Selvaria (POV)

[Resurrection Protocol is now complete!]

The familiar voice of the supreme AI that Selvaria created all those years ago. The nervous system within her body tingles until it is unbearable for her eyes and mouth to stay shut.

“Aaahh!”

Selvaria’s eyes snap open, and the upper half of her body lifts itself with the support of her arms. Her breathing was erratic while her eyes darted to every corner of the dark room she found herself within.

Suddenly her two Bunnies pop out from under the sofa she laid. They hopped onto her shoulders and began rubbing their furry bodies against her face. It helped to calm her down and slowly process what had happened.

“Where am I? How long was I out?”

[You have been dead for 5 hours, and you are currently inside the VIP lounge of the Dallas Football stadium]

"How much of my body is Cybernetic now?"

[85%]

Selvaria knew the Ressurection protocol took away her natural biological composition and replaced them with artificial stuff created by Nanites. It would not be long before her body would be completely cybernetic.

Nothing had visibly changed, but she could feel that she had lost a part of her.

“What about the rest of the animals? Did Mason bring them all here?”

[They are all safe and are being looked after by the survivors on the field]

Selvaria slowly got up from the sofa and walked over to the glass wall of the VIP lounge, which had a perfect view of the entire stadium. Thousands of people are in the stands, either resting, sleeping, chatting, or eating. The animals from Seaworld were playing inside several inflatable pools filled with water.

“Where is Mason?”

[I have taken the liberty to message him that you are awake. He should be here any second now]

The door to the VIP lounge slides open, and Mason rushes into the room. He froze when he saw Selvaria standing by the observation area.

Mason. “I am glad you are finally awake!”

Selvaria smiled at Mason’s concern and wanted to thank him, but other people entered the lounge and stood by Mason’s side. A young athletic Japanese woman and a frail-looking German man. These two strangers studied Selvaria from head to toe, searching for something wrong with her.

Selvaria. “Who are these two?”

Mason. “Ah! This is Rin Miyo and Albert Felwing.”

Selvaria had to listen to Mason as he narrated the events after her death. Once it was all done, her eyes drifted towards Rin and Albert with concern for them. Mason slowly realized what was bothering her and chuckled.

Mason. “They wish to serve under you after I told them our true identities.”

Selvaria. “Serve me? Why?”

Mason. “More like, join Vector and leave Earth behind. They both have good reasons to do so, and we owe them.”

Selvaria. “Loyalty is what I need on my ship. Are you two offering that to me?”

Rin and Albert were surprised by her reaction and question.

Albert. “I am willing to offer you anything to get a chance at becoming a Combat Mech pilot. If you are the true leader of Vector, then this might be my only chance of making my dream come true.”

Albert's fascination for Combat mechs appealed to Selvaria’s love for those machines. She didn’t sense any ill-intent in Albert’s eyes.

Rin. “One who sacrificed her life to protect her family and friends deserves my respect. One who came back from the dead deserves my attention. One who can take me back to Japan and help me get revenge on the ones who killed my parents deserves my Allegiance.”

Tears came out of Rin’s eyes when she mentioned the last bit. Selvaria looked at Mason for some clarification.

Mason. “Rin’s family was Japan’s top Yakuza clan before they were taken out by a rival clan.”

Selvaria was reminded of her struggle to avenge her parents during Vector’s initial years on the moon. So she could understand and trust that Rin’s desire was pure. But she wasn’t so sure about Albert. His interest in Mecha alone couldn’t be enough to ensure his loyalty.

Mason sensed Selvaria was having doubts about Albert and decided to share a few more details.

Mason. “The Monster App gave Albert an ability to revive the dead to do his bidding.”

Selvaria was surprised by Rin’s background, but Albert’s ability caught her interest. She had a hard time believing such skills existed. But if they were real, then she wanted him on her ship.

Selvaria. “Can you show it to me?”

Albert. “I need moonlight to power it up, so I can’t do it right now. But I can share my skill sheet with you.”

