It has been a while ever since we first explored Colderes, and I really feel bad for the detectives that died over there. Maybe I’m too focused on building homes, but I wonder if anyone at the shielders is thinking about confronting the problem directly. Right now, we’re all gathered at that area where we had to build the houses. “Does the sky look any darker to you, Natalie?” As I looked at it, it definitely did for me. “Hm, a little bit Matt. I really hope it’s not The Emptiness spreading…” Natalie, with visible disgust on her face, seemingly disapproved of the situation at hand quite visibly.
“Yeah, I really hope it didn’t. Anyway, we’re gonna build houses, but I’m starting to wonder if anyone else will do something about this.” “Well that would be good, but I don’t know anything about that. All we can do is wait.”
“Yeah… unfortunately…”
Dennis then returned to us. “Hey, I brought some drinks, do you guys want any?”... “Is there any coffee?” I took a glance at him,, I didn’t expect a yes anyway. “Oh… No. Just soda and juice.”, “Knew it… I’ll take the soda then, thanks.” Natalie smiled. For once. “Alright, I’ll take some orange juice. Thanks Dennis.” We gathered together and started drinking our stuff, Crystal had chosen soda while Arthur and Michael had chosen grape juice.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I brought some sandwiches we can enjoy before we start!” Crystal smiled excitedly and pulled out a basket, opened it, and revealed to us a bunch of sandwiches. “They look delicious, did you make them yourself?” Natalie seemed interested in them, and to be honest, I don’t blame her, they look that good. “Yeah, I made them myself! Ham, cheese and a double layer. I think everyone will enjoy it.”
“Let’s see…” We grabbed one each. We all proceeded to take a small bite, with Dennis taking a big one. “Oh… OH! Wow!” Dennis was very surprised. “This is really good!” And then started eating the rest like a wild animal, calm down, jesus!
“Yeah, Crystal. This stuff is pretty good.” Michael smiled smugly and gave a thumbs up of approval. Arthur smirked. “Well, I’m not complaining.” Looking at Natalie, I asked her, “It’s great, isn’t it?”, “Yeah, it’s pretty great.” Crystal’s eyes shone from joy. “Eeeeee I’m glad you enjoy them so much guys! Wooo!” Crystal fell on her back. “...Anyway.” I cleared my throat before continuing my sentence. “Let’s eat this quickly so we don’t put people waiting for too long.”
“Righty-o Mr. Matt!” We all just ate the sandwiches, at least lunch break was pretty good, I think. “Well, looks like it’s time. Let’s get to work.” Cracking my knuckles, I looked at Michael. “So, where are the resources?” “Oh, I’m glad you asked, Mr. Mattttt… Here.” Michael opened the trunk of his little ship, and brought out a box. “A pocket dimension box? I’ve heard of those, didn’t know you owned one.” I said in a bit of surprise.
“Well now you know, it’s pretty good for holding stuff like this. You know how to use one, right?”, “Yeah, you just touch the panel and select what you want to pick up, then you’ll hold it magically in your own pocket dimension.”
“Very good.”
Crystal then walked towards me. “So, should I put you under the effects of my amazing and wonderful magic Matty-boy?!”
“Eh, yeah, that would be appreciated, Crystal.” I chuckled nervously, at least this time I’m prepared for such a thing.
Crystal then cast her magic on me, and again, I became coffee rush fast. I rushed from the box to the house and back, building the house pretty quickly. [Pant… Pant…] “There… we go. Another house is done.” Natalie looked through a list. “Yeah, there’s a few more families that need to be tended to, but we got plenty of time to work on it.”. “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!”... A man’s strong voice echoed across the area unexpectedly, as I looked around to see who it came from.
At that moment a monster gorilla fell from the sky, shaking the ground as I fell over. “W-what the? Who are you?” I said, already getting annoyed from this weird entrance. I had fallen on my butt, humiliated. Ugh… “Hm, more importantly, how did he drop from the sky?” Replied Natalie. The man laughed it off. “Boy, do I have some news for you! That crappy Emptiness is done for! Because, you got us! We’ve been tasked with clearing it!” And as he finished his sentence, a bunch more monsters dropped from the sky. A lion, an eagle, and a rhino.
The lion continued the gorilla’s words, as if the whole scene was scripted. “Together, we are the Pred Squad!” I raised my eyebrow and looked at Natalie, and she whispered to me. “Have you ever noticed how weird monsters are?”, “Eh… I try to not think too much about it. Crystal is already enough. Let’s just get them to shut up as quickly as possible.”... “Alright.” We then returned to look at them, and I decided to ask the following question: “So, uhh… I take it you’re Shielders? I don’t recall seeing you anywhere.”
