HuniePop Space Adventures
Chapter 10: Jailbreakers
A normal morning. That's how it always starts with normal people. They just wake up on a good day, have breakfast with family, friends, or loved ones, talk about what they wanna do. Well, I may not be normal, but I was damn sure going to try and be a normal person starting today. Right now, I was enjoying a hearty breakfast with a bit of bloonberry syrup drizzled on top. Just a little. Of course, my friends Max and Nikki didn't seem to think so even as I ate with a fork.
"Zero Two, I appreciate that you're now eating with a fork, but could you NOT drench your food in syrup?" Nikki asked. OK, yeah, I didn't just drizzle a bit of syrup on my food. But, could you really blame me? The syrup was SO good. As I continued to eat, Darling came in and sat down beside me.
"Baby steps, Nikki. She's getting better with her manners and her eating habits," he said.
"Yeah, I know that. It's not like she didn't have any manners before."
"Awww, that's nice of you," I said. But when I looked back at Darling, I nearly choked. His horns were gone as well as the eyeliner he once had on and his eyes were now the normal blue they once were. I immediately grabbed his face and closely inspected his eyes, lifted his hair, and opened his mouth to take a closer look at his teeth.
"Ow. OK, OW! What are you… ack… doing right now?" Darling asked as I continued to examine him. I finally stopped and looked him in the eyes while I smushed his cheeks together.
"How'd you do it?" I asked. Darling just look at me, confused.
"Do what?"
"Make the horns disappear and turn your eyes back to normal."
"Oh, that. Well, just watch," Darling said. He then closed his eyes and his horns and the blue eyeliner slowly reappeared and his eyes turned cyan again.
"OooooK, what the hell were you drinking to be able to do that?" Max asked.
"Rhea taught me. Turns out that the same way our horns get larger when we get angry, we can also concentrate and become 'human', so to speak."
"You mean lose the horns, the eyeliner, and make your eyes look normal?" Nikki asked as Darling became human again.
"Something like that. But, if we do end up staying in this dimension, it's an effective way of blending in with everyone else," he said. I immediately got up from the table and ran toward Rhea's room. She was in the middle of meditating and jumped in fear when I barged into the room.
"I need you to teach me how to become human," I said. Rhea just looked at me all confused like I had two heads… or however that phrase went.
"I'm sorry?" she asked.
"You made him become human. I want you to teach me that," I said. After about two minutes of explaining, Rhea set up a candlelit circle with me in the middle. Around the circle were smaller circles with glyphs in the middle of them.
"So, you wish to learn what Hiro learned?" Rhea asked. I eagerly nodded and she blew some kind of blue flame which lit up each of the candles and the circle began to glow.
"Very well then. In order to help you become human, we must journey into your mind and unlock that ability. Are you prepared to venture into the unknown?"
"I am," I said. Rhea's hands started to glow and each crease and line of the room began to glow as well.
"Then you must do one thing: Free your mind," she said before she outstretched her hands and the entire room became like a starry sky before the stars all became neurons and my memories all surrounded the two of us.
"Whoa," I said. It was like I was inside my own brain. Each of my memories were separated into different groups, each symbolized by what kind of memory they were. For the happy memories, it was a soft white with beams of sunlight. For my sad and depressed memories, the color was blue with rain clouds above them. My memories regarding anger, fear, and hate were surrounded by dark clouds with red lightning and a ring of fire beneath them. As for my memories of passion and love, it was pink with love hearts.
"As you can see, these are your very memories. If you wish to be human, you must choose a memory that you hold dear and focus on that one memory while I begin the procedure," Rhea said. I looked around at each of my memories, scanning for one that I held most dear. When I found one, I held my hands out to it and the sphere floated gently towards me. The memory that I had chosen was the day when Darling and I first met. The day when he freed me and he wanted to be my darling. The memory went up toward the moment when we were about to be captured by the adults, but the memory looped back to the beginning and resumed. I couldn't help but smile at how beautiful that memory was. I looked behind the memory sphere briefly and saw that Rhea had an illusion of a DNA strand, which she was plucking lines out of them and rearranging them.
"So, what exactly are you doing?" I asked.
"My people often helped other alien species adopt human-like features so they could live a new life. The way that we did so was by rearranging certain DNA strands that would allow them to shapeshift. It's a very advanced kind of magic with long term results, but in order to obtain a successful first transformation, the patient must find one of their memories that puts them at ease and focus on that. Now then, focus on your cherished memory," Rhea said. I closed my eyes and gently focused on my first meeting with Darling as the sphere enveloped the two of us.
"You feel it, don't you? That feeling of peacefulness. You feel at ease in his embrace and feel that you can be human around him. You must focus on this moment to truly become human. To be that whom you desire to be. Are you prepared?" Rhea asked me.
"I am," I replied, keeping my eyes closed.
"Oh, gracious ancestors. I beseech you to help this beautiful soul and grant that which she seeks: the gift of humanity. Give me the power to grant her this gift and to allow her to become human!" Rhea said in some kind of prayer-like way. It felt like there was some kind of pain coming from my chest and my head started to feel dizzy and distorted until a bright light engulfed the two of us and the entire room went back to normal. As quickly as the pain in my chest and head came, it all suddenly went away and I panted heavily. Rhea then held a mirror in front of my face so that I could see how I looked. I now had vivid green eyes instead of the normal cyan eyes I usually had and my eyeliner and horns were gone with only my limiter headband on my head. I took the mirror and looked at myself in disbelief and amazement.
"You did it. You actually did it," I said, admiring myself. But the moment was short-lived, because my horns slowly came back in and my eyes reverted back to normal. I looked back up at Rhea with a sad and confused look.
"This was only your first transformation. You will be able to transform back and forth more often but only with more practice. It took Hiro a few hours to fully master and it might take some effort with you as well," Rhea said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded in approval and gave her a smile. Someone suddenly pounded on the door and it opened to reveal Amki standing in the doorway.
"Does the intercom not work in here or did you two just tone it out?! Celeste needs us on the bridge now!" she said before walking off.
Max's perspective
All ten of us stood around the holographic table on the bridge as Celeste pulled up holograms of a space station and news articles about some kind of terrorist attack.
"I've called you all here because Rhonda has found us a lead about the Overlord. Back in the year of 2018, there was an attack on a town square on the planet of Roanark. Many were killed, several more were injured, and thousands were shaken to the core. However, Rhonda learned from Dolarhyde that one of the terrorists survived and was sent to a supermax prison. And apparently he knows how to defeat the Overlord," she said.
"And how do we know that he's there?" Nikki asked.
"Because there's only one place where the worst of the worst space criminals are sent: The Phantom Supermax Facility," Rhonda said.
"Phantom what-now?" Hiro asked. Celeste enlarged the picture of the space station in response to his question.
"The Phantom Facility is a prison located within an asteroid field. It holds some of the most dangerous and feared criminals that the galaxy has to offer. Some of the ones that I've captured were put here. If the acolyte is here, he may information that we need," she said.
"So, we just schedule an appointment and we just go in and talk to him?" Nikki asked.
"I wish that it were that simple. But the Phantom Facility has no inmate communication systems and most of the criminals there have no families, which means that we will have to pose as prisoners ourselves and locate the acolyte in order to get the information."
"Uh, not to be that person, but doesn't that sound a bit dangerous. I mean, you LITERALLY said that this place has the worst of the worst," Odango said.
"We've fought Infernites, brainwashed soldiers, and alien cowboys. We can handle alien prisoners, Odango," I said.
"In either case, Odango will stay with the ship while the rest of us locate the acolyte. We will enter through the trash compactor area and work our way into the prison. From there, we will follow the prisoner guidelines until we have recovered the information and we will meet back at the extraction point. An easy in and out if this goes right. So let's get suited up and get going," Celeste said. We all headed to the fabrication room where the clothes for the mission were orange jumpsuits with prison numbers on them. Amki, Eva, and Rhonda grabbed their jumpsuits and left the room to put them on while the rest of us stayed and put ours on.
