Ken shook his head, trying to get rid of the drowsiness. Sora, not being able to hold it, dashed towards the toilet as loud vomiting noises echoed through the ship. Before the vomit could stink up the ship, Ken opened the hatch and leaped outside.

“Hey wait before you go!” said Ryu, trying to fix his own senses.

“Relax. I’m not going anywhere” Ken jumped down on what would seem to be a cold black land. The gravitational force felt the same as earth. The instant he jumped down, his legs sank a few centimeters deep, as if he was standing on top of some mud.

“Gross, what is up with this”

He said while trying to jump away, but no matter how far he went, the muddiness didn’t go away. As he tried to jump away, he noticed the air was getting cloudier. It wasn’t foggy, rather it was a black smoke that you would typically get from a factory. Akane and Ryu followed down. Unlike Ken, they had their composure .

“This terrain… What is up with this”

Akane uttered with a sigh of confusion. Ryu stepped forward, bending down as he touched the soil that lied below them.

“This soil is… polluted”

“Polluted?” Akane felt a bit of concern hearing that. Ken was scouting far ahead.

“Hey guys! Check this out!” He said from a distance. It seemed he was staring down at something. Ryu and Akane followed behind. They were standing on the edge of a cliff. Below lied more polluted air. The air was breathable yet suffocating, making it even hard to see what was down below. But something was definitely down below. Gigantic shadows were lurking throughout the other mountains.

“What is that…” Ken asked while staring with wonder in his eyes.

“I don’t know.” Ryu mumbled.

“Lets check it out,” Ken responded without thinking for a moment. He slid down to get a better view.

“Wait, you, idiot. Don’t go alone!”

Ryu said.

But before he could go after him, Miku yelled from behind.

“Hey bookworm! Need some help over here!”

She was trying to pull up one of the ship's engine. Sora, after puking so much, was in weak shape, unable to help. Ryu looked at them and back at Ken and then at Akane. Their eyes met, and without even speaking, they decided. Akane let out a sigh as she went down towards Ken. Ryu pulled his sleeves back and jogged towards the ship.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, I got some bad news and some worse news. Which one do you wanna hear?”

Ryu felt conflicted hearing those words. “Umm, the worse news?”

“Well, the worse news is this ship might go in the dump if we can’t find any good parts”

“And the bad news?”

“Well, I can do an auxiliary fix, but that would be a gamble for us. Well, gamble in the sense that we would only have a 50 50 chance of making it to Demonia.”

That was basically a red flag in terms of space travel. Ryu knew that. He felt a little worried, as the environment here wasn’t really suitable. And if escaping this place means chance of death, then the situation had become a rock and a hard place.

“What can I do?” he said.

“Find me these parts”

She replied as she swiped the screen of her holographic phone.. Ryu immediately felt a vibration in his holographic phone. In the message lied a list of all the parts she required. The list was almost ten pages long.

“You need all of these parts?!” Ryu said, being overwhelmed by the amount.

“Well, if you want the 50 50 chance journey, that is. Either way, find me these parts while I try to make the auxiliary fix and also take that shrimp with you. His mumbling is creeping me out,” she pointed at Sora’s almost unconscious body.

“… why… is this… happening… The…” story… shouldn’t be… going… this way,” He was slowly mumbling.

“See what I’m talking about”

Ryu let out a sigh and grabbed Sora by the collar.

“My head is… damn this writer… why did... he give… me… motion sickness?” Sora still kept on mumbling.

“ugh! Shut it, will you!” Ryu said as he dragged him away.

Back at the other side, Akane was slowly climbing down the mountain herself.

Where did he go? She thought to herself. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her mouth from behind and ducked her to the side. She immediately tried to get rid of the grip.

“Relax it's me.” Ken whispered in her ears.

Her panic subsided hearing those words. They were bothy covering behind a huge rock to avoid detection.

“Why did you do that for?”

Ken wasn’t replying, just staring in front of them. Akane also tilted her head to the side, thinking about what had garnered his attention so much.

As she peeked as well, her eyes widened up. Before her lied steeps of the mountain. On top of the mountains were huge robots. The sizes of the creatures were almost 10 times larger than their ship. The robots looked like huge chameleons. Using its reptile like shape, the robots were latching onto the mountains and with their tongues plunged inside it sucking what would seem to be some sort of green material.

“What the hell are those?”

“Beats me. But I think we should rather avoid- “, But before she could finish, Ken already ran towards the robots.

“What the hell are you doing?!” she shouted at him

“Trying to get a better view!”, He said as he shot out a tentacle towards one of the giant robots. Using the tentacle, he swung across its underbelly and towards the side. As he reached the side, he pulled out another tentacle from his right hand and maneuvered himself upwards. With a quick maneuver, he instantly got on top of the robot.

“Woah!” He looked at the robots inside. A small glass window showing people inside them who were operating the robot. Giant Wolf creatures that were roaming the place and small yellow midget aliens who were pulling a huge pipe. From the looks, the yellow aliens were workers, slaves to be more precise, and the wolves were commanding over them. One of the yellow midgets out of exhaustion fell to the ground. The old yellow alien had some hair to the side of the ear and a pair of glasses.

The wolves, seeing that, were angry as their fangs came out.

“What the hell are you doing, you sloppy ass old man!” one wolf said as he grabbed the alien by the neck.

“Please… just let me rest for a few minutes… I will begin again…”

“A simple sorry ain’t gonna cut it, old man. Lucky for you, I’m in a good mood today. So what will it be? Food or fight?”

“FI.. ght” the old man was mumbling out of fear

“I couldn’t hear you!” The wolf shouted.

“Fight!”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear!”

He pulled his hand on top as his fangs were ready to slice the old man. The old man closed his eyes, ready for the worse to come. But before the hand reached him, someone grabbed it. The old man opened his eyes and noticed a boy with a strange figure standing in between him and the wolf. From his structure, it was clear he was neither part of the oppressors nor the slaves.

“Who the hell are you?!” the wolf asked, being surprised suddenly.

“The name’s Ken. Kawasaki Ken.”

Using his other hand, he back slapped the wolf to the ground.

“Nice to meet you!"