I know where I am! It's that Genshin Impact thingy, right? Chapter: 14

***

We entered the room, Mobius, then Klein and then me trailing behind. The door locked behind us, and right at the entrance, Mobius turned around, folding her arms under her impressive breasts.

“Is this private enough?” She clarified, before glancing at her assistant, “Or do you want me to ask Klein to vacate the premises?”

“I don’t mind if she stays.” I offered slowly, not really seeing an issue. She cute.

Besides, everything Mobius does goes through her to some extent anyway. Sending her away would be sort of pointless in the long term.

I absent-mindedly killed a fly with a single clap, before wiping the remains away with a shadow towel, before dismissing it.

No longer wiping my boogers and other gross shit on surfaces, yay, phenomenal cosmic powers are useful for something.

“In that case, can we get to the point?” For all the things I can say about Mobius, she was always a direct one.

We were in her office, shortly after the testing and the implementation of my newfound resilience and the resistance power. Once again, the Science Team couldn’t detect anything about how my strings operated. No energy fluctuation, nothing. For all they knew, I just spontaneously mutated.

That said, they could still observe the changes in my body in real time. I caught only some of the scientific jargon, but I think, amongst other things, like muscles, bones, tendons, and organ density, my DNA had a makeover. One of the eggheads I vaguely knew assured me it was ‘enlightening’ and ‘not a waste of time at all’, once they got me out of the coffin composed of scanning equipment, inside of which I was ‘pulling the string’.

Right now, I was just out of the testing of my new changes. They already tested my newfound honkai resistance; it’s now ridiculously exceptional. They also observed an increase in muscle density and overall health, which, supposedly, led to me being a bit stronger too, because the body is interconnected like that. If you get super speed, you are super strong, and vice versa. If you suddenly can take a beating you couldn’t before, that means that your bones and muscle tissues are probably enhanced to some degree.

I understood all of that to an extent, but observing it once again was sort of enlightening.

Anyhow, the full spectrum of changes was observed, but in a scientific, boring way that told me little.

I’ma test what I can actually do now, later in the gym.

To be completely honest, I hated testing. It might have kept the eggheads busy and engaged, but none of them exactly had a job of entertaining me, or even explaining to me what that ‘new thing they were gushing about’, which meant testing was fucking boring.

I also couldn’t get a book or headphones on because most of the time I was strapped to one contraption or another, and electronics would interfere with the scans. Meaning I spent literal hours just ‘moving a bit to the right’ and ‘closing my eyes, and not worrying about a buzz I am about to hear’.

I utterly fucking hate it. That said, having a frame of reference of actually being in deep shit, it wasn’t so bad. Boring as fuck, sure, but I could handle boring.

And I knew it helped, so whatever. That said, it gave me a lot of time to think. And having a lot of time to think made me realize there was something I sorta needed to address with Mobius in private… which, after a short conversation with a Grand Snake herself, brought me here.

Technically, we are ‘on a break’ and the testing will resume immediately after. Mobius organized it shortly after I requested a ‘really private conversation no wrong ears can overhear’. The time was limited, in other words.

So I gathered my thoughts and started to speak without my usual charming lady-killing sass.

“It’s about the demon thing. A warning that is… well, frankly, dangerous to even have on records, but I need you to take it seriously,” I told her plainly, knowing that it’s not really the time to beat around the bush.

I exhaled slowly.

“Look, as far as I understand, you are trying to find ways to implement what is happening to me in others, right? Make more supersoldiers with my powers if possible?” I asked plainly. This wasn’t really much of a secret with all the samples taken from me, not to mention the extensive testing on said samples I overheard about. It’s not that anyone told me this directly or wanted to discuss it with me extensively, but the pieces of talks I overheard over the months here didn’t really leave much room for doubt.

That’s even how I was explained away to our agent. A prototype supersoldier, with more to follow suit. My extraterrestrial origins were a bit difficult to swallow or explain away, so it was never really directly leaked… outside of the few guys I am friends with in the base.

I hope they are alright.

Mobius tilted her head a tiny bit, but nodded.

“Essentially correct.” She agreed.

I nodded, letting out a breath.

“Okay, fair enough. Now, if you will… no, when you will start playing around with whatever demonic samples you collect from me, I want you to be extremely careful.” I admitted quietly.

Ideally, I wouldn’t want her, or anyone else, to touch that shit at all. But I knew that Mobius… no, the entire humanity of this world, wasn’t in a position to do that.

I am powerful now. I knew I could deal with outbreaks and maybe even the next eruptions singlehandedly; I had full confidence in that. The question wasn’t if I can win, it was a matter of how fast.

And that’s the greatest limitation.

I am one guy. I can’t be everywhere. If this sort of shit will keep happening in major population hubs…

There is a reason I have yet to look up or ask about any data about how many people actually died in Eastern Europe.

But even I can understand that unless something changes very fucking drastically, we aren’t far from total civilizational collapse.

“There were incidents in the story where this whole thing…” I point at the whole of me, “...came from. One guy was a good family man, studied demons, and found some knowledge that literally corrupted him. Like, twisted him into an insane lunatic that probably got erect from thinking about ‘evil’. The same thing happened with another definitely-Italian-but-looked-indian-for-some-reason dude, who was sane and researched demons for his religious organization, and could actually transform humans into demons safely, but once he did the procedure on himself, he grew insane and erratic like this:” I snapped my fingers. “In a flash.” Pretty sure a few others were mentioned on the background, but it’s been so long since I’ve been into a DMC rabbithole. I’ve played the games to physical tears as a kid, to the point the discs stopped working on the old PS consoles, but the books -novelizations- were a brief read. I remember them very vaguely.

