“Science Fair”
“The thing is, at the very heart of the matter, these people… they just want to show off.”
Power-Lord’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
Colonel Rage, for all intents and purposes, was the last person in the world to kid about anything. Power-lord knew this, but could not comprehend what it was he was seeing before him. And that might have had to do with the reality warping contraptions littering the convention center. Many of them surrounded by L.A.Z.E.R. provided theta-level force fields, tech even Power-Lord struggled piercing through — a fact in which he was so very glad the government of these humans sided with him— just so that the convention could actually function.
“But Colonel,” Power-Lord said, “These men — ”
“Now there are plenty of women mad scientists here, no need to be regressive.”
“Be that as it may, they’re all convicted criminals. Many of them are murderers.”
Colonel Rage sighed, the second emotion he was capable of. “Don’t you think we know that? Have some respect for human kind, would ya?”
“Right, I just — ”
“The experiments here, bottom placers alone — they each them all advance humankind centuries in their respective fields.” Colonel Rage turned towards Power-Lord, the signature scar across his face burning a faint red. “And with the Combine enroute to our solar system, we need every advantage we can take.”
“I have a measure of the Combine’s capabilities. Between your defensive-tech and the might of my allies in the Vanguard, a risk like this isn’t warranted.”
Colonel Rage hissed, the third emotion — today was an eventful day for the man, “We — mankind, doesn’t want to be in a position of depending on the goodwill of post-humans.”
The air pressure in the entire complex suddenly shifted, before returning to normal atmospheric levels within nanoseconds. Power-Lord braced by instinct. The Colonel wouldn’t have been able to detect it, but they both from the balcony overlooking the convention floor witnessed the many thousands of instrument panels light up like a night time firing range.
“That has to be Professor Death.” Colonel Rage said.
“By Gordax’s Mercy, he’s here?”
“At the end of the day they are just humans. And each team they’ve been assigned head of are filled with eager, adoring members of their field and moreover agents working on our behalf ensuring they aren’t conducting any experiments outside the scope of what we’ve allowed them.”
“So what’s Professor Death working on then? Zombies? Immortality?”
“He’s putting together an experiment on quantum tunneling.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“That genius of a man was a quantum physicist, first, and all the rest of those extracurricular PhD’s secondary. Former being too expensive to fund by grant organizations or himself no matter how many heists he put together.” Rage craned his neck, the barest hint of a smile on his face.
“I know, but faster than light travel?”
Rage shrugged. “He likely won’t succeed. He’s said as much. But we will learn all the more from the failures.”
“And Morbidimus?” Power-Lord said, pointing at the squat, dour creature of a man down by what looked like an assortment of Tesla towers and an apparatus of rotating concentric rings.
“Lionel also wants to take a crack at FTL, but instead using means of cross dimensionality or something rather. There’s quite a lot of FTL guys down there, actually. Working models, proofing concepts — or at least trying to. It’s not all prac-app, hell, the theory category is even more spectacular, but that shit is so far beyond me I don’t really care to even bother trying to understand it.”
Power-Lord had heard enough. “Neither will I.”
The scar on Rage’s face went bright. “What?”
“No. We’re done here. You’re done here.” Power-Lord activated the psycho-alarm, alerting the rest of the Vanguard to his position. High lethality.
“Get back on the floor!” Rage roared, his scar a flare.
“No. The theta shields should have been the first and only strike,” Power-Lord said, “but now you’ve gone too far.”
“You’re betraying humanity? After all this time?”
“No,” the demi-god said. “I’m only bringing you all back in line.”
Power-lord himself began to glow white bright, but unlike Colonel Rage, whose deformity was only ever cosmetic — intimidating though it was — Power-Lord’s light was, in fact, very hot.
