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A long teeth-shattering screech shattered the silence in the empty streets of Alkupera Town as Ludor yanked the steering wheel hard into a row of parked cars, scraping side to side until one locked with his. Pushing the locked car against the ones ahead, he revved harder until a gap formed, then reverse parked into it with a thunk! as he hit the car behind.
‘Wrong street, arsehole,’ Debrov muttered from the backseat just loud enough for Ludor to hear.
Ludor didn’t bother replying but pointed above a yellow building across the street to a sign between two four-storey windows. It read, ‘Domers Club’ with an arrow pointing down an alley.
They headed across the road in threes. With Mutt on a leash, Ludor took FORCE and BRISK, then Debrov waited five minutes before following him with FIERCE and SHARP. Though the day was barely over, this evening it seemed the townsfolk were having an early one.
‘Don’ts anyone party around here?’ said BRISK.
‘Leffels are a buncho boring farks,’ replied FIERCE.
They encountered no one all the way to the Domers Club door. With a single kick, FORCE brought it down and in they went. Ludor tied Mutt to a wooden column where he flopped to the floor, sad-eyed, tail thumping. Resisting a playful roughing up of the amiable hound, Ludor looked around.
Debrov wandered around the room. ‘So much treasure to trash.’ Overwhelmed by choice, her eyes travelled across shelves of books, trophies, and framed photographs that lined the foyer walls.
‘Plenty some good clean stuff to fark up.’ FIERCE almost drooled at the prospect of trashing the place.
‘Agreed,’ agreed BRISK.
‘Leave nothing standing’ Debrov swiped a hand across a shelf, bringing paraphernalia crashing down.
The trievers took it as permission to get into some prime farkery. Down came shelves. Over went bookcases. Through went fists and weapons.
Ludor was more interested in a closed door with light coming out from under it. He got FORCE to kick it in, but it was sturdier than the outside door. FIERCE and BRISK lent a hand and down it crashed. Captain and trievers in trail, in he went.
Behind the partition wall, the Domers sat in the rest area with their packs packed waiting for Shellany to collect them. Lanseth had sent several messages that showed as unsent on his aide. Upon hearing crashing noises in the foyer, he’d sent another: Gorgons are here! Come now but be careful. Tawawa!
The Gorgons sauntered in. The trievers broke away from their bosses and wandered around picking up and dropping stuff, then kicking it if it didn’t break. FORCE and FIERCE bashed their weapons against the partition wall until there was more of it down than up, revealing the Domers standing behind the low table, chairs discarded.
‘There’s nothing here you want,’ Lanseth said as Ludor and Debrov stepped over the rubble towards them.
‘Is that so?’ Debrov stealthily approached and weighed up the situation: weakling Leffels, no weapons, full packs. ‘Shall I interrogate them?’ she asked Ludor.
Ludor did his own weighing up. The full packs confirmed they’d been expecting them, which meant they knew something and had probably devised an annoying time-consuming obstacle between him and delivering the toy to Boss King. In reply to Debrov’s question, he shook his head. ‘Bring me anything that looks... Domey.’ They knew what they were after.
The trievers blasted into action. They opened doors to cupboards and rooms and destroyed anything that didn’t resemble the target item. Ludor noted the empty locker cabinets under the window, then signalled to Debrov to do her thing. Getting close to their faces, she circled the Domers. ‘Where are you going with those packs?’ The farkery on her mind was evident in her grin as she toyed with them. Without warning, she yanked Lanseth’s off his back and tore it open. Out spilled cords, controllers, a bunch of small devices, and his check-patterned capsule. She shoved a hand inside it and pulled out his Essaverse.
‘Found it!’ She held it up.
‘Careful! That’s fragile!’ Lanseth warned.
‘What, this?’ Debrov tossed it from hand to hand.
Snatching it from her, Ludor opened the capsule and tipped out the four balls inside. The biosphere was black, blue, and white. ‘It’s not the Universe.’ When he let go of it, Lanseth’s Essaverse hit the floor with a clunk.
‘Careful!’ said all of the Domers at once.
‘What the actual fark?’ Debrov yanked the packs off the rest of the Domers’ backs and tipped out each capsule. ‘Is this some kind of decoy?’
‘It’s a collection,’ Ludor said wearily. ‘There’s six of them in total.’
‘I count six here, so one of them must be the Universe.’
‘I have two,’ Prinn confessed then quickly shut her mouth.
‘Nice try,’ said Debrov. ‘Which one is the Universe?’
‘We don’t have one. I have an Essaverse,’ said Lanseth.
‘And I have a Thalverse,’ said Alrick right afterwards.
Renoy shook his head and sighed. ‘There’s a Bonverse in mine.’
Prinn said woefully. ‘Mine has my two Wellaverses. Please don’t hurt them.’
Debrov chortled. ‘I think we can all agree that some prime farkery is going to happen to your precious toys. I tell you what: if you release the Universe, we’ll limit the disfigurements to your arms and legs and leave your pretty little Leffel faces alone.’
Renoy scoffed. ‘You’d fark us up even if we had it.’
Debrov laughed. ‘So true. I have little control over the squad once they’re in a frenzy. Hand over the toy and I’ll stop them before they maim you for life.’
The trievers returned empty-handed.
‘Nothing worth nothing,’ said SHARP.
‘Ramp up farkery?’ FIERCE asked.
Ludor ignored them and emptied the coloured balls s from the remaining cannisters. He studied them long and hard. None of them resembled Boss King’s image. He’d been right. They were all a little different and the Universe was far more complex looking. ‘It’s not here,’ he concluded.
‘Smash them?’ said Debrov.
Ludor gave them the go ahead.
As FORCE raised a sledgehammer over his head, Renoy said quickly but calmly, ‘Pretty sure Boss King will fark you up if you destroy them.’
Debrov pressed her face against his. ‘What the fark do you know?’
Despite her rotten breath, Renoy didn’t flinch. ‘Not a lot, but I figure he’d want them for his collection.’
‘He only wants the Universe,’ Ludor stated plainly.
‘Two collections are better than one,’ Renoy said with a casual shrug.
Lanseth caught on to Alrick’s ruse and exclaimed in fake shock, ‘Stop encouraging them to take our Cosmo Domes!’
Alrick played a more realistic hand. ‘He might as well have them. Least they’ll be looked after.’ Severing their biospheres was far from looking after them, but if the Gorgons took them, they would at least have time to figure out how to get them back.
Debrov looked to Ludor and shrugged. ‘Could mean extra barrels.’ Boss King often threw in barrels of brew as rewards for good work.
‘Or bonus pay,’ said SHARP.
‘Extra free times,’ was BRISK’s vote.
Ludor thought on it briefly. If left to the trievers, they would probably end up accidentally breaking the additional toys on the way back. They weren’t exactly careful with their weaponry. As for Debrov, she had a weakness for smashing things when told not to. That all meant the responsibility would fall to him, as usual. He was done with this task even before it began, and he didn’t need more responsibilities and diversions. ‘We’re here for one toy and that’s what we’re leaving with. Smash them.’
‘No!’ Prinn rushed at the loose balls containing equipment and chambered biospheres, gathered them in her arms, and knelt with them under her torso.
FIERCE laughed and raised her sledgehammer. Lanseth only just managed to drag Prinn away before it came down. A single blow got two capsules. Chips and dents appeared in their preservation chambers as they rolled unevenly away. It took a few more bashes before black shards of rock flew into the air and the Cosmo Domes cracked open. The biospheres inside instantly turned to dust.
‘You destroyed them!’ Prinn sobbed.
Alrick rushed at FORCE to stop her smashing more, but BRISK pushed him to the ground before he got there. Renoy attempted to reclaim three chambers that rolled away, but SHARP kicked his legs from underneath him. FORCE resumed an attack, and with a grunt, smashed a few more chambers to smithereens with a pickaxe. With the Domers watching on in shock, the other trievers finished them off. When they were done, there was nothing left but crushed rock, dust, and a sweet metallic smell.
Ludor observed the carnage with interest and found it curious how the four Domers huddled together consoling each other. No one in Dirt City cared enough to get upset about anything, and here were four people comforting each other over a few broken toys. He didn’t understand it at all, and he didn’t like the tight feeling it gave him in the chest when Debrov toyed with them, drawing mild blood, small fractures, and gentle cries.
Debrov leapt at Lanseth, locking him in a wide-eyed stare, knife to throat. ‘Where’s the toy?’
‘I told you. It’s not here,’ Lanseth replied through tight lips.
‘One last chance before we cut loose.’
Lanseth said nothing.
Ludor watched on without giving anything away. He found it unsettling that the Domers just sat there instead of fighting back. In Gorgonia, refusing to brawl brought shame and showed weakness. Perhaps it showed strength here. While only a theory, it made him mad that they might consider themselves superior. While he loathed the Gorgon life, Leffels were still the enemy. When Debrov looked over for his command, he nodded. ‘Take them down.’