"Make sure that Lee doesn't make it past winter" We all were listening in, expecting more...but nothing, that was it.
"Raymond?" I looked up at him, expecting answers, but he himself looked concerned and confused.
"I don't know who these are, and it seems to have been a robot...with the flash drive and all."
"We're not having Lee go on a mission soon right?" Sam had a hand on my shoulder.
"All of you are gonna stay in Eaxura for a while. We can't risk anything...but, this isn't overly worrying...well, obviously worrying, but not new. There have been some people who were hunted, and some for no reason, they may just think you're easy picking" I wasn't offended...I couldn't be, I've been getting hit left and right.
"So what course of action is next?" I finally stood up.
"Relax, that's about it, learn whatever you want, you have that arena for a reason. I got stuff to take care of, if you need me, call" With that, Raymond warped away.
"Soooo..." Sam looked around.
"Any ideas?" No one responded to me for a moment, everyone was thinking.
"I'm probably just gonna research some stuff, if we have the time" Nicholai gave her answer.
"Dave is almost done...probably gonna work on him."
"And I'll finally put my camera to use!" With that, everyone gave their answer.
"I'll probably just check in with everyone...I just need to do something first"
"If that's what you wanna do...see you soon then" WIth that, everyone walked off, doing their own thing, I walked into my room and took out the sword, it hopped around in my hands slightly.
"You know, I can't exactly keep calling you, my sword, or the sword...Do you have anything you wanna be called? Or...a name already?" A section of the sword glowed, soon, new engravings appeared, roots of a white rose, however, in the middle of it all, was a crescent moon. "Uh...that's a few things...Rose? White Rose? Crescent moon?" Soon, the crescent moon engraving glowed. "Crescent moon?" It glowed red before going back to the normal glow. "Crescent?" It glowed brighter, before returning to normal, not glowing at all. "Crescent it is, good to finally know" Crescent returned to the sheath, I tapped it a bit to make sure it was secure, as for all I know it was cutting the bottom of the sheath, but considering how much control it has over itself, maybe it stops just before. "Let's get to it then." We left the room and went to Nicholai's, I raised my hand and gently knocked.
"One second" After a moment, the door opened, her room mostly contained counters filled with lab equipment, it also looked a lot bigger than my room even though the outside looks the same.
"What're you working on?" Nicholai leaned on the door before responding.
"A lot, there are many illnesses that can affect us. Including your corruption"
"Sure you wanna stay cooped up in here?"
"You sound like Sam"
"Even I know when relaxation is needed" She sighed
"I'll consider it, that all?"
"Just making sure everyone is doing okay"
"I'm fine"
"Alright then, just don't push yourself"
"Heh, hypocrite much?"
"I tend to be" Nicholai smirked.
"I'll get back to this hell then"
"Take care" She nodded before closing the door. Before I could make it to his door, Kenneth walked out with Dave floating behind him.
"Hello Sir Lee" Dave spoke after turning to me "More wounds have been inflicted upon you it seems" Dave flew over to me, and not even a second in, a laser scanner went from the bottom to the top. "You are in stable condition, however I would still reccomend getting aid."
"We're not human anymore Dave, even this...I can still manage"
"I see, do take care of yourself first"
"I know, thanks buddy" Though he was an AI in a robot body, I still rubbed the top of the flat surface at the top of his body. Dave tilted forward to mimic a nod before he flew back to Kenneth, I soon joined them. "He's working well"
"Thankfully...trying to get the self-learning AI in Dave took a bit, with all his memories too. I will say the changes they added were good, he can be equipped with weapons if we want, he's got his own HUD, and can carry a lot of stuff too...though most of it was stuff I was halfway through with anyhow, they most likely just finished it."
"At least it's done"
"At least...the minimum, is done, I still want to add more to Dave, make him practically a human"
"I am able to think for myself, I do not have to follow the laws inflicted upon robots, thus...I cannot be a robot"
"Well...true...but do you see yourself as human?" Kenneth looked up at him.
"No, not yet"
"Yet...at least it's something" Kenneth rolled his neck around while having a hand on the back of it. "Gonna go take photos with Sam I assume?"
