Dark gray skies poured heavy rainfall down on the silver skyscrapers, for even the light they emitted from their smooth, curved exteriors shined not as brightly surrounded by the obstructions of the dense streams, resulting in a whitish enshrouding fog almost hauntingly looming over the world. For not as far as the eye could see was there a glimmer of blue or sunlight, rather the whole city was toned in gray, the metropolitical paradise drenched in a colorless coat.

Many of the buildings sported exotically shaped towers with strange curves and contortions such as a double helix tower and one that branched into three prongs like a trident. Architecturally the buildings were vastly diverse from one another, although in a way the standardized silver coating washed all of them out. By shape they were unique, but by color they all blended in together, silver spikes under the shower.

Not only was shape a distinctive feature of skyscrapers that helped them to stand out, but size too, although this attribute only distinguished few, especially from the central portions of the city full of towering colossus. One to rise above the rest in both manners however was a certain tower, the tallest of all by several magnitudes great, a titan of such extraordinary scale that it rendered the neighboring towers as little more than a house in comparison up in the clouds. Not only was the skyscraper distinguished by size but also a distinctive chunk in center as the majority of the building had a solid silver shell albeit for this one chunk composed of an array of thin pillars miraculously holding up the upper half.

Even that central pillar chunk alone however was of grand size compared to the neighboring towers, for that building just stood out amongst all the others from its conception to its many renovations, the center of the city, what was once a great beacon to not only the metropolis but all the worlds surrounding. Ironically, many would never even realize in how many ways it was a beacon before the beam was turned off.

Out through the dematerialized doors was a long wide hallway with white walls that emitted a gentle luminescence. The hallway brimmed with voices as walking up and down were adult men and women in formal wear speaking to one another, some pointing to holographic screens carried in front of them as they were in the middle of professional discussions.

However, to the adults who were tranquil in mood, either standing still for pacing slowly while collaborating casually with little haste, repetitive heavy panting coming from the other side of the hall gradually called to their attention for they suspend their conversations to turn towards the source with raised eyebrows showing concern.

Power Walking amongst the crowd was a woman in a black suit–a matching black set of dress pants and a blazer with green buttons over a white buttoned shirt and forest green tie–, who had amber hair with short bangs resting above her bright green eyes, her head bobbing up and down as she had the hasty stance of a woman cursed with tardiness and sluggishness. As she walked down the center of the hallway, the other adults made way for her in pity and concern, veering to the edges of the hallway to give space as she sped walked forward.

Grayish bags sat below the woman’s eyes and her hair was slightly unkempt, as while there was a discernible attempt to groom it that attempt was not perfectly executed, resulting in hanging threads: a symptom of bedhead. She was clearly in her mid thirties and yet the fatigue aged her up, for she hardly seemed kept together. Her eyes were alert however, beads of sweat on her forehead as she rushed through the hallway, adults muttering under their breath as they moved aside for her, astounded by the haste.

Her low black heels didn’t make it very easy for her to speed through either, but she managed the best she could, panting heavily while cursing under her breath.

Turning a corner, the woman diverged into another hallway which was noticeably less crowded, allowing her more range in speed despite the slimmer width, which she took advantage of with hastier strides.

She powered through the hallway, huffing even louder in greater exhaustion, reaching about half way through before part of the wall dematerialized behind her to create a doorway twenty feet behind her, from where a woman also dressed formally but with hair fitted in a ponytail peered out facing the hasty woman before calling out, “Dana??”

Immediately the woman rushing down the hallway halted with a frightened yelp, jumpscared before her cheeks reddened in embarrassment to the realization of the callout. She took a deep breath and straightened her posture although it was too late, and she turned around to face the other woman waiting in the door.

A nervous chuckle emitted from the woman declared Dana before she then began to pace back to the door that she walked straight past, remarking: “Oh huh, I uh, somehow missed that. Thank you so much!”

