Zack dropped down to the floor and surveyed the . The android forces all lay in twisted heaps of metal and what remained of the invasion force received medical attention. A green light wrapped around the injured and their bodies grew back their missing parts in moments.

He asked "Akma, is there anything I can do to help?"

The little blue guy appeared out of his vortex and said "The medics have it

Then he noticed a little green slime pulling zirself along the ground "You've seen better days."

Galroop the puddle responded by forming a thumbs up out of his slime body.

Zack looked at it for a moment then laughed for a few good seconds.

Akma said "We need to make contact with at least one of the innovative minds. When that happens, all of androids in the upper levels will be forbidden to engage again."

Zack said "Didn't they bring everything to the fight we just won?"

"They should've but you can't be too careful."

"Agreed." then Zack flew over the metal indoor valley that lay beyond the three mile tall archway.

Eventually the path he was on sloped downward into a chasm filled with cubes "I take it these are the prisons of the innovators?" each one had a vault style door on their top.

Akma said "Careful, I'm counting more cubes than there should be. Only about a third of them contain people."

"So what are the rest filled with?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Right." Zack then dropped down on one of the cubes and asked his network "Can one of you Okwarg give the handle a twist and pull it open?"

Instead Hroyd appeared out of the spiritual Ether and with a snort began to open the vault.

Blisters formed all over his arms and face just before he took a breath. For a moment, Zack felt a sharp pain in his contracted Eidolan's lungs before the Kulabv warrior escaped into the Spiritual Ether. In a panic, Zack pushed himself up and away from from the cracked open vault spewing out a cloud of colorless poison gas.

From three hundred feet above, Zack said "Wasn't booby trapping the innovative minds cubes against the rules?"

Akma floated right next to him "Traps like these are allowed but at this stage it's a bit ridiculous."

"How are we going to get past all of this?"

"Galroop is already on the way. He will enjoy sucking up all that chlorine gas."

"No, I was referring to all these traps. You said that only a third contained people. Those are bad odds to play for all of them."

"We'll have to conscript the services of that Future Sight user."

Bayei placed her latest invention on the platform and in a moment it disappeared in a flash of light. The timer increased once again, now it was at the two month mark, plenty of time to laze about. But she questioned why she was being forced to constantly make things in the first place. She was pretty sure that all of these inventions just...turned back into raw materials. If that was true then everything she did was pointless.

'For what purpose am I even here? How pondersome.'

What made her situation worse was that she knew that she should be having more ideas coming to her, given that she'd been studying and learning at a ravenous pace.

With a sigh, Bayei reached over to pet the robot companion she had made. It was two feet tall and covered in fake white fur. In place of it's eyes were a screen that could express emotions. At the moment twin hearts were showing. It was the cutest thing ever! Christened with the name; Kippy.

Bayei said while petting her creation "What do you think I should make next?"

Kippy's eyescreen turned into two hearts and it let out a series of randomized beeps. Bayei liked to pretend that it was actually some kind of language. Back when she was living in the Dirske mountain city, she didn't feel a desire for companionship. Mostly because everyone she knew had tried to take advantage of her situation.

So she filled the void of companionship in her life with lifeless automatons. But now it wasn't nearly as effective as before. Spending a day with Zack during that mad escape had been like breathing a breath of the freshest air when she hadn't realized she'd been drowning. Although she hadn't quite realized it at the time.

Time for a distraction. Bayei jumped off her resting couch and went over to the computer to study some more. This time she looked up the section on the known innumerable types of energies. No matter how many times she opened it, she found the sheer quantity of types to be staggering. Eventually she picked one of the anti-life energies and read on an overview of it. After awhile, she found it's properties to be intriguing, but even more so it was disturbing.

Bayei barely registered the sound of creaking metal above her as she was intently focused on her studies "Huh? What?"

A hole in the roof of what had become her home opened up and an intruder dropped down onto the metal floor with a loud thud. Kippy floated over to him, following it's noise attraction protocols.

When the intruder saw the furry robot he shouted in alarm and transformed into a very strange yet familiar green form then in his panic he pushed Kippy into the wall using a magnetic force.

She yelled "Hey! Stop that!"

Zack blinked "Huh?" then he saw that it wasn't a threat to him "Oh, you made a friend."

The furry robot approached him again and it's aesthetic eyes turned to a 'n n' shape.

Bayei said incredulously "Zack? No, you can't be him. This is either a hallucination or maybe Xarkris sent one of his minions here to increase my efficiency." She took out a Taelon energy pistol of her design out from between the couch cushions "Who are you?"

The person who looked like Zack put one hand on his heart and half kneeled, raising his other hand in the air, he raised his voice in a comical chivalrous knightly way and said "Fret not, fairest maiden, for I, Zackery Taylor, the shapeshifter, hast come to rescue thee!"

In spite of herself, she laughed "Okay, you've convinced me. Niether a hallucination or a Xarkris minion would ever do something that ridiculous." She started to lower the pistol, then raised it again "But that still doesn't mean Zack would do something so clownish."

"You knew me for a day back in the Dirske world. You don't know enough about me to know what I would do in every situation."

She dropped the pistol "Wow. You really are here. Aren't you?"

"In the flesh. At least while I currently have it."

The surrealness of the situation caused her splutter "I...just...why?"

His lips curled upwards slightly and there was a hint of love in the way he looked at her "Ultimately it's because you are someone who actively advances themself. Frankly I've met a lot of people who have allowed their potential to be squandered and I'm sick of it. You are a breath of fresh air to me and I've decided to do what's in my power to protect you."

She found herself blushing and biting her lower lip. Nobody had ever shown her the slighest bit of affection.

Then Zack decided to ruin her special moment by saying "Besides as an added bonus, you are a good lay, and I am quite the pervert."