Albert ordered his butler to transfer the details to Selvaria’s Monster App.

[Tamer: Albert Felwing

Type: Mind, Moon, Intelligence, Insect, Poison

Mastery: Extra Skill Slot

Combat Style: Monster-User Fusion

Skills: Chandra's Wrath (Expert), Chandra's Aura (Expert), Chandra's Flaws (Expert), Chandra's Pure thoughts (Expert), Chandra's Blessed Followers (Beginner)

Skill Features:

Chandra's Wrath - The monster can shoot out beams of moonlight that will drain away mana from those who get hit by the beam. Skill does not need mana to activate.

Chandra's Aura - The monster can absorb the moon's light through its massive wings and convert it into mana. The intensity of the moonlight the wings emit will indicate the amount of mana inside them. The moon's phase plays a factor in the amount of Lunar energy that can be absorbed by the monster.

Chandra's Flaws - When this skill is activated, monsters' eyes will detect critical weak points of all who enter the line of sight. Mana is required to activate this skill.

Chandra's Pure Thoughts - The monster can generate waves of moonlight that can purify the minds of all those nearby suffering from mental afflictions. This skill requires mana to activate.

Chandra's Blessed Followers - The monster will tether mana strings into nearby skeletons, decaying corpses, or freshly killed monsters and humans to revive them into fanatical devotees as long as mana is supplied]

Selvaria could not believe that the Monster App had given this frail man the powers of a Necromancer.

Selvaria. “How many corpses can you control at once?”

Albert. “I didn’t have a reason to test the limits of my abilities since Bison protected me. But I did revive several Ice-Bug corpses.”

Selvaria. “Was it difficult to control them?”

Albert. “No, my Monster made them follow my instructions as long as I supplied Mana. Is there anything else you need to know?”

Selvaria. “I will need to see a live demo of it. Whenever the opportunity to do so presents itself.”

Selvaria then looked towards Rin, hoping to see her skill sheet as well but found a sad expression on her face.

Rin. “I haven’t fertilized my Monster egg yet. So it will take a while before I can share them with you.”

Mason. “Even without the Monster App, Rin has the necessary skills to be an Assassin.”

Rin had a shocked expression on her face. Albert treated it as a joke while Selvaria looked puzzled.

Mason. “When I was exploring the airport, Spike kept picking up something odd. Rin kept to the shadows and came close to me while I was eating a hotdog with a sharp piece of broken glass in her hand.”

Rin. “You knew I was there?”

Mason. “I learned to watch for Assassins when spying on Earth Governments for Vector.”

Rin. “Then why did you pretend to not notice me until I hid in the fountain?”

Mason. “Since you pulled back, I decided to play along. I have to say your acting skills need a bit more attention because you weren’t too surprised by all the animals in the food court.”

Selvaria. “I don’t trust Assassins.”

Rin. “No… I had a sensei… my grandfather. He trained me since I was young after my parents were assassinated. I learned it all purely for revenge, but I would never kill those who mean no harm.”

Selvaria felt a kindred spirit within Rin and smiled.

Selvaria. “Alright, from now on, the two of you work for me. Mason! I leave you in charge of Albert, and Rin will be my left hand from now on.”

Mason. “Huh? Did I get demoted?”

Selvaria. “Promotion. I want you to train his skills for combat.”

Mason. “There are a few Ice-Bug corpses near the entrance of the stadium. We could use them for practice tonight.”

Selvaria. “Go ahead. I will tour the stadium with Rin and check on all the animals.”

Two hours later, Selvaria returned to the VIP lunge with a disappointed look on her face. Rin followed behind her, carrying blueprints of the stadium and boxes of electronics found in the engineering room.

Rin dropped them all on the table and let out a sigh of relief.

Selvaria. “We can’t rely on thick walls to protect us from the Ice-Bugs. We need to upgrade it as soon as possible before they destroy everything outside.”

Rin. “When you say upgrade, what do you have in mind?”

