HuniePop: Space Adventures

by MarioandSonicFan19

Roughly a year after their little vacation to Inna De Poona, Max and Nikki have been invited by their alien friend, Celeste, to help her with her job as a galactic enforcer alongside her team. But as time wears on, the couple discovers that the universe is bigger than they thought and discover a threat to, not only their home, but to the entire galaxy

18. Chapter 18: Invasion!

HuniePop Space Adventures

Chapter 18: Invasion!

"Doesn't it look magnificent, Philip? All of this progress we have made?" Yoon asked as we were overlooking the creation of a whole army of enhanced Infernites. I will admit, I was a bit impressed by how far we had come since we first joined the Overlord's crusade. But I still felt that he hadn't delivered on all of his promises. Max and his stupid "friends" were still out there somewhere, and I was getting impatient with the Overlord's constant delays. But I really didn't have the heart nor the guts to say that, so I just kept staring out at the army.

"I guess you could say that…" I replied, uninterested. Yoon must've guessed that I wasn't really paying attention that much and he just looked back at me.

"Is something bothering you?"

"Just the fact that we've been out here for so long and our 'master' has yet to deliver on his promises of my revenge."

"Philip, what we do here is greater than your personal desire for revenge. You should know that by now."

"This coming from the guy who asked ME to help him take over a company, which ended with you getting arrested while I ended up with NOTHING and is doing this whole thing just to get revenge on that same company."

"…Yes, I know that I sound like a hypocrite, but what I'm trying to say is that we need to remain focused right now. It's what the Overlord expects of us and we need to follow his demands, preferably without question," Yoon said. As if on cue, the door opened to reveal the Overlord standing there, except unlike before where he just looked intimidating simply by standing there, one of his hands was covered in blood while he was holding a severed head in the other hand, which he threw to the side as he walked up to us.

"Y'know, it's never a good sign when you walk in here with a severed head. Did someone get your lunch order wrong? Maybe messed up your robe? Something like that?" I asked. The Overlord didn't answer and instead walked up to me, glaring at me with those fearsome red eyes of his.

"My lord, is something wrong? What has happened?" Yoon asked. The Overlord just walked away from me and then stared out the window at the Infernite army.

"We have lost the Hive. I can no longer sense her life force and someone has put a protective force around the planet of Terraria, preventing me from ever setting foot on it again," the Overlord said as he put his hand against the window in disappointment while I just stood there, confused.

"OK, I'm lost. What's the Hive?" I asked.

"The Hive was the producer of creatures that were associated with mind control. Her creatures would've been used to eliminate the problem of the renegades on the ship and they would've also been used to hijack the mind of any other military force that opposes us. Without her, the creatures cannot be produced," Yoon explained.

"And the so-called protective force surrounding the planet?"

"Only one being is capable of making something of that nature: my daughter," the Overlord said.

"So, Max and his team were there? And you're just NOW telling us this? You could've just sent me there and I would've handled it with Zekxsie's help. Of course, knowing you, you'd just tell me to stay up here and continue listening to Info's speeches about the many different species of Infernites there are while I twiddle my thumbs," I joked. But the Overlord apparently didn't realize that I was joking, and he activated the Crucible before walking toward me with the intent to kill.

"My lord! He was merely joking! He did not mean to be offensive! Please calm down!" Yoon said, making a hasty effort to walk in front of the Overlord and stop him.

"I cannot be calm, Yoon… We have lost too much in the past few weeks! Taarkin is dead because of his pride and incompetence, Malicus has been captured, both Selene and Zekxsie have abandoned us, and now we have lost the Hive! And we do not enough of an army to attack!" the Overlord snapped, his eyes flashing red.

"Not enough of… My lord, we have literally hundreds of Infernites that are ready for battle!"

"We should have THOUSANDS. Which begs the question: Where is Info?"

"I… think that she's in her lab… That was the last place that I saw her," I replied. That prompted the Overlord to put away the Crucible and then walk out of the room with the two of us following behind him. When we arrived at Info's lab, it looked like a tornado had blown through it, as there were papers and notebooks all around the room and most of the monitors were displaying information and notes despite the fact that they were crooked. As for Info herself, she was ruffling through her papers with her hair and her lab coat slightly disheveled until she noticed the Overlord standing behind her.

"My lord! I am so terribly sorry that you had to see my laboratory like this! I was just trying to solve a troubling question that arose recently, and I was busy trying to solve it!" Info said in a barely calm voice as sweat began to drip down her forehead.

"Are you? Would it perhaps have something to do with why our Infernite army production is far below my expectations?" the Overlord asked. Info had a look of horror for just a second before she then adjusted her coat and her hair and let out a heavy sigh.

"Unfortunately, it does, my lord. The traitor that we executed yesterday… apparently, he sabotaged a large portion of the Pyrothium metal we acquired from Dolarhyde and a few of the conveyors that we had. The conveyors were not a problem to repair, but without enough Pyrothium, we cannot create the number we expected… I'm sorry…"

"Well, can't we ask someone else for more? I mean, I know that Dolarhyde is dead, but there's gotta be someone else who can give us some, right?" I asked.

"Philip, what you propose is not an easy task! Some of the acolytes that we have stationed on other planets do not have access to any factories that produce Pyrothium nor are they near any planets that DO have such factories! On top of that, we cannot spare any of them to seek out one!"

"You are more than qualified to oversee the productions of our army, Info. As for where we can find a proper place that supplies Pyrothium, I have a way of finding one with help from the outside," the Overlord said before he took out a hologram disc and activated it. After a few seconds, an audio spectrum showed up and an unfamiliar female voice spoke.

"What the hell do you want?" the voice said.

"I am in need of your help. We have run into a troubling situation involving our supplies of Pyrothium. Would you happen to know a planet where we could acquire more?"

"…I know a place…"

Nikki's perspective, The Centurion

Being out in space was a life-changing experience. Very few people ever had the chance to come out in a spaceship and just explore the stars and the many planets that had been undiscovered. Even though it had been only been four weeks since we started helping Celeste, it felt like we had been out here months. But I guess that I should be glad that Celeste's ship had a hyperdrive, otherwise it would be hard to explain to our friends why we were gone for a year or something like that. As I was tending to my armor disc and seeing what weapons I had stored in it, I felt Max's arms wrap around my stomach before he hugged me and rested his chin on my head.

"What are you up to?" he asked.

