The final credits of Starlight Knight: The Last Stand rolled up the screen, accompanied by a soaring, orchestral swell that felt like it was trying to lift the roof off the building. The room was dim, illuminated only by the white text scrolling against the black background and the warm, yellow glow of the streetlights filtering through the blinds.
For a long moment, no one moved. The silence in the loft was heavy, but it wasn't the awkward, stifling silence of strangers. It was a comfortable, shared silence, the kind that settles over a room after a group of people has just witnessed something profound together.
Cedric sat perfectly still, his eyes still fixed on the screen even though the movie was over. The popcorn kernel Wise had fed him was gone, swallowed long ago, but the ghost of its sweetness lingered on his tongue. Inside his chest, something was vibrating. It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation, like a tuning fork that had been struck and was still humming.
'Hope is the star that never burns out.'
The line replayed in his mind, echoing in the cavernous empty space where his cynical worldview used to be. It was just a movie. He knew that. It was actors in rubber suits fighting CGI monsters on a soundstage. But the feeling... the feeling was real. It reminded him of a voice he hadn't heard in years. A rough, smoky voice that used to whisper to him in the dark.
Beside him, Wise shifted slightly. The movement broke the spell. She cleared her throat, a soft sound, and reached for the remote to turn off the projector.
"Well," she said, her voice gentle in the quiet room. "That was... intense."
"Intense?" Belle's voice shattered the atmosphere like a glass dropped on concrete. She leaped up from the sofa, sending a few stray popcorn kernels flying.
"That was epic! Did you see that final slash? The way he combined the Star-Saber with the Plasma Cannon? Boom! Pow! Absolute Cinema!"
She punched the air, her eyes shining with excitement. The sudden burst of energy made Cedric flinch slightly, pulling him back to reality. He looked up at Belle, who was practically vibrating with adrenaline.
"It was... efficient," Cedric murmured, his voice sounding rusty to his own ears. "The tactical decision to target the monster's core was sound."
Belle groaned, throwing her hands up. "Ugh! You and your logic! Can't you just say it was cool? Just once?"
Cedric blinked. "It was... aesthetically pleasing."
"Close enough!" Belle laughed, grabbing the empty popcorn bowl. She shook it upside down. A single, unpopped kernel fell onto the table with a sad plink.
"Tragedy struck. We are out of ammo. I require sustenance. Real sustenance."
She patted her stomach dramatically. "I need grease. I need cheese. I need calories."
Wise smiled, shaking her head. "I thought we agreed popcorn was dinner?"
"That was a lie we told ourselves to feel healthy," Belle declared, marching toward the phone on the side table. "I'm calling it in. The 'Super Cheese Deluxe' from Doppio's Pizza. Who's with me?"
She looked at Cedric. "Hey, Prince. You eat pizza, right? Or do you only consume dew from mountain flowers?"
Cedric looked at her. "I eat pizza."
"Good. Pepperoni or mushroom?"
"Meat," Cedric said simply. "Protein is good."
"My man," Belle grinned, dialing the number. "One large Super Cheese Deluxe with extra pepperoni coming up."
Thirty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Belle practically teleported down the stairs to retrieve the food, and moments later, she returned triumphantly, holding a flat, square cardboard box that radiated heat and the smell of heaven.
The scent of melted mozzarella, spicy pepperoni, and baked dough filled the loft, chasing away the lingering smell of lavender and burnt caramel. It was a heavy, comforting smell.
Belle set the box down on the low table and flipped the lid open. Steam billowed out. The pizza was a masterpiece of grease and glory, the cheese stretching in long, gooey strings as she pulled the first slice free.
"Dig in!" she commanded.
Cedric reached out. His hand hovered over the box. He selected a slice—not the biggest one, but the one closest to him. He picked it up carefully, balancing the drooping tip.
He took a bite. The flavor exploded in his mouth—salty, savory, rich. It was miles better than the instant noodles he had been living on. But as he chewed, his eyes began to dart around.
He looked at Belle, who was devouring her slice with gusto. He looked at Wise, who was eating more delicately, using a napkin to catch a drop of oil.
