"Grah!" Calaliope Screamed. Lightning Streaking across her body as she leaps backwards! Her magnetic powers manipulating metal in front of her a Massive Clockwork and Ceramic automatons attacked at her! The constant ticking and clicking of punch cards and wound gears operating the machines! They were massive! As tall as Giants! 20 meters each! Its mechanisms were some how working against the force of her Fruit power!
"You are in a Restricted Area. This Area is Property of Dr. Leeuwenhoek Von Tehertz , COIL Research Company, The Marine Divsion of Special Technological and Universal Demand Sciences [STUDS] and the World Government! Please cease violence so you may be detained." The voice was deep. With a form of accent. The Th sounds were missing. W's were V's. Consonants were almost Airy.
More accurately the sentence was as such: Yoo are in a restricted ahrayah. dis ahrayah is braberdee of dokter tayherts, koil research gombany, de mareen divizhun of special tekhnological and ooniversal demand skyenses and de werld khuvernment! plays sees fyolens soh yoo may be detaynd.
It was…The Voice of Dr. Tehertz himself!
But Calliope had already long understood that! "Radical Rocker!" She combined her prosthetic arm and bulked it up with these Automotons very parts! Then slammed it into the side of its skull like face! Crushing and smashing it in a single blow!
"Radical…DUSTER!" As she fell back down through their air, she aimed her fist. Clenched! And repelled the fist out of its joint and connection to zip through the air at High Hypersonic speeds! Piercing through the other exact copies skull! Its computational engine wrapped around her fist!
Both…Fell limply against the ground… "Thats…Hah…Hah…The Last of them…" All around Caliope were the mangled and rended scraps of a variety or machines. From the Harbinger Blade Types, The Dogs, And those bulls. Even a shelless Condent model too…But it was missing its guns, armor, and eyes. Firing lasers everywhere. But its frame couldn't withstand the Heat. All of these were prototypes…
And Calliope…Had lost another arm…
The metal and scrap that was around her other arm fell off into a pile. Blood spilling and pouring on top of it in bright red splashes. Calliope grimaced and grit her teeth. Sweat beating as her face paled from the blood loss…
She had been fighting these machines for over 20 hours. The only people that were on the island were those dumpster divers at the coasts…
This was the Island of Rosenwieg. A Scrap Island filled with refuse and scrapped parts from Dr. Tehertz's supposedly failed Science Technologies. All over the island, which was over two dozen kilometers, had junk at ever part. Even the Island itself was a Failed Expirment. For it wasn't even an Island.
It was a Massive structure that was meant to try and replicate the Magnetic Field of a Grand Line island. Causing the entire island to be a mass of spikes and peaks that then had spikes on top of them. Just like what iron sand would look like stuck to a horseshoe magnetic and manipulating Ferrofluid.
Calliope was having to work every second she was out on the surface to apply an opposite amount of force from her own magnetic field against it. It felt like gravity was a dozen times higher…
Stumbling forward. Blood training. Her blood began to spike like metal fillings. Her whole body was obviously permanently Magnetic. Every part of her. Even her flood and her tears which were currently rolling down her face but spiking and peaking from the magnetism or the island around.
She slammed her hand against a card punch reader. An access card stored in the brains of the Clockwork Machines and Magnetically Charged so that-
The Doors Would open on proximity or insertion.
"Velcome Dohktor" Tehertz Voice sounded out. The moment she passed the threshold sher body Collapsed. The Magnetism ceasing within the laboratory she had been trying to get in for the past week.
Shed cried already over Leroys Arrest. And Cheered over his four year decleration.
Clawing back to her feet. She looked around the halls. It was an open floor plan with dozens of machines and what seemed to be work benches. Medkits sat on the wall.
The Entire Facility was Massive. Everything from automatic Forges, to Machines that stitched wounds on their own but only when precisely placed. Computers that used Reel to Reel magnetic strips and even Vacuum tube based monitors.
A few hours later. After being properly patched up. She looked around the entire facility.Quickly figuring out how to use the keyboards and prompts on the screen to get access to digitized files and information.
"Devil Fruit Logs?" She whispered to herself as she clicked on the storage and it opened and automatically began to speak outloud! Tehertz's voice, in that thick accent and deep voice, speaking.
"I have been studying Devil Fruits over 3 Decades. And yet I am no closer to accomplishing replication of these Supernatural Abilities…Theres nothing Science can't explain! Except…That which it cannot…" An audible sigh is heard and a rustle from him stroking his face.
"The Origin Seed…That molecule which houses the information to build life. It is fundamentally changed in a way that I can not quite comprehend by what Ive discovered. A Devil Fruit changes the Seed, and the persons very being, down to their brain and perhaps even their soul is changed. If such a thing exists."
"A Man Weighing 230 pounds and at a height of 6'5. Has only so many elements in the body. Poundage of organs, muscle, bone. Everything. And yet. When they die…There is .2 grams missing. It could be the soul…"
The Tape ended. Calliope looked to the Date. This was over 40 years ago. She found the second newest one in the Devil Fruit list and Played.
"The Soul and The Origin Seed influence one another. One cannot do without the other. Both are fundamentally changed by Devil Fruit. Perhaps the Devil Fruits have souls inside of them? Devils…?"
"Bah!" The sound peaked. "No. There must be something else to it. Something fundamental. Its as if when the chemicals and nature of the Fruit comes is digested, that a disease wracks the body. Changing the Seed and Genome. Everything about it. But something that cannot be measured normally. But…Finally. I've been able to something."
