Fatal Light: Part 1

Fatal Light: Part 1 is an episode of Tech 10: Rebooted.

Episode
Warlord Kroz stood watch over the peaceful city of Lintroth, overseeing it from the roof of the city’s tallest tower. He had conquered the city’s planet, Zenthin, a few years back, and hadn’t been back since, leaving the planet’s care in the hands of the current rulers; after all, what need had he for an entire world? His purpose had been to find a worthy opponent, and since this planet offered him none, he considered it relatively inconsequential.

However, as he was still the technical owner of the planet, he felt something a of a responsibility towards it. As such, when multiple reports of strange creatures killing off the city’s night guards started coming in, he went to investigate immediately. What he found was...rather morbid, to put it loosely. The dead guards had been ripped apart, leaving a bloody mess of organs and bones where a living being once stood, In addition, most of their mass seemed to have been either carried off or eaten, as an inordinately small amount of remains were left.

Kroz closed his eyes and ran through the various possibilities of what was going on, eventually thinking back to the meeting he had had with the planet’s Plumbers division earlier today.

---

“So, that’s all the information you have?”

“I’m afraid so. There’s really not all that much to go on.”

Kroz stared up at the holoscreen in front of him. Various shots from security cameras were scattered on the board, with lines and notes connecting them together. While there was a decent amount of footage, none managed to capture whatever had been attacking, bugging out into static during the time the attacks actually happened. Because of this, all they really had to go on were the remains of the victims, which couldn't tell them much.

“Hm. Are there any on-world predators that could do this?” Kroz asked.

“Not that we know of.” The lead investigator, who was standing behind Kroz, replied. “While there are predators, none have ever been able to enter the cities, and all of them will usually strip their prey to the bones, leaving behind nothing but an intact skeleton, as opposed to...this.”

“What about off-world predators?”

“We've looked into it. The bite marks we've recovered don’t match any known species. Of course, there’s still the issue of the cameras going haywire."

“You said that was the result of electromagnetic interference, correct?”

“Yeah. Though there are a few known predatory species with electromagnetic abilities, none of them have exhibited behavior even close to this.”

“Is it possible that someone or something is helping or controlling these attacks?”

“Definitely. Of course, that possibility opens up a whole new can of worms.”

“So, in the end, we quite literally have no idea what’s going on?”

“Afraid so. However, some new files from the lab should be coming in any moment now, so we might be able to discern something from that.”

As the lead inspector finished speaking, a new batch of files popped up onto the holoscreen, showing new pictures. One of them had a good amount of static on it, but was still somewhat legible. There was a note attached to it.

“Well, speak of the devil.” The inspector said. “Hey, what’s that note say?”

“’We managed to find a frame that wasn't as badly affected by the electromagnetic interference as the rest of them, revealing the thing that’s been attacking, at least to an extent.’” Kroz read aloud. “We already tried running it through the database, but it didn’t match any known species. Maybe you’ll have more luck identifying it than us.”

The inspector walked up to the holoscreen and leaned in for a closer look.

“Dang, if that isn't the ugliest thing I've ever seen, I don't know what is. Still don’t recognize it, though. Your thoughts?”

Kroz carefully eyed the creature displayed on the screen. It had an exposed skull that seemed to be a mix of crocodile and deer, and red dots floating in blackness in place of eyes. The rest of it’s body was coated in a thick black fur, and it’s arms were very long, ending in massive claws. It seemed designed to walk on all fours, though in the frame obtained, it was rearing up on it’s hind legs.

“I can't say anything for certain, though it’s build does remind me of two particular creatures from Earth mythology.” He said.

“Well, that’s more of an idea than the rest of us have.” The inspector replied. “Would you mind explaining a bit further?”

“Certainly. To be more specific, it reminds me of Ammit and the Wendigo, the former an Egyptian heart devourer involved in the judging of souls, and the latter a beast that has an endless hunger for the flesh of humans. Why this creature would be so similar to mythological figures from that particular planet, however, I cannot answer.”

“Huh. So, how’d you know all that anyways? You live on Earth or something?”

“Of course not. I learned about Earth mythos in the Archives of Oberon.”

The lead inspector let out a whistle of surprise.

“The Archives of Oberon? You passed the mental scans?”

