An unwanted visit [Idés and Melody]

Idés hadn’t slept much that night. There was too much to be done and he had stayed until well past midnight, just to get his bearings off it all. And even then, he hadn’t been able to find much rest. His thoughts kept returning to the unstable Zeal back at the lab and what this could possibly mean for his future research. Needless to say, he was already exhausted before the day had even begun.

He had gone to the archives first thing that meant and got his bearings on what could be useful to him - and how much was available within legal means. He would return later that night to get the classified papers. He had created that laid openly on his desk, next to the papers he had been engrossed in for most of the night and a half-empty pot of coffee.

He had returned with an assortment of blueprints of different Zeal-powered contraptions that could be useful in harvesting power from the Zeal without having to interact directly with it. Everything had interest, from high-tech and deeply impractical weapons, to fridges that would text you grocery lists once a day. They laid spread out over his work-table, along with pieces of paper filled with scribbly and nearly illegible notes. The EZPEC was busy at work too to replace the broken Zeals he had meant to provide for EFA. Once that was out of the way, he could start his attempt at recreating the orb of interest. If he managed to do that, he would be able to start building a container for the orbs and perhaps start testing its capabilities. Everything was slowly starting to take shape and Idés was thrilled at the possibilities ahead of him.

He now stood, hunched over the work-table with his brows furrowed in deep concentration as he closely studied the blueprint of a handheld, Zeal-powered gun. The machinery had never been built according to the note on the margins, but it had the potential to handle the sort of energy output that would undoubtedly happen when the Zeal was put to proper use.

He adjusted his reading glasses as he leaned in closer, trying to get his holding on what pieces would be needed to construct such a device. It was going to be tricky - he was no mechanical engineer and the parts would need to be custom made, which he would have to do on his own as such an order would without a doubt be suspicious. It however was the only piece of technology that seemed fitting for its intended use.

He started constructing a list of the raw materials he was going to need - part of him proud that he maybe for once had an actual important task for Gwyn to do the next time she stopped by.

Finally something was happening. The last week it had been nothing but questioning after questioning and with no real answers. No one had seen anything. No one knew anything. Either the crown prince had been murdered by a ghost or someone was lying. Melody believed the latter. So did the rest of the Godia Warriors. And they may just have found the liar.

Idés Lynn Chapmann, Professor in Energic Engineering. Apparently well-respected within his field, but he had also faced quite some criticism for some of his more controversial papers, those being one of the main reasons for the Godia Warriors suspicion towards him. Add a record of engaging with some more shady types in his youth and the fact that his student helper was Gwyndolyn Auden, the student whom the Godia Warriors suspect of being a Nachon Warlock in hiding - then the professor was a fairly decent possible accomplice. Always the academician, Melody thought.

They hadn't warn him or his workplace of their plan. They didn't need to and it was always best not to do so. If they had the opportunity to catch him red-handed, they would do it. The group were five Godia Warriors, Melody just being part of them. The leader of the group was General Decker, a tough man in his 40's, and he was leading the group with a bit of a haste, considering they were in no rush. But that wasn't unusual for the Godia Warriors with all of them being pumped full of restless energy, making any slow motion absolute torture. Melody followed him with the same speed, a faint smile on her lips, excited that they might finally get some answers.

They had entered the building, but it wasn't possible for them to simply enter the lab by themselves since none of them had a keycard. But that was alright - they knew Idés was in there and no matter what he tried to hide in there they would find it. He had nowhere to run to.

General Decker leaned forward towards to door phone, pushing down the button to let his voice go through to the speakers in the lab.
"Professor Chapmann," he said as a greeting with his strict, rough voice, "This is General Decker of the Godia Warriors, Sector 45. We have reasons to ask you some questions regarding the murder of former crown prince Theodore Armani of Ilomar. Please open the door or we will have to force it open."
Melody loved hearing her general speak. His voice demanded respect. She nodded along to his words, arms crossed in a relaxed manner, her index finger tapping away on her arm. She was ready to do this.

Ice shot through Idés' veins at the announcement. His eyes darted over the papers in front of him. The timing really couldn’t be worse, this just screamed criminal. He could jump out through the window and run for it – but that was only sealing his fate as someone who definitely knew something. It was a general out there too – not just your run of the mill officer. He had somewhat known this would happen, but somehow it still came as a shock. Was he trembling?

