Chapter 32: Vindy's New Home

Within every piece of music lies a journey, as the sound waves traveled from one frequency to another in rhythmic intervals, leaving their marks wherever they went. Some times, the notes made returns to familiar elements while the other times, it dived headfirst into the unknown for the purpose of creating something even greater.

When Vindy journeyed out from the Olympus System after escaping the orbital rings with Hong Fu after the saga that is Absolute Being's attempt to meddle with the fate of the entire galaxy, she was expecting a life of relaxation, however, that thought remained an expectation, and an extremely naive one at that. Hong Fu promised that this destination that they are travelling towards...this safe house of his located in the Rocky's region is quiet and secluded.

That's for sure, and it's so quiet and secluded that there are no other hints of settlements left. The domed habitat here in the scarcely settled Geb system are barely maintaining itself thanks to the operating artificial intelligence system that was left behind, and all they had to work with after arriving here were the resources that Hong Fu had prepared when he first set up this very safe house. There are no electricity, and no access to the galactic network from the safe house itself.

Actually, calling it a house would be too generous. It's an apartment located in a deserted apartment complex, which is the only tall building in the entire abandoned habitat. Though now they have access to absolutely everything that was left behind in the area, as the roaming cleaning droids greeted them happily when they showed themselves.

'Well....this...' Hong Fu said awkwardly, 'When I invested in this area, the websites said this is a booming economy...but at least there is no fear of us being spotted. Right?'

'No, I don't mind a bit of quiet after all of that craziness.' Vindy said, shaking her head'I am thankful that you are even taking me with you.'

'I said before that it's always good to have another one of your people around.' Hong Fu said, as he kicked down the door towards his safe house as only half of the interior lit up in response. The electrical system needs some work, but at least everything is still left exactly the way as he has set it up, 'make yourself at home. We may not be here forever, but at least in the foreseeable future....'

'THANK YOUUUU!' Vindy ran into the room happily and immediately picked a small room with a view of the entire habitat for herself. She doesn't care for the size of the room in particular, but rather she cared more about the views. Hong Fu then showed her around the safe house, starting with the walls, ceilings and floors that are heavily reinforced, each individual rooms with a shield generator that can be activated upon voice commands, the stash of food and weapons supplies in various hidden compartments and the various escape routes from each of the individual rooms. However, all of that was employed to protect himself against potentially nosy neighbors, and from the look of everything, that will be the least of our worries.

'I thought we can just come here and lay low...' Hong Fu said as he toggled a dial for the lighting of the room without seeing any response, 'but we need to do some hourseworks. I will fix up the electrical system in the building, can you go out and see if there is any food and other supplies left over in the shops floor, or in some of the other buildings in the area?'

'Sure.' Vindy nodded, as Hong Fu trannsmitted a map of the surrounding buildings to her as well as pointing her towards a self-moving cargo box that appeared to be the handful of functioning electronics left in the building. Taking this chance, maybe she can also fetch a music box from somewhere else too.

As she descended down into the second floor, where all of the shops are supposedly located in, she had to turn on her a flashlight from within her personal interface as she walked around. All of the shops are closed down, but to her surprise, none of the items are touched at all from within the shops, from various clothing for the three species in the branded fashion shop to the various toys and tools in the mechanical workshop, to a fresh and long term food storage supply area. All of the fresh produce had rotten away and been cleaned by the roaming cleaning droids left on this floor, but crates of frozen foods and food printer bases still remained nicely packed away in storage crates. Vindy took up all of them one by one and chucked it in the cargo box that's following behind her before moving onto the next shops. She also picked up an assortment of tools and electronic supplies just in case Hong Fu needed it.

Sadly, there are no music boxes around. Perhaps there will be some left in the music shops around in the area. Checking at the map that Hong Fu shared with her, it is obvious that quite a lot of the details are no longer accurate, possibly due to the thing that caused this habitat to be evacuated changing everything including the habitat economy. Making sure that there is nothing useful left on this floor, Vindy took the stair down to the first floor and left the building towards the street down below.

The roads are clean and spotless, as cleaning droids waddled around as that's been the only thing that Vindy has seen that are around. Fortunately, there are a few shops also in sight of Vindy, though it appeared that the security system installed has made sure that those shops cannot be broken into.

Vindy walked towards the closest one which appeared to be a mixture of a coffee shop and restaurant as she tried to push the door open, but the thing just won't budge. Apologizing quickly to whoever the storeowners are, Vindy activated Wavestriker and blew the door away as it flew out and slammed itself into the wall right behind.

'Rubbish! Rubbish!' Behind her, the cleaning droids celebrated the breakthrough as they followed her into the shop and began cleaning right away.

Leaving the exciting machines to their own business, Vindy headed straight for the food storage areas to the back of the shop, and came away with some more exotic supplies of special seasonings and teas.

