The Semigonics are aliens that are also part dragon, created in the Draconic Galaxy. They are the product of a father’s desire to give life to more than just his children. But, when the king dragon, Aro, created the Semigonics, he realized after some time that they were flawed; powerful but primitive--at least compared to the king and the other Nebula Dragons. 

A self-proclaimed queen, Reiyara, rose among them and she taught the savages about technology and civilization-- something she learned from watching the Nebula Dragons in Nebula City from afar while the Semigonics were allowed to reside in the city. After learning of their true nature, Whistilia, the queen of the Nebula Dragons and Aro’s wife, demanded her husband rid their galaxy of the “infection”. However, she was unaware of Aro’s affair with the Semigonic queen. And instead of snapping them away, he had his daughter, Mara, the Dragon of Space, move the Semigonics to one of Nebulan’s many moons. 

Aro was not the only one that was keeping secrets, as Reiyara gave birth to his child. She did not want her son to have to face the wrath of the king of queen Dragons one day, so she gave him to the planet’s priests. The head priest, Tahndim, raised the child as if he were his own. 

The priests were an odd mix of primitive yet enlightened. As in, they had access to information not many in the universe had access to, but their methods of dealing with the information they received was primitive. The grandest mistake they could ever make was their method of dealing with a prophecy they received from the Insights-- a race of super-genius aliens-- back on Nebulan. They received information that the one called Ocizor, a fellow Semigonic, would kill the majority of the race. Due to receiving this information, when they found the young child, they captured him and kept him tied up in the basement of the Semigonic Temple. Ocizor’s younger brother, Tharak, was granted a normal life however, but was never allowed to see his brother. The priests, instead of worshipping their Queen Reiyara and praying to the Nebula Dragons, made their first priority ridding Semigon of their undoing. They tried multiple ways to kill Ocizor, but none of the methods did the deed. They’ve come close with beheading, though, in a matter of minutes, a new one grew back. 

 

The priest, Tahndim, took a step back from the shackled Ocizor, his face drenched in the prisoner’s blood. Ocizor hung his head low as the blood pouring from the open wound in his neck slowed to a drip as it sealed from his self-healing.

“Another failure,” Tahndim uttered with his soft voice. 

“We could try cauterizing the wound after he is beheaded,” another priest chimed. Tahndim turned to look back at his fellow priests. The blue glow of another one of Nebulan’s moons shone through a high-placed small metal grate. Shadows were cast on the head priest’s face, revealing only red eyes on a silhouetted head. 

“You forget we are all fire retardant. For that poor suggestion, would you like to join the child?” he asked. The chiming priest slowly shook his head in fear that Tahndim would leap at him in a split second. “Leave my presence.”

All of the priests took the hint and filed out one by one, and as they did, they walked past Queen Reiyara’s son who was standing in the hallway to ask his “father” a question. He was originally upstairs but found his way down here and easily broke the handle on the bolted and locked door to accidentally catch a glimpse of a sight that would scar any child. He caught a glimpse of his father standing before the battered Ocizor with intrigue, curious as to how he would stop the prophecy from coming true. The priests that walked by said nothing as they would not want to be the one in the path of Tahndim’s rage for bringing him the news that his child saw him at his truest. But, as the door creaked closed, Tahndim locked eyes with his son for a brief second before the door closed. 

The head priest dashed at the door and swung it open only to be greeted by nothing. The child had vanished in less than a second. Tahndim then dashed upstairs to stop the priests in the main hall of worship. They all spun and gave him their full attention. 

“The boy has escaped. Spread out and find him. Return him here. I will alert the queen,” Tahndim informed them. The other priests nodded and dashed off without questioning why the child left, because they knew the reason.

Tahndim tapped on his wrist communicator and a hologram of the queen popped up. The priest briefly bowed his head then looked back up at Reiyara. 

“My queen, your child--”

“Oh, Aro’s sake, you’ve lost him,” she interrupted.

“How did y--”

“Why else would you be calling me, Tahndim?”

“To… talk?”

“We do not have that sort of relationship, priest.”

“We-- we could.”

“... Find my child or one of the others priests will be very happy with the promotion they’re receiving,” she threatened. She was about to hang up on him with that, but she paused and exhaled before she spoke again. “Listen and listen closely. I am not looking for a king. Period. But… we can continue this conversation later.”

Tahndim brightened up. That sounded like a positive note.

“After you find my son.”

The priest nodded and ended their transmission. His eyes turned from red to a brighter red with his heat vision on the cusp of bursting from his face from pure determination. 

 

The child flew above the skyscrapers of Semigon. It was easy for him to ignore the sight of the city, but for any other being visiting the moon, it would be a sight to behold. Oddly shaped, but structurally sound buildings-- skyscrapers, temples, houses. Overpopulated, crowded sidewalks. Levitating vehicles with no wheels that stayed close to the ground. Bright lights and screen billboards. Blue-colored aliens everywhere. The difference between the child and the rest of the Semigonics was the child could fly. In fact, only a handful of the Semigonics could-- each having their own reasons why they were able to. In the child’s case, it was because he was the son of a god, Aro, and technically speaking a demigod, Reiyara. She was considered a demigod because the entire race Aro made was a part of him and with him being a god, they were made demigods by association. So the child, Malos, would be considered something between a god and demigod; a semi-god. 

