"Techlord, Doctor Decanov. There is something else I'd like to discuss, if you have the time."

The two inventors, currently busy putting the finishing touch to the automated defense system they had almost completed installing in the Shadow Den, turned around to look at their employer. That, or the slime living puppet he used sometimes. The two had gotten better at seeing whether they were dealing with the real deal or not, the man himself being a little more human compared to the usually emotionless copy, bar its anger spikes when its master was insulted. Even the way they stood was slightly different, by virtue of Silhouette not having to deal with a solid skeleton in the center of his mass.

The Draskian was the first to speak, already rolling his eyes. Well, it wasn't truly an eye roll since his pupils were flat squares in the flat rectangles of his eyes, but it was the gesture that mattered.

"Yes, we are more than happy to deal with yet even more last-minute work while preparing for a war. Would you like some tea and biscuits while we're at it?"

"What the tin can said. We're already working overtime, boss."

"I know, I know. But I feel this is important. Your current duties take priority, of course, but... Well, I need your help with something special. Something I've been preparing for some time now."

"Alright, we get it, boss. Come on, what's the big thing?"

"An idea I first had some time ago, while training some of my abilities with Mesker. It involves you two building new weapons. Special weapons. Not necessarily on the level of the Techzooka, but... Well, items in the same category."

Doctor Decanov raised one of his large eyebrows at that.

"The Techzooka? Really? That's the name of a weapon you developed? What does it do, shoot merchandise?"

"Of course not. The Techzooka is... Well, not my greatest creation, but it's up there. It's simple, it's expensive to use, but it does the job, no doubt about that."

"What Techlord is describing, Doctor, is the weapon responsible for the pillar of darkness that shook Zalcien a little while ago. The Techzooka fires Infused Cores to damage and corrupt a large area. It was successfully used to weaken a demon and nullify a large part of Runar's runic and enchanted defenses when he attacked his base. It is, to this day, the strongest manufactured weapon at our disposal, though we try to avoid using it. As your colleague put it, it's expensive to fire, but it is also very eye-catching and destructive. Should we be forced to use it in Zalcien proper, there will be no hiding its effects, and a good risk of civilian casualties if we're not careful."

The robot almost froze when he heard James' description. He took a moment to think, looking from the teen genius to his employer back and forth, before letting out a sigh.

"I was under the impression you were trying to keep your Transformation aspect discreet, bar the large amounts of shadow-aligned materials and the army of puppets. I didn't expect you to fully weaponize it like this, especially since I assume anyone could use this weapon."

"Techlord is its sole holder, but yes. It is why there is only one iteration of it, rather than multiple distributed amongst the troops. To make sure it is still under control and avoid risks of someone stealing it and using it for their own purposes, or even to incriminate me."

"And you would ask us to develop more weapons of this caliber?"

"I remember what you told me when I first hired you, Doctor. You wouldn't build a death ray for a Villain. I know I am no Villain, but more importantly, I respect you and your ethics. I won't ask you to build such grand weapons if you refuse. I trust Techlord to produce the arms I need for my plan."

"What is your plan, exactly, Silhouette?"

"Yeah, I'm curious about that one too, boss."

"When I went to take care of the Patcher, he and his main creations, ordered to attack me, were immune to my shadow powers, as expected. We already knew he was aware of my limitations regarding my affinity, with Runar already employing a similar strategy. I took them out with a mix of environmental adaptation and, more relevantly, by pulling out a gun while the maniac was busy monologuing over my defeated form."

That's when it clicked for both inventors.

"The weapons are for you."

"For when you deal with more dudes prepared specifically against you."

"Yes. Well, they will also find uses outside of these specific scenarios, but they will help me overcome my main weakness at the moment. You see, while the technique I employ isn't a true hammerspace as it's typically defined, the general idea is the same. I pull out something from inside me that wasn't there before. I can be a shadow, slip beneath a door, and manifest something out of my body that would not have fit through the crack. I can pull out weapons depending on the situation."

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James demonstrated by slowly pulling a gun out of the black mass of Solvent's body. The black slime squelched uncomfortably as the metal that wasn't there before slipped out, but if anything, it further proved his points - he was pulling the arm out of his chest, where Solvent's ribs should have been in the way.

"The technique still takes a little too much time for my taste, even outside of the handicap of doing this via a proxy, but surely you see its potential. I already successfully managed to only need to pull out the barrel to use this gun when doing this with my real body, can you imagine if I could go even further until I could just directly transfer the shot without needing to expose the weapon?"

"Holy hell, boss. You could become a walking armory."

"Precisely."

"Silhouette? When you tested this ability, did you take the time to check the limits on the mass it could move?"

