07. Unexpected Dev-elopments, page 33
part #7 of Apocalypse Gates Series
“We did,” Gothy said. “It was nice. I’d ask you, but I already know the answer.”
Shrugging, Alvin kept his grin toned down. “You’d be right. Before we get really sidetracked, though, there’s a couple of things we should discuss.”
Nohel looked a little panicked. “If I did something wrong—!”
“Easy, easy,” Alvin said, cutting her off. “You’re fine, as far as I know.”
“She’s been a little on edge, thinking we shouldn’t ‘waste our time’ with her,” Gothy said.
“We’ve told her all day that she’s wrong,” Mousie added.
“It helps a little, but she’s still worried she’ll be overstepping her place,” Desiree finished.
“Hopefully, you can see it differently,” Alvin said as he took a seat at the table. “If we didn’t want you here, you wouldn’t be. It’s that simple.”
Nohel looked down at the table, not meeting their eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“The DMV is done with the Grey DNA,” Alvin said, keeping an eye on Nohel, “which means we have options available to us again. I’d like to see about modifying Mousie to increase your maximum Hardiness to be in line with ours. I worry about you being fragile.”
Mousie smiled softly. “I wouldn’t say no. I want to make sure to be here forever.”
“The other thing we can do— if you’re willing, Nohel— is to let it start working on your DNA.”
Nohel frowned, looking up and trying to understand. “My DNA?”
“The machine needs a full read on it if you’d ever want to use it. I’m letting you know that it’s an option, if you want.”
Seeing her blank look, Gothy explained, “Remember how you were complaining about some things earlier? This would be an easy way for you to possibly change them.”
Nohel’s mouth fell open, and she looked shocked. “But… I shouldn’t…! I’m just… I’m just a bother…”
Gothy sighed and put her hand over Nohel’s. “Only you thinking you’re not worth anything is a bother, Nohel. The option is there, but it means working around us using the DMV. When we offer, that’s the time to speak up.”
Nohel looked from her to the others, then back to Gothy. “I have to choose right now?”
“Nope, but there will be times you’ll have to wait,” Alvin said. “People who fight get priority, not that we’ll have anyone besides you and Jarvis in the base that isn’t going to go fight.”
“And in time, maybe you’ll want to do that, too,” Mousie added.
“Dinner,” Jarvis said. “Is everything okay?”
“Just talking about possible futures,” Alvin told him.
“Ah, I can understand that, sir. Nohel, will you help me, please? I need you to get the wine and glasses.”
“Of course!” Nohel shot to her feet and rushed to help Jarvis.
“Sorry for interrupting, sir,” Jarvis said as he brought a basket of fresh bread and a big bowl of salad to the table. “Please continue.”
“We’d just finished the first subject,” Alvin shrugged. “Only other thing I was going to mention was that we have nearly four million XP to spend. I was thinking about stat upgrades... at least Hardiness, to give us more cushion.”
“Which explains why you mentioned it earlier,” Gothy said. “We should, including Mousie.”
“After dessert?” Mousie suggested, clearly not wanting to be left out of the fun later.
“Takes after you,” Desiree said to Gothy.
“I trained her well,” Gothy smirked.
“It’d take three hundred and forty thousand XP for Gothy and me to cap out at ten Hardiness. If we add in Mousie up to ten, after the DMV, we’re looking at six hundred and forty thousand XP.”
“Which still keeps you behind me,” Desiree said.
“Yeah, but not by much.”
“I approve of this idea,” Desiree nodded. “Keeping you all alive is my top priority.”
“We’re agreed, then,” Gothy said, Mousie nodding along with her.
“Okay, tomorrow morning for stats. I didn’t check how long it would take for Mousie in the tank.”
“What to do with the rest of it?” Gothy murmured.
“Considering where we’re going and what we might encounter,” Alvin said, “I was thinking of banking it for now. That way, we can spend big if something incredible comes up.”
“That’s a solid point,” Gothy agreed as she served herself some salad.
Jarvis was coming back with a couple of covered trays while Nohel poured wine for everyone. “Maybe a break for dinner?”
“Good call,” Alvin said, his mouth watering when he caught the scent of the food.
~*~*~
Pushing his empty plate away, Alvin sighed happily. “Damn, Jarvis, you’re going to make losing you nearly impossible.”
“Nohel will easily catch up to and surpass me,” Jarvis said. When Nohel started to object, Jarvis shook his head. “I do not flatter needlessly, Nohel. You’re only just behind me when it comes to cooking. Your other skills for being the maid need a bit more work, but you will get there, too.”
“Did they tell you something?” Gothy asked pointedly.
“Not yet, miss. I just wish her to know her potential. No one has told her plainly how much she can do. They only ever told her what she couldn’t do.”
