Taking Sarah along back into your room (literally, she insists you carry her), you also telepathically tell Okita to come find you there, opening the door to find your little priestess already waiting as you ordered the servants to arrange, entirely naked (not that it would make much of a difference in this case).
It isn't long before Okita comes inside, looking around curiously at everyone assembled. You don't make her wait long for an explanation, however.
"So, I am about to have to return back to the world I came from. No time will pass in this world while we will be gone, and I have chosen to bring everyone in the room back with me. Any questions?"
The naked priestess looks up from where she's sitting on the ground, but doesn't speak up. Okita just tils her head, but you can tell it is an 'I am thinking' tilt than a 'Please explain' one. However, the person that coughs into her fist and begins to talk is Sarah, much to your mild surprise.
"What my brother isn't telling you is that you can't take any objects along for the ride, so you'll end up naked whether you make like our good little pet here beforehand or not." Going to pat the priestess' head, she gives Okita a bit of space... that she just uses to securely pack away her giant sword.
At your questioning tilt, she just nods. "Have to be careful with it. I broke a lot of things just moving when I first got it, so it's best if I have a moment before I pick it up again."
Shrugging, you just let her be for the moment until she is done, whence you proceed to hold your hands out so people can touch them. "If you're all done the, touch my hands and get ready to jump dimensions."
Taking okita and sarah's hand, you smile a little at how your little priestess dithers for a moment before shyly giving you a kiss instead, much to Sarah's mild annoyance. Too late, though, it's time you go!
With a quiet plop, you wrench yourself and everyone touching you out of the space and time you were standing in...
...and with another plop, you show up again in Coil's old bedroom.
Home sweet home.
"Hey Kate, we're back." You happily announce as you stride out of the room, having thrown on your clothes real quick.
"Hey Gabe, had fun?" She asks, bemused. Maybe because the situation is just that funny to an outside observer, you having a vacation in five minutes?
"Lots of fun, even. Killed a load of people, did a few war crimes, the usual thing if you're suddenly dropped inside a weird fantasy world. I'm a bit worried I didn't spend enough time with Sarah, though. Oh, and I brought a few people back, too."
Just as you finish speaking, Okita and priestess come out, Sarah having given up finding some temporary clothes for them and following after them.
"This is Okita, she's a sweetheart once you get how she works, and this is... that priestess we never bothered getting a name for. She does healy magic, and is mainly a fuckpet."
Unamused by now, Kate pinches the bridge of her nose. "Guess I'll actually need to get the long version, huh?"
After taking a few minutes to indulge in your usual little ritual, you see to it that priestess is taken care of by someone that can acclimatize her to a modern environment, ignoring the vaguely shaken look on her face.
And by someone to acclimatize her, you're talking about Sarah, given you have nobody else available that you'd trust not to fuck it up. Still, for now, she's just being given a room and a few hours to get used to the idea of being in another world. You'll be needing Sarah for a bit, along with a few others.
Luckily, it doesn't take too long to assemble your whole team of thinkers and Thinkers, consisting of Kate, as your official second in command and the poor woman that got stuck with the paperwork you refuse to do, Sarah as the best little sister in the world and also fairly powerful thinker, Sherrel and Lea as the tinker and Tinker of your gang, Cupcake (who immediately starts pouting as you call her that), Nora as a powerful 'parahuman' asset, or rather, just being useful in general and lastly Henley as the gang's main accountant.
Also in attendance are the souls of that idiotic buffer hero, to enhance the thinkering of everyone else, and that anal hero guy as a scientific advisor, whose name you have bothered to learn as Uyehara Yoshiaki, though he requested not to be called Yoshi.
You're still thinking about whether or not you care.
"Now then, everyone," You begin after everyone is seated inside one of the conference rooms on the base, "Time to begin the first organizational meeting of the Lord Street Crypts."
"So, to begin the meeting, I would like to announce that I have gained the ability to choose to impart select powers upon people I have empowered, rather than have it be random, as well as giving out up to two at a time.
Anyone got any preferences?"
You were completely expecting the wall of voices slamming through the room while everyone begins talking at once, which is why you give them a few moments before holding up your hands.
"Now, now, everyone, I can't hear you when you all talk at once. First off, any questions before I go through everyone for what they want?"
Sherrel raises a hand, letting you consciously note just how much good being your thrall has done her. Really, she's fucking hot.
"Uhm, how is that possible? I mean, powers aren't supposed to be able to change like that."
Internally smiling at being given such a great opportunity, you take a split second to formulate how you want to bring across the bare truth.
"I am not a parahuman in the first place, I just pretend I am as my actual powerset comes from a completely different source that does not actually exist within our universe. The regular rules of parahuman powers do not apply to me in the slightest and by most standards I am some unholy mixture of Eidolon, Crawler, Reverse Butcher, The Fairy Queen, Simurgh, Nilbog and Lung.
What this all means is, I can totally break any and all conventional rules of powers, as they never applied to me in the first place."
Amidst the mix of stunned and smug silence, you give everyone a look before turning towards Kate.
"Incidentally, I have already worked out how to give a marginally lesser copy of my power to others, which is what my sister got. Honestly, the only really bothersome part is the sun allergy that comes with it.
Now, what powers would you want, Kate?"
It takes a bit of telling Kate about what powers you actually have available to impart, but soon enough you have everyone aware of the possibilitie powers they could ask for.
"Okay, so could I trade in my claws and get to be bulletproof in exchange? With the ability to see blood through obstacles. I figure I should be able to shoot stuff through walls with a heavy enough calibre. Once I finally get to shoot someone again, anyways."
"Alright, let's go through everyone first, then I can get to changing things around."
"I dunno, I'm pretty happy with my improved senses," Sherrel chimes in, "So I'd like to keep them. Aside from that, I dunno, maybe that electricity stuff could be neat. I'm not exactly hard up for anything new either way, though."
"I'm keeping the bulletproofiness. This stuff is great. I'm mostly fine with just that, though, so I'm kinda stumped in terms of more power... Maybe blood control, maybe electricity, or hey, maybe one of those transformation powers could be neat." So much for Nora's opinion.
Lea begins to fidget a little, it being her turn as you seem to be going through everyone from left to right. "Um, I don't wanna complain? But that levitation stuff isn't really useful to me usually. I think I'd prefer the senses and the, uh, electricity, too."
Addy Cupcake's turn now. "MmmI like being an owl. It's really cool. Just throw in the senses on top like the others and I'm good."
Last but not least, Henley's turn. And boy, did being thralled agree with him, if you're being honest. You didn't expect it would work this fast for him.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't really make use of my power, nor do I have a use for any of them when doing the accounting. Change it up or don't, I'm perfectly fine either way. My own power is enough of a bother sometimes."
Aaand that's everyone currently eligible for power changes inside the room.
"Alright, so Kate gets bulletproof and bloodsight, Sherrel gets electricity added on top, Nora gets to try out the hemokinesis for a bit, Lea gets switched to a copy of Sherrel's set, Cupcake-" "Hey!" "-gets the senses added on top and I'll just throw in bulletproof for Henley, just in case. Everyone okay with this?"
Receiving a round of nods and agreeing nods, you continue. "Keep in mind I cannot change this out for a month again, so if you change your mind, it'll take some time until you can get another loadout."
Leaning back for a moment, you go through your thrall connections, including that of Bitch, while you're at it.
Hey, I'm about to give you another power that lets you understand animals.
...Okay.
With that cleared up, you proceed to add and exchange powers across your thralls, taking just a few moments to get it all done once you've gotten used to the task.
"Done. Feel free to familiarise yourselves with your powers later. For now, time to continue the meeting. First of all, how is everything coming along?"
It is Henley that speaks up first this time, clearing his throat before launching into a hastily prepared presentation, from the looks of it.
"First of all, integrating our new assets is going well. If you would pass these around and take a copy," As he talks, he hands out a sheet of papers, and you bemusedly take one off and hand it to Kate, "These financial assets are now under our full control. While there are some more bank accounts from all over the world we are working on, we currently have just under 12 million dollars at our discretion, with another 18 million dollars in investments.
I don't need to tell you that this is a lot."
Briefly reading over what Henley likely put together in ten minutes after being told you called a meeting, you are begrudgingly impressed. Additional information that looks interesting is supplementing the important stuff he's telling you anyways, with added pie charts here and there for good measure.
"Furthermore, we have full control of the base we are currently living in, along with three other, smaller bases spread throughout the city, likely originally meant to be used as safehouses and data backup sites. Incidentally, we also have legal ownership of an old building registered under 'Redmond Welding' out in the docks, as well as the lots surrounding it. It is my understanding that this arrangement was supposed to serve as the lair of the cape group known as the Undersiders?"
"Indeed. A deniable asset seperate of Coil's other operations. They're working for us now." May as well clarify stuff where appropriate.
"Which explains why I was requested to keep one Brian Laborn in a position at one of our subsidiary fronts. Aside from all this, we are still exerting efforts to ensure nobody notices the 'silent partner' of several high-stakes businesses has changed, which is looking well so far."
It is at this point that Kate leans a little forwards to begin talking in turn.
"Our criminal assets are currently occupied reorganizing, both due to our takeover of Merchant territory and our less... open acquisitions. To that end, we've had people ransack what's left of merchant safehouses, before burning down a decent number of them. They were too filthy, and while we can heal addictions just fine, widespread diseases are more of a concern.
At last count, we have recovered about half a million dollars in cash, as well as several warehouses full of drugs with an estimated value of another 2 to 3 million dollars. The Merchants had a surprising amount of both money and drugs circulating, for all that their infrastructure was haphazard as fuck.
The only issue we seem to be having is that the girls are getting a bit bored, so I was thinking about setting something up to keep them busy, though there are no concrete plans yet."
Cupcake stretches herself upwards, as though she was trying to appear taller and/or more important.
"On that topic, creating all that addictol is a serious amount of both time and money we consume. I'd like to suggest we either find a way to reduce the amount we need or at least get me a few helpers, as it is, it's all I'm doing every day when I could be experimenting with buffout instead."
"Oh, uh, I've been busy tinkering and stuff, so nothing unusual happening on my end." Sherrel adds.
"Ditto" Comes from Lea. Looks like that's all for the current state of operations, with Nora mainly just there to solve issues as they come up.
Clapping your hands once, you speak up now that the situation is clear. "Okay, with everyone up-to-date on how we are doing, I wanted to go through a small list of thoughts and ideas on what to do next, unless anyone else had any suggestions first...?"
Looking around, nobod moves to speak, meaning you are good to go.
"Okay, first off, I would like for us to officially own the land the Merchants used to occupy until now through however many subsidiaries we need to. The rationale behind this is mostly that the land should be rather cheap and easy to grab, and we can easily renovate the properties through the use of robots so long as we can keep law enforecement out of the area."
