Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 100: Over Heaven

Part 3 / 6

“ROARRRRR!”

“What was that?!” Bobby cried out, looking around.

Over the past few minutes, buildings around them had collapsed in on themselves, and debris had scattered all across the city, making it even harder and harder to traverse. Samuel was starting to stress out. They needed to find some way to tamper with Dan Walker’s implant to destroy the illusion they were in, but there was no way they’d stand a chance against that titan.

“We’ll just have to keep running for now,” Samuel thought. He looked around, and then his heart dropped.

“Wait a minute. Where’s Tiffany?!”

“Ahhh, dead end!” Simon shouted as they came to a halt. A building had fallen down, blocking the path and causing rubble to pile up all around the area. The others backed away slowly, a little afraid and nervous.

“What do we do now-” Rick shouted. Sunny gasped, and pointed behind Simon.

“Simon, look out, behind you!”

It was too late. A raptor that was infected with the purple veins jumped out from the depths and pounced on Simon, slashing and tearing apart Simon’s body. Simon let out a howl as he outstretched his arm, requesting assistance. Bobby let out a cry and kicked at the raptor attacking him, and Gary shot at the raptor, killing it.

“Simon, are you okay?” Bobby asked, holding Simon up. Simon groaned, and nodded weakly.

“Yeah, it got a few good hits on me though… I don’t think I can move that well. Ouch,” Simon noticed.

Alan turned around, and he turned white.

“We’ve got company lads.”

The friends turned around and saw a large horde of corrupted dinosaurs approaching them slowly, snapping their jaws and letting out vicious roars. Everyone drew their weapons, but they knew they were highly outmatched.

Paul clenched his fists.

“What do we do now Samuel?” Nova asked, worried. Afraid.

Samuel’s head hung low.

He didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t know,” Samuel shouted, “I DON’T KNOW!”

Paul stepped forward. His eyes were closed. A moment of uncertainty hung in the air. His implant ceased to glow. Yet, some form of powerful aura hung around him.

Something resonates within the depths of Paul’s soul.

“I thought that anyone capable of love was capable of changing for the better,” Paul claimed.

Bump bump bump bump bump.

“But clearly, I was wrong. Clearly I underestimated the evil of this world. Clearly I underestimated… Nobody deserves a second chance. I should’ve helped John. Maybe then he would have lived. Maybe then… I would not have to live with this regret. The regret that I couldn’t tell him that he was a great friend. He was my best friend.”

Paul opened his eyes. They were filled with tears. Not sad tears, but happy ones.

“But maybe… with this LOVE that my friends have, I can bring John back!”

Paul felt the love of all those around him bubble within his own heart, and with all the might he could, he shoved his hand into the air, and grasped at a wisp in the air. Then, he shoved it to the ground, and a white flash filled the air.

SHOOM!

Boom.

The light faded away from everyone’s eyes.

And standing in the midst of the chaos was John.

“Hey guys!” John shouted, “Glad to be back!”

John’s stomach was ripped open, guts and entrails spilling out. He didn’t really seem to care though. Paul’s eyes were spilling white, crackling with lightning. He furrowed his brow in worry.

“John! Does that hurt?! Do you need a medical brew?”

“Eh, I’m fine. What do you need help with?”

“Well we do need to deal with these dinosaurs…”

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

John rushed forward and placed his palm on one of the corrupted rexes. In an instant, the rex’s eyes lit up, and it turned around, roaring at the rest of the corrupted dinosaurs. John rushed forward and continued taming dinosaur after dinosaur.

“Woah. Paul’s doing a lot of work,” Ian murmured under his breath.

“I didn’t know he had it in him,” Carlos replied.

“John! Wait for me!” Paul cried out, running after him. Paul squinted his eyes when he noticed that John had fallen asleep standing up.

“JOHN! You can’t just fall asleep right now!” Paul scolded him, “We have a battle to fight right now!”

“Paul, you know that taming these dinosaurs takes up my energy! That energy brew only lasted so long!” John retorted, “Besides these guys are really tough. I can feel the hate coursing through their veins when I touch them-”

“John, I just brought you back to life, you can’t slack off now!”

“I’m sorry I’m not meeting up your expectations, PAUL, you’re not even helping me!”

“Grrr, JOHN! That’s not an excuse whatsoever! You know I can’t fight that well!” Paul screamed, holding onto his longsword tightly, “I swear, if that lady June were here right now, she’d have killed all of these dinosaurs already! And take care of that titan!”

