Chapter 146: A failed idea. The Electric Grid. The Price.

Rika's voice cuts through. "You enchanted critical infrastructure without informing command? Brad, that's-"

"Strategically reckless," C.C. finishes, stepping through the portal first. Her green hair catches security lighting as she surveys the control room displays. "Hoover Dam generates power for three states. You've fundamentally altered regional energy distribution without coordination."

"I may have gotten distracted," you admit.

Maria appears beside C.C., violet eyes narrowing. "Master, we specifically discussed resurrection and mind control protocols less than two hours ago. This qualifies as exactly the kind of unilateral decision-making we're trying to avoid."

You absorb the criticism without deflecting. "You're right. I should have coordinated first."

Albedo emerges last, carrying a tablet displaying personnel files. "Twelve electrical engineers, eight grid operations specialists, four transmission systems experts. Cross-referencing against Hinata's identification now."

The process takes eight minutes. Hinata guides you through administrative corridors, Byakugan active, pointing at specific corpses. "That one - David Chao, operations supervisor. There - Patricia Oakes, senior transmission engineer." Robin photographs each face, comparing against Albedo's tablet.

You settle on nineteen bodies total - everyone Albedo flagged as critical personnel for grid restoration.

Teleportation requires caution. You visualize the management room's cleared corner, then move each corpse through space individually rather than risking mass transport errors. Seventeen appear correctly. One materializes embedded halfway through a filing cabinet - you curse, repeating the spell to reposition.

You pull rings from your inventory and make them into Anchoring Bands, using telekinesis to put them on nineteen fingers in rapid succession - silver metal catching fluorescent light.

"Everyone clear the impact zone," you announce aloud and through the web simultaneously.

"They're not going to be happy," you warn. "Resurrection risk, plus waking surrounded by strangers in their own workplace."

Hinata positions herself near the door. Bulma steps back against the wall. Kurumi's heterochromatic eyes track each body.

You don't pause between castings. Spectral Hand extends your reach, golden light coalescing around the first corpse's chest. "Resurrection." The man's chest heaves violently as breath returns. You're already moving to the next. "Resurrection." A woman gasps, eyes flying open. Third body. "Resurrection." Fourth. Fifth. You maintain steady rhythm, not allowing yourself to stop and process individual reactions.

By the eighth resurrection, the room fills with confused shouting. By the twelfth, someone's screaming. You continue through all nineteen without breaking pace.

The management room erupts into chaos.

You don't hesitate. Three people are actively screaming, two more backing toward exits with hands raised defensively. You target the loudest first - a middle-aged man in coveralls hyperventilating against the far wall.

"Dominate Person."

The golden shimmer washes over him. His screaming cuts off mid-breath. Posture relaxes. Eyes glaze slightly.

"Stand still and breathe slowly," you command.

He complies immediately, chest rising and falling in measured rhythm.

Second target - a woman in her thirties clutching a broken chair leg like a weapon. "Dominate Person." She freezes mid-swing.

"Drop the chair leg. Sit down on the floor."

The wooden leg clatters to the floor, She sits, crossing her legs mechanically.

Third - younger man, maybe twenty-five, trying to shoulder through the door Hinata's blocking. "Dominate Person." You catch him just as his panic peaks.

"Stop moving. Turn around and face me."

He rotates like a puppet, fear still visible in his eyes but body completely still.

The room's noise level drops dramatically. Remaining personnel - sixteen still conscious and undominated - stop their panicked movements, processing what just happened. Several recognize magic when they see it.

You step forward, keeping your voice level and clear. "My name is Brad. You died during the zombie outbreak. I just resurrected you because we need your expertise to restore the western power grid."

A woman with short gray hair - Patricia Oakes according to Albedo's tablet - speaks first. "The dam... we're still at the dam?"

"Yes. Hoover Dam primary facility. You've been dead roughly a week, that was when the power went out anyways. The world has changed significantly."

David Chao pushes himself upright from where he'd collapsed against a desk. "Zombies. You said zombies."

"Magical zombie apocalypse," you confirm. "Technically started six months ago, publicly started three weeks ago. Population reduced by roughly forty percent, we think. Infrastructure collapsed. I've been building magical supply networks and just enchanted this dam to generate mana continuously. That's why you're here - we need electrical engineers who understand the western grid topology."

"Mana." Patricia's voice carries professional skepticism overlaying shock. "You're talking about magic."

"Yes." You gesture toward the three dominated personnel standing motionless. "Demonstrably real magic. The bands on your fingers provide basic life support and a few other things I'll get to. The dam is currently generating one hundred forty-two thousand Kilowatts per hour, which now converts Kilowatts to Mana equally. I need your help identifying which regional grids to reconnect first and which other hydroelectric facilities should be prioritized for similar enchantment."

A younger engineer - maybe thirty, Hispanic features, name tag reading 'Rodriguez' - steadies himself against the wall. "You're serious. This is actually happening."

