[center][u][color=black][h1]The Seventh Labour[/h1][/color][/u][/center]
[b][u][@Terminal]'s Note:[/u][/b] The first winning entry of the Seventh Labour, [i]Plutonian[/i], exceeds the post character limit. The winning entries for the Seventh Labour are listed in two separate posts for this reason.

[hider=Plutonian, Part 2]By [@PlatinumSkink].

[h3]Chapter 5: Earth[/h3]

Shum Wei's fleet had been destroyed. A single shot from the Trident had obliterated most of the Jupiter fleet's major ships and the rest were easy pickings for the Triton vessels stationed at Pluto. Too easy pickings. The Triton fleet had suffered virtually no casualties, while the Jupiter military status was in complete disarray. Saturn had been defeated in the battle, their space-fighters capable but unable to turn on a dime or fire in any direction the way Plutonians could. Where Saturn one-man crafts were trying to dog-fight like airplanes in space, it was as if they were fighting super-men. In the long run, the Saturn military had to stand down before the Plutonian attack. However, with the loss of the Jupiter fleet, this was a loss for all but Umeron. The man had sent a video-message of himself happily congratulating Eviri at her success taking down the brief rebellion and Saturn's fleet, assuring her that Pluto had been kept safe from the Jupiter attack, mocking her with his eyes clearly taking pleasure in what he was doing.

'… And now we're where Aimer warned us we'd be.' Eviri lamented as she had leaned forward at her desk, her hands placed against her face. There had been a funeral for the man, and the numerous others that had been lost against Saturn, where Eviri herself had praised the man for doing what he thought was right for their people. Some of the fighters who watched didn't seem to appreciate her doing that, but she felt she had to. Now, however, there was a problem. Jupiter had laid down their arms after witnessing the power of the Trident, leaving only the Mars Empire and Earth, famously uncooperative and long-time enemies of each other, as well as the peace-loving Venusians. Out of these, none had the might that could match the Trident. In fact, even Eviri hesitated in thinking even the Plutonians could do it, even if the enemy didn't have those specific anti-Plutonian guns.

'Well. Had we done as Aimer intended, we'd likely all be dead, instead. Just as you warned.' Max crossed his arms and reminded. Karen was currently frozen, allowing her father to act as a warrior. 

'You saved us, and possibly Pluto.' Aren said, looking at her from the side, standing straight. 'If we had gone, we'd have all died and Pluto would have been destroyed by Umeron. I believe you did the right thing.'

'Yeah, but... What do we do, now?' Eviri asked, leaning back in her chair, her hands placed on her head, staring forward in the room. It was just her, Max and Aren here. 'Even if we ask Mars or Earth for help, they can't fight that. It really looks like...' Like Umeron's won. Eviri couldn't imagine any other way. They'd take Mars and then they'd take Earth. Or maybe the Earth first, since Mars was unlikely to intervene, as self-centred as they were known to be. After that, the whole Solar System would belong to the Triton Union. And then... what would Umeron do to Pluto and the Plutonians then? They'd be the last military that stood any kind of chance against him...

'As you told Aimer.' Max said, smiling at her. 'As long as we live, there is always the hope of a new chance.'

'When will that be?' Eviri asked, feeling quite dismayed.

'Well. We're still alive, aren't we?' Max chuckled a bit. 'Though, yeah. If there was ever a time for heroics, then it'd be now.'

'For now, we're still tied by Umeron's deal, unless we want to suddenly follow Aimer's advice.' Aren said, getting a little angry. 'I'd like to assume we won't until we have some form of plan.'

'We can't.' Eviri muttered in despair. 'As we are, we'd be doomed.'

'That's it, then.' Max sighed. 'Well, for now I'd suggest we try to consider things. Umeron's next orders will most likely be here, soon. Doesn't look like talking here is going to solve much more, so let's depart for now.' Max continued. Aren nodded to him while Eviri just sat where she was. Though, at that moment, the door opened to allow Jarnet to come in. She had a silly little smile on her, and she held something in between two palms in front of her as she came in.

'Jarnet! Where have you been!?' Aren asked, notably on-edge. Jarnet hadn't appeared for the aftermath of the battle, she had just dropped off Eviri at the Isabelle and then taken off.

'And what are you smiling about?' Max smirked as he looked at the first sign of positive emotions since the destruction of Jupiter's fleet. This would be interesting. '… What's that you're holding?'

'Commander Eviri. I have two things I wish to debrief you on.' Jarnet said, smiling with light in her eyes as she stared directly at Eviri. Eviri, who was still drowning in dismay, was shocked back into a professional state by the sheer honesty in the girl's eyes. She straightened her back, took on a determined expression, and looked back at Jarnet.

'Report.' Eviri replied, with her commander's voice. Aren raised an eyebrow, but let Jarnet have her moment. Max grinned at what he sensed was potentially coming.

'Firstly, this...' Jarnet said, lifting her top hand to show a small, white object in her hand. '… Is the bullet which Wence fired straight into space, which he failed to hit anything with.' The bullet which would have hit Eviri's back had Jarnet not intervened. Jarnet's computer had been able to calculate from that exact point where the bullet would likely be, and she had successfully recovered it. Eviri stared in mild amazement at her.

'With this, combined with the readings from Koala, I've been able to work out how the counter-measure against us work, and I'm ready to start working on a counter-measure of our own.' Jarnet said, smiling happily on the other side. Th-that was... hope! Eviri breathed out in relief, while Max laughed.

'See!?' Max said, looking at Eviri. 'As long as we live, there's a chance for hope!' He then directed a thumbs up at Jarnet. 'Nicely done, lass!' Jarnet giggled at Max's words. Aren was looking on attentively.

'Th-that's excellent news. Tell me as soon as it is done. How long do you need?' Eviri asked her, desperate for the hope which was being provided.

'It could be ready today, but it could also take a month. I'm not sure. I'll have to make tests and theories. But it will come.' Jarnet responded, but that at least was good enough for Eviri. The promise that it was coming was enough.

'Good, keep me posted.' Eviri said with a smile, breathing out. There was hope yet. While Eviri had no safe ways of using the counter, at least she had it. 

'And, one more thing.' Jarnet said, her smile disappearing as she looked at them with a focused stare, which made Eviri have to look serious in turn.

'When I matched the frequency of Wence's sphere and entered it, I was able to get a good close-up scan through him, since the sphere wasn't protecting him.' Jarnet said, her voice serious. 'There's a chip in his brain. I think he's being manipulated.'

Eviri sat back, thinking about it. As far as reports stated, Wence was a regular normal Plutonian fighter, with a normal family and all of that. It was indeed hard to see the transformation into the merciless man who had appeared inside the Trident and shot Koala. Eviri had chalked it up to that he had been wearing a mask, but the fact that he, as the Knight of Triton, had spent a lot of time on Triton by requests of the people did mean he was also the closest Plutonian for any plot of Umeron's. Mind-manipulation by technology was strictly forbidden, even to research on it was a sin, but if Triton could build the Trident in secret there was nothing saying they couldn't have done this as well. That would also have assisted them to research on Plutonian technology, and find a weak point, in addition to having an experienced hero of Pluto on their side.

'… Koala.' Max muttered. Eviri flinched. That's right. She had been in their hands for a while now. There was nothing preventing their enemies from doing something similar to her. In fact, there was nothing saying that hadn't done the same to the entire garrison which had been defending Pluto, they had the advantage that their weapon wasn't immediately lethal. 

'Jarnet.' Eviri commanded. The girl immediately saluted. 'Do you think you can counter the effects?' To answer Eviri's question, Jarnet smiled widely.

'Yes! I can, and will!' Jarnet happily called.

'Good. Focus on all research first and foremost for now, you're exempt from battle duty until you're done! Use any and all resources or crew members you need to complete this task! Dismissed!' Eviri told her, a serious but mildly proud feeling in her. 

'Yes, ma'am!' Jarnet continued before she turned and vanished in order to do her research. Eviri sighed in relief as she sat back. Alright. She was blessed to have someone whom did things like that. Without that, there would have been no hope at all in this moment, and they wouldn't have known of those chips. Max had been wearing a really grim expression ever since he learned of those. Aren was also looking serious, looking to her for leadership.

'Alright. For now, we continue doing as we're told.' Eviri told them, and just as she said so, a small note inside the helmet of the suit she was wearing informed her. She had commands from Umeron.

__________________

So while previously most of the fights had been large-scale battles where they all gathered their forces and put them against one another, Earth was something else. They were a completely different matter. There were asteroid fortresses, giant metal walls, mine-fields, plenty of things prepared to slow them down. The Earth forces were unique as well. Instead of ship-like space-crafts, they were humanoid in shape like robots of some kind, wielding energy-swords and guns in their arms, boosters in their legs, arms and backs for maximum manoeuvrability. Compared to Plutonians they were huge and only somewhat less manoeuvrable, but they didn't have the omnipresent knowledge of how the battlefield looked. Regardless, these mechanical warriors were the toughest enemies they had faced yet. Not as numerous as Saturn's space-fighters, but...

'Do not relent! Forward! Crush the Earthlings and all of their mechanical scraps!' Sewbrig shouted into the hectic battle of scurrying coloured spheres dodging and attacking the mechanical warriors of Earth, soaring about in front of a fortress in the asteroid belt.

'Kah...!' Eviri shouted out as she was forced to dodge and turn away from another homing missile, which chased her relentlessly. The humanoid robot that had shot it was already in scraps after Aren had thrown an explosive yellow lance at it, but it was starting to get really annoying for the Plutonians to constantly have to dodge and destroy these quick and fast homing missiles. Eventually, Eviri managed to slip close enough to it to cut it in half, the missile exploding behind her as she flew on. This... this was just a metallic space-fortress, bent on slowing them down, floating in the asteroid belt! How were they having such a tough time!?

'This is good, isn't it!?' Max grinned, the red warrior asked blasting through the centre of a mechanical warrior with what looked like a red spiked mace of power way bigger than anything Eviri could generate. 'Not only are these warriors unmanned so we don't have to mind sparing our enemies' lives, they're doing a damn fine job slowing us down! Gives Jarnet more time!' He laughed out, appreciating the challenge and charging headlong in a way nobody else really could, just blasting through all in his way with pure power.

'I-it is, but! Th-they're annoying!' Eviri complained, staring at how spread her forces were, attacking at this fortress in the asteroid belt on the way to the inner realm of the Solar System. Then, suddenly, she slowed down and stared in stunned surprise at what was behind the fortress. Martian ships, big, red and thousands of guns sprouting from each of the considerably large behemoths... coming to Earth forces' aid.

'Would you look at that, the day Earth and Mars, old rivals of war, came together against a common enemy has come at last...' Max said, smiling at them in awe.

'Did it have to be against US, though!?' Aren questioned, his long yellow lance hanging on a tangent of his yellow sphere looking at the newly arrived enemy.

'I-it's fine!' Eviri said, breathing slightly heavily, her blades at the ready. 'New line! Prepare for assault!' This was taking a lot of effort, but the Plutonians were hanging in there, slowly forcing their way towards Mars and Earth. It was taking weeks, with frequent updates from Jarnet on her progress. It seemed they were never getting there, and that was a good thing. But one day, they were there. And something was very wrong.

__________________

There they stood. Three individuals in a row. The one to the left in a yellow sphere, with a hand on his hips staring down on the planet in front of them. The one to the right in a red sphere, his hands crossed and frowning a bit looking down at the same planet. The one in the middle in a green sphere just standing still and straight, staring in disbelief. Behind them stood the remaining Plutonian fighters, inside their spheres of many colours, looking in the same direction as their commanders. The planet underneath them was Earth, seemingly having been untouched for the many years since mankind first left its surface to live on other planets for the first time, still as blue, green and cloudy as ever. But...

'There are no space-defences.' Aren stated the obvious. Eviri stared in stunned surprise down at the planet.

'They've taken cover in fortresses on the surface, hiding in shielded cities. Space is already lost, so they took the fight to the ground.' Max filled in, looking down with raised eyebrows. 'Not bad. I can't even imagine how they did that with twenty billion people.'

'The scanners are telling of underground super-structures.' Aren frowned. 'They're structurally superior to any buildings we've ever built. That's Earth's advantage.'

'Well...' Max scratched the top of his helmet, unable to get to the point which scratched in his hairline. 'That's good. If they force this into a siege, then they'll be able to hold us off for longer. That would mean our research could be done in time.'

'…' But what, then? Oh, they could make some kind of plan, Eviri figured. The Isabelle could travel at light-speed. As long as they made the action first, the information that they had gone back on Umeron's deal wouldn't be able to travel any faster than they already were. 

'So that's their plan. How deplorable.' Wence's voice was heard from behind them, Eviri's eyes twitching at the sound of his voice. Aren and Max turned to look at him, standing with his chin raised in his white sphere, behind and noticeably above the Plutonian fighters.

'The victory of the Triton Union is at hand! Earth has fallen!' Sewbrig's ever so irritating voice filled their ears, the voice that they'd had to endure on every single battlefield to get here.

'…' This was the planet humanity had originated from. This planet placed in the habitable zone where life could thrive even before the invention of Solar Gates. Twenty billion people still lived on Earth. That was more than two-hundred times the population of Pluto. Because of this advance of Triton and the Plutonians under their command, these people, these ancestors of humanity, had been forced to flee underground. For the sake of the safety of their home, these people would suffer.

'Very well. Captain Sewbrig. Please prepare the PD-5-R.' Wence called out to Sewbrig, the notation getting an immediate reaction from Aren and Max.

'Yes, sir! PD-5-R armed and ready! With this, Earth shall know the true power of Triton!' Sewbrig announced, sounding even more fanatic than ever.

'… What's the PD-5-R?' Aren asked, looking up at Wence and Sewbrig's vessel with a very well-placed glare.

'…' When people from all over the globe first came together and launched the first colony-ships into space, mankind had hoped to be unified as one nation. As one curious union of all mankind seeking to make the best of their own race. This hadn't happened. Greedy humans had laid claim to whatever they could in space, forming new nations that would eventually be caught with greed again, which caused war to break out, once again. It was a cycle as old as nations, and even in space it had yet to break.

'It is of no concert to you Plutonians. What matters to you is that Pluto will be safe.' Wence reported, but almost before he had even finished...

'Planet Destroyer, Magnitude 5, Radioactive version!' Sewbrig happily announced. 'Planet Earth shall be rendered uninhabitable for thousands of years to come when the fist of Triton comes smashing down to punish them for resisting his rule!' He practically sounded like he was bragging. 

'What?' Max asked, frowning and looking like he was just had to make sure that he heard correctly.

'That guy's manipulated too, right? He has to be. Or this makes no sense.' Aren reasoned, the limits when they removed the limitation that they'd only put chips in enemies literally endless, which made him hesitate on how much of the Triton forces he could actually trust to be human at all.

