Ed began to get to work. He dumped out the boxes into piles on the floor. He sat in the center of the various piles and activated his power. Lumps of steel floated towards him. They quickly melted and reformed into springs, gears, and other parts.
A small ingot of steel melted and formed into individual finger sections. Tiny gears connected together to create the three joints of each finger. They combined the finger sections together into a perfect whole to form four fingers and a thumb. Another steel ingot melted and formed the top half of a palm and the bottom half of a palm. Gears connected the two together to form a functioning palm. The fingers used the gears at the bottom finger joints to connect to the palm. The steel hand was now complete.
A large steel ingot melted and formed the shape of a hollow forearm. Grooves formed on the inside of the forearm in a spiral pattern. A steel ball connected the forearm to the hand. Two cables ran through the forearm, ball, and hand to keep them connected. The cables allowed enough slack for the ball to rotate freely.
"Hooo" Ed let out a long breath. He took a short break to recover mana. 'Now comes the hard part.' Ed activated his powers again and several mana-cores flew towards him. He melted them down and separated them into seven elemental powders. A silver ingot and nickel ingot melted together to form two simple battery casings. The fire powder flew into one and the water powder into the other. They formed a fire mana battery and water mana battery. 'According to Dr. Ardy, this should work. I'm surprised he so easily told us how his steam core works.'
Another ingot formed a hollow ball. The two batteries flew inside. Springs connected to one side of each battery. Nubs connected to the other side of the battery. The springs and nubs held the two batteries in place in the center of the hollow ball. Holes covered the entire ball to allow steam out. 'That takes care of the steam core.' Ed wiped the sweat from his forehead.
'Almost done.' Ed smiled. Two steel ingots melted together into a hollow upper arm. The steam core flew inside. A steel cage covered the steam core to hold it in place, while still allowing it to rotate freely. A flexible pipe connected the forearm and upper arm together. A steel plate was in the middle of the pipe. Strong springs held the plate in place. It separated the forearm from the upper arm.
One last ingot melted into a steel shoulder. It was mostly solid and had three large holes in it. The holes had three exhaust pipes sticking out of the top-back of the shoulder. A series of cables connected the shoulder to the upper arm.
"It's finished!" Ed yelled with excitement. He held the arm up to his stump. Then he melted a bunch of leather straps and reshaped them to bind the arm to his body. 'I need a mirror…' Ed controlled some broken glass he had saved from the debris cleanup. It quickly formed a large mirror in front of him.
Ed looked at his reflection in the mirror. His dark curly black hair was as messy as always. His two black eyes glimmered with excitement. The left half of his face around the eye had a large red scar. His new right arm gleamed as the steel reflected light. The fine gears and cables made it look like a fine work of art that should belong in a museum. The combination of the scarred face and metal arm made him look rather menacing.
'Mm.' Ed nodded. 'This suits me. Maybe losing my arm wasn't all bad.' Ed tried to control the arm. It clumsily lifted into the air slowly. 'It's hard to control with my power… It's slow and if I apply too much mana then the arm will melt.' He continued to practice moving the arm. He had full range of movement with his fingers, palm, wrist, arm, and shoulder. 'I originally wanted to get Dexter to help make some commands to control it with my muscle movements… Oh well. This can be considered training as well.'
Ed practiced for several hours. He occasionally had to take breaks to recover mana. His movements continuously improved and it soon moved just like a real arm. "Now for the real test!" Ed smiled.
Ed controlled a lead ingot and it melted into several large lead bullets. He flicked his metal wrist and the ball that connected his hand and forearm lifted upwards. The ball still attached the hand and forearm via cables. A lead bullet flew inside the forearm and rolled inside. Ed poured his mana towards the steam core. It rapidly began to spin as fire poured out of one battery and water out of the other. A large amount of steam formed within the upper arm.
Ed aimed his right arm at the nearby wall. Sweat dripped down his forehead. He was extremely nervous whether it would work or not. *Bang!* The steel plate that separated the upper arm and forearm slammed down due to the steam pressure. It allowed the stream pressure to escape towards the forearm! The lead bullet shot out of Ed's forearm with amazing force. *Boom!* It slammed straight into the wall and kept flying outside. It entered another building and Ed lost sight of it. *Swoosh!* A large amount of steam exited the three exhaust pipes sticking out of Ed's shoulder.
"Wow!" Ed yelled with excitement. "That was way better than I expected!" He stopped sending mana to the steam core. The rotation slowly stopped. The steel plate that separated his upper arm and forearm returned to its upright position due to the springs attached to it. It once again separated the two parts of the arm from each other. His hand lowered back down and covered the opening the bullet fired from. His metal arm looked just like it did before he fired the bullet.
