Note: Hey there, readers. I welcome you to the 11th Chapter which we'll be the 1st completely new edition to the story in at least 6 months. I crave the rejuvenation of this story's 'ambiance' for it to feel for all of you as natural as a progression as possible.
Note #2: If you want to leave your thoughts about the story up to this point, feel free to do that.
Chapter 11. A parting gift. Part 2
Seconds later. The Power Rangers quickly shift their stances to ones that are in frontal opposition to the enemy 50 meters (~164 ft) away from them; Leo & Maya were the ones to represent the largest force in terms of physical capabilities. Definitely in the last week, the brown haired female boxed several hours, now she could sense that her hands' muscles harnessed more potential force within them than before. Finally, a confirmation of the sensual data can be attained.
"That means you're partly responsible for the demolition up ahead."
"True,… Human."
How did their enemy look? A multiple dark shaded green, black lizardman with armor all around his body. A distinctive feature of his appearance was his mouth – it protruded far from the rest of the body's line. Usually, the ending word of his statements or the 1st word after a needed inhaling is riddled with spitefulness, callousness.
"If you give us your Master's location, we might let you live." – Maya states with a straight face.
"Hah! Not going to happen,… Humans."
"Then let's get some action!" – Damon shouts.
All of the Rangers swiftly take their Quasar sabers from their hilts on their thighs, shoot to them to the sky and transform into their Power suits.
"HYAH!" – the Rangers shout out.
Each of them enter a separate battle position. In a quick sequence, the lizardman launches at them; the Humans rise their mental fortitude for the incoming fight. The base of that appeared far too low.
"WOW!" – the Green Ranger lets out.
With good reason – a horizontal slash is not easily repelled. Kendrix & Maya attempt a surprise attack on him, but he is quick to react and blocks both saber moves.
"Come here!"
Leo springs himself of the ground in an attempt to end this battle quickly with a downward slash through the enemy's skull.
"Hah!"
The opponent is engulfed to land a massive hit and does so. With a lightning fast knock back of both female's attacks, he jumps up to meet the Red Ranger in the air. Needless to say, the Ranger's leader did not anticipate such speed from him. In a somewhat unorthodox manner, the lizardman decides to kick him in the waist. The force combined with the speed sends Leo flying in an arc shape over to the trees that were on their right before the encounter.
"LEO!" – Kendrix screams.
"Look out for yourselves!"
Damon lets it out perfectly, since the female Rangers manage to plunge themselves out of their spots before the lizardman, more than likely, injures them severely.
"TFFFFF!"
The dark green, black creature slams to the ground for a 2nd time.
"This is just the beginning!"
At this moment, Kendrix is to his right, Maya – to his left and Damon – to his backside. In the extremely short time before their opponent launches a new attack, their fears of how powerful is the Unknown become quite rational. Just before their landing on this planet, Kendrix & Maya had a conversation about the Unknown's strength; the former had managed to stifle the latter's pessimistic overview of their current situation. The lizardman's noteworthy kick at Leo, logically, resurfaced those ideas back to the forefront.
Suddenly, Exceer launches at Maya; not the best choice, given her growth in physical capabilities. An attempt to pierce her neck with both metal blades, if successful, would end her life in a flash. Fortunately, the Yellow Ranger reacts fast enough to get her blade under his, knock them up and commit to an acrobatic backward lean towards the ground.
"WHOOO!"
The air around them spreads forcefully to the sides. Realizing the daunting task of defeating this foe, both Kendrix & Damon launch at him. The lizardman is aware to their presence, in calculating his further actions, decides to get the Yellow Ranger out of the equation. Remember when Maya chose to do an acrobatic backward lean, in order not to fall flat, she had spread her legs a fair amount. This in turn would lead to immeasurable pain. The lizardmen ferociously launches his leg at her crotch; the resulting discomfort is so horrendous that as soon she is on her back on the surface, she cannot help in wallowing in the pain from one side of her body to the other. Most would say this is extremely dishonorable, but as the saying goes: 'The Enemy never fights fair'. Nothing can be as easily confirmed as this within this battle.