Casually the woman in the ponytail chuckled back and shook her head before assuring, “You’re fine Dana, it’s been hectic today. You’re a bit late though, so let’s get you started,” before she then slips back into the room, allowing Dana to follow in.

Through the doorway Dana found herself in a large rectangular room with smooth light gray walls accompanied with a wide window on the far side stretched along the whole wall, providing a sight to the gloomy gray shower outside which brought in no light to the long table on the right side. In the center of the room was a large white table top, glossy with smooth edges, surrounded by ten hovering black Executive-styled chairs down both ends with seven of them taken by adults men and women also in suits who were conversing amongst each other.

All the conversations abruptly concluded however upon Dana’s entrance, and all of the adults in the room turned and raised their gazes to face her in a moment of awkward, discomforting silence as they all wore judgemental faces.

Taken aback by the rather hostile glares, Dana froze up with wide eyes, uncomfortable while she tried to quiet her heavy breathing although it was still audible enough to them.

All seven of the adults just glared at Dana until the woman in the ponytail broke the tension, announcing: “Okay, Dana is here, we can continue where we left off. She’s a bit late so we should probably catch her up to speed,” with a warm smile and extended arms.

As the woman in the ponytail took a seat, one of the men frustratedly exclaimed, “‘A bit late??!!’ She almost missed the whole damn meeting! I don’t even know if there was any point coming now, there’s not much to contribute at this point. I got a ten o’clock so I can’t be here all day!”

Reddened in embarrassment, Dana apologized shamefully, “Sorry, sorry! I was busy with work, I apologize for my tardiness,” before she then stepped further inside the room, circling around the majorly filled table until finding a random empty chair between two adults, where she then seated herself down.

One of the other men at the table faced the arguer and contended gently, “Hey, come on, cut her some slack. She’s still pretty fresh in this position, I’m sure going from assistant to the one running the whole show is a step up. Give her some leeway.”

“No no, he’s right, I should’ve been here on time,” declared Dana, taking responsibility with a frown, acknowledging her mistakes despite her defenders.

“Yeah, exactly! She’s not some random unpaid intern, she’s the one we’re all supposed to rely on! And right now this is the worst time to slack off, what with all that’s going on. We can’t afford to be sleeping when we’ve gotten our greatest influx of contracts in years!” exclaimed the argumentative man, feeding from Dana’s ashamed acknowledgement to further kick her down.

Befuddled by the last mention, Dana tilted her head to the side with the rise of an eyebrow and softly inquired in a puzzled tone, “What about these contracts?”

The defensive man turned to face Dana before wearing a soft smile after the change in direction to answer, “Well, given all these insurgencies of that gang going around calling themselves ‘Generation S,’ we’ve been getting contracts from the world federals to ramp up defense projects. Apparently not only are they popping out practically everywhere but they’re grouping up larger than usual gangs, so I guess they need something more. I mean normally this would be a good thing, I know we haven’t really been doing much with our N.E.R.D team recently ever since crimes in Versepolis sunk, and this used to be a great source of our income. Just a bit unsettling though, but oh well, there’s a reason they call us.”

“We need to invest more into research though, there’s years worth of Anti-Exmatter progress that we’ve just never integrated into our defense products, and something tells me this is the time to get that ball soaring,” joined in a woman across Dana, immediately catching her attention.

Seemingly put on the spot, Dana blinked twice and nodded her head, acknowledging stutteringly, “O-oh, yeah, I can uh, yeah we can do that, that sounds like a good yeah, any ideas in particular?”

Initially perplexed, the woman raised her eyebrow and asked back, “Huh? Oh wait, we’ve already discussed this and had it sorted out, I was just summarizing the discussion earlier. We decided we should make the push to create products that can weaponize Anti-Exmatter in a plasmic state, taking from our electrostabilization therapy research. It’s not nearly as aggressive in its current form since we never really had that intention, but it’s a good point to start from amongst others.”

Again embarrassed by the misconception, Dana nodded her head and wicked her forehead with her sleeve to rid any of the remaining sweat before then following with a nervous smile, “I understand, I apologize again for not being there for that topic. I’m glad you have all sorted it out!”

