“It is nice to be detached from the Wizard, he rarely travels and the sights are a wonder to see!” Etrigan whispered into Dan’s ear as he emerged from the phantom zone. “That dimension you use for travel is quite the horror, don’t you agree?”
Dan rolled his eyes. The Demon had a pocket dimension of his own, one that Merlyn claimed was carpeted with bones and filled with the stench of death. The zone was mind numbing, but it held no true horrors.
“Try and keep your commentary to a minimum, will you?” Dan cast his gaze about the Corillian System and took a live accounting of the various ships and space stations. “This is going to be a tricky task, especially if it’s to be used as a message to the rest of the galaxy.”
“These mortals are no challenge,” Etrigan scoffed. “They will bend, or be bent, without room for the thought of revenge.”
“You underestimate the willpower of Corillians,” Dan shook his head. Pigheadedly independent, Corillia had long been willing to stand against death for their beliefs. “They won’t be convinced with fear or honey, not unless we occupy all their worlds and brainwash the next generation.”
He wasn’t willing to enslave people for the crime of wanting independence, but this system had to belong to Krypton. Centrepoint station - the lock that held closed Abeloth’s prison - was too valuable to be left in the hands of others. If he had to, Dan would move the planets of the system to another star.
“Why have we come here then? The main campaign will not begin for several weeks,” Etrigan yawned in his mind. “What is your plan, if a massacre is not what Krypton seeks?”
“We’re here to pick someone up,” Dan drifted closer to the titular world of Corillia, eyes focused on coordinates provided by Ultron. Before the potential conflict began, he needed to save an orphan from the streets of this world. “Han Solo is currently orphaned on this planet… if I don’t act now, he’ll be recruited into a life of crime.”
He drifted past the planetary shields in the shadow of a bulk transport ship. The natural beauty of Corellia remained relatively intact, a sign that the people here truly valued their homeworld. In many ways, Corillia was an example of what he wanted to build all across the greater galaxy. A thriving, self supporting community that stood united against outside threats.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Solo… another child Jedi that you plan to steal from the future?” Etrigan sighed as they descended toward a well kept city. “Why bother? With your power, they amount to little more than moochers…”
Dan ignored the Demon and scanned the deserted, early morning streets. Huddled in a sheltered doorway, a young boy wrapped his arms around himself to ward off the cold. Han wasn’t force sensitive, but his freakish skill - some would say luck - was worth investigation.
“Keep quiet now,” Dan landed a few metres from the sleeping orphan and tapped his foot against his shadow. “I don’t need a demon in my ear to comment on every move I make…”
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“Where… where am I?” Anissa’s muscles tensed as her eyes opened to an unfamiliar room. She pressed against the bed at her back, ready to rise, when a familiar face leaned over her. “You?”
“Me!” Goku smiled, face less than an inch from her own. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry about hurting you so badly… my Great-Ape form is still too much for me to control…”
“Why would you be sorry?” Anissa pushed the boy away and sat up, eyes still blurry from sleep. “We stand on different sides of a war… it’s normal to kill your enemies, not wait at their bedsides while they heal.”
“I suppose so?” Goku tilted his head, as if the concept of war was too heavy for his clearly simple brain. “But Dan-EL says that we’re only supposed to kill if it has a ‘greater purpose,’ killing you by accident would be a mistake even if you deserved to die.”
“This Dan-EL is your commander?” Anissa moved her muscles, from fingers to toes, before she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. This medical room had no guards beyond Goku, with walls of blue-white crystal. “I’m surprised he let you bring a threat like me back with you, even if you didn’t mean to almost kill me…”
“A threat?” Goku laughed and shook his head. “Even the strongest Viltrumite I fought against isn’t a threat to Krypton… Conquest might have been stronger than me, one-on-one, but he isn’t a match for Dan or Etrigan.”
“Really?” Anissa shook her head at the relaxed teen and set both feet onto the warm, climate controlled floor. She took a deep breath into her lungs, clean, sterile air that failed to calm her nerves. “So… If I tried to run?”
“Technically, both Etrigan and Dan are off-world, but…” Goku blinked as Anissa vanished from her bed, gone from the room before his sentence could finish. “...I hope May doesn’t put her back into the infirmary, I still want to finish our battle from the other day!”
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“Alright… that should be the last of them,” May dusted her hands against her knees and smiled as a cluster of Taurill and Killiks bumbled their way onto a transport. The fortress city stood emptied, except for the robotic servitors and Ultron’s defence force. “I’ll meet you all on New-Krypton…”
A rumble drew her attention toward the fortress gate, where a short haired woman had smashed her way outside. She ripped one of Ultron’s drones in half and raised her eyes to the heavens, a hint of confusion on her face. It was Goku’s Viltrumite friend, clearly the boy had lost track of her.
“What skies are these?” Anissa rose into the air, eyes drawn from star to star as her lips twisted in a frown. “I can’t recognize any of them… I’ll need to snatch up a local if I want to figure out where I am.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that,” May laughed at the woman’s words and sent her a warning as she drifted through the air to face Anissa. “You’re here because Goku injured you without intending to, but I’d be happy to injure you on purpose!”