Now back to our other 2, not injured Power Rangers. He twists around & starts to spin his blade in high speed around his body. This repels both of their strikes; said fact allows him to go on the offensive. First up is Kendrix. Exceer thrusts both of his metal blades in parallel line; one being aimed at the chest, the other – at the waist. Spectacularly, the Pink Ranger angles her Quasar saber downward; in doing so, both ends of the lizardmen's blades' end up connecting with the saber rather than her body.
"Alright."
Choosing the more pragmatic approach, he does not dwindle on the fact that this attack failed; rather – pulls back a bit and launches once again. Just this time, the blades are in a diagonal line. Due to high speed, Kendrix is only able to block the one aimed at her waist; the one that intended on slamming into her shoulder accomplished its task. The pain from the hit hobbles her movement significantly. The enemy is attentive to this; feeling the execution to be significantly close to the end, he breathes in and wastes no time in launching a 3rd attack at Kendrix. In behind the helmet, you would see the fear overflowed, heartache experiencing eyes. The situation was grim: pain interfering with the movement, not possessing a lot of energy to repel more attacks. It looked like the end for the Pink Ranger. And yet,… death had to wait. Damon attempts to cut off one of the lizardman's arms; his eyes see the threatening move and adjustments are made. This leads to Kendrix blocking one of his blades, while the other changes direction to stop Damon's attack.
"Damn!"
The enemy switches his full attention to the Green Ranger; a rational move. Two rangers were on the ground, cowering in pain, while the third was experiencing trouble in moving around. The 'Chosen Ones' appear to be going down a particularly grim path; the Unknown is in the favorable position at this point & it's not even a debate. With the dark green, black dual toned being using his superior speed and relentless spearing maneuvers mixed with diagonal cuts at the Green Ranger the battle looks to be heading to an end in merely a minute.
"AAAAAH!"
Damon's side is impaled, Exceer raises his other blade to the sky. The killing blow is in motion.
"Good night, Human!"
The engineering field accustomed male holds his position, uses as much energy as he can in the process of withstanding an upcoming slash.
"HYAAAAAH!" – someone screams out.
For the 1st time in the fight, the lizardman fails to notice an attack in his blindside which correlates to him being pushed forward a few steps. Seeing his unwanted movement, Damon shimmies to the side in order to avoid a knockdown. The person, who launched at him, rapidly get up to a standing position.
"Hrrrrr!"
This displeased their enemy; a setback's fruition will have that effect on most beings. Still, he wastes no time in looking at the root cause of this. Somewhat unprecedently, it was Maya who launched her feet as an arrow to the back of him; I say unprecedently because of the suffering that he had inflicted to her by ferociously kicking at her erogenous zone.
"You… Feeble One." – he blurts out.
"You're not wining against us this easily, Lizard Face."
Maya coming in hot against their foe.
"Have it your way."
In quick succession, a 180 degree turnaround followed up by a launch with double downward slashes aimed at her shoulders. And the result of it is… a standstill? It seems that way. Astonishingly, quite recklessly, the Yellow Ranger chose to catch the incoming blades at, more or so, their middle point. She succeeded, her legs inevitably bent forward a substantial amount. Now the duo are locked in a standstill, with the Pink, Green Ranger being amazed at what had transpired in a such a short period of time. They weren't in awe for long due to Maya screaming:
"RUN AWAY! BOTH OF YOU! We must recover our energy if we are to win!"
Understanding the dire situation their group was in, the Rangers nodded to her in as much confidence as they could muster up with their current condition. Kendrix runs away in Leo's direction, while Damon – to the complete opposite. The Power Rangers active status truly hung in the air and only for Maya's reckless behavior it achieved even that frail of a state.
Back at the Medical Facility on Terra Venture. Khadija is busy as usual; just this time her business is centered a noteworthy person.
"How you feeling?"
"The pain impulses are still coursing from my hip." – the Blue Ranger answers with his teeth grinding.
