After a long day of reparations, cleaning, and discussions with his new employees and his prisoner, James returned to his personal room in the private section of the lair, still separated from the main part where the main entrance, the war room, the jail, the storage, and the workshop were situated. As soon as he stood in the middle of the room, he collapsed into a black puddle. The last twenty-four hours had been horribly stressful and letting himself go did wonders for him. Turning into a liquid was an awfully relaxing experience.
So he sat there, as a puddle, his mind free of thoughts.
"Dad? Are you alright?"
"Oh, hello Foudre."
"You... Aren't looking quite as solid as usual."
"Oh, don't worry. It's all perfectly normal."
"Dad, I am a talking rat and you are a shadow person thingy. Nothing here is normal."
"Exactly, so this is perfectly normal."
"You didn't tell me you were alright."
"I did not? How curious."
"Dad."
James sighed as he began to reform, putting his back against the wall as he created a tentacle to pat his lap, inviting the rat to climb on. She obliged, taking care not to use her claws too much even though simple physical contact wasn't enough to harm him. He appreciated it.
"I'm sorry, it's just...It's been a really long day."
"Yeah, we noticed."
The two stayed there in silence, James lightly petting and stroking Foudre's back with a tentacle.
"David is still mad you didn't let us join Mischief earlier."
"I'm not surprised."
"Lucille's also annoyed."
"Really? I thought she would have agreed with me."
"I think she feels like you don't acknowledge our efforts. We spent days training and in the end the ones who get to see some action are the strangers you found."
"It was too dangerous."
"We fought before."
"I know you can handle animals. But people? It's not the same thing. They even had some big guys."
"Cored?"
"I think. I'm not familiar with every sapient species in Zalcien and I don't have the will to..."
"Dissect them?"
"I guess."
"How many?"
"Eight. But those that Mischief got..."
"Hey, it was them or us."
"That's easy to say on the spot. But now? After meeting those that could surrender? I'm sure most of them would have given up if I had asked them."
"You can't be nice to people who try to kill you."
"How would you know, Foudre. You never lived with people."
"Yeah. But that's what you said when we asked you."
"That does sound like something I'd try to teach you. But wouldn't Captain Cyan be mad at me?"
"Captain Cyan would never be mad at someone who wants to protect others. Only disappointed."
"You know, that's not that much better."
"Dad, you're not Captain Cyan."
"Don't you want me to be?"
"No. I just want you to be my dad."
"I... Thank you, Foudre."
A new tentacle formed from the one he was petting her back with and began to scratch her chin and behind her ears.
"You're still not ok."
"No, I'm not."
"Is it still about killing people?"
"Yes."
"But we just-"
"Foudre, I love you, but healing psychological damage takes more than a few words, no matter how well-meaning."
"But do you-"
"No matter how justified it may be, killing someone is still... Taxing, mentally. And it's not just that. You should see Soluble. Whatever infusion did to them, it's not the same person anymore. Barely a husk of themself. After what happened to me and what I know of this world, I know people who die here have a soul that goes somewhere. But what happened to Soluble? I don't know if it affected their soul. I'm terrified it did."
"I don't see how that's such a big deal."
"Foudre, someone's soul is... It's them. Altering a soul is changing someone permanently. Erasing their old self. It's like... It'd be like if Goliath suddenly lost his kindness, Lucille her seriousness, or David his horrible attitude. It wouldn't be them anymore."
"Don't people change all the time?"
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"Yes, but it's a slow thing. A natural process. It's the result of themself and their environment. Like a tree that grows. Infusion? It's overwriting everything else. It's cutting down the tree and replacing it with a statue."
"If you don't like it, then why did you do it?"
"Because..."
Was it curiosity? He had wanted to know what a complete infusion would be like on an unwilling subject. But doing it to a person? He didn't feel comfortable with the idea that it could be what pushed him to do it. Was it a form of vengeance? He had let Soluble go away and yet they had insisted on threatening his family. But again, was that it? Was anger alone what motivated him to do such an act? There was also the possibility he just didn't have the guts to kill someone who couldn't do anything against him, but he already feared infusion could do something like that. No, that wasn't it...
It took a few seconds for James to find the right words, ones he would be truly happy with.
"It felt right. Somehow. It was the most logical choice."
"You sure? You sound a little confused."
"Because I am, Foudre. I didn't think I'd ever have the power let alone the will to permanently scar someone on a spiritual level, and now that everything's over and there's no more big threat to keep my mind occupied, it's all just crashing down at once."
"So it's gonna take some time?"
"Yeah. I think it will."
"Do you want me to go fetch the others to make a big cuddle pile?"
"I'd appreciate it, Foudre. Thank you."
"No problem dad."
After James watched her scamper off to find her siblings, once he was alone in the room...
He realized it was the first time he ever felt cold in this world.
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When Sam woke up in the little room his boss had prepared for him, his body was assaulted by pain. Unsurprisingly, it took more than a week for burns to heal, especially with no medication of any sort besides basic bandages. He should really have a discussion with his employer about that... And what had happened to the melted remains of his Techlord armor, as well as his skin.
After he had informed his ragtag band of misfits that an armed force planned to invade the place, Silhouette had given each of them some orders. The rats were to train, for some reason, the other rats - for some reason there was a distinction between the small ones and the others - were to look for food in case they would have to stay in the lair for a while. Siege tactics weren't unheard of, but it was still slightly paranoid behavior in Sam's opinion.