"Yes, about that, from what I know, those cannot be tinkertech, as the only tinker we have is centered around vehicles and even if those robots counted, she would be doing nothing but upkeep on those-"
"They're legitimate technology I stole from another dimension. No tinkertech required, though they're also not as bullshit as tinkertech. Same goes for the manufactories I wanted to bring up in a bit and the laser muskets we've been handing out."
That shut Henley up good.
"Obtaining the properties in question should be quite doable, then, though I am not sure how easy it would be to hide large-scale renovations, and the authorities are sure to investigate at some point."
Or not.
"As I mentioned, it was just an initial idea. That said, doing this would stand to improve the territory we have taken for ourselves as well as give the bulk of our unpowered minions an actual place to live. May even eventually revitalize the area as a whole if things turn out alright, as well as another place for money laundering. For now, just make sure we own the properties, we'll see about the rest."
Getting an assenting nod, you move onto the next line of thought.
"Next off, I would like for us to consider buying a slaughterhouse or two. Money laundering being another side benefit, but mostly as an easy way to access copious amounts of animal leftovers that aren't sold to supplement my stores of human corpses for use in reanimation."
This time, everyone is rather speechless, though for different reasons this time; either because you casually mentioned you reanimate corpses and want some animal carcasses, or because you just casually asked if you could buy a slaughterhouse as an additional source.
You'll just take it as your win.
"On a note related to our next point, in case I anyone here isn't aware of it yet, I keep the souls of any people I eat, and sometimes those souls have powers of their own, or I manage to give them their own power by fiddling with it.
This is important because I have two souls from the dimension I went to last that should be quite capable of educating and training those kids and women we have kept on base after I ate Coil. May as well have them be useful as, say, runners or attending shitty schools to start recruitment early eventually."
With nobody raising any objections on that one, you move on.
"Another soul I acquired recently actually happened to be reincarnated, his first life being spent in a world filled with advanced superscience far beyond what I managed to steal so far. I was thinking about diversifying my streams a bit, do an educational science show. During those, we could drop a few technologies we cannot use directly and drum up some PR. My plan for the first episode is to introduce the cure for cancer, actually."
Again, no complaints, though a few mutterings of 'just as long as you stream'. Looks like they think the PR efforts are worth it, then.
"With that cleared up, another one of my powers. I can actually bind the souls I ate to other people, giving them full control of the soul in question. I also happened to have picked up a whole bunch of mildly powered souls in the last fantasy world I was in, so we could totally throw them at a few of our more trustworthy members at some point, giving us a whole bunch of quasi-capes. Any opinions?"
"As long as they're controllable enough, I don't see any reasons against it. So long as we do keep it to trustworthy members, as you said, anyways."
Thank you, Kate, for leading you right into what you wanted to say next.
"That is the one concern with this plan, which is why I plan to have my sister over here look into our most longstanding people to make sure they won't turn on us anytime soon. Thinker powers can be great when used just right. though, while I'm at it, I was thinking about binding the soul of that one assistant I gave you every now and then, way back-" "Kerry, Gabe. Her name is Kerry." "-Yes, Kerry, whatever, to Henley. That way she would be permanently available, and I figure the more office help we have around, the better."
With no further objections and Henley just shrugging, time to continue onto the next point of the docket.
"One concern; as far as I am aware, Bitch, as in, the cape Bitch, is liable to keep on going after the E88's dogfighting rings. How close to the truth am I?"
The question is directed at your sister, meaning she has to stop looking knowingly at everyone that pays even the slightest amount of attention to her to answer. She does so, with a slight grimace.
"You could probably keep her from doing that with constant supervision. She's... wilful, but she's smarter than to do anything you don't want her to if she has no way to get away with it."
"Oh, I'm not too intent on keeping her from doing anything. The thing is, if she wants to attack the E88 for her own reasons, I won't complain, but she may as well not do it alone. To that end, how about we have the Undersiders, as a group, keep on concentrating on hitting those dogfighting rings and other operations of theirs as a way to rile up the Empire a bit?"
"And if we encounter capes or other heavy opposition?"
"Hit hard and fast; either take them out asap or retreat. The purpose isn't to actually take any of them out, though I won't complain if it happens, so much as it is to deal damage and chip away at their rep. Force them to react in ways we can predict so we can deal out the real losses."
With nobody opposing the notion, or at least everyone trusting you enough to believe you know what you're doing, time to move on (and remember to actually organize these playdates for your sister).
"Last but not least, the manufactories. In theory, the things are capable of producing literally anything as long as they have the necessary modifications and raw materials. My plan was to upgrade them further and add some functionality, maybe build another few of them, and use them to assemble the bulk of the drugs and weapons we could then sell."
Immediately, everyone in the room looks between each other, the order of speech being silently established. In the end, Kate begins.
"Gabe, if that works the way you say it does, then please, please prioritize doing it. The ability to just produce our own merchandize would be a great step for our operations as a whole."
"We'd make a significant amount of additional profit if we could cut out more than a few of the middlemen. In fact, if we could also produce or otherwise source the raw materials required for what we sold cheaply, I foresee our current capital multiplying in short order." Good point there, Henley.
"I'll see about setting something up. Maybe repurpose those farming bots I drafted up once."
Now it's Sherrel's turn. "If we could use those tmanufactories to assemble a few standard pieces of machinery, I could probably increase my tinkering speed quite a bit, even if I'm liable to just take them apart again. That's just how tinkers work."
"If we could just have them make addictol, I'd be happy. More time for me to get actual stuff done." Cupcake, predictably.
Lastly, Nora's two cents. "If you can set up a semi-industrial base in the middle of a radioactive wasteland with nothing but scrap to work with, I'm sure you can get this set up with ease."
"Alright, with that said, this is everything from me. Anyone else have anything they wanted to bring up?"
"Please just fill out a few of these," Henley says as he tucks a form out of the small pile of paperwork he deposited in front of himself at the start of this conference, "to let me know what you need to work and I can see about having Kate get it delivered through secure channels. In general, I'll try to make sure to have a bunch of these lying ready at the workshops, so please, please use them. They make bookkeeping much, much easier."
You feel like there may be a history behind that last comment, especially judging from Sherrel's sheepish look. Still, nothing that concerns you for the time being. Taking a look at the form in question, it's a 'Standard Requisition Form' from what it's titled, with several boxes to fill out with what someone needs for various purposes, from chemicals to sheets of metal to complete machines, with any specifications and the amount of it to be added in their own little fields.
"So, unless anyone else has anything to add?" You give everyone a moment to intercede. "Meeting adjourned."
"You know, maybe we should make these meetings a weekly thing, as an easy way for all our departments to get an idea of how the others are doing."
Nudging you with her elbow, Kate can't help but grin as she ribs at you. "Oh, and we have departments now? First time I heard of that."
"No wonder, you never take care of the gang. You're permanently busy in your tower of paperwork, how would you have the time to see things like this forming?"
The two of you take a few moments to joke between each other before Kate sighs and gets up, slowly following the other participants out the door.
"I'd best get back to my paperwork tower now, lest it multiply and try to eat me again. What'll you be doing next, Gabe?"
"Oh, I think I'll go and catch up with Sherrel and Nora a bit. Been a while since I actually took a moment to talk to them."
"Alright, you go have fun. See you later."
Exiting after her, you take a moment to return to... actually, where is your room? You never had the time to get one after taking over this bunker, if you recall correctly.
Meh, no matter. You'll figure it out later, when you have Kate there to ask her. In the meantime, you ask one of the girls bringing a pile of papaerwork in her direction after what weekday it is, finding it to be friday.
Yep, doing this every Friday would probably work out, you suppose. Weekly meetings are now a go. Though, thinking about it, you probably are going further and further from how you'd imagine a villainous organization to act. You have weekly department head meetings, standardized forms, the whole shebang. At this rate it won't be long until you pay everyone a regular salary.
The horror.
Still, disregarding your continued descent into a collection of corporate drones with guns and murder, you make your way on to the engineering bay, as some of the others have started to call it, soon enough finding Sherrel sticking up to her waist inside an invisible machine, making for a pretty hilarious picture.
"Hey Sherrel, you doing alright in there?"
Muffled speech is your response, until, with a small plop, Sherrel dislodges herself from where she was stuck until just now, her tits jiggling enthustistically for a moment.
"Hey Gabe, what'd you need?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to catch up with you, see how you're doing, that kinda thing."
"Ah well, I've mostly been working on the invisivan, adding a few things with the additional juice I can draw from the fusion cells that the muskets don't need anymore now. I even replaced the minigun with a laser-minigun!"
You spend the next hour or so just idly chatting with Sherrel, talking about the changes to her current work and her plans for another, bigger vehicle for heavy-duty use, as well some jokes on the forms Henley arranged to be displayed near the blackboard she seems to be using to scribble down designs.
Overall, a good time is had, even when the urge to tinker overtakes her and you take up helping her a little, telling her about your experiences with the electric hands power and giving her a cascade of new ideas to implement.
Once Sherrel descends into her tinker fugue too deep to keep up a conversation, you just wave over Lea who 'hmm's for a moment, leaving the room only to come back with a plate piled up with sandwiches in one hand and a bottle of water in the other hand.
"I'll just leave these by the whiteboard. She usually manages to feed herself with a free hand when drawing stuff up, otherwise I'll be around in an hour or two and handfeed her. Don't worry, this is how she usually is."
Leaving the care of your tinker to the professional, you thank Lea and move on, this time to where you noticed Nora's scent earlier. Following the tracks, it doesn't take you long to find her chilling in her room while watching videos, beckoning you inside and stopping her current one once you open the door.
"Hello Gabriel, how are you doing?"
"Pretty well, actually. Got a lot of stuff done during my last little worldhop."
"You told us a little about it. Some variety of a fantasy world, right? Would you mind telling me a little more about it?"
"Oh, sure, it's as good a topic as any."
The next hour and change is spent idly chatting with Nora, explaining to her what you found out about the world of Gaia and depicting the sights you saw, as well as a slightly prettied up version of the warcrimes you committed gleefully.
Eventually, however, you notice it's getting a little late, and you excuse yourself despite the great deal of fun Nora had being told about the many interesting things in a world straight out of fantasy.
You have training to do.
It takes a few hours to get anywhere, until, that is, you wander off into Kate's office, which, as you know, used to be Coil's office until you took over, and nudge her until she looks at you, only to be lifted up and deposited on your lap after you took a seat on her (really comfortable) chair.
"I figured I may as well keep you a little company while I'm working on something."
"Aww, you shouldn't have." Kate says as she turns to continue working, your hands already massaging her tits gently while you work on breathing out more than the two souls you have standing silently in the corner.
Eventually, however, it happens. A third soul goes from an indistinct silvery mist to a distinct, person shaped minion. You have succeeded.
And achieved another improvement to your internal palace, going by the rumbling you can faintly feel inside you. Time to take a look... aaand you found it.
