Chapter Three

Making a Plan

Annabelle slowly opened the door to the safe room that was displayed on a small digital screen floating next to her. She carefully pulled out a small mirror and used the reflection from it to scan the room. So far there wasn't anyone inside she quickly opened the door fully and motioned for Minori to enter. The purple-haired girl rushes inside as the deumen locks the door behind them and lets out a sigh of relief. The moment she turned her attention onto the room she noticed that it was some sort of break room that had a table, refrigerator, a TV hanging against the wall, and a vending machine with snacks and drinks inside of it.

"We'll be safe here for a while," Annabelle said before hearing the sounds of something being teleported into the room. Turning around she saw a set of clothes on the table.

"The extra set of clothes is for Ms. Mineta. Not a good idea to have her run around naked." The mag said as Annabelle handed her the set of clothes. From what Minori could tell, the clothes she was given were a black long-sleeve shirt, navy-blue colored shorts, black leg warmers, dark-purple colored shoes, fingerless arm sleeves, and a large warm-looking coat with fuzz around the bottom, arms, and hood. The young girl examines her new clothing before looking over at Annabelle.

"Wow, this is…How did you even?"

"I took the liberty of designing your attire, Ms. Mineta. Top-of-the-line gear from space that you'll never find on earth. Absorbs seventy-five percent of physical damage of any kind, auto-recovery unit to help replenish your health and mend your wounds, ailment nullification unit to be immune to harmful bacteria, poisonous gasses, and diseases."

"...I'm sorry, but…how can something like this even exist!?"

"Would you believe that I'm an alien from another world?" Annabelle asked as it caused Minori to have a blank expression on her face.

"...You're joking…right…I mean, there's no way you can be an alien from space…right?"

"Pretty sure that your planet can't produce gear like I have…or have teleportation technology." She said before pointing a finger at Tamahime. "Or having a mechanical lifeform as a partner."

"So…you're an alien…from another world?" Minori asked as the deumen nodded. There was a moment of silence hanging in the air for a moment before noticing the short stack girl making her way over to the deumen. "I have to ask a few questions…and I hope you don't find this…offensive or weird."

"That would depend on what the question is," Annabelle asked as she noticed Minori taking a few breaths of air before speaking.

"Okay…is there such a thing as space porn." She asked as Annabelle stared at her for a moment before chuckling a bit.

"Out of all the things you can ask, space porn is the most important question you can answer?"

"...Yes?" Minori said with a slightly awkward smile on her face.

"Hm, fair enough. Yeah, there is such a thing as space porn in space. Fair warning, some of it involves weird tentacle porn." She said, which caused Minori to grin.

"You wouldn't happen to have some on you…would you?"

"I think we should wait a bit before I hand over stuff like that to you. Mainly because we're in an underground facility of a supervillain that makes super soldiers out of living people with superpowers."

"Don't you mean quirks?"

"I am never calling superpowers quirks," Annabelle said bluntly. "It will be a cold day in hell before I say that. And if someone corrects me…well it's not gonna end well for them."

"U-Um, noted," Minori said with an awkward chuckle. Thought that came to a stop as the girl's stomach growled throughout the room she was in. A blush appeared on her face as she looked off to the side with a nervous grin on her face. "Y-you wouldn't happen to have something to eat, do you?"

"Meal wise, no. But I do have some exotic fruits from outer space if you want any." Annabelle said as she reached into her outerwear's pocket and pulled out strange yellow spiky-looking fruits. "Stia Apple feels warm due to being grown near an active volcano, but they have a spice yet sweet flavor." She said as Minori took the odd-looking fruit and began to examine it. The young girl took a whiff of the fruit as it gave off a sweet smell of honey and spices she soon took a bite out of it. She munched on the piece she was eating before pausing. Her eyes widen as she lets out a satisfying moan before taking a few more bites out of the apple.

