Disclaimer: English is not my first language. I'm using Grammarly to check the Grammar and using Word to write it.
I decided to make this chapter and the next more of a downtime for everyone and set some things for futures chatpers.
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"I forgot we had him," I said, rubbing my neck.
Oni Lee is standing before me, motionless like a statue.
"Yeah, well, a lot of things happened in the past few days," Medea shrugs.
Tell me about it.
"So, what do you have?" I asked.
I'm in the testing area with Medea, Morgan, and Asclepius.
They are going to show me what they found out about Oni Lee's powers.
"His power is outrageous," Medea said flatly. "It's a hybrid of teleportation and duplication. Each time he teleports, a new body is created to house his mind, while the old one disintegrates into ash."
Oh, so that's how Oni Lee bypassed Medea barrier back then.
"That sounds overly complicated and dangerous," I raised an eyebrow.
"You can say that again. Any disruption, no matter how small, should have made the process lethal. By all rights, Oni Lee should have been brain-dead long ago," Medea said with a huff.
"Then why isn't he?" I asked.
"Every time he teleports, a field surrounds him," Morgan explains. "It shields him from the harmful side effects of the process, but it only protects him."
Morgan gestures towards the pair of combat knives resting on the table.
"This is the original knife we gave him," Morgan said, pointing to the one on the right. "And this is the same knife after three hundred and twenty-one teleportations. It's now 0.435 milligrams lighter."
"It degraded," I said, rubbing my chin.
"Besides the fact that Oni Lee can only teleport to places he can see, that is the only other flaw of his power. Of course, if the equipment degrades to a certain degree, you can just replace it. But it's a different history if it were a person," Medea said darkly.
"How bad would it be?" I asked.
"A fate worse than death is the only way I can describe it," Asclepius said. "At first, it would be negligible, but with time, your ego would be slowly chipped away until all that is left is an empty husk of a person."
Oh boy.
I hope that he didn't use his power to transport other members of the ABB.
"What about his biology? Anything there?" I asked.
Asclepius waves his hand, conjuring a hologram that displays Oni Lee's medical data.
"The only interesting thing would be the Corona Pollentia and Gemma. Everything else is within normal parameters of what a man of his age should be," Aslcepius said, his voice tinged with disappointment that the subject's powers hadn't reshaped his body in any remarkable way. "The only things left are to remove them from his brain. That way, I can examine them closer."
"What do you make of the Corona Pollentia and Gemma?" I asked.
"I'm not sure yet. I'm still trying to pin down the conditions that led to this evolution. It would certainly help if we had more parahumans in our ranks to compare data with," Aslcepius said. "So far, Sherrel has been turning down my invitation to assist with the research."
Medea leans on my shoulder.
"His idea of an invitation was telling Sherrel she'd be his guinea pig while he ran all sorts of experiments on her. She took off so fast, I swear she left behind a dust cloud shaped just like her," Medea whispered with a giggle.
I chuckle quietly.
Sherrel was smart in running away.
Asclepius can get carried away when he finds something interesting.
"What're you two whispering to each other?" Asclepius raises an eyebrow.
"Nothing important," Medea said, waving off his question.
Asclepius shrugs and returns his attention to Oni Lee.
"What should we do with him once his Corona Pollentia and Gemma are removed?" Morgan asked.
"Will he survive the surgery?" I asked.
"What kind of question is that? Of course he's going to live," Asclepius said deadpanned. "This kind of surgery is beyond normal medicine, but it isn't anything I can't do."
Neat.
Now what to do with Oni Lee?
At first, I wanted him to rot in jail, but we ended up keeping him far too long.
If we handed him over to the Protectorate now, they'd start asking why it took us so long to do that. They might also decide to examine Oni Lee more closely and notice that his Corona Pollentia and Gemma are missing.
Yeah, that's a migraine that I don't need.
Everyone believes that he ran away, and let's keep it that way.
"Get rid of him after the surgery," I said.
Alcepius nods, "I will get everything read."
Asclepius takes Oni Lee to another room.
"Husband, will you join me for some tea?" Morgan asked softly.
"Sorry, I still have some things to attend to. After it, I can join you," I said.
"All right. I will be waiting in my room for your return," Morgan said.
Morgan leaves the room.
"If you excuse me, master. I have some new models to return to," Medea said as she was about to leave, too.
"Hold on, Medea. There's another project that I would like you to be part of," I said.
"Oh?" Medea raises an eyebrow. "What's it about?"
"It has to do with the Endbringers. Basically, we're going to create a way to track their movements in real time," I said.
"Shouldn't Morgan be involved in that?" Medea asked curiously.
"Normally, yes, but Merlin is part of the project and, well, you know why they shouldn't meet," I said, rubbing my neck.
