.
If Strength Fails
Purple was honestly surprised he was managing to hold the place down solo, but then not much had happened since the Resisty's attack. They certainly hadn't infiltrated, or either him or Red would be dead right now, so either they'd chickened out or something hadn't gone according to plan. Maybe they hadn't realized how much damage they'd actually done in knocking Red out for the count. Red out of commission was a very, very bad thing. He'd put most of the guards on Red, so he personally was at greater risk than ever before, but at least he was still capable of fighting back. Red wasn't. Now he would have to be super careful and super paranoid for the both of them. His brother had always been the protector. This time it was his turn to be, and he had no idea how to do it. Maybe stacking guards on his sibling was overcompensating, but it was all he knew how to do! Needless to say, no one was getting near Red without him supervising them, and no one got near him either, for that matter. Anyone he so much as perceived as a potential threat got tossed in prison without question. Or a trial. The prisons were getting pretty full though, so he'd probably have to dispose of some soon. Or, you know, ask them what they'd actually been doing, but where was the fun in that?
He'd noticed a few things while soloing this rulership gig. For one, people were suddenly a lot more careful around him and in fact actively avoided him. They hadn't gone out of their way to stay out of his when Red had been around. Not as many people were requesting an audience either. It was a little strange. He guessed he sort of got why though. He'd always been a little more… ruthless, he'd say, than his twin had been. Red was surprisingly lenient when it came to dealing with people. He preferred passing down exile or life imprisonment instead of death. Purple, on the other hand, was a whole lot more likely to order execution straight up. It gave him a dark sort of thrill. Little known fact? Between the two of them, he was the crueller one. True cruelty to Red's wanton, petty cruelty. You could really tell the difference when they were dealing with their subjects together. If you were being judged for something, you wanted it to be Red who was passing out the sentence, not Purple. Sure, Red was quicker to anger, but he was also quicker to mercy, and his anger mostly came in outbursts. Of course, if you well and truly ticked Red off, well, take a look at what happened to the Resisty and the Parlementrians.
Purple got the feeling he was being a whole lot calmer about Red's situation than Red had been about his, but then he had always been slower to anger than Red. It took a lot to rile him up. Don't be mistaken, he was plenty angry about his brother, but his anger tended to stew. He'd always been more of a premeditated revenge type to Red's instant retribution. The Resisty weren't getting away with this, you could count on that, but he was patient. He could wait a bit longer for them to be served their sweet, sweet, just desserts. He had plans for them. A dark little smirk played across his lips. Mouth rather. Irkens didn't really have lips, per se.
"Almighty Tallest Purple," a guard said, approaching him from the front. After about the fourth guard who'd been tossed into the dungeons for approaching him from behind, the others had wisened up.
Purple paused, a small frown on his lips. "Did you find the Resisty?" he asked.
The guard shifted uncomfortably. "Err, n-no, sir. Not yet." Purple's eyes narrowed a little. The guard squirmed. "Please don't," said guard meekly pled.
"Why shouldn't I," Purple asked.
"We found one of their abandoned hideouts. It seems they left it in a hurry. There were some items of interest left behind we thought you should know about."
"I'm listening," Purple warily said, raising an 'eyebrow'.
"It seemed there were various outlines for plans against you and Almighty Tallest Red. Some were quite concerning," the guard replied.
Purple considered this. "Show me," he said.
"Where would you like us to show you, My Tallest?" the guard asked.
Purple mulled the question over. "The war room," he finally said.
"Yes sir."
"Great! Now where is it?"
The guard blinked at him. "You… don't know where the war room is?" he said.
"Nope," Purple said. "Who do you think I am? Red?"
"Why did you want to see the plans there then?" the guard asked.
"I dunno. It just sounded cool to say," Purple said, shrugging. "To the war room!"
"Yes My Tallest," the guard replied, sounding defeated. Not a shocker, Purple figured. It wasn't a big secret Red was the more competent one between them, so everyone probably figured they were doomed about now, if Red never woke up, but he'd show them! He'd show them all!
IZ
Purple looked over the various plans, a deep frown etched on his face. None of these boded well for him or Red. "Double the guard around Med and Main," Purple said. A vast majority of these centered on doing away with Red, then going after what they clearly presumed to be the weaker link. Namely him.
"Permission to speak, sir," the guard who'd brought him here said.
