The Slayer was now in his man cave, trying to figure out how best to adapt the tech of the FOD for Isabelle. After all, she had a point, about what the tech could do, the problem was just that it wasn't the most portable in its current state. So he was with Isabelle now, who was testing out holographic concepts before he built them.
"Hmmm, I have to admit I like this idea," she told him as she waved around a hologram of a device on her arm, one that the Slayer had to admit was mostly inspired by Mass Effect's omni-tool, but the real thing would have more physicality to it, and be similar to a Fallout Pip-Boy. "But I do see a problem. Not for me per se, but if you try to market this. Mainly...how do you make something like this fit everyone?"
"Well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But the likely answer, now I think about it?" The Slayer responds as he solders components to a circuit board. "Make the screen, and all smart components, its own thing." He demos with the hologram, separating it from the actual bracer it's attached to. "And the bracer is offered in multiple sizes. Likely the same for the sensor glove."
"Hey...whatever works," Isabelle smiles at the idea. "Oh, and that fluid in the bioprinter? I did some analysis. While I'm not sure I have the brains to do it? It could likely be modified into a biogel. It has a nice good base structure, but lacks...specifics."
"Go on," the Slayer responds, turning to face her as she shows him her test results.
"First off? Let me know if this is over your head," Isabelle admits with a small smile, as he looks it over. "Second? Well, it's promising. It can support the freshly printed organs, and keep them sterile, right? Well what if this stuff could be more active in that role? Imagine a version that when slathered on a wound, could disinfect said wound. As well as seal it shut too. Even anaestheize. A miracle biogel, all the better for keeping death away, and quieting its approach."
"Interesting. And don't worry...I understand some. But I'll admit that biology is NOT my forte," the Slayer admits, handing the tablet back. "But good work. Back on Earth you'd have to publish that in various medical journals, get it peer reviewed, experiments out the ass. Science ain't science unless it's repeatable, and all that," He responds with a smile. "But hang onto it. We'll find out a way. Now...here's another function to try out," he tells her, and makes more holograms appear over her eyes. "An interesting vision mode. Sentinel doctors use it all the time, to diagnose patients. It lets you see any part of the body, clear as day, without a knife getting involved. And I do mean any, not just bones. So you might think of it as X-ray vision, but it's really technically not. And you can select the layer too. How deep you look. Try it on me. For now, I'll give you buttons to let you adjust how deep you look," some holographic buttons appear near Isabelle's fingers as he says this, "But in the future? It'll be ALL neural."
Isabelle looks at him, adjusting the controls as she looks at him. She set it to its deepest setting, able to see his bones, with icons popping up informing her that his bone density was unusually high, and that the blood being made from said bones contained unknown bodies. All normal for him.
Zooming out a layer let her see his organs, as clear as if she was doing surgery on him. His heart was oversized, icons alerting her to high blood pressure, but she reasoned it away. After all, with what he's done? Can do? High blood pressure is a given. And is the LEAST of his problems. Another icon told her his exact heart rate. Everything else was in perfect shape.
Looking up, and zooming in a layer, she could see his brain, with alerts in her vision of high neural activity, and abnormal brain wave activity, but she figured that was likely normal for him. Zooming out two layers revealed his muscles, with expected alerts about high muscle density, with lactic acid levels at extreme lows.
And then finally, she zoomed out to the final layer, the one that showed the skin. But still could see through clothes. She gave a quick glance up and down, when one thing caught her attention. Something that she wanted to blush at, but she also knew to be professional.
"W-wow, this vision mode really is something," Isabelle admits finally, looking up at him, her stutter unmissed.
"Something wrong?" the Slayer asks.
"Well, no." She collects herself. "But I have to say sir...you're packing some heat, aren't you?" The Slayer tilts his head while raising an eyebrow, and Isabelle only responds by looking down towards what she meant, and then he understood.
"Oh, that. Though it's a good thing it's not TOO big. Or else the armor would be QUITE uncomfortable. It's also good that I've never gotten a random boner, because that...that would be painful," he admits.
"Related to that...the boys are, as I think we'd both suspect, pumping out testosterone like it's going out of style," Isabelle observes. "But there's an anomaly, yet another for the pile. You don't exhibit signs of excess testosterone. I mean...you're manly, yes. But..." she reaches up, and strokes his chin. "Not. One. Hair. Nor signs of recent shaving. Which should be impossible. You should be able to beard it up with the best of them. Yet you don't. But it's one of many things I have to research," she continues, pulling her hand away and clearing her throat. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it."
She was just leaving, when she bumped into Velvet, followed closely by Coco. "What's the trouble?" The Slayer asks, as Velvet holds out her strange weapon. "Ah, want me to try and fix its issue, huh? Well, set it down...here," he points to a scanner. Velvet sets it down there, and the girls pull up some chairs and watch. "Attached at the hip?" He asks them with a small smile. "Well, watch." He taps some buttons, and a scan of the weapon commences, creating a hologram he moves to his desk. One flick, and the hologram exploded into its components, and the Slayer looked at them all.
