Colemond (Earth) → March 2019

  “Let us all sit down and talk while I read your internal energy,” Julius said. Annia then guided everyone to the living room. The former noticed some glass shards and damages evident across her residence. Every view his eyes saw of the place remained the same. Nothing much has changed from 2013 to 2019. The people with Dr. Annia were old friends with whom he worked during his first year as Colemond’s Chief of Operations. One, though, was way before that.

  There weren’t enough seats. In perfect timing, Julius heard heavy footsteps coming from the backyard. Solomon entered through and into the mansion. He read the room and effortlessly moved some of the distracting furniture away, summoning a load of comfortable armchairs.

  “What’s your name?” Laura asked.

  Silence.

  Oh, crap. I forgot. “He doesn’t speak English. Only Chinese or German,” Julius said, then turning to Solomon. “She’s asking for your name.”

  “Solomon,” he greeted with a smile.

  Agent Sleep looked impressed every second. “How much more are you going to surprise us? You be hiding everything under your belt.”

  “There’s too many,” Julius answered with a smile. “That world I was in has so many new things, and I’ve bonded to it. If you add the realms and time distortions, I lived through around two years, so in not even 12 hours here, I aged almost two years. I’m technically twenty-nine.”

  “And you look like a forty-year-old man that went through a lot of shit.”

  Julius nodded. “Yeah, no doubt…This is my old face. It went through too much pain.” He pointed to his jawline with both of his thumbs. “Thanks to my brother Solomon, he put two exterior metal plates right here. With no anesthesia, I endured an hour of agony while he was fixing my jaw after severely dislocating it during a battle. The plates formed into a metallic mouthplate, and I wore it for a while. I took it off recently since it’s healed.”

  Annia breathed heavily in disgust. She grimaced at the injuries he went through. “Tell me that was it? You can’t go through more health crises than this, right?”

  “Nope, I did. Elbowed to the eye and went blind for a bit before I got it healed. There was one point when my whole abdomen was cut open, fully exposed. If any of y’all were there, you could see all my organs like a picture diagram.”

  “My god,” Gretel muttered, looking nauseated. “Father, why are you saying this so plainly?”

  Julius, with arms crossed, said: “Because I’m further desensitized. I will say if I hadn’t joined the Marines and served as the Colemond’s Chief of Operations, I would be either dead or having an even worse time. A little hardship before setting foot on that planet is better than nothing…And I know all of you had gone through at least one, so you already passed that criteria.”

  “You sound as if we would go there.”

  “Exactly. That’s one reason I’m here. Mainly, you Agent Sleep. Your private agency has an FBI equivalent potential for Planet Raal and the Moon Empire.”

  Agent Sleep took the consideration but had one problem. “As much as that sounds interesting, I can’t take it. You know about the runes on an island down south of the Bay of Bengal since the 2005 incident. If we depart our grip, then that’s it. Earth is changed and done for.”

  “I know that’s why I’m offering you this. Also, there’s this catch. If any of you join me, then Earth won’t be your home anymore,” Julius said, leaning back on the couch’s cushions. “Look at me. I’m a tall giant, sitting on this surprisingly durable couch. Five Hundred and six pounds of metal bone and dense muscle. The more I train and gain qi; I get heavier and taller. Do you think Earth is ready for that in a short amount of time?” He paused. “No…the demand will overwhelm the supply to maintain for us. Not only that. We can take those runes and bring them to Planet Raal instead of keeping them suppressed here.”

  “Are you being serious or joking?” Agent Sleep asked, not buying it further. “Runes take time to extract or even grasp a large amount. Even with our technologies, it could take—”

  Julius raised his hand. “Little or many, I don’t care. Planet Raal is a planet that is at least Jupiter-sized or even bigger. We don’t know because only fifteen percent of it is mapped. Just like Earth’s oceans, ten to twenty percent, I don’t remember the exact number that has been mapped. Accounting to the fact I endure so much pain, more diverse power sources early is better than relying on a few.”

  “But we didn’t get taller like you or these specific effects after having runes,” Dale said, and Laura agreed with a confident nod. “So, I’m not persuaded by your goal here.”