"Just stuff. What about you?" I replied.

"Just seeing what everyone else is up to. Amki's still pissed at me for breaking her knee even though it's fully healed now."

"Well, technically, she was fighting against you while she was possessed, and you needed to incapacitate her somehow. She'll get over it…" I said. As I continued to cycle through my weapons, I started to get a bit uneasy as Max rubbed my stomach a little. Did he know? Could he feel that something was different? I really didn't know, and I was afraid to find out.

"Is something wrong? You seem tense."

"N-no… it's just… you're rubbing my stomach a bit more than usual…"

"OH! I'm sorry. I just thought that it would feel nice… for you and… I don't really have that much of a valid excuse. I guess I like showing you that kind of affection…"

"Rubbing my stomach is your way of showing affection?" I asked as I got up and then wrapped my arms around Max's neck, making him smile as he held me in his arms.

"Among other ways," he replied before he drew me in for a kiss. After about ten seconds of us kissing passionately, we both heard a slight cough coming from the doorway and we both turned to see Hiro standing there with a slight blush on his face.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but Zero Two and her team are about to be teleported back up. They might need some help," he said. Max just nodded and the three of us headed for the teleporter room, where Eva was. Ever since we got Zekxsie on our side, we started tackling some of the more minor bases the Overlord was running, with each of the teams alternating members for each mission. So far, 7 of the bases fell within a single day and we were still making remarkable progress. Once we got to the teleporter room, Eva pressed a few buttons and Zero Two, Zekxsie, and Selene materialized in front of us, looking disheveled with blood spattered on their outfits and their faces covered in soot and blood. Zero Two also had a chunk of… something on her shoulder.

"So… how'd it go?" Max asked cautiously.

"It went pretty well. It was actually much easier than I thought," Zero Two said before she flicked the chunk of flesh off of her shoulder before she grabbed a towel from Eva and wiped her face off.

"We actually got some help from some of the acolytes in the base as we were fighting our way through the base," Zekxsie said as she and Selene also grabbed some towels and began wiping themselves down.

"Wait, some of the acolytes actually HELPED?" I asked as we headed for the bridge, with Zero Two riding on Hiro's back because she was tired. At least, I think she was tired.

"It's true. Some of the acolytes helped us with finding the best place to attack and where to find the generators to the base. After we set the charges, they helped us get out and fight any remaining acolytes that were fighting against us. It seems that they are becoming disillusioned with the Overlord's promises," Selene said just as we entered the bridge and Eva sat down beside Celeste, who was sitting in the command chair, while Rhonda was seated in one of the chairs that was surrounding the command chair.

"Sounds like our battles across the universe are getting attention. This keeps up and this war might just be over sooner than we think. Which is great, 'cause there's a lot of stuff I gotta do back home," Rhonda said.

"That may be true, Rhonda, but the universe will never be truly safe until the Overlord and the rest of his followers are taken down. But we are closer now than we have been before," Celeste replied before a holographic screen popped up with a picture of Calypso on it. Calypso was a friend of Celeste whom we met a while back when we visited Celeste's home planet of Tendricide. If it hadn't been for her, the Infernite energy that was still coursing through Max's veins would've ultimately consumed him and we might not have been able to restrain him. Celeste pressed a button and the screen switched to a live recording of Calypso looking completely freaked out with her hair looking messy.

"What is it, Calypso?" Celeste asked, acting like she had seen this before.

"Celeste! The demons are upon us! They're tearing everything apart!" Calypso frantically said but Celeste just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Calypso, must I remind you that you DO NOT need to call me every time you have a nightmare. Keep them to yourself…"

"No, no! I'm being serious! There are demons within the city! Some type of ship came down from the sky and is now hovering above the Pyrothium factory and it has been pumping creatures of some kind out into the city! Hold on, I have a video that I could show you!" Calypso replied before she shared a video of some civilians getting attacked by a whole horde of creatures that looked VERY familiar. As in a we-slaughtered-a-whole-bunch-of-them-in-order-to-survive-because-they-were-extremely-destructive kind of familiar. The creatures in the video were Imps, a species of Infernite that we killed a lot of on the planets of Ares and Gaia Prime when me and Max first started this whole thing. A look of horror came over Celeste's face once she saw the Imps attacking her own people, as well as the rest of us, before Calypso finally stopped the video.

"My God… how long ago did this happen?" Eva asked.

"Only an hour ago. 30 minutes after the ship landed, the attacks started. The military is still trying to save whatever innocents are left…" Calypso replied.

"How many dead?" Celeste asked.

"500… and that number is still rising."

"It has to be the Overlord. The Infernites were always a staple of his army due to how numerous and destructive they were," Selene said.

"OK, but what do they need Pyrothium for?" Zero Two asked.

"Pyrothium is a special kind of metal alloy that's built to withstand even the harshest conditions, from the hottest volcanic surface to the coldest ice caps. We use it to create the buildings within our cities," Calypso replied.

"Back when me and Selene worked with the Overlord, he and Info were working on a project that would've enhanced the Infernites and made them twice as dangerous since a small army would've been capable of taking them out easily," Zekxsie added.

"But then why did they target Celeste's planet? They could've attacked literally ANY OTHER factory in the known universe, and they choose Celeste's own planet! Why would they do that?" I asked. But before anyone could answer, Max suddenly walked out of the room and I immediately followed behind him until we got to the brig. I was still confused as to what he was doing, even after he opened the door, but some of my confusion lifted when he stood in front of the cell where Celeste's enemy, Ember, was sitting in. Ember just looked back at us for a brief second before Max opened the cell and then picked her up by her neck, slamming her against the back wall of her cell.

"Why did you have the Overlord attack Tendricide?" he asked angrily. Ember just acted like she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Why should I care?" Ember replied half-heartedly. But that was the complete wrong answer because Max then slammed her on the ground and then held her down with his boot just as the rest of the team rushed over to see what was going on.

"Because hundreds of people are dying! How long have you been in contact with the Overlord? And why did you have him send his minions to the Pyrothium factory on Tendricide?!" Max asked, sounding much angrier than before. I was afraid that Max was beginning to lose control again, but he still seemed like he was doing his best to remain calm. Ember, on the other hand, just let out a half-hearted scoff and spat out some blood before looking up at Celeste.

