Hollow Striving

PreviousN/A

## Plot

“Third platoon, push forward!”

Among the chaos of the
battlefield, a humanoid clad in heavy black armor with red stripes across its
helmet and shoulders yelled orders to the line of men before him. The soldiers,
all of whom were cowering behind large rocks and dead trees raised on their
feet to the lieutenant's orders, pressing a button on the side of their rifles.
The sides of their weapons opened, projecting circular energy shields. Barrages
of green energy flew through the fog, smashing into the shields, the advanced
circuits located near the shield-generators absorbing the energy in each bolt
to refill their own magazines.

After a few moments, the soldiers
returned fire, the tips of their rifles that barely stuck out of the shield
began to pump lethal crimson bolts back into the mist. The black suits of armor
began to move, step after step, they slowly disappeared into the fog. The
number of green bolts that flashed past the soldiers decreasing with each
passing moment.

“We should have buried this
jungle in flames. That would have been a quicker way to deal with these pesky
greenskins.” The lieutenant placed his own rifle on his back and walked back.

“Destroying a scout company
shouldn’t be so hard.” the captain retorted. “Lord Nosyerg?”

The captain looked to the large
Warp Champion standing next to him, its skin radiating a malicious purple light
and its sharp claws scratching the surface of a fallen tree stuck into the
mud. The Warp Creature remained silent, it’s crimson eyes observing the sky
whose color was starting to change to an unnatural spiral of dark purple, red,
yellow and green. The transformation was on its way, the Warp was soon going to
completely engulf this world and add it to his collection.

But something wasn’t right. His
mind could hear voices, billions of years away from his location. Their words
were hard to understand, like a whisper that he barely caught. When did they
speak to him? Was it in the present, or the future? Maybe those were only
shadows of the past.

Lord Nosyerg looked down at the
captain, the warrior understanding without either of them having to mutter a
single word.

“Red Leader.” the captain turned
toward one of his fellow officers. “Take Red Mist Squad and wrap this up. We’re
needed at another place.”

The Warp Champion gave a silent
nod and held out its arm, its thoughts tearing a fissure in the space before
him, reforming it into a black void. The battle was heating up again behind the
titan’s back, screams of incoming missiles piercing the relative silence that
had ensued, but the Champion never looked back. His height shrinking into more human proportions and its armor-thick skin dissolving, replaced by a black
and red jacket, “Lord Nosyerg” disappeared inside the void he opened.

Officer Malista sighed, leaning
tiredly back into his seat. They all told him that this job was hard that it
was a never-ending traveling from planet to planet, night-long searches for
clues and evidence. And even if the Bakasherans were capable of brushing off
such physical exhaustion like it was nothing, Malista was beginning to get
psychically tired of this endless chase.

Even if he arrested ten criminals
a day, twice that amount of Plumbers would be reported dead, killed with one
shot in the back by some lowly space pirate, or get blown up during a terrorist
attack. And again, he was stuck thinking about why it was so hard to protect the
peace.

Fortunately, large scale wars
haven’t been a thing since Xin’s Usurpation, but to Malista that was no
consolation. Facing a thousand smaller threats from all sides was just as bad,
if not worse than facing a single powerful one.

“You know, I wonder when you will
stop with all these melodramatic thoughts.” The female Uxorite sitting on the
pilot seat commented. “It gets tiring to listen to the same thing over and over
again.”

“Then why don’t you stop reading
my mind?” Malista suggested.

“Aww, and what else am I supposed
to do then?” the Uxorite asked with a playful smirk.

Malista shook his head. He really
couldn’t understand how Elyx was able to be so enthusiastic about the job, after all, they have seen.

“Maybe because I don’t like
sulking over the past like you do,” Elyx answered. Her ability to tell what his
thoughts were, was very annoying. “Get ready, we are landing.”

Malista stood up and walked into
the control room where another Plumber, a Zaroffian by the name of Empher has
been doing research on the ship’s main computer.

