Chapter 36

"So what do you think?" David asked, giving a grand wave of his arm to the massive structure that surrounded him and Catalyst. Buried deep beneath the Rockies, the base was the creation of an ambitious but thoroughly insane S-class threat who had an unfortunate encounter with Contessa. Cauldron had seen the use of a large sized and largely undetectable base on Earth Bet and, after spending a week disarming traps, converted the place into a multipurpose facility.

Training space was only one of the myriad of uses the place had. In the early years of the Protectorate it had even served a similar purpose as the Birdcage, though only Cauldron knew of it. Unfortunately, the base had seen little use in recent years. Should Catalyst be given the dubious honor of joining Cauldron, total control of the complex would be given to her, to use as she pleased.

Rebecca had rather insisted on keeping the younger girl far away from the main facility off-world. Still, David was sure his new protege would be welcomed once she lived up to Rebecca's absurd standards.

Speaking of Catalyst, the girl was staring blankly at the space where Doormaker's shimmering portal had closed moments earlier. David coughed awkwardly into his fist.

"Catalyst?" The girl jerked in place, and her head snapped towards him.

He gestured once again, trying to recapture the moment. "What do you think?"

She blinked at him owlishly, but finally examined her surroundings. They were in the central chamber of the facility, an almost extravagantly large open area filled with training equipment and surrounded by some kind of tinker-tech concrete. The stuff was wildly expensive and if David hadn't brought literal mountains down on himself before (years ago, of course) he would've thought it wasteful. As it was, the place should be able to withstand the very strongest of David's attacks. Hopefully it could hold up to Catalyst as well.

"Huh. We're inside a mountain." Catalyst remarked.

What? "What?" How the hell-

"We're in a mountain." she repeated, cocking her head and looking at him. "And there are no exits. The only way in and out is your teleporter."

Some kind of wide range sensory power? Periperception? That wasn't anywhere on Cauldron's list of Catalyst's possible powers. His student continued to impress him.

"You are correct." he confirmed. No point in lying about it. "It's more secure this way, and our teleportation tech is extremely reliable."

"Your teleportation tech that brought us here?" Catalyst asked.

David nodded.

"Your voice-activated teleportation tech?" she repeated, her voice turning slightly incredulous.

David nodded again, a little more hesitantly.

"Voice-activated teleportation tech capable of identifying unique users but only accessible from that random empty warehouse you brought me to?" Catalyst's voice was laden with sarcasm.

Ah. Periperception. She almost certainly noticed the total lack of infrastructure in the building David had selected.

Awkward.

"It's very good tech." he insisted. When in doubt, stick to your guns.

"Uh huh." she glanced around once more. "Are we still on Earth?"

David suppressed a full-body twitch, quickly replying, "Of course. Jumping between dimensions is hardly a simple feat."

"Dimensions?" Catalyst shot him an befuddled look. "I meant are we on the moon or something? Void_Cowboy on PHO claims the Protectorate has a secret base beneath Olympus Mons."

"I- what? No. We are not on the moon. The Simurgh has successfully stopped pretty much every attempt at spaceflight for years now. I can assure you that, while this location is classified, we are still on planet Earth."

"Good to know. Dimensions, hah!" She strolled past him, a smirk curling her lips. "Weird how your mind went there though. Almost sounded defensive."

Goddamnit. David missed the old days, where Hero would do the talking and David just loomed over the man's shoulder.

"So what's all this equipment for?" Catalyst called to him, prodding a set of Brute weights with interest.

David hustled after her, fervently wishing he had more experience speaking to people who weren't in awe of him.

---

"The rest of the facility is off limits for now. There is little here that would hold the interest of a non-tinker and most of the tech is outdated anyway, so I'd ask that you refrain from breaking through the security doors just because you've gotten curious." David explained, after walking Catalyst through the various pieces of equipment scattered about the central chamber. They were somewhat antiquated, by and large, but all were functional and clean.

David had given the place a thorough dusting shortly before retrieving the teen hero.

"So you've seen what I'm offering," David looked Catalyst in her eyes. "Have you made your decision?"

"Couple hours of training a week that I'd do anyway and I get a secret mountain lair? Yeah, I'm probably on board." Catalyst grinned savagely back at him. "But, I want my teammates to have access to this place."

David took a considering breath, quickly calculating the odds of successfully lying to Rebecca. "No, I... don't believe I could swing that. I can't stop you from talking about this place, though I'd obviously prefer if you didn't , but actively bringing people here is off-limits. This is a secret training program, remember? And, I'm sorry, but the rest of your team simply does not make the cut."

"Humph." Catalyst said, actually enunciating the word. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. "I'll try not to be offended in their place."

"I apologize," David conceded after a moment, "that was rude, but my point stands. I require from you at least the pretense of secrecy."

"Well as long as it's only a pretense." Catalyst looked around one last time. She wrinkled her nose, but nodded to David. "The place is gloomy as shit and smells like old people, but it'll do. Alright, I'm in."

"Excellent!" David clapped his hands together. "If you're willing to begin immediately, I'd like to get a handle on your abilities and general tactics with a controlled spar."

"A spar?" Catalyst slowly turned to face him, her eyes blinking languidly. A smile started at the right corner of her mouth, her lips curving up and showing teeth.

"You wanna spar with me?"

A cold tingle ran down David's spine, and he briefly wondered if he'd made a huge mistake.

"Okay."

Catalyst twitched a finger in his direction, and the world dissolved into fire.