Before Razzo can take it all in, one of the guards grabs him by the arm and yanks him to move along. Razzo pulls his arm and shoots the guard a dirty look.
“Either come with me on your own or we will drag you to where you need to be, now make your decision… quickly” - says the guard in a stern tone.
“Okay relax man I’m coming, can’t even take a minute to look around anymore huh?”
“Not unless you wish to be dragged”
“Okay okay I’m going, I hear ya loud and clear chief”. - says Razzo sarcastically while shooting finger guns at the guard.
Razzo goes in front of the guard and begins to walk further into the camp.
The confused guard thinks to himself; ‘I’m not a chief, I'm a guard, this guy’s an idiot, why are we wasting our time with him’.
The rest of the way to the leaders tent the two of them walk in silence as the guard ponders what Razzo had told him. Razzo on the other hand was in awe looking around the campground. Some parts looked worse than others with certain sections having pop up houses that people lived in, other sections had pop up tents with warm interiors more on the luxurious side, and finally there was a section that had imported their homes using diminishment techniques where they shrink the contents as a whole. All around the camp there were electric fires running on which people would cook and gather to keep warm as well as talk with one another sharing stories, ideas, or just personal drama at least that’s what Razzo figured they were doing as that’s what he used to do as a kid when he was around a fire. The lighting wasn’t great in the bubble but the lamp posts that already existed when the camp was a station provided them with sufficient lighting. The way that the posts were operating considering most of the electrical grid for the station was down was through small electrical generators that would connect to each individual post. The generators would connect to one another making a small above ground grid that shared energy and electricity. Razzo, in awe of all that he was seeing, almost tripped over a cord that was connecting two lamp posts.
The guard says in a sarcastic tone: “Watch your stepping”.
Razzo takes a moment to come up with a snarky reply, but just before he says something the guard stops.
The guard puts a hand on Razzo’s shoulder and says: “We’re here”.
They were outside of a military tent smack dead center of the campground, giving everyone in the campground the same distance to travel to it. No matter the direction most of the housing around the tent was well maintained and evident of higher quality resources, with the quality dropping off further and further away from the tent. Razzo looked slightly confused about where he was brought but carefully opened the tent and stepped through. As his eyes adjusted to the darker inside of the room it was six different people dressed in their cloaks with regular clothing underneath sitting around a circular war table with an electric fire in the middle. Razzo looked to the left and he noticed that the two medic’s that were helping him out earlier were standing to the left with one of them holding a 3-D stereoscopic projector in hand. The projector is a small square box with a lens on one side. It is a tool that allows for highly detailed holographic displays which you can interact with and change the data and what is displayed using your hands. It is typically used in the medical field as well as construction, but over the past 50 years has been popularized for other facets of society.
Razzo breaks the silence: “Did somebody here order a stripper?”
No one reacts to the statement and continues whatever they were doing before he entered the tent.
One of them takes a moment to break away from the data and tells him: “Sit down at the end of the table and please keep your clothes on, nobody needs to see that”.
Razzo goes to sit down mumbling to himself ‘well what if they want to see that’. Not too long after he’s seated at the edge of the table one of the medics walks up to the corner of the table and places the projector on the table.
The man that told Razzo to sit starts introducing everyone quickly: “I don’t want this to take as long as it did with your companion as we have some information we’re waiting to get back. So my name is Kaner I am leader number 3, aside from the two medics working on the projector we’re the leaders of this establishment”. He points: “to my right Kronos he is the sixth, and on my left is Em she’s five. On the other side furthest from you and the one that’s going to keep his comments to himself is Jefe leader 4, in the middle is Anker who’s one, and closest to you is Izabela leader 2. Now you probably won’t remember all these names right away, that's okay. Just come up to us and ask us what our names are, we're more than happy to remind you. Our numbers are also pinned to what remains of our uniforms so if we have our helmets on you can tell”.
Razzo thinks for a moment trying to remember everyone's name as people one by one turn their attention to him from what they were doing. Not too long after everyone’s staring at Razzo which makes him a little uncomfortable.
“So like why are you all staring at me now? Am I supposed to do a trick or perform an act or something? You told me not to strip so I’m abiding by that!” - says Razzo trying to get their attention off of him but does quite the opposite.
Izabela smiles and shakes her head: “Relax we just want to know more about you and good thing you’re sticking to the no stripping I think we’ll survive without it”.
