UnMasked Nomad

16

^^ Nomads Respite ^^

— Erin —

In the end I felt the need for walls, and so I left the Gazebo standing, as it was still a perfect spot for it, and went to my side of the lagoon, planning a house built into the water.

It looked like a Japanese boat house from any direction, but looking from under the water would show it was firmly rooted in the ground by several support posts, as well as a large central column, supporting the main weight of the house.

The entire frame was to be laced with my new Alloy, -which Sofia had concocted from the scattered remains of my research, and the sample of pure Nth Metal we'd gotten from the Native Thanagarian Salt Snake or whatever,- and the pillars and columns were all filled with a core of the stuff, as well.

The entire island was covered in several layers of force-field, barrier, and Nth Alloy mesh netting, plus a layer of the Czarnian Stealth Tech, making it look like it had originally looked, all without blocking the views inside the sphere, (it did continue down into the earth, where I would rebuild my lab,) or disrupting the local wildlife.

The net allowed fish and birds in, after scanning them for several different things, such as robotic enhancements, Martian or other shapeshifting DNA, external control over a variety of wavelengths, such as psychic control or Magical Familiars, and even diseases which would harm the other residents, as well as previous meals made of meat, to weed out predators.

If it noticed any of those things, it would turn the animal away gently, with a small static shock, or more forcefully, if they persisted.

Next, I had Sofia analyze the metallic composition of Nth Metal, and postulate why the Salt Snakes produced it in their brains, then alter the nutrients in the water a little, to see if they would grow the metal naturally, (not that I wanted to farm them for it, but their corpses could ethically be collected for science,) but it didn't take, unfortunately, though they did get noticeably more healthy, so I left it as it was, for now.

My belongings were placed in the second floor of the house after it's speedy construction, where my apartment was located, while I organized the bottom floor: a large, formal tea-house, complete with the tea table and a full array of tea leaves and kettles and such. I liked the aesthetic, even though I myself was Greek.

There was a different design for the second floor, a modern New York Loft-type situation, with floor-to-ceiling windows, (not visible from outside,) and views of the entire island, though at any time I could switch that to another view, such as the deep ocean, or the view from the top of Mount Everest, overlooking the sea of clouds. (That one was my favorite, so far.)

Once that was managed, the interior of the main column of the house, which was hollow and shielded from any spectrum of surveillance, even X-Ray Vision, was turned into an elevator, accessed from inside my closet, just so I could make the joke.

At the bottom was my laboratory, where the six Synthesizers I'd built from the original plans were placed, and the drones were busy building for the workshop, where I was making improved armor for most of the non-invulnerable leaguers, amongst other things.

The new armor was nothing like mine, of course, just a 3% copy of the original non-Nth Alloy, making it 3% of 80%, So a 2.4% accurate replication of the Hephaestus Metal. It was very light, barely thread-weight, with thirty times the defensive power of full-plated titanium Kevlar, the formula Batman and Red Hood used.

Another project was replicating the tech from Lobo's Bike/Ship, which was surprisingly easy, now that I'd unlocked the secrets of the disk that opened portals. It seemed that most of the Lower-Tech (the stuff from fake Lobo,) was reliant on the Dark Matter to operate, and relatively advanced, but not mysterious to someone who'd already examined a Fatherbox.