Chapter 56 – Intergalactic Purple Trans Key
208 0 7
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

With Poison’s help, infiltration is thankfully the easiest part of this heist, allowing us to get low (not a problem for Fox) and enter in silence through the stuck sliding door. I check my phone one last time before we delve too far in to focus on much else besides the mission, finding two messages sent my way. The first, of course, from the rat herself:

 

9:44 - Bad Rat - [ oh, how could i forget~ ]

9:44 - Bad Rat - [ this mission is our first step to stardom~ ]

9:44 - Bad Rat - [ your goal is to persuade Legion, the leader of Stellar Stowaway ]

9:45 - Bad Rat - [ by whatever means possible~ ]

9:45 - Bad Rat - [ ring me up, beat them down, whatever it takes, make this stupid starship ours ]

9:45 - Bad Rat - [ capisce~? ]

 

I roll my eyes, sticking close to the pristine white wood textured wall as we descend the spiraling stairs. I take note of how sturdy it all feels under my paws despite resembling what I can only imagine the interior of an old sea faring vessel might be like. Slowing down to check the second message, Fox hops up on my shoulder to look as well, despite being unable to read any of it herself as far as I can tell.

 

9:43 - SU<3ZEE - [ Heya! Just thought I’d wish you luck with whatever you’ve got going on in the city today! ] 

9:44 - SU<3ZEE - [ Don’t forget, you can count on us for support! If you need anything, you give us a ring and we’ll be at ya back, promise! ]

9:44 - SU<3ZEE - [ <3 ]

 

Ohhh. What a pair of sweethearts. I close my eyes for but a moment, letting Sue-Zee’s encouragement flow through and fuel me. That’s right. If I’m doing this for them, I’m sure I can do anything.

Just then, the sound of...gooey slithering? Catches my attention? As quickly as they can, my paws shoot down and dig into my trusty old toolbelt, slipping some suction pads around my hands and leaping up without a sound. I do have to pull my lower half up with body strength alone and I thank the Goddess I was blessed with an abundance of such things, allowing me to easily take Fox with me as I stick myself to the underside of the stairs above. With Fox sandwiched between my belly and the stairs, we lurk as our fur goes black as pitch, watching for the incoming sound...only to find an average looking human climbing the stairs. Their clothes are somewhat outlandish, like a cross between business wear and a pirate’s garb. It’s just stylish enough where I can see it not drawing too much attention to them. The bright green hair is a surprise, though, even if they wear it well. Once they’ve passed, we hear them curse loudly and slam the side of the wall, the sound of the door above swooshing shut following. I respect the direct approach to problem solving.

With the coast clear, we hop down and resume our trek further descending the spiraling staircase until we find ourselves standing at the edge of the last step, looking down at the empty space below. Literally, it’s a big ‘ol cosmic tube leading straight down into a brilliant light, the entrance to which looks like the bottom end of a rocket ship. On the wall next to us, there’s another panel of flashing lights below a small display, next to which a little sticky note finds itself stuck.

“Party in Cabin Hull Y-0, yes there’s food. - P”

Ahh, so that’s what Poison was up to. Looking down at the panels each labelled with either a letter or number, I punch in Y and 0, watching as the screen flickers and shows what looks to be a map of the...ship? This entire place is shaped like some sort of huge, sprawling space pirate ship! Of course it’s pirates. It’s always pirates. Once the location in particular is highlighted on the screen, the colours of the space tube below seem to shift and swirl, mixing into a different pattern of galaxies. Fox and I look at one another and nod, hopping on down and feeling the entire world twist and warp around us as we’re pulled through at what feels like light speed before it all comes to a sudden stop. We now stand in a cylindrical elevator, quickly following the motions of the glass panes sliding to either side, hiding out of sight of the open entrance leading to the cabin ahead.

From what I can hear, that’s...definitely a party. All sorts of voices chatting and laughing, though, it sounds almost as if some are being spoken from just below the surface of water, like a bubbly filter of sorts. It’s faint but very apparent, though, even then I’m surprised I could even notice over the blaring...Nightcore. They’re jamming out to Nightcore. Bubbly Space Pirates partying to Nightcore. I’m both thankful and upset at how clearly my acute sense of hearing picks this all up. I might’ve gone through a phase in highschool, but I’m totally over it!

