EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 54- Trust?
🕑 Added 2023-01-16 23:59:00 +0000 UTCArthur stood in shocked silence as he considered the implications of what the old woman had just said, his brain almost short-circuiting from the number of thoughts running through his head.
An Alien. A real fucking alien here on Earth.
Sure, he'd seen Erico at the Serako assembly who was technically an otherworlder, but she was still a human. She hadn't quite fit the alien bill. Do they look like us or are they Dragonoids or something? The old woman started to laugh at Arthur's shocked expression.
"Don't worry, I think everyone went a little batshit when people came out of the Dimensional breach instead of the standard monsters."
She chuckled again before muttering something under her breath too quietly for Arthur to hear. Bryan continued where she left off.
"Of course, everything wasn't sunshine and rainbows," he clarified. "The two dimensional travellers didn't come here voluntarily. They were running from monsters and the only hopping dimensions was the only chance they'd had at survival.
Arthur's excitement came crashing back down when he heard that and he chastised himself for not realising sooner than no one would actually want to risk jumping into an unstable dimensional breach.
"So what happened to them?" Arthur eventually asked after taking some time to collect his thoughts. Bryan sighed, rubbing at his temples before he answered.
"Well, no one knew what to do with them at first. There was a hot debate about whether we should just kill them on the spot or detain them for questioning."
Arthur blanched at the casual way Bryan had just mentioned the culling of two innocent lifeforms and reminded himself that this man, for all his friendly appearances, was on the government's payroll.
Despite them not being human, they were still sapient and should have been treated with the appropriate respect they deserved, but he could also see where the government had been coming from. It would've been so much simpler to just kill the two, then let them live and risk so much going wrong.
Bryan didn't seem to notice how distraught Arthur was and continued with his explanation.
"In the end, the fact that one of them was bleeding out and dying helped us make our decision. That, and the fact we didn't want to deal with a distraught level 150 individual if we ended up killing her younger brother."
Arthur filed away the information, so the aliens are siblings and the fact that one of the two was considered a child means wherever they were before coming here wasn't supposed to be a dangerous place.
After all, Arthur doubted that anyone would ever bring a younger sibling to a place they could get injured severely enough to the point of grave injury. It gave credence to the fact that the two were in fact running from a monster instead of deciding to just investigate what was on the other side of a tear in dimensions.
Arthur could however be wrong about the dimensional travellers and they could potentially be some carefully disguised scouts of an invading force for all he knew. He highly doubted that though.
Bryan continued with his story.
"And there lies the problem. The woman, despite her obvious ability to somehow communicate with us, refuses to tell us anything, instead demanding that we heal her brother before she will consider any negotiations."
Bryan, looked at the young healer in front of him to see how he was taking everything. What he saw surprised him. Besides the young man's initial shock at the mention of otherworlders, he listened to the rest of the story as if it was completely ordinary and not such a fantastical tale.
Bryan realised at that moment that Arthur was much more calculating and intelligent than his casual, carefree persona otherwise indicated.
"So, I'm guessing you want me to try healing her brother," Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow.
Bryan nodded his head.
"What I don't understand, is why you haven't healed the kid already. I'm sure you must have found a way to help him by now." Arthur confronted, carefully observing the man to see how he reacted to the accusation.
It was the woman who answered.
"Boy, don't you think we've tried everything we could? Nothing works. The wounds were inflicted by a poisonous monster we believe to have been at least level 120. It's taken everything we've got just to keep the kid alive," she explained, before looking at her watch.
Her eyes widened in surprise before she turned around, and quickly walked away.
"Hurry up, we've got ten minutes before we need to change the filters we're using. Your healing won't matter otherwise unless you're Jesus himself. The kid will already be dead."
With a sense of urgency, everyone hurried after her. Arthur was led into a room where he was told to wait with Bryan whilst a team of professionals all went through a heavily bolted door. Arthur had no doubt that the child was in that room but he swallowed his curiosity and waited as he had been told. He didn't want his presence to interfere with the researchers' jobs and put the boy's life at risk. It was one of the longest fifteen minutes of his life, second only to the time his sister had finally gotten the surgery that was needed to treat her defective liver.
During that time, an awkward silence developed between the two men. but Arthur chose not to break it by talking. In the end, Bryan finally spoke.
"I know this may be a lot to ask of you, but we really need that woman on our side. Especially if we want to take out shade without any casualties. Do everything you can, and I mean everything to make sure you get into her good books. If you can, I'll make sure to pay you something myself outside of whatever the higher-ups decide to give."
Arthur nodded his head, not really listening to the man's words. Bryan sighed, realising that now wasn't the best time to secure any promises from Arthur.
"Look, man. From me to you, forget the rest of the people in this facility, all the different agendas and goals everyone has. Those siblings deserve all the help they can get. They don't deserve what's happening to them, and I'd be damned if I see them suffer in some old fool's attempt to desperately try and cling to their power."
Arthur looked up, surprised at the vehemence in the man's voice. He hadn't taken Bryan to be the soft type. The man snorted at the surprise that must have sown on his face.
"Look, man. I ain't no saint but I know right from wrong. And I know what side I want to be on in the coming chaos."
Arthur tried to say something but the man raised his finger to his lips.
"Don't say anything. Just listen. I have an item on me that stops anything or anyone I don't want from picking up my voice. They're definitely listening in right now. All they'll hear is silence."
Arthur nodded his head and didn't say anything despite his burning curiosity. Just what was going on? Is there a war coming up or something?
"Good. I know you have a lot of questions but just listen for now. Things are not going well for Earth right now. Something big's coming and we're not ready for it. No, we don't know what it is, only that our divination magic is telling us that a lot of people are going to die."
"I represent the Murker family. They are a part of a neighbouring tier two world and they've been established on Earth for the last six hundred years. I've not got time to explain how they went about slipping past the systemic laws in place, but I can tell you they didn't break them outright."
"I'm babbling now, aren't I? This is a warning. Don't trust anyone here. They're acting blind right now but your secrets aren't so secret anymore. They know you didn't go to the tutorial. You really should have cleaned up after yourself better. At least deleted the footage. Your friend Sarah in the police force tried to cover your tracks but she wasn't thorough enough. They found out."
Arthur was left reeling by all the bombshells being dropped on him. They know about my absence from the tutorial. And Sarah tried to cover for me. Is she okay? Did they punish her? What else do they know?
Bryan seemed to read his mind and answered his question.
"She's fine. They didn't kill her or anything. But they did give her quite the fright."
A sudden beep went off from within Bryan's pocket. He looked down at it and cursed.
"Shit. Miley's coming. I don't know if my item will work on her perception abilities properly so I'll have to cut this short. Once this whole Shade business is done, Maxwell Murker wants to meet you. I'll give you more details later. Don't try and ask me anything unless I approach you first."
"They're always listening."
With that ominous line, Bryan shut up and Arthur had to assume that this Myley woman was now within range. He didn't know what to do, didn't know what to think. Was Bryan telling him the truth? Could he trust him? What's this great danger that's coming to Earth?
Despite his burning curiosity, Arthur maintained his vigil of silence as instructed by the older man and waited as the seconds ticked by. There was nothing he could do right now. He simply didn't have enough information to make an informed decision. Being reactive right now will just blow things out of proportion. Arthur took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tried to calm himself down. It wasn't the end of the world. Whatever the government might want from him, they were fine with giving him extra time. That was the resource he needed more than anything else right now. Enough time that he'd be untouchable by the time they wanted to deal with him.
Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of silence had passed, a young woman, perhaps Myley, came in and requested that Arthur come with her.
When Bryan got up to follow, the woman chimed, "Professor Jhonson only asked for Arthur's presence I'm afraid."
Bryan retook his seat, though reluctantly and Arthur could see the brief frown that flashed across his face that the man quickly hid behind a smile of understanding.
A power play or are they setting something up?
Arthur tried not to let it concern him and nervously followed the woman who set what would have once been considered an extremely brisk pace. Arthur swallowed the questions he wanted to ask when they reached a metal door in just thirty seconds. The journey had been much faster than he'd expected and he didn't even have any time to prepare himself as the woman immediately opened the door without announcing their arrival.
She looked back at him, indicating that he should walk through. Arthur gulped the saliva that had gathered in his throat and entered the old professor's office. The room was quite cramped, but then again, the underground bunker had not been created with comfort in mind. Arthur briefly took in the minimalistic design of the room, before looking at the man sitting behind the desk.
Arthur was surprised to see that it was the same old man that he had met first in the facility. He'd realised that the professor had a high position here but not that he was in fact the man in charge of the entire place. Arthur reminded himself to never judge anything at first glance ever again.
Unsure of what to do, Arthur just stood there, waiting for the professor to speak. He wasn't held in suspense for long and the old man spoke, his voice now lacking its earlier grouchy tone.
"Arthur Ward. I think it's time we see if you're up to snuff. Let's go meet Alyssia."
