The Birth of Future Gadget Laboratory

Cage haphazardly throws Warforged parts around his room, which is now void of furnishing thanks to the bag of holding. Most of the metallic objects that he had found since he started this journey are now all over the floor. He looks at a 3 foot long and slightly bent metallic rod, “This should work” he thinks to himself. He had been mostly focused on tasks well beyond his capabilities. Rebuilding that Thopter was just beginners luck, and it wasn’t even working properly.

He pieced together metallic wires from the Hextech remains, along with some magical components, he turned them into a long wire. It’s not pretty, but it should be enough to create a large magnet. A simple working contraption that may or may not be fit to shape into a shield.

“If only I had focused on creating this first…” As he shakes another thought of possibly saving Wolf, he positions himself holding the rod with his left hand while the wires extend towards his right.

“SHOCK!”

Bertha wanders around the decks of The Last Resort worried about her beloved Romeo. While thinking about ways to comfort him, she hears a sudden noise of what seemed to be falling metallic objects. Curious, she walks towards the source of the ruckus, she then heard a voice shouting “Shock...Shock...Shock!” followed by a slight tremor, she swears that she heard sparks and a silent whirring that isn’t coming from the airship.

“Shock!” Another shout coming from inside one of the sleeping quarters. She recognizes the voice as the ex-imperial-soldier turned rebel-mage-warrior Cage.

“Shit!” Cage angrily shouts, followed by the sound of metal hitting each other. Also worried about her beloved’s friend, Bertha decides to check if Cage is alright. Besides, any comrade of that beautiful, elegant, and dashing prince of extreme masculinity...ahh, she could somehow smell his rose scented sweat.

The door swings open as she attempts to knock, it wasn’t closed completely, let alone locked. “Are you alright?” She asks.

“Yeah. But I’m having a hard time testing if the waves are strong enough to have reach. I know that additional coils can increase the overall strength of the pull...”

“A what?” She asks as she remembers the mesmerizing wave of Romeo’s hair as he pulls her towards him.

“Here, hold this.” Cage hands him a stick with things wrapped around it. The rod looked ugly, unlike Rom-

“Move it towards any of the metal on the floor as I pass electricity towards it. Also, take note if any of them moves...I need to concentrate for this one.”

“Huh? Wait...electricity!?”

“SHOCKING GRASP!”

A burst of bluish streaks of light crawl from Cage’s hands towards the metallic rod in her hands. Startled, she instinctively throws the contraption upwards as she noticed a secondary burst coming out of his hands, except this time it’s yellowish and looked more like an aura. The two colors danced around the rod following the path of the wire. However, the dazzling dance of magic did not last.

As Cage unknowingly empties out his remaining stamina into the spell, he accidentally triggers a Soul Drive wasting what little consciousness he had driving him to work beyond his fatigue. His attention focuses on the floor towards where he threw the Bag of Holding, besides it are some slightly scattered blueprints that they had recovered from the Spire. For a while it seemed as if the drawings were shaped like a human heart. His vision fades out into darkness.

He opens his eyes, the room is pitch black. He instinctively tries to motion for a spell to let him see clearly, except his arms and legs were bounded by chains. It felt surreal as he clearly sees himself and the chains, but nothing else.

“It’s all your fault. If you and Belenar never urged me to defect...I could at least ensure the survival of my men.” The form of Berta fades in front of him.

“Bertha what the hell!” As Cage shouts, the chains seems to tighten.

Bertha starts walking away, then suddenly fades out.

“Who gave you the right to decide the fate of our family members!” A blue skinned Jorg appears and shouts at him. Everything suddenly becomes blindingly bright. Suddenly, Cage finds himself atop the spire again. Everyone fighting all around him. Still chained as he looks up, he saw the illusion shown to them by the Shrouded Council. Their family members were visibly being freed from their shackles. His comrades starts falling one by one.

“This option could have saved my family!” The familiar old voice of his mentor came from below him. As he looks down, he sees a beheaded Shepherd. His eyes were missing, but somehow Cage knows he’s staring at him.

