A D Tier's Breaking Point

Chapter 25

It was taking more willpower than Alex was willing to admit to not poke into Serino's comments. To not steal away his former scientist, sit them down and interrogate them for hours about the past year. About the lair, the crimes, the killings. About Heart Stealer. But he had told himself not to poke it, and he was determined to keep to that. So instead he left Serino to their work, watching the other scientists work and decidedly ignore the S tier's presence before he finally turned back to Morgan. Who was fussing over a worktable alongside a young woman wearing a striped pinafore dress under her lab coat, her auburn hair falling out of a bun that was holding a variety of pens.

'-and I'm going to need your help with the rest of the calibrations,' the scientist Lara said, pointing to a tablet screen between the two of them. 'Hardware's been double checked and I've gone through the software five times to get all the hitches out. Next time can we make sure that they don't take feedback if Monday crashes again? I still can't replicate some of the materials yet, and if those break we're kind of screwed.'

'Sure,' Morgan nodded, 'I think we can make an isolation program for Monday's extensions, think that would do it?'

'Possibly, I can talk to Joey about it later.'

'Perfect,' Morgan said, standing up straight and fiddling with the cuffs of their shirt sleeves, 'Want to run a test now?'

Lara beamed, 'Ready when you are Boss.' Neither of them noticed Alex step closer as Lara moved around to the other side of the workbench and grabbed what Alex immediately recognised as the power bracers, set onto dark metal stands that were pulsing with a soft blue light. She brought them over, setting them in front of Morgan, who picked one up and began to inspect it from all angles as Lara fetched a pair of mesh gloves complete with strange panels on the palms.

'Those look like fun,' Alex said, smirking as Lara jumped with a squeak and nearly dropped the gloves.

Morgan however rolled their eyes, looking up at Alex, 'You don't need them.'

'I know I don't,' Alex grinned, 'but they still look fun. How exactly do they work?'

Morgan sighed and turned back to Lara, 'You ok there?' She was frozen for a minute, barely glancing at Morgan before nodding. 'Okay, well these are your life's work. Do you want to explain them?'

Lara didn't answer at first, staring wide-eyed at Alex through the loose hair falling over her face. He smirked at that, eyes glowing brighter with mischief at the potential of another fan, until she jolted herself out of her reverie and moved forward. 'Right, of course, um...which...which part are you interested in Sir?'

Alex's grin grew wider until Morgan elbowed him sharply. 'Oi!' Morgan only responded by giving him a look to behave, which made Alex scowl. 'Spoilsport. I guess...the part where you can copy and turn on superpowers with the press of a button.'

'Uh...why?'

Alex rolled his eyes, 'Your toy here can turn on powers almost as well as I can, and I want to know how you managed that.'

Lara seemed to pale at that, turning to Morgan for reassurance. They didn't look up, only scoffing as they said, 'I thought I told you to play nice Alex?'

'I am being nice!'

'How encouraging,' Morgan rolled their eyes and looked at Lara. 'It's your work so it's up to you, but if I were you I'd be bragging by now.'

Lara giggled slightly at that, 'Oh I don't really have anything to brag about, it's not like I invented it. I was just the first person to get a crack at the puzzle.' Alex quirked an eyebrow and slid onto a vacant stool, clearly curious, and Lara took in a slight breath, 'Right, ok, um...how much do you know about the Ruins of Atlantis?'