On the other side, the woman in the ponytail shook her head to Dana’s assessment and refuted, “It’s not quite sorted yet, we will very definitely need more meetings to fully iron out our reinitiation plan, as I said currently our research into energy-based Anti-Exmatter is very rudimentary if we are to want weapons applications, and it will take time, thus in the meanwhile we will need other products to roll out. Unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time nowadays, we need to pump out defense quickly.”

She then faced the window to the rainy sight, and released a heavy sigh burdened with troubles.

In a more sentimental tone, the woman then reflected concernedly, “Such a sudden uprise in cooperative Exhuman terrorism, and without our protector. We’ve never had to face this intensity of Exhuman terrorism without ‘Him’ in generations, it’s an unprecedented era we will live….”

Among the whole room, the atmosphere shifted from an uptight rigid formality to a reflective somber, all of the individuals lowering their heads with frowns upon the mention. Even the argumentative man frowned and lowered his head, as though all taking a moment.

Amongst the griefers sat Dana, who stared into the table blankly in deep meditation to the difficult subject, her green eyes rested open and soft.

Her attention was then pulled up by another man who chimed in, “Honestly, lately everything has just felt so surreal.”

Down the other end of the table from Dana was the speaker, a man in his fifties if not greater, aged and mature. He too gazed out the window with soft turquoise eyes on his wrinkled face, reflecting gently: “First He’s gone, then this insurgency, and then all the sudden Rohan steps down. It’s all happening so fast and so randomly, every morning I wake up in fear of the news, in fear that another tragedy struck out of nowhere. It’s…suffocating…we have no clue what’s next, and we hope it’s something good to uplift us but we assume it’ll only be worse. Honestly, I’m not much of a believer, but those conspiracies about how His downfall would result in the end of the Superverse…I don’t know anymore…I feel like it’s already happening.”

Shocked by the pessimism from the wise board member, Dana frowned and opened her mouth to speak before being unintentionally cut off by the man who was previously arguing, “I wouldn’t worry about any prophecy, but there is some truth in that.”

Both Dana and the old man face the arguer, who rose his head up to meet the man’s gaze to which he elaborated, “He single handedly brought an end to centuries of conflict between us and Exhumans, and it wasn’t only because He was a strong fighter and could stop crimes we could not. He was someone we could all feel represented by, us and Exhumans alike, it was like his existence meant we didn’t need to antagonize each other. And sometimes I wish we could all still know that even without Him around, but people get scared, He was a protector of everyone and without Him nobody knows if the other guy will strike, so they’ll do it first. It was inevitable that this would happen, well, and then for Rohan…I don’t even know to be honest, I feel like it still hasn’t really sat in yet. I get that the main consensus is the loss of motivation after His death, I mean it always felt like Rohan was basically a Him with a face, His passing must’ve made a pretty bad blow. But to just lose it all…to just quit on us…I’m sorry but it’s just unlike him…he was many things but one thing he never was was a quitter, he was the one pushing us to do the impossible. So without him, I don’t know what’s safe anymore. And without Him, everyone is looking up to us for aid. Sure we’ve always helped both sides but we don’t have the sort of influence He did, and even then, without Rohan at the helm…I’m not sure.”

The man then moved his glance to Dana, where he then directed at her, “That’s why we need you putting your all in this. The Superverse is counting on us, and we’re counting on you. We’re not Him. We’re not Rohan. But we need to…at least do the best we can, and what we’re doing now isn’t good enough. It might be unfair that this is all on you now, but that’s just what’s happening.”

Woven back to Dana as the subject, she maintained her gaze with the man and nodded her head, acknowledging confidently, “I understand, I’ll do better. I’ll make sure to go through the meetings’ summary in full later today, and will guarantee timely showings to future meetings. You’re right, they’re all watching us, and we need to carry his torch. I’ll make sure we do.”

