"Wake up, you big idiot. They told me you already woke up once. Now get up so I can strangle you."

  Rixon began to open his eyes. His little sister stood over him with a mischievous smile.

  "Okay, Oyricy, just because I'm down doesn't mean you can abuse me whenever you want." Rixon grabbed her by the head and put her in a headlock.

  "Talking about me abusing you when I ain't even touched you yet, and you already put me in a headlock. Yeah, and Zay told me you should be fine now. All your injuries are healed up pretty good." Oyric punched him in the stomach.

  Rixon didn’t realize it at first, but he really didn’t feel pain anymore. All his scars were either scabs on the back end of healing or completely gone. He got up out of the bed, using Oyric as a crutch so he wouldn’t overdo it.

  "Oh wow, I really do feel fine. This is crazy. Well, time for me to get dressed, so can you please get out?" Rixon said as he stretched.

  "Yeah, hurry up. Zay will be here soon, he wants to go over some stuff before you talk with the Boss lady. And also, I just want to say..." For a moment she turned soft and didn’t deflect with a joke. "I’m glad you’re okay and that you still have pieces of you."

  Rixon’s head turned, and he hugged her. "Oh, you never have to worry again. Your big brother is going to protect you and slay all those who think they want to run up on you or me."

  “Ohhh yea cuz you know if they run up they gone done up. Imma give them that two piece Oyricy special.”

  They both laughed and Oyric grabbed her things. She left the room, and he just took his time putting on his clothes, almost like he was putting on an armor of strength to wear in front of her and others. As he knew, he had to be the strongest he could be at all times.

  He sat down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

  Within moments, Zay and Jenasa came in and took a seat.

  "Aye, don’t think about becoming a monk after one fight now. We got so much more to do and talk about, lil cuz." Zay scooted up in his rolling chair and smacked him on the back.

  "Ah, becoming a monk, I don’t think that would give me the peace I need to even ignore you or dodge you. I feel then you would still find yourself at the monastery I was at, just to bring me hell in a place of peace." Rixon smiled and peered down at Zay.

  "Well, I’m glad you know there ain’t no dodging me. Now look, we will be seeing the boss in the next three days, so get your mind right as she will want to know about you and challenge you harder than I did. Understand right now. Just accept what she gives you and don’t even think you can argue. Remember, you are in my world now. We understood?" Zay was playfully spinning in his chair but keeping a serious tone.

  "How do you expect me to treat you with seriousness when you’re spinning around like a kid getting in a spinning chair for the first time?" Rixon’s face was locked up in a confused manner.

  Jenasa cracked a smile and chuckled.

  "I bet that was funny. And anyways, that ship that you bought and got sent to my ship is a bag of crap. Who finessed you like that, and how much did you pay for it?" Zay stopped spinning and straightened his chair in line with Jenasa.

  "Well, I honestly met a genuine Quixler, and they gave it to me for free. I sold the other ship and got that for free. Because you may not know this, but other than fighting people, I actually like to tinker and build things." Rixon got up and wiped himself off like he was dirty.

  "Okay, pretty boy, well, I hope you didn’t sell that thing for cheaper than twenty-five thousand because if you did, you would have been robbed." Zay got up and helped Jenasa up as they prepared to walk out of the room.

  Rixon realized that he actually didn’t get conned and that Tova was truly looking out for him. A stranger who just noticed that he was in a situation and went out of his way to help him when he could have taken advantage.

  "Man, anyway, I’m about to go see my ship. If you need anything from me, either find me there or in one of your training rooms. I’m about to do a little bit of exploring if you don’t mind." Rixon held his long coat over his shoulder.

  "Yeah, alright, just don’t hit on any of my girls. Because you think I’ll beat you up? Jenasa’s gonna clean you up like she cleans off dummies that think they can fight. But alright, you also have a room, and it ain’t this one. I’ll send it to your comms." Zay left out with Jenasa following.

  Rixon walked out into the hallway and saw all the different feminine species walking the halls. He used his comm, the one on the side of his bed, to find his path to the hangar holding his ship.

  As he walked, he noticed how big Zay’s ship was. It could hold 500 people and was equipped with missiles and weapons for days.

  His stomach began to call to him, so he made his way to the café. He saw Jenasa talking to a few of the feminine crew members, getting on to them. He didn’t want to make the moment awkward, so he kept it pushing and went to grab a snack.

  At the bar, he noticed some of the same women who worked in the command center at the station were now behind the counter, prepping food for the crew. He smirked slightly.