“Are we there already?” Empher
glanced at the Bakasheran.

“Me and Elyx will go on the
field,” Malista stated.

“I’ll be tech support then.”
Empher shrugged. “I’ve been researching. I found some info that could be useful
for you.”

Malista nodded. The door to the
cockpit slid open and Elyx walked out, joining them.

“Missed something important?”
Elyx tilted her head slightly.

“Quite the opposite,” Empher
replied. He pressed his hands against the screen, creating a holographic cube
inside his palms, then threw his hands to the side, the holographic cube
bursting into a hundred photos and articles.

“The Eye of Nosyerg, the
Eternals, Nosyerg’s Followers, Our database is filled with data about these…
cults. They are human exclusive, probably split out of some human supremacist
group. Notes and files that the Plumbers of Sector AC-Dash-B-One-Five-One-Omega
were able to secure during the raid on the Eternals show that they are some
sort of fanatics. Recovered texts are filled with nonsense like: ‘The promises
of the Warp’ and ‘the Eternal Emperor Nosyerg’.”

“Humans always have to worship
something to feel like they have some value, so typical.” Malista shrugged.
“Anything that would be useful to know on the field?”

“They… aren’t the violent type.
Don’t expect much resistance.”

“You should have started with
that.”

“What about their hideout?” Elyx
asked.

“Ask that governor, if he knows
something. Though their ‘beliefs’ align, each of these cells fuctionate
completely independently. Chances are, they probably don’t know that other
groups like theirs exist.” Empher explained

“I don’t know about you, but I’m
ready to go,” Elyx said.

Malista pulled out his blaster
pistol to show that he was ready as well. They weren’t going to expect too much
resistance and he knew for a fact that human body armor is weak against plasma
bolts.

Elyx and Malista stepped into Bay
475. The planet Chithotis 4Y that they were located on was a frozen world with
constant storms. Originally a colony world of the humans, colonies of other
species soon created came as well, creating four Domed Cities that covered a
significant part of the world’s surface.

The two of them then made their
way toward one of the datapads that were placed near the landing bays. Most
often they were used to store a digital map to help newcomers navigate through
the city complex, but sometimes they could be used to send messages, or, like
in this case, call somebody.

Malista connected his Plumber
badge to the datapad and selected the last contact he talked to. A few moments
later, a hologram of a fat humanoid opossum appeared atop the datapad’s screen.

“Y-you have arrived quicker than
I expected, officer.” the alien grinned.

“When I told you that we were
within the sector, I mean, like in the same star system” Malista replied.

“That’s good, good...”

“Where should we start, governor?”

“I believe that these cultists
have probably built their hideout in one of the caves outside the city.” The
Governor stated.

“Are you sure about that
information?” Malista raised an eyebrow. Or he would have if his species had
eyebrows.

“It’s just speculation, but our
officers searched every inch of every single city on the planet. We used drones
to scan the cities for any new constructions that aren’t within the city’s map.
We even checked the sewer system, but nothing turned up. Our only trail was a
cultist who blew herself up when the officers tried to arrest her. Among the
remains that we salvaged was a Class Two Kylmyys Cold Suit.”

“And did you try to send any
officer outside the city to investigate?” Elyx asked.

“I couldn’t do that. The class
three Kylmyys Cold Suit that our local law enforcers use aren’t well suited for
the climate outside.” the governor argued. “The Tetramand battery uses too much
energy to heat the suits so when they patrol outside city limits, they can’t
get too far from a power rod, or they will run out of battery and freeze to
death.”

“I see how it is then.” Malista
sighed. “You called us because Plumber Armor is better equipped for a long
exposure on cold climate.”

“Precisely.”

Malista growled before turning to
Elyx.

“Take the helmets, we are going
out.”

Walking into a blizzard with snow
reaching to your waist and about a hundred miles away from any center of
civilization was something that most intelligent lifeforms whose biology wasn’t
precisely suited for cold climate, would avoid. But Plumbers didn’t have that
type of choice. If there was any sort of danger or illegal activities on a
planet, or in outer space, it was their duty to neutralize it.