The setting was practically dead for a decade before DMC 5 came out, and even when it did come out, it went into hibernation almost instantly anyway.

I let out a slow breath, starting to pass back and forward.

“So, we had two scientists who researched demon shit, both went very far and managed some impressive things, both went insane. They might have snapped when they transformed themselves into demons. Or the knowledge itself may contain some cognito-hazard elements. Perhaps both, because demons in the universe seemed to have been able to possess people, I don’t put cognito-hazards beyond them.” I turned to Mobius, “I didn’t warn you immediately because the effect was never immediate in the story, so it’s not like you would’ve grown mad from looking into a microscope at my spinal fluid. But if you have any ideas, no matter how tedious, to minimize the risks as you go further and start deciphering how it actually works outside of ‘its magic’… please do.”

I could see immediately when Mobius locked in on my words, her eyes sharpening and expression going stiff, as she listened to my explanation completely seriously, despite it sounding, probably, completely batshit to people with an actual scientific background.

“Were there… ways to avoid or minimize that risk?” She asked plainly.

I shook my head before pausing.

“No… ugh, maybe? There were only snippets; the story isn’t about background villains, so nothing specific about sciency magic happening in the background was revealed. But there were some patterns when it comes to humans being corrupted.” I admitted, shrugging, “I told you about Sparda, remember? Human heart being powerful and all that? It’s not a metaphor… or, well, not completely,” I finished a bit lamely. “There is a trend in the story that half-demons and even demons who can hold onto humanity and have impressive enough willpower are plainly stronger than their ‘kill, devour, murder’ counterparts. For example, tons of people lost themselves when they turned into demons throughout the series, but one of the guys was a knight with noble intentions; there was nothing different about him, no special talent or magical ancestry… he just wanted to protect his sister and adopted brother, as well as uphold his duty… and his transformation into a demon went without a hitch. He was uncorrupted in any way.” I explained, meeting her eyes, “So when you pick people for testing and actually implementing whatever operation you are planning… make sure they have humanity, and they aren’t just here looking to die in a blaze of glory, or for revenge or whatever. Ambition is fine, but it needs to be grounded; those can’t be people who will lose themselves in a rush of power.” I tried not to think about how I qualify. If I qualify.

Despite myself, I recalled what it felt like, the power of Sparda…

Mobius narrowed her eyes.

“Are you implying that the researchers working on your samples… should also have this ‘strong sense of humanity’?” She asked directly, with an odd, confrontational tone.

“I mean, yeah?” I asked, blinking. “I know it’s a lot to ask from nerds who basically live in the labs, but Ato manages, and I think it’s kind of important. Just pick people with personal lives, good moral character, the dreamy goodie two-shoes type.”

For a moment, Mobius actually looked angry, before, for some strange reason, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Tell me, Lab Rat… do you consider me a person with a strong ‘humanity’?”

I blinked, genuinely taken aback.

“Yeah, duh,” I agreed simply, “Dunno how it goes for you in terms of personal life, but that doesn’t really matter. Unlike most people, you care, and that makes you more humane than most people I know.”

For some reason, Mobius seemed taken aback.

“What?” The question came out sort of flat.

Confused by what was going on - is she fishing for compliments? - I decided to elaborate.

“You care, you know? About other people, ethics, things that other people just accept because it’s pushed down on them? You were, and still are, in a position where, due to your intellect and… well, position, you can reject all those notions easily. I mean, you are one of the founding members of all this, right?” I asked, tapping the wall next to me with the back of my hand, “Probably invested a shit-ton of political and financial capital to make this whole M.O.T.H. thing work. And you were a founder and an owner of the biggest Mu-based pharmaceutical megacorp, right?” I asked rhetorically, “People like you are supposed to, like, rape children on Epstein’s Island, build elaborate death-trap labirints in personal mansions with a lab on top where you test bioweapons, and scam old people from their last savings with overpriced life-saving medicine that will drain their family and loved ones dry, not fund the initiatives to save the world and make said initiative functional, instead of merely money-laundering and using it as a tax write-off,” By how fast Mobius' face was becoming blank, I realized that maybe I had gone too far somewhere. Maybe. I wasn’t sure. “Essentially, you care enough not to put all your money into building a spaceship to fuck off, and that’s already more than I could’ve said about myself in your position… I think?” I trailed off, genuinely unsure what to add.

Someone snickered.

I glanced towards Klein, who looked composed, calm, and completely stone-faced. Her eyes were on me. Then on Mobius. Then on me again.

Someone was enjoying the free entertainment, I see.

“I can’t believe you and this pink menace are our greatest hope…” Mobius said, sighing and rubbing her temples.

“I know I am awesome, honey!” I said, finger-gunning her with both hands, and finally hearing her groan. “Hey, you said it, not me!”

For a while, she just stood there, shaking her head, as if trying to fight off a headache. That was enough time to remind me of a second thing I should probably bring up.

