Chapter 24: The Next Domino

'Try form something other than a big black rod.' Alrith suggested, and Rydel gave her a dirty look before commanding and compressing the free-forming black muscle tissue, as he visualized the shape of a sharp Aquarian blade being held by a normal arm. The black materials began to slowly move and flow according to his will, though the process is painfully slow and demands a higher amount of concentration than he otherwise thought.

After a little while, those black fluids formed into what appeared to be a comically large upper arm with budging biceps and triceps, a short stout lower arm and a what looked like a long brick for the hand and the 'Aquarian blade'. More like an Aquarian brick.

'I can maybe...smack people with it.' Rydel said, swinging that thing around. Despite the look, the weight of the arm still remained the same as before, and the only difference lied in the distribution of mass, which will obviously influence how quickly he can maneuver his right arm. Though even that part isn't something that Rydel should worry about right now.

So far, it's about picking one or two formations that he wanted to be fluent in, and practicing it so that it will come to him at the snap of a finger.

'Now...how do I turn this thing off...' Rydel sat back down next to Alrith and kept the monstrosity of a right arm in front of him, as Alrith squatted down on the ground in front of him and began to poke around in the arm. He can feel her touch, though all of his tissues and sensory system is going all over the place, and his brain isn't quite able to process where the touch is coming from just yet. The effect known as somatoparaphrenia, or the sensation that a limb is dissociated with him is all the more real at this moment for him, especially when the arm isn't even purely human.

Bioengineering is weird. Rydel thought to himself, as he swore to always treat it with the upmost respect from now on.

The thing is, his right arm isn't returning to normal.

'This shit ain't budging...' Alrith said, her tone and phrases distinctly copying that of Elmyra's speaking patterns, as she tried to help Rydel reform his arm by pressing the Aquarian brick in.

'Gently...gently...' Rydel said, as he is the one literally taking the brunt of that force.

'Um....What the hell is going on?' Valerie came out from the briefing room, and saw Rydel sitting on the ground with his hand in between his legs and Alrith squatting on the ground right in front of his crouch, as he whispers for her to be gentle while her body is moving around.

'This isn't what you think it is!' Rydel screamed, and suddenly, his fully transformed right arm went back to normal, as Alrith stood up finally, her face a little red from all the effort of pressing down the brick.

'Huh.' Valerie raised one of her eyebrows and looked at Alrith suspiciously, who's hiding behind Rydel and a little embarrassed as a result, 'well, something big is happening. If your little buddy is alright, come.'

'What do you mean...I am just testing the capabilities of my right arm.'

'Yeah. Yeah.' Valerie isn't even looking at Rydel at this point.

Perhaps she is a little jealous that Alrith had to be the one to help Rydel with the rehabilitation and training of his right arm, when she has always been the one training next to him through the thick and thin.

Back in the room where they had the meals not too long ago, the lingering smell of roasted potato wedges haven't been completely cleared away by the air conditioning unit just yet, as Rydel took in a lungful of that rustic smell. No, this isn't the spices that he used before. Cellica just made more potato wedges by herself.

'Apparently there is going to be a big announcement right now regarding the future of Olympus Prime,' Cellica said, tapping her finger on the brim of the plate full of wedges, 'want some?'

'If it's one of those daily briefings...what's so special about it?' Rydel asked, warping a wedge using his artifact and threw it in the air before tilting his chin to catch it.

However, Valerie raised a finger and froze the wedge in mid air, as some spice powders dropped right into Rydel's nose, causing him to sneeze.

'What's special about this is the one doing the announcements.' Valerie said with her usual cold voice, as she pointed towards the words on the banner of the holographic news.

'The CEO of Infinity the technology company is going to make a big announcement about the next phase of their project and how that would feature in the next phase of evacuation efforts.'

Zero. Rydel's eyes opened up wide as he looked straight on at the empty podium where the man behind all of the things that's ever happened to the bearers will be standing there and giving a speech. Would he even be there physically? Or would it just be another hologram? Rydel wondered. The Lock Down on the chip was released, and it hit Rydel on the nose before falling onto the ground.

'What's he playing at?' Elmyra asked the obvious question, her arms crossed as she sat on the couch next to Zel, her arms touching Zel's augmented arms as their shoulders rubbed against each other.

'I would use the Scroll of Truth, but I have a feeling I already know what he is going to do...' Ol said with a heavy tone, 'we might be too late in this race.'

Before Rydel has anytime to ask further questions, Zero appeared in front of the podium. The young leader, the president of the single greatest technological corporation in the galaxy, the man with no limits, and the one leading Absolute Being. The one being that is way too talented, and powerful, and dangerous.

