Age of Space

Following the calendar of old, in the year 1889 Anno Domini, in the German city of Freiburg, there was an attempt to distill the organosulfur compound, Thioacetone. This attempt was followed by instances of nausea, vomiting and unconsciousness from over 700 meters away from the laboratory due to the smell released during the distillation process. From the few remaining witness testimonies still available on record, one word resonates more than any others. Unanimously, every single individual who has come in contact with the smell, has described it as... Fearful. Later records indicate that many attempts have been made in order to protect researchers from the smell, but those willing and able to deal with the chemical, quickly found themselves cast out from social circles due to how badly anyone around them reacted to the remnant odor. - Unknown historian, Compendium on olfactory terrorism.

Ronin exited the VR chamber. Playing with no pain limiter had not only helped get rid of the insidious energy from the alien artifact, it also helped him learn quicker. He was now winning over 90% of his matches and was steadily making his way towards the silver league.

The funny thing was, he wasn’t even trying to win. His main focus was still on learning how to fight, copying the moves and style of every opponent as he fought.

Feeling good, he immediately did some Kalvrakian Embrace stances, pushing his body as his breath harmonized with his being.

Mmmm, I can get used to this, he thought as he smoothly pushed himself from one stance to another.

He felt some strain during the 8th stance, but it wasn’t much.

He could do it.

In his mind's eye, plants began growing up from the ground and the fragrance of nature tickled his nose as he reached towards the end of the 8th stance, then pushing further, he finally locked in the 9th.

Ah, there we go. I've been waiting for this!

He closed his eyes, waiting for the old familiar rush of power that always followed each new stance, but it didn’t come…

“Eh? what!?” He scrunched his nose in annoyance. “Well, that's a bummer!” He spoke aloud, alone in the huge open factory.

But some things did happen to his body...

Instead of experiencing an increase in visual clarity, there was now the every now and again abrupt muscle twitch, ruining his work on the spaceship assembler.

Where there was supposed to be an increase in strength, there was now instead, the odd loud joint pop whenever he exerted himself.

Nevertheless, he had work to do. There was a party waiting for him later today after all. Not only was Simons coming, but he’d also invited Uncle Nagata as well as the Tulsi family he'd sort of forcibly dragged out of the slums.

Even Speck was coming!

After Speck had so graciously offered a glass of water a couple of months back as Ronin was making his way towards Nagata, Ronin figured that inviting him to dinner was the least he could do.

He quickly burned through the mandatory homework for each of the courses, then once again tried working the assembler.

He did get some work done, at least the engine in the Hemsway-D8 seemed to function properly now, but damn, the joint popping and muscle twitching did not make it easy.

He checked the time... If he left right now, he should be able to just about make it to the Happy Pearl restaurant before his reservation period began. Yeah, time for the company to finally do some team building!

“...”

“Caramelized unitarian Lion from the edge of Lobar, served with Hegelian bruschetta and deep-fried onions.” The waiter graciously said as he served the latest dish. It was not the first and certainly not the last dish they would eat tonight.

As his glass was refilled with wine, locally brewed from planet Hartheim, Speck continued on, in the middle of a story:

“But, honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you’d joined the space force academy buddy.”

Simon's eyebrows rose in surprise.

Speck, noticing Simons' reaction, followed up:

“What? You really didn't know!? Listen, back in the day, I think Ronin was about 15 at the time, I saw him jump 4 meters ahead and 5 meters down to reach a construction pole, which he then, mid fall, promptly used to slide down another 15 meters before reaching the ground. You were part of that… what do you call it?”

“Parkour group,” Ronin finished.

“Yeah, but still, that jump was so scary even those guys didn’t do it. Ronin was a maniac back in the day, so when I heard he’d joined the academy as a designer?! Let's just say I was a little shocked to say the least... I was sure he'd become a stuntman or join up with the planetary guard or something, but the ISFA? No way!”

"I had no idea, he rarely shows up for class, but his work is always on point. Still, that's sounds insane, I remember back when I was 15, my father barely even let me out of the house," Simons said, eyes wide.

