17 Chapter 17: Localised Spatial Manipulation (50k!)

'I am feeling better now, warp me out of here!' Zel hit himself in the stomach a few times and told the artifact to get him out of this situation. What was a simple extraction mission has now turned into a chance encounter with some other artifact bearers, and this is something that he never wanted to do, let alone have that person be Rydel who has been so nice to him over the past few days.

It's quite a bit harder to warp when you are moving! We are not even that in sync yet!

The artifact shouted back. It's voice woke Zel up from the initial shock and the subsequent frenzy, and he took a few moments to regather his thoughts. He scanned around quickly and started looking for a way out.

As long as he can stay out of reach from those two, he should have enough time to get into the pocket domain and slip away.

'Watch my back!' Zel told the artifact and changed his right arm to grappling mode. The safe length under normal gravity is ten meters, so that's where he needed to get to quickly.

He made a turn to the ride towards a smaller building on the other side of the road when he heard a gun being clicked and loaded.

I got it! The artifact assured Zel as an entrance into the pocket domain is opened and the stunning dart went straight through. Zel swung his arm in an aggressive arc and fired the grappling hook away at the top of the building. The hook landed exactly where Zel wanted, and he performed a quick few safety checks before putting all of his body weight onto it and started running straight up along the side of the building.

'Have you alerted the storage facility guard already?' Cellica asked Rydel whilst the two are still running, 'is anyone going to show up?'

'I have, and the police squadron should be on the way here! You don't want them see you having a gun. Why do you have a gun anyway?!' Rydel ripped off the glove off the left hand and flexed his fingers as he ready himself to use the artifact. Then he slid on the helmet, secured it in its position and turned it on. The visor quickly finished processing and started showing how far away Zel is.

'Damn, he is climbing up walls now!' Cellica called out, 'grab him!'

Rydel slowed down and reached out. He started to focus where Zel is, and slowly closes up his fist. Then, something shook him and he immediately dropped the arm.

'What's this?' Cellica questioned as she also slows down to check on Rydel.

'I can't do this, not on a people.' Rydel shook his head, 'I have no idea what will happen if I were to grab onto someone. I don't want to kill anyone, by squishing.....'

'I see...' Cellica took in this answer surprisingly well and nodded understandingly. She ran towards Rydel, held his hand and said so with a smile, 'You are a good man. Now let's go.'

'I will catch him. Do not worry.' Rydel reassured her as Zel climbs further up towards the to, 'I have an idea.'

'That was a bloody close one.' Zel remarked. Just now when Rydel activated and uses his glove, the artifact within him completely freaked out and started screaming inside of him all of a sudden. Zel barely maintained his balance and control so that he won't face-plant the wall and end up with an augmented nose also.

He looked back at Rydel, whose glove is glowing bright orange before reverting back to a purple. Their eyes met, but Rydel's doesn't show any hostility, but rather curiosity.

Zel didn't slow down.

From Zel's point of view, Rydel knew what he might do could have quite severe consequences, and yet he chose not to do it. Deep down, Zel really respected that. But this is a job nonetheless, and a job has to be done, especially one with a 'generous sum'.

He kept on climbing up until he flipped over the top and is out of the line of sight of the pursuers.But not out of sight.

'How's it looking?' Rydel asked as he fits the helmet around Cellica and carefully shifts her soft blonde hair towards the side so it doesn't get caught in the straps, 'Has the calibration already started?'

'Yes. How do I use this thing again?' Cellica's voice sounded muffled as the straps are hooked around her chin and is firmly secured.'Just focus on where he is, the helmet will do the rest.' Rydel told her, 'let me know how far away, and I will reach for him, if I do it slowly, he won't be squished.'

'What are you going to do then?' Cellica looked towards where Zel is standing on top of the building and started to focus her thoughts and channel it inwards, like how she always does when using the eyes. The helmet started processing for a little bit then encountered an error as the visuals doesn't really actually pick up Zel, 'There is an error!'

'Override visual sampling. Set default.' Rydel quickly typed in the command, and the error message is hidden away. Then, the things Cellica sees is taken straight from her brain and projected onto the screen with the figure of Zel positioned in the middle. A distance calculation is then provided, and it says twenty meters away at seventy degrees up.

'Noted.' Rydel nodded, and started reaching his hands up towards roughly where Zel is standing. He does not plan to completely close his fist or really grab onto him, but rather he would just hold him in a locked region of space, or better yet take the red mechanical arms off him and use it as an evidence for the police investigation later.

Zel seemed to have the power to simply vanish, so anything Rydel can do will probably help.

There are simply way too many uncertainties surrounding everything about this, and all Rydel can do is to manage whatever factors he can control. He has done enough training for this though. With the tips of his finger, he started feeling for where Zel is exactly in the space, and started slowly closing in until he is fairly certain he has already locked onto him.

That kid has another spacial manipulative artifact, like me!

Just as the artifact is ready to warp Zel into the pocket domain, it suddenly noticed the variation of the spacial curvature around him as it closes in. Just stay where you are, he doesn't want to kill us, so we can just slip away like this!

