And I'm back! I apologize for the two week hiatus, I was on vacation. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, it's probably one of my favorites.

Spaceship

Gamisaras was currently tied up on the ship of two people he tried to kill. Gamisaras looked at his captors: Nink and Monna. He was sweating like a man wearing a winter coat in the middle of the Sahara Desert during Summer.

Monna grabbed him by the neck and held him close. "It's time for some interrogation, punk."

Gamisaras squealed. "I ADMIT EVERYTHING! I am Gamisaras, the self proclaimed fourth best bounty hunter in the universe! I successfully lied on my resume, I'm not the fourth best! I did it so I could make money, but I can't aim! I have a fragile ego! I got hired by Queen Aldrova to kill a Princess I didn't even knew existed until today! I took this job so I could work with the best of the best, but they don't take me seriously! They're just like the bullies on my home planet who used to shove me tail into places that tails shouldn't go! I am in debt! I never graduated school! My mother is a cannibal! I tried to take you guys down to let off some steam but I forgot I was awful at aiming! I created a fake spaceship driving licence!"

Monna took a step back wide-eyed. She looked at Nink, who was standing there with his mouth hanging open.

Monna held up her hands. "Listen. We weren't asking for your life story. We just wanted to know who you were."

Nink nodded. Gamisras calmed down a bit. However, his calm was broken when Nink spoke.

"And now we must decide what to do with you." Nink told him.

Gamisaras squirmed around, seemingly forgetting he was tied up. "What are you going to do with me!?"

Monna shrugged her shoulders causing Gamisaras to scream.

Nink facepalmed.

Monna approached Gamisaras. "Listen, we will pardon you if you will assist us."

"Assist you with what?"

"We are going to Drosera, and we are going to beat the stuffing out of Aldrova and those bounty hunters." Monna declared. "And you're coming with us."

Gamisaras gulped. "Do I have… Any other options?"

Monna grinned. "We can eject you out into space."

It did not take long Gamisaras for to decide.

Planet Balete

Caway awoke, her body still sore from the explosion. Looking around, the first thing she noticed was Ganos' absence.

Observing her surroundings she recollected what happened. "So some guy arrived, attacked us with explosive bubbles… And left?" Caway tried to make sense of this. "But then where did Ganos go?"

It was then when she realized: she was still disguised as Ganos. "That bounty hunter must have confused Ganos for me due to the illusions! And he must have taken Ganos with him.. Which means…"

Caway would have come to a sudden realization but was interrupted by a voice she had never heard before:

"Boy! I have been looking all over the star system for you!"

Caway looked around to see who the voice belonged to. Scanning the horizon, she saw no one. Odd. The voice sounded so close…

Caway panicked. "Am I going insane?" She thought. "Nonononono! I still have so much to do with my life! I don't even have a-"

The voice spoke again. "Boy! Down here!"

Caway leaned down to the ground, to find a tiny green insect standing right there, waving his arms and yelling. Caway stared in confusion.

The bug man walked closer. "What? You don't remember me Ganos? It's only been a few days! Surely you remember your mentor?"

Caway blinked. "The illusion! It's still active! He thinks I'm Ganos. And he just happens to be the mentor Ganos was talking about earlier. All I need to do is-"

At that moment: the illusion wore off.

Caway went from looking like Ganos, to her normal self again. "...I forgot Darkori said the illusion would wear off once we got a certain distance apart."

Her attention turned back to Damon, who was staring at her with his mouth wide open. He had been completely bamboozled.

Caway started. "I can explain-"

"THIS IS THE WORK OF GYPSIES!" Damon screamed as he leapt back. Caway was startled by Damon's sudden movement and jumped to her feet.

Then Damon leapt towards Caway-

-Who quickly used her energy to form a fly swatter and smack him out of the air.

Caway formed a hammer with her energy and immediately swung it down. Damon quickly reacted by leaping to a rock just before the hammer crushed him. Caway turned her head to follow his movements, only to see him leap at her faster than she could react. Damon was now on top of Caway's head.

But then Damon immediately fell off her head, coughing like he had a severe lung disease.

"ACK! Such… Noxious… Fumes.." Damon stated as he fell to the ground. Upon reaching the ground, he had one question for Caway:

"What vile poisons have you put into your hair? You she-devil!" Damon coughed.