“Hey Mobi,” I spoke up, after a moment, “How are things from outside M.O.T.H.? We aren’t in trouble because I turned Herrscher into a spear, right?”

She glared at me.

“My name has three syllables, stop shortening it, I know you didn’t suffer nearly enough brain damage yet to justify going down to two.” A debatable statement. “Answering your unsubtle attempts at probing… politically, we are in a good spot. As good as we’ve ever been. Not to say there aren’t difficulties, but there is no reason for you to concern yourself with them. You did well,” She admitted quietly, “For what it’s worth, I am sorry it cost you your life.”

I blinked.

“Eh, Mobius, I am alive?” I waved in front of her.

“For all intents and purposes, you died in that battle. You would have, if not for that unforeseen new power,” She said simply, meeting my eyes, “It’s Anderson and I who put you into this situation, because, frankly, we were counting on a miracle and untreated prototype armour that turned out to be useless in actual combat.”

“I quite literally volunteered,” I denied, “That, and the plan was good. As good as it could’ve gotten. The equipment was dogshit, but it still allowed me to survive the nukes. I wasn’t properly trained to handle it, but no one on the planet had been.” Aside from, maybe, Elysia, but I wasn’t sure that girl could’ve taken the 2nd. The only reason I did was that I overwhelmed her in Devil Trigger. I have a vague feeling Elysia, with her Honkai-based projectile attacks, wouldn’t have had an easy victory. “The plan was rushed and relied on a miracle, but that’s the best we had at the time. Even if you transported me back in time while taking away my new powers and telling me no last-minute help will arrive this time, I’d try it again if I had to. And I knew I had to.” I told her, grinning, while righting my shades with a thumb.

Mobius looked at me for a moment before closing her eyes.

For a while, she was uncharacteristically quiet, but the tension I didn’t even notice before bled out of her shoulders a bit.

“Apology retracted, I suppose.” She said quietly, turning her head away just a bit.

“That said, while I understand why you can’t be bothered to explain politics to me, I have one thing I need to ask that has been bothering me,” I told her, folding arms on my chest, “Now that it’s confirmed that Eruptions and Herrscher emergences will keep happening, why exactly aren’t we informing the general populace? It will take one more Eruption… no, scratch that, a major outbreak in a city like Cairo, London, or Tokyo, where the population density is insane enough, and the jeenie will be out of the bottle. Germany was one thing that you never managed to hide, I’d wager my balls that Belarus is already another, meaning people will be panicking…”

Mobius sighed, nodding at my words. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before speaking up.

“You are correct for more reasons than you know. It’s technically not the information I should be sharing, but several predictions and plans were compiled and presented before the United Nations bypassing the Council that was appointed to operate M.O.T.H., which outlined how essential it is, in the long run, for us to prepare the general population, and that a degree of transparency and media presence is necessary to avoid the worst of the public unrest. At the current rate of the outbreaks, in just another year, hiding the threat we are under will start doing more irreparable damage to public image, industry, and trust of the populace than keeping the information about the true scale of the Honkai threat contained.” The woman scowled, shaking her head, “The analysis and the presented plans were promptly ignored.”

“You were involved in number-crunching for those predictions, I assume?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Mobius just let out a dismissive snort, as if ‘Obviously, why are you even asking if you know?’.

“I’d guess the current politicians are hoping that the problem, when it will explode, will be for the next administrations to deal with,” I echoed, furrowing my brows, “...but I don’t see it. Some small African country's PM that has nothing to lose would’ve normally said anything by now, no?” Maybe even in a public TV broadcast or something.

Mobius shook her head.

“Some did. But at the current age, collective governments have almost complete control over what information is spread on the internet, and outside of that, the whistleblowers were promptly arrested… or otherwise dealt with.” She said without any humor, “There are a lot more forces involved in this than you understand. Old money and investment firms that use the time they have to accumulate wealth and resources for when the information will be revealed are among the most important factors; it’s groups like that who are the most interested in not revealing the secret, and the initial agreement all countries signed when M.O.T.H. formed is binding. Unless the overwhelming majority votes for the dismissal of the secret, even people in the highest position in the governments of most countries will face consequences, legal and illegal, for breaching the informational embargo.” She explained to me plainly, and with each word, I felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper into some shizo rant from /pol/.

“I am oversimplifying this quite a lot, but what you need to understand is that a chain of very unlikely events needs to happen for the information to start truly spreading.” She explained with a sigh. “A lot of important people and organizations are interested in keeping it closer to their chest, so they can prepare themselves and accumulate more power from the public’s reaction.”

I looked at her for a few seconds, contemplating this.

“Do you want my help in making the world aware?” I asked simply, making Mobius freeze.

Her eyes immediately snapped to me questioningly, and with a promise of violence, so I explained.

“Well, the bigwigs don’t want the information to spread, but you think it should happen. So fuck ‘em. Your way is probably better in twenty different ways. Obviously, I’ll be on board. What are they gonna do, nuke me? Send a bitcoin assassin?”  I chuckled at that, and Mobius, I am pretty sure, was just mentally dismissing the remarks and references she didn’t understand by this point, “Yeah, good luck to them, there is nothing they can do to me besides complicating the job I already do… and making problems for M.O.T.H.” I finished tilting my head.

“Therefore, if you have an idea, no matter how many people it pisses off, and you are sure it’s for the best, tell me, I’ll do it,” I told her, giving her a thumbs up, before pausing, “Unless it’s, like, killing people. I don’t want to do that,” I add quietly.