"Shoot," Purple said. All the Irkens in the room drew guns and aimed at the one who had spoken. Purple blinked blankly, then frowned. "Not literally." The Irkens immediately lowered their weapons. He looked at the guard. "Continue," he said.
"If the Resisty presumes Almighty Tallest Red is already out of the way, you're the one who'll be in their sights now," the guard said.
Purple stared at him, processing the words, and shifted uncomfortably. The guard was right, he realized. With Red in a coma, his brother could be considered out of the way. If Red was out of the way, that left Purple more vulnerable. On the other hand, if they knew Red was in a coma at all, why wouldn't they take that opportunity to sneakily get rid of the injured one for good? Both of those were possibilities. Hmm… These plans he was looking at were probably all rejected ones, otherwise the Resisty wouldn't have left them behind. If the majority of abandoned plans centered on getting rid of Red, maybe that meant they'd decided it wasn't the best course of action. Either that or they'd left these as some kind of trick. What would Red do, he wondered? Probably try to find some kind of pattern in the plans to see how the Resisty was thinking, but the pattern was obvious. Red strong, Purple weak. That was what they boiled down to. Get rid of the stronger link, break the weaker. So where were they now that they'd gotten rid of the stronger link? Why would they leave when they were both still alive? He began scanning the plans a little more thoroughly. He moved aside a paper and started, eyes widening a little. It was a picture of him. He was circled with question marks around him and the words "Worse of Two Evils?". Interesting. Was that why they'd fled? Had they seen that Red had been taken out and figured they'd made a big mistake? Purple frowned, tapping his chin thoughtfully. The hideout had been recently abandoned. Very recently and probably quickly. It was kind of flattering if they'd fled out of fear of him, but he wasn't one-hundred percent convinced just yet.
"I have a question," Purple said.
"My Tallest?" they all asked as one.
"If you were the Resisty, who would you be more scared of? Me or Red?" Purple asked.
"We could never be in the resistance my Tallest!" they all immediately said.
"Answer the question," Purple said, frowning at them all with eyes narrowing. There was silence for a beat, and they all started to shift uncomfortably. "Alright, let me try this again. Where would you go if you thought it was me hunting you?"
Silence again. "To death?" one particularly bold Irken said.
"Where would you go if you wanted to hide, not die?" Purple flatly said, frowning even more.
"Off planet?" the Irken replied.
"Great," Purple said dryly. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Wait! The moons or one of our neighboring dead planets. They must be hiding out on one of those! Then again, why aren't they just coming after me?"
"If I may, My Tallest?" the particularly bold Irken said.
"If you may what?" Purple warily asked.
"It could have to do with your increased security measures. You haven't exactly gone halfway on them."
"True, true."
"Or maybe they have another plan in the works," the guard who had come to get him initially said.
"If they do, it's already in action so do what I say and double the guard around Red. He's the most vulnerable right now," Purple said. They stared at him, clearly incredulous. Purple frowned. "I'm not completely useless without my brother y'know. I took out more mechs than he did! Besides, if they want to target me, maybe we should just let them."
"Sir?" the guard asked.
"You just worry about figuring out where the attack comes from. I'll handle the rest," Purple said. "Someone get me a hologram!"
IZ
"Target acquired. Purple is walking out onto the outside vehicle bay. He's pacing. Oh, he's as good as gone!" Lard Nar said. "Then we can deal with Red."
"Target locked in," Shloonktapooxis said.
"Wait! Are we sure this laser can reach all the way from this moon to Tallest Purple?" Lard Nar asked.
"Nope, but no points for not trying, right? It's Irken Tech! It's gotta work good," Shloonk said. "Spleenk knew what he was doing."
"Actually, I just grabbed the first thing that looked vaguely laser-like that I saw," Spleenk said. Lard Nar and Shloonktatpooxis both looked blankly at him. He grinned innocently and shrugged.
Lard Nar frowned. "Whatever. Fire that laser!" Shloonktapooxis fired and they watched Tallest Purple eagerly from their hidden camera at the citadel. The laser tore down through the air and struck true. "Yes!" Lard Nar exclaimed.
"It vaporized him!" Shloonk said.
"Ghost!" Spleenk shouted, pointing at the camera.
"Huh?" Lard Nar said, looking over. His eyes widened in shock when he saw Tallest Purple still standing and looking around himself at where the laser had left a large circle.
"That can't be right. It hit him dead on!" Shloonk said.
"It's a ghost!" Spleenk insisted, shaking Shloonk.