Inside a deep, dark cavern, up until now filled with breathtaking ruins, those same ruins have been refurbished into a complex arragnement of prison cells, only illuminated by the occasional torch securely sitting inside mounts installed just for this purpose along the walls.
On closer inspection, you can also see several rooms filled with all kinds of implements, from torture rooms, BDSM-themed playrooms filled with all kinds of toys you can imagie, as well as a few you wouldn't even have envisioned until you saw them just now, right up to mysterious devices you can't make heads or tails of.
And just as you decide you may need to enter to find out more, you spy a certain figure slowly wandering through an empty hallway.
Well then.
"Hey Kate? Gonna be unconscious for a bit. See you soon." You say as you slide your arms down to hug her stomach.
"Sure thing, Gabe, have a nice nap."
Rolling your eyes, you breathe yourself in.
'Spawning' inside your throne room, you ask the attending maid body to bring you down the the dungeons, something she does without questioning.
"Would the master like to speak to the Warden?" The maid asks, slightly surprising you. They usually keep fairly quiet outside of answering you and doing their duties, as far as you saw. Still, this makes things much easier on you, so you nod answer "I would, yes."
Bowing to you, the maid glides a hand uder her skirt, pulling out a small bell looking to be made of silver... and proceeds to violently bang it against the nearest wall. The racket being made does, at least, seem to have the intended effect, as after a few moment the figure you saw earlier glides right out of the wall.
"You called... master...?" A breathy voice sounds from under the creature's cloak.
"Tell me Warden, what can you and your facility do for me? It's not like the inhabitants could escape in the first place."
In a wheezing voice, the creature answers, pointing at the cells surrounding you. "Confinement. Organization."
Grabbing the wall it came out of with a good dozen or so hands, not that the act seems to reduce the amount of arms it has available, it pulls open a hole into the stone, letting you view one of the torture rooms. "Disciplination. Recreation. Reeducation."
Letting go so that the hole 'snaps shut', it repeats the gesture, this time showing you a BDSM room filled with enough constraints for easily a dozen people to be shackled up and/or hanging freely inside. "Disciplination. Recreation. Reeducation."
Well, that... made sense?
The next room it opens is one of the more mysterious rooms, taken in by a roomy capsule meant to contain a person, judging by the additional restraints present within. "Substitution. Sacrifice."
"Could you elaborate?" This last one seems to be quite different from previous rooms, that's forr sure.
"Substitute... Inmate... Damage..."
"So this thing will allow me to have the soul within take damage in my stead?"
It takes a moment for the Warden to work through your sentence. "Sufficient... damage... indeed..."
"Ah, so I could have you strap a soul in there, and if I took significant damage, it would take it on itself instead?"
"...Indeed."
Interesting. At this point, the hole is snapped shut once more and the next one opened. This time, you see a bunch of empty beds with secure restraints, but the cloth seems rotted and the shackles rusted through in some parts.
"Missing... facility... changes..."
"Ah, so there needs to be another facility built before more functionality is unlocked?"
This time, it just takes the thing a moment to decipher your meaning. "Indeed..."
Huh.
"First off, I would like you to to throw as many of the most useless and uninteresting souls as possible into the pods."
Holding up one of its arms, the Warden shows you three fingers.
"So there are three pods?"
"...Indeed."
"Okay, can you make this happen?"
"It will be done, master." The maid chimes in, shortly followed by several souls, taken from random soldiers you ate in Thule if you remember correctly, popping up in quick succession as she takes her usual pose when transporting people.
Before any of them can so much as blink, the Warden grabs each of them, a pair of hands snapping into their arms, legs, waist and head respectively, holding them in an unrelenting grip even while a few more arms open three holes in the walls, letting the holding arms, already uncannily long, stretch and reveal a seemingly unending number of elbows coming out of the cloak, allowing the Warden to stay in one place while shackling the sacrifices up before shutting the pods down securely.
"Substitutes... Emplaced..."
"Very good. Next off, there is a soul referring to itself as Skidmark, do you know which one I'm talking about?" You ask the maid.
"I do, master. Would you like for me to fetch it?"
"Yes, and once he is here, I would like for you to reeducate him into being less... impolite, to say the least."
"Orders... received..."
A moment later, Skidmark appears, stumbling out of the maid's grasp.
"The shit you cockgarblers-" He begins, only to be cut off as a pair of hands come from the Warden, snapping shut around his mouth.
"Reeducation... beginning..."
Opening a hole, the Warden throws Skidmark into one of the torture rooms, only letting go of his face long enough to grab the back of his head and smash it onto a table, right onto a set of scalpels.
"New... best... friends..."
Looks like he has this well in hand.
Nodding satisfied, you turn to the maid.
"Looks like things here are under control for now. That will be all for the moment."
Breathing yourself out as the maid gives you a polite bow, you ponder what to do next.
Alright, first of all, time to organize a few things. To that end, you take a quick look into yourself, memorizing what he wrote up so far, then steal a few generic office supplies to write everything down real quick.
Taking this stuff to Sarah after telepathically asking if she has time and if so, where she is, you ask her to look over this stuff and think about ways to make it a functional edutainment (you didn't know how much you liked this word until you just thought of it) show.
"I would prefer to have it be a two-man show, with me as the cooky professor that's usually wrong in some way and the soul I had write this up as the assistant correcting my screwups. Maybe with my handy learning soul as the wise old man in the background that gives advice when asked."
Sighing, Sarah takes the sheet of paper from you. "I just know I'll regret this, but alright. Before I forget, here's the list with cleared members. Most of the girls were running with Kate for a pretty long time, the ones not in here I'm still working on."
Leafing through the pages of profiles and notes on them, you figure she's worked through about half the girls so far. "These were the easy ones, all it took was making sure what Kate told me about them was correct and a quick conversation as I let my power work. The others will take me more time, especially if I happen to have more work on my plate." At that last sentence, she eyes the draft you gave her.
"Take your time, no big rush for the time being. Aside from this, I'll be bringing up hiring a few people to deal with the paperwork we require with Henley later. I figure we need to get ahead of this sooner rather than later."
"And I'll naturally have to vet anyone we hire to make sure. Got it, I'll bring it up later. At least I don't get thinker headaches anymore, makes this kind of thing go much faster and easier."
Leaving Sarah to her steadily growing workload (at least it's fairly easy work for her, you suppose), you go to find Henley in his office, busily scribbling and typing away in quick succession.
"Hey Henley, I wanted to give you that assistant I mentioned."
"Got it, do whatever you need to, don't let me bother you." He answers without stopping his work. To be fair, he does seem rather busy.
Going right into the heart of the matter, you concentrate on him, connecting the soul quelling forth from your moth to him, leaving the bond open except for his own orders.
Within a few moments, Kerry has finished congealing from the indistinct silver mist she started out as.
"This is your new boss, he's our chief accountant. All the rules that went for you before are still active, just with him holding the leash now."
"If you're done staring, would you take care of these, please? We're drowning in paperwork as is." Henley immediately intercedes, shoving a pile of forms aside from his own paperwork fortress. The secretary, being bound to follow his orders, immediately sits down and starts scribbling away with a pen he rolled her way.
Looks like they'll be getting along just fine.
"On another note, have we thought about hiring a few more hands to deal with all this paperwork?"
"I brought it up with Kate earlier, she said she would bring it up with you?"
"Guess she didn't have the opportunity to tell me so far, then. Still, talk to Sarah if you get the opportunity, she'll help screen candidates and with anything else that needs doing along the way if she has time."
"Got it, I'll start Thinking on it and get back to both of them."
Leaving him to his work for now, you idly begin thinking at Kate as you walk.
Hey Kate... wanna have a date tomorrow night? Figure you've earned some off time with all the work you've been doing.
God yes, I'd kill for half a day without having to sign another stupid form... I mean, I would kill for less, but you get what I mean.
Got it, got it. By the way, do you know if I actually have a room on the base? I never actually claimed one after taking over.
Gabe, we took your stuff into Coil's old place. Didn't you notice when you used his bedroom to jump?
Come to think of it, you recall a laptop, one just like yours, lying on the bed when you were there last.
Alright, got it. Thanks for clearing that up, Kate!
Kate just sighs back at you, though you get the impression it's a smiling sigh.
Alright, with all of this cleared up, time for the next point on your docket.
Time to get back to training, with the right souls on the ready.
You spend a solid few hours working on your information taking power, while idly playing a game of penis fencng with Sarah. Of course, she doesn't exactly have a penis, but the souls of the soldiers you both devoured en masse do.
Eventually, however, even forcing them to rape each other gets boring, so you excuse yourself with a note just how helpful it is even their bodily fluids are reabsorbed upon being unsummoned. And no, Sarah, you most certainly weren't running.
The score was 20:20, and anyone claiming otherwise is a filthy liar. Still, foreseeing you won't be requiring your training souls for a while, you unsummon the Imitator and call upon Phillip instead, giving him and Kiron orders as to where to find the women and children you secured, as well as to get to know them and figure out a way to educate them out of their current, pretty despondent states and have 'em become useful instead somehow.
You honestly don't care about the details, just about them doing it. You, meanwhile, will be off taking anal guy (though you're contemplating changing his name to Yoshi) to take a look at the designs behind your manufactories and brainstorm ways to improve them.
Interlude: Keep Going
It was a curious sight that availed itself to Lea and Sherrel, as well as, once the latter sent a few texts through an app on her laptop meant to let everyone inside the bunker communicate, a group of women grinning and joking at each other.
For the infamous Cain, leader of the Lord Street Crypts, was conversing and arguing with a young japanese guy while getting down and dirty as they both took the mysterious manufactory churning out their muskets apart.
"The idea is ingenious, only hampered by being welded together out of literal scrap."
"What did you think I had on hand when I decided I needed autonomous weapon production?"
Of course, it did help that both him and his ever so slightly effiminate compatriot had to forego their shirts due to them getting caught in the haphazardly constructed insides of the machine, leaving them entirely topless.
"What do you mean you just took what you had?! This OS is complete shit! I could code a better one with one hand behind my back while blind! Hell, a fingerless monkey could!"
"Why did you think I wanted you to set something less crappy up? You have a laptop and the blueprint for the thing, go nuts!"
The both of them were almost assuredly aware of the small crowd gathering, though both of them completely ignored it in favor of getting some actual work done... and smearing themselves with bits of oil every now and then, much to their audience's delight.
"I got a basic interface set up to that stunted VI you put inside. All we need now is a proper touchscreen and we can mount what's left of the laptop on the chassis."
"Alright, I dismounted and modified the parts from the robot workbench, all we need now is to install them inside and we're good for assembling small machinery."
"How small are we talking?"
"Anything large enough the machine can identify it and small enough it fits through the outtake. Worst come to worst, we'll just have to build a bigger version later."
"Fair. How we looking on modularity?"
"We'll have to refurbish a few parts to support it, but it shouldn't be too difficult. We may need to divide the insides into modules anyways."
