(Sorta-new Fanfic) S.I.A.S.L

[La Belle Leela]

Hey,

I've been writing this for several months now. I've only been posting it over at TLZ/Madhouse, and PEEL. It's gotten a good reception at TLZ, but not much at PEEL, so I thought I'd post it over here, and see how you fine folks like it. I'll start with parts 1 and 2. Enjoy!:D



STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
Written by La Belle Leela (aka Torgo)






Prologue: "Main Introduction"

Dave Murphy is a 30 year old single man who has worked hard all his life, and struggled equally as hard to achieve. From a young age, Dave idolized his father, A retired Naval Aviator, who had flown over 200 combat missions in Vietnam, and had been an instructor at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School, better known as "Top Gun".

Sadly, Dave's myopic eyesight derailed his dreams of following in his father's footsteps when he was of 10. Still, Dave knew he wanted a life in the aviation industry, be it military, or civilian. After High School, Dave enlisted in the US Navy to become a mechanic. Dave showed above-average talent to the watchful eyes of his instructors, he had enjoyed several years in the USAF cadet program, learning everything he could about the armed forces, he even learned how to fly!

Shortly before finishing his Advanced Individual Training class, Dave was involved in a serious training accident which left him with a broken back, and a wounded soul. After a lengthy recovery, he was discharged, and his short service career was over. Having lost the opportunity to serve his country, Dave went back home to Florida, and enrolled in a aviation maintenance trade school, to hopefully get a maintenance job with his favorite airline.

with what little funds he had received from The Navy. Dave had always been an intelligent person, but he never could handle failure well. He worked for a few years loading cargo aircraft, and some commercial aircraft fueling, but the pressure, and stress from dealing with his past, and what seemed to him a bleak future further drove him into a depressed condition.

The last few years had been to hardest Dave had ever faced. He was still having an arduous time coping with the death of his father, whom he loved dearly, and his mother had taken a new position with her company on the other side of the world in Australia. Dave had moved around, working on maintenance contracts around the United States, and even some Dept of Defense work in England.

His last 3 jobs ended in termination, not entirely his fault, but nonetheless made him even more depressed. Now he was having to find ways to get by in his financial crisis as well. Jobs were scarce in his city, and he had gone back to working as an aircraft fueler, but he was determined to tough it out, for he did not want to leave Florida and it's beautiful climate.


(Orlando Florida, 06/02/2008 - 2215 hours)

Part 1: "A New Beginning?"

It had been a rough day, "Damn, worst birthday ever!" exclaimed Dave, who had been working for nearly 3 months without a day off. It had rained hard all day, Dave's uniform was still damp when he clocked out after yet another 12 hour shift on the ramp at Orlando Int'l Airport. Dave sighed in disgust as he walked across the dimly lit parking lot towards one of the few things in life that made him happy, his truck.


Dave's pride and joy was his 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 painted midnight blue with it's polished chrome grille, fenders, and nerf bars reflecting what little light that was shining on it. Dave exhaled exhaustedly as he climbed into his truck, then cursed in pain as he sat down. His back had been bothering him all week, and his lengthy work days only aggravated his old injuries.

Dave sat in the parked truck, letting the engine warm, he cracked the throttle sharply twice, for he loved the sound of the Dodge's powerful hemispherical V8 engine roaring out of the tuned dual-exhaust. As he waited, he bowed his head in silent prayer, like he had done many nights before, asking God why he couldn't turn his life around, only this time his hands were shaking, his eyes were welling up, and a deep feeling of inner pain he had been repressing burned in his chest.

At this point he lifted his head skyward, and begged for the strength to go on living, for a second chance at life! Dave tried not to think about his inner turmoil as he drove home through the muggy darkness, he tried to forget about life for a while and put his mind elsewhere as he inserted Dream Theater's Octavarium CD in the stereo, and cranked the volume knob. He thought quietly to himself as he drove down the mostly deserted Highway 528,

Dave glanced up a stupid theme park billboard, like he had probably done a million times before, but when he dropped his eyes back to the road, they were greeted with a brilliant explosion of blue light, brighter than lightning! Dave only had a split second to react, he instinctively covered his face with his arms, and slammed on the brakes in a vain effort to prevent the big Dodge from hitting whatever the blue light was emanating from!


(Planet Express Headquarters, 06/02/3008 - 1547 hours

Part 2: "The Wormhole"


"Good news everyone" shouted Farnsworth!” The rest of the Planet Express employees sat gathered at the conference table waiting to hear about what crackpot invention the Professor had cooked up this time. "I've come up with an invention that allows us to send cargo to our deep-space customers, uh, but without me having to waste money on extra spaceship fuel, life support supplies, and overtime pay!"

"But you don't pay us hardly anything to begin with-BUUUURRRP!" shouted Bender as he poured yet another 40oz bottle of malt liquor in his mouth, and let loose a huge flaming burp.

Leela spoke next, "Professor, what does this new device mean for us?" "Ohhhh nothing", replied Farnsworth. "All of you will still keep your jobs here, by that I mean I still haven't forgotten about those 12 deliveries that were delibratly dumped in the sewer, so you all could zoom out to Atlantic City & gamble your asses off! You all owe me bigtime!" Everyone got up from the large round table, and followed the Professor down to the hangar floor where a large canvas sheet was covering something.

Professor Farnsworth shouted "Everyone, I present my latest invention!" He proceeded to pull the sheet down revealing a 25 foot diameter circular, ring-like contraption, that suspiciously looked like a blatant rip-off of the Stargate.

Everyone instantly gasped, Fry exclaimed "Whoa, it looks just like that Stargate thingy, y'know from that movie!" "Star-whaaa?" replied Farnsworth, looking at Fry like a confused puppy looks at a sporting event on TV.

"It was this movie, back in the 20th Cen-oh what's the use, you wouldn't understand", said Fry.

"Shaddup skintube! and fire that mutha up!" shouted Bender angrily. Professor Farnsworth walked over to the control console, pushed several buttons, entered delivery coordinates, and pulled several random levers, which made the center of ring shaped structure swirl to life with bright electric blue glow.


"All you have to do is enter the destination information on this panel here" said the Professor as he motioned to a control panel that looked suspiciously like the time circuit display panel in Doc Brown's Delorean time machine from Back To The Future. Farnsworth began to enter an address, and delivery co-ordinates into the machine's console. "There! I'm going to send this test package to myself, to be delivered 5 minutes from now." And with that, the blue light inside the ring's center glowed brighter, and emitted a high-pitched whine.


Farnsworth threw the small box he had been holding into the pulsating blue light, where it disappeared with a blinding flash. Sure enough, exactly five minutes later, the teleport's center began to glow brighter, and emit the high pitched whine, and a small cardboard box shot out from the ring's center, and struck Dr Zoidberg in the face, which sent him screaming in terror from the room, soaking anyone in his way with ink!

"Now then, I don't want any of you morons touching this device, it isn't 100% accurate yet, I still have to fine tune the bugs out of it!" said the Professor as he dropped into his hover-recliner, and began to float away. "I have more important things to do today" before his sentence finished, Farnsworth slumped back asleep snoring loudly, still floating out of the room.

"Ok you clods, show's over!" shouted Leela, "We've got deliveries to do! Load the cargo, while I pre-flight the ship." Bender and Fry walked away doing their typical mockery of Leela being bossy, and started loading the day's cargo.

Bender nudged Fry in the ribs while typically complaining about work "I dunno why we gotta load all this crap ourselves, we got that super-portal-thingy! Just sittin' over there gatherin' dust!" Fry retorted "c'mon Bender, we can screw with the Professor's new toy after we get done." But Bender had already ran over to the Teleport's control panel with a gleeful, mischevious look in his eyes.

Bender started pulling levers, and typing in coordinates haphazardly, when Fry pushed him out of the way "Dude, you're gonna break it! It'll be worse than the time you blew up the boiler down in the basement!" shouted Fry.


Fry was too late, the Teleporter began to power up, but this time it did not look, or sound as it did before. The teleporter eerily flashed blue with green bolts of electricity dancing in the center of it's ring shaped port. Instead of the high-pitched whine, it was screaming, louder than any mechanical thing anyone at Planet Express had ever heard before.

Suddenly, before anyone could react to Bender's mistake, an enormous explosion of bright blue & white light shot out of the teleporter, along with something very large moving extremely fast. Leela turned around in time to see the large metallic vehicle come hurtling out of the teleporter's ring. She pulled a fast backflip to get out of it's way, landing on Fry in the process.




Leela, Fry, and Bender watched in stunned awe as the thing that came out of the portal landed on the hangar floor, still moving forward at a high rate of speed. The truck's brakes engaged, but it just didn't have enough room to stop, and with tires screeching, it collided with the hangar's back wall. The truck was shrouded in smoke, covered in broken glass, chunks of cinder block, and fine lines of it's paint were blistered off all down the hood & sides, no doubt a side affect of it's trip through the space-time continuum!


While the dust settled, Dave saw that the truck had stopped, it's airbag had deployed, and with the seat belt, saved his life, but the impact had injured him, and he passed out almost immediately from the pain. Before he lost consciousness, he heard a woman's voice ring out "Oh no, somebody's inside, get them out!"
Several hours later, Dave began to regain consciousness. He saw that he was laid out on a couch, but his vision, severely blurred, since his glasses were destroyed in the crash, he could see people in the room around him, but couldn't see their faces.

Professor Farnsworth was sitting closest to Dave, as he noticed him starting to stir. Dave opened his eyes, and breathed a little faster, "Agrhhh! what the hell happened?, and who are you people?" Farnsworth replied, "I was about to ask you the same thing." .

Dave laid back down, still trying to remember what happened several hours earlier. "My glasses got smashed, I can't see anything." "Not to worry" said Farnsworth, and with that he pulled a small pistol-like device out of his lab coat, and simply aimed it at Dave's forehead. "What the hell-ZZZZT!" A bright red strobe-like flash went off, and Dave covered his face involuntarily. When the pain subsided, he dropped his hands, he noticed he could see just a clear, and sharp as if his glasses were back on his face. "Whoa, I dunno know what you did, but thank you! wow, hey, that thing better not give me cancer." The Professor just smiled his usual senile grin, and spoke. "Now then young man, who are you?" Dave paused for a second, "uhh, well, it's, it's David, but everone just calls me Dave. Who are all you people?" "My name is Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, this is my long-time Engineering intern Amy Wong, that handsome fellow over there is my Government assigned Bureaucrat, Hermes Conrad. Next to him is my Delivery Boy, Phillip J. Fry "whattup!". "Annnnd I'm Professor's faaaaaaavorite employeeeee, Bender!" "QUIET YOU!" shouted Farnsworth. "Yes, that's Bender, he's a bending robot, and all-around jackass! huhwheee!" said Farnsworth, as he waved his hands in the air.


"So, is he awake yet?" came a voice from across the room. Dave sat up to get a better view. He recognized the woman's voice as the same he heard after the crash. The crowd parted to let Dave see who was speaking. Dave saw that her back was turned.

He noticed she was tall, about six feet, wearing calf-high black boots, black sweatpants, and a plain white tank top. He also saw she had beautiful long purple hair tied off in a ponytail, and her arms were muscular, and well toned.

She turned around, walked over to the couch, and expected to hear the usual "What's with the eye?" question she always got from a stranger. Dave's eyes immediately went to her face. Her purple hair was pulled down in bangs to one side, as if to draw attention away from her single large eye. She knelt down beside the couch, smiled at Dave. "Hi, I'm Leela!"

Leela first expected him to either freak out, or look away in disgust like so many people had done all her life when they first saw her. Dave did neither, he looked her right in her eye, smiled back, and said "Leela? what a beautiful name for an equally beautiful woman!"

[La Belle Leela]

PART 3


STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND Written by: La Belle Leela (aka Torgo)


Part 3

(Planet Express building, 06/03/3008 - 5:45am)

The following morning, Leela arrived at work much earler than usual. Dave was fast asleep on the couch in the dimly lit break room, a Slurm-stained pillow, and thin blanket was all they could find at the office, but Dave gratefully accepted them.

Leela started to make coffee in the small kitchen next to the break room, quietly as to not wake Dave up. Nobody else had arrived at Planet Express as the sun began to peek through the New New York skyline on a beautiful cloudless early summer morning. Leela sat at the small table in the break room drinking coffee, minding her own business, but looking up every once in a while to glance at their new guest on the couch.

