Axel retracts his cell blade as he steps past the severed head of the creature that Kaid identified as an Afrovenator. The AI had latched onto the nearest link to the multi-world-spanning information network called the Overnet. There he had devoured terabytes of data like a starving man and was still going. Axel could feel his happiness with every bite.

He moves over to the unconscious girl. The scanners in his eyes are already telling him that she is alive, but her body is in rough shape. Her ankle is broken, and she seems to have physically pushed herself to the point of near cardiac arrest. She is young and fit, so she must have been running nonstop at full speed for a while to get to that point.

"Her name is Zephyr Johnson, and the Reich has her listed as a rebel," echos Kaid, "She is a member of the Boston Underground Railroad. It is a rebel movement that spans the world but is centered in what was once the United States of America but is now known as the Center. It is the seat of power for the Reich Empire. The Underground Railroad has been in existence for centuries as well. It started during the original enslavement of Africans in America and restarted when the Axis Powers won World War II. It is not only a movement, but their underground communities are possibly the only place where people of color can have any kind of freedom. The members that engage in military and espionage operations operate in cells separate from the major communities. She and her other cell members were raided and rounded up. Most were sentenced to Prison Afrika where we are. This is where the Reich drops their failed genetic experiments or their lethally successful ones and thus a death sentence for the prisoners."

"Hm, how deep into the system are you," echoes Axel as he examines Zephyr's broken ankle.

"Oh, that was just from the public announcement board," echos Kaid, "The Reich loves to brag about its successes. A small dose of Synth will heal her. I would say a quarter dose."

Synth is, for all intents and purposes, a miracle drug. Used on the battlefields of the Dread Dimension, it is capable of healing just about any wound a soldier takes and survives. Axel has seen men and women blown in half back on their feet and fighting a half hour later. Although Axel has little use for it himself since he is more machine than man at this point with a robust internal repair system, he keeps several doses on him for his less altered comrades. With a thought, he opens the inventory list over the vision of his right eye and scrolls down to the Synth but stops when he sees something else on the list. It reads Metal Legion (100,000).

"Kaid," echoes Axel, staring at the selection, "What is Metal Legion."

"Ah, they, like me, are gifts given by Lord Cthulhu," echoes Kaid, sounding incredibly pleased. "They are combat automatons who have been programmed with your military experience. They are all leashed to us, of course, but they are fully capable of adapting to a situation in order to achieve their ordered objectives. Like the rest of your inventory, they are stored in your pocket dimension."

Axel lets out a low whistle and gives silent thanks to his distant master. No, his distant friend for the gifts. He scrolls down to the Synth and selects a dose. The hypo injector with the golden liquid materializes in his hand. He selects the dose and places it to Zephyr's neck before pulling the trigger. The Synth floods into her and starts its work. She will still need rest, so he doesn't expect her to wake soon.

"Okay, look at the big boss coming in clutch," echoes Axel as he rises and looks around the jungle, not sensing any more immediate threats, "Any other gifts? He didn't shove a starship up my ass, did he?"

Kaid chuckles at that before echoing, "No, but he did implant a Creation Engine in your chest."

Axel is speechless both in his head and physically. A Creation Engine is a technology so advanced that he can't come close to understanding how it works. The simple version is one thing goes in, is broken down on a molecular level, and something new comes out. He has seen rocks shoved into one, and ammunition came out the other side. It is a thing of beauty and horror. It can also make food, but in order to do, say, something organic has to go in first. This can be anything living like a tree, but he has seen living beings shoved into them. While instinctively, he knows that eating what comes out isn't cellularly the same as what went in, his stomach was one of the first things he had replaced voluntarily, so eating wasn't as important. He had heard of the micro versions being implanted in some but had never met anyone who had it, or at least no one who told him they did.

He is about to ask how it works when he realizes he already knows. Kaid has simply put the information in his brain. Not hard since he is in Axel's brain already. Axel looks at his right hand and watches as the blue metal shifts out to cover it like a gauntlet. In the center is a disc of green light. Statuses appear in the corner of his vision.

CREATION ENGINE ACTIVE

ORGANIC MATTER: 0%

NON-ORGANIC MATTER: 0%

Axel marvels at the simplicity of the statuses. He was literally holding creation in his hand and there are only three. He looks down at the creature he just killed and aims his hand at the head. A beam of red light shoots out and the head breaks down into what looks like red sand before flowing into his hand. The entire process takes a second.

ORGANIC MATTER: 0.1%

He laughs as he breaks down the rest of the creature. Then, he starts on trees, rocks, and insects. He instinctively knows that the Creation Engine will double the matter he takes in, meaning that for each thing he absorbs, it is like absorbing two. Both meters fill relatively fast, and he stops when both reach ten percent. He has created a decent-sized clearing and now it is time to create. He scoops up Zephyr, not wanting to hurt her if this goes horribly wrong.

"Kaid, uh, can you help me with this, buddy?" echoes Axel.

"Of course," echoes Kaid pleasantly, "All you have to do is think of what you want. I will then pull all the design schematics and requirements from my library and feed them to the Creation Engine."

Axel considers what he wants. He definitely needs a base of operations, and this is the perfect location for that. He thinks about the ad hoc base modules they used when making a push into enemy territory. They were simple-looking, just a square building, but the smart metal they were made of had built-in camouflage and was about to send and receive signals for communication. They also had a deadly defense network that included gun drones, tracker mines, and shielding, just to name a few. Inside, they had computers, uplinks, holo screens, comms, beds for those who still needed sleep, and other warzone essentials. He doesn't need anything quite as large as those at the moment, but that is what he thinks and what Kaid loads into the Creation Engine. When it is ready a few seconds later, he gets a message over his vision.

CREATION LOADED

2% NON-ORGANIC MATTER REQUIRED

0.5 ORGANIC MATTER REQUIRED

CONFIRM: YES/NO

He selects yes. A hologram of the building appears over his vision, showing him how it will look and how much space it will take up. He nods and raises his hand. A green beam fires, followed by the green matter that looks like the red sand before. Within thirty seconds, he is looking at a fully constructed command center. He smiles as he carries Zephyr inside.