Pulling her attention off the window and to Dana, the woman in the ponytail nodded and wore a soft, genuine smile. She then solaced warmly, “I know you can do it, Dana. And we’ll all be here helping you. We can get through these tough times, I know it. I know it because He said we’re strong, and He said we can get through any obstacle together. So we can, and we will.”

Those soft spoken words brought a serene smile to Dana’s face, which held up until the mention from one of the other men, “Well, we went through all that we needed to for this meeting, Dana may read the notes and if she has any advice we can discuss that in the next meeting that we can expect her timely presence in.”

That man who spoke sat on the other side of the table as Dana, in his forties with a trimmed beard, and he turned his gaze to her before then asking, “I take it that this meeting may be adjourned? We are approaching our closing time, and many of us have subsequent meetings.”

Responsively Dana nodded her head, and with that she pushed back against the chair and stood up to her feet, calling the attention of all of the other adults in the room successfully, watching her in anticipation.

She glanced at each and every single one of them, with a slightly additional lingering on the woman in the ponytail whom she showed a warm smile to before receiving one back. She then returned her gaze to the man who requested closure, and she declared, “This meeting may be adjourned, yes. And I will formulate my thoughts after reviewing the notes, and will be on time for the next session, I can promise that.”

“Well, then promise it and do it,” remarked the man before he too stood up, throwing a light jab that damaged Dana’s smile to a slight frown, but not before she managed to recover it into a weaker but still present smile and retort, “Yes, I do and I will.”

Around Dana, all of the adults in the room began to stand up from their chairs now that they had been dismissed, murmuring amongst one another.

In mobs they began to depart the room with chatter, watched by Dana who remained in place over the table for a few extended moments, watching the board leave with a soft smile on her face, standing in front of the wide window to the rainy scenery.

Amidst the dismissal called out the voice of the woman with the ponytail, who parted, “Goodbye Dana, see you later!” to which Dana’s smile slightly grows with an “Mm,” seeing her out until all of the other adults have left the room.

With that, the only one remaining was Dana, who just stared blankly at the exit doorway, still smiling with shimmering green eyes above her light bags, her amber bangs still a mess.

Yet not long after that, entire smile was wiped off and replaced with a frown below gloomy, hollow green eyes as she stood surrounded by the cylindrical white walls above the gentle elevation hum, her body ascending rapidly. The darker atmosphere also emphasized her eye bags, her expression from a tranquil warmth to a dreary cold.

Eventually the hum tapered down to silence, and once it came to an end it was then followed by the cue of a door dematerialization followed by a brighter white light shining on her dreary face, to which she then stepped forth.

Out of the white shaft at the front Dana entered the huge white observatory, the same one fitted with several stages of balcony rings along the dome walls, although with noticeably less window screens on the walls this time as well as a dimmer luminescence.

With sole footsteps that echoed throughout the entire observatory, Dana strolled across the chamber from one end towards the other until reaching nearly just below the edge of the balcony. She remained right below it for a few moments, her hands by her side.

From below Dana’s feet, a circular section of the floor ascended as a distinguished elevation pad, which raised her up towards the balconies, leaving behind a temporary circular cut in the white floor.

Elevating up once again, Dana just stared forward blankly, eyes hardly open, very clearly exhausted even after having had her first meeting of the day, for it was still morning out even though it was difficult to tell by the lack of sunlight.

On her way up she closed her eyes and released a cathartic yawn, destressing now that she was all alone to herself and free to behave as she pleased.

While her vision remained pitch black due to her eyes being closed, Dana could hear the sound of the elevation pad’s conclusion as the hum tapered into silence again, leaving the room to be in absolute silence for a moment.

Knowing she could now continue, she opened her eyes to gain vision of an upfront ghoulish face resembling Meditat.

A sudden shriek expelled from Dana as she instinctively leaped backwards right off of the small elevation platform and over the edge from the Meditat jumpscare, but that reaction only further put her in facially visible terror upon the subsequent realization of her own action as her arms began wailing desperately towards the blank faced Meditat, dressed in the black leather biker jacket paired with long black pants.

