"Sir, a star is heading towards the atmosphere. For it's size, it has unprecedented temperature and speed." A young man said into his headset. Quickly reaching over to a long panel of switches and buttons, the screens in front of him glowed blue and red as it worked to measure the estimated time of landing.
"Arrival time is 3 hours, 24 minutes, and 27 seconds." He quickly relayed.
"Thank you, Matthew." A deep but smooth voice replied. "Can you connect me over to Nigel?"
The man in front of the screens, Matthew, nodded despite knowing the other couldn't see him. "Connecting now, sir."
"Thank you again. You can collect a bonus upon your next payday."
The man received no reply, for the call had already been transferred.
« Quoi? » (what?) the new voice impatiently asked.
« Tu es mèchent ajourd'hui, Nigel » (You're mean today, Nigel) the smooth voice chuckled.
"S-sir! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you had been transferred over. I thought it was Matthew asking for more vacation days again…" The voice quickly switched over to English, a language they were both most comfortable in. While half of their operations may be conducted in French, that doesn't mean they don't prefer to use English.
"That's alright, Nigel. We've got far more important things on our plates right now." The voice replied.
"You mean the star? Yeah, that can create a real big disaster if nobody does anything about it." Nigel thought for a moment, "I wonder who will act first. If they're able to catch this star, then it will bring them unimaginable wealth. But if they fail… well, we all know what the repercussions of capturing the wrong star looks like. If I had any guess, no-one will do anything."
The voice chucked in agreement, "if Rucklyn is any evidence, then you're right. That's why I was thinking…"
He didn't have to finish for Nigel to know what this crazy guy wanted him to agree to.
He sucked in a mouthful of cool, hesitant air. "We could die."
"Mn, you're right. We could die." The voice answered, "but we can't expect riches if we won't take chances. And chances like this don't come everyday."
"You're right, sir. I'll have Matthew send a message of notice to « La Lettre » (The Letter).
"Perfect."
The line quickly went dead.
- - - - -
"9 minutes, 37 seconds until landing." Matthew relayed.
No response.
"Sir? Is everything okay?"
"…"
"Sir?"
- - - - -
Meanwhile, "sir" was arguing with a little girl on the side of the road.
"You tried to steal my candy!" The girl screamed accusations at him, catching the attention of everybody within range.
"What? Why would I do that? I have no motive to take candy from a child." A tall, slim man in all black bullet-proof athletic equipment said, his voice one octive higher that normal out of both frustration and confusion.
"Motive? Anybody would have a motive! It's candy! Who wouldn't do anything to get they're hands on candy when they really want some. Mister, if you want to prove your innocence, you're going to need to try harder. I worked very hard to get this candy and will never give it up!" The little girl's face was round and grubby. Her simple white dress was caked in dirt and she was completely barefoot on the hard gravel road. Her long silver locks looked like spun sugar— meaning, it was in complete tangles.
Long story short, the little girl looked like a complete mess.
"Kid, I have enough money to buy that whole candy store. I don't have to steal from a child if I want candy," the man's voice had now returned to normal, silently chiding himself for wasting his time arguing with a kid. Maybe she would leave if he gave her some money. Quickly reaching into his pocket, he fished out a five dollar bill. "Here, even though I didn't do anything, I will give you this. Deal?"
The girl stared at him for a little while as if her head was swimming with calculations, her eyes shimmering with a michevious light. After 10 awkward seconds of this, the little girl shook her head. "I don't want your money. As long as you have learned that stealing is wrong, then you can leave." The young girl shooed him away with a flick of her hand.
The man stood frozen in disbelief for a moment. 'What is happening to me right now?' He thought to himself before his head whipped around to the sound of yet again, yelling.
"Alice! What do you think you're doing?!" A boy, barely 20 at a glance, ran up to the girl that stood in front of him. "Why did you run away like that?! Are you crazy??" He said, out of breath.
The man heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, he could leave now. "A-Alex?" The girl stuttered out, "how did you find me?"
"It doesn't matter. Come with me," he said as he grabbed her by her collar, "now!" The boy began to drag her away and the tiny victim worked her hardest to hold back tears as he smacked the lollipop out of her hands in the process with a barely suppressed sneer.
