A/N:
" " : Speech,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy/Space Speech
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Omniscient POV
In the years that he had worked as a hero, Rudolph Connors had made a few covert bases to work out from while controlling his robot bodies. But the most important base he had ever made was the one holding his actual body, deep underneath the city of Chicago.
His actual body was his main weakness, and so, it had to be guarded against any and all possible harm. Apart from making sure that no one ever knew where he was, he also made sure to work his mannerisms to resemble an actual robot, making it so that no one would even suspect that a human, albeit a deformed one, was behind the hero known as Robot.
So, when Codex suddenly let him know that he knew of his actual identity and his dealings with the Mauler twins, who were notorious supervillains, he was ready to do whatever to preserve his life. But the deal that Codex had proposed made him change his mind. And now, it seemed that Codex had come to fulfill his part of the deal.
Codex appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, and Rudolph assumed that this was a clone, as Codex wasn't like Dupli-Kate, who had a suit that showed if she had made clones or not. Rudolph also noticed that he hadn't tripped off any of the alarms or sensors he had put in place, which made him just a little more wary of him.
"Damn, you chose to be a hero in that condition?! Respect." Codex said, floating towards Rudolph, who stayed silent. "Oh, right. You can't talk, since your drone would also speak. Well, don't worry about it." He said, then pulled out a small syringe. He floated to the sustainment tank that Rudolph used as life support, then turned intangible, and once he had crossed into the tank, he transformed into a Galvan, shrinking to a point that he could freely move around the tank without inconveniencing Rudolph.
Regularly, this would have contaminated the liquid in the tank, but with the nature of his suit, no contaminants stuck to it, allowing him to be within the tank without his mere presence becoming a fatal danger to Rudolph's life. He swam up to Rudolph's back, then inserted the syringe's needle into the back of his neck, and it quickly pulled out some blood. Once it filled, Codex pulled out the syringe, swam to the inner wall of the tank, then reverted his transformation, keeping his intangibility up as he exited the tank entirely.
"Well, you can look forward to having your new body in a week, Rudy." Codex said with a playful salute, then flew straight through the base's roof, turning invisible before he broke the surface. Rudolph would have responded, but the information he was receiving from his drone on the Omni-Core was far more stupefying.
…
"Fascinating." Robot said, looking at the multiple alien creatures with Codex's symbol on some part of their bodies. "Is this the reality behind you? An entire organization instead of just you?" He asked Codex. "Not really. You see, every single one of these…" Codex said, flourishing his arms as his clones moved around at high speeds. "… are me. Specifically, every other being you see is one of my clones." He said, surprising them.
"But… how? Even with my powers, I start to feel some strain if a hundred of my clones are active at the same time." Dupli-Kate said. "Well, that's where you and I are pretty different. I can create clones for as long as I have the stamina to endure the split, but once they're created, there's no more strain on me. So every once in a while, I come around here and create about a hundred clones to add onto the ones already here." Codex explained.
"Wait, just how many of your clones are here?" Kate asked. "Last I checked… about a thousand." Codex replied, shocking everyone. The thought that there could be a thousand beings with the same abilities and level of power as Codex shook them, especially Robot. He had gathered as much information as he could about Codex, which was purely limited to what news could be found about him from the start of his career four months ago till today.
In every analysis that he made, each clone of Codex's had the same level of comprehensive strength as all the Guardians of the Globe put together, and now, he'd just heard that there were over a thousand of them active at any time. The thought of what a force like that could unleash if sent out altogether was spine-chilling.
"Well, I brought you guys here to give you a tour of the place, so I might as well get started on that." Codex said, and the floor underneath them lifted into a platform just large enough to accommodate the six of them. "We'll be going down the scenic route, so feel free to ask any questions on the way." He said, and an energy shield formed around them, then the platform began moving using magnetic levitation.
The platform moved at 40mph – just fast enough to move around the area without causing the environment to blur out, and left the central hub. As the platform moved through the Omni-Core, they saw dozens of aliens, some of them the same as the ones at the central hub, and others that were entirely new to them. "What… are they?" Atom Eve asked. "Aliens." Codex replied curtly.
Apart from Invincible, who already knew of Codex's actual powers, the other heroes looked at Codex with a bit of shock. "What? You thought that those were just transformations that I pulled out from nowhere?" He asked them. "It's just… all of them?" Atom Eve asked, still a bit skeptical. "Yep. Every single one of them is essentially me transformed into some sapient species out there beyond the stars." He said, looking at a group of Sonorosians in the distance, which were very likely one clone that had cloned itself.