A couple of hours earlier the doctor told Kai that he can not only try and walk, but rather starting practice the encumbered walk. The mere fact that the hips tissue had been reshaped into its original state does not equate to one traversing with his or her feet the same way as before so soon. After the restructuring of the upper leg, some time is needed before one is able to be put the same amount of force through it as before. As luck would have it, Nurse Sherilva was passing by his medical ward, came in to check the day's resolution. Seeing the positive notion from the caring doctor, she advised him to go for a walk with her around the Facility, maybe even – to the park in its surroundings. Of course, the mocha brown female's clothes resemble professionalism, respect for work. Kai had put two 'sticks' (yeah, I don't know the correct term for them) in his armpits, one leg went up & down, while the other remained in a bent position in the air throughout the movement. Since the nurse treated all of them, except Maya, up to this point, the duo's desire for conversation could not be anything else rather than natural.
"I'm not oblivious to your struggle, Kai."
She angles her face towards him, shows a concerned grimace.
"It's obvious that you want to rejoin your team as soon as possible."
"Hah! That easy?" – he nonchalantly inquires.
A quite smug look comes to the forefront.
"If a protector can't protect the assigned object, what that makes him?"
"A fraud." – Kai replies with cheerfulness rather than melancholy.
The duo step on the sidewalk, which darted through the park.
"I've got to say that one member of your team has really changed their timetable due to this… new threat."
"You're referring to Maya?"
"Spot on, Kai. Our enemies are the reason her personality has changed."
"This might be a more complicated path than any of us can assume."
Both conversationists adopt a significantly more serious tone.
"Her arms are a clear example of it. The first time I saw her… at best, I could say she had toned arms then."
"And as the time went on…"
"…The biceps and triceps became more and more visible. Right now, Maya is no longer a pretty fit lady – her upper body is heftily muscular."
"Be honest, Khadija. Do you crave such muscles on your arms?"
"I don't believe crave is a good word here, Kai."
"Then how'd you describe it?"
He takes a deep breath.
"A much needed improvement. We're in constant threat of being demolished." – the mocha brown female explains with a soft tone.
Quite a bizarre choice, given this current situation. Yet, it did not appear she was finished.
"I want to be stronger because it will make our whole voyage safer. It is more of a necessity than a desire of mine. There is little doubt that Maya's physical advancement won't be beneficial to your team in the near future."
"A good sign, Khadija. ZSSSSS!"
A jolt of pain is felt by the Blue Ranger. Though, he pushes forward down the clinker bricked pathway.
"I'm 100% sure that our enemies are extremely proactive. Me & the other Rangers are on a road filled with large obstacles."
A couple of minutes later in the moist atmosphere. To say that Kendrix & Damon left the interlocked Maya & Exceer would be an understatement; both Humans sprinted, fast speed breathing ensuing. Kendrix attempted as best as possible to piece together a significant counterattack against their foe, but always got doused with one brutal fact. If not for Maya's brash reentering, they were all but certainly dead.
"He's so strong! And his stamina! He looked as if he could go for another hour with ease!" – the blonde female though to herself.
Then… a seemingly obsessed Leo came rushing in a direction towards her. A surprise view that rapidly elevated her belief in a positive outcome of this battle.
"LEO!"
"KENDRIX!"
They both begin to slow down; the result being an abrupt, dense friction stop.
"Leo! You've managed to…"
"No time to dwindle on that, Kendrix. I see your shoulder is injured." – he cuts her off and states in a rapid fashion.
"A piercing move from one of his blades."
"Look, Kendrix. Don't stop moving in that direction!"
He points with his left arm in an acute angle to his right.
"Run until you reach some kind of reference point that all 4 of us can easily detect. I'm going to make sure that no one dies until we regroup and figure out a better strategy."
"Alright."
The powered up Red Ranger starts to move again.
"Good luck."
With that the two Rangers' paths separate with one heading back to the battlefield, while the other – to a recuperation spot. Well, the Pink Ranger did suffer a blow to her shoulder, so there was a clear and rational reason for a breather.
At the conflict origin point. The strain on the arms had led to the development of constant displeasure coursing through the Human's veins; behind the face mask an expression of dissatisfaction had established itself. Naturally, this alluded to a power differential of a substantial amount, as of this moment in time, the Chosen Ones stood in a losing position.
