章節 170: Chapter 35: Return to Poseidon 5
Vindy felt her face slowly heating up as she began to process what Hong Fu is saying, but despite her best efforts, she still isn't quite getting it. Becoming one of them? One of us? That sounds...absurd...Is that even possible? And even if it is, why would anyone even want to go through something like this?
'Why?' Vindy asked yet again, 'I thought you wanted an out, I thought....'
Hong Fu looked down at the beautiful wooden flooring of the house and didn't say anything. Clearly, something is on his mind, and it appeared that he isn't quite ready to share it with Vindy just yet. He then looked up at her and played with her hair a bit with his hands before getting up and heading over towards the kitchen.
'I never thought you are one of those that's overly concerned about anything....but yourself.' Vindy continued, following after him, 'has anything happened?'
'Brakagi happened.' Hong Fu said stubbornly, but that only let Vindy know that something else is definitely going on. Vindy went ahead and jumped onto the counter, sitting on the edge and looked at the human. Then, she reaches out her claws and grabbed onto his shirt.
'I will come with you to Poseidon system.' Vindy said, though even she is surprised by what she said. Has she gotten soft over the human in front of her?
'You don't have to.' Hong Fu said as he tried to maintain a serious tone with his face wrinkled up. He filled up the dishwasher and poured two cups of drinks before turning to look at Vindy, 'You can stay here for as long as you like.'
'It...will get quite lonely around here.' Vindy said, no longer thinking of what to say with her brains, but with her heart, 'Rockies are social creatures too...'
'Vindy...' Hong Fu said, reaching out and grabbing the tiny paws of hers, 'When I met you, I thought of you as just another unfortunate victim of Absolute Being's activities, but you have proven that you are so much more...'
'Don't say it like that.' Vindy shook her head, but kept her hands in his, 'I will come with you to Poseidon, and maybe then you will be willing to tell me what your reasons are. I will decided finally then, okay?'
'....Okay.' Hong Fu said, 'but nothing will be safe outside of this habitat, are you sure?'
'It's not like I am really going to stay here forever.' Vindy said with a big grin, 'Being free is to have no fear.'
And plus, she hasn't been to the Poseidon system before.
The pair packed up all of the essentials into Hong Fu's shuttle over the next few days before they marched onward through the journey towards the Poseidon system. It is weeks away through the smaller acceleration gates placed along the interstellar laser highway, and it should be plenty of time for Vindy to change her mind as they approached. Meanwhile, the Phenomenon has also happened on Olympus Prime as an entire planet was suddenly displaced from its original trajectory as the gigantic orbital infrastructures are left behind.
Vindy and Hong Fu are just as shocked as anybody else when Senator Zender/Zero handed himself in and was put on trial for acts of terrorism, though this time, it was actually for the good of the planet. The immediate crisis was averted, but Brakagi's standings in galactic populous rose ever higher.
During this time, Vindy has been practicing the other aspects of Wavestriker that she can do savely on the ship, as she continuously probed around various items, testing out the ability to sense the natural frequency of everything. In essence, how this works is that the Wavestriker can not only generate waves of various frequencies, but also pick up the frequency responses. As structures respond to different frequencies differently, a near-instantaneous run through of a large frequency range will give her a pretty good idea of where the largest responses are felt, and to formulate an hyper-efficient attack, she just have to send out pulses of waves at that exact frequency.
In the meanwhile, Hong Fu seemed to have grown to trust Vindy more and more, as previously he would always close up whatever holograms he was working with whenever Vindy went into the room, but nowadays, he doesn't really mind anymore whenever Vindy walks in. She could never quite tell exactly what he's thinking, and that's probably an inter-species communication issue more than anything, she suspected.
'So...why are we going to Poseidon 5 again?' Finally, Vindy pursued the biggest question she had one night.
'There is a famous Aquarian bioengineer there.' Hong Fu explained, 'one of the best and brightest in the galaxy, and she deals with the underworld businesses, so secrets are safe with her.'
Then, he opened up a holographic map of the Ocean planet of Poseidon 5 and the thousands of space stations orbiting all around it, 'usually, the only way to get to her is through winning the Life Springer's Game since she never discloses the exact location of her station out of all of the stations in the planet's orbit. But I can find her directly with Probable.'
'And she is going to...'
'Make me a Rocky, yes.' Hong Fu said, looking directly at Vindy.
If Hong Fu becomes a Rocky, can they then...Vindy thought as she gently rubbed against the side of her ribs and swallowed hard as the warm tingling sensation travels up and down her body. Then, she shook her head violently and tried to rid it of the perverted thoughts that way, but instead, she just got more excited.
As time flew and Vindy eagerly waited for their arrival, the Poseidon system finally came within reach, as they slowly drifted towards it, the ship decelerating steadily towards the middle orbits of it. Ever since Hong Fu has gotten close enough, he has had the Probable activated as he looked through the various probabilities into the marble and went from station to station looking for Life Springer's ship. Vindy learnt from the local new transmissions that the games are on break for a little while, so perhaps there is indeed an opening for their unannounced visits.
