Chapter 72: Limb Upgrade
'I guess I'll just take some with me and return for the rest later.' Ed controlled his mana to flow into the crocodile's body. It took him 15 minutes to melt a wagon-size amount of the flesh and hide. This was because the crocodile's body was filled with mana. He had to flush out the old mana for his own mana to infiltrate the flesh. If he failed to do so, then not only would he fail to melt the flesh, but he would also likely suffer incompatibility problems when grafting it into his own body.
Next, he condensed the flesh into a heavy backpack. 'I should probably hide the body. It's doubtful anyone would find it before I come back, but why take the chance?' He slowly melted the ground beneath the large corpse, one section at a time. It took him several hours just to hide the thing a meter underground.
His task complete, he flew east towards Harmony, returning to his underground lab. 'Time to get started.' He grinned as he set to work, preparing to replace his four limbs. It only took a brief moment for the flesh and metal to detach from his body, forming a disgusting pile of meat on the floor.
The crocodile flesh floated into the air. The bones morphed into a human shape, followed by the flesh. Muscles, nerves, blood, and veins all formed quickly. Soon, he had four human-shaped limbs, the flesh completely exposed. The crocodile hide melted into a layer of thick skin, giving his limbs an ugly yellowish look. 'Hmm. I don't like the look of it.' He opted to mix in some of the ceramic cloth he had used for the superhumans. This returned his skin to a more ordinary whitish color.
'Feels good.' He nodded in satisfaction as he clenched his fists repeatedly. 'I'll do the rest of the body after testing it on the future mana-infused humans. Who knows what side effects there might be from replacing the entire human body with mutant flesh. The limbs haven't had any negative effects on me, but I imagine replacing the heart, entire skeletal system, and other organs would come with some repercussions.'
He stood up and grabbed fourteen mana-batteries, two of each of the seven types. 'The dark, light, and lightning battery casings wear out way faster than fire, earth, wind, and water. I'll need to find a better material for them in the future, but this will do for now.' He proceeded to melt small amounts of crocodile bone and mixed it into the battery casings of all 14 batteries. It might hurt the conductivity of the batteries a bit, but the increased strength was worth it. Especially for the dark, light, and lightning batteries, which likely wouldn't last a day in ordinary casings.
'The crocodile flesh should be able to handle the raw power of these batteries easily, which means I no longer need a cooling system and can finally implement my ideal designs.' He proceeded to melt a hole in his forearm to penetrate the bone. All of the mana-batteries except for the wind battery floated into the forearm. They were encased in a mechanism similar to the revolver of a steam revolver-rifle. However, the mana-batteries didn't spin. Instead, there were bone-plates blocking off each battery. Ed could move the bone-plates with a twitch of his muscles, giving him access to using as many batteries at once as he wanted.
Next, he set up the wind mana-battery in the center of his upper arm. He chose to place this mana-battery farther back, since he usually just used it for supporting other mana-batteries. The wind would have more time to build up and push the other elements by coming from farther back in the arm, therefore providing a better result when compared to including it in the forearm with the other batteries.
'That should do it.' He smiled. 'It feels a bit odd having bones again instead of metal.' He took aim at a wall and poured mana into the fire and wind batteries. The familiar stream of flame slammed into the wall, scorching it black. Next was water and wind, which released high-pressure water. Earth and wind released something similar to a dust cloud. Wind didn't affect light much, only changing it from a strong beam of light into strong wind-blades of light. Wind and dark released a corrosive smoke. Lastly, wind and lightning released a mixture of thunder and lightning.
'Not bad.' He nodded in satisfaction at his now expanded combat capabilities. He could also combine the other elements together or use them alone. He tried mixing earth and dark elements, which created a dark sludge-like substance that corroded the floor, turning it into something akin to a bog. He slowly experimented with the other combinations, deciding to limit himself to combining three elements together at most. 'I can tell that some combinations of three elements are already pushing the crocodile flesh to the limit. Four would likely blow my arm apart. That'll have to wait until I'm even stronger.'
Finished with the first phase of his new upgrade, he left the lab. 'I'll need World Walker's help transporting the crocodile. He should be back by now.' He found Bolin at the local pub, drinking a glass of whiskey. He appeared out of place in his high-class suit when compared to the various engineers and soldiers surrounding him.