"Completely serious," you reply. "And while I'm sorry about the info-dump, I need you functional quickly. The longer we delay grid restoration, the more survivors die from preventable causes."

You keep your voice steady, addressing the sixteen undominated personnel first. "The dam is automatically starting up and feeding power into the new magic-grid, but we don't know how to activate its connection to the original electrical grid or how to track down issues."

Patricia Oakes straightens, professional instinct overriding shock. "You enchanted the dam but didn't interface with the control systems?"

"The dam itself is interfaced and gives connection to the old grid, but the old grid is different. That's your expertise, not mine." You gesture toward the three dominated individuals standing motionless. "Those three can stay controlled for a bit. Different deaths cause different traumas, and being controlled is a simple-effective way of giving them time to get over it. They'll be obedient until the spell is removed, then we can talk about your options."

David Chao studies the dominated trio with visible discomfort. "That's... clinical."

"It's practical, especially for their own sake." you reply. "I'll leave your coordination to Albedo, C.C., and Dr. Tights." You nod toward Bulma.

Bulma's eyes narrow briefly before recognition hits. Her sister Tights. She doesn't correct the reference, instead stepping forward to address the engineers directly. "We need grid restoration protocols prioritized by impact. Where do we start?"

Rodriguez speaks up before Patricia can. "You said we've been dead a week?"

"Roughly. Thats when the power went out."

"Seven days ago," Patricia repeats. "We knew about the zombies. Hoover Dam was too important to abandon, so we stayed and locked ourselves in."

Your chest tightens slightly. "The doors were open when we got here."

David's face goes pale. "We... someone must have opened them. Checking on infected staff, maybe. Or panic."

A younger woman - name tag reading 'Chen' - wraps her arms around herself. "James went topside to check the radio. He never came back."

You don't push further. "Focus on what you can control now. How do we bring the grid back online?"

Patricia takes a breath, visibly compartmentalizing. "Restarting the grid wasn't as simple as flipping one switch at Hoover. The dam could make power on its own, but every substation between it and the cities had to wake up in sequence. Most of them would do their jobs automatically once they had electricity again. Some needed someone on-site to reset breakers or clear faults."

Rodriguez adds, "Every broken transmission line became a dead end until a repair crew fixed it or found another route. Restoring civilization wasn't about making electricity - it was about convincing the grid, piece by piece, that it was safe to live again."

David nods slowly. "People think we make electricity. That's the easy part. Hoover's been ready to make power since the lights went out. What we're rebuilding is trust. Every breaker, every substation, every transmission line has to prove it's healthy before we let the next piece join the grid. One bad line can knock the whole thing dark again."

Bulma pulls out her tablet. "Show me the topology maps."

You exhale slowly, processing the engineers' explanation. "I was worried about that kind of answer. This effectively means we need either a massive team coordinating as they expand across the currently crime-covered country, or different combinations of magic we haven't tested yet."

Patricia Oakes nods from where she's leaning against a desk. "Sequential verification isn't optional. One fault cascade could knock out everything we've rebuilt."

"That's the problem." David Chao rubs his temples. "Even with crews at every major substation, you're talking weeks to verify transmission integrity across three states. Longer if lines are damaged."

Rodriguez adds, "And we can't just brute-force power through broken lines. The grid's designed to isolate faults automatically. It'll shut itself down to prevent worse damage."

You turn toward Bulma, who's already scrolling through SCADA topology maps on her tablet. "Dr. Tights, remember to mark locations of other large-scale hydroelectric dams for us to visit. Even if we can't utilize the old grid, connecting them to the new one temporarily will be worth the effort."

Bulma's eyes narrow briefly at the nickname before she responds. "Already compiling the list. Glen Canyon Dam's about two hundred fifty miles east - one thousand three hundred twenty megawatts. Grand Coulee's in Washington State, much farther but substantially larger output."

"How much larger?" you ask.

"Six thousand eight hundred nine megawatts nameplate capacity." Bulma doesn't look up from her tablet. "Roughly three times Hoover's output."

Patricia straightens. "You're planning to, magic other dams the same way?"

"If the power scales consistently, yes." You gesture toward the control room displays visible through the doorway. "Hoover's generating one hundred forty-six thousand mana per hour right now, up from eighty-seven thousand. If Grand Coulee produces proportionally..."

"Half a million mana per hour," Bulma finishes. "Possibly more depending on turbine activation rates."

David exchanges glances with Rodriguez. "That's... that changes the entire conversation about grid restoration. If you can generate that much power independently-"

"We bypass the sequential verification problem," Rodriguez interrupts. "You're not restoring the old grid. You're building a new one that doesn't care about fault isolation."

"Nope that won't work. The magical connection only applies to the new mana network from dam to dam essentially tethering the sources, until the electricity spreads through the old grid pulling the enchantments with, the enchantments will remain locked to the dams and their nearest shut-off substation. Meaning that giving electricity to civilians still needs those substations and breakers one at a time." You cross your arms. "The dams can function at full generation for mana and we can simply use the excess in one of countless wasteful ways, question becomes whether we can start spreading power to places that will protect and assist you, or if we need another approach entirely."

