If there was one thing Xan hated more than anything, it was bugs. In Liosha, you only heard stories of the beasts. Ancient creatures no bigger than a hair that could obliterate whole kingdoms if left unchecked. He didn’t learn the truth until he’d gotten his first job off-world. A fly landed in his soup. He’d been at war with the creatures ever since.

“Crap,” he muttered, hovering over the latest planet on the radar.

The locals called it Khepri. It was a semi-arid Class-F grassball, humans mostly visiting it for rare minerals. Palazium and the like. But it was the sight of the locals themselves that really caught his attention.

Through his commpad, he could see clear as day the people he was dealing with. A three-armed woman with twin sets of wings and antennae stood in the center frame of a travel photo. Her kids hovered around her head, their large black eyes shining in the sunlight. Bug people. It had to be bug people. He looked down at his soup, cursing under his breath.

Scrolling through another photo he saw a man slithering on the ground, a trophy balanced atop his head. And yet another showed a little boy with an armored brown shell hanging from a tree. Xan gagged.

Had to pick this planet to be useful, didn’t ya’?

He pressed the button for the ship’s intercom, shoving aside his soup.

***

The kid was ready and waiting by the exit. She waved on his approach, her helmet secured and Spirit Tool in hand. Xan slung Sledge over his back, the warhammer sliding between the magnetic straps.

“Where’s Mr. Erin?” Sasha asked.

“Still sulking. I’d say give him a bit. He gets like this every so often. It’ll pass.”

Sasha nodded, though she wasn’t a very convincing liar. Neither she nor Erin had given him much detail about what happened in Argos. Then again, he didn’t really ask either. And bringing it up after the fact seemed like it would be too much of a headache, so he was happy to continue being unaware. He already had enough to worry about with the bug people.

“Mr. Xan,” Sasha asked.

“Hmm?”

“Those White Legion guys. What are they exactly?”

He secured his helmet, pressing the button for the exit hatch. He’d made sure to park the ship somewhere within one of Khepri’s towns. The sooner they handled their business and left, the better.

“Mr Xan?”

“Huh. Oh, you mean the monsters? They’re monsters. I thought you figured that.”

Sasha shifted. “But what are they, though? Mr. Erin called them an infection. Are they some kind of virus or something?”

Xan scratched his head. “I wouldn’t get bogged down in the nitty gritty, Panther. Like you said, you just gotta kill ‘em all and find your friends. No use trying to overcomplicate things, right?”

She didn’t respond. Just his luck. Sasha didn’t seem the sulky type, but she wouldn’t have been the first graduate he’d seen change gears on him. Or the first person. He pushed the thought aside as he walked down the landing bridge.

Khepri was about as terrible as he expected. The sun beamed down on his face. Both of them. He put a hand over his helmet, cursing the fact that he couldn’t wear his shades over the material. Maybe a blindfold? No. He had to play babysitter to keep the kid from doing something stupid. He pulled up his hood. By the looks of it, they’d parked on some big company building as there were armed guards swarming them the second they dropped off. But they backed off when Xan showed them his commpad.

“Ah, the AIC,” one of the men said through his pincers. “Please enjoy your stay in Khepri.”

They all scurried away, legs pattering against the floor. Xan shivered. Why did it have to be a bug world? Why couldn’t they have gone to a nice cave planet? Or a bamboo haven? He flicked his commpad open.

“Alright, let’s get this- Oh.”

“What?”

He stared over the screen.

Where there should have been several pings indicating the locations of portals springing up around the world, he instead only saw a blank radar screen staring back at him.

“Hey Panther,” he asked. “Has Erin taught you how to sense signals, yet?”

“A little,” she admitted. “He said my mind might shatter.”

“Yeah it could, but that’s beside the point. Do you sense…anything? At all here?”

The panther looked around. “Um…I don’t think so.” She shut her eyes, sticking out her Spirit Tool like a walking stick. “Yeah. I don’t feel anything weird.”

“Ah. Then this thing isn’t broken.”

“Huh?”

He shut his commpad. “There are no legionnaires on this world. They’ve all been taken out.”

Sasha gave him a confused look. It wasn’t that far a stretch. There were other graduates out there cleaning up the cosmos. One could have easily seen the trouble in Khepri, dropped down, and took care of the issue before lunch. But that still left one obvious question...

“Then why are we here?” Sasha asked.

Xan scratched his head. The ship’s navigation was locked on the signatures of Sasha’s friends. If there were no legionnaires around…

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Wait,” Sasha said. “Is this it? Are they here!”

She ran ahead, leaning over the building.

“IRIS! CICI! IT'S SASHA!”

Xan yanked her back.

“Hey, I never said we found them, kid.”

“What? Then why did we-”

“Obviously, they might be here. But we don’t know for sure. So how about instead of making a giant scene, we try following the dang commpad to see where it leads.”

Sasha folded her arms. Great, now she’s going full diva. He dropped her down, making his way to the building’s edge. It wasn’t that far a jump. Taking a moment to brace himself, he leapt off, crashing into the sidewalk moments later. The kid landed softly next to him.

“Take me to my friends,” she said.

“Smart choice, Panther.”

