"I kinda want to get rid of this problem now," Max said.
"Yes, the sooner we get rid of this, the better," Olivia added.
"I don't want this thing following us around," Cat admitted.
"So what is the game plan?" The boy crossed his arms. At least this wasn't a deer shooting plasma at him.
"We should get some electrical or chemical weapons to deal with it." Olivia's constant, smug smile was gone as she thought of a way to deal with this monster with so little information.
"Should we lure it and then attack it?" The young man asked.
"Cat could use her power to kill it, but it would take a few minutes . . . Also, I don't know if that black goo is biological," Olivia answered.
"Aye, it is a risky gamble using me as the main source of damage," the red-haired woman answered.
"Fire?" Max suggested.
"You don't want an underground fire," Olivia rejected the suggestion.
"Right . . ." He made a small pause. She had a point, actually; a fire would be the end of them, as it would burn not only the oxygen, but also there was nowhere for them to run from it. The outside was not a thing underground.
"Gas it?" Ange gave the final solution.
"Well, maybe using tear gas to get it out of the vents? Still, it is a zombie so . . . I don't know if its pain receptors are on," Cat added.
"So we have two problems. The first one is getting it to a place where we can fight it. The second one is finding a way to hurt it," Olivia said.
"Aye. We could try to gas it out or use a bait." Cat's gaze fixed on Olivia during the last part.
"Then, for killing it, we could use poison, electricity, or Cat," Olivia suggested.
"Where can we get something to gas it?" The young man asked again after thinking for a few seconds.
"Sis and I could craft something, especially with your body giving us the components," Ange said with a cheerful tone.
"Or Olivia could be our bait to drag it out. Honestly, I prefer that option," Cat added.
"Yes, risking the only person who can hack the base. That time in prison really helped you to become smarter," Olivia barked back with a smug smile.
"You should try it yourself." Cat clenched her fist.
"Back on topic. . . poison weapons or electric ones? Where are we gonna get them?" Max tried to dissolve that dispute.
"I could give you one, but is that or the gas. I can't work with two things at the same time," Cat said, looking at the man.
"So . . . we use Olivia as bait, and then you give me some electric weaponry or . . ." He didn't like the idea of risking the girl.
"We gas it and then pray that our guns, flashbangs, or Cat can deal with it," Olivia added at the end.
Rushing things would get them killed. So they decided to take the long route. Creating the gas and then infusing Max with some electric mutations.
As Anathema and Cat were working on a "gas generator" using some zombie corpses as components on the station, Max was talking with Olivia inside the monorail.
"So . . . you could find something?" He asked her.
"Don't get touched by the black goo, it seems that is the only way it has to harm you," Olivia said while thinking with a hand under her chin.
"How do you know that?" Max asked, confused about the full ramifications of that power.
She shrugged. "A hunch. My power sometimes does that."
The villain may have had an idea or two about what kind of mutation he should get next.
"Hey, can you help with that? What kind of mutation should I focus on in the future?"
"It is not a clairvoyance power . . . but as a personal suggestion, I recommend you try to remove your need to sleep, it is the only way to gain more hours in the day."
"Got it, no more sleeping . . . something else?"
"It may sound strange, but try to work in your brain. It is the most powerful weapon you have, from Cognito protection to improvements in processing power."
"Thanks for the suggestions," Max said with a relaxed tone.
"You are welcome, we must work together in order to get out of this mess." Olivia nodded.
However, the boy needed to check on the girl. He had the hard job of keeping this party together after all.
"How do you feel? I can see there is a lot of history and tension around."
"Well, I tried to make Cat kill herself after the incident with her dad just to get rid of that dangerous element. I knew that she would snap and become a monster, but killing her directly was not my style," Olivia confessed her crime.
He felt shivers down his spine remembering that deal.
That was with any doubt a shitty thing to do but Max was wondering why Olivia could say that. There were a lot of ways that she could tweak and modify the truth so she would be more sympathetic, but she didn't. "Do you regret doing that?" Max asked.
The woman went silent for a second, thinking about her actions. She had concluded that as long as Cat was nearby, manipulating Max would be a losing game, so she stopped that.
"Honestly? Yes, I could have handled the situation better," the girl muttered, leaving that sentence ambiguous.
Max rolled his eyes. She could be referring to making the harassment more effective to achieve her goal. "I believe you," he said, not that she was sorry with Cat, but that she at least could admit a mistake.
She chuckled. "You really do? Weird," she added with a vulpine smile.
"I can do more weird stuff," he said with a mischievous look on his face.
Then he proceeded to pat the girl's head as a reward. Maybe treating Olivia like a dog wasn't a good idea, but the young man had so little experience with girls that he couldn't think of a better solution.
"I am not a pet." Olivia rolled her eyes.
"Should I stop?" Max asked.
She waited a few seconds before answering.
"You can stop now," the girl said with a teasing grin.
"Ok." He immediately withdrew his hand.
After that small conversation, Cat and Ange were ready to give Max a special new weapon.
It was an experience. Between Cat shining her hands green and just unraveling his body, and then Ange doing stuff less magically by cutting, weaving, and stapling. He was thankful they didn't have any mirrors nearby since they skinned him alive to work on it.
Max gains:
Mjolnir mesh: This mutation creates a net of specialized cells around the skin that allow the nervous system to exponentially increase the electricity around this special zone. The subject gains the capability to generate a huge electric shock on his body that is capable of knocking out a normal or even a big person. This electric current is able to easily move across objects like metal weaponry and has a touch range. The user needs at least 5 minutes to recreate an insulating layer around the body before it is safe to use again. It could be used within the hour of the first discharge, but that would make the subject suffer the same damage as the target.
"Oh, so I am an electric eel now?" Max asked. He used his power to analyze the mutation. That was a smart tool, those two were extremely talented in their job.
"Similar to that, I took the idea from them," Cat said.
"Don't overuse it! We kinda made it in a rush, so it has some . . .recoil," Ange warned.
Yes, even with the boy's pain receptors removed. The overload of energy without the protective layer could knock him out.
"Good enough, thanks." However, there was something that caught the boy's attention.
A pile of corpses fused, eight lungs on top each other, inflating and deflating. The boy could only see two mouths, one on each side. It hurt to see it, the different colors of skin mixing together like a calico cat made him want to puke.
"Is that done?" He asked.
"Done, we are ready when you are," Ange said with a cheerful smile.
After a quick group hug, which only Max and Ange participated in, the supers was ready to begin their mission.
They "glued" the machinery to an air duct near the main door. Filling the place with that strong tear gas that would affect even the zombies, a special recipe from Ange herself. According to Olivia, there was only one way out and it was that monorail station.
Max put the Kevlar helmet on and prepared himself to be the main tank. While Cat was behind him, Olivia and Ange were at a safe distance with their shotguns ready to help.
It came rushing towards the group, running at top speed while making loud, wet slapping sounds on the floor.