"What the hell!" Mordy and Jarrod ran up the stairs in confusion. They saw Ed and his new shiny arm. They looked at the large hole in the wall and their mouths hung open in shock.
"What… What did you do?!" Jarrod panicked.
"Relax." Mordy shook his head. He walked towards the wall and examined the hole. "Did you shoot some kind of projectile or something?" He questioned.
"Right." Ed nodded. "Want to see?"
Jarrod and Mordy glanced at each other. Slight excitement was visible in their eyes. "Do it!" They both yelled at once.
Ed loaded another lead bullet into his arm and activated the steam core. A low whistling sound could be heard from the steam that formed. It got louder and louder until. *Bang!* Another lead bullet shot through the wall. Steam poured out the front of his forearm and the exhaust pipes on his shoulder.
"Pretty cool, right?" Ed smiled. This was his favorite invention he ever made. The scooter and toy steam gun were trash in comparison.
"It's amazing!" Jarrod screamed with excitement. "How did you do it? Can you make me one?"
"I might be able to create something similar for you..." Ed rubbed his chin in thought. "Mr. Ardy told me how the steam core works. However, he did not tell what he used to activate the steam core. I used my own mana activate the steam core. Hypothetically, any esper should be able to use it. Unfortunately, it won't be usable by ordinary humans."
"Hmph" Mordy snorted. "Who cares about normal people. Why would they even need something like that?"
"True." Ed nodded. "However, I'm hoping to create weapons ordinary people can use some day. I'll naturally have to find a way for them to use my inventions."
"I disagree." Mordy frowned. "It's a waste of time. Why bother dumbing down your inventions for ordinary people? You'll sacrifice power, so they can use it. You'll sacrifice time that could be used to create more powerful gear. You should focus on creating maximum power inventions for espers only."
"Hmm." Ed closed his eyes in thought. "You might be right. I'll think on it some more in the future."
*Thud, Thud, Thud* Heavy footsteps could be heard coming from downstairs.
"Eh?" Jarrod looked at the stairs. "Did someone enter the building? We locked the front door, right?"
"Mm." Mordy nodded. "It seems we have some unwelcome guests." He pounded one fist into the other and tilted his neck. "Let's go show them that Blood-Lust isn't something to be messed with."
The other two nodded and followed Mordy down the stairs. They reached the first floor and saw a large 8-foot tall man. His body was covered in gray stone.
"Stone?!" Mordy questioned. "What are you doing in our house at this time of night?"
Stone turned around. When the trio saw him, their eyes widened in shock. Two lead bullets were embedded in his chest. Each bullet was the size of a small fist. Slight cracks could be seen in the stone surrounding the bullets.
Stone looked at them without speaking. He lifted an arm and pointed it towards them. Three stone spikes shot towards their bodies. The trio managed to barely dodge out of the way. Mordy glared at Stone with anger in his eyes. He lifted his right arm and shot a dark green ball of acid towards Stone. It landed on his shoulder and a low sizzling sound could be heard. When the acid disappeared, there was a very small burn mark on Stone's shoulder.
"This!" Jarrod backed up in fear. "I'm no help here guys! My powers only work on women!" He turned around and ran back upstairs.
"Tsk." Mordy looked in Jarrod's direction with disdain. He glanced at Ed and met his eyes. They both nodded to indicate they would both fight.
Mordy slapped his two hands together and shot a continuous stream of acid towards Stone. It caused no damage, but the acid covered Stone's face and left him unable to see.
Ed knelt down and took aim with his right arm. The steam core rotated at maximum speed. *Bang!* A lead bullet fired towards Stone's chest. It easily passed through the acid and embedded itself next to the other two lead bullets. However, it caused no real damage.
"Groar!!!" Stone roared deeply. This was the first time Ed and Mordy ever heard him speak. Stone ran slowly towards Ed. Large footprints were left in the concrete floor with each step. Stone threw a large fist towards Ed.
"Ugh!" Ed rolled out of the way. He activated his power and concrete melted underneath Stone. Stone quickly sunk down into the floor and Ed used his powers to solidify the concrete. Only Stone's large head remained above the surface.
"Holy shit!" Mordy exclaimed. "That was fucking intense!" He looked at Stone with fear evident in his eyes. "Freaken bastard attacked us without even speaking. What happened to Blood-Lust members not attacking each other?"
