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Chapter Text

Reincarnation sucked.

Plain and simple.

You were probably thinking that after one got the 'miracle' of reincarnation they would get to be this badass main character in some anime universe where they get to save the world and get some hot person to fall in love with them and that would lead to a happy ending.

Well the reality was that none of that happened to me…

Like at all.

You see it all started after my unfortunate death in my old life where I was then somehow reborn with the same name that I had in my previous life, Michael.

I even had the same looks as my old life. Lightly ash blonde hair with the most generic pair of brown eyes. I was the epitome of what a regular human should look like.

This new reality that I was born into was every person who's ever dreamed of reincarnation would wish for. A vast giant reality that spanned multiple universes with different and unique lifeforms and cultures. One would think that I'd be born into something interesting.

Yet despite all of that I just so happened to be reborn as a regular old human on a planet that was pretty much the same as Earth but just with a different name and more technologically advanced.

My new life growing up was pretty much the same as my old life. Born into a middle class family with a father and mother, went to school, made friends and all that stuff, graduated from college, and proceeded to join the workforce to make a living for myself.

Pretty generic if I say so myself.

No destined fate that I was born with, no ancient enemy that I was reborn to fight against.

The job I took wasn't even different from the one I had in my old life as I had taken a career in resource management.

Now I know what you're thinking, Michael you're in a sci-fi universe and you decide to take the most boring career that has to exist.

Well what you don't know is that this sci-fi universe was ten times more dangerous than life on old Earth. Weapons that could scorch entire forests within an hour, organizations that had armies that could subjugate galaxies within months, and that wasn't even mentioning the powerful creatures that belonged in fantasy genres that also called the universe home.

One wrong step and this new life of mine was over.

So yeah I chose the boring office job.

It also helped that I was damn good at my job in my old life, and it showed as I was climbing the corporate ladder quickly. So quickly in fact that my skills landed me a job at Herta's Space Station's Resource Department.

The benefits of working on a space station, aside from the obvious of getting to work in space, were so damn good that switching careers would just be plain stupid. I mean the amount of benefits I got was so damn good!

So while reincarnation wasn't exactly what I had expected it to be, I wasn't complaining with what I had now.

Walking down the corridors of Herta's Space Station, I yawned into my free hand while the other hand held a folder of papers in it. Walking through the station I was greeted by fellow colleagues and researchers, who now knew me after a year of being transferred to the space station.

Swiping my ID on a door scanner, I walked into the Department of Security and made my way to the chief's station, where a young skin tanned teenager was reading through something on a tablet while a petite white furred dog patiently sat at the foot of the desk.

"Evening Arlan," I greeted as I walked up to his desk. "Here's the manifest of the ship that just docked you wanted."

It was definitely strange that the head of the security of this space station was a young man, younger than me by like two years in my case, but no one who worked on this station put Arlan's age against him.

If anything his young age made him someone to be looked up to.

Though if you asked me I think he was the head of security because the absolute trust Asta had in him was unmatched by anyone else and she would trust no one else to keep this station safe.

"Ah Michael, thanks for giving me this." The young head of the Security Department thanked me as I handed him the paper folder and opened it up to begin looking over all the documents.

Was it definitely old-fashioned to have paper documents when electronic documents are literally the norm for everywhere in the universe? Probably, but you see the neat thing about paper documents that can't get hacked into to be tampered.

And as one of the main managers of the Resource Department it made my work all the more harder to mess with when you couldn't just hack into it with an electronic device.

"Anything for our noble security chief." I saluted with a grin, making Arlan sigh.

He had made it a point that everyone could refer to him by his name without his title as he found being called 'chief' quite a bit uncomfortable.

I on the other hand used it as a way to tease him and lighten him up. He was still a young teenager after all, he didn't have to act all stoic to try and gain respect for his station.

"So anything special happened today?" I asked in boredom as I crouched down and went to pet Peppy, who had perked up at the arrival of my presence.

The white fluffy dog was an oddity on the Space Station as his owner was none other than Asta, the head researcher and de facto boss of everyone who worked at the station.

And whenever the dog wasn't with her, they were with Arlan.

The pink haired head researcher, despite being so young compared to the demographics that made up the station's population, was a boss that had my respect. She handled herself with an air that exuded authority and didn't take any nonsense that the older staff would try to slip by her.

She ran a very tight ship, or station in this case, and it showed.

"That's a good boy," I said as I placed my hand out for the dog. "Paw."
The dog barked before they placed their paw on my open palm, making me grin as I pet the dog on the head for a job well done.

"Good boy," I smiled before I reached into my pocket and pulled out a treat. The white dog instantly perked up at the sight of the treat, wagging their tail as they awaited the reward.
I handed the treat to the dog and stood back up, looking to see Arlan giving me a rare smile as he shook his head at me.

"Should I be the one to tell Asta that you're the reason why Peppy has gained some weight?" He quipped.

"You can't prove anything," I said back with a smirk, not acknowledging the fact that Peppy was currently trying to get my attention for another delicious treat by pawing my leg. "Besides, don't think I don't see you feeding Peppy some treats as well."

Arlan tried to hide his young age but there were times where it showed, and Peppy was very good at bringing that side out.

"If you say so," Arlan shook his head with a small smile. The young teenager was nice to hang out with on the station, dare I say one of the few friends I made while working here on the station.

"Well if that's all I'll be heading back now, I still have some things I need to finish." I turned on my heel and was about to walk away from Arlan's station to get back to my duties.

"Oh Michael before you go," The young tanned man called out to me, stopping me in my tracks as I turned to face him. "Asta wanted me to inform you of something that's happening tomorrow."

"The Astral Express is docking at the station tomorrow and Asta wants you to be with her when she receives them." He informed me.

"The Astral Express…" I mumbled at why that name sounded so familiar. After some thinking it came to me then as I remembered a particular big order of supplies that I had just recently processed.

"Ah you mean that train of Akivili, Aeon of the Trailblaze, right?" I asked to which Arlan nodded in confirmation.

One of the biggest shocks that came to me in this new life was the fact that gods, or Aeons as they were called, actually existed.

And no I'm not talking about Greek Gods or even the Christianity God but they actually existed as all powerful deities and were a huge part of how this universe functioned.

How they presided over the universe was quite complicated but in a nutshell each Aeon resided over a 'path' that encapsulated some sort of concept and depending on how strong that particular Aeon was the stronger their corresponding path was and how it interacted with the universe.

Take for example the organization that funded a good chunk of Herta's Space Station…

The Interastral Peace Organization, or for short the IPC.

The IPC was an organization dedicated to the worship of Qlipoth, the Amber Lord and Aeon of Preservation. The organization was once founded by a group of faithfuls that wanted a logistical hub to help transport supplies to build infrastructure on different worlds, creating civilizations that embodied the will of Preservation.

Over time the logistical hub transformed into a massive inter-galactic organization that had its influence reach even the farthest corners of the universe.

Some could argue that the pan-intergalactic organization had long lost the reason they were founded in the first place but the others argued if Qlipoth disapproved they would have cast judgment on them by now.

My thoughts on the whole situation was that Qlipoth probably didn't even care what the IPC did. I found it quite hard to wrap my head around the idea that this all-powerful being would even deign to shift its attention to us puny mortals.

Arlan nodded. "The very same. Since you're technically the Head of the Resource Department Asta wants you to be there when they sign off on the supplies they ordered."

"Will do boss," I salute, not bothering to correct him on what my actual job position is.

While my official job was being a manager of the Resource Department, as of recently I technically took over the responsibilities of the head of the Resource Department. Our actual head, Richard, was pretty old and nearing retirement. He was more often than not in the hospital bay getting check-ups for his failing health, and thus unable to fulfill his job, which meant that I had to fill in his shoes.

I wouldn't argue when he eventually did retire and was offered the position but I wasn't about to make a bid for the spot just cause he was old and in bad health. Someone desperately trying to climb the corporate ladder might, but as someone wanting to take it easy that was not me.

Walking back to my office in the Resource Department and sitting at my desk, I got back to accomplishing the same old tasks that I've been doing in this life and my last one.

Keeping up to date with all of our supplies in the space station, making sure that we aren't about to run out of something, ordering any resources that any of the researchers requested for their projects, making sure Peppy's super premium treats were stocked, and most importantly…

Making sure Asta had triple checked the list of items that Madam Herta wanted to order for whatever projects she was cooking up.

While the space station served as a place of cutting edge research for scientists and researchers, it ultimately served as the namesake's main research facility. Any projects that she needed to get done, they were done on the station.

Yet despite having the station named after her, Herta was usually not present on the space station. She was off who knows where while her puppets, that were fashioned to look like her younger self, served as her liaisons to the space station and whatever side projects she was working on.

I've never actually met the real Herta, only her puppets, but if I were to describe her with one word it would be…

Blunt.

Her social skills were practically non-existent and it made having any decent conversation with her pretty much impossible unless it was regarding one of her projects.

Actually now that I think about it I think only the other Genius Society members had ever got the chance to meet the real Herta. I've only had the pleasure of meeting only one other Genius Society Member, Screwllum, and even if he was a robot he was actually pretty cool to talk with.

At least he(or was I supposed to refer to the Genius Society member as an 'it' considering they were a robot?) actually knew what a budget was, unlike Herta who treated it as more of a suggestion than a limit.

If it wasn't for Asta's excellent job at managing the station, I was confident this place would've gone into bankruptcy long ago.

After spending some hours making sure everything was up to date I turned in for that night. Say what I may about the space station, they sure knew how to treat their employees as my room was as furbished as a 5-star hotel.

Tucking into bed and bringing the luxurious silken sheets over my body, I allowed myself to fall into a nice peaceful slumber as my last thoughts would be of what the next day would bring.

That tomorrow would just be like the rest…

Just another regular day.

"You look well Michael." Asta commented with a wry smile as I walked up to her on the railway station of the space station.

"Had a rough sleep," I yawned tiredly, covering my mouth with one hand and using the other hand to rub the tiredness from my eyes.

Despite sleeping early I had woken 15 minutes past my alarm and tired as shit. Ever experienced that one night of sleep where your body just can't seem to fall asleep? Usually this sort of thing happened when something important was going to happen but that couldn't be true.

After all this was just going to be another regular day on the space station.

"If I'm not mistaken the Head of the Resource Department can delegate other managers to this task." The pink haired astrologist remarked off-handedly. "Richard did it all the time."

I internally sighed at the underlying message she was conveying. Asta had been bugging me to take the position of Head of the Resource Department when the current Head had informed her that he would soon be retiring.

I was surprised to know that I was her first pick for Richard's replacement but I politely declined her.

Experience had been my excuse as technically I hadn't had enough years required to take the position as Head of the Resource Department. Was I telling the truth? Technically I was but Asta didn't need to know that as I was fine with where my career was.

It didn't help that Arlan supported Asta's choice and all but told me that I should take the position.

I needed to find some way to take me out of the running for the Head position whilst also not risking my own job. My old life had been me desperately clawing my way up the corporate ladder, to try and be at the very top.

A lifestyle looking back that didn't really allow me to enjoy all that life had to offer me. Now in this new life I was determined not to repeat the same mistakes.

My internal conversation was cut short when the Astral Express began to pull into the Space Station.

The Express was an actual train, the whole package with the locomotive and cabins. I wasn't even sure how this thing got through the galaxies with its train design but all I knew was that it was all possible through Akivili, Aeon of the Trailblaze.

As the train docked into the space station three people disembarked from it.

The lead person of the trio was a woman with fiery red hair and golden amber eyes. Wearing a white dress with a black and gold coat hanging from her shoulders, she commanded an air of respect and authority that not even Asta possessed.

Flanking the sides of the red haired woman was a male and female teenager. The male was dressed in white and green jacket with gray pants that seemed reminiscent of the attire one would find in the Xianshou Alliance.

And the female teenager certainly stood out, with pink hair and a blue and pink dress that complimented her equally pink hair color.

The trio certainly stood out, something that I expected from the renowned crew of the Astral Express.

"Asta, it's been too long," The red haired woman smiled as she shook hands with Asta.

"Always a pleasure to see you again, Himeko." Asta warmly smiled back as the two seeming friends reconnected with each other.

"Allow me to introduce our two newest members of the Astral Express. This is Dan Heng and March 7th." She said as she motioned to the two teenagers on both sides of her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Dang Heng greeted with a small nod of his head.
"It's nice to meet you Asta!" March's bubbly greeting contrasted Dan Heng's.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well as Dan Heng and March 7th." Asta gave a small professional curtsy to both of them. "I am Asta, Lead Researcher of Herta's Space Station and its subsequent caretaker. I hope you enjoy your time here on the station."

"With me is one of my colleagues who helps run the space station." She motioned to me, which was my que to introduce myself.

"Michael," I introduced myself with a lazy smile and a wave of my hand. "Just a simple manager of the Resources Department of Herta's Space Station. No one of importance here."

"I should just force you to become the Head of the department at this point," Murmured Asta as she gave me a light glare. "You practically do the work of Richard and he's all but ready to hand you the position so he can head off to retirement."

"Unless the old man himself hands me his I'm fine with where I am." I defended as I raised my arms up. "Besides I like being the Manager, I can have almost all the benefits that Richard has but minus all the stressful work that comes with it. Don't think I forgot how you grilled the Head of Human Resources last month."

My words get a chuckle from Himeko, an exasperated shake of the head from Dan Heng, and open laughter from March. Asta on the other hand merely glowered at me, her eyes promising future retribution that I knew she would exact on me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Michael," Himeko greeted back, with March and Dan Heng following with their own greetings that I returned.

Before anyone else could do something I stepped forward and handed Himeko a tablet. "Miss Himeko, if you would sign here our crews can begin resupplying the Astral Express."

Himeko took the tablet from me and signed her name on the resupply order. Now with her signature the workers in the supply bay could now begin to load up the Astral Express' supplies.

"Now that I have your signature, I will be leaving to ensure the swift requisition of your supplies," I cordially bowed to the Trailblazers. That was the whole reason I was even here in the first place, to ensure the successful signing of the order. Now that my part was done I could leave Asta to treat with the Astral Express.

"Now if you can excuse me-,"

"Actually Michael," The red haired Trailblazer interrupted me before I could leave. "I was hoping you could give Dan Heng and March a tour of the space station. It's their first time here and I was hoping to speak with Asta about some changes to our supply contract."

I looked over to Asta with pleading eyes, begging her to save me being a tour guide for the space station. That was like the worst job someone could get stuck with that wasn't either the Head Researcher or one of Herta's devoted researchers.

In response Asta merely smirked, her eyes glinting with amusement. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was revenge for my earlier comment. Knowing my fate was sealed I pouted at her before changing expressions into that of resignation.

Well if she wanted to play like this then two could play that game.

"Well then kiddos," I grinned as I directed my attention to Dan Heng and March 7th. Was it weird to call them that when I looked to be only a few years older than them? Maybe but no one was making any weird faces so let's roll with it. "Let me give you a tour of Herta's Space Station, or as Asta likes to call it, 'Herta's Toy Box'!"

"Michael!" Asta cried out in indignation at me calling her out.

"And let's get going before my boss decides to fire me." I grin as I lead the duo away from Asta and into the Space Station, ignoring my boss's shouts for me to take back my words.

"You know when Himeko said this space station was a place of wonder I was expecting…a lot more." March 7th commented boredly as we exited the elevator to a new floor of the space station.

I had given the duo the normal tour guide experience, trying my best to try and make it as interesting as possible. However no matter how hard I tried, one can only do so much to make a research station interesting, especially if you weren't a researcher.

"This place is meant to be designed for researchers after all," Dan Heng quips. While he may not be overly interested by the space station, he was at least attentive and did ask questions on anything that caught his interest.

"This place was made to maximize research potential." I said as I led them through a hallway that had a glass wall, allowing passerbyers to observe experiments in the making. "Unless you're a researcher but even then I doubt this station is someone's idea of fun."

"You sound as if you are speaking from experience." March commented as we passed by a researcher transporting a cage with a wubbaboo in it.

"Well after living on this station for a while now the awe of it kind of fades away." I replied. "Don't get me wrong, this place is a marvel but I'm not really into all of this science stuff anyway."

"I imagine the days here can get rather monotonous then if that's the case," Dan Heng said.

"There are times that it's felt like that. The closest major thing that has happened on this station when I was employed was a meeting with some of the other Genius Society Members." That had almost turned into a logistical disaster as the notice for such an event had been given on such a short notice.

Thankfully all of the station's departments had stepped up and we avoided embarrassing ourselves in front of the top geniuses of the universe.

"Still the benefits and the salary more than make up for it," I added as we walked into the floor's main lobby where station personnel and researchers were meandering about.

"But other than that there's nothing much that happens on this-!"

I was sharply cut off when the station suddenly violently shook, so much so that I had to grab onto the wall to prevent myself from falling to the ground. The other people in the room were not as lucky as they were sent sprawling to the floor.

After a few more seconds passed the shaking stopped, prompting concern and panic to begin forming in the people present at the suddenness of what just happened.

"What in the-" I said as I tried to figure out what was happening. My question would soon be answered when the speakers of the space station began to repeat a message.
A message that I thought I would never hear.

[Warning: All personnel seek shelter. Warning the Space Station is under attack. Please seek the closest shelter.]

Panic instantly broke out as people began to run to the exits, trying to reach the closest safety bunkers that were littered all throughout the station in case of a situation like these.

As chaos and panic spread in the lobby I brought out my tablet which allowed me some access to the entire space station. Nothing that would allow me to abuse the systems, but enough access that would give me a hint of what the hell was going on.

"Who in their goddamn right mind would-!" I trailed off as I accessed the station's cameras and saw a grim sight. Every camera I had access to showed as researchers fled and security personnel clashed with an enemy that I was aware of existed in this universe.

The Anti-Matter Legion.

The lunatic cult that worshiped Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction.

The Legion wanted nothing more than to spread the same destruction their Aeon presided over, annihilating anything and everything that moved. Entire civilizations fell to the Anti-Matter Legion and even to this day they were still a major threat to entire galaxies and corporations like the IPC.

So for them to be attacking the space station was definitely bad news.

"What's happening?" Dang Heng asked as he and March walked up to me, weapons in hand. He wielded a spear while his fellow Trailblazer had a bow and arrow.

"Anti-Matter Legion." I frowned as my tablet was blowing up with alerts and warnings, so much so it was almost impossible to try and get any form of message through. "Though it's strange cause they've never glanced our way even once."

"But aren't they all about the destruction of everything?" March asked with a confused look.

"The Anti-Matter Legion knows that open warfare with major organizations or groups will be costly." Dan Heng spoke up. "That's why they usually go for small targets."

"Which makes this even weirder cause not only will they gain the attention of the IPC, they also gain the attention of at least three Genius Society members." I said as I tried to think what the whole point of this attack was.

It couldn't be random, there were way too many troops attacking the station for this just to be a simple careless attack by the legion. There was something more to this attack.

But what?

"This Space Station doesn't really possess anything of use that I could think the Legion would want so why would they-!" I muttered to myself before I was cut short by something.

The air in the lobby began to warp and within seconds multiple Voidrangers materialized all around us. The armored looking denizens of the Anti-Matter Legion brandished their weapons as they looked at us in the lobby with killing intent.

Instantly Dan Heng and March 7th sprung into action. The black haired teenager skewered the closest void ranger with his spear, killing it instantly. Meanwhile March nocked some arrows and began to pelt any floating void rangers with arrows.

One of the Voidrangers tried to target one of the defenseless researchers that had gotten stuck in the lobby but was quickly stopped when a bullet was shot into its head. The void ranger turned its head to identify where the bullets had come from but a couple of more bullets to the head had it dropping to the ground, lifeless.

And there I was, standing away from it with a pistol in my hands. The pistol was nothing special, just the standard issue that the security staff of the station were all equipped with.

Was it definitely odd that I, a mere manager, had access to a firearm? It was considering that my job was the farthest thing from being in a position of danger.

But seeing how my old life had ended, I decided that I would not be unarmed if I couldn't help it.

So after some extensive tests and rigorous training by the Security Department I was cleared to carry the pistol on my body.

"You don't harm my colleagues on my watch," I said with a dark expression as I grabbed another clip of ammo from my body, reloaded my pistol, and pointed it at the closest Voidranger and pressed the trigger.

While my pistol was certainly helpful, the real danger to the Legion in the lobby was Dan Heng and March 7th. The two Trailblazers were far from defenseless, showing just how skilled they were with their weapons as they cleaned up the voidrangers with practiced efficiency.

Being a Nameless must mean knowing your way around a fight then.

It didn't take long for the lobby to be cleared of the Legion, their remains turning to ash as I turned to the scared researchers who hadn't managed to escape during the chaos.

"Go," I ordered them as I holstered my pistol. "The main elevator is just that way."

The researchers thanked us before scrambling to the safety of the main elevator where it would take them back to the Master Control Floor, the safest place on this station at the moment.

"You two okay?" I asked as I turned back to Dan Heng and March 7th as they approached me.

"We're alright," Dan Heng answered before he looked at my holstered pistol. "I didn't know the station workers were allowed to carry firearms."

"Let's just say…" I trailed off as my mind began to reminisce of a different time where life wasn't always like this…

Of that dark night…

That feeling when I-!

I shook my head, barely resisting the urge to scowl at the memory surfacing as I pushed it down. "I just don't like to be without a weapon anymore." I said with a tone of finality, wanting to drop the subject.

Thankfully I was able to hide my mood when I saw the two trailblazers nod and the subject was hence dropped.

"If the Legion is attacking that means nowhere on the station is safe from them, we have to get back to Himeko." The black haired teenager said before he looked at me. "Do you know the quickest route back?

"Yeah I do," I replied with a grim expression before motioning them to follow. "Follow me."

I ran ahead with the two following behind as I led the two to the shortest path to get back to the elevator. Thankfully we weren't stalled by any more voidrangers, no doubt they were still preoccupied by the active defenses of the space station.

How long they would hold to a Anti-Matter Legion assault however was a whole other story. While Arlan and his department were trained fairly well, that didn't mean much to Nanook's personal army that destroyed entire worlds.

So to avoid getting overrun by them it was imperative that we got back to the Master Control Floor as soon as possible, the safest place for anyone on the station right now.

However, before I could open the door that would have eventually led us to the catwalk connected to this floor's main elevator, an urgent alert sounded from my tablet.

"Huh," I said as I stopped and brought out my tablet.

"What's wrong?" Dan Heng asked.

"A distress signal." I said with a furrowed brow as I looked at the location of where it was coming from. "And it's on the same floor as us."

"Well what are we waiting for! We have to save whoever sent out that signal!" March 7th said.

Dan Heng backed up his fellow trailblazer. "Agreed, it would be unwise to leave someone defenseless against the Anti-Matter Legion."

"Alright follow me." I said as I began to lead them away from the main elevator and towards the distress signal. As we ran through the now empty halls, we were confronted by Voidrangers that began to appear in mass.

No doubt they were able to slip through the outward defenses to get inside the station.

Not wanting to get bogged down by fighting we simply ran through them, only fighting those that were persistent in getting our way.

The distress signal was pinging from one of the many Curio Vaults that were located throughout the space station. This vault in particular housed the curios that Herta herself had taken a particular interest to, which made it all the more strange that a distress signal was coming from within said vault.

"Wait," I said as I suddenly stopped right in front of the Curio Vault's doors, prompting both the two trailblazers to stop as well.

Something felt off…

My gut feeling was proven right when behind the closed doors a bright light was seemingly leaking out of it, and it was growing brighter with each passing second we stood there.

"Look out!" March yelled as the bright light suddenly flared up, enveloping our entire field of vision. All three of us were barely able to throw our arms up, saving our eyes from possibly being blinded for life.

After what felt like an eternity of being bathed in light it finally died down. I lowered my hands and looked around, confusion on my face when I noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

"What was that?" March asked in confusion as she looked down at her body, looking to see if anything had affected her. The general consensus was that everyone was fine, no injuries and no weird changes had happened to us.

"I don't know but I don't plan on sticking around to find out." I said as I walked up to the vault door and swiped my ID, opening it up for us. "Let's find this person, and get the hell out of here before we get swarmed by any more Voidrangers."

Entering the vault at first glance there seemed to be nothing wrong. All of the curios on the pedestals were still there, no signs of them being tampered with were visible. At the end of the curios was an open door that led to a room.

From a glance it looked as if the room was meant to hold something, evident by the strange contraption that was at the center of the room. What was being held here I had no idea, only Herta knew what was inside of her private vault.

And not far from the center of the room, slumped on a wall was a female gray haired teenager who looked to be the same age as March 7th and Dan Heng.

"Is she…dead?" March asked with a concerned expression on her face as we walked up to the comatose teenager, the female trailblazer kneeling beside her.

"No, it looks like she's still breathing." I said as I noticed the small rise and falls of her chest.

"Was she the one who sent out the distress signal?" Dan Heng asked me.

"Highly unlikely, you have to be registered with the Space Station to be able to send one out and I've never seen this person in my life." I checked my tablet, frowning when the distress signal seemingly originated from this person.

"Yet there's no one else here," I gave the room a quick look over again, wanting to see if there was something else we missed. Yet aside from whatever could've been held in the center of this room, there was nothing else that could give a clue to what had happened.

And the only person here that could give a possible explanation was currently unconscious.

"Who cares," The bubbly pink haired teenager retorted as she motioned to the unconscious girl. "They're here and alive, that's all that matters,"

Dan Heng walked up and knelt, placing his fingers on the unconscious teenager's neck. After a few seconds the trailblazer frowned. "...Weak heartbeat and pulse…March, you do better CPR,"

"Huh?! Hehe…I've never done it before! Dan Heng you do it!" The other trailblazer deflected, cheeks red at the thought of doing CPR.

I sighed at the two of them, interrupting before they did something stupid. "Are both of you actually even trained to do CPR?"

And to my suspicion the both of them shook their heads,

"Alright, stand back I'll do it." I say as I approach the unresponsive girl. CPR training was practically mandatory to work on the station, alongside a few other helpful skills that I didn't think I would use till now.

However before I could place the comatose teenager on her back to perform CPR she suddenly started stirring.

"Wait, she's awake!" March spoke up as she pulled my shoulder back just as the gray haired teeanger opened her eyes, revealing a mix of brown and golden colored eyes.

"You okay?" The female trailblazer asked as she crouched right next to the gray haired teenager, who was taking in her surroundings with a hint of confusion. "Can you tell us who you are?"

The teenager opened her mouth to answer, only to shake her head with a confused expression on her face. Her eyes looked lost and I internally winced at what that could only mean.

Amnesia.

March came to the same conclusion as she lightly frowned. "That's no good, can you try a bit harder?"

The gray haired closed her eyes as she tried to remember her name. After a few moments of silence I was about to interject and say that it was fine if she couldn't remember who she was.

However I was beaten to the punch when the gray haired teenager opened her eyes back up, a look of clarity in her eyes.

"Stelle, My name is Stelle" She said at last.

"Stelle? Nice to meet you. My name's Dan Heng and this is March 7th." The black haired trailblazer introduced as March waved a hand in greeting.

"My name is Michael, a Resource Manager of Herta's Space Station." I introduced myself. "The station is currently under the attack of the Anti-Matter Legion and right now we're trying to make it back to the main lobby."

As if to support my words the station shook once more. Seems the Anti-Matter Legion weren't pulling their punches in this attack as another set of warning messages began to play through the speakers.

"No doubt we might have to fight our way back to the elevator. Can you fight?" I asked her.

The girl slowly nodded her head which made me nod my head. A person who could fight was better than someone who couldn't in this situation.

"Take this." I said as I went back to Herta's curio collection and noticed a curio that looked like a baseball bat. Walking over the bat shaped curio I grabbed the bat from its pedestal and returned back to the trio and tossed it at Stelle. The amnesiac caught the bat with ease and gave it a few practice swings, showing that she really did know how to use a weapon.

"But isn't this Herta's?" March asked with a worried tone. "Won't she be mad if she takes it?"

"If Herta actually cared about it then I shouldn't just be able to take it." I say as I check my tablet for any new updates on the station's condition. "And if she wants to punish me I'll deal with that."

In all honesty I'm pretty sure even if the space station got destroyed I doubt that Herta would be too angry. She'd probably just shrug her shoulders and just build a new one. There were very few things that got under her skin.

And losing this baseball bat curio would probably go unnoticed.

"Now let's get going before we get swarmed by the Anti-Matter Legion." I said as I began to lead the now group of four back to the main elevator.

On the way we encountered more voidrangers that had managed to get past the station's defenses but with the four of us our combined firepower was more than enough to deal with anything that got in our way.

True to Stelle's words she knew how to fight, quite effectively might I say as she put enough strength into her baseball bat to cave in the skulls of any voidrangers that unfortunately got too close to her.

We passed through more empty hallways, the researchers and staff on this floor most likely having been able to get away before the Anti-Matter Legion had managed to get inside the station.

As we made our way to the elevator the four of us made a stop at the control station of the floor and were greeted by the sight of a familiar person.

"Arlan? You look like you've seen better days." I said as Arlan was currently on the ground, resting his back on a pillar. His greatsword was lying on the ground next to him, its steel edge sporting scorch marks from fighting against the warriors of the Anti-Matter Legion

"It sure feels like that." The young tanned man winced as he cradled his dominant arm. Judging by how he held the arm and how his left leg was badly bandaged up, it was safe to say that he wasn't in the best of conditions.

"How come you didn't go back like everyone else did?" March asked with some concern.

"I was supposed to cover everyone's retreat, I…I failed that." Arlan looked to the ground in shame.

"Don't be too hard on yourself." I spoke up as I grabbed a first aid kit and began to properly bandage his wounds. "Most of the people on this floor were able to make it back to the master floor and I know that it was only possible because of you."

"That and your dominant hand and leg were injured, it makes sense to hide and avoid a head on encounter with the Legion." Dan Heng added as he joined in helping bandage the tanned teenager's wounds.

"That's…good to hear." Arlan smiled despite the pain he was feeling.

"Yeah now we need to head back and plan our counterattack!" March spoke up optimistically.

"Sounds like a plan." Stelle added, having remained silent until this very moment.

After bandaging up Arlan with what we had available we began to make our way to the main elevator. Thankfully it wasn't far from where we were and once we got in we could be on our way back to safety.

Stepping onto the bridge that was connected to the elevator I was able to spy something moving out of the corner of my eye.

Up on an elevated position, at an angle that gave it the perfect line of sight, was a large gray quadruple legged Voidranger nocking a large energy arrow directly at us.

And I knew from watching various videos about the Anti-Matter Legion that the arrow had enough power to punch right through solid steel.

"Watch out!" I yelled out as I tackled the nearest person, who was March 7th, out of the way. I was just in time as the moment we both hit the ground the spot we had been just on had been destroyed by the voidranger's arrow, taking that part of the walkway out as well.

"T-Thanks for that, I owe you one." March thanked me as we both stood up.

"No worries," I frowned as I checked my body to make sure I hadn't gotten injured. Once I made sure I had no injuries I looked back to where we had just been standing. "Though it looks like we won't be able to make it to the elevator now."

In my attempt to save myself and March I had to push the both of us back to the platform that the bridge had been connected to. Our only way to the main elevator was now destroyed and there weren't any other viable options for the two of us as either destroyed doors or debris had blocked the fastest alternative routes to the main elevator.

And if that quadruple legged Voidranger had reinforcements then the two of us would no doubt get swarmed by them if we tried to regroup with the rest of the group.

"We'll go for one of the other elevators!" I shouted as the quadruple legged voidranger jumped down to face Dan Heng, Stelle, and Arlan. "We'll see you back at the master control floor!"

I began to lead March 7th towards one of the sub elevators the floor had as Dan Heng and Stelle faced off against the voidranger. A part of me wanted to stay back and help, as both me and March had ranged weaponry that could provide assistance.

However without the rest of the group we could not afford to get bogged down by fighting the Legion that were beginning to appear inside the station. So unless absolutely necessary me and March avoided what fights we could.

Which was easier said than done as voidrangers began to appear en masse. It was only my knowledge of the station's layout that the two of us were able to avoid any large group of voidrangers.

After running through numerous corridors and evading more than one close call the two of us finally arrived on one of the auxiliary elevators that every floor had. Aside from each floor having a main elevator there were auxiliary elevators that could be used. These were mostly out of convenience as only having one elevator on the space station would lead to congestion every time.

"Alright we found the elevator!" March cheered as I swiped my ID code and called down an elevator to pick us up. Luckily for us there was no voidranger lurking about to ambush us.

The elevator soon came down and the two of us stepped onto it. I swiped my ID card as the doors closed and waited for the elevator to bring us back to the Master Control Floor, where everyone would be waiting.

A plan would be made to repel the Anti-Matter Legion, everything would be resolved, and normalcy would be restored.

Except after swiping my card and the indicator lighting up green…nothing happened.

I tried again, and again nothing happened.

"...Um, something is supposed to happen?" March 7th asked me confusingly as she looked at the elevator for it to start moving.

"It should," I said as I tilted my head in confusion. This was most definitely strange. "It confirmed it and everything. Maybe give it a sec to move-"

The elevator then began to move, dispelling both of our worries as we gave a sigh of relief.

Everything was going to be alright now.

.

.

.

The elevator only moved up an inch before, without warning, plunged straight down. The rails of the elevator were screeching as it tried to stop its descent but to no avail.

All March and I could do was scream as the elevator plunged into the bottom of the Space Station, blanketing us into darkness.

The sound of static and garbled warning messages was what eventually woke me up. Weakly opening my eyes, I found myself staring at the roof of a very damaged elevator. My entire body was sore as the impact of the elevator had no doubt been very forceful on the body.

With a groan I slowly pushed my body up, taking in the state of the elevator that had brought us down here. Wrecked was an understatement as it was in no way of being operable in the near future.

It was only the innate failsafes that every elevator had in them that saved us from being crushed when the elevator eventually slammed onto the last floor.

"What happened?" March asked as she held her head with wince. There was no blood coming out of her head, which meant that she might have gotten a light concussion.

"March are you okay?" I asked as I stood up and offered a hand to her.

"Yeah," The trailblazer reassured as she took my hand and got back on her feet.

"Where are we?" She asked as she looked around.

"That…is a very good question." I said as I looked around to a very unfamiliar floor. Despite the fact that it was almost pitch black the layout of this floor was completely unfamiliar to me. "One I don't know the answer to."

"I thought you worked here!" March 7th looked at me incredulously.

"I do!" I defended as I crossed my arms, an embarrassed blush on my face. "It's just that there are some places on the station that even I don't have access to."

And that was true, there were many parts of the space station that not even the heads of the departments were allowed access to. They usually pertained to Herta's experiments or places that some other Genius Society members used as their labs whenever they came to the station.

But I wasn't even sure this basement showed up in the schematics of this station, at least the ones that the staff of the station had access to at the moment.

As we stepped out of the remains of the elevator that had brought us here it was clear that this place was abandoned. The floors were dirty with trash and dust, the electronic displays on the walls were all either off or full of static, and the very feeling this floor was abandoned seemed to roll off every surface.

And to add to the atmosphere the lights of the floor were seemingly deactivated, with only the red emergency lights and some small windows to allow some light from the galaxy outside of the station illuminating the place.

"I-I'm getting creeped out," The pink haired teenager shivered as she hugged her arms, eyes watching the shadows for anything that might potentially jump out at them. "H-How do we get out of here?"

The base shook after her words, reminding us that despite everything we were still under attack from the Anti-Matter Legion.

Which made getting back to everyone all the more crucial.

"Every floor has more than one elevator, even this one." I reminded her as I pulled out my tablet, to try and see if I could find some sort of schematic we could use. However I quickly frowned when I saw that the screen of it was cracked and no longer turning on,

Probably broken during the elevator crash then.

I quickly tossed the now broken tablet away. "Since we were using one of the auxiliary elevators, that means the main one should be here as well. Let's find it for our ticket out of here."

The two of us then began to search for another elevator to use. The good thing was that all of the elevators were normally on the same spot on every floor. And living on this station for quite awhile I had a good sense for knowing where to go to find them.

The only complication was that since the floor was not in maintenance that meant some of the doors either weren't working, or there was too much junk for me and March to move out of the way. This resulted in us having to backtrack and find another way forward.

And the more we walked through the darkened corridors of this mysterious floor, the more evident it became that it was not abandoned as we once thought it was. Whether it be the fact that there was some functioning, albeit in poor condition, station bots that were normally tasked with maintaining the floor they were on.

Any attempts to gain answers was met with garbled speech as the robots seemingly were only able to follow their most basic functions.

There was also the fact that the on floor's biological preservation system was somehow still running, meaning at least someone was keeping this place active.

But who and what reason would they need to have an entire floor to themselves?

"To serve as some kind of hatchery?" I muttered to myself as we walked past a row of incubator tubes. They were all empty, though some of the tubes had their glass shattered as if something had broken whatever was in them free…

Or rather something had broken itself out.

But what?

That was not to mention the foreboding feeling that we were being watched. I wasn't the only one to notice this as March also felt the same thing as we both eyed the shadows suspiciously. Yet whenever the both of us looked behind us all we would see was just darkness.

Maybe the paranoia of the place and its creepiness was getting to us.

It also didn't help that the occasional shaking and the sound of explosions from the station's battle with the Anti-Matter Legion only added to this foreboding feeling.

Fortunately despite all of this we eventually made progress to a point that the floor was getting more and more familiar to me with what knowledge I had. Eventually after navigating this dark labyrinth the two of us stood in front of a door I believed would get us out of here.

"Shit the door's locked." I cursed as the ID scanner of the door refused to accept my ID card, blinking in red in confirmation. If my intuition was right then this door would've led us to a corridor that should've been connected to one of the auxiliary elevators.

But since the door refused to budge, that meant backtracking our steps and wasting more time yet again.

"Hey isn't that an elevator?" March asked me, prompting me to turn back and see that she was looking through a crack in the wall that was barely holding itself together. Walking up to her I peered into the crack and I saw what she was referring to.

From the way we were walking in this labyrinth I assumed there was some sort of central chamber that everything revolved around. I was proven correct when I peered into the crack and saw a massive chamber.

What this chamber was or held I had no idea as all of the lights in the chamber, even the emergency ones, were all either deactivated or broken. The only way I even knew the chamber was in there was on the opposite side of where we were looking through, the faint lights of a large lift were visible to us.

"It's just a transport lift, only to bring supplies to this chamber and not one that would take us back up." I informed March as I strained my eye vision for any more details.

"But where there's a lift like that there's the main elevator that is bound to be nearby." There was a similar design with the resource lift connected to the Railway Platform. And if this floor followed the same design principles, then our ticket out of here was close at hand!

March and I looked at each other before nodding, the end of our ordeal close at hand.

With a new destination in mind March and I carefully opened the hole in the wall to ensure that the both of us could fit through it. After shimming our body through the new opening we carefully traversed the rubble to get to the center of the chamber. The lack of any lights made it hard to navigate and made it

But the low ambient lights of the lift on the other end were bright enough to guide the two of us forward.

The light also gave us a hint to just how large this chamber was. Looking up, the light barely illuminated the ceiling, which was so far above us that I couldn't help but wonder…

What was this chamber supposed to be in the first place if it was this big?

My thoughts were swiftly interrupted when I felt something crack underneath my foot.

"Ew…" March made a disgusted face when she heard my foot make a squelching sound. "I think you stepped on something Michael."

I stopped in my tracks and looked down at my feet. The smoke that perpetrated the chamber made it impossible to see what I stepped on.

"Huh?" I said as I lifted my foot up and inspected what was on it. It was like I had stepped onto a yellow sap-like substance. Sort of like the sticky substance that would be secreted when something was born.

A pit began to form in my stomach as my mind began to piece things together.

"That's strange," I said as I took a closer look at the floor, noticing the various broken glass shards around us. I kept looking and saw even bigger chunks of glass all around us.

March noticed what I was looking at and began to notice we were surrounded by broken pieces of glass, the yellow sap like substance dripping from the shattered edges.

The two of us came to the same conclusion as we both looked up, now noticing the remnants of what looked to be a massive incubator. The size of the incubator and the sappy-like substance dripping from it was proof that that was where it all originated from.

And judging by how sticky the fluid was that meant that something had been occupying that incubator recently. But that begged the question…

Where the heck was it then?

At that moment shadow passed over the two of us…

And a massive cloud of dust was kicked up as something large landed right behind the both of us, a set of glowing blue eyes peering through the smoke.

With looks of shock and horror March and I turned around just as the smoke cloud cleared to reveal a massive, flying, blue carapace beetle. The massive bug towered over us, its mandible claw mandibles looking like it could shred right through solid steel.

The bug reared its head back and angrily screeched at us, shaking us out of our shock as we realized that we were in danger.

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!" March yelled as she fired an arrow at the massive bug that had just ambushed us. The arrow simply bounced off the bug's thick carapace, clattering uselessly to the ground.

"WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS FLOOR EXISTED TILL NOW!" I shouted back as I unholstered my pistol and aimed it at the bug. However before I could aim my pistol at the armored bug I noticed something very important.

For in the small time frame it took to take my pistol and aim it at the bug…

The blue carapace beetle had a small swarm of lesser sized bugs surrounding it. I watched in equal parts fascination and horror as bugs seemingly spawned from the bug's carapace, flying around it like a bunch of drones.

The fascination faded when this new swarm of bugs began to converge on the two of us, open maws ready to shred us into pieces.

"It can spawn more of them!?" I cursed as I moved my gun to the incoming bugs, trying to whittle down the swarm of bugs descending on us. With them so bunched up together aiming wasn't an issue as my bullets were able to bring some down.

Yet it seems the moment I took care of one bug it seemed like four more came and took its place.

"There's no end to them!" I cursed as I tried my best in taking as much as I could with my pistol. The pink haired Trailblazer was beside me, helping take down bugs with her bow and arrow. Yet despite our combined efforts the swarm just seemingly got larger and larger.

Unfortunately things were turning for the worse as the massive blue bug, who had remained relatively passive, decided to go on the offensive. Raising its position higher into the chamber, it reared its head back as an ominous blue energy began to build between its mandibles.

I didn't need a genius to know what was about to happen.

Aiming my gun away from the horde of bugs surrounding us, I redirected the barrel at the rapidly building orb of death, hoping to cause an explosion that could disorient the bug. I pressed the trigger…

Only for my gun to click, signaling it was out of ammo.

"Dammit," I hissed as I reached for my belt for a spare clip to reload with. However, having diverted my attention I could not properly react when one of the lesser bugs slammed itself into me. The force of the impact was not enough to leave lasting harm, but it was more than enough to throw me to the ground.

Thrown to the ground I still went on to try and reload my pistol. My hand went to my belt where my spare clips were, only for it to pat against an empty belt. Raising my head I soon found where my spare clip of ammunition was…

On the other side of where I was, probably having been thrown in that direction when that bug had slammed into me.

I readied my body to make a mad sprint for the clip, but stopped right as I was about to do so when I heard a feminine shout.

Jerking my head, I saw March being thrown to the ground as two bugs had rammed right into her.

"March!" I yelled before I heard the massive bug screech loudly. Turning back I saw that the bug had fully finished charging its attack. What was once a tiny blue orb was now a seeming black orb contained in a prismatic glass like ball that was almost as big as itself.

I could only watch in muted horror as the bug threw its head forward, lobbing the massive ball of death at us.

Not knowing what came over me I ran over to March and threw my body over hers like a shield as the massive blue bug threw the orb of energy death at us. I was not sure why I did this as my body would offer no protection to what was about to happen but there was no point or time in questioning why I had done it.

"Welp this is it I guess," I thought as I braced myself, and by extension March's body as I tightened my hold on her, for the inevitable experience of having every atom in my body be disintegrated into nothingness. "This life was great all things considered, but it all ends now."

I mentally counted to ten as I awaited for the painful experience of having every atom in my body and dying once again.

Yet strangely it never came as instead of the sound of a giant explosion I heard the sound of glass shattering.

With some hesitation I brought my head up and looked back in the direction the giant energy bomb was coming from, only for my eyes to widen at what I saw.

The energy ball of death was nowhere to be seen as the massive blue bug was writhing in the air, seemingly imploding from within. The beetle twitched erratically in the air as its body began to disintegrate into blue motes of energy.

All I could do was watch as the bug gave off one last horrid screech before its entire body disintegrated into blue motes.

"Huh?" I sighed as I removed my body over March 7th's and flopped to the ground, the exhaustion of going through a life or death situation hitting my body.

"Is it…over?" March asked as she looked around, watching as the smaller bugs that had just been swarming us meet the same fate as the original bug as they exploded into motes of blue light.

"Yeah," I said as I began to stand back up. "Whatever that bug was, it apparently couldn't keep itself alive."

It was the only logical conclusion I could think of pertaining to that bug's fate. It wasn't like either of us had even got to touch it in the first place. Though if that is the case then shouldn't it have died the moment it was free from the incubator?

"Now c'mon," I said as I held a hand for March to take. "We should get on the lift, get to an elevator, and get back before-!"

I sharply turned on my heel as I felt the hairs on my skin stand straight up, the sensation of danger alerting my exhausted body.

Yet all I could see were the blue motes that the massive bug and the smaller ones had disintegrated into and that they began to converge in a single spot in the air, forming a tiny hand size blue orb.

I mentally readied myself for another fight, despite the fact that I had no more ammo for my gun and that March would pretty much be alone to face whatever this new threat was. Was this some sort of ruse to lower our defenses? Or was this some sort of power the bug had? Was something else about to pop out at us?

Yet to my surprise none of that happened as once all the blue motes coalesced into a single orb everything was seemingly calm.

.

.

.

…For a good three seconds before this tiny glowing blue orb, at lightning fast speeds, slammed right into my chest. I couldn't even get a chance to blink or give a shout of surprise as this blue orb of energy sunk into my chest, my body seemingly absorbing the orb in its entirety.

And once the orb was gone, fully inside of my body…

That was when the pain began.

"AAAAH!" I screamed out as pain flooded my every atom. I couldn't even feel my body sink to my knees as I desperately tried to handle the pain that my body was going through. It was like every single atom of my body was on fire, alighting all of my senses in pain.

Dying didn't even hurt this bad for crying out loud!

I could barely hear my screams resounding in the chamber, or the lights turning back on as I clutched my head in an attempt to soothe the indescribable pain I was going through.

All I could do was try to keep myself grounded in reality.

And after what felt like going through an eternity of pain whatever the hell was happening to my body finally finished. Panting in equal parts exhaustion and pain I could see my vision beginning to blacken as I could feel my entire body shutting down from what it had just gone through.

The last thing I saw was March yelling my name out in worry as she reached out to me before my body fell and head smacked hard into the floor, the blissful void of nothingness embracing me.

Little did I know that in that moment, a script that had been in eons in the making, a script that would decide the fate of every single living being, both insignificant and significant…

Had been irreversibly changed.

A script…

That I was supposed to have no impact in whatsoever.

Chapter Text

Dreams were always complicated for me.

Most of the time they were just that, plain ole dreams. The sort of dreams that you had and forgot about the moment you woke up.

But sometimes, very rarely, my dreams were of memories of my previous life.

And this dream was one of a very…notable memory.

There I laid, staring up at the night sky above me. Snow was gently falling, providing a strange but serene atmosphere.

Each breath I took was laborious and painful but as I stared up at the starry night sky above me that strangely didn't affect me as much as I thought it would.

"So this is how I kick the bucket huh?" I wheezed out, my breath coming off as puffs of visible cold air. I could feel it all slipping away from me, every touch and sensation in my body.

I knew I should be trying to fight, fight to try and stay alive but at that moment all I could do was just look up at the night sky and marvel at the stars hanging above me.

Finally after an unknown period of time had passed I slowly closed my eyes, feeling the rest of my body failing as I fell into the void. For a moment all was dark and silent.

Then…

An all-encompassing light suddenly filled my vision, followed up by a feminine voice.

"Congratulations Ma'am, you have a healthy boy."

And that's how I-!

I awoke with a startled gasp, sweat coating my face as I was pulled from the dreamscape. My hand instantly went to my chest as I tried to calm my rapidly beating heart.

"W-Where am I?" I muttered to myself as I tried to gather my bearings.

"The infirmary of the Space Station." A voice suddenly answered for me. Not expecting someone to be here I jerked my head to see an older brown haired man sitting in a chair next to my bed.

"W-Who are you?" I asked.

"Welt Yang of the Astral Express." The brown haired trailblazer introduced. To my current knowledge Dan Heng, March, and Himeko were the only crew members of the Express.

"I didn't see you at the docks." I said.

"Forgive me, I chose to stay behind on the train. I saw no reason for me to have accompanied Himeko for what was supposed to be a simple resupply. " Welt answered as he leaned back into his seat. "Though in hindsight staying on the train was a wise decision considering what happened."

It took me only a moment to realize what he was referring to. Like as if cold water had been doused on my sore, exhausted, body my eyes widened as I shot straight up in the bed.

"The Anti-Matter Legion! What happened to-!," I gasped as I tried to push my lethargic body out of the bed, only for Welt to reach out and place a hand on my arm to stop me in my tracks.

"Worry not," The older man's tone was full of reassurance as he gently pushed me back down onto the bed. "The Anti-Matter Legion was successfully pushed back and the station is safe now."

Hearing the good news I breathed out a sigh of major relief. That meant the worst case had been avoided and I hadn't woken up in some random hospital and was not about to receive news that everyone was dead.

"That's a relief." I said as I allowed my body to rest back unto the bed.

Yet when the relief died, more questions popped into my head. A quick look around at the fairly empty infirmary of the Space Station prompted another question that I was dying to get answered.

"But um…" I asked as I looked back to Welt, noting how the rest of the infirmary was empty. "Were you just waiting for me to wake up?"

"Partially," He admitted as he looked to the infirmary bed right next to mine that showed signs of someone having been in it recently. "I was also here to watch over Stelle after the Express' encounter with a Doomsday Beast."

"Oh shit," I blurted out in horror and concern when I heard what they had faced. A Doomsday Beast of all things had attacked the station? One of the denizens of the Anti-Matter Legion whose destructive capabilities were only matched by the Lord Ravagers?

And the station somehow was still standing?

"She's not dead is she?" I asked fearing the worst for the gray haired teenager I had just met.

"Aside from the wounds she sustained from the battle she made it out alive," Welt assured me. "As a matter of fact most of the personnel of the Space Station survived."
"I see…that's good." I said as I tried to wrap my head around what I had just been told. While I felt much relief in hearing that most of my colleagues had survived, there was still one person who I needed to hear was okay. "And is March also alright?"

"She is," Welt confirmed for me, much to my relief. "She was adamant on not leaving your bed side until you woke up, though Himeko had made her take Stelle around to run some errands."

"She did?" I said as I imagined the pink haired teenager fretting over my unconscious body in the infirmary. "Have to get her a thank you gift then I suppose."

Welt smiled and lightly chuckled at my words. "I am sure you waking up will be a gift in of itself, though I imagine she will not say no if you were to give her a gift."

Even though I only knew March for less than a day I would like to believe that I knew enough about her that she would be very happy to get a gift from me.

That thought got me chuckling while Welt shook his head with a soft smile.

The lighthearted atmosphere however quickly shifted when Welt's voice then took a serious tone. "Now I know you woke up but I need you to answer something for me."

"I-I see, it's no problem," I accepted with some skepticism. Despite the fact that I had woken up in the infirmary and was still tired I readied myself for whatever he was about to ask me. Though a part of me was confused why he had gotten so serious. Had something bad happened while I was out?

"Ask away then."

"Do you remember what happened when you and March fell into the depths of the station after you boarded the elevator?" He asked me as his hand settled on the cane I just noticed was leaning on the chair he had been sitting on.

"Yeah, after the elevator malfunctioned the two of us woke up and we found ourselves on a floor that I hadn't been on before," I started before continuing. "It was abandoned for the most part but there was enough power for most of the doors to open for us. After we spent some time looking for a way out, we found a resource lift that we planned on taking as those are usually located near the actual elevators."

"Then when we were about halfway there when we were-!" My brown eyes widened as it all came rushing back to me.

The massive blue carapace bug that ambushed us out of nowhere.

The ensuing fight where March and I were swarmed by smaller bugs as the bigger bug loomed over us.

The death orb that it threw at the both of us when we were downed that would've for sure killed us.

The confusion of watching both the death orb and the giant bug disintegrate in front of our very eyes.

Then that strange blue orb that appeared and-!

My hands instantly went to my chest as the memory of that blue orb that had all but slammed itself into my chest before my body had somehow absorbed it in its entirety.

"Then I absorbed whatever that blue orb was and then…I didn't imagine that shit then." I breathed out in horror as I remembered the searing pain that I had gone through.

"Indeed March gave the same testimony, hence why I volunteered to watch over you just in case something occurred while you were asleep." Welt explained as he gave me a critical look, one that I realized the meaning of.

He was watching over me just in case I transformed into some sort of bug eldritch being that would wreak havoc on the base.

"What is in me!?" I begged, hysteria beginning to bleed into my tone as I struggled to process it all. Just a few days ago I was living a normal, boring life and all of a sudden everything goes to shit!

The older man could only look at me with empathy. "I'm afraid that I cannot give you the answers that you seek. That is a question I fear only Madam Herta can answer," He said before he stood up from his chair and offered me his hand to take.

"If you are up to it then I can bring you to her right now," Welt offered as he held out his hand for me to take. "She's been waiting for you to wake up."

Despite the fact that I had just woken up in the infirmary, my body tired as hell, there was nothing more at that moment that I wanted but answers.

So I grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled myself out of my bed.

Despite having worked on the station for little more than a year now, I had never actually engaged in a one on one conversation with its owner. It may be Herta's Space Station in name but Asta was the one responsible for it being operable.

So you could imagine the nervousness and trepidation I was feeling having this first conversation with my actual boss.

"So you're the boy wonder," The owner of the space station I was employed on said as she looked up at me with a scrutinizing look.

"You don't look all that impressive." She continued on as she began to circle me like a shark, taking note of my every detail.

"I-Indeed Madam Herta," I said as I tried my best to control my nerves in front of the puppet circling me as her mechanical light purple eyes bore into me.

That's right, puppet. You see the actual Madam Herta wasn't here, it was one of her many puppets that I was speaking to. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure I could count on a single hand how many times the actual Herta had graced the station with her actual self.

The real Genius Society member was off doing something in some super secretive experiment. To ensure that everything else she owned was going well she had developed these 'puppets' to act as her subsidiaries, managing everything that she owned.

Apparently the puppets were designed to mimic what Herta would've looked like when she was younger but having no idea what the real deal looked like I could not confirm if that was true or not.

Though it seems not even an Anti-Matter Legion attack with a Doomsday Beast was enough to garner enough attention from Herta to personally come from wherever she was at.

"Hmm I see, I see," The puppet hummed to herself after she finished inspecting me. "Don't look like too much but so is she." She commented as she jabbed her thumb behind her.

It was only when she said did I notice a familiar grey haired girl also present in the office.

"Stelle? What are you doing here?" I asked as I just noticed her presence. Judging by how Welt didn't seem surprised to see her it looked as if only I wasn't paying enough attention to my surroundings.

"Oh I'm seeing what effects the Stellaron in her body has, and I'm quite surprised that she hasn't turned into an eldritch being or violently exploded yet." Herta casually answered as she jerked her thumb back at the grey haired girl.

"Huh?!" I said in surprise as I looked at Stelle with wide eyes. "A Stellaron?!"

I didn't actually know what a Stellaron was, as a matter of fact I don't think anyone had a definitive answer to what they were. Even the Genius Society could not come together and give a clear answer to what they were.

Stellarons were these glowing cores of power that held a massive abundance of energy that could put many other power sources to shame. How these things came into existence was up to debate with many siding with the explanation that they were related to Nanook and the Anti-Matter Legion.

But what I did know was that whenever a Stellaron appeared, calamity followed. Many worlds that fell were recorded to have made contact with a Stellaron in some capacity. Whenever they appeared the rapid collapse of civilizations followed, whether it by disasters or by the Anti-Matter Legion, leaving only ruins and ash behind.

Hence why the IPC referred to the Stellarons as 'Cancer of All Worlds'

So seeing Stelle just shrug her shoulders, uncaring of what she held within her body, almost made me want to pass out.

"It's perfectly safe inside of her, but you on the other hand…" Herta trailed off as she moved her gaze from Stelle to me and I couldn't help but stiffen on how intense her gaze was on me.

"Do you even know what that 'bug' you fought was?" She asked me as the puppet raised an artificial brow.

"Um not really?" I said in equal parts confusion and fear. Having a Genius Society member say that was never a good sign. "It was blue and…really big…and scary?"

"That my friend is Skaracabaz." Herta introduced as she waved her hand and a digital display of the damn bug appeared. Seeing the bug without having the darkness of the chamber camouflaging it I got a complete look of just how terrifying it was.

"Who also happens to be an Emnantor of Propagation." She finished.

"W-W-Wait a moment," I said with a pale face as I registered her words, the realization slowly settling in of what March and I had encountered in the basement of this station. "Propagation, as in the Path of Propagation of the Aeon Tazzyronth?"

"Yup," Herta nodded nonchalantly, a complete contrast to my rapidly paling face.

"The same Swarm that almost destroyed the universe? I asked as I could feel my hands shaking.

The event that I was referring to was a dark time in the universe. It was a period of time in the universe where Tazzyronth, Aeon of Propagation, had begun to replicate at an alarming rate that in mere days entire galaxies had been overrun and devoured by the never ending swarm of insects that belonged to the newly born Path of Propagation.

It had gotten so bad that multiple Aeons and their respective factions had to band together in order to defeat Tazzyronth and kill them off…

Or that was what I had thought had happened.

And all Herta could say to this bombshell of news as a simple "Yup,"

"I thought they all died!" I exclaimed.

"Nope," The owner of the station remarked as she looked at me casually with a glint in her eyes. "There's actually a huge debate on the fate of Tazzyronth on whether they're really dead or imprisoned by the Amber Lord. There's good points that all sides make like 'if they were alive why aren't they doing anything', or 'if they're dead then why is the Swarm still alive?'"

"But I'm sure once they learn about you and your situation then the whole debate will reignite once more." She remarked casually with a casual wave of her hands.

At this point all I wanted to happen was for the floor to swallow me up and end me already. My perfectly normal life that I had so desperately wanted to keep was slowly fading away with each word that left Herta's mouth.

"And do you know who made this Skaracabaz?" I asked, desperately trying to alleviate the headache that I was currently feeling inside of my head. "It was living in your station's basement after all."

And to my disappointing expectation the Genius Society Member just shook her head. "Nope," Was her nonchalant response.

At this point I gave up trying to make sense of it all and just resigned myself to following the flow.

"Was there even a reason why it exploded like it did? Neither March nor I even had the opportunity to even hit it in that small period of time it attacked us." I said as I recalled that bug's final moments. Writhing in the air as its body collapsed in on itself.

"56 seconds to be exact." Herta clarified before she snapped her fingers at thin air. Where her fingers were pointed showed a camera's point of view the entire event. On the bottom left of the screen was a timer that had started the moment the bug had ambushed March and I.

And true to her word the moment the timer hit 56 seconds Skaracabaz's body began to disintegrate, collapsing in on itself before turning into the blue orb that would soon be absorbed into my body.

The recording ended as I was screaming in pain from absorbing that orb, with March fretting over my body.

"Probably some instance of molecular instability within its body, commonly happens when you're trying to incubate something that strong." Herta explained which did nothing to reassure me.

"And what about what I absorbed?" I asked as the scene of my absorbing whatever had happened to Skaracabaz showed on the digital screen. Thankfully it cut off before everyone in the office could see me screaming out in pain. "What was it exactly?"

A maniac gleam appeared in the puppet's light purple eyes that had me taking a step back. "That's what we're here to find out inside of the Simulated Universe!" She exclaimed as she pointed to the glowing portal that was in the back of her office.

I didn't know much about her prized experiment but I knew enough that Herta and some other Genius Society members had somehow managed to create a near perfect digital replication of the universe and was able to stimulate the Aeons themselves.

How that was even possible I had no idea but all I knew was that this Simulated Universe was the closest thing Herta had to a magnum opus.

"Um…so how is that supposed to help me?" I asked as I tried to piecing it all together.

"Easy with having a piece of Skaracabaz inside of your body, you are the closest thing to a living Emanator of Propagation. If we were to set your sim as that of Tazzyronth themselves, the Simulated Universe is bound to react to you in some manner." The Genius Society Member explained as if it was the easiest and simplest thing in the world.

It most certainly did not sound like that at all to me.

I desperately wanted to argue what kind of reasoning was that but Herta was a Genius Society Member for a reason. If she couldn't help me then there was probably no one in the whole wide universe that could.

With a sigh I resigned myself to the fate of being her guinea pig for whatever experiment she wanted to run.

"So I just step in here and do what exactly?" I asked as I eyed the portal with skepticism. Surely it wasn't going to go that smoothly.

"Don't know," Was all the puppet said before she got behind me and began to push me towards the entrance of the Simulated Universe. "So get in there!"

"Hey wait! I'm not ready to-!" My pleas went ignored as the puppet, with surprising strength that betrayed her petite form, pushed me into the portal and my entire world was swiftly consumed by digital data.

It was over.

It was all over.

There I was, kneeling in the fallen land of my home.

What was once a blooming forest of vibrant flora and greenery, was now reduced to a scorched land where only death and ashes flourished.

Not even the plentiful rain that was currently dousing the land would bring it all back.

There was nothing left.

I was…alone.

There would be no one to join in my song, no one to join and rebuild with, no one to share kinship with.

I was alone.

No hope.

No salvation.

No future.

Just an existence of abandonment and isolation.

I cradled a dead cocoon closer to my carapace, desperately hoping to hear the distinct warmth that once belonged to the life that was once incubating inside.

But what was once brimming with life was now a lifeless husk, a reminder of all that was lost and could not be.

I-

We  were alone.

Alone.

Forsaken.

Forgotten.

We  looked in a puddle of water to see my insectoid reflection looking back. A gaze of loneliness born out of the gaze of the last surviving member of a species.

Cradling the dead cocoon closer to our body, something resonated within us.

A sudden realization took root.

Yes it was so simple.

If  we  were alone, then  we  would have to change that.

WE WOULD NOT SUFFER ALONE.

Our body began to vibrate as  WE  could feel ourselves splitting off, morphing, replicating…

PROPAGATING.

The reflection in the puddle rippled, suddenly shifting from the insectoid body to that of a human male with light ash blond hair. What once might have been brown eyes now possessed had a certain glow to them as their mouth moved.

WE WILL NO LONGER BE ALONE

"So it seems that you really are connected to the Path of Propagation in some capacity then," Herta commented as I greedily gulped down what was like my fifth water bottle at this point. We were back in her office after the Simulated System had literally spat me out after what I had just experienced.

"Let's never do that…ever again," I shuddered as my mind recalled what had just happened to me. That surreal scene(or was it a memory?) was something I did not plan on experiencing again anytime soon.

It felt so freakin real! The smell of ash, the humidity of the rain, the wet muddy ground beneath me, the feel of the broken cocoon pressed against my chest…

It was as if I was actually there!

And that unsettling gaze of my reflection looking back at me and the words it uttered…

It was terrifying to even think about, especially coming from my own face.

"So is there any way of…getting whatever this is out of me?" I said as I looked at the Genius Society member who was busy typing away on a terminal. After what had just happened to me I wanted whatever was stuck in my body out now.

"There might be a way but who knows what could happen," Herta shrugged as she dispelled the terminal in front of her and directed her attention towards me. "You could instantly die or maybe explode and destroy the entire station. Maybe it might set off the next Swarm Disaster and become the next Aeon of Propagation for all we know."

Each of her theoretical 'what ifs' was worse than the last one, and I most certainly was not looking forward to being the one to usher the next Swarm Disaster.
So taking whatever was inside of me out was…infeasible then.

"Well...now what?" I asked, trying to stay optimistic and figure out what the hell was going to happen to me now. I had banked all of my hopes in having Herta fix me and now since that was clearly not possible I was lost at what to do next.

"Well you haven't sprouted wings or mandibles yet so I think you're in the same boat as Miss Stellaron over here." The puppet jabbed her thumb to where Stelle was, who alongside Welt had remained in the office for the entirety of my brief trip into the Simulated Universe. The two of them had also seen what I had gone through in the digital universe and I didn't want to know how they were looking at me.

"You could stay here," The Genius Society member offered me. "I know your unique physiology will prove invaluable for my Simulated Universe and I can think of some other scientists who would also want some data from you."

Great, I came here seeking answers and apparently the best solution one of the smartest people alive could give me was to be a living lab experiment.

Just as I was about to resign myself to my fate someone spoke up. "If I may Madam Herta," Welt spoke up, the older man taking a step forward and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "I have an offer to make for Michael here if you would allow me."

When Herta motioned for him to continue he turned to me. "Stelle has agreed to join the Astral Express in the hopes that she can regain her memories and understand more of the Stellaron inside of her. She and Herta have an agreement that she is to assist in her experiments, granted that they are not too outlandish for her to complete."

"I would like to offer you the same deal." The brown haired man revealed, prompting me to widen my eyes.

"While you may not wish to be a Trailblazer, the Express has been in need of a Quartermaster for some time. It is a role that seems crucial now, given that our numbers appear to grow for the foreseeable future." He explained as he looked at Stelle who looked at me and nodded at me encouragingly .

"I've talked with the rest of the crew of the Express and they do not find anything wrong should you join us. Also Asta has praised your skills in the Resource Department, skills I am sure would be invaluable for the Express." The brown haired man continued.

"I…" This was completely coming out of nowhere and I didn't have a suitable response to give him.

"Are you fine with this Madam Herta?" I turned to my boss.

"Meh," The puppet shrugged her shoulders as she pulled out another terminal from thin air and began to type on it, completely uncaring of the conversation. "Just know that regardless I'll be requesting your presence for some experiments. You're too valuable of a specimen to let go."

"I see…" I said, kind of off put by her choice of words. To hear being called a specimen so bluntly was a bit jarring.

"Can I…" I said as I tried to calm my nerves. "Have some time to process all of this?"

"Of course," Welt smiled reassuringly. "The Express doesn't plan on leaving for a while now so don't rush into a decision you might regret."

I nodded in gratitude before I stood up and left Herta's office, a heavy decision weighing on my mind.

I found myself back in my room, sitting on my office chair alone. My thoughts were a chaotic mess as I absentmindedly stared up at the ceiling.

Bringing my head down I fiddled with my phone as I stared at what was being displayed on the screen. It was my contact's list. It was fairly filled out but my focus was on two in particular.

My father and mother's contact information.

My thumb hovered their contacts. Surely they would know in a situation like this, right? After all, aren't your mother and father the people you turn to most when you're stumped in a situation like this.

Yet despite that I couldn't push myself to call either of them. Groaning, I clutched my head with my other hand as I felt the onset of a headache.

I…didn't hate my parents or have a rough relationship with them at all. They were as normal as parents could be, no hidden skeletons in the closet or whatnot. They supported me and were parents that any child could be proud to call their own.

But I couldn't exactly reciprocate what they felt for me back. Dying in my old life and being placed right into this new one? It had been hard to…connect with my parents in this new life. It made any interactions with them awkward.

But surely I could push that away to call them and ask for some advice?

Just this once?

My fingers slowly got closer and closer to hitting the call button yet at the last possible second I closed my phone and placed it away from me, groaning as I did so. Even in the face of a life-changing decision I couldn't even get past my issues.

I groaned once more as I moved my head to stare out of my room's window into vast space, catching my own reflection staring back at me.

"...Look at the fine mess we got ourselves into," I said to my reflection. I didn't know why I was expecting my reflection to start speaking back to me. Maybe that vision in the Simulated Universe was still weighing heavily on my mind.

Despite the fact that I knew my reflection would not talk, I continued talking. "Here I was trying to live normally and yet …" I trailed off as I tried to find the words to describe what I was feeling.

I had it all down. I had a comfortable and high paying job, co-workers that didn't make me want to try and kill them with my bare hands, a routine that didn't leave me stressed out at the end of it…

I had the perfect recipe for a normal, successful life.

And in the blink of an eye that was all gone.

"What the hell do I even do now?" I said, lost on what to do now.

"I'm essentially a walking time bomb," I began rambling. "Who knows when I'll just suddenly combust or turn into some giant bug. Madam Herta could probably fix me but I have a feeling that she'll just delay a solution so that I can be a guinea pig for her experiments and even then I have a feeling there's no way of getting this out of me."

"...But it's not like the other option I have is better. I mean going on some sort of journey across the stars in the hopes for answers," I chuckled as I rested my forehead against the window, the cold feel of glass a slight balm to my headache.

"This feels straight out of an anime," I muttered, closing my eyes. Stuck in that position, in the silence of my room, my mind raced as I considered my options.

After resting my head against the window for who knows how long, I slowly opened my brown eyes and removed my head from the glass and looked back at my reflection.

My reflection stared into my eyes and I could my own brown eyes peering into my soul. I sighed tiredly, knowing the answer to this dilemma. No matter what rationale I could think of, whatever argument I tried to have within myself, it all came back to the same result.

That staying in the station was not an option. Too many things had the potential to go wrong and that would put the lives of all the people that I cared about here in danger.

Which meant there was only one thing I could do.

"...To the stars we go I guess," I said awkwardly to my reflection before going silent.

After a period of time passed just staring at my reflection I stood up for my chair, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, before I made my way to the Master Control Zone.

Where I would be handing in my resignation letter.

After handing in my resignation letter to Asta, much to the shock of her and my colleagues, there I stood awkwardly at the Railway Platform saying my farewells to everyone as the Express prepared to leave the station.

"You will call from time to time won't you Michael?" Asta asked with a small frown on her face. She had tried to convince me to stay at the station with every incentive possible but I couldn't bring myself to stay, knowing what was inside of me.

I couldn't live with myself if one day I suddenly lost control and killed everyone I held dear. Going on the Express was my best chance in not only finding answers but keeping everyone safe.

"I promise," I promised as my ex-boss gave me a nod of her head with teary eyes, holding me to my promise.

"It'll be different without you working here." Arlan commented with a frown as he stood next to Asta. The tanned teenager was never one to show his emotions openly so my sudden departure must've also affected him deeply as well.

"I'm sure you'll find another competent manager to take my spot," I replied with a sad smile. "You two have a tendency to attract competent people like that." I joked to try and lighten the mood which helped but not as much as I wanted it to.

The sound of whining redirected my attention to Peppy who had a sad look on their face as he sat next to Asta.

"Sorry Peppy," I said as I took a knee and petted the small white dog for what would be a while. Even Peppy seemed to know of the departure as he whined as I patted their head. "I made sure to give all of my treats to Arlan so he can spoil you in my stead."

"That was you!?" Asta shrieked at me.

"Duh," I said as I stood back, this time with a small smile on my face. "Though I must say that Arlan was surprisingly cool being my wingman." I commented as Asta jerked her head to Arlan, demanding an explanation.

It was pretty funny how Arlan had given me a stern lecture the first few times he caught me giving the treats to Peppy. Though it wasn't long till I had the last laugh when I caught him feeding the dog the same exact treats not long after.

"I make no comment," Was all the Security Chief said and the three of us couldn't help but chuckle. The camaraderie we had was definitely one that I treasured and I would most definitely miss it.

"Oh yeah,I almost forgot something" An epiphany came to me as I realized I had forgotten to do something. I removed the station issued pistol that I had on my body and handed it to them. "Since I'm no longer employed by you guys I can't exactly keep this with me."

Arlan accepted the pistol from me with a nod of his head but I was surprised when Asta stepped forward, a mysterious box in her hands.

"Did you think I was going to let you go without a means to defend yourself? What kind of boss and friend would I be if I did?" Asta looked at me with a small smile before she opened the box, revealing the contents within.

It was a pistol, a hefty one at that as it was twice as big as the standard issue pistol that I was allowed to keep in the station. It was reminiscent of the Desert Eagle pistol in my old life. Capable of firing large caliber bullets, that was a pistol that really packed a punch.

Of course since we were in a highly advanced fantasy and sci-fi universe I knew this pistol in my hands could do much more than its counterpart in my old life.

"I know it's not exactly the same as the weapons we have for the station but Arlan's assured me that you'll pick this weapon up with enough time." She explained as I carefully removed the pistol from the box and inspected it.

"These costs a fortune don't they?" I said knowing what I held in my hands. It was a B-7 Shrieker. I knew that because I had been curious one night and out of boredom researched some of the best firearms that I could purchase without a bunch of red-flags showing up on my account.

Lets just say the Shrieker was a pistol combat rated to be able to penetrate the armors of the denizens of the Anti-Matter Legion…

And purchasing one was very costly, even with the nice salary that I had working on the station.

"And who was the one to tell me that I should be spending more of my money? I think spending it on the wellbeing of my friends is a good enough reason," Asta lightly pouted at me before pushing the Shrieker's box into my hands.

"You got me there," I chuckled as I safely placed the pistol back inside of its box before a sad expression appeared on my place as I looked up to Asta and Arla. "I'll miss both this place and you guys."

"And we will miss you as well. Don't forget to call us okay?" Asta said as she suddenly pulled me into a hug.

I felt my eyes begin to moisten with emotion, especially when Arlan joined in the hug, and I felt my arms automatically wrap themselves around Asta and Arlan. The two of them were the closest people I had to having a proper relationship with in this new life.

It hurt having to leave all that I knew behind.

"Now go, looks like the train is about to leave the station." Asta said as the hug ended. I turned around and saw Himeko waiting patiently for me on the ramp of the Express. I gave my two friends one last smile before I made my way to the Express.

"You ready?" Himeko asked me with a tone of concern as I approached her on the train's ramp. "You can always back out of this."

"No," I told her honestly as I took one last look at Arlan and Asta, a sad smile on my face.

"But this is the most ready I'll ever be."

The red haired woman nodded knowingly as she patted my shoulder and led me into the Express. A few seconds later the ramp of the Express retracted and began to leave Herta's Space Station.

Sitting on one of the many couches in the surprisingly lavish Parlor Car of the Astral Express I watched the Space Station get farther and farther away in each passing moment with a conflicted heart.

Had I really made the right decision in joining the Express? Maybe I should have taken more time in thinking it out before making my choice. Maybe consulted with other of my colleagues or maybe tried to have done a better job of convincing Herta for a more favorable result.

Fortunately my brooding would be cut short when an unfamiliar voice called out to me.

"Ahem,"

Breaking out of my train of thoughts I turned to face what I had assumed to be another Trailblazer that I didn't know of only to see nothing. Confused, I then looked down to see a strange fluffy-like creature in a red and white conductor's outfit looking at me.

"What in the…" I trailed off in confusion at the sight in front of me.

"I'm the conductor of the train Pom-Pom." Pom-Pom introduced.

"You're joking right?" I looked at Himeko who had just shown up, and was trying to hold back a laugh. When it became apparent that she was not in fact joking I felt my jaw drop.

"Oh my god you're not." I said, flabbergasted as Himeko lightly chuckled.

"Ahem! I'm still here, you know!" Pom-Pom shouted, in a way that was very adorable, which made me redirect my attention to him.

"S-Sorry," I coughed into my hand as I averted my gaze to avoid offending the Conductor any further. "You just took me off guard with your appearance, that's all."
Pom-Pom huffed but seeing how quickly they let it go it seems that my reaction was a normal response to meeting the Conductor for the first time.

"Himeko told Pom-Pom all about your circumstances so I'll only say this once." The conductor said before laying down the ground rules. "While you may not be an actual Trailblazer it doesn't mean you don't have to follow the same rules of the Express. Make sure you behave appropriately and you will have nothing to worry about here."

Well that was…definitely what I wasn't expecting. Yet hearing this rather simple but assuring message made me feel a bit better about my new life on the Express.

"I promise Pom-Pom." I said sincerely as I placed a hand over my heart. "It would look bad on me if I stirred up trouble for you guys."

"Good!" Pom-Pom smiled cutely as he accepted my promise. "Well as our new Quartermaster, allow me to be the first to welcome you onto the Express. I look forward to working with you in the near future."

"And I look forward to working with you well, Conductor." I reciprocated to which Pom-Pom left to fulfill some of his other duties.

"You seem to be acclimating well," Himeko said to me as she stepped closer to me, to which I gave her a shrug in response.

"Well that was more of professionalism than anything." I told her honestly. "I feel like an outsider here, not really Trailblazer material and whatnot."

"Do not worry too much about that," Himeko reassured me. "You're not alone in having your own reasons for joining the Express. I know in time you'll open up and find yourself fitting well with the rest of the crew."

"If you say so Miss Himeko," I said, my tone betraying my words. Could there be any group of people out there I could truly fit in with?

"Please call me Himeko, we're fellow crewmates now." She corrected me.

"Technically you're my boss and it would be unprofessional of me to not call you by your correct title." I countered with a small smile, pushing away my fears and doubts to deal with for another time.

Himeko shook her head at me but I could see the small smile that she had on.

Before we could talk any further a small chime resonated throughout every cabin of the Astral Express.

"What's that noise?" I asked as the chime was repeated over and over again over a small interval of time.

"It's just an alert to notify the crew that the Astral Express is about to make a warp jump." The redhaired woman explained as I could feel the air inside of the Parlor Car being charged with energy.

"I see," I said as I settled into my seat on the couch before looking back at her.

"Hey...Himeko. Is there any advice you could give me?" I asked, my tone slightly reflecting how lost I felt right now.

"Just try and relax. Its not as bad as you think it might be." Was her advice as she stood up and looked to where Stelle and March were making small talk. The red haired woman gave me one final farewell before she made her way to the two females, leaving me alone at the couch.

"Try and relax huh?" I whispered to myself as I could feel the Express ready to make its warp jump.

"I'll try," Was all I said as the Astral Express initiated its warp jump and disappeared from the star system.

As the Astral Express warped to its next destination on its never ending journey through the stars…

Elsewhere in a dark room in an undisclosed location in the vast universe, the loud sound of some sort of game playing with the sounds of loud typing could be heard.

On a massive desk a small petite gray haired girl could be seen playing a game on a cutting edge monitor. The girl had a laser focus as her hands danced on her keyboard, eyes darting from each edge of her monitor and her hand clicking vigorously her mouse.

The telltale sounds of celebration could be heard as very soon the words "VICTORY" displayed on her screen.

"Well that was easy," Silverwolf commented to herself smugly as she leaned back in her chair. This competitive game wasn't all that hard, the enemy team had folded pretty quickly once they pressed the offensive.

Just another easy game against some noobs.

Seeing the team of randoms she had joined ask if she wanted to run another game she replied a 'yes' as she readied herself for another game. One might think nothing of this gamer girl, thinking that she was a shut in who just played games day and night.

Never would they think this 'shut in' would be a member of the infamous Stellaron Hunters, an organization that hunted Stellarons and left a trail of destruction and death wherever they went. These Stellaron Hunters were some of the most wanted criminals in the whole universe, sporting bounties that could bankrupt entire companies.

Just as Silverwolf was waiting for the next game to begin she heard a ping coming from one of her side monitors. Glancing over to a screen right next to the one she was playing she could see it was a proximity alarm going off.

"Hmm finally," The silver haired girl said out loud, knowing what the alarm was supposed to signify. "Was wondering when they would get a move on."

You see she actually had a task to accomplish, her games were just a way to kill time. Her task was to observe when the Astral Express would finally depart from Herta's Space Station with their newest member in tow and set off a series of events that would change the universe as they knew it .

Just as the script said it would happen.

While one may not think much of these 'scripts', they were the whole reason why the Stellaron Hunters were so feared and effective. While the individuals who were a part of the organization possessed fearsome abilities that made them dangerous and lethal, it all paled in comparison to the abilities of their leader, Elio.

Otherwise known as Destiny's Slave.

Silverwolf didn't really know if Elio had the ability to see the future, but she would never bet against one of his predictions. Each one had come true without fail and when he had said what she wished for would happen if she followed him, she did so without hesitation.

The hacker eyed her monitor as she was getting all of the information relating to the Astral Express as it left the Space Station. Information from manifestos to live feeds, any digital data was being fed into her computer. All from a little bug that she had left in the station's systems when she and Kakfa had infiltrated Herta's Space Station during its most recent attack.

"A bit longer than what the script suggested," The petite gamer muttered to herself. The script had been clear on how the Express would depart almost immediately after the failed Anti-Matter Legion attack but for some reason they had been delayed in leaving.

"But I suppose I am being impatient. At least know they'll be off and then-!" She came to a screeching halt when she noticed something odd in the Express' manifesto. "Huh?"

She could hear her other monitor ping a notification that her game was beginning but she temporarily ignored it as she wheeled her chair to get a closer look. All the data that she had been receiving looked normal until her eyes caught something very wrong.

The station's system had listed a total of seven total passengers, including the conductor, inside of the Express.

Many would not think anything wrong with there being seven passengers instead of six, but for Silverwolf there was a lot wrong with the number seven.

The script had specifically noted that 'six would re-embark on the path of the Trailblaze'.

Not seven.

The hacker quickly pulled up the passenger list and she quickly found the seventh unknown passenger. A man by the name of Michael, a former manager of the station's Resource Department and had joined the Express for unknown reasons.

Pulling up a picture of this so-called 'Michael' Silverwolf found herself rather unimpressed. His face was rather unassuming, brown eyes and ash blonde hair, and he looked to only be a bit older than Firefly, another Stellaron Hunter who was around her age.

Yet this unassuming man was supposed to be nowhere on the Express during this time.

"That's impossible. Who in the hell is…" Was all the gamer muttered to herself before she shot out of her chair like a rocket and bolted straight to a corner of her room. She could hear her game monitor beeping with a flood of notifications, no doubt of her team asking where she was, but at the moment Silverwolf could care less what they wanted.

Elio's script, while all omniscient, had its drawbacks. One of them being that they were sometimes vague, almost like a riddle that had to be deciphered. Most of the time the scripts were easy to understand and sometimes were just outright statements that would happen.

And the script for this had been clear.

Only six were meant to have departed from Herta's Space Station.

The Silverwolf's room was cluttered with an assortment of random items, most of them being some sort of limited edition or rare collectible. They were all forgotten as she shoved items to the side, uncaring if they were damaged or broken as she made her way to a corner of her room.

At the corner of her room, forgotten until this very moment, was a file cabinet that contained every script that Elio had given her. Some of them were of past events that had already happened and others of events that had yet to occur but important to know about.

Practically ripping one of the filing cabinet compartments out, Silverwolf grabbed a giant stack of scripts and began to scan each of them rapidly. Very quickly the gamer lost herself in scanning each script, casting them off to the side if they didn't contain the answers she sought.

So engrossed was she that she had quickly lost track of time until someone else walked into her room.

"Is something the matter Silverwolf?" A suave, dark purple haired woman asked as she walked into the gamer's room. The sight that greeted the woman was very peculiar.

Instead of finding Silverwolf hunched over her desk and playing her computer as was usual, she was nowhere near it. Instead she was at the corner of her room surrounded by stacks of the pages of the script they were given to them by Elio. The gamer's eyes were swiftly scanning pages of the scripts they had with breakneck speed.

A far cry from how the gamer normally handled the scripts, merely reading them once before storing it away to catch dust in her room.

"You were supposed to accompany me on the next mission." The woman continued, unknowing of the distress that her partner was going through. "We have a tight window to keep and-"

"Hey Kafka?" Silverwolf interrupted, her tone uncharacteristically serious. As she turned to face her partner Kafka knew immediately something was wrong when she locked eyes with the petite girl's light gray eyes.

And the next words that Silverwolf would utter would change the future they knew it as forevermore.

"Who the fuck is Michael?"

Chapter Text

Traveling through space was something that never lost its novelty on me. Could you blame me? An old life where space travel could only be something dreamed of and experienced through some form of fictional media.

So to now live in a universe where space travel was as normal as taking a taxi, that feeling of awe would never get old.

And that feeling of wonderment was reignited in my chest as the Express finished its warp travel. From my seat in the Parlor Car I saw the planet that was to be the next destination of the Astral Express.

A very frozen planet.

I admired the foreign sight, mentally comparing what I was seeing to some sci-fi movies that I had watched in this life and the old one.

So this was what a Trailblazer would see on a common occurrence.

"After all those millenia…is this what Jarilo-VI has become?" Himeko said as she looked at the planet in equal amounts of wonderment and surprise.

"Huh? So that snowy planet is our destination this time?" March 7th asked as she looked at the planet in confusion

"Yes…" Himeko answered before looking back at the frozen planet, her expression adopting a small frown. "Though it looks like this trailblazing expedition won't be easy."

"Spatial readout anomaly! Star rail stability down to 12%" Pom-Pom spoke up, drawing all of our attention to him as he waddled up to us. "Schedule alteration: Seven-day stopover time extended indefinitely!"

"Anomaly?" Stelle spoke up in confusion and I shared her confusion. While a frozen planet was definitely far from the norm, it wasn't as crazy to see considering we were in a sci-fi universe where Aeons were a thing.

Our confusion must've shown as Himeko turned to us to explain what the Conductor meant. "The complex locality of this world has been…affected somehow. The star rail has been blocked off by something."

"I'm assuming it's not the fact that the entire planet is covered in ice that's the problem?" I asked her.

The red haired woman nodded before she began to elaborate. "The ice could be considered a symptom of the main reason our path is blocked. Take an ordinary train as an example. It's like the tracks up ahead have suddenly snapped, and the way forward leads straight into a collapsing abyss…"

"The only sensible thing to do would be to brake hard, right?"

"If we try to force our way ahead, there could be a hefty price to pay!" Pom-Pom added.

"So we can interpret the ice as some sort of…sign that the tracks ahead are snapped," I said, prompting Himeko to nod.

"This again…Don't tell me, it's gotta be…" March trailed off knowingly as she looked to the Navigator and Conductor for confirmation.
"The results of the preliminary analysis are here - the anomaly stems from a Stellaron, as always." Welt confirmed as he walked up to us.

"Like the one in me." Stelle asked as she placed a hand on her chest, no doubt touching the spot where the Stellaron in her body was.

Seeing her place her hand on her chest the older brown haired man nodded. "Yes, Stelle - just like the one that's been placed into your body."

"Don't worry. It's not the first time our route has been obstructed by a Stellaron, or more specifically the spatial disruptions they create." Himeko assured before she began to explain to Stelle what they knew about Stellarons and their effects on the Astral Express.

As Himeko and Wely continued talking to Stelle I couldn't help but tune them out as I continued to observe Jarilo-VI. Seeing how prevalent the color of white was on the planet's surface, I couldn't help but think what life would be like.

Would it be a constant struggle to survive? Or had the people, despite the circumstances, found a way to live and thrive?

Knowing that there was a Stellaron present on Jarilo-VI I couldn't help but feel a newfound sense of terror at how destructive one could be. The planet had probably been full of life before it had come along, no doubt responsible for turning the entire planet into the frozen wasteland of today.