For while going topless, they could amply admire their boss' chiseled musculature, as well as his helper's wiry, but delicate frame contrasting him.
"Where are those lab supplies? We kinda need them for the drug module."
"I'll go ask someone, at worst I'll go fetch it myself."
Of course, the most rottenly debauched of the lot wasn't oohing and aahing with every twist of bare, manly bodies. No, that one was busy hastily scribbling and sketching inside a small artbook she was carrying around.
"Who knew that advice from his streams would come in handy now? Heheh."
It took the hard workers several hours to both completely rewrite the design and prove its viability in the rebuilt manufactory, giving the base's inhabitants enough time to cycle through a few times before they were finally done. Not that anyone involved minded, of course- good work needs time to become great, after all.
It took you quite a lot of time and work, but, you reminisce to yourself, that was time and effort well spent.
You don't quite consider the manufactory your baby or anything, but all the same, it was your first big project you undertook all by yourself with no real base to work off of, and you succeeded handily, creating a device beyond your wildest dreams.
Seeing it improve before your very eyes? You're not even mad at Yoshi (and yes, he hates being called that, you just don't care) for calling it a pile of crap- admittedly, it was a pile of crap by any modern standards.
It just also was a pile of crap capable of automated production of nearly anything once equipped with the correct tools, and one you literally threw together out of trash. You'd think you can be proud of it still.
Especially now that it took a step beyond its previous state.
Still, it's about time you went on your way, so you grab your shirt after unsummoning your little helper along with his own top, after hearing him mention he honestly missed working with his hands a little, going on your way for the time being.
You will be back, though.
A quick rolecall and having Kate send a message to the people in question later, you launch into a short explanation of what you're about to do, how to use the souls once you've handed them out and that they're never, ever to use the healing anywhere it could be seen by someone not completely loyal to the gang outside of absolute necessity.
Once that's done, the girls you chose to get this batch of souls receive theirs, not taking long to begin abusing their absolute power over the solid spirits in question.
You're so proud, really.
Coming out of your usual little trance, you first send a message to Kate.
Hey Kate, could you have a few people that won't be missed kidnapped and brought into the bunker for processing? Sarah's fallen back into overfeeding when she doesn't have a load of food around, and I need some more bloodpacks.
Can do, give it a day or so and they should be ready.
Thanks a lot.
With that done, you go over the souls in your 'employ'. Phillip and Kiron should be fine to keep on working away at their previous task, so you just leave them be after sending them a quick question about how things are going, finding they'll be taking a break in a few hours anyways to let their 'students' sleep.
Also, as you find out, you actually can contact even the non-soul denizens of your inner world, quickly getting in touch with the Warden and asking him to have the Maid bring a bunch of the mages you ate to him for reeducation into being more cooperative and easier to get along with.
Ascertaining that the screams start once a bunch of them is strapped into electric chairs and told they can regulate the level of electricity of one other chair, and they all have to accumulate a certain amount of voltage without knowing what that is before they will be released.
You're actually pretty certain that last part is a lie, and they will only be released once the Warden decides they can be moved to the next torture, but hey, if it works, it just works. You won't tell the Warden how to do his job so long as he delivers results.
With that on the way, your next stop is going out and finding a few of the girls to assist you in getting everything ready for your next new stream. Finding a handful, you ask them to look over the script you went by Sarah's to receive, make sure you have a few labcoats and any such props ready, all that kinda thing.
They're happy to help you along, not being particularly busy at the time anyways, and so you leave it to them while you go take care of the rest of your plans for the day.
That being, refining Yoshi. You're excited to see what, if any, powers he may develop.
Once the silent screams and the rolling on the floor ceases, you crouch down next to the heavily breathing Yoshi.
"So, you get anything cool from this or do we need to repeat it a few times?"
"I'm- I'm good." He swallows heavily. "I got t-two powers from this."
Two powers, huh? That's new. Something unique about him? The obvious would be the fact that he reincarnated before being summoned. Something to keep in mind, you suppose.
"Well, what are they? Don't keep me in suspense here."
"I can sh-share my skills and knowledge among a small group, sharing one field of their expertise across it, too. Maximum of three p-people. Other one lets me j-just skip construction processes, use materials and get a finished product i-instantly."
"Sounds useful. Take your time, once you've recovered a bit, get back to the manufactory and see about adding that gun module, then use your power to assemble as many manufactories as you can with what's in stock."
Leaving him to gasp on the floor by himself for a bit, you check up with your 'educator' souls as you have taken to calling them, confirming that Phillip isn't really doing much of anything at the moment anyways.
Desummoning him, you instead bring out Minilitia, not having used the guy for anything in quite some time. Giving him orders to go talk to one of the girls and get a laser musket to get used to, as well as giving impromptu shooting lessons if anyone wants, you...
Actually, you don't really have anything pressing to take care of. With that said, may as well go make the rounds of capes on the base to make sure things are fine with them. Time to go pay a visit to Spitfire, you suppose.
Knocking and entering her room, you have to chuckle when you see Spitfire hastily putting down a plate of what looks like applecake, choking all the while as she gets up, trying to hide the small array of pastries she had been working over while looking at something on a laptop.
"H-Hello boss. Did you want something?"
Still smiling, you gesture towards her 'living room' desk. "Don't mind me, I just wanted to come see how you're settling in. Let's have a short talk, I don't mind if you eat."
Blinking owlishly, Spitfire nods and takes a seat again, with you following shortly thereafter. Bemusedly, you watch as Spitfire is torn between grabbing for her laptop, eating pastries and engaging you. In the end, she decides to go for as many of those at once as she can.
"Uhm, feel free to have a bite while you're here anyways."
"Why, thank you. Would you believe I haven't actually eaten normal food ever since I got powers? Been quite a while, to say the least."
"Really? No food at all?"
"Nope, just blood. So, how have you been, Spitfire?"
"Emily!"
Smiling, you just wait for her to complete what she wants to say.
"Uh, please just call me Emily, I mean. The whole Spitfire thing is good as a cape name, but it's really awkward when in private like this."
"So, you got over the whole mask thing so far?" You ask, referencing she hasn't bothered covering her face all this time.
"Nah, everybody that cares about it already saw it at this point. Not like I have much of a civilian life outside the bunker in the first place, y'know?"
"I totally get it. Why bother hiding a secret that nobody can actually use against you, right?"
You go on for a decent while like this, keeping up some light conversation and getting to know Emily a little better. For once, she is actually rather insecure about her freckles, as well as really thankful she gets to live in actual accommodations now that she joined up with you.
Ona side note, whoever organized all these pastries knew what they were doing, they're really pretty good.
Eventually, however, you decide it is time to cut the chatter short, leaving a vaguely diappointed Emily to her afternoon snacking. Looks like she actually enjoyed speaking with you.
Luckily, it isn't too far a walk from Emily's room to Regent's, most of the auxiliary capes being housed in the same wing, meaning you don't even have to walk far to reach him.
Entering his personal room, you find him lounging on a sofa you don't think is standard issue down here, gaming away at some console.
"Oh, hey boss. You want something?" He asks, without stopping mashing away at his buttons.
"Just wanted to take a look around, see how you're settling in, ask if you needed anything, that kinda thing. I take being a good boss seriously."
Still not turning around to see you, though you did note he went a bit stiff when you entered, Regent answers you.
"Been doing alright. Was surprised you even have internet down here, though you won't see me complaining. Also, if you ever happen to see my dad, kill him for me."
"Alright, will do."
...
"Really? That's it? Just, 'alright'?"
"I mean, if you want me to actually recognize him, you'll need to tell me who he is, but I don't mind killing your dad for you. God knows I'd kill my own parents in a heartbeat if I had an easy way to get at them."
"...I'm Heartbreaker's kid."
"Alright, putting him on the list. Don't worry, I'm immune to master powers, so there's not much he can really do to me when I come for him."
"...Wanna join in? It's coop capable."
Looking at the screen depicting an FPS, Regent just having scored a kill, you shrug and come around the couch, taking a seat. Grabbing the second controller from where you see it stowed away in the cupboard under the screen, you shove the plug into the tab on the console aaand there you go, the screen is split and you're controlling what is likely a soldier of some sort.
"Never played anything like this, so if I fuck anything up, just say so."
"Mhm."
It is an hour or so of play later that Regent, or Alec, as he told you to call him, calls it quits.
"You're still complete bullshit, by the way."
"Hey, not my fault games like these reward reflexes and precision, and hey, we won. Anyways, want a power up?"
"What kinda power up we talking about?"
"I feed you a bunch of blood over a long time, then you get to be harder to kill and get some powers."
"Mhmm."
"You know what, sure. Hit me up."
Not about to ask him if he's really sure, you just extend your claws, cur along your wrist and hold the wound out to him.
"...Actually, do you mind if I keep gaming while we do this?"
"Knock yourself out, I honestly couldn't care less what you do while I work."
It takes a few near acrobatic maneuvers, but in short measure, you have Alec positioned just so he can both drink from your wrist and still see the screen fine.
You just watch him play, calling him a scrub every now and then to pass the time while he gets thralled completely.
It's not a bad way to spend time.
Before long, though, you are done and need to go prepare for your stream later, so you leave him to stare at the electricity crackling from his palms by himself.
You, in the meantime, go take a look at the room the girls apparently set aside for the express purpose of doing this while you were busy. You wouldn't have expected them to go to such lengths, but here you are. Not that you're complaining about them being enthusiastic.
Once you arrive, though, you're hushed into the room next to that one, where a trio of them awaits you with a labcoat and an Einstein wig.
...They must've been really bored, huh? Still, time to check over the script one last time, as well as to figure out exactly what to wear under the labcoat.
Alright, you hastily out on a tank top one of the girls left here for you. Bit tight, but it'll do. Breathing in all the souls you have out at the moment, you then breathe out Kiron, Yoshi and the Impostor.
"Alright, first off, Imitator, take Yoshi's form and power. Once you have that, the both of you use his power to share any and all appropriate skills between the two of you. We're about to engage in an educational show concerning science, so everything from scientific knowledge to showmanship will work."
It takes a bit of fiddling and talking it out, but before long, everyone present has access to the appropriate skills. And hey, it's a real doozy to suddenly have an almost indecent amount of insight into the exact mechanics of quantum physics, to say the least.
"Now everyone grab and put on a labcoat, and let's go." You idly note as you make sure your labcoat is shut properly that the skills everyone is currently sharing also seem to include miscellaneous bits and habits, going by how everyone is buttoning up their coats the exactly same way.
Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, it's actually pretty neat. You don't just have theoretical knowledge going around, but also the small things required to acquire said knowledge in the first place.
And you, of course, also put on your silly wig and grab your trusty obviously fake moustache, making sure your face is shadowed. You are ready.
Taking a quick look at the actual show room, a nicely decorated little 'lab', you nod, satisfied. Looks like everything is ready to go.