"You're wrong." Ed shook his head. "I attacked him first. Didn't you see the two lead bullets in his chest? I must have shot him on accident when I tested my arm earlier."
"Eh? That's not right." Mordy shook his head. "You didn't attack him. You were training, and the big idiot stood in the way on his own. It's his own fault."
'How shameless can you be?!' Ed thought to himself. Mordy stood there smiling. He seemed to be in a good mood after defeating a high-level esper of Blood-Lust.
A crumbling sound suddenly rang out. Ed and Mordy hurriedly turned towards Stone. He easily stepped out of the concrete floor. His wounds healed entirely. The bullets embedded in his chest fell out and stone grew to replace it. Both boys were within arm's reach of Stone.
Stone swung an arm at each boy. "Ugh!" Mordy got hit and was knocked unconscious to the ground. Ed barely managed to roll backwards out of the way, but he slammed into the wall behind him and slammed his head into it. He felt dizzy and disoriented. Stone walked towards Ed and lifted him up by his throat. The last thing Ed saw before losing conscious was a glowing pair of green eyes.
…
'What do I do? What do I do?!' Jarrod was hiding upstairs. He saw Mordy knocked unconscious and Ed suffocated until he passed out. Stone threw Ed's body next to Mordy and turned to glare at Jarrod.
"Aghhh!" Jarrod screamed. He pulled a knife out from his pocket and wave it threateningly towards Stone. "Don't come any closer"
*Thud! Thud! Thud!* Stone's heavy footsteps rang out. He stood in front of Jarrod. It made for a comical sight to see a 14-year-old boy hold a knife towards a stone giant almost twice his height. Jarrod's hands trembled in fear. He dropped the knife and scrambled to pick it back up off the floor. When he looked up at Stone's glowing green eyes his heart shook heavily. He hurriedly threw the knife away and prostrated himself on the floor. "Please don't hurt me!" He screamed. Tears could be seen pouring down his face. "I didn't attack you! It was them. Just let me go! I can even be your witness!"
"Humph!" Stone snorted in disdain. His giant hand reached for Jarrod's head and lifted him up. He tossed him to the floor near the other two boys. Jarrod felt the air leave his lungs as he slammed into the floor. He blacked out. The three boys lay on the floor as the menacing Stone towered over them with his glowing green eyes…
Ed began to get to work. He dumped out the boxes into piles on the floor. He sat in the center of the various piles and activated his power. Lumps of steel floated towards him. They quickly melted and reformed into springs, gears, and other parts.
A small ingot of steel melted and formed into individual finger sections. Tiny gears connected together to create the three joints of each finger. They combined the finger sections together into a perfect whole to form four fingers and a thumb. Another steel ingot melted and formed the top half of a palm and the bottom half of a palm. Gears connected the two together to form a functioning palm. The fingers used the gears at the bottom finger joints to connect to the palm. The steel hand was now complete.
A large steel ingot melted and formed the shape of a hollow forearm. Grooves formed on the inside of the forearm in a spiral pattern. A steel ball connected the forearm to the hand. Two cables ran through the forearm, ball, and hand to keep them connected. The cables allowed enough slack for the ball to rotate freely.
"Hooo" Ed let out a long breath. He took a short break to recover mana. 'Now comes the hard part.' Ed activated his powers again and several mana-cores flew towards him. He melted them down and separated them into seven elemental powders. A silver ingot and nickel ingot melted together to form two simple battery casings. The fire powder flew into one and the water powder into the other. They formed a fire mana battery and water mana battery. 'According to Dr. Ardy, this should work. I'm surprised he so easily told us how his steam core works.'
Another ingot formed a hollow ball. The two batteries flew inside. Springs connected to one side of each battery. Nubs connected to the other side of the battery. The springs and nubs held the two batteries in place in the center of the hollow ball. Holes covered the entire ball to allow steam out. 'That takes care of the steam core.' Ed wiped the sweat from his forehead.
'Almost done.' Ed smiled. Two steel ingots melted together into a hollow upper arm. The steam core flew inside. A steel cage covered the steam core to hold it in place, while still allowing it to rotate freely. A flexible pipe connected the forearm and upper arm together. A steel plate was in the middle of the pipe. Strong springs held the plate in place. It separated the forearm from the upper arm.
One last ingot melted into a steel shoulder. It was mostly solid and had three large holes in it. The holes had three exhaust pipes sticking out of the top-back of the shoulder. A series of cables connected the shoulder to the upper arm.
