It's morning in the world where the main base of the sirens is located. Normally, this world would be their home world. But since the time of their creation, they never did claim a world for their own kind as they don't have a reason to do so.
As the reason why, let's just say that they're just lazy to manage it and stick to managing a large fortress.
We can see inside the fortress at one of the hallways, a group of sirens are walking to the lab. Empress and the six dwar- I mean six elite sirens walked through the hallways while talking some trivial matters. While they walk, Alpha asks something that bugs her mind when she remembers the coffee incident on their way there...
"Beta, what was in the coffee machine last time?" Alpha asked Beta while tilting her head to the side. Beta sweats on her question.
"Oh, y-you mean the coffee beans. *Trying to not stutter* I told you those are from I-Iris Libre's.
"Hmm? really? then explain why those two went berserk." Alpha said with a shine on her eyes. Beta noticed that shine and looks away, as she knows that this octopus gets curious on things that should be left unanswered. They have reached the entrance of the lab but stopped as the Beta takes a deep breath.
"N-nothing..." Beta lied.
"Nothing my aft!" She grabs Beta and starts shaking her.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Purifier looks behind her and saw Beta being shaken hard like a shake from a juice stall. She grins and tries something.
"That looks fun! Let me join!" Purifier grabs Beta and shakes her too.
*CRASH*
'...These idiots.' Empress sighs as she glances to the three misfits.
They continued walking to the lab while the idiots on the back kept on escalating their shenanigans. As they walked, Empress stopped in front of a blast doors.
"We'll take a shortcut from here." Empress pointed to the door.
The elite sirens knew that door, it was only accessible to Arbiters, judging from the different hazard signs on it. They know that the secrets behind it would be known.
"Is it fine? it's not like we're against it but..."
"It's fine. There's not much secrets behind these doors anyway... aside from that incident." Empress whispered that last line quietly. She took out a card that was hidden from her dress and hover it above the card reader. The card reader flashes green, she also typed in a password along with biometrics, and the blast doors opened upwards.
The elite sirens saw claw marks, more hazard signs and... trash? It's a place of wonder alright. They were speechless.
"""""...""""" "Cool..."
Except for one idiot.
Empress stood in front of them and introduces the place half-heartedly.
"This place is just a relaxation site for us Arbiters. Those claw marks you all saw? Strength did that because she's sometimes frustrated because she can't find an enemy strong enough to fight her." Empress explained. Beta has a slightly disappointed look as she thought this area is special, but it turns out to be a normal area.
"Then what about those hazard signs on most of the rooms? There must be at least something interesting in there." Alpha hopefully said to Empress, which she nods her head. Alpha smiled and continues walking. But Empress remembered a sinister incident that happened in one of those rooms.
'There was one... where we experimented on five of the Executor sirens. We thought that we can make those subjects have a will of their own and have the same but... it was a disaster.' Empress recalled that day, when those five Executors were subjected to heavy modifications on their bodies and their brains enhanced to elite level. What they did is make the lesser sirens be as powerful as an elite siren.
It was a success; they were as powerful as the elite sirens and had a will of their own. But things started to get worse, they started deviating from their preset of commands and revolted. They tried to shut them down, but it didn't work, any emergency protocols to the Executors were not working. So, the last resort was to kill them. But that was not the end of it.
"We disposed of their bodies thoroughly but... why do I get the feeling that it isn't over? We already took their cores and their weaponry." Empress thought as she had a strange chill going up her spine. She shook her head and continued their way.
They walked further in, and the amount of damage caused by Strength increased along with more warning signs. They asked Empress if they can see behind some of them which she agreed since it's not dangerous nor something important. She stood one of the doors and opened it.
The elite sirens peeked (imagine stacking their heads on the side of door) and what they saw... is disappointing. Inside are only stacks of boxes. They glanced at Empress if they can go inside and open those which she nods. Purifier opened one of it and...
"A Lighter?" Purifier said while inspecting the item. What Purifier is holding is an object shaped like a lighter with steel as the casing and inside is the yellow-green colored fuel. Alpha comes near her and brightens.
"Hydrogen Power Cells?! Aren't these from "that" universe?! what is it doing here?!" Alpha asked enthusiastically while hugging it. Beta also opened one of the boxes, what she saw also makes her happy.
"Emergency Sanity Potions?! I needed this!" Beta said happily. She always ended up being drained due to the amount of mess and stupidity with Purifier letting loose which she always cleans up along with conducting various kinds of tests.
Compiler and Omitter look at each other and joined in opening the boxes.
"It's like we're opening loot boxes." Compiler said which Omitter nodded.
"Oh? isn't this..." Compiler lifted a white-colored bottle with a yellow radioactive symbol.
"Oh, you found the Nuka Grenade." Empress said.
"...Sodas" Omitter flatly said while showing it. it's cold too.
As they opened more boxes and finding various kinds of weapons and strange items. Empress noticed an oddly shaped box at the corner, she opened it only to find a PDA inside. she tried to turn it on, but it couldn't for some reason. she shrugs and takes it with her.
'This thing looks familiar; I can't remember where.' Empress thought. As she thinks on the possibility on what this PDA is, Alpha calls her out.
"Empress, what is this place? It's like a storage room."
"It is. These are the items that were collected when we Arbiters have fun in other universes, with the permission from the Creator of course. The other rooms also hold more items such as these." Empress said while taking the soda from Omitter and drinks it.
"We'll be late, I'll let you access some of the rooms around here after we're done." Empress said while crushing the can and throws it in trash can. They exited the room and head towards the exit of the restricted area.