The queen was another being that could fly. This ability for her to use was granted by Aro himself. In fact, Aro gave several people dear to him the power of flight, including his children and even the courtsmen below them that were hired to protect his children. 

Malos’s heart skipped a beat as he slowed to a stop to see a child slightly older than him on top of the skyscraper in front of him. The child, a fellow Semigonic, was clothed in a black and red hood-cape combination. The suit he wore was a suit all Semigonics wore to keep them either warm or cool depending on the temperature of the moon. The suit was a similar color to Malos’s suit, but this was not what intrigued Malos. It was the fact that the child reached such an incredible height when he believed he was the only one that could fly.

Malos, of course, was not aware that his mother was the queen, but the priests covered this up simply by telling him the queen granted him this ability when he was younger. Malos was told he was a sick kid and the queen healed back to full health with obvious benefits. 

But with that story he was told, he could not believe that another child had reached the top of this zig-zag-shaped building. He approached the kid and the kid shot a look back at Malos, noticing his approach. Another thing Malos noticed that was off about the child was that the child’s eyes--unlike the rest of the Semigonics and even the Nebula Dragons--his eyes were blue. The blue-eyed child sneered at Malos before demanding to know who he was.

“Who the hell are you?”

“How’d you get up here?” 

“Simple,” the nameless kid said, looking back down at the rest of the city. “I jumped up here.”

“You--we all--we can do that?” Malos asked. The other child sighed and closed his eyes.

“We can,” he said. “There’s so much we can do, but we waste our potential focusing on meaningless things.”

“‘Meaningless things?’”

“Look at the city. The entirety of Semigon. We’re so focused on catching up to the Nebula Dragons technologically, we haven’t stopped to ask what we can already do,” the child said. “I bet less than half of the population knows they could do something like this. Perhaps…”

The child’s eyes brightened turning into a light blue before they started glowing. 

“... more.”

“Why are your eyes blue?” 

“Maybe it’s because I woke up,” the child said. “My eyes used to be red like yours. But as soon as I started to question what we were doing as a race, they changed.”

“Will mine do that?” Malos asked. 

“Maybe if you see our people the way I do.”

The child turned his body completely to face Malos. 

“Well, what’s your story? Why can you fly?” the child asked. “And why are you even up here?”

“I am the son of a priest. I used to believe that my father was a good and pure man, but I just saw something that destroyed that belief,” Malos explained.

“And that was?”

“He was torturing one of our own kind,” Malos continued. “Not only was this man I saw as a hero-- a god-- torturing and harming another living being, but it was one of us. It could have been--...”

“You. The one he was torturing could have been you,” the child finished. “But, you don’t even know the reasoning behind it.”

Malos solemnly nodded. 

“Is that even necessary? My father has someone he tortures locked up in the basement of a place that is supposed to be holy,” Malos said. “People go to that place to worship the queen and Dragons but there something unholy beneath their feet.”

“You’d be surprised how much dark shit these people do,” the other child said. “Including the Dragons.”

“How would you know?” Malos asked.

“I pay attention,” the child answered. “I use my powers. Like my telescopic vision to spy on Nebula City. I can teach you to do the same. Although I’m not where I want to be as far as control, I like to think I have some sort of handle on them.”

“What’d be the point?”

“To protect yourself against people like your father,” the child said. “So you don’t end up like the Semigonic on the other end of your father’s wrath.”

Malos paused and looked down at the bustling city. He looked over at the child and nodded, a look of determination over his face.

“What’s your name?” the child asked. 

“Malos.”

“Pleased to meet you, Malos,” the child said. “I am called ‘Duro’.”

They gripped each other’s right forearms. 

“First mission, we’re going to speak to the queen,” Duro said matter-of-factly. He turned and walked to the edge of the building. Malos opened his mouth to speak, but Duro cut him off. “If we need to sneak in, you’ll be able to use your ability of flight to find a way in.”

“Why do we need to see the queen?” Malos asked.

“Well, you can report what you saw directly to the highest authority on the moon. And I can rightly complain about what we as a people should be focusing on,” Duro explained. 

 

The queen’s castle is located in the middle of the city. But since the entire moon is a city, if one were to look at it from Nebulan, the castle could be seen on the top middle of it. Rather than being a traditional Earthly Victorian-style castle like the Nebula Dragon Palace, her castle is made up of several modern-looking glass buildings with lights everywhere. What sets it apart from the rest of the buildings is the fact that the buildings are clustered together and the tallest building found on Semigon is in the center of this cluster. 

Malos lowered his altitude while carrying Duro and they both landed and approached the guard at the gate. 