"No. It's a hologram!" Lard Nar exclaimed, eyes widening in alarm. "He baited us!"
"But to what end?" Shloonk asked.
"To find out where we were attacking from," Lard Nar realized. "This is perfect!"
"What now?" Spleenk asked.
"Don't you see? Now Tallest Purple will mount an offensive against us! Which means…?"
"The armada wipes us out?" Shloonk asked.
"No! It means he may get on the Massive. Where what awaits him?" Lard Nar asked.
Shloonk's eyes widened. "The defective SIRs, he said."
"Wow that's diabolic," Spleenk said.
"Happy accident more like it," Shloonk said.
"Exactly. Tallest Purple will walk himself straight to an untimely demise! Come, Spleenk and Shloonk. We'll leave this branch of the Resisty to monitor things from here and fly to inform the other branches that Tallest Purple is as good as history." Lard Nar said.
"Isn't that jumping the gun a little?" Spleenk asked.
"This is foolproof. There's nothing in the world that will save Tallest Purple now," Lard Nar said. Shloonk and Spleenk exchanged uncertain looks.
IZ
"They fired from the moon Irkana," the comms officer in the war room declared.
"Excellent. Now I make them hurt," Purple said, eyes narrowing determinedly as he clenched a hand. "To the Massive!"
"My Tallest, wait! We can't just fly there unprepared," the comms officer protested.
"Resisty here I come!" Purple said, floating quickly off.
"But Sir!" the comms officer called, reaching out after him. Purple, of course, paid absolutely no attention to him. The soldiers, comms officer, et al all exchanged nervous looks.
IZ
Purple stood outside of Red's pod uncertainly, tapping his fingers together. "Red?" he asked. No response. Purple bowed his head sadly. "I'm uh, I'm going out there. Alone. To play bait and hunt the Resisty. We're gonna find them, I promise. At least some of them. I think they're off planet, but a few might still be here. Waiting. Y'know. For me. Because you're not there." Silence. He shifted. "I really wish you could hear me. Maybe some part of you can. I just… Thanks. You know. For always being there for me. Protecting me, defending me. And I'm sorry if I don't come home from this, but I can't… I can't let them get away with what they did to you. What they made me do. Don't be sad if I don't come back, okay? You'll be a great ruler even solo! Better than I could have been for sure. Remember, you-you promised that if one day one of us wasn't there anymore, the other would still be strong for both of us." No response. Purple hung his head. "I… I love you, Red," he quietly said. Love wasn't something Irkens were supposed to feel… He tried not to think about why he felt it. Turning, he left his brother behind.
Male Brain 1: Forbidden word detected. Weakness detected. Love has been eradicated. It is counterproductive to Irk's evolution. Your hypothesis is incorrect.
Male Brain 2: No solitary Tallest has ever proven to be as promising as these. Nor have any previous co-Tallest. The brothers are each other's weakness but also each other's strength. This 'love' may be the cause of it. I reiterate: my hypothesis holds true.
Female Brain: I propose that further observation is required. Let us see how they continue to evolve. Then we will determine whether the error that caused them to come about may be repeated and if perhaps the absence of love has hindered instead of helped us.
Male Brain 2: Tallest Red must awaken.
Male Brain 1: Then we will not see what Tallest Purple will become.
Purple made his way outside to and to the Massive immediately. If the crew wasn't there, too bad. He'd use the SIRs as the crew and have the actual crew executed when he came back. He entered the ship. No crew. Execution it was, he guessed. Then again, they were valuable resources. Meh, he'd figure it out later. He made his way to his platform and looked woefully around. It felt wrong standing here alone without Red… He bowed his head then frowned determinedly, looking up once more. "SIRs, prepare for takeoff!" he ordered. Immediately the SIR units marched to obey his order and slowly the Massive began to rise.
The doors to the docking platform burst open and out came the regular crew, eyes wide. Just as they arrived, though, they saw the Massive taking off and gasped. "My Tallest, wait! Your brother!" the comms officer cried in alarm. He looked back at the others. "Who's piloting that ship?" he demanded of a nearby soldier.
"Well, there was a shipment of SIRs that came in earlier," the soldier said.
"Trained to fly the Massive?" the comms officer demanded. The soldier shrugged. Nervously the comms officer watched after their leader as the ship disappeared into space. "Oh this can't be good."