They arrived in front of the lab and opened it. As they all entered the testing chamber, the elite sirens started taking control of their assigned stations and started powering up their terminals. The machine in question is gigantic. There's a powered down portal at the center surrounded by four 12-meter-tall arches with a large circular object that has an antenna at the center facing downwards to the portal.
Alpha got in front of a terminal and started typing into it, but receives a message and was startled. As the elite sirens are doing their jobs, Empress asks Beta a question.
"Do we really need this machine?" Empress asked Beta.
"I thought that too. I really do wonder why we need to use this machine if we wanted to create a simulation. With our capabilities, we can create it without any use of a medium." Beta said it out loud.
"It's romance!" Purifier said. The other elite sirens also nodded at that ridiculous reason. Beta looked at Alpha if she finds that reason absurd, but the siren looked away. Looks like she's also the same as them.
Beta sighs and continues to adjust the parameters on the console. Alpha and the others looked at each other and nodded. Alpha walked over to Empress and said that it's ready.
Empress walks to the start of the platform, facing the portal. She gives a nod to Alpha and nods back for affirmation.
"Starting it up!" Alpha pressed the button and the machine started to boot up. The four arches started to lean back and gathered energy along with the one on top of the portal.
"Beginning countdown! 10, 9, 8, 7..." as Alpha started counting down, Empress looked behind her and gave a smile to everyone.
"See you soon, everyone" Empress grinningly said to them.
They nodded while Purifier waves her hand.
"...3, 2, 1, 0! Now!" Alpha raises a lever, and the 4 arches proceed to shoot its energy to the portal along with the one on top.
"The portal is-" Before Alpha finished her words, the machine's noise intensified.
"WARNING! POWER IS OVERLOADED!" An alert sounded out and the whole room lit up with red lights. Warnings began appearing from their monitors. Alpha frantically tried to fix the errors, but the machine was not responding. Beta tried to find the cause of the problem, but the console isn't responding.
"Empress! Jump now before it's too late!" Alpha yelled out. Empress nodded and started running.
"Well then, here we go!" Empress jumped into the portal before the machine started to break down.
"Everyone! Take cover!" Alpha coiled herself with her tentacles from her rigging, Beta used her Manta Ray as a shield, Compiler covered herself with a force field, Omitter used her rigging like a shield and shouting out Lord Camelot for some reason, Purifier took out a certain black glasses with pixels and pulled out a chair to see the fireworks, and Zero starts to phased out after giving everyone a peace sign.
*BOOM*
The machine exploded, debris scattered everywhere, and smoke filled out the room. After a few minutes and some coughing. They disengaged their rigging and called out to each other if they're okay before getting out of the testing chamber.
"... Why did the machine overload? That was not supposed to happen. Sudden energy surges aren't normal in the fortress an-" Before Beta could finish, a portal was created behind her.
A figure can be seen coming out of the portal, a hazy black figure looks around before locking its gaze on Alpha.
"Was it a success?" The figure questioned Alpha.
"It's a success, albeit barely, and you should've been here earlier." Alpha said. The figure nodded and came closer to the Portal and stared at it. Beta stepped back for a bit and grabbed Alpha because she didn't know that he would come. The other elite sirens saw Beta dragging Alpha at the corner and followed her.
"Alpha, why is he here?! I thought he was with 'those' beings." Beta whisperingly said while gripping Alpha's shoulders.
"I forgot to tell you earlier that he would be staying here while The Empress has her fun." Alpha said while looking away. She received a blank stare from Beta and the others. She feels that Beta's grip from her shoulders is getting harder and her vision started to shake.
"You idiot! you can't surprise us like this!" Beta said angrily while shacking Alpha hard like what she experienced before.
"Wah! my head is spinning! Stop!"
"Never!" Beta shakes her harder.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Beta, please stop shaking the poor octopus."
"Tsk, fine." Beta obeyed and let go off Alpha. Alpha collapses on the floor while her eyes are spinning. Purifier poke at Alpha while laughing.
"Thanks, and sorry for coming unannounced." He apologizes.
"*sigh* It's not your fault... but can you at least tell it to everyone and not only Alpha next time?"
"Sure. *ehem* Anyway, I'll be overseeing the whole fortress for a while until Empress returns. also, if there's any problem that's related to the Empress' vaca- I mean experiment then tell me as soon as possible." He said firmly but it didn't work as they heard something very odd.
"Vacation?" Zero said while tilting her head.
"You heard nothing." He looked away.
"Oi, what do you mean by vacation?!" Omitter said threateningly while, but she got hit on the head by Alpha.
"Idiot! you can't talk to him like that!"
"Oh..." She equips her rigging and points her weapons at him.
"*Ehem* What do you mean by vaca-?!" This time, she was smacked into the ground and only half of her body is seen.
"..." He tiredly looked at them.
'Heh, they're the same as always...' He thought.
"Anyway, Empress needs a break from this monotone and gloomy job, that's why when Alpha here calls the Creator, that guy found a reason to let her loose to some universe disguised as an experiment. Again. That guy is always soft towards the girls." He whispered.
"So, we'll be under you for a while?" Compiler said.
"Yeah, nothing changes except I'll be here lazing around." He shrugs.
"Then I'm fine with it." Beta said.
"We should monitor where Empress ended up to." Alpha said. They started fixing some of the broken equipment and starts it up. what they saw shocked them which the figure also looks and facepalmed.
"This might be a problem... I think." He flatly said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cataz here! This is one well written shit of a chapter. Gotta say, I never expected my story views to reach triple digits. But hey, at least someone liked reading this.
Next up is a bit of a nostalgia for me. See you soon!.
May 23, 2023 - Changes some of the things here.