Coil sat behind his desk, fingers steepled in front of him, and stared at his mercenary captain, ruthlessly suppressing his urge to strangle the man. While normally, he would have just thrown a spare timeline at that urge, there were a couple of reasons not to at the moment. For one thing, while Coil was a veteran PRT trooper, he had been out of action for several years now, and he had little confidence in his ability to incapacitate his mercenary captain without experiencing quite a lot of pain. That wouldn't help his stress levels at the moment. The other reason…. Well, for the first time, Coil was unsure of the accuracy of his power. The past few hours had been…. Frustrating.
Coil had never truly regretted purchasing his power from the elusive group known as Cauldron, at least, not until he found the note, written on expensive paper in elegant calligraphy, lying on his desk in the locked office of his secret lair, barred from access from the outside world by at least seventeen layers of security, five of which only Coil himself could access.
Mr. Calvert,
We have provided you a new asset, located in Cell Block A, Cell 8. Consider this to be a balancing of our accounts.
-c
Considering that, so far as he knew, Coil had still owed Cauldron a favor, the fact that he was given an asset and told that they were even was not a good sign.
"Sir?"
Coil blinked. Captain Martin Keel was still standing in front of him, hands clasped behind his back. Short, with a wiry, whipcord build and a face that still appeared boyish despite his silver hair, Martin Keel was a disarmingly friendly figure. At least, until you met his eyes. Pale blue, but flat, analyzing, and impersonal. The eyes of a man who could discard anything, anyone, if it suited him. Coil knew those eyes. He saw them in the mirror every day. And so, he trusted Keel, as far as he trusted anyone. As long as Coil paid the man well, and allowed Keel his… little vices... he had his loyalty and the use of his vast skills. Still, he was frustrated at the moment.
"Mr. Keel, you have lost me the service of three well-trained, experienced mercenaries." Coil stated cooly. "And what have you gained for me, in exchange?"
Keel snorted. "A little intelligence. From what I was able to coax out of the survivor, your newest asset managed to create at least four humanoid creatures that he could only describe as zombies and a pair of gun turrets out of thin air, as well as cut off the camera feed for the entire cell block, without apparently moving out of place. Not that he actually managed to confirm that your new pet rock was still in his cell, they didn't get that far before being ambushed."
"And why did you send them in without alerting me beforehand?" Coil winced. The mild headache that had been building since he first saw that blasted statue throbbed.
"The men were getting restless. They kept hearing groaning and unusual noises from the cell block, and some were getting…. Antsy." Keel smirked. "Not that I can blame them, of course. It's not every day that you hear music quite like what your new toy was making for us." At Coil's deadpan stare, he continued. "The damn thing likes to make its zombies sing. It's gotten quite good. In any case, I sent Theta squad, as the group least prone to… Excess. I deemed them the best to gather more information, without getting carried away and costing you an asset."
"Regardless of the musical skill of my newest asset, I still expect to be notified before you take any action you deem to be a risk." Coil growled, before shrugging. "Ultimately, it was not an equal transaction."
"Respectfully, we do know more about the cape than we did before, and we can now take more appropriate precautions." The mercenary shifted his weight side to side. "We know that he controls minions with at least two different themes, that of mechanical turrets and humanoid zombies. He prefers to draw in opponents before trying to ambush them. Doe mentioned that the zombies were hidden in cells A1 and A2, which were locked beforehand, so he has some form of influence over his surroundings since we have the key-cards for those locks." He paused a moment. "And considering that neither the turrets nor any corpses that could have been raised as zombies were previously present, we know that he can create them out of nothing."
Coil nodded slowly. "Your recommendations, Captain?"
Keel grimaced. "I'm torn. On the one hand, the cape could be a massive asset, if we could convince him to work with us, rather than kill our men. On the other…. He did this in six hours, and killed three skilled mercenaries, traumatizing a fourth, and we have no idea of what his limits actually are." He paused, in thought. "If he can actually take over the entire base..."
Coil split the timeline briefly to express his rage at the thought of losing HIS base, pulling his sidearm and unloading it at the wall before throwing over his desk. In the other, he inhaled deeply, before issuing his orders. "Mr. Keel, pull together an assault team. At least twelve members, full gear, a mix of military and PRT standard at your discretion. Hold them ready to move in, if I deem it necessary."
"Yes, sir!" Keel snapped off a crisp salute. It wasn't truly necessary, but Keel knew that his employer liked the little shows of respect. "Should I pull from the teams observing the Alcott girl?"
"No. Leave them in place, I will not change any of my other plans. You are dismissed, Captain." Keel nodded, and left the office, leaving Coil alone. In one timeline, the supervillain fished out an expensive bottle of brandy that he usually saved for celebrations, and started drinking directly from the bottle. In the other, he sat at his desk, fingers steepled, immobile as the statue currently trapped in his prison.
That was the unnerving thing. When he had initially introduced himself, he had split the timeline, saying referring to himself as the new cape's employer in one, and as his master in the other. As soon as the word master left his lips, however, he had felt a surge of energy, followed by a rapid draining sensation and a cold feeling as his heart stopped beating. The sudden close to the timeline was so unnerving and unexpected, that Coil was harsher than he intended to his newest asset. Which may have been rather unfortunate, in the long run.
