Spice Rack Dining Room

     “Hey Jenny....what are we supposed to do?” Jeice asked.
     Jenny still sat at the dining table, deep in thought.  “We wait.”
     “But what are we waiting for?” Yamcha asked.
     “Leo and Mike are still testing the food on Arturus; we should at least wait for them,” Jenny told him.  “Besides, we can’t just act without a plan.”
     The Cryptkeeper laughed.  “Yeah, that’s exactly what you said when you attacked the Vegeta beast like a fat man to the last donut.”
     “Whatever,” Jenny sighed.
     The Cryptkeeper shot her a look.  “Dammit, girl, what the hell is wrong with you?”

     “I just have a lot of things on my mind, and it’s overwhelming.”
     Just then, Leo came into the room.
     “We found it!  It was the food,” he said.  “Mike’s turned into a demon.”
     “All right then,” Jenny said.
     Then Pico joined the group.  “Jenny, I need to tell you something.  Vegeta and I were just sparring.”
     “Yeah, so?”
     “Well, the son-of-a-bitch just tried to kill me!”

     Jenny looked up at him, completely frozen.  The statement made her speechless.
     “Okay, whatever....” was all she managed to utter.
     “Yeah.....whatever.....” Pico agreed.  “I just thought you should know, that’s all.”
     Jenny sighed.  “Vegeta, Vegeta....what am I going to do with you?”
     “You don’t look surprised at all,” the Cryptkeeper commented.
     “I’m not,” Jenny said.  “After all, he did threaten to kill me once.”
     “Okay, so what do we do about Mike and the other people?” Leo asked impatiently.
     “Unfortunately, I don’t know what to do about them,” Jenny replied.  “But I’ll tell you what we will do, though.  We’ll go to Devil’s Palace, save Spinal, and stop that silly wedding.  If we’re lucky, we’ll learn how to help the citizens while we’re at it.”
     “Mission begin!” Chiaotzu cried.
     The heroes set out on their mission.

***
Devil's Palace Throne Room

     Up at Devil’s Palace, Astronema was cuddling Spinal.  He was still suspended from the ceiling, but only an inch from the ground.
     “Hang in there, Spinal,” Astronema cooed.  “Just a little bit longer, and the wedding will begin.  Oh, I’m so excited!  Me, being married to the strong and handsome Black Shadow!”
     “Forget it!” Spinal cried.  “Jenny won’t let you get married!  She’ll stop you!”
     “If she does, she’ll suffer,” Astronema said.  “That’s all there is to it.”
     “You’ll never win, Astronema!” Spinal insisted.  “My friends know that you have me, and they’ll come for me.”
     “That’s exactly why we brought you here,” Astronema told him.  “We wouldn’t want your friends to miss the wedding either.  Once it’s over, we’ll destroy your friends.  Jenny and Hallie will be our daughters, and you’ll be our little toy.....for eternity.  Doesn’t that sound fun?”
     “No!” Spinal screamed.  Then he began to sob.  “I can’t take this anymore!”
     “Shh, it’s all right, Spinal,” Astronema assured him, caressing his ribcage.  “It won’t be so bad once you get used to it.”
     “Just get away!” Spinal cried.  “I don’t want you touching me!”
     “Well, I’ll just let you hang around a bit longer while I fix my hair,” Astronema said.  “Tease ya later!”
 She left the room, leaving Spinal bound and helpless.