Casually Meditat pointed his naked right hand at Dana’s chest, to which a sudden bright blue flash of light emitted from his palm before propelling a translucent blue ray that instantly latched onto Dana’s chest just as Meditat yanked his right arm back which thrashed Dana’s body forwards back into the balcony’s platform.

Dana’s body hurled straight towards Meditat, her feet landing back on the ground several feet ahead but stumbling forwards from all the sudden momentum as the blue ray shortened as if the wire were being reeled in until Dana knocked straight into Meditat’s chest, for then the blue ray suddenly vanished entirely.

Shaken up and stupefied from the rapid sequence, Dana stumbled backwards a step before regaining her balance with her arms stretched out, shaking her head with shut eyes while reprimanding softly, “Even to this day I can’t tell if you do that just to troll me.”

Before the man could even respond, Dana just processed the sequence and immediately exclaimed, “Wait, what did you even do just now??”

After such a bizarre sequence of events that nearly resulted in unexpected tragedy, Meditat released a burdened sigh with a slouch, his grayish frail hair strands thrown over his slightly whitish face.

He then leaned upright before shaking his head and mentioning casually, “Just a prototype mobile weapons system, it is of little concern. Regardless, I had dropped by here to ask-,”

“Wait excuse me, what?” interjected Dana in astonishment through gleaming green eyes and a dropped jaw, halting Meditat once again, who rose an eyebrow up in an awkward stare before then attempting to brush off, “A suit, I digress, what I was meaning to inquire was-,”

“Wait, I don’t see anything on you, wasn’t that your bare hand though?” Dana again interrupted Meditat, forcing him to pause but for a longer period as Dana then began to march towards him, prompting him to walk backwards hesitantly while Dana insistently grilled, “Is there a cloaking scheme going on? Or wait, are you projecting an artificial image of yourself, but that is the suit? Wait let me feel-,” before she then suddenly grabbed Meditat’s hand, to which his azure eyes immediately expanded.

Swiftly Dana’s gentle, smooth hand pulled Meditat’s own hand to sight, his hand naturally larger than hers, but more than that it was visibly pale and coarse, for while Dana’s hand had little texture and smoothly reflects light, Meditat’s was visibly rugged and reflected in scatters.

The skin of the smaller hand’s thumb then morphed from a Caucasian white to a metallic golden, perfectly smooth even to skin, perfectly reflecting the light with a smooth seam between the golden thumb and the rest of the humanly skinned hand.

Instinctively, the soft golden thumb slowly rubbed down against the rough palm, feeling its texture for just a moment. In that instance as the thumb grazed the center of the palm, the whole pale hand flashed a myriad of microscopic blue particles clustered so densely that it resembled a mystical nebulous cloud before said hand jerked back, snapping the grip and vanquishing the cloud.

Stumbling back, Meditat returned his arm back to his side and slightly pivoted his body to conceal it behind Dana, whose arm then dropped down naturally to the pull, her thumb reverting back to the appearance of human skin.

What was once a curious fascination had now changed into a puzzled spacing, and with the crunch of the forehead, Dana tilted her head, her amber bangs let down on one side of her head as she stood across the surrounding white wall.

There was a thought at the tip of her tongue, for that brief analysis had given her a surplus of data, yet she found difficulty in processing such. It left her speechless, stupefied even, and she maintained that frozen bewilderment for several seconds.

After recovering his own stance and calm, Meditat breathed a light sigh acknowledging the harsh retaliation he just executed, and lowered his head for a moment in reflection.

He then raised his head back up to meet Dana’s gaze with his own before revealing, “It’s not a cloaking scheme, the suit itself has no color. It’s all made with custom holo-particles I developed with complex computational capability such that they function self sustainably. My body is coated in dormant holo-particles which I can call on to execute certain functions, like cable projection just now. It’s nothing too innovative, I just worked off of old research.”