Old habits, burned into his neural pathways by years of scarcity, flared up.
He unconsciously shifted his body, angling his shoulder to create a barrier between his slice and the others. He ate faster, taking larger bites, his eyes scanning their hands for any sudden movements.
Belle, halfway through her second slice, noticed. Her eyes narrowed playfully. A mischievous glint sparked in her orange irises.
"That piece looks particularly... pepperoni," she drawled, leaning across the table. Her hand snaked out, fingers wiggling, aiming for a slice of pepperoni perched on the edge of Cedric's crust.
"Yoink!"
Voot.
Before her finger could even make contact, Cedric moved. It wasn't a conscious decision. It was pure reflex, honed by the Focus Energy skill and a lifetime of defense.
His hand, holding a plastic fork he hadn't even been using, blurred.
Clack.
He intercepted her wrist mid-air, the tines of the fork gently but firmly pinning her sleeve to the table. The movement was so fast it was almost invisible. One second her hand was moving, the next it was stopped dead, inches from his food.
Belle blinked, staring at her trapped arm. Then she looked up at Cedric. His face was a mask of cold, impassive warning. His purple eyes were flat and hard.
"Mine," he stated.
Belle burst out laughing. She wasn't offended; she was delighted. "Whoa! Chill, chill, I yield!"
She pulled her hand back as Cedric lifted the fork. "Touchy, aren't we?"
Cedric didn't smile. He just pulled his plate slightly closer to him, creating a larger buffer zone.
Wise watched the interaction from her spot on the sofa. She didn't laugh. Her smile faded, replaced by a look of quiet, aching sadness. Without a word, she reached into the pizza box. She selected the two largest slices left—the ones loaded with the most toppings.
She placed them gently onto Cedric's plate, right next to the crust he was guarding.
Cedric froze mid-chew. He looked at the new slices. Then he looked up at Wise, his eyes wide with confusion.
"Eat," Wise said softly, her voice warm and reassuring. "No one is going to take it from you, Cedric. There is plenty. If we run out, we'll just buy more. Okay?"
She pushed the plate closer to him. "Relax. You don't have to fight for it here."
Cedric stared at her. The knot of tension in his stomach loosened, just a little. He looked at the mountain of food on his plate. It was... too much. But it was also... safe.
He nodded slowly. "Okay."
He picked up the next slice. He ate it slower this time. He didn't hunch his shoulders quite as much.
"So," Belle announced, wiping tomato sauce from her lip. "Main course is done. Time for dessert. And by dessert, I mean another movie."
She jumped up and ran to the shelf of discs.
"We did the hero thing. Now we need a palate cleanser. Something spicy. Something that will make you scream."
Wise groaned, pulling a throw pillow onto her lap and hugging it defensively.
"Belle... please. Nothing with ghosts. You know I can't sleep if there are ghosts. Remember the 'Mirror Lady' incident? I taped newspapers over the bathroom mirror for a week."
"Relax, scaredy-cat." Belle grinned, pulling out a case with a lurid, neon-green cover.
"No ghosts. Just science gone wrong. I present to you: 'The Rise of the Carnivorous Bangboos'."
She held it up like a trophy. The cover depicted a cute, round Bangboo with razor-sharp teeth dripping with blood, chasing a screaming woman in a bikini.
"It's a classic B-movie," Belle explained, shoving the disc into the player.
"It's about robots. You know, the animatronics do get a bit quirky at night, eating people, blah blah blah."
Cedric looked at the cover. "Carnivorous... robots? That is illogical. Robots do not consume organic matter for fuel. It is inefficient. They would need a digestive system to convert biomass into energy, which is structurally impossible for a Bangboo chassis."
"That's the spirit!" Belle pointed at him. "Keep that energy. You're going to need it."
The lights dimmed again. The movie began.
It was exactly as Belle described. A beautiful disaster.
The plot revolved around a mad scientist who tried to program Bangboos to eat leftovers to solve world hunger, but—shocker—they developed a taste for human flesh instead.