And there it is. The unsuspecting station that looked exactly like a small orbiting habitat on the outside, but is a galaxy leading bioengineering research and manufacturing institute within. Nodding confidently towards Vindy, Hong Fu kept on Probable and sent out a transmission towards the station.
'This is Hong Fu, and I would like to require an audience with the Life Springer.' He said, 'I have something that might be of interest to her.'
There is no response, as playing dumb and dead is one of the first thing that Hong Fu expected from them. Since they are usually the one doing all of the work behind the scenes, suddenly being picked out must feel quite weird.
'I am sure you have seen the news from Olympus Prime, and all I ask for is an audience with her.' Hong Fu said, as he looked at Vindy briefly who's staring nervously back at him and continued, 'It's partly about the so-called artifacts.'
A direct transmission back to the ship established a private channel, and a beautiful human female dressed in an office outfit appeared in it. She leaned in close to the camera and said, 'keep talking, Life Springer is busy seeing a guest at the moment.'
'If you don't mind, can I come abroad the ship?' Hong Fu asked.
'And why would I do that?' The female replied harshly.
'Cause I can see that Life Springer has no guests in her office right now.' Hong Fu replied, the Probable glowing next to him before he picked it up and pocketed it.
'....The landing bay will be opened for you.'
The same beautiful human female greeted the two of them in the landing bay, and she is so beautiful by human standards that it almost felt unreal towards Vindy. Hong Fu was also caught in her glow for a little while before she angrily lead the two of them towards the main office. Compared to that, Vindy is just a small hairy monster girl.....
'So, what is your business?' The human girl turned around and looked directly at Hong Fu, 'Mr...Fu.'
'May I speak to Life Springer herself please.' Hong Fu said, crossing his arms in front.
'You are looking at her.' The human girl said with a cold chuckle, 'time's ticking, better get going.'
'Right...So you have seen the news about the artifacts in the Olympus system.' Hong Fu explained, trying to brush away the fact that the famous Aquarian bioengineer/biologist is actually a human, or rather an Aquarian-transferred human, 'about this Senator Zender person and the Phenomenon?'
'I see what everyone else sees.' The girl replied, sitting back in her chair and leaving the two of them standing in the room, 'do you have more?'
'Those bearers and the boss of Infinity are not the only with artifacts.' Hong Fu said, choosing his words carefully.
'I assume not.' She said, resting her head on her hand and looking disinterested.
'And each of the artifacts are immensely powerful, one of which was responsible for shifting the orbit of Olympus B.' Hong Fu said, 'and there is every chance that that artifact is under the control of Brakagi. So here's is my request. I would like to go through a body transformation procedure and ask you to bring my consciousness into a Rocky body. In response, I can offer you as much intelligence as you desired on the artifacts.'
'Oh?' She said with an interested look on her face, 'You can budging into MY station, demanding for MY attention and time, and all you have to offer is intelligence?'
'You won't get this kind of intelligence anywhere else.' Hong Fu said, looking as serious as always despite her reactions, 'the consciousness transfer for you would be an easy task for you, and offering you all that intelligence is just as...'
'Don't talk as if we are equals, human.' She interrupted, 'you didn't my game, you don't deserve my time, and you don't deserve my help. How did you find me?'
'Because I am an artifact user myself.' Hong Fu said, reaching out into his pocket and bringing out Probable, 'and I just happened to be the intelligence gathering kind.'
'Oh?' Life Springer seemed rather surprised by this developed as she leaned forward in her chair, 'now this is getting interesting. What about you, Rocky girl?'
'I'm...' Vindy was about to talk, but Hong Fu promptly cut in, 'she is just a companion.'
'Ah ha.' Life Springer pointed a finger, 'another user. Or should I say...bearer?'
Hong Fu froze for a split second as everything he had thought and prepared for so far are thrown out of the window immediately. Life Springer knows way more than Hong Fu has given her credit for, and he wondered what else she knew. Is she secretly working with Absolute Being all this time? How else would she have all of these knowledge.
Sensing Hong Fu tensing up, Vindy quietly activated Wavestriker and held it in her finger just in case Life Springer does something.
'I know more than you think,' Life Springer lets out a high pitched laugh as she stands up and strides towards Hong Fu and Vindy, 'yet you underestimate me still, human?'
'I do not know what you know, that is true.' Hong Fu admitted before looking up, 'however, are you so sure to disregard what we can provide?'
'That remains to be seen.' She offered the two of them a perplexing smile, as she unbuttons the top of her shirt and made a detour towards a tall standing chair when suddenly her upper chest opened up and a tentacle...no, a tongue reached out and licked the chair. The entire body of the chair glowed before it started moving on its on as it stumbles towards the two of them.
