Rise To Stardom - Chapter 129

Chapter 129: Αδύνατος (Impossible) Άντρας (Man)
When The Curator said he was coming, the long way around, he had meant it with every ounce of his being.

What did he do?

Simple.

He employed the usage of an emergency, mini-Horologium he always kept with himself.

His own, interspatial key!

It was the exact same thing his iterations had used, back when they had come to see Tesla off.

The downside to the mini-Horologium though, was that it could only take him back and forth once in every 100 years.

Either to the future and back to the present…

Or to the past and right back to the present.

Typically, The Curator, avoided going back in time to change certain events due to many, possible rippling effects that could completely alter the future.

But no one ever said the future was off limits…

And so, phasing out of the Index, it took only a few seconds for The Curator to return back to the same spot, much to the confusion of The Kalis.

However, whatever it was The Curator had done, they soon realized it because within a few minutes, multiple battleships, all allies of The Curator, populated the expanse of the exosphere in retaliation to The Kalis.

At the exact same time, The Curator, ran out the door, boarding one of his allies’ spaceships.

What he had done when he used the mini-Horologium, was jumping a few seconds to the future in The Index itself, one where both it and The Horologium was already fixed to a certain extent.

Having done that, he had then begun to send an SOS message to various points in time with The Horologium to all the allies he had made over the years, all of whom were more than willing to warp jump to both the location he was, just before he phase shifted to the future and earth’s current exosphere.

Truly, The Curator, had gone the long way around.

No sooner had they arrived though, a serious war ensued between both The Curator’s allies and The Kalis.

All of these, were scenes that were shot, mostly in the green room.

That said, eventually, amidst all the war, one his allies were winning, The Curator, finally got to where Kiera was held captive.

Yet, The Emperor of The Kalis was also there, almost as if he had been expecting him.

Kiera too, now fully awake, was placed in a wide, rectangular transparent radiation cubicle, one side left empty while she occupied the other.

It was obvious what this setup was for.

One person could occupy the other and if both were activated, the vents in the cubicles of the chamber would release the life-threatening, ultra-violet radiation waves to kill them off.

Simply put, it was an execution machine The Kalis used for their prisoners, albeit now rigged to have one side function at the expense of the other not functioning.

As of the moment, The Hybrid, realized exactly what The Kalis were after.

Kidnapping Kiera even, was never their goal.

Their goal, as it had always been, was to find some way to kill him off again as usual in the most brutal and diabolical ways possible, radiation being their new go to.

Since they knew he would possibly Metamorph again, the Kalis were experimenting with yet another way to possibly counter his ability to cheat death.

And unfortunately, once again, it seemed as if they had gotten him good, placing him between a rock and a hard place.

The Curator, only had two choices as of the moment.

Watch Kiera die, while he survived…

Or do the reverse.

It was that and no in-betweens.

Whether radiation would finally be his undoing, The Time Traveler, had no idea.

{The Curator – Tenth Season | 24th May 2020 | Act 8 | Scene 5 | Take 1}

“All these years, I thought you’d run out of ways to make me sick…” The Curator, slowly walked into the Kali’s main control center, eyes gazing at Rathos who was placed on an elevated platform with abhorring disgust.

“Curator. You… have… arrived.” Rathos, surrounded by many other Kalis, spoke in between measured pauses, his reedy, unnerving, robotic voice, much lower pitched than his creations.

Placed in a small fluid tank, one that contained high amounts of nutritious substances that made it possible for him to still be alive after all these years, was his beating heart, other amorphous, translucent fleshy material, which contained his eyes and mouth, surrounding said heart.

Rathos looked almost amoebic but, he was very much alive as the tank itself was hooked up to a cybernetic bodice, just like his creations, the tank, serving as its head instead.

Yet, what really caused The Curator to speak with such detest to him, was because of what he was gazing at as of the moment.

“Curator! Don’t give in to them! You don’t need to follow through with their plans, you hear me?! Don’t!!” Kiera audibly exclaimed from the other end of the chamber, the fear in her eyes evident as she pressed her palms, tightly against the cubicle.

Yet, at the same time, her expression was brave and determined.

Never for once did Kiera want The Curator to feel responsible for this precarious situation she found herself in.

If she was going to die here, then so be it.

Although she had things she wanted to accomplish but still… for the most part, she didn’t want to be responsible for the death of someone she had genuinely come to admire.

Theirs was almost an uncle-niece relationship.

She, the niece who wanted to experience the world and The Curator, the cool uncle who took her to various places she never thought she would or could ever visit.

He was also her muse.

And that was why she had been writing a novel while drawing inspirations, both from his persona and their adventures.

She would never forgive herself if her uncle and her muse, died because of her.