'…' Even after this... even like this. Eviri stared blankly down at the green and blue innocent planet. So many innocent people were being drawn into this struggle of the select few. Was there any way to end the cycle? It was hard to see possible. One would have to remove power from greedy people, and that couldn't end well. Yet, as she stared down on this innocent planet, one thing became abundantly clear. They didn't deserve what was coming. Anything that could stop it, should.

'Triton does not have the resources to stage a siege.' Wence stated as a matter of fact. 'Without Plutonian assistance, Triton could never have taken the Solar System. Rejoice. Pluto lives because of you. Now sacrifice the Earth for your home.' Not giving them a chance to react, the order came at once. 'Fire.'

'PD-5-R, LAUNCHED!' Sewbrig announced as a huge, round ball with an engine in the back flaring out of his own craft, aiming down at planet Earth. Aren's eyes widened in surprise, hesitating at what to do. Max flinched, distress in his frown, unclear what he was about to do. Many of the other warriors of Pluto also expressed sincere distress over the projectile now launched over their heads at humanity's ancient home. The one who stood perfectly calm was the their current commander, standing in her green sphere in the front of the unit, the Planet Destroyer passing straight over her head...

There was a flash of light.

Green light, to be precise.

Having suddenly lost one of its engines, the missile spiralled out of control, but did so completely missing the planet it was aiming for, spinning through space in the direction of the sun. Wence's eyes narrowed in hatred, following the trail of most gazes, looking at Eviri's back. She was standing straight, her arms down, looking down at the planet as she had previously as if she hadn't moved at all, but everyone had seen it. In the fraction of a second, she had swung her right arm around and a green sword had taken shape, cutting off two and a half out of six engines on one side, causing the bomb to deter from its intended course. Aren blinked in disbelief at this show of focused calmness and determination while Max dared to smile at her. This was getting interesting, he thought.

'Commander Eviri.' Wence's voice echoed in judgemental intention across the distance and to all Plutonian fighters in their spheres by the way of signals through space which they could hear. Most of them recoiled, but some turned around, determination was showing in their faces. Eviri herself showed no reaction. 'Are you aware of what you have done?' Wence asked, glaring at her back.

'…' Was she? Eviri wondered about that. Honestly, doing the right thing was such a pain. Aimer had been such an honest man. He was clearly viewing the greater picture. Was she thinking this only because he was dead, now? That really didn't matter. Thing was, right now she was feeling really good. She felt kind of guilty feeling good. But, she had just saved 20 billion lives, and she was definitely the good girl. Eviri had been a bad girl for the majority of this war, now, so a change of pace was nice. It was like all of her worries just obliterated, and now she could finally focus on what REALLY mattered.

'Pluto will not condone the use of such weapons.' Eviri declared, not a shred of doubt in her voice. She turned around, feeling like the most graceful and powerful person she had ever been, as she returned Wence's challenging glare right back at him, and to her sheer pleasure he winced a little at the sight of her expression. 'For the sake of our home, we have assisted in the occupation of all planetoids you've commanded us to occupy. This has been to save lives, to ensure the future of those who comes after us. However, if you insist on using strategies of war which will cause the blood of innocents to flow, then I will destroy your fleets, dismantle your armies and trap you all on that forsaken moon whence you came!'

'Haha, send back wincing Wence whence he came...' Max chuckled a little on the side. Sewbrig's loud voice started bubbling from behind Wence.

'Why, you, INSIGNIFICANT-' 

'SHUT IT!' Eviri screamed out at him, and there was an audible whelp and the sound of a back hitting the floor, most likely Sewbrig stumbling backwards from the unexpected scream his direction which interrupted his usual gloating. The sound of his fall brought no small amount of satisfaction to the ears of the listening Plutonians. Wence sighed out at Eviri's resistance, his right hand closing around the handle of the gun on his side, against which Eviri still didn't have any protection.

'Are you going to stand in our way, Plutonian?' Wence asked, raising his chin even higher as he glared with all his disgust at Eviri. It was hard not to be at least a little intimidated by his powerful glare, but Eviri bit together, lowered her own chin a little, and glared right back.

'Should you decide to use means of conquest which does not spill the blood of the innocent, then a conflict between us can be avoided and the Plutonian fighters will remain under your command.' Eviri gave a solution which would hopefully be able to avoid a costly battle. 'But should you refuse to change your genocidal ways, then I believe I speak for all Plutonians when I say...' Eviri glared defiantly back at him. '… We will fight you to the very last man.'

There were agreeing shouts on Eviri's side from a bit of everywhere, the Plutonian fighters agreeing with this decision, Eviri's determination having spread to the crowd. Aren nodded in agreement with Eviri's words at her side, while Max grinned at her other with his arms crossed, waiting for the conclusion. Wence's eyes narrowed, watching the crowd of increasing hostile intent against himself. He came to a quick conclusion.

'A-5. Fly to Pluto at once in light-speed and inform Umeron of the decision of the Plutonians.' Wence commanded quickly, a ship almost instantly spinning around on its core and facing towards Pluto.

'… So, that's it, huh. No way you can't avoid genocidal means?' Eviri asked, a part of her stomach growing cold and empty at how easily the contract was broken, over such an unavoidable thing. Over the Plutonian shared information-network she immediately gave the command. [b][i]AREN! TAKE A SQUAD AND A SHIP, AND INTERCEPT THAT VESSEL BEFORE IT REACHES PLUTO![/i][/b] He sprung to action immediately, Aren's yellow sphere and his squad following him towards one of their ships as the vessel behind Wence vanished into a flash of light. Plutonian fighters by themselves couldn't follow at that speed, which was why they had the Isabelle and other such ships. Wence was lifting his gun, and the other Tritonian ships prepared their guns, all of which could be assumed to be the same anti-Plutonian guns...

'That's not all.' Wence responded, once again with the stare of talking to an insect, the same as she had seen just after he had shot Koala. 'Had this been the beginning of the war, we would most likely be forced to accept your demands, since we had need of you. But...' He directed his gun... at Aren, who was soaring towards the ships in his yellow sphere, blinking as he became aware he was being aimed for. 'We have no need for you anymore, Plutonians. You've done your job. Begone.' He fired.

Fear went through Eviri, her eyes widening in panic. It was as if Wence knew exactly how to make her panic. Aiming the gun at her closest friend, with Eviri having no way of countering it. She sped up, intending on attempting to shield it with her own green sphere. But Aren had already started heading away from her in top-speed, there was no way she could catch up. Also, that shot was impossibly fast, not even a Plutonian could dodge it if they weren't extremely prepared. It looked like that was it, and Eviri would have to watch Aren be shot through...

The bullet hit Aren's yellow barrier, but the ripple merely circled around Aren's sphere and vanished with just a little bit with his sphere falling apart as he proceeded, mildly confused, to head towards the ship of his choice in maximum speed. Wence glared in loathing, Eviri in a mix of relief and confusion, until a giggle was heard. A playful, female giggle, the giggle of someone who had just succeeded with something she was honestly proud of.

'I made it in time!' Jarnet, flying way above them all in her blue sphere, smiled brilliantly down at the crowd and Wence. In her hands, she held what looked to be a datapad of sorts, and now that Eviri saw it she could see it was uploading something to their Plutonian information-network. Eviri could only stare.

'You...' Wence glared angrily up at her. 'You again...!' This was the second time she nullified his shot.

'Hiya~! Did you miss me~?' Jarnet made a peace-sign and winked down at Wence, before turning with a serious expression to Eviri.

'EVIRI!' The commander blinked back to awareness at Jarnet's shout. 'The newly programmed barriers will carry on the ripples of the OV-bullets and neutralize them on the other side of you! It won't shoot you down in one hit, but don't take too many of them! They'll still take you apart, layer by layer, just not all at once! You'll grow weaker with every hit!' Eviri heard the words, and it was exactly what she needed to hear. Eviri smiled, nodding to Jarnet and turning forward. The rest of the Plutonians had heard the briefing as well.

'PLUTONIANS!' Eviri commanded, rising upwards and charged her green sphere with power, and beneath her the fighters of Pluto did the same. 'ATTACK!' With that, all the different coloured spheres of power advanced at breakneck speed, assaulting the ships of the Tritons at last. Eviri was finally free to act as her heart desired, relieved of Aren's safety and with no reason to hold anything back.

'F-FIRE! ALL VESSELS, FIRE UPON THE PLUTONIANS!' Sewbrig shouted out in response, and the many vessels of the Triton fleet fired at them, Wence in the front surrounded by his white sphere still glaring at Jarnet. The shots were indeed the same kind as those in the gun which Wence wielded. Not only that, they were as lightning-quick and fired in spreads making them absurdly hard to dodge even when it was known they were coming. Many fighters in the front-lines suffered repeated hits, their spheres broken through and them falling from sudden injuries. However, they weren't taken out nearly quickly enough for the safety of the Triton fleet.

'Hahahaha...!' Jarnet laughed out loud, smiling down at their assault. 'Take that, Tritons! I win!' She cheered, happy that her research into their anti-Plutonian weaponry had paid off. However, she quickly blinked in stunned surprise as she realized a very dangerous enemy was soaring way too quickly in her direction, and it wasn't a bullet. Jarnet looked down in sudden fear to see the bulging eyes filled with the raging hatred of Wence coming flying straight at her.

'YOU...!' Aside from the gun he was holding in his right hand, his power suddenly spawned a plethora of white guns extruding from his white sphere, aiming for Jarnet. Realizing the imminent danger she was in, Jarnet immediately entrusted her dodging to her AI, way better pilot than she was, flying back in a wave-like pattern while firing swift blue shape-less blasts back at him for defensive purpose. However, from his first shot it was apparent that Wence brutally out-gunned her. The many guns he was shaping blasted white lines of offensive power everywhere around her, forcing her blue sphere to remain in an easily targeted location as flying in any other direction was flying into his shots. Jarnet blinked in fear as she realized she had been caught in his cage of shots, only the finishing shot was left.

'DIE...!' Wence called out in a hatred-filled voice towards the one he had identified as the one who had rendered his gun meaningless. He formed a larger cannon of white power in the centre of his being, blasting out with an enormous amount of power at Jarnet. She blinked in fear, realizing just how tiny she was by herself, and covered her eyes from her impending doom... Which caused her to miss the sudden red blast of energy which offset the white one, Jarnet first daring to look forward when it became clear that she hadn't died. In front of her was the big, red back of Max, who was grinning in the face of the white Wence's anger, Max's spiked mace of power blocking Wence's cannon's output.

'Hello there, “hero”. I've wanted to fight you for a long while, now.' Max declared, grinning happily at Wence.

'… What?' Wence replied, spitting at Max in anger, hearing the signs of mockery.

'Do you realize?' Max asked, an expression of bloodthirsty bliss in his face. 'All of Earth is watching us right now. A million tiny cameras filming this very battle. Everyone knows who you are, Wence, Knight of Triton, the one who shot Koala. And I've made sure I'm known at least a little as Max, friend of Commander Eviri and fiancé of Commander Koala. But after this...' Max suddenly pressed against Wence, his power bursting into red, hot passionate killing intent that caused Wence to flinch back in sudden surprise. 'AFTER THIS I WILL BE A TRUE HERO, THE RED DRAGON OF PLUTO WHO SLAYED THE WHITE KNIGHT OF TRITON! GHOOOOAAAAAH...!!!' Successfully driving Wence back with sheer intimidation, Wence's eyes suddenly widened in surprised panic when Max's power grew in shape and took the form of a red dragon, with massive wings and claws and teeth, glaring at him from where Max's eyes seemed to be burning.

Guns grew out of Wence's sphere, white shot after white shot blasted out from Wence as he retreated backwards from the giant red dragon chasing him, the signs of fear in Wence's eyes for the first time as he fled. The giant dragon which the grinning Max had summoned followed his movements, clawing after Wence's white sphere with massive claws and power as Max swung his limbs at the enemy. However, he couldn't hit. Wence was way too skilled to be hit by such huge swings of uncontrolled power. But what power! No fighter had ever been able to summon so much raw power! But Wence knew from experience, the energy would not last. While his shots against the dragon looked to be absorbed, he knew it had effect. All he needed was to outlast-

Wence blinked in stunned shock as he realized Jarnet had flown around and placed her blue sphere behind him. She smirked so happily at the panicked knight. While he could easily out-gun her on her lonesome, while being chased by this giant dragon of power was something completely different! She was intending on stopping him, making him an easy target for the dragon! He couldn't dodge her, she was too nimble and fast! He simply had to break through her! With this in mind, Wence spun around, focusing his rage-filled eyes at Jarnet and charged! The girl had such an extremely annoyed focused expression, combined with that smile! What was she going to...!?

Jarnet suddenly blasted off, heading straight for a head-on collision with Wence. Even if he could see it coming, the white knight couldn't dodge her blue sphere. Fine! He'd just break through her, like he intended...!

'…!'

Wence blinked in stunned surprise. She shot something at him. At this speed there was no time for him to react to it, even though he knew it was coming the millisecond she shot it. It went straight through his sphere, hitting him in the throat. A blast of pain shot from it, straight up into his brain. He screamed out in pain as Jarnet broke off her flight-path and flew off in another direction, the white knight slowing down to be consumed by the red dragon behind him, his white sphere being completely overtaken by Max's red one.

'Gotcha.' Max grinned as he grabbed Wence's unconscious body, letting his dragon-shaped power vanish back to an ordinary red sphere. He breathed out in relief, smirking at the knight he held in his hands. With that, most of the cameras down there should have seen him swallow up Wence's sphere. That should suffice to make him averagely famous, shouldn't it? Still, while he didn't like to admit it, he probably would have lost if it wasn't for Jarnet's help. And while on the matter of her help... 'I see you completed the anti-chip thing, too.' Max commented.

'Yupp!' Jarnet flew close and smiled so happily inside her blue little sphere. 'It's a tiny dart with a very precise electrical shock. It requires extremely close range to work, but if it hits it knocks out the target and neutralizes the chip! When he wakes up, he should be back to normal!' She made a few happy dance-moves in mid-space, her happiness acceptable since they had just taken out Umeron's chief enforcer. 'Say, while I'm very happy you came to save me, are you sure you shouldn't be at Eviri's side?' She asked, looking at him curiously.

'The heck are you saying?' Max laughed at her, knowing full well she knew the same information about the battlefield as all other Plutonians did. 'Isn't she doing absurdly fine on her own!?' Jarnet giggled at his words.

Right below, Eviri and the other Plutonians had already completely dismantled the Triton fleet. Although the Plutonians hadn't gotten away without casualties, not a single Triton vessel had been destroyed to the point its crew had died. Eviri had darted back and forth like a green flash, disabling each vessel one before the other, slicing engines and weapon-systems so quickly the pilots couldn't possibly keep track of her. She was now going onboard Sewbrig's vessel, in order to ensure there were no more PD-5-S bombs or likewise on it.