"So how'd you even make this thing?" He asks as he looks around at the holo pieces.
"Anesidora was my design, and Ironwood approved it," Velvet explains as Coco messes with some holograms, finding those used by Isabelle just moments ago. "And thanks to how closely my dad works with him...I get plenty of hard light Dust for it."
"Oooh, Tin Man approves huh? Well he, and the rest of those folks, still want me behind bars. Not that any bars could hold me," the Slayer responds with a faint, scary smile. "So what all CAN this thing do? Or not do? And for that matter...you?"
"Well, I can copy moves. And this can copy weapons. But the copies burn out after a short period. And of course, burn out of its memory too," Velvet explains. The Slayer nods and taps a few controls. Multiple holo copies of the weapon form, each with various indicators around them. "What's that?" Velvet asks.
"Perks of quantum computing. I can run multiple experiments. Hundreds. Thousands. Possibly millions. All at once. All to fix the problems with this thing, all at the same time. If there's one nice thing I can say about the Maykrs, it's that they know their tech." He turns to face her as the experiments run. "And you? Seems you're quite the copy cat. Or...copy bunny," he corrects, which made Velvet blush a little, but she regains her composure.
"Well, if I see a move, I can copy it. And THAT doesn't burn out," she beams with pride. "But I can't copy Semblances. And I can prove it." She gets up, pulling the Slayer up as well. "I took to this easily as well," she explains, demoing her progress with the neural collar training the Slayer had made them all take. The Doom Blade on her arm slid in and out with as much ease as if the Slayer himself did it. Well, it would be if it was real. What she really had, what they all had, was more of a Doom Spoon, having the same properties of the real thing in terms of its response to neural collar activity. But as dull as a spoon. Velvet then demonstrated some of the Slayer's own Glory Kills on him, or rather what would be Glory Kills, if they had been lethal.
"Very nice," the Slayer responds. "Now, let's try a few other things. IE..." he pulls up some archived helmet cam footage from his past adventures, selecting his first marauder fight. "Let's see if you can imitate both him. And then me," he explains as she watches.
"What is THAT?" She asks as the marauder gives his opening speech. "And what's he talking about?"
"He's a guy who's pissy that I'm better than him. Got some upgrades from Hell to compensate for the fact I made him feel inadequate and small," the Slayer explains calmly as the fight begins.
"And you are certainly neither," Coco says with a chuckle. They both turn to face her, and see a hologram in front of her eyes. "So this is why Isabelle was flustered."
"Coco...where are you looking with that?" The Slayer asks firmly, ready to tap some controls. Velvet just looked at them both confused.
Coco then tackles him away and onto the floor, still smirking as she looked both at Velvet, and Slayer, biting her lip as she sat on top of him. "You're not taking this from me. Not with this good a view."
"What's going on?" Velvet asks, still confused.
"Before you two came in, Isabelle was testing out a new vision mode that lets her see any body part, no matter how deep it is. Bones, organs, muscles...anything," the Slayer explains, rolling him and Coco over so he's on top.
"What's so bad about that?" Velvet asks.
"Because she can also see just the skin," the Slayer explains, and as it dawns on her what he means, she blushed and covered herself, even though she was clothed.
"And what a view it is," Coco smirks as she wriggles out from under him.
"C-C-Coco, you p-pervert!" Velvet squeals as she runs into a corner. Coco continued to glance between the both of them.
"Ok, that's enough," the Slayer tells her as he moves to deactivate it. But Coco pounces on him again to stop him, soon frowning in disappointment. But then smirking in a different way. The Slayer then noticed what the matter was. In the turmoil, the hologram's tracking sensors had become confused. And now, HE was sporting the magic see through vision.
It was still on the last setting, naturally. So now the Slayer was seeing it all. As he pushed Coco off of him, the Slayer could see ALL of her. Velvet too when he took a glance. On one hand, both girls were lovely. As beautiful as could be, with curves in all the right places. But on the other hand, they were young. Upperclassmen for Beacon, for which he was thankful. Mainly because he knew that RWBY/JNPR were all seventeen, which logically meant CFVY had to be eighteen minimum, so he wasn't seeing anything he shouldn't. But that didn't excuse the fact they were young, FAR younger than him. The Slayer was literally older than dirt, older than stars, older than some entire universes. If Hell behaved the same way as the universes on the mortal plane, he could see himself outliving it as well. The age difference between him and the girls was beyond counting.
"See anything you like?" Coco asks, even posing for him with a smirk. Velvet's expression shifted when she realized what had happened, even letting her arms drop, though her cheeks were still red.
