Regrouping back at their current base of operations in the back of Stuart's Electronics, the strange gaggle of aliens, humans, trolls and halfas sprawled themselves about the place like crumbs on a table. A sense of supreme solemness blanketed the shop, drowning its occupants in defeat and utter hopelessness before the real battle had even begun. But it was hard to feel anything other than sorrow when the one thing they had thought to be their secret weapon—their key to defeating their overpowered enemy—was now in the hands of said enemy, making them even more powerful than before.
"We failed, Mama" Aja sniffled, one hand placed on the pod of her unconscious mother. "Morando has Gaylen's core. We cannot stop him"
"…Y'know, whenever I found myself in a situation where I didn't know what to do, you always knew the words that I needed to hear" Krel turned to his equally unresponsive father, who looked the most put together since that terrible invasion however many months ago (they would never know that the royal cores of their parents were cracked beyond repair, meaning that they would never be more than they already were). "I wish you were here to say them to me now"
"But he's not, little brother" Aja croaked as she turned to the boy at her side. "Neither of them are. Not yet. But think of all that we've done without them! We've fought off bounty hunters, we've rescued Varvatos from the moon, and we've kept Mama & Papa safe! We can do this without them!"
"You do know that 'this' is defeating a god, right?" Krel quirked a disbelieving brow at his sister, even as a reassuring hand came to rest upon his shoulder.
"Then we need to find a way to defeat a god" Aja replied, moving to thread her fingers with his.
PFFFT!
Stuart, ever-so-obnoxiously blew his nose at the heart-wrenching scene; his nose smothered by a tatty handkerchief which had previously spouted from one of his pockets. "I'm on it!" He cried, jumping in between the two as he stuffed the snotty rag back into the depths of his bathrobe.
"Huh?" Krel hummed as the siblings turned to watch the disguised Durian.
"I'll just decode the EllyDuc transcripts" He hummed pleasantly, as the robe-dressed man shuffled over towards the other end of the room where a simple computer sat waiting. "Review the Illiac Mythos and maybe piece together the Oxiom Gospels. Simple"
"You really have to do all of that?" Toby quirked a brow in disbelief.
"Well, what else is an intergalactic library card good for?" Stuart chuckled as his fingers flew across the keyboard.
"…There are the most peculiar of noises coming from the room of baths" Varvatos noted, face scrunched up in disgust as he sat in the back of the room and kept a watchful eye over everyone. "Is the Ghost Boy all right?"
Whilst the majority of their rag-tag group conversed in the back room, Dan had sequestered himself in the bathroom to manually purge the blood blossoms toxins from his body. Mercifully, the poisoning hadn't been as bad as last time (despite the sheer number of flowers in the room) and he was able to do so without the use of the third healing pod. But that didn't make it any more enjoyable. In any case, the horrid retching & squelching that could be heard from the small room was enough to make anyone's stomach revolt.
"Eurgh…" Toby scrunched his nose up in disgust at the sounds emanating from the bathroom. "Gross"
"Dan? He'll be fine" Stuart waved dismissively, far more focused on the screen in front of him.
"If you are sure" Varvatos hummed, warily eyeing the door hidden behind the counter.
"What? You've never been hungover before?"
"What is this hanging of the over, that you speak of?"
"Well, it's when—"
"—Is now really the time for this?!" Aja interjected before the conversation could dwindle further into useless chatter.
"Sorry" Stuart ducked his head, throughly chastised.
"Apologies, my queen-in-waiting" Varvatos agreed, looking slightly sheepish as they were redirected to the task at hand.
"…Why don't we just stop Morando the same way that Seklos stopped Gaylen?" Toby drawled, itching to ask something that had been rolling about it his mind for some time now. It seemed like the most logical answer to him; simple too.
"What is the armoured-toothed one talking about?" Varvatos asked, looking highly confused.
"According to the light show in Trollmarket" Toby replied, "Seklos destroyed Gaylen with a really, really, really, really—almost done—really big gun!"
"Seklos' cannon!" Aja gasped in realisation, translating the boy's words, as the boy in question tripped over his own feet and tumbled to the ground.
"A little on the nose as far as names go" Toby's hand shot up into the air as he continued to make a point, "But, yeah"
"It's a good thought" Stuart nodded in agreement, "But the cannon was destroyed during Seklos' battle with Gaylen. You can't just pick one up at the supermarket"
"…But what if you built one?" Toby smirked as he was eventually able to roll himself back up into a seated position. Plucking his phone from his pocket, the boy rapidly flicked through his files until he came to one where he had managed to capture the 'light show' whilst they were down there and held the device aloft so that everyone could see. "Hmm? Hmm? Yeah? Think you could use this as a blueprint?"
"Nice work, Toby!" Krel crowed, eyes alight with this newest possibility. "This is some high-definition footage!"
"Yeah, well, the phone company upgraded me after I dropped me eighth phone. I gave them a lot of business"
"Let's see—" Stuart snatched the device from Toby's hand much to his chagrin, "We'd need some thermal phasers, some ionic wiring…"
"So, you can build it?" Aja asked hopefully.
"Of course I can" Stuart puffed up his chest with pride; even going so far as to strike a pose. "I'm an electronic whiz!"
"…Actually, I was talking to Krel" Aja retorted, slightly awkward. Especially as her brother had the audacity to puff up his own chest with pride and bare a smug smirk upon his lips.
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that" Stuart deadpanned sparing the akiridion a withering look. Thankfully, he was not very hurt by the statement.
"This weapon looks fairly simple" Krel hummed as he strode over to snatch the phone from Stuart's hand and inspected the image himself. "Even Stuart could build it!"
