Arix gingerly lifted himself off the ground and stood up. Boson chuckled under his breath as he did so, earning a frown from Ralivil. Once Arix had regained his composure, he looked behind the other Timechasers, then screamed. The other three let out a collective “huh?” as they turned around to see what had caused Arix to panic, them screamed as well.

Anue was standing before them, still as ever, and probably not seeing what was bothering them.

“Geez, what is your problem, dude?!” Boson exclaimed.

“You can’t just not tell us that you’ll be coming here and then scare the crap out of us when you do!” Buzzy Bol added in the same exasperated tone.

“My apologies. I simply wanted to know if your trip to the Point of Power was successful,” Anue stated.

“Yeah,” Buzzy Bol replied.

“And your new PSI techniques?”

Boson raised an eyebrow, “Yo, I don’t think Ralivil and Bol should waste PP when they’re not in battle.”

Anue quietly sighed. “Very well. Now, I also wanted to inform you of your next steps. While making my way here, I found this.” Anue lifted an arm out from underneath their hooded cloak to reveal a blue ID card in their hand. “This is a Deepsea ID. It is used to gain access to Captain Deepsea’s ships. You are to use it to go to the Point of Power on one of these ships, the Hagbard.”

“…Why is there a Point of Power on the Hagbard?” Arix questioned.

“Unfortunately, I do not know everything. Come.” Anue walked off, beckoning for the Timechasers to follow them with their tail.

---

The ship was just as cramped as it was before. Elmadan was still in the hyberpod he had climbed in when the team took off on Saturn, and had woken up while the Timechasers were away. He sat inside it and leaned over the edge of it. His eyelids were very droopy, and he barely lifted his head when the Timechasers entered.

“Hey Elmadan,” Buzzy Bol casually greeted him.

“Heyyy,” Elmadan drowsily replied.

Ralivil looked over at Elmadan with a smile of concern. “Are you okay? You sound tired.”

Elmadan wearily closed his eyes as he said, “Yeahhhh. I’m gettin’ used to it though. Didn… Didn’ expect travelling with you guys to get so,” he let out a quiet yawn, then finished, “tiring.”

“He will be fine. You needn’t worry about him,” Anue told the Timechasers.

Buzzy Bol drifted up to the ship’s control panel and started it. Once the engine was rumbling, Buzzy Bol asked Anue, “Where to from here?”

“North-east. Last I heard, the Hagbard was headed to Mars. Check around there,” they replied.

No one knew how long the trip to the Hagbard would take. They all figured it would take about the same amount of time the trip to Jupiter took. Elmadan fell asleep again, and Anue… who knew with Anue.

Just over an hour into the voyage, a shrill ringing sounded from the control panel. It alerted everyone inside, even waking up Elmadan.

Buzzy Bol looked down at the control panel. “’Incoming transmission’?! …A ship this old has a transmission channel?”

“Answer it,” Anue said.

Buzzy Bol pressed a green button underneath the flashing ‘INCOMING TRANSMISSION’ alert. A square image appeared on the control panel, with the sender of the transmission inside.

“Trying to break into the Hagbard, are you? *beep* Can’t let you do that.”

“Deepsea?! *whirr*” Arix exclaimed.

The rest of the Timechasers hurried over to the control panel and looked at Captain Deepsea through the transmission window. It was hard to tell if the apparent static in his eye was from the dated tech on the ship or if something had happened to the captain.

“Wait, how do you know what we were planning to do?” Ralivil asked.

“You don’t need to know,” was Deepsea’s answer. “The Celine is right behind the puny thing you call a ship. Turn around… *click* and fight me.”

“Now?” Ralivil asked, his voice rising.

“Yes. I look forward to your attendance.”

With that, the transmission ended, and the control panel returned to its default screen. Everyone stood in anxious silence.

“…Oh snap,” Elmadan finally mumbled.

“We cannot outspeed the Celine. You will have to do as Captain Deepsea says and go down and fight him,” Anue told the Timechasers.