Then he straightened his back, taking a deep breath to compose himself. He removed his reading glasses and placed them on the center of the work table as he thought up a game plan.

He was as an academic with the necessary dispensation to study these papers – he had only gone the less bureaucratic road of taking things into his own hands, instead of waiting months for approval. That was a finable offense at the most and something that was dealt with internally and certainly not ground for arrest. He hoped. Then, he had an alibi, he had been in the lab late the night of the murder and had then gone straight back to his apartment. Security cameras would be able to confirm that much. They couldn’t take him down on his articles and papers alone, unless they wanted to shatter the last remaining illusion of their freedom to publish such things. That would no doubt not be in their interest. Then there were the more unsavory parts of his teens that he knew were on a record somewhere. He frowned at the memory. A friend of his had been caught and it was only because of his lies that Idés was a free man to this day. His friend had been older than him, Idés barely 15. The sacrifice certainly wouldn’t go to waste, especially now that he had finally made something of himself.

It was with that in mind that Idés had the confidence to move from his work table over to the buzzer that would open the sliding doors. He took one last composing breath to stop the trembling of his hands before letting the Godia inside.

“Good morning. All of you,” he spoke. There were five of them. This was bad. Inconceivably bad. But he held his posture and kept his game plan in mind. Then he nodded in the direction of the leader. “General. To what do I owe the pleasure? I’m not in trouble, am I?” He added the last part in a joking tone. Nonchalant and relaxed. The eccentric and aloof professor rather than the outspoken critic. He had to not let his anxiety show too much.

As soon as Idés unlocked the door for them, the Warriors marched in, Generel Decker leading them. Melody eyed the professor up and down. Just as she expected he would look from reading his files. She already disliked him, even with his charming greeting. The Warriors didn't greet him except for General Decker who reached his strong hand towards him, wanting to shake his.
"Well, we'll have to see about that," he answered him while doing so, also in a joking tone but with an added condescending layer as if he was talking down to him.
Melody suppressed her smile - she loved watching her boss work. He always had this mix of charm, authority and roughness to him. She did think of herself as a younger version of him. But right now she was just his soldier and as the other Warriors, she just started looking through the lab without saying anything. The others started looking through the shelfs and cabinets, not being gentle at all while pulling all the materials out. Melody joined them, looking at the papers on the table.
While they were doing that, General Decker kept his eyes on the professor.
"So, Professor, as you might have detected, we're curious to see what you've been working on here in this lab," he said to him, "So while my Warriors are taking a look around, why don't you answer some questions?"
He began questioning him, asking about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, asking about his Warlock status, asking about his work and even daring to ask him about his student helper Gwyndolyn, to which he said: "You might have heard that we've questioned your student helper as well. Might wanna share your relation to her. How long has she been working for you?". Melody listened to the responds while she and the crew looked through the lab, hoping to find the clues, they were looking for.

“Alright, “ he agreed, shaking his hand. There was something infuriating by the man's condescension, but he best not to let it show. Idés simply started answering whatever questions he had. Though he greatly disliked them being here – seeing Godia warriors tear his lab apart naturally made his skin crawl – it was better to cooperate and not raise suspicion.

His hands rested in his pockets and he leaned against his work desk in a relaxed posture. But his eyes betrayed his anxiety as they constantly darted to the searching soldiers. He comforted himself with the fact that the unstable Zeal was stored in a safe only he knew the code to. An accident due to improper handling would certainly reflect quite badly on his innocence – not to mention probably destroy the Zeal itself. Most other things in his lab were mostly mendable, this one Zeal wouldn’t be.

He paused briefly at the question about his student helper. “Gwyn? Well, uh, let’s see, she started working here at the start of her first semester. That must be around late September or early October last year, I don’t remember when exactly,” he spoke, shifting and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “She helps out in the lab a couple of times a week. That’s all.”

It struck him as odd that they would ask about that. She had to be off the radar in terms of the murder – one look at the girl would tell you she wouldn’t be capable of such brutality. What could she possibly have said in the interview that even made her appear on their radar?