"You've only delayed the inevitable, Human."
The addressing still radiates callousness.
"I'm going to enjoy in carving out your worthless flesh!"
"I'm not letting that happen!" – Maya shoots back at the lizardman, despite the ever growing strain on her body.
"Time to reestablish reality!"
A momentary plunge into possible futures.
"Chaaaaaa!"
An urgent doubling of the forceful push down shatters the standstill in a couple of seconds. By being the more depleted being, it decreases the ability to react in time; this is none by their enemy. Which is why a malicious, highly energized, diagonal spearing motion of his left blade not only smashes into the right side of her face, but, quite unfortunately, achieves a reverse transformational effect.
"Aaaah!"
You best believe that the irritated enemy does not resort to gloating at this point. No – rather Exceer spins around 360 degrees with the intent of cutting off her head at the neck. Miraculously, given the before mentioned slowing of reaction speed, Maya is able to place her right arm up. So death is avoided at this instance. Still, the hit does substantially damage her forearm, blood starting to spill from it; moreover, the Yellow Ranger is knocked out of her stance to where she is dazed. Seconds later… she is flattened to the ground. Feeling magnificent after his attacking sequence, her enemy stomps on her back with such strength, so that it is almost impossible for her to get up from the surface.
"See the gulf in class, Human. This is what supporters of the Great One are capable of. Squashing your dreams of victory… very quickly. You may have stalled your defeat by letting two of them disappear from my sight."
A wry grimace appears.
"But don't worry. I'll get to them now."
Still pushing down on her, Exceer comes to resounding vision on how he wants the Power Rangers to be executed from here on in. Therefore, the upcoming action is not as pragmatic as one could hope. Rather than silencing the Yellow Ranger forever, he ferociously pierces through her left calf.
"HRAAAAAH!" – the female agonizingly blurts out.
This action just engulfs Exceer to continue his damage streak.
"Firstly, I'll make sure you all bleed to death. Only then… I'll carve out your flesh, Ignorant Humans."
Afterwards, he jumps off Maya's back and darts away from her.
Relatively far away from the face-off point. While running in the opposite direction, Damon was lost in a constant duel of thought: one idea hinted towards returning to the Astro Megaship in order to patch up his impaled side from the conflict, while the other idea pointed towards making a 'U' turn back to Maya. Even though the Yellow Ranger had explicitly, brazenly explained to both him & Kendrix to run away, the Human male could not bare the conclusive fact of being a coward as a holder of the Quasar Saber. Is it truly cowardice for a warrior to retreat when he or she is completely outmatched? Controversy can not run away from the answer to this question.
"These non-Scorpius aligned enemies are crazily strong. With this one I could last a maximum of a minute. One minute!"
These thoughts, while sincere, honest, objectively did not contribute to a lessening of the dire situation in which the Power Rangers had found themselves in. Yet, this it the totality of it. For Damon, a quite more urgent aspect of their confrontation was on the precipice of appearing before him.
"OH NO!"
The gushing wind behind him, the acoustically ever clearer traversing of some being – both of these revelations quickly painted the upcoming future for Damon.
In a split second, the Green Ranger intuitively turns his head in a diagonal, upward way behind his back.
"WOW!"
Witnessing a hellacious sight, the male uses a lot of his strength to jumps to his right. With good reason! In less than a few seconds, Exceer smashes onto the surface, a mere 3 meters (~10 ft) apart from the Green Ranger.
"Lucky."
"So much for avoiding the fight."
A sarcastic remark from one of the protectors of Terra Venture & the Universe. Dispensing with all illusions, stifling as much of the pain as possible, the Green Ranger takes up a fighting stance; the Quasar saber is gripped in a way for it to be diagonally in front of his heart. He treated this enemy as the cruelest one he had encountered up until now, so protecting a fundamentally relevant organ only seemed rational.
"Ready for you, Lizard Breath."
The bravado does not live long, since Exceer wastes no time in launching after the Green Ranger. The speed is immense, the attack – just as much. With both blades on his arms in a slashing motion, the power behind the move is enough to break Damon's hold of his weapon. It goes 270 degrees clockwise before landing on the surface. Before the Green Ranger realizes, what had just transpired, Exceer grabs his neck and slams his entire body to a nearby tree.
"DFFFFF!"
Now the situation was an astoundingly horrific one. A quite predictable mocking quickly comes into fruition.
"So… Where's confidence gone, Human?"
The Green Ranger decides to not reply; then with his other arm Exceer pierces through his waist, the suit is not strong enough to protect the incoming heavy bleeding. Obviously, this means that Damon's appearance returns to normal.
"15 minutes. That's how much is left .. before your demise!"
A quick analysis of the situation at hand encourages their enemy to leave Damon be; and so – he does. A swift release of the neck allows the significantly injured Ranger to slowly slide down to the ground.
"Only one of you is left."
Takes a step forward.
"Time to end this!"
A spearing motion onward is barely seen by Damon; logically, he has other, far more serious health issues to dedicate his attention to rather than their enemy's movement.
Several minutes later. A sublime conjunction between a true male and a true female unlocks future passages that is so difficult to define; people might as well call it 'mysticism'. An amazing connection between two souls of different sexes fundamentally shapes the lives of them from that point forward. In this case, the intimate act serves as a representation or a confirmation of said fact; in a basic, savage, instinctual based relationship – it could be labeled as its entirety of existence. So when this topic addresses Leo's & Maya's intertwine, some understanding is far more easily acquired. After the former developed a craving to be stronger with every passing day, maybe – up to the moment where the training's effect can counter their enemies, a downbeat, 'resort to a loss' way of thinking proved be disgusting, distasteful, unrespectable to one's self. Therefore, as soon as Exceer fled the scene, the brown haired female had been crouching along the drenched, moist ground in Kendrix's direction. An unorthodox way to get around for a Human, though it materialized in the World not because of said person's desire. Maya knew that leaving her left calf exposed to heavy bleeding would render her essentially immobile. Persevering with future repercussions, she chose to use her substantially less bleeding forearm as the minimizing agent to her calf's negative continual act.
"I'm not giving up. The Universe… The Human colony… My friends… Leo all need my assistance in this battle."
Every pause was filled with a teeth grind and an optional hissing let out of the air from the lungs. If anyone completely healthy saw the crouching female from the front, he or she would attain a greater understanding of the toll an intense fight can take on a Human body.
Fortunately, soon the female's eyesight lands on an extremely familiar person.
"Leo!"
Even with the sizable depletion of energy, pain immersed state, the shouting of the most valuable person's name is performed.
"Maya!"
The two romantically involved Power Rangers return to each other's presence. Leo is caught in emotional ambiguity: he is not sure if he should be sad to see the shape in which Maya was right now or if he should be glad that she is still alive & breathing. Several seconds pass before the male plunges his face towards her, their lips connect softly; both blank out everything around them in order to focus on the kiss.
"I'm so happy to see you alive!" – Leo energetically lets out, swiftly after the kiss.
For an extremely short period of time, the Human male's face alludes to one of a child who just got his 1st toy from his point.
"Same here."
"I ordered Kendrix to find herself a safe spot where all 4 of us can regroup, regain some our energy and defeat our enemy." – he explains with extreme speed.
"Good thinking. It's just… we're going to have to be crazily good at recovering."
The Yellow Ranger's bend even more.
"No doubt. He is powerful."
"And massively lethal."
"For now, we should treat your calf."
"Good for me is that I picked up a 3 meter roll of woven material from the ship."
"Fantastic! Where is it?"
"Upper side of my left thigh."
The male nods his head and the duo engross themselves in the harm minimizing sphere.
A fair distance apart. Whether the pain that one's feeling is higher or lower compared to someone else, does not correlate to a joyous, unrestricted push onwards. The Pink Ranger – a prime example of this; her wounded shoulder did not thwart Maya's feeling discomfort, which she had no idea about at this moment, yet it still limited the speed that is fundamental to moving across the physical plane. Moreover, the mind had entered a circular motion of doubt; said emotion pointed to several aspects.
