Warden paced back and forth the Central Server under the watchful eyes of Choir. Lying on the floor twitching in pain was Wendy who was being ministered by his surgeon who was giving her a full body examination that he didn’t quite feel comfortable looking too closely at. He didn’t like feeling helpless but it was equally obvious that he had no opportunity to help in this situation nor would it benefit him much to learn; he would just have to trust Surge to do his job.

“I thought this world was supposed to be safe,” he said to Choir stripping all thoughts of accusation from his voice. He trusted the blue gull at least and he didn’t think that the Angel of kindness would do anything that would hurt his secretary.

“It should have been,” blue gull replied dipping his head. “The last time we checked the world was a rural paradise with no forms of sapient life where even the strongest creature could barely even reach threat level one. It may have changed in the interim.”

“There is no maybe about it,” Surge said speaking up as he finished examining his secretary wrapping a sheet around her as he stood up. “I highly doubt a planet like the one you have described would stand for very long against the Crimson Sea.”

“I’m going to need a less ominous and more informative explanation,” Warden said after he stopped as if that explained everything. “Remember that I’m from the middle of nowhere. What is the Crimson Sea and how do you know they did this to her and how do we fix this.” The last sentence was by far the most important and Surge took a while before he started to speak again

“Well to give them appropriate credit they are responsible for only half of the injuries, even though it is the half that is threatening her life right now,” Surge said; steadfastly refusing to give butter with the fish. “The Crimson Sea is theorized to be a colossal pool of blood that shares some form of a link to every single drop that originates from it no matter where in the universe it is. When coming into the contact with a living being the blood infiltrates the body in a manner similar to that of a virus warping their body and driving them to some form of insanity or to be more precise altered thoughts.”

“What’s the cure,” Warden questioned. “As much as I appreciate the full breakdown, you do have a cure for this, correct.”

“The cure is sunlight,” Surge replied immediately. “Most type of sun’s emanations prove fatal for the Crimson Sea and the virus will burn; along with the host if the infection has passed a certain point which we are not at yet. It is possible to remove it even later but not with the tools I have with me.”

“So what?” Warden began. “We go to a bright planet and just let her sunbathe.”

“Excellent idea,” Surge replied clapping his hands together. “Wish I could have had it myself.” He reached down and picked up Wendy wrapping a blanket around her in a cocoon before picking her up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “You might want to stay away from her for the duration,” he warned. “I don’t want you to also catch vampirism.”

Warden’s head whipped around at that statement as the pieces in his mind clicked together. Weakness to sunlight, infection, blood, transformation; all of the individual aspects linked together to paint a picture. The question remained however; how close were the attributes of the Crimson Sea to that of the vampires of Earth mythology. After all Choir had a noted habit of translating words using Earth analogues and he wouldn’t put it past the Angel for calling a person transformed by blood based infectious disease a vampire, like he would call a being that could raise the dead a Necromancer, or name himself an Angel. Maybe there was a race of humanoid dogs that would be translated as Werewolves in future.

“Where would you like to go?” red owl asked. “There are a few locations that fit the requirement of having the correct solar frequency to burn out the disease. Do you have any other requirements?”

“Money,” Warden said thinking of his next greatest issue after food. “We have the money from stopping the Anachrobot. Are there any other ways we can earn money. Maybe we can stop a few more Anachrobot incursions,” he said not entirely seriously. As soon as he said that he knew that he had said the wrong thing as all three heads of Choir and Surge both looked at him with an odd expression.

“That is a terrible idea,” blue gull said. “You got truly lucky by cutting off that invasion before it got going. Putting yourself at ground zero is not only extremely risky but very hard to actually accomplish.”

“Anachrobot invasions are the very definition of technological singularities,” Surge stated firmly. “Another day and there would have been a hundred robots stronger than the one you fought. Another day and the numbers and abilities would have swelled incomparably. While they would eventually be stopped the casualties in the meanwhile are hard to contemplate. Thankfully they don’t happen every day.”

“I see,” Warden said. “I guess it was a bit too good to be true. Have you got any solutions? Is there maybe a planet of diamonds or oil that we can go to?”

“There are plenty of planets of diamonds and oil,” red owl stated firmly. “And unless you really know how to game the market you won’t be making any profit out of them. Raw materials are plentiful in the wide universe.”

