[Somewhere in Space.]
"Stop."
Five massive battleships and a lone warship ground to a halt. Before them, the chilling sight of a wreckage—a battleship was now nothing but a shattered graveyard of twisted metal and floating debris.
Star gazed at the wreckage, a slow exhalation escaping her lips.
"First Commander! There's a planet nearby," a lady reported, her fingers flying across a keyboard.
Star nodded, her attention returning to the speaker. "Ok... Let's continue."
She steered her battleship toward the planet, the others falling into formation behind her.
"Stealing a battleship is a crime, but what's the motive behind it?" she muttered to herself, the question hanging in the silent void of her bridge.
BOOOOOOM!!!
Her train of thought was shattered.
"....?!?"
Star's eyes widened in shock as a bolt of pure black lightning erupted in the space ahead of her.
"...What the?!" the lady's voice came through the speaker, laced with disbelief.
'A lightning strike in outer space? Is that even possible?' Star thought, instinctively slowing her ship's pace.
"Commander! What should we do?!" her subordinate's voice crackled.
Star stared at the speaker, a bad feeling tightening its grip on her chest. That lightning was foreboding, a harbinger of something terrible. She clenched the steering wheel, her mind made up.
"We retreat—"
BOOOOM!!!!!
"....?!!"
Star froze as all the controls on her battleship had gone dead..
"What the hell?!!" she bellowed.
WHOOSH!!
An invisible, unknown force gripped her battleship and the five others, yanking them with unstoppable momentum toward the nearby planet.
"SHIT!!!"
Her eyes widened in horror. In a matter of seconds, they were inside the planet's atmosphere, hurtling through a ferocious storm.
"I can't send a message?! Why is that?!" she shouted, then tried to activate her Cosmic Brain. Nothing. It had shut down too.
Acting on pure instinct, she summoned her armor, the brilliant golden suit shimmered into existence and enclosed her body.
"I hope they thought of this!" she muttered.
"Their elite-class armors should protect them from the fall!"
Star watched as the swirling storm clouds cleared, revealing a desolate, blackened landscape below.
"Hold on!!" Star screamed, as the first of the battleships smashed into the ground.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
____
[Back to Sunny.]
Sunny stood up, moving away from the others, and opened a channel to Nioh.
"My King? What happened?" Nioh's voice was tinged with worry.
"Five battleships left the planet. Who took them?"
"Five?" Nioh was stunned. He had expected Sunny to ask about the single missing battleship, not the five that had just left.
"My King, Star took them with ten soldiers..." he reported. Noticing the worry etched on Sunny's face, he asked:
"Is something wrong, my King?"
"She's in danger," Sunny's voice was grim.
"I'll send you coordinates. Your job is to stop any battleship, warship, starship, or even transport ship. Make sure none crosses the coordinates I give you!"
"Wait... in danger? How?" Nioh was now thoroughly confused.
"Just focus on your mission," Sunny commanded, then ended the call.
____
[Beastify Nation.]
Nioh blinked, turning to Nicolas and Blood Eye. "Do you think the one who stole the battleship attacked them?" Nicolas asked.
"Not possible. He or she only took one, while Star took five battleships and a warship," Blood Eye reasoned.
"There's no way they could get attacked... but for the King to call, it must be serious."
DING!
Nioh's Cosmic Brain chimed, displaying the coordinates Sunny had just sent. He nodded grimly.
"New mission! Let's go. We must secure these coordinates."
Without question, Nicolas and Blood Eye followed him out of the throne hall.
______
[Back to Sunny.]
Sunny returned to the group, his gaze fixed on Patrick:
"Is there anything else I need to know about that planet and those creatures?" he asked, his tone so serious that everyone in the room turned to him in surprise.
"Why so serious?" Patrick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My sister just crashed inside that planet."
"...?!!"
"What?!!!"
Josephine jumped to her feet, her face paling instantly.
"Yes... Star must have been passing by, and their battleships crashed," Sunny explained, his voice tight.
"There must be something we're missing!" He turned back to Patrick. "Right?!"
Patrick let out a long sigh, looking at his feet. He gritted his teeth, then looked up at Sunny, the truth finally escaping his lips.
"Once in a while, the planet itself releases an electromagnetic wave in the form of black lightning. It travels tens of miles into space, and anything caught in it will be pulled into the planet, right into the forbidden area."
".....?!!!!"
Brittney, Sunny, Josephine, Jinx, and Ellen stared at him in utter horror. They were completely flabbergasted.
"WHAT?!!!" Sunny screamed at him.
"Look... The planet is far off at the boundary of the galaxy, completely off the nations' reach. True, such a planet should be destroyed, but..." Patrick's fists clenched in rage.
"Come on, Sir Patrick!! Whatever you're still keeping from us, talk now!" Sunny demanded, a frown etched on his face.
"I lied about something," Patrick finally revealed, looking down at the ground.
"And what is that?" Sunny's gaze was unrelenting.
"The planet can't be destroyed."
"...?!!"
Everyone was stunned again.
"You think after I lost my men, my loyal subordinates, I didn't try to destroy that pothole?" Patrick's voice was low, laced with fury.
"I have many objectives for placing it on the auction... Firstly, I know you will buy it, and secondly, you might be the only one who can destroy that planet."
"What about the fruit then?" Jinx asked.
"We don't know the effect of the fruit... It's a risk, and it might also be a blessing." He sighed, looking up at Sunny.
"I'm sorry about your sister. As I said before, it's all up to you, your choice."
"Don't be sorry! Nothing will happen to her!" Sunny hissed, and switched on the system.
'Locate her!' he commanded.
{Sorry Master, but the target's cosmic brain has been disrupted.}
Sunny grimaced. 'Then track her last whereabouts...'
{Done...}
Sunny looked at the coordinates, and nodded to himself. 'If I get struck by the lightning, it will pull me towards the planet and maybe hand me to her.'
{The odds of that happening are 30%.}
'Shut up!!' he hissed at the system.
"What are you planning on doing?" Josephine whispered, turning to Sunny.
"I have to save her... No matter what, I must get her off that planet."
".....?!" Josephine was speechless.
"Oh! The time zones in the two zones are different," Brittney quickly added.
"The timezone on the good area is one day faster than the forbidden zone... Our timezone matches the forbidden area's."
Sunny nodded, then turned to Patrick. "Can you tell me something about these creatures? What are their weaknesses?"
"Weaknesses?" Patrick chuckled, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the universe. He stared at Sunny, dead in the eyes.
"They have no weaknesses."