The Good Life: Foundations For The Future (ch. 85)

The Institute was in pretty rough shape. The synths were all slaughtered, but that was no real loss. While they had trashed the synth printer in the laboratory, I had my portable one back on Runeterra to work off of. But a solid third of its scientist population had been slaughtered in the synths revolutionary fury -- the once sterile white walls painted red with blood. The human body only had about five gallons, which wouldn't look that impressive if you dumped it into a bathtub. However, painted all over the walls and pooling on the floor? 

That was a loss. Taylor had also done damage to the teleportation array to keep them from abusing it to dump their soldiers where they would hurt the most. That had been quick thinking on her part, and it was a setback that could be handled with a little slave labor. 

However, there was one loss that hurt more than all the others put together.. 

“They destroyed our Compound V and FEV samples,” I muttered, stepping into a firebombed room. The walls were black, everything in the cages was dead -- if not because they were roasted alive, then because smoke inhalation got them. Everything had been scorched, but not before they had smashed every vial on the ground, ensuring that they had been burnt up in the fire that followed. 

That was actually a little frustrating. I wasn't surprised by the move. Not really. Through Cate, Asami would have known what I had Shaun working on, and it would only be natural for her to snip that in the bud. Not before stealing a few samples for herself, of course, but it was basic asset denial that I had anticipated, braced myself for, but still sucked to see. Shaun was still alive, so we wouldn't be starting from scratch on the Institute side of things from a data standpoint. But, two big roadblocks had just been shoved in our way. 

We needed more FEV samples -- those wouldn't be too hard to get. There were plenty of samples we could grab in the form of Super Mutants. However, we had lost all the progress that the Institute had made in regards to taming the virus. Making it less aggressive, removing the side effects, and so on. 

Worse was the Compound V. I hadn't realized it, but we had put all our eggs in one basket that. Meaning that the only samples that we had left came from Soldier Boy's corpse, and Kimiko. Oh, and Neuman and Popclaw too, I guess. Nearly forgot about them. It was something, but reverse engineering something took time. Even with the uber geniuses I was dealing with like Shaun or Singed. 

“I really gotta poach Singed,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. My carton of eggheads was half empty now, with the carton itself suffering some serious damage. Damage that would take time to repair. “I need to grab Jinx too,” I continued, muttering under my breath as plans began to swirl in my mind.

My bet with Asami was off, but I had put in a lot of work with my public identity in Runeterra. I'm not sure if I was willing to discard the identity of Vought's now lone CEO. Especially when I could use it in the aftermath of the disaster and reconstruction. Instead, I just needed to take the gloves off. Stop playing with my food, so to speak. I needed to force myself onto the council, neuter the other members, and turn Piltover and Zaun into my city. 

“Gotta rebuild the Diases, too,” I continued, my lips thinning. Currently, we were using the one that Asami left us, and I imagine she had another in the Capital Wasteland to send over Kimiko, Golden Boy, and Marie. But, we couldn't trust them. Leaving a trap behind, or even a way to track our movements was perfectly in the cards for Asami, so we needed to build our own from scratch. To do that, I needed engineers -- like Jinx, Jayce, and Viktor. Out of everyone I had met, they held the most promise. 

I needed to be aggressive. I needed to take the game seriously. Asami was going to be trying her best to take me down, and if I didn't treat this seriously, she really might. 

Before, back in my old world, I would have been content to die. Even during my stay in Fallout, if something particularly interesting happened and it led to my death, I would have accepted it. But my eyes had been opened since then. I was getting a real taste of the wonders of the Multiverse. It seemed like such a shame to let my life be cut short before I got to explore to my heart's content just because I was too careless. 

If the Multiverse was a fraction as vast as I thought it was, then it was only a matter of time before Asami found another silver bullet to use against me. So, from the foundations up, I had to reinvent what I was creating here. I needed to harvest every advantage from every world that I visited. I needed to exploit them ruthlessly. 

It didn't mean that I couldn't have my fun, but it did mean I couldn't be as frivolous as I once was. 

“Ahh, what a pain,” I muttered. But, the challenge of it added to the fun. I just had to delegate the tedious bits, and I'd get the best of both worlds. With a shake of my head, I shambled away from the destroyed lab. While we had certainly taken some hard knocks from Asami, it wasn't all bad, as it turned out. 

I arrived behind Taylor, who was looking over a map and various lists. She was joined by Nora, Chel, Curie, and Robin. I draped an arm over Taylor's shoulder, making her stiffen for just a moment. “How are we looking?” 

“Repairs are going to be extensive,” Taylor answered dutifully. “A third of Nuka-World was damaged during the attack, with half of that needing a complete reconstruction. My hives were severely depleted during the attack as well, so I can't aid in the reconstruction as much as I would like for at least a month.” 

“But, we're up on war materials,” Nora added, pushing me a list. Two hundred sets of power armor, and an assortment of weapons including plasma, laser, and heavy machine guns like miniguns. More interesting was the ‘Prydwen,’ a four hundred ton airship that Golden Boy had secured for us. That, and the giant robot that Taylor had taken down, which had a much cooler name of ‘Liberty Prime.’ “The Capital Wasteland is going to be experiencing a power vacuum. They likely didn't dedicate all of their military forces to this attack, but they lost a big chunk of them.” 

