Sailing the Skies with my Endergirl 5 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Sailing the Skies with my Endergirl

Chapter 5

-VB-

-VB-

The mood in the room was … uncertain. Yes, that was the best way to say it. It was uncertain. 

Director Emily Piggot sat at the head of the meeting room table with four capes on either side of the table. From left to right sat Assault, Battery, Triumph, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Velocity, Dauntless, and Aegis. This was all of the Protectorate ENE’s roster present for a meeting for the first time in over two months as well as the current leader of the Wards ENE. 

And Aegis, Carlos without a mask, felt uncertain. 

Today, he was called up to this meeting to listen and discuss some new revelations they found out about not just the new cape but where he came from. 

“For the sake of record, we are beginning this meeting on March 11, 2011,” Piggot began formally, which was unusual. She usually didn’t like “wasting time” on formalities.

She picked up a paper in front of her and began to read off of it. “The pair of parahumans currently cooperating with PRT ENE branch, code name Gown and Goathead, claimed that they were from another world that is not Earth. Goathead in particular was very adamant about this, claiming that the world he came from stretched beyond sixty million meters in every direction and that no one has ever found an ‘end.’ While being interviewed by Armsmaster, Goathead stated that the people of his world could be divided into multiple categories based on biology, and that he was part of a group who were … more or less gods. He even offered to slit his own throat so that he could resurrect himself to prove his point.” She set the paper down. “He provided examples of materials, which could be interacted with by anyone and that most sentient creatures from his world could interact in the same manner but only his race could and would use the ability to its fullest, including monument building and … destructive landscaping. This ability in question is a means of transporting a cubic meter’s worth of material by miniaturizing it and carrying it around while ignoring most physical properties like density, weight, and volume. From a single ‘stack’ of ‘cobblestone,’ he could pull out sixty-four more blocks of ‘cobblestone.’ And during power testing, he proved his statement about his world but … creating a seemingly source of infinite energy.”

Everyone stared at her, including Aegis himself. 

Infinite energy? 

Armsmaster interjected. “He pulled out a bucket filled with water and unloaded a ‘block’ of water against the wall and then placed a water wheel next to the falling water. The ‘block’ of water continued and continues to unload a cubic meter’s worth of water every second and spilled onto the wheel and down to the floor of the testing room. The water that fell on the floor flowed outward up to eight meters in radius while showing a constant incline on the water surface’s decline. This is physically impossible. What’s more is that the water then stopped expanding seemingly despite the vector of the water remaining outward and an infinite amount of water was generated.” The visor on his helmet blinked. “The water wheel turns enough times per day to generate the energy needed by the PRT ENE headquarters for the day. This is despite the abysmal inefficiency of an ill-designed wooden wheel being used to generate the electricity. We have also removed more than one hundred liters of fresh water from the still floating ‘block’ of water before we discontinued the effort.”

“... Infinite water?” someone muttered. 

It might not sound like much, but Aegis keenly understood what “infinite” anything meant. 

“And it isn’t… just his power?” Dauntless asked.

“He submitted himself to a MRI scan,” Armsmaster replied to his junior’s question. “We found no parahuman-related brain structure in him or his partner Gown.” He paused. “But we cannot dismiss the idea that he may be a parahuman or a product of parahuman power.”

“This is not the reason why we are meeting,” Piggot interjected when Armsmaster took a breath.

Everyone turned back to look at her. 

“Recording of Goathead’s first interaction with Miss Militia and Velocity puts all of these under suspicion. His own words were ‘this is my Minecraft character’,” she said and looked at them meaningfully. “Now, he is being cooperative, so we didn’t push him on the inconsistencies between his first impression and the answers he gave during the interview. This does not, however, change the fact that the inconsistencies exist and that we know he is not being fully truthful, merely untruthful in the opposite ways of what we expect. Most capes in his situation would downplay or lie about his power. He is not. He is lying about himself while fully cooperating and showing his power at play.”

“... Is he running from something?” Battery asked with a frown. “Or insane?”

