We didn’t hang around the speakeasy for long. I just swung by quick enough to get some parts printing. There were two new projects I had my eye on. The micro-fabricator for Nael was the first. The second was an autominer I’d been roughly sketching recently.
I needed space. Building a workshop above ground could work. I could just go buy a warehouse and set something up, even. It wasn’t a perfect idea though. I had first hand experience with how easy it was to infiltrate places like that. I wanted it to be close too. The speakeasy was my base of operations through and through, so not having to go far would be ideal.
Buying out the apartments and retrofitting them was something I already wanted to do. They were aged, and I’d spent enough time around here to see quite a few issues with the structure. Tech wasn’t strictly technology. I had a pretty good understanding of architecture by now. Or, at least, a good enough understanding to see this place was falling apart.
Even then though, I didn’t have the Rayn and the apartment building itself wasn’t an ideal place for the workshop. Like I was always saying, the best security was no one knowing it existed. I was better off with somewhere hidden and defensible like some kind of supervillain lair from old comic books.
No matter where I went in the city, I’d have to pay for it… except the AEZ, I guess, but that was out for other reasons. Everywhere except underground, that is. Savants and Scavs definitely didn’t pay land taxes on their structures. I was going to take a page out of their book. Although I hated to admit it, they knew what they were doing most of the time.
I wasn’t planning on going all the way down to the Underground. Instead, I wanted to basically add a sub-level underneath the speakeasy. An underpinning excavation was dangerous, would take a lot of planning, and could potentially collapse the whole building if I messed something up. This wouldn’t be a quick process.
I’d have to check for a lot of things and ensure the structure was safe before anything. If I couldn’t retrofit a sub-level underneath the speakeasy, I’d just go deeper down and either make one off the Underground shaft or down in the Underground proper. I should also widen the shaft and put in a more permanent lift there when I got the chance. The vault down there—usually I just left it alone because it was such a hassle to go up and down. Not to mention I had little worth keeping safe like that.
Either way, the mining bots would get some use. Not to mention they might be helpful in other ways. It might open some paths in upcoming gigs that were otherwise inaccessible. Literally in the case of digging out a shaft. Maybe I could just straight up dig into a facility rather then doing my usual song and dance?
I might even be able to set up a mine out in the desert or Sunderland for some more passive income. Or use the extracted resources to funnel into Transmutation to further boost my capabilities. That was an idea for way later down the line though. It’d take a lot of time and money to get everything set up.
The Aether was also an option for a workshop, but it had its own host of issues that I wasn’t so sure about. The time limitation for one. It’d be a struggle to get anything down in a couple hours. And there was always the risk of something unforeseen happening. Although I trusted the other dimension more now, I didn’t fully trust it.
Rayn… I should text that Knight about the hover bike soon. It’d take a couple days to make another model, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. I should make a catalogue of features too and try to get as much money from her as possible.
Ugh- so much to do. Why was it that I never felt like I had time to do everything? I finished up the setup for the parts and then left the back of the speakeasy. Mira sat at one of the tables, lightly poking at the Aether Lavender plant.
”Ready?” I called, looking away from the distasteful plant. It’d grown after a couple days of watering it. There were now several offshoots tipped with purple.
”Isn’t it pretty?” Mira asked. She pushed it toward me, not making a move to get up.
”I- yes. Yes, it's very pretty.” Although I felt nauseated just from being around it, I could admit that much. Natural plant life had a certain beauty to it… I can’t even imagine being on a different continent. North Arkhanikas was a massive dessert, but the other continents were thriving with plant life. How absolutely torturous would it be to live there?
The lavender plant bobbed in joy as if my praise was its life goal. The thing dipped low like a breeze pushed it down. There was no wind down here. My hand itched down toward my gun. The scent of the lavender plant washed over me, making me calm down. If anything though, the attempted calming just put me more on edge and my eyes narrowed at the hateful creature.
Mira leaned forward, completely missing the silent standoff, and breathed in. “This is nice… there’s one of these in the apartment too, right.”
”Don’t remind me.” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” Mira looked up from the flower and slid out of the booth.
”Nothing…” I moved back to the hidden door and opened it up. “Hey, when we get to the apartment, I’m going to be out for a while.”
”That-“ She took a breath. The halo atop of her head pulsed faintly. When she saw me looking, she flashed a smile like nothing was wrong. “Okay.”
I tossed her my phone. “I’ll be popping by the Aether for a bit.”
Her expression shifted into a frown. “Look- I know you said it was safe… it’s the Aether though. There’s all sorts of unknown monsters there.”
“I’ll be fine.” Was it time for that conversation? Or- no, I should wait a bit longer. Wait for her to establish some normalcy before I fully tell her about it.
“I imagine you’ll be gone a while if you’re telling me about it.” Mira opened the door out onto the streets for me, and we stepped out to head for my bike.
“An hour or two at most. Probably just ten minutes, though.” Not like I was planning on doing much there anyway.
“Are you not worried about that- um- what did you call it?” My mikata scratched at the halo. “Aether Sickness?”
“I’ve built up tolerance.” I could handle that much without any issue now. Before too long, I might even be able to visit Fox’s place with that crystal.
“If you say so…”
We both fell silent and walked toward my bike.
— — —
I stumbled through the portal, nearly tripping into my bunker hidden away in the Aether. It was filled with a clutter of items. I’d have to clean it out soon or find some way to expand upon it. Most of it was just parts, illegal substances, and guns. I’d make a hell of a black market dealer if I ever wanted to get into that buisness.
I looked away from the mess and took a seat on the cot that I klept from the Savant Lab. Now that I was finally by myself, I let the electrical charge that’d been building up leak out of my system. It followed my will, flowing out and between my fingers into an infinity symbol.
