//------------------------------//
// 4-gotten: Igliak, Pursuit 
// Story: The Sparkle in his Eye 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	The four quickly took off in pursuit of the Z'Grute, making their way through the damaged city.  As they made their way, they spotted the Z'Grute chowing down on Alister's ship.

"Hey!" he shouted angrily.  "My ship is not a chew toy!"

"It is now!" Nefarious taunted, cackling.

"Well, now how are we supposed to get home when we're done?" Twilight whimpered.

"Don't worry, LSBFF!" Qwark proclaimed.  "I'm sure we'll manage it somehow!"

As they progressed, they could hear the news broadcast announcing how Nefarious had unleashed the Z'Grute upon the city.  "Mwahahahahaha!" Nefarious gloated.  "They shall know my greatness!"

"It's a live broadcast!" Qwark pointed out.  "Why not show them some more greatness?"

"YES!" Nefarious proclaimed proudly.  "I shall destroy everything in my path!"  Lunging forward, he scythed through several robots with his laser chainsaw.

While they were able to keep up with the Z'Grute, it continued to stay just out of reach of any ranged weapons they had with them.  "Dammit!" Twilight snapped.  "You had to insist on defensive weapons only for this, didn't you BBBFF?"

Qwark shrugged his shoulders.  "Oops?"

"I'd take more pleasure in that if I weren't in the same boat of risking being eaten as the rest of you!" Nefarious grumbled.

As they continued, the Z'Grute ripped a giant lightbulb from its moorings to consume what was inside, freeing several blue manta ray like creatures that made their way towards the groups.  "Those are Lumenoids!" Twilight proclaimed.  "The city uses them as a power source, and they're highly territorial when confronted with anything that isn't another Lumenoid!"

"In other words, they're going to try and kills us," Azimuth translated, spinning his spear to knock several away from him.

"Not if we kill them first!" Nefarious cackled as he blasted away with his hand blaster.

After fighting their way through the Lumenoids, another obstacle rose in the form of two robotic switches that had to be slammed into the ground in rapid succession.  Twilight and Qwark both immediately took a switch, not even having to think about it.  A light bridge formed ahead of them.

"Let's go!" Azimuth ordered, taking the lead across the light bridge.  "Before the Z'Grute comes back and eats our bridge!"

As they crossed, the Z'Grute hurled the lightbulb from before ahead of them, freeing numerous more Lumenoids for the crew to fight their way through.  "It's headed for the airway!" Twilight called out, pointing ahead.  "We need to catch up!"

"I'll get there first!" Nefarious cackled, racing ahead.

"Not if I beat you there!" Qwark called back, racing after him.

"As if you ever could beat me at anything without help!" Nefarious quipped back.

"Who says he doesn't have help?" Twilight called out, quickly catching up.

"Is anyone other than me going to treat this seriously?" Alister demanded as he leapt forward with the group.

"Just because it's serious, doesn't mean it can't be fun," Qwark pointed out.

"Yeah, come on Uncle!" Twilight chided.  "Lighten up!"

Ringing a large bell, the group summoned an air taxi to ride in pursuit of the Z'Grute.  The air taxi turned along another path as the Z'Grute counter attacked, and the group was forced to steer around spinning blades by shifting weight on the taxi.  Past the spinning blades, they then had to do the same to evade other air cars as they were travelling the wrong way relative to traffic flow.

Once they were out of traffic, they were forced to make a sharp turn as a building fell right in front of them.  "It's destroying the city!" Azimuth shouted out.

"Then we'll have to destroy it first!" Qwark proclaimed.  "Bring us in close, Twi!"

"On it!" Twilight proclaimed, steering in close.  Seeing the Z'Grute drawing back an energy filled fist, she jerked the controls, turning so when the taxi was obliterated the four of them landed on a beam they could grind down.  "...that could have gone better," she grumbled, clinging to Qwark's shoulders.

"It's not over yet!" Alister shouted, pointing forward.  "Lean!"

The group leaned around on the large beam, shifting around breaches that released damaging energy.  Twilight had to jerk her wing back as Qwark swerved a little too close and she singed the tip of a feather.  "Yikes!"

"Sorry, LSBFF!" Qwark apologized.  "Are you okay?"

"I'm alright," Twilight replied as they reached the end of the beam.  "Just one feather, and it's only singed.  It was due to molt later this week, anyway."

"Be more careful, you incompetent buffoon!" Nefarious snapped angrily.  "She's worth more than the three of us put together, no matter how you measure it!"

Twilight lowered her head.  "...I don't know whether to be pleased that shows signs of selflessness in you, upset at how little you value my BBBFF and Uncle, or terrified that you've got some crazy villain crush on me and plan to kidnap me and convert me into a cyborg villain sex-partner."

Nefarious blinked several times.  "Wow, and I thought I could get dark.  While I won't debate the possible kidnapping and roboticizing, I assure you that were my desires along the last one, I would most certainly romance you properly!"

Twilight stared at him nervously.  "That's...comforting?"

"Speaking of which, do you prefer chocolates or flowers?" Nefarious asked.  "Or perhaps chocolate covered flowers?"

"Hey!" Qwark complained.  "That's my little sister you're hitting on!"

"Bro code does not apply to nemeses!" Nefarious snapped back.

"So is anyone else going to pay attention to the new attacking robots that just showed up?" Alister questioned, gesturing at the large, floating orange robots armed with lasers.

"Not mine, so they can wait!" Nefarious countered, barely sparing them a glance.

"Not mine, so I'd rather focus on the apparent freaky villain crush," Twilight added.

"I have more important things to focus on right now!" Qwark concluded, punching a robot that got too close without even looking at it, sending it flying into another bot, destroying both.

Alister groaned, shaking his head.  "Then would somebody at least give me some popcorn?" he demanded petulantly.