  “I mean, with the context, Fúwén Mófǎ (符文魔法) has been around since 2005. Other than keeping it quiet, have you done anything innovative or a major discovery in these past fourteen years? Nothing major, right? That’s why Planet Raal is a perfect test too. Not only that, but I also finished reading your internal energy. All of you are compatible to have Planet Raal’s qi.”

  Gretel’s wheelchair moved a little forward, turning towards Julius. “Father…I’m almost convinced, but what does Planet Raal’s qi have to offer?”

  He stood from the couch, causing a slight creaking noise. His eyes looked down at her half legs where her thighs lay in the wheelchair. “How long has it been now?”

  “Eight years,” Gretel muttered, looking at his hand. Sky blue qi emitted from his palm. Julius untightened his robe, revealing a large scar on his chest.

  “I mentioned earlier that I have got my abdomen cut open during a battle. There was one more injury I didn’t say yet…This scar was my first ever wound, and it happened on the first day. I got impaled by a spear that was almost wide as a traffic lamp and about as tall as this home’s first floor.”

  Gretel grimaced; mouth opened in terror. “Oh my god, father! Why did you agree to go through all of this hell?”

  “I had no choice. At that time, I was being followed by someone who wanted to kill me, so I escaped to Planet Raal. The rest is history…Open your hand.”

  Gretel opened her right hand flat out. Julius then pressed his palm filled with qi onto her briefly. He let go, and she started exhaling and inhaling constantly. Her chest inflated and deflated, confusing her. “Father, what’s happening?!”

  Julius looked and vividly saw vein-shaped branch marks on both sides of her neck. It flashed red, which led to her grunting like she was holding against some kind of pain inflicted on her. Annia leaped out of her armchair, loudly demanding what was happening to her. Julius could only gesture to her to be quiet while not breaking his focus on her. Almost there…Hang on.

  Gretel resisted everything that was happening inside of her, swallowing plenty of screams. Right on schedule. Julius charged up an energy beam and fired right into her abdomen, bursting a load of energy residue into the wheelchair. Luckily, this wasn’t a standard building. He quickly realized this was custom and handmade. “Did you make this?”

  “Yes, you taught me to use my hands and build stuff,” Gretel said as her chest calmed down. “Is it over?”

  “Yeah, you did it,” Julius said, giving her father-like praise. "You probably won’t see any marginal results at the minimum until maybe tomorrow.

  “Now…who’s next?” He then turned to everyone else in the living room. Annia, Dale, Tiberius, Agent Marriott, Agent Sleep, and Laura left to deal with.

  30 Minutes later.

  Kind of like allergies, everyone reacted differently when their bodies absorbed the qi. Unfortunately, Gretel had to take the worst briefly. Julius charged a beam at the right moment to stabilize it and succeeded. When everyone was done, most looked a little drowsy. In fact, physically they moved much slower. Hence, they don’t want to depart the living room. Annia and Gretel are the exceptions, which Solomon and Empress Cai, who arrived midway through, noticed.

  Annia whispered into Gretel's and then Julius’ ear. Afterward, the latter went to Empress Cai and Solomon. He told them he was about to head upstairs, so they were free to do what they wanted until he returned downstairs.

  Julius followed the two upstairs. When he strolled through the open lobby and arrived at the stairs, a load of nostalgia poured into his mind. “Do you need help?” He asked Gretel.

  “No, I got this,” she answered, and the wheelchair went up the stairs like nothing.

  “She’s pretty good,” Annia muttered.

  Julius smiled, muttering: “I know, right. My effort pays off.”

  Gretel reached the top of the stairs first, waiting for the two. They went up and all headed into the bedroom. Julius sat on the bedside while Annia went to her drawer. She grabbed a stethoscope and a couple of other things before rolling a stool directly in front of him. Julius didn’t know why she was doing this, as if this was a doctor’s appointment. Well, whatever. He let her measure his pulse, etc.

  “Your pulse is low. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “That’s so strange, everything you said…It really happened, didn’t it?”

  Julius changed his face back to the present, revealing a cleaner and handsome look. His long hair flowed down past his shoulders. “Indeed, it has.”