Disregarding the noise, Fox and I peer past the edge of the elevator’s opening as sneakily as we can and, thankfully, everyone within the room before us seems to be too distracted by the little party going on to take notice of us, giving us ample time to take in...everything…

 

Slime people. A rainbow of translucent goo folks make up the majority of the party goers. On average they are larger than your standard human, while some are even bigger, and their proportions vary between fairly human-like to almost cartoonish. For the most part, however, they seem to have long thin necks, spindly arms that become much larger the closer they come to the hands, and while some have a full set of legs, others end in a slithering puddle of goo at their thighs. Most seem to have a singular eye within their round heads, each bearing ‘hair’ that takes the form of suddy bubbles or creamy gel a few tones lighter than the rest of their body. Those with more than one eye seem to be larger than the others, but regardless of their size, they all wear very revealing chromatic armour, various lights bleeping and blipping upon them while holographic lights flair out of them as if to mimic cloth. All in all, there’s no way you could call these folks anything but space pirates, especially with the shape their clothing takes, resembling a cross between business wear and pirate garbs.

Alright, so aliens exist. I guess. Something to update Niamh on, I suppose. Regardless of this revelation, we’ve got a job to do, and this blindingly bright cabin is not going to make our lives any easier. Bright neon and fluorescent lights deck the hull of this ship’s interior to the floor boards, even if there are some good sneaking points, like tables to duck under and counters to slink behind, there’s not a shadow to be seen, leaving us rather vulnerable were we to zip in as we are. Thankfully, I might just have an idea…

Looking to Fox, I nudge my head behind me, and she nods in return, leaping to my back as I take a deep breath and take a step forward...focusing on the light clinging to my body from every angle. Just as I’d thought, I can channel the brightness around me to fire flickering atop my fur, and so I let it burn, engulfing my body in a bright white flame and blending right in with the pure white chrome of the room’s walls and floors. I might stand out in front of some of the neon, but positioning my steps just right and moving right in time with the music, I find myself maneuvering the room with ease, hiding Fox behind my bright ass as I work out a plan of action, and yet...I can’t help but feel as though I’m being watched. Clearly not by any party goers, and if there are any cameras, they shouldn’t be able to pick me up as anything but a trick of the lighting. So who or what has their eyes on me?

At the very least, if there is something eyeing us, for now it’s not impeding us at all so I can traverse through the ship with ease. Just as the sticky note had noted, this is the Cabin Hull, numerous sliding doors lining the walls, each labelled with symbols I couldn’t decipher if I tried. Most labels are white with blue text, but a few select doors are marked with black panels and white text. If I had to guess, those are the important ones, it’s only a matter of figuring out which is right…

...And just then, I notice something stuck to the counter I currently reside behind. Another sticky note, same handwriting as before…

“Purple girl has the goods, be nice to her. - P”

Ah, a girl after my own heart, she knows the perfect hiding spots just like us. I take the first chance I get to peek over the counter and observe, and, lo and behold, there is a single purple alien, more lavender than anything, with creamy pink hair. Odd...I feel the light inside me begin to glow for a second. She’s currently chatting happily with some of the other party goers before she perks up and pulls out her phone, tilting her head at the screen before putting it away and seeming to say goodbye to her friends. Now looks like our chance!

The girl begins walking away towards a black marked door to the far end of the room, punching in a code and waiting for the sliding doors to woosh open. And so we follow, dashing and weaving about the party room before waiting just out of range of the purple alien until she begins moving in, checking her phone once more and giving us the perfect opportunity to slide in behind her.

Entering the room, we find ourselves in a cylindrical hallway, like we’re walking through a tube of chrome and neon, however, the further down the hall you go, the darker it seems to get, looking almost like a neon night downtown, though, not any downtown we know, not with how pristine Monorise is. I sweat, my cover clearly not going to hold for long as we trail behind the alien girl...how am I going to deal with the neon in the dark? My cover will be blown in a second…

As I’m mulling through my options, I notice Fox looking...concerned, though, she’s not looking ahead. She closes her eyes, grimacing for a moment before taking a deep breath...and darkness begins crawling up her paws.

