly.

“Demoted to janitors, I hope,” says Princess, putting reassuring hands on his shoulders.

Ah, now we see, as the “camera” pulls back, that what they’re watching burn is the remains of the castle where Agent S-9 had been based. When did it catch on fire?

Zark voice-overs “My sensors tell me that Zoltar has once again managed to get away, but he didn’t get the Conway Tapes.”

Now we see scenes of the city, with cranes and repair crews at work on the damaged buildings.

“The work of rebuilding the devastation caused by Spectra is starting”

Now we’re seeing the Phoenix flying.

“My sensors have been unable to pick up Spectra’s top intelligence operative, Agent S-9, but I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of her.”

And now we’re seeing a view of outer space and a nebula, then an ever-enlarging view of Earth as the Phoenix nears home.

And, then we see Zark in his room at Center Neptune. He’s just come up from below, via his lift tube. (What does he do when he’s down there?) He’s so happy that Princess and Keyop are safe, the Conway Tapes are secure, and Zoltar has been driven from planet Arcturus. “Just maybe I can flick my off switch, rest my capacitors and take a ten second oil break.”

He reclines in his oil break chair, sighs, and says “It certainly feels great to get off my ambulators. I wonder if arch supports would help.”

And there’s an incoming call. Zark hopes it’s not another red alert.

No, it’s Susan. Zark immediately stands up again, and his antennae stiffen upright.

“No alert, everything is very peaceful out on planet Pluto right now,” she says breathily, “I just wanted to tell you how brilliant I think you are, outsmarting Zoltar by switching the Conway Tapes with Chem LX-10. You are a genius.”

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

“Oh, now Susan, I was programmed that way,” says Zark deprecatingly.

“I was wondering,” continues Susan, “Do you suppose I could become a secret agent for G-Force?”

“I’m afraid not, Susan,” Zark has to say, “Robots are programmed to tell everything, you know, and that’s not good for a secret agent.”

“But Zaaark,” croons Susan huskily.

“Yes?”

“There is something I have never told… you.”

And Zark giggles.

Mercifully, it’s now

The End.