Industrial Strength Magic - Chapter 281: The Moot

A golden beam of essence leapt from Gramma’s finger and struck the mimic in the chest. A moment later, it was reduced to ash. Perry’s rapier clattered to the ground, glowing red hot where it made contact with the oxygen in the air.

“Damnit.” Perry muttered, staring at the pile of ash, his stomach sinking.

I think I might throw up.

“Don’t be a child. My daughter’s soul resides in Elysium. I confirmed it myself. There’s no coming back from what the creature made of her body.”

Perry tore his eyes away from the pile of ash and fixed them on his grandmother.

There were several curses that could be inflicted on people through eye contact, but he doubted Gramma would turn them on him. besides, if they could get through his current glare, he’d be surprised.

“Agree to disagree,” Perry said with a scowl he couldn’t quite hide, retrieving Lung Piercer and quelling its heat before following the ancient witch through her portal. Don’t look a gift portal in the mouth, I guess, Perry thought, quite a bit more sour than the first time as he followed gramma back to her lair.

A few minutes later, they were contacting Professor Replica, Tyrannus and Australia Man, filling them in on the crazy that had gone down over the last 24 hours.

“Well, this is a collection of people I find troublesome. No offence, Dave,” Perry said, taking in the group.

“None taken.” Dave said with a dismissive shrug. The unicorn was smoking magical weed, passing the pipe back and forth across the table, with Gramma and Stacy Watt-Powers being the heaviest users.

“This is some strong stuff,” Stacy wheezed, coughing as she passed it back, looking for all the world like a teen rebelling against her parents, and not one of the oldest and most powerful supervillains ever to walk the earth.

“I’m surprised it works on…all that.” Gramma said, motioning to Stacy as she took the pipe back before taking a conservative, dignified puff and passing it to Chemestro.

Chemestro gave her a solid ‘I’m not interested’ glare and passed it to Dave.

“Like I told you, I designed my humans to be perfectly baseline in every way.”

“Except lung cancer.” Perry pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but who wants lung cancer?”

“I’m still sore at you for swindling me on those control plates.” Gramma mused. “Especially now that I know you’re not actually a naïve young lady.”

“Should’ve gotten it in writing,” Stacy said, making a smoke ring.

Perry rolled his eyes.

“So, is this the plan then, gather together the last anchor level supers around a table and play tiny violins while the ship is sinking?” Perry asked, glancing at Andre Demetre standing in the corner. His grandmother’s right hand stood with his arms crossed, passively taking in the situation.

In the other corner, Professor Replica’s plaid and torn denim-wearing kidnappers bodyguards stood, mirroring Andre’s posture. Power radiated off the two, having obviously been enhanced by their literal god-queen.

Australia Man quietly observed the situation, nursing his own cigar.

Tyrannus reclined in a crescent shape around the table itself, nearly blocking the bodyguard’s view of their charges.

“This…is a meeting to decide the plan,” Professor Replica said. “The interesting thing about dealing with Solaris is that because of his sheer speed, time actually becomes…less important. There’s no element of surprise, there’s no charging in before he can react. Paradoxically…slower is better. Against Solaris, it is far more important to have perfect execution rather than fast execution. So yes. We are going to relax a moment and discuss our options, because moving faster will only work against us.”

“I would listen to the girl,” Gramma said. “Out of all of us, she’s had the most experience opposing Solaris.”

Aussie Man raised a brow but didn’t comment.

“Fine.” Perry muttered, taking his turn with the pipe, much to Chemestro’s seething rage.

All the while, Perry considered his own plans.

Less than sixteen thousand XP to the next level. The supercritical level where my stats get too high for mortal minds to comprehend.

Perry wouldn’t have to go on a mindless killing spree, executing swaths of civilians in order to have a shot at stopping Solaris, either. He had everything – everyone – he needed in one secret place, hidden from the eyes of Solaris.

Professor Replica.

Queen Of Manita.

Australia Man.

Tyrannus.

Kingpin of the Manitian Underworld.

Neuron’s Legacy.

I bet you fuckers are worth 16k, Perry thought, tapping his fingers on the table idly as the drugs tried and failed to pierce his natural tolerance.

If Perry leveled here and now, he’d receive 1,451 stat points. Split evenly, that would raise his stats from 135 to 498 (except Attunement at 497)

1.05^498 = thirty-five billion, six hundred and sixty seven million, three hundred and fifty seven thousand, six hundred and sixty six…and change.

Which would make his current 725 multiplier a fart in the wind.

And he could take a giant shit on the speed of light.

Sure, he’d have to do a lot of work to prevent his movement from igniting the earth’s atmosphere, creating a black hole, or shredding dimensional barriers, but he could beat Solaris.

…in exchange for becoming something wholly alien.

The barriers between dimensions were already paper thing for Perry. If he committed to this course of action, would he even still be the same thing, that wanted to solve this particular problem in this particular reality?

