Chapter 178

  The elevator descended.

  Alexander leaned against the steel wall, watching the shaft lights pass in steady intervals through the tactical viewport set into the door. The small reinforced glass panel was standard for secure elevators like this, offering just enough visibility to assess what waited on the other side before manually triggering the door to open.

  Almost two weeks had gone by since the New York heist. The immediate aftermath was chaotic. Questions from everyone. Inventory counts. Annie cackling loudly every time someone brought up the yacht footage, while simultaneously furious she’d missed out.

  Things had finally settled into something approaching normal.

  The alliance with the Royals was now official. Jasmine and Talia spent days working through the formal language in partnership with the Queen’s own people to ensure everything aligned. The signing ceremony was mercifully brief. Just Alexander, the Queen, their respective witnesses, and a few toasts. He’d signed his name beside hers, sealing Grimnir’s first formal alliance with another guild.

  There was no doubt in his mind that it would be the first in a long line of diplomatic treaties in the world to come.

  What struck him most was how the Queen changed afterward. The subtle challenge vanished. There were no more comments about him learning the game or finding his footing. She spoke to him as an equal now.

  Perhaps being the whimsical architect of the greatest heist in history had a way of clarifying things.

  Then again, it might also have something to do with Augustus’s increasingly regular disappearances.

  Alexander wished them both the best. He knew as well as anyone the importance of finding what few moments of happiness one could.

  Annie had taken to her new responsibilities with surprising enthusiasm. She’d organized the crew into work rotations, coordinated with Augustus and Talia on training schedules, and kept the new recruits busy enough that they hadn’t gotten into any trouble.

  As he’d predicted, she’d all but adopted Zane, Zara, and Allie, even taking to sparring with Zara personally, helping her hone her ability.

  Sylvan Genesis was its name. Unlike Alexander’s primary power, the name of which had been initially obfuscated, Zara’s was uniquely named from the moment she revealed it. Much like Talia’s and Annie’s. Augustus, too, though that had changed in response to the man’s effort and Will.

  Talia explained that the girl’s power was, in a word, terrifying. She’d drawn a parallel between his own Technopathy, Machine God, and the absolute control over machines it provided.

  While most wielders of the various plant-sphere powers, such as Phytokinesis or Chlorokinesis, manipulated plant life in a variety of ways, accelerating their growth, healing them, or controlling them directly, they generally lacked the ability to generate new life from nothing. They needed existing plants, commonly using seeds.

  Zara could conjure plant life from nothing. It was draining on the young girl, and she was currently limited in that the plants directly grew from her hands… but Talia was absolutely convinced that focused training and a single technique would allow her to bypass those limits.

  If the girl cared about such things. So far, her only goal was to gain control and continue training alongside her brother and best friend until they awakened themselves.

  Annie made it clear she wouldn’t push her to grow stronger, to chase power. It would be her choice.

  Not that Alexander had any such intention.

  Still, seeing Annie’s protectiveness and how easily she integrated new people, befriending and managing them through encouragement or violent sparring sessions, was all the validation he needed.

  Talia had been right.

  Annie was the Freyja the guild needed. The crew and the new arrivals all looked up to her.

  Sort of. She was still shorter than everyone.

  Including the kids.

  The elevator slowed as it approached the bottom of the shaft.

  Carmen had proven invaluable during the hiring surge. Contracting construction teams through Astra Omnia while maintaining complete operational security should have been a challenge. She’d made it look routine. Multiple teams. Architects. Engineers. Carpenters. Electricians. Plumbers. More tradespeople than Alexander knew existed.

  All working simultaneously on different projects. Some of them without knowing where they actually were or who they were working for.

  The solution to the secrecy problem came from an unexpected source. A supervillain living on Astra Omnia with the ability to compartmentalize memories. He could seal away specific information or time periods, lock it behind mental barriers temporarily, and even erase it completely if needed.

  Alexander and the Queen had visited him together to verify his capabilities.

  The man had been terrified. His power made him uniquely valuable to people like them. Too useful to ignore. Too dangerous to trust. So they made it clear what would happen if he abused his power.

  Then they’d worked out an arrangement. Valerie and Alexander both realized they would have an ongoing need for such services. Grimnir paid him. The Royals ‘kept him.’ Making him connected, an associate of and protected by two of the most powerful guilds in the world of supervillains and superheroes. In the end, terror turned to gratitude, though, hopefully, for his sake, still wrapped around a kernel of respectable fear.

  Jasmine drafted contracts that included substantial hazard pay for the memory manipulation. Workers would have their knowledge of the island’s location and the specifics of the work sealed during construction, accessible only while on site, then expunged once the projects finished.

  It worked flawlessly as far as they could tell.

  The elevator stopped with barely a jolt. The doors slid open.

