shaper

Reaching into it, a thought caused the surface of the object to ripple as root-like tendrils slowly extended from the base of the cylinder, first anchoring it in place before a series of larger, thicker roots extended from the base of the cylinder. Even with the hatch closed, Nova's actions had ripped open holes in the concrete, holes that the various roots grew through as they slowly crept their way down the access shaft wall, holding on to the brick and concrete walls with a multitude of tiny hooks and mini-roots. In my mind, I could see the total volume of what I was crafting as it threaded around the mountings for the ladder leading down, eventually reaching the bottom before following the small slope of the tunnel before finding them submerged in liquid. Feeling that, a smile found its way onto my lips as I twisted the biomass further, displacing some of what was left down into the sewer system.

Pumping more biomass down the line, I focused on what I wanted and saw it happening across the entire construct all at once. Anchors dug further into the brickwork, aided by the limited secretion of enzymes designed to breakdown ceramics before pushing root structures deeper into the walls and branching out, strengthening each anchor even further. New root-branches separated out at my command, spreading along the base of the pipe wall in either direction and forming into distinct structures similar to that of a Pitcher plant. Each one of these structures, however, was distinctly different in that their openings were placed flat across the ground, rather than being hung in the air, with a series of 'humps' in each chute that would make it difficult for creatures to try to escape due to the near-frictionless coating that covered the inner facing of each hump. Likewise, these humps would also serve as a divider to contain pools of viscoelastic biopolymers, skin-absorbed paralytics and digestive enzymes inside the constructs, along with any creature that might get trapped within them.

As a final measure, the chutes were capable of sealing themselves shut and flood themselves with paralytics and more digestive enzymes, if only to digest and process particularly large meals into bundles of biomass all at once. The exterior was thickened a bit more after that, with a few thorns added for good measure to prevent them being preyed upon, but that was them finished. The enhanced Nectar glands were switched on and I switched my focus back to the submerged roots of my creation as the expanded outwards, going from a single appendage to a vast web of them that disappeared under the mucky surface of the untreated sewage. Membranes grew between each web-like strand, creating several obstacles that the sewage would have to flow around as it moved through the pipe, which would push waste products against these membranes as the liquid moved. Useful materials would be harvested in this manner, absorbed by the membranes to be stored as biomass within the mess of roots for my later use.

Complex calculations ran through the back of my head, giving me a rough estimate of just how little this creation would require to remain alive and healthy, given how efficient I had made its entire digestive process. A single rat weighing around one hundred grams could keep the entire plant-construct well feed for an entire month, coupled with access to water and sunlight. The latter of which was taken care of through the creation of several roots tipped with large leaf-like structures coated in hyper-efficient chloroplasts compacted into a high-dense format. A few finishing touches were added, ensuring that my creation could survive the on-going winter and beyond while preventing it from growing outwards without my instruction, before I pulled back.

Skin contact was broken and I felt the connection disappear, all that real-time information suddenly disappearing as I snapped back to reality. Blinking a few times, I suddenly find myself looking at the concerned face of Nova as she kneels beside me, hand on my shoulder.

"You alright, Amy?" Nova asked, seeing me refocus on the world around me even as she seems to relax ever so slightly. "You had me worried there for a minute, when you just zoned out like that."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Just got a bit caught in what I was doing." I remarked with a slightly sheepish smile, one hand coming to scratch the back of my head even as we both stood back up as Nova pointed her torch down at the ground.

"I saw." The Ghost commented, her torch tracing over the networks of roots that now decorated the ground, weaving in and out of one another to form into nodes of wood-like materials even as leaves sprouted in increasing numbers, only to flower into a mass of dark green under the dim light of noon. "So, we've got the beginnings of a base of operations coming together, a cover identity for me all sorted out, and the start of a resource gathering operation for your bio-tech. Aside from defining our main objectives beyond just 'survive', what's next?"

"... Lunch?"

XXX

XXX

Putting the bag of takeaway on the table, I look around the room as I hear the sound of a lock turning, slotting back into place as I start taking packets of food out the bag and put them on the table. The room itself is a small living room with an IKEA-style table-and-chair set in the centre that I was standing by, a sofa off to one side and a small kitechette running along the opposite wall. A TV dominated a single corner of the room while light pours through a window mounted between the sofa and TV, letting me inspect the rest of the room without any need for additional light. Two doorways link to the small living room I'm currently in, one leading deeper into the apartment while the other leads back to where I just came from. As I looked in that direction, Nova stepped through the doorway with a duffle bag in one hand and her free hand reaching for the strap of her messenger bag, pulling it over her head as she advanced into the room and dropping them both by the side of the table.

"Not the most extravagant of places, but better than nothing." Nova noted wryly, drawing a snort from me as I slip my bag from my shoulders and lower it to the ground.