“What do you kids want?” the guard questioned. 

“Why else would we be here?” Duro asked. “To see the queen, of course.”

“Get the fuck outta here.”

Duro looked at Malos, who looked uncomfortable. Duro gestured with his head toward the top of the skyscraping castle. The two of them simply walked around a corner, Malos grabbed Duro’s hand and they flew to the height of the top floor, with the guards of the castle being oblivious. 

At the height of the top floor, right outside the window, they both glared through the windows. 

“This looks like her bedroom,” Duro announced to Malos using a combination of night vision and telescopic vision. “She’s not inside.”

“So, what now?” Malos asked.

“Enter.”

“‘Enter?’”

“Enter,” Duro repeated. “Crash through the window. She can afford to fix it.”

Malos exhaled and charged through the window like he was tearing through water. Malos let Duro go and they both now tried sneaking around the room, after making such an entrance. They’re attention is drawn to Reiyara’s bed where the queen herself sat up and stared at both of them with blue heat vision.

“You have three seconds to leave,” the queen commanded. She took a closer look at Malos and shut her heat vision off. “What are you doing in my quarters?”

“Queen Reiyara, we seek an audience with you,” Duro said. The queen flips the covers off of her and walks toward her bedroom door. 

“There are better ways of doing th--”

“Ways that would take longer than I would like,” Duro said.

“Hmm. You’re a pushy one,” she said. She opened the door and pointed to the hallway. “Out. We speak out here.”

The three of them stepped into the hallway. Reiyara folded her arms and leaned against the wall, looking down at her son and the pushy one. 

“I think we’re focusing on the wrong things, Queen,” Duro said. Reiyara laughed. 

“How old are you?” she asked. This briefly angered Duro and a flash of blue heat vision was visible in his eyes, gone faster than it appeared. Her smile disappeared as she looked over to her son. “And you?”

“I’m here to report Father Tahndim. My father,” Malos said. Reiyara’s face looked concerned, but she knew exactly what Malos was reporting, of course. “He’s not the man he lets the temple believe he is.”

“And what do you mean by that, little one?” Reiyara asked, crouching down to Malos’s height. 

“He’s… torturing one of our own. I have no idea why, but that can’t be allowed on Semigon, can it?” Malos asked. 

“I will have my people look into it further, little one. Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” the queen said.

“And what about my problem?” Duro asked, his arms folded. Reiyara stood back up and looked down at him.

“Well, your issue is a little less direct than Malos’s--” The children exchange confused looks, then they both look back at the queen. “Shit. I--”

“How do you know his name?” Duro asked. 

“Please tell me these two are on their way out,” Aro asked. The three of them looked down the hall and saw the king of the dragons, the Dragon of Dragons, the god of their religion, before them. Malos bowed. Duro did not. 

“They were, my king,” Reiyara said, slightly bowing her head.

“What are your names?” Aro questioned, stopping and joining the three. 

“I am called ‘Duro’ and this is Malos,” Duro said. “We need to do something about the way we’re progressing as a culture.” 

Aro cannot help but bellow a hearty laugh. 

“Straight to the point, eh?” he looked at the queen. “Reiyara, I like this one.”

“We, as a people can be much stronger than we are currently. I wish for others to see it as well,” Duro continued. “For example, not everyone knows that we can jump as high as I did today.”

“‘Jump?’ Why jump when…” Aro’s hand glowed and he placed that hand on Duro’s shoulder. “... you can now fly.”

Duro look at the ground. It shrunk as he began to levitate, showing that Aro just granted him the power of flight. He looked back at the Dragon of Dragons.

“I don’t know what to say other than ‘thank you’.”

“Manners, too. That settles it, Duro. I want you to bring your family and you’ll come to live in Nebula City with the Dragons. Just your family, though,” Aro said. 

“W-why?”

Aro paused before continuing, finding out the real reason before uttering anything.

“Because you give me hope that I didn’t make a wrongful decision in separating the Semigonics from Nebulan,” he said. 

“I don’t have a family, sir,” Duro admitted.

“Then you’ll live with us in the palace.”

Duro wasn’t sure how to feel. As he processed the information, Aro looked over at Malos. 

“And what can I do for you?”

“I just want m-my father to… pay for his crimes,” Malos said, feeling weird but relieved by saying it. 

“And we’ll see to it immediately. Reiyara, go with Malos. I will bring Duro with me back to Nebulan,” the king said. Duro held his finger up. 

“Allow me to consult with my confidant,” the child said. They both flew back through Reiyara’s bedroom and out the window to whisper to each other. “Something’s fishy with this whole situation. Why was Aro on his way to Reiyara’s bedroom? Why did Reiyara know your name? Why did Aro not invite you to Nebula City? I’ll have to find out more information on the inside. I’ll find you when the time is right.”

Malos nodded and the two gripped each other’s right forearms once again before they parted with their respective royalty. 