"Take those ones, for instance." He said, pointing to them. "Those are Sonorosians, a species of alien that have silicon-based bodies, and within those bodies are their true selves, beings made of living sound." He said as they reached and passed by the group of diminutive aliens. "Now, you're just exaggerating. There's no such thing as 'living sound'." Rex Splode said, rightfully skeptical.
"And when did you become the leading expert on what can be alive and not, Rex?" Codex asked rhetorically. "I… But… Sound?!" Rex stuttered, unable to actually answer Codex. "If you think living sound is absurd, then I wonder what you of someone like Furnace, who if I'm remembering correctly, is a humanoid mass of lava." Codex said.
"At least lava's tangible! How the hell does something like 'living sound' even come about?!" Rex said, still trying to wrap his head around the existence of Sonorosians. "If it makes you feel any better, there are also plant-based aliens, as well as plasma-based lifeforms amongst them." Codex said, then stopped the platform right at the entrance to the R&D Complex.
"Well, we're at our first stop on this little tour of ours. Welcome to my Research and Development Center." He said, and they looked at the massive complex that covered an area of 50km2 with astonishment. "Please, come on in." He said, and the entrance automatically opened up. The place was easily larger than most university campuses around the world, and it was predominantly occupied by Cerebrocrustaceans, Galvans, and Chemoventians[1], with some Kinecelerans and Citrakayahs running around, taking errands.
As the Teen Team and Invincible watched the scene with awe, a clone in the form of a Cerebrocrustacean came up to Codex on a maglev platform with a tablet held in one of its claws. "Original, so you have arrived, with acquaintances in tow, it seems." The clone said, greeting Codex and the other heroes.
"Yeah. So, how's Terrence?" Codex asked the clone, and it handed over the tablet. "The surgery to remove the explosive device was a success, and the Regenerative Serum has restored his body to an uninjured state. We've also transmitted our studies on the device to the others at the armory. I'm sure that they should be able to easily create something to expedite the process on others without the need for a surgery." The clone said.
"I see. He's still being kept under, right?" Codex asked as he scrolled through the information on the tablet. "Yes. Nemuina dust is quite the effective sedative." The clone replied. "Good. That means that we can send him back without him having any memories of what happened after I took him from the mall." Codex said, and one of the Kinecelerans that was running around noticeably changed its course, going into a building within the complex.
"Wait, that guy hasn't even been here for up to 30 minutes. How the hell could you have done an entire surgery on him?" Rex asked. "Our capabilities are far beyond the small confines of the minds of homo sapiens." The clone said in response. "Hey, that's racist!" Rex said in protest. "It is fact. If anyone is in the ideological wrong here, it is you, choosing to judge an entirely different alien species by your standards." The clone shot back, shutting Rex up.
"Either way…" Codex said, intervening in the conversation before it could escalate. "… send him back to Earth, preferably to Chicago's authorities, with a proper explanation of the situation." He said, and the clone nodded, then walked away to carry out his orders.
"Wait… what do you mean 'back to Earth'?" Kate asked. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that. The Omni-Core is a spaceship that I and my clones made, and right now, we're about 10 million miles away from the Moon, in the direction of Mars." Codex said, and everyone, Invincible included, looked at him incredulously. "This place is about half the size of Chicago. Do you think the GDA wouldn't have tried investigating a place like this if they even had the slightest idea of its existence?" He asked them rhetorically.
"How?" Robot asked while they began exploring the complex in earnest. "How what?" Codex returned a question. "How could you build something this expansive without the GDA noticing?" Robot said. "Well, technically speaking, they noticed when I started building it, but not what I was building." Codex replied. "I've only been a hero for about four months, but I had two weeks to make preparations. This –" He said, motioning to the entire spacecraft. "– was what I was able to make in that time." He finished.
As he said that, Robot immediately began thinking of what significant events that had occurred during the period that Codex mentioned. There was the Guardians of the Globe stopping the Mauler Twins' attack on the White House, Omni-Man stopping a magical flood somewhere in Egypt, Omni-Man defeating a dragon somewhere in China, War Woman stopping some titan-like being, and finally, the sudden disappearance of metal from dump sites and landfills all around the globe.