'ST-STAY BACK, INSOLENT FOOL!' Sewbrig demanded on the bridge. Eviri flinched a little as she saw him. A wide, overfed leader wearing a uniform at least three sizes too small, having to correct his outfit every passing second to look even remotely proper, sweating absurdly in fear at Eviri's entrance.

'… Wow. You look even worse than I imagined.' Eviri commented, kind of disgusted at how absurd an archetype this guy could be. Did Umeron pick him based on THAT, too? … He thought of everything, didn't he?
 
'T-TOUCH ME IN ANY WAY, INSIGNIFICANT VERMIN, AND I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I-' Eviri punched him across his cheek, sending Sewbrig rolling across the floor and into the wall to the left. He was still alive, but heck, Eviri needed a little relief after what she had just been forced to live through, waving the hand she punched him with to get rid of the pain. Confirming that the two remaining bombs in the Triton fleet were confiscated, and somewhat lamenting that Umeron had entrusted the likes of Sewbrig with three of those monstrosities, Eviri ran and jumped out in space again, enveloping herself in her green sphere to fly.

'BACK TO THE SHIPS! WE DEPART FOR PLUTO AT ONCE!' Eviri commanded, wide-eyed and quick to act. There wasn't a single second to lose.

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[h3]Chapter 6: Pluto 2[/h3]

A young boy ran down a green hill, through a collection of beautiful colours spread on top of a field of grass. High in the sky was a shining sun, and the boy laughed as he tasted the fresh smell of growing plants. Slowly walking after him with a little smile on her face was a young girl, only slightly older than him.

'Isn't it amazing?' The boy asked his sister, spinning around on the spot to smile at her. 'Despite living on Pluto, we're able to have all these flowers and plants! With the help of the Solar Gates focusing sunlight on our distant planet, even we can sustain life! It's amazing! There are so many colours!' He spread his hands as to show what he was referring to. There were flowers in blue, red, yellow, white, purple, brown, all kinds. Of course, his older sister already knew of this, giggling a little at his happiness.

'Yes, indeed.' She answered, running a hand through her hair. 'So, which colour is your favourite?' She asked, smiling at the energetic little boy. The boy looked confused for a little, and then grinned back at her.

'Green!' He answered. The girl blinked a little at the younger boy in surprise, but he quickly had an argument to back it up. 'Because, you know.' He crouched down, brushing his hand over the green grass he was standing on. 'Because without the green to pick up the sunlight, none of the other colours would be possible.' He said, sounding actually a bit dejected because his sister had looked so confused. However, hearing that, she smiled widely.

'I see. I understand. Now that I think about it...' She thought about it. 'It's my favourite colour, too.'

'Yes! I've decided!' The boy stood up, turned around to the landscape and raised his arms, announcing. 'When I grow up, I want to become an expert terraformer! I will make new worlds habitable to mankind! I will make the best worlds mankind has ever lived on!' The girl smiled widely at his little proclamation, crossing her arms a bit.

'It'll be difficult, you know. And with all likelihood, you're not going to be able to live to see the end-result. Terraforming takes a long time, and we've pretty much terraformed all of our Solar System already.' The girl raised her head, staring out into the great unknown that was the sky. 'I'm more interested in that. The great unknown, past the far reaches of our Solar System. What unknown discoveries await us around other stars? I wish to become a flyer, able to fly and explore as many systems as I can, to see as much as I can with absolute freedom.' Her mind imagined such a happy journey of exploration.

'That's impossible, you know.' The boy cheekily called out on his sister, who looked at him with a challenge. 'No matter where you go, you're going to be constrained by the amount of food and water you can bring with you. Oh, and most of the universe is dead anyway, we already know from all our research. We already know what most of the universe consists of merely by observing. No exploration needed.' He continued, with the smile of a cheeky know-it-all.

'Oh, yeah? Well, I want to go there in person, and see for myself!' The girl raised her chin proudly. 'I'll discover things that mankind could never hope to discover without being there in person!'

'Don't worry, sis, I got you covered.' The boy surprised his sister, by saying that line. He turned away from her, raising his hands in the air. 'I'll be the first man to terraform planets outside the Solar System! And then you can use those planets as bases to launch your explorations into the unknown with! I'll have your back!' He grinned back at her. 'Deal?'

Eviri giggled happily at his innocent logic. Never mind that it would take way too long to terraform a planet, as she already had said, and also... oh, screw it. 'Deal!' And the two siblings shook hands and giggled with each other.

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There was complete silence. Eviri was staring ahead on the bridge of the Isabelle, blinking in stunned silence. The rest of the crew stared in equal silence, for the scene which met them was incomprehensible to them. They had arrived at Pluto. But, even though the Solar Gate still shone brightly, even though there was two big planetary bodies which it shone on, a planet and a moon, there was no green on them to pick up the light. An enormous cloud of ash was blowing across both planetary bodies. Charon seemed to be leaving Pluto's orbit, drifting away at an ever so slow pace. A huge crater revealed the location where the Trident had fired in full power down into the dwarf-planet's body, then it had turned and fired at Charon as well for good measure. In front of them were the ruins of the squad sent to stop the vessel. The ship was destroyed, the corpses of those who had gone drifting in mid-space. There was no sign of the Trident, or any Triton forces at all.

Eviri collapsed back into her commander's chair. Her heart felt empty. How... how long had she been delayed by the fleet attacking Earth? How late had she been? For what she knew, it was only a couple of minutes. Yet, it looked like she had been years late arriving. Her family... her brother. They had been on that planet. The families of everyone else in this fleet. Crushed. Destroyed. She could hear Umeron's laughter in her head. What... what had she done? She had saved the lives of twenty billion people on Earth. This... this was her reward? Would she have felt better had she let everyone on Earth die, just as long as Pluto had survived? No! She shouldn't have to think like that! This was wrong! All wrong!

She screamed out in frustration, the first noise anyone had made since arriving in the system. A long, sustained scream of despair, clutching her hands hard against her face. It hurt. But not nearly as much as the failure of her mission as protector was hurting. Her heart was screaming with her. Not a single person on the bridge was trying to comfort her. They all needed comfort, and somehow, her screaming gave them some manner of such comfort. Even when she ran out of breath, Eviri just took a deep breath and screamed again, her tears breaking out, just like they were on so many other people in the ship. Currently, there was no such thing as the necessity for a commander to keep a cool head. All those rules had gone out the window. They had lost.

'C-commander! There are survivors among the interception squad!' A bridge-member suddenly declared, blinking wide-eyed forward. Eviri's head shot out from under her hands, blinking through her tears forward.

'B-bring them in!' She commanded, her voice desperate for any kind of good news, no matter how insignificant they were compared to the bad news which they had just received. 

__________________

'Aren!' Eviri ran to the side of the bed where he lay patched up, her cheeks covered in tears as she saw him lying there, injured, but alive. It was a much-needed silver lining in an otherwise pitch-black darkness. However, as alive as he was, with patched injuries all over his body, his expression was devoid of passion or happiness of life. It looked very empty.

'Eviri...' He whispered, noting her presence but not looking at her. 'I'm sorry... I couldn't catch up...' He said, his voice absolutely broken. Eviri threw her arms around her old friend, hugging him and crying on his shoulder. In the same room, Max was standing along the wall on the other side, while Jarnet had dutifully followed her commander here, her eyes red from crying.

'I-it doesn't matter now... you're alive... there's hope in life...' There really wasn't. The comfort which Eviri gained from seeing Aren alive was a comfort which Aren couldn't get. To him, it was his fault this had happened. Because he had failed his mission. While he understood her, there was no way that could comfort him right now.

'Hey.' Max's voice suddenly called out from across the medical room, causing both Eviri and Aren to blink in notable surprise. 'Get over here.' Max was turned away from them, a grim expression on his face and his voice equally grim. While both Eviri and Aren were destroyed inside, it took way more energy to refuse their friend's words than it took to listen to him. Eviri prepared to help Aren up, but it turned out he was stronger than he looked as he stood up without aid. As if he couldn't accept Eviri's help right now. They then both edged forward to what Max wanted to show them. Jarnet kept to the background, a hand on her heart as tears continued to fall.

What Max showed them... was the small tube of freezing within which Karen was currently frozen. The one-year old child with little hair on her head and sleeping so peacefully, actually frozen in this tube and didn't even know about it. She'd stay there until someone thawed her out. Eviri winced as soon as she got close enough to realize what she was staring at. She had inappropriate angry thoughts. “You're going to show off your family, now that ours are dead!?” “This is not so simple that you can just show me cute things and it'll get better!” “Fuck you, I don't want to look at this thing right now!” … Of course, she couldn't actually say any of those.

'When I wake up Karen, what kind of world will she wake up in?' Max asked, glaring almost angrily down at his own baby. Eviri stared silently as Max continued. 'I currently don't know. It's all up in the air right now. But know this; as long as my child sleeps in this tube, I know that I'll have to continue to fight. I have to make the world a better place for my girl.' He lifted a datapad and pressed a button on it. Suddenly it was shared over the common information-network that the body of Commander Koala had been found among the others. Umeron had simply left her there, to mock the incoming Plutonians. A scan of her body revealed that she had a chip implanted in her brain, showing that Umeron had planned to use her for something, but then just decided to terminate her there and leave her for them to find. Eviri's heart took another hard hit from the loss of another close to her, but her eyes glanced quickly at Max again. H-he had lost his...

'Don't say a word.' Max demanded, staring down at his daughter. 'We all know what needs to be done. We can't let grief hold us down, there is work to be done. If you want to bellow in grief, there's a time for that. But currently, remember the lives of those who remain. We can't let ourselves drown in the past, we need to do what we can for the future. There will be a time where we can-'

'GEESH, Max...!' Eviri rubbed at her face with her right hand, interrupting him while her voice still sounding struck with grief but she gained a little smile underneath. 'Even in this situation... Can't we mourn for five seconds without suddenly getting an inspirational speech? Let us grieve in peace. You're the one who should be comforted the most, damn it.' Eviri had to keep herself from giggling, something she felt would have been incredibly inappropriate at this moment. Max glared her a little and then shrugged.

'Hey. I'm trying to be a hero. Heroes make good speeches.' He casually dismissed, frowning.

'Max, we were never intending on stopping.' Aren took over. 'We were going to return on our own, you don't need to give us a reason to continue living every single time we look down.' Aren sighed, but even he was forced to give a little smile in the midst of his grief. A smile meant to show that his speech probably had the intended effect.

'Hey!' Max frowned even more, glaring at them. 'This isn't like, “normal” down! This is the mother of all downs! You're telling me to keep quiet when you look like you're five inches from suicide!? Fine! I'm out!' Max threw his hands in the air and started walking out from the room, his bombastic attitude forcing even Jarnet, who had seemed like a shrinking little husk since they learned of Pluto's destruction to get a little smile in the midst of her grief.

'I'll need to both thank and apologize to you, Jarnet.' Aren turned to the young girl, who blinked back at him in surprise. 'Your technique saved my life, but I also let it be discovered by the enemy. I apologize for that.' He bowed his head, but Jarnet just smiled back at him. 'Don't worry. He won't be able to make a counter-measure THAT quickly.' She assured, confident in her own ingenuity.

'So, Commander. Your orders.' Aren said, turning to Eviri. Aren and Jarnet both looked at her expectantly, and Max stopped right outside the door, to turn and give her a confident little smile. She nodded, frowning, taking a deep and focused breath before focusing her determination on one, sole, obvious goal. 

'We're heading for Triton.'

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'Stay here. Prepare to go to light-speed at any sign of danger.' Eviri told the crew of the Isabelle and the other ships. They were a reasonable distance away from Neptune and Triton. They simply couldn't bring the ship carrying Max's daughter anywhere near the battlefield, but they still had to use the light-speed to get there in any considerable amount of time. The crews acknowledged, and Eviri stood up straight in mid-space. She turned around, enveloped by a sphere of green to look at her companions.

Aren stood, with a somber but determined smile looking at her, inside his yellow sphere. He was always at her side, always supporting her with his presence. A little wince inside Eviri realized she had never told him that she loved him. She probably never would now, either. Then there was Max, grinning inside his red sphere, his arms crossed and ready to take on the greatest enemy they had ever faced. Oh, Max. There was no sign that he had lost his loved one, but she knew it was within him, he just hid it for all their sakes. Jarnet held her fists in a fighting-stance inside her blue sphere, ready to get at the enemy. Eviri was reminded that without her genius, they'd never have been able to counter Umeron's devices. It was a blessing to have her on their side. Speaking of that...

'Nice too see you could join us.' Eviri smiled in the direction of the man in the white sphere, Wence frowning and anger seething out of his eyes, but this time it was not directed at them.

'Because of that the public wanted it, I let myself enjoy fame and fortune for just a little bit.' Wence said, glaring at the blue ball over there. 'JUST A LITTLE BIT! And then I went to sleep for just one night...!' Rage was burning in Wence's eyes with such intensity that Eviri felt she had to wince back. 'Umeron will PAY for his wrongdoings...! Not only for what he did to Pluto and all our families, but also for what he DARED do to ME...!' Wence's fists were shaking in anger within the white sphere. Eviri quickly concluded he wasn't a very nice guy even without the chip... but oh, well. At least he was on their side, now? Jarnet giggled a little bit at Wence's answer to Eviri's statement.

'Alright. We're about to take on Umeron, his Trident, and all of Triton.' Eviri focused over her more regular fighters. They had all grieved, they had all been shocked by the news of what happened to Pluto. But now, they all knew what to do. There was no doubt in their minds. 'Are you all ready?' Eviri asked. It was more of a formality by now. She knew the answer already. Some saluted, other just reached their arms into the air, some made grand shapes of approval from their spheres. All sounded out in a determined, approving cheer.  Eviri breathed out to the satisfaction of hearing that. She spun around, looking at her friends. She gave them rather odd, inspecting looks.

'Why did you chose the colours you did?' She asked. She got odd stares from all of them. 'I choose green because of a conversation I had with my little brother. It's the colour of photosynthesis, which allows planets to get oxygen, which creates life. It's the most beautiful colour because of that, I think.' Eviri said, smiling a little sadly, remembering her brother.

'Hmpf.' Aren crossed his arms and smiled, his shining yellow sphere shining just a bit brighter suddenly. 'But photosynthesis would be impossible without the energy of the sun. If you want to find the true source of all the energy green is giving to life, then you'll have to look in the bright origin of that yellow in the sky.' He looked rather proud of his comparison.

'White is the collection of all colours.' Wence answered, his expression softening somewhat as he stared out towards Neptune, his white sphere shimmering a bit. 'When I set out, I vowed to become the perfect fighter, the collective which all other colours aspired to be. There is no more fitting colour for that than white.' He raised his chin, also confident about his choice.

'I, eh, thought red looked fearsome.' Max grinned a bit. 'What? Sorry, I don't have that deep a reason for it. I wanted to be intimidating, and no colour spells out warning as much as red.' He breathed out a little, a little bit of sadness leaking through. 'I know Koala picked purple simply because it was her favourite colour. She liked its mysterious properties. She wanted to appear mystical, like the colour purple, so she picked that colour to give that effect.'

