Rydel proceeded to become the best tour guide Cellica could ever ask for, at least in his own mind, showing her to a guest room in his overly spacious apartment in the central accommodation area. The guest room is the exact same one as the one Rydel usually sleeps in, but just faces a slightly different direction.
That is where he typically works if he chose to do some data processing or write ups. After Cellica dropped off her luggage, they then both went downstairs into a coffee shop at the bottom of the stairs.
Rydel got a cup of Aquarian Coffee and Cellica got some tea from the machines, then they also printed off some food and sat down at a table by the windows. There are only a handful of people walking on the street right now, of which quite a few are couples leisurely strolling in the sun or parents taking their babies out for some fresh air.
'So, where have you been lately? What's going on in the world of Cellica Uleric?' Rydel held the coffee in his hands and asked.
'I have just been finishing up some teaching work. Then I went towards the edge to try to gain more information about the darkness and the threat.' Cellica seemed slightly tired from the journey, but a sip from the tea almost instantly brought her back to life.
'Did you find anything new?'
'No. The surrounding dark clouds doesn't seem to be any different this time, and it's not really any clearer or closer, I do not see much further point in these ventuers anymore either.' Cellica shook her head as she tries to hide the frustration.
'But Ol did talked about another artifact being active right? Did you hear about it?' Rydel thought back to the last day on Athena 3 and remembered what Ol Kon told him about possibly another artifact, 'could there be any connection between the one he was talking about and the one you noticed here?'
'Maybe. But it's impossible to tell at this time.' Cellica shrugged her shoulders slightly, 'but anyhow, Torelamri did say the countdown moved forward once again around the time you have left, so that's something.'
'I see.' Rydel can't help but think about how this will make the poor little Rockie go berserk, 'and I don't suppose you have found any other bearers by any chance?'
'No. Cause with you it's quite different. Yours were activated and the signal remained for a good while for us to be able to actually pinpoint your location. The most recent activation was there, but the signal went dark almost immediately, it's almost as if...'
'As if someone is trying to shut it down, or hide it.' Rydel finished her sentence off, and the conclusion they arrived at is no less disturbing. So this is the other bearers Ol was talking about. In a weird way, they seemed to have already figured how these artifacts operate and knows to cover it up nice and tight when one is found and activated. They are dealing with someone who is next level here.
'But that's okay. Since this is one single occurrence, it should not be a big deal at all.' Cellica finished her tea and dropped the cup down into the recycling shaft in the middle of the table, 'Let's go for a walk, shall we?'
The rest of the day were spent when the two simply strolled around the central accommodation area before Rydel suggested taking a bullet train and heading towards the engineering area to show her what his office looked like. Cellica did pursue a extension degree not dissimilar to masters degree in the past, but the endless possibilities of space are simply too attractive to pass on.
After picking up the helmet from his office, they then head towards the field where Rydel was in the morning and had a picnic/training session.
'Right. So I think I have gained a lot more control over the glove.' Rydel took off the brown 'overgloves' to reveal to silver underneath, 'and the visor displays some path and angle information so I need less thinking. Now, go throw a tennis ball somewhere, lightly please.'
Cellica nodded and absolutely launched the tennis ball through the air, Rydel tracked it quickly with his eyes and watches as a suggest angle and projectile of launch shows up on his screen. He focused, reached out with his hand and locked in at the region of space where the ball is going to travel to.
Suddenly, a timely breeze of wind came through the woods, scooped up some tiny dirt particles and delivered it right into the eyes of Rydel. He blinked.
The next thing he knew, the predicted pathways suddenly disappeared from the visor and the view completely cleared out. Rydel cussed underneath his breath, but still reached out with his hand and eye-balled the target. He closed his palm, and nothing.
'What happened?' Cellica asked, 'Did I throw it a bit too fast?'
'That...ah...yes... yes, totally your fault.' Rydel rubbed his eyes and tried to get rid of the dirt particles, 'but also there is a critical weakness in the software.'
