The tub still continued its flurried flight. Buzz encouraged the others to boost up their jetpack speed, so that with the best means they could get out of the enemy-ray shower. Capital Planet's ionosphere was almost achieved, already.
But then it was there. A hit. Yet, not a proper hit, moreover a skim. But so drastic it was, that it felt like a dozen of ion cannon blasts had hurled themselves along the bodies of the space rangers. A flash, and Team Lightyear was like struck with a high-voltage electric shock. Their eyes blackened out for a while, whereas their limbs twitched. XR suffered from small short circuits, but was the person less injured. The bath transport lost its course, now diving towards the Capital's atmosphere with a breezy speed.
"Ououuuf... w-what was that?" Instead of whippoorwills, Buzz saw now beautiful stars and glimmering traffic lights spinning around his brain-box.
"We... we got hit. And... we seemingly lost our course, too. "
"Aah! We're all gonna die! We're gonna fall! We're gonna drown!" XR's short circuit current caused some paranoia.
"Now don't be dim-witted there! It was just one shot, and I think the fire has ceased", Lightyear answered, being right. The foreign vessel had lost its interest as it had dropped its plaything. It just let the trash jump off the deep end. "We continue with our jetpacks. But we need a new shelter. And, this is again where you come in question, ranger XR."
"Yeah, I'm always the one who does the messy work. Alright... let's have some camouflage..." The upper atmosphere's cloud levels had been achieved, from where the robot had picked up an idea. He took some kind of combustion gas generator from inside himself, forming soon a compact rain cloud around the whole team. The tub was left to fall its own way.
"Buh-bye, go crash someone's birdbath!"
Inside the artificial cloud XR had formed, Team Lightyear soared down from the shelters of the gray billows. The night had approached this hemisphere, whereas the sun let its now less friendly-feeling face shine on the other side. And the murkiness was initially deeper than ever. The presence of the dark side roamed above the Core, and physically it was boosted with the lightless streets where all the peaceful, brimful life had passed away. But, instead there had grown other kind of civilization. Like death cups that bloom after the rains, had those invaders settled their base stations around the city. Above the streetlines were hovering hundreds of cocoons, glowing in the darkness with the forces of bioluminescence. Their lusterless, yellowish gloom made them look like perturbed wraiths, casting their deadly regards down on the fallen world. And they loomed practically everywhere. No street corner or skyscraper roof was without their attendance. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands had the big mother pupae kept those inside them, ready to send more sisters to rejoice with the malevolence.
Cold shivers went down Team Lightyear's spines. Such a terrible panorama had even Planet Z never allowed with all its purple desolateness. Maybe Capital Planet would have resembled faintly something alike if the Emperor on the top of his Empire had been able to conquer the Alliance. And in all the impossibility, Zurg's reign might had been a paradise compared to what now the obscure future brought along.
The dark harvest went on. Where the foreigners had set their ships, there the Alliance life had been disabled. Yet no souls were lost on this terrain, but as the premiere, everyone had been banished to be locked inside their houses, or in other miscellaneous buildings. A rough curfew was set up. The villains had obviously some kind of very polished strategy of how they moved on. This told that the infiltrators were experienced subjugators, like the ancient Hernando Cortez and his armored men. Blitzkrieg it was, with the perfect technical advances. The Milky Way was only full of savages in the hidden eyes of those unknown. Lebensraum, elbow room, that was what they wanted... to settle their ruthless race to overrule. Oh the times, oh the ages. Never became the beings tired of trying to rule new areas and subdue peoples? The greed, the injustice maybe never ended. And now, the evilness had only found a new form, after the Empire was only shady history.
Team Lightyear advanced slowly in the shelter of their faint disguise. Terrified they observed the grounds below, the scale and quickness of the foe.
"Blast... they definitely caused this. The electricity failure. As Warp said, everything is out of power here!" Buzz cursed under his breath.
"Even the streetlights... How are we supposed to see where we're going?" Munchapper asked arduously.
