“Even people like me get tired, and sometimes after a long hard day of keeping this world running, even I want to jab back and let myself refrigerate,” placidly recounts a senile bald man dressed in a formal full suit with a black blazer, white buttoned shirt, and purple tie.

Despite his age he still carries a youthful charisma, regardless of the wrinkles embedded on his forehead and his pale face with the only hair on his head being a thick beard–a mustache and goatee. His appearance is vivid and its definition is that of near perfect existence, his smile wide as he stands against a sky blue backdrop glittered with distant fluffy white clouds.

He then brings his right arm up over his shoulder to reveal that in his hand is a sleek hourglass shaped transparent cup containing a dark brown syrupy liquid with visible bubbles constantly generated before rising to the surface before popping. On the cup itself, wrapped around the center right above where the hands are curled around, features text in a stylized white font reading: ‘Metha Mug.’

“And what better way is there to do that than with a frosty glass of Metha Mug, a perfect chemical concoction of spirit, flavor, and most important: love! Metha Mug is Earth 3’s favorite sponsored beverage, loved from the very bottom of our world’s janitors and different people to the very top of our governors and officers! Whether you’re trying to reach the end of that document, tired from your five to nine, or just want to relax with your friends, there’s no better companion than Metha Mug!” followingly advertises the suited man.

He then, wielding the bottle in hand, brings its aperture to his lips, tilts the bottle dramatically, and takes a sip from the bottle, gulping once as proof of consumption with exaggeration.

After the sip he brings the bottle off his face and back down although still to his shoulder length, still smiling while he credits enthusiastically, “I am President Richard Gray, and I approve this message!”

While standing over the sky blue backdrop, the man maintains his wide smile, holding the bottle up into view, and standing still for several seconds. He remains in place perfectly until a sudden interruption in the form of a rapid stream of beeps coming from his left wrist, yet for several more seconds he does not react, as though pretending that he could not hear the sound. Over the course of the prolonged beeping, his expression devolves from one of sparkling support to agitated aggravation, his eyebrows and wrinkles scrunching as he glares straight forwards and growls through gritted teeth.

Ultimately he surrenders, swiftly raising his left arm up to reveal what resembles a watch strapped over his wrist with a leather band,and tapping the watch’s face with his right knuckles to which a green holographic icon representative of a human head whose mouth is opened with three projective arches with the farthest the largest in front of his mouth similar to a speaker icon.

Attempting to recuperate, the man known as Richard makes an innocent smile, recovering his charismatic expression and facing forward while peacefully inquiring, “Who may this be?”

Speaking out loud through the watch’s face is the voice of a man seemingly in his young adult years with an informal and impatient tone, imploring insistently: “Yo Mr. Gray, where are you? You were yelling at me for being late but I don’t see you anywhere in the la-,”

“I understand my assistant, I am just wrapping up an advertisement now, I will be with you shortly!” interjects Richard, still carrying the peaceful tone with a smile although it’s noticeably tighter as more wrinkles are visible on his cheeks.

In response, the voice through the watch argues, “What, you said you had nothing today! We need to finish the ba-,”

“Of course, of course, my ten o’ clock, I haven’t forgotten! Wait just a second and I will be with you shortly!” once again interrupts Richard, his smile tighter and his voice noticeably straining as though holding back deep seeded aggression.

He then turns his head, still facing in the general forward direction, before inquiring, “We’re done now, right? I think that’s everything, you turned off the broadcast I presume?”

“Yo stop ignoring me-,” boldly retaliates the voice from the watch disapprovingly while distant whispers are muttered in front of the man.

Suddenly the man’s expression plummets to one of terror with a hanging jaw, and he angrily bellows, “It’s still on?! What are you thinking?? End it now, we’re already done! You damn unpaid intern-,” before his entire body including the bottle immediately vanishes for the body was in truth a holographic projection.

In the distance of the sky blue backdrop races down a black dot at a steep angle, soaring through the background, miniscule due to both distance and size as it zooms into the dense white clouds with a quiet whoosh.

Penetrating through the thick white clouds, the black dot closer up is revealed to be the sleek matte black pod, its engine roaring as it enters the atmosphere, its exterior body concealing any features and inhabitants.

