Luke's feet landed on the floor with a metallic thud as Mushroom hacked into the ORIGIN and activated the artificial gravity system without disturbing the station.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at the two of them.
Nyx, seated on the cyborg's shoulder, had covered her beak with her wing.
Mushroom was pinching their non-existent nose as well, mimicking the action.
Getting his answer, Luke looked away from them and stared at the mass of rotten flesh giving off a putrid smell on the floor. A sizzling sound kept hissing off the floor and walls as the spots of acid that the Rampager had secreted before his head exploded ate into the material, leaving behind fumes and tiny holes.
At some point in time, in this life, Luke had overcome his nausea related to filth.
In his previous life, cleanliness had become a great psychological need for him, driven by the procedure of Blue Site's Scientists cleaning him up after every… experiment.
In this life, after he had decided to bulk up, instead of remaining a scrawny youth, Luke had no choice but to make friends with sweat. Then, the time spent with Sand, strolling through the dirty alleys, had cleared off the remaining stains of the trauma that he had resurrected with.
The same was true for Nyx, to some extent, as well.
Still, looking at the reeking Rampager's mutated flesh, the old trauma threatened to take over, forcing Luke to shut his mouth tightly and gulp, keeping the vomit within.
And with that, another question stormed into his mind.
Did he just… kill an innocent man?
[That person was not a man anymore,] Miss Justice said. [Even Peaceful Hair Strands wouldn't have worked on him. Not after he had mutated completely. What you did was not only because the Rampager forced your hand, but also because you knew it was the right thing to do.]
Luke's eyes gained a hard look. He knew why Miss Justice stepped in, saying those words, instead of letting him come to terms with the new facets of his ever-expanding job as Dr. Blessed.
This was only one Rampager.
There were bound to be more.
And, no matter how he felt about it, he knew the best thing to do was to… kill all of them.
[It will be mercy,] Miss Justice agreed gently. [Death is much better than a part of them remaining alive somewhere…]
Luke nodded, turning around.
"Did you download the map?" he asked.
The cyborg raised its palm, and a little mushroom appeared there, its head glowing cyan.
From that tiny head, rays of light shot out, taking the form of a holographic space station — ORIGIN.
Then, two more, even tinier mushrooms sprouted from the tiny Holograph Mushroom and hopped toward Luke and Nyx, attaching themselves to their bodies.
Instantly, two red dots appeared on one of the space station's many cylindrical modules, blinking.
Luke raised his eyebrows, instantly realizing that the blinking pattern matched his own heartbeat.
"That's some plot-like shit right there," Nyx cawed, giving a nasty glance to the cyborg. "Bastard has everything that you need for the situation."
"Bastard?" Mushroom-nimi repeated innocently. "Why? We were created by Master singlehandedly. It's a known fact. Right, Master?"
Nyx rolled her eyes.
"Definitely," Luke replied before flicking Nyx's head. "You are just salty because I am not doing the same with Bioalchemy anymore. You should be thanking Mushroom-nimi, in fact. They are saving us so many Spirit Points."
"Thank them my ass!" Nyx cawed. "And the next time you flick my head again, I am gonna put my beak so deep up your…"
"Nyx!" Luke gasped, feeling disgusted "Can you just for once… Sigh…"
Shaking his head, he looked toward the Holographic projection and pointed toward the central, main module.
"The Control Room is on the topmost level," Mushroom nodded.
"Let's head straight toward the Control Room, then," Luke shared. "If Star is… retrievable, she would be there."
"What if she is not?" Nyx said, snatching her wing off her beak.
"Let's hope…" Luke said, taking Mr. Fool's name within. "… fate is on our side today."
…
"Captain," the pilot reported right after docking the retrieval craft. "Someone just activated the Artificial Gravity System of ORIGIN."
Alexander Becking, who was preparing to board the space station, suddenly paused.
"What do you mean, someone?" he asked. "Can't you tell who activated it?"
The retrieval ship had access to ORIGIN's main servers and could control most of the space station's features from right here.
"The Artificial Gravity System can only be turned on manually," another crew member explained, punching buttons on the control panel. "Crew members need to insert their Key Cards to turn it ON and OFF. But…"
"… ORIGIN's servers didn't register any Key Card being used, Captain," the pilot finished.
Alex's eyes narrowed.
After thinking over it for a while, he looked at the pilot.
"Stay here," he ordered. "Control ORIGIN as per the situation and my commands, and keep sending all the data that we record back to the planet. Constantly."
The crew members shared a glance, now knowing well why the Captain used the word "constantly" when there was no need for it.
"Sir," the pilot asked, standing. "Just… what happened to the ORIGIN's crew? What… What happened to Star?"
In response, Alex took out a massive cigar, lit it up, and drew deeply before letting the smoke out, another crew member silently killing the smoke alarms.
"Damn me if I know what happened to that monster…" he said, licking his lips. "That's why we are here, boys. Not simply to retrieve Star and that kid she had taken along with her and others. But to find out just what kind of mess they have created and then decide if she is even retrievable or not."
The crew, all veteran Pro Heroes, gulped.
"What if…" the pilot hesitated. "What if she is not?"
"Let's hope…" Alex's eyes glowed bluer as he walked toward ORIGIN. "… that fate is on our side today."