Chapter 7
Balthazor, with haste, organized his group to his place. Bringing along the slain wyvern, all would soon learn of their coming test.
"Alright, this situation has gotten much darker much faster than I had expected it to, so I'm going to cut to the chase with this one; this chase may take a little while though, quite a bit of backstory to go through. Bailey, I would like you to go get the blueprints for Alpha and Beta; bring them back here while I give the guys the general situation. If you need, I will inform you upon return." Bailey gave this a simple nod and left to his quarters.
"Ben, if there are any holes that I leave open, feel free to fill them in. Now, before our discovery of…this" he gestured to the wyvern "we assumed that there were three potential outcomes to the problem of the world's magic being consumed. However, the first two have been thrown out the window with this murder. It is obvious we are dealing with an individual whose combat abilities are enough to slay a wyvern and removing all semblance of internal structure except for the skeletal system. When we came across the body, everything but the skeleton was emptied from Vladimir. The slash marks through its ventral region have given me no doubt that the individual to charge with the murder is a being that we created. This being, codenamed Alpha and never further nicknamed, is a being that was to be used as an energy bank, if you will. If it complied with us, we would have been able to use it as a reserve of magic in the case that it was needed for any granting emergency situation. Alpha was created in the form of a bear, a brown bear specifically. It would collect energy through its claws, and mouth whenever it consumed something. However, we failed to see that giving it a Heart of Fire caused it to get aggressive with us when it came to life. It was able to tap into the power of the Nether with the heart, and nearly killed us. Bailey managed to hit its emergency shutoff switch and we disposed of that thing as far away from us as possible. Evidently it found a way to switch itself back on, which would explain why it is all of a sudden that the magic is being taken."
"But, how could it be that Alpha is the sole reason for the disappearance of the magic? After all, it really is just one being; how could it cause immortal plants to die and skies to gray?"
Gribbles asked this with true wonder, for it was quite the perplexing situation. The ability for one being to be effectively killing the world merely by its existence is quite the feat, and would appear to most unconquerable. Balthazor is not one of the most.
"Well, you must consider that we did make Alpha and Beta with the exact same materials, we just designed them differently. After we got rid of Alpha, we recollected the needed items and made Beta. I must say, it did end up going better, didn't it?"
"Yea, but that doesn't answer my question. How is Alpha managing to do all of this on his own?"
"It is designed to be a magical storage unit, essentially. The reawakening alone more than likely used a lot of magic straight from the planet because it's not a magical creature; therefor it is essentially borrowing it and not giving it back. On top of this, given that the ability is present for the consumption of magic through the claws, and that the Heart of Fire created hostility towards US, there is little doubt that it has been hunting and killing anything that it comes across. With that much consumption, there is a chance that it has become a "magic magnet" if that makes sense; just taking in the magic from the planet by being alive."
As he finished describing how Alpha went about its leeching of the world's magic, Bailey came back with blueprints in hand. He was covered in grease, as he usually was when he left his den of technology. Where Gribbles was an expert on old fashioned technologies, what most would consider too outdated to be of any use but he considered a blessing in hidden by innovations, Bailey took pride in being ahead of the game with the most innovative technology known to the public; though he did often keep some of these hidden from the public, after all, the best must be saved for himself. The grease was splotched along his face in small dots, and firmly covered his green jacket and blue jeans. There was black a midst his blonde hair and upon the badge he wore his left collar, the badge was a purple wrench with crystal in the head; he wore his green goggles as to avoid getting any grease in his eyes.
"Alright guys, I've got the blueprints. Did I miss anything important?"
"Not really, I think he was just getting to the super important stuff." Answered Nick in an informative voice.
"Yes, you are right; the true importance will come from the plans at hand. Given that Alpha is strong enough to be taking energy passively from the planet; I suppose we'll have about…three days."
"Three days to do what?" asked Bailey.
"Three days to prepare ourselves to combat it. I know for a fact that it will come to us being hunted by Alpha until one finds the other. Since this is inevitable, it would be best to brush up on our abilities. Besides, we need to get Beta fight ready as well; there are many things left inactivated on it that we will need to show it how to use."
"Uhm, quick question… Who is Beta? I've never heard of him before." Nick asked.
"Having taken evaluations from this discussion, most likely it is I who is being referred to as 'Beta'. I can also infer that this is due to my being composed of the same materials as this being 'Alpha'. I scanned the blueprints that Bailey has in his possession."
The Compound was still unrecognizable for its telepathic communication, it sounded as monotone echoes to the other four.
"That, Compound, is why you are not being referred to as Beta anymore; however you are right, you are beta. We will not be referencing you as Beta because you surpassed Alpha in, well… You're more of a person than most people are, even though you are artificial."
"I can suppose that is one of your emotional evaluations taking effect. Very well then, I shall accept terminology other than 'Beta' as a reference to my being."
"Of course, you could always use some improvements, but they will come along with time. Now, as for training…"