They must have walked for a few
hours at least, the storm was so severe that their helmets’ visitors, even on
their highest setting, had a hard time enhancing their sight to see what’s
located only two feet in front of them. At least their navigation systems and
communication channels were still functional, so that was a plus.

Malista took out his Plumber
badge and pressed the red orb in the center, opening a map of the surrounding
area. It was quite old, made by the human colony before the building of the
doom cities, so it was up in the air how relevant it still was.

“We are getting close to a cave!”
Malista said into his helmet’s communicator.

“Oh, great,” Elyx responded
sarcastically. “And what if we don’t find anything in there?”

“We return to the city. In this
climate, it’s best not to play heroes and to just check one place at a time.”
Their armor could withstand the cold for a long time, but not for an infinite
amount of time.

“Like that won’t give them time
to escape,” Elyx remarked.

Malista ignored his companion’s
remark. Soon, the cave came within view to the Plumbers. One of the few
remnants of the planet’s rocky terrain that hasn’t been buried by snow yet.
Their visors picked up something, their thermal sensors locating a source of
heat in the middle of a frozen desert.

The due walked further into the
cave, weapons drawn in case they came around a hostile life-form. Malista
scanned the rocks around them, the results flashing before his green visor.

“It appears that there are
volcanic vents around us,” Malista muttered.

“So the lava is what’s keeping
this place warmer than most,” Elyx commented. “That’s probably how the humans
were able to map most of the planet without modern heating technology.”

“A nomadic way of living.”
Malista nodded. “They are creative if nothing else.”

Elyx shook her head. She kept
following Malista until she noticed something off. It was a crack in the
wall. Not too big, probably just enough for her arm to go through. She looked
back at Malista for a moment, he was going forward without noticing that she
had stopped following him. Shaking her head in slight disappointment, Elyx
walked over to the crack and knelt down, just enough to take a peak.

She could see another tunnel
continuing on the other side of the stone. There were light, small glowing
orbs, hanging from the walls.

“Malista!” Elyx shouted, catching
her partner’s attention.

“What are you doing?” He asked,
returning to her position.

“There’s a tunnel on the other
side.” Elyx pointed at the crack.

Malista knelt down next to her
and ran his hand around its side. It seemed to have been formed naturally, no
mining involver there, and certainly no secret-gateway shenanigans either.
Their only problem was making the crack large enough for the two of them to
crawl through.

“Don’t you have enhanced
strength?” Malista frowned at his partner’s use of telepathy to read his
thoughts once again.

“I do, but I worry that my suit
will get damaged if I start trying to dig a hole with my fists.”

“What? Scared to get a little
cold?” Elyx asked in a teasing tone.

“Given my species’ low
survivability on cold worlds, yes, I’m.” Malista nodded. “Couldn’t you use your
telekinetic powers to crush the rock?”

“Maybe.” Elyx shrugged. “But it’s
going to take some time.

“We aren’t in a hurry. Not yet at
least.”

Elyx sighed. She pressed her hand
against the wall and closed her eyes behind the helmet. If she focused, she
could sense the shatter-points - the weakest parts in its composition. Once all
of the weak points have been located, Elyx focused all of her mental strength
into cracking them, breaking the stone from the inside-out. Her telekinetic
powers blew forward, tearing a crack large enough for them to move through.

“I will go first.” Malista raised
his gun slightly.

Elyx nodded and took her rifle,
turning back to cover her partner in case anything tried to surprise them from
behind.

Malista crawled through the
crack, coming out into a large corridor. Keeping his finger on the trigger, the
Plumber took a look around. His helmet didn’t detect any life-form nearby, but
this place wasn’t a natural construction. Especially that stairway that was
dug through the rock. It was leading downward, the small crack that Elyx
found was probably caused when someone was chipping away at the rocks here.