Mobius, for a few moments, looked completely stunned. Then she chuckled, pretty menacingly, I might add, with fu-fu-fu sounds, and then those chuckles morphed into a laugh. She threw her head back and laughed to the point that a tear formed in one of her eyes.

I just observed her, not letting my grin slip, even if I was a bit weirded out.

“I appreciate the intention,” She said, wiping her eyes and shaking her head, “But I didn’t have any political plots in mind. I would rather not be involved in such things unless I have to be.” She gave me a small, slow nod, a smile was still on her lips, “We will see if I will have to be. I don’t need to say that you shouldn’t do anything preemptively, do I?”

I shook my head.

“Nah. I may enjoy being an idiot, but that doesn’t mean I am dumb.” And just because I am correct about this statement, doesn’t mean I am right. “I know better than to make messes that I can’t have other people sort out for me.” I replied humorously, “Which in this case would mean not throwing wrenches into smarter people’s plans just for the sake of it. So, unless there is a concrete, solid-proof plan, I am not shouting the outbreak statistics from rooftops.” I assured her easily enough.

“Good,” She nodded, “Needless to say, this conversation never happened. Don’t mention it to anyone, anywhere in the future. Don’t try to speak with me about it anywhere where we can be overheard. Soon enough, I imagine, you will have too many eyes on you.” She added quietly.

Then, the woman’s shoulders relaxed just a bit, and she checked her wristwatch.

“I believe this is about it for the break.”

And so, I returned to being a Lab Rat in no time for the rest of the day.

***

I finally arrived back at my room in the HQ building long after sunset.

I wanted to complain and bitch about it, and I would have, but I also knew that it would actually distract the people working on testing and collecting my samples, so I held my tongue.

My battlefield was out there; theirs was here. No reason to overcomplicate their jobs even further, wasn’t their fault anyway.

Returning to my room, I was mentally exhausted to the point that actually being deployed back in Slavicstan felt like it left me less drained.

It didn’t help that most of the people I knew were still deployed there. I contained the really dangerous hordes and killed a Herrscher, but the whole area was still quarantined, much like Germany.

Elevated honkai level meant honkai beasts can just spontaneously fucking spawn like mobs in Warcraft Classic, and Honkai beasts produced more honkai pollution, which meant other beasts were likely to spawn, and then the whole fuckery with low-midium-high level of beasts goes into effect. Which meant there needed to be a contingent of troops on the ground, ready to clear out those fucks before they could grow into a problem, patrol the perimeter, and such. Supposedly, if you do that, the honkai level will start to fall

So, European nations and M.O.T.H. operatives were establishing quarantine zones and all that shit. Most of our operatives from Mu were rotated out for that purpose, too. And many, I imagine, will be stuck there for a week at the very least.

Most of my pals and Himeko are probably there, and the HQ itself right now feels sort of empty, as I returned back to my room, which made me feel worse.

Alone.

It didn’t help that I still had nightmares some nights. Especially after the whole dying thing.

This recurring dream, about me, going on a deployment, and then suddenly losing all my ‘cheats’ ones, I am on the ground and about to face the enemies. Being there, before honkai beasts with no power to call upon, no weapons, and being torn apart by mooks and zombies, I could now kill with a finger flick?

Didn’t feel great to wake up after being torn apart in my dreams in the M.O.T.H. camps in Eastern Europe, and it didn’t feel much better in M.O.T.H. medical last night.

Hopefully, today, if I sleep with some music on and take a sleeping pill, it’ll be easier.

With those thoughts, I pushed the door open, fully intending to spend the evening watching adorable animal video compilations in VR. I even had the full headset, a PC, and a backlist of games some of the nerds amongst operatives recommended me to get into.

I never even had the time, but owning a PC that can run modern games felt like an essential human need. Like racism or misogyny.

Chickling to myself, I put my finger to a scanner, and the door opens for me, the light inside automatically activates.

I step in, glancing around my room. It was just how I left it. The hallway led to the living room, which was kinda bonkers huge for my needs, which led to a small kitchen or a bedroom. There was also a balcony.

When I asked why military organizations had rooms like that, I was simply told that it was built expecting people to live here permanently, if needed, with their families.

Glancing around the familiar chaos at the entrance, with flipped shoes and my coat lying on a small table, I promised myself to schedule a cleaning. Sure, I could also just clean myself, to avoid potential spies going through my things, but to be perfectly honest, there was nothing here to steal. Aside from my greatest treasure: the infinite spaghetti dispensing bowl.

If something happens to it, I will commit a mass shooting.

Clap

And another fly down. Those fucker are everywhere, but ain’t no way I will let one of them buzz around when I go to sleep today.

“Ditto!” I blinked when a pink, cute blob wobbled over from my bedroom. “Ditto!” And it immediately pointed at me accusingly.

“Dot!” I gasped, happy, approaching the little guy, “Man, I am so sorry! You weren’t here for long alone, were you? I thought you were still with Ato! Or, well, Blanca…” I asked, as I scooped the little guy in my hands.

He did a token effort to resist, puffing himself up (literally) and glancing aside… pouting I think.

“Ditto!” He said, sounding accusing and angry.

