_________ POV Narration _________
Vegapunk's original body, Stella, scrambled to clean things up as it received contact from the Sky King, Enel, announcing an impromptu visit to his Egghead Island.
Shaka, the Nr.1 Satellite or Punk-01, also helped in shutting down all defence and surveillance systems on the island.
It was only a matter of time before the Emperor stepped on their island, and they needed to make sure to cut any and all contact with the outside world, to prevent the government from listening into their conversations.
It wasn't overly difficult to do, especially for someone with Vegapunk's intellect. The fact that he designed the entire island also helped, but it was still going to rouse suspicion regardless.
'At this point, it's only a matter of time before they decide we are not worth keeping around...' Vegapunk's original body couldn't help but sigh in contemplation.
They needed to prepare for the worst, sooner rather than later, all of their lives would be in danger.
Both he and everyone else on that island would have to fight for survival... Some of the greatest minds in the world were all working under him, they would all have to either betray him or fight alongside him.
And Vegapunk, despite his immense knowledge, had no way of being sure of what each and every one of them would choose.
'Any day now, one of them will inevitably betray us...'
It led to the current situation, where Vegapunk was no longer feeding those under him as much information regarding the Seraphims, which was their most important project currently.
"Everything should be prepared..." Shaka sighed by his side as he slowly sat down.
The other satellites were still hard at work, most of them were constantly working on the Seraphims, a project that was already in its final stages.
The only problem was the fact that they were still going to listen to the Government and the Elders first and foremost.
Vegapunk couldn't alter that part of their conditioning unless he wanted the elders to act personally and kill him outright...
Well, they were unlikely to even do it personally, they would likely just send the 'God's Knights' to take care of him if things got too dirty...
They had been completely silent despite the mess that the world was in.
Vegapunk assumed that they were just at the Elder's beck and call like usual, likely acting as the shadows of the elders at all times.
'As things stand, it might be better that Enel is visiting us this early... I can warn him about what is to come...'
Stella sighed as the automatic doors to his room opened up.
And in walked the tall figure of a blonde man, hair swept backwards, wearing a white shirt and deep blue pants, as well as a pair of black shoes.
He walked around with a staff in hand, using it as a walking stick. And his earlobes were also abnormally long, which was his most defining feature...
"Sky King, your visit is a pleasant occasion..." Shaka was the first to greet him, Stella only nodded in agreement as he looked at Enel.
The Emperor also nodded, exchanging pleasantries as he walked forwards and eventually arrived near the chair that was prepared for him, one large enough to fit his size.
"I'm sure you're both quite curious about my purpose here..." Enel eyed the two versions of Vegapunk as he spoke out, and finally sat down while maintaining eye contact with Stella.
"Curious indeed... But I was not speaking emptily when saying that it is good to see you... We do have certain matters to discuss as well, but we can touch on them later..."
Stella nodded slightly as he also maintained eye contact, his gaze a bit more careful.
It was clear that he didn't fully trust Enel either. But at least the Emperor wasn't likely to attack anyone on a whim. They were still allies at the end of the day.
'Although, he may be angry when he finds out about the Seraphs and how large of an asset they are to the World Government...'
"Hmmm, I'll just get to the point then..." Enel nodded, smiling a bit as his senses studied the entire island.
"Say, have you guys been dabbling in cloning all that much lately?" Was the only question that the Emperor asked, for now.
"... I see no reason why we should lie to you... Yes, yes we have. Cloning, genetical remodelling, devil fruit cloning among other things... Why do you ask?" Shaka nodded a bit as his masked eyes stared at the Emperor quizzically.
"Got it... And would you happen to be cloning members of the Rocks Pirates?" Enel's smile vanished as he asked his next question, not answering to Shaka's in the process.
And immediately, the atmosphere in the room took a turn for the worst.
'Did someone leak our internal documents?!?' Stella was slightly panicking internally, his mind running a few calculations as to how Enel might have gotten his hands on such intel.
It was a closely guarded secret that he hadn't let anyone else on the island know about. Only the Upper Echelon of the World Government and Vegapunk himself knew what was going on.
He wasn't worried about Enel attacking him or anything. But the fact that such information could be found 'out in the world' was concerning enough on its own.
"No need to get worried, this was a rather accidental discovery... No one else in this world can find out about it easily..." Enel seemed to understand his thoughts rather well.
It wasn't hard for the Emperor to put himself in Vegapunk's shoes. He could tell from the panic in Stella's eyes that he had mentioned a touchy subject or some top-secret information.
He doubted it was a touchy subject as Vegapunk didn't have much of a past with Rocks, so only the latter option remained.
"I-I understand... This is a bit odd... Well, I was going to show it to you regardless... Would you mind walking with me?"
