Titan walked Azav and the crew over to his dining table and told everyone to take a seat.

“So, what’re y’all here for?” asked Titan.

“Well, we have to let you know something, it’s that you’re in danger here,” said Azav.

“Oh really?” asked Titan with surprise.

“Serious danger, the planet is going to be destroyed and we thought to let you know since we heard you’re here,” said Azav.

“Well, that sounds rather frightening, but I am not an idiot. I know exactly why y’all are here,” said Titan.

Azav paused and looked at Titan. “I’ve been a free man for many moons, and I know you’re here to try and arrest me. Unfortunately, for you, you were uncareful trying to avoid suspicion. Were you really naive enough to believe you could show up at my businesses and I wouldn’t notice? I have eyes everywhere and I knew well in advanced that ship of yours was coming. It’s not important for y’all now, but I just wanted to let you know personally how uncareful and sloppy you were,” said Titan.

The red dots from snipers pointed at all of the crewmembers. They sat still as Titan stood up and men entered the room. The men were holding guns and none of the crew dared to move. One by one bags were placed over the heads of the crew. Michael felt drowsy when the bag was placed over his head. He woke up what felt like was a few hours later in a concrete room with a single dim light hanging all within the same cell. Michael woke up missing everything but his clothes and tried to check on everyone. Azav was sat in the darkest corner of the room wearing his hood. “Ellop? Tiki? Sheerya? Azav?” said Michael.

Nobody responded for a moment. “I’m awake,” said Azav.

“Oh good,” said Michael taking steps toward Azav who was faced away.

“Don’t come any closer please Michael,” requested Azav.

“What? Why not?” asked Michael stopped where he was standing.

“They… they took my mask. If you see my face you’re never going to look at me the same again. Please don’t come any closer,” said Azav.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s fine,” said Michael continuing to walk over.

“No, Michael, not a step closer please,” said Azav.

“Okay, I’m sorry. If you really don’t want me to see I won’t look,” said Michael.

Michael turned around away from Azav. Ellop, Tiki, and Sheerya were still sleeping on the ground and Michael looked at all of them. He tried shaking them each awake, but to no avail. “How are we going to get out of here?” asked Michael.

“I’ve been here asking myself the same question,” said Azav.

“Oh, well, I’m sure we’ll think of something,” said Michael looking through the bars.

“This is my fault. I should’ve been more careful and shouldn’t have had you all follow me,” said Azav.

“No, it’s not. None of us knew we were walking into a trap,” said Michael.

“But, I should’ve anticipated something like this,” said Azav.

“Nobody could’ve foreseen any of this Azav. It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself for this happening,” said Michael.

Azav sat silently in his corner and Michael layed down on the concrete floor. Some time passed and Tiki and Sheerya woke up at the same time. “Sheerya, Tiki,” said Michael.

“Huh?” asked Sheerya.

“Oh no, what are we going to do?” asked Tiki noticing where they were.

Sheerya rubbed her eyes and took a look around as well. “Oh no,” said Sheerya realizing her predicament. Ellop woke up shortly after and immediately realized they were in trouble. “Well, this is really bad,” said Ellop.

“Please, nobody come over here by me, they took my mask,” said Azav.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Azav,” said Sheerya.

“Does anyone have any ideas how we can get out of here?” asked Tiki.

“I’ve been looking around and I can’t see anything,” said Michael.

“Azav, what about you? You’ve seen something right?” asked Ellop.

“Unfortunately, I have been unable to figure something out insofar,” said Azav.

A small creature scurried outside of the cell. “What was that?” asked Michael.

“What was what?” asked Ellop.

“I just saw something outside the cell,” said Michael.

Everyone apart from Azav were looking outside of the cell. The creature scurried around again. The creature was green with scales covering it’s body. “Oh, I know what those are. Back on my planet we call them rollis. They’re really friendly,” said Sheerya.

Sheerya reached her hand out and the rolli approached her hand. The rolli climbed Sheerya’s hand and she pet his head. The rolli chittered as Sheerya pet his head. “Hey little buddy, can you help us out?” asked Sheerya.

The rolli happily jumped around as Sheerya pet his head and talked to him. “Can that thing actually help us out?” asked Ellop.

“They’re very smart, don’t underestimate them,” said Sheerya.

She continued petting the rolli. “We want to get out of here, but we’re stuck,” said Sheerya pointing the lockout to the rolli. The rolli bounced from Sheerya’s hand and ran over to the lock. He climbed the cell door and bit the lock within his mouth. After biting a few times he broke the lock and the door opened. “Well, that was lucky, what were the odds or that?” asked Ellop.

“I don’t know, but we better leave quick before they notice,” said Sheerya.

Everyone stood up from the ground and left the cell including Azav who had his physiognomy concealed by his hood. They ran down a dimly lit hallway and through a door to find a closet stacked floor to ceiling with items and objects. “Oh look, they left our stuff right here,” said Tiki.

“Just grab what’s important we have to get out of here,” said Azav.

They grabbed their galactobands and guns, and Azav was reunited with his mask now, allowing himself to face everyone. “Now we just gotta get back to the ship,” said Michael.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“We can’t the key isn’t here,” said Azav.

“The key for my drone is also missing,” said Tiki.

“We’ll just have to use this then,” said Azav.

Azav used his Galactoband and turned on Find My Key to locate the key to his ship. The map pinged nearby and they navigated the maze of hallways to a large room. The door creaked open and echoed in the pitch-black room and Sheerya flicked a light switch on the wall. Inside the large space hundreds of ships were rowed up in all different shapes and sizes. “Well, I guess this is the garage where he keeps all of his ships. This one’s a beauty,” said Tiki pointing to a red ship.