Selvaria. “I want to install weapon systems that can pop out and attack all the Ice-Bugs.”

Rin. “What kind of weapons?”

Selvaria. “Automated turrets for starters.”

Rin. “I don’t think you can make them out of stuff lying around.”

Selvaria. “I can build anything as long as I have a large amount of metal, chemicals, and 3D printers.”

As Selvaria was speaking, the door to the lounge opened up. A twenty-two-year-old man of Norwegian and Hispanic descent walked in on clearly prosthetic legs. Selvaria had never seen him before, but Rin whispered a name.

Rin. “Bison?”

The man nodded with a smile.

Bison. “Thought it would be hard to recognize me. Guess the prosthetics gave it away.”

He then stared at Selvaria and let out a low whistle of surprise.

Bison. “I could have sworn that you were dead. Did you use some kind of skill from the Monster App?”

Selvaria didn’t want to share her unique condition with everyone. Only those loyal to her should be the only ones to know her true identity and abilities.

Selvaria. “You could say that… I heard you are the one who helped Mason bring us here.”

Bison. “Pure Texan blood in my veins. Oh, and you don’t need to thank me for anything. It’s my job to save lives.”

Selvaria. “Since you are a local. Do you know if there is any industrial 3D printer in the area?”

Bison. “I might, but why do you want to know?”

Selvaria. “Now that I am awake, I need to fortify this place to hold out against any threat. For that, I need resources and printers.”

Bison. “Were you some kind of engineer in the army?”

Selvaria did not answer that question and gave him an impatient look.

Bison. “Alright, if it will help to make this place safe for us all, I will see if I can find you one. However, I might need to round up Tamers who can help bring it back here. Those things are too big for me to carry around and fight.”

Selvaria. “I will come with you along with Mason and Albert.”

Bison. “Albert? He can’t fight without Moonlight.”

Selvaria. “That’s why we will wait for nightfall. For now, I need my AI to take over the internal systems of the building.”

[Accessing a local node… connection established… creating a clone…. Completed]

Selvaria. “Now run a complete system diagnostics and route all security camera feeds into my screen.”

Within minutes Selvaria could see every inch of the stadium on a Holo-Screen inside the VIP lounge. The number of people appeared on the top right corner of the screen. Male to female ratio, age groups, ethnicities, nationalities, and those who had monsters by their side.

[Total Survivors - 3768

Confirmed Tamers - 57

…]

These two stats caught Selvaria’s interest from what was being listed. 57 was a small number compared to the number of survivors, but it made sense as very few bothered to hatch their eggs before D-Day.

Bison and Rin were amazed by the level of detail displayed. The map of Dallas city appears with the industrial zones highlighted as areas of interest to check out.

Bison. “Butlers can do that?”

Selvaria. “Mine is special.”

Bison. “Don’t know if you planned it out already, but we don’t have enough fish here to feed all your animals.”

Selvaria. “That is a problem… What is your food situation?”

Bison. “This place was built to withstand a Nuclear attack, so there is a lot of preserved food. But they are all over 80 years old, we can’t rely on them for too long, or people might get sick. None of it is meant for Seals, Penguins, and Otters.”

Selvaria. “High Command, how many food printers are there?”

[One out-of-service food printer]

Selvaria. “How is that possible? Doesn’t this place have the capacity for a hundred thousand people?”

Bison. “Over the last two decades, there weren’t enough crowds to warrant more in-house food printers. Most of the time, people would eat outside or bring snacks with them.”

Selvaria. “Then we have no choice but to find food printers as well. How many Tamers do you have that are willing to join our expedition?”

Bison. “Around five are brave enough, though they are ex-cons or might still be. So they won’t be easy to work with.”

Selvaria. “If they cross with me, then they will die.”

Bison was surprised by Selvaria’s ruthless reply.

Bison. “Why do I get the feeling you are being serious?”

Selvaria did not change the serious look on her face. Bison decided it was not worth pushing it and shook his head.

Bison. “Will try to find a few more who want to help get more food printers. We will wait at the entrance by nightfall.”

