Niiue put the small bag he had sewn into the Phase Distorter, then turned back to everyone gathered on the top of the hill.

After Alinivar told Ralivil about the Applechasers’ depature for the past, Ralivil made it a point to say goodbye to the other group of aliens. He had convinced everyone else to do so as well, even if they only really knew Niiue.

“Well, that’s everything,” Niiue said, resting his hands on his hips. He looked over at the other Applechasers and asked, “You guys ready?”

Alinivar gave a small nod, Larice gave a beep of confirmation, and Colonel Saturn let out an enthusiastic “boing!” Googie, the infant Geeg that had come under their care, swooped over to Niiue and made a variety of chirps and purrs as he clung to the older Geeg’s arm.

Niiue looked back at the Magicant gang and told them, “It’ll probably be a little while until one of us comes back to bring you guys to the past. We’ll have to sort out the temporary residence until then. Okay?”

Wil, Foppiue and Ralivil gave a nod, Buzzy Bol extended his UFO’s metal arm to give a thumbs up, and Mav gave a grunt of agreement.

Niiue gave a thumbs up back as he smiled. “Alright then!” He turned back to the Applechasers and asked, “Shall we get going?”

The Applechasers all nodded, then followed Niiue inside the Phase Distorter. The small, round, black door of the machine slid shut after Colonel Saturn wriggled his way inside. The Phase Distorter revved its engine as black waves flew from it, and before anyone knew, it disappeared in a flash of white light.

The Magicant gang stood in awe for a few moments as the light faded. Once it had faded completely, Ralivil pondered aloud, “You know, I wonder why the Phase Distorter looks like a Mr. Saturn.”

---

Things were going horrendously slow on the ship. Nobody knew where to go next. Boson suggested Neptune, but Malik shot it down before the insectoid could even finish saying the planet’s name. Dr. Saturn, and to a lesser extent Shopkeep Saturn, were the only ones interested in going back home to Saturn. Elmadan was adamant about staying away from it for reasons he didn’t want to disclose. And since the crew had already been to Jupiter and Mars, they were at a loss for ideas. So now they were just sitting around, bored out of their minds.

Then there was a flash of white light and waves of black as the sound of an engine dying down filled the ship. Once the waves had stopped, the engine fallen silent and the light faded, everyone looked wide-eyed at the Mr. Saturn-shaped machine that had just sat itself down to the right of the ship’s control panel. A small, black door on the machine slid open, and a strange alien wearing what the crew could only assume to be human clothes stepped out.

The crew immediately started screaming.

The alien flinched as the ears on the top of its head folded back. As more aliens climbed out of the machine, the human-clothed one muttered, “I knew they would be confused, but this isn’t the response I was expecting…”

“I would *click* understand if it were just the Mr. Saturns, but, the others…?” the glowing, spiked Starman questioned.

A smaller alien, the same species as the clothed one, but only wearing a red cap with a blue rim, clung to the larger one’s arm.

The clothed alien called over the screaming, “Hey, hey, hey! It’s alright! We’re not going to hurt you!”

The crew cut off their screaming, but still eyed the new group of aliens with caution.

The clothed alien sighed as a smile crept onto its face, “Thank you.” It looked back up at the crew and told them, “My name’s Niiue, and this little guy right here,” he patted the smaller alien clinging to his arm on the head briefly, “is Googie.”

Malik squinted and muttered to himself, “Niiue…? Where have I heard that one before…?”

Dr. Saturn leaned forward slightly as he asked, “Who are others…?”

Niiue turned and pointed to each of the other aliens as he said, “This is Alinivar, this is Larice, and this is Colonel Saturn.”

“Ain’t there supposed to be one more of you…?” Boson questioned. “I dunno why I get that feelin’, but I feel like there’s supposed to be one more.”

Niiue raised a finger with his mouth agape. “…That’s… We’re not at that bridge yet.”

Elmadan leaned against the wall, arms crossed, as he asked, “So what are you guys even doing here? And why do I feel like I’ve heard your names before, even though I don’t recognise any of you?”