“You know another means of entrance?”

“That’s not what I meant.” The inspector said, shaking his head. “It’s just that most regular people who apply for access fail. Add the fact that you’re an Emotispecter into the mix, and it gets even more impressive.”

After a few seconds of silence, he added “No offense.”

“None taken.” Kroz replied. “I’ve come to realize that I’m something of a...genetic oddity among my people. It’s honestly somewhat-wait, what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

Kroz pointed towards the picture of the creature up on the screen. On the creature’s exposed skull, there seemed to be an imprint, though it was difficult to make out exactly what it is.

“Well, I’ll be darned.” The inspector said. “Good eye. Entrin, zoom in on that symbol and increase the contrast.”

“Right away, sir!” The officer manning the computer hub responded.

As the symbol grew larger on the screen and the contrast was heightened, the inspector grabbed a marker from a nearby desk and traced over it, making the shape easier to distinguish. Once finished, the tracing looked similar to a sun with an elaborate eye in the center of it. What appeared to be two feathers graced both sides of the sun, and what appeared to be an old scale became visible in the center of the pupil.

“And there we go.” The inspector said, capping the marker. “Now that we can see it... sort of... we just have to figure out what the heck it is.”

“Hm. If I had to guess, it most likely has links to culture from ancient Egypt.” Warlord Kroz said.

The inspector just stared at him blankly.

“Egypt is a country on Earth.” Kroz explained. “In this context, ‘ancient’ means from about 3150 BC to about 30 BC, though there is some debate over that. The symbol seen here seems to be a collection of symbols from around that era.”

“You mind telling us what they mean, or you just gonna have us guess?”

“Well, it’s been a while, but I think I remember their meanings.” Kroz shrugged. “Let’s see...the most obvious one is the Eye of Horus, or Wedjat, a symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The scales and ostrich feathers seem to work in tandem, representing justice and truth. The sun in the background represented light, warmth, and growth in Egyptian culture.”

“Well, that’s all well and good, but why would it be imprinted on a...whatever-this-thing-is’s skull?”

“I don’t know. If these creatures are being aided by someone or something. then it’s possible that they carved in the symbol. Of course, it’s also possible that the creatures themselves don’t have any aid, emit the interference themselves, and we’re just misinterpreting a random oddity in it’s skull.”

The inspector gave Kroz a flat look.

“Seriously?” He asked. “You really think a symbol as elaborate as that could just be an ‘oddity’?”

“Of course not. Unfortunately, we really have no confirmation to anything, and we need to keep our minds open to every possibility.”

The inspector sighed.

“Yeah, I guess you’ve got a point. I’ll make sure to double the patrols tonight, see if we can catch these things in the act.”

“Be careful. We know they’re fully capable of killing fully trained armed guards.”

“Oh, don’t patronize me. I’ve been doing this job longer than you’ve been alive. I think. How old are you?”

“Twenty-three in Emotispecterian years.”

“Yeeeaaaahhh, I don’t know how that converts. I’ve been doing this job for a while, though, so I’m just going to cross my fingers and say I’m right on that one.”

“You might be, to be honest.” Kroz replied. “I’ll be patrolling the city tonight as well, just as a precaution.”

“You know, that ain’t a half-bad idea.” The inspector said. “Have to say, I do appreciate you helping out like this. Most galactic conquerors are just in it for the power and slave labor.”

“Well, I do try to be more reasonable about my responsibility of power than...some miscreants.”

“Heh, you sound mighty ticked off about somebody.”

Kroz raised an eyebrow.

“How can you tell?”

“With your usual monotone? It’s kinda hard to miss.”

“Ah. I really should work on that.”

“Well, I’m gonna go ahead and start assembling the teams. You might wanna find a good area to have a look-around.”

“Any suggestions?”

“Eh, not really.” The inspector replied, scratching his head. “Wherever you go, I would recommend starting from the Government Tower. It’s right smack in the middle of the city, so you should be able to get to where you’re heading faster.”

“Good idea.” Kroz responded, turning away from the board and beginning to exit the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow to go over the data we collect from tonight.”

“Yeah, see you then.” The inspector replied.

Once Kroz had exited the room, the inspector sighed, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and started smoking.

“This is going to be an interesting night.”