"Some of the others got really into this halfway through, so I hope you should have everything you need in there." Addy mentions, balancing on her toes to take a last look at the instruments available to you.
"Okay then, everyone out and we can get started. Just like I told you, into position, guys." Squatting right underneath the camera lens, you get ready and press the buttons on the laptop hidden in the same spot as you.
Rising from below as the 'announcer's' voice rings out, you grasp the camera with both hands, shaking your head just the slightest bit.
"It's me, Abraham! And you're looking into... the world of Professor Abraham and Assistant Prometheus!"
Taking a step back, you throw your hands out in wide motions as you narrate your script.
Remember the script, everyone, and act accordingly.
"And here you can see my trusty assistant Prometheus! As well as my trusty assistant Prometheus! And old man Marduk, who is somewhere in the back."
As you speak, you gesture at both Yoshi the Imitator in turns before waving in the general direction of where Kiron is sitting and waving at the camera at the mention of his 'name'.
"Now then, today, we are going to delve into the secrets of molecules, the indivisible little things that make up our world!"
"You mean atoms being indivisible, not molecules." Prometheus 1 chimes in, shaking his head with a sigh.
"Yes, atoms, whatever. Anyways, molecule time! First, let us see what the world looks like when you look a million times closer... now if only I had my handy little slideshow..."
Rummaging through some random lab equipment, you wait until Prometheus 2 quietly slides over a small collection of cardboard cards with a series of pictures printed on it, ranging from recorded views of an electron microscope over childish renditions of molecules, with a single shot of a sock collection in the middle of it.
"Ah, there it is!" You exclaim, pretending not to have seen him. "Now then, here's how everything you see really looks like!"
A Prometheus sighs.
Interlude: Excuse me what
When Renick barged into her office earlier that day with a panicked look on his face, Emily's face immediately soured.
"Another one?"
"A new one."
Gritting her teeth, she nodded at him. "Come by when it's time."
A few hours and far too much paperwork as well as desire to drown herself in alcohol despite her health issues later, both she and Renick sat in her office and got the screen running.
"What did he call it this time?"
"Professor Abraham and Assistant Prometheus."
"Sounds pretentious as fuck. At least the think tank will have a field day with it. Any idea what it's about?"
"About as much as anyone else watching, I'm afraid."
She grunted.
Watching the intro together, as well as his weird introductions and attire, she couldn't help but comment.
"Is it just me, or do his intros get more elaborate over time? Also, there's that fake moustache again. You owe me 50."
Renick sighed in tune with a Prometheus.
Colin clenched his fists, watching the newest broadcast of the newest thorn in this city's side. It wasn't enough that the madman had to massacre people left and right, getting away scott free until now, or even that he had to mock them to their faces with his inane antics broadcast live.
No, now he had to make an idiot of himself, as if to say 'Look at these heroes, they cannot catch a literal clown marching through the streets".
"And remember kids, you can never trust atoms. They make everything up. Everything!"
The bones in his hands began to creak quietly with the force he exerted upon them, trying to resist to facepalm much like both of the identical 'assistants' did in that moment.
Unforgivable.
Jack hummed to himself as he watched the broadcast on the little device, Bonesaw using her own to watch along. This guy certainly had flair in what he did, and, if the rumours online were to be believed, was quite the vicious killer in his own right... Though he wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to try recruiting him sometime.
His gut feelings didn't really point into one direction or the other, so he'd just have to see, he supposed.
Looking over at Bonesaw, she seemed to be concentrating on the screen with unusual intensity.
"You like the show, poppet?"
"It's a good show." She replied, nodding.
In just that moment, the next 'mishap' happened during some weird explanation about cancer of all things, nevermind how molecules making up cells apparently lead into it.
"Oh, would you look at that, my labcoat's all wet now! Best open it so it can dry faster." The two 'assistants' help up little placards behind 'Abraham's' back, reading 'Don't try this at home' and 'Safety equipment saves lifes', respectively.
Snorting as the likely insane and quite possibly deranged cape's perhaps overly tight tank top came to the forefront, he glanced over to see Bonesaw staring perhaps even more intently at the screen.
Yes, perhaps Brockton Bay would be worthwhile to visit again, one of these days.
Missy giggled when the 'professor' 'accidentally' spilled water over himself, causing him to reveal what he was wearing underneath the coat. Or rather, what little he was wearing.
Even aside from the eye candy, though, she had to say that the show itself was pretty nice to watch. Bit childish, and most of what was being explained she already knew a for a long time now, but still, nice enough way to spend the time.
Dragon watched the villain's stream in the background while going over her usual regular checkups; while Ashbeast was moving around like usual, none of the S-Class threats she was monitoring were making waves that she could detect. Even the Blasphemies were keeping quiet for a change.
"...and while we're at it, here's the cure for cancer."
Excuse me what.
Looking at the screen with shaking hands, Dennis thought over everything he knew about leukemia. It was... it was a type of cancer, right? It should be. So if what the villain was saying was true-
"Add all these ingredients into a bucket, mix them well, boil for a few minutes, and voila!"
The assistants to the back once more raised their placards, this time the specifics of the creation process written on them. Hastily tearing through his desk, having caught the stream while he was doing homework, Dennis desperately scribbled everything he could read and remember down.
When the stream ended and was uploaded as a video as before, he would watch this part again with greater attention, making sure his notes were correct, and then he'd copy them at least twice.
He had no idea if this was a true cure or not, but the possibility existed. And if it worked... he had to know the recipe. He had to.
Amy stared down at her mobile, thoughts racing. She had forgotten the exact statistics, but... cancer was one of the most widespread diseases around, wasn't it? It killed a lot of people, and it tended to be the one thing she spent the most time fixing.
If what this man said was true...
"Once the substance has been dried out and turned into a pill, it simply has to be ingested in 10mg doses daily for a week to bond with any cancerous tissue, then subjected to a mild electric current. Mild enough the human brain would consider it a pleasant sensation, if anything!"
If he was speaking the truth, the insane mass-murderer had just saved the lifes of more people than she ever could. She... she didn't know how to feel about that, if she was to be honest.
Except, no, she was feeling relieved for some reason. Because if it was true, she didn't have to face all these people herself day in and out. Was she being selfish?
Or was she just relieved her burden may have gotten a little lighter?
Accord stared at the report one of his Ambassadors had delivered to him.
If the document was correct, much as he loathe to admit, he would have to rework most, if not all, of his plans. The change suggested here was too great for him to ignore.
"Citrine, have testing of the proposed method arranged and conducted. Have me notified as soon as any results are apparent. Dimissed."
Bowing, Citrine did as he ordered, exiting the room in acceptable posture. Accord, in the meantime, would need to take a look over his plans before adjusting them for the possibility of cancer being cured very suddenly.
He had a... very rough few days ahead of himself.
Mannequin clicked his finger against the wall. Repeatedly. Accelerating.
By the time the rest of the nine found him, he'd have bored his way through two and a half walls, clawing at them in a blind rage.
Max frowned as he watched the stream of the newest competition in the Bay. He would never say it aloud, but whoever this Cain was, he was obviously planning something... something big enough to have him pay attention, at any rate.
"The electric current necessary can be generated by a very simple machine. We shouldn't even need to demonstrate how to put it together as a blind monkey could figure it out, but knowing the adults watching, we're explaining the schematics anyways."
If this turned out to be true, he would need to immediately act. Medhall made a non-insignificant amount of money through care of cancer patients, like any big pharma he could think of (and yes, he was aware and used the term ironically).
This new substance would need to be clinically tested, and if it worked... well, a major restructuring may be in order. He couldn't afford to lose Medhall, it was too fundamental a cornerstone of his Empire.
Then he would need to find this Cain, and end him. Nobody slighted him this deeply and lived in the long term.
Avery Carmichael nearly suffered a heart attack when he heard the news. He immediately drove up to the office building, thanking his lucky stars it was saturday- getting up into his office would be a nightmare on a sunday.
Hastily calling up anyone that he could reach, he spread the word, making sure they knew what to do. This new cure could not be allowed to come to pass.
They made over a hundred billion dollars from the disease spread over the world, easily. Research, treatment, all of it cost money, and all of it paid for the industry.
Of course, that wasn't pure profit, but the point remained that they earned a lot of money from this. And stood to lose even more. This new wonder cure?
It had taken people mere hours to try it out, mixing the chemicals and applying an improvised machine. The cure, if anything, worked better than was advertised. Suffice to say, this was bad news for them.
"I don't fucking care they're technically a foreign terrorist organization! Get me the Yangban on the line somehow, now! After sending the memo out to every media outlet we know! This can not go public!"
Panacea sobbed.
Rebecca read over the report at Cauldron's headquarters.
"And this Cain's streams are impossible to path?" She asked Contessa.
"They are."
"And the path not is not only unreliable around the entire city he is based in, it shifted right after the stream ended, just like after Endbringer attacks?"
"More completely than after Endbringer attacks. After they happen, the steps need to be rearranged, the paths gain or lose steps, but the general outline remains the same.
When it happened this time, the entire path needed to be rearranged. Everything changed at once."
"I don't think this one's an Endbringer attack. If it is, it's a very new angle. Wouldn't expect one to decide to cure cancer on a comedic kids' show, for one."
"I agree, David." Rebecca said, taking the reigns of the conversation as she often did. "For now we should assume a powerful Thinker, Stranger and/or Trump effect in play. We will need to intensify observation in the area of the city in question.
It is regrettable, but the Terminus Project will have to be scrapped while we investigate this. We will need to arrange another testing site or abandon the project altogether."
"I disagree." Doctor Mother countered. "The possibility to continue the experiment remains. All we need to do is to remain discreet. Either way, we do not have enough time to prepare another site, so we will just have to make do with what we have."
"Fine. However, this development continues to threaten our plans elsewhere. Should the criminal organization known as the Lord's Street Crypts continue to gain popularity at its current rate, things will have to escalate."
"Another factor to consider." Numberman cut in. "This newly revealed cure for cancer is going to, and is in fact currently, throwing the global economy into complete chaos.
Pharma concerns, patients, research institutes, they are all affected, and they are all connected to others in turn. Efforts have been undertaken to soften the blow and reduce the impact, but there is no way to stop this in the long term. In fact, even just participating in this meeting means I'm behind my sudden workload." As he finished speaking, he stood up and turned to leave.
"That's alright. We trust you to keep abreast of the situation."
Rebecca's gaze lingered over the reports she had already memorized for a moment while waiting for him to leave, a detail catching her eye. Thinking about the entire length of the comedic childrens' show, she could not help but frown.
"Another possibility. One I am not sure I like to consider."
"Oh?"
"The names. They might very well be an elaborate hint. Prometheus was the titan that stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity in greek mythology. Abraham, first called Abram, was called by god to leave his own country and people and journey to a new land where he would become the founder of a new nation, but before that, the very first name the parahuman in question took was Cain."