“He better put up a good one! I’ve been itching for a good, long fight!” Boson said.

“He better not – what if we die?” Ralivil countered.

“Pshh, naw, we’ll win,” Boson assured him with a wave of a hand.

“You’d best be going down now,” Anue said. “Captain Deepsea sounded serious… Unusually so. It would be foolish to keep him waiting.”

Buzzy Bol got the ship moving again, and the other three Timechasers moved away from the control panel. Turning around and flying over to the Celine took only a couple of minutes. The looming dull green shape of Captain Deepsea’s flagship filled the front window of their own.

“Well, we’re here,” Buzzy Bol nonchalantly announced. He turned to the other Timechasers and told them, “Get ready, guys.”

As Ralivil, Arix and Boson made their way to the ship’s hatch, Elamdan said to them, “Good luck guys.” He then curled back into the hyberpod he sat in and closed the lid.

The good luck wish eased Ralivil for a small moment. That moment passed, and Ralivil led the other Timechasers out of the ship and onto the outside of the Celine as Anue watched wordlessly.

The grumbling of the Celine’s engines was deafening. The pale red tiles that coated the outer paths were uncomfortably cold under Ralivil’s tentacles.

Deepsea’s voice blared all over the Celine through a microphone. “All soldiers fall back! Return to the hyberpod chamber! *beep*”

The Timechasers made their way across the outside path of the Celine. They were soon met with a vent imbedded in the floor, pushing air out of it every second. Ralivil hesitantly placed a couple of tentacles onto it and was flung several feet forward. He landed flat on his face. Arix stepped onto the vent and was flung forward as well, while Boson and Buzzy Bol simply flew over the gap within the safety of their UFOs. Arix engaged his Flashporter engine as soon as his feet hit the ground, blipping just a foot away from Ralivil’s head. He flailed his arms as he swayed from the sudden halt, but fell on his back with a clang. Boson stifled a laugh. Buzzy Bol gave Boson’s UFO a light-hearted jab. The two UFOs helped Arix and Ralivil back up to their feet.

The Timechasers soon found themselves at the end of the path, with nowhere to go but inside the ship itself. The Celine’s interior was just as dull as the exterior – the walls were made of the same green metal, and the floors used the same pale red tiles. The only things that really separated the inside from the outside were the strange metal boxes strewn about the halls, the ladders, and the roof above their heads. The halls were devoid of Deepsea’s Starmen.

Without anyone or anything else around but them, the trek to the top of the Celine was silent. Once they finally reached the top, Arix spotted another Blue Starman standing beside a doorway on the right.

“Hey,” the other Blue Starman called out, “the Captain’s in his quarters off to the left. Thought I’d give you guys some direction, *click* even if one of you is disobeying Commander Inpue’s orders.”

Arix began to yell back, “I’M NOT--“ He then whirred defeatedly, and muttered, “Nevermind.”

Ralivil led the rest of the Timechasers to Deepsea’s quarters. He was visibly shaking.

“Hey, Ralivil, it’ll be okay,” Boson told him, his voice softer than usual. “We’ll win. It’s a four-on-one, and we’re already a great team.”

A small smile made its way onto Ralivil’s face. “Thanks, Boson.”

With a deep breath, Ralivil opened the door to Deepsea’s quarters and led the team inside. It looked just the same as the other rooms on the Celine, but smaller. A long ladder, longer than the others aboard the flagship, sat in the top right corner. The amount of time it took to climb it and stand face to face with Captain Deepsea on the stage-like upper level was almost painful.

“You took long enough,” Deepsea said once the Timechasers all stood before him.

“Well hello to you to, Deepsea. *beep* I was hoping I wouldn’t have to see you again,” Arix replied.

There, indeed, was static in Deepsea’s eye. It was a bit more visible than it was in the transmission window, but still faint enough to be looked over.

The blue Starman deluxe put his hands to his hips as he said, “You won’t have to when I’m done with you. *click* Now, if you go to the Hagbard, you won’t like what you find there.” Deepsea cast Ralivil a glare as he added, “Especially not you.”