Figuring that the last of those major events would fit with him building the spacecraft, Robot silently wondered to himself how he was able to make this entire spacecraft in just a fortnight. "The metal that disappeared back then, that was you." Robot said, and Codex simply nodded in confirmation. "Yep. It served as good material to get my feet off the ground, and it also helped clear a good chunk of trash from Earth, however temporary that was." Codex said.
As the truth bomb landed, they all looked at Codex with shock, a phenomenon that was becoming more common than they'd have ever guessed. The event was something that many people, including superheroes, had theorized about. Some people had said that it was the government testing out some experimental weaponry, some others had said that it was a supervillain attack, and some others had suggested that aliens had been the perpetrators.
As the Teen Team was comprised of teenagers, save for Robot, they too had their own curiosity about the event. But never would they have thought that the people with conspiracy theories about aliens were the closest to the truth. The one most affected by this information, however, was Invincible, who had expected his best friend, who had said that they shouldn't keep secrets regarding their superhero life from each other, to actually follow his own words.
"It's quite a surprise, I know. But it's something that I'd prefer to remain secret from the GDA." Codex said, unwittingly answering Invincible's query. "Yeah, I'd say. If I caused what was probably the most panic the world has had in over 10 years, I'd keep what I was doing secret too." Rex said, still blown away by the information he had just heard.
"But why don't you trust the GDA?" Robot asked. "There's a number of reasons, but the main reason is Cecil Stedman's need to have an invasive level of control and surveillance on heroes and regular people. Stuff like that's never sat well with me." Codex responded, just as they reached the first elevator in the complex's main building. "Please, get in." He said calmly, as the elevator doors opened.
They all entered the elevator that was comparable in size to a standard bedroom, rather than the comparatively cramped space of a regular elevator. Once the doors closed, the elevator immediately began moving, but rather than lurch or stutter like the elevators on Earth, these ones moved so smoothly that if it hadn't been for the view of the environment around the elevator moving, they'd have thought they were staying in place. After about 5 seconds, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Codex stepped out and they followed him, and he finally began speaking again.
"This part of R&D mainly works on stuff we can use to curb illnesses, human or otherwise." He said as they walked into a large room with Cerebrocrustaceans, Galvans, and Chemoventians actively working with different chemicals, cultures, and other strange liquids and apparatuses. "For example, in there is a permanent cure, and vaccine for the rabies virus, regardless of its alternate strains." He said, pointing over to a pair of tanks filled with clear liquid, that were stacked on top of each other.
"Right beside it is the same set for Ebola, and beside that is a set for influenza, then coronavirus, then measles, smallpox, chickenpox, then anything connected to the yersinia pestis bacteria, then the lassa virus, HIV…" Codex said, continuing to list more pathogens and diseases that he and his clones had created cures and vaccines for. "Excuse me." Robot said, causing Codex to pause. "Yes, Robot."
"You mentioned that they are permanent. Could you elaborate on that and how it works?" Robot said, and Codex smiled. "Of course." He said, then opened the camera of the tablet he was holding, then placed it against the tank with the rabies vaccine. "In case you might not know how the rabies vaccine on Earth works, listen up." He said, as the screen of the tablet showed the antigens in the vaccine, that were being orbited by nanites.
"Unlike most vaccines that are preventative, the rabies vaccine on Earth is given reactively, usually after exposure to the virus. However, we've been able to rework it so that it can be given preventively, thanks to those little guys." He said, pointing to the nanites. "Those are nanites that are fully compatible with all forms of carbon-based life, regardless of their stage of development. With their involvement, they can essentially hardcode immunity to disease into their host." He said.
"Host? Like a parasite?" Kate asked. "More like a symbiote. They remain in the body, pulling a comparatively infinitesimal amount of energy from their host, and in turn, they essentially help maintain total immunity to whatever disease's vaccine they are in. So even after your body fully replaces all of its cells – which is a major part of the reason that vaccines on Earth are taken multiple times over one's lifetime, these guys will ensure that you retain your immunity after that." He said, then pulled away from the tank.
"If you were to administer this globally, humanity wouldn't have to worry about illness ever again." Robot said. "Well, this really only applies to diseases that have external causes, like pathogens and carriers. When it comes to cures for internal stuff like autoimmune diseases, cancers, and the like, we haven't quite cracked that yet." Codex said with a disappointed sigh.
