"…Hurry up, my love, c'me on" Izita quietly called over to her shoulder as the Earth-bound Akiridions waited for the latest communication between them & the Resistance to begin. Usually, Zadra was in charge of this sort of thing, considering her previous involvement with them but she was off patrolling the perimeter in her shiny red boots. In turn, Daniel, who had taken up residence of their couch ever since his van had been destroyed in that lunar anomaly, had returned to the Ghost Zone for some kingly duties that he had appeared reluctant to complete. Which left the two Tarron siblings in the company of Vex who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else and carried this air of bittersweetness around with him.

"My royals, apologies for my delay" Jabe apologised as he slipped into frame, the two Resistance members doing their best to squish themselves into the small alcove they had hidden in. "Morando has an Omen posted on every corner these delsons"

"We know things are getting worse on Akiridion-5" Aja waved away the apology as Krel struggled to attach a camera to Luug's head, behind her. "But we think we have some good news! Right, Krel?"

"Must you play with that bag of flatulence right this moment?" Vex sighed heavily as he held the king-in-waiting's boombox and watched said boy try to attach a camera to their dog's head. He sounded very much like an embarrassed parent who was done with the world.

"Luug's our little cameraman, he's going to record this momentous occasion" Krel explained as he pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket and used it to get the dog to focus. "Right, Luug? Now—hold still! Aha! There!"

"And what is this momentous occasion?" Izita asked, lips pulling upwards in a fond smile at the king-in-waiting's childish actions.

"Repairing our spaceship proved futile" Krel rose to his feet now that the camera was secured, "So voilà!"

"Oh…uh?" Izita spared a questioning glance with her husband as the unactivated wormhole prototype was proudly presented to the pair.

"Huh?" Jabe blinked, unable to make heads or tails of the contraption. Krel pouted petulantly at the lack of reaction that he received, before he knelt to activate the prototype.

"I built a device that will create a wormhole" Said Krel as it buzzed to life.

"Isn't that lively?" Aja smiled, turning back to the elder pair.

"Brilliant!" Izita gasped in awe; especially when a twin portal appeared in front of them, halfway across the galaxy.

"Now, it is just a prototype and I don't know if it works yet, but yes~heh~I am brilliant" Krel gloated a little as he bowed to the screen. "You did get that on camera, right?"

"Arf!" Luug barked, desperate to rip the tennis ball from his master's fingers but alas, it was still too far out of reach.

"The box of boom, if you please!" Krel stuck an expectant hand out to the Commander who had hidden himself off to the side in an attempt to hide his embarrassment from the camera.

"Ugh!" Vex groaned.

"You promised!"

"Something Varvatos now regrets" And yet the Commander still pressed the play button, allowing one of Krel's many mixed tapes to prattle out of the old thing.

"Hit the pose! Check it!" Krel—er—DJ Kleb sang.

"What are those sounds?" Jabe cried around the hands slapped over his ears. Aja couldn't blame him, Krel's taste in music tended to grate on her nerves as well; at least the beat was good.

"Earth's greatest contribution!" Krel grinned as he danced wildly, "It's called music! In just a few sectons, you will taste the chocolatey goodness of Earth's most cherished delicacy, the Nougat—"

"—Gimme" Aja easily yanked the boombox from Vex's fingers and chucked it through the wormhole, effectively cutting off her brother's needless showboating.

"Hey—no!" Krel whined as the singing box appeared in Jabe's hands back on Akiridion-5.

"Uh—uh—uh—Got it!" Jabe grinned as he was finally able to grab a hold of the box after juggling it for a few precarious moments.

"It worked!" Izita grinned in glee, her excitement almost palpable.

"My demo tape was in there—!" Krel knew he should've been excited that the wormhole had worked, but right now he was just upset that he had lost one of his Earthly treasures.

"—Ah! You did it, little brother!" Aja cheered as she encircled her brother a hug and lifted him clean off of the floor. In turn, Luug took advantage of the tennis ball that was suddenly freed and quickly raced after it as fast as his little legs could take him. "Now Akiridion-5 is right there! We can finally go home!"

"And leave Earth…" Vex bemoaned.

"Not yet" Krel replied, making Vex perk up a little as he deactivate the prototype and bent to pick it up. "I will have to magnify the technology so we can send something a box of boom"

"Until then, we will gather the Resistance" Izita interjected whilst her husband continued to boogie to the boombox now resting atop his shoulder.

