The road home was neither long nor short, and by the time Ged arrived at the rocky entrance to his bunker, the sun had completely set.
The entrance, once a secure rectangular outline, now sagged grotesquely, warped by the heat from the planet’s recent feeding. The misshapen doorway looked ready to collapse at any moment. On its side, a faded picture of a blue eagle could be seen.
Ged gazed at the sight with some confusion. "Strange... I see they still haven’t fixed the paint on the entrance. Usually they are pretty on top of things. Feeding was hours ago. What have my parents been doing?" He frowned, pulling at the melted door handle. It stuck fast, and with a grunt of effort, he eventually wrenched it free, the metal screeching as it came loose. With a loud clang, he tossed the door aside and peered into the dark stone steps leading to his bunker.
“Stu. Celia. I’m home!” Ged called as he descended into the dim bunker.
His brows furrowed with indignation as silence greeted him in response.
The cramped interior was tidy but sparse. For someone of Ged’s massive stature, the low ceilings and tight spaces felt suffocating. A small, empty kitchen and an equally bare living room met his gaze. He frowned. "Not here. Have they gone out?"
On the kitchen island, a clay tablet caught his attention. As soon as he picked it up, a wave of heat spread through his body, triggering a vivid, pulsating hallucination. Images of two familiar figures appeared in his mind.
Stu and Celia, the temporary guardians who had cared for him the past two years, materialized before him. Their voices echoed softly, speaking directly to him.
“Ged… if you’re hearing this, you’ve probably noticed we’re gone,” Stu began, regret lacing his tone.
Celia’s voice followed, warm yet strained. “We have so many children to care for. As the world grows, so does our responsibility to ensure no child feels unloved.”
“We tried to find a permanent solution for you,” Stu continued, his voice heavy. “But the truth is, our resources are stretched too thin. We spoke with our supervisor, but there’s only so much we can do. A new assignment came, and it forced us to change our residence as well.”
“Please don’t hate us, Ged,” Celia added. “We truly wish you the best. We know you’ll achieve your dream of becoming a Celestial one day.”
“Hugs and kisses from both of us. Goodbye, Ged,” Stu concluded as the vision faded.
Ged stood motionless, the tablet trembling in his hands. Then, with a sharp motion, he crushed it into dust. The message could have been replayed, but he didn’t want to hear their excuses again.
Stu and Celia had been good people, warm and kind. They showered him with love and support. But Ged never wanted just their love or support.
He remembered his birthday years ago. For his present that year, Ged had asked for one thing: for them to remain with him as his permanent parents, to be there for him indefinitely. Seeing their faces in the hallucination, telling him they had no choice but to leave, left a burning lump in his throat.
"Should’ve known," he muttered bitterly. “Every fucking one of them are liars.”
"They say over a hundred years ago, before the blue rain fell, families were different. They were permanent, bound by blood, born from couples who loved their children unconditionally. But clearly, that is all fantasy." He spat.
“The Celestials lived through those days. They saw real families. And yet they don’t care about preserving them at all. They spawn us children in their muscles like factories, creating us solely to suffer for their survival, all under the guise of 'necessity.'”
His eyes burned with hatred as he cursed the world that had brought him into existence.
"What’s the point of preserving humanity, if I can’t even have a sliver of it for myself?"
Ged’s voice faltered, but his rage burned on, filling the silence of the empty bunker.
"I will never allow them to control me." He steeled himself.
"Celia and Stu were just another band-aid I had to rip off eventually. Now that I have the house to myself, I can operate more freely without their nosy looks." Ged gave a wry smile, hiding his pain as he approached the fridge in his small home.
Inside was an arrangement of colored rocks, alongside a note from Celia and Stu apologizing for leaving so suddenly once again.
Ged barely acknowledged the note, crumpling it and tossing it onto the floor. Reaching into his abs, he retrieved an assortment of stones from his trade with Resh. He took out two peculiar, oddly shaped stones left behind by Celia and Stu, each weighing about five kilograms. Splashing cold water on his face, he allowed the chill to momentarily ease his simmering frustration. Passing through the bunker’s main area, he descended the creaking stairs into the earth’s depths, his mind churned with the weight of unfinished tasks.
The walls of the staircase bore a faded blue eagle, its paint struggling to hold back the regenerating force of the living planet. The earth pulsated against its restraints, as if eager to break free and consume the house. Every month, a fresh coat of paint was required to keep the bunker from being crushed by Planet Blue Eagle’s relentless hunger.
"I'm going to have to do another coat soon, before I lose my damn house to this planet again," Ged muttered, frowning hatefully.
Once Ged reached a particular point in his descent, the staircase opened into a circular clearing. The floor was lined with pod-like chambers embedded in the ground, each marked with a small eagle etched into the surface.
On the wall, a meticulously organized schedule outlined the days of the week, listing workouts, rep counts, and total weights. The precision in its writing reflected the relentless discipline of its owner.