Nohel’s lip trembled and she swallowed. “Alvin… is that offer still open?”
“The DMV? Yes.”
“I’d like to start. I want to be better.”
“Gothy, she’d probably feel better if it was you,” Alvin said.
“Ladies, let’s go help our timid friend take a big first step,” Gothy said, rising to her feet.
“Yes,” Desiree smiled.
“Of course,” Mousie nodded.
As they left the table, Jarvis watched them go. “You really do want to help the people who’ve been harmed like you, Alvin.”
“No one should experience that hell...” Alvin said quietly. “She isn’t like me and Gothy. I’m surprised she survived, even as busted as she is. I just hope Gothy can help her.”
“You’ll both help her,” Jarvis said, getting to his feet. “I might not be able to see the code anymore, but I’ve seen you take broken things and make them whole in different ways.”
Alvin snorted. “A little thick there.”
“Gothy and Mousie would argue that,” Jarvis said simply as he started to collect the dishes. “Then again, Gothy is doing the same with you. Would you have comforted Susan about James? Taken the time to help Beatty with the mini-bosses instead of just going after them yourself? Given away the Predators to the Dwarves? Been willing to take that broken, poor soul into your home with nothing more than the hope that she can be healed?”
Alvin blinked. Everything he’d done in the last few weeks had just been laid bare before him. “Shit…”
“As you help them, they help you, sir,” Jarvis said. “Even you have begun to change, and can you say it hasn’t been for the better?”
“Hey, is dessert still on the menu?” Rebs asked, coming into the base. “Where is everyone?”
Alvin shook his head and he put aside the big thoughts, deciding to focus on the here and now. “They’ll be back shortly. Jarvis, can you let them know I’ll have dessert warmed up for them when they return?”
Jarvis rolled his eyes. “If I must, sir.”
Rebs laughed. “Sorry, Jarvis. He’s incorrigible to a fault.”
“He’s tame compared to Gothy,” Jarvis deadpanned. “Have a good evening.”
“Oh, we will,” Alvin laughed.
Chapter Forty
Alvin checked on Mousie for the fourth time that day, the percentage of her modifications moving slowly toward being complete. Placing his hand on the tank, Alvin smiled at the suspended Elf.
“Is she done?” Gothy asked, poking her head into the room.
“Maybe another half hour?” Alvin suggested.
“She looks a little thicker,” Gothy said, moving to stand beside Alvin. “Dwarf or Human?”
“Dwarf,” Alvin said. “Human would’ve altered her a lot more to get her to match us.”
“Maybe I won’t need to worry about breaking her as often,” Desiree said when she joined them. “She’s still very thin, but not to the point where I’ll hurt her as easily now. I wouldn’t complain about being more nimble.”
“We can toss you in whenever you’re ready,” Alvin said, resting his arm across Desiree’s shoulders. “Should take about the same amount of time— half a day.”
“Maybe tomorrow?” Desiree asked.
“If that works for you,” Alvin said.
“Let’s go max out our stat,” Gothy said. “It’ll give us something to do besides drool on our wife.”
“But you all like it when I drool on you,” Alvin laughed.
“Almost as much as you like it when we drool on you,” Gothy replied.
“I’m a man. What can I say?”
When they left the medical bay, they went right over to the kiosk. Side by side, the couple worked the interface to increase their Hardiness stats. With a glance at each other, they accepted the change at the same time.
Alvin waited for the weird sensation of his skin crawling to make him shiver, but nothing happened. He blinked, the lack of sensation odd. Gothy suddenly shifted in his vision— the overall effect wasn’t as pronounced as it could have been because of her clothing, but it was obvious she’d just changed. Gothy didn’t twitch, though, not moving as though her skin was crawling at all.
“No sensation for you?” Alvin asked her.
“For me, no, but what about you?” Gothy asked.
“Not a thing.”
“You both changed,” Desiree said. “I am glad to hear they removed that sickening feeling from it.”
“Right!?” Gothy snorted. “Finally! I’ve been asking them to fix that since the first time I upgraded myself.”
“Movement in a positive direction,” Alvin said. “Let’s step back into the medical bay. I want to wait for Mousie, but I also want to see you naked to compare from last night.”
“I’m game,” Gothy said, moving straight for the medical bay.
“We know,” Desiree snickered.
Back in the medical bay, and away from where Jarvis and Nohel might see them, both Gothy and Alvin lost their clothing. Alvin wolf-whistled and tried not to drool. Gothy seemed to be in the same state as she stared at him.
“Differences... both of you have lost the majority of your extra weight, not that you had much left,” Desiree said, eyeing them both. “All your muscles look firmer... might have lost some of your muscle mass, actually.” She moved over and ran her hand over Gothy’s stomach. “Interesting. How did you manage to keep just a hint of your old padding?”
