Heat of the Moment

[Android 17]

“Ugh,” the machine-hybrid groaned into the dirt as a dust and grim washed over him following the final collapse of the antechamber.  After a short coughing fit, he felt a hand pat him on the shoulder.

“You all right?”

“I’m good, Julius,” Seventeen muttered as he planted his hands into the ground and pushed himself off his chest.  A few beats later, the cyborg was standing next to the oversized astronomer.  “Is this the place?”  He asked as he turned and glanced into the cavernous room.  In his last volcanic expedition, the magma chamber had been rather underwhelming, but Mount Escorial’s heart traded flair for scope.  The room was massive, and while there were a few veins of glowing magma, it was obvious that the business had been closed down for a while.

“The magma chamber,” the lead astronomer muttered as he glanced around the cavern.  “All the reports and all the data we analyzed indicate that this has to be the spot where the star crashed into the mountain.”

“Of course it is,” Seventeen said as he lifted a hand and pointed up at the ceiling nearly four stories above their heads.  “I can’t imagine that the giant hole in the side of this room was cause by a rogue comet.”

Julius followed the cyborg’s finger up toward the ceiling of the room.  Although the actual hole was partially obscured by the slope of the chamber, there was a clear shaft of light shining through into Mount Escorial.  “That is some helpful evidence,” the astronomer said with the faintest trace of a smile as he turned his focus back to the surviving members of the expedition.  “We need to track down the star as quickly as we can.  It’s quite possible that those flans will reconstitute themselves, and if that happens, I’d like for us to be as far from here as we can be… agreed?”

“Aye!”  The survivors remarked as they started to spread out into the large room.

“Should we do the same thing?”  One of the koopas asked a few moments later, eliciting a nod from the cyborg.

“Yea,” Seventeen instructed.  “The sooner we can get out of this place, the better.”

Before he could get so much as a half-hearted response from his team, there was a horrible shriek from somewhere nearby.  The cyborg and his koopa troupe turned in time to watch as something came erupting up out of the ground near two of the astronomers.  One of the wizarding men managed to throw himself clear of the upheaval, but the other astronomer, who had burned his arm earlier against the flans, moved too slow to escape.  As Seventeen and the others watched in horror, he was pulled down into the ground, and a beat later, they heard the horrible noise of breaking bones.  A moment later, the floor fell away as a giant, brown-red mass liberated itself from the volcanic rock.

Reaching back for the Power Sword, the cyborg scowled at the sight of the big rig-sized dragon as it shook clumps of ash from its wings and cleared away chunks of rock partially stuck to its scales.

“You said it was dead,” the raven-haired warrior barked as he glanced over his shoulder at Marie Koopa.

“I don’t lie!”  The sassy reptile snapped back as she reached for the bedazzled magic wand still hanging from her waist.  

“Then tell her that!”  Seventeen shouted as the dragon threw its head back and let out a roar that shook the walls of the magma chamber.

[Android 17]

With another bone-shuddering roar, Roseus stepped forward with one front foot and promptly lashed out with the other. The group scattered to the winds as one of the koopas and an astronomer were caught in the arc of the swing and thrown violently toward the far wall of the chamber. Seventeen didn’t fall back too far, and when the path was open, he threw forth a hand and launched a burst of ki at the dragon’s face.

The creature reeled back for a brief moment, but before a smile had time to creep across the cyborg’s face, he had to dive away from a deluge of lava. Landing sharply on his right shoulder, Seventeen couldn’t help but stare in mild awe at the fourteen-foot long streak of burning earth. Much like the flan’s attacks, the fire spewed from the dragon burned brighter and hotter than anything he’d ever seen—and that included his home’s version of Hell.

“By Kami’s beard,” the cyborg whispered as he turned his focus back to Roseus. In the light of the burning lava, he noticed that something seemed off about the lumbering dragoness. For the first time, he could see that there were pieces missing—chunks of flesh were absent, and in many places, the cyborg could spot that some bones were visible. The wings of the creature were more bone than flesh, with strips of torn skin hanging limply.

“I guess Marie doesn’t like,” Seventeen muttered beneath his breath as he tightened his grip on the Power Sword. Something or someone had brought the dead dragon back to life, and with the star nowhere in sight, that meant they’d have to deal with Roseus before their expedition could find its prize. “All in a day’s work…”

Before he could plot his course of action, a giant wall of frost slammed into the dragon’s left flank and sent her stumbling sideways for a few yards. Seventeen followed the path of the attack and saw that Julius and two of his peers were channeling their powers together to combat the undead dragon. The leader of the Dalaran expedition clenched his jaw as he barked another order and jabbed forth with his wand. Although they wore grim determination across their visages, the trio was unable to launch their next combined attack against the dragon before it beat its partially decayed wings and somehow—in spite of all laws of physics—took flight with a disturbing swiftness.