'She succeeded.' Aren muttered, and an agreeing sound could be heard from the onlooking crowd.

'…' Jarnet blinked in random desperation when Eviri looked at her for her answer. 'I didn't have a good reason to pick a colour! I was too into the actual research to think too much about it! But, um, when thinking of a fighter you naturally think of the sky, right? And the sky is blue, so... blue.' Jarnet looked as if to ask if that was good enough an answer. 'I don't know! It just felt the most comfortable to me, alright!?' She giggled.

'Alright.' Eviri nodded, understandingly, to each of her allies present. 'The people of Pluto has long prided ourselves with the freedom which we've offered to our people, further shown by allowing our fighters to pick any colour we wanted. Even now!' Eviri smiled proudly over the forces gathered with her. 'Even now you're all free to leave this area, to seek your fortune elsewhere in the universe. It is the freedom of our people, none of you would be judged for leaving. In fact, if you feel any doubt about fighting, then I urge you to leave. But if you wish to fight with me...' Eviri rose herself in altitude and she, Aren, Max, Jarnet and Wence all took offensive stances, preparing.

'… ADVANCE!' And with that, Eviri launched herself and her green sphere towards Neptune and its largest moon, Triton. After her followed a yellow, a red, a blue and a white sphere of her now closest allies, and after them came the myriad of determined Plutonians, ready to fight.

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[h3]Chapter 7: Triton[/h3]

There was a huge fleet of ships. They stretched out left and right like two giant arms, the Trident in the middle the fleet forming its own Trident form and pointing at them, the Trident being the middle spire of a trident-formation. Eviri was going to meet them head on. However, her brow twitched in reaction at what she realized was placed right in front of the huge craft called the Trident. There was a gathering of a large amount of people, standing in mid-space, all of them surrounded by dark spheres. Each one of them was wielding one of the same guns which Wence had previously been wielding. The one in the very front of these was wearing a very disturbing smile.

'I've been waiting for you.' Umeron stood there, his hands joined together and face smiling like he was some kind of saintly priest. 

'Umeron!' Eviri replied, glaring at him in anger, not really surprised or caring about that he had stolen Plutonian technology after his much worse crimes. 'We've come to finish this!'

'Oh, yes. Finishing this. The final battle.' Umeron mused, looking almost innocently happy. 'You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this battle. In fact, I wouldn't go so far as to say this battle was why I did all this to begin with. For the sake of having this battle with you Plutonians...' His sphere of power, black in its nature, looked like a hole of pure darkness except for Umeron standing in the middle of it in a Plutonian suit. He suddenly lost his saintly look, hit pupils shrinking and his smile widening into a mad grin. 'COME AT ME, PLUTONIANS! I'LL TEACH YOU HOW IT FEELS TO BE INFERIOR!' And with that, all of his ships opened fire. Showers upon showers of the anti-Plutonian bullets came flying through space while his gathering of soldiers of Plutonian technology set up in a line defending the firing ships, aiming their guns forward and firing.

'Don't worry about being hit!' Jarnet shouted out. 'With the data from the last battle, the computer can predict the shot-trajectories! Trust the information in your heads!' Indeed, the bullets weren't hitting. They had overcome this counter-measure already, Eviri using the knowledge to shift left and right to avoid the shots. There were those who were being picked off behind her, but they were much fewer in number than last time. They were advancing well.

'Careful...' Wence frowned behind Eviri, glaring at Umeron. 'I know first-hand. He's a Plutonian fanatic. He's researched his entire life how to beat us. All because he heard “Plutonians can't be beat” as a child. I believe he has more tricks than he has showed me.' Eviri nodded, forming her blades of green in preparation to face the lines of Tritonian warriors wielding Plutonian suits. That they all held black spheres was very disturbing to Eviri's eyes, used to seeing them in many colours. These...

'The garrison of Pluto.' Jarnet said, just as Eviri came close they started recognizing some faces. Eviri hesitated, suddenly slowing down, trying to process this information. Every one of the Plutonian fighters had been given Jarnet's small darts in arm-bands around their wrists, launching straight forward. She could potentially save their lives with these specific and easily dodge-able darts, which made Eviri hesitate thinking what she should do. However, due to her hesitation, the lines of manipulated Plutonians got off another volley with their guns, which blazed past her and into several Plutonian fighters who had hesitated with her. A little burst of anger ignited within her for that stupid emotional mistake.

'Fight to kill! Use Jarnet's darts only when you feel you absolutely can! We don't have the luxury of sparing their lives!' Her allies cried out in angry approval as Eviri boosted up her speed again, heading straight at the lines of her kinsmen enemies. They shot at her, but reflexes combined with speed and information made Eviri avoid them easily, crashing into them with speed and experience, pushing the dark spheres away with surprised stares from the individuals within. The enemy in front of Eviri wasn't fast enough to bring up his defence where he needed it. Eviri sliced at his torso, and he correctly created a shield of power to defend his torso. However, Eviri twisted her slice and cut off his legs, glaring at him darkly as he screamed in pain. She flew on towards the next enemy, a woman who stared at her in stunned fear. 

This was where Eviri belonged. An elite warrior, in the midst of the enemy lines. The Plutonian systems informed her of the exact location of every single danger and every single opponent and ally around her. This was home, now. And this garrison did not have the experience to match the elite of the Vilemug wars and the First Solar War. Eviri clashed against enemy after enemy, dodging enemy shots and sending enemy dark spheres scrambling, cutting enemies left and right, their guns spiralling off into nowhere while she danced with grace, her swords moving from enemy to enemy. This was much easier than fighting Aimer had been, he had been a true elite. These... these were raw recruits in comparison.

In the distance her senses informed her of Max soaring through the right fleet of ships in the trident-formation, his dragon way too quick and powerful to let any of them get away, lots of explosions and broken as metals flying everywhere as the Dragon of Pluto roared through the formation with ease. A similar scene, albeit not quite as fast, was taking place on the left side. Aren was flying through, throwing explosive lance after explosive lance, easily dodging the shots of all those ships that were coming in. Jarnet was doing a fine job flying around with speed and efficiency among the main combat against the enemy manipulated Plutonians, shooting her darts with desperation, trying to save as many enemy lives as she could. Wence was not as merciful, utilizing the same strategy as he had against Jarnet, caging in the enemy spheres with numerous shots around them before finishing them off with a single shot in the middle, time and time again. He had clearly been trained in the arts of killing Plutonians. 

'Oh, dear. Looks like my forces is having trouble.' Umeron chuckled at his little situation. 'Good thing I have a solution for that!'

Eviri danced right past one enemy's shot and sliced through another enemy's torso straight through his shield because that shield was way too weak, just as she heard Umeron's words. She prepared herself for whatever dastardly thing he had cooked up, her eyes narrowing and body tensing up preparing for... Eviri barely flinched out of the way of something. Out of the way of... what? It had come out of nowhere from diagonally above, and it had been so fast that she had barely gained a reading on it before it was already past. What was that!? … She didn't have to ask that, because others than herself weren't so lucky. Explosions took place around her, as extremely high-speed missiles blew in from seemingly nowhere and blew up into Plutonian fighters. Everi's eyes widened as she realized what they were.

'H-he's put light-speed engines on missiles!' Jarnet announced what everybody had already figured out. That was ridiculous. Light-speed engines were ludicrously expensive. Yet, seeing Umeron's disturbingly pleased smile over there, it was clear they had just the kind of maniac who would pay all of Triton's national treasury just for the sake of getting the means of destroying the Plutonians.

'H-hold out! He can't afford an infinite amount of them! Strengthen shields above!' Eviri called out, just barely getting her shield up in time to block a missile of her own, but with sincere effort. With a troubled sound, she was launched backwards, her shield barely holding as she stared up in light terror. They weren't travelling quite at light-speed, but at that speed they were almost impossible to dodge and the power they gained in that speed was phenomenal. Not only that, but the enemy Plutonians were using their spot of trouble to launch a counter attack with volleys from their guns, which turned very effective due to that their targets were already busy worrying about missiles from above. 

Eviri blinked as she felt the situation all around her. Their numbers... were dwindling. Even Max and Aren had to stop their assaults on the Triton fleet due to the missiles from above. This was exactly the kind of pressure Umeron needed. But, he was in no way going to just settle for that.

Suddenly, while Umeron was so pleasantly grinning in front of it, the Trident started glowing. It was charging power, to blast into the combat in front of him. Eviri flinched in realization. 'Scatter!' She commanded, and the Plutonian forces under this heavy barrage spread out of the way of this giant death-machine under Umeron's command. But, something felt wrong. Sure, the Trident was a giant death-cannon with monstrous range, but against the extremely nimble Plutonian fighters its use was really moot. There was no sense of danger in letting that thing charge to almost being ready to fire. What was he possibly intending to-

'It's aiming at the Isabelle!' Jarnet informed, her eyes suddenly going wide with fear. Eviri blinked with a similar realization, and immediately threw her intentions towards the crew.

'LIGHTSPEED! NOW!' Would they make it? It took numerous seconds to charge up to light-speed. Eviri would have thought that they were safe there, because Umeron would surely have been busy dealing with them. She was wrong. Umeron was just the kind of cowardly being to aim at their softest point at any one time. 'A-ah...' Eviri got stale with the realization going through her. They were not going to make it.

'Oh, NO, YOU DON'T!' Max blasted out at maximum power, his form taking that of a red comet as he charged straight into the way of the Trident's blast. His eyes were burning with determination to stop this blast, no matter what. 'MY LITTLE GIRL IS ON BOARD THAT SHIP! IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO TOUCH EVEN THE TINIEST LITTLE HAIR ON HER HEAD, I'LL GOING TO HAVE TO-' Max's red dragon took shape, growing larger than Eviri had ever seen it. It was a gigantic monster of its own right, almost matching the Trident itself in size. Wh-where was Max getting all his sheer power? Eviri could only stare in awe as Max's dragon of power folded its scaled wings over its chest and snarled at the giant cannon. Umeron, clearly amused, accepted the competition of power and the Trident launched its attack.

A huge, dream-like blast of energy beyond which amount Eviri could even fathom streamed out of the Trident, straight ahead at the Dragon of Pluto, which stood ready to defend those behind him. Max grinned, welcoming the challenge as he braced for impact. Eviri felt so useless, able to do nothing but watch this hero of her people accept this gargantuan task of surmounting the very same blast which had destroyed Pluto. The same that had destroyed Pluto... Eviri's emotions were struck through by fear. She was an idiot. There was no way a single Plutonian fighter could match up to that kind of strength.

'MAX! GET OUT OF THERE!' She screamed out in desperation. However, Max wouldn't budge. Not as long as behind him, in the ship which the blast was aiming for, was his sleeping, adorable little girl. The white blast of the Trident ripped straight through the dragon's wings and chest, enveloping Max and soaring on to cause numerous explosions in the distance as it impacted the rest of the Plutonian ships. Eviri's heart sank, once again. They had failed to protect... they had failed to protect Karen...

'HAHAHAHAHA...!' Umeron laughed maniacally. 'The Dragon of Pluto, EH!? Brave soul, indeed! Brave little pesky HAHAHAHA...!' He was doubling over, taking immense pleasure in his success, a hand over his face where he stood in the middle of his dark sphere. However, he was very suddenly forced to blink in surprise and quickly bring his hands forward a create a dark shield, his expression somewhat twisted from sheer pleasure to sudden fear of the consequences of his most recent action. The shield had come up just in time to just barely block a really big green blade from running him through on the spot, the blade having come like a green shooting star of monstrous speed from the location Eviri had previously been located. She was now right in front of him, burrowing her blade slightly into his sphere, glaring at him in dark anger, her green colliding with his dark.

'You... have lost.' She declared. Eviri REALLY wasn't in the mood to lose one of her closest friends, or feel the guilt of failing to protect his daughter. Umeron's lightly fearful expression above his pleased smile made her aware that she did not look very happy. That was fine. Get scared, little man. 'On this range, I am the most dangerous Plutonian fighter there is. I can even react to your light-speed missiles as I detect them. Try a single move, and I guarantee I'll be able to outmaneuver you in the fraction of a second and end your life. You... have lost. Stand down.' She followed, her sword pressing powerfully against his shield, forcing Umeron to focus on his shield rather than try anything else. 

Umeron lightly chuckled, not doing anything but seemingly thinking about what to do. Behind Eviri, she was aware of Jarnet, struck with grief at the loss of Max, was still flying around in her nimble blue sphere, shooting darts at those she could with considerable success. Wence, frowning in dark awareness, had risen above the rest and started shooting widely in all directions, creating a white web of his power lingering after his shots which caused many of the light-speed missiles to blow up by blasting into his net instead of on the Plutonian fighters.  Aren had doubled his efforts, grimly continuing to launch explosive yellow lances at the Triton ship formation, which was frankly running out of ships by now. Not that Umeron seemed to care. He just smiled widely at Eviri where she was, right in front of him.

'So you're playing the assassin's card, eh? Your own little green assassin. I always really liked you, Eviri. You knew where your limits went, unlike Koala, and I could always so easily predict what you'd do next.' Umeron admitted, smiling pleasantly at her in a way which caused Eviri to twitch unpleasantly. 'I've kind of played with the idea of keeping you alive after this battle. As a memento of the things I've experienced. In a different turn of events, I might even have confessed that I'd have fallen in love with you. Ops, seems like I just did. Hahaha.' Umeron laughed his creepy little laugh, the contents of his words causing Eviri to press just that little extra to get her sword through his shield.

'Whoops, oh.' Umeron made an amused little sound as he backed off just a little to not be cut through. He was still plenty within Eviri's range, so she let him and just glared at him. 'Still.' He smirked really widely. 'I already knew you'd betray me at Earth. So honestly, I really didn't need to wait before I administered the punishment of Pluto. You're such a pure-hearted girl. Let me just say, even as I manipulated every last one of your moves, somewhere deep in my rotten black heart, your kindness really touched me. Sniff.' Umeron smiled like he was at a wedding, pulling out a handkerchief from who knows where in his suit and started drying up tears that he started shedding. Eviri was really starting to consider just decapitating him and be done with it. But...

'But, this is about the time you'd lose patience with me.' Umeron stated with frightening accuracy, putting away the handkerchief with a somber little smile. 'So. You have three seconds to kill me.' Eviri didn't need more. Whatever happened, she could not allow this man to survive three seconds. She felt the Trident powering up. She had no idea what it was going to do, but she couldn't let it happen. Eviri blasted herself forward at him, slicing with both her swords at his shield, intending to break through. However, she blinked in surprise as Umeron's shield blew up in proportion, easily blocking her strike. This strength... his suit was backed with more power than an average Plutonian suit. That explained his confidence. He had quadrupled the power-output, and most likely the storage as well. This suit was four times stronger than hers. Umeron grinned confidently at her, while Eviri gritted her teeth at him in anger. That wasn't enough to beat her, and he knew it. But it might allow him to survive three seconds.

