The Mech Touch

When Ves and Calabast agreed to turn Lucky into a saboteur, the cat in question did not seem very enthused by the prospect.

"Meow! Meow!"

The cat constantly pawed at Ves and tried to make excuses for himself.

"No. You won't be able to pass off this duty this time. Your infiltration efforts can save a lot of lives. If you can scan the pirate bases from inside out, then that is already an incredible valuable gain. It is even better if you can assassinate some important leader figures just before we attack!"

"Meoooow!"

Ves crossed his arms. "You're a member of the clan as well, Lucky. If you don't want to help your fellow clansmen, then at least do it for Goldie. She will grow sad whenever a Larkinson dies."

"Meow…"

"Nitaa, bring the book."

His bodyguard handed over the Larkinson Mandate. The Golden Cat woke up from her nap and curiously looked up at Ves.

Nyaa?

"Tell this dummy of a cat here that he needs to do his duty for the clan."

Nyaaa…

Goldie fell right back to sleep again!

"Urgh! Cats!"

Ves tossed the heavy book in the air, causing it to stop in midair with the help of its antigrav brace. Nitaa calmly reached out and grabbed hold of it before placing it back on her armor.

Though he didn't want to employ this means, Ves had no choice but to provide Lucky with a major concession.

"You can eat any exotics you want." He promised. "When you sneak inside and wreak havoc, feel free to take a bite out of anything that is shiny or yummy to you. The larger pirate organizations all tend to be wealthier. I bet they have accumulated a lot of rare and unique exotics from the surroundings!"

The moment he made this offer, Lucky abruptly froze in realization.

"Meow…?"

Ves nodded. "You get first pick. Just leave the remaining valuable materials to the rest of us. We'll claim the leftovers!"

As voracious as Lucky could be, his dimensional stomach could only digest so much exotics at a time!

Even if he ate all of the crown jewels in the hands of the pirates, there was no way that his hungry cat could devour an entire warehouse's worth of materials!

While Task Force Predator already carried a lot of spare parts and materials to last them for months, it was always helpful to accumulate some of the more valuable exotics that didn't take up a lot of space.

With such a compelling offer on the table, Lucky couldn't resist the temptation!

Even though it was still dangerous for a gem cat like him to infiltrate pirate strongholds by himself, with such an amazing opportunity in front of him, no danger was sufficient to stop him from eating the best meals!

Ves smirked as his cat already started to daydream about all of the yummy exotics he might eat. Though he felt a bit guilty for pushing his own pet to perform extremely dangerous missions, it was not as if Lucky was incapable.

The little bugger had plenty of practice of sneaking around undetected!

After he concluded a deal with Lucky, Ves began to think about building a custom cat harness.

While Lucky was already quite potent and proficient by himself, it didn't hurt to bring some extra tools.

For example, while Lucky could sneak into a bedroom and effortlessly swipe a pirate commander's neck, the assassination might trigger an alarm!

Even if it didn't, the timing of the commander's death might not be right or Calabast might want Lucky to kill off additional key targets without tripping any alarms.

In these cases, it was much more appropriate if Lucky was able to apply poison to his targets that killed within a predictable amount of time.

As for sabotage, Lucky could easily sneak up to a power reactor, but as capable as he was, he was not an engineer. Unless he was able to receive instructions from Ves, Lucky could only outright disable the power reactor or leave it alone in order to avoid alarming the pirates.

It was a different story if Lucky was able to plant a timed explosive instead. When placed in the correct area, even a small bomb could inflict a lot of damage!

This was just what Ves could come up with in a short amount of time. He definitely suspected that Calabast already prepared a dozen more ideas on what to add to Lucky's loadout!

He rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "Alright. Let's begin with making your harness. Let me mount some stuff on your body."

"Meow!"

Ves dragged Lucky over to the mech workshop and quickly cobbled together some harnesses that vaguely fit the body of a cat.

Each of the harnesses differed in size, mass and other factors. Whenever he mounted them onto Lucky, he told his cat to activate his phasing and invisibility abilities.

After several hours of experimentation, Ves ascertained Lucky's limits. As long as he didn't add anything thicker than the edge of his palm.

This was not as much room as he hoped.

Perhaps one consolation was that Lucky possessed a much higher tolerance for mass. As long as the material wasn't excessively dense, Ves could add all sorts of heavy stuff onto his body as long as his cat's gravity manipulation ability could still keep him aloft.

Even so, every weight added to his body decreased his nimbleness. Considering that Lucky had to rely heavily on his mobility to evade detection, Ves resolved to keep his cat's equipment light.

"Alright." He nodded at Lucky, who found the current harness very cumbersome! "I should collect some good materials. Since your life and the success of your mission are on the line, I better invest heavily."

He opened a design interface and set out to design a proper harness that fit snugly onto Lucky's frame.

Though Ves was already pretty tough, he decided that it didn't hurt to add some additional armor in case the pirates coincidentally detected him and shot at him out of his intangible form.