She gives him a warm smile and Razzo melts on the inside a little bit and begins to blush. He quickly composes himself and turns back to Kaner.
“So how did you decide on which number each of you gets?”
“It was simply the order in which we came” - replies Kaner.
“So how did you become leaders like who made that call? Is there like a voting process or is it like a hierarchy? When can I be a leader?” - Razzo rattles off in a hurry.
Anker huffs as he raises his voice: “Enough boy we don’t have time for all this!”
Kaner adds with a calm yet unshakable tone: “Anker, relax but we also need to make sure you know what side you're fighting for kid, you see you came in here with the enemy. Although your companion told us a pretty entertaining story we are checking it out for how factual it is as we speak, as for you we still have some figuring out to do. How about you start off by telling us your name”.
“my name is Razzo Rossi”.
The room sits in silence with no one saying anything and remaining serious with cold looks around the table and even from the medics.
“Typically we would laugh and the combination of your name is quite comical but right now is not a time of laughing. We unfortunately have some bad news for you”.
“Go on…” - says Razzo slightly upset.
Kronos signals to Izabela she presses a button on the display and the projector turns on. The projector displays the body of Razzo on multiple levels as if they are layered on to each other. Em on the other side puts her hands together, puts them into the diagram and separates her hands revealing four different levels. The first level is the skin and muscle layer which look to be remaining intact and the muscles are actually looking more developed and stronger than that of a typical human. Then there’s the layer of the nerves that look like they’ve been burned alive and are in a constant state of being burned and regenerated simultaneously unlike any regular human. Then on the organ level the heart and stomach, brain as well as liver are fine yet the lungs and pancreas are completely eviscerated with little remaining of them. As for the final level of the bone structure they are even more dense than the densest bones of beings on Earth. All this information led to much confusion for Razzo.
“Why are you showing me this Dre said I had a stomach flu or something but I don’t feel it now? And if this is about me farting while on the walk over I blame it on being nervous, and that was pretty good on my part because when I’m really nervous it gets really bad, like diarrhea bad…” - says Razzo as he grimaces.
Em stares Razzo dead in the eyes with a slightly shocked look and says: “Um no this has nothing to do with that. I’d recommend seeing a doctor but your gastrointestinal tract isn’t exactly top priority. If Dre told you then how are you so calm about this? This is not something to be joking around with. Can you even read the chart?”
Razzo rolls his eyes trying to act smart: “Obviously I can read and it says my name and has four diagrams of a human body, which if my inference is correct is in fact my body. Come on, I expect more from you so-called leaders!”
Em looks at him confused: “Okay but based on our analysis of your body you should be dead right now!”
Razzo smiles and replies: “Well I’m not dead I’m very much alive and living my life. I guess you could say I’m simply built different?”
Em replies slowly: “Well yes you are correct, did Dre tell you why you are able to sustain yourself as you currently are?”
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Razzo ponders for a moment and then says: “I think he said something about an energy source in my stomach but I’m not too sure if I’ll be honest with you”.
Anker stands up and shoves his hand in Razzo’s direction and exclaims: “HE COULD BE AN AUTOMATON TOO, I SAY WE CUT HIM OPEN TO BE SURE, FOR ALL WE KNOW HE COULD BE A NEW TYPE OF AUTOMATON THAT'S A TICKING TIME BOMB!!”
Anker tries to get out of the table but as he starts to get out Izabela grabs his right arm and pulls him down swiftly.
She whispers to him: “Quit being such a drama queen”.
She then raises a question to the table: “Let’s just simmer down and get Dre, we know for a fact that Razzo is human from our findings but Dre was able to make a more detailed analysis so why don’t we go get the robot?”
“That’s a good idea, we’ll get a better idea of what exactly Razzo is” - says Kaner suspiciously looking at Razzo.
Kronos stands up and walks over to the front of the tent, briefly talks to one of the guards and leaves with him.
Meanwhile in the tent everyone is still trying to decipher the puzzle of Razzo. Razzo thinks to himself this is probably the most interested a group of people has been in him in years, excluding groups of people that aren’t trying to fire him from his job that is. Okay now just have to focus on not saying anything more stupid than the diarrhea comment. Razzo says under his breath so only he can hear it ‘if you’re going to have any shot with her, talk less about your poops and more about that smooth talk’. While Razzo is lost in thought trying to think of something clever to say to Izabela, Jefe uses this moment of silence as the perfect opportunity to unravel the mystery of the newcomer Razzo himself.