Given the introductory explanation, Dana straightened her neck with a reignition of glimmer in her eyes. She then took a step towards Meditat, who remained still, pivoting to face her straight on with both of his arms to his side once more.

Wonder sparked back into her body, Dana fascinated riveted, “Woah, that’s incredible, wait so there’s no projector on you, there isn’t any source? It’s just sitting there on its own?”

Upon a slight nod from Meditat functioning as a brief answer, Dana continued fervently, “That’s crazy, I’ve never seen that before, just holo-particles functioning alone as a full system, woah…. Heh, I’m supposed to be the engineer here, you can’t step me like that.”

Provided a flavorful compliment, Meditat regardless shook his head, and he turned away from her to begin pacing forward while humbling, “As I said, there was little innovation needed, for example cable projections have existed for decades, that’s nothing new. I’ve been working on other functions for this system, as aforementioned it is a weapons system. Beyond rudimentary kinetic amplifiers, I’ve developed a basic mechanic for bolt launching designed for distanced combat.”

Again perplexed noticeably as per the tilt of the head, Dana inquired softly, “Wait, this is for combat? Combat against what?”

Down the balcony, Meditat approached a white hovering table, a table littered with various metallic models of what appeared to be human legs, although some of the thighs were detached from the knees, separated plates resting disorderly amongst a pile of vibrantly colored square plate chips.

He stopped in front of the table and lowered his head, focusing particularly on one of the more completed legs which only had a hollowed portion on the side of the thigh that exposed an intricate series of differently colored plates with spaces in between.

Whilst observing the legs as footsteps began from behind, he calmly answered: “It is irrelevant, but regardless, the gangs that have been sprouting out of just about any crevice of this city. Those who resort to manmade arms and Exhumans alike, I’ve been doing my best to combat this growing plague, especially these amalgamating factions. I do realize I need to improve on the maneuverability systems however, I am well versed in air skating which I have relied on heavily, however with greater masses of combatants it has become increasingly difficult to strafe from every strike. I’ve been developing ground-based locomotive amplification as a complimentary system with the intent to achieve speeds beyond that which can be met through air skating. I've been able to use some of…Tach’s notes, but it is not in a state I can depend upon yet,” during which Dana then dashed past him, zooming to the other side of the table and hastily scooping the loose components away from the table’s edge in a desperate attempt to clean the table.

While Meditat was speaking, Dana also tapped twice on the bottom of the white table’s top, to which a bright green box composed of light extruded from the surface, encapsulating the mess on the table, all of the legs in each of their states as well as the piles of plates. The light then flashed blue before vanishing entirely, and along with it vanished all of the parts on the table, leaving it spotless just as Meditat’s explanation concluded.

Painting exhaustedly from the late save, Dana leaned forward to catch her breath, taking a few moments before catching herself and leaning upright to return her gaze. She then allowed herself to process all that was said, to which she was struck with the delayed reaction of shock on her face from everything at once.

Yet before blurting anything out, she spent another moment meditating, her open jaw slowly sowing itself back shut, and her wide eyes shrinking to calm.

Her mouth then frowned in the contextualization, and her green irises shimmered as she lowered her head and muttered, “Oh…I didn’t realize you were actually…going out there to fight…huh…. Gosh…so you’re also tackling all of this…and you’re doing it without anyone knowing…even me. No wonder you looked so pale…I didn’t even say anything at first….”

Without a gasp, Meditat’s azure eyes jolted wide almost in a pinch of fear, and he hastily lowered his gaze to meet his raised hand to inspect it for a moment, as though just now realizing the property that had been mentioned.

He lowered his head, and opted to tangent with another brushing, “I guess I hadn’t told you prior, but as I mentioned, it is irrelevant. I will be fine, don’t worry about me. What I had come here for originally was to…,” before pausing to lower his head and turn it awkwardly, removing eye contact.

“...I was wondering how you were-,”

“Wait a second, what did you mean by it being difficult to ‘evade every strike?’” interjected Dana abruptly, leaping forth and slamming her hands on the table to lean closer to the man.