General Decker hold his eyes on the professor, squinting ever so lightly over his questions as to not wanting to reveal whether he trusted him or not. It didn't help that the professor didn't keep his eyes on him but followed along as Melody and the others looked through the lab.
General Decker smirked. "That's all," he repeated, slowly, almost mockingly, "And what do you do here in your laboratory?" The last word came out almost loathsome. As if the word left a sour taste in his mouth. "Anything you'd like to show us? 'cause I'm all in for a show-and-tell."
During their talk, the Warriors fidgeted with the Zeals in Chapmann's lab. It was clear that it wasn't items they were used to. As the sector concerning Royal Safety, Sector 45 rarely worked on missions regarding Zeals, not even the illegal sale and production of them, and as Godia Warlocks they didn't really work with Zeals themselves. They had a few common Zeals, such as the recording Zeals, that they used on missions but that was mostly in consideration of the humans working with them. For most Godia Warlocks it would be an embarrassment using Zeals where your powers would do just fine. Even though Zeals most definitely would help them ease their side effects. Most of Melody's colleagues were totally against them. Melody herself didn't mind them and if it hadn't been so taboo she would probably use them more herself. However, she was against the illegal use of them. Following the law and making sure others did as well was her biggest priority. Which was why she immediately alerted her general, when she took a look at the papers that the professor must had been looking on before they arrived.
"General Decker?" she said to catch his attention, and when he looked at her, she placed her fingers on the paper and slid it across the table, towards the general. He grabbed it, a bit more roughly than necessary and held it up to look at it.
"Well, well, well, would you look at that," he said as if he had already won. He turned the paper around, facing it towards the professor. It was the blueprints of the Zeal-powered gun. "First item of the show and tell. Explain yourself, professor."

He felt his stomach drop. The gun blueprint. In his fretting over the unstable Zeal in the safe, he had completely forgotten about the thing he had been actually studying – a fucking gun blueprint. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to keep out in the open when the goddamn Godia were here. It had a reasonably logical explanation, however, that was actually totally mostly true. He also didn’t miss the disdain for the word laboratory. It didn’t surprise him, considering the largely anti-scientific consensus amongst the population. But it might give him an advantage here, science was a topic on which he could speak with authority.
He took a deep breath;

“Well, general, as you see here,” he spoke, with the complete authority of a professor who had been studying his subject for years. He pointed to a number in the upper-right corner of the paper reading 26.5. “That is – and do forgive me if you know this already – a calculation of a Zeal-containing object's threshold of energy output called the Anchor-Vivacity-Point or simply AVP. 26,5 is quite high, as the highest recorded stable Zeal only had an output at about 15. Most unstable Zeals, however, are 20 and above, which makes this container ideal for handling that sort of energy output without posing a risk to anyone's safety.”

“Because I am dabbling in the possibilities that exist within the realm of Laic-Zeals – meaning unstable Zeals, if you don’t know. Which really is an underfunded and unexplored field if you ask me, there is so much potential there, but that is a whole other topic for another time – I need to do my research on how to safely use the Zeal without having to directly interact with it on an energetic plane. You know about the explosive risk that they pose, I’m sure. Which is why I’m studying the blueprints on the table, they all have a 19.7 AVP or above – which you can check for yourself if you don’t believe me. I’m using it to conduct a list of raw-material that’s needed to construct such a container – so really, the fact that one in particular is a gun is really besides the point,” He explained, before adding in a joking tone. “There is a fridge as well, I’m sure you’ll find that that one looks far less threatening. Does that clear that matter up, General?”

Everyone had stopped, when the general showed Chapmann the blueprint, commanding him to explain. Melody, being the one standing closest to those two, crossed her arms, looking at the professor with an unsympathetic expression. Just waiting for him to confess or maybe he even dared to come up with a bad lie, something they would see right through. In her eyes, he had already been caught. How could he possibly excuse looking at how to make a gun. What would an university professor need that for? Nothing legal, Melody was sure of that.

