Maddox was the first to reach the safe room. He was the stealthiest out of all of us and, when he peeked around a corner and saw a pair of aliens guarding the door, he motioned for me to join him.
"You are a Valdis," he stated without continuing. Luckily for him, I understood what he meant and nodded, pulling out a small knife. I wasn't sure why we needed to go the stealthy route but had nothing to lose so I went with it.
Squinting in concentration, I weighed the blade in my hand then stepped forward, teleporting behind the female creatures and immediately driving the blade into one of their heads. I then teleported behind the second's back, giving her a second to see her companion fall before stabbing her too.
Too easy.
As the girls joined us once more, Maddox gave me a nod of approval which filled my insides with warmth. Next to Derek, Maddox's approval was what I had always dreamed of.
"Ace?" I knocked on the door as loudly as I could in the hopes that he could hear me. "It's Mary. Derek sent me to find you."
There was a moment of silence, then someone knocked back and the door slid into the ceiling. Standing before me was an older Ace and four young, frightened engineers dressed in blue uniforms and wearing helmets for protection. Every one of them had a Hikarius machine gun in their hands.
"Hey, Mary," Ace greeted me as though my presence was to be expected. "Sorry for not coming out earlier. I couldn't put these guys' lives as risk."
I nodded, understanding completely. "Not a problem. Let's go before that happens." I knew Ace could handle himself in a fight. His father had been a police officer in the past, though Ace had apparently never seen himself actually using the training that had been forced upon him as a child.
As we headed back with Ace, Maddox, and I in the front, Jala and Zora guarding the back, and the useless technicians in the middle, Ace started giving orders to Di.
"I wasn't able to contact her in there," he told me quietly after he'd given Di all the hard to understand information she'd needed. "Those aliens are really messing with our systems."
This had been the point in the show when I'd just nodded and acted like I understood. I was doing that now. "Of course."
"You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?"
"I know what 'systems' means but the stuff before that just went over my head."
Ace just laughed. "It's fine. I don't expect people to comprehend it unless they've gone to school like I have. Don't worry."
"Oh. Maddox should know, though, right?" I looked past Ace at the helmeted man who simply shrugged and kept walking. He likely just didn't care enough to bother talking out loud.
"Are these the mercs Derek hired?" Ace asked, glancing over his shoulder at the black haired women behind us. "It's a good thing they came. Kind of wish there were more, though."
"We'll be fine. These guys can survive anything." Literally. In chapter 87, which was way farther than the show had ever gone, they'd literally survived an explosion in space. How they managed to have a fire without oxygen was beyond me but...Yeah. The creators had really started trying to one up themselves. That was part of the reason I hadn't told Derek about the comics.
"Are they coming to the moon with us?"
I nodded. I couldn't wait to get inside the moon!
"Okay. Good. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We should focus on gaining control of the station first."
"Of course." I nodded. Ace was so level headed. I don't how we would have survived without him.
As we walked I noticed that he kept glancing back at our new companions, particularly in Jala's direction. The girl kept ignoring his stares on purpose but I couldn't help but giggle inside. I had been shipping them since the beginning of the series.
"She's pretty, isn't she?"
He nodded hesitantly.
"Wanna talk to her?" I asked, nudging him like an annoying old woman.
Ace just shook his head, keeping a straight face. "I'm too old for her."
"I'm sure she won't care."
"I have a mission to focus on, Mary."
"You're right." He was always right. I was getting too distracted. I'd just been waiting too long for this to happen and couldn't resist getting excited but this next week was the most crucial part of my life and I needed to stay focused. But... "Maybe later then?" I whispered with a hopeful grin.
He sighed, then shot me a rare look of annoyance. "Later."
"Good." I'd always felt that they'd needed a push toward a relationship and never got one so I planned to fulfil that need.
I was about to continue when Maddox suddenly thrust his sword in front of Ace and I, stopping us in our tracks. My eyes lingered on the blade before looking past it and seeing what had alarmed him.
Standing before us with its lumbering back turned was an alien far larger than any we'd encountered before. It resembled a white blob and the tip of its head nearly brushed against the ceiling. Its legs were like those of a fish and were sprawled out before it in a relaxed position. From the looks of it, blades and bullets wouldn't do much to penetrate its fat and lumpy body.
I glanced at Jala, fear in my eyes.
Should we fight or flee?