"He's not interested Coco. Unlike YOU," she tells her, walking over and putting a finger in Coco's face. "He's not a pervert who'd oggle us like he's a teenager."
"But he's still looking," Coco points out. And indeed, the Slayer had stolen another glance now that Velvet wasn't covering herself. And he had to admit the view was better. But when Velvet glanced over, he deactivated the hologram, though Coco was still smirking. "Enjoyed the show big guy?"
He didn't bother to respond, only checking the results of the experiments with Anesidora.
"Lots of failures," he changes the subject. "But don't be discouraged. In my world, the man who invented the light bulb was Thomas Edison. History records that he made a hundred attempts at it, most failures. But he would tell you he didn't fail. He found ninety nine ways how not to make a light bulb. But only needed one success to start it all." He then picks out a few experiments that showed promise, sorting through them until one caught his eye. "Well here's one. This can't solve the issue with the copies not lasting long, but it can prevent burnout. Well...sort of." He expands it to show what he means. "Because the copies won't stay in the weapon's memory. They'll stay here," he tells her. "Which means I just have to give you a chunk of the server. You can take a pic, upload the data up here...and there you go."
Velvet was still calming down during his explanation, but smiled at the fact that there was a solution. "Oh thank you!" She tells him excitedly, hugging him as well. He hugs back, but gingerly, which Velvet sensed. "Afraid to hug me?" She asks.
"Actually, yes. I don't want to hurt you," the Slayer admits.
"Here...try it," Velvet demands, so the Slayer tightens his hug. And it wasn't long until Velvet understood. "Oh damn!" She yells out, and the Slayer loosens just a hair. "I didn't say stop. That was the tightest hug I've ever had. But I totally get it. Feels like the spine might be crushed. And I thought Yatsu was strong." Velvet leans into him, but after breaking away, adds "Hey Coco! You should try it."
"Having my spine crushed by him?" Coco asks with a chuckle as she approaches. "It can't be that bad—" she was about to say, until the Slayer hugs her. "Oh fuck! Thank the gods for Aura, or I think my spine really WOULD be crushed right now. Actually...we should visit our new doctor sometime, just to make sure," she tells Velvet as she breaks out of the hug, but also whispering "Enjoyed that did you?" to the Slayer.
"Well that's that for the weapon. But as for moves...I have an idea to test what you've learned. This isn't the place," the Slayer tells Velvet. They walk out, and down to the Ripatorium, the Slayer making it take the form of a dojo, complete with mats and the like. "Now, let's see how good you are. Pretend you're the Marauder first, fighting me."
Velvet gave a smile of determination, even pulling up her shirt a little to mimic the Marauder's mask, doing a slow walk towards him. "You were never one of us," she repeats from the video in her best imitation of the Marauder's voice, making a motion like she was activating the axe, then dragging the tip along the ground. "You were nothing but a usurper. A false idol," she continued, and the Slayer could feel himself doing the same walk with Velvet, as he had done back then, though he lacked his armor and weapons. "My eyes have been opened. Let me help you to see, Slayer." She then let her shirt fall back, breaking character. "Ok ok, I can't keep that up forever. I'm sorry," she says as she clutches her stomach with a small laugh. "I get it was a serious moment then. But..."
"You just can't muster up the same attitude. But still, that was a good attempt. One I didn't expect. But a great way to get in character," he laughs as Velvet gets ready to charge. The Slayer even made sure The Only Thing They Fear is You was playing, which really helped the mood of the fight.
"I want my own ghost dog too," Velvet pouts as she attacks. She didn't have any weapons, but was able to compensate quite well, using all the same dodges and blocks. Of course, the Slayer didn't have weapons either, but it was a good fight nonetheless, both of them getting into it.
At one moment, the Slayer could sense a tackle coming from behind, and dodged out of the way as Coco tumbled to the ground. "Oh come on! How did you know?" She asks as she picks herself up.
"Do you REALLY think you could get the drop on me?" the Slayer asks as Coco attempts to come at him again. She was clearly trying to punch him, but was inexperienced at it. Mixed with some amateur grapples as well. Nothing the Slayer couldn't handle. But from then on the girls worked together in their attempt to subdue him.
But as could be predicted, the Slayer eventually had them both pinned to the ground, helpless to resist him. Though they were both blushing up at him, and it didn't take the Slayer long to realize why. The softness under his hands told him all he needed to know, so he got up, and pulling them up as well. "Sorry about that," he apologizes.
They were still blushing, but Coco points out "Even your hands are strong huh?"
Velvet changes the subject to ask "So how did I do?"
"Quite well, all things considered. You need the shotgun, the axe, shield and dog to make it real. But you do a good job, regardless. At least you don't have to swallow those you copy. Unlike He who is All-Devouring. And pink," the Slayer explains, both girls raising eyebrows at that description. "You'll understand someday. You might even main him Velvet," he adds which only confused her further.
