It was weird. Back then I didn’t see the juxtaposition of caring for Chelsea, and the rest of my life. I guess I should have, but it seemed to make sense at the time.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 153

Today Chelsea and I begin looking for the other power users. We don’t have any weapons, but we do have quite a few supplies. I have a thought.

With the information AI has on pharmaceuticals, I have her begin testing the various medicines for depression, and other negative emotions. Since I have so many people, finding subjects isn’t hard. I have AI do invasive testing on one out of a hundred people that go into the tests for medicine.

The Elixir doesn’t’ effect emotional well-being, only physical states are effected. I haven’t looked too deeply into medicines for that kind of thing, but it shouldn’t be too hard for AI to synthesize something usable.

Chelsea seems a little happier at least.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 154

A wild boar attacks us today. We don’t have any weapons with us, so it is tense to say the least. The boar comes from the edge of a wooded area. Chelsea notices it first. She pulls me down, trying to shield us from the boar’s view. The long grass should cover our bodies.

It doesn’t work. The boar charges us. We can’t stand up in time. We are going to die. I push Chelsea to the side.

The boar is heading right for us. When I push Chelsea the boar swerves slightly to that side. It misses Chelsea.

Chelsea gets up, she throws herself next to me.

“Caelus! Are you ok? You’re bleeding. Oh my god! Your arm!”

My arm was severed. The rushing boar took it with him. I am losing a lot of blood. Damnit! This was supposed to be a time I could save Chelsea!

The world fades to black. It is the end of that loop.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 162

“He’s waking up!”

I hear an unfamiliar voice. I look around. I’m not in the Abyss. I’m not at Chelsea’s house. Where am I?

AI answers me. She records everything that goes on around me through my eye and ear implants.

She shows me a vision of what happened while I was unconscious.

Chelsea is crying over my body. The boar is charging us again. I am limp in Chelsea’s arms. The boar falls over. A group of four people appear, as if from thin air. They pop up from the long grassy area. They wield crude weapons, bows and clubs. There is a single spear user among them.

They speak to Chelsea. Asking her who she is, where she came from. She is crying too hard to answer. One of the people steps forward. Chelsea tries to protect my body, the person somehow touches my body anyway.

My body spasms. The bleeding stops. The group knocks Chelsea out. They pick up both of us, and the boar, and bring us to their camp.

Chelsea comes to see me. We talk. She tells me about how they saved us. She seems happy to have friendly people around. I still don’t understand why she doesn’t want to live in the vault if she wants to be around friends.

She seems happy though. I agree that we can stay with these people for a while.

When she leaves I pull up the files on all of the subjects in this group. AI gives me the rundown on everything that has happened here so far. They saw the little boy, but they left him. He was running for his life, but they didn’t save him. They turned a blind eye to the tiger chasing him.

It turns out this group is pretty sexist. The men must all hunt for food, while the women are to do the housework. The entire group, aside from the leader, are monogamous. The leader has three wives.

They must have ulterior motives for bringing us here. I will make sure they don’t hurt Chelsea.

A few of the subjects for the medicine have tried to commit suicide multiple times. I have AI adjust the types of medicine she is using on them. I have AI use APG formula in a mixture for a few test subjects. They are all gruesomely killed by it. So I will not be using that on Chelsea.

On one of the experimental floors I am working on cloning. The clones are much better than the time I tired cloning LE. By cloning them in vats, from an embryotic state, they can grow up ‘normally’. It seems that growing fully functioning adults is a bit beyond me, but this is a step in the right direction.

AI has also been making various concoctions of both science and medicine, to try to speed up the growing process of the infants. It hasn’t shown any results yet, but we will see.

As an unrelated note, on the level with a colosseum I have the subjects battle at least three times a week. They seem to develop powers more quickly that way. Dozens have died, but I have plenty of subjects to spare. Especially if this cloning works out.

An entire two levels are being used for finding the genetics that can become Wormy3. One egg a month per woman, and countless sperm from men. That is what is collected for the experiments. AI knows what to look for, but nothing has come of it so far. Hopefully I will get good new in the future.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 172

Day ten of being with the group. They need to die. One of the men flirts with Chelsea today. Maybe he doesn’t know that I can control his entire life, but that doesn’t matter. He knew she was with me, and yet he tried seducing her. Chelsea laughs it off when I bring it up.

I am fairly proficient at the spear now. Seeing the only other spearman in action a few times is enough for me to understand the stances and rhythms. After only a night of fixing many of the mistakes I see him make, my technique is even better than his.

Two problems arise when we fight. One: his body is conditioned for this. He has at least two years of extra experience on me. Two: I am missing an arm. I can hold my own, but only because I can see his movements at a much faster rate than he can see mine.

I can’t actually beat him in a match though. At least I haven’t so far.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 174

One of the men touches Chelsea’s butt today. She slaps his hand away, and complains about it to me. When I get upset about, she tells me not to do anything. Although it does upset her, they saved our lives. Why is she so intent on letting these heathens live?

That night I sneak into the tent of the one that first flirted with Chelsea. I stab him through the throat with one of his own arrows. Afterwards I set fire to his tent. His gurgled moans make me smile.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 175

His body is found today. No one suspects me, at least not really. They first accuse Chelsea and me, but the leader puts that down pretty quickly.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 180

AI gives me some pretty disturbing news. The leader of this place seems to watch the girls bathe. Chelsea doesn’t seem to know it, but he can’t live after seeing her naked body.