5 hours later, the moon was out in the night sky over the stadium. One of the blast doors opened wide enough to let Bison charge through into the swarm outside. Over a dozen bugs were skewered by his long horns, and a dozen more to diamond spikes ejected from his back.

Above him flew a ghostly white Moth-Man who was Albert Felwing. He had fused with his monster partner to gather lunar light through his massive wings to power up his necromancy skills. The Ice-Bugs slaughtered by Bison slowly got back up zombies and assisted in the butchering of their former brethren.

Within several minutes the Zombie Ice-Bugs outnumbered the ones that were still alive. Selvaria, Mason, and ten other tamers chose this moment to enter the battle in their combat forms and take out the remnants of the enemy that refused to retreat.

The Ice-Bugs that fled would return with warrior-cast Ice-Bugs to deal with the Selvaria and the rest. But according to Bison, it would take them an hour to do so. Within that time, they had to search the city for functional printers or materials to build them.

Selvaria. “It’s time to split into two groups. One will search for the Industrial 3d printers and the other for the mass quantity food printers.

Everyone nodded their heads and parted ways. Each group possessed abilities one would find in a fantasy movie, game, or novel. There is always a tank, a damage dealer, a healer, a summoner, and a long-range projectile specialist. They covered each other’s weaknesses and amplified each other’s strengths.

Five were from an Ex-Con biker gang, and the other five were students from the same university in Dallas. Even though none of them had military training, they had survived up until now by working together.

The leaders of each group caught Selvaria’s interest as they seemed to have the qualities she looked for in her subordinates. She requested Bison to share what he knew about them before the expedition, and to her surprise, he had been good friends with the two since childhood.

The Ex-con gang is led by Tyson Taylor, an Australian man who is the personification of a Berserker. He is a thrill seeker who is a bit mentally unstable and afflicted with congenital insensitivity to pain.

Tyson is a Skill Transfer combat user whose monster Axolotl provides skills such as Neuronal Vampirism, Self Nerve Manipulation, Hyper regeneration, and high resistance to lightning, disease, and fire.

The University students are led by Miles Lightbringer. A young man who sees good in all and does good for everyone. Even though he seems depressed all the time, he maintains a cheerful attitude. However, his moral code makes him want to punish sinners and help those who wish to be redeemed from the bottom of their hearts.

Miles is an Equipment Transformation user whose monster Eagle allows him to perfectly read and manipulate the emotions of those around him. He can induce fear into his sinful enemies and bliss into his allies, who he considers virtuous.

Those who followed Tyson and Miles did not possess skills that could attract Selvaria’s attention. So she kept an eye on these two and made a mental note to try to recruit them into her service if they performed well.

Bison tagged along with the Biker Gang, and Mason joined the University students. Selvaria did not join either and went on her own. She had used up most of her Mana during the previous fight and didn’t have a way to refill it without a cold environment.

Selvaria planned to address this problem by finding a Cryo suit or the materials to build one. These suits were designed to freeze corpses so that they don’t decompose. But in her hands, it would allow her to charge up any time and anywhere. All it needed was liquid nitrogen and a few other chemicals.

High Command monitored the video messages sent through the Monster App and relayed them to Selvaria every three minutes. This way, she was aware of their status in completing their objectives and inspecting their loot.

Half an hour later, everyone returned to the stadium in vehicles carrying the printers and materials. They were lucky to find it all in time because the Ice-Bugs returned with a vengeance. But they couldn’t reach the stadium in time before the blast doors sealed up.

Bison. “Well, that went better than I expected.”

Selvaria. “You weren't sure if we would find anything?”

Bison. “I am just surprised that we didn’t lose anyone and got back quickly. In our previous scavenge and rescue attempts, we lost Tamers to poor planning and coordination. I am glad your AI Butler solved all that for us.”

Selvaria. “I aim to do more than increase your chances of survival. Until my Brother comes to pick me up, I will turn this stadium into a fortress.”