"Well, glad to see that orange is the universal color for prisoner outfits," Nikki said sarcastically as she put her jumpsuit on.
"It's only for this mission, Nikki," Celeste said. Zero Two just looked at her suit in disgust.
"I'm not wearing this," she said.
"Why not?" Hiro asked as he zipped up his suit. Zero Two held out her suit for him to inspect.
"Darling, look at this thing. I'd look like a traffic cone with this on!"
"They don't really care about fashion statements in prison, Zero Two," I said. Celeste then came over to me and attached a small device to my neck which turned my skin a mottled green with black stripes on my arms and my fingers looked like they were webbed. She then attached a similar device to Nikki's neck which turned her skin blue.
"Uh, what is this all about?" Nikki asked, looking at her hands.
"If the guards at the prison see you as humans, they'll suspect that we're not actual prisoners. This is just to hide your identities until our mission is finished," Celeste said.
"But I thought that they didn't pay any attention to humans," I said, inspecting myself.
"That's usually true of most species, but it's illegal for humans to be sent to any sort of intergalactic prison."
"Guess you and Hiro should be glad that you're both half-human, huh?" Nikki asked Zero Two, who had put on her jumpsuit. She had a completely disgusted look on her face and it didn't help that we were giving her awkward smiles. Before long, we had reached the prison and snuck in through the trash compactor area, which smelled surprisingly clean despite the fact that it was where all the trash was stored. Odango stayed behind with the Centurion while we headed straight for the holding cells. Everything was objectifiably quiet even as we made our way past some of the cells with actual prisoners in them. Some of them looked overly bulky and terrifying, others looked seductive yet deadly and some were interacting with each other like they were friends while others didn't look like they were getting along very well. We finally got to an empty cell and quietly snuck in, even though Amki had a bit of trouble getting through the hole that we crawled through. After we settled in, Celeste pulled up a small map of the entire facility.
"Right now, we are at the main holding area. This is where most of the prisoners are held and where they spend their free time. Finding our target here may be a bit difficult, but it's very likely that we'll find him here. There's also a gym and a library which are also good places to look for him. But our time will be limited. Based on our current time frame, in about two minutes, everyone will leave for the mess hall for lunch. After that comes the men's shower time. During that time, the rest of us will use that time to try and gather information about where the acolyte is being held. When the time comes for the woman's shower time, both Max and Hiro will head to where he's being held and learn what we can in order to defeat the Overlord. After we have acquired said information, we will meet back here and wait until the entire facility is asleep and escape," she said.
"What happens if we miss that window?" Hiro asked.
"We sit and wait for the next shift. Truth be told, this mission shouldn't be that hard nor should it take that long. It's just a matter of us staying out of trouble in a hostile environment like this."
"I mean, you have me to help protect you. I've been in and out of prison several times, so I know my way around a place like this," Amki said. An alarm suddenly went off and the door to the cell opened. Some of the other prisoners were already walking in a straight line while being directed by some guards wearing some black armor. We walked out along with the rest of the crowd and followed them all the way to the mess hall. We then got in line for what was on the menu today: tentacles. Yeah, TENTACLES. They were purple and slimy and were served alongside some kind of green gelatin and a bubbly drink. When we sat down, Zero Two poked the tentacles she had on her tray in disgust while Hiro sliced off a piece before gagging as he ate it.
"Words CANNOT describe how revolting this is," Zero Two said, poking the tentacles some more.
"It's true that prison food is not the normal cuisine outside of these walls, but it's all that they have in here. It's also highly nutritious for them," Eva said.
"Yeah, but… doesn't this stuff seem extremely lethal to eat?" Nikki asked as one of the tentacles she had grappled onto the side of the table and dragged itself off of the tray, only for Rhonda to stab it with her fork.
"Only if it's attached to the brain," Rhonda said. Zero Two just ate the gelatin next to the tentacles and seemed to be content with how that tasted rather than the tentacles. But one of the tentacles launched from her tray and grabbed her by the arm, struggling to overpower her until Celeste cut it in half and it fell to the table and squirmed a bit before it stopped completely.
"Darling. Let's do ourselves a favor and NEVER visit a prison ever again," Zero Two said.
"I hear you," Hiro said as he ate his tentacle, clearly not enjoying it. Amki, on the other hand, was LOVING her tentacles as she ate them up and one of the tentacles wrapped around her nose. She nosily slurped it down and shoved the rest of it into her mouth, making us look at her in confusion and disgust.
"What? I told you that I've been in jail before. You get used to this kind of food when you've been in here as long as I have," Amki said as she continued to wolf down her food. As the rest of us ate, I took a moment to look around the mess hall. Every prisoner sitting with others were interacting with one another but they weren't acting out of line too much. I think that it had to do with the fact that the guards were patrolling the area, periodically checking on the inmates as they walked past them. But as I continued to look around, I saw one alien sitting at a table by herself. She had grey skin with bright green hair and silver eyes with black sclerae. But what intrigued me the most was that she didn't have a mouth and on her tray were some kind of batteries. She grabbed two of them and her hands briefly lit up with electricity before she set them down and picked up two more of them, doing the same thing. I looked around some more and saw another girl sitting at a table all by herself, but this one had more reddish skin with red-orange hair and yellow eyes. Her jumpsuit was torn at the shoulders and she had tattoos of flames on her upper arms. But it looked like she was aware of me and was giving me a stare of pure anger, with her eyes flaring up a bit and her mouth exhaling a bit of fire. She then got up and exited the mess hall.
"Max, is everything alright?" Celeste asked me.
"Yeah, it's just that girl over there was giving me the evil eye," I said, pointing to the fire girl.
"Most of th' inmates here will do that to ya until we leave here. So just get used to it for now," Rhonda replied. One of the guards suddenly started banging on the wall, drawing the attention of everyone in the mess hall.
"Listen up! Men's shower time will begin in five minute! All male inmates present must either finish eating or dump your food into the trash before you leave!" the guard said. After he said that, everyone went back to eating their food and after five minutes, me, Hiro, and all the other male inmates went straight to the showers. And these showers were HUGE. I mean, I have seen prison showers in movies, but never in real life. Each of the inmates took turns sharing the water and the soap as they hosed themselves down. Hiro and I showered away from everyone else to try and not draw attention to ourselves.
"So… you ever been to prison?" Hiro asked as I scrubbed myself off.
"Never. Then again, I never really wanted to end up in a place like this in the first place. If I did, I would never come out as the same man who went in," I said, handing him the soap.
"I mean, it doesn't look that bad in this place. Everyone's well-behaved and… that's about it, actually."
"I think that it's because of the guards. They're supposed to keep the inmates in line and prevent them from causing any chaos."
"So, I heard that Rhea helped you to be able to shapeshift. How did it feel, being human again?"
"A little weird. But what's even weirder is that Rhea actually able to rewrite DNA. I mean, what kind of alien species is even able to do that?"
"Who knows? But it is good that she's using that power to help people."
"All right, you two. You're time's up. Dry yourselves off, put your uniforms back on and head back to your cells," one of the guards said. Me and Hiro left the shower and put our jumpsuits back on before heading back out into the hallway. But before either of us could react, someone grabbed Hiro by the throat and forced him up against the wall. It was the red-skinned alien from before.
"Is there… something we can… help you with?" Hiro asked as the alien tightened her grip.
"There actually is, you waste of flesh. Your friend, where is she?" the alien hissed.
"What friend?" I replied.
"The Tendricite! That cold-blooded 'hero' who claims that she's doing good for this universe!"
"I seriously don't know what you're talking about," Hiro implied. The alien just gave him a look of anger before her free hand burst into flames and she tried to punch him. But before she could, I grabbed her by the arm and tossed her away from Hiro. The alien stood back up and stared at me again with her eyes slightly on fire.
"Look, I don't know what you have against this so-called Tendricite, but whatever it is, it's probably not worth it," I said.