C.C.'s voice carries through the room. "That scale of infrastructure construction and repair usually requires pre-existing support and control over the region."

"Which is what makes the project such a headache, maybe impossible for us." you confirm.

Bulma's fingers dance across her tablet, swiping through layer after layer of grid topology maps while the engineers cluster around her. Patricia Oakes points to specific junction nodes, explaining load distribution patterns. David Chao traces transmission paths with one finger, muttering about fault isolation protocols.

You lean against the wall, arms crossed, watching the technical discussion unfold. Rodriguez joins Bulma's left side, highlighting substations that historically experienced the highest failure rates. "Those three nodes handle sixty percent of Las Vegas's incoming power. If any one trips, the whole city goes dark."

"Then we need manual reset capability at each location," Bulma replies without looking up. "Distance from here?"

"Thirty miles, forty-two miles, fifty-eight miles." Rodriguez scrolls through his mental database. "All highway accessible, but you're talking about sending teams into potentially hostile territory."

Patricia straightens. "Even if we could verify every substation between here and Los Angeles, we'd still need crews at each broken transmission line. That's hundreds of potential failure points across three states."

Bulma zooms out, studying the continental grid overlay. Her blue ponytail shifts as she tilts her head. "The magical network doesn't care about sequential verification. It operates as parallel infrastructure. But civilians can't access magical power without the old grid carrying it to them."

"Correct." Patricia crosses her arms. "Your dam generates plenty of power, but it stays locked at source until electricity physically reaches each neighborhood transformer."

You open the telepathy web to Albedo privately. *"Getting the picture? Grid restoration requires either massive coordinated teams across hostile territory, or we accept the dams stay isolated power sources until local survivors reconnect their own regional grids."

"Understood," Albedo responds. *"The engineers' expertise identifies what needs repair, but implementation requires security infrastructure we don't currently possess. I'm reviewing personnel files for specialists who understand other dam facilities. We can enchant additional sources and leave connection logistics to regional survivor groups."

Bulma finally looks up from her tablet. "Brad. Continental grid restoration isn't viable without controlling the territory. We can enchant every major power supply on the planet, but civilians won't see power until someone physically reconnects the substations between here and their neighborhoods."

David nods slowly. "She's right. The grid's designed to protect itself by isolating faults. Every automatic breaker doing its job is actually preventing restoration."

"So what's the realistic timeline?" you ask.

Patricia exchanges glances with Rodriguez and David. "Months. Maybe years. Depends entirely on how quickly survivor communities organize repair crews and reclaim territory between major nodes."

You take a moment before raising your voice slightly to cut through the lingering technical discussion. "Alright. With reconnecting the civilian power grid determined as impossible for immediate progress, the next thing that needs addressed is the nineteen of you."

Patricia Oakes turns from Bulma's tablet, professional attention shifting to you.

"I need to inform you about the other benefits of the rings you're currently wearing." You gesture toward the silver bands on their fingers. "Primarily Sustenance, healing, and Age Reduction at a one-to-one ratio. Meaning that as long as you're wearing those rings, you don't need to eat or drink, and you'll remain healthy at your current age. Forever."

Rodriguez's hand moves unconsciously to the band. "Forever?"

"Biologically locked," you confirm. "The enchantments maintain your body exactly as it is right now."

David Chao exhales slowly. A younger woman - Chen according to her name tag - touches the ring with visible wonder. Several engineers exchange glances. One man in his fifties sits down heavily against the wall.

You give them forty seconds before continuing. "Now for the problems. Resurrection is not free, and we have the option of increasing that Age Reduction ratio higher - meaning we can make people younger. Our current terms of payment is time spent as a slave."

Multiple people tense immediately. Patricia's expression hardens.

"Take a moment before you start complaining about the word 'slave,'" you interrupt before anyone speaks, "and realize that the age reduction, healing and sustenance means anyone can accept this payment for any amount of time and come out the same as they entered. Cost for your own resurrection is one-tenth your currently expected remaining lifespan. Human average lifespan of eighty, minus your current age, divided by two, in years of slavery where you don't need to eat, drink, or feel discomfort."

Patricia's voice cuts sharp. "You're saying we owe you servitude because you resurrected us without asking?"

"No. You didn't agree to be resurrected, so you also have the option of refusing. We can put you back where we found you."

The room goes silent.

Rodriguez speaks carefully. "Put us back. You mean kill us again."

"I mean exactly what I said." You meet his eyes directly. "You were dead. We brought you back for strategic purposes - grid restoration expertise. If you don't want to participate under the terms offered, we reverse the resurrection and you return to the state you were in thirty minutes ago."

David's jaw tightens. "That's not a real choice."

"It's the only choice resurrection creates," you reply flatly. "Existence or non-existence. Everything else is negotiation."