"It's finished!" Ed yelled with excitement. He held the arm up to his stump. Then he melted a bunch of leather straps and reshaped them to bind the arm to his body. 'I need a mirror…' Ed controlled some broken glass he had saved from the debris cleanup. It quickly formed a large mirror in front of him.
Ed looked at his reflection in the mirror. His dark curly black hair was as messy as always. His two black eyes glimmered with excitement. The left half of his face around the eye had a large red scar. His new right arm gleamed as the steel reflected light. The fine gears and cables made it look like a fine work of art that should belong in a museum. The combination of the scarred face and metal arm made him look rather menacing.
'Mm.' Ed nodded. 'This suits me. Maybe losing my arm wasn't all bad.' Ed tried to control the arm. It clumsily lifted into the air slowly. 'It's hard to control with my power… It's slow and if I apply too much mana then the arm will melt.' He continued to practice moving the arm. He had full range of movement with his fingers, palm, wrist, arm, and shoulder. 'I originally wanted to get Dexter to help make some commands to control it with my muscle movements… Oh well. This can be considered training as well.'
Ed practiced for several hours. He occasionally had to take breaks to recover mana. His movements continuously improved and it soon moved just like a real arm. "Now for the real test!" Ed smiled.
Ed controlled a lead ingot and it melted into several large lead bullets. He flicked his metal wrist and the ball that connected his hand and forearm lifted upwards. The ball still attached the hand and forearm via cables. A lead bullet flew inside the forearm and rolled inside. Ed poured his mana towards the steam core. It rapidly began to spin as fire poured out of one battery and water out of the other. A large amount of steam formed within the upper arm.
Ed aimed his right arm at the nearby wall. Sweat dripped down his forehead. He was extremely nervous whether it would work or not. *Bang!* The steel plate that separated the upper arm and forearm slammed down due to the steam pressure. It allowed the stream pressure to escape towards the forearm! The lead bullet shot out of Ed's forearm with amazing force. *Boom!* It slammed straight into the wall and kept flying outside. It entered another building and Ed lost sight of it. *Swoosh!* A large amount of steam exited the three exhaust pipes sticking out of Ed's shoulder.
"Wow!" Ed yelled with excitement. "That was way better than I expected!" He stopped sending mana to the steam core. The rotation slowly stopped. The steel plate that separated his upper arm and forearm returned to its upright position due to the springs attached to it. It once again separated the two parts of the arm from each other. His hand lowered back down and covered the opening the bullet fired from. His metal arm looked just like it did before he fired the bullet.
"What the hell!" Mordy and Jarrod ran up the stairs in confusion. They saw Ed and his new shiny arm. They looked at the large hole in the wall and their mouths hung open in shock.
"What… What did you do?!" Jarrod panicked.
"Relax." Mordy shook his head. He walked towards the wall and examined the hole. "Did you shoot some kind of projectile or something?" He questioned.
"Right." Ed nodded. "Want to see?"
Jarrod and Mordy glanced at each other. Slight excitement was visible in their eyes. "Do it!" They both yelled at once.
Ed loaded another lead bullet into his arm and activated the steam core. A low whistling sound could be heard from the steam that formed. It got louder and louder until. *Bang!* Another lead bullet shot through the wall. Steam poured out the front of his forearm and the exhaust pipes on his shoulder.
"Pretty cool, right?" Ed smiled. This was his favorite invention he ever made. The scooter and toy steam gun were trash in comparison.
"It's amazing!" Jarrod screamed with excitement. "How did you do it? Can you make me one?"
"I might be able to create something similar for you..." Ed rubbed his chin in thought. "Mr. Ardy told me how the steam core works. However, he did not tell what he used to activate the steam core. I used my own mana activate the steam core. Hypothetically, any esper should be able to use it. Unfortunately, it won't be usable by ordinary humans."
"Hmph" Mordy snorted. "Who cares about normal people. Why would they even need something like that?"
"True." Ed nodded. "However, I'm hoping to create weapons ordinary people can use some day. I'll naturally have to find a way for them to use my inventions."
"I disagree." Mordy frowned. "It's a waste of time. Why bother dumbing down your inventions for ordinary people? You'll sacrifice power, so they can use it. You'll sacrifice time that could be used to create more powerful gear. You should focus on creating maximum power inventions for espers only."
"Hmm." Ed closed his eyes in thought. "You might be right. I'll think on it some more in the future."
*Thud, Thud, Thud* Heavy footsteps could be heard coming from downstairs.
"Eh?" Jarrod looked at the stairs. "Did someone enter the building? We locked the front door, right?"
