[Scene 1: The Zero-Gravity Kitchen]
The temporal shock dissipated, leaving behind a dizzying silence and the heavy aroma of yeast and melted cheese. Team Sloth—shaken, disoriented, and now a full hour off-schedule—were stranded on a floating, asteroid-sized slice of pepperoni. They had arrived at the Pizza Nebula.
It was a vast, edible nightmare: an infinite cosmic kitchen where gravity was a polite suggestion. Planetary bodies were shaped like colossal slices of Sicilian pie, and oversized toppings—olives, mushrooms, and pepper flakes—drifted lazily in the void.
Astrid, defying zero gravity with sheer force of will, was trying to anchor herself to a crust-ridge. Her voice was pure, pressurized fury. "Unacceptable! A full sixty-minute temporal loss! And this environment is a logistical obscenity! Facts first, feelings later! Fact: I am covered in tomato puree. Feeling: I require a sterile environment!"
Leo, still fighting the residual fog of his Inertia-induced coma, found his philosophical despair amplified by the environment. "This entire dimension is dedicated to snack-based horror," he groaned, already spotting a drifting bag of limited-edition caramel clusters—just out of reach.
But the moment of strategic confusion was brutally exploited. Standing balanced effortlessly on a floating basil leaf was Dmitri Fox. He was tossing the stolen Memory Tuner in his hand, his red fox mask giving his triumphant arrogance a menacing edge.
"Welcome to the Pizza Nebula, Sloth King," Fox sneered. "A fox finds every gate—even the ones you accidentally open by collapsing libraries. Thanks for the Memory Tuner. I now know everything you forgot upon waking. You lost the race before the starter pistol even fired."
[Scene 2: The Tactical Fumble and The Pursuit]
Fox's revelation—that he knew their memories, their vulnerabilities, and their next moves—hit Leo with the force of a psychic punch. The corrosion of the sabotaged artifact deepened his self-doubt.
"Give him the prize, Vance," Astrid hissed, clutching the Red Teapot tight. "He already won the knowledge."
"We never give up assets, Laura!" Leo countered, forcing himself to move. He had to prove his leadership wasn't a liability. He engaged the REMulator Band, boosting his mental focus despite his exhaustion. "Tank, suppressive fire! Lulu, find the best angle for escape!"
Tank immediately understood the command. He grabbed a massive, dried mushroom cap floating nearby and hurled it at Fox with terrifying velocity. "Let's smash AND grab! Less talk, more tossing!"
Fox dodged the mushroom easily, responding with his spectral playing cards. The cards sliced through the air, targeting Lulu's feet. Lulu, surprisingly agile, used the zero gravity to her advantage, snapping photos of the cards as she twirled away.
Leo knew brute force would fail. He lunged toward Fox, not to fight, but to steal back the Tuner. Fox anticipated the move and sliced a floating wedge of pepperoni in half, sending the two pieces spinning violently toward Leo.
Leo had no choice. He collapsed into a desperate, focused Inertia Pulse, aiming to stabilize the area around himself. The golden pulse solidified the air, causing the two pepperoni halves to instantly freeze mid-flight, creating a temporary defensive barrier.
"Effective stabilization, zero-effort solution," Astrid conceded grudgingly, providing commentary while calculating escape vectors.
[Scene 3: Strategic Failure and Retreat]
The brief Inertia Pulse cost Leo nearly all his remaining energy. He was instantly drained, collapsing onto the spongy cheese surface. Fox took the opportunity. He wasn't interested in a prolonged fight. He simply unleashed a wave of psychic static—the kind that amplifies anxiety—and vanished into a mushroom cloud, leaving the team adrift.
"He's gone. He just confirmed he knows our strategy and our weaknesses," Astrid stated flatly, pointing her tablet at the vanishing spectral trail. "The mission is compromised. We need to find a way to analyze the Red Teapot and find the Zodiac Gate coordinates immediately."
The team retreated to the "inner crust" of the pizza slice, a relatively stable area covered in floating, dried herbs. The atmosphere was thick with defeat, frustration, and the pungent smell of oregano.
Lulu, ever the optimist, tried to cheer them up. "At least we got the coolest prize! It's super retro! I found a mini-sauce packet shaped like a dragon! Let's snapshot this!"
Leo, defeated and fighting the corrosive self-doubt planted by the sabotaged artifact, felt the heavy burden of his leadership failure. "I failed the Inertia check. I should have achieved Zeroness sooner. My desire to recover the Tuner was an ego-driven action—a betrayal of my own philosophy," he muttered, his inner strategist punishing his own failure.
[Scene 4: The Shared Snark of Exhaustion]
Astrid sank onto the crust beside him. She was furious—at Fox, at the Protocol, and at Leo, though she projected none of this externally. She wanted to yell about his statistical failure, but the sight of his genuine, weary despair stopped her.
She pulled a mini-espresso maker from her coat—a necessary, inefficient luxury. She made two shots: one for herself, one for Leo. "Here, Vance. Data suggests sustained consciousness requires immediate caffeine administration. Don't call it comfort. Call it chemical necessity."
Leo took the espresso, his hands shaking slightly. He looked at her, his amber eyes soft with a rare, sincere compassion. "You gave me the last of your focus fuel, Laura. That's statistically inefficient for Mission Control."
"It's a necessary calculation for anchor stability," Astrid retorted, maintaining her rigid facade but unable to meet his gaze. She then delivered a sharp, witty critique, a shared language that was their actual expression of affection. "Besides, if you fall asleep now, you'll probably start dreaming about the Duck with the Hammer stealing my tablet, and I can't abide by the data loss."
Leo managed a small, genuine smile. "I'd never dream of stealing your tablet, Laura. It contains too many spreadsheets. My dreams are strictly analog."
The tension eased, their shared exhaustion creating an island of intimacy in the chaotic zero-gravity kitchen. This quiet moment of Pure Consciousness Love—mutual reliance and understanding beneath layers of snark—was a direct counter to the anxiety outside.
[Scene 5: Deciphering the Teapot and The Hidden Spy]
The team focused on the prize: the Red Teapot. It wasn't just a container; it was the final, intricate riddle before the Zodiac Gate.
Lys used her Echo Lens to peer into the porcelain. "The Red Teapot is the Gate key. The energy is contained in the handle—it requires an emotional connection to activate."
Lulu, whose artistic eye often saw patterns others missed, pointed to the Teapot's base. "Look! The glaze is cracked in a pattern! It's a star map!"
They realized the Red Teapot itself held the final, hidden coordinate. They successfully deciphered the pattern, revealing the precise location of the first Zodiac Gate within the Pizza Nebula—a nearby cosmic oven.
Triumph swept through the exhausted team. They had the prize, the coordinate, and renewed focus.
"We move in five minutes. Tank, set up a defensive perimeter. Lulu, stay by Lys," Astrid commanded, her voice regaining its crisp, tactical edge. "Vance, you lead. You know this environment best."
Leo nodded, grabbing his snack packet. "My Inertia will stabilize the push to the Gate. Let's finish this."
CLIFFHANGER:
As the team prepared to move, Leo pulled out his snack packet and began carefully, philosophically opening it. He paused. A very subtle detail—a single, dark unraveling marble (identical to Molly's weapon from Chapter 9) was stuck to the underside of his snack packaging. It was warm and faintly pulsing.
Leo immediately scanned the team with a quick, practiced glance. No one was near him. The marble was new; it hadn't been there a minute ago.
He realized Fox and Molly hadn't just sabotaged the library mission; they had used the confusion of the time jump to get close enough to plant a surveillance or corruption device directly onto a team member.
But the artifact wasn't on Tank, or Astrid, or Lys. It was hidden right beneath his nose, within his comfort zone.
A cold, horrifying understanding washed over him, draining the humor entirely. The marble was a tracking device, but its placement was too precise, too intimate. It meant someone they had allied with, someone they had just trusted during their frantic retreat, had been working with the rivals all along.
The spy was already in the room.
Leo crushed the marble in his hand, letting the dark psychic dust dissolve into nothing, but the secret remained. He couldn't trust anyone. He looked at Astrid, who was calculating trajectories. He looked at Lulu, who was taking happy pictures.
Who among them was working for the Void Whispers?