“Most raw materials at least,” Surge said nodding. “There are a few substances that are so rare and so difficult to reproduce that they still net you some coin without having spent decades observing the market. For example, Chronotrope a metal that can only is produced in the vicinity of time-space anomalies. A large incursion of Anachrobots will usually eventually provide a few grams, but as I like to think we’ve established the risk isn’t worth effort.”

“As a counter example, what about Corpse Tar,” blue gull said innocently getting a look from the Necromancer once more leaving Warden feeling slightly left out.

“Yeah sure,” Surge said with his voice laden with sarcasm. “Just let me get out my grave robbing shovel. I was in the mood for raiding the tomb of dead gods. I’m being sarcastic in case you can’t tell. This is my sarcastic voice.”

“I got it thanks,” blue gull responded sarcastically before he chuckled. “Don’t worry it shouldn’t be an issue to retrieve a few grams of Corpse Tar without any serious danger. Besides aren’t you a big scary necromancer.”

“Please tell me what Corpse Tar is,” Warden interrupted refusing to be left out of the conversation anymore. The Angel and the Necromancer exchanged glances before Choir spoke up.

“Corpse Tar is a type of resin that is very valuable on the market,” red owl started.

“It comes from inside the bones of powerful dead beings that struggled between vigorously on the line between life and death for a while before the Reapers took them,” Surge explained robotically. “It is also deathly poison to Undead and has a few other uses. Weaker undead will generally avoid somebody that has it on them.” He shot a side glance at Warden as he said this. “Would we be selling it or keeping it though. I know there’s plenty of demand from Corpse Tar.”

“I would highly advise keeping a certain amount of it,” red owl stated. “With the concentration of Undead around here we would either have to do that or you would have to escort the Warden around the facility whenever he’s out of this room.”

“You’ve planned this all out for a while now,” Warden said before falling silent. “You can just offer me advice rather than trying to steer my thoughts,” he stated. “I do know that I’m inexperienced at this job; I won’t take offense.” He took a breath as he thought through the option. “Alright, I will agree with your proposition. Which planet do we have to go to now? I would rather not leave my secretary suffering if I can help it.”

“Unnamed Planet designated OMT8747 by us,” Choir replied. “We received information that a Celestial Being crashed into the unnamed planet and was killed outright. Shortly before the incident that plunged Coldreach out of commission we received signs of Corpse Tar but were unable to confirm due to self-evident reasons. While the place isn’t currently under observation there was nothing on the world that should be able to threaten you.”

“You’re on a three game losing streak, Choir,” Surge said dryly. “I suppose since I’m going along this time we will at least have a doctor on hand.” Wendy squirmed on his shoulder as if reminding them of the time sensitivity of the mission.

“Open up the N-Door, Choir,” Warden commanded and the familiar looking blue portal appeared as if the Angel had just been eagerly waiting for his instructions. “We’ll be back with the Corpse Tar and a healthy Wendy and then we can worry about the money. Until then you’re in charge.” Ahead of him Surge jumped through the portal; still holding Wendy with ease.

“Good luck Warden,” Choir said as he gripped his gun and stepped through the portal…

xxx

…and onto one of the most beautiful beaches he had ever seen. Contrary to most of the alien worlds that he had arrived at before, all two of them, this specific place looked like it could be from a particular picturesque part of the Caribbean. Nothing looked abnormal from a bright blue sky devoid of even a single cloud, fine white sand, a lush-looking forest to his right and an ocean to his left.

Screams of agony tore him from his contemplation of the world around him and he immediately focused on the form of Surge who was placing Wendy down on the ground while she was writhing in agony.

“What’s the matter__” Warden walked forward and then stopped as Surge removed the sheet from the sheet from her body and he became painfully aware of what she was wearing…or wasn’t. “Why isn’t she wearing any clothes?” he asked slightly mortified as he turned his head away from the thrashing form of his secretary.

“Because she needs exposure to sunlight,” Surge responded and Warden caught the scene of one of her hands lash out clocking him on the cheek from the corner of his eye. “Unfortunately anything that light passes through is by nature transparent,” he concluded as another hand hoping to replicate the success of the first shot out at him and Warden actually turned his head towards the duo as he watched her thumb tear into the Necromancer’s eye.