Eviri flashed around him, darting at full speed around his sphere while grinding her swords along his sphere. Umeron blinked, noting that she'd quickly sink her teeth into his sphere with sheer friction if he didn't do something. So he did. He extended a hand and a block of dark energy thrust out at her, the power of the large block considerable. In order to not crash straight into the block and be destroyed, Eviri instantly reverted her movement, spinning herself back in the opposite direction. However, Eviri was skilled enough to combine her back-spin with a deadly thrust at Umeron's dark sphere, her green swords shining in power. Umeron, quickly noting the danger he was in, finally moved his sphere, flinching to the side barely avoiding Eviri's swords. That was, though, exactly what she had intended, because she could now go directly for the Trident. Streaming straight past Umeron, for currently he was but another foe in Plutonian tech, Eviri headed with her swords out directly towards the tip of the charging Trident. She'd strike through it with her swords, rendering it inoperable, and that would be the end of it.

'Not good enough.' Umeron grinned behind her, and Eviri was filled with a mild dread of what she could have possibly failed with. And then... she ran straight into a shield. Her own sphere blocked any damage from happening to herself, but she ran straight into an invisible shield, which flickered in white showing its existence as she hit it. She couldn't break through it. She realized with a start what this was. Umeron had adapted the Plutonian technology and created actual shield-generators. The Trident was the first war-vessel with actual shield-generators in mankind's history. Eviri paused, staring up in fear and awe at the monstrous creation. She had no idea how to break it. It was impenetrable. 

'Three seconds are out.' Umeron informed. The Trident's tip charged, and Eviri flinched and flew out of the way. But, how did the Trident's power help him in this moment? All the Plutonian fighters were way too nimble to be hit by that! If the Trident was truly built to be an anti-Plutonian weapon, a giant cannon was the least effective means of taking them down. So, why was the Trident built? If it was just to destroy planets, then the PD bombs would have done the job. While it was beneficial to have the blast of the Trident, which couldn't have its engines cut off and was as such a lot more dangerous, it simply wasn't an effective weapon against Plutonians. Then why...?

'Let me answer the question that just went through your mind, scared little Eviri.' Umeron smiled at her, crossing his arms. This was when Eviri realized, looking at him. He was standing straight in the firing-path of the Trident. Then... his muscles loosened, the pupils of his eyes narrowed and his grin turned into one of pure pleased madness...

'THE TRIDENT IS NOT A CANNON...' The Trident then shot out a beam. A considerably thin little white beam, which caused Eviri to blink in surprise. It hit Umeron's dark sphere. Umeron spread his arms as the white enveloped him, smiling in pleasure, and then... Eviri flinched backwards, her eyes widening with shock. His sphere of power expanded. She had to flee away from the trident, because Umeron's sphere grew larger and larger, eventually encompassing the Trident itself. The sphere grew until it was larger than the largest crafts ever built by humankind, causing Eviri to retreat backwards, afraid of what might happen if she came into contact with it. At its largest, it was shining pure white, stronger than the light coming from Triton's Solar Gate.

And then... it shrunk. The massive power shrunk down, down back to only merely four times larger than a normal Plutonian sphere. The light faded away as it shrunk, sinking down from the pure brilliant white to a black hole of darkness, flickering with the awesome might. Eviri could sense it, and Umeron grinned wickedly within it, knowing she could. The full power equal to all the power in the Trident was in that sphere now. Umeron summoned a weapon, the same way Eviri extruded her power from her green sphere to create her swords. A huge trident took shape at Umeron's side, extending through the barrier from Umeron's right hand. He calmly lifted his left hand, palm upwards, and waved a bit with his fingers, taunting Eviri to come get him.

Eviri felt afraid. There was no way she couldn't feel afraid. He had somehow adapted Plutonian technology, and improved on it. He wasn't just a mad warmonger and a Plutonian fanatic, he was also a brilliant inventor, a masterful manipulator and, as Eviri had just learned, a natural fighter. It didn't matter how much more experience Eviri had, with this amount of power at his disposal there was no victory. His basic shield was probably enough to deter any attack she could possibly make. However, as she was fearing about this... she suddenly became aware of the battlefield around her again. There was only a single enemy left.

'Phew. Good job holding him up, Commander.' Jarnet descended on her side in blue, breathing heavily. 'I've disabled the chips in as many as I could, there's not a single enemy-controlled Plutonian left on the battlefield.' She explained. Behind her, was the force of surviving Plutonian fighters from the fleet and also a rather large amount of formerly controlled Plutonians from the garrison Umeron had taken control over. Jarnet had improved her darts so they didn't knock the people out for numerous hours, and they were now glaring angrily at Umeron, wielding the very same anti-Plutonian guns which they had wielded previously, but now on their side. Jarnet herself had picked up a spare such gun which had floated around.

'The light-speed missiles have been eliminated.' Wence declared, floating down from above, placing himself on her side in white. 'Those blasted things couldn't aim well enough to get through my net. I'm ready to pay back Umeron for all he has done to me.' The man was still seething with rage, but he had just saved many of their lives by creating that defensive net. It was comforting to have him on their side, and Jarnet was as much of a blessing as ever. Their force was down to less than half, yet they were still going strong.

'With the exception of the Trident, the Triton fleet has been destroyed.' Aren floated down behind her, but still at her side in yellow. 'Commander Eviri. We'll help you take down this enemy. For Koala, for Max, for Pluto, and for everyone else that has fallen.' His face was filled with grim determination, and there was a murmur of absolute acknowledgement in his words from the warriors behind him. That's right. Eviri was not alone. She breathed out with a little smile, turning to face Umeron. Their last enemy, grinning at them so confidently. 

'Let's go.' Eviri informed them all of their orders through the information-network and darted forward. She was mildly aware that Umeron was likely monitoring their minds through that same network, so the orders were very simple. The result was all of them soaring forward, a stream of colourful spheres heading to intercept the black hole in front of them.

Umeron flashed them a grin, and then stabbed. Eviri flinched, being forced to move aside. However, she became distinctly aware that had he aimed for her, she would have died. Umeron's dark trident of power extended far faster and far further than any Plutonian could ever imagine one of their weapons reaching, and it stabbed straight through a poor warrior directly behind Eviri and beside Aren. Th-this was their enemy. Eviri feared a future where technology like this decided the outcome of battles. They had to take him down.

The Plutonian lines spread out, in all directions. Umeron was likely faster than all of them, so they had to create a cage to lock him in. Eviri, however, soared straight at him, glaring at him intently as she shot like a green bullet through space with her swords stabbing forward. Umeron smiled happily at her.

'Oh, you came to see me, sweetheart.' He teased, easily dodging aside her stab with a mere thought. However, he did not counter-attack. Eviri was aware of her advantage. Umeron did not want to kill her, because he liked her. It was a stupid advantage, but it was an advantage nonetheless. This meant that Eviri could charge at him without fearing death. To him, he was already so superior that he could do this without fear. To her, it was something that she simply had to take advantage of, any minor advantage was worth too much to pass up on. 

She sliced at him, time and time again. As the warrior with the highest top-speed among the Plutonians, she was best suited to catching up to him. Even with his super-powered things, he was limited by the suit's capability to dampen G-forces for his acceleration, and that was the same as for Eviri and as such she could catch up to him. However, she couldn't hit him. She sliced diagonally, she sliced horizontally, she chased after him and stabbed. He easily and with a small smile dodged left, dodged upwards and sidestepped in space at her stab. He then somehow placed himself on the edge of his large dark sphere, reaching forward with his left hand and easily penetrating her sphere. Eviri's eyes widened as she realized his intention of merely softly stroking her cheek, and she couldn't avoid it.

'Oh, such a sweet little-' Umeron had almost reached her, smiling with a blissfully happy expression of looking at something cute, when suddenly he had to jerk backwards because of a yellow lance stabbing in between him and Eviri which threatened to take his arm off. Umeron stumbled back in his dark sphere, and was then forced to dodge a volley of shots from his own anti-Plutonian guns as he stared in mad happiness at where Aren stood, glaring angrily at him in front of Eviri. Eviri's eyes immediately turned scared, for Umeron likely wouldn't hesitate at all to kill Aren.

'Oh, my!' Umeron shouted out happily. 'Looks like I have a rival!' He cackled happily, then looking at Aren's yellow lance before inspecting his own dark trident. 'Both with stabbing weapons, eh. Guess this was fated to happen!' He glared happily at Aren, when he became aware of a unit of Plutonian fighters approaching him from below and above, intending on taking him on...

'DO NOT INTERFERE!' Umeron suddenly angrily shouted out, and from his dark sphere a multitude of new tridents shot out, almost instantly piercing through every single Plutonian heading for him, causing Eviri to gasp out at this happening. Why... why was he so powerful? She knew why, but, it was really disheartening to see their final opponent being so invincible! She felt a panic, seeing Aren still in front of her, protecting her. Eviri didn't feel like the kind that needed protecting, but Aren sure would need protecting if Umeron decided to kill him.

'Alright, let's go, sunny boy.' Umeron grinned happily, and Aren grimly accepted his challenge. The two soared at one another in this game of space jousting, Eviri not fast enough to keep up as Aren had intentionally blocked off her means of assisting by keeping her directly behind him. The yellow and the dark sphere clashed, the dark one multiple times faster than the yellow one, and they passed one another. This caused Umeron to stop, smiling, staring down at Eviri.

'I'm impressed.' Umeron said, lifting his hand to stroke off some leaking blood from his chin. 'You actually scratched me.' The confidence with which he said so made Eviri fear, and then Aren fell down on his knee in mid-space behind him, blood leaking from his stomach.

'Aren!' Eviri flew straight past Umeron, the enemy just smiling in pleasure from the drama at hand being given to him just how he liked. Eviri soared around to in front of Aren, and breathed in relief when she saw that he also only had taken a minor cut to his side. It was more dangerous than the one Umeron had taken, but it was not fatal, the power of the suit was healing it by the moment. However, Aren shouldn't fight in a little while.

'… Heh. He knows nothing of Plutonian cooperative techniques...' Aren smirked at her, Eviri blinking at him a little. Huh? Umeron knows nothing about...? What does that mean?

She didn't have the time to ask, as suddenly Umeron was forced to deal with the next attack which Eviri felt the need to pay immediate attention to. Umeron blinked in realization as the white cage of Wence started forming around him, the white guns shooting around him and locking him in so that he couldn't move.

'UMERON! This is for everything you've ever done to me!' Wence roared down at him, Umeron looking up at him with a pleasantly amused expression.

'Oh, the cage I taught you.' Umeron mused happily. 'Well, that does the job fine, but it doesn't matter to someone with as much power as me. I just need to soar down the direction your shots were heading...' Umeron turned around, intending to fly down that line. Inevitably, the shots would spread out further and further, eventually revealing the cracks in the bars which would allow his escape from the cage. However, as Umeron turned to escape, he suddenly was confronted with something blocking the way.

'That WOULD work, but...' Jarnet smiled confidently up at him, wielding one of his own anti-Plutonian guns along with a whole force of the turned Plutonian garrison aiming up at him with the same guns, placed directly in the way in that said direction and aiming their guns up the same cage. No matter how fast he was, that sphere of his was still unnaturally large for a Plutonian sphere and a single hit to it was all that was needed. There would be no avoiding it inside this cage. 'Makes you somewhat regret making anti-Plutonian technology and then using Plutonian technology yourself, eh, UMERON!?' She shouted out at him, the guns aiming up at the perplexed-looking Triton lord. He looked like he couldn't quite believe what was happening.

Wait. Something was wrong, Eviri realized. Umeron would not make that oversight. Her suspicion was confirmed when she saw the vile disbelieving grin which suddenly spread on the man's lips. Fear surged through Eviri as she turned to...

'JARNET! DON'T!' She screamed.

Jarnet's expression twisted a bit into confusion at her commander's words. Then the gun in her hand exploded within her blue sphere. All the guns wielded by Plutonians at the end of the cage exploded in their wielder's hands, and within the protective spheres there was no defence. They all died instantly, their limbs and blood  bouncing around within their protective spheres preventing the force of the explosions from escaping, just crushing the bodies of the owners inside before the spheres faded into nothingness due to the destruction of the suits within. Eviri's heart sank in horror, while Umeron started laughing uncontrollably.

'Hahahaha...!' He laughed out loud, his left hand clasped over his face. 'Oh, you have NO idea how long I thought of how to possibly get bombs within your spheres! It was impossible! The only way to do it would be to make you pick them up yourself!' He stretched out his hands, an absolutely giant smile on his lips. 'But I did it! Look at my absolute genius! The whole stealing Plutonian technology and then making anti-Plutonian technology were all by-products of the original anti-Plutonian thought of “how do I get bombs within Plutonian spheres?”! Look at it! The ancestor of all my plans has finally succeeded! I'm so bloody happy...! Hahahaha...!' Umeron laughed out in almost nostalgic happiness for the success his oldest plan.

'J-Jarnet...!' However, Eviri couldn't appreciate his sentiment, knowing that one of her closest friends had just been reduced to nothing from this bomb, along with a lot of other Plutonians. Her body was shaking from this feeling of loss and failure. All it would have taken to stop that was the common sense that Umeron wouldn't have let his own guns aim at him. Such a tiny thing. There were now barely any Plutoians left. Eviri had to...

'I'LL CRUSH YOU MYSELF, THEN!' Wence soared down through his own cage at Umeron, blasting with his white guns at Umeron wherever he went. He seemed... more angered than before. Angered at Jarnet's death. Umeron just easily drifted downwards faster than Wence could catch up to him, dodging the bullets with frightening ease. 'I'LL BLAST YOUR TECHNOLOGY TO PIECES, AND THEN I'LL KILL EVERY PERSON ON TRITON, JUST TO MAKE YOU FEEL THE SAME PAIN WE FELT WHEN YOU DESTROYED PLUTO!' Wence screamed out at Umeron, who suddenly got a really curious expression.

'… What, you think I actually care about the people of Triton?' Umeron asked, staring in disbelief at Wence. Wence's expression twitched somehow, as he realized just how demonic this man was. 'Oh, gosh, this is hilarious.' Umeron chuckled in front of Wence, still dodging his shots. 'Why don't I do it myself and spare you the trouble?' Umeron playfully grinned as he suggested, making Wence's eyes go wide in stunned surprise. There was no way he'd actually...

'There we go.' Umeron sent a signal to the Trident, and a hatch opened which sent several bombs falling down at Triton. Eviri herself had to freeze as she looked at it to decide her next cause of action. This was unbelievable. Even if he had the heart of a demon, that planet had resources he needed. He would destroy his own home? What kind of a man was he!?