Caway narrowed her eyes. "Perfume."

Damon blinked. Realizing that perfume was what defeated him, he quickly got up and made it seem like nothing happened.

Damon cleared his throat. "I have several questions." He looked as Caway, as if asking permission to ask them.

"One. How in Quitela's name did you turn into Ganos like that? And two: what did you do with Ganos? If you killed him I will have no choice but to ransom you for money as compensation."

"That wasn't several things." Caway retorted.

Damon tilted his head. "What do you mean, girlie?"

Caway pointed her finger. "Several is more than two, you only said two things."

Damon made a face that looked like he was sucking all the lemons. "That has nothing to do with anything."

Caway closed her eyes and shook her head. "I won't cooperate with someone who doesn't know their-"

"That is besides the point!" Damon yelled.

"Fine." Caway shrugged. "A witch gave us talismans that disguised ourselves as each other."

"There's a witch on this planet?"

Caway nodded."Yeah, she lives somewhere over there." The Princess pointed.

Damon looked at where she was pointing and saw a barren landscape for as far as the eye could see.

"Sure…" Damon said.

"As for where Ganos is, I don't know."

"Whaddya mean you don't know?"

"The last thing that happened to us when we were disguised is that we got attacked by a bounty hunter. I think he took Ganos away." Caway answered.

Damon fell backwards. "Senuv? You are lucky to be-"

Caway shook her head. "Oh, we killed Senuv about an hour or two ago. This was another guy."

Damon rubbed his chin. "You and Ganos killed the greatest bounty hunter in the universe?"

Caway nodded. "Yeah. Ganos transformed into a giant chicken and sliced him in half when he tried to blow up the planet."

Damon took a while to process this. "I don't believe you."

Caway then pointed to a rock nearby. "If you don't believe me, ask Shantsa, he saw it."

Damon was bewildered as a small blue creature poked his head out from behind a rock and nodded.

"Since when was he a thing?" Damon asked, even more confused than before.

"He's been here the entire time." Caway answered.

"Okay… If Senuv was killed, then who was the other bounty hunter?" Damon asked.

"Some guy who rubbed his skin to make explosive soap."

Damon scratched his head. "The more questions I ask, the more confusing this gets. At least it won't get any more-"

Damon's internal monologue was interrupted by a fox man leaping gracefully into the area, accompanied by a green dog man and a woman in a purple robe.

"What is even going on anymore!?" Damon thought.

"I have found you, Princess!" The fox man bowed. "I knew the smell of bad perfume would lead me here."

Caway touched her hair. "Does my perfume really smell that bad?" Caway looked at the people accompanying the fox man. One of them looked familiar.

"Darkori?" Caway said upon realizing the witch was there. "What are you doing here?"

Darkori smiled. "I had a run in with some people looking for you." She gestured to the canine warriors. "These are Majora and Shosa."

Caway nodded. "I have heard of their exploits." Taking a closer look she decided: "I thought they would look more impressive though."

Darkori looked around. "I felt Ganos' energy disappear from this planet and came two find you as soon as possible. Judging from the fact that the illusion disguises are gone, something happened to him. But what was it?"

Damon jumped up. "They got attacked by a guy who uses explosive soap. Ganos was taken away."

Darkori had seen a lot of things in her time, but upon hearing that a guy uses explosive soap to fight, she started cracking up.

"It's not funny!" Shantsa exclaimed before going back behind his rock.

Majora stepped forward. "And who are you?" He said, his nose pointed at Damon.

Damon glared at Majora. "Me? I'm the mastermind that organized the theft of her amulet in the first place. I am Damon, the greatest thief in the uni-"

Majora immediately tried stepping on Damon, only for the bug to jump away.

"What was that for!?" Damon shouted.

"You are the accursed fiend who started this entire ordeal. I shall bring you to justice!" Majora declared, before chasing Damon around.

Caway looked around, Darkori was cracking up, Majora and Damon were chasing each other, and Shosa and Shantsa were having some sort of conversation. If Caway wanted to save Ganos, she would have to take charge.

"QUIET!" Caway yelled, causing everyone to stop what they were doing. The Princess glowed with a fierce intensity. "A bounty hunter took my friend, my amulet has been stolen. I don't care what any of you say, we are going to Drosera, and we are taking them back!"

Majora shook his head, causing Caway to give him an irritated glare. Majora spoke. "Nope. I am taking you directly back to your father, your thief friend can rot-"

Majora was interrupted when Caway grabbed him, and shoved his nose right into her hair, giving him a long smell of her perfume. Majora fell to the ground gagging.

"So apparently my perfume does indeed smell bad." Caway noted. She turned her attention to the others, and stomped her foot on the ground to assert dominance.

"Any more questions? No? GOOD!"

Drosera

Kudzu barged into a large golden room, carrying a sack over his shoulder. Accompanying him was Thistle, the flower man.

Queen Aldrova sat on the other side of the room, the insect queen's large size making her not hard to spot. She stared quietly as Kudzu marched dramatically across the room with Thistle in tow. The room was very large, so it took a while for Kudzu to march over there. The fact that he was doing so dramatically made the wait even longer.

"Queen Aldrova!" Kudzu declared as he reached Aldrova. "I have brought the Princess!" Kudzu pulled out the sack and emptied its contents across the floor-

-Revealing an unconscious Ganos.

Kudzu and Thistle stared at Ganos and blinked. They looked up at Aldrova. Aldrova was staring at Ganos. Kudzu looked back down at Ganos and then back at Aldrova. Aldrova was now looking at Kudzu and Thistle. Thistle looked at Ganos and then Kudzu, back to Ganos and then Aldrova. Kudzu looked at the door. Aldrova saw this and looked at the door as well. Thistle joined in and looked at the door as well. Aldrova looked back down to Thistle and Kudzu then looked at Ganos and then back to them. Kudzu and Thistle looked at each other, back to Ganos and then back to Aldrova.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"..." Aldrova clicked her mandibles together. "...What is this?"

"Apparently that's the Princess." Thistle said, passing all the blame to Kudzu.

"I am positive I put the Princess in the sack." Kudzu nervously said.

Thistle grabbed the sack and put his head in it. He held it there for a moment.

"She isn't in the bag!" Thistle yelled at Kudzu.

Kudzu rubbed his chin. "Did you check the very back of the sack? It's a very big sack."

"I didn't." Thistle climbed into the sack.

While Thistle was doing that, Kudzu looked up at Aldrova, who hadn't blinked since she saw Ganos. He nervously whistled.

Thistle climbed out of the sack. "She's not in there, but it was a very spacious sack."

Kudzu nodded. "I know, right?"

"Is this a prank?" Aldrova hissed.

Kudzu and Thistle shook their heads.

The insect queen took a step towards them, her massive form towering over the two bounty hunters.

"What happened to Senuv?" Aldrova asked.

"I think he's dead." Thistle responded.

"And Gamisaras?"

Kudzu shrugged his shoulders.

Aldrova leaned down, her mandibles right in front of Kudzu and Thistle. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"I mean, this guy was accompanying the Princess." Kudzu stammered.

"And that helps us because?" Aldrova asked.

Thistle spoke up. "Double bait. The amulet and her friend, nothing will stop her from coming here now. We can kill her when she shows up."

Aldrova hesitated. "Very well."

Kudzu and Thistle gave a sigh of relief. That is, until Aldrova said. "However…"

Kudzu and Thistle looked up, trembling.

"When she comes, you two will not be paid until she dies by either your hands, or mine."

Kudzu raised his hands. "Don't you have an army that can do it? You are the queen of this entire planet."

"Your incompetence cost me my greatest warrior, you two are lucky to be alive right now. I will send all soldiers in my army away, this will be your redemption." The insect queen declared.

"And where do we put him?" Thistle pointed to Ganos' unconscious body.

Aldrova pointed to the door. "A left turn will take you to the supply closet, put him in there."

Kudzu and Thistle paused for a moment. "Why a supply closet? Don't you have a dungeon or something?"

Aldrova clicked her mandibles together for a bit before saying "Low budget." She then gestured the two bounty hunters towards the door.

I hope you enjoyed that chapter. The large group interaction and Aldrova's reaction to Kudzu's mistake were probably my favorite things to write in this story so far. The story will be heading into it's climax in a few chapters, I hope you enjoy what I have planned for it.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.