Caelus stumbled out of the sealed off section of the space station. He now knew why Herta sealed it off, seeing as Ruan Mei chose the space for her dangerous experiment.
Crazy.
They were all crazy.
There was no way Herta would've allowed Ruan Mei to run that experiment aboard her space station without giving her permission. Which meant that Herta allowed it.
Herta allowed Ruan Mei to reconstruct the Emanator of Propagation.
The Emanator of Propagation was a universe-wide threat. It took several Aeons to stop the path, along with trillions of lives and several planets. Though this one was a clone, even capturing a sliver of the strength the original had would've plunged the entire station and the nearby planet into extinction.
Even Caelus didn't know if he would've escaped alive after meeting the emanator. Its thick suffocating presence clogged up on his body like thick goo- slowing him down and weakening him as he fought the humongous bug.
It didn't survive for long though. It only lasted a minute before the propagation clone self-destructed. Caelus didn't know why, but he was thankful for it. He wouldn't have held out against the emanator if the fight prolonged itself, much less how much damage it would do to the surroundings and the space station.
Even though the abomination was gone, its effects surely weren't. Caelus could still feel himself drowning in the weird energy that clung on to him during the fight. He didn't know how to get it off him, and looked for the cause of all his problems.
"Doctor-" Caelus looked around to find Dr. Ratio. "-I need your help finding..." He trailed off when he couldn't utter Ruan Mei's name. It looked like her drug was still in his system. He couldn't talk about the Genius Society member without uttering something completely disconnected from her. "...the creator." Caelus waved his hand in the direction of the propagation emanator's last position.
"This...is why you shouldn't accept anything from strangers." The Intelligentsia Guild member sighed while rubbing his temples. "She did something to you didn't she?"
Yes! "No." Caelus nodded his head to counter the answer he didn't intend to give.
"Fortunately for you, I have her location." The statue-headed figure manipulated a small interface in front of him and flashed the screen in his direction. "She's on the same bridge you first met her."
"Do you know how to get this thing off me?" Caelus gestured at his body. "That insect blasted me with something and I can't get rid of this feeling."
"No, and I'm not really here." The Dr. Ratio in front of Caelus glowed blue indicating he was a hologram. "I wasn't going to risk myself going anywhere close near that thing."
His eyes twitched. Did everyone really send him down here alone to clean up after them? At least Dr. Ratio showed up to guide him to the swarm- if that was considered helpful.
"Are you sure you can't give me an idea to get this thing off me?! You can't see it but there's something sticking to me even after the bug disappeared." Caelus asked one last time before he hunted down the Genius Society member responsible for this mess.
"I don't have the tech nor the means to inspect your status outside of the normal parameters. From my side, all your vitals are operating nominally. Whatever that bug did to you, I wouldn't be able to help you with." Dr. Ratio gritted his teeth. Loath was he to admit it, but he didn't have an answer to Caelus's current dilemma. "Your best chance is to ask her."
And with that, Caelus was off. He didn't wait for another word from the Intelligentsia Guild member, too focused on getting rid of the unnatural feeling that soaked his body. Whatever it was, it felt like it was seeping through his body and entering him. All Caelus wanted to do was immediately get rid of it.
It felt unnatural.
Caelus rushed back to the bridge he met Ruan Mei at. Just as Dr. Ratio said, the Genius Society member was there. "You-!" He stomped over to the woman who was the cause of his problem.
"Welcome back, my assistant." Ruan Mei turned around and gave a soft smile. "Congratulations on a job well done."
Caelus scrunched his face at the solemn beauty. "Job well done?! I could've- I would've died down there!" The emanator was beyond his league. Caelus had the blessing of Preservation, but he couldn't pull out its full power at any time. He couldn't even use the Stellaron inside him. So far, it had only appeared during that time his life was in danger when he woke up in the Herta's Space Station.
Ruan Mei tilted her head. "But you didn't. Just as I predicted. The swarm emanator would've destabilized long before you were truly in any danger."
"That's not the point." Caelus ignored the weird feeling his body was undergoing. Whatever the swarm emanator did, he wanted it gone quickly. "My life was in danger because of your experiment. Everyone's lives were in danger if it got out of hand."
"But you were there, no?"
Caelus groaned as the feeling settled at the bottom of his stomach. He wanted the emanator's traces gone. "Nevermind-" He pushed that train of thought out of his mind. "-can you help get that bug's weird energy off me? It's sticking to my body and I don't know how to get it off!"
Ruan Mei glanced down at his body. "Huh, interesting...there were adverse effects?"
"Can you just help me out?!" Caelus struggled. Whatever the feeling inside his body was, it was slowly growing. It wasn't hindering him from moving about, but the sensation was definitely annoying.
"Of course. Come, follow. The equipment should still be in the control room above the incubator area." Ruan Mei started walking back to where Caelus came from. He followed along, pushing down the weird sensation budding inside him. When they got to the control room, Ruan Mei activated the modified equipment and fiddled with them for a little bit. During that time, Caelus was subjected to the growing heat that was pooling inside him.
It was small at first. As Caelus watched her work for a few moments, he began picking up on small details he normally wouldn't. His eyes were drawn to the elegant movements of her dainty hands as they worked on the panel. The way she tilted her head slightly to the side as she considered her next move. The light reflecting off of her silky dark hair as she bent over the console. The gentle tug of her lips in concentration, letting out a small sigh before continuing. The beautiful glow of her skin in the low light of the control room.
Caelus shook his head slightly, trying to clear those thoughts from his mind. What was he doing, thinking like this?
He tried to focus on something else, anything else. But he couldn't seem to tear his gaze away from Ruan Mei's lithe form as she moved around the room, adjusting various settings and running diagnostic tests.
As he watched her work, Caelus felt a strange sensation start to build inside him. A warmth that seemed to spread from his core outward, making his skin tingle and his heart race. It was almost...ravenous? He couldn't tell where the feeling was coming from. All he knew that her presence was slowly drawing something from him.
Ruan Mei finally finished her task, and then stood up straight, dusting off her gloves before looking around at the equipment. "I'll need to run some additional tests to confirm, but it is indeed the remnant power of propagation sticking to you." She said, a hint of satisfaction in her tone.
He wasn't the only one suddenly fidgeting. Ruan Mei picked up on it far faster than he did. The moment he appeared in front of her, the genius could immediately tell that something was off. She didn't pinpoint it until Caelus mentioned the Emanator of Propagation's energy sticking to his body. Ruan Mei could feel the energy seeping off of him, and it was affecting her.
She caught herself glancing at him as Caelus watched her work, suddenly in a good mood knowing his attention was on her. Her logical mind started analyzing him, cataloging his condition, scoring his attraction rating based on the population standard, and coming to the consensus that he was indeed better than the average specimen.
Her gaze lingered on the subtle curves of his face, so delicate they seemed almost chiseled from stone. That nose is sharp, she thought, and so are those eyes. They're a peculiar shade of yellow-gold, not unlike those of stars. There's something about them that makes her want to stare into them. His hair was silver-gray, and his attire was casual- fitting for his easygoing attitude. Her eyes took in all these details, her mind quickly processing them into a more detailed picture of who Caelus was.
"Caelus...do you feel the power affecting you?" Ruan Mei asked. It was clearly affecting her and she wanted to record the experience of both parties. There was a slowly simmering warmth inside her that was bubbling at his presence.