  Alexander stepped into the access tunnel. Reinforced concrete walls stretched ahead, smooth and unmarked except for LED strips running along the ceiling joints. The tunnel was wide enough for an armored transport to drive through comfortably, which had been the entire point.

  The construction impressed him each time he came down here. The teams knew their work. Every surface was level, every joint sealed, every system redundant. And the speed at which it was accomplished wasn’t entirely attributed to just throwing millions at it. Though they did that, too.

  Carmen had found good people. Competent people.

  Multiple projects were still underway. An underground garage connecting to the mansion’s newly expanded basement. An emergency bunker was being dug out, the entrance set into the cliff face from inside the mansion. They were tunneling deep into the bedrock to ensure they had a completely independent and secure facility.

  They weren’t anticipating any problems… but the System never failed to surprise them. Not to mention the ongoing threat of superheroes finding them.

  Designs had been finalized, and construction had already begun on Astra Omnia. Alexander’s idea of a floor-to-ceiling fortified building wrapping around an open park and their secure doorway facility was slowly becoming a reality. It would take another couple of months, even with the accelerated timeline.

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  Meanwhile, the yacht remained anchored in the central valley’s lake. They’d repaint it eventually, modifying the features just enough that it wouldn’t be immediately recognizable. For now it served as an oversized decoration and learning prop.

  It turned out that Ryan and some of Sleipnir’s crew were training to captain and operate the vessel. Annie’s idea.

  The armored transports had finally been emptied this week. Billions in materials, carefully catalogued and stored in the expanded basement’s new vault. Talia took the time to inventory it, tallying the take from his heist to the third decimal for everyone curious.

  Six point six four billion. Which matched what the news reports claimed after they had time to run down the details.

  The Machine God and Grimnir had become international rock stars in the villain community. They’d also become internationally wanted supervillains, with their threat classification increased to S.

  Annie and Augustus had framed their guild’s wanted page. Hung it up in the living room with their original bounties.

  He passed the open security office on his right. Wrap-around tempered glass cut into the walls, overlooking both the tunnel in and what they were calling the ‘Gateway Sanctum’ beyond. Control panels lined one wall, monitoring everything from air quality to structural integrity. There were heat maps and seismic detections. Redundancies in triplicate were in place for all sensors, alarms, and automated protocols.

  Alexander set most of it up himself. Talia and Augustus added their unique combination of permanent enchantments to… well, everything. They installed separate generators to power the entire underground facility, also with redundant systems, and with so much power available, Alexander had insisted that they enchant even the tables, seats, and server paneling. Layers of obfuscation enchantments.

  Then Alexander and Augustus had set about ensuring the failsafe systems were perfect.

  If anything went wrong, if the sanctum were overrun and unrecoverable, either of them could trigger detonations through their individual superpowers and bury the entire underground facility, including the elevator shaft.

  That’s why the ride took almost two minutes.

  It still made him a little uncomfortable. All the design work, the physical labor, the millions spent, the plans for their future, and it was still ready to be destroyed at a moment’s notice.

  But that was the nature of dangerous secrets. Particularly those too secret to keep at a distance, while also too dangerous to keep close. Unfortunately, this specific secret was also too necessary to avoid the risk it presented.

  He reached the bulkhead at the tunnel’s end.

  The emergency sealing mechanism was built into the wall beside it, ready to drop tons of concrete and steel across the entrance. A second trigger was inside the security office. The third was automated. The fourth and fifth could only be set off by Alexander and Augustus.

  He was aware of the irony. The advanced automation, physical, digital, and even magical security systems, all reminiscent of the NYPMEX Vault. The only thing they lacked were the superpowered suppression fields.

  It both worried and amused him that he could easily bypass his own paranoid security efforts, but there was little he could do about it.

  The sanctum itself had been over-engineered to an almost absurd degree. The foundation of the mansion above had been reinforced three separate times during excavation. Load-bearing calculations reviewed by four different engineers.

  Alexander even made Talia review them to ensure nobody had dropped a decimal. They hadn’t.

  The collapse mechanism was designed to funnel everything downward into the mineshaft below rather than outward into surrounding rock. If they ever needed to use it, the mansion would remain standing while the facility beneath simply vanished beneath a mountain’s worth of rock.

  He stepped past the bulkhead and into the Gateway Sanctum proper.

  The circular room stretched out before him, easily a hundred feet across. The floor sloped gently upward from the center, creating a flat workspace in the middle and a raised platform around the outer edge. Alcoves were carved into the walls at regular intervals, each large enough to accommodate a gateway. Fifteen in total. Just in case. They didn’t know how many worlds there were, but there was always the possibility that the extra spaces would accommodate secondary gates or even other dangerous portals.