"Loth Saborian is being held captive by Morando" Jabe added.

"You must free him" Aja implored as Krel nodded in agreement, "He cannot be allowed to come to harm"

"It shall be done, mu queen-in-waiting" Jabe & Izita chorused as the bowed to the siblings.

"…Four, three, two! Check it! Let's get this party started…!"

"We're going home, little brother!" Aja laughed gleefully, dancing a little in place at the prospect of it. How funny was it, that after years of running away from home, she would now be running to it? "Varvatos? Where are you going?"

"Varvatos Vex needs a moment" Vex paused in his retreat, but did not turn as he replied. "He has to consider the bitter side of goodbye"

"And the award for Brilliant Engineer goes to…me! Krel Tarron!" Krel crowed as he lifted the prototype up into the air.

"And the crowd goes wild!" Aja cheered as the two imitated the sound of a wild crowd, acting for once, like the children they were.

"Yes! Krel! Krel! Krel!"

Luug, who had returned with a slobbery tennis ball in his gob, dutifully dropped it at his master's feet in favour of the bulbous ends of the prototype that fluttered before him. Here was not one, but two toys for him to play with! His master was so kind! With barely any effort the canine leapt for the two globes, tongue outstretched and snatched them from Krel's hands. But the reaction re received was not the one he was expecting. Did they not want to play?

"No!" Krel despaired as he watched Luug prance about with the device tucked between his jaws. "You! Drop it right now! Give it back! Give it!"

"Let me try" Aja intercede, going for a much softer approach as her voice turned to a coo. "Luug, can you drop it for me? Please? I'll give you all the Mr Happy Balls in the galaxy if you do"

"Oh no" The siblings chorused as they watched weeks of hard work disappear down their dog's throat. Luug gurgled and winced for a moment as the wormhole prototype tried to settle within his system and then a satisfying fart ripped through the room, encompassing the siblings in a violet cloud of gaseous fumes.

POOT!

When the cloud was gone, so was Luug."The prototype is gone!" Krel whined, waving away the cloud.

"Our dog is gone, you gloober!" Aja retorted, a hand still pinching her nose shut. That seemed to start Krel into action as he raced over to his workbench and rattled around for something to help them find Luug.

"Aha!" He lifted his phone aloft, before he brought up a screen which showed Luug's point of view via the camera still glued to his forehead. There was a lot of screaming and running. "Luug is…downtown? How did this happen?"

"It doesn't matter" Aja shook her head from where she peered over her brother's shoulder. "That's the diner; it isn't far, I can get him"

"I think Luug's stomach acids have scrambled the device. The next time he has a—hur—gaseous episode, he could end up anywhere in town or—ha!—the galaxy!"

"I'm going after him!" Aja decided, snatching the slobbery tennis ball from the floor as she rode her hoverboard out the door.

"Call e when you see where he ends up next!" Krel called after her as she slipped into her human transduction with ease.


"…Wait—what's happening here?" Krel's confusion ticked Aja's ear as she raced through the streets of Arcadia, looking for their little lost dog. Part of her was reminded of their last day on Akiridion when she was chasing after Luug and Krel was lost behind a wall of screens, just as they were now. "Is Luug flying through downtown?"

POOT!

"Alleyway, behind the movie theatre!" Krel instructed as their dog hopped from place to place.

"On it" Aja replied as she slid through a pair of movie-goers. "Sorry! Lost pet!"


POOT!

"Ugh! Aja, please! How do you kiss this dog's mouth?" Krel gagged at whatever Luug was currently doing.

"Dogs' mouths are cleaner than humans' " Aja parroted the tidbit that Dan had told her at some point. She wasn't quite sure why that bit of information had stuck with her—perhaps because it was gross?

"Really?" Krel laughed. "Does Steve drink out of a toilet?"

"I will ask him"

"Luug?"


POOT!

"Luug? Luug! Luug?" Aja called as she ran down the street, dodging people left and right.

"Hey, who's Luug?" Douxie asked as she came to a stop in front of the fantastical stop they had been caught outside of on their first day in Arcadia.

"My lost dog" She greeted.

"I'd help you look, but I can't leave the shop" He gestured to the violet facade over his shoulder where a bespectacled black cat sat sunning himself in the front window.

"I thought you were a waiter?" Aja asked, confused.

"If you knew how little the people in this town tip, you'd know I need more than one job to make ends meet. But if you wanted, I could read your palm and try to see your future?"