"Bolin." Ed called. "Let's go. Another special mission for you."
"Ugh!!!" Bolin groaned as he slumped against the bar counter. "You're working me to death already! Do you know how hard it is to teleport in so much food every day? I'm not made of infinite mana you know!"
"Too bad." Ed replied nonchalantly. "Should have thought about that before joining me."
"As if I had a choice!" He complained in a bitter tone.
Ed frowned. "We all have a choice, Bolin. I chose to follow you that day and regretted it heavily. You chose to make an enemy of me when you betrayed Jarrod, whether you realized it at the time or not. You also chose to be captured by me. There's nothing stopping you from offing yourself."
A few of the bar patrons stared at the two as they argued. It was hardly a secret that Ed and Bolin were former enemies, though they weren't aware of the full details of how they'd come to work together.
"Fine. Let's go." Bolin sighed as he picked up his hat from the bar counter. "Where to?"
"Horn Island. South of Missouri." He answered.
A black portal appeared, and they stepped inside, soon arriving at Horn Island.
"Why would you want to come to this dump?" Bolin said as he looked around the barren island. There was nothing here but trees and a rundown shack.
"Just watch." He commented as he worked to raise the ground up. It was several hours before the crocodile body was fully revealed once again. The sun was already setting in the sky by now, its last rays of light reflecting off the yellowish crocodile scales.
"You killed this thing?!" Bolin questioned in shock.
"Yup." He nodded. "And you're taking it back to base. Ready?"
Bolin frowned and examined the corpse carefully. "No can do." He shook his head. "Not only is it too big, but it also holds too much mana. I have limits. Mana-cores are one thing. I can always make multiple trips with those. Also, their mana is so concentrated that it doesn't really affect my powers much. But this body is filled with gaseous mana. It would need the mana drained and the body divided into many smaller pieces for me to even attempt it.
"Is that so?" Ed nodded in understanding. "Seems like we really have our work cut out for us then. It'll take me about two weeks to completely drain the mana and divide up the body into preserved flesh. From now on, you're to make a trip here every day to pick up the shipment."
"You're joking, right?" He scoffed. "Why would you even need so much mutant flesh? It's not even very valuable. Why waste our time?"
"I naturally have my uses for it." Ed replied. "Just do it. You can leave now."
"Fine, fine." He waved. "I'm going back to the pub." A portal appeared, and he happily walked into it while twirling his cane.
Ed stared at the sun setting against the sparkling waves, the sound of the ocean reverberating within his ears. He glanced back at the crocodile, a tired look in his eyes. 'I'll get started tomorrow. I haven't slept on a real bed in weeks.'
He walked towards the abandoned shack from before. His mana snaked out and began melting the dust, collecting it into a disgustingly large dust-ball that he tossed outside. The shop was full of old merchandise, most of it already being damaged beyond repair. There was a basket full of ordinary shark teeth, likely from before the mana apocalypse. Everything else was basically unrecognizable from the deterioration.
He walked through a door in the back of the shop, entering another dark room full of dust. He held up his hand and a soft white glow appeared as he utilized the light mana-battery. 'The hell?!' He had been expecting to see a storeroom, but instead it was a tiny bedroom with a cot that was completely torn to pieces. However, that was not the surprising thing. What was surprising, was the pile of eggs in the corner. Each egg was the size of four human fists put together. The eggshells were a mix of various colors, corresponding to the seven elements. However, most of the eggshells were already broken. Only one egg was still in pristine condition. It was colored a mix of red and blue, the two colors bleeding into each other in a swirl pattern.
'I wonder what laid it?' He picked up the egg in his hand and weighed it, surprised at how heavy it was. 'For an egg of this size to be in this shack... The mutant would be too big. It must have been carried in by somebody.' He knelt down and examined the broken eggshells. They were brittle with age, seeming to have been there a very long time. 'Maybe someone used to live on this island and brought the eggs inside? Then this egg never hatched? Which means this egg likely won't ever hatch?'
