Close Nemesis

Chapter Forty-Three: Nearing the End

NYGYL:

"He's dead," a green haired Namuhsolian exclaims after teleporting to the hangar of Teglyo.

"How did you know where to find us?" Lygor inquires.

"I knew you wouldn't be on that snow planet, so I teleported to the only other place I knew you might be heading: Teglyo."

"You're Oppugnant?" TeleVisore grumbles.

"Yes," the girl responds. "I destroyed my suit in an attempt to reach out to Rotcetorp...I mean...Xalir. But, we have a new problem. The civil war on Podplanata is my fault, so we have to end it."

"Why?" I ask. "I get saving lives. I mean, I've saved lives."

"Only for the fun of it," Lygor retaliates.

'I still care about people, though," I retort.

TeleVisore sighs, leaning against the green hull of a starjet.

"Enough! Let her speak!"

Laiva sighs. "We're ending the civil war because we're heroes! We don't sit idly while chaos ensues. We step in."

"To be fair, Oppugnant, you've caused most of the chaos in this galaxy! In fact, it's because of you that the tensions on Podplanata have escalated into civil war."

"Well, it's time to right my wrongs, guys! But, first, I need a new suit!"

TeleVisore scoffs. "There's another thing we need to discuss. Oppugnant, we need you to release the energy of the star and reverse its effects so that no more superpowered individuals exist."

"How about we just destroy the star?" Equaz suggests.

"Wouldn't that just release the energy?"

"Good point," Equaz responds, scratching the red leaves on his green head.

I groan apathetically.

"I'm so bored! Why can't we just deal with this war and then come back to think about what to do about the star?"

"Alright," TeleVisore replies.

Lygor purses a smile across his wooden face.

"What?"

"I know where we can start. Oppugnant, I presume you know where the city of Aravare is?"

Oppugnant nods. "Yeah, I do. But I need my suit."

TeleVisore smirks. "I'll take you to the tailor robots. They can whip you up a new suit, Oppugnant."

Then, TeleVisore teleports Oppugnant away, leaving me with Equaz and Lygor.

"Okay, so now what?"

Equaz huffs gruffly. "You put scratch marks on the car seat, Nygyl!"

"The pirates did way worse!" I exclaim. "They FREAKING blew it up! So, calm down! What I did to the car was nothing!"

LAIVA:

TeleVisore teleports the two of us to a grey carpeted room with white, plastered walls. I find myself standing on a conveyer belt, lined with parallel robotic arms. The first set of chrome arms look like scorpion tails, which shower turquoise light over me.

My body is briefly covered in a holographic framework before the conveyor belt slides me away towards the next set of robot arms.

The conveyor belt stops, and two robotic arms roll away from the belt. My eyes follow the robot arm on my left towards a pile of textures and materials.