IZ
"SIR number twelve. Set course or Irkana," Purple ordered one of the SIR bots. It did so. "SIR twenty-one, prepare the lasers," Purple ordered. It too obeyed. "Hey, I could get used to a robot crew," Purple said, quite pleased with how this was turning out. He saw the signal that someone was hailing them flashing. "SIR twenty-five, answer that call." It did as it was told and almost immediately an image of the comms officer popped up.
"My Tallest, please come back! You can't fly with an untested SIR crew!" the comms officer said.
"Hey! Tell me what I can't do again," Purple petulantly challenged.
"You shouldn't fly with an untested SIR crew!" the officer corrected.
"It'll be fine. You just keep an eye on Red. If he wakes up, tell him I'm taking the fight to the Resisty. Directly."
"Sir, he's waking up! At least he's stirring a little," the comms officer said.
"Well then he's not awake yet, is he?" Purple said.
"My Tallest, you saw the size of that laser's radius. What if they hit the Massive with it?"
"We have shields for those," Purple replied.
"My Tallest!" the comms officer exclaimed.
"Bye bye," Purple said, cutting the communication. Immediately the call button was flashing again. "SIR three, remind me to have the comms officer executed when we get back," Purple said.
"Sir, yes sir!" the bot replied, saluting him then dismissing the call.
"That'll show him," Purple said, crossing his arms.
Meanwhile, the comms officer blinked at the rejected call button. Well, this wasn't good. Immediately he turned, racing towards Medical and Maintenance. He hurried into the room to check up on Tallest Red in concern. More squirming, but still no sign of awakening. He checked the readouts then looked at the Tallest again, willing him to wake up.
IZ
The Massive was drawing close to Irkana. Purple watched out the window, eyes narrowed. He had ordered the ship cloaked and slowed. There was no way the Resisty would see them coming. The SIRs would be enough to take them out. Who needed soldiers when you had machines? He looked around at said machines and shifted a little. That feeling he'd gotten when they'd first shown up—that feeling of something not being right—returned. How could something seem so normal yet so off? Uneasy, he looked towards the moon again. Just then the Massive was hailed. He glanced at the button and raised an eyebrow. That wasn't a signal from Irk. His eyes widened a little. It was from the moon! He looked quickly towards it, then back at the button. Would it be smart to touch it at all? Maybe he should leave it be. Suddenly, though, one of the SIRs on comms hit it without an order. Purple turned quickly to it. That… wasn't supposed to happen. Uh oh. Quickly he looked back at the now-visible call screen.
"Welcome, Almighty Tallest. Welcome to your doom!" a disguised voice from a figure hidden in shadow said.
"You know you tried this before, right? You're not fooling anyone," Purple said, crossing his arms and nodding matter-of-factly.
"We have no idea what you mean."
"Yes you do."
"No we don't."
"Yes you do."
"No we don't."
"You're clearly Lard Nar."
"I'm not Lard Nar!"
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"Never mind who I am! Did you not hear a word I said? I said welcome to your doom!"
"Are you calling from Irkana directly or just routing the call through their communications?" Purple asked.
"None of your beeswax!"
"They're all gonna die you know. Painfully. You put my twin brother in a coma," Purple coldly and calmly replied, eyes narrowing. "Now I'm putting your people in a morgue."
"Ah ha, that's where you're wrong. It will be us putting you in a morgue! Then once you're dealt with, your brother will be next," the shadowed figure—cough, cough Lard Nar—said. Purple braced a bit. "Aren't you wondering how we know you're here?"
"A Vortian tracking chip or something?" Purple replied, starting to make some adjustments to their weapons system. After all, he wanted this to hurt, not be quick. In fact, he'd read through the Massive's manual—at least parts of it—specifically for the purpose of arranging their capture and or demise.
"I… That is… Well how do you think we got that tracking chip onto the Massive?" Purple raised an eyebrow. "Ah hah! You don't know. I wonder if you even have a clue. Look around you, Tallest Purple. What do you see?"
Purple looked around him and began to feel even more uneasy. He looked back at Lard Nar. "SIRs," he warily said.
"And what are SIRs programmed to do?"
"Help Invaders take over planets," Purple said.
"And they are strong combatants, are they not?"
There was a beat. Purple's eyes narrowed. "Hey, I don't think I like where this is going."
"Well too bad! Turn and face your doom! Mwah hah hah!"
