Grim headed down to the main floor of the steel mill. The bodies he had piled up earlier were still sitting in the bottom of the crucible. He would need the raw materials to create a body for Solaria, but his energy reserves were less than optimal at the moment.
“Sure. Let me know what you find out. Something weird about the dynamics between he two groups or something?” Grim asked, a bit curious now that he had a second to think about it.
“That’s… that’s really interesting actually. Why aren’t we all speaking French or German or something then? I’ve only heard English,” he wondered back mentally.
“While the geography lesson is interesting, what does that mean for us? Different Earths are often different sizes, look at Earth Four for example. The System hit that fucker and it got half a dozen times larger,” quipped Grim, searching for the lever to tilt the crucible.
That froze Grim, as he was sure he hadn’t heard his demon assist correctly. They were known to be pranksters sometimes.
“Extinction level events don’t… they aren’t just ‘localized’,” he thought back, emphasizing the word. “That isn’t a thing. If they were localized, they would be extinction level.”
“So this isn’t a new phenomenon. Fascinating. I still don’t know what you are getting at though Bag, cut to the chase,” Grim grumbled.
“Now that is something of interest. Let me guess, control both sides of the equation, make shit loads of money off various things like insurance and the equivalent of legal protection rackets, and play both sides against the middle while keeping the populace in constant fear and awe?” he summarized.
Grim pondered that for a moment before mentally sending a response. “Isolation. Probably until something happens, someone needs to expand, or some other triggering factor. Then bam, an outside enemy that everyone can come ‘together’ against.”
“No shit? Hmm… I want to ride a Kaiju. That would be fucking amazing,” Grim said with a smile. “Right. Well lets focus on getting a base of operations going. Worse case scenario we have to move out of the city. I… lets be honest here. I don’t think I could take multiple Class IV supers. And that Death guy swatted me like a bug,” he admitted.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Keep aware of what’s going on, let me know if you find anything else that’s interesting,” Grim said, pausing as he remembered what he needed to do about his armor. “On another topic, how is the armor looking? Can I repair anything with the reserves that I have?”
“Good point. Lets repair your helmet, do a light breast plate, then examine the bodies in the crucible and see if we cant make a body for Solaria,” he thought, internalizing his list of to-do items.
Annoyed he was unable to find the level to pour out the crucible, Grim went over to the manual access chain. He pulled on it violently, causing the chain to rattle down and slowing turning the crucible on its side. As it began to fully tip over the bodies contained within slid out, falling the twenty or so feet to the group with a wet viscera fueled splat.
“That… was fucking gross Boss,” Tetra said, having come out from wherever she was to see what was going on. “You know you can just… keep bodies somewhere else right? You didn’t need to dump them out from twenty feet in the air and let them liquify on contact with the ground. That’s going to take forever to clean up,” she grumbled.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Grim chuckled, “I’m glad you are adapting well Tetra. Good news for you, however. You wont be cleaning this up.
Spreading his hands a runic circle spread around him , encompassing the bodies on the ground. Tetra yowled like a cat and took a huge leap backwards, both curious and cautious on what Grim was doing.
“Bag, give me a check on materials, amounts, reserves, and energy expenditure on a basic succubus and several imps,” he ordered mentally through his connection with Bag.
It wasn’t unusual to run into materials on a new world they knew nothing about. It was standard practice to just set those aside and experiment later.
Bag continued,
“Fuck that’s expensive. Are the energy requirements here higher or something?” Grim asked aloud, so surprised he didn’t bother sending the inquiry mentally. Tetra looked at him oddly, but stayed silent as she watched in fascination as he appeared to talk to himself.
“Fuck,” he grunted.
This was going to take an adjustment to get used to. There was no way that he was going to be able to get what he needed done if he kept consuming the energy this rapidly. This universe sucked.
“Whatever,” Grim said, moving back to telepathic communication. “Grab the Succubus body and… lets call it two imps. That should leave a buffer of one percent.”
Grim shrugged. There was nothing that he would be able to do about it. He needed the help, and imps were renowned for their construction abilities. They would turn this place into a Hell Spike in no time flat if he let them run wild.
He focused the energies into his runic circle, powering it as it melted the bodies and clothing of nearly a third of the bodies within it. Tetra gaped as two four foot tall beings were formed. They were skinny, had long agile looking fingers tipped with claws, prehensile tails, and had magma red skin. Their bald heads held long pointed ears and pitch black eyes.
The moment that they came into being they dropped to a knee, waiting for orders.