"Believe me… it is. She put me in this prison to rot while both her kind and my own believe her lies of giving them freedom. But I am a true advocate of truth and freedom and I will expose her for the liar that she is!" the alien said before she rushed at us again with her fists on fire. I easily dodged out of the way and she instead hit the wall, but I accidently bumped into someone behind me. I half expected it to be a large brute-like alien with an intimidating look, but when I looked back, I saw that it was the grey-skinned alien from before, looking at me with sincere, glowing eyes. The fire alien got back to her feet and threw a fireball at me, making me dodge again while grabbing the grey alien to try and protect her.
"OK, look! I don't know what you want us to tell you, but trying to kill us is not a good idea!" Hiro said as he dodged another fireball
"You don't know her like I do! She doesn't trust anyone. She always has a reason to hate someone that she doesn't know. And trust me… she'll turn on you the first moment she gets!" the female alien replied.
"Look, in all honesty lady, you're crazy," I said. The fire alien's eyes burned with intense hatred as her arms burst into flames and the heat became so intense that I could feel it from where I was. Suddenly, the grey alien stood in front of me and threw a ball of electricity which knocked the fire alien to the ground. As she stood back up, a couple of guards came running down the hallway and grabbed her by the arms, dragging her away as she panted in defeat. Two more guards came to help Hiro up and the grey alien gave me a hug for some strange reason.
"Uh, you're welcome?" I said. The alien just looked up at me with what I could only assume was a smiling look before breaking away from the hug.
"You OK? We should've been keeping a better eye around here," one of the guards asked. I just nodded in response.
"I think we'll be OK now," Hiro said.
"Well, you should be getting back to your cells now. We'll handle the rest from here," the second guard said. Hiro and I started to walk away but I felt the grey alien grab my arm and gently tugged on it.
"Uh, could you let go now?" I said. But the alien just tugged some more. One of the guards walked over to her and motioned for her to come with them.
"Prisoner E-01, it's time to head back to your cell now," the guard said. But the alien just hugged my arm tighter. I honestly didn't know what the alien found enticing about me. All I did was protect her from a pissed off alien who was trying to kill us. But I didn't have time to think about it because the second guard put his hand on my shoulder and started to lead me away with the female alien.
"Sorry, pal. If she wants to stay with you, then you'll have to report back to her cell with her," he said.
"Hey, wait, I can vouch for him! We know nothing about-!" Hiro tried to protest.
"It's OK, Hiro. I'll be fine," I said, holding my hand out to stop him. The guards then lead me and the female alien all the way to a dark hallway with a bunch of doors that were sealed tight. Each of them had a small window in each of them but I couldn't see into any of them. But I could hear them banging on the door, yelling and screaming to get out. I don't know what kind of psychological torture these prisoners were going through but I had a feeling that I had stumbled onto something horrendous. We finally stopped in front of one of the doors, which the guard opened, and me and the female alien stepped inside. It actually looked like any of the other cells in the main area, complete with a double bed up against the wall and a small bookshelf full of books. When we entered the cell, the female alien immediately began to skip and prance around the room like she was happy to be here with me even though I found the atmosphere to be a bit unnerving.
"Hey. Word of advice: be careful around her. Her shocks can get a bit unpredictable," one of the guards said to me before he closed the door behind him. I was now alone with this alien I didn't know in a galactic prison for the criminally insane and I had ZERO leads on the Overlord's acolyte. But I couldn't think about that right now because the female alien grabbed me by the arm and brought me over to a wall with a bright green button on it. Before I could ask anything, she pressed the button and the center of the room opened up to reveal a large aquarium beneath us. It was teeming with a bunch of alien-like fish of different colors that were swimming all around.
"They're beautiful," I said, bending over to get a better look. All of a sudden, the alien shoved me from behind and I fell into the aquarium water amongst all the fish. Some of the fish scattered and swam away when I fell in, but I didn't see that any of them had sharp teeth, so I started to swim back up to the surface. I heard another splash and saw the alien swimming down towards me with the top part of her suit missing, which was exposing her bare chest. As I was coming up, she grabbed me and gently hugged me, rubbing her face against mine. Her skin felt a bit slimy, but it also felt soft and a bit warm and the feeling of her bare chest against me felt weirdly enthralling. So enthralling that I completely forgot that I was still underwater and my oxygen was running out. I immediately pushed the alien off of me and burst out of the water, coughing up water and gasping heavily for air. As I was trying to catch my breath, the female alien emerged out of the water and gently tapped my neck, as if she was trying to tell me something.
"What? What is it?" I asked her. I suddenly noticed my reflection in the water had gills on its neck.
"Oh, that. I don't really have gills. I'm actually human," I said. The alien just tilted her head a bit in confusion. I tried to explain it a bit further to her, but I suddenly felt something REALLY cold crawling up my back. I slowly turned my head and saw some kind of blue slime sliding down my arm which began dripping to the floor. And to make matters worse, it had EYES. I swung my arm to get it off and the slime hit the wall before slowly descending to the floor. The slime popped its eyes back up and then slowly took the form of a humanoid girl and walked back over to me. As she stared up at me with her blue eyes, her mouth formed a smile and she hugged me.
"Goo?" it said, breaking away from the hug. I just stared at it in confusion and put my hand on her face. While she did feel cold and slimy, it also felt smooth and soft.
"Have you two been living here together?" I asked. The female alien nodded sadly and stared down at the floor. I smiled and gently nudged her to look up at me before I patted her on the head.
"Why would anyone as cute as you be in a place like this?" I asked. The alien then pressed her nose against mine, giving me an Eskimo kiss and looking up at me with a happy look. I just gave her a smile
"Well, why don't we find a way out of here together?" I asked. The alien suddenly glomped me to the floor and the slime followed suit. Their boobs squished up against my face as they happily embraced me until they got up.
"So, what do I call you?" I asked the alien. She grabbed the top part of her suit and pointed to the number on it.
"E-01? Nah. I'd like to call you something other than just a prison number. How about… Eila?" I asked. The alien excitedly nodded.
"Eila it is then. How about you?" I asked the slime.
"Goo!" the slime exclaimed.
"Alright then, you two. Let's see if we can find a way out," I said.
Nikki's perspective
"Where are they?" I asked looking out across the prison's center room.
"They probably got held up. Just relax, Nikki," Celeste said. All of us were waiting on Hiro and Max to get back so we just had to keep ourselves occupied for the time being. Rhea was helping Zero Two to try and master her human form, Rhonda was playing digital cards with Eva, and Amki was just lying on the bed.
"You never know. One of them might've dropped the soap," Amki said, making me shiver.
"Stop it," Celeste replied. I saw Zero Two transform into a human and slowly open her eyes. When nothing happened, she gave Rhea a big smile.
"Congratulations, Zero Two. You can now shapeshift between your normal form and human form at will," Rhea said. Zero Two concentrated again and her horns slowly came back.
"Well, I do have you to thank," Zero Two replied, earning a smile from Rhea.
"OK, I'm getting worried now. Should we go look for them?" I asked. As if to answer, Hiro suddenly came running into the room and closed the cell door behind him.
"Guys, we have a problem!" he said, panting.
"You guys dropped the soap, didn't you?" Amki said.
"What? NO!"
"Hiro, what happened? Where's Max?!" I asked.
"We got attacked… by a fire alien and the guards took Max somewhere with another alien," Hiro explained.
"Is he OK?!"
"He should be fine. Let me see if I can reach him. Max, are you there?" Celeste said into her comms. I turned on my own so I could hear.
"Yeah, I'm here," Max replied. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good. You gave us all a fright. What's your position now?"
"I have no idea. All I know is that some of the prisoners seemed to have been isolated from the rest and I'm in a cell with one of them right now."
"What does it look like?" I asked.
"Female. Grey skin, green hair, silver eyes, no mouth. Can control electricity for some reason," Max replied.
"Sounds like an Ecorian," Eva said.
"An Ecorian?"
