Dominator splashed her face with water. She then dunks her head into water hoping to cool her burning face. Neither helped.
"I don't understand! Why do I feel like this!?" she growls at herself. "I really can't stand my face right now!" she says scratching at her face and then blasting it with ice. The ice quickly melts leaving her face as warm as before. "Ugh!" she lets out. "Bot 76!"
"Yes Lord Dominator" a Probe Dombot quickly approaches with a salute.
"I think I'm coming down with something. Yeah, that's gotta be it. My face feels burning hot and I can't stop thinking about-" she hesitates for a moment, "s-something... Anyways, run a diagnostic and see what you find."
"Affirmative" the Dombot agrees and a beam of light sweeps Dominator up and down. "Analyzing..."
Various little lights blinked accompanied with beeps and boops.
"Well?" Dominator grows impatient.
"Still analyzing..." Bot 76 repeats and Dominator rolls her eyes. "Analyzing complete."
"About time" Dominator remarks, foot tapping.
"No illness detected."
"No illness? That can't be right" Dominator insists. "Scan again! Look for anything."
Another beam of light travels up and down Dominator's body.
"Analyzing complete. Still no illness detected but of note are elevated body temperatures, flushed facial features, increased heart rate, and shortness of breath. Emotional anomalies detected: remorse, longing, loneliness."
"What!? Shut up! All that is wrong! You're obviously broken!" Dominator lashes out.
"Negative. All systems running optimally" the bot corrects.
"Oh yeah!? And what idiot made YOU doctor?"
"You did, Lord Dominator" the bot responds.
Dominator opens her mouth but finds herself speechless.
"Are you currently missing someone?" Bot 76 questions.
"No! I'm not missing anyone!" Dominator growls back only for her bot to stare for a moment. "What!?... Th-there's no way I could ever miss that stupid dork!" the green villainess lashes out.
"Who?"
Once again, Dominator finds herself without words momentarily.
"...You obviously don't know what you're talking about" Dominator condemns straigtening her posture. "I'm going out! Maybe I need to get more up-close and personal for my next conquest... Now let's see" she says browsing the galaxy while at one of her many Domship computers. "SD73, BT905... FP107! This one looks dorky enough" Dominator says as the image of a balloon-like planet orbited by smaller balloon-like moons comes on screen.
"Awaiting orders" Bot 76 voices as Dominator readied for an outing donning a trench coat, fake mustache, and fedora after removing the ink from under her eyes.
"Just watch after the ship, as usual. I'm on reconnaissance duty."
-=episode title=-
THE LONELY PLACE
-=episode title=-
"Welcome to Planet Chumbud! The planet for friends!" a little alien that looked like a mix between a jellyfish and a balloon greets the arriving, disguised Dominator. "May I please have your name?" this alien asks serving as gate attendant to a great Chumbud city.
"M-my name?"
"Yes. Your name."
"Uuuh..." Dominator emits in a disguised, masculine tone. "Dominator... Dominate... Domi-nate... Nate?.." Dominator thought to herself. "Nate" she answers.
"Hello Nate! My name's Maka!" the jellyfish balloon alien greets and then looks around. "And your friend?"
"My friend?"
"Yes. You need a friend here on Chumbud" Maka says.
"I don't need one" Dominator says with an edge.
"Yes you do. Here" Maka says handing over a flyer.
"I said I don't need one" Dominator insists.
"You do have friends don't you?"
"I HAVE FRIENDS!" Dominator barks swiftly at a question that irked her especially. Maka stares briefly looking for anyone hiding nearby. "Th-they're just away!.." Dominator explains.
"If you don't have a friend, we can provide you one free of charge!" Maka offers.
"I have friends" Dominator growls under her breath before reading the flyer in her hand.
"Are you lonely?" the flyer read with a teary-eyed little cartoon character on the side.
"I'm not lonely!" Dominator hisses through clenched teeth before tearing off a portion and continuing.
"Need a friend?"
"I already have friends!" she hisses again before tearing more off of the flyer.
"Then call Friends-4-Hire! We have all sorts of friends! Call today!"
Perhaps it was curiosity or perhaps it was a desire to learn of the planet she was about to drill or perhaps, despite her hesitance to admit it, she could use some company that wasn't her cold, seemingly-emotionless Dombots. Whatever the reason, she calls and not long after, a car labeled with 'Friends-4-Hire' on its side arrives nearby. Out of this car exits a short and round Watchdog Dominator estimated was even smaller than Wander himself.
"Hello there!" this Watchdog, a star on his cap where the usual Watchdog has an electric bolt, greets the disguised Dominator. "My name is Westley! Did you call for a friend?"
"...Yes" Dominator confirms trying not to be underwhelmed by the new arrival.
"Excellent! Can I have your name, friend?"
"...Nate" Dominator answers flatly.
"Awesome! Nice to meet ya Nate!" Westley says as both shake hands. "Are you ready for a fun-filled adventure on Chumbud?"
"...Sure, why not?" Dominator answers curious to see if this Westley might be able to amuse her for at least a little while.
"Great! Let's go!" Westley says taking Dominator by the hand and pulling her past the opening front gates. "So Nate, what would you like to do first?" the small and round Watchdog asks pulling Dominator deeper into the city.
"So what's there to do here?" Dominator asks annoyed by some of the overly-cheerful residents skipping about.
"What's there to do here!?" Westley almost gasps. "There's plenty here: there's a big theater over there showing off the latest action movies and hilarious comedies!" he says pointing at a theater building. "We can go try our hands at arts and crafts over there! I'm quite fond of the pottery classes, got plenty in my apartment! There's also a kite shop a block from here. Have you ever flown a kite?"
"No. Can't say I have" Dominator answers tucking her hands into her trench coat pockets.
"Great! Let's go buy a kite" Westley says leading the way through the city. Moments later, the two exit a building named 'Kit's Kites' with Westley carrying out a kite assembly kit. "I've never flown a kite before. Have never even assembled one before" Westley explains.
"First time for everything" Dominator responds as Westley breaks open the kit and spills out its many contents.
"This can't be that hard, right?" Westley says hastily digging through the kite components with little direction or planning. "Oh man, this is confusing" Westley says after trying to fit many pieces together. "Does this go here?.. No, that's not it..."
"...It's a kite. How confusing could it be?" Dominator remarks after watching the little Watchdog fumble about frustratingly. She then gives the box a closer look. "Smart kite?"
"It's a special kind of kite with computer components" Westley says, his large eye sparkling with a child's enthusiasm.
"Kite with computer components?" Dominator repeats intrigued. She gives the assembly pieces a look and to Westley's amazement, Dominator puts the kite together at record pace.
"Wow! How'd you do that?" Westley lets out.
"I've fiddled with machines before" Dominator admits.
Westley then takes to playing with his newly-assembled toy. "Wow! This is so cool!" he celebrates using a remote control to fly a rocket-powered kite around up in the air.
"Rocket-powered kite" Dominator thought to herself. "Who the flarp came up with that stupid idea!?" Dominator laughs before examining the different buildings around her hoping to find a nice and pretty one to sink her drill into.
"Hey Nate, don't you wanna try?" Westley asks offering the remote control.
"Uhh, not really" Dominator waves off.
"But, fun things are more fun with friends" Westley says.
"Fun... With friends..." Dominator repeats considering Westley's invitation.
"That's right!" Westley confirms.
"...Okay... But only because I'm getting bored right now" Dominator agrees. Soon, she's flying the kite around executing dives, twirls, accelerations that hug buildings, and other aerial maneuvers.
"Wow Nate! You're pretty good at this!" Westley compliments.
"I know I am" Dominator swells with pride.
"Go go go!" Westley cheers as the kite executes a loop wrapping around a bridge.
"Looks like fuel's almost used up" Dominator says examining the remote before landing the kite at Westley's feet.
"That was great! Nate, how'd you know how to do that?"
"I know many things" Dominator says with arms folded boastfully.
"What else do you know?" Westley asks. "You know mini golf?"
"No but I bet I can crush that too" Dominator says punching her palm and the two head for a mini golf park.
"Get it past the windmill blades!" Westley cheers watching Dominator wielding a golf club.
"Easily said. Easily done" Dominator claims swinging at the golf ball at her feet and the golf ball clears the blades to drop into the hole at the base of the miniature windmill.
"Ya did it!" Westley sings before he tried the same course. "Ah darn" he dismays after his golf ball gets knocked off course by a blade.
Dominator then tried her hand at a course with mechanical gators that clapped their jaws and swung their tails to impede any golfer from landing a hole-in-one.
"This one looks tough" Westley cautioned.
"That's why it's fun" Dominator answers and with a swing, her golf ball almost flies knocking against walls, curving around tilted ground, and bouncing off of gator teeth to drop into the hole at course's end. "How was that!?"
"Nate! You're amazing!" Westley exclaims.
"Yes. I am" Dominator agrees driving her golf club's handle tip into the ground in triumph.
The mini golf park also had other attractions such as a high striker, a test of strength where a player slams a hammer at a lever to send a puck up to ring a bell.
"Haaa!" Dominator shouts slamming down on the lever to send the puck up and striking the bell. Westley applauds the achievement loudly but when he tries the same feat, his puck only rises up somewhere between quarter way and half way.
Skeet shooting came next, a game where targets are thrown into the air for participants to shoot.
"Go Nate! Go!" Westley cheers as Dominator, so used to warfare, nailed each of her shots with a laser rifle.
There were other contests such as asteroid beat down where contestants were tasked with beating massive space rocks into piles of pebbles, cannonball launching where participants tossed heavy metal balls as far as their strength would allow, and pin knock down, a game comparable to bowling.
Westley's stomach growled loudly.
"Oh man, all this fun sure works up an appetite!"
Dominator's stomach also growled.
"You can say that again" Dominator says.
"I know a great place" Westley claims.
The two pay a visit to a restaurant named 'Cooky McChef's Masterful Cuisine'. Inside, Dominator, Westley, and a number of other patrons were seated at a long table to be treated to the culinary expertise of an elephant-like alien wearing a very tall and wide chef's hat.
The chef sent his knife soaring across a cutting board leaving behind finely-chopped onions, carrots, celery, and other ingredients. With the elephant-like snout, woks and frying pans were flicked expertly to flip sizzling cuts of high-quality meats and crisp veggies high up into the air. These are then caught impeccably on their way down, licks of flames roaring out of the skillets. White sheets are snapped like whips atop tables, the sheets unfolding and descending to dress tables for incoming customers. Plates were sent flying like frisbees to land before their respective customer and cups looked something like spinning tops when sent dancing their way to the side of their complementary plate.
Several patrons broke out into applause after meals were arranged beautifully atop spotless dishware.
"This is one of my favorite places to eat" Westley directs at Dominator. "So Nate, how much you liking it here on Chumbud?"
"It's had its moments" Dominator says wondering how to best eat while keeping her fake mustache on. As she did so, she watched Westley eat from his own dish. "...How do you eat? With that eyeball head?"
"Oh! Hahaha! I get that often" Westley says. "I eat like this."
Westley then proceeds to show Dominator exactly how a Watchdog eats.
"Huh... Interesting" Dominator remarks half wishing she hadn't asked. "So you're a Watchdog, right?"
"I used to be but I've since left that life."
"Why'd you leave?"
"Wasn't worth it and I wasn't very good at it..." Westley recollects. "That and I met people who showed me a better life! Wander and Sylvia were so much more fun to be with than trying to keep up with Lord Hater's every ungrateful whim."
Dominator froze not expecting to hear those names again so soon.
"Ever meet them?" Westley asks only for Dominator to shake her head stiffly. "They were really nice! It's because of them that I work for Friends-4-Hire now!" Westley explains. "Wander and Sylvia were friends to me and helped me in my time of need. Now I want to make friends for a living and help people in their time of need and what better planet than here on Chumbud?"
It was then Dominator finally noticed the meaning of the star atop Westley's cap which looked like the one on Wander's hat. There was an aching in Dominator's chest then and she wasn't sure what to make of the feeling.
"Hey! It's Cube of Darkness!" Westley says waving.
Dominator turns her head to find The Black Cube of Darkness nodding in acknowledgement and sitting beside someone who seemed somewhat empty-eyed.
"Cube is working for Friends-4-Hire also. He's met Wander and Sylvia too! Can you believe it? Hahaha! Small galaxy, huh?"
Attributing the aching up to hunger, Dominator gets to eating.
"So? Is it good?" Westley asks.
"Yeah... It's good" Dominator answers and Westley smiles.
"I wonder what Wander and Sylvia have been up to" Westley says browsing his phone. "Oh darn! I don't have them in my contacts!.. Oh well, they're always traveling about. I'm sure I'll run into them again some day. You gotta meet them!"
Dominator tried to just focus on eating not wanting to think about Wander or Sylvia.
Eventually, both finish and exit the restaurant.
"Did you enjoy that?" Westley asks and Dominator nods simply. "Great! Now we walk this feast off" he says rubbing his round belly. "There's a great art museum nearby. Nate, what do you say we walk around and check out the art?"
"...Sure. Sounds fun" Dominator says despite the fact that she couldn't think of anything more boring than staring at art.
In truth, what she was really looking forwards to was just having company. It was nice having someone to speak to that wasn't henchmen she considered to be little more than machinery.
An alarm on Westley's phone suddenly goes off.
"Uh oh, 15 minutes left" Westley notifies.
"For what?"
"We only have 15 minutes left together. After that, I have to meet the next Chumbud visitor" Westley says.
"...Oh" Dominator emits trying to hide her disappointment.
"Hey, it's been fun so far hasn't it?" Westley questions. "There's plenty of friendly people here to talk to. Let's make the last 15 count! Then go out and make more friends!"
Dominator manages the slightest of nods and faintest of smiles before Westley seizes her hand and leads her into a uniquely-shaped building that looked like it was made of mirrors. Inside, Westley gives Dominator a tour.
"This painting is called 'Cosmic Cataclysm'" Westley says standing beside a painting of stars at the mercy of tornado winds.
"...Neat" Dominator says surprised she was mildly amused by something that should have proved mundane to her.
"Now this one here is of mighty trees dwarfing a seedling and is named 'Humble Beginnings'. It shows a mighty tree starting its life in such a small and fragile state."
Dominator observed for a while before moving on.
"Now my favorite paintings are definitely the more abstract ones" Westley says leading Dominator down a hall with more works adorning the walls. "Abstract paintings are indirect: they challenge you to interpret them yourself" Westley says standing beside a painting of mostly white canvas and a few streaks of paint along the bottom and right edges. "Looking at this, I think of a child starting their painting journey. What about you?"
Dominator tilts her head. "...The outskirts of a destroyed city" she says realizing she had almost completely forgotten all about dominating the planet.
"Oooh, scary!" Westley remarks. "You weren't planning on doing that, were ya? Haha!"
Any other Dominator would have boasted of planning domination but this Dominator settled for admiring the painting.
"This other one. What do you see in this other one?" Westley challenges.
Dominator scrutinized a painting of what looked like a little star in the shadow of a mighty quasar, its accretion disk outshining the little star many times over. In the time it took for eyes to blink, Dominator saw the little star look like a cowering Wander and the mighty quasar looking like her glowing armor looming over him, her armor's gaze imperious.
Dominator recoils slightly.
"Oh! Did ya see something?" Westley asks.
"...I'll be right back" Dominator says with one hand over her mouth. She proceeds to a nearby washroom feeling sick to her stomach at first. Mustache set aside, she splashes water on her face and her nausea disappears. "What is wrong with me?" she wonders staring at herself in the mirror. Dominator didn't know how to describe the feeling but it felt very much like there were things in her past she now wished she hadn't done, a rare sentiment for her.
The mighty and fearsome Lord Dominator does not regret anything: she means what she does and does what she means. Lord Dominator dominates, drains planets dry for her own purposes, and any feeling that gets in the way of that is quickly eradicated. She composes herself and leaves the washroom having had her fill of the museum.
Out of the washroom, she spots Westley admiring another painting.
"I think I'm done here... Let's go do something else" Dominator says very casually.
"You feeling better Nat- N-N-D-DOMINATOR!?" Westley suddenly exclaims in fright.
Dominator turns to her Watchdog companion to find him pointing a trembling red blaster at her.
"Westley! Wh-what are you doing!?" Dominator demands shocked by the sudden betrayal. "I, I thought we were friends!"
"F-friends with you!? B-but you're Lord Dominator! Yo-you're worse than Hater!" Westley shouts trembling.
At that moment, Dominator realizes she was not wearing her fake mustache which had been left behind in the washroom. She then swipes Westley's blaster away amid exclamations of panic from other museum visitors.
"Aaah!" Westley lets out in fright and Dominator's magma arm transforms into a blaster that threatens him with destruction. At trigger pull, Dominator could have blasted away Westley's cowering form and he would be no more.
A conflicted Dominator stares back and forth between her weapon and Westley. After a tense moment, she withdraws her weapon and rushes out of the museum feeling no longer welcome on the planet: with her true identity exposed, her leisure time was done. Perhaps it was time to finally drill the planet as she intended and move on?
Outside, Dominator finds several members of Chumbud's security all pointing laser blasters at her.
"There's Lord Dominator! Open fire!" and Chumbud security unleash a flurry of laser blasts not wanting to take any chances with the galaxy-destroying villainess. The laser blasts reverberate throughout the halls of the museum. Hearing these, Westley scrambles to recover his blaster and rushes outside where he spots several Chumbud security members cemented to magma and Dominator's fully-armored form ascending up into her Domship.
His lone eye meeting with the gaze offered by Dominator's helmet mask, Westley is left unsure Dominator was looking back. Dominator finally disappears into her ship and the ship extends its drill which begins its lethal spinning.
"Everyone run!", "Take cover!", "We're doomed!", "It's all over!", "Dominator, have mercy!" were some of the supplications heard beneath screams and the ominous humming of Dominator's planet-destroying weapon. All could only watch helplessly believing the drill was about to stab deep into Chumbud.
To the astonishment of everyone, the drill slowed to a stop, withdrew into the body of the mighty Domship above, and the Domship turned to blast away disappearing into the cosmos leaving Chumbud relatively untouched.
The previous supplications turned first to confusion and after several moments without Dominator's return, there were cheers, hugs, and sighs of relief.
"She didn't drill us!?", "She's gone!", "We-we're alive!" some shouted while others embraced.
A short time later, many began cleaning up damages, Westley recovering a trench coat from the ground before losing himself in thought looking up at the sky.
The Black Cube of Darkness approaches to question Westley on what had happened.
"I don't know why she didn't destroy us" Westley answers. "We were hanging out and I pointed my blaster at her and she smacked it away. I thought she was going to destroy me after that but she didn't..."
The Cube of Darkness comments in a passive form of his indistinguishable and ominous voice.
"I know, right? She didn't even hurt our security" he says watching as Chumbud security staff was being freed from their magma rock prisons. "She spared us" Westley acknowledges looking for an answer. "Do you think maybe she really wanted to make a friend here?" he wonders recalling some of her words.
The Cube of Darkness replies.
"...Dominator lonely?.. Maybe" Westley responds. "Maybe one day, we'll meet again? Maybe things will make more sense then?.."
The Cube of Darkness says more.
"Good point. We're alive and the planet's okay. That's most important" Westley says fetching a broom, sweeping up some rubble, and looking skywards thoughtfully one last time.