“Okay, uh, long story short, you actually do know us, I mean, not counting Googie. We went forward in time in the Phase Distorter-” Niiue pointed at the Mr. Saturn-shaped machine behind them, “-to help stop a threat to the entire galaxy. That ended with us getting Googie, although the way we got him must have altered the timeline so you guys forgot about us.”

“There is a lot more to it, but those are the basics. *beep* Maybe someday we will tell you the rest,” Larice added.

“Alright. That still doesn’t give us a reason to trust you, though,” Malik replied.

Colonel Saturn trotted over to Dr. Saturn and Shopkeep Saturn and told them, “I mayor of Satralia, zoom! You remember?”

The other two Mr. Saturns hummed in thought before Shopkeep Saturn replied, “A little. Not much, boing.”

“But we still trust you, zoom,” Dr. Saturn added.

Colonel Saturn let out a pleased “boing!”

As Googie let go of Niiue’s arm and drifted closer to the ceiling, Niiue asked the ship crew, “So, what have you guys been up to?”

Elmadan and Boson hm’d and ha’d over what to say before Elmadan simply replied, “We went to Jupiter. Then Mars.”

“We helped the folks of Anolin rebuild, met some weird blue Starman Deluxe and his pack of weirdos—”

“And one normal guy,” Elmadan added.

“And one normal dude, right, then the Starman Deluxe decided he wanted to be a pirate? So he and his gang took off and we went after ‘em to make sure they didn’t mess up nobody.”

Larice glanced over at Boson and began, “But…”

“There ain’t nobody on Mars? We didn’t know that at the time!” Boson told him. “So anyways. I dunno what happened to the Stardudes, but it musta been somethin’, ‘cause after they checked outta Mars, they just… haven’t moved.”

“It’s really weird. They’re just sitting there, in the middle of space, for no reason,” Elmadan added. “Like, what are they even doing?”

“To be fair, we aren’t doing a whole lot of anything either,” Malik replied.

As Elmadan retorted to Malik’s comment, Niiue put a hand to his chin and tapped his foot in thought. After half a minute, Niiue announced, “I’ll be back.” He then vanished into thin air with a flash of blue light.

The ship crew blinked and looked around for Niiue before Larice told them, “He simply teleported somewhere else. Perhaps that other ship you were telling him about. *beep*”

---

In a flash of blue light, Niiue appeared on the lowest outer path of the Celine. The ship didn’t look any different from what Niiue remembered of it, although, notably, there was a distinct lack of Tornado Bots outside.

‘I guess there’s no need for them now that everything’s peaceful,’ Niiue thought to himself.

Not seeing any Starmen around in his immediate vicinity, he took to the air and began his search. He did a couple of laps around the Celine, scanning the outer paths of the ship. He still didn’t see any Starmen, but a quick glance at the rooftop revealed several Starmen – mostly Blue and Ghost units – gathered and talking amongst themselves. Niiue glided above the roof and landed, then walked over to the small group with a friendly wave.

“Hey there! How’s it going?” Niiue greeted as he approached the Starmen.

The Starmen turned to look at Niiue. The scowls on their faces said all that needed to be about how they felt about Niiue’s arrival. A Ghost of Starman wearing a fluffy light blue scarf turned to the group and began to say something to them, but a thinner than usual Blue Starman held up his hand to silence him.

“Let me handle this *click*,” the thin Blue Starman told the scarf-wearing Ghost of Starman.

“But I’m a higher rank than you! What gives you the *whirr* right—”

The thin Blue Starman’s eye narrowed. “You know exactly why, Megalomycter. You were there, just like the rest of us.”

The scarf-wearing Ghost of Starman, Megalomycter, remained silent. After a quiet “thank you” from him, the thin Blue Starman turned to Niiue and took a few steps forward from the group.

As he put his hands on his hips, the thin Blue Starman asked Niiue, “Who are you, *beep* and what exactly brings you here?”

“My name’s Niiue, and I’m just here to see what’s up. I got a tip that thing’s were going slow on this ship, and I just wanted to see if everything was alright.” Niiue cocked his head as he asked, “What’s your name?”

“Mirapina.” The thin Blue Starman held out a hand, which Niiue held and shook. Mirapina put his hand back on his hip as he told Niiue, “And that’s very kind of you, but we’re fine. *whirr*”

Niiue hummed in thought for a moment, before asking, “Are you sure? There’s not a lot of activity out here at all – unusual for a ship of this size.”

From the group, a Blue Starman with an uppercase Sigma printed onto his left arm pushed his way to the front, causing Mirapina to look over his shoulder at the other Blue Starman. The other Blue Starman told Mirapina, “Come on, Mirapina. It’s been days *click* now and we haven’t even heard from the captain.”

Mirapina let out a soft whirr before looking back at Niiue and explaining to him, “You see, four standard solar days ago we went to Mars. We found out… *whirr* …certain things our pasts that we weren’t expecting to. We’re all still a bit shaken up by it, but the captain seems to be taking it worse. Only *beep* one standard solar day after the trip, he went to his personal quarters to be by himself, but he hasn’t come out since. *click* We’re worried, but don’t want to disturb the captain. Out of respect, of course.”

Niiue hummed in thought, then proposed, “Perhaps I could help out?”

The group of Starmen let out a chorus of confusion.

“I dunno what exactly you found out down there, but this does sound like an emotional issue. I think I know a way to help him out a bit, but I’d need to be in your captain’s quarters with him for it to work,” Niiue explained.

Mirapina narrowed his eye. “Why should be *beep* trust you?”

“I know a lot more about emotions that you might think.”

Mirapina was silent, squinting at Niiue for a few long moments before he turned to the group of Starmen and asked, “Alright, *click* who wants to lead him down to Captain Deepsea’s quarters. *beep* I don’t think he’d be all that happy to see me, but one of you should be fine.”

Immediately, a Ghost of Starman’s arm shot up as its owner shouted, “Me! Me!”

Mirapina shrugged. “Go on ahead, Diaphus.”

The Ghost of Starman Diaphus shoved their way past the other Starmen, then shook Niiue’s hand. “Hi! *click* My name’s Diaphus, pleasure to meet you!” Their eye had a bright red crosshair that stared right at him.

Niiue let out a light nervous chuckle before replying, “Nice to meet you too!”

Diaphus let go of Niiue’s hand, then teleported a short distance away from him. He turned to face him and called out, “This way!”

Niiue trotted up to Diaphus as they led him into a tall room at the bow of the ship. The room was rather small compared to how it looked on the outside. It had small, metal boxes stacked against one wall and scattered nearby the opposite one. A long ladder stood at the end of the room.

“Captain Deeeeepseeeeea!” Diaphus called out. After a silent moment, they frowned. “Hm. *click*”

Niiue followed Diaphus as they climbed up the ladder to the upper level. Diaphus looked around, muttering to themself. After a quiet lightbulb moment from the Ghost of Starman, they walked over to the three grey cylinders on the left side of the room and pushed the leftmost one down into the floor. There was a rumbling as the floor shook, and a staircase opened up just in front of the tube that travelled across the back wall. Diaphus motioned for Niiue to follow him down the stairs, then began to travel down them themself.

At first, the descent down the staircase was a descent into darkness. After a few steps down, dim LED lights embedded in the ceiling flickered on as they sensed the Starman and the Geeg.

Diaphus paused as they glanced up at the lights. “The captain usually has them turned up brighter. *beep*” they noted to themself.

They continued to go down the staircase, Niiue following close behind. Eventually, they reached the bottom, and entered a surprisingly spacey room. A hyberpod sat against the back wall, and a large computer, which had been turned off, was embedded into the right wall. Its keyboard sat on a table right in front of it.

Niiue glanced around the room before asking Diaphus, “Where’s your captain?”

Diaphus whirred before replying, “In his hyberpod, I guess.”

Niiue edged past Diaphus and walked up to the hyberpod. He knocked on it thrice, then waited. One of the lids opened slightly, and the narrowed eye of what was presumably the captain stared at Niiue. The lid opened more, and the owner of the eye, a blue Starman Deluxe wearing a grey cape, sat up. He looked over at Diaphus, who frantically waved as their eye lit up.

