Chapter 9: Finals

Frig tapped on his holographic panel, glancing over at Dea from time to time as she messed with the nonoperational machine that was extracted from Catherine’s cell. Catherine herself had taken to sitting up against the walls as time passed without them addressing her, too busy taking notes and going over what happened previously.

Dea kicked the machine in frustration “Internal damage from the pressure, circuit board got fried, aaaaand control chip is busted” Dea huffed, looking up from her work towards Catherine “twenty to thirty my ass, how much more do you have in there?”

Catherine shrugged “Was getting close to getting empty.” She said then tapped the wall behind her with her knuckles “this glass is pretty tough.”

Frig perked up from his notes. “Ok, finished. As much as we’d love to test the limits of that storage capacity I feel that would be a waste of time considering what all was already emptied from it.” He nodded to himself “Just going to make sure, you don’t have your core stuffed in there, do you?” Frig asked.

Catherine stood up and stretched, then looked frig directly in the eye “I have not had a core since the day I was born” She said. Frig met her gaze for a few seconds then gave up, slouching in his chair. “While it isn’t unheard of, we knew if you at least had one it would be in here.” He spoke.

Catherine raised an eyebrow “What do you mean?” She asked.

Dea flew up to the chamber “That cell you in cuts off all psychic energy, or any way for you to remotely control or communicate with anything outside of it.” She said then giggled “That’s how we know we got your main body and not some off shoot, we even shoved any missing pieces we found in there.” She then flew back to the machine before scoffing “If we threw a hive minded individual in there it would be enough to drive them insane, cut off like that.”

“But then how did you control the machine from the outside?” Catherine asked. “Or that I am immune to this effect?”

“Specialty made to enter that room, oh and…” Dea flew over to frig and messed with the panel. Faster then Catherine could react a glass panel closed off the top half from the bottom half. Catherine grimaced before her entire top half lost its form, turning into a white puddle while her bottom half remained in its form. “Wait, what? What the hell decides where your main body is.” Dea asked, confused why the part where the head wasn’t considered the main body.

The pair of legs and butt jiggled, then expanded in size and formed a full-sized Catherine laying down on the floor. She shrugged “You know how many people aim for the head?” She smirked, but then frowned. She hated to admit it but the white liquid above her could not be controlled at all, even though it was a part of her body.

Dea clicked her tongue “fair” she then hit the panel and the chamber was no longer split, the liquid falling and absorbed by Catherine.

Frig yawned “Final few tests.” He said messing with his panel before continuing “But first, are you willing to co-operate with us? Just with these few tests alone your value and potential for growth is well worth it for our organization to accept you.”

Catherine thought for a moment, but before she spoke Frig continued “Of course, it won’t be free. You will be rewarded for successful assignments that will make it worth your while. At first you will be restricted for obvious reasons, but you may earn more freedom.” He said then casually waved his hand dismissively “I doubt you have much in terms of common sense when it comes to salary so that will be worked out later, but for now know that death row prisoners with good skills are one of your rewards.”

She glared, she was still a bit thrown off at using lives at fodder but why should she really care? If anything, she only found it strange how easy they offered her up bodies. She then glanced down towards the floor, realizing she didn’t have much of a choice right now. She clicked her tongue “Fine” She choked out.

Dea smirked “What was that?” She asked, flying up the to chamber and cupping her hand around her ear “We need a clear answer on this~” She teased.

She groaned “I said fine, ill join your stupid organization.”

Frig smiled, raising one of his hands towards the ceiling as it opened and dropped a golf ball sized metal object into his open palm “Good, now given your nature and species we will have you take this object inside your body.” He said then threw it at Catherine.

Half expecting it to bounce off the glass she did not move to catch it, much to her surprise it passed effortlessly threw the glass and landed just above her chest, were she allowed it to sink half inside her body.

“Good, make sure to keep it visible and don’t remove it unless permission is granted.” Frig said.

Catherine tapped the metal ball on her chest, probing it a bit. It didn’t obviously hinder her in anyway, and could move it to any part of her body she wished, even completely submerged it but one limitation she found out immediately was that she could not take the ball into her storage. “What the hell even is this thing?” She questioned.

Dea circled the chamber “Think of it like an anchor or a leash we have on you now, should stop you from acting up and we can track your movements.” She said then gave a satisfied huff, putting her hands on her hips “It is just one of the limitations we talked about earlier, oh and we can even use it to communicate.” She said happily.