Its black body is contrasted with the pure white surroundings it’s consumed by, darkness in the light, alone in the white abyss.

Through the inside, the windshield displays the various gauges and widgets on the edges, and covering the majority of the interface is the white entrance, individual fluffy strands collaged together to form monumental airy structures.

It doesn’t take another second however for the vehicle to reach the end of the entrance, and upon bursting out through the other side it’s faced with a more dynamic scene, for although there were still clouds below as it appeared, sitting on many platforms–with dense white mists emitting off which exceptionally resemble clouds–are expansive islands of tall buildings shaped like skyscrapers, all bright gold shining from daylight.

The islands diversified in size and such size dictated the scale of the buildings housed, for smaller islands feature short complexes and parks while much greater ones sport arrays of golden towers that of an urban center. Some islands are closer together, and some even have visible cloudy bridges connecting them, although the islands are not on the same altitude rather similar to the old cave’s fortress the platforms are spread horizontally and vertically. Differing from the fortress however is the scale of the platforms, for they are to a magnitude that would not even fit underground, but rather require the full range of freedom that the heavenly skies provide perfectly. All of the buildings also had the distinct golden body, presenting the city in a unified and ethereal design.

Above and between the islands are vast rivers of traffic as well and from various urban centers and smaller sectors, for the world appears busy and highly populated with great quantities of residents constantly on the move.

“Huh, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m pleasantly surprised by how peaceful this world looks,” remarks the familiar mature female voice behind the interface.

Behind the windshield, inside the pod, delightfully smiles Dana with sparkling light green eyes who’s seated in the front passenger seat next to the pale driver who maintains a stoic and concentrated expression through sharp blue eyes, Meditat. Behind both of their individual black seats is the back bench holding the shimmeringly eyed passenger who leans forward with strands of her vibrant pink hair draping down the sides of her head, Kokei– who gently murmurs, “Woah–” and next to her pridefully smirks the senile bald man with his arms crossed over his chest, his yellow eyes staring into the back of the driver’s seat as he, Ekitai, smugly asserts, “Well, what can I say, I’m a connoisseur of travel, I’m a master of the cosmos, I’m a -.”

“Tourist,” completes the driver in a murmur, silencing the gloating while he’s the only to remain unemotionally affected, for instead his keen gaze remains straight forward without letting it daze off at the various islands straying from their path.

He then returns the group to focus by imploring, “First order of business is to seek a temporary residency, it would be best to minimize local interaction to avoid any altercations that’d jeopardize the stability of this refuge.”

Raising his finger still with the conceited smile, Ekitai translates loftly, “What he means is that we need to find ourselves a place to crash!”

Ignoring the redundant relay, Dana instead faces Meditat with a proud smile before nodding her head and revealing cheerfully, “Actually, while you were driving us here I managed to book us a SpaceFnF, it’s in a peaceful townhouse neighborhood and has multiple floors! It was a bit on the expensive side but it’s nothing I couldn’t pay for!”

First and foremost, Meditat while keeping his gaze ahead interrogated sternly, “You did use an Arrow Account, right? Our expenses can function as trackers, thus regardless of how far we go we’ll always be compromised.”

“Yes yes, come on Medit I’m not that clumsy, but anyways this is a good thing! We have a place to stay already, now we just need to drive there. Here, I’ll upload the directions now!” gleefully offers Dana with a bright face, and her eyes then flicker gold as indication of her processing.

After only a second since the flicker, Meditat nods his head and receives, “I have it, this won’t take too long.”

Behind him, Kokei leans back against the back support of the bench before then inquiring exhaustedly, “Are there going to be beds this time? I’m sorry but I don’t really want to sleep in here again, why couldn’t we also have an RV?”

Ekitai stretches his arms with a smile before recalling with a nostalgic tone, “You know, during my real adventures I’d sometimes have to sleep on a bed of leaves, or if there wasn’t any I’d have to sleep on a bed of grass, so this is luxury enough! Besides, an RV is way too big, I mean how would Meditat dogfight in that?”

To counter back against his own support, Meditat opens his mouth to argue back, yet while his expression is that of speech not a word is released. Instead, his jaw remains dropped but with no voice passing through, for it seems a specificity had paused him in meditation.

