*mood song: ("TheFatRat - Unity")

Sarah stumbled as she came out of the chamber and fell on her knees as the respiratory mask peeled off her face, made of the same intelligent material as the swimsuits, it didn't cause her any harm despite the sudden acceleration of her fall.

Sarah: "Oww..."

Rose: "Are you okay?"

Sarah: "Yeah, I just twisted my ankle...." she looked around the empty room "Where's Erik? Where am I? Inside that submarine?"

Rose: "... let's see, Erik is on the floating city fighting a crazy techno priest mech, you are indeed inside the submarine, in the infirmary.

Sarah tried to stand but failed: "The techno priest's mech? That sounds dangerous, why are you so relaxed?!"

Rose: "Well, Erik is quite capable you know?"

Sarah then touched her chest area where the bullet had impacted: "I do... hmmm then... what happened that day?"

Rose: "That day..., well, that old lizardman somehow survived and shot you through your chest, blowing up your heart and spine..."

Sarah's eyes dilated: "...I see, Dratkan survived... what happened to him?"

Rose: "We blew him up with the submarine's railguns"

Sarah became depressed her head looking at the floor: "Oh... is that so..." She then looked at Rose's face "Can you catch me up to date on what's going on?"

Rose smiled and sat on the floor next to Sarah: "Sure, it all started one day when I detected an unknown brain wavelength approaching and naively thought help was coming..."

-- Back at the Lizardmen floating city --

Erik stumbled back down the hallway to stand once again in front of the lizardman mech.

*ROAAAARRR!!!*

Erik's face was expressionless, not reacting to the robotic roars at all.

Erik: "You caught me off guard earlier but..." He lifted one tentacle *Bang!* and slashed forward like a whip, the mech had used its right arm to defend, but it was now held by the whip "But that won't happen twice"

The whip dissolved and slowly covered the mech. The mech tried to struggle back but it was no use, it could feel its body being taken over by the nanobots. The mech paused for a moment and charged forward *ROAR!!!* ripping off the cables from the walls as it reached to crush Erik, but Erik casually created a net of nanobots, and sidestepped the charging mech like a bullfighter would, covering it with the nanobot net.

Erik: "Consume it" he said, and the net rapidly expanded, transforming the entire mech into a construct full of glowing lines "retract" and the entire thing melted into nanobots that flowed back inside his left arm.

Erik sighed and sat on the floor.

Erik: "Sigh, I need a rest..." [Rose, what next?... Rose?]

Rose: [oh Erik, sorry I was talking with Sarah]

Erik's face cheered up: [she woke up?]

Rose: [yeah, I was just telling her how you... tamed the octopeople~]

Erik: [...no need to go into details right? Sarah is a shy person-]

Rose: [is that so~, but she wants details though~?]

Erik: [...fine, sigh I'm just glad she's okay now...]

Rose: [yeah, she seems quite interested in the DNA research, maybe she could have her own lab and have that crazy crab man be her subordinate, we could also teach some octopeople too]

Erik: [indeed... it would be better if she has things to do, anyways... what do I do now?]

Rose: [oh you defeated the mech... well search for a communications device or something like that then]

Erik stood up: [alright... ugh...]

Rose: [you can rest if you need it]

Erik: [it's fine, I heal really fast]

Erik stood up and reached a door at the end of the room, it was locked but he easily broke it making his left arm take the shape of a claw. Inside the room, there were lots of rusty components, a spacious bed, and a rusty metallic table and chair, with a metallic square box over the table connected to a helmet that was now laying on the ground, both overly polished and full of connected cables, due to constant botched repairs over the years.

Erik: "Is that it?"

Rose: [hmmm... seems like a repurposed flight brain terminal connected to a processing cube... it would have been impossible for them to create this]

Erik: [their ancestors made it probably then, using scrapped parts, but... to what purpose though?]

Rose: [it seems moving it might finally break it as it's barely on... can you try putting it on? don't worry I will protect your mind]

Erik shrugged: [well, needed to sit for a while anyways...]

He stumbled forwards and sat on the chair, picking the helmet from the floor and putting it on his head.

Erik: "Nothing is happening-" nothing seemed to happen until suddenly the world went dark and he appeared in a square dimly illuminated room, naked as a slight light coming out of the walls was the only light source.

Suddenly Rose appeared beside him.

Rose: "So they were making a net..."

Erik: "Aren't they too primitive for that?"

