...Looks like it’s that time again.

“Dennis! It looks like we have the lead again!” 

“Uhh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that we’re the bosses again!”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about Crystal”

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter now, let’s just get this over with.”

I jumped off the ground and picked up Dennis, then took flight to Silver T. Big! Huzzah! “W-w-what?! C-CRYSTAL! You could’ve warned me!!” Dennis was shaking and trying to get himself off me. “Calm down pup, if you make me drop you, you could seriously hurt yourself and even die! Just wait until we arrive.”

“Agh, fine, sorry…” Dennis gulped, the funny scaredy pup… “It’s just… I’m still not used to this and panicked…”, “Come on, aren’t you a predator? A wolf? You shouldn’t be easily scared by things!”, “I don’t care about that! I’m just a dude!”... “Oh well, if you say so…” After arguing with Dennis about these funny little things, we eventually reached Silver T. Big and entered it. I quickly went to the chief’s office, that damn Robert! He’ll pay for not telling me about this!

I opened the door with all my might…

“MR. ROBERT SAILS!!!!”

There he was, sitting down on his office chair and gasping as he almost dropped his phone. “What the hell, Crystal? What are you yelling about?”. “Mr Robert! You didn’t tell me anything about The Emptiness activities we’re doing!”... “Oh, about how to destroy it and stuff like that? Sorry, it’s just you were busy with that house company so I figured I’d let you spend time with them.”... “NOOOO!” I slammed my hand on his desk angrily. “You can’t do that! Do you know how much science means to me? And you keep me away from it thinking it’s what’s best for me? Science is like my life! I want to help too!”

Dennis coughed. “Uhhh… was I even needed to come here with you?”

“Doesn’t matter! Please Mr. Robert Sails, let me help the other scientists with The Emptiness! Don’t you remember I was the one who discovered its contamination on Colderes?”... “Ah, right… Well, you see… Agh damn it, fine. You can go help them out. Go to the 66th floor, they’re working there. I suppose you can bring Dennis with you as well, as long as he doesn’t break anything.”. “You can count on us! Let’s go Dennis!” I held Dennis’ arm and dragged him off to the elevator.

“W-wait Crystal!” Dennis started to sound even more nervous. “Why do you have to hold me? I can walk on my own!”

This guy though… Well I just called the elevator, walked inside of it as I dragged Dennis with me. 

“Because I uhh…” Hm, I’m not sure what to say on this one!

“Well, let’s just say I have fun messing with you!” I smiled wide and looked at him.

Unfortunately, little Dennis just got upset at me. “What?! But I’m not a toy or something! I’m a person! You can’t just grab me everywhere you go!”, “Why not? People do that all the time with their dogs, right?”, “But I’m not a dog! And I’m a monster! Not an animal, an anthropomorphic animal capable of human inte-”  The elevator quickly opened and I grabbed his arm then dragged him out of the elevator, shutting him up as he whimpered. “H-hey! You can’t interrupt me when I’m talking to you like that! Crystal!”

Hanging on the wall was a sign that said “Emergency Research Laboratory”, well I guess Emptiness REALLY is important so… “Alright, it must be here. Be a good boy, alright? We’re going in.” Dennis gave up and just sniffed and sobbed… I opened the door and looked around. A few scientists, not many, but I’m guessing these are the best of the best. A Plasmatic pink dude, a cheetah gal, a Robot dude… Huh. “Excuse me… You guys are researching Emptiness, right?”

The cheetah gal turned around to look at me. “Uh yeah, you’re Crystal, right?”, “Yeah, that’s me! And this is Dennis, he’s giving me company.” ...“Ah alright, well I’m Matilda, the Plasmatic is Nitro and the Robot is MX-6.”

“Huh, nice names! So tell me: What progress have you made so far?”

“Alright, look at this.” She showed me a cage with a Usurper in it. “We’ve been messing with it for a bit. Stabbing it, setting it on fire, poisoning it… It doesn’t really seem to do much.”...  “Huh, really?”, “Well I suppose that stabs and hits would eventually kill it, but that just wouldn’t work too well. The fire doesn’t seem to do anything, and the poison even less!”. “Yikes!” I just looked at the little Usurper thing in the cage. “Maybe I could contribute some ideas, heh, heh!”

“Really?” She looked at me visibly curious. “Like what?”... “Let me think…” Well let’s see: These things come from space, and space is cold, so I assume they’re resistant or at least used to the cold. They feed from corpses and drain their life force, including their soul… “Do you think we could research these things more closely to find out if they resemble any species in our world? Like a spider, they look a lot like spiders to me, just uglier.”

“We could yeah, but that would take a while, and I’m not sure if we have enough time…” I couldn’t help but groan. “Well, in that case, while you do some research, I’ll start executing my own ideas.” …“Uhh alright… Hey guys, let’s compare this Usurper to animals!” I approached Dennis, he was just sketching on his notepad while he waited for us. “Dennis?”. “Ah! Y-Yeah Crystal?” He jumped a bit when I called his name and dropped his pen, then reached to pick it up and looked at me after that.

“You’re coming with me, we’re leaving.”

“What? But we just got here! Where are we going?”, “I’ll tell you later, come on.” I walked ahead of him.

“W-wait Crystal!” Dennis tried to catch up with me...