“Dot, I am really sorry,” I told him honestly, as I started to pat the little guy in just the right spots (don’t ask me how I know what the right spots are in an amorphous blob of gel-like substance, I just know). He tried to pretend he didn’t care. “I really am, it’s not that I forgot about you, it’s that I was out for a fight,” I told him softly, which made the little guy glance at me.

“Diiito…” He muttered, before accusingly pointing at me, looking even more angry and hurt, “Ditto! Ditto ditto, ditto!”

Somehow, despite understanding nothing of what he actually said, I understood everything. My face grew serious.

“Dot, no,” I shook my head, “You think I should’ve taken you with me, you think you could fight… but no, no, you can’t.”

The Pokémon recoiled a bit, the hurt conveyed in his body language I couldn’t describe, and I winced immediately, knowing I fucked up.

“That’s not what I meant, it’s not… It’s not because anything is wrong with you,” I told him quietly, looking into his eyes, “It’s the thing we are fighting. Its very presence corrupts everything. Invisible energy you can’t even see that gets into your body and kills you. I have ways to block it, but… I don’t know if you do, Dot.” I told the little guy softly, patting him gently, without redistricting him much, “And we can’t test it without putting your health at risk.”

“Ditto, ditto!” His eyes focused on me as he waved his hands, sounding determent.

“Dot, we aren’t so desperate yet,” I told him softly, flexing my biceps a bit, “You’ve seen me train, you know I am pretty strong with those abilities of mine that you can’t replicate even if you transform into me…”

“Ditto…” He mumbled, almost apologetically.

“Once again, I am not blaming you for anything,” I told him hotly, shaking my head, “You don’t get it Dot, I am strong enough for this. I…” I paused, sighing, “I know you hate it, staying here while I fight.” I said, guided by the sheer, deep burning understanding that I know I shouldn’t have had, “You are a Pokémon. You wanted to be by my side because you want to be someone strong too. I get that it hurts knowing your friend is fighting out there, that it feels unfair that I leave you here when I am doing a thing I forbid you from doing,” I said softly, “But I can take some risks you can’t, and vice verse. For instance, you can survive jumping into Mobius’s rack headfirst, and I can’t.”

“Di…tto…” The little guy chuckled as he glanced away, wiping something from his eye with his bobbly little hand.

“I know it sucks, but I couldn’t have taken you where I fought. It’s not that you wouldn’t have been any help in a fight,” Though that would’ve probably been true too, I wasn’t heartless enough to say that, “It’s that according to Mobius’s testing, you would’ve died from the exposure to Honkai before you would’ve been able to attack once. You wouldn’t have let me go if it was the same for me, so how do you expect me to?”

“Ditto…” He mumbled quietly, tapping my hand in assurance, before extending two of his tiny hands upwards towards me.

“Yeah…” I said quietly, bringing him up towards my chest, and gently hugging him, “I’ll shut up now. Can’t believe how much I missed you, too, buddy.”

“Ditto…” I heard his muffled, quiet reply from my chest.

After some time, I brought him back out, and following his demands, placed him on my shoulder which he loved to ride.

“Ditto, ditto!” The little bastard gently pulled me by the ear, pointing towards the bedroom. “Ditto ditto!” He also sounded very excited, wanting to show me something.

I couldn’t help it, I chuckled, much to the little guy’s annoyance. He pulled my ear harder.

“Auch, alright, alright, stop it,” I asked, heading towards my central sanctum.

Stepping in, I glanced around as the light automatically turned on. This room was smaller, but housed a king-sized bed (I requested it because I just like sleeping on big beds, sue me), plain walls, a table, a gaming chair, and a top-tier pre-assembled gaming PC I booted up every evening to watch stupid videos and twitch streams.

Ideal living environment for a man, just as god intended.

“Ditto, ditto!” The Pokémon gestured excitedly towards the bed, still wanting to show me something.

“Okay-okay, no need to get so excited, what do you wanna show me?” I chuckled, walking up to it, and blinking in surprise, when the Pokémon jumped down on it, and started to adorably wobble on his tiny stumpy feet (that were actually just his lower body that he bent to act as feet) across the bed, and lifted a blanket.

I froze.

“Ditto!” He announced excitedly and proudly.

There was an egg.

“Ditto ditto!” The Pokémon said, puffing its chest, before once again closing it with a blanket, so it can incubate more safely and was kept in warmth. “Ditto ditto!” It addressed me, with an analogy of ‘what do you think, isn’t that cool?’.

Though I realized the subtleties much later.

Back there, I stood, frozen in place, staring into a hidden egg.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Demonic power coiled around me, lighting up the room with orange and purple.

“ATOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”


***

“Knightmare, you are overreacting!” The central announcement system with a male voice, sounding genuinely panicked, as I broke the reinforced bunker doors that closed all across the science wing with two punches.

“I just want to talk with him,” I said, sounding serene.

“Knightmare, stop this this instance! This is an order.” I barely even heard him, as I summoned my shadows and pressed the security personnel to the wall with a wave of sticky darkness, before passing by them, “This is a breach of every protocol!”

“I just wanna talk to him,” I assured back calmly, as I reloaded my revolver, and checked it’s chamber, before spinning it back into a holster.

“P-please, you need to stop immediately! You can’t just do this!” Some poor guy on console duty practically begged him. “We will have to deploy lethal force if you don’t cease!”