"I told you that I would get my revenge somehow Celeste… Back at the Phantom Facility... when you were all there and the Overlord started attacking… I saw him… and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He offered me a chance to finally get the vengeance that I so desperately sought ever since you put me in that hell hole. He wanted me to operate from the shadows, working as an undercover agent for him. And now… you will finally feel the pain that I have felt for so long…" Ember said with a bloody half-smile while the rest of us just stared at her in horror.

"Ember… this has always been between us. You never had to attack my entire planet just to get revenge on me!" Celeste stated. But the Pyronite just laughed scornfully.

"The Overlord told me the best way to truly hurt your enemy is to destroy that which your enemy holds dear. By the time those Infernites are finished, there won't be anything left for you to save…" Ember said sadistically. But Max angrily slammed her down on the ground again, making a holographic disc fall out of her pocket, which Max picked up before he exited Ember's cell and then shutting the cell behind him.

"Celeste… set a course for Tendricide… if hell is what they want, we'll give it to them," he said before he walked out of the cell, leaving the rest of us stunned.

3rd person perspective

Right as the Centurion stopped in front of Tendricide, Max, Zekxsie, and Selene entered the bridge, where Celeste and the others were gathered, already armed for combat and eagerly awaiting an explanation.

"The holo disc that Ember had is almost brand new. Which means that her story of the Overlord recruiting her has some credibility. The good news is this disc is a model that can't be traced, which means Ember obviously didn't wish to be followed," Selene explained.

"Were you able to find out what the Overlord's plans were exactly?" Celeste asked.

"Well, apparently there was a saboteur that destroyed most of the Pyrothium that they had, and he has sent Info to create more enhanced Infernites to add to his army. While most of the enhanced Infernites were sent back to the Overlord, he has ordered Info to send the rest to destroy the city and the rest of the planet. But both Selene and I believe that Info also plans to open a portal to Infernus and bring even more to scorch the planet. If she succeeds, nothing will be able to destroy all of them and the planet will be reduced to a barren landscape," Zekxsie replied.

"How long do we have?"

"It's hard to say, but if the attack only happened an hour ago, my best guess is we might have only 35 minutes before she opens the portal to Infernus," Selene said, prompting Celeste to pull up a map of the city on the holo-table.

"Then let's get started. The Pyrothium factory is located right in the middle of the city. At the first sign of danger, a protective forcefield will cordon off the area, preventing anything from getting in or out. The walls of the forcefield are about 3 miles away from the factory in three different directions. But there is also a Pyrothium wall that is about one mile away from the factory that serves as a second line of defense. Info most likely has control of the walls' doors, which means she can control the flow of the Infernites," she explained as the walls of the forcefield appeared on the holo-table, forming an equilateral triangle around the factory with the walls of the forcefield bordering the streets, while a second wall made the same triangle further in.

"So, what's the plan of attack?" Max asked.

"Three teams. Each team will head up a street and take out whatever Infernites are in the streets. I've also received word that several soldiers are trying to get the survivors out of the area so we must help them however we can. Max, Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two will take the north road, me, Amki, Rhea, Eva, and Rhonda will take the southwest road, and Selene, Odango, Zekxsie, Ayano, Eila, and Goo will take the southeast road. Once we take out the wall and reach the middle, we'll commence an assault on Info's vessel and stop her from opening the portal to Infernus. I don't expect this to be easy, seeing as some of us here have never fought Infernites, but I'm confident that we'll stop this invasion together," Celeste explained.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for! Let's do this already!" Amki said, earning agreements from the rest of the team. Celeste nodded her head in approval and the team then headed for the teleporter room before they were all teleported down to the planet's surface. Max, Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two found themselves inside an office building, surrounded by small, purplish eggs that were being held in place by some kind of flesh-like goop that was all over the walls and the ceiling. And that goop had some kind of teeth sticking out of it.

"Well, this is certainly inviting…" Zero Two said as she poked one of the eggs.

"Celeste, we've touched down, but it looks like we got teleported into the middle of a nest of some kind. There are eggs everywhere," Max said as he began inspecting the eggs.

"Selene, is that normal for the species?" Celeste asked over the comms.

"It is for some. In either case, I would suggest getting out of there before they start hatching. We don't exactly know what will pop out of them," Selene replied. But before any of them could move, they suddenly heard a soft growling coming from behind them and turned to see the shadow of a monster of some kind. One with a hunched back and a large set of jaws. The four of them immediately took out their weapons and prepared to attack as the growling grew closer and closer. However, when the unknown monster rounded the corner, they saw that it was not really much of a threat. The creature in question was one that both Max and Nikki were familiar with: A Pinky. But this Pinky had blunt fangs and was only about as big as house cat. The creature frantically ran around the room, briefly gnawing at Max's leg armor before moving in front of them and growling, as if to intimidate the larger creatures standing in front of it. But none of them were that threatened by the cute little creature in front of them.

"Awwww, it's adowable!" Zero Two said as she knelt down to give the creature a pat on its head. But the mini-Pinky just angrily snapped its jaws at her fingers, trying to get her to go away.

"Zero Two, I wouldn't get too close to that thing if I were you…" Nikki protested. But Zero Two just continued to try and pet the mini-Pinky as it continuously snapped at her.

"But he's just the cutest wittle thing!" Zero Two replied. But as she went in to try and pet the mini-Pinky, a clawed hand swiftly came down and punctured the skull of the infant, killing it instantly. Zero Two slowly looked up to see another creature that looked almost like an Imp, except it was larger, was a dull shade of purple, and its head had three, closely-knit red eyes and a tri-segmented jaw.

"Ok, you on the other hand are HIDEOUS," Zero Two said before the creature let out a screech and took a swipe at her with its sharp claws. But Zero Two was quick to dodge and delivered a swift kick to its jaw. Max tried to follow that up by stabbing the creature in its head, but, strangely, the creature teleported out of sight. Max and the others were taken aback by this, but they knew it still had to be here and they held their weapons up, scanning for it.

"Where is it?!" Hiro asked as he pointed the shotgun towards the shadows. Max just remained calm and used his soul sense to try and locate the creature. After a few seconds, Max finally located the creature, which was above him. The creature jumped down to try and kill Max, but he quickly dodged out of the way, kicked the creature in its face which sent it flying, and before it could get back up, Max ripped its spine out with its head still on it. Everyone took a deep breath in relief before Max threw the creature's spine away and then radioed the other teams.

