Bright cyan light shines through the wide transparent apertures, flooding sunlight into the room along the tall wall many stories in height down to the crystal glossy white floor, drooping down the walls’ sides in an arch where in the center of the lobby room was a translucent blue closed door. On the floor was a wide white circular fur rug a few feet past the entrance, which was perfectly clean and spotless.
The entire wall facing the outside brings in great light which melds well with the white light emitting from the white walls bordering the second half of the semicircular lobby. Along the lobby’s walls are several hovering benches with soft cushions as well as holographic racks holding boxes and various other items.
Already in the lobby stands Kokei, Dana, and Ekitai, all waiting by the door patiently. They make short glimpses around the lobby, staring up at the tall white ceiling and the various croissant-shaped balconies leading to the multitude of higher floors of the exquisite residency.
Ekitai has his hands in his pockets, Dana has hers behind her back, and Kokei as hers by her side, and they all wait patiently until Kokei makes a casual glance at the other side of the lobby, where her eyes widen and she turns her whole body as though her interest was grabbed.
Down the tremendously wide corridor down the lobby, a pair of silver shoes make silent steps up towards the opening, trudging along under black pants with gray lining. The being approaches the lobby on the far side of the corridor, where both Ekitai and Dana also take notice, all three of them staring at the walking being.
That being continues his slow hike to the end of the hall, entering the lobby and approaching the three. His hands remain by his side, his arms sleeved in the leather coat, his hood still down to expose the four white locks on an otherwise bald head.
Lastly in the group, the man in the leather jacket joins with the three in the front of the lobby, who all step to the side to give him space to open the door with smiles. He let out a displeased grunt before continuing up to the translucent door, and upon taking a step within proper proximity, the entire door faded like a cloud.
Without the door obstructing exit to the abode, a perfect view beyond the house has finally been bestowed. Beyond the house is a wide peach-colored flat metallic field which emits a gentle light, and in the center of the field is an elevated oval field with a border of green bushes and other plants creating a garden ring.
In the center of the garden is a pool of bright blue water glistening in the sun, and at the end towards the side of the house was a circular fountain with a lightning bolt-shaped rod in the center that projected water in an umbrella shape, and that fountain was fed into the pool in front from a short yet wide waterfall.
At the end of the peach driveway it narrows into a slimmer lane that continues forth until joining with a gray road normal to the group's perspective, stretching for as far as the eye could see from both sides.
Further beyond the road is rich vegetation, long fields of well trimmed vibrant grass among tall trees with flourishing green leaves like a forest. The area appears largely remote, at least not at all urbanized, for there were even borders of thicker forests in the far distance and visible sierras much ahead. It’s a serene area, silent and peaceful, for nature dominated the area even with such immense buildings in place.
Before those mountains yet still in the distance there are other great buildings visible, long and tall mansions with smooth bright surfaces with curved roofs and extravagant gardens too. The structure of the buildings themselves were traditional, but their materials and smoothness were far different. It seems each of them were spread out well to give ample land, including their own, land large enough to house an entire stronghold underneath if wanted.
All of it is under the bright blue sky with sparse white clouds under the gleaming cyan supersun, yet the day didn’t feel too hot, but rather perfect.
After taking a glance outside, the man of the house shakes his head before his eyes trail the trail right at the doorstep in front of his feet, where a small white object resembling an envelope sat. His eyebrow raises, and he bends down to grab the envelope before standing back up. He waves the envelope once, feeling little weight as though it was made of paper, before he then turns around and steps back into the house.
Behind him, the translucent blue door reappears, fading in just as seamlessly as it vanished.
After reentering the lobby, Meditat approaches the three with the envelope in hand, and reads the back as there’s small text in black. As he reads, he mentions subtly: “Since when was that fountain there? I swear, it hasn’t been that long since you’ve all lived here.”
Ekitai instinctively raises his hand, and he unveils enthusiastically: “Ooh, that was me! I felt like there needed to be a more…erm…’pinzas’ feel to the house, something more cool and more fitting for a team of superheroes!”
A hefty sigh emits out of Meditat as he grabs the top of the envelope and begins to rip it open while chastising, “The whole point of a remote house is to not drag attention to ourselves, and we’re not a ‘superhero team’.”
