"How... how is that possible..." Twitch could not understand it. His whole body had been blended into the surroundings, so how had he still been caught?
And the guy in front of him even looked kind of like him, so how?
Twitch did not get to finish that thought. His breathing was already failing, and the lack of oxygen made his underdeveloped brain feel even more starved.
"What do we do?"
The newcomer shot Caleb a cold glance, and Caleb answered with just two words.
"Kill him."
The moment the words left his mouth, Twitch's neck was snapped.
Twitch dropped to the ground like a piece of trash, blood slowly spilling from his mouth.
His eyes stayed wide open, and even at the very end, he still had not figured out the answer to the last question in his mind.
Who was it? And why?
Caleb looked at the werewolf standing in front of him, his body covered in gray fur, as the creature slowly raised both claws.
After all, Caleb's Hex Claw was already aimed right at him.
"How'd you get out?"
Caleb already knew who this was.
The one standing before him was Warwick, the werewolf, once the boss of the Lanes.
The man people had once called the Hound of the Underground, Vander.
But the last time Caleb had seen him in Singed's lab, Singed had sworn that only a sliver of memory remained.
And besides, between Warwick's in-game voice lines and the way he had immediately swiped at Caleb the moment he got close, nothing about him had seemed rational.
So he had finally escaped?
No, wait. If he had escaped, why did he suddenly seem so much more intelligent?
"So you're Zaun's Governor?" the other man asked while Caleb was still frozen in thought.
"I am," Caleb answered simply, with no intention of hiding it.
"Let's find somewhere to sit and talk."
Warwick was the one who made the offer first.
Caleb lowered the Hex Claw. After all, Warwick was not like that rat from a second ago.
And at this point, he had practically proven he was in his right mind, which meant he was very likely Vander.
Singed's lab.
Rio was still resting quietly inside the tank.
"So your memory came back?" Caleb stared at the werewolf in front of him in surprise. Was this really Vander?
"You should thank the blood you brought me," Singed said.
Caleb scratched his head. So this guy really had...
"If you drove a drill into Mundo's brain, what do you think would happen?"
Singed sounded like a patient teacher guiding a somewhat clumsy student.
"It would... rebuild the brain?"
Caleb did not sound especially confident. After all, the man in front of him was the peak of alchemical science in the twin cities.
"Correct."
There was even a trace of approval in Singed's voice.
"Mundo... that is his name, right?"
"The restorative properties in his tissue are unique. His body itself is a breeding ground for chemtech compounds."
"No matter how violent or unstable the chemical mixture, Mundo's body can adapt to it instead of bursting apart from within."
"And among those substances is one particular chemtech compound, one that consumes energy to repair the body."
"You isolated it?"
Caleb looked at the man again with fresh eyes. His entire understanding had been overturned one more time.
So a genius scientist really could just ignore all common sense.
There were countless complicated chem compounds mixed together in Mundo's blood, and Singed had somehow extracted the one that mattered most.
"Can it be mass-produced?"
That was what Caleb cared about most.
This stuff was basically like an SCP-500, a universal healing potion. (TN: Panacea, cure-all potion, etc.)
Hidden injuries, obvious mutilation, whatever it was, it could fix all of it.
"No." Singed shook his head, putting out Caleb's burst of excitement.
"The appearance of those chem substances was entirely accidental. Reproducing them would be extremely difficult."
"I used some of it to restore Rio's weakened body, and some of it went into him."
Even covered in scars and ruin, Singed still carried a strange kind of grace.
"There are two small bottles left. They're yours."
Caleb immediately snatched them up, afraid the man might change his mind.
"At least you still have a little conscience," Caleb said with a cold laugh.
This guy had gone behind his back and come up with all kinds of new inventions again.
"One bottle is enough to restore one limb out of a person's four, along with their internal injuries."
"What the hell?"
Caleb was stunned on the spot. External injuries could regrow a limb, and internal injuries got fixed at the same time.
If they had just killed Mundo earlier, Viktor would not even have needed surgery.
Caleb quickly tucked the bottles away on his person, planning to throw them into the system inventory the moment he got back to his office.
"Now that the academic discussion is over, can you answer a few questions for me?"
Vander, who had stayed silent the whole time, finally spoke. He had listened quietly while the two of them talked, and only once they were finished did he ask what he wanted to know.
"Sure." Caleb straightened up as he looked at the drastically changed Vander.
"Zaun used to be under Silco's control?"
"Yes. Silco could fight, and he had money."
"Where is Silco now?"
"Stillwater Hold."
"And who's working under you now?"
"The Firelights. Ekko started it, and Professor Heimerdinger is helping."
"Then... what about Vi and Powder?"
After hesitating, Vander finally asked.
Those two girls had still been so young when he lost consciousness.
Now that he had only just woken up, the world had already changed beyond recognition.
Were they safe? Had they suffered? Had anyone hurt them?
Vander stared at Caleb nervously, afraid the next words out of his mouth would be bad news.
"They're both alive."
That one sentence eased him immediately.
"Vi spent a few years in prison. She got out with me not long ago."
"Powder changed her name to Jinx and did a lot of bad things while following Silco."
Hearing that, Vander let out a deep sigh.
"After you disappeared, life was hard for the people in the Lanes."
"But things are different now because of you." Vander tried to put on a gentle smile. "Life in Zaun is going to get better."
"What about you? What are you planning to do now?"
After Caleb asked that, Warwick froze for a moment.
He had been in a hurry to meet Zaun's new Governor.
And to be fair, compared to the compromise and humiliation he had swallowed back in his day, the people of Zaun now stood a lot straighter.
"I haven't decided. I really haven't."
Looking the way he did now, even in Zaun, where people used chemtech prosthetics on a massive scale, he was still unmistakably an outsider.
"Help me deal with the Chem-Barons."
Seeing that Vander had no direction yet, Caleb took the initiative and offered him a place.
"Gladly!" Vander answered without hesitation.
The Chem-Barons had already existed back when he ruled the Lanes.
Shimmer had poisoned Zaun, and the Chem-Barons deserved more blame than anyone.
Now, more and more Chem-Barons who wanted to claw their way back to the surface had been forced by circumstances to retreat into the mines.
But that did not mean they would stay quiet.
"Then change your name. Plenty of people still remember Vander."
Caleb did not beat around the bush. He offered the suggestion directly.
"How about Warwick?"
"That works. Then I'll follow your orders from now on."
Vander had met all kinds of people in his life, including plenty who looked righteous on the surface.
People who acted open and noble to your face but were greedier than anyone else behind your back, he had seen plenty of those.
But Caleb was different. Deep down, Vander felt that Caleb did not care about wealth, and he did not really want high status either.
A person like that had to be aiming at something far bigger.
"Can you take me to see them?" Warwick asked.
"What do you mean, can I? From now on, you can see them every day if you want."
The second he said it, Caleb stood up and dragged Warwick right out the door.
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