“No. On-base analysts do not believe that he is insane. But the idea that what we are looking at may be a parahuman or technological construct has come up.”

“Then what about Gown?” Aegis asked with a frown. 

“... She is under the same suspicion. Which brings us to a whole new question. What are we going to do about them?”

Aegis froze. 

“They are nominally friendly with the PRT,” Triumph spoke up for the first time. “While it wouldn’t do us good to keep them close without knowing their full capability, it would also be unfortunate to push them away because of some discrepancies.”

Piggot glanced at Triumph before humming. 

“I am not against keeping them at arms’ length,” Armsmaster answered. 

“Perhaps we can just … ask them?”

Everyone turned to look at him and Aegis realized he had been the one to speak up. 

“Goathead has already sidestepped the issue a few times,” Piggot hummed. “He is not likely to answer.” She turned to look at the Protectorate heroes. “I want all of you on the lookout for any irregularities, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Sure.”

“Of course, director.”

-VB-

Colin wasn’t sure how to feel about Goathead, or “Jeremy.” 

It was clear that the man was hiding something big, but Colin personally thought that it was not a problem for a very simple reason.

As they went through the testing, the man was making discoveries about himself and “mechanics” in relation to Earth Bet. 

‘He was surprised to discover that his “Nether Portal” did not work.’

And the explanation for that? That he used what amounted to a “hell” dimension as a transportation hub because one step in it was equivalent to eight steps on the surface? 

It was insane but the way he said it was so … casual. 

What made it worse was that Jeremy had samples of “blocks” from that dimension.

Netherrite, Soul Sand, and Soul Soil. 

All of them displayed… odd properties. He still had them in his lab where a continuous 24 hour monitor kept a tight surveillance. According to Jeremy, nothing should happen but -.

Colin nearly bolted away from the cubic meter block of eerie brown substance that now sat in the middle of the containment after his hand nearly touched it. 

Something had spooked him, and he knew it in his heart that it was the Soul Sand. 

After that, he nearly slammed the containment door shut with all his strength even as he tried to calm himself down.

According to Jeremy, Soul Sand was … made up of souls. 

After what he experienced merely by nearly touching it, Colin was not going to immediately dismiss the idea. 

But the Soul Sand and its mysteries weren’t what he wasn’t working on right now. 

It was the airship Jeremy was building. All of the components being used were made by Jeremy, including the hull itself. The hull in question was made out of oak planks. There were no joineries or nails used to make the hull but merely placing the blocks of planks next to each other was enough to make a solid hull piece. 

It was a very interesting effect. 

But what was more interesting and even more important were the components. 

Most of it was in a box. There were a few things that weren’t but most of it was still boxy. 

… But the airship itself? 

“It’s just for testing!” Jeremy grinned. Despite his Case-53 like appearance, his smile wasn’t unsettling or “off,” as some would put it without knowing that such an effect was called an “uncanny valley” effect. 

“You are certain,” he said as he took a step back as Jeremy put the final touches to his “airship.” It was less of a ship and more of a … device. It had just enough space for a single person to sit while surrounded by all sorts of machinery. It had just enough “balloons” to keep the thing afloat, despite the fact that the balloon’s volume and the weight of the entire contraption couldn’t be more mismatched. 

“I did this plenty of times,” he replied as he sat down. “Alright, we’re doing our first test run!” 

“Very well,” Colin replied as he turned on his helmet’s camera. “Video is recording.”

“Alright. Then we take off in 3… 2… 1…!” 

And Colin watched as an impossible airship that defied physics began to fly.

It was slow.

But it hovered, moved, steered, and made a full circle of the Rig. 

“Alright, alright, alright,” Jeremy hummed as he shut the airship’s components down. “We’re getting somewhere~.”

Colin looked at the man as he turned his camera off. 

Even though Director Piggot had told him to keep an eye on him, Colin couldn’t help but feel that Jeremy … didn’t have any ulterior motive. He was too busy being in his own world for it. 

“You’ll need to get a federal aviation license to fly it around.”

Jeremy paused and slowly turned to him.

“What?”