Then, she went from shop to shop and filled up her cargo box gradually with various items that she figured the both of them will need for the next little while, as she approached gradually the music shop as labelled on the map. However. she saw nothing but a mechanics shop when she gets there.

'Did it close down?' Vindy thought, disappointed by what she saw. Then, she looked up and saw the sign of a giant musical symbol overhead in the second floor.

Embarrassed by how easily her mind is swayed, she looked around for a way to get up into the second floor before finally deciding to see if there is any stairs hidden within the mechanics shop. To her surprise, the doors to this shop are not locked and it easily swung open for her with no resistance at all. Perhaps someone has already looted the mechanics place? As she entered, a foul stench that lingered in the room rushed out, causing her to feel slightly repulsed by it.

She had a strange feeling about the source of such a smell, and it is especially strange that it would have come from a mechanical and musics shop. She looked carefully around and scanned for any signs of strangeness and danger, but the entire building is quiet like a graveyard at midnight.

The mechanics shop is largely empty, and a stair case at the back leads up to the second floor. From the looks of the work stations and the tools and materials hanging behind on the wall alongside the powered down robotic arms, this must be a sort of vehicle and electronics workshop. Perhaps there will be some use coming back here if Hong Fu needed some extra supplies.

Vindy took the stairs up the second level, as some paper posters on the walls guided her up into the music shop. Here, the stench has gotten a little better than before, but Vindy wasn't so sure whether that's just her nose getting acclimatized to the environment.

'The windows needed to be opened.' She decided as she entered into the second floor, where tons of various musical instruments from the three species are displayed on racks and boxes across the entire room. However, instead of getting lost like a kid in a candy store, Vindy headed directly to the windows and busted in wide open with the Wavestriker.

As the flow of fresh air poured into the building, Vindy's finally able to take some time and enjoy herself in the music shop. Her last music box was destroyed completely and turned into a deadly weapon at the hands of Lady Lily, and she hoped that this one will suffer a better fate that the last one.

There are no signs of any obvious rules for the arrangement of instruments across the entire shop, as more traditional classical (mechanical-based) human instruments were layered out nearing the front, with the rack directly facing it consisting of traditional Rocky drums and percussive instruments. Then, there is suddenly rows upon rows of electrical instruments, and pots of dead biological instruments of Aquarian origins. However, there are no signs of any music boxes.

Music boxes are akin to an all-in-one when it comes to music creators in this age, as it not only contains audio files for all of the sounds for the instruments across the three species, covering both the mutual and species-specific hearing frequencies. Despite the difference in their hearing range and auditory systems, the principle of mechanical waves that make up sound is still the same, and it still required a medium to travel through. Building off that, the box's inner systems is not only able to recreate certain sounds, but also process, compile and edit everything all together.

When a musician is able to fully utilize the functions of a post-modern music box, it is said that there is nowhere the musician couldn't be at. However, Vindy is even further along in this path, as when she had to perform extensively reprogramming and reconfiguring of her own music box when trying to incorporate the Wavestriker along with it.

Meaning that after she got her new music box, she will be able to keep busy for the next little while.

As Vindy continued on into the room past the dead pots of bio-musical instruments, she quickly realized the foul smell did not come from the pots themselves. In fact, it appeared all of those pots and containers have been thoroughly cleansed and emptied.

Something else is going on here. Vindy felt a light tremble in her head as she became more and more alert with every step that she has taken. There is this ominous feeling in the air that accompanied the smell, and Vindy needed to pin it down, not only for her curiosity, but also for the collective safety of both herself and Hong Fu.

As she walked closer to closer with the flashlight illuminating more and more of the darkness deep inside the store, she felt more and more of that tension in the air. There are sounds of dripping water that fainted in and out of her hearing range. Then, something reflective caught onto the flashlight as she quickly spun towards it, reaching out her right hand with Wavestriker ready at her finger tips. The extra glow from the activated artifact didn't help much with the dimness, but it did help her to realize that is was a brand new music box packaged away, it's plastic covering was what's reflecting the light.

'Is that model 3500....' Vindy jumped onto the table displaying the box and crawled towards it before she read the descriptions carefully on top of it, 'the model that's too damn expensive for travelling musicians...The holy grail of processing and compilation speed...'

With trembling excitement, she grabbed onto the corner of the box and grabbed it with both hands. Then, she glanced down at the plastic packaging again to see a couple of orange dots on it.

Is this...some sort of a tag? Vindy's eyes widened slightly as she moved the box with her body, easily lifting it off the table. The orange dots didn't move with her, but instead, it slid across the surface of the box.

This is light!

Vindy gripped into the box with one arm as she jumped off the table and shined her flashlight towards the ceiling right above where she was staying at, but before she had anytime to process anything, a giant black object appeared from the darkness and rammed into her body like the tails of a rampaging dragon. She felt a couple areas of her thick fur punctured, as dozens of strands were pulled off. However, Rockies are tough, and even someone like her won't go down this easily. Knowing that she is not alone, Vindy didn't hesitate for one second before she sprinted towards the window side of the music shop.