He then closes his mouth and tilts his head to the side curiously with the wrinkle of his eyebrows, reflecting on Ekitai’s reasoning which he had intended to correct, for at least the first half was odd, yet the essential component of the argument was one he found difficult to argue against, for oddly enough it was the explanation for why his pod was the way fit was, a design that had already proved necessary through the adventures they’ve already trekked through.

Instead of stepping into an argument that he had no need to place his own presence into, he chooses to focus back on his own task, allowing the two others to hash out the grievances shared over their undesirable situation.

Zooming amongst the clouds, the black pod races down, passing by the higher islands and soaring through lanes of traffic. Its engine’s roar quiets down the further it moves away until once again becoming a mere dot traversing the faraway islands below the cities.

Deeper down yet so far above the surface, the black pod races towards a set of islands not too far below it petite compared to the urban centers for instead they were the size of mere neighborhoods, and from high up it appears the islands are covered in dense golden forests from the clustering of the buildings as well as their general shapes.

The pod decelerates and inclines gradually, slowing down well below a hundred miles per hour and gliding above one of the neighborhood islands although still angled downwards. It reaches closer to the surface, close enough to expose the streets of sparse pods driving between the clean array of buildings which from closer up resemble trees even more with visible cylindrical curved stems that reach up to a wide body about two stories tall with a vaguely circular shape although with curved edges that form distinct conal tips sprouting out like hairs on a head. There even appear to be pods driving out through the stems from what appear to be tall arched openings like garage doors, allowing them to take turns over the white glossy surface of the island to make their way down the streets as the array noticeably has a few openings to create lanes in between the buildings, providing streets for maneuverability.

After cautiously angling flat and slowing down to an appropriate velocity that wouldn’t cause a lethal hazard in the tight community, the matte black pod finally flattens only about a foot off the white surface, moving at a much slower speed of about thirty miles per hour, driving down the white road between the tree buildings which have noticeable darker gold swirling rods from each of the conal tips which wraps to the front center of the building.

The odd design has an ethereal aesthetic, no clear meaning behind the shapes somewhat similar to candy canes, yet their inclusion brings an otherworldly demeanor to the world.

Inside the pod coasting down the street, Meditat gazes at the various tree houses, glancing at each of them in anticipation. He hums nearly silently to himself, driving down the otherwise vacant road between the houses all sitting next to each other in close proximity, each of them more narrow than the typical suburban house thus allowing many of them to be placed together in tight spaces.

He then glances at one of the houses to his right which noticeably is illuminated in green through the windshield’s interface, highlighting it which makes it stand out compared to the rest. At the same time on the upper corner of the windshield a green rectangular box pops up with the icon of a large X, and beside it is the text ‘DESTINATION REACHED.’

From outside, the pod begins to turn towards the house on the right, although from outside it isn’t gleaming green. Regardless, the pod makes its way off the road and to its destination, approaching the darker gold arched door wide enough for the pod to enter through although currently closed off thus restricting entry.

Due to the inability to enter, the pod ultimately comes to a calm halt in front of the garage door, its engine humming gently as it seems they’ve reached their destination yet aren’t able to step inside it.

Inside the pod, the driver casts a concerned glance at the front passenger before analyzing, “I take it that the SpaceFnF app has a key, can you share it with me?”

Realizing that they’ve reached their destination, the front passenger abruptly nods her head twice and her eyes morph gold while she frantically scrumages, “Oh sorry, yes yes I can do that, actually let me do just that ahah good call I should probably have already done that! Okay and…there we go, it’s all yours. Well mine too but you know what I mean.”

A soft judgemental sigh releases after watching the panic, and the driver shakes his head before facing it towards the door.

He lightly taps his thigh with his right hand while making the mental command.

Through the windshield the arched door suddenly dematerializes, vanishing into a nanite cloud which then dissipates to reveal a wide white garage well lit.

Facing forward, Meditat drives the pod through the previously blocked aperture, entering the garage at a snail’s pace inside the commodious space pristinely clean, lacking in any noticeable furniture or even specs of dirt, for it’s pure whiteness gives the appearance of a void consuming the black pod.

After positioning the pod directly in the center of the garage, it comes to a complete stop, and then gently is lowered onto the white surface.

