Chapter 137 - Scientific Purposes

Chapter 137: Chapter 137 - Scientific Purposes

Lucius opened Bob because planetary danger had recently become tiresome, and nothing restored perspective like reading a list of reasons he should not have to care.

The grimoire rested open across his thighs. Beyond the glass wall of the bedchamber, afternoon light moved over the water several hundred feet below the yacht. Tony had called hovering an unnecessary engineering complication. Lucius had called that jealousy, which had proved the stronger technical argument once the vessel arrived.

Bob’s pages turned beneath his hand.

Name: Lucius Noctis

Race: Eternal

Class: Wizard

Affinity: Alchemy, Rituals

Innate Skills:

-Rapid Healing -Mental Shields -Teleportation -Invisibility -Absorption

-Telekinesis -Telepathy -Flight -Force Field Generation

-Energy Blasts -Molecular Manipulation -Superhuman Speed -Accelerated Reflexes

-Electrokinesis -Electromagnetic Manipulation -Shapeshifting -Nullification Field

-Storm and Lightning Manipulation -Magnetic Manipulation -Retractable Claws and Fangs

-Cryokinesis -Optic Blasts -Biokinetic Healing -Phasing -Organic Steel Transformation

Racial Skills:

-Genius-Level Intellect -Master Scientist -Master Engineer -Master Combatant

-Multilingualist -Immortality -Superhuman Strength, Durability, Speed, Agility, Stamina and Reflexes

-Regenerative Healing Factor -Cosmic Energy Manipulation -Construct Creation

-Technopathy -Illusion -Decoy -Presence and Sound Manipulation -Matter Transmutation

Class Skills:

-Veil of Fate -Blessed Brewing -Sacrificial Array -Array of Convergence

The sheet had become less a status report and more an argument against physical effort. It also failed to include the bonded Reality Stone, the real Mind Stone in his Inventory, his Uru armour, Duskreaver, Dreadspire, the combat experience taken from Thena and Gilgamesh, or the hidden authority he retained over the work that had helped Tony’s homicidal metal child leave home.

An incomplete report, then. Lucius considered writing a complaint in the margin, but Bob had never displayed a complaints department, and the SMS deity would probably charge Souls to unlock one.

It had been a long time since he had inspected the cumulative result of being baslted out of a coffee shop in Paris and into this reality. If the whole thing was an acid trip, he had become increasingly willing to forgive the dosage.

The new yacht could hover, carried an indoor and an outdoor pool, and currently held around a hundred enhanced soldiers whose remaining psychological irregularities were mild enough to classify as personality. Three Dark Elf women served as his personal maids for scientific purposes, although the science frequently needed fresh sheets.

Lucius had abandoned the project of teaching his mixed-blood, synthetically enhanced soldiers to play fetch. Restoring enough intelligence for judgement had proved more useful than improving their relationship with rubber balls. Gary could now retrieve an object without receiving three separate commands, supervise a Nexus cycle, maintain a patrol and choose cover when someone fired at him. He had even learned that `attack me with everything` did not mean collecting rocket launchers unless Lucius added the words `destroy my property`.

The work was not perfect. Several soldiers had emerged from the latest conditioning pass with small quirks of attention and impulse that Lucius intended to correct later. They obeyed, fought intelligently and no longer required paperwork to retrieve a dropped object. Civilisation had accepted worse standards from elected officials.

Lucius patted his own shoulder in congratulations.

The petite Dark Elf astride him laughed.

She had altered herself into the shape of one of the Victoria’s Secret models walking across the wall screen, keeping her silver-white hair while borrowing the woman’s longer legs, narrow waist and moving hips. Slow music filled the bedchamber. Her imitation followed the model’s walk until Lucius caught her waist and reminded her that the bed offered a better runway.

Giving the feisty little minx Shapeshifting had been another excellent decision. Mutation grafting remained inelegant, but he had already solved every dangerous rejection before placing the copied structure inside her. When the other two discovered what she could do, their arguments had made the next decision for him. Lucius upgraded them as well in the interest of domestic peace, scientific comparison and breasts whose proportions could now be negotiated without surgery.

The model’s borrowed shape flowed back into light-purple skin, long pointed ears, and a five-foot-three frame without interrupting the movement of the body joined to his. Internal changes followed the outer transformation. Lucius groaned as new pressure closed around him and the little beast deliberately tightened again.

"Cheating," he told her.

Her smile showed teeth. "You gave it to me."

"I did not give you permission to use my research against me."

She rolled her hips and proved that technical ownership offered limited protection from field testing.

Lucius no longer knew how many times he had filled her and her sisters. When she finally slipped from his lap, her legs failed to support the first step. Telekinesis held her upright for one heartbeat and withdrew. Before she could complain, he planted his palm across her supple backside. The mark stood bright against purple skin.

She looked over one shoulder, offended for almost two seconds.

The Turkish bath adjoining the bedchamber already held the other two women. Steam moved around the thickest one’s silver-white hair while the third sat along the tiled edge with her feet in the water. Both looked at Lucius, then at their unsteady sister.

"He cheated," the petite one announced.

Lucius smirked and rose. "Slander from an employee."

"We are friends," the third corrected.

"Friends can be employees. It improves accountability."

The thickest woman drew him down into the heated water and began washing him with the concentration of someone planning to make the first bath irrelevant. Their petite sister joined them once her legs agreed to the journey. What followed required a second washing and confirmed that Shapeshifting had been worth every hour of biological work.

When Lucius finally left the bath, he fastened a black robe around his waist and crossed to the upper deck.

