It was rather cramped as he followed, having to shuffle as his arms slid against the narrow walls. While he crawled carefully, it wasn't exactly a solid interior he traversed, but a series of interconnected tubes that made a floor. Noises from beneath led him to peek down, having to squint to see through the narrow gaps in the metal rays.
Right beneath the vent was a laboratory of some kind, housing pods that held abominable creations.
"A human?! In this sector? On this side of the universe?!" An inhuman figure dressed in a pale, protective suit and covered in bushy, brown fur gasped.
The colleague of the hairy alien, a stocky, red-skinned figure with an elephant-like trunk fiddled with a computer system, "Yeah, hard to believe, isn't it? Supposedly it entered the same warp beam that Lord Alta used."
While he intended on listening more, an urgent glance back from the green helper prompted him to continue forward. For some length, he crawled on his hands and knees, having to shimmy at more narrow passages to traverse the labyrinth of vents.
"Where are you taking me?" Seven asked impatiently.
"Just a bit further," Bob assured.
He watched ahead before the green alien suddenly dropped down. A few more crawls away, the slide downward led him to where his helper had gone, prompting him to follow.
Headfirst, he wound up sliding down, much to his dismay. It was certainly a rollercoaster in itself as his body went through twist and turns down the vents, rapidly descending as if going down a water slide.
"—Nhh?!"
Without any way to balance, he dropped out of the end of the vents, landing on his feet by some miracle. A moment to catch his breath was needed as he looked around at the room that existed without doorways, seemingly only accessible by the vents.
It was certainly a secret "base" of sorts, seen by the messy mattress left on the ground along with dirty clothes thrown around.
"My humble abode—rent's cheap, well…zero," Bob introduced the rather cramped, messy room.
"Alright, mind explaining things now?" Seven requested with a bit of impatience.
As interesting as it all was, it didn't change the fact he was stuck across the universe itself. He watched the species half his size rummage through a metal box, tossing enigmatic gadgets around while waiting for an answer.
"You're a human, aren't ya?" Bob said, grabbing a square device he slotted onto his wrist. "You're the target of the Fulminare right now—but you, you're the one who actually killed one, right?!"
There was a look of glee on the green-skinned alien's face like that of staring right out of a superhero.
Seven slowly nodded, confirming the guess, "Yeah, I did. I ended up here trying to finish the job on another one."
"That's seriously like, totally awesome!" Bob celebrated, sitting on the top of the metal trunk.
"Awesome?" Seven raised an eyebrow.
While he expected to find himself surrounded only by enemies in the colossal, star-sized base, it was surprising to find somebody completely misaligned with the Fulminare. The one sitting in front of him was all too "human"--from the laugh, the smile, the way the green figure moved his hands as he spoke; it made the universe perhaps feel smaller than larger.
"'Course it's awesome. If all the Fulminare could meet the same fate, fine by me," Bob explained with a huff. "I'm not the only one thinkin' like this, too."
"I thought everyone here was on their side. What is this place, anyway? Is this the Fulminare's homebase?" Seven questioned, looking around at the steel walls, which had been decorated with posters by the short alien.
"This place? It's the Celestius. It's as big as a star–well, that's pretty vague, isn't it? The point is, it's huge. Ninety percent of us here are from planets that the Fulminare invaded," Bob recalled.
"Celestius…So, what do you do here anyway?" Seven asked, sitting down on the only part of the flooring that wasn't messy.
"I'm an engineer—well, more of a handyman, I guess," Bob answered, puckering his lips as he changed his words. "I work on machines. Pays like crap—well, the payment is food, and the food is crap."
"I see."
"Yeah, I mean, what gives? The Fulminare have more resources than you can even imagine," Bob sighed. "Yet, they leave the little guys like me starving."
"So, do you know how I can get back? To Earth?" Seven asked.
As he sat there, he looked around at the floor of the cramped living space belonging to the helpful alien, finding loose nuts-and-bolts.
"Yeah, about that," Bob responded, tapping on the square screen attached to his wrist. "There's a warp chamber not too far from here. I can access it with this bad boy."
As the otherworldly tinkerer claimed so, he flaunted the gadget as though it was some sort of secret weapon.
"Sounds like you've been planning this."
"Well…Celestius ain't exactly paradise for folks like me," Bob explained, fiddling with his ear. "If it means bringing the Fulminare down, I'll help however I can."
"Thanks."
The alliance led to once more another journey through the narrow vents. Again, it was certainly felt that the passage wasn't built with him in consideration. It only seemed to get more narrow as he followed behind the rather small alien.
"The East-0231 Warp Station isn't really guarded all that much. It should be feasible for us to slip right by without being noticed," Bob explained while crawling.
Seven kept his head down, having to shuffle forward on his forearms, "Even with this place on alert then there's a human here?"
"No offense, but I doubt they're even concerned. You could spend your entire life walking in one direction and never make it to a different sector of Celestius," Bob explained with a huff. "It's too big to be hurt."
It was a bit vexing to hear, though he couldn't deny it. Even when considering the full arsenal available to humanity, it seemed it would be no more effective than attempting to bomb the Sun itself.
"C'mon, should be just a bit further—I've mapped this out, don't worry," Bob assured.
Following became an obstacle in itself as the verdant figure suddenly slipped down into a narrow chute.
"Huh?—" Seven let up, crawling forward.
Looking down, the way that his companion went was hardly spacious enough to fit his own head through.
"Hey, come on!" Bob's voice traveled through the cramped passage.
"How the hell do you expect me to fit through here?" Seven muttered, reaching his arm down.
Even if he wanted to attempt the descent, his shoulder pressed against the metallic tubes, not budging an inch.
"I can't—"
[Inability to traverse path forward detected. Adjusting body to adapt to narrow space…]
[EXP: +50] [550/2050]
Just as he attempted to withdraw, he felt his joints pop painlessly. His bones contorted, allowing his body to fit in such a way that he managed to fit into the passage.
It was certainly an unpleasant feeling, though he didn't complain, allowing himself to maneuver as his joints reconfigured.
'I never want to use this evolution again…' He thought.
Through unlocking the joints in his knees and ankles, he managed to slither downward before reaching the end. As he slid out of the metallic tunnel, his joints popped back into place like marbles entering sockets.
"Phew," he exhaled, rolling his shoulders into place.
The entire time, the grease-stained alien watched him with a perplexed look, "You, err…good?"
"Perfect."
By way of the unorthodox passage, he found himself standing on a mesh flooring that overlooked a chamber beneath. Around him, the hum of mechanical constructs filled his ears as the temperature rose with the hiss of steam from loose valves.
"Where are we?" He whispered, trying not to rattle the loose flooring as he looked down.
Right beneath him, the room was built of blackened steel, housing cores of energy that hummed with radiant power. All of it led to a platform at the far wall, overlooked by glass boundaries that fluttered with light.
Bob stood beside him, looking down through the mesh, "This is the warp chamber—the problem now is getting to the platform."
"Yeah, it doesn't look all that simple," Seven remarked, seeing the inhuman figures occupying the room.