  Alexander walked the perimeter slowly. His footsteps echoed off the ceiling three stories overhead.

  This room would expand their capabilities. Give Grimnir access to places most others couldn’t reach. It would allow their members to challenge themselves. Put their lives on the line. Grow stronger. Gather resources and information.

  He stopped in front of the alcove directly opposite the entrance tunnel. The space was perfect. Large enough for the gateway with room to spare.

  This space would be for the Beastworld. A gateway that would give them access to an entire world.

  But first things first.

  Alexander pulled up his System interface with a thought. Intellectually, he remained aware of the intrusive and all encompassing nature of it, but the truth was that the System and its features were steadily becoming a normal part of life. It operated intuitively. Provided tools that made life easier. And that was before considering functionality that only it could offer.

  He navigated to the notification.

  —

  [GATEWAY CLAIMED]

  Congratulations, Alexander Rooke.

  You have successfully claimed a Gateway on behalf of Grimnir.

  Destination: Earth_124 (”Beastworld”)

  As a new claimant, you have access to the following one-time options:

  Relocation: This gateway may be moved to a new location once within 30 days of claiming. Time remaining: ~7 days.

  Sealing: This gateway has been sealed. Time remaining: ~7 days.

  Note: These options expire if not used within the specified timeframes.

  —

  Alexander tucked his hands in his pockets and took a few steps back. He focused his Will, firming his intentions into a coherent, definitive demand. Pushed his desire for the gateway to appear precisely where he imagined it out into the world and into the notice of relocation simultaneously.

  Reality popped. Then rippled outward so fast that if not for his own enhanced senses he would have thought it imagined.

  In front of him stood the gateway, towering over him. Colors blurred and blended at its edges, as if someone had brushed it into existence.

  Most importantly, though, was that the solid black, overlapping metal plates of the aperture remained in place.

  It was done.

  Grimnir now had its own gateway to another world. And in another week, when the aperture opened, they would go through and secure the other side.

  A call notification interrupted his musing. Turning from the gateway, Alexander headed back for the elevator and picked up the call.

  Annie’s excited yell echoed into his thoughts. “Alex! Are you done brooding over the gate?”

  “Yeah. It’s in place, still closed.”

  “Nice!” She paused. “Everyone is waiting for you to start the meeting. Talia has finished going over the intel the Queen provided.”

  “She’s got a location for the serum?”

  “Yep. And a list of candidates for our psychic.”

  Alexander stepped into the elevator and hit the button to go up. “Good. On my way up.”

  He cut the call as the elevator shuddered and began to rise.

  The next week was going to be hectic. Not that every day since returning to Earth hadn’t been full of one moment of chaos or another.

  First, they needed to secure a stock of serum. Even better would be if they could get the original recipe, but he doubted they’d be so lucky.

  Then he’d need to juggle everything else depending on priority.

  Recruiting someone, hopefully the right person the first time, to take the place of Grimnir’s Mimir. Awaken the crew. Clear out the other end of the Beastworld gate, followed by fortifying it. Hire mercenaries to protect it in the short-term. Maybe even long-term. Establish the beginnings of his automated mining and manufacturing operations.

  Bully Annie a bit more about still being unable to fly properly despite flapping her wings like a chicken.

  Design and build underwater drones and recharging bays to protect the waters around the island. Maybe even craft some powered equipment for Gilly, though that would depend on what powers the very excited alien awakened.

  Date night with Jules.

  Modify the high-performance racing hoverbikes for Talia and anyone else who might use them.

  Touch base with Frank and figure out what the hell the old fart was being so secretive about.

  Begin work to fortify Astra Omnia as part of their alliance agreement. Part of that included studying the shield emitters and setting up a production line.

  Kill Flashpoint.

  All in all, it was set to be a busy few months. He wondered if everyone else out there preparing for the end of the world had similarly full schedules.

  Alexander also wondered if their future Mimir already knew who they were. Knew Grimnir was coming for them. Eventually. Wondered if that was something they were excited about or dreading.

  Was it already set in the proverbial stone? Or blinking in and out of prophetic existence?

  Had it not even been decided yet, because he was still in an elevator and not actually reading the list Talia had prepared? Would Talia’s enchantments keep them from knowing even once the decision was made?

  He shook his head. Even the idea of retroactively changing futures was too much for him. He preferred straightforward problems. Like shield emitter miniaturization. Blowing up your home in an emergency to prevent multidimensional invasions because you decided to place a hole in reality beneath where you sleep. Homemade quantum supercomputer cooling systems. Racing bike modifications.

  The elevator continued upward. Within a week, the crew would be awakened. The gateway below would open. Then the real work would begin.

  For now, he had a meeting to attend.

  Grimnir’s first official leadership roundtable.

  Hopefully it was brief.

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