He opened back up his commpad. Though there weren’t any portal signals, it didn't take more than a few clicks for him to switch targets. They could only track one person at a time, though. Whichever trail they were on, the signal pinged somewhere several blocks away.

True to her word, Sasha didn’t start causing a scene with the bugs, which was a nice load off Xan’s shoulders.

The kid had a good head on her shoulders. She was young, but he could see her becoming a decent graduate in time. Maybe after a few years on the field.

Passing through town, Xan was greeted by all the ‘wonders’ of Khepri culture. The place was covered in countless piles of waste and sewage adorned into what he assumed passed for art planetside. And the people. They acted like they’d never seen a panda before in their life. The amount of flying bugs he caught floating over his head was enough for him to seriously consider bringing Sledge out for some exercise.

“It feels different here,” Sasha said.

“It’s a Class F. Shouldn’t be too much of a jump from what you’re used to.”

“F? Oh yeah. Mr. Erin mentioned Shiny and Tuptree were E’s, I think. What does that mean?”

“Eh, it’s pretty much just a gravity gauge. You got your standard Es and- Buzz off, would you!”

The bugs scattered. He could hear Sasha laughing behind him. He let it slide.

“It’s an A to G scale. That’s all you need to know. Stay away from As unless you wanna fly.”

Sasha nodded, still trying and failing to hide her smile.

Teenagers. As if she’d be so amused if the shoe was on the other foot. She’d probably freak out on the spot, and then who’d be- He stopped in his tracks.

“Ugh.”

Across the street, his eyes were greeted to the sight of a monster with eight hairy legs and beady red eyes. Its mandibles were entangled with those of another taller creature, its appendages sharped and curved. And pulling the other insect close.

Xan gagged. Great. Gonna have that image in my head now. He looked to Sasha, who seemed to stare at the couple completely lost. How old was she again? I swear if I gotta give this girl the Talk, I’m quitin’. He gave her a gentle shove far away from the entangled insects. They’d barely been planetside a few minutes, and he already hated it. But the good news just kept coming.

“What are you?” a bug child asked.

“Sasha,” she said. “Sasha the Panther.”

“What’s a panther?” another asked.

“Uh…Me, I guess. What are you?”

“Me?”

“I’m Lou.”

“Wendy.”

“Charles.”

“Woah, woah, one at a time,” Sasha said.

He didn’t know why it happened, nor when, but at some point he noticed a few of the insects were following them. It started with just one or two. Then that turned into six. Eight. Twelve. He stopped when he realized that they had a horde of bugs on their tail. And they were all drawn to Sasha. Probably because she wasn’t growling at them to go away.

“Shiny?” one of the kids asked.

“Are there a lot of butterflies in Shiny?” asked another.

“There are,” Sasha said. “But they’re a lot smaller. We had ladybugs too.”

One of the children giggled. And to Xan’s horror, Sasha was giggling back. Somehow the girl was grinning ear to ear despite the many insects that came down on her. What was once a small crowd turned into droves of insects heckling her with questions. Sasha even tried to wave Xan over to join. He kept his feet firmly planted several feet away, one hand on Sledge just in case.

“Did you come here to mine, Big Sasha?” one of the runts asked.

“Not really, Wendy. I’m…uh…Well, I’m looking for my friends. We thought we might find clues to them here.”

“Are they pansers like you?”

“Panthers, Lou. And no. They're both canines. One of them’s quiet and broody, but she never really shuts up when you get her excited. The other one’s super crazy. She has all these weird ideas and theories. Oh, and she’s got hair like mine, but it’s a different color.”

She gestured to her head, which one buzzy bee had turned into a personal nest, clinging to her like a hat. Was it eating her? Maybe it was time to actually do his job before she went full bug queen on the brats.

“You mean Big Sis Foxie?”

He stopped his approach.

“Huh?” Sasha asked.

“Oh, Big Sis Foxie!” another bug kid chimed. The crowd echoed the name.

“Big Sis Foxie?”

“Oh, Big Sis Foxie?”

“Big Sissie! I miss Big Sissie!”

The panther looked around at the kids, her smile vanishing. Her eyes darted to Xan, who in turn looked at his commpad. The traces available told them where the target might be, but that was about it. Who they were or what they looked like was anyone's guess.

“Y-you’ve seen a fox around?” Sasha asked.

“Big Sis Foxie!” one of the kids chimed.

“Yeah…Big Sis Foxie. Is she here? Can you take me to her?”

The crowd of bug kids cried out the name Big Sis Foxie before departing like a herd. A few pulled Sasha along, though Xan could tell she would have come regardless. He made sure to keep up at a fair distance, hand squeezing Sledge so he was ready the minute this ordeal turned out to be a trap.

The pack of kids flew down the town aisles. Xan had to run to keep up. Thank whatever gods were above they didn't go on for too long. The concession stopped at yet another tower of rotting garbage. Xan could only imagine what the smell must have been behind his helmet. But the panther walked up to the piece of art without the slightest hint of hesitation.

In fact, she even reached out to it, staring over the statue standing tall in the center of a large crater.

A fox. One with a bushy tail and black hair streaked with rotten blue fabric. She had a fist raised to the sky, several faded rings adorned around her fingers. Xan checked his commpad. The icon held on the statute’s location.

Sasha touched the fox’s leg.

“C-Cici. It really is you.”