Paul scratches his chin, as if an idea suddenly came to him.

“Well… I suppose I could just do…”

Paul grasped at the air again, grabbing another wisp. This one was fiery and hot to the touch.

“THIS!”

Paul slammed the wisp into the ground, and another white light flashed in the air. In an instant, another figure appeared within the midst. One with flowing orange-brown hair, and a body that was muscular and toned. A woman wearing flak armor and carrying a trident made out of pure flame.

The Crimson Crusader: June, joins the battle!

“I’ll kill all of you!” June shouted, waving her other fist in the air, “I love Ben very much!”

“June! Help me kill these foul beasts, John here is slacking off!” Paul shouted at her. June scowled at him.

“Since when did you get so rowdy?”

“Since now! Now, help me kill these monkeys!” Paul screamed. June grumbled, but then a grin flashed across her face.

“I like that spirit. Let’s do this!”

June waved her hand and fire immediately sprouted out from the ground, coating the dinosaurs in flames. The dinosaurs roared and ran around frantically, bumping into each other and crashing into buildings, crushing their skulls. Paul let out a maniacal laugh and rushed forward into the fire.

“NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!” Paul laughed, raising his sword into the air and slashing and slicing at the dinosaurs’ legs. He let out a scream and jumped up into the air onto a corrupted wyvern that was flying away, stabbing his sword into the foul creature’s head.

John looked on a bit, before shrugging.

“Uh, nyeh.”

~

“That girl is dead, I suppose,” the King Titan boomed, “I should go for the others-”

BUM BUM. BUM BUM.

CRASH!

A small figure burst from the debris of the sanctuary city. Tiffany. The King Titan’s eyes widened as Tiffany went flying full throttle at the beast of a machine. The King Titan snarled and pointed his finger at Tiffany. Reality began to warp once again, and his implant’s purple orb began to glow as cuts and slashes burst through reality toward her.

SLASH SLASH SLASH!

The first slash hit Tiffany right on the shoulder. The cut went right into the bone, and she let out a groan as she stumbled backwards. The next two slashes went flying into her legs, cutting them off. Tiffany let out another groan, but propelled her body upwards flinging the decapitated limbs toward the King Titan’s eyes.

The King Titan couldn’t evade in time. He didn’t expect Tiffany to do something like this. The limbs struck both of his eyes, and the King Titan let out a roar as his eyes began to water and his vision began to wane. The King Titan stumbled backwards, grasping at his eyes and rubbing them ferociously. Unbeknownst to the beast, however, Tiffany was already adapting to the King Titan’s cuts and slashes.

Tiffany opened her mouth, coughing out a ton of blood. She looked down at the stubs of her legs, and concentrated hard.

BUMP BUMP!

Her heart shifted within her chest, and she felt the remnants of the medical brew that Carlos had fed her return to life. Some of it was still in her system. If she adapted, she would be able to use it with utmost efficiency. Just a drop would be enough to grow back a limb-

Tiffany’s two legs grew back, and the wounds around her body disappeared. Tiffany’s head jerked forward, and she continued to fly at the King Titan. She raised her fist, and spikes made of bone shot out like claws. Once she approached the King Titan, she dived straight into his chest.

KACRACK!

The King Titan let out another roar of pain as Tiffany dived right into his body, tearing through flesh and bone, until Tiffany eventually reached his inner systems. Purple veins were sprawled out everywhere, enclosing a beating heart that was glowing purple.

BUM BUM! BUM BUM! BUM BUM! BUM BUM!

Tiffany let out a chuckle, and dived forward at the heart. Before she could, turrets and guns manifested around her, firing at her. More of the slashes that the King Titan had created within the reality around them also began to manifest, cutting at Tiffany’s body and creating wound after wound.

Tiffany let out a groan as the first few bullets struck her in the leg, but with a gasp, she felt her skin turn rock hard. Metal rock hard. The rest of the bullets that came her way ricochet off of her and struck the King Titan’s organs, causing further pain and damage for him.

Two slashes cut her on the hip and arm, but as Tiffany’s eyes adjusted to the new environment around her, she noticed the slashes would unravel the air around her. With this new discovery, she would use her bone claws to slash away at the air and propel the slashes away from her.

Not a single one of the King Titan’s attacks were hitting her.

And with a push, Tiffany landed onto the belly of the King Titan and began to make her way to the heart, slowly but surely. Completely invulnerable to the King Titan, she pushed her way through slash after slash, bullet after bullet, until she reached the King Titan’s corrupted heart. She stared at the heart for a moment. The wind around her blew her hair around violently, making it harder to see and harder to stand.

