The ship sailed on autopilot through the vast deserts, over ramshackle shacks and farmers that grumbled as they flew by. The crews quarters were crowded- beds stacked 3 high to the ceiling where heads would bump against the metal. Rezuk and Ludo sat separated from everyone else, close together while Ed, Dante and Pop snored above, Jenga sat below deck working with the engines, and Kernel sat across from them, staring deep at Rezuk with his eyes behind his mask. 

“Yer… Rezuk… right?” He reaches under his mask and scratches his nose.

“Um… yeah. Kernel, ri-”

“Rezuk who?” He blurts.

“Huh?”

“You look real familiar,” he interrupts, “I can’t quite put muh finger onit.”

“Well, I’d say plenty of kelks look similar…” Rezuk argues.

“Non-sense, your ears are oneofa kind- allurs are. It’s just a matter of putting a face to name.” He slowly lifts his mask, the harsh white ivory contrasting heavily with his deep green complexion. His lip cleft up to his nostrils, leaving a line of dark red that widened Rezuk’s eyes. His smile widened brightly, pushing his bushy goatee through down and giving a nice view of his soft toothy smile.

Rezuk covered his mouth. “Kemezemek?”

Ludo looked between them with an eyebrow raised.

“Long time nuh see,” he smiles, “But I go by Kernel now.”

Rezuk rushes across the room and wraps his hands around him, burying his face in his chest.

“I-I thought I’d never see you again!”

Kernel softly chuckles and pats his back.

“You even got your own mask! How’d you afford it? Don’t tell me Ms. Esmalt got to you!”

Kernel shakes his head. “No, I just found a good living.”

Ludo continues to stare at the two. “You know him, Rezuk?”

Kernel slowly stands up, peeling Rezuk’s arms from his torso. “I suppose I’ll be the first to introduce myself,” he starts, “Names’ Kernel, I’m Rezuk’s older brother.”

“Older brother?” Ludo quizzes.

Kernel stretches out his small hand and Ludo carefully grasps it in his own. 

“Ayup. Grew up with the guy on Bor; kid was practically glued to my leg- Uea Uea Uea!”

Ludo raises his brow at Kernel’s unique laugh, but chuckles slightly himself. 

“Left home when I was 20 I did. B‘came a farmer in the dust flats.”

“Ah, a gem farmer. Why’d you join Dante?”

Kernel sighs slightly and looks back and Rezuk, who noticed and began to tuck his head into his shirt.

“Met Dante a few years ago, became great friends. He wanted me to join but I had no reason to leave, until something… bad came up and he gave me an important opportunity.”

“Oh… I see…” Ludo peers over at Rezuk. The fuzz of his hair peeked out from the neck of his shirt and his ears lumped up on his shoulders. 

“In any case,” he continues, “I’m glad you accepted Dante’s offer. It’ll be nice to have some unique powers on the ship for a change.”

Ludo tilts his head. “Unique powers? I don’t have any powers.”

Kernel squints at him, but releases his jaw into a smile. “I see, so Cairo is going to teach you then?”

“How’d you know?”

“Ah, Cairo’s taught all of us see, say for Dante. He’s a real talented guy, and between you and me, he seems like he’s chosen by a Being.”

Ludo squints. “What’s a Being?”

Kernel’s eyes widen. “Oh, erm… I guess he’ll have to tell you? Sorry, but I gotta get goin’. My crops need a-tendin’.”

“Crops?”

Before he could answer, Kernel zipped out of the room and into the wings. Ludo and Rezuk stare out the door and back to each other, shrugging. A small groan passes through the room- like a wild beast- that both of them react to. Looking up to the highest bunk, they see Pop scraping her horns against the ceiling, snoring loudly and twisting her sheet. 

“Mmm… no…” she murmurs. Ludo and Rezuk stare at each other as she lets out an strained shout and jolts up, slamming her head against the ceiling, sticking one of her horns in it and hanging off the side of her bed, flailing her limbs around as they shrink to the size of peanuts.

“Ack! Bad dog!” she cries, still half drowsy with drool running down her sharp. Ludo attempts to release her from her position, grasping at the jacket she wore and yanking her down to his eye level.

“Yo, you good?” Ludo calls to her, snapping his fingers. Her eyes jolt open and her limbs freeze in place before inflating back up and ragdolling down. She rubs one of her eyes and looks up at him.

“Oh, hi rock-man.”

“Names’ Ludo.”

“Lu… do?” She ponders, “Nah, too hard. You Doe.”

“Uh, okay…?”

“How was you nap?”

“Didn’t take one, we’ve only been in the air for-”

“Aww, you need naps, good for you head! Take naps, dum-my!” She inflates her fist slightly and bonks Ludo on the head softly.

He looks at her sternly before softly chuckling. “Okay, sure. How was yours, sounded like you had a bad dream?”

“Oh, uh, ye. Bad dream, purp dog.”

“Purp dog?” Ludo questions, “Like a purple-furred dog?”

She nods. “Ye, big purp dog, but with ev-vil teeth and much eyes! I got big fear.”

He nods. 

“Can you please put me down?”

Ludo releases his grip on her jacket. She springs up and down out of the room like a rabbit. 

Ed yawns and slides off of his bunk gracefully, awoken by the cacophony of yells Pop had produced. Looking back at Ludo and Rezuk he wipes his chin and bows to them.

“Tis great to finally meet you, monsieurs. Mademoiselle Meilin has said great things about you, Ludo.” 

Ludo raises his brow and nods to him, shifting his eyes to the floor. 

“Meilin?” Rezuk questions, “Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

Ludo rubs his neck. Reaching into his shirt he pulls out the beetle pendant and rubs it with his thumb. “I… guess you only skimmed my makma. We broke up a while ago.”

Ed lifts his eyebrow and looks between the two. “Makma?”

“Yeah, look-” Rezuk lays out his hand. Shine emits from his pores like smoke, coagulating into a book with a brilliant red binding. 

Ed’s eyes widen and a friendly smile stretched across his face. “Ah, monsieur! Kernel never told us you developed an ability,” he smiles, “Magnifique! What do you call it?”

Rezuk tilts his head. “Um… I don’t know. Am I supposed to call it something?”

“Ehh, well not really,” he explains, “But putting a name to it gives it more personnalité. For example-” Ed becomes shrouded in red energy. Squeezing his fists, his muscles pump up slightly and the faint sound of an air pump rings through the room. “I call my ability Powa.”

Rezuk snickers, “Powa? Like with an ‘a’?”

He nods. “Pop calls hers Smash- specifically either Atom Smash or Big Smash depending on how she changes her limbs.”

“That seems a little silly, doncha think?” Rezuk asks, “I mean wouldn’t you want something cooler? Like, “Gift of the Gods” or "Big Muscles Deluxe"?”

He shrugs, energy slowly fading away. “Non, too many syllables. Usually saying the name of the power is a condition to activating it, so people make them short and sweet.”

“There’s conditions?” Rezuk and Ludo ask simultaneously.

Ed looks at them both and rubs his chin, beginning to speak, but before he can Cairo pipes up from his bunk above Rezuk. “Yep, every ability has conditions to their activation.” He jumps down from the bed and straightens his jacket. “But there’s a little more to it than that.”

“How much more?” Ludo scratches his head.

“Well, there’s too much to go into detail here,” Cairo explains, “but basically, Shine conditions allow you to wield your shine at the expense of an action. The tighter the restrictions the stronger the ability most of the time.”

“Doesn’t seem that complicated,” Rezuk points out.

“That’s just the surface level explanation. I’ll explain more when we have a nice open space to train at.”

The ship began to wobble slightly. Jenga rushes up the ladder from the engine room to the cockpit, smacking Dante awake as they ascend, him following shortly. As the ship steadies, a crackling invades everyone's ears through the ship's intercom.

“Attention all passengers,” Dante attempts to say suavely, “We have arrived at our destination. When departing please make sure to exit through the stairway carefully-” The intercom is shut off as a loud slap followed by grunt is heard from above.

The ship landed cautiously in the middle of a field covered in cyan grasses and chapped clay soils, peppered with space ships from the smallest one man capsules to the massive battle-ship sized cruise liners that frequently made their rounds around the arid planets of the solar system. In the distance the mountain line extends far into the air, piercing the fluffy white clouds like a stake through a vampire’s heart with tall skyscrapers erected at their base, shining with their silver plated coats and rumbling with the sounds of horns and footsteps even all this distance away. Ludo takes in this view from the ground below, a rough cliffside overlooking a massive pit filled with gorgeous fauna and wooden complexes in the trees and carved huts in the cliff that sharply contrasted with the vast beige and red deserts that surround it to the north.

“Damn,” Ludo somberly lamented, “I haven’t been to the Northside in years.” He turns to Dante who eagerly bounces down the steps, whistling a familiar tune through his teeth. “Meilin is living here now?” He asks him.

Dante smiles, “Mhm! Got a great job in the media.”

Ludo’s lips curl as he grips the pendant once again. 

Dante notices his trembling arms. He reaches up and pats him on the shoulder. Ludo peers down at him and sees a softness in his eyes that chills his breath and lowered his blood pressure- not that he has blood of course.

“Don’t worry,” he assures, “She's moved past your relationship."

Ludo's scales shiver as he scrunches his brow at Dante before nodding, gripping it tighter until it nearly crumples like a tissue. “As long as she’s happy…”

Dante nods as Jenga taps his shoulder. 