"So how long will the upgrades take?" She asks as they get ready to leave.
"Not long. The uplink is the hardest part," he explains. "Other than that...shouldn't be too hard."
The girls were getting ready to leave, but Coco stops.
"Look at you, big guy. You got to see through our clothes, AND cop some feels too," she says with a smirk. "Bet it's been a while for you, hasn't it?"
The Slayer didn't respond as Coco walked out. But he also couldn't get the images of them out of his head. The curves, the peaks, the valleys...both girls were quite lovely, he had to admit. Remnant sure was a planet full of beauties it seemed. Argenta women had been pretty too, when he saw them. It was a shame they weren't always as on the front lines, and in the same battle positions as the men.
But damn did he have to admit some Argenta ladies could've done photoshoots that would've kept the presses of Playboy and Sports Illustrated pushing out copies like they were going out of style. Not to mention the fact they'd've also raised Victoria's Secret's stock prices. And Remnant was almost the opposite of Argent D'Nur in terms of gender balance. Here those companies would be spoiled for choice. He had seen TWO ladies now who could revitalize a men's interest magazine out of bankruptcy.
And while he didn't have a large sample size, based on Glynda Goodwitch, Remnatian ladies aged like wine. He could feel a desire to use the vision on others. His own team as the primary example. He knew that team RWBY were all seventeen, except for Ruby herself at fifteen. So for three of the four, he didn't have to wait long.
But he then mentally slapped himself for thinking that way. These girls were all young, FAR too young for him. There was no such thing as a girl that wasn't too young for him. And worse, he was wanting to peek at RWBY, even if he had to wait.
Though the naughty side of him took the "too young" argument to its logical conclusion, saying he should enjoy himself, and not care about relative youth, only if they were of age or not. What was even WORSE, was that said naughty side wanted MORE, than to perv. And not even with just A girl either. No, his naughty side wanted multiple.
But he still wanted to slap that side of himself, for thinking that way. Not just for wanting a girl far too young. But for wanting MULTIPLE girls far too young for him. There was no way he could do that to them. He couldn't appear greedy and lustful like that. And he would outlive them. He didn't want to play with hearts like that, and stretch himself beyond he could do. After all, he was still human, in some capacity. Sure, that humanity was pretty much a past life. But it was still there. A human side that remembered his wife of old. His son as well. And while he knew that she would want him to be happy...he also had a feeling she wouldn't approve of him wanting multiple girls.
Of course, the naughty side had an answer for that too. Wanting to assure him that with what he's done, he could do it. He could make a...he didn't even want to think the word. While he knew that's what it'd be, he hated the word. It was a word born in the Arab world, and popularized in anime. And there were past gods who had done similar. Zeus had to bed nearly every mortal woman Greece had. And he could do better, and BE better. No swan transformations or the like.
And thinking of transformations, he'd have to, if he could. He looked in a nearby mirror, noticing his visual age. He could pass as their dads. Though all things considered, he did know that he looked good for his age, as his age would be not just dead, not just decomposed, but literal dust. Not even bones would be left. Maybe a fossil if allowed. But even THAT would've disintegrated by now. He ran a finger along one line on his face, one of the many signs of advanced age.
But then a shock happened, when he noticed that as he ran his finger along the line, it vanished, appearing as if it was never there. "What the...?" He asks out loud to nobody but himself. He ran his finger up the other way, and it reappeared. He even tried it with other creases on his face, to the same effect. He didn't even need his finger for all of them.
Good, his newly developed naughty side said to him, in a cackling, Palpatine-esque way. This will make seduction easier.
Excuse me? What seduction? I am NOT going to chase girls like a hormonal teenager! He thought back. It was a shame, that for all the external demons he had killed, here now was a lustful one, arising within him. One he could not rip out of him, then tear limb from limb as he wanted.
You deserve it. You killed DAVOTH. Where the fuck can you go from here? Remnant is but a vacation for you. And you can bring hope to these people with what you can do. And the ladies will be grateful. Possibly some of the men too. Even if you would...politely decline. OK, he had to admit the naughty side was correct about that last point. Well, last two. Or was it one and a half? He was sure that men could likely be seduced to him just as easily. But of course, he would politely decline. It awoke a curiosity though just how many men WOULD go for him. And not just on Remnant. He would hold ZERO shock if there were Earth and Argenta men that crushed on him. Ditto for non-binaries, regardless of world. It made him wonder how many people, from those two worlds, already DID crush on him. He suddenly had a thought that involved a couple in bed, one wearing a fake, costume version of his helmet.
But he had enough of standing around. Anesidora needed modifications, as well as Isabelle's gear. And fixing things was always a good way to clear the head, though if that didn't work, the Ripatorium would. He even knew just the map too. Or likely three maps, all of which he could go completely NUTS in, and rip and tear to his heart's content.