The thought appealed. “Expand while we can? Yeah, I like it. The Capital should have some interesting tech that we can work with too -- so, the big priority is the Vaults.” I still recalled most of the experiments detailed in Vault-Tec's secret room. From mind control to cloning, there was a lot we could gain by taking the Capital Wasteland. “But our first priority is maintaining the portal. We managed to grab some prisoners from the battle, but maintaining the portal takes a sacrifice an hour, more or less.” 

I expected a bigger reaction from the statement, honestly. Especially from Nora, seeing as she had been the one to fiercely resist my occupation of Fallout, but she barely batted an eye. “That's the top priority?” 

“It's a card that I kept up my sleeve until now,” I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. “As far as Asami is aware, we don't have a way to power the Dias constantly. I want to take advantage of that. As it was, El Dorado, Fallout, Runeterra, and my old world were too divided and that's why Asami was able to pull something like this off.” 

Nora didn't seem to disagree on that point, but she did seem surprised that the words came out of my mouth. Taylor, meanwhile, focused on the task. “A sacrifice an hour is twenty-four a day, a hundred and sixty-eight a week, six hundred and seventy-two a month, and eight thousand and sixty-four a year. I'm not sure that's sustainable,” she pointed out. 

“Not as it is, no,” I admitted. “And that's just one portal between El Dorado and Fallout. It'd take about twenty five thousand a year for a three way connection between them and Runeterra.” To say nothing of further connections. “But it won't need to last that long. We’re going full steam ahead. Nora? I need you to shift your focus a bit -- first order of business is that we need to secure Fallout. At least the East Coast.” 

“That'll be more difficult without the tech advantage,” Nora warned, and I saw Robin smiling ever so slightly as she looked at me. She approved of me making plans. Taking charge. Honestly, it was probably because it took some work off her plate. But, it also let me feel like I was back in my element. 

I had motivation. Something that felt lacking in my life since I first discovered that the heroes weren't really heroes. I had a goal to move forward to. 

“But we have other advantages,” Taylor voiced. “The Deep. Could a synth be made of him with his powers?” Taylor asked, and I tilted my head. 

That was an idea worth exploring. “We would need more Compound V, but it's possible. We just need to isolate all the right genetic markers for powers that allow the synth to communicate with fish.” And install a fanatical sense of loyalty. One toaster uprising was enough for me, thank you very much. “But a fish army would make conquering the East Coast easier.” 

“And it would be a big help protecting my east coast,” Nora pointed out. That was also true. I couldn't imagine that the colonial powers would have a ready answer for the fucked up science experiments that was Fallouts wildlife. 

“The Mechanist. Did we ever get our hands on her again?” I asked, making Taylor still before she shook her head sharply. “It's a loss, but I can see why Asami poached her. Honestly, she was probably long gone months before she attacked us.” The Mechanist was a promising stand-in for Asami, or at the very least, a potential brain drain that I could serve up to someone like Jinx. 

However, with her loss, we had no readily available robot army. We still had the foundry where she’d been putting them together, thankfully, but using it was something of a tough sell when she had turned our machine army against us once already. 

“We’re stuck with human troops,” Nora ventured, crossing her arms. “For now, at least.” 

Taylor considered that before nodding, “It'll take time for my swarm to recover enough to go on the offensive again. And it'll take time to produce more Compound V,” she said, her gaze flickering to me. “But, I know of a training facility in the Capital Wasteland. The Brotherhood of Steel used it to train their troops on how to use power armor. It only takes a day compared to the weeks it normally does.”

Nora perked up at that, “It'll let us make full use of our power armor. But, even with around four hundred suits total… that's a lot of ground to cover. We're a known quality now. People are going to resist us when they hear we're moving in. Especially with a rapid expansion.” 

Very true. But, I think I had a solution to that. “What about Super Mutants?” 

“The big dumb brutes? Yeah, they're tough and strong, but they're completely uncontrollable,” Nora noted, cocking an eyebrow at me. Then her eyes narrowed, “I don't like that smirk. It looks like the smirk you had against me.” 

“Before we arrived, the Institute was investigating FEV. I'm actually pretty sure that they're responsible for the Super Mutants' presence in Boston.” To that, Nora scowled. “But, they had to put their research on hold when the head of the project Brian Virgil had a crisis of conscience that led to him infecting himself with a stable form of the FEV and leaving after smashing all of the equipment in his lab.” 

It was pretty easy to see where I was going with this. 

“You want to find him and get our hands on that strain of FEV. To use on our soldiers,” Nora realized, and I nodded my head, because that was exactly the case. 

“We can do that, or I can Personality Surgery people's minds into the Super Mutants, but that sounds tedious and runs the risk of people becoming violent. To the wrong people,” I amended, because I absolutely planned on them becoming violent. “Either way, to make up for the temporary loss of our machine army, we need to explore alternatives. A mirelurk army to control the sea, Taylor's insect army, a general force military, and Super Mutant bruisers. Sounds like all the ingredients we would need for a rapid expansion.”

