Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

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Before doing anything else, I decided it was time to settle in and decide who I was going to work with, if I affiliated myself with a company or group. I brought the matter up with dad at breakfast, too dubious of my scrambled eggs to continue eating now that I knew what Egg Mana did to living things.

"Dad, I think I'd like to go to the library today to do some research. Now that my farms are pumping out saffron, I think I'm ready to seriously think about finding a way to sell it," I say, idly poking around the food on my plate and suppressing the urge to test what mana would attune from it.

He gives me a curt nod. "Good. I might not understand all of what you're doing, but you look like you've been making good progress. If you like, I could look around as well. I know one or two people who have worked for companies before that did stuff like this."

I considered this for a moment, but with how much he had already been doing for me, I didn't want to waste too much of his time.

"Maybe later, dad, if I can't find anything useful on the internet, we could talk to some of those people, maybe," I offer, placating him.

"I'm also going to be working on that thing we talked about a while back. I still want to make something to help you protect yourself, at least until the investigation is done," I remind him.

It was odd and disturbing, how little they were telling us about the investigation. A few days ago, Maddison and Emma had started coming to school again, with no sign of Sophia, and aside from the odd glare from Emma, they had utterly stopped interacting with me. It sent chills up my spike, seeing how the tables had completely turned, with the remaining members of the trio seemingly going as far out of their way as possible to avoid me now, instead of it being the other way around.

People slowly got back into the habit of making fun of me, but that wasn't even as noteworthy as Greg Veder's insistence on sitting at my table during lunch. I suspected he was taking the opportunity to avoid his own bullies my latching onto "That girl who got her bullies arrested."

Needless to say, the fact that at least one of them was probably still in police custody was gratifying, but concerning, since my identity was still at risk until this mess was concluded. Giving dad a weapon to defend himself is just prudent, in the face of that.

Breakfast passed quickly as I pondered my next moves, and not long after that, dad dropped me off at the library to do my research.

Nobody seemed to notice or care about the things I was looking up, too busy with their own research or reading, but I still made a point of looking up cape-things unrelated to Rogue Affiliation and standards-of-practice.

Along with getting a list of companies in Brockton Bay that hired rogues as either mascots or consultants, I also got a list of independent Rogues and, on a whim, some information on New Wave's policies as well, just in case.


Unlike my previous attempts at figuring out info on the MIRIS restrictions, I was able to find some, this time, by looking at rogues who actually signed up for it.

It seems, based on accounts from those capes, a big part of the problem with MIRIS was lack of funding, which was a big reason for why they joined in the first place. Most cities could only just afford the stipend, completely neglecting the funds that would normally be allocated to jumpstart projects involving multiple complimentary rogues. The restrictions mostly revolved around distribution, being a more relaxed version of the restrictions that Protectorate Tinkers had to follow.

Namely, it seemed that those affiliated via the initiative could build whatever they wanted, but their creations had to pass inspection before distribution, and could be rejected for public use on grounds ranging from biotinker creations having the potential to interbreed with existing animal or plant populations, regular tinker creations not meeting nuclear guidelines or having failure states that didn't meet them, or any number of other potential safety hazards.

As for the companies I dug up, the biggest company in Brockton that employed capes wasn't even restricted to Brockton Bay. Megalomart, one of the leading supermarkets in the US right now, employed no less than seven capes, primarily as mascots and for publicity stunts. The one around here specifically was actually a rogue that goes by Samaras, whose power apparently let her levitate plants that she touched, which she used for the rare street show or commercial.

Megalomart's restrictions weren't really that well known, but at the same time, it seems they primarily employ entertainers rather than using rogues for anything practical. One of their rogues apparently does do factory work though, Slipmelt, a rogue working in Alabama. He's got pyrokinesis that he uses at a factory for producing foam placemats.

Next on the list was TT0Suppliers, a company that ran out of Boston, but did work here too. Their main thing seems to be selling raw materials to tinkers and tech enthusiasts, and according to the old news I could dig up, they were frequently accused of cooperating with and hiring members of Toybox and the Elite, though nothing came of that.