“Mr. still jumps from a lot of places. He jumped down to fight the ruddles,” Scrabby helpfully added.

“Nephew, you only did those sorts of things because of all that negative energy building up inside of you, you need to free your mind more often,” Uncle Nagata followed up.

“Enough! I already know what "mind-freeing" alternatives you’re thinking about. I'm never doing that again!” Ronin barked back at his uncle.

He was never taking atom spice again. Ever.

“By the way,” Simons commented, taking a sip of wine. “Why are you wearing a power suit in the middle of a fancy restaurant?”

“Got a bounty,” Ronin grumbled back.

Speck's eyes lit up. “Bounty!? Look at that, he’s all grown up and I wasn't even there to see it.”

“Shut it! It's a big bounty, ok?” Ronin sullenly bit back, taking a big swig of wine.

“Anyways, you said the suit had something called a dance routine?” Nagata asked mischievously.

“Dance routine? Like a victory dance after the hero wins!?” Little Scrabby followed up, his eyes sparkling.

“No no-” Ronin began, but before he could gain any momentum, the whole table was chanting for him to dance.

Even the newly angelic voice of Simons joined into the chorus.

“Dance, dance, dance!”

As the group began hammering the table in sync, Ronin, realizing he might have gotten a little too tipsy from all the wine, finally gave in.

“Alright, alright! But only one dance, ok? I’ve never actually tried this before so bear with me here.”

Internally shaking his head, he got up and walked a little off to the side, receiving strange glances from the guests at the other tables.

Using his Uninet-2000, he pulled up the dance list from his suit, inspecting the various programs.

Let's see… “Mr. Me, I’m the machine” sounds a little too corny, “Smooth spinner” should probably be left for when I'm sober… Oh, here, this one sounds alright.

Bracing himself for whatever was to come, he activated the program called “Medley” and regretted it immediately after.

The Heromaker suit began playing loud sensual music in the middle of the restaurant as a soft male voice began singing:

“I’m juicy, I’m candy, I’m a sexy beast, and I feel dandy,”

The suit, now moving on its own, following a preset program, began thrusting its hips back and forth, the golden codpiece jingling a little with each thrust.

Oh no! I need to end this now! Ronin thought, frantically trying to shut down the dance routine as fast as possible.

Every single person he’d invited to the party was laughing hysterically.

“Do you want the golden? The smoothy gold?-“ The soft male voice sang before it was finally cut off as Ronin found the “forced shutdown” button.

Many of the other guests at the restaurant were also laughing at this point. He even saw one of the waiters chuckling.

He cursed, that damn codpiece had to go, it simply looked ridiculous! And what was with these dance programs?

“You sure you don’t have another dance you could try? I was just starting to enjoy this,” Elsa said.

“Void, you too?” Ronin said in exasperation as he made his way back to the table.

“…”

The buffet continued on as jokes were made and new exotic foods were eaten.

It was then, just after the 3rd dish following the unitarian lion, that Ronin noticed something being terribly wrong.

His joints had kept popping and his limbs twitching the entire day.

He’d been able to mask the twitching with the power armor, but now? It had all just suddenly stopped. Whatever was happening to him however, had not stopped.

Replacing the twitching and popping, was now an uncomfortable feeling surrounding his abdomen. His stomach began desperately churning and grumbling, promising an ominous trip to the toilet.

Ronin knew he couldn’t stay and quickly excused himself from the table, rushing quickly towards the nearest lavatory.

He quickly locked the door behind him as he exited the suit.

After sitting himself down on the toilet and powerful cramps began rocketing his body, he couldn’t help but wonder:

Why did everything become so different after the 9th stance? Don’t tell me!?

He accessed his mental palace, pulling up the information on what he feared might be happening.

Kalvrakian embrace: With every 8th small step, the warrior reaches the bounds of mortality and in order to proceed, sheds his mortality, structuring his body closer to the image of gods.

Was this it? Was he shedding his mortality?

Ronin's body violently jerked as he began sweating, apparently there would be A LOT of mortality to shed today.