Cage closes his eyes trying to make sense of what’s happening, he relives the sight of Lucrecia slipping to her death during their escape at the Spire. As he opens them, the sight of a dagger was coming towards him.

“Thunk!” A shield was floating between him and the form of an Elf striking with a dagger. The place was dark again, but this time he could see stars scattered above and below him.

“You were too slow! Why are you always slow!” The voice echoes around the darkness. Lucian fades out.

In front of Cage, the shield shrinks down into a floating ring.

“I gave you that ring so that you could protect those important to you! And you let me die!” It was the voice of his Stepfather.

“I… I’m so-” Cage’s voice starts to break. His arms going limp as the chains keeps them held upward.

“Yo..let...e..die” This time, a silent and very familiar voice of a woman started talking.

“Rita…” Cage mumbles. “Are you going to scold me too?”

Cage’s eyes were suddenly lifeless, it was as if he had completely given up. His steel will could only get him this far. For what purpose am I still fighting? Revenge? I had always worn a shield in combat so that I could protect everyone, yet they kept on dying. I should just-

\*Thud!\* He felt a fist hit his face.

“Mica! What the hell!” Her shout filled with disappointment. The sight of the blond short haired woman clad in armor was right in front of him. Fist curled up in the air, she gives Cage her most beautiful smile..

“Rita…” Cage repeated, a tear drop falling from his eyes.

“Did ya’ forget what I told you already!”

“Protection is for the living...” Cage proclaims as if he had forgotten something really important.

She gives him one last smile, steps forward arms wide open. He reaches out to her noticing that the chains were gone.

“What are you gonna do now, Mr. Mad Scientist?” She whispers to his ear, their body warmly hugging each other.

She pulls back a bit, then grabs the back of his head. Like a mother comforting his son, she starts pulling Cage to her chests with all her might. She was still clad in armor.

\*Thunk!\* A piece of metal hit Cage right in the face.

“Gah! Urrrgh…”

Cage wakes up still fatigued, he groggily rushes straight towards the blueprints. Sure enough, he was finding it a lot easier to decipher it’s contents with his head somehow cleared.

“A core? Probably that...giant soul stone…”

Below one of the pages he sees a sign that reads:

```
Siberius Vulkan

```

“Who the hell is that?”

Agatha woke up inside one of the rooms in The Last Resort. Although she was able to sleep well enough, the night was filled with noises of what she assumed were various ways that the group was handling Wolf’s demise.

“Agaaaathaaa!” A shout came closing in from outside her room.

\*Slam!\* Cage suddenly kicks open the door, underneath his eyes were marks of restlessness. But his expression was filled with joy, teeth grinning from ear to ear, eyes full of life. It was the opposite of what he was like escaped from the Spire, but was the same as when she was shaping his Adamantine Armor back in the train.

Cage had his right foot forward from the momentum of his kick, both hands raised and crossed forward in front of him. He then reaches for something behind him. Failing to grab anything, he holds up a finger as if signaling her to wait, closes the door and bolts out running.

Startled at what happened, she rubs her eyes and readies herself for the day. After a few minutes of idle thinking, she heard another set of footsteps closing in towards her door.

“AGAAATHAA!” This time the door was already opened. Cage goes back to his previous pose, throws a bunch of parchment towards her feet. He spins around with his red cape facing her, magically flapping as if there were strong winds hitting them.

Arms crossed to his chests, facing outside he speaks “In front of you are blueprints for a brighter future. Open it and you will be forever bounded to join my Laboratory.”

She picks them up and notices that they’re the ones they retrieved back at the Spire, with some obvious minor modifications. Below the parchment is a crossed out name of what seems to be the original designer. Written beside it was Cage's own signature.

```
~~Siberius Vulkan~~ Mad Scientist Cage

```

Realizing that Cage is facing outwards as to let her peek into the contents of the blueprints without “binding” her to his conditions, she places them back inside a makeshift envelope. As she turns it around, she sees the words written on it:

```
Project Lucrecia.

```