“It’s clear.” Malista tapped the
rock behind him.

The Bakasheran took a step to the
side, letting his partner crawl through the hole and join him.

“So, a cave system?” Elyx tilted
her head.

“With inhabitants no less.”
Malista pointed to the stairway. “If it’s humans, they must have come here from
another entrance.”

“That’s obvious.” Elyx sighed.
“So, are we taking the stairs, or go for the corridor?”

“Chances are that they came from
the direction of the corridor,” Malista said and turned toward the stairway.

He looked at his Plumber Badge.
It was still transmitting a signal to the ship, if they needed a quick
extraction, he could call Empher to get the ship next to the entrance they came
from.

“Let’s not wait for them to come
out then.”

Elyx stepped past Malista and
walked down the stairs, rifle aimed forward. Malista shook his head and
followed after her. His gut instinct was on high alert, but he said nothing to
his partner as the two descended deeper into the cave.

The deeper they went, the more
the cave began to fork, splitting into more and more passages. Of course, only
a pair of idiots would decide to split when on enemy territory, but they still
didn’t know where they were going. There weren’t any sights of humans either,
it was starting to look like they were walking through an abandoned mine.

Malista occasionally glanced at
his Plumber Badge, checking if there was still a signal. It wasn’t uncommon for
most less experienced Plumbers to ignore this and drive into unknown territory
without any backup never to be seen again. Those more ‘heroic’ ones that
dreamed to become popular like the Plumbers of the Tennysons’ age would
deliberately turn off their transmitters. Fools.

Eventually, the two of them
reached something… disturbing. Prison cells, dug into the rock with energy
fields acting as bars. It was like the prison cells in the Plumber HQ, but far
more… uncivilized.

Elyx stepped forward. Good thing
that she was wearing a helmet to hide the Uxorite’s disturbed expression. The
prisoners looked inside were nothing more than rooting corpses. And if that
wasn’t bad enough, those among them that have perished more recently had
extremely frail bodies.

“They were starved to death,”
Malista growled.

“The more recent ones perished
only two days ago,” Elyx muttered.

“We were the first ones to answer
the call, and we came as soon as we got told of the situation,” Malista replied.
The Bakasheran placed a hand on his partner’s shoulder. “It was just meant to
happen.”

“Yeah, it-!” Elyx stopped mid-sentence.

“Elyx?”

“I sense something!” Elyx
exclaimed and ran off, stopping next to another cell. “Survivors!”

The Uxorite shouted, pointing at
the two prisoners. Both of them were humans. One, a sixteen years old boy with
white and red hair, dressed in a mostly black and red outfit with a white dress shirt and a tie. The other one was a fourteen years old girl with white and
green hair and a matching outfit.

Both of their outfits looked
extremely… outdated. Even Malista and Elyx, neither of which has seen, many
humans could recognize the similarity between their outfits and the human
fashion of the twenty-first human century.

The two aliens looked down at the
trapped humans for a moment before Elyx stretched out her arm and closed her
eyes, The energy barrier began to flicker, causing the humans on the other side
to back away in fear. After a few more moments, several sparks shot out of the
barrier and it disappeared.

“Ok, what did you just do?”
Malista asked.

“The generator of each cell
is buried underneath it.” Elyx pointed at her feet. “I located it and
crushed it.”

“I see...” Malista muttered.

The Bakasheran turned to humans
and approach them. The teens slowly backed away from the fully armored masked
figure that was slowly approaching them.

“Hey, hey-” Malista stopped in
his tracks, noticing their fear. “You’re safe now. We’re the good guys.”

The teens looked at each other in
confusion, then turned back to Malista.

“Are you… Plumber?” the boy asked.

“Yes, we are.” Malista nodded,
showing off his badge. “I’m Malista and this is my friend, Elyx. We are here to
rescue you.”

“Evan.” The boy replied, then
gestured toward the girl. “This is Avice, my sister.”

“Akvius mehan prekus.” Avice
spoke, bowing before them.

