Metal clangs reverberated throughout the corridors of the airship with each step Zulcrestus took, with a knight and two scientists greeting him as he walked past them.
"Excuse me, Zulcrestus, could I make a request?" the female merling scientist, with short light cyan hair with dark green gradient ends, light black eyes and pale blue/lime skin, asked. Zulcrestus stopped walking and turned to face her.
"I suppose.".
"I have a report I need to give to Lady Calloukus but when I went to her room she didn't respond, so could I bother you to check on her and tell her I sent the report to her desk?" the merling scientist pleaded while putting her hands together. Zulcrestus let out an aggravated sigh, which made the group flinch.
"I'll go inform her, Sera.". Sera bowed and thanked Zulcrestus before he continued on his way. Sera let out a relieved sigh, and even let out a nervous chuckle, when Zulcrestus walked around the corner.
"Man, he's scary." the other scientist remarked.
"I'd say he's more intimidating than scary." the knight retorted. The knight and scientist continued to discuss whether Zulcrestus was scary or intimidating, making Sera roll her eyes.
Meanwhile, Callie, wearing nothing but an oversized fluffy pink hoodie, was sleeping with a satisfied expression on her face while drooling a little onto the large fluffy red cat plushie that she was resting her head on. The sound of a single loud knock reverberated from the bedroom door, causing Callie to frantically sit up and look around the room in a dazed state.
"You better not be sleeping in, Callie." Zulcrestus voiced with a monotone voice. Callie's eyes widened when she recognised Zulcrestus' voice. She frantically climbed out of bed but tripped on her bed sheet. Zulcrestus heard a loud crash and he sighed. Multiple crashes could be heard as Zulcrestus waited for Callie to open the door. After one last crash, the room went oddly silent for Zulcrestus' liking. He lifted his hand to press the gem located in the centre of the door but the door suddenly slid open. Callie leaned her arm against the doorframe while giving Zulcrestus a confident grin.
"What's up, Zuzu?". Zulcrestus looked into the extremely barren room. Callie waved her free arm in front of Zulcrestus' face making him look down at her.
"Sera left a report for you on your desk, so I suggest you put some clothes on and check it out.". Callie's expression didn't change but she started to blush.
"R-right, just give me a sec.". Callie quickly closed the sliding door. From outside of the room, Callie could be heard screaming, although it was extremely muffled, and rolling around the room while calling herself an idiot. After what felt like an eternity, Zulcrestus waited by the door until it reopened. Callie was wearing, in addition to her now unzipped pink hoodie, a white shirt with the Zelkio logo on it, black leggings and fluffy pink slippers. She walked out of the room and spread her arms out in a manner similar to someone offering a hug.
"Will this do?" Callie asked while lowing her arms. Zulcrestus inspected Callie's attire.
"Aren't you forgetting something?". Callie rolled her eyes before lowing her head and lifting her left hand. Multiple clanging noises could be heard from Callie's room before her golden steampunk-themed goggles flew out from the door and into her hand. She quickly placed the goggles on her head as the bedroom door closed.
"Happy now?".
"It's serviceable.". Callie's head slumped forwards at Zulcrestus' response before he started to walk off.
"You really don't know how to talk to girls, do you," Callie said as she waddled behind him.
After a little bit of walking, the two of them arrived at Callie's lab, on the airship, and Zulcrestus noticed the large Magistrate level clearance sign next to the door. Callie flashed her goggles over the gem on the door, unlocking it and the duo entered. The two walked on a narrow railing that was surrounded by four large test tubes with different colours; one being a bright ocean blue liquid, one being a translucent light pink slime, one being filled with what appeared to be a mini-snow storm and the last one being empty.
As the Zulcrestus and Callie walked past the slime-filled test tube, it started to slightly condense and formed two eyes, that had maroon iris' and super pale pink Sclera, that blinked a few times after forming before looking over at the duo and watching them walk over to Callie's desk. Callie hopped onto her chair before turning on her computer. After opening her files and clicking on the most recently added file, a transparent green energy rectangle emerged from the desk. Callie quickly looked over the report and from her expression was visibly confused.
"Something gone wrong, again?" Zulcrestus asked. Callie made an exacerbated huff at Zulcrestus and dropped the report onto her desk before it sunk back into it.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Noo...? It's just that Sera got some abnormal readings from Prima, is all.".
"Prima?" Zulcrestus asked with a slightly interested/confused tone. Callie pointed over at the empty text tube with a floating translucent green plack by it that read Volcanic Prototype Prima-03.
"I see, so your little science projects are bearing some fruits, huh?". Callie scoffed as she hopped off the chair she was sitting on.
"Sometimes, I wonder if you don't realise how insensitive you are sometimes. But to answer your question sort of.". Callie quickly hurried over to the empty incubation pod and slapped her hand on it.
"As you can see, one of my 'science projects' has finished incubating but the others seem to be taking longer, and the ice and wind one is having a hard time even stabilizing.". Zulcrestus looked over at the incubation pod with the mini snow storm.