"That's not a very high bar." I mused aloud, pulling paper-wrapped packages out of the bag and placing them on the table as I hear Nova moving around the apartment. Cupboards were opened and closed, followed by a drawer before her footsteps brought her back to the side of the table, putting plates and cutlery on the table as she circles around to my side. I saw a chair being pulled out from the corner of my eye, followed by the sound of a zipper coming undone as a jacket is hung from the back of it, quickly followed by a grey T-shirt. Seeing that, I feel my eyebrow rise as I stand up straight and turn to Nova, only to find her running a hand through her loose hair and redoing her pony tail, showcasing the short-sleeved HEV suit that had previously been hidden by her choice in clothing.

"Maybe..." Nova remarks, speaking up as she wraps the band back around her loose hair and tying it back up once more. "But that doesn't make it any less true, especially given what you've what we've seen by the Docks, and what you've told me about some of the other places around the world."

"Fair." Was my only response as I took the first plate and put the first package on it, unwrapping it to expose the Fish Supper within. Immediately, the smell of salt and vinegar hits my nose and I can feel my mouth watering, even as I pass it over to Nova, who takes it with a nod of thanks. The second package was unwrapped moments later, put on my plate as I took a seat, applying an extra layer of vinegar to the chips that had come with the Fish Supper even as I started cutting into the meal with the first fork load of battered Haddock being scoped into my mouth.

The room lapsed into a comfortable silence following that, the two of us devouring our respective meals without a word as a clock ticked away the seconds that past us both by. Fish disappeared down hunger gullets, mixed with generous helpings of deep-fried chips that had been coated in either vinegar, tomato sauce, or both. Eventually both plates were left barren as we both relaxed into the wooden seats as we sipped from glasses filled with Cola that had been added to our meal in the process, ice clicking with every motion. Once again, the clock ticked by, resounding at the passage of the hour as the afternoon disappeared heartbeat by heartbeat, helped along by my own machinations as the very mild scent of peace filtered through the air. Eventually, however, the silence was broken as Nova took a final draw of liquid from her glass before placing the nearly-empty container back on the table top.

"So, what's next, Boss?" Nova asked casually, seemingly coming out of nowhere as I felt an eyebrow rise at the last word attached to the question, putting down my own drink in the process.

"'Boss'?" I asked, getting an easy smile in return, along with a half-shrug from the older Ghost as she relaxed back into her chair.

"You recruited and 'hired' me to work for you, so it fits." Nova remarked simply before pausing, a teasing smile slowly growing across her lips as her tone slipped down into a purring timbre with each word. "Well, unless you'd prefer 'Mistress' instead? Though, I don't think our relationship is that good, but who knows, that might change..."

"... Uh, yeah, maybe..." Was all I could really say to that, the words catching me off guard as they came rushing out of the left field and I didn't know how to react to Nova's suggestion for that instant as my brain hitched before overloading. Countless fantasies played out in my brain as they each fought for the right to be at the forefront of my mind, pressing against one another and suppression my cognitive capabilities in the process before I shook my head, mentally rebooting as I forced those thoughts away. Looking back up, I threw a mild glare at an amused-seeming Nova as she leaned back in her chair, completely unaffected by the annoyed look I was sending her way before I signed in slight resignation.

"'Boss', or just my name, will do fine." I remarked simply as a feeling grew inside me, a bone-deep certainty that this wasn't going to be the last time this joke came up, or even that it would remain a joke. "As for what's next? I'd say that you were right about us needing to sort out what our goals are, along with creating some kind of rough plan for how we should go forwards. That sound good to you?"

"Then, to start with, what are our main goals? What do we want in the short-term, mid-term and long-term?" The Ghost asked with a nod, her agreement obvious.

"Long-term? I'd honestly say that the best long-term goal I can think of would be to survive and thrive in this universe, along with whatever comes afterwards. Maybe, explore the surrounding Multi-verse and grow with each new discovery we make along the way?" I suggested with a shrug, feeling that it was a bit on the side of vague, even as Nova merely gestured for me to carry on. "Mid-term goals would probably be more directed towards dealing with the situation on Earth Bet, separated out to dealing with the various Parahuman-led groups and removing them as a potential threat to this planet, one way or another. Removing both Entities in proximity to this world would probably be another objective, along with preventing the creation of a new Entity from the unassociated Shards that would be left behind if we did manage to kill, or remove, the main controlling consciousness from the current pair."

"And short-term?" Nova questioned, seemingly fully focused on what I was saying as I considered the words.

"... Short-term, we can probably focus on expanding our power base, gaining access to more Templates to increase our capabilities, gathering more 'Company points', and further recruiting. All of which will primarily be needed if we want to deal with our mid-to-long-term goals." It was vague, with no clearly defined steps, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment since so many things were still in flux, the future always being in motion and my own presence made a great many things... Uncertain.

"For the recruiting, are we only going to be doing it through the Company Catalog, or will be also be recruiting locals as well?" Nova asked, seeking clarification as I gave a half-shrug at that point.

