A big boom

"Your right knee is extended, we've been over this at least a 100 times!" A fierce female echoed over the chrome platings of a training room.

"Don't feint like you're gonna feint! Every feint has to carry the force, intent and timing of a real strike; if you don't believe you're gonna hit your opponent, neither are they!" Despite the occasional bad joke, the female instructor was quite skilled and familiar with Delvin's situation

"Good footwork, acceptable for a crippled toddler!" Delvin wanted to retort Maya's comment, saying how she used the same two jokes every single day. But he learned to listen and accept people's faults during the past few months.

Insults and injuries were the name of the game for Delvin recently, no incidents occurred since Del lost consciousness that day 3 months ago, and he started living life to the fullest.

The problem was, he was considered deceased by government. Del's body was never recovered and it was presumed to have been obliterated by the explosion. As such, Del was forced to remain on base premises until the rest of the team came up with believable excuses for the government.

So his definition of living life to the fullest for the past 3 months has been: taking lectures from Dean and Upalj on various topics from mathematics to planetary history and person-to-person relations; training and physical therapy with Maya, and daily medical check-ups accompanied by the occasional chat with the supercomputer located in their base.

Regarding his residence, it was a secret military research outpost called Rekik city SR1 located 3km under the surface of the new capital city of his planet Noth.

The war ended with the government and royalist factions retaining control of all federal offices and bureaus, the disgraced count turned half-god Zirkof was slain by a noble unnamed hero who rushed into the fray, discarding his own life for the safety and unification of the realm.

The previous capital city was destroyed in the blast which took the lives of the remaining rebel forces; the historic battlegrounds were turned into a memorial site which was regularly visited by the loved ones of all victims, royalist and separatists alike.

Guided by the noble sacrifice of the Hero of Noth, the Constitution of the Nothian planetary Federation(NPF) was revised, allowing people of all races and origins to be involved in every aspect of life, be it politics, military or romance.

This radical and sudden shift in world-view and governance catapulted the recently-devastated NFP's economy within months. Factories were rebuilt, new discoveries were made, relationships were rekindled and friends were reunited.

2 years after the war ended, the opposing power located in NFP's solar system started imposing tarrifs on imported goods, sabotaging trade and supply routes through out the system and border disputes on isolated moons occurred multiple times.

The talk of the town was that the NFP was soon to be invaded by the Zionist Theocracy.

It was a smuggling ship from the Theocracy which unknowingly entered NFP airspace 5 years ago and was caught carrying advance technology in the form of unknown pieces of cyberware.

This cyberware was installed in a then-remote outpost far in the forests of west Noth, this outpost was home to a certain young team full of talents and prospects, and they were given the chance to study this unknown computer.

This computer later identified itself as MERI and would only respond occasionally to the questions and querries of that gifted group of five 20 year olds.

During the war, which spanned planets, the young team of researchers were drafted to the war's cause and the base was intended to be destroyed because the rebel forces amassed a gigantic offensive throughout the forested west.

Whilst the base was destroyed, some parts survived the intended destruction by way of deception by one of the young researchers named Delvin Mayes.

Blast walls were placed, shock-absorbers installed and hardware was moved; all in an effort to preserver the integrity of the MERI supercomputer, it's value was estimated by the young researches to be higher than the fear they held for the government's response should it find out about their treason.

After the final battle, the remaining members of the young team returned covertly to the underground research outpost with like-minded people in an effort to bring back a certain someone and understand more about the supercomputer.

Little did they know that upon their return the protected areas of the base were still safe and were spotlessly clan with new equipment.

"Dean did you do this? How did you transport all of this equipment when we can only teleport inside?" The sound came from a 2.3m tall man whose head was adorned with horns of varying sizes

He was wearing turquoise overalls, barely holding against his bulging muscles. On his 8 pairs of feet were robotic prosthetics which produced a crab-like sound whenever he moved.

"I don't think any of did this Upalj. This is her doing, Matt and I always theorized she could influence electronics, just not to this extent." A green-haired man in a lab coat replied before adjusting his glasses to get a better view of the base.

Robotic assistants moved around endlessly, carrying pipes and screens and tools; sounds of beeping and clanking were heard; and finally, Dean heard a voice again.