Niiue looked over at Diaphus and asked, “Is this the captain?”

“It sure is! *beep*” Diaphus chirped in reply. Their attention returned to the captain and said, “Hi Captain Deepsea!”

Captain Deepsea pointed at Niiue and asked Diaphus, “Who is this?”

“He said his name’s Niiue, Captain!”

Deepsea was silent for a moment, then asked, “What’s he doing here? *beep*”

“Something about *click* helping you?”

Deepsea frowned, glanced at Niiue, then back at Diaphus. “You just… *whirr* let him on board? And into my personal quarters?”

“He hasn’t showed any ill intent, Captain!”

Deepsea narrowed his eye again, then with a wave of his hand, told Diaphus, “You are dismissed with a warning. *click* Be more careful next time, and tell me when you’re coming down. Especially with a *beep* guest.”

Diaphus saluted. “Yes, Captain!” They then teleported out of the room.

With Diaphus gone, Captain Deepsea turned his attention to Niiue. “How did you know?” was all he asked.

Niiue’s eyebrows arched at the question. “About you feeling down? Well, I only found that out when I talked to some of your crew just earlier. I only figured something was up when a couple of my friends told me that you visited Mars and once you left, your ship hadn’t moved in a few days.”

“…Your friends? *beep* Who?”

“One’s an insectoid in a magenta UFO called Boson, and the other’s a purple Mook called Elmadan,” Niiue told him. “They said they met you on Jupiter?”

Deepsea’s eye widened. He went back to a frown as he murmured, “…That would make sense, I suppose.”

Niiue sat down cross-legged on the cool metal floor and smacked his knees. “So. I’m here to help, and help is what I’m gonna try to do.”

“And you hope to *beep* accomplish that by sitting on the floor…?” Deepsea questioned.

“And concentrating,” Niiue added.

Captain Deepsea let out a confused beep, which prompted Niiue to tell him, “In order for this to work, I need you to go to sleep.”

“Sleep…?” Captain Deepsea questioned. “How is that *whirr* going to help me?”

“Just trust me on this,” Niiue assured him.

Deepsea squinted at Niiue, then replied, “Whatever you say…” He laid back down in the hyberpod, then asked, “What about the hyberpod lid? *click* Should that stay open?”

“You can close it if you’d like,” Niiue replied. “I just need to be in close proximity to you for this to work. The hyberpod doesn’t interfere.”

With his answer, Deepsea closed the hyberpod lid. Niiue placed his hands together and closed his eyes. He focused his mind on Captain Deepsea, and waited until he had drifted off to sleep.

---

Deepsea found himself back in his quarters, but outside of the hyberpod already, somehow. Looking around only made him realise how off everything was: the door to the staircase that led to the rest of the ship was on the entirely wrong wall, and for some reason there was a frog sitting nearby his hyberpod. How did it even get there?

As he frowned at the frog, who only stared curiously at him, he felt the air ripple beside him. He turned to find out what the cause was, then flinched when he saw the strange alien that Diaphus had brought into his quarters. What did they say his name was? Niiue, or something? Niiue waved with a polite smile.

“H-How did you…?” Deepsea stammered.

“Meditation,” Niiue replied.

Satisfied with the answer he was given, Deepsea turned and headed toward the exit. Niiue followed. Deepsea frowned, stopped in place just outside the exit, then turned to Niiue.

“Why are you following me? *beep*” he asked.

“Where you’re headed, you’re gonna need my help. And not just with directions,” Niiue replied.

Deepsea narrowed his eye at Niiue. What did he mean, ‘not just with directions’? With an agitated whirr, he turned back to the exit and walked up a suspiciously short flight of stairs outside.

He realised what Niiue meant with the directions part of his statement.

Wherever he was, it certainly wasn’t the Celine. No. It couldn’t be. Why would the sky be blue at the top of the sky and pink at the bottom if it was? He had to climb up the staircase into his office and out the door to get to the roof of the Celine, but here he was, on a lower path.

Behind him, Niiue said, “Welcome to Magicant.”

