"This is the Purification. I say again, do you read?" came a male voice.
Anna had healed from when I set fire to her, including her hearing. I keyed in the signal to her and Mechos, who was likewise back to normal. I'd want their opinions.
"I read you, Purification. Unfortunately, I see you too. If you're all colorblind I can perhaps fix that. What do you want?" I asked.
"To talk. Prepare to receive guests."
I took a moment to fabricate a few clips of rifle ammunition upgraded with the Righteous killing matrix. I distributed one each to Abigail and Bernard, and a third to Anna.
I figured out what must have happened. The Righteous I'd captured must have returned home after the failed attempt to kill Sylph.
A small shuttle descended from the airship and three figures got off. I couldn't tell gender—I couldn't tell much of anything about them, because they were clad from head to toe in some sort of heavy power armor.
The Righteous appeared to have some way to generate electricity. I wondered if perhaps their powers granted by the void crystal also neutralized whatever stopped normal generators from working.
I had time enough to quickly do some additional fabrication. I manufactured some armor piercing rounds, imbued them with Righteous killing power, and sent these to the exterior cannons.
This was getting expensive quickly.
The three walked up to the entryway of the base and stopped.
"All the theatrics and you aren't going to come inside?" I asked.
"This isn't an invasion. This is a show of force," said a mechanical voice from the lead figure.
They were trying to intimidate me. They were having some success, they'd already demonstrated technology well in advance of anything else I'd seen so far.
I was busy analyzing their armor. There was a joint on the right shoulder where three panels met. It might be a vulnerable spot. The temperature readings were also highest near the small of their back—so, likely where the power source was kept.
"And here I thought you were trying to seduce me by hiding all the squishy bits," I said.
"We are aware of what you are doing. We have an interest. Taking and purifying the Powered is what we do. Your studies are not incompatible with our goals, but we cannot allow you to operate without us," said the leader.
I didn't like being threatened. Next, they'd put their best foot forward to show themselves invincible. But they weren't going to leave it at that, launching some kind of attack soon afterwards.
I withdrew the human guardians farther back. They'd be more difficult to replace than anything else.
"You want me to sign up with you?" I said.
"Research materials will be provided. You will be contained, but comfortable. The alternative is your destruction."
In some ways, it was a tempting offer. I really did want to focus on my research without the need for things such as security.
"But can I trust you?" I asked.
"You don't have a choice. We'll give you some time to decide. If you choose not to cooperate you will be purified."
I detected a power buildup in the airship. I opened up with my cannons even as some sort of high-powered kinetic rounds rained from the sky.
I don't know if my rounds found their mark. My cameras were destroyed in seconds as both cannons were wiped out and the entire entry to the facility collapsed.
If they'd wanted to show their ability to hurt me, they succeeded. I hoped that I'd proved the same.
36
The Righteous airship was gone, probably retreated to a safe distance while I supposedly used the time they gave me to make up my mind. I set my worker mole and the Mechanites to cleaning out the entrance while calling for a meeting with Anna and Mechos.
"This is a big problem," Anna said, straddling her chair. "The Righteous are no joke and if they've called in an airship they really mean business."
"You knew they could do that? Were you planning on telling me or had it just slipped your tiny little brain?" I asked.
"We're in the Wastes, but the Wastes aren't all there are. Yeah, I knew," Anna said.
It is the sort of thing that she shoulda have told me.
"The Cataclysm affected different parts of the world differently. Our portion is more inhospitable than most," Mechos said.
We lived in the land nobody sane wanted to venture into. Made sense, given it seemed to be filled with super-powered killing machines.
"Should I accept their offer?" I asked.
"Absolutely not," Mechos said.
"Fuck no," Anna said, at the same time.
They gave each other wry looks.
"They get you under their thumb, you'll never get out from under it. It might seem a good deal on the surface, but they want to get rid of powers and eventually that means they'd want to get rid of you," Anna said.
"I'd selfishly add that even if they were willing to work with you for a time, the same does not hold true of your allies," Mechos said.
My analysis was coming up the same way. I just didn't trust the Righteous, from what I'd seen of them. I also found it strange they hadn't even asked after Thomas. Loyalty didn't seem to mean much to them.
"Then can we fight them?" I asked.
"You have a way to kill them. Can that be used to defeat their power-canceling field?" Anna asked.
I didn't know, but I could test it. By empowering my warrior mole with the ability to kill the Righteous and see if it worked on Thomas, but only give Thomas some serious burns. I didn't want Thomas dead for good, he was still useful, but by carefully managing the burn I should be able to determine the effectiveness of the flames.
"Possibly. I can find out," I said.
"Then perhaps. Even without their protection they have formidable equipment and gear. Working powers can do a lot to level that field though," Mechos said.
"I can give you teleportation abilities now. We have some time. Can you think of any abilities that might help us?" I asked.
"The Speedfreaks," Mechos said.
"They're crazy," Anna said.
"If we're going into a fight, reaction time and fire speed can be everything. With their modifications, we'd improve every bit of our offensive chances," Mechos said.
"If they don't kill us first," Anna said.
"If you two wish to be left alone to make the most hideous baby ever, it will have to be later. Who are these Speedfreaks?" I asked.
"They're fast, like it sounds. Really fast. It doesn't sound nearly as badass as it actually is," Anna said.
"Those that get in their way die very messy deaths, very quickly," Mechos said.
They sounded perfect.
"Can you lure them here?"
"You've got nothing they want," Anna said.
Mechos said slyly, "That I concur. But they do have a home base. I know the location and you've mastered a teleport ability."
"You want to do a snatch and grab," Anna said.
"Do you think they can outrun a teleport?"
Anna opened her mouth to answer and closed it after a moment. Finally, she said, "No, I don't think so. But that still gives us the problem of what to do with Runner once she is here."
Runner, I guessed, was the Speedfreaks' leader. I said, "I've kept working on what can be done with Thomas' goop."
"The last time you tried to spray him on someone, you fucked up big-time," Anna said.
Was she still grumbly about being tortured almost to death? Anna could be such a complainer.
"It was probably your incompetence that caused the plan to end in failure. I've figured out how to work around it. I've been doing a lot of testing at how to properly aerosolize the goop so it can be sucked into the lungs."
Anna grimaced. "You really need to stop killing that guy and experimenting on his body."
"I don't kill him. Hot Stuff kills him."
"Making him a sex toy is even worse."
"I believe he has actually fallen for her," I said.