"Ugh! Or that!"
Pale and shaken, Dan eventually stumbled from the bathroom and headed over to where he had left his thermos on the front counter. Unscrewing the top, the halfa opened his mouth & tipped his head back so that he could gulp down the squirming half-formed blobs hidden inside. Although it made him feel better—as he knew it would—he tried to ignore the guilt that plagued him for consuming some of the lesser spirits.
DING~DONG!
"Huh?" Dan hummed as he tiredly turned to greet whomever thought that late night shopping was a good time for visiting the electronics store.
"A customer!" Stuart gasped gleefully as he hurried to receive the late-night stranger and their business.
"Now?" Aja scowled as she and her brother followed after the stout man.
"Danny! You're okay!" Toby cheered, noting the pale boy slumped over against the counter.
"Eh…" Dan mumbled as he clutched tight to the thermos and his tongue darted out to lick up the excess ectoplasm clinging to his face.
"—It's still a customer! I haven't had one of those since 1986!" Stuart scoffed in reply to Aja's disbelief as he shuffled out of the back room and over to the front door. At least until he saw who said customer was and then he was quickly backpedalled. "Ah—! Not a customer! Not a customer! Ooh-hoo!"
"You are a fool to attack us without your fellow warriors, hoo-man!" Varvatos threatened as he crossed the floor with three easy steps and latched his meaty fist around Sergeant Costas' necking, lifting him up into the air. "Varvatos will floss his teeth with your entrails!"
Eurgh! Dan scrunched his nose in disgust at the imagery painted, but did not interfere.
"No—! No…flossing! No…flossing!" Costas coughed as his fingers scrabbled to loosen the grip around his neck. "I'm—I'm on…your side! I—I mean…now, I'm…o-on your side…now…! I—I've had…had a…change of heart!"
"Excellent!" Varvatos crowed as he tightened his grip, "Varvatos will pull it from your chest!"
"Don't…kill me!"
"V-Vex…!" Dan warned, his voice rasping from all the retching and intangibility purging that he'd done earlier. At this point, with all of the cards in their opponents hands, they could only take any of the advantages given to them. And if this man had turned traitor…well, all the better for them.
"Nngh!" Varvatos's expression turned sour and contemplative as he decided whether or not to follow the unspoken order. Eventually, he acquiesced to the command and tossed the sergeant across the room like a sack of beans.
"Aaaah! Ooof!" Costas gasped as he rebounded off of the workman's desk behind him.
"Speak as if your life depends on it!" Varvatos threatened, standing imposingly over the wheezing man. "Because it does"
"Colonel Kubritz has lost her mind!" Costas rushed out, clearly terrified (he didn't know which was scarier; the large & imposing blue alien standing over him or the pale & sickly ghost boy in the background who looked like he wanted to either rip out his throat or fall over). "She sold herself out to Morando because she thinks that it's the best way to protect the Earth from other aliens—"
"—Ugh!" Krel groaned, rolling his eyes in offence by the terminology.
"Sorry! Extraterrestrials—!" Costas quickly amended, afraid of what would happen if he didn't. "But I think that she made a deal with the devil and now they're turning that devil into a god!"
Oh joy…! Dan rolled his eyes. What else could go wrong?
"Wa—wait!" Aja worried, "What do you mean 'They ARE turning him?' He's not a god already?"
"No, no—! He's gotta go through some sort of integration process. The colonel says that it'll take several hours and during that time, he's fast asleep"
"You mean, he's in stasis?" Krel puzzled.
"Kind of" Costas furrowed his brow in confusion as he tried to figure out if they were talking about the same thing. "The point is, he's vulnerable"
"Finally!" Krel crowed, "Some good luck! Now we have a minnow of opportunity!"
"I think you mean 'window' or, I guess, a really lucky fish" Costas corrected as he hesitantly clambered to his feet. He didn't make it very far before Varvatos' fist came down on his head, knocking him off of his feet once more. "Here's the thing: before losing consciousness, Morando sicced Kubritz on you and then he did this evil-laugh-thing. Y'know, like 'Mwahahaha—!' Ahem—! Anyway, I lied about knowing where he to find you, but she says she knows how to draw you out"
"And how will she 'draw us out?" Aja narrowed her eyes into a suspicious glare at the fallen sergeant.
As if on cue, Krel's phone began to proudly sing as a ringtone blared. "…There was a great big flash, everything just changed! His molecules got all rearranged (Phantom, phantom)! When he first woke up, he realised he had snow-white hair and glowing green eyes! He could work through walls, disappear and fly! He was much more unique than the other guys…!" Krel flushed at the sound of his song as it flooded the small shop. It had been just something silly that he had done at the behest of his friends, to record a song about the ghostly boy who was currently slumped over the counter.
"Would you terminate that infernal racket?" Varvatos complained, noting with amusement the boy's reaction as he hurried to answer the device.
"Eli! This is not the time!" Krel hissed down the phone.
"Where are you guys?" Eli replied, posing for the wildly flashing cameras. "Everyone in Arcadia's here for our big premiere except for you and Toby!"
"Oh my gosh!" Toby exclaimed, eyes going wide in panic. "How could I forget?! This is my big night! I was s'posed to rent a tuxedo! And my Nana's going to be there, Darcy's doing concessions and—!"
"—I know how Kubritz is going to draw us out!" Krel gasped as he spun on his heel to face the others with fear gleaming in his eyes.
"…Come again?" Toby blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden exclaimation. Krel simply turned the phone around to show them the selfie Eli had sent of him at the local premiere.
"Oh. Oh"
