A/N: This will contain spoilers for the substar-only 'View from the Bottom' comic "Asset". You have been warned.

"Over there. That's the place" Khaun pointed as he lead his pack towards the large wooden building he'd seen.

"Doesn't look like much." Eilumi groaned. "This is going to be a waste of time."

Nine remained silent as they approached. A large, red pig-like person was sleeping against a pole. He awoke as the trio approached. 

"Oh, greeeaaaatttt." He groaned with a yawn. "More losers trying to join the guild?" He scratched his stomach idly. His eyes caught the large, imposing sight of Nine, who, compared to everyone around this town, was a giant, dwarfing even the large pig person. 

"Although, I must admit," The Pig Person muttered under his breath, clearly thinking that they couldn't hear them. "That big guy looks like he might have some potential... whatever he is."
 
"We're not looking to join." Eilumi corrected. "We're just looking for information-" 

"This isn't an information booth." The pig person grunted dismissively.

"We're looking for three people." Khaun replied. "A linoone by the name of-"

"You don't take a hint, do you?" The pig person growled as he approached them. "So let me make this as clear as possible." He leaned in close to the two Avalis. He leaned down, so his face was mere inches away from Eilumi's. 
"We! Don't! Care!" The pig-man yelled at him. He straightened himself back up, looking down upon the two avalis before continuing in an only marginally calmer tone. "If you want to post a rescue mission, you can scrounge up 200 poke like everyone else and put it on the board and MAYBE we'll get to it. Now, fuck off!" 

He promptly turned around, and returned to his post, lazily leaning against it, and closed his eyes. Just as they had found him.

"Told you this was going to be a waste of time." Eilumi groaned.

"Ugh, why is everyone in this place a complete asshat?" Khaun complained. "We've been to Miniknog towns that were friendlier than this."

"Well, no point in staying here anymore." Eilumi sighed. "Maze it is. Khaun, Nine, Let's go." He ordered, the pig giving one last grunt as the two Avalis turned to leave. They started to walk away, looking to find a place to beam out without anyone noticing.

But it didn't take long for Eilumi to realize that Nine wasn't moving from his spot. 

"Nine." Eilumi ordered irritably. "Come on-"

Eilumi stopped when he turned to Nine. He realized something was wrong. Very wrong. His visor bore an 'enraged' expression, and it, along with all the other glowing Illuminate symbols on his body, had shifted to a deep, dark red hue. 
He was angry. No, not angry. To say he was 'angry' was like calling an ocean world a 'pond'. No. This... was pure rage.

"Nine... packie... what's wrong."

"It's him." Nine responded slowly and darkly. "The 'Pignite.' 100% Match."

"Pignite?" Eilumi asked confusedly, looking back at the large pig man still leaning against the pole. "What are you talking abouuu...." His eyes went wide.

The word hung on his tongue as his mind made the connection, recalling the memories they had pulled from Loona during their brain scan of her. Big pig thing. Badge. The voice... the attitude....

Khaun hadn't said anything, but it seemed he had made the connection as well, as his face now held a similar look of rage upon it.

"You... YOU!!" Eilumi yelled, his finger pointed directly at the offending Pignite, causing the swine to groan as he was drawn attention to yet again.

"Ugh, what now?!" He grumbled.

"You raped her, you bastard!!" Khaun screamed at him as they stormed toward him.

"What in the name of the drought are you babbling about no-" The swine grunted at the accusation. A malicious grin spread across his face. "Ahhhhhhh, so that's the linoone you weirdos keep going on about." He laughed.

"Damn straight it is, you bastard!" Eilumi yelled, extending his claws.

"And what's it to you, pipsqueak?" Pignite mocked. "It's what we do to idiot weaklings around here. It's how this world works, and I taught her that. Besides,  she was just a sava-"

He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Nine rushed into him, burying his fist into the fat pig's belly with his large, semi-robotic arm. 
The pignite's breath was knocked straight out of him, the force of the blow throwing him to the ground on his stomache.

"Alright. Plan b." Eilumi ordered darkly. He nodded to Khaun, who nodded in return and extended his own claws. Pignite was already rising to his feet after the surprise attack. He was just starting to get his breath back as the two of them swung into action. Eilumi leapt at him directly, while Khaun leaped higher into the air.

He was already preparing some sort of mouth-based fire attack when Eilumi flew in, his clawed foot making contact with a practice flying kick to the pig's head. Only a second later, Khaun dropped down onto his back from above him, forcing him down to the ground once again. 