Curiously, Leela got up and walked over to the large bay window, as if something were happening out in the street. The smell of the coffee brewing caused Dave to stir. He slowly opened his eyes, but did not move, he glanced at the ceiling noticing dawn was breaking. He saw someone standing by the window, and noticed the early morning sun softly illuminating Leela's face, and her long beautiful purple hair.



Leela had been casually glancing over at the couch ever few minutes, and she was startled a bit when she looked over, and Dave's eyes make contact with hers. "Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to scare you like that" said Dave. Little did Dave know, if it had been anyone else, Leela would have already had a roundhouse kick in mid-flight aimed at the sternum of whoever scared her!

Leela composed herself, "It's ok, you were probably more spooked than I was, what with my one eye and all." "No" said Dave in a calm voice, "your eye didn't scare me, I guess I'm not used to waking up in strange places, with people I just met the day before."

Dave steadied himself as he sat up, he was stiff with pain from yesterday's crash. He reached involuntarily for his glasses, then remembering they were smashed, and how Professor Farnsworth had miraculously fixed his eyesight with a simple jolt from a laser pistol of his invention. Dave made an attempt to stand up, slowly.

He staggered around the room for a minute, not noticing Leela was no longer standing at the window. She came back into the room with a mug of steaming hot coffee. "Here, sit back down, you look like your still hurting from the accident."

Dave & Leela were still conversing over coffee when Fry & Bender came strolling into the office. "Geez, get a room you two!" Fry joked, but all Leela did was stare daggers at him, look down into her coffee muttering "idiot!".

Everyone was gathered on the couch watching Morbo, the news monster, deliver yet another diatribe on his hatred of all mankind when Farnsworth, and Hermes walked in. "Good news everyone! we've got fresh organs to harves-ohhhh, Damn!, he's still alive." mumbled Farnsworth.

"Sorry Zoidberg, you'll have to raid the dumpster again if you wanna eat!" Zoidberg just moaned from the other room "Ohhhh, they already cleaned it ouuuuut! WAHHHH HA HAA!"

While the Planet Express employees were at the large conference table enduring yet another one of Hermes's exceedingly long presentations, Dave used the alone time to see what was left of his truck, and see if he could salvage anything.

Dave hung his head in disbelief as he surveyed the damage. Somehow, they had managed to pull the big Dodge out of the large, jagged hole it punched in the reinforced concrete wall. All that remained of the front end were the exposed frame rails, and a jumble of scrap metal & wires around the engine block, it was totaled! Dave felt for his keys, forgetting they were still in the truck's ignition.

He pulled the passenger side door open, which promptly fell off it's hinges and crashed to the floor. "If ya don't mind, we're tryin' to hold a meetin' here mon!" shouted Hermes. Dave apologized, and went back to rummaging through the cab for anything that may have survived. He first found what he needed most, a small duffel bag with a few days worth of clean clothes still inside! He muttered to himself how lazy of him to not keep a cleaner vehicle. He brushed a load of broken glass off another small bag and remembered it was his travel attaché bag containing his laptop computer, iPod, and a small digital camera.

He wondered if they would still work 1,000 years in the future. Not much else was left inside, Dave did have a habit of leaving his jacket in the seat back storage area, he reached back, and pulled two jackets out, one was his old nomex flight jacket, issued to him by the US Navy, the other was a black & silver striped replica of a stock car driver's fire suit jacket.

Dave smiled as he looked at the large "Goodwrench" logos emblazoned on the front and back beside a large, red stylized #29, and stitched signature of his favorite driver, Kevin Harvick. Dave was a huge fan of auto racing, NASCAR in particular, and he wondered if that was still around in 3008. Dave checked under the seats to see if he could find anything else.

His hand touched something cold, metallic, and in a instant, he knew what it was. He pulled back his hand revealing the flat parkerized finish of his .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol. He reached back under the seat, and found the well-worn brown leather shoulder holster, and smiled. That shoulder rig had been worn by his father on almost all of his combat missions he flew back in Vietnam, and Dave was thrilled when it was passed down to him.


Dave had taken his laptop computer, firearm, and duffel bag, lowered the truck's tailgate, and set up a makeshift workbench to see if everything still worked. He unfolded the laptop's screen, no damage, that's good, he thought. He pressed the power switch, and to his surprise, the little PC powered up! While the computer was booting up,

Dave began to inspect his firearm. By now, Hermes's meeting had ended, and Dave was joined at the back of the truck by Fry and Bender. "Whatcha got there fleshpile? Some kinda primitive computer hardware I see!" said Bender as he stood relaxed with a big bottle of Olde Fortran in one hand, and lighting a cigar with the other.

Satisfied that his computer, iPod, and camera still worked, Dave grabbed his duffel bag, and headed for the locker room. The hot water from the shower felt good on his sore back, plus he was just grateful to get cleaned up again.



Dave paused at the large mirror over the sink, studied the small cuts & scratches he received from the crash for a minute, and went about shaving. Amy didn't know Dave was in there, and accidently walked in. Dave didn't know she was even there either, until Amy gasped in shock! She noticed Dave's scarred back, but by then he turned and saw her walk out of the locker room.


Fry, Leela, Bender, and Amy were gathered in the break room when Dave finished getting cleaned up. He walked into the room, looking much better than the day before. "Heyyyy, you clean up good meatbag!" said Bender. Amy's face turned a little red, and she tried to look away. Fry, and Leela both gave thumbs-up gestures, as Dave looked rather handsome, yet rugged with a tight fitting black t-shirt tucked into blue jeans, worn with his large black leather work boots. Leela spoke next, "Dave, we have a delivery to go on, you're more than welcome to join us." Dave's eyes lit up. "Really?" "Yup, we have to deliver raw materials to Metalon-6, nothing fancy, should only take a few hours." said Leela.


Everyone re-grouped at the large round conference table for the mission briefing. Hermes's explained the delivery to Metalon-6 wouldn't take long, but it could be dangerous. Hermes pushed a button on his console, and the computer display in the center of the table played the mission profile. "Metalon-6 is inhabited by a humanoid species."

"The people live, work, and worship one thing, loud heavy metal music! The planet's chief exports are "Monster Ballads" compilation albums, and musical instruments (computer displays images of what appear to be some futuristic looking instrument lie a guitar, and some percussion pieces) The people dress mostly in leather, denim, or spandex material."

"They are ruled by a single tyrannical dictator. (computer displays image of ruler who stands nearly 12 feet tall, dressed in leather, long black hair, and wearing an enormous black leather top hat.) Metalon-6 is currently at war with the nearby Country-Western Federation of Planets. The leader of the CWFP was almost assassinated last month by an unknown assasin, which they assume was from Metalon-6." The computer display flickered off, and Hermes spoke again. "Everyone, make sure da ship's weapons are fully loaded, and make sure you are all armed yourselves."

Leela, and Fry went back to the storage locker to gather plasma rifles, and pistols for the mission. Dave walked over to his truck, pulled on his shoulder holster, gave his .45 a quick function check, satisfied, he secured it under his left arm. He suddenly remembered the ammo, and extra mags he should have under the seats. He rummaged briefly, finding 2 boxes, and six spare magazines. He grabbed up his ammo, and his USN jacket & headed over to the Planet Express ship.


The closest Dave had ever been to a spacecraft before was watching the Space Shuttle being readied for a launch inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Now he was 1,000 years in the future, a time where space travel is so common, most people take it for granted! Dave looked around in awe at the huge two-tone green space vessel.

Leela was performing her usual pre-flight inspection, connecting the ground power umbilical cables to access ports near the ship's forward landing strut, pausing to rapidly stamp several papers for Hermes, and then yelling for everyone to get on board. Dave followed Leela, Fry, and Bender up the stairs, the main access door slid open, and Dave was greeted by the sound of capacitors charging, electrical cooling fans humming, and at the same time coughing at overpowering aroma of alcohol & stale cigar smoke.



Dave, Fry, Bender, and Capt Turanga Leela all buckled themselves in for the long trip to Metalon-6. Leela initiated the launch sequence, pulled a lever on her right which started the large hangar doors overhead to open. Dave's face was plastered with his usual grin as he stared up out of the ship's forward windows, he loved flying, but this was going to be an experience he thought he'd never see! The ship's main engines roared to life, and with Leela's shout of "Heeeere we go!" they were off like a shot!

[La Belle Leela]

Part 4

"STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND"
Written by: La Belle Leela. (aka Torgo)


Part 4:


(Planet Express Ship, June 3, 3008 - 1730 NNY time)


"It really is beautiful, I don't know why I never noticed before." Upon hearing Dave speak that sentence, Leela stopped working and looked up.

She suddenly remembered saying the same thing eight years ago, when she & Fry sought refuge inside the old Lunar Excursion Module on the Moon so they wouldn't freeze to death. Dave had been standing at the ship's forward window since they escaped Earth's gravity two hours earlier. "You guys must be used to all the same scenery out there by now, what with all the deliveries you make."

Dave stood there silently watching the endless abyss of outer space go by. Leela noticed Dave was holding a small silvery piece of metal on a beaded chain in his left hand, "What's that?" she inquired. Dave explained to Leela it was his father's old US Navy dog tag, which Dave kept on his person for sentimental purpose.

He told Leela, "Whenever I feel alone, I like to hold it, it makes me feel a little better, almost like he's here watching over me." Leela's face turned sad, remembering Dave was 1,000 years in the future, and all of his family, and friends from the 21st century would be long deceased. Leela tried to turn the subject around a little, "Hopefully the Professor can fix his matter transporter, to possibly return you to 2008."

Dave, still facing out towards space, gave a small mournful sigh, closed his eyes, trying to do his best to fight the burning feeling of sadness rising in his chest. "You don't understand!" he snapped.

He went on to explain to Leela how he had watched his father painfully battle the aggressive cancer that cut him down to nothing. How he had fought for two long years before it took his life. He told Leela how the remaining members of his family slowly drifted apart in the few years afterwards, how it was getting harder to deal with his emotions, how he kept losing jobs, having to move around a lot, etc.


By then, Dave was sitting on the flight deck floor with his back against the large front window of the Planet Express ship. His hands, and arms were shaking again, he clearly had been holding back a lot of repressed anger, and sadness, like a spring under too much tension.

Leela knelt down beside Dave, she gently took his hands in hers, and spoke to him very softly. "It'll be ok Dave", her voice quivering a little bit. Dave began to feel as if maybe Leela understood what was tormenting him.

Dave looked up at her, he saw her eye watering up a bit, Leela looked visibly upset. "I've never told anyone outside of Planet Express this." said Leela. "I didn't even know I had parents until a few years ago. I was chasing after who I assumed were two mutants I suspected of killing my alien parents, leaving me to grow up in an Orphanarium. I, I cornered them in the sewers, I was within seconds of blasting them into oblivion. If Fry hadn't been there to stop me, I never would have known the truth, and have never known my parents.”

Dave's face drained of it's color, and in a cracking voice he added, "If he can't fix that machine, then I'm stuck here right?" He was beginning to sob a little now, "and I never got a chance to say goodbye to my Mom, or my brothers, NO ONE!"

At this point, Dave had lost it, the coiled spring inside him broke! Leela put both her arms around Dave's shoulders, and pulled him close, as he released the years of anguish inside. He put his arms around her midsection in a tight embrace.

Dave hadn't hugged anyone like this in a very long time. He knew Leela understood what he was going through, and perhaps he thought, she needed the hug too, after opening up those old wounds from her past.


An alarm on the flight deck sounded, they were approaching the security perimeter around The Metalon System. The video screen in front of the control console where Leela sat flared to life. "Identify youself, your ship, and your intentions!" barked the long-haired, leather-clad commander. "Captain Turanga Leela of The Planet Express ship, delivering raw materials for Metalon-6."

"Very well, your security clearance checks out, you have been cleared for approach, and are instructed to land at receiving bay 309A." The Planet Express ship began to shake slightly, indicating they were descending into the denser atmosphere of the planet, just picking up a little bit of turbulence as they flew through the mass of towering grey/black clouds that spewed from the barren landscape, dotted with volcanic activity.


The flight deck of the Planet Express ship glowed an eerie red/orange from all the fiery eruptions going on down on the surface. The inhabitants of Metalon-6 were highly industrious, and had harnessed the power of the planet's molten core to power their massive factories.

No other planets in The Metalon System produced the incredible amounts of raw materials needed to keep their production facilities running, so they were entirely dependent on importing raw materials from outside the system.

Their war with the Country/Western Federation of Planets didn't help either. The CWFP did all they could to divert any shipments of goods to Metalon, in a effort to economically crush them into submission.