"There's no reason that we can't do both. Some of the local Parahumans have some rather useful capabilities, even if some of them are twisted little shits that deserve a bullet to the brain." I commented, a few examples already floating through my brain as the Ghost nodded at that.

"'Waste not, want not' and all that rot. Still, from what you've told me, there's nothing saying that we can't do both; Stamp them, put a bullet in their brains and then sell them off before they respawn." Nova offered with a hand raised, causing me to hum in consideration, seeing the validity of her point. The Warranty Plan made that an option, even if it meant waiting until the bindings had been fully applied before we could put them down like the rabid animals that they were.

"True." The single word being my agreement as Nova nodded before taking a final drink from her glass, putting the empty glass back on the table a moment later as her expression turned thoughtful as a hand cupped her chin.

"Then, how do you want to go about completing these objectives? At least in the short-to-mid-term?" Nova asked, her mind visibly grinding away at the problem she now envisioned as possibilities fluttered through her mind's eye even as her lips twitched into a slight grimace. "Dealing with the opposition shouldn't be too difficult, but getting the manpower and resource to fill the gaps created by clearing them out? Even with a capable proxy? That's a problem with no easy solution."

"It's less of a problem than you might think, especially given my own capabilities." I stated, causing Nova's attention to snap out of her thoughts and look back at me as I went to explain. "Manpower becomes a non-issue when you can effectively grow your own potential army of Transhuman, or Posthuman, super-soldiers that can then be programmed with just about any skin-set you'd care to name. Not to mention, they can all be given the same advantages that the both of us enjoy, among other things, effectively making them impossible to permanently eliminate as long as I still live."

"... Then the only real limiting factor becomes the throughput of biomass and the range of skills that can be gifted to these things..." Nova mused, her eyes widening as the implications hit her, only to narrow once more as something else came to her mind. "That still leaves the problem of actually getting enough biomass to assemble combat-viable formations within a reasonable timeframe. Plus, that's without considering the resource requirements to equip them since, as you've already told me, the explicit use of bio-tech would probably draw all the wrong kinds of attention to us."

"That depends on how we go about getting the biomass." I countered with a shake of the head. "If we used the current system I just setup this morning, then you'd be right. Fortunately, I never planned to use that as anything other than as a start-up, and supplementary, source of biomass. My main idea was to create purpose-built servitor creatures that could be released into the Atlantic to hunt down fish and other animals, kill them, and then process them into raw biomass that can then be brought back here for me to use. Plus, raw periodic elements can be filtered out of the water itself, or absorbed from Black or White Smokers located deep underwater and brought back as well. Also, because of Leviathan, research into sea life and ocean environments has basically stopped dead, so we shouldn't have to worry about being noticed. Well, aside from Leviathan himself noticing, but he shouldn't be too much of an issue so long as we keep a good distance from him. Maybe."

"That would solve the resource problem, especially if there was more than one of them going around to prevent a chokepoint from forming, since some get killed by an Endbringer is a possibility." Nova mused, rocking back slightly in her chair as she did so. "Plus, with that bio-nanoforge you mentioned earlier, we'd be able to manufacture our own equipment on demand, which would remove one way that anyone could track us conventionally."

"True." I agreed with a nod. "Thinkers could probably still track any single piece of equipment back to its source, but we could probably get around that by storing the equipment as pure elements within a Stamped transport-creature and only printing out when required."

"Unstamped creatures would still be a problem, but I assume you've got an idea on how to solve that?" Nova questioned, adding to the discussion.

"Self-termination switches built into the biology of a given creature, probably as some kind of neurological off-switch, combined with a few DNA tweaks that would cause rapid cellular decay once they stop picking up certain signals or biological markers from the rest of the body." I explained. "As an added bonus, it would also make it next to impossible for a biological being to leave DNA traces behind due to them decaying rapidly after being shed from the body."

"... Could you do that to me, Boss?" Nova inquired curiously after a moment's silence, breaking me out of my thoughts by the sudden question and the use of her nickname for me. "I mean, you mentioned about being able to turn anyone into a Super-soldier earlier this morning. So, would it be possible?"

"Yeah, easily." I answered. "Though, do you just want that particular augment? Or do you want something a bit more extensive?"

"That one, plus anything else you can come up with, since you're offering." Nova remarked wryly, causing a snort of amusement to bubble up from inside me as I nodded in agreement. "Though, I'd want to know what you're putting in me first, before agreeing to anything, since knowing the full extent of what I might be capable of could mean the difference between living and dying. Even if I can't die while you're alive, I'd still prefer to avoid that if possible. Old habits and all that, ya know?"

"Fair enough." I agreed, a smile stretching over my face as I gulped down the rest of my juice before gesturing to the sofa behind us. "So, you want to start on those augments, or discuss the plan a bit more?"