At last the engine’s hum is entirely silenced, for the pod comes to its rest. Together all four doors dematerialize from the sides of the pod, both front and back doors, exposing openings for each of the occupants inside.

First to make a move is Ekitai who flings himself out of the pod and stretches his arms up, yawning exaggeratedly while Kokei climbs out from the other side along with Dana, both glancing around the seemingly blank garage. Last is Meditat who steps outside, and as the final to do he allows all four apertures to be covered again, enclosing their personal vehicle.

Everyone outside and on their feet, Meditat glances back at Dana, and then straight up at the white ceiling, for at first they appear simply stuck inside as the garage door behind them materializes shut to fully box them in.

Eyeing the white ceiling, Meditat squints keenly while the three passengers simply glance around in perplexion, their gaze aimlessly wandering the blank space. As they do, Meditat waves his hand curiously.

Suddenly the entire ceiling dematerializes to reveal another white ceiling higher above them, catching the attention of the other three as Kokei gasps from the unexpected action. All of them now face the higher ceiling together, initially out of reach.

That is when all four of them begin to ascend, to which Kokei immediately glances down to find a circular chunk of the floor to remain under her as a discrete elevator pad, helping her rise as the other three also had their own pads sized personally to each of them. They all rise all the way past the old ceiling, finding themselves in a whole other room right before the ceiling below them rematerializes to reveal a floor that embeds itself with the elevation platforms into a flat surface which immediately stops.

Now on the next floor, Dana begins glancing around with intrigue to find that on on four corners of the circular floor positioned in such way that they’re ends of intersections are wide pillar-like spaces but with open doorways to reveal rooms inside, for two of them appear to be restrooms given the large hovering bowl across from the sink table, and the other two have racks as they appear to be storage showcase spaces.

Among the half walls creating a circle around the origin of the floor are four more openings that lead into each of the distinct rooms, as through one doorway there appears to be white cabinets along the curve with a black top in the design resembling a kitchen next to another room which has a circular hovering table surrounded by four chairs all under a chandelier, appearing to be the dining room.

On the other side of the floor, the two rooms are more similar as both of them have carpeted floors and house leather sofas surrounding coffee tables, functioning as the living room and lounge spaces. One of the rooms however is more distinct in that there are more tables higher up as well as more chairs, appearing more as a public office space but still casual enough that it seamlessly integrates with the living room.

Each of the rooms are mostly visible as the barrier only reaches their waist, and on the top of the barriers themselves is a flat surface that holds vases that contain a diverse selection of vivid flowers which provide a sense of purity. The rooms are also all entirely spotless and have an elegant design, as while they are not as sophisticated technologically as the mansion’s components they are still impressive especially compared to the nightmare they had been chased in until crawling to this very moment.

While the walls are white, most of the barriers separating the rooms from outside are transparent windows, feeding natural cyan light into the room and providing a beautiful view of not only the rest of the forest neighborhood but also the islands higher above. Long windows breach light above the kitchen countertops, wide arches in front of the dining room, and the entire wall around the living room is fully transparent. The study appears to be the least lit up in order to control light, however there are still sources by the edges, for there is no shortage of natural lighting on the base floor. Helped by the majorly open design of the floor with low walls to allow natural flows from room to room, the light was free to roam the same with the residents, embracing them with the warmth and light of natural hospitality.

While Kokei also gazes around the main floor of their new temporary abode, astonished by the remarkable quality after all she’s suffered through, Ekitai’s first action is to walk straight through the opening into the living room before plopping down on one of the sofas and releasing a hefty earth shattering burp.

Concurrently Meditat glances up at the next ceiling and then around the floor, marking each of the various rooms visible from the center while Kokei steps into the dining room for further investigation. He then turns to face Dana and slightly tilts his head before inquiring apprehensively, “Where are you all going to sleep?”

Upon hearing the question, Dana immediately glances back at Meditat with a charming smile before first correcting, “‘We,’ ‘where are WE going to sleep.’ Anyways, the four rooms are on the upper floor, there’s two in total. I think those rooms should have desks of their own which is good, me and Kokei should probably try catching up on work.”