With a sharp jolt, Leela landed the ship at bay 309A. Fry and Bender staggered into the flight deck, still yawning, trying to wake up. "OK, this shouldn't take long," Leela said, "we have a full cargo deck, but if you two use both hover-dollies, we should be outta here in no time."

About the time that Leela finished giving her crew instructions, the door slid over, Dave walked back into the flight deck. "Is there anything I can do to help Captain?" Fry and Bender started looking around the room, as if Dave was talking to someone they couldn't see. "He's talking to me you idiots!" snapped Leela.

"Well Dave, if you feel up to it, you can help Fry and Bender offload the cargo." Dave gave her a little grin, "No problem Captain". Remembering they were in a war zone, Leela reminded everyone to be on guard, Fry tucked a phazer pistol into his jacket, Dave strapped his .45 into the holster under his left shoulder, and two full magazines into the pouch under his right. He carried four additional magazines in the rear pockets of his jeans, and carried extra loose ammo in the front pockets.

Leela, Fry, Bender, and Dave walked down the front steps of the ship, and were greeted by the receiving bay supervisor. Leela handed him the ship's manifest, the supervisor glanced at it, "Ahhh, 2 tons wood, six tons steel, and 300,000 blank audio discs! Unload everything there" as he pointed to the side wall of the bay.


Their delivery complete, Leela & crew buckled in for the journey home. Just as the Planet Express ship was nearing Earth's outer atmosphere, the ship suddenly lurched violently. Bender and Fry came stumbling onto the flight deck, Bender being especially angry "What the hell Leela? Fry n'me were settin' up a whiskey still in the engine room!"

Having been suddenly thrown against the control console, Leela had the wind knocked out of her a little. "It wasn't me! I didn't do that!" she angrily retorted. A video screen behind Leela flipped on, and a familiar, oily voice of a person she truly despised filled the cabin. "Brannigan!" hissed Leela. angrily!

[La Belle Leela]

Part 5

"STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND"
Written by: La Belle Leela (aka Torgo)

Part 5

(Planet Express Ship, 06/04/3008, approaching Earth, 0134 NNY time)



"Wooo hoo hoo, I see a certain kitty still knows how to scratch!" said a dumpy looking middle aged man dressed in a ridiculously tight red velour uniform. Dave noticed the man had an ill-fitting hairpiece, and a huge pot belly.

"Just what the hell do you want Zapp?" shouted Leela. "Oh, it's nothing, your ship is being held oh-so-sensuously by my tractor beam, and you've been selected, completely at "random", for an inspection by the DOOP's Transport Spacecraft Administration (TSA), prepare to be very seductively boarded." said Brannigan.

After a few minutes, the Planet Express ship was brought inside the cavernous hangar bay of the large DOOP command ship, Nimbus. The Planet Express ship's flight deck door slid open, Dave noticed Brannigan standing there, flanked by two teen-aged looking TSA inspectors. Brannigan shouted "Ok, you go that way, and you go that way.", motioning to them by waving his arms in a rather silly manner.

"Your ship's manifest & crew list, let's see em'" said Zapp. "Hmmmm, Metalon-6 eh? buncha long-haired, velour-hating, leather-wearing degenerates if you ask me!" While going over the crew list, Brannigan looked around at everyone. He obviously recognized Leela, Fry, and Bender, but had never seen Dave before.

"Soooo Leela, I see there's another rooster in the hen house!" Leela gave Zapp a mocking laugh, and said "Dave, allow me to introduce you to this pompous, chauvanistic, idiot with the over inflated ego, this is Capt. Zapp Brannigan.” Zapp had raised his hand, cutting Leela off mid-sentence, "Leela, I forgot how sexifully you are when you're angry, and insulting towards me!" he said with a dumb, sleazy grin on his face.


"Just do your stupid inspection, and let us go!" snapped Leela. Zapp couldn't resist, "Leela, what's say you & me go back to my quarters for a more in-depth inspection of the sexilectual kind, followed by some sham-pag-n."

Dave couldn't hide his laughter anymore, and after composing himself he said "Ohh my god, not even the sleaziest 1970s pimps talked, or used pick up lines as bad as this guy does, HAAA!" Zapp looked over at Dave, narrowing his eyes angrily. "What's this punk's name?" Zapp said while walking over to where Dave was standing.

"He's not on the crew list sir!" squeaked one of the TSA inspectors. "Sooo, it appears we have an unauthorized person on board." said Brannigan. "*sigh* He's with us you fat idiot! He was accidentally transported here from the 21st century two days ago by one of Farnsworth's malfunctioning inventions. We were just letting him come along on a routine delivery to see how we work."

Leela knew better than to try and be rational with Brannigan, she knew he was only detaining them so he could make more vain attempts at hitting on her. "He's only here until The Professor can fix his machine, and send him home." Zapp turned to her, "Leela!, how could you do this to me? As soon as I turn my back, you're hooking up with another guy!"

Dave had realized the situation had turned serious. He saw Leela was getting angrier, and aggressive towards Brannigan, and Dave didn't like what Zapp was doing at all. "I'm arresting this unauthorized stowaway!" said Zapp. Bender and Fry gasped, Leela stood off to the side with an incendiary look in her eye.


Zapp reached out, grabbed Dave by his right arm, and with one lightning-quick reaction, Dave swung his left arm through the air, and across Brannigan face with a loud, metallic *POP*! Leela shouted, "DAVE, NO!" when she saw the hand Dave struck Zapp with was holding his .45 pistol.

Leela hadn't seen what Dave actually did, she though he was going shoot Brannigan, but what Leela, Fry, and Bender didn't know was that Dave had only pistol-whipped Zapp. Dave had hit him so fast, nobody saw the gun in Dave's hand, until he seated it back in it's holster under his arm.

Brannigan collapsed to the floor in pain, about the same time another DOOP officer appeared, telling his captain they had no authority to arrest Dave, since they had no file, or information on him. "What?" said Zapp, trying to gather himself from the savage blow he just received to his head.

"Sir, this man is an Unknown, under DOOP regulation N728DA-385-1C, he is considered Non-Earthican, and has immunity, unless he is openly engaged in an act of war sir!" Zapp angrily replied "What the hell do you call this soldier?" he said while still sprawled out on the floor of the Planet Express ship's bridge, holding his head in pain.

"Sir, I did not witness anything hostile, sir!" replied the DOOP officer. Zapp struggled to get to his feet, he looked at the side of his face in the reflection from an overhead console, noticing the huge, ugly welt that the big steel frame of Dave's .45 auto had left.

Brannigan breathed raggedly as he spoke, "Leela, come over here, help me up, but I want you to walk reeeally slow sweet cheeks!" Before Leela took one step, Dave turned, grabbed Brannigan by the collar, shoved him to the ground, hard, picked him back up by the collar, until they were face to face, and spoke to him in a demonic tone "DON'T YOU EVER! talk to her like that again, or I swear to god, I will end you where you stand!!!"

Dave slammed Brannigan back down to the floor, Zapp slowly began to crawl away, his eyes wide with fear, and sucking in air like a dying fish. Just as Zapp made it to his feet at the front of the Planet Express ship's forward stairwell, Leela shouted "Hey Zapp, no hard feelings!"

She gave him a savage flying kick to his backside, sending him careening down the stairwell, and onto the cold, hard floor of the Nimbus's hangar bay. Brannigan staggered to his feet, muttering "Oooooh, daddy was bad, daddy was very bad!" still wearing his nasty, sleazy grin.



"Dave, what the HELL were you thinking? That was totally uncalled for!!!" growled Leela. Bender chortled "Heh heh heh, I thought that was freakin' awesome! You whacked that guy better than Joey Mousepad Dave!"

Fry said nothing, but was nodding in agreement with what Bender said. Fry ran over to the ship's window, pointing and laughing at Brannigan as he limped across the hangar bay. "LOOK AT ME!" shouted Leela. Dave, Fry, and Bender's full attention centered on the infuriated Leela. "I wanna know, what the hell were you thinking?"

Dave still said nothing. Leela paused, looked at the wall for a minute, trying to find her next sentence. "You could have gotten us all arrested, our ship confiscated, and VERY long jail sentences!" Fry interrupted "I can't go to jail, I'm too pretty! I can't even stand the catcalls when I have to go bail Bender out!"
Leela continued, "You're lucky those two TSA inspectors left before you clobbered Zapp." Dave replied "Well, you kicked him down the stairs, what the hell did you do that for?" Leela shot back, "I owed him that, plus that sick bastard gets a rise outta being struck by women, so I did it for the sake of saving our asses!"

Dave walked over to Leela, "Look, I'm sorry Leela. I don't know what came over me, he put his hands on me with hostile intent, all I wanted to do was defend myself." Leela felt a small pang of regret for yelling at Dave, she was the same way, she remembered doing the same to Zapp on numerous occasions.

"Even if he is a gross, perverted pig, did you have hit him with your pistol?" said Leela. Dave replied "No,,,,but I certainly put the fear of god into him!" cracking a little smile as he finished. Leela didn't find that amusing, but still felt angry towards Dave,

"Well next time, leave it in the holster mister!", "No problem Leela." said Dave, as he turned & walked back to the crew rest area, sat down & tried to think about what had just happened. Dave felt the floor vibrate as the ship's engines came on line, and begin to power the ship out of the Nimbus's hangar. Dave stared out of the adjacent porthole as the Nimbus slipped from view.

Dave watched the ship re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, it was very quiet, Dave turned away, thinking to himself,,, "Just what the hell was I thinking?"

[KingZoidberg]

thats pretty cool good job :)

[Leela+Fry]

Nice, I love that Zapp Brannigan was beaten up by Dave

[La Belle Leela]

Nice, I love that Zapp Brannigan was beaten up by Dave

Yeah.:thumbup1:

I love being able to channel my unbridled hatred of Zapp through my protagonist!:w00t:

[La Belle Leela]

Part 6

“STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND”
Written By: La Belle Leela (aka Torgo)

Part 6


(Robot Arms Apartments, 08/04/3008, 0845 NNY time)


Two months have passed since Dave arrived into the 31st century. New New York was a very strange, and exciting place, Dave hadn't even been to Old New York since 1991. Fry, and Bender had invited Dave to stay with them, until Professor Farnsworth could fix the matter transporter, and return Dave to his life in the 21st century.

Farnsworth was having no luck repairing the matter transporter. He couldn't re-create what Bender had done to open the rift in the space-time continuum. His latest series of tests only managed to bring people, or things from the current period through the portal, the latest test resulted in bringing a very large, and very annoyed Amazonian woman through the portal!

Bender wasn't much help either. He couldn't re-create what he did to the machine, due to his memory bank getting corrupted, when he mistakenly wandered into a factory that made magnets, in his never-ending quest for free alcohol!

Dave was having the time of his life! He enjoyed many of the strange new discoveries out, and around New New York. Space travel, Blernsball, traveling by tube, and today they were going to show Dave the Head Museum! Dave, Fry, and Bender left The Robot Arms shortly before 9am.

They walked a few blocks over to a small sidewalk cafe`, where they planned to meet up with Leela, and Amy. The trio found Leela & Amy sitting at one of the tables, where they both were waving, having spotted the three crossing the street in their direction.


The discussion over coffee that morning was ordinary, everyone catching up on each other's activities. Dave seemed to be paying more attention to Leela than the others. Dave had only known Leela for two months, but she was already like no other woman he'd ever known.(Large single eye & purple hair excluded)

Fry had mentioned to Dave in about how Leela was abandoned at an orphanarium as a baby, how she had to endure years, and years of loneliness, and exclusion, due to her physical appearance. Dave looked up from his coffee, his eyes made brief contact with Leela's, they both managed to give each other a little smile.

Dave leaned over, and spoke, "So how've you been Leela?", "Okay" she replied. Leela had been away from Planet Express for a few days, tending to her mother, Munda, who'd been suffering a terrible head cold. "Mom's doing much better, she's up & around, & getting on Dad's case about fixing the roof again!" she said with a little giggle.

Everyone nodded in appreciation of the good news. Leela had begun to warm up to Dave in the time since the altercation with Brannigan two months ago. Other than Fry, no man had ever stood up for, and defended Leela like Dave had done.



In the time since, Captain Brannigan kept his command ship at a considerable distance whenever the Planet Express Ship was in the vicinity. Leela enjoyed being able to complete a mission, without being hassled by the big, fat jerk. She even started to relax a little more during deliveries.


