TriviaFreak
Time of reluctance.
Oh, I don't know. FRAN looks youthful enough that if she was seen next to Halbeard, he'd get props for landing her. Higginson!Elizabeth Weir?
I'm personally a little more iffy there...
Ancient Legos [Worm/Stargate]
- Thread starter TCGM
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Crossover Superhero
Oh, I don't know. FRAN looks youthful enough that if she was seen next to Halbeard, he'd get props for landing her. Higginson!Elizabeth Weir?
I'm personally a little more iffy there...
- Location
- Neptune
Fran Drescher
TimeDiver
Herald of Dis Lev
- Location
- In-between the parallel worlds...
Fair enough. I go for the mature look more than the youthful.
Dude, not funny. That voice of hers ruins everything (IMHO).
TriviaFreak
Time of reluctance.
Why not Stana Katic?
- Location
- Neptune
I have to disagree. In a world where, instead of just basing Dragon's body design on her established audio-visual presentation, you expect the main character to copy someone's wank folder this is extremely funny.
Keani
C̵͍̈t̷̼̓h̴̀ͅŭ̶̹l̴̡̈u̸̫͗ ̶̟͌F̵͚́h̶̠͊t̶͍͌ă̷̺g̴̯̊n̷
- Location
- R͈̥̲̦͍͓͗̽̈́̚'̞ͧ͛ͥ̄l̫̰̤̖̽̐y͍̲ͧ̒́̐̌̀e̪͆h̸̩͔̟ͣ͐͐̎ͤ
I think it's the beginning and the end for cauldron. They do sincerely have a good motive if terrible means. Now that better means are available I suspect they will use them instead with cauldron dying and being reborn as the miltiversal defense organization of cooking pot.
TCGM
(Unverified God/Space Snek)
- Location
- Avalon
'Doh! Thanks.
Parian's new merchandise, perhaps?
I don't think that was in any way accidental. You don't unload that much ordinance on an "oops." Or at least, I should hope you don't.
Not yet. Totally in the cards given Weldon's forgetfulness, though.
Thanks!
Weldon was about to go handle Ziz right after checking up with the outside world. Then Alexandria called him.
Potential waifus, perhaps. He is a teenager at the moment however.
I'm pretty sure the entirety of the remnants of the worldwide scientific community will shit bricks when this occurs. Then use those bricks to build a complex entirely devoted to figuring out his tech. Which will inevitably lead to more brick shitting, with more facilities... Von Neumann Brick Shitting, ho!
Power cable? What power cable? Not sure if Cauldron even knows about Weldon's Shard doing that. Each Shard or Shard Cluster (like an Endbringer) is in its own reality, after all.
Dragon is Behemoth's little sister now?
...Looks at the abilities they both have.
Huh, so she is. That'll be an interesting fight. The energetic equivalent of 'stop hitting yourself'.
I wax and wane on what I can manage to write. Thus the sporadic lack of an update schedule. None of my stories have outright never received any more attention from my muse. She even casts her gaze upon my two oldest on FFN from time to time. Just not at the temporal points I need.
Glares internally at personification of muse.
There are quite a few plot bunnies and started stories sitting in my Drive folder. I could post more of them for public consumption... but then you'd all expect more updates and get upset when you don't get them for a given story, so I'm hesitant to do so.
But this is a fix fic! Just by matter of consequence instead of on purpose. Weldon only wants to make the world better!
No actress did. Weldon outright states that he based her body on her digital image a chapter or so back, iirc.
Ugh! I keep missing these!
Don't blame my beta Ama here. The parts of the chapter that don't have any issues are the ones he actually fixed. I keep writing huge spurts in the middle of the night, finishing the chapter that way, and neglecting to pass it by him for betaing.
Weldon is an SI in a whole lot more ways than is readily apparent xD
This is true. Elizabeth actually does look good in both her hair colors.
But that doesn't really matter because no actress was the image for Dragon.
TCGM sees the rest of the actress discussion. SKIIIP!
Well they do resemble tumors.
Nah, kidding. There's a single sentence which is a clue as to why it's growing so much.
Pretty sure the vote will be split. People like the Number Man (Harbinger, an S9 Member) and Doctor Mother will probably be against changing the operations that give them power. I expect Legend to be all for it and drag Alexandria along for the ride. Eidolon could be on either side. Contessa? Who the hell knows.
