The Machine God

Chapter 312

Manhattan passed by in a blur as the SUV raced through mostly empty streets, heading back toward Jasmine’s offices.

One of Alexander’s mental threads guided the vehicle with Technopathy, while the other reflected on how easy it was to spend a quarter of a billion credits. It really didn’t make sense, though now that he was thinking about it, having that much money in the first place didn’t make a lot of sense either.

He’d gone into it expecting to spend a modest ten or twenty or thirty million credits. In hindsight, he’d been very naive. Part of that was ignorance. He’d underestimated just how expensive a single percentile’s worth of improvement was when it came to cutting-edge tech.

The other problem was a lack of self-control. Agatha had thrown Goliath’s catalogue wide open when he’d started asking questions about comms equipment, munitions, and whether military-grade hovertech had combat advantages over commercial or racing versions.

Alexander justified the expenses first and foremost by realizing that Grimnir was rich. Dirty, filthy, stinking, stupidly rich. So much so that spending two hundred and fifty million credits hadn’t even changed the total number of zeros in Grimnir’s account.

On top of that, the Cataclysm was coming and they needed every advantage they could get. Advantages that Goliath may not even be able to provide once the invasions truly began.

One of the suits on Agatha’s side had broken protocol at one point, leaning forward to ask if he wasn’t worried about the prophecies claiming that technology was going to fail while the world ended in fire and brimstone.

Alexander had looked at the guy, shrugged, then reminded him that he was talking to the Machine God. He just didn’t believe anyone or anything could take technology away from him.

The very idea was unthinkable. Not even the System had that kind of power, as far as he was concerned.

But he’d left the meeting a very happy man. Besides the promise to deliver as many of Goliath’s reinforced compact fission mini-reactors as they could, and finally having access to proper, combat-tested ablatives, Agatha had signed half a dozen separate contracts that would soon see him drowning in equipment.

Advanced sensor suites, generations beyond what he’d been using. Superior hovertech. Cutting-edge processors. A whole array of weapons for him to experiment with.

And QECs. Quantum-entangled Communicators. The same tech used in the galactic relay networks which allowed communication between solar systems. He didn’t understand anything beyond the basics, but he knew they worked off supersymmetric exotic particle pairs requiring highly advanced calculations to translate their states.

The problem was that they only worked when both quantum-entangled pairs existed in similar gravitational environments. That meant they were useful for communicating between stars, as long as the relays were stationed so that the gravitational pull from one solar system matched the pull on the hardware in another system.

They also worked exceptionally well across the planet. It was just that almost nobody was stupid enough to use such expensive equipment when radio and fiber were perfectly functional alternatives.

Alexander had just joined a very exclusive list of people who’d decided the price was worth it to have private comms tech that was near undetectable, unstoppable, and unhackable.

Maybe it was even the same kind of tech the System used.

“You’re grinning again,” Augustus said from the passenger seat.

Alexander grinned harder. “You have to understand, Auggy, I’ve been working with serious limitations this whole time. Commercial equipment. Open-source software that I have to heavily modify to work with whatever I have available. Now I have everything I need and just in time.”

Augustus nodded. “I do. It’s like being in the field with limited resources, no air support or current intel, yet still being expected to complete the mission on time and with minimal casualties.”

Alexander studied him for a moment. “That sounds much worse, actually.”

“Hm,” Augustus muttered. “Well, I suppose it depends on your perspective. We didn’t have the fate of the world on our shoulders back then, though I will concede your point because we were normal people, too.”

Alexander laughed. “I don’t think you’ve been normal for a single minute in your life, old man.”

Augustus smiled. “Guilty as charged.”

A sudden increase in pressure slammed the hovercar into the road. Metal shrieked against asphalt as the vehicle slid forward, momentum carrying it, before friction finally brought it to a halt.

Alexander’s senses swept out. Four bioelectrical signatures appeared in the air above them, positioned all around the grounded car.

He recognized one of them. Gravimax. Which meant the others were probably his guildmates.

They were clearly waiting for him to exit the vehicle.

His Domain exploded outward, while Metallokinesis seized the SUV. The vehicle groaned beneath the competing forces before slowly rising several inches from the road.

“See?” Annie said from the back seat. “Totally called it.”

Alexander glanced in the rearview mirror. Jasmine was pressed heavily into the center seat, her shoulders tense under the increased gravity, though her expression remained remarkably composed despite the pressure.

Maximilian met Alexander’s gaze in the mirror. “This is your problem. Deal with it.”

Alexander sighed. He shoved his door open and stepped out, only for his metal boot to slam into the asphalt much harder than intended, the impact cracking against the road.

He straightened and squinted upward.

Gravimax hovered there, silhouetted against the sun.

Alexander gestured at the SUV. “We have a civilian in the car.”

Gravimax’s eyes narrowed.

The pressure pushing down on the vehicle vanished, only for the force pressing down on Alexander to triple, causing his knees to flex beneath the sudden weight.

“Ugh,” he grunted. “I was having such a good day, too.”