Zero, in all his glory, in front of trillions of audiences across the galaxy. Most will be in awe of his age, but the rest are simply intrigued about this sudden appearance. All in all, the leadership side of Infinity is one of secrecy and mystery, so it is the very first time that the leader for this mega-company is known to the outside world, and to most people's surprise, it is this young energetic boy.

He appeared to have look even younger than all of the bearers remembered from before, perhaps it is a result of some sort of prototype treatment, or perhaps it is one courtesy of the beautiful Lady Lily.

'There he is.' Zel said with an aggressive undertone, as Zero has brought nothing but trouble for him ever since Lady Lily and Absolute Being came into his life.

Zero took a tiny step forward and cleared his throat, as he looked directly into the cameras. As he came into the center, a tiny bar with the writing 'Senator Zender' showed up right next to his body.

It was like as if a bombshell was dropped into the middle of the room, and everybody immediately knew what Ol was talking about mere moments ago. The galaxy needed a symbol, and a leader, and they just had both.

'My name is Senator Zender, I serve the edge systems of Cerberus, and I am also the president of Infinity. And today, I am here to apologize, and I am here to declare our commitments. Then, I am here to ask for a favor.'

'I apologize to the galaxy for us being in the shadows all this time. We were hiding behind the fact that by simply providing the funding needed for the evacuation to the galactic government and encouraging the rest of the Big Ten to join in on the effort, we were doing enough. However, we were hopelessly wrong, and our mistake in not utilizing the power we have on our hands.'

'This mistake will not happen again, and we will no longer be sitting and waiting for things to happen as Olympus 2 falls into the cold and Olympus Prime falls into the sun. This tie, we are committed to use as much of our resources as possible to save the planet. All of our projects will be changed and used for the purpose of saving the planet, and it is the planet that we will save, rather than the people on it. I will come back to this part later.'

'There have been speculations in the galaxy, regarding a group of strange items with seeming metaphysical properties, and the people that are using them for a variety of purposes. Us at Infinity have been also investigating the properties of the artifacts and the behaviors of the users, and today, we are here to make an announcement.'

'Here it comes.' Rydel can feel his heart racing, and Valerie's hand found his left hand while Alrith grabbed onto his right, as all of the bearers sat together in a circle and waited for Zero's, or Senator Zender's, next sentence.

'I, Senator Zender, the senator serving the people of the Cerberus system, the president of Infinity are here to confirm the existence of such items, and we identified them as artifacts from unknown time points in history. Each individual artifact is capable of abilities that seemingly break the laws of physics in our reality, and each user is capable of using the artifacts to varying extents based on the capabilities of the users. Supernatural threats are to be combat with supernatural beings. We as an organization has been working closely with our own group of artifact users, but we know there are more out there, and here, I call onto you for your help in saving the planet.'

Here goes the symbol. Rydel looked towards Ol, who's stature remained still ever since the beginning of the broadcast.

'We may have crossed paths prior, but I wish to turn a new page and extend out a hand of peace and cooperation. We know your deeds and feats on Olympus 2, and I am sure that the Galaxy is grateful. Now, let's walk alongside each other and save the galaxy together.'

'I will be in touch, bearers.'

Then, there are a few more formalities regarding the logistics of Infinity as he outlined the plan to move the planet away it's current trajectory using the power of the artifacts, as he first declared that those with the capabilities of moving to the outer planets should do so as soon as possible, and the Big Ten will all aid in the evacuation effort. However, for those that are not able to leave the system, Infinity will work with everything they have to move the planet into a safer orbit.

As Zero stepped back away from the spotlight from the podium on Olympus Prime, Lady Lily is waiting there in the hallway.

'I know you don't like this.' Zero let out a light chuckle as he walked passed his beautiful second in command.

'That's an understatement.' Lady Lily said, her expressions ice cold and her tone calm and flat, 'but we can only move forward now that is is done.'

'Indeed.' Zero said as both of them walked into an elevator that takes him up to the higher level of the governmental building where his shuttles will be waiting for him. There are a lot of logistical work that will need to be done, but he trusts Lady Lily fully on those matters. He will just have to make the big picture decisions and stick with his guns.

Looking back to the times right after the bearers rescued Elmyra away after the forceful activation, Zero gained a lot more understanding and appreciation of the powers of the artifacts. The nature of his artifact is that of information, and whatever and whenever the information are located, he can obtain and manipulate. However, the accuracy dwindled drastically with increase in distance in either space or time.

He tried to fight against the future he saw, where Brakagi stood on top of a city of ashes, and yet that future is the only constant so far. Previously, there only five beings that appeared to be artifact users on his side, but recently, that number has increased to six.