The communication immediately cut out and Purple nervously turned. The SIRs began to vibrate, then one after the other their eyes went from red to blood red. Purple braced. Oh this was gonna hurt. But not half as much as the Resisty was gonna, he promised himself. Pre-emptively he readied his Pak's mantis legs and lasers. The SIRs began convulsing like something was hijacking their programming. Purple's eyes widened and quickly he turned to the control panel and began entering a few commands, then input the coordinates for the Resisty base. If he went down today, it wasn't going to be without taking Lard Nar's people with him! He turned quickly around to face the SIR bots again. His eyes widened. All fifty were lined up in front of him staring. Purple turned back to the control panel, locked in a couple more commands, ensured the voice systems were online as well as tuned to him and Red alone, turned off all access, and locked the panel down. He would sooner see the Massive destroyed than in Resisty hands, so if he had to kamikaze this, he was kamikazeing it. What happened from this point on depended on how the fight ended, but it really wasn't looking good for him right now. He wasn't Red, he wasn't the warrior, but he was doing this for his brother, so maybe that was all the drive he'd need to survive just long enough to matter.
All at once the SIR bots lunged and Purple threw himself right back at them, immediately taking them on with a scowl. "Computer, prepare the parasites!" he ordered.
"Preparing," the computer rattled back. Wait. Had it done that before? Since when did it talk back? In the voice of the female control brain at that. Not that he had long to worry about it. His focus needed to be on this fight and precious little else.
"Get ready with the lasers and the radioactive waste!" Purple ordered as he frantically beat off various SIRs swarming him.
"Readying lasers. Loading radioactive waste."
"Good. Don't crash right on them. I want them to burn," Purple darkly said, floating quickly up to try and get away from the rogue bots not already climbing all over him and trying to end his existence. He protected his Pak ferociously, more than anything else, and hoped that at least the SIR programming that told them not to damage the Paks was still intact, but it wasn't looking promising.
IZ
The comms officer watched hopefully, rubbing his fingers together in a nervous habit, as Tallest Red began to stir more frequently and began making pained little sounds. He was on the verge of waking up. He had to be! Here was hoping it was in time though.
"I'm going out there. Alone."
Oh no you're not.
"I really wish you could hear me."
I hear you, Pur, I hear you!
"I'm sorry if I don't come home."
You're coming home Brains dammit!
"I can't let them get away with what they did."
Yes you can!
"Don't be sad."
Don't you dare. Oh don't you dare.
"I love you, Red."
Purple!
"My Tallest?" a new voice said. The comms officer? Why the heck wasn't he with Purple?! "My Tallest, your brother took off without us on the Massive. He took the new SIR bots and nothing else. They've never even been tested!" Dammit, he had to wake up! Let him wake up! It took all the willpower he had to finally crack open his eyes. When he did, the comms officer was the first one he saw. "My Tallest!" the officer practically cheered.
"Where. The Irkalla. Is my brother?" Red darkly said.
"I'll attempt to hail him once more, but he's been ignoring all communications," the officer said.
"Get me out of this pod!" Red freaked.
"Yes My Tallest!" the comms officer immediately replied, saluting and hastening to do as he'd been ordered.
"Get him online right now even if you have to hack the stupid Massive!" Red said, shoving the glass open the second it was unlocked and tumbling out. "Ooh. Head rush." The comms officer approached and offered his hand. Red looked at it curiously, then up at him more warily. Nonetheless, he took it and sat up with a grimace. He staggered upright once more, wavered a little, then said, "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"Yes My Tallest," the comms officer said. Immediately he raced from the room. Red followed him closely.
IZ
Purple cried out in pain, striking a wall, and grimaced, shaking his head. He looked up and gasped, diving quickly out of the way of a laser before rounding on the SIR unit and impaling it with both mechanical legs. He promptly ripped it apart and began trying to fend off the others. The good news? They were so far avoiding damaging the Pak. The bad news? The way they were killing him now was a whole lot more painful, and it was only a matter of time before the Pak ended up collateral. At that point, there'd be no saving him anymore. Not that there was any saving him now. He'd taken out half of them at this point, but their constant onslaught had worn him down immensely. Now he could barely float straight. He'd never fought this hard in his life. They tackled him all at once and he shouted in terror and began blasting indiscriminately, causing some of them to fly back. He shook the others and floated quickly to the control panel, looking out the window. He could see the Resisty headquarters and he scowled.
"Computer, drop the parasites into the radioactive waste, switch the laser ammunition out for the waste and parasites, then fire!" Purple ordered, spinning around.
