Ivan walked through a maze of walkways through the skyscrapers and even between them. The passages were massive in size, so Flintlock was able to walk through them without having to enter subspace, but his massive size still intimidated a lot of people and caused them to give Ivan's group a wide berth.
"The Political scene is still chaotic following the disappearance of Prime Minister Mortimus. The left side of the bench have been strongarming strict regulation changes through parliament, increasing taxes across all sectors."
The holographic screen playing the news caused Ivan to stop in his footsteps and turn to look watch it. A stunning light blue-skinned woman, whose hair floated about like it was flowing in water, read out the news as another screen opened up beside her and highlighted several key videos related to the incident.
Ivan scrunched his brow but decided to pay no more attention to it, a chaotic political scene was more beneficial for him as he was likely to receive less attention from any government officials during Celestial Trade's initial growth period.
"E-excuse me, Sir," A nervous security guard approach Ivan and asked him, "Is that your… pet?"
Ivan glanced toward Flintlock before replying with a smile, "Yes, he is. Don't worry though, he is quite friendly."
"…S-sir, that isn't the problem. Your pet is not properly leashed and restrained, causing other people to be afraid. I must ask you return him home or I will be forced to contact the local police and animal control."
Ivan almost laughed aloud, but kept a composed expression. "You do understand Firebug here is capable of eating you in one bite, right? Are you sure you want to do this? He retaliates quite violently when threatened."
Flintlock lowered himself and placed his head right before the security guard, letting out a low grown and revealing his razor sharp teeth.
The security guard turned pale as his knees uncontrollably trembled. It took everything he had just to continue standing.
"Consider what you do next, it's just a job," Ivan patted the shoulder of the security guard before walking passed and leaving him standing there trembling.
Ivan already knew that someone probably contacted the authorities, so he didn't stick around and quickly arrived at the bank. It wouldn't take them long before the police connected the report of the large beast with the incident at the spaceship dock and the illegal spaceship.
"Wait outside," Ivan ordered everyone except Valeria.
The Pleiades Galactic Bank was a run down and dirty with even the tellers seeming lifeless.
"How can I help you today?" One of the tellers asked Ivan in a drone once it was his turn.
"I'm here to open an account."
The lady didn't express any surprise and read out a basic list of terms and conditions before asking for Ivan's ID.
Ivan had already prepared a false ID from the Milky Way Galaxy under the pretence he had recently moved to the Andromeda Galaxy, a common tactic done by pirates and other illegals due to the inability for banks and many other institutions to check the authenticity of such ID cards.
Another forged home address and home insurance letter and the bank account was successfully opened under the name Ivan Storme. The bank printed out a personal bank card for Ivan along with some basic paperwork and it was time for Ivan to leave.
Outside of the bank, the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.
"We'll change locations," Ivan nonchalantly mentioned before leading everyone through hyperspace to a different location in the city.
Ivan spent the entire day moving through the city purchasing various business products, mainly for making transactions between bank accounts. After collecting everything, he had less than a thousand credits left in his pocket, which were simply deposited into the bank account as the chips couldn't be taken into subspace without the appropriate preparation.
Leaning against a walkway on the thirtieth floor of a skyscraper in this rustic metropolis, Ivan looked across the lanes of hovercars crisscrossing late in the afternoon. Lights designating lanes and roads lit up the sky in between the massive towers like an old aircraft landing field. Valeria stood beside him and looked at the mesmerising scene she would have only been able to see in a science fiction movie back on the Vulpes homeworld, although her outcast status would have prevented even that.
As Ivan was standard there gazing into the distance, a man in an expensive suit, which was out of place for the general area he was in, approached Ivan. Valeria first reacted, turning her head to watch him closely, but the suited man only smiled harmlessly.
"Mr. Ivan Storme?"
Ivan turned his head to momentarily glance at the man before turning his head back.
"That's me, is there a reason you are looking for me?"
"Pardon my lateness, it has been somewhat difficult to keep a track of you in this city. I represent an individual who is interested in taking the position of an angel investor in any endeavour you may be interested in."
"An angel investor? 'Any' endeavour? Who is this saintly person?" Ivan asked with a laugh, understanding that whoever this person is, he is aware of Ivan's status as a four-dimensional individual.
"This person has requested I pass on a business card to you, and that you may arrive at any time and present this business card for an immediate meeting with him."
"Very well," Ivan answered nonchalantly and took the business card, raising a brow upon seeing the name written on it and thought to himself 'Everal Argentear? What a nostalgic surname, I wonder what the relation is between them.'
"Understood, I will meet this angel investor of yours when I have some spare time."
*****
Lanise Tan'paw was a female chef in the Food Research Subdivision. She and two other male chefs travelled through the city throughout the day exploring its complicated terrain, but once the night life came on he found some mid-grade restaurants at the middle levels. It seemed the higher up skyscrapers he went, the higher the social class was, although even that was further determined by which city one was in and where they were in it.
Red Hog Restaurant was the first place he decided to 'visit'. Lanise intruded into their kitchen and arrogantly declared, "teach us your cooking skills."
An uproar naturally occurred in the kitchen with various cooks and other hands threatening Lanise and his two fellow chefs, but after a brief display of strength and one cooking hand sent away in an ambulance due to a "kitchen accident", the two parties came to a brief settlement.
The three chefs worked for free for the night while the restaurant chefs adhered to their demands to teach them their methods for cooking various products.