'What an ass' Bayei picked a random piece of metal lying on the ground and tossed it at his head, it had no chance of hitting him but the action coupled with her annoyed glare got her point across "I was afraid of dying back then. And it won't happen again if you use lines like that."

"Ya, death anxiety has been known to get people's engines going. Shall we get going?"

Bayei said "Sure, just let me get..." her voice trailed off as she looked around this place that had become a home to her more than any she had ever known. The computers were filled with more knowledge than she could have ever thought possible and the work benches were capable of making virtually anything her overactive mind thought up.

Zack saw her hesitation and said "What's the matter?"

"I'm just having second thoughts is all."

"Bayei...Xarkris uses you in order to siphon your creative energy. So long as you remain here, whatever it is that you have will be crippled."

"I don't know what that means but you had me at the word 'crippled'."

"Then without delay, let's go."

"Just wait! Okay? I need to get something for you." She then went over to one of her piles and started digging "I can't believe I'm actually going to be able to give this to you." Bayei found what she was looking for after a minute.

A device with a two long tubes attached was in her hand when she stood up "This is a gun that uses magnetism to fire solid metal projectiles. When you are in Poiraud form, you can use Repulsion to store up the magnetic power within the gun in preparation for it to fire. Although I've never done that, but the simulations I've run say that it should work."

He cocked his head to the side "If I'm understanding this correctly, you've created a small arm rail gun. Fifty years ago the Earth's navy developed a cannon that launched projectiles using magnets. These wicked things had a muzzle speed of 2,500 feet per second, while the average handgun had muzzle speeds of 400 feet per second. Rail guns became the fastest ballistic weapon ever produced by mankind. Given the motto 'Velocitas Eradico', I who am speed, eradicate." then he strapped it to his right forearm.

Bayei pouted "I'm a little bit disheartened by the fact that someone else came up with it."

"Well, that's irrational. Making a miniature rail gun is an achievement if there ever was one."

She said "Shall we then?"

Zack pointed to Kippy "What about your furry friend?"

"Leave it. It's only an automaton."

Zack nodded in understanding "Ah, okay then. Now stand on my feet."

"Um, okay?" she complied.

"Now hug me."

"I suppose you've earned that at very least." she wrapped her arms around him.

"Not my intentions. Going up!" He transformed into his Poiraud form and they flew upwards at a rapid pace. In a small panic she tightened her grip.

They flew above endless rows of cubes, rising steadily until coming to a ledge. Bayei blanched at what awaited at the top. She had seen the variety of species in the diplomatic party sent to the Dirske but the sight before her topped it by leaps and bounds. There creatures wearing what looked to be biological armor and large compound eyes. An orange and red fog loomed overhead but from the way it moved, it could be alive.

One of the creatures with compound eyes yelled out of the soft din of the crowd "Everyone listen up."

Over his head, the blue screen named him as Steve of the Tkiktch and in under ten seconds, he had everyone's attention, his voice carrying the mark of command "All of the innovative minds in this section have been secured. If you are a former prisoner, Akma will escort you out. The deal with Xarkris states that you will not be harmed and your exit will not be barred. As for the rest of the members of the invasion force, we are going to proceed down to the lower levels."

A surprised voice rang up from the crowd "I don't understand, we've completed the main objective. Now we go home."

"No, we haven't." The Tkiktch Steve reached up and unbuckled a piece of his carapace, apparently it had a built in pocket, then he took out what looked to be a device very much a USB drive "Because now the real mission begins."

"This isn't what we agreed upon." Xarkris said as he loomed over the Akma with snow white hair.

Akmadouric looked up at living lightning storm and said "I'd say that there has been plenty of minor infringements from your side during this whole game of ours. Illegal ordnance, upgrading units to such great extents, you didn't even give me all of the details on everything this wondrously complex planet of yours can do. The very least you can do is overlook this."

Xarkris replied "If I had told you everthing there is to know about this planet I created, then it would take far too long to convey the information. As for your rogues, what I will do to them will depend on what that device does."

"It will simply feed you information directly to your central information center. It's everything you very much need to know about Deity Ulgroth, corruption and the interdimensional war. In fact I've already given this to you before, but you left it in an external hard drive and for all I know you've never touched it."

The living lightning storm flared slightly in anger "You intend to change who I am."

Akmadouric rose to his feet and met his wrath "Do you not understand the importance of defending reality from that which threatens it!? There are things out there that warp and twist the universe around them in horrific and disturbing ways. If it continues then the absolute worst thing possible could happen."

Xarkris wasn't convinced "Deities like us manipulate the universe around us all the time. There are infinite realities, what you call horrific and disturbing manipulations is already the natural reality in many dimensions. Your actions have no significance."

Akmadouric didn't back down "I've seen other deities get corrupted. At the very least you should join my side of the war for the sake of survival."

"You only know about these threats because you go out looking for them. If I remain isolated in this one dimension then there is a one in infinity chance that any of them will ever come here."

Akmadouric pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration "I really hope you don't say the same thing after my rogues complete their mission."

Xarkris said "If they complete their mission."

Akmadouric's attention picqued "You wouldn't actually attack a bunch of...how did you put it? Insignificant beings? It would be overkill for people who aren't even capable of posing a threat to you."

Xarkris didn't answer for about five seconds, then he said "I have killed a great many sentients of their level."

"Eleven out of the twenty invasion branches have failed to reach their targets, the innovative minds imprisoned in the middle levels. You have already met the conditions for victory. If you attack those rogues then I will take it as a violation and annul our agreement."

Xarkris, the living lightning storm didn't speak for about twenty seconds this time "Then in the spirit of contest I won't attack them, at least directly...but I will however take a little trip through the area where they intend to upload that information packet."

Akmadouric frowned deeply.