"We all have compasses and navigation instruments in our wrist communicators! And they do work", the Captain reminded him.
"Well, where are we going?" Mira inquired.
"Umm... good question. Warp's mansion?"
"Yeah, that sounds good, unless the local dark side geeks keep a secret society meeting there. Have ya heard about the blue pal since he dialed your wrist comlink number and blew you sky high?" XR noted.
"I... don't know. But maybe it's not a good idea to use the radio frequencies. Who knows, if those diabolic intruders have hacked even them!"
So they resolved to flit towards the Darkmatter Mansion, whatever they would then find there. As Mira had once suggested, it would be reasonable to gather the heads together. Hence the cloud turned to fly lower. Carefully keeping the phony vision of a normal natural phenomenon, Team Lightyear could keep themselves doggo for a while.
However unlike the two ships rolling around Star Command, not all the antagonists were imbeciles. Many blobs began scathing their heads, as an odd nimbus was hurtling a bit above the tallest buildings, and way too rapidly for something that consisted of ice crystals and water vapor.
"Brurbsis!" someone had activated a T-ray scanner inside a nearby villain craft. Illegal movement observed... As a result, the energy ray channels of this detector ship began to heat up. The cloudy group was quite much already in its destination. With their orienteering applications, they had found a beeline to Agent Z's castle. But now, an ionized blast was whizzing in the air after them, striking the unaware quad from behind.
"AAGRRAAHHAAAH!" a painful cry was heard from inside that smog. This strike, ripping in the organs of those ranges, was even more powerful than the one they had experienced in space. It was close that no one's heart began to fibrillate, or worse. Yet, it paralyzed everyone's muscles for a while, forcing them to fall down on the street beneath. Luckily the drop was not anything near several kilometers, but only a few floor-measures of a normal building. A person wearing only jeans and a jacket would not have survived a fall like this, though. But due to Team Lightyear's open jetpacks, added with their suits' nanodecelerators, they found themselves on the pavement quite much with no injuries. Their muscle circulation came express back, putting their reflexes alert. Namely, the vessel that had fired them, was ready for another action.
"Get on your feet and run!" Buzz panted, ready to flounce half a mile ahead in a nanosecond. Mira, he, and Booster had hurts, but now they would just have to save themselves, whatever it would take. Warp's manor was right along the same street. As it was comprehensibly faster to escape with jetpacks, they blasted off with them towards the site. Dodging artfully the nasty shots coming from behind, they achieved the front door.
With his both fists, Buzz banged the metallic surface of the entrance. The giant house seemed to be completely without life, no light was showing its warm welcome from inside.
Seconds passed, Lightyear almost trying to break open the gateway in his anguish. The rest tried to hide from the fiend in the alcoves of the entrance scala. And the cocoon up there quietly floated towards them, obviously at the present scanning the environment.
Abruptly, for Buzz' relief, the door creaked open just a millimeter. A yellowish eye peeped out, then the gap widened.
"Quasars, Lighthouse! I thought it was one of those gelatin creeps! Get in and now!" A forceful hand gripped Buzz' arm, so that it almost hurt. "Now betta explain what the dratted heck you have done up there!" Then the spoken man snatched Lightyear in, and the rest space rangers followed in a bolt.
As the locks were closed, and the garden left to its own ghoulish appearance, the strange pupa up there stopped its stirring. Something squelched inside it, commanding it to retreat to its previous post. Obviously the aliens did not care what was going on inside the houses, but only wanted to keep the streets empty. Yet, this unknown motivation at least left the people to be able to stay in the shelters of their dwellings.
The halls of Warp's palace were almost black. The dark-red and black decoration sucked even the rest of the light available, so it was only one big shadow in there. The man of the house leaded the baffled Team Lightyear towards some lower floors with a crystal torch in his hand. From his twisted face could be seen that he went through extreme feelings of irritation and confusion.