“What did she say?” Malista
tilted his head slightly.

“She’s glad to see that help has come.” Evan
replied.

“Are our translators broken?”
Elyx asked.

“Our colony here was made seven
generations ago. We came up with our own language during that time.” Evan
informed them. “Nobody has put our new language into your translators, so they
can’t translate it.”

Elyx frowned. She looked at the
boy, her third eye looking through his mind for any sort of lie. She found none.

“Why were you two locked here?”
Malista asked.

“There is a cult that was
recently found in our colony - The Eye of Nosyerg. They have an extreme amount of
control over our colony and they said that their god Nosyerg demanded a
sacrifice, so they locked us away until the ‘ritual’ was ready.”

“Well, their ritual has just been
canceled, kid,” Malista responded, raising his badge closer to his face.
“Empher, we found survivors; need an extraction. Do you copy?”

There was no response from the
other side.

“Empher?” Malista tried again
but to no avail. “Damn it, the communicator doesn't work!”

“Who’s Empher?” Evan asked.

“Our partner,” Elyx replied.
“He’s with the ship.”

“We can’t take the kids outside
without cold gear,” Malista stated.

“We can’t leave them here either.
What do we do?”

Malista sighed. That was the big
problem with his job - it was sensibility over efficiency. He knew that it was
his duty as a Plumber, but it wasn’t like he or Elyx could create suits out of
nothing.

Those thoughts were interrupted
when a blue arrow lodged into his shoulder. It happened fast, before anyone
could react, the projectile knocked Malista.

“Malista!” Elyx cried out!

“Danger!” Evan yelled, pointing
forward.

Elyx turned to the direction the
boy was pointing to. A twelve feet tall humanoid covered in blue armor with
blue light coming from underneath it stepped toward them. The creature had a
large yellow-ish bow attached to its left wrist with a string of blue energy connecting
the two ends.

Elyx raised her rifle and opened
fire, a barrage of green bolts stuck into the blue creature but without any
effect. The creature turned its arm slightly toward Elyx and pulled back the
string, another blue arrow forming in place.

It fired again, the arrow pierced
through Elyx’s rifle and caused it to explode into her arms and knock her on
her back.

“What is this thing?” Malista
growled, standing back up.

“It’s a Warp Champion,” Evan
informed him. “These are creations of Nosyerg feed by the energy that his
followers generate with their rituals.”

“And since we didn’t see any of
these humans yet...” Malista wanted to curse his luck right now. They knew that
a team of Plumbers was coming!

Suddenly, a purple aura
surrounded the Warp Champion, causing it to look around in confusion. The aura
raised it from the ground, and then, smashed it into the ceiling, knocking it
out.

Malista looked back at Elyx. The
female Uxorite sat up, large cracks covering her helmet with the armor that
covered her arms and chest badly scorched. She reached behind, pressing a
button on the back of her helmet that caused it to open and release the
tendril-socks that she used to protect her head tendrils.

“She’s alright?” Evan tilted his
head in confusion.

“Just barely,” Elyx replied
before removing her helmet. She threw it on the ground and stood up. “Luckily
the armor took the worst of it. But now I can’t leave either.”

“We must retreat and fix our
communicators,” Malista stated.

Elyx nodded and turned toward the
teens. Using her powers, she surrounded them in the same purple aura and raised
them off the ground before lifting herself and Malista the same way. The four
of them then flew off back.

The Warp Champion looked at them from its position on the ground, waiting. Once they were out of its sight, the
two silver-colored wings on its back stretched out, the blue skin that covered
a part of them quickly increasing to cover the entire wings.

Although Uxorites were excellent
with telekinetic abilities and Elyx herself was so strong that she even
unlocked telepathy, using these powers for a prolonged period of time was
tainting for the more younger members of their species.

Because of that, she was unable
to get them close to the entrance they came from, which was probably for the
best, given that three out of them would freeze to death the moment they set a
foot outside.

