I took a shallow breath the moment I arrived at my destination, held it in, and quickly hid in a dark little cranny I picked ahead of time by the nearest door. I was in a poorly lit concrete corridor, and the familiar smell of heavy and slightly stale air immediately told me that I was underground. I couldn't see too far in either direction, since the only source of light in the hallway was coming from the open door by my side. By the looks of the slightly arched ceiling and the various metal pipes running by the walls, I figured it was probably some kind of service tunnel, if a fairly prim and clean one. No surprise there, the ninja maids were ever-present and very meticulous after all.

After making sure there was no one in sight (I already looked around once during Far Sight, just in case there was any magical or mundane surveillance in the tunnel, but hey, looking twice never hurt anyone), and then I carefully inched forward and set my back against the wall before using my Far Sight again.

I squinted for a moment while my incorporeal eyes got accustomed to the cold, blue neon light coming from the various light fixtures in the room. It was a medium-sized chamber, about five-by-five meters, with white walls and even whiter furniture. On the left side, the desks and workbenches I could see were covered by stacks of haphazardly piled up books and papers, with the rest of the space taken up by a wide variety of glass tubes, round flasks, beaked alembics, and other containers filled with liquids of various colors and consistencies, some of them violently bubbling, others letting off copious amounts of dangerous-looking white vapors by themselves. On the right, the situation was mostly the same, except instead of stereotypical chemistry sets, every surface was packed full of large devices filled with exposed tesla coils, metal boxes with lots of buttons and switches, and small round screens that reminded me of old analog oscilloscopes.

In short, the place looked just like the ominous lair or laboratory of a cackling mad scientist type. Cue…

"Ki-hi-hi!"

No, I wasn't even surprised anymore. The aforementioned laughter came from one of the three people inside the room. The first one was obviously Mr. Peabody, who just finished putting his coat onto a hanger by the entrance, still close enough to the wall so that I could transfer to the other side without anyone being the wiser. His presence was quite self-evident, as without him being here, I wouldn't have had an anchor for Far Sight to target. The other two figures, on the other hand, were considerably less obvious.

First off, there was the fairly short source of the previous cackling. I'm not going to mince my words here; he was obviously 'Dr. Robatto', though this time he wasn't wearing his ridiculous getup. Since he was looking at the nurse, and thus roughly in the direction of the door, I could get a good look at his face (though again, since I could freely change my point of view in a small radius around Peabody, it was more or less incidental).

He had a pair of round, thick-rimmed glasses sitting on a small nose, and overall I'd go as far as to say that he was deceptively handsome even with the disheveled hair and the dark circles under his eyes. Actually, wasn't there even a character archetype for this kind of appearance? I think it was for shoujo manga male love interests; something about being handsome but sickly and frail to create a contrast and trigger maternal feelings or something. I decided that I would ask Judy when I get back, since she seems to be the expert on that subject nowadays.

But back to the description: he was also pretty young, probably in spitting distance to twenty by the looks of it, and while this time he wasn't wearing the silly mask, he was still sporting the same frayed lab coat from the picture. All things considered, while he didn't look exceedingly weird at the moment, if I was lost in a bad neighborhood, I sure as hell wouldn't ask him for directions.

However, if we wanted to talk about weird, the woman standing beside him definitely provided enough of it for the both of them. She was almost a head taller than the guy, with her long, purple hair in a ponytail that reached down to her waist. She had a full hourglass figure, which was put on full display by her dark green, honeycomb-patterned bodysuit. As if that wasn't enough to show off all her 'goods', her outfit had a neckline that plunged right down to her navel, revealing a generous amount of cleavage in the process. On top of all that, she was wearing thick, heavy-looking boots and gauntlets covered in complex, circuitry-like golden filigree, with equally well-decorated golden shoulder pads and a thick, angular single-piece diadem with a freaking unicorn horn in its middle. Furthermore, where the woman's ears were supposed to be, there was instead a pair of sleek metal somethings with green lights on them, sticking out of her head like some giant, high-tech earphones.

While I was observing the two, Peabody made his way over to them and said, "O-ho-ho. How did the operation go?" his characteristic laughter made even more grating by the slight echo provided by hearing him both with my ears and through Far Sight at the same time. On a side note though, it was good to know that he wasn't doing the silly laughter just to annoy me.

Anyway, the younger guy let out a grating chuckle of his own and said, in a high-pitched voice, "Ki-hi-hi! It went exactly as I expected! All the first-generation foot soldiers got wiped out, but I got a lot of tasty, succulent data out of the encounter!" He paused for a moment, then added, "I wasn't expecting the Abyssal though. She was scary," in a considerably less manic voice, only to flare up again by saying, "Also, very scantily clad! It was weird, right, Galatea?"