"My Tallest?" the computer replied.
"You aren't supposed to question me. Just do it!" He shouted in alarm as once again he was swarmed, the SIR bots tearing into his armor. He didn't even want to imagine the shape he was in right now. There was a lot of blood loss, he knew that much at least. Green was splattered all over the place. His armor had held up pretty well, to be fair, but even it had its limits.
He heard the communications button ringing. "Signal from Irk."
"Deny it and leave a memo for Red to execute the communications officer when he gets up!"
"Manual override detected. Unable to cut transmission."
"Excuse me?!" Purple demanded.
"Purple!" a sharp and all too familiar voice barked. It was followed immediately after by a gasp bigger than Purple had ever heard from the voice's owner before. He began ripping the SIRs off him and retreated quickly as they regrouped.
"Red, you're okay!" he exclaimed in relief, eyes going immediately to the screen. He frowned a little. Next to Red was the comms officer. "He gets executed by the way," Purple said, pointing. The Comms Officer tensed up, shrinking back a bit with eyes wide.
"What the Irk are you doing?!" Red freaked.
"He was supposed to tell you. Taking the fight to the Resisty."
"It appears the Resisty has brought the fight to you," the comms officer said.
"Oh yeah? Well no one asked you!" Purple replied before sticking out his tongue at the man. He cried out in alarm when the SIRs dogpiled on him again. His metallic limbs began flailing.
"Pur!" Red cried out.
Purple was starting to battle back the SIRs again. Five more had been destroyed, but with every destroyed SIR, the rest seemed to get more savvy to his tricks. "Don't worry, Red. The Resisty stationed on Irkana are done for. You won't have to be worried about them anymore. Lard Nar is still out there, but you can probably trace his transmission from earlier with the Massive or from the Resisty base up here. It'll still be intact. I think it would make a good secret base for us. After the radioactive, flesh-eating parasites are extinguished, of course. It won't be a pleasant death for anyone if they're left to run amok."
"The what and what?!" Red demanded. "No, nevermind, I don't wanna know. Pur, listen to me! Abandon ship! Crash the Massive into the moon if you have to, I don't care, just get out!"
"I'm glad you're okay, Red," Purple more quietly said. "Don't be sad if I don't come back, okay? You promised you would still stay strong even if I wasn't there."
"You're coming back, damn you Purple, now get in the escape pods yesterday!" Red insisted.
"You'll be a great solo Tallest, I know you will! Definitely better than I could have been."
"Purple!"
"I can't let them get away with what they did, I just can't! They'll pay for hurting you. Oh they'll pay," Purple said, eyes fixed on the SIRs. Deftly he dodged around three that leapt at him, letting them crash into the control panel. He impaled them, and it, right after. The transmission wavered.
Red turned to the comms officer. "Get me to the Massive! I don't care how, just get me there! Now!" Purple cried out. Red looked quickly back with a gasp. A SIR had driven a blade right through his brother's chest! "Pur!" Red screamed, going pale. Pur retaliated in kind, driving his mantis limbs through the SIR that had done it, detaching the blade from its person, then shoving it back. He staggered to his feet, struggling to breathe now and looking scared.
"It's okay Red. It's okay," Purple said. "Computer, are the projectiles loaded?!"
"Affirmative."
"The computer talks?" the comms officer asked, puzzled. "In the voice of one of the control brains?"
"Fire!" Purple ordered.
"You! Massive! Now!" Red shouted, grabbing the comms officer.
"Y-yes sir. There's an armada ship at the ready. If we fly quickly, we might be able to make it."
"Move!" Red ordered, darting away from the communicator with the comms officer. Purple was relieved for that. It meant his twin wouldn't have to witness it now if the worst happened.
"Computer, cut transmission!" Purple ordered. This time it was able to.
IZ
"There has to be a better way to get there!" Red said. "The teleporter? Something?"
"Negative, my Tallest. Teleportation systems are down in the Massive."
"Irk help him if he did that!" Red angrily said.
"I suspect it may have been the SIRs, Sir," the comms officer said, darting on board the armada ship and beckoning for as much of the crew to join them as was possible. The rest ran to other Armada ships intending to follow. The comms officer sat and started the ship up with the others. Red planted himself nervously in front of the window. "We'll attempt teleportation regularly in case the systems come back online in the Massive," the officer said.