“So Razzor, Raz, Razziboy, whatever it is what were you doing before Izabela and her crew found you?”
Izabela rolls her eyes at Jefe and tells him off: “I already told you what he told me, are you questioning what I told you or do you just like to hear the same thing repeated over and over again?”
Jefe replies snarkily: “I asked Razziboy not you, please wait your turn”.
Razzo replies confidently: “I was going to the center of the city to free the prisoners that were trapped in the colosseum duh”.
Everyone in the room smiles or chuckles a little bit.
Jefe laughs: “Well well aren’t you a brave little soldier, what makes you think you could have freed them?”
Razzo even more confidently says: “If I’m being honest I don’t know that I would have succeeded but it was worth a shot to try as it was the right thing to do”.
Jefe asks: “Okay back to the questions, where were you when Earth was invaded?”
“Honestly I’m not sure, before this whole situation happened I was just working at the star factory as a maintenance worker, and then the next thing I know I wake up and the plant is destroyed and I’m in the apocalypse. Sort of a surprise to me, I thought things were going well. If I’m being honest I think this is still a dream, can someone hit me?”
Anker this time doesn’t hesitate, he swiftly gets up and before anyone can do anything wails a punch at Razzo. As his fist makes contact with Razzo’s face Anker's knuckles can be heard having a loud crunching sound as well as a little bit red as if they got burned. Meanwhile, Razzo’s face is cut slightly and jerks his head to the side, and almost falls out of his seat. Razzo then shakes off the hit and sits back up, he’s a little confused because in the past a strike like that could have knocked him out but now it barely affected him. Within a few minutes of sitting back up the cut closes and his face fully recovers. Everyone in the room looks at him in awe as he is left without any marks on his face or any external damage.
Razzo laughs a bit: “I didn’t even feel anything, want to try a little harder next time”.
Anker murmurs under his breath: “I think I’ll pass, no human recovers that quickly from a blow to the head, what are you…”.
At this point the redness on Anker's knuckles spreads slowly towards his wrist creating an increasing burning sensation in his hand as he tries to shake off the feeling. Anker stares at his hand silently with horrific thoughts racing through his head about what this could mean for him. His mind lands on reverse frostbite which would result in the increased heating of his hand until the hand requires to be amputated. With the thought of that going back and forth throughout his head he sits back down and stares at his hand not reacting to any of the other leaders, and avoiding looking at Razzo at all costs.
Jefe continues without missing a beat: “So you used to work at the factory, you know that the factory blew up six months ago and there were no survivors left?”
Before Razzo could refute the claim Kronos bursts into the tent with a chair and behind him is a guard holding Dre by one arm. Kronos places the chair next to Razzo and makes an announcement: “Did anyone touch him!?”
Izabela says quietly: “Anker hit him and now his hand appears to be red”.
Kronos says: “Immediately go with the medics and get your hand healed for radioactive poisoning”.
The medic goes over to Anker and grabs him and escorts him swiftly out of the tent with the other medic following suit. Everyone starts berating Kronos and Dre with questions and comments as they wonder what it could all mean or what kind of advanced being Razzo is.
Izabela nudges Razzo and smiles while whispering: “Welcome to the shit show”.
As the commotion settles down Kronos signals to the guard so that they can wait outside the tent. He motions with his hands for everyone to settle down. Once settled Kronos goes and circles around back to the table to sit down in his spot.
Kronos then turns his attention to Dre and says: “Tell them what you told me, Razzo already knows but it’s important that everyone else knows what’s going on as well”.
Dre begins telling everyone the in depth analysis that he was able to run on Razzo and how all the diagrams that they had presented were correct and in fact told the story of his body. On top of that Dre added a key bit of information that had been overlooked.
Dre spoke as everyone tuned in and listened to what he was saying - “You see with all the tests that your medics ran they were able to identify all that was damaged with him. Something that they had failed to do is figure out what is keeping him together”.
Dre goes and flips its palm extending it towards the middle of the table. After a second a 3-D stereoscopic projector display shoots up out of the robot's palm. In that projector is a different diagram of Razzo, one that displays heat signatures and the energy concentration of the human.