"But you've essentially made cures to most of the diseases that affect humans. That's much more than most other people have done." Eve said, almost as if consoling him. "Yeah. But I should probably correct something that you guys have been getting wrong." Codex said. "The vaccines here aren't only for humans." He said, and for a short while, they all went silent.
"If you remember, I said carbon-based lifeforms, not humans. So vaccines for animals are also here." He said, then pointed his hand further down the line of tanks. "Further down are the ones for animals, and the ones over there are for plants, and the ones on that side are for deep sea creatures and species, and yes, that includes Atlanteans." He said calmly.
"Something like this… is just…" Eve said, but was at a loss for words to describe the sheer astonishment she felt. "It's good and all, but even now, these still need some work." Codex said, surprising them. ""What?!"" They all shout in surprise, except for Robot, who simply stayed silent. "How the hell could something like this need more work?! You could practically get rid of the medical industry with this!!" Rex shouted, and while they agreed with his sentiment, they were curious as to what Codex meant.
"First off, it'll only affect the disease sector of the medical industry. Everything else would still need medical professionals. Second, we're still working on making all of them viable for airborne distribution. As things are, we haven't been able to make sure that they can retain their full efficacy when they've been vaporized." He said, and they all went silent with astonishment.
For them, even having true cures to diseases was already far beyond what they thought Earth could achieve within the next century, but Codex had said that that wasn't advanced enough for him. He had produced such an impactful thing, and said that he still wasn't satisfied with its current state.
"What about the possibility for contamination, if you truly plan to administer them through the air?" Robot asked. "That has already been considered and attended to. The only issue we have so far is creating a device that would perfectly retain the efficacy of the vaccines." Codex replied. "And what about autoimmune reactions?" Robot asked. "Also dealt with. While we haven't been able to make a way to eliminate autoimmune disease, we have made sure that the vaccines don't trigger such responses." Codex said, and Robot went silent.
"Now, any more questions on this part before we move on?" He asked, and Invincible walked up to him. "Why? Why do all this on your own?" He asked, looking at his friend's masked face. "I'm not a big fan of the government." Codex replied curtly. "What?" Invincible said with confusion.
"It's exactly as I've said. I don't trust governments and their institutions. Let's not forget that despite the comparatively advanced technology that the US government has, by extension of the GDA, they still choose to charge their citizens for all medical services. Imagine what would happen if I suddenly came out saying that I could suddenly make a great chunk of their medical industry useless." Codex said, and the thought of people who had vanished under so-called 'mysterious circumstances' after coming out with some revolutionary invention plunged them into silence.
"And that's not even talking about the other stuff I've got here. But leaving that behind, I think it's about time we move on from this area." Codex said, leading them out of the room. "So where to now?" Eve asked. "Well, I guess the Materials section wouldn't be bad to go to." He said, as they entered the elevator. "Materials?" Eve asked, this time, with more interest.
"Yeah. This area was mainly for vaccines, cures and serums, like the Regeneration Serum that my clone from earlier mentioned." Codex replied, and the elevator moved them back to the ground floor of the building they were in. As they stepped out of the elevator, a particular clone caught his eye, as it flew into another building within the complex, with a small box in its hand.
Of course, none of them could tell that he had his eye on the clone, as he hadn't stopped moving towards the Materials section of the R&D Complex. "Over here, we work on making materials to solve different issues. For example, we've been able to create a gel that can work as an adhesive in multiple industries with just a little tweaking." He said, and it drew interest.
"In its initial form, it's a hydrogel that works as a medical adhesive that can even be used for setting bones, joining severed nerves and muscles, and help with healing skin and flesh wounds while not leaving any scars." He explained, right as they got to the Materials section's elevator, and entered.
"With a bit of tweaking, it can be turned into a form of cement that's compatible with essentially any building material. And that's just the tip of the iceberg." He finished, right as the elevator reached the actual work area. "We've also been working on alloys that are much stronger than the ones that Earth has been able to produce and find over the years." He said, stepping into the main work area, where multiple Tetramand, Viltrumite, Transylian, Pyronite, and Petrosapien clones were hard at work, with some Cerebrocrustaceans and Galvans giving them instructions.
One of the Tetramand clones, who had his hands free, saw Codex come in with Invincible and the Teen Team, and walked over to him. "Hey, Boss. You've got some good timing." The clone said with a voice that was notably more gravelly than Codex's. "Oh? What makes you say that?" Codex asked, and the clone grinned.
