three whispered to one another and wondered if they’d see him again at a party later on in the day.

  Trystan was also aggravated with the lack of results from the search. As soon as he started to make his way back to Mallobo the two of them received a call from the local authorities, “We finally went through everyone we’ve locked up or cited in the past day or so like you asked, and we came up with nothing.” The chief could sense the looks of disappointment on the faces of the warriors, “But I did find something interesting, a few of my men have noticed people coming and going from the hospital a few roads down from you fellas.”

  Mallobo frowned, “So?”

  “So, the hospital’s been shut down for repairs, my men didn’t engage because they knew you guys were in town. Either that’s the place you’re looking for but a secret party is going on.” The chief gave them the directions and the address.

  “Well, that looks like the place. If I were to unleash a toxic virus I would use a hospital to create the apparatus for it.” The two gave word to their soldiers and they made their way to the hospital.

  Lovo looked around the restaurant, it looked nothing like Rilo had described it, the walls were made of an aquarium but the sea life had been transformed the gentle fish of Deltor were dead and the ground felt as if it were once alive and had also died. Lovo felt as if she were standing on a corpse, the ground was squishy and soft, she didn’t want to walk on it, no one did, but they moved forward deeper through the room.

  In the middle of the room the large blue Deltorian plant that once flourished and wrapped its vines around the dining hall was now dead as anything else in the area. The vines did not pulsate with life, but looked brittle and weak. The smell was also unbearable; it smelt like month old garbage.

  “They live off of death.” The female warrior with the glasses spoke. “This is what I was picking up in the readings.”

  “Quick, let’s check out the kitchen.” With her weapon drawn, Dajus instructed her soldiers.

  Dajus burst into the kitchen and instead of cooking materials and dishes she found a science lab. She looked around the room and saw nothing but corpses splayed across the room. Dajus’ warrior ran into the room beside her and took in what she saw.

  ‘Something’s here.’ The Skyro voice in Dajus’ head warned. For a moment Dajus had no control at the same moment a beam of light surged toward her. The Skyro now in control grabbed Dajus’ solider that stood the right of her directly in the path of the beam while she ducked for cover. The Magma warrior didn’t have time to think of what happened to her, she didn’t have to time to think about how her general betrayed her, she was more concerned with the transformation her body took on. She could feel it as her heart fell heavy, her skin turned from its bronze hue to an ugly black. She looked up to Dajus in betrayal. Everything happened too quickly; by the time the other soldiers arrived their fellow soldier was already gone.

  Dajus and her now four warriors chased after Frok; still no one had a good look at his face. Frok rushed towards the back exit where Lovo waited. She was second guessing her decision to let Dajus take point to the kitchen. ‘I shouldn’t have let her do that. But I didn’t have time to argue with her about who does what. We need to stop this before it gets worse. They know the virus works.’ Lovo was broken from her thoughts when Frok jumped out of the window of the large building.

  He was like no Deltorian she had ever seen, everyone had their weapon’s drawn and ready to fire. Lovo noticed the gun in his hand, ‘The virus.’ She had to work hard to ignore his blue hair, a Cugan trait no doubt. Everyone ordered for Frok to lower his weapon, but instead he just stood there. He held up a device and a screen opened up showing the hologram of a woman that no one recognized except for Rilo who came outside behind Dajus.

  Lovo turned to her side, ‘I thought he was with me.’

  Rilo’s heart rate sped up, “It’s her, Kirka, my informant.”

  “You know how this works.” Frok finally spoke. His grey eyes bothered Lovo.

  “That woman will just die for the cause of keeping Deltor safe.” Lovo said.

  Rilo didn’t like it but he kept his weapon steady. Dajus and her team arrived behind Frok in the crowded alleyway.

  “What?” Frok was surprised he had not expected for them to not give into his demands. He tried his best to think of a way out, he shot the building behind Lovo and her team, some watched the building die and turn into a live corpse as Frok made his getaway.

  “Evacuate that building!” Dajus shouted as she and Lovo chased after Frok.