As Roseus pulled up into the air, it threw down its head and released a lava-filled roar at its aggressors. The astronomers split apart to avoid the deluge.

“We need to ground her!” Julius screamed toward the cyborg.

Seventeen nodded his head and backed up right into the broad chest of Dutch Koopa. The machine-hybrid turned and glanced at the gym rat of a koopa, who gestured up at the dragon with a swift motion of his head.

“I got you,” he spoke quickly as he grabbed Seventeen by the back of the shirt and the belt. Before the cyborg could protest, he was already being thrown through the air at the dragon. Despite the incredulousness of the situation, survival instincts took over very quickly, and the raven-haired warrior righted himself mid-flight. With a thud he crashed against the side of Roseus and scrambled up onto her broad back. Twirling the Power Sword once over his head, Seventeen dropped down to a knee and thrust the blade down between the dragon’s shoulder blades.

Instead of screaming out in undeniable agony, the undead drake altered her flight path and started to go backwards with all the grace of something that hadn’t been dead for years. As she reversed, her lower legs swung up under her body, and with a glance over his back, Seventeen realized that he was a few moments away from being flattened like an unwanted house fly.

“I’ll be back for you!” The cyborg shouted at the Power Sword as he let go and ran forward onto the dragon’s neck. When he reached the top of her head, he dove awkwardly to the left to avoid the mouthful of broken, yellowed teeth that snapped at him. Before he could crash into the ground, Seventeen spotted one of the astronomers beneath him. The man jiggled his scepter and fired a translucent burst of magic that washed over the cyborg and turned his downward plunge into a gentle descent. “Thanks, bud.”

“Anytime,” the astronomer said with a grim smile as he looked up at the enraged dragon hovering near the roof of the magma chamber. “We still need to ground her...”

“I still have a plan,” Seventeen muttered as he willed a fistful of energy into his right palm. “Just try and buy me some time, okay?”

The magician nodded and started to jog away from the cyborg. As he moved away, he released a quick succession of icicle-like attacks at Roseus, who shrugged off the menial aggression as she started on another flyover. The astronomer was quickly joined by three of the koopas, who had overhead the conversation and could see the spinning disc hovering above their troupe leader’s fingertips.

Dropping back a few steps, Seventeen glued his eyes to the flight path of Roseus as she dropped down her head to spew another lethal, bomb-like blast of lava down at the expedition. The dragon’s slight decrease in speed was his moment, and the cyborg didn’t waste another moment. His hand flung forward, and the ki disc went airborne.

[Android 17]

The projectile twirled through the air as a yellow blur before slicing clean through half of the decayed bone that connected its desiccated wings to its shoulder blades. Although not enough to sever the appendage completely, the damage was enough to knock Roseus from the sky, and the undead dragon came crashing down to the floor of the magma chamber with a thunderous boom that shook all of Mount Escorial.

“Advance!” Julius shouted as they all fired upon the downed drake. After an initial salvo that blasted apart more of the decomposing monster’s hide, the dragon regained it senses and leashed a wide spray of viscous lava at her attackers. Seventeen dove back but as he did, he caught sight of one of the koopas vanishing beneath the wave of lethal liquid.

I’m sorry, Jiggy, The little red-shelled turtle, blanketed by the lava, was gone long before the cyborg’s boots smacked back down onto the ground.

“We have her on the ropes!” One of the astronomers shouted as he stepped forward to fire another bolt of energized ice at the dragon. As he tried to launch the attack, something sprung up from the ground in front of him. The man tried to sidestep away but was too slow to avoid the rusted axe blade that buried itself halfway through his chest. A weak, wet hrngh escaped the magician’s lips before he dropped limply against his murderer.

“Of course,” Seventeen muttered beneath his breath as the dust settled and he saw that five figures had torn their way up through the layers of dirt and stone. Although the uprooted adversaries were just over four foot, the axes they held were just as tall. Their helmets and lower bodies were rounded, but their chests looked like little more than once-shiny cylinders. In a way, they looked like life-sized chess pieces that someone had left in a dank cellar for a few years. What could have once been shining chrome torsos and beautiful paint to the rest of their armor had been faded and in a few places gouged away entirely.

