As the split end of the tongue moves towards Meditat’s horrified face, a bright lime streak bolts straight into the burly man’s head, and immediately upon impact in a horrifying act his skin melts clean off coupled with his tissue and muscles, leaving him a skeleton in seconds before it then collapses on the ground. Both the daughter and wife stagger backwards in shock and horror, staring down at their deceased family’s skeletal corpse with a gasp.

With petrified eyes, Meditat glances at Ekitai beside him, and just as he anticipated Ekitai now stands with his handgun held out, aiming at where the father once stood, releasing a lime smoke out of the barrel.

Mixed with rage and stupefaction, Meditat angrily chastises, “Ekitai, you just murdered him!”

Just next to him, a yellow bolt soars past him at the mother of the murdered husband, which in turn causes her whole body to suddenly combust in a red mist, causing the entire crowd to gasp and shut their eyes, temporarily blinded.

“Run!” shouts Ekitai, and he immediately sprints through the line of people, running through the red mist that prevails in the air. The cart glides in front of him, crashing into the crowd before him as a battering ram that protects him which flashes green once before vanishing into the mist.

Behind the crazed old man, Kokei and Dana follow without any other idea on how to react, especially given the incredibly escalated situation that they were never prepared for.

At the back, Meditat apprehensively sprints too, dashing past Kokei and Dana as the four reach to the other end of the lane and out of the red mist, where they encounter a crowd of enraged customers hissing and charging at them from the rest of the store.

Acting hastily, Ekitai sprints through the exit of the store, guiding the other three outside as they’re chased by the enormous amalgamation of people who hiss at them terrifyingly. He pants tiredly already, his handgun waving in the air as beside him sprints Meditat, his fingers now in their projectile gesture with the three fingers extended and others curled.

Also tense from the ensuing chaos, Meditat glances at Ekitai and shouts, “What are you doing??”

Not slowing down as the group runs down the parking lot where other pods of incoming customers come to a halt to view the situation, Ekitai explains through gasps for air: “This Earth’s natives are known to be hostile to anyone who isn’t part of their world, which is easy to tell since, well you know, they’ve evolved over millennia into lizard people. You know, they’re known as one of the most racist races? Or…yeah whatever, you know what I mean, visiting this Earth without disguises is like going to an Exhuman pride parade wearing a ‘True Human’ cap, or well wait…, basically what I mean is that this Earth is bad news so we're getting out of here!”

Pods come to abrupt halts all around the parking lot, and immediately holes open up to expose enraged drivers that throw themselves out of their vehicles and charge towards the four, hissing loudly with sharp black eyes.

Among the horde of aggressive drivers, one of them shouts as loud as he can, “Go back to where you came from!”

Tagging along in the chase down the parking lot, Meditat finds himself drowned in the flood of new information, which he attempts to process, “Lizard people…racist…’True Human’? Wait, no, okay but that doesn’t excuse murder! He wasn’t going to kill me I think, and even if he planned to, there are other ways to neutralize a threat!”

Being pursued from all directions, Ekitai hastily aims his handgun at the mob of parked drivers ahead, and he fires a burst of three red bolts. Each bolt strikes a pod, causing it to explode in fiery galore, consuming the people who were running from it and incinerating their bodies at an instant.

He then lowers his handgun before shrugging his shoulders and leisurely consoling, “Oh don’t worry, this Earth isn’t part of that E-G-A thing, at least that’s one respectable thing about it, these goddamn centralized governments-, regardless any crimes we commit here can’t follow us outside since there is no interworld crimes here! So it doesn’t matter what we do, whether it’s drive over the speed limit, rob a store, or commit homicide! So fire away, all that matters is that we never come back here again!”

“Medit!” shouts a different voice from behind the two, and after Meditat glances backwards, he gazes at Dana and Kokei both who sprint tiredly, being chased by the enormous horde of enraged lizard people hissing and sprinting as fast as they can. The front line of lizard people hiss before jerking their heads, and in a frightening move, crimson blood shoots out of their orange eyes towards the two female members of the group.

