Villain Retirement

[We do not know yet what is going on inside, but we are reporting this even with the risk of the government closing us down… but as you can see, there seems to be an invisible wall preventing our soldiers from entering the hotel!]

"Woah, bro… You seeing this shit?"

Inside a smoky room that was only lit up by a 50" TV, two people were currently eating chips while staring at the screen in front of them. Their eyes, completely red and moist.

"It's fake, bro. Let me guess, it's happening in the US?"

"Yeah, bro. Like what…?"

"It's fake."

"Totally, bro."

"..."

"..."

"Shit, isn't that hotel like beside our apartment?"

"Cool."

"..."

"..."

The two men very slowly looked at each other, their bloodshot eyes also very slowly widening before they turned their heads toward their window, which was fully covered with black-out curtains.

"..."

"..."

"It's fake."

"Yeah." And after a good 30 seconds, the two just completely changed the channel before sucking a throatful of whatever it is they were on, adding more steam across their tiny apartment.

The two then started laughing as they watched a random show. It didn't last long, however, as the channel was suddenly cut off.

"Hey. What the…" They started changing the channel, but every frequency was the same. They checked their phone so they could just stream a movie, but their internet was down too.

"Shit…

…did we forget to pay the bill?"

***

"They're near."

"Already!?"

"Satellites going out, electricity starting to flicker — a telltale sign that the cherbis are near. relatively."

Riley, Hera, and Caitlain were still in the suite. This time, however, there was a certain sense of energy going around the room, almost following Hera as she also walked around the room with her hands together in front of her mouth.

"Everything ends, that is just the way it is." As for Caitlain, she looked at the empty bottle of soda she was holding; letting out a disappointed sigh as it was the last bottle of cola in the entire hotel, "The cherbis are just going to erase this star system just like the rest until everything and everyone is gone."

"No, no…" Hera finally stopped walking around as she stood in front of Caitlain beside the bar, "...You don't understand. I can't die."

"But you will."

"No, I can't," Hera forced out a chuckle, "This universe will end, and I will probably just float around it forever… and perhaps the worst part of it all is that I will be stuck with him!"

Hera then pointed at Riley, who just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Oh," Caitlain looked back and forth between Hera and Riley, "You're the same as him, a true immortal? Interesting."

"Give us options here, Doc. I don't wanna be stuck with that guy forever, please," Hera grabbed Caitlain's shoulders, "Please."

"We could try moving deeper into the Unknown," Caitlain could really only let out a sigh as she walked toward the balcony and looked up into the night sky, "But based on everything I've heard from the two of you…

…a universe's Unknown is much more mysterious than even the multiverse itself. Very much like this planet's ocean. But the reason why most of this planet's water is unexplored is because there truly is no need to do so — there is nothing else there. But in the Unknown…? There is bound to be something there."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Hera breathed out.

"We will get lost," Caitlain sighed, "The only reason I even landed on this planet is by pure sheer luck, a chance out of a billion.'

"I can take that chance," Hera shrugged, "Sheer luck is literally a part of my abilities, so…"

"..." Caitlain once again looked at Riley and Hera for a few seconds, before letting out another sigh and nodding, "Might as well prolong my punishment."

"Trust me," Hera looked up into the night sky, "We're going to find something…

…my body will make sure of my survival."

***

"...We're doomed."

Half a year later, Hera, Riley, and Caitlain find themselves just floating in the middle of a dark expanse. No, they were not really just floating, but actually moving at an insane speed. They have actually already traveled more than a hundred thousand lightyears — and they could have gone farther, much farther.

The only reason why they were not was because Caitlain had to have time to check if she could read any energies around them, but so far, absolutely nothing. And now, the distance between the star systems was getting abnormally far — far to the point that they had not even seen a star since a month ago.

"Okay, stop! Stop!" Hera could no longer take it as she started waving her hands. Riley, who was leading their way, turned around to look at Hera for a few seconds before decreasing their speed accordingly. Of course, this took quite a while as they were already going too fast. But as soon as they finally did stop, Hera immediately grabbed Riley by the cheeks,

"Riley. I need to take a bath. We have been flying in this goddamn darkness for years and we still haven't found anything!"

"We have only been traveling for half a year, Miss Hera," Riley floated back to remove Hera's hands, "And I could just summon water to—"

"No, enough of that!" Hera growled, "Let's just go back to Earth, and rethink about this plan."

"Earth's dead," Caitlain sighed as she patted Hera's shoulder, "I did tell you, the Unknown is unknown for a reason. Your friends will most probably be dead for a very long time before we can even find any—Oh."

