Chapter 7 – Child Emperor's Lab

Hey, everyone – I'm back!

Sorry for the delay. I'd have posted sooner, but I've been feeling a little under the weather lately. Fortunately, I'm better now and that means the story can finally go on!

But before I start, I would like to thank 0404617 for the follow, and also to everyone else who's taken the time to read this story!

Guestv2: Glad you think so! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Ninguem248: Just wait till you see what happens next!

Z: Thank you :)

Anyways, on with the chapter!

The kid – Child Emperor – led the three of them into his laboratory.

His lab consisted of several smaller dome-shaped buildings joined to a large central one and each other via tunnels. The inside of the main building they'd been led into was large and spacious, most of the tech-y stuff being stored efficiently out of the way.

Child Emperor was – like any other ten-year old – short and had short, ruffled, chocolate-brown hair. While some of it fell in a fringe across his forehead, a single bit of it stuck up on the top of his head. His eyes were large and the irises amber-colored but he himself was slightly on the pale side. He wore a pale blue polo shirt and darker blue shorts. On his left wrist was a bulky watch, similar to many Valkyrie had seen before. His white socks stopped a few inches above his ankles and he wore orange sneakers with white rims. On his back was a black leather backpack that he seemed intent on carrying.

As of yet, Valkyrie hadn't decided what she thought of him. She thought she would reserve her judgement for later… after all, he was yet to do anything. While Valkyrie related to him what had happened to her, though, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he frowned to himself thoughtfully.

"That's rather interesting… make that 'amazing', really." Child Emperor proceeded to rub his hands together with a grin, "Just think! Alternate and parallel realities exist out there! Think of all the possibilities – endless!"

"The only possibility I'm interested in right now is whether you can get the two of us home," Valkyrie said bluntly.

Turning to Valkyrie, Child Emperor smiled at her patronizingly, and the sorcerer didn't like that. She didn't like it one bit. He was a kid. A look like that didn't suit a kid's face. He hopped backwards onto a chair that was then lifted into the air by a sort of robotic arm attached to the bottom of it. Seemingly out of nowhere, he then produced a large pink lollipop that he then put in his mouth.

"Well?" Zombieman spoke for the first time since they had walked into the lab, "Can you help them?"

"Mmmaybe," he removed the lollipop from his mouth, "maybe not. But why come to me?" He gestured to Valkyrie, "I mean, it's plain to see that you don't even remotely like the idea of asking for my help, and Toph… well, she doesn't seem to care…"

"Got that one right, shorty!" The girl laughed.

Valkyrie simply looked miffed, folding her arms as an all-too familiar voice in her head made clear its own opinion of the Class-S hero.

"So?" Child Emperor quizzed, "What are your reasons, hmm?"

Child Emperor was already looking past Valkyrie and towards the other Class-S hero. She too turned to look at Zombieman, her own expression curious. He'd never mentioned why he'd brought them here specifically, after all. Was Child Emperor insinuating there were other places and people they could have gone to?

"Well, it's not like I could have just gone to Metal Knight or Drive Knight, could I?" He said with a shrug, "First off, I don't even know where either of them operates, plus they're nowhere near as approachable as you are."

Valkyrie frowned at the mention of these two new names. She wondered who this Metal Knight and Drive Knight were supposed to be. And what kind of people were they, anyway?

"And second," Zombieman continued, "they'd want something in return."

Child Emperor grinned as Zombieman concluded his reply. The ten-year old then proceeded to take a tab from another robotic arm that had appeared out of nowhere. He held it up in front of his face and Valkyrie then realised it was just a see-through panel of glass with a metal border. Squinting slightly, though, she realised there were faint figures projected onto the glass panel.

"That's all true," Child Emperor admitted, "but who's to say I won't ask for anything in return?"

"… I'm hopeful."

"Don't worry, Zombieman! You made the right choice by coming to me!" Child Emperor hopped off the chair even though it was still about ten feet in the air but landed casually on his feet. "Don't worry, Toph! Don't worry… actually, I didn't get your name," he said to Valkyrie apologetically.

"Valkyrie Cain." The sorcerer stated flatly.

"Don't worry, Valkyrie Cain! I'll get you back to your home dimensions – you can count on me!" He grinned broadly.

"Sounds like good plan to me!" Toph declared as she flopped down into a sitting position.

"Oh, before you get too comfortable, though, I'm going to need some sample materials from you so…"

Valkyrie frowned as Child Emperor trailed off, looking around searchingly as if he had forgotten about something.

"What kind of samples are we talking about?" Valkyrie asked.

"Like this?" Toph asked as she pulled her finger out of her ear, something stuck to the end of it.

The sorcerer winced before taking a few steps away from the young Earthbender. Zombieman too, blinked in surprise while Child Emperor stared at Toph's hand blankly, his search seemingly forgotten for the moment.

"Erm… that's not even remotely what I had in mind…" He admitted slowly.