"Guys, we just encountered a new breed of Infernites. Dark purple in color. Has a similar build to the Imps. Can teleport," he said.

"Those are called Prowlers. Make sure to keep your heads on a swivel! They're extremely fast!" Selene replied before a loud bang went off outside. Max and his team immediately ran to the side of the building and looked down into the road to see several Imps throwing fireballs at a few Tendricite soldiers who were trying desperately to kill them. Accompanying the Imps was a skeletal monster with rocket launchers on both shoulders and a large, grotesque monster with cannons on both of its arms and a head that housed a single green eye and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Both Max and Nikki were very familiar with those two creatures. A Revenant and a Mancubus in the flesh. Alongside those two Infernites and the horde of Imps that they were with, there were four gargoyle-like monsters with metal blades on their hands.

"I count ten below!" Zero Two shouted as she took out her dual pistols and powered them on.

"What's the call, Max?" Hiro asked. As if to answer, Max jumped down to the streets below, crushing one of the Imps' heads beneath his boot. Unfortunately, he had landed right in front of the Mancubus, who let out a terrifying roar before then banging its arm cannons together and unleashing a flamethrower attack to try and kill Max. But Max's armor protected him from the flames and he then grabbed the monster's heart before shoving it down the Mancubus' throat, making the Mancubus explode within a few seconds. But Max didn't have time to rest because some of the Gargoyles began to swoop down and attack him, their metal claws scraping against his armor as they flew by. Just as one swooped in to finish the job, Max grabbed it, killed it by breaking its back, and then tore off one of its arms to slice one Gargoyle in half and stab another through the head. The Imps and the Revenant turned their attention away from the Tendricite soldiers and began attacking Max, but Nikki used her Iron Spider legs to stab two more Imps and then shot at the Revenant with her arm cannon just as the monster fired a pair of rockets at them, throwing the two off balance. Just as the Revenant was about to shoot more rockets, Hiro shot a stickybomb from his shotgun, which attached itself to one of the launchers before it the exploded and destroyed the launcher. As the monster let out a ghastly roar, Zero Two used her electrostaff to electrocute the Revenant for long enough so Max could run in and slice the monster's head off with the Peacekeeper. As Hiro and Nikki helped the Tendricite soldiers, Max radioed Celeste, who was busy dealing with a group of Infernites herself while Amki was locked in combat with a Hell Knight and Rhea, Eva, and Rhonda were busy getting civilians to safety.

"Celeste, how are things looking on your end?" Max's voice asked over the comms just as Celeste sliced a Cacodemon in half.

"Everything's good so far on our end! We've managed to rescue a few civilians and we've cleared a large area of Infernites. How about you?" Celeste replied as Amki knocked the Hell Knight to the ground before then crushing its head, blood splattering all over the walls and her arms.

"Have you seen anything new from them?" Max asked. Before Celeste could answer, she heard a loud roar ring out and another Hell Knight dropped down from one of the buildings and landed in front of Celeste's team. However, this Hell Knight had armor plating over its skull and shoulders and orange tubes connecting to the monster's shoulders and back while it also had two orange energy blades on its wrists. The monster then let out another roar before jumping up and then plunging its swords into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked Celeste backwards onto her back. But before the Dread Knight could finish the job, Amki used her flail to hit the monster's face, which sent it staggering backwards, but it didn't stay staggered for long and charged straight at Amki, swinging its blades at her. Although the Dread Knight was able to slice into her upper arm and her upper leg, Amki managed to trip the Dread Knight up by slamming her fists on the ground, which created a small tremor, and then tear off both of the blades on the monster's wrists. As she held the monster back with her four arms when it went in to attack her bare-handed, Celeste slipped through the gap in Amki's legs and drove her katana into the Dread Knight's chin and out through the top part of its skull before she pulled the blade back, slicing the monster's head in half. As the rest of the team regrouped with the Tendricite soldiers, Rhea raised an ice wall to protect them from the fireballs of the Imps and the missiles of a Mancubus.

"How many more are left within the forcefield?" Celeste asked.

"Ten more that are closer to the center. But several of us were trying to reach the wall so we use proton cannons on the other side. The ship is being protected by some kind of energy shield that our normal weapons can't touch. If we can gain access to the proton cannons, it should pack enough force to rip apart the shield. After that, we could get into the ship via the factory's roof," one of the soldiers replied. Celeste looked down the street at the approaching Infernites and looked further to see the proton cannons were deactivated but thankfully still intact.

"All teams. If you have found any surviving soldiers, try and help them work their way to the center. There are some proton cannons that should hopefully allow us to take out a shield that's surrounding the ship. Once the shields are down, we might be able to get inside the ship and take down Info. Keep your guards up and give them hell!" she yelled before she charged forward as Rhonda fired off some shots that hit some Imps dead in the center of their heads. Meanwhile, on the southeast road, Selene and Zekxsie were busy outmaneuvering some Gargoyles while Odango was busy trying to take out a Revenant that was shooting at her and Eila and Goo were busy defending the soldiers and civilians they had found. Zekxsie used her right arm to impale the bodies of a few Imps before slamming them against the sides of two buildings and then ending it off with a slam on the ground, which finished the Imps off. But, as she stopped to take a breath, a Cacodemon flew down and tried to sink its fangs into Zekxsie, only for the Terrarian to hold the creature back with her arms and try to avoid any fireballs the Cacodemon spat at her.

"I could use some help here, guys!" Zekxsie yelled. Selene immediately finished off one of the Imps she was fighting and rushed over to help her, but some kind of metal tail suddenly wrapped around her and then threw her away from Zekxsie. When Selene got up, she saw a completely new and different Infernite standing in front of her. This Infernite had a skull-like head with two thin horns curving up and backwards over its head, where its brain is exposed, while its arms were covered in what resembled long, black gloves and its lower body was a cybernetic snakelike tail. Before Selene could react, the Infernite unleashed a chain whip ending in a curved blade, which left a scratch on Selene's cheek, making her fall back in pain. Enraged, Selene took out her own whip and tried to grab the creature by its neck, but it quickly slithered out of the way and swung one of its chain whips again, this time cutting off a lock of her hair with the chain blade when she dodged.

"Are you impressed with it, Selene? We designed the Whiplash to have the same sort of techniques that you do," a familiar voice said over the comms.

"Info…" Selene replied before the Whiplash slammed it tail on the ground, catching her off guard a bit.