"I wasn't there, master," the woman stated with an actually mechanical voice. As in, it actually sounded like her voice was synthesized. The guy let out a surprised grunt, then he grabbed his own chin and looked over her from head to toe.

"It had to be an attempt at psychological warfare; to distract the opponents and make them hesitate! Ki-hi-hi! Too bad such shameless tactics didn't work on my Sprockets!"

"They still got wrecked in minutes though," the woman stated with the same voice.

"I told you, it was all within my calculations!" the presumed mad scientist huffed before he looked over the woman one more time and said, "Ki-hi-hi! Hey, Galatea?"

"Yes, master?" she responded without her expression changing at all.

"How about we take a page from their books and try to apply some of that psychological warfare ourselves?"

"A brilliant idea as always, master," she answered with a robotic nod. "I will now proceed to browse speedos in master's size on the internet. I'm certain master will do a great job at distracting the opponents."

"Halt! Halt, I tell you! I wasn't talking about me, but you!" the man protested while frantically waving his hands.

"Error," she stated while repeatedly blinking. "My visual receptors have been fortified against such tactics, so my cogitation core cannot compute a scenario where master's naked body would distract me. Please clarify your query and try again."

"O-ho-ho! I see you are still getting along like you are attached at the hip," Peabody cut between the two of them with a few jovial steps.

"Error. Such attachment would greatly reduce my operation efficiency. Please reconsider."

"Ki-hi-hi! Don't pay attention to Galatea, uncle," the guy in the lab coat told the nurse with a dismissive shrug. "She's just in a difficult phase."

"O-ho-ho! I see, I see…"

I had no idea what he was seeing, but as for me, I was getting more confused by the second about what I was looking at. Still, for the moment I bid my time and waited for my chance, while also hoping that they might accidentally drop some tasty bits of information in the process. Such as this one.

"What are the plans for next time?" Peabody inquired, further solidifying his status as an accomplice.

"I plan on doing the same thing, but with more Sprockets!" Labcoat Guy declared with his arms akimbo, then he quickly added, "Oh, and I will also mix in a few MkII models to see how they perform in a group." At this point, there was a long pause in the conversation, during which he awkwardly tried to decide whether to keep his hands on his hips or cross them in front of his chest, but in the end he decided to simply pocket them and he began pacing up and down beside the chemistry sets. "Ki-hi-hi! If my calculations are correct, then four or five such tests should yield enough usable data to upgrade them to MkIII!"

"O-ho-ho? Won't you run out of your robots? I thought you were short on funds."

"Ki-hi-hi! Don't worry uncle! I calculated everything, including the budget! Even then, if the Sprockets won't be enough, I will just release one of the Biomechanical Gigants!"

"Correction," the woman cut in with an unchanging serious expression, "The precise term is 'Biomechanical Kernels'. They only become beings of unusual size after they are injected with the growth hormone formula and their rapid transformation is triggered by the pre-determined embarrassing code phrase master came up with."

"Thank you Galatea, that was very helpful," Peabody told the woman with a jovial voice, thought her 'master' was only rolling his eyes and continued his pacing up and down.

"Uncle, don't encourage her! She's getting worse ever since I let her browse the internet unsupervised…" The nurse only let out a soft 'O-ho-ho!' in response, so the mad scientist cosplayer rolled his eyes at him this time and continued by telling him, "I still need some time to work out some of the kinks with the MkII Sprockets, but they should be ready by tomorrow if I pull an all-nighter. When the time comes, could you stall the Chimera Slayer again? Oh, and the Abyssal girl too, if possible. If the Sprockets are destroyed too fast and his agent cannot intervene in time, then our sponsor's going to be really mad at us."

"O-ho-ho. My boy, you are asking too much from these old bones," the nurse answered while theatricals stretching his back. "If not for Endymonion's cooperation, I doubt I could've even gotten him to come to the infirmary. He is a very willful young man."

"Really? That's a right pickle! Ki-hi-hi! I might have to roll out the Gigants for him to play with," the guy in the labcoat muttered before turning around and facing his 'uncle' again. "You said he was in the infirmary. Did you find his weakness?"

"My boy, I told you not to ask about confidential details. I don't want to break my Hippocratic Oath," the nurse stated in a borderline ominous tone.

"Yes, yes, and then the Brotherhood of Hippocrates would hunt you down. You've been telling me that since I was five years old!"

"O-ho-ho! You are right! I can remember it like it was yesterday! You've grown so much since then!"

"Master has indeed grown in many ways, except for his height," the woman stated, earning her a glare from the younger man.

"Shut up, Galatea," he hissed between clenched teeth, "or I'll have you clean the waste disposal chute again, and this time you won't be allowed to turn off your olfactory sensors."

"If I'm on cleaning duty, can I change out of this outfit?"

