Chapter 247: Newfound fame
"Alex!"
Mira exclaimed loudly, not caring about the reactions of anyone nearby them on the space station.
She ran up to Alex at full speed, and jumped at him, engulfing him in a huge hug.
She wrapped herself so tightly around him, that he thought she might never let go of him again!
"Did I miss anything?"
Alex joked with her as he embraced her in the hug as well.
He knew she was probably worried to death when he first disappeared, and to be frank he was worried as well, not knowing if he would ever get to see her again.
It had been a few days since he had returned to the federation, and he had just arrived back in the solar system, currently standing on the space station on mars as planted his feet back on a planet.
He felt strangely refreshed from the feeling of real gravity keeping him grounded.
After explaining everything to the soldiers on the space station that found him, he had a lot of procedures to go through.
Such as stuff like testing, decontamination etc.
He had spent the last few days in an alien spaceship, so who knew what kinds of foreign pathogens he could be carrying with him.
They wouldn't be dangerous for awakened like him, but for regular humans, it could be life threatening.
After those procedures were finished, he hitched a free ride on one of the military's warships back to the solar system.
The commander of the station had already informed him that the higher ups wanted to meet him regarding his return, which Alex had expected to hear.
He had just handed them a gold mine in the form of an alien spaceship.
It was the first one they had managed to get their hands on, so Alex was honestly expecting a reward for his contribution.
And if he wasn't rewarded properly?
Well, he would just use his newfound fame to his advantage and publicise his criticism of the federation's handling of this matter.
In the few days of downtime he had on his trip back to the solar system, he had checked the Galactic net, and was shocked to find his face and name plastered almost everywhere he looked!
It was only through further digging that he found out that his fight with the beast was live streamed for the whole federation to see.
If Alex was honest, he couldn't really care whether he was famous or not. Though he guessed he'd prefer if he wasn't.
It could be a pain if he was recognised and swarmed everywhere he went, especially if he was on a mission like the one to Ceres-9.
He'd have to set some clear boundaries with his 'fans' when he had the time.
***
"I see you two found each other." Principal Farnes stated.
He appeared out of nowhere behind Alex and Mira after he let them have a few moments to themselves.
He wasn't so selfish to ruin their reunion right away.
He gave them 10… no, 12 seconds to catch up before he made his appearance.
How nice of him!
"Principal!"
Both of them coughed and jumped out of the hug as soon as they noticed the Principal behind them.
Especially Mira, as she still felt eternally grateful to him for personally helping in the search for Alex.
"I've already been briefed about your situation, but I'm more interested in hearing about something quite peculiar, when we're somewhere more private of course."
Principal Farnes heavily suggested that there was something about Alex that was interesting to him, and Alex already had a good guess as to what that was.
'Phoenix flames.'
The Principal was present in the room when Alex had awakened it, though neither one of them knew it at the time.
And after reviewing the footage of Alex's battle with the beast, as well as his return when he exited the alien freighter, the Principal would have to be stupid or blind to not immediately notice the difference in the flames surrounding Alex's body.
Most notable was their colour, which had obviously changed from the normal yellow-orange that normal fire had, to the deep, crimson red that they were now.
But other than that, the Principal was more interested in another property they had.
Their ability to continue burning without a medium, like oxygen.
He was surprised to see that they didn't dissipate immediately after Alex stepped out of the spaceship into the vacuum of space.
Thankfully, the soldiers on the space station were recording this interaction, as they were expecting to be at the forefront of some historic event when they first saw an Alien ship approaching.
But this was a conversation for another time.
"Before we get into anything though, there are some people who wish to meet you."
Principal Farnes placed an arm on Alex's shoulder.
Mira looked over at him as well, with confused eyes.
'Ahh what the hell, he'll probably tell her about it when we're finished anyway. I might as well bring her too.'
He placed his other hand on Mira's shoulder as well before…
Poof!
All three of them disappeared from their spots.
And reappeared in a hallway that looked like it belonged to any normal looking office building.
"Where are we?"
Alex asked, as he was confused about what had just happened.
They had teleported, that was obvious.
But it was unlike any teleportation he had been through before.
Whenever he activates his own Inferior teleportation talent, he could clearly feel the energy wrapping around him, and the warping of space.
But this time, he felt nothing.
There was only one way Alex could describe it.
Whenever he uses his own teleportation, he moves through space.
But this time, it was like space moved through him.
It was an incredibly weird feeling.
"This is Earth. Specifically, we are inside the Nexus, outside the round table room."
Principal Farnes explained to Alex and Mira, to help them better settle.
'What?'
Though that only made them go wide-jawed.
'We just travelled hundreds of millions of miles through space, across two different planets in an instant!?'
It was safe to say they were awed at the Principal's capabilities.
They had never heard of S tier's being able to do this!