Looking everyone in the eyes in turn, she continued with the hunch she wasn't sure whether to hope to be true or not.
"Cain was the very first murderer and shunned by god. Now replace every instance of god so far with the entities, and a disturbing narrative paints itself."
David choked, coughing a few times before he regained his ability to speak.
"Are you serious? The very idea is... absurd."
"Think about it. What if he managed to find some way to use his power directly against the entities, such that he could not only significantly wound them, but also steal powers and knowledge from them? It would explain the wildly inconsistent powerset he has displayed, as well as where he found so many parahumans in so short a time.
He isn't finding them, he is simply bestowing powers on others, negating many of the restrictions the entities placed on them in the first place. This would also explain how he 'suddenly' found a cure for cancer. The powerful effect keeping Thinkers from reading anything connected to him would also make sense- after all, he can't very well let them know he is stealing from them, so he would have naturally ensured he'd stay hidden first."
"...I don't know whether to call this theory insane or entirely too plausible. What about Zion? Wouldn't it have reacted by now if that was the case?"
"We would think so, but then again, we also never truly knew how the entities think. Or maybe Cain isn't even connected to him- what if the source of his powers is Eden? It stands to reason if we can take parts of it to create the vials, someone triggering with one of its agents may be able to do the same, just more elegantly."
"The fact remains we are not sure whether any of this is true or not, though."
"True enough. We shall have to keep observing for any discernible clues, then."
Interlude: Watching from Above
The future was changing.
This was not a new thing. The future was changing all the time, or at least, its ability to predict it was insufficient to do so perfectly enough not to require constant adjustments to its plans.
However, this latest change was huge, and it could not see the past reason for it, just as it was incapable of seeing the future consequences.
Something was blocking its sight.
A quick scan showed that the disturbance centered around a specific settlement. Coastal. Worsening economy/Terminus Project/Host factions warring/void.
It had found the source of the disturbance.
A more involved check found what seemed to be the... issue. A corpse, simply lying there. Another, smaller female host corpse, similarly lying elsewhere. In its postcognition, the corpses never moved, yet every time it refreshed its vision, they were in another position.
In its precognition, the corpses took turns being corpses and host creatures. One was connected to a shard in its vision of the future, yet pinging its shard engendered no reaction.
Curious.
Continuing to prod the source and its surroundings with its sight, it soon became apparent that its influence was stretching throughout its surroundings.
Hypothesis: Its sight was falsified. Post- and precognition ineffective.
Conclusion: Troubling.
The situation needed to be remedied.
First step: Acquire information.
It set about analyzing information saved in host creature brains, comparing their inefficient, feeble information inputs with the information it had gathered.
Conclusion: Troubling.
The new information it received changed things. The change would lead to massive inconsistencies in its sight.
The future was changing unpredictably.
It needed more information.
It contacted the others.
Taking off your still soaked labcoat, you begin cleaning up the 'lab' after the successful conclusion of your stream.
"Boy, I sure am glad we had those signs prepared for the safety goggle gag."
"What did you expect when you popped the water balloon? The water had to go somewhere."
"Yeah, but I completely forgot to keep it away from myself. My own fault for not paying enough attention."
"At least we mananged to salvage the situation, so isn't it fine?"
Man, you're still happy you got these two to act as your assistants. They just keep on coming in handy.
"Anyways, good job everyone."
Exiting the lab, you first breathe all your souls sans Yoshi back in. Addressing him, you proceed to give him a few instructions on what to do next.
"Okay, so I want you to get back to the engineering bay and get started on a few projects. First off, fill out the necessary requisition forms to get enough materials for another three manufactories delivered, then use your powers to assemble them.
Beyond that, feel free to requisition any materials you need to assemble a proper lab and workshop to your standards using your powers. Just have them get any complicated components your powers or the manufactories don't let you manufacture yourself. In the meantime, just work together with Lea and Sherrel, use your power to share your knowledge with them, maybe try your hand at figuring out tinkertech.
Should be amusing if nothing else."
Letting him go on his way, you take a moment to inform Henley of Yoshi's newest powers, as well as their consequences. And that, according to a quick mental call with Lea, the manufactories already up and running are currently churning out guns and ammunition by the boatload, to be either used or sold on at your leisure.
In fact, you mention to him that organizing a larger stream of raw materials to throw into the machines may be necessary soon.
And of course that yes, any and all requisition requests you have your soul send off are to be accepted until further notice, as you need a state-of-the-art work environment for some of your future plans, and his powers let him do better than that even at significantly lower overall cost.
With that all said and done, time to get introspective. That is to say, call up the Warden and tell him he can grab the soul known as Nolan as an assistant if he so requires.
While you're at it, you think about any requests you would have of the Warden in regards to his work.
Well, you had a few ideas in regards to making proper use of the dungeons. For now, may as well try them out.
Thinking along those lines, you request that he puts two specific souls, those of mages you picked up back in Thule, through a very specific reeducation program.
Your... will... be... done...
With that underway, you turn to the fun part of the night... or rather, the first of the fun parts. You're sure the date night with Kate will be great, too. Until then, though, time to go play with Sarah a little.
This will be great.
"Alright, Sarah, the rules are simple." You explain. "We're playing tag, and whoever is caught is It and has to transform once before turning things around. Doesn't matter what state they transform into, just that some level of transformation happens. You ready?"
Rolling her eyes, Sarah smiles at you. "These rules aren't so complicated I can't comprehend them, Gabe."
"In that case, you're It!" Booping Sarah on the nose, you run off, leaving an indignantly staring Sarah behind.
"Ooh, that's IT! Just you wait, Gabe!"
You laugh as you keep on moving, the indignant little bundle of Sarah taking her time to transform into an indignant little bundle of fluffy Sarah.
You sure are glad Coil kept these giant unfilled rooms around. While you could spend all day on speculating what he was planning on using them for, now they make for great places to train.
It isn't long before a little fox bounds after you, trying her best to look ferocious. She is entirely too cute, and if anyone claims you let yourself be caught on purpose, they are a dirty liar.
A majority of the night and entirely too many dirty tricks and partway-transformations from both sides later, you have successfully shortened the amount of time you need to transform into your various alternate forms to virtually nothing.
In fact, Sarah also halved her time, getting to about thirty seconds. She is still entirely too indignant ever since the time you started to use immediate full transformations to your advantage.
"This is bullshit!"
"It isn't bullshit, it is a lot of time and effort paying off. Think of it as something to aspire to, if you have to."
Sarah still pouts at you for a while as you both take your time to leave the room.
"Not ever running out of breath is still pretty much a power of its own if you ask me."
"It is. That and sleep being optional let you really get the most of your day."
It is a long moment of silence before Sarah continues.
"You know, Gabe, I'm a little worried about you."
"Oh? How so?"
"You spend a lot of time just working on your powers. I mean, I get it, but... You rarely ever do anything else, do you? I talked to Kate and we agreed you don't have enough of a life outside of this... thisness."
"I think I see your point, but you have to consider both of our psychological needs have shifted a lot compared to when we were alive. I literally can't get tired, sick or bored of doing any single thing."
"Still, even I like to take a few hours every now and then to just take a step back and relax. Just not really having mental needs doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of them anyways.
Could you just... promise me to take a step back? Take a few days off of active training? I'm not even saying not to take care of gang business, fuck knows we have to keep the whole thing going, but..."
"Alright." You say, taking her hand into yours. "I won't waste any of my time training for three days from now. I have more than enough other stuff to take care of anyways.
Also, what did I tell you about pottymouths, young lady?"
Sarah smiles and all is right with the world.
Eventually, you have to let go of Sarah's hand, but it can't be helped. You need to get ready for your date with Kate, after all.
Nodding to her as you pass by her/your shared? office, you enter your new room and look over the clothes you have lying around inside the closet.
Pulling out a nice suit, you throw in on and adjust everything after putting on everything else needed, carefully adjusting your tie afterwards.
Emerging into the office, you give Kate your handsome smile Nr. 2 (and yes, you've begun numbering your facial expressions, don't judge).
"Ready to go out on a date, sweetie?"
Smiling back, Kate puts her pen down and stretches a little.
"I'm not sure whether I should swoon or kidnap you, handsome."
"Then why not split the difference and come with me, instead?"
"Oh, you ol' charmer. Alright, time for that date. What did you have in mind?"
"What do you think about Italian?"
"Haven't eaten at a good place in years."
"Why, you'll love it, then."
Kate wastes no time in disappearing, only to reappear five minutes later, wearing a nice blouse and everything.
"I had one of the girls call us a cab; time to go."
The two of you proceed to make your way towards one of the elevators leading out of the base, walking hand in hand all the while. A few greetings on the move later, and you're emerging into an underground parking garage, the cab you want coming in not much later.
Clearing up that yes, you are the right people (and Kate having entirely too much fun threatening the poor driver with her favorite handgun), the drive to the boardwalk is underway, with you amicably chatting away and the driver torn between fearing for his life and going along with you, amusing Kate to no end.
Getting out and paying the driver a little extra to see if you can have him pick you up again later (this situation is entirely too amusing for both you and Kate), the two of you take your time walking along the boardwalk in the dark, you steadily near your destination.
The whole place is bathed in a homely light by the nearby streetlamps, a surprising amount of people around even at this time. Though maybe you shouldn't be too surprised the Bay's single redeeming feature and tourist trap is busy all 'round the clock, albeit about half of the passerby actually either work in the nearby shops, changing shifts or opening up, or are employed in related logistics, from the looks of it.
Something you get, really, they have to move around and all that at some point, may as well do it when the customer saturation is down compared to usual. At least Kate doesn't seem to care one way or the other, and getting a table is pretty much guaranteed at this time of day.
It's a tourist trap, but not that good of one. This still is Brockton Bay, after all.
It is thus that you wind up at a nice table inside 'Mario's Mistake'. The name's a little out there, but you suppose there are only so many original names, and at least it fits into the surrounding city in general.
The two of you order something almost at random, yourself choosing whatever seems to be in the middle of price ranges available to make a subdued statement, and Kate just waving the waiter off and having the chef choose.
None of the other guests around at this time of night seem particularly interesting, so after a cursory look around while focusing on your hearing, you turn your attention towards Kate alone.
"So, how has work been lately?"
Smiling, Kate immediately gets your idea. "Oh, decently enough. Entirely too much paperwork without enough murder, though. I haven't shot anyone all week now."
Funnily enough, only one person on a nearby table seems to have heard her, judging by how the guy stuffens and goes just a little pale.
"And yourself, how have you been doing at work?"
"I've been doing lots of planning, spending time in the 'workshop'... Turns out taking over a 'medieval fortress' is a lot more time consuming than expected. But at least I got that done, and with Yoshi's help, I even got the 'manufactories' running ahead of time, so the product won't be running low.
Honestly, the next week, give or take, will be mostly me doing whatever the 'company' needs me to."
