Chapter 20: And the cogs start turning
You were in front of the door. Akatsuki had the key and entered first, followed by Selena and you. It was a little cold and the air was quite still. How long had it been? Almost a year? The place had been mostly abandoned since before IS academy.
"I'll go open the windows upstairs." you said while Selena was dealing with the ones in the room and Akatsuki was looking around.
With Selena's room done and dusted you entered yours. The blinds were closed, making the room very dark. Things were also quite messy. Messier than what you remembered. And dust had been kicked up, judging from the particles seen through the light from the hallway.
After opening the blinds and the windows you turned towards the bed. One thing your sister had drilled into you was properly making your bed. Mostly because it had taken a while for you to be allowed to iron clothes. The lump now present almost made it seem as if you were trying to trick someone into thinking you were still in bed.
"Go home, Tabane."
The blanket wiggled a little and settled down. You let out a sigh. The greatest known mind of the world, gone from quirky, to obsessive then to whatever this was. It didn't really erase her other mistakes, but caused you to think… she certainly wasn't the biggest problem anymore. Her presence here was still problematic.
"I'll call Selena. You have until she gets here to leave."
The warning worked, causing Tabane to lazily get up, rubbing her eyes and making her way to the window. She slipped through it and disappeared almost instantly afterwards, your blanket included.
Akatsuki popped up next to you after you had moved to the guest room and began looking around there. This was the cleanest room, since no one had really used it. Things were also covered in plastic foils. Those could stay until later. It meant less cleaning.
"Is this my room?"
"Depending on how things go you could turn it into that. Nothing too extreme though."
You returned to the first floor and made your way to the lab door. It hadn't been broken into, meaning Tabane had not been there long or simply hadn't planned to break in from the start. At the end of the room was a rather simple drawer with some storage drives.
In the beginning you had tried the rather unlikely and dangerous strategy of creating an AI based on the human brain. While you had dropped the idea relatively quickly there was quite a lot of research on the subject which you hadn't had the heart to part with.
"Humble beginnings aren't they?" Akatsuki said.
"You should've seen him when he was working in his room and using paper notes." Selena said.
"While you were struggling to get your school files to work between devices." you replied, punching her in the arm.
Akatsuki didn't react, turning around to hide her expression. She had certainly gotten close to Selena and was now opening up to you, but the situation seemed to be making her feel inadequate.
"And who's going to try what you're thinking of?" Selena said. "The last time someone asked for something similar they were all over the news…"
"You mean the head transplant? Obviously I'm not going to do something like that… Well the publicising part. We'll take care of it during one of my stops."
The lab was closed and you were ready to clean up a little more and leave. If the next week went according to plan you would be able to return here, so making the place liveable was important. Or at least not a pipe dream.
"Do you think you'll be able to return to regular education after everything?" Selena asked.
"Of course not. But I should be able to work with Lloyd and finally get started on other things."
Your original plan to make a device that could deactivate IS units at a global scale was too dangerous. After seeing the other perspective that much became clear. It was too powerful of a technology to remove safely and even assuming it would work, it carried the implications of breaking a good chunk of the society.
So the next best thing was a two stage plan. For one: getting rid of the main problem group of IS pilots, phantom task. Then, as a second stage, render the expertise of the platform's creator mostly useless, by making it so any blank cores malfunctioned to the point of uselessness, possibly being dangerous.
If no new cores functioned Tabane's worth would diminish. Not to mention research onto the field would slow down or halt completely. After all, since the technology was so advanced already if not even its creator could get the cores working things were hopeless. Not something that gelled well with your scientific education, but necessary.
As a bonus, cases like the Black Knight and those two Luxembourg girls wouldn't pop up anymore. Bringing the power balance back to a stable point at the very least, with a possibility of seeing a downwards slope in developments.
You had the groundwork for that second part all laid out, as well as the tools to implement it, so the more pedestrian, but also satisfying, process of getting some revenge from Phantom Task was first.
Timeskip
You knew of six members of the organisation. Of them, Madoka wasn't really a problem. This made Selena's would've been pals, Alicia into the best initial target. Being separate from the main group and only in it for a fight with Chifuyu opened at least two ways of dealing with her. Defeating her and breaking or safekeeping the core of Tempesta, as well as bribing her with the match she wanted.
Right now you and Selena were waiting on a terrace, each with a drink and taking turns petting Shiny. Alicia had accepted to come see you. Of course there was no guarantee she was going to be alone or even peaceful after you told her what you were looking for.
And of course you weren't unprepared. A relatively wide range was set to be covered by your anti IS technology if anything more than Alicia's arm was deployed. Though it had taken some convincing to allow even that. Selena really wanted to see her drop whatever she was holding as soon as she entered the vicinity. Other than that, communications were being jammed flawlessly, courtesy of Akatsuki's help.
"I'm sorry. I only date one person at once." Alicia said.
"Good thing this isn't a date then." Selena replied. "At most it's a meeting for the "I'm missing limbs" club."
In the meantime Akatsuki had managed to also complete a scan of the area. No one else from the organisation was there. And you had the place fully rented out, to make talking easier.
"Let's cut to the chase." you immediately said, stroking Shiny again. "We have an ultimatum."
"How assertive! You look like the villain here." Alicia said.
"You can stay with Phantom Task and get your fight with Chifuyu in two days, before you lose your IS, or you can quit informally, help us from within and keep your unit." Selena continued your idea, ignoring her.
"You're begging for a go, aren't you?" Alicia said. "I'll let you know I'm not unfamiliar with 2v1 matches." Alicia said, pointing at you.
"Can I take her eye?" Selena asked.
Her voice and face were quite menacing, even considering the smile she was keeping. Tension in general was climbing to a bursting point so you let Shiny go, just in case the woman watching you was crazy enough to try something.