Today, the Planet Express employees were going to enjoy a well deserved day off. A trip to the Head Museum was always fun. They walked the short 6 blocks to the large stone edifice of the museum. Two huge banners hung by the entrance, indicating the museum was celebrating the golden age of 24th century TV stars.

The NNY Head Museum was the biggest collection of historic, and famous people's heads in all of Earth. Dave was awestruck by the seemingly endless rows of shelves with large cylindrical jars containing the living heads of people. "Man, the things science can do!" thought Dave.

They walked into the main hall, "Oooh, let's show Dave the Hall of Presidents" said Fry. "I never thought I'd ever speak to one US President, there must be at least 50 of them here!" exclaimed Dave. Bender was off in conversation with George Washington's head, asking about what kind of things he'd hocked for booze money.

"Ohhh lord!" muttered Leela while looking away, they were next to Bill Clinton's head. "Bill Clinton! last time I saw you was 2007, you still had a body, and I got to meet you as you were boarding your private aircraft at the FBO I was working at." said Dave. Leela scurried past the group, Bill Clinton, even as just a head, still made inappropriate remarks at women, if they got too close.

Further down the shelf were 3 jars, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush. "Wow! I didn't know you were President!." Dave said to the head of Jeb Bush. "Yeahhhh, it was an easy landslide victory in the 2012 election, especially after that video of Hillary Clinton eating a live puppy leaked out over the internet." said Jeb Bush.

Fry was over in the World Leaders section, making the head of Francois Mitterrand laugh by doing his Jerry Lewis impression. Dave left the Main Hall, he saw the Hall of Sports Legends to his right. Dave walked past the rows of Baseball, Football, and Basketball stars, pausing to say hello to the 20th, and 21st century athletes he recognized.

A table on the left held the heads of famous sportscasters. The heads of John Madden, and Pat Sumerall were engaged in a heated debate over why Brett Farve was still the best quarterback ever. Dave rolled his eyes "Ah geez, they're still going at it, even after 1,000 years!"

Dave walked a little more. "Ahhh, here we go!" said Dave as he found a small alcove at the back of the hall with the heads of Motorsports legends. Dave noticed several head jars, these were some of guys he'd spent many a Sunday afternoon watching race hundreds of miles, and speeds over 200 mph! An enormous checkered flag hung on the alcove wall, behind a dais which displayed the head jars of the most famous drivers.

Dave spent nearly an hour talking and reminiscing with several driver's heads, when Amy & Leela found him. "C'mon Dave, let's grab Fry, & go get some lunch." said Amy. They walked around the museum for another hour, until they found Fry, challenging the head of Ozzy Osbourne to "bite the heads off stuff", as Fry so eloquently put it.

After lunch, Dave & the crew returned to the Planet Express building, Professor Farnsworth had called Leela on her computerized assistant she always wore on her wrist, informing them he had something to show them.


"Good news everyone!" Farnsworth shouted as he walked into the break room, where everyone was watching Morbo deliver the afternoon news. Farnsworth walked over to Dave, placed his hand on his shoulder, grinned, and said "I have something I think you'll be happy to see!", and he started walking back towards the hangar.

Everyone followed the Professor out to the hangar bay. A large object, covered by a canvas sheet sat next to the big two-tone green Planet Express delivery ship. Farnsworth grabbed a corner of the sheet, tugging in vain to remove it. Bender stepped up next to him, "One side gimpy!" he said, as he shoved Farnsworth out of the way.

Bender pulled the sheet free in one swift motion, Everyone watching gasped in amazement! A brick fell from Bender's undercarriage with a thump! Farnsworth had made good on his promise to repair Dave's shattered Dodge Ram truck. Dave was in absolute awe, the Professor had done such a good job, the truck didn't even look like it had slammed into a concrete wall at 60 MPH!

Not only was Dave shocked by the excellent repair work, but he was simply awestruck by what Farnsworth had also done to his truck. The Professor had given Dave's 2003 Dodge Ram 1500, a Hover-conversion!

Farnsworth explained, "The damage from the crash, uhh, combined with the antiquated propulsion, & drive train components, made restoring the truck to it's original configuration quite impossible."

Farnsworth smiled at his work, not one of his typical smiles of madness, but Dave could tell he was genuinely happy to see how much he appreciated his work. Even the Professor's clone, Cubert, and Hermes's son Dwight had helped in the project.

"Well, you guys make one helluva good build team!" beamed Dave. Dave was still speechless, he hadn't taken his eyes off the sleek, wheel-less truck since it was unveiled. It was sitting much lower to the ground now, it now rested on 6-inch thick rubber pads, instead of the 20-inch chrome-steel wheels it was originally equipped with.

The truck's open cargo bed was now covered by a sleek titanium-alloy fairing, painted to match the Dodge's Patriot Blue exterior. Dave had walked around the vehicle several times, inspecting every centimeter of his re-born pride & joy.

Dave opened the driver's side door, and examined the interior. With the exception of the new dashboard, the interior still looked the same as it did before. Dave climbed in behind the new steering wheel, which like most of the new components installed on the big Dodge, came from a salvaged Delta Romeo sedan, the larger, more powerful stable mate of the popular Beta Romeo hover car.

The passenger side door opened, Leela hopped into the seat, leaving the door open, so the others could get a look. "Professor, I, I don't know what to say,,, thank you! This is absolutely incredible!" exclaimed Dave. "Ohhhh you!" said Farnsworth, with a sheepish grin. "It was the least I could do, what with my invention being the cause of your accident." Dave responded, shouted Amy, [i]"Just turn the key silly!"

Dave gripped the key in the ignition lock, "Well, here goes!" Dave gave the key a clockwise turn, expecting to hear the Hemi V8's throaty rumble, he was surprised by the high-pitched turbine engine-like whine of the electro-magnetic emitters powering up underneath the truck.




The new indicator gauges clustered on the dash began to flutter to life. "It handles just like a normal wheeled vehicle in ground mode." said Farnsworth. Dave noticed the gearshift lever indicator under the speedometer now read "GROUND", "FLIGHT", and "PARK" instead of "P,R,D,2,1".

"I'd be happy to show you how to operate it in flight mode." said Leela with an eager grin. For bureaucratic purposes, Farnsworth had given Dave's truck the Delta Romeo's HIN number plate, and tags, calling it a "Body Kit Modification", so not to arouse suspicion.

Dave, Leela, Fry & Bender spent the rest of the afternoon driving around New New York, as well as a few laps around Manhattan, & Long Island, to get Dave familiar with the city's roads & airspace. Dave noticed Leela was an excellent pilot. She noted several times how the big Dodge's frame, combined with the Delta Romeo's powerful hover drive unit, made the truck very enjoyable to drive.

When the truck's flight mode was engaged, the steering wheel worked very similar to an airplane's yoke, except no rudder pedals were needed. The new fairing over the truck's bed concealed an experimental fuel cell of Farnsworth's own invention. Two thrust augmenters extended over the bed & tailgate of the truck, these made Dave laugh a little, since they looked like they were straight off of Doc Brown's Delorean!

Leela landed the truck, relinquishing control over to Dave. He hadn't flown anything since 1998, he wasn't scared, but cautious about what to do. Dave buckled in behind the wheel, the new 4-point harness felt strange compared to the normal lap/shoulder belt he was used to.

"Be careful Dave, it's a powerful machine. It's going to accelerate much faster than before, watch for the cross traffic too." instructed Leela. Dave drove around the block a few times to get a feel for the new controls. As they pulled up to a red light, Leela said "Okay Dave, Flight Mode! Let's hit it!" Dave pulled down on the shift lever, a yellow "FLIGHT" icon illuminated on the dash, the steering wheel chirped twice as it telescoped a few inches outward into Dave's hands.

Dave moved the wheel back & forth, turned it left, then right, to make sure it was free, and not binding - like Leela had showed him to do. Dave checked the mirrors, looked both ways, and as soon as the cross traffic stopped, he accelerated smoothly, while pulling back gently on the wheel. In seconds, they were zooming upward at an incredible rate of speed, passing the New New York skyline.

The truck's new digital speedometer had changed to display airspeed knots, Dave gasped, "My God, are we really going 450 knots?" he said in shock, "Yeah, you better speed up, or we're gonna get rear-ended." said Leela.

They spent the afternoon flying around Manhattan, up the Long Island Sound, Coney Island, and down the Jersey coastline to Atlantic City. The sun was setting as Dave, Leela, Fry, and Bender flew towards the southern tip of Manhattan.

The sunset was magnificent from the air! As evening drew near, tall shadows from the skyscrapers interrupted the fading sunlight, as they approached the small street from which they took off from hours earlier. Dave turned the truck left, followed the East River for a bit, then lined up to land on the small road beside the Planet Express building.

The big Dodge landed with a little jolt, "Not bad for a first-timer." Leela said non-chalantly. The amber "GROUND" icon lit up on the dash, indicating it was safe to shift back to ground mode. Bender spoke, "Wooo, that was fun, mind-numbingly fun! well, let's go get hammered!"

Professor Farnsworth was waiting for the foursome, as they pulled into the hangar bay through an old rusty roll-up door in the back. "Ohhh good lord, they survived! Hermes, cancel that help wanted ad!" he shouted.
Farnsworth walked behind the hover truck, depressed two latches on both sides of the fairing, and raised it to reveal the sophisticated array of conduit & wiring snaking out of the fuel cell. "Damn! The fusion-core extrapolators are heat damaged!" cursed Farnsworth as he typed information down onto a computerized tablet.

"Leela, I'll need you to go pick up the new extrapolators I've just ordered-eeeughh, but the only shop with them in stock is on Neptune."

"Not a problem, c'mon Fry." Leela shouted. Dave said he’d stay & help Farnsworth. The Professor was going to give him a detailed explanation of all the new systems on his hover truck, in the event of a problem, he could be competent enough to fix them.


(Space, near Saturn, 1900 NNY time)

The Planet Express ship hurtled through the vast emptyness of space, as they drew nearer to Saturn's moon, Titan. Leela broke the silence, "So Fry, what do you think about Dave, is he ok staying with you & Bender?" Fry answered "Yeah, he's cool, kinda quiet most of the time, OH, but he hates Slurm! I think he's a Communist!" Fry said, as he spat on the floor, giving a hint of some of the indoctrination by his father, Yancy.

"Fry, don't be stupid! You know perfectly well that the last Communist died in 2885!" retorted Leela. "Well, what do you think about him Leela?" asked Fry. Leela let out a sigh "I dunno, he's a really nice guy, nicer than Shawn, and yeah, he is a bit quiet, and that could mean he's either really intellectual, really shy, or he's a psychopath!"

"Nahhhh, I don't think he's a psycho, if he was, Bender would be a lot more friendlier towards him." answered Fry. An awkward silence fell over the flight deck for a few moments before Fry spoke again. "Dave seems to showing alot more interest towards you in the last 2 months, I saw how he was looking at you this morning over coffee." Fry said with a little bitterness in his voice.

"Yeahhhh, ok, so he's paying more attention to me, it doesn't mean anything, at least i don't think it does. I really did like how he stood up for me in front of Zapp Brannigan." Leela said with a small smile spreading across her face. A few more minutes of silence passed, Fry spoke again. "Soooo, you think he's gonna ask you out on a date, or what?"

Leela rolled her eye & sighed loudly "Fryyyy, just let it go ok? I really don't wanna talk about it now! Let's just concentrate on the mission, get the stupid parts & go home, please Fry?", "Okay, you're right, sorry Leela." Fry said apologetically. "It's ok Fry, your a good friend, and you're just looking out for me." said Leela.

It was after midnight when Fry & Leela returned from Neptune. Professor Farnsworth was the only one in the building, fast asleep in his rocket-lounger. "Waiiiit, it's Thursday, Bender must be at O'Zorgnax's for Ladies Nite, Dave might have gone with him." said Fry. "Well, guess I'll see you tomorrow Leela, g'nite.", "Goodnight Fry, thanks for going with me." said Leela, as she gave him a little wink. Fry & Leela shut the lights off as they left, locking the door, they turned to hear raucous singing from someone coming up the sidewalk.

[KingZoidberg]

thats really cool!

[Leela+Fry]

Nice, looks like some shipperness is coming :D

[La Belle Leela]

Part 7!

"STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND"
Written by: La Belle Leela (AKA Torgo)


Part 7


(Sidewalk outside Planet Express, 08/05/3008, sometime after Midnight)


"Ohhhhhhh, Bender is great, Beeeender is great, BenderBenderBenderBender, IIIIIIIS GREEEEEAAAAAT!" Fry & Leela stood silently as they saw it was Bender coming down the street, singing at his maximum volume, and dragging what appeared to be something human behind him.