Ged scanned the room, his gaze settling on the open space before him. "At least I’ve got chest and legs today," he muttered, attempting to lift his sour mood. It was one of the few routines he genuinely enjoyed.
Reaching into his abs, he withdrew a stack of vials. Flexing his bicep, he cut off blood flow to his arm. With practiced precision, he pierced a swollen vein with his finger, then popped the cork from the first vial, letting the liquid flow in. One by one, he emptied all ten vials of Blue Water. As the substance coursed through him, the usual color of his arm deepened into an unnatural purple. He relaxed his bicep, massaging the area expertly to speed healing and ensure the Blue Water circulated fully. Veins lit up like a glowing river map, the blue light eventually suffusing his eyes as well.
Ged grabbed the colored rocks, placing them in his mouth. The crunch echoed through the room as he chewed, his teeth grinding the stones down. With each bite, the Blue Water’s effects intensified.
His vision warped as hallucinatory raindrops began falling from the ceiling, shimmering and surreal. Before they could touch the ground, a dark shadow from his mind extended outward, swallowing the drops like a ravenous beast. The hallucinations never fully took hold, allowing him to maintain clarity.
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Ged swallowed the rocks with deliberate effort. A faint white steam rose from his body, billowing outward and signifying the loss of mass through a bodily reaction. He stood motionless, allowing the sensations to course through him. His body felt lighter and sharper, but the loss of precious mass left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew that this resource would only become more critical as he pursued his goals.
Stepping into the pod, Ged activated it by channeling heat from his core. The surrounding earth adhered to his body as he descended, encasing his muscles in pressurized stone. Only his chest and arms were free, ready for action.
He gripped two stone slabs, each weighing over 300 kilograms. As the ground above opened, he began a motion similar to dumbbell flies. The slabs clattered together at the top with a thunderous boom, vibrations rippling through the pod.
"Bah!" Ged roared, his voice echoing off the chamber walls.
The day’s weight bore down on him: the loss of his foster parents, the jeers of protesters, and Resh’s grim warnings of war. These thoughts swirled in his mind like a raging tornado, amplified by the surreal Blue Water rain. The storm within fueled his drive, warping his vision and pushing his body beyond its limits.
One rep. Two. By the third, his arms trembled violently, on the verge of collapse. Refusing to give up, Ged summoned every ounce of strength for a fourth rep. The slabs met at the top with a faint tap before he lowered them with a resounding crash.
"I’m still too weak!" he growled, frustration dripping from every word. Adjusting the pod’s heat levels, he reduced the slabs’ weight to 260 kilograms and continued.
Ged pushed through two more punishing sets, managing seven reps in the first and five in the second before his arms gave out completely. Emerging from the pod, he scribbled his totals on the wall. It was a personal best, but the achievement did little to ease his frustration.
White steam still radiated from his body as he descended once more, this time for underground squats. With a resistance of 1200 kilograms, he started strong, completing 20 reps in his first set. By the final set, his legs shook uncontrollably, barely managing eight reps.
As the workout concluded, the white steam had almost entirely dissipated, leaving only faint wisps in the air. Ged regarded them with a bitter smile.
"What a waste. I couldn’t use it all," he muttered, disappointment etched across his face. His chest and legs had reached their limits, and the last remnants of mass were absorbed uselessly into the surrounding walls.
For most bodybuilders, measuring body mass was a routine necessity. Government regulations treated physiques like concealed weapons, enforcing strict weight limits through mandatory weekly checks. Without proper clearance and permits, no one could legally exceed a total mass of 1,000 kilograms.
In the underground bodybuilding circuits, however, most far surpassed that limit. Those who did were forced to abandon legitimate work, relying on illegal activities to fund their growth and avoid the government’s suffocating oversight. Outside society’s boundaries, they pushed their bodies to unimaginable extremes.
Ged flexed his chest, examining himself in the mirror with a frown.
"It’s starting to get noticeable. It won’t be long before the municipal authorities flag me for a physique check. Soon, I’ll have no choice but to stay underground, building my body in secret," he muttered. "How does Resh manage it? He’s already sacrificed his sanity to chase his dream, shutting himself away in that dark room, cut off from the sun. And here I am, still hesitating to do the same."
Ged’s fists tightened at his sides, his frustration evident.
"One day, like Resh, I’ll be surrounded by enemies on all sides," he said through gritted teeth. "I should just commit and bulk up, but something keeps holding me back. I can’t bring myself to hide away like he does."
His voice softened as he looked away from his reflection, the weight of his thoughts hanging heavy in the room.
Next to his workout chamber was a wooden door that led to a small sauna. Heated by magma from the earth, the space radiated an intense warmth, its smoldering atmosphere reinforcing Ged’s dedication. The heavy door creaked shut behind him as he stepped inside.
The room was sparse. A lone meditation mat lay at its center, surrounded by shimmering waves of heat. In the far corner, a tiny pool of magma bubbled softly, casting a faint orange glow over the walls.