Ralivil frowned as cocked his head, his eyestalks lowering slightly.

Deepsea crossed his arms as he continued, “*beep* I can’t let a rebel and his merry band get away with their mission to…” He glanced at the right wall as he squinted in contemplation for a second. He uncrossed his arms as he looked back at the Timechasers, a stern look on his face, then said, “Enough small talk.”

Captain Deepsea held his hands out in front of him, and a small blob of white light began to grow in front of it. It grew to the size of a baseball before a PK Beam Gamma blasted out of it. Boson swiftly darted out of the beam’s way, but Arix was hit right in the chest by it. He was knocked back to the edge of the level, and barely managed to cling onto it before he fell to the lower floor of the room. Buzzy Bol hastily flew over to Arix and extended both of his UFO’s metal arms for him. Arix grabbed onto the right metal hand, and Buzzy Bol started to pull him up. As this was happening, Boson pull the pin on a bomb and threw it right at Deepsea. The bomb exploded in his face. Ralivil followed up with a well-placed Forceful Jab to where Deepsea’s right knee would be, if he had any.

Deepsea let out a low whirr, almost like a growl. He stormed over to the intercom embedded on the left wall nearby, and barked into it, “Any two of you, get your shells over into my quarters RIGHT NOW! I need backup!”

Just a moment after Deepsea hung up on the intercom, two Blue Starmen teleported onto the upper level just a couple of steps behind their captain.

“Seriously? *whirr* You’re calling for backup already? You’re a coward, Deepsea,” Arix told the blue Starman Deluxe as he climbed back onto the upper level. The golden glow and diagonal pattern of a PSI Reflect, just cast on him by Buzzy Bol, surrounded him.

“I’m evening the odds, you miserable tin can,” Deepsea growled.

Deepsea raised his right hand, and a small pool of cosmic PSI formed around it. It grew larger and larger, until it hovered above all the Timechasers. Yellow, blue and white stars flew down from the cosmic energy. They initially fell in a straight line, but were drawn towards Arix’s PSI Reflect. The stars plinked off the shield and back at Deepsea and the two Blue Starmen he had summoned.

“That’s not FAIR!” Deepsea yelled.

Arix shrugged as he replied, “Life’s not fair; you just got lucky *click*.”

Deepsea glossed over the Timechasers, then set his sights on Ralivil. Ralivil felt his stomach drop as he and the captain locked gazes. The static in the latter’s eye built up, and in the blink of an eye, Deepsea dove forward towards Ralivil. Ralivil barely managed to step out of the way of Deepsea’s lunge, but was quickly met with a metal slap to the face. Boson flew over Deepsea and Buzzy Bol flew around him to focus their efforts on the two Blue Starmen Deepsea had called in. Arix, meanwhile, shot a PK Beam Beta at Deepsea’s back. To his surprise, Deepsea didn’t even give so much as a deep whirr at this attack.

Ralivil was braced for Deepsea’s next slap. It still stung his slimy green skin, but it wasn’t to the face, at least. He then followed up with a slap on Deepsea’s right side. The blue Starman Deluxe scowled, then swiped at twice at Ralivil. Ralivil dodged the first swipe, but was smacked in the shoulder by the second. Deepsea attempted to finish off with a Forceful Jab to make a Super Combo, but Ralivil grabbed Deepsea’s right hand. He then threw it down as hard as he could: a lot harder said than done with a Starman. Regardless, Deepsea’s balance was thrown off, and despite his attempts to stay on his feet, he fell flat onto his face.

Arix immediately took this opportunity to fire another PK Beam Beta at Deepsea’s back. Ralivil wrapped his lower tentacles around Deepsea’s right arm, then got in a couple of Tentacle Slaps on him. With a beep and a whirr, Deepsea propped himself up on his left arm. He held up his hand, as if to use a PSI attack, but nothing happened. Ralivil and Arix stared at the empty left hand while Deepsea frowned.