'Oh, it's quite simple.' Umeron grinned, replying to a thought he couldn't possibly have heard. 'Nothing past this battle matters to me. Everything has been for this battle. What happens after it... I don't care. Triton has helped me a lot. Putting chips into the leaders of the Triton Union has helped me get all the resources and assistance I've ever needed. But now, now it's all over. I don't need them anymore. And you've already conquered the Solar System for me. The world is mine, I can do as I please.' Umeron smiled so pleasantly... when a white flash just straight blew past him, making Umeron have to blink a little in surprise.

With extremely accurate shots, Wence blew off key engines of the PD bombs raining down on the planet. With parts of their engines cut off, they started spiralling into space, leaving Triton safe. Wence breathed out in relief, the white warrior with guns of power extruding from his sphere stopping between the Trident and the moon.

'Oh, my, this is glorious!' Umeron clasped his hands against his cheeks in amazement. 'You really ARE the Knight of Triton! You, Wence, my chief enforcer and the reason why I made my anti-Plutonian weapons into guns... You're so sweet! Even when I betrayed Triton, you're still loyal!' Umeron held his hands together in front of him along with a silly little smile like he was looking at the most adorable thing he could possibly imagine. Eviri felt a burning need to do something. She shot away towards Umeron-

'Come an inch closer to me and I'll kill you for real.' Umeron said in the sweetest voice he could summon, freezing Eviri in place. Her emotions were overcome with fear. Umeron... didn't lie. If she went closer to him, he'd stab her through with his trident, and she wouldn't stand a chance. Eviri would have wasted her life. Wasted the life which all the others had fought alongside of, which they trusted. She couldn't do that. As a Commander, Eviri felt she couldn't kill herself by suicidally charging into Umeron's trident. It was the same as how she couldn't refuse his orders when he threatened Pluto. As long as there was life, there was a chance of new hope. That's how Eviri operated. And Umeron... Umeron knew it. He used it against her, causing her to freeze in mid-space, helpless.

'And now, since I knew of the weak point of the PD bombs, here's a specifically modified version which has no such weakness. Have fun, Wence.' Umeron said, as the Trident launched another bomb. Wence glared with hatred in his eyes at Umeron for a second, before turning to look at the bomb. It was a perfect metal sphere, and it was heading for Triton's Solar Gate. Should it be destroyed, Triton's supply of solar energy would be cut short. That simply couldn't happen. However, there was no engines to shoot. Shooting the sphere at all would cause it to explode, and that would cause grave damage to the moon even from this range. It had to be pushed away. 

Wence didn't even hesitate. He charged into the bomb and started pushing, his white sphere enveloping the bomb as he pushed with all the power contained into the suit. Just as he had intended, the bomb was pushed off target, and he pushed it further and further into empty space. Eviri couldn't move, she could only stare as Umeron would kill her if the tried anything. She flinched, noting that other Plutonians were soaring towards Umeron in a last-ditch attempt to take him down.

'N-no, stop! You'll all be killed!' She begged them. They didn't listen. They already knew, but unlike Eviri they trusted a miracle to happen and that they'd defeat Umeron. It didn't happen. Umeron didn't even look at them, his eyes focused on Wence pushing away the bomb while tridents shot out of his sphere at absurd speeds, instantly impaling the Plutonians trying to hunt him down, Eviri once again powerless to help. It felt horrible. Why... why was she so powerless? Why was the enemy so powerful? Why had all this happened? Why...?

'Kaboom.' Umeron made the sound-effect with his voice as space didn't carry the sound, the bomb which Wence's white sphere was pushing exploding as soon as it had come out of the dangerous range, enveloping the white knight with the more powerful light of a massive planet-busting explosion, the man's life ending immediately. Eviri cried, feeling absolutely helpless. What kind of Commander was she? There was... no way to...

'No. There is a way. I scratched him, didn't I?' Aren said, standing in his yellow sphere beside her. Eviri blinked, looking at him. … He was right, he did. But, how? Umeron's shields were strong enough to- Eviri's eyes widened as she connected what Aren had said earlier, just after the impact. That's right. There was a way to hurt him. She looked ahead, staring at Umeron as he drifted over to his Trident, turning towards them once again.

'Okay. But to do it, I need to reach him. I can't reach him without dying.' Eviri told him, and Aren smiled a bit beside him.

'Then we'll just have to make sure you reach him uninjured, right?' Aren said, and Eviri noted that closing in on them were all the surviving few Plutonians, all of them giving her the same supporting smiles.

'You're all going to die.' Eviri informed them, a dark little tone as tears were running down her cheeks, though she felt the little need to smile with that they had actually come up with something.

'Please. Does that change in any way, regardless of what we do at this point?' A male Plutonian in an orange sphere beside her asked, smirking at her.

'Yeah. This here, this is the last shot, anyway. We're with you all the way.' A female Plutonian in a cyan sphere filled in, smiling at her. Eviri didn't know them, but... at this moment, they were all their own closest allies.

'There you go.' Aren said, smirking inside his yellow sphere, as he turned towards the enemy.

'Geesh, you all...' Eviri sighed. But, with all this going on, there was nothing less to do, huh? The green sphere of the Commander took its place in the middle of the small gathering of remaining Plutonians. Before them was Umeron, in his large, dark sphere, and behind him was the large Trident, and in almost perfect line was then Triton, and behind it, Neptune. Behind that, was just the endless expanses of space, stars shining in the far distance.

'Oh? A last charge, is it? Then come. I've grown weary of my happiness. Let's finish this.' Umeron said, his smile looking slightly tired from all that had been going on around him. Eviri shared the sentiment. So, now, for the last time...

'CHARGE!' She screamed out, and the Plutonian fighters gathered around, soaring forward at Umeron at as high speed they could manage and with their shields holding forward. A colourful little pyramid built out of spheres formed, Aren placed right in front of Eviri, as they flew in defensive formation towards Umeron's dark larger sphere, who grinned at their strategy.

'Oooh, how desperation settles in... HAVE AT YOU!' Feeling no risk whatsoever from the enemy charge, Umeron started thrusting his dark trident forward time and time again, each time the trident extended far beyond what would be realistic for an average Plutonian and impaled a fighter with the sheer insurmountable speed. They were being picked off one by one, and Umeron was in no hurry to reach the most important pieces in the middle. He impaled the average troops, taking care to leave the more delicious souls he actually knew in the middle for last, a stream of dead impaled Plutonian fighters falling after their formation as they were being picked down.

The orange warrior fell after being stabbed through his stomach. So did the cyan one, after a particularly gruesome thrust through her throat before the trident retracted. Their shields were meaningless. Soon, there were only five of them left in front of Eviri. Four left, one was stabbed through his heart and drifted off. Three left, one got a trident through his head. Two left, the one on the right was stabbed right through his ribs. One left. The only other person who wasn't Aren flew over Eviri's head, stabbed through his chest.

'Now it's your turn, pretty boy.' Umeron grinned at Aren, and Eviri just pushed on behind him, crying. Aren was not afraid, he was just pushing on. Eviri flinched as he was stabbed in front of her, Umeron first aiming for his right leg. Even with that hole, Aren flew on, giving Eviri additional room. He reached forward and managed to block a stab at his head by letting his arm be impaled instead, still pressing forward. Then he took a straight stab through his stomach, and Aren stopped moving... Eviri gasped out, as she had to move around him, but as she did she suddenly felt her sphere being pushed on. She looked back.

Aren in his yellow sphere glared at her, holding over the wound in his stomach, pressing his exploding lance at her from behind. He only had one word for her.

'… GO.' And then he shot all of his yellow energy into her back with an explosion of power, and Eviri's green was launched forward with such great acceleration that she felt her body straining against it, despite the dampeners in her suit. She flew forward towards Umeron, who spread his arms as if to welcome her, utterly convinced of his own superiority.

'COME, LAST PLUTONIAN IN EXISTENCE! COME, EVIRI, LET US ENJOY ONE ANOTHER, FOR ETERNITIES TO COME...!' He screamed out, his sphere getting larger in front of her. She extended her two green blades, ready to attack. She knew what had to be done. She saw hands extending from his giant sphere. They were going to capture her, and then she'd belong to him, as he wanted her to. The front of his dark sphere gathered immense amounts of dark power. Eviri knew she couldn't break through it. Umeron grinned widely, knowing he had won. There was nobody to argue with him. 

Eviri soared forward, accepting her role as the last living Plutonian, and prepared her arms to strike with her swords against the dark sphere of the enemy. Time felt like it moved slowly, but the impact was approaching very quickly. She'd break against this dark wall, and then his hands which were reaching behind her would capture her. It was inevitable. Eviri breathed out, knowing about it, letting her body relax as the impact was coming up. Umeron's expression got brighter and brighter in ecstatic excitement, imagining all which he'd do to her when she was his. And then... the green and the black sphere collided.

And that's when Eviri simply had her sphere of power match the frequency of Umeron's sphere, making them melt together, allowing her to fly straight through.

Eviri maintained a calm, focused expression as she flew, powerlessly, through Umeron's large sphere. Umeron's expression, still smiling in excitement, twisted slightly in complete disbelief. As Aren had said, Umeron had no idea about Plutonian cooperative techniques. Sometimes, Plutonians needed to enter each other's spheres to help each other out, or they'd be locked out from one another by their sphere-shields in mid-space. Umeron, inexperienced with the use of Plutonian strategies and focused on just making his as strong as possible, didn't know how to scramble his frequency to lock others out.

While Eviri lost her own sphere and all her powers when she entered Umeron's sphere, she did maintain her extreme velocity. This gave Umeron a fraction of a second to react before Eviri's closed fist collided into his stomach. Since he had absolutely no idea this was possible, he was frozen in shock for the entire duration. Eviri, maintaining the absolute focus of a professional who knew exactly what to do in a stressful situation, held a straight professional expression with but her determined eyes showing off her passion for what she was about to do. And then she swung her right fist so that it impacted straight into Umeron's unprotected stomach, feeling how his soft flesh gave way under the sheer power of her speed.

Knocked backwards, the dark sphere which would always follow Umeron's movements flew backwards at the giant ship, the Trident. Because the shield was programmed to let Umeron come and go as he pleased, his sphere flew unopposed straight through the shield which Eviri's other brute force had been entirely incapable of breaching. The dark sphere, powered by Eviri's fist digging deep into Umeron's bowels, flew straight into the firing-tip of the Trident. Because the hardness of Umeron's extremely powerful sphere was so much stronger than the metal which the tip of the Trident was built of, the Trident's tip gave way. Umeron's trip, pressured into his stomach by Eviri's fist, carried him straight through several floors and compartments of the Trident until the momentum finally ceased.

Umeron, spitting out blood and gasping for generally everything, quivering with blood leaking from everywhere within the hole he had for a stomach, blinked in front of him. He was located at the powered core of the Trident, a shining white glowing center was located right behind him. His eyes widened as he looked in front of him. Since Umeron's sphere suddenly vanished due to his condition, Eviri was now back inside her shining green sphere, staring down at his pitiful form with an unnerving calmness. On her side, her two swords were extending out in the directions she held her arms, the swords of power gleaming in beautifully controlled green power. She was so... so perfect, in Umeron's eyes.

It was strange, Eviri thought as she looked down on his pathetic, dying form. Now when his shield was down, she could see the chip in his head with her scanners. He WAS the master-mind, right? That there was someone else manipulating Umeron's actions behind the scenes was a terrifying thought. That, or maybe he had put a chip in his own mind in order to make him able to make become the monster he needed to be in order to defeat the Plutonians? Should she shoot a dart and keep him alive just to find out? … No. Eviri's emotions were dead-set on what she had to do. If there were more to this, she'd learn it later. Now, there was something she simply had to do.

So then she swung her swords, stabbing forward with them and let them both run straight through his chest, then impaling the core of the Trident right behind him. Umeron gasped out in his final pain as the overloading sound of irreversible damage to the Trident's core sounded out, and Eviri closed her eyes and held the swords in place. She wasn't afraid to die here. Life had no meaning to her anymore, as all those she lived for was already dead. And as such, she held herself in place as the entire space-vessel exploded in a brilliant flash of white light which would be visible from all corners of the Solar System within the time it took for light to travel to them. It would appear as an additional, bright star in the heavens of those on Earth for a full minute, before it finally faded away and left nothing behind. Nothing at all.

However, those closer to the explosion, the people of Triton, would see that the explosion did actually leave something behind. A very tiny little shining something, only a little larger than a human. It would stay there, silent and stationary, for several minutes. Maybe it was just staring out into nothingness with the blank realization of "Oh, I'm alive". Eventually it would slowly drift off, leaving only a tiny trail of green.

__________________

[h3]Epilogue: Mercury[/h3]

'Welcome to the Mercury Planetoid Terraformation Center! Man, am I glad to see you!' A bearded engineer of Mercury happily informed the stranger in front of him while changing what sign was displayed from “Mercury Useful Scrap and Junk” to what he had presented after hearing the intended business of the customer. 'The name's Claus, and woah, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone here!' He informed the stranger, though he kind of obviously had seen more, even if not for this specific purpose.

'It has?' The stranger asked, smirking a little and choosing to entertain the shopkeeper.

'Yupp! Ever since the Solar War years ago, everybody has just been focused on gathering up the things which belongs to them, rather than thinking at all on expanding. So much destruction! Man, those Plutonians and those Tritonians sure caused a lot of destruction!' He complained, breathing out. 'I'm thankful as heck that they never reached Mercury! Hoh-hoh-ho!' Claus laughed out his odd little laughter, clapping his rather large belly.

'But, don't the reports state that the Plutonians generally felt the people they attacked alive?' The stranger double-checked the facts.

'Sure did! That didn't make up for what the Tritonians did after, though! They razed and took control the only way they knew how, with brute force! But man, we sure are happy that the Plutonians managed to destroy that foul Lord Umeron, or we'd all have been in deep trouble! Too bad about all their losses. Did you hear? Apparently they only had a SINGLE survivor! One! Only one! That's cutting it amazingly close to dooming us all!' Claus informed on the amazing event.

'Of course I know.' The stranger sighed. 'It was all over the news at the time.'

'Yeah, that's right.' Claus breathed out a little in disappointment and crossed his arms. 'And then she flew around, destroying the varying occupying remaining Triton forces across the universe, and the military of the varying planets rose up in force again. Triton was occupied before anyone knew anything about it! The leaders of the varying planets ensured to have Triton and Neptune searched to the core in order to find and destroy any and all weapons or technology that might have been left. After that, scans for chips in people's brains suddenly become mandatory on way too many occasions! Man, what a trouble that is! I'm not controlled, stop thinking I am!' He complained, stomping his feet into the floor a bit.

The stranger chuckled a bit. 'Still. After all that, we're finally united.'

