SSV3 Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“Scalpel.” Doctor Wells held out her hands. One of the Obsidian clones handed her the instrument.

I’d been curious how Doctor Wells would react to the somewhat stupefied Obsidian clones she was given. But she was completely non-pulsed.

They sort of creeped me out.

We’d sedated the clones prior to our experiments and had already had one failed attempt. I’d broken the clone when I’d tried to force their power into the shape I wanted too quickly.

We’d just started on the second clone.

“Another tumor starting here.” I pointed to a spot as the tumor became apparent under my finger. I had to pinch the flow of ki to it as I tried to change the power that the monster fruit was creating so that when it merged with the clone’s it would be close to the correct shape to mimic Candice’s.

I wasn’t even worrying about size, just the same shape. When they merged, I’d do a final wave of modifications. That moment appeared to be when it was the most pliant.

Finally, we hit the point that the monster fruit structure in Obsidian’s body merged with the rest.

That was the moment I needed. I locked the power into the shape, even as it wriggled and fought me. It began to swell a bit, building up in pressure, until it suddenly popped.

The Obsidian on the table convulsed, coughing up blood as her vitals went wild. The tumor growth went wild, and I cringed. While it wasn’t my Obsidian in front of me, it was a near replica of her in many ways. Watching it convulse was bothering me more now that we were building something between us.

But I held strong, waiting to see what would happen to the clone.

After a few moments, the convulsing stopped, but I could see that she had no power as more tumors started to grow rapidly.

“Absorb this clone.” I told one of the Obsidians who stepped up next. The one on the table disappeared into the shadows.

“What happened this time?” Wells started putting her utensils into a steel basket that would soon be steamed.

Even when I told her I could steam them in the open, she liked to put them in the steel basket.

“Her power popped even as I tried to contain it.” I replied.

Wells nodded. “So too much ki in her channels. You need to exhaust them.”

“Poking a hole will have lasting effects. Stella has a small crack in hers, and I have yet to be able to fix it.” I told the doctor.

“Don’t you remove the ki when you negate someone’s power? Why not just try that?” She put the steel basket in the sink and plugged it before turning the water on.

We didn’t have any hot water yet, so that was my cue and I turned it to boiling water. Steaming rose around the sink as the water cascaded over the steel basket and cleaned her tools.

I… I hadn’t considered exactly how I removed the ki. It was more an exercise of will. But if I thought about it that way, I could try to dial it back on our next attempt.

We were figuring out the timing; we just needed to tweak a few things now, and I thought we might get it.

“I will prep the next clone.” Doctor Wells waved the clone over. “Duplicate and lay down.”

The prep took a little, so while she was doing that, I focused instead on another project I had brought down with me.

There was a barrel that Angelina had made of the mineral components that made up amethysts. I’d promised Emma I’d see if I could make her more jewels. Particularly she wanted me to reshape the giant amethyst we had stolen into a throne.

So we were working with amethyst today.

I siphoned the contents out slowly. They were liquid, meaning there was some water in them. I tried to decide on the best way to remove it.

I heated it up, steaming off all the water and continuing to press and churn the liquid using my power. It was tricky to just let the steam out and not give the resulting material the chance to escape, taking my full focus.

After a period, it seemed the steam had stopped, and I warmed them up as I kept the pressure going.

“You are going to need a seed crystal to get the matrix started.” Doctor Wells told me offhandedly. “At least, that’s what happens with diamonds. It would make sense that the science would be the same.”

Reaching up into the manor above us, I found Emma’s pride and joy, the giant amethyst and scooped the smallest chip off of it. Then I drew it back down to the lab, where I held it ready.

“Kind of just thought I had to make this very hot and assert high pressure and it would just poof, you know?” I replied.

Wells rolled her eyes. “Heat and pressure until it’s a gas. Then charge it with electricity and put the seed crystal in as you drop the temperature, but not the pressure.”

I followed her instructions and knew I didn’t have to hold back. I super charged the minerals in front of me until they turned red hot, melted and then boiled off into gas.

It was getting harder to hold the material as the temperature increased, but I added in electricity, pulling it in jagged bolts from the light sockets and then holding it to the side as the temperature dropped.

The mass was gas, and I needed to cool and consolidate with the seed crystal. That was apparently the next step and by far the longest.

I turned my attention away from it, solidifying the mental vessel I had made for the experiment because this was going to take some time.

“Almost ready?” I turned to Wells as the Obsidian clone appeared to be sedated.

“Yes, we’ll proceed with Monster Fruit ingestion.” Wells put a tube down the Obsidian’s throat and popped a monster fruit into the tube,  chasing it along with some water.

I could feel the fruit immediately branch out, taking root in her system and spreading.

Then the ki rushed in, and I focused once again. This time, I’d try to also pull her ki out of her before her power swelled and popped.

***

I wiped the sweat from my brow. “Sit up. Speak and use your power. Tell Doctor Wells that she wants to sit down.”

“Doctor Wells, you want to sit down.” The Obsidian replied almost robotically. The air around her mouth filled with waves of ki, and the Doctor started to reach for a chair.

“I am not sure if this is the wisest power to give to Obsidian.” The doctor frowned and resisted the urge to grab the chair. “It could be dangerous.”

“Which is why we aren’t giving it to someone permanently. I’ll make sure that she reabsorbs the clone when we finish with it.” I told Wells. “Besides, it doesn’t affect me.”

“Ah.” She said, not really imparting much meaning behind the word. “We managed fourteen tests. All of them attempted to become cancerous giants. Strange at first, but I believe that it means that Candice’s power that you were attempting to create was too weak to take most of the ki from the transformation. Too much spilled out into her flesh, creating the tumors.”

