"Oww! I am so hungry..." Tina complained a few days after the events on the Cerberus spacestation, sitting inside the nearly empty mess hall of the Wings of Eos. "... Do we still have any Ghost-Waffles left?"
"No, we don't, after somebody raided the freezer and ate the last five last night." Sarah replied with a warm chuckle while gently stroking Tina's cherry blossom-colored hair.
Looking mortified, Tina looked at Tellius with puppy eyes. "Can't we, like, go and buy some?"
"That's not entirely up to me. You'll have to ask Sarah, too..." Tellius told the little girl before further confessing. "... Also, I wouldn't even know where to buy them. Does Community Traders still exist?"
"No, that one was merged with UFS, a subsidiary of Hera Inc., a few years ago..." Sarah told Tellius before pushing a bowl of warm, synthesized oatmeal in front of Tina. "... Here you go! It'll let you grow big and strong like Tellius."
"You're lying! Uncle Telli is only so big and strong because of the body frame he's using..." Tina pointed out the obvious. "... If I wanted to be an adult like you guys, I'd only need four to five million credits for a good body frame."
"And how do you want to earn so many credits without having grown big first?" Tellius pointed out, humored by the little girl's stubborn attitude.
Poking her oatmeal with a yucky expression on her face, Tina grumbled. "Through credit or if that also doesn't work, there's always money in hacking some smaller mining companies supplying Poseidon with minerals; their security is generally the worst!"
*Bonk!* Sarah gently hit Tina on the head with her digital notepad. "No hacking or stealing allowed, little miss! Now go and do your VR-lectures!"
"Ouch!..." Exclaimed Tina in surprise before rubbing her head exaggeratedly as she grumbled. "... A simple 'No' to Ghost-Waffles would have been enough... No need for violence!"
"Are you talking back to me?" Asked Sarah, her notepad raised.
"Nope!" Was all the little girl replied before running back to her room.
Humored by their forceful exchange between older and younger sister, Tellius could only chuckle, hearing their conversation unfold.
"What?" Asked Sarah, the taller cyborg with a raised eyebrow, daring him to challenge her words.
"Nothing..." Replied Tellius and shook his head before he pointed at the oatmeal. "... Really?"
"What? It's healthy, filling, and I hated it, too, as a child..." Sarah confessed, and both had to laugh before she stated dead serious. "... No, but seriously, WE need to talk about US!"
"Oho! Why do I have the feeling that I wouldn't like this talk about US?" Asked Tellius awkwardly.
"Because I can't live with this vagueness between us..." Confessed Sarah, unable to hide her dissatisfaction any longer. "... We're clearly more than just friends, but I don't think that you see us as a couple. So, what are we?"
"To tell you the truth, I honestly have no idea!..." Confessed Tellius in return, not wanting to hurt his best friend's—possibly lover's—feelings. "... It might have been twelve years for you, but to me, it feels like yesterday that we finished our basic training and then fought side by side on Thermopoly-6. I guess that I only need some time to sort out my feelings."
"Pfft... I guess that I have to give you that..." Agreed Sarah, deflated, but the glimmer of hope still burning fiercely inside her eyes. "... After all, I did have twelve years to sort out my feelings for you. So, I guess I can give you some time to figure things out."
"Thank you, I appreciate that..." Tellius told her, and they held each other's hands reassuringly in comfortable silence until he abruptly changed the subject. "... But we really should get that little girl some of those Ghost-Waffles instead of oatmeal!"
"Hahaha... I can agree to something other than oatmeal, but it shouldn't necessarily be Ghost-Waffles..." Sarah laughingly agreed. "... After all, did you check that stuff's ingredients? It's basically unhealthy heroin for kids."
"Yeah, that fits since it is manufactured by Hera Inc. itself instead of some subcontractor..." agreed Tellius, yet still hammered his point home. "... But still, with Tina on board, we'll need to stock up on some fresh fruits and vegetables. Contrary to us, who only need a deuterium fuel rod every ten years or so, she needs three meals a day."
"Damn! You sure we aren't a couple?..." Joked Sarah with a sly smirk. "... Because you sure sounded like a dad just now."
"Oh, really?..." Asked Tellius, touched, before he returned the compliment. "... Because you sure as hell sounded like a mother or at the very least a very caring older sister!"
"Oh, shut up!" Bashfully replied Sarah, since she hadn't had a conversation like this in the past 12 years.
Chuckling to himself, Tellius insisted. "Oh, yes, you did! This more maternal side of yours suits this new look of yours just perfectly."