 

Back at the temple, Reiyara scolded Tahndim for keeping Ocizor locked up in front of the torture room and in front of Malos. Malos, at this point, was detached from the conversation and couldn’t help staring at the door the entire time. But, something forced him to snap back into the conversation-- something he didn’t want to see happen. Reiyara looked at him.

“He said he’s sorry, but he told me there’s a good reason for him being here,” she said. “He will not torture the boy anymore, but he must stay locked up.”

“That’s it?” Malos asked.

“I have other duties to attend to,” Reiyara continued. She crouched down to his level. “You should count yourself lucky that I took time out of my busy schedule to do this.”

She stood up and gave a look to the priest before walking out. Tahndim gave Malos a frustrated look in return, but his “son” was no longer paying attention to him. Instead, in the blink of an eye, Malos had opened the torture room door and torn the chains off of the weakened Ocizor. The priest’s eyes widened and before he could even call out Malos’s name, a blast of heat vision burned through his throat, killing him. 

Ocizor’s eyes glowed red, revealing he had just killed his own torturer. He then looked and Malos and spoke.

“Thank you.”

He then flew over to the priest and placed a hand on him, sucking whatever soul essence was remaining in the body, regaining his strength. Ocizor was about to prove that the prophecy was right about him. He turned his head and gave one last look at the frozen Malos before flying through the roof into the ground zero of the temple floor. 

Malos, still frozen in fear, was unable to control his super hearing as screams rang from upstairs. The other priests, worshippers that came in between services, and any other soul that had blue skin on the planet. 

Malos floated up through the hole Ocizor created and was greeted by a metallic smell and the massacred people of the temple. There was no more screaming, no more crackling sounds of flesh burning, only silence. Malos snapped his attention to outside, where more screaming occurred and in a matter of seconds the screaming trailed off as if it was running away from him. As he floated over the bodies toward the door, he couldn’t help but think of the detrimental consequences of making the split second decision of releasing the mass murderer that was Ocizor. With the bodies of men, women, and children that lie in the church, would anyone on Semigon besides himself be spared. And there was the possibility of the killer not stopping at Semigon. He wondered if the Nebula Dragons could handle this monster should Ocizor make the decision to attack Nebulan as well. 

Malos pushed opened the doors and stepped outside. The moon that he once knew was no more. Everything that wasn’t once a Semigonic was on fire; buildings, vehicles, everything. There was no Semigonic alive in Ocizor’s wake. 

He noticed the screaming had stopped. He couldn’t hear anything within miles. Had Ocizor stopped or had he been stopped? Malos would have to find out, for there was hope that there were survivors. He flew up and flashed all around the planet in a matter of seconds. To his dismay, Ozicor had killed the entirety of the planet, all except for him. And here to confirm his suspicion, Ocizor floated near Malos with his back turned. Only one other Semigonic floated next to Ocizor, his younger brother Tharak.

“Ocizor--” Tharak began to say, but Malos cut him off.

“Ocizor.” Ocizor turned his head to signal he was listening to Malos. “Why?”

“None of them deserved to live. Why should they have gotten to when I kept enduring what I endured in the basement of something they worshipped? I was underneath them all, but they never heard my cries. But, I sure heard their’s,” the murderer explained. “And from this day on, I am no longer called ‘Ocizor’. It was a slave name. From now on, I will be called the killer of all: ‘Omnicide’.”

With that, Omnicide grabbed his younger brother’s shoulder and they flew off the planet, leaving Malos to wallow in his grave mistake. 

He didn’t want to stick around to see what would happen to him or anything else in the universe. He would have to end the plague that caused the genocide of his people: himself. He floated towards the upper atmosphere to reach the point where he could no longer breathe. On his way up, he couldn’t help but think about meeting up with Duro again and how sorry he was that he killed the people Duro was trying to aid. He hoped he was safe. 

Before he knew it, he was looking back down at Semigon from the outer reaches of space. He looked next to the moon and saw Nebulan from afar as well. He wasn’t breathing because there is no oxygen in space, but he was surviving in the vacuum. His head wasn’t exploding, his skin wasn’t freezing over. He was comfortable. 

He stares at Nebulan for a few seconds, noticing that no destruction was occuring on the planet, meaning that either the Dragons stopped Ocizor and were coming for Malos, or Ocizor decided not to attack the planet. Either way, Malos was going to leave home and find somewhere else where he fit in. Somewhere others wouldn’t know where he was from. A fresh start. He decided to fly in the opposite direction of Nebulan. He turned, leaned his body over as if he was laying on his stomach in a traditional hero-flying-position, and took off as fast as he could. 

In a matter of milliseconds, he found a planet that might’ve been to his liking. A small sand planet. He used his telescopic vision to zoom his sight in and found scattered bars and stores across the planet. He decided to try it and he flew to the closest one to him. 

He landed on the outside of the bar. From the outside it looked void of people, with the exception of varying vehicles spread in what resembled a parking lot. A hover bike. Several different colored hovercrafts. Malos figured the hovercrafts were native to the planet. 