Currently, Absolute Being only has himself, Sir Deva, Lady Lily, Sadie Allen, hundreds of the latest versions of various pseudo-artifacts armed with their infantries and other resources that easily surpasses in size everything the New Rocky Government has, and yet the values of artifact users are immeasurable. However, despite that development, Zero wasn't too worried about Brakagi so far, as the future that he foresaw is still quite far out in the future, and it doesn't necessarily alter the course of both Infinity and Absolute Being in their constant preparation in seeking other artifact users and creating pseudo-artifacts.

There have been some breakthroughs in those areas, and Lady Lily is finally able to make the pseudo-artifacts of Mass Projector a lot smaller, now it's more akin to the size of a handheld cannon than a chunky old fashioned space suit. There are also some research into the nature of the Shield, but there isn't much value in having a simply fancier version of the shield generators. Both Zero and Lady Lily agree that research on her very own artifact, the Pen of Rearrangement will not happen, both because she does not want her position to be threatened, and because her artifact is the most complicated of them all.

Everything is still going according to plan until Zero learned of what has been going on out in the galaxy, with the rumor of Olympus B's strange behavior, the break in at the GBI by Jozzor and Brakagi and the demonstration of artifact usage by both Brakagi and Jozzor. His informant in the GBI shared all of the information necessary for Zero to have a fair grasp on the nature of both Rocky's artifacts, though like for all users, it is impossible to know the limits in both capacity and application for both.

Jozzor's artifact appeared to have been related to locomotion and teleportation, while Brakagi's is a sort of disruption type artifact.

'But a sun though?'

That was Lady Lily's first reaction, and Zero shared her sentiment.

'Now that is the strongest feats of power out of all of us.' Lady Lily said, looking over to Sir Deva, 'it's hard to top moving a star, isn't it?'

Sir Deva sat there in silence as he experiences a crisis in his self identity. He's always been the one with immense power, but even him can't fathom the amount of power that Brakagi will need to literally budge a sun.

'Regardless, they wanted to move everybody to Geb, and they have moved a lot of people there.' Zero said, 'the people trust him right now, they see him as a symbol.'

'So you are saying we need a symbol too?' Lady Lily continued Zero's train of thought, 'are you saying...'

'Yep, it's time to speed up the timelines of the galactic elections and make myself known earlier than we had planed.' Zero said, looking at his companions, 'this won't be it. Our first priority must be forging a good public image for all to see. I will be directly opposing the plans of Brakagi.'

'But that will come after we saved the planet, with the help of bearers.'

'No way...' Lady Lily said, 'after what we just did...there is no way they would listen to us!'

'They will, if they want to save the planet.' Zero said, shaking his head, 'With their help, there are a few things that we can do to move the planet back into it's original orbits.'

'There is no way that they will refuse us,' Zero said finally as he brought up the holograms of Olympus Prime's current trajectory, 'they are the good guys after all.'

Meanwhile, those on Olympus Prime are not the only ones planning and plotting. All the way back on Geb 4, Brakagi is now having a spiced cocktail drink brought to him specifically by Caliditas as he overlooked the booming cities that is now being settled in by the streams of influential people that he has rescued from the Olympus system.

Taking the drink without even looking at Caliditas, Brakagi simply took the moment and took in everything in front of him.

This is his achievement! This is his glory! However, this is only the first step.

'Brakagi?' Caliditas spoke up and Brakagi turned his head towards her. She is specially dressed in a nice colorful civilian outfit today, drastically different from her usual scholar's outfit, and her fur is also well groomed, 'what do you think?'

'I am happy,' Brakagi said, looking to the side at the booming city beneath him, 'but not complacent. There are still work to be done still, Caliditas.' Then, he began walking back towards the office where Jozzor has prepared the latest updates coming from the Olympus Prime system.

I was talking about my looks...Caliditas bit down on her lips and looked away from Brakagi angrily. She thought when she come here, he will have some time for her, but ever since her arrival after the initial welcomes, he has been hiding behind work and preparation and training. Now that there is no more research that she can do, Caliditas is a little loss on her purpose in life.

'We have evacuated another million of those that desired to resettle here in Geb 4, and the fourth city's construction is complete.' Jozzor said as Brakagi entered the air conditioned room, 'everything is according to plan, but the boss of Infinity just made a statement today.'

'Is it a statement important enough to distract me from my date?' Brakagi asked jokingly as Jozzor turned on the hologram without saying a word.

Brakagi watched it quietly for a while before twirling around the hair under his chin.

'Hm.'

'Yeah...this is really odd, leader.' Jozzor said.

'Odd indeed...' Brakagi said, 'but not exactly unexpected. Jozzor, let's go for a walk.'