Chapter 21

The Lord of Vermilion’s Test 4

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4 Days Later

Morning

Theo’s apartment

Ever since his makeshift reconnaissance of the FNN headquarters, Theo’s days were spent in a very procedural manner.

First: Wake up and eat

Second: Attend school and pretend to give a damn

Third: Go home and change clothes

Fourth: Head to the secret base and spend the rest of the night improving on whatever he could improve with his power armor, guns and anything else he could think off.

Fifth: Go home and faint before hitting the bed.

It was a vicious cycle but Theo had to keep going at it.

Why?

Out of fear mostly.

Seeing how Lord’s plan was literally a suicide run and given how there was a high chance of Superhero interference, Theo had every right to fear for his life.

Lord’s plan was to send at least 4 teams to assault the FNN headquarters with Theo and Diego attached to separate groups in order to ensure success.

Most of the 4 teams were highly skilled hired guns from the bowels of the Hell Hole District.

The only ones that weren’t hired guns were Theo, Diego and 2 of Lord’s men. Each of them were assigned to different groups.

Each team comprised of 10 people all armed with AK47s in order to throw of suspicion as to which group they belonged to.

Theo even had to give up his favorite Beretta 92 pistols for the infinitely more popular of Glock 17s.

The AK47 and the Glock 17 were among the top 10 most manufactured firearms of their category after all.

Since Theo had no choice about the armaments, he decided to make do with what he had choices in.

Namely his power armor.

Appearance-wise, it was still the Z49 Scout Armor he knew and loved.

Internally, it was more or less the same thing.

The problem with upgrading the Z49 was that any shift into a more combat heavy design such as added protection would result in an increase in weight, energy consumption and a decrease in speed.

As such, Theo abandoned tinkering with the internal abilities of his power armor.

The solution he went for were light weight add-ons.

The last 4 days were spent making 3 add-ons.

The first one was multiple small plastic sacks along his waistline.

He called this as ‘The Ankh’.

The Ankh was filled with a large amount of liquefied Omni Gel that will inject the stuff into him with but a mental command.

Since it was made from the same material as his power armor, it was tough as hell.

And since he wore this before putting on his power armor, it was in the safest place Theo could provide.

The next add-on was a multi directional high output flamethrower system he called the ‘Ring of Fire’

It used the same special mix Theo used on the Purgatory Missile he unleashed on the Dionaea building. As such, the flames it generated were both abundant, scary and very very hot!

The Ring of Fire was a plug in add-on to his power armor, so it was easy to install and remove.

Currently, the Ring of Fire was attached to the following areas:

The area near his mouth thus allowing him to actually breathe fire

Both his wrists similar to a web shooting superhero

At the base of his spine. Fire fart anyone?

He wanted to add more but that would impact his weight and balance too much.

The last add-on was probably his second most ground breaking work since his accidental discovery of the Omni Gel.

It was an arm mounted pistol called the ‘Gum Drone’

The underwhelming name aside, the Gum Drone was a phenomenal tool

It fired a pink chewing gum looking material.

Nothing amazing right?

Wrong!

That chewing gum thing was actually a sophisticated nanomachine based camera that allowed a complete view of its surroundings.

Who would even think of the possibility that a gum on the wall was actually a high-tech surveillance camera?

Sadly, it’s main drawback was its relatively short active time.

It lasted about 10 minutes before dissolving into water.

This was the main problem with all nanomachine based technology.

It simply didn’t have enough energy to remain active for long periods of time.

As far as Theo knew, no one in this world has successfully made a nanomachine that remained active for more than 20 minutes.

Quite a large chunk of his time yesterday was spent trying to extend the nanomachine’s operating time.

Naturally, he failed miserably

It was really hard to keep track of time when transmuting stuff because the process required using 100% of your brain.

Because of this, exhaustion often hit Theo like a runaway tank.

Theo lost consciousness before he hit the sheets.

It was the start of the weekend so Theo let himself go.

However, something weird happened…

“Darling, you have to wake up.” Said a sweet female voice.

“Just five more light years…” replied the half asleep Theo

“A light year is a unit for distance, not time.” Said the girl as she gentle shook Theo. “And beside, you have guests”

“Tell them to go away…”

“Haha. What am I going to do with you. For now just give me a morning kiss okay?”

The mystery girl gave Theo a gentle kiss in the lips before heading to the door.

Theo returned a half-hearted kiss just to get her to go away.

.

.

.

.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Theo jumped out of his bed and rushed towards the door.

There stood 3 people.

Outside the door were 2 people Theo hasn’t seen in a couple of years.

First one looked like an older Theo minus a fair bit of rugged masculinity, add a large chunk of feminine beauty and an overall sense of kindness.

This was Theo’s oldest 29 year old brother Bartholomew Lorne. Barth to those who knew him well

Beside him was a beautiful woman of the same age.

In direct contrast to Bartholomew, her solid abs, well defined muscles and wild red hair oozed with manliness.

Even Theo felt that he lost as a man to her.

This was Barth’s wife, Meredith Lorne. Her maiden name was Meredith Whalkin and was known as Mary to her friends and relatives.

Theo just called her Sis out of manly respect

The last one was the unwelcome intruder, Juno Saiga.

“Oh darling, I thought you were still asleep” said Juno with her signature smile plaster over her face

“Cut the darling crap! How did you even get into my room?” asked Theo

Juno pointed to Theo’s side.

There was a badly hacked hole in the wall that connected Theo’s room to the one beside it.

Since Theo’s room had nothing of value, he didn’t bother beefing up the security system outside of a spycam.

As such, the walls were as thin as ever. A fire axe could easily punch a hole through it.

“I was planning on moving to the room next door since the tenants moved out. So, yeah.” Said Juno

By ‘moved out’ she meant ‘shot to death’.

Theo couldn’t help but facepalm.

FYI: Thanks to the general corruptness and laziness of the lower level government officials, no one noticed that the landowner of Theo’s apartment has died. This was due to Theo paying for the building’s taxes and bills.

Since the money kept flowing in, they didn’t give a damn about anything else.

Viva La Laziness!

“H-hey bro? Who is this girl?” asked Barth who was still shocked.

Before Theo could speak, Juno cut him off.

“My name is Juno Saiga and I am currently seducing Theo. Nice to meet you my sibling-in-law”

As Barth and Mary’s jaw hit the floor, Theo could only sigh in frustration.

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