Kate is wearing a cheshire grin at this point, the little eavesdropper to the side procedurally paling while paying less and less attention to the conversation between what looks like a few friends at his own table.
"Glad to hear that. Speaking of which, your newest delivery of... 'manpower' should arrive in a day or two. Local sourcing makes things so much easier, really."
"I completely agree. Local resources simply cannot be beat in terms of accessibility. Speaking of which, we should see about growing more local... 'resources'... one of these days."
"I'll float it to the other... executives at the next opportunity."
Really, this is just way too much fun, your inadvertent victim spilling a glass of wine all over himself, so much was he distracted by what he could hear. Once he's off to the bathroom, the two of you can hardly suppress your laughter.
You and Kate stay at the restaurant a bit longer, taking your time eating and messing with that one guy listening in, but before long, you pay (or rather, Kate does, she insisted with a grin) and leave.
Before you can decide to either return to your cab to see if the driver would take you again or go for some more date-related activities, Kate pulls you along into an alleyway.
"What, are we having alley sex or are we going to rob someone?"
"First the one, then the other." Kate grins as she rubs up against you. "Now help me find some sucker to rob first."
In another place and using an infrared visor, a voice says something in chinese.
You make it a few alleys before you notice something is obviously going on. There's a tension in the air... and you haven't seen a single person in the last ten minutes or so.
"You feeling it too?" Kate mutters.
"Mhm."
Casting your senses out, you aren't too surprised when you soon notice a small group of people approaching from the other end of the alley you've found yourself in, though the shuffling on the roofs to both sides is new.
Reminds you of that one time you were pretty sure a cape was observing you while you were returning to the hideout, back in the era of the warehouse. Looks like you need a plan asap.
Alright, you have a scant few moments to think, best make use of them!
Kate, I am going to summon a soul to teleport you and one of them around, get ready to end up on a roof.
Gotcha.
Similarly giving the other souls you're about to use their instructions as quickly as possible vie telepathy, you spring into action just before your opposition comes face to face with you and presumably could initialize their ambush.
Breathing out Shockwave Guy and the Switcher in one motion, you watch as your surroundings explode into sudden motion, one of the suckers up top being replaced by the Switcher and standing right before you, even while Shockwave begins rushing at the one on the opposite side.
Time to murder this fuck even as Kate opens fire to keep the other three off your back!
In the next moment, all your world is consumed by the necessity of getting a grip on the man that just got switched out with your soul. He actually has a modicum of CQC training, not to mention whatever powers he seems to have, as you note him to be stronger than you'd expect a man his size to be, but it isn't anything particularly spectacular, and before long, your greater strength and experience win out and allow you to get him into an armlock, turned towards his compatriots as a human shield.
Kate, meanwhile, has opened up on the three further on, taking cover behind the you that is taking cover behind your shield. Two of the now obvious capes hold their hands out, firing sustained beams of light at your position, though missing your human shield handily.
One of them, though, shouts out something in chinese, immediately making the other two stop and shout something back.
Hmm... these guys don't seem like random capes, too... disciplined, for lack of a better word. They organized a decent ambush, not beyond a random group's means, certainly, but the way they pay attention to each other almost as much as you? That smacks of training. Of drills, as the scraps of memories and skills you stole from others had anything to say about it.
Kate, meanwhile, has landed a few shots, but most of them have been deflected by a small series of forcefields deployed before them in combination with something altering their trajectories.
Only one actually hit so far, though you don't think that arm will be useful anytime soon, at least.
Next thing you know, the Switcher is back down, Kate now up on the roof and you breathing in the first, even as you drive your teeth into the wide-eyed man currently in your grasp and forced to face his comrades, trying to do something as you murder him.
Steady covering fire rings out from above, making you mentally thank Kate for bringing along frankly stupid amounts of ammunition wherever she goes, as well as forcing your opposition to concentrate on apparently setting up more of their forcefields to stop her from scoring more hits.
All the more time for you to work on your current meal, really, even as a fine splatter of blood comes down from the roof. Looks like Shockwave is doing good work.
You don't waste the moment you have to yourself, summoning Tentacle Chick up on the roof with Kate, trusting the directions you conveyed before this started to have her act accordingly. And she does, a bunch of her tentacles spreading beginning to bombard the grounded enemies with icicle shards.
You're not sure how long her mana reserves may last, but for now, you have them on lockdown. You're still keeping the corpse you just finished draining up in case you need a shield or maybe a weapon, though.
Still keeping up the meatshield, you begin to chant Let the grasp of winter coat all before me in its icy breath!, contacting Kate in the meanwwhile.
Kate, Tentacular has them on lockdown and you can't get anything through their fields anyways. Change targets to the fucker on the roof!
Gotcha!
Likely reloading for a moment, she rips through her clip in a new direction, presumably fucking up the other enemy.
The armless fucker is running!
Or not, you suppose. Meanwhile, the other three have started firing their weird little beams again while moving away from you in a weird fashion. Looks like whoever these fuckers are, they're cutting their losses.
Pushing Swap with the one on the roof! at your soul, you summon her midair and watch as she gets replaced with the running enemy.
With him down here, you can safely desummon Shockwave, doing so even while chaging Tentacular's orders towards just keeping the other guys from escaping, no matter what. Summoning Buffer, you just have time to think one thing before throwing yourself at the enemy dropping to the ground right in front of you.
Power us up!
Jumping the food midair, you hear incensed chinese shouting from over by the rest of the fight, but disregard it in favor of slamming your current enemy into the wall at the end of your now shared trajectory, pushing the air out of his lungs and letting you tear into him before he has time to try and defend himself.
While eating, though, you connect to Kate.
What's going on over there?
'Tacle chick got two of them, one of those is panicking and nearly hit the third one with that laser, now he's just throwing shit out to try and escape while number three's fucking off!
Done eating, I'm coming over.
Rushing off into the direction of the tentacles extruding from the roof, you see the situation for yourself, two chinese guys covered in tentacles that are slowly freezing them over while a third one is building up speed as he's hovering away.
No, really, you're a part-time bird, that is not flying, it's hovering. There's a difference.
At the same time, as Kate said, one of the caught guys is panicking and flailing while randomly discharging powers in an effort to get free, the other caught guy shouting at him in chinese. It's actually pretty funny, or it would be if any of these guys surviving for longer than the next ten minutes wouldn't annoy the hell outta ya.
Switch with the flying guy! You think at Switcher up on the roof, scanning the wall before jumping it, vaulting up towards the roof with a little support from your levitation and adhesion powers.
Seeing your minion already switched out, you immediately desummon her and make a move on your new victim.
Falling onto him like a hungry animal, you waste no time to eat the third cape of the evening, his struggles not keeping you up for long.
It is about this time that Kate begins firing again, the action obviously picking up over there again.
Kate?
Tentacle girl is losing steam, they're starting to get loose. Need a solution, now.
Well, you can't hav that, now can you? Sprinting to the edge of the roof, you breathe out your good ol' Painfire soul, putting him right next to the struggling capes. His mission isn't too complicated compared to what you had him do in the past.
Hurt them.
This time around, though, he didn't launch a wave of spectral fire outwards. Instead, he raises a hand right between the two enemies, a pillar of fire sprouting from the ground and manifesting what looks like a pair of chains made of fire, wrapping around both of them and making them break down in screams.
Looks like he's got a new trick, huh.
The two immediately begin to thrash in the translucent 'chains', though you naturally don't waste time jumping down and eating them in turn.
How nice of you to not prolong their suffering, really. Kate doesn't take long to crouch down on the edge of her roof, taking a look around as she wistles.
"That went a lot better than I expected. All those sudden reinforcements really caught 'em off guard. We should probably get outta here, though- this was many things, but it wasn't subtle."
"I want to grab the corpses before we leave. Need them to make a point once we know who these guys were."
"Suit yourself." Kate shrugs. Disappearing really quick, she throws a corpse down to the ground before reappearing. "Help me down?"
It is a few moments of you carrying Kate around in a princess carry (and yes, she massively enjoyed it) and hopping up on the other side of the roofs again to grab the last corpse, as well as a quick call to Sherrel that you need a quick pickup for you, Kate and a few dead bodies later that you are finally safe from any more possible attacks.
"So, any ideas who these guys might've been?" Sherrel asks.
Taking a close look at each and every face to make sure you have them remembered for future reference, you shake your head and reply as she drives the invisivan.
"No, not yet. Though I certainly intend to find out."
First thing you'll do once these chaps are unloaded inside a room in the base, you're having Sarah take a look over them and see if you can't send her a memory of the fight. These asshats randomly attacking you in the middle of your date with Kate will not stand.
Speaking of which, though...
"At least they were a nice little workout, even if I didn't get to kill any of them." Kate is positively shining.
...You'll just take that as a win.
25 used to be a minor criminal- purse snatching, mostly. When that minor thief got grabbed up to serve for crimes a syndicate had committed, the injustice had him trigger, only to be drafted and reeducated as part of the Yangban.
24... had no idea who he used to be. All that he was now was a part of the Yangban, a Soldier Of The People, and that was all he needed.
That and his power, his hidden little secret.
15 was an expert infiltrator and master of disguises. Man, woman, child, he could be anyone with some effort. ...Maybe a lot of effort in some cases, but his point stood. His part in the mission to educate the newcomers was both to support and evaluate them, determine what roles they were suited for or whether they needed to be... reeducated.
Now if only he didn't end up getting fucked so much in the course of his missions, and rarely in an enjoyable way. For him, at least.
6 was a proud Soldier Of The People. He recognized it when his basic training put him through brainwashing, and he relished the chance to become better at fulfilling his glorious destiny.
All that worried him were his comrades. They tended to be doubtful, hesitant, sometimes even lashing out at the beginning of their careers. He did the best he could to help them along on their shared path within the bounds they were allowed to, regardless.
5 had no patience for these fools. They had to finally man up, get their mission done and return to infiltrating training as they were supposed to. Even just their presence in this american city was a waste of time, but they were the only team available when the mission was formulized.
Luckily enough, 15 was good enough at his specialty to get in and out without being noticed, blending in with the local populace of traitors and swines, ascertaining that their target matched up with the suspicious civilian, juust like 24 had claimed.
All that was left was to collect and return.
A quick bit of interrogation backed by absolute conceptual authority later, you have a pretty accurate account of who exactly attacked you. Now, whatever the fuck a chinese cape organization is doing in your front yard, not even they had any idea- that was knowledge shared on a need-to-know principle, and these guys just needed to know that you were their target.
Still, after a short telepathic conference with Sarah, Kate and Sherrel to bring the former up to speed and get some advice for a decent place to make your little statement at, a small street not far from the boardwalk... both public enough for you to be seen and far enough from heroic presence around to avoid being confronted.
By the way, thank you, sis.
"Alright, while we drive, I'm going to carve 'Yangban' into their foreheads. Good thing my claws will suffice for the occasion."
"Say whatever you want, I'll never regret trading mine in:"
You shrug. "You choice."