Within ten minutes, the group of attractive teenagers found themselves trapped in an abandoned factory. The lights flickered. Ominous mechanical noises echoed from the basement.
The male lead, a jock wearing a varsity jacket, turned to the group with a serious expression.
"Listen, we need to find the exit. Jessica and I will check the basement. You guys check the second floor. Alright gang, let's split up and look for clues."
"There it is!" Belle cackled, throwing a piece of popcorn at the screen. "The classic 'Let's Split Up So We Can Die Individually' strategy! Why do they always do this? Are they allergic to survival?"
Cedric sat beside her, arms crossed, nodding with deadly seriousness.
"Terrible tactics," he critiqued dryly. "In an unknown hostile environment, dividing forces reduces survival probability by approximately eighty percent. Furthermore, the basement is a tactical dead end with limited ingress and egress points. He is effectively volunteering for the first casualty slot."
Wise peeked out from behind her pillow, giggling. "You two, leave the movie alone. If they didn't split up, the movie would only be twenty minutes long."
On screen, the jock walked into the dark basement. Three mutated Bangboos jumped him.
"Ahhh!" Wise shrieked, burying her face in Cedric's shoulder. Her hand gripped his sleeve tightly.
Cedric sat still, acting as the designated emotional support post.
Next scene. The female lead was running down a long, well-lit hallway. The floor was flat. There were no obstacles. She looked back, screamed, and then—for absolutely no reason—tripped over nothing and fell flat on her face. Then, instead of standing up, she began to crawl.
"Oh come on!" Belle yelled at the TV. "What did she trip on? Air molecules? Her own bad acting?"
"Vestibular disruption caused by panic," Cedric analyzed, his voice flat. "Or perhaps the friction coefficient of her high heels is incompatible with the polished concrete. However, the decision to crawl is illogical. Standing takes 1.5 seconds. Crawling reduces velocity by 90%. She is waiting for the monster to catch up."
"Stop analyzing it!" Belle laughed so hard she was wheezing, slapping the armrest. "You are such a buzzkill, Cedric! It's a monster movie, not a physics lecture!"
Even Wise burst into laughter, her fear dissipating entirely thanks to Cedric's dry commentary. She relaxed her grip on his sleeve but stayed close.
"Thanks, Cedric. Now it just looks silly instead of scary."
Suddenly, a soft scritch-scratch sound came from the direction of the stairs.
Wise stiffened. "What was that?"
"The monster escaped the TV!" Belle whispered ominously.
A small, round shadow waddled into the room. Its digital eyes glowed green in the semi-darkness.
"Eh-nah?"
It was Eous. The shop's Bangboo assistant, wearing his signature orange scarf. The noise of the movie must have woken him from his charging dock downstairs.
"Oh, it's just Eous," Wise exhaled, relieved.
"Hey, little guy!" Belle waved. "Come over here! We're watching a documentary about your evil cousins. Come take notes on world domination!"
Wise sighed. "Belle, don't corrupt him."
Eous waddled over. He looked around, his sensors blinking. He saw Belle taking up space with the popcorn bowl and Wise hugging a pillow.
Finally, he decided to climb into the small gap between the armrest and Cedric's thigh.
Eous climbed up, rubbed his cool metallic head against Cedric's side, and settled down, watching the screen where the evil Bangboos were growling.
Cedric looked down at the creature beside him.mCedric didn't push him away. Instead, he found the presence of the metal block strangely comforting.
Unconsciously, his hand drifted down, resting lightly on Eous's smooth head. He tapped the metal shell with his knuckle. Clink-clink.
"Good build quality," Cedric murmured approvingly.
Eous let out a happy Beep, leaning harder into Cedric's hand like a mechanical cat seeking warmth it didn't need.
***
The movie ended with the factory exploding (another waste of infrastructure, according to Cedric).
Belle turned on the warm amber lamps, chasing away the shadows.
"Intermission!" She declared. "I need something chewy."
She produced a bag of spicy dried squid from the kitchen.
The three of them sat around the low table. The atmosphere was easy, comfortable.