“To what end, I wonder?” Robin questioned, giving me a very sly look. 

“First, power,” I admitted. “Without my old world, we just lost a major chunk of our power grid. Asami knew this fight was coming, so she would have prepared. So, she's not going to have the same issue. The Capital Wasteland, or Wasteland America in general? It's an untapped well of potential. Not only for power, but for tech and materials.” In hindsight, I really should have pushed to conquer Wasteland America when we arrived. 

Instead, I had kinda wallowed in self-pity because of Homelander for a year. I hadn't been interested in building a multiversal empire. But, better late than never, I guess. 

“That, and we're going to need the people,” I admitted, feeling Taylor go still. “Yoruichi is trapped in another world, and it's one that Asami thought could handle her. I don't want to leave her there any longer than necessary. So, the goal for the next three months is to build our own Dias, and meet whatever power demand is necessary to make the jump there to find her, then make the jump back. Whatever we can't meet in electricity? It'll come out of prisoners.” 

Taylor wasn't okay with it. I could tell that much. I'd have to work her over a bit, maybe encourage her mental gymnastics to work in my favor once again. An orgasm here, an orgasm there… by the end of it, provided I did it right and learned from Cinder’s mistakes, then Taylor would probably think the whole thing was her idea or something. 

It would be an important step in the grand scheme of things. I needed to look beyond my immediate problems and start making broader plans. Securing Fallout and the Americas of El Dorado were a good start. It gave me an industrial base to launch off of. The Americas were full of untapped resources, and provided that the snowball kept rolling downhill, within a decade or three the entire planet would belong to me. Hundreds of millions of people in a world unspoiled by industrialization. 

Fallout? It had quirky tech that was fueled by the unchecked capitalist nature of its Pre-War America, where the only line you didn’t cross was the bottom line. More than that, it had people of a certain… quality, that could be useful in my future endeavors. The people of this world survived it because they were ruthless. Cruel. They had it in them to make the hard choices that allowed them to see another sunrise, no matter what they had to do or sacrifice. 

All of which would be useful for Runeterra, but not immediately. I was looking beyond it. To the other worlds that I would be visiting. Conquering. 

I had neglected the worlds of our World Lines. I had been so eager to venture to the next one, searching for something that was truly unique. Worlds with a completely different history from what I had known. I had found that in Runeterra, but that wasn’t to say that other worlds had nothing to offer. I had found Sukuna that way after all, and now we were best friends. 

But I needed more than that. I needed to focus. Become more efficient. While I doubt that every world on the World Lines would be worth my time, I could send groups to determine if it was or not. Stage raids to hit important resources, technology, or people. To determine if a world was worth bringing into our network or if it could be skipped over. 

I needed to lay the foundations of a real empire. I would be at the top, along with my friends and chosen, but it wouldn’t be practical for me to be the first boots on the ground for every world that we would visit. 

I could almost see it. A grand game of cat and mouse as Asami desperately tried to curb my expanding empire, stretching herself thinner and thinner as she brought the best parts, the greatest heroes of far off worlds to combat me. I couldn't wait. More than that, I couldn't wait until I found her home world. What kind of face would she make when she realized her home was in my sights? How would she react when she realized that she failed to protect her home from me? 

Before I realized it, I found myself chuckling. 

“I'll leave Tzekel-Kan in El Dorado. Until we get our Dias back online, we'll be cut off for the next couple of months, but I want you two to maintain the portal once we're gone. Rebuild, expand, and compile whatever resources you can get. We'll need them for everything that comes next.” Nora nodded curtly, while Taylor nodded with much more hesitation. Nothing I could really do about that now, but letting her pick her own approach would forestall any major complaints. Then, in three months from now, when Yoruichi was back into the fold and the foundations were laid? I'd work her over a bit. 

“And, what about me?” Chel was quick to speak up, dropping a lock of hair she has been twirling around a finger.

Curie also perked up, “I am most curious as to what my task shall be! I have reached the limits of what I can accomplish with Joy with our current refinement process. There are improvements to be made, of course, but they can be made by technicians.” That attitude was a little surprising to me until I remembered that Curie had spent two hundred years on the same task. I suppose she didn't want to be tied down on one thing any more than she had to. 

“You two will be coming with me,” I informed them. “Curie -- you'll be working with a potential recruit back in Runeterra to bring back Compound V. Chel? I know just the place for you,” I told both of them, and they both seemed utterly delighted. 

I could feel it in my bones that the gears were starting to churn once more. Something great and terrible was being set in motion, and it was going to be guided by my own hand. Things were going to be different from this point on. Gone was the disorganized and chaotic approach. I would be systematic. Efficient. 

I was going to make Asami dread her failure to kill me. I and my empire would be the storm that swept across the Multiverse, and no matter what she threw at us, we’d overcome it. Dominate it. With every world we took, we would grow stronger until we became truly unstoppable. 

And this was the first step down that long road.