'What do you mean, “finally”?' Claus frowned and looked the stranger. 'Sure! Now we're all a part of the Solar Federation! … And now we all have to follow all these strange laws everywhere! The number of examinations for secret plots to take over the universe has quintupled! All manners of weapons have been banned forever! It's a complete disaster!' Claus breathed out with a little smile. 'Well, for profit, anyway. Suppose some people would be happy. I heard that surviving Plutonian was a great supporter in this thing, increasing support throughout the Solar System with speeches, interviews, talks and whatnot. And then there was the off time she dealt with random criminals. Geesh. The pirates that came to Mercury to shop were all scared stiff for a while! … And then they vanished!' Claus complained again.

'They had good reason to.' The stranger chuckled for a bit. 

'Oh, well. The world's back in order, anyway. Except for Pluto. Pluto's a dead rock.' He sighed again. 'Still, can you imagine how depressing it must be to be the last of your kind? Sure, she left detailed accounts on all of those she knew so they'll be remembered in history, but... Surviving all alone, as the last of her people...' He shook his head. 'Wouldn't want that to be me.' 

'No.' The stranger sounded a little down, thinking about it. 'Nobody would.'

'Eh, let's just be happy we're who we are, right?' Claus waved if off and then smiled at the stranger. 'In any case, that's not why you were here. You wanted to buy a terraforming set, right? The most expensive thing in that by far is the Solar Gate, hahaha.' Claus chuckled as he looked down at the stranger.

'Ah, no. The planet I'm terraforming is already in the habitable zone. You can scratch the Solar Gate.' The stranger looked up at Claus with incredibly attentive eyes, smiling up at him. Claus stared down at the stranger in complete disbelief.

'Um. Okay. Uh, wait. There are no suitable bodies in the habitable zone that aren't already terraformed in the Solar System...' Claus mentioned, frowning.

'That's right.' The stranger smiled at him. 'I'm going to be terraforming a planet beyond the Solar System. It might take a while to get there, but I'm ready for the challenge.'

'Woah.' Claus flinched back a little, staring wide-eyed at the customer. 'History's being made before my eyes. Alright. Then please.' Claus handed forward a little datapad to the stranger. 'Upload the information of the planetary body, and we'll provide what will be needed to terraform it.' And so it was done. The stranger plugged something in which uploaded the information about the planet in question, and Claus took it back and looked at it.

'Starting out easy, eh.' He smirked, looking at it. 'Well, that's entirely fine. First attempt outside the Solar System should be something reasonably easy to make habitable, after all. Compared to Mars, Triton or Pluto, this is child's play.' He said. The only reason humanity hadn't gone outside the Solar System yet was because of territorial laws and Vilemugs. Speaking of which...

'How did you slide under the prohibition against colonizing outside the Solar System?' Claus asked, frowning a little.

'Ah, don't worry about that. Let's just say I'm exempt from the system.' The stranger said. Claus frowned at this, and then stared at pad a bit...

'Wait, the crew is ONLY you!?' Claus said in disbelief. 'Aren't you going to get awfully lonely?' He asked, looking a bit worried at the customer.

'Don't worry about it. I'll just freeze myself on trips here and there. I won't be spending all that long alone. Just long enough to prepare the things I need. Other than that, I'm already used to being alone. A friend of mine once said to, whenever I feel lonely, just to imagine me, all my friends, as well as their and my families smiling together.' The stranger said. 'Though, it rarely helps.' The stranger added, smiling at him. Claus scratched his head a bit, feeling like he thought the stranger's eyes getting a little sad, there.

'Er. Right. Then, onto a matter of payment. I DO assume you can afford it. You don't look very rich, but considering you're here...' He asked, looking at the little stranger. Said stranger sighed a little, reaching down into the bag that was brought along, and then placed something on the table between them. A green suit...?

'Huh? What's this?' Claus asked, frowning as he looked at it.

'The last suit of Plutonian technology in existence.' The stranger smiled, a sweet little smile, looking up at him. 'I don't need it anymore. Do you think it will be adequate as payment?'

Claus flinched back, his eyes going wide in part disbelief and part shock. 'Y-you're...!' He suddenly realized.

'Oh, but, only on the condition of that if you do unlock the technology, you share it equally with all of the Solar System.' The stranger asked of him, smiling at him. 'If you don't, I'll find you and destroy you. That's alright, right? Mercury Legendary Engineer Claus?'

'…' His eyes remained wide as he looked at the little form. This small woman... she was... '… Yes, Commander! This will DEFINITELY do!' He saluted her, in a distinctly Plutonian way. She giggled a little. How did he know that salute? Eh, it didn't matter.

'Then, I'll be on my way. I wish you good luck, sir Claus.' She turned to walk away the way she came, her resources for terraforming already being stockpiled on her ship. Claus stood, blinking in disbelief at whom had just come through his shop, and what kind of deal had happened. Looks like she was going to create a new world, and probably then invite people to live on it. No wonder she had picked a planet that would take less than a life-time to terraform, she wanted to see the result herself. Did she want to create a new world, in repayment of losing her old one? She should know it wasn't her fault, but...

Claus was left staring in mild wonder as he watched Eviri leave, before looking down at the green suit. A Plutonian suit, known for creating a sphere of power around the wearer which made the impossible possible. He picked it by the arms and lifted it, looking at the shapes, and...

'… This'll never fit me.' He established. Not only was it for the wrong gender, it was also tiny compared to him. Whelp, he'd have to find out the secrets of this suit before he could accomplish his life-long dream of flying free in space like a Plutonian, he supposed.[/hider][hider=Generation Lost]By [@Holmishire].

"[COLOR=#cc99ff]A large group's coming this way,[/COLOR]" Antsi en-Naksa called down from her post. Gazing out over the dunes, Talahn's sister stood in a makeshift watchtower three yards tall, constructed from bone, cloth, and a bit of rope and bark. The structure was sturdy but small, only able to support the young girl's weight as it stood on the back of the largest of three bonnacon—thickset pachyderms with horns curling out of either side of their heads. "[COLOR=#cc99ff]Orcs,[/COLOR]" she continued, her voice tense with fear.
 
Talahn cursed, rushing to the crest of the dune to have a look for himself. Sure enough, a large group of warriors were quickly making their way towards them, a large caravan following slowly behind. Having found tracks in the sand, Talahn had assumed them to be another tribe of trolls, intruding on their land—in the desert, resources were to scarce to be shared between tribes. He had sent Jahran, his half-brother, and Sahna, his cousin, to scout ahead, providing them the intel they needed to conduct a raid. He could only assume the two had been captured by the orcish warband.
 
The young troll knew that the Naksa tribe would be unable to escape with their bonnacon in tow. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]Get down with the others,[/COLOR]" he called out to his sister. She nodded quickly, the twin horns protruding from her forehead tapping against the railing of the watchtower in her hurry. With a click from the back of her throat, she had her bonnacon sliding down the dune into the trough where the rest of the tribe had now halted, awaiting news. With one last glance at the approaching warband, Talahn too slid down the dune.
 
Hira, the tribe's chieftain, stepped forward to meet him. "[COLOR=#996699]Any sign of Sahna among them?[/COLOR]"
 
Talahn grimaced. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]No signs of Sahna, [I]or[/I] Jahran.[/COLOR]" Though Hira tried to hide it, it was not unknown in the tribe that the father preferred his son over his wife's bastard, Jahran. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]They're still too far out to make out much of use, but they'll be here soon. We'll hold here—get the girls safe.[/COLOR]"
 
Hira nodded, and rushed to his wife, Kendri. After they exchanged a few words, Kendri took their two daughters, Tafi and Divi, and brought them to Sambat and Antsi, waiting with the three bonnacon. Talahn, for his part, stood apart from the others, ready to face the oncoming force.
 
He did not have to wait long. The warband of twenty or so orcs came charging round a bend in the trough, riding on the backs of drakes. From the looks of it, they carried weeks' worth of supplies—why orcs would be in such a rush as to decide the cold desert the troll had no idea, but they had certainly come prepared for the voyage.
 
The lead orc gave a bellow, and the warband pulled up short of Talahn. Dismounting, he pulled something off the back of his drake and was joined by two others, who approached Talahn at a leisurely pace.
 
The first to catch his eye with her greyish-blue skin was another female desert troll, not of the Naksa tribe—from the scars etched on his face, he recognized that she was once of the Rokko tribe. He could only assume it was she that had managed to track them back from the scouts.
 
The second was a behemoth of green skin and thick tusks. Half orc, half ogre, and stronger than either of them alone. Hefted over his shoulder, Talahn recognized the body of Jaharn—dead, or soon to be.
 
The third, of course, was the orc leader himself. Skin a dark greenish-black, he was heavily armoured and doubly so scarred. Heaving his arms, he tossed a living form to Talahn. When it crashed into the ground and rolled a few feet towards him, crying out in pain, he recognized it to be Sahna, battered and beaten. He qickly rushed forward to untie him, and glanced up at the half-ogre. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]Jaharn?[/COLOR]" he whispered.
 
"[COLOR=#ffccff]Dead,[/COLOR]" he whimpered. Talahn shooed him back to Hira, and stepped forward to face the orcs.
 
Their leader flexed his muscles, obviously attempting to intimidate him, and grinned. "[COLOR=#66cc99]I am Murgol, head of the Warkaw brotherhood. We found [I]these[/I]—[/COLOR]" Pointing at Sahna and Jaharn's lifeless body. "[COLOR=#66cc99]—scum rifling through our supplies.[/COLOR]" He spat onto the stone and sand beneath him. "[COLOR=#66cc99]Came back to teach daddy here a lesson he never thought to teach his damned kids.[/COLOR]"
 
Talahn did not waver. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]You trespassed on our lands. In the code of our people, any who—[/COLOR]"
 
Murgol strode forward briskly and heaved the troll of his feet, lifting him until his brow pressed against Talahn's horns. "[COLOR=#66cc99]We are not [I]your[/I] people. We have our own code.[/COLOR]"
 
Talahn grimaced, but did not flinch, glancing at the il-Rokko. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]A misunderstanding. Let us go, and we'll bother you no more.[/COLOR]"
 
The orc drops him to the ground, and laughs with little humour. "[COLOR=#66cc99]We outnumber you, and we are stronger than you. If we wished it, we could slaughter the lot of you and not lose a single grunt.[/COLOR]" He grinned. "[COLOR=#66cc99]You are alive, because we orcs have something you lack—[I]honour[/I]. Urkyl.[/COLOR]" He beckoned to the half-ogre. "[COLOR=#66cc99]We grow tired of the endless dunes. We yearn for [I]blood[/I].[/COLOR]" He turned back to Talahn. "[COLOR=#66cc99]A challenge; a duel. If you die, we get to keep your [I]females[/I].[/COLOR]" As he spoke, he eyed Tafi, Divi, and Antsi hungrily.
 
Talahn blanched. Orc females were rarer than males, and it was not uncommon for them to seek mates amidst the other races. If he lost this fight, he'd be dooming his sister and cousins to a life of painful servitude. "[COLOR=#cc99cc]And should Urkyl be slain?[/COLOR]"
 
Murgol grunted, as if he didn't consider it a real possibility. "[COLOR=#66cc99]Then I shall permit your tribe to live.[/COLOR]"
 
Antsi watched in horror as her brother donned his gauntlet, a long stabbing blade embedded into it, extending out of his fist. In his left hand he carried a smaller blade, curving round into a sharp hook. The half-ogre Urkyl towered above him, standing at almost twice his height—if discounting the twin horns protruding from Talahn's forehead. He wielded a single sword, long and heavy enough to pose a challenge even to a pure-blooded orc.
 
She had no doubt he brother would lose this battle.
 
Facing each other in the trough, walls of sand rising high to either side, the warrior prepared themselves for battle. After a few tense moments of silence, Urkyl tossed Jaharn's body to the side and lunged at Talahn. Nimbly dodging the half-ogre's blade, the troll spun past, scraping his hook-blade across the behemoth's left flank before embedding his sword-gauntlet deep into his back. Urkyl cried out in pain, dropping his sword, but as Talahn pulled out the spike for another jab, an immense arms swung around and struck him across the face, sending him flying into the dunes.
 
Groaning as he tumbled from the sand, Talahn was unable to dodge as Urkyl latched onto his horns and flung him back into the ground.
 
Shakily, Talahn rose into a kneeling position supported by his blade gauntlet as the half-ogre retrieved his own blade.
 
Antsi edged a knife from her belt, tensing to rush to her brother aid, only to feel a strong arm thrust in front of her, blocking her path. Looking up, her eyes met with her uncle Hira's, tinged deep with fear and worry. "[COLOR=#996699]Please,[/COLOR]" he muttered. "[COLOR=#996699]You'll only make things worse.[/COLOR]"
 
Despite the ache wracking his body, the sensation of blood filling his airways, and the world-shaking pain clouding his mind, Talahn could feel the soothing and familiar itch of the ivory sand between his toes. This desert had been his home for decades—the only home he knew. And in it, the en-Naksa, tribe of these lands. [I]His[/I] tribe.
 
As he heard the whistling of a great blade descending towards his neck, he gathered the last of his strength.
 
Talahn ducked underneath the blade, keeping his head connected to his body—but it caught his thick horns instead, and flung him in an arc around the half-ogre. As soon as he slid free, he twisted to dodge another strike—it grazed his side, drawing a stream of blood. As the arm pulled the blade back, he latched his hook-blade into the flesh. The half-ogre immense strength pulled him up with it as the brute cried out in pain, and he flew off up the ground towards its head. He released the hook-blade and instead wrapped his left arm around the creature's neck. Pulling back his right arm, he then plunged the spike into its throat.
 
As the sack of flesh crashed onto the sand, Talahn rolled off onto his back, bleeding profusely from his side and with broken bones throughout his body. Not too far off, he could make out Jaharn's body, lying in an enticingly pleasant slumber.
 
Talahn's head rolled to the side under the weight of his horns, and he saw the orc Murgol approaching him, fury clear on his brutish face. As he drew near, the orc drew a broadsword from his back, spun it point-down in his hand, and plunged it into Talahn's heart.
 
Antsi screamed.
 
"[COLOR=#66cc99]Your champion is dead.[/COLOR]" Murgol waved to a pair of his grunts standing nearby, who moved toward the women huddled by the bonnacon. "[COLOR=#66cc99]Take the girls. We have no use for the elderly. But leave the rest—they have earned their freedom.[/COLOR]"
 
Kendri cried out in grief as her daughters were pulled from her grasp, and Hira stood still in shock. Murgol moved for Antsi, sheathing his sword.
 
Antsi glanced at the knife in her hands. If she fought back, she would almost certainly die—but at least she'd not have to suffer a crueller fate amidst the orcs. Clenching her fists, she closing her eyes as tears cascaded down her cheeks. Finally, as Murgol was mere feet from her, she dropped the weapon to the ground. She only would have made things worse for the rest of them.
 
As Murgol latched onto her arm, a new voice rose up from the orcish warband. "[COLOR=#ccccff]Stop, Murgol.[/COLOR]" Antsi turned; it was the desert troll.
 
"[COLOR=#66cc99]What do you want, Magka?[/COLOR]" the orc growled.
 