Bender stepped under the streetlight at the corner, when Fry and Leela saw this, they broke into a run. They gasped when they saw Bender was lugging an inebriated, and unconscious Dave behind him. "Ooowaaahh!" grunted Bender, "You're alot heavier than Fry, squishy!" Bender said as he dropped Dave's legs to the pavement. "Bender! what the hell are you doing?" shouted Fry & Leela in unison.

Bender faced Leela & Fry, gesturing to Dave by pointing back over his shoulder, "Ahhh, sausage link here was feelin' kinda down, and I was bored, as usual, so I figured tonight being Ladies Night down at the bar, I'd take him down there, have us a good time, rather than mope around here, or at my place!"
Leela studied Dave's sprawled out body on the sidewalk, "How much did he drink?" she asked Bender with a worried tone in her voice. "Aw, just 4 bottles of Boomshine, (freakin' lightweight!)." The last part muttered under his breath. "BENDER!" That stuff's only good for stripping paint, or for robot fuel! did you stop to think, or tell him that?" Leela said angrily.

"Relax big boots, dummy here has quite a tolerance for the stuff! I mean, Fry was throwin' up after only 5 or 6 shots!", "Well, we can't leave him out here, c'mon guys, grab a leg." said Leela as she picked Dave up by his arms.

They carried Dave down 4 darkened city blocks, Leela becoming increasingly agitated at Bender's stupidity. They reached the entrance to The Robot Arms. Leela proceeded to chew Bender out some more while they waited for the elevator.

Fry flung open the door, they carried Dave inside, placing him gently on the couch, turning him on his side, just in case. Leela waited a few minutes, just to be sure Dave was still breathing, then headed for the door. "You two make sure to check on him from time to time, he's gonna wish he was dead, when he gets the mother of all hangovers in the morning." Leela closed the door behind her.

"Ohhh we'll check on him." said Fry with a mischievous grin plastered on his face, as he held up a black marker pen. Fry & Bender giggled as they looked across the room at Dave passed out on the couch.



(Planet Express building, 08/05/3008, 0900)

"Where in Bob Marley's ghost are Fry and Bender?" shouted Hermes. The morning meeting was supposed to start at 8am sharp, and Hermes was livid with rage. Fry and Bender strolled in to the meeting, well over an hour late.

"Sorry everyone, we kinda overslept." Fry explained as Bender interrupted him "yeah 'coz we were up so late drawing on-OW! Hey! knock it off!" said Bender as Fry punched his side to quiet him, so not to let the others know about their little "surprise".

Fry & Bender were still snickering a little as they took their seats at the large, round conference table, letting Hermes continue with his briefing. After 30 or 40 minutes into the meeting, the sound of the large roll-up door in the hangar distracted everyone.

Dave came walking in, passed by the conference table without saying anything, and headed for the locker room. When he returned, everyone stopped, and looked at him, not saying a word. Fry & Bender couldn't control themselves anymore, and burst into loud fits of laughter.

"What de hell's so funn-oh, sweet manta ray of Montego bay!" snapped Hermes. Fry managed to stifle his laughter enough to stand up & point to Dave's face, which was covered in black marker scribbling, mostly anatomical obscenities. Bender had written a large mass of ones, and zeros all over Dave's left cheek, & neck.

"Uhhhh, Dave, have you by any chance looked in a mirror this morning?" asked Leela. Dave walked back into the locker room, and quickly exclaimed "Ohhh, you guys are ASSES!" Bender was especially proud of his pranking, and laughed even harder when he saw the binary graffiti again, when Dave emerged from the locker room.

Leela cast an angry scowl in Fry & Bender's direction, they stopped laughing immediately. "Hey what's the big deal, he lived didn't he? Serves him right for passing out." said Bender. Leela didn't reply, she just sat quietly, still staring daggers at Fry and Bender.

"I can expect this kind of behavior from Bender Fry, but I'd thought you'd grown out of this sort of stuff. I thought you would have handled this with a little more maturity!” Fry didn't understand, Leela was genuinely concerned. "Fry, he could have died from drinking that stuff last night, and all you two could think about was drunken shaming!"

Bender yelled, "What are you getting so worked up about Leela? He was never in any danger of dying!" Hermes interrupted the argument, "Fight it out later! You three have a job to do! These anvils ain't gonna deliver 'demselves to Stumbos-4!!!"

A few hours later, Dave & the Professor had replaced the damaged fusion extrapolators in his hover truck's fuel cell. "Perhaps you'd like to go test drive it?" asked Farnsworth. Dave sighed "Maybe later." he answered. He was still very pale, and fighting the detox shakes from last night.

Dave left the hangar bay, walked into the TV room to lay down for a while. Amy was already on the couch, watching All My Circuits. "Spleesh!, you look like robot hell!"exclaimed Amy. Dave winced "Ohhh, please, not so loud!" Dave sat on the side of the couch opposite Amy, they sat quietly, watching Calculon monologue his way through yet-another wedding.

"So,,, you & Bender have a good time last night?" said Amy. "Well, O'Zorgnax's isn't really a bar I'd hang out in, maybe it was just because it was Ladies Night, but I prefer a darker, quieter place to punish my liver." Dave said with a little smile.

"Leela was really angry with Fry & Bender, what did they do?" Dave turned his head, pointing to the sore, red parts of his face where he'd spent the better part of two hours scrubbing off Fry and Bender's obscene writing. Amy let out high pitched giggle, "Hah! Drunken Shaming! I see that alot at Mars University, especially around Spring Break,,, and Rush,,, and midterms."


Dave sat quietly, trying to settle into the corner of the couch cushions with his eyes closed tightly, to keep the daylight from the large bay window from getting through. Amy switched off the TV, "Dave,,, can I ask you a serious question?", "Sure Amy, what is it?" Dave answered groggily.

Amy hesitated a bit, trying to word her question carefully. "I noticed you seem to give Leela alot of attention, what is it you like about her?" Dave though for a moment, his brain was still in the midst of an epic Neal Peart-esque drum solo from the hangover. "Amy,,, Leela isn't like any other woman I've ever known. Physically, she is incredibly beautiful,,, heat incarnate!, for lack of a better term. What's even better about her is, I get this sense that she has this amazing inner beauty, it's like her soul gives off this energy, which just makes me feel really good, I can feel it all through me!" Dave replied with a really big smile spreading across his face.

Those words temporarily made him forget the pain from the hangover. Amy spoke "Oh,,, well,, I was just curious Dave, Leela's kinda like a big sister to me. Not literally a sister, but I like to think of her as a sister, since she's been there for me when I've had relationship problems, or fears. Someday I'd like to return the favor for her."

Dave looked at her quizzically, "What are you saying Amy?" She sighed heavily, "What I guess I'm trying to say is,,, I don't wanna see Leela get hurt again." Amy explained to Dave about Shawn, Adlai, Chaz, and she started to explain about Brannigan, but Dave cut her off, saying he'd already crossed paths with that loser, no explanation needed. "Amy, I think it's great you look out for Leela like that, she's blessed to have a friend like you." Dave paused, "But, yeah, I really do like Leela, alot! I just haven't been able to work up the nerve to ask her if she'd like to go out for coffee, or a walk, or something."
Dave hesitated, his next words came with a little difficulty. "Amy, please understand, I want you to know that I've been hurt too, several times, and the last woman nearly drove me suicidal! Broken love is a pain I know all too well." Amy's hand flew up to her mouth as she gasped.

Dave looked Amy in the eyes as he continued, "Amy, please know this,,, I don't ever want to do anything to hurt Leela, I'd never forgive myself." Amy looked a little distressed at first, but she smiled at Dave, placed her hand on his knee, "Dave, it's ok, I really appreciate you being honest with me. I just wanted to know your intentions for Leela."
Amy stood up, walked towards the door, she stopped before leaving the room, and said "Dave, if you & Leela do manage to start seeing each other, I just think you two would be a great couple." Dave managed to give a little smile, as he winced from the pain in his head. "Thanks Amy." He settled back into the couch cushions, pulling the blanket over, and around his head, to try and block as much light, and sound from reaching his head as he fell asleep.


A few hours later he awoke, his headache mercifully had stopped, but in it's place was a kind of thirst usually associated with a trek across the planet Trisol. Dave stumbled over to the small kitchenette in the next room, opened the cold water tap, and consuming several glasses of water.

His thirst vanquished, Dave let out a loud, satisfying belch. He looked around the office to see if anyone was in. The Planet Express ship sat silently in the hangar, Dave looked up at the ship's windows, "no lights on, and it's after 6pm, they musta gone home" Dave thought. The only person he found was The Professor, dozing peacefully in his recliner back in his lab. Returning to the conference table, Dave found a note "Dave - Hope you are feeling better, if you leave, please lock up behind you. - H. Farnsworth"

He’d heard a rustling outside, probably Zoidberg rummaging through the dumpster looking for dinner again, he thought. Dave decided to go out, see some more of the city. The steel roll-up door clattered shut, Dave snapped the padlock bolt closed, and climbed back into his Hover-truck. The early evening sky had become considerably cloudy, and a light rain began to fall. Dave sat while his truck warmed up. He noticed Farnsworth had installed another switch on his dashboard.
The switch was guarded, and marked "MASTER ARM". Dave knew this placard meant The Professor had installed some kind of weapon in his truck, but decided that a crowded city street wasn't the best location to test his theory.

Dave drove around for the better part of an hour, he decided to park, and walk around a bit. Turning down a small side street off the main avenue, Dave spied a parking space big enough to accommodate the truck, and let the Dodge settle against the curb with a gentle bump.

Daylight was nearly gone, the streetlights were starting to illuminate one at a time. All the sights, smells, and sounds were mesmerizing. Dave walked around the large shopping complex, admiring all the amazing 31st century gadgets, devices, appliances, and clothing fashions each shop window had on display.

A group of young Neptunian women walked by, stopped, stared at Dave's outfit for a minute, then continued on. He must have looked strange to them, he was just dressed in his usual attire of a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and black leather work boots.

Dave heard one of the Neptunians giggle as they walked away "Did you see that guy? he looked sooooo 26th century, spluh!" he smiled a bit as he walked on. He stopped in front of a large department store, "Alien Overlord & Taylor". He entered the store, pausing to watch a TV monitor featuring an old woman, her grey hair up in a double bun give a speech about robot oil. "Hmmmm, that's gotta be that Mom person Fry was telling me about" he thought.

Dave browsed through the store's three levels for nearly an hour, before heading down to the food court for some coffee. He found a seat in a empty part of the center atrium, relaxing while the coffee cooled down enough to drink.

He watched as the milling throngs of people, robots, and alien races of all sorts walked by. It was finally sinking in that he was living in a time he never would have seen, if his lifetime had run it's course back in the 21st century.

When he finished, Dave strolled back through the 1st floor of Alien Overlord & Taylor, back towards the street exit doors. Dave rounded a corner, passing a large display of Lightspeed Briefs, when he nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise!

Right in front of him, no more than 20 feet away, stood Leela! She was standing at a checkout counter, not facing him, so she had no idea he had seen her. Leela was engaged in conversation with the young woman ringing up her purchase.

Dave nervously edged his way behind another display rack, pretending to study the price tags on a pile of Adaptive Camouflage slacks, hoping Leela wouldn't see him, until he could think of something to say to her.

When Leela finished her transaction with the clerk, she headed for the street exit. Dave had to act, his mind was racing, he finally had the opportunity to talk to Leela away from the Planet Express office, just the two of them.

He kept trying in vain to think of something to say, "why can't I just go up and talk to her!, not just trail her like some creepy stalker!" he thought. Leela had nearly a half a block head start, Dave was having difficulty keeping an eye on her.




Leela walked fast, Dave could only manage to see her purple ponytail bobbing, as she made her way down the street. It was dark now, the streetlights, and neon signs from the shops shone brightly on the rain-slicked streets.

Leela turned right at the next intersection, down the side street Dave had parked his truck on. "Leela must live nearby, she didn't hail a cab leaving the store." Dave thought. She darted across the side street, Dave was nearly a full block behind her, but still managed to see her cross the street, and start to go down a darkened alleyway.

Dave's pace quickened, he didn't want to lose her. Words, or no words, he was going to say something to her tonight, anxiety be damned! As Dave walked closer to the alley, he heard what sounded like shouting, glass was breaking, A Fight! Dave knew what he'd heard next couldn't be good, he heard Leela's high pitched "HEEEEE-YAHHH!" he instantly broke into a run!

