Chapter 45: The Garden

-Alexander POV-

So, apparently? Copying a bunch of fleshy trees over and over again is pretty easy when you have a super computer for a brain – mind numbing too. It got to the point where I was iterating on my ‘fuck the world’ super plagues that I was using those trees to store, just for some entertainment.

You know things are boring when I’m willing to resort to that.

Thankfully it also didn’t take too long, only a couple of hours – and most of that was because of travel time. Surprise, surprise, a city is big. The water filters also didn’t take too long, but at least they were interesting – having to come up with novel DNA strands to minimise the risk of mutations in my specially crafted bacteria was an interesting challenge.

But after that…

“Hey, Renji? Does this look weird to you?” I ask, gesturing towards the horizon covered with trees the size of buildings, plated in bone and with leaves of pure black.

Renji squinted a bit before answering, “It is a bit lumpy, my friend. Perhaps you should go over it one more time before we leave?”

Lumpy? I scanned the trees for signs of deformities, yet despite my best efforts I couldn’t find any. My confusion must have shown on my face, because Renji simply smiles and points downwards towards…the ground?

Well, yeah, no shit, Renji! The ground is always lumpy what are you-

Oh.

So, as it turns out, when you use your -OP pls nerf- abilities to create hundreds of biologically advanced machines masquerading as trees the mass has to come from somewhere. Something I had known, but not really considered how it would look once everything was done.

It had…character. Which was the only good thing I could say about the landscaping.

“It’s also a bit barren,” Renji added, “I know the hounds don’t need it, but I feel like this place could use some vegetation.”

I felt a bit ‘meh’ at the suggestion. Don’t get me wrong, adding nature to cities rocks, there was a reason I had chosen SolarPunk as one of my first specialties – If I hadn’t started in Japan it likely would have been the first.

But, at this point, both of my previous works had utilised nature and I didn’t feel like repeating myself too often. Variety is a spice of life, and all that.

“Do I have to?” I pointedly don’t whine. “The bareness of the land contrasts well with my creations, don’t you think?” My words are backed up as I point between the jagged, rocky, earth and the equally unwelcoming pillars of bone covered flesh.

Renji pauses at that. Opens his mouth, as if to retort, before closing it again.

“…It does give off a very alien atmosphere,” he admits.

My small jig of victory is in no way spoiled by Renji’s weary look of defeat and exasperation, only enhanced by it.

“Still it’s very…samey. I understand what you’re going for, but maybe something different on the outskirts wouldn’t go amiss?”

A single eyebrow of mine raises questioningly, masking my apprehension at the thought of staying here any longer than I had to.

Renji, it’s not like we’ll have the time. Bob-“ which was the title I had given to the ginat blob constructing the wall, by the way “-is likely to be done soon. So we’ll soon be-“

Wait, Bob’s dead.

…Why is Bob dead?!

My hackles raise and my mouth furls into a snarl. I swear, if those rat bastards are back to ruin my work I’ll gut them! I’ll string them up by their entrails! I’ll feed them to my dogs, those fucking pieces of-

Oh wait, I had just forgotten to give Bob enough mass. So he had keeled over for continuing to try to build the wall even when he couldn’t.

Renji, having noticed my abrupt change of mood, looked worried. He reached out, and placed a hand in mine.

“What’s wrong?”

I let out a broken laugh. “Nothing, just another mistake.” The answer left my tongue feeling bitterer than expected. I blinked, feeling surprised and then ashamed that I had lost my composure so easily.

“Bob died. I forgot to feed him.” My answer fell flat, the slight joking tone I had wanted to portray completely failing to show up. Renji’s visible concern only grew at that

My shoulders sagged.

“I thought they had returned,” I finally admitted.

Renji didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at me searchingly. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision. He stepped forwards, his hand slipping from mine as he reached out with both arms and-

…

Hugged me.

It was so completely out of left field that I almost didn’t understand what was happening at first. It was warm, Renji’s reactor making him burn hotter than a normal human.

