Villain Retirement

"Moira!"

"How do we even kill this thing!?"

"Try to snipe its face!"

"Did you see what happened when Moira tried to cut it!? She got blown away!"

Somewhere in the Bloodcruiser's vast and spacious hangar, 6 of Xra's main fighters were currently surrounding some sort of… thick corrugated pillar—no. Perhaps a 'tree' is the better word to describe the weird structure. But instead of a wood-like color, its texture was more akin to that of cement.

A tree made of concrete.

An impenetrable concrete, that is.

Xra's crew had been trying to cut the tree down, but all they could really do was scratch it, but even that heals after a second. The tree attached itself to the floor, all the way to the ceiling; its roots, unmovable.

Girgo, the largest of Xra's crew tried to pull one of the roots up. His head that resembled that of Earth's amphibians, trembling as he used his long tongue as added muscle. But alas, try as he might, he only ended up just bending the floor. And considering every inch of the ship was made with one of the strongest metals in the Universe, Girgo no longer attempted it, 'less he wanted to be the target of Xra's wrath.

"Lechamp, just continue firing at its face!"

"The roots are attacking me!"

"Then dodge! You have 4 arms!"

Lechamp, a 4-armed humanoid had 4 of his blasters pointed at the center of the tree… which had a face planted right on its bark—Hera's face.

And like with the rest of the grey tree, her face was like concrete and melded with everything. Hera's eyes were completely closed, which means that the roots that moved and were snapping in the air like a whip were most likely moving on their own.

The roots seemed to be focused solely on defending Hera, however. As long as none of the 6 planned to attack her head or inflict any harm that would damage her head, the giant tree just remained completely still.

They could attack the tree itself, but most of their bullets and other attacks just bounce off.

"Move!" Girgo, who had already given up in trying to lift and throw the entire tree out of the ship, pushed Lechamp away as he stood right at the line of sigh on Hera's face. And with a deep breath, he placed the laser cannon he was carrying, which no one knows where he got, right in front of him and aimed it straight at Hera's face.

"Let's see you block this!"

"Are you crazy, Girgo!? That's the ship's external cannon!"

"W—"

And before any of his comrades could tell him how bad of an idea it was to fire the cannon inside the ship, a blue beam of light already gushed out and blasted out of the cannon.

The edge of Girgo's incredibly wide mouth lifted up; his long tongue, trembling from excitement as the light completely blanketed his entire silhouette.

"..."

"..."

But then, the blinding light remained. The blast that was supposed to just last in a flash did not wither away—the beam, now seemingly a colossal fluorescent lamp. And since Girgo's vision was completely blinded by the bright light, he wasn't able to see what his comrades were currently seeing.

"That… isn't that…"

"I can't move! Why… why can't I move!?"

"What's happening!? What is it!?" Girgo tried to move, but alas, the only thing he could really turn was his large round eyes that were popping out from his amphibious head,

"What is happening!?"

"It's Riley Ross!"

"What!?"

It is. Riley was now floating beside the concrete tree. His long white hair, freely flowing with the gust of wind that shouldn't really exist inside the hangar. He just glanced at the frozen blast of light, before turning his focus back to Hera's face.

"..." Riley tilted his head to the side as he looked at her, before letting out a small sigh and shaking his head,

"You are destroying private property, Miss Hera. Please, wake up."

And as soon as his breaths touched Hera's face, her marbled, concrete skin started to crease—there were no cracks, however, as her skin seemed to just turn soft by the second. And soon, her eyes opened.

"Riley…" Hera weakly whispered as her lips too, finally opened. And before saying anything more, her face started to protrude forward.

Her body was clearly not complete, as the sides and back of her face started to wriggle before stretching into tiny little worms—no, tentacles. The tentacles formed whatever was missing from her as her incomplete silhouette continued to protrude and separate from the tree.

And soon, her arms were finally able to stretch toward Riley.

Riley, however, floated back and avoided Hera… causing her to fall and basically plop straight to the metal floor with her lower part still completely missing.

"..."

"..."

Hera then quickly looked up, while Riley looked down as the two just stared into each other's eyes.

"..."