Annie exited the SUV behind him, MetaMetal rippling all across her body as flesh phased out. The moment she was clear of the vehicle, four metal wings burst forth from her back.

Augustus leaned over toward the driver’s side. “Do you need me?”

Alexander blinked at him. “Seriously? There’s four of them. They’re not wizards, you know?”

Augustus glanced up at Gravimax through the window. “Want me to just portal us out of here, then?”

He hesitated. “Give me a moment to talk to the guy. Maybe he’ll be reasonable and let us go if I ask nicely.”

Annie snickered. “Yeah, right.”

Metallokinesis pulsed, and Alexander rose into the air. The gravitational force grew the closer he got to Gravimax, which was obviously intended as a statement, but he just stuffed his hands in his pockets and grinned through it as he reached eye level with the caped superhero.

Gravimax was big. Seven feet tall and bald, but with a beard and mustache that more than made up for it. The man was all muscle, with arms and legs thick enough to shame some tree trunks. He wore a white-trimmed black suit and cape, with the Paragon Society symbol stamped across his bulging chest.

All of that combined with the cauliflower ears, internal strength-enhancing cybernetics, and a history as an underground ring fighter made it easy to see the man as a brutish brawler, but Alexander knew better.

Gravimax was one of the most successful superheroes the world over, responsible for eliminating several notorious gangs. The serious supervillain types. People like Mercy and Ripper. The man was a cunning strategist.

And for once, Alexander really didn’t want to fight.

The other superheroes hovered in the air silently, tense, but without moving to stop him.

Alexander nodded to him. “Gravimax. We never properly met last time I was here.”

“Because you ran like a coward,” Gravimax growled. “Twice.”

Alexander frowned. “That’s such an unfair characterization. The first time, I was trying to stay out of trouble—”

Gravimax crossed his arms. “Sure you were.”

Alexander ignored him. “—and the second time, I was heading home with my shopping. You were too far away to entertain.”

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Gravimax said. “People like you always return to the scene of the crime. You can’t help it. It’s an addiction.”

“Oh, come on,” Alexander said. “Let’s let bygones be bygones. You must have seen the conference, right? We’re all on the same side now.” He grinned. “And what’s a little borrowing between friends?”

Gravimax’s right eye twitched. “You made a fool out of me! Your fucking stunt was all over the holos, and they’re still asking me how I could let the biggest theft in history happen right under my own damn nose!”

“I can see how that might have made you upset—”

“Upset?! Try pissed, asshole.”

“—but AEGIS is gone, and we have bigger problems to deal with. You have no reason, no authority even, to come after me unless you witness me committing a crime.” Alexander slipped his hands from his pockets, then held out his right hand. “So, how about I say sorry for what I did and we go our separate ways.”

Gravimax unfolded his arms slowly. “Are you?”

“What?”

“Are you sorry?”

Alexander stared at the man. “Uh. That’s a difficult thing to answer. I had a lot of fun during the heist, and I really needed the resources, so I’m not sorry about that part. But—”

Gravimax surged forward, throwing a right hook backed by both raw physical power and directional gravity.

Alexander caught the fist with his cybernetic hand, and a shockwave exploded outward. Metallokinesis poured into the arm, struggling to counteract the pressure bearing down on him. His fingers clenched around the fist, barely reaching past the big man’s knuckles.

“As I was trying to say,” Alexander grunted. “While I enjoyed outsmarting you and the other heroes, that’s just part of the game. I wasn’t trying to make you look like a fool.”

“It’s not a game.” Gravimax pushed harder, and Alexander began to slide backward through the air. “But now I’m going to enjoy beating you into the ground. You can leave once I’ve had my pound of flesh.”

The pressure bearing down on Alexander increased sharply, then reversed, pulling Alexander toward the superhero.

Gravimax jerked his head back, then headbutted Alexander in the face with a loud crunch.

Alexander dropped, and gravity assisted him downward, hurling him toward the street faster than Metallokinesis could counteract. He twisted, trying to bleed off the momentum, but the ground rushed up too quickly.

He hit hard enough to shatter the road beneath him, bounced several feet into the air, then finally managed to arrest his movement. Metallokinesis spun him around until he was upright.

Above, Gravimax stared down at him. Then he crooked two fingers in a ‘come here’ motion.

Annie pointed at her own face. “I think he broke your nose.”

Alexander reached up with his left hand and pinched the bridge of his nose between cybernetic fingers. He pulled, and something shifted back into place with a wet click.

He winced. “Yep.”

“Portal?” Augustus called from the SUV.

Alexander pressed one nostril closed and blew, spraying blood onto the road. “Not yet. I think we’ve almost come to an agreement.”

Annie snorted. “So we’re fighting, right?”

“You stay out of it!” Gravimax called down. “This is between me and him.”

Alexander pointed upward. “You heard the man.”

“This is bullshit. Why do you get all the fun?”

Alexander began to rise, Metallokinesis carrying him back into the air toward Gravimax. At the same time, he reached into the ring and, with a thought, released his drones all around him.

“Go play with the other heroes, then,” he said, glancing toward the other three figures still hovering nearby. “They look bored, too.”