“Where are we-”
“Shush.”
“But-”
“Shush.”
“Nyssi-”
“SHUSH.”
Between the four Decaylings, they were all being very stealthy, but none of them knew where they were really going. Tenuk had done exactly what Thassalin had told him to do, by keeping his lungs clear, and this meant he’d woken up rather quickly. But he and his buddies, all four of them were floating in tubes of weird liquid. Tenuk silently teleported himself out of the tube he was trapped in, then mostly just pressed buttons on a nearby console until the other tubes opened up and ejected his friends. It didn’t take long for the others to wake up, and, thankfully, Nyssi had woken up just in time to detect that someone was about to enter. She telepathically suggested they not do that, and, before long, the team were back on their feet.
They were alive but sticky. And naked.
After managing to dry their feet off somewhat with Kayel’s fire powers, the team worked out their next course of action. Thassalin had told them to go left, to find a hangar, but he hadn’t given them any other clues. But between Retvik’s light powers, Tenuk’s sound powers and Nyssi’s telepathy, all four of them were pretty much invisible, and Kayel would occasionally make dark shadows in corners for them to hide in.
Really, they needed some direction. A sign or something. But there were no signs or anything, and they had to keep on moving. That urgency to get going was made worse as, slowly, these powerful Decay Lords had worked out that the four were missing. The only good news was that they had managed to make some good headway before the Decay Lords had discovered what had happened.
“Nyssi?” Tenuk telepathically asked. “We’re not finding this damn hangar, or, like, anything… what are we doing?”
“He’s got a point. We could be going around in circles for all we know,” Kayel added. “We’re lost as fuck.”
“I know… I genuinely thought there’d be, like, signs or something. This place makes no sense what so ever though! One minute, we’re walking down corridors, the next we’re in a park, after that, we walk through weird glass tunnels where you can see the void outside, and then suddenly we’re walking through a damn shopping mall!”
“May I ask something dumb, please?” Retvik was struggling a little with the telepathic messages.
“Retty. mate, there’s no dumb questions here. This whole Deathven place is fucking stupid.”
Retvik shrugged. “I do not know if what I am about to say is dumb, but… Nyssi, would it be easier to telepathically find someone who is going to the hangar and then follow them?”
Nyssi stopped in her tracks. This made Kayel and Retvik nearly trip over her. “That… that’s a fucking amazing idea!”
“It is?”
“Mhm! Let’s find a quick corner to hide in and I can do some scans.”
Nyssi grabbed her buddies, then pulled them into a somewhat empty area. They were still invisible and muted, but she didn’t want anyone bumping into them while she worked. Once they were in the clear, Nyssi leaned against the wall, then decided to just sit down. They’d all been walking for a while, and they were all still a bit sleepy.
“Want some shadow as a cover?” Kayel asked.
“Yeah, good idea. Tenuk, Retty, keep us silent and invisible.”
“Of course.”
Nyssi yawned, then closed her eyes, concentrating. There were a huge number of beings around, but she did pick up some weird thoughts. Kayel picked up on those thoughts.
“Is old scary Retvik here somewhere?”
“Yeah, apparently. He and Itaviir and that big flamy four-armed guy are… somewhere… But from what I’m picking up, they’re… very far away… With a lot of security. And with Phovos… Aha! Found someone!”
“You have?” Retvik nearly spoke out loud, but covered his mouth.
“Yep! Follow me!”
Now feeling more hopeful, Nyssi rushed off, and the other three chased after her. She slowed down though as she didn’t want to bump into the large, scaly dragon that she was now following. In order to travel more discreetly and safely, Tenuk made himself tiny and sat on Retvik’s shoulder.
This new path was somewhat straight forward. It turned out, they had been going mostly in the right direction, and the big scaly dragon was large enough that the team could reasonably hide behind it. However, Nyssi picked up on a new thought from the dragon, and, just as they were about to pass a security booth just before the hangar, she grabbed everyone and pulled them to one side. Nyssi watched cautiously as the Decay Lord running the security booth quickly chatted with the dragon, then sighed.