Meditat raises his hand back, and behind Dana and Kokei a blue holographic wall projects forth, which absorbs the blood splatter before it can strike their intended targets. He then sighs reluctantly, and flicks his wrist several times, firing blue bolts out of his fingers and into the lizard army at the front, to which they collapse and trip several others behind them.

He then returns his gaze ahead as he sprints past the blazing remains of the pods, and raises his head up to see that in the distance are other pods approaching the grocery store parking lot, likely to also join the frenzy.

He tsks from the bleak situation, shaking his head and chides nonetheless, “Still, you do realize that you killed both of that girl’s parents, right? For nothing, hell I could have just as easily rendered them unconscious but unharmed and we could’ve escaped all the same! Ekitai, sure I hadn’t intended to settle here but we can’t compromise every planet! It lowers our options and runs the risk of us being traced!”

Noticing the approaching pods too, Ekitai instinctively aims his handgun up and fires a single cyan bolt into the center of the approaching herde. By striking a single pod, the pod rapidly expands horizontally in a grand explosion that devours tens of other neighboring pods, decimating the approaching reinforcements in one fell swoop.

Clearly not concerned about the deaths being racked up regardless of the reproaches, Ekitai instead grins widely and joyously vindicates, “Hey okay, don’t worry now, I’m only wanted in like ten or twenty or so, and I’ll be on my best behavior so long as nobody is threatening! Look, you’re focusing too much on the death part. I mean pluh, everyone loses their parents anyways, I mean yours are probably dead, mine are super dead, now she’s just one of us! And it’s fine, it’s not like she’ll take this experience and dedicate her whole life to training herself so one day she can track us down and assassinate us for revenge over the death of her family! Now, where’s the pod? I think I’m going to have a stroke if I keep this up!”

Watching debris from the destroyed pods tumble into the ground causing them to erupt into greater explosions, Meditat shakes his head as he tries to process the horrible events surrounding him, flooded by the muddy morality of his undesired companion as well as now the potential ramifications for having scarred a child to such extent.

However, with all that was going on, what was needed most was not to freak out, but rather to think clearly and concisely, and to strategically maneuver out of the mess made. Escape is necessary, and that was impossible given his frantic mind, and upon understanding what he had to do, he calms himself and centralizes his thoughts into one focused stream.

He takes a deep breath and raises his head, allowing himself to point his hand forward down to the very end of the parking lot, where the sleek matte black pod rests.

“There!” he shouts, guiding Ekitai’s view as well to the vehicle across the flaming debris and wreckage.

Needing to act tactically in this critical moment, Meditat waves his hand forward, to which the pod’s engine roars awake, being lit up even without command at the helm. Instead, commanded from a distance, the pod levitates a few inches off of the ground seconds after ignition, and four apertures hollow out of the sides, two on each side for each seat.

On the next step, Meditat plants his foot boldly on the black ground, causing it to dent downwards upon the force of his accumulating energy.

In front of Dana and Kokei, Meditat leaps off of the ground and spins in the air, aiming both of his hands at the mob behind them and firing rapid blue bolts into the crowd, swiftly knocking out the aggressive lizard people from the front and allowing their collapsed bodies to function as a hazard against the remaining hostiles who trip over and are slowed down, making them easier targets.

“All of you, get in now! Ekitai, once the pod takes the groceries, lose it!” commands Meditat boldly while boldly firing down on the horde, gunning down anyone getting close to his group with sharp blue eyes as his white locks of hair wave in the wind.

On the ground, Ekitai is the first to reach the pod on the right side, and before even reaching the seat, the back of the black pod’s body projects a blue light over the cart in front of Ekitai, and after only a second of casting its light over the cage, that cage is emptied of all the contents inside, seeming to have absorbed all the groceries without any need for manual action nor even a visible trunk space.

