An old man entered sliding doors. The glistening jewel of the shopping district, Parasol Mall was only a short walk from Campus and a good place to lose thieves, assassins, and wandering detectives. A short while later, the surveillance cameras lost their feeds and a whole lot of backup data. A man who appeared to be in his early 20's, but was in fact 24 whole years old, walked around looking at clothes. Picking up some clothing way too big for him, including several baggy pants, giant hoodies, and more, he made his way to the checkout counter. He used Nano to pay, and the money transferred easily. 'Now to find a place to live.' Veil thought.
"Nano, are there any small warehouses or pre-built pet shops I can use in the nearby mall?"
"Reporting to Sender, there is an abandoned warehouse below the mall. It is recorded in a set of blueprints from 30 years ago, but nothing else mentions it. The rights belong to a foreign national, Mr. Richard Lambeau, deceased. I can hack the city hall and transfer the rights to you if you desire."
Veil thought about it. It had close proximity to the GAC, where he planned on using the large amount of portals... As long as the area below was unmonitorable, it could be a great hiding spot. He decided to make it his base of operations. For now, at least. As Mr. Lambeau had already died, it wouldn't hurt him, either. He made up his mind.
"Go for it, Nano."
Nano replied immediately. "The rights have been transferred, the warehouse below is now your property."
Nano began to lead him on the path to the hidden area. Nano gave him a fake identity as a mall employee (a corporate overseer) and had him go through a carded gate. he walked a ways until he found a stairwell. Down the stairwell was a basement area. Inside the basement area was a door. Nano hacked the crypto-key. While it was high tech in and of its day, Nano was much, much more powerful than the encryption provided for.
Veil continued walking, holding the World Assimilation Hedgehog out in front of him. While it couldn't shield him from anything, it could suck some attacks that could come his way.
In front of him was a steel door. As he opened it slowly like a frightened rabbit, the Hedgehog immediately started sucking in air.
Slowly but surely, one of the spikes on its back next to the purple/green one from the assimilated poison grew super clear.
Realizing there had, indeed been a threat, Veil was proud of his intelligence and caution. And his new companion.
"Forget about it. I'm naming you Kirby!!"
Quickly after, several more spikes changed color to various shades of clear-white crystal.
When it was over, Kirby the hedgehog rubbed Veil's hands with his head. It seemed that he liked the new name. Veil set him down. He immediately rolled around Veil's legs, getting some of the excess energy out of his system.
Veil opened the door, and slowly walked inside. Inside was an underground laboratory! There was a microscope and several other implements. A green light was coming out from the ceiling. There was also a book on the nearby table.
Veil looked down and smiled. Kirby was standing in front of him and slightly off to the right. His mouth was in a tight growl, but he was slowly churning his world assimilation body. His single-minded goal was to protect his master.
Veil nodded at him and reached for the book. It was skinny, and the cover itself was made of red leather. The first page read, "The Diary of Signor Richard Lambeau."
'At least the pronunciation is most likely different.' Veil thought. Backstabbers begone.
As Veil continued through the diary, the purpose of the small warehouse became clearer. It was a spirit virus facility. A place where, most definitely unbeknownst to the rest of the world, one created disasters to ruin humanity. The choice of hiding it under the mall... made sense for practical purposes. If a virus was left here, with so many people coursing through it.... Needless to say, depending on the strength of the virus... The deaths of those in the entirety of alliance states, not to mention the entire continent, could be imminent.
Veil sucked in a breath of cold air and looked at Kirby. More specifically, the two clear-colored spikes on his back. 'Yikes.' He thought. 'The amount of subterfuge I've seen in the last two days alone is absolutely ridiculous. ...Certainly a good place to hide, though...'
Hiding places are essential when you're on the run. In such a situation, if you can't hide, you can't win. In the world of Faera, there are too many different types of tracking. Luckily, a special metal exists. Quantar Metal is found in a secret small world held by the 'Astral Ascension,' a secret terrorist group that seems to take pleasure for some reason in the destruction of alliances, governments in the like. Apparently their secret goal is to take over the universe.
Luckily for Veil, Quantar Metal also has special anti-tracking properties. Since the small warehouse is encased in it, the room simply doesn't exist!
Richard Lambeau was a character. The diary showed that he was born in France, turned sailor, captain, lost his ship, tamed a giant squid, made it back to his hometown, summoned the squid on a dare, accidentally killed an entire bar while drunk, was cursed and abandoned by all his friends, isolated himself on an island, went crazy, joined a terrorist group, and then used the group's resources to engineer several powerful spirit viruses. 'In an nutshell, it was a kraken.' Veil made his final notes of the man's life.