Malos opened the door and stepped into the bar. The inside was the complete opposite of what the planet appeared to be. Several aliens that seemed like they were not only from other planets, but other galaxies, filled the bar. A few looks from squid-like aliens, large, bearded ones, animal-like beings, ones that appeared blind, were directed at the child. Malos swallowed a large gulp of saliva as he approached the counter--walking, not floating to avoid more attention. 

He sat on a barstool and before he even looked up to see the bartender, an alien from across the bartender called out about him.

“Hey, Bartender! Ain’t this bar age restricted?!” a clean-shaven, human-looking alien asked. He was wearing a dark blue gi similar in color to Malos’s suit, white boots, and an orange baseball cap. 

“Leave him alone, Ouro,” another alien a few seats down from Malos called. This alien was gray-skinned with a green bandana around his mouth, a black jacket, three-holed fingerless, green gloves, and a large brown cowboy hat. This one’s name was Vykero. Vykero then proceeded to tip his hat at Malos and sip his drink through his bandana. 

“What can I get you?” a familiar voice said. He turned to see Queen Reiyara standing in front of him at the bar. The sight of her caused Malos to leap out of his seat, fly back, and charge his heat vision to attack her. The patrons of the bar turn, frozen at the sight of what Malos was. The Bartender rose its hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not who you think I am. I just appear to you as someone close to you. Closer than you think. I’m a shapeshifting alien. An adaptaal.”

Malos’s heat vision dissipated and he flew back to the stool, not fully letting his guard down. 

“I am called ‘The Bartender’ and don’t worry, everyone has a… similar reaction. I possess knowledge on nearly all races and can give you any sort of information you’re looking for,” The Bartender continued. “May I ask where you’re from, though I might have an idea.”

“I’d rather you not know,” Malos told it. “I wanted a fresh start. Just my luck that I landed on planet with an all-knowing being.”

“Near all-knowing, my friend. But I won’t poke at you for anything. I won’t even ask for your name,” The Bartender said. “What I will ask is what you’d like to drink?”

“Nothing,” Malos said. He paused before speaking again. “I just need guidance.”

“A wanderer, huh? A got a few regular wanderers here I think you might like,” The Bartender said. “Though, they’re not your age.”

“The youth of my race’s brains learn faster than their bodies, which is why I speak as if I’m a grown adult,” Malos said. They used to, he thought. 

“Vykero, take his old man to the back room and introduce him to the fellow wanderers,” The Bartender called to the cowboy alien. Vykero tipped his hat at the Bartender and signaled to Ouro and another alien in the room. The four of them walked into another room, much more quiet and cozy with cool ventilation, television, and bar games like pool. 

“When are we gonna get some non-human shit?” the unknown alien asked. She is a tall human-looking being with an eye patch over her left eye, all black clothes, a black fedora, a green and gray cybernetic left arm, and a golden axe. Fulgur. 

“Hey, the humans have some good entertaining shit. Plus, you know how many races interact with ‘em,” Ouro said. “Even the cosmic fuckers.”

“I know, but other races have cool shit, too,” Fulgur added. 

“Focus, you two. Bartender brought us in here for a reason,” Vykero said, turning with Fulgur and Ouro to face Malos. “Granted, it’s a rather small reason.”

“I guarantee you, I am more intelligent than the lot of you combined,” Malos said with confidence and accuracy. “I’m just looking for direction.”

“Well, let’s start with what brought you here in the first place,” Vykero said.

“You know, the standard shit. What’s your name, where’re you from?” Fulgur added.

“I’d rather not--”

“Ugh, look kid, where not gonna get anywhere with you if you don’t open up,” Ouro commented.

“Would you like us to start? To build rapport?” Vykero asked. Malos nodded slightly. “Then I will start. I am called Vykero. I am a bounty hunter for hire. The only space bike you see out there belongs to me. I come from a race that was born on this planet actually. Dagondo. A race called the Ch’tarqs. We weren’t special in anyway as far as powers and abilities go, but we were good at stealing shit. But, that stealing got most of us killed. So I’m the last.”

“I’m Sera. I go by the name ‘Fulgur’. The Bartender told me I was an Elemental from the planet Tarava, but we upset some tyrannical alien that ended up destroying our planet. I am supposedly the last one. And our people, depending on the sub-race, could control natural elements. I can control and generate lightning.” 

“I’m Ouro. I am Seed from the planet Froote. Our people were known for becoming stronger after each battle we survive. But, my people were killed by a galactic storm in the Andromeda Galaxy. The entire planet was destroyed while I was away fighting in a tournament on another planet. It… motivated me to become the strongest I could be so that I could reassure myself that I wasn’t fighting for nothing.”

A brief pause as everyone looked at him with concern. Ouro snapped out of it and cleared his throat to try and avoid further awkwardness.

“Where’d you acquire your weapons?” Malos asked, referring to Vykero’s Alti revolvers and Fulgur’s lightning axe. Vykero scoffed.