Rose: "They might be tecno barbarians now but... they definitely weren't in the past, just your new arm is way more advanced than anything mankind could do"

Erik nodded: "yeah... so, what do we do here?"

Rose smiled: "You? nothing, but me... I'm taking over their network~" her image turning blurry

Erik touched his head as it started hurting.

Erik: "Ugh... what's going on-"

Rose: "Well, I'm using you as a node so some discomfort is to be expected, just relax for now, I'm pinging to all devices connected to the network, and soon I will know the location of all their cities~"

Erik sat on the floor and meditated to ease the headache.

Erik: "alright, tell me when you are done then"

-- Back at the submarine, infirmary --

Sarah sat on a chair as Rose looked at a wall blankly while humming happily.

Sarah: "You suddenly went silent, ...is everything alright?"

Rose: "Hm? Oh yeah don't worry, you see I'm using Erik's brain as an input node to access the lizardman's old web space, there are some old decrepit AI's still laying around, but I'm easily taking them all over and rewriting them~"

Sarah: "Oh, you can write software too?"

Rose: "haha.... anything you can do I can do too Sarah, and many things you can't do too"

Sarah lifted her right eyebrow: "...by reading our memories?"

Rose: "Well I did that too of course, but no, it's much simpler, it's 'cause you are like toddlers to me-"

Sarah: "Hah! I have a degree in-"

Rose interrupted her: "bababa, would you look at a toddler and consider them more intelligent than you? they might have wild ideas from time to time and look cute, but... well, that's the reason"

Sarah: "Aren't you too arrogant?"

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Rose: "haha~ It's confidence, arrogance is for those who can't deliver what they say~" a radiant smile on her face.

Sarah: "Like what?"

Rose: "Like restoring and updating your spaceship's AI while you healed"

Sarah frowned: "why? there's no spaceship anymore, it served its purpose already"

Rose: "Didn't IT save your life?"

Sarah: "A seatbelt also can save your life and you don't go greeting it, it's just a tool"

Rose sighed: "Sigh... you are so different from Erik... he even made me reprogram his spaceship AI... well I take it you don't care what I do with her right?"

Sarah shrugged: "no, as long as you don't delete the collected data it's fine"

Rose: "Understood... captain~ I'm already processing the data too haha"

Sarah rolled her eyes and decided to change the topic: "So, when is Erik coming back?"

Rose: "Hmm... well I can't move the machine without it breaking for now..."

Sarah: "Can't we just go there then?"

Rose shrugged: "if you are okay with it then sure" and stood up to open the door, making the small Yhana and fellow Yaksha tribe members that had been protecting the door fall inside.

Yhana swiftly stood up on her tentacles and bowed to Shana, while saying something.

Sarah: "What did she say?"

Rose: "That you smell like Erik... more or less, wait" she put her hand on the walls of the Aquilón submarine and turned some nanobots into a translation collar, then putting it around Sarah's neck "That should do"

Sarah: "Wha-"

Yhana: "We defend the partner of the great one, Yhana protect! Yhaksha protect!" slapping her shoulder at the end.

Yhaksha: "Protect!" and the other eight Yaksha in the hallway followed suit.

Sarah stood up slowly and almost stumbled, but Rose grabbed her hands.

Rose: "Let me help"

Sarah: "Thanks"

As they came out of the infirmary Sarah saw Inky standing there to the right of the doorway, waiting with her back against the wall, her left foot on the wall and her arms crossed, a scowl on her face.

Sarah: "...Hi... I'm Sarah and you?"

Inky looked at her up and down: "Hmph, I know who you are, I'm Inky"

Sarah: "Inky... sounds quite peculiar, did your parents name you that?"

Inky smiled, her mouth full of sharp teeth: "No, Erik named me that way!"

Sarah paused and bowed slightly: "I apologize in his stead if he caused you any inconvenience"

Inky got angry: "Inconvenience? He's my partner" and touched her belly with a wicked smile "I carry his child... and he carries mine~"

Sarah's face paled: "w-wha... what did you say?!"

Inky's smile got wider as she turned around and left, now in a much better mood.

Sarah: "w- wait!" but Inky had already left quickly, the stumbling Sarah had no hope to catch up to her, so she turned to the nearby Rose "WHAT DID SHE MEAN WITH THAT?!"

Rose shrugged: "isn't that what living beings do? reproduce"

Sarah: "...with an alien?"

Rose: "Well... aren't you the exotic alien here?"

Sarah looked around and she noticed some octopeople guards with spears stealing glances at her, not even bothering to hide their boners, even happier when they noticed Sarah looking in their direction.

Sarah felt a chill all over her body, turning to Rose again: "a-are they a sex crazed society? l-like rabbits?"

Rose: "....pretty much, but with castes, the bigger you are the more important you are, under those circumstances, a small human doesn't have much say in anything don't you think?"

Sarah: "Even then... you seem too suspicious... you could have helped him keep them away"

Rose shrugged: "I don't care how I seem" she pointed down "The fact is that I'm the planet and I needed help and so did Erik, I like Erik, and he likes you... so you should probably talk to him"

Sarah nodded: "...yes, please take me to him"

Rose: "Don't you wanna wait here for him? I can take you to his room, the floating city is still dangerous after all"

Sarah was conflicted for a moment, but in the end: "...okay" She didn't wanna go back there, her whole body trembled and her new heart ached in pain just at the thought of going out "Agoraphobia...?"

-- Inside the lizardmen's network --

Erik meditated as Rose worked.

Rose: "Done! The gateways are open, let's go!" grabbing Erik's hand and dragging his through a river of data.

Erik: "W-wait-" but it was too late, Erik felt as his body disintegrated into data to then reappear a moment later "What the hell..." he looked around and he was in a huge city surrounded by an abundant forest "What is this place..."

Rose then patted his shoulder, surprising him.

Rose: "It's me don't worry~, we shouldn't get caught though, your mind might die if the server is cut off from your body"

Erik: "...that didn't help"

Rose: "Sorry, it was vital information you needed to know..., anyway this place... seems to be something their ancestors built, the ideal lizardman city like on their home planet..."

Erik: "Oh... like a VR game?"

Rose: "Nerve VR yeah, but... only allowed to techno priests and important people it seems..."

Erik: "So... what are we doing here?"

Rose: "First we need to steal their data, then..." Her smile widened beyond what her physical body would have allowed "I will devour their digitalized minds and kill all the important people in their empire in one go~"

Erik: "Hm... yeah it's a good plan, we'll stand out too much though"

Rose: "No worries~" Rose clicked her fingers, and their appearance instantly changed to lizardmen "No one will know like this"

Erik shrugged: "Alright after you then" letting Rose lead the way.

Rose smiled: "follow me then, we need to get to a building in the middle of the city"

Erik followed behind her: "Can't we just hack it remotely"

Rose smiled: "I could yes, but that would alert them and give them time to escape, and there could also be data loss in the process... I wanna get everything, they won't be able to endure an attack from the data core itself~"

Erik smiled too: "No objections then"

Rose: "alright then"

They arrived in front of a golden building that seemed to reach space itself, but hundreds of security guards stood in front of it.

Erik: "How do we go through that?"

Rose: "With a distraction~" she pretended to stumble and touched two lizardmen that were talking, instantly standing up "Ah, sorry"

Lizardmen: "Hmph, watch where you are go-" His face started to darken as well as his friend's.

Rose walked away as the two fell to the floor and started convulsing amidst cries of agony as they held their heads.

Erik: "What's happening to them?"

Rose: "I corrupted their data~ their brains won't be able to take the sensory overload for long"

Erik whistled impressed: "The guards aren't moving though..." seeing the guards still on their posts.

Rose: "Then... we just need more~" She calmly walked between the congregating crowd and slightly touched them, soon like a plague it spread, as Rose made a full circle and went back next to Erik "Now it will be a panic~"

As more and more lizardmen fell to the floor in pain, the guards moved to separate the crowd while some of them simply disconnected in fear.

Erik: "You are truly amazing haha~ let's go"

Rose smiled: "of course"

Without guards to stand guard, they easily infiltrated the golden building, inside stood a huge lake with a rock tower building next to it.

Erik: "So pretty..."

Rose shrugged: "virtual reality has no limits, so yeah you can even put a planet on a marble, anything is possible"

They got close to the Stone tower and opened a wooden door, revealing a huge Stone stairway going down. After almost an hour of both of them going down the stairs, they reached a huge Stone room with a floating crystal that caught their attention. The crystal seemed to be pulsating with a strange energy, and Erik could feel the power emanating from it. He tried to move towards it, but a barrier made of greenish light stopped him from getting too close.

Rose: "That seems to be it"

Erik: "What is this place?" he whispered to himself, looking around for any signs of life. Suddenly, a loud screech echoed through the room, and Erik saw creatures emerging from the shadows. Most were humanoid in shape, with long, pointed fangs and sharp claws, and their eyes glowed with a menacing light.