"I hacked into your team's frequency just to talk with you all a bit. Maybe also showcase some of my new experiments. With that said, you should never have left, Selene. The Overlord never wished for you to be replaced like this," Info taunted before the Whiplash threw both of its chain whips forward, nearly catching Selene in the face. But, while the chains were still out, Eila came in from the side and electrocuted the chains, briefly stunning the Whiplash while Selene went in and, after removing her mask, bit into the monster's neck, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, Zekxsie was still trying her best to hold the Cacodemon back and she finally caught a break when Ayano leapt onto the monster and began to wildly stab it in the eye, spraying blue blood all over her face until the Cacodemon finally exploded. But Ayano didn't stop with just the Cacodemon and began to chase after the next Infernite that came near her, earning worried looks from Selene and Zekxsie.

"I worry about that girl's mental stability sometimes…" Selene said.

"Yeah, same," Zekxsie replied before they all charged back into battle with the soldiers by their side. Back at the north road, Max was busy dealing with a Hell Knight that was teamed up with a Baron of Hell that looked a bit different than before. Specifically, the Baron's skin was now grey with a magma scheme around its body and it had two fiery blades emitting from its arms. Meanwhile, Nikki and Hiro were busy trying to thin out a group of Imps and Prowlers and Zero Two was busy defending some civilians from a few of the Gargoyles, as well as a Whiplash that showed up recently. After Max managed to get behind the Hell Knight and kill it by smashing its head against the ground, he then turned his attention to the Baron and tried to find an opening so he could attack, but the Baron was almost too fast for him to react and the shockwaves of fire it produced every time it jumped up and then slammed on the ground made it hard for him to keep his footing. And it didn't help that Info was radioing in just to taunt him.

"I must admit, it is a delight to see all of you working like this. So much data to collect…" Info taunted over the comms. Max just tried to tune Info out and remain focused on trying to kill the Baron, but it was extremely hard for him to find an opening and the Baron's blades came within inches of his face. As he continued to shoot shotgun blasts and dodge the Baron's attacks, he began to feel a bit of electrical buzzing traveling up his spine. Just as he found an opening for him to attack the Baron, Max charged forward at full force, only for his entire body to suddenly turn into lightning, which allowed him to travel through the Baron's body, briefly electrocuting the Baron as Max rematerialized into his normal state. Taking advantage of the Baron's vulnerable position, Max kicked the monster to the ground and then grabbed it by the horns before violently snapping its neck, killing it instantly. As Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two finished off the rest of the lesser Infernites, Max took the moment to radio the rest of the team.

"Guys, my team's almost at the Pyrothuim wall. We'll see if we can find a way to bust through. You hear that Info? We're coming for you…" Max said before his team and the Tendricite soldiers they were with made a mad dash for the wall. Right as they were nearly there, the ground began to rumble, throwing some of the soldiers off balance. Max and the others didn't know what was happening at first, but the rumbling grew closer and closer until a giant hand grabbed onto the side of one of the buildings and a monster rounded the corner to rear its ugly head. The monster was tan in color, with long curving black horns and a flat face with flush nostrils and two small, beady golden eyes set very far apart from each other while its mouth was housing some exposed sharp teeth with two large upward-facing tusks as the lower canines. The abdomen was exposed, revealing a mixture of wires and gore inside the body and the creature's pelvis and entire right leg are cybernetic replacements, while the left leg had a cybernetic upper section but is mostly organic. Its left arm had been replaced with a rocket launcher while its right looked completely normal except for a small device that was on its forearm, connected to an orange wire originating from its shoulder. Max, Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two just stared up in horror at the monster as it let out a loud roar that reverberated throughout the streets. The team immediately ran for cover before the monstrous Infernite pointed its rocket launcher at them and fired a barrage of missiles in their direction.

"You know, if there's one thing that I learned when I saw you and your lover fight my beloved… Cyberdemon, did you call it… is that it clearly was meant to be a prototype. And a very successful one at that. Well, I made it better in every way. I call this one… the 'Tyrant'," Info said before the Tyrant fired a barrage of missiles into the air that rained down near where Max and the others were hiding, although they didn't come close to hitting them.

"I swear to GOD, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing her voice taunting us!" Zero Two said as the Tyrant roared again.

"Max, do we have a plan to get around this thing?" Hiro asked as another wave of rockets bombarded the street.

"Give me a second!" Max replied before he used his Soul Sense to try and find a weakness. But as he continued to scan for any area of weakness, the Tyrant began to inch closer and closer to where Max and the team were hiding. To make matters worse, it didn't seem like there was any visible weakness on the Tyrant. However, as he kept looking, Max began to get an idea when he saw through the Tyrant's body and noticed that most of the monster was organic and that it seemed to still have a soul. He also noticed that the Tyrant was the same height as the building it was next to.

"Max, have you found a weakness?" Nikki asked when Max's deactivated his Soul Sense.

"Better. I think I've found a way to take both the wall and the monster itself down. Keep it distracted for me," Max replied before he used the grappling hook on his shotgun to get to the roof of the building they were hiding behind while Nikki, Hiro, and Zero Two began to shout and fire their weapons at the Tyrant to keep it distracted. The Tyrant just roared and began to fire on them again, but the three of them proven to be faster than its weapons as Nikki fired a powerful shot that hit the right side of the Tyrant's face, which revealed a metal plate with a glowing red eye underneath the skin. As they kept fighting, Max finally got on top of the building and then grapple onto one of the Tyrant's horns, allowing him to land on its head. Feeling the sudden change, the Tyrant went to grab Max, but he was quick to dodge the giant's hand and his own left arm became engulfed with souls before he drew his am blade and drove it deep into the skull of the titan, making it roar in pain until it fell against the building. For a brief moment, it looked like the Tyrant was dead. But it suddenly jolted to life, its eyes glowing blue while its blood vessels were glowing a light blue and its body was surrounded by a blue mist of some sort. But when it stood upright, it didn't attack Nikki or any of the others. It only stood there peacefully, only moving its arm when Max held out his own arm.