"I would ask why but...". Callie rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah, I get it you don't want me to prattle on about something you barely care abou-". Zulcrestus let out a cough that made Callie stop talking.
"Although that's normally the case, I was more concerned about the one behind me.". Callie tilted her head slightly before leaning to her right and looking at the incubation pod behind Zulcrestus. Callie was surprised to see that a faint outline of a humanoid figure had their hands and face pressed against the walls of the pink slime-filled incubation pod. The slimling had their eyes locked on Zulcrestus. Zulcrestus looked up slightly before abruptly heading for the lab's exit.
"Where are you going?" Callie asked.
"I got a call from someone in the storage hanger but you should probably check it out as well when you're done with checking Sera's report.". The slime humanoid pouted as the door closed behind Zulcrestus.
Zulcrestus entered the hanger and noticed the hanger door was open.
"Magistrate Zulcrestus, sir, over here." a Zelkio knight shouted from across the room. Zulcrestus walked over to the knight standing next to a large wrecked crate with small red eggish-shaped pellets spilling out from the hole in the crate.
"So what happen?". the knight explained he didn't actually see what happened but heard a loud crash, and when he hurried to check it out he found the hanger door open with a knocked-out Zelkio Knight.
"Were they injured?". The knight shook his head.
"No sir, they didn't sustain any serious injuries but I did see them a few minutes before the incident and they mentioned they got a request from an incoming landing request on the Zelkio frequency.".
"I see, so what about this crate.".
"I'm not...". The knight suddenly jumped back from the crate when he heard munching noises coming from the crate and got into a defensive stance. Zulcrestus and the knight stared at the box as the munching noises continued. The knight asked Zulcrestus what they should do.
"Go close the hanger door while I deal with it.". The knight nodded before heading to the hanger door. Zulcrestus continued to watch the crate as the munching noises continued. He placed his foot on the crate, causing the munching noises to stop before he knocked the crate over.
"Wooah!" a high-pitched girl's voice yelled as the sound of the red pellets rattled around from inside the crate. Zulcrestus knocked his fist on the top of the crate causing the person inside it to fumble around, making the pellets rattle around. A dark-tanned kid, that looked around seven and had long flame-like gradient hair, popped her head out from the hole in the top of the crate. The kid swallowed the pellets they had been chewing on before looking around.
"Alright, who's the wise guy that knocked me over-" the kid abruptly stopped talking when she looked behind her. Her eye narrowed, into a straight line, and her ears perked straight up as she noticed Zulcrestus looming over her. The kid awkwardly chuckled as she looked Zulcrestus in the eyes.
"H-hi ther-re...". Zulcrestus leaned towards the kid making her move her head back as far as she could. Zulcrestus look into her eyes, as sweat ran down her face.
"Lava like iris', so you're Prima I take it?". Prima's eyes dilated, showing that her right eye's pupil was in the shape of a five-petaled flower, and her cat ears slumped slightly.
"Y-yeah that's me, although my...". Prima quickly climbed out of the grate. She stood up as straight as she could while crossing both her arms behind her back.
"My full name is Volcanic Prototype Prima-03, code name Prima, and I am the...". Before Prima could say any more, Callie abruptly covered Prima's mouth to stop her from talking.
"Shush, I told you you're not allowed to introduce yourself to anyone like tha-". Callie realised the person Prima was talking to was Zulcrestus.
"Oh, Hey Zuzu.". Callie removed her hands from Prima's mouth. Prima turned and looked at Callie with a stroppy expression.
"Mama, why'd you have to do that, I almost got it first try this time.". Zulcrestus watched Prima's fire gradient tail playfully swinging from side to side as she continued to pout at Callie. Zulcrestus coughed to get Callie and Prima's attention.
"What is it, Zuzu?" Callie asked.
"Mind telling me what these are?" Zulcrestus asked while he was using his telekinesis to move all of the pellets back into the crate.
"Oh, there Mana Pills," Callie replied.
"And they're really tasty" Prima added while reaching her hand into the crate and grabbing a handful of Mana Pills. Prima started to eat the Mana Pills while Callie was explaining how the pills were made, to Zulcrestus.
"Magistrate Zulcrestus, Lady Calloukus, the scanners just picked up a highly concentrated mana signature." A Zelkio Knight stated as they hurried over to the trio.
"I'll deal with this Callie, so get some more rest before we arrive at Lumios.". Callie crossed her arms.
"That was a fluke, I've just been overworked recently.".
"Of course you are," Zulcrestus said with a monotone voice before heading off with the knight. Callie let out a sigh while Prima was eating Mana Pills.
"So, I got a status report from Sera,". Prima's eyes widened as she put the last Mana Pill she had in her mouth.
"And I was wondering if you'd like to tell me what you were up to a few minutes ago.". Prima rapidly chewed on the Mana Pill, while nervously chuckling.