Carefully, gingerly, I wrapped my arms around him as well. The positioning was awkward, I was so much larger than him. We stayed like that for a while, Renji humming indecipherable songs and me simply focusing on the here and now.

How long had it been since I had hugged someone else? This was definitely my first one since arriving in this world, but what about before that? Was it a month? Two? It couldn’t have been more than a year, could it?

The answers I was coming to weren’t ones I had any inclination to indulge. Instead, I simply closed my eyes and let my troubled thoughts fade away. I can’t say how long we remained in this position, but it was nice – it made me not want to let go, even if I had to.

Renji must have noticed my reluctance to let go because he chuckled, “Soooo…want to touch some grass?” I pull back, both grateful and regretful that the hug hadn’t lasted longer.

Then I blinked.

“Did you just meme at me?”

Renji blinked, looking confused.

“Meme? What’s that?”

…I couldn’t definitively say he was fucking with me. But it definitely felt like he was.

I let out a snort of amusement, regardless. “We really need to introduce you to the internet Renji,” I say, not wanting to give him any excuses for not knowing what a meme is next time.

“We already have. Multiple times. We just never finish the introduction because you always find ‘an abomination against decent entertainment’ and then throw your computer at a wall.” Renji’s eyes are flat and full of judgement as he says this, making me avert my eyes.

In fairness Earth Bet had shit entertainment. The PRT was especially egregious in forcing it’s superheroes into every brand of media they could, but they were far from the only ones to do so.

During my trip through the tunnels I had searched up Doctor Who, on a lark. To my surprise there was a version of it currently running, except the Doctor had been turned into a Tinker who was currently working with the King’s Men. It was blatant propaganda, treating any opinion that differed from the group’s own as irrefutably wrong.

Another time I had kicked back to watch a zombie movie, hoping for some gruesome action. Then some random Mary Sue hero had appeared halfway through and trivialised the entire movie.

And this kept happening.

Percy Jackson? Somehow the entire concept of Greek Gods and Monsters had been replaced by a summer training camp full of Wards.

Harry Potter? Turns out the Boy-Who-Lived gained a super power after killing Voldemort as a baby, and proceeds to be an awesome flawless hero throughout the rest of the books (gag me).

Even Stargate wasn’t spared. Those mysterious gates that can transport you across vast distances? Tinkertech. And obviously the PRT were the ones to first discover and use them.

So, yeah. Any throwing of my computer is absolutely justified and morally correct.

“Oh, right. Never mind, the internet is a silly place anyway.” I cough, trying to think of another topic that could distract from my ‘Epic Gamer Rage Moments’ ™.

“So, plants and shit? Sounds good Renji, what a great idea!” The lie, clearly seen through by Renji, thankfully serves as my means to redirect the conversation back to redecorating the former city.

Things progressed quickly after that. Renji went off to rouse the hounds and I ventured forth to add a bit of variety to my enclosure.

Well, I did that after reviving Bob. He took death like a champ, though. Just got up and started blobbing along, building walls and being awesome. No existential dread in my slimy boy, something which I was a little jealous of.

The outskirts were bare. Here there was a fifty meter gap between the trees and the wall filled with nothing. Just rock and water. It was here that I began my work as I churned the rock and water together. From it I created mud and soil.

Slowly, hesitantly, purple buds began to bloom from that rich black soil. I had wanted to keep to my ‘alien world’ aesthetic -as Renji so elegantly put it- so instead of the basic, Earth-like, chlorophyll pigment I elected to use Retinal to facilitate the vegetation’s photosynthesis.

That was something I had actually remembered from my years in high school. I always thought it was cool that life on other worlds might be bright purple, a result of the simpler pigment absorbing green and yellow light rather efficiently. It made me more appreciative of my own planet, the idea that something as ubiquitous as greenery could be considered rare on a galactic level was mind blowing to teenage-me.