"Augments. We've got the basics laid out and know roughly what we want, so we can flesh it out later on when we've got more resources to work with." Was Nova's immediate response as she rose from her seat and made her way over to the Sofa, grabbing her tablet on the way as I did likewise, grabbing my notebooks filled with Bio-tech ideas. Already, a few ideas were floating through my head as I considered the line of work Nova had come from, trying to see how I could twist them to suit what the former-Ghost might want while also imagining a few more generalized augments that could serve her well. Some of those ideas already existed in one form or another inside my notebooks, but others were the result spontaneous inspiration, conjured by the memories of games, movies and various other things of that sort. Not the most original of all things, but I'd long since come to the conclusion that the 'original ideas' were few and far between.

Pushing those thought from my head, I moved onwards, taking a seat next to Nova as a nearby coffee table seemed to shift on its own, hovering over the ground before gently dropping down in front of the two of us. Putting the notebooks down on the provided table, Nova's tablet soon joined them as I watched her fiddle with the device for a second before placing it down just off to the side of the notebooks. A quick look at the display was enough for me to be sure of what it was, a single line scrolling across the page, flickering with every sound that filled the room. I felt my eyebrow rise at that, catching Nova's attention as she shifted in her seat, moving a bit closer to me in the process, I noted.

"A voice recorder linked to some transcription software, for reference." Nova stated simply, sly smirk firmly as she answered the unsaid question, along with the answer to why she was doing it as well. I nodded once, not seeing the harm in it at this stage, even as I made a mental note to look into the various forms of cryptography at some point soon. Security might not have been an issue at this stage, but that was primarily due to obscurity, something that couldn't be relied upon for the long term since, sooner or later, someone would find out about us. Hopefully not before we had a large support base behind us, but reality was hardly a fair and kind place.

"Alright, then where do you want to start? These are your augments, after all." Nova didn't say anything for a moment, expression thoughtful and eyes glancing over to the two notebooks I'd brought out before returning to me. Looking into her eyes, I could almost see the gears turning inside her mind as they weighed the pros and cons of different ideas, different options, that could give her yet another edge to utilise.

"... How about we start with the basics and work up from there? Simple things, like enhanced strength, speed and reaction times? Maybe even..."

XXX

It was just after half past five by the time she returned to her new-old apartment, having just finished escorting her new 'Boss' to the nearest bus station and seeing her off for the day. Locking the door behind her, she turned before collapsing backwards for a moment, leaning against the locked door as her legs braced her against the immobile surface, keeping her in place even as the events of the last few hours washed over her. Breathing in and breathing out to centre herself, Nova slowly stood back up from her stoop as she walked back into the main area of her apartment, examining the world around her through eyes that were about as new as could be. Details, things that she'd have missed without the proper tools, were plainly visible to her now as even the slightest difference in colour tones stood out to her like a signal flare in an empty night. And even then, the darkness of the post-dusk evening proved to be no barrier to her as the world remained in perfect clarity despite the apparent lack of any source of light.

Tetrachromacy, was what Amy, her Boss, had called it. A condition that now allowed her see the world through the use of four types of cone cells in her eyes, as opposed to the three that most Humans had to rely upon. A lot of the technical details went over her head, not having the needed background to understand it fully, but the practical aspects of it were enough that she'd all but demanded to have the condition included in her long, long list of augments. Improved low-light vision, an enhanced ability to differentiate colour hues from one another, and a limited ability to see UV light, each being useful on their own, but had the potential to be deadly in the hands of someone like her.

Shaking her head, Nova walked over to the window and drew the curtains shut as she looked outside, still marveling at her new-found visual acuity as she looked up and down distant streets. Distant shop and road signs were perfectly readable to her, even when they should have been little more than distant blurs to her. Faces, gang colours and gang symbols that should have been hidden by growing darkness were just as visible to her as she spotted gang tags on a dozen buildings as she memorized their locations with a glance before closing the curtains fully. A thought caused the lights to switch on, her eyes adapting near-instantly as she collapsed back into the Sofa, barely noticing a difference in the apparent light in the room as she did so. Leaning back into the Sofa and staring at the ceiling, Nova took a moment to think over the events of the day, bemused and amazed by how rapidly things had changed in such a short span of time. Even with the forewarning of how her new existence would affect her, she'd still been surprised by how swiftly her own views and emotions had mutated as the day had gone by.

A part of her felt terrified by it, the speed at which the changes had been taking place as she went from viewing Amy as a mixture of a Commanding Officer and Boss, to something closer to a trusted friend in a matter of hours. From there, it hadn't taken more than a few more hours for the beginnings of a very real attraction to take root within her for the one that had 'summoned' her, for lack of a better term. It was an attraction that was both physical and emotional, as she started to see Amy as both a beauty in her own right, while also growing to enjoy her company and close proximity even further as the afternoon had worn on into the evening. Again, it scared a part of her, how fast these changes were happening, but she knew herself well enough to recognize that this fear was less about the changes in and of themselves, and more to do with the uncertainty that was generated by them. The unknown quantities, that was what she was afraid of, that could affect her when she least expected it, or in ways that she wasn't prepared to deal with at a given moment in time.

