Fenris Perrywinkle: The Great Galactic Duel
Chapter 19: An Interesting Development

“So, do you like her?”

I lay back in the hot tub and continue to eye the gorgeous redhead standing in the middle of frothing water. I nod my head at Amanda, who sits across from me in the left hand corner.

“She’s our gift to you for being so awesome,” Jenn says with a smile. She bounces with excitement across from me in the right corner. Steaming water splashes up onto her lovely neck and cheeks.

The redhead places her hands on her hips and looks down at me with an expectant look in her eye. “Well?” she asks. “Are you going to make me feel welcome in this group?”

A broad smile crosses my lips and I vigorously nod my head. My hands replace her firm legs and I immediately begin to explore.

“Fenris?” she asks.

“Yes, Alex?”

“Alex? Who’s that?” she asks.

I nod. “Yeah, baby. You know it. Just you and me.”

“Who’s Alex, Fenris?” she asks again, a little sterner this time.

I blink several times. Unity still has her arms around my neck and is drilling into my soul with those eyes of hers.

“Were you imagining being with someone else right now?”

I stifle a small cough and look away. “Nooo. No, no. I’m here. All good. No worries.”

Great. Two seconds with a new fabulous woman, and I’m already screwing it up. Yay for me.

Unity smiles and steps back from me. “The intergalactic war between Everbright and Deepdarc is resolved. Center is pleased with you.”

Wow, she’s already dropped the whole ‘Alex’ thing? This might just be the girl of my dreams.

I nod in a serious fashion. “Right, well, you did the whole speech thing and they basically worship you, so… yeah. I didn’t really do much.”

Unity bows a little. “Without you, Unity could not have been achieved. Center now has the ability to govern the affairs of the universe. Logic and understanding will rule.”

I nod, desperately pretending to understand a word that’s coming out of her mouth. “You have a connection to Center? Can you feel her?”

She bows again. “I am Unity.”

I nod a little more. I have no idea what she just said.

There’s kind of an awkward silence.

“So… uh… are you the ruler of… of… everything… now? Or something? You know, now that you’re… you’re… here?”

Another bow. This woman likes to bow.

“I will see that balance and order prevail in the linear realm.”

I feel so dumb right now. I look around at the empty stadium desperately hoping to replace something to say.

“What… uh… what happened to those three lady ninja aliens? I trapped them when I was channeling… I dunno… Center’s power, I guess?”

Unity smiles and shakes her head.

Okay, so I guess she’s not all knowing. I guess that’s good to know.

“Come, Fenris Perrywinkle,” she says and takes my hand. We will go to the one called Amanda’s ship.

“O… Okay.” She begins leading me toward the former Everbright landing pad. I mean, why not, right? I kind of did what I came here to do – I literally have no idea what I’m going to do with myself going forward.

Unity suddenly stops, smiles and begins pulling me toward the former Deepdarc landing pad. “We will go to the one called Jennifer’s ship.”

Strange move. I wonder why she just changed her mind like that.

Unity stops, and turns around again. “Amanda’s ship,” she says in a firm tone.

Yeah… something’s up with the space goddess.

“Jennifer’s ship,” she says a little louder.

The fabulous redhead is now pacing back and forth in front of me.

“Amanda’s ship!”

“Jennifer’s ship!”

“Amanda’s ship!”

“Jennifer’s ship!”

She’s starting to glow again. I think I’m going to give her a little space…

Unity screams at the top of her lungs and explodes in a brilliant flash of light. Amanda and Jennifer sprawl on the ground in front of me. Both still wear the tattered remains of their former champion bodysuits. Each also has a golden bracelet on one of their wrists.

Jennifer stands first. She covers herself with her arms just in case there were any tears in embarrassing places. “Fenris!” she shouts, “what did you do to us?”

“Yes, how could you merge us like that without our express consent!?” Amanda shouts as she stands and assumes a similar pose to the blonde.

I’m ridiculously happy to see them both. “Girls! You’re back!”

“For now,” Jenn says and shakes her head. “Ugh, I can feel her inside my head still. Both of them!”

Amanda does something similar. “Yes… I think we’re still linked – even though we’re not sharing a body at the moment. I still feel Center as well.”

I haven’t stopped smiling… or checking them out in their tattered attire. “And you’re both healed!”

“Stop smiling, you ass!” Jenn says and starts hitting me.

“Hit him a couple times for me too,” Amanda says to the other woman with a nod. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Where is she… ow! Where is… ow! Where is she going?” I ask while defending myself from the blonde’s single arm attacks.

“She’s going to get changed. She thinks I should go get changed too! Maybe into something red because she wants to wear blue and doesn’t want us to look like twins or anything. Agh! She’s in my head! Dammit, Fenris! Why did you do that to us?”

Why am I taking so many hits when I’ve got two hands and she’s only using one? I guess I should be grateful that she feels like she needs a little more support up top at the moment. Speaking of which, why aren’t her hits mashing me into a puddle of goo right now?

I manage to finally catch her hand just before it replaces my cheek again. “Are your powers gone now or something? You don’t feel super strong and durable anymore.”

That manages to stop the blonde in her tracks. She turns her head to the side and whispers a bunch of things that I can’t make out. She yanks her hand away from me and nods. “We’re only super when we’re Unity now.”

Ah, I think I get it now. “Oh, so you and Amanda can choose when you’ll merge to form the redhead?”

“Me, Amanda and Center,” she says and holds up her wrist with the bracelet covered in alien circuitry.

She turns her head to the side again. “Ugh. Fine. I need to change and put a bra on anyway.”

“Wha—“

Jenn looks at me and scowls. “Amanda’s done changing and wants to talk. Go to her ship. I think we’re going to take our own ships back to earth.”

She turns and begins hurrying toward the old Deepdarc hangar. I decide to watch as she trots away and smile to myself. I mean, why not? They can read each other’s minds, but they can’t read mine.

At least, I hope they can’t read mine. They can’t… right?

I start jogging toward Amanda’s ship, but something catches my eye – or rather, a lack of something. There used to be several guards at the stadium exit. The group of guards that I tossed stupid old Philander to.

I decide to take a peek. Juuuust to be on the safe side. It’s not like that tub of lard could have escaped them. They’re huge!

So… apparently he escaped them. At least, that’s what the dead guards with deep puncture wounds strewn about the hallway are leading me to believe. I guess I know what happened to the lady ninja aliens now too. This is on me. They probably escaped and saved their boss as soon as I lost the cube powers.

Amanda notes the troubled look on my face as I approach the open side door of her ship. “We’ll work it out. We both still want to be with you, but… well, the situation is now considerably more complex.”

I give a blank stare for a moment before I clue in. “Oh, uh, right. Yeah. It’s all kind of weird… look, I think Philander escaped.”

I explain the gory scene at the exit. She frowns and moves her lips, but I don’t hear any words. “Yes, we’re all in agreement. Philander will probably seek revenge. We will have to deal with that when it happens, but right now we have to see to the people of Everdarc. Their transition to Alphamaximus must be a smooth one. They’re in a delicate state right now.”

Everdarc? I see what she did there. I guess that’s a better name than Deepbright, especially with the re-color I gave all of them.

Amanda looks up and makes direct eye contact. “And before we see to that…” her voice cracks a little and I can see the emotion welling up in her eyes. “…my father.” She’s barely able to get the words out.

I cradle her in my arms and she begins to sob. I whisper that I’m here for her and will see her through whatever we replace back on earth.

She recovers a little and manages to nod. “Come on,” she says and pulls me inside. “Jenn will meet us there.”