DESTROY ALL HUMANS: INTO THE VOID

NINETEEN

Stars shone brightly in the distance. Giant planets were half colored and divided into night and day. The depths of space were as mysterious yet beautiful as always. Some planets showed off their amazing rings that unfurled into an act of many colors and elements.

The sun was the most dazzling with its inferno surface that lashed out giant flares of fire.

Suddenly, a bright star, shining far brighter than any other, illuminated nearby planets and asteroids. It grew bigger in size and seemed to draw Phil near it. Everything was calm and quiet.

Then it exploded. Bright white shots of energy scattered everywhere and crashed into planets, destroying them all. Space itself had stopped working its incredulous magic and had imploded. Asteroids flew in all directions and crashed into moons and even bigger asteroids.

Everything was absolute chaos. There was no escaping the madness.

Phil opened his eyes and blinked hard to get the black spots out of his sight. Once he convinced himself that he was no longer dreaming, he checked his surroundings.

He was stuck in an iron-barred cell in the corner of what looked like a basement of some sort. The walls were made of cold bolted steel and the floor was a dirty but smooth, brown marble.

Phil looked to the left and to the right. There was no one. "Gladys?" he mumbled.

"Phil?! Oh thank god."

Phil lifted his head in the direction of the voice. Gladys was hanging onto the iron bars by her ostrich legs, and observing the basement from above. She let go and dropped down lightly, like a feather. Gladys put her tattered Vans back on.

Phil rubbed his aching forehead. "Where are we?"

"I'll explain." Gladys scooted next to him and hugged him tightly. "I'm just glad to see you're awake."

"How long has it been?"

Gladys pulled away and sighed. "I'm not sure. Maybe a couple hours, or days even. I've been sleeping too. We were taken from Zemptra... by Magnus."

"Oh god." Phil put his head between his knees. "And Crypto? Pox?"

"I don't know. But I hope they found somewhere safe." Gladys leaned back against the wall and rested her head on Phil's shoulder. "We're on his ship... We're his prisoners."

Phil didn't know what to think. One moment they were fighting Magnus and had the Hand of Lucius, ready to destroy it or get rid of it so Magnus couldn't use it. Now he had captured them and taken the hand, what they didn't want. And as if it couldn't get any worse, Crypto and Pox were nowhere to be found.

Probably dead, Phil thought. He quickly cleared that thought from his head because he knew Crypto was tougher than that. Besides, worrying about the Furons isn't going to get him and Gladys out of here.

"What do we do?" Phil asked.

"Nothing. I've been thinking of ways to get out, but..." Gladys buried her face in her hands, like she always did when she was worried. Phil thought it was kind of cute, but he cleared that thought from his head as well.

"No luck?"

"These cells are something. I've never seen this kind of metal." Gladys stood up and walked to the cell door. She scratched the bars with her talons and scraped off a piece of it. The bar regrew the missing piece as fast as it fell off.

"H-How?"

"I don't even know. It's probably some human technology stuff." She sat back down next to Phil and closed her eyes.