“Yeah, we’ve been part of the security and NEVER failed!” The rhino replied.
Crystal crossed her arms, and said while mildly upset, “Well, you know, Shielder offices are never robbed or anything of the sort. If there are no criminals to stop, then of course you will never be able to fail.”
They all laughed together, as if it was a joke. “Exactly! Because we have never dealt with criminals, we’ve never failed!”
Facepalming, I had nothing to say over this stupid excuse of a show. Natalie was completely losing it and dying inside very visibly to the rest of us. “Well anyway, what are you gonna do with The Emptiness?”, “We plan to eradicate it completely” Replied the Gorilla, “BUT, we’re waiting for some supplies before we do! You small peeps can focus on building.” Crystal coughed. “Uhh actually I’m-” until the Gorilla silenced her with a shush. Not long after, a truck arrived and opened its back gates, revealing a bunch of weapons and high tech armor, coated in magic shields.
Dennis gasped. “A mix of magic and technology? That’s amazing! Surely you’ll deal with Emptiness like it’s nothing!”. “Ah, haha, I hope so little guy, I hope so.” Replied the Gorilla, blushing a bit from the flattering. “Well… This is where we drop off, good luck building houses, you little peeps.” The ‘Pred Squad’ got inside the truck, as the truck’s wheels morphed into hovering turbines. A layer of extra metal to protect the truck formed, and the truck took off into the skies. Alas, I can stop cringing now.
“Hm… Looks like we’re not the only ones dealing with The Emptiness after all.” I said wondering if they’ll be alright. Even I couldn’t help but worry about those guys. Crystal shrugged before replying. “Well… Honestly, I have no idea where this will go, but I’m excited to see if those funny guys actually save us all!” She laughed a bit afterwards. Arthur followed. “It’s honestly pretty weird how things are now, but I have faith that everything will be alright.”
Dennis chuckled nervously. “Y-yeah, I agree with Arthur, everything will be alright for sure!”
“Hm…” How curious. I began to ponder a bit. …Ah. Let’s put these circus performers to work! “Dennis, do you think you can talk to the chief regarding what exactly every Shielder is doing regarding The Emptiness, then come back and tell us what you found out?” Dennis blinked. “I… Uh, sure. Yeah, sure. I’ll do it!” He then walked away to an empty corner, and pulled out his phone. “Alright, Crystal, I also need a favor from you.” “Oh yeah? What is it, Matty-boy?”
“Err… Do you think you can watch what the, uh, ‘Pred Squad’ does from a safe distance? Frankly, I’m interested in knowing what they do.” “Yeah sure! I’ll fly towards renting a spaceship on my own! Just make sure you can build houses on your own!” She took flight and left… Natalie looked at me. “What are you planning, Matt?” “Ah, well… To be honest with you, this Emptiness stuff is starting to interest me. Since it’s kinda destroying the universe, and I build stuff for this planet. I just want to know more about it.”
“Ah. Well, If you’d like I could find out more about it while you work.” … “No, that’s fine Natalie, I want you to be with me here.”... “Huh?” Natalie narrowed her left eye. “But I’m not that good at magic compared to Crystal, what would I help you with?”. “That’s fine. Honestly, if it isn’t too much to ask, I want you to critique my work honestly. I know you tell things how it is, so I want to know if I’m doing a good job or not.”... “Ah, sure, sure… Then maybe we should check this house first?”... “Alright.”
We smiled at each other, a bit awkward, but it was nice, and then walked inside the house I had just built while under Crystal’s magic.
As we looked around, Natalie chuckled a bit. “Hm? What’s so funny?” I looked at her wondering what she could be laughing about, especially when she was just a few seconds ago so disappointed over those fools. “Nothing, it’s just weird to think that you could build this so fast… Even with magic and all, it’s pretty surprising.”, “Ah, well, Crystal is hard to predict, so we shouldn’t question what kind of magic she’s able to use.”... “Right…” We just started to examine the living room now. Natalie felt the couch slightly, and then looked at me. “Don’t you think that this living room is better than yours?”. “Well, Michael has enough funding to tell me that all of these should be luxurious. And to be completely honest with you, I don’t really care about making my house all fancy, rich or comfy. I just want it to be enough for living.”
“That’s odd…” Natalie put her hand on her cheek, thinking. “You’re a Shielder, so you have one of the most well paying jobs there are. Why wouldn’t you want to make your house good?” “Ah, well…” I looked to my side silent for a few seconds, then just sighed. “It’s because I didn’t really want to do so. I like saving up money. Maybe one day I can put it to use somehow.” “If you say so…” Natalie shrugged and we went to see the kitchen. “Wait, this is a gas stove, isn’t it?” Natalie examined the stove closely.