"We still don't know much of Eaxura, it'll help"
"You make it sound like work more than a hobby" He stopped rolling his neck but kept his hand there.
"You all are talented, I gotta keep up somehow" I smiled, thinking of it like a good thing, but Kenneth's smile faded
"We're not friends because our skills intertwine, or even because we have skills at all, we're a group who bonded from being social outcasts, people are needy, people hate you because you're too closed, people hate Sam because she's too outgoing. You can never make everyone happy"
"Guess so" Kenneth sighed.
"Just take it easy, especially after that voice recording, the fact they didn't encrypt it implies they didn't expect it to be taken...not like the encryption would last for long"
"Hey, you struggle a bit with those"
"I get it eventually, and I'll let you know I'm getting faster"
"Because you're a helluva prodigy"
"...Take care Lee" The pause made me a bit concerned, but Kenneth walked off with Dave floating behind him before I could ask anything. Guess I better get looking for Sam then. I left the base and began to walk around, I had the map on the HUD, but it's better I look around instead of getting one path. The street next to our base was filled with vendors, there wasn't any silence either, every corner and sidewalk had people talking, the vendors trying to get people to buy stuff, and the others, just making small talk where they can. I snapped my fingers, changing into attire for normal winter, not the heavy duty stuff from before. My cold breath started becoming once I passed the halfway point of the street, it was a perfect type of cold. I stopped walking and took a deep breath, contrary to all the buildings, the air still felt pure and refreshing. Still keeping it close to me, I raised my hand slightly, holding the palm of it upwards as I let the snow graze against my fingers. A bright flash appeared to the right of me, when I turned to look, Sam stood there smiling.
"Now that's a beautiful shot"
"You think everything is a beautiful shot"
"That's because there's always something stunning" She lowered the camera, looked at the screen, before looking back at me.
"So can I see it?"
"Nope~"
"Can I at least see what you have so far?"
"Sure!" She skipped over to me, sliding slightly before going to my side and holding out the camera so that I may look at the screen. The first photo were the streets, a shot in the direct middle of the road, people on the sidewalk were visible, along with the vendors, The second was of a tree with colorful leaves, even in the winter it seemed to have lived. The sun's light cracked through the leaves in a way it only let in partial light to the picture. Before I could get to the third she grabbed the camera. "What'd Ya think?"
"Good pictures as always." I gave her a gentle pat on the head which seemed to have amused her.
"Thanks as always, wanna join me?"
"I got nothing better to do, that's why I came out here after all"
"Let's go forth then!" She raised her empty fist in the air before she began to lead the way, I of course, followed. "There's a mountain I wanted to go up, it's pretty tall, but not too bad, considering how everything else looks, I wanted to see how things looked at the top!"
"One of these days you're gonna get me killed"
"Har har, you'll live through a little hike" We made it to the edge of Eaxura, a mountain was within the walls, overlooking not only Eaxura, but the outskirts. A trail had been carved out, allowing people like us to make it to the top without almost killing ourselves. The moment I planted my foot at the start of the trail, I could already feel my feet bending slightly from the incline, but we continued nonetheless. "So what are Nicholai and Kenneth doing?" She began walking backwards up the hill, I was going to reach out and tell her she was heading off the edge, but she started turning, she did that everytime there was an edge. She smirked after seeing my worry "Aw, thanks, but I'll be okay."
"Right...even from this height, you're fragile, I don't need your parents disappointment when we find them.
"Fufu~, so?"
"Kenneth finished up Dave, he's trying to make him more human, and Nicholai is studying medical stuff around Eaxura, parently we can just summon books from any library, no need to charge people for overdue stuff if they can just take it back"
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"All of this is so convenient"
"We shouldn't get reliant on it though"
"Buzzkill"
"You know my point"
"I do, I can't say I don't agree either, but I'm gonna use it to its full ability till I see a reason not to" Sam stopped about a quarter way through the trail, she raised her camera and looked out towards the city, with it being midday, the 'sun' let out an orange hue across the entire city, and certain lights were turned on, I could just sit here and watch it all, I felt a sense of home. Sam's camera made a noise from the shot, she looked down at the screen and smiled. "Alright! Up we go!"
"We were already heading up"
"Up we continue!" So we continued, the incline got worse, and I could see Sam's slight struggle to keep her footing. "How's the ear?"