The ruby had plenty of magical energy, so I summoned more servants.
This time was: Merlin, Taigong Wang, Scathach-Skadi, Oda Nobunaga, Nagao Kagetora, William Tell, Hector, Okita Alter, Sigurd, Reines, and Mash.
It's good to have her back.
"Ah, I see. Yes, it's better to keep those two away from each other," Medea said, not wanting to deal with the fallout of those two meeting.
"Lead the way," Medea said.
It took a minute to get to where we needed to.
Inside the room are Merling and Taigong. And in the center, there's a table with all the resources necessary to create a way to track the Endbringers.
"Huh? Hey, where's Da Vinci and Skadi?" I look around the room.
"Da Vinci had to fetch a few more tools, and Skadi accompanied her to make things quicker," Taigong explained. "Hello, Medea."
He's drinking some tea, and Sibuxing (in its tapir form) is lying on the ground next to him.
"Hey," Medea greeted back before moving towards the table.
Sibuxing gets up and approaches me. He rubs his head against my leg.
I chuckle and start to pet him.
"Ah, master. How's it going?" Merlin walks next to me.
"It's going. After this, I'm going to the boat graveyard and, you know, begin to clean the city," I said, petting Sibuxing.
Merlin rubs his chin, "Ah, yes. Cleaning the port is a big step in turning Brockton Bay into a trading city once more. But that's the easy part."
Yeah, it will take years to fix the damage that Leviathan has caused to the maritime trade. The logistics for Brockton Bay alone are going to be a nightmare.
"Oh yeah. Can you see them?" I asked seriously.
"Of course. There's no problem with Leviathan and Behemoth. Simurgh, on the other hand, seems to have noticed me watching her," Merlin said, scratching his cheek awkwardly.
I turn to Merlin in alarm.
"What!?" I asked, clenching my fists slightly.
"Hm? Ah! It isn't what you're thinking! I mean that Simurgh noticed that she was being watched but didn't realize that it was me," Merling quickly explained.
I sighed in relief.
That's better, but she still notices Merlin.
The Simurgh will be the most troublesome to handle. Ideally, we'd strike first and stop her from descending on any city. The problem is that, as a precog, she might anticipate that plan and scatter her "bombs" across the world to cause maximum chaos.
What a headache.
Sibuxing lightly nudges my leg with a worried look.
"I'm fine," I said gently, petting Sibuxing once more. "So, what do we do now?"
"The plan can still work. It might take a bit longer to work around Simurgh's precognition, but it's nothing we can't handle," Merlin said with an easy-going smile.
"Perhaps it will be necessary to employ multiple methods of clairvoyance to track her," Taigong mused. "We could set a timer to rotate them at odd hours, preventing Simurgh from developing effective countermeasures."
That's good and all, but there's something that I need confirmation on.
"Is it going to take longer than expected?" I asked.
Endbrings attacks can occur on any day of the month, even tomorrow, if our luck is especially bad.
"Don't worry, master. We will finish this project within two days. Just as you were told before," Taigong finished the tea.
"Two days?" Medea raises an eyebrow. "Why would it take so long? It isn't complicated to create a track device for the Endbringers."
I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with Medea.
"Well, it can be done in one day. But it was decided to add another to iron out any kinks," Merlin explained.
"Don't forget to make two of them," I reminded them.
"Gonna give one to the PRT/Protectorate?" Medea asked.
"Yeah, this will greatly help them in the preparations for the Endbringers' attacks. Hopefully, it will also help in minimizing the damage, too," I stopped petting Sibuxing as he returned to Taigong's side.
Medea hums in agreement.
Skadi enters the room, her wand guiding the equipment as it floats in behind her. Da Vinci entered a moment later.
"Put it with the rest that's on the table," Da Vinci said to Skadi.
Skadi does that and turns to me.
"Hey, Skadi. It's good to see you again," I said with a smile.
"It's good to see you too, master," Skadi said with a kind smile. "I see that you're working hard."
"Yeah, there's a lot to do and not much time," I said.
"Don't forget to take care of yourself. Make sure to eat plenty and rest," Skadi gently reminds.
"I know, I know," I rub my neck. "Come on, I'm not that bad," I whispered to myself.
"Yes, you're." Da Vinci walked next to me. "Don't worry, I'm making sure that he takes care of himself."
Skadi nods, pleased, and moves to the table to begin preparing everything.
Da Vinci and I moved to a corner of the room to have a little privacy.
"How did it go with Asclepius?" Da Vinci asked.
"It went fine. He's preparing to remove Oni Lee Corona Pollentia and Gemma. Did Asclepius tell you about how his powers work?" I asked.
"Ridiculous, right? Of all the ways that I thought on how his telerportation worked, that never even crossed my mind!" Da Vinci said with a huff. "No one in their right mind would ever use a method like that!"
"To be fair, parahumans don't get to choose their powers. Oni Lee ended up with a power like that by chance," I pointed it out.
"Still ridiculous and raises even more questions about how parahumans' powers work," Da Vinci sighed.
"How is that going?" I asked.
"I'm learning little by little about how tinker tech works thanks to Sherrel, but it's going slowly. Hopefully, we will learn more if we can take a closer look at Corona Pollentia and Gemma," Da Vinci said.
That would be good.
"How is the healing potion production coming along?" I asked.
"We ramp it up and already have a few hundred ready to be used. Avicebron is making more golems to work as search and rescue. And I'm almost done with the scanner for Behemoth," Da Vinci said.
"Is there any way to counter his radiation?" I asked.
Besides Behemoth's kill aura, the radiation that he projects is another thing that makes him a troublesome opponent.
"I helped Dragon make the radiation pills last longer and have a stronger effect. And talked about other ways to further minimize the damage from Behemoth radiation," Da Vinci said.
"So we are leaving that to Dragon," I said with a hum.
"Yep. So don't worry about it. She's been doing this for years," Da Vinci said.
"By the way, what's she like?" I asked curiously.
"She's a lovely young woman, you're going to like her when you two meet. And I can see why she's considered the best tinker in the world," Da Vinci places her hands on her hips.
"Is that so?" I said with a smile.
"There's also something else that I noticed about her," Da Vinci rubs her chin thoughtfully.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I think she's...you know what, never mind. I will tell you when I'm sure of it," Da Vinci said.
I raised an eyebrow, and Da Vinci winked in response.
Ok then.
"All right, I'm going to leave you guys to work," I said.
I stepped out of the room and made my way towards Sherrel's workshop.
"Hey, sorry I took so long," I apologized, entering the workshop.
Mash greets me with a smile.
"It's fine, senpai. It hasn't been long since I got here," Mash said with a kind smile.
I smiled in return.
I notice Nobunaga and Sherrel huddled together over a table, both are giggling maniacally as Sherrel scribbles furiously on a piece of paper.
"What's up with them?" I asked, pointing at Sherrel and Nobubanga.
"Ah, Nobunaga was impressed with Scraphound, that's the name of the mobile recycler, and asked what else Sherrel can build. At some point, it turned into that," Mash said with an awkward smile.
That can't be good.
I walk up to them and cough loudly to get their attention.
Nobunaga and Sherrel turn to me in surprise.
"Master! Come look at my new carriage! Now no one will be able to stand against me!" Nobunaga laughs maniacally.
"What am I looking at?" I asked, looking at what Sherrel was writing.
"It's an all-terrain vehicle that will dominate any conflict that it's part of," Sherrel said excitedly.
It looks like one of those tanks that you see in sci-fi histories. Instead of wheels, it has some kind of jets underneath it. It also has these sleek, futuristic lines fused with rugged, militaristic features, creating a strikingly powerful and commanding presence.
Honestly, it looks really cool.
"That's a lot of weapons," I said offhandedly.
"It's still not enough! My Great Tenka Jet-Tank can still have more firepower! No one will be able to stand in my path for dominance!" Nobunaga declares passionately. "And make sure that it can fly faster than jetpacks. This summer, Okita will eat my dust!"
"I keep telling you, I need to know how fast they go! Or else I'm not going to be able to calibrate the engines," Sherrel said, annoyed.
Yeah, no matter what you do, that is just not possible.
Those jetpacks came from the Servantverse.
According to XX, you can travel to other planets with those things.
"Okay!" I clap my hands loudly. "Let's put a pin on this. We have an appointment with the Dockworkers' Association, remember?"
"Oh crap, I forgot about it. Sorry, boss-man," Sherrel said with a nervous smile.
"It's fine. So, is the Scraphound ready for what we need?" I asked. "Nice name, by the way."
"Oh, she's more than ready. Trust me, boss-man, I will have all those ships dismantled in a flash," Sherrel said, giving me a thumbs up. "How much of the materials are we keeping?"
"About sixty percent," Mash said. "The other forty percent, we'll sell part of it to the city, and the rest to various businesses."
"Damn, that's a lot," Sherrel whispered, shocked.
She isn't going to be hurting for materials for a good while.
"When is Moriarty going to get here?" I asked with a frown.
He should have arrived already.
"Moriarty went ahead of us. He said that it would be just a tedious meeting and didn't want to bother senpai with it," Mash explained. "He also took Sigurd and Kagetora with him."
That's nice of him.
"All right, let's get going," I said.
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