***
Mobius's Lab
Thor stepped into the room to see a scene that will forever be ingrained in his mind.
"They're all so cute~ Why do they run away from me Klein." A hamster video.
Mobius was watching hamster videos, forcing a nearby Klein to watch with her.
'So she does like cute animals. I thought Blanca was only joking.'
He held back and hid himself and snuck up behind Mobius.
"Dr. Maybe if you didn't look at them like lab rats, they wouldn;t run away from you." Klein's flat voice and factual statement made her groan.
"I know okay. But what am I doing wrong? I can't help that they look like perfect lab rats. They reproduce quickly, small, weak, and cute–
Should I just get some?" She thought, oblivious to Thor's recording of her words. He needed to save this for future use.
"Dr, yo–" Klein paused as Thor made himself visible.
"Maybe you should Moby-Chan~" He playfully whispered behind her.
"Huh?" She froze… Trembled… and slowly looked back, his teasing grin greeting her.
"What's wrong Mobius? It's quite cute, don't you think so Klein?" He summoned a boba tea and passed it to Klein, her dead eyes brightened as she snatched it.
"Yes Dr Arwanson, it is quite cute." She took a sip, shivering in pleasure.
'Her clothes will explode at this rate. My hospitality skills are too dangerous.' He had realised the dangers behind his skills.
Mobius looked at Klein as one would a traitor.
'How dare she, I don't even get one.' Mobius wanted one too. Thor gave her Kleins when she was out once. Since then she always made sure to get one from him.
"Hamsters though? I didn't know you liked cute things Mobius." He was flipping a voice recorder in his hand, an item he knew Mobius would recognise. It's hers after all.
"What–" Mobius lunged towards Thor trying to grab the recorder desperately.
While Thor used his height to his advantage to tease the woman. Klein ignored them and swiveled back to face the monitor, engrossed in the cuteness, ignoring the two.
Mobius soon gave up and thought about how to grab it from him. "Ah." A thought came to her as a sly smile appeared.
"You wouldn't tease a lonely woman watching hamster videos on a Wednesday afternoon, would you?" She tried acting coy, but Thor's expression was passive and teasing.
"You literally dissect people for fun." He threw a glance to the corpse in the chamber.
"Not for fun, for Science!" She argued.
"Semantics"
She went back to pointlessly trying to snatch it from him.
He pressed play.
–They reproduce quickly, small, weak, and cute. Should I just get some?–
"Pfft–" Mobius wanted to die. To delete herself from reality.
Klein's barely contained laughter just made it hurt more.
Thor watched on. Her anime esc reaction, gave him an idea.
–Snap–
He vanished in a trail of blue, leaving the duo confused.
–Crackle–
He reappeared with a box in hand. He placed it down on the table then sat down, gesturing to her to open it.
"Dr. Did you–"
"Yep."
Mobius held the lid, her hands shaking slightly. Opening it she saw a hamster, one singular hamster.
Her eyes sparkled
Thor pulled up a chair next to her. "They're not lab rats, Mobius."
"I can give them vitamins–"
"Klein, take the scissors away from her." At some point scissors appeared in her hand.
Mobius glared. "But if I just snip a tiny piece of tail—"
"No!" The two shouted in sync.
She pouted. "Fine. But if it dies, I get to dissect it."
"…Fair," Thor admitted. "Hamsters die if you look at them wrong."
Mobius gently picked one up. It squeaked.
As it looked up at her, then started to shiver.
–Whack–
Thor hit the back of her head. "Stop staring at it like that." He then took it from her and started to gently pat it.
Mobius flinched seeing how easily Thor handled the hamster.
"What do you wanna call it?" He glanced at her. Klein had leaned over, also giving it some gentle pats.
"Hamsuke" An instant no nonsense reply.
***
A few experiments later Thor leaves Klein and Mobius with the now homed Hamster.
He was now on his way to see Mei as she wanted to show him something she had been working on.
–Shhhh–
Entering her lab he was greeted by what looked like your stereotypical supercomputer.
–Clank–
"Thor?" Mei came out from behind the machine, bags under her eyes, clearly she hadn't slept for days.
Sigh "Come on Mei. Seriously?" His words caused her to stop as she thought it over. She could only give a wry smile.
Sigh "Come here, let's get you cleaned up at least." She walked towards him as he cast a rune to clean her up and rejuvenate her until tonight. He made sure her biology would force her to sleep before midnight.