"I completely forgot about it"
"And Nichi didn't notice" I felt my left ear, I could tell where I got shot when I noticed a slight difference in texutre.
"Either that or she saw no need, I wasn't in much pain, nor bleeding too much"
"Fair point, Nicholai wouldn't miss such a thing" Sam started messing with her camera on the way up, while I felt my ear again. Did I really expect something different to happen? I thought to myself as we continued upwards. At the halfway point, there were a few benches near the edge, and the ground somewhat leveled out(Except for when the incline got even worse just a few steps going back up). "Here Lee" Sam put the strap from the camera around my neck. "Give it a go!"
"Sam...this is your thing"
"It can be our thing, you make stuff with Ken, and Nicholai tutors you, we need something"
"We play games together"
"Yeah...but we all do that"
"Hehe, alright, alright" I grabbed both sides of the camara, looking at the screen, there were a ton of numbers and symbols, along with some buttons.
"This one" She pointed to the trash can symbol, I could guess what that means. "Is obviously deleting photos, you can press it to delete the one you just took, or if you go in the gallery you can delete the one you're on right then and there...Now...this one" It was a play sign "Let's you look at your photos, or videos if you made one...my camara is just for photos though" She pointed to another one...Ae-L? AF-L? "That's to lock your exposure and focus, the info button is obviously the stuff on the screen, the numbers and all that...aaaand lastly" She started turning the front part of the camara, on the screen it showed it zooming in and out. "Is the zoom, got it all?"
"I...think?"
"Give it a go then" Her voice was less hyper and calmer, as though it were late in the night. I raised the camara towards Eaxura, it was much different than last time, now, we were above most buildings, the sun lowered, making more people turn on their lights. "The worlds we go to have to have such short days...it's always night most of the time we're here" Sam talked while I looked for the best picture, then I saw one, a bell tower with a lit up clock, the light it emanated provided a shine to all the metal parts, and made certain parts of buildings glow, the best part was the sun setting behind it. I moved the camara so it would be perfect, yet, I could still feel like I was doing it wrong. "Lee, taking photos is about capturing things that you find amazing, It's not your job, just take what you find to be breathtaking"
"Alright...something breathtaking..." I took a few steps back, I zoomed out slightly to get a better picture too, I could see Sam moving a bit through the part I was looking through. The bell tower, the sun...the stars coming out. With everything, this was perfect, I snapped the picture, once it made noise Sam came over.
"Lemme see" She leaned forward while I held out the camara "Oh! I was in your shot...my bad..."
"You were?...Well, nothing to worry about then, it doesn't ruin it"
"If you say so" I gave Sam the camara back and we continued up the trail.
"Don't you want a break?" The incline like I mentioned before, had gotten considerably worse, Even with this pretty sight...This hurts me...I complained to myself in my head, not seeing a reason to voice it out.
"I'll live" Though she said that, her movement was contradicting her, I could've sworn I saw her wobble slightly. "W-we're almost there anyways." She took a shallow breath at the start of her sentence. "Here weee are!" The minute we placed foot on the top Sam laid down in the middle, before patting beside her. After catching my breath from climbing the trail I sat down before succumbing to the exhaustion and went backwards, laying down. When I opened my eyes I saw hundreds of stars, some in groups, some all by themselves, I could even see that most had different colors."Pretty aren't they?" I didn't respond for a while, I could only hear our own breathing
"Yeah...they are" I paused, breathing in more "Though...I..d-don't think it was worth it"
"I...understand...Maybe it...was too overkill..." They were pretty though, I couldn't tell if any of them made up an image, but when I saw an empty patch in the sky, devoid of all stars, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
"That patch..." I had caught most of my breath, and managed to point towards the patch. "It's like the one back then isn't it?" I could feel myself recalling the past.
8 years ago, we were all young, no goals, no reason to worry.
"Lee, look!" A younger Sam, pointing towards the sky while holding onto something from a playground, that type of dome you'd climb on.
"Don't yell" Nicholai, with the same tone as her current self, still sounded the same when scolding someone. I looked up to the sky, the area that Sam pointed to, and was greeted by thousands of stars, all of them felt like they gave a piece of hope, a purpose to achieve.
