New Galaxia

Chapter 25: The Workings of a Living Locomotive

Hezago, as Escalene, knocked vigorously on Zack's door, impatient. "Are you done? you're taking a bit long-" "Yeah, one second, let me take care of this..." Exactly 2.689 seconds later, Zack opened the door, ready.

He was wearing a light yellow T-shirt, beige cargo shorts, and white top shoes, paired wonderfully with black socks. "Finally! Now we can go!" Hezago said, over energetic. Zack smiled somewhat tiredly at him as he was pulled toward a portal of Hezago's summoning at the end of the hall.

They appeared at what was supposedly a train shed on the grounds of the Galaxian palace, which was slightly dusty in its current state, a locomotive of its purpose being housed. Hezago dusted his white apron dress, and checked his (also white) elbow length sleeves for dust, which proved non-existent. His heels sparkled, bowed and untouched.

"So, what are we doing here?" "You'll see~!" Hezago said, smiling at his fiance rather sweetly. He clapped his gloved hands, and the shed spontaneously transformed into a far more extravagant building. Quite spacious, it contained, yes the train that was already there, the Borearcis Prototype, along with many shelves of tools, as you would expect, overly large cauldrons of simmering solids and liquids, vials upon vials of unknown solutions, and many, many cans of paint.

Overall it looks like somebody mashed an engineers' garage, a potioneer's area and an arts and crafts store together without (miraculously) setting it on fire.

"So! Have you realised what we're doing yet?" Hezago said, silver eyes gleaming happily. Zack is paused, thinking, with a hand on his chin. He looked at the surprisingly clean and looking train (for a prototype) and caught on, realising. "It's for something to do with a train-" ("obviously," Hezago said) "-so I'd say we're going to make this thing living."

"Ding ding ding! Correct!" Hezago said, buoyant. "But," he added, running over to a cauldron, "We're gonna do this manually! A personalised living train! What do you think?" Zack smiled lightly at his soon to be husband, but he proved a bit troubled. Hezago had told him that there was no system in place for a living locomotive of any sort, as the last planet with such was gone, so attempting to base this off of Professor Michelton could range from success to a violent video game glitch that could buffer the universe to a Windows 95 and force it to restart like sixty four times in a row.

"Sure, sounds okay." Zack said, Hezago talking thereafter. "But I don't really know how to do this, but... Ah it's fine! If anything goes wrong I'll just fix it in a jiffy~! Now," a green vial appeared in his hand. "Let's get started~!

He bounded up to the train's funnel and poured whatever it was in. The frontal access to the broiler of the train, a sleek pane of gold coloured metal, turned into a blank slab of greyish skin, which made it look like one of those cartoon trains but without its facial features. "Hey, Zack? Can you hand me the vial with the blue stuff in it?" "M'kay, Hun." A vial of said blue liquid appeared in Zack's hand, and he handed it to a lightly giggling Hezago.

"Hmm? What's got you laughing?" Zack said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm finally taller than you!" And if you think about it, it was technically true when watching him float up there. Zack chuckled, grinning. "Finally, about time, I was getting tired of you always being miles below me." Hezago chuckled lightly, doing something with the train's funnel.

"Can you get me the cauldron with the purple slimy stuff in it?" Hezago said arm in the train's funnel as if he was fishing for something. "M'kay hun." Zack, being the strong guy he was, carried the cauldron without difficulty to Hezago's side, who had now descended from his floating position. Hezago, wand in hand, magicked the substance to flow into the tunnel, humming quietly.

The train gained facial features with the side effect of its body turning a deep purple, making the presence of the paints pointless. Its eyes fluttered open and then back shut, as if it was struggling to come to life.

The soon to be sentient train was in almost exact copy of the Borearcis before this process had begun, and although being the prototype, it had one major difference. The prototype ran on coal and diesel, whereas the final version ran on a Dust V engine. A major difference in terms of speed.

"Okay, now it's organs are in place, we need a name for it." "Hmm..." Zack said, looking at the engine's lax face. "He looks like a Leonardo to me." Hezago tensed ever so slightly, which was just enough for Zack to take notice of. "We can choose something else, I don't mind." Hezago smiled. "Thanks. I think we should go with... Oliver."

A bucket of Oliperhiviumese appeared, floating next to Hezago. A vial of orange liquid followed, appearing in his hand, half full, and he added it to said bucket, to partially neutralise it, of which it reacted to by turning clear.

The necessity for this action was due to Oliperhiviumese's rate of biological destruction as a magical element. When it makes contact with any living being, it starts to decomposing them instantly, leaving said living thing only 2 days to live, a large concentration of it being present in, at the time, the outer decimation ring. It cannot transfer from one being to another as dictated by code, as that would cause epidemic. Likewise, when making contact with a thing with eyes, it will decompose eyes first, which usually results in them exploding. As of this point in time, there was no antidote to such, unless including that of a Borealis's magic.

"Okay," Hezago said, with bated breath. "Let's hope this works." Zack, being the fine fiance he was, placed a hand on Hezago's shoulder, smiled, and said; "I'm sure it will."

And sure enough, it did. Upon the solution completely draining into the funnel, the steam engine blinked into reality, a slightly disgruntled look on his face, as It then spoke.

"By Sol, my vision is terrible!"

Oliver then summoned a pair of glasses, cleaning them with a floating handkerchief, and magicked them onto his face. A book called 'The workings of a living locomotive; by Zack & Hezago Borealis' promptly appeared on a table nearby, signalling Hezago's satisfaction with the results.

Oliver took notice of them, and quickly chugged backwards, confused. "Who are you?" Hezago spoke, joy in his tone."I'm Hezago, and this is Zack. We made you, Oliver, and it's high time I gave you a soul."

A vial of blinding white liquid appeared in Hezago's hand. He walked up to the train's side and reached a hand out. "May I?" Oliver, visibly nervous, muttered a yes. He opened the vial into his hands, and upon flowing out, it turned into a bright crystalline sphere the size of a mug. With Zack at his side, Hezago put the sphere into Oliver's funnel. The train shuddered, the orb feeling rather cold, but a lovely warmth spread through him upon its settling. Oliver now, by means only a single book knew, had a soul.

The makings of a living locomotive gained another page, Oliver would not be the last.

----------------------------------------------------------

Hi! Welcome to the Borealis's list of fun facts!

Did you know?

The Dust Engine series was a series of dust engines that came into proper fruition after the creation of an engine catalogue that would be used for the Galaxian transport system in the days of [old] Galaxia. The Dust V was the only one made by Sol thyself, with other editions made by the rest of the government not being as efficient as it. The Dust V, as of present day, is not available to the public, as it is used for the rulers and presidents transportation needs. The living locomotives that work on the railway work on a combination of pure magic and an engine only they can use, the Dust V-Nora. The Dust V Beta, a less efficient version of the Dust V, has since been deployed in the military, keeping it the fastest of itself around.

A Dusty Book of knowledge!