Deepsea noted a few of his Starmen simply standing in place along the path. What were they doing there? Also, how did a Foppy get onto this ship? Deepsea raised a hand at the Foppy, who looked not quite right and very angry, and fired a PK Beam at it. The Foppy looked to be damaged by it, but certainly not to the point of defeat. In fact, Deepsea could have sworn that the beam made it more eager to fight.

The Foppy charged up to Deepsea. The captain raised his foot as it approached, then slammed it down on the tiny alien when it was underneath. The Foppy growled at him despite its lack of mouth. Deepsea pressed his foot down on it until it bounced away from him like a ball, then managed to land on its feet and skid to a halt behind him. Deepsea simply fired another PK Beam at it, which sent it flying off this edge of the path and down into the endless pink abyss below.

Niiue, who had been watching wide-eyed for the entire short-lived battle, commented, “Well… that happened.” He frowned as he continued, “But I don’t get it. Elmadan and Boson told me you and your crew had helped the Foppies and Fobbies of Anolin rebuild; why would they be here in your Magicant as enemies…?”

Putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest a little, Deepsea replied, “Well, I did lead an attack on Jupiter before that. I only helped them out because I had nothing better to do.”

Niiue nodded slowly, then asked, “And why did you attack Jupiter in the first place?”

Deepsea faltered. “I… *whirr* …don’t remember.”

“Is that so?” There was something in Niiue’s voice that sounded out of place for the question he asked, like he… knew something. He looked at the path as he said, “Well, let’s just go on ahead. I’ll take care of any other enemies that’ll get in our way.”

With that, Deepsea took a few steps forward, and Niiue followed. Deepsea stopped in front of the first two of his Starmen on the path, Notolepis and Paralepis. While Starmen had no biological family (anymore, at least), the two Blue Starmen were considered twins. They both had a lighter half that mirrored each other’s – Notolepis’ was on the left side of his body, and Paralepis’ was on the right side of her body.

“Hey Captain! *beep*” Notolepis chirped. “I’ve been coming up with new ways to prank you, so watch out!”

“Yeah! We’ll get away with it, too! *click* You won’t even see us coming!” Paralepis added.

Niiue looked up at Captain Deepsea. “Are they usually like this?”

Deepsea frowned as he replied, “They’re *click* usually not as forward.”

Deepsea continued walking along the path, next stopping in front of Incharcha, the Celine’s janitor, the only regular-class Starman and transfer from… a bigger, more important ship. He couldn’t remember the specifics.

“Oh! Hello Captain!” Incarcha greeted. “You’re looking dashing as usual!”

With a robotic chuckle, Deepsea put his hands on his hips. “Why thank you, Incarcha.” Beside him, Niiue rolled his eyes. “I would love to chat, but I do have places to *beep* be.”

Incarcha didn’t say anything in reply. Deepsea stared at him for a couple of seconds, then turned to Niiue and simply asked quietly, “Niiue?”

“Most Magicant inhabitants don’t say a lot. Even I don’t know why that is. It’s just one of the many pieces that makes up the mystery of Magicant, I suppose,” Niiue explained.

As Deepsea began walking again, he asked, “Did you say ‘most’? *click* Do you mean to say that this Magicant isn’t the only one?”

“Far from it!” Niiue replied. “Everyone has a Magicant; most people don’t get see them.”

Deepsea whirred as he took in the information, then stopped in front of another Blue Starman aboard the Celine, Hitonia.

“Heya Captain. Makin’ the rounds again? *whirr* Cool, cool.”

After their brief stop to see what Hitonia had to say, Deepsea and Niiue turned the corner on the path and went through the doorframe that awaited them. The room that greeted them resembled the interior of the Celine, but the floors resembled those from the halls underneath Mars. At the opposite end of the room was an elevated half-circle area with a single ladder to climb to the top. The contents of the area were too high up for both Deepsea or Niiue to see properly, but judging from the wave of melancholy and unease that washed the former’s face, it was safe to say Deepsea already had a good idea.