"No."

"Processing… processing… I conclude that I must stay silent."

"Good," he stated with a huff before turning back to the nurse again. "Okay, so the same trick cannot be used twice to stall him. What about the Abyssal? Can you at least pull her aside with some excuses?"

"I'll think of something," Peabody relented, prompting the other man to ominously rub his hands together.

"Ki-hi-hi! Good, very good! I can't wait to get my hands on all of that juicy data! Then, our funding will finally be stabilized and we can finally focus on the important things! Like taking over the world… of SCIENCE! Ka-ha-ha-haaaa!" After he finished cackling maniacally, there was a long moment of awkward silence in the chamber, only for him to clear his throat and add, "Speaking of funding, I think we need to reconsider our quarterly budget after all."

What followed were several minutes of mind-numbing finance number being thrown back and forth between the two of them, so I used the time to organize what I just learned.

One: this guy was running some kind of workshop or laboratory and he was making artificial life forms. Two: while they never said it outright, I'd bet my head that he was part of the Research Society. Three: Peabody was in cahoots with him, and it was possible that he also worked for the Research Society. Four: they apparently worked with Lord Grandpa, or at the very least he was helping them out, though their exact relationship was never stated. Five: he had a freaking fembot! I mean, it's really obvious, right? Not only that, it was a snarky, deadpan fembot! I had a feeling that if my dear Judybot heard about it, she'd either suffer another existential crisis, or threaten to sue someone.

Jokes aside, it still meant that, if they had the tech for something like her, then it subsequently implied that our weird little word had advanced magitech at best, or straight up mad super science at worst.

Anyhow, I wasn't going to learn anything important just by sitting still. In fact, if I only wanted to listen in on their conversation, I didn't even need to teleport over. My actual goal in coming here was pretty simple: since I literally couldn't keep a constant eye on all of my friends all the time, just in case this sentai ripoff showed his not particularly ugly mug, I figured that I could instead mark him and keep an eye on just him instead, avoiding a lot of hassle in the process.

Unfortunately, getting there also wasn't entirely hassle-free, as tagging the guy was easier said than done. I hoped that at one point or another he would maybe leave through the door, or even just get close enough for me to sneakily touch him, but the three of them seemed to be rooted in their spots and refused to move much. I also considered just teleporting on top of him, but he was constantly looked over by the fembot, and since I had no idea of her capabilities, I didn't dare to risk it, especially since, even after getting used to it, teleporting still left me disoriented for a couple of precious moments after arrival.

If only my phantom limb could tag people… Actually, if it could, I wouldn't have had any problem marking the huntress either, but that would be just too simple, now wouldn't it? One would think that, since it was crucial for taking people along when teleporting, and since my ability to mark people and my ability to teleport seemed to be closely linked, my invisible extra appendage would naturally be able to mark people, yet after just a few quick tests it became obvious it couldn't actually do so. I swear, sometimes I felt like there was no consistency in the metaphysical rules governing the supernatural of this world. Or maybe it was just my powers that were all kinds of screwy? Either way, it was a pain in the neck.

I couldn't just sit tight and wait forever either, so after some consideration, I decided to try my luck with some tried and true distraction tactics. I quietly pulled out my phone from my breast pocket and went into the clock menu to set an alarm. I went out of my way to pick an especially jaunty tone from the list and cranked up the volume to the max before I placed it onto the floor next to the open door.

The plan was simple and straightforward: First, wait for the alarm to sound. The people in the room would, hopefully, all look towards the door to see what's going on, and during that window of opportunity, I would quickly teleport behind them and tag the guy, and then immediately leave the premises.

Not only that, but if the situation was absolutely perfect, I figured I might as well try to grab my target and teleport him with me. In that case, I naturally won't go home right away, but would teleport right next to Brang instead, so that he could help me to apprehend the guy. That was, of course, the best-case scenario, but hey, it didn't hurt to be optimistic every once in a while.

As such, I prepared myself by taking a huge breath, calmed my nerves, observed the frantic pacing of Labcoat Guy, aaaaand… alarm!

The moment Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture began to blare out of the small yet surprisingly impressive speakers on the sides of my phone, the three people inside the room all shuddered in apprehension.

"W-What's that?!" Labcoat Guy yelled out with equal measures of fright and confusion as he jumped behind his fembot.

At the same time, the previously expressionless woman's face also crunched up in a glare and she exclaimed, "Master, step back!" while extending her right hand towards my location. Peabody, on the other hand, was completely shocked silly by the developments and was standing still like a statue with his mouth half-open.

While all of this was going on, I naturally wasn't sitting on my laurels either. I considered my options, and after a moment of hesitation, I discarded my covert kidnapping idea as too risky, since my target was clinging onto his android's back almost as tightly as her outfit. Instead, I focused on my main objective, so without any further hesitation I teleported right behind the hapless mad scientist and, without any further ado, I delivered a single, precise karate-chop right at the base of his neck.

