Ralivil and Elmadan sat across from Anue, who had sat themself down on a strangely soft hyberpod they had identified as a “bed”. Boson and Buzzy Bol hovered to the left of them nearby.

“First, I should thank Elmadan for letting us use his base.” Anue turned their head to Elmadan and told him, “Thank you.”

“Whatever, man,” Elmadan replied, giving a quick shrug.

“Second,” Anue looked over to Buzzy Bol and asked, “Did you give the Bearer the Star?”

Buzzy Bol raised an eyebrow. “What? You never gave me anything. I’ve only known you for a few minutes.”

Anue frowned under their hood. “Strange. I thought I gave you it.”

“Maybe you gave it to someone else?” Buzzy Bol suggested. “Or dropped it. Or left it at home – wherever you live.”

Anue bit their lip. “I suppose we will have to work without it. It can be done.”

Ralivil meekly raised his right tentacle.

“Yes, Bearer?” Anue asked.

“U-Um, I have two questions. Though one’s not really a question…. Uh, first of all, why have you gathered us all here? And second, could you please stop calling me Bearer?”

Anue hummed quietly. “The reason I have gathered you all here is very important. I have seen the end of time, and the end of the world with it. But I have seen those who can help save it as well. These four I have dubbed the Timechasers, and they are you, Bearer, as well as the two UFOs present and one more we are waiting on. I shall assist you in any way possible on this quest. It is a large task to ask of you all, but together, I am sure we can succeed.”

Everyone had fallen into stunned silence. They just sat there for a few moments, not saying anything.

The first to speak up again was Elmadan. “Dude, you called him Bearer again.”

“Oh, I did? I apologise. I will do my best to not do it again,” Anue said. “What is your name again?”

“Ralivil,” Ralivil replied.

“Ralivil… Thank you. It is a wonderful name.”

Ralivil played with his tentacles as he glanced away.

There was a knock at the front door, faintly audible from downstairs. Anue stood up and said, “I will get it.”

With that, they leapt over to the stairs and bounded down them. Ralivil, Elmadan, Boson and Buzzy Bol waited in silence as Anue went to see who was at the door. They returned with a Blue Starman with some cracks near their eye and on their right arm following them.

“The last of the four Timechasers has arrived,” Anue announced. “This is Arix. He is a Starman, as you can see.”

Arix waved.

“Please introduce yourselves to him and make him feel welcome.” Anue looked at Elmadan and said, “I suppose now would be as good a time as any. Come with me, Elmadan.”

Elmadan exchanged a nervous glance with Ralivil as he stood up, then followed Anue as they led him upstairs. Everyone watched the two of them leave, then glanced around awkwardly for a couple of moments afterwards. Arix sat down on the bed that Anue had previously been sitting on.

“So uh… how is everyone?” Arix asked. His voice sounded surprisingly organic for a robot – Ralivil supposed it was the technology used to make them. It still sounded a bit blocky, though.

“We’ve been set up to save the world,” Ralivil frowned, growling his last word out.

“Oh… *click* …that’s something that’s happening, isn’t it.”

“Wow, this conversation is off to a terrible start!” Buzzy Bol exclaimed. “I’m gonna try lighten things up a bit. I’m Buzzy Bol! Next to me is my pal Boson, and the green Mook over there is Ralivil!”

Ralivil meekly waved to Arix.

“It’s nice to meet you all. I’m Arix- Wait, didn’t that hooded person already…?”

Boson nodded.

“Dang. Well, anyway, I’m only here on my commander’s orders. *beep* I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out if I stick with you guys!” Arix said.

“Good to have ya on board, buddy-o!” Boson smiled. “I have the feelin’ that we’ll be getting into some major slam jams; what kind of moves ya packin’?”

“Just the usual PK Beams – up to Beta,” Arix replied.

Buzzy Bol’s eyes lit up with excitement, and Boson nodded.

Arix then added, “If any of you happen to come *click* across any discs, just hand them to me. They might have a PK move I could download into my system.”

Ralivil nodded, and Buzzy Bol extended a metal arm to give a thumbs up.

A sudden surge of PSI energy startled everyone, almost knocking Ralivil out of his chair.

Once Boson had gotten his UFO stable in the air, he exclaimed, “What the hell was that?!”

“That didn’t feel like any regular PSI I’m aware of,” Arix commented. “That was likely from the hooded person.”

“From Anue? Well that makes sense,” Buzzy Bol said, glancing at the door upstairs with worry.

“What if they killed Elmadan?!” Ralivil suggested, bringing in his arms to his front.

Arix hummed in thought, then said, “Killed? No, I don’t think so. I haven’t been around them long, but that doesn’t seem like something they would do.”

Ralivil sighed with relief, though there was still a part of him that feared the worst. The four Timechasers sat in an awkward silence as some weird drone filled the room above them. It was barely audible from where they sat, but it was still strange nonetheless.

Just a minute after that, Anue came into the room and bounced over to the bed. They stared at Arix for a moment, then sat down beside him. A few moments later, Elmadan entered the room. He looked much worse for wear than Anue did, spiking Ralivil’s anxiety. His clothes were torn; his left sleeve had just been ripped right off, and there was a jarring lack of sunglasses on him. The eye on his face was both a pastel red and green, with the green being at the bottom half of his iris. The left eyestalk eye was just red, and the right eyestalk eye was just green.

Elmadan trudged up behind Ralivil and leaned over, asking in a hushed voice, “Hey, you’re from Satralia, right?”

Ralivil nodded.

“Are there any, like, second-hand stores up that way?”

“Nooo… sorry.”

Elmadan sighed, then muttered, “That’s cool, too.”

He sat back down in his chair next to Ralivil.

Anue spoke up again, saying to everyone, “In order to stop the end of the world, we will need to travel across the solar system and ensure that time’s flow is stable on each planet. We will do this by going to eight special places called Points of Power. There are two on Saturn nearby; they shouldn’t be too hard to claim. While two of you claim these Points of Power, I will do my best to acquire a ship for us.”

“So where are these Points of Power?” Ralivil asked.

“One is in the nearby swamp, and the other is to the northwest of here in the canyon,” Anue told him. “Arix, Boson, I want you two to claim the Point of Power in the swamp. Ralivil, Buzzy Bol, you two can claim the one in the canyons.”

Ralivil nodded, then stood up. He looked over at Buzzy Bol with his upper eyes, and the light pink UFO followed as he made his way out of the room and down the stairs.

Arix said, “Right. We’ll get going right away.”

Arix and Boson then left the room after Ralivil and Buzzy Bol.

Once the Timechasers had all left the room, Anue looked at Elmadan and told him, “Myself, I will be looking for a ship for us to travel in. Please remain here.”

Elmadan gave a tired “mm-hmm” as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Only moments later, when Anue was just about to go out the door, he sat up and stared at them for a moment.

“I’ve got a migraine all of a sudden,” he told them.

Anue looked at Elmadan over their shoulder. “Why are you telling me this?”

“No one else to tell.”

“Ah. Fair enough.” They turned back to the door, but didn’t move. After a short while, they muttered, “I too have a migraine all of a sudden.”

Elmadan sat there with a looked of confusion on his face before muttering, “Dude, whaaaaat?”

Anue looked back at Elmadan again. “I said, I too-“

“No no, I heard what you said,” Elmadan told Anue. “It’s just really weird that we both have migraines all of a sudden at the same time. Is it because of that… thing you did upstairs?”

“I can’t imagine it would be. I simply awakened your powers. I did not forge any bond between our souls.”

“Then… what is it?”

“…The end of time has already begun.”