"Holy crap…this tastes amazing! It's not so spicy, but not overly sweet. It's the perfect blend of the two balanced together in perfect harmony!" She yelled before devouring the rest of the apple. "Got any more of this!?"

"I have a few on me," Annabelle said before pulling out more for the short stack of a girl as she quickly begins to eat them. "When we get out of here, I'd be more than happy to make you a meal from my planet that I'm sure you'll love."

"If it tastes as good as this fruit, then I'd be willing to try it~!" Minori said before taking another bit out of the fruit she was eating. "I haven't had anything this good since I've been in this place~"

"You're welcome by the way." The deumen said before walking over to the vending machine. Once there, she would pop open the keypad and start to tinker with it a bit. Within a matter of seconds, a couple of snacks and sodas would fall out of the machine as Annabelle quickly caught them and placed them into her coat pockets. "Might as well take some food with us when we escape."

"So…if you are from space…are you here to take over our planet?" Minori asked as the mag spoke up.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but your planet is…well it's okay, but not up to par with the planets from the galaxy we come from," Tamahime said as she looked through pictures from earth's civilization. "While it's nice to see that this planet has some technology and this thing called the internet, it's not up to where they'll be able to reach space travel. Though I can say that it has an abundance of raw minerals and resources that we could bring with us to the Gemini System."

"Oh, that's a good thing for our system. If we can bring resources to draupnir, we can make more of what we have to help rebuild the stuff we lost during the war with the dolls."

"War with the dolls?" Minori asked as Tamahime showed the girl an image of what she meant.

"An invasive alien species that attacked the Gemini System. We don't know where they came from, but they invaded the system and ravaged the planets for the past one hundred years or so. The war pretty much came to an end thanks to my genius idea of making weapons able to convert photon energy into damaging the outer shell of a Doll's body and hitting their core."

"You…took down something like that?" Minori asked as the deumen nodded. "But…you're a kid…just like me."

"...Would you believe that I'm not a kid, but an adult that got turned into a kid due to teleporting out of a sticky situation involving a black hole and space pirates?"

"...You're joking…right?" Minori asked as she looked over at Tamahime who shook her head.

"I'm afraid she's not joking Ms. Mineta. From what I can gather, it is a side effect of having to use the dimensional warp drive to escape from being sucked into a black hole after disabling a small group of space pirates trying to steal our ship." The mag said before showing Minori a visual image of Annabelle as an adult and her as a teenager. "Her original age is thirty-five, but now she's reduced to that of a teenager, which I can assume she's about sixteen years old."

"I'm not complaining. I feel lighter, full of energy, and not tired." Annabelle said before stretching her limbs a bit. "Oh, I am going to take advantage of being this young again."

"...Wow…you are something," Minori said as Annabelle chuckled at her comment.

"Yeah, you're not the only one who said that about me. Though the downside to what happened is the dimensional drive is damaged due to our hasty escape."

"So you're stuck here with no means of getting back to your…planet?" Minori asked as the deumen nodded. "Wow…talk about being stuck on an island."

"More like stuck on a planet in a giant sea of stars. But enough about me for the time being, let's talk about you?" Annabelle asked which took the human by surprise. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up in a place like this?"

"I…um…."

"If it's too much trouble, then you don't have to answer my question."

"I-It's not that…it's just that I don't remember." She answered with a somewhat defeated expression on her face. "One minute I was making my way to the grocery for comfort food after being expelled from school and kicked out of my home, then a huge explosion happened, and then I found myself here in this awful place."

"Hm, how long have you been in this place?"

"I can't remember…I lost track after the first week. What with them operating on me and doing stuff to my body."

"Suppose that's understandable, given how they were planning on turning into one of those super soldiers called Nomu."

"Wait…you mean those people with their brains exposed, eyes bulging out of their eye sockets, and have metal mouths?" The human asked as the alien nodded. "...And you're sure you're willing to help me get out of here? This isn't some kind of trick by that slender man-looking dude…is it?"