"It's pretty" I mumbled to myself, I wanted to grab one of them, even reaching my arm out to check if I could. Through the cracks of my hand I saw a shooting star pass by.
"Shooting star!" Sam let the others know, while I had already made my wish, yet I couldn't recall what it was, but by the time I got close to recalling, a shine turned my sight white, before I returned to now, laying on the grass at the top of a random hill. I saw the white light from the left of me, it quickly faded. Must have been Sam's camara. I didn't say anything, or even ask if it was her, my sight and thoughts were entranced by the stars while I struggled to recall what i wished for...Does this even matter? not like anything will change.
"This should be a tradition" Sam spoke quietly, but just enough that I could hear.
"Hm?"
"Every night we get the chance, we gather everyone and look at the stars"
"I feel we're going to get more busy as time goes on"
"Maybe, but maybe more people will join us then! Imagine that, it starts with just us, and we get more famous! Then we get tens, maybe hundreds with us up here!"
"That's an ambition alright" For a decent while, there wasn't any talking, and the only thing audible was the conversation way below us back on the ground level of Eaxura. I continued looking up, not at the stars...sorta...instead, the empty patch in the sky, the specks of light from the other stars made sure that empty area wasn't fully dark, and soon a camara's interface was in my way.
"You can always take a picture of it" Sam obviously said to tease me.
"Gladly then" I grabbed the camara and aimed towards the patch without any stars, it was hard to decide how to take it, but laying down only gave you so many ways. I zoomed in the camara and made sure the other stars weren't visible, only the mold of colors they created in the patch. I snapped the picture and handed the camara back to Sam.
"Not so difficult right?"
"Not at all, I just mimicked you" Like before, there was minor silence.
"I hope it was a different Lee"
"Talking about the voice message?"
"Yeah...I don't get how you're so calm"
"I think being in harm's way almost 24/7 during the outbreak dulled that sense, and if they're just gonna keep sending those robot monsters, I'll be okay"
"You nearly got your arm torn off"
"Well, not knowing they exist makes avoiding them fifty times harder"
"That's true...still, why you?"
"Maybe the ability I have, maybe Crescent?"
"Crescent?"
"My sword, it told me its name"
"It can spe-
"No, no, misunderstanding, it has a bunch of engravings, one of which is a moon, so it glowed the moon as though it was a crescent, and glowed brighter when I called it that"
"Oh..." I could hear Sam tap the back of her hand with the other one. "Maybe...anything you're worried about?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I've voiced my complaints...and worries many times, how about you?" I tried thinking about what's happened so far, so many things even in just a short amount of time, so many things to question, and while we have the time, we don't have the ability to travel to places at all yet.
"I think I'm worried about not knowing anything"
"Not, what I expected"
"Back at the outbreak, we knew the city, knew where things were, had a radio to see who was still alive...and while there were times when people were scum, most were still the helpful people they were before anything happened...Now...it's just the four of us, everything else is new, and from what we've been to so far, every world is dangerous."
"We also left behind people..."
"That...as well" I couldn't help but reach to the stars again. why am I doing this? Nostalgia? Habit?...or do I really prefer being back in the past?
"Hmm?" Sam tilted her head towards me, or, more so my reaching arm.
"Cypher, Q, Kyle, Kayla" I closed a finger for each person I named, every time, there was a star behind my finger when I lowered it. "Which do you prefer Sam?" I didn't look to her, only towards the glimmering stars that continued drawing my attention. "This world or ours?"
"Ours" There wasn't any hesitation "The sound of being heroes is nice, but we're already stealing from people, you're in harm's way...and we barely even know why we're doing this...why are we helping them? We don't know the other side...we just helped because they asked"
"I don't think either side is bad" I lowered my arm, resting it on my chest. "Maybe...they're just fighting for something they believe in"
"Right! I shouldn't bog down our photography day!" In a few seconds she hopped back onto her feet with renewed energy "Optimistic Sam is back in service!" I slowly got up, stretching afterwards.
"Guess we better start the walk down no?"
"Correct! Keep up Lee! We're smooth sailing!" The walk back down the mountain was uneventful, it was much easier, nor did anyone slip up,we did however pass someone around midway.