'Rydel! He is slipping away, and somehow his body is slowly dissolving?' Cellica reported at the exact same time as the secure feeling of locking down Zel in a specific region of space started to slip away for Rydel.

This is extremely strange. Maybe Zel has a space manipulation artifact rather than a light manipulation one, Rydel thought. He haven't really trained to not fully utilize the teleportation part of the artifact's power, so keeping a tight grasp on an object by bending the space near it without actually warping it in or out turns out to be more difficult than he thinks.

It felt like holding onto a slimy fish that's freshly caught and that it's trying to escape all the time.

But something is poking out, quite literally.

As Zel occupies less and less space with more of his body being inside the pocket domain, Rydel can clearly feel himself losing his grasp and control, however, something is definitely being left behind. Perhaps it's the last part of his body, or...

'Shit. That makes sense.' Rydel opened his eyes up wide, and closes his fists onto that pointy object, and held onto it with a firm grasp. It is now within Rydel's control.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly, everything around him started vibrating, bending and twisting, as he felt a strange sense of dizziness and disorientation. The street signs stopped being neat rectangular and the letters are curved to the point beyond recognition as it folded upon itself. The trees started engaging in some sort of a strange dance and wiggles left and right. Cellica's voice changes pitch rapidly from word to word and Rydel really struggles to hear what's happening.

It felt like what happens if he wraps a giant object from one place to another, except he is the one that's experiencing this mind-bogling sensation that beyond normal comprehension. Just as he thought this would go on forever, everything became quiet and calm suddenly.

Maybe that was just an aftermath of artifacts interacting, Rydel thought to himself, everything is going to be fine now.

He looked around, only to see a panicking Cellica looking around confused and her mouth opening and closing, as if calling for someone. He cannot hear what she is saying though. Rydel walked towards her and waved in front of her, but she simply looked beyond him and walked straight through his body. There is no interaction between him and the real world.

'That was close...but where did my arm go?'

A familiar voice came from behind him, and Rydel turned around to see Zel sitting on the ground with his right sleeve dangling.

Rydel was right. The pointy part was definitely Zel's red mechanical right arm and somehow the power of that artifact that allows him to slip through can't apply the same thing to his right arm right away, and maybe an extension of the power is used to bring it also into the place.

'What is going on here?' Rydel walked towards Zel and stopped a few meters away from him, 'you are truly full of surprises, Zel Frin.'

'I could say the same about you.' Zel looked up at Rydel discontentedly before looking down at his stomach and commanded, 'Get me out of here!'

There was no response. The artifact seemed to have become silent and did not respond to him. Zel punched himself in the stomach, but there is still nothing. He signed and stopped trying.

Somehow, what Rydel just did has knocked the artifact out cold and stopped it from working.

'Who are you talking to?' Rydel asked curiously, 'You know it's not every other day you meet another bearer, right?'

'Is that what you call yourselves?' Zel rolled his eyes and leaned backwards, 'what do you want?'

'Well.' Rydel relaxes slightly and sat down also, 'I hope we are not going to have a massive fight here. I just want to know what's happening. The high energy stablizer is in that container behind you, right?'

'Is that the power of the girl's artifact, seeing things?' Zel questions where that remark came from, but unknowingly confirms Rydel's hypothesis.

'Somewhat.' Rydel pointed backwards at Cellica who's wandering around the street and calling for him, 'shame she can't see us here, and maybe that's the power of your artifact.'

Zel did not answer.

'Why did you do this?' Rydel continued the conversation, 'Why here? Why the high energy stabiliser? Are you linked with the theft and robbery at the other organisations and institutions?'

'Why would I tell you any of that?' Zel shot back, clearly not in the mood for anything.

'I don't really know, to be honest.' Rydel shrugged, 'but I happened to have been helped by quite a few very helpful artifact bearers, and I want to do the same for you. If you return the property back to the storage compartment, I can pretend nothing has happened.'

'No, you won't.' Zel turned and reached for another mechanical arm in his backpack. It's the black general purpose prosthetic arm, 'the world is harsh as it is, just mind your own business.'

'Hey, listen.' Rydel shook off the negativity, 'You are not the only one that's been given this artifact, and the power. I have a bearer friend that knows why they are here and what we should do with it.' Rydel paused for a moment just to check Zel's reactions as the motion of prosthetic reattachment is slowed down as not to make any noise and prevent him from hearing what Rydel has to say. He knew he had grasped Zel's attention.

'It seemed like you don't even know why you have this thing, and why they are so powerful.' Rydel continued on, 'But one of the bearers can see that a threat is eminent, especially with each one of the artifact being activated. The current theory is that with all the artifacts activated, a threat never before seen will emerge from the darkness of the wild space. We will need you...'

'The darkness of wild space?'

Those particular words seemed to really shake Zel, as flashbacks from his past started storming back.