Right now, they seem to have a tinker on their payroll named Backup, who specialized in duplicating mundane things like consumer electronics, as well as a shaker named Somatotropin, who has the power to "Grow" inorganic material, though it isn't explained what exactly that entails.

If nothing else, TT0Suppliers seems to have a somewhat lax set of restrictions, considering Somatotropin moonlights as an independent hero on the side.

Those being the only two companies currently employing parahumans, I turned my attention to some of the other options.

Parian apparently ran her own business through self-affiliation by establishing her second-identity through direct government channels instead of establishing someone else as being liable for any laws she broke as a parahuman. While that did mean that she didn't have a convenient third-party for me to affiliate with myself, she might still be a really good person to talk to if I decide to reveal my identity to the government to set up my second ID myself.

I don't know her that well, but it might even be possible for me to affiliate myself with her, if I wanted to get into clothes or whatever.

New Wave had a similar situation going on, despite being Independent Heroes, their cape identities were all set up through direct contact with the US government. Though, at the same time, they were also a non-profit organization, which spared them a lot of the trouble that came with trying to make money using powers.

Even then, most of the money they got seemed to be through third-party donations anyway, with only Panacea getting minimum wage for her working at the hospital, which she apparently just paid out into charities anyway.

It annoyed me to know that one of the world's best healers was apparently making minimum wage saving lives, for some reason.

On the villain side, Faultline's group apparently have an affiliation in the state of Texas, for some reason involving a bunch of problems near the Mexican border that her group helped deal with, though they're still "wanted for questioning" there, some quirk of the Texas state-government prevented their assets from being frozen there.

It's good to know that however controversial it might be, based on news articles, there are places where at least the financial side of the law can be bent if you're willing to tangle with the cartels.

I paid a small fee to print off everything I had found, and went home to talk it over with dad. While I didn't exactly feel like outing myself like New Wave, or moving to Texas to be a drug-wrangling semi-supervillain for hire, it was somehow comforting to know that I apparently had the option.

---

When I got home, I decided to start work on dad's self-defense weapon.

"What kind of weapons do you know how to use? I'll be trying to make something like that, or just a gun if you don't have any preferences. I've actually got a plan made for a bio-organic electrical taser gun, if you want one," I asked, preparing my workspace to do some heavy magic on it.

Dad scratches his chin, before shrugging. "I'll be honest, Taylor, the most I've used is a crowbar. Me and the boys have had to keep people out of the docks before, and I've never owned a gun that wasn't for hunting deer."

I thought about the various mana types at my disposal. Most of them just flat out weren't useful without a constant supply of magic, and while I could recharge dad's weapon every day if I needed to, it wasn't the safest way to keep it enchanted.

Dad himself didn't want to be made into a magic user, and I wasn't sure if Thoth would make a good power source or not, so I was left with only one realistic way to make a weapon that could last. Dust Magic.

Specifically, the kind of dust magic that is stronger than what I could do with just plain dirt. It wasn't relevant before, but there were differences. I noticed early on that certain materials produced more mana when I burned their dust into magic. A pile of dirt didn't produce too crazy of an amount, while something like iron dust produced more, and I had the intuition that the rarer or more magical the material, the more mana it could be transformed into.

Dad had only used blunt weapons before, so I would start with a basic baton, hollow on the inside, and shaped with a new trick at my disposal.

Recently, I had discovered a new form of mana by denaturing materials to get at purer elements, and one of them was a true godsent. Gallium Magic. Alchemy.

When I first attuned mana to Gallium, my power threw off very loud alarm bells, warning me against direct exposure and usage, and for very good reason. This mana changed the form of things it came in contact with, emitting an alchemical energy that polluted the area around it. I could only safely use it behind thick walls made of solidified light, unless I wanted to accidentally change the form of the air I'm breathing into a bunny rabbit.

I don't mean it reshaped them, it changed their form, with a distinctly conceptual bent. The liquid mana, when allowed to contact something, would distort the object in a way that hurt my eyes to watch, twisting its shape to match that of the mana, but without affecting anything else. Durability, Weight, even Function. None of them were really diminished through the use of the mana, within certain bounds.