"What? What!?" Hera started looking around as Caitlain abruptly stopped talking; her eyes, moving everywhere, "Did… did you find something!? Are we near a planet with a clean lake!?"

"No," Caitlain started blinking a couple of times as she spun in place,

"I am sensing the presence of a cherbi."

"What? That's impossible," Hera forced out a tiny chuckle as she glanced at Riley, "We were literally going so fast. You told the whitey and us that it was impossible for them to even chase us."

"It is impossible," Caitlain raised a hand as she finally stopped spinning and looked toward a certain direction, "And the cherbi is coming from there, fast."

"There…?" Hera squinted her eyes as she looked to where Caitlain was pointing, "...But I don't think that's the direction we came from. Is it?"

"No," Riley was the one to answer Hera.

"Oh, now I know," a small smile crawled on Caitlain's face as she looked at Hera and Riley, "I think we finally know why the stars are getting farther and farther away from each other. A cherbi also lives in the Unknown."

"Great," Hera could really only place her hands on her waist, "Like we already aren't having a hard time trying to find something. Let's just go and continue our perilous journey to the unknown."

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," Caitlain started to chuckle, "The energy I am sensing from this cherbi is much… greater than the ones that destroyed Theran and the other planets. And…

…it's not alone."

"We can avoid them just fine."

"That's not going to happen."

"Stop jinxing us."

"No," Caitlain shook her head, "They are coming from everywhere, going faster and faster."

"Everywhere? Like everywhere, everywhere?" Hera started pointing in all directions.

"Everywhere." While Caitlain also pointed below, above, to the side, and practically almost spinning her hands into a sphere, "And they are getting pretty near."

"..." Hera did not even need to ask how near is 'pretty near'. Because as soon as Caitlain finished her words, she saw a glimpse of pink very slowly growing from afar, everywhere. No, it wasn't slow at all — because the pink dots that were just the size of a BB a second ago were now the size of a tennis ball,

"Oh, shi—Riley, do something!"

Riley immediately stretched his arms to the side as blood suddenly shot from every orifice in his head. And as he did so, most of the pink fluffs that were approaching them halted, while a few of them started to disappear.

"Impressive," Caitlain blinked as she looked at Riley, "Are you a god?"

"Riley…"

Hera pulled Caitlain and floated close to Riley, "...I don't think it's working."

Most of the pink fluffs were stopped, yes… but a lot more started appearing until the expanse of nothing but darkness was replaced by a veil of pink.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate pink?" Hera grabbed Riley by the shoulders, "Please, Riley. Do some of your god-like shit and just murk these pink balls of death."

"..."

"Ah, Riley! It's working!" Hera started shaking Riley as the new batch of cherbis that appeared also stopped moving toward them. But as Hera shook Riley again, she found no resistance whatsoever as Riley's stretched arm just started… flailing lifelessly.

"Did…" Hera's eyes turned wide, "...Did he just die on us?"

"It appears so," Caitlain curiously stared at Riley, "And he's going to just resurrect?"

"I sure freaking hope he resurrects soon," Hera started shaking Riley violently as the cherbis grew larger and larger as they got near, "Riley! Damn it! Wake up! Riley!"

"I suppose this is it, we are dead," Caitlain closed her eyes, before opening them again and looking at Hera and Riley, "Well, I'm dead. You guys will be stuck here for eternity."

"No," Hera started shaking her head repeatedly as she pulled both Riley and Caitlain closer. The pink, now completely covering her entire vision as they were literally only kilometers away from absorbing them,

"No… no…

…I don't wanna be stuck with this whitey forever!"

"Woah!"

And as Hera was screaming her lungs out, she heard another voice suddenly screaming as loud as she was. And it wasn't just the volume, but also the voice that was the same.

"...Huh?" Hera abruptly stopped her screams of panic as Caitlain started tapping her arms. She looked at Caitlain first, who was gesturing to her to look forward.

And as she did so, she saw the view of a beach — with a beautiful sun glimmering across the endless water. But that wasn't what caught Hera's attention, however, it was the people that were running around, the people who were relaxing and getting a tan, even though their skin was already tanned enough as it is.

And then, Hera turned toward the other one that screamed… only to see herself wearing a two-piece bathing suit.

"My god, you surprised me, girl."

"Huh…?" Hera blinked a couple of times as she looked at… the Hera in front of her from head to toe.

"Hi, Hera!"

"Oh, hi Hera!"

Hera then turned to look at the woman who greeted the Hera in front of her, only to see another Hera waving at her.

"What…" Hera could really only look around, only to realize that everyone in this resort… was her, "Just…

…where the fuck are we?"