  Gretel leaned forward from her wheelchair to the bed, touching his hair. “It’s so smooth. I need your hair regimen. When did you decide to get longer hair? You never liked longer hair.”

  “I was training for a couple of months and learned more of my roots, so I partially took my ancestors’ look. I actually kind of like it now. The culture over there has some similarities to the historical Chinese history. Also, I take normal showers. There’s no need for these quality soaps and shampoos. Naturally, your qi is supposed to handle these things most of the time.”

  “You don’t sweat?” Annia asked.

  “Yes, I do. It’s that being a cultivator, hygiene is easier to deal with,” Julius said, then turning back to her. That was when he noticed something was off from her energy, which led to him staring at her forehead. “Did you get hit?” He gently raised his hand up to the side of her head and waited for her to consent. She nodded, confirming the wound, and allowed him to. When his palm touched her scalp, he felt off. His palm moved around briefly and felt a hollow surface. It wasn’t small, but large enough to fit a part of his lower palm that led to his thumb. Julius let go immediately. “Was this from an accident in the operating room?”

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  Annia sighed. “I don’t remember that much anymore. By the time I got my senses back, I was already in my co-doctor’s office. Then I got temporarily laid off with full-time pay.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Julius assured, then turning again to Gretel. He was curious about something. “What skills can you do other than engineering?”

  “In general? Well, I can cook, drive, program, and do any normal chores a person can do at home,” Gretel said. “Why do you ask?”

  Perfect. “Do you usually go to bed late?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great, because I have one request for you. Can you start taking everything in documents and any source of knowledge on the internet and store them in a flash drive?”

  “Yeah, I can do that…Wait how long are you staying?”

  “Two weeks at most. I want to give everyone time; you two are included as well. Anyway, will you do it?”

  Gretel nodded, saying again she would. Hence, Julius summoned a paper note from his virtual inventory and handed it to her, containing his passwords and how to access certain programs; all of it was listed in detail. The motion caused her to question. “Where the hell did you have this paper from? Inside of you?”

  Julius pointed to his temple. “All from my head. Everyone that came with me has it…Think of it like a video game and you have an inventory.”

  “Lucky bastard,” Gretel replied with a nod. She smiled momentarily before leaving. Her wheelchair rolled out of the room, and she closed the door, leaving him and Annia alone.

  When Julius turned his focus towards Annia, he quickly placed both of his palms right onto her head. His forearms flexed, triggering a flow of sky-blue qi right into her. Green strands of light followed. Annia reacted with a little grunt, gripping his wrist tightly. Julius’ forearms relaxed and let go, and her head’s internal readings stabilized. He didn’t lower his hands all the way because she was still gripping it like a child clinging to their parent’s hand.

  “That should heal your hidden wound…A bit of payback, and you should be free from the thought of having a damaged head. One more thing I want to say—”

  Annia’s hands let go and wrapped her arms around his neck, resting it on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she said, taking his words out of his mouth. “I should have taken a break and talked with you about our struggles all those years ago.”

  Julius shook his head. “It’s not any of our fault. We were both traumatized and struggling with our own issues. It was only because we weren’t that expressive of each other enough. I thought I was healed after serving in the Marines…but I was wrong. Planet Raal told me I was not finished. I went through torture and everything you would not like to hear. Planet Raal cured me at the cost of being desensitized. However, I have one thing to—”

  “Don’t talk anymore. I just wanted it out.”

  Oh. Seriously? “I’m…not finished. We can’t go back to where it left off. I won’t leave both of y’all. However, it can’t be like that. For the best of us in the future, we can’t go back. It has to start new, and I can’t be a commitment to anyone.”

  Annia’s tears heavily, but breathed in. “But can you promise you won’t leave us?”

  “Yes, I can. That’s why I’m here to take you and Gretel with us. I won’t leave you two ever again. Join us. You can leave this planet and be the lady you ever wanted to be.”

  Her tongue clicked. A slight pause and silence followed with an agreement sigh. “Ok, but can we do it now?”

  “Sure, just this once, for the last time.”

  Twenty Minutes Later.

  Julius closed the bedroom door, feeling a little groggy from the sweat. He coughed sporadically as his feet strolled him away from the door. He passed by Gretel’s room where her door was open.

