GOURD'S QUEST 4 W/ NEW SUNACTION!

You kick the back of his seat again.
"Frickin' cut it out, kiddo!"
You smirk. This was exactly the response you wanted from the neanderthal in the front seat. He honestly had it coming with the way he was treating you. Doesn't he know you're the daughter of the president? Doesn't he know he should treat women like delicate flowers? Nope, he came storming into your room yelling about how you were being moved to a space station for safety. Seriously, there's a bunker underneath the White House for a reason. You look out your window, absolutely fed up with the man piloting the spaceship. You marvel at the stars. The only wonder of nature that can even make you remember "marvel" is in your lexicon. Oh, hey, looks like you know the word "lexicon" too. You sigh heavily. Today you were supposed to be out shopping with all your girlfriends but nooooo. Stupid national emergencies always come first.

After a while, you arrive at the space station and take a look around. You're in the loading dock. You notice it's none too organized and shrug it off. Surely that won't be dangerous. The big shot jerkwad who flew you here starts walking off then suddenly, rudely turns around and spits out:
"Are you coming? I don't have all frickin' day."

There are only two doors leading out of the loading dock if you don't include the big door thing that opens for space ships. The ground is adorned with blue lights indicating where to walk and yellow ones where you shouldn't walk.

Suddenly, the man growls and reaches for you
"I said come on, princess."

He says princess with a particularly poisonous tone.

...

"What's so bad? How about the fact our whole species is under attack and I'm stuck babysitting a bratty teenager!" The man says with malice.
You stare at him completely shocked. How dare he say those things to you?! You're the president's daughter! When you get back to your father you are going to have this man's job. You'll have him working in the sewers! No, he would wish to have a job in the sewers when you're done with him. He'll be sorry the day he crossed Valerie Altrium!

While you stood there fuming, the spaceship rocked and the lights flickered as you are thrown off your feet. Malcolm, the soon to be sewer cleaner, catches you. You start screaming in your head, hating the fact that this man, your mortal enemy, just saved you from falling on your face. You can't let this end like this. You must assert your dominance! What are you going to do?

...

Assert dominance. Assert dominance... You know! You shall attack him with you tongue! You get in fighting position.
"Uh, what are you-?"
Malcolm tries to get a word in before you assault him, but it was for naught. However, you completely miss and your tongue goes flying into Malcolm's mouth! You pull out and in a rage, you slap him.
"Wh-what the the?! Why are you slapping me? Why are you kissing me? What's happening???!!!?!?!?!"
"I slapped you because you totally kissed me, you creep!"
"What the hell? I did not, you fricking liar!"
Malcolm spits out along with some of your saliva.

...

After a couple seconds of awkward staring, you brush your black hair over your shoulder and act as if the kiss never happened.
"Take me where ever I must go, I'm getting tired of standing here."
Malcolm obviously looks angered over the fact you are ignoring the kiss, but his sense of duty is powerful enough to help him get over it as he ushers you through a series of gray boring corridors. The place was practically a maze, you doubt you would be able to find your way around on your own. Finally, Malcolm stops at a door and slides a keycard to open it. Inside is a fully furnished room; a king sized bed, two red velvet couches, and even a jacuzzi!
You may not know why you are here, but you know you are going to enjoy it! You literally push Malcolm out of the room, it is time for some personal time.

...

Realizing there's probably space dust all over your body you gasp loudly. Malcolm stands up unsteadily, still shaken from being tossed out of your room.
"You know, I have watch you so-"
He doesn't get to finish that vulgar sentence as you twirl around and slam the door in his face. You can hear him cursing on the other side about a twit. Perfect~!

You derobe. You had been wearing a lovely sundress, but strangely there was less sun in this spaceship than you were expecting. Oh well, the jacuzzi will make it all better! You gingerly make you way to the edge of your lovely jacuzzi and lower yourself in. Your muscles relax and you let out a sigh of contentment. Now, this is what you've been wanting to do. Not dealing with that freak outside your door. Finally at peace, you drift off in the warm waters...

You wake up to Malcolm standing over you.

...

In a split second reaction, you fling your hand out and it makes strong contact below the belt. Malcolm lets out an "oof" and falls to the floor cradling himself. You take this opportunity to jump out of the jacuzzi and wrap yourself in a bathrobe that's hanging on the wall. Malcolm is just managing to get back to his feet as you stare daggers at him.
"What?" He asks when he sees your death stare.
"You ape! Why were you watching me?!" You yell at him.
"Well, first of all my job is to watch you, second of all I was trying to figure out the best way to wake you. Your phone has been ringing for the past ten minutes."

You finally notice your ringtone playing from near the couches where you set it down. You walk past Malcolm who is shifting an awful lot and still clearly in pain, and over to your phone. You flip it open and are greeted with a joyous hello. You recognize the voice to be your conscious and self-thinking free will app called Cashmera! Your father bought it for you when you turned 16 after you demanded to have it.

...

You figure it best to forget about Malcolm on the floor. Of course, it'll take him a while to forget about you.
"Hey, C-c-c-c-cashereCat~?" Hearing the nickname you set for her to recognize right before you request she carry out a command, Cashmera's "eyes" on screen turn zombie-like.
"Stop that, it's weird," you command.
"Oh, sorry about that! :3" Cashmera says cheerfully and continues with, "So, whaddya want, girly pie~?"
"I'm starving and pizza seems like it'd be the perfect lunch. Any pizza places nearby?" Cashmera thinks about this for a while then confidently declares "We're in space! ^.^"
"Er, yeah, I know that."
"How many pizza places do you think are in space? <.<" Cashmera asks dumbfounded.
"...Are you telling me there are no pizza places on this dumb space station?!" You gasp as those words leave your mouth.
"Nope. ;w;"

...

You can't stand for this atrocity, you hunger for pizza, and you'll get pizza. You order Cashmera to call your father. The phone starts blaring "My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard", but no one answers.
"What? He always picks up!" You cry out.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but it seems this number is disconnected now." Cashmera informs you.
You barely hold the phone as you go into minor shock. Your daddy has been there for you ever since your mom died, now that he isn't answering you feel very alone. You have to find out what is going on, even if that means working with that mess of a person on the floor. You had to come up with a nickname for him, and you decided on M&M. The ship shakes again, much more violently than last time and the emergency back up lights turn on.
"What's happening?" You ask.
"Seems you've been found." said Malcolm who finally regained his feet. (Men are so weak.)

...

Determined to find out what's happening, and determined to snub Malcolm at every chance you get, you rush out of the room. You can hear M&M growl, very much over his breath, and run after you. It doesn't take long before you find yourself doing loop de loops and alleyoops and all other manners of weird walking patterns in the Space Station's maze of hallways. You witness people being ushered around into rooms and tied up as you run through the hallways. Luckily, you aren't seen but you can't help but feel a pang of sadness for them. Will they be okay?
"Ugh, whoever built this stupid space station is SO going find themselves unemployed!" You yell out in anger. Today is not your day even considering all the space jacuzzis it had in it.
"God-friggin'...! Stop!" Malcolm booms into your ear.
He then proceeds to grab you very roughly around the arm and manhandles you. "I swear, if you don't start behaving I'm going t-to-!" Malcolm reels back for a second and then lets go.It seems he's dragged you to the Escape Pods. Well, that was fast. He smooths back his buzz cut and growls. Then laughs. "Why am I letting a broad get me so angry?" he laughs some more. Actually, he laughs so much it starts to aggravate you.
"Will you just shove it, Jar-head?!" you snarl at him.
He flashes you a look and states,
"Look, you won't have to deal with me much longer. Since this place has been compromised I'm escorting you somewhere else and they get to deal with you."
You think about the hostages from earlier and ask,
"Will the people I saw being tied up be okay?"
"Why do I care? It's time to go." Malcolm scoffs at your question as if it were funny.

...

Enough playing around, you swing your leg up like you were kicking a soccer ball and get a strong hit between his legs. You see the tears in his eyes as once again he sinks to the floor then you walk off to try to find better things. You don't make it far, for standing at the other side of the escape pod rooms are two people? You're not quite sure if they are people. They are standing on two feet, but are dressed in black leather from head to toe. They make some clicking noises at you, then start moving toward you at a swift place. You don't know who these people are and you don't really care. You just want to find some pizza, get a hold of your dad, and maybe even get back into the jacuzzi. It is time for you to show these things why they don't mess with you.

...


Your desire to kick groins takes over and you launch yourself at one of the leather heads. Or, to be specific, at the space between its legs. You make solid contact and smile visibly as you feel this, but... the leatherhead begins cackling! Is a kick to the groin for them some strange aphrodisiac aimed to take power away from a kick to the balls? What sick twisted alien race is this?! As you think about this, the leatherhead you attacked punches you square in the chest and sends you flying back to the wall of the escape pods. You ended up behind Malcolm somehow and he laughs at your failure.
"I'll just magically beat the aliens~<3" he mocks. Soon after he pulls out his machine gun and demolishes the 2 aliens with more force than you think was necessary. Show-off! Strangely enough, the aliens are bleeding red blood. Not some weird alien blood or something.

