Erik “Vulkan” Lemnos danced from foot to foot, listening to the soundtrack to 300 as he watched Grim futz with the microscope. He wondered whether or not to help him.
“Either I need glasses, or this thing is broken,” said Grim, standing up straight and arching his back. “Erik?”
He walked over to the microscope, tweaked it, and stepped aside. “Try now.”
Grim put his head to the microscope and he lifted his head sharply. He dipped his head again. “I’ll be a son of a bitch.”
“Do you see what I see?”
“Yep, good old fashioned sigils etched in the metal.” Mike got a sketch pad and pencil and started sketching the sigils. “I know this one, and this one…this one’s new. He’s mixing languages – ah, he twisted this sigil. I just need to break it apart.” Mike muttered more as he kept drawing. Erik walked over to a Qualaar gun.
Mike said from the other side, “Don’t fuck too much with that. We’re not sure what it does, yet.”
“It’s a gun. What else is it supposed to do?”
“We don’t know if it’s full tech or tech and organic. If it’s tech and organic, Scott might want it for an experiment.”
Erik looked through his tech at the gun. There was some organics to it, but whatever it was didn’t seem enough for an experiment. He left the gun alone.
The door to the lab opened and a young man with dark hair came inside. “Grim?”
“Busy, what’s up, Damon.”
“I’d like to come back to the group.”
“As a field commander?”
“As an apprentice.”
Mike looked up. “Apprentice?”
“Cybermancer took my necklace.”
Mike rubbed his teeth with his tongue and sucked in air. “You hope to learn magic without the necklace?”
“Yes,” he said.
Said Erik, “What necklace is this, now?”
Damon turned to Erik. “Who are you?”
“Erik Lamnos. Vulkan out on the ‘Nets.”
“Erik, Vulkan, my necklace belonged to my mother. It gave me power.”
“Necklaces aren’t full of power, they’re focal points of power. You have the power.”
Mike said, his head still bent over the microscope, “He’s right.”
Said Damon, “I need to find it. I need to use the library to learn it all over again. Scott said you knew a shadow mage?”
Mike jerked his head up so hard he hit his chin on the microscope’s optics. He rubbed at his chin, trying to cover it up. “I did. I have some of his work at the library.”
“What is this library?” asked Erik.
“It’s full of books,” said Damon.
“I get that.”
“Oh.”
“You two go to the library. I have to finish this up here.” He grinned. “I think I might have the bastard’s number.”
Damon said, “Then I’m back?”
“You’re back. Go on.”
“Thanks, Grim.”
He waved a hand. “Whatever. Don’t make a mess, the books don’t like it.”