She stared closely at Meditat, her eyes sharpening before interrogating, “Medit, does that suit of yours not have any sort of…you know…shielding?”

Cut off yet again, Meditat rose his gaze back up to Dana’s in an almost jitter, before he then froze up for a moment upon receiving the question, as it seemed to crash him.

His eyes then darted back and forth, as though seeking for the most optimal response to give, his lips parted just slightly after the callout.

His gaze returned to Dana where he then vindicated, “I…chose to prioritize combat systems first and foremost, I had contemplated defensive systems, however it was assessed that such systems would simply siphon time that could be spent in better projects. Currently the particles have no shielding, however as I stated, I am improving the mobility-.”

“MEDIT! You can’t just…decide you don’t need shielding! Are you crazy?? So what, if just one shot hits you, you’re just done for? Just any stray bolt, any superpowered strikes, anything remotely lethal and it’s over? And you just figured that was okay??” berated Dana aggressively, riled up with blazing green eyes and waving amber hair, suddenly boiling with the raw potent power of a scolding mother.

Struck hard, Meditat lowered his head ashamed, acknowledging the illegitimacy of his stance, to which he frowned in this corner he dug himself into.

He then contended in murmurs albeit unconfidently, “I just don’t have the time, if I had enough to spare then perhaps I could get some basic system operational, but it’d just not be feasible-.”

“I’ll do it,” declared Dana’s voice, to which he immediately raised his head up in astonishment, his lips parted which let him murmur, “What-?”

Devotedly with a stern glare, Dana asserted boldly: “I’ll design shielding for you if you won’t do it yourself. Medit, it’s a miracle you’re even standing right now, how can you just pick a fight with anyone without protection, do you have a death wish??”

Swiftly Meditat argued with a backtread, “But Dana, you have more than enough work as is, you can’t-.”

“I can and I will!” even more swiftly claimed Dana, leaning further against the table, closing the gap despite being obstructed

“I’m not sure if you’re constructing these off of memory so I don’t know what documentation you have written out, but I want you to send me everything, I’ll figure out how to work from it. But please Medit, it won’t even take me that long, I mean hey come on do you know who you’re talking to? I’m sure it’ll take an afternoon…or two.”

Instinctively Meditat opened his mouth to argue back, however no words pushed through, as instead he held before closing it back, his expression from argumentative to oddly solemn.

He then lowered his head in deep contemplation for a few seconds, being stared at by Dana who doesn’t lean back, instead persisting on him with an inferno’s glare.

Keeping his head low with his eyes blocked by his reflective long yet strangely scattered hair which Dana noticed with the sharpening of her eyes, Meditat softly admitted: “Actually…I haven’t been constructing them…that way. The prototype I’m wearing was built without my abilities, so I do have extensive documentation as well as this and other prototypes in physical form.”

Taken aback by the strange reveal, Dana was entirely bewildered, her focus moved from the hair to the statement. She just stared with puzzlement at him before then blissfully asking, “Huh? Why do that? I mean I guess it’s convenient for me but…when was the last time you made something without your abilities?”

Instinctively Meditat raised his head back to Dana and parted his mouth, but again, no words. Meditat just stared blankly instead, frozen, as though he was able to deliver an answer. There was one immediately on the tip of his tongue, but he just stood in silence awkwardly, the entire room falling to silence.

His mouth closed, and he raised his head higher to stare at the ceiling, breaking contact to contemplate deeper, searching with the turns of his head, staring at the few scarce window screens around the observatory, still only providing a display to the gray skies of the rainy weather, not much to look at.

He then brought his sight down to the ground to think even more, very much stumped on a rather simple question with a simple answer.

Dana just stared throughout this silent journey, only growing more puzzled, but not only that, a glimmer of concern began to grow in her eyes, a haunting uncertainty from this intense lock.