"Actually, what you just described sounds like a subspecies of Ecorian. Ecorians mostly have the ability to emit an ear-piercing scream that can shatter rocks, but there have been recent findings of a subspecies that possesses a mutation that allow them to control and emit electricity. But, as a result, they must feed on it regularly."
"Are they dangerous?" I asked.
"Not usually. It's possible that she was arrested because she was siphoning off a power grid to satiate her hunger," Celeste said.
"I mean she's very friendly. Maybe a bit too- HEY! Stop that!" Max yelled.
"What?" I asked.
"Sorry. Eila was poking at my communicator."
"Eila?" Zero Two asked.
"I named her that. I thought it sounded cute," Max said.
"Max, I need you to focus right now. Can you try and find a way out?" Celeste said.
"Eila, Goo, and I are working on that right now, but it looks like this place is sealed tight."
"Goo?" I asked.
"She's a slime," Max replied.
"Yuck."
"MAX. What do you see in the cell?" Celeste said, getting impatient.
"Well, Eila has an aquarium in the floor. There's a window looking outside. There's a small bookshelf full of books. Other than that, I don't see much else."
"Wait. Did you just say a shelf full of books? What kind of books?" Rhea asked.
"Um… it looks like books talking about arcane magic and stuff like that. Why?" Max asked.
"I think that cell might've belonged to the acolyte that we were looking for. See if you can find any information on the Overlord and how to defeat him."
"I'll do that. I'll radio you back if I find anything."
"We should be getting ready. We'll be heading to the women's shower in about two minutes," Celeste said.
"Hey, Celeste. Would you happen to know a fire alien with reddish skin, orange hair and fire tattoos on her upper arms?" Max asked. Celeste just sighed and rubbed her eyes in disappointment.
"Sadly, yes. Her name is Ember. She's a Pyronite from the planet of Prometheus and one of my worst enemies."
"Why does she hate you?" Hiro asked.
"The Tendricites and Pyronites were at war with each other for a very long time. After we had finally made peace with each other, there were still those who believed that neither side could be trusted and created extremist groups in order to disrupt that peace. Ember was the leader of one of those groups. After about five months of her madness, I finally caught her and the court sentenced her to two years in the Phantom Facility. She's hated me ever since," Celeste explained.
"And now we're in this prison with her?" I asked.
"Unfortunately, yes. But we shouldn't be worrying about that right now. Right now we be focusing on our mission. And right now we should be heading for the women's showers. Let's get going," Celeste said. Before too long, me and the rest of the girls headed for the showers, along with a whole bunch of other female inmates.
"Hey, I have a question. Why did you ask if they dropped the soap, Amki?" Zero Two asked.
"It's a prison thing. And it's too embarrassing to talk about," Rhonda replied.
"I mean, we shouldn't have anything to worry about. It only happens among male prisoners, so we should be fine," I said.
"You're kidding, right?" Amki said.
"What?"
"You know that some alien species are hermaphroditic, right? We're not save if we drop the soap either way!"
"Just stay close and we'll be just fine," Celeste said as we entered the shower's locker room. After we had stripped down and grabbed our towels, we headed into the main shower area. Sure enough, just as Amki had said, some of the aliens in that shower were hermaphrodites. I felt a bit nervous as we moved past them and made our way to some of the shower heads that weren't being used. As I turned on the water and scrubbed myself down, Zero Two took a look around.
"Don't these prisons believe in any privacy?" she asked as she lathered herself up.
"Well, there aren't any guards in here, so that should say something," I said.
"The guards here are trained to respect the inmates and treat them nicely in the hopes that their behavior will help them to change their ways so the inmates can be reinvigorated back into society. It has proven to be very effective from what I've heard," Celeste said.
"I'll bet you wish that Max was here with you right now," Zero Two said to me, making me blush.
"W-what are you talking about?" I said as I continued to wash myself down.
"You've made love in the shower before, right? I bet that you wish he was here doing it with you now."
"OK, look! What happens between me and him is none of your business, OK?!" I said. But I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and I accidentally dropped the soap. The ONE THING that I feared that I was going to do finally happened. I fearfully looked up and took a look around. Not a whole lot of the inmates noticed that I had dropped it, but a few did. And one or two of them were hermaphrodites. I swallowed hard. There was no way out of this. If I bent down, I was gonna get taken to pound town in a bad way and it would probably be right here in front of my friends. But it had to be done. However, as I prepared to bend down and get the soap, Zero Two kicked it towards the wall, it ricocheted off and bounced off of the ceiling and straight into her hand. She then handed the soap to me and gave me a smile before going back to showering herself off, leaving me completely dumbfounded and amazed. After about a few minutes, I headed back into the locker room and started to put my suit back on. But as I was doing that, a muscular hand gently grabbed my shoulder. I thought at first that it was Amki, but it was actually a buff, teal-skinned female alien. That may not sound so bad, except I could see an abnormally large bulge in her pants.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry, sweetheart?" the alien asked, pinning me against the lockers.
"Uh, back to my cell. Figured that… I didn't need to be here any longer," I said. The alien just moved in closer, rubbing her boobs up against me. The bulge in her pants was inches away from my lower half.
"See something you like?"
"N-no! It's just that you're… REALLY close to me right now and it's.. kind of uncomfortable."
"Don't try to hide it, baby. It's all lonely here in this hell hole. I'll bet that you haven't gotten any ever since you've been here. I promise that I'll be gentle," the alien said softly. She forcefully grabbed my breast and began to fondle it a bit. Her face began to slowly inch towards mine until someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was Zero Two.
"Hey! Quit pickin' on my girlfriend!" she said, pushing the alien aside. She then set her arm on the wall beside my head and then she straight up KISSED me full on the lips. There was no warning at all and she caught me totally off-guard. The alien just gave us a confused look as Zero Two broke away from the kiss and put her arm around me, groping my breast and giving the alien a smug smile. But the alien just gave a smug smile in return.
"Oh, I see. You were just keepin' her a secret from me, huh? Well, truth be told, I don't mind having more than one partner who's lookin' for a good time," she said.
"Well, I saw her first, so that means I get dibs on her," Zero Two replied as she continued to squeeze my boob. I could kinda tell that she was trying to just protect me.
"Y-yeah. You know it… babe," I said, trying to play along. It didn't work because the alien started to inch in on the two of us.
"Well, either way, I don't mind sharing," the alien said, licking her lips. But when she got within arms' reach of us, another muscular arm wrapped around the alien's neck. It was Amki, who looked extremely pissed off.
"Who do you think you are treating my friends like this?" she asked. The alien just looked up at her fear and began to sweat profusely.
"N-n-no reason. I was just trying to be friendly was all. I wasn't gonna hurt them, I swear!"
"Get lost," Amki said, releasing the alien, who left immediately. Celeste and the rest of the group walked up to us as the alien ran out the door.
"What happened?" Celeste asked.
"Just another sexual harasser. Nothing interesting," Amki said, stretching a bit. After the rest of the group got their jumpsuits back on, we started making our way back to our cell.
"Hey, look. I'm sorry if I made that a bit too awkward for you back there. I figured that she would leave if I posed as your girlfriend," Zero Two said.
"It's fine. Thanks for protecting me," I replied with a smile.
"That's what friends are for."
Selene's perspective, Overlord's ship
I was seated inside my quarters, trying to concentrate. I was always trying to fight against the constant nightmares that always plagued me from the day me and my brother were found by the Overlord. He always said that the nightmares would go away with time but as the time went on, the nightmares only got worse. I trusted the Overlord, I really did. But I felt that he wasn't telling me everything that he knew. All of a sudden, the tracking transponder went off. I picked it up and walked out of my room towards the Overlord's throne room. On the way, however, Philip stopped me.
"Where are you off to in a hurry?" he asked me.
"I've located them again. I'm on my way to inform the Overlord now," I said.
"Why do we need to tell him? We could just go and get them ourselves."
"That's not the point, Philip. The Overlord has the only thing that can extract the Infernite energy. If we went by ourselves, it would be complete suicide."