Life Springer is also an artifact user, Hong Fu immediately realized what has happened, as the chair-monster waddles towards him before extending out one of it's legs and shooting it directly towards him. Hong Fu immediately activated Probable in response and moved out of the wave of the first clusters of strikes, stabs and pierces as he shoved Vindy out of harms way at the same time.
The chair monster didn't slow down at all after the initial attacks fell through, and planted hard into the ground before springing up and leaping high up in the air, preparing to chop down the two of them.
'Go, I got this.' Vindy whispered behind Hong Fu, and he immediately know what she is talking about. That artifact's power appeared to have been that of monsterfication of objects, or...springing life into them...everything makes perfect sense now. The two of them both saw the strange mouth near Life Springer's upper chest open and glow, meaning the artifacts are still active despite the initial activation. Perhaps there is an activation criteria for inanimate objects?
Regardless, Vindy will take care of the chair monster, and Hong Fu can take care of Life Springer. Hong Fu nodded, as he dodged the returning strikes from the chair monster from behind him without needing to look back thanks to Probable. He realized long ago that looking into the Probable itself while in combat is nothing less than utter stupidity, and hence developed his skills in probing the information without needing to physically look at his artifacts. However, all of the information are less clear or specific, as he merely gets flashes of the branching trees of possibilities, albeit a lot more blurry than what he usually gets. However, in combat, it is enough.
He doesn't need to concern himself with all of the possibilities around him, but rather the major ones that will directly influence this fight.
As he ducked down low and sprinted towards Life Springer, she tilted her head in interest and taunted, 'oh, you are approaching me?'
'I can't beat you up without getting closer.' Hong Fu responded as Life Springer stepped forward, swinging her fist towards Hong Fu to which he easily avoids. Then, the tongue shot out from her exposed chest and nearly clipped the side of Hong Fu's shoulder if he didn't get the flashes of images to showed his heart getting punctured. Altering his footwork preemptively, Hong Fu spun around to the side, letting that tongue roll along the side of his shoulder as he went around Life Springer and grabbed onto her arms before pinning it against her back.
'Ouch ouch...' She cried out in pain as Hong Fu gripped her wrists hard behind her.
Then, he swept underneath her foot and dropped her down onto the ground as she screams out in surprise. In the meanwhile, the chair monster is facing off against Vindy, as it's speed and agility has proven to be quite a challenge for the Rocky. The stabs and jabs are so quick that Vindy does not actually have any time to establish any physical contact. And the chair is moving so fast on the ground that neither standing waves and projected shock waves have the chance to even hit it before it jumps out of the way. This is exactly the kind of opponents that she struggles against, and she is beginning to be trapped in a spiral of frustration.
Then the legs of the chair monster kicked out yet again and slips out of Vindy's reach like a slimy fish. She grunted frustratingly and took two steps forward towards the chair monster. Seeing the closing distance between the two, the chair monster kicked out its legs once again, and it found Vindy right on the right shoulder. However, the legs of the chair hooked and was trapped by Vindy's fur.
'Check mate.' She grabbed onto the leg with her right hand while enduring the tearing pain. She felt for the natural frequency of the chair monster before sending it a jolt of waves, blowing it up into pieces. Once it is completely destroyed, the chair no longer moves.
'Alright alright, I have seen enough.' Life Springer said, learning her head to the side, 'let me go now.'
Still cautious of her attacking the two of them, Hong Fu slowly moves his weight off her before jumping back towards Vindy. He checked on her right shoulder briefly before handing her a small handkerchief.
'Sorry for the sudden moves, but it's really hard for me to not want to see what artifact users are capable of.' Life Springer pushed her body back up into standing as she fixes her clothes and covers up her exposed chests and the strange mouth opening around her upper chest underneath her white shirt. She isn't the least bit sorry really, but at least now the two can return to talking about business again, 'I do not like when people simply walk up and demand me do a certain thing.'
'How many artifact users have you dealt with before?' Hong Fu asked.
'Once a few are here, they just keep coming...' Life Springer said, grabbing her messy long hair and began smoothing them out into nice long strips, 'artifact users are drawn to each other, don't they?'
'So are you going to help him or not?' Vindy asked.
'I don't exactly have much to lose, apart from time and effort.' Life Springer said, pointing a finger towards Hong Fu, 'my real name is Anozee. Now, Mr Fu, let's go for a walk.'
Vindy was treated by a few of the nurses who patched up her shoulder and applied a healing cream towards the wound. Meanwhile, Hong Fu and Anozee went for a tour around the facility, a preferred way of meeting and communicating for the both of them compared to boring office meetings.
'I want you to tell me everything you know about artifacts, about Absolute Being, and about what happened recently.' Going straight to the point, she laid it all out on the table, 'by what has happened, I meant what has happened between Absolute Being and the bearers, and what's going on in the galaxy right now. I want it all, from your perspective.'
'Can you do that?'
'Deal.'
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