"...Why do you have to ruin the moment!?" Hera decided to break the annoying silence as she raised her middle finger at Riley, "This would have been a good reference for a scene!"

"Hm," Riley just shrugged in response as he descended down, landing on the roots of Hera's… tree form, 

"Why… is this not disappearing?" Riley then asked as his eyes scanned and observed the concrete tree.

"That's… permanent," Hera sighed as her legs completed their reconstruction, "They are sheddings of my body in a sense."

"..." Riley's mouth slightly turned agape as he looked at Hera. And after a few breaths, he stepped to the side to avoid any of the roots, "Ew."

"You bathe in blood, Riley," Hera scoffed in disbelief as she stood up.

"That is with my full consent, Miss Hera."

"Then just float around if you're really that disgusted about the roots!"

"How am I going to intentionally show you my disgust of your disposable flesh then, Miss Hera?"

"They're not flesh, they—There's no use arguing with you," Hera rolled her eyes as she started stretching her limbs, before turning her attention toward the 6 people that were completely frozen in place,

"Are… you planning on killing them?" She then asked, "This is probably one of the only instances in which I won't serve as your moral compass, Riley."

"You are not my moral compass, Miss Hera," Riley sighed as he also looked at Xra's crew,

"And I am not going to kill them. Pirate Queen Xra and I have come to a fragile understanding."

"You… didn't kill her?" Hera blinked in disbelief, "How a—"

"I am not easily slain, mortal. And it would seem I could say the same to you."

And before Hera could process her confusion, Xra and Nana arrived on the scene; with Xra just casually walking toward Hera and Riley like she was on a catwalk, even as she was surrounded by her frozen crew.

"Fascinating. It would seem the virus has only gone stronger as time passed," Xra then whispered as she trailed her fingers at a giant root; her nails, easily scratching and even slicing a large part of it.

"..." Hera was on guard when Xra showed herself; her body, however, did not really have any reaction toward her unlike before. That only meant one thing for her—Xra was no longer posing a threat.

"Riley, can you free my people now? They—"

"What's happening, Captain!?"

And before Xra could finish her request, the gold-skinned humanoid, her right-hand woman, quickly raised her voice before hovering toward them with her feet just an inch above the floor,

"Are we friends with the enemy now!?"

"Yes."

"No."

"..." Everyone quickly looked at Riley, who blatantly talked over Xra seemingly without any care about the world.

"..."

"Yes, we've become friends," Xra didn't seem to mind, however, as she just let out a smirk.

"But I thought you were going to kill him mercilessly because he got your name wrong!?"

"Please, I am not that petty," Xra waved her hand, "Also, if Riley and I truly fought with all of our strength, then all of you will perish without even knowing what killed you."

"Then—"

"We're going to Theran," Xra did not let her right-hand woman speak, "Riley here is going to Theran, I offered to take him there."

"No, you did not, Pirate Queen Xra."

"I am offering it now," Xra scoffed before turning her focus back to her crew, "What are all of you waiting for? Onward to Theran!"

"They are going to kill us as soon as they detect us coming from their neighboring star, Captain! Please, reconsider."

"That's right, didn't you kill their prince!?"

"That was a long time ago," Xra once again waved her hand, "Let's just—"

And this time, it was her time to be disrupted as the Bloodcruiser suddenly started shaking. And almost like the call of a whale, the metals of the Bloodcruiser seemingly started to stretch with the sound they were producing.

"Find out what that is. We need to—"

"It's him again, Captain Xra. He's trying to prevent the ship from flying away," Moira, who was left with a newer Little Riley, finally also arrived at the scene, "The bounty hunter."

"The bounty hunter that was in the Top 5?" For some reason, Hera felt oddly comfortable joining in on the conversation as she even looked Xra straight in the eyes.

"Is he?" Xra's eyes slightly widened.

"Captain, allow me to redeem myself!" And all of a sudden, one of her crew, a bald humanoid that completely resembled an Earth human, stepped forward.

"I remember you already losing to him, Cyndee."

"I did, and I want to try fighting that Guardian cannibal again. We—"

"May I try?"

And before any more conversations could start, everyone turned to look at the person that just uttered the words that interrupted them, only to see Riley with his hands raised.

"I believe you said it's a Guardian?"