Overhead, I spotted several powerful creatures roaming through the sky. At closer inspection, I realized they were probably klevonians in their hybrid forms, flying with wings of fire. I was surprised they could use their transformations without affecting the civilians.
Species here are much more durable than humans. They can withstand the presence of powerful beings, even if for a short amount of time, Viraa cleared up for us.
Good to know, I thought, as I started to feel my skin tingle.
"Our clothes..." Michael said, looking down at his clothes, which were singed and began to burn away. When I looked down, I saw that my clothes were doing the same. All of ours were.
Za'Fia and I had to cover up as our clothes burned off us, revealing more and more of our skins. The boys were in the same boat but didn't seem as bothered by it; they simply turned away. Tymon cloaked himself in shadows, Avarice turned a piece of the building into gold and willed it to cover himself, and Michael covered up with his large, white wings.
"Ah, yes, I forgot," Rabae said before he suddenly vanished and reappeared with a bag of crystals in one hand and tiny tabs in the other. First, he gave each of us a tab the size of a dime with a needle on it.
"The needles are made of cindium. You will need to prick one of your fingers so your biometrics can be registered to roam the planet legally," he instructed us.
When we stuck the needle into our fingers, a holographic bar that started to fill up appeared before us.
"A loading screen?" Za'Fia remarked.
As our bars loaded, Rabae handed each of us one of the crystals from his other hand.
"Press these to your chests," he said.
When we did so, our bodies were encased in a crystal membrane before the crystals receded, our new clothes.
"Those are zip-wear; they offer limited resistance to the otherwise harsh environments of Cindar," Rabae announced as we all looked at our clothes. We each wore summer clothes as if we were heading to the beach, which left Za'Fia and me practically naked in very revealing bikinis.
"Why did it choose this!?" I exclaimed as I tried to cover up as much of my body as I could. I was not a bikini girl. Za'Fia was able to cover up with flames around her body.
"I'll burn your eyes out," she threatened Avarice, who turned his head toward her.
"Can you blame me? You are exquisite," he stated as he complied and turned away. It was the first time I'd seen him without a suit on. He was surprisingly muscular underneath that suave exterior.
So was Michael. With his wings out, he looked even more stunning....He must've caught my lingering glance because he started to shine brighter, obscuring my vision.
"My apologies," Rabae said, "whenever the crystals are first activated, it changes your clothes to match whatever climate the user is in. Rest assured, you can use your imagination to turn it into something you are more comfortable with. It will retain its protective properties within Cindar's elemental biomes."
"I am glad I refrained from warping us to the Hellhound District first," Rabae joked, chuckling.
"Thank God they can change," Za'Fia exhaled as her clothes morphed into the casual clothes she'd been wearing. We each changed our clothes to match our previous preferences. "You could've given us the clothes first, by the way."
"The zip-wear only activates once it reads one's biometrics, so you needed to have at least your biometrics sampled before it could work. Also, zip-wear only lasts for seven days, so be sure to resupply weekly."
"There's supply and demand regardless of the world, it seems," Avarice comments as he tugged at his golden tie and smoothed out his dark suit.
Now that we had clothes that weren't melting, everyone paid attention to the loading bar as it was completed and was replaced with a small, holographic card that displayed over our chests. We discovered we could grab the card to view it and even enlarge it for convenience.
"This is the bio card you mentioned, I presume," Michael said as he held before him.
"Yes," Rabae confirmed. "Bio cards are a way of identification throughout this quadrant of space. They were created by the Sphinx Crest long ago. As you can see, it displays a variety of information about an individual, such as their name and appearance; if they're cindarian, it reveals their Crest or division association along with their rank and the names of their cintracies. It also displays their threat level, EQN, and more."
"Wow," I marveled as I swiped through my bio card. I noticed one star placed as my threat level.
"What does this star mean?" I asked him.
"Put simply, that is the potential threat level you pose against the policing force called the Neutral Corp, which maintains order throughout the southwest quadrant of the Milky Way," Rabae said. "Threat levels are determined through the SRS: the self-updating, Star Ranking System that uses data from history and our bio cards each time we access them to accurately determine our current capabilities and adjust our threat levels accordingly. One's threat level is displayed as a certain number of stars on their bio card, ranging from 0 to 10, with some receiving full stars followed by half a star. That said, just half a star is the lowest and least threatening level that most low-level life forms fall under," he gestured to the civilians who roamed the streets below.
"Species such as humans would have no star, indicating they aren't a threat in the slightest, so you all being so low despite possessing ascension marks is quite unheard of," he continued while stroking his beard.
"How many stars do you have?" Tymon asked, catching me off guard. His ability to remain silent was eerie sometimes.
Rabae revealed his bio card to us. Among his cintracies, species, his age of over 3.5 billion UST (Viraa said that's 7 billion in Earth years), a birthday of the 29th day of Nedej (January 29th apparently), his height of 6'7", his surprising weight of 621 pounds, the strength to lift up to 996.5 tons (which was apparently within the strength class of High Level 7. Probably where Viraa got the idea to use the categories for the Watchers.), the running speed of 111,500mphs (Mid Level 11), and the flight speed of Mach 179 (High Level 12), and a staggering EQN of 660,000,000, we also saw that he was a 3.5-star threat.
To think someone as powerful as him was only a 3.5-star threat. It made me wonder what kind of monsters had to be on the other end of the scale.
"Something to note: a pneumarian's image on their bio card will always reflect whatever form they take when accessing it, so do not worry about being confused due to our ability to change our appearances. Truth be told, we typically stay within our comfort forms unless necessary."
"Isn't it dangerous for everyone to know what you're capable of?" Tymon asked, trying to understand why anyone would show this.