  He grabbed some Hegi, a bread-like protein pastry filled with tellison meat. It was an acceptable protein, an invasive species to all planets that everyone felt needed to be dealt with.

  On his way to the hangar, he passed the training simulators. He heard all the different groups training and peered into each one, just being nosy. When he looked into one, he saw his sister fighting all by herself.

  She was taking on a simulated event: "15 v 1: Yornkata Home Invasion."

  He saw her shed tears as she fought. He could not help but walk away, because he knew that was her way of letting out what had happened to them. He just could not watch her be smart, then out of nowhere become reckless with her emotions running wild.

  He made it to the hangar. One of the crew members pointed him to his ship.

  He saw all of their ships first. They had plenty of two- and three-man ships for battle and a couple of shuttle ships. He was in awe. The closer he got to his own ship, he could tell it was crap. All he could do was smirk and give a little chuckle as he stood in the most beautiful ship, looking at his new battleship that looked like it needed to be put down and out of its misery.

  To even get on the ship he had to pull a lever to release the hangar door, which in itself was a workout to come down. But when he walked onto it, he felt something different. The shape of the ship was clear to him, and his brain started racing with ideas.

  For a moment, he was a kid again.

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  He ran off the ship and went to the wall where the crew members’ desks were. He grabbed a hover chair, a digital notebook, a stylus, and a survival light they attached to their mini-battleships in case a crewmember got stranded.

  He ran back onto the ship, closed the hangar door, and turned on the light. He started with one thing, then moved to the next.

  The hangar area was wide enough for one mini-ship. It had twenty-five side wall seats where, if need be, everyone had a place. He spent most of the day just drawing what his ship could look like.

  Before the day moved completely on, he used a flashlight to find the captain’s dorm. When he found it, he was surprised how well-kept it was. It had a nice cot with a nightstand that seemed retro, almost ancient. It had a light attached to the nightstand. In front of the bed was a table that looked like someone’s makeshift desk or workbench.

  He loved the concept.

  He laid his shield on the table and walked off the ship for a moment. He noticed some of the crew members staring at him. He went to the decontamination bay of the hangar and grabbed a bucket, cleaning products, and decontamination units.

  When he walked back, he saw that everyone was more confused about why he’d spent his money on it, as word had spread. His only reaction was to smirk and go back on his ship.

  He decontaminated his captain’s dorm and laid down to sleep with ease.

  He stayed there for the remaining three days, all the way until they made it to the headquarters of the Boss.

  When they arrived, he was called off his ship with his sister right at his side. They got into one of the shuttle ships with Zay. When he peered outside, it was almost like the weirdest thing he had ever seen.

  It was a space station with a barricade of a hundred ships surrounding it. All in different sizes: one hundred crewed battleships, huge cargo ships, and four huge military-grade carrier ships.

  It started to hit Rixon that this was no mere boss. This was a person who had all the things needed to protect her and her crime family, and his mother knew that they really could do it if he held his own weight.

  As they arrived at the station, the ship got scanned by four mini-ships, then an explosion zone scan where the ship was held in place and a huge scan went over the whole thing.

  Once they were accepted onto the station, they were checked by security and had to do a full body scan. Rixon could not believe that someone outside a planetary military could have this many checkpoints.

  When they were finally on the ship, they were immediately escorted to see the Boss.

  "Dang, can a brother grab some grub or just for a moment not feel so tense?" Rixon said to Zay as they were being escorted in the halls of the station.

  "Ohhh no. She knows about you and wants to meet you. Also, I just completed a mission for her, so I have to go give feedback." Zay smirked at other pirates walking by, who returned his look with a squint and disdain.

  "Okay, Zay, look, I know I’m young and that we are all from different species of planets on this ship, but what’s up with these looks they keep firing off towards us even though you are smiling?" Oyric said as she walked closer to Rixon and Jenasa.

  "Oh, don’t mind them. They are just salty that I grew under the boss’s wing rather than under another family. The family is considered a tight-knit unit, and I walked in as that dude, and they’ve been hating ever since. But don’t worry, where we are going, your boy is the most liked." Zay shot a look of confidence to his cousins.

  As they walked, they came to a door with eight guards surrounding it. Two on the right, two on the left, and two in the middle of the hallway before you get to the door.

  Zay greeted them, and they let him and his crew through without hesitation or check.

  When they walked through the automatic doors, they entered a room set up in an open floor concept of a corporation, with an elevator down the middle aisle that led you right to a room where the boss was.