Barry and Larry were supposed to go buy everything Sam asked them to get some good tools and establish some proper defenses, but unsurprisingly "a few days" wasn't enough time to get everything Sam wanted and build the best he could do. He was already thankful the duo had actually returned at all and not just ran away with the money like he expected any other sensible person would have.
In the end, Sam had managed to get his hands on some satisfactory tools, and once his boss had done his infusion stuff they had been improved beyond his expectations. They had become sturdier, all of the imperfections, dents, and other damages they used to have had been repaired and the blowtorch even had gained infinite fuel. Somehow. Though the black flame felt kind of weird.
With his newly improved tools, Sam had only had the time and resources to make a new electrogun that Silhouette had immediately claimed for himself and some spikes. Not even electrified spikes, just regular ones. Barry and Larry hadn't found all of the things he needed for his more complex contraptions, although they had brought more Everlanterns to help make navigating the lair easier, and despite his best efforts, Sam's attempt at a shock trap failed tremendously. It appeared shadow-infused batteries, despite their effectiveness, weren't quite enough for what he wanted them to do. It didn't help that they only had half a dozen of them, batteries didn't last long on the Black Block after all.
It didn't help that Sam had absolutely no idea how to build actual defenses. His expertise was in producing weapons and gadgets, not home improvements. As he had already said, he was no electrician. He had always relied on his armor and emergency weaponry whenever someone had tried to break into his home in the Junkland and or his base near the Black Block, he always kept everything of value specifically for these types of scenarios. It had sadly backfired with his encounter with Sunburn-
The fire. Ever burning. A merciless flame of destruction.
-but what could he do, what was done was done.
After putting on some clothes, Sam went to check on his latest experiment. After the raid had been over, his boss had come by and dropped some random junk, stuff that belonged to the leader of their little invasion group. Sam had looked it over, disassembled and reassembled everything, and confirmed it was just random junk. No secret bomb or communicating device. That had been disappointing. But with all of the dead thugs he had been able to pick everything usable they had, including a lot of flashlights.
Since Silhouette's whole shtick was darkness and shadows, would light be effective against him and his creations? Sam liked his boss and had no plans to betray him, but knowing his weaknesses would help them all in future plans. It would be a very bad thing if in the middle of a fight his weapons failed because his opponent had a literal bright idea, after all. Of course, Sam only had access to the weak artificial light of flashlights, and he knew his boss withstood the rays of the sun on multiple occasions, but maybe he could figure something out. Hence, his experiment. If it could be called that.
He had placed a bunch of flashlights to light up different infused items. One per item. Some flashlights had infused batteries, others had regular ones, and the collection of infused objects included a newly infused electrogun, a shadow-infused battery, some black stone, some infused meat from a fish the rats had caught - with only this specific slice of meat being infused - some strings and overall anything that Silhouette could infuse and wasn't irreplaceable.
At a glance, it appeared nothing had changed. Every infused item was just as infused as before and the flashlights with regular batteries were now flickering. And yet, there was one thing that caught Sam's eye. The two infused batteries that had been exposed to light, no matter the battery of the flashlight, seemed a little... duller.
Sam carefully picked them up and studied them a little closer. He removed the infused battery from one of the flashlights and compared it to the other two, squinting his eyes to be sure it wasn't only his somewhat sleepy mind or the odd decor that fooled his sight. Infused batteries turned into battery-shaped black crystals for some reason, but they were effectively still batteries if you ignored the seemingly infinite power they could supply, with a positive and a negative side. If something changed about their looks, it could be incredibly bad news.
Now sure that the two exposed batteries were indeed grayer and duller than their counterparts, Sam did something that many others would have considered stupid. He put one of the gray batteries in the batteryless flashlight and turned it on.
It began to emit light, but it was flickering.
Before he knew it Sam was running to his boss' room and barely paused when he found the shadowy man covered by a pile of sleeping baby rats.
"Boss."
"Sam. Please try not to wake up the little ones, they need their sleep."
"Uh, sure. But I just figured something out."
"Oh?"
"Your batteries. They ain't infinite."
"The laws of physics were not completely ignored, then. Good to know."
"Look, I exposed them to light and they lost their energy. Do you know what that means?"
"That we should not expose our batteries to light in the future?"
"Yes, but I think I know why."
"Go ahead then."
"So, when exposed to light they lose power, alright?"
"Yes, you made that abundantly clear."
"But usually they never lose power."
"Again, I know that."
"I think your batteries get charged by darkness."
"What about the Everlanterns? Shouldn't they lose power around those too?"
"I'm no expert in magic, but I think the black flame in your lanterns aren't actually emitting light, hence why it doesn't affect the batteries."
"This... Changes a lot of things. But no matter, we have another topic to discuss."
"Yes?"
"I hired a lot of people recently, and I think it might be time we figure out something to make some money. My reserve funds aren't infinite."
"Sure. Any particular idea in mind?"
"Something any slum-dweller would find useful, but wouldn't be dangerous against us."
"I could try to make more electroguns, and a device to charge regular batteries with your infused ones? People could exchange their used batteries for new ones and we wouldn't lose anything."
"Is there any risk of this plan backfiring?"
"Of course. When isn't there?"
"Fine. Try to make us some anti-electricity shields to protect us from them and then go ahead and proceed."
"You got it, boss."
As Sam walked back to his lab, an idea passed his mind.
What would an infused electroshield be like?