Kaleb ignored the weight on his shoulder as he typed. They were back at the hangar and immediately the others bolted for the magical college. Roy, Terrance, Marie, and the rest of their guild took off in a veritable fleet of cars. Along with some of the command center staff, as well. Apparently, according to Vivienne, the handing out of animals was only a sometime thing. Something which she and Jar-lock claimed was also explained to them at some point. Kaleb didn't recall that.

But with the workshop cleared out, Kaleb enjoyed some quiet time as he worked. The hum of the electronics and the crackle of the forge were his only companions. Well, he also had a Familiar and pet snapping at each other constantly.

"Move over, you fluffy water balloon." Daivor complained as they shared Kaleb's shoulder… barely.

Milly's response was to chitter angrily at the gnome as she dug her claws into Kaleb's robotic shoulder. Kaleb sighed and tried to ignore them as he continued to write out the basic formulas of what he discovered. The two of them had been arguing since Kaleb introduced Milly to Daivor. The blue marmot took one sniff of the gnome and immediately scurried up Kaleb's arm. Planting herself on his shoulder and making a triumphant noise. Daivor apparently took that as a challenge as the Builder Gnome began a one-sided argument with the critter about how that shoulder was his spot. Which Kaleb initially thought was pointless, but led to an interesting discovery.

"No! I don't care if you've made it your home! It was mine to begin with! You can't just squat your furry blue butt on it and claim it as yours!"

Milly gave several short whistle-like barks in response and then sunk down into Kaleb's arm again. Daivor growled in exasperation before pounding a fist on Kaleb's shoulder.

"Hey! Just because you say 'yes, I can' and run away doesn't mean this conversation is over, Milly! Get out here and show me some respect!"

Kaleb flicked a finger at the gnome's forehead as he looked down at the chemical symbols for Troll tusk shavings. He was trying to find something chemically similar, but the internet and Jar-lock's book collection were failing him.

"Daivor, leave her alone. She literally lives there now."

"No, she doesn't. Vivienne and the others were talking about building a sanctuary for all the pets next to the hangar. She can come out and get used to sleeping outside. The damn hussy."

"Dude, seriously, leave it. Even if they do create some kind of farm, it's going to take a while. Besides, Fulgravits are more comfortable in lab settings. At least, that's what Copernicus said. They like the technology and the hum of the workshop."

"At least we can agree on that." Daivor harrumphed before jumping down to the worktable and looking at Kaleb's scribblings.

He had spent the past hour writing out the different reactants of the formula. Which, after getting the pieces from the alien animal research lab, was beginning to come together. The base of the formula, along with two reactants, was made clear. Which meant now they just needed to identify the more mundane ingredients.

"So am I correct in my work here?"

"It looks like it," Daivor nodded. "Although they're a bit unorthodox."

"So, this shit is real? I'm not missing something?"

"What do you mean, boss?"

"Daivor. Salt? Bones? Lemon juice? I'm pretty sure this one is literally paprika! That can't be right. How do all those ingredients turn into some super serum?"

"Well, we don't have their amounts or at which rate they are added to the formula." Daivor defended. "Part of this process could be in the creation. I mean, do they boil all this stuff in a pot or mix things separately and add them in sequence? It's going to take some heavy experimenting to figure this out."

Kaleb groaned as he brushed a hand down his face. "Which we can't even do if we don't have viable substitutes for this stuff. And that's a crap shoot as well, because we don't know if anyone is watching substitute candidates for just this type of thing."

"How's the server building going?" Daivor asked, oddly changing the subject.

"Fine. The kids got it running and now it's just building its database. Although it's running through our stock of books at a fair clip. We're going to need to buy more if we want a comprehensive library for the scanner to pull from."

"And once we do, we can just input these chemicals into the scanner and keep our eyes peeled, boss. This was never going to be a quick project."

"Fair. But do you think we will ever find some of these things? I mean, they are all from alien creatures brought to earth. If they aren't protected by some organization or another, I'll eat my arm."

Milly popped her nose out of Kaleb's arm and popped his cheek with her wet snout. Kaleb jumped at the wetness while Daivor shouted at the marmot again.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Ah-ha! I've got you now!"

Daivor leapt up to Kaleb's shoulder, arms outstretched, to grab Milly. But the marmot phased back into Kaleb's arm in a flash. Daivor scrambled against his shoulder for a few seconds before he sat his body down on the metal joint and growled. Kaleb almost lost his balance on the chair from the assault and tried to turn a dirty look on the gnome. But Daivor wasn't paying attention. Kaleb flicked the gnome on the forehead to get his attention.

"Hey! Any ideas, master gnome? I'd rather not go around scanning everything in the off-chance there's a damn alien with the shit we need."

Daivor scrunched up his nose in disgust before a thoughtful look filled his face. Kaleb was mildly worried as the gnome leapt back down to the table and started typing on the terminal. Hopeful and a little apprehensive about where this was going, Kaleb watched as the gnome pulled up a list of aliens. Some Kaleb recognized, but most he didn't, as Daivor skimmed through the list with a finger. Soon, the burning desire for answers was too much for Kaleb.

"What are you doing? Please don't tell me we've already jumped to abduction and human experimentation."

"What?! Of course not! But you must admit that there may be some alien species with the appropriate chemicals."