I tossed out a hand, sending a weak arc of lightning toward the other side of the room. It cracked against the cement of the bunker and disappeared entirely. It might be enough to stun? It wouldn’t really do any damage though. I had a feeling I’d need a much higher charge to get to that point.
I drained out the batteries along my Neural Link while I was at it. It all drained away, leaving me with a sensation akin to hunger. “Um- anyone there?”
[Crow: Unfortunately.]
“Ouch.” I fell silent for a moment. If only he answered, did that mean he was the only one watching? I mean, I knew that they were probably busy with other stuff as eidolons, but for some reason I just assumed they were always watching.
[Eel: I’m here t-]
Ah, Eel. I remember seeing that guy. Never had the chance to meet yet. “Hey…. Why’s the message cut off?”
[Crow: He’s too weak and lacks Authority. Not exactly easy to do this.]
“Oh… chek, that makes sense.” They were basically directly messaging me through the Aether, weren’t they? Eel… he definitely wasn’t the only one. There were probably all sorts of eidolons I’d never heard of that were too weak to interact, huh? Or didn’t want to for some reason. Crazy.
Eidolons were usually looked at as extremely powerful entities. It only made sense that they wouldn’t all be at the same levels, but I just assumed… so there were weak ones after all. Was there one that was, like, significantly stronger than the others? Who would that even be?
I shifted on the cot. Probably best I didn’t fall into that line of thought and accidentally insult one of them. ”Um- could you help me out? I’m looking for-“
[Fox: I’m here! Don’t start the party without me! ヾ(＾∇＾)]
[Crow: Great. Bye.]
“Uh- right. Bye, Crow.” I shifted uncomfortably once more.
[Fox: You look so pretty today! Oh! And congrats on finding your friend. I was biting my claws with nerves that entire time! Can’t wait to see the adventures of Mira and Shiro! (｡>﹏<)]
“Thanks.” I rubbed a hand back through my hair out of habit. Right- I needed to check the Mutant Hibiscus when I got back. It was probably ready for her, right? “L-like I was saying, I’m looking for someone to teach me how to use my Kinetic abilities… I know its outside of the Aether’s wheel house, but…”
Yeah, this was my grand plan to find a teacher. If this didn’t work, I had a couple more ideas that might. It’d be nice if I could find someone through them instead of potentially getting scammed by trying to find a teacher some other way, though. They were eidolons. They probably had some connections.
[Eel: I can-]
[Fox: ٩(^ᗜ^ )و Pick me! I can help! There’s a guy I know. You’ll have to do something for me, though.]
Eel would probably be a good choice. He was electricity based, wasn’t he? Or Wolf, for that matter. Wolf was all lightning, and he’d actually be able to talk to me in complete sentences. Not that it mattered. Wolf had yet to contact me while I was in the Aether. Still, I appreciated Eel’s effort even if he was on the bottom of my list.
“Chek… what do you want?” Surely it wouldn’t be something crazy, right? What were Fox’s previous jobs and bounties? There wasn’t anything insane, I don’t think. She’s been super helpful.
[Fox: ( •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) Nothing bad! You’ll even get a cool item! Come back tomorrow and use the crystal. Oh! And bring what you snatched from Corvin.]
Nothing bad wasn’t exactly reassuring. I was planning on heading over there at some point anyway, though. And she had my attention at getting something. If it was a promise from an eidolon, it’d probably be pretty nova, chek? Some kind of mystic artifact that could make me completely immune to damage? Or even another one of those charm bracelets would be nice. It was surprisingly useful.
As for the request for Corvin’s parts, I was fine with that. I snagged them without even really thinking about it. They were completely useless to me as is, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to trade them for something I could actually use. Not like I had any idea what they could be used for.
Why did she want the parts though? Heck, I thought Crow would’ve said something first considering Corvin was hisGreater Sprite before he turned traitor. So far Fox was the only one to comment on the parts collecting dust.
I stood up from the cot. “Chek. I’ll come back tomorrow. And, um, thanks, Fox.”
I lingered for a moment longer to see if there’d be any more messages and then left back through the portal. Come tomorrow, I’d hopefully have someone to walk me through all of this Kinetic stuff.
On the other side of the portal, Mira flinched when I popped through. She was sitting next to the lavender plant even here. “That was quick.”
”I got what I needed.” I deactivated the projector and pushed my drone back onto the charger.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be used to seeing that.” She waved a hand toward my Transporter. “Wild you just go into the Aether whenever you feel like it.”
”Don’t be too surprised. What are you going to do when I spill all my secrets?” I chuckled and moved over to check the hibiscus plant. It was growing nice with several brilliantly pink flowers in full bloom. “You know how to make tea?”
”Boil water and stick a bag in?”
“No-“ I picked at one of the pink flowers. The flower just detached without me having to do anything like the plant gave it to me of its own free will. I barely suppressed a shudder. “Um- with this? It’s supposed to accelerate hair growth.”
Mira’s eyes snapped to the flower. “And here I thought it was just for decoration.”
”Hah- like I’d keep a plant for decoration.” I shook my head and passed her the flower. “Either tea, or make a paste… I don’t know how to do either.”
“I’ll figure it out.” She cradled the flower carefully, the halo on her head pulsing with a golden light. It would’ve looked picturesque if I didn’t know the full story of what was going on.
“Hmm… on second thought, a paste would be better?” I eyed my mikata. “The tea might work on your entire body.”
”Ugh- I hate shaving.” Mira stood up and took the flower to the far side of the room. “Definetely a paste.”
“Can’t be that hard, right?”