Project Overworld

- "Nice job." Keith commented at Leyla's work at assembling the various modules to the EOSS. The station just gained five new rooms of space and Keith felt really elated about this. Although most of these were not that useful as of now, it would allow Spacol's members to work directly from space in the future.

With that being done, they finally focused onto improving that space shuttle. Keith's goal was to expand the vehicle to twice its previous size so there would be more spare room for him to add fuel tanks and other supplies. Since this spacecraft would eventually be used for long-distance travels, it needed to get as large as possible.

The only problem they currently faced was related to the resources they had at their disposal. In fact, Keith has not been able to launch a lot of building materials up there and most of it was being used to reinforce the hull of the EOSS anyways. That was why, they have had to reconsider their plans for the time being and only focus on improving the structure of the vehicle for now.

Over the course of the following days, Keith and Leyla spent all their evenings together, working onto the space shuttle. By the end of the week, they eventually ran out of materials and programmed their return to the Earth the next day.

- "That was one of the most interesting journey I've lived." Leyla expressed after they agreed on going back.

- "Working in space sure gives and otherworldly feeling. I'm glad you were able to come with me, we were able to finish everything I wanted to do in a week after all. Anyways, see you tomorrow!" Keith said before disconnecting from the game.

Leyla stayed up there for a bit, watching through one of the window that giant sphere of land and water that was the Earth.

'This is so relaxing. I hope I'll get to see this view a whole lot in the future. ' She thought before disconnecting in turn. In a matter of seconds, the station was emptied from any movement and its lights automatically switched off.

_______________

- "Hey look at that!" Michael exclaimed while taking a ramp with his remote controlled toy. The vehicle did a backflip in the air before landing on its four wheels.

His friends cheered for him as he went for a few other stunts around the base. During the week they have been starting working on this project, the three of them actually managed to transmit information to their toys using ultrasonic waves.

Thanks to this, they have been able to refine the movements of their cars and customize it to their own liking. Since there was no rules for the incoming race other than following the path they had delimited, each of them thought of weapons they could be using to win the competition.

Although there would be no real price to earn from it, their own ego would be put to the test.

Tyler named his vehicle 'Fafnir' because he had install several lighers around its structure to hopefully deal a lot of damage to the other vehicles which got close to his.

In the case of Xena, she equipped her car with a large metal frame with several parts jutting out of it resembling blades or wings. She named it 'Winged Angel' and its goal was to obstruct the passage for the other cars while trying to tear apart reckless ones.

When it was finally time for Michael to introduce his vehicle to the other contestans, they had to refrain from laughing because of its really peculiar appearance.

- "What is this?!" Tyler exclaimed. All around Michael's car were glued plastic protuberances mimicking another kind of "a.d.u.l.t" toy.

- "Don't make fun of the Penetrator, it will make a short work of your creations. You'll see." He confidently declared before his companions who were trying really hard to stay serious.

Each of them put down their own vehicle by the starting line. Only Tyler had a few preparations to do beforehand, lighting up all the lighters that his vehicle was equipped with that is.

Once he was done with it, they all started counting down from five to zero until the race officially begun.

- "Let's go!" Michael exclaimed. At first, all the vehicle were really close to one another, trying to take the lead off of the others. Michael's car was the lightest of them all, thus the fastest, but he could not quite take the lead because he was trying so hard not to get close to Tyler's.

Finally, that of Xena did not care at all and even tried pushing both of the other vehicles around. However, because of its really heavy structure it was a lot more slowish. In fact, Michael's car had a really good matchup against hers because of the plastic toys scattered around its structure.

Overall, each of them had an advantage over one of the other contestants. Fafnir could set up the Penetrator on fire at any moment because its structure was mostly made out of plastic. Michael could try and ignore the damage that was done to his car but the heat could potentially deteriorate his battery as well as making him lose his favorable matchup against Xena. The latter's car, thanks to its heavy metal armor, could approach that of Tyler without an hint of worry, but suffered a lot from the pointy toys of Michael which could eventually flip her vehicle around.

After several seconds of racing against each other, Michael superior tactics at controlling his car made him gain a substantial lead. However, the Penetrator got tangled in one of the obstacles they installed across the race and was caught up by the Winged Angel, which got rid of Fafnir after pushing it around.

The Penetrator's plastic toys were taking up most of the obstacle's surface so Xena was stuck in turn by Michael's vehicle.

- "Move!" She exlaimed, but to no avail. In fact, Fafnir came back from the delay he had acc.u.mulated and ram into the both of them. Although the Winged Angel was not really impacted by it, the Penetrator quickly caught on fire until it finally untangled itself from the obstacle.

'I have to win this as fast as possible!' Michael realized after seeing his car in such a bad shape. Fortunately, no other obstacle bothered him and his driving skills until he finally made it to the finish line in first place.

- "Woohoo!" He exclaimed while jumping in place. However, a voice coming from behind him quickly showered his enthusiasm.

- "What made you so delightful?" The voice asked. Obviously, Michael immediately recognized him and gulped down while turning around.

'Oops, we've been found out.' He thought while a shiver ran through his back.

- "I can explain!" He immediately tried to defuse the situation. However, it would be really hard for him to justify why there was a long racing track twining around the room and a car made out of a.d.u.l.t toys burning down by the end of it.

This whole scenery almost made Keith laugh on the spot if it was not for the fact that the track could also be taking on fire at any moment and degenerate into a much more complex problem.

During the following hour, Michael, Tyler and Xena were forced to clean the mess they have done and explain what this was all about to their boss.

While they were explaining their grandiose project to Keith, this time he could not refrain from laughing at the pitiful faces they were making. He did not care that much about what they were doing while he was away, but he admonested them for a couple of minutes over the dangerousness of the situation.

Fire has always been a force to be reckoned. Midgard's firefighters paid the price quite heavily when Keith made a missile explode in a nearby forest.

Leyla was the most impacted by witnessing the mess the others have done while Keith and her were away. She blamed herself for not being there to monitor the new recruits and instead leaving with Keith into space. She tried to apologize in their sake to Keith, but the latter made her understand that it was not a big deal at all.

- "Man, I think your vehicle lacked a bit of personality to it. You should add a few more toys to it next time around. I'll show you how we truly make a remote controlled car, then." Keith proclaimed while winking at Michael.

However, he quickly realized that one of the members of Spacol was missing and went around the crafting room to find him.

- "Ah, there you are." He said after witnessing Jim being focused on the elaboration of a machine. "What are you working on right now?" He could not help but be interested.

- "Oh, welcome back Keith. I'm currently developing a mold for rocket spoilers." He then proceeded to explain the whole process to his boss, before the latter suggested a few ways to improve his build and thanked Jim for his serious and constant work.

'I feel like this team is well distributed. Obviously, what the other three did was totally against what they were assigned to do, but as long as they don't slack off I feel like this race has made them more proefficient in some way or another. Neither Leyla nor I ever explained anything to them about ultrasonic waves, but they still managed to make functional remote controlled vehicles. As for Jim, he is a really serious student and made a lot of progress building automated crafting processes on his own. However, I fear that he might be left out by the others in the future. He needs to be a bit more social and show some interest towards whatever they are doing.' Keith meditated. 'I should focus on developing a strong team synergy in the future. They need to be ready to work in pair with any of the other members without being awkward about it.' He concluded. This whole situation really clarified what he needed to do as a boss to train his team to be efficient in their work and in their social skills.

With that being said, Keith went back to his office and started making plans for the next few weeks.