Grim sat back with a grunt, his latest victim staring at the ceiling with wide unseeing eyes. The foam and blood that covered the examination table he had been using to upgrade this beings powers attested to his failure. Not everyone had gotten a power upgrade, or even survived the process.
Out of the thirty volunteers he had accepted, twenty-one were in recovery and stable, seven had kicked the bucket, and two had lost their powers entirely. It had certainly, particularly with the early attempts, been educational, however. He had learned nearly everything he had needed to during the first dozen attempts, but with medical procedures there always came surprises.
Like people being unable to expand their powers at all.
He had discovered that the humans of this universe who had developed abilities beyond the norms of a mortal being were divided cleanly into two categories: those who had full cups and those who didn’t. Those with full cups died or lost their powers when an upgrade was attempted. Those with full cups could have their powers increased, but at the risk of their bodies taking significant damage. Damage that made them useless without an extended recovery time.
Grim had found that targeting this ‘cup’ with his energy told him how much each person could have their abilities increased, if they could have them increased at all, and some of the changes the powers would see. It would not, in any way, reveal to hi the effects on that person’s body. Those physical changes were wide, varied, and sometimes deadly. One man had turned into a cloud and vanished. He was counted among the dead, as they still hadn’t found him.
Stella stood nearby, observing. She marked down his observations, notes, and the results of each attempt. Including the wear on himself at directing such vast quantities of energy. Tetra had really come through her solution for his energy issues. He no longer purely required souls to convert just to power his abilities as she had found a way to create a charging station for him. Or as she called it, ‘Hell’s Battery’. A direct tap to the Palace and the near infinite energy within it. Using that much energy still bankrupted his soul after a while. It was taxing. Very taxing.
The only other problem was that the energy source wasn’t mobile.
He flexed his arms, “That was the last one Stella. Mark down the results. The cup was full to the brim and I didn’t catch it in time,” he told the succubus. Stella nodded in acceptance and began writing down everything for future reference. Once they had secured their lair and built it out, he really needed his own arcane lab. That would enable him to do some serious testing. Not to mention they would have to rebuild the Hell Spike all over again.
He sighed. The list of tasks just kept on expanding. The good news was that the airships had been completed to the point that they were beginning to be loaded. Supplies, construction materials, and consumables were being stored there in staggering quantities. Two of the large vessels would be used for people alone. Grim had, at Stella’s prodding, called an all hands meeting for Syndicate. The grand meeting would be taking place mere hours before they departed to ensure no one could impeded them fully, and to give them as much time as possible to retreat without being attacked.
The front lines had been drawn between the combined forces of the Guild, League, and Elysium Government and the Syndicate just inside the industrial districts area. Far enough away to escape fully, but close enough that they would still worry about receiving attacks from faster moving supers, flying supers, or the militaries aircraft. Tetra claimed she had defenses on board for those instances, but he hadn’t seen them. Not yet at least.
He stood up from the table the body was on and headed outside the clinic building. Stella had cleared a side warehouse for him to work in, deciding that they would move anyone that needed recovery time directly to the airships. Afterall, when the need to move came it would come fast.
“Master,” Stella said, getting his attention. He turned his head fully in her direction, purple eyes glinting as he listened. “Nearly everyone has been assembled, barring the few we already told and the imps. They are standing guard over no-mans land. If our enemies attack we will know about it.”
Grim nodded and headed towards the hanger he had been in not so long ago. The experiments had taken days. Days of quiet testing to see how best to tweak someone’s body and power into a more optimal form. Days to kill nearly a dozen of the people who worked for him.
But those who lived now worshipped him.
He kept all the bodies and souls at least. He had an extremely complicated project he planned on using those for. They would, possibly, return back to life. But those thoughts were for a time when he had his lab set up.
He marched into the makeshift meeting area, the airship covered in a massive canvas in the back. A podium and microphone had been set up in front of the several thousand people who had assembled to hear him speak. He noted that Stella took a seat right up front, next to Rat. Tetra wasn’t there, not in the crowd at least. She was probably tinkering around on the airships behind him. Joe had been MIA for quite some time, but to be honest Grim didn’t really care. The spy was never one of his anyway, being far too loyal to his country of origin. He did see his first upgrade several rows back however. Shaughn was sitting there, stars in his eyes as he watched him get up on stage.
“Testing,” he grumbled into the mic, causing a screeching noise to echo out across the gathering. Nearly everyone grimaced. Super powered or not, an obnoxious noise was an obnoxious noise. “Right then. Thanks for showing up. This meeting is a pretty important one. It’s why I had Stella get everyone here. Before I get into the particulars, I have one question: Would you leave Elysium if you had the choice?”
The crowd murmured in concern and confusion. Lots of small conversations took place between friends and people just sitting next to one another. Grim let them talk it out for almost ten minutes before one person finally raised their hand with a question. Grim shouldn’t have been surprised that it was Shaughn. The man seemed uncomfortably enamored with him.
“Yeah. Shaughn. Go ahead,” Grim said, motioning for the man to stand and speak.
The upgraded super stood up and cleared his throat, “Thank you Sir. I… I have no real attachment to Elysium, not really. But I don’t know where else I would go. The Syndicate has been a huge plus in my life, scary as some things within the organization are. I supposed in order to answer your question I would need to know where we were going?” he explained uncertainly before sitting back down quickly.
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Grim nodded. It was a reasonable question. He didn’t really see things that way, having no problem wandering from one place to another through life. He never really had a destination in mind, just a goal. Others, however, seemed to place the destination at a higher priority than the goal itself. The Hallow Syndicate didn’t really have a goal beyond survival at this point, their fledgling organization being the target of every other group in Elysium. World domination was on the list, but further down than where they were now.
Considerably so.
“Good question,” he said gesturing with a hand. Grim wasn’t expecting anything except to speak more, so he was pleasantly surprised when the lights dimmed, and a projector showed the map of the nearby world on the large sheet behind him. Elysium City was clearly outlined, and not exactly where he had expected it.
This Earth was considerably different from the others he had visited. It was also much, much larger. The Republic of Euron occupied an area that was roughly where Bordeaux was on Earth Prime. Elysium City took up nearly the entirety of the coast line for several hundred miles in each direction. To the north was Reichan, also along the coast. To the east was the Empire of Vormal, the Unity of Chem, and Vorsht. That last one sounding more like a food than a country.
To the very far East, nearly two thousand miles by his guess, was a rough approximation of where Switzerland would have been, the mountain range being considerably larger and with far more territory than the tiny country would have held on Earth Prime. This area was marked with a large red circle with a couple of Tetras notes under it.
“The Reason I ask,” Grim said as he got over his surprise, “Is that this entire area is going to devolve into a warzone and drag in every other country with it. The devastation is going to be complete, and we will get dragged into it and, more than likely, wiped out. So we are leaving. Everyone here, along with their friends, families, pets, whatever, is welcome to come along. Same benefits as before.”
There was a smattering of stressed laughter from the near the front. Grim pointed to one of the woman, “You seem to have something to say, so cough it up,” he growled, annoyed.
The woman swallowed her nervousness before she spoke, “Right. Boss, that’s suicide. There are no roads, no infrastructure out there, nothing. We wouldn’t get to that pretty red circle of yours alive. Any vehicle we took would break down or have to be abandoned once we reached impassable territory. Then there are the beasts,” she said, ticking off several points as the others around her nodded in agreement. It seemed that people were open to the possibility of moving, as long as it didn’t include a death sentence.
Grim grinned, his far too wide smile giving everyone in the room shivers. “That would be true… if we were going to travel on the ground,” he said smugly as the lights were brought back up. The map vanished off the sheet behind him as the massive covering fell to the ground. Everyone in the room was struck speechless, even Stella seemed overly impressed at the display of all six airships being revealed at once.
We,” Grim said into the stunned silence, “Are not going to be traveling on the ground. No. We, my boisterous minion, will be traveling in the air.”
Eventually the woman that he had been talking to laughed. Everyone looked at her as if she had gone a bit nuts, which to be fair perhaps she had. “Yeah Boss,” she said through her giggles, “Yeah I would fucking leave this place with you. Fuck these guys. The Heroes and the Villains never did nothin for me or mine. I’m all with ya.” The rest of the people in the massive makeshift meeting room cheered in agreement. It seemed as if they were all on board. Soon to be literally on board.
“Good. Get your crap together and get it stowed where Tetra or her helpers tell you. We don’t have much time before our opposing contemporaries figure out that something is up and go all out,” Grim ordered as people started hustling to get out and get their things.
“Well fuck, that was way quicker than I had expected,” he admitted frustratingly. “How did they know?”
Bag was silent for a moment before he said,
Grim was annoyed. He had never trusted AI, never would trust an AI, but this was to be expected with such destructive digital beings. “What the fuck happened? I thought Jeeves wasn’t fully sentient?”
“Was the second some kind of warning want out to whoever, or whatever, the alarm program had been tied to. Fuck. We should have been watching for that,” he finished, his demeanor darkening.
He looked up to find Stella waiting for him to finish what appeared to be a deep pensive though. “Master,” she purred, running her hand down his arm, “They are making a full press with their forces. Our front line is shrinking quickly and our losses mounting. We did not have anything but a few token people and all of the imps holding them off. While the imps are savage, somewhat adorably, creatures they cannot fight a war without extensive support,” she reported.
Grim nodded. “Have the imps charge the enemy, pull back the remaining people and load everyone the fuck up. Yesterday,” he ordered.
Stella looked at him oddly but started tapping away at her tablet. Then Grim snapped his fingers, bringing her attention back to him. “And set every single one of those outposts to blow up. I know you and Tetra, so I am positive there is a self-destruct wired into every one of them.”
Tetra smiled savagely, “Of course Master. Tetra ensured that any self-destructs would be as harmful as they would be obscuring. Each outpost has the equivalent of two tons of explosives wired into it. It should be quite the show. One that we should enjoy from the air,” she said, her sweet tone the complete opposite of the look on her face.
Grim smiled back, wiping the enjoyable look off the succubus’s face as she shivered in discomfort. “That should be enjoyable to watch. And I can test out how far away I can absorb souls. Excellent work. Now, lets get on board.”
The duo moved down the line of massive airships, coming to a stop at the second one. Grim could see Tetra standing next to an open hatch, grinning wildly. Rat was next to her, having made his way here immediately after the speech was over and done with.
“Hey Boss!” the Anubis demon said, waving enthusiastically. “We got all your stuff on board a while ago, Tetra says everyone should be done loading up in less than an hour.”
Grim frowned causing the two to look concerned, “We may not have an hour. There is a full court press from our opponents. Tetra, blow every outpost in five minutes. All at once. That should buy us some time.”
“Of course Boss!” she said, overly enthusiastic she got to blow something up.
He nodded. “I want everyone on board in fifteen. Anyone not on board gets left behind. I am not going to endanger the resources I need to see my plans fulfilled because someone is running late.”
“Of course Master, I will see to it myself,” Stella said, quickly moving away. He only hoped that the succubus was back on time. He would hate to have to leave her behind. She was his first work, the results of his first experiment here with a super. He had an attachment to that, if nothing else.
The top of the warehouse began to open, splitting down the middle to reveal a crystal-clear blue sky. And then a massive series of detonations went off in the distance, throwing countless tons of rock and debris into the perfection the day had presented.
Game on.