The Ravenkroft Hybrid watched through the holo-feed as the Weatherspark female — Dizzy, the name floated through his consciousness — activated the car’s cloaking device. Smart, on her part. He himself watched from the confines of his ship’s control room . . . and his ship just happened to be parked a mere hundred kelinars from her car, on the rooftop of the Renaissance Regency Hotel And Convention Center, right across the street. How little she knew. How little she suspected. He would attack this evening . . . just as she was getting comfortable in her room, no doubt. Just as she was starting to enjoy herself. That would be the optimal time. There would be collateral damage, of course; other “guests” of this “convention” nonsense would obviously get hurt. He smirked. In his mind, he could feel Viktor, still there, still tenaciously clinging to life, roaring at the thought of anyone hurting any of these people. But oh well. Let him rave against the bars of the internal prison he was in. He could do nothing from in there. Nothing at all, except watch the Human world burn in the fires of the Eidolon once they were unleashed.

Then, he had a thought: What if he didn’t kill Weatherspark once he had obtained the Tesseract — Transcendence Engine — from her? What if instead he used her in an experiment? But ah, what sort of experiment? Hmm, a good question. She had been a worthy foe for many years now; she deserved to go out with some measure of honor.

Ah! That was it! He would do her a great honor indeed.

The Eidolon. They were, on their home dimensional membrane, creatures of pure consciousness. To return them to physical form — to project them into the four dimensional universe once again — they would require host bodies. He had planned on using the Physion Bio-Printer for that. But why waste precious raw materials unless he knew the process of implanting one of the Eidolon into a body was actually going to work? Yes, indeed. Why waste precious resources. Why not use the Transcendence Engine to build the Waybridge between the worlds, and construct a device to implant the Eidolon’s essence into a Human first? And why not let that Human be Desirée Weatherspark?

It was almost too perfect, the symmetry of it all. For years Desirée Weatherspark had fought his plans for world domination; had fought against his vision of a Human Race evolved to its perfect state . . . and now, she would be the first one of the Human Race to reach the Next Level. She herself would be the first Human to evolve to a higher plane of existence. With one of the Eidolon inside of her. Damn . . . this feeling he was having . . . was it . . . was it jealousy? Yes, he supposed it was. He was almost jealous of her! Of what she would feel, what she would experience . . . and the things she would be able to do. Of course, placing the Eidolon inside of her would murder what amounted to her “soul,” her essence. It would destroy the person she already was. But sacrifices had to be made. She would certainly go out with a bang! And, with honor.

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Yes, it was a perfect plan. First abduct her, and torture the location of the Transcendence Engine out of her. And once she had revealed its location, obtain it. Then use it to build the Waybridge, which would allow the Eidolon to cross over. Then build the device that would allow it to transmogrify its consciousness and enter into Weatherspark’s body. Then strap her into it, and turn everything on.

Then step back . . . and observe.

Perfect. Elegant. Simple.

He reached over with one of the twelve tentacles attached to his new Advanced Battle Evangeliojaeger he had built and grasped his Psionic Amplification Device, which he had constructed using equipment from his laboratory back at the house near Upper Mystic Lake. It would suffice to amplify Viktor Arkenvalen’s latent psionic abilities — given to him by the Mutagenesis X-119 serum — by several orders of magnitude. It would come in very handy. With this device, all he would have to do was get close enough to the Weatherspark female — just within range — and he would be able to pull the location of the Transcendence Engine right out of her head. With some effort, of course. Anything worth doing was worth sweating for. He might have to break through a few mental barriers first. Break her down. But he would get the information. The Device would also grant him some telekinetic ability, which would come in handy when subduing her.

He tightened the screws that affixed its main circuit board to its bicycle-helmet surface, and switched it on, testing the power conduits to see if they could take the voltage levels required. The conduits glowed a soft blue color; they were holding. Good.

As he watched Michaelson and Weatherspark disappear into the elevator on the far side of the parking garage’s roof, the Ravenkroft Hybrid smiled. It was only a matter of his timing now. Only a matter of that, and how big of a mess he wanted to make. His present vessel excluded — though it was far from simply “Human,” thank to the Mutagenesis X-119 serum — he disliked Humans intensely. So when it came to how big of a mess he wanted to make? Well, he intended to make it a big one. If for no other reason than plain ol’ fun!