You stand up and dust yourself off before you begin down the hallway once again.
"Really? You're still going to try and go on your own even after running into those abominations?" You shoot him a look that seems to say "Duh." and he sighs in response declaring, "Women!" Then, looks as if he's thinking before he shoves a map of the Space Station into your hands. "You're going to need this if you even want a chance to get around." he pauses before he asks "You... do know how to read a map, right?"
"Of course I know how to read a map!" you holler at him before storming off down the hallway. You get to the first intersection before you take the map out and turn left. Immediately after you turn the corner you can hear Malcolm snicker. Looking up from your map, you can see that you've run into a dead end. Wait, shouldn't Cashmera be able to give you directions? Why do you even need this stupid map?

...

You will have your pizza come hell or high water. You throw the map to the floor and pull out your phone, asking for directions. Cashmera kindly gives you directions through this maze of a ship. You find yourself in front of the telecommunications with Malcolm already there waiting for you.
"I figured you would show up here to try to order pizza." He tells you.
You feel like screaming. You don't know if it is because you are easy to read or because he could read you. You decide it is because he can read you. You muster on past him and into the telecommunications room, and face first into three more leather heads.

...

You enter Super Tantrum Mode and begin kicking and screaming at the aliens. They start feeling awkward, but when they realize you're their enemy they stop caring. They all make some weird clicking war call in unison and charge you. Their arms all transform into grotesque spines and you're stabbed three times in the abdomen. Oh boy!
"A-ahhhh!" you scream loud enough to hurt Cashmera's "ears".
"Ow. }: Are you okay?" She asks from your back pocket.
Malcolm clears the room of all three leatherheads and sighs loudly.
"God, you're stupid," then he proceeds to take out some weird gel and try to touch your puncture wounds with it.
"Hey, don't touch it!" you whine and grab his arm.
"You're going to die if I don't apply it, stupid!" you think on this and decide living is better than dying. You allow him to continue. M&M gets closer to you and goes to work. OW! It burns a lot.
"Nhhhhh!" you whimper in pain and clutch at his arm again instinctively.
"S-sorry." he says as he makes a strangely worried face and continues. Wait, did he just say "sorry"?

...

You can't help yourself. "You liked my kiss didn't you? You so did." You say and you realize it was more mumbling than talking. M&M says something back, but you can't hear it. Blackness consumes your vision and you are lost to the outside world. You are suddenly sitting in a field surrounded by long grass. There is this man sitting next to you. He is extremely thin but very cut, bald and you think he would stand about 6 ft. If he were to stand up. He is shirtless and wearing baggy black pants with no shoes or socks. He looks over at you and makes a few clicking noises, then clears his throat .
"Hello, Valerie." He says
"What do you want with me?!" You shout.
"We want to breed." He tells you.
"Fat chance! I'm not about to do that with one of you things!" You exclaim.
He looks at you with a hint of sorrow. "You don't have to do that with us, you were already impregnated when you were stabbed. An egg was placed into your uterus and now you wait for it to hatch. Another side effect is I am able to telepathically communicate with you. I am leader of my race and able to talk to those who bare my children. Believe me: I only want to help you."

Perspective change!

You are staring at Valerie's unconscious form - you have already finished supplying the gel and she hasn't woken up. Looks like you'll have to carry her, but to where?

...

You scoop up Valerie and jog through the maze of hallways. You get lost once or twice because you no longer have your map that miss princess threw onto the ground. You have to sneak around a few of the Lupricobras on your way there, but that's no problem for a hero like you! You smirk as you think this. Then you frown at the girl you are carrying. God if she isn't aggravating! Even as she's unconscious, she's snoring really loud and it's making it pretty hard to sneak around. Regardless, you make it to the Medical Bay without much trouble. You're about to enter a room before you realize there are a ton of Lupricobras in this place. You shoot them all until they are dead. Wonderful! You lay Valerie in a bed before you check to make sure the aliens are actually dead. Weird... one of them is wearing a rainbow nurse's uniform. There's a tranquilizer gun on it! You snatch it up and wonder if the other aliens have anything on them.

...

If she is't waking up something must be wrong. Unless, she would't pretend to sleep just.so ou had to carry her? No she wouldn't do that. You collect a few random bottles from the medicine cabinet. Hoping this won't kill her you're a soldier not a doctor. You place the bottles on the table and grab a syringe. You suck some of the clear liquid out into the syringe. You ready yourself in case something goes wrong. You lower the tip of syringe to her arm.

Perspective change!
"Want to help me? Then take out the egg." You tell the man
"I can't we need that child, that's why we hunted you down." He tells you
" I'm flattered you decided to attack a whole race to find me but this is seriously messed up!" You exclaim.
"It is not messed up it is life, you are giving life to our species." He says.
"What does that mean?" You ask. Before he can answer you are pulled away back to the real world.
You wake up to see M&M about to give you an injection. You let out a scream and he jumps back dropping the syringe.

...

Without even thinking, your hand flies out and annihilates M&M's scrotals!
"What's going on?!" you ask in a loud voice.
"U-ugu...!" Malcolm recovers himself somehow and says, "I'm trying to HELP YOU! Now stop punching me in the balls!" he growls at you.
"Oh, that was just a reflex." you say as you examine your nails.
"Yeah, sure." Malcolm sighs. "So, are you still insisting on staying on this dumb ship, princess? You need real medical attention not me."

...

"Umm, I have two problems with that first, I don't know anything about the medical field, second this is't the most sterile place in the world" he tells you.
"We have to do something, I refuse to give birth, I haven't done that yet!" You shout
"Well maybe you won't give birth to it, maybe it will pop out of your chest." He muses.
You give him an appalled look, seriously considering using your patented kick. "Do you not know anything about how this works?" You ask managing to control yourself.
"Nope this is new to me." He informs you.
The sound of running feet interrupts the conversation as a young man bursts into the room. MMalcolm sir! We need your hel-" he is cut off as a bone like swords appears through his throat. His eyes go wide, then glaze over as he falls to the floor. The alien retrieves its sword and walks towards M&M. He pulls his red handled machete from its death and ready himself. The alien makes the first move with a side cut. Malcolm carries it then slices diagonally across the things chest. It lets out a high pitched click then goes for a series of swings. Malcolm block's every shot then kicked the alien's feet out from under him. M&M decapitates the alien with a flick of the wrist.
"We need to get out of here." He says as he puts his machine away.
Where too?

...

You grab your unwilling side-kick, M&M, and rush to the bridge. Of course, Malcolm has to lead the way in some places and Cashmera offers a few pointers to best get to the bridge since you're not entirely sure how to navigate the Space Station yet. You see an alarming number of aliens on your way to the bridge. Just how many of them are there? Before long you arrive, but you stop yourself before you enter. Within the bridge is a big fat alien. Geez, is it even possible to have that many rolls? It seems he may be important. The leader! Oh wait, you already know the leader... Perhaps it's a lesser authority?

...

Without a word you push Malcolm into the room and he instinctively pulls out his shotgun. "Tell us about the egg or I will fill you full of lead!" He shouts as waves the gun around. The alien just looks at him confused, then makes a bunch of clicking sounds.
"I warned you!" Malcolm shouts as he unloads every shotgun shell and ammunition round he has into the alien. As the smoke clears away from M&M's onslaught , you see the alien is fine andvthat fat covers the holes there the bullets made contact. The alien looks mad and you watch on as it sits on Malcolm. He screams are muffled. By the fat on top of him. The alien just stares at you, clearly hating you, but doesn't try to get near you. The alien's face contorted into pain as Malcolm slices his way out from underneath it. The thing turns into a huge pile of fat that Malcolm is standing in , covered from head to toe in gooey lipids. You check the control panels but to your dismay they were destroyed by Malcolm when he was firing at the alien. Looks like this place is. useless. Where to next?

...

As has been your attitude for most things that have gone awry today, you shrug off the inconvenience and make a new plan. Without warning Malcolm, you turn tail and bolt out the room to the earlier escape pod chambers. You pick any old escape pod and realize there are a lot of buttons. Before long, Malcolm has caught up to you and bangs on the door to your escape pod.
"Let me in there, you have no idea what you're doing!" Seeing your chance, you rest your finger on a randomly selected button. In response, Malcolm points his finger at you and says "Don't you dare!" With a giggle, you push the button and watch as Malcolm descends into an intense state of cussing and yelling as you wave bye to him. Your escape pod detaches from the space station and zooms through space. You're not quite sure if you should be steering or not, though you don't see anything to steer with so it's probably fine.

Shortly after this, you realize you're going to smack right into a nearby planet. You're not overly worried - this is what an escape pod is for, right? You brace yourself anyway and totally rock the impromptu landing. Looking around, the planet seems fairly barren, in fact, it looks like one big desert. You'd be surprised if there was anything living here. Looking up you can still see the space station. It seems that the space station was in the orbit of this particular planet. I guess that means you can expect to see Malcolm soon enough! Returning your eyes to the planet, you can spot a metal structure of some sort in the distance. A building? Perhaps there's life here after all! In the opposite direction you spot a canyon of sorts with small trickles of water leading into it. There are actually trickles of water, uh, everywhere! You realize they're all covered with glass. Strangely, the desert of the planet stretches on in one direction with no trickles. You imagine that area must be a no man's land of some sort.