The thing that raised Veil's eyebrows, however, was not the what. It was the how of the entire process. Richard Lambeau wasn't a very good scientist. He used a microscope, yes, but he still didn't know the genetic differences in the viruses themselves. He merely saw what they did and aimed to reproduce them. This wasn't Earth! It was Faera. And as Veil quickly realized, he had two things up his sleeve: one of the fastest AIs alive, and knowledge from Earth. More specifically, junior classes on Biology and basic knowledge of CRISPR. Because of the way Faera was oriented towards Spirit Allies, and the fact that humans, the leading progenitors and rulers of the planet, could upgrade without the required knowledge... The fact that somebody could get a full doctor's degree from a single spirit ally.... The knowledge didn't exist here!
At that moment, Veil knew his path as a lightbulb lit his brain like starlight. Step One! Contact Nano! Step 2! Have Nano learn Biology! Step 3! Use the Universal Growth Body Druid Art to advance Tiers! Step 4! Gain a small world! Step 5! Visit the GAC and use their portals to collect tribes of spirit beings! Step 5! Recreate the CRISPR Virus! Step 6! Spirit Link with a bunch of mutated beasts!
By re-implementing steps 3 through 6, there was no limit to his growth!!
Veil shut the door to the entrance and sat on Richard Lambeau's old bed. It was cleaner than clean. The man might have been crazy, but he was also a neat-freak. 'Before I pass out, I should say thanks to Nano.' He thought.
"Nano, thanks for helping me the last two days. You've saved my life multiple times over."
"It's my duty to serve, Master."
"Nonetheless, thank you."
"..."
"Nano, I want you to be my second spirit beast."
"Are you sure, Sender?"
Veil scoffed. "Well, yeah! I'm sure. that's kind of a ridiculous question if you ask me."
"If you contract with me, my spirit will grow and I'll become a fully thinking, emotional being. Is that truly what you'd like?"
"Just accept the damn thing!" Veil yelled, with pleasure and kindness displayed on his face. Nano took the moment to capture his facial data. It seemed important.
Veil began to shape his spirit ki as shown in the Druid Assimilation Link Art. As it took shape, he swiftly sent it into Nano's cell phone body.
The phone shuddered. "Thank you." Nano said simply. "So this is what it means to be an emotional being."
"You'll get used to it." Veil replied, his gaze dropping by the second. After such a long day, who could blame him? He fell asleep and crashed hard-core on the couch. Kirby curled up on the bed as well and watched over him. Nano began to look into the stock market, and other ways to make money "legally" for her master. He seemed to be the kind of person to only do 'illegal' things that didn't take away from others...
----~~~~----
Sia Warsaw was still communicating with her father's aide. Grace had just sent her her father's company's financial data. 'I know he won't give up, but... damn. Dad doesn't pull any punches. ...Looks like I'll have to send it over to him discreetly. Now, how to get it to him...'
"Sia, how much does it say?" Her incessant cousin, Miya, was standing next to her. Her eyes went wide as she saw the paper itself. "Ohmigosh, HOW MUCH?"
"Read it for yourself." Sia replied, with a smirk perking up from the corner of her lips.
"Yeah, b-but.... 8 Billion? How on the planet can your fiancee match that?"
Sia looked deadpan straight at her cousin. "How else could I have chosen him?"
"....But did you know it would be 83.7 Billion?"
"No." Sia replied, a frown appearing on her perfect face. "No, I did not." She pulled up her phone and sent her father a text consisting of three dots. He quickly replied.
"Sia darling, I see you've read the financials. You're not thinking of backing out, are you?"
Sia rolled her eyes. As if THAT was an option. She knew her father, and knew what he thought of broken business deals.
"Why would I do that? I have faith in my future husband. Anything you can do, he can do better." She texted him back. 'Was that a little too much?' She thought. 'No, no it wasn't.' She amended.
Somewhere in the world, one Xander Warsaw, a prominent businessman and politician, known for his calm and collected acumen, choked on the escargot in his fettucine alfredo.
Somewhere else in the world, a jackal with a listening device stirred. "83.7 Billion? How does she have this much faith in him? No matter, such funds are near impossible to win. 8.37 Billion to win her father's approval, and 83.7 Billion to win her father's estate. Ridiculous. Doable by some, impossible to most. Without connections...." he sighed. "With the whole world against him, he won't stand a chance."