“It says, the key is right inside here,” said Azav pointing to a safe.

Right after speaking an alarm began blaring throughout the facility. Tiki pulled her pistol and began shooting at the safe in attempt to unlock it. Ellop and Azav did the same as Michael and Sheerya stood back to avoid the sparks. The lock on the save broke and Azav and Ellop pulled the door open. Inside the safe were hundreds of keys for different ships attached along rows. Azav reached his arms in and pulled the keys from the rows into the ground. “Start looking!” Azav demanded as everyone desperately started looking through the mess of keys strewn about. The task seemed impossible, all the keys were an identical black only discerned by markings on the key. “What does your key look like?” asked Michael.

“It’s the Zogan planetary logo. It’s a green circle with white stars,” said Azav frantically looking through the keys.

“Guys, this isn’t the right way to do this. We’re scrambling them up. We should throw the keys we don’t need over there so that we aren’t looking through the same ones again,” suggested Sheerya pointing to a spot in the room.

“Good idea,” said Tiki.

They threw a few keys over to the spot in the room when two guards entered the room running with guns. Tiki stood up and shot at them and they returned fire. Ellop and Michael jumped out of the way to avoid fire as Azav and Tiki shot at the guards. The gunfire settled down and Azav and Tiki were standing guard as everyone else continued looking for keys. Michael found a key with a green seal with white stars as Azav had said. “Is this one it?” asked Michael holding the key for Azav.

“It’s similar, but no that’s not the one. The seal is perfectly circular and there are more stars,” said Azav.

Another round of guards had entered the room, the four guards entered and got into position. Azav was able to down two of the guards immediately as the other two fired at the crew. Fire was exchanged between the guards and Azav’s crew once again. Michael grabbed another key matching the description of what Azav had said. “Is it this one?” asked Michael getting Azav’s attention. “That’s the one,” said Azav.

The key provided coordinates to Azav’s ship and everyone followed behind Azav as he took the lead to the ship. Sandwiched between two other ships was Azav’s ship. The crew boarded faster than they had ever before closing the door behind them within a moment. Azav’s ship lifted off the ground within the massive facility without a clear exit. The ship scraped against other parked ships within the garage. Guards fired at the ship from the ground and Ellop sighed realizing the amount of repairs he would have to do on Azav’s ship once they got out. “Everyone hang on tight,” said Azav as he revved up his ship’s engine.

Ordinarily when within a planetary atmosphere Azav’s ship would automatically adjust to slow down, but he would change the mode for his ship into interstellar mode. Everyone braced up holding onto their seats as Azav rapidly accelerated the ship through the wall of the building. The ship loudly crashed into the wall and smashed out the other side. The ship’s exterior was dented and scuffed, and the frontal window now had a massive crack that splintered into three across the most external layer. The pink grass was unmistakable, they hadn’t left Titan’s house yet. “We haven’t left his house, do we turn around to try and capture him?” asked Ellop.

“Oh no, and I didn’t collect the key for my drone,” exclaimed Tiki.

The keys pinged on Tiki’s Galactoband in the vicinity and pointed down towards Titan’s mansion. “It says it’s right over there,” said Tiki sending the coordinates to Azav’s ship.

They could see below the massive glass windows the drone key was located at. “Please Azav. I need to get that key back,” said Tiki.

“Okay fine,” said Azav steering his ship back towards the mansion.

Azav steered the ship back to the glass windows and landed smashing through the massive glass walls. “There he is,” yelled Sheerya pointing at Titan who was inside the room Azav’s ship had just smashed through. Titan no longer had the complacent look he had been wearing previously on his face. Now he cowered in fear sitting inside a jacuzzi tub and looking up toward Azav’s battered ship. Titan attempted to run grabbing a towel from next to the jacuzzi tub, but Azav and Tiki had already left the ship. Azav pointed a gun at Titan and fired an orange rope that surrounded Titan preventing him from moving and falling back into the water. Tiki ran off following her Galactoband and collecting her drone key from a nightstand. “Help me out!” yelled Azav calling for people to help him lift Titan out of the water and into his ship.

Everyone apart from Tiki helped to carry Titan up the stairs and onto the ship placing Titan down in a chair. Tiki ran on behind them and shut the door behind her. Azav went back over to his chair as Sheerya handcuffed Titan to his chair and put on his seatbelt. Everyone took their places on the ship as they backed out from the broken window the ship took off into the sky saying goodbye to the Bay of Crooks. “I’ll find my way out of this, y’all’re not the first who tried to lock me away,” said Titan.

“Yeah, yeah whatever, say whatever you want it’s not gonna unlock your handcuffs,” said Ellop.

“Let me free this instant, or I’ll crush the bones of all of you,” threatened Titan.

“How about no,” said Ellop.

“If y’all take me to prison I’ll break out, and I’m very good with faces. I’ll track every last one of ya down,” said Titan.

Ellop continued teasing Titan who continued making similar threats. Nobody listened to Titan’s threats and instead watched the recorded television show Ellop and Tiki had watched back in the planet. Even Azav joined to watch the show on the main screen. The sound of the show drowned out the threats from Titan who eventually gave up in his attempts to scare the crew. The cabin was full of quiet chatter regarding the film and the crew all settled down for marking another day of success. Azav remained quiet as per usual, but Michael realized he had fallen asleep which made sense considering the sleep cycle he had missed. Everyone enjoyed each others presence as Titan sat miserably bound up in a chair on the other side of the cabin from all of the members.