He then rips the entire envelope in half, to which a beam of blue light projects from the open interior of the envelope down on the floor ahead of him, and in a flash where the light struck there appears a large white sofa wide enough to sit five people with thick leathery cushions and armrests.
He staggers backwards as do the other three after the appearance of the large sofa, and they all exchange glances of it.
All of the fours’ expressions change as all three of them dawn faces of delight and exhilaration, as Kokei jumps up and Dana begins running her hands on the cushion to feel its tenderness. Ekitai exclaims eagerly, “Woah, this looks even better than it did on the site!!” while he circles around the sofa, as all three of them seem overjoyed with the product.
Of all of the changed expressions, the only to not be the same was Meditat’s, who dons a mixture of dread and irritation before he slapped the envelope against his forehead and softly muttered, “Damn…I was supposed to do that after getting to the room to put it in, and I just ripped it so it’s useless anyways. I hope you weren’t planning to take this upstairs….”
Ekitai perks his head up after hearing Meditat’s woes, and he gleefully assures: “No worries Med, it’s on this floor anyways! You guys can just carry it, I’ll uh, lead the way!”
With a face of interest and curiosity, Kokei puts her finger on her chin before wondering out loud, “Could you like…make a crane to pick up the sofa and have it drive to the room to place it down or something? That would be cool!”
Meditat sighs again and lowers his head before murmuring, “That’s…no,” before he then takes the envelope off his face and raises his head up at Dana before exhorting, “Can’t you have your specters carry it or something?”
“No,” Dana simply answered.
“Why not?” pursued Meditat intriuguely.
“Don’t want to.”
Another groan releases out of Meditat’s mouth from the obscene count of events he was being put through, and without any other solutions, he apprehensively walks to one side of the sofa, intent on taking it himself.
He carefully analyzes the sofa’s side, leaning down to peek at the bottom. After taking a few seconds to study the situation, he stands up straight, and waves his hand over the sofa.
Suddenly, the sofa emits a hum, and it slowly lifts off of the ground without any visible propulsion mechanisms by a few inches, reaching a perfect height to be sat on. After rising up, the hum is silenced, yet the sofa remains levitating, seemingly awake.
A light then projects from the sofa, and a holographic screen appears before Meditat with several buttons and gauges with various functions such as ‘Recline,’ ‘Table,’ and ‘Move.’
After finding the most desirable function, Meditat taps on the ‘Move’ button, which brings up a second screen that has several options including ‘Navigation,’ ‘Command (REQUIRES CONNECT LINK),’ and ‘Push.’
His finger lingers over the various buttons before finally deciding to press on the ‘Push’ button, to which the sofa makes a single deep hum sound in some sort of activation acceptance.
Meditat softly taps the side of the sofa, and watches it glide forward about a foot, being movable with the slightest touches rather than needing to bear all of its weight as if it was on wheels. Now that he was accustomed to the interface and knew how to move it, he was at ease once again.
He lets out a relieved sigh, and then turns to Dana to ask, “Where do you want this to go?”
Being referred to, Dana faces Meditat before tilting her head in contemplation, not seeming to remember off the top of her head. She hums softly in attempt to remind herself, forcing Meditat to awkwardly stand in required patience.
To answer the question, Kokei chimes in joyously, “Oh yeah, here I can lead you, I remember! Follow me!” before she turns to face the corridor and begins speedily walking down towards it. She’s then followed by Ekitai, and after Dana notices them having the situation controlled, she also follows them.
Left alone in the lobby as the three head into the corridor, Meditat lowers his head and quietly murmurs, “So…guess I’ll push it then,” before he places each hand on the upper edge of the sofa’s side and begins walking forward, pushing the sofa with him as he follows into the hall as well as the only one working.
All four of the group hike down the corridor, led by Kokei and Ekitai while Dana tails behind them and Meditat follows from the back to push the sofa. They walk down the wide corridor with constant entryways into other rooms, all of them lit up although some of the rooms were lit yellow rather than white as though some of the settings had been changed.
As they pass the various rooms, they seem more decorated with more sofas, tables, shelves, and even some paintings projected on the wall. There were soft carpets, some blue and others purple, for the rooms now were far more embellished than previously.
They trek deep into the corridor, still having no signs of finding the destination as Kokei continues marching forward. The deeper they move, the more Meditat’s apprehension becomes apparent on his face, not knowing what plans they had with this furniture that they had never brought up to him until this moment.
