Not long after the two responded to the man called Dandy, heavy footsteps began to echo through the halls. It didn't take long for the soldiers to find their way into the holding bay. Yuvi and Nel stood aside to allow them to take the cage but it wasn't quite that easy.
Two men grabbed Yuvi by her arms and one grabbed Nel by the back of her thin neck.
"Hey, what the hell! Let us go! Just take the dude!" Yuvi hollered.
"Shattup!" one of the men barked, "We've got orders and they're not from you!"
"Orders, what orders? What are you gonna do with us?" Nel asked frantically as she struggled to keep as still as possible to reduce the pain inflicted by the mans grip.
The men gave no answers. Instead they kicked the back of Yuvi's knees to bring her into a kneel and the man holding Nel pinched her neck so that she'd crumple onto her knees as well. Meanwhile, two others worked on opening the cage.
"What's the password?!" One shouted over to Yuvi.
"G-O-F-U-C-" She began but a staff to the back of her head interrupted her.
"Fine. We'll just have to blow it up then."
The men sniggered and one squirted a gel onto the lock. They all stepped back and one of the men withdrew his gun and he fired at the lock causing for a small explosion. The one who fired rushed forward to open the cage but it didn't give. "What the hell?!" He signaled for Yuvi to be brought forward.
She was yanked to her feet and practically thrown across the space between her and the man. "Password, now!"
"Say please. " She sneered.
With a growl, the man rose his gun to pistol-whip her. Nel shut her eyes and looked away but instead of the sound of something heavy bluntly hitting something soft, she instead heard the sound of something hard skitter across the floor. When she looked up, Yuvi's leg was extended and the man was empty handed. The two holding onto her tried to force her to the ground but she threw herself backwards onto her back which yanked the men back and put them of balance just long enough that she could swing her leg around to deliver a swift kick to ones head and then around to trip the other, up into an arch and back down onto the back of his head.
The man with the gun turned to chase after his gun but Yuvi lunged and tackled him to the ground. He spun onto his back and tried to throw a few punches but she grabbed onto his fists and they struggled against each other. The man on the other side of the cage ran around and wrapped his arms around Yuvi's neck and pulled her off of the other man. He got a few steps away but Yuvi reached behind and grabbed onto him then dropped her weight onto one knee. With a loud grunt, she rolled the man forward over her body and hard onto the cold floor. While he struggled to regain his breath she lunged for the other man who had gotten back to his feet by then. He managed to land a few punches but the minute he began to swing too wide, she redirected his fists outward with her hands and trapped them under her arms allowing her to drive her knee right into his solar plexus.
She turned and looked directly at the man who held onto Nel. "Why does only one of you guys have a gun?" Yuvi asked as though genuinely curious.
He threw Nel aside and ran at Yuvi. It was easy enough to subdue the man who choose to subdue the four foot tall woman. Before he could think out what he was doing, he was on the floor beside his comrades.
Nel quickly climbed back to her feet, "Always the hard way with you, isn't it?"
"If we did it your way, we might be in a prison cell right now."
"Which is worse than being attacked, how?"
Yuvi stepped to one of the men and grabbed his wrist to speak into the communicator. "Was that really necessary?" She looked over at Nel and jerked her head towards the main control room. Begrudgingly, she nodded and hurried to the control panel. Yuvi yanked the communicator from around the mans wrist and started after Nel.
"Hey! What about me!"
Yuvi stopped. "Get comfy, cowboy. Oh yeah, your communicator won't work. At least not until it's been reset thanks to that tractor beam." She turned and exited the room and joined Nel at her side. Through the communicator, Gel responded.
"Surrender Dandy or I'll march in there myself, take him and send your puny little tincan into the nearest sun with you two in it!"
Yuvi looked over at Nel who was standing at the panel ready for orders. "Surrender Dandy? What is that..some kind of..lingo?" She asked the other. Nel shrugged.
"Sorry, but if this guy means this much to you, he means a lot to somebody else too..somebody who's more..agreeable. Nel, hit it."
Nel nodded then she slammed her palm down onto the consul.
"What are you doing?! Where do you think you're going?!" Gel hollered from the device. Yuvi tossed it behind her and in moments, the ship vanished before the very eyes of Gel.

"Dammit! Damn those fools! I'll have them imprisoned for their interference!" Gel shouted, his fists pounding on the rail before him. "Bea!"
"Already on it. I had a feeling they'd try something cute." Bea smirked as he tapped on the consul before him. "I locked onto their ship long ago. Initiating warp."
Gel bore his teeth in frustration and anticipation.

When the ship came to a halt, Nel turned to Yuvi. "I've placed us on the edge of an asteroid belt. If they follow us, we can navigate through but that hulking mockery won't be able to."
Yuvi rose a brow. "Ah, I'm rubbing off on you." She smirked.
"Please. You didn't hire me just for my botany, remember?" she replied with a single-shoulder shrug.
"So then..what to do with the man."
"If the Gogol Empire wants him so bad, they must want him for the war and who are they at war with?"
"The Jaicro Empire."
"Correct. You think they're gonna be more..agreeable?"
"Hopefully..Or else we just made a lot of enemies."
"As if the entire Gogol Empire isn't already a lot."
As if on cue, a blinding light flashed through the room and the image of the CarnegieLemon appeared before them. Immediately, Nel and Yuvi leaped into the seats and strapped in and just in time, Gels face filled the screen before them.
"You didn't honestly think it'd be that easy, did you? You just keep digging yourself into deeper and deeper shit. I'm pretty sure at this point, I can have the both of you put to death."
Yuvi narrowed her eyes, "If the Jaicro Empire doesn't end you first. Nel. Let's go. I'm sick of looking at his ugly mug."
Nel nodded. In an instant, the Lady Vespertine was shooting between the speeding collection of asteroids and narrowly missing much of the time.

Gel laughed, "Bea, fire the missiles to clear away all of this shit."
"But sir, we might hit their ship and vaporize Dandy!"
"Fine! We'll have to take the smaller ship."
"Er..we totaled that one..in that race, remember?"
Gel growled and gripped the rail. "We can't let them get away! Fire the missiles..just be careful not to hit them! Or at least..not too much."
Bea nodded and tapped at the consul. Moments later, dozens of missiles whirled into the asteroid field and began reducing most of the debris to dust.

"Yuvi, they're clearing away the field, they're gonna catch up! Yuvi?" Nel looked behind her and gasped. The man they'd accidentally captured stood over Yuvi's unconscious body with one of the soldier mans guns in his hand. "Yuvi!" Nel shouted. "What did you do?!"
"What I had to do, Baby." Dandy responded then he pointed his gun to Nel.
The sound of exploding asteroids got louder and Nel struggled to keep the LadyVespertine from crashing into any of the asteroids.
"Take me back or your friend doesn't wake up." He said as he pulled back the hammer of the gun.
"You wouldn't!"
He spun the gun on his finger and held it pointed to Yuvi again. "Give me a reason not to. Being hot isn't gonna be enough this time."
The ship jerked as a large asteroid thumped against it and rolled off to the side. "Technically we saved you from that beast down there!"
"Did not!" He spat defensively.
"We're just trying to make a living, or are you too successful to understand that?"
Dandy's aim faltered for a moment but he narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I should hand you two over. By now I'm sure I could get a shit load off of you."
Nel cried out as the ship nearly missed a head-on collision with another asteroid. "I'll let you go! We'll both go our separate ways and nobody hands in anybody, okay?"
"What makes you think you're in any position to hand Me over? I'm the one with the gun, remember?"
"Yeah, but if I let you go, you get a fighting chance at escaping that guy, or I could stop the ship and let them catch up."
Dandy gave her a suspicious brow raise. "You two would be fucked too then."
"Do you want freedom or not?"
Dandy clenched his teeth but he relented and lowered the gun. "Fine. Move over. You're gonna get us all killed."
Nel hesitated, but she unstrapped herself and allowed Dandy to take her seat then rushed to Yuvi's side.
The Lady Vespertine jolted forward then rocketed through the asteroid field. Nel gripped the chair Yuvi was seated in, sure that they were all in for an explosive death. The ship moved like she'd never seen it move before. It tumbled and veered and looped around chunks of rock and in moments it was clear across the asteroid field. When they were safely out, Dandy stopped the ship and stood up. "So how do you hail somebody in this thing?"
Nel carefully climbed to her feet, a little unsteady from the ride, and she ventured to the consul. She swiped and tapped and paused for a moment.
"This one right? The Aloha Oe?"
"Yup, that's her!" He declared proudly.
Nel tapped on the consul and moments later, QT and Meows faces were on the screen.
"Dandy! What happened! We were looking all over for you!" QT blurted.
"Long story. I'll fill ya in when I get back. Right now, I just wanna get back."
Nel gestured to the exit where the teleport landing was. "Right this way. It's ready to go."
Dandy started towards the door but paused. "It was fun, but, the next time you two wanna hang, let's just meet up at Boobies." He flashed his winning smile then exited the room.
Nel shook her head, eyes closed. "What that hell kind of guy is he."
"That's what we're trying to figure out." QT's voice rang.
"Requesting permission to send him over."
"Permission granted. Send him over, if you must."
Nel nodded and she pressed the button firmly. She could hear the teleporter power up behind her then go silent again. Via the screen, she heard Dandy exclaim something in the background.
"Well..See ya around, I guess. I have a feeling this isn't the last time we're gonna meet."

Hours later, Yuvi woke in her bed and the Lady Vespertine was far out of the reaches of Gel. She groggily climbed out of bed and shuffled into the lounge where Nel was lounging with her tablet.
"What happened? What did I miss?"
Nel lowered her tablet and sighed. "He got out somehow..I forgot to ask. He uh..well he knocked you out and had you at gunpoint so I had to make a decision. I had to let him go."
"To the ape man?"
She shook her head. "No, back to his ship. We managed to get away thanks to him. He piloted us out on the condition that we let him go and we go our separate ways."
Yuvi closed her eyes but smiled partially. "Man..what a day, huh? Other than making an enemy out of the entire Gogol Empire..it was pretty alright."
Nel sighed and rose her tablet. "I think you should see a doctor. He must have hit you harder than I thought."
"No way, I'm starving. Let's go to Boobies, I could use a drink or five."
Nel was quiet but after a moment she slid off of the lounger and stuck her hands into her coat pockets listlessly. "Alright, only because I could use one too."