"How are we going to survive this? How is Maya holding up over there alone? How long can I go on without stopping?"
The circle in the mind turned in a dangerously high speed. Such turbulent inner processing of the World meant that the attention to the surroundings had consciously or unconsciously wildered. Being in their fairly precarious position, this kind of novelty could amount to something… greatly terrible.
Soon, the blonde female finds herself in an unusual, mysterious, purposeful clearing. Tracing back to her time on Earth, she had walked in a forest. As most know – a forest is a creation of Nature; thereby, natural selection, which in this case means trees falling to the ground, occurs spontaneously, without premeditation. To the Pink Ranger, this ever closing relative void of trees appears to be a joint action; someone contributed to Nature's causation in this somewhat defined area.
"Hey! Maybe there will be a 'rally point' somewhere near by?!"
A small increase in optimism is… caught by a depressing manifestation. Merely stepping one foot out into the clearing, an unnoticed line breaks in two. Consequently, a log the size of an average fully grown Human male with constant rise in acceleration descends in a downward arc at Kendrix.
"HAAAH!" – she shouts.
A momentously cruel situation – the staring into one's death. Could the Rangers finally lose one member?
In a flash. She is tackled from behind out of the trajectory of the log.
"FFFFFFF!"
The two beings, one – aware, one – not so much, collapse onto the moist ground. Before the Chosen One is able to scan, observe the subject who pushed her out of a devastating outcome, it swiftly jumped off of her back and, more than likely, regained a normal posture (whatever that was).
"It's great that I saved you. You would have been…"
The cheerful tone is paused.
"Wait?.. What are you?"
The voice now radiates suspiciousness, distrust. Quickly piecing together the astoundingly unimagined scenario which she experienced in less than a minute, the Pink Ranger rapidly blurts out:
"Wait! Wait!"
The uninjured arm is rammed into the ground; attention, energy concentrated on the sole action of getting off the ground.
"What kind of… demented joke… is this?"
Bizarrely, the voice is now both smooth and riddled with distrust. Not a combination one would deem as a frequent one.
"I'm not your enemy."
Kendrix confronts her savior. Behind the facial mask hides an enormous eye widening. The mind looked for some explanations for the sight: first – the idea of the atmosphere weakening her sense's ability, second – the pain interfering with the observation. What stood barely 2 meters (~6,5 ft) away from her was a… Human. Not only was it a Human, the sex of said Human was female. A quite tall, oak wood eyes sparkling, at least 3 different shades of green, unclear, brash lined cloth parts arranged all over her front. The female had massive breasts that were only the 2nd area which had complete clothing; the other – her crotch. In essence, she represented a 'female from the jungle', quite similar to Maya. The last physical attribute – her hair which normally, naturally would be yellow, according to Kendrix, if it wasn't for the probable dirt it had been brushed against. Now it looked neither completely yellow, nor completely brown.
"What kind of thing are you?!"
A shocking facial expression is shown.
"I'm a Human just like you." – the Pink Ranger quickly answers.
Her reasoning for a fast reply was a bet on the pace & emotion substance being enough to comfort. Surprise or not – it worked; the wildly, plainly dressed female relaxes a bit.
"Prove it to me."
Slowly, she takes one step closer to Kendrix.
"Get out of your… outfit."
"Fine, fine."
Fairly soon, the Pink Ranger raised her saber to the sky; in a few seconds, her normal appearance lays itself out to the stranger. Said person's eyes lose most of their unsureness.
"All better?" – she kindly asks.
"Yes." – the other female swiftly replies with immense smoothness.
"Thanks for saving my life."
A precise, small nod is done. Feeling seemingly confident in herself, the taller female abolishes the space in between them. Commendably, the Pink Ranger stands her ground.
"I really did not want to injure you. The trap was set for my foe."
A slow extension of an arm.
"My name is Regan."
A handshake comes to fruition in a few seconds.
"Kendrix."
"Nice to meet you, Kendrix, but… I'd urge us to continue our conversation at my base before my foe finds us defenseless here."
"Is it that safe?"