“What’s wrong now?”
“That security thingy, it’s an anti-shapeshifter thingy and if we just walk through it, it will probably break our stealth! Not just Tenuk’s shapeshifting, but our invisibility as well!”
“So… how do we get through?” Retvik frowned. “We have to go past it, yes?”
“Yeah…”
Immediately though, Kayel had an idea. “We can’t shapeshift, but, like, Nyssi, you said fiery Retvik is here?”
“Somewhere. Not sure where.”
“Well, I have a plan. What we do is, we have our Retvik pretend to be old scary Retvik, and he tells the guy there that he is taking us Decaylings to his ship! That’s WHY old Retvik is here, so it makes sense to the guard!”
“Old Retvik doesn’t have a ship though…”
“Well, the guard doesn’t know that!” Kayel explained further. “Like, people have an idea that old Retvik is here, but how many people know exactly how he looks? I can make some cosmetic fire to go on our Retvik’s arms, and he can just lead us through!”
“And once we’re inside, we can steal a ship or something?”
“Basically, yeah.”
Retvik frowned briefly. “I am not good at acting though.”
“Doesn’t matter!” Nyssi exclaimed. “Most people don’t know what old Retvik looks like, apart from having organic armour and fire on his arms. Assuming people know him at all. This could actually work, as long as you are confident enough. Sure, we’re all kinda naked right now, but you’re a Rethan, you look similar and even have the same name as him!”
“Alright, fine…” Retvik sighed as he held out his arms. “Kayel, you can make the fire… not burny, yes?”
“Oh, totally!” Kayel rubbed Retvik’s arms. The cosmetic flames were a bit itchy and weird, but Retvik wasn’t too bothered. “So, time to drop our disguises and walk through! Retvik, lead the way.”
Retvik grunted, then stepped out from the corner they were hiding in. As he approached the security booth, the guard immediately looked at him.
“Codename and name, please.”
“Flamebearer, Retvik Rethianos.”
The guard, some sort of frilled lizard creature looked Retvik up and down. “Huh. You’re shorter than I imagined. You taking these fresh new Decay Lords home?”
“I am, yes.”
“Alright, go through.”
“Thank you. Little ones, come with me, please.”
Retvik stepped through, and Nyssi, Kayel and Tenuk all followed. The entrance to the hangar was perfectly in the middle, with rows of ships on either side. On a whim, Retvik headed left, and the four of them started inspecting ships. But he did quickly make Nyssi, Kayel and Tenuk invisible again, in case anyone got suspicious.
“Alright, small thing, does anyone actually know how to fly a ship like this?” Kayel asked.
Tenuk shrugged. “I mean, I can fly in-universe ships, can’t be that different for out-universe ships? All we have to do is get out of this place and find a way to contact our friends, right?”
“Pretty much- OOF!” Nyssi found herself bumping into Retvik. Retvik had come to a halt, and no one was sure why.
“Uh, Retvik? What are you… oh…”
Ahead of the four Decaylings was a section named “DIY Sect Vessel Base Ships.” There were six long, weirdly similar ships present. All of them were silver, with very simple wings and engines. But, most importantly, the second ship in had a name painted on the side.
“Thantir One?” Nyssi whispered. “Does that… does that ship belong to our bosses?”
“I think so…”
They all headed towards the ship, which had a small platform by one side. A set of steps appeared as they approached, and there was a small panel on the side, with both some sort of hand print scanner and a slot to insert a key.
Tenuk suddenly smiled, then changed his shape, making himself look like Itaviir (mostly because he was blue). He climbed the stairs, pressed his hand on the scanner, then made his fingers very thin. He slipped his fingers into the slot, fiddled around a bit, then grinned and turned his hand.
The door opened up, revealing a very plain interior with the bare minimum stuff required for a working ship.
“Come on, guys, let’s get out of here…”