The first rule of Wild Space Navigation is to stay within the certain confines of its region. There are uncharted regions, and there are unbounded regions. In the unbounded regions, all the normal parameters of space and time are no longer relevant. The spacecrafts will either be shorted off due to the magnetic anomaly or simply be erased by the violent outbursts of energies and unpredictable chaos, and most of it is actually just a strange wall of sort where nothing but light passes through. The unbounded regions before the wall have another name for those in the Wild Regions: Hell.

'There is nothing out there. Nothing could possible survive the unbounded regions.' Zel shook his head and denied the notion of anything coming out of the absolute chaos, 'that's the place in space where physics and maths have no meaning. Nothing could possibly be there.'

'And I thought I couldn't warp space.' Rydel scratched his head with the glove and pointed a finger at Zel, 'I knew you came from wild space, so you should probably hear about this?'

'I have not been back in many many years, and that is not exactly a topic for conversation regardless.' Zel brushed it off, 'and you still haven't got to your point. Your real point.'

'Fine.' Rydel crossed his arms, 'what's the current deal for you? Why would you use the power to do this?'

'Why?' Zel treated this question as an insult and outright laughed at Rydel for even suggesting this, 'Why not? What's stopping you from making your life a bit easier? This world is tough as it is, why can't I use what's given to me to do what I need to do?'

Rydel really had no response for it. He looked down at his own hand and looks deep inside to find the answer. He did not know what Zel had to go through to end up in this position. He grew up in a fairly well-off host family, attended great education and went to the space fleet for fun for a few years. There is no way he would really understand someone that grew up in the wild space.

It doesn't matter what Rydel says. It will all appear empty. They simply sat there, and didn't talk for a good while.

'So... what are you going to do with the high energy stabilizer?'#

'I came here to do a job. I intend to finish it.' Zel got up. The artifact started to become more responsive as it slowly syncs up with Zel's body once again, 'do not stop me, or you will be trapped here forever.'

'Fine.' Rydel put both of his hands straight up, 'I will not resist. Just let me out of here.'

Kill him, or he will spill our secrets and our plans will be foiled! The foul mouthed artifact is finally awake once again. That bastard knocked me out cold. Watch out for his spacial manipulation!

'Give me a reason not to hurt you.' Zel pointed at Rydel as the pocket started to activate and started to warp around both him and Rydel.

'Well, I will say nothing about our little endeavor.' Rydel says innocently, 'I want to keep this a secret, and no one will really believe me anyway. So for my best interest, it would be best to stay quiet, and out of your way.'

'Good enough answer.' Zel waved his hand, and Rydel started to materialize back into the real world bit by bit. As his body and consciousness returned to normal, the vision of Zel also started to become more and more transparent until both him and the container has completely vanished.Rydel has now returned.

'Rydel?' Cellica's slightly cracking voice came from behind him, then she rushed from behind and hugged Rydel tight, her hair covering his face. It smells like summer.

'I am so glad you are okay! You just vanished and I got really scared.'

'Hey hey, I am fine.' Rydel stroked her arm a few times to calm her down and lets her go, 'crazy story, but as it turns out, Zel's another space artifact owner, a very proficient one too.'

'Where is he now?' Cellica looked around, but she could see absolutely nothing, like before.'I suppose he will be going off the planet, but I feel like we will meet soon.' Rydel looked down at the closed fist on his left hand, 'Very soon. Hope he won't be too mad at me.'

'That was definitely not one of the ideal encounters.' Zel pulled out a bottle of wine from underneath the cockpit of the pilot as the he flew out of the space port of Vulcan 5, 'things just got a lot more complicated.'

Yeah, no kidding, kid.

'Well, with this sorted out, we are one step closer towards being square now.' Zel leaned back and poured himself a generous glass, 'a few more missions, and we can finally get the bounty hunters off our tails. Let's go deliver the cargo.'

The journey away from Vulcan 5 for Zel appeared to go by much faster than the one coming in. He has now spent a good day and a half on the worm hole path between the central regions and Vulcan. He does not know of the location for cargo drop off yet, but he has already sent a signal to his employer, indicating that the mission was a success.

He looked back into the cargo bay, and the container of the high energy stabilizer is firmly secured at the back.

So far, there aren't any news report of any theft for this instrument, so it seems Rydel has kept up his side of the bargain. Now, it's just more waiting.

Kid! How much money will we have had gathered after this job?

As Zel went back to his room and lied down, the artifact has spoken for the first time in a little while.

'Let me see...' Zel turned and looked at a checklist pinned to the wall next to his bed. It records every single job he has taken since the start of his bounty in the wild space.

He is awarded one hundred thousand standard galactic credits, and this current job will get him fifteen thousand. Alongside the thirty thousand he has earned from a bunch of other jobs, he will almost be half way there, 'We are getting there, but will still be a little while. Sorry.'

Don't sweat it. The artifact seemed to relax, or at least that's what it sounds like. You are growing on me, kid.

'And you are the one that's literally growing on me.' Zel chuckled slightly and rubbed his tummy as a sign of good will for the artifact, then he leaned back and went for a quick nap on the ship.