Chapter 6: Sorry about the ship.
The ship in front of them hadn't seemed to notice their presence which was good, of course, but they weren't moving. At all. Rex was getting a bit restless due to the fact that he wasn't really that good at this whole 'patient' thing, and the plan of waiting for the apex to lead them back to their planet for updated reports and whatnot was taking waaaay longer than he had wished. Malix, however, didn't seem at all bothered by this fact, which is partially why Rex decided to stay anyways. A calm Malix, is a happy Malix, after all. But this really was taking forever, so Rex turned to the Floran that was sitting at the 'lab station' with it's feet propped up on the table, looking up at the lights on the ceiling, tiredly. He wanted to make a conversation with him, but the Floran was obviously very sleepy.
"You know, you can go to sleep if you want, Malix." Rex suggested, getting his attention. "It looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while, and it's pretty obvious that you're tired."
Malix smiled, taking this opportunity to letting himself lose the war between himself and sleep, and closed his eyes. Rex couldn't help but smile at how peaceful he was. He turned back around in his chair, and put his feet up on the control panel, ending in a similar pose to Malix. Now that he had some time to his thoughts, he started to ponder things. Rex WAS on a SPACESHIP, after all, in space, where he could go on thousands of billions of adventures! He was also turned into some sort of creature called a Floran, and he's been helping people left and right, even though he had no idea if any of them were going to backstab them or not. I guess it was a similar story with Maria the avian, and Liax the hylotl too, wasn't it? They only met for a little bit, and they already went ahead to getting Rex some starter supplies and his OWN SHIP. That is such a considerate thing to do. Random act of kindness can be random, And that was VERY random.
However, he also had to weigh this alongside the negatives. He had no idea where he was in terms of, galaxy, universe, heck, even reality! There seemed to be a reoccurring theme of small civilizations and monsters scattered throughout the galaxy, er… reality… whatever one will call it. He also had no idea what or who turned him into a Floran and sent him to this universe, meaning he had no idea to change back and return to his own universe, which he might freak out about later. Another thought popped into his head, and it seemed to be the most stressful one of them all. He had no idea how his friends were doing, and he had no way of contacting them. They could be in this universe too, or back in the universe they know… It was all a massive headache.
Rex took a deep breath, in an attempt to calm down. One thing at a time… He thought to himself, as he sat up in his chair just in time to see the thrusters on the ship ahead of them began to pulsate. Rex's eyes widened, and he opened the control configuration window panel, setting the ship to manual control. A set of controls then appeared, which served as the ships manual navigational device. On the controls lay an instruction manual that he had no time to read, and grabbed what looked like the steering wheel, pulling the thruster and engine activation levers (or, at least what he assumed to be the activation levers), and a window popped up to his side, containing information about the ship. This time, however, there wasn't a giant log of data, only standard stuff like his speed and the such, which was something he found useful.
The ship ahead of them took off, and so Rex put his foot on the peddle, snapping the ship forward at speeds that put the fastest flying cars from his planet to shame. He could still manage to see, and didn't find this speed to feel as fast as he thought it would feel; there wasn't even any rumbling sensible from the interior of the ship! This made it much easier to keep up with the ship ahead of him and to make sure that his vision wouldn't blur and the wouldn't… er… crash… It was basically smooth sailing until the ship did a really swift 180 degree turn, and ended in a position facing Rex's ship. He suppose they noticed that he was following them. The apex that was visibly piloting the ship could be seen through the cockpit window, staring at Rex was a very disapproving face. He then watched as the apex walked away from the control panel, which made him worry a bit, and he decided to wake up Malix.
Rex walked over to where Malix was resting and began to shake him a little bit. This quickly woke him up, which wasn't expected, and he hopped to his feet, looking around like something was wrong. When Malix noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary, he looked down at Rex, confused. "There…?" He asked, wondering why he was awoken.
"No… uhm… The Apex ship we were following turned around and saw us." Rex replied.
This also made him a bit worried, seeing how Malix's eyes widened as he faced the direction of the teleporter room, seemingly stuck in a trance. "Come…" He said, hypnotically.
"What? What do you mean come?" Rex asked. Now HE was the one confused, but his questions were quickly answered as the teleporter lit up a bright white-read, with a figure taking form on top of it.
As the light from the portal faded, it released an Apex, covered in armor and armed with a very sharp, multi-tipped sword and shield in it's grasp. It's gaze quickly shifted from Rex to Malix, and it's eyes widened as it did so. A com-unit was obtained from it's pocket, and bringing it up the Apex's mouth, it began to speak. "The Floran piloting the ship that has been following us has experiment FL-H14 aboard. What are procedures?"
After a bit of the Apex nodding, ending in 'I understand,' it put the com-unit back in it's pocket, and looked at Rex. "Have you followed us to return our Experiment?" It asked.
Rex shook his head, pulling out his shield and sword in preparation for combat. This was quickly replied by the shaking of the Apex's head, as it chuckled quietly. Rex and Malix both wondered why, until their curiosity was quickly answered by two more figures beaming to Rex's ship, shortly after revealing two more Apex, both in the same armor as the first one, but with one carrying a spear and another a gun. Malix freaked out a bit, and Rex dug into his bag and tossed the panicked Floran the sword and shield he was equipped with, as he pulled out the blade given to him by Liax. He had a feeling Malix would need a bit more defense than he did.
Things began with a jumpstart as the Apex armed with the spear jabbed at Malix, who had stopped panicking long enough to grab the sword and shield, just in time to use them to block the oncoming spear tip. From here, at least for Malix, it was a steady cycle of blocking and countering. As for Rex, well, let's just say he regretted giving up his shield and lighter sword. His blade clashed with the Apex's countless times, with the armed ape being able to land several successful blows to Rex's sides and chest, mercilessly ripping his clothing, and, more importantly, his skin. Malix looked over at him, as Rex did the same, nodding in a silent agreement. The Floran with just the sword rolled to his left, stopping in front of the speared Apex, and the Floran with the defense ran over to intercept the Apex with a similar weapon equip.
Weapons clashed, again, but this time Rex was able to successfully dance around the spear tip without being jabbed. Occasionally, opportunities would arise where he could land hits on the opposing force, which he took up almost as soon as they appeared. Malix was doing fine as well, the shield that the Apex was holding had been knocked out go his hand, forcing him to operate with just a sword, against an enemy with both a sword and a shield. Things were going perfectly fine at this rate, until the Apex closest to the teleporter cocked his gun. Its first target, naturally, was the enemy lacking a shield to defend itself, so he took aim at Rex, who was too busy paying attention to his current attacker to notice. The aim was taken, and the trigger had been pulled, releasing a stream of energy from the ranged weapon, making a beeline towards Rex. The Apex he was fighting knew this plan, and jumped out of the way just in time for Rex to be blasted in the chest with the concentrated energy projectile, being knocked on his back, unconscience.
Malix witnessed this as he knocked the blade out of the Apex who he was facing's hand, followed by bashing him in the side of the head with his sword, knocking him out. He then directed his attention to the Apex with the spear that was standing over Rex with the spear poised and ready to stab through his heart, throwing his shield at the sharp-tipped weapon, successfully knocking it out of his hand. There was a loss of a defensive object, but now the Apex was to busy running to go pick up his dropped weapon to notice Malix put Rex into the cockpit and close the door. It was now two against one, but the Floran paid attention to both of his opponents, so that he wouldn't suffer the same fate as his blue-haired friend.
The fight was continued as the Apex had regained his spear, and the other took aim at his new target, Malix. Agility was key here, and this was something he knew, as the Floran donned a different fighting pose in a way where his sword would balance with the rest of his body, shortly followed by the first jab of the Spear. This was danced around swiftly with Malix successfully being able to get behind the Spear-Apex, banging his head, forcing him to drop on the floor, unconscience. This only left the two, one wielding a melee weapon, and another a ranged one. After taking out the first one quickly, just by spinning around him, Malix was certain this would be a swift battle, which, of course, was not the case.
The Apex dropped his gun and pulled two out from the giant pockets on his side, holding them in a position where each gun barrel was aimed at the head of their opposer. Malix freaked out a bit as the bullets began to fire at a very rapid speed, some skimming his face, other being deflected by his Sword. A few even pierced his stomach in places that, while excruciatingly painful, didn't prove fatal, but severely hindered his movement. The Stream of bullets stopped and Malix was able to glimpse the armored ape reloading his weapons, and he realized that there was a small window of opportunity here. He rolled over to the downed Apex that had the sword and shield, picking up the two items in time for the next wave of projectiles.
He pulled the shield up, defensively, slowly walking in the direction of the ape, sustaining a mass decrease in the amount of damage he had taken when blocking with just the sword. Turns out Apex's ARE smart, because he stopped using his guns and instead jumped over Malix, landing over to the Apex with the spear, grabbing the sharp-tipped weapon and turning to face his opponent. But then a sudden realization of pleasure spread across Malix's face, as he stepped back slowly to the teleporter, with the Apex walking slowly towards him. Just as the ape got close enough to jab at the Floran, Malix dropped his shield and sword to reveal a charged gun, the same one used to knock out Rex, poised and aimed at the ape's chest.