"Then again, that's not always a bad thing..." Nova spoke aloud, actualizing her thoughts as she leaned forwards, sitting up straight in her seat as she picked up the tablet she had left on the nearby table. A flick of a finger unlocked the device, bringing it out of sleep-mode, to display the transcribed recording of the last few hours. Scrolling through it, Nova saw technical descriptions of the various augments that she now had, discussions of future Bio-tech projects, debates about the potential utility of certain Parahuman elements within the city, and even a small section that read more like a beginners guide to Psionics, along with other matters that dotted the recording. Some elements went more in-depth than others, her own augments being one such example, shown by the paragraphs of biological terminology that was often summarized in a series of sentences underneath them.

Even so, knowing the ins and outs of her new capabilities could only help her, especially since even the smallest changes seemed to have a big impact on her continued well-being. For instance, any injuries she could gain were no longer an issue, being rapidly healed by the series of 'Nanosymbiotes' floating through her body, 'Mender Symbiotes' attached to her new thigh bones, and the additional 'Platelet factories' in her bones to rapidly clot wounds as quickly as possible. Alongside this, thanks to an enhanced vasoconstrictive response that had been included in her body, she had less worry of bleeding out from wounds than she did previously. Illnesses, diseases, drugs, toxins and poisons weren't a problem either, thanks to an improved immune system, a pair of up-gunned kidneys, a specifically designed 'Anti-tox' Nanosymbiote, and massively upgraded 'Omega' Lymphocyte cells. Even her Brain hadn't been left untouched at the later stages, being augmented with a virtually perfect memory, with equally perfect instant recall, a vastly upgraded cognitive speed, and several alterations that increase several aspects of her cognitive capabilities.

That didn't even begin cover the stuff that directly affected her combat capabilities, such as her new and improved vision.

Increased bone density across her entire body, several types of Bio-fibres woven under and through her skin, and strategically placed plates of high-density bone worked to protect her critical organs, all backed up by layers of biological cushioning. Several chemical glands had been incorporated into her biology, some acting as venom glands for her various in-grown weapons, while others functioning as reserves of combat drugs to either enhance her combat performance, or to keep her moving in a pinch. Immunizations prevented her from being harmed by her own venoms, while also making her immune to a wide variety of other substances that her new Boss had encountered in the past. Muscle density and flexibility had been tuned up, making her both far stronger and flexible than she had any right to be, especially since Amy had reconfigured every joint in her body with that goal in mind. Finally, her endurance, reflexes and senses had all been enhanced in some manner, some more than others, with additional senses that had apparently been inspired by nature. Electroreception, Magnetoreception, Echolocation, vibrational detection and several others beyond that had been included in her much-enhanced biology before Amy had left for the day, all fully integrated and under her control.

Just a few of these augments would have been enough, Nova was reasonably sure, to be considered something akin to a Supersoldier. All of them, combined with her prior training, skills and equipment, meant that she probably stood head and shoulders above the majority of enemy combatants that she might face in the future. Most Parahumans relied heavily on their powers, and those that had even a limited selection of skills beyond the use of their powers were few and far between. Admittedly, that was probably why those few were so well regarded, while also standing tall above their peers, but the Ghost doubted that it would help them survive a twenty-five millimetre HEAPI bullet flying through their skulls.

Of course, that didn't even cover the various 'augment-seeds' that would grow into further augmentations with time. Or the cascading improvements Amy had generated in her own Psionic abilities with a slight reshuffling of her gene-code, incorporating aspects of Zerg DNA into her own along the way. Admittedly, it was only minor amounts of Zerg DNA, but the effects were noticeable in the extreme as she had felt both her control and overall Psionic power skyrocket higher than she had previously thought possible. It still unnerved her, to an extent, as memories of Black-budget gene-engineering projects came back to the surface, reminding her of the many, many attempts to merge Terran and Zerg DNA. However, on a purely cost-vs-benefit analysis, Nova had to admit that any disquiet she might have felt over it was overshadowed by the sheer increase in capabilities.

Plus, at the very least, it was a lot less extreme than the Boss's plan to turn herself into some kind of full-on Human/Primal Zerg Hybrid like Kerrigan had done prior to the End War at some point. It wasn't a bad plan, per se, but it did help explain a few other actions that Amy had decided on, especially with the rationale that had been given. Said rationale primarily focused on the need to prepare and gather resources before going through with the process all at once, as opposed to being stuck in a cocoon as the change took place over the course of weeks, or even months, as the required elements synthesized themselves bit by bit. It was better, in the Boss's view, to have all the needed elements gathered and present, allowing the metamorphosis to take place over a much shorter time span. The setup would still require weeks of work to properly synthesize the needed elements and materials, making it a more mid-term goal, but they had plenty to keep themselves busy with until they reached that point.