While the group makes their way down the hallway, Dana ponders inquisitively, “So I was thinking, maybe sometime soon we could go to a grocery store to pick up some food!”
At the tail of the group, Meditat raises his head up at Dana with a befuddled expression, and as he continues to push the sofa, he queried hesitantly: “Uh…why would we need to do that? The kitchen should be able to print you all food just fine, is it broken?”
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Dana holds her hands together over her hips while leaning from side to side, reasoning in a slightly mischievous tone, “Well…no…I just thought it could be fun or something. You know, a shopping trip, what’s the harm in that?”
“That it’s idiotic,” plainly answered Meditat.
Dana grins nervously and lowers her head disappointedly before admitting gently, “Harsh….”
Meditat raises one hand up while continuing to push the sofa with only his left hand, elaborating in a solid, informative voice, “While we do have fridge storages, simply put relying on bought food is working on temporary supplies that need constant care to refill, and anyhow it’s not as reliable to buy food as it is to just have the printer make it. The printer makes everything more than authentically, it’s difficult to tell any difference between its results and handmade products. It also does not require specialized equipment for certain dishes, whereas making ones from scratch do, and they will always take more time regardless due to the simple fact that it is not as well optimized as the printer meaning it will require more human labor when that’s unnecessary. It’s simply superior, thus there’s no need to contemplate the objectively lesser option.”
Defeated, Dana lowers her head even more and closes her eyes in a dramaticized show of misery before admitting in a damaged tone, “Okay…you didn’t need to go that far.”
At the front, Ekitai stretches his arms and places his head against his hands to lean backwards. Stretching his back, he proudly supports, “I like Dana’s idea!”
“That’s not a sufficient rebuttal,” callously rejects Medita before putting his hand down.
Concurrently as Ekitai lowers his head in disappointment, Kokei raises her head and extends her arm forward to point ahead, exclaiming “Here!”
Ekitai, Dana, and Meditat all raise their heads simultaneously after hearing the call, and they all face the room being pointed to being the room at the very end of the hallway, which opens up into the room at the end.
Light pours in through windows along all of the walls, as the room juts out of the rest of the building to provide three walls facing the outdoors, utilizing that opening to bring in sunlight from most of the nearly entirely transparent walls. The ceiling even is transparent, letting sight of the clouds right above be visible as well as the blue sky. Even if there is light generated in the room, it isn’t noticeable, as the room is largely illuminated cyan from the overwhelming access given through all the open designs.
Beyond the room is a stone patio with a holographic umbrella above a few hovering chairs and tables, as well as a few pits and other stands. Beyond the patio is a vast garden with stone paths that’s designed something akin to a maze, and walling the paths is dirt decorated with colorful flowers of varying sizes and shapes, many of which happen to be pink, with a few standouts being snapdragons. In the center of the garden is a wide circular fountain the size of a pool with a stone statue of a man carrying a globe on his back, and around the globe are a myriad of smaller globes orbiting around like a solar system.
Next to the garden is an extension of the peach driveway which crawls down the long field and reaches down the expansive green field of trimmed grass which seems to be multiple acres large just as the yard itself, with trees on the borders yet no visible fencing. The driveway curves at the far end of the yard and stops in a circle next to a few sheds by the far trees, although it doesn't detract much from the natural beauty of the yard.
On the wide wooden floor of the room are already a few sofas and sofa chairs placed around the corners, with some accompanied by tabletops made of an texture resembling sharded glass, although there is an open space in the front of the entrance facing the wide window which Kokei walks straight through before pointing at the gap itself.
“Here,” instructs Kokei after finally reaching the room before being accompanied by both Ekitai and Dana, who turn to watch Meditat step in while pushing the sofa.
Entering the room, Meditat can’t help but notice the exquisite backyard past him, but rather than marvel, he had a tentative expression. He pushed the sofa before then knocking it on the very edge, causing it to swerve to be facing on its long end. He grabbed it after it rotated perfectly, and then cautiously nudged it into place inside the gap before then waving his hand, to which the same holographic menu projected, although rather than it giving the option of ‘Move’ it gave one of ‘Lock,’ which Meditat pressed to which the sofa gave another deep hum.