Before Pignite could get up, he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck by a large, furry hand. The swine barely had time to register what was going on before he found himself being thrown into the nearby wall with a loud thud, the  aged stone wall produced a series of cracks at the point of impact.

As the three pack members approached him to continue the beating, Pignite struggled to his feet, his mouth ablaze with the attack he had tried to do earlier. He got to his knees as his targets drew close.

"Eliumi, look out!" Khaun screeched as a torrent of flames barreled towards him. 

For an avali, of whom originate from an iceball world, this was certain death, barreling its way right towards him.
Or it would have, had Nine not at this moment, leapt in front of him and folded his own arms in front of his face, using his own body as a shield to protect the small avali from the flames.

"NINE!!" Eilumi shouted in a panic as he watched the flames hit his packmate head-on, and split on his body, passing by Eilumi on either side harmlessly.

The flames stopped as quickly as they had come.

"Nine?!" Eilumi asked again, reaching over to his packmate. He drew his hand back quickly when he felt his hand sizzle.

"I'll be fine." Nine responded. "I'm just a little singed. I just need... a bit of time."

"Assholes...." Pignite groaned as he caught his breath. He rose to his feet, his hands flaming as he got into a stance.

"You'll pay for that!" Eilumi shouted as he and Khaun leapt back into the fray. The pair delivered clawed swipes and punches, ducking over, leaping past, and sidestepping the pig's attempts to hit them with his fists. The pair attacked in turns, swooping in and delivering swipes and punches, and then tagged out with the other when they wore down or when pignite tried to counterattack with a punch.

It didn't take long for Pignite to wear down from this relentless assault. He was growing more desperate, and more frustrated with each missed punch.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!!" He yelled. He opened his mouth once again, the pair expecting another flamethrower. Instead, a thick smog started to pour from it, enveloping the area. 

"Ah!" Eiluni coughed, "Shit!"

Khaun felt a large hand wrap around his throat, and felt his body being pulled off the ground. 

"Gotcha now you little bitch!" The pig snorted, apparently having no trouble breathing in the smoke at all.

He grabbed the pig's hand, trying to claw at it to free himself, but it was of no use. He could feel himself losing air by the minute. 

Suddenly, The pig let him go with a howl of pain, as a breeze flew by. Khaun was dropped to his hands and knees, coughing in what little air as he could in the now quickly subsiding smog. He looked up, and saw what had happened.

Pignite was gripping his wrist, as blood dripped from it, despite his best effort to block the bleeding with his other hand.

A ways away from him, was Eiluni. In his hand, or rather, attached to it, was a set of aerogel hunter claws. Dripping with blood. 

"If I'd known this was going to be that effective, I would have used this from the start." Eiluni deadpanned, him and Khaun both feeling mighty stupid right about now. 

Pignite saw the object, and backed away, his eyes suddenly full of fear.

"No... No way... You.." He choked out, "You fucks... have IRON?!"

Khaun responded by pulling out his own set of claws, and attaching his. Upon seeing him do that, the pignite did something very unexpected to the two of them. 

He turned and ran.

... Or he tried to, anyway. He didn't even get one step away from the two of them before he bumped into a heavy object behind him. A slightly singed, and very angry looking Nine. 

"I am a cybernetic organism." Nine informed him darkly. "My bones have been enhanced with a material far stronger than the material you refer to as 'IRON'."

"No... No please. Don't kill me!!" Pignite begged. "I'll do anything, ANYTHING!" 

"Do not worry, we don't intend to kill you..." Nine replied darkly.

Pignite gave a sigh of relief. Said relief was short-lived however, as Nine then picked him up by the back of the neck. 

"...That would be far too quick for scum like you." Nine added menacingly as he grabbed his back. "Instead..."
"No... No please!" Pignite begged. "Put me down! I didn't mean any of it! I swear!" His pleas fell on deaf ears however as he was lifted above the Protogen's head.

"I. will."  Nine yelled up at him. 

"Somebody HE-"

"BREAK YOU!!" 
Nine yelled, throwing Pignite down as fast as he could. The pig fell, back first, very quickly
Right into Nine's own rising knee. 

The two of them met at high speed, and a sickening crack belonging to what could only have been the swine's spine reverberated off the walls.

Pignite's eyes were as wide as his body could allow them to be. His mouth was open, trying to scream as loudly as he could manage. But all he could manage, was a series of weak, choked groans and labored breaths. The pain was so immense, it apparently hurt him to even breath, let alone scream. 

 He rolled helplessly off of Nine's knee, landing face first onto the ground. Blood gushed out of his mouth, and onto the sand below him. 

