(Jerome's POV)

I cringed as the squid broadcasted another threat around the room: “Move any closer to this door, and you'll be lucky to even make it to the lab.” I had a creepy feeling that the lab was the place where they were trying to develop the morphing ray.

Yep, the worst part of being a bacca was definitely understanding animals.

Quentin was trying to remain calm, I could tell. He kept glancing at the squid and then at the walls of the room, as if he was trying to find a way out. There wasn't. I knew this ship like the back of my paw.

Seto was pacing on the floor, his hands behind his back, his brow furrowed in concentration. I could tell by the way his eyes gleamed that he had experience in tough situations before, but I was pretty sure that those situations had pretty much been fight or flee decisions. That wasn't an option here.

I fiddled with my tie. The entire crew had been abducted. The ENTIRE CREW. All the other baccas... the humans... everybody. And now I was trapped in a room with two people I had never met before, with a squid blocking the only way out. I could press the alarm button, but nobody would hear it. And the warriors' spacesuits were in the hallways, not in here, where we needed them.

“So...” I began, “What exactly... I mean, how likely is it that the squids will... if... when they get to the lab, will they...”

Quentin cast a glance at me. “I don't know, Jerome. As far as I know, they're still developing it, but...” he trailed off. I felt my heart sink.

“Oh.”

Quentin bit his lip and turned away. “Yeah. Sorry.”

I let my paws drop and sat on the floor, running them over the tiles. Each one was a perfect square, lined up perfectly with the next. We were doomed. When we finally did get out of here, we'd be taken to a lab for experimentation.

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to tune out the sound of the squid reminding us that we had no hope. I took deep, slow breaths, counting each one. Inhale. Exhale. One. Inhale. Exhale. Two. I tried to force myself to calm down. It wasn't working.

Then I heard a creaking sound and a bang.

I turned around to see that the door was wide open. The squid has a large hole in its suit which was spilling water onto the floor. Three people stood in the doorway. One of them had on an amulet. Another had hair covering half of his face. But it was the third one that made me look twice; the one right in the middle.

He was clutching a laser gun in both of his hands, aimed right at the squid's tank. A bat perched on his shoulder. And baccas might be colorblind, but I was sure that he was wearing a warrior's suit.

(Seto's POV)

My first thought was: What the heck?!

My second thought was: How did Jason find a spacesuit?

My third thought was: What the heck?!

I stopped pacing and shot a sideways look at both Quentin and Jerome. Jerome was staring at Jason, and Quentin looked relieved. I can't say I blamed either one of them.

“Ty, Jason, Adam, where'd you come from?” I asked, walking over to them.

“That's not important,” Ty said shortly. “Where're the crew members?”

Jerome stood up, almost completely unfazed. “You're too late. They're gone.”

Something flickered on the edge of my vision, right on Ty's neck, but when I looked back he was only adjusting his shirt collar. “What do you mean?”

“He means,” Quentin said blankly, “That the rest of the squids already took the entire crew to their lab. There's nobody left to save, nobody left to fight.” He said it like it was a hollow victory, which it was.

Jason clipped his gun to a hook on his wrist. “Well, then... let's go.” He started to turn around

“Where did you get that?” Jerome asked suddenly, stopping Jason.

“Oh, the... the suit?” he asked weakly.

Jerome nodded.

“It was... it was in the ship,” he said.

“Thought so,” was all Jerome had to say.

Jason shifted his weight from one foot to the other, dislodging Dillon. “Do you want it back?” He sounded uncomfortable.

The bacca waved it off. “No, you can keep it.” Jason's face visibly relaxed and he pushed a button on his suit, lowering an orange visor over his face.

Adam seemingly just realized what was going on. “You're a chewbacca,” he said dumbly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Jerome raised his fuzzy eyebrows. “No, I'm a flying cactus.”

“You're extremely furry,” he continued, completely ignoring Jerome's statement.

“No, really?” Jerome asked, sounding sarcastic.

“Can I call you Fluffy?”

(Adam's POV)

Jerome slept outside that night; he had joined our odd little group without question. Now we had somebody who used be in a Town Council, a thief, a dude with a pet bat and a spacesuit, some guy who had gills and weird headphones, me with my squid translating amulet, AND a chewbacca. Right. None of this was strange at all.

I slowed down my breathing, trying to get to sleep. Jason's tent was an aquamarine color, almost like the sky, but in the combined darkness of night and my sunglasses it could have been black. Ty had short, even breaths, as if he had them planned out from the moment he went to sleep; Jason snored exceedingly softly every now and then, breathing at different speeds. I frowned as I realized that Quentin still sounded like he was awake; shallow, uneven inhaling and quick exhaling.

I rolled over and looked at him; sure enough, he was lying with his eyes wide open, staring straight at the ceiling of the tent. “Quentin,” I whispered. He looked over at me, his eyes wide, but then recovered when he saw that it was only me.

“What?”

“Why are you still awake? It has to be midnight, at least,” I whispered. I didn't bother explaining why I was still awake.

He bit his lip. “It's just... why would the squids come all the way out here for a spaceship when the town's back there? It's almost like they're planning something.”

I thought about that; I had to admit, it did seem strange. “What would they be planning?” I asked, almost forgetting to whisper.

“I don't know,” Quentin said nervously, “But whatever it is, it can't be good.”

“You think we should start heading back tomorrow?”

He looked away. “Yeah. Probably.” He sounded like he really wanted to just get up right now and start running back to the town. I had no idea that he cared about his former job so much.

“Well, we'll tell Ty in the morning,” I said, rolling back over again. “Then we can go back.”

“Right. Good night.”

“'Night,” I responded, slowing my breathing once again.

Rawr, peeps, it's Cookieh, and this is the first of MANY updates for Christmas. Yup, I'm going to be updating this throughout the day until I have all the chapters up. The updates'll come quickly, but please, take your time to read every single one, maybe even comment. This is my Christmas present to you guys, so I hope you ejoy ^^