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Vibrowansers?!

Tailos stopped himself from flinching and remained cowered inside the cardboard box. Through stealthy training in Captain-school, he'd learned that most boxes have a habitat near the edges of all rooms, and therefore he had remained in such a preferable atmospheritat when sneaking.

Through the slit in the end of the box, he spied the familiar mechanical figure. The Captain instinctively reached for the hilt of the Dirk.

The stealthy Captain began steeling himself with resolve. Andro-Tobors were actively looking for him, using wanser technologiculation to poke holiforms in the other cargo boxes, and he could simply feel the lurking Suienheimer in the pit of his stomach.

Or was that the a**-end of his cardboard box?

Tailos unfastened the clip holding sheath to Dirk. Something was going to happen any second now, be it from the Tobor's General Derelict himself or another unnamed and thus expendable lackey...

And from the box exploded a torrent of lions.

Tailos had heard the shout, after all. Vibrowanser-be-damned, it was now stuck neatly in the mane of a ferocious lion now hurtling towards the General Derelict. In the back of his mind came the CODEC call, which entered onscreen.

Back on the Crozuilus repairobay, the Captain watched his foe for all of a few seconds, before taking fleetfoot straight past him.

Even despite his own personal religious upbringing, Tailos couldn't help but exclaim in Jesus Christ's name at the explosion of lienergy. Things went white, and sounds that shouldn't normally be within the range of human scope -- like how that recent Angry Beard pornstar, Missy Follicular had been recently cut from her manager's production studios but was making a comeback on Jahovia III -- became audible. High pitched squealing drowned everything out momentarily before things returned to normal.

Normal?

Well, except for being in the Astral Plane - as per all the purple appendages squirming out of the General Derelict and the giant orange pineapple that was once a Shield of Forelions - it was normal enough.

Had the universes collided?

What was going on? The General was on his knees - a feat previously undocumented in the history of EVARspace. Andro-Tobors were known to never bow to anyone, even in the face of death. But was this worse? Tailos couldn't be sure. Instead, the glowing candy-cane that was previously a Dirk slowly lowered to his side and he took a few steps back.

"Suienheimer, where've you placed the crew? I don't want to fight you if we can evade it somehow."

A pause.

"Without handing over the Dirk," Tailos tacked on. It was a little bit of a winning threat, but the Soulbounty needed crew to be operational. Plus - in some weird and warped sense - he missed the company of the Magical Girls already. Jasper and her nosey antics towards the DEM button, Kali and her giant beating spork, even Dybael and her almost-constant comatose state.

The General Derelict was silent for a time. "Captain Tailos, I have been deucommunicating. Do you know what this means?"

A pause, more for Dramaddition than for thought.

"We are in the presence of a God."

"They are in the ship's electrodungeon, Captain."

Again the General Derelict fell silent. Although he did not actually show emotion, as his optical occipital lobular eyes did not give anything other than robotulation, it was clear he was deep in thought.

"The God demands the Dirk. Can you see It? It has grown tired of our foolish chasing and wants Its weapon for Itself."

His words somehow implied capitalization.

The General Derelict put on his best frown-vacuole. "Speak to him, It."

A voice boomed throughout the repairobay. CAPTAIN TAILOS! it roared, sending cardboard boxes and cargoholders alike across the room. BEARER OF THE VORPAL DIRK!