Villain Retirement

"Riley, right here."

"A transmitter, but the clone holding it is missing."

Riley found himself crouching in a cramped, inconspicuous dirty alleyway, picking up a transmitter that was used to signal the space station whenever someone was found by a clone.

And yet, there was no sign of the clone, or anyone else for that matter — just Riley and Chihiro, who had woken up 3 days ago.

"I was wrong, the clone is not missing at all," Riley carefully placed the transmitter in one of his pockets, before trailing his finger across the dirty asphalt floor; brushing off some sort of metallic sand from the ground,

"It's dead, Chihiro."

"...Someone was able to kill your clone?" Chihiro, who was previously relaxed as they stepped into this strange universe, could not help but activate some of her defense skills as she started looking around, "But we haven't even seen anyone. I don't even detect life within a hundred-mile radius even though we're dab smack in the center of New York… or at least I think this is New York."

"Hm…" Riley glanced at Chihiro for a few seconds, before just nodding and stepping out of the dark alleyway. And as the light of the setting sun shone upon them, what Rhys and Chihiro saw was a familiar scenery of destruction.

The destruction was mild, however, compared to the destruction one such as Riley bestows, extremely so.

There were abandoned cars parked in the street, a few of them burnt.

"Some of these cars have been looted," Chihiro commented as she sneak a glance at a car parked near the sidewalk, "Actually, most of these stores have signs of being broken into."

Most of the windows of the buildings across the street were all shattered. There were some, however, which were completely barricaded either by wood or metal railings.

"What do you think happened here?" Chihiro asked.

"Death, Chihiro," Riley nodded as his feet slowly lifted from the ground. Chihiro followed him into the air, and what they saw from above was just a repeat of what they had already seen.

A slow destruction.

There were no ruined buildings, not at all. Most of them just seemed completely abandoned; most of the doors to their roofs, covered by all sorts of things one could find on a rooftop of a building.

"...And what do you think caused their deaths?" Chihiro continued to look around, even glancing at the clear sky, "Do you think they were invaded or something? But it seems to… clean for that."

"Perhaps not, Chihiro," Riley shook his head, "Most dying universes that King seemed to have randomly sent us to are unique in a way that it is completely different from ours — And like you, I do not sense life in the neighboring galaxies."

"..." Chihiro could not help but just glance at Riley as he casually said those words without even batting an eye, "Do you think the one who killed your clone is one of us?"

"That is possible," Riley nodded, "Since I do not detect any signs of life, then there is a possibility that it might be Pirate Queen Xra."

"...Why would she kill your clone?"

"Because she's Pirate Queen Xra," Riley shrugged, "She has…

…different tendencies than most people."

Chihiro and Riley continued to fly above the city — but even with the light of the sun now completely gone, they could not find a single trace of Pirate Queen Xra.

"Hm," Riley and Chihiro were now back in the alleyway where their portal was, "If Pirate Queen Xra does not want to be found, then let us honor her wishes and leave."

"Are you sure…?" Chihiro took one final glance at both ends of the dark alleyway, "She's strong. She could prove incredibly useful with the battle against King."

"No," Riley shook his head, "Her being part of the battle will not change anything at all, Chihiro. Let us—"

And as Riley started making his way to the portal, he and Chihiro heard a small groan whispering from the dumpster near them.

"..."

And very slowly, the bin opened up — revealing a pale, almost bluish hand…hands, several pairs of them as they lifted up the bin.

"...That's weird," Chihiro tried scanning the pairs of hands, only for her system to come up with nothing, "I'm still not detecting any—"

And before Chihiro could wonder any further, the owners of the hands revealed themselves. They were humans… who seemed to already be decaying as parts of their flesh just hung from their bones.

And even with their gray eyes completely lifeless, their bodies seemed to still move with vigor as they all started crawling out of the bin at the same time like some sort of lizard.

"Great…" Chihiro took a step back; her eyes twitching as she looked at these decaying humans with disgust, "...Zombies. Everything makes sense now."

"Hm…" Riley nodded as he looked up at the stars that could be seen from the gap of the dark alleyway, "...I suppose this Earth received a different kind of virus. And I believe it is not only this planet, other civilizations have probably also fallen from this virus."

"Grim," Chihiro held her arms and shivered, "This universe died from a slow and merciless torture."

"Hm," Riley nodded again, "Let us leave, Pirate Queen Xra probably feels that she belongs in this universe filled with the walking dead."

"Sad," Chihiro let out a sigh as she watched as more and more zombies started to enter the dark alleyway, "But I also don't really want to stay in this place for another second. I should probably destroy these things just in case someone leaps into the portal when—"

And before Chihiro could finish her words, the zombies all suddenly halted their steps; their heads, all turning at the same time in a single direction. And with groans escaping their gnarly mouths, they started walking away; completely ignoring Chihiro and Riley.

"..." Riley and Chihiro looked at each other, before proceeding to once again fly into the sky. And there, they probably saw more than a million zombies walking in the same direction — their destination all leading to a single point, a football stadium.

"Someone's there, Riley," Chihiro quickly pointed as she saw a dot in the center of the football stadium. And without even saying anything, Riley quickly flew toward the silhouette.

And as they landed on the wilted grass of the stadium, they saw someone wearing some sort of hazard suit.

"...I still don't detect anything," Chihiro squinted her eyes as she started scanning the person, "Is it like a smart zombie? Xra?"

"No," Riley shook his head as he approached the individual, pointing his palm at them and completely destroying the hazard suit they were wearing.

And almost immediately, the person inside the suit quickly flew up — but stopped mid-air as Riley stopped her from flying any further.

"What… Riley!?"

Riley flicked his finger, pulling the woman closer to him,

"Mother."

It was Diana Ross, completely naked.

"I did not expect you to not wear anything under the hazard suit, Mother," Riley closed his eyes,

"I… apologize. You were not answering when we were calling you."

"Of course!" Diana covered her breasts and privates as she stood in front of Riley, "That suit was completely sealed from everything! The virus that destroyed this planet is violently airborne and would enter even in your smallest pore!"

"I see," Riley nodded, "So that is the reason you immediately flew away. You do not have to worry, Mother. I have us covered with my telekinetic barrier."

"Yes," Diana's voice started to calm down as Chihiro summoned and handed a pair of clothes for her to wear, "I'm studying it since I have nothing to do in this place, it's the only thing I could do to… distract myself."

"I have Father's head with me, Mother. Do you perhaps wish to see it?"

"...What?"

"Perhaps we should talk about it later," Riley breathed out, "We should leave, I do not wish to stay in this disgusting universe any longer, Mother."

"...Agreed," Chihiro and Diana quickly nodded their heads as their feet left the ground.

"I could just continue my research back in our universe," Diana let out a long and deep sigh, "I… need something to distract me now that your father is gone."

"Do you watch zombie movies, Mrs. Ross?" Chihiro quickly looked at Diana as they flew in the air, "Researching about these things never end up we—"

And before Chihiro could finish her words, she suddenly disappeared; a familiar whistle and a boom of a thunder, following her disappearance.

"Oh," Diana blinked a couple of times as she looked to where Chihiro disappeared to, only to see the ground below them to open up into a deep crater,

"They smelled us."

"Hm?" Riley tilted his head to the side as he looked at his mother, before turning to look at the crater. And there, he saw Chihiro grabbing someone by the wrists; her face, almost wincing as she seemed to be trying her best not to look away from her sudden opponent.

And much like the zombies that she had already seen roaming around, the face of her opponent was completely pale and almost purple; no flesh was falling off from its bones, however.

"You may have already hypothesized it…" Diana let out a small but very deep sigh as she looked up, only for her eyes to reflect several silhouettes very slowly descending toward them, "...But the virus affected this entire universe…

…and the themarians are no exception."