“For Andres,” Tiffany murmured.

She raised her fist, and with a thundering punch, stabbed the King Titan’s heart.

“ROARRRRR!”

The King Titan went tumbling, the slashes stopping and the turrets melting away. Tiffany flew up and then dived out of the King Titan’s body.

With a thundering crash, the King Titan collapsed onto the ground.

The King Titan was dead.

And a human in a white suit and blue baseball cap shot out once more.

Tiffany dived down to attack him, but Dan Walker teleported away.

All around them, reality was starting to shimmer.

~

There were dead dinosaurs everywhere.

A strange purple liquid pooled around the area. Everyone looked around in awe at the bloodshed. And the chaos that had ensued. Fire was spreading everywhere.

Paul, John, and June stood side to side, smiling.

They had taken care of the corrupted creatures.

“We did it gang,” John said with a wink, “We got ‘em all.”

“Paul, you weren’t so bad after all,” June laughed, “I made the right call working with you.”

Paul’s gaze lowered to the ground. Melancholic. And sad. John continued to speak.

“It’s a shame, really,” John sighed, “John would have been proud if he were here to witness it.”

“What? We both know that I didn’t come along after I stayed behind to fight those dinosaurs off.”

“Who knows what I’d really be doing if I was here for real.”

“I’m sorry… constellations.”

The two figures faded away, and Paul’s arms slumped down to his side.

“They weren’t real,” Paul thought, the white light in his eyes gone, like an illusion, “I couldn’t stand the thought of… committing this bloodshed. I did it for their sake. But would this have been what John wanted? What Ian wanted? Carlos, or Ben? Jane? I’m starting to have second thoughts.”

Paul looked up at the night sky. He could still hear John’s screams ring in his ears. No matter how much he tried to shove the thought away, he couldn’t help but admit it. John was dead. And there was no more opportunity for second chances.

In the midst of the turmoil stood a figure in white. Dan Walker looked around, slightly impressed by the bloodshed the innocent Paul had created. He was curious, to say the least.

Paul’s memory returned to when he had first met that wise woman. That wise woman who claimed to know Ben. She seemed to be looking at something in the sky. Or perhaps, someone? Paul felt tears well in his eyes.

“If someone is watching. Why can’t they help?” Paul asked himself, “Are we really forced to fight alone?”

Paul looked back down at the ground. He noticed Dan Walker getting closer. He didn’t care.

He just wanted his friend back.

“A big part of me is still stupid enough to believe you can change!” Paul shouted out to Dan Walker. Dan Walker paused, his steps faltering for just a split second. Paul’s implant began to glow. Dan Walker felt his heart tremble at his grace.

“My friends all want you dead. And a part of me wants you dead too. But I don’t think my friends want me to be that way. I don’t think the people watching do,” Paul whispered, “Even after everything you did, I still can’t bring myself to kill you. Please… make the right decision.”

Wind blew in the air.

Everyone had their weapons down, waiting for Dan Walker to make a move. Samuel eyed his implant. It seemed dim. Reality was shimmering around them. Just one strike to the orb could be enough to return them all to the starlit sanctuary and cancel the Attribute Amplification.

A smirk grew on Dan Walker’s face.

“Why would I want to do that?”

Dan Walker raised his hand in the air…

But that was when Neddy grabbed Bobby’s hammer, dashed forward, and smashed the blunt side of the head onto Dan Walker’s implant.

And in an instant, everything warped in on itself. All the buildings, bodies, and the bloodshed that surrounded them got sucked into the orb of Dan Walker’s implant, and Dan Walker let out a howl of pain. Everyone looked around to see the starlit sanctuary coming back into view.

Anguish. The pain. It was all too much for Dan. With a cry, he collapsed onto his knees, clutching onto his wrist tightly. The constellations were coming back into view, sparkling intensely at the sight of the man’s groveling. The others just looked on in horror at the sight unfolding. Nobody moved an inch.

A part of Samuel wanted him to just step forward and kill him right then and there.

But he wanted to see him suffer.

What happened next shocked them even further.

Dan Walker’s skin began getting sucked into the implant’s orb. The blood, the bones, the organs were all being ripped to shreds. Atomized, turned to dust, leaving no trace behind. Dan Walker’s eyes darted up at the scholars, tears in his eyes. Nobody stepped forward to help him.