Desperately Meditat shot out words, murmuring out: “Well, hmm, there are several benefits to it, really. For example…well…it gets rid of the possibility of being seen generating it, and this way it is harder to trace back to my identity. And there’s also…,” before he tapered into a pause, his drifting sight fixed on his right hand.

Focused on the hand, Meditat remained silent as he opened his palm, his wrinkled skin fully exposed to himself, before he then balled it into a fist.

“It was an intentful decision, there are multiple factors that lead me to this choice. I understand the unorthodox practice, but it is for the best. Regardless, the only thing that matters is that I can keep fighting,” he concluded in a near whisper.

In front of Meditat, Dana stared, her face worn in a confused worry, a small gap in her mouth, her eyes glimmering sentimentally. No longer was she leaning, but now she was upright, as though the persistence she had was stunned, leaving her in a neutral state. There was this strange silent understanding that she didn’t even understand, like a message she could feel but couldn’t read, for there was a code within that statement that gave a sense of misery even if she didn’t know where.

Through Dana’s eyes Meditat lifted his gaze back to meet hers, his mouth closed, his azure eyes just staring into her soul. There was something peculiar about his stare, the paleness of his face, the discernible frailty of his graying hair, it almost felt like decay.

But even beyond the mere physical state, there was a decay in his eyes. That stare was one she hadn’t seen to such an extent, there was a hollowness and yet simultaneously a craving, a paradoxical combination of fatigue and tenacity for something, something out of reach. Even after her extended offer to help, there was still a void in his eyes, there was something missing and something wanted, in spite of the path he had chosen, in spite of what he was doing and what he was given.

He just stared somberly, dressed in the black biker jacket, the shoulders a slighter grayer hue than the rest of the body, although none of it was truly black but rather dulled.

Still unable to even consciously register her own thoughts, Dana just stared back with the same sentimentality, however the gap in her mouth gradually got wider as though a response was beginning to form, slowly but surely.

Her smooth pink lips parted more and more, opening the hole to her mouth for speech, her professionally white teeth able to gleam in the white fluorescent-like light, a response driving up to her tongue resting above the floor.

Then, it happened.

An abrupt siren blared from the table, immediately throwing Dana backwards into a terrified stumble. The siren rang thrice before silencing and being followed up a green holographic screen projected from the white table’s surface interfering between her and Meditat, a square window of a grid similar to a traditional calendar with a ray casted from one of the boxes leading to another rectangular screen which housed the message with two lines, the top being: ‘Project Spacenet Meeting’ and the bottom being: ‘300 seconds,’ although that number then decrements to ‘299’ just a second after before decrementing further each second.

Once again scared out of her body, Dana caught her breath quickly and frantically dashed back to the table, fixated on the holographic alert whilst cursing under her breath, for there was no break given to her.

She read through the message again as it then projected another message in a smaller screen right in front of her, the size of a tablet, which she skimmed through hastily, her body now jittery as she scrolled through the screen with swift swipes.

Her green eyes still glued to the green screen, she began to apologize hastily, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I completely forgot about this. I have to go now, I’m really sorry, here,” and she lifted her gaze back up to her friend as she followed, “maybe we can talk later-,” to which she abruptly froze.

For right in front of Dana stood no man, no being, no presence. Past the hologram reminders, on the other side of the white table was nothing, nothing but the other distant tables and devices scattered all along the circular balcony.

There was no one in front of her, no one between her and the window screens in the distance displaying the same gloomy sky.

On the whole white floor, one completely open with no internal walls to block off view beyond the low tables and machinery, there was no one but Dana standing behind the desk, just staring ahead blankly with a frown, the entire room falling to silence in an instant as her mouth closed shut.

In the whole of the colossal observatory, a room composed of multiple rooms on its own all open and connected, allowing sound to reach every corner from any origin, there was nobody but Dana standing alone behind the table past the green holograms.

It was just her, just her in the room of the headquarters of the company that was hers, her at the top, above all, above anyone else.

And at the top was nothing but a white void and silence.

Just open space.

Just silence.

All alone.

In the void.

In the isolated void all of them drifted in.