Starbound: A Space Odyssey

"What"s it?" Lenny cautiously asked. He doesn"t want to have a conflict with this madman anymore so he tried to talk his way out.

"It"s a briefcase." Jevil saw that Lenny now wanted to evade conflicts so doesn"t went too far with threats. "It"s completely white and has a black star on top of it."

Lenny took Oscar"s PIPS from his pocket and looked inside it.

Soon enough he found what Jevil was talking about. He retrieved it and showed it to Jevil. "Is this it?"

"Yes..." Jevil nodded in confirmation when he saw the white briefcase.

"Take it." Lenny strongly threw it at Jevil.

"Thanks." Jevil effortlessly took the briefcase, like it had no force behind Lenny"s throw. "Now... I should take my leave, yes?" Jevil glanced at Lenny and then at Peri.

Peri squinted her eyes at Jevil. She was still partially unconvinced that he had nothing to do with the operation on her planet.

"Sssister..." Moa approached from behind and poked Peri at her waist. "We must let it go... At least for now." He said in a very low tone so that only them could hear.

Peri turned her head and ignored Jevil"s existence.

Jevil smiled when he saw that. He looked at Lenny and saw that he had already started to ignore him as well. "Looks like it"s my time to leave." He said while he joyfully hummed.

"Oh, right." Jevil turned around and spoke, "Lenny, can you say to John that I have some really interesting news to share with him when he has time?"

"I will think about it." Lenny answered without turning at Jevil.

"So cold..." Jevil was very happy at this moment that he started to want to tease Lenny even more.

"Master..." The soldier could only helplessly sigh and poke at Jevil"s back, taking Jevil"s attention.

"Yes, yes. I get it." Jevil rolled his eyes. "Let"s go. We can start with Phase 3 now that I have this thing." Jevil gleefully smiled when he looked at the briefcase.

[Letheia Corporation, Occasus Cult, and Black Star Syndicate. I will enjoy watching you all killing each other.] He happily thought to himself as his eyes flashed with a deep and thick hatred toward all these organizations.

Jevil walked away with his Rebellion soldiers.

Peri saw that her job was done so she started to walk away with the Floran kids.

"Hey." Lenny called for Peri.

Peri turned around and stared Lenny.

"How is John going to call you if you don"t give him your number?"

Peri annoyingly rolled her eyes. She reached for her PIPS and took a Data Chip out from it.

"Here, give it to him." She threw the chip toward Lenny.

"You better uphold your promise..." Lenny caught the chip mid-air.

"I will." She seriously said without turning to face Lenny.

Lenny watched as Peri led the kids away from the Outpost.

"Now..." Lenny crouched and lifted John up.

He took John"s arm and started to use John"s PIPS.

He selected the option to beam up.

With a blinding white light, both Lenny and John disappeared from the planet and were teleported toward John"s ship.

...

Jevil was happily staring at white briefcase when he received a notification from his pilot.

"Master, we have a hologram call incoming." Jevil heard the voice coming from the ship"s speakers.

Jevil was already inside his ship and on his way toward the nearest Ancient Gateway.

"Who"s it?" Jevil frowned. He was now very unhappy that someone interrupted his joyous moment.

"It"s Dreadwing." The pilot replied.

"Oh, that Penguin pirate, again..." Jevil was sick of dealing with Dreadwing.

He always hated making deals with Penguins, they always try to pull something shady behind his back and this really p.i.s.ses him off.

Jevil helplessly sighed and walked toward the Briefing Room of his s.p.a.ceship.

He couldn"t just ignore Dreadwing they had a lot of deals, including some that were very beneficial toward his business in the Underworld Facility.

He stopped by the hologram projector and turned it on.

Soon enough a blue light flashed out from it and a holographic figure slowly started to appear.

A small blue Penguin, wearing an eye patch and a pirate hat with crossed bones as the ill.u.s.tration on it, appeared as a holographic projection.

"Dreadwing." Jevil greeted the Penguin.

"Jevil! My friend, how you have been." The Penguin greeted enthusiastically like they were best friends.

"I have been better." Jevil"s lips twitched when he saw the enthusiastic greeting. Usually, when Dreadwing goes like this, it means that he wants something from him.

"Hahahaha... True, true." Dreadwing gleefully laughed.

"Cut the chase." Jevil rolled his eyes. He really doesn"t have the patience to deal with Dreadwing. "What do you want?"

"Well..." Dreadwing embarra.s.sedly scratched his bald head. "As you know since the last time with Dr. Akaggy"s.....problem, I took in another engineer, Akaggy"s brother, Cog."

"Yes, and..."

"And..." Dreadwing dryly coughed. "It happened again... Cog ran away, just like Akaggy did."

"Ah..." Jevil helplessly sighed. "You really need to watch out how you deal with the members of your crew, princ.i.p.ally the important ones."

"It happens." Dreadwing doesn"t want to admit that he was on the fault. "I had asked around and I got the information that he is currently on the Underworld Facility, looking for jobs on the Beakeasy Saloon."

"So... What you want me to do?"

"Before he ran away he asked me if I would allow him to quit from the crew, I, of course, rejected it. I took his family as a hostage so that he wouldn"t suddenly run away, but... He was so adamant of leaving that I allowed it when I went on a fit of rage. He asked for his family and I said I would only free them once he paid me 50 million pixels." Dreadwing narrated the series of events that lead to the situation he currently was. "So... I don"t want to let go of this mechanic talent. I want you to pa.s.s around the word so that no one would hire him. He then would become helpless and end up coming back to me." Dreadwing hopefully looked at Jevil. "It"s a good plan, isn"t?"

"I have seen and done better." Jevil said. "I can"t do it. You know that something like this would ruin my reputation."