Chapter 38: Rydel and Valerie

When Zel's making his desperate call to Ol in the toilet on the ground floor of the Marble Casino, Ol is having a nice drink of Aquarian shocker, as Cellica came back from a day of meeting her colleagues and hanging around with them. Knowing of her particular liking of the Aquarian Shocker, the colleagues have prepared for an exquisite brew for her to enjoy, and knowing Ol's Aquarian roots, Cellica knew that she will have to share this fine ass bottle with him.

With two classes placed on the table and shards of ice in it, all that's needed is the liquor, and when it was poured, the bubble reactions the drink make with the ice's surface gives out a gentle fizzing sound that sounded rather soothing. Then, as Ol is getting ready to send the drink down the shoot, his personal interface popped open, and a bloodied up Zel appeared from the other side of the communications channel.

He brought along the worst of news, and the drink that both Cellica and Ol have been waiting on for an entire day found its way onto the carpet as a cleaning droid bumbles its way to clean up the mess. After the transmissions have ended, Cellica has already gotten in touch with Rydel and Cellica while pulling up the detailed location files of the Marble Casino.

'What is up?' Rydel said with a sluggish sounding voice and a massive smile when the connections were made. His nose is almost protruding through the hologram as his face is way too close to the camera on his personal interface. It is evident that the time zone in the food and cuisine district is a little ahead than where Ol and Cellica is staying at, 'what's up C?'

'C?' Cellica didn't realize that's how Rydel is referring to her, but she cut to the chase without wasting a second, 'Elmyra is severely injured and taken by Absolute Being in the entertainment district.'

'Say again?' All of a sudden, the intoxicated sluggishness disappeared, and Rydel sat up in her chair as Valerie's head also popped up in the camera, but she wasn't in focus, 'what about Zel?'

'Zel seemed safe, but Elmyra is taken.' Cellica said, sending the information out, 'we are contacting Torelamri right now, but you two are the best we have. Zel is tracking down Elmyra and Lady Lily and he will update us with the latest. However, in the mean while, please get to the Marble Casino as fast as you can.'

'Can he not just warp Elmyra out of their captivity?' As the images shook frantically with the two of them standing up from their chair as Valerie paid the bills and the couple started heading out towards the nearest shuttle area, 'and are all of our security compromised?'

'Elmyra is severely injured in a way only Lady Lily can save her in the short term, and she is kept in Lock Down.' Cellica said, 'there is no evidence of that...Is there?' Cellica looked towards Ol, who has already entered his meditative stance as the Scroll of Truth floated in a circle around his body, lines of Aquarian writing appearing with a faint orange glow.

'Our location is compromised.' As the daily usage of the Scroll of Truth is expended, Ol caught the free-falling scroll and put it back into the secure pocket Ol has underneath his light armor, 'all of the communications were jammed in the Marble, and the only feasible transmission out was tracked here, and our transmission here is tracked out to you and Torelamri.'

'Understood,' Cellica nodded before turning back to Rydel and Valerie, 'they have trapped Elmyra and Zel and used that link to find us, but you will have time. Stay off the grid and on your feet, and wait for Zel's signals. They have no means of knowing the content of our communications, but they will know where we all are.'

'Understood, ' Rydel nodded hard, 'what are you going to do?'

'We will move as soon as we can.' Cellica said, then, she spun around in her chair with the Eyes activated and scanning in all of the environments around her. The buildings outside, the corridor outside of the room, the stairs and this building...'We may have company soon, so we will stay on our feet too. There is no saying our entire presence is busted, but stay alert.'

'Damn.' Rydel said with a short sigh, 'stay safe and stay together. How can I get back in touch with you?'

'Use a public interface and our old encrypted channel.' Cellica said, 'remember Absolute Academy?'

Rydel nodded, and ended the transmission.

Things have gone from one to one hundred in a matters of seconds, and before Rydel and Valerie was about to have their fifth meal of the day and as the drinks were finally brought onto the tables, the call was hit. Unlike Cellica who's been around meeting and greet her colleagues that are based on Olympus Zero and going to official events, or Ol who has been visiting archives and museums in the academic district, or Zel and Elmyra who's been non-stop flirting around in the high fashion district, Rydel and Valerie went straight to business.

After going for a quick trip in the toilet to empty out the shoot, they hopped on a shuttle that takes them and a truckful of other glutton's straight to the street food and cuisine district. To start the day off light, they visited the Aquarian seafood market for some tiny yet extremely delicious and fresh cuts of Aquarian fish. There is a taste and grade event going on throughout the morning, and Rydel and Valerie simply planned to stay for a little while.

WRITE A REVIEW, AND GET TREATED TO ANOTHER FOR FREE! The center of the market have a massive sign saying that in standard writing, and Rydel and Valerie immediately sat their butts down before a couple of dishes is immediately placed on their table.

The Aquarian ocean differed from the Earth's ocean in terms of saltiness, and a planet full of ocean can only be accumulate so much minerals. The fish tasted like and melts in the mouth.