"Now WHAT is going on? First, blam, the electricity goes off. Even our fridge decided go outta power, spat out a real flood, and put the whole kitchen floor swim. And then, the lobs splat out of nowhere, trying to turn us to grilled sausages with their bazookas or whatever. Quasars, I saw those flubbies with my own eyes! And I seriously once thought the Rhizomians were ugly!"
"Warp, listen to me, I..." Buzz began, but got a frown more deadly than Zurg's hyper-death ray as his prize.
"Well ya got one heckuva lot to explain! Now, watch the stairs, the rest of ya jibbings." Darkmatter had pulled a curtain aside in the end of one alcove, revealing a spiral staircase behind it, going down. With angry steps, he began to descend, the faint lantern in his hand.
"This is not our fault! We did as much as we could!"
"Ya? An' these sunny fellas came from the Gate, right?" Warp looked up. "With candy and lollipops to offer?"
"Warp, listen to me!" Buzz almost yelled now. "They have taken the whole Star Command in control! They... they shot Commander Nebula, he may be dead! And we... we barely fled. All of us have injuries, we were just fired down from the sky. Everything is in chaos!"
Darkmatter went timid in a second. He had had the idea that this whole muss was because of some Star Command's half-failed experiment. At the root of the staircase, he opened up another door, and behind it seemed to be miles of tunnels and myriads of more entrances.
"What kind of labyrinth is this house of yours?" Mira whispered.
"Well we need one cratery windings now 'cause there's one real Minotaur in the other end. The folks are now solvin' maze tests in the funky plasma-persistent air-raid shelters. Glad I happened to be upstairs so I heard your booms. Okay... even the Emperor and Empress are down here."
"Dad!" Lightyear yelped, "I was searching for him!"
"Hmheh, must be your lucky day today then, 'cause here he is, ta-da." Darkmatter unlocked one heavy alloy-reinforced exit, kicking it open with a big boot. Behind it was a group of people sitting at a table, in the matt light of red crystals. Zurg stood up, whereas Warp gesticulated to an elder woman with her two daughters to move to the adjacent empty room. This madam was Mrs. Adlene back from Xaneda, the family's guest that was paying visit with a bit ill timing. But a serene beginning for a noveau day it had been, no one could have forecasted the hours to change it into a dark hell. Ay'noh was taken away too, sleeping in Adlene's arms.
------
In the softly illuminated bunker, a gloomy group sat and melancholically discussed. Team Lightyear, and the other well-known (excluding Nebula) had been hours already trying to get sense into the sudden catastrophe. Out there, the enemy reigned, ready to extend its dark arms over the whole Galaxy. What was there in sight, but unknown obscurity, slavery, total chaos? There were the fanatics now, who had wanted so eagerly to touch the infinity, as the prisoners of the foe.
"Just... what can we do? Can we do anything?" Buzz banged his head to his fists.
Silence.
"Does anyone know?" he raised his regard to meet the others. They stared back at him, with crestfallen miens.
"So... this is it? The end? And what I've always believed in... freedom, justice... are they now... gone?"
Silence.
"Has even hope been taken away from us?" Lightyear whispered.
This word and its boosted tone brought some life into the maroon chamber.
"No, Son. The hope is not gone." Zurg rose up from his seat, and walked to Buzz. Leaning down to him, he took the Captain's both hands into his own, looking his scion straight in his blue eyes. Concern, but also pride reflected from Zora's experienced regard.
"Son, you are speaking wise thoughts. The hope is not gone. So..." he rose back up and loosened his hold, turning to the middle floor. "So... I suggest we shall at least once more think about this whole issue. What can we do, if we can do anything?"
"I don't think there's anything we can do..." someone sighed.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing. If it is so, I was there the day the strength of men failed", the old man growled.
"C-could we... try to get the electricity back? Then we could defend ourselves. And... then we could get the fridges to work too." Booster put carefully a finger up to allot his idea.
"Good, good..." the Emperor's face brightened up a bit, "We shall need discussion. All the hours this far we have just sat here like some pathetic brain-pods in their jars. We shall not fall into the abysses of grandiloquence. More opinions do we have?"