Just for confirmation, Meditat nudged the sofa once again, although this time it didn’t budge at all, as it suddenly seemed to take on all the weight it had or as if it was placed on the ground without any mobile support. It was stabilized, meaning he had completed the task forced upon him, which allowed him to step back.
Rather than being able to show relief however, he was still noticeably dubious, and finally came forward to note, “You all…let loose on my backyard…huh.”
With the sofa now in place, Ekitai was the first to jump on the sofa, joined only a second later by Kokei. Neither of them managed to move the sofa, and they found comfort in the leathery sofas. Kokei released a sigh of relief as though she was able to destress, even though all she had done was walk down a hallway and point once.
On the sofa, Kokei waved her hand, summoning a holographic menu to herself as Meditat stepped away to relinquish his own. He then watched as Kokei tapped on the function button of the menu labeled ‘Table,’ to which a long coffee table projected in front of the sofa, seemingly holographic yet with vivid detail of a wooden texture. The table hovered right in front of the two at a perfect position, seemingly configurable to suit their comfort as it was simply a component of the sofa itself.
After observing the summon, Meditat glanced at Dana to see her glimpse around the sunroom before raising both of her hands to stretch. She stretched her hips from side to side before then lowering her arms and facing Meditat while Ekitai tapped the table, feeling its solidity and reacting with a marveled expression.
While Kokei continued to play with the menu until it projected an extension of the couch’s seat cushion forward by several feet, which allowed her to stretch her legs out and perfectly place her feet on to rest herself, Dana sincerely mentioned, “Thank you, Meditat. Sorry for pulling on you, and before you ask, I’ve been using my own funds for all of this so you have nothing to worry about.”
Meditat nearly silently murmurs, “Technically that’s still mine,” before he then shakes his head while deeply sighing. He then raises his head up to meet Dana’s green gaze before giving a firm nod, and reciprocating, “Yeah, it’s no deal. And I wasn’t worried about that anyways, but thanks for letting me know. Anyways, I should head down to…work.”
Meditat turns around and takes a step away but only for Dana to loudly raise, “Wait, Meditat, I wanted to show you something! It’ll only take a minute, but I think you’ll be glad!”
Interrupted once again, Meditat groans before swerving around to face Dana, and then dragging himself to her reluctantly while imploring, “Yes?”
Without further adieu, Dana’s green eyes suddenly metamorphosize gold, and a holographic screen projects in front of her to face straight in front of Meditat. The screen then displays a video recording of two men standing on a clean yellow beach with visible waves crashing behind them, water stretching out for as far as what could be seen.
Shot during the day, there was a bright blue sky above them with little clouds and the bright supersun to beam down on them. The man standing on the left was dressed in a casual bright brown coat with the hood down above khakis, and had a groomed black beard with a visible scar along his left cheek beside fair blue eyes. Beside him was a man dressed in a compressed black shirt and jeans with combed brown hair, a similar scar but on his right cheek, and gray eyes. Both of them had similar large builds and chiseled chins, and upon first glance, Meditat recognized them.
It was helped when they spoke with familiar voices, which the man on the left did first, introducing, “Hello, my name is Vincent, and I am the old leader of the organization known formally as Generation S.”
Following that up, the man on the right greeted, “And my name is Walker, and I am the old leader of the organization known formally as the Watchdogs.”
Suddenly the video seemed to skip as the waves in the background changed as did the posture of both of the men, and Vincent was already explaining, “I first want to make the confession that I am not indeed an Exhuman, regardless of the ideologies I had.”
In contrast, Walker declared boldly, “But I am, regardless of the ideologies I had. We want to tell you this because, in truth, these past few years have been a calamity that we seek to resolve as peacefully as possible.”
Once again the video cuts forward, displaying Vincent informing, “We’ve made many mistakes, and we understand that we will always have those casualties on our chest which we can never get rid of. We also understand that what we’re doing has to come to an end, not just for us, but any of those who take up arms against each other whether it be humans or Exhumans. We understand that all we have done is attempted to undo decades of progress, and in truth while we were both aiming to be heroes, both of us have only massacred the good that true heroes have been building for us all.”