Cedric shifted on the sofa. The thermos-sized incubator clipped to his belt was digging into his hip. It was uncomfortable to sit with it for so long.
He unbuckled the belt.
It was a heavy, utility-style leather belt he had found in the wardrobe. Attached to it were two metal cylinders.
One was the black Mark-IV Incubator, housing the Pseudo-Legendary egg. The other was the new Water-Incubator, a sleek blue cylinder containing the Water-type egg.
He placed the belt carefully on the far end of the sofa, tucking it behind a pile of cushions so it wouldn't fall.
'Safe.' He thought.
He turned back to the table, reaching for a piece of squid.
"Say, Cedric," Wise asked, tearing a strip of squid. Her tone was casual, but her eyes were attentive. "You said you're starting at New Eridu High in a month, right? Have you gotten your supplies yet? Textbooks? Uniforms?"
Cedric chewed the spicy meat. He paused.
"No." He admitted.
"The curriculum changes every year," Wise said. "Buying used books is risky. And the uniforms are expensive. Do you... need help finding a supplier?"
"I can manage." Cedric lied. " Allowance from relatives."
It was a smooth lie this time.
"Well, if you need help studying, let me know," Wise offered. "I was top of my class in History and Ether Studies. Before... well, before."
"And if you need someone to deal with bullies," Belle chimed in, punching her palm. "Just call 'Big Sister Belle'. I'll show them what a Proxy—I mean, a concerned citizen—can do!"
Cedric looked at them. One offering knowledge. One offering protection.
The warmth in his chest swelled again. It was dangerous. It made him want to stay. It made him want to tell them the truth. Tell them about the eggs.
But he couldn't. Not yet.
"Alright! Before we wrap this up, we need a photo!"
She pulled out an instant Polaroid camera. "To commemorate the day Cedric finally 'molted'!"
Belle pulled Wise and Cedric together, their heads touching.
"Smile!"
Cedric froze. He didn't know how to selfie. He just stared at the lens, wide-eyed and bewildered.
Wise: Tilted her head slightly toward him, smiling serenely. Belle: Winked, flashing a peace sign across Cedric's face.
Click!
The photo printed out with a whir. Belle shook it dry and laughed maniacally. "Look at your face, Cedric! You look like a deer in headlights!"
She tucked the photo into the breast pocket of Cedric's white shirt and patted it.
"Keep it. Proof that you were handsome once. If you wear that black t-shirt again, I'm pasting this on the shop door for comparison!"
Cedric looked down at the edge of the photo peeking out. He didn't take it out immediately, but his hand instinctively moved to cover it, protecting it.
"Okay," he said. "I'll remember."
…
…
…
Eventually, the night wound down. It was getting late.
"I should go," he said. "It is late."
He felt a pang of reluctance. He didn't want to leave the warm, yellow light of the loft. He didn't want to go back to the silent white box. But he had overstayed his welcome.
"I'll walk you out," Wise offered, standing up.
"No," Cedric said quickly. "No need. I know the way. You should rest."
He began to clean up. He gathered the empty soda cans, the popcorn bowls, the trash.
"Cedric, leave it," Wise protested. "We can do it."
"I am a guest. I made a mess," Cedric insisted, putting the cans into the recycling bin with mechanical efficiency. "It is only right."
He finished cleaning, leaving the table spotless. He picked up the leather notebook Wise had given him, holding it like a shield.
"Thank you," he said to both of them. "For the movie. For the food. For... everything."
Wise smiled, her eyes soft. "You're welcome, Cedric. Come back anytime."
"Yeah! Next time we can watch 'Robot Shark vs Giant Octopus'!" Belle yelled.
"Goodnight."
Cedric turned and walked toward the stairs. He descended the metal steps, the sound of his boots echoing.
Clank. Clank.
He walked through the dark shop floor, unlocked the front door, and stepped out into the cool night air of Sixth Street.
He took a deep breath.
Cedric reached for his hip to pat the incubator, a habit he was already forming.
But his hand brushed empty air.
He froze.
