Astral's Rise Part 34: Trophy

Astral would drop to his knees. Resting on his sword to breathe. His friends all rushed and hugged him. He would create a soft cloud to keep them back while he gathers himself. He felt all the pressure lift off of him. His hood over his eyes he would be at the breaking point. 

Physically and mentally exhausted past the point of return until he rests. The cloud would be lifted as everyone approached him slowly. Jaimie would reach out her hands and lift up his hood. Revealing the cyan eyes filled with thousands of little cracks. Looking up to see Jaimie. The lines across his eyes slowly faded to reveal the pure cyan iris. "I just wanna go home." He spoke quietly as Jaimie would pick him up in her arms. 

Softly holding him in safety. Adam and Astrid would be holding Anders back who wanted to ask questions. As for James and Angel, they would walk over and quietly hug Astral and Jaimie. The four of them were happy to be together for once. 

"Don't worry. We are going to make a nice home cooked meal when we get back to earth. Something for everyone to enjoy." Jaimie smiled as Angel slowly pet Astral on his head. Astral murmured in approval quietly as he felt spread out from the fights.

Anders tried to struggle free from both grasps of Adam and Astrid. "If you don't let go I won't get what I want." Adam looked at her like she was stupid.

 "Yeah, that's why we are holding you still." Astrid spoke, nodding to Adam that she could wrangle Anders in. Adam waited a second before anything.

Jaimie looked down into her arms. "You can rest, I'll make all the food you could ever want. I can imagine that it is a lot. You did so well!" Jaimie nuzzled Astral and nodded slowly as James and Angel took a step back. "What's next at home after this?"

"Not that home. We will make the home that we are planning." Astral spoke, giving Adam a thumbs up. Adam let go of Anders, Adam saw what happened with the suns and knew it wasn't a coincidence. Astral caused it. He can provide the power needed for it. Adam would start to furiously sketch into his notebook. Sitting down to keep working on it to finish it off for Astral. Astrid would have just hugged Anders to make her still.

"Oooh, we have a new home?" Angel asked.

"Where is it going to be?" James followed up.

Their curiosity peaked as Astral looked at the two. "It will be a mystical place for you two to enjoy, you will be able to learn certain things there that you otherwise would have never found out about." The two of them were giddy with excitement. 

"What's so special about it?" they asked in unison as Alexa pulled out a holographic image of the design from the outside, blurred a bit and unpolished. The two of them got even more anxious to learn about this creation.

Alexa looked back to Astral who gave her the thumbs up to explain pieces and bits of the concept of the station. "This is a lifeboat on a non practical scale. Mainly used as a military complex from a fictional series. Astral and Adam are using it as an exploration tool." She paused seeing the gods. "Its goal is to preserve history and human life."

The twins stood in awe, remembering their friends, all of them so kind to the two that their smiles grew to frowns as they were never to meet them once more. Alexa reached over with her hands and lifted their hands. "Your sorrows should be filled with the happy experiences you had with them. Don't linger too much on them but have them propel you forward." The tears welled in their eyes as they wiped them away.

 "What else is special about the place?" The two of them asked.

 "Complete protection of lots of things." Astral would look over to the two seeing the gods behind them. "It will be a place for us to travel the universe." He would roll out of Jaimie's arms who would help him stand. He looked to the gods that were holding something that would be hovering. It was a glove?

"Congratulations Astral. You have defeated all of the other challengers. As per the deal with our tournament. Here is the universal glove. Allowing for many things that normally wouldn't be possible." The three gods that brought them to this tournament hovered in place.

The gods were truly amazed as the three that brought them there bestowed the gift. "Even during the preliminary round where you not only attacked everyone you could but defended your family. It made an entertaining sport." The purple one glowed bright turning closer to magenta as the hue was near blinding to Angel and James as they duck behind Astral.

"Your first ten fights were nothing but a dull bore, culling the weaker members of the tournament." The orange orb was matte in color with no glow. "Which is the way we set it up, encouraging moments like your robotic companion being taken from you. It showed a new level of effort. Renowned vigor to continue these fights and watch with curiosity."

The blue orb hovered as it hummed along in rhythm with the others. "The final few fights need no words. Thank you for removing the troublesome Lone and Mike, they were thorns that needed to be dealt with." Astral was puzzled as everyone else was confused. Adam sadly missed this as he was hyper focused in his work.

"But the finale was worth all of the wait in this tournament." The blue orb would bob up and down as the rest of the gods clapped in agreement giving Astral an encore that he ignored. The comment registered for Adam who wrote it down.

The Glove would float over to Astral. Grabbing it from the air to examine it. "It's a shame that your friends didn't compete. We were looking forward to seeing them in action." The gods would float away as they were warped back to the cafe like if time never moved. Astral would just pull out a chair and sit down. 

Immediately falling asleep as everyone else sat down at the table. Adam would pull out the blueprints and show what he has worked on. A massive spherical object with several rings orbiting the structure.