So now they were forced to hide
in this labyrinth, trying to avoid any cultists or Warp Champions, until the could
call to help.

“Is the communicator still not
working?” Elyx asked.

“It isn’t. And I don’t know why
it suddenly stopped working either!” Malista yelled and raised his arm ready to
throw the useless device to the ground.

He stopped, lowering his hand. Closing
his eyes, he began to take a deep breath to try and calm himself. Getting angry
and destroying their few remaining pieces of equipment was a no-no.

“Are you sure that you don’t want
to get rid of that arrow?” Evan asked, pointing at the projectile sticking out
of the Bakasheran’s shoulder.

“It’s ok where it is.” Malista
waved it off.

At least the arrow was keeping
his suit and the wound that it caused, somewhat sealed. Although he would
have preferred if he could break it into two, so he doesn’t have a stick coming
out of his shoulder, but these arrows weren’t completely physical. They were
real, solid and painful, but they seemed more like constructions made out of
solid light than arrows made out of wood, or whatever this blue matter was.

“We shouldn’t worry, right?” Evan
asked, leaning against a rock. “The Plumbers know that we, or you, are here, so
they will send reinforcements, right?”

“We weren’t sent here by the
Plumbers, kid,” Malista muttered. “Your governor called us to come to investigate
this cult. If we don’t get back to the ship soon Empher will contact Magister
Degrax, but I’m not sure when they will send reinforcement, and if they will be
able to find the cave.

“Akvius priqte namer.” Avice
spoke again.

“What did she say?” Elyx asked.

“She asked where your ship is,”
Evan replied.

“What does that matter?” Malista
glanced at Avice.

The girl looked back at the
masked alien and shrugged. The Bakasheran sighed.

“It’s on Bay Four-Seven-Five,”
Malista replied. “Happy?”

Avice didn’t answer. She wasn’t
given a chance to answer, because the Warp Champion from before flew past the
corner they were hiding behind just as she opened her mouth. The creature flew
into the rock wall across from them, but rather than crashing, it stepped on it
and used it to lunge itself toward the four.

Elyx and Malista grabbed the
humans and jumped to the sides, dodging the sentry’s fist that smashed the rock
behind them, carving a hole through it. Malista rolled on the ground behind the
Champion. He threw Evan behind himself and pulled out his blaster, firing
several shots into the creature’s head. With no effect. Again.

The Champion turned around,
giving the Plumber a silent, judgemental stare.

“Well yes, I guess expecting this
to have an effect when a heavy rifle did nothing was stupid,” Malista admitted.

The Champion stepped forward,
rising his right arm into a fist. The creature threw a push at Malista, when a
purple aura surrounded its fist, stopping it from hitting the Bakasheran. A
moment later, this aura surrounded the Champion’s entire body and raised it
slightly of the ground.

But it wouldn’t this time.

Before Elyx could use her powers
to do anything more the Champion threw its left arm in her direction, it's bow
expanding out of the wrist. The Champion pulled back the blue string and fired
a blind arrow that hit Uxorite in the knee.

With an agonizing scream, Elyx
lost her concentration and fell on the ground, the purple aura that surrounded
the Warp Champion disappeared and it immediately backhanded Malista across the
face, breaking off a piece of his helmet.

The male Plumber dropped on the
ground with a loud thud followed by a groan. Before he could try to get back up
the Champion stomped on his stomach. The Bakasheran coughed, spitting blood
into his helmet.

The Champion pulled its left fist
back, the bow turning into two blades that rotated around so they were sticking
in front of the creature’s arm. He threw his fist forward again, and again, a
purple aura appeared, but instead of simply stopping its fist, this time it
smashed the Champion in the ground, trapping it under all of the telekinetic
prowess Elyx could muster.

The Warp Champion tried to push
itself back up, over and over it tried to move, but the more strength is used,
the stronger the telekinetic field that held it down became.

“So, in the end you are weaker
than an Uxorite? That’s disappointing.” The voice that said this shocked Elyx
and Malista more than anything else. The Uxorite turned to the side.