"Umm... how exactly could we try to bring the electricity back? It all started when the Gate began to foam. It... it's somehow relating to that", Mira pointed out.
"What do our gizmo profis say?" Darkmatter turned his regard to Zarah.
"I... I've been building it up in my head... but... there's so many gaps in my theory."
"I do have a theory too. What if we would hear yours and then we shall compare it with mine?" Buzz' father uttered. He received some baffled regards as a prize. Once he did not bluster about his 'incomparable intelligence', but was ready to hear the others?
"I..." Choi began somewhat shyly, "I have wondered about the empty dimension thing. When you went in to the portal, you met this white wide open. Now I've assumed, that..."
"Now how is this relating to the problem of the power cut?" Buzz contemplated.
"I'm just coming to that. See... those aliens can't have come from that empty dimension, but maybe... maybe they have some kind of... how'd I explain it... a matched pair for the..."
A deep yea cut short Zarah's curving chatter. "Another half for the gate. Indeed, that is what I have understood too. A straight way to this weird galaxy where those cursed, pathetic, idiotic snots have come from, is possibly regulated with two doors, the white world in a way working as a tunnel between those two. And this would mean..."
"...that som'one's pullin' the levers an' playin' Hitler about 12 million light years away?" Warp threw in.
"Erm... how about the electricity issue?" the younger Lightyear was still without the proper retort.
"It may be that someone's sending a... sort of signal from the other side. This is just a guess. But maybe if someone sends there a sort of a distorting electromagnetic signal, or whatever, it could theoretically affect to certain kind of frequency-dependent electronic devices so that... ahem... their natural signal frequency gets interfered and distorted so that they won't work any more." Choi had a tirade.
Buzz fiddled his whiskers and his blue eyes looked dozy.
"Buzzy Boy. Tsut-tsut-tsut. That means simply that the aliens are controlling the phenomenon that puts our electricity off. Did they not teach you any physics at the Space Ranger Academy?" Zurg folded his arms over his big chest.
"Umh, well... it's been a bit of time since I was at the Space Ranger Academy, Dad. But, there's no time for this. No time for wondering what I once learned and didn't learn. Yet, something I've learned during the years I've been a space ranger. And that is, quickness. And if we are quick now, we can stop this madness", Lightyear orated.
"Stop? How?"
"We are... going through the gate. The key lies behind it."
"WHAT?" Everyone looked Buzz their jaws on the floor.
"There's no other choice. Never give up, never surrender. We're going to that other Galaxy and now. I don't know what's out there, but there's the source to all this." Buzz stood up from his chair, taking an over-bombastic pose. He would have been a good model for a statue-sculptor, now.
"But that's impossible, completely impossible. How are we supposed to get past the enemy ships, when there's not a single working ship even available!" someone sighed.
"We have our jetpacks. They work."
"But Buzz..." Mira added, "that's even more impossible. Don't you remember what just happened to us? We were tried to squash like moths a trillion times in row! And we don't know what's behind there, it's..."
But Lightyear wrinkled his brows even deeper, creaking his teeth. "If no one's going with me, I'm going alone! I..."
"Sorry to interrupt, but... that jetpack thing might actually work", a cautious female voice was heard. All the heads turned to gawp at Zarah, who had arisen too.
"Work? But how? The enemy detects every movement!"
"I think... we have here something against that." The leers followed her back, as she vanished behind the massive door with a torch crystal in her hand. Silence fell upon the hall. Some distant clatter echoed from upstairs, then rapid steps from the staircase. She in a breeze appeared back, something round in her hand. "Darkie, don't you remember we got this?" she showed the object to her mate.
"Quasars, I must got wet sawdust in my head! Babe, that's it! No borrowed plumes, feathers or cloaks, this is the perr-rfect cloak!"
"What is that thing actually? Looks like a baseball to me", XR sneered.