Deepsea walked forward a few steps into the room, but Niiue didn’t follow this time. His pace was slower compared to when he was on the path outside. He stopped across another Blue Starman Niiue recognised from earlier as Mirapina, who was leaning against the right wall with his arms crossed. Deepsea and Mirapina held eye contact for a few tense moments.

“You know why this is here, *whirr*” Mirapina told him.

Deepsea looked away, down at the floor in front of him. “I do.”

“Ever since you learned what you left behind, you can’t stop thinking about it. You want to go back to it. *click*” Mirapina’s frown deepened. “You can’t get back something that’s already dead and gone, Deepsea.”

Deepsea gave no reply. He only stood there, staring at the floor for a few more moments, before asking Niiue, “Aren’t you *click* coming?”

Admittedly, Niiue flinched. “Right behind you!” he replied as he jogged up to Deepsea.

Deepsea climbed up the ladder and onto the elevated portion of the room. He stood before a red cape just a bit too short for a Starman hanging on the wall. The ends were tattered and burnt.

Niiue looked up at Deepsea, his ears folded back. “Do you… know why this is…?”

“More than I’d like to, *beep*” Deepsea replied.

Niiue looked around a bit to see two screens on both ends of the elevated portion. Both displayed words too far away for him to read from where he was. Deepsea asked to excuse him, and Niiue pressed his body against the curved wall as he walked past to the left screen. Once Deepsea had passed him, Niiue followed.

Next to the sleek screen were two buttons — an up button and a down button. A keyboard sat beneath the two buttons. Everything was squeaky clean and up to the standards Giegue would have kept. The screen itself displayed a captain’s log dated to Chaos 3, 198X.

“Trip to Mars… unsuccessful, shall we say. We got there, yes, but what we found upset all of us. Us Starmen, aside from the factory-made units, were once organic. We once had lives outside of… whatever it was we did. How did we not remember this? Why was this kept from us? I don’t understand. These were not the answers I was looking for.”

As he read the log, everything clicked together in Niiue’s mind. “Dee— Captain Deepsea, when you went to Mars, what did you—”

He was cut off by Deepsea passing by him and heading to the other screen. Niiue quickly followed.

The other screen had the same up and down buttons as the last one, but the keyboard had been smashed to bits. Like the last one, this screen displayed a captain’s log, but the recorded date was much older: Bureaucracy 3, 190X.

“Today is the final day. We have been given orders to return to Mars and board the enemy’s ships.

“I wish I could have done more. There must have been something I could have done to stop this.

“But my duty as captain of the Ares is done. Perhaps I will become captain of an extrasolar ship instead.”

That log only confirmed Niiue’s suspicions. From the looks of things, Deepsea was taking it a lot worse than Larice did. Possibly. Larice didn’t say a lot in the first couple of days he was fixed.

Deepsea headed for the doorway on the left end of the elevated portion of the room. As Niiue followed him there, he spotted a birthday card beneath the tattered red cape hanging on the wall. He knelt down and opened it. The handwriting inside read: “Happy birthday bro! Wish you all the best for your new job as captain! – Freshwater.”

From the other end of the room, Niiue heard an annoyed whirr. He looked up to see Deepsea standing in front of the doorway with a stern frown. Niiue put the card down gently and ran over to Deepsea as the latter made his way out of the room.

Deepsea and Niiue exited the depressing room to find themselves on another outer path like the ones on the Celine. This one was much shorter than the previous one, however.

The first Starman they met outside was Diaphus. They could have shot off into the sky with how much they were bouncing on the feet upon seeing their captain.

“Captain! Captain! Hi Captain! *beep*” Diaphus chirped. “It’s so great to see you again today Captain! Where are we going to go next, Captain? Should I write a note? *click*”

Deepsea nervously chuckled a bit before replying, “I’m *click* still giving it some thought.”

The next Starman was also a Ghost of Starman, whose name was Sudis. He had a small spike on the right side of his head, which had been snapped in half in a bygone battle. He stood on the outer corner of the path, arms crossed. He only glared at Deepsea.

