Juxtae seemed to be getting somewhat excited as she spoke, and she even started leaning forward, getting closer to Relovan. The Enforcer however appeared unfazed by her excitement, and just waited for the Void Lord to finish speaking before leaning back in his seat. He took a deep breath, which caused him to grimace a touch and tuck his left arm in further.
"Void Lord… you say all this; however, I find it all difficult to believe. What I can believe is that I have no hidden or latent Essence powers – I have skill and ability gained through training and experience, that is all.
"Is that so?"
"It is." Relovan stubbornly insisted. "My abilities come from hard work and untold amounts of broken bones and gallons of shed blood. There's nothing more to it."
"Then how do you explain the state of your weapon, Enforcer?"
"I can't. There could be any number of reasons as to why it ended up like that. Anyway, if that is all, I shall take my leave." Relovan announced as he stood up a little bit too quickly.
That was a bad idea though, as his entire body was immediately wracked with debilitating pain. The pain was radiating from his chest and left arm, but somehow, he felt it across his entire body. Relovan's knees buckled as he tried to remain standing, however the pain was such that it took all of Relovan's focus not to drop down. Moments after he managed to stay on his feet, Relovan felt two hands gently cup his cheeks and then he was made to look up. As he did so, all he saw was blue, heard something that sounded like words, however before he knew what was happening, everything went black.
Relovan eventually found himself waking up after an untold amount of time. His eyes shot open, and after taking a second or two to adjust, started darting around, trying to take in his surroundings. He quickly found that he was not only in his own apartment, but even in his bed. He sat up with almost entirely too much speed, however much to his surprise, Relovan neither felt dizzy nor fatigued. The blanket that slid off of his body revealed both his state of undress, and bandages that had not been there when he was last awake. They were wrapped around his torso and left arm, and there was an oddly sweet smell that wafted up from the bandages.
'What the….?' Relovan thought to himself as he examined his physical state.
He jumped out of bed and began going through a series of stretches to test for stiffness and pain. After confirming a distinct lack of pain coming from his body during the light exercises, Relovan suddenly spread his legs and bent his knees slightly, before assuming a fighting stance. He started throwing a series of left jabs as he continued with the test and soon enough, was shadow boxing right there in his bedroom. He was predominantly using his left arm, throwing jabs, left hooks, and by the time he actually stopped, Relovan had worked up the lightest of sweats, and held the pose for a bit, before letting out a deep breath and standing up straight.
"No pain." He mumbled as he looked at his arm again.
He turned around and something on his bedside table caught his attention. It was an unfamiliar object and as he approached the table, he recognised it. It was a Holocron, and had a gentle blue light that pulsed every few seconds. Once he was a certain distance from the table, the light glowed rather brightly, and after beeping a few times, a life-sized holographic image of Juxtae appeared in front of Relovan.
"Enforcer Relovan, if the Holocron has been activated, that means you are conscious. First, allow me to apologise for having DeeDee enter your apartment without your consent – I would have preferred to have you recover inside Nala, however with the current state of things, it would have been risky to keep you onboard for much longer. We were not quite able to confirm just how much we were able to help you recover, so please take it easy until you have had a physical checkup. We also weren't able to discuss even half of the things I had hoped to talk to you about, however I believe the opportunity to see each other again will arise. We can continue our discussion then. Farewell, Enforcer."
The Holocron beeped a few times once more, before the image of Juxtae disappeared. Relovan stood in silence as he looked at the now deactivated Holocron.
"…she practically said nothing after speaking so much." Relovan scoffed as he walked out of his bedroom.
He stopped in his tracks and stared at the gym equipment that was assembled in the small lounge. The gaze frequently switched between the gym and his torso as if the Enforcer was agonizing over whether or not to work out. The agonizing was rather short lived though, as minutes later, Relovan was kitted out in his training gear. It was of a high quality, yet well worn, hinting at frequent and intensive use. Unlike the DeeDee twins, Relovan easily used the equipment as he eased into it.
"Keep it simple." He said to himself. "Take it easy."
Those words may as well have been spoken in an ancient language that Relovan couldn't understand as he was soon pushing himself to the point where his clothes were drenched, and there were multiple puddles of sweat on the floor. The Enforcer had no idea just how long he had been working out; however, he was forcibly pulled from the training session as his Communicator started vibrating.
"PICK UP THE PHONE! I AM CALLING!!" The phone boomed in Chief Nura's voice, prompting Relovan to shudder a bit.
"What the fuck?!" Relovan boomed as his phone continued to ring in that fashion.
After a brief search, and confirmation that it really was the Chief calling, Relovan answered the phone so emphatically, he almost cracked the small screen on the outside of the phone. Instead of saying anything though, Relovan just breathed heavily into the phone.
"Lawman!" Nura said in cheerful sounding voice. "You finally answered! Where you asleep or something?"
"I was… out. More importantly, when did you change my ringtone… Sir?"
"Oh, I made that a custom alert for when I call you! I recorded it while you were 'out'. Cool, huh?"
"…why is it so loud, Sir?"
"So you can hear it." The Chief responded matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I didn't call to discuss the tone – I'll be coming over to your apartment to see you later! I'll bring food! Until then!"
"Wait, Chief."
The call was ended before Relovan could say much else, and he just stood with the Cosmo pressed against his ear, looking equal parts annoyed and dumbfounded. The workout was well and truly over, and Relovan began to clean up a bit and wiped down his gym equipment as well as the floor. Just as he finished doing that, Relovan felt slight vibrations through the floor, causing him to look at the front door with a suspicious look on his face.
"No… it can't be. He just called saying he'd be here later."
The vibrations became more and more pronounced until there was a knock on the door.
"Lawman, open up." Nura said in his resounding voice.
The knock sounded like somebody was trying to destroy the door with a battering ram, and when Relovan opened the door, he saw the Chief standing somewhat hunched over with his hand raised. It appeared as though he had been knocking with his forefinger, and there was even a slight indentation on the door.
"Whoa, look at you." Nura remarked as he squeezed his way into the small apartment without waiting to be invited. He actually had to turn his body sideways to fit through the comparatively tiny doorway, and after Relovan actually moved to accommodate the Adonian, Nura successfully managed to enter. He stood at the door and just analysed Relovan's studio apartment. Without saying anything, he walked to the island in the kitchen area and set the food parcels down.
"Nice place." Nura said as he turned to face Relovan.
"…Chief, just how long has it been since you called me?"
"About twenty Earth minutes." Nura said as he walked into the lounge and looked at the gym equipment. "Judging by how these are still slightly warm, and you're still drenched, I'd say you were working out until recently. Was that really a good idea, Lawman?"
"It would have been a terrible idea if I hadn't received treatment, Chief. Anyway, where exactly were you when you called?"