The short man let out a pained, high-pitched yelp. I knew that it was going to draw the others' attention right away, so I immediately teleported right back to my starting position. To be honest, the rapid back and forth transportation was playing havoc with my head, but it was a small price to pay. I held back the momentary vertigo with sheer force of will and reached out for my phone, only to be hit by an unexpected and quite chilling sense of dread.

Time itself came to crawl as my probably supernatural sense of danger told me that I was currently in some serious jeopardy and I should dodge and flee right away. At the same time a more rational part of my brain told me that I should not leave behind any evidence.

While these thoughts battled it out in my head, the wall I was touching began to violently tremble. To be frank, I wasn't entirely sure about how I managed to do it in a split-second, but I entered into Far Sight, threw myself to the side, found Judy, reached out and grabbed the phone mid-roll, and then promptly teleported out of danger.

Unfortunately for me, because of the way my ability conserved momentum, as soon as I appeared back in my living room I immediately toppled over. No, scratch that. I actually had so much momentum that I was sent tumbling back and I ended up rolling on the floor before ending up on my back and staring at the ceiling in a sort of startled stupor.

"Chief, are you all right!?" Judy appeared at my side out of thin air, though in retrospect I had a feeling I probably just blanked out for a second or two while she rushed over.

After taking a few deep breaths to reorient myself, I raised the hand that wasn't still clutching my phone up to my temple and muttered, "I'm fine, I think…" even though I didn't feel fine at all.

"You are bleeding," my assistant gasped while she propped me up so that I could sit.

"Where?" I asked as I absent-mindedly lowered my hand onto my face and my fingers came away wet, immediately answering my question. I looked at the red liquid at my fingertips, and after letting out a surprised grunt I asked, "Hey, Judy? Did I get one of those cool scars, or one of the ugly ones?"

"Stop joking and get up! We need to clean those wounds! And why is your phone still playing music at a time like this?!" Judy complained while dragging me to my feet, just in time for Snowy to show up at the top of the stairs.

"What's going on? Did something happen…?" my sister's words trailed off into a stunned silence, then without any further question she exclaimed, "I'm getting the first aid kit!" and she disappeared into the bathroom. Wow, I must've looked much worse than how I actually felt, and considering I felt like crap at the moment, that didn't bode well.

In the meantime, Judy continued to drag me towards the washroom, but even while doing so, she didn't forget to interrogate me. "Where did you go? What happened?"

"I paid a visit to that 'Robatto' guy," I answered her honestly. "As for what happened… give me a second," I told her as we stopped just in front of the stairs and I quickly entered into Far Sight again. A split second later I was back in the mad scientist brand worship, now filled with concrete dust and the sound of coughing.

"What the hell, Galatea!? What's wrong with you!?" Labcoat guy yelled out between two coughs.

Once the dust settled, in this case quite literally, I glanced around from my disembodied vantage point, and I quickly found Peabody covering under one of the tables. The fembot, on the other hand, was standing still in the middle of the room. Her right hand was literally hanging off the bottom of her vambraces, as if on a hinge, and from the stump extended a short barrel still softly glowing after its discharge. When I followed the direction where she was pointing at, I realized that the section of the wall behind which I was hiding until a few seconds ago was completely gone, replaced by a circular hole, its edges still glowing with a dull red light that reminded me of the color of burning coal.

While I was inspecting said hole, the fembot's arm cannon retracted back into her forearm with a series of metallic clicks and her hand swung back into its natural place. She moved her fingers one by one, probably to make sure they were functioning right before she turned to her 'master' and stated.

"I detected an intruder, master. I neutralized them."

"With your Plasma Disintegrator!?"

"Yes," she responded like it was the most natural thing in the world, then after a second she added, "Master, my batteries are low. I request permission to recharge."

"You wouldn't need to recharge if you showed just a little restraint! Look at that hole! You probably vaporized whoever was on the other side!"

"Affirmative. That is what the Plasma Disintegrator is for."

The two of them continued to bicker, and in the meantime the chamber was quickly flooded by a combination of seemingly identical, ugly as sin Sprocket things, probably in response to the noise.

Overall, while I might've made a mess, and there was a risky call at the end, I couldn't help but smile, for there was a brand new red dot on my Far Seeing radar.

"All right, so I was apparently attacked by something called a Plasma Disintegrator," I told Judy, and she immediately began to pull me along again.

"You can tell me about it later. First, we need to remove all of this concrete shrapnel from your side."

"Sure, I'll tell you in great detail," I answered her while still grinning to myself, only to pause and tentatively ask, "Wait… did you just say 'shrapnel'…?"