And then everything went black...
"Hey, what's happening!" Ferdiky yelled.
Everyone was back in the room where the LP stood. They looked around surprised... after having blinked for a few seconds, they turned their attention at Shadow, who already was typing on the panel... the amount of "deets" caused by pressing a button proved that Shadow was typing fast... very fast.
"Shadow... why aren't we looking at that cute, pretty squirrel right now, but standing in this room?" Ferdiky asked.
"Dude!" Zimok said with slight disbelief, "Don't tell me you fell in love with a girl that died around 50.000 years ago..."
Ferdiky raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't fell in love with her... if I find Milima here cute and pretty, it doesn't... mean..." Ferdiky looked at Milima, the cow, who death-glared back.
"What! I'm only giving the hedgehog an example!" Ferdiky said to Milima.
"Hmph... You don't necessarily need to speak the truth, silly echidna... though I agree that finding another example of cute and pretty in this room is very hard," Milima said.
All this time, Shadow had been typing on the panel.
"Shadow, what's wrong?" Milima now asked, turning to the ebony hedgehog, while Ferdiky and Zimok went on discussing.
"Technical stuff... seems like we can only use it for a certain length of time... he then needs to rest for half an hour... otherwise, it'll overheat itself and explode," Shadow explained.
"What do we do in the meantime?" Milima asked.
"I have no idea," Shadow replied.
"Maybe we can eat something," Milima suggested.
"Of course... the restaurant's around the corner and the supermarket across the street. Where shall we go?" Ferdiky's voice sounded sarcastically, proving that he was still listening to the conversation of Milima and Shadow.
"Are those brains of yours really as small as I believe them to be? We brought our own supplies, you dummy!" Milima said back.
"Oh... I just think we happen to have forgotten the infinite cookie-jar," Ferdiky went on with his sarcastic comments, "Our supplies won't be here forever!"
Zimok chuckled and then said:
"Well, Milima, Ferdi has a point. Our food-supplies aren't infinite. And Ferdiky happens to be quite an eater. I don't know how much is left, but it's not enough for another week."
Milima looked up, seemed to have gotten an idea and turned at Shadow.
"Could there be any food left in this building?"
"This building?" Shadow asked, "a CIU-building? It's one of the many buildings of the Crime Investigation Unit, not a restaurant. And by the way, this building has been destroyed two months ago... I doubt we'd find any food in this building."
"Why didn't we think of this problem in the first place." Zimok asked to no-one in particular.
Everyone was thinking.
"We could go back to Mobius," Zimok said hesitatingly, as if he didn't think the rest would agree with the plan.
"WHAT! Back to... there?" Ferdiky yelled.
"Zim, I'm not gonna wager my life for some food on a planet full of Xorda."
"And even if we're underway, we're in danger of being seen," Shadow reasoned, "I think leaving Vennettilli is not a possibility."
"But... where do we find food then?" Zimok protested, stating that there was no other way.
"Sure, you can go, Zim. But when you're dead, don't come whining to me!" Shadow replied.
Without his buddies to agree with him, Zimok determined that leaving the planet they were on, Vennettilli, a name that was the last name of the one discovering the planet, was not an option.
"And planet Kaye? Is that an option?" Zimok suggested.
"If only Nicole was still alive, we could have gone there," Shadow replied, "She was the one keeping the real climate outside and supplying oxygen. Without her, all the nanites protecting the planet's civilization has been destroyed by the pressure. But, man, does that machine bring back memories..."
"Bring back memories later. Right now, we gotta have food," Milima said, "I suggest we still go look in this building, even though there's little chance."
"We've got little else to do anyways," Zimok said, agreeing to Milima's proposion. Shadow and Ferdiky silently agreed to that.
"C'mon then," Shadow said, "I'll give ya a short tour through the building."
"Are we going to pass your workplace?" Milima asked.
"That's almost on the top... that's where all the higher officers were. The top part of this building has been bombarded... there's little chance my workplace is standing upright," Shadow explained, while walking to the door they used to enter this room.
"How does it feel to walk around in this building?" Zimok asked when they stood in the hallway.
"Nostalgia," Shadow answered with one word. He turned left and said:
"Let's first look for food, if that can still be found. The restaurant was downstairs... it'll take ten minutes to go there."
Ferdiky turned his head at Shadow.
"Ten minutes? That's long. I can't imagine... walking that long only for a little snack."
"Well, it's a large building. But this part of the bulding wasn't used much. Most of these rooms contain prototypes of machines, most not even finished. The only people walking around in these parts of the building were scientists and researchers."
"Wait, so you say behind every door is a different prototype... of something?" Milima asked.
Shadow nodded.
"Though from 75%, I have no idea what they're for."
"Yannicka would've loved this place," Ferdiky said.
"She sure would have," Zimok replied agreeing, "a shame what happened to her."
Apparently, Yannicka was a painful memory for all of them... Zimok sighed.
"I miss her a lot," he said, with a sad tone.
"I can imagine," Ferdiky replied to Zimok's words. "She was your girlfriend."
Zimok slightly nodded. The rest of the "journey to the restaurant", everyone was silent.