...

With Cashmera blasting out Highway to Hell you scamper over to the metal structure. You find the door to be open and it dark inside, without being asked Cashmera turns on the flashlight on your phone (she is still playing music) you shine the light around the room to see a laboratory with over-turned chairs and broken vials on the floor. "It seems whoever was here left in a hurry." You say.
Cashmera sensing the apprehension in your voice switches to a tense song. "Not helping." You say and she switches it back. "Sorry." She says, clearly trying to stifle a laugh. Inside of a cabinet you find is a bunch of survival items, a machete, food rations, a change of military fatigues, one size fits all, water purification tablets, and a swiss army knife. The clothes remind you that you are still in your bathrobe and you decide to change into the more appropriate military fatigues.
You hear the sound of a vehicle engine sputter to a stop outside and you quickly hide underneath one of the lab tables. While under there you find this metal case with a lock, but it seems to be busted. You open the case to find this glass orb that has what looks to be a jungle in it. It reminds you of a snowglobe, but when you shake it, no snow swirls around. You put the orb into your backpack as the driver of the vehicle enters the room. You peek out to see the being is over six feet, wearing a robe, and has cloth wrapped around its head. You can see what looks to be a large sword on the thing's back. It stops moving and unwraps the cloth. Its face looks to be that of a gecko. It walks around before saying in a sweet melodic voice. "Hello? I saw your escape pod fall, I wanted to see if you were alright. Are you in here? Did the person go out into the desert...?" You here the thing say.

...

"I'm under here." you offer your position to the gecko man. He bends and lifts up the cloth of the table and exclaims "Ah! You are under there, aren't you? Why don't you come out?"
"Don't mind if I do." you agree and slide out from underneath the table. When you're finally standing you put out your hand for a handshake and the gecko man smiles warmly. "Don't mind if I do." he mimics your voice perfectly as he shakes your hand - it was almost like you were the one who said it.
"Wow, that was really good," you remark mouth agape.
"Thank you! Imitations are my specialty. I'm very good at speaking all sorts of languages and that's why I'm the ambassador of my people to yours." he says with a fanatical twinkle in his eyes. "Anyway, are you alright? It's quite dangerous around this area."

...

"So do you know about Lubricobras?" You ask
"Lubricobras? Hmmm, no can't say I've ever heard of them, but we can go back to my camp, there are many travelers there, someone may know something there." The gecko "man" (it.. it's not a man, it is a lizard).
You decide why the heck not, what else are you going to do? Wait for Malcolm? Why would you want that?. You follow the gecko to its vehicle and get comfy in the passenger side. The gecko gets in and starts the car. "It's a long ride, you might as well get comfy." It tells you. You are about to refuse, but the gecko blinks, and its eyes turn from a warm bfown to a bright yellow. As you look into them, you feel tired, you know you have to look away, but don't have the energy. Your eyelids slide close and you are once again consumed in darkness.
You open your eyes to find yourself in a penthouse, and there next to you sits the leader of the lupricobras.
"Hello again." He says to you, not waiting for a greeting in return he gets up and makes a couple of drinks at a bar sitting in the middle of the room.he hands you the drink and says, "it is non-alcoholic, nodrinking while you are pregnant."
You just look at the drink, really wishing he hadn't said that.
"What is your name?"you ask.
"For our purposes, you can call me Bufie." He tells you.
"Why do you do this egg thing?"
"Why? It has to do with our anatomy, we have no reproductive organs like most other species, we carry the eggs of our children, but we need some other species to hatch the egg. We've used many different species, including this lizard friend of yours. However the offspring were weak more often than not, 3/5 of our offspring would die before the age of 3. Thousands of years ago we came across humans, and we found that our offspring were stronger than ever. Our infant mortality rate dropped to 1/20 of our offspring died before the age of 3."
"This has been going on for thousands of years?! How have we just now waged war with you?!" You shout.
"We did our work in secret, until a certain woman in rainbow clothing. But that is a story for another time." He says. With that you feel a pull in your gut as you wake up in the car, but in front of you is what looks to be a city, the buildings made of clay and brick.

...

"Where am I? Is there pizza here?" You are all about asking the hard-hitting questions and it appears gecko man (lizard or whatever - he's pizza gender for all I care) here can appreciate that about you.
"Haha, it's good to see you have your priorities straight! We're in Dahlariah City. I'm afraid there isn't any pizza here!"
You contemplate destroying the gecko man for this development but decide that would be unfair. You're a little curious how you fell asleep and a little dumbfounded at the information you've learned about the Lupricobras.

...

You tell it about your dreams, and it looks at you dumbfounded. "I'm not sure what to do about that situation, but there are many types of people here from all over the universe, I'm sure someone can help you." It tells you.
You want to scream in frustration, first there is useless M$M, now all this thing can say is "there might be somebody here who can help you." You can't stand it, why does no one understand your position, it is almost like they don't care. But you know that is a lie, there is still one person who cares about you; your father, but he won't even take your calls, for the second time you feel very alone. A movement in the corner of your eye knocks you out of your depressing stupor. You see a dark skinned little human boy, and he is waving to you. You feel this weird compulsion to follow the boy.

...


You grab Lizard "Man" like you' grab Malcolm and pull him towards the boy. Strangely, the boy looks very surprised by the weird lizard thing you'r toting around and flees. You try and pursue him, but he's just... gone. You turn to the gecko man but he looks more complexed than you. "Why are you dragging me around"
"It's my thing just go with it," you reply somewhat cheerfully. Perhaps that boy would have been better pursued alone.

...

"So uh, what's your name?" You ask as you and the lizard stand there.
"My name is Darvelle." It tells you.
"Darvin...cool... so is that a boy's name?" You act as if you did something sly by asking it like that.
"My species changes its gender based on the conditions it is put through or straight up will power." Darvelle explains.
"So if you wanted to you could become a girl or a boy whenever you wanted?" You continue.
"Pretty much, it takes 25 hours to make a full transformation though, it isn't instant." It tells you.
"What are your families like?"
"I was born in a nest with 26 siblings, five of them are currently still alive, I am the youngest at 17 Earth years of age."
You find that rather coincidental since you too are 17, well in a week you'll be 17 anyway. Once again you see the boy, but this time he isn't motioning towards you, but instead he is talking to a street vendor.

...

"Hey, stay here a second, Darvin!" you leave the dumbfounded Darvelle quite suddenly.
"Uh, okay!"
You run off towards the boy and grab him by his shoulders. You hear a gasp as he turns around.
"Oh, you're alone!" he exclaims happily.
"Geez, got something against lizard men things?"
"Sure, let's go with that. Anyway, that's not important. What is important is whether or not you want to meet her."
"...Her?" you ask in confusion
"The rainbow nurse." he smiles knowingly.

...

"Alright, but only if I get pizza." You say and the boy nods vigorously then turns and walks away.
You follow him through the twisting city streets for what seemed like forever befor he stopped at a door.
"Wait here, I'll be right back." He tells you before vanishing inside.
You wait there, fuming, how dare he make you wait outside! He re-appears a few minutes later and motions for you to come in. You don't know what you were expecting, but not the tidyness and cleanliness. The outside looked run down, but the inside was the complete opposite. There was a chandelier that illuminated the room, the wall paper was a design of black and gray, the rug was red with a diamond pattern. There was a brown couch and a coffee table with a glass top. The most interesting thing in the room however, was the girl sitting on the couch. Despite being called the rainbow nurse she was wearing a brown robe with large sleeves, her red hair was tied back into a ponytail and her blue eyes warned to not under estimate her. She was holding a cup of tea in her slender fingers, and another cup was sitting on the table. She motioned for you to take a seat on the chair opposite her. You sit down and sip on the warm tea in front of you.

...

"I'm going to get right to the point," you say "where is my pizza?"
"Oh, let me get that for you," she smiles confidently and claps. The coffee table suddenly disappears into the floor and then returns with a plate. On top of that plate lies... tofu...?!!!!
"This is NOT pizza!" you challenge in rage.
"Oh, it seems the coffee table is on the fritz. Looks like you aren't getting any pizza." she frowns but doesn't appear to be as unhappy as she should be.
"I see." you pout for a little before Brown Nurse asks:
"Are you done with your tantrum? I have something to tell you."
You feel like you're being watched...

...