This was the man responsible for all of their deaths.

“Please. Save me,” Dan Walker begged, “Please! I didn’t mean it. I didn’t I swear I didn’t. I didn’t, please please please, make it stop, make it stop-”

He was gone.

“Nobody deserved to die,” Ruby whispered, closing her eyes. She thought of Aurora. A tear rolled down her cheek.

If only she were here to witness this.

Alas, Dan Walker was dead. There was nothing left of him. All that remained was the indestructible implant on the ground, which still glowed purple. The others stared for a moment. Nobody cheered. Nobody celebrated. They were exhausted. They were ready to go home. They were ready to return to their own lives.

Samuel looked up at the ceiling of the Starlit Sanctuary. There was a giant red orb implanted at the top. It wasn’t glowing. That was their way home.

“How are we supposed to get out of here?” Samuel asked aloud.

Nova stepped up to Samuel’s side.

“Maybe there’s something linked up to the orb that makes it activate,” she suggested. Neddy stepped forward.

“I… saw a console a while back, near the entrance of the door. Maybe that’s it?”

“That’s definitely going to help,” Ruby replied, “Let’s go check it out.”

“Gladly.”

The two walked up to the door that led into the starlit sanctuary, leaving Samuel and Nova to look up at the red orb by themselves. The others were solemn and silent. They still couldn’t believe that they had done it. They had defeated Dan Walker.

Neddy and Ruby walked up to the entrance, but immediately noticed that the door was closed. Neddy scratched his chin.

“How are we going to get past this door?” Ruby asked. She sighed, “If only Tiffany were here to help.”

“Yeah, you need something?” Tiffany asked as she suddenly appeared behind them. The two let out squeals and jumped into the air, looking behind them.

“Jumpscare alert, jeez, when were you here?” Neddy questioned curiously.

“I’ve been here this whole time,” Tiffany revealed, a bit annoyed that nobody noticed her return, “I was taking down that titan that appeared. I managed to kill it.”

“Ohhh, that’s why Dan Walker came out of nowhere after Paul killed all those dinosaurs by himself. It’s because you killed the titan,” Ruby realized. Tiffany raised her eyebrow.

“Paul did what now?”

“It’s a long story. Paul just kind of… went on a rampage. Anyway, can you help us get past this door?” Neddy requested from Tiffany. Tiffany nodded, stepping forward and cracking her knuckles.

“Sure thing. This should be a piece of cake.”

Tiffany pulled her fist back and then slammed it hard into the metal. The impact of the punch was so strong that the door bent. Tiffany kept slamming her fist into the door, until eventually the door burst open.

“There you go. Go on now.”

Neddy and Ruby both thanked Tiffany for her work, and then stepped through the hole in the door. To the right of them was a console made of the same metal as the rest of the starlit sanctuary. There were blue lines of code on the screen. Neddy walked up to the console and placed both of his hands on the keyboard attached. Ruby hovered behind him, watching carefully at what he’d do next.

“Oh boy. I’ve seen this before in my computer science class,” Neddy murmured under his breath.

“Really?” Ruby asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. This is like Coding 101. Hey, what if I just…” Neddy began to type some lines of code into the console, and then clicked the enter button.

SHOOM!

Reality crackled next to Neddy’s hand, and then a sandwich manifested in his hands. He looked at it in awe, holding it up to the sky.

“Woah. Look at that-”

Ruby snatched the sandwich out of Neddy’s hands, and Neddy let out a squeal.

“Hey! Give that back!” Neddy moaned, “I’m hungry.”

“We’re trying to find a way back home, not start a buffet! Come on, you're the only one who knows how to do all this coding shtick,” Ruby said.

“Yeah, true, but I need that sandwich alright? It’ll help me work better,” Neddy sneered. Ruby sighed, and then reluctantly handed the sandwich back to Neddy.

“Fine. Here you go. Just give me one too, alright?”

Neddy grabbed the sandwich gently out of her hands. He looked at it for a bit, before finally splitting it in half with his hands. He handed the other half back over to Ruby. Ruby looked at the sandwich half as if it were a baby. She looked back up at Neddy with big eyes.

“Thanks Neddy,” Ruby whispered. A smirk grew on her lips. She waved the sandwich around.

“Hey. You could’ve just spawned in another sandwich. Why go through all this trouble?”

