Eventually they finished the movie marathon, with Queen Violet and Sinestra finally realizing their mistake and releasing a cheaper line of merch for the people even if they weren’t to Queen Violet’s perfectionist standards of quality. It ended by showing a child in a rural village playing with their Queen Violet and Sinestra dolls. Peter Rose walked by and smiled at the scene and then the screen cut to black.

Afterwards Emily and Asuta spent a while telling Roger and Sean about all the trivia and little stories of their time making the movies. Apparently they hadn’t actually released any dolls like the ones in the movie, having it as part of the joke that Queen Violet was still hoarding them from everybody.

Ash had silently been watching the movies the whole time and hadn’t spoken to join the conversation.

Eventually after things were winding down Ash spoke up, “Asuta, Emily. Would you be willing to teach me combat techniques as well? I do not think I could have defeat some of the groups Peter Rose faced even with all the weapons I have. I wish to be prepared for our mission on Immortus Station.”

Asuta looked uncertain and glanced at Emily.

“Should be fine as long as we’re careful?”

“Yes, we can teach you a bit,” Emily said, “As long as Asuta remembers not to throw any grenades at you as a test.”

“Mmhhhhh. I’ll remember,” Asuta groaned while not seeming completely sure, “We’ll see what we can do, Ash.”

“Excellent.”

— — —

“Hey Ash, what are you doing there?” Sean asked as he and Roger walked into Ash’s room. A room that had been repurposed with a series of tables over the last five years. Emily and Asuta were busy fixing up the massive superweapon ship off on the other side of the planet, only coming by every few months to the estate to relax and provide them with some more training.

The two had actually come back yesterday in fact.

“I’m repairing my arm,” Ash said and shifted to the side to reveal that his whole right side was scorched and his arm was removed and laid out on the table.

“What happened?” Roger asked in shock.

“Training accident,” Ash said, “The laser weapon Asuta was wielding turned out to be far more powerful than expected. Apparently she modified it long ago so it had increased damage output.”

“What about your arm? Do you need help making another one?” Sean asked.

“No,” Ash said, “I am using my nanites and metal material to repair it at the moment. I must be very precise in my instructions to rebuild it from scratch, or it may not be rebuilt properly. It should only be a week or two before I will reattach it to myself.”

“I’ll be having a talk with her,” Roger grumbled, “Got to be more careful when she’s fighting you. What if she had hit your head instead of your arm? You could have been killed.”

“There are risks in combat,” Ash said firmly in reply, “What is the use of my weapons if they will never be used? I am not staying behind when we go to rescue Lira.”

There was a moment of tension as Roger and robot stared at each other.

“Fine,” Roger eventually said, “But I’m still talking with her. She should know better than to let these things happen.”

“Very well,” Ash conceded.

“So, Ash, tell us about some of the things you’ve been reading,” Sean said after the room fell silent again, “I know you’ve still been combing through them while you aren’t training…”

The tension in the room eased up and Ash nodded, “Yes, there was one particular document of interest describing the natural wonders of several unique planets…”

When the conversation ended, Roger stormed off to go yell at Asuta for her carelessness and Sean returned to the workshop to keep tinkering. Ash was determined to go with them on the mission, his stubbornness on the issue stumping Roger who was opposed. Sean would rather Ash stayed behind, but whenever he went to convince Ash otherwise, Lira’s voice rang in his mind.

She wanted Ash to make his own decisions so he could develop as a person. And this was certainly Ash’s decision, despite both Roger and Sean not being overly supportive. Ash knew the risks, so Sean let it be. It should be Ash’s choice to make when it comes down to it. At least that’s what Sean kept telling himself.

— — —

The massive superweapon was ready, it had been fifteen years now and all of them were eager to go and get to the mission itself. And they wouldn’t be alone either. Asuta had sent out a message to her network of independent Immortals she was in contact with. Many might not even get the message, but the ones that traveled through one of the more urban systems would get it. The message invited these people to a meeting so the group could convince them to help out on the mission they were on.

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The massive ship slowly navigated out of the system through Asuta’s ‘delivery’ passage and then they were in hyperspace. The ship they were on was so big, that Sean, Roger, and Ash’s old ship was currently parked inside one of the hangar bays with plenty of room to spare even.

In two months through hyperspace they would be at the designated meet point and have to try to convince the Immortals why they should help them. Asuta assured the rest of them that she would handle most of it, but she wasn’t exactly a political animal from what Sean had seen of her so far. Apparently even the independent Immortals didn’t like Emily all too much even if they tolerated her, so even that would be an uphill battle in order to convince them to join. But maybe Asuta had a hidden side of her that Sean just hadn’t seen of her yet that would convince the crowd…

— — —

“Are we sure this is safe?” Sean said as they stood in the control room of the ship. It was identical to the one they had seen in the movie.

“Yeah, both of us checked it all over,” Asuta said, “Now we have the big screen up! Just one little test and then we can get moving again.”

“Just to make sure it works,” Emily said even as the corner of her lips twitched upwards.

