Time moved on it's relentless march forward and soon the galactic year ended. The new year was greeted by a new name on the up and coming list of magazines and newspapers across the galaxies, Handsome Jack. The guy had not only managed to somehow shutdown all but a small handful of claptraps(mine were the majority saved) but also fully took over Hyperion. Aggressively at that. He pressured the stock owners to sell to him for cheap or face death or just straight up killed them. The previous CEO was apparently strangled by the man personally even.-
After taking over the company he kicked it into high gear as he started cranking out new innovations and weaponry that propelled the company to the top from it's already lofty position. He hadn't stepped on our deal with the Eridium mining site but every other competitor? Forced to give way to Hyperion. Other than that he was amassing forces on the dirtball and from my outside view it was painfully obvious what he intended to do. He'd let all those on the planet get nice and comfortable before he brought down the hammer on them. -
I offered a couple who I'd rather see not caught in the middle like Scooter and Zed a place at Drake but they turned me down as they called Pandora home and didn't want to leave. Still I warned them ahead of time to be ready to move to safety at the first sign of trouble. I tried to get Mordy and Brick to join my company but they said they'd only take Mercenary work from me. They both said they might have joined me before they knew how boring it was but now that they did it wasn't for them.-
I respected that if nothing else and didn't press the issue. I did tell them to get the hell out of New Haven though. Anyone not braindead would understand the need to stomp that place out first before you could begin implementing a new order on the planet. True to my word though I didn't try and make any moves to get in the way of what Jack clearly had planned. On my side of things I had finally managed to fully roll out my military changes. My military was now fully geared and trained with all that swanky stuff I made just for this purpose.-
Even better my R&D division at Drake was churning out minor advancements fairly regularly thanks to me sending Tannis an invitation to work at my company in that division. Add on the talented but previously overlooked new researchers I'd gotten from the populace of my planets and that division was putting my money to use, both good and bad. Good because several projects held real value for the future and bad because some of the others were .....questionable at best. Still Tannis was like a fish to water in the division even if her mind was rather fucked up from her time on Pandora.-
She was currently in the process of running a series of experiments on a few genetic samples I had provided her belonging to myself. Already she had confirmed that while my genetic code was still along the human track it was starting to lean toward being inhuman more than a little. In her words it was a mess of half done evolutionary leaps in multiple directions. I could understand what she meant too. Normally as a creature evolves it sheds traits that don't serve any real purpose anymore while streamlining for it's new living style. -
A good example was how fish over many generations could develop air breathing lungs, then reptilian skin to regulate body temperature and eventually replace the fins with pseudo-legs for moving on land. The longer the species went without using the water to survive the less adapted for it they became until they were something entirely different. My powers were doing this to me but I wasn't following through to the full conversion process to a new species since I didn't lose traits. As a result my genetic structure was one of many half steps in evolution taken in many different directions, illogical in nature but understandable with my powers.-
The overwhelming majority of genetic alignment was poised towards siren powers and defense however which Tannis called the Zeta point, the final evolution in a single line possible. Surprisingly she even agreed with my powers naming the trait [Phase-god] as in her opinion it would only make sense for the pinnacle and ultimate evolution in a line to be a god-state.-
"The idea of divinity is not supported by science but logic does dictate that the ultimate form of something would be divine if that was even possible." she said discussing her findings in my office.
"Without my powers I think the odds of another god popping up must be incredibly low." I said nodding in agreement.
"If you'll forgive my candor but I believe you might be wasting your powers potential. You could achieve this so called "god-state" in several paths at once if you would only drop this moronic habit of only collecting traits of a high grade. You yourself have seen the possibility of reaching higher graded traits by fusing many lower graded ones yet you don't." She said with a frustrated look.
"I know but you are under a slight misunderstanding. Not all trait lines scale like that. Take [Amphibious lungs] for example. If I were to just collect and fuse that trait over and over again it might jump two grades before no amount of the same trait would bring a reaction. You would need to add another variant of a trait similar in nature to continue improving it. Most isolated traits scale to god level but those traits are rare since evolution rarely leans towards a single trait like that, it's a balancing game after all. Could I improve my traits by collecting many lower graded ones to make higher graded ones? Yes I could. But I won't, it's boring." I explained honestly.
"Boring?" she questioned with a frown.
"Yes, boring. Perfection is a dead end Tannis. Once you are there that's it, theres no more improvement, no further excitement. I am functionally immortal. Can you even begin to comprehend how bored I'd be if I reached godhood in everything now and then had to find some way to occupy myself forever? The scary part wouldn't be going insane but what comes after being insane stops being stimulating enough." I said seriously.
"I don't understand, isn't insanity the end?" she asked confused.
"Not with eternity staring back at you it isn't. At some point the mind will reorganize itself and a new kind of sanity will form. Going from insanity back to sanity and then eventually insane again from boredom. That's the sort of future I have to look forward to. You'll understand then why I might want to draw it out as much as fucking possible." I said seriously.
"That does explain your seemingly wasteful use of your powers." she said with a disturbed expression.
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 2,429,173
Integrated Traits: [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Supreme vitality-Legendary grade],[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade]X2, [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Rare grade],[Active camouflage-Legendary grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Biometallic bones-Legendary grade], [Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade], [Embodiment of destruction(partial)-Mythical grade], [Demi-god body-Mythical grade], [Martial savant-Legendary grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Phase-god(Incomplete)-Mythical grade], [Impenetrable hide-Legendary grade]
Stored traits: [Agelessness-Legendary grade],[Elemental lifeform-Epic grade], [Elemental embodiment(Fire)-Legendary grade], [Elemental embodiment(Cryo)-Legendary grade],