'More work to do?'
'Always. But that's for later.' Rydel shrugged as the dust appeared to have decded to settle in his eyes, 'Let's have some food and catch the sunset!'
They hiked towards the highest point of the hill, looking over the whole of Galactic IST which seemed like a giant metallic plate with various units all scattered in the outer rims with some spiky apartment buildings right near the center. From this angle. Vulcan (the sun of Vulcan 5) slowly shifts towards the horizon and completely sets the sky ablaze in a deep red.
It truly deserves the name of the fire god in this sense.
The two sat together on top of the hill with a box of food each, and enjoyed both the view and each other's company.
'To be honest, if I had knew doing a research degree would be like this, I might give it some more thought back then.' Cellica twirled around last of the potato chip on the corner of the food plate and commented.
'Well, I wish that is true also.' Rydel chuckled dryly as he remembers the handful of sleepless nights and the endless sea of data that drowned him completely. He is never one to sacrifice sleep and rest, but sometimes things don't go the way it's planned, 'want some more?'
'Of what?' Cellica turned and stared at Rydel with a confused look as he reaches into the back pack and brought out another medium sized box that's about half the volume as the current food box they both have. Rydel opened it right up and in there lies another three servings of potato wedges, all baked to a golden brown color and seasoned with garlic salt and some light mix of chili flakes and dried tomatoes.
'This is the absolute best that I can make yesterday.' Rydel offered the box towards Cellica, who's jaded eyes actually lit up when seeing the chips, 'see if it were up to your standards.'
'Thank you!' Cellica reaches her fork towards a perfect wedge on top of the pile and lets the sharp tip pierce through the crusty skin, 'I am liking this already.'
With the wedge firmly secured on the fork, Cellica brought it into the last some of the sleepy Vulcan sun, and let it shine. She seemed extremely pleased with the color and gave Rydel a thumbs up for that. Now it's tasting time. She sends the wedge into her mouth in between the rosy red lips and let the saliva gently melt the crispy skin off and delivers the explosive flavor.
She opened her eyes suddenly, her jaded colored eyes glowing as bright as the setting sun.'Shit!'
'What?' Rydel's outreaching arm was jerked backwards by the response and millions of question started boiling up inside his head like water in a kettle. Did he put too much salt, or pepper? He swore everything is perfect when he tasted it as it came out of the oven and everything worked out exactly as the recipe says it will.
Maybe it has gone bad? But it just isn't possible since the box is supposed to maintain and preserve the condition of the food upon first exit from the cooking instruments.
'No! Not the food!' Cellica grabbed onto Rydel's arm and pointed towards the engineering area of the Galactic IST city, 'An artifact is being used right now!'
'Now? Have you got visual on the person?' Rydel stood up immediately and started packing everything. He knew he needed to get moving immediately, but he also don't want to litter.
'Hold on...' Cellica opened her eyes wider and the jade color eyes started becoming brighter and brighter as pulses of white light started to appear and travelling from all corners of her face towards both of her eyes, 'I got him. It's locked in!'
'Locked in?' Rydel put on his backpack and helped Cellica up onto her feet.
'Yes. Let's go!' Things didn't really go as fast as Rydel had planned, but since Cellica had her eyes locked on the person, there is actually very little chance of her losing track of the person.
'Speaking of the bearer, what can you tell from this distance?' Rydel asked as they caught the bullet train that takes them to the closest transit towards the engineering zone.
'He has quite heavy body augmentation, especially his right arm which is fully mechanical!'
'Zel?' Rydel gave Cellica a confused look, 'Can you tell what's the power of his artifact?'
'Not really. But he is exiting a factory like area and heading away, looks kinda like an ugly lunch box.' Cellica answered as she continued to look into the distance despite the bullet training bringing the two into an underground tunnel. So this is what someone who is so adept at using her artifact can do, 'he doesn't seem to be in a rush at all, so everything should be okay, I think. Do you know the place I am talking about though?'