"Oh, stop it, I am already blushing!" Sarah stated, slightly more flushed as she lightly caressed his breastplate with her fingertips.
"Okay!" Agreed Tellius with a sly smirk, which caused Sarah to panic.
"Oh, no, you don't..." Ordered Sarah, seriously not wanting their flirty banter to end.
Yet it was destined to end the next second as Tina returned. Rolling her eyes, she told them, in an adult-like tone of sarcasm, "Oh, please get a room, you two. But first, listen! Do you guys know a guy named Mr. Purple? Because he has hacked into the ship's systems and wants to talk to you!"
"Damned!..." Exclaimed Tellius, annoyed, giving voice to the emotions Sarah, too, was feeling. "... Let's hope that guy keeps his part of the agreement."
Shortly afterward, with Tina attending her virtual online courses, Sarah and Tellius stood on the bridge checking the cooling lightspeed drive before established a secure transmission on the bridge with Mr. Purple.
"You didn't permanently flatline Theodore Baldur!" Mr. Purple immediately accused them without any formality.
"Of course we didn't!..." Tellius confidently confirmed. "... I, for one, didn't even shoot the guy. I just cut his stack out from his frozen corpse."
"That wasn't the deal!" Mr. Purple insisted, his nerves getting thin.
"Of course it wasn't, because you dictated the terms and expected us to just accept them," Sarah argued angrily with the man's or AI's arrogance.
"We had an agreement and you didn't follow it!..." Mr. Purple insisted coldly. "... Now, I have to deal with the consequences of this. Which means that you'll have to live with the consequences of your actions."
"Oh, really?" Sarah questioned with a dangerous glint in her eyes, as if she was ready to commit murder.
"Now, now..." Tellius calmed Sarah before he questioned Mr. Purple's anger. "... Would you kindly tell me what difference it makes to you that we have Theodore's stack instead of outright flatlining him? Since he's being taken off the board in both cases!"
"What difference does it make?! What difference does it make?!..." Mr. Purple hissed angrily, as their actions had thrown a wrench into one of its ongoing and more important plans that they were supposed to know nothing about. "... The difference is that in one case his position is only suspended with his voting rights frozen, and in the other it would have been outright vacated and reassigned!"
"Oh, so you had planned to put one of your own in charge of that Cerberus spacestation!..." Tellius pointed out, his brain already beginning to unravel Mr. Purple's grand conspiracy. "... And if I had to guess, there surely is some kind of important vote taking place in the upcoming station master gathering where you needed Mr. Baldur's vote to sway it in your favor."
"Hm... I hate it when a hireling oversteps its boundaries..." Mr. Purple hissed venomously. "... But be that as it may, I'll temporarily suspend the update that I did to your star-map. This should give you enough time to finally assemble my representative so that I don't have to hack your ship's systems every time that I want to talk to you!"
That said, Mr. Purple cut the transmission, ending their call.
"Phew, I guess this could have gone worse..." Exclaimed Tellius as the call ended. "... At least I think that he'll be sticking to his part of the deal and shield us from Frank Baldur as agreed."
"I guess so, but I wouldn't want to test that protection too much..." Noted Sarah, her eyes going to the star-map that had been reverted back to its original bare state. "... So we should limit ourselves to only remote spacestations and moon bases for now."
"Can we go to Vega VI then?..." Tina suddenly asked, just in time to hear Sarah's statement. "... It's a moon base and has a Grim Souls Theme Park, which should also sell Ghost-Waffles!"
Grim Souls was a highly successful video series for all ages that focused on the adventures of the immortal Chosen One throughout the Shattered Realm. Even Sarah and Tellius had been fans since their childhood.
"What do you say? Shall we storm the Ringed City?" Tellius asked Sarah with a chuckle, quoting a very famous Grim Souls episode from their childhood.
"Vega VI, hm?..." Sarah asked, already calculating the hyperspace coordinates to the moon base on the star map. "... Why not? It's on the way to Johal VII and a rather remote settlement on one of the moons of Las IV."
"Yay!..." Tina exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down. "... That means we can make costumes for everyone!"
At the same time, even Sarah and Tellius couldn't hide their smiles, as there hadn't been a Grim Souls Theme Park in their own childhood.
"It's decided then, next stop Vega VI!" Tellius proclaimed just as Sarah had the Wings of Eos fly there at sub-lightspeed.
Having calculated their approximate arrival time, Sarah told Tina, "We should arrive at Vega VI by tomorrow morning. What was that about costumes?"
...