“We got a problem,” they cautioned, pointing to a large billboard at the edge of the cliff. Displayed on it- shining with its blue holographic light- were mugshots of each member of the crew, including Rezuk. An anchorwoman slides into frame and begins giving details-

“Attention citizens, be on the lookout for escaped convicts Ludo and Rezuk, along with their accomplices, the Hearts- a Planet-Hopping crew with a combined bounty of 200,000 credits. They are considered an extreme danger to the Borish Council and both have been given bounties of 100,000 credits. Thank you for your attention, this is an automated message.”

The woman slides back off screen and an advertisement for some sort of worm-jockey service appears on the screen. The entire crew's jaws were dislocated from their bodies and their eyes rolling on the floor.

“100,000?!” Rezuk wraps his head in his arms, trembling at the knees and sweating oceans into his shirt. “I-I-I wasn’t even… what the hell!”

Ludo’s eyes shrink as his arms shake like a motor. “Oh god… we’re really fugitives… god…”

Dante bursts out in laughter and slaps them both hard on the back. “Wow! That’s even higher than mine! Good stuff you two!”

Ludo chuckles softly to himself before turning his lips down and nearly smacking Dante’s mustache off. “How the hell can you laugh at this?! You’re going to be targeted too! We’re in serious danger!”

He rubs his red cheek and chuckles again. “It’s nothing different from before, we’re just worth more now!”

Ludo’s shoulders twinge. 

“Ye,” Pop smiles, “We was 100,000. We got 2 times more cred-its!”

“W-what?” Ludo stammers, “How is that a good thing?”

Rezuk’s eyes light up. “Oh! Ludo, remember what I told you about Planet-Hoppers?”

He shakes his head.

“They operate around bounties like a set of ratings. The higher the bounty, the more people will recognize them.”

“But isn’t that counterintuitive?”

“Not when our goal is the universe!” Dante announces.

Ludo stares a hole into his skin. “What…?”

He laughs again, echoing his gorgeous laugh across the vast planes and down to the valleys. It was as if he was a thundercloud, stoically booming his sound across the jagged cliffs of Ludo’s body, sending chills down his spine and clearing the knot stuck in his mind.

“I’m going to be the King of the Cosmos!”

Ludo's heart sinks. An immediate throbbing penetrates his head, as if his temple had been stabbed with an ice pick. He couldn't stop his shaking. "I... I really got roped in with the crazies..." he mumbles.

Rezuk more loudly states, "King of the Cosmos?!?! Are you crazy?!"

Dante chuckles. "No. Why would I be?"

"You can't possibly be serious," Ludo interjects, "Even someone as news-blind as me knows how dangerous something like that is."

"Serious as can be!" He blindly assures.

Ludo and Rezuk's eyes dart between the other crewmates, trying to grasp at some form of reason among them. All that they're met with are soft smiles, blank expressions, and cigarette smoke.

"No... you're all actually okay with this?" Ludo nearly stumbles onto his behind.

Ed is the first to respond- with a loud and joyous laugh. "Why not? As long as we work as a team, anything is possible!"

Pop is next. "Yeah! Dante is real strong. He could hit like 10 guys and not get hurt, and 10 is a lot! Me and Ed could prob hit at least twen-tee guys though, so even if he's in harm, we can help big time."

Jenga smirks. "20 is an understatement, but yeah. Dante's dreams align with mine so I'm fine with it."

Kernel gaffs and smacks his knee. "Dante'll take that spot no problem. He's the best fit for a king in this entire gat damn universe!"

Ludo and Rezuk peer to Cairo as the last bastion, the final column holding up their faith and good will. The integrity his body brings is crucial to-

"I dunnuh," he shrugs, "Just thought it would be funny."

With that, Rezuk's eyes nearly roll all the way back into his head as he faints. Ludo similarly is brought to his knees, face displaced with countless emotions. "What do you even hope to accomplish by being the King of the entire Cosmos?"

Dante walks up to Ludo and places his hand on his shoulder- even on his knees they met at eye level- and bluntly announces something to his face that the unconcious Rezuk overhears subconsiously. Something so wild that it brings Ludo to a sweep of manic laughter. Something so simple it causes Rezuk's already fried brain to sizzle like bacon. Something so unbelievably insane that it could do nothing but convince them both of his utter confidence. Sweeping their brains with a wave of relief mixed with extreme conviction, the type that if turned into a drug would be used on the weakest horse at the race, leading to that horses ultimate victory over its competition.

Ludo could think of nothing but one thing. He must help Dante achieve his dream, because maybe then he would help achieve his- to live the happiest life. To live with no fears and to die surrounded by friends and family.