"Mm." Mordy nodded. "It seems we have some unwelcome guests." He pounded one fist into the other and tilted his neck. "Let's go show them that Blood-Lust isn't something to be messed with."
The other two nodded and followed Mordy down the stairs. They reached the first floor and saw a large 8-foot tall man. His body was covered in gray stone.
"Stone?!" Mordy questioned. "What are you doing in our house at this time of night?"
Stone turned around. When the trio saw him, their eyes widened in shock. Two lead bullets were embedded in his chest. Each bullet was the size of a small fist. Slight cracks could be seen in the stone surrounding the bullets.
Stone looked at them without speaking. He lifted an arm and pointed it towards them. Three stone spikes shot towards their bodies. The trio managed to barely dodge out of the way. Mordy glared at Stone with anger in his eyes. He lifted his right arm and shot a dark green ball of acid towards Stone. It landed on his shoulder and a low sizzling sound could be heard. When the acid disappeared, there was a very small burn mark on Stone's shoulder.
"This!" Jarrod backed up in fear. "I'm no help here guys! My powers only work on women!" He turned around and ran back upstairs.
"Tsk." Mordy looked in Jarrod's direction with disdain. He glanced at Ed and met his eyes. They both nodded to indicate they would both fight.
Mordy slapped his two hands together and shot a continuous stream of acid towards Stone. It caused no damage, but the acid covered Stone's face and left him unable to see.
Ed knelt down and took aim with his right arm. The steam core rotated at maximum speed. *Bang!* A lead bullet fired towards Stone's chest. It easily passed through the acid and embedded itself next to the other two lead bullets. However, it caused no real damage.
"Groar!!!" Stone roared deeply. This was the first time Ed and Mordy ever heard him speak. Stone ran slowly towards Ed. Large footprints were left in the concrete floor with each step. Stone threw a large fist towards Ed.
"Ugh!" Ed rolled out of the way. He activated his power and concrete melted underneath Stone. Stone quickly sunk down into the floor and Ed used his powers to solidify the concrete. Only Stone's large head remained above the surface.
"Holy shit!" Mordy exclaimed. "That was fucking intense!" He looked at Stone with fear evident in his eyes. "Freaken bastard attacked us without even speaking. What happened to Blood-Lust members not attacking each other?"
"You're wrong." Ed shook his head. "I attacked him first. Didn't you see the two lead bullets in his chest? I must have shot him on accident when I tested my arm earlier."
"Eh? That's not right." Mordy shook his head. "You didn't attack him. You were training, and the big idiot stood in the way on his own. It's his own fault."
'How shameless can you be?!' Ed thought to himself. Mordy stood there smiling. He seemed to be in a good mood after defeating a high-level esper of Blood-Lust.
A crumbling sound suddenly rang out. Ed and Mordy hurriedly turned towards Stone. He easily stepped out of the concrete floor. His wounds healed entirely. The bullets embedded in his chest fell out and stone grew to replace it. Both boys were within arm's reach of Stone.
Stone swung an arm at each boy. "Ugh!" Mordy got hit and was knocked unconscious to the ground. Ed barely managed to roll backwards out of the way, but he slammed into the wall behind him and slammed his head into it. He felt dizzy and disoriented. Stone walked towards Ed and lifted him up by his throat. The last thing Ed saw before losing conscious was a glowing pair of green eyes.
…
'What do I do? What do I do?!' Jarrod was hiding upstairs. He saw Mordy knocked unconscious and Ed suffocated until he passed out. Stone threw Ed's body next to Mordy and turned to glare at Jarrod.
"Aghhh!" Jarrod screamed. He pulled a knife out from his pocket and wave it threateningly towards Stone. "Don't come any closer"
*Thud! Thud! Thud!* Stone's heavy footsteps rang out. He stood in front of Jarrod. It made for a comical sight to see a 14-year-old boy hold a knife towards a stone giant almost twice his height. Jarrod's hands trembled in fear. He dropped the knife and scrambled to pick it back up off the floor. When he looked up at Stone's glowing green eyes his heart shook heavily. He hurriedly threw the knife away and prostrated himself on the floor. "Please don't hurt me!" He screamed. Tears could be seen pouring down his face. "I didn't attack you! It was them. Just let me go! I can even be your witness!"
"Humph!" Stone snorted in disdain. His giant hand reached for Jarrod's head and lifted him up. He tossed him to the floor near the other two boys. Jarrod felt the air leave his lungs as he slammed into the floor. He blacked out. The three boys lay on the floor as the menacing Stone towered over them with his glowing green eyes…