"Damn, Nine." Eilumi remarked, as the two Avalis sauntered over to the broken pig, who was sputtering and coughing in forced breaths. "It's days like these that I'm glad you're on our side."

Khaun climbed on top of the broken swine, and stood atop his chest. Pignite could do nothing to stop him, only stare fearfully between labored breaths and bodily twitches of excruciating agony. The blue avali leaned down, his face hovering above his victim.

"Everyone is prey to someone." Eilumi taunted menacingly and slowly. "That's what you told her as you took advantage of her, wasn't it?" Eilumi gave the pig a kick to the side, shaking him, and causing him to let out a squeal of pain.
"You told her that citizens use the 'savages', like her," he continued, that guilds use the citizens, and that nobles use the guilds. Is that right?"

The pig could only lightly twitch his head in response. Whether he was trying to nod or shake it, they couldn't tell. Nor did they particular care at the moment.

"Don't answer that. We already know." Khaun spat. 

"The strong use the weak." Eiluni said disgustedly. "And look where that's gotten you: broken and gasping for air. Befitting of scum like you."

"You know, our pack joined the Avali Exploration Fleets just to wipe the universe of shitbags like you." Eiluni growled.

"Well, that's not one hundred percent true." Khaun sat up and turned his head to his packmate. "We also joined for the fun of exploring the universe, meeting new people, seeing places, and finding cute aliens-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, there's that too." Eilumi interrupted dismissively. 

Khaun returned his gaze to their victim. "You know what the sad thing is?" He began sadly. "The sad thing is, our people once had their own heads up their own asses. Not as bad as yours, but still..."

"'We have ours. Fuck everyone else.'" Eiluni continued from Khaun, who then continued in turn. "We thought we were above everyone else's problems. That they didn't concern us."

"And then the wars came for us. Killed lots of people. Avali, Humans, Hylotl. Florans. Everyone. Well, except for the damn Miniknog. Fuck them." Eiluni continued, then handed their little story over to Khaun. "Long story short, we got our asses in shape, and adopted a new ideology."

The pig let out a groan. It wasn't clear what he was trying to say, but it didn't matter to any of them.

"It's one our pack has already had. Nine is proof of that." Khaun continued, as nine looked off with a slight look of guilt displaying on his visor. "But now, we carry it with pride in the name of the Reborn Illuminate instead of simply an unofficial afterthought. Want to know what it is?"

The pig gave a grunt of pain.

"... Too bad. We're going to tell you anyway." Eilumi responded to the groan firmly, taking it as a 'no'. "It's quite simple, really: It is the duty of the strong to protect and uplift the weak. Those societies that do, thrive. Those 'worthless weaklings' they protect? They help in other ways, help it grow, advance. Those societies take off to the stars. Those that stick to this self-destructive ideology of 'the strong use and abuse the weak?' Well... just look around. We Avali protect the weak now... Because if we don't, who will?" 

"It is my understanding that your 'guild' was founded on this principle. Or at the very least, used to carry a similar ideology." Nine added.

"... Uck... ooouu..." Pignite managed to weakly spit out.

"I don't know what went wrong, but it's obvious it doesn't anymore. Or perhaps, our information is incorrect, and it never did." Khaun sighed. "Maybe this planet was always this fucked up. Well, no matter. The point is, maybe if you had followed that ideology instead of this self-destructive 'use-or-be-used' ideology, you wouldn't be sitting underneath my talons."

"Then again, we wouldn't even be here in the first place." Nine grumbled. His attention turned to his two packmates. "And while we're at it, might I take this time to point out that you two have done a fine job 'protecting' the 'weak' miss Loona by sending her back to this place with nothing but a blade?"

"That was a mistake." Khaun said with two parts guilt and irritation.

"You guys..."

The argument they might have had stopped as they heard another voice speak out weakly. 

"You're wasting your time. The one you're looking for... she isn't here." 

Their gaze shifted towards the hall. A small, black, humanoid creature with long claws and blue eyes was staring at them, scaredly. 

"Repeat?" Nine asked.

"I said she's not here."

"And... you are?" Eilumi asked 

No response.

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you." Nine said calmly. "Come on out."

Slowly, the creature came out of hiding. It shakily approached them.

"Ansel." It said fearfully. "A...And I think... I Know where she might have gone..."

"She went back to The Maze, right?" Eilumi asked.

"I... I would assume so." Ansel replied.

"About what we figured." Eilumi said. "As I've said, this has been a waste of time."

