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Chapter Seven: Burning, Part One

"Well then, it looks like you and your brothers have failed. Trust me you two won't be able to commutate your as far apart as possible on this ship; just trust me again and don't look out the window." A guard said as he dragged the pepper and salt wolf through the hallway, prisoners large and tiny all knocking against their forcefield cells and creating an almost rhythmic knocking as he was pulled deeper into the base.

"No, please you cannot do this. You need to let me go, this is a problem and you're making a mistake, my brothers are the only one in the resistance; I have nothing to do with that and I have no superpower!" The wolf said as he was dragged by the guard, the metal plates below them creaked and shifted as they passed through gates, a single touch by a finger allowing the guard through.

"Well one of your brothers been executed and your other brother is on the other side of this prison far enough away that he can't protect you and if you don't have superpowers, well I've seen Asher do worse to families that had nothing to do, so trust me if you suck it all up and stay here I'm sure you'll get pardoned by Asher in at least fifteen years." The guard said passing through another door with a simple press of his finger pad to the door's scanner, it opened and they were allowed through; while the prisoners became tinier and slightly less dangerous with each gate pass.

"Really he has, and the less damage you do here. Well the more likely you'll get out on good behavior and the easier it will be for you resume normal life. Maybe you'll become the public's little golden boy if they believe your story, or maybe they won't care and ignore you." The guard said as he passed through another gate and passed into the last section, presumably reserved for the least dangerous and humane criminals. Maybe it was filled with people that Asher didn't like or only did multiple petty crimes, but the people in the cells look liked they could barely hurt a fly or maybe they only tried to look like that.

At the last cell, the guard stopped and with another finger press, the final cell in the section opened. Unlike the other protected with a forcefield, this was protected with some sort of golden material placed around bars and only a tiny layer of glass on the sides. The guard pushed him in and pressed a few buttons on the console as the cell walls started to glow and were seemingly electrified.

"Now then, Mike Quinn welcome to the Alpha Prime Flame Ship, raise that metal shield and I'm sure you'll know why we're called that." The guard said as the wall was lowered and Mike was trapped in his cell. Mike looked as he was trapped in the cell and he was alone.

Mike put his hand against the cell and tried to use the powers that he said he didn't have, the wall bounced back the signal. It was Azbantium, he couldn't break through it and so long as the walls had electricity, then he couldn't interface with the military tech.

He walked over the wall and grabbed the metal wall; pulling it up, he was flashed as he looked out and saw the sun. It burned his eyes, he backed up and was nearly blinded. He backed up and realized they were probably orbiting the sun in a place closer than Albion.

The guard was right only orbiting a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers above the sun; anyone who dare to escape without leaving in a specialized ship would be burned by the ultraviolet light of the sun and their blood instantly poisoned by the radiation. It was inescapable, the star was their guard everyone knew where they were and where they stood and escape was more than impossible.

And thus that was the story of Mike Quinn, who would be trapped in the Alpha Prime Flame Ship eternally facing the fun and never escaping. Or would he, perhaps a spunky wolf and a twofold shark could come along. But where would they be, not on the first or second planets of the star system but instead on the fourth, Terraona Alpha.

And where on this planet would they be, of course North of the Equator, both of them in a town a hundred or so miles from the equatorial wall. King Matthew Piecewise the XXVI and the shark simply known as Basil; both of them were traveling together for a common goal. To return Matthew to his proper place as King of Terra Nova, the kingdom they would have once stood in. Right now they both stood in the center of the town, the shark looking down at Matthew as he stood on his seat.

People had gathered in front of him; his old citizens and Basil stood carefully behind him. Matthew sat down in the best golden throne and tried to hold in his giggles as he tried to hold his composure. The citizens all got down on one knee and he knew that he had to at least attempt to look professional. These people were counting on him and they trusted him.