Grim would address them in a moment. For now, he had a Succubus body to create. Injecting nearly all of his remaining energy into the circle, a flare of energy mulched the remaining bodies and clothing. A tall figure began to form out of the slurry. Just over six feet tall, lithe but powerfully built with a strong toned musculature, pale skin and deep, black hair formed off the head. The face was sculpted into an a nearly perfectly proportioned head, with almond eyes, manicured brows, and proportioned nose and ears. The mouth was dainty, but full lipped.
A perfect honey trap for the unsuspecting fool.
“Yeah. That will do nicely,” Grim grunted, analyzing the final build. The demonic woman in front of him was stunning. Easily one of his finest works. She would work well in infiltrating various places and gathering information or removing problems. Permanently.
Taking out the container, he removed bound blue orb. Then he unceremoniously walked over and shoved it into the bodies mouth. Almost immediately the flesh puppet of a succubus fell to the floor, convulsing.
“Is… is that normal?” Tetra wondered aloud, fascinated and terrified at the level of power that her Boss seemed to be able to employ. NO super she had ever heard of was able to do what he had just done. Not even Death or V.
Grim shrugged at the question. “I mean, bodies are weird things. Introduce a bit of trauma in the right spot and they die. Injure the wrong part and you are crimpled for life. Mess with a particular genome and get fucking super powers. Everyone gets different results when I convert them and not even I know what to expect. But the whole seizure thing seems to be pretty standard.”
“That sucks,” the woman replied, watching the extremely attractive woman in front of her convulse. “That sucks a lot. But I could use a few… experimental partners.”
Grim blinked at that, not quite sure where she was going with it. Rapidly deciding he wasn’t going to touch that with a ten foot pole, he turned away. “Just let me know when she’s done spazzing out. IM sure Solaria will have questions.”
Tetra choked as he walked away, “What the fuck do you mean Solaria?” she yelled at his back, incapable of seeing the grin plastered across his face.
Fucking with people was fun.
“Bag, find me someone nearby. We need to repair my armor, so its time to go hunting,”, he sent mentally. He could practically feel the demons glee.
“I knew I kept you around for a good reason,” he said, appreciative of the demon in his head.
“Aaaand the appreciation is gone. Good job,” Grim grumbled. He could hear the psychic laughter of the demon inhabiting his helmet as he headed outside.
His armor was still shredded but his under suit, a black skin tight suit made of woven nano-carbons and demontite, would provide him enough protection against weaker supers and conventional arms. At least he hoped so. This little foray would be both a test of his current capabilities when he was in a weaker state just as much as it was a quest for energy and resources.
His state of dress would have to be addressed when he found some clothing to purchase, acquire, or steal. Whistling to himself as he walked down the decrepit and poorly maintained road that led through this section of the port district, he could see what Bag had meant by varying levels of tech. There were buildings that seemed brand new, yet abandoned. Others seemed like they were from the early industrial era, poorly put together with no regards to safety. And yet others, such as his own claimed building, seemed to be somewhere in the middle.
He was so busy inspecting the various architectures that seemed sporadically sprinkled around that he didn’t even notice the group of a dozen thugs that began to tail him. It wasn’t until he stopped in front of an odd looking observatory style building, complete with a large white dome, that he noticed them.
“Hey, motherfucker, what you doin?” asked one of the thugs, stepping forward with a large steel pipe in hand.
Grim ignored the man in favor of examining the odd structure in front of him for a few more moments. Then he asked, “Have you ever wondered… what this building was for?”
The thugs looked at one another, unnerved by the calm disposition of the guy in front of them. Normally they experienced the usual reactions from people. Fight or flight. They have never had questions asked of them before.
“What do I look like? A fuckin tour guide?” the lead thug asked, posturing threateningly.
One of the thugs next to him raised a hand, surprising the lead thug. Taken aback, he pointed to the muscle bound man. “Uh… yeah. What is it Joe?”
“Well… this building used to belong to the Uni in the Capital District. They would send students down here at night to study the stars. Up until Walker killed everyone inside that is. Now they leave the building alone,” he said, surprising everyone with his eloquent speech.
“Yer a bruiser, what the hell you know about Uni?” wondered the lead thug.
The big man just shrugged. “I mean, we all came from somewhere… right?”
No one really had an answer to that. No one except Grim, of course. Turning to the group he smiled, sending shivers down everyone’s spines. “Now you, my brutish friend, are interesting. How about we have a nice, long chat. After I’ve killed all your friends of course.”