[Welcome back blessed benefactors, under command C-2 I have kept the premises clean and in workable conditions] A robotic-sounding female voice echoed throughout the hall and all the small robot assistants, monitors and cooling fans stopped at once, causing an eerie silence to descend on the group.

[I have monitored the war efforts and have seen Del and Matt's condition; Dean, Maya, Chrissy bring their bodies to operating hall 1 and stand by for procedure] The voice, which belonged to the MERI supercomputer instructed.

Afterwards, Dean's vital organs were transplanted into Matt's body, his inner realm and Mana core were miraculously shifted alongside his brain due to some techniques employed by MERI which it refused to disclose to the team.

The problem was this process took more than 2 years, and the team still had no idea how to successfully connect Delvin's core and channels. It was a random afternoon when MERI chimed in with a potential answer.

[There is one option you haven't consider yet. It is possible to synthesize a small piece of my core unit and place it in the centre of his Mana core. This is our last remaining option regarding his still dormant Mana channels.]

This option was immediately discarded by Dean, much to the anger of Chrissy who advocated this solution from the moment she heard it.

After weeks of arguing, Dean agreed to start the Integration initiation, which after 9 months resulted in Delvin's successful awakening.

Now, more than 3 years after his death, Delvin Mayes was learning to live life again.

"Hiyaah!" Maya's roundhouse kicks were always followed by a "hiyah!" Delvin learned this after his first week in training.

"This is at least the 100th time this week's I've knocked you down with a roundhouse, don't look so square." She really liked to highlight how something happened 'at least hundred times' and how Delvin was a 'crippled toddler' or 'impaired infant'.

Maya released her knee-long, emeraldcoloured hair and did some stretches which pronounced not one part of her body. Despite being her sex, Maya had more defined and toned muscles than even the most battle-hardened of veterans; and little to offer in the 'bulge' department. Del always wondered what were the odds of two green haired people falling in love, Dean and Maya were truly a statistical improbability.

"I'm gonna fresh up, don't fall asleep." Maya added before leaving the training room in a light jog, she always seemed to be in a hurry.

"She still make jokes about me falling unconscious that day, get with the times Maya." Dean added while making a face like some child would trying to make fun of their friend.

"Guess I'll go take a shower too." In these past months Del has grown fond of his crew, but he still hasn't grown fond of his lack of a System.

"Status"

"Inventory"

"Map"

"Journal"

He called in his mind again and again, but the familiar pale-blue interface never showed itself in his vision since he "shut down" three months ago.

He tried asking MERI several times why his system isn't working if there was a piece of super-tech powering his Mana core, but the answer he got was always the same.

[Synchronization is not at 100%]

Delvin put on his slippers and was going to leave the room when a familiar drilling sound pierced his hearing.

[Host synchronization at 100%]

[Basic system functions unlocked]

[Host has 3 pending messages]

[Host is advised to read messages immediately]

Delvin jumped into the air with his hands held up high and started dancing and singing.

"Ooh yeah baby, he is back! I can finally go back to-" Delvin stopped his song when he reached the 3th and 4th notifications.

"I don't remember getting any messages previously."

He called the Messages screen in his mind and it appeared in front of him in the form of a white coloured data base with 3 short texts.

"Advising immediate evacuation, does MERI have some sort of intel on the Theocracy? System, who sent these messages?" He pondered in his mind.

[They were sent by me, who else?] The rarely-heard voice of MERI responded. [Your core contains a vital part of mine own core which fuses our very beings on an atomic level.]

[This isn't important though. Be advised you have around 30 seconds to get off this planet young Nothian. Come to central room 1 now, there is no time to notify your colleagues.]

Delvin started moving towards the central room without even checking the rest of his system screens; ever since awakening he was quick to make split second decisions so he wouldn't wind up dead again.

Running through the corridors he started yelling for everyone to start evacuating, but his colleagues looked at him like they thought he was joking.

Even the slime, Rassu joined in. "How many times are we gonna do this? Oh nooo a fire has started, MERI has taken over the GAL-bombs, Chrissy is a vampire help mee!! Enough with the bad jokes every-" he was cut off by an ear-piercing sound of glass shattering and reality bending.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM