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“Hey, you’re feeling better?”
Cyrus looked up, probably grinning like an idiot as Shiloh walked up to him with a smile on her face. “Yeah, headache’s all gone now, so I’ve got a clean bill of health!”
True to her word, Shiloh had indeed visited Cyrus and the two of them talked endlessly about their adventures on different Raelos though admittedly, Shiloh’s adventures were a lot more exciting than Cyrus’s.
Then again, maybe that was a good thing…
“Great!” Shiloh bounced a little in place before linking her arm through his and dragging him out of the med bay to his surprise.
“Wha—wait a minute, Shiloh—!”
Cyrus protested, looking bewilderedly over his shoulder at Mary and Bella who just looked at him bemused and waved goodbye as he was dragged through the glass doors.
“Come on, you said you always wanted to see the M.O.M headquarters, right?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to have my shoulder dislocated in the process!” Cyrus sputtered, his feet sliding across the floor and to his relief, Shiloh came to a stop and released him.
“Wow, you’re strong…”
Cyrus muttered the last part with a bit of awe, causing Shiloh to blush and look at him apologetically. “Sorry about that, I got a little carried away…”
Cyrus shook his head, smiling at her softly. “Nah, it’s fine, so I’m getting the tour?”
Shiloh nodded, gesturing with her head for him to follow him as she explained, “So, do me a favor and stick close, obviously this is a secure facility—”
“—except for the fact I managed to teleport into it,” Cyrus couldn’t help but cut in, grinning awkwardly when Shiloh turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Except for that, but what I was saying is things around here can sometimes get,” She wagged her head from side to side, considering her words before she finally spoke. “Weird.”
“Weird?” Cyrus repeated, eyebrows going up.
“Weird,” Shiloh stated, shrugging her shoulders slightly. “So just stay close to me, and everything will be fine.”
“Gee, that’s really reassuring—ah!”
The last word came out embarrassingly high-pitched as Shiloh grabbed his wrist this time, and their hands being in close proximity to each other made Cyrus turn beet red, not saying a word when Shiloh started pulling him to follow her again.
“But seriously, Shiloh, I know M.O.M’s reputation, but how weird can this place really…be…”
Cyrus trailed off as they turned a corner, coming to a full stop and his eyes widened while he took in the scene in the hallway before him:
People rushed back and forth, all wearing some type of work overalls in different colors. Some of them were at consoles jutting out of the wall, fingers flying across the screen while others were pushing carts filled with stuff Cyrus had barely seen.
And he swore he saw someone carrying a baby dinosaur…?
“…okay, yeah, weird is a good term to use.”
Cyrus agreed, slowly nodding as Shiloh let out a tiny laugh, beaming up at him before gently pulling him down another hallway.
“Up ahead is where we do all our training and run our simulations,” Shiloh explained as they came up to a hallway where one side was made entirely out of large glass windows. “We can replicate almost every environment you can think of, from deserts to forests to a giant island made out of ice cream—don’t ask, seriously, you don’t want to know.”
Shiloh pointed at Cyrus as he opened his mouth, closing it and raising his hands before his gaze wandered over to the windows. Slowly, with an encouraging nod from Shiloh, he walked up to and peered through the glass with wide eyes.
He recognized Judah, wielding a sword and facing off against a woman with long red hair and freckles painting her face. She wore a red long-sleeve henley with gloves on her hand, black pants and boots and a red bandana tied around her neck.
The two of them moved really fast, Cyrus had seen his fair share of fights—and been involved in a few himself—and he could tell they were good.
Though it also seemed like the two of them were…arguing with each other? He thought Judah was mouthing something about red being sus, weirdly enough.
“That’s Britney, who Judah’s fighting,” Shiloh elaborated as Cyrus looked at her. “She’s my sister-in-law, married to my older brother David who you haven’t met yet.”
Cyrus nodded, slowly turning back to the fight and wincing when Britney easily knocked Judah to the ground with a low sweep, standing over him triumphantly.
“That seemed a little…aggressive?”
“Our missions can be dangerous, while not all our training is intense, we have to be prepared for anything,” Shiloh sounded and looked far more serious, causing Cyrus to glance at her curiously.
She shook her head, breaking the solemn air with a smile. “When you’re up for it, we can do some training, maybe try some tests with your powers.”
Cyrus swallowed, averting his gaze quickly. “Right, yeah, that uh, sounds good.”
He knew that was at least partially why he was staying, get an understanding for his power, but there was a part of him that was terrified.
When he was younger, terrified and merely lost in the chaos of going from one place to another in the blink of an eye, he wanted answers. He craved them with a desperation only matched by his desire to find his parents.
But then he worried about his power, what it meant and how he got it, and he decided to remain ignorant because the idea of what it could mean, why he had such power…it scared him.
Maybe it would be nice to not have headaches or faint whenever he used his power, but…
“Cyrus?”
He turned to look at Shiloh, staring into her bright green eyes before clearing his throat and trying to redirect her attention.
“So, where are we going next?”
Shiloh stared at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes before she turned and began walking before she replied, “The main communication hub and then I thought I would show you the Arxis, since you only really saw it for a second.”
“Cool!” Cyrus’s eyes lit up as he trailed after her. “So, the Arxis is how you guys travel to other Raelos?”
Shiloh nodded, looking over her shoulder at him while they turned a corner. “Yeah, our Mom built it, basically it taps into the Ancient Pathway which allows us to go to the different Raelos.”
“The Ancient Pathway?”
Cyrus questioned, letting out an oof as he bumped into Shiloh who came to a full stop, turning to stare at him with a mix of a concerned and sympathetic expression.
“You really don’t know a lot, do you?”
Cyrus glared, wanting to argue but recognizing it was coming from a good place, he let out a sigh. “I mean, I didn’t even know the places I was travelling to were called Raelos until someone told me, I was five remember.”
Shiloh nodded slowly. “Right, well the Ancient Pathway is basically a road with all the Raelos being different stops; the Arxis allows us to drive on it and then make the stops.”
“Okay, that…makes sense,” Cyrus blinked, processing those words. “Do you think that’s what I do? Travel on the Ancient Pathway, but sort of…walking it, I guess, rather than driving?”
Shiloh bit her lower lip. “Maybe, I don’t know, I’ve honestly never come across anyone with the power you have.”
Cyrus let out a stilted chuckle. “Gee, that makes me feel great.”
He startled when Shiloh reached a hand out to pat him on the shoulder, giving him a bright smile. “Come on, let’s go to the communication hub, it’s just up ahead!”
Cyrus returned her smile, following her as they went through another sliding door, ending up in a room with two levels, the walls painted a light teal color with pipes and hexagons decorating the walls and various multi-colored power sources on the wall.
Shiloh began heading up the stairs, and Cyrus shook himself out of his stupor to quickly follow her. He did end up freezing for a moment as a person (?) with cat features walked past him, turning his head slowly to stare after him.
“Is it wrong if I want to scratch them behind their ears…?”
Cyrus muttered to himself, only to hear Shiloh calling for him and hurrying up the stairs to meet her. They went through the glass doors and Cyrus let out a low whistle, blue eyes sparkling with awe.
An orange hexagon platform sat in the center of the room with a raised table in the center and four large pillars resembling radio towers with a weird metal cage above the table.
Off to the corner was a bunch of consoles set up with a large monitor and then a set of stairs leading up to another pair of sliding doors on a raised platform. Hope and Elijah were at the monitor looking at something and were awfully close to each other, with Elijah peering over Hope’s shoulder and her being rather unplussed about it.
“Hey guys!”
Shiloh called out as they approached, startling the duo. Hope merely jumped and whirled around, pressing a hand to her chest while Elijah, rather comically, let out an oddly high-pitched yelp and nearly tumbled backwards into a console though he caught himself.
He flushed as three pair of eyes turned to look at him in disbelief, clearing his throat and wiping his hands over his clothes as he stood up and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Real smooth, Eli, real smooth,” Hope remarked dryly, smirking as he shot her a glare before looking at Shiloh and Cyrus, her smirk becoming a soft smile.
“Hello Shiloh, Cyrus are you feeling better?”
“You know, not my first rodeo, at least this time I was in a somewhat comfy bed,” Cyrus joked, though it didn’t quite land if the concerned looks he got were any indication and he quickly changed the subject. “Shiloh’s been giving me a tour.”
And in hindsight, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say in front of Shiloh’s probably very protective older brother who immediately straightened, narrowing his eyes.
“It’s just been the two of you, alone?”
Cyrus made a sound that embarrassingly sounded like a squeak, moving to hide slightly behind Shiloh who turned her head slightly to give him a bewildered expression.
Thankfully, Hope saved him by smacking Elijah lightly on the shoulder, causing him to rub the spot where she hit him and shoot her a look.
Shiloh looked between the three of them suspiciously, before shaking her head. “I was going to show him the Arxis room next, since he didn’t get to see much of it…what’s that?”
Shiloh pointed, stepping forward which panicked Cyrus slightly as he was now in full line of sight of Elijah though said panic vanished when he saw what had drawn Shiloh’s attention.
On the big screen was what looked like a big round circle with little text boxes of information to it and various flashing spots; there was also a loose floor plan of what looked like a factory, though it was oddly shaped and seemed to have some kind of underground system to Cyrus’s eyes.
“Is that…?”
Shiloh asked, looking at Hope and Elijah who nodded. Cyrus felt a bit left out.
“Uh, new guy here who doesn’t know much, mind elaborating?”
“This is the Playtime Co, it’s a toy factory built on a Raelo,” Hope explained, taking pity on him as she tapped something on the tablet in her hands. “It’s been abandoned for at least twenty years, give or take a few.”
Cyrus scrunched up his nose, peering at the screen before his eyes widened. “Oh, they made Huggy Wuggy, right?”
Hope nodded, arching an eyebrow at him and he elaborated, “They’re a pretty big collectors’ item, quite a few merchants I ran into were selling them for exorbitant prices, though I never really saw the appeal,”
He shivered a bit, eyes bugging out which made Shiloh giggle and he was going to ignore the death stare being aimed at his back now. “Huggy Wuggy always creeped me out, same with Mommy Long Legs.”
“Yeah, you have to wonder about their choices,” Shiloh agreed, her smile becoming a frown. “Why are we looking at it? Did something happen?”
“I’m not sure, some of the nearby Raelos reported they were getting weird signals from it,” Hope sighed, tilting her head. “But there’s not much for us to go off of based on the signals, but it made the Director raise an eyebrow and she wants us to keep an eye on it.”
“No mission?”
Shiloh’s eyes lit up, an eagerness in her expression that Cyrus kind of found cute, though he wasn’t going to admit that especially with her brother still in the room.
Hope shook her head, smiling bemusedly. “Not yet, but we’ll let you know, now go show the kid the Arxis.”
Cyrus grumbled a bit about being called a kid—he was one, but that didn’t mean he liked it—while Shiloh laughed, saluting her before grabbing Cyrus by the wrist again and dragged him back through the door they came.
He flushed, even more so when he caught sight of Elijah’s flabbergasted expression, and he began making frantic gestures with his hands at them while looking at Hope who seemed to be ignoring him.
The doors slid shut behind them as Shiloh dragged him back down the hallway they came from, heading straight instead of left where they came from and the next thing he knew, they were standing in front of the same arch he recognized from when he had arrived.
It wasn’t as empty as he recalled when he arrived, people in the same overalls checking the consoles and monitors scattered around the room, or the wires that seemed to connect everything.
Slowly he took a step forward, head craning back as he looked up at the large, metal arch towering above him.
“This is the kid who can travel to Raelos?”
Cyrus whirled around, coming face to face with a man with short, brown curly hair and dark brown eyes in brownish-grey overalls. The name tag on his pocket read David and he realised this must be Shiloh’s other brother who he hadn’t met.
