He yawned as he woke, only to jerk aside as a fork whistled past his head.
THACK!
He stared at the fork embedded in the wooden stairs, and his first thought wasn't why or how it had happened, but whether he could reasonably chalk the projectile up to coincidence.
If so, then his bad luck was flaring again, because Cosmo could already tell the source was the dining table.
And even when he stood to get a better look, he couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
"Could you stop hoarding all the tartar sauce?! This is the third time I've had to reach over!"
"What are you talking about?! You've been holding it like your life depended on it"
"Come on, you two. You can't keep getting physical over the food. Mama Maria's already making more–"
THACK!
A dinner knife stabbed straight through the wooden table, stopping a hand that had been reaching for the plate in the center.
"Tyson… what exactly do you think you're doing?"
"I could ask you the same thing, Blue. Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like you just tried to stab my hand."
"This is the last of the chicken parm. You're not getting this too after inhaling all the roasted ones."
"But you said it yourself, Mama Maria's bringing more."
"…"
"…"
CRASH!
It looked less like a meal and more like a battlefield.
As if they were a litter of half-starved kittens who had never seen a full plate in their lives.
Clarisse, Argenta, and Rita had wisely retreated after filling their plates, leaving the four troublemakers in the middle to tear into each other as if the months they'd spent supporting one another meant nothing.
And as their utensils became weapons of war, the origin of the flying fork became painfully obvious.
"Who are these savages, and what have they done to my kids?" Cosmo muttered.
"To be fair, this is your fault."
A voice behind him made him step aside.
Oliver had just resurfaced from the lab below. Like the others, he was freshly changed and clean, leaving Cosmo as the only one who looked like a wandering delinquent.
"You banned familiar meals on the field," Oliver said. "Don't act surprised when they revert to animals."
"Well, since they weren't attached to anything concrete, that was the best way I could motivate an officer to come home. The more reasons they find to live out there, the better." Cosmo replied. "I see you're already back at work. Why am I not surprised?"
"Yeah, I like staying ahead," Oliver said. "And you. Are you as disappointed as I am that you didn't die in your sleep?"
"My head was in the perfect position on those stairs. I'd be shocked if you weren't at least tempted to play hopscotch."
"If your neck were that flimsy, that oversized head of yours would've fallen off years ago."
They laughed, something they only ever did after grim jokes like that.
"She looks happy," Oliver noted as they watched Mama Maria humming in the kitchen, darting back and forth with impossible speed.
It was baffling how anyone could put in so much effort, especially considering the spread looked like a world tour condensed into a single table.
"I bet. It's been too long since this place was this rowdy."
"It was this crazy back then?"
"Right, I keep forgetting you weren't always here," Cosmo said. "Yeah, it was worse. This table wouldn't be standing upright, it'd be smashed to splinters. The whole place would smell like alcohol, and Mama Maria would be twisting ears left and right."
"Sounds like one hell of a party."
"Tell me about it. Anyway, what were you up to? You look… oddly energized."
Oliver didn't look any different on the surface. Which made him frown at the accusation.
"You're imagining things," he said. "Sure, the Sector of Research and Advancement asked me for a presentation about my makeshift portal. But that's hardly enough to get me excited"
"You mean you didn't follow the blueprint?"
"I couldn't help myself. Ignoring an optimization opportunity goes against my principles. The standard Veil portal is outdated, and its energy consumption is atrocious. The runoff was manageable, so I decided to fix it."
Cosmo sighed.
"Look, keeping attention off yourself was always your choice, so it's not my problem. But I hope you didn't accidentally reveal the power source."
"Of course not. I left the broken pocket intact and made it look like it barely worked one last time by sheer luck."
"It might just show how dire the situation with the Borderlands really is."
"True. And we still don't have confirmation on whether Hortusole is as compatible with the Ra'Pertians as BR‑N1 would've been. They might even ask us to clear that up next."
"Hm?!"
Blue tried to exclaim with her mouth full while Yon choked beside her.
The others looked equally concerned.
"You mean we'd have to go through all that again?!"
