"That was… unexpectedly violent." Gerri was the first one to speak when he joined the others. Long gone was the Mark Three protective suit. She was dressed in the same ren faire looking dress as most of the other locals. A long brown dress with a white blouse tied together with laces instead of buttons or zippers. She had gone exploring Haven under the watchful eye of Leru and seemed to be enjoying herself. Jake wished he could feel the same way.
Part of him resented her being able to enjoy the peaceful seeming city. "Well, what did you expect from a tournament?" Jake snapped and Gerri's smile faltered. "Sorry." He apologized almost instantly.
"It is ok." She had lost that spark and was again the more withdrawn girl he had first met. Jake sighed.
"Well. I'm glad you won." She smiled again. "But what was all that Demon stuff?"
Jake felt his heart rate spike. Before he could say anything Nira spoke up. "They still haven't told you?" Jake tensed up when Gerri turned to face her. Nira just looked him right in the eyes. "Going to kill me too now?" The tension in the air was thick enough to cut.
"Enough squabbling. It is all part of the show so to speak." Leru interjected. "There is the same safety net we use on Earth set up inside the arena. There is no risk of anyone dying." She pulled Gerri slightly towards her and flashed Nira a warning look. The tawny skinned girl humphed at her and spun around to leave.
Jake glanced around. "Where are the others?" He was eager to keep moving the conversation away from the past.
"Gregor is with Jon trying to keep him out of trouble. Since he technically came with us we are sort of responsible for anything he does. That one is brilliant but…" Leru sighed. "He is chaos incarnate. My mother always complained about working with him too. She hoped he would get better, not worse as he got older."
Jake just grunted. "I guess we should go watch the next match." The others nodded.
Before they could leave a shout brought their plans to a sudden end. "Demon! There you are. I have been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been?" Jon came rushing up. He was wearing the same filthy overalls he had arrived in.
"I had the first match. You were there when they announced it." Jake shook his head.
"What? No I wasn't…. Was I?" He glanced at everyone who nodded, including Greger who followed in after him with a scowl. "Well I don't remember that and I have an absolutely perfect memory. I would have known if I had been there and heard such. Not that it matters you are using MY equipment so of course, you will win. It is only a given. Those with the best equipment always succeed. Unless they are complete garbage. That does sometimes happen. My perfect creations fall into the hands of the unworthy and they besmirch my greatness by losing. Why there was this one I made a set of armor for. It was perfect impenetrable unbreakable un…" Jake had to cover his mouth to get him to stop talking.
"Enough. Let's go watch the next match." Jake removed his hand and started to leave.
"No! I told you I have been looking for you everywhere. I have been talking to my colleague and they insist they must meet with you." Jon was practically vibrating with excitement.
"Colleague?" Jake asked then his eyes went wide. "Wait you aren't talking about…"
"Yes yes the one I have been telling you about. The one obsessed with your body. Now don't look like that I told her all about how uncomfortable her research into your erogenous zones made you. I even told them about your silly complaints about personal privacy." He took on a mocking tone for the last bit. "She has promised to offer you compensation as part of your meeting with her."
Jake felt his face flush some as Gerri raised an eyebrow at him. He ignored her and focused on Jon. "Compensation?"
"Well, she didn't say what it would be. But she is almost as brilliant as myself. Her specialty is in the biological whereas mine is in the more inorganic nature. I guess I could concede she exceeds my knowledge and abilities in the biological field. She is responsible for a number of the improvements in the refinement of mutagen. If it weren't for her we would still be stuck at the one to two percent success rate. Not the nearly eight percent we enjoy now."
Jake blinked at him for a moment. "Wait what?" Before he could ask more questions Jon started tugging his arm along.
"Come on Come on. She promised me several crafting cores if I brought you right away." Jake started to dig his heels in when his feet came off the ground. A disk attached to his arm lighting up. "Don't worry. This new anti-gravity disk is far more reliable than the last one." Jake kicked his legs some to no avail as Jon dragged him along like a kite.
"Should we go after them?" Gerri asked Leru.
With a snort, Greger spoke up. "They deserve each other. I want to see the next fight. Scope out what the other settlements are working with."
**********
By the time Jake managed to get the disk off him they were apparently at their destination already. Only when his feet touched down did he notice how different the scenery was. Instead of the primitive appearance of the rest of the Haven, they were standing in a sleek clean hallway. Modern lighting shone from panels in the ceiling and the door they stood in front of was a smooth polished metal with no visible features. No handles or hinges. Just a large shiny rectangle of metal recessed in the wall. Even more out of place was the panel next to it. Hosting a small screen and a number of buttons. Jon began rapidly poking one of the buttons.