And Stelle had one inside of her. Traveling with her was basically inviting calamity to just happen whenever…

But…the same could be said for me, couldn't it?

One of my hands unconsciously went to my chest, specifically the area where the whole reason I was on this train had entered my body.

Initially I was no believer in fate, but in a universe where Aeons and the supernatural was common it was kind of hard not to think that such a thing could exist.

And if I was meant to be on the Astral Express, what answers on Jarilo-VI could I-!

"Michael? Michael, are you listening?" March's sudden voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Ah sorry," I came back to reality and turned my head to see I had the entire Express crew, barring Dan Heng, looking at me expectantly. "I was caught up in my thoughts for a moment. Could you repeat what you said again?"

March 7th pouted, clearly not happy I was not paying attention, before repeating the question. "I was asking if you wanted to join Stelle, Dan Heng, and I as we explore Jarilo-VI and find the Stellaron blocking our path".

"Oh," Was all I said lamely before I gave an answer. "I appreciate the offer March but I think I'll stay up in the Express where it's, you know, warm and cozy. Adventuring in a frozen-like tundra isn't exactly my forte."

"But Trailblazing isn't some boring adventure." March argued. "If you joined us then-,"

"March there's plenty of other planets we'll be visiting that Michael can join an expedition on." Himeko lightly chided the younger girl.

"And there is also the matter of his…volatile condition." Welt added, somberly reminding the crew that I was not exactly in the best of conditions. "Placing Michael in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous environment may prove detrimental."

The reminder of my…condition had March's pink eyes widen before looking back at me with a sheepish, guilty look. "Sorry…I forgot about that."

Seeing that her joyous mood was quickly souring I swiftly waved off her apology with a smile. "There's nothing to be sorry about March," I reassured her with a small smile, though that did little to assuage how bitter the reminder of my condition was.

"Even if I wasn't in this situation I think I would've sat out this expedition anyway. Got to acclimate and everything before I can run off." I added. After all it would be poor etiquette as this train's Quartermaster to galavant about without doing his job.

"There is also the matter of who we might meet down on the surface of Jarilo-VI that could put Michael in danger." Dan Heng spoke up as he walked into the Parlor Car, joining the conversation.

"Did you find something about the planet?" Himeko asked the black haired teenager.

"Yes." He nodded before explaining to the rest of the crew of his discovery. "After locating the area most likely to contain human life I did some research into the archives regarding Jarilo-VI. What I found was that Jarilo-VI was led by a group known as the Architects. These Architects were fervent followers of Qlipoth and most likely any form of civilization we encounter will still be led by them."

"And given that the Amber Lord of Preservation played a pivotal role in the sealing of Tazzyronth, it would be safe to say that Michael's connection to the Propagation could become a source of conflict."

And it went without saying that potential conflict would hamper the Express' goal of finding the Stellaron and dealing with it.

"Of course it would." I said, not even bothering to hide my dejection. Of course the strange affliction I had to be stuck with was to be related with the one Aeon that nearly every organization or faction in this vast universe had a massive problem with.

"Worry not Michael." Welt smiled reassuringly at me, noticing my dejection. "While your condition is peculiar, I'm sure that we will find a solution to your woes soon enough."

"If you say so," I replied with a tone of skepticism, not fully believing his confidence in finding a solution.

"Don't worry about a thing Michael!" March spoke up as she looked at me with renewed enthusiasm. "We'll solve this Stellaron crisis quickly so we can get you to a different planet so that you can go on your first adventure with us!"

"It'll probably be better than ours anyway." Stelle said. "Can't imagine walking through all that snow to be fun."

"I would prefer to be in your spot," Dan Heng added. "The cold…doesn't agree with me, even with the blessing of the Express."

I shook my head at the Express' words with a small smile on my face. Hearing such optimism had me feel a bit better about my own situation. Looking up I saw the rest of the Astral Express looking at me with looks of reassurance.

Who knows, maybe things were looking for me.

"You make it sound as if staying on the Express is like the worst thing to happen to me." I joked back.

"I mean what's the worst that can happen to me up here? Paperwork?"

.

.

.

Finally…

We  weren't alone.

Our  voices filled the once empty lands of our home

Our  beautiful song sung once more.

Our  planet was whole once again.

We were…

No…

The Swarm was complete.

But wait…

What was that?

We  turned  our  gaze skyward and saw metal shapes descending on  our  lands.

Visitors from beyond the skies again?

What purpose would they have for  our  planet this time?

We  remembered the last time outsiders came to our lands…

The destruction that they brought.

The death of  our  kin they were responsible for…

The loneliness that they made us suffer through.

They are not visitors-

They were  invaders .

Come to disrupt  our  peaceful life once more.

To scorch  our  bountiful lands.

To take  our  kin away from us.

To make us alone once more.

Not again…

Not again…

NOT AGAIN!

A feeling resonates through  The Swarm .

One of rage.

We  take flight as one.

We  meet our invaders as one.

We descend on these…insects tearing them apart piece by piece as one.

We  will be defenceless no longer…

They try to fight back, but it is of no use.

For every one of us that they kill, five more take their place.

Soon they are dealth with.

In the fire and smoking remains of these metal shapes, something was on their knees before us.

They were begging for their life.

We  will be defenceless no longer…

We  reached out to one of these invaders, claws at the ready to rend flesh.

WE WILL NOT BE ALONE AGAIN!

I woke up with a startled gasp in my bed, my hand outstretched outward to the ceiling with my fingers curled inward…

Like claws about to shred something apart.

I groaned as let my outstretched hand fall unceremoniously onto my chest, mind racing as I my mind processed what I had just gone through…

Again.

I contemplated just trying to sleep again, to try and put that visi- no nightmare behind me. However the moment I closed my eyes I-!

WE WILL NOT BE ALONE!

My hands immediately went to my face as that vision violently flashed through my mind. It was just as vivid and terrifying as the one that I had experienced when Herta had shoved me into the Simulated Universe.

I had thought that would the only time I would be subjected to such a vision, that I would never have to experience it ever again.

My first night on the Express had proved otherwise.

After my mind stopped trying to discrete my mind with that violent reminder of what I went through, I slowly opened my eyes back up to stare at the ceiling of my new room. A common occurrence for me now.

Three nights I had spent on the Express and in those three nights I had experienced a different vision regarding the Swarm.

And having been…subjected to these visions I was pretty sure that they were actually the 'memories' of Tayzzyronth themself.

These…memories did not outright tell me this but having experienced these every night since having joined the Express it was the only viable conclusion that I could piece together other than the fact that they were terrifying to watch.

As for said cause of these visions I had hit a dead end. They started the night that March, Stelle, and Dan Heng had descended on the frozen plains of Jarilo-VI to locate the Stellaron hindering our path.

Three whole days of being on the Express waiting for them to solve the Stellaron blocking our path, getting acquainted with the other members of the Express, acclimating as the new Quartermaster…

And figuring what the hell was wrong with me.

Being the Express Quartermaster was both what I had expected and not at the same time. My task as the Quartermaster was to ensure that all the supplies we needed to keep the Express running properly were accounted for and we weren't going to suddenly run out of something.

Similar to my old job back at Herta's Space Station.

Fuel was something I learned was apparently not a concern of my job. On my first day as Quartermaster Pom-Pom had explained to me that the Astral Express ran on the energy generated by the "Trailblaze" and that was how the locomotive moved.

How that was even possible I had no idea but I just simply chalked it up as more Aeon magic.

That didn't mean that everything else ran on this 'mystical' energy as that required regular energy to power. An onboard generator that Himeko had built was responsible for powering all of the other appliances on the Express and thankfully that was something I knew how to manage.

Then there were the other essentials like food and water, all of which were easy to keep track of. Even with the addition of the other Trailblazer's items it was all simple to manage as a Quartermaster.

I wasn't sure why I had expected being the Quartermaster of the Astral Express would entail in doing more, if anything I had more tasks to do in Herta's Space Station then here. It made me wonder if the Express even needed a Quartermaster in the first place.

So you could imagine with how little I had to do, how much free time I now had on my hands.

In my newfound freetime I quickly learned how the other Express members managed their free time.

Himeko would spend her free time in the engine room of the Express, making modifications to the Express or tinkering with her gadgets. I surprisingly learned that she was a very experienced she invited me for some tea.

Welt was in the same boat as the red haired Trailblazer as he would either tinker with some machines or hole up in his room and read some books he owned. Sometimes I would catch him watching some shows from his world, which oddly looked familiar to me but I couldn't see why.

Pom-Pom would busy himself tidying up the Express and overall ensure everything was running normally. I actually didn't know what he did in his free time but seeing how happy he was cleaning the Express I didn't think he was unhappy with his tasks.

As for me I had initially planned on using my newfound free time to tidy up my new room, to settle in. Having just moved in, all of my belongings were still stored in boxes that were pushed to one side of the room.

After a night of good rest would I fix my room was what I had promised to myself. Give my body time to acclimate to my new surroundings before settling in.

Yet after three consecutive restless nights of experiencing these memories, I knew that promise would never be fulfilled at this rate.

Deciding that staying in bed and waiting for something to happen would get me nowhere, I dragged myself out of my bed. Putting on a new set of clothes, I lightly freshened up before leaving my room.

Walking down the halls of the Astral Express I came into the Dining Cabin, where Himeko and Welt were already enjoying a meal.

"Morning…I think?" I greeted the two other Trailblazers. It was always hard to gauge whether it was night or day in the middle of space.

"Ah Michael, morning to you as well." Himeko greeted back as she lowered her mug and gestured to the empty chair between her and Welt. "Would you like to join us for breakfast? I'm trying a new coffee recipe."

"Sure," I said as I took a seat with the two older Trailblazers. The table was set with some typical breakfast pastries and some pots of coffee and tea. I took some of the scones and poured myself a cup of coffee that was near Himeko.

"Ah Michael don't-" Welt tried to warn me as I raised the mug of coffee to my mouth and took a sip of it.

Coffee was a staple in both this life and old. My career would not be what it would be today if it wasn't for this glorious drink getting me through the laborious nights.

It would be fair to say that I had drunk about every iteration of coffee that could've existed…

So whatever the hell Himeko had brewed was most definitely not coffee.

I was so very, very lucky that I was so tired as every taste bud in my mouth wanted to spit out the foul drink. Instead I merely gulped what I had drunk and coughed after doing so.

"That was…interesting." I said, trying to avoid voicing what I really thought about the coffee. Himeko beamed at me before she went for another sip of her mug, clearly enjoying what she had brewed.

Welt looked at me with a look of pity, closing his eyes as he made a silent prayer for my body as I gulped the red haired woman's coffee. He discretely moved a shaker of sugar to which I discreetly nodded my thanks for.

"You don't look well, staying up again?" Himeko asked as she set down her mug, completely unperturbed by whatever…concoction she had just drank.

"The Express' inventory has to be updated." Was the answer I gave as I added a bunch of sugar to my cup of 'coffee'. Taking it another sip of it the taste was still unpleasant but at least manageable.

I began to ramble on. "Dan Heng and Welt did a good job but if we want to spend less time being stuck in customs for our next refill it's imperative they are updated. There's also the-,"

"That's not what Himeko meant Michael." Welt interrupted.

"We know you've not been sleeping well." The red haired woman added, her tone full of concern.

Stopping my rambling I looked up to see the concerned looks the two Trailblazers were giving me. As the two looked at me I sighed tiredly, not bothering to try and hide it.

They could read me like an open book and I haven't even stayed a full week on the Express yet.

"It's…so hard to sleep." I admitted to them as I stared into my reflection on the surface of my coffee. I could see the bags under my eyes, a testament to how hard the restless nights had been affecting me.

It was as if these…memories were just waiting for me to close my eyes, to assault my mind with the terrifying remembrance of the Swarm. I was honestly surprised that I hadn't screamed during such a nightmare, though I had a feeling that might change soon.

There were slight reprieves in small naps, enough to get me some energy back, but at this rate exhaustion would be the end of me.

"You wouldn't have any nice tea that could put me to sleep would you?" I asked Welt with a bit of hope in my voice.

"I do but I doubt that will give you what you are looking for." The older man responded as he cut a pastry in half with his knife and ate it.

"Hmm perhaps a change of scenario might be what's best for you." Himeko thought out loud as she set down her coffee mug on the table. I looked at her, confused on what she meant by a change of setting when I was already in the Astral Express and not at Herta's Space Station.

"...The expedition hasn't reported back for the day," Welt said, seemingly understanding Himeko as he shared a look with her. The two then engaged in what looked like a silent conversation and I merely watched as after a period of time the two nodded before looking back at me.

"You said that going without an update is normal," I pointed out, some trepidation filling me as I had an idea what they were planning.

"It would be but we've lost contact with them after they established the Space Anchor in Belobog." Himeko explained and I knew where this was going. "And this was after they reported that everything was going okay for them."

"You think something went wrong?" I asked, slightly worried about the fate of March and the others.

"Well it's hard to say, it could be just signal interference or they've entered a place where a signal is hard to transmit." Welt answered, dispelling some of my worries.

"You know I'm exactly not a…you know fighter." I reminded them. I wasn't like Stelle, March, or Dan Heng who could toe to toe with the denizens of the Anti-Matter Legion. Just a regular human who knew how to fire a gun.

"You do have experience in firing a gun." The brown haired older man reminded me. "We're not expecting you to fight the Anti-Matter Legion."

"And what we have planned for you shouldn't be placed in harm's way." Himeko assured me.

"We would like you to use the Space Anchor in Belobog to find out what happened." Welt revealed.

"We won't ask you to do anything that would put you in danger," The red haired Trailblazer added quickly, noticing how I was prepared to decline. "Just teleport in and try to figure out what happened to the others. If the situation seems perilous then teleport back here."

"And the fresh air might prove to be a useful balm for your night terrors." The brown haired man added.

"I…" I deflated as I saw the hopeful looks the two Trailblazers were giving me. Going down into potentially hostile territory alone was not what I was planning to do so soon after joining the Astral Express. Even with the new gun that Asta and Arlan had gifted me I doubt a singular pistol was not going to help against a potentially hostile city.

…But the alternative option would be to remain here in the Express, to endure another sleepless night of The Propagation haunting my mind.

"...I'll do it then." I said, cementing my decision as I looked back at the two Trailblazers.

Teleporting onto the surface of Jarilo-VI, where the trio had set up the space anchor in the city, I didn't know what to expect to see. Hearing how only this pocket of land on the frozen planet, called Belobog, was the only area able to support human life I expected to find a very rough city where everyone was struggling to survive.