One of my earliest tests left a blunt cut on my hand when I had tried turning a kitchen knife into a ball using Gallium magic, only for the ball to somehow nick me when I picked it up.

I got the distinct feeling that, for example, I could have turned a chainsaw into a rapier, and seen no meaningful change in functionality, ignoring how poor of a weapon chainsaws are normally, of course.

With all of that said, it was the perfect magic for putting together dad's weapon. Using plants, little bits of machinery, and hours upon hours of focusing on the mana to make it flow and shape into the correct ways, I was able to create a suitable weapon for him.

First, I took a long branch, and used plant magic to turn it into a polished-looking pen.

Next, I took a cast-iron pan and a bunch of fishing weights, and used Gallium Magic to reshape them into little cylinders, small enough to take an angle grinder to. Each one must have been five pounds at least, which made it incredibly precarious, trying to grind compressed dust off of them.

When I had the compressed dust made, I filled the pen up with the heavy particles. Since they were so compressed, the amount of mana I would be able to extract from them would be greater.

Finally, I added a Cast Iron Ring around the end of the pen, as well as a ring right below that one, made by applying Gallium Magic to a tape-recorder. It wouldn't be able to accept normal-sized cassette tapes, sadly, but that was irrelevant, considering it only needed to house the one that I recorded specifically for this tool.

Finally, I channeled magic into it, focusing on the patterns of flowing energy inside of it. When the button was pressed, it would disturb the flow of magic, making it consume the iron and lead dust, and emit it from the tip of the pen as a solid mana. This would also press the "play" button on the cassette recorder, repeating the magic words I had recorded onto it, if more crudely.

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary, if fancy, wooden pen. When the button was pressed however, heavy solid magic would erupt from the tip, and the tape would play, my voice uttering "Ting Tash Shweun Kerchunk", making the rod of mana bloom into a forest of curled fractaline, razor-sharp spikes.

When I gave the finished product to dad, he puffed immediately at the weight. "This thing is really heavy, huh?" he points out, making me realize I should have probably used some kind of lightening magic on it.

"That won't be a problem, will it? It's got like five pounds of metal powder in it," I explain nervously.

"It uses the powder as a power supply, you just click the pen pointed away from you, and," I start, only for him to test it out for himself.

I smile as he jerks back at the sudden glowing thorn-branch in his hands, the entire thing peeling open like frayed wood.

"Damn!" he says in shock, holding the weapon away from himself. "Taylor, if I swung this at someone, it'd put them straight in the hospital!" he yelps uncomfortably.

I shrug at this "Then don't use it on anyone you don't need to send to the hospital," I say.

He nods, holding the mass of thorny spikes away from himself. "So how do I turn this thing off?" he asks.

I swallow. That's a good question.

---

After giving dad a Voidmetal pocket-knife so he could "trim" the branch off when he was done with it, I decided to bring up what I had been considering doing alone. Now that dad at least had a way to protect himself, though, I felt like I should really tell him the truth.

"I called someone, by the way. I think another parahuman knows who I am. I got a phone number a few weeks ago, and when I called it, the girl on the other line warned me that I shouldn't go to the boardwalk anymore," I explain to him as he gingerly puts the battle-pen into a holster I whipped up for him.

"Oh?" he says, looking perturbed that I didn't tell him about this before calling the number.

I wince. "Well, she was just warning me that there were bad people on the boardwalk who were looking for someone that looked like me, since I was apparently acting weird while buying stuff from there, and she suggested that we should meet up somewhere. A cafe this Friday."

"I see. Are you going to go?" he asks, watching my face carefully.

I nod. "She seems to know a lot, and might be willing to help us somehow," I explain.

"I'd like it if you came with me, though, just in case" I ask, dreading the answer.

He lets out a sigh at this, giving me a quick hug. "Yes, of course. It's a relief that you're at least willing to come to me about this. I'll clear my schedule," he responds.

"So that's why you decided to start on the uhh... pen. Right?" he continues, making me flush a bit with embarrassment.