"Not yet, Selena." you replied.
"That confidence of yours is quite charming. You think I don't know about your trick?" Alicia replied.
"Your clone with the sniper rifle is being taken care of." Selena said. "And you don't exactly have a way to avoid our "trick", do you?"
Finally, a crack showed in Alicia's face. It was just her smile widening, but you could tell at a glance she finally felt somewhat cornered. Now her mind was definitely on your ultimatum. Trying to figure out what was the better option.
"There's the third option." she said. "I accept to work with you then turn you in. We attack before you're ready and that's that… Hmmmm… but that would leave me in debt to those guys."
"So it wouldn't be a good plan, right?" you asked, putting your elbows on the table and leaning in.
"Indeed. And I have to say I would hate losing Tempesta as well." Alicia said. "So your option sounds pretty good… It doesn't really stop me from fighting Chifuyu until you put your plan in motion either."
"Are we set then?" you asked, squinting a little.
Alicia got up and offered her hand for a handshake. You took it and managed to resist her attempt to pull you into her chest. She chuckled and left, waving. Selena looked at her and told her one last thing, after some hesitation.
"Are you aware of the"illusion of choice" Alicia?"
The former Italian representative stuttered a little, but kept going either way. In reality this meeting had been Selena's idea and a plea to their possible friendship. A clear desire to cooperate from her would've changed the plans a little. Though the basic idea was the same. All routes led to one outcome.
"She's certainly obsessed with that fight…" Akatsuki said, popping next to you, using her hard light projection.
"Umm… what about when..." you said, unsure of whether bringing up her own rampage was appropriate.
"Y/N is right. You have to wait some more before you can say that." Selena intervened to save you.
Akatsuki would've probably become red if in an organic body. She did fidget a little at least. On the subject of bodies and her rampage, you had to return to a very sour spot to say the least. Sour to a certain someone that is…
Timeskip
The pod which had contained your body was still there. It had been put together in quite a rush. While it looked perfectly professional, upon closer inspection rushed spots kept popping up. It was still going to be reused though. After all, you had a measly two days until Alicia would be expecting you.
"What's the first step?" Tatenashi asked.
In the end her and Laura couldn't be kept away from your shenanigans. And since you didn't want either of them near Phantom Task this was the second best place. Not to mention Tatenashi's expertise would add nicely to your own and Selena's.
"Clean up this pod… please don't get too freaked out."
The lights finally came on to accentuate the goo on the pod. Luckily what was inside had been preserved. Less luckily, the inside contained the parts of your old body that hadn't been tracked on your new one.
"At least that means we just have to amplify one of the functions in this machine." Selena said.
"Sort of. It can grow tissue at least. This will be more about the liquid in the pod though."
A short conversation later roles had been assigned. You were figuring out the liquid while the others were removing everything from the existing machine. If you finished then you would help with the second machine. Akatsuki was next to you, since this part was more important to her.
"Alright. Any ideas for a look? You would be most compatible with your original host."
"Look?"
"We can grow a body, but not create and map out a genome." you said. "I'm a scientist, not a miracle maker!"
"Are you sure about that second part?!??!" Tatenashi screamed from across the room.
"…I'm not sure…" Akatsuki said.
"I'll get our samples now then. You can check them out while I work." you said, retrieving some jars from a bag.
Tatenashi was responsible for the multitude of hair strands and accompanying photos. She had used her access to get to as many firms as possible on the timeframe you had given her and pictures to accompany them. A combination would've still been very difficult to get, but other than having to spend some more time on this project it would change nothing.
Getting to the liquid, the one in the pod with your body parts was mostly meant to preserve, rather than grow. The other meanwhile was not fully optimised for organic matter, since corrosion was a concern. A cocktail of the two would tick all boxes and you were grateful about the time spent figuring out the serum from that lab Selena had been held in.
"What are we going to use as building materials?" Laura asked, tapping your back.
"The scan tubes in the medical area. We'll assemble them in the proper configuration then figure out waterproofing." you said.
A good thing about the place was that it had all the tools you could need and more. And it was safe. Even if Tabane ended up returning here she probably wouldn't end up breaking anything. And right now your analysis was coming to a close. It was going to be Laura's job to procure the substance and Tatenashi's to transport it later.
This left you and Selena with the rather awkward part of getting an egg cell to grow the body in. The one part that made you feel like a villain. You knew that the accelerated growth you would put the tissue through and other steps didn't make this "taking over a mind" but instead "inhabiting a vessel"... Yet that sentence still sounded like a justification.
"It's… fine. If you stay like this we'll get a lot more problems in the long run. And those will affect the planet." Selena whispered, sensing your conflict.
"I know this body will have to be destroyed or at least hidden… but it's not making things easier. Nobody's done this before." you replied, also in a low enough voice to not be heard by Akatsuki.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Truly the only option. Because an all nighter was coming up now, at least for you and Akatsuki, who didn't exactly need sleep anymore. The incubation/transfer machine needed to be created in record time. The first day would be a framework, alongside getting everything sealed and primed. Then the second would be the… interfacing.
"Come on! Hurry up and stop talking!" Tatenashi said as soon as you were in her field of view.
"Sure. Get your units out and follow me. I just realised the grunt work was probably automated." you said, starting to lead everyone to the assembly line.
While many for IS you had modified it once yourself. And Tabane had probably done the same. If not due to having to go through multiple iterations to get the thing finished then for a selfish reason. Like… well that didn't matter. There was no trace of a second machine either way, so it had either been binned or never created in the first place.
"This shall definitely speed things along…" Laura said.
"Yes. Now place everything on that platform." you instructed. "I'll work you to the bone before you need to fall asleep."