"The amount of times you cause me to sigh isn't a great sign." Mei laughed nervously before looking herself over, envious of that ability. Turns out she had no potential to learn runes, she tried for weeks but got nothing.
That was actually her motivation to create her suit of armour.
"Why did you accelerate my adenosine production? I don't need a sleep timer Thor, I'm fine it's just a few days."
He didn't budge so she dropped it and started on why he's here.
"Fine." She stepped up to the machine and turned it on.
"I called you here to show you something." Screens began to turn on, a low hum could be heard.
"Since the 4ths descent only a few months after the 3rds 10 year period. I wanted to find a way to predict or even give hints." A blueprint was shown on screen.
"A satellite?" He also noticed what seemed to be the 4th's core." His interest rose as Mei continued.
"Not just a satellite. An AI to match. Since you brought back the 4th core along with the 1st and 2nd core from the raids. I found a way we can harness them." Her fingers flew across the keyboard as videos, images and scans of Aurora's blade began to show up.
"Aurora's blade is unique, more so than your own.
With some of the tests from the 4th core, we've found that they can be used as power sources to harness their energy and abilities." Another video appeared showing herself and Vill integrating the core into her suit now called the Key of Blankness.
He listens closely, hanging on every word and explanation.
"Combining the core with the armour allowed me to use the herrschers abilities for a while. It did start to corrupt me after 10 minutes and 42 seconds. But a little treatment from Su solved that."
Thor scanned her subtly in response, almost clicking his tongue. 'That's a lie, she has more Honkai than she should. I'll deal with this soon.'
"Now I've discovered a few things about these cores. The first can mimic Aurora's blade almost perfectly, when used in the key of blankness, the 2nds can be used to manipulate space simply." She paused as another video showed Eden in the suit with the 4th core… Cleansing a Honkai contaminated area.
"The 4th's can detect, measure and cleanse Honkai pretty easily." Thor's eyes widened at that. Even he didn't think cleansing Honkai energy would be well possible at this level.
Hours passed. Mei explained her idea for something called the Divine Keys, a name Vill came up with.
She answered any questions Thor had with the major takeaway being that she wants to have it be a small team working on this project for now.
Her, Thor, Vill, Eden, Elysia, Mobius and surprisingly the 3rd Director who's flying into Shenzhou in the coming days. The AI she wants to integrate, she named it "Prometheus".
How she will handle the idea of giving an AI full control over all Moth facilities and processing power to help assist in research, Herrscher prediction, combating honkai, weapon systems. Is to be seen with her, Vill and Mobius overseeing it.
Thor's job in all this? Pitch in when he's free to. Between Herrcshers, outbreaks, research, taking care of others, keeping up morale, controlling Moth and training Mei to take over as Moth's overseer to give him more time to focus on research.
***
"Oh Thor~" As Thor was walking back to his dorm Elysia called out from behind him, jumping onto his back wrapping herself around him.
"You ready for the show~" She whispered hotly into his ear.
He expanded his senses to his room, Eden had just arrived as Elysia asked her too. She left the door open so Eden just sat down on the sofa, pouring herself some wine.
He tapped her cheek. "As long as you're fine with me having a harem, sure."
Elysia giggled before kissing him on the cheek. "Of course I am. I wouldn't let her peek otherwise~. Besides, I find it kind of hot. Watching you have sex with my best friend, fucking her out of her mind, Ahh~ I just hope she doesn't get too shy."
Thor chuckled at her possible new kink, he made his way to the dorm, Elysia on his back.
***
A/N:
Next chapter may be the last one until I write some more. I've more so been in hell trying to plan out some of the next few chapters. Sakura and Rin, development of the divine Key's prototypes, how to explain the 3rd key being Aurora's blade even without the core itself. What to call the bloody satellite and explain how the 4th's core somehow can cleanse the planet of Honkai energy. Oh and the start of more romantical stuff between Thor and Mobius, maybe Himeko and Vill too TBD.
So yeah that's just this volume alone really, next volume or the end of this one I've got to introduce Aponia, Kalpas, Kosma. Griseo will be introduced soon just gotta find a reason to have Blanca or Ato there with her at the lab as I kind of side lined the two with the 3rd eruption.
Ima need a few more cups of coffee at least.
Ciao