- Location
- West Michigan
Ah, so she's A2 from Nier Automata. Good taste.
(My headcanon for Dragon, in general, is actually Lexa Doig as Rommie. Malory Jansen as Aida is a close second.)
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- Location
- Europe
Making the world better???
By breaking it???????
Try another one, he could have beamed Missy back to the PRT base or make it so her power could connect to her again.
Similar with Lisa.
Yet he goes with power removal.
Thats not fixing, thats breaking.
Meaning that Weldon can't ever leave his ship again, ever, simply because every otherparahuman will want him death.
With a focus on the criminal ones.
Talk about not being a Alteran, my ass.
By breaking it???????
Try another one, he could have beamed Missy back to the PRT base or make it so her power could connect to her again.
Similar with Lisa.
Yet he goes with power removal.
Thats not fixing, thats breaking.
Meaning that Weldon can't ever leave his ship again, ever, simply because every otherparahuman will want him death.
With a focus on the criminal ones.
Talk about not being a Alteran, my ass.
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I wonder what Ziz is up to while Weldon is busy with everything else. Just think about what she wants now. For the first time ever, she's free to think, act, and feel, all because of him. So the way I see it, there's two ways this can go: cute, worshipful little sister, or hot yandere girlfriend.
- Location
- Neptune
Third way: bellicose prisoner.
Fourth way: reluctant roommate.
Fifth way: indifferent statue.
TimeDiver
Herald of Dis Lev
- Location
- In-between the parallel worlds...
I would not be surprised if Alexandria ordered an immediate lockdown of Brockton Bay PRT HQ and demanded Master/Stranger protocols enacted, like yesterday.
After all... Dragon just showing up out of nowhere (via teleporter, at that!) is so ridiculously out-of-character for her that NOT doing so would be impossible to avoid.
FRAN is the default physical model AFAIK.
"Dragon!? How did you get here?"
"Weldon's power is bullshit."
Everyone just accepts that.
ScottotheUnwise
Verified Crack (fic) Dealer
- Location
- Mulberry, Fl
Vaguely surprised that the ship's solution to Vista's tumor problem wasn't to chuck her into the genetic manipulator and remake her with the Alteran bits that allow the powers connection Corona etc. to work.
Has a side effect of making sure there is at least one other Alteran around as a potential mate. Continuity of the species... Almost said backup pilot but realized that Asuran Dragon would be able to drive as well.
Has a side effect of making sure there is at least one other Alteran around as a potential mate. Continuity of the species... Almost said backup pilot but realized that Asuran Dragon would be able to drive as well.
John Tarsitano
Iron Scout
- Location
- United States, Florida
Dear TCGM,
I wonder what the Dragon Slayer are doing right now. Yes, the could be partying, but I'm betting they are having kittens about losing contact with Dragon's fail safes, while she is on a ship that can kill Endbringers. Maybe their leader will have a stroke at the sight of Dragon's new body?
Oh well, at least Dragon can find them now without them knowing AND stop Canary from going to the bird cage. Shipyard also needs to build a personal shield pronto. It would be also cool if, seeing how Shipyard uses Legos to build things, the company sends him a dozen semi-trailers of legos and a life time pass to Lego Land. Shipyard could even earn some money by offering the designs of his "models" for other people to build.
Now the real question is, will Chicago's Mage is friend, foe, or just a busy body Alterian who "know's best" and causes even more trouble...
Either way, thank you for letting us read your work and I can't wait to read more of it.
Sincerely
John
I wonder what the Dragon Slayer are doing right now. Yes, the could be partying, but I'm betting they are having kittens about losing contact with Dragon's fail safes, while she is on a ship that can kill Endbringers. Maybe their leader will have a stroke at the sight of Dragon's new body?
Oh well, at least Dragon can find them now without them knowing AND stop Canary from going to the bird cage. Shipyard also needs to build a personal shield pronto. It would be also cool if, seeing how Shipyard uses Legos to build things, the company sends him a dozen semi-trailers of legos and a life time pass to Lego Land. Shipyard could even earn some money by offering the designs of his "models" for other people to build.
Now the real question is, will Chicago's Mage is friend, foe, or just a busy body Alterian who "know's best" and causes even more trouble...
Either way, thank you for letting us read your work and I