Villain Retirement

"Welcome to Steam 4587, visitors."

"Thank you, but we were just about to leave."

Aerith's ship was small—with its purpose truly only for travel. There were no other livable rooms except the cockpit, and right now, there were 6 unwelcomed visitors in it. It didn't help that the one leading them was a fat cehpalopoid; each of his tentacles, almost as wide as Aerith's waist.

It was also slimy, leaving unpleasant… juices that caused the floor to become greasy. The cephalopoid seemed completely ignorant of this, however, or he just didn't care as the smug look on his alien face was noticeable even for someone like Riley.

"Leave? But how can you when your fuel is out?" The cephalopoid let out a small chuckle; his breaths, oddly high-pitched. He seemed to also be out of breath with each word, as the device that was attached like an earphone around his head that covered his gills keep releasing some sort of… vapor.

"I was wondering about that," Aerith was the only one speaking with the pirates; Riley and Vera, just quietly seated and were ordered not to say anything,

"We've already paid for the cores to be replaced, and it should have been done minutes ago."

"Oh, I know," the cephalopoid waved one of his tentacles closer to Aerith, causing her to take a step back, "Your credits weren't enough."

"..." Aerith looked at the cephalopoids large eyes for a few seconds, before she just let out a sigh and shook her head, "How much? How much do you need to just give us what we want and let us go?"

"Well, well. Look at that, boys. She's very easy to talk to," the cephalopoid turned to his comrades, garnering a fit of laughter as they all looked at each other—and with them coming from different species, the orchestra of laughs was quite… unique to the ears.

And this weird sound caused Riley to shake his head and pat his ears, putting the attention of the cephalopoid toward him.

"How much do you want from us?" Aerith quickly blocked Riley from the cephalopoid's large eyes.

"How about you just give us your card?" The cephalopoid, however, moved to the side to get a better look at Riley as he seemed familiar. And soon, Riley returned his glares.

"!!!" And as soon as Riley did so, the suckers on each of the cephalopoid's limbs started widening along with his large eyes,

"Th…" The cephalopoid pirate opened his mouth, but no words came out. He then turned to look at his comrades behind him, before once again turning to look at Aerith, "You… you know what, I think we made a mistake."

"...A mistake?"

"Yes, we're going to change your cores now. Our system just probably bugged," the cephalopoid quickly turned around; his thick tentacles, causing a bout of squishy noises to whisper in the air as he started crawling away.

"Boss? Where are we—"

"Shh! Go, go!" The cephalopoid practically slapped one of his men straight in the mouth. He then covered the rest of the faces of his other subordinates, before just slithering out of the ship without another word.

"..."

"..."

"I believe the octopus man was able to recognize me, Aerith."

"I knew it!" Vera quickly stood up from her seat and pointed at Riley, "We would have solved this just by covering our faces, Princess Aerith!"

"No, masks would make us even more suspicious," Aerith sighed as she shook her head, "They would have also made us pull them down."

"What about Caitlain's tech? Didn't she have like some sort of tech to disguise herself!? We should have borrowed that!"

"Caitlain… is quite stingy with her things."

"That is true," Riley quickly nodded his head at Aerith's statement, "I will just kill the pirates to prevent any more trouble, Aerith."

"No!" Aerith started massaging her eyebrows as she heard Riley's words, "As long as you are with me, you are to kill no one, you got it?"

"I will do it," Vera started stretching her legs, "I will even dispose of their bodies, I'm fast enough not to be captured by even the highest speed cameras."

"No killing!" Aerith wanted to pull out her hair in frustration, "Let me handle this, okay? I'm supposed to be advocating that the newer generations of themarians are peaceful. I can't be doing that and allowing one of my companions to just outright murder someone…

…I'll think of something."

"...I apologize, Aerith."

"What?" And before even a single plan could form inside Aerith's head, Riley's… somewhat nervous voice whispered into her ears.

"I already killed them before you could say not to kill anyone."

"What!?" Both Vera and Aerith rushed to the window, only to see the pirates lying down on the metal docks; the cephalopoid, now as pale as the metal he died on.

"You do not have to worry, I made their death look natural."

"How is several people dying at the same time natural!?" Aerith pinched the bridge of her nose as she backed away from the window.

"I'll…" Vera also backed away as her eyes started scanning the docks, "...I'll just steal the cores to fill up the ship."

"Wait, no. Stop committing crime—" And before Aerith could finish her words, Vera already disappeared.

[Power and Energy levels are back to optimal levels.]

"..."

[Power and Energy levels at 100%]

"It's done, Princess Aerith," Vera then appeared as soon as she left, "Let's go!"

"...Stop using your powers for—Never mind."

[Would you like to set course for Ahor Zai, M'lady?]

"..." Aerith once again looked out the window, only to see people starting to gather around the dead pirates. And then, with another shake of her head,

"Go…

…Just go."

***

"I apologize, Aerith. Please, don't be mad anymore."

"Oh, I'll be mad as long as I need to."

The ship has been moving through hyperspeed for several hours now. And since they left the space station, Aerith has been keeping her silence—but no more.

"I don't even know why I bother trying with you, Riley," she said as she turned her chair around to look at Riley, "You're just this… cloud of darkness that just keeps on—Ugh!"

"The two of you look like a couple."

"A couple of retards is what we are," Aerith rolled her eyes as she pointed at Vera, "And you. Never use your powers to steal again—do you know what would happen if the people came to know that the princess of the fastest species in the entire universe steals things?"

"..."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Aerith then stood up from her seat, "We're here. Let's just get this over with."

And as soon as Aerith said that, the blurs and streaks that could be seen from the window cleared, replaced by a colossal, and marvelous structure.

There were several rings, 4 colossal rings of different sizes that were spinning inside of each other—and at the very center of it was a shiny spherical glass.

Like a snow globe, there were 7 buildings inside; weaved in a circle and all connected like a web with a large dome at their center—

The Ahor Zai, the center of the entire Known Universe.