Looking up from the tablet as she continued scrolling through it, knowing that she'd see the outlines for several other plans that they'd talk about later, Nova saw the thumb-sized cylinder standing at the corner of the small coffee table. It was unremarkable almost to an extreme, looking like a plain Lipstick tube that was missing a brand name printed on it, but would have been ignored by most people without a second thought based on its appearance alone. Of course, as all Ghosts knew, appearances meant very little in comparison to capability, especially when it was something as potent as the Stamp that could be used to capture and recruit others, just as she had been.

And, currently, it was a vital part of Nova's own tasks for the coming night. Namely, it was a vital tool that she would need in order to capture as many of the local Parahumans as possible once darkness fully covered the city. It was a task helped along by the fact that Amy had given her copies of the dossiers compiled on each of them, compiled with knowledge only an Outside could have garnered, making her job that much easier as a result. Even so, Nova doubted she'd be able to get every Parahuman in the city in just one night, but she could get a fair majority of them with only a minor amount of mind-reading, data penetration and snooping. Those that were missed could be captured in the days to follow, a task made infinitely easier due to most of them following patterns that were either known to her Boss, or publically available.

It was too early to start her task just yet, with too many people still awake and a higher chance of someone spotting something that might give away her presence. Waiting a few hours would decrease that chance, along with giving her a chance to double-check her equipment and make sure that she'd memorized all the information she needed. However, this wait also had a side benefit for Nova, one that brought a smile to her face as she highlighted a segment of the voice recording on her tablet and set it to loop around once finished. Adjusting the volume, the Ghost pressed the play button.

"Sha ta co ti oh scum ne rivna, Sha ta co ti oh nugga tir na nog, Sha ta co ti oh scum ne rivna, Nug a tir na nog..." Began playing through the speakers of her tablet, the sound enthralling her as fresh memories bubbled up from only a few hours ago even as she continued looking through her tablet. Memories of her Mistress, as she softly sang as she worked away...

XXX

'So, how did things go last night? Any issues?' I asked, projecting the questions rather than voicing it aloud as I continued working over construct-seed I had planted the day before. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nova pause in her work, having almost finished blocking the various doors with crates filled with engine components. In truth, it was a stop-gap measure at best, but it was better than nothing, even if we still needed to find something to block the main loading door.

'Not really. Managed to Stamp a half dozen Parahumans last night, but mostly from minor groups, or what passes for some, anyway. The Merchants and Faultline's crew were the main groups I get in one go, but I also managed to Stamp Uber, Leet, Parian and Rune. That last one was only by chance, but it worked out in the end.' Nova responded, remaining silent even as she shifts another crate into position, moving it as though it hardly weighed a thing, despite holding at least a few hundred kilos of spare parts at a minimum. 'What about you, Boss? Any trouble wrapping up your first day?'

'No, no problems on my end of things. Vicky and Carol were really curious about you, especially Vicky, which led to her trying to interrogate me for every detail about you, but I managed to convince her that she didn't need to give you some version of the 'shovel talk'. Aside from that, things worked out pretty well and I spent the rest of the night practicing those exercises that you showed me yesterday.' I replied, rolling my eyes at the memories as they flashed to the forefront of my mind. The event in question had actually been rather awkward for at least one party involved, since Vicky seemed to be utterly oblivious to the tension in the air even as Carol tried to hold a discussion on the matter. The blond Brute, on the other hand, hadn't even been bothered by it and had steam rolled straight ahead, asking a half dozen questions followed by demands to meet Nova to make sure that the Ghost wasn't 'trying to take advantage of her sister', to para-phrase Vicky's own words. The only reason it hadn't been even more awkward was because I'd had dinner before leaving Nova's apartment, having phoned ahead to say as much, and preventing me from having to endure that kind of environment.

'I noticed. Pretty impressive that you've managed to get to the stage where you can project thoughts so clearly, even with the Perks you mentioned beforehand.' Nova commented with a smirk as I rolled, offering a half shrug in turn even as I continued my work. She knew just as well as I did how that Perk worked, so she was really just giving herself a compliment for being as skilled as she was. 'But seriously, you've come a long way in only a few hours of practice, which is pretty damned impressive in its own right. Especially when you consider just how much power you've got back to work with.'

'I suppose...' Was all I offered to that remark, understanding what she meant as I kept working. When it came to Psionics, the total power of a Psionic could often be translated into just how far they could reach with their Psionic abilities. Something that was only helped along by the fact that, for all intents and purposes, my entire being had been turned into some equivalent of a perpetual motion machine that rapidly helped to increase my total reserves of power, while also not affecting my ability to control said power. Skill and capability still took time to build, but having the raw power to back things up wouldn't hurt matters.