"hmhm, you two must enjoy hiking if you walked all the way up" The lady spoke in a soft, hushed tone.
"Oh no, we did it for photography!" Sam slightly raised her camara to emphasize the point.
"Even better ehheh, the sights are beautiful this time of day, though you always have to lose some sleep for it" They smiled before continuing the trail up "Take care you two"
"She seem familiar to you?" I looked to Sam when I asked the question.
"No, you?"
"I don't know why...but I feel like I do...maybe someone we passed by on earth before?"
"Maybe?" We continued going down, all the way until we made it back to ground level. "So, I got a ton of ideas for pictures! One of these days I'm getting you your own camara, we can compete!"
"Alright, alright. Let's get to it" That's how the night went, a photo frenzy, the lights shining through the streets, a particularly good looking sign or light, people in crowds walking along the streets. By the end of it all, my exhaustion led me to a bench, where I promptly sat on while letting out a sigh. "I don't know how you do it"
"Hehe~" She sat down beside me. "I simply had two years, you know how boring it is being in the hospital for that long? Sure I get to pick whatever I wanna eat, but getting woken up at 3AM is torture"
"No wonder you're energetic all the time."
"Yup! I got up on all the sleep those nurses made me miss"
"Definitely more self control than me, I would've just used it as an excuse to stay up late, something like 'oh, I have a hard time sleeping because I always got woken up' something like that"
"And you stay up late anyways" I was going to respond, thinking it was Sam, until I realized it was nowhere near her pitch, along with the hand on my shoulder.
"Nicholai?" We both turned to look at her.
"Why're you here?" Sam tilted her head slightly like always.
"You two were out for a while, figured something may have happened, so here I am."
"Ah! Sorry" Sam clasped her hands together "That's my mistake, I sorta dragged Lee around"
"It's fine, it's not that late after all" I crossed my leg over the other while I talked, Nicholai, deciding she'd rather not have us hurt our necks to look backwards, eventually went in front of the bench.
"I'll give you that one" Nicholai crossed her arms while looking at the street. "I was looking through some books, found something you all may like"
"A way to warp through places?" There was a pause at my prediction.
"Yeah...actually"
"Really? I was right?"
"Don't act like it's some blue moon occurance, you're right enough of the time" She uncrossed her arms "Bright side is, it's really easy, though, there's a difference between portals, teleporting, and warping"
"How so?" Sam unclasped her hands and set them on her lap.
"Warping isn't considered magic, more so something we do with our souls, teleporting is magic, personal use, and not very costly, portals is from our weapons, like Raymond did, we cut one open to where we want, it's also magic"
"So what was the thing that guy did..." I mumbled under my breath yet Nicholai heard.
"Huh?"
"Back at the arena, some guy threw their weapon, and it let them warp to me...I dunno why, but I have a feeling that wasn't a skill only they could do."
"I did see some drawings of that type of motion, apparently it's more difficult though, so let's keep with the simple stuff alright?"
"Yeah..." Sam and I got up from the benches and followed Nicholai as she led the way back to the base.
"So, how was your first day of photography?" Sam leaned forward, making sure I could see her.
"Fun, tiring, but fun"
"You'll get the hang of it, but as long as you have fun, that's all that really matters" Sam had a look of satisfaction. "I knew you had the heart of a photographer"
"I have the heart of someone who stays inside all day" Sam's look instantly turned to disappointment
"I know you're making a joke, but still" It soon returned to a smile "I won't let anyone just stay indoors all day"
"Please do so" Nicholai's voice was hard to hear, as she had some distance, and was facing away from us.
"Of course! Lee needs as much sun as we do"
"Hey, why am I being ragged on?"
"It's simply your week to be ragged on" Even without seeing her face, I could sense the smugness.
"Oh! Do you guys think we'll find a world with pirates?" Sam's eyes shined once more
"First it was helping people, now it's robbing them?"
"I said with pirates, not that we are pirates"
"dunno, Lee has a point"
"No he does not! Why am I being messed with now?"
"It's midnight, new week, new person to rag on"
"Oh come oooon!" We all walked along the streets heading to our base, the cold of winter, yet the warmth of the lights and stores assured me, this night, was a good one.