Tired and not particularly caring, he set the egg back down on the ground. He melted the dust out of the room just like he had done for the previous one. Then he melted the cot to fix it and laid down to rest. His thoughts faded as he quickly drifted off to sleep.
Several hours later.
'Itchy.' Ed lazily scratched his chest with his right hand, making the itch go away. A brief moment later, the itch returned again. He scratched his chest and swatted something away, presuming it to be a large bug. Such a thing wasn't worth waking up for. Espers had incredible life-force. Unless the bug was a mutant from Australia with particularly deadly poison, it was unlikely to affect his health at all.
The itch returned once again. Subconsciously, he reached to scratch it again, still mostly asleep. Suddenly, he felt a pinch against his fingers. A slightly moist feeling covering them. His eyes lazily flickered open. Light appeared in his other hand, casting a bright light on the intruder within the darkness.
A vertical pupil, half-red and half-blue, stared at Ed. A baby crocodile the size of two human fists was biting his fingers. Its scales were completely red, glistening like blood as the light shined upon them.
'A baby croc?' Ed wondered as he grabbed it with his right hand, lifting it closer to his face.
"Grr!" The baby crocodile growled, seemingly discontent with being picked up. A small wisp of flame appeared in its mouth and shot toward him.
Ed calmly used mana to wipe out the flames as he stared curiously at the creature. 'Is it related to the big crocodile I killed?' He set the crocodile down on the ground next to the cot. It wasn't capable of hurting him even if it wanted too. Slowly, he began to drift back off to sleep.
Morning. Ed groggily rubbed his eyes as he woke up. He pushed his body up off the cot, feeling something roll down his chest in the process. He rose an eyebrow in confusion as he looked down. The baby crocodile had fallen into his lap. 'This thing isn't going to live long.' He sighed while shaking his head. 'No self-preservation instincts,' He ignored the sleeping crocodile and got out of bed, heading outside of the shack.
The giant crocodile corpse still lied untouched. It was likely that other mutants were afraid to even come near it. He began using his mana to push the crocodile's original mana out of the corpse, melting the flesh in the process. He formed it into condensed backpacks that would be easy for World Walker to carry and transport. Each backpack represented a future mana-infused soldier if his experiments went as planned.
Several hours later. Ed had completely exhausted his mana. Sweat poured down his body as it trembled. His breathing was heavy. 'Heh, I don't even remember the last time I experienced mana-exhaustion. Probably not since before I started cultivating.' He turned around and was surprised to see the baby crocodile staring silently at him.
Seeing that the esper was done with his work, the crocodile swiftly scuttled forward. It bit right into the flesh of the giant croc, seeming to delight in the bountiful meal full of mana.
"Oy, that's probably your sibling or mother or something, you know?" Ed couldn't help but say aloud.
The croc glanced at him before returning to its meal, seemingly intent on ignoring him.
'Whatever.' He shrugged as he walked away. He found some old fishing rods outside the shack and fixed one up with his powers. He walked towards a small hill that made for an ideal fishing spot and created a small platform with his mana. He attached a small piece of crocodile flesh to the fishing hook. The fishing line flew out as he flicked the fishing pole. Then he placed it within the platform to hold it in place. He sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes in meditation.
Nearly an hour later, he felt something tugging on the fishing line. His eyes shot open as he grabbed the pole and began to reel in the catch, a slight smile on his face. 'I need to relax like this more often. My father used to love taking me fishing as a kid.' He reeled the fishing line in, being careful not to break the pole with his incredible strength. Ripples appeared on the water as the hooked fish was brought closer and closer to shore. He yanked the pole backwards, causing the hooked fish to fly into the air.
The fish flew forward in a blueish blur, landing right next to Ed. It was the same baby crocodile as before, except that its skin had changed color from red to blue. It happily gnawed on the fish bait.
Ed stared at the crocodile speechlessly. 'I spare a mutant for once and now I can't get rid of the damn thing?!'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
SnoozySloth
SnoozySloth I had a surprisingly hard time writing this chapter. There was a lot going on in it.
Every great hero/antihero/villain needs a pet eventually. Will Ed lovingly adopt the baby croc? Or maybe eat it? Perhaps see if he can force a 2nd awakening in it? Can mutants even have 2nd awakenings?
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone