Chapter 158: Hot Box

I hadn't done it yet, but I was ready to push BB down into our Synchro mode once again at any moments notice. 

From everything I'd been told about the Human race of this universe since I arrived in it I'd formed a very low opinion of them. 

They were warmongers, spreading out from their own system and crossing the divide between entire galaxies to spread their empire, all in the quest for creatures that could produce manna so that they could fuel their own technologies. 

They had sickened me to the core before I had even run across the group of them that had been working with Lara and the Null Space Invaders. 

After that, I'd sworn off trusting this universes version of the human race. I'd vowed that if I ever came across any of them I'd give them one chance to run and then I'd blow them off the face of reality if they refused, send them right down to void where they belonged. 

But now here I was. In what was essentially a hive of them, unable to escape due to the roaring star that was already making the bottom of the chamber near unbearable to be standing in. 

I wouldn't be able to defeat all of them, especially not without the full breadth of my powers on offer. 

If they turned nasty, which humans were almost guaranteed to do, it would be hard to keep Yr'Arl and the predator safe. 

I felt a pulse of amusement come my way, apparently the predator didn't think he was the one that needed protection in this particular situation. 

"Okay, we're at the bottom of the chamber, now what?" I called out, assuming that the guy on the tannoy was probably still listening.

"Brilliant, gimme a sec'!" He called out through the system. 

The heat continued to increase and we continued to wait for our human savior to do something about it. 

"You're cutting it a little close here, buddy," I said, sweat starting to dribble down from my brow and into my eyes. 

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses, having to bypass like all the safeties here to crank this door for you two idiots, it's not exactly easy spoofing all of this when we're meant to be on a star-lock you know!" The voice came back, slightly irate. 

Great, we were being saved by a complete and total idiot by the sound of it. Couldn't even get past his own security hardware. 

"If you don't get this thing open in five seconds I'm gonna break it down myself!" I warned, cocking my fist back, ready to let it fly into the door and through the other side. 

"Squadron… Leader…" Yr'Arl gasped from behind me, followed by a heavy thump on the ground. 

I turned and noticed that Yr'Arl had seemingly passed out from the heat entirely, his fur matted to his skin with sweat. I knew he had been suffering worse than me, but I hadn't realised it had been that bad. 

I sent an order through our mental link to Predator, the alien beast nudged his head underneath Yr'Arl's body and flipped the feline alien up onto his back. Yr'Arl barely even murmured through the disturbance. 

"Come on guy…" I muttered under my breath, ready to take the door out in a single punch. 

<You should do it already, Yr'Arl isn't going to last much longer in this heat,> BB egged me on. 

That was the last straw for me. If BB was telling me to do it, and his guidance had never steered me wrong in the past no matter how snarky he had been, I was going to so it. 

I swung my fist as hard as I could, ready to blow a hole straight through the door and toss Yr'Arl through it if I had to… and at that exact moment the door swung open. 

I stumbled with the force of the blow, staggered forward a few steps, and then tripped over the ledge that sealed the door to the ground.

I hit the floor hard enough face-first to leave a dent in the metal. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel great for my ego either. 

"You uh, you okay there?" The voice from the tannoy said, much closer now, over the sound of the door clanking shut. 

I staggered to my feet, made sure that Yr'Arl had been let through the door- which he had- and then turned to face the man that had let me in. 

For what felt like the thousandth time that day I was left in a state of shock. 

The guy standing before me just looked like an average everyday 21st-century guy from Earth. 

He had a little bit of a potbelly. He was wearing jeans, glasses and what looked like an honest-to-god anime-inspired T-shirt. He even had that slightly emo nerdy long hair that was swished across his forehead that must have gone out of style in the late 2000s at the very least. 

It was like I'd been saved by a depressed Justin Beiber lookalike. 

"If I said Justin Beiber to you, what would your reaction be?" I asked, hoping for a confirmation of my theory. My impossible theory. 

The look of shock on his face was all I needed to see. 

This guy… he was from Earth. My Earth. My time. 

"How do you know that name?" He asked, flabbergasted, "No one knows that name." 

<This conversation can wait, Yr'Arl needs to be placed in a cool environment with a rehydration drip in his veins or we're going to lose him,> BB said in my mind, a sentiment which was followed up by a pulse of concern from the predator. 

"Look, we can have that conversation later," I said, shaking my head, "My friend needs medical attention, his species don't do well in the heat. Can you take me to a hospital? Some sort of medibay?" 

He blinked at me for a moment, as if my words weren't making any sense to him at all, but eventually, he seemed to get the point. 

"Uh… Yeah, come on, follow me," He said, and began walking off in the opposite direction. 

The predator and I followed. 

I needed to find out just what the hell was going on here.