After drinking my coffee, I left the bar as soon as possible. I pulled out my phone but before I could write a message, The sound of an airplane only got louder and louder; “An airplane? In the year 2.000.000.000?” Was all I could mutter in this confusion. Of all the things that could’ve happened, of course, what happened was that a massive blue dragon had crashed on top of me, as we rolled around, fortunately my phone was unharmed, but, well... You can already guess who’s on top of me, right? This idiot… for her big size it seems like her brain’s only smaller.
“Matt!! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! And oh my GOD I saw this bigger guy who looked just like you on the way here!”... “Ugh... Crystal... why couldn’t you just message me or call me?”. “Don’t be such a silly boy, it’s always better to see your friends face to face!” Yeah, and apparently crushing them with your massive dragon weight is too. She then got off me. “Listen! Dennis and I have been experimenting with caught usurpers, and boy did we find something juicy! I swear Dennis is gonna have nightmares about it.”
“Yeah? Don’t keep me waiting, what is it?” I said while getting up and undusting my clothes. “Those things! They can plant tentacles in your body!”... “Gross.”
“And control your every movement!”
“...Excuse me?”
She pulled me closer, used her wings to block the sun and pulled out a flashlight from her pocket dimension, lighting her face for a half-assed horror effect… “Oooh yes! First I was confused as to what Dennis was doing, but then he attacked me! The puppy boy attacked me! It was awful! Then I punched him in the face and sent him flying across the room which squashed the usurper on his back and returned him to normal.”
“...”
“I know, right?”
“I know you’re the Super Scientist but this story has me more confused than excited and informed. Your first instinct was to literally punch a man. When you’re the species in the top of the food chain and can do magic really well.” …“Hmmm... when you put it that way it does make me sound like a monster.” She put her claw on her chin thinking and wagging her eyebrows rather than being concerned. “Well... I get what you mean.” Just when I faced the other way and took a step, she grabbed me and stopped me from getting away. Sighing, I just said “What now?” When is this suffering gonna end?
“You can’t run away from me that easily! I’m gonna bring you with everyone else so we can be the best of chums, and we’ll be B E S T I E S!”... “I-“ Actually, nevermind I could talk to them about working. “Alright, let’s go.” - “See? Everything’s better when you blindly follow your heart! Now hold on tight!” With Crystal holding me in her dragon arms to embarrass me further, we flew off to gather the others. Eventually, we were one man short. Only Arthur was missing.
Natalie, annoyed at the situation while talking, sarcastically muttered: “Gee. Does Arthur need to do so much? We didn't need him for years.” She even wagged her hand, to further show off that attitude of hers. Quite the princess.
“Well, that’s still fine. I figured he’s busy, so I wanted to talk to you guys about a plan.”. “Oh? A plan, huh? You got my interest.” She said, now with some more energy. Standing up firmly. “Yeah. Well, I figured we could put our talents to use. What I had in mind was for Crystal to buff my productivity again, then I could work on fixing the cracked streets. Natalie can talk with the citizens and interview them while noting down their problems and the best possible solution. Dennis and Crystal, well... you two are strong monsters with magic, so I want you to explore the realm.”
Natalie put her hand on her chin and smiled. “Nice thinking Matt, at this point you might just become the next Super Manager.” Dennis sighed. “Alone with Crystal again? Am I really the butt monkey of this group?” Crystal clapped her hands together and smiled with glee. “No worries Dennis! You and I get along very well, with how small you are and how I can carry you! We’ll be just fine!” She then grabbed Dennis as he whimpered, and took flight leaving just Nats and I alone to ourselves, luckily no one else was looking.
Natalie and I then looked at each other, smiling. She said: “So it’s just us now, then?”
…“Yep. Seems like it.”
We gave each other a quick kiss before we parted ways and waved each other good-bye. Well… Alright, this is it. It’s time to work on helping the people of Meex. With the power of furry magic and my Super Talent, I got on a coffee rush to work and fixed the ruined streets using materials out of my pocket dimension. Luckily I’ve been training my magic skills in my free time, so I managed to control my pocket dimension somewhat better in the middle of all that quickness and pressure.
After an hour of hard work, I did plenty of fixing to the streets in need, and just sat down to catch my breath. All I could do was appreciate the scenery, I never really cared about how the world looks in the first place. But now I can look at our work and feel proud about it. Sure, it looks ruined, but we’re doing something, damn it. We’re working to fix it. Before I would see all the advanced buildings and such and just... feel bored.