What I was not expecting was to find myself in a very, surprisingly nice, European looking city.

Standing on the nicely bricked foundation beneath me it felt like I was back in Germany. From the architecture to the beige colors of every building, it really felt like I was back on Earth.

And there was also the warm atmosphere that perpetuated the city, one I was not expecting in a planet that was frozen over.

But I wasn't here to sight-see, that could be for later.

Right now I have a job to do.

Find the missing Trailblazer trio, figure out what had happened, then return back to the Express before anything bad happens.

"Nothing more," I reminded myself as I looked down at my attire. I had chosen my most basic clothing with a thick winter jacket, to help give me a chance in blending in with the crowds. Though concealed I could feel the weight of my holstered Shrieker pistol, a last resort should something go wrong.

"...Alright let's do this," I said as I ran a hand through my ash blonde hair before I left the alleyway and set off to do my task.

Walking through the streets of Belobog, my very normal looking appearance didn't draw any unwanted attention to myself. Thankfully most of the people were minding their own business and those that looked my way didn't spare me a second glance as I navigated the streets of the city.

If anything I would have to do something stupid to draw attention to myself, which was very good.

I made my way to Hotel Goethe, the place that March and the others reported to have spent the last night before we stopped receiving their reports.

The plan was that I would start to look for them at the hotel, most likely asking the staff where they had gone after that night, and then go from there.

However when I found Hotel Goethe I saw what I could only assume to be the authorities of Belobog swarming the place. Officers garbed in blue clothes and silver armor were setting up what I could only presume to be a perimeter with yellow tape, allowing no one to enter or leave the hotel.

Something had definitely happened at the hotel and I had a feeling that it was related to March and the others.

Blending in the crowd of people that had gathered to watch the authorities work I debated whether or not I should ask what had happened. It certainly would give more information on how I was going to proceed.

Yet I decided against asking one of the authorities. I wasn't sure of the whole picture and I could potentially reveal that I was a part of the crew and land myself in the same spot as them.

So I decided to leave the crowd, this time taking some of the alleyways to get back to where the Space Anchor was located. It was the only place safe enough that I could think of what to do next.

I navigated back to the Space Anchor, taking care to avoid any of the authorities that were making patrols around the streets by using the alleyways.

I was only a block away from making it back to the anchor when something caught my eye. I had planned on ignoring it initially, only when my mind did a split take on what I had seen did I stop and see what had taken my attention.

"...I do not if I want to smack my forehead or laugh right now," I muttered to myself as I stood in an alleyway, facing an array of papers that had been plastered on one of the walls.

An array of papers that were actually a collection of wanted posters…

Wanted posters of the Trailblazers I was looking for.

The wanted posters themselves were um…very artistic.

It was very clear that whoever had drawn the posters was most definitely not an artist, the…questionable quality of each one being a very clear indicator as I only knew I was looking at the crew due to how each one stood out appearance wise.

Yet even if they couldn't capture how they looked for some reason the person who had made these was somehow able to capture each of their personalities.

It was definitely some teasing material that I would show the crew once I took a picture of these.

But even with how comical they were it did not detract from the cold truth that these wanted posters confirmed for me.

Somehow, for whatever reason, the three Trailblazers had gotten in trouble with the authorities of Belobog and were now on the run.

"Why do I have a feeling March you're the reason for why you guys are wanted by the authorities." I muttered to myself. Not to speak bad about the pink haired trailblazer but I couldn't help but shake off the feeling that she attracted trouble wherever she went.

This wasn't exactly the best situation but at least they weren't dead or imprisoned. First things first was I had to notify Himeko and Welt about this, then from there I would probably try to find some more information about what had really happened.

From there I could try and-!

"Hey I don't think I've seen you around before," A female voice called out to me, making me freeze in place as my thoughts stopped to a screeching halt.

Fuck.

Slowly I turned my gaze to the entrance of the alleyway to see a blonde woman with a singular streak of blue hair looking at me with an analytical gleam in her blue eyes. Her arms were crossed as she awaited an answer from me.

"Im uh….new around here?" I told the blonde haired woman with my best confident and non-suspicious smile.

Judging by the bland and completely unimpressed look she was sending my way it totally did not work.

"Uh-huh, sure." She said unconvincingly before motioning to the crudely drawn posters of Stelle, March 7th, and Dan Heng. "So you know them?"

Damm this woman did not beat around the bush!
"I…" I readied myself to lie, to make up some sort of believable excuse of why I was even in this alleyway in the first place.

Only when I opened my mouth did I see her raise a brow at me, as if already expecting me to lie.

What the hell was happening to me right now?!

I could risk it, go for the lie anyway, but that had more cons than it did pros.

Could I really keep up this facade, especially if she was already suspicious of me? Also what was stopping her from reporting me for aiding fugitives? Especially considering I was not even from this planet.

That would quickly place me in the same boat as the rest of the crew.

God why didn't I just stay at the station.

…So I decided to go with the stupidest option and told her the truth.

"Yeah I do. I'm…a part of their crew." I replied, bracing for her to start calling the authorities to arrest me.

But instead of that or suspicion I was surprised when she actually broke out into a smile. "Actually? I didn't think there were others like March and the others. Guess they weren't actually lying about being from beyond Belobog." The blond woman said as she walked up to me, her blue eyes lighting up as if she had found something priceless.

"There's actually more of us but that's a whole story to tell for another time," I said swiftly, grasping onto the fact that she actually did not want to send me to jail. Was this a stroke of good luck?

Whatever it was, I was not going to take this gift horse for granted.

"Sorry where are my manners, my name's Michael," I said cordially as I offered my hand out for a handshake to the woman. Oh please tell me that the handshake was still used as a greeting on this.

To my utter relief the blonde woman smiled as she took my hand and shook it. "And my name's Serval," She greeted back.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Michael."

Meanwhile, in an isolated corner of the vast universe, far from Jarilo-VI was a lone space station. It was small, out of the way from any civilization…

And in this isolation allowed a certain scientist to make progress on her experiments.

"Experiment Log #702, Subject has displayed better resilience than previous iteration, though lacks the inherent power. Perhaps splicing the more stable genetic donors in favor of the subject's original genetics will prove to be a better result." A black haired woman with some blue highlights spoke to herself as she analyzed the data displayed on the tablet in her hands.

Blue eyes then glanced over to the large incubation tank in front of her. Slumbering within the tank was the familiar form of a large blue carapace bug.

"The next log wi-" The scientist was stopped in her tracks when an alert pinged from her tablet. A small miniscule frown appeared on her face as she opened the alert, her eyes slightly narrowing as she saw the cause of it.

Someone was visiting her space station…unannounced.

"Hmm interesting." She muttered to herself as she set her tablet down and exited the room containing the specimen. Making her way through the empty hallways of her facility the black haired woman entered the main room of her space station, where she spent most of her time embroiled in her research.

It was also where her visitor was already making herself comfortable, looking through her belongings as if she owned them.

"Oh?" Ruan Mei said out loud, prompting her visitor to look up from the tablet that she had taken from her desk.

"And why do you look so shocked to see me Ruan Mei?" A familiar witch hat wearing woman asked, a smirk on her face.

"Normally if you were to visit me you would send me a message ahead of time," Ruan Mei answered back unperturbed, approaching the other woman and taking the tablet off of her visitor's hands.

"If the matter is important enough you would send one of your puppets to deliver the news to me." The black haired scientist continued as she placed the tablet back on the desk.

"I believe I can count on a single hand the number of news so important that you yourself would show up unannounced Herta." Ruan Mei finished as she looked back at her fellow Genius Society Member.

The real Genius Society Member Herta, not one of the puppets she had to work on her many projects. The witch hearing woman was the real deal, possessing an intellect that few minds could rival and a work ethic that made other geniuses pale in comparison.

Was it no wonder that she was able to gain the gaze of Nous, Aeon of Erudition.

The WisdomWalker?

Or as Herta referred to them, Droidhead.

So for her to be dropping in without so much as an invitation or a message from her was most unusual.

"So tell me Herta," The black haired scientist asked. "Why have you come? I do believe our normal meeting was not planned for another month."

The real Herta shrugged her shoulders before bluntly answering. "Your little experiment that I allowed you to conduct in my station. It broke free."

"Ah," So it seems that the Skaracabaz that she had incubated in her space station had really broken free. She had been alerted when she had lost contact with her experiment, drawing it up to signal failures. "My apologies. I did not account for an Anti-Matter Legion attack on the station to free it from its containment."

The Legion had never shown interest in small targets, preferring to attack civilizations. Of course the captive Stellaron that Herta was in possession of had been accounted for but even then the probability of the Legion diverting its attention was low.

An oversight, considering what had really happened.

"When I gave you permission to use my base as one of your testing sites I did not think that you would willingly place my employees and research in jeopardy." The genius witch quipped as she crossed her legs and 'glared' at her fellow genius.

"You were fine with it if I am not mistaken." Ruan Mei countered back with a calm disposition. "I do believe my systems caught you taking samples of my experiment to use for the Simulated Universe. I know you plan on digitally recreating the Swarm Disaster sometime in the near future"

In turn Herta smirked as she fixed her witch hat, not an ounce of shame of being caught. "Touche."

"Since you are here I assume that the subject in question is no longer alive." The black haired scientist inquired, though she already knew the answer to the question.

"Indeed," Her colleague confirmed anyway. "Not even a full minute before it collapsed in on itself."

"I see," She replied with faux sadness. She had known that this particular iteration of the Swarm King was unstable. She had been a bit too…eager to complete her goal and had rushed into the incubation of Skaracabaz.

Thus resulting in the unstable specimen that could not live long before its genetic makeup would end itself. She had stored away in the lowest level of Herta's Space Station until the opportunity would arise where she would need it once more.

Which no longer seemed to be the case.

…Regardless, that clone's main purpose was to serve as a prototype and foundations for further iterations. Iterations including the one she had incubating inside of this space station.

"A shame but a momentary setback nonetheless." Was all she had to say.

"I assume the project you're working on here is related?" Hera asked with a knowing look.

"Indeed." Ruan Mei answered, not even bothering to try and hide it. Before she could say anything further she was pinged by a critical alert regarding said project.

"Ah forgive me but I must get back to it, the genetic makeup of this new copy is very sensitive and will implode on itself if I don't intervene." She turned on her heel and was about to make her way back to her specimen.

"Before you go, I think you would like to see this first." Herta interrupted, stopping her in her tracks. The Emnanator snapped her fingers which resulted in a tablet appearing in her hands.

"I think the results will speak for itself." She said before she handed her the tablet.

Ruan Mei highly doubted whatever information her colleague had deigned to bring herself would prove to be of any value for her project. After all she had researched intensively on anything relating to the Swarm.

So to humor her fellow Genius, she took the datapad and began to read through the information on it…

And for the first time in a long time, her blue eyes widened as her mind processed what she was reading.

"Impossible." Was all she could say before she combed through the data with rare zeal, eager for more.

"Yet it is." Herta countered back with a smug smile but Ruan Mei quickly forgot her presence as her entire focus was on the data presented to her.

Data pertaining to how a human male was able to absorb the entirety of Skaracabaz's essence and remain seemingly healthy by all tests of vitality. Even the Simulated Universe had responded to the human male, showing a hidden memory of the early days of the Path of Propagation.

Which was a complete impossibility.

How could a normal human, seemingly non augmented in any shape or form, be able to handle the Swarm King's power when countless months of research and tons of resources was barely able to produce a clone that could use a tenth of the original's power without collapsing in on itself.

It defied all logic and reasoning.

Yet in the face of this impossibility she could not help but smile at how this signified a major breakthrough in her research…

Of how it brought her closer to lifelong goal.

Of-!

"As of this moment I am cleaning my hands of this data." Herta said, making a show of dusting her hands clean. "You hold the last copy of that data. Don't lose it."

Momentarily diverting her eyes from the tablet, she gave her thanks for the… splendid gift that she had just been given. "I thank you then Herta for this."

The witch hat wearing Emanator merely chuckled before beginning to walk away. "You can thank me by not using my station as your testing grounds again." The witch answered back before disappearing in a shower of pink motes of light.

Not even a minute after her colleague's departure did Ruan Mei begin to make her way back to the room containing the subject she had been incubating with great care and attention. Yet the moment the doors closed behind her she hardly spared a glance to the growing subject as all of her attention was directed to the tablet Herta had given her.

"Michael," The genius whispered to herself as she took in the features of the man who had taken the entirety of her attention. "Background is…normal. No special upbringing or any events that could suggest a significant change, perhaps he was exposed to something during his time in Herta's space station?"

As she absorbed the information on the datapad, theorising over countless different hypotheses, the room she was in was suddenly bathed in a dark baneful red light as alarms began to blare loudly.

"Warning, subject stability reaching critical levels. Intervention required." An artificial voice rang out as the main terminal connected to the incubation tube was showing countless warnings.

This clone of the Swarm King had taken months of careful genetic manipulation, countless resources, and research. If she did not act quickly then all of that work and effort she put into this clone would be for naught.

A clone…that had just lost any form of value to Ruan Mei.

"Or mayhaps an external character is responsible? Many notable figures visited the station when he was hired. Perhaps they influenced his body in some way?" The scientist continued rambling to herself, despite the blaring warnings.

"Warning, subject stability reaching critical levels-"

"Maybe a variable in Skarabaz that I did not account for?"

"Warning-!"

"Or maybe an unknown effect of the Propagation? But that would not make any sense as human DNA showed no notable reaction with the Swarm King or any of the Stings."

"War-!"

With a loud and sudden pop, the incubating Swarm King imploded within its tank. The once pristine tank was now completely coated in the residue of the cloned Emanator. Months of research and countless resources were lost in a single instant.

And Ruan Mei barely batted an eye at it all.

Why would she when she found the next step in her lifelong goal.

"The only logical choice would be to examine the subject in question personally," She said to herself as she began to scroll through the information that Herta had provided for her as the room she was in returned back to its normal lighting.

Her eyes saw that after absorbing the Swarm King's essence Michael had joined the Astral Express as both a way to find answers and to distance himself from potentially harming his acquaintances in the space station.

A strange choice, did he not think that Herta would've intervened should he lose control? The witch hat wearing genius knew how important such a development would be for her. Was this some way of getting back at her…

Or perhaps there was another reason that she had allowed him to go with the Express, one that she could not see at the moment?

The reasoning was ultimately irrelevant as she needed more information.

Information that she could only get in person.

Which means that she had a train to catch, and as for the Express' next destination…

"Jarilo-VI?" She questioned as she read the Express' manifest, her blue eyes gleaming in the darkness of the room as her mind raced on what she had to do next.

There was only one logical path forward.

"I suppose a trip must be planned then."