“Oh,” Neddy replied, a bright shade of red washed over his cheeks, “Well. Uh. I thought it’d be cute? I DON’T KNOW RUBY! I’M STILL NEW TO THIS BOYFRIEND STUFF. Even though we’re technically not official yet. But STILL! This is like, stuff that happens in a rom-com, you know?”

Ruby stared into Neddy’s eyes for a bit. She felt herself grow red too.

She slugged Neddy on the shoulder, and he let out a yelp. Then she began to laugh.

“Just get back to work nerd,” Ruby giggled.

“Okay okay, I will!” Neddy replied. He looked back at the blue lines of the console and began typing away. But he couldn’t help but take a few quick glances back at Ruby, who was munching away at her sandwich.

“What?” Ruby asked.

“Nothing,” Neddy replied, looking back. He took a bite out of his sandwich and swallowed the rest of it down with ease. He felt satiated now. In stomach, but not in heart. Neddy took a quick glance back at Ruby’s swirling black hair with red streaks, and the cute glasses on her nose that made her brown eyes even bigger than they looked. Ruby squinted her eyes. Then a sly smile stretched on her lips and she stepped up toward Neddy, leaning forward and kissing him on the lips.

The two closed their eyes and took in the moment. Neddy stepped away from the console and wrapped his arms around her waist, and Ruby caressed Neddy’s hair, pushing his long bangs away from his forehead.

The two slowly pulled away from each other, looking into each others’ eyes with goofy smiles plastered on their faces.

“That was great,” Neddy smiled, pulling Ruby in close.

“That’s only our second kiss too,” Ruby whispered to him. Neddy raised his eyebrows in quick succession.

“Want to make it a third time?”

“Third time’s the charm,” Ruby laughed. The two closed their eyes and leaned in again.

“HEY!” a voice suddenly interrupted them.

The two became startled, pulling away from each other and turning to face the door. They blinked their eyes and stood with their arms by their sides, taking quick glances at each other.

Ben was standing at the door with an annoyed look on his face.

“PDA much?” Ben asked, “Do that crap later when we get out of here. We’re trying to get out of here!”

“Sorry Ben!” Neddy chuckled, “Jeez, when’d you get this grumpy?”

“Since now. Just get to it…”

Ben pulled away, and Neddy let go of Ruby, returning back to the console.

“I should get back to this and figure out how to activate that red orb,” Neddy decided, typing away at the keyboard.

“Fair enough. I’ll wait,” Ruby said, watching over Neddy’s shoulder curiously.

Neddy continued to type away at the keyboard. A few more minutes of typing, and his eyes sparkled. It seemed he had found a few lines of code connected to the red orb hooked up at the top of the starlit sanctuary.

“Take a look at this… I think I just need to execute the order and then we should be good to go.”

Neddy typed a few more lines of code and then pressed the enter button. Neddy’s eyebrow raised at the following lines that were produced.

“Users with implants will not be teleported. Initiate sequence?”

“What?! This is stupid, we got teleported even though we had implants in that cave!” Ruby shouted at the console. Neddy grumbled and began to rub his forehead.

“Great. What now?”

Ruby shifted backwards, rubbing his chin.

“I guess we could ask Samuel if he wants to go down home himself. Then we can figure the rest out, like how we can remove these implants.”

Neddy walked away from the console and peeked out the door. Everyone was murmuring amongst themselves at the battle that had ensued. Samuel had picked up Dan Walker’s implant and was inspecting it carefully.

“Hey Samuel!” Neddy called out.

Samuel looked back.

“You wanna get out of here first? Console will only let us teleport people without implants. Maybe you want to go home first.”

Samuel shook his head.

“Nah. I’ll wait until all of us get out of here.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Neddy returned to the clutches of the console, staring at the screen tightly, considering his next move. Ruby stared at the screen quietly before interjecting a suggestion.

“If you can add items, then could you delete them?”

Neddy’s eyes sparkled.

“I mean, probably. I’m just trying to figure out the item ID for this implant. It’s not a regular item, you know? Ah, here it is!” Neddy shouted in joy.

Neddy typed a few more lines of code and pressed the enter button.

The console beeped violently.

“ERROR. IMPLANTS CANNOT BE ERASED. IMAGINARY MATTER CANNOT BE ERASED.”

“What?! What does that even mean?” Neddy asked, banging his hands onto the sides of the console. Ruby’s hair gently drifted along the cold air of the observatory.

“If we can’t remove them… then can’t we move them somewhere else?”

“But where? I don’t think it could be that easy!”

Ruby looked out the door. Landon’s body was propped up against a pillar, lifeless and cold. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t breathing. Nobody was watching over him. He had been sitting there since the beginning of the battle.

“It’s a bit unorthodox but,” Ruby was interrupted by Neddy, who seemed to understand what she was implying.

“I suppose that’s the only choice we have. But what then? Just remove the implants manually over and over until we get everyone’s out?”

Ruby scratched her chin, pondering and thinking to herself. Then an idea came to her.

“Hey, you know how back there it said that the implant contained just a tad bit of ‘essence’ from Dan Walker’s implant? Like, the reason our implants are even capable of giving us abilities.”

Neddy nodded.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“What if the essence is the imaginary mass itself, but the metal that contains it isn’t? If we just separate the metal and the essence, then we can remove the implants that way!”

Neddy’s eyes sparkled again, and he frantically typed more lines of code onto the console.

“If what you’re saying is correct, then if we just find the sub-part of the implant which is the metal containing the essence, we can remove it…” Neddy stopped typing for a moment, and then looked down on his own implant.

“You’re a genius, Ruby!”

Neddy lifted his finger to press the enter button, but Ruby quickly stopped him.

“Wait wait wait!” Ruby shouted, grabbing him by the wrist. Neddy looked back at her dumbfounded.

“What is it?” Neddy asked goofily.

“What if this hurts you?! We don’t know what will happen afterwards! We should ask for volunteers-”

“Nahhhh, it won’t do a thing, trust me! Besides we have that cool chef Carlos’ medical brews to save the day if things go awry,” Neddy argued, taking his other hand and prying Ruby’s off his wrist.

CLICK!

Neddy pressed the enter button, and then afterwards a list of names came up, all familiar and recognizable to them. They were the names of the students of Terran High. The names were sorted alphabetically. Interestingly enough, it listed everyone’s name, alive and deceased. Neddy supposed that he could remove the implants of anyone down below who didn’t make it out alive, but he didn’t see the need to.

“Alrighty, here’s my name,” Neddy muttered, scrolling down only a little bit. He clicked the enter button, and then afterwards he felt a giant pain in his left wrist.

“Youch!” Neddy yelled, clutching his wrist.

“Are you okay?” Ruby asked, stepping forward with a hint of worry.

Moments later, the metal on Neddy’s implant twisted and distorted, before finally disappearing from reality. Ruby gasped, and Neddy looked on in awe at his left wrist. He took his right thumb and pressed it against his left wrist. He didn’t feel anything. All that remained was some purple essence that revolved around his wrist, but Neddy couldn’t even feel it.

His implant was gone.

“It works,” Ruby whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief.

Neddy grinned. Hope was back. He stepped forward and continued to type more lines of code into the console, the speed of his typing growing at an exponential rate.

“Just one step in the right direction. I just need to get rid of this essence, since it’s still a part of the implant, and I can do it by transferring it into Landon’s implant…”

Neddy clicked the enter button again, and the purple essence swirling around his wrist shriveled away, bolting across the air like an arrow. Neddy and Ruby watched as the purple essence entered Landon’s implant, settling in and disappearing from their sight. Neddy looked back down at his wrist. For once, things felt normal. Right.

“You did it Neddy. You managed to remove the implant! Now we just need to do it with everyone else and then we can get out of here.”

Neddy smiled back, and then a sly smirk grew on his lips.

“No. WE did it,” Neddy replied.

Ruby groaned, facepalming.

“I knew you would say that,” Ruby groaned, “Why do you have to be so corny?”

Neddy shrugged.

“Well, think about it like this. I wouldn’t have been able to remove that implant without your ideas.”

“I suppose that’s true. But you’re the one who did all the coding! I don’t even know what half of this means!” Ruby laughed.

“We did it together, Ruby. That’s what happened. Now let’s go tell the others and then we can get out of here-”

RUMBLE.

The observatory station rumbled again. Tremors filled the arena, and Neddy and Ruby let out a “woah!”. Neddy peeked out past the door to see what was happening. Everyone else had fallen to the ground, and were struggling to get up due to the shaking of the observatory station.

Dan Walker’s implant was rising into the air.

“Hey, what's going on in there!” Neddy shouted, running into the room. His eyes bulged at the sight of the implant. The implant seemed to be growing in size, and its power radiated throughout the starlit sanctuary like waves on the beach. The orb flickered and shimmered, before finally it grew to an exponential size. Now the implant was at least thrice a human’s size. It floated off the ground, its size and power sheer.