“Yuri!” I grabbed Yuri’s hand. “We gotta get out of here! Follow me!”
“Thunder! Lucha!” Yuri frantically screamed at the kneeling siblings. But they were completely oblivious to Yuri’s cries. A wave of energy blew across the room. Yuri and I were momentarily lifted into the air, and then dropped to the floor. The floor vibrated, and began to crack. No, it was actually opening up! Not good…! The tremor was becoming more intense, more violent.
Za-zuun! There was the muffled sound of an explosion coming from somewhere. It didn’t sound like something the United Space Force used.
“Kei! Over there!”
Yuri was pointing at the Space Smasher panel. The intense light coming off of it had started to fade, and in places fire had begun to spurt up behind the glass. The explosion was inside the Space Smasher.
Isabella stood, obviously still in shock and shaken.
“Get back!” Yuri and I both yelled at the same time.
The sudden huge explosion of the control panel rattled my eardrums. The fire had completely broken through the panel.
“Gyaaa!”
Isabella’s body was completely engulfed in a violent flame. No longer a body, but a mass of fire, she fell in our direction.
“Aah!”
We shielded our faces, and cowered. But the fire didn’t come as far as we stood. Looking, we saw that the barrier was still in place and functioning. Isabella was reduced to ashes, the shape of a person completely gone.
Krrrack! The walls warned us they were about to break. Straining and twisting, one by one they began to open up. The barrier couldn’t stay up forever, either, I figured. Yuri and I rushed to a large opening in one wall. Thunder and Lucha were still frozen in a kneeling position. There was nothing more we could do.
“I’m staying!”
Suddenly Yuri let go of my hand and tried to run to where the other two were. It was suicide! I grabbed Yuri’s other wrist and pulled it tight. She ricocheted back to me. The momentum sent us through the hole in the wall.
The barrier expired.
The flames filled the room. From the crack in the wall we had escaped through, fire shot out like a flamethrower, whipping around like a snake’s tongue, as long as a roman sash.
“Thunder! Lucha!” Yuri screamed, half-crazed. Don’t cry, Yuri! There are other men out there!
The earthquake didn’t stop. Scolding the bawling Yuri, we slowly plowed through the mountains of rubble. The inside of the castle was in ruins. I couldn’t recognize which way was which. For the moment, we needed to get out of this rampart and find the outside so that I could reset my bearings. The stone walls were crumbling, the pillars were folding, the floor was splitting open. We were as nimble as acrobats. To the left, right, up, then down, we took what looked like the safest route, trudging through the rubble and steel girders. At one point we were almost crushed by a huge several-ton block, which missed us by only centimeters. Sure, I had broken a cold sweat, but chaos was our business, and I was never actually that afraid. Focusing on my acrobatic challenge kept my brain too busy.
How far had we gone? Suddenly, I mean literally, suddenly, we were on the outside of the castle. It was a rather dramatic single step. Straddling a crag, we readily met with the open air.
“Kei…”
Looking up at the sky, Yuri meekly called out my name.
“Hm?” I answered in what I have been told sounds like an emotionless response. Turning my head, my blood instantly ran cold.
“E-eruption…” I stuttered, dumbfounded.
The giant volcanic crater in the center of our island was exploding. Vomiting red fire, we could only see rubble through the rising pillars of blackened ash-colored smoke rising above—
I don’t know if it was a buzzing in my ears or the rumble from the ground, but there was a thumping sound twisting through my head. I couldn’t stand it any longer. This must be Hell. Red rocks and lava began to rain down here and there. Ash floating in the air started sticking to our bodies. The earthquake was about a magnitude four, and wasn’t losing any intensity. My body had almost grown accustomed to the rhythm of the constant shaking.
“Lovely Angel!” I called out, half-sobbing. “Where’s Lovely Angel?”
“There!” Yuri said, apparently figuring out our location from the surroundings. She got it together quicker than I did. At some point she had stood up and surveyed where we were. Most people facing an unheard of crisis of this magnitude don’t find the time to calm down and think rationally.
Like a couple of tight-ends avoiding tackles, we ran in a zig-zag. We were trying to dodge bullets. Now I could safely say I was scared.
“Aah!”
Yuri screamed out. Wha-what, did you get hit?
“It’s Mugi!” said Yuri. “Mugi is here!”
“Really?!”
I looked where Yuri pointed. He was about one hundred meters to our left. Thanks to the volcanic ash it was hard to see that far.
“Hu-myaa!” I could hear him call out. There was no mistaking. It was Mugi. But what was that dumb lug doing?
Yuri and I ran to Mugi’s side. I don’t know what he was up to, but he was sitting comfortably on some sort of scrap metal. He was audaciously grooming his coat. You big jerk! You had us worried…
“Hyaa!” Yuri shrieked again. You really need a volume knob. No matter where you look, you scream!
“Kei…” Yuri called to me. Annoyed, I walked over to where she was standing. It was by some more scrap metal.
“Kei, this is…” Yuri said, her face losing color. “…Thunder and Lucha’s submarine jet…”
“Erk!”
Either way, fate would have taken them today. Indeed, it was the submarine jet that they came here on, the one with the Anti-Smasher installed on it.
“What happened? Why is it in pieces… ?” I asked Yuri, upset. Her chin jutted out.
“If you look closely you can see for yourself. Every piece has either marks from Mugi’s claws or Mugi’s teeth.”
“Wha-what?” I stammered in surprise. Could she really think Mugi could do something like this? The-the Anti-Smasher, too?
“We were careless…” said Yuri. Somehow at times like this Yuri was able to come across as calm and cool. “The Anti-Smasher uses an electromagnetic wave. That frequency must be one that drives Mugi crazy—”
“Oh!”
I clapped my hands together. So that was why Mugi had gone batty, and jumped out of Lovely Angel. I get it… It was like it was broadcasting a kind of poison!
“No mistake, to stop the pain he tore it apart,” Yuri stated. That must be what happened. But, really, how could that have happened? I guess that’s just the way things were meant to be.
“Mugi,” I shouted. He ignored me. “You stupid idiot cat! This is all your fault!”
“Take it easy, Kei!” Yuri stopped me. “For now, let’s worry about getting onboard Lovely Angel.”
“Hmph. Fine.” I spun around and glared at the slowly shrinking Mugi.
“Mugi, let us on your back and take us to Lovely Angell You at least owe us that much!”
“Mi-gya…”
Mugi bowed his head and let Yuri and I mount his back. Before we were fully settled, he took off running.
After a few minutes the shining scarlet hull of Lovely Angel came into view. Soon we were able to see her completely. Leave it to Mugi to get us back to her in no time.
“We’re in luck.” Yuri bowed her head, as if giving thanks. “Lovely Angel isn’t damaged.”
Well of course she isn’t! Lovely Angel is the strongest ship in the galaxy!
Covered in white ash, we ran up Lovely Angel’s boarding ramp.