  He knocked on the door twice for her attention. Gretel turned and invited him in. Julius entered and found the room to be strangely clean despite a lot of the stuff she stored. For an individual bedroom, it was pretty spacious. The area had multiple cabinets and drawers. Gretel was facing her computer, facing her gaming desk. Next to the desk was one wide black shelf, which had a couple of framed pictures on the center shelf and a top row of hardcover fiction books. He also viewed the bottom shelf, revealing another row of books but for historical, biblical, and other genres. “You’ve been doing a lot,” Julius commented about the shelf.

  “You taught me to keep myself in company at all times…Even when I’m bored.”

  “I don’t know how I could raise you for two years. I was only nineteen when I moved in.”

  Gretel stopped typing on her keyboard. “And I was only twelve. Jesus, all those years had passed. Now, I’m twenty and you’re twenty-seven, well, technically twenty-nine.”

  “Time is crazy. Especially after experiencing realms with different interpretations and you aged with it,” Julius said, entering further into the room. He sat down on an empty chair. “How’s the dissection going?”

  Gretel resumed typing. Julius watched her perform another command prompt, triggering multiple lines of code, and a program opened. “Christ, this is all of your government files!”

  “If I recall, I think I had most of them,” Julius muttered, pulling out his smartphone. He also had the Skoltor System checked for any errors. “…Ah, there we go. Try searching through the defense budget and any related documents through this folder.” He pointed to the folder named ‘Skymond’.

  When Gretel clicked, the folder’s properties info box popped open. The two looked all over the contents in the general tab. Julius noticed something off and held the mouse, preventing the former from proceeding further.

  “What’s wrong?” Gretel asked.

  “That date,” Julius said, pointing to the date. “What’s today?”

  “March 29th.”

  “That means this folder was edited two days ago…What was the entire staff doing after I left?”

  “It could be two things. Either we get more than initially thought or expect contents to be deleted.”

  “Let's hope not the latter,” Julius stated before letting go of the mouse. He watched her click through, exiting the properties info box. The file software opened the folder, revealing a massive and lengthy list of documents, photos, and various things. This is probably getting into dangerous territory because some are Colemond’s top-secret files. Julius found that strange, as he had access to too many of them, but this was even more than his three-year career. All of this was correlated with the defense budget and projects. Either way, to be sure, he asked Gretel if the connection was secure. She affirmed. Hence, the two began scavenging through the entire folder while copying everything to a separate hard drive.

  One Hour Later.

  “Phew,” Julius sighed, summoning two bottles of water. “Do you want one?”

  “Sure,” Gretel said. She took the bottle of water and gulped it down in an instant. “Woah, am I really that thirsty?” I never drank this much at once.”

  “You’ll get used to it. Now, I eat at least 7000 calories daily to be at normal levels. Your mom would have to get used to that because she’s a doctor.”

  “Did you guys fix up?”

  Julius nodded, putting his smartphone away. “Yeah, we did. I told her that both of you would be coming with me to this new home. There’s so much to do over there, and I think you will take advantage of it throughout this upcoming journey.”

  “Do they accept me?”

  “Yes, they do. Many wounded soldiers have lost their limbs before, so they’ll understand. But you never know. You might have got your legs back without even knowing,” Julius answered, followed by a smile. He stood from the chair, putting it back where he first found it.

  “Are you leaving?”

  “Well, I’m heading downstairs. You get some rest; we have a lot of work to do for this next two weeks…Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Father.” Gretel made a small wave as he left her room.

  Julius headed downstairs, hearing the conversations below. He saw the lights were still on, and the noise was much louder. Hence, he walked to the kitchen to find everybody convened in the kitchen, except the ones that were originally in the living room. The snores were so loud that Celeste had put a barrier around the openings to the living room, keeping the noises suppressed to zero.

  “I hope y’all had some free time and didn’t actually wait for me,” Julius said, walking to the fridge. He took a can of beer. “Do y’all want beer?”

  Solomon turned and saw the can Julius held. “That’s beer?”

  “Yeah. This is called metal cans where you put drinks in for it to be consumed once and throw them away afterward. You want one?”

  “Give me two.”