You whip your head around frantically, trying to find the eyes that are boring into you, but you see no one.
"What's wrong?" The girl asks.
"I felt like there were eyes watching me." You explain, still looking around.
"There probably are, your name is Valerie right?" She asks.
"How'd you know?" You ask, completely forgetting about the feeling of the eyes.
"There is a lot to explain, but I will start at the beginning. Lupricobras. As far as I can tell, humans weren't around very long before they came into the picture. They'd come into tribes and secretly implant an egg in a woman without their knowledge. Nine months later, a child would be born, most of the time everything went smoothly. The lupricobra would sneak in impregnant, then come back about a year later to pick up the child. For the most part the kid looked like a lupricobra after their tenth birthday, until then they could be mistaken as being a full blooded human.
However, there have been some irregularities, the child would become a hybrid, the ability of lupricobras, while still looking human, lupricobras getting caught while planting the egg, and so on. There is actually an old recorded story of a lupricobra getting caught implanting someone, they said they were an angel of God, I don't remember the rest of the story. But anyway, to explain why you feel eyes on you, that's because the leader is connected to you through the egg, I'm sure he's already talked to you, but as the egg sets itself, the connection gets stronger and stronger to the point where he can suggest you do things, and without thinking you do them." She told you.
"Mind control?!" You shout, really wishing you could get rid of the egg, you refused to be controlled by some weird alien leader.
"Something of that sort, he can cause delusions and control your memories, erasingnthem and making new ones if he wished to. However, don't worry, it isnt impossible to fight back against this, you have to think of a memory that is important to you, and whenever you are unsure think of that memory and cause yourself pain, that'll override whatever he tries to do." She explains.

...

"So, how about fixing that table so I can get some pizza?" you ask, quickly forgetting about the information you've just learned.
"There are more important things to deal with," she says to you.
You realize you have no idea what exactly is happening right now with this brown nurse.
"Er, what's your story? How do you know so much about the Lupricobras?"
"I was one of the unlucky people they kidnapped," she explains. "Though, I suppose it wasn't all bad luck. I have a daughter I love very much. I even gave her my favorite nurse uniform. Unfortunately, she's all but too Lupricobran. She identifies too strongly as a Lupricobra and hasn't talked to me for a while. I hope she's alright..." she looks up to you after having her head down for a while.
Wasn't there a Lupricobra with a rainbow nurse's outfit earlier that you killed?

...

"How long have you had the egg for?" She asks.
"Like six hours." You tell her.
"Its too late, it has to be removed within an hour if it was to be done by me, unless you want me to take out your whole reproductive system." She tells you.
You are hesitant, losing your reproductive system seems pretty permanent. There is rapid knocking on the door, which knocks you out of your decision making stupor. The nurse nods to the boy, who exits the building. You can hear him conversing with someone, but you cant hear the voice. The boy runs inside and a familiar figure follows after him. "M&M! How'd you find me?" You asking the angry soldier.
"I asked around, some people pointed me the right way for a price." He explains.
You are somewhat surprised that he worked that hard to find you, but then you realize you don't really care. Youare still pregnant, so that was priority numero uno. Before you can say anything the nurse stands up and speaks.
"What are you doing here?" She asks.
"You, could it be?" Malcolm says, then points his gun straight at her.
She puts up herhands, then with aflick of the wrist is holding her own pistol, aiming straight at Malcolm's heart.

...

"C-c-c-cashere cat! Play Thrift Shop!" you command. The nurse and Malcolm look over to you confused. They don't necessarily get ino the music, but they're bewildered enough by the sudden music that you have time to get in between the two of them.
"This is my kill!" you say. Heh heh.
"Geez, can you not call me a kill?!" M&M facepalms a little at the exclamation.
It looks like you've stopped them for a second but it seems they may just continue fighting if you don't figure something out.

...

Your fist slams into the side of the nurse's head. You spin around after doing that and look Malcolm straight in the eyes. "Don't worry, you don't have to kiss me again." You say to him.
"Kiss you?! You kissed me!" He shouts
"I did not!" Was the only thing you could come up with for defense.
You feel a tap on your shoulder and you turn to an angry nurse.
"Why did you punch me?" She asks.
"That was suppose to knock you out..."
"It's going to take more than that weak punch of yours, and besides, your boyfriend was the first to draw his gun, I was just defending myself."
Your conversation was cut off by the sound of marching, the three of you leave the house, walk down the street, and see that in the town square where you woke up there were hundreds of soldiers. They all wore tan and brown fatigues and tan helmets that covered their heads. From your hiding spot you guys watch at the one soldier without a helmet steps up to Darvelle, who is standing exactly where you told him to wait.
"What is your name young uh... lizard?" The gray haired soldier asked.
"Darvelle." He says
"Well, Darvelle, are you new here?"
"No sir."
"Really, then why didn't you run when we showed up like everyone else?"
"I am waiting for someone."
"Well whoever it is I hope it is worth it, because now you're going to help us collect supplies."
"I can't sir."
"And why is that?"
"I was told to wait here, so I am."
"You aren't going to listen to me?"
"I'm afraid I can't sir."
"Alright, fine, no matter." The man grabs Darvelle's shirt and throws him to the ground.
Without a word Darvelle stands back up and gets back into his position.
"I suggest you don't do that again sir." He tells the man
The man grabs Darvelle's shirt once more, but with a hissing noise Darvelle draws his sword and puts it at the man's throat. The man wrenchs Darvelle's sword arm and drives his knee into his gut, winding Darvelle. He drops to the ground and the man kicks starts kicking him.
You are pulled back from where you are hiding.
"We need to get out of town, now." Malcolm says
"No, we just have to get back to my house, and defend it in case one of these soldiers decides to search it." The nurse argues.
"Valerie, we have to help Darvelle, they are going to kill him if we don't! You're the reason he's in this mess, he was waiting for you." Cashmera tells you.

...

"Oh, you picked me~?" Cashmera trills in joy.
"Not that it matters what you picked," Malcolm says in exasperation. He grabs you by the arm as if to pull you away, but you simply use this to your advantage. You slip out of his grip and he falls from the sudden lack of resistance. While he's dazed on the ground, you swipe the tranquilizer gun he had on him.
"Th-that looks familiar...!" color confused nurse remarks dumb-founded.

"Enough with that! Let's save Darvelle! >:O" Cashmera exclaims. You nod and jump out at the scene of cruelty. The helmetless soldier stops for a second when you surprise him then gives a crooked, disconcerting smile before he continues as he was doing before. Outraged at being ignored and taking advantage of his insolence, you raise the gun and point it right at his neck... then shoot. Woah! You weren't expecting knockback that strong! The gun bucks in your hand and you end up hitting yourself in the face. A tear has been created in your face and you just know it's the ugliest thing in existence. You look back to the scene, and to your surprise, you actually hit the soldier. A long rainbow-colored dart sticks out of his neck as a beacon of your victory. He doesn't appear to quite be done yet however!

"Did you just... shoot me?" the soldier has a strange look on his face. You don't recall ever seeing someone whose eyes literally became swirls when they became upset, but he certainly has rust red swirly eyes! "No one... has ever... shot me before?" he stops kicking Darvin as he slips into this menacing state.

Ever so slowly he walks toward you.

...

You raise your gun and let off another shot. It sends you to the ground. You start crawling away as the man keeps coming towards you. You watch as a sword appears through his chest.
"You will not touch her!" Darvelle shouts then shoves the guy to the ground. You notice two things; first there was no blood second,he was getting back up. He turns around to face Darvelle.
"What are you?!" He shouts then slices the man's head off. It stops at your feet and you see wires and computery things in his neck. You don't have time to examine it anymore as the soldiers raise their guns towards you and Darvelle. He runs over to youand snatches you up into hisarm and runs fullspeed away. You manage to grab the head before you were whisked away. Darvelle runs over towards the closest hiding spot, which happens to be where Malcolm and the nurse are at. You get there to find Malcolm and the girl pointing guns at each other.
"Really!" You shout, which makes them put their guns away. The four of you high tail it towards the nurse's house for protection. You arrive to find soldiers there wrecking the place, and the boy who took you there dead in front of it.
"I'm going to kill these bastards!" The nurse yells.

...

"C-c-c-c-"
"You... don't need to say that every time you need me to do something. O.O"
"But, I like it." you mumble to yourself dissappointed. After this small exchange, you look at Malcolm and Darvelle. "You guys have to help!" you plead.
"Only if you start listening to me." Malcolm says while stomping his foot and pouting. Darvelle on the other hand happily jumps into the fray with the nurse.You shrug at Malcolm and sit on some barrel in the street.
"So, how about some Spacebook, Cashmera?" you ask.
"Oh, of course! I thought you'd never ask!" Cashmera emits gleefully and switches to Facebook. What?! Gwen had 5 children while you were gone?! This just won't do, you better poke her. After poking her once for each child she's had, you look up to see Malcolm glowering at you. (Guys help how do I facebook I don't even know) You suddenly realize that you forgt to ask for pizza! At the speed of light, you drop Gwen a message: "sos bring pizza pls totes dying!!!" Instantaneously she replies: "omg i got u home grrrl!!!" It seems help is on its way... You look back up from facebook and realize the entire exchange took the blink of an eye. Not that that's a surprise~

...