Another cut forward is made, where Walker is professing, “That is why we are disbanding both of our organizations, and to all those who supported us whether it be in taking arms or chanting our words, we apologize for the illness we’ve caused to you. We are not idols, we are not heroes, we were wrong. This was a lesson we were taught long ago, and yet we failed to carry it with us, which is not what he would have wanted. After this recording, we will be turning ourselves in to the Earth 50 government, where we will likely be dealt life sentences for our numerous horrific crimes against humanity. We are doing this to show that we are truthful when we say that we do not condone the ideologies and decisions we’ve made, and we hope that our movements die with our leadership.”
Moving forth with another cut, the video displayed Vincent as he divulged, “This might seem so sudden after we declared full war on each other so recently, and to explain why we have had this change of heart we will need you all to believe in the impossible. What we say may not be believed, it may seem we are simply delusional and are more mentally dysfunctional than we ourselves take us to be, but what we say is the truth. Amidst our battle, we were approached by the one himself, the hero of Versepolis, of the Superverse, Meditat.”
Suddenly at this point in the video, Meditat’s irises shrivel up and his eyes widen as he feels his heart stop, speechless from the unexpected reveal. He still listens as Vincent continued, “Contrary to what we have all believed for the past very long ten years, Meditat is alive, and he came to us to tell us to end this conflict. He was the one who made it his mission to stop this infighting long ago, and we were the ones who undid it and made a time without him even more difficult. But now, we are doing our best to make up for the horrible fallacies we have committed, and we hope to voice Meditat’s wisdom when we say that this conflict must come to an end and never again should we take up arms against ourselves for these differences. Thank you, and I hope these sacrifices bring an end to what should have never begun.”
At last the holographic screen vanishes, for it seemed the video Dana sought to show had come to an end. Where the screen once was now instead lies Dana’s cheery face with a bright, sincere smile, as though she truly hoped the footage would be heartwarming to him.
A soft sigh exits Meditat’s mouth before he lowers his head, and he mutters anxiously, “I knew there was a chance, but I was hoping they wouldn’t. At least my physical appearance remains unknown, so I should not be recognized….”
Perplexed by Meditat’s odd choice of what to hyperfocus on, Dana places her hands behind her back and leans forward before assuring, “Don’t worry about that, besides, nobody even knows what your real face looks like after all this time! But look, they did do what you asked, they ended the war and even turned themselves in! Isn’t that incredible, Medit? It’s finally over, I know this has been plaguing you for years.”
Meditat raises his head and gives a slight nod before responsively murmuring, “To think all it took was to show ‘him’ to end an entire war waged by people who seemed fully committed to dying with their cause, it’s never not been strange how far people will act just for my namesake. I guess I should be glad though, you’re right, this is victory, but it was just exploiting how much of an effect my name alone has without doing much beyond that.”
Dana shakes her head before stepping towards Meditat and placing her hand on his shoulder. She playfully shakes his body back and forth as if jolting him awake while correcting, “You did far more than just introduce yourself, don’t lie to me when I was watching along for all those years, you put everything you had into this. And besides, using your name isn’t bad, that just shows how much of a good impact you have, everyone sees you as a hero even after all these years. It’s a good thing, you did good.”
After the hand is taken off his shoulder, Meditat stands straight and sighs softly. He then faces the windows while suspecting, “I don’t know, maybe in this case…,” before he casts a short glance at Kokei–who’s giggling gleefully–and follows, “but blind faith can become a detriment too.”
He then returns his gaze to Dana before nodding his head and concluding, “I guess I should be glad for now, thank you for showing me.”
Dana giggles after finally hearing appreciation, and she nods her head with a genuine warm smile.
Even if he wasn’t as forward with it, it was clear Meditat’s goals had been finally accomplished, and he had succeeded in a long battle that’s been tormenting him for years, costing time and energy that’s deprived him of any time for peace.
Now however that his mission was finally at an end, perhaps he could get some of that peace Dana knew he deserved, and finally be able to live a life in the world he worked so hard to make. For someone who had suffered such a tortuous life full of tragedies, it was good that for once he had nothing to slave for, and was given a chance to be happy.
Even if it wouldn’t be easy for him to give himself that happiness, at least he had three people who’d try their best to involve him into their activities, and perhaps through them could he find peace. That was the hope, to end not only the war but his misery.
With the war over, now all that had to be done was bring about a new chapter in his life, one that he could look back on not with tears but with a smile.