There was a ladder at the end of the path, and quite a tall one at that. It took a little while for both Deepsea and Niiue to climb up. When they arrived at the top, they found themselves on the roof of the Magicant ship. It looked similar enough to the roof of the Celine: there were two rooms at each end, but these rooms weren’t as tall as the ones on the real deal. Furthermore, the room at bow of the ship had an assembly line coming out of it, which turned at a point and headed straight off the roof. Despite the length of the assembly line, there were very few Blue Starmen on it.

Standing in front of the assembly line was another Blue Starman from the Celine, Parvilux. He had a dent in his head, but never cared about it. His eye was fixed on the assembly line, and watched the occasional Blue Starman come out of the room where it began travel down the line and drop off to… who knows where.

“Hello Parvilux,” Deepsea greeted. “Are you… *whirr*” he glanced at the assembly line, “…doing alright?”

“Oh! Hi Captain! *click* I’m alright,” Parvilux replied, turning to face the captain. His voice sounded more synthetic than the other Starmen they had talked to.

Out of the corner of his eye, Niiue spotted another Blue Starman standing on the roof of the assembly line room. He hovered up into the air a little to get a better look, and found that this Starman had a few cracks near his eye and on his arm.

Niiue looked down to Deepsea and asked, “Hey Captain Deepsea, do any members of your crew have cracks on their shells?”

“Cracks? *beep* No,” Deepsea replied.

Niiue hummed as he pulled out the photo he found back in he and Giegue’s old Magicant when Ralivil and Buzzy Bol first showed up there. He looked at the Blue Starman in the photo, then up at the Blue Starman standing on the roof of the assembly line room.

‘No doubt about it, that must be the same guy,’ Niiue thought to himself. ‘But how in the world did he end up here?’

Deciding to put no more thought into it, Niiue returned to the ground. Deepsea gave him a puzzled look before heading to the room at the stern of the ship.

Just before Deepsea headed inside the room, Niiue told him, “I’m afraid this is as far as I can go. You’ll have to take on the rest by yourself.”

“What? Why? *beep*” Deepsea asked.

“In there is the end of your Magicant. I can’t help you face it: you have to do that by yourself.”

“But why? Why do I have to do it by myself?”

“You just have to. It’s a Magicant thing,” Niiue replied. “Now, I have to get going. See ya! Good luck!”

With that, Niiue vanished into thin air.

“He was barely doing anything anyway, *click*” Deepsea muttered.

Deepsea entered the room to find himself somewhere completely different. Bright colours swirled below him like waves of the sea, while the sky burned yellow and glimmered with peeks of reds and blues. The sun, a bright blue here, dipped below the horizon. In front of him were red clouds that formed a path to an imposing steel figure standing on a podium. The podium was surrounded by two rings of blue clouds.

Deepsea approached the steel figure, whose shape was vaguely reminiscent of a Starman, but blockier. It even had the emblem! Zeros and ones floated around the figure, which occasionally glitched and lost shape for a brief moment. Its two small, beady black eyes looked down at Deepsea.

“I am your ambition and loyalty to the— BZZT— to the— BZZT. I am your ambition and loyalty to— BZZT— the— BZZT. I am your confusion and doubt. I am your confusion and doubt that has appeared due to— BZZT— technical difficulties,” the figure prattled in a high-pitched monotone voice. “You cannot beat me, because I am programmed— BZZT— You are one who— BZZT— into you— BZZT— forced me into existence.”

The figure charged a PK Starstorm without raising an arm. The pool of PSI simply formed over its head, then stars shot out in all directions. In an attempt to dodge them, Deepsea teleported to the second blue cloud, but not without getting bombarded by some stars first. He fired a PK Beam at the figure’s back, then teleported to the other side of the cloud he was on. The figure fired a PK Beam back at him, then began charging another PK Starstorm. Deepsea began charging his own PK Starstorm. The two Starstorms fired their PSI stars at the same time. Most of the stars crashed into each other, keeping Deepsea safe for the most part. He then fired another PK Beam at the figure.

The battle went on like this for many minutes. It seemed like there would be no end to the fight, but eventually, Deepsea earned his clutch victory. The figure faded from existence, and Deepsea found himself standing on the podium.