"Who is it? Who's calling me?" asked the dog.
"It's me, your friend Aiden," replied the boy.
"Is that you, Aiden? Where are you and where am I?" indicated Podbe.
"Yes, it's me. I don't know where you are, but I'm inside you because you ate me. Well, I'm fine, don't worry. Now I'm in your brain, more precisely in your mind, in the central core of the system."
"You're in my brain? I ate you... I'm so sorry, Aiden. I only remember losing consciousness after the portal entity impaled me with its weapon and then everything went black. I'm in a dark place full of water," expressed the puppy.
"I thought I lost you, my friend, when that happened. But then you changed into a very large animal, like a lion, but in the form of a wolf that has the universe in its body, as if the cosmos were moving within you. You said dark place with water, like a swamp."
"Wow! That sounds crazy. Me, transformed into a wolf? Who would have thought I'd love to see it, although I can't see anything where I am. Yes, I'm in a kind of swamp. Why do you ask?"
"Maybe you're in the same place where we are. Can you find us? Can you use your abilities?" Aiden consulted.
"I'll give it a try," responded the puppy. The dog began calling on his abilities, like firehead and detective mode, but to no effect. "I'll try again, but just like before, nothing. They don't work, nothing seems to work here," the dog expressed, frustrated.
"Oh, what a shame," the boy sighed, impatient because he couldn't have his friend close. He began to think and rethink what solution to give, but nothing came to mind.
After a while, an idea came to Chad's mind: "You're a dog, why don't you use your nose to find the boy?"
"That's right," responded Reia. "I had forgotten about that." She indicated to Aiden if he could hear her: "Aiden, can you hear me?"
"Of course, I can hear you," he replied.
"Is that Reia?" asked the dog.
"Yes, she's with me and another person, but we'll talk about that later. Tell Podbe to use his nose like a real dog and find you by your scent," she indicated.
"Alright," replied Aiden.
"Hey Podbe, you're a dog, right?" indicated the boy.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" replied the dog.
"Well, why don't you do it the old-fashioned way and use your nose to find me? Maybe by following that trail you can find me. You know my scent, right?" asked Aiden.
"Your scent... of course, you always smell like strawberry bars mixed with honey, like the ones you gave me when we met at the train station. And sometimes a little like chocolate and... a bit like sweaty feet," Podbe laughed.
"Well, can you or not? No more details, it's good that I can hear," the boy blushed with embarrassment.
"Alright, I'll try." The dog began to sniff around the entire place, using all his senses until he found a direction from where the unmistakable scent of Aiden was coming. "I found you, Aiden, I'm on my way," and the dog began to follow the trail.
"That's good, Podbe is coming this way," indicated Aiden, and the other two said, "That's good, we'll wait for him here."
"Podbe, we're waiting for you here. Hurry up," the boy commented, and the dog barked as a signal that he was on his way. The room where the three were still had alert messages and was emitting a red danger color.
"That wasn't in the manual," indicated Chad.
"Which manual?" asked Reia.
"The one in the drawer." Chad went to the desk at his side, and from the third drawer, he took out a book and said, "This one."
"Let me see," said Reia, beginning to browse through it.
Outside, Urion continued thrashing the great galactic wolf with increasing speed in his attacks, giving him no respite to counterattack. The guardian mocked: "Ha, ha, you stupid dog, I'm a superior being. I knew you wouldn't be able to defeat me, and now I'll make you suffer slowly until I get bored, and then I'll give you the final blow." Urion's retractable arms moved back and forth at high speed, gathering a lot of strength with each attack, like whips, but with claws at the end.
"We must do something," Gat expressed, "but what can we do? None of our attacks have had any effect. He's a being from another world. Even The Dark Knight was sent away and treated like a piñata," manifested Adia, still tired and on the ground from using one of her forbidden powers to teleport them there.
"Calm down, don't strain yourself," said Lidia and Rino, who went to see her.
"No matter what you say, Mrs. Aida, but I must do something."
"Who are you calling Mrs., brat?" she indicated while trying to stand up, holding onto her staff.
"Miss Adia, calm down, relax. Don't strain yourself too much, you need to regain your strength," indicated Lidia, while Rino told Gat to respect the ladies and everyone.
"I'm not saying anything bad, just what I see," said Gat.
"Gat, you're always insolent," yelled Ezequiel. "When I recover, you'll see." They were all starting to argue when they heard:
"I could fight," said a voice. Gat turned around, and it was Tron, the robot.
"I don't think so. You don't have any strong weapon to hurt him. However, if you use that weapon you carry in your center..." expressed Adia, exhausted.
"It could work," said Eduard. "At least it could provide an opportunity for Urion to be distracted and give the wolf a chance. But we'll need your help, boy," looking at Gat.