He glanced over at his hand. “Why isn’t it…?”

Arix fired a PK Beam Beta at the back of Deepsea’s head. The static cleared up to how it had been when the battle started, and Deepsea teleported near the upper level’s back wall. Deepsea looked around for the Blue Starmen he had called into the battle, which were now nowhere to be found.

“We blew them up,” Boson told Deepsea. “Sorry not sorry, dog.”

“Why you little…” Deepsea fired a PK Beam Gamma at Boson. A direct hit.

Boson turned to face Ralivil. “Uh, hey Ralivil? I’m a bit banged up over here – you got healing PSI, right?”

“Yeeees, I learned some at the Red Eye,” Ralivil replied. “Do you want to try heal you?”

“Preferably now.”

Ralivil slithered over to Boson and focused his energy on a Lifeup Beta. The soft, green aura inched out of Ralivil’s right tentacle, which he then placed on Boson’s UFO. The aura then slowly surrounded Boson’s UFO, causing the insectoid visible concern at its pace. But the technique worked in the end, and Boson was back up to full health. While that had been happening, Deepsea and Arix had been having a PK Beam-off, while Buzzy Bol threw in the occasional bomb. Then he ran out of those, so he settled for firing piddly little beams. Arix was also starting to run out of PP due to Deepsea starting to run out of PP for him to drain.

“Are you guys done over there? We need a little bit of help,” Buzzy Bol said to Ralivil and Boson.

“Would you like to do the honours of finishing off Deepsea, Ralivil? *click*” Arix asked.

“None of you will doing any such thing!” Deepsea yelled.

“I can try…” Ralivil replied to Arix.

He slithered towards him and Buzzy Bol, while Boson drifted behind him. Ralivil held out his right hand, once again feeling a soft pain from the Prophet’s Mark. The air chilled, and a blast of psychic power burst forth from his tentacle. Ralivil squeezed his eyes shut as the lightshow of light blue lines began. It was over in a few mere seconds, but it felt much longer than that.

Ralivil opened his eyes to Deepsea’s steaming body. He was laying face-down on the floor, and it was hard to judge if he was alive or dead, but the slow, trembling movements from the defeated captain answered his concerns.

Captain Deepsea slowly got to his pseudo-knees and looked around. The static in his eye was gone. He looked up at the Timechasers, and a wave of realisation hit in the face. Shaking, Deepsea stood up and stumbled to the rightmost side of the back wall. He fell back to his pseudo-knees and grabbed at a disc. He barely managed to stand up again, take a few steps toward the center of the room, and throw the disc at Arix. Arix fumbled with the disc as it fell into his hands, but fortunately, did not break it.

He looked down at the disc for a few moments, studying its features. It had a yellow ring surrounding the hole in the center, and engraved on one side was “PK THUNDER A”. He then looked up at Deepsea, an eyebrow raised.

“Just… *click* take it,” Deepsea urged him. “I-I’m sorry, I thought— You weren’t—"

Deepsea collapsed with a ringing clang. The Timechasers flinched at this. Arix glanced down at the PK Thunder Alpha disc Captain Deepsea had given to him, his brow furrowed in too many emotions for Ralivil to discern. A streak of fire shot from the back of the upper level to hit Deepsea, causing the Timechasers to scream. Malik then ran over to the fallen Starman Deluxe and began to pad him over.

“Hi again, old guy…?” Buzzy Bol greeted Malik. Malik ignored him.

The elderly Mook soon found what he was looking for – a blue card with the Starman emblem on the right side, coloured red. Some details were written to the left of the emblem, in white.

“That’s a Deepsea ID! *whirr*” Arix exclaimed. “…Why do you need it?”

Malik squinted at Arix and replied, “Why should I tell you?”

He stood up and looked down at Deepsea. A black and white aura, akin to static, was starting to come out of him instead of smoke.

“…Why is he doing that?” Ralivil asked, his eyes daring not to move away from Deepsea’s glitching body.

“It. It is reviving its puppet. Personal time manipulation,” Malik told him.

