"..."
Riley slowly backed away from the two colossal ships; his eyes, darting back and forth between the two.
"Yeah, I don't think so."
And before he could even turn his head around, Megawoman's hand was already grabbing his face– pushing him back to the ship hard enough for the side of the ship to concave. But still, the two were not able to penetrate the walls as Riley stretched his hand to the side, almost pulling the walls back to their original state.
"This–"
And before Riley could even say anything, Megawoman once again disappeared; only to return almost instantly as she plunged her feet on Riley's back– this time, pushing both of them inside the ship like a needle penetrating a ball of styrofoam.
Megawoman retracted her feet, causing Riley to roll several meters on the ebony floor that adorned the inside of the ship.
"..." Riley did not immediately get up, however, as his eyes first looked everywhere, trying to make sure Hannah was not there before getting up. As expected– the blue aliens were at minimum 4 meters tall, so it made sense that the inside of their ship was spacious.
Whatever this room was used for, it was at least the size of a basketball court; with nothing in it.
"It's Strogan superstition."
"..." Riley then turned his head towards Megawoman, who was closing the hole they made by using a part of the floor and welding it on the opening with her heat vision.
"Strogan?" Riley muttered as he continued to look at the vast, black, empty room.
"That's what their species is universally called," Megawoman pointed her finger all around the room, "They make empty halls like this because they believe that everyone and everything that perishes continues to live on in spirit, wandering and wondering the universe. This room gives them a place to rest."
"We're interrupting their rest, then," Riley shrugged, "Let's get out of here, Aerith."
"Not a chance," a smile started to appear on Megawoman's face, "Why don't you go say hi to your sister? She's somewhere on the ship."
"No, she's not. I can't smell her," Riley shook his head, "And we are currently fighting, let us focus on that."
"Two nigh-immortal beings fighting each other is as fun as watching paint dry," Megawoman scoffed, "And it is not right to fight on holy ground."
"...You're not having fun?" Riley furrowed his eyebrows.
"Only a little. But why don't we say hi to your sister first?"
"This is not fair, Aerith."
"You know what's not fair? Giving me to the humans to be experimented on."
"Do you not hold a grudge against them?" Riley tilted his head, "I presume that for an entire year, they have played with your body even more than I have. Created monsters in your image. Are you truly not capable of getting angry at the precious humans you protect?"
"...You're the first one to display my body in your closet, boy."
"Because I defeated you," Riley shrugged, "At that moment, I owned everything that you are. They… only took advantage of your moment of weakness."
"You don't understand, Riley," Megawoman shook her head, "What they did to me, they did in hopes to protect and strengthen themselves– for a species that is vulnerable to invasions what is happening now, that is the only action to take."
"You are retarded, Aerith."
"A blink of an eye."
"Hm?"
"What happened to me, what is happening now– I consider it as a blink of an eye," Megawoman's loud sighs echoed through the empty hall, "I don't know how old Bulwark is, but I am probably older than him."
"That doesn't change the fact that they desecrated your body, Megawoman."
"I've been through worse," Megawoman let out a small chuckle, "Now, let's go say hi to your sister, shall we?"
"W–"
And before Riley could even utter a word, he felt his vision shift several times as Megawoman suddenly pushed him.
"Stop!" Riley grabbed both of Megawoman's hands as the two of them stopped moving, his eyes looking Megawoman directly in the eyes as the skin of her face started to… somewhat wither away and turn into ash.
"Finally turning serious?" Megawoman slightly winced as parts of her face cracked, but healed just as fast, "And here I thought you didn't care if people would find out you're Darkday!"
Megawoman, even with her flesh being torn and healed, slammed her head towards Riley, causing him to once again plow through the insides of the ship. This time, however, the walls that he moved through wrapped around his body like armor, completely hiding his face.
He then once again quickly looked around, only to see more than a dozen Strogans staring at him in shock; their spears, already poised and pointed. Riley was about to raise his hand, but before he could do anything, Megawoman suddenly appeared in front of him.
She grabbed Riley's hand, before slamming him to the ground; not enough to once again penetrate through the floors, but enough to shake the entire hallway they were on.
And as soon as the Strogans saw Megawoman, they all turned their heads to each other… and quickly dropped their weapons to the ground.
"Mampashlek arbanluiao strogans."
"..." Riley quickly looked at Megawoman as he heard a language he didn't recognize; presumably, of course, it could be none other than the Strogan's language.
"Arbanluiao!" And with Megawoman's voice getting higher, the Strogans started to back away.
"Ar… arbanliaom!" The strogans' all said in unison as they turned around. But before they could even take a single step, the spears that they left behind suddenly plunged themselves through their backs; and without even a second after, the spears began spinning.
Their goo-like transparent blood, painted the hallway as it sprayed everywhere.
Megawoman, who watched this happen, could only close her eyes and let out a small groan,
"Can you stop killing just for once!?" She then screamed before stomping her foot on Riley's chest, completely shattering the floor beneath them and plunging them straight back to the outside of the ship.
"No," Riley said before instantly disappearing– Well, not quite, as Megawoman was still looking at him floating above her; his size, almost as small as a cockroach. And before he could even fly away, Megawoman was able to grab him with ease.
"I thought you hated using this power?" Megawoman smirked; her smirk, however, was quickly replaced by raised eyebrows as she felt her fist opening… and in it, spawned almost a hundred Rileys, quickly crawling across her arm.
"!!!" Megawoman quickly waved her hand; causing the very space itself to crack as she let out a small yelp.
"T… take them off!" Megawoman brushed the miniature clones with her other hand, instantly turning all of them to dust. But alas, more seemed to spawn as they continued to fester around her arms. She was about to save her hand again, but before she could do so, the ants crawling on her arm started to light up– no.
Each of their eyes started to light up.
"Tch," Megawoman once again brushed them off, but before she could do so, a number of them managed to puncture her skin and started digging their way through. Megawoman's eyes started to light up, quickly blasting her arm away from the little Rileys.
Megawoman roared as she stretched all of her limbs open, causing a shockwave even in space that was enough to cause not only the Strogans' ship to tremble, but also the Hope Guild's ship.
"Do not ever do that again!" Megawoman then started almost spazzing out; her body almost wriggling as she cringed from the feeling of having many cockroach-sized Rileys crawling on her arm.
"Enough games, boy!"
Megawoman's entire body started to emit a sort of orange light; almost like the vapor fuming out of ice as it heats up. She then stretched her arms to the side before instantly disappearing from her spot, only to appear somewhere across the ship already grabbing Riley by the neck.
And without even letting him speak, a ripple exploded– with both of them disappearing as fast as they appeared. The materials of the ship once again wrapped around Riley like an armor-- but whenever they would cover his face, Megawoman would rip them away almost instantly.
"You will behave!"-- were the first words that Riley heard as soon as the scenery around him finally stopped changing.
"I have already told you how much I hate insects and bugs! And yet you pull something like that!?" Megawoman then threw him on the platform like a ragdoll as she started walking around the hall they were in now,
"What are you, a child!? Don't you have like a hundred other abilities!? Use those!"
"...In your perspective, everyone's a child, Aerith," Riley then let out a small but very deep sigh as he remained lying on the floor,
"But I suppose you got what you wanted."
"Megawoman!?"
Riley then slowly got up as several gasps and voices started to enter his ears. He looked around, only to see several Strogans seated at a table. And in front of them, the heroes that left Earth a couple of days ago…
…and at the center of the table were him and Megawoman.
"Themarian ya ay!"
The strogans stood up all at the same time as their eyes landed on Megawoman, some of them started to take a few steps back. But as soon as Megawoman stepped down the table, they all just froze where they stood.
"You got fat," Megawoman then said as soon as her eyes landed on Empress, who was seated in the middle on the human's side. And beside her… was Hannah, whose eyes were almost planted at Riley who was still not moving from the table.
"...Riley?"
"Hello, sister."