'Still, all of this is only from a few basic exercises I showed you yesterday on how to access your Psionics and project your thoughts, which is very impressive, regardless of how you look at it.' Nova continued, having finished piling up the last crate as she turned back to me before moving across the warehouse with long-strides. 'Though, if you want to improve beyond doing just that, we'll probably have to setup some kind of training schedule organized, since a lot of the more advanced exercises require more than one Psionic to work properly. Admittedly, that 'Mind Defense' trick you mentioned means that neither of us really needs to worry about having to fight off someone else's Psi-scans, but it would be good practice to have.'

'Fair enough.' I 'spoke' in agreement to the forming plan. 'Though, splitting the sessions to cover a mixture of Psionics and physical combat-related topics might be a good idea. Even if it slows down how fast I can learn to use my Psionics, it still ensures that I can defend myself against most opponents.'

'Very true, Boss.' Nova noted from beside me, having taken a seat on the textured, dark brown chitin flooring that I'd had my construct-seed grow, creating a 'work area' that floated atop a bed of interweaving root-vines that had grown to snake across most of the chipped concrete flooring of the warehouse. Only two areas had been left exposed to the wider world: The construct-seed itself, and the vine-covered hatch leading down into the sewer system below the city. 'Still, if you want to do it that way, we'd need to figure out some way of either covering for your absences, or ensuring that you have a rock-solid alibi for them, one that can be used repeatedly without drawing any, or too much, suspicion to us. Either way, we'd still need to convert a space into a make-shift training area with enough sound-proofing to prevent anyone noticing the repeating sound of gun-shots.'

'I can think of a few ways to get deal either deal with, or prevent, any major absences, but most of them would need more Company credits than we've got right now.' At the thought, a part of me wondered how I'd become so desensitized to what I was doing, casually talking about the effective enslavement of others just to provide me with the resources I needed to enslave more. I'd already admitted to myself that morality needed to be discarded, if only for the sack of survival, but the ease at which I'd transitioned was somewhat disconcerting.

I felt a jolt of amusement at that, disconcerting? As opposed to what? Monstrous? Inhumane? Horrific? Probably all of the above and more, since I was quick happily considering the different worlds I knew about and deconstructing the individuals in those worlds until they were rendered down to little more than useful skills and abilities. Things that I wanted, needed, if I wanted to survive and thrive in an existence where I had been reduced to little more than another piece on the board of a being so far beyond me that the comparison of 'ant, meet boot' came to mind...

Not a pleasant thought, all things considered, but a rather accurate one, if nothing else.

'And the location?' Nova asked as she glanced at the focus of most of my attention and abilities for the last two and a half hours, or so. The object in question was a large cocoon, four metres long, one and a half metres thick, and laid flat across the chitin that it had partially melded into. It's surface was covered in thick layers of chitin and bio-polymers, each forming into ridges that flowed over the surface of the construct before fusing with the ground, holding it in place as I worked away. However, even with that, the entire cocoon swayed and shifted with inner motion, with life, as the creature within shifted and adjusted itself as I grew and altered it towards my desired profile.

In my mind's eye, I could see the creature coming together. Looking like some kind of hybrid of a Squid, Shrimp, Lobster and a few other creatures I had thrown in for good measure, it's design had been inspired by the Karathen from the DC Aquaman movie, with my own adjustments along the way. Currently, the main body of the creature was almost two metres long and a eighty centimetres tall at the 'shoulder' and one metres from shoulder to shoulder. It's entire body was covered in a hard exoskeleton that was designed from the ground up to endure staggering amounts of pressure without even noticing, multiple padding layers helping even further to allow the creature to shrug off sudden impacts without trouble. Potent muscle fibres threaded through the entirety of the creature, packing explosive power into every limb and ensuring that even the most casual of movements could cause serious damage. Likewise, those same muscles would be able to propel the creature at impressive speeds under water, aided by a mixture of an organic Magnetohydrodynamic drive and a series of water jets scattered across its entire body.

And all of that was just the start, I had packed this singular creature. It's eyes were better than a Mantis Shrimp; Regeneration that would make a starfish green with envy; It could pick up bio-electric signals from distances a dozen times further away than any Shark; It's sense of smell could also shame any Shark; It could effectively disappear even more thoroughly than any Octopus, Squid or Cuttlefish. The list went on and on, each adaptation being something that should have been the sole property of any single apex creature, but all of them had been engineered into one instead. A single creature designed for a very specific purpose: To venture into the depths of the ocean and bring back a harvest of raw materials, either in the form of processed biomass, pure elements, or both in large quantities. Something that was entirely possible, given that it could easily carry three times its own, fully grown, weight in internal pouches, stomachs and gullets.