"What kind of bullsh*t assignment is this?! They can't just dump that on us!" Yon barked.
"Calm down. It's only a possibility."
"A high one," Red countered. "You said yesterday Hortusole turned out to be so far from our original target that its signature was completely different. The chances of it being compatible with those people are slim to none."
"Ah… well, you got me there," Cosmo admitted with an awkward chuckle.
"Well, it's not all bad," Blue said, despite letting another groan slip. "You made each day different from the last, that's for sure. So I guess it won't be too boring."
"There's the optimism I was looking for."
"One thing still sucks, though." She cut straight through Cosmo's attempt to lighten the mood. "Not being able to take a simple bath or shower, or even change, was a huge letdown."
"Is that so? I didn't think it bothered you that much, since none of you bothered to switch things up." Cosmo replied blankly.
"Huh?"
"Hm?"
"…"
"…"
"What do you mean?" Blue asked, eyes narrowing.
"Well, your uniforms," he said. "You had access to semi‑intelligent, color‑changing scales that could mimic vivid images of whatever you wanted to wear. I just wondered why you all stuck to a simple jacket and called it a day. Don't tell me you were copying me this whole time?"
"…"
Three of them looked ready to vomit.
In truth, Cosmo had been the first to properly assimilate with the scales and create a uniform suited to him.
Clarisse had gone next, mimicking him, but tweaking the design to be more feminine.
With those two as the base, the recruits assumed that was the standard Nebula attire.
Tyson, who knew better, didn't care enough to experiment and followed the other male recruits.
Blue and Rita, the latter not caring much, followed Clarisse's judgment, leaving them completely unaware of the scales' full potential.
"Wait, really? No way." Cosmo laughed as the realization sank in. "Seriously, my choice was just to fit my combat style. What kind of idiot officer would call it a day after such a simple–"
WHAM!
He was admittedly startled when Blue slapped the table and shot to her feet.
Without a word, she stormed toward the living room.
"Where are you going?"
"Nowhere."
Even as she said it, she was clearly headed for the laboratory downstairs where they had left the vessels containing their uniforms, unable to wait even a second to confirm the discovery.
But before she could open the door, she froze.
In the corner of her eye, she saw someone sitting alone on the couch.
Someone she had never seen before.
And yet that wasn't the strangest part.
It was as if the room's light dimmed around him, highlighting the man with neat, golden‑blond hair.
He wore a simple white shirt and black pants, but his presence gleamed as though he were adorned in the finest clothing.
If she had to describe it, he was the antithesis of a shadowbeast.
Where shadowbeasts corrupted one's sight like living blotches due to their dark matter, this man seemed impossible to ignore because the world was his canvas.
She was the type who easily spoke her mind, so it couldn't be helped that she'd blurt out the first word that came to her.
"Beautiful…"
Only then did the man acknowledge her, turning from whatever deep thought he'd been lost in.
He smiled at the compliment she hadn't meant to voice.
"While I don't know what warrants such praise for someone so unworthy," he said gently, "I'm grateful nonetheless."
"Ah–"
Blue slapped a hand over her mouth as her awareness snapped back. No sooner had a bandaged hand settled on her shoulder from behind.
"Go ahead," Cosmo said. "I'll handle our guest."
She nodded and slipped into the lab, leaving the two alone.
Cosmo turned to the uninvited visitor. He, despite his casual attire, seemed utterly unaware of how out of place he appeared.
"You should've told me you were coming," Cosmo said with an innocent smile. "I would've remembered to revoke your access to the base permanently."
"Oh? So ignoring my presence this whole time wasn't enough?"
"My apologies. Flies are everywhere these days. Hard to tell which one's buzzing so desperately for attention that I'd have to skip breakfast."
"That's quite alright. Growing children must eat when they can. You always did have a big appetite, so it's no surprise. Go on then, I can wait while you satiate your hunger."
Cosmo rolled his eyes and sighed.
Truthfully, he had no reason for the farce beyond simple irritation and the frustrating memories tied to the man who had never stopped treating him like a troublesome child.
"What do you want, Lucien?" he asked the Head Captain reluctantly.