"Why weren't any of you with him?!" Red demanded.
"We tried to be," the comms officer replied.
"Tried isn't good enough!" Red shouted looking back at them. The comms officer kept silent. Talking right now would just make things worse he knew. Red turned to the window once more, clearly nervous. "Hold on, Purple," he said.
IZ
Purple was what amounted to a crushed bug at this point, laying on the ground with robotic limbs twitching and armor practically caved in. A black eye too for good measure, and bruises everywhere. And gashes. And green blood. He'd managed to keep the Pak intact though, so that was a good sign he still had some tiny chance of recovering. Assuming the remaining five SIR units didn't finish him off. He stared at the comms screen now. It was revealing the Resisty stronghold. Inside, the occupants were screaming and trying to flee from the radioactive parasites that were both dosing them with radiation and trying to eat them alive. He'd contact Lard Nar to gloat, but he didn't want to give the guy the satisfaction of seeing him smushed. The Massive collided with the ground, sliding across it towards the base and basically cutting it in half. That would take some repair, but it wasn't beyond salvaging for an Irken strong post. Not that he'd have much of a hand in that, but Red could probably figure it out, right? Then again, this was the type of call he generally made, not Red.
"Computer. Memo to Red. Turn Resisty base into Irken stronghold," he said, barely able to get it out through swollen 'lips', or lack thereof. And they weren't really swollen per se, but they definitely felt like they were, so talking was kind of hard right now. He saw the remaining five SIR units closing in. It was only five more, he told himself. Red would have been able to finish this battle! Right? He could do this. He had to. For his brother. Then Red could take back the Massive and have at least that as a consolation prize for all this. The computer didn't answer. He wished it had. The voice had been comforting in the chaos in some strange way. He tried to get up. "Also interface with the Resisty base and find locations of all Resisty hideouts on Irk and wherever else you can." Red would need those to clear them out. They might not get them all, but they'd get some.
"Affirmative," the computer said.
Purple staggered up, a broken mess of limbs and twisted metal. He was pretty sure his spine might be snapped, but that didn't matter too much since he could still float a little. He readied the blasters from his Pak and took aim. "Eat laser," he darkly said. The Pak fired, sending him flying back with momentum. He cried out in pain as he hit the wall and collapsed to the ground once more. He looked towards the SIR units again. Their entire top halves had been vaporized. What remained fell to the ground. Red probably could have finished this way sooner and come out of it a lot better off, Purple bitterly thought. He guessed he really was just that pathetic in comparison to his brother. Was the Massive on fire? He smelled smoke. "Computer, fire suppression systems online! Teleportation ones too if those went down."
"Systems online," the computer replied.
"Thank you," Purple said, closing his eyes. He just wanted to sleep.
"Teleportation system ready to transfer you back," the computer, or what Purple had perceived to be the computer, said. Purple was quiet. The robotic voice waited a moment for a response, but none came. "For your brother's sake you became strong, but it seems even strength has its limits. What is more powerful than it, that we might harness it for the glory of Irk? If strength fails us, there is nothing."
"Pur! Pur!" Red's frantic voice shouted from somewhere deep in the Massive.
Lights flashed as if the thing speaking was acknowledging the new presence. "Or perhaps I am in error," it said.
"Pur!" Red shouted once more, bursting into the main room and looking around for his brother. He caught his breath and went pale. "Purple!" he screamed, flying immediately towards his twin who was lying so still on the ground. Immediately he caught him up in his arms. "No! No, Purple please, please answer me! Pur!" Without even hesitating, Red linked up his Pak to Purple's and transferred all the power he could into it. Purple's Pak began to hum with the influx of energy. Purple, though, lay still. Red felt a foreign burning sensation in his eyes. The crew raced into the main chamber and stopped, gasping in alarm at what they saw.
"Bringing up requested analyses and readouts," the computer said. Red gasped, looking quickly over.
The comms officer, closest to where the readouts were appearing, looked over and his eyes widened. "Resisty base locations? Memos? Instructions? Traced signals? My Irk… He left everything we would need to cripple them."
"I don't care! Purple! Purple, get up!" Red begged, clutching his brother tight and putting a dangerous amount of energy from his own Pak into Purple's.
"Sir, the teleportation chamber," the comms officer pointed out.
"P-Pur? Pur?" Red asked, still in shock. No answer. Red clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and clutched his brother close, resting Purple's head against his chest. A whimper escaped his lips unbidden. He felt a foreign liquid escape his eyes.