'Yeah, it's perfect.' Rydel almost sheds a tear at how flawlessly Cellica described the building before rethinking every conversation he has had with Zel, as well as all his actions, 'are you able to track to locations at the same time? Can you take a look at this other place...'
Things went so much smoother than Zel could have imagined.
He was slightly surprised to see Rydel working in his lab this early in the morning, but since he has prepped all the tools he could possibly need to break in and out of the storage facility beforehand, all he needed to do is to grab everything, do some final planning and carry out the plan.
Over the past few days and weeks, he has finally figured out both the human and automatic security systems of the storage facility.
A virus has already been sneaked into the system when he went and registered his details in the very first week and it has been slowly corroding the actual monitoring system bit by bit until the amount of deviation is enough to allow him to get what he wants.
6 pm is when the guards that checks the live feed goes and gets his delicious and nutritious freshly printed dinner. With his full attention focused on the food, there is essentially no chance that he would be physically looking at the lab.
The motion, temperature and pressure sensors are all set in a dormant state with randomly generated white noise to keep the alarm from popping off and Zel simply sneaked into the facility from a side entrance without too much trouble.
'99 % of any job is done before the action job.' She always said it, and Zel certainly took it to heart.
Without any outside interference, he would be in and out before anyone knew about it. Instead of the noisy jobs performed by others hired by the same organization, he would like to remain under the radar, away from attention, and certainly away from the news.
The only sort of difficulty for him would be to actually locate high energy stabilizer. Devices at this level are typically kept away in closed stacks and fixed conditions, and there is only one area in the storage facility that screams 'CONFIDENTIAL', the closed off containment area right next to the guards office.
There really isn't anything to be done here, Zel kind of have to deal with this road bump straight on since the guard will have a direct visual on the entrance of the area. This isn't exactly a kind of job for one person. Zel hid behind a giant carrier box and tapped his stomach to wake up the artifact.
Ah, got to love it when you ask me for help, kid.
The artifact is as annoying as always, but this is a situation for him.
What do you want now?
'This is a job for the pocket domain.' Zel spoke underneath his breath. The artifact acknowledge his demand, and a tingly and slightly painful sensation spread quickly from his stomach area and expands to cover his whole body.
Zel is now literally out of this world.
His arms and body appeared opaque, and there is no shadow of him on the floor.
He thanked the artifact in his mind, and started walking towards the container. What's with valuable things and containers in this world?
He didn't need to stop when he reaches the area, he simply passes through the surface and walked into the middle of it. It's a lot bigger than what Zel imagined with loads of different boxes stacked and labelled with a mix of letters and numbers. The people here seemed to hate accurate labeling.
Look at that one! It says HES! The artifact indicated towards a human sized box just lying in the corner.
It seemed like the packaging haven't been touched since the reception of the device, and the seal is still intact.
'Right.' Zel raised both of his arms to his side as he exited the pocket domain and returned to this reality.
It felt nice to walk on solid ground again. He opened a compartment in his red arm and took out a small cylindrical scanner the size of an apricot. He turned it on with a press of a button, and hovered it on top of the container.
This is a simple verification scanner given by the organisation. The little LED light on top shined green three times, and Zel returned it back to the secure location. It definitely doesn't feel like a good idea to open the container right up here.
Zel stepped back and called upon the artifact once again.
With the container now at an arm length away, Zel stood with feet shoulder width apart, and put both arms in front of him. With a little bit of focus, a portion of bent space started reaching out towards the container until it is fully engulfed where the appearance of it became slightly distorted.
Locked in.
The artifact confirmed the action, then the container started to spiral along with the bending of space, not too dissimilar to how Rydel was once able to summon a gigantic piece of rock from underground, but just in reverse. The center of the spiraling is where Zel's stomach is, and the whole container is sucked into the pocket domain and safely tucked away.