"I don't believe so." Nine responded, pointing to Pignite.

"Okay... maybe not a total waste of time. But still." Eiluni grumbled.

"We thank you for your... help." Khaun said. "But I'm afraid we really must get going-"

"Wait!" Ansel protested, "You're going to need a Guild escort to get out the front gate-"

"Ehhh, I think we'll manage." Eilumi replied. He put a finger to his ear.

"S.A.I.L. send the dropship to my designated location."

'Confirmed. ETA: 4 Minutes.' He heard a robotic voice drone in his ear.

"But we appreciate the thought." Khaun added. The three of them walked back to their rendezvous point: that broken building. 
However, Ansel followed them along the way.

"Wait, I, I know things. I've heard things. In the grapevine. Please!"

"Oh?" Eilumi replied boredly. "I don't suppose you know where an eevee named 'Veera' is do you?"

Ansel looked off to the side. 

"I heard that there was an eevee out of the dungeon with a name like that." Ansel responded brightly, apparently happy that he was finally telling them something useful. "Last I heard she was hired at the bordello-"

"Already checked there." Eilumi shut him down flatley. "Nice try though."

"Wait... The Maze, I know things about it, I can guide yo-"

Khaun turned around, facing him, with a very annoyed expression. 

"Look, kid." He said irritably. "It's obvious that you want something. So out with it."

"I... I..." Ansel stumbled for it. He paused. Both Eilumi and Khaun stared at him with looks of annoyance, while Nine, had a more concerned one displayed on his visor.

"You wish to come with us." Nine suggested. Ansel looked at him and nodded.

"Y... Yes." He said with a sniffle. "After what you said, when you beat the crap out of Nightles , I-"

"Wait, who's Nightles?" Khaun asked. There was silence, before realization hit.

"PPPPHHTTTT" Khaun laughed. "His name was... 'Nightles'?!"

"I thought his name was 'Pignite'"
"You... guys really aren't from around here, are you?" Ansel said flatly. 

"Obviously" Eilumi said with a chuckle.

"Anyway, why do you want to come with us?" Khaun questioned. "You're a Guild member. From what I understand, guild members are at the top of the food chain-"

"I'm not!" Ansel cried. "I'm the weakling. The one they push around, the one they blame when things go wrong." He sobbed. "I... I joined the guild because I wanted to help people. Because I thought the guild was all about helping people. But... but..."

"But the guild is a piece of crap." Eilumi finished.

"It's a mockery of what it's supposed to stand for! I tried to go to the guildmaster, tried to talk to someone about it... But... but all they did was... He...."

Khaun gave the poor kid a hug. "It's okay, kid. You don't have to tell us." Ansel sniffed into his shoulder.

"Sooo... why not just quit?" Eilumi asked.

"B... Because if I do, I'll be forced to live in the Mystery Dungeon again! S-So I stayed, endured the abuse... because the alternative was worse... And after you guys came in... I thought..."

"You saw a way out?" Nine responded.

"Y...Yes."

"Kid...I ..." Eilumi began, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Listen: I want to help you, I really do. I mean, I know a couple of very good crews, or a few places where we come from where you could settle down, and hopefully live a decent life. But..." He sighed deeply, before giving him a hard stare. "I really don't think you understand what exactly it is you're getting into here."

"It can't be any worse than what I've already got myself into!" Ansel protested. "Or... what they forced into me." He added softly.

"Hardly. But that's not what I-" Eilumi stopped as a hum started to enter his ears. A hum that could only mean one thing.

"It appears the dropship has arrived." Nine reported.

"Thank you, Ensign Obvious." Eilumi grumbled. 

Ansel had a wide, scared look in his eye as he saw the dropship hovering over the trio.

"W...Wait. Y-You guys... You're...." He stampered.

"Aliens. From space. Yes." Eilumi responded. "That's what I meant by-."

"That... is..." Ansel started. "... FUCKING AWESOME!!" He cheered, throwing his clawed hands into the air and waving them. "I ALWAYS KNEW SPACE ALIENS WERE REAL!! SUCK IT, NIGHTLES!!"

"He already has, in a manner of speaking." Nine responded flatly.

"So, you still want to-" Eilumi didn't even get the chance to finish before Ansel shouted

"OH HELL YES!!" Ansel shouted happily. "Now I want to come with you even more!"

"Well, alright then. Stand next to me, and hold on." Eilumi instructed.

Ansel did as he was told. A flash of light enveloped them, and they vanished. Soon after, the dropship sped off, into the direction of Dynamo Sands.