Ged reached into his abs and withdrew a bucket of water. Pouring it into the magma, the room filled with thick steam, the heat intensifying as smoke curled upward. He lowered himself onto the mat, crossing his legs in the lotus position.
With slow, deliberate breaths, Ged began circulating the hot steam through his body. Deep in his lower abdomen, a small ball of light pulsed rhythmically. This was his heat core, the concentrated spark that powered his abilities and artifacts. It served as a vital anchor preventing his massive physique from collapsing under its own weight. Without it, his body would implode.
As a bodybuilder’s mass increased, so did the pressure on their core. A larger core stored greater amounts of heat, unlocking exponential power. Yet this growth was not linear. A molten core just one stage higher could grant its user overwhelming superiority, even against someone of similar mass.
"I’m still far from reaching asteroid mass," Ged muttered, frustration tinging his voice. "I’m probably only at one and a half meteoroids."
Ged had already reached the first major milestone in bodybuilding, Meteoroid Mass. At 1,000 kilograms of body mass, his core had transformed into a brilliant white orb, sparkling like a distant star. The next stage, Asteroid Mass, required an unfathomable leap, around 100,000 kilograms of mass. Achieving it unlocked immense power, causing the core to upgrade and the heat passageways to shift from white to a glowing purple hue.
For users of Blue Water, like Ged, the process was slightly different. The drug altered the body’s heat, turning passageways a distinctive blue. Ged’s own passageways glowed with a whitish-blue hue, their efficiency unmatched. Blue Water acted like a superconductor, minimizing heat loss while enhancing the creation of muscle, abilities, and artifacts.
Exhaling deeply, Ged let the steam flow through his passageways, the light blue glow of his core pulsing steadily.
Once the steam had fully soaked into his body and enveloped all the heat passageways, he began his work.
The light blue heat traveled from his lower abdomen into his calves, carving intricate pathways through the muscle. Manipulating the heat into swirling pools within the fibers, he etched a constellation-like pattern resembling a goat, its stars meticulously arranged to evoke the night sky.
After thirty minutes of precise carving, Ged retracted the heat back into his core. He allowed the residual warmth of the steam room to circulate through his body, refocusing his energy as he poured another bucket of water into the magma, intensifying the room’s heat for the next phase.
Opening his eyes from his meditative state, he pulled out the gun artifact tablet that Resh had given him. His expression soured as he scanned its instructions.
"No, I can’t do it. I won’t sacrifice my bicep training for this miserable workout," Ged muttered, shaking his head. Storing the tablet back in his abs, he retrieved the other three tablets Resh had provided.
He frowned at two of the tablets as he studied their instructions. "These two work in pairs, but I don’t have two free muscles to train them together right now." With a sigh, he set them aside and focused on the last one.
"This one, I can manage," Ged said after a moment, scrutinizing the contents. He cast a critical glance at his bulging forearms. "They’re big enough for now. I can afford to neglect them a little."
The tablet described the ability workout "Stalactite Sword," which harnessed waste dripping from the forearms to form durable, icicle-like rock structures. Up to five stalactites could be stored in each wrist, ready to be used as pointed swords or broken in half as throwing knives.
"The only issue is how long they take to form. But once I’ve stored a few, I can shift back to strength training and adjust my routine," Ged said, smiling despite himself.
Channeling the heat swirling through his body, he directed energy to his forearms, stimulating the muscle tissue in irregular patterns. As his body expelled tiny bits of mass, Ged skillfully utilized the waste to begin shaping the stalactites. Faint dripping sounds echoed as small nubs of rock began to emerge from the tops of his forearms.
Ged smiled at his progress. Satisfied with his effort and unwilling to risk overtraining or injury, he put away his bucket of water and exited the steam room.
Having spent over an hour in the hot room, he felt his mind clear and his body refreshed. The heavy workout and intense heat had washed away the stress of the day, leaving him with a renewed sense of focus.
"I should message Trevor and see if he can meet me tomorrow," Ged muttered to himself. "Check if there are any updates with the clients. Something big feels like it’s brewing, and I might need to recruit extra hands to keep things running smoothly."
Rummaging through his abs, Ged pulled out a stone transmitter. He gripped it firmly, channeling heat into the device with precise, Morse-code-like patterns.
With a sharp throw, Ged hurled the transmitter against the wall. The loud bang echoed through the room as vibrations from the stone traveled into the earth, carrying his message to Trevor.
"Knowing him, he’s probably already conked out from rolling on Beehive earlier," Ged muttered, a hint of amusement in his voice. "I doubt I’ll hear back until morning."
He ascended the stairs to his small home, navigating the cramped hallways to his tiny room. Collapsing onto his bed, Ged let out a contented sigh, doing his best to put aside the lingering challenges he knew he would inevitably face in the future, ready for a long, well-deserved sleep.