The alley was long, and as he turned the corner, he saw Leela execute a flawless high-flying kick to the face of one of the two others he saw in the alley. She knocked the first assailant out cold, but Leela slipped, and fell on the wet ground as she completed her kick. Leela yelped in pain as she landed on her back.

The second assailant stood there staring at his unconscious partner. He growled "youse knocked half his teeth out, youse gonna pay now!" Leela was trying to stand up, but Dave could see she seriously injured her leg in the fall. The second thug flashed a knife from under his coat, maliciously staring at Leela as she crawled backwards towards a dumpster & brick wall to try and pull herself up to a defensive position.

Leela's eye was wide with fear as the knife-wielding thug advanced towards her. What happened next couldn't have been anything short of a miracle. From out of the shadows, Leela heard someone running, in nanoseconds, Leela saw the thug get hit in his midsection, and go down hard! Leela had been in many a fight, violence was nothing new to her, but she had never seen something as visceral as this.

Her rescuer had the thug pinned to the ground, landing one savage blow after another to his head. What little light there was in the alleyway illuminated a ghastly scene. Leela's attacker was getting the beating of his life, the pavement around them was splattered with blood, and pieces of broken teeth.

The thug's beating was over as quickly as it had begun. The brave stranger’s back was turned, Leela could not identify him in the dim alley light. Her rescuer stood up, administering one final, savage steel-toed kick to the head, knocking the thug out cold.

Leela's heart was thundering faster than a dark-matter reactor. She prepared to defend herself, as the stranger turned around, and started walking to where she lay. "Who the hell are you? identify yourself!" she demanded. "Are you alright Leela?" the man said, as he stepped into the light.

Leela nearly fainted from the shock. "DAVE? y-y-you? I-I, where'd you-what just happened?" She was shaking like a leaf, and starting to sob. "Leela! relax, it's over, you're safe now." Dave spoke in a very calming tone.

He knelt down on the ground beside her, checking her over for injuries. "Dave, Dave, where are they, they-he's got a knife!" Leela said sobbing uncontrollably. Dave pointed over to the two unconscious thugs on the ground. "You clobbered the first one, that guy there had the knife!" he said pointing to the second, well bloodied assailant. "He's out cold too, you're gonna be ok, just tell me if you're injured."


Leela composed herself "My ankle,,, I think it's broken." Dave explained, "I saw you fall on it after you took out the first one. Do you think you can stand?" Leela suddenly reached over, and threw both of her arms around Dave's neck, and burying her face in his shoulder.

"Oh I was so scared, he-he was gonna kill me!" she cried, as Dave held on to her tightly. "I'm here for you Leela, you're safe now" Dave kept re-assuring her, as he gently stroked her hair. When her sobbing subsided, Leela sat back up, looking Dave in his eyes, "Oh, I'm so embarrassed, I should have been able to take both of those bastards down, just common street thugs!"

One of the beaten-up thugs groaned, as he began to stir. "Leela, can you stand?" Dave asked her again. Leela took hold of Dave's arms as he pulled her to her feet. As soon as she was up, she yelped in pain, and started to lose her balance. Dave caught her, "Awright, I'm getting you to a hospital now!" he said.

"Put your right arm around my neck, and hold on." Dave said, and with one swift movement, he picked Leela up in his arms, and started to carry her towards the side street. "My truck's parked not far from here Leela, hold on to me."

Dave looked down at Leela's face every few seconds, even through her pain, she smiled at him when he looked at her. He took great care not to exacerbate Leela's injured ankle when he placed her in his truck. He made sure she was comfortable as possible before driving away.


(Taco Bellevue Hospital, 08/05/3008, 2130 NNY time)



The emergency room doors kicked open as Dave carried Leela in to be treated. He placed her down gently in a chair, and went for a nurse. Dave hadn't even noticed his own injuries. The fight with the knife-wielding thug had left him with several cuts to his hands, as he disarmed him, and Dave's adrenaline was so high, he didn't feel the pain.

Leela was admitted, placed on a gurney, and sent to an exam room. Dave yelled to her "I'll be waiting right here Leela, you'll be fine." as she was wheeled away. A doctor led Dave to another room, he sat beside a small table with first aid gear laid out.

The doctor examined Dave, "Well, aside from the lacerations and bruising, you'll be fine. What happened to you & the young lady?" Dave explained the whole story, as the doctor waved a silver metal cylinder back and forth over his cuts, sparing no details of the attack. "She was incredibly lucky you were there. You don‘t see that kind of chivalry in this day & age anymore." Dave looked up, "Yeah, helluva way to meet a girlfriend."
Dave's injuries now bandaged, he returned to the admitting lobby to wait for Leela. He stopped at the nurse's station, a tall dark female nurse was on duty, "How is she? is she okay?" The nurse asked "who?", "Leela, Turanga Leela, she's got the ankle injury." Dave said.

The nurse pulled a chart, flipped through it a bit, "She's gonna be just fine honey, jus' relax." the nurse replied in a thick Jamaican accent. Dave asked "Is it ok if I go see her?", "We're not supposed to, but it's not too busy tonight honey, go on back 'dere, she's in 1224." He found the door, opened it a little, knocked twice, "Leela, are you decent?", "Yeah, come on in." she answered calmly.

Dave opened the door, Leela was lying on the exam bed, she was sedated, but extremely happy to see him. He walked over, hugged Leela tight, "Doc says your ankle's gonna be fine." Dave noticed the metal bird-cage looking cylinder that was affixed to Leela's right calf, extending down to her foot.

"I just wanted to check on you before the doctor comes back.", "Thanks Dave, it was nice of you." she said with a bright smile. "I'll be right outside waiting Leela, don't worry, you'll be fine." Dave assured her, as he walked backwards out of the room.


It was almost midnight when Leela was discharged from the hospital. She was walking under her own power again, it was as if her ankle wasn't broken at all. Dave was napping in a chair by the main entrance. Leela smiled when she saw him, she walked over, gently placed her hand on his shoulder,

Dave immediately snapped awake, looking right up at Leela's smiling face. "Heyyy, I'm all set, we can go now." she said. The night air was unusually cool for August, as Dave and Leela stepped outside of the emergency room doors. "Would you like me to drive you home?" Dave asked Leela? "I wouldn't have it any other way." she said.


(Outside Leela's Apartment building, 08/06/3008, 0045 NNY time)

Dave slowed his truck to a stop outside the dingy 10-storey apartment building where Leela lived. Dave exited first, walked around to the passenger side, and opened the door for Leela. Dave extended his hand, Leela gladly took hold, stepping out of his truck. They walked up the stairs to the entrance.

"Thanks again,,, if you hadn't been there,,, that could have really turned ugly Dave.", "Leela, I would have done it all over again without a second thought!" Leela said nothing, she fixed her eye on his eyes, "You gonna be okay?" she asked. "Yeah, my hands got dinged up a bit, but I'll live." Dave said laughing a little.

"Sooo, I guess this is good night." Dave said. Leela walked down one step to where he was standing, placing her arms around his shoulders, and resting her head against his chest, as he put his arms around her back. They embraced for only a moment, but Dave wished she'd never let go. "Goodnight Dave, I'll see you in the morning." Leela said, as she walked through the lobby doors to her apartment.

Dave stood out on the sidewalk until she was gone. Before he turned to walk back to his truck, Dave looked up, The night sky was clear and starry. Dave stood silently, like he had done many times before, he offered his silent prayer

"God, I did something incredible tonight, I think she might be the one! I think I‘m ready to love again!" Dave drove back to the Robot Arms, Fry was snoring loudly on his mattress in the corner, Bender was snoozing, while muttering his usual "Nnnnngh, kill allll huuumannns!" Dave settled onto the couch, closed his eyes, and a few minutes later opened them, got up, walked over to the window, stared out at the twinkling New New York skyline, and whispered "Good night Leela."

[Leela+Fry]

You must be a master of suspense or something, didn't see that coming

[La Belle Leela]

You must be a master of suspense or something, didn't see that coming
Thanks

I'm working on part 11 now. I'll post 8, 9, and 10 within the coming week.

[Leela+Fry]

Thank you, God! You rock!!!

[La Belle Leela]

Thank you, God! You rock!!!

My only wish is that I had Archonix's illustrating skills. I so wanna turn this into a graphic fanfic!:)

[Leela+Fry]

That would be sooo awesome!

[KingZoidberg]

cool fan fics!

[La Belle Leela]

Thanks guys, glad you like it so far.

I used the simpsonizeme.com website to create my main character. It's not 100% what Dave Murphy should look like, but the software got it pretty close. His shoulders should be wider & he should be a little taller.

And yes, I uploaded a picture of myself to create this.:thumbup1::)
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h277/Davidmich/davidkmurphy2.jpg

[KingZoidberg]

LOL thats cool!

[Leela+Fry]

LOL you're great Torgo

[KingZoidberg]

lol

[Leela+Fry]

Ooh, are ya gonna post some more soon?

[KingZoidberg]

more!

[La Belle Leela]

Part 8.

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND"
Written by La Belle Leela (AKA Torgo)


Part 8


(Planet Express Building, 08/12/3008, 1030 NNY time)


A week had passed since Leela's near-demise at the hands of a knife-wielding assailant, as she traversed a dim back alley on her way home one rainy August night. Life had seemed to return to normal for the beautiful, headstrong Spaceship Captain.

This morning, Leela came to work late, something she rarely did. Her eye was a little
red & puffy, a side effect from waking up crying in her sleep three times!

She did her best to conceal it, but it was inevitable, her co-workers were going to notice sooner or later. The images of the thug with the knife, the fight, the pain from her injured ankle, kept running through her mind long after she got home.

Leela awoke that morning with one thought on her mind, she was glad to be alive. She walked into the TV room, Fry, Bender, Zoidberg, and Amy were lounging about, watching "Good Morning Earth".

Fry bolted upright, he noticed Leela's puffy, red eye immediately. "Leela! you okay?" he asked, very concerned. "You've never been this late to work, we were about to call you.", "I know guys, sorry." Leela said, trying to avoid looking directly at Fry, or anyone else in the room.

She hated it when her eye was the center of attention, and her attitude was quickly becoming as irritated as her eye was. Leela quickly fixed her coffee, and headed towards the boarding steps of the Planet Express delivery ship. Out in the hangar, the morning rays of sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating the big, green starship, and a patch of the floor where a pair of blue denim covered legs stuck out from under a hover truck.

Dave was on a mechanic's creeper underneath his Dodge. There was a sharp, metallic clang followed by "OW! Dammit!" Dave slid out from under the truck, examining his bleeding knuckles, and searching for the Arclight spanner wrench he just dropped.

The wrench had skittered across the hangar floor, and came to rest against Leela's left boot. Standing up from the creeper, Dave saw Leela bend down, and pick up the wayward tool. "Uh, hey Leela,,, guess I scared it off eh?" Dave said jokingly.

Leela gave a little smile, and laughed under her breath. She walked over to Dave, as he was cleaning the blood from his knuckles off with a shop rag. "I see you're busy, I've got some software upgrades to install on the ship's computers. You & the Professor get the bugs worked out of your truck yet?" Leela asked.

"Yeah, we finally got that fuel cell to work at maximum efficiency during all modes of travel." Leela handed Dave his wrench, "Well, see ya around" Leela said as she turned around towards the ship.


"Hey Leela,,," Dave began, she stopped, and turned around facing him again. "You,,,you look really beautiful today!" He said with a sincere grin, and face turning a little flushed. Leela had expected him to ask what everyone else was making a fuss over, but after the sleep-interrupted night she had, and feeling the way she was, that was exactly what she needed to hear.

Leela walked back over to Dave, placed her hands on his biceps, leaned in, and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Awwww, thank you Dave!" she said quietly. The two of them stood looking at each other for a moment, "Oh, my,,,I better get started on those upgrades." Leela said as she walked away.

Dave turned his attention back to his work. Being classified an "Unknown" by the Earthican Government, he couldn't be implanted with a career chip, so he was ineligible for any kind of employment. He couldn't secure a residence either.

To make him look more like a regular, average citizen, his truck was outfitted with large "Planet
Express" logo decals on the doors, and tail fin, so not to arouse suspicion. Up on the ship's flight deck, Leela busied herself with the software installation.

She rolled her chair back & forth between several consoles, "PC Load Letter?, the hell does that mean?" she yelled as she tapped rapidly on a keyboard. Amy appeared in the doorway.