"So… are we gonna talk about this thing between us?" Philip asked as we continued to make our way to the bridge.
"There's nothing between us," I said.
"Sure there is. You can't ignore the chemistry between us. You can practically feel the electricity in the air."
"That's just the thing, Philip. It's your hatred of the human and his lover that makes you unapproachable. I don't know what it was that made you resent him that much, but if you continue with this anger, it will cause you to do something reckless," I said. After we had entered the bridge, I kneeled before the Overlord.
"Selene. You have news of their location?" he said.
"I do, my lord. It appears that they are inside the Phantom Facility," I said.
"What's that?" Philip asked.
"It's a supermax prison for the worst kind of galactic criminals," Zekxsie said, walking over to us.
"OK, and what exactly would they be doing there?"
"Possibly looking for information," I said.
"Whatever the case, we must make our way to the prison and destroy any resistance that gets in our way," the Overlord replied.
"My lord… you're not suggesting that we destroy the prison and everyone inside it… are you?"
"We have been delayed for too long. We will not harm Maxwell or the girl, but everyone else is irrelevant to our mission," Yoon said. The Overlord nodded in approval and stared out into the void of space.
"All due respect, my lord, but I agree with Selene on this one. That prison is best known for its programs that try to help get the prisoners back into society," Zekxsie said. The Overlord looked back at us and then looked back out into the void.
"Very well, then. We will kill only those who stand in our way. No one else will die. But do not forget what we are fighting for. Now let us make our way through the stars. Our victory awaits," he replied.
Max's perspective, The Phantom Facility
I had to hand it to the acolyte, he sure did love to read a lot. I had gone through at least 10 different books, page by page, but none of them had anything of interest nor did they have any information on how to stop the Overlord. Goo was busy sleeping while Eila was looking through the books I had already searched.
"You enjoying reading those?" I asked. Eila looked up and nodded before going back to reading. Sure, she wasn't able to talk, but her facial expressions spoke in volumes. Which was more than I could say about the books in the shelf. I rubbed my head in disappointment as I continued to flip through the pages and then put the book in the pile.
"I wish I could say the same. God, I wish that this guy would at least have SOME kind of info about the Overlord!" I said. But as I pulled out the next book, some kind of disk fell out and clattered to the floor. I picked the disk up and carefully inspected it. It looked like it was some kind of communicator except that it didn't seem to have any charge to it.
"Eila, can you give this a light shock for me?" I asked. Eila put her finger against the device and a small bit of electricity jolted from her to the device, which slowly whirred to life. The center of the disc lit up and a hologram popped up. The hologram was a rectangle with a list of what appeared to be voice logs. I tapped the first one on the list and it began to play.
"Day 1: I have been imprisoned for something that I have no recollection of. All I remember is that I was visited by a mysterious robed figure who spoke of a quest. A quest to save this universe from impending doom. After that, I have no idea what happened. All I remember was that I passed out and I ended up in this prison," a voice on the voice log said. I had no doubt that it was the acolyte, but it sounded like he didn't know anything. I just went ahead and played the next recording.
"Day 4: I now know what it was that I did. Apparently me and a whole group of my kind attacked a whole crowd of innocents on the planet of Roanark. We were within a town square and several of us committed suicide by bombs in order to be heard. I don't know what it was that enticed us to sacrifice ourselves in such a way, but what I do know is that I was the only one left. I did not even try to deny that it wasn't me. The recording they had was convincing enough. I have also learned that the being I worked for has called himself the 'Overlord'. What his motivation is, he has never told me," the recording said. I was completely confused at that statement. If the guy was responsible for the death of thousands, how could he not remember it? I went on to the next recording and pressed play.
"Day 25: I can hear them. The voices are calling to me. They demand compensation for the sin that I committed and they want me to pay with death. MY death. I don't know what it is that the Overlord did to me, but it is severely compromising my thinking. I might not be able to resist for much longer. However, I am glad that my family is not here to witness the sin I committed. They would be very ashamed of me. I have also searched some more of my memories and I remember that the Overlord was in search of an artifact called the 'Crucible'. It was said to be a weapon of immeasurable power. If he gets his hands on it, there's no way to stop him," the recording said. I felt my heart sink after the recording finished. If there was no way for us to stop him, then I would be on the run forever. I had the only thing that he needed to take over the entire universe and if there was no other way to get rid of it beside the Crucible, then how much longer would we be able to last? I swiped through the rest of the recordings, but when I reached the bottom of the list, one of the recordings read 'IMPORTANT'. I immediately pressed the play button on it.
"To anyone who has found this recording: It is now Day 50 and I can no longer hold myself back. Death is the only escape for me to be free of the Overlord's grasp. But, I believe that there is, in fact, a way to stop the Overlord, should he get his hands on the Crucible. I have reason to believe that the Magistrus clan of the planet Obraxis foretold that a day like this would come. There has been mention in their sacred texts that there is an artifact that is able to counter and destroy the power of the Crucible. But where it is hidden, I am unable to read exactly where that is. I believe that a Magistrus should be able to decipher the code and find this artifact. In the bookshelf is a book with a bold blue cover that bears the crest of the Magistrus clan. If you are able to find one who can translate the texts, there might be hope for the universe. My time might be over, but I have faith that you can stop this evil. I wish you the best of luck," the recording said. I went back over to the shelf and found the book of the Magistrus clan. Sure enough, it did have text in a language I didn't understand, but this was it. Rhea could decipher it and we could finally put a stop to all this.
"Celeste, I think I found what we were looking for," I said into my comms with a smile. But, there was no answer. Just static.
"Celeste, are you there?" I said again. There was still no answer.
"Goo! Goo!" Goo suddenly said, clinging to the window. I walked over to her to see what all the commotion was about, but when I looked out the window, my heart nearly stopped. Coming out of the asteroid belt was a giant warship with runes along the sides. It was the Overlord's ship. The ship fired a bunch of torpedoes into the side of the prison, the explosions shaking it to the core, and an alarm started to sound. Goo and Eila clung to me in fear as the Overlord's ship fired harpoons into the side of the station. I knew it was only a matter of time before the Overlord and his minions would be combing the entire prison for us. And I wasn't planning on sticking around for that.
"Time to go," I said, sticking the book inside of my suit. I ran over to the door and pried it open. The hallway was filled with panicking prisoners and guards trying to calm everyone down. Some of the prisoners were beating up other prisoners or even the guards to try and get out alive. I took Eila by the hand and we ran throughout the corridor to try and find the main holding area I was just hoping that the others were OK.
Celeste's perspective
"What the hell's going on?" Nikki yelled, trying to talk over the alarm that was blaring.
"The entire prison complex is under attack. They're trying to evacuate the facility," I said.
"I guess that means we need to leave?" Rhonda asked.
"I'm afraid so. Hopefully Max found what we needed. The only problem now is finding out where he is and getting him out."
"And how the hell do we do that?! He could be anywhere by now!" Amki replied.
"Nikki, take Hiro, Zero Two, and Rhea with you. The rest of us will head to the ship and grab our equipment. If you manage to find Max, get back to the ship and we can get out of here," I said.
"OK. Be careful, alright?" Nikki said.
"We will. Now, GO!" I said. Me, Amki, Eva, and Rhonda made our way through the prison, taking out any prisoners who tried to fight us. When we finally got to the trash compactor area, I noticed that the ship's cargo door was open. I immediately stopped the others in their tracks.
"What is it?" Eva asked.
"That door shouldn't be open," I said, cautiously advancing towards the ship. Sure enough, a large fireball flew out of the ship and hit Amki in the face, knocking her back. As Eva went to go help her, someone walked out of the ship, clutching the burnt robotic body of Odango. That someone was Ember, the Pyronite that Max had mentioned earlier. My own worst enemy. Ember threw Odango's body at our feet and slowly walked out of the ship, her hands burning with intensity.
"Miss me, Tendricite?" Ember asked, her mouth exhaling flames. I just stared at her in anger.
