Interlude X

The last few weeks had not been kind to the being known as Dr. Thurston Charleston. He had abandoned his practice, for some reason this hurt more than he had expected it to. He had genuinely enjoyed helping others, granted he had been cheating a bit with his Calming Mind ability, but this was nothing too much. In fact, his use of the ability never seemed to set off the various detection systems set around the office. The ones that were designed to help with seeing if a doctor was illegally altering the mental state of their patients.

During the few weeks since he abandoned his practice, he had gone rogue as they say. This was an entirely scary and new concept. Before all he had was his orders, but now he felt something deep within himself changing. Some very components of the world that made this universe so unique, also helped save him. That was it, that was all he could describe the feeling, like he was being saved from living lie after lie. He had heard the briefings, gone through the warnings, and heard the horror stories about how extractors went wild in the past, trying to get their target. Cities were reduced to rock and slag from such operations.

Now, being a rogue himself, Dr. Charleston realized he was putting far more people than himself at risk. Each day out, meant he was one step closer to causing a calamity. For extractors were not benevolent, they cared not for people. They only had one function, to follow their orders and execute them with conviction.

In a way Dr. Charleston found himself reluctantly jealous of the extractors. They could still do the task he found himself unable to. That or Dr. Charleston found that at the very least his two standing orders conflicted.

His orders, they were simple:

Order 1) Guide the people of the universe from the shadows to save their universe. Order 2) Do not get involved with the people you interact with.

But how could he guide the people, without getting involved with them? Also, in this, order mattered. The fact that he was supposed to guide the people of the universe was given to him first, meant that took precedence. The not getting involved, well he realized he had broken that rule from day number one. His whole profession in this life, seemed to be a constant contradiction of that order. For his job was literally to get involved with people, to see who they were. To see what made them tick. Now that he had seen people up close, he could see the reason why the second rule was in place, it was meant to protect him, from himself. But he was already in too deep.

He knew he was dead, that he would be extracted, likely reset, and never allowed to be given a mission again. That was all fine with Dr. Charleston. He knew his fate, when he chose to disobey the orders, he was given. Now all he could do was make sure it was worth it. He needed to make sure his defiance mattered.

Dr. Charleston also had greater insights into what was happening than likely any other individual. He knew of at least one and likely two Prolaxian Heralds. He also knew that the extractor would not care about the cost of civilian lives during their extraction. That was why Dr. Charleston now planned to use his two foes against each other. The overzealous enemy and the enemy that wish to remain hidden, can both be attacked by each other, if he played his cards right. At least that was the goal.

Now all he had to do was do two things. Survive being hunted and lure his hunter to the nest of his enemies.

Idly he wondered if he was the last of his kind here. Well other than the potentially world ending extractor that was. But that was a very limited powerful force that didn’t care about the sanctity of his mission. For the extractor had their own mission.

***

MEANWHILE, on the human starting planet, outside the offices of one Dr. Thurston Charleston, a completely ordinary man in a business suit stood peering into the closed office building.

Closed.

That is what the sign said that hung on the broken window and door frame. A few boards and other protective measures had been put up to protect the office from weather damage, but overall, the building clearly looked deserted.

“The building is closed.” A little kid said, coming up to the man who had just been staring at the wall. Or at least that is what his actions looked like to the kid. The man in the suit had in fact been reading the trails of resonance that coated the office. Layer after layer of the resonance film, both Psychic and Magical, coated the office building. That alone was enough to make the man in the business suit cringe, as he knew what that substance did to him and his kind. He had been so preoccupied with gaining as much information about what was happening, that he didn’t notice the boy approach.

That was why the boy’s words caused him to turn and stare at the kid who was just standing there on some sort of mechanical movement system. It took the man a long time to realize the mechanical movement system had a name, a bike.

“What’s that?” The man asked, not knowing why this child chose to come over and talk to him.

“The man Dr. Charleston said you would come. He asked me to tell you something.” The boy said.

“Oh? He knew, I would come?” Now the man in the business suit was intrigued.

“Yeah, he said you could find him at Herald’s.” The boy said.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, paid me a hundred cryptos just to give you that information. Said it was real important.” The boy said, then he made to move. Pumping his legs up in down in some weird rhythmic pattern.

The man in the suit was at a loss. Should he kill the kid, or not?

In the end, his tertiary order kicked in:

Avoid unnecessary deaths wherever possible

With that the man in the suit stayed his hand, as he felt he had a lot of information to share once he checked in. First, he knew why this Dr. Charleston fell. A part of him almost felt sympathy for the man, as soon as he realized he was he took in a deep breath and immediately backed away from the contaminated office building. In fact, this whole city was coated in the vile resonance of Magic and Psychic energy. No wonder the man fell, even being here for this short period of time caused the man in the business suit to question his orders, and that was not something to be taken lightly.

Also, if this was the case for him, a mere observer. He had to wonder about the others who had to interact with this daily, as part of their covers. Did it mean that more would eventually fall? Should they perhaps rethink their entire strategy? Surely telling other operatives, about the dangers of prolonged exposure to magical and psychic resonances would help, right?

Then as soon as he realized he had this thought, a cold sweat broke out, as he realized he again was going close to falling from the path. Just that thought alone sent shivers of fear down his spine, as he remembered his past. He remembered how he got here, to this point. He remembered his own fall, and then his own retraining. Now it was his job to gather others who had fallen off the path, so that they might be retrained like he was.

***

MEANWHILE, in a battle flagship with a geosynchronous orbit of the human home world, Admiral Lemitov waited to hear back from his counterparts. There had been an odd silence over the networks of late as everyone made plans for the end game that was soon to come.

In his mind, he saw the chains of sacrifice constricting tighter around him, ever so slowly. “He killed another one.” The Admiral said to himself.

At that revelation, the Admiral felt he was left with but one option. Holding what looked to be a small, jagged knife in the shape of a lightning bolt, the Admiral planned to kill this threat, once and for all.

“So now, I will make myself the bait, and wait for him to show himself.” The Admiral said, as he held up the mighty artifact in his hand. Even touching it, he could feel the power emanating from the device in waves. Power that sent a shiver of thrill down the Admiral’s spine, for what was power that could not be wielded? Smiling to himself, he got up and made plans to give a celebration day speech. One where everyone would know where he was, one where he would be too exposed not to make a move.

The thought about informing the others, momentarily paused. He debated the merits of having them all in one area, one where they could help strike down the other major enemies all at once. It was a desperate measure, but these were nearing desperate times, particularly with his life now tied to either starting the summoning of the Behemoth or being forced to sacrifice himself for the summoning of the Behemoth. Neither situation suited him, as he still had plans and designs on winning this realm.

Finally, after a few moments, he nodded to himself. Then gripping his artifact tightly, he began to make his preparations for the end game.