***
     The Rangers and Spices used their galaxy gliders to reach Black Shadow’s fortress.  They went through the main entrance and walked down the stone hallway.
     “This place isn’t very modern, is it?” T.J. asked.
     “It’s just Black Shadow’s style,” Jenny said.  “And this place is more modern than it looks.”
     “It’s just as creepy as Black Shadow himself,” Damon commented.
     “Hey, look what I found,” Vegeta announced, spotting a club hanging on the wall.  As he detached it, he saw Pico within the group.  “Pico!  I thought I killed you!”
     “Close shave, Vegeta,” Pico responded.  “But no cigar.”
     “You tried to kill him!?” Cassie gasped in disbelief.
     “Don’t be silly,” Pico said.  “Could anyone actually believe that Vegeta has the necessary brain power to kill me -- Pico!?”
     “But how did you survive?” Vegeta asked.  “No one’s ever been able to survive that before.”
     “I didn’t survive,” Pico told him.  “I escaped.  When I saw your beam coming at me, I knew that it would be fatal, so I teleported out of the Simudeck.”
     “Impossible!” Vegeta cried.  “No one can tell that I’m about to kill them until they’re dead!”
     “For your information, I used to be an assassin,” Pico said.  “I’ve spent the first century of my life killing people.  Therefore, I know when opportunity knocks.  And that incident, my friend, was opportunity banging the door down.”
     Jenny stuck her hand out between Vegeta and Pico.  “Okay, you two, we can discuss this later.  We’re on a mission here.”
     Finally, Vegeta exploded.  “That’s a bad, bad turtle!” he screamed, whacking Pico with the club several times.
     Jenny grabbed his shoulder.  “Vegeta, what the hell are you doing?”
     “It’s called Saiyan love,” Vegeta told her.  “Whenever Nappa does something bad, I say, ‘Bad Nappa!’“  He hit Pico with the club again.
     “Who’s Nappa?” Hallie asked.
     “He was the second-last Saiyan,” Vegeta replied.  “That is, until I killed him.”
     The Cryptkeeper laughed.  “No wonder you Saiyans are extinct!”
     “Come on,” Jenny said.  “We don’t have all millennium.”
     The group calmed down and regrouped.  Normally, one would explode after being hit with a club several times.  But Pico, being the master of tranquility, just shook his head and sighed.  They continued their walk down the hallway until they heard strange, squeaky noises.  There were rats crawling along the wall.
     “Eeeuw, rats!” Ashley cried.  “I hate rats!”
     “Those are bad rats!” Vegeta snarled, hitting the rats with the club.  “They’re bad, bad rats!”
     “Vegeta, that’s enough!” Jenny demanded, dragging him away by the shoulders.  “Are you trying to wake the dead!?  You don’t want Black Shadow to find out that we’re in his fortress, do you?”
     “So this is it?” Vegeta asked.  “This is what it’s like to have a mom?”
     “Yeah!” Jenny responded.  “Isn’t it a horror?  Now let’s go!”
     So the group resumed their walk until they passed a prison cell with a cyclops monster locked inside.
     “Eeeuw, what is that?” Maya asked.
     “It looks like a cyclops,” T.J. replied.
     “It’s a bad cyclops!” Vegeta cried, whacking the monster with the club.
     “That does it; you’re way out of line!” Jenny cried as she dragged Vegeta away from the cell.
     “Respect my authority!” Vegeta screamed, flinging the club at the monster.  “FEEL MY WRATH!!”
     He fired a huge energy blast from his palm, vaporizing the cyclops.  Then he rejoined the group as they walked on.  After a few more minutes, Vegeta began to get impatient.
     “I’ve had enough,” he grumbled as he made a right turn into a separate hallway.  “I’m not following this stupid hippy girl around anymore.”
     “Vegeta, where are you going?” Jenny asked.
     “I’m going this way.”
     “Look, we’re a team, and we’re going this way.”
     “Listen, you can keep on going there, but I’m going over here!”
     “Vegeta, I have had it!” Jenny shouted.
     “Let’s run through this again,” Vegeta told her.  “You go that way, and I’ll go this way.  Screw you all; I’m on my own.”
     “Good!  You deserve to die, you little bastard!” Jenny screamed as Vegeta walked down his path.  “Vegeta, we have to stay together!”
     “Hey, don’t worry about him,” Pico told her.  “He’s a Saiyan; he can take care of himself.”
     Jenny sighed.  “I guess you’re right.  Let’s go, people.”
     Everyone else shook their heads as they followed Jenny down the stone hallway.
     “That damn stupid, sneaky Saiyan!” Jenny cursed to herself as she and the others walked down the halls of Black Shadow’s fortress.  Vegeta had really gotten on her case this time.  Having threatened to kill her, attempted to kill Pico, and separated himself from the others, Vegeta seemed almost evil.  But what could Jenny do about it?  No one could leave the Spices once they joined.  Vegeta was a permanent member now.  Perhaps Vegeta was still making plans to overthrow Jenny.  Was she mad enough to kill him?  One thing was for sure: She would not let him take over as the Spice Club leader.  Hell no.
     “Jenny....” Kendrix called after a while.  “Do you think it was wise to let Vegeta go off by himself?”
     “Don’t worry,” Jenny assured her.  “Vegeta can take care of himself.  He’s packing more firepower than a battleship.”
     “Yeah, with the way he melted that cyclops in one shot, he should be able to take care of himself,” Damon added.
     “Aren’t you annoyed?” Fulgore asked.
     “Yes, I’m annoyed!” Jenny replied.  “But I’m not giving up.  Vegeta will straighten up; I’ll see to that.  If Pico could be tamed, so could Vegeta.”
     “Jenny, don’t try so hard to tame Vegeta,” Pico said flatly.  “You can’t.  It wasn’t you that tamed me.  It was the experience I had when Pandeora froze the colony.”
     “Whoa, what happened?” Jeice asked.
     “When we went to stop Pandeora, all of the Spices were frozen except me,” Pico explained.  “The silence and loneliness led me to remember my past and compare it to my present life.  It wasn’t until then that I realized that my past was dark, empty, and lifeless.  It was then that I realized what a difference a friend could make.....especially my very first friend Arbin.  I was afraid of losing my present life, so I saved the colony.  That’s how I was tamed.”
     “What about Vegeta?” Jenny asked.
     “Something will happen that will lead Vegeta to think,” Pico said.  “When he alone saves us, he’ll be tamed.  Don’t worry.  I got mine, and Vegeta will get his, too.  So don’t sweat it.”
     “All right then.”  Jenny continued her walk.  “I guess it’s true what they say.  You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

***
Devil's Palace, Separate Hallway

     Meanwhile, Vegeta walked down another hallway alone.  It seemed to be even emptier than the first hallway.  But his journey would turn out to be worthwhile.
     “I don’t know why I joined those fools in the first place,” he told himself.  “And how could they allow themselves to be led by a woman?  Well, I’m no fool.  I’ll show them how life really works....when I take over as the leader.  Hmm....Lord Vegeta, Master of Spice....it has a nice ring to it.”
     Finally, he came to a large room.  The throne room.  Spinal was still suspended from the ceiling, and Black Shadow sat in his throne.  Vegeta pressed himself against the wall, as not to be seen.
     “At last I’m ready,” Black Shadow said.  “This is a joyous day for everyone.  For me, for you, for Astronema, for Jenny, for the Rangers and Spices, and for the population of Arturus.”
     “And especially for me,” Vegeta thought.  “I’ll show them.  All I have to do is grab Spinal and hightail it out of here.  Then, when the others get here, they’ll find out that they came all this way for nothing.  Ha!  I love it when those stupid people allow me to make fools out of them!”
     Vegeta aimed a finger at the rope above Spinal and fired a small energy beam, severing the rope.  Unfortunately, Vegeta hadn’t anticipated that Spinal would scream as he fell.
     “Hmm?”  Black Shadow’s head perked up as Spinal hit the floor.  Oddly enough, Spinal didn’t even get up and run.  He just sat on the floor, staring at the ropes that bound his wrists together.  Black Shadow stood up and calmly walked towards him.  Spinal looked up at the dark lord.
     “Come on; get up and run, you fool!” Vegeta thought.
     Spinal jumped to his feet and tried to run, but Black Shadow grabbed his shoulder.
     “Not so fast, little one,” he taunted.  “Did I say that you could leave this room?”
     Then Astronema came in from the side, all ready to go.  “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed when she saw Spinal on the floor.  “The rope must have broke.”
     “Broke nothing,” Black Shadow said, checking the burnt end of the rope.  “It’s been burned, and ropes don’t burn themselves.  This could only mean one thing, Astronema.  They’re here.”
     “Well, what are we gonna do!?” Astronema panicked.
     “We will do nothing,” Black Shadow replied.  “Let them show their faces here.  I want them to see our wedding, especially our daughter.”
     Then Trakeena entered the room.  “Excuse me, Black Shadow, but we have some visitors.”
 
     She stepped aside, and the demonized citizens walked in.
     “Oh, it’s our wedding guests!” Black Shadow exclaimed.  “Come in, everyone; make yourselves comfortable.”
     The citizens began to gather at the walls like a choir.
     “Oh my, don’t you all look awful!” Black Shadow added.  He tossed Spinal over to some real demons.  “Here, hold him.”
     The demons dragged Spinal over by the throne, where they held him tightly.
     “Darn!” Vegeta thought.  “Well, that didn’t work, did it?  This isn’t good!”
     He turned and ran from the throne room before anyone could spot him.
     “Trakeena, close the door, would you?” Astronema asked.
     “Sure.”  Trakeena walked over to the large doors and closed them.

***
First Hallway

     “Mommy, why are we stopping a wedding?” Rachel asked.  “I thought that weddings were good.”
     “Normally, they are,” Ruth replied.  “But if Black Shadow marries Astronema, he’ll become Jenny’s father.”
     “Oooh, that’s bad,” Robyn said.
     “Jenny will be very hurt if we don’t stop it in time,” Ruth added.  “We’ll just have to pray for the best.  May God save us all.”
     Jenny was indeed praying.  She would stop this wedding, no matter what the cost.  Suddenly, Fulgore stopped everyone.
     “Shh...I hear voices,” he whispered.  “This way.”
     “Where?” Damon asked.  “I don’t hear anything.”
     “I’m a cyborg, Damon,” Fulgore told him.  “I have advanced hearing and eyesight.”
     He led the group down the hallway, then eventually made a right turn.  They saw a large door up ahead.
     “The voices are coming from that door,” Fulgore said.
     “Looks like we’ve found the party,” the Cryptkeeper observed.
     “Come on!”  Jenny dashed down the hallway with the others close behind.  Once they reached the doors, they burst right through them, then stopped abruptly and gasped.
     Black Shadow spun around to face the heroes, flapping his cape and crossing his arms.
     “Don’t bother knocking,” he said.  “After all, we’re all friends.  And I’m so glad you’ve come.  I’ve been waiting for you.”
     “You were?” Jenny asked.  “Why?”
     “Oh, for a reunion of sorts,” Black Shadow replied, gesturing over to Astronema.

     Astronema smiled.  “It’s good to see you again, Jenny.”
     “I couldn’t start the wedding without you, Jenny,” Black Shadow went on.  “You’re part of my family now.  You are my daughter.”
     “No, I’m not!” Jenny spat.  “You’re not officially married yet.”
     “I see your point.  Well, the gang’s all here, so let’s get started, shall we?”
     “You wanted us to see the wedding?” Maya asked.
     As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she wished that they hadn’t.  It didn’t matter what she said; she didn’t want to draw Black Shadow’s attention to her.  Black Shadow turned to her, staring with his glowing green eyes.
     “Yes, I wanted you to see this.  I’d hate to leave you out of such a wonderful occasion.”
     “Man, look at all those people!” Kai gasped, looking at all of the demonized citizens.
     Black Shadow looked at him, then walked over towards him.  “Don’t worry; they’re all happy to be here.”
     “What have you done to them?  Change them back!!” Kai demanded, pointing a finger at the dark lord.
     Black Shadow stared at Kai’s finger for a moment, then parried his arm and punched him in the stomach.  With a groan, Kai sank to his knees.  Leo and Kendrix helped him up as they glared.  Damon made a mental note never to point fingers at Black Shadow.
     Black Shadow walked back towards Jenny.  “Now let me tell you something, my dear.  If you dare to interfere, you will pay.  I’ll make you suffer.  Pain, torture, you know how it goes.  And if you don’t believe me, just try me.  But if I were you, I’d heed the warning.  Otherwise, let’s have a good, clean wedding.....and there’ll be cake afterwards.  There’s plenty to go around.”
     “Uh, I think we’ll skip the cake,” Jenny said.
     “Oh, don’t be silly!” Black Shadow exclaimed.  “It’s devil’s food!”
     “No thank you,” Jenny said flatly.
     Black Shadow sighed.  “Have it your way, then.  But remember, you have been warned.”  He turned and walked to the center of the throne room to begin the ceremony.
 
 

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