“Look folks, I can try to explain the complexities of Soulairium and its extraction from its origin source…” A slender tall man in a white fitted lab coat that matched his dyed hair color addressed a mixed group of screens and shadow covered figures in person. After letting out a small sigh from his dramatic pause, he continued on. “But we all know you don’t care for those types of details.” He shrugged while chuckling at an inside joke of his, yet the room stayed quiet. “So I’ll make something up for you, that’s easier to understand.” He sneered with a side glance at one screen.

“Your precious workforce of home breed Pals runs on this Soulairium. We can acquire it within our worlds, but the methods are a bit too noticeable.” The lab coat wearing man spun to address the other side of the room. “So with all of your generous donations.” He touched a button on a device around his wrist. “I, Victor Ashford, have successfully found a way to harvest the Soulairium from another source.”

The solid wall faded into nothing, as if it was not there in the first place. A bright prismatic wave of light, slowly crept forth, before stopping in a stable orbit around its source. A humongous crystalline structure was suspended by unseen forces within a large containment capsule.

“This is the current amount I have managed to extract in the past half year, and that is not all.” Victor turned around with an evil grin plastered on his face, the greedy faces of the rich elite benefactors only feed his growing ego. “The waste product from the process can be used to help remove our current waste issue.” He laughed as all the greedy faces turned to him in anger.

“Before y’all go yapping about, shut up and listen to my pupil!” An older gentleman struts into the room. His cane tapped on the floor with such effect, it silenced the growing mob. “Go on lad.” The old man waves Victor on after taking his seat.

“Thank you Professor Ashwood.” Victor gives the old professor a respectful bow before continuing his speech. “As I was saying, the waste issue due to the extraction method used in local areas, can be solved with my new recycling method.” An evil grin grew once more on his twisted face and buggy sleep deprived red eyes. He began to cackle about something only he knew of.

“Victor! Focus lad.” Professor Ashwood slammed his cane on the ground, the sound shook the bones of those present, while those streaming yelped or felt a cold chill down their spines.

“Apologies, I have been working nonstop for the last few weeks.” Victor rubbed the back of his head while slightly bowing to the professor. “So! While dealing with the newly extracted sample’s waste, I noticed a similarity that could fill the void of your waste.” Victor tensed his hands, stretching his fingers out some. “So many air quotes, screw it.”

“Victo-” Professor Ashwood started.

“I figured out how to use the torn soul fragments and piece them together to fill the soul-space in the bodies of the last batch of locals we used.” Victor turned a serious look towards the people, he flicked his wrist to mute the screen. “My brilliant idea is to use the massive amounts of bodies in your facilities to house my newly created beings!”

“The best part!” Victor slammed his hands on the nearest desk of the rich elites, the man sucked in a breath as he backed up in fear of the madman. “With the current wars going on, we can release them onto the battlefields to be found as survivors with PTSD.” Victor laughed as he threw his head back.

“What kind of souls are you putting in the bodies?” A man in a simple but luxurious brown suit asked with his hand held up. “How can we be sure these new beings will act human?” He lowered his hand while keeping a level stare with the now quiet Victor.

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“Wonderful question.” Victor beamed widely. “The torn soul fragments are from other humans, and are unable to be used in the refining process. My team thought they were useless since they couldn’t even be adapted into the Pal system, but I saw a way to use them.” Victor snapped his fingers as someone else entered the room.

“Victor?!” Professor Ashwood shouted as he stood up with anger.

“Who is that?” One of the elite women asked the gentleman next to her. “I want to buy a few.” She licked her lips.

“What’s wrong professor?” Victor asked while near tears from the angry old man.

“Why didn’t you tell me you finished your work! I had to struggle through that blasted splitting method-!” The old professor took a moment to calm himself down. “Forgive me lad, so, what is that?” Professor Ashwood points at the adult male with a blank look that walks into the room.

“I apologize sir, but as you can see, with the adults or teens that start their growth phase, soul adhesion is near impossible currently.” Victor wiped his face and stood up straighter. “But I did figure it out, to some success in the children.” Victor clapped his hands as all the doors open up to the room.

“What is this?!” The man in the brown suit jumped up as a group of kids neatly filed into the room.

“This, good sir, is progress.” Victor shouted with his arms wide. The kids came to a stop as they lined up behind him in neat rows. Their eyes darting around the room, unlike the forgotten zombie of a man, these kids were dangerously alive.

“What’s that around their necks?” The lady pointed out the collars latched snuggly around each of the children’s neck.

“A safety device, for our safety. These little bastards can be quite lethal.” Victor chuckled as all the eyes of the kids turned towards him.

“When can you get started?” The brown suited man asked while approaching Victor. “I would be int-” He held out a hand to Victor in greeting, but it was grabbed and twisted while a force threw him off his feet and onto the floor. “AH! Guh…” He was pinned on his chest with someone pressing a knee into his back while holding his arm at a dangerously close to breaking point.

“Pawn! Off him, now!” Victor touched a button on his wrist. A screaming child fell off the man as it was being electrocuted by the collar. “I trained them to be protective of my well being.” Victor turned off the collar as he helped up the brown suit.

“As I was saying, we would like to hire you.” The brown suited man shook Victor’s hand as the rest of the elites in the room rushed to get in on the action.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Make sure this room is spotless, or else no rations tonight!” Victor shouted at the group of kids cleaning up the empty meeting room.

“They are handy for non-Pal related tasks, but that will change soon.” Professor Ashwood spoke up while entering from the back of the room. “That was a splendid presentation my lad.” The old man chuckled.

“It was well done indeed.” The brown suited man followed in behind the professor.

“Professor?” Victor looked a bit confused.

“Ha! Some genius you are lad.” Professor Ashwood laughed as he waved a kid to bring him a chair over. “Think about it for a moment, pupil.” He gave Victor a hard side glare as he sat down and accepted the offered refreshments. “Well trained indeed.”

“Nice to formally meet you Victor, please call me Doctor Oakton.” The tall and well built man in a brown suit seemed to tower over Victor, even though there was barely any height difference between them.

“Nice to mee-” Victor grasped the doctor’s hand, upon contact a surge of energy rushed through them both. “Sir!” Victor snapped his head towards the professor with a look of shock and awe.

“About time you figured it out, pupil.” Doctor Oakton released the grasp and flicked Victor on the forehead.

“Thanks to your work lad, we can move up our schedule by decades!” Professor Ashwood cackled aloud as he tossed his drink across the room. “It’s time to activate the system!”

“Yes sir!” Victor happily snapped into an awkwardly incorrect salute.

“”Yes sir!!”” The children instantly snapped into a proper salute to follow Victor.