I look on in awe as her once bright red body becomes consumed in shadow, taking on stronger features...in fact, she looks more wolf than she does fox like this. Finally, she opens her eyes...and two more than I’d expected her to have, an extra eye under each. She...no, this doesn’t feel like Fox any more. This must be her Shadow, the same one from our fight with Metatron a month ago. She squints, almost glaring at me before looking ahead and dashing forward, silent as a shadow and just as visible as a shade in the dark as she enters the latter half of the hall, unnoticed by our ‘guide.’ A chill runs down my spine seeing her, but...that does give me an idea. One I can only hope this body will allow…

Another deep breath. If the light brings me fire, then the dark can take it away. My body runs cold, I clench my teeth to stop the chattering as every hair of fur on my body stands up straight, and I move forward despite the shivering. I feel...awful. Sick, even. My body hates every inch I move like this, but as the light fades and I slink into the darkness, I find myself cold and unseen within the darkness, blotting out even the neon behind me.

And so I stand there, possibly next to her Shadow, not even sure where she is in this darkness, shivering and cursing myself until the purple alien makes it to the far end of the hall, punching in another code and moving into the following room, thus, we follow suit, at least, I hope I’m not going in alone.

 

Our guide stops just a few steps in, turning to talk to a guard of sorts before bowing and turning away, giving us time to move in before the guard takes their position back in front of the door. Once in fully, I can see this place is something of a meeting room, a large table in the center with seats all around, maps of various parts of the city plastered about the walls, some even being TV sized touch screens mounted on the wall. A few aliens, and even some humans, sit at the table, though, a few seats seem unoccupied, including that closest to the large door at the far end of the room.

Boss room…

The alien girl waves and smiles to those sitting at the table, most aliens waving back, as well as some humans, though, one is clearly unable to, being bound by rope to one of the chairs...they definitely look like they’d like to be anywhere but here. I’d feel sorry for ‘em if I had room for empathy on the job. Ahh, okay, I do feel a little bad, but I’d rather get this over with quick, and rescuing a hostage would get pretty in the way of that.

Brr. I’d definitely like to get this part of it over with pronto.

Keeping close behind the purple alien, I find her soon talking to the large two-eyed guard standing before the boss room door, clearly having some trouble…

“Come on, Hilxoten, I’ve met with the boss tons of times before, what’s so different about now?”

The shotgun wielding guard shakes their head.

“I’m sorry, Vivian, the Admiral is bunkered up in their quarters right now, we’re on high alert.”

“High alert? From what? If it’s about Poison dropping by--”

Hilxoten raises what I think is an eyebrow.

“What? When did she show up?

The aliens blink at each other for a moment.

“Uhh, she dropped by a little bit ago with pizza and some music, then left. Is there something wrong with a bit of a break after everything that’s been going on in Subterfuge?”

“Vivian,” the guard begins, pinching between their eyes where the bridge of their nose would be if they had one, “the Rat Queen is plotting something and Poison is a free agent. Even if we trust her to an extent, now is definitely not the time to let our guard down--”

“Eh-choo!”

Fuck. All eyes turn to me, or at least, to my general direction in that moment. Dammit! This goddamn cold! I can’t keep it up for much longer, shivering as the heat returns to my body, the neon lights and bright screens about the room putting me on display as the guards in the room point their guns to me. Meanwhile, this Vivian character looks...excited?

“Cat?! No way, are you the Cat Kitten?!”

I sniffle the last bit of cold out of my system and grin cheekily as the rest of the room looks to the girl in confusion.

“I’m sorry,” one of the humans sitting at the round table chimes in, pulling out a gun of their own, “Is there something you’d like to tell us before we blast this cat to smithereens?”

“Aha, oh, yeah, uhm...just one thing…”

Wh-pchin!

Before anybody in the room can react, the alien girl seems to have pulled out a vine-like whip and cracked the gun out of the now reeling human’s hand, only to take the opportunity of every gun being on me to pull Hilxoten to her front and press one half of a cybernetic shear to their neck.

“Sorry about this, everyone! Really sorry about this, Hilxoten.

“You goddamn owe me for whatever the hell this is.”

7