Following orders, Ekitai then throws his hands forwards, and watches the cart soar ahead far past him and over the curb leading into the street in the distance. Unconcerned about the trajectory of the pod however, Ekitai continues to race down the pod and upon reaching the first aperture he throws himself into the back seat where he previously sat. He tumbles inside with his handgun tightly gripped, panting heavily and grabbing his chest. Beside him, the gap that he entered through becomes covered by the wall, enclosing part of the pod.

Close behind, Kokei and Dana race side by side up to the pod, Dana on the right side same as Ekitai but Kokei on the left.

First Kokei gets in due to her seat being closer to the back, as she flings herself into the back seat beside Ekitai, also wheezing from the heart pounding chase as her door closes too.

Next, Dana reaches the front of the pod where she dives into the front passenger seat, and just like the other two the door to the front passenger seat materializes shut.

Without all the occupants in the vehicle, the matte black pod lifts higher off the ground, ascending several feet up and spinning cautiously. It raises itself up to Meditat, who sustains himself airborne while persistently repelling the onslaught of lizard people.

Slowly the black pod pulls forward beside him, lining him up with its final gap, the door to the driver seat.

Acknowledging that the escort is complete, Meditat’s body dashes straight into the pod, and he slides straight into his seat perfectly, relaxing his hands and placing them by his side.

Next to him, the final opening is shut from the materialization of the wall, enclosing the pod entirely with all four members accounted for.

A sigh of relief releases from Dana, however Meditat’s eyes remain sharp as he notices that far in the distance was a fleet of innumerable white pods with flicker bright lights of red and blue, for the escape was not over yet.

Meditat grinds his teeth and clenches his fists, concentrating deeply as his pod begins to drive straight forward, seemingly towards the police pods.

Next to the driver, Dana sits upright to which she is cursed with the sight of the police fleet, but quickly she realizes that Meditat was flying straight at them. Her eyes shoot wide in fright, and she grabs Meditat’s upper arm and starts swaying it, frantically shouting: “Medit, what are you doing? Hey, Medit, are you crazy? What are you doing?”

Behind the driver, both Kokei and Ekitai watch the action at the front with anticipation, Kokei biting her nails in anxiety while Ekitai stares widely with awe, grinning stupidly as he watches the pod accelerate towards the fleet.

In a voice brimmed with aspiration, Ekitai softly realizes: “He’s…believing….”

Far from the matte black pod, inside the center of the fleet sits two men in blue uniforms, also with black pupils on orange sclera and a black dot on their forehead. They glare sternly, watching the racing vehicle approach them.

The officer in blue on the right seat shakily inquires: “Uhm, what is he doing?”

On the left side, the officer driving the vehicle keeps his head up, and in a dramatic deep voice he answers, “This man is goddamn suicidal.”

Facing against the horde of flashing pods, the sole black pod races faster and faster, its engine roaring as its speed inclines without any sign of stopping.

At the helm of the pod, Meditat glares forward, gritting his teeth while ignoring Dana’s grab, his focus on one thing and one thing only. His sharp blue eyes gaze straight into death’s door without blinking, as he leans forward staring the fleet straight on.

On the other side, the officers in blue approaching the single black vehicle begin to scream, fearful of the terrifying antics displayed by their opponent, and yet they couldn’t slow down.

Meditat’s eyes remain steady, his white face flashing blue and red from the reflection of the screen in front of him.

Screaming hysterically, the officers of the enormous fleet are swarmed in anxiety and terror, unable to process the nonsensical move they’re flying straight into.

Stern blue eyes sharply stare forward without hesitation.

Alarmed orange eyes widely gaze forward in worry.

Sharp blue eyes.

Wide orange eyes.

Fearless.

Fearful.

Only about ten feet from a head-on collision with the fleet, the police officers at the front abruptly halt, unable to pursue straight into death as the entire front line comes to a stop, causing the pods behind to follow suit.

