Yrek brought us to his village and we could immediately tell that the situation was badder than we thought. Before we got in, we had to tie up Bearypus outside the village gates. Yrek said he would spook the villagers rather than make them happy. Tiffany gave him many comforting belly rubs before we left though. I like to think we were all a little sad we had to leave him behind. Olivia de-summoned her servants as well.
Once we arrived inside the village, there was not a single smile in sight. Everyone walked with sorrowful waddles, tired breaths, and wore metal collars around their necks. None of the children were playing or talking to each other. All the adults seemed to be looking off into the distance. When I tried to see what they were looking at, I only saw the snowy trees and ground. Maybe they were daydreaming about a better time. Seeing this terrible situation, the little penguins were in made my heart ache but it made my heroic soul rise to the stars! There is nothing that will stop me from saving these little guys and getting their lives back to normal! Yrek quickly took us to his home.
He said it was because we would definitely attract attention and he didn't want to risk Garlax finding out about us so soon. Olivia complimented him on this which was surprising because she rarely compliments anyone on anything. I've stored to memory all the times that Olivia has ever complimented me. Which was a total of 5 times over the entire course of our friendship. Does she have something against me? Oh yea, did I also mention that Yrek's home was a little igloo with furniture inside it? So cute but really freaking cool too.
"The town was normally a place of communion and joy but ever since Garlax arrived here on his spaceship, it has turned into what you saw now." He sighed.
"TBH, it honestly made me kinda depressed just looking around here. Like forreal, I don't even wanna take a selfie here." Tiffany said.
"Heh... That's why I'm hoping you three can help me change that. I've always called this little village my home and it hurts me deep inside to see what has become of it. My friends and neighbors are no longer the happy and friendly people they used to be. The unbearable working condition inside the mines is sucking the life out of them. We are not hardy people, I can tell they're going to break soon." He turned around with a sniff.
I crouched down and patted his back.
"Don't worry Yrek. We'll save your people no matter what. Trust us. We're heroes and we're going to do what heroes are known for." I tried to give him hope.
"Now that this Princess is here, she will give her fair due to this Garlax criminal and save the oppressed." Olivia also comforted; I think?
"Thank you for your kind words... It means a lot to me that you all are doing this for us."
"Where even is this Garlax guy?" Tiffany asked.
"Garlax never shows his face unless an incident occurs in the mines or he wants us to up the production rate of minerals. Besides that, he just sits inside his spaceship. Mostly his A-Units rule over us with their electric prods."
"What are A-Units?" I asked. I didn't see any signs of A-Units in the village.
"Robots." Yrek answered me.
"Evil robots?!" Tiffany asked.
"Not all A-Units are evil. These ones are just evil because Garlax has programmed them to listen to his cruel instructions. There are some famous A-Units that even managed to join the DOU."
"What is the DOU?" Tiffany asked before being interrupted by Olivia.
"Let's get back on task please and save the questions for later. We need to find a way to get Garlax to reveal himself before he finds out about us so we can get the drop on him when he isn't expecting it." She suggested.
"We need to save Yrek's people first! They are suffering right now!"
"If we take out Garlax, they won't be suffering anymore."
"We can take him out later when we save everyone else."
"What are you stupid? Garlax definitely has the master remote to the collars. All we need to do is get that remote from him and he won't be able to hurt the penguins."
"I'm sure we can find a way to get rid of the collars once we save the rest of Yrek's people. With our powers, there has to be a way!"
"What if there isn't a way Penny!? What if you might just hurt them instead of helping them when you try and get rid of the collars that we have no understanding about?! The collar could explode if we do something wrong to it!"
"That won't happen! I can definitely find a way to get rid of the collars safely!"
"You can't guarantee that Penny and we both know it! All you'll be doing is relying on dumb luck and I won't accept dumb luck when there are lives at stake!"
"Then what do you suggest we do then!? Let them suffer a little while longer when we could possibly stop their pain right now?"
"If they could handle it this long, a little bit longer won't be much. It's not like they're about to drop this second."
I pointed at Olivia with my anger shaking my body righteously. How could she say something so heartless and cruel!?
"Heroes don't let the innocent suffer and I sure as heck am not going to allow it any further."
"You're being stupid and reckless! We have to play this carefully and not let our emotions run wild or this entire situation could backfire on us!"
"Girlsssss Chillax!" Tiffany suddenly yelled.
She stopped taking selfies all around Yrex's house and looked at me and Olivia.
"We can do both of your plans. Penny can go save the penguins in the mountain while me and Olivia go get the remote from Garlax." She said casually.
Me and Olivia stared at each other before looking back at Tiffany. Was the solution really something so simple? The reddening of Olivia's cheeks was the only answer I needed. My own cheeks were heating up after thinking about how bad we were arguing. How embarrassing...
"That's a great idea, Tiffany!" I said.
"I agree that your plan would be best in this situation..." She crossed her arms, looking upset she didn't see such an obvious solution.
"I don't think you three should split up. If it took all three of you two tame a Prentk, then you won't be a match for Garlax."
"Is Garlax strong?" Olivia asked.
"Garlax has a B-Unit as his personal bodyguard. A Prentk can't hold a candle to a B-Unit. Its laser weaponry is fearsome.
Hehe. Heroes are known for doing the impossible. I grinned before doing a cool pose with a thumbs up.
"Don't worry about my friends Yrek. We might be little girls but we aren't weak! We're heroes!" I shouted coolly.
"As the Princess of the Universe, some low-class thug and some scrap metal isn't enough to scare me." Olivia boasted.
"I wonder how many followers will I get once I become a hero? Do aliens even use social media? Getting some alien friends as followers would be fire." Tiffany wondered aloud.
"I thank you brave heroes... I don't know where you find the willpower and strength to be this strong but seeing you three has given me hope. Hope I haven't felt in a very long time. I believe that you three can save my people. I thank you with all my heart."
I only waved behind my back as we left out of his igloo home. I could see the mountain from the village and Olivia could spot Garlax's spaceship at the top of the mountain. We headed towards the mountain with haste. We knew our roles in this plan and how we were going to handle them. I brought out my wings and picked up Olivia and Tiffany. We flew through the harsh blizzard and avoided any detection from the robots. I wasn't sure how Olivia and Tiffany were handling the biting cold winds but it didn't look like they were in pain, just annoyed.
It didn't take me long to reach the top of the mountain with my speed. I dropped them off in front of Garlax's frisbee-shaped spaceship before flying down towards the entrance of the mountain where the penguins were being forced to work. Normally, I would've made a heroic entrance and made myself known to the evil robots but Olivia's worries from earlier lingered around in my head. What if I made things worse by being careless?
I didn't want to take that risk even if she might be wrong. I used my phasing skill to sneak past the robot guards at the entrance of the tunnel. I phased into my shadow and snuck into the tunnel by riding across the rocky ceiling. There were more robots near the entrance than inside the mountain. I couldn't move that fast while in my shadow form but luckily, I didn't need to. I reached a part inside the mountain where there were 3 different tunnels. The tunnels were facing north, northeast, and northwest. I went into the northwest tunnel and phased out of my shadow while hanging onto the roof of the ceiling. To make sure I didn't make any noise to alert the robots, I moved very slowly while coming out. It seemed they didn't hear me. Don't worry little penguins. I'll save you in just a second!
Down below me was 5 robots watching over the working penguins. They had electric prods in their hands and threatened the miners whenever they slowed down. The penguins' eyes were black and their movements were slow. This made me confused because the penguins inside the village had pink eyes. I wonder why these penguins had black ones. With about 20 penguins mining in each tunnel, I got to work on how I should handle this.
Should I use my lightning arrows? If I'm lucky they might go straight through their body and cause them to explode! If I'm unlucky, my arrows won't even be able to hurt it. What about my bombs? They'd probably work better than kicking my jester balls. I doubt I'd be able to hit all 5 of them with a single jester ball but with a bomb it could explode all 5 of them! No! Penny, you idiot! A bomb would definitely alert all the other robots inside the mine.