“Excuse me mister, can we talk?”
“Hm?”
I looked to my side and saw a bunch of kids, just looking at me in their tattered clothing and dirty... It... hurt to look at. Clearly some people have been having it REALLY rough. “You’re a Shielder, aren’t you mister? You have a badge on your chest.”
“Yeah, I’m an architect, my name’s Matt Brown, what about you?”
“Matt? So you’re the one who built my house?”
“If it is where I think it is then yeah, but you don’t have to thank me really. It’s pretty embarrassing.”
“It isn’t about that! it’s just... we’re hungry! Mommy and Daddy don’t wanna feed us! Please... mister... help us.”
“Ah, that’s it? Alright, I can’t really accompany you but take this. Spend it on food rather than sweets, alright?” Handing them a $100 bill, I could see them smile and cry of happiness. Then... they jumped at me!
“AGH!”
The kids had pounced me and trapped me in a group hug, one which I couldn’t escape. “Thank you so much, mister! You’re a hero!” - “H-hey... it’s alright. Just please let me go ok?”
And in the worst possible moment, the others arrived to see me like this.
They all laughed, with Crystal being the first to humiliate me, “What’s this all about Matt? I didn’t know you were a dad!” - “I’m not! I just gave them money because they wanted food!” Natalie smiled. “Awww! The quiet architect has a heart of gold and a soft spot for children, huh?”... “PLEASE STOP I JUST WANT TO HAVE A LOW PROFILE LIFE AAAAHH!!” …Soon, the kids got off me and left to get some food, while I was a bit teared up from this... overwhelming and extra sensory experience. Dennis poked me. “Hey, would you spare a dime for a cute puppy as well?”
“Don’t push your luck.”
He blepped and all I could do was undust myself.
“Anyway, what did you guys find out?” Natalie pulled out her phone. “Well, the first thing I did was broadcast a message to all citizens of the Light Realm. Asked them to submit their thoughts in a survey, then after that I went to talk to elders outside since they probably wouldn’t know how to use a phone well. I found out that plenty of people are in need of treatment and assistance. As expected, but... way more people than the Shielder app says.”
“What the…? Are we not being given the right information?”
Dennis sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Man. This gives me bad vibes. I suppose Crystal and I should wait to tell you what happened.” Nodding, I replied. “For now, we need to talk to Arthur. Let’s talk on the way.” With the questions we had, we made our way walking instead of flying or by car to give time to Crystal and Dennis to tell us what happened. Crystal and Dennis are laughing heartily telling us everything. “So, we didn’t find many threats. Just a few Usurpers along the way in the rural areas; we beat the crap out of them!” Said Crystal with an uncomfortable amount of excitement. “It was easy, just stomp stomp and maul. Dennis is like an animal when he gets angry!”
“Well he is an anim-” - “HEY!”
“...Sorry.”
To think before this would kill me, but I’ḿ finally getting used to the shenanigans of this group. Despite their quirks and insanity. And now… Arthur. We ended up at the entrance of the castle, welcomed by two guards sitting there keeping watch. “Hello. You folks must be Shielders. Sorry to intrude but could you please show your IDs just in case?” We showed them our IDs without saying a word. “Alright, carry on.” We moved forward, and went to see Arthur.
There he was. He just looked at us, as if there was nothing happening at hand. “Well hello! If it isn’t my good friends, what brings you here? I thought you were taking this time to relax. I’d say you four out of everyone else deserve it the most.” Natalie yelled at him, pointing at him so hard I could almost swear wind was blowing through the room. “Actually, we wanted to talk to you! I feel like you haven’t been fully honest to the Shielders or the people of Meex and the Light Realm.”
“Hmm? How so?” - “I am the Super Manager. I decided to ask everyone how they were doing, and I noticed the stats of people in need were different from the ones you provided in our Shielder app, Arthur.”
“Ah well, how do I put this…” Arthur yawned, then sat down on his throne in front of us as if bored. Not caring. “I’ve been doing some calculations. Of course, the knowledge of a robot is limited to their human programmer, but I’m different. Yes, I’ve been looking into the tentacle incident and its effects. I estimate that in the lapse of two hundred years things will turn out terribly. Money running out, resources running out, a change in the behavior of people… We literally had an awful tragedy happen to us, The Emptiness wants to consume Meex and the place is in ruins. So I’ve come to a decision: limit the treatment to everyone, and instead leave people to fend for themselves. That way, only the strong capable of living will move forward, and the weak will perish, leaving only the strongest alive as time goes.”