So after sitting there for a while you get bored and decide to do your new favorite pass time; Mess with Malcolm. You give him a cutsy stare and bat your eyelashes.
"What do you want?" He asks
"If you go help I'll give you a kiss like you kissed me back in the hangar." You say
He just looks at you and laughs.
"I'd rather kiss a loader bot."(Gourd, a loader bot is from Borderlands 2 look it up some time they are pretty cool).
You stare at him with anger flaring up in every one of your pores. he had never spoken like this to you before. You feel tears start to well up in your eyes.
"If you're going to start crying then I'm going to go help to get away from you." He says with a roll of the eyes.
You are left alone as you feel crushed, even Malcolm won't put up with you anymore. Maybe it was about time you changed. You are sick of people always getting angry and frustrated at you, couldn't they see you were just a lost soul in the need for friendship and love? No they were all blind to it. That is partly your fault, you hide behind flashy clothes and make-up, being a jerk whenever someone tries to be nice. you even had your dad buy you a friend; Cashmera, and she even told you off.
As you were thinking about this Malcolm the nurse and Darvelle cleaned up the soldiers.
"Well looks like I'm sticking with you guys." The nurse says as she shakes her head at her ruined house and dead servant.
"I'll go too, these soldiers want me dead now anyway." Darvelle states.
You smile a bit, you still have some time, you can fix this, by time this whole thing was over you'll have friends in your three companions.

Where to first?

...

"Guys... come here." you say solemnly. Shocked at your sudden demeanor, everyone obeys! You find a lovely alley with comfy barrels and everyone sits down. "We need to get everything straight. We're a team now!"
"Uh, no we're not-!" Malcolm starts to object but the brwon nurse interrupts him.
"Oh? We're not? Well, we're all stuck together one way or the other and we all will share common goal. Valerie. Tell us all what our goal is." She smiles knowing you know the rigth answer.
"Our goal is... to defeat the Lupricobras.And get pizza." you sneak in that last part hoping no one will notice.
"Oh! Haha, you're still on that pizza thing?" Malcolm jokes at you. It's strangely less agressive since you've taken control.
"Does anyone know about those soldiers that we just encountered."
"I know." says Darvelle.
"...Care to share?" you ask after waiting a few minutes.
"Oh, sure," Darvin says then continues, "they're big bullies is all. They live under the surface of this planet. They have major connections to the Lupricobras."
"I believe they raid this town every so often for materials. There's not much to live on below the surface it seems." the rainbow nurse adds.
"What should we do?" you ask mostly to yourself. Everyone seems to have an idea!

...

Pumped up on your new team building going on, you say
"Let's destroy the army here."
"One problem, there are four of us and hundreds if not thousands of them." Malcolm points out.
You deflate a bit before Darvelle chimes in.
"There are people in this town who would love to see that army destroyed, people with guns."
"So we have to find them, and hope they agree to work with us." You say.
"There is still another problem, This place is crawling with soldiers hunting for our heads ever since we killed that guy." Darvelle states.
You hold up the head for the others to see.
"I forgot to show you this for a minute there, but look, he was a robot or something." You say.
The nurse grabs the head and examines it.
"If I'm correct then there are more where this came from, this won't be the last time we see this face. The question is who are they modeled after? My guess would be someone important, it might be a good idea to track him down. He might be the key to destroying the army." She says.
Three soldiers appear at the entrance to the alleyway. Malcolm kills all three with more accuracy then you've ever seen before from him.
"So how are we going to get to these people who might help us?" He asks.
"Leave that to me." Darvelle says.
He stands up and takes off his gun holster. He stretches then before your eyes he seems to disappear, wait you can still see a slight outline of his head.
"What about your clothes and sword?" Malcolm asks.
"I just have to find it... there it is!" You watch as Darvelle's robe and sword also seem to disappear before you.
"Well what do we do while we wait for him?" Malcolm asks.
"I think we could help Darvelle. People might be more likely to help if they see they could win." The nurse says
"What do you have in mind?" Malcolm asks.
"let's fight a few skirmishes, show we can win." She says.
"I could do that, but I could use some more ammo first."
"Follow me."
You and Malcolm follow the nurse to her house and inside to the back wall of the living room. The nurse raises this weird looking stone key and places it against the wall. You watch as the the wall falls through the floor and behind it is a small room full of weapons and ammo.
Malcolm whistles and says "This could put the weapon's locker on the ship to shame."
"Take all the ammo you need." The nurse says.
She walks over to a wall and grabs a pistol and hands it to you. "This should do fine, it won't have nearly as much kick to it as the tranquilizer gun."
You take the pistol and weigh it a bit. You place it in a holster the nurse hands to you along with 6 clips of ammo. She then grabs the tranquilizer gun and looks at it.
"I thought so." She says, "Hey Malcolm, why did you have this?"
"What? He looks at the gun in her hand.
"Why? Why did you have this gun?!"
"I got it off a dead Lupricobra."
"What was it wearing?" She asks, her voice starting to crack.
"A rainbow colored outfit, a lot like you used to have." he says.
"No... No." She says, tears sliding down her cheeks.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
"That was my daughter... I told her if she went with the Lupricobras she would end up dead." She says, drying her cheeks with her sleeve.
"Sephiroth, I'm so sorry." Malcolm says.
You realize for the second time there might be history between them, which for some reason upsets you a bit.
"Excuse me for a minute." Sephiroth says then leaves the room with the tranquilizer gun. She comes back a few minutes later. She had shed her brown cloak and replaced it with a rainbow colored one, the tranquilizer gun strapped to her back.
"let's go kill some soldiers shall we?" She says.

...

"Alright, it's time to move!" you order. Your loud voice is finally coming in handy!
Sephiroth and Malcolm both nod. The three of you bust out of the house and sprint to the outskirts of the city. You managed to avoid being seen up til now, but it seems it's too open out here for you to sneak around. You're not quite sure how many there are, but there are... enough. Sephiroth and Malcolm both get to work! Their expert war knowledge allows the both of them to easily dispatch the soldiers and you get whatever is leftover. You've certainly grown, but you're still a little weak. You'll get there. As you think this to yourself you begin to wonder about the bond Malcolm and Sephiroth share.
"Hey guys, wait up!" you holler as you catch up. They don't really wait or stop to answer you, but they're not really breaking a sweat so they continue killing baddies as they listen to you. "Do you guys know each other?" you inquire.
"I know... of her." Malcolm scrunches his face as he answers.
"I know... about him." Sephiroth says with a grimace.
"I think they're avoiding the question. :O" Cashmera voices what you're thinking.
"I-I am not! Since when has that cellphone lady been so sassy?" Malcolm asks.
"Er, I dunno. Always?"
"He's changing the subject again. :|"
"We're war buddies. Happy?" Sephiroth states with a dry tone.
"I saved her, but not her friend Adam." Malcolm grimaces, "then she up and ran away! Or at least, that's what I thought."
"The Lupricobrans kidnapped me. This was before the Lupricobrans were so openly aggressive about their need to reproduce." Sephiroth continues with "See for a long time, the Lupricobrans just came back for the child after their chosen mother gave birth. However... this had a few flaws since some children would never want to go back after being with their mothers too long. Sometimes they'd be forgotten altogether and they'd be lost forever. Now it seems they're trying out a different approach. Perhaps what happened with me is the predecessor to this event? A test run of sorts?"

Soon after she finishes, you realize you've circled the city a few times.
"Geez, this place isn't too big is it?" Malcom says.
You can see some heads peeking out from some windows. You look like you've caught the people's attention! Now it's time to show them what you can do. Down a street leading back into the city, you can see the face of the soldier robot again. And he sees you!
"Another one?!" you yelp as you get your gun ready.

...

Since you know people are watching you, and well, you are Valerie Altrium, you decide it is time to show off. You hold your machete above your head and start swinging it in circles as you run towards the soldier while Cashmera blasts out the song "Uprising" by Muse. The soldier drops his gun and waits for you to get there. "This might have been a bad idea" You think, but it is too late now! You swing the machete, aiming for the neck, but the soldier just grabs your wrist and stops it cold in its tracks. He then grabs your throat and lifts you up. In a panic you do the only thing that you can think to do; you kick him in the gonads. Luckily for you, even though you thought this was a robot, it was in fact a human. He groans and drops you. Malcolm and Sephiroth reach you at this point and malcolm raises his gun at the soldier.
"Wait. We may be able to get some information out of him." Sephiroth says.
"But if we don't kill him here with everyone watching, they may think we are weak." Malcolm countered.
"What do you think Cashmera?" You ask.
"I don't know, I'm staying out of this one." She says.

...

You realize some amount of authority needs to be shown here. There are a lot people watching and you need to make a point. That the city is safe and that those soldiers shouldn’t ever come her e again. And he may have information. The only way to do this… torture? You couldn’t do something nasty like that! But wait! Sephiroth could definitely pull torture off. “Sephiroth,” you look to her and nod at the soldier. She nods back at you, somehow knowing what you want to say.
“Am I missing something?” Malcolm comments about the nodding.
Sephiroth ignores Malcolm and walks to the soldier. Quickly, she’s extra sure to pin him to the ground with her foot. He’s pinned by his neck…
“How do we get to your city?”
“I don’t-“
“Liar.” she brings her foot down harder. A distinct cracking can be heard.
“How do we get to your city?” she has a dangerous look in her eyes.
“The… entrance is where… the trickles all meet...” he gasps.
“Do you know who that kid was?” you look to Sephiroth. Is she talking about her servant?
“N..o…?”
“Good. You don’t deserve to know his name.” she sneers and thrusts her foot down.
“W-woah-!” Malcolm lets out just as Sephiroth’s foot smashes right through the soldier’s neck.
“Let’s go.” Sephiroth says as she makes her way out of the city. The people of the city all slowly come out, but they’re a bit hesitant of you and your friends.