--

A loud scream pierced the night air, snapping Kroz back to the present. He jumped off the building and landed on the streets below, taking off towards the source of the noise. After a few minutes of running, he finally rounded the corner nearest the sound, seeing the creature from the video frame standing over a mess of remains. Heading towards it as fast as he could, he tackled it with enough force to send it flying into a wall.

The creature quickly recovered and charged at Kroz, who pulled back his arm, swinging it with all the force he could muster, smashing his fist into the creature’s skull, causing a large crack to ring through the area. Without even flinching, the creature reared up and swatted Kroz aside with its arms, then stood upright and roared.

Kroz quickly scrambled to his feet. Narrowing his focus, he began pulling energy into his right hand, curling it into a fist. As the creature dove at him to strike the killing blow, he jabbed two of his fingers into it’s neck, creating a small red glow and stopping the creature in it’s tracks. With one final howl of anger, it’s eyes rolled back into it’s skull and it fell over, dead.

“Haven’t had to do that in a while.” Kroz noted, brushing himself off. “I just hope that was the only one.”

Suddenly, more screaming rang out from the streets, which was quickly cut off with an ominous gurgling sound.

“Apparently not.” Kroz narrowed his eyes, then took off towards the source of the screams.

“Five attacks?! In one night?!”

The inspector slammed his fist on the holoscreen, causing a rippling effect.

“It was bad enough we even had one a night happening, and now five?! What is going on?!”

“Well, there is one possibility I can think of.” Kroz, responded, looking up from the data on the screen. “However, you may find it somewhat far-fetched.”

The inspector smacked his head on the screen and slowly slumped over.

“At this point, I’m willing to hear you out on just about anything.”

“Well, to put it simply, I believe someone is trying to destroy the government.”

The inspector stared at Kroz incredulously.

“...Okay, I know what I just said, but I honestly have no idea how that idea is even remotely relevant. You’re saying a bunch of random attacks are part of a plot to destroy the government? What?”

“Let’s go over what we know so far again, inspector.” Kroz said, pulling up various bits of data onto the holoscreen. “Take another look at the attack locations.”

The inspector looked over the data with a confused look on his face.

“What am I supposed to be looking at, exactly?”

“That’s right, different neural layouts.” Kroz muttered, pulling up a map of the city and marking the attack points with red dots. “There. Notice a pattern?”

“Well, let’s see here...it kinda looks like a couple of rings or something.”

“Pentagons, to be specific.” Kroz added, drawing straight lines between the points, revealing the two shapes. “The outer pentagon was slowly created over the course of the initial five murders, and the inner one was created just this past night, breaking the pattern and establishing a new one that seems to be flipped and around half the size.”

“Okay, so this raises the chances of something controlling the attacks somehow.” The inspector grunted. “But how do you take this to mean that they’re targeting the government?”

Kroz raised an eyebrow at the inspector and turned back to the screen, drawing several new lines through the patterns, connecting the points of the outer pentagon to the far points of the inner one.

“Do you see the source of my suspicions now?” He asked.

“Not really.” The inspector said, groggily propping up his head. “All this really does is show an overlap point on top of...the...oh. Ooooohhh.”

“That took longer than I would expect.” Kroz said.

“Well excuse me, but not every species in the galaxy evolved the whole ‘not sleeping’ thing, you know.”

“Point taken.”

“Man, this is a mess. If you’re right on this, this is about to become a full-on interplanetary incident.”

“Correct. In addition, I was only able to catch up with the one creature last night. The other four managed to escape, meaning we have at least those in particular to deal with, possibly more.”

The inspector cradled his head in his hands.

“We are so screwed.”

“Not so. If we start evacuating now-”

Kroz was interrupted by the appearance of a Plumber officer running into the room with a panicked look on his face.

“Inspector!” He yelled. “We’re getting reports from all over the city of people being blocked from exiting the city by some sort of invisible barrier! No one can get in or out!”

The inspector’s eye started twitching.

“Has anyone tried flying over it?” He asked.

“Yes, but the barrier seems to extend above the city as well!”

The inspector solemnly stood upright, turning to the officer.

“As of now, the city is under Emergency Order 37. No one is to leave their homes for any reason, and the government officials are to be relocated to their designated safety zones. Tell the rest of the force to patrol the streets at all times. That is all.”