“Story for another day,” he said. “Now it’s your turn.”

Before Malos answered, he realized he had one thing in common with the rest of them. And Ouro’s goal seemed similar to something Duro would want. There was a reason he was here. In case Duro was gone, he would become the strongest he could become and learn from whom he could learn. He also needed to learn why Reiyara was the person he saw The Bartender as. 

Malos then proceeded to pour his heart out about the genocide he caused by letting Ocizor escape. During his story, he kept the attention of the three like him. They all listened with the utmost sincerity. And during the course of the story, Malos lowered his head slowly. By the end, he lifted his head to see the reactions of the three. 

“So, he’s like us,” Ouro blurted. Vykero sighed.

“Look, I’m not gonna tell you that it wasn’t your fault, because it clearly was--”

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be redeemed,” Fulgur said. “Hell, we’ve all done shit that we regret. At least you weren’t directly responsible. Like, you didn’t do the killing yourself.”

“I might as well have,” Malos said, depressed from the truthful feedback he was getting. 

“What’s in the past is in the past,” Ouro said. “So what are you gonna do about it now?”

Malos thought long and hard for an answer to this question. He knew his answer would be who he would strive to be for the future. 

“I’m going to free those that are not.”

The other three aliens before Malos exchanged looks. They looked back at the determined Semigonic.

“That’s not the answer I was expecting,” Fulgur said. “Why--”

“I didn’t know how to feel about it before. At first, I felt an initial guilt for releasing Ocizor on my people. But, I felt I was doing a service for him. Why should he have to suffer when the rest of us got to live our lives? And once I found out, what was I going to do? Ignore him and let him continue suffering beneath my feet? No. I’m going to be a liberator.”

“Well, hey, as long as he’s doing what he believes is good, who gives a shit?” Ouro said. Both Fulgur and Vykero looked at him in disagreement. 

“Then take him for yourself. That’s a clear signal for someone who’s already lost his way,” Vykero said. Malos shot him a look, with a flash of bright red coming across his irises. 

“Or let The Bartender teach him better,” Fulgur said. She looked at Malos directly. “I think we’d all feel safer if you had a better mindset, since we’re now aware of what Semigonics can do.”

“Fine, but after The Bartender’s done with him, I’m takin’ him under my wing,” Ouro said. 

This is just what they did. Malos stayed on Dagondo for a few years growing and learning about morality and information on other alien races. However, unbeknownst to The Bartender, Malos’s moral compass had been destroyed by the feeling he received when releasing Ocizor and him standing by his decision to free those that couldn’t free themselves. The following years, Ouro took him under his wing, travelling to different planets, learning different forms of combat, including hand-to-hand and weapon. Malos’s personality developed more to reflect Ouro’s personality, as he was someone Malos grew to look up to. Over the course of Malos’s training, Ouro noticed Malos showed less and less restraint eventually to the point where he killed his first living being.

Ouro, being someone who has killed himself, asked Malos how it felt. Malos said he felt nothing. And he wasn’t taught to not kill from that point on, since Ouro was okay with it. If the opponent, enemy, or whomever was weaker, he was okay with them dying. Ouro also taught him to enjoy what he did in life. There were plenty of beings in the universe that got by just by existing. Ouro taught him to take pride in everything Malos did. So, from this point, over time, Malos’s personality changed from a somber, grim one to a happier, content, and livelier one. 

After a few more years, they returned to Dagondo with the more matured Malos. The Bartender greeted the two, hoping their travels went well. Vykero and Fulgur looked as if they hadn’t aged, which was the case. 

But before they could even settle down properly, three beings, the last beings Malos would ever want to see, entered the bar: Detrius, the Dragon of War, Althaina, the Dragon of Power, and Mara, the Dragon of Space. Every patron in the bar stopped their various activities to give their full attention to the gods.

“We’re looking for an individual by the name of ‘Malos’,” Detrius announced. Malos stepped forward, Ouro, Fulgur, and Vykero behind him. “I assume you’re him. If you could come with us and answer a few ques--”

“Yeah, not happening. I’m good where I am, thanks,” he said. To be clear, he wasn’t angry with them, he just did not want them to speak to him about the massacre. He felt he was on the path to redemption and dealing with his past now would not help him. 

“I wasn’t hoping you’d say that. I don’t like fighting, but will if I find it necessary,” Detrius said. “So, let me ask you, will you come peacefully, Semigonic?” 

To answer his question, Malos fly-tackled Detrius back outside in the blink of an eye. Back inside, Althaina raised her fist at the bar patrons, her hands glowing with laser energy.

“All of you stay where you are. We will handle this,” she said. Ouro began to feel the itch, the need to help Malos out, but Vykero placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Not yet,” he whispered. 

Mara stepped outside and talked to her brother from a distance as Detrius summoned his Nebula Knives. 

“Ya know I can just teleport us back to the palace?” Mara asked.

“No. I don’t want him to destroy anything in the palace. I have to weaken him first,” Detrius told her. Malos smiled.