Finally, I broke the last set of doors leading to the mechanical lab with a well-placed kick, making them fly from their hinges and fall to the ground.

“I just wanna shoot him.” I admitted, before pausing, “I mean talk.”

“This isn’t reassuring!” The voice from the machine complained, but at this point, I wasn’t listening anymore.

I approached the final set of non-reinforced doors, and gently curved one inwards, and stepped in.

A bunch of eggheads were staring at me in horror, including Ato. They seemed to have been tinkering with some sort of machine.

“K-knightmare?” He tried, before freezing, as I was right next to him, gently throwing my hand across his shoulder.

“Ato! My buddy! My pal! The great friend of mine!” I said pleasantly, beaming at him, “Such a shame I didn’t see you since my deployment, you see, I was dying to meet you sooner,” I said, my voice growing arctic.

“W-what is going on?!” He tried, “Y-you know that the HQ is in code-red now, r-right?”

I think a demonic silhouette might have flickered around me again. Shame that. The only reason they even started to lower reinforced doors is that they registered honkai energy I release when transformed, and the people who came to check up on the local alarm saw this very silhouette flickering around me.

“Now now, let’s not talk about non-important matters,” I waved it away, and when he opened his mouth to protest, I looked at him kindly, squeezing his shoulder a bit tighter.

He gulped and shut up.

“Instead, let’s talk about friendship.” I offered simply, “You know, friends are great! Sometimes you can ask friends for favors. Like looking after a dog, a cat… or a Pokémon.” I told him, and I saw no recognition in his eyes.

“W-what?”

I reached into a pocket and produced a multi-coloured egg.

“That’s my line.” I told him gently, “After all, the last thing you expect when you leave your dog with a friend, is to find it raped.”

For a long moment, he looked a the egg in disbelief. Then he gulped, looking up at me and truly paling, like he saw death.

“I-I can explain!”

I squeezed his shoulder a bit firmer.

“I don’t think you can,” I told him honestly, feeling my smile breaking down a bit.


***

“You are both imbeciles,” Mobius said, glaring down at the two of us, who sat on our knees before the Queen of the Labs, who was still in her pajamas (holy shit, they were snake themed), and looked like she would actually break my neck if I as much as glanced from the floor and at her again, “The Lab Rat here, decides that a respected scientists raped his pet…”

“...in my defence, the last time I saw the three of them, Dot was in Blanca’s shape, they were hugging each other, and pretty drunk,” I said, shamefully, practically pressing my head into the floor.

“Shut up.” I never heard so much vitriol in her voice in my life. “Just because you are a degenerate and a menace to society, doesn’t mean others are.”

“Sorry, ma’am,” I said quietly.

“And you decided to leave a poorly-studied biological lifeform that is sapient, by the way… alone, in a terrarium with your family’s pet turtle, in your baby daughter’s room? Without observation or the means for the creature to ask for any comforts, or communicate its needs?” She asked coldly, now laying unto the poor Ato.

“...in my defence, I didn’t want to take it to our bedroom, Blanca was very insistent… and drunk. I legitimately fear what Knightmare thought of might have happened if Dot were with us.” He said quietly.

I couldn’t even blame him, not really. I mean I wouldn’t have expected him to own Vedal of this timeline who can rizz up a creature that was at least fifty times smarter and just as much more powerful.

“Shut up.” Wow, and here was even more vitriol.

She stopped pacing, giving us both a cue to glance up.

“You two idiots ruined my sleep schedule for this, and wrecked most of our security measures halfway across the base.” She glared at me specifically, “Seventy percent of your salaries will go into paying this back for as long as it takes.” I opened my mouth, “Yes, including the bonuses.”

I closed my mouth.

“Now, if tonight’s circus performance is quite over, go back to sleep, both of you.” I started to slowly stand up, before Mobius glared at me one last time, “And Knightmare, what I told you now, is merely what you will do to pay back damages to my facilities, it is a mere fraction of what Anderson will do to you tomorrow.”

That’s… fair.

I sighed, not even watching Mobius’s glorious ass as she left.

“Hey,” I called out to Ato, feeling incredibly awkward, “I…” am sorry that I thought you raped my pet/friend? The words, in any configuration, wouldn’t fucking leave my mouth.

I legitimately wish Vergil would emerge right now, Judgement Cut End all over me, like in those memes about the lewd anime girl from those dogshit gacha games, and end this.

“No, I get it. You are out of the warzone, couldn’t think straight, and considering where you last saw Dot being… I can’t really blame you,” He offered, shaking his head. “Besides, you have a right to be angry that Dot ended up pregnant in any case,” He assured me quietly, “You said it’s practically sapient, and yet for now, a kid, right?” He shook my head. “I messed up. I messed up badly.” He whispered with such disgust, shame, and horror that I just knew we were in synch.

“Pokémon are sorta more in tune with their instincts. It’s not like that for them. It’s just that apparently your pet turtle is one hell of a suave unit,” I told him awkwardly, shaking my head, “So don’t feel too guilty about that, please.” I asked.

For a while, awkward silence lingered.

“How about we never, ever, bring this up again in our lives?” Ato asked, looking me straight in the eyes, and offering me a hand.

My hand met his in a Predator handshake.