'10 out of 10 for the softness of the dish, the flavor is light and yet not insignificant, and the aftertaste with the pickled seaweed simply elevates this simple and cheap dish to another level.' Rydel wrote, and the hologram of the review is project right above his head, causing a few of the passer by's to slow down and read.

'7/10, the flavor profile is rather singular, and my palette longed for some explosive flavor.' Valerie commented with a insert of a flames.

Another three dishes is placed right in front of them, and they immediately got to work.

'And I thought human seaweeds are delicious...10/10.' Rydel might have seened so easily satisfied so far, but his idea of Aquarian cooking has always been a blend mixture with light seasons. Now, he realized that it is the cheap Aquarian cooking that he has always tasted.

'I enjoyed the degree of dryness in the seaweed after the crispy breading and just enough frying, though the seasoning itself is a little of a let down. 6/10.' Valerie is still more harsh than Rydel, 'the dumplings are the saving grace though. 7.5/10.'

'OH MY GOD SHE HAS GIVEN A 7.5!' Before they have realized what's really going on, a small crowd of Aquarians has already gathered around as they watched the two humans review their foot with curiosity. The Aquarian race as a whole has had issues with low self-esteem when it comes to their style of cooking. Things have always tasted fine when it came was caught straight from the streams of water, and yet it is only when the meat is allowed to breath and rest in an oxygenated environment that's its true beauty can shine through.

Seeing the amount of attention Rydel and Valerie has been drawing, the streams of dishes simply kept coming like a never ending river of food, and yet the heightened metabolism that comes with the various enhancements they have gone through allowed them to simply keep going.

I mean, the nanotechnology enhancements still need energy to run on, and they won't complain about streams of simple carbs, fats and proteins.

A few hours later, it was actually the stall that gave up.

A slender Aquarian teenager dressed in a chef's uniform came out to greet the two living advertisement boards and apologizes awkwardly, 'We apologize, there isn't much food left...Since there are so many customers around thanks to you guys. This meal is on us by the way.'

Looking at each other, Rydel and Valerie knew exaclty what the other is saying. Thanking the market for their hospitality, they both raise from the table encompassed by cheers and applause, and Rydel leaned in close to Valerie's ear and asked.

'Where to next?'

The next few hours consists of them running around the district at breakneck pace and storing as much of that energy in their body as they can while finding the newest and freshest stalls. Sadly, nothing quite beat the market by noon, and after another quick trip to dump off some excess fiber, they headed to the Rockies' district.

Unlike the Aquarians which uses markets as their main gathering place, the Rockies preferred smaller group dining experiences. And each of the tables are rather far away from one another like lonely rocks all spread out on the beaches.

Human stomach can consume Aquarian food, but their gut microbiome struggled to deal with the harshness of Rocky cooking, as they consumed a sort of processed stones which has the texture of jelly while being heavily seasoned but contained enough metal to ruin a human's day.

However, if there is a will, there is a way. A workaround Rockies and human chefs have found is to use the herbs and spices present on Rockies and adjust the levels of minerals before adding some human spices to recreate a similar flavor profile. The texture profile is easily done with some molecular gastronomy and voila you have Rockies cooking that humans can taste.

If Aquarian wishes to win you over with a gentle freshness, Rockies cooking aimed to dominate and overload you with explosive flavors that pushes the boundaries of tasting versus self harming. And yet the balance is so finely dialed in that Rydel and Valerie simply can't have any complaints. Truth be told, even if they had some of that authentic Rockies cooking they will probably still be fine thanks to the nanotechnology enhancements, but no stall is willing to sell them anything real.

Leaving him with no choice, Rydel activated his artifact for the first time today.

'If this energy signature gets detected, then I am going to kill you.' Valerie threatened, but still reached her hands out to grab the second piece of that Rock Jelly from Rydel's hands.

'WHAT.....THE...FUCK...'

Rydel puked the rock immediately back into his hand. He realized that it's not the flavor, or the texture, but rather the chemical make up that immediately burned the inside of his mouth. Learning his lesson, he returned the rest of that Rock Jelly with the GLove of Summoning.

The evening couldn't come earlier for the two of them as they have been waiting for the time of the reservation at a small, quirky yet extremely popular restaurant. With the sets of cocktails finally served onto the table, the fateful phone call from Ol finally struck, and Rydel and Valerie, finally finding some sense of intoxication from consumption of a large amount of alcohol in a short amount of time, immediately left the reservations and started heading out.

The alertness immediately got rid of whatever that was in the system, and Rydel and Valerie headed towards the entertainment district as fast as they can.

'From the sound of it, it appeared that Lady Lily has taken both of them out at the same time...' Rydel said as he and Valerie paced onto the shuttle and got in close with one another as it rattles off the ground, 'I have no idea that she has gotten this strong...'

'She had help, for sure.' Valerie said firmly, gripping Rydel arm and tried to calm him down, 'at least a squad of pseudo's and more.'

