Amos stared into space, his eyes unfocused as he parsed through file after file, information feeding into his brain as fast as it could process. Every synapse fired with jubilation at the exercise, it was exhilarating and daunting, to be connected directly to the internet like this. He could feel the way information seemed to work its way through the network. An ebb and flow like the tides. A symphony of data both useless and useful filtering out in microseconds. He reveled in it, darting from one place to another before he found his destination.

“There we are…” He murmured as he connected to the cellular network in Vietnam, bouncing from tower to tower. His orders had been pretty clear, dig up anything possible on the favored son of Chairman Phan. Most of the records had been pretty easy to find, permits, pre-hires, building plans, purchase orders, it all pointed towards him opening up a new business in his hometown. More interesting was the type of people he was hiring, physicists, chemists, technicians, engineers, biologists, he was assembling a lab.

“Looks like papa wants to spoil the young master,” Amos chuckled and redirected his attention through the network as he made his way to the private residence of Phan Duong. He checked the call records, “This guy has his own network antenna! Spoiled bastard!” Amos scoffed, focusing on that particular portion of the network, “Let’s see… call logs, call logs, only got a couple in the last twenty-four hours. Most of ‘em from his personal number. Ew…” His nose wrinkled, “Fricking gross, man. Nothing here but call girls and ordering takeout.”

He paused, “Oh, there’s another number that has access to the antenna,” He turned his attention to that phone number’s logs, “This is disgustingly easy, I should really work up some protections against this kind of thing for the boss,” He muttered, making a mental note, “If I can do it, who else can?” He continued muttering to himself before finally opening the data packet. He froze, reading the contents of the phonecall, “...well shit.”

He took a deep breath and pulled himself back to reality. His eyes focusing on his surroundings. He was in his personal office, a cluttered room filled with prototypes of all sorts of things. A crystal ball lay on its side, connected to a small platform by wires. A pair of monster cores, gemstones about the size of acorns, lay neatly on non-conductive cloth. A few guns in various states of completion lay on a table to one side while boxes full of odds and ends filled the remaining space. He hopped to his feet and brushed himself off. “Welp, better go tell Sonya in person,” He said cheerily and reached under his desk for his mini-fridge, pulling out a soda and cracking it open.

He took a lazy sip as he sauntered to the door, the security recognizing him immediately. It hissed open and revealed a much larger workspace filled with desks where numerous people worked on various projects. All of them wore VR headsets and were huddled in small clustered groups. This had been Amos’ idea, one he was incredibly proud of. Instead of creating a bunch of expensive separate laboratories, he designed simulated laboratories for them to use. What would have taken decades of programming had taken him only a couple of weeks with the combination of his enhanced intellect and technopathy.

Still have to thoroughly study anything we don’t have data on, though, like monster cores. We still don’t fully understand them, but that’s where experimentation comes in, he thought happily as he walked past the station where Doctor Choi sat. He liked the guy, he’d gotten straight to work after being oriented with the layout of the lab. “Yo doc, heading upstairs to talk to Sonya, need anything?”

Da-Som looked up at him with confusion, “Will it take long? You have guests coming soon.”

Amos blinked, “Hah?”

Da-Som frowned at him, “Mister Carter, did you forget that the interns would be coming today?” 

Amos let out a groan, “Oh man, can’t you handle it?”

Da-Som raised an eyebrow, “I’ve worked here less than a day, Mister Carter.”

“Alright! Alright! Fair point, I’ll meet with them,” Amos sighed, holding up his hands in surrender, “How are things?”

The doctor brightened and put his hand on the headset, “Incredible, your work is a century ahead of its time it seems like. I have a full medical lab on my desk, it’s unreal,” He said with delight, “Did you know that the blood of those monsters have extremely unusual properties? And the energy that the cores give off, if you apply it the right way it’s… magical. What are we even calling that energy by the way?”

Amos picked at his ear and looked away, “Sonya keeps calling it Mana but that’s really nerdy.”