  "Ahhh, home sweet home." Zay stretched out his arms as if he’d been tense the whole time.

  Then out of nowhere, a couple of masculine species from all different types of life walked up to him and started talking. They checked up on him, saw if he’d been eating, almost like he was their little brother.

  Zay indulged, then remembered he did not come alone.

  "Ah, here are my little cousins. They have come to see the boss." Zay gestured to them.

  One of them, a Legzla, stepped up and shook both of their hands. "Well, today has already shown how interesting it will be. This will only add to the storyline."

  "Sorry to let you all know, but I will participate in this story as long as it benefits me, so don’t get too ahead of yourself because I will die for this girl behind me and the life I wish for us to have." Rixon snarled at them with his face and body language.

  "Oh, this one might be what she is looking for today. And okay, kid, but know this: if you cross the boss or you try anything funny, what you did this past week for the boss, we will all do to you and her." One of the Cerlitza masculine said as he stood there with his three eyes and sleek body.

  Rixon’s killing energy rose out of him. He wanted to take the table desk to his left and break it over the head of the masculine Cerlitza.

  Zay peeped the energy change and grabbed Rixon by the shoulder, cooling the energy in the room.

  "Well, we are off to see the boss. I’ll come down to talk to you fellas afterwards." Zay walked with Rixon in a very light headlock.

  Rixon wasn’t cooling down but was keeping his pride at the front, and Zay noticed as they got ready to ride the elevator up to the Boss.

  "Hey, Rixy, cool it. Not the time. She can kill you within seconds. She may be older, but I still can not beat her in a fight. Also, she is one of us, so don’t think you know her or there is some moral compass she should follow. Just accept whatever fate she gives you and perform to your best ability. Right now, she has been cutthroat, so I can’t protect you if she wants you dead where you stand." Zay’s voice turned serious and direct as they rode up the elevator.

  Oyric noticed how this just turned even more real after all the different encounters and how her own fun cousin had just become serious. She got anxious, and Jenasa held her hand, shooting her a reassuring smile.

  When they reached upstairs, there were two guards who checked them in and then opened the door.

  All they saw was a Delisus woman sitting at her desk, looking to be signing documents with a stylus on digital tablets. Her brown skin and gold eyes gave it all away, as if she was not trying to hide it one bit.

  Then, as they walked into the room, her eyes shifted up, almost like knives to the throats of intruders.

  "Zay, what have you brought me?" the Boss said to Zay as they stood in the middle of her office.

  "Well, Boss, remember that promise you made with my aunt a while back, when I was just a young starlight fella?" Zay said, a bit of his childishness squeezing through his temporary serious performance.

  The Boss sat up and smirked.

  "Don’t tell me these are the two from the spawn of my best friend? Can’t be. That boy looks weak and looks like he hasn’t killed anyone." She peered at Rixon.

  Rixon decided to be bold.

  "Don’t worry, I did your prerequisites, and also understand that I’m nothing weak." Rixon stared daggers back at her.

  Zay noticed, closed his eyes, and rolled them.

  "Oh, you got stones, young man. And with that being said, how many did he kill and she kill, Zay?" the Boss said with a smirk on her face.

  Zay played a holographic video from his own body cam showing how many of the Pino Family Rixon killed.

  "Well, Boss, he killed sixteen on the top deck and five in the exec hideout. She didn’t kill any. We thought if—"

  The Boss moved with lightning-quick speed and threw a knife at Oyric’s head.

  Rixon matched her speed with a fierceness. He retracted his shield, deflected the knife from her head, and then charged the Boss.

  "What the hell was that for, you witch?" Rixon said in a fiery tone but didn’t scream, almost like he wanted to do this without causing attention.

  She answered with a quickness. "Because you know the deal. All of your mother’s children had to at least kill one person."

  Zay tried to grab him before he charged, but Rixon was too quick.

  Rixon jumped and cocked his arm back, using the shield like a blunt weapon. He imagined bashing her head against the glass for everyone downstairs to see.

  But the Boss was a Boss for a reason. She dodged to the left, grabbed his arm mid-swing, and threw him onto her table.

  Rixon, with rage and anger, got up just enough to throw a right hook to her jaw that caught her by surprise.

  "Oh, I like you already, kid." The Boss licked her lips and faced him as she held him by his left arm.

  The Boss stood up and punched him in the gut while holding him, leaving him gasping for air, and threw him at the feet of his sister and Jenasa.

  "Now let’s let the fun truly begin." The Boss sat down and crossed her legs.