Now came one difficult part. This ball was from Xaneda, and that could not be revealed. So, the others were only told that it followed the same technology as Warp's ships. Those Xanedian vessels, as usually, had the frequency interferator that made them generally invisible. The thingamajig was a mini-micro version of those shield generators, like a pocket-protector. The redhead shifted it in her small palms, that blue, cold globule that had a round button on the top, and some kind of little holes all around it, like in a sponge. On the bottom there was another knob, and a marker of some kind.
"You just hold this in your hand, push the lower button to adjust the orb diameter, then the upper one to switch it on, and voilá, you're invisible." A diminutive demonstration was performed. A flash of blue light...and the girl's hand in the shelter of the interferating undulation seemed to have dipped beyond other dimensions. It was completely invisible for everyone.
"Whoa! Craters and nanotubes! That's it!" Buzz's eyes sparkled with noveau enthusiasm.
Mira, Booster and XR clearly recalled, how such a larger-scale instrument had given the best grades when infiltrating Planet Z some time ago. Thereby they did not give opposing statements. But the Captain wanted some assurance.
"But are you absolutely sure no one can detect us behind this?"
"Well... my pockets are empty. And I'd trust that gimmick like my left-foot sock. It has never betrayed me", Darkmatter commented.
"But, there's one thing to note. The diameter where this app can work is restricted. If we all go, we must arrange ourselves so that we fly in a compact formation."
Buzz' delighted smile evaporated the mist of sadness away from his feelings. He would not have to go solo to face the fatalities, but had many helping hands giving him support. Yet, he gave a speech about the odds that no one might come back alive, if they would even reach the extragalactic gate in one piece. Full of perils would be the nearly impossible leap, with the dark likelihood that the Milky Way would stay as the slavery's pawn for forever. But, at least they would have tried then. Tried, and maybe lost their lives for that. But if it would bring freedom for billions and again billions of others, it was a question of dignity and bravery. As he once more inquired, whether all the present would come to aid him, he got nods as responses from every direction.
Mariañ had been bitten by a tiny hesitation mosquito. With some face-twisting, she warbled, "Ehii... I know I have to come, but then again I'm not sure because... no, I'll come! Umm... but I should be here at home to... but if I come, then... ih, but I need to..."
A sudden long finger that began to titillate her under her chin, brought an answer along. "Indeed you shall come, child. Now it is decided. Jim-kraken-dandy." Then a wide palm patted her crown.
"Tih!"
However, one beckoning caused rancour. The host's quick pupils had caught the sight of Zarah. She was with a good speed pouring out more technobabble about the shield generator functions, when her mate's statement stopped her.
"Za? What are you thinking? You can't come."
"But... why? Of course I'm coming because..." she raised her brows.
"No! Don't be stubborn now, Za. It's no, for cryin' out loud." Warp had been on an irritated mood the whole day, so this event was not there to boost up any cooling. He in addition was quite inconsiderate with his words.
"But Darkie... I..."
All the present in the room grasped that there was a beginning storm in the air. That could be seen from Warp's crumpled brows and from the darkened gaze. Ponderously he rose up from his seat and took the way across the room towards her.
"No. This time it's an absolute no", he muttered and was left to stand in front of her, hands on hips.
Her timid regard approached his austere face. "But..."
"I know ya would be keen on coming with, but this situation is far much different from the gigs we have done before. You're a mother. Ya got a little girl to take care of."
"But Warp, I..."
Darkmatter's voice gave a crack, as if he would have tried to look very hard from outside, but inside was struggling with an emotional fight. And that it was in the very reality. His heart was to burst when he had grapped the audio waves coming from her side.
"No, Zarah. You listen to me, now. The laws of xaret¨a bind ya, and that's why ya have to obey me. I'm your Master, remember that." The last words were moreover gulped than told out with a clear tone.