"Now were talkin'. Alright big guy, take that metal wall down!" Max commanded. The Tyrant obeyed and began to slowly walk toward the wall with Nikki and the rest of Max's team following. As the Tyrant slowly lumbered on, Max felt a sudden sense of feeling… unstoppable. He could breathe fire, he could lift boulders, he could LITERALLY become lightning, and now he could command the souls of others. He felt like nothing could stop him at this point. But he also felt uneasy about the thought that he was becoming TOO powerful. But he couldn't dwell on those thoughts at the moment because there were a bunch of Infernites in front of them that had noticed the Tyrant walking toward them and immediately fired at it, sensing that something was wrong. But Max just raised his left arm and pointed at the incoming army, prompting the Tyrant to fire a barrage of missiles that blew up everything within the line of fire. But some of the Infernites got past the missile barrage and went for the Tyrant's legs so they could climb up and kill them both. But Max just raised his right arm, making the Tyrant do the same while a fiery blade sprung forth from the device on its arm. Just as the Infernites were about to reach the Tyrant's leg, Max made a motion for the beast to plunge its sword into the ground, creating a fiery shockwave that burned all the remaining Infernites alive while Max's team took shelter behind a piece of fallen debris to avoid the flames. After the Infernites were cleared out, Max pointed at the Pyrothium wall and the Tyrant charged forward, destroying the wall with ease before Max raised his left arm toward Info's ship, which made the titan's arm cannon split apart and reveal another weapon that fired a powerful laser that destroyed the ship's shield with ease.

"Drawbridge is down people! Celeste, Selene, get those soldiers to our position and get them on those proton cannons so we can bust this bitch wide op…" Max started to say before a loud bang went off. Max looked over to his right to see a second Tyrant busting through the wall on the street that Celeste and her team were traveling up. As Max got the Tyrant that he was riding into position to fight, he heard another bang go off behind him and saw another Tyrant breaking through the wall from the road where Selene's team was. Both Tyrants charged at the Tyrant that Max was riding and pushed it back against the broken wall, before one Tyrant sliced off the cannon arm of Max's Tyrant and then held it by its throat. Max quickly jumped off of the Tyrant before the second Tyrant used its fire blade to slice it in half and grappled over to the third Tyrant. As both Tyrants were busy scanning for Max, Nikki and the team hid behind the wall until Nikki used her super speed boots to grab Celeste, Selene, and both of their teams over to where they were, narrowly avoiding the gaze of the two lumbering giants.

"Why the hell did Info make three of those things?" Amki asked as one of the Tyrants fired a single rocket to try and draw Max out, unaware that he was busy scaling the second Tyrant's back.

"They're guardians. My guess is they were supposed to be the last line of defense in case we got through everything else," Rhea replied.

"Either way, Max needs our help to bring them down. Do we have any ideas on how to help him?" Nikki asked as the Tyrants continued their search. Suddenly, without any warning, Max used his earth powers to levitate a rock up to him and, after he was at the same height as the Tyrant's head, launched off of the rock and, surprisingly, knock the Tyrant over onto the top of the Pyrothium wall, impaling itself through the neck on a stray rebar, even though it didn't completely kill it. Before the monster struggled to get back up, Max stuck the Peacekeeper into its skull and began to repeatedly stab the monster while holding it down with his immense strength. Noticing the other Tyrant's situation, the second Tyrant turned around to try and help his ally.

"Get to the proton cannons! Keep that thing distracted however long you can!" Celeste yelled to the soldiers, who immediately manned the proton cannons and began to fire on the standing Tyrant, blowing a few chunks of flesh off of its body. Enraged, the Tyrant turned back around and began firing missiles at the cannons, although Rhea was able to raise a few temporary shields of ice to block the explosives while Eila, Odango, and Rhonda shot down some of the rockets. Meanwhile, the downed Tyrant was trying to grab Max so he could escape, but Max was able to dodge the titan's hand long enough until Max took the Peacekeeper and brutally cut open the Tyrant's skull until its brains spilled out and the Tyrant died. But it was no time for Max to relax. He immediately jumped off of the wall and slammed into the second Tyrant's back, causing it to stumble it a bit as Max grappled up to the giant's head. As the proton cannons kept taking chunks of the Tyrant off of its body, Max jumped off of the giant's head, activated the Peacekeeper, and then cut open a large gash in the monster's chest, revealing its beating heart and spraying blood all over Max. The Tyrant went to grab him, but one of the Tendricite soldiers fired a proton blast that took the monster's organic arm off, leaving it unable to pry Max off of it. It wouldn't have even mattered because Max tugged on the heart with all of his might until he finally ripped the monster's heart out and began to fall to the ground. While Max was still in free fall, the Tyrant aimed its cannon at him to try and kill him, but before it could fire a single rocket, one of the soldiers fired a powerful shot from the proton cannon that tore through the monster's chest, leaving a large, gaping hole in its chest. After Max landed on the ground, the body of the Tyrant came crashing to the ground, its face inches away from landing on Max. After Max took one last good look at the Tyrant's heart that he was still holding, he threw it away and walked over to the rest of the team as Nikki used her suit to copy the Tyrant's rocket launcher arm.

"Are you OK?" Nikki asked as Rhea used some water to wash Max off despite the cold weather.

"Surprisingly, I feel great! Adrenaline's still pumping though," Max replied before they all heard a loud clunking noise coming from above. They all looked up to see Info's ship ejecting large rings from the top before they hovered in midair and began to spin while whirring.

"No… Info's activating the portal! We have to get up there!" Selene yelled.

"Can we still reach the ship in time from the roof?" Hiro asked.

"We can't. The controls to the portal on the command deck of the ship and we have only 15 minutes left before she opens the portal to Infernus!" Zekxsie said. As the rest of them looked up in horror, Max turned his attention to one of the proton cannons and walked over to it before opening up the cannon and crawling inside.

"Max! What are you doing?!" Nikki asked as she and Celeste walked up to him.

"Do you think that you could aim this cannon at the ship and shoot me up there?" Max asked.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Celeste asked.

"We need to get up there and fast! Can you shoot me up there?!"

"Max, you can't We don't know if this will kill you or not!" Nikki objected, even though Celeste was already looking at the controls to the cannon.

"At this point, it's a risk that we need to take. I might be able to adjust it so you can get to the command deck without too much trouble. Hopefully the Praetor suit will be able to withstand the impact. Ready?" Celeste asked, her hand hovering over the fire button.

"Fire away, captain!" Max yelled before the weapon closed up and Celeste pressed the fire button. Within the blink of an eye, Max was shot upwards towards the ship, crashing through the metal floors of the ship until he landed in a large open room with not even a noticeable scratch on his suit. As he observed his surroundings, he looked through a window and noticed Info in the command station just across from where he was.