Benjamin Carter had arranged chilled fruit, sweet cocktails and towels beside three long chairs. Lucius continued to call him Sebastien.

The butler placed a peach within easy reach. "Your drink, Mr Noctis."

Lucius settled onto the centre chaise longue and lifted a slice of fruit with Telekinesis. "You are becoming competent, Sebastien."

"Benjamin, sir."

"Do not ruin the moment."

Two shadows crossed the deck before Benjamin could answer. Tony descended in his unnamed replacement armour, repulsors lowering him beside the forward pool. Thor landed harder near the rail with Mjolnir in one hand and enough force to make the deck compensate beneath his boots.

Tony’s helmet opened. Shadowed eyes moved from Lucius in his robe to the cocktail, the suspended peach and the ocean passing far below them. His mouth tightened when the yacht corrected Thor’s landing without spilling a drop. Lucius recognised the frustration left by the hunt for Ultron and the engineer’s envy at seeing every unreasonable demand working as designed. Thor rolled one shoulder and stared at the drinks like a man who had spent enough hours with computers and would now prefer to hit one.

"I see you like my yacht design."

Lucius ate the peach. "My yacht."

Thor had no interest in the ownership dispute. He threw himself onto the chaise longue to Lucius’s right and stretched his legs towards the pool.

"Sebastien," he roared. "Bring me what you brought my shield-brother."

Benjamin closed his eyes for a measured moment.

"At once, Your Highness."

Tony sat in the remaining chair, his armour complaining against the upholstery. Benjamin began preparing two more trays with the expression of a man reconsidering every professional choice that had led to serving fruit and alcohol aboard a flying yacht to Iron Man, Thor and a seven-foot-three sorcerer wearing nothing beneath his robe.

It was no longer even an unusual Tuesday.

"The design is acceptable," Lucius allowed. "Did you notice what I named my yacht?"

He placed particular weight on `my`.

Tony looked over the port side. The letters NOCTIS covered a generous portion of the hull in black metal edged with dark-gold light. They remained readable from miles away and glowed at night with the restraint of a corporate tower sign suffering divine inspiration.

"Hard to miss. The letters have their own weather system." Tony accepted his drink from Benjamin. "Still, Noctis isn’t the most creative name."

"I made small improvements as well, Playboy, and no, you may not inspect them."

The improvements slept beneath the deck and inside the hull. Retractable batteries covered the air and sea approaches. Point-defence systems watched for missiles; several weapon assemblies could make a battalion regret its travel plans, and the hundred armed soldiers linked through the Nexus supplied an answer to anyone who reached the interior.

Tony’s eyes narrowed as his armour finished a silent scan. Lucius smiled and let the yacht feed it several beautifully useless readings.

"Those are your soldiers?" Tony nodded towards the nearest security section.

Six men stood along the upper approaches in dark tactical gear shaped around frames a little over six and a half feet tall. Synthetic muscle and altered Aesir biology had made each of them broad enough to embarrass the Undertaker. Their armour carried no flag or unit insignia. Rifles rested across broad chests. None looked at Tony directly, but the squad had already adjusted its spacing to put overlapping fire across both visitors.

"Is this the whole collection?" Tony asked, "Or did you leave more of them under that mountain?"

"First, they are employees. Ask Gary if you doubt their satisfaction. Second, of course I have more. Third, they are smarter now. Fourth, never mind."

Lucius stopped before the improvements became a complete inventory.

Tony grinned into his glass. "Good save. I was two sentences away from the weapons brochure."

"You were nowhere near it."

"Sure. Tell you what, add my name next to yours, and I’ll build you another yacht."

The bastard knew exactly where to press. Stark Tower still wore Tony’s name across its face while Lucius owned nearly forty per cent of the company, had saved the majority shareholder repeatedly, and possessed superior shoulders. The injustice remained architectural.

Lucius rose so quickly that the floating peach struck the empty chair.

"In your dreams. This is the Noctis Superyacht." He considered the title and found it insufficient. "No. The Noctis Ultimate Yacht. I will deploy more soldiers before I let your ego vandalise it."

"My ego designed the hovering system."

"Your engineers designed it after my ego supplied the correct requirements."

Lucius sent a mental command below deck.

The three Dark Elf women entered together. Apparently they had decided that walking normally would waste the audience. Silver-white and dark hair moved around long ears as they crossed the deck with slow, deliberate hips. Skin ranged from light-purple to greyish beneath short black dresses, and black-violet wisps of Dark Energy gathered around them before fading into the sunlight.

The thickest reached Lucius first and wrapped both arms around him from behind, pressing herself along his back. The middle one linked her arm through his left and rested one hand against his chest. The petite one stepped in front of him, her head falling well below his chest even before she leaned against his body.

Lucius closed a hand around her silver-white hair and drew back just enough to lift her chin. His other hand slid between her thighs. She gave him a sharp smile as he lifted her from the deck and settled her against his front, her legs opening around his hips and her rounded backside pressed to his crotch.

"As you can see," Lucius told Tony, "my Ultimate Yacht is completed with perfection. I do not want another one, and you are not touching the letters."

Tony had stopped thinking about the letters. His gaze lingered before a visible effort returned it to Lucius’s face. Pepper would have awarded partial credit.

Thor was no better. His attention moved from their ears to the Dark Energy curling beneath the petite woman’s skin.

"Where did you find these Svartálfar, brother?" Thor asked.

Lucius smiled.

The answer was going to require a definition of `find` generous enough to survive Asgardian scrutiny.