By the time you've arrived at the location, you have hacked your claws into their faces enough to make sure the word remains legible. Bit of a pain you couldn't carve quite as smoothly as you'd have liked, but it worked out out.
Note to self, work on calligraphy one of these days. If you're going to play the artist, you may as well do it right.
Regardless, you and Kate begin unloading and carrying off those corpses while Sherrel goes to get the nails. Though you suppose it'd be more accurate to call them small stakes.
'Never underestimate a tinker's ability to hoard the weirdest shit on themselves,' she'd said, and you can't argue with the results.
"Alright, people, time to do this, and do it right. For starters, hold this one here."
Now, unfortunately, you didn't have any spraypaint on hand, but luckily, your bag of tricks was deep and wide. Thus, you summoned the soul you'd taken to calling Blinkdog and had it empower Kate.
"Alright Kate, we really need some spraypaint, or just something to draw with. Would you mind popping around and getting something?"
Grinning, Kate nods. "Like I'd ever turn down the chance to be a teleporting robber. Be back in a few."
Leaving her to her fun, you get back to Sherrel. "Can you push him a little higher? Thanks." Taking hold of the flopping body yourself to jold him steady, you push the 'nail' into it, under the shoulder, and begin using your clawed hand as a hammer to drive it into the wall bit by bit.
"Alright, first nail's in. Tilt him a little to the side for me? Perfect."
"You know, I'd never have thought I'd be doing some complete psycho shit like this one day and think it funny, but here I am. Does that say something about me as a person?"
"Nah, I think that's a completely natural reaction to fucktards like these getting theirs."
It takes a little longer than you're entirely comfortable with, as well as the usage of the ladder Sherrel wisely keeps in the trunk, but soon enough, you stand before a veritable piece of art.
The five corpses are nailed arrayed across the wall, framed by a graveyard-like landscape, looking as though they were lying inside see-through coffins surrounded by gravestones and crypts, with the odd skeleton peeking onto the view here and there.
Above it all, your simplified gang tag graces the sky of the picture, proclaiming to all who exactly put up this monument, the rest of your message written onto the tombstones marking your victims' 'graves'.
Not Welcome
All in all, looks pretty nice. Though you really have to get going, time's running short.
"Got the picture?" You ask as Kate keeps on moving her mobile around.
"Yup, should have a good amount. We can pick one once we're back. For now, let's haul some ass!"
Entering the invisivan again, the three of you drive off, the whole creative process taking under twenty minutes. Normally, that would be enough to get the PRT on your ass, but they were pretty... busy tonight, between a gang fight between the nazis and the asian nazis, as well as an impromptu distraction staged the Undersiders forcing them to respond to anything that wasn't not a fight over you.
"I'm SO posting this once we're back, just so you know."
"Feel free, that's why I wanted the pictures in the first place."
Interlude: What Corpses?!
By the time the news found out about the macabre monument on Commerce Street, Brockton Bay, the whole thing had already blown up to be an internet sensation the kind most people would compare to Alexandria taking maternity leave.
This should not be too surprising to people in the know, given the alleged perpetrator of the affair was the same cape that had allegedly (if asked in the USA) shared the cure for cancer with the world, automatically making any news concerning him a Big Deal.
That it also looked a lot like an international incident didn't help matters, of course.
"I don't care they're technically a forgein terrorist organization that then went and got caught! Double the price on the motherfucker's head if that's what it takes and have them do it better this time!"
Some didn't learn from their mistakes...
"You know, poppet, maybe we should set course for Brockton Bay, after all," Jack said as he stroked his beard, looking over the pictures.
Some made their mistakes...
"We need to get these fuckers down right now, and then we need to find out everything about this! Go, go, go! And if you have to personally pull the nails out!" An incensed Director Piggot borderline roared.
Some tried to prevent any further mistakes...
"Hey boss! You gotta see this!" The Butcher turned and smashed the idiot's face in as she took the mobile he'd been waving in her face.
"Hmm... Interesting." She murmured even as the voices in her head began to clamor... well, more than usual, anyways.
Some prepared to use others' mistakes...
"Looks like it really couldn't be helped, after all." Not Shawn, but Dauntless murmured to himself.
Some prepared to try fixing their mistakes.
"Report received. Retreat to HQ; your liasion remains the same."
"Understood."
And some were too far gone to question their mistakes.
Rebecca Costa-brown read a report in her office and sighed.
"I need a drink."
Having Yoshi called to the workshop via the Maid, you spread a few sheets of paper before you and begin sketching out a select few bits of the internal mechanisms of the laser muskets you know your way around with.
"Hey there, what'd you need me for?"
"We are going to design a laser pistol, and we may or may not be using a set of designs I stole from another parrallel world."
"Huh."
The end result of your design work is... pretty cool, actually. Gone is the haphazard slapdash construction present in laser muskets, as is the handcranked nature of their ammunition.
Sure, the principle is great for the conditions over in Nora's home dimension, but with you capable of securely mass-producing fusion cells, using them as an energy-source just makes more sense.
Also means the girls won't need to take a minute to crank up again every time they shoot. Hasn't been too much of an issue so far, but better safe than sorry and all that.
Beyond a simple firing mechanism designed around this, all you really added was room for future improvements, maybe attachments or small modifications to be installed at individul discretion. And, of course, you then went over everything and smoothed the design over a bit, making it look like a sleek, awe-inspiring bringer of lasery death rather than a science fare project.
Overall, you may not be completely happy with the point you're leaving this at, but it's a decent enough stopping point. And such, the first theoretical version of the Nos-4A2 is born. Despite Yoshi's whining about parts of the design process.
And no, the name is great, he has no room to talk.
While you're inside your inner world already, though, you also take a moment to call upon the Maid to both bring you to the Warden and instruct the both of them as to additional work to be done.
Specifically, you have them take the Buffer Hero as well as all but one of the Yangban capes you ate into the dungeons and train them, to obtain a strong feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment from helping others, make him much more team oriented, get rid of his delusions and replace them with a certainty his role in life is to make everyone around him better and shift their loyalty from the CUI to you, respectively.
You have a good feeling about this.
With that done, you exit yourself and go to find Sarah, handing her the soul of the one Yangban agent that kept his original power you saved up for her with a deep, tongue-twisting kiss before strolling out with a smile and setting three of your souls to work.
Specifically, you have Yoshi set about using some of the technology you already have access to to develop a model of turret that can be reliably built and hidden around your territory for later, and Phillip and Kiron are to return to those 'students' of theirs after the former had a moment to set up patrol schedules for some of your mooks' mooks. And yes, that's what the girls decided to call the people commonly called 'Crypsters' hanging around your territory nowadays.
You aren't going to comment.
Incidentally, Yoshi's investigation of tinkertech amounted to about as much as you expected. Maybe a little more insight, if him claiming that it looks as though a decent amount of the technology is simply missing and still working as though it were plugged in from elsewhere, but it still doesn't exactly get you anywhere new.
Now then, with your training ban in place, you may as well keep on talking to your people, huh? Be the nice boss while you have the time to waste and all.
Decision made, you turn towards Spitfire, or rather, Emily's room. Time to poke her a bit, maybe see about thralling her if it works out.
Politely knocking and entering, you find Emily relaxing on her couch, her laptop once again on the desk and playing something.
"Oh, uh, hello! What'cha need?"
"Oh, I just recently decided to take a little time off, so I'm just going around making sure everyone's doing alright, get to know people better, that kind of thing."
"I see. So, uhm, what d'ya wanna talk about?"
"Good question, that. Actually, how about I draw a quick sketch of you? Just a little thing on the side as we talk."
"I- mhm. Okay." As she replies, she blushes, nicely highlighting her freckles. You don't take long to organize yourself a piece of paper and a few pencils and there you go.
As the two of you sit there, you keep on making idle conversation, putting the practice you gathered during your livestreams to good use. Emily quickly warms up to you again, calming down the more you talk.
"Why are you doing the eyes like that?"
"Dunno, I just think they suit you, so may as well."
Looking at the finished picture, Emily holds her breath in admiration.
"This looks really, really nice."
"Keep it, it's yours. 'Sides, it just barely looks as pretty as you anyways."
Beholding her blush, you mentally smile to yourself. Teenage girls.
"Actually, while I'm here already, would you like me to give you a powerup? Same thing I did for most of teh higher-ups anyways."
Biting her lip nervously, she looks at you. "What would that entail exactly?"
You reply with an indolent smile. "I just feed you a decent bit of my blood over the course of a few hours, then you get to have a fraction of some of my powers, plus a few little extras. Become healthier, smarter, overall better, that kinda thing."
"Mhmm... Okay, but I want something in exchange."
"Oh? What's that?" You ask with a slightly raised eyebrow.
She, in turn, looks around to make sure the two of you are alone before answering. "That sounds like a long and boring thing, so I wanna sit on your lap while it happens. Way less moving around like that."
You can't help yourself, you just chuckle.
"Okay, in that case, come over here while I tell you a little about what powers you could get."
It takes a bit of talking things through, though ultimately Emily decides to trust you to know best, having known all her options much longer and more intimately than her.
At the end, though, you have a brand new thrall, bouncing on your lap a little in happiness at a whole new way to view the world. Letting her up so she can go try it out for a bit, you set course for Okita's room, noting you hadn't really even seen her ever since you first arrived back on Earth Bet.
Arriving at the room that Okita took for herself, you're mildly surprised to find her and the Priestess together, going through what looks like elementary school English practice.
"Hello Gabriel." Good old Okita.
"Hey Okita. Settling in alright?"
"Mhm. Did you know the automatic translation doesn't work for anyone that wasn't summoned? Need to learn English to talk to people."
Okita looks... a little miffed at that. Also explains why Priestess would be here, though- Okita would be the only other person in the base she can talk with aside from you and Sarah, both of which are busy.
And also annoy Okita, having someone hang onto and try to talk to her.
"Alright. You two want any company while you figure this out?"
"Please."
It isn't long before you have a lightly grumbling Okita sitting in your lap, patting the Priestess' head, and are trying to work around the automatic translation to help them along a little. It's slowly going, though she calms downa little, visibly cheering up an insecure priestess.
Really, it's just be like Okita, being unable to speak a local language and just ram her head against it until she gets it.
The last thing you wanted to take care of, now that you've spent a decent chunk of time patting and caring for both of the language-challenged girls as you were teaching them, is a little meeting with most of the original members of your gang, adding Sarah of course.
Luckily you did think to announce this beforehand, so you can find mostly everyone in the meeting room you'd called them to, idly chattering and munching on some snacks.
"Hello everyone!" You announce as you come in. "I called you all here today to discuss a topic I recently realized we have been almost criminally negligent with. That's right, we never figured out a set of gang colors our mooks can identify with. High time we got to it."
Taking a seat, you don't take long to deal with the flood of comments immediately drowning anything you could try to say out.