Magka il-Rokko turned to Kendri, sympathy in her eyes. "[COLOR=#ccccff]I lead you across the plains to fight a different war, orc. Leave this woman her children, or find your path alone.[/COLOR]"
 
The orcs stamped his foot in frustration, turning to see Kendri reaching out to Tafi and Divi. He glanced down to Antsi, beside him. "[I][COLOR=#66cc99]Fine[/COLOR][/I][COLOR=#66cc99].[/COLOR]" He gestured to his grunts. "[COLOR=#66cc99]Leave those two. But [I]she[/I]'s coming with me.[/COLOR]" He dragged Antsi along to the drakes, before tossing her to Magka. "[COLOR=#66cc99]Deal with her. We ride now.[/COLOR]"
 
[hr]Cresting a dune, Antsi watched as her tribe faded into the distance, three trolls smaller today than the day before. Magka, riding on the drake behind, gently turned her head to face forward. "[COLOR=#ccccff]What is your name, child?[/COLOR]"
 
Antsi voice was low, burdened by grief. "[COLOR=#cc99ff]Antsi, en-Naksa.[/COLOR]"
 
"[COLOR=#ccccff]il-Naksa, now.[/COLOR]" The troll smiled. "[COLOR=#ccccff]I am Magka, il-Rokko. Trust me, Antsi, this is not the end of your tale. Stay close, and you shall be safe.[/COLOR]"[/hider][hider=The Contract]A casual chatter and occasional laughter filled the room. The banquet hall was filled with people, all relatives gathered to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of Matt Bansing and his wife Evelyn. Michael stood a bit to the side with a glass of champagne in his hand and watched his parents talk with his grandmother of his mothers side. The cry of a baby caught his attention and he smiled when he noticed his little nephew had woken up and let his mother know how hungry he felt right now. His cousin was the first in their family to give birth to the next generation and he knew he wanted children of his own one day, but not yet. It was great to see all his uncles and aunts, cousins and grandparents again and he enjoyed being at this party.

None of these people knew what he did outside of college and maybe that was for the best. They would only be worried. Being a demon hunter wasn’t without risk, but he was good at it. He was one of the better agents of the organisation. What he lacked in physical strength, and compared to most other agents he really wasn’t strong, he made up for memorizing and performing the necessary rituals and spells. 

The door opened and a figure dressed in a purple trenchcoat entered. His yellow skin and long white hair drew all the attention to him and the room became dead silent. The purple eyes moved around until they settled on the reason of his arrival.

“Michael,” the demon said. His voice was smooth and filled with determination, even if he hadn’t stated his business yet, it was clear he wouldn’t take no for an answer. His posture had a certain elegance to it, but showed a great confidence at the same time. The confidence of a powerful being who knew no-one in this room could match his strength.

“Xantier,” Michael whispered. He knew this demon only through books, he had never met him face to face. The yellow-skinned demon was one of the higher demons and from what he had heard, a dangerous one too. “Weren’t you banished?”

“Do you really think they could keep me locked away?” Xantier asked, his voice filled with disdain. He walked further into the room as if he owned the place and he kept his eyes focussed on Michael. These other humans were of no interest to him.  “Let us get to the point of my visit,” Xantier continued calmly, “I decided I want your soul, Michael.”

Michael tensed up. “And you think I would give it to you?” he asked as he moved his right hand towards the pocket of his jeans.

“Of course not,” Xantier said as he waved his hand in a dismissive way. He continued to walk over to Michael with an ominous smirk. “No human has ever given their soul freely, but that has never stopped me from obtaining them.” 

As Michael reached into his pocket to get the charm he needed for a spell or a banishing ritual, Xantier lifted a hand and spoke three long words in a demonic language. The building shook violently and as a red band came out of nowhere and curled around the people in the room within seconds, a chasm opened beneath their feet. Flames burned vigorously in the bottom of the chasm. The heat coming from it was intense and the room glowed in an orange light. “Don’t do anything hasty now,” the demon hissed. “I have your family in my grasp. They are... how do you humans call it? My hostages. And I will offer a trade, you will sign my contract which will allow me to take your soul when you die and I won’t throw them into the fiery pits of hell.”

Michael looked at his relatives, those who didn’t look afraid were crying. Maybe he could save them. His hand gripped the charm and he opened his mouth.

“Do you really think,” Xantier spoke slowly, but with satisfaction in his voice, “that you will be able to complete your ritual before I release them? All I need is a snap of my fingers, so to speak. Be a good boy and drop your charm.”

Judging by the smirk, Xantier knew it would take longer than that, just as Michael knew that. For a brief moment he pondered if he should try anyway, this demon was dangerous and had to be banished. His relatives wouldn’t be the only victims. Then he heard his newborn nephew cry and his cousin trying to hush it while crying herself. They would all die. And if they did, who would he have left? But he’d have to give up his soul... but they would die... He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “Okay,” he whispered as he dropped the charm. “I will sign your contract if you will let them live.”

“Good boy,” the demon said as if he talked to a dog. As he walked over to Michael, he opened the trenchcoat and retrieved a rolled-up scroll and a pen. “You know how it works. Sign it at the bottom and your soul will belong to me. After that I will let your family go.”

With a trembling hand, Michael took the pen and scroll and he opened it. The text was straightforward enough, it said the owner of the contract, Xantier, from now on owned his soul and could claim it when he died. He looked at his family once more and he could see one of his uncles shake his head, but what choice did he have? It was either this or his family. Xantier spoke the truth, there was nothing he could do before the demon would kill them all. He wrote his name at the bottom of the contract and gave it back to the yellow demon. What else could he do?

Xantier took it and looked at the name with a pleased smile, before he rolled it up and put it in his inner pocket again. The chasm closed and he theatrically snapped his fingers to remove the binding spell. With that done he looked at the boy in front of him. “Come,” he said to him. “We’re leaving to my realm.”

“What?” Michael’s head jerked up and he looked at the demon. “But that wasn’t...”

“Your soul belongs to me,” Xantier hissed as he leaned forward. “How can I own a soul if the vessel is not with me?” The smirk he showed was anything but pleasant. “You belong to me now, boy. Your soul and your body. You will serve me until it’s time for me to collect what you gave to me when you signed the contract.” He pointed to Michael’s relatives. “I can always throw them in the chasm if that’s what you prefer. What would I care about the lives of humans? Killing one of one hundred makes no difference, but I’m a demon of my word. Come with me and I will not harm them. It is as simple as that. All I want is you.”

Michael swallowed heavily, but lowered his head in acceptance. Selling his soul hadn’t been an easy decision, it was the most prized possession anyone had after all, but he had expected to be killed for it as soon as he had signed the paper. Instead, he had to serve the demon first. He couldn’t even begin to image what that would be like. He heard his father say his name and he looked up at him with grief and fear battling for a place in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Xantier opened a portal and dragged him along.

The realm of the demons was dark and hot. Black clouds filled the sky almost all the time. Every once in a while a gap in the cloud revealed a large, red sun. Red lightning lit up the clouds and the land below every couple of seconds. A dry wind blew over the rocky ground and pits filled with boiling tar or molten rock filled the landscape. The trees that remained were all dead. Either they were scorched and brought down to a black trunk, clawing with it’s root in the rocky surface, or they had completely dried out and had a pale colour, as if they were turned to stone. 

The higher demons, like Xantier, lived in castles. Some of those were build on high mountain tops, others in one of the dead forest. Lower demons either stayed in the open or lived in one of the many caves. Xantier himself lived in a castle in a valley between two mountain tops. The six small towers of the castle were build in a circle around the large main tower and every tower had a pointy roof. The walls had a dirty, dark-grey colour and aside from the gothic-themed arches they were unadorned. The large double doors seemed old but sturdy and they were big enough to let a giant into the castle. Even though they looked to be quite heavy, the demon opened them effortlessly and Michael stared into the castle.

“Come on,” Xantier said as he gave an impatient push in his back. Michael stumbled forward and stepped inside. The doors closed behind him with a loud bang and Michael wished they hadn’t. It sounded like there was no way back, that his stay here was definitive. “This way,” the demon said curtly as he passed Michael and went towards the door on the other end. Their footstep echoed through the empty hallway as Michael followed Xantier. The grey stone walls looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in ages. 

The black door at the other side gave entrance to a circular room. In the middle was a winding stair-case leading into the main tower above them. Six straight stair-cases lead to a door which would give access to the six smaller towers. Two black statues stood between each of the six stairs, they were crafted in the image of demons, all higher demons as far as Michael recognized them. 

“Onyx,” Xantier said as he saw Michael look at the statues. “They are made from onyx.” With a wide gesture of his arms he brought attention to the entire room. “This is the central hall. From here you can go to all the towers. I will show you the six towers first. After that we will go into the main tower and I will show you were you’ll sleep.”

Michael nodded, even though his approval would change nothing about the fact they were going to look at the towers. He wasn’t quite prepared for what he saw in those towers. The first tower had piles of gold and silver coins and items in it. He had no idea the demon was this wealthy, nor that earthly goods like this attracted him. The room in the second tower had piles of precious stones, each gem carefully sorted in their own pile. The third room had pig-like demons chained to the wall, Michael knew these were classed as lesser demons. When he asked why he kept those, Xantier explained they were for experiments and that he cared as little about these low demons as he cared about humans. Not one bit. The fourth room made Michael’s stomach turn, shelves filled the room and each shelf was filled with dried organs, shrunken heads and jars filled with organs and foetuses of both humans and lesser demons. The fluid seemed to keep them in perfect shape. The fifth room housed horribly deformed creatures to which Xantier explained they were failed experiments, but he hadn’t gotten rid of them yet as they still could serve their purpose. As the rooms had gradually worsened, Michael wasn’t too sure he wanted to see what was kept in the sixth tower, but not going with the demon wasn’t an option. The sixth room housed five humans without any clothes on. They stared ahead and walked around aimlessly. 

“These are five somewhat successful reanimations of dead corpses,” Xantier explained. “At first I just disposed of the body or cut it up for parts when I claimed a soul. After a while I thought it would be nice to bring their bodies back to life and see if I could make those obey my wishes. The first attempts failed, but I was rather successful with these.” He looked at the walking corpses with a thoughtful expression on his face, while Michael stared horrified at them. “I hope to perfect the reanimation spell soon,” he said as he turned to his new pet. “When you’re dead and I have taken your soul, I will use your body too. Maybe I will be successful this time.” Michael couldn’t do anything but stare at the humans walking there, was that his fate? It seemed to get worse the longer he was with the demon. First he had signed the contract that would allow Xantier to take his eternal soul, then he learned he would have to serve him first and now he would be turned into this after his death? 

Xantier took Michael with him again and brought him back to the central hall, before ascending the spiral stairs to the main tower. Halfway up the stairs was a door and Xantier stopped here. He informed Michael that the floor above this one was his private floor where he did his spells and rituals, nothing the boy needed to see. The demon opened the door and Michael stared at the room as they stepped through it. Unlike the rest of the castle, this room was beautiful. In the middle was an ornate king-size four-poster bed made from the dark wengé wood. The bright red silk sheets and pillows were in high contrast with the black wood, but it seemed to work for the demon. The white walls were decorated with golden patterns reaching all the way up to the dome-shaped ceiling. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, but Michael’s attention was caught by a set of chains hanging on one wall with a simple white mattress on the ground under them.

“That is where you will sleep,” Xantier told him.

“Like a dog,” Michael added bitter.

“If you want you can sleep with the Dorcons in the third room,” the demon suggested and he watched Michael quickly shake his head, his eyes showing the fear he had for the creatures. “No? Then how about with your future friends in the sixth room?” he continued, to which Michael shook his head again, but with a sad look in his eyes this time. Xantier walked up to him and wrapped his slender fingers around his chin. “Don’t worry, you don’t always have to sleep on the mattress. Every once in a while I’ll let you sleep in my bed,” he brought his lips closer to Michael’s ear, “but I don’t think you’ll enjoy that very much.” 

Michael swallowed heavily and stepped back from the demon. “T-the mattress is fine,” he muttered.

Without any comment, Xavier pushed Michael further towards the other door. He opened it for him and let him have a look around. He smirked when he noticed how Michael’s face turned pale and his eyes filled with fear when he looked inside. In the room were several devices Michael recognized from books about the medieval time period. Torture devices.

“That is one thing I like about you humans,” Xantier said as he walked into the room. With a hand he stroke over the sturdy oak of the rack. “You were quite creative with some of the devices you made to inflict pain on other humans. I quite like these designs from medieval Europe, I’ve used them quite a bit.” He turned to Michael and showed a smile that send a shiver through his spine. “We will spend some time here together, just you and me.” The demon walked back to Michael and grabbed his chin so he was forced to look at him. “You will scream and you will cry and I will enjoy every moment we spend here,” he promised.

“Whatever you’ll do to me,” Michael whispered. “I will not cry.” 

“I will break you,” Xantier hissed. “You will beg for me to end your life and take your soul, but I will not end your life until I want to.”

Again Michael swallowed heavily, already the promise of not crying seemed impossible to keep, but he'd try to keep it nonetheless. He had no idea what kind of things the demon wanted to do to him, but he knew it would be worse than anything he could imagine.

On the first day Xantier already proved how sadistic he could be. The following days weren’t any better for Michael. The demon enjoyed torturing his victims, use them for his own pleasure and he loved the sound of their screams. And screaming was something Michael did, it was impossible not to. Xantier knew how to keep his human pets alive and he told Michael repeatedly that in the end he would take his soul, but for now he'd have his way with him. And there was nothing he could do but endure it.

Sometimes, when Xantier was bored inside his castle, he took Michael out for a walk through the lands and shared some knowledge about the other inhabitants. The walks, even if educational, were agonizing. Even if the demon wasn’t inflicting pain of some sort, there were always bruises or wounds that had yet to heal and ached when he moved. During the walks Michael saw many of the creatures of the demonic realm. While he knew many of the demons from books or from hunting them, both the higher and lower ones, he also came across some he didn’t know yet. He also saw big dog-like creatures which were called hellhounds. They were feasting on the corpse of a lower demon and Xantier warned him to stay away from those dangerous creatures. He also met some of the higher demons. One visit in particular was one he'd never forget. The demon they had visited had planted a garden, as he called it himself. He had put stakes in the ground and the impaled bodies of lesser demons and humans adorned his front yard. Michael refused to look at it, but that one glance had already made his stomach turn. 

Days turned into weeks and Michael soon lost track of time in the strange realm filled with horror and pain. The daily torture and abuse started to take their toll on him, but so far he kept his promise of not crying. At night, when he lay on his mattress with a chain around his neck he often thought back to the party, that last moment when he had seen his relatives. He often wondered if he could have done it differently, but every time he concluded he couldn’t have done it any other way. Giving in to the demand of Xantier and sign that contract, even if it had lead to this, was still better than to be responsible for the death of his entire family. There was no way he could live with that. They were safe, at least they were safe.[/hider]