Both Shaka and Stella stood up, Enel raised an eyebrow but decided to just shrug and follow the two of them.
They walked through a few corridors and took an elevator down.
They rode that elevator for a few good minutes, Enel clearly felt how they dove deep underground.
The size of Egghead Island still baffled the Emperor slightly. As an island, it was pretty ordinary in size, sure, but the impressive part was that the entire thing was basically one huge laboratory with different sections.
It was a marvel of technology, one that far surpassed the technological advancements in Enel's old world.
'No wonder people say that stepping into this place is like going a few hundred years into the future...'
Eventually, the three of them reached a small part of the laboratory, which was sectioned off.
Inside Enel could feel several other figures, seemingly observing several large test tubes filled with strange liquid.
Shaka opened the door, placed his hand on the scanner and walked through right after.
Stella and Enel followed behind him, both entering the large room.
Enel looked around with wide eyes, around them were exactly 7 tubes, all containing children... With small black wings.
"These are the Seraphims... The project that the World Government is currently making us work on..." Shaka spoke out first, before nodding in greeting at the other Satellites.
The ones present were: Lilith, also known as Punk Nr.2, Edison, also designated as Punk-03, and Pythagoras, also called Punk-04.
Lilith had the appearance of a young woman with wild light hair. She wore a light full-body jumpsuit along with a dark coat, boots, gloves, and an aviator helmet.
She was the only human-looking satellite in the group. Edison and Pythagoras were both essentially robots.
The 3 of them were overseeing the project, while Atlas(Punk-5) was working on some weapons, and York(Punk-6) was off sleeping elsewhere.
Lilith turned her head towards the newcomers, she smiled when seeing Stella and Shaka, but scowled when her eyes landed on Enel.
'Tsk, figures he'd come here in the end...'
She already found his visit annoying, the fact that he was snooping around in their business angered her slightly.
The Satellites had many duties already, and Lilith didn't appreciate the extra work that came with Enel's last visit. Working overtime to cover up after him was in no way pleasant after all...
"These... Are the Seraphims?" If Enel noticed her disdain, then he surely didn't care enough to point it out.
Instead, his mind was more fixated on what he was seeing, on the Seraphims.
"Why... Are they all the same?..."
Enel's mouth trembled slightly as he looked around only to see the same silhouette in every single oversized test tube.
"Well... At first, we planned to clone the 7 Warlords, the Seraphims are to replace them when the system is officially abolished..." Shaka immediately started explaining the situation a bit.
"Not like the system is all that beneficial anymore, it's more of a farce at this point..." Lilith also rolled her eyes and added her two-cent to the conversation.
She did shut up after Stella glared at her for a few seconds.
Shaka also shook his head and continued.
"But after a while, we decided that it would be much better if we used the DNA and Lineage factor of the strongest people we had at hand instead... That's how we ended up here..."
"With 7 clones of fucking Xebec?!? Are you kidding me?... As if one wasn't enough... Why not clone some of the Yonko or something?..." Enel rubbed his forehead in frustration.
'How the fuck am I supposed to explain this to the others?!? Holy shit this couldn't have been any worse...'
"Well, in all fairness, cloning the DNA of the strongest person we could get our hands on should've been the mission from the start...
Getting Yonko's DNA isn't the issue... But Xebec was both stronger than all the current Yonko and works best especially since he had no Devil Fruit to speak, which makes cloning him a bit easier...
At the end of the day, some Devil Fruits simply cannot be cloned, and almost all of the current Emperors seem to possess one... You included."
Shaka gave the most logical answer he could formulate. He did so without going too deep into specifics and how the cloning actually worked.
But in essence, he still gave Enel quite a bit of information to digest all at once.
1. They weren't able to create clones of all devil fruits under the sun
2. They had Xebec's DNA at hand, apparently? Likely a piece of him held by the World Government, or something like that...
3. They were cloning them faster than they would clone devil fruit users... Which could only mean one thing really...
"Wait... So you plan to 'produce' more of them?"
"Well... Yes, him and his First Mate..." Shaka confirmed as he turned and looked towards three other test tubes in the distance, they contained different silhouettes...
'That's... Of course, they're cloning Francisco as well, why the hell wouldn't they? Even better, it's a Lunarian Francisco! Haha!'
"..."
'Should I destroy them now? Before they get the chance to grow into a threat?'
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Finally managed to finish writing it, took me a bit. Anyway, at least I was able to overcome the lazy Sunday spell :)))
And yea, instead of warlords, why not clone something stronger? I always kinda asked myself that. Well, I can understand Mihawk, cuz he's a goat, but dunno about the rest.
Why not do a Kaido clone or Big Mom one? In this case I went even further than that :))
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