"You can count on me for anything, old man of the mountains," the young man replied.
"That boy will never understand or respect. He's very impulsive at times, but he's good, always willing to help in his own way," Ezequiel said to himself.
"Okay, what do I need to do?" Gat consulted. "That power you shoot from your fingers, can you increase its potency?"
"Of course I can, but it won't hurt that monster."
"No, but we can stun him and buy time for Podbe to recover with Tron's weapon. It's a missile created by a tech team, with a highly potent warhead that can explode within a hundred-meter radius. Its impact is very powerful, like the most powerful bomb you've ever seen. The good thing is that the explosion was only within that range; it was designed not to injure beyond that radius. The only problem is that if that guy sees it, he'll destroy it immediately and may end up with us."
"And why do you want me to make a bigger beam?" Gat asked.
"Because if you launch your attack first as a decoy, he won't notice. But it has to be as big as a Pilates ball, covering the device. It's our only chance to do something, and it also has to be as fast as the missile, or even faster," Eduard explained.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Sounds like a plan. I can make it as fast as you want," said the young man. Immediately, Gat began to charge his red lightning ability in the five fingers of his right hand. Sparks began to emanate from his hand, and small balls the size of a coin started to appear. These five balls converged in the center, transforming into a bowling ball that continued growing slowly until it reached the desired size indicated by Eduard. "Ready, you can see a large red sphere with lightning bolts running from top to bottom and sides. I call this my red ball," he said with a smile. "Tell me when to shoot, old man of the mountains."
"Excellent. Tron, activate your attack protocol."
"Understood," said the robot, who activated some buttons on his chest. "Sequence activated. Switching to shooting mode," and his chest opened, and from it emerged a small missile-shaped ship. "At my signal."
At that moment, Eduard, with his remaining hand, began to signal: three, two, one... now! Immediately, Gat launched his red ball with force, and following it, Tron launched his missile, entering suspension mode to recover energy, as that weapon uses all its power. Gat's attack went at full speed, followed by a missile shaped like a paper airplane, towards Urion. He didn't notice the ball coming towards him because he was distracted, launching his attacks towards Podbe-wolf. Suddenly, a few meters away, he saw the energy sphere and said: "Foolish humans, your turn will come. Be patient," and with a beam from his eyes, he shot it, destroying it. The attack left a cloud of dust, which the missile used to camouflage itself and go directly to the guardian's face, who couldn't react. A strong explosion was observed while Urion's arms stopped attacking the wolf for a few moments.
"Yes, we did it!" the people present with Gat were celebrating.
"It worked," Eduard indicated.
"That's good," said Adia, who went back to lie down.
Inside Podbe, Reia was reading the manual, quickly flipping through the pages to see if there was any section on how to activate the protocol suggested by the messages. She was skilled at reading, doing it fast, like a machine. While she was flipping through page by page, Chad took off Aiden's helmet and gloves, and quickly got off the chair because he heard footsteps coming from the door. He ran towards it and saw his friend Podbe. The two hugged; well, Podbe licked him and began to say: "It's good you're here; I would never abandon you, friend."
The room began to shake from side to side.
"What's happening?" said Reia while she continued reading the manual.
"I don't know; it's the first time this has happened since I've been here," Chad said.
The manual fell to the floor as Reia lost her balance due to the movement. Once the movement stopped:
"Is everyone okay?" Chad asked.
"Yes," Podbe and Aiden responded on one side, and Reia on the other.
Quickly, Reia went to pick up the book, and when she managed to get it, she flipped it and saw that a new page had just appeared with the title "Reactivation Protocol." It said the dog had to sit in the chair and put on the equipment.
"How strange it appeared just when Podbe entered," she wondered.
"Guys, there's no time to lose! Podbe must sit in the chair and activate the protocol to solve this emergency, otherwise he could die now, for real," she shouted at them from her position.
"No! I don't want to lose you, friend, not again," said Aiden, tears streaming down his face. "So, let's hurry up and do what it says," the dog responded, glancing at Chad. "Who is this? You can talk, and why are you using my voice?" he asked.
"There's no time, you need to get up here now," Reia said. "There will be time for hugs and reunions later."
Soon, the dog climbed into the chair. Aiden and Reia helped him put on the equipment.
"But the gloves, where do I put them?" Aiden asked.
"They need to go on his front paws," Reia replied to Aiden while she placed the helmet on him.
Once everything was placed on Podbe, the light on the helmet changed from red to green. The dog winced in pain and let out a howl that deafened the three who were present with him.
Suddenly, the dog began to transform into his human form, and a message on the screen indicated: "Protocol activated. Charging sequence complete."