“Intimidate every other egghead that was in the room who could’ve overheard into silence. Threaten them with me coming for them in their sleep if you have to. If anyone asks, I have severe PTSD and had a maniac episode.” I told him completely seriously, “The guys we eat with must never know.”

He nodded just as solemnly.

Thus, the pact of men was sealed.


***

It’s been a few days since I was back in the HQ. Testing continued, but I had some free time to practice new moves and train a bit with my newfound abilities.

Managed to talk with the B1 for a bit. The droid was a bit weirded by all the people gawking at him, but seemed cheerful enough.

Apparently, being tested was much more engaging for him than his normal duties.

In any case, life was slowly returning to its normal course. Dot’s yet unborn kid was given to Mobius after Dot’s permission. Apparently, Pokémon didn’t have very strong parental instincts or trusted humans with their offspring way too much.

I still made Mobius promise that she will personally look out for the second Pokémon, guarantee it has a good and engaging life, and won’t overuse it for breeding or experiments.

She seemed a bit exasperated at my worry, but didn’t ridicule me for it.

Which brought me here, to our hangar. Where we had just some of our techies, but not many operatives, still.

A very pretty janitor-lady passed through, with a backpack on her back, probably returning home for her shift. She was one of those knock-dead gorgeous beauties M.O.T.H. seemed to attract like flies. She had beige hair with a slight greenish tint, and a neat tattoo under her right eye. Our eyes met briefly, and she winked at me before continuing on her way.

Damn, what an ass.

I had to wait for a few more minutes, mostly arguing on local 4chan about the validity of snakes as house pets, averaging about 4 slurs per post for the fucking idiot that argued that hamsters were better, until announcements of arrival and warnings to stay back rang out.

Slowly, a familiar shape of a skybolt started to land, before the trapdoor opened, revealing a certain pink-haired woman, who blinked owlishly once she saw me, waving at her with a smirk.

Before her face exploded into nauseatingly radiant smile.

“Knightmare!” The girl practically wailed towards me, smiling, “I wasn’t told you’ll be meeting me!” She spread her hands wide once we were close, clearly offering a hug.

I hesitated for a second before giving it to her briefly and awkwardly. The smaller woman giggled as I awkwardly patted her shoulders.

“Yeah, well, someone had to,” I didn’t mention that I specifically requested Mobius to notify me once she was clear and on land. “How are you? Everything alright?” I asked, still grinning, but with some genuine concern, once she hopped back a step.

“I am at my hundred percent!” She said, posing for a moment with a double peace sign… and I was only, like, 30% sure that she didn’t know, “Don’t you worry about me, I’ve had a perfect stay, and Mobius-chan…” I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt in a warning, “Mobius was very quick, even with only remote access!” She giggled again, though I knew I saw weariness in her eyes.

Good. There better fucking be. We had this talk way too many times. I will not have a breathing living creature add honorifics when we are speaking fucking English.

A fly buzzed by. I was about to clap it out of existence, but the little fucker sat on top of Elysia’s head. I hesitated for a moment, glaring at the spot in her hair where it sat. But obviously decided to leave this one insect alive instead of troubling Elysia over it.

“The better question is, how are you?” She asked softly, making me blink, and as I looked down into her blue eyes, they were soft and surprisingly piercing, “Still have nightmares?”

I shook my head.

“My nightmares are my own. A lot of others will… and do have it worse, you know?” I told her, glancing away, “Besides, forget about what happened in Belarus.” I said, switching the topic and looking at Elysia with complete and utter pity, “You should worry about what they will do to you here.”

“Do to me here?” She asked curiously, cutesly bringing a finger to her lip in an exaggerated pose.

I really want to spank this brat. She must know what she is doing.

“Indeed,” I said solemnly instead, putting my hand on her shoulder, and pretending she isn’t getting under my skin, “I’ve literally been the lab’s foremost test subject for the last few days. I’ve been hacked apart, my blood was taken in literal gallons, eight hours a day. And that’s before they were irradiating me with honkai radiation to test my new resistance after the last changes my body underwent.” I told her firmly, “They are literally inhuman, and with Mobius here, you are next.”

Elysia chuckled awkwardly, glancing up at me.

“Y-you are joking, right?” She said, before sighing, “They’ve been doing this to me in the containment center too, you know?” Wow, it’s the first time I hear Elysia complain, “M.O.T.H. really are the bad guys, aren’t they?” She asked, with a small, playful smile.

I played along, nodding.

“Sure are. You know, I am sort of kept here in the HQ against my will, and was kidnapped by a black ops squad, right? The first thing they did was strap explosives on me. It’s only when I gave up on trying to escape that I can travel the HQ freely.”

Elysia seemed to be holding back her giggles as she patted me on the head.

“Poor you. You could never escape this horrible place, can you?”

Somehow, I kept my face straight.

“Indeed. The horrible experiments on my body left me so weak that a janitor could take me out.” I told her solemnly.

I blinked, once I saw the fly buzzing away, but once again, I just let it go. As long as it doesn’t buzz around my ears I didn’t really care.

“M.O.T.H. janitors must truly be fearsome,” Elysia said, actually giggling this time, before looking at me warmly, “I suppose this is why the whole of humanity depends on them.”

I shrugged, grinning right back.

“Well, aren’t you an ex-M.O.T.H. janitor yourself?” I teased, “Judging by that alone, I’d say they are an impressive bunch.”

Elysia pouted.

“I was in a support unit! Support! Not a janitor!” She complained, before shaking her head, and taking a step back, balancing on her toes, “Well, enough of that! Show me around a bit before the evil Mobius confines me to her evil lab!” She giggled, “I am sure there is a lot to see!” She said, grabbing my hand and urging me forward.

Chuckling, I complied, letting her drag me on.

“Alright, alright. I’ll introduce you to Dot too while we are at it, you have the same sense of fashion…” Elysia turned back, blinking and a bit confused, “And the same colour scheme. But in return, you’ll explain how you know Mobius, which you never actually mentioned.”

Elysia looked very fired up.

“Sure! It happened shortly after the Eruption started! I was visiting the laboratory…”


***

It was only after I got Elysia into the lab and was going to the cafeteria to grab a bite, that suddenly the alarms rang out.

I snapped into focus almost instantly and immediately got a ping on my communicator.

The communicator's screen lit up with a priority override message, cutting through whatever standard alert protocols were trying to load. The text was brief, clinical:

Report to Loading Bay C-7. Immediate extraction. Handler en route.

I frowned, thumbing through for more details, but the message self-deleted after three seconds. Standard black ops shit, except we weren't supposed to be doing black ops shit right now. The alarms kept wailing overhead, cycling through different tones that meant different things to different departments. None of them signified a drill, that sounded different.

My jog through the corridors turned into something closer to a run. The normally bustling hallways were weirdly sparse, with security personnel half-jogging in different directions, some still pulling on tactical vests. I caught glimpses through office windows of analysts scrambling at their stations, multiple screens showing what looked like satellite feeds and deployment maps. One guard nearly bowled into me coming around a corner, his rifle not even properly secured to his chest rig yet.

"Sorry, sir!" I waved the man away, in a hurry myself. 

The deeper I got into the facility, the more apparent the controlled chaos became. Loading Bay C-7 was on the opposite side of the complex from the labs, past the vehicle depot, and through a section I rarely visited. Two technicians were arguing over a tablet near the armory checkpoint, something about "insufficient clearance" and "override protocols," but I blew past them before catching the rest.

The concrete walls gradually gave way to the more industrial sections, painted steel and exposed piping. The temperature dropped a few degrees, that particular chill of underground loading docks where the climate control never quite reaches. My footsteps echoed differently here, sharper against the bare floors.

I rounded the final corner at speed and nearly stopped dead. There, parked between two M.O.T.H. supply trucks as if it belonged, sat the most aggressively civilian vehicle I'd ever seen on base. A white panel van, the kind electricians or plumbers drive, complete with slightly dirty sides and a magnetic company logo I couldn't quite make out from this angle. The thing looked like it had been pulled straight from a city street, down to the slightly worn tires and a small crack in the corner of the windshield.

The only thing missing was someone waving a kid in with a candy.

The driver's side window rolled down, and a feminine hand in an elegant skin-tight glove came out, waving me over with quick, urgent gestures.

"You coming or not?" she called out with a very melodic, feminine, energetic voice. Not what I expected to say the least.

I hesitated for exactly half a second. This was way too fucking weird.

On one hand, everything about this was sketchy. On the other hand, the override codes on my communicator had been real; only someone a step below Anderson could pull this off. I also had literally nothing to fear aside from a nuke, so at this point…

I yanked open the rear doors and climbed in.

The interior was nothing like the outside suggested. Every surface that wasn't the driver's partition was covered in equipment. Monitors mounted on articulated arms showed feeds I didn't recognize, their glow casting blue-white light across racks of servers humming with barely contained heat. Cables ran along the ceiling in organized bundles, feeding into junction boxes that connected to more hardware than I could identify. A workbench ran along one side, tools suspended on magnetic strips, while the opposite wall housed what looked like a small arsenal of drones ranging from insect-sized to something that could probably carry a small payload.

…wait, was this a small glass full of flies?

Three different computers were running simultaneously on a desk that had been welded to the floor, their keyboards worn smooth in specific patterns that spoke of constant use. One screen was cycling through what looked like building schematics, another showed strings of code I didn't recognize, and the third was running some kind of signal analysis that made my eyes water just looking at it.

But it was the robots that really caught my attention. A spider-like construct the size of my fist sat charging in a custom cradle, its optical array tracking my movement with unsettling precision. Something that looked like a mechanical snake was coiled on the workbench, segments of black metal that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. 

The whole space smelled of ozone and hot electronics, with an undertone of gun oil, a smell I was very familiar with now. A small window separated the cargo area from the driver's cabin, reinforced glass by the look of it, probably bullet-resistant. Through it, I could see the back of the driver's head as she checked her mirrors, preparing to move.

The moment I closed the door awkwardly, the driver must have put the pedal into the floor, because I almost lost balance for a moment.

“What… the hell is all that?” I asked, approaching a window, that, to my surprise, opened automatically without any noise at all.

The woman who glanced at me was weirdly familiar. Beige hair, an easygoing but cocky grin, and a light dancing inside her eyes.

I also noted a familiar tattoo below her eye.

“You are being rescued!” She said happily, giving me a wink.

It clicked. This was the janitor-girl.

“Please, do not resist, I really don’t have the time for a Stockholm syndrome!”

…this was going to be one of those days, huh?

----

Author Note: Very happy with this one. Anyhow, human bean next, like always.