"I'm a little busy at the moment Amy" Leela said, as she took a swig of coffee between rolling from one computer to the next. "Uhhh, sorry Leela, just wanted to see how you were doing."

Leela gave a haggard sigh, and looked up at Amy, with a weary look on her face. "I'm okay Amy, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night." said Leela, as she went back to tapping on a keyboard.

"Ohh,,,is it about Dave?" Leela nearly bit her tongue when Amy uttered that sentence. "*sigh!* No!,,, well, yes, and no." replied Leela. "You wanna talk about it?” said Amy.

Leela was at a split decision, part of her wanted to, and part of her didn't. She had wanted to tell somebody about her harrowing ordeal last week. "Alright Amy, close the door. This conversation doesn't leave the ship, it's just between you & me, comprende?"

Normally, Leela would have immediately told her parents whenever something happened in her life, but because of the seriousness of last week's incident, Leela knew her sweet mother, Munda, wouldn't have taken it well.

Leela knew she would have been worried to death about her only daughter living on the surface. About an hour later, Dave finished bolting the access covers back onto the underside of his truck. He stopped by the small kitchen area, grabbed some coffee, and joined Fry, Bender, and Dr Zoidberg in Farnsworth's lab.

"Bad news everybody!" said Farnsworth. ”It seems Bender's jackassery with my matter transporter has done such irreparable damage, I still can't figure out how the hell it managed to bring someone here from a thousand years ago!"

Fry spoke up "Irreparable huh? that means you can fix it right?", "Ohhh my no Fry!" said Farnsworth, looking dejected. "But if you can create parallel universes, and genetically mutated, nuclear super-athletes, there has to be a way for you to fix the matter transporter!" retorted Fry.

"BAH! of course there's a way to fix it you idiot! AUGHHH!, I'll be in the Angry Dome if anyone needs me!" With that outburst, Farnsworth shuffled out of the lab as angrily as a 160-year old could.


The side door to the lab flew open, Amy walked in, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. She saw Dave, and ran towards him, she flung herself at Dave, who's coffee cup smashed to the floor as he caught Amy.

She was trying to say something, nobody could quite understand, it was a mixture of English, Cantonese, and crying. "Amy, Amy, calm down! What's wrong?" a surprised Dave said. Amy stood back, managing to compose herself, while wiping tears off her face.

"I knew you were a good person Dave, I knew it!" she said while breaking out a big smile, still wiping tears off. "What the hell was that about?" said Bender. He and Fry were standing against the lab wall, still as statues, but with eyes wide in shock.

"It's a long story guys, I kinda promised Leela I wouldn't say anything about it, unless she was cool with it." said Dave. Bender chuckled, nudged Fry in the ribs while making the "whpshhhh" whip-crack sound with his mouth.

"Guys, I'm serious! The last thing I wanna do is anger a woman, who nearly took a man's head off with a sock full of party snaps!" replied Dave. Fry, Bender, and Dave walked out to the hangar, just about the time Leela was walking down the ship's stairwell.

"Leela, what's going on? Amy's acting all crazy, not the Professor Farnsworth crazy, but that girly-girl crazy, you know." asked Fry. Leela rolled her eye, "(sigh!) Okay guys, over here." said Leela, as she motioned towards the round conference table.

Leela spent most of the hour re-telling Fry & Bender what she told Amy. How if it hadn't been for Dave, she might not be alive right now. Fry sat back in his chair, sulking a bit. Leela asked Dave and Bender if she could talk to Fry alone for a while.

"Fine! We know what we're not wanted! C'mon Dave, let's hit the bar!" Dave answered "At one in the afternoon? Geez, what is it with you & booze Bender?" said Dave, as they left the room. Leela waited until they were gone.

"Fry, I want you to know nothing happened after the hospital, he just took me home, and it was just pure coincidence that he was there.", "Yeah, good ol' Dave to the rescue, again!" Fry said bitterly. "Now, just what's that supposed to mean Fry?" said Leela, looking a little cross. Fry lowered his head, and sighed with his eyes closed.

"Sorry Leela, I guess I'm still holding on to the really small chance that you & I could still be together." Leela sat beside Fry, she placed her hand on his arm. "Fry, that's really sweet. You and I do have something very special between us. I love you as a dear, dear friend, I always will. Please try to understand, I know it still hurts, but that's how my feelings are. I just don't feel the same way about you, as you feel about me."

Fry got up, he started to walk away, but turned around, facing Leela. "Leela, the bottom line, I
want you to be happy. I know I can't make you love me, so whether it's gonna be Dave, or any other guy, It's more important to me to see you be happy!" Leela smiled a little, walked over to Fry, gave him a small kiss on the cheek,

"Thank you Fry, that sounded really hard to admit. You're gonna meet the right girl for you soon, don't ever give up!" Fry smiled, but said nothing. Leela went back to finishing the upgrades to the ship. Fry walked back to the TV room, Dave and Bender were playing "Keep Away" by tossing a large, moldy sandwich back & forth, while Dr Zoidberg grabbed frantically every time it sailed through the air past his head.



"Everything ok Fry?" said Dave, as he flung the sandwich back to Bender. By now, Zoidberg had had enough. He wedged Bender's head in one of his claws. Bender choked out "Woahhhhhh, easy there stinky! don't pull on that, HEY, OWWW! Ahh geez, that's gonna take hours to buff out!"

Bender dropped the sandwich, Zoidberg happily threw himself to the floor, devouring the sandwich whole. Hermes walked into the room carrying a large box, "'dis got dropped thru 'deh slot during lunch break." Fry examined the package label, "Hmmm, Zuban-5".

Bender's eyes snapped wide open upon hearing that. Zuban-5 was where the most popular cigars in the universe were manufactured. "You ok Bender?" Fry asked. "Yeahh, no problemo, 'da hell we waitin' for? Let's get goin' already!", the agitated robot yelled.

"Geez, take it easy Bender! Let's find Leela, and go." said Fry. The three of them walked out to the ship, about the same time as Leela was completing the software upgrades. "Fry, could you & Dave disconnect the ground power cables?"

Fry & Dave walked around the belly of the large, green spacecraft. Dave examined the hull, much the same way he'd examined the airframes of his squadron's Grumman F-14Ds during his days with the US Navy as an Aviation Machinist's Mate back in the 20th Century.

Dave and Fry had gotten along great since his arrival, but Fry seemed really angered over something, something from his private discussion he'd had with Leela earlier. The ground power umbilicals disconnected, Fry and Dave headed for the ship's stairwell,

Fry suddenly spoke. "Look, Dave, it's just,,, (sigh!) I've loved Leela ever since I came here eight years ago. She, however doesn't feel the same way towards me, no matter what I've done to try, and win her."

Dave felt a little uneasy, "Sorry Fry, I didn't know you two had history, other than just working together. I do understand how ya feel, getting your heart broken just plain sucks! My last girlfriend, Dao, we were engaged, and she just up, and left me one day, no explanation, nothing! I nearly took my own life over her, It hurt that bad!"

Fry looked down at the floor, "God, that's awful!" he exclaimed. Dave continued "But that's all in the past now, one of the hardest things I ever did was to find the strength to pick myself back up, and move on. I know I'll find the woman that's right for me,,, someday."

Fry moped on back toward the stairs "Yeahhh, guess you're right." Leela poked her head out the side window "Are you two done with the emotional dribble yet? or are we gonna pull an all-nighter?"

Dave & Fry hurried up the ship's stairs, each found an empty seat on the flight deck, and strapped in. They noticed Amy was joining the mission too. "Were dropping Amy off at The Nimbus so she can visit Kif." Leela said.

Bender chimed in, "Whaaat, The Nimbus you say? Woooooooo, Leela goin' on a bootay call! ehhh heheheh!" Leela said nothing, she waited until Bender turned around, then she slapped the back of his head! Hard enough that both of his eyes flew out, striking the cabin wall, and clattering to the floor.

Bender began to wander about aimlessly, arms feeling around for his eye bulbs. The Planet Express ship was fast approaching the Omicronian system, where Amy's boyfriend, Lt. Kif Kroker was stationed aboard a DOOP command vessel.


Dave, and Fry were having an animated discussion about the best movies of the 1980s, while Bender amused himself with his boredom repression simulator. Leela had no idea who "Maverick", "Iceman", and "Goose" were, as Dave gave his diatribe on why "Top Gun" was the best film of the 1980s.

Leela engaged the autopilot, and headed for her quarters. Before she left the flight deck, she stood in the doorway, looking at Fry & Dave. Leela thought to herself & smiled, "Hmph! guys & action movies,,,some things never change!"

[KingZoidberg]

awsome!!! good job!

[Leela+Fry]

Yay!! Torgo rocks!

[La Belle Leela]

Sorry for the delay guys, I'm moving (again!) I should have internet in the new house up tomorrow, or Sat. Parts 9 and 10 will follow. Part 11 will premier on TLZ's main page, then I'll put it up here.

[KingZoidberg]

cool

[Leela+Fry]

Yay!!!!

[La Belle Leela]

:)You guys are too kind!:thumbup1:

If you don't wanna wait, Parts 9 and 10 are already posted in the main fanfic section over at Futurama Madhouse/TLZ.

Look under author "La Belle Leela"

[La Belle Leela]

When I wrote these next two parts, I went all out! It's 17 pages long in MS Word, so It'll take a while to read!:thumbup1::)


"STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND"
Written by La Belle Leela (aka Torgo)
Part 9

“Hell IS a bad place to be.”


(Planet Express Delivery Ship, Somewhere near the Omicronian System - 08/12/3008, 1415 hours NNY time)


The Planet Express Ship approached the outer rim of The Omicronian System of planets. In the distance, a large, white space vessel could be seen holding position. The video screen above the ship’s center console flashed to life. A red-uniformed DOOP officer appeared on screen.

“This is Lieutenant Evans of the DOOP Command vessel Nimbus. Please state your name, and your intentions.” Leela promptly answered, “Hello, Captain Turanga Leela, of The Planet Express Delivery Co, I’m bringing a Miss Amy Wong aboard for official visitation with Lt. Kroker.”

The Lieutenant looked away for a moment, then looked back into the screen.

“I’m sorry, but Lt. Kroker isn’t on the bridge at the moment, however, you are cleared to approach, and dock inside Hangar Bay #2.”

Leela skillfully maneuvered the ship inside the cavernous hangar bay, landing the ship with a gentle thump. As much as Leela hated The Nimbus’s commander, Zapp Brannigan, she was doing this side trip for Amy. Lt. Evans and a welcoming party were waiting for them as they disembarked.

“Where’s my Kiffieee?” squealed Amy. “I’m terribly sorry Miss Wong, Lt. Kroker had to called away on a special assignment with Capt. Brannigan this morning.” said Lt. Evans. Amy's heart dropped, “but,,,he knew I was coming to see him today. Did he say where he was going?” Lt. Evans replied, “I’m sorry, the nature of the mission is highly classified, and I’ve been ordered to be silent about it.”

Amy, looking very upset, climbed the forward stairs back into the Planet Express Ship. The other crewmembers started walking back to the ship as well. Leela stopped, walked back to the Lieutenant, and looking very furious, began to give Lt. Evans a piece of her mind.

“That stupid, fat jerk! He knew we were coming today! Doesn’t he know how much this visit means to Kif and Amy? Zapp’s always gotta make life hell for everyone but himself!"

Leela walked back up the stairs of the ship, making a mental note to beat the snot out of Zapp, next time their paths should cross. Leela made a fast departure out of the Nimbus’s hangar bay. Back in the crew rest area, Fry and Bender were doing their best to cheer Amy up. Up on the flight deck, Leela was still fuming.

“Dave, I think I should have just let you shoot that big, fat jerk when you had the chance to!” He just laughed, Leela laughed even harder, visualizing Dave putting a nice big .45 slug in Zapp’s ass for the hell of it. “Well, I certainly needed the laugh Dave, I mean, it could have been worse.”

The flight deck of The Planet Express ship was quiet. The silence broken only by the random clicks and beeps from the instruments. The steady rhythmic hum from the ship’s dark matter engines was monotonous enough to let anyone drift off to sleep. Dave sat quietly, staring out of the ship’s big front windshield. The endless expanse of outer space unfolded like some otherworldly acid-trip daydream.


Dave let his thoughts wander back to the time he spent with his father in the 20th century. He had to remind himself that it was the year 3008, and perhaps this was the second chance he spent so many desperate nights praying for. He still held some hope that Professor Farnsworth could fix his matter transporter, and he could return to the 21st Century.

