The Mech Touch

The green mech currently emanated a powerful bronze corona as its stupendously amplified glow stretched across dozens of city blocks!

Tens of thousands of residents, workers, visitors and professionals all paused what they were doing as the Everchanger's ridiculously wide glow encompassed them all without any restraint.

In truth, Venerable Joshua had the option of limiting the angle and range of his expert mech's glow so that it only affected the site of the meeting.

However, Ves ordered him to go full blast, so that was exactly what he did. The response from the local authorities was not in his consideration. That was the responsibility of the patriarch and the rest of the clan.

While Vulcan's glow had an effect on many different people, it exerted its greatest effect on those with artistic or engineering backgrounds.

The mech designers, visual artists, fashion designers, weaponsmiths and other people who created works for a living all entered into a creative overdrive.

They all came up with brand-new ideas or viewed their existing ones in a new light. Although Vulcan's amplified glow wasn't as effective as getting hit on the head with the Hammer of Brilliance, it was still a completely life-changing experience to the people who never encountered it before, let alone any other glow!

Ves grinned as he saw how deeply the chief ship designer and the chief shipbuilder had become affected by the Everchanger's actions.

Before this point, he actually doubted whether this harebrained scheme could actually work.

This was why Ves felt it was important to prep Karina Murphy and Melaia Murphy beforehand by addressing them in person. By bringing up certain keywords such as creation, innovation and design, he guided their thoughts in a space where they became primed to embrace Vulcan's glow.

Right now, it looked as if his efforts had paid out. Whereas Gelly Murphy looked irked as she exerted her firm will that she had honed for many decades as the head of Murphy & Sons, her daughters were not as resistant.

In fact, even if they possessed the mental fortitude to disregard Vulcan's influence, they didn't want to get rid of it at all. Even though the effect was already starting to temper now that they harvested the most immediate benefits the glow, they still felt creatively inspired the longer they remained in this condition.

"Sir!" Joshua transmitted to Ves' implant. "The local security forces have drummed up their mechs. They're on their way and they're already demanding me to cease my operation. I'll have to stop what I'm doing."

"It's okay." Ves transmitted back. "You've done your job. Don't resist but don't let the authorities take you away. Wait for my people to handle this matter. You've done no harm today. In fact, it's quite the opposite. You have helped many people in the Commercial District."

He quickly sent a few messages to his clan to urge them to handle the aftermath of his radical plan.

Meanwhile, the Everchanger finally retracted its powerful, wide-ranging glow. A void seemed to have appeared in the Commercial District as many different people returned to normality.

"What happened?"

"It's an alien attack! We almost got mind-wiped by the space lizards!"

"This isn't an attack. This is a gift!"

"Why did it stop?! I just had the greatest idea!"

The Everchanger's stunt only lasted for a relatively short amount of time, but the impact it had on all of those people was enormous!

Many people became lost. Others were afraid. A portion of them had benefited from Vulcan's influence and wanted more!

Regardless of their reactions, it was undeniable that this remarkable exposure had changed their lives. Whether it was for the better was still questionable.

The governing powers who reigned over Davute VII received conflicting reports and were reluctant to make any reckless decisions. It was no joke to engage in hostilities against an apparently-powerful expert mech in a populated area!

While confusion continued to spread outside, Ves continually disregarded Gelly Murphy's mounting apoplexy and only directed his attention to the two key figures that he had tried to woo with his risky stunt.

"…This is an outrage!" Madame Gelly Murphy shrieked as she did not take the earlier disruption well! "Miss Tyana Delcrost was completely correct about you and your clan! You are nothing but ruffians and vagabonds with delusions of greatness! I want each of you to disappear from my sight and never show up in my vicinity again! You can completely forget about ordering any ship from my company for the rest of your clan's existence! Even if my shipyard is starved of orders, I will not even sell you a single shuttle!"

"Mother! Stop for a moment." Karina Murphy finally said as she raised her hand against the CEO of Murphy & Sons.

This time, Gelly Murphy directed her outrage towards her oldest daughter.

"Karina! You cannot possibly believe in this man, do you?! He has tried to manipulate you into abandoning our best chance at restoring our shipyard. Do not fall for his tricks!"

"Mother, listen to Karina." Melaia Murphy backed up her sister rather than her mother in this instance. "We have always held doubts about ZZR Industries, but we didn't voice them because you were in charge."

"If you acknowledge that I am in charge, then why are you working against me? You are showing disunity in front of outsiders!"

"We don't care about that right now, mother! As much as you think that Patriarch Larkinson has spoken out of order, everything he said was right." Karina said.

Melaia nodded. "Back when we were younger, Murphy & Sons wasn't like this. We had more freedom to experiment and develop new ship classes. We received more leeway to explore different designs and we didn't have to abide by so many restrictions."