'I can grow a strain of Fungus that can grow into the walls of the warehouse to act as a form of sound-proofing, either that, or I could create an underground growth from the construct-seed to function as a 'hidden lair', so to speak.' I answered absently, quickly checking over the projected DNA profile for the fully grown creature as I mentally nodded to myself. By the time I'd arrived back at the warehouse this morning, I'd found that the construct-seed had 'only' managed to process about ninety-three kilos of biomass over the course of the night. An impressive amount for a single night, but not enough for what I had in mind. As such, I'd changed tack and used all but twenty-three kilos to create the first creature in a kind of 'juvenile' stage that would then feed and grow into its 'adult' stage. Said stage would result in a creature with a main seven metres long, triple that if you included the trailing tentacles, and weighing close to eight hundred and fifty kilos on its own.

'That would still mean that we'd either have to build big, find a remote location for you to practice certain skills, like long-distance marksmanship, or fallback on a Mind-link to have you learn without exposing both of us to potential discovery' Nova noted thoughtfully as I shifted through DNA sequences, making a few more adjustments and watching how they lined up with the design specification I'd come up with in my mind. Social behaviors had already been programmed into the creature, along with gene-coded memories and instincts that served my purposes. Even then, space was left for any further additions that I might come up with in the future, such as more life stages or specific morphologies for more specialized tasks.

'There's nothing saying that we have to only use one method.' I commented as I turned my attention to the cocoon itself, being more than just a single-use bio-construct, inspecting it before mentally nodding to myself once more. Once the first of these creatures was finished and had been 'birthed', the Birthing Cocoon would harvest more biomass from the construct-seed and use it to spawn more of the juvenile Abysslings until, and unless, I commanded otherwise.

'True.' The Ghost acknowledged as she shifted slightly in the corner of my vision. 'Speaking of which, how much longer do you need to finish you're new pet?'

'It's already finished, I'm just making a few final tweaks, but nothing really major or critical.' I shot back, hearing the teasing tone in Nova's mental question even as I felt my eyes roll in their sockets. 'I'll still need to make a new construct-seed and plant it somewhere that the Abysslings can drop off any resources they harvest. However, that can wait a day or two, since it'll still take time for an Abyssling to grow to its full size and gather enough resources to drop off.'

'Then I think it's time we start on your next Psionics lesson.' Was all Nova offered in return before she moved, acting before I could even begin to react and pulling me away from the construct-seed, breaking my connection with it as I found myself pulled into her crossed-legged lap. At the same time, arms wrapped around me, pinning me in place and trapping my arms by my sides in an embrace that was gentle, yet stronger than steel. As the Ghost pulled me closer, I felt twin orbs of firm flesh press into my back, flattening across it as Nova planted her chin on my left shoulder. Nova breathed deeply in that moment, as I was still trying to understand just what the hell was going on, and I shivered slightly as cool breath tickled at exposed skin, causing my body to straighten instinctively. In the same moment, Nova tightened her grip every-so-slightly, removing the last traces of slack in her embrace and making it next to impossible for me to move anything behind my head and legs.

"Nova, what are you doing?" I asked aloud, doing my best to keep my voice level and flat, even as my heart thundered in my chest, a sliver of fear creeping into my mind as irrational potentials fired through my mind. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nova smirk coyly, clearly enjoying herself as I felt her body shift, shoulders raising and lowering in a shrug as her breasts rubbed into my back with every motion. Admittedly, I could have used my powers to immediately escape, but a part of me wanted to know, wanted to understand, just what the hell was going on.

"Just getting everything ready for your next lesson in Psionics, Boss." The Ghost remarked cheerfully, speaking aloud in turn. "Like I said, some of the more advanced exercises need two or more Psions to do properly, something that can be made a big easier for beginners by having a bit of physical contact between the Psions carrying out the exercise."

"But is this-"

"It is." Nova interrupted, still smiling to herself as she did so. "The greater the amount of physical contact between both Psioncs in these kind of exercises, the greater the amount of Psionic energy that can be transmitted between the two, while also making it easier to do so."

"Besides," Nova started, smile turning wicked as her voice shifted into a purring register that sent shivers racing up and down my spine. "you can't tell me you aren't enjoying this, even just a little..."

There really wasn't anything I could say to that, knowing that there really wasn't any way I could deny that without making it sound like a blatant falsehood to Nova's ears, especially since she could easily hear the rhythms of my body, and hear how it reacted to a lie. Then again, to an extent, she wasn't wrong either. While I didn't like the suddenness of the action, or the effective entrapment of it, that didn't mean that I didn't enjoy the way Nova was pressing herself against me, letting me feel every curve of her body as it molded to mine. Plus, if something went wrong, I still had options that I could call upon, ones that would let me escape, fight back or turn the tables on Nova if I really wanted to. With that in mind, I sighed, feeling the tension release from my body as I turned my head as much as I could, letting me make eye contact with the Ghost operative as she cheerfully smiled in return.

"Alright..." The word came with a hint of exasperation as I spoke once more. "Where do we begin?"

Hearing this, Nova smirked victoriously, and the lesson began.

XXX