If he became like the other 4-dimensional beings, able to see all outcomes at once, he would immediately become divorced from any one particular outcome.

Perry’s fingers twitched as he reluctantly dismissed the murderous idea. Perry was greedy, wanted to stay human: Have his cake and eat it too. Becoming a god ran counter to his plan to take his kids to Tee ball later next spring.

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But how many versions of him took this exact opportunity to ascend to godhood?

Just glanced out into that vast emptiness beyond the dimensional curtains surrounding them, and just…stepped into it?

“Perry?” Dave asked, drawing Perry’s attention back to him and the pipe in his hand. “You need a break?”

“I don’t know.” Perry said with a shrug, accepting the pipe and taking another shallow hit, passing along it to Australia Man, who took a puff before passing it to Professor Replica, who sucked on the thing like it was life-support.

Finally the seventeen-year old girl stood, seemingly having gained the courage to speak.

“Some of you are probably wondering what I’m doing here. I’m not wearing hyperweave, power armor, or magical doodads,” She said, scanning her audience.

“My name is Stacy Watt-Powers, the president for life of Washington City. But…that’s not the first name I’ve ever had. My original name, a lifetime ago, was John Stevens…”

Stacy hesitated a beat.

“Sometimes also called Professor Replica.”

Aussie man spat out a fine mist of moonshine before coughing violently, and Tyrannus’s claw quietly retracted from where it had buried itself in the concrete floor.

Stacy’s bodyguards glanced at each other with wide eyes, then shrugged, relaxing back against the wall.

“Lady and gentlemen, we have two major problems,” Stacy said. “The first is the mimic pandemic that has spread to every city and dug its roots in deep. The first problem we were nearly on the cusp of solving. I was able to make androids capable of detecting mimics with one hundred percent success rate, albeit at a somewhat slow pace.”

“I summon their spirits from beyond the grave. If they answer, the person in front of me is an imposter.” Grandma said.

“I made a serum, mass-produceable, that can kind of…jostle the mimic’s control over its shapeshifting powers long enough to out itself.” Perry said.

“How much you want for it?” Tyrannus asked.

“We’ll talk hectares after the professor outlines problem number two.” Perry said, motioning for Stacy to continue.

Stacy nodded gratefully.

“Problem number two is that Solaris was assimilated by the mimic hive-mind.”

*COUGH*

“I gotta stop drinking around you people,” Aussie man muttered, screwing the cap back on his flask.

“He didn’t just go crazy?” Tyrannus asked. “Dear God, That’s a problem and a half.”

“Solaris had, up until recently, been struggling with weaponized Alzheimers, inflicted by a biohacker with delusions of grandeur. I know this for a fact, because he came to me a couple weeks ago looking for a solution to the problem.” Stacy said. “As for how he was turned…”

“From my brief conversations with him during our fight – if you could call it that –“ Perry said, filling in the blanks for Professor Replica. “It seems as though Solaris was tricked and assimilated by someone he trusted no less than a day or two ago. However, due to the lingering Alzheimers, and the fact that Solaris is immune to mimic influence while in light-form, he has broken free of the hive-mind’s control. He now believes everyone else is a mimic.

“So…he went crazy and he’s a mimic.” Aussie man said, summarizing for everyone.

“Yeah, basically,” Perry said. “We think he’s unintentionally starting a rival hivemind as he assimilates people, and now the two are butting heads.”

That didn’t really explain the green eyes winking at me. Is the original hiding inside Solaris because it thinks Solaris will win, one way or another?

It’s a pretty safe bet, if that’s the case.

“Aussie Man, do you think you can hold him in one place long enough?” Stacy asked.

Australia Man nodded. “If we were in Australia? Maybe. Not in Australia?” He shook his head. “No way.”

“Hmm.”

“There would be no way to lure Solaris to Australia.” Tyrannus said. “The location itself is too much of a giveaway. He would realize who was waiting for him there before he ever arrived.”

“A portal maybe?” Perry hazarded, despite knowing it was a terrible idea.

“Still think he’d smell a trap.” Tyrannus said.

Perry figured as much.

“I can slow him down, but it blinds everyone and doesn’t make him any weaker.” Perry said. “I can also take a hit or two, as long as he isn’t going scorched-Earth.

“I could work with that,” Gramma mused.

“I used to be able to make robots that could diminish his powers from sheer proximity to them, but now…” Stacy said with a shrug. “I’m not that Professor Replica anymore.”

“I seem to be able to remove myself from reality…enough to avoid him entirely,” Chemestro said. “I may be able to bring others with me…” He glanced at Gramma. “Given time to practice.”

“I’ve got some spells that can tip the balance of Fate in our favor,” Gramma said. “Even some that might hold him still for a moment, but they would do nothing to counter his invulnerability or his speed.”

“I’ve got some long-range Essence manipulation infrastructure at the lab that…you can work with…for now.” Tyrannus begrudgingly admitted. “I may also be able to work out some deals with demons to shore up our mortality but the chances are slim, since most branches blacklisted us. My researchers will also be working hard on Essence combinations that may absorb or nullify Solaris’s power.”