Nagata Maximus was having the time of his life when he received the message. His latest hacking escapades, as well as not knowing whether his nephew was alive or dead, had left him with bad sleep for over a month. But Ronin was out of Exodon now and all was well, not to mention the food here, which was simply amazing.

He looked over the message:

[The money I’ve sent should pay for the buffet. Pay the waiter, then take everyone with you and leave immediately - Ronin]

Frowning at the cryptic message, he sent a few new messages back and forth with the kid, but most of what he got back was elusive statements on how there was no danger, but that they had to leave the restaurant fast for some reason.

Grumbling at his unreliable nephew, Nagata made up some excuse, and after a lot of cajoling, was finally able to bring everyone along into the elevator, then outside where he hailed and paid for the shuttles that would bring them home.

Shortly after Nagata and the rest of the gang left, a man, fully clad in a Heromaker suit was spotted hastily leaving the premises, hailing a shuttle himself as well, though there had seemed to be a lot of arguing with the shuttle driver before he was finally let inside the ship.

Scrunching his nose, one of the Happy Pearl waiters walked over to one of the restrooms.

What was that smell? It was very faint, but still, it was absolutely horrendous. He gently pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

Putting his back into it, he pushed hard and with a POP! the door snapped open, and the waiter fell unconscious…

The soft background music in the restaurant suddenly got interrupted when the sound of a man falling over rang out, causing several guests to perk up in confusion.

The confusion over the sound didn’t last long however, as the smell, which had been too weak to notice before, began rising in intensity.

“What's this foul odor!? It smells like something died!” One of the female guests shouted.

“I’m sorry miss we’re looking into-Uagh!” Before the waiter could finish, he jerked into a violent gag reflex.

The sound of the unwilling gagging rang out as a siren's call as multiple people, all over the restaurant, also began gagging.

“What sort of customer service is this?!” One man shouted. “This is the most horrible thing I've ever!-” Before he could finish, the blue-finned Calamara with Lacroxian caviar ended up back on the same table he’d just eaten from, prompting the rest of the people sitting there to also start emptying their stomachs.

As the pandemonium continued ramping up, an iron blooded soldier in civilian clothing made a snap decision, bolting for the elevator. He’d seen dead men before, smelled the stench of rotting humans as they’d lain for days to fester in the sun. But this... this was worse, he had to get out of here, no matter what!

“Ooh Void! the smell! The smell!” A voice cried out as people all over the restaurant continued passing out. The soldier entered the elevator and pressed whatever button his hand reached first.

The elevator door began closing just as others started making their way towards him, desperately trying to get out as well.

Fortunately, the door closed before they reached him, and he soon reached a lingerie clothing store a couple of floors above.

Exiting the elevator, the soldier quickly ran deep into the store, seeking shelter.

The particles emanating the foul odor, had, however, followed along the soldier into the elevator. And when the elevator door opened, these particles had begun spreading across the new floor.

The prim and proper customers, gallivanting along the aisles, elegantly perusing the merchandise, quickly noticed that something was wrong. And as the odor began conquering the new floor, it became clear that if anything, the dilution of the smell only made the smell worse, not better.

“Help! Help! We need the planetary guard!” One of the shoppers screamed as she started running around hysterically, desperately trying to flee the smell.

This scene repeated itself many times as the few guests still conscious, continued escaping from the Happy Pearl restaurant.

Floor by floor, people panicked as more and more people started falling over, unconscious. Before long, be it by elevator, or through the skyscrapers ventilation system, the smell filled the entire building and began breaking out and onto the streets.

In a matter of minutes, the odor had spread far beyond the skyscraper, covering the nearby buildings, be it shopping centers, Ironglades banking services or hotels, the smell didn’t stop before reaching out kilometers away from its origin point.

But though the odor may have halted its spread along the upper districts, that was not the case further down. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that day, there was a consistent breeze moving air persistently down from the upper districts, into the lower ones, spreading the panic even further.

As shuttles began crashing and the local area ground to a halt, the planetary guard arrived…

Their arrival was, however, short lived, as they quickly left again, traveling back towards the guard station in order to gather more gas masks.