⛭ Chapter 7 ⛭

Waking up with a throbbing head from the recent nightmare she had, Chelbie went to the bathroom to clear out her thoughts. As she checked the time on her phone, a panicked expression crossed her face.

It was 10:10 AM.

“Shit! Why do I always wake up late for important dates?!”

Contemplating even further why she didn’t set an alarm, Chelbie rushed downstairs only to find Hisa playing with Snowflake (Styra’s shirokei) on the couch.

“Everyone left that fast?” asked Chelbie who was staring in awe at the nearly empty living room as Jingle and Chime (Cherry’s black cats) nudged up next to her.

“Yes. Cherry packed your breakfast and lunch in the refrigerator. The lengths she goes to keep it full astonishes me honestly,” replied Hisa.

Chelbie’s sarcasm crept into the conversation as she looked behind herself in amusement.

“Ya don’t say…”

“Oh yes, Chelbie! I was told to give you this new pair of fingerless gloves you always like to wear after your old ones broke. Another gift from Styra and her friends.”

Hisa handed Chelbie the new gloves which had every single feature of the original. However, only a LED light and one specific set of red buttons on the left glove stuck out to her.

Upon asking what their functions were, Hisa explained that they were capable of allowing her to create items from scratch by using the Surreality Shard’s power levels inside her prosthetic legs and transferring it over to the gloves.

“Please use them sparingly. You can access three different modes for emergency situations. It scales items at the maximum of equal length, width, and height, although its variables can be adjusted. The first button makes objects up to an inch in size, the second is for up to four feet, and then the last hits the maximum at seven meters. To use it, form your hand gesture into a two and point it towards an area where you want it to spawn.”

Hearing all of this made Chelbie mentally hyperactive with excitement. This meant she was going to be able to create any vehicle she wanted from scratch with ease.

“Alright, thanks! Got the memo. Now let’s see how we use these bad boys…”

Aiming straight for the living room table which was half the size of the red couch they were sitting on, she pressed the first button and stuck out her two fingers as instructed.

The moment this happened, a mechanical extension made to shoot out the shard’s energy clipped open. It created a strong orange light that shot at the table like a low-level laser without burning the surface.

Thinking about what she wanted to make, Chelbie decided to make a copy of one of her chili pepper pins.

However, there was an unusual problem.

“Uhh… Hisa? Nothing is happening.”

As Chelbie retracted the power from her glove, Hisa took a look at it and adjusted its size to fit her own hand so she could test it.

When she tried it whilst using the second button instead, the power linked through Hisa’s eyes and allowed her to shoot out a special purple leather jumpsuit that had yellow stripes decorating the knees, waist, and cuffs of her short sleeves. A small moon badge was also pinned on the left side of the chest area.

“Okay, I think I know what the problem is. You need to think of the object you’ll make before you use it. Once you press that button, the creation process begins.”

Seeing her mistake, Chelbie tried them on again and used the knowledge previously established to finally create the pin.

After accomplishing this task, the two of them got their stuff together and headed outdoors on such a bright morning to visit the Auxom Space Station.

Chelbie put all of her things that she needed inside of a custom-made backpack with an image pattern featuring yellow and black arrows while Hisa brought her violet purse along for the ride. Looking both ways, the streets and sidewalks were pretty clear for Chelbie to create a racing vehicle that she would need in order to get there.

Pressing the third button on her glove and lifting up her two fingers, the Flamethrottle Fury spawned into thin air.

“Wow, you’re really getting the hang of it Chelbs. I’m impressed,” complimented Hisa.

“What can I say? Blazin’ is my style,” said Chelbie as they entered into the vehicle and drove off to their first destination.

By the time they arrived, Chelbie was directed by security into the station’s parking area where the huge space pod was located. There, the cargo lift was already open, showing all of the vehicles from Animearth and other worlds being packed inside.

Once the monster truck was fully locked in place, Hisa and Chelbie walked towards the entrance of the pod’s carrier while marveling in awe at the sight of this futuristic spacecraft.

“Okay! That is the biggest vehicle carrier I’ve ever seen! I wonder how much that thing weighs…”

“Exactly 4,157,278 pounds but it does have a limited weight capacity of five million,” stated a mysteriously mechanical voice.

Searching around for where it came from, Chelbie and Hisa were met face-to-face with a small flying robot. Its white metal coating surrounded its round head, body, and specially designed wings that stretched down. However, its eyes, power source, and propulsion exhaust all emanated a minty green glow.

“Thanks for the answer, but who are you supposed to be?” asked Chelbie.

“I am Drift. A Gizmech-151 model type that has been hand-selected to assist and inform you of all your travel needs aboard the Daylight Space Carrier.”

“Ahhh… So you’re like Xank, my truck’s AI assistant, except you know a way lot more about this place. Neat. In that case, can you tell us where we can sit?”

“Sure, follow me to the passenger room. Liftoff begins in 7 minutes. Remember to fasten your seatbe—“

Chelbie quickly interrupted the bot, running ahead of it as she was beginning to get impatient.

“Thanks, but you can just lead us there as fast as possible. We know all about space travellin’ if you know what I mean, right Hisa?”

“Oh yes, definitely. You are a cute little fella though. Matter of fac—”

Laughing off the entire conversation with sarcasm, Chelbie fiddled around with the straps in an effort to soothe how much she wanted to move faster.

And that was despite the fact that they were already moving at a snail’s speed to even get to the passenger seats from her perspective.

“Haha, great stuff! Now can we jack up the pace before the time runs short?”

“Hang in there Chelbie. Sorry for the unusual behavior, Drift. She gets really excited about these kinds of trips,” said Hisa.

“No need to apologize madam. This is the last world this carrier will be making a stop to before we course-correct its destination back to Revv. Your relative is emitting emotional responses that are normal for a human of her age experiencing new spectacles.”

“That is the most ‘Drift’ thing you’ve ever said,” remarked Chelbie in an unamused manner as they finally walked into the passenger lounge.