Gramma’s brows rose as she glanced at the dragon.

“Paradox, you never told me the dragon was a student of the magical arts.” She said, glancing back down at Perry.

“You never asked.” Perry said with a shrug.

HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE!

Perry froze as Dad’s ringtone began blasting out of his right pocket.

“One second.”

“How on Earth do you have a signal?” Dave asked.

“Magic phone,” Perry said, fishing it out of his pocket.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Gramma said. “There shouldn’t be any signal, mundane or otherwise, that can penetrate this bunker.”

“Dad?” Perry asked, putting the phone to his ear.

“Perry, you need to leave,” Dad’s voice entered his ear as a feeling of annihilation began to swirl around them in the fifth dimension. Gramma, Tyrannus, and Chemestro seemed to catch on to it at roughly the same time.

“One of his offshoots figured out where the bunker is, and you’ve got about five seconds before –“

The top of his grandmother’s secret, nigh-indestructible bunker was peeled open like a sardine can, revealing a brilliantly glowing figure made entirely of light.

“Ah, there you are.” Solaris’s voice echoed from above them.

“…Shit,” Stacy Watt-powers muttered, taking a puff of her cigar, like it was the last one she’d ever have. Quite possible.

Tyrannus blurred to Perry’s dimensional senses, sending the vast majority of himself elsewhere.

Chemestro was entirely on the other side of the dimensional veil, watching the proceedings with a death-grip on Australia-man’s arm.

Dave’s weapons-grade horn glowed with power, but nothing was unleashed. He waited to see what would happen. Perhaps wondering why he wasn’t dead already.

Stacy’s bodyguards got in front of her, their faces pale as they tried to block the most powerful super to walk the Earth.

“Let’s keep it civil,” Solaris said, descending from the melted ceiling like a god in human form. “I’ve had people conspire to kill me before, and maintained a long working relationship with them afterward. It comes with the territory. If I killed everyone who play-acted like they had a chance against me, there wouldn’t be anyone left.”

Did Chemestro get Australia Man out before Solaris saw him? For sheer unblockable power, Australia Man was their best bet, as long as Solaris didn’t see it coming.

“Perry, you need to make it back to Chicago.” Dad’s voice whispered through the phone, too quiet for anyone but Perry to hear.

Perry slipped the phone back in his pocket and sat down at the table, joining those who remained.

“I know you’re all mimics,” Solaris said. “But I also know you’re a collection of very strong personalities, with very strong survival instincts,”

He glanced at where Chemestro had disappeared into the ether.

I’d like to extend to you all, the opportunity to survive, if you turn against the Prime and help me root him out.”

“You couldn’t kill me in the eighties, you sure as the divine mother can’t kill me now,” Gramma Z said, crossing her arms.

Gramma collapsed into a pile of ash filled with sparkly bits of enchanted loot.

Perry and Chemestro watched as her soul fled, probably to reconstitute out of a vat of virgin blood or something equally abhorrent.

The Essence pattern reminded him of an Automated Bloodskip on death. It wasn’t even that complicated, but Solaris simply lacked the skillset to see and sever the connection.

Can’t kill an evil witch, huh, mom?

Perry was momentarily tempted to sever the connection and allow his grandmother’s soul to find its final destination. The XP would be great, and nobody would be able to tell it was him that did it.

Perry glanced at Andre Dimitri, who was desperately portalling out, and not paying attention to Perry.

Nobody who matters anyway. A life as long and powerful as his grandmothers would be a bonanza of XP. Maybe even enough to level right here and now…

But…I’ve seen enough family members die today, Perry thought as Gramma’s soul winked out, carried along to wherever her backup lair was.

Leaving Perry, Dave, Tyrannus, and Stacy, staring down Solaris.

“I knew all of your originals before they got assimilated, and they were all very headstrong individuals. I’m hoping that you can break free from that mindless instinct to consume long enough to see the big picture and think for yourselves.”

Solaris frowned and glanced toward Stacy, head cocked. With a motion, Stacy’s bodyguards were flung aside, revealing the teenage girl.

“Well, I know most of you. Who are you again?”

Stacy heaved a long sigh, a plume of smoke wafting from her mouth as she did.

“Sounds like you’re just as far gone as they said, Tom,” She mused.

“You’ve got five seconds to explain why you shouldn’t be ash.” Solaris said.

“Because…” Stacy said, grinding her cigar out on the table.

Perry’s hair stood on end. It felt as though the fate dimension were…folding in on itself. Power begetting power, in an infinite loop of raw energy.

“I.”

Folds built on folds, increasing the density of power in the room a thousand-fold.

“Am.”

Perry’s legs tensed as he realized this was his opportunity to run, even as his skin felt like it would blister from the sheer power coalescing beside him.

“Professor Replica.”