There was thunderous cheering down at the main plaza at the heart of Tera Con Alpha, right at the front steps of the skyscraper that stood at the very center of the city. The multiple towering crystalline spires that stood together combined to form the skyscraper itself glittered in the sunlight, amazingly without casting a shadow on the event taking place at its base. Crowds of thousands of people were gathered in front of the skyscraper's main entrance, where a stage had been built just in front of the steps, a giant screen wall standing at the back of it.

At the center of the stage, standing right behind a podium thanks to a set of steps placed behind it, was a short bald green alien wearing a dark blue robe, one that had a collar that went entirely around his neck, long sleeves, and down to his feet. Close to him was a tall hologram displaying himself over the stage for everyone in the crowd to see. Additionally, there were more of those same holograms further down the plaza for people who could not be close to the stage, even extending to screen monitor displays in the rest of the city, especially where people were gathered in indoor places.

The robed alien spoke into the mic in a confident voice. "Allow me to introduce Crimson Light's young hero, Little Cato."

As he spoke, the giant screen that stood behind the stage displayed a picture of Little Cato, showing him with a confident look in his eyes and a soft smile on his muzzle.

"Thanks to his perseverance and bravery, he has brought down the Mad Tenebri for good. Let us all praise his achievement."

Little Cato stepped forward from the side of the stage, walking to the center before stopping in front of the short green alien, close enough that he didn't force him to leave his spot on the platform behind the podium. He stood still as the alien attached a medal to his shirt. Once he was finished, the little alien spoke to Little Cato quietly and privately away from the mic. "Little Cato, please keep defending Tera Con Alpha hereafter."

Little Cato nodded. "You know I will, Governor Jack. I'll keep protecting this city, just as you protected me all those years ago. You've always been a hero to me ever since you saved my life as a kid."

[-GOVERNOR JACK-]

Jack already knew Little Cato personally ever since the latter was born, but it was one night that their relationship became something more. That night, before it all went down, Little Cato was only 11 and living a normal life, a normal childhood with his father, Avocato. But all of that was taken away in an instant, his home suddenly destroyed without warning in a Tenebrus attack. With no time to prepare and being unlucky to have been struck the same time as their home was, Avocato could only tell his son to get out. Fate was in Little Cato's favor when Jack happened to be passing by. The moment Jack saw the Catos' home up in flames and understood the danger its inhabitants were in, he rushed in without further hesitation. Despite losing his friend Avocato to the flames, Jack managed to get the blue Ventrexian's little orange-furred son out.

"We're all counting you, Little Cato," Jack left him with those parting words as the event continued on, the two still standing next to each other while looking at the audience and cameras.

Little Cato looked behind to see the rest of the Crimson Light crew standing at the bottom of the stage at the side, catching a glimpse of Gary giving a toothy-smiled thumbs up with two hands, Quinn giving a wink of approval, Tribore looking fiercely impressed, Mooncake bouncing in the air with glee, and Fox looking in another direction with a scowl. Little Cato could only guess that it meant a celebration was going to be in order shortly.

The little fleet of ships that composed the Scarlet Lance squadron flew over the empty and rocky landscapes of planet Yarno, passing mountain after mountain and ridge after ridge until they reached an expansive crater-like sinkhole bordered by mountains. At the center and the bottom of the crater, the deepest part of it, was a complex prison compound surrounded by a ring-shaped chasm that was so deep and wide that it appeared pitch black.

Ash, Devlin, and Melvin were being led through the main corridor to be escorted to a holding cell where they would be contained until they were to be put on trial to face punishment for their crimes as terrorists. Before they got to their cell, they were put through scanners so that the prison could record their identification. Ash was scanned as Ash Graven, Devlin was scanned as Devlin Dewinter, and Melvin was scanned as Melvin Dewinter. On their way to their designated cell, they could hear the news broadcast playing as it echoed down the halls:

"The Tenebri suddenly appeared 30 years ago. Widescale mass destruction caused by dark matter-wielding mutants took a devastating toll on every world in the galaxy. But now, the Tenebrus threat is finally being driven out. Just the other day, thanks to the efforts of Crimson Light, the leader of the Mad Tenebri has been apprehended, spelling the end of the terrorist group…"

All three of them eventually reached the cell, in which its door slid open to reveal a sight that left them taken aback: Inside the large and spacious cell were multiple individuals, people of various species from all over the galaxy, people consisting of young and old, ranging from young adults to teenagers to the elderly to even little children. But the worst part of it apart from being cuffed like the three were was that every single one of them was bandaged everywhere, any part of themselves if not all of it at once. Most were bandaged on their arms and legs, but there were others with bandages on their chests, torsos, their scalps, and even over sections of their faces. If there was anyone who had hair, there were large areas where said hair is missing, bandaged or otherwise.

The guards roughly shoved the three into the cell before they could silently gawk further, not caring if they pushed hard and suddenly enough that they stumbled to the floor. One of the guards even gave a punch. "Wait!" Ash called out but couldn't prevent the guards from closing the door.

"Hey! She said 'wait,' dang it!" Melvin hollered at the closed door, hoping the guards were still there and within earshot. "Get back he –!" FSSHH! In the middle of his yelling, Melvin tried to use his Tenebrus powers again, but somehow, his cuffs automatically reacted to his powers that sprayed him and caused him to get covered in crystals. The weight of being immobilized by the crystals made him fall over onto the floor, shattering the crystals upon landing and freeing his movements again.

"Don't bother."

Ash looked to her side to find the speaker, an old man with the appearance of a little grey-green bald alien with orange-tinted goggles over his eyes and bandages wrapped around his scalp. He continued, "Any time you try, you'll just get crystallized limbs."

"Looks like it," Ash quietly commented.

"Boss," Ash heard Devlin whisper to her. Ash along with Melvin turned around to where Devlin was looking. At the far end of the cell, one person with a bandaged head sat in a corner looking empty while two more bandaged people were sitting against the wall and watching a second pair of people. Said pair of people were laying sprawled on their backs, heavily bandaged everywhere and near-motionless despite that they were still breathing.

"Dear god," Melvin gasped as he took in that sight.

"What a terrible thing," Devlin agreed with him breathlessly.

"It's exactly what they say," Ash said quietly, feeling a grimace coming out of her.

"We all believed you were our last hope," the old man from before spoke again, "but now that you've been caught too, well…"

One of the two people lying on the floor on their backs was shakily lifting up an arm to reach out to the three. "Boss," Melvin whispered to Ash to get her attention. Ash looked carefully at the person trying to reach for her, deducing said person's appearance even though there was almost little to no lighting inside the cell. Judging from the overall build and dark reddish-brown fur and head of yellow hair from under the bandages, it was a male Ventrexian. He tried to hold his hand in the air as he kept trying to reach for Ash; Ash noticed that both of his arms and legs were entirely bandaged, leading her to assume that his limbs being that damaged was why he appeared to be the only one who wasn't cuffed.

Ash skipped towards the Ventrexian's side and got down on her knees, keeping her eye on his the whole time, with Devlin and Melvin joining her. As she looked at him with desperate concern, he tried to look back at her, but appeared to even take a considerable amount of his already dwindling strength to do so, let alone hold it. He weakly tried to open his mouth to take a breath, and it took him several seconds to get even enough air. It was worse when he used his breath to try and speak.

"…what did…we even do…to deserve this…?"