The man quickly took in the whole picture.
This girl was in danger.
- - - - -
4 minutes later, a young girl sat on the back of a tall black-haired man as he ran like crazy towards a large grey-blue tent in the distance. He hastily pulled on his headset, "Matthew, how long do we have until the star's arrival?"
"Sir! We have 2 minutes and 17 seconds until arrival. Where have you been?" Matthew prattled endlessly into the device, "what were you doing? I couldn't reach you at all! Is everything okay?"
"…Sir?"
"…"
Matthew sat back down with a thundering sigh, "I'll make sure they give me extra vacation days on top of that bonus. I'll threaten to quit if they refuse! Ha!"
He giggled as he pictured the look on Nigel's face as he handed in his resignation letter, the way Nigel would collapse to the floor, choking on sobs of pleas. But Nigel wouldn't turn around. No, he would walk to the doors of the base and stare into the sunset, leaving his final words: "You never appreciate what you have until it's gone. Too bad you couldn't realize how valuable I was until now. Goodbye… forever, Nigel."
He swiveled back and forth in his chair with glee, cackling at the story playing vividly in his head.
"How about a vacation to the North Pole?" A voice said over the headset.
"N- Nigel?" Matthew stuttered in fear.
"Nope— Santa Clause! Close guess. Anyways, I've got an elf opening over here. Would you be interested? The job includes tying ribbons, cutting carrots, and shoveling reindeer manure for each 17-hour shift and the pay starts at 4 dollars 30 cents an hour. What do you think? Quite a steal if you ask me. The opportunity of a life time!" Nigel chuckled in anger.
"N-no thank you. I think I'll stick with this job…" Matthew replied, lowering his head.
"Yeah. Santa thought so, too. He told me to let you know that the North Pole will welcome you with open arms when you're ready to transfer again!"
"Y-yes. Th-thank you for the offer."
"Of course!"
Matthew felt like he was going to cry as he turned to face the screens as they bathed the room in red flashing lights.
Wait…
9 seconds
8 seconds
7 seconds
The screens suddenly stopped flashing, turning into a calm blue.
"What in the world…?"
- - - - -
"Target approaching! Ready the stabilizers!" A young man yelled as he ran across the lush green grass, a small child clinging to his back. "Prepare for impact!"
"Sir, yes sir!" Replied a cacophony of voices.
Opening his arms wide, a blue pulse of energy flew from his palms and towards the golden heat above their heads. The glob of misshapen energy sped towards the falling star and wrapped around it, basking their vision in azure.
The star did not slow, but it did allow for them to lay their naked eyes upon the structure, which was the whole point of his actions.
Powers were new to the world, and out of the few people that had them, even fewer knew how to make good use of them. Flinging such a large haphazard ball of energy was actually considered quite skilled.
The young girl on his back watched with mild amazement. 'For a level 3 world, this guy has a massive mana pool. He doesn't look drained in the least despite lobbing such a huge chunk of reserves. Either he has never used mana before, or his regeneration speed is crazy fast.'
She looked up at the blue haze in the sky to see what everybody was freaking out about.
'Woopsie. Looks like I forgot to tell my babies to arrive quietly.' As soon as she remembered that, the light appeared to zoom forward as if they could hear her thoughts.
The young girl quietly watched, slowly raising her hand and letting out a snap of her fingers, emitting out a pitch far too high for any of the nearby humans to hear. A quiet pulse of energy rippled from her clasped hand and shot towards her target.
Suddenly, the sky returned to normal.
"What…?" The man she had her arms wrapped around muttered in wonder. "Where did the star go?"
The little girl just innocently giggled and snuggled her head into the crook of his neck. Upon noticing her movements, the elder moved her to his chest so he could properly wrap his arms around her. "Sleep if you're tired. You don't need to worry about anything anymore, I will take care of you. You will never have to worry for your safety again now that I'm here."
The girl froze slightly before melting in his embrace. A strange warmth flooded her body and her eyes began to close despite her internal protest.
'Stupid human bodies…' she thought before sinking into the inviting depths.