Six hours later, Tellius found himself sitting next to two crazed cosplayers talking about colors, fabrics, and textures.
Apparently, Sarah would be cosplaying as Rakshasa Loux, a sexy warrior princess from the Shattered Region known as the Wasteland. To that end, Sarah was currently printing half a dozen scarlet armor pieces and a giant great katana out on several of the large 3D printers.
Contrary to hers, Tina's costume on paper appeared much simpler as she had decided to cosplay as Dragon Princess Lansseax, the Chosen One's latest identity. Despite it being (to Tellius at least) just a simple white dress with some shiny armor pieces, it wasn't in the eyes of the two females.
Hence their current mad rambling about colors, fabrics, and textures.
Meanwhile, Tellius himself hadn't even agreed to cosplay, but it had already been somehow decided that he would be cosplaying as the Mysterious Midnight Blue Knight, the Chosen One's mentor and teacher.
Not that Tellius was actually complaining about the costume or the character, as it only took a few printed pieces, a helmet, and a bit of paint to make his Juggernaut X-86 Bodyframe look like the Blue Knight's armor.
Furthermore, as Sarah damn well knew, the Blue Knight was Tellius's favorite character of the series ever since the character cleaved a mountain in a single sword slash to prove to the Chosen One the power of swordsmanship and discipline.
No, what actually annoyed him was the fact that they had chosen more complex costumes with several interlocking armor pieces that needed to be smoothed, polished, and specially assembled.
Not by them, mind you, but Tellius, as they had argued that he would be already working on a few pieces for his own costume and might as well do them the favor of also doing their armor.
Meanwhile, as he worked on their armor pieces, they argued for hours about colors, fabrics, and textures for Tina's dress and the rags Sarah would wear beneath her armor, using several different drawings from the video series and other media like the VR games as references.
"Are you done with any part of my armor?" Sarah eventually asked him as the girls had finally settled on the fabric for Tina's dress while wearing only small strips of brown fabric covering her breasts and buttocks.
"Yes, I'm finished with the chest plate..." replied Tellius as he handed her the scarlet midsection of her fake armor with the basic shape of a bathing suit but made out of interlocking plates. "... The armored skirt, sleeves, and gauntlets still need to be primed and assembled."
"Oh, wow, thank you! This looks great!" Sarah squealed happily, gave him a quick hug, and then swiftly put on the armor cleverly fastened to her body by straps and strategically placed magnets.
Giving it a quick twirl during which she changed her blonde hair to a Rakshasa red, she asked him, "Now? How do I look?"
With her hair color pretty close to the old flat-chested Sarah's strawberry red hair color, Tellius was momentarily left speechless as his head spun.
'Did I already have feelings for her back then?' He asked himself, suddenly unsure, as in his memory, he had always seen her as his best friend who just happened to be a girl... a woman.
Shaking his head to get rid of the confusion that was momentarily haunting him, he replied. "You look great. It's just the primer fumes are causing me a headache."
"Oh, thank you!" Sarah huffed, stroking her long red hair behind her right ear, happy to receive a compliment on her appearance.
"Hey, what about me?..." Promptly came Tina's complaint as she jumped in front of Sarah, proudly showing off her white dress and fake ivory crown-like horns while posing in Lansseax's signature pose. "... How do I look? Fierce, don't you think?"
"Yes, very fierce, but doesn't Princess Lansseax always have her mighty Devil-Smasher with her?" Asked Tellius, the little girl thoughtfully, having already made a nearly perfect replica of the Chosen One's signature weapon.
Truth be told, the Chosen One's identity had always been a bit confusing throughout the series as he or she regularly died only to then respawn at the closest Statue of Marika with a new identity.
"Oh, no, I totally forgot!" Exclaimed Tina, frightened as her costume wouldn't be complete without Princess Lansseax's Warhammer.
"HAHAHAHA!" Laughed Sarah and Tellius together, humored by Tina's exaggerated panic.
Eventually, however, Tellius showed her the fake warhammer that he had made for her.
"Oh, wow! Is that for me?" Asked Tina in disbelief since Tellius had crafted it especially for her.
"Who else? Me or Sarah? I don't think it would fit our costumes," replied Tellius with a chuckle as he patted the little girl's head.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Tina exclaimed, tears of joy streaking down her tiny, doll-like face as she happily grabbed the warhammer.
Instantly, it became her precious treasure, not only because had it been made for her but also because it was the first present she had ever received from anyone other than her mother.
Still patting Tina's head, Tellius chuckled his dissatisfaction forgotten. "Your welcome little one."