"Do you as King accept the responsibility to protect your people and do all you can to make them as safe as possible?" Basil asked as he held the charred remains of his crowd over Matthew's head. The crown was found outside the town and it appearantly had survived falling into the atmosphere after the destruction of Grand Asher Drake's base being destroyed. Matthew had his own theories on how Basil had gotten it.

"I do."

"Do you as King accept the sword that hangs on your wall and promise to use it to defend your borders?" Basil asked as he read from a piece of paper held in front of his hand by his assistant while he held the crowd over Matthew's sun burnt head.

"I do."

"And finally, do you as King accept the responsibility and knowledge that other nations will attempt to take your land and that you will do all as possible to return your land to its normal border?" Basil said as he took a second to look back at the paper and tried to comprehend what he saw saying and what it really meant.

"I am."

And with that the crowd clapped; Matthew smiled at them and smirked a bit; he hoped that some place Asher was watching and could see him take back the first of many towns. He wished he could see Asher's face knowing that cracks were already forming in his "fool" proof plan, that he would be King of his nation again.

Basil lowered the crown on to his head and the crowd clapped. Matthew stood up and raised his hand crossing it against his shoulder. The people in the crowd stood up and did the same pledging their loyalty to him and making him at least King of their town. He figured it was a starting point.

Turning around he did the same to Basil and the shark wasted no time crossing his arm onto his shoulder as well and pledging his loyalty. Matthew moved around the chair and embraced Basil, both of them patting each other on the back as they walked off the stage.

"Basil, I am proud I could have someone as loyal and powerful as you two to protect me and you will lead my army. I can at least promise you two that, General Basil of Terra Nova, it sounds like quite the position for you; and to think one hybrid trooper did all this." Matthew said; Basil felt all too humored knowing that Matthew was speaking more diplomatic than normally in order to seem good.

"Oh you don't need to do that, It's only an honor to work with restoring your Kingdom, but you know it's always so awesome to explore this desert and god I need to figure out a way to sound not as split." Basil said as he tried to figure out a way to manage what Pesto and Cilantro said. It was weird Basil felt like he didn't exist when Cilantro and Pesto split, but when he did it was more like he was the official ambassador for both of them; he didn't have to listen or obey to them but he could hear them and he had to manage both of them.

"Well then, whatever needs to happen will happen. So then what happens from here, maybe we pick up a warrior from the town and move to the next one gain their support and work our way to the Capital; we move as we much and at a nice pace." Basil said as he tried to present their options in front of them. And then as if the universe had decided against them moving forward they heard the sounds of plasma guns being cocked. Looking forward they saw something a bit more surprising.

"Hello BL-102, Former King; I am as you would call your next pain in your side. I am Grand Asher Yu." In front of them dressed in the same ceremonial gear was an Owl. He seemed to be a Grand Asher and around him and surrounding the town were at least fifty prime troopers. Matthew looked around seeing through cracks between the houses and saw Primetroopers encapsulating the town. They were out gunned and out trapped.

Sudden flashes of lights appeared above their heads and floating gunships surrounded the town their guns focused on Matthew and Basil. One fired and knocked the crown of Matthew's head as the apple and the arrow. Matthew looked over at the crown and saw it partially knocked into a million pieces by the large bullet.

"Basil, we're out gunned and out trapped and don't have many warriors with us any plans today?" Matthew asked as Basil threw him. Matthew felt the gunship's Gatling guns started to spin. He heard the bullets trap behind him as Basil tried to block a few. Matthew started to run and ducked behind a building as the guns fired into the building above him.

He ran around dodging the bullets, turning on the house and not wanting to run out into the desert. He ran into the house and ducked under the streams of bullets. He hid in the house, as dishes and cabinets were knocked off the shields and a massive mess was made of the house.

The King ran up to the stairs and barely was knocked out as a stream of bullets followed him. He looked around and found a window, he ran over to the other side of the window. Kicking it open Matthew stepped out onto the outside of the house and climbed up onto the roof. The wolf ran forward and saw the three gunships turn towards him.

"Basil, send it now!" Matthew said knowing that he distracted the gunships for long enough. Running along the roof, Matthew jumped as Basil launched his hollow blade off his sword and into the air. Matthew grabbed the sword and as he lunged off the roof. He plunged the sword into the gunship and he held on as he pulled himself into the metal body of the ship.

Stabbing the two pilots inside, he quickly pushed them out of the ship and they fell to the ground surely killing them if they weren't dead. Taking control of the ship, he fired at the other gunships and knocked them out of the ship. He fired at the Grand Asher and the owl was protected by a forcefield. Matthew looked as the Grand Asher pulled a device out of his pocket and pulled the cover off it, clicking it and Matthew didn't fell right.

Suddenly he felt shifted, like he was forced to move through the void of space and all in one second. As he landed he felt personally horrible, he was standing a metal plate and he felt like he was going to hurl. Yet something else was wrong as he stood up he felt like he was surrounded in red tinted light, it just kept blasting at him.

"Oh god." Matthew said as he realized the town they were in was probably being exacuted by now. He felt all the build-up, all the inertia in his system that was being affected on his body. He ran over the wall of the spaceship and nearly let his entire stomach go. That was when he heard the noises. People were banging against their cells, trying to knock themselves out.

Basil looked around, for some reason he had a clip on his necklace. He felt weakened and he felt disconnected, he couldn't hear Pesto and Cilantro's voices in his head. He felt wrong he felt like he was an empty shell of a body, he had free reign he could make his own choices and not fear the consequences. So he took a breath and something felt wrong.

"No, that's not right" Basil said as he walked over and saw a window, the air had moisture but it felt all wrong the moisture was moving around in his throat and the more he felt the air was wrong. He put his face up to the window and quickly pulled his face away from the glass.

"King, we might have a problem." Basil said as he pulled back from the glass and looked at Matthew who was currently regaining his balance. Basil looked around and jumped a bit. He felt like he could jump higher than he was able to in the last three months or so; the gravity felt only as strong as Terraona Prime. "We might have some bigger problems as well, so you know might want to hurry King."

"What's wrong?" Matthew asked as he looked out into the window and his face sorrowed. "How is that possible?"

"Not sure, we must have teleported a far way. That massive ball of fire, that's our star and considering this ship has equal gravity to Terraona Prime; we're on some sort of prison ship maybe." Basil said as he looked at the forcefield cells. Most of them weren't see through, they were shaded off for some reason probably to deter them from interacting with the prisoners.

"So that's our star, right out of the window. The source of life and light and heat to all the system is right outside of that window." Matthew said as he started to have a bit of a crisis. He put his hand on his head and tried to think about how they would escape, they weren't in some sort of cage but he wondered if they could escape with the sun being so close.

"Yes, that is our sun." Basil said as he looked out the window again, being careful not to burn his eyes and other dangers that came with looking directly into the sun. Backing up he sighed a bit as the station started to shake, something was wrong. Basil walked forward and saw a door.

"Ok, what is this?" Matthew asked as he looked over to Basil for some information. There was a side panel on the door, and over it a screen and some sort of palm shaped device. Basil took a look at the device and scanned it with his eyes.

"It's a palm scanner, something so that only special people can get through these doors, very posh these days, either way let's see if Grand Asher Yu is confident that I would so special enough to get through doors." Basil said as he put his hand into the palm scanner and a green light scanned under his hand and checked all the individual lines and finger prints.

The light under his hand flashed red and Matthew looked at Basil. The shark seemed somewhat offended that his hand print was rejected by the door. And with that Basil took a few breaths, gaining his calm mind before he walked back.

"You horrible stupid door, take this!" Basil said as he seemingly lost his calm. He kicked forward and with energy his foot punctured the metal panel and electricity fired out. As if to taunt them, the entire station started to shake and wobble as the entire system started to short out.

The entire space station started to shift; Matthew was pushed against the wall as suddenly he felt the ship accelerate towards the sun. The screen started to flash a layer of electricity was spread over the ship. Circuits popped and the forcefields dissolved and reappeared in a second. Matthew was knocked around and Basil stood still as he realized what he did.

The ship stopped moving and the lights above them flashed on and off. Matthew didn't know if that was good or bad. Basil raised his hands and looked at them; maybe he was thinking about what he did. Maybe free reign shouldn't have been trusted to him; at least that's what he thought. He looked at the screen and it seemed to have adopted some sort of blue screen possibly of death.

"Ok, well that could have gone better. Really we could have been knocked into the sun." Matthew said as he stood up and remembered that they might have been knocked into the sun. The spaces station shook and something happened, the ship stood still, something was pulling them.

"I think I might have just gotten us caught in the magnetic field of the sun. We're being pulled in." Basil said as he looked back and saw the sun fire a few solar flares. "We want to be quite careful now; if we move in one wrong way then we might fall into the sun."

"Well then, let's get to the front of the ship." Matthew said as he put his hand against the palm scanner. This time however, the blue screen of death had a few words added to it. Matthew looked deeper into the screen and saw it was asking a question. "Who was the first president of Terraona Prime?"

...

Grand Asher Yu teleported onto the Alpha Prime Flame Center and looked out in the empty void of space. The sun looked mighty hot today; at least that was what he told himself. He couldn't feel it, a forcefield around the station kept them cool but anyone wanting to escape would have to go out into the radiation filled vacuum of space.

"Ok, Primetroopers we have some very dangerous enemies of the state here today, so all you have to be on your best behavior and make sure that they remain in their forcefields." The Grand Asher said as he spoke to the technical assistants that were monitoring the system through a highly advanced camera and thermal system.

"Well we have a bit of a problem, the teleporter seemed to have screwed up with registering Matthew so when he was reassembled, and neither he nor Basil went into their assigned cages." The techy man said as he switched camera view to the back of the station and showed Matthew and Basil standing in the section. Yu groaned as he looked at the camera and knew this would horribly affect his day.

"This is why we make sure that a hundred percent of the processor is dedicated to reassembly; activate the forcefield around that section. Then make sure they can't get any further." Yu said as he groaned a bit, and saw the two approach the gate to the next section. He then felt the ship rumble as Basil kicked the door panel in and shorted out the system.

"The reaction control system has activated in the retrograde direction, attempting to regain control." The tech said as he typed into the keyboard, navigating through the system. The ship stabilized in a system but the computer shut off, and multiple light systems shut down as the space station shook. The tech looked at Yu.

"What's wrong, don't tell me we're flying into the sun." Yu said as he felt the base shake around him. Something was wrong, the base was expanding and compression. He felt the base shook, he felt the heat of the sun on his body which wasn't right.

"No, the forcefield is now and the magnetic field of the sun is pulling the station closer, and then we'll be flying into the sun's corona. Even if we we're able to get the forcefield running again the radiation will fry it open and kill anyone left in the station." The attendant said as he looked back at Yu and hoped that the Grand Asher would be able to make the correct choice.

"We should evacuate the station, activate the teleporter. Then we'll leave the prisoners; they'll hold us back and can be sacrificed." Yu said as he turned back and clicked on a few buttons. The device clicked on and off for a few seconds before stopping and deactivating.

"The teleporters won't work sir; the magnetic field will scramble our signals. We need to take the emergency transport; they won't have enough mass to be pulled back." The aid said as he hit a button and red alarm lights activated. Guards exited through the last gate, which was being pried open.

Yu calmly walked forward and simply clicked on the button to open the shuttle pod. He walked in and about three guards followed him and then the technical attendant followed in. The shuttle doors closed the airlock closed as the shuttle left. The station was left alone, no one to guard it Basil and Matthew left alone.