...

"Cashmera, play some nice calming music." You whisper to your app. As the music plays you stride forward and stop in front of the gathered group. You figured you could do this, after all, you are the president's daughter. You've made speeches before.
"Citizens! we are here to help. My companions and I are here to rid this beautiful town of these disgusting soldiers. Your town has been under the grip of this terror for too long! We need your help though, we are few in numbers, but with some strong warriors from you we can drive these terrorists from the town! I know it is a lot to ask, especially after the display of my friend, but I assure you that we only did that because it was absolutely necessary. We got what we needed and plan to leave that nasty episode behind us. Who's ready to liberate this planet!" You exclaim.

The people are completely silent. Then an elderly elephant looking person stepped forward, along with a short green creature with a large face, most of which is covered in giant yellow eyes. "We are with you." The green creature says.

You are unsure of what they could do to help, they looked pretty weak to you, but the villagers seem to take them in high regard. No one else stepped forward, and you were just about to talk to the two who did when Darvelle appears in front of you.

"Here you guys are, I didn't expect you to go on a rampage. I had to follow a path of bodies to find you." He says
"We thought we would help out and bring confidence to the townspeople." You tell him
"There might have been a better way to do that, but did it work?"
You motion to the two people who decided to join you. "We got them to agree to help out.
Darvelle spins around and when he sees who you are motioning to, he bows. "I'm sorry Quill, I didn't see you standing there. Now we must go before more people show up. People! Head back into your homes! We'll notify you when it is safe for us to come back!"
With that Darvelle grabs your hand and pulls you along throughout the city.
"Where are we going?" You ask
"I convinced some people to help, we are holing up in a safehouse of sorts while we plan everything out."
You stop in front of your "safehouse", a bar. Before you can protest Darvelle pulls you through the front and into a backroom. It is spacious with multiple tables which are meant to play Poker. It was currently occupied by ten people not including those who came with you, so 16 in total. You follow Darvelle to a larger table in the center of the room where Darvelle sits down along with Malcolm and Sephiroth and another large hairy man.
"Valerie why don't you go occupy yourself while we talk." Darvelle says.
"Excuse me?! I'm the leader of the group!" You shout.
"Sure, but you also don't know the first thing about planning, we'll draw up some plans and go over them with you afterwards." Darvelle explains.
You can't argue that, even though you wish you could, so you walk away and look around the room, there are eleven people to talk to.
The two you convinced to join sitting at one table, Three other men, all wearing raincoats and fedoras playing poker at another table, an eight foot, muscle man completely covered in black hair, A tiny blue creature on another table shuffling cards, a human wearing a weird suit covered in lights and wires, and a beautiful dark haired, tan skin girl watching everyone.

...

next you walk towards to the girl, who stares at you.
"Hi, how are you?" You ask.
She just continues to stare at you.
"Cat got your tongue?"
She stays quiet.
"Nice tattoos." You say, pointing to the art on her skin.
She stares at you, then nods.
"Not much of a talker huh?"
"Don't worry Valerie, just scan her with your phone, i'll search her." Cashmera tells you.
You raise the phone and snap a picture. Cashmera makes some weird noises. "I got it. This is Sheera, she was placed in prison when she was 11 for killing her father, who had repeatedly beat his wife. She escaped when she was in her mid twenties and vanished for three years. She surfaced on the planet Rangoolan after becoming an assassin. An expensive one at that. She is also a weapons developer. She created a bow made from nanobots that shoot arrows made of light energy. It is held in her bracelet and can be constructed in less than a second. It is rumored that she is able to hit a fly from around 1000 kilometers away. She has killed on record two hundred twenty three people in five years. She is not someone to mess with." Cashmera said.
Sheera just looks at you and nods again. "Well, I'll be going now, see you in the fight." You say before hurrying off.

...

"Uh, hello!" you say to the people playing poker.
In unison, they all slide their fedoras over their eyes and ask,
"Did you get lost? The nail salon is down the street," and continue playing their game.
"Well, that was rude. >.>" Cashmera comments.
"Hey, what's your problem?" you ask with an edge to your voice.
"We're trying to play a game. Take a hint." the furthest raincoat says to you.
"Geez, fine!" you throw out and stomp away.
"Who were those guys, Cashmera?" you ask.
"Oh, hey, I can just scan them!" Cashmera says and does just that. "Uh, these guys don't appear to be in any database I know of, Valerie. ;w; I'm sorry! Maybe they wear the raincoats and fedoras to protect their identities. It'd make sense considering they pulled their fedoras down when you came close."

...

You walk over to the tiny blue creature angrily. "What's got you in such a huff?" He asks without stopping his shuffling of the cards. He had big green eyes and stood about two playing cards high.
"Those guys over there in the fedoras, they're so rude!" You say.
"Who? The Catall brothers? Yeah they aren't the friendliest people around."
"What do you know about them?"
"Other than their names? Nothing, they keep themselves to themselves and are notorious for keeping secrets."
"That's something you know about them." Cashmera said.
"Who was that?" The creature asked in his deep, mellow voice.
"That's my phone, Cashmera."
"Nice to meet you Cashmera, I'm Begoul. I'm sorry miss, I seem to have forgot my manners, what is your name?"
"Valerie." You answer.
"Well, Valerie, let me show you a trick," he holds out the playing cards, "take one, memorize it, then throw it at me."
You grab a card from the deck and look at it, the ace of diamonds. You throw it like a frisbee. To your surprise it flies like a throwing knife. It goes to the left of Begoul, but he opens the deck and snaps the card up in it. Instantly he starts shuffling it. You can't help but stare at the strange creature.
"Why are you staring at me?" He asks.
"What? I'm staring at the cards, not you." You snap back.
"No, you're clearly staring at me."
"Fine! It's just, I've never seen your species before, and I've been to the Intergalactic Peace League." You answer.
"My species is pretty... reclusive." He answers.
Before you can ask anything else he rapidly throws down 51 of the 52 cards, which stick into the table by the corner. He holds up the final card in his hand; the ace of diamonds.
"Is this your card?" He asks.
You nod, then hear "Valerie, we're ready!" Darvelle shouts.
You walk over to the planning table and see maps with two paths drawn on them. "Alright so wqe've worked it down to two paths following the trickles. We have the Kappa trickle and the Ragal trickle." Davelle says.
"what's the difference?" You ask, trying to sound official and in charge.
"The Kappa trickle leads to some steep cliffs and the Ragal trickle leads us through what used to be a desert before the trickle was there, the nights there get extremely cold with hot days." Darvelle explained.
"How long is it going to take us to get there?!" You ask.
"As far as I can tell with vehicles, it will take five days. Without about 7 depending on how fast we walk."
"Why would we go without vehicles?" You ask.
"There are bound to be groups of soldiers leading all the way to the base, while vehicles would be faster they would be noisier as well, attracting more attention."
"I don't think we would want that!" Cashmera says.
"So, Valerie, you insist you are the leader, so choose what we're going to do." Darvelle told you

...

"Let's follow the Ragal Trickle without any vehicles." Vehicles is a very official sounding word you think to yourself. Perhaps with enough pretending to be official you will be official. It's worth a try. "Well? Is that all? If so, let's get going." you order in an attempt to do just this.
"I think we have everything else under control. Yeah." Darvelle responds.
"Alright, let's get going." Malcolm says. You get a little angry at this considering you just said that, but manage to let it go.

Before long, you've managed to walk the entirety of the group to a very desolate piece of desert. You can still see the Ragal Trickle, but not much else.
"This looks like a good place for camp." Darvelle says.
"Uh, what's different about this place compared to the miles of desert in front of us?" Quill asks.
"It is getting dark." Malcolm comments.
"Yes, it is." Darvelles says as he works on setting up camp.
"Oookay. He didn't really answer me. Alrighty..." Quill says looking a little dejected.
"It's okay, Quill. He's justr weird like that. He likes you I swear..." you hear Georg try and comfort Quill as they walk off together to help Darvelle. You see that Sheera found one of the distinct feature this area has to offer and is currently sitting on it: more sand. The Catall brothers seem to have brought their poker table with them and have set it up. Actually, you're not sure if they ever put the poker table away... You're not quite sure where Begoul is though! You probably have time to talk with someone before it's time to got to bed.

...