Swallowing the lump away from her throat, Choi kept eyeing a bit frightened at this alien. Under her cover she still had a bit of fear towards him, especially because of his very sturdy and erect appearance beside her. And now this. He did very scarcely refer to this master-submissive-relationship, merely only with humour, but now there was sheer seriousness reflecting from that stern frown. It made icy shivers go down her back, alike she would have been suddenly in the deep forest of Planet Yrmh, fleeing Zurg's menace. Thus, attempting hard to produce the sentence she wanted to form, she slurred to him, "W-Warp...? I... I can see your point of view, but I'd like to talk to you..."
He was solely about to bark an objection back, but came to glance around the room in his thoughts. Startling a bit, he noticed that everyone there gawped at him. His synapses rolled Zarah's words in his brains for a fraction of time, then captured what was her expression. Such timidity had her face not revealed in a long time. And worse, he caught the glimpse of grief. The one feature concerning him he had tried to uproot away from her with tenderness.
Nodding with no sound, he asked her to stand up and walk to the second empty room beside this chamber. After she had stepped over the threshold, he jammed the door shut behind Choi. Now, again as he had gotten his full courage back, the words were thrown upon her quite angrily.
"What are you thinking? Coming to that place? Quasars, this time it's going too far. Who will take care of Ay'noh? Huh? I can't accept this." Shaking his head with confuse and mere frustration he took then a little walk across the floor.
Zarah swallowed again the hindering clod that was crawling up her trachea. "Warp, will you listen to me, now? I've been on every single trip and travel with you, all the distresses we have gone through together. What's the difference with this one? And on my behalf, do you think I could let you alone to such a place?"
And he went on traipsing the insane circle along the parquet, giving there and then beetle-browed glares towards her. "Don't try to turn my mind with similar jabber you had before going to Mister Purple-Admirer's Planet when we had to get his lack-wit laddie away from there. You WILL stay home, and take care of our daughter, and fly back to Xaneda when it's possible... will I then return or not." Actually, Darkmatter got abruptly perplexed because of his own conclusion. There was really the likelihood he would... die. Thus he stopped his foolish wandering.
"Would you listen a bit to your submissive? Isn't my role in this union to support you in all the ways I can? Don't you remember the words of the Eldest when we were wed? With patience you two, in the future, your mortal and human weaknesses bear and to each other forgiving be. No fortune there for selfishness is! As a wise Master you should listen to the weaker one at least a little!" Zarah stuttered, her big, green eyes almost watery. She stood in a corner in a half-cringed position.
But Warp had not caught the meaning of the statement. Moreover, he wrinkled his forehead and blurted, "What? I'm selfish for commanding you to stay home and safe? Quasars! How can you call me selfish? And what about Ay'noh? What about her?"
"That's just what I'm trying to explain you. Who do you think is safe in this Galaxy any more if you and the rest fail? Do you really think this bunker down here will stay safe, where you want to lock me in? And what about Xaneda? Do you think it would stay safe? No! Those whatever-they-are will find it all, sooner or later, and enslave the population just like the rest. What kind of future you think that would be? And, Warp, I cannot stand you going without me to any places concerning danger. I have promised to be beside you whatever happens, wherever you'd go. Please try to understand. And if you'd never come back, do you think I would..." she broke up, the thinking of his passing was too much to deliberate in this occasion. Hacking she still went on, her chest heavy with sorrow, "...I have been your help, your supporter in every place this far. There IS no difference between this. And... w-would I be... a-a good caretaker of Ay'noh, I would do nothing but worry after you when you would be gone... I'd... well you know very well what I'm like when I'm depressed. And that would struck me sooner or later. I know I sound like a b-bad mother, b-but wouldn't it be better to give Ay'noh to the protection of someone else, l-like Mrs. Adlene...? I mean, s-she's here, she has to stay here in any case..."
A few seconds the male just jutted there on the middle floor, his wide-open eyes aimed piercingly at her. Those were sagacious expressions, as he now had had the sense to hearken to her. Dozens of times more savvy her heart announced than his hastily yelled groans. And what was more, was his wife not almost an expert in bioscience and -technology? Weren't these sinister slime-intruders basing all their forces and advances on organic devices instead of the familiar and smug metallic ones the Milky Way produced? She would merely be a help on the journey, if possible. Hence he had to face the fact that she was right. With a dozy mien decorating his visage, he flopped down to the sofa that was at the back wall.