As he retreated to put some distance between himself and the new arrivals, Seventeen noted that the five axe-wielding warriors each had distinct colors and proportions. For instance, the yellow one looked like he was packing on a little too much weight, and the pink had a dirty bow on her head to complement her crumbling eyelashes and faded lipstick.

Still scanning his surrounding, Seventeen made eye contact with Marie Koopa, who wore an expression of immense discomfort on her face. “What’s with you?” He shouted as some of the remaining astronomers leashed a concentrated bolt of lightning against Roseus.

“That’s them.” Marie rasped, gesturing toward the still unmoving warriors. “Has to be them, based on all of the descriptions.”

“Your fruitcakes?” Seventeen asked, eliciting both a scowl and a nod from the female reptile. “Wonderful,” he added as he tightened his grip on the Power Sword.

[Android 17]

With the astronomers and two of the koopas dealing with an ailing Roseus, Seventeen and the remaining members of his troupe were confronted by the undead warriors. A quick glimpse told the raven-haired fighter that his little group was outnumbered by one.

“I’ve got Red and Green,” Seventeen shouted as the once immobile axe-wielding rangers sprung forth into action. Leading with the Power Sword, the machine-hybrid parried the red-accented axe off to the side and quickly pivoted to deflected a green version of the same weapon. “Bit stiff,” the cyborg muttered as he took a sharp step forward and smashed his boot into his opponent’s chest.

As Green toppled backwards, Seventeen spun and jumped up over the low trajectory of Red’s weapon. Throwing his hand forward, the cyborg discharged a blast of ki into the undead fighter’s faded red helmet. Despite the proximity, the attack only served to dent the corpse’s headgear, and when Seventeen dropped down to the ground, he was quickly beset upon by his opponent.

Falling back against a suddenly rapid-fire assault, the cyborg tried to figure out his best course of action as his other opponent started to head their way.

This is where I miss the teleporting…

With a yelp, the machine-hybrid leapt into the air and spun over the red warrior before the two axes could tear him in twain. When he landed on the ground, Seventeen rolled forward and scrambled to his feet just as the magma chamber was shaken by the roar of the dragon. Turning his head, the cyborg’s eyes went wide as a literal wall of lava came barreling toward him.

He had one gambit, and he had to hope that his earlier preparation had been decent enough, since he hadn’t bothered to practice the skill after trying to require it through omnilium. “Field open!” Seventeen couldn’t help it—he squeezed his eyes shut and threw his hands out much unlike a man facing death for the umpteenth time. When he wasn’t immediately reduced to bleached bones and melting cybernetics, he opened up one eye and then its partner. Around him, the translucent barrier hummed, basking him in a nice green glow as handfuls of lava dripped down the sides of the sphere.

“I missed you,” Seventeen whispered as he spotted one of the warriors rushing at him. Although he was half-coated in lava, there was enough of the red colored armor clinging to the decayed form for the cyborg to identify his assailant. Unfortunately for Red, he didn’t spot the grin on his foe’s face until he’d already swung his axe against the translucent barrier.

The blade cut halfway through the ki dome before triggering a giant explosion that rolled outward with enough force to blast apart the reanimated fighter. When the dust settled, Seventeen spotted the shattered remnants of the Red warrior, and a few yards away, his Green ally was dragging himself using what remained of his half-melted hand.

“Goodnight,” the cyborg remarked as he lifted a hand and fired a blast of ki through a wide crack in the armored corpse’s metal skull.

With two of the robot-like warriors downed, Seventeen turned to see that the deluge of lava had taken its toll upon everyone else. Two of the axe-wielding warriors were upright and mostly intact, but their black peer had collapsed into an inoperable heap of twisted steel. One of the astronomers had been overtaken by the lava as well, and all that remained of him was a blackened, partially collapsed corpse still sizzling in the stale air of the magma chamber. Of the koopas, one of them had likewise met her end during the scuffle. Since Marie Koopa was slowly breathing about a dozen yards away, it had been Sissy Koopa who had met her end.

No more deaths. Glaring at the remaining axe warriors, Seventeen rushed forward to meet them before they could attack the ailing reptiles.

Caught off-guard, the revived fighters could offer no real resistance to the raven-haired warrior. A swift swing of the Power Sword cleaved away half of the yellow-plated knight’s skull. Before that twitching corpse had a chance to properly tumble to the ground, Seventeen had pivoted and thrust his sword up through the robotic ribcage of the pink fighter. Her eyes and strange mouth twisted in shock and what may have been agony, but the cyborg ended any rebuttal by firing a lethal blast of ki into her skull.