He couldn't help but to smile. "…Bye."
The Apex's eyes widened with fear as the trigger was pulled, blasting it to the other side of the ship, red strands of light flying everywhere. The ape landed on it's back, motionless and, seemingly, not breathing. Then it did something unexpected, it began to disintegrate into data, it's body revealing itself to be an empty shell and nothing more. As the last of the Apex vanished, painful groaning could be heard from behind the doors of the cockpit, snapping Malix's attention away from the spot on the floor of the ship where the ape creature once lay. He shifted his gaze to the entrance to the cockpit, walking over to it swiftly. The Apex surrounding him were only unconscience, and who knows how much longer they'll stay that way before trying to kill them again. Unfortunately, Malix suffered a fair amount too many jabs, slashes, and bullets, and their combined pain forced him to collapse on the ground, cringing in pain. He passed out shortly after.
• • •
Rex woke up in the Pilot Seat of his ship, clenching the burnt spot on his chest in pain. He forced himself to his feet, feeling that if he were to fall asleep or pass out again, there wouldn't be any waking up. His head was throbbing painfully, and parts of his sides were morbidly sliced open. Opening to door to the cockpit, Rex came to a strange sight that snapped him back to reality. Weapons and guns were scattered across the floor, two Apex were lying on the ground, breathing, but obviously unconscience. Malix was on the ground too, scratch marks and bullets visible in his skin, which worried Rex, even though the Floran was still clearly breathing.
He carefully dragged Malix to the cockpit and used some of the bandages that he had made from some Plant Fiber, wrapping them around his wounds. After lying him on the metallic floor of the space-ship, Rex walked over to the teleporter with a tempting and dangerous thought in mind. The Apex came through the teleporter to get to his ship, maybe it worked the same way if he just switched the order. There was only one way to find out, and if it WERE successful, he could find the coordinates that those murderous apes used to return to their planet, and then help Malix turn back into a human. His legs felt wobbly, however, after having his mind being forced into thinking of all of the negative outcomes of trying this. Being warped right into outer space, dying do to a lack of any breathable substance, that's a thing. Or being teleported to an incredibly hosti- oh fluff it. Rex stood on top of the machine and pressed the warp button without thinking twice.
The repetitive shift from a bright red color, followed by a blanket of white and a return to red began and ended swiftly, setting the Floran in a light blue-tinted silver ship with a ship locker, cockpit, and teleporter similar to his own. He looked around for a split second before swiftly walking into the room with the Pilot's chair and control panel. Luckily, these people didn't close the data window that listed all of the different information about the Ship's condition and the such, because he was able to scroll up the data log to the inputed coordinates, pulling out something to write with and something to write on, noting the numbers down. Rex was just about to make his departure when suddenly an Idea dawned over him, which resulted in the once operational control device of the ship being smashed to pieces by the Floran's claws.
Upon returning to the ship, he had another brilliant idea, and Malix had awoken, obviously freaking out about Rex's absence. When he the the missing Floran, Malix tackle-hugged Rex to the ground, clearly happy to see that his friend is okay. "Rex… Alive…!" He said, cheerfully.
"Yeah, I'm fine, heh." Rex said, kinda confused about this hug thing.
"What…. about…. Apex…?"
"Oh, right, them. We could… bring them to their ship and tie them up? That's an idea."
"Apex… essscape and… chassssse…?"
"I kinda… uhm… destroyed their control panel." Rex said, bluntly.
This news came as a shock to even Malix, as he stared at his Blue-haired friend, eyes widened with disbelief. However, it was more of a look of awe rather than disappointment. He nodded, as if understanding an issued command, and proceeded to drag the two unconscience Apex through the teleporter. Shortly after the second one had passed through the warping drive, Malix came back out, and the two were ready to go to the Coordinates that had the Apex settlement and return Rex's new friend back into a Human. Just before that, however, Rex took another writing utensil and something to write on. He beamed over to the Apex ship for the last time, seeing the two apes strapped together in the confines of the surprisingly-strong plant fiber material that Rex had an absolute abundance of. He wrote a short, neatly-written message on the little slip of paper, and placed it on one of the Apex's faces, to assure they would read it when they awoken.
He returned to his ship, picking up the weapons that lay scattered on the floor and putting them into his inventory after handing Malix the sword and shield for keeping, which he was grateful for. The two walked into the cockpit of the ship, inputting the coordinates that Rex had gotten from the opposing ship. As he pressed launch, sending the two starbound, he remembered the note that was placed upon one of the Apex.
'Sorry about the Ship. ~Rex'