"Not a trick of any kind. I am going to help you get out of here. I can't just ignore a person who's in need. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I just up and left." She said before turning her attention to Tamahime. "How far are we from the surface?"

"You're about ten floors away from the surface." She said before showing the deumen a digital version of the facility they're in. "From what I could gather, you're currently on the tenth floor. It's where they keep their experiments or soon-to-be Nomu. So far Minori is the only living person that hasn't been turned into one of them at this time."

"And how many people are in this place besides Minori and me?"

"Surprisingly, just three people. The two that you saw before that placed Ms. Mineta in that test tube, and a boy with gray hair and crusty skin."

"Hm, recommendation?"

"I have a few, but that would depend on what you'll do. From what I can gather, the country that you're in has a no-killing-villain policy. Which I find hypocritical seeing how they would use heroes to kill villains and evil organizations in secret. Granted you fall under the category of being a minor, and you'll get a slap on the wrist given the situation you're in, but you'll be placed in the category of villain or problem child."

"...This planet is weird."

"If it makes you feel better, other countries aren't that way when it comes to people killing villains in self-defense."

"Not making me feel better…to some degree. But do we have any other options?"

"There's the ventilation system, but you'll need to get to the fifth floor. Floors ten to seven vents are too small and narrow for you two to fit through them."

"Anything else?"

"Distraction. I can send you a bomb so you can place it in the room where you found Ms. Mineta. Once the bomb goes off, the explosion will cause a lot of damage, which will cause them to be more focused on extinguishing the fires, and for you two to escape through the front doors."

"But the front door is blocked by a Nomu. How do I know this? I tried to escape once, but I ended up meeting with that thing and got my bones broken." Minori said, which caused Annabelle to place a hand on her chin to ponder how to deal with it.

"Tamahime, look up the information on these Nomus and inform me of their strengths and weaknesses, and give me a solution to dealing with them as we make our way to the first floor."

"Acknowledge." The mag said before bringing up a few digital screens with pictures of Nomus on them. "Do you still want me to send the bomb down to where you are?"

"If you would be so kind as to do that, I would appreciate it," Annabelle said as she heard the sound of something being teleported into the room. In a matter of seconds, a small black and aqua-green colored bomb appeared on the table and the deumen grins upon seeing it. "Okay, so the plan is we take the elevator up and use the vents to make it to the top floor. Once there, Tamahime should have the answer we need to deal with the Nomu guarding the door. But if that doesn't go so well, how well are you at fighting Minori?"

"I…don't know how to fight," Minori answered with a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry."

"It's fine, no need to apologize. Given what you've been through, it can't be helped." She said before walking over to the table to pick up the device. "Will you be able to teleport us once we make it to the first floor, Tamahime?"

"If you can manage to get outside, then I can."

"Alrighty then," Annabelle said with a grin on her face. "We'll have to head back to that room full of nomus and plant the bomb in there for the distraction to work."

"Not to sound rude, but what can that little bomb do? Wouldn't you need a big one to make the room explode or something?"

"The perks of being a scientist of a research and technology organization is that we can make stuff that's small, but pack a huge punch~," She said before motioning Minori to follow. "Tamahime, would you be so kind as to contact the local authorities on this planet about this location?"

"Already did. I even made copies of the files I looked up and downloaded just in case we might get in trouble or we could use it for ourselves if need be."

"Excellent work my friend," Annabelle said before looking over at Minori. "We still have some time before we can leave. Might as well rest up a bit before leaving."

"Are you kidding me? I can rest when we get out of here. Just plant the bomb so we can-" Before Minori could finish her sentence, the sound of her stomach growling echoed throughout the room as it causing her face to blush red in embarrassment. Annabelle smirked upon hearing this as she tapped a few buttons on the vending machine and pulled out a couple more snacks before handing her some. "...I think I should eat a bit more food before we head out."

"That would be for the best."