After a moment, the purple aura
that surrounded the Warp Champion disappeared. Elyx stared at Evan, the spark
in her eyes disappearing because of the burning hole carved between her eyes.
Her body collapsed out of Malista field of vision. The Bakasheran couldn’t even
move much, paralyzed in pain as he choked onto more of his own blood. After a
moment, the Warp Champion raised in front of his vision, looking down at it as
Avice and Evan joined it, the later holding Malista’s blaster pistol, which was
still smoking from the shot.

He knew what was going to happen
now. His mind had accepted it already, and his body although still in pain, had
calmed down. They were played from the start by a pair of human teens. He
didn’t know how they didn’t see it coming, he didn’t know how Elyx failed to
read their minds and see that this was all a trap, and in the end, it didn’t
matter. But he wanted to know.

“Why?”

The question seemingly caused
Evan’s crimson eyes to spark for a moment. A malicious smile plastered over his
face and he responded.

“Our family name is Greyson.”

That sentence alone gave the
Bakasheran all of the answers. He was afraid now. But now for himself, he had already accepted his fate, but for this planet, for this entire galaxy.

“Akvius-Mineris-Slusha!” At those
words of Avice’s, the helmet that covered Malista’s face began to close onto
itself; like it was guided by magic.

No, it was guided by magic. Not
some strange language like Evan first claimed, her words were spells. A spell
that disabled technology silenced their communicators. A spell to locate an
ally and let them locate you allowed the Warp Champion to follow after them.
And a spell that gave her control over the metals that made Malista’s helmet
crushed the Plumber’s head. There were no screams, only the sound of bones being
crushed and skin torn apart. His body spasmed for a few seconds before going
limp.

He knew that the voices he heard
were coming from this Timeline. He just couldn’t understand what the whispers
were trying to tell him, at least not until he returned. They had big hopes for
the Eternals, these brilliant scientists, put together their minds would
have been capable of rivaling even Azmuth’s. But they got wiped out, killed by
a group of Plumbers that didn’t mind locking and burning a group of unarmed
scientists if someone said that they were a danger.

Really, he could have killed
these Xenos the moment they meet. He wouldn’t have needed to place himself in
prison just to get to them. Thanks to them he now knew where he was wrong with
his approach; of course, if he was going to build a secret cult in the center of
the enemy territory he needed someone in a high position to cover it up.

“I’m sorry that it had to come to
this.” Avice apologized, kneeling down next to the dead Plumber’s body. “May
you find peace in the next life.”

The Warp Champion looked toward
Evan, its blue body slowly began to retreat back, turning the twelve feet tall
monster into an eleven-year-old girl with short blonde hair and cute
pinkish-blue outfit.

“I’m so glad that this is finally
over!” Roxy shouted, throwing her arms up. “I was running out of juice keeping
this form.”

“I don’t see why you needed it
when you couldn’t beat a single Xeno.” Evan retorted.

“Oh!” Roxy pouted, crossing her
arms. “Not all of us have fancy mind-powers!”

Evan raised an eyebrow. He turned
back and began to walk away from the girls. Their job wasn’t done yet.

“Roxy, you got to burn the
bodies,” Evan told the little girl. “Avice, you enjoy the peaceful solutions, so you get to deal with the Governor.”

“And what about you?” Roxy asked.

“I will pay Bay Four-Seven-Five a visit.”

## Characters

### Warp Universe

* Evan Greyson (first appearance)
* Avice Greyson (first appearance)
* Roxy Greyson (first appearance)
* Captain Leon (first appearance)
* Red Leader (first appearance; cameo)

### Protagonists

* Malista (first appearance; death)
* Elyx (first appearance; death)
* Empher (first appearance)

## Trivia

* Originally the cultists from the Eye of Nosyerg were supposed to make an appearance to show their way of living and fight against the Plumbers but the idea was scrapped because the chapter was going to become needlessly long.