“Sir, yes sir!” The officer saluted briefly, then ran back out of the room. The inspector sighed, turning to Kroz.

“You don’t happen to know anyone on the outside that could help us, do you?”

“There is...one possibility.” Kroz replied warily.

--

“MEATY!”

“CRUNCHY!”

“MEATY!”

“CRUNCHY!”

“MEATY!”

“CRUNCHY!”

“UNCULTURED GREASE GUZZLER!”

“PRETENTIOUS PIG SIZZLER!”

“SCREW YOU!”

“SCREW YOU!”

The sound of shouting cut through the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the shop like a missile. While the rest of the people in the store were staring towards the back room where the yelling was emanating from, Aquadilus was calmly swiping a customer’s exchange card.

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking...what is going on back there?” The customer asked.

“Oh, that’s just the shop owner and the other employee arguing over the proper way to cook bacon.” Aquadilus replied. “Would you like to make a donation to the Interplanetary Hospital For Puppies, Orphans, and Puppy Orphans With Super Cancer?”

“Super cancer?”

“It’s like regular cancer, but super.” Aquadilus explained.

“Oh, uh, no thanks. Does that, uh...does that happen often?”

“The super cancer?”

“No, the, uh, the arguing.”

“Well, usually it only happen on Tuesdays, but yes.”

The customer simply stood there for a few moments, then quickly collected his bag and made his way out of the building.

“Well, good day to you too, then.” Aquadilus grumbled.

Almost immediately the desk phone began ringing. After a few seconds of grumbling, Aquadilus leaned over to answer it.

“Hello, this the Terra System Gift Shop, how may I help you?” Aquadilus grunted, holding the phone up to his ear. “Uh-huh...mm-hmm...yeah...yep...okay, I’ll give the phone to him.”

Aquadilus turned towards the back room’s door.

“Hey, Tech! You got a phone call!”

After a few moments of thunking and smashing, Tech slammed open the door, walking out into the main shop with an angry look on his face.

“If it’s another telemarketer, I swear, someone’s head is coming off!”

Tech marched up to the desk and snatched the phone out of Aquadilus’s hand, putting it up to his ear.

“Tech here, whadda ya want?” He snapped.

“You sound agitated.” The voice on the other side of the phone replied.

“Gee, great intuition there, Sher- ...hold on a second, you sound familiar.”

“I should. We dueled not too long ago.”

“Warlord Kroz?!”

Tech smacked his forehead.

“Look, whatever it is you want, can it wait?” He asked. “Now is not a good time. I forgot to take my antidepressants last night, and I’m feeling the slightest bit extremely ticked off.”

“Unfortunately, this is somewhat urgent. You see, the capital city of one of my planets has been cut off from the outside by an energy field of some kind.”

“So? Can’t you handle it?”

“Seeing as I am in the city at the moment, that seems unlikely.”

Tech sighed and rubbed his temples.

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do. Just tell me the coordinates and I’ll teleport there.”

“Thank you. I’ll fill you in on the rest of the situation when you get here, but for now, there’s one things you should be aware of.”

“What?”

“You might need to fight.”

--

“So, when do you reckon your help’ll get here?” The inspector asked.

“Shouldn't be any more than a few moments.” Kroz replied.

Almost immediately after he finished speaking, the air in the center of the investigation room began rippling with green energy for a few moments, eventually dispersing to reveal Tech, who looked somewhat dazed.

“I swear, I will never get used to teleporting.” He grumbled, rubbing his head.

“This is your outside help?” The inspector asked, narrowing his eyes. “Some human kid with balancing issues?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I have multiple issues, not just teleportation sickness.” Tech responded whilst cracking his neck. “To put it simply, my therapist is a rich man.”

“Inspector, I would like to introduce you to Teknois Neferus Logical.” Kroz said, gesturing to Tech. “Despite all outward appearances, his sheer power is, in fact, seemingly equal to mine.”

“Now you’re just messin’ with me, Kroz.” The inspector said, shaking his head. “How would some kid like this have abilities anywhere near-”

The inspector was interrupted by a bright green flash, and, when looking towards it, suddenly found a large, angry, four-armed creature that stood a few feet taller than him.

