Planet Ryori was a planet that almost looked like a peeled orange when viewed from outer space. A great many of the galaxy's greatest culinary geniuses had been born and raised on this planet and not by coincidence: prestigious culinary institutions dotted the lands of Ryori. The residents were octopus-like: they had two tentacles for legs and six tentacles for arms, four more to cook with than most cooks. The chef's hat was an accessory as common as hats, aprons as common as shirts.
Not far away from this planet, Dominator's ship slowly encroached.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a brand-new episode of 'Ryori Cook Off'!" aired on Dominator's television. "The show where we gather some of the greatest cooks in all the galaxy to compete for a chance to face off against Ryori's undefeated cooking champion, the mighty Chef Colen, for eternal culinary glory!"
"Let's see what this little cooking planet has to offer" Dominator tells one of her Dombots. "I've seen quite a bit of cooking television to know this place knows its way around the kitchen... Or should I say, it better know its way around the kitchen or else it'll be feeling my drill through its core soon enough!"
-=episode title=-
THE CHEF
-=episode title=-
"Aaaaahh!" a Ryorian screamed at the sight of Dominator's ship. "Lord Dominator! Run for your lives!" screamed another.
Unsurprisingly, Dominator's ship sent many Ryorians running about in panic. To add to this chaos, Dominator hops off of her ship fully-armored, lands with style, and shakes the ground underneath in the process.
"I'm soo coool!" Dominator thought to herself as she is joined by a number of Dombot Knights and Pawns.
"Lord Dominator! Have mercy on us!" some Ryorians began to plead.
"Gwahahahahaha!" Dominator laughs robotically through her mask. "Pathetic worms! You are hardly worthy to stain the bottoms of my boots!"
"AAaaaaahh!" many before Dominator scream in fear.
"Silence!" Dominator demands and her audience is immediately quieted. "Good! Those who obey prolong their lives. Those who fail to bow before me will be first in line for their destruction! Gwahahahaha!"
"AAAaaaaaah!"
"Shut up!" Dominator demands and her demand is met. "Now, stay out of my way or else feel my wrath!"
As demanded, many flee and hide in terror at the mere sight of the magma-armored destroyer of worlds making her way across the Ryori capital city.
"Fear me!" Dominator shouts at a school bus full of kids making the school children scream in terror. "Bwahahahaha! Run! Run and hide!" she shouts at an oblivious couple crossing a street who immediately run and hide. "Gahahahahaha! You're all doomed!" she shouts at a train full of Ryorians, the train then coming to an emergency stop to have many exit it in panic.
As fun as it was to torment the helpless, Dominator came to this planet with purpose and she soon arrived at the large steps of a very tall and prominent building with lettering declaring it "Ryori Broadcasting Corporation". Upon entering, Dominator found many of the rooms and hallways to be dead silent and eerily empty. This was no surprise to Dominator for she was used to making people run away in fear upon her approach.
The building was not entirely empty however for in its largest room sat a long table with many Ryorians seated around it. Dressed in professional attire, these Ryorians looked like company executives and the room was filled with urgent chatter but went immediately silent with the entry of Dominator and her bot army.
"L-Lord Dominator!" one executive speaks up. "Wh-what do you want with us? W-with our peaceful planet?"
"Puny weaklings!" Dominator boomed in her robotic voice, "my Dombots and I are here for your destruction!"
The room immediately breaks out into hushed whispers. "She's here to destroy the planet!", "Could we televise this?", "Would be an excellent ratings grabber!", "What sort of take do you think she'd want?" was among that chatter. In the middle of this, Dominator notices there was a very tall chair turned away from her at the head of the table.
"L-Lord Dominator, s-surely we could negotiate the sparing of our planet?" an executive speaks up.
"Consider yourselves lucky" Dominator answers. "There IS something you could do for me! Do it well and I MAY spare this pathetic excuse of a planet. The key word is MAY!"
"Hihihihi! You amuse me Lohd Dominataa" came a high-pitched voice from behind the tall chair.
"Who was that just now!?" Dominator demands.
Immediately, the tall chair turns to reveal a small kitten named Little Bits, a villain sometimes known as Baby Cakes. This villainous kitten had an adorable manner of speaking and could hypnotize her victims with cuteness and viral kitten videos.
"Lohd Dominataa! So you are not destwoyed after all?"
"No force in existence could ever hope to destroy me!" Dominator boasts.
"And so you thought you could come to MY pwanet and twy to take ovaa MY swaves!?" Little Bits demands.
"I have defeated all before me! You will be next!" Dominator threatens.
"We shao see about that!" Little Bits says before deploying her big, adorable, lovable, hypnotic eyes.
"Bwahahahaha! That will not work on me!" Dominator laughs. "I am no simpleton!"
"Vewy well. Then maybe this will!" the little kitten exclaims withdrawing a laser cannon and blasting Dominator sending Dominator crashing through the wall and falling out of the building. "Hihihihihihi!" Little Bits giggles before turning her adorable kitten eyes towards the executives.
Now hypnotized, the executives lift laser guns of their own and engage in battle with Dominator's bots.
With jetpack equipped, Little Bits lifts off to pursue Lord Dominator herself.
"Lohd Dominataa! You conque'ed the gawaxy once befoa! I won't awow it again!" the villainous kitten declares before aiming another laser blast.
"You took me by surprise just now" Dominator challenges before repelling the blast with her arm. "I won't allow it again!"
"This gawaxy will be mine!" the kitten yells before blasting more shots and like before, Dominator blocks with an arm.
"You know NOT who you're messing with!" Dominator shouts before firing magma nails out of her left palm.
With a flurry of magma nails flying, Little Bits takes evasive maneuvers while still blasting lasers Dominator's way.
"I know who I mess with" the villainous kitten exclaims. "A faiwure who has fawen once befoah!" she lashes out before tossing a grenade at Dominator's feet.
"And I shall never fall again!" Dominator retaliates hopping away from the grenade which explodes shortly after. She then employs both hands to fire magma nails. With a heavier output, Little Bits's jetpack is hit by a magma nail causing a fiery leak that sends the kitten flying out of control.
"Whoaaooaaaa!" Little Bits lets out while her jetpack spews out propellant uncontrollably. "Cuuurrrsssee youuuu Dominnnaattaaahh!" the kitten condemned one last time before flying off and disappearing behind a far away hill.
"Bwahahahahahaha!" Dominator laughed before returning to her Dombots who had been battling with hypnotized company executives. Dominator returns to find a destroyed building in which her Dombots stood victorious over their foes.
"Lord Dominator" reports a Dombot with a military salute, "enemies neutralized."
"Very good" Dominator praises after withdrawing her voice-altering mask. She then proceeds to the unconscious body of one of the executives, the one with 'company president' on his company badge, and shakes him awake.
"..Uh, oh, whoa! L-Lord Dominator!" the president speaks up.
"Tell me where this pathetic planet's best chef is" Dominator demands.
"I-I-I'm afraid I don't know who th-that is!" the president defends.
"Y-you don't know!?" Dominator repeats annoyed. "This company broadcasts 'Ryori Cook Off'. You have to know! The cooking champion... Uhh, Cowin, Colon, Colin, something like that. Anyways, who cares what his name was!? I demand to know where he is! Now!"
"I-I'll see what I c-can do!" the president promises.
Later, not far from where Dominator had made her demands sat the Colen estate, a very extravagant and boastful property, home to the undefeated 'Ryori Cook Off' champion and moments ago, a very loud knocking at the front door was heard.
"Hold your horses, I'm on my way!" cooking champion Colen, a mustached Ryorian, exclaims on his way to the front door. Passing by a room filled with several shiny cooking trophies and gleaming culinary medals, Colen answers the front door only to be met with an unarmored Dominator and several Dombots pointing magma cannons straight at his face.
"Greetings! May I come in?" Dominator asks. "Wait. Why am I asking? You don't have a choice" the green destroyer of worlds reasons arrogantly before letting herself in.
"L-Lord Dominator!?" Colen nearly panics. "P-please don't hurt me!"
"Oh, I don't plan to" Dominator says, "unless of course you displease me."
"Wh-what do you want!?" Colen asked, magma guns causing his knees to tremble with fear.
Shortly, the two find themselves in Colen's kitchen on opposite sides of a table, a tube of Insta-Lunch atop that table.
"I have a bunch of this crud back on my ship" Dominator reveals, "I want you to make this good in as few steps as possible."
Colen picks up the tube with a tentacle and has a taste.
"Awful, isn't it?" Dominator asks.
"Definitely meant to be portable and durable. Taste was the last consideration" Colen assesses. "Is this all you've been eating on your ship?"
"Yeah" Dominator answers. "When you're busy dominating the galaxy, you don't really care too much what you eat. You just wanna eat and get back to dominating, ya know?"
"No, I don't know" Colen almost replied. "S-so when and how did you finally get sick of this tube food?"
"A friend-" Dominator says giving her words little thought before pausing, surprised to refer to Wander as a 'friend', "i-introduced me to some excellent cooking. I-I've been having trouble going back ever since."
"I see" Colen responds. "Why not approach this friend to help you with cooking?"
"Because I didn't care to!" Dominator snaps, her bots pointing their cannons. "Now stop talking and get to work!"
"S-sorry!" Colen excuses and is quick to bust out several ingredients.
What followed was a series of taste tests wherein Colen added various ingredients to plates of Insta-Lunch in attempts to increase the Insta-Lunch's flavor or at least make it less unpleasant.
"Still too bland" Dominator assesses after an addition of salt.
"That's just sour" Dominator says after lemon juice is added.
"I don't know how to describe it but I don't like it" Dominator says after an addition of parmesan and oregano.
"Let's try heating it up" Colen says. He brings the tube food to a simmer.
"It smells awful! I am NOT tasting this!" Dominator condemns before trashing her plate of warm Insta-Lunch.
"S-some foods smell bad but taste great" Colen reasons before feeling the barrel of a magma gun poke his back, "b-but f-forgive me, I will not try it again."
"Nope!", "Keep trying", "Still awful", "Yuck!", "Awful!"
No matter what Colen tried, there was little hope of making the tube food satisfying to Dominator's high standards.
"This is not easy! Y-you're asking me to work with that dreadful substance and to mask its taste while keeping things simple!" Colen objects after repeat failures.
"Surely it should be easy for a master chef such as yourself!" Dominator quips. "I'm starting to doubt you're as good as they say. Forget the tube crud, prepare me something at once and make it good!"
"I-if it means no more tube food, I'll g-gladly do it!" Colen says and immediately sets to prepare a fine dish. Equipped with six tentacle-like arms, Colen makes quick work of his task: after some lively chopping, sauteing of ingredients, blending of various herbs and spices, cooking of the highest-quality meats, and crafting some of the most delectable sauces in the galaxy, Colen presents Dominator with a beautiful dish of lobster thermidor.
As he often did in his line of work, Colen made sure to stand up straight and dignified while his dish was put to the test by the knife and fork-wielding galactic menace.
"...Not bad. Not bad at all" was Dominator's simple assessment after a taste, "but I've certainly had better before" Dominator said grinning from the chance at mocking her boastful hostage chef.
"That friend of yours I presume?" Colen responds testily mindful of the Dombot guns pointed at him. "Well then maybe go to them instead of coming to my home!"
"No need to get so upset" Dominator says enjoying getting under the chef's skin. "Your food is fine but-"
"...But what?" Colen asks while Dominator continues her eating.
"...It's missing something" Dominator explains.
"W-what?" Colen was compelled to ask.
"...I'm not sure. I can't quite put my finger on it" Dominator said.
"Is it too salty? Too sweet? Not enough of those things?" Colen asks.
"No, none of those" a suddenly-contemplative Dominator answers. "The taste isn't the problem, it's... something else."
"N-none of those?.. Y-your friend, does his or her cooking miss this thing you speak of?" Colen had to ask.
"No, Wander's cooking is excellent" Dominator said before she could stop herself. Dominator was one to take pride in her fearsome reputation and speaking such kind words of others did not feel natural.
"Oh, Wander? D-did you say Wander?" Colen asked.
"..Uh, I-"
"Wander! Now there's a fine young man!" Colen compliments. "He helped me when I was on my way up in this business! Hope he's doing well! A-and YOU know HIM!?"
"N-no! I'm not friends with him! I don't like him and I'll never like him if that's what you're insinuating!"
"B-but I didn't insinuate-"
"I'll never like him!" Dominator declares standing up abruptly and angrily finishing the rest of her meal quickly before smashing the plate down on the kitchen floor. "That's enough! I've had enough of this! Enough of you! Bots!"
"Yes Lord Dominator?" a Dombot answers with a military salute.
"We're looting this place" Dominator orders.
"Yes Lord Dominator."
"What!?" Colen gasps as Dominator's bots begin to ravage the residence.
"Take all the food!" Dominator orders and her bots immediately seize the massive refrigerators in the house.
"No!" Colen objects but was helpless against the likes of Lord Dominator and her Dombots.
"Consider yourself lucky" Dominator directs at Colen before deploying her armor and voice-changing mask. "I could have done so much worse to you! Gwahahahahahahaha!"
With Dominator's ship nearby, Dominator's Dombots made quick work of looting anything that wasn't nailed down and most things that were nailed down from the Colen Estate. It was not long before Dominator's ship had taken off with valuables as well as some of the planet's current supply of Volcanium X.
Colen had to count himself lucky however: he was alive and the walls to his home were still standing. The fearsome and ruthless Dominator had shown him a tiny bit of mercy.
Though another successful domination was under her belt and planet Ryori had been added to her tally in the villain leaderboards, Dominator left in a rush. There was something quite unsettling about her encounter with Colen at the end.
She suspected Wander, however slight, had rubbed off on her somehow.
Author's note: thanks for reading! Please review and then on to next chapter if it's ready. If not, thanks for your patience!