"It might have been a factor. I was caught up with other stuff until now, though, so it was always going to get done eventually," I respond.

He chuckles at this. "Well, you know what they say about 'eventually'."

I nod. "Before any of that though, I really should practice my magic some more. I need to get my synthesis up to snuff," I say, relieved that this conversation didn't go in a worse direction than it did.

He nods. "Don't overwork yourself, Taylor. I'll be sure to keep your gift handy. What should I say if someone asks where I got the damn thing?" he says, considering the matter.

I frown a bit at this. It might be a faux pas for a rogue to just hand out pseudo-tinkertech weapons to random people, and I'm pretty sure people could figure out that I made it, once I start going out in public with my abilities.

"Just say that Sage is a friend of the dockworker's union?" I offer. He laughs at that, mussing my hair up.

"Sounds like Sage keeps good company then." he chortles.

I can't help but smile. This is good.

---

Despite my work on dad's weapon turning out acceptable, my magical control still needs a lot of work. Gallium and Synthesis both rely on me being able to shape mana in a very precise way, with a lot of willpower and focus to make them go where I want in exactly the way I want.

Which is why I'm here now in my lab, churning out birds made of solid light.

One of my mana types, "Sunbird", synthesizes a bird made of solidified light, using some of the same principles that my golem magic uses. The main difference, though, is that light is vastly cheaper than silicon to synthesize wholesale, allowing me to learn more quickly to control ray magic. In a way, precise channeling reminds me a lot of how old printers work.

The main thing when doing synthesis is that I'm basically drawing using a laser beam, or I'm spray-painting using a flashlight. In order to synthesize a specific shape, I'm not just bringing it into being, but rather, I'm manipulating the rays of mana, making them hit the object I'm synthesizing. This reaction between ray and substrate then leads to a growth of material sprouting up out of it.

When using synthesis on things like rocks and concrete, I have to be careful, because if the rays go inside of the rock, the material grows inside of it as well, leading to a buildup of stress that I don't have any way to fix. More than a few sharp pebbles were made from me accidentally synthesizing too much birdstone inside of the rocks I was bringing in from outside.

Furthermore, each type of rock had... Quirks, for lack of a better word. All forms of basic stone synthesized themselves, but some of them had little differences between them. Granite, for example, tried its hardest to synthesize material in such a way that it broke the stone into triangular pyramids. Something about the nature of the magic wanted it to take on those triangular shapes inside the rock, which led to the pointy pyramids being produced if I didn't watch myself.

I wondered why Mana was like this, for a brief moment. Why even subtle changes, some so small as to be basically irrelevant, could result in vastly different mana types. Sand was mostly just Quartz, but they had entirely different mana types.

Graphite and Diamonds were both made of pure carbon, but one produced more pronounced life magic than the other, complete with stronger side effects.

I wondered if something like that could be done intentionally by my power. Somehow changing the arrangement of matter in an existing object, in order to change it's mana type.

But between those bouts of pondering, I practiced. Rocks broke, little golems formed, and flashes of light erupted from my workshop when I realized the Sunbirds were fragile and a bit too dumb to not break themselves flapping around the room.

By the end of it, I felt worn out, surrounded by little fragments of solidified light, and more comfortable with the idea of synthesizing items from scratch, using nothing but the magical, light-like rays that I could summon up from my soul.

Before going to bed, I decided to take a little piece of sea-glass and throw it up on my roof, facing the ocean so it could absorb the green flashes of the sea.

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[][Mystery Girl] Write-In plan for dealing with the velcro-girl in the upcoming meeting. (Goals and Approach.)

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Taylor has discovered the power of Alchemy! Future plans will include the option to replace a [Project] with up to ten total Alchemy tests. (Only votes towards replacing a project are required for all Alchemy Tests to be included, Riot-Style)

Taylor has discovered a non-synthetic Elemental Magic! Magic capable of synthesizing matter instead of manipulating the elements will be retitled "Synthesis" instead of "Elemental Ray"

Aluminum has been renamed an Elemental Ray Magic in light of this discovery.

Taylor has invented simple spells offscreen! They have been added to the Informational Post.