  The two ran as fast as they could, Frok couldn’t believe that the two of them were able to keep up with him. “If he makes it to the outskirts of town, out into the forest we’ll lose him.” Lovo shouted as she continued to chase him.

  Dajus continued to run down the large street until she saw a building she could climb on top of. She jumped from strangely shaped building to the next. Part of what Deltorian architects liked to do was to make the roofs of their buildings as unique as they could. But that didn’t stop her from being able to keep her eye on Frok. His blue hair didn’t help his getaway. Dajus was running out of buildings she ran until she was right over top of him. She jumped on top of him and the two wrestled into the forest. Dajus and Frok fought as she tried to apprehend him.

  “We will have this planet for ourselves.” He kicked Dajus who recovered quickly and lunged herself at him to punch him in the face. The two jumped in between and out of the dark red colored trees. They swung and fought until Frok took out his gun pointed it into the ground and fired. The entire Deltorian forest turned from its natural deep red color into a dead and ashy wasteland.

  “Hey!” Lovo shouted Frok turned and she shot him, stunning him into a paralysis.

  “What took you so long!” Dajus shouted as the forest died as far as their eyes could see.

  Shi, Frok’s twin felt the failure of her brother and decided to bring the battle to the warriors. She walked out into the middle of the street that led to the hospital. Not expecting such a direct approach Mallobo’s and Trystan’s soldiers were caught off guard, she was able to shoot three of their men before everyone was able to take cover in time.

  Mallobo clicked on his communicator and spoke to Trystan, “We’ve got a problem.”

  Trystan with his blade ready to attack stooped to listen to Mallobo. “How do you mean?”

  “It looks like our girls were successful, this is a suicide mission, she knows we’ll win.” Mallobo tried to explain everything, but Trystan already figured what Mallobo already knew.

  “She’s buying time for someone else.” Trystan said sadly, his hope of having this finished by the afternoon was dashed. Trystan ordered his soldiers to move around the back while Mallobo’s faced her head on. While everyone got into position, Trystan could see two of his dead soldiers in the street and was filled with anger and regret. “The Qay-Et virus is in the gun.”

  Mallobo could hear Lovo call to him in his communicator, “Mallobo, we’ve apprehended…”

  He cut off his communication with her, “Not now!” And charged at Shi, she held her gun towards Mallobo who ran at her head on. She fired once, he dodged the beam and she missed hitting a decoration’s store, people ran from the building and hid as best as they could. She fired again and Mallobo activated his sword to convert into a shield, he threw the blast into the air so that it would launch into the air until it lost its blaze. Shi could see that Mallobo was getting closer she turned to escape but Trystan had snuck up behind her and stripped her of her weapon and threw her to the ground to bind her hands together. Her short curly blue hair was all that he could see while he arrested her.

  “Why would she attack us by herself, I thought that the Telda were many in numbers.” Mallobo said as they put Shi onto one of their aircrafts.

  “Well, they were.” One of the soldiers said after coming from the lab in the hospital. “T
hey’re dead, she used them as experiments. Sir there’s more; they’re planning to open a portal.”

  Mallobo and Trystan looked away from the corpses of the three soldiers they lost. “They’re what?” The two said in unison.

  After Lovo and Dajus were picked up by Mallobo and Trystan they talked more about the plan the Cugan had. “According to what we found and what little you two found, it seems as if they’re planning to open the portal right over Deltor in space, but not before they turn Deltor into a dirty, dead wasteland.” Dajus said going through the screen on the warship as they made their way back to Kitnar.

  “That’s what you dirty things eat right, dead things, dead plants, dead creatures.” She teased.

  Frok and Shi were all bruised and hurt, they were still tied up in separate cells, but that didn’t stop Dajus from provoking them through the intercom system from the bridge. “You are one to talk, Deltorian, or should I say…Skyro. You fled here just like us, you are no different. You turned against your people, Skyro; you should be helping us take this planet rather than helping the Deltorians.”

  Dajus shut off the intercom system; she didn’t find it fun anymore to taunt them. “We should try interrogating them again, into telling us where Rilo’s friend is and where their third friend is. We don’t know for sure if they’re