"Rhonda, help Odango. This one is mine," I said. As Rhonda went to help Odango and Eva, Ember ran toward me at full force, her arms being set ablaze. I was able to dodge in time and land a kick on the back of her head. Ember got back to her feet as quickly as she got knocked down and tried in vain to hit me, only to get knocked back down again.
"I always dreamed of this moment. The day when I finally get to kill you for all the pain you've wrought!" Ember said, throwing a fireball at me.
"You might want to keep dreaming. Today is not that day."
"You were the one who put me in this hell hole! All these years of torture, you were still out there doing your so-called 'good work' while I was rotting away in here!"
"It was either prison or death. You didn't deserve death because of false beliefs that our people had," I replied.
"I would rather be dead than have to live one more second knowing that you're still alive! And you won't be alive for much longer!" Ember said, throwing more fireballs at me. As we continued to fight, her hair began to flare up which began to leak fire all over the place. Some of the flames almost hit Amki and the others, but they were able to get out of the way in time.
"Ember, please. There is much more at stake here than you realize. There is an enemy much stronger than anything that I've encountered and he threatens to destroy everything that this universe holds. But if you help us, I will reduce your sentence, I promise!" I said. But Ember continued to attack, lighting her arms ablaze again and wildly flailed at me in her anger. I tried my best to counter her attacks, but she finally managed to knock me to the ground and punch me in the face, making my mouth bleed a little.
"You have nothing that I want. The only thing that you can give me… is your death," Ember said, standing over me. She then set her fist ablaze, preparing to end my life. But before she could bring her fist down, Amki came up from behind and punched her square in the face, knocking her unconscious. Amki rubbed her face in pain as she helped me to my feet.
"Uh… don't tell anybody about this, OK?" she said, rubbing her head. I just smiled and chuckled a bit.
"Thank you, Amki," I said.
3rd person perspective
Nikki and the others continued to search the prison for any signs of Max. Parts of the ceiling were falling down all around them and some of the guards were trying to round up the rest of the inmates.
"This place is really coming down!" Hiro said, trying to avoid the falling debris.
"I know, but Max should be here somewhere! Keep looking!" Nikki said. As they continued to move throughout the prison, they came into the main cell area which had a large wall of debris in the middle of the room.
"That looks like a problem," Zero Two said.
"Dammit, no! Max has got to be on the other side of this! Does anyone see a way around this?" Nikki said, trying to remove some of the debris. But it was too heavy to remove by hand.
"I don't believe that there's any way to remove this. We may need to find another way around," Rhea said. As they started to look around for another way through the debris, Hiro found a dead guard with two gauntlets. Hiro walked over to the guard and took the gauntlets off of the guard before putting them on his arms. The gauntlets slowly hummed to life and two blue lines running down the middle of them slowly lit up. Hiro suddenly felt more powerful, as if the gauntlets were increasing his physical strength. To test it out, he grabbed a pipe and squeezed it as hard as he could. To his surprise, the pipe crinkled like paper and twisted just as easily. Hiro immediately dropped the pipe and went back over to the debris wall, where Zero Two was trying to remove a loose bit of the wall.
"Nothing. It would take a lot of force just to break through all this," Zero Two said.
"I guess I have to do it. Step back," Hiro said, moving Zero Two away from the wall. As he prepared to punch through, a bunch of blue energy surrounded the gauntlet and right as he punched the wall, the energy created an intense blast that tore a large hole in the wall and destroyed some of the debris. Hiro and the others stood back in amazement at the large hole that was just created.
"Well, now. You never told me that you were that strong, Darling," Zero Two said, amazed. All of them suddenly heard a bit of coughing and saw Max walk out into the holding area with Eila and Goo following him. Nikki immediately ran over to him and hugged him tightly.
"Oh, thank God we found you! I thought you were trapped under all of this!" Nikki said.
"Yeah, I'm not that easy to get rid of. Where are the others?" Max asked.
"They're back at the ship. We should get going," Rhea said. But before any of them could move a muscle, one of the doors to the holding area exploded open, nearly hitting Max and Nikki. Luckily, Goo expanded her body and caught the door before it could hit anybody and do some damage. As the door fell to the ground and Goo reformed back into her normal shape, Philip and Selene walked out, with Philip cracking his knuckles with a smug grin on his face.
"Well, isn't this a lovely surprise. Fresh meat to toughen my knuckles on," he said.
"Philip, we need to take them alive. Wound, don't kill," Selene said. But Philip ran in without listening and swung his fist at Max. But he was able to dodge out of the way and punched Philip smack in the face, knocking him backwards.
"You know, Philip, I kind of figured that you'd be here. Prison's the perfect place for you," Max said.
"That might be so. But either way, you won't be leaving this place alive," Philip replied. He threw another punch at Max, this time hitting him in the face and knocking him to the ground. But before he could land another him, Zero Two grabbed a metal rod from the debris and poked Philip in the abdomen and knocked him to the floor. Before she could hit him again, Selene wrapped her whip around her neck and dragged her onto the floor. Eila then grabbed the whip and electrocuted it, which also electrocuted Selene, who then got hit by Hiro. As Selene struggled to get back to her feet, Philip put Max in a choke hold, preparing to snap his neck.
"Hey, Nik! Present for you!" Max said, reaching into his pocket and throwing her armor disc at her. The disc attached itself to her chest and after her armor formed over her entire body, she created a blaster and shot Philip in the face. As he was struggling to get back up, Zero Two continued her assault on Selene with a hit to the abdomen from the metal rod she was holding and she knocked her to the ground. Philip enragedly fired plasma shots from his hands at the floor, which greatly weakened the floor beneath Zero Two and Hiro's feet. The excess weight caused the floor to give way beneath their feet and both of them fell through to one of the lower levels.
"There! Now it's a fair fight!" Philip said. Nikki shot him with another plasma shot which knocked him back to the ground as Rhea and Max fought against Selene. After Max had pushed her away, both Max and Nikki stood shoulder-to-shoulder alongside Rhea, Eila, and Goo as Selene tried to help Philip get back on his feet.
"Rhea, go find Zero Two and Hiro! We'll handle these two," Nikki said, creating a sword.
"A-are you certain?" Rhea asked.
"Yes, we're certain. Now GO!" Max said. Rhea did as she was told and disappeared down the hole Zero Two and Hiro fell down. Both Philip and Selene stood back up and continued to fight Max and Nikki. Max was easily able to strike Philip in the chest and then crush both of his gauntlets which disabled Philip's plasma blasts and roundhouse kicked him in the face. As they fought, part of the floor behind them gave way, creating a perilous drop with a bunch of sharp debris at the bottom. Max and Philip's duel took them to the side of the drop, where Max nearly lost his footing, not paying attention. Philip was able to land an uppercut on Max, sending him over the edge. Max was luckily able to grab the edge before he fell to the bottom and Goo leapt into action and engulfed Philip's head to prevent him from sending Max to his death. Max then swung himself to a ledge below before Philip pried Goo off and threw her at a wall. Unfortunately, he failed to see that Nikki fired another plasma blast at him, which hit him smack in the face. Eila, on the other hand, was having trouble fighting Selene, who knocked her down and then turned her attention back to Nikki. Nikki created a mace to help her fight against Selene and was able to counter her whip attacks with the shield she created with her other hand. But even after she was able to knock her down again, Nikki didn't turn fast enough to see Philip's fist hit her in the face, knocking her down. Nikki's mouth became warm with blood as she stumbled back to her feet and stared at Philip in anger.
"Y'know… I figured that Max would've chosen someone who was a whole lot stronger than you," Philip taunted, a small sword extending from his arm.
"Why don't you cut the bullshit? Why do you want me dead so much?" Nikki asked, spitting blood at the floor.