Dre goes on to say: “So this is Razzo’s heat diagram and you can see how in the center it is very bright and red, this is because it is not from him that the energy is coming from. Humans can reach an internal temperature of 46 degrees celsius and that’s at extremes before overheating and dying. Razzo’s center here is a million times hotter than that to the point I can’t give an exact number. What’s generating that heat is actually a fragment of the star that was at the factory that they were working on. When the factory exploded and destroyed everything in its vicinity including the area that we are currently in and poisoning the area with radiation that even Minerau would get harmed staying here for too long. So within that explosion part of the star attached itself to Razzo. My calculations were readjusted so the actual halflife that remains in his system is a star of one billion years. The way this was able to happen was that he, recently before the explosion, was able to be fortunate enough to consume something that the star could bond with. This means that he will never need to eat again until he dies, theoretically he doesn’t need to sleep either but even in this state occasional sleep is good for his brain activity. Oh and before I forget he can be used as a battery, he is quite literally the most powerful source of energy in this star system aside from the star itself”.
At this point everyone is beyond shocked in the room how this is possible. Kronos and Kaner look at each other both thinking how this could help them turn the tides of the invasion and take back the European region. Em is thinking to herself how he’s able to survive with almost no oxygen while constantly producing radiation and heat and not melting his body. Jefe was thinking to himself that he better not piss off the star boy too much because he might kill him without even trying to. Lastly, Izabela was stunned and shocked at how she behaved with him when she first met him, but at the same time noticed how Razzo kept glancing at her and even slightly blushed when she smiled at him. At the same time Razzo is just daydreaming thinking about the banana that saved his life and the one that he was able to eat as his last meal. He frowned a little remembering that now he will no longer be able eat any tasty foods as a matter of fact, but then he cheered himself up a little bit and remembered that he also doesn’t have to eat gross food till he dies. Dre watches analyzing each person's reaction and facial expression while they sit silently, overall there is a sense of shock as well as excitement and fear.
“So Dre does that mean that Razzo doesn’t need oxygen to survive as his lungs are practically non existent?” - says Em breaking the ice.
Dre pauses, takes another quick scan of Razzo with his hand: “Yes as a matter of fact he does not need any oxygen anymore to survive. If you want me to put it in the harshest terms possible, he’s dead, yet his body will continue to function normally if not even better than normal as long as the star remains in his stomach. The star is also too dense to move through his digestive tracts and will remain at the bottom of the stomach until it reaches the point of the end of its chemical breakdown. As Razzo uses more and more energy for various things he will essentially be removing time from his own lifespan”.
Jefe says quietly: “So does that make him a zombie then?”
Dre pauses to evaluate the question: “I wouldn’t quite call him a zombie because he still has all the memories of his past and an understanding of who he is. More so like he’s on a very long life line, as if he’s dying in extreme slow motion that is sped up by him using the energy. A lot of this depends on your definition of the word, you see according to your dictionaries, a zombie is considered something that is living dead, yet since it is dead it cannot feel or think and it simply acts based on instincts”.
Em says: “Well he didn’t feel when Anker hit him so he’s a zombie then!”
Dre contradicts itself slightly and approaches his thoughts from a different point of view: “Well yes and no, you can still be alive and living without nerves, it just isn’t healthy for mammals. When I refer to feeling I mean on an emotional level”.
Izabela exclaims: “Well how do we know that he feels emotions!”
Razzo interjects, raising a finger: “Well… I for one can say that when people make fun of your name it doesn’t particularly feel good.”
This causes a wave of unease and angst to settle in the air of the tent. No one is quite sure what he’ll do next.
“Guys I’m just kidding, it’s like you guys are the ones with no feelings!” - laughs Razzo.
Dre nods and gestures to the room with one good hand: “See there you have a perfectly normal feeling and expression!”
Jefe at this point turns pale white and remembers that the reference was made towards him. He scrunches himself up and makes himself small while staring at the table for a few moments. Kaner poses yet another daunting question yet doesn’t really look forward to hearing the answer.
Kaner adds a despondent note: “And what happens when the star expires and he dies?”
Dre says in a serious tone: “The same that happens to any star at the end of its lifecycle it undergoes a supernova and either becomes a neutron star and explodes or becomes a blackhole or in rare instances becomes a black neutron star…”