Meditat turns away and nods his head in agreement before reasoning meticulously, “Good thinking, a prolonged absence may create the necessary abnormalities that can have use traced, thus it is best that we remain under the appearance of normality. It is paramount that both you and Kokei hold the impression of still being on Earth 50, you especially as the news of the X-Prints CEO being on another Earth may as well be bait. For the duration of our stay you both should try holding hours as normal as possible too. Good thinking, Dana.”

He then faces back at Dana, seemingly proud of her thinking as his own extension was thought to be exactly her own thoughts simply relayed to prove understanding.

Instead, Dana simply stares at Meditat with a slouched back and blank face, speechless from the vast complication of her simple idea, especially that it was then implied that that was her own implication from the start. Her jaw hangs open and her arms drape down, and she slowly nods her head and hesitantly murmurs, “Yeah…exactly what I was thinking….”

Still blissful to the truth about his comrade’s simpler intentions, Meditat nods his head and faces one of the bathroom doors and comments, “Anyways, I need to go, you all can check the rooms for yourselves and we can then devise a plan for the day,” before then strolling in through the bathroom, to which a white door materializes over the opening and seals him inside.

Last to remain in the central circle, Dana straightens her back and glances to find herself approached by Kokei, who waves to her subtly before curiously wondering, “Can we check out the rooms?”

Upon receiving the question, Dana nods her head with a soft smile. She then faces through the wall into the living room where Ekitai is now seen laying on one of the couches as though it was a bed, and he faces straight up with a restful expression.

Dana waves her hand towards him before inviting, “Hey Ekitai, we’re checking the bedrooms, want to come?”

In the living room, Ekitai doesn't move a muscle, for he remains lying on the couch. What he does however give a verbal response in a lazy tone, that being: “I’m good, I’ll check later.”

Next to Dana, Kokei puts her hand over her mouth, and in an even higher pitched voice greater than her own normal, as well as in an exaggeratedly maternal tone as if speaking to a young child, she prods: “Aww, is wittle Eki too tired to keep adventuring? Doesn’t he want to sleep on a bigger bed after all that hard exercise for his shrimpy body?”

“Even if you’re standing and I’m sitting I could still kick your face,” retorts Ekitai in a smug tone.

A flash of pink arcs sparks out of Kokei’s body as she aggressively bellows, “HEY, I’M NOT THAT SHORT!!”

Dana sighs softly and puts his hand on Kokei’s shoulder, to which she glances back up at Dana, and in that silent moment their conversation concludes with Kokei frowning in acknowledgement and nodding her head.

Dana smiles softly, and she puts her hand to her side. She then raises her head to face the ceiling.

Right as Ekitai leans up from the sofa, both Dana and Kokei rise up each on their own elevator platforms, ascending towards the newly opened aperture in the ceiling to bring them onto the next floor. As they do, Ekitai collapses back on the sofa, not having the strength to continue such a grueling task as sitting.

A soft grunt emits from his mouth from the exhaustion of their adventure concurrently with the familiar sizzling hiss emitting from the closed bathroom door.

Continuing to rise on their own platforms, both Dana and Kokei ascend past the next ceiling, reaching the next and final floor before their platforms integrate into the reappearing floor and concluding their ascendance. They glance around to find themselves in a well lit yet smaller room, spaced similarly to the circle in between the four rooms downstairs, although this time there was no view of any other rooms from the center.

Instead, along the circular wall from the floor to the ceiling which surrounds them are four doorways placed similarly to the openings into the rooms downstairs, each leading into similarly designed rooms from the narrow view outside.

Understanding that all four bedrooms were likely similar, Dana and Kokei both walk into the first they can find right in front of them, stepping in through the doorway and finding themselves in a room with a long fur rug on the far side where hovering above is a king-sized white bed next to two white bedside stands.

Entering deeper into the room, Dana glances around the well lit room with transparent screens each shaped like a leaf, dotted around the walls to bring in a taller view of the world around them full of the golden cities on the clouds. While traversing the room, Dana observes the space to find that on the far back corner is a rounded white desk accompanied by a hovering black chair, cushioned well albeit not executive styled. Still, it was more than adequate, and the table itself is wide enough to function for two people, perfect for work.

After tapping the edge of the chair and watching it glide into the table to which it lightly bounces off, she continues by noticing that on the wall next to the bed is an object with the shape of a large golden drop box multiple feet tall embedded on the wall with a black horizontal panel over where the aperture would be.