The doctor laughed, “Honestly, it fits in a rather unfortunate way.”

“I know, right?” Amos groaned, “I keep wanting to call it something more… you know…”

“Palatable for a Nobel Committee?” The doctor said with a wry smile.

Amos grinned back at him, “I think we’re going to get along great!”

A little while after that he found himself in the lobby, eyeing the doors impatiently. He’d sent an encrypted email to Sonya concerning the call but she hadn’t gotten back to him. She was probably busy, Or hitting up some model or something, is she even here? I forgot to check, he groused, How does she have more game than I do? I’m like…  his thoughts trailed off as the doors opened and a small crowd of young people made their way inside. They gaped at the security guards for a moment before quickly following their orders.

Amos shifted on his feet as they were processed through, unsurprisingly a few of them turned out to be light-touched and the detector got quite the excited reaction out of them rather than hard feelings. That was a good sign. He glanced back at the man sitting at the front desk and gave him a thumbs up before turning back to the slowly accumulating gaggle of young people. They were from all walks of life and all of them held tablets tightly in their hands, their eyes fixed on him rather than taking in the ultra-modern decor that Sonya had insisted on.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his labcoat and strode towards them, “Welcome to ASTA Corporation Labs!” He said aloud and focused on their tablets, they all flashed and his face appeared on each and every one of them. “Recording devices are prohibited within the premises, don’t worry, I’m not checking out your search history. Just shutting off your cameras and microphones,” He said, his voice coming out of all the tablets. They gasped and a few of them laughed.

This ain’t so bad, I could get used to this.

“I’m Amos Carter,” He continued as his face disappeared from the tablets, “I’m the head of this lab.”

A hand immediately went up from a young man off to the left, “Uh… wasn’t ready for questions yet but I’ll bite,” he said, pointing at the kid.

“That power detector was amazing, will we learn anything about it while we’re here today?” The young man asked, pushing up his glasses. The others looked at him before looking back at Amos with eager eyes.

Amos grinned, “We’ll talk about monster cores inside,” He said, teasing them a little while gesturing over his shoulder..The word ‘monster core’ murmured through the small crowd. He gave himself a mental pat on the back, Just like Sonya, a little bait to tantalize and hold their attention. He thought smugly before turning on his heel and making his way towards the elevator, “Alright! Let’s get this tour started!”

–

Sonya smiled warmly to herself as she got out of the limousine. She’d taken a moment to peek a bit at how Amos was handling the grad students she’d invited to check out the lab. It had been difficult to pick which ones would come, not because there were a lot of promising applicants, there were of course many very talented people, but more because she wanted to hide her real interests among the bunch. 

Several of them were names she recognized from her previous life, people who would grow up to become heroes and accomplished scientists in their own right. If it hadn’t been for how well her mind processed memory now, she wouldn’t have even known their names but now even a single news clipping from her past life was as easy to call up as a text message. She had to get her claws into them before anyone else realized just what they were capable of.

Only the best for ASTA.

“Miss Chernovna?” Marta murmured, grabbing her attention and nodding towards the man standing patiently in front of her. He was middle aged and rather refined look about him. He was standing on the steps of what had once been a high school that had been retired and maintained as government property.

Sonya blinked and cleared her throat, “Apologies, my mind was elsewhere,” She said tactfully and extended a hand. “Mister Rupert Sohmer, right?”

The man nodded and held out his hand for her to shake, Analyze.

<New Product Acquired: Storage Space>

Oho! A utility power!

“I’m glad you could make it, Miss Chernovna,” He said, “The Chairman sends his polite regards.”

Sonya gave him a winning smile, “I’m sure he does. Say hello to him for me when you speak next.”

Rupert nodded and gestured to the building behind him, “We’re working hard on getting the building ready for the first round.”

“I heard the Pandora Committee decided on bi-annual licensing rather than year round,” Sonya said as she walked up the steps with him, “Probably for the best.”

