I don't have claustrophobia, but I never could get used to spending hours in the Bunker. A metallic room about a hundred feet below ground levels with no way of seeing the outside world.

And even though it was the safest place in Amarkia and I could continue to rule it in the event of an emergency, it was still uncomfortable. I guess it's just the sensation of being so hidden.

A nurse of the medical staff came out and said to me, "You say her know, Your Majesty. She's just coming out of sedation. But she'll need plenty of rest so you only have ten minutes."

I got up from my seat on the cold floor and entered the Medical Room. She was stretched out on a typical white hospital room. I walked up to her and took her hand in mine. "Hey," I whispered to her.

She opened her eyes and said groggily, "Uh…what? Where am I?"

"You're in the Bunker."

"What happened?"

I gently ran my hand through her silky, brown hair and caressed my thumb against her cheek. "That doesn't matter know. You're alive and that's what counts. I just wanted to see you for a little while."

She was coming more awake now. "Where…where you going?"

"I have to do some things. But I'll be back in a few hours." I brought my face down near hers and I kissed her. "I love you," I whispered to her.

"I love you," she managed to say. I kissed her again then exited the Bunker and went upstairs to the third floor into the Military Planning Room. I had some serous scores to settle with lots of bastards and jerks.

Larry was already there, staring at the monitors and radar screens. "How is she?" he asked.

"She's doing better. Just needs some rest."

He nodded and sat down on his observation chair, as he liked to call it. "There's something I need to tell you. The Terra-Track is no longer on Amarkia. It's not on this planet."

"W-what?! You mean…someone did steal it?"

"No! Of course not. We just moved it to another location. These attacks from the IEO and the Red eyes have been too brutal. We've already lost 160 citizens and several more are severely injured. We nearly lost one of our own."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a smart move. Where'd you move it to?"

"In Section C-53 of Quarter 3. In simple English…Pluto."

The water I'd been drinking sprayed out all over his face. "You…you moved the Terra-Track to Pluto?!"

"It was the best place I could think of. For now. We have a sizeable military base there. There's about 20,000 thousand troops stationed there. But the Red Eyes are still on their way here. At the rate they're going, they might be in a few days. A week at the most."

I didn't exactly jump of the idea of a cube of energy of infinite and endless supply of energy that all the forces in the universe were hungry for were was on a small, frozen and dark planet that was barely defended by a thousand of our Space Armed Forces Units.

"Well, I'd feel better if we had more powerful defenses," I said to Larry.

"You want me to summon the Space Armies?"

I thought about it. The Space Armies had technology also superior to our own, but were much quicker than the Red Eyes and could travel thousands of light-years in a matter of minutes. They were the only ones who had never been defeated by the Red Eyes.

But I didn't want to further provoke things. If the Red Eyes found out we had asked the Space Armies…I feared that thought.

"Well…just tell them to be on Standby. In Minutemen Mode. And tell the same to all the other armies from the other dimensions."

He nodded and turned around to the massive monitors on the wall. He typed some keys and spoke into the microphone. "Base Q-R8. Base Q-R8. This is Amarkia. Amarkia calling Base Q-R8. Come in please!"

There was silence for a few seconds, then a voice said, "Amarkia this is Base Q-R8. Yes, we heard you loud and clear, sir."

"Amarkia is under a Lever 4 Red Alert threat. Major attack from IEO and/Red Eyes expected very soon. Cause is the Terra-Track. We already have casualties and heavy physical damages. Requesting that all units be on Standby. Minutemen Mode. Repeating, all armies be on alert for major attack."

"Request accepted, sir. Yes, that's affirmateive. We've been observing everything on radar. We will be ready. The line will remain open 24/7 until we hear you."

"Thank you. This is Amarkia, over."

"Base Q-R8. Over and out."

Larry turned to me. "Well, you feel a lot better now?"

"A little better, not a lot. I still feel somewhat uprotected. You sure those 20,000 men can defend the Terra-Track?"

Before he answered, I saw a red light flashing on the monitor. He quickly grabbed the phone and started calling about three or four people. He was frantic. I could see him shivering. I'd say he was sweating, but dinosaurs don't sweat.

With a face of horror, he said to me. "Pluto is gone."

"What?!"

"Our base was attacked. Pluto has been destoyed. There's nothing left but floating pieces of ice and rock. All of our troops were killed."

"What? What happened? How did the Red Eyes get here so fast?"

He shook his head. "It wasn't the Red Eyes. It was the Red Criminal."

This was another main member of the IEO. And no, he is not red in color or eyes or anything. He's just named Red Criminal and has nothing to do with the Red Eyes. I've actually never seen him.

He doesn't usually reveal himself. In fact, he's almost never present in his attacks. He usually just sends out his armies to do it. Although, just like all other members of the IEO, he does have something that distinguishes him. Something that others consider "unique and brilliant."

Red Criminal invented the Self-Guided Bullets. Now don't undersestimate the name. They are much deadlier than what you think. We have something similar called the Spiked Bombs. In both cases, when the weapon is fired, the projectile aquires a target and follows it for miles and miles until it raches it. And it doesn't matter if you go behind a door or a rock or a wall. It will go through it and not explode until it hits you.

And all his armies are equipped with that.

Can you imagine thousands of soldiers with that kind of offensive?

"And…where is the Terra-Track?" I asked Larry.

"We managed to teleport it to another spot. I dare not say because I'm afraid that something will happen. The important thing is that it has not fallen in enemy hands. For now. And if Red Criminal has not on the move…

"What aobut other memebers of the IEO? Like Hopper-Popper?" I asked.

"Ha! I would not be surprised if he was some part of a secret operation to get the Terra-Track."