Her short legs spun like flywheels as she covered the distance in twenty quick little steps, then she reached out with her finger and was about to bust the floor wide open before two wet long tentacle like structures with metallic piercings all over it wrapped around her body and pulled her back into the darkness.

'SHIT!' Vindy screamed out, but her voice came out muffled and distant. She activated Wavestriker and grabbed onto one of the tentacle arms as a shock wave traveled outwards with her fingers being in the center of it all. Her glowing fingers immediately blew it up as pieces of stinking flesh and metals were sent flying all across the room and a couple fast flying pieces dug into Vindy's sides. She then reached her arm across, and tapped the other arm and freeing herself.

There was a loud mechanical screech that sounded like a thousand scaffolding collapsing under strain at once, then, the frequency dropped down to a primal roar that came straight out of legends. The intensity of the screech followed by the furious roar shook the entire building as all of the hung up items rattled against each other. The agonizing noise came out with such viciousness and animosity that Vindy almost felt dizzy for a moment, and at the same time, a singular orange dot the same color and intensity as the ones she saw before on her plastic packaging appeared towards the back of the room.

'Oh.....? Organic? You?' A smooth and beautiful male voice that's almost too perfect to have come from a real voice box came from the orange dot, 'you resisted my sound?'

'What the fuck is going on?' Vindy tapped rapidly on her left wrist and tried to turn on the personal interface quickly, but the whole thing was ripped clean off her arm when she was first captured. Now trapped in darkness with nothing but faint strands of light coming in from the windows tens of meters behind her, her mind raced through all of the options as she kept up the Wavestriker at her finger tips as her only source of light.

'Prey. Pray.' The sound of this almost angelic voice contradicted greatly with what happened next, as two more tentacles shot through the air, piercing and cutting the darkness before Vindy finally registered it and slammed her finger down onto the ground. A local stationery wave generated from her finger tips as the flooring was torn up and the materials shot up and formed itself into a peak that looked exactly like a standing wave. Don't think Vindy haven't been thinking of and improving ways to use her artifacts!

Previously, all that she has been thinking of using her Wavestriker have been flat out generation of mechanical waves. That was used to create sound for her music and to allow for different groups of people to connect with one another, however, ever since her quick trip to Olympus Prime not too long ago, she has realized the power of using the Wavestriker to create devastating ranged attacks by injecting so much vibration into her surroundings, creating rippling effects that almost mirrors small scale earth quakes.

And then there was the time where she blew off Lady Lily's arm upon touch with a simple pulse of waves.

However, travelling waves (waves that move forward in the direction of projection) are not the only type of mechanical waves that exists out there. Another major category is that of standing, or stationery waves, where the peaks and troughs of the waves appeared to have stayed in the same location, thanks to the effects of constructive and destructive interference which allows for Vindy to create an even effects on selected locations around her.

However, the physics behind why she can do this doesn't really make too much sense, as creating stationery waves without any interface of reflection shouldn't be possible, and yet the Wavestriker seem to allow her to do it. Perhaps that's the part of physics breaking that she can do with her artifacts.

The tentacles collided into the wall that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, as the owner of the tentacle and the voice lets out a surprised moan. Then, the tentacles were briefly pulled back before it finally punched through the temporary wall of concrete and steel and grabbed for Vindy.

'Don't get cocky!' Vindy screamed, as she looked directly into the outreaching tips of the tentacles that extended towards her creepily, 'SHOW YOURSELF!'

An outburst of sound wave exploded out from the tip of her right hand and shot directly up and in front of her, as the ceiling above them shook and cracks for a split second before being ripped clean off and flipped over onto the next building. The waves blew the air everywhere as if a rocket has just been launched, and the lighting of the habitats shined into the music shop as strands of warm colored light pierces through the smoke and dusts that Vindy has just stirred up.

That was a large outburst of waves from her artifacts, and Vindy has to steady herself a bit after that effort. However, fighting in the darkness is simply way too disadvantageous for her. Plus, enemies of this kind are usually afraid of light, if things go how it usually goes in stories like this.

Then, as the dust settles, her enemy of the owner of that voice finally showed its ugly outline behind the settling dusts, and Vindy felt a repulsive urge coming from her and she held down the uncomfortable urge to throw up at her throat.

Lying ten meters in width and three in height were a mass conglomerate of rotten flesh, pieces of metal and the odd orange orbs with tens of tentacles just laying around relaxing. Sitting in the center of that were a music box plugged in with tens of smaller tentacles as most of the box is halfway plunged into the soft darkened flash with the only identifiable feature being the orange light that it gives off when it's about to make sounds.

'Such audacity.' The box said, and Vindy knew that from then on perhaps she will never ever touch a music box ever again.