[Android 17]

With the reanimated axe warriors reduced to rubble, Seventeen could turn his focus to Julius and Sebastian, who were locked into mortal combat with Roseus. Although one of the dragon’s wings had been rendered useless by the earlier ki disc, the undead beast was still several thousand pounds of unbridled ferocity. Its claws tore easily through the ground as it tried to tear apart the pair of magicians.

Having lost their companions over the long journey into the depths of the Ashen Steppes, the two survivors matched the creature’s resolve. Jets of liquid fire were met by frozen bursts of snow and ice. Seventeen watched in silence as the pair managed to match the dragon’s assaults. A stream of lava was met by a stiff blast of artic air that redirected it far left of its intended mark. As the lava fell flat, a shimmering spear of ice twinkled through the air briefly before slamming into Roseus’ chest. The undead dragon took a few more lumbering strides before it pitched forward and crashed to the ground like a mac truck with half a dozen blown tires.

When the dust settled, it appeared as if the dragon wouldn’t be moving anytime soon. Unsure what to think, Seventeen walked up and drove the blade of the Power Sword through the side of the zombie’s decaying skull, and while he didn’t get a dying roar, he was satisfied with the wet squelching of brains.

“Convinced I hadn’t finished her off?” Julius remarked once he was close enough to see that the dragon was certifiably re-dead.

Seventeen took a few moments to wipe the blade off before turning to glance at his new friend. “You ever see those horror movies with the pseudo-undead serial killer? The one that’s always being shot and stabbed and still managing to sit back up and threaten the heroine?”

Julius shook his head.

“Well…” Seventeen muttered before falling silent. Did the astronomer’s shiny magic city even have movies? Or killers? “I’ll get you a VHS to watch.”

The man nodded his head as if he understood what he’d been told. From the other side of the dragon, the pair heard the all-too familiar sound of sizzling flesh. Fearing that some final trap had been sprung and promptly melted their allies, they made their way around the corpse of the zombie dragon to see that Sebastian and Seth Koopa were bathed in a pale crimson glow that seemed to originate from the insides of Roseus.

“What is it?” Julius asked as he stepped up behind the pair and got a glimpse at what they had spotted. A grin immediately spread across the man’s visage as he clapped his hands together like a giddy child. “We’ve done it!” He roared as he reached over and closed a massive hand around Seventeen’s shoulder. The cyborg winced through the crushing pain of the man’s ‘casual’ grip as he leaned in to see that there was something foreign inside the dragon’s partially decayed hide.

“Is that it?” Seventeen asked as he took a step forward and squinted to try and make out any details. Even from just a few feet away, it looked like nothing more than a glowing red ball of energy not unlike something he could fire from his palm. “Gotta be something neater than that,” he added as he jammed his hand into the corpse of the dragon, much to the audible horror of everyone else hovering around nearby.

“It may be dangerous!” Julius boomed as he clamped down on Seventeen’s shoulders and pulled the scrawny, smaller man back with one easy tug. Despite the astronomer’s great physical strength, the cyborg had already grabbed hold of the shimmering object, and when he was yanked back, his gore-stained fist had a handful of glowing red star.

“I mean, it’s warm,” Seventeen remarked as he unfurled his fingers to reveal the apple-sized object. “Almost looks fake.” The star in the machine-hybrid’s palm looked as if a five-year-old had drawn a star and sent it to a 3d printer. Although the star had shone like a beacon inside the corpse, it more closely resembled a torch after being exposed to the stale air of the magma chamber.

Julius furrowed his brow and leaned to get a closer look at the object. “I was expecting something a little more…” The big man scowled and crossed his arms across his impossibly broad chest. When a response didn’t come, Seventeen smirked and closed his fingers back around the star.

Before either man could comment on the situation, Sebastian posed the obvious question. “We should head out of here, shouldn’t we?”

+Red Star Piece (Artefact)

[Android 17]

Fifteen hours later, Seventeen found himself standing on the other side of a small moat of lava. For some reason, Bowser had redecorated the confines of his throne room, but fortunately for the confused outsider, Seth Koopa had been there to casually remark that this was a fairly common practice by their ‘fearsomely feng shui’ king. Seventeen wasn’t one hundred percent sure what the fuck that meant, but it allowed him to just nod his head and go along with the debriefing in the throne room.

