Brilliant Man/Vir Clarissimus (Latin)

Chapter 12 Surmounting Olympus

'Wait... WHAT?!' cried Alicia, rapping her window as Ozwald started off at a snail's pace. Alas, her response was a cry on deaf ears, being made in the silence of Space.

Meanwhile, Ozwald felt an inexplicably great feeling of connection to the surrounding space. The surreal heavens were spangled in stars – newborns, thousands, or millions of years old – forming beautiful constellations. While drifting, an obscure thought entered his mind. What if he could become another brother of their celestial camaraderie. So as he waddled away from Alicia, Ozwald made permissible some time to experience every bit of this. His body flew nowhere, though his mind was set on the heart of the world.

A half-hour later, Ozwald neared Zed's Maudeline. Her jet-black sails, brown deck, and other muted complexions were shadowed by Space's milky, luminous backdrop. During this moment, something odd happened: the speakers inside Ozwald's helmet – those he'd muted, that way Alicia couldn't convince him of anything – went up in static. Once this cleared, the voice of Zed reached his ears.

"So.. we meet again!" he sneered, tone dripping with sadism. "Look up, Wizard." Scowling, he did as instructed, watching Zed float down from his ship. "Your helmet is a recent model created by my company, Zed Corporations; also, my microphone is Bluetooth rigged to your internal speakers, allowing me to communicate with you. Since I'm an admin, these settings cannot be changed."

Zed wore flight-boots equipped with rockets, meaning he could actually 'walk' in Space without shaking so much. He could also tap-dance, which he did while listing off the features of these boots. During all this, Ozwald questioned his lack of a physical helmet, though carried no incentive to ask why.

"Bought these from a Jovite mob boss; do him and I a favor and don't mentioning this to anyone.. okay."

"Alrig—?"

"Good."

Ozwald breathed. "My question is.. what exactly did we come out here for?" He set himself against a ledge of nothing, only to fall again; Space business was always best done through vehicle. Amidst his struggle of standing upright, Ozwald's boots suddenly became incomparable to Zed's, who could stand up and, essentially, never move.

"Okay.. question of the day: why are we here? You see, I'm usually not one to come up with great proposals, but now that we're conflicted, it's easier to develop particular means of killing off your trio by one." Zed spoke this with an air of certainty. "Seeing that you all have grasped onto those nine lives for so long, maybe you should decide the challenge that can justify our continued hunt for the oil."

"Definitely no fighting, I'm certain of that!" Ozwald said.

Zed yawned. "Wasn't even gonna consider..." Then, as if trying to appear cool, he mentioned, "sooo many contestants are like 'can we fight!' or ' come on, have at it!' and I'm like 'where's the fun in that?'"

After this, Ozwald made five more suggestions, all of which Zed dismissed, swatting then down like flies. He frowned. He racked his brain for any more ideas; his lack of development may cost the lives of he and his friends. And having come this far, all to die? Ozwald would not allow it. His next response was more thoughtful. "How about a space race?"

"With cars?" Zed giggled, face filling with excitement. His suggestion was vague – there could be many kinds of 'racing' in Space – however it may not be entirely bad. And of course with Zed's sparked interest, there was a chance this idea could be passed.