I nodded absently, checking on my other experiment. The seed crystal had grown to the size of a fist, and I had to greatly decrease the size of the field to keep the pressure the same.

Doing some quick estimates, I thought I might be able to make a crystal the size of a basketball with what remained in the barrel, but to make a throne for her I would need much more.

“That looks like it is a success.” Doctor Wells walked over to peer at it closer.

“Not as much as I hoped.” If I was being honest. “But I think we can reshape Emma’s big hunk of amethyst if this one still works for her power.”

“We don’t know if the impurities affect things.” Wells nodded. “We could probably include some impurities if this doesn’t work. They are pretty standard.”

I let the crystal finish what I hoped was the end of the plasma. “So, Doctor, does none of this bother you?” I waved vaguely at the lair.

She hadn’t said anything as she walked into my home and found a huge secret lair under the home, or when a well-known villain was operating within it.

“No. What concerns me is the work, the research, and that’s it.” She said without pause. “Should it?”

“It is just that most people would at least blink at it, pause and think about what they were walking into.” I replied.

She shook her head while resetting some piece of equipment. “There is a reason that mad scientists have a propensity to go villain. There’s also a reason we are kept in the basement of the BSH. Once you are smart enough to be a mad scientist, you are smart enough to peel back the layers of society.”

“When you peel your societal onion, what does it tell you?” I pushed her for more. I had the experience of both sides. I was curious what she thought.

“That there is no black and there is no white. There is only those that were successful and those that were not. Killing someone today matters not if I can save a thousand tomorrow. Losing money one moment means nothing if I have a pile of it tomorrow. What matters is progress. Things must continue to move ever forward. It is the order of everything. If we, humanity, ever stagnate, we will die. Everything we’ve built requires maintenance and the next iteration at some frequency.”

She continued pushing a few buttons on the machine. “The first to make the next iteration wins.” She finished up with the console and moved to attach tubes to the Obsidian.

“What about society?” I asked.

“Brainless masses influenced by whoever sets the agenda.” She dismissed the idea. “Not to say that social groups don’t matter. Humans are social creatures after all. But I believe we’ve become too social. A family and a few friends can support you through the lows, and you support them during your highs.”

I raised my eyebrow at that. “You have friends and family?”

“Yes, everyone does.” Wells said without looking up. “I even have a group on Saturday nights. A group of us play tabletop games.”

I chuckled, imagining what was probably a very brainy group all trying to outmaneuver each other.

But I circled back to the earlier statement. “What happens when things don’t move forward? What if they can’t?”

“Then everything collapses.” Wells explained. “Our entire system, from the enormous banks to even the smallest worker, the system is about continuous growth. If it fails, then the entire house of cards comes down with it. I’ll continue to push the world forward one discovery at a time.”

I didn’t necessarily agree with her view, things had to fail. Otherwise there would never be fresh growth or new opportunities.

“Your gem looks like it is done.” Doctor Wells glanced over, changing the topic.

I looked, and sure enough, the plasma was nothing but a thin layer around the crystal.

I dismissed the rest of the plasma and let the crystal float over into my hand. “You’ve got this?” I waved at the Obsidian we’d just given power.

“Allow me to perform some testing on this one.” Wells looked at the Obsidian with a yellow spray paint on her chest. “Lay down and do not use your power. We will go through some routine tests.”

I waited a moment, making sure the Obsidian followed the orders before I flew out of the lab and up the shaft to the main manor. Outside was already dark, but Emma wouldn’t mind if I woke her to see the crystal. She loved presents.

Sneaking upstairs, the girls were all piled into the bed sleeping soundly. All except Obsidian, likely busy somewhere down in the lair.

I scooped Emma up and lifted her out of the bed.

The cat girl blinked bleary eyes at me and yawned before curling back into a ball as I brought her out into the bright hallway.

“I have a present for you.” I whispered in her ear.

“Mmm, just stick it in and enjoy yourself.” She mumbled.

I tried not to laugh. “Not what I meant. Here.” I shoved the amethyst in her face.

She cracked one eye slowly. But when she saw the stone, she was instantly awake. The purple gem stole her attention. “Oh. For me?” Her hands hovered over it, ready to snatch it.

“I made it with the liquid that Angelina produced for us.” I told her.

Emma puffed her cheeks out and poked it in my hand. “It's smaller than I thought.”

“This wasn’t everything she’d made, but even then, I’d guess we only have enough for around a basketball-sized gem. We can always get more though. I just want to see if your power works with this.” I held it out to her, and it disappeared from my hand faster than I could blink.

“It’s purrrfect.” Emma rubbed it against her face.

“Try it?” I asked.

She nodded and her face got serious for a moment before she disappeared from the space, only to reappear behind me. “It works wonderfully. Purity has always been of importance, so this is wonderful.” Emma playfully tossed it back and forth in her hands. “So, can you make my throne now?”

“Not tonight, that’s for sure.” It had taken a long time to get that much of the gem ready, and I was tired.

I scooped Emma up, even as she continued to play with the hunk of amethyst like a cat with a yarn ball. “For now, I’m going to get some rest.” I put her back in the bed, causing a ripple effect of small groans as the women all shifted around in bed.

I got out of my clothes and began crawling into the pile of bodies.

Stella was nearby and instantly wrapped herself around me like I was a teddy bear as she rubbed her cheek against my head. She was murmuring something unintelligible, half asleep, as she curled up around me.

Emma leaned over, still awake. “Tomorrow, I want to work on the throne.”

“Deal.” I replied before she curled into me and I slowly drifted off to sleep.