“So these are the humans?” Bowser asked as he shifted in his large chair and glimpsed at Julius and Sebastian. “The dark one is quite large for someone from Dalaran.”

The astronomer grinned at the compliment from the oversized turtle. “Magic isn’t just about mental strength, Koopa King,” Julius retorted, eliciting a grin from the reptilian sovereign. “Someone like you certainly would understand the benefit of working on one’s physique.”

Once he realized that Julius was being serious, it took every ounce of Seventeen’s willpower to stifle the laughs vying to spew out of his mouth.

After that test of mental fortitude was finished, the cyborg cleared his throat and motioned to the little glowing star that rested in one of Bowser’s oversized hands. “So what do you think it is?”

Bowser turned his eyes to the scrawnier of the two humans and scowled. “We would call this a ‘star piece’ where I’m from, because it’s tiny,” the reptile snickered. “Much like you, little ghost-colored human.”

Seventeen swallowed the snarky remarks in his mouth and instead simply smiled at his pseudo-boss. As Bowser had technically employed him to go retrieve the little trinket, the cyborg knew he had to play by the big turtle’s rules, and that meant a smile and a nod at the ‘humorous remarks.’

“Is this something from your world then?” Seventeen inquired in an attempt to steer the conversation back to business.

In response to the question, Bowser at first offered merely a shrug. Once he realized that the human was expecting something of more substance, he leaned forward to get a better look at the trinket. “It might be.” He offered. “Or it could just happen to resemble something from my world. It’s hard to tell what’s authentic in the Omniverse and what’s just some sort of knockoff or imitation.”

Seventeen nodded his head. “Makes sense in a world where someone can turn their thoughts into reality.”

“Originality goes out the window,” Bowser added before leaning forward and tossing the star toward the raven-haired warrior. “Either way, you earned that little thing. I’m not sure what it might be, but I know I don’t want it here at my castle. Seems like the type of little trinket that’ll convince people to make stupid decisions.”

“Got’cha,” the cyborg muttered as he ran his thumb across the surface of the warm, red object. The group had been mostly silent on the way back to the fortress, and the star piece had been stashed in a metal canister. Even so, the little thing emitted a faint amount of warmth. Seventeen, who had been exposed to a variety of horrifying artifacts over the years, figured that the star piece probably had some sort of immense power locked inside of its tiny, unimposing shell.

The dragon balls were kind of like this… The traveling ones, at least. The set native to the planet Namek had been the size of basketballs, which meant someone would have to either find something strong enough to encapsulate them or opt to drag them around in a large, burlap sack. The cyborg’s daughter and her allies had managed to collect the set against the backdrop of a planetary invasion. The seven orbs granted a wish to the being who collected them, but Seventeen couldn’t recall what his time-displaced daughter’s wish had been.

I wonder if she’s alive? The cyborg scowled at the thought. When last he’d reached back to Earth, he’d still sensed the ki signatures of his allies, but they had been… on the wane. That sensation had been the impetus for his decision to go all out in ensuring that the Praetor Jarek never returned to threaten the Earth. I wonder if that mother fucker is here too? Wouldn’t that be a fucking laugh.

“King Bowser,” one of the koopas—Dutch—inquired. “What will you have of us, oh infallible monarch?”

Bowser scratched the side of his fanged maw for a few moments as he chewed over a response. “It’s obvious that you are all battle-tested, so you’re more than welcome to remain here in service of your Kingdom. You may also opt to accompany the ghost-skinned human here as emissaries of the Kingdom in the verses beyond our humble, scorched home.”

“Thank you, oh Mighty King!” Dutch replied as he rose from his knee and turned to look back at Seventeen. “I will accompany skin and bones…” The muscular reptile grinned at his own wit as he walked over to join the cyborg a few yards behind the rest of the turtles. A beat later, all of the surviving Koopa Troopers had made their decision to remain with their cybernetic troupe leader.

“I’m touched… metaphorically.” Seventeen muttered as he glanced over at Julius Peppers. The broad-shouldered astronomer smiled before turning to look at King Bowser.

“We will make our leave, King Koopa,” the man spoke, his booming voice a near match for the giant turtle’s own tone.

“Of course,” Bowser remarked before glancing back at Seventeen. “I’ll be in touch with you. Just make sure you keep an eye on your emails, and if we need anything, let us know.”

The machine-hybrid lifted a ‘thumbs up’ to his proxy monarch before turning and departing the recently redecorated throne room.

[Android 17]

Once they were outside, Julius Peppers pulled Seventeen aside to have a brief conversation.

