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Zero wakes up and rolls their feet out of a bunk bed in the Forge, the instant transport always dropped you in a bed and Zero being tired from the last mission didn't mind too much. The sound of metal being shaped by heated blades and ether synthesizers whirling with life calmed them. The twins were gently floating on stasis tables all their prosthetics and augmentations had been removed to more easily replace them. The moving of tools immediately put Zero on alert, this Forge was unreachable by normal means.
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The Forge itself was a middle zone created in an overly saturated Ether zone, in these zones, the rules of reality people normally engage in become unraveled and malleable. When the planet filled with Ether the first thing to change were plants, it slowly affected the food chain and once it ran its course of Mother natures splendor it turned on the laws of reality, severing and rearranging previously agreed on theories and facts.
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The birth of the first Ether zone, before anyone knew how to fully utilize ambient Ether, devoured a small town everyone in it had disappeared like a biblical rapture. It's now a tourist attraction for Dreamland where a missing persons case is part of the fun.
Zero had worked hard to create and hide this place from all prying eyes, so if someone were here there was a fifty-fifty chance someone was going to die.
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Zero initiated full stealth mode before making their way into the next room leaving the bunks, the clanging of tools and materials came from the Ether synthesis room, Zero snuck their way down the corridor with terrifying speed creeping up on the entrance to the origin of the noise. Peaking into the doorway Zero saw a man at a workbench manipulating the radiant purplish raw Ether from the tubes, the Ether swarmed a hammer the figure was holding that turned the Ether a crimson red before he slammed it down on a spear.
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Zero entered the room and scaled the wall like a salamander towards the ceiling and their prey near the workbench. Finally reaching the spot above the intruder, they lowered themselves from the ceiling from a red thread right above the man's head. The intruder continued his work hammering the spear with red Ether forging strength into its tip and body.
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"Hello, Loki!" Zero shouted startling the man from his concentration almost making him slam the hammer down on the workbench.
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"By the gods! Red what's gotten into you." Zero chuckled twirling down from their spider-like thread to the floor.
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"Sorry, Loki I couldn't resist." Zero lunges surprising him with a hug.
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"You are the only person who gets this close to me Red." Zero releases him and crosses the room to a balcony, down below the three twins slept softy amongst the aqua beams of light.
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Loki pushes the soft snow-white strands of hair, that escaped from his bun, from his augmented eye that shined with a crimson glow scanning Zero leaning over the balcony. Information flooded his vision arcane signs and sigils mixed with alchemic formulas forming cosmic equations that lead to a flurry of question marks that forced him to blink.
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"I can't tell your age." Loki muttered as he shifted around Zero his eye changing into a purplish Ether-like glow. His vision seemed to show an X-ray-like view, but all he saw of Zero was the red fabric that covered their body. His vision shifted as he did around Zero his eye shifted to a light green as a thermal scan began, but again his eyes had to be lying to him, he just felt the incredible warmth from Zero moments ago, but his vision showed them as cold.
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The leering caught Zeros' attention as they shifted their eyes to make contact with Lokis. This forced Loki to blink and shy away from the brightness illuminating from Zeros' eyes. He shifted again his eye glowing an aqua-like color followed by whispers in his ears. A few blinks of the augmented eye clears up his vision, his vision now showed what seemed to be wavelengths over fluttering threads, Zero and Loki stood transfixed on each other for a moment.
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"You're cold, but warm to the touch." Loki stepped closer after finishing his declaration. He circled Zero watching the dancing threads until one began to glow brighter than the others and pull taught, as Loki focused the whisper grew louder and more clear, the word Human flooded his mind.
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"And somehow you're just an average human." Loki stepped away from Zero watching from the middle of the room.
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