A little different from my past life, they did it quarterly.

“Yes, we were considering quarterly gatherings of light-touched but we figured bi-annual would put a bit more pressure on those looking for licensure as well as increasing the overall quality of the results. Not everyone will pass the tests that are planned,” He explained as they approached the doors, opening them for her. 

She swept past him with a smile, “You’ve come up with tests already?” She asked, feigning ignorance.

“You’d be surprised how quickly a bureaucracy can form when given enough incentive,” He said with a knowing smile, inclining his head to Marta as she passed him.

Sonya took in the scene ahead of her, the lockers had been completely gutted from the interior and it was already in the midst of being repainted. There were stacks of comfortable looking benches leaning up against one wall and a desk being set up not far from there. A heavy looking door was being installed where the front office of the school had once been and the windows that were intended to observe students coming and going were being replaced with concrete bricks and reinforced steel plates.

“The old main office will be the initial testing room to check the veracity of the claim of possessing abilities,” Rupert began, “That power-check device is fascinating, it can even read the overall quality of an ability based on the color feedback. How did yours come up?”

Marta cut in, saving Sonya from the direct question, “Miss Chernovna’s came up white, an uncommon-tier as we’ve come to refer to it, she's asked me to keep my own tier secret until the official licensing event.”

The man pursed his lips and nodded, “I see, you must be very capable, Miss Daphne.”

“She’s punched her way through rebar reinforced concrete before,” Sonya said, shooting Marta a grin.

Rupert swallowed, “I… see.”

“At any rate,” Sonya said, changing the topic, “It’s really coming along. Where are they going to undertake the physical test?” She asked.

“The gymnasium, follow me and I’ll show you,” He said and began walking ahead.

Marta fell into step with Sonya and glanced her way, “I got a text from Amos for you to check your email,” She said in a low voice.

“I noticed it come in, give me a moment,” She said and Marta took her arm. She still wasn’t used to walking and using her technopathy at the same time without stumbling about, her hud often got in the way. She opened the message from Amos and read through the details, her expression shifting a few times before she reached the end. “Well now, how interesting.”

“What is it?” Marta asked, releasing Sonya’s arm.

Sonya crossed her arms behind her back and kept a straight face as she followed Rupert from a distance, “It looks like Chairman Phan wanted the research for his son, he was fully prepared to set up a lab within months of getting his hands on our intellectual property. Phan Duong, why does that name ring a bell…?” She said thoughtfully, tapping her elbow.

“I see,” Marta said, frowning. “What’s the plan, then?”

“A minefield of a person,” Sonya said, I can't deal with him as Ishtar, that would raise unnecessary suspicions. “More importantly, he ordered a hit on me.”

“He what?” Marta gasped, turning to look at her. Rupert glanced back and Sonya gave him an innocent wave before glaring at Marta. Marta looked away sheepishly, “Should we be out and about?”

“Oh they won’t be here for at least another day or two, we have time,” Sonya said with a shrug, “I’m very interested in the group they come from, the Night Society, sounds spooky,” She laughed.

“I’ll increase your security,” Marta said.

“And scare them off?” Sonya asked incredulously, “Heavens no, we’re business as usual. Amos and I will keep an eye out and see if we can’t spot this ‘Razor’ gentleman. I want to know more about this group of his and it’ll be an easy way to deal with his employer later.”

Marta frowned and looked away, her eyes intense. Sonya smiled at her gently and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Marta,” She said soothingly, “This isn’t another Florence. This time we’ll be ready, and more importantly, I’ve been waiting for a chance to try out this body of mine.”

Marta let out a sigh, “Fine,” She said uncomfortably.

Sonya looked at her friend and felt a momentary pang of guilt, she hadn’t paid enough attention to Marta recently and the woman had been working hard. Perhaps it was time for a reward, more than one in fact, “You know what, I have a better idea, how about we make a deal after the tour, mm?”

Marta returned her gaze and her expression relaxed, “A deal sounds lovely.”