Just then the door to the room opened, and in walked a woman with solid blue eyes, and what looked like to be water for hair. ‘And this is another one.” Frig said, motioning to the women wearing a wet suit. “One of our local water spirits who will be your warden and caretaker. Catherine meet Lucy.”

Lucy simply raised her hand with a smile, giving a slight wave. “Pleasure to meet you, Catherine. I do hope we will have a nice relationship from here out. “

Catherine chuckled a bit. “So, a warden huh?” She looked at Lucy, her newly required danger sense not giving her any warnings about the chick. “How is she going to keep-“ Catherine froze, finding herself unable to move or speak. As she was wondering what was going on Lucy entered her vision.

“As a water spirit, any liquids are completely at her mercy. “ Frig laughed “Though, to be honest I was worried your chemical make up would not be effected by her influence, It seemed to be fine.”

‘ah…’ Catherine thought ‘that’s why the fucking skill didn’t work’ Catherine was furthered convinced the threat skill was unreliable. ‘She can’t kill me like this but she can sure as hell hold me back.’ Still unable to move the glass chamber slowly raised into the ceiling, now nothing separating her and the others.

“Ok Lucy, go ahead and ease the control on her.” Dea said. Lucy nodded and a second later Catherine was freed from her control, glancing over her body briefly “Not as bad as being frozen.” She mumbled.

“We can arrange for people with strong ice magic to be your wardens instead? If that’s what you would like?” Frig asked.

Catherine waved him off in a slight panic “no, no I am good with the water bitch.” She said then sank to floor, her entire body squished.

“Language please.” Lucy softly, walking over to the flattened Catherine “Do keep that mouth in check around me, as you are under my care now.” She smiled then freed Catherine from her control.

Catherine quickly reformed herself, thinking about testing just how fast this bitch’s reaction times were. She instead decided that risking it in this room was not a good idea and looked towards Frig “The final tests?”

Frig gave her a blank stare before perking up “Oh right!” He said, apparently forgetting about them “This is just something the higher ups want to confirm. During the battle on the ship the clean up crew noticed the rifles had all their mana batteries stolen, we didn’t see any during your inventory dump so what happened to them?”

Catherine held up her hand, and drained batteries appeared on her open palm “Guess we didn’t get to that part in the storage.” She chuckled, throwing it at him.

While it was in route Dea flew over, catching it before it got to Frig and stared at it. “This… this is empty?! Completely empty!” She yelled.

Frig stood up “What?!” He yelled, leaving his chair and running over to Dea, jumping up and snatching the battery from her. He stared at it for a moment “Nothing left over…” He snapped towards Catherine “Did you drain it?!” He asked in desperation. Seeing Catherine give him a confused nod Frig quickly brought up the panel and hit multiple buttons in quick succession, he then snapped to Dea “Go get one of the guard’s spare battery from them!” He commanded.

Dea nodded, flying out of the room. “Oh my…” Lucy said, placing her hand on her face.

“I don’t get what the big deal is?” Catherine asked and after getting no answer from frig who was working franticly Lucy answered “When we use mana in batteries it leaves behind a highly toxic residue, the disposal of which is very taxing and can be explosive, or so I’m told.”

“And to combat that the rifle usually leaves some mana in the tank to stabilize the residue, highly concentrated mana is used in those batteries, and you ate all of it, residue and all.” Frig said “Your value just jumped immensely and if they don’t just toss you in a waste dump I will be surprised”

Dea came flying into the room, dragging a mana battery that was about the same size as her “Here! You have permission to eat this!” Dea said, hovering close to Catherine.

Catherine shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was she took the battery and shoved it inside her, a few seconds later she spat out the drained battery. “Holy shit… “ Dea said, ignoring the angry glance of Lucy she continued “That was… only in seconds…” She then looked at Catherine, circling her in the air “And are you alright? No negative side effects?”

“If anything, I get a power boost from it.” Catherine said, causing Frig to start laughing. “And we had considered throwing you into the particle shredder!” He laughed “The boost is concerning but I doubt that will stop them from throwing you in a dump.”

Catherine was a bit unamused, while she did not like the sounds of it she did like that there was a potential shit ton of power just laying around for her to take. Hell it sounded like they were just going to give it to her to if she continued to play nice. “So, that’s it?”

Frig calmed down “There was a few others but nothing more important than that, and with what we have gathered I don’t think we need to confirm anything else in Rose’s report.” He said, nodding to himself.

Dea landed on Catherine’s head, sensing her irritation at this she chose to remain despite the potential and obvious danger “And with that, we welcome you aboard as the newest member.”