“Yeah it is, why?”, “Why not electric? The people here wouldn’t need to spend money on gas.”. “Well, I’ve always been using gas stoves and this is what Michael supplied me with, I didn’t want to rely on electricity. I even believe they taste better that way.” “Really, Matt? Our world is at its peak, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with electricity. Just think about it. We should go talk to Michael about this. Besides, that’s a placebo.” I… feel kind of stupid now. Oops. Maybe? What if The Emptiness kills the power? Oh well… I should’ve told Michael...
“Alright, let’s do that once we finish checking the house”. We went upstairs and examined the bedrooms after. “Huh… This bedroom actually looks pretty good.” Natalie walked further inside of it. “Uhh, yeah… Thanks. I guess I put more effort into it since it’s where you sleep and wake up every day, I guess.”... “Hm. This bed though, I wonder how comfortable it is?”, “Are you gonna check? Well, you better make the bed when you’re done with it.” I chuckled a bit as I watched her approach the bed. Come on, you better, Nats.
Natalie then sat on the bed, before lying down and just feeling it. She even stretched her leaves. Eee…
…“You comfy there, Nats?”
Natalie laughed. “Nats? Ah well… This bed is actually really really comfy, how much did this house cost again?”, “I’m not sure… Maybe a couple thousands. Then again the Shielders are covering most of the costs. Michael is earning a lot of profit from it.” Natalie chuckled. “It’s just this is pretty good quality, and since everyone is getting new homes that are Emptiness-proof, I’m starting to think it might be worth getting something from that guy.”... “Ah, well if you do, I can always build it slowly so you can tell me exactly what you think and what you want.”, “Yeah sure, that’d be nice. Thanks, Matt.”... “Ah… No problem.”
Natalie got up and looked at me. “Huh, you’re blushing…” ??!! “W-what?” I quickly stepped back. “Well… It’s just… Nevermind, I’m just glad that you appreciate my efforts and my work. I’ll make sure that you like the house we’ll make for you.” Natalie chuckled a little bit more. If I had to guess, that heartful laugh would only make me red as a tomato. “Enough of that, let’s go outside and check on the others, alright Matt?”
“Right.”
After finishing our brief ‘inspection’ on the house, we got out to see what the others were up to. Natalie’s sudden happiness, even if nice, was making me crazy already.
Dennis ran towards us. “Hey, listen! I found out what’s going on!”, “Let’s hear it then, Dennis.” Natalie and I looked at him and paid attention to what he was gonna say. Dennis cleared his throat, “Alright, so… It looks like the Shielders have been assigned different tasks depending on their skills and area of expertise.” Natalie replied, “Well of course, but what about it?” “Ah, well, that ‘Pred Squad’ is only one of the groups tasked with fighting Emptiness, I think the others went to different areas.”
“Hmmm…” I began to ponder a bit. “Maybe those Pred-thing guys came here because this area is in the middle of Meex, so maybe the others went to Stellar Site or somewhere else.”. “Yeah that makes sense.” Dennis smiled. “And then there’s the famous architect and his colleagues! You and us! We were tasked with building houses and making sure everything’s alright for the people.” Natalie shrugged, not even bothering to put too much interest into this whole ordeal, not even the super architecture from her childhood friend would bother her to put up fake interest for Dennis to see apparently. “Well I guess that’s gonna give us some points in life. Anything else?”
“Yeah. Lastly: Seems like the rest of the Shielders are patrolling the streets to make sure nobody does anything stupid, doing boring paperwork, or whatever else is needed to keep things nice and safe.”. “I see… Thanks, Dennis. Now we need Crystal to come back. If she does, that is.” Natalie chuckled, once again, clearly more interested in dumb jokes than Non-Silver T. work. “What are you saying? It’s Crystal, she’ll definitely come back.”, “Right. Anyway, I feel like getting some more soda, is there any left?” Dennis got excited quickly. “Yeah! I got some more! Lemme get them!” Dennis ran to get his travel mug…
I looked at Natalie. “So, what’s next for house building?” Natalie started to look through her list. “Looks like the next house is the same as the last, are Crystal’s magic effects still working on you?”, “Yeah, I think so, let’s see.” I went to retrieve the materials from the pocket dimension and quickly installed them where they needed to be. “Yep! There we go.”, “A bit of show-off, eh Matt?”. “Ha, no, that wasn’t my intention.” I rubbed the back of my head and awkwardly smiled in embarrassment. What a day this is so far!
Dennis then returned to us. “What’s up guys? I brought the soda!”, “Thanks Dennis! Let’s-” ...Before finishing my sentence, a strange sound just kept getting louder and louder in the distance.
“Uhh…” Dennis looked at the sky. “What’s that?”
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