You look around, and sick of seeing sand, you decide it is time to mess with Malcolm (You haven't changed completely) You find him by the edge of camp staring at the horizon. "Look at that sunset." Malcolm says as you stop next to him.
"What about it?" You ask.
"I haven't seen many of these, I'm usually to busy fighting to enjoy one."
"Really? I usually watch all sunsets, not much else to do at dusk. My dad's usually working until dinner an hour after sunset and my friends were doing homework." You explain.
"Why weren't you doing homework then if your friends were?"
"Please, I never did homework."
"Never?"
"Not once."
"That's impossible, everyone's done homework at least once."
"Not me, those were the good old days."
You and Malcolm fall silent as you watch the last rays of light start to disappear. "Valerie, can I ask you a question?"
You smile and can't help but say; "As long as it doesn't lead to you kissing me again."
Malcolm sighs and then looks at you. "I'm going to ask anyway, what made you change so suddenly?"
"Change? Whatever do you mean?"
"How you were before. You know-"
"When I kicked you in the gonads?"
"Yeah, now you act s different. It's weird."
"Man, you were angry when I would hit you, now I try to change and be nicer, and you find it weird! I just can't please you!" You shout then hit him in the gonads and walk to your tent.
You wake up to the sound of ripping. You exit your tent, ready with your machete. You see this dark skinned guy and girl, probably in their late twenties, rummaging through food storage. They are dressed in tan robes with hoods, which were currently down. The man steps in front of the woman and holds his arm out in front of her defensively. You see he's ready to fight. Then you notice behind them is two children dressed similarly to the man and woman.

...

"Why don't you guys just take some food and go?" you suggest to them.
For a moment, they look at you hesitantly, then eventually start gathering up food. It doesn't take too long for them to skedaddle away after they've gotten some food.
"What the hell did you do that for?!" Malcolm exclaims. "You let them take so much food! We definitely don't have enough for everyone now."
You look around at everyone in the camp and then at your food supply. You... really did let them take way too much. There's a pitiful amount of food left - just enough to feed everyone once. That's only if you're conservative with rations though.
"Maybe we should go back to the village?" Quill suggests hesitantly.
"I think we can make it." Darvelle says.

...

"I have an idea. how about M&M and I go find some more food?" You suggest
"Great idea, except we're in the middle of the desert!" Malcolm shouts.
"Well, there's bound to be some wildlife out here we could hunt."
"Mostly predators themselves that eat rodents that live out here." Some other person said.
"Is there an oasis or something around here?" You ask.
Malcolm pulls a map out from his back pocket and studies it. "Yeah there is. It will take about a day to reach it then meet back up with everyone else, but we can manage it."
"All right! Let's go!" You shout.
"Wait up! We have to take packs with us to carry what we find!" Malcolm shouts as he catches up to you. He hands you a big gray backpack and you two head into the desert.
Quickly getting bored with looking at sand, you start a conversation.
"So, do you care to tell me more about your history with Sephiroth?" You ask.
"Not particularly." He answers before speeding up.
You practically have to jog to catch up.
"Come on, tell me." You plead.
"Why?"
"Because the only other thing to do is stare at sand, so you might as well talk to me."
"But why about me? Why not about you?"
"I know all about me, but next to nothing about you."
"What if I wanted to know about you? Oh wait I already do. You have had everything handed to you without lifting your finger since you were born." With that Malcolm speeds up, forcing you to run so you couldn't talk.
Thanks to Malcolm's fast pacing you made it to the oasis in good time, mid afternoon. You were gasping for breath but Malcolm was barely sweating. This was the first time you had really seen how incredibly in shape he was, and you despised him for it. "Come on, we better hurry if we want to get a good haul before dark." He says with a smirk on his lips. He realized the same thing you had.
He kept to a strict silent policy whilst hunting. You got bored and started daydreaming, and before you knew it Malcolm had vanished. You wandered around for a bit trying to find him. You went to tak a step towards a giant tree you were examining when you couldn't move. You start panicking, thinking some monster in the woods was holding your pack, toying with you before you were eaten. You gave one more tug, and heard the bag rip. You tumbled to the ground and over an edge you had failed to see earlier. You rolled down the steep hill for what felt like forever before you came a stop.
With a groan you struggle back to your feet, feeling aches and pains all over. You have a sudden flash of horror as you imagine how worse it could have been if you were still wearing the towel. You silently thank yourself for deciding to put on the fatigues even if camouflage wasn't your style. Then a roar snaps you out of your clothing nightmare. Standing in front of you is a giant leopard, crouched, its green eyes peering into your soul. You reach for your machete to find it had fallen off of you during your tumble, along with the gun you were given.
You reach for the only other thing you have on you; the orb from the lab. But you aren't sure if it would stop this beast, but it was the best you had.

...

Unsure of what else you could do, you throw the orb at the leopard. It rears back as you throw the orb at it and and pounces. Before it gets too far, the orb makes solid contact with the Leopard's face and bursts! The small jungle decoration within the orb seems to almost float for a second then, before your eyes, it slowly grows. You feel like you're floating for a second then realize that a tree is growing beneath you. Looking around, you see there are also trees growing in what seems to be a large circle around you. The circle of trees are so big and so tall you can see the city in the distance. The leopard seems to have disappeared in the thick jungle that's grown. You peer down from your tree and see layers of tree canopy below. A few trees over, you see Malcolm desperately flailing around on a branch. He's been hooked by his backpack and is dangling with his face away from you. You notice a host of large fruits that are jiggling about and long sturdy vines thick enough to walk on connecting all of the trees. Suddenly, you realize you've lost your phone, and by extension, Cashmera!

...

You yell her name, but don't get a response. You'll have to do this the hard way. You climb down the tree and search the floor of this new jungle near the tree. Just when you're about to give up you hear "My Milkshake brings all the Boys to the Yard" coming from underneath a fern. You reach underneath it and grab your phone.
"I thought I was going to be lost forever!" Cashmera shouts. Your joyous reunion is cut short by a familiar growl. Your feline problem wasn't over. To your surprise however, another growl comes out of the darkness and english comes out of your phone. "She's mine. Mine not yours, leave me alone. She's mine."
You almost forgot about your animal translator on your phone.

...

"Hey it's alright, Mr./Mrs. Leopard." you say in a soothing voice.
"Oh, shut up, simpleton." the leopard growls.
"It's a lady, Valerie! :V" Cashmera tells you.
"It's also incredibly RUDE." you add.
"If you don't leave, I'll destroy you. I'll destroy you...!" the leopardess continues.
"Maybe we should just go, Valerie. ;w;" Cashmera whines.
"Won't she follow us?" you ask dumbfounded.
"Uh, why would she do that?" Cashmera asks.
"Because she wants you?" you ask.
"What? I thought she was talking about the little one over there." Cashmera says. You look past the leopardess and realize there's a baby leopard hiding behind a tree.
"Ooooooh!"
"We'll be leaving no need to pounce!" Cashmera says.
You walk away slowly as the leopard and her child watch you cautiously. Just before you finally get out of their line of sight, Malcolm springs from the canopy above declaring:
"I'm here, Valerie!" and seems ready to fight the leoaprdess!

...

You grab the gun before he pulls it up to his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" He asks.
"Don't you dare kill her, she just wants to protect her cub!"
"Cub? What cub? I don't have a cub. You hear through the translator. Although, the way the leopard says it clearly shows it's hiding something
"That one over there." You say pointing, then realize that the cub is nowhere to be seen.
"Valerie, you must have hit your head during the fall." Malcolm says, trying to wrestle his gun out of your hands.
"Then who were you talking to before I started talking to you.
"I was talking to him." It answers.
"Who? M&M?" You ask.
"No him, the one standing behind you. He wants you, but you're mine! I won't let him any closer to you!"
"You look around for whatever the leopard is talking about, but see nothing.
"This leopard is clearly feral! Let me put it down!" Malcolm shouts, ripping the gun out of your grasp.
He aims it straight at the leopard's head. Before he can fire you hear the cracking of a twig and something jumps on top of Malcolm, who falls face first onto the jungle floor. The thing stands up and looks at the leopard. It stands easily seven feet tall, completely black, almost like it is forever in cased in shadow. You hear a weird whispering that you can't make out, but luckily Cashmera can.
"It says; leave her alone feline, she is under my protection. I won't hesitate to kill you if you come near her again." Cashmera tells you.
The leopard slinks off with a parting warning; "Don't trust him, he's not natural."

...

"Malcolm!" you shout. Realizing he may well be hurt, you shove the shadow figure off of him with astounding strength. Malcolm takes a huge gasp of air revealing he couldn't breathe while trapped under this mystery person. You help Malcolm to his feet and look to the figure. It seems this mystery person wasn't just cloaked in shadow - his entire body is black. He doesn't seem to be hostile right now but...

...

You decide since hitting a shadow seemed stupid, you'd tickle it instead. You reach out but before you can touch it, it grabs your wrist. "I'd prefer that you didn't do that." It said.
Fine, if he didn't want to be tickled, he would be kissed. You pucker up and go in for the blow, but you are once again stopped. "How about you don't do that either."
You deflate a bit from being stopped both times, but before you can say anything, the shadow continues. "Listen, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not interested in any of that." He says apologetically.
"Oh, you're gay." You say, the pieces coming together.
"No, I'm just interested in leaving this jungle, nothing else. I think we need each other for that.
"What? Why?"
"I can keep the dangerous animals away from us and you guys can help me once we leave it, I've got nowhere to go."
"I don't know, he's awful shady." Cashmera says.
You shake your head at her joke then look at Malcolm, who just lays on the ground and whimpers. Looks like he won't be much help.

