Harem In The Intergalactic Apocalypse

Once everyone was up, I stood in the stairwell on the third floor with Riley. I was pretty excited to check out the floors alone.

Sure there would be untold horrors, but I was ready as I could be. Once I sealed up the exit, I would edit my form.

"Are you sure about going down there alone?" Riley asked me, and I grinned.

"Why? Did you want to join me?" I bugged him, and Riley crossed my arms.

"No, that is not what I meant. I know how resourceful you are from our few interactions, but there are some bizarre and violent things down there. Most of them are cargo from the Gray's ship that we captured after it crashed four years ago. I wasn't there, obviously, but some of the things killed a lot of people before getting captured," Riley explained, and I nodded.

"Yes, I understand that there is going to be some serious resistance down there, but I won't look like this," I explained, and Riley nodded, uncrossing his arms.

"Good. You really are the only person that is capable of handling something like this. Stick off four through six. They are more tech levels. The ones that you want are seven to ten. Seven has the basic non-aggressive herbivores. There are some dangerous ones there, but that is because of their composition. I just know that some can be poisonous to touch or breathe in the fumes they give off," Riley explained, and I nodded, impressed.

"You are quite knowledgeable about this stuff, but I guess that is to be expected, right?" I said, and Riley nodded.

"I was part of the strike team that dealt with problems in this bunker, so I was required to understand the things that I would be dealing with. The eighth is more the large herbivores, but that is probably the safest level. I would deal with that one last. There is someone in there, but Michael is fine. He is a Xeno-Biologist, and also a Xeno-Botanist with access to a garden. There is food and a unique alien water filtration system that can slowly create water from siphoning oxygen from the air, and one of the creatures down there," Riley explained, and I nodded.

"That sounds really interesting, but if he is okay, we will leave Michael, and I will start with nine and ten first," I said and then asked, "What can you tell me about them?"

"Nine are carnivores, and there were two people on the floor, but I would be surprised if either of them survived. From the last message, I got from… Candace… it just didn't sound like she was going to make it," Riley said and sighed.

"This is someone that you were close to?" I asked, feeling that from the way he paused and sighed. The man was tough, but everyone had a soft spot.

"Yeah, but I have made my peace with it. If there is anything of hers you could grab for me, I would appreciate that. That floor has some vicious pack-type monsters and some other monsters that fight alone. I wish I could tell you more about them, but I never actually had to go to the ninth or tenth floor. If there was a call, we would be sent packets on our tablets. I was allowed to keep what was sent, but they were dead, and there were too many to remember. Luckily, a good portion of them will be dead, and only the strongest will be left," Riley explained.

"Who was the other guy on the floor?" I asked.

"Floyd, if any of the four that are locked on the two floors survived, it would be that crazy bastard. Still, I listened to the door, and there was nothing but animalistic howling on the other side. The last floor had Cecil, and she is nuts, plus Arseni, but that is all the biggest and most dangerous predators. There is no way that they survived," Riley explained, and I nodded.

"I will start with nine first, and then hit ten. Let Sofia know that I am going down now and to have Mr. Tree gets an incubation chamber sent down to the ninth floor. If anyone is alive, I will bring them out safely, and if not, I will clean the places out, so they are safe to recover what was lost," I said, sticking my hand out to Riley, and he shook it firmly, and then turned, and headed back up the stairs.

I turned right away and started to head down. I felt terrible for Riley, and it hit close to home for me. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him to hear what I was sure must have been her cries.

What I didn't tell Riley was that I could detect two human life sources. There was one on each floor, so I didn't want to get his hopes up; I was pretty sure they were both women, but the walls were really thick.

Once I was down to the seventh floor, I used Firaga's powers to heat up and flatten the steel stairs. I added more systeminium to strengthen it to the point that I would even be able to get out without being able to control it.

The next step was to change my own body in the same fashion. I used Katie's ability, mixed with some of Aiko's, to create special reactive armor that makes me look sort of like if Master Chief and a Gundam Wing had a threesome with a Transformer and somehow shit me out into a pool of silver.

I don't even have good words for what I had created. This is what happens when you have too many sources to draw inspiration from. Now I was walking death.

My legs were covered in layers of plates that could break away and be controlled with magnetics and the gravity engine that was now humming inside of me. They were sharp and autonomous, acting on my will. I tested them out, and the parts of my legs flew off and started to circle around me in an orbital pattern. They would also come back to my legs if something tried to attack me on one of the legs, but I was a lot lighter without them.

I was pretty sure that I might dent the floor if I wasn't using the gravity engine to make me lighter. My body was covered in rifles, pistols, and blades, and there was even a mini particle beam on my shoulder.

[Hey! How is it going?!] Omega asked, nearly giving me a heart attack.

'I am getting ready to go fight some Xeno-Beasts. What the fuck are you doing? Also, do you mind using your inside voice when talking in my head? I almost shit my pants!' I sent it back, and Omega laughed at me.

[I just noticed that you were using the shit out of the System, and I thought that I should check on you. Melody also says hi, and she loves you.] Omega explained, and I sighed.

'How are things going with you two?' I asked, but then Melody and Omega's images came into my view.

"This is much better! Hey, baby! I missed you!" Melody cheered, and I grinned.

"I missed you too! How are things going with you two? Is he giving you trouble?" I asked, and Melody laughed.

"Omega is much easier to push around than you are, so things are going pretty smoothly. I was just bringing in another herd of beasts. They listen so much better than the humans," Melody said with a sigh.

"Oh? Have you been telling people about the forests?" I asked. "I have spread pretty far, but they are still pretty sparse and far apart in the states down here."

"We have been trying, but the further south we go, the less receptive people seem to get. That isn't to say that we aren't getting people to come and go to the tree. It's just that most people are pretty leery when we start explaining things," Melody explained, and I nodded.

"I was worried about that. Part of the problem is getting people to give up violently and hate each other. That doesn't mean we are all going to dance and sing. There will still be anger and disputes, but we are going to be settling them with clones; as for the other part of the problem. The conspiracists, and many other people in general, have grown up in a world that makes its daily bread by lying to everyone," I explained, and Omega nodded.

"Yes, many people seem to make constant reference to news and government officials constantly lying and covering things up. Is this really how your world worked? We studied your people, but I have never seen such a diverse race. And I don't mean that in a good way. Hardly anyone can agree on anything, and there are many variations of the same thing that other breeds try to make more special than others. Why would not all people that were good at something work on it?" Omega asked, and I chuckled.

"Don't worry, and I know that this is hard, but you two are doing good work," I said, but Melody was giving me a weird look.

"Why do you look like Megazord jumped Ironman in a dark alley?" Melody asked with a confused look.

"Because I have to go capture a bunch of vicious monsters. They are creatures from other worlds," I explained, and Melody wiggled her finger at me.

"You should maybe work on it, so it doesn't look like… that," Melody said, and I shook my head.

"Love you and goodbye, you little shit," I said as Melody blew me a kiss and both screens closed.