The nerve of this man… Is he even hearing himself? It’s like he’s taking the ideas of a comic book villain. We all watched confused and shocked, while Dennis just yelled at him; “What the hell is your problem? Those are the lives of people! That’s so wrong on so many levels! Do you even realize what you’re saying?”, “Yes… I do. And I know what I’m saying is terrible, but there’s only so little we can do. We’re lucky to be in the first days of the tragedy, but if we try to help everyone, we’ll be forced to run out of energy and resources. Less energy means less magic and labor, less resources means less medical treatment and living.”
…
Crystal raised her eyebrow. “But… you’ve been leading this world through countless generations, why make this decision now?”
Arthur crossed his arms. “You already know how I was given this curse of pseudo-unlimited power, don’t you? I… don’t want another blasphemy like that to repeat itself. Too many lives lost only to be used as fuel for my power, the later years of my reign were nothing but peace compared to that awfulness. But this time… I can see that it’s just as threatening. We’re lucky to have powerful Shielders fighting Usurpers on the sidelines. I only let you lollygag because you’ve done enough to help, can’t you at least thank me for that? Or perhaps see that I’m willing to have patience for the ones that have been valuable to our society.”
“Stop it…” I clenched my fist, almost hard enough to make it bleed, as Arthur watched me. “Hm? What is it, Matt? Have you got something to say?”
“What happened to you? We used to spend time together and talk! Just help everyone we could, has your pause of being a king tarnished your goddamn skills? This… this is just too much. For as long as I’m alive, I’ll do my best to make everyone live well! I got enough money to thrive, way more than I need. So I’ll use it to help everyone! You can count on that!”
“...”
“...Interesting, Matt. Well… go ahead. I’m not stopping you. After all, you’ll eventually die of old age and I’ll be here to make the changes I want later on. I’ve already waited enough years, about a hundred isn’t too much for me.”
“Gah…”
Defeated, we left the place and went out to sit on the floor. He was clearly… not himself. Conveniently, as is for every situation like this in the media it seemed like it started to rain while we were inside, so we were accompanied by the sound of rain and the darkness of the weather and emptiness. Of course, Crystal and Natalie’s efforts kept us dry. “What has gotten into Arthur? Why’d he make such a decision like that out of nowhere?” Asked Dennis, confused and fearful. Yes, he was more scared than any other time. I feel bad for the little guy. He’s putting his wolfness to shame by shaking way more than a chihuahua.
Natalie, unusually, teared up a bit. “Well… he’s old. He knows a lot more than us, so I suppose he’s only taking the route that nobody else will take to reduce the pain our people will go through.” - “Still… I… I have an idea. Something that might just work… maybe.” I said while looking at my phone, looking at my funds in my bank account… If I could do this, I could… I could……. Ugh… “What is it, Matty-boy? Something is bothering you, right? Speak up so we can hear you. We’re in this together, aren’t we?” Said Crystal with her usual cheerful voice. But I couldn’t help but hesitate.
“Crystal… What kind of charity organizations are out there that you can confirm are worth it?”, “Oh, well… There’s this one. Led by some dude called Roxas Stars, it’s religious or something.”... “Religious, huh? Well that doesn’t matter, as long as they help, they’re good in my book. I’ll go talk to them, I think I have an idea.”, “Really? Alright, well go ahead!”. “I’ll go… Natalie, you wanna come with me?”. “Yeah sure, got nothing else to do.” I gave Michael a call so he could take me there, and left Dennis and Crystal there to chill. I could almost swear they were hugging as I saw them far away but whatever. As he took us there, we arrived at a tiny, for the needs rather than for the looks building. It looked so bland, basic and simplistic… I genuinely enjoyed the beauty of it. It didn’t look overcrowded with designs or colors. Why, I love it… Other than that, we stepped out of the vehicle as we approached it.
Natalie chuckled heartily, as if trying to keep both of our spirits up. “Well, don’t you think this building looks a bit boring?”... “Speak for yourself, as an architect, this is perfect.” - “Huh… Well, that makes sense. Let’s just go in.” We walked into the building, we saw very few employees of various races, and there I saw a somewhat tall robot dude with long hair. “Hey! You must be Matt and Natalie from Silver T. Big? Arthur has told me a lot about you.” …? “Oh, really? What has he told you?”
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