"It's 3 times safer than here. Especially,…"
Regan uses her left fingers to point at Kendrix's injury.
"…When you're in this kind of shape."
A quick analysis of the situation, a feeling of one's instincts – both of these actions are done before the crucial decision.
"Fine. But I have other responsibilities to tend to, Regan."
The voice was fairly stern, a hint of compassion still resonated.
"I'm sure we can work around any obstacles."
Judging by the facts that: their arms split, they run out forward (could argue – backward) in the clearing, where in by doing so – get further away from Exceer, the retort from the jungle lady was convincing enough for the Pink Ranger. Exceer's job just might have gotten a little more challenging.
At the Palace. Which ever side on the 'innate ideas' argument you stand on, the following reality is relevant to both of them. That being – a Human's personality; it is prone to change (that aspect is part of the term). Also, some incorporate opposite approaches into their character and astoundingly act on both from time to time. This does not simply apply to Humans; one could make such an argument for any being that exhibits the unique ability that is free will.
In a relative noise surround, 4 beings make their way down a street. Their pace – normal, riddled with calmness, not in any rush; concealed feet massaging the wonderfully polished marble.
"You seem to be enjoying your time?" – a female inquires.
"Oh yeah. I'm feeling better and better about this decision." – a male answers.
Then said person pours some liquid into his mouth from the decently sized, syrup brown flash, which rested in one of the hands.
"Such… an… obscure taste."
The latter part is drenched in jauntiness and relaxation. Immediately after the statement, a soft chuckle is heard.
"You're truly… unpredictable, Polus. Being the youngest of the three, you not only drink tea frequently, you name the flavor as 'obscure'."
A genuine smile of joy appears.
"Probably the only person I know whose used such a word to describe a drink's flavor."
The 'inverted I' body type male chooses to be completely vulnerable to the experience of this moment. Why wouldn't he? The cheerfulness he showed up until this point will only grow due to this action.
"And you, cousin? Not in the right mindset for an ingenious plan?" – Polus asks while creating a breezy face.
"Hah! There needs to be a reason for such a time consuming task."
The female shifts her sight to a point where it encapsulates some part of Polus.
"Some days your approach is just better, my lovely cousin."
The mind being in unison with his instincts, his head turns a little to the female's side.
"Glad to hear that, Euphrosyne."
"Enjoy this wonderful time."
"You don't have to tell me twice."
A moment of silence appears between the designated group. Key aspect to point out is the Demigod's hand occupation. While only the azure blue eyed male carried a flask, each of them had a duffel bag in one of their hands. Due to the way that the objects were held, no one from the side could tell how heavy the items within those bags were.
After another sequence of tea indulgence, the conversation continues.
"The Commissioner did seem quite unraveled when I spoke to him today."
"Is he the only one who craves your attention?"
"No. The Supervisor of Infrastructure is also keen for a talk with me."
"Most probably an issue about something in the supply chain, Lord Polus."
"A high likelihood, Esteem Bishop Horacio."
Just to be clear, by this point all of their eyesight were aimed at the same direction.
"No need to call them by their title, Polus."
"Your certain?"
"Certain enough."
"Alright."
An analysis about ideas for the next topic.
"If there is a crack in the supply chain of materials, I'll have to take swift action."
"High proactiveness could be vital to society."
An arrogant, yet relaxed grimace appears on Atlas's brother's face.
"There are some… pathways."
"Then it will make me far more satisfied with accompanying you to the meeting. Horacio & Delanfa are constantly surveying the environment around us for any ill attempts at our voyage."
"Without a doubt, Lady Euphrosyne."
"It's amazing how much ungratefulness and lack of foresight people indulge in."
"Rest assured, Horacio. The combative nature of our interactions can be simply explained."
"I believe I know what you're about to say." – Euphrosyne states confidently.
"Might be, cousin."
A deep intake of air.
"As Crius says:… 'Compared to what?'."
If you're imagining the male Demigod expressing himself in a superiority, sophistication radiating manner, you'd be correct. Unorthodox or not, Horacio smiles jauntily.
"A perfect deterrent to unnecessary mind activity."