Taking interest to the item, she taps her hand on the black panel, to which a blue light projects out to form a holographic flat screen of an empty inventory menu similar to the closet menu from their mansion albeit without the presets as instead it exclusively has the grid design without a single item. She hums to herself in intrigue, acknowledging the box to be a closet, and upon understanding she taps the black panel again and watches the screen vanish.

On the other side of the room, Kokei approaches an open doorway in the side of the room. She steps inside with a curious expression, also exploring the townhouse which they would have to use as a home for however much time they needed, a time unspecified.

Regardless of the undesirable situation, she finds that through the door is a whole bathroom for the room itself, as it then would be implied that all others also had one. The bathroom is equipped with a toilet bowl and sink plate like the others, although the sink is noticeably much longer and rather than hovering it instead is placed atop a white cabinet.

On the far side of the room is also a circular platform which sits under a black circular panel on the ceiling, large enough to be stood on. Hovering next to it are two short curved shelves decorated with a single white bar sitting on a golden tray. Kokei hums to herself while analyzing the bathroom, softly smiling as despite their turbulent journey she finds herself somewhere that she can find serenity in.

“NO…THAT’S NOT TRUE…THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” violently shrieks the voice of Ekitai from downstairs, rupturing that serenity as Kokei’s feet bounce off the white floor as she too shrieks but in an unintelligible sound of pure fright.

Even back on the ground she shivers constantly, having been jumpscared and now trying to calm herself by clinging onto her body with her own arms. She hears the sound of heavy footsteps in a sprint from the room beside her, presumably Dana racing to the situation.

Still distraught but needing to check on the situation, Kokei breaks into a sprint out of the peaceful bathroom, also making chase to the origin of the incident, all her tranquil thoughts turned terrifying tragically.

Downstairs, Ekitai is seated upright on the same sofa, screaming with wide distraught eyes with his arms extended out in front of himself as if attempting to fend for himself. Behind him both Kokei and Dana descend on white platforms, carrying them down from upstairs back to the center of the main floor.

Upon landing, Kokei is the first to take off towards Ekitai, fearful and anxious for her dear friend’s life as she cries, “WHAT HAPPENED?!?”

Even the bathroom door dematerializes to reveal Meditat with a raised eyebrow, his right hand gripping his left arm as she drags himself towards the living room, interrupted by what appears to be a highly paramount incident.

All three of the group reach Ekitai together, finding the horrors beyond humanity, the dread beyond death, the terror beyond truth.

Held in both of Ekitai’s hands is a huge black bag similar to a trash bag which emits a yellow flat holographic screen of an inventory grid similar to the closet, also empty. However, this one wasn’t meant to be, according to his immense reaction.

Relaying the frightened friend’s cries but through a far more monotonous and unconcerned voice, Meditat questions peculiarly, “...what happened?”

Staring straight at the empty yellow grid through shimmering eyes of despair, Ekitai in his pit of gloom wallows, “I’m completely out…I’m out of my chemicals, it all got used up during our adventures! Oh no…how am I going to keep going…how am I going to keep fighting?”

“Great, you won’t need to scar a child now every time you pull that trigger, I’ll get you a stun gun or something,” callously offers Meditat entirely nonchalantly, finding no problem with Ekitai’s dilemma.

Ekitai glances back at Meditat with sparkly eyes before exclaiming desperately, “No! You don’t get it, I need my ingredients, I only have enough for maybe an adventure or two but after that I’m out! I need more ingredients, dammit what am I going to do? It’s unfair, Dana is a robot and she doesn’t need any special charging, and both Kokei and Meditat are Exhumans! Why do I have to be the one with limited ammunition, I’m the only realistic one!”

Immediately Dana raises her finger with a revolted expression after the incredibly incorrect identification indicated ignorantly. Before she can make an argument however, Meditat puts his arms behind his back and calmly corrects, “Most of my tools are from my holo armor, and that runs on Excharge technology, same as Dana, who’s a cyborg,” to which Dana lowers her finger but folds both arms over her chest with a pout of heavy attitude.

“Regardless, if you were always on limited supply, then why did you always use that thing like you’d never run out?” interrogates Meditat with sharp eyes.