When Shadow stopped at the door that hid the restaurant from the four friends, Shadow noted:
"Well... here's the restaurant... former restaurant... though it does look quite intact..."
With those words, Shadow proceeded by pushing open the piece of wood which were called doors by normal Mobians. The restaurant... could barely be called a restaurant anymore.
"You were saying...?" Ferdiky said, looking sideways at the ebony hedgehog, after having looked over the complete mess that had taken over the floor of the restaurant. Pieces of unidentifiable rubbish, wood, iron or steel, stone and still recognizable things were inhabiting the pretty big floor of the restaurant.
"Well... at least the walls are still standing," Shadow began.
"Wrong," the attentive Milima said, proving Shadow wrong, "a whole wall has been broken down... look good and you can see that. Another clue is the pretty big amount of stone lying on the floor... I would find it really weird if Xorda warriors happened to have carried random stones to here, just for fun."
"What's wrong with that," Ferdiky immediately, "it's not like it's hard and it really is fun!"
"You," Milima reacted," never cease to surprise me with your weird obsessions and hobbies."
"This is neither an obsession nor a hobby," Ferdiky replied.
"Who cares?" Milima said, not interested anymore in the pretty useless conversation.
"Let's search for food instead."
"That's impossible!" Zimok reacted. "That's like finding a needle in a haystack!"
"For this situation, that is an awfully big understatement, Zim," Ferdiky said.
"Nothing is impossible," Milima said, walking forwards through the rubble. She almost fell after she didn't look carefully to the ground and a big rock happened to be lying in her way...
"So, Shadow... why not tell us some overall things," Ferdiky suddenly said.
"Overall things?" Shadow replied to Ferdiky's vague sentence.
"Yeah... explanations... like, what are the origins of the Monians and how come they're almost identical to Mobians?"
"Oh, like that... well, the answer on both is pretty simple. By the time the Xorda made contact with the humans, Earth wasn't the only planet inhabited with humans anymore. They had space colonies, four to be precise. Monius was one of them. The Xorda visited Earth first and then bombarded it with the Gene Bomb. Soon after, the now called planet of Monius was also bombarded. The two other colonies remained unknown for the Xorda until 50 years ago, when the other two were also discovered. One of the colony has been completely destroyed. The last colony, Hollandia, was named after a region in The Netherlands, a former kingdom on Earth, because of the huge amount of Dutch population that inhabits Hollandia. They are still in war with the Xorda and surprisingly, are doing well, because of their superior technology. Now the Mobian Empire pretty much has fallen, Hollandia is the biggest and most advanced empire in the universe... and maybe even in the multiverse."
"Wow... interesting," Ferdiky replied to the small explanation.
"And," Zimok asked," is Hollandia inhabited only by Dutch people?"
"Mostly, but there are other big ethnic groups, like Canadians, Japanese, French, Germans, Swedish, Greeks and surprisingly, Inuit. Americans are a minority on Hollandia.
"Guys!" Milima's voice suddenly yelled. "I've found something!"
They all looked up. A quick look told them that Milima had gone to the kitchen of the former restaurant. The open door to the aforementioned room was their proof. They walked over to the door and peeked inside. There they saw... a kitchen... and that was exactly what took them aback.
"The kitchen... it hasn't been demolished," Ferdiky said, astonished by this fact.
"And better, there is food!" Milima yelled excitedly.
"Is that food still eatable?" Zimok asked, afraid to get served up food that was months old.
"Don't worry... it's still good," Milima replied.
"And what is "it"?" Ferdiky asked.
"A lot... there's only one problem... how to prepare the meal? There's no gas here... I can't cook without gas," Milima stated her problem.
"Hmm," Shadow thought," It's a wonder the electricity works in certain parts of the building."
The answer on Milima's problem came quick enough.
"We have a spacecraft for cooking, Milima," Ferdiky said, "I suggest we go to the spacecraft and have a meal from our own supplies, which I believe we should use up first before starting on the food lying here."
"Sure," Milima said.
The four walked out of the kitchen and into the restaurant. While on their way out, Zimok asked Shadow:
"You know more of this than I do, Shadow. What are exactly the biggest nations at the moment?"
"Y'mean... in the whole universe?"
Zimok nodded.
"First off, humans. They're pretty much the most advanced nation now and have a great culture. They have a couple of small space colonies far away too. Others are probably the Xorda. They're an aggressive race and have bothered the Mobians for a long time. The Nerbs are also a very intellectual and advanced nation. I have heard that they have a weird culture and a beautiful history... but I don't have much information on them. They are still a mystery for the biggest part. If we were on Mobius, I could access the database there and give you a more detailed explanation of who those little green creatures are. They inhabit pretty much every planet in secret and prefer to not have contact with local civilizations. And, well, until a few months ago, Mobius was also on the list. Monius has been on the list for very long too, but since the Xorda are also attacking them now and pretty much captured all of Monius, they are also a collapsing empire. Their colonies have all been destroyed already," was Shadow's long answer.
"It's sad, isn't it," Zimok said.
"What is?" Ferdiky asked.
"That wars can exterminate complete empires. From what I hear, Mobius and Monius were big empires, with a good economy and many people. And a silly war just rips all that apart."