Prologue
The war had begun.
Wander had still been imprisoned inside Lord Dominator's icebound, watching the chaos break out on the green alien's large screen. She had been watching too, ordering her bots to do her bidding once and awhile. The space nomad had nothing but hope to hold on to. He and Sylvia had gotten out of worse situations, right? From carrying an unhatched egg to escaping out of Dominator's ship, they've always prevailed. With the whole population of the galaxy fighting her, Dominator stood no chance because evil will always be defeated by good.
He was sure of it.
In the midst of the battle, Lord Hater's ship had approached Dominator's, and the electrokinetic skeleton began his spiel on how Dominator would have to get through him in order to destroy the galaxy. Wander's heart swelled when he recognized how Hater was on the side of the people, regardless of the skeleton's hopes to enslave them in the future. The fact that he was fighting for justice had been enough.
However, his encouraging speech on how he would be Dominator's main obstacle was quickly disproven, as the white haired woman shot his ship out of the sky. The attack left Wander feeling empty again.
If only he had stayed on the hidden planet with the rest of the people. In spite of his own morals, he would rather help defend them instead of being trapped inside of a giant mold of ice not defending them, which was starting to feel uncomfortable on his fur.
The phrase 'it never hurts to help" sounded like mockery in this current situation.
Wander let out a soft shudder, gaining the attention of the green-colored alien.
"What? Are you going to cry?" She mocked, "There is no good side of a war, Wander. Sometimes you have to know that when people have power, they'll abuse the hell out of it. There's no power of love or friendship that can stop it! You have to work to get what you want, and right now, I'm going overtime!"
She stared at his form, smirking in pride that she managed to get the galaxy's most optimistic nomad to suddenly realize the harsh reality of life. Upon seeing his dismay, a plan so traumatic, so detrimental sprouted in Dominator's brain, and she gave the orange alien a sadistic smile.
"Grab the Zbornak!" She demanded.
To this, Wander screamed "No!", but the bots had already grasped his travel companion and his best friend.
His eyes watered as he saw Sylvia, swearing and giving it her all to fight off the bots, but to no avail. He watched as Dominator set the target of the drill right on Sylvia's stomach, not finding the words to say, but knowing if he did say anything it would be wasted breath. He couldn't stop this. He couldn't stop this.
Dominator's smile grew even more harsh as she saw the nomad's desperation to help in some way, and to the tune of her own song, she sang "I destroy your best friend and I watch you cry!" with a hearty but sinister laugh.
The drill began to move closer, Wander not having enough air to scream his protest. He closed his eyes feeling light-headed, and despite being surrounded by ice, he felt as if he had a fever.
Evil never wins. This isn't supposed to be happening.
Just as he finished his thought, the ship had trembled. He opened one eye to see that Hater had been using his powers to create a force field, which he used specifically to shield the zbornak from being struck with the drill. Wander couldn't contain his excitement. His eyes watered and he gave a light squeal. If his hands were free, they would be covering his mouth in surprise.
Hater had truly became someone a little less full of hate.
Dominator was shocked, but her face wouldn't show it for long. She would never say it out loud, but she was impressed. Hater had hardly been a threat to her since he found out her gender, so seeing that he had enough power to repel an intergalactic space drill came as a shock. However, Dominator already knew how dense Hater was. The skeleton had been easily to manipulate in the past, from handing over the seemingly 'powerful' (candy) ring, to letting her crash his strongly powered vehicle.
With no effort at all, she'd have him at her knees again. With a single phrase, he would be wrapped around her finger.
With one proposition, he would stop fighting for these weak brats and actually be a villain for once.
She pressed buttons on her dashboard in a specific sequence, and soon enough, her hologram had been presented beside the skeleton.
Hater, despite him having no sweat glands, had been drenched from frontal bone to phalange while attempting to hold back the drill. The false Dominator "leaned" upon the skeleton's form, her eyes batting and her lips drawn in a smirk.
"Mr. Machoman, I see?" She said, clearly taunting him, "You could've won me over a long time ago if you told me you were this strong."
Despite using most of his energy, he gathered enough strength to ask, "I - I could've?"
Wander swallowed, realizing what was going on, and knowing how easily fooled Hater was, it might work. He tried his hardest to hop over to the dashboard, wanting to scream that this was just a trick, that she's just trying to get him to give up. But he couldn't.
"Mhm," Dominator hummed, running a finger over the skeleton's humerus, "With this strength, I would've been all over you, but you're using it for what? These inferiors?
"We could destroy the galaxy together," She continued, ghosting her fingers over Hater's chest, "Your power and my army, we'd be unstoppable."
Hater flinched, as if her hologram had actually touched him. His face scrunched as he tried to think about it while holding off the drill at the same time.
"Sir!" A shrill voice screamed, "You're not actually considering this are you?!"
"Peepers, shut up! I'm trying to think!" He shouted back.
Trying to control a massive force from penetrating into your friend's - - enemy's friend stomach had clogged up his thinking space.
"Just get rid of the zbornak and join me, and no one can stop us." Dominator egged on, her seductive tone growing more cold and a bit desperate.
Hater began to sweat twice as heavy, his cranium becoming slick with indecisiveness.
"You ol' flarf nobbler! She's trying to trick you!" Sylvia protested angrily, ''She hasn't liked you before, she's not going to like you now!"
"Yeah, but I wasn't this powerful before, was I Sylvia?!" Hater snapped back.
"That's not the point!" The zbornak began, but her mouth was clamped harshly by one of Dominator's bots, pinching into her flesh hard enough to make her shout.
Wander felt an emotion spark inside of him. One he's never really felt as strongly before. Sure, he had become angry once or twice in his lifetime, but it was never like this. He didn't necessarily wanted to hurt Dominator, but if something bad were to happen to her, he wouldn't feel as empathetic.
The look on Hater's face was familiar. He's witnessed Hater becoming so exhausted that he's blacked out before, but this wasn't the time or place to do so. He knew if Hater were to pass out, things were going to end badly.
"Damn it," Dominator swore under her breath, "I'm not getting to him like this."
With that, she left, but not before telling Wander that she'll deal with him later. The ship still remained afloat, the drill still trying to force its way throw Hater's shield. From the screen, Wander saw that Dominator had left the ship on one of her gadgets, sauntering towards the skeleton with a seductive look in her eye.
Hater's bones began to shake at her arrival, more out of exhaustion than anything else.
"Hater," She said sweetly, "I just want you to hold me in those big, strong arms you have."
Dang, she's really pushing it, Peepers and Sylvia had both thought at the same time.
Hater stared at her, his arms trembling. Holding a beautiful, skinny lady was much rather preferred at this point, and at Dominator's small leap, he dropped the field.
Sylvia and Wander's eyes had grown wide as they both saw the drill coming towards the zbornak at a harsh speed. What they failed to recognize that Hater, filled with exhaustion had passed out after Dominator had jumped, leaving her to fall in the same path of the drill too. The impact of the green woman hitting her stomach knocked the wind out of Sylvia, but she knew it could not compare to the sharpness of the drill.
Dominator couldn't utter a single word before the drill impacted her in the back, and the metal showed no mercy as it continued through the zbornak's stomach.
Sylvia thought it best not to put up a struggle. She was going to die a warrior in battle, all the while taking down the villain in the same blow. She would be the savior of the people she and her traveling buddy had try to protect.
She fulfilled her purpose.
However, leaving Wander to find his own.