Vice Bunker 56 (Patreon)

Greetings from America.

Happy Fourth of July!

Vice Bunker

Chapter 56

-VB-

Once Newburyport accepted my rule and New Wave also agreed to have one of their members over there to act as their guardian and protector, I dedicated myself to investigating my region with much more thoroughness. 

This involved slowing down my blob-drones’ movements, increasing their number, and introducing a new type of drone: relays. Unlike the nanite swarm blobs, the purpose of the relay was to act as a stationary, well, relay. Nanites were horrible for that. Not only would nanites be wasteful to use as relays, relays needed to be high up to transmit information efficiently. 

Which was why they weren’t nanites.

No, no, no.

I took some inspirations from things I’ve seen.

“Did you have to make them look like that?”

My second humanoid body glanced to its left and saw Taylor walking up to me. Since we were in the bunker’s “garage,” she had Rose bundled up in her arms. Our daughter cooed as Taylor swayed her lightly from side to side. 

“I took some inspiration,” I grinned. “It’s been some time since I … allowed myself to be creative.”

“It’s a monster.”

I looked back at my creation and smiled. It was indeed a monster. Right now, it was curled up into a fetal position, sitting quietly on the floor of the garage. Once it and its brothers were complete, it would go out. 

It needed to transmit information and thus needed to be tall, so I gave it a long body. 

Of course, I wanted my relay to be able to protect itself, so I gave it a humanoid form. 

I also wanted it to be able to warn people if they got close, so I gave it a sound system of a sort.

I needed it to scare people who may want to take it down for its precious parts, so I gave it a gnarly, fleshy appearance with “worms” that wiggled on the surface that burrowed in and out of the preexisting holes in the relay’s body. 

And, of course, all of these were valid reasons why the monster looked suspiciously like a creepypasta.

“It’s called Siren Head.”

She shivered. “Well, I guess this is the first real monster thing you created. Not counting your bodies, you know. Why does my husband have a thing for tentacles…?”

“Hoh? You’re complaining about tentacles? You love it when I -!” 

“Ssshhh!” she hissed at me with a blush on her face. “Not in public!” 

I laughed. “Sorry, sorry. But … I guess it is because of what I am.”

I wasn’t human.

I can and do act human. I can feel like a human.

But unlike for all of the humans around me, those were optional. If I wanted to, then I could turn them all off and become the monster my appearance gave off. My real body has eaten and grown so much that nothing short of an Endbringer would threaten me, and Endbringers were no longer active on Earth Bet along with Eidolon and Scion. 

Even if the people of Earth Bet didn’t know me, I knew that I was already the strongest.

I could become a god. I would be a ruthless god. 

So I didn’t.

Why knowingly become something terrible?

I’ll just indulge myself with funny projects that may or may not give random strangers heart attacks if they ever run into my creation. 

… God, I hoped that people wouldn’t name my fief something stupid like “Siren Land.” I might actually change the Siren Heads to something else if that happened. 

-VB-

“What?” Sarah uttered as she listened to her “boss.” There was no denying that New Wave now worked for a warlord, even if it was because they intended to be the spearhead from the inside if Yal’Manus ever turned out to be a tyrant. 

It was devious of him to separate them, too. 

Carol decided to stay behind in “New” Brockton Bay while Sarah chose to come out to Newburyport, a town that had decided to accept the “vassalge” of being under Yal’Manus. 

The situation apparently had been dire enough, and the tears they had in their eyes when they saw her family and the food they brought with them spoke as much.

“What do you mean ‘be not be afraid’ as if you are quoting the Bible?” she asked Yal’Manus. 

“...”

“Relays for your balls?” she asked incredulously. “How bad does it look that you’re warning me?”

“...”

“There’s one close by now? The north?”

She walked out of her new house and flew up into the sky. She looked toward the north and scanned the snow-covered trees.

And then she spotted it. 

It was an ugly thing. Its spindly arms and legs swayed and moved as it lumbered toward Newburyport. 

She felt her heart thump inside her chest as the thing became more defined. 

It towered over the trees. Two siren cones covered what were mouths deeper inside. Worms wiggled on the surface of the monster’s skin, sliding in and out of the creature. 

And as it got closer, she could hear a faint, high-pitched whine that quickly grew louder and louder. 

Then the whine just cut off. 

“... What the hell is that thing?” she demanded into the phone, which , she knew, worked because of a tower that Yal’Manus had built at the center of New Brockton Bay. 

She shuddered. 

“Siren Head, huh.”

The monster came to a stop just at the outskirt of the town on the other side of the river. It planted itself between the trees.

And finally, it stood still. 

Menacingly. 

“You’re a crazy weirdo.”

All she got was laughter from the other side of the phone.