Vikalos and Arkay made their way to where Shield Six was parked. Currently, Tah, the leader of the tiny team of Decay Lords named Kal, was doing pre-flight checks, and could be seen teleporting around.
“Are you looking forward to this?” Vikalos asked as they reached the ship.
“Yeah, actually. I’m also admittedly still glad that I’m still technically really fucking rich, somehow!” Arkay exclaimed. “I often wondered if Deathven would just drain my bank account simply because I’m a Synaisthyn.”
“That was a possibility, but you still earned your Deathven-based income. Synaisthyn or not, hybrid or not, you ticked all the boxes in your intrauniversal history to get a decent income. Not many folks can say they silenced more than one universe.”
Arkay shrugged. “That is a good point. I don’t recall how many universes I’ve killed, because Kinisis used to loan me out when I was a puppy.”
Vikalos paused and turned to Arkay. “What do you mean by that?”
“Hmph. The first universe I was a god in, I originally wasn’t sapient. At first, I was some sort of armoured animal thing. A cross between a Skyavok, a dog and a cat. Kinisis would just, hand me over, I guess, let me kill everything then get handed back. It’s also kinda why Phovoula sometimes calls me the Death Wolf, even though, the second time round, I was much more of a cat person than a dog person. It all became memories and existences folded up in some sort of temporal spiral of repetition.”
“Huh. Well, more reasons to add to the list as to why you were always so unstable.”
Arkay nodded in agreement. But he didn’t have a chance to say much more, as Tah teleported in front of them both.
“Alright! Ship’s ready!” Tah exclaimed. “Are you two ready?”
“We’re ready, yes!” Vikalos smiled.
“I thought Tenuk was coming as well?” Arkay suddenly asked. “He wanted a ship too. Actually, I thought some of your siblings were going to come too.”
“Tenuk needs to save his money first, because he wants something expensive. And we can always make a second or third trip.”
Tah nodded in agreement. “You can buy a ship whenever. As for my brothers? It’s fine. They want me out of the way for a bit. Being team leader, sometimes they get annoyed at me and need some time without me. So, shall we head off?”
“Of course.”
Satisfied, Tah teleported into Shield Six’s cockpit. Vikalos took Arkay’s hand and led him on board. Arkay wasn’t sure why Vikalos was holding his hand, but he didn’t question it. He and Vikalos did somewhat have an odd relationship.
Once everyone was on board, Tah sat Arkay next to him (in a seat that was a little too small, even for Arkay), but Vikalos decided to sit on the floor. Admittedly he was too large, and the seats probably would have collapsed underneath Vikalos’s muscular, furry, scarf-wearing form.
“Sorry, a tad tedious but-”
“It’s fine, Tah. You lot are small, your ship is built with you in mine” Vikalos smiled reassuringly. “I assume we have our journey all planned out?”
Tah clicked excitedly. “I have, yes! Let me just get us void-borne quick!”
Arkay watched as Tah instantly and perfectly got Shields Six off the ground. The ship raised upwards, until it was high above the island of Savepoint. Once they were free from the island’s gravitational pull, Tah turned the ship slight and started heading in a rough south east direction. Finally, Tah typed some coordinates into a panel, then turned on autopilot, which proceeded to so most of the work.
“So, then plan is pretty simple. Once we’re in Justar territories proper, there are a few different places we’re going to visit!” Tah started explaining everything as he span his chair around to face Arkay and Vikalos. “The first place is a shop that sells brand new ships, fresh out of the factories. The intent with this shop is to both get an idea of prices and better work out what exactly you both want. And also look at cool, fancy, shiny things. After that, what we’ll do is head to three nearby garage shops, places that sell a combination of both new ships and second hand ones. Again, we’ll mostly be looking at prices, but the second-hand places allow you to test-drive ships. One of the shops also has a DIY ship builder section, which we can have a look at.”
“Why are we looking at a DIY ship thingy?” Arkay asked.
“Well, we got the Thantir One back,” Vikalos shrugged. “I’d like to at least look at components in person. I don’t think we can afford to repurchase everything, but I just want to see what they have.”
“Fair enough!” Arkay smiled. “So, Tah, after that, what’s the plan?”
“Not much, to be honest. The last place is a second-hand ship shop, but they generally have some more unusual bits and pieces, as well as a scrapyard sort of thing, where we can buy bits and pieces if we need to. Me and the team have visited a few times, and I always make an effort to stop by and see if there’s anything interesting we can salvage.”
Arkay’s smile turned into a grin. “Sounds like fun, actually!”
“Oh, it’ll be tons of fun!” Tah clicked excitedly. “We just have to remember, we don’t have to buy anything on the spot. It’s better to go through every option, one at a time, before deciding you want to buy something. I’m only saying this because, quite often, you can find the same thing in different places for different prices. Don’t want to get ripped off now, do we?”
“Indeed!” Vikalos joined in on the smiling. He wasn’t as excited as Arkay and Tah were, but he didn’t want to spoil the mood, mostly because Vikalos was looking for something in particular. “Luckily, all three of us are well-off, but it’s always good to be smart and careful with our money.”
Tah nodded, then turned back to a nearby console. “Alright, everything’s sorted out, now all we have to do is relax and let the autopilot work. This is going to be a lot of fun.”
“Oh, totally!” Arkay beamed. “Only took me like five year-strings to be able to buy my own ship…”