"I'm in. I can see the command station from here. And Info," he said.

"Take her down. NOW," Celeste replied.

"With pleasure."

"Hey, guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we got hostiles coming up the street!" Zero Two yelled to the others as she pointed down the road. Sure enough, there was a huge number of Infernites running towards the Pyrothium factory, which prompted Celeste and the others to get out their weapons and get into battle-ready stances.

"Don't let a single one through! Give them HELL!" Celeste yelled before the team began to open fire on the incoming horde.

Max's perspective

It should've been a five-minute run to get to the command deck from where I started, but it felt more like two minutes at my pace. I really couldn't understand it, but I wasn't really going to question it either. My heart was pumping, my adrenaline was through the roof, and just kept running through the ship, ripping and tearing through every Infernite that got in my way until I finally reached the door to the command station and crashed through it. But when I finally stopped to take a breather, I noticed that no one was standing at the main console like before. I thought at first that I was in the clear and that I could just shut off the portal and be done with it. But I didn't suspect that it would be that simple, seeing as there was a device that looked like a retinal scanner next to the screen that had the portal countdown on it. And my suspicions were confirmed when I heard a slow clapping coming from behind me and saw Info standing in the dark next to a metal coffin, her red eyes glowing as she continued to give me a sarcastic clap with a sneer on her face.

"I must say, I was expecting that it would take you longer to get here but, once again, you've somewhat exceeded my expectations," she said as she leaned up against the coffin.

"I'm not here to play your sick games, Info. Either you shut off the portal or I'll make you do it," I replied. But Info just laughed at me.

"How exactly? You can't kill me. That retinal scan is also programmed to read my heartbeat while it's scanning my eye. If I'm unconscious or dead, it won't work and start the shutdown sequence."

"So, I don't kill you. I think I can manage that," I replied, cracking my knuckles.

"I must ask: Why exactly did you allow Ayano to work alongside you? As I recall, you both didn't work well together, especially seeing as you completely tore her apart back on Gaia Prime," Info asked as she pressed some buttons on the metal coffin.

"I tore her demonic shell that YOU gave her apart! You corrupted her mind! Turned her into a complete psychopath! …And you made her kill the woman I loved…"

"Ayano's psyche was easy to manipulate. That made her a viable candidate for the experiment that I would perform after I took her from Earth. All I had to do was give her advice and push her in the direction that I chose. It was EASY. And the Overlord was quite impressed at Ayano's astounding ferocity. You see, that's the truth that you and your fellow teammates choose to ignore. Everything that the Overlord has done was to prepare us for a brighter future. A future free from war, hatred, greed, and death itself!"

"Then why didn't he just raise his wife from the dead? He could've saved the entire universe a whole lot of trouble if he did that. I mean, he resurrected you, didn't he?" I asked. All Info did was let out a sigh and turn back to me.

"You see, that's the sad truth about the Obraxians: They believe there should only be one life and one death. Apparently, at one point, there was a king of Obraxis who tried to raise his fallen comrades. But, when he did, they came back as undead warriors hungry for death. So, when King Aariv came to power, he made sure that no one could ever be brought back from the dead and in his 'infinite' wisdom, he cast an enchantment over the people of Obraxis and every future generation to make sure that law was set in stone. The Overlord wanted to resurrect his wife, but he found out about the law the hard way. It was because of King Aariv that the Overlord was forced to take action. It was his fault that the Overlord couldn't bring his own wife back," Info said before she walked a few feet away from the coffin.

"That's not the way that I see it. The Council did what they thought was right, just like Aariv did. The Overlord just lost himself to his own anger and fell into the darkness."

"Maybe to you. But his will must still be done. And we need that energy now," Info said before the floor beneath the coffin opened up and a metal claw shot forth from the coffin and grabbed me. The coffin then fell into the hole, dragging me with it, before then bursting open as I landed on my face. When I got back up, I saw a pale-skinned humanoid wearing armor and a mask that were an earthly green, while a pair of horn jutted from the top of his head and his eyes glowed a deep red. Attached to his belt was a double-barreled shotgun similar to mine, minus the grappling hook, and in his hand was a battleaxe that looked like it was using the same energy as the Crucible. Whoever or whatever it was, it was just staring me down, even as I got back on my feet.

"You remember the lead soldier that you horribly disfigured on Altus, yes? Well, I put him through an experiment that made him stronger, faster, and better in every single way possible. Essentially, he is now your equal. Say hello to my latest creation: The Marauder!" Info announced before the Marauder charged at me and swung his axe at me, nearly missing my head even though it left a scratch on my helmet. I took out my shotgun and tried to shoot the Marauder in the face, but he quickly strafed to the side before he shot me with his own shotgun, knocking me backwards. I did manage to get away before the Marauder brought his axe down on my neck and decided to keep myself at long range to avoid his shotgun blast. But that proved to be a bad idea, because he just hurled a beam of energy at me that knocked me down again. I again tried to shoot him with a shotgun blast, but he raised a shield from his other arm and then followed it up by kneeing me in the face, which knocked my helmet off. I couldn't believe it. Info's so-called 'experiment' was actually knocking me against the floor repeatedly, which was a drastic change from the other Infernites that we had fought before. The Marauder continued to pummel me until he finally stabbed me in the shoulder with a hidden arm blade, making me scream in agony.