Dave jolted upright in his seat, Leela’s voice had startled him.

“Soooo, Dave,,,you’ve been kinda quiet , what’s on your mind?” She asked casually.

“Meh,,,just thinking back, about some good times I had with family back in the 20th. Dad & I used to go fishing almost everyday in the summer.” Dave giggled a bit as he continued, “This one time, we went to this graduation party, Dad got really hammered drunk, I had to help him walk back to the motel that night!”

Leela just muttered a small “Hmmph” She didn’t seem amused much for some reason. Dave replied, “What kind of crazy stuff did you do with your parents?”

“Sorry Dave, I didn’t. Until a few years ago, I thought my parents didn’t exist.”

Dave reeled! Immediately recalling Fry telling him about Leela’s ordeal down in the sewers, about how she nearly killed the answer to her greatest mystery.

“I’m really sorry Leela, I should have remembered that.” Dave answered meekly.

“Awww, forget about it!” she sighed, and returned to typing information into a computer bank at the rear of the flight deck.

Dave returned to gazing out of the window, cursing himself in thought for potentially re-opening Leela’s deepest emotional scar.

He stood up, walked over to Leela, trying not to get in her way. “Is there anything I can help you with before we land?”

“No, I think I’ve got everything under control for now.” Leela answered politely. ]i]“Why don’t you go back, and see what Fry and Bender are up to?”[/i] Dave smiled, stepped between Leela, and a instrument console, he put his hand on her shoulder momentarily, as kind of a silent apology for not remembering about her parents.

Dave exited the flight deck through the sliding door, almost getting crushed by Bender, as he ran down the corridor, laughing maniacally, and swinging a twisted up wet bath towel at Fry. Amy was doubled over with laughter, as Fry, clad only in his underpants, slapped his own wet towel against Bender’s rear end with a loud, metallic [b]“pop”]/b].

Leela could hear the ruckus from her Captain’s chair on the flight deck. “Ohhh lord, they’re at it again! Well, at least they cheered Amy up.” She thought.

Dave decided to join in on the fun. He snuck around behind Bender, got down on all fours, motioning to Fry to make Bender walk backwards. Fry swung his towel menacingly at Bender. Just like the prank was planned, Bender backed up, tripped over Dave, and fell screaming onto his back. Fry, Amy, and Dave nearly laughed themselves silly, as Bender hollered, and cursed at the trio while trying to right himself.


The image of Zuban-5 came into view on the main computer screen. The monitor over Leela’s head was flashing an incoming message. The screen displayed landing instructions, telling Leela to approach, and land on the planet’s Eastern Hemisphere Receiving facility. Having his fill of Bender & Fry‘s shenanigans, Dave had rejoined Leela on the flight deck.

“That’s strange, we usually go to the Western Hemisphere Facility to deliver stuff to Zuban-5. The Eastern side is a volcanic wasteland, with few inhabitants.” Leela remarked.

Dave had an uneasy feeling. He removed, and inspected his firearm, making sure it functioned normally. He inspected all of the pistol’s magazines, he made sure he could see seven copper bullet noses peeking out of the holes in the magazine’s sides.

Leela noticed his activity, “What is it Dave?” she asked. “I dunno Leela, I’ve got a funny feeling about where we’re going, as if something bad’s gonna happen.” he replied.

“Fry, Bender! Knock off the grab-ass! Get buckled in, we’re landing!” Leela shouted over the ship’s intercom.

The Planet Express Ship descended through Zuban-5’s grey, cloudy atmosphere, revealing a barren landscape that was as grey, and lifeless as the sky. If the mountains hadn’t been such a foreboding, ominous black color, Leela could have easily suffered from vertigo. She followed the GPS coordinates displayed on her overhead monitor. It was pointing her towards a desolate, jagged mountain in the distance. She flew around the summit, and noticed a large landing pad on the east side of it. Leela saw a large white DOOP shuttlecraft, with several small red colored fighter escorts parked alongside.

The Planet Express Ship touched down with it’s usual “chuff” from the airbrake, and powered down. Fry grabbed the package, Dave, Leela, and Bender followed him, as they descended the ship’s forward stairs. The landing pad was deserted, not even the DOOP ship had security personnel standing guard. A solitary path let towards the enormous mountain. A huge stone monument was carved out of the mountain’s side, Dave noted how it strangely resembled the Ancient Egyptian temple of Ramses II, both in design, and size.

A rusty, weather-beaten sign indicated [b]“ALL DELIVERIES HERE”[/ib] with a large black arrow pointing in the direction of the huge carved stone edifice in the mountain. The distance from the pad to the mountain couldn’t have been more than ½ a mile, but seemed to go on forever, due to the size of the surroundings. When Fry & the group reached the carving at the end of the path, Leela spoke.

“Well, it ends here, but where’s the door?”

No sooner had Leela spoken those words, the huge stone wall split, and began to open. Smoke, and dust poured out of the opening, blinding, and choking them. When the smoke began to let up, they could see they weren’t alone. Dozens of small, red metal robots swarmed out of the fissure. One took aim with an electrostatic weapon, and fired it at Bender, rendering him immobile.


The dozens of robots jumped on the rest of the crew. All of the small, red-colored robots had beady little yellow eyes, horns atop their heads, and long, whip like pointy tails. Fry didn’t put up much of a struggle, and was quickly pinned to the ground by three of the demonic robots. Dave managed to put his big, steel-toed boots to good use, he felt the front of his left boot connect with a robot’s head, and heard a satisfying crunch. Five of the robots all jumped on Dave’s back. The weight of them forced Dave to his knees. One robot picked another one up, and used him as a high-tech club to smash Dave over the head, dropping him to the ground, like a sack of Space Potatoes.

Leela was fighting like a pro! Her Arcturan Kung-Fu skills were seriously being tested. More demon robots streamed out of the smoking hole in the mountain. A swarm of at least twenty robots all pounced on Leela simultaneously, overwhelming her. The robot demons made sure the Planet Express crew were secured with strange, glowing blue wrist restraints, and positioned them all up into a kneeling position. Out of the smoke, a much taller, bigger version of the demon robots emerged from the opening. Fry and Leela shrieked in shock, as they could see they were in the company of the one & only Beel-Z-Bot,,,The Robot Devil himself!


“Welllll, looks like everyone’s here for the fun! AAAAH, HAHAHAHAHA!” The Robot Devil said, cackling madly. “Fry, Bender, Welcome! Oh, and a special welcome to you too Miss Leela!” Leela tried to stand up, but was forced back by several guards. “What the HELL do you want from us?” barked Leela. “AH HAHHA! Later my dear, if I tell you now, it’ll ruin the surprise! Heeheehee!” The Robot Devil replied.

The small robot demons motioned to the Planet Express crew to get up. Two of the small robots poked Dave, he stirred, and slowly sat up. He felt something trickling down the back of his head. He ran his hand through his hair, seeing it was bloody after being struck from behind by the marauding robots.

The Robot Devil pointed at Dave, “Don’t let that one out of your sight! And no rough stuff, I need him alive!" he ordered.


Dave got up on one knee, one of the robot demons slapped a pair of the glowing restraints on his wrists. They all began to follow The Robot Devil down the path into the mountain from which he came. The path snaked, and twisted inside the mountains cavernous interior. The heat inside the mountain was incredible, and their human captives struggled to wipe the sweat away, as it seared their eyes. The procession stopped at an overlook.

“I bid you all welcome, to The NEW ROBOT HELL!” bellowed The Robot Devil, as gigantic columns of flame erupted on his command.

“New Robot Hell? What happened to the old Robot Hell?” asked Fry.

The Robot Devil gave a haggard sigh “Old Robot Hell got slapped with an eviction notice! It’s alright,,,New Robot Hell has sooooo much more to offer, for example, REAL MOLTEN LAVA! AHHH HAHAHAHA!” he replied, with his yellow robot eyes twisted upward in glee.

With their prisoners back in tow, The Robot Devil led the procession down the twisting, rocky path to a small landing that stuck out from a deep, rocky alcove.

“Alright, now tell us, what the hell do you want? What could you possible accomplish by taking us captive?” Leela yelled.

The Robot Devil looked rather annoyed. “My dear, it’s not what I want, well,,,at least not yet anyway,,,,it’s what 'he' wants! Nahh hahaha!” and with that sentence, a door at the back of the alcove opened, and out onto the landing, flanked by two DOOP guards, stepped Zapp Brannigan.

“It won’t do any of you any good to struggle, escape is quite few-teel!" (futile) Zapp said, while his guards charged their plasma rifles.

Zapp continued “What my red metal friend here is doing is helping me reclaim something, by something, I mean somebody,,,and by that I mean you Leela.”

Zapp leered disgustingly in Leela’s direction as she retorted angrily.

“You sick son of a bitch! You made a deal with the Robot Devil? For me?" Zapp countered immediately “That’s right sweetness, you’ll finally be mine,,,forever!” he said with his usual ear to ear grin.

Zapp studied his captives for a moment. “Guards! Release her, and have her dressed more sexilously for me,,,or not at all, I don't care! Then place her in my quarters!”

Two demon robot guards hoisted Leela to her feet, and led her away. Leela could see both Dave, and Fry were both seething with anger at the sight of this.

“Wait! What are you gonna do with my crew?” Leela exclaimed, as she struggled with the robot guards.

“Ahhhh yes, your crew, let’s see now." Brannigan walked over to the guards holding Dave and Fry. Zapp recoiled a little when he looked at Dave, but then realizing he was restrained, Zapp’s cockiness re-emerged.

“Sooo, Mr 'Unknown', we meet again!” One of the robots holding Dave beeped, then spoke “Captain, the prisoner was carrying these.” The robot handed Brannigan Dave’s .45 pistol, and some of his extra magazines. “Ohhh hooo, not so tough without you ancient, metaly, heavy-thingy are you!” Zapp said.
Dave was unfazed by Zapp. “And I see you’re not so tough,,,,well, who am I trying to kid, you’re not tough at all!” The alcove filled with laughter. Fry, Leela, Bender, and half the robot guards began laughing hysterically.


“Ohhh, a comedian eh?” Zapp said angrily. “Stand him up!” he ordered to the guards holding Dave. “I’ve got some jokes of my own, and now that I have a captive audience,” Zapp swung his fist upward, slamming it into Dave’s midsection, knocking the wind out of him. Dave stood back up after a moment. “That was a good one eh? What, you don’t think so? Well, how about this old chestnut!” Zapp landed another punch to Dave’s gut.

“THAT’S ENOUGH ZAPP!!!” Leela shouted, her voice cracking with anger. The DOOP guards loosened their grip on Dave’s arms, letting him fall to his knees, as he caught his breath. Zapp kneeled down, looking Dave in the eyes,

“It’s not worth the trouble, don’t even think about it. Leela is mine now!” Zapp hissed, as Dave continued to stare at the floor, his breathing returned to normal. When Zapp finished his sentence, Dave spoke up in a low, gravely voice, with a slight giggle. “Ohhhh, now I get the joke!” and with that, Dave slammed his head upward into Zapp’s face. Brannigan staggered back, his mouth streaming blood from Dave’s savage head-butt. “GET HIM OUTTA MY SIGHT!” Zapp bellowed to his guards.


The two dim-witted guards approached Dave and Fry to take them to their cells. The Robot Devil’s minions may have restrained Dave’s arms, but his legs were free. A friend of Dave’s father, a fellow serviceman, and retired Navy Seal had taught Dave self-defense at a young age. Dave knew as the Seals trained, that you don’t just fight, you fight to win, at all costs!

As soon as the first guard got within range, Dave swiftly brought his right leg straight up, planting the steel-toed, size 12 boot square into the guard’s groin! Everyone in the cave let out a simultaneous groan. The DOOP guard collapsed to the ground, coughing and retching.

“Oooh, geez Dave!, did you have to give that dude a shot in the ol' coin-purse like that?” said Fry.
“Hey, Fry, when you learn how to fight from a Navy Seal, you use every chance you can. I saw my opportunity, and I took it!” Dave replied smugly.

Leela was having difficulty trying to talk, as she was laughing so hard. “So Zapp, you gonna show him how tough you are again?” Brannigan was incensed “I SAID GET EM’ TO THE CELLS DAMMIT!” he yelled, still dabbing blood from his mouth.

Back on the Planet Express Ship, Amy lounged in one of the ship’s hammocks back in the crew rest compartment. She lamented how much she missed Kif, how long