But then the professor actually spoke. And he didn't stop speaking for quite a while. He just kept on talking in scientific depth about his research and the involvement of the blueprint. Now, Melody was actually a smart woman, and she did in some way understood what he meant with all his scientific terms. However, she had no experience in engineering and had no way of figuring out whether or not what he said was true. It did sound true, but most academics had a whole scholarship in how to make their points seem right.
The other Warriors exchanged timid glances. General Decker's eyes had throughout the professor's speech flickered between the man in front of him and the blueprints, trying to make sense of what he was being told. Every now and then he had tried to open his mouth but with the professor just continuing to speak, it simply left him with a perplexed, unintelligent look. And when the professor finally stopped, it took the general a few seconds to compose himself.
He cleared his throat, straightened his back and clenched his jaw, looking tough yet again. But he avoided looking at the professor by looking at the blueprint.
"Yeah," he said as if he was trying to convince the professor - or maybe his Warriors - that he had understood what had been said, "Well okay then. Guess that clears things up."
He looked at the professor again, pushed the blueprint onto his chest, making a bit harder than necessary.
"Seems like you're all clear, Professor," he said, his voice loud and strict again, "But just F-Y-I. My sector will keep on circling around at this campus - well, the whole city for that matter - until our murder is caught. We'll know if you're messing with items you shouldn't. And next time you might not have a clever explanation for it."
He clearly still doubted the professor. But whether or not it he had told the truth didn't really matter. He had explained his use of the blueprint and it fit his job description. They had nothing to charge him for.
General Decker made a hand movement to his Warriors. "Let's go, Sector 45," he simply said.
They were about to leave, when one of them stopped.
"Wait. General Decker?" he said and pointed towards a part of the lab, that Melody hadn't checked out. "You don't want him to open the safe for you?"
"Huh?" General Decker said and without waiting for an answer, he quickly stepped further back into the lab again, looking towards where the man had pointed. Melody looked as well. It was a safe. Why had no one told them about the safe before now? Sometimes the Warriors in this sector was too dumb for their own good. They were used to simply being guards of the Royals, not having to actually use their brain.
"A safe?" General Decker said, suddenly gaining all his confidence back. He crossed his arms and puffed his chest. "Professor, would you mind opening it up for us? We'd like to take a look inside."
The professor clearly didn't have a choice.

It took all his energy to not smirk condescendingly at the dumb look on the Generals face, instead he briefly pushed his lips together to a thin line. He took the blueprint that was all but shoved into him and started smoothing out the creases he had made. He nodded as the General started warning him about them controlling campus – he already knew that much. “Well, don’t let me get in the way of your very important work, sir. Goodbye, now.”

Perhaps the high of leaving the Godia speechless had made him a little too cocky. It was clear the Godia were out of their depths here, they wouldn’t know a regular Zeal from an illegal one. As this sector were guards of the royals they were probably not used to being little more than an ornamental institution, which probably wasn’t aided by the taboo that was Zeal-usage within the Godia population. So when some prick pointed out the safe – because of course someone had to at the last moment – it gave Idés an idea.

He looked at the safe, a faux worried frown on his lips. “As you wish.” He placed the blueprint on his desk, before moving to the safe and motioning as if he was about to put on the code. Then he stopped and turned back to the Godia.
“I do warn you, though. This is where I safely store the Laics for now – the unstable ones, I mean – and they do respond to energy in the air. With all due respect, with this many warlocks — And Godia, no less — in near vicinity, I do advise you to take a few steps back. Like I said before, there’s an explosive risk with these things.”

He then turned to type in the code, expecting the General to stop him. He hadn’t missed the slight fright in some of the Godia’s eyes when he had mentioned the explosive risk that came with the Zeals – which was why he now played it up to the extreme.

It was a good sign that Professor Chapmann didn't seem uneasy be the general's command about opening the sign. Or bad sign, one could say, since it would be a treat to actually get some evidence. Already by his reaction, Melody didn't think there'd me something worth looking for in there. Of course she didn't say anything - the general had made an order and of course they had to check everything to be sure. She simply waited for him to do as he was told. Which he was about to do, he had even walked to the safe, but not without having to warn the Warriors. The Godia Warriors who all were filled to the brim with energy which apparently was a ticking bomb if encountered with whatever was in that safe. As soon as they heard the warning, it was the Godia Warriors who seemed uneasy. Melody glanced over at some of her coworkers, grimacing over the situation. She actually didn't feel like exploding today. And even if they had the power to observe the explosion, they would probably simply implode with all that extra powerful energy. No, that did not sound good at all.
Luckily General Decker felt the same way. He hesitated but when the professor turned to type to code, he raised his hand, more calmy that he probably was.
"You know what? Doesn't matter," he said as if it wasn't a big deal, "I think we've seen enough. No need to goggle at your knick-knacks as well."
He lowered his hands and made a move to walk out.
"You stay safe, Professor. And try to stay out of trouble - or we'll be back."
Then he left, his Warriors following him. Melody followed along but couldn't resist herself to look over her shoulders, back at the professor as they left.
There was something with him. What she didn't know but she was sure she would find out sooner or later.