234: A Plague of Phantoms XVIII

"I'm guessing Alberto didn't want to come because he's still butt hurt over losing to Chase?" Bo asked Damon and Astrid as he sat up in his seat. The duo both shared a look and tjen sighed.

"Yes…he's taken the loss and the disappointment from his father...hard." Astrid said.

"Loss?" Angie asked as she walked back over to the table to grab the last remaining plates of the table.

"Chase dueled another classmate and ended up beating them." Bo quickly summarized. Astrid frowned at Bo and crossed her arms.

"That's a gross simplication of events Bo." Astrid said in a matter of fact tone. "Chase got challenged to at duel by Alberto after he got spurred on by his father. A duel that Chase won…after his liger shark underwent an evolution. Because of the loss Alberto now has to learn shaping from Chase."

"Oh? So yet another of your evos has evolved?" Madilyn asked, the quick rise of her eyebrow betraying her interest. I nodded and sighed.

"Two more. Bone-lasher and Grimm-Guard…both are now true transcended evos." I confirmed. Madilyn nodded and started scratching her chin as she plotted.

"We'll need to conduct tests on the both of them then. Perhaps even run some tests on your evos that aren't at the true transcendence stage. We'll need to understand them better if shaped evos evolution is going to be a key selling point at Evo-cution." Madilyn said softly.

"Selling point?" Astrid queered as she looked between Madilyn and I.

"We're planning to sell Chase's shaped evos at a special techno-splicing event called Evo-cution." Jane explained.

"You're planning to sell those monsters!" Damon exclaimed. I nodded and then leveled him with a glare.

"However my evos are not monsters." I said.

"Ya have a enormous centipede that's over a mile long and destroyed yer laboratory, Starlight. That sounds like a monster ta me." Grandpa Seamus said with a slight shiver.

"WHAT!?" Iris, Jane, Louie, and Madilyn all exclaimed. I groaned and gave Grandpa a sour look.

"Yeah…so I accidently triggered Grimm-Guard's evolution while he was inside the laboratory and do he grew drastically while inside…destroying almost everything inside." I told.

"WHAAAAAAT!" Madilyn bellowed and jumped to her feet. "We needed the tanks in your laboratory in order make enough evos to sell at Evo-cution!"

"I know! I know! We'll have to come up with another plan…" I grumbled.

"We only have a month to make the evos. There is not enough time for another plan!" Madilyn snapped. I frowned at her and channeled shock attribute mana into my hand and slammed it on the table, sending sparks dancing across the table. She and everyone in the room jumped a little.

"Calm down! There is always time to formulate another plan, and I already have one." I exclaimed. Madilyn looked doubtful but calmed down under threat of shocking.

"What is your plan?" She asked. I crossed my arms and looked at Jane and Iris.

"Based on our current finances Jane, how many independent contractors could we hire?" I asked. Jane frowned and cocked her head.

"Depends on what they're specializing in and what we need them for…what do we need them for?" Jane replied and looked at me suspiciously.

"Mana batteries basically. I'm hoping to hire a few splicers who'll let me drain their mana once mine is low so I can create more mana crystal cores a day." I said.

"How does that help? It doesn't matter if you can create more cores if we have no way to gestate them into full fledged evos." Madilyn griped. I nodded and then looked at Grandpa Seamus.

"Grandpa, you said that you can create more train cars for the King's glaive with some chemicals and mana, right?" I asked him. Grandpa nodded and then his eyes widened and a smirk tugged on his lips.

"I get what you're getting at…you want me to make a mana train car that can be used to grow more of your evos." Grandpa Seamus replied. I nodded and leaned back in my seat.

"A mobile gestation car. Even if we don't make enough evos before we leave then we can just make more on the way. Hopefully the combination of the two methods will make up the difference." I said. Madilyn nodded as she contemplated my plan then it suddenly dawned in her.

"You also want these contractors to fuel the creation of the mobile gestation car!" She exclaimed. I nodded and smirked even wider.

"I'm not sure you'd be able to find splicers who'd be willing to let someone use their mana in such a way. Creating this…mana car thingy…the fact that your shaping has roots in techno-splicing is enough reason that most splicers would refuse for pride reasons." Astrid said.

"I figured…which is why I want to hire Astrid and Damon…" I said motioning to the two of them. Their eyes grew wide and both jumped up from their seats.

"WHAAAAAT?!" They both bellowed and shared a look.

"Why us?" Astrid asked.

"I know you two, I know where you're both staying and if you try it betray me and sell any secrets to outside competitors I can easily destroy you both…" I said flashing a innocent smile that put Bo's to shame. I saw both of them involuntary shiver at my smile. Jane and Iris reared back and slapped me on the back of my head.

"OWWW! SHIT!" I yelled and rubbed the back of my head.

"Don't go threatening people you want to hire. Especially our classmates!" Iris snapped.

"You didn't have to slap the shit out of me!" I snapped back.

