Different

Midas hadn't moved in hours.

He circulated the aether from the core slowly and steadily, sending it out in streams that went through his aether pathways and drilled into his brain without remorse. The pain was so horrendous, he had contemplated giving up many times. It had gotten to the point where he was both numb to the pain and still capable of feeling it at the same time.

His mind would have collapsed under the pressure if not for his strong willpower. Blood leaked from every orifice on his body as he gnashed his teeth till they cracked. The unruly aether continued to wreak havoc in his brain. Unconscious of his surroundings, he failed to take notice of his veins discolouring to a dark shade of purple, his body was drained of colour and he was constantly shivering but if one took a closer look at him in the bathtub, they'd notice how high his temperature had risen.

The water was evaporating at a fast pace, as steam billowed off of Midas in waves. The aether circulated through his brain stem, and towards the temporal lobe of his brain. The energy forcefully stimulated the neural activity of his brain, increasing its synapse connections.

After this had been accomplished, Midas' sluggish mind slipped into unconsciousness. Still circulating the aether, his body simply moved around on instinct, compressing and condensing the aether till it took a semi solid form in the middle of his brain, before shattering it. The impact of the small explosion made big waves in his brain, the pulses of aether spreading to his cerebellum, frontal, parental, and occipital lobes.

All the regions of his brain lit up like a Christmas tree before he withdrew the energy once more, condensing it and shattering it again and again. This caused a feedback loop with every aspect of his brain being forcefully raised to a new standard. 

.....

"Damn. I feel like shit"

Midas got up slowly from the bathtub before immediately wincing in pain. He felt sore all over, a numbness to his mind that hadn't been there before. Opening the drain, the murky water went down the drain, revealing his pale bronze skin with dried blood glued to him. "Now I need to shower..."

Ten minutes later, he stepped out of the shower without the usual cloudiness to his thoughts, his thinking speed had increased several times over and the most shocking change had to be to his vision. Everything felt so clear to him all of a sudden, almost like he had assessed another plane.

Everything glowed with swirling colours and the air danced with hues of green winds.

'This must be what Aether looks like. What then are all these other colours then.'

After a few seconds, everything went back to normal but his mind still felt freer than ever before. He walked out of the bathroom and opened his wardrobe, looking for actual clothes... He picked a simple white t-shirt and grey sweatpants and a pair of sneakers.

He strode into the living room where his father, Nicholas sat with his reading glasses on while he skimmed over a stack of documents.

"I will never understand why you choose to read boring old paper when you can just get your virtual assistant to read it to you"

"Hey, I'd be a lazy ass if I made it do my job for me, wouldn't I?"

Nicholas turned towards Midas and raised an eyebrow when he saw him dressed like he was planning on going out.

"Where are we going now, at this ungodly hour?"

"It's not like your boss would care if you read it yourself."

Nicholas chuckled. "It's cute when you try to deflect. But I gave birth to you, not the other way round. Now where are we going."

"Fine, I'm taking a walk, trying to clear my head for the big day."

"Okay. Let's see.... it's 9:37, be home before 11:00. Got it?"

Midas saluted and replied in a deep voice. "Aye sir."

"Get out of my face before I smack you"

"Will do"

.....

[Somewhere deep in the Alpha Centauri Star Sytem]

"You dipshit. How the hell did we lose them, they were right there." The roar of captain Flounders was the only thing the personnel could hear on the bridge of the 'Sentinel Omega' Class frigate they were aboard as they sped through the void of space at near light-speed.

 They had been chasing after a Pioneer Epsilon Class space-craft with escaped Delphinians on board. They zoomed past asteroid belts with ease, the boar like sensor arrays of the ship stared down every new arrival, making its scans so insultingly obvious that if there'd been another warship that even looked remotely similar to the Pioneer Epsilon, they would have opened fire immediately.

"Captain, its not our fault. The sensors would have never been able to lock onto their signal while in that quantum distortion field. It would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"So that's what we're going to tell the higher ups when they ask for a report, right? That we gambled on what direction to pick and we failed. You do know what's on that ship right, they manage to get into any colony or any planet by any chance and we're screwed. The damage they could cause before being taken down would make sure our careers are ruined as a best case scenario or we're executed at the worst."

"We blew a hole in their hull sir, I doubt they could fly for long, they should be floating aimlessly through space by now. We just need to find them."

The captain turned towards the operator who had just spoken with a dark glint in his eye, anxiety and a hint of fear in his expression.

"I hope you're right Todd. Or God help us all"