"My Tallest, the teleportation chamber can send both of you straight back to Irk. Your brother isn't beyond saving," the comms officer said. "We'll take care of the Massive and this data. The Resisty base with all its creepy little parasites running around can wait."
"He's not healing. He-he's not…! Purple!" He transferred an extremely dangerous amount of energy to his brother's Pak, yet somehow hardly seemed affected by doing so. Adrenaline, perhaps? "Purple! Purple! Wake up! Wake up! Please!"
"My Tallest!" the comms officer more sharply and loudly said. Red's head snapped in his direction. "Teleportation. Med bay. Go now. Your Pak can only do so much without killing you too."
It took Red a second to process the words, but when he felt his brother stir, his attention snapped immediately to Purple. "Pur?" he hopefully asked.
Purple stirred a little more against him and made a pained sound, then opened his eyes. "Red?" his brother mumbled. The crew gasped in shock. Confused, Purple turned his head. "Hey, isn't he supposed to be executed by now?" he asked, pointing at the comms officer. The comms officer face-palmed, shaking his head. Red snapped out of his stupor and caught his breath. Immediately scooping his brother up, he darted towards the teleporter. "You didn't answer my question," Purple said, voice starting to sound slurred again.
"He's not getting the death penalty! He's the reason I'm even here to save your sorry backside in the first place!"
"Oh. I guess I won't execute him after all then," Purple said, closing his eyes.
"Don't close your eyes!" Red snapped.
"But I'm tired," Purple whined.
"Don't you dare close your eyes, little brother."
"Hey, we're twins! Just because you spilled out of the pod first doesn't mean…"
"Shut up!" Red cut off.
"Humph. Fine. Be like that," Purple sulked.
Red soared into the teleporter and set his brother against the wall. "I should have been there. I'm so sorry. I should have been there for you! I should have been there to help you!" he blurted.
"But you couldn't be. You were in a coma, and they had to pay for that," Purple said, crossing his arms. He looked up at his brother once more. "Did they pay, Red?"
"Oh, they paid alright," Red said, clenching a fist. "And they're gonna keep paying until we exterminate every single one."
"Good," Purple said, smirking. "Wow. I'm healing faster than usual." It's almost like I'm wearing two Paks instead of…" He trailed off, stiffening. "Red, what are you doing?!" he freaked instantly, immediately trying to reject the link. Red stubbornly held it, grunting a bit with the effort it was taking. "You're gonna put yourself into a coma again or worse! You can't divert this much energy at once! Red!"
"Hey, calm down! I'm still here, see? I'm still here and I'm perfectly fine. You just keep holding onto that link, do you hear me? Keep holding it."
"How are you even moving?!" Purple demanded.
"We'll worry about that later," Red said. "Hey, stop transferring energy back! You need it more than I do!" The teleporter shone brightly and suddenly they found themselves inside the Citadel. It was Red's turn to fly his brother to med bay now. "This is the second time, Pur! The second time! No more being careless."
"Hey, the first time wasn't my fault," Purple argued. "Red, I'm fine. The Pak is healing me."
"Don't care. You're getting a diagnostic," Red said.
Purple was quiet. "I'm glad you're okay," he finally said.
"Now you need to be too," Red said, entering Medical and laying his brother down in the pod. "Love you, Pur," he said as the glass was closing. Purple's eyes widened in shock. "Hey, you said it first. Just don't tell anyone I said it back," Red added, smirking a bit.
"You heard!" Purple exclaimed before he was muffled. Red enjoyed the panicked look on his sibling's face. Served him right. He drifted over to the diagnostics and waited for the readout. He breathed a sigh of relief. His brother would be okay. Now he really, really, really needed to sleep. Exhaustedly he sank down against his brother's pod and closed his eyes.
"Red! Red!" he heard his brother call.
IZ
Female Brain: If Strength fails us, what is there?
Male Brain 1: Strength will not fail.
Female Brain: I have witnessed strength reach its limit.
Male Brain 1: Strength will not fail.
Female Brain: It must be supplemented.
Male Brain 2: What can supplement it?
Female Brain: Data is inconclusive, but observe the Almighty Tallest and see what I have seen. It cannot be explained.
Male Brain 2: What cannot be explained?
Female Brain: How in weakness they both became stronger than was natural.
Male Brain 1: Analysis online. Transmit all you witnessed to us.