The shuttle exited from the station and immediately activated its side altitude engines. The shuttle tugged away from the station for a few seconds, valiantly fighting the forces of magnetism. And as it turned to face prograde to fire into a larger orbit, they found that the sun took advantage of them and instead used its field to continue rotating the ship.

The ship blasted away, The Grand Asher struggling to control the ship as the sun fought his escape. And with that the two deployable engines were ripped off and were pulled inwards towards the sun. The Grand Asher's ship stopped accelerating and was stuck in a worse spot, without a forcefield and without a space station to take their impact.

...

"Oh, that's easy; the first King of Terraona Prime was Maxwell Prime. He replaced the former Prime Minster position and started a lineage that lasted a thousand years to this day." Basil said as he quickly rambled off what seemed to be a pointless trivia question. The palm scanner flashed green and the door opened.

"How did you know that?" Matthew asked as he looked at Basil; he was surprised with what the shark had known. How much did they teach Basil about the history of their solar system? Basil shrugged his shoulder and as Matthew passed through the door way, he figured that the shark had gotten lucky. Looking in their current section, red alarms blared above them for a few seconds before stopping.

"Hold on I think something might be happening, they might be evacuating and who knows the doors might open." Basil said as he pulled Matthew to the side of the pod and placed them so that they were hidden from anyone entering the room. Matthew wondered why anyone would want to come back here, there was no one in the pod section.

"Keep quiet." Basil said as he waited for a few seconds. They stayed still and then the doors did nothing. Basil walked up to the door and placed his palm on it. As Matthew joined him he saw the blue screen appear and so did the gold tinted question. Matthew got down and looked at the question.

"Ok, Basil let's see if you can get lucky again; how many years ago was the universe created?" Matthew said as he backed up looking at Basil to see if he could see the shark go through the processes of answering the question. The shark's mind seemed to be racing as Matthew himself thought back to his education but really he was trained to be king not be a champion at pub trivia.

"Once again, pretty easy; 1.2 Billion years ago cosmic dust collected right behind us and kick started the reacts that would create our sun." Basil said the door unlocked and they were allowed through to another cart. Great Matthew thought, at this rate they would be finished in no time.

Matthew walked through the door and Basil quickly made his move. But as he attempted to pass through the doorway, the shark stopped strangely right in front of the door. Basil felt a life force pushing at him as he passed right in front of the doorway.

"I can feel someone they're calling out to me." Basil said as suddenly his necklace the gems on his clamp and his own eyes started to glow. Matthew backed up as he realized that something was happening. Basil started to approach him putting his hands out fire flew from his hand, not some energy trick fire but actual burning fire.

"You will not stop the destruction of this station from the sun, you will come with me and together we will burn." Basil said as his voice seemed to be artificially deepened by whatever was possessing him. Matthew ran backwards as Basil took chase, fire casually coming out of the shark's hand.

Matthew backed up and found he was trapped by Basil. He couldn't find the pad for the door and he didn't think that it would help. Suddenly the entire station shook, Basil looked confused and then the two sections behind them were ripped off. Matthew looked in shook as Basil was sucked back and through the door way.

Matthew grabbed the edge of the wall and held on. Automatically it seemed the airlock's reactivated and the door at the end closed. Matthew fell to the ground as stabilization came back to him. Matthew stood up and watched as Basil was dragged out into space with no effort.

Matthew stood up and ran over to the window. Basil's eyes returned to normal and he saw the shark reach out for help, but Matthew knew that in this situation there was none he could give. Matthew closed his eyes and saw Basil's eyes flash between red and green and with that he saw the shark disappear behind the carriage.

"Basil!" Matthew yelled out as he tried to call out to the shark, If Basil was going to survive the cold, thin vacuums of space he would have to do it on his own. And as Matthew looked out into the thin abyss he wasn't sure that Basil would be able to do it.