“Weaken me? Good luck with that,” Malos said. At this point in his life, he had never been damaged. His durability was unmatched by any being he had come into contact with. Detrius couldn’t help but laugh at Malos’s taunt.

“You have no idea, do you?” the prince said. “All Semigonics are weak to Nebula Metal.”

Malos was done listening. He released a beam of heat vision at the Dragon. Detrius raised his knives to deflect the beam towards the sky. 

“I can help you teleport around him during your fight,” Mara chimed. 

“I am fine, Mara,” Detrius said, tossing a knife at Malos. The Semigonic easily dodged the knife, but as he turned, he saw Detrius was already behind him. He raised his arm to clothesline the Dragon, but he was hit in the back by the initial blade Detrius threw. It went threw his red cape into his spine. Detrius kept recalling it and the blade travelled through Malos’s spine, stomach, and out his front into Detrius’s hand, blood covering it. 

Malos couldn’t believe it. Someone had managed to penetrate his skin. Not only that, but they put a hole in his body. Detrius stood up straight, slightly dropping his guard, assuming the fight was over.

“Next time we battle, if there is one, I hope you put up more of a fight--”

Before he could finish, he was thrown into the bar by Malos. The bar patrons looked on, including Ouro, Vykero, and Fulgur. Malos flew into the bar, towering over the Nebula Dragon prince. Mara casually walked back into the bar behind him. Althaina looked at the two battling while keeping her fists aimed at the bar patrons. 

“You shouldn’t be able to stand, let alone move. How--”

“First time getting your ass kicked?” Malos taunted as his eyes glowed again.

“A Semigonic should not be this strong,” Detrius said as he floated to his feet. He raised his blades in preparation. “No matter.”

The spinal column and the flesh that was missing from Malos’s body began to regenerate as the prince charged at him. Malos successfully dodged a few swipes from Detrius’s blades before clocking the prince under his jaw and uppercutted him through the roof. He followed the Dragon through the hole, delivered a right hook, then elbow to his face, and finally used his heat vision to blast the prince back behind the bar outside into the sand. 

“That’s it,” Althaina said before she used her laser fists to blast a hole into the back of the bar. She flew through this hole, her wings stirring up the sand from outside into the bar. Mara teleported outside with the two still battling. Vykero released his grip from Ouro’s shoulder. 

“I can’t do anything against these gods. Not without the life and death bullets in my Alti. But,” He looked at both Ouro and Fulgur. “I know you two can do something. It’s up to you whether or not you--”

Both Ouro and Fulgur charge through the hole in the back of the bar without hearing the rest of Vykero’s sentence.

“... want too…”

Althaina turned to face the two non-god aliens, her eyes glowing a pinkish-magenta like her fists. 

“Sister, stay out of this,” she told Mara. “It’s time to teach these two where they belong on the cosmic list.”

“You mean the tier list?” Mara asked. She did not receive an answer as Althaina blasted her laser beams at the two aliens. As Ouro dodged, Fulgur raised her golden lightning axe to deflect the attack. She held it off, but was being pushed back towards the bar from the force of the blast. As Ouro flew at Althaina, a portal opened before him and he flew directly into it. He popped out on the other side of the portal, realizing it was a separate part of the planet, where there were no shops within miles of his location. 

Detrius shouted at his little sister while kicking Malos away from him. 

“Mara! I don’t require your assistance! Let them attack me if they dare,” he told her. She simply rolled her eyes in response. 

Fulgur deflected the blast upwards and Althaina stopped shooting for a split second. Fulgur used this opportunity to point her cybernetic arm at the goddess and shoot a spear connected to a ball chain at her. Althaina easily caught it and taunted the Elemental.

“You try and strike me down with something so primitive?” she shouted.

“I’ll show you ‘primitive’,” Fulgur grunted, gripping the ball chain and sending a lightning bolt through it. With lightspeed, the bolt reached Althaina, shocked, and stunned her. This gave Fulgur enough time to fly at her and swing up and to the right with her axe at Althaina. All Althaina could do in time was place an “X” with her arms over her face to guard. Fulgur then slashed across, from left to right. Then she slashed down and to the left, before raising it and striking directly down on Althaina’s arms, lightning coming from the sky to strike the axe and give the blow more power. 

The attack knocked both Althaina and Fulgur back. Althaina glared at the Elemental from a distance, the only thing hurt being her pride. Fulgur was determined to land a scarring slice on the god; this one and the green one attacking Malos.

Malos and Detrius flew at each other again and they traded blow for blow, but as they continued to battle, Detrius’s movement became more calculated and precise as he was learning Malos’s pattern of attack. With in a matter of a few seconds, Detrius lands a slice across Malos’s cheek with a Nebula Knife. Malos jumped back and glared at the grinning god before charging again. Detrius merely flew to the side of the attack and sliced upward, cutting Malos’s stomach and forcing some of his guts to come out. Malos stopped moving, pressed on his knees in the sand, bleeding, thinking of a way to overcome the god. 

