Hybrids

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Glued to the TV screen attached to their booth, the family were excited to see if the nice man who treated them to dinner was about to win the election that had been anticipated for months now.

Standing on the stage in front of millions of people all around the system, Calio Harp and Theodore Lamirrion both made their last speeches before a victor was decided. Theodore gripped the side of the podium in front of him as he spoke "Crime is a serious problem in some of the less fortunate cities and planets. Mercury suffers greatly from this as most of the money earned goes to maintaining the Bio-Domes that protect citizens from the heat and radiation. The majority of people living under them are in poverty and in cramped conditions. One of the first things I would do as the HoS would be a much greater police force and police equipment across the system, and an entire reform of Mercury's economy" he paused, then glanced around "In a single day here in Mons, enough money travels through here to maintain fifteen of those Bio-Domes and still have money to spare. Not a single dime of that sees Mercurian hands" he went to speak more, but was interrupted by Calio.

"If I may say something, Theodore. Most of the money is from big corporations and companies like Trissi Corp. and Proto Industrial. The two leading companies in vehicle manufacturing. You can't just take the money from those companies and give it to others, as it isn't yours to begin with. If I were to set up a system like that, I would base it upon the income of the company. If a company makes more than a certain amount every month, they would need to deposit a few percentages of that into a government treasury, where it can be sent to places that need it such as Mercury" he finished, stepping back and putting hands behind his back.

Theodore didn't seem to like getting interrupted however and raised an eyebrow "You didn't even let me finish my sentence Calio. I was going to propose a similar system, but instead of a treasury, the money is held aboard the Absolute Authority where it can be safe, and then distributed where needed. Few people would have access to it"

Calio nodded slightly, he didn't seem to agree with that proposition but he bowed his head and apologised for butting in when he was still speaking. But he didn't seem to get a turn to talk in response.

Theodore sighed and looked back to the cameras "Anyway, that answers the question about Mercury. I sort of flung in the thing about crime just to kill two birds with one stone. Any other questions?" he asked the crowd, and within seconds of asking that, a tablet that was on the podium dinged with the next question, which was about the growing concern of Earth's habitability. 
He cleared his throat and nodded "Okay, so. Earth's atmosphere as we know it is growing rather...Hm, rather hard to breath. And the oceans are less than hygenic. People have wanted to know for decades now, when are we going to get rid of pollution making factories and power plants and replace them with the much cleaner and powerful fusion power plants. Well, for all of you on Earth, fret no more. As the first change Earth will see, is the demolition and ban of polluting energies and replacing them with fusion plants, and building specially designed atmospheric scrubbers all across the globe. These scrubbers will suck all the air up, clean it and make it fresh and pump it back out with a few extra gases that'll make the planet even healthier than it was before" he took a breath and sighed, as that was quite a mouthful, before continuing "And for the ocean, we'll do the same. Any junk and rubbish will be taken into the machines and ground down into their basic components, then a computer decides if it's good for the ocean and releases it, or keeps it for a recycling ship to collect once a year"

The crowds were rather respectful during the speeches, and remained quiet as the man spoke. He continued onwards about the health of the planets for a small while, before a bell rang and an announcer's voice played over the speakers
"Attention everyone, the votes are in. In just a minute the winner will be revealed, and a new Head of System will be elected!" as the voice echoed around the city, the people around the stage began to cheer.

Sitting at the table, plates completely empty apart from Rez's who was on his third plate of roast chicken, Cloude rubbed his hands together and smiled "Oooh here we go. Big finale" he said, sipping a bit of beer from a big glass with engravings in it. Riza was resting her head on her hand as they had been there for a few hours at this point and her patience was wearing thin, but she put up with it for Rez.
"I wonder if there'll be fireworks" asked the small Rez, with sauce across his lips. Flower smiled and leaned across the table with a napkin, wiping the sauce off of his face "Dear, you need to be careful with your food"
Rez whined at the napkin, but perked back up when he saw the TV cut to a well dressed man joining the two politicians on stage with a purple envelope with a ribbon across it. He approached a microphone and cleared his voice "...I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for watching and coming here. And hope that no matter who wins this, peace will still shine across the system" he said, earning an applause from the ocean of faces. The man reached down to the letter and opened it, pulling out a pure white card with a shiny gloss.
"The winner of the 3409 Head of System election is..." he glanced down and paused, before shouting.

"Theodore Lamirrion!"

There was a pause in the crowd before they realised what he had said, and cheering erupted from the people below the stage. There was obvious disappointment from the Calio supporters, but they turned and congratulated people who wanted Theodore to win.

Cloude seemed pretty happy as he gave a hearty fist pump before receiving odd looks from the well dressed upper class people around him. Rez especially seemed happy "He won! So, do we get more food?" he asked.
Flower rolled her eyes and smiled at him "Dear, at the rate you're going you'll bankrupt him"
Rez looked to her and then to the third plate of chicken he had in front of him "These aren't that expensive though"
Riza poked the back of his head "Dude one of those chicken meals is dad's entire weeks wages"
"Oh"

Back on the stage Theodore was smiling and waving at the crowds and cameras "Thank you everyone, this is such an honour! I shall devote the rest of my days to the people, and bettering this system" he said, extending his arms outwards.
He looked down at the people, and mainly to a reporter who was extending his microphone to him "Mr. Lamirrion, what is going to be your first major decision as the Head of System?" Theodore smiled and took the microphone off of him, lifting it to his lips "My first decision will be upping the police force across the system and increasing the funding to fight the growing crime" he spoke, putting the microphone back into his hand.

The crowds cheering was almost deafening, with quite a few high tech planes hovering above, with cameras all aimed at the man in the hat. Calio however did not seem to be congratulating Theodore, and instead was standing behind his podium with an angry and disappointed look on his face. His hands tightly grabbing the edges of it. He sighed angrily before walking over to Theodore and begrudgingly extending his hand, to which Theodore noticed and took it happily and speaking "Ah well, we both did our hardest. You still have my respect Mr. Harp"
Calio nodded and tightened his grip on Theodore's hand "Indeed, Mr. Lamirrion" he poke, his eyes not wavering from Theodore's, who seemed to realise his mood. Theodore leaned in and whispered something into his ear, which visibly changed his expression.

Theodore looked to the crowd and waved once more as Calio walked off stage and climbed into a sleek black car that was just on the road, and drove off into the distance.
He smiled and bowed "Thank you everyone. It will be my pleasure to serve you all" he said, taking off his hat and placing it to his chest. 

But before anything else could happen, the cameras turned off, and the TV cut to a reporter sitting at a table "Well, how about that. That was great, I really enjoyed that, what about you Sarah?" the reporter spoke, but Rez groaned.

"Aw, I wanna see Theodore again" he whined, making Riza pat his head and leaned back "Shh, it's getting late so let's get back home and rest"
"Oh...Okay..."
Cloude smiled at him and stood up, stretching his arms upwards and cracking his back with an audible pop "Alright kids, let's get back to the train station before we end up having to walk home".
Flower nodded "Yeah, c'mon you two"
Rez nodded and went to stand up, but climbed onto Riza's back and promptly fell asleep.
Riza looked up to him and sighed "Really?"
Laughing at her gently, Cloude stroked her head and looked to the elevator "Alright then. Let's head home"

And so the family left the building and made their way to the train station to catch the train home, with the sun setting on the red planet on a historic day.