Ekitai opens his mouth with an aggressive expression to argue back, but even after his jaw drops not a sound comes out. Instead, he raises his head as a flood of sequences drowns his brain, sequences consisting of: laughing maniacally while rapidly firing his handgun at men in ancient Viking Armor standing on roofless convertible pods, laughing maniacally while rapidly firing his handgun at a pack of flying wolves with turrets strapped to their back followed by incoming missiles, laughing maniacally while rapidly firing his handgun at gray humanoids with tall heads in saucer-shaped pods, and laughing maniacally while rapidly firing his handgun at men in blue police uniforms and black pirate hats firing from pistols, shaped like a miniature cannon with a handle and trigger attached to the back, on the deck of an old wooden pirate ship.

While Meditat places his hand over his pale forehead in disappointment, Kokei shrugs her shoulders at the ordeal before suggesting plainly to Ekitai, “Well, this should’ve been obvious from the start, but can’t Meditat just like make the chemicals for you? I mean hey with him you’re basically always supplied. He said he’s done it before anyways, remember?”

Put on the spot under the blinding spotlight, Meditat turns his head to Kokei with a disoriented tilted face revealed from the slippage of his hand. He stares into space for a few seconds, appearing to find difficulty with the simple idea regardless of how logical it was described. He tilts his head from side to side with a troubled expression, raising it up at the ceiling while pondering deeply.

He then straightens his neck before apprehensively explaining, “Well…uhm…I guess that makes sense in theory…but…well…there’s a few problems with that…for one I don’t really know what chemicals he uses so…I’d need an example of it.”

“He has the equations or whatever though, doesn’t he?” reasons Kokei, to which Ekitai nods twice in agreement.

Still struggling, Meditat turns his head yet keeps his gaze on the white ceiling, continuing to ponder before then adding, “Well…thing is…just the formulas themselves isn’t really enough…it’d be best if I could…study the physical example. It’s similar to how artists use references, it’ll help…to make the end result more authentic.”

A heavy, disappointed sigh emits from Kokei, and she slouches forwards before deriding, “Oh, I thought you had creation powers, not copy ones. I thought you used to be able to do that, I thought usually people got stronger with their abilities as they got older, not the other way around.”

Dana’s jaw lowers in surprise to the harsh criticism and Meditat lowers his head, unable to argue back as the plan indeed would’ve been perfect if he was sure he could execute it right, yet he found himself unable to rise up to the simple task. He sighs softly to himself, feeling the disapproval from Kokei’s glare from right next to him.

Suddenly Ekitai’s eyes flash with spirit, and at once he raises his head and finger with a wide grin facing the three. He then enthusiastically exclaims, “Wait, I got it! We’re on Earth 3, right? This world sells exactly what I need, it’s a bit pricey but if we can afford this place we can definitely afford that! I know exactly where to go, we could probably get them today and I’ll just make sure to stock up enough so I’ll be good for a while!”

Meditat perks his head up upon hearing the alternate proposition, and he sighs in relief. He nods his head firmly before then permitting, “Very well then, that is a solid plan. Kokei and Dana can focus on their work and I can focus on planning while you spend an hour or so today getting what you need. It appears we should now be set for the day, very good.”

Ekitai nervously chuckles and raises his entire hand up like a young student requesting the teacher’s attention, which he grabs as Meditat tilts his head in response.

He then brings up, “Well…yeah…about that…so you notice how there’s really no way to walk since everything here is in islan-.”

“I’m glad we have this settled, I’ll make my report tonight on the development,” concludes Meditat while marching away from the living room.

“Medit, take Ekitai,” commands Dana.

Meditat glances back at Dana, who is standing firmly with both fists against her hips, puffing her chest with a stern face.

He tilts his head before seeking clarification, “What?”

“He needs a ride to get to the store, and you’re the one with the pod. And as we discussed, I need to stay here to work, and judging how I know you won’t trust anyone else to drive your pod, that means you need to take him,” Dana elaborates still in her bold tone of voice.

Meditat shakes his head firmly with a stern face back before he authoritatively asserts, “If you have forgotten, Dana, I need to develop a strategy to solve the whole problem putting us in this situatio-,”

“Thank you so much!!” gleefully cries Ekitai, standing behind Meditat and shaking his shoulders back and forth violently, although Meditat only barely rocks back and forth due to the natural resistance his body puts up.