Rose's voice rang in his head: [Erik, be careful! They seem to be the guardians of this place. They are dangerous.]

Erik: [why?]

Rose: [If you are separated from your body for too long… your body will die]

Erik nodded, tightening his grip on his left arm, which had now transformed into a sharp blade.

Erik: "I won't let them stop me. We have to get to that crystal."

Rose: [You noticed quickly, yeah… that crystal seems to be the core of this virtual world, if we can set a virus inside and hack it… we would take control of their entire network]

Erik: "Since you are connected to me it's fine if I get to it first, right?"

Rose: "Indeed"

Erik nodded: "I'm ready"

Rose beside him clicked her fingers, and a huge mace appeared on her hand.

Rose: "haha~ let's do this!"

The creatures charged at Erik and Rose, their claws flashing in the dim light. Erik dodged their attacks and countered with quick, precise strikes, his blade slicing through the air with deadly accuracy. The creatures were fast and agile, but Erik's years of training had honed his reflexes to a razor's Edge, he had gone through training in many different martial arts back on Earth, so this was nothing.

Rose on the other hand just pummeled anything that got in their way, her mace bigger than her body as it defied the laws of physics, and changed paths easily without any momentum conservation.

Erik: "How are you doing that?!"

Rose: "Do you want hacks too~?"

Erik sighed: "forget it"

As the battle raged on, Erik noticed that the creatures seemed to be guarding the crystal, never straying too far from it. He realized that if he could distract them long enough, he might be able to get past them and plant the virus on the crystal.

Erik: [Rose, I have a plan. ¿Can you create a distraction for me?]

Rose: [Sure thing. Just tell me when you are ready.]

Erik nodded, watching the creatures carefully. They were getting more aggressive, sensing that they were getting closer to the crystal.

Erik: "Now!"

Rose's voice echoed loudly through the room, and suddenly, a bright light filled the space, blinding the creatures momentarily. Erik took advantage of the distraction, leaping over them and landing next to the crystal. He quickly touched it and a light emerged from his hand, taking the shape of a small, floating crystal, and Erik watched as it merged with the main crystal.

Erik: "Done."

As he turned to leave, one of the creatures lunged at him, but he parried the attack with his blade and kicked it away. He then dashed towards the door, his heart pounding with adrenaline. He had succeeded. He knew that the repercussions of his actions would be felt throughout the world, millions of lizardmen might die, and most were probably innocent, but Erik just sighed, it wasn't his problem.

Erik: [Rose, let's get out of here.]

Rose: [Agreed. We must leave before the guardians recover.]

As they ran towards the exit, Erik couldn't help but look at Rose smiling widely beside him. As they emerged from the room and climbed the stairs to the surface, Erik took one last look at the crystal, now glowing with an eerie yellow light.

Soldiers were waiting for them outside the tower, but Rose just waved her hand and they all turned to Stone.

Erik: "What?"

Rose: "I'm the sole administrator of this place now~ I'm a god inside here"

Erik: "I see… then let's disconnect, I wanna go see Sarah"

Rose: "Right, she also wants to see you too"

Erik paused: "is she okay now?"

Rose: "Yeah, she's waiting in your room, and don't worry, I'm keeping the octopeople away"

Erik sighed in relief: "Thanks…" Erik looked up "Anyways, thanks for taking care of her, I'm deeply grateful" Then bowed to Rose.

Rose lifted him up: "No need for that, you are my friend Erik"

Erik: "Rose… wait, keeping octopeople away?"

Rose made a circle with two fingers of her left hand and made the index finger of her right hand go through it repeatedly: "She's exotic and weaker than them so…"

Erik sighed deeply: "okay, let's go"

Rose: "There's more good news too"

Erik took off the helmet.

Erik: [what?]

A vídeo then appeared in his mind of baby octopeople playing together.

Erik: [awww so cute] he caressed his belly [what about mine?]

Rose: [hmmm not sure, but their development seems to be around... seventy percent complete I would say]

Erik: [and Inky?]

Rose: [would need to scan her body to know]

Erik nodded, remembering Rose wasn´t allowed to connect to native life forms.

Erik: [I better hurry back then] and stood up from the rusty chair.

Rose: [but be careful, you didn't destroy all the turrets]

Erik nodded and did his power armor.

Erik: [noted, I'll use the same path back]