"There are letters on my hand?"

"Hmm, that's quite the travel line" He mused, finger tracing the lines down her palm much to her confusion. "You taken any big trips lately?"

"Uh…"

POOT!

"Aja! Quit flirting with the boy—!" Krel exclaimed. "Luug's in the park! The statue!"

"—I'm about to take one now, bye!" Aja cut off her brother as she spun on her heel and raced over towards the park. She absolutely refused to acknowledge the blush rising to her cheeks after the exchange, something that grew when the pink-haired girl from the records' store next door gave her neighbour an unimpressed look.

"…It wasn't me! It was the monster!" A little girl scout stomped her foot in irritation, catching Aja's attention alongside the lingering odour of rotten eggs.

"You saw a monster?" She inquired, approaching the girl. "Ha! Tiny humans tell such wonderful stories"

"Tiny humans?" Her dad asked, unimpressed as he pulled his daughter close. Aja just laughed awkwardly as she backed off before quickly crossing the street when it was clear that she wasn't going to get anything else out of them.

"Krel, he's moving all over the place! I can't keep up!"

"You're right" Krel agreed as he watched their pet blast around the town. "He's too unpredictable. We don't know where or when he's moving. Unless…the calibration chip! Haha~I inserted it into the wormhole generator during my initial testing. If it isn't too corroded by Luug's stomach acids, I can maybe hack into it. it'll help me control where he moves, but not when"

"Krel" Aja panted as she rounded the corner, "You might just be a genius, after all"

"Might? Ugh!" His sister could see the quirked eyebrow and the unimpressed expression without even looking. "Now is not a good time, Toby!


Dusk had fallen by the time Aja found herself searching through uptown, weaving her way through construction sites and parked cars. "Talk to me, Krel" She implored, dodging a wayward road cone. "What's the status on that calibration chip hack?"

"One secton…" Krel mumbled as he typed in the last of his codes, "I'm in! Uh oh"

"Whats wrong?"

"The wormhole generator's power is getting low—I'm inputting you coordinates now. Get ready to catch…"

POOT!

"It worked! Behind you!"

"Luug! Luug!" Aja called as she spun to find their dog gnawing at a road block sign. She jumped from her board and raced over, calling for the canine and waving the tennis ball about in an attempt to capture his attention. "C'me here, boy! C'me here, boy! C'me here, c'me here, c'me here, boy—!"

POOT!

It seemed to be working until it wasn't. Luug had answered her call and had launched himself at her. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the canine leapt up into the air, mouth ripping open in a wide grin and tongue flapping in the breeze. And then mere inches from Aja's arms, he farted & disappeared once more. "Kleb! Where is he now?"

"Luug's…on the moon" Krel mumbled, though his sister still caught it.

"On the what?" She came to rest in an alleyway between two restaurants. "But he was just teleporting around Arcadia! I thought you said you could control it!"

"His intestines are unfathomable!" Defended Krel, "Whatever they're doing to that wormhole—no science can comprehend it! The standard deviation of his coordinates are getting further and further away…"

"Are you saying…Luug might not come back? He's always been there for us when we were alone and scared" She leant back against the brick wall and slowly slid down to the ground, hugging her legs tight to her chest. "He's one of the few things we still have from home…"

"I know, I miss him too, but he's not gone yet. I can't make sense of Luug's digestions, but maybe I can access the wormhole itself…Hold on! I'm going to try something!"

POOT!

One controlled jump later and Aja finally had their pet dog back in her arms, safe and sound…and it only took them all day! "Oh, now you want hugs and kisses!" She cooed as he lathered her face in doggy kisses.

"Yes! You got him!" Krel cheered in relief.

"Thanks to your driving, little brother. That was an almost perfect jump" She replied, burying her face in his scruff.

"Now, let's get him home" Krel huffed. "Jumping to the moon took a lot of energy"

"I'm on it" Aja smiled as she began to walk home, tickling & petting Luug's belly much to his delight. "You're okay, Luugy! You're okay now, but you're still in big trou—"

POOT!

"—ble" Aja ended quietly as they both reappeared in one of the many laboratories of Area 49B with a stern Kubritz barking orders down the phone whilst hazmats wandered about.

"…Good, alert me if he leaves the hangar" Kubritz instructed over the indistinct chatter of the hazmats. It didn't take long for the scientists to take note of the new and frightened occupant in the room.