"What's in it for us?" Damon asked.

As I glanced over at Damon and was surprised by the focused look I saw on his face. The normally pompous and entitled look on his face wasn't present. A shrewd and sharp look gleamed in his eyes, one I've come to equate with a businessman or the dean.

"Depends. Do you want straight pay or compensation?" I asked. Damon's expression didn't change however I saw his eyes sparkle slightly.

"What's the compensation package?" Damon asked.

"A custom enchanted item; crafted especially to show off your families magic specialties; and you can select a shaped evo that I create." I replied. Astrid's eyes widened in response.

I knew the offer would be enticing to her, especially the enchanted item. The personalized spell that her family uses costs a lot of mana, the fact that Astrid had higher than usual mana capacity meant that she could cast it multiple times before she runs out but having the spell on an enchanted item would be a near godsend to her. Especially where influence with her family is concerned. I figured the same would work on Damon but I couldn't get a read on him.

"That's a interesting proposition but what about the financial compensation?" Damon asked.

"Fifteen million a day for access to your mana reserves for twenty-eight days, for a total of eight hundred and forty million split between the two of you." I replied.

"Wait…that's a four hundred and twenty million apiece!" Louie exclaimed then narrowed his eyes at him. "That's a years worth of pay for us!"

"Seriously? You're complaining about that? We make more in a month working for Chase than we did our entire lives working for Spirit and Justice Technologies!" Angie griped at her husband. Louie held his arms up in surrender.

"Not griping, just saying…Chase is throwing a lot of money into this business." Louie said.

"It's not like he can't afford it." Angie said.

"Anyway!" I exclaimed grabbing attention from those two. "Which option do you choose?"

"The compensation one." Astrid quickly said. I nodded and then looked over to Damon. He sat silently contemplating his options, I honestly was a little impressed with Damon. Not that I'd ever tell him that. The fact he wasn't jumping at the first option that seemed beneficial to him showed a level of mental acuity that I hadn't seen with him before.

"Counter offer. Instead of the enchanted item you pay me the cost of said item and then also give me the shaped evo but I want a shaped version of a Kitsune." Damon countered. I arched a brow at that request.

Kitsune were already a rarity to see in the world. Not because they were difficult to splice but because it was difficult to make one with more than one tail. Since splicing wasn't an exact science, it was mostly a hit or miss if you spliced one that had more than one tail. That wouldn't be a problem with shaping, since all I would have to do is rearrange parts of the lysdale scripts.

"Two hundred million and the Kitsune." I countered. Damon narrowed his eyes at me before responding

"Two hundred and fifteen million and the Kitsune." He replied.

'What he wants isn't the money but the kitsune…a nine tails one is dangerous on its own…he wants a shaped one for the added power of using mana.' I thought to myself then smirked as I suddenly thought of my final counter offer.

"One Kitsune and a loaner evo of my choosing." I said. Damon arched a brow and cocked his head.

"A loaner evo?" He asked.

"I let you try out a evo that I create….a beta tester of sorts. It would only be temporary but seeing how you probably don't have even one evo right now getting one permanently for free and borrowing a second is a pretty good deal." I said.

Damon's expression didn't change as he thought about my proposal. After a few minutes he finally nodded.

"Those terms are acceptable." Damon said and finally sat back down.

"Wait a second! He gets two evos while I get one!" Astrid exclaimed.

"He negotiated. And you get an enchanted item." I said plainly.

"Before anything else Chase, shouldn't you let these two know what they are getting into?" Jade said in a disapproving tone.

"Oh…yeah…about that…" I started.

***

"So let me get this straight…there is a American company that is owned by the president of said country that has hits out on several of you and your plan to deal with this is to humiliate and bankrupt that company at a event that is basically a holy event for Techno-splicing companies?" Astrid said recapping everything we told her and Damon.

"And that company is back by Sir Simon Caldifax, who you humiliated a few months ago when you fought against a gang leader that held an underground fight club that he gambled at!" Damon exclaimed, now back to his normal self.

"Yeah…." I said replied.

"SIMON CALDIFAX!" Damon exclaimed. "He's one of the most influential men in all of Europe! Why did you have to piss him off!"

"That was an accident I didn't know who he was!" I exclaimed.

"Plus our lives were at stake so it's not like we could complain at the moment…" Nate said with sigh.

"Then how do you plan to deal with Caldifax?" Astrid asked.

"Political power." I said with a shrug.

"That's a very half-assed answer." Astrid said. Iris groaned and dropped her head.

"I know! And for some godsdammed reason we still follow this idiot!" Iris groaned. I frowned and looked to her.

"Hey my half-assed plans have kept us alive till now!" I exclaimed. Astrid groaned and shook her head.

"He admits they are half-assed…." Astrid said.

"And speaking of keeping people alive…" Sin spoke up, gathering all eyes on him. He looked to me and motioned to his son. I groaned and slapped my forehead.

"There's also one more thing…"