“What the heck?!” The inspector yelled, jumping back a bit. “Where did this thing come from?!”

“If was actually one of these guys, I’d probably be offended by that.” Tech grunted, slamming down on the SpecTrix symbol and transforming back into a human.

The inspector looked more than a bit confused.

“What...how...when...what the...HOW?!” He finally managed to stammer out.

“Transformation device, dude.” Tech replied, tapping on the SpecTrix. “Not that hard to figure out.”

“Ooookay, then.” The inspector said warily.

“So, you mind filling me on what’s going on here?” Tech asked, turning to Kroz.

Kroz nodded and turned to the holoscreen, pulling up a large amount of data and telling Tech about everything that had been happening up to this point.

“Okay, yes, that’s all very interesting.” Tech said. “Of course, I don’t know what exactly you want me to do about an invisible energy field, but thanks for the info anyways.”

“I was hoping you might have a solution for it.” Kroz replied. “If we knew what to do, we would have had you do it before explaining all this.”

“You misunderstand me.” Tech said, leaning back against a wall. “I do have a solution for this, I simply noted I didn’t know what you wanted me to do about it.”

Kroz narrowed his eyes.

“You were intentionally misdirecting the conversation, Logical.” He said, casting an accusatory glare towards Tech.

“Ooooh, you got me!” Tech responded, rolling his eyes and lazily shaking his hands in the air. “Your deduction skills truly are on another level.”

Kroz sighed.

“Look Tech, I know how angsty you are right now, but at the moment, we have bigger problems.”

Tech opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again as a look of realization popped onto his face.

“Oh, right.” He muttered. “Emotispecter. Emotion sensing. Duh.”

“If we could return to the topic at hand, please.”

“Sure, whatever. Just one question.”

“Which would be?”

“Just what do these creatures you’re talking about look like, anyway? You were kinda vague on that point.”

“I suppose so.” Kroz noted, turning back to the holoscreen. “Hold on a second.”

After a bit of sorting through files, Kroz pulled up the picture of the creature on the screen. Almost immediately, a wave of fear slammed across his senses like a sledgehammer. Turning towards Tech, he noticed that he had turned a sickly pale white, with his right eye having seemingly developed a twitch.

“Yeeeaaaahhh, I’m gonna have to sit this one out guys.” Tech said, slowly edging towards the center of the room. “Sorry, but, you know, this seems a lot more like a ‘you’ problem.”

Upon reaching the center of the room, Tech began shakily grasping at the SpecTrix control panel.

“It was great meeting all of you, really, but I gotta go now.”

“Tech, what are you doing?” Kroz snapped. “We need your help on this.”

“Good for you, I’m just gonna, you know, go home, have a nice cup of screw this and just forget this ever happened.”

“Snap out of it!” Kroz said, snapping his fingers and sending a wave of red energy at Tech, causing him to suddenly jerk upright.

“Woah, okay there!” Tech yelled. “Calm down! I’m good, I’m cool, I- ...really want to kick the crap out of something, what the heck?”

“ To put it simply, I tampered with your emotional network.” Kroz answered. “I essentially swapped out your ‘flight’ reaction with your ‘fight’ reaction, at least temporarily.”

“Dude, you can’t just go around screwing with people’s emotions like that!” Tech snapped. “Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"

“My mother attempted to eat me.”

“...”

“...”

“Is...is that a regular thing?”

“It is indeed common among Emotispecters.”

Tech slightly stepped away from Kroz.

“Oookay, then.”

“Now, are you going to help, or are you going to just run off?”

Tech sighed.

“Yeah, sure, whatever, I’ll help. Just don’t make me get near one of those things, okay?”

Kroz nodded.

“Yo, question.” The inspector piped up again. “You mind telling us what that thing is? You seem to recognize it.”

“Wish I knew.” Tech replied, shrugging. “I just know of it because I had my own run-in with one on Earth. Granted, the one I met was a bit different, but I would recognize one of those things anywhere.”

“What happened to the one you encountered?” Kroz asked. “There don’t seem to be any records on the species, so I have to assume it wasn’t properly investigated.”

“Well, the one I met lived in a cave system only recently uncovered by miners.” Tech explained. “I only got involved because miners were disappearing without any real explanation. Turns out everyone who saw the creature most likely ended up getting eaten.”