Hopper-Popper is a master of illusion and disguise. Though he is not a magician he certainly talks, acts, and dresses like one. One time, hundreds of years back when he was causing really trouble, he managed to "kill him."

But when he buried him, we forgot to destroy his blacktop hat. And when we removed the hat, the body was gone. He had escaped and we haven't seen him since. We doesn't usually cause life-risk problems but he is really a pain in the neck.

But if one member of the IEO was capable of destroying a single planet…what could the Red Eyes be capable of doing?

"Spiny, if the Red Eyes wage full war against us, it's going to be a long, bloody, gruesome, and costly war."

"How costly?"

"Extremely costly. I'm talking of half of our entire army and about 25% of our population killed. And Amarkia is too small a country to hold up against bombings. A full-on attack would devastate the nation and take centuries to recover."

I sighed. I wasn't going to give up this easily. Not anymore. I was terrified of the Red Eyes but I wasn't about to let that morbid fear get in the way of my objectives. "If we can't defeat the Red Eyes on the battlefield, is there some other way?"

"You mean…like, psychological pressure or something?"

"Well, weapons are definitely out of the question. They have lasers ready to destroy planets and force-field destroyers. Plasma lasers and black hole bombs are a favorite they use. They wouldn't hesitate in killing the entire Earth just to get the Terra-Track."

"We have to find a weakness. Something, anything," I said.

"The Red Eyes? I'm not sure they have any weaknesses. As a matter of fact, I'm sure they don't."

"Don't give me that. Every single villain or group of villains have some weakness. It's a universal rule. The Red Eyes, as malicious and brutal as they are, must have something. Some flaw in their armor. We have to find that weakness and use that to our advantage."

He started thinking. He stared at the wall and his eyes narrowed as his brain concentrated. "Well, as for the IEO, there is a lot of corruption within them. And I don't mean just plain corruption. I mean the kind that would threaten their own existence. There are a lot of ex-members and disgruntled current members who have started to form their own factions."

I nodded. "What about the Red Eyes?"

"That's…that's pretty much mission impossible."

I was getting quite antsy. I didn't want to hear him say that, even if it was the truth. "Come on Larry, think! You lived among the Red Eyes for thousands of years in the other dimensions. Can't you think of anything?"

"Well…" he brought his finger beneath his chin. "One thing about them: they have no real need for the Terra-Track. They have hundreds of stars and they basically already have an unlimited supply of energy. They just want the Terra-Track to make insane weapons like the Anti-Force Field Laser."

He got up and started pacing. "However…there is one thing, actually two things that they really love but that is in finite amounts."

"What is that?" I said, scratching the area around my bullet wound. I was hoping that it was just an itch and not infection. If not, I'd die for sure.

"They love silicon. It's like their fossil fuel. They use it for everything non-military. And they are obsessed with iridium. And we do know they are in possession of other unknown metals found only on asteroids, comets, and meteors."

My mind started racing when he said that. I suddenly started getting tons of premises and hypotheses. "So, what you're saying is that instead of a military attack, we should…"

"Sabotage. Yes, sabotage. Find a way to cut off their resources. It may owkr. We certainly cannot instigate an uprising amongst their civilians."

I snorted. "Ha! Yeah, that would be suicide."

He shook his head. "Not only would that be suicide, but it would be futile. The civilians wouldn't be willing."

I was quite shocked by what he said. I mean, if you're living in a country where your government and your military are constantly attacking, murdering and exterminating innocent people from other countries, wouldn't you start hating them? Wouldn't you begin a popular uprising?

Larry answered those mental questions by saying, "The Red Eyes are a sick, disgusting, and weird kind of evil group. They kill all prisoners and criminals, even for minor crimes like speeding. And they genetically modify their children at birth so that they love the system no matter what."

"But what about those who have been loyal a long time? Don't they do anything to them?" I asked.

In disgust, he said, "They don't torture most rebellious civilians. They brainwash them or smack them with propaganda to make them embrace and love how evil they are. And it works. One hundred percent of all Red Eye civilians are against us and want us all dead too."

Wow…despicable, evil, murderous, and sadist don't even come close to describing how wicked the Red Eyes are. Diabolical comes a little close but even that…I mean, these are worse than Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, North Korea, Panem, the Galactic Empire, and the First Order all combined!

That's no exaggeration.

Billions of innocent lives and thousands of peaceful and even evil extraterrestrial life forms have gone extinct because of the Red Eyes.

Nevertheless, Larry and I seemed to have stumbled upon something. "So…if we can find a way to cut off their access to those resources…might it work?"

He resumed his pacing and started tapping, humming, and whispering to himself in Amarkian. "We have to keep in mind that despite all our successes and our technological and demographical advances, the Red Eyes have no envy of our way of life. None at all. All they worry is that we have the Terra-Track and some embarrassment that we've won some wars against them." He jumped. "Aha! I just thought of something!"

"What? What?"

"Pink."

I blinked my eyes and stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"Pink. They despise the color pink. But I don't think that's going to be enough, right?"

I groaned and face-palmed myself. "No, it won't! Now this is serious, Larry. We're talking about the fate of the entire universe!"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. Now, let's see…they have a lot of suns for their planets. And I happen to know that for a fact, they do have limited food supplies. The planets they've conquered were originally uninhabitable wastelands. Some of them were deserts, or ice balls. Or with toxic soils. So if we could…"

I knew where he was heading. "So…if we could find a way to attack their resources, including iridium and other metals, then they would no longer have energy. And that could start a chain reaction and they would no longer have the energy to continue to manufacture weapons and other stuff. And eventually, the planets where they grow food would become hostile again!"

After remaining silent, he stared at me and I saw his eyes flashing with delight. "You know, that just might work!"