“You’re a competent one, Malos. I hope this battle doesn’t end in your death, as I’d like to battle again one day, when you’re more experienced,” Detrius said. “I don’t like to battle, but that’s because I know I’ll come out on top. You… you just might bring something out in me that even I have yet to see.”

Malos answered to the god by turning his head and blasting another beam of heat vision at him. Detrius, in one swift motion, used his blades to deflect the beam back in Malos’s face, knocking the Semigod on his back. 

“We done with them?” Mara asked. Detrius looked over to her, then Althaina, who had a death grip on Fulgur’s throat. Detrius nodded.

“We are--”

“NOT YET!” Ouro shouted, bursting back onto the scene. Mara looked at her brother.

“I can make him go even farther,” she offered. Detrius nodded again. Even though this would qualify as receiving help, he wanted to avoid more battle. Before Mara could motion her hand to open a portal to elsewhere, she’s shot in the forehead with a red bullet and dropped to the sand, paralyzed. 

Vykero stepped out of the bar with one of his Alti smoking red. He had just used the paralyzing chamber to stop Mara from creating more portals. He shoots one at Althaina next, but she moved her head just enough so that she can still slightly move and resist the bullet’s ailment. She began to step toward the bounty hunter, her body struggling to move, but still moving. But, before she could reach the cowboy, Ouro struck her down with a kick to the back of the head. This left only Detrius standing and mobile. The prince went to pick up the injured Malos, but received a kick to the back that shot him even farther away from the back of the bar. 

Ouro stood protective over Malos’s body and called out orders to Vykero. 

“Get Sera back inside, and get Malos on a ship out of here,” he commanded. “I’ll hold off the god.”

Vykero didn’t object as Ouro flew Malos’s body back to him then flew out to test himself against the Dragon of War.

Vykero brought both Fulgur and Malos back into the bar, The Bartender scrambling over to them to help however it could.

“Do you have any escape ships in the basement?” Vykero asked. “We need to get Malos out of here.”

“And have him… go where?” Fulgur asked, somehow still conscious. “They’ll find him. They’ll try and beat it out of us.”

“Not if he goes somewhere with a lot of protection,” Vykero said.

“And not if something more daunting takes priority,” The Bartender suggested. Vykero raised a hairless eyebrow. “There’s a monster on Detrius’s home planet; a god killer. Chaotic evil personified. It’s been trapped inside Nebulan since Aro came to be. If I travel there and find a way to release it, it could give Malos and whomever we send him to, time to prepare.”

“That could kill millions on Nebulan,” Fulgur said.

“But, it’ll give Malos time to heal and time to train to fight those bastards off,” Vykero said. 

“... Do it then…” Fulgur responded. 

“Who do we send him, too?” Vykero asked, picking up Malos and putting him on his shoulder. 

“The humans,” The Bartender suggested. “They’re on their way to evolving through Zyel’s artifact. They’ll have several capable people to defend him.”

“Humans sound good,” Fulgur said, now getting to her feet, rubbing her throat.

“I’ll set the coordinates,” Vykero said, sprinting to the basement. “And send him on his way.”

As Vykero traveled to the basement and strapped Malos in an escape pod, Ouro’s unconscious body crashed back through the bar on the ground floor. The Bartender and Fulgur watched as Detrius stepped in, glaring back at them with his red eyes.

“Where is he?” he demanded to know.

“Up your ass…” Fulgur said. “And to the left.”

Detrius charged at her, but The Bartender stepped in between them appearing as Aro to Detrius. The prince stopped his attack and stared in confusion at his “father”.

“You’re… you’re not…”

“I am,” The Bartender said, unaware of who it looked like to Detrius.

“Father, why are you… You sent me to retrieve--”

“I need you back home. I received information that something sinister is headed toward Nebulan,” The Bartender lied. “Return.”

Detrius nodded, not completely sure what his “father” was doing there. He had never been to Dagondo and had never heard of The Bartender before, so he believed every word from “Aro”. He stepped back outside and walked up to Mara as her paralysis withered away. 

“Father needs us back home,” he told her. Mara nodded and created a portal. The three Dragons left the planet without fighting anyone further. 

Malos, struggling to stay conscious, listened to Vykero’s parting words. 

“Malos, listen. We’re sending you to Earth. There, you are to get in contact with any human in power in the location you land on the planet. If anything goes wrong, use the ship to contact The Bartender,” Vykero informed. Malos nodded slightly before the ship closed and took off for Earth, leaving the aliens that raised him alone on the battle planet. 

 

Malos’s ship crash landed in Haven City Park. Emergency services received several 911 calls and blocked off the “meteor” before sending the bystanders home as The Alpha Corps arrived. 

Asai stepped out of her truck with five other individuals, one of which was Dr. Daichi. They examined the pod with the unconscious Malos inside and Daichi spoke up.

“He’ll make for a fine specimen,” the doctor said. “I might be able to use him to finalize the serum.”