This entire floor is full of hidden cameras, but they can only see so much. That is why I am just now finding out about it.

I give AI an order. I will just have to grit my teeth and bear it until tomorrow.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 181

The bots come at night. The silently abduct all of the men, besides me. Everyone is knocked out with an improved version of the knockout gas. AI is now capable of making a version that only makes one black out for about thirty minutes.

Thanks to one of the experimental floors for that. On that note, she has also showed me results in another field. Without the use of cybernetic implants, she is able to take away all sense of feeling from people.

She has created a unique drug that seems to eliminate the ability for the nerve endings to send chemical signals to the brain. A lot of pain and torture went into finding that one. It was worth it though. These people would just respawn in the next Loop anyway. Why waste good materials.

The girls of the group blame me for the disappearances of the males. They try to tie me up. Chelsea sides with them. She says I’ve acted ‘different’ since the bombs dropped.

They want to kill me. Chelsea convinces them to banish me. She looks like she hates me.

I call the bots back as I leave. The men are already in testing chambers. That night the bots collect the women too. Chelsea says I’m the one that is different. I think being with others changed her not me. I have a special cell constructed for her. She is transported to that one.

She is kept sleeping for the time being. The knockout gas can last from half an hour, to at least several weeks. AI says it can be a permanent sleep state, but she is only in the third week of testing. We will see if there are any adverse effects. Hopefully Chelsea doesn’t have anything bad happen to her while she is sleeping.

Her cell is going to be about the size of a college campus. There are enough bots there to cater to any desires she has. She is going to be asleep until it is done. About a week or so.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 190

It is a little past the week I thought it would take, but the cell for Chelsea is done. These bots really work quickly.

I also got news today that the rest of the vault dwellers, and the people that left the vault for level 8, have all developed powers. AI hypothesizes that the reason for the lack of power was Chelsea. At first I question it, but she makes several valid points:

No one has had this problem with me before. Pumping in the pure HRL from the portal should have instantly bolstered the rate of power gains. The people that had taken the Elixir were obviously effected by the HRL, since they have all stopped aging. Chelsea probably has a power to do with the progression of the power giving disease, since she cannot turn into a zombie.

Those facts are pretty indisputable when all put together. So it got me thinking. Chelsea might have a power to directly affect other powers. If she is a higher rank than everyone else, her power can probably effect everyone else’s.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 250

AI was right! I did a bit of testing on Chelsea’s blood. By injecting it into another power user, their power is temporarily reduced or completely stopped. It is today that I’ve decided to pump the HRL into her chamber.

She tries to escape her cell at least once a week, AI has to gas her for her own safety. I just want her to be happy. I’ve done everything she could want! Saving her family? Check. Letting them leave when they want? Check. Letting her leave? Check. Creating a safe room? Check.

I realize I might be thinking of this all wrong. Maybe I should not be so obsessed with her happiness. Maybe I just need to make sure she stays alive!

Loop 84 Year 7 Day 350

Chelsea is kept asleep most days. Whenever she is awake she tries to kill herself. She is strapped down to a table. It is so we can more easily take her blood to experiment with. I’m not experimenting on her so it should be fine. I am only using her blood to better understand powers.

AI shows me the results of several levels of testing today as well.

The final results of the medicine testing are in. AI can eliminate, or promote, any emotional reaction I wish. All it takes is a simple circuit installed in the brain of the victim. A small pulse will tell the body to make or stop making a certain type of chemical.

I’ll be installing this into Chelsea at the start of the next Loop.

The cloning facility is in full swing. AI can now take a sperm and egg, and have something the physical size of an adult in only a year. It requires too much though. The amount of various plants and chemicals needed wouldn’t be feasible pre-bombs.

They come out of the tank with the intellect of a newborn though. We are working on that. With the emotional controllers, we can at least keep their emotions from running wild. We are working on a way to implant information directly into their minds, even while they are still in the tanks.

I think it’d be fun to have an army of mind-bent super soldiers.

On that note, I have finally created a super soldier! Using the same emotional controllers, I can send signals to increase testosterone, or any other biological chemical. By numbing pain, and controlling emotions, I can have the people crave following my orders, and need to work out or train. With the cybernetic implants, they can see, hear, and react far faster than normal humans.

There are a few problems though. The material cost for one super soldier would have been about five billion dollars, pre-bombs. That should give you a good idea about how many resources they take up.

No doubt the emotional controllers came from another one of my past selves, but I will find that out eventually. The idea just came to me one day, as if in a dream.

Chelsea is a cat 10 at this point. Her blood can even stop other cat 10’s. I know this because I’ve created a few by genetically modifying the DNA in sperm and eggs, and fertilizing the eggs. Of course the entire process is done near the portal. I even have a place set up for the parents the closest they can get to the portal.

The child born is achieved cat 10 status at age four. The cat 10 power is only to manipulate light, but that can be used pretty powerfully. The child can make any illusion seem visually real. It can also create and shoot very powerful lasers.

The child is obviously mind-controlled by me.

Chelsea’s power invalidates the child’s. It’s a wonderful sight. I wonder if her power can stop mine? I’m going to have to test that out soon.

For now, I wait. In one week, LE comes back. I have some very … interesting plans for him.