This is going to be risky but I don't see any other way of handling this safely. If it doesn't go to plan, I can only hope that Olivia somehow doesn't find out. I'm sure she would've already found a way to disable the robots and save the penguins. She was always smarter than me when it came to delicate stuff.
I dropped down from the ceiling, right above one of the A-Units. My sneakers severed the metallic neck of the robot before I landed and created a ball in front of my foot. With my strongest soccer kick, I managed to send my ball soaring through the chests of two robots, leaving only 2 left. The remaining two ran towards me with their eyes lighting blue.
"Kill Intruder!"
"Kill Intruder!"
I opened my mouth and fired my super cool mouth laser attack! A bright bluish white beam shot out of my mouth towards the robots. The robots tried to block with their weapons but it couldn't match the power of my super awesome laser! The first robot was broken into pieces while the second one dodged and ran towards me after seeing his buddy break. He got up close, I wasn't done recharging from using my awesome laser attack. It was my first time trying that move out and man does it take a lot out of me! My body could barely even move!
My hair rose from the electric prod nearly shocking me from the robot's swing. I managed to teleport behind the robot in time but I was still out of energy. If I tried to kick a jester ball towards it, it wouldn't do anything more than just bounce off of it. If I don't end this quick, it might just decide to alert its friends. I grew seeds from inside my body and rolled them around with my tongue before spitting them towards the robot coming for me.
It ignored the seeds and I smiled. The seeds rapidly grew into vines with sharp spikes on them. The vines tangled up the body of the A-Unit before breaking it into pieces. I fell on my butt, exhausted. This was only the first part of the breakout! I definitely gotta think of something for the next 3 parts of this plan. Doing what I did here, isn't gonna work for sure.
"Thank you!"
"Thank you, kind savior!"
"Thank you, mysterious savior!"
I placed my finger over my mouth to try and shush the penguins but it seems they didn't know what that meant.
"Shh! Quiet down everyone."
They quickly quieted down before huddling around me.
"I'm going to free the others as well but before I do that, I need you all to stay here. It's going to be dangerous in a bit and don't want you all to be caught up in that."
"We will listen savior. We do not want to impede you."
"Yes, if we can help in any way please tell us."
"I just need to catch my breath real quick. That's all." I told them.
They stood and watched me with stars in their eyes. I would've felt a bit unnerved by it if they weren't all cute little penguins. I was relieved I didn't see any children working in the mines. Back in the village, I saw children just sitting around with sad looks on their faces. Seeing this made me think that maybe Garlax wasn't a complete monster. Just a huge jerk who needed his butt kicked and a lesson about right and wrong.
There was an exclamation mark in the edge of my eyes. I clicked on it and received notifications about my fight from earlier.
[Ball Generation has reached Rank E!]
[Accuracy skill has been gained!]
[Kicking has reached Rank E!]
[Kicks now are a little faster and stronger.]
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! So, instead of me leveling up like in other games, my skills are the things that level up if I use them enough! I should check out all my skills once I get back home. The system gave me knowledge on how to use all of Marx's skills but maybe there were some I missed but for now, let's get back to saving these innocent aliens.
"Okay, stay here everyone. I'll be back once I'm done freeing everyone else." I told them.
They thanked me once again and I phased into my shadow before entering the north tunnel. The situation was practically the same as in the first tunnel. 5 robots working the penguins to the bone while occasionally threatening to shock them with the electric batons if they mined slower. Just like last time, I carefully came out of my shadow and hung above the A-Units. I grew 5 seeds within my body and rested them on my tongue. Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!
"Intruder!?"
"Intruder?!"
"Alert Garlax!"
"Alerting Garlax!"
"Signs of movement detected below us! Investigating!"
The seeds landed in the ground under each droid and within seconds grew into vines with metal spikes. The vines curled around the body of the robots and squeezed them until they broke. I gently floated down with my wings.
"I have come to free you all from Garlax!" I whispered. "I have saved the others in the tunnel to the left and still need to save the others on the right tunnel. For now, stay here until I come back to get you."
"Thank you, strange person..."
"We are grateful for your kindness."
"I hope to repay you one day for this."
"I am only doing what a hero should. No thanks needed." I smiled before heading off to the last tunnel.
Unlike the last two times, I didn't sneak into this room. Before entering I remembered that I had a stamina potion in my pocket and I took a sip of the stamina potion I got from the lottery earlier and was filled with energy! I flew in really fast with my wings and soccer kicked a droid's head off.
"INTRUD---"
"KILL INTRUDER!"
"DETAIN INTRUDER!"
"ALERT OTHER A-UNITS!"
"CAPTURE INTRUDER!"
I made a ball appear above me and kicked it towards the A-Unit leaving the tunnel. The ball lodged itself into the circuits in its head and I teleported behind the other robots coming for me. Once they lost sight of me, I attacked again. I kicked one of the robots into the other's electric prod, disabling it entirely. The last two stared at me with their batons stretched towards me, no longer running directly at me. Pointing it at me while being cautious.
Zorp! I suddenly appeared above them and clawed out two crescent blades from my hands. The crescent blades flew and lopped off their metal heads. Another victory for me! Just one last fight left before I can meet up with Tiff and Olivia. Then we can free Yrek's people.
"Who are you?"
"Are you here to save us?"
"Yes, I'm here to save you from Garlax and his evil robots! Please wait here while I go and do that thing I just said." I didn't want them thanking me just yet. I quickly flew out the tunnel before they could ask anything else into the large swarm of robots near the entrance.
Well, larger than the groups of 5 from earlier. There were at max 20 A-Units standing around.
"Intruder detected."
"Inform Garlax."
"Informing Garlax." He starting to walk away.
"Kill intruder."
"Killing intruder."
The robots didn't seem to follow each other and did their own thing they thought was best. Some wanted to capture me, some wanted to kill me, some wanted to go alert Garlax about me, and some wanted to make sure the penguins were still working. Hehe, dumb robots! If they were a little bit smarter, I'm sure I would've been outed by the first tunnel! I flew into the middle of all the droids and split my body in half.
Yep, that's right. I split my body in half just like Marx did in Kirby! And if anyone who knows Marx as well as I do, then you should know what's gonna happen soon right? Black hole time!!!
A black hole manifested in-between my split parts and started to hungrily suck in all the A-Units. Even the ones near the entrance weren't strong enough to resist the suction of my black hole. The robots started flying into the black hole and I didn't stop it until I got every last one of them inside. My body that was split in half slowly floated back towards each other. Once I reconnected, I looked back towards the tunnels to see all the penguin's coming out.
A nervous laugh escaped me. Why did they come out? I can't control my black hole ability all that well yet and if any of them were present, I don't think I could've stopped myself in time. Not to mention how much that move takes out of me. I needed 3 gulps of the stamina potion to get myself back to normal. Only about 2 sips were left of it.
"Savior!" They yelled before waddling over to me.
They had a lot more energy than I thought they would if they could run over to me.
"I'm going to go deal with Garlax now. You all should return back to the town and stay safe."
"Will you be alright Savior? Garlax is known as a space criminal across this sector. He isn't an easy man to deal with."
"I also heard he has a B-Unit he keeps as a bodyguard! How can you deal with something like that Savior!?"
"Thank you all for worrying about me but I'm a hero! A hero is supposed to protect the innocent and weak, no matter who they face against!" I gave them a thumbs up and a wicked cool smile. "Just trust me."
I brought my wings out and flew out of the cave. I headed up the mountain and hoped that Olivia and Tiffany were safe. The way those guys were making Garlax and this B-Unit out to be is making me kind of worried. Garlax can't be a boss-level villain can he? I guess I'll just have to find out in a few moments...