“I assume you survived your encounter by outrunning it.”

“Well, at first. I actually ended up eating it.”

There was a period of awkward silence in the room.

“You...ate it?” The inspector asked.

“Yeah, as a Fuge Insidiae.”

“...”

“...”

“Oookay. Strange dietary habits of people in this room aside, can we get a move on? You said you had a solution kid, so I say we start with that.”

Tech nodded.

“Just show me where to go.”

---

The inspector, Kroz, and Tech had made their way to the edge of the city, having to push their way through panicking citizens. Upon arriving, Tech tapped on the energy field, causing a slightly visible ripple.

“So, what’s this solution of yours?” The inspector asked, turning to Tech.

“You’ll see.”

Tech activated the dial on the SpecTrix, twisting it around for a few seconds before finally slamming it down. A green light flashed through the area, dispersing top reveal a large, metal being with three slits on it’s head.

“Meet NUclES!” Tech said enthusiastically, in a deep, metallic voice.

“And just what can this thing do?” The inspector asked.

“Just watch!”

Tech reared back and slammed his fist into the invisible field, causing a shower of water droplets coming from seemingly nowhere.

“What the heck?!” The inspector shouted, jumping back. “What did you do?!”

“Calm down, inspector.” Kroz said. “It’s just water.”

“That doesn’t answer my question!”

“NUclES can transmute anything he comes into direct contact with.” Tech explained. “In this case, I figured water would probably be a safe choice. Only downside to this form is that making a large hole is going to take a while.”

“Why? Is the ability limited to just your hands?”

“Uh...not that I know of.”

“Well then, why don’t you just walk into the field and transmute it that way?”

Tech froze in place for a moment, before eventually lifting his index finger in the air.

“Okay, first off, I need you to stop being smarter than me right now.” He said. “It makes me look bad.”

He proceeded to walk through the energy field, making a large hole and producing a small amount of water.

“Huh.” The inspector grunted. “That was easier than I expected.”

“Yes, but we’re going to need a wider space to evacuate from.” Kroz noted. “Tech, you start enlarging the hole. The Plumbers and I will start moving people out of the city, starting with the government officials. We only have until nightfall to evacuate the city, so you’re going to need to work quickly."

“So you’re saying I...Gotta Go Fast?” Tech asked.

“Yes. I just said that.”

“No, no, I was making a- oh, forget it. You wouldn’t understand it anyway.”

Kroz raised an eyebrow at Tech for moment, then turned and started walking back towards the city center, the inspector following close behind. Tech started walking back and forth, widening the hole in the energy field.

“Ah, yes.” He said. “The day I saved the great city of Lintroth by walking into things. This shall truly go down in history.”

--

“Okay people, single file lines!” The inspector yelled. “No pushing or running! Just work with each other, and we’ll be able to get you all out of here in no time!”

A large line of people walked through the narrow city streets under the careful watch of Plumber officers. A hushed murmuring could be heard through the crowd as they discussed what could be going on. Kroz was standing on one of the rooftops off to the side, using his emotion control to lay a blanket of calmness on the crowd down below.

The inspector grabbed his communicator and pressed the talk button.

“Everyone report in. Things are going well over in Sector 1.”

A few different voices took turns sounding off through the receiver.

“All good in Sector 2.”

“A-Okay in Sector 3.”

“A few isolated incidents of panic, but nothing worth reporting on in Sector 4.”

“Sector 5 is doing grea- wait, something’s happening! Some kind of creature just appeared in the crowd! It’s-it’s heading right fo-GAAAAHHH!”

The transmission cut out with a violent cracking noise.

“Sector 5, report in!” The inspector yelled into the communicator. “Sector 5!”

The inspector gritted his teeth and frantically began calling the other sectors, receiving nothing but white noise. He quickly switched the channel to talk to Kroz.

“Kroz, we have a problem! None of the sectors are reporting in, and what I got from Sector 5 implies an attack!”