The ten-year old silently looked at a chest of metal drawers that stood against a wall for a moment, his expression thoughtful. He then shook his head as if dismissing a thought and turned back to them.

"Right, so what I do need are skin and hair samples." Child Emperor informed them. "Oh, and maybe some cloth samples from your clothes."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be possible," Valkyrie admitted with a slight grimace.

Child Emperor looked at her searchingly.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Let's just say my clothes are practically indestructible. It's going to be impossible to cut out a sample," she said with an almost-apologetic shrug.

"Hm," Child Emperor frowned thoughtfully, "well that will be a problem. Okay then, scratch the cloth samples. Instead, I want you both to…"

He paused as a robotic arm unfolded from his backpack to hand him two glass dishes that appeared out of a metal box that lifted out of the floor. Taking the dishes, he proceeded to hand Valkyrie and Toph one each.

"A single hair strand is all I need," he said to them. "Just put it in and put it there," he gestured to a table that raised itself out of the floor, "and then come over here so I can remove some epidermal samples."

"Sure," said the two girls.

They both did what Child Emperor instructed and left their hair samples on the blocky-looking table before proceeding to move over to the strange machine where he was waiting. Valkyrie didn't watch what he was doing, and didn't even feel the machine remove any skin. She only knew it was done when Child Emperor gave her a thumbs-up and shooed her away. That kid was certainly something, she thought with a frown to herself. Waiting for Toph to finish up, she leaned back against the table, close to where Zombieman stood with his arms folded over his chest.

"So are you excited knowing you could be going back home soon?" He asked.

"Well, I guess so," she responded with a shrug.

"You don't sound it." He observed.

"Oh my god! I'm so happy – I get to go back to all my friends!" Valkyrie gushed before turning to Zombieman with a flat expression on her face, "Better?"

"… Laid it on a bit too thick, I think," he finally commented.

"Really?" She feigned surprise.

"Sarcasm will only get you so far." Zombieman told her, "So how many people've you got waiting for you?"

Valkyrie's thoughts immediately turned to her parents before she remembered that her reflection would still be filling in for her. For sure Skulduggery would be worried about her, he would probably even be searching for clues right now. So Valkyrie shrugged before she answered Zombieman's question.

"I've got a few," she admitted, being deliberately vague about it.

The blank-faced hero nodded in understanding and didn't press any further. At the same time Valkyrie felt guilty for keeping back information from him, and she also wished he'd show a bit more interest.

"What about you?" She asked abruptly.

"What about me?" Zombieman's voice had a slight defensive edge to it.

Valkyrie hesitated, seeing the Class-S hero's red eyes narrow fractionally.

"Earlier today…" Valkyrie began hesitantly, slightly taken aback by his reaction, "Is that an autopsy scar you have?"

Zombieman said nothing. He looked straight ahead at something unseen and Valkyrie saw a muscle working in his jaw. She could tell that he was deep in thought; but deep in thought about what, she had no idea.

"Yeah." Came his abrupt response, "That's what it is."

Valkyrie blinked in surprise.
She hadn't expected him to answer that. He turned towards her, the dark shadows below his red eyes seemed even more pronounced.

"You think I died?" He asked her.

"Well…" Valkyrie trailed off. "Did you?"

"I think so." He frowned, "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Truth is, I don't really know."

Valkyrie stared at him; unsure of what to think or even say. Absently, she wondered how Skulduggery would react to meeting Zombieman – another man who had returned from the dead. She closed her hand in a fist. Her necromancer ring wasn't cold so that meant there was no death close by – it also meant he was alive. Well, alive to some degree.

"Dead or not," Valkyrie began, "if it wasn't for you, both of us would've had to live out the rest of our lives here. We'd never have been able to go home." She half-smiled, "Besides, there's nothing wrong with having been dead; I knew some zombies back home, too. And even my partner died before."

Zombieman gave her a curious expression.

"Well, that's nice to know." He chuckled, "And there's no need to thank me. I'm a hero; helping people is my job."

"If you insist," Valkyrie grinned.

"Alright, Dimension Jumpers, listen up!" Child Emperor called out, "It's going to take some time to build the portal frame and everything else needed to run and power it, but I can guarantee that it'll all be ready at the end of the day. During that time, my machines will be working to get a fix on which dimension-slash-reality you two are from." Child Emperor paused, "Though I have to admit, this is a first for me and there's always the chance that something will go horribly wrong and we will all die excruciatingly painful deaths – but you know what they say; you'll never know 'til you try!"

"Way to be cheerful," Zombieman muttered.

"End of the day?" Toph groaned, "If there's one thing I'm lousy at, it's being patient!"

"Well, you guys could always look around City Y," Child Emperor suggested. "It's Spring and Spring's the best time to visit."

"Oh yeah?" Toph asked almost sarcastically.

"Sure!" He declared enthusiastically, "I can show you around – but give me a moment – I've gotta tell my machines what to do!"