Gothy frowned, obviously at a loss for that, as well. She pulled her eyes from Alvin’s eight-pack to look down, then sighed. Her breasts were still just as large as they had been, and were obviously not going to let her see her own stomach.
“Because she’s Gothy,” Alvin said, moving forward and running his hand over Gothy’s stomach. Her muscles were clearly there, right under the skin, they just didn’t pop to the same degree as Alvin’s. “Beautiful in every way.”
“You always said that even when I was far larger.”
“Just as true today as it was then,” Alvin said gently.
“He definitely approves,” Desiree said, her hand grazing Alvin’s rising salute.
“Hard not to, but this isn’t the room for that,” Alvin said, stepping back before they could make him reconsider his stance.
Gothy’s eyes dipped to see his hard cock and she licked her lips. “It’s not like anyone wo—”
“Gothy, I was wonderin—?” Nohel was asking when she came into the room, her voice cutting off when she got an eyeful of Alvin and Gothy.
In the next instant, Alvin was dressed. “Sorry, Nohel. It isn’t as it might’ve appeared.”
Gothy turned to Nohel, still naked. “He’s right. We just upgraded our stats and were checking the differences. What did you need?”
Nohel blinked, her cheeks going scarlet, as her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
Desiree sighed and stepped between Gothy and Nohel, breaking most of her line of sight. “Nohel?”
“Huh...? Oh! Uh...? Never mind!” Nohel spun and left the room at a quick walk.
“That’s why I was saying that,” Alvin said.
“Shit,” Gothy sighed, suddenly clothed. “I’ll go talk with her.”
“We’ll go,” Desiree said. “She might need someone else there to not feel intimidated.”
“Hmm... She was staring at me, and not Hero. You might have a point.”
“Hero was also dressed the instant she came into the room,” Desiree was saying as the two women left.
A second after they walked out, a small beep got Alvin’s attention and the DMV began to drain the fluid from Mousie’s tank. Shaking his head, he turned to the tank, waiting for Mousie to wake up.
“Hello, Hero,” Mousie said when her eyelids opened.
“Hey. You ready to come out and go through the stat increase?”
Mousie’s lips twisted into a frown before she nodded. “Not really, but I’ll deal with it.”
“No reason to hate it anymore,” Alvin told her. “They changed it. No more skin twitches.”
“Really?”
“Yup. Gothy and I are both capped on Hardiness now. Once you’re out, we’ll get you capped, too.”
Mousie looked at him as much as she could. “Did it change you a lot?”
“We’ve already had an incident,” Alvin said. “Nohel walked in when Gothy and I were naked.”
“In the bedroom?”
“Right here,” Alvin said. “Have to be a little more careful. Jarvis didn’t wander, but Nohel wanted to ask Gothy something.”
“Is she okay?”
“Gothy just left to go check on her, or she’d be here, too,” Alvin said.
“Are you upset?”
“No, though I’m a little concerned about her. Gothy took a huge responsibility on with Nohel coming in.”
“She knows,” Mousie said as the fluid finished draining completely.
“Gothy sees in Nohel what could’ve been her,” Alvin said. “I understand the desire to want to help.”
“That’s why you’re our hero, Hero.”
“Come on, you,” Alvin said, holding a towel out for her. “Get dried off, and then we’ll get your stats upped.”
“Did we have plans for today?” Mousie asked as she dried off.
“None that I know of, though we could probably start to the east finally.”
“If that’s what you wish, Hero.”
“Right now, what I’d wish isn’t to the east,” Alvin said when Mousie bent over to dry her legs.
Mousie giggled and, as she stood up, was dressed. “I’ll be good and not cause a second problem.”
“Probably for the best. Knowing my luck, that wou—”
“Hero,” Gothy said as she led Nohel back to the room, “will you tell her that you’re not upset with her?”
“As I was saying,” Alvin said, giving Mousie a knowing look before turning to Nohel. “Nohel, I’m not upset at you in any way. I’m a bit disappointed in us for not thinking about you, but every change comes with moments where mistakes will be made. You shouldn’t have to worry about us being naked in rooms outside of the bedroom. So please, bear with us as we get used to the newness?”
Nohel swallowed and looked away from him. “This is your home, not mine... You shouldn’t have to change your ways to suit me, sir.”
“Life is change,” Alvin said. “The only thing that never changes,” Alvin paused and barked a short laugh, “well, it used to be the dead, but even that changed. My point is that changes happen. I can promise we won’t make a change we don’t want to.”
“Okay,” Nohel said softly.
“But it comes at a price,” Alvin said.
Nohel hunched slightly, her brain conjuring all sorts of prices. Gothy gave him a questioning gaze, knowing that he’d never ask Nohel for something that would harm her.
