"Say cheese!" Susie called out, positioning herself with her camera.
"Cheese!" the gathered group responded, some with more enthusiasm than others. After the Loki that had been free dissipated, things were swiftly resolved. The friendship between the two doctors was quickly restored, though they both had a long way to go to recover from what the Loki had put them through. The two of them stood to the left in the picture, both smiling. Qwark held Nefarious under one arm, eager to establish a friendship between them now that he seemed to be turning over a new leaf. Nefarious was tolerant of Qwark's enthusiasm, mostly because Twilight was still clinging to his side, smiling up at him. Alister stood off to the other side, looking rather harried as he stared at the overgrown children he was stuck minding. He desperately hoped Aphelion got down to the surface with the others soon.
As the two doctors embraced, Qwark addressed Nefarious. "Nefarious, old friend...you gotta admit: the sight of two dudes just hugging it out warms the cockles of your mechanical heart, huh?" He gently nudged the robotic doctor, hoping to elicit a positive reaction.
Nefarious glared up at Qwark. "That is, without a doubt, the most pathetic attempt at subtly soliciting a bro hug I have ever seen. Besides, we already had our Awkward Nemesis Hug. Only one per mission!"
Qwark gasped happily. "You mean you'll consider going on another mission with me?"
"No, I'll consider assisting Twilight in hero work against a villain who is neither me nor my ally as a way of eliminating my competition should she ask, and I'll tolerate having you along if she insists," Nefarious corrected incisively.
"Good enough for me!" Qwark proclaimed happily, making Nefarious facepalm and Twilight giggle.
With everything seeming to be fixed so that disaster was no longer imminent, Twilight went to the nearest comm rig to send a call. "Twilight to Aphelion, Twilight to Aphelion! Come in everyone!"
"Read you loud and clear, Twilight!" Aphelion responded immediately. "How is everything?"
"We've managed to fix everything again," she replied. "Where's Mom and Dad?"
"They're a bit busy trying to figure out how to get me into the atmosphere without creating an energy field that will allow the Loki still in the crystals to manifest as though the world were Torranux," Aphelion explained. "Apparently, what allowed that was the unique space-time conditions of their homeworld, and my chronometric field will interact with the energies of the planetary fragments scattered across this world, greatly amplifying their energy fields if I get any closer."
Twilight shuddered. "T-then it's a good thing you couldn't get through the asteroid field before," she admitted.
"Actually, it appears that disruption field in the asteroid field was deliberate, specifically to prevent anything with my sort of energy from entering the atmosphere," Aphelion continued. "One of Dr. Croid's devices, apparently."
"So...how are we going to get off planet, then?" Twilight inquired carefully.
"...I'll get back to you on that if we figure something out," Aphelion replied worriedly.
Sighing, Twilight walked over to the others. "Well, it might still be a while before we get off world," she murmured softly.
"Not entirely," Nefarious countered. "I figured Aphelion would have trouble getting down here before all the planet fragments were destroyed and the Loki no longer a threat...so I just finished hacking Ephemeirs' control codes. It should be easy enough to install new command programs, and then anybody could fly it out of here. We already know it's space worthy at least as far as Igliak."
Twilight squealed happily. "Then we can all get out of here together!"
"Not quite," Nefarious corrected. "See, I'm pretty certain Alister over there is going to insist on arresting me, no matter what you and Qwark say."
"True," Alister confirmed.
"I could give you a Presidential Pardon," Qwark offered. "You wouldn't even see jail time-"
"And destroy both his reputation amongst villains and your credibility as a President by pardoning the universe's biggest criminal mastermind just so he can date your little sister," Twilight pointed out sadly. "But...we can't just leave you behind..."
"But I can!" Nefarious declared with a smirking wink. "Figure letting you get salvage rights here will be better than flowers Friday. Lawrence!"
Nefarious promptly vanished as he was teleported away.
"...huh," Qwark murmured, scratching his chin. "Guess he got in contact with Lawrence, who brought their 'old' ship here to pick him up, while you were talking to Aunt Aphelion."
"And now we have no way of catching or controlling him!" Alister snapped out angrily.
Twilight suddenly grinned widely. "Not necessarily," she mused wickedly. Flapping up to Qwark's shoulder, she began whispering in his ear.
A huge grin spread on Qwark's face. "I like it! You'll help me set it all up, and write the invitations?"
"Absolutely!"
Nefarious sat back in his throne-like chair aboard the old Fortress-model spacecraft, working four consoles simultaneously. With his left hand, he was hacking into Château de délices surnaturelles to place reservations for himself and Twilight at the end of the week, as well as ensuring that nobody could delete them and erasing any evidence that hacking was involved in placing them. With his right hand, he was redesigning the ship and his base's interiors to incorporate several rooms that could be either comfortable magic-neutralizing cells to keep Twilight locked up when he eventually successfully kidnapped her, but would also make pleasant love nests with the addition of appropriately colored throw pillows, just in case everything he knew about the universe turned on its head and he actually caught a break on Friday and he and Twilight wound up going steady. His feet had split into manipulators as well for the other two consoles. His left foot was designing modifications for his own body towards his plan to sweep Twilight off her hooves come Friday. His right foot was designing other things for the night as well, starting with a method of transportation. "I'd like to see a squishy hacker pull this level of dexterity," he mumbled to himself in pride.
"If I might interrupt you sir," Lawrence began diffidently, "there's a message from President Qwark and Vice-President Twilight. It seems official."
"Read it off to me, then," Nefarious grumbled. "Cut out the unimportant diatribe parts, though."
"Very well sir. Let's see..." Lawrence perused the message. "Ah. It appears that there will be a major sporting event spanning several worlds starting Saturday. Some sort of...multi-terrain racing competition. You've been invited to participate."
"And this interests me because?" Nefarious demanded irritably.
"President Qwark will also be participating, and apparently you will be able to pick up weapons along the track to...oh my," Lawrence murmured. "You'll be able to shoot other competitors to get the lead."
"So...a racing competition where I'll be allowed to blow up the competition?" Nefarious asked, becoming interested. "This seems intriguing..."
"Also, the contest will last until the end of the month," Lawrence continued, "and if you promise not to engage in villainous behavior outside the contest until it ends, you will be guaranteed immunity from arrest or prosecution for past crimes during that time, and will be free to return to your base unmolested when it ends. There's also a rather large grand prize in bolts."
Nefarious grinned ear to ear. "YES!" he proclaimed wickedly before cackling madly. "I will be able to humiliate Qwark on intergalactic television, and get away with it!"
Chuckling, Lawrence typed a message to Twilight.
Stage 1 of Operation Bowser, successful.
"Oh, Twilight also sent a personal message for you," Lawrence murmured. "She asks if you're familiar with an anime called...'No Game No Life'?"
"Do we have that one?" Nefarious demanded. "I want to be able to talk about it with her on Friday, among other things."
"Indeed we do," Lawrence confirmed. "I'll load it up on your fifth screen."
Nefarious grinned as he sat back...only to see one of the two main characters - both human - manipulating four characters in an MMO simultaneously, two with his feet. Enraged at seeing a squishy depicted matching robot capabilities, he leapt to his feet to declare his anger. "SOOOOO~RAAAAA-" His dome sparked, and music began playing from it.
I thought love was only found in fairy tales...
Meant for someone else, but not for me...
"Ooh, I love this song!" Lawrence commented idly, before singing along as he steered the ship, head and hands bouncing along to the beat.