“Are you okay?” Warden yelled his sense of modesty overridden by his panic before the Necromancer reached out and grabbed the hand before brutally breaking the forearm and pinning it against her chest with the other arm. That was the first time he had seen Wendy since the infection and not a single lustful thought came to him as he saw her body; instead he felt only pity and horror.

Every inch of her body was covered in veins that glowed bright red and throbbed causing her skin to swell unnaturally. He watched in horror as one of the smaller veins in her skin burst sending a jet of liquid that sent of steam before it evaporated into nothing. Her face was contorted in absolute agony as she screamed and gnashed her teeth and her eyes whirled wildly in her sockets.

“Of course I’m okay,” Surge said staring at him with his two perfectly operational eyes. “But you won’t be if you don’t stay the hell away.” As he spoke, Wendy apparently enraged by her containment, lifted her head up and bit into his arm restraining arm. The sickening sound of crunching bones filled the beach.

“Still okay?” Warden asked as Surge’s face took on a blank look, the look of somebody who officially has had their last nerve stepped on.

“Just peachy,” he replied with the tone of somebody who was anything but. “I’m going to be rather violent in putting her down right now so if you are squeamish you might want to look away.” As he said those words he slowly and gently moved his hands to Wendy’s mouth and ripped the bottom of her jaw clean off before crushing it and throwing the remains onto the beach where they disintegrated. Without even slowing he pulled back his fist and slammed it down on his patient’s head and that was the last that Warden saw as the force of the impact kicked up sand everywhere and he had to close his eyes and try to cover his face with his arms to protect himself.

“What the__” he started before coughing trying to keep the sand out of his mouth. “Isn’t that a bit excessive," he said as the sand died down and he blinked at the sight before him.

“They have absolutely absurd regeneration,” Surge said remorselessly as he stabbed a spike of what could only be bone into her right shoulder. Wendy was literally nailed to a bed of bone. Her hands were stabbed through as well as her feet, shoulders, knees, elbows, hips, stomach and chest. “I can promise you that if I just nailed her hands and feet she would bite off her limbs and regrow them a few minutes later. To her this is probably less painful then the sunlight right now.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Surge replied. “You really can’t just lend her your lab coat or something,” he said avoiding looking at the impaled form of his secretary.

“No because she needs sunlight,” Surge responded before he chuckled. “Even if she was fully healed I can’t lend either her or you my lab coat. This is my skin Dude.” As he spoke his collar moved shaking up and down without a motion on his part. “And unlike the…Wendy I can shape my body to take on the appearance of clothes.”

“Ah,” Warden responded trying to mentally shift gears. “So you’re also… I must seem like such a prude to you.”

“Except I’m actually genderless,” Surge responded immediately. “So you literally cannot be less of a prude then me. We can have a bit of a talk about the Necromancers later if you want but first we have something to talk about.”

“The Corpse Tar,” Warden agreed. “You seem the expert on it; any idea how to track it down.”

“That won’t be hard, but we have something important to discuss first,” Surge said looking uncharacteristically serious. “I mentioned that the Crimson Sea was only responsible for half of the damage. Did you forget?”

“I was going to bring that up but then you said it wasn’t the life-threatening half so I put it away for later,” Warden said. “Any idea what the other culprit was.” While they hadn’t inflicted fatal damage they had also made themselves a hostile force by their actions.

“Could be anybody,” Surge responded. “On her back her attacker had carved an elaborate image of a key in chains. I don’t think I need to tell you what that means.”

“No you don’t,” Warden agreed as he raised his badge looking at the iconography that was becoming steadily more familiar. “So the attacker knows about Coldreach, knows that we’re from Coldreach. Does that make a difference? We still hunt them down and arrest them for attacking Wendy when we have time.”

“Not really,” Surge said. “But my brief examination suggests that whoever attacked her carved out that entire depiction in one cut and despite my brief effort and Wendy’s proven regeneration the cuts haven’t healed. That might make the situation a bit more alarming. Coldreach isn’t the most well-known place and for somebody to know about it and have contempt for its employees speaks of one thing in particular.”

“An escaped prisoner,” Warden agreed. “Maybe they have already succumbed to vampirism themselves or maybe we will meet them later, but while I can’t be happy at them for hurting Wendy I can prioritise. Let’s track down this Corpse Tar, Surge.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Surge replied before he turned back to Wendy and clenched his fist causing a cage of bone to form around the poor secretary, protecting her. Only then did two head down the beach in search of treasure.