His belt loops were empty.
His blood ran cold. The belt.
He had taken it off. He had put it on the sofa. Behind the cushions.
'The eggs.'
Panic, cold and sharp, pierced his chest. He spun around. He grabbed the door handle of Random Play.
"Wait!"
…
…
…
Upstairs, Wise was tidying up the coffee table.
"He's a good kid," she murmured, stacking the bowls. "Quiet. But good."
"He's totally got a crush on you," Belle teased, stretching out on the sofa.
"He does not. He just needs a role model."
Wise picked up the throw pillows to fluff them.
"Oh?"
She frowned. There was something behind the cushion in the corner. Something heavy.
She reached down and pulled it out.
It was a thick leather belt. Attached to it were two metal cylinders. One was sleek and black with red accents. The other was blue and transparent.
"He forgot his..." Wise started to say.
She held the belt up. The weight of the cylinders dragged the leather down, making it awkward to hold.
Her hand slipped.
She fumbled, trying to catch it. Her thumb pressed hard against the back of the black cylinder to get a grip.
Right onto the large, red button.
BEEP-BEEP!
A sharp, electronic warning alarm blared from the device.
Wise froze. "What—"
Zzzzzip! KA-CHUNK!
The cylinder in her hand jerked violently. It began to vibrate, mechanical plates sliding and expanding outward with terrifying speed.
"Ah!"
Startled, Wise dropped the belt.
It hit the wooden floor.
THUD!
The impact triggered the safety release.
The black cylinder didn't just sit there. It exploded outward, unfolding like complex origami. Metal legs shot out and anchored into the floorboards. The main chamber expanded, growing upwards and outwards, hissing as it depressurized.
In less than two seconds, a machine the size of a mini-fridge stood in the middle of the living room.
And because the belt was connected, the blue cylinder was dragged along with it. It hit the floor and activated.
Whoosh!
A second machine, this one filled with swirling blue liquid, expanded next to the first one.
The room was suddenly bathed in a chaotic mix of red and blue light. Steam hissed from the vents of the black machine. Bubbles churned in the blue one.
But it was what was inside that stopped the breath in Wise's throat.
Inside the black machine, behind the reinforced glass, sat a massive egg. It was pale cream, covered in jagged, steel-blue scales that looked sharp enough to cut glass. It was pulsing.
THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!
The heartbeat was so loud it vibrated the coffee table. It wasn't the heartbeat of a bird. It was the heartbeat of a monster.
Inside the blue machine, a smooth, sapphire-colored egg bobbed in the liquid, glowing with an eerie, inner luminescence.
The room fell into a deathly silence.
Belle sat up on the sofa. The piece of dried squid she had been chewing fell from her open mouth. Her orange eyes were wide, staring at the machines.
"What... the... hell... is... that?!" She whispered.
Wise stood frozen. Her hand was still outstretched from where she had dropped the belt.
She looked at the machines. She looked at the eggs.
She could feel the energy radiating from these things. It wasn't Ethereal energy. It was something else. Something raw. Something ancient. It felt like standing next to a sleeping volcano.
This wasn't a toy. This was... life being. Dangerous life begin.
"Cedric..." Wise whispered.
She heard the door downstairs slam open. She heard footsteps pounding up the metal stairs—frantic, desperate.
Cedric burst into the room.
His face was white. Completely bloodless. His chest was heaving. His purple eyes were wide, filled with a terror she had never seen before.
He stopped at the top of the stairs.
He saw the machines. Fully deployed. Glowing. Humming.
He saw Wise and Belle staring at them.
His secret—was sitting in the middle of their living room.
[Well.] The System's voice rang out in his head, dry and sarcastic. [Good luck, 'Prince'. System can't save you from this one.]
Cedric opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Wise turned slowly to look at him. Her teal eyes locked onto his. There was no fear in her gaze, but there was shock. Confusion. And a deep, penetrating concern.
She pointed a trembling finger at the massive, scaled egg that was beating like a drum.
"Cedric," she said, her voice steady but strained. "What... exactly... are they?"