Lanise and the other two learned about cooking squid like creatures in a boiling alkaline solution, various methods of meat preparation, from seasonings to cooking techniques. As experienced chefs, the three Celestials picked up the various techniques relatively quickly and were taking care of half the kitchen halfway through the night.
"Miss Lanise, was are you doing after the restaurant closes?" A young chef came over and stood beside Lanise, close enough he could easily put an arm around her if he tried.
The young chef's eyes rolled over her mesmerising body with lust. Lanise turned her head and saw him doing this before smiling back seemingly harmlessly.
"Naturally, I'll be returning to my ship. Why do you ask?"
"Well, Miss Lanise, I happen to know a bar nearby that's open all night, why doesn't a beautiful lady such as yourself join me."
The young chef was full of confidence in his ability to flirt yet was completely unaware of the general disdain Celestials had developed for three-dimensional humans.
"Oh my, that sounds nice, when does the shift end?"
"In another hour."
The following hour passed relatively quickly. The young chef joked around a bit and tried to be intimate with Lanise, casually touching her 'by accident' at first, but later stepping it up by placing a hand on her back, around her waist, and even to the point of grabbing her long, thick fox tail.
The two male chefs accompanying worked in their own areas without saying or doing anything, but the young chef didn't realize that was due to the ice-cold glare Lanise gave them to mind their own business.
"Miss Lanise, you have such a beautiful voice, why are you a chef and not a singer? You would instantly become famous with that voice."
"That's because I always wanted to be a chef," Lanise answered in her musical voice with a smile.
The restaurant finished up around 2:00am and finally closed its doors. Lanise left with the young chef out the back door while the two other male Celestials followed them out of sight in subspace, although Lanise was capable of seeing them.
"Miss Lanise, what human specie are you? I've never seen anyone like you and the other two chefs before."
Walking along poorly lit alleys deep in the metropolis of skyscrapers, Lanise flirtatiously put one arm in his, as if to hook arms together. Little did the young chef expect however that Lanise would suddenly swing him around and pin him against a dark corner where no onlookers would be able to see them.
"You can refer to me as a Celestial," Lanise's voice was even colder than her expression had become, causing the young chef's danger senses to ring alarms in his head. "You are seriously disgusting, casually touching me all over, even daring to touch my tail. Every time you touched me was like being touched by a slimy, disgusting insect."
Lanise's soft fox tail wrapped around the young chef's waist and held him against the wall, gripping him like a vice and causing him to have a paid expression. The young chef wanted to cry out in pain and call for help, but was interrupted as Lanise's soft hand covered his mouth.
"Shh… I'm being careful not to rip a disgusting bug like you in two after all, I don't want your juices to splash on me after all. You know, us Celestials generally only drink one thing, it's much better than the alcohol you're used to. I'll let you have a try."
Lanise reached into her clothes, her hand blurring as it entered and a shadow of her clothing shifting as what the young chef could originally see seemed to stay in the same position without moving.
"Come, give this a try," Lanise said with a soul chilling giggle.
The young chef's eyes darted about like a frightened rabbit, desperately looking for escape as he screamed through his nose in horror. He didn't know what was in the flask, but his survival senses were telling him that he mustn't drink it no matter what.
"Don't be like that," Lanise's voice was like an executioner's. "Even if you refuse to drink it, I can put it straight in your stomach, but I think watching it go down that disgusting throat of yours will be much more enjoyable."
The lid of the flask was taken off and Lanise took a drink from it first, revealing an intoxicated expression which was completely contradictory to the cold and emotionless she was a moment ago. Her hand and flask then seemed to darken in color and fade away slightly as she brought it across and placed it into the side of his head upside down.
Lanise's arm was actually stretched through subspace, the fourth dimension, and bypassed all of the young chef's flesh and bone while the nozzle of the flast had returned to the surface universe directly in his upper throat.
The nozzle of the flask naturally caused a lump in the young chef's throat, causing his windpipe to contract and force it out, essentially choking himself. He could see Lanise's arm disappearing into his body and the adrenaline in his body abruptly spiked as utmost terror overcame his mind, but Lanise's tail around his waist and arm covering his mouth was as immovable as an iron vice.
"Here comes the fun part," Lanise said with an intoxicated smile before squeezing the flask and ejecting a large amount of blue energy water directly into the young chef's throat, flooding his windpipe, lungs and stomach all at once.
Lanise, faster than any person could possibly be, released the young chef and retreated several steps. The young chef fell to the ground and coughed up spittle of blue energy water, which rapidly corroded through the metal floor of the building as soon as it made contact, directly eating away at the three-dimensional matter and turning it into pure energy.
The young chef became terrified at this sight. He wanted to scream but his body wouldn't respond to his thoughts. He struggled on the ground, but remained helpless as the energy water rapidly ate him from the inside out.
Lanise stepped forward again and grabbed his wrist, lifting him up off the ground. The young chefs head turned limp as he watched holes open up on his own body, spreading larger and larger as blood and bits of organs oozed out of those holes before slopping down to the floor.
The damage spread the worst where his stomach was, eventually causing his lower body to fall off the rest of the upper body and crumple on the floor.
This was the last thing the young chef saw, and despite the terror so great his heart would have stopped if he still had it at the time, he still noticed the most unbelievable fact.
Lanice wasn't standing on the ground, but floating half a foot above it.