...

"Uh, no." you say flatly.
"...No?" he asks.
"Yeah, you kinda just hurt Malcolm. Not cool." you say.
"Huh? But, I can be useful."
"Not really looking for another dick. Malcolm just about fits that roll. Besides, why should I even trust you?" you say. As you look to Malcolm he smiles albeit a bit weakly. You grab Malcolm's hand an help him up. He's not quite fighting fit, but he can walk.
"..." A little weirded out, you figure you should make your leave.
"Let's go, Malcolm." you say as you lead Malcolm away from the shadowy figure who just sits in silence. It seems he didn't have an answer for you!

...

After a few minutes of wandering you get tired of being lost and ask Cashmera, "Do you have GPS to get us out of here?"
"Give me a moment.... I can't seem to access the satellites orbiting this planet anymore, it seems that someone is blocking the signal."
"Probably the Lupricobras, which means they know you're down here and that we need to get off this planet as soon as possible." Malcolm said.
"However, I can tell that there is some sort of structure in the middle of the jungle emitting radio waves, if we head there maybe we can find something to help us get out.
You decide it is better than nothing, so off you go with Cashmera leading the way. Along the way you can hear twigs snapping and birds flying off in the distance. You wonder if it is the leopard or the shadow man. You decide you wouldn't like either situation.
As dusk arrives you arrive at a small clearing in the middle of which is a giant stone structure. As you get closer to it, you see there is writing on pillars that are on the left and right of a large stair case. At the top of the stair case is a doorway leading inside. the structure itself looks a lot like an Aztec temple.

...

Unconcerned of how you'll look, and gripped by some strange force, you begin jumping about on the temple and laughing. You gradually intensify your play until you're doing flips and jumping from higher and higher areas on the temple. You're very careful not to jump too far. As you jump, you laugh maniacally and uncontrollably. To your horror, you realize you can't stop playing and laughter begins to spill more rapidly from your mouth - like flowing blood your mind morbidly thinks for some unknown reason. Your dread quickly intensifies as you realize you're no longer acting of your own free will. In the background is the melancholic droning of Malcolm desperately trying to stop you as you jump higher and higher and higher...

...

You think about fighting it, but why? You're sure there is a reason why this is happening, might as well go with it. You stop for a second. Might as well go with it. The thought came from your head, but it didn't seem like it was yours. Ah well. You sink into the good feeling that had been itching at you as you started playing. Laughter bursts out of you, and Malcolm, who you had heard trying to stop you seems far away. Not sure how you got there, you look around to see you are at the top of the temple, still laughing and enjoying yourself. You look over the edge and see a pool of water. So thirsty. The weird thought came back. It was right about going with it before, you were having the time of your life. It must be right about this as well.
Even still you are unsure. As you look at the pool, again you hear a weird sounding thought; So thirsty. You realized it was right. Your mouth felt like the desert you had been passing through. There below you, was how you were going to quench it. Just a little hop and you'd fall in. You could gulp down as much as you want and swim. Yes, swim. Swimming sounds like so much fun. You step forward a little bit. You become excited at the thought of the cool water on your skin, sliding down your throat. Quenching your crippling thirst. You need that water. You step forward and feel nothing but air. You start to fall, but someone tugs you back. You think it's Malcolm and are about to yell at him when a familiar voice stops you. "Don't listen to it, fight it! Fight it!" The shadow man said with authority.
This confused you, the only thing to fight was him. Then the thought whispered to you; Fight him. Kill him. You didn't know what else to do, so you struggled out of his grip. You lead in with your soccerball kick, but he moves out of range quickly. "Get a hold of yourself. The thoughts are not yours, they are the temple's." He tells you.
You don't believe him, they seem so real, they're in your head. They are yours, he's lying to you. yes, he's lying. Kill him. Get rid of him. There was no arguing with this voice, it was yours. No doubt about it.
You launch yourself at the being, but for being made of shadows, he had an iron grip. He grabs your shoulders and holds you at arm's length. "Get a grip! This temple is persuasive! It is trying to get you to kill yourself! You have to snap out of it." The last sentence sounded so genuine and pleading, you actually consider listening to him. Then you hear He's trying to deceive me. i have to get rid of him. You once again rose to fight him.
"You have to be stronger than this, you have to be." Once again the pleading tone made you hesitate.
You decide to give him a chance and test this voice. "Malcolm's such a great guy! I have to protect him from you! I-I love him!" You shout, trying not to vomit from the last sentence.
Yes, kill him, protect my love, Malcolm. You caught him. You would never think something like that, not in a million years. This thought was not yours, and now you had to get rid of it.
"Get Out" That thought poured into your head, scrubbing out the taint the voice had left. You could feel your mind clearing up as the voice, whatever it was, was forced out. As your mind came fully under your control, you look over the edge to see the pool of water. You stare down, shocked to see there was no water; you were about to throw yourself to your death. You stumble back from the ledge into the arms of the shadow man. You start to cry from the thought of how close to death you had been. Sure this wasn't the first time this week. But this was the first time you were going to be the one to cause it was too much for you. Who could you turn to when you couldn't even trust your own mind to keep you safe? "Let's get down from here." The shadow man said in such a sympathetic voice that he almost sounded like a worried father rather than a stranger who you ditched almost an hour ago.
You sat down on the temple steps and watch as the shadow man checks on Malcolm who was on the ground unconscious. "What happened to him?" You ask.
"He was hallucinating something was surrounding him. He kept shouting the name Sephiroth." The shadow explained.
Malcolm sat up quickly, swinging his arms around. After he calmed down, he looked around disoriented. "What's going on?" He asked.
"I figure you two have a lot of questions, might as well ask them." The shadow said.

...

"What was that voice?" you ask him dumbfounded.
"Didn't I tell you? It's the temple." the Shadow says.
"Wait a second, I still know nothing about you." you say.
"I was trapped in here along with the forest. I was cast out by my people for having human sympathies. I don't normally look like this either - I only look this way in the forest. No doubt some kind of mental torture." he says.
"Why is the temple here?"
"It came with eveything else. I suppose it was trapped away in the ball along with me because we were both too dangerous. The markings, however, are the history of my people. Written by me." he says without missing a beat.
"Uh, why would you do that?" Malcolm asks.
"I got bored."
"Well! That's quite a bit of info to take in!" you say. "Sorry I tried to kick you in the groin!"
"That is fine! I wouldn't have felt it anyway." the shadow man says.
"Valerie! We have to focus." Malcolm says suddenly.
"Huh? Focus on what?" you ask dumbfounded.
"Don't you remember what we were doing? We needed food because you gave ours away. And then this jungle craziness happened! Probably your fault too!" he says.
"Oh, shut it. I mean, you're not wrong, but..." you trail off.
"I have plenty of food at my house. I also know the fastest way out of the jungle - it's exactly the same as always but with new land around it instead of glass." the shadow man says matter of factly.

...

"Cashmera, where is that pizza that was supposed to be brought to me?" You ask.
"what does pizza-" The shadow man started to ask.
"Don't ask dude." Malcolm told him before he could finish the question.
"I don't know, it probably would have been helpful if you had told her where you were!" Cashmera said with a little bit too much pep. Was it just your imagination, or was Cashmera getting a little too happy that you still didn't have your pizza?
"We can worry about the pizza later, we need to figure out what we're going to do. It's getting dark and I want to be out of this jungle while I can still see my hand in front of my face."
You rolled your eyes, why couldn't he realize how important the pizza is? Ah well, it was time for you to make a decision, after all; you're the leader here!

...

"So, is there any chance you could help us out of this jungle and score us some food?" you ask your new shadow buddy.
"Of course." he responds in a reassuring manner.

Before long, the four of you find yourselves at a small hut hidden in the canopy of trees.
"We're here!" the shadow man exclaims.
"Is this where you live?" you ask.
"It's kind of branchy..." Cashmera remarks.
"Branchy is one way to describe it..." Malcolm scoffs.
"At least we can get some food here." you roll your eyes.
The shadow man leads you to the far wall of the hut and opens a shelf revealing a plethora of food!
"Ooh, is there pizza?" you ask eyes gleaming.
"Pees-uh?" shadow man asks.
"Y-you don't know what pizza is?! How deprived can you get?" you exclaim. "We need to get you some ASAP. Well, as soon as I can get some."
"I can agree with her on that at least - pizza is great." Malcolm throws in.
"Regardless, it is time for us to leave if we want to leave this forest before night fall." the shadow man says.
You grab enough food to sustain the army for a while and set out to catch up with every one. In fact, you quickly get to the edge of the forest before the shadow man stops.
"What's wrong? :O" Cashmera asks in concern.
"Hm..." he thinks before taking a step. "I've lived in this forest for a very long time."
"Stockholm syndrome? With a forest?" Malcolm asks.
"Not quite." the shadow man sighs.
He takes a step out of the line of trees and before your eyes, you watch as the blackness that covered him is stripped away from his body in long shimmering strands of silver and dissolve in the air.

Before your eyes stands a Lupricobra! Malcolm's eyes widen as he instinctively reaches for his gun!