'Good.' Zel nodded and warped himself into the pocket domain also. In there, the container sits peacefully beside him, and the two started heading out towards the exit. However, when Zel is finally out of the line of sight of the guard, he is forcibly thrown out of the pocket domain. He is only able to stay in the pocket domain for a little while before a strong nauseating feeling hits him, and he was starting to feel it when the container was being brought in.
But it doesn't really matter at this point, since everything is done and dusted, and no one would know where the high energy stabilizer went. Zel went out exactly the way he got in, and walked away from the storage area towards the bullet train station. This is when he saw Rydel and an extremely attractive women with short blonde hair sitting on a bench by the road.
'Oh, hi, Zel!' Rydel waved at Zel, 'I hope I am not interrupting anything!'
'That's my line...How are you?' Zel looked at Rydel strangely and then turned and smiled at Cellica, 'and who may you be?'
'That's MY line.' Cellica asked with a monotone, 'who are you really?'
'My name is Zel, and I am a researcher here.' Zel replied politely, yet he is slightly confused about the hostility.
'I am C.' Cellica answered coldly, 'You seemed to have some extraordinary talents, and I can see it.'
'What did you tell her, nothing too crazy I hope?' Zel laughed as he looked towards Rydel, who simply shrugged his shoulders with his palms out.
Be ware! She has an artifact active! I can feel it! The voice of the artifact inside Zel exploded in his ear, and made him took a slight step back out of shock.
'May I ask one thing, Zel?' Rydel got up from the bench and stood a few meters away from him while keeping a safe distance, 'I know you aren't armed right now, but what are you planning to do with the high energy stabilizer?'
'...So this is what all this is for.' Zel signed slightly and put his left hand on top of his mechanical right arm, 'I am not the one using it. But I suppose it for some more vigorous and immediate academic purposes.'
'And breaking in doesn't seem to be the proper academic procedure, as far as I know.' Rydel had a grim feeling rising up from within him, and also a sense of nervousness. Zel seemed ready for this unexpected confrontation as the usual coldness returned to his face. He clenched his left fist, and got ready.
Suddenly, Zel made a move. The wrist portion of his mechanical right arm was detached and immediately fired off! Rydel raised his arm as an instinctual act, but he realized immediately that it wasn't aimed at him. It was aimed at Cellica!
'Watch out!' Rydel warned. The flying fist was quick, but Cellica is quicker.
She has been keeping an eye on the firing mechanism of the arm and moved out of the way before it was even fired. The wrist punched right through the bench, and leaves a hole in it.
Cellica's face is cold as an iceberg, and she reaches for something in her pocket.Zel was going for the kill, so now she must be prepared.
'What are you actually doing!' Rydel screamed at Zel as he never thought he would be this ruthless. Zel avoided eye contact and retracted the wrist.
'I don't have any time to waste. You know what this arm can do. Please move.' Zel asked in his usual politeness, even though it only came off as pretentious, 'You are a nice person, don't get hurt over this.'
'How about we just talk it through?' Rydel started walking towards him, 'I would pretend you didn't just try to kill my attractive friend here. Something is definitely going on here, and I want to help.'
Zel didn't reply. He mumbled something under his breath, and ran off the other way. For someone carrying a lot of gear, he sure moves fast.
'Stop!' Cellica pulled out a stun gun from her pocket and open fired. The bullet shot through the air, but disappeared into Zel's body upon impact. He didn't slow down for a single second.
'Jesus Christ, Cellica! Don't start shooting people all of a sudden!' Rydel shouted at her and hit a button on the sidewalk which turns on the walking path conveyor belts, 'and Zel, don't go punching through people too!'
Cellica gave him a look, and he shut his mouth.Zel is in quite a bit of a hurry that he didn't realize he is running against the belt, making him slower. The two hopped onto the right side of the walking path, and chased after him.