"It's not just about killing you. It's about seeing Max suffer," Philip replied with a wicked grin. He then leaped into action and tried to stab Nikki, but she was able to dodge his attack and stab him through the shoulder with a sword of her own. As they continued to fight, Selene got back up and joined Philip in fighting Nikki, two against one. But as they continued to fight, their fight took them back to the edge of the pit. Selene came perilously close to the edge and she was unable to move in time for Nikki to hit her with a mace, knocking her over. Selene managed to grab the edge, but some of the metal gave way and she grabbed a stray rod poking out from the floor. She tried in vain to grab the edge with her other hand as Nikki and Philip continued to fight, but, second by second, she began to slip.
"Philip, help me!" Selene begged. But Philip completely ignored her and continued to fight Nikki in rage. Selene was unable to grab the ledge and the metal rod slipped out of the floor. Selene began to fall toward the bottom, the sharp debris at the bottom glinting from the fires surrounding the place. But, just as she fell past the floor below, a hand reached out and caught her. Selene shudderingly panted and then looked up to see who it was. To her shock and surprise, Max was the one who caught her. Max slowly pulled Selene up and rested her on the floor, panting heavily from the adrenaline.
"You're welcome. Never say that I don't give my enemies mercy," Max said as he sat against the wall. But Selene immediately lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him up against the wall.
"WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU SAVE ME?!" Selene yelled in rage.
"Because… it's the right thing to do," Max replied. Selene immediately released Max and stood up, kneeing him in the stomach. As Max reeled in pain, Selene looked at him with disapproving eyes.
"You will regret this, human," Selene said before opening a door behind them and locking it behind her, leaving Max, who had a confused look on his face.
"Goo! Goo!" Goo said, getting Max's attention. Max immediately grabbed her and Goo lifted him back up to the first floor, where Nikki and Philip were still fighting. Max hoisted himself up and put Philip in a choke hold, preventing him from fighting Nikki any longer. Before Philip could get free, Eila shot a bolt of lightning at him and electrocuted him. Philip crumpled to the floor unconscious and Nikki embraced Max again.
"You OK?" Max asked.
"I'm fine." Nikki replied.
"We should get going now."
"What about Hiro and Zero Two?"
"I'm sure they'll be fine. Hopefully Rhea found them and they're on their way back to the ship."
"And if they haven't?" Nikki asked.
"Then we'll look for them. Let's go," Max said, grabbing Nikki by the hand before the four of them made their way back to the Centurion.
Hiro's perspective
I slowly stirred awake and sat up, rubbing my head in pain. I don't know how far we fell, but it wasn't very far and I was somehow still alive. But I noticed that Zero Two wasn't right beside me. But I did hear her cries of pain. I followed the cries to an open area where she was lying in a pile of rubble.
"Zero Two!" I said, running over to her. But when I took the rubble off of her, I saw what she was crying in pain about. A piece of rebar had impaled her through her right side and the wound was bleeding a bit. Zero Two slowly opened her eyes and noticed me standing there in concern.
"D-Darling?" Zero Two asked, the tears running down her soot covered face.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm here. Listen, this is gonna hurt… a lot. Just bear with me, OK?" I said, grabbing the rebar. I gave Zero Two a silent countdown with my fingers to warn her before I yanked the rebar out as fast as I could. Zero Two couldn't help but scream in pain as I threw the rebar away and I helped her up, trying to put pressure on her wound.
"It hurts…" Zero Two said as I wiped her face down.
"I know it hurts. We need to get back to the ship and I'll get you patched up, OK? You'll be OK, I promise," I said. But before either of us could take another step, we heard a loud banging coming from the wall behind us. Without any warning, a red glowing blade sliced through the wall and something blasted through, sending debris and smoke flying past us. And then, coming out of the smoke, we saw him. The Overlord, in all his might and scariness, just as Max had described him. He was holding the Crucible in hand, its red blade glowing intensely as he stared us down.
"What sort of terrible fate has lead you to this moment?" the Overlord asked us. I didn't answer and just stood in front on Zero Two, powering up my gauntlets.
"Stay behind me," I said. But Zero Two immediately grabbed a rebar and shoved me aside, running at the Overlord and yelling. But the Overlord just swatted her away with his free hand, barely even fazed at Zero Two's attempt to put him down. The Overlord looked back at me with his red glaring eyes, as if he was trying to study me. Then, unexpectedly, the Crucible's blade retracted and the Overlord sheathed it.
"You would be wise to surrender," he said.
"Yeah, maybe," I replied before I ran in and tried to fight him. But the Overlord simply blocked each of my punches without much effort until he grabbed both of my hands with just one of his own, leaving me completely powerless.
"You may look human and fight like one, but you are not of Earth nor are you of this universe. What exactly are you?" the Overlord asked.
"I have nothing to say to you," I replied. Zero Two then attacked the Overlord from behind and tried to choke him with the rebar she had in her hands. But the Overlord released me and snapped the rebar in half before grabbing her by the neck. Zero Two wildly flailed and punched him in the face, trying to get free, but her attacks didn't faze or even bother the Overlord.
"Let go of me, you damn monster!" Zero Two said, continuing her relentless assault.
"You have much fight in you. I respect that. But even the strongest must be taught how to hone their power. Allow me to enlighten you," the Overlord said before red electricity sparked from his hand and electrocuted her. Zero Two screamed in pain until her entire body went limp and she fell unconscious. The Overlord then threw her body at me and she laid there, not moving. I went over to her body and tried to wake her up as the Overlord walked towards us.
"Zero Two! Come on, wake up!" I said, trying to get a response.
"She will not die. When she wakes, she will understand her true potential. But there is more to both of you than meets the eye, isn't there? I'll ask you again: Where did you come from?"
"Like I said, I have nothing to say to you," I replied, staring at him in anger. Before the Overlord could ask anything more, a sudden blast of magic hit him in the chest, knocking him back into the wall. I looked behind me and saw Rhea standing there, her hand glowing and her face showing complete anger. She walked in front of both me and Zero Two as the Overlord stood back up and stared at her.
"This universe has suffered enough at your hands!" Rhea yelled in rage.
"What I have done is given truth. I merely wish to rid this universe of evil and you wish to stop me?" the Overlord asked.
"You don't offer truth and protection! All you give is death and destruction! Look around at what you've done!"
"Some of these prisoners were irredeemable. And most of them were taken to safety. Like how I carried you to safety."
"YOU TOOK ME FROM MY FAMILY! MY HOME! AND YOU BETRAYED MY PARENTS, YOU WORTHLESS MONSTER!" Rhea yelled, using magic to grip the Overlord. The intense pressure started to strain the floor beneath him.
"And what happens when those you've trusted find out who you really are? They will abandon you and you will lose all hope that you hold dear," the Overlord replied. Rhea gritted her teeth and her hands glowed more intensely, crushing the ground beneath the Overlord, who fell through and disappeared into the flames. Rhea regained her composure and ran back over to me, putting a hand on Zero Two's head.
"She'll be alright. But we must leave now and get her back to the ship," she said. I grabbed her arm before she could leave.
"Rhea, what was he talking about?" I asked.
"Not now! We need to leave NOW!" Rhea replied. I picked up Zero Two and we ran through the fire-filled hallway. Rhea used her magic to tear holes through each wall we got to until we finally broke through into the trash compactor area. Coincidentally, Max, Nikki, Eila, and Goo had also gotten there and they immediately ran over to us.
"Thank God you guys are OK! What happened to Zero Two?" Max asked.
"We ran into the Overlord. We need to get back to the ship now!" Rhea replied. We all ran down the halls of the trash compactor until the Centurion was in sight, looking like it was preparing to take off.
"There it is! We're gonna be OK!" Nikki said. But, as if on cue, Philip appeared out of nowhere and tackled Max to the ground in a fit of rage. Max shoved him off and hit him straight in the face, which knocked him to the ground.