"Sure, I'll just ask D34d-I and Claire to donate some…" Kaleb trailed off as the idea stopped sounding so crazy.

Daivor saw the look on his face and quickly began typing again. He brought up their two races and began examining the basics of their anatomies. Kaleb watched on in awe as another thought hit him. Claire and D34d-I were the only aliens on the team. But Two Gun, Abby, and Mass were mutants! There had to be something in their blood for him to discover, right?

Leaving Daivor at his terminal, Kaleb rushed over to Roy's workbench and booted up his. Kaleb grimaced at the boy's lack of security and logged in to the terminal.

"Remind me to make Roy get a password. I shouldn't be able to get into his terminal this easily."

"Hmph!" Daivor said, nose buried in the terminal monitor.

Kaleb made it past Roy's login screen, only to be hit with a myriad of open windows. Diagrams of armor and giant robots were open everywhere as Kaleb slowly closed them. Some were clearly pulled from the internet. But Kaleb also noted that Roy was responsible for a few of the diagrams. The boy was working on something. He glanced over a few before remembering what he was looking up.

Kaleb spent the next few minutes reading through whatever information was freely available about the mutant condition. Which, unsurprisingly, was a hell of a lot. The subject had been extensively researched by multiple institutions across several disciplines. Unfortunately, each mutation was closely tied to the genetics of the Mutant. So the blood of a mutant wouldn't necessarily give a non-mutant powers. But from the documents he was pouring over, Kaleb could see he wasn't the only Player thinking this way. Already, multiple in-game Player scientists had published papers about the Power-Transference Project. It was a lengthy read, and Kaleb was not even halfway through it when the sound of Daivor swinging over to him brought him out of his thoughts.

The gnome took a seat at the edge of Roy's workbench and lit up his pipe. "The duck is useless, but we might be able to get something from Claire. But I'm not going to be the one to ask her."

"Is it that disgusting?" Kaleb grimaced.

"What? No! I just mean I wouldn't want to be the person who asked her for her blood. You can do it."

"Oh! That's not too bad. We would just need enough for a sample. Is it a close approximation to the chemical we need?"

"Not even close. But Xarthaksians have some unique blood. So it couldn't hurt to run some test."

"Ha! So we might not even need animals."

"Well, aliens and humans are types of animals," said Daivor.

Kaleb smiled for a few seconds before what Daivor said hit him. He got a pensive look on his face as he looked down at his Familiar. The gnome looked a little weirded out by what he said, as well.

"Have we crossed a line here?"

"Not yet. But we've certainly seen it. I think for now we should keep this strictly academic. Between the two of us."

"I concur." Kaleb said, closing out the windows he had opened and shutting off Roy's terminal.

The two of them remained quiet as they walked the short distance back to Kaleb's station. Once there, they both took a moment to collect themselves. Eventually Kaleb slapped himself in the face and ignored the past few minutes.

"So… animals."

"Alien animals." Daivor nodded.

The two of them sat on the edge of the worktable and thought. Daivor puffed away at his pipe as Kaleb looked up at the ceiling. He searched his mind for any mention of animals, but all he kept bringing up was the Hunters Association and their park. But all of those were magical creatures. Which may work just as well, but magical ingredients were far more volatile than scientific ones. At least, as Daivor explained it. Looking down, Kaleb voiced his inner thoughts.

"Magical creatures are a no-go, right?"

"Not particularly. But we'd have to rework the formula entirely. It will take new reactants, a new base, and most likely result in a new product altogether."

"So something for the back-burner then. Is there a park like the one the Hunters use? Only for alien creatures?"

The gnome shrugged his shoulders, and Kaleb turned back to his terminal to run a search when his workshop door opened. A young hunter in casual clothes looked around for a bit before catching Kaleb's eye.

"Ah, Professor! Miss Farrah would like you to begin your patrol early tonight."

"Trouble?" Kaleb asked, confused.

The hangar had been oddly quiet throughout the day. It wasn't like they were normally busy, but something happened at least every day. The young male hunter shook his head and sighed.

"Not really. It's been a calm night. But Miss Farrah thinks that's because the cops are up to some new tricks. So she want's people out there in case something pops off late at night."

Kaleb checked his clock and sighed as he saw they were a few minutes from Sunday. "Give me a few and I'll be right out."

The hunter nodded and left as Kaleb began collecting his things for a night patrol. He made sure his weapons were charged, double-checked his armor was secure, made sure he had some tools, and cleared his pockets of junk. Once that was done, he said goodbye to Daivor and made for the door.

"Flashlight." The gnome said, sounding exasperated again.

"I know!" Kaleb complained as he grabbed one off a nearby table.

After making sure the thing worked, Kaleb opened the door of his workshop and walked out. Milly popped back into existence as soon as the door was shut and looked around. Kaleb noted that the marmot's blueish-purple eyes seemed to spark happily as she squeaked. Kaleb grabbed another pellet from his pocket and fed her.

"Ready to go be a menace to criminals, girl?"

Milly seemed to grin at him with her sharp, pointed teeth before she whistled happily. Kaleb scratched her head as he stretched. He didn't know what Farrah had for him tonight. But he didn't think they would be ready for him and his new companion. Then again, an electric blue marmot that fused with his cybernetic arm was a bit much for anyone.

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