They weren’t anything spectacular, just a copy of regular plant life, simply designed to use a different pigment. It was still nice to satisfy an old curiosity of mine, however. They were brighter than I expected, vibrant and full of life.

I didn’t allow them to spread unhindered, sadly.

They would only be present here, in this small space. The bare earth would not allow the newly introduced species to flourish past the soil I had laid down for them, and without pioneer species this would likely remain the case for quite some time. A rare jewel in a sea of scarcity.

To the west is where I travelled next, no longer as close to the wall. Here I crafted what appeared to be a species of red vine which hung precariously from the tallest trees to the ground below. In truth they were part defence mechanism and part symbiote. The vines were created from my knowledge of muscle and carbon fibers. Upon coming into contact with the long, almost invisible, hairs extending from the plant, the vines themselves would lash out and attempt to crush whatever came near them. If a normal human got anywhere close to them, they’d pop like a balloon.

They wouldn’t be able to hurt a hound, however. The armoured carapace that I had designed for them was no joke, and would be more than capable of withstanding the amount of compression the vines could dish out.

They may be stuck in the air for a while though, at least until the vines automatically let go after 30 minutes. I would include a way for the vines to know not to target my puppies, but frankly the idea of them being hoisted into the air and left to dangle is way too funny.

Only a specific number of trees were given permission by me to release the enzymes necessary for their growth, however. So the vines would be a rare sight.

With time running out, or more specifically Renji getting annoyed from having to manage so many genetically augmented dogs, I elected to design my last creation in the most flooded section of Hyderabad.

To all outside observers it would appear to be nothing more than a Lilypad, and not even one altered by my knowledge of biology. You could show a hundred different botanists a picture of my creation and they would be unable to tell it was something altogether different.

For, in truth, the likeness to such a plant was skin -epidermis?-deep. Under the water was where things became weirder. Attached to the pad head was a dozen filter feeders, sucking up water and minerals in order to process them. Within the creature’s labyrinthian biology a neurotoxin was developed, one capable of felling fifty men.

For the hounds? It got them high.

…What? It’s not like they had much entertainment in here, and I made sure It wouldn’t have any detrimental side effects for them!

Stop giving me judging looks, Renji!

Ahem.

With that I had livened Hyderabad up a bit and successfully distracted myself for a short time.

I crested a large barren hill, on my way back to Renji. The work had taken many hours and in that time certain pests had gathered to observe. All outside what had once been Hyderabad, all afraid to enter. Some I could sense clearly, every atom carefully laid out before my eyes. Others I could only sense from the absence of where nothing could go, even more apparent by their paltry attempts at stealth.

I let them watch.

I spot Renji slowly making his way towards me, constantly having to avoid tripping over the hound’s overenthusiastic attempts to play with him. I can tell from the strained smile on his face that he regretted staying longer.

Sucks to suck, Renji.

I already had an inkling of where I would be going next. Not a city, or even a place where any Endbringer had ever visited - to my knowledge. It was one of the few places on Earth not crawling with Mankind.

Unlike before I wasn’t planning on building a city, only to abandon it when I was finished. No, it was clear to me I needed a home base. Somewhere to come back to after the long weeks of constant travelling. After the chaos and stress of the last month I desperately needed somewhere to relax.

So I turned my gaze south. Far beyond even my sight was the land that would become our new home: The South Pole.

AN: Done! Hyderabad is done! I hope you’ve enjoyed the aftermath of the Endbringer fight! Thinking of the weird and wacky playground of the nightmare doggies has been interesting on my part.

Next we’ll be getting into Alexander and Renji travelling and setting up their new base. Alexander will discover something that will radically change his plans.

In the meantime, I have another arc planned out that will happen concurrently. I’ve set up a lot of Chekhov’s Guns that are about to be fired and give Cauldron a very bad time.

In other news I’m heading off to Corsica tomorrow and won’t be able to bring my computer, so I’ll be writing the next parts on my Ipad. So if the chapters are shorter, blame my parents forcing me to socialise.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment!