CHAPTER 4:
The metal spider screeched again, its first two talons rearing forward in a threatening matter. Hunter and Talia both stood in front of it, both of their weapons primed. Hunter with his power gloves clenched into glowing purple fists while Talia had her staff out, primed with purple lights lining down the end and glowing spots at the very ends of her staff. Lydia meanwhile looked up fearful.
"Did I mention I have a fear of spiders?" Lydia chimed out.
"Okay," Talia breathed, not paying attention to Lydia's little quip, "Big spider thing in a small room, how do we do this?"
"Easy," Hunter said with a grin as he clenched his fists further, "We squash it!" Talia knew where this was going…
"Hunter, wait no!" she cried out fearfully. Too late though, as Hunter already rushed towards the Spider with a raised fist. The minute he reached the Spider, Hunter brought his fist down, and with a cracking BOOM, the Spider was brought down with a flash of purple energy, which ended up shaking the whole room upon impact. When Hunter lifted his fist back up, the metal spider lay that, twitching a bit, with the metal "head" still twitching.
"Whew!" Hunter said pumped, "Piece of cake!" Talia just stood there staring at Hunter as if he was an immature child. He was sure acting like one, just rushing into an attack like that.
Then there was a whirring sound as Hunter looked down at the Spider again. The red eye that was originally on the head had ended up slithering up the Spider's abdomen, as its back opened up. The eye slithered upward on what looked to be a metallic tentacle, with claws forming around the eye that glared right at Hunter.
"Oh crap," Hunter said in combined fear and frustration, right before the tentacle suddenly grabbed him by the face.
"Hunter!" Talia cried out in fear as she raced forward and stabbed at the spider thing with her staff, electrical sparks flying. The spider machine lurched and then with a whir, launched itself backwards, crashing through the wall and tumbling outside the tower, down towards the ground. The spider machine landed hard on the ground and rolled backward, letting go of Hunter in the process and tossing him backwards to the shallow river water.
Hunter got himself up, spitting water in the process, as the machine reared itself upward and turned towards him. Talia ran up to the new hole in the wall and looked down to see the machine and Hunter square up.
"Bro you okay?" Talia asked in her earpiece.
"Just dandy!" Hunter replied back sarcastically, "Since punching it didn't work do you have any other ideas?" Talia blinked to activate her optical sensor and attempted to scan the machine…it showed no identification whatsoever.
"Scanner's not picking up anything!" Talia said.
"I can help!" Lydia chimed in as suddenly, Talia's scanner started to brighten slightly, scaring Talia a bit before clearing up. The scanner suddenly dove deep into the machines structure and Lydia spoke in Talia's…head? Ears? Talia couldn't tell.
"You need to aim for its eye," Lydia said, "The eye is acting as its' central processing unit." Talia nodded as a plan formulated in its head.
"Hunter," Talia said in her earpiece, "The guy to shine its eye in my direction!"
"Right," Hunter said, not entirely sure what Talia's planning to do. The machine lurched forward, but Hunter took a step backwards to dodge it. He then began to strafe to his right and began circling the machine.
"Hey ugly!" Hunter called out, "Look at me, over here!" He stopped when his back was towards the tower and the machine faced him.
At this point, Talia had pressed a button on her staff, and it unfolded into a long range blaster rifle. With the scope, Talia aimed carefully before finally pulling the trigger, the bolt of energy instantly blasting the eye to pieces. The machine lurched forward and fell, this time totally dead.
Hunter and Talia finally let out a breath, relieved.
"That was…scary," Hunter said, "Thanks sis!"
"Don't thank me," Talia replied back, "Thank Lydia. She helped me find the weakness."
"Wait, really?" Hunter looked up towards Talia with a surprised look.
"Why don't we talk about this back at the Hopper?" Talia asked over her headset.
It took the two of them a few minutes to get back to the Hopper, along with their newest strange companion Lydia, who had planted herself back in the orb that Talia took inside their cockpit. As soon as they entered, the computer screens on the cockpit dashboard began to fritz, until they went back to normal and Lydia popped up standing on the dashboard.
"Wow, really room here," Lydia said with a smile, "Much better than that cold ball." Hunter looked at Lydia in surprise.
"Wait, how did you do that?" Hunter said.
"I'm able to hack into most computer systems," Lydia said.
"But aren't you a language and yellow data thing?"
"A Language and Yolick Data Intelligence and Archivist," Lydia said, "My primary function is to learn via integration with electronic systems or interact with organic beans to gather as much data on multidimensional languages, cultures, and stories. I'm also responsible for the storage and memorizations of Yolick coordinates and flight paths."
"Yolick?" Talia asked, curious.
"Yes," Lydia said, "I believe your cultures and generations recognize it as 'No-Space', the space between realities. Yolick was the Trion word for it."
This perked the twins up.
"Trion?" Talia said, "Like, that really old multidimensional empire that ruled the multiverse for ages? THAT Trion?"
"Yes," Lydia said, "I have compiled many stories about the Trion rule and their fall…apparently their most recent ruler was a tyrannical one, and triggered a massive rebellion across the Multiverse over a millennia ago. Seems a little awkward to be associated with them given the current situation."
"Wait a sec, are you saying you're a Trion program?" Hunter ask, "But that would mean…how old are you?" Lydia looked at Hunter a little concerned.
"I…honestly don't know," Lydia said, "While most of the stories and data remains, there is this extensive block on my files regarding my birth or my early years…I don't remember what I was like back then…"
"Aww, that's sad," Talia said gently, "I'm so sorry. It's like losing your entire childhood." Lydia looked up and smiled gently at Talia.
"It is alright," Lydia said, "While I would love to remember my past, I know that I must look to the future." At this point Lydia's eyes widened.
"Which reminds me, I have no idea what to do now that my transporter is dead," Lydia said. Hunter looked at Talia before asking Lydia. At this point, Talia had just taken the Hopper off the ground and already cruising through No-Space.
"Where were you headed?" Hunter asked, as Talia looked to Hunter concerned.
"I was assigned to be delivered on Earth-03568," Lydia said.
"Delivered to who?" Hunter asked.
"I don't know," Lydia said slowly, "Apparently they blocked that part from my memory. Makes sense in case anybody was snooping."
"Uh, Lydia," Talia said gently, "Do you mind if I spoke to Hunter alone for a minute here?" Talia got up from the cockpit, putting the ship on autopilot in the process and dragged Hunter out of the cockpit into the small alcove hallway that lead to the other parts of the ship, like the galley for food or the quarters for sleep.
"Hunter, what are you doing?" Talia asked. Hunter just looked at her confused.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"You're not seriously thinking about it are you?" Talia said. Hunter scoffed, finally figuring it out.
"Come on sis, how often does this happen?" Hunter asked, "We get beaten to a bounty by some psycho, a giant spider attacks us, we find a hologram girl that must be delivered somewhere. Obviously it must be really important considering the bounty and all…we could be on to something big! The challenge of a lifetime! What part of that is wrong?"
"Uh, how about the fact that we're still broke?" Talia said, "We're barely able to make ends meet, do you really want to blow all we have left on this crazy thing? Especially one where we could VERY possibly meet a violent end like our lizard guy?"
"Well, what do you suggest we do then?" Hunter clapped back. Talia hesitated briefly, looking off to the side. Hunter immediately recognized what Talia was thinking and widened his eyes.
"No! NO!" he said loudly, "We are not selling Lydia!"
"I'm not happy about it either," Talia said, "But be honest here, we NEED the money! We're barely scraping by!"
"Yeah but-"
Suddenly the ship violently rocked, causing them both to nearly lose their footing.
"What the hell was that?" Hunter called out.
"Guys?" Lydia chimed up, "We got company here!"