“Huh?”

“Yo, old man, are you saying that Deepsea… isn’t Deepsea?” Boson asked, an eyebrow raised. “’Cause, y’know, that’s totally wack.”

“That Starman came into contact with the leakage. Now it’s using him. It’s… assi… assimi… assi… assimilating him into its hivemind,” Malik muttered his explanation. He kept his stern eye on Deepsea’s body as the staticky, glitchy aura flared up and swallowed Deepsea whole. “You won’t be able to keep it down, unless Death miraculously finds some absurd way to outsmart it.”

Malik turned and ran over to the ladder, then slid down it and ran out of Deepsea’s quarters. The Timechasers barely managed to peel their eyes away from Deepsea as he did so.

“…I don’t want to stick around,” Ralivil said, eyeing Deepsea with his upper eyes.

The rest of the Timechasers agreed.

---

As the Timechasers climbed back into their ship, Anue asked, “How did it go?”

“Apparently Deepsea got infected by the leakage,” Arix stated.

“That old Mook that climbed onto our ship straight up stole his ID,” Boson added.

“At one point he fought like a Mook?” Ralivil also added.

“I’m out of bombs,” Buzzy Bol finished.

“Oh.” Everything was silent for a few seconds before Anue turned their head to the hyberpod Elmadan was sitting in when they left. A golden glow faintly shone through the cracks of the hyberpod. “Elmadan is sleeping right now. Try not to wake him,” Anue told the Timechasers.

“…Mooks don’t glow their sleep, Anue,” Ralivil told them.

“He is fine.”

Ralivil doubted that he was fine. Regardless, he sat down against the right wall and breathed out a quiet sigh. Buzzy Bol hovered up to the control panel got the ship started up again. Boson kept himself to a back corner of the ship, leaving his UFO’s control panel. Arix stood around for a couple of moments before walking over to Ralivil and sitting down beside him.

“I hope you don’t mind me sitting next to you,” he said to Ralivil.

Ralivil blinked as he looked over at Arix. “Huh? Uh, no, no, I don’t mind.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Arix asked, “You seem more out of it than usual. What’s up? *beep*”

Ralivil sighed. “Nothing, really, it’s just that… there’s so much happening. The Points of Power, the leakage, Malik... There’s just so much I have to deal with, and… I dunno if I’ll come out of it alive.”

Arix put a hand on Ralivil’s, causing the latter’s to flinch slightly at the unexpcted touch. “You’ve got us. There’s a reason why there’s four of us.”

“I—” Ralivil's eyes had focused square on Arix's hand, though he didn't notice until a few seconds later. He managed to glance away as he said, “Right.”

Arix and Ralivil sat in place for (maybe) about an hour in complete silence.

‘Did I make things awkward? I made things awkward, didn’t I. Oh my stars. I did. Arix is— Okay, I don’t know what Arix is thinking, but he’s probably not too happy at me for making things awkward…?’

While he wasn’t completely tuned into the conversation, he overheard Buzzy Bol mention the Hagbard to Anue. He sat up, saying, “Huh? The Hagbard? Are we there?”

Buzzy Bol turned to look over at Ralivil and told him, “Yeah, we’re right by it now.”

“However, we cannot make a stop here. We must continue to Mars as quickly as we can. If my suspicions are correct, Malik will be headed there too,” Anue added.

“But the Points of Power are important, aren’t they?” Ralivil asked. By now, both Arix and Boson had tuned into the conversation. “Can’t we go to the Point of Power on the Hagbard? It can’t take that long.”

“No.”

“Just me, then? I promise I’ll be quick. In and out.”

Anue was silent as they thought for a moment. “I expect you to keep that promise, then.”

“I’ll get us parked over it,” Buzzy Bol said.

It took a minute or so, but the wait for the ship to be parked over the Hagbard took much longer than Ralivil would have liked in that moment. As soon as the ship had entered park mode, Ralivil dashed out the ship and onto the Hagbard. Arix watched, but not without concern.