“I must depart for Dalaran shortly,” the man replied. “I’ll have to make my report to the Guild and make preparations to honor the fallen.”

Seventeen nodded his head. “You need this thingie?” He asked as he held out the star piece. The astronomer shrugged his shoulders.

“I had such enthusiasm as we sought out the piece. There was nothing more pleasant than crunching numbers with the others… We all derived so much joy from the quest, but all the blood has… sullied the prize. I look at that little trinket and all I see are the faces of the dead.”

Next to Julius, the much smaller Sebastian stood in silence, his expression the far-away stare of someone lost in their dark thoughts. As sad as it was to see the younger astronomer suffer, the cyborg had seen that face hundreds of times during his lifetime. He’d seen it in shivering survivors of the Cold Industries invasion of Earth—mothers squeezing their freezing children close to their chest as they struggled to stay alive in the dank mountain caves. He’d seen noble saiyans reduced to that shell-shocked appearance in the aftermath of their planet’s invasion, and he’d seen so many warriors bear that look as they cradled the corpse of their lover or comrade.

Seventeen thought back to how he’d held his dead girlfriend in his arms on not one but two occasions. He remembered how haunting it had been to watch the light fade from her eyes and feel the body go cold in his arms.

At least I had the decency to get myself blown up every single time.

It was less painful to mourn for a black smudge on the ground than a shattered, bloodstained corpse.

The cyborg scowled at the memories and shook his head to clear out the haze. As he did, he realized that Julius had likewise been staring off in another direction, deep in his own thoughts. “Keep it. The red will just remind me too much of the blood. I will tell the guild that the star piece is with an ally. They may want you to visit at some point, and I hope you’ll oblige them, my friend.”

“Of course,” Seventeen whispered as he slipped the star piece into the leather pouch attached to his belt. “How many others are there? Does your guild know?”

Julius twisted his lips up as he mulled the question. After a few moments, he nodded his head at some thought in his brain. “Yes. There are seven… seven star pieces,” he replied.

“Of-fucking-course there are seven mystical artifacts that fell from the sky,” Seventeen muttered under his breath.

“Did you say something, Friend?” Julius inquired, causing the cyborg to shake his head.

“Just thinking out loud,” the raven-haired warrior replied before smiling widely for his associate. “I’ll let you be on your way, Julius. I wouldn’t want to prevent you from returning to your floating city of sunshine and sprinkles.”

The broad-shouldered wizard threw his head back in a hearty fit of laughter that lasted about ten second too long. Once he settled down, Julius leaned forward and smacked his massive palm down on the cyborg’s bony shoulder—a display of friendship that would undoubtedly leave the smaller man with a colorful bruise the next morning. “You are truly hilarious, Seventeen.”

“I try.” The machine-hybrid mumbled as he rubbed at his shoulder. Julius performed one final polite nod and proceeded to exit the room, leaving Seventeen and the koopas alone with their thoughts for the time being.

[Android 17]

“So what do we do now?” One of the koopas inquired once the group had exited the throne room and made their way into the relative privacy of a small chamber a few hallways removed from the heart of the fortress.

Seventeen thought over the question for a few moments before offering a response. “Anything going on outside the Koopa Kingdom? You guys the only people who live in this place?”

Seth shook his head. “Got the gorons. There’s also travelers and explorers who set up little camps here and the. Don’t know how interesting any of them would be, though. You’d be better served going to someplace with a real society.”

“That magic city?” The cyborg chuckled. “Maybe Julius can teach me how to create a chicken from a handful of feathers?” The koopas snickered at the joke as well, which served to lighten the mood. “Nowhere else?”

“Coruscant?”

“Have I heard about that one?” Seventeen asked as he twisted his mouth up into a little knot.

“The one with the flying cars and the armored cops?”

The machine-hybrid shrugged his shoulders. “No clue, but it sounds pretty neat. Why not? Which way?”

“Back the way you came.”

“The white place?

“Go to the Nexus and take the metal-looking gate. Can’t miss it.”

Seventeen furrowed his brows. “You guys ain’t coming with me?”

The koopas shook their heads before Dutch responded. “We will meet you there, but for now, we have lives to tie together. You know, in case we don’t come back from this mission like the others.”

“Makes sense,” the cyborg replied as he started to exchange firm handshakes with the surviving members of his troupe. “Drop me a line when you reach future-town.”

With that, Seventeen boarded the Barrel Train and began his journey back to where he’d started this whole ordeal.