"You see, Max? You may think that there will be nothing that can stop you, but in the end, you will always meet your match," Info taunted from above us as the Marauder threw me against the wall. But I just got back up and tried to fight the pain as I held my shotgun and tried to look for any sort of weakness. Just as the Marauder lunged at me, I took a chance a fired my shotgun, which luckily threw the monster off balance while also taking a chunk of flesh off of him. The Marauder just reached down and looked at his wound before he went back in to attack me again. Once again, just as he was attacking, I fired another shotgun blast that again threw the Marauder off-balance, but this time I followed it up with a solid uppercut to his face, knocking the mask off to reveal the Marauder's skull-like teeth underneath. Enraged, the Marauder tried again to hit me, but I dodged just in time for him to slam his axe on the ground, allowing me to grab it and wrench it free from his grasp. As the Marauder stumbled backwards, I used his own axe to cut off his left arm, making him roar in agony before I went to punch him in the face with my own left arm and even though he managed to stop me, he was unable to dodge in time before my arm blade came out and punctured him through the skull, killing him instantly. After the Marauder fell to the ground dead, I looked up at Info with a smug grin on my face while she had a horrified look on hers. She frantically pulled out a remote and pressed a button that made two more coffins rise up from the ground before they released two more Marauders. I just smiled confidently to myself and pulled out the Peacekeeper before activating it while still holding the dead Marauder's axe in my other hand. Both Marauders immediately ran at me menacingly before they both attacked in unison, but I blocked both of their attacks with my own weapons before I used the Peacekeeper to stab one Marauder in the leg so I could focus my attacks on just one. Luckily, after using the same method of attacking while he attacked, I was able to stagger the first Marauder before I then shanked him with my arm blade, ending it off with a fatal stab to the head. After he went down, the second Marauder rushed in to avenge his fallen comrade and finish me off, but I used the Peacekeeper to create a wall of fire to throw him off balance. Although he was unfazed by the attack, I teleported around him and stabbed him in the knee before I then decapitated him executioner style with the axe. With both Marauders dead, I grabbed my helmet and put it back on, put away the Peacekeeper, and grappled back up to Info and the control console, where the screen for the portal still had a minute and 30 seconds left on it while Info took out a small knife and pointed it threateningly at me.

"You know… that's the thing about your experiments, Info. They're only programmed to fight how you intended them to. And that's the major flaw. They can't adapt like me. That's what you failed to understand. And that's why your army will fail him," I said as I approached her.

"Stay back! If you kill me, nothing will stop the portal from opening you fool!" Info replied as she swung the knife at me. But I just used the axe to cut both of her legs off, making her unable to walk away. I just picked her up and then pressed her up against the retinal scanner just as the timer reached 10 seconds. After the scanner light up green, I pressed the abort button and… nothing happened. As the timer began counting down the final 5 seconds, I began to rapidly press the button until I figured out that the computer must've been programmed to only read Info's hand and I slammed her hand against the button, which finally started the shutdown sequence just as the timer reached one second. I looked out of the window and saw the portal rings slowly descended into the ship until the clanked back into place. As I was distracted with what was going on, Info grabbed the knife and stuck it into my shoulder wound again, but I just grabbed her by the neck and slammed her back up against the console while my wound began to heal until my shoulder looked as good as new, making Info's eyes widen with fear.

"What ARE you?" Info asked in horror. I didn't answer and instead bisected her with the axe before both of her halves split apart and fell to the ground, splattering blood on the floor as her organs fell out. With Info dead and the portal shut down, I took a deep breath and prepared to leave, but the room suddenly lit up and I turned back to see a hologram of the Overlord on the console.

"You are a stubborn individual. I will admit that much. But you will still not prevail in this war, human. That much is certain," he said as I placed a communications disc on the console and began a tracing simulation so we could figure out where the Overlord was.

"Really? 'Cause from where I'm standing, your army is starting to fall apart. You, Philip, and Yoon are all that's left of the leaders. And like it or not, your madness WILL end" I said as I waited for the tracer to finish.

"You would rather the universe stay the way it is? All the wars and suffering… It can be stopped… I am the only one who wishes to end it. But you could care less about any of that. Much like the rest of your primitive species…"

"Except you're not looking to fix the universe. You're looking to control it. Even if you did manage to 'fix' the universe, there would still be others who would see the evil that you caused to achieve it. They would rise up to stop you."

"You are just like THEM. The Council saw my own suffering and they did NOTHING to help me! They preferred to sit by and watch everything burn around them. But, unlike them, you are actively defying me just because you only see the worst in my visions!" the Overlord yelled. But I just looked at him with a look of disappointment.

"But you're missing the bigger picture here. Is this what your wife would've wanted? Do you think that she would approve of any of this?" I asked. The Overlord didn't reply at first and just stared at me in anger as the tracer disc finally finished tracing the Overlord's position.

"I will give you only one more chance. Walk away from all of this. Abandon your quest to stop me and I will spare you and the rest of your team. Do not throw away your own life and your lover's life…"

"You and I both know that I can't do that. You better prepare yourself, Galaxor, because when we find you, we WILL take you down," I said. The Overlord once again didn't reply, and his hologram disappeared before the console screen lit up and I saw a detonation sequence on it. The Overlord intended to blow up the ship and destroy most of the city with it. However, I messed around with the console a bit until I found the controls to the ship and put in a sequence to make the ship fly up to the upper atmosphere of the planet. After I was finished with that, I bolted out the door and made my way back to the hole where I first entered the ship. But, when I jumped out, the ship had gone up much further than I had thought, and I suddenly found myself hurtling toward the surface of Tendricide while the ship finally exploded. But, miraculously, something caught me, and I found myself flying through the air. When I looked back, I saw Nikki flying using a series of beetle-like wings attached to a jetpack while she had a big smile on her face.

"It's OK. I've got you now," she said before she began to fly me down to the planet's surface.

A few minutes later, onboard the Centurion

"I don't about you guys, but I am all tuckered out!" Zero Two said as she laid in one of the chairs on the bridge.

"Yeah, same here. If we have to fight more Infernites within the next few hours, it'll be too soon," Amki replied as she held an ice pack against one of her muscles.

"So, what happened to Ember?" Rhea asked as Celeste sat down in the command chair.

"She's been handed over to the authorities. They plan to send her back to her home planet to do some community service so she can be reinstated back into society. Hopefully it will help quell her anger against me. Had the Infernites successfully destroyed most of Tendricide, her sentence would've been far worse," Celeste replied while I walked to the center of the room and waited for Celeste to give me a prompt.

"So, what happens now? We still don't know where the Overlord is," Hiro stated. But Celeste just smiled and pointed to me.

"Well, Max said that he managed to trace where the Overlord's last location was. With any luck, it may just be where his base of operations is," she said.

"Cross your fingers that this actually works!" I said before I set the disc on the console next to Celeste and a hologram of a destroyed planet showed up, making all of us look at it in horror.

"That's where his base is? He picked one hell of a place to set up his base…" Nikki said as we continued to look on in horror. But I suddenly noticed that Rhea looked the most horrified with tears in her eyes.

"Rhea, do you know what this planet is?" I asked.

"I actually do know what this planet is. It was the very planet where I was born," Rhea replied as I stood in front of the hologram and stared at it in horror.

"It's the planet of Obraxis."

To Be Continued…