  Julius threw two cans. Solomon caught it easily, putting it in his spot on the kitchen island. It was big enough to accompany around ten people. He sat down in a seat while others requested one can of beer.

  Empress Cai then invited Julius with the rest of the group. He joined her and the other nine. Hu was also here, which wasn’t surprising. She blurted out something that would’ve been awkward. “You did it with her, did you?!”

  “I did,” Julius blatantly said, drinking his can of beer. “I’m tying up the loose ends with my past, and I’m still single with no commitments to any relationships yet.”

  “Is she the ex you briefly mentioned?”

  “That’s right. She’ll be joining us back when we head home in two weeks.”

  “Two weeks?” Celeste asked, much to her displeasure. “What are we going to do here?”

  Julius threw the first beer can in the trash. His mouth was filled with all the frothy foam. “We are going to travel around the city to get stuff. Many things we can bring back home that would benefit us more than the humans here on Earth.”

  “Oh…that’s why you also want us to drive the trucks,” Solomon muttered, realizing the five trucks that came along. “In that case, how much stuff can we take?” His tone turned to excitement.

  “As much as you can, that benefits everyone and yourself. Earth has so much technology and their levels are much higher than everything within the Moon Empire territory,” Julius said. He then summoned a poster-sized roll of Colemond’s map. “No offense to those screen computers and the hydrogenerators; those are magical. However, the stuff you’ll get will be perfect for our own innovation. Pretty much anything.” He rolled the map out onto the kitchen island’s surface, revealing the entire city. All the landmarks, important locations, and various pinpoints were specifically not for the public.

  “That’s a gigantic map,” Míngyuè commented, touching one of the black lines. “Are these all roads?”

  Everyone nodded. Julius then said: “Correct, in fact, the wide and dark bold lines are the highways. That’s where I got the idea of the Fu?bahn.” Julius’ finger pointed.

  “Ok, now I believe you,” Rui said. This was the first time he didn’t have a notebook or something to write in his hand.

  “I hope so,” Julius said with his eyes staring at him madly. “I’m kidding…anyway, there are so many places to go according to this map. It’s a matter of where to go first. You guys pick.”

  They talked excessively, while Julius recounted how many locations he highlighted and marked on the map needed to go within two weeks. God damn. In a way, he was grateful that sleeping was only voluntary. The need to fulfill fifty places was laid out on the paper. It would’ve been impossible for an ordinary Earth individual.

  “We’ve decided,” Senator Bǐdé (彼得) announced.

  Ah, the great Senator One. “Yes, Bide go ahead.”

  “Number Fifteen.”

  Julius leaned forward to the spot. “I see, so you wanted to visit the Colemond’s Museum of Arms. Alright, we can go there. We will decide our next locations later.” He pulled out his smartphone. “I need to make some phone calls.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Never mind. You guys don’t have the phone technology yet,” Julius said, then heading to an empty spot in the house. He clicked on his phone contacts list and clicked on a group phone call, intending for the phone call to reach everyone within it.

  “Hello? Who’s this? How do you get my number?”

  “This is Julius. I used to go by the name Daniel…We met around two years ago for a meeting on a topic about protecting that island down south of the Bay of Bengal.”

  “Daniel?” the voice sounded confused, but only instantly recognized it. “Oh, crap. Sorry, it’s been a long time. Agent Sleep or the agency are the only ones that call through my personal number.”

  “Not a problem but call Rakesh and Ginnan (銀杏). You three are going on a flight to Colemond in five days. Pack all your things and take whatever you can with you. Also, bring the runes too because you’re not going back home. A new journey for you three will begin in five days. Do you understand, Ravi?”

  “That’s a sudden request, but do I have a choice?”

  “Yes, but the other option is not going to be pretty in terms of the global scale. Agent Sleep and your acquaintances in the agency will be at the airport, waiting for you guys there.”

  “Hmm…Alright. I’ll see you then,” Ravi responded. “Can you also send a message to them, just in case?”

  “I already thought of that,” Julius said. “I’ll meet you then.”

  He ended the call, swiping to the messages. One straightforward message to the other two before returning to the kitchen. The group, not needing to sleep, stayed in the kitchen till morning, conversing about what needed to be taken from the museum.