Their mother remained unmoved. "We could afford to give you this leeway because our company was doing well at the time. Sales were high and we weren't subjected to onerous demands. Times are different now, and we need to adapt to our current situation. We need to ensure our survival first. We can talk about innovation another day when our crisis has passed and everything returns to stability."

"That talk will never happen, mother. We've been under your direction for our entire lives. You'll take the safe option over the better option."

"I'm thinking about your futures!"

"What if we don't want to embrace your vision?!" Karina Murphy pushed back. "Have you ever thought about that, hm?! I was always chafing under your strict rules, and it is only now that I have mustered the courage to speak out. ZZR Industries may be helpful, but if it is run by a woman who looks down on rimlanders such as ourselves, how can we trust this pit of snakes?"

"That is irrelevant." Gelly hissed. "We are different from the likes of the Larkinsons. We are shipbuilders!"

"You're not a shipbuilder." Melaia retorted. "My sister and I are the ones in charge of development and construction. I don't want to do this, but I think it is best that you reverse your earlier decision."

"Why? Why would I possibly do that?"

Karina Murphy glanced at Ves. "The Larkinsons have shown us a different way forward. We didn't go through all of the effort of entering the Red Ocean just to return to our old routines. We want to work in a different company. A greater company. A company where we can stand out and become famous in the shipbuilding sector. A company that is known for constructing the best and most interesting starships."

Neither side took a step back in this. The Murphy Family clearly couldn't come to a consensus at this time.

Gelly Murphy was beyond angry at this. It was already bad enough that one of the guests she invited had completely acted out of script. Having her own daughters talk back to her in front of others was even worse!

She glared towards Ves and the rest of the outsiders in the meeting chamber. "All of you, out. This has gone on long enough."

The old woman waved her hand, causing a powerful privacy screen to appear that completely isolated the Murphy Family's conversation.

Meanwhile, uniformed guards stepped forward and ‘gently' urged the Redfields, the ZZRs and the Larkinsons to make their way out and leave via their shuttles as soon as possible.

Ves shrugged and did not resist. He and the rest of his delegation calmly left the compound and steadily boarded the shuttle. Once they were inside and secure, the vehicle smoothly lifted off and flew back towards the Larkinson Clan's temporary base.

He half-expected the local authorities to halt his journey, but nothing of the sort had happened.

"What's the update on Joshua and the Everchanger?" Ves asked as he reached out to Lucky and pulled him onto his lap.

"Meow." The cat grumpily responded as he looked towards Calabast.

Minister Shederin had been in constant contact with the clan. It took a moment for him to answer.

"The situation is… delicate at the moment. Right now, the authorities do not dare to make a heavy-handed response. Not only are they afraid of escalation, they do not want to ruin the safe and stable image of Davute either. Only a handful of law enforcement mechs have come out in the open to surround the Everchanger."

Ves slowly nodded. He had already figured out that the locals wouldn't want to make any hasty responses.

That said, it was never a good idea to mess with the local powers!

"How do you think this will end?"

"Seeing as we did not hurt anyone and do not pose an immediate threat, the authorities should seek to deescalate the situation and seek to create as little negative publicity as possible. They might even attempt to put a positive spin on this incident."

"All so they can convince everyone that no attack of any sort has occurred, right?" Ves smirked.

"Correct." Minister Shederin smiled back. "From what my people and I have gleaned from their response, the people in charge will not seek to exert too much pressure on us. That would break the narrative that the Everchanger did nothing wrong. I cannot say whether they will seek to punish us in other, less visible ways. We may encounter considerably more obstruction when applying for permits and such. Depending on the severity of these actions, our future business dealings in this star system might become impaired."

"That's the risk we took when we enacted plan B."

"You didn't have to make such a big show of it, sir. I may not know too much about mechs, but I can guess that the Everchanger didn't have to affect so many people in the Commercial District at once. You deliberately commanded Venerable Joshua to expand his expert mech's glow to encompass the greatest possible area."

"I did." Ves admitted.

Shederin looked upset. "Your decision has strained our relations with the authorities. You have jeopardized our plans to form a trade association and build a headquarters in the Financial District. The benefits may very well outweigh our gains this time, especially if your attempt to divide the Murphy Family has failed. Was it worth it to take so many risks just to promote your ‘Creation Association', patriarch?"

The old man was right to sound upset, but Ves did not regret his decision all that much.

"Gaining the support of Murphy & Sons has always been my main purpose. Promoting my Creation Association was a convenient side goal. There are so many people here that Vulcan's glow must have generated an enormous amount of publicity while also attracting the interest of at least a thousand accomplished professionals. I think I'll head back to my personal workshop to fabricate a batch of totems. We'll certainly need it to meet the demand of customers who want to relive that earlier moment."

As far as Ves was concerned, he had managed to hit two birds with a single stone today. Sparking another controversy was a small price to pay for progress!