'But still, how do they know where Elmyra is...' Rydel shook his head, 'I thought we were careful, and what are the chances that those two will end up where they are? How does this improbable event even occur without some elaborate planning, or a spy in our ranks...'

'Don't let this rattle you further.' Valerie shook Rydel, as the thought of losing yet another friend to Absolute Being in a similar fashion at the same time brought out all of the fear and uncertainties that's been hidden underneath his smiles. The lightning rod in his left hand pulses slightly with pain, though is it really physiological pain that stemmed from the artifacts or just psychological pain that reminded him of what happened to Dolon.

He didn't defeat shit. It was Dolon that saved both him, and the Lightning Rod from the grasp of Absolute Being, and just as they thought they can relax for a little while, Absolute Being is once again right behind their heels.

The journey towards the entertainment district will only take about twenty minute of air travel as the shuttle shot through the atmosphere. The journey towards the casino district after a nice meal is a rather common one, so they aren't exactly standing out from the crowd.

Their personal interface buzzed once again, and it was a message from Zel.

'The ship they came on have taken off, and I am on it. The destination is unknown, will update. Check Marble Casino see if you can find anything.'

Zel typed in the entire message in his personal interface before warping only his arm to outside the ship to send it off. Then, he brought it back into the pocket dimension as quickly as he could. From the lock of things, there had been a total lock down of communications from around the Marble Casino, which is a sort of standard set up for more high-end casino's that regularly hosts competitions. The aim of the blockage is to prevent any cheating from being done, and it would only take a simple flick of the button for the owner of the casino to completely cut Zel off from the outside world.

However, there is some measure of confidence in that message being sent of sucessfully while not being tracked. From the point of view of the bearers, the calls are a lot easier to track when there is only a single signal coming out of the Marble Casino, but when you are out in the open with oceans of signals and messages, the simple text sent by Zel would be like dropping a needle into a haystack.

As the ship continued to fly up, Zel slowly realized that they are not going to any other district. Instead, they are going straight up. However, the doesn't seem to be moving towards the outer orbits, but rather...approaches to one of the orbital rings.

So they are making a short stop in the....Zel pulled up the information sheet for Olympus Zero and found his way towards the section that outlined the purpose of each layer of the orbital ring. The first layer that the shuttles past is for agricultural and farming purposes, while the second layer is full of industrial research areas, factories for manufacturing and high end technology research...something Infinity is all about.

For some reason, Absolute Being is not capturing Elmyra for the sake of holding onto a bearer. There is a specific purpose for this move, and it is up to Zel to find out what this purpose is.

Also, who is that strange person that offered him the personal interface to call for help? Was that deliberately set up so that Zel can call the rest of the bearers and expose their locations? He is certain that Ol, Cellica and Torelamri can take care of themselves, but did he just accidentally doom his friends?

And on top of that, how the hell did all of this happen? There is no signs of them being followed, and there is no signs of Absolute Being until the very end.

The answers to the questions Zel had are all on the same shuttle travelling with him. In the small office on the shuttle, Lady Lily is the only sitting in it contacting Zero while Sir Deva is doing his usual practice right outside the room.

'Master, everything is set. Both Elmyra and Hong Fu are in our possession.' Lady Lily reported.

'Um...if I do say so myself, I would consider Hong Fu to be one of our guests while Elmyra is more of an...invited guest.' Zero said, looking directly at the beautiful yet dangerous woman in the hologram, 'but I suppose you did do some sort of convincing to take him along with us.'

'Yes.' Lady Lily said, 'But Hong doesn't seem like he had second thoughts, as you have suspected Master. Vindy is completely under my control so far, so she is also a non-factor. The entire plan is falling into place.'

'Thanks to Hong's artifact, no less.' Zero lets out a sigh, 'don't forget we want more allies and less enemies, or prisoners.'

'With all due respect, master,' Lady Lily protested, 'Hong is never going to fully become our ally, and I never understood why you allowed him to keep his artifact on Olympus Zero for all this time.'

'Well...we went a little while back, and that was our agreement!' Zero shrugged his shoulders, 'I gave him what he need with business and money, he gave me connections with those up there. But moving on from this, the last known locations of at least one more bearer is found with the Code, and a squadron plus Sadie Allen is sent over there to ensure a capture. Just so you know that's also happening.'

'Is today the day?' Lady Lily asked, 'when we finally catch them all?'

'That's not the sole purpose, Lily.' Zero warned, 'but if Hong Fu is with us, then the odds shall be in our favor.'

As Rydel and Valerie found their way to the Marble Casino, it seemed the entire establishment is still functioning as expected with no signs of any conflict having occurred here not long ago, at least looking from the outside.

'Excuse me...' A female Rockie dressed in a neon reflective outside almost ran into the two of them, and she was holding a sort of broken luggage as she paced away.

'What do you think?' Rydel asked Valerie, who checks her personal interface just to see if Zel is giving them any more updates.

'Let's go in and check it out.'

As expected, they have found nothing, Absolute Being has always been good at clean ups after all.