"First it was Manipulation of the Seed. Ensuring children born have higher biological functions, and even manipulated to a point where there bodies are able to accomplish the supernatural. The seed influenced in such a way that the body forced it to happen."
A picture appeared on the screen. A Double Helix. But at the end there was an extra 'orb' and it was labeled 'seed'
"The Seeds aren't the entire Helix. Thats the Gnome! The Seed is the ends of the Helix that connect and are read! So the Devil fruits must be adding something to this end! Forcing it on and then its a chain reaction! Germain and I many years ago were able to get children to be born with abilities. Based on the idea of Natrually Independently Developed Phenomenon where people have strange attributes to their bodies in the form of abilities from a long period of time."
"But…I wonder how Haki is able to play into this? Their Seeds aren't changed at any point…Yet it functions with bodily actions and supernatural ones! Perhaps the same way that a person fuels and funnels their haki into their body and into shapes…Is how Devil Fruits work but in their own way. Forcing the 'Shape' of a person to be a certain way, on top of manipulating the Seeds within the Genome…" Tape ended again.
Calliope didn't even hesitate. She clicked the next one.
"I did it." Was what the voice said. Sending a chill down her spine. The Date was 25 years ago.
"Replication of Devil Fruit abilities. They aren't perfect but I used what I had learned from the Devil Sap production and created a Fruit. Its not perfect…Perhaps even a failure. But I am able to bestow abilities onto a creature, down to making them eat a fruit that acts as a Catalyst. It was the missing piece. The One Piece that I hadn't considered! The Fruit is more than a fruit…But a catalyst."
"I have now been able to Replicate Fruit Abilities. Manipulate the Seed. Created Clones, Androids,and Cyborgs. But I still cannot properly replicate the Powers of A Logia…I can find mechanical way to replicate them. A Laser for instance that doesnt travel at the speed of light but merely 28.56% of it full speed. Or force growth of plant matter. But the intangibility. The Limitless Generation. That is still a mountain yet to be summited…"
"It…And Haki." Tape end.
Calliope leaned back. Rubbing her hand through her sweat caked hair. Thinking it all over. She had to learn. Had to learn more! All of these things were here. These Failures supposedly. But she could use them. Put them to use better than anyone else. Even if Tehertz thought they weren't good enough. They were perfect.
Perfect for her.
Calliope started slow. Testing out machines. Weapons. Prototypes from the Harbinger Labs. There were Railgun Prototypes, Homing Projectile Bullets, Blades that Vibrated so fast that they could cut through steel.
Pieces of Tech that were rocket thrustsers! Using nothing but oxygen and biofuel created from kelp and moss. Devices that allowed it to adhere to a wall through the Electrostatic field around their atoms essentially binding them to one another.
One of the most fantastic of all…Was Something called 'FABM" or Fabium. It stood for 'Full Automatic Building Machine. There was a tape next to it that Calliope listened to. It explained that this machine was the most advanced form of a forge or factory on the planet. But it was a failure in that it did not create things to the exact specifications of the input. With many of the precssion tooled pieces being micrometers off.
Calliope recoiled. How could something be a failure is if was Micrometers off when built? Didn't that mean that it was technically correct? It just wasn't built on the exact same spot as it was supposed to? Its like building a house perfectly. But the foundation was put two feet to the left of where it was meant to go…
"Bah!" Cali scoffed. Waving her hand off at the voice of Tehertz. "Lets see…I need to input an idea and be specific with it. And it'll do the rest…" She began to type "Titanium Alloy Framed two point hinged bend with spring pulley system and a rotary cuffed end." She pressed enter.
It took 4 hours. But by the time the arm with a nozzle and pincer on the end was finished. A copy of Cali's Original Prosthetic arm was sat on the bench….
A smile grew across her lips.
"Oh…I'm gonna have fun with you…."
In two days. She was able to reforge her self new arms and legs. Lightweight dense alloys with actuators, pumps, and electronics on the inside that she was able to connect to her nerve endings. She was lucky that she didn't have to learn biomachinery. Just needed to know the basics of the engineering. But what she had done, was streamlined the design to fit her better than the Harbinger arm that she had found. Taking the design. And using the Fabium and her own skills to enhance and modify them for herself.
The arm was lined in silver. Black carbon fiber braided muscles shaped biceps. It whired with every move. But so quietly it was nothing more than a quiet displacement of air as pistons and actuators moved.
A week later. And after extensive tinkering. Calliope was able to get the arm to store a projectile launch system. Firing microburst rockets based on a rocket prototype for the Haringers. There was 8 of them. And fired when it rotated.
She flicked her thumb. A Lighter lit a butane flame.
Pointed a finger. A screwdriver.
Middle finger.and a small burst of a black cloud came out. Supermagnetic particles that she could use in emergency.
Ring finger: a light.
Pinky finger: a length of wire came out and moved around with a small grabber at the end.
Ring and Middle fingers down; Opened a compartment on the back of her hand for storage.
Flick Wrist up, a small blade was electromagnetically propelled depending on the charge she fed it from her fruit. Meaning it could be as fast as she was.
All of this was ditto on her other hand but the light was replaced with a drill. Screwdriver was now a flat head. Pinky was a small electroprong.
"Good…Very Good." She reached over and penned out some notes on a journal.