Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 429: Two combatants.

Zulu looked at the Hunter. "So where did the mutt come from?" The parrot advanced forward bravely, hopping onto the arm of the couch. "How many times do I gotta say it Purple, you cannot trust cats."

Lisha was equally looking at the dog curiously. "I think it’s a dog Zulu."

Zulu raised her wings with a flair, "Cat, dog, they are all the same. But cats are the worst. I remain steadfast in my belief that we should erase them all from existence. A good cat is a dead cat."

Lisha rolled her eyes.

"Are you taking this down Lisha?" Zulu asked. "My words are gold. I am going to use that line on our next show....hmmm...a good cat is a dead cat. No---, the only good cat--the best cat, is a dead cat."

Sunshine waited for Lisha to rebuke Zulu, after all, she had a pet cat. But Lisha just sat back and sipped wine. She did not seem to care much. And she was not taking down any notes.

"You talk a lot." Hunter finally spoke.

Zulu was so shocked that she fell off the couch.

Wine spilled from Lisha’s mouth. She blinked rapidly, bending closer to look at the dog. "It can talk!"

Sunshine nodded. "This is Hunter, my dog."

Zulu hopped around on the soft blue carpet that Cathy had laid down that morning. "Oh, this is not good. This cannot be good. Purple, this is going to create chaos. A mountain cannot have two tigers. One talking animal is enough on the base."

"I am not an animal." Hunter replied.

Zulu lowered her head, "Paws, claws, four legs, fur and canine tooth. Yup, animal. If it stinks like an animal, then it is an animal." It turned to Sunshine. "You have got to choose Purple, me or this ugly big head and bigger eared beast."

Lisha stood up. "Okay Zulu, time to go." Moving so fast that she toppled over the bottle of wine, she scooped the parrot up. "Sorry about the wine on the rug. I will get you a new one." Lisha faced Sunshine with an apologetic look.

She had two fingers locked tightly on Zulu’s beak as she escaped. Just before the door was shut, Zulu regained freedom and screamed, "I cannot say that it has been a pleasure, Purple. And you better sleep with one eye open mutt. Fortress four is mine."

Sunshine could feel the onset of a headache. The parrot had really bounced back quickly after her threat. It was her hope that the rest of her day would be drama free.

The system suddenly chimed.

[Host, you are being invited back to the ship right now. There is another task you must undertake.]

She looked around cautiously and then vanished into the space. Stepping through a door, she found herself inside the familiar ship.

"Snack bar, Vortan is waiting for you." A wall told her.

She found her way there with ease. Because it was lunch hour, the snack bar was alive with clatter, music and conversation. There were more repairmen around than Sunshine expected. From first glance alone, she assumed that there were at least one hundred fifty of them.

The most she had seen in a single setting. What had they all come to fix? While she was pondering on this, Nine approached her stealthily, moving like he simply aimed to get something to eat from the desert counter next to her.

Without warning, he stopped and took something out of his tool belt. It was a small vial with a concoction produced from his own venom glands. With a hiss, he flew up and sprayed it directly into Sunshine’s eyes.

It all happened very fast. Sunshine cried out, staggering back, vision burning with fire.

[Your body is already countering the venom host. Please stay calm.]

Sunshine did not want to hear any advice on how to stay calm.

"Now we are even." Nine laughed, mandibles clicking. "Let’s see how you like the smell of something offensive."

Sunshine blinked furiously, rage overtaking mild pain. She summoned her hammer, with a growl, she swung it in a wide arc. It struck with such force that the lights on the ship flickered, and Nine was thrown back against a snack counter. Desert trays scattered like frightened little birds.

The fight escalated very quickly. Nine darted forward, his insectoid limbs twitching with unnatural speed. He flew over Sunshine with clawed hands, aiming for her throat. She fought back with her hammer and ice, flinging his back with ease.

Repairmen scrambled out of the way, shouting for Vortan or any other supervisor. Nine threw glasses of various cocktails at Sunshine, wetting anyone in her vicinity but her. Any liquid within a short distance of her froze.

This made Nine even more angry. He threw chips and nuts to distract her before attempting to lunge again, mandibles and antennae twitching. He barely survived a blow from the hammer which broke the jukebox and caused a crack in the wall. The wall groaned like it was in pain.

"Stop moving so that I can hit you." Nine screamed.

Sunshine sneered. "Are you stupid? I know you have small brains judging by that small head otherwise what makes you think that I will just stand here and let you hit me?"

"Because you nearly killed me with your smell." Nine snarled. "You came to work with your body lathered in anti-bug spray. Even now, I can smell that foul stench."

"It is not fault that you fainted like a baby," Sunshine spat back. "We have bug issues on my planet. I use the cream to protect myself."

They both reared back and screamed. The clash seemed to be long from over. Two repairmen rushed in, trying to keep them apart. Nine stung one while Sunshine flung the one away.

A third tried to seize the hammer but it shocked him and burned his hands.

"Enough!" shouted Vortan, storming into the snack bar. His voice carried the authority of someone that had stared down space storms. "You two are a disgrace to our profession. Where are your ethics?"

But neither combatant listened. Nine sprayed his poisonous mist again and Sunshine retaliated with by throwing her hammer at him. He tried to fly away, but it followed him as if it had eyes and eventually struck him so hard that shock waves rattled the very ground on which the ship was sitting.

Finally, robots like Tank poured in, ten of them. They pinned Nine to the floor while Sunshine was restrained by more who wrapped her arms in restraint bands. Even then, the combatants continued to struggle.

Nine spat mist, Sunshine also spat a poisonous gas. Repairmen rushed to cover their mouths and noses with masks. Others swallowed pills or serums.

The lips of the combatants were also covered. The robots injected them with calming serums. Finally, they were subdued completely.

Vortan looked from Sunshine to Nine. His gaze was cold. "You will answer for this before the Council of discipline for repairmen. Both of you."