"C'me on, fart! Fart! Fart!" Aja muttered hoarsely as she squeezed and pulled at Luug like he was a squeaky toy, in the hopes that he would teleport them out of there. "Fart! Fart! Fart! Fart!"

"Hmm" Kubritz smirked devilishly. "Get them!"

"Krel get us out of here!" Aja cried as she leapt over a hazmat only to find herself trapped inside the arms of another.

"I'm trying!" Krel panicked as the breath was squeezed out of the canine and the Akiridion.

POOT!

"Where'd she go?" The hazmat cried as the two disappeared in a cloud of violet, only to reappear on a workbench next to Kubritz. It turned out that when afraid or stressed, Luug was much more gaseous than usual, or perhaps it was Krel's attempts to get them out of there. Either way the two kept hopping around the laboratory, moving from the table to the low-hanging light fixtures, to the ladder, to the world map and back again; until the room was no more than a wall of rotten violet.

POOT!

"…Aja! Aja! Are you okay? Where are you?" Krel worried as she & Luug reappeared in another hangar that was illuminated in a soft blue hue.

"I think I'm still in Area 49B" Aja whispered as she peered around the truck they had fallen against upon landing.

"Be careful, you…have one jump left…Maybe two" Krel's words crackled, breaking up as the signal faded in & out. "…Too corroded…Aja!"

"Krel? Krel, can you hear me? Little brother?" She tried, moving around to try and get the signal to return. Instead with static hissing in her ears, she came across a sight she never thought she'd see outside of the mothership. "This is Akiridion technology! But how did Kubritz get tech from home?"

"Mmmm…" Luug whimpered, tucking his head beneath her chin as a feeling of being watched made her skin prickle.

"Shh" Aja cooed, eyes searching for the source of the feeling "It'll be okay Luug—"

"—On that score, I might have to disagree" General Morando purred as he strolled from the dark with a devilish grin upon his features and that mockery of ceremonial robes upon his shoulders.

"Grrr!" Luug growled as it was Aja, this time, who hid from the threat.

"Princess Aja, come to surrender?"

"I'll never surrender to you!" Aja barked as she exchanged Luug in favour of her serator and dropped her humanly transduction in preparation for the coming fight.

POOT!

"Luug!" Aja panicked, aware that Krel had mentioned only one or two jumps left.

"Hm, left all alone" Morando grinned as he unsheathed his own weapon and sprung with the intent to kill. He gave her no opening to return fire, keeping her on the defensive at all times. Aja jumped, ducked & rolled out of Morando's unrelenting slaughter and did her best just to stay alive. She had fought numerous bounty hunters, Omens and even trained under the best Akiridion-5 had to offer, but against Morando, it felt like she was way out of her depths; like he was just playing with her.

"You think you can defeat me?" He purred, trailing the tip of his blade along the ground, scouring a scar into it.

"I stopped your Omen, didn't I?" Aja spat back as she rose to her feet, ignoring the ache in her arm from where she had landed and raised an ionic firearm at Morando.

"Oh, I am far more formidable than an Omen. I have led whole armies into battle, I have…well, I cut your parents down to their cores"

"RAAH!" Rage fuelled her next shot—a lucky shot—which blasted a hole through one of the nearby trucks and cast enough of a cover for the queen-in-waiting to slip through Morando's grasp before could react. Not that it helped much; no sooner had her foot crossed the threshold of the hangar, did a horde of Omens chase after her.

Once outside, Aja launched herself skywards, up onto one of the trucks parked nearby and just waited for the Omens to pass her by before she leapt for the next one and the next. Unfortunately, what little stealth she did have, was ripped from her when her foot slipped only slightly and alerted the Omens nearby. Kleb! A desperate jump for the water tower proved fruitful if only for a moment before that too, was cut down and she was forced to return to racing through the maze of storage containers like a rat in a maze.

"This ends now!" Morando chuckled darkly as the light of the Omen's lasers were replaced with spotlights, pinning her in place with her back pressed against the far wall and Omens penned in on all sides.

"Bring it!" Aja challenged with white-knuckled hands gripped tight to her serator which had formed an ionic spear.

"Hehe~So brave—"

"—Arf!" And then Luug was there with a trail of hazmats & Kubritz on his tail. The little canine surged forward, twinning around legs and hopping across heads like they were steps, until he was safely back in Aja's grasp once more.

"Let's hope you have one jump left" Aja grunted as she squeezed the canine in a tight hug. "FART!"

POOT!