“You… have… once again, thwarted our plans. That much… is expected.” Rathos on the other hand, spoke, after which he then robotically turned towards the chamber Kiera was in.

“But, we will… not go down… without a fight. Unless you… take her place, she… will die.” The Emperor, pointed his bladed claws at the top of the chamber where a trigger was placed, a three-minute timer left counting on it.

“Do not, try… to deconstruct the chamber, or she, will… die.” he added while turning around to face The Curator with a whir.

“We will now go and face… our defeat at the hands, of your allies. But you too, will fall here.” Rathos, turned around, a robotic whir in his movements as he and the other Kalis, exited the throne room.

Gazing at them as they left, the regret and malice in his eyes evident, The Hybrid, rolled his tongue around the insides of his mouth for a few seconds, after which he then turned around to face the actual problem.

Now left alone, staring at the chamber before him where his companion was sealed shut, The Curator, sighed…

Not a tired or a frustrated sigh, but an acknowledging sigh as he spoke to Kiera who was pleading with her eyes for him to leave her be and save himself;

“Yeah. You’ve always been this kind of person, haven’t you?”

“Always brave…”

“Always kind…”

“Always accepting, of whatever hand life deals you…”

“‘Cause that’s who you are, Kiera Snow.” The Curator stated, staring at her with a sombre expression.

“You’re always this. Always putting others first, even if it means you’ll be forgotten and left behind…” he gazed at the ground with a sad smile.

Letting out another sigh, The Curator, then walked towards the chamber, while speaking, an elderly expression on his features;

“But I’ve lived a very long life Kiera. The least I can do, is ensure that you outlive this, current me…”

“No. No, no, no! Please, no! No! Curator! No!!” Kiera screamed in pain, banging her hands on the cubicle harshly as tears brimmed on her eyelids,

Yet, The Curator soon arrived before the other cubicle and said something, his words barely above a whisper;

“Αδύνατος Άντρας… That’s, my real name… Might as well inform you before I go…”

“Goodbye, Kiera Snow. It’s been a pleasure, running with you.” he gave her the warmest of smiles, walking into the cubicle as the lady kept protesting, tears constantly falling down her cheeks.

Almost instantaneously, his entire cubicle, released a whizzing noise, filling up his side of the chamber with about a million rads of concentrated UV rays.

Buckling backwards in immense, body-wrenching pain, The Curator, let out a pained groan, clutching his heart as he his back, slowly dragged down the walls of the cubicle, till he eventually, fell to the ground.

In a few seconds, he was curled up like a centipede, groaning in pain as the radiation, slowly killed off every cell in his body…

As this was happening, Kiera kept sobbing, falling to her knees as she did;

“Cura…tor. No… Pl..ea..se… No. Pl..ea..se. I’m sorry. I’m so sor…ry…”

Yet the lady wasn’t even allowed to mourn properly when a sudden explosion, shook the spaceship they were on, causing her to forcefully, bang her head against the cubicle and knock herself out.

“Cut, Print. Check The Gate.”

–

Watching the scene which had already played out before them end, almost everyone on set, watched with a hint of pain in their eyes, Tiana included.

Some, even, already had tears, brimming on their eyelids, while some, were already wiping the drops of tears that fell down their cheeks.

Sure this was all fiction at the end of the day but, to pull off the act so convincingly, now that was something else entirely.

Kyle and Jasmine’s chemistry, also added so much more emotional depth to the scene, one that probably wouldn’t have turned out as great as it did if they weren’t good friends off set.

And so, as both actors stopped acting out the scene, Jasmine, took a bit more time, returning herself back to normal.

A friend of hers who was also on set, aided in consoling her and she too, did her best to quickly, pull herself together.

There was still one more scene, left for her to shoot, alongside The 10th Curator.

As for Kyle, for very obvious reasons, he had opted not to use [Deep Dive] for the scene they had just shot.

‘A million rads would be too dangerous, even if it wasn’t real…’ he thought to himself as one of the caterers, handed him a bottle of sparkling water.

No matter how much he had wanted to use it for this scene, Kyle knew, that it could have serious mental drawbacks that he would, quite possibly, take a long time to heal from.

It was always good to know when to use [Deep Dive] and when not to use it, especially with its increased effects of realism.

Still, staring at the bottle in his hands, knowing that he would now be shooting his final scene as The Curator in a few minutes, Kyle, decided to use both of the busted acting skills in his arsenal.

It was a great way to honor his role as the 10th Curator.

But, more than that, Kyle, wanted to leave his own mark on the show.

A mark, he would look back on and always be proud of, both as an actor and a fan boy of the show.

That, was why, he had come up with something of his own.

Something, none of the other Curators had ever done in the long, long history of the show.