Kroz quickly began scanning the crowd below for any abnormalities, but was interrupted by a heavy blow to his back that sent him flying off the building and broke his concentration on keeping the crow calm. Managing to balance himself in midair before hitting the ground, he shot back up the roof, discovering one of the black-furred creatures about to pounce on the crowd below. He quickly punched it in the skull, tossing it back a few feet. Meanwhile, the crowd below had caught sight of what was happening, and without Kroz’s calming ability, they began to panic, running towards the escape hole in a screaming, disorganized mess.

The inspector quickly grabbed hold of his communicator and switched to the Plumber’s communication channel.

“Inspector Henjix reporting in from the planet Zenthin!” He yelled into the device. “We need immediate backup!”

The communicator started beeping and flashing red, prompting the inspector to check the screen.

“What th- No signal?! How?!”

Meanwhile, Kroz had been keeping the creature at bay, though it was clearly a strictly defensive effort. The creature seemed faster this time, meaning that Kroz’s instant death attack would leave too large of an opening for it to get past him. Knocking it back yet again, it occurred to him that this situation would have expanded far too much for Tech to not notice, but so far, there hadn’t been any sign of him.

‘Dammit, Logical!’ Kroz thought. ‘Where are you?!’

---

In the fields outside of the city, Tech, though certainly wishing he could help with the situation in the city, was facing a bit of a problem of his own right now.

Specifically, a large, black, hairy problem that likely intended to eat his face.

“If all excursions away from Earth go like this, I’m officially becoming a marine biologist.” Tech grumbled, dodging the creature’s attacks as Terminano, which had been much harder thanks to it’s seemingly new-found  speed. “Hard to leave the planet when you’re twenty thousand leagues under the sea.”

The creature managed to find an opening in Tech’s defense and slash at him, knocking him back a good few meters and leaving a gaping hole in his chest, which was quickly repaired by the nanobots that comprised his body. He hastily got off the ground, only to be knocked away again by another blow.

“Okay, screw this!” Tech yelled, right before hitting the ground with a thud. “Transforming!”

Tech quickly twisted the SpecTrix dial and slammed it down, disappearing in a green flash, which quickly faded to reveal a large, black and gold creature with it’s face on it’s stomach and a huge mouth.

“Not the ideal situation to test this form out in, but it’s not like there’s much of a choice.”

The creature, meanwhile, had started running up to Tech, about to deliver another devastating blow. Right as it tried to stop  and slash him, however, what seemed to be a small tornado of air currents kept pulling it in the direction it was going. To no avail, it tried digging it’s claws into the ground, but with one final screech of anger, it lost it’s grip and got pulled into the vortex, flying straight into Tech’s mouth and swallowed whole. Tech’s skin immediately began shimmering, turning all black, excepting an area around his face that turned white, and his eyes, which had turned a bright, blood-red. Tech flopped onto his back and sighed.

“I swear, if eating these things to kill them turns into a pattern, I’m starting an on-the-road cooking show.” He grunted wearily. “Preferably starring Gordon Ramsey.”

---

The flow of people running through the streets had stopped, allowing Kroz to finally face the creature in a full-on fight. The inspector had gone ahead with the crowd in an attempt to restore order among the frightened masses. As such, there was nothing stopping Kroz from letting loose on the creature.

The result was a city block that looked like it had been hit with a hailstorm of bombs.

Not letting up his assault, Kroz punched the creature square in the jaw, sending it flying into a nearby building with so much force that the building collapsed onto it. Not discouraged by the thousands of tons of debris on it’s face, the creature quickly tore out of the debris with a loud roar. It quickly scanned the area, expecting to find Kroz, but only seeing the empty ruins of the city around it. Confused and angry, it suddenly heard a soft noise above it, prompting it to look up. It’s face was abruptly and harshly acquainted with Kroz’s glowing hand, making it collapse onto the ground. Kroz hit the ground rolling, quickly whirling around to observe the creature, which let out a final screech of anger, before it’s body convulsed and went limp. After waiting for a few seconds to confirm the creature was dead, Kroz turned away from it and started making his way down the streets of the city towards the next sector over.

‘With any luck,’ Kroz thought to himself, ‘We’ll be able to survive this without any more civilian deaths.’

It was then that the city exploded.

Protagonists

 * Tech
 * Aquadilus
 * Warlord Kroz
 * Inspector Henjix

Antagonists

 * The Creatures

Aliens Used

 * Destramonium
 * NUclES (Debut)