He created a form-fitting suit of armor that covered his entire cat except for the paws and portions of the head. It would be made out of Breyer alloy and be able to resist small arms fire with ease.

Ves then added a second layer on top that would be made with the various sensor-dampening materials provided by the Black Cats.

He wanted to use the very best in order to minimize the chance of detection, so he directly decided to cannibalize some of the spare parts of the stealth shuttle.

He didn't need to use up too much material as Lucky was just as big as a regular house cat.

Once he added some external fixtures that would allow Calabast to mount all kinds of small and slim-sized gadgets and equipment onto the exterior, Ves felt very pleased at the result.

Lucky would definitely turn into a potent infiltrator and saboteur once he wore all of this gear!

Before Ves finalized the design, he halted.

There was something about the harness that made him feel a little uncertain.

It was as if it was missing something.

"What else can I add?"

Perhaps that was the wrong question to ask.

"What is it lacking?"

As Ves began to think about the potential threats he might face, he slowly recalled the unusual spiritual phenomena he perceived in the imaginary realm.

He recalled the warnings given to his mother as well as the information that Nitaa had passed on about the Five Scrolls Compact.

"Damn. I almost overlooked this possibility."

The Five Scrolls Compact definitely maintained a presence in this space! Ves had a very strong suspicion that their regional headquarters was located close to the center of the Gap.

Even if their core members never left their base, Ves knew the Compact raised a lot of splinter organizations.

The Church of Hatuumak came to mind. Those weird cultists who exhibited strange spiritual abilities that managed to confound his senses had almost caused him and the Flagrant Swordmaidens to succumb to an ambush!

If an unimportant splinter organization like that was already capable of performing strange but effective trickery, then whatever branch organizations the Compact erected in their backyard should be even more potent!

Ves struggled for a moment before deciding that this case was truly severe enough to merit a greater investment.

"I'm not sure if this will work, but I guess I can give it a try."

He briefly left for this stateroom and returned with the second B-stone he obtained.

He held it close to Lucky. "Does it hurt you if this rock is close to you?"

"Meow."

"Okay. That's good. Now, can you carry it around or will its properties resist your ability?"

In theory, Lucky shouldn't be able to extend his intangibility powers onto a B-stone, as the latter resisted spiritual intrusions.

Ves carefully cut a decent-sized chunk from the main rock and attached it onto Lucky.

"Meow meow!"

His cat reacted as if the rock was an intense source of irritation!

"Can you turn intangible?"

Lucky concentrated for a moment. Despite the effort he put into phasing himself out, it didn't work!

"Meow!"

"Damn."

The B-stone apparently resisted Lucky's efforts, which was a major letdown.

However, Ves did not give up immediately. He cut the rock in two before telling Lucky to attempt again.

This time, he successfully managed to phase himself out! Even though Lucky appeared considerably more strained than before, the B-stone was just small enough for Lucky to brute-force his phasing powers!

It was anything but uncomfortable for him though. Lucky quickly materialized himself back into realspace again and glared at Ves for subjecting him to this strain.

"Meow meow meow!"

"I'm sorry, but this is necessary. At least we know it can work! Tell you what, I'll reduce the B-stone even further before I incorporate it into your harness."

At its current volume, Lucky could hardly maintain his intangibility. Ves was forced to cut down the sample even further before his cat stopped complaining as much.

Now that he found the right amount of B-stone, he amended the design for Lucky's harness and included the B-stone as the innermost layer.

Even though B-stone was quite good at resisting spiritual attacks and intrusions, it wasn't really tough.

After fine tuning his design, Ves immediately proceeded to fabricate it by hand. He carefully exerted himself and made sure to achieve the highest quality possible.

Though the end result was far from a masterwork, it at least looked reliable enough to serve Lucky well in his upcoming infiltration missions!

Once he fitted the completed harness onto Lucky, his cat suddenly turned dark. Due to the stealth coating applied to the exterior, Lucky literally turned into a black cat!

"Meow!"

"I know you look different, but that's the point! Haha, I think you can pass off as a true mascot for Calabast's organization now. If not for your partially-exposed claws and snout, you would truly make for a convincing metal black cat!"

Though the armor already fit Lucky decently well, Ves took the time to tweak the fittings in order to make sure it absolutely fit the frame of his cat like a glove.

Only after that did Ves invite Calabast into the workshop to see the end result.

The spymaster raised his eyebrows. "Your cat looks rather annoyed."

"He'll get over it. Now what do you think. Can you fit your gear onto the attachments I placed onto the harness."

"It's not a problem, though the size and volume limitations will limit what Lucky can do. What do you call it, by the way?"

"I haven't thought of that. Wait. I have a good idea. Why not call it the Misfortune Harness? Wherever Lucky shows up like this, he will doubtlessly spread a lot of misfortune!"

The misfortune that Ves and Lucky tended to inflict on others was different from how Jovy's design philosophy worked.

Unlike Jovy who used his strange probability manipulation powers to nudge reality in an unfavorable direction for someone, Ves preferred to walk up to the person in question and kick him in the nuts!