“David, this is Cyrus,” Shiloh gestured at Cyrus, smiling at her brother. “Cyrus, this is my brother David.”
“Nice to meet you,” Cyrus held out his hand, which David took with a grin. “I met your wife, well, I saw her at a distance, she’s pretty amazing.”
David beamed at that. “Yeah, she is.”
Cyrus turned back to the Arxis, staring at it for a few minutes. “So, this takes you to any Raelo?”
David and Shiloh waved their hands in a kind of motion. “To get to a Raelo, we need the exact coordinates but in order to get back from a Raelo—”
“—we need a beacon,” At Cyrus’s blank stare David snapped his fingers. “We actually have one we’re working on right now, just over here.”
He led them over to where a makeshift worktable had been set up, Josiah working on a weird cube-like device with an antenna sticking out.
“Hey Cyrus, Shiloh,” Josiah greeted as he looked up, removing the goggles that had been covering his eyes.
“What am I, chopped liver?”
David complained, though the smile on his face told Cyrus he was joking. Josiah just shook his head at him while Cyrus took a careful step forward to take a look at the device.
“So, this is the beacon?”
Josiah nodded, an excited look on his face as he began explaining, “Yes, see we use this syndo-crystal because it syncs up with the ancient pathway and the Arxis, then using these transmitters it creates a thread that allows us to make a portal and—”
Cyrus stared, eyes widening and his brain slightly turning to mush as Shiloh noticed and stepped in. “Josiah, you’re overwhelming him a bit.”
She turned to Cyrus. “Basically, the beacon creates a link that allows us to go back through the Arxis, without a beacon we’re kind of trapped.”
Cyrus nodded as Josiah pouted, slipping his goggles back on and returning to his work. “So, your mom designed all of this?”
“Yeah, she did,” Shiloh smiled proudly. “She’s a genius, travelled across thousands of different Raelos and helped a lot of people.”
“Wait,” Cyrus gaped, remembering something. “Is your mom the Angel of the Stars?!”
“Yeah, that’s her,” David crossed his arms over her chest. “She doesn’t really like the title though, well she acknowledges it’s mainly a title given for respect, but she worries that some use it like they would when worshipping a god.”
“I mean, she’s not wrong,” Cyrus admitted, blinking rapidly. “I ran into quite a few people who spoke of the Angel of the Stars reverently, some claimed she was a goddess who chose to walk the mortal plane, others say she was a literal guardian angel—oh, God, I met the Angel of the Stars, and I insulted the agency she built!”
Cyrus panicked, he’s done a lot of stupid things but he’s pretty sure that tops it.
“Cyrus, don’t worry,” Shiloh let out a reassuring laugh, David apparently having gone back to whatever he was doing. “My mom isn’t some type of all powerful, supernatural being she’s just…she’s Mom, who always taught us to do we what we could to help people.”
Shiloh pursed her mouth, seemingly staring into nothing before shaking her head. “The point is, she wants to help you and she’s not going to get angry over something minor.”
Cyrus stared, his breathing returning to normal. “You promise?”
Shiloh smiled. “I promise.”
The two of them stared at each other, Cyrus slightly lost in her green eyes before it was broken by a swish—seriously, Cyrus would be amazed if anyone could sneak up on someone in this place with how loud those doors were—and Micah entering the room.
“Shiloh, Mom’s on her way with some of the others, something’s going down at Playtime Co!”
Cyrus and Shiloh whipped their heads around to look at him, before Cyrus glanced at Shiloh and asked dryly, “This is what you meant by things can get weird, didn’t you?”
Shiloh nodded, expression becoming serious.
“Yup.”
“Great…” Cyrus muttered to himself as Shiloh ran over to her brother and began asking questions.
A hand on his shoulder made him jolt up and look up at Josiah, who appeared beside him. “Well kid, you’ll get to see your first M.O.M mission.”
Why did it have to be a creepy abandoned toy factory though…?