Information, that was the issue. You cannot control people without information, without knowing what strings to pull, what carrots to dangle in front of them. And he had no information on what that damned statue actually wanted. Defaulting to the threat of physical harm was… clumsy, but ultimately necessary in this case. Unfortunately, now that an action that could have been perceived as a show of force had been defeated, much stronger actions must be taken. After all, misbehavior should be punished. But for now? Information.
Coil picked up the phone and dialed a number by heart. One ring.
"Yo, Boss." The teenage girl' voice was chipper but concealed a nervous thread that Coil rather enjoyed.
"Tattletale. I require your presence."
"I was about to meet with that bug girl, the one I told you about?"
Coil gritted his teeth. "This is more urgent. Put her off."
"Boss, I guarantee you that she'll take us blowing her off as a denial, and join the Wards eventually, if she doesn't get killed first." There was something else motivating the girl, here. Ah, something about a guilt complex from what he recalled of a discarded interrogation timeline. No matter. "She'll be a major force multiplier if I get her on board."
"Give her an excuse she'll take." Coil let a hint of his frustration into his voice, and smiled coldly, knowing that his Tattletale would be able to read the consequences of her actions.
The girl sighed. "Gotcha boss. I'll be in as soon as possible."
Coil ended the call before she could hang up on him. The possibility of a future cape, versus the threat of his own base collapsing from within? No gamble at all, no point in using his power. He NEEDED information, and Lisa would get that information for him. One way or another.
OK. How much time until my Mana regeneration kicks in?
7:46
Not much time. But enough to get started. First of all, let's try something. Exterior Senses.
I felt a rushing sensation, and I was pulled outside myself, floating in the void. I could see all of me, the assimilated rooms of Cell Block A that made up my current walls, set into the solid bedrock around me that I had barely sensed before. Hmm. Let's get oriented. Some instinct told me that my entrance was to the north, and that made my core, nestled in Cell A8, the one furthest from the entrance, to the south-east. My senses only truly extended about fifty to sixty feet around my walls, and about ten to fifteen above and below me. To the east, nothing, just solid rock as far as I could see, but to the west… Another cell block, glimmering faintly in this new vision, an easy target for assimilation, only ten feet away through solid stone, just a tunnel away. To the south, just solid stone, free space to expand. My true concern was the massive chamber to the north, which was grey and undefined, a room full of enemies, that I could not enter or make my own until I had claimed every soul within. I could sense the outline near me, though, going deeper into the earth to the extents of my vision, far beyond the other cell block to the west, and cutting off in a corner to the north, about fifteen feet from my entrance.
I spend a single MP on a two foot wide tunnel from Cell A1 to the opposite cell, which I presumed to be B2, and watched, fascinated, as stone and earth melted into blue motes of Mana, before reforming into concrete and cinder blocks, identical to the rest of my walls, complete with a pair of metal doors, one on each end, a total of ten feet in length. I couldn't quite make the doors match the walls, like the tentative plans I had made while waiting for my mana to regenerate, but they still had a covering of concrete and paint in the right pattern and swung inward from either cell, making them difficult to notice in the dark. As soon as the tunnel completed and solidified as mine, I flooded my mana into Cell Block B, rapidly assimilating the whole nine-room complex. There wasn't enough time to complete assimilating the rooms before my regeneration ticked over, but in the end, I had doubled my floor space, at the cost of only 29 MP, while regenerating 19. I check my current MP. 154.6, out of a total possible 452, with current total regeneration of 34.7 MP/hour. Better yet, I had enough total floor space and MP to be able to upgrade to Dungeon Level Three.
All I need now is three more units. While it's tempting to get more turrets or Zombies, or even dip into my new Tier 2 units, but I need to save my MP right now. Instead, I turn to a different tree - the Slimes. Having a few cheap, adaptable units would be perfect right now. I quickly summoned three Lesser Slimes in the hidden tunnel, only a total of 9 MP, and watched the beach-ball sized blobs of clear bluish slime shimmer into existence. The slimes started rolling and sliding back and forth, bumping into each other and leaving trails of clear fluid that visibly etched my concrete floors. Already, I can see hints of grey flecking the blue fluid of one of the slimes.
Dungeon Level Three available!
Level up?
Yeah, naturally.
Congratulations!
You have leveled up!
Traps unlocked!
I feel a surge of Mana flow through me, and I feel more… Expansive, somehow.
Status.
Status
Level: 3
Core HP: 6000
Max HP: 6000
Total Area: 2260
Current MP: 45.6
Max MP: 678
MP Regeneration: 56.5 MP/Hour
Upkeep: 4.5 MP/Hour
Total MP Regeneration: 52 MP/Hour
Wow. Ok, so I need to figure things out. Time for some math.
Many Maths Later….
Ugh, I have a core-ache. Maybe I should have waited to do this until I had a nice even area, but now I know how my rules work. Everything is based on my Dungeon Level. My Core HP? 2000 HP for each level. My Max MP? Oh, that's just my floor area times my dungeon level, divided by ten. My MP regeneration? That's one-twelfth of my max MP, so once again, dependent on my Dungeon Level. I suppose later, that's going to be some diminishing returns, especially as the cost to level up increases, once again based on my current Dungeon level, but right now, each level is well worth it in MP regeneration alone.
So. Now what?
I need to hide. Coil knows where I am. I need to dig, expand, and move my core to a less vulnerable position. I have one of my zombies crack his knuckles, and start chanting a rhythmic digging song, my slimes bubbling along. Time to
work.
AN: Done sitting on this one.