“Hmmmm,” Asuta said and licked her lips, “Hey, we should get in character. Queen Violet and Sinestra causing chaos again, huh? I even brought the makeup and costumes if we really want to do the whole thing…”

“Oh no, we don’t need to do that,” Emily quickly said, her cheeks tinging slightly red, “Strict weapons test, can’t mess around…”

Asuta looked away and looked disappointed, “Oh well,” She said, “I think it’s ready, miss super serious. Can you at least give a maniacal laugh when you press the button?”

“Ha ha ha,” Emily said in a flat, sarcastic voice as she pressed the big red button in front of her. The humming around them grew to a fever pitch and the rocky planet in this abandoned star system blew up to size on the screen.

The vibrations grew louder and louder and the room shook around them for a second before with a massive electric crackle the weapon fired. A massive purple beam of the laser shot out of the front of the cannon lining the entire length of the ship and streaked towards the planet at the speed of light. On the screen they watched silently as the purple beam lanced into the planet and slammed into the ground, sending a massive wave of molten rock flying from its surface.

The light faded and Sean saw that half of the planet was covered in molten rock and visibly crackling and popping even from this far away. The whole side of the planet where the beam had struck was dented inwards like someone had taken a big bite out of a glowing orange fruit.

A few seconds later, there was movement from the planet and Sean realized that the planet actually still wasn’t in one piece. The ten or so massive molten chunks of the planet slowly drifted away from each other in the wake of the explosion, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces as they spread farther and farther outwards. After ten minutes it became clear that the planet was no more as the molten remains of the planet was surrounded by a cluttered field of glowing orange meteorites still radiating away their heat. Sean gulped. It felt much scarier seeing it in person versus seeing the clips in the movie, even if he knew intellectually that they were the same…

“BWA HA HA HA!” Asuta suddenly laughed, making everyone jump, “WE DID IT SINESTRA! NO ONE WILL DARE SKIP PAYING OUR ROYALTIES NOW!”

“Asuta!” Emily scolded.

“THAT’S QUEEN VIOLET TO YOU, MINION! NOW LET’S GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE THAT DAMNABLE HERO ARRIVES! CARRY ME TO THE ESCAPE PODS, I’M TOO TIRED FROM MODELING OUR NEW FASHION LINES EARLIER TO RUN!”

Emily’s face flushed absolute crimson but Asuta just stood there with her hands on her hips staring at her expectantly.

“What?” Asuta said in a more normal tone, “The big serious test is over. The thing works, we can have fun now can’t we?”

Emily hesitated and glanced at Ash, Sean, and Roger watching them from the side.

“To the escape pods, Queen Violet!” Emily eventually said as she scooped Asuta off her feet and put on a mock serious expression.

“Eiiiiiii,” Asuta squealed as Emily slung her over her shoulder and ran out of the room as quickly as she could while not even looking back, the back of her neck a deep red from embarrassment as she left.

Asuta bounced on Emily’s shoulder and waved at them before Emily finished carrying her around the corner.

“Asuta is very abnormal,” Ash stated flatly.

“That she is,” Roger agreed, “She is indeed.”

They stood in silence for a minute or two.

“I wonder if there are really escape pods…” Sean said, only to jolt as he saw a pod launch from the side of the ship.

“Well, that answers that question…”

— — —

A few minutes later, Sean got a comms request from a nearby panel. He accepted it.

“Hey, uh. We might need a pickup,” Emily said sheepishly, “I got too into it and actually pressed the button. We’re in the escape pod by the way…”

“We know,” Roger said, “We saw…”

“Sure we’ll…” Sean said.

“No, Sinestra!” Asuta shouted on the other end, slightly muffled as Emily grunted as she apparently held Asuta back from the microphone, “Don’t give the heroes our location!” Asuta continued, “We must make good on our escape!”

“Queen Violet, we’re reclaiming our ship. We have to go back for our final battle!” Emily said.

“Oh, right. A trap,” Asuta said more clearly as their tussle appeared to end, “Pretend you didn’t hear that, heroes. Yes, come save us. It will only spell your doom!”

There was some more scrabbling on the other end and a shout of victory from Asuta and Emily cursed,

“Asuta, no…” and the line went dead.

“Maybe we should leave them for an hour or two to calm down a bit first…” Roger said.

“No, they have enough fuel to get back themselves I’m sure,” Sean said, “They just don’t want to wait the hour or so it would take to do that. We’d only be making things worse for ourselves…”

“I think it is interesting,” Ash said suddenly, “I am having trouble predicting what will happen next. I think we should play along with their roleplaying of the characters.”

Roger and Sean exchanged a look.

“Well, if Ash wants too…” Roger said reluctantly.

“Let’s do it,” Sean said, “I’m sure it won’t be too embarrassing if we’re all doing it.”

— — —

It was very embarrassing and Sean tried to purge the memories of all the things his ‘character’ had done as soon as he stopped being swept up in the moment along with Asuta and Emily’s crazy energy. Somehow Ash ended up switching sides at one point and was working as Sinestra’s co-minion under Queen Violet. Meanwhile Roger and Sean were playing the two inept heroes trying to stop Queen Violet’s dastardly and amazing plans.

Sean was really glad that no one had been recording that. He full body cringed as he remembered some of the lines he had said in the moment during their ‘battles’ against the villains. Ugh, it would have been solid blackmail material on him, it was so bad…