Gnir House was decorated with reddish wood and green stone. It was very fine and warm, and excessively luxurious. Lord Gnir happened to be the leader of the village, and therefore he had somewhat better accommodation than the rest of the town inhabitants. Warp liked the style, and especially the living room, in which he was spending his nights. Emperor Zurg had got the guest room –formerly the room of the eldest daughter Azile, who now had moved into her own house. All the rooms were high, actually three meters from floor to ceiling. Large windows brought space and light inside, and the white voile curtains, as well as the crackling fire in every room, enhanced the amiable atmosphere. Along an aisle that led from the living room towards the sauna and the shower in the western corner, were the rooms of Adelante and the parents Gnir, as well as the second entrance to the veranda.

Warp walked rapidly into the kitchen after Adelante. He was starving, and Zola, the mother, was really a five-stars' cook. In the middle of the room was a large log table, and benches on both sides and another end. Without asking whose place the chair at the end was, Warp threw himself lazily into it, and lifted his boots on the table. Lord Gnir, and old gray man, silently gave him way, and bent to sit next to his youngest, Adelante. The girl was terrified of this turn –nobody had ever taken his father's place on their table! No respect, no manners! This metal-junk-armed blue whale was truly a jerk. Her expression showed Warp how much she detested him right then, but Warp did not want to understand. He only stretched his arms and yawned,

"Alright, what's for lunch? My servants always start with feeding me a grape after another, until I tell them to bring the fried Grivitana-calamar and the wine in."

Zola tried to say, that she had only salmon and potatoes, and some buttercup-salad by the side. But whereas she was astonished and embarrassed, Adelante was boiling,

"Put your feet immediately down from the table! What is wrong with you? Did you act like this already at breakfast? Well, it is your luck that I wasn't there, then! And stop waving with the chair, it may fall down!"

"Oo, are we flaring up, here?" Warp answered teasingly, "Who are you to say, what I can or cannot do?"

Clanging his right hand sharp fingers in front of her face, he tried to scare her. However, Zola put an end to the quarrel,

"Let him be, Adelante. He is our guest. But I am afraid that Mr. Darkmatter must still do without servants."

Looking Adelante sharply, Agent Z sneered,

"Well, I think I can manage. If you will give me the tail part of the fish –the part with no bones, you know."

"Naturally."

Right then Azile entered the kitchen. She had been looking after Emperor Zurg the whole morning, and was now in the need of a break.

"What is going on, here? Uh, my every muscle hurts! I have been sitting in a wrong position, I think… Mr. Darkmatter, your friend is doing better already."

"Jeez, good to hear. Is he awake?"

"No, not yet. But he's calmer than before. It would be no wonder, if he joined us tonight for half an hour."

"I better go and check him after the lunch. Do you have a mirror and a comb for him? I tell you, he is angry like an on-stepped bee if he finds out that his coiffure is messy in front of ladies!"

"In his situation, it is only normal that…"

"You cannot understand. He is like me. The coiffure must always be tidy, no matter you were asleep or awake. Hey, why isn't my glass filled with that wine, already?"

Adelante could not hear this egoistic monster anymore calmly and cried,

"Your Majesty is good and pours himself. This ain't a guest-house, but our home. Who do you think you are? Only because you happen to be some 'Warp Darkmatter' or 'Agent Z' from some pathetic little moon of Zeta Quadrant, it doesn't make you any special in my eyes."

Zola and Lord Gnir were horrified,

"Adi! What are you saying! Be careful with your words! He is Emperor Zurg's right hand!"

"Right hand, indeed! That horrible machine!"

"Adi!"

But Warp had only started to laugh. He was actually almost choking into his laughter.

"Whahhahhaa! Ehhehhaah! Who do I think I am, eh? Whohooo! Whee!"

"What is so funny?" Azile asked.

"I tell you who I am. I am a very remarkable person on my moon. Even my face is carved into the mountains. It is a sight really worth seeing, I have even planned to arrange some tourist trips to the 'Darkmatter Cliffs'. How beautiful work of art! Shows right from my bedroom window."

"Ok, but we are not on your moon, now."

"No. But you should still respect me and my boss, who is a powerful maintainer of the balance of the galaxy. You know, we have experienced combat fighting against a thousand-head shrewd of Galactic Alliance's best warriors –just the two of us –and  we are still alive. So what do you think? Can you and your villagers be much a threat to us? Besides, I am a good hunter. I never miss a shot."

Loading his weapon hand, he then continued eating his salmon. Everybody were silent, although most likely thinking about Warp's words in their heads. They were scared, and even Adelante did not dare to say anything further. The awareness of the missile launcher and the laser gun in Warp's mechanic part kept their mouths shut. Warp was obviously not to be played with –at least, not too much. He always had to be the winner, some way or another.

* * *

Zurg woke up very late that day. His head was as heavy as hundred black holes, and it hurt like somebody would have stabbed his brains again and again. When he got his eyes half open, he wondered where he was. He tried to look around. The only thing he remembered from his last 24 hours was that he had been walking with his apprentice Darkmatter in a jungle –and after that –everything was black.

The room was very cozy. The walls were made of warm-colored wood as well as the floor and the ceiling. But how high the ceiling was! Almost as high as his private chamber in Z-Tower. Where was he? He turned his head and saw two green carpets and a purring cat lying on the floor. A fire crackled happily in the fireplace despite that it was mid summer outside. Rays of sunlight made the beautiful flowers on the table smile happily. Zurg tried to rise, but soon after taking support from his left arm, he fell back to bed, groaning miserably. He touched his shoulder. It was well tied under a bandage.

"Uh… What? What is this? What has happened to me?"

Azile opened the door and saw the Emperor awake. She smiled friendly and went to pour him a glass of water. However, she was nervous, because of the little depute at the dinner table. Carefully she took out a comb and a mirror and placed them on the table. Then she looked at him with fear and severity in her eyes,

"I need to clean your wound now. Otherwise It may become inflamed."

Zurg looked at her dully. He did not like to be in weak condition; it somehow seemed to eat his masculinity and tuff image. He was supposed to be a powerful emperor, not like a little baby in a cradle. He was on a very bad mood. As Azile tried to approach, he bawled,

"Do you not touch me! My shoulder is just fine as it is."

Azile felt bad, for she was thinking about Mr. Darkmatter's words. This man was clever and stubborn, and perhaps violent. Obviously he had the habit of being crusty without a good reason even to strangers. But Azile was there for a reason, and therefore persuasively said,

"I must insist that you let me look at it. We haven't checked it since last night when you were brought in!"

"What day is it?"

"July the 17th. Now... Let me see your wound."

Azile tried to maintain her calmness and friendliness despite the man's threatening gaze. Zurg resisted still a little, but as soon as she began to open his bandages, he seemed to calm down. Azile got the canvas off after a couple of minutes' work. It was a little messy from dry blood.

"Now, wait just here, I will fetch some things."

Zurg watched her as she went to pour some hot water from a cattle above the fireplace. He saw a woman, probably twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a very pleasant figure. She had a plenty, light-brown hair, gathered above her occiput with a green ribbon. Her face was more good-natured rather than really beautiful, but she had a very pretty smile and a cute nose. Zurg did not quite comprehend the situation, and asked,

"Where am I? And who the quasars are you?"

"My name is Azile Gnir. You are in a village called Maito. My family saved you and your friend from a trap-hole last night."

"Ah, yes… We are on Naboor… And we fell suddenly underground… and something sharp hit me."

"It was a lance. Luckily your friend did not hurt himself, otherwise you would still be lying there. He shouted us for help."

"Darkmatter? Where is he?"

"Taking a nap on the living room sofa. He sent my mother to the blacksmith's to order him a new buckle for his trousers' belt. He wants letter 'W' carved in it."

"Good… Just a pity that your mother has already left. I would have ordered a belt buckle with 'Z'."

Returning back to the Emperor, Azile wetted a corner of a little linen with spirits. Then she pressed it without warning against his wound. Zurg felt insufferable pain as the spirits made his shoulder smart.

"Aaaargh! Grrr! Stop that! Stop that immediately!" he nearly spitted as he shouted at her face, "It hurts!"

Azile took a good fright and jumped up, but then she encouraged herself and got more determined,

"If you would stay still, it wouldn't hurt as much!"

Zurg was covering his wound with his right hand and groaned threateningly,

"If you and your people had not dug that trap, this would never have happened!"

"And if you, Evil Emperor Zurg, would leave us enough food and not let your men steal everything year after year, we would not have to dig those traps!"

"My army needs to eat, also!"

"So cultivate your own planet!"

"How ridiculous! Cultivate Planet Z! Wraah mwaha haah! I have never heard anything as funny!"

Azile pressed the linen towards his shoulder so hard that it ached even more, and the Emperor reacted by pushing her harshly on her butt to the floor.

"Never do that again, woman! Never irritate me!"

Anger and coldness reflected from the Emperor's eyes, as he rose up. He walked to the window and looked at the garden. Then he lowly snapped Azile,

"Get out!"

Azile left the room with angry steps, massaging her aching butt, and threw the door shut. The Emperor was left alone with his painful injury.

"Mrrh! How sufferable a woman!"

Zurg touched the stitches, and grimaced from agony. What could he now do for the matter himself? He had had very skillful doctor grubs on Z, who had taken care of his every scratch. And they did not lose patience with him, ever! But they were not at hand, this time. This disappointing fact made the Emperor rethink the help of that brunette, who he had just sent out of the room. He grabbed his boots, which were laid next to his straw bed, and threw another of them against the door.

"Come back immediately, woman!"

Soon after, Azile peeped in and scowled at him, trying to act cool and not scared,

"Now what?"

Zurg was not to be bluffed, however, and he sensed that only one angry word from him would scare her away. He knew that he was at least seventeen inches taller than her, and that he was looking very somber. Therefore, selfish as he was, he made some effort to be tolerably polite, as far as the wound would be in bandage, again. With a calm, low voice he said,

"Finish your job with my shoulder. It is smarting."

Azile sighed and looked down. Her mother and father were already more than afraid of their guests, and she did not want to add their concern. So she returned, and reluctantly pressed a hot, wet towel against his injury and wiped off the blood. Zurg watched her little fingers open a new roll of bandage.

"Since I must spend quite quiet life for a week or two, I have some wishes that I need you to fill. I want you to get me loads of bon-bons and lollipops. Nana Zurg gave me those every time I was sick. I also want a virtual reality video game –Age and Empire 666 is my favorite. And some music –I see there is a ZD-player on the wall, but have you got the 'Dark Side Gangsta Rap' or 'The Imperial March'? If not, then 'Emperor's New Groove' may do. Oh, and what in the galaxy am I wearing? Dreadnaughts! Orange pajama! Orange is definitely not my color. Get me a purple shirt –and a violet cape. Black and lilac may do occasionally, but at least my trousers must be dark fuchsia. And do not forget to order that Z-lettered belt from the smith."

"Can you lift your arm a bit, Emperor?"

"Sure. By the way, why are the bandages always white? Why not violet? Ah, yes, and I have still some issues to talk about with you. I need to plan my own lunches and dinners. Today I will have boysenberry pudding and plums, and hot chicken horn-ends. And as to my health –I need to have a personal gym. My wonderful muscles need some exercise."

"Cannot you share the one which will be built for Mr. Darkmatter?"

"Well –alright. I don't want to be unreasonable."

Azile tried not to smile. The last needle was finally set to hold the bandage in spot, and she rose up.

"I see what I can do."

Azile left the Emperor and went outside in the garden. She took a deep breath. Adelante joined her and they went for a little walk together.

"We should never have taken those two under our roof!" Azile cried, "I hope we would have left them in the trap for the rest of their lives!"

"True. That blue one is such an irritating creature! Thinks that he owns the place, I guess."

"I can imagine. But you have not yet talked with the Emperor. He woke up just lately."

"How is he?"

"Perfectly fine, what it comes to his health. He will be totally recovered in a week. But you hardly can come up with what he has asked me to do!"

"If he is as self-centered as Mr. Darkmatter, I can very well guess."
"I should think he is much worse! But he is also more coarse and unrefined. Unmanageable. He just forced me to get violet and purple clothes for him! And a children's game!"

Adelante giggled,

"Well, are you going to get them for him?"

"I don't know if I can ever find those things in our village –or on the whole Naboor!"

* * *

On planet Pulu, a total chaos was disturbing the peace of the forest, where Team Lightyear was wandering. XR's head had just disappeared totally from sight, and his loose body was rolling against a tree after another. Booster tried to catch it, but did not succeed until it sank into a little pond.

"Phew! XR, can you hear me?"

"Of course he can't!" Buzz shouted, Mira in his arms. "The bird took his head."

"How can it work this way without the head?"

"Robots can do that. Well, don't let that tin barrel roll away. What if it falls into drift sand?"

Booster took XR's body under his arm, and bundled the hummock in between the caterpillars.

"Now, that should prevent him –uh, this– from escaping."

"Our trip has been everything but successful. What do you think, Booster –must we abort our mission?"

The Jo-Adian grinned with his big sharp teeth and tried to think.

"We cannot leave XR's head behind. We must get it back."

"But look at Mira. She is getting worse, despite her wound is not bleeding any more."

"Seriously, Captain –do we have much options? 42 is in the middle of the velociraptors, XR's head is somewhere far above us on the mountains, and Mira needs a place where to rest. The only thing I can imagine is this hunting box, which we have been originally searching for. There Mira can be put on a bed, and we can concentrate on finding XR."

"You are forgetting something: what if Emperor Zurg is in the box with Agent Z?"

Booster looked down and played with a couple of buttons of XR's body.

"Seems that we are in quite a sticky situation."

In Buzz' arms, Mira opened her eyes slowly. She saw the Captain and his somber expression.
"Uh… Where are we? What is wrong?"

Buzz turned his face immediately towards the princess and smiled relieved,

"You have come back! How do you feel?"

"A bit weak… tired. And my back hurts."

"No wonder –you have a ten-inch wound there. Cannot you remember how the raptor tore you?"

Mira's blue eyes went plates,

"Raptors? Where? We must get out of here!"

"Calm down. We are safe. Except XR –a gigantic bird has stolen his head and taken it on to the mountains."

"Have you hit your head, Buzz? Booster, what is he blabbering about? And why am I lying in his arms? Let me down, Buzz."

Booster helped Mira on her feet, and said,

"I see you are getting back your stubborn nature, Mira. But XR's head is truly missing –Buzz did not joke on you. And now we are quite in a loss what to do. You are not so strong that you could travel far away, that is on to the mountains to find the bird's nest where XR might be. Besides, your space suit is broken. You could not possibly get inside the poisonous clouds."

"Excuse me, but I am as strong as ever! Only a couple of minutes, and I have gathered myself! Ah… Ouch! My back…"

"Don't try to bend down", Buzz advised, "Otherwise the stitches may get open."

Mira's eyes were full of tears –she had never felt such a pain before. Buzz supported her from the elbow and silently suggested that they should find a place where she could rest. Booster reminded them again of the hunting-box, and this time Buzz agreed.

"Only that we must approach the place very carefully. We don't want to be taken as their hostages, right? And now when we are just the two of us in battle condition, I must say we are fools if we try an attack."

"Yes, let's just find out the place and hope that our enemies are not there."

So continued the three-headed and four-bodied group their way towards the feet of the mountains. Two of them were walking, and the other two were carried. The sun began to descend behind the hills in the east, and the shadows played a frightening game in the dark forest. Every single team member wished that the new day would rise soon. Especially XR, whose head was the play tool of the little fledglings in the nest of a horrible bird called Valvova Silmä.

…to be continued…