"What?" A digital voice snapped.
"I brought him here for you. Now about those…" Before he could finish a previously invisible panel slid open and several dark cores were sitting inside. With a gleeful cry, Jon snatched them up. "Can I…"
"You can use my spare lab. Down the hall. I have granted you access." Jake watched Jon turn and skip away down the hall. Before he could decide to follow or not the door in front of him slid up.
"Come in!" He barely heard the voice before he was yanked inside. Not by any visible means. It was as if he was a bit of iron placed near a magnet. Several feet into the room the unseen force vanished leaving him stumbling.
"There you are!" Jake turned in the direction of the voice. It was female and breathy. Not like a woman trying to be seductive but more like one struggling to get the words out. Sounding both monotone and excited at the same time.
What he found was not what he expected. His first impression was of a girl his own age or even younger. She was short, really short, he doubted she was even five feet tall. With a mop of messy black hair. Her head was just a little too big for her petite frame which was easy to tell as she was wearing a white button-up man's shirt several sizes too big for her. It hung down to the middle of her thighs. Her grey eyes were dull and looked almost glazed over. While the dark puffy bags under them didn't help improve her appearance, standing out starkly against her pale skin. Her complexion looked sickly even.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Jake blurted out while focusing more on her face. Her legs were bare. Giving the impression she wasn't wearing anything else. As he focused on her he saw that she was much older than she originally appeared. Her features were more mature, he even noticed the beginning of a few crow's feet around her eyes. Although that might have been from the apparent exhaustion.
"I thought you would enjoy it." Her voice was still breathy as if it took a great effort to speak. She lifted up her arms the shirt starting to creep up her thighs. "I calculated it quite thoroughly." Jake lunged forward to push her arms down, he was pretty sure there was nothing under that shirt.
"Yay! Success." She laced her slender fingers with his. Her excited cheer came out as a feeble sound.
"What is going on here?" Jake worked to extract his hands from hers.
"Jon told me you were uncomfortable with my research of your body. I thought this would be an equal exchange. I noted you particularly were uncomfortable with my research of your erogenous zones. You may inspect mine if you feel that will make things equal." She wheezed out her explanation.
"What? No... I… No. Just…" Jake rubbed his face with one hand and took a deep breath before looking down at the tiny scientist. "You're the one helping Xavier with his… goal. Aren't you?"
"Yes. The boy has great ambitions. But I keep telling him the existing method is a stop gap at best." Her eyes fixed on him, some of that dullness fading away. "You though. Yes." Her hands were suddenly everywhere. Poking pinching prodding. "You are the key to everything!" Jake swatted her hands away and stepped back. She followed forwards arms stretched out reaching. He planted a palm on her forehead and held her back. Her short arms flailed as she walked forward like a zombie trying to get him.
"I want you to stop helping Xavier with his crazy plan. Stop…" Thinking about what they had been doing made him think of his mother. Of her in the hospital with her body wasting away from what he had thought was cancer. But now knew was the effect of exposure to the toxic environment of Earth. The same thing they were exposing countless pregnant women and their unborn babies to. After his meeting with Xavier, it was a thought that had bothered him. Not only were countless babies dying, but what was the exposure doing to the mothers as well?
Before he could finish gathering his lost thoughts they replied. "Ok." They had grabbed his wrist and were now sniffing his hand of all things. He jerked his hand back when they licked it, they clung to his arm and dangled from it. That caused their shirt hem to rise up and Jake quickly dropped them down. His face flushed with embarrassment. They were definitely not wearing anything underneath.
"Wait. Just like that?" His mind finally slowed down enough to process her response. Her cheek was pressed to the back of his hand as she stared at his skin from as close as she could get her eyes.
"Sure. I only helped him to further my research but that path has come to a dead end. But you…" She started caressing his hand and he tried to pull it free from her surprisingly strong grip.
"Stop that!" He snapped finally losing his patience. To his shock she instantly let go, plopping down on her butt when she let go of the hand he was pulling away.
"GAH close your legs." He turned his head away. She had sprawled out in a most unladylike pose. She stood up seeming unphased by everything.
"You sure are energetic…" She wheezed out while moving towards a table. Jake finally looked around the room and blinked. It looked like a modern laboratory. The sterile white walls housed a number of tables with various setups that looked…sciency. He didn't know what they all did but there were lots of glass beakers and vials. Liquids bubbling and spiraling glass tubes with stuff flowing through them to other glass containers. "Let me start again. I am known as the Flesh Sculptor. It is very nice to meet you. Now please undress and get on my table." She wheezed out as she motioned to a table that looked very similar to the one in Jon's workshop. Complete with clamps to hold arms and legs.
"Yeah… no."