"Quasars..." Warp murmured, burying his face into his only palm. And soon he felt something warm nuzzling against him, as attempting to console the troubled alien. A pair of hands drew his hand away from his face, squeezing it.
"Haven't I tried to be always a humble and obedient submissive for you?" an elegiac whisper came below his ear. Turning to Zarah's side, he encountered her lachrymose eyes and a bit timorous look. Her green irises looked profound with the water of sadness she attempted to hold back. Agent Z perceived she would have wanted to bury her head under his arm, but that the little woman was afraid to do that. Another prompt came from her side, "Please... don't be... m-mad at me."
Warp skimmed her pale cheek with his fingertips. Yes, she was always pale due to her fair pigment, but now seemed to be waner than in a long time. The robust man felt a sharp scorch in his chest, seeing this tiny creature again so cautious in front of him. Running his fingers through her hair, he at the same time put his huge metal arm behind her, in order to take the girl into his warm enfold.
"Shht... my li'l tiny poor thing... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry I yelled at you... I never ever should have done that... how stupid I was..." he mumbled into her ear, while clasping her tight against his wide chest. "I'm not mad at you. Shht. You have been a lot wiser than me. Poor thing, no need to sob..."
"So what are you ordering me to do?" a wavering question was presented against his shirt.
"Just like ya said, li'l thingie. You're coming with me and we'll let Adlene take the good care of Ay'noh." Sighing he continued, "I know... it sounds a bit cruel to leave her alone... the poor thingie..."
"T-That's why I... t-thought you'd keep me as a b-bad m-mother be-because..." the stuttering went on.
"No, no, no." Warp pressed his cheek against her forehead, smoothing her locks with his wide palm, "No. You're a good mommy for her and a wise wife for me. Shht..."
Her sorrow was taken away by the long, deep kiss he gave her on her lips, while the gentle Master embraced her hard in his safe clasp.
The room behind the Darkmatter chamber-door had been silent in waiting. Not a single person had ever seen Warp and Zarah arguing severely with each other. Some yells had echoed through the wall, and then the complete taciturnity.
"Wonder what's happening there?" Mira gave a cautious blurt.
"I can tell that." XR hummed. "My statistic calculator tells that the match was won one-zero, and that one point went to... ta-da... Missus Darkie."
"How can you be so sure about that?" Mira gave a snort. "Warp Darkmatter is..."
At the same instant the entrance of mysteries creaked open. The Darkmatters tiptoed out, with their ridiculous height difference. Of course it was tender from Warp's side to bury his wife under his wide and big arm and keep her pressed there, but the view was always as absurd. Choi's crown barely verged on his left armpit, and when she walked now a bit hunched, she looked even shorter than usually. And as the man himself was wide as a garage door, it gave more ludicrousness to the whole issue.
Nova actually produced a small burst of laugh, which she muffled rapidly with a palm. Of course she should not have chuckled in the cost of this kind of matters.
XR snapped his fingers, "See, I was right. My standard deviation rectifier doesn't fail, although the stars would fall, and the sky would turn green."
Everyone rolled their eyes again, well that was the most likable result that XR's utters caused. Warp sat back in the sofa, not letting his little submissive at all flee from his arms. He put her to sit on his knees, while going on with today's grave discussions.
"Umh... obviously Mrs. Darkmatter is..." Buzz put up a couple of probing words.
"...I won't leave my babe anywhere!" the blue man snapped, but continued then his forehead wrinkled, "And although we both feel truly bad to leave our daughter alone, I came to the conclusion as the Master, that Za comes with."
"Eight companions. So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Gate" Zurg solemnly concluded. "And now... we shall leave this house after the first preparations, and go to visit mine."