"We did it, Boss." The clone said. "You made Infinitum?" Codex asked with anticipation in his voice. "Hahaha! I'll do you one better, Boss. We improved it!" The clone said, and Codex almost jumped for joy, but he quickly stopped himself, and took in a deep breath. "Show me." He said as he let out the breath he was holding. "Right this way." The clone said, guiding him to a large table with samples of multiple materials laid out on it.
"Here they are." The clone said, bringing him to two gray metal cubes, with each side being 4 inches long, and a nameplate showing their names. He picked up the first cube, and immediately felt its weight settle. Unlike what its appearance would make assume, the cube in his hand easily weighed 700kg(1543.2lbs), reaching the weight of a small car. "Can I see it?" Eve asked, her voice pulling him out of his astonished trance.
"Yeah, but you've got to be careful. It's heavier than it looks." He said, holding the cube out. As Atom Eve inspected the cube with her powers, her expression grew more and more astonished. "How can something be this dense?!" She said incredulously. "Haha! That's a little sneak peek of what pressure forging can do." The Tetramand clone said from beside Codex.
"Pressure forging?" Robot asked, his usual monotone having the slightest spark of interest. "Yeah. We put the metals we use for it under extreme pressure, surpassing the pressure of oceans on some planets. And like that, we pack it as close as possible without breaking it." The clone explained, its face still holding a grin. "But that's for Proto-Infinitum, anyway. Infinitum-B is where things get real crazy." The clone said.
"I take that to be the improvement?" Codex asked, still holding the Proto-Infinitum cube in front of Atom Eve. "Yeah! We wanted to up the ante a bit, so we used gravity emitters to force the material to become even denser." The clone replied. "Sorry, but did he just say gravity emitters?" Invincible asked in disbelief. "That can't be real, right?" He said, looking to his best friend.
"I guess it sounds like sci-fi to you, but a lot of that stuff is par for the course up here." Codex said, then turned to the sample on the table, and picked up the second cube. "Whoa! That's…" Codex said with surprise, as he felt the immense weight of the cube momentarily pull his hand down. "Pretty sick, right?" The clone asked with a satisfied grin on his face. "Yeah." Codex said, smiling underneath his mask.
"I take it that you guys have already begun mass-production?" He asked, and the clone nodded. "We've even got some to the guys at the armory. From what I heard, they've already made some weights for the training area." The clone said, and the other heroes, save for Eve, looked at Codex with inquiring gazes. "That's for later down the line." He said, waving their questions away.
"Can I keep it?" Eve asked with her gaze still fixed on the Proto-Infinitum cube in Codex's left hand. "Sure. But can you carry it?" He asked her. "Yeah. All I have to do is reduce its density." She said, then touched the cube, with the characteristic pink glow of her using her powers shining off her hands.
"By the way, what about the gel?" Codex asked his clone. "Ehh, if you wanna know about that, ask the brainiacs." The clone said, then walked away to call one of the clones that had taken the more intellectually aligned forms. Shortly after, a Galvan came up to Codex, and they began talking about the details of their work on the gel.
The terms they used were steeped in jargon that only Robot could somewhat understand, but the main gist of their conversation regarding the gel was this; their work on the gel had been finalized, and the variants of the gel that had been made were already going through mass production. Its variants included the cement variant that Codex had mentioned earlier, a variant that would be used for restraining others, that was more resistant to both high heat and freezing, and a third variant that was a solvent for dissolving biological matter at an extremely fast rate.
After he had finished talking with the clone, he turned back to the other heroes, with the clone returning to its prior task. "Sorry about that. But if you want to look at other materials that we've been able to develop, you can check the rest of the samples on the table." He said, and Robot and Eve began inspecting them, with the cold analysis of a machine and the enthusiasm of a child at a candy shop respectively.
As the two asked him questions about the materials, he would either explain what he knew of the material, or call one of the clones in the area to do so. As that went on, Kate, Rex, and Invincible eventually joined in, letting their curiosity get the better of them. Even as he essentially acted exhibition curator, Codex smiled behind his mask, as he knew that what he had shown them so far was the tip of the iceberg.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 4,596
Thanks for reading!
[1] This is the name I have decided to use for Gutrot’s species, as his species has never been given an official name