Through dull, soulless eyes, Meditat glares forwards in a death stare, the life faded out of his pale skin.

Ascending while standing on their own white elevation platforms are both Kokei and Dana, the latter of whom smiles graciously while waving her hand and heartfully parting, “Have fun you boys, just remember to use the Arrow Account when you make the purchase; don’t worry I can pay for it!”

Staring straight up with dead eyes while being clung onto by the disgusting old bony hands of the tall man, Meditat silently watches with discontent as the two others rise up to the next floor where they entirely vanish, leaving the two alone.

For a few more seconds Meditat keeps his gaze up, as though hoping for the impossibility of them to return back down and reveal their stunt before then revealing that he would have to do no such cruel punishment.

For a few more moments Meditat keeps his eyes up, as though wishing for the nonexistent chance of them descending back down and exposing their own tomfoolery before following it up with the truth that he would be spared from such inhumane acts.

But no matter how long he waited, they never did come back.

No matter how long his eyes stuck to the ceiling, it never opened back up.

Still being shaken back and forth, Meditat lowers his head at last in the gloomy acknowledgement that there was no reason to hope in such a cruel and hopeless world that only took and consumed, never answering prayers but forcing people to beg for them, never aiding innocents but forcing them to suffer until their desperation shrivels up and all that’s left is the painful understanding that there was no loving force to guide them but rather they were doomed from birth to live a tortuous life in the gulag of life.

Still being shaken limply, Meditat stares at the floor in silent agony, accepting that there would be no light at the end of the darkness, to which he sighs gently in embraced misery.

Finally Meditat raises his head and, in a groggy voice, orders, “Okay, get off me.”

Once Ekitai lets go of Meditat’s shoulders, both of them walk to the center of the floor where the white circle is in between the four quadrant rooms. Meditat’s head remains low as his body drags silently while Ekitai’s head is held high with mighty strides and loud humming.

Both of the two unemployed men step to the central circle before they both then begin descending, each taken by their own elevator pad until they vanish from the main floor, to which the floor’s holes are filled by the materialization of more flooring.

On the ground floor, both Meditat and Ekitai descend down on opposing sides of the parked black pod, still facing the wall. Once the two reach the ground and the pads integrate into the floor, Meditat glances at the closed door and nods, to which the door dematerializes hence bringing cyan rays into the garage to mix with the white light.

He then makes his way to the driver’s side of the pod where the door opens in a cloud, allowing him to step inside. He begins to climb in while Ekitai steps to the front passenger seat, triggering the door to open for him as well to slide into.

Inside the pod, Meditat seats himself down and allows his door to close while Ekitai does the same, although as he does Meditat casts a fierce glance at him which is ignored for several seconds after the passenger door closes, and only after a few more awkward seconds is it picked up on and exchanged with an innocent, befuddled expression.

Ekitai shrugs his shoulders with a smile before noting, “Well, last time it was just us I sat here, besides it’s only both of us so it only makes sense that I get shotgun! Anyways, let’s go, classic Ekitai and Meditat adventure time! The two guys, the two men, out on a mission! The hero and the hunter! A golden duo that can take on any foe!!”

Once again bested by shaky yet ultimately correct logic muddled in aggravating gibberish, Meditat groans before facing forward.

In the silence emerges the engine’s roar right before the pod is then lifted up, and promptly begins driving backwards to exit the garage now that both of the occupants are inside with the pod correctly sealed.

Outside of the golden tree, the black pod emerges through the open garage door, gliding over the white street before making a smooth turn to face the road. Next to it the open door is concealed by the materialization of the dark gold door, and after it’s closed shut the pod then begins driving forwards, humming louder as it accelerates down the neighborhood.

It races off away from the house as it gradually rises up in a gentle incline that is raised smoothly until it soars above the trees themselves, exiting the neighborhood as do other pods off in the distance at different areas of the island.

The pod races off into the distance far from home, the two adventurers on a new mission as their companions remain at base to tend to their own work.

Now, it would be only up to half the group to face this new operation.

But it was this half that had begun the journey from the very beginning.