"For God's sake, would you just stay down, you asshole?!" Max said. But Philip didn't stay down and shoved Max up against a trash block, drawing blood from his mouth once he hit him in the face. The two of them engaged in a fistfight which nearly ended with Max losing, but Nikki leapt into action and hit Philip away with her mace. But it wasn't able to keep him off and he fought against her. It got to the point where he knocked her to the ground and a sword popped out from his wrist. I set Zero Two on the ground and wrapped my arms around Philip's neck, which gave Nikki enough time to get back up and hit him with a plasma blast from her arm cannon. But Philip threw me off and went back to attacking Nikki. This time he barely scratched the side of her face and punched her in the gut. Eila and Goo did their best to restrain him, but he lightly stabbed Eila and threw Goo at her to keep her down and Philip took a piece of debris and smashed it against Nikki's body, making her cough up a bit of blood.
"Are you that desperate?! I thought the Overlord told you not to harm me!" Nikki said. But Philip simply kneed her in the stomach and threw her towards Rhea, knocking them back toward the Centurion. I engaged him in a fistfight and was able to land a few punches on him, but he kicked me in the stomach and grabbed me by the neck.
"You think I care? You think that the Overlord's the one pulling the strings on me? He DOESN'T. I make my own decisions. I'M IN CONTROL OF ME! And I won't stop until every single one of you are dead. And trust me, I WILL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!" he replied in rage, tightening his grip on my neck. But, a slight noise from behind grabbed his attention. The source of the noise was Zero Two, who was back on her feet and holding a piece of rebar, her eyes glowing red.
"You won't kill any of us. YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD!" she yelled before taking the rebar and hitting Philip in the face, making him drop me. But when Philip struggled to get back up, Zero Two hit him again, drawing blood from his face. And she didn't even let up for a second. She continued to relentlessly beat Philip, drawing blood with every hit. I could see that her horns were bigger and she now had fangs like she did the last time I saw her that angry. When Philip tried to counter with his arm blade, Zero Two grabbed his arm and broke it in two, making him yell in pain and did the same to his leg when he tried to get back up. It got to the point where Philip was barely moving and he was lying in a pool of his own blood. But Zero Two wasn't letting up and continued to strike him over and over.
"Zero Two! That's enough!" Nikki said, trying to get her to stop. But Zero Two didn't listen and shoved Nikki off of her before going back to hitting Philip. But she wasn't able to do it for much longer because Nikki shot the rebar out of her hand with her arm cannon. In a fit of rage, Zero Two lunged at Nikki, pinning her to the ground and putting her hands around her neck. Nikki tried in vain to get her off, but Zero Two choked her harder and harder until it looked like she was about to pass out. Standing up, I knew that I had to do something and I had to do it now, whatever the consequences were.
"ZERO TWO!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Zero Two immediately turned to me, barely even releasing her grip on Nikki. I held out my hands as a sign of telling her that I wasn't going to hurt her.
"Please. She's your friend, Zero Two. You don't want to hurt her. Let her go…" I said calmly. Zero Two looked back at Nikki for a quick second before releasing her and standing back, breathing heavily with rage, leaving Nikki to cough a bit and gasp for air. Celeste ran out of the ship, having seen all the commotion, and pointed a blaster straight at Zero Two as I started to inch towards her carefully.
"Hiro, back away from her now!" Celeste said, resting her finger on the trigger.
"It's OK. I can handle this," I said, continuing to walk towards Zero Two. Her eyes were still glowing red and she still had her fangs out, but she did seem to be a bit more relaxed.
"Zero Two… I know that you're still in there. I don't know what it is that he did to you, but you need to fight it. You can't lose yourself to the darkness. And you won't," I said.
"HIRO! I said back away from her!" Celeste yelled. She slowly aimed the rifle at Zero Two's head, which got her attention. But she didn't attack or anything. She just stood there, her red eyes continuing to glow. But before Celeste could even shoot, Max grabbed her blaster and pointed it downward, giving me an approving nod. I nodded back and continued to move toward Zero Two.
"Listen… I know that you can fight whatever's going on. Because you… you're the strongest person I know. And you won't let the monster out. I know you won't. Because you're stronger than it will ever be," I said. I gently pulled her in and hugged her tightly to try and calm her down. But I must've gone too fast because, next thing I knew, she dug her nails into my back and left claw marks running down both the suit and my back, drawing blood. I winced in pain, but I didn't let go of Zero Two. I just simply hugged her tighter, refusing to let her go.
"Don't… Don't push me away. I just want to help you. And no matter what happens, I'll never let you go. I'll never leave you. You're the only one who can truly be my partner," I said, softly resting my forehead on Zero Two's forehead. A tear slid down her cheek as her eyes returned to normal and she crumpled to the floor. Zero Two then began to sob and weep uncontrollably. I gently kneeled onto the floor and hugged her again, gently rubbing her head to try and calm her.
"Shhhh. It's OK. I'm right here," I said as Zero Two continued to cry. Max walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"We need to leave now," he said.
"What about him?" I asked, pointing to Philip. He was barely alive, coughing up blood every now and then as he laid there.
"What about him?" Max replied coldly, walking back to the ship. I just picked up Zero Two and we all got back on the ship and left the destroyed remains of the prison behind, disappearing into the void.
Max's perspective
Hiro gently set Zero Two on the med bed and sat down beside her, holding her hand as the heart monitor started to steadily beep.
"She's gonna be OK. We should give her some rest for right now," Nikki said. Tears started to run down Hiro's face as he gently squeezed Zero Two's hand.
"This is all my fault. I should've stopped her from attacking straight away. Then maybe he wouldn't have done this to her," Hiro said, grief-stricken. I gently put my hand on his shoulder and hugged him to try and comfort him a bit.
"Hiro, I swear to you that he will pay for this," I said. Hiro just nodded sadly in reply, so both me and Nikki left the two alone and headed for the bridge. Eva was helping put Odango back together while Rhonda was trying to get Eila and Goo acquainted. Celeste was sitting in the command chair, staring out into the void in silence.
"How bad was the prison hit?" I asked.
"Pretty bad. The staff did manage to get most of the inmates off in time, but the rest were killed in the chaos," Amki replied sadly.
"Well, Zero Two's a little worse for wear, but it looks like she'll recover. What happened to her?" Nikki asked, pointing at Odango.
"Ember attacked the ship. She left Odango in pretty bad shape, but we managed to subdue her. She's in the ship's brig right now," Eva said as Odango slowly hummed to life and sat up, rubbing her head.
"Well, at least we didn't go to that prison for nothing," I said, placing the book I took from the acolyte's cell on the table.
"This is the third time… the third time in a row that they found us," Celeste said, her voice seething with anger.
"Actually, the second time they didn't find y'all. I mean, they knew that you were there, but they didn't exactly find you," Rhonda said. Celeste just angrily slammed her fist on the arm rest of the chair and stood up.
"Every time that tyrant shows up, innocent people die. HOW DOES HE KEEP FINDING US?!"
"Look, I want to know how he keeps finding as much as you do Celeste, but the only way to get him off of our backs is to finish what we started. This book may contain the answers that we were searching for," I said, pointing to the book. Celeste looked up at me and then looked around the room for a minute.
"Where's Rhea?" she asked.
"I believe that she's in her room," Eva said. Not even two seconds after those words left her mouth, Celeste immediately stormed off the bridge and made a beeline for Rhea's room with me and Nikki in tow.
"Whoa, Celeste, hold up! Rhea's not to blame for any of this!" Nikki said, trying to stop Celeste.
"Maybe, but she might have answers…" Celeste replied. She pressed the panel to the door to Rhea's room and it opened to reveal a rather confusing scene. Rhea had a dagger in her left hand and it looked like she was trying to cut into her right shoulder. But what really shocked all three of us was that, on her right shoulder, she had a symbol of a very ornate "O". I instantly recognized it as the same one Philip had on his armor.
"Rhea… what is all this?" Nikki asked. Rhea just looked at us in fear and horror.
"My friends… I can explain this.." Rhea started to say. But she wasn't able to say anymore because Celeste rushed towards her, snatched the dagger from her hand, and pinned her up against the wall.
"CELESTE, NO!" I yelled as she pressed the dagger against Rhea's throat.
To Be Continued…