"I am still limited by my body, and the larger the object, the more time it takes to transfer. It is also faster to fully transport it inside of me and then pull it out than to transport it to the surface of my mass, but for this weapon plan, I think the surface is still the better idea. We want to minimize the volume of the arm exposed to avoid potential damage. A damaged barrel is easier to fix than a busted inner mechanism."

"And have you tested only part of a large object or structure?"

"Yes. It takes time. Not as much as the full object would, but longer than a complete item of equivalent size. In testing, the severed head of a statue was faster to completely transfer than the still-attached head of an identical statue."

"But it is possible. Which means..."

"You could build an immense weapon, and I could use it by only transferring the tip of the barrel, yes. That was something I thought of."

"Hey, boss? How does this work, exactly? Like, you said it isn't a real hammerspace, so how do you do it then?"

"I need the item to be in contact with an amount of infused material of equal mass. Then, I essentially pull it through my connection to it to bring it to myself. My plan is to collect caches of weapons in black boxes of infused stones, hidden underground throughout the city. I'd prefer to have multiple of these vaults in case any is located or compromised. Larger arms like the ones I'd like Doctor Decanov to build would have to be stored in larger, exclusive vaults. Ones that would sadly need to be reachable by people for required maintenance work. It would expose them to sabotage, but it would be necessary."

"Couldn't you just pull Decanov through? I mean, the tin can's made from the same kind of stuff as the weapons you want us to make, no?"

"No, no, he could not. Or perhaps he could, but he won't. Isn't that right, Silhouette?"

While one might expect the doctor's choice of words to be a clever deduction of James' power, the tone of his voice made it clear it was the affirmation of a man who rejected the idea out of sheer principle, not logic. This wasn't a deduction, but an order.

"I haven't tested whether I can transport living things through this method yet, and the specifics of the inner workings of a robot's soul may make it even more sensitive to possible damage caused by this technique. Well, aside from travelling through these bonds myself. So, as the good doctor said, it isn't a possibility, Techlord."

"You know, there are tons of things you don't do because you're unsure of their effects on living things. You really should get to testing all that when you can."

"Oh? And how would you suggest I do it? With lab rats, perhaps?"

"Ah. Right. Your soft spot for rats. Well, I mean, the Infused are a thing. We could spare to lose a few if you wanted to play around with them."

"Techlord, I am not treating these people as test subjects."

"Well, you scrambled their brains and maybe even their souls, so there's not much 'people' left in there. It wouldn't be a huge waste. And before you complain about it, better test it now than in the field. Pretty sure you're the one who told me you shouldn't check if your weapons work during the battle, but before that. And, in this case, there's a lot we need to check. I mean, hell, Polisson's whole shadow claw thing. You never did that again. Or, well, maybe you did with the wolf, since he has those burning black eyes now, but you get what I mean. Same thing with the goblin! You unlocked brand new magic in the bugger and then never bothered to look into it more besides having them become an elite enforcer."

"The brat is right, Silhouette. I understand your resistance to experimenting with Transformation, and I greatly appreciate not having to worry about a maniac trying to corrupt the world into a mirror of himself, but it is a part of your powers you need to understand beyond the fairly simple way you've been using them. Beyond the fact that this will let you know more about yourself and what you can do, this could do wonders to prepare should we face another Transformation wielder."

"What the grumpy bot said. Transformation's rare, and the Union tries to get it under control as soon as they can when they catch wind of it, but there are still people with it out there. I mean, most people believe the Biflora has the darn Aspect, and that it's how he works. Can you imagine what would happen if he attacked himself without us being prepared for it?"

"Or, on a less violent matter, think of my experience with Adam. What if one day you run into a situation where you need to use this part of your powers to save a life? Where you need to save someone, or maybe restore a lost part of themselves, without binding them to you, without making them yet another loyal thrall. You need mastery. And mastery takes practice."

"Even if it means ruining lives? Possibly even souls?"

"You're not doing this out of cruelty, Silhouette."

"Terrible things have been done out of love, Doctor."

"Do you think advances in medicine happen on their own? It takes trial and error. Again, what me and the child are asking you is not to start rounding up civilians and experimenting on them like the Patcher or even the Empress. We merely ask that, next time you start blasting bolts of corruptive dark energies at thugs who thought it smart to try and kill or rob you, you start trying to learn something besides how to take them down as fast as possible."

"That, and maybe mess around with folks we know already deserve it. I mean, I get why we couldn't do it with the Patcher since the guy's infamous and we needed to show everyone he was dead while also keeping the identity of his killer secret, but next time we have a crazy bloodthirsty guy on the hit list, try and get as much as you can out of it."

James looked at his two most trusted employees before letting out a sigh.

"Very well. But I won't be happy about it. And you two? Promise me to keep me in check, in case you ever think I'm going overboard."

"No problem, boss. Now, about the weapons we could make..."

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