A couple feet from impact, the matte black pod suddenly curves straight up, bolting up towards the clouds and narrowly avoiding the police in a single daring act. The pod zooms to the sky, and the engine roars like a dragon which is then overpowered by a deafening sonic boom that erupts in a wave that rattles the Earth, and in seconds the pod vanishes up into the white clouds, gone in a flash.

Frozen still, the officers stare with wide orange eyes ahead, their lives having flashed before their eyes and yet here they were still in their bodies. They pant and wheeze heavily, nearly having experienced their end, unable to process the petrifying event that would no doubt scar them to the end of their days.

Rocketing straight up, the only occupant of the pod with their eyes open is the driver and the other arguably more insane man behind him, but the two other passengers have their eyes covered.

Slowly, both Kokei and Dana lower their hands, perplexed by the fact that they could still hear and feel their heartbeats even though they had expected to be unable to sense anything in death. Yet as they lower their hands and open their eyes, they find themselves not in the abyss but instead in the interior of the pod.

Both Kokei and Dana face ahead at the windshield, to which they watch that straight ahead isn’t even the high sky nor large clouds, but instead the black void of space already, for only in seconds they had already managed to exit the atmosphere. Their breaths slow down as their minds calm, helped by the sight of the starry infinity that relieves the stress they had just been drowned in.

After calming down, Dana’s first action is to smack Meditat’s shoulder and berate ragefully, “Never do that again! You…lunatic!”

With a stone cold face and calmed blue eyes, Meditat casually retorts, “Then let’s not get into a mess like that again. At least now they won’t follow us, they lost any momentum they had and we’re too far gone to be worthy to chase. We’re safe now, and we have the groceries, and at least we paid for it so it isn’t theft. Now we can focus on the task at hand, finding a suitable hiding spot, and perhaps one where the locals are not as harsh to outsiders.”

Among the horrified passengers, Ekitai smiles widely and conceals his handgun in the inner pocket of his overcoat before exclaiming, “Right over! Dang, I knew you were a trebusche man, but dang do I miss those spectacles!”

Placing her hand over her forehead, Kokei softly implores in a genuinely pained tone, “Can we at least…eat something? Please?”

Perfectly calm, Meditat nods his head and holds his hand out in front of Dana, to which a flat holographic inventory screen similar to the ones projected out of closets appears, however rather than displaying images of clothing, instead the grid displays images of food items such as jugs of milk, loafs of bread, and the rest of the collected groceries.

He then moves his hand back, and collectively offers, “Here Dana, it’ll summon anything to you, just don’t dirty the pod.”

Still shaken, Dana nods her head and has it lowered, her breaths softer yet still rapid. She gulps and calms her breath more, able to now stably acknowledge, “I got it, don’t worry. Yeah…it’s all fine now….”

She then begins to swipe through the inventory, seeking for food to craft from their acquisitions after just having lost her appetite.

A relieved sigh exudes from Meditat’s mouth, and he remains leaning upright as he faces ahead at the black cosmos, guiding the pod through the system.

Out in the vacuum of space, the matte black pod soars through the abyss, returning to its previous path in continuing to drift closer into the Superverse’s core. Passing the Earth’s moon and onward to the next planet among the white stars and purple nebulas, the pod glides in the direction of the colossal cyan supersun that shines its light on all hundred worlds no matter how far.

Although even though all Earths were given light and warmth, that would not translate into all of them being peaceful and welcoming. For as just experienced, this mission would not only be difficult due to the central conflict, but rather the hopes of integrating in other worlds too would birth conflicts of their own.

Such was the life of runaways, venturing through the hundred worlds of boundless diversities in culture and people, some delightful and others heinous. Along the way would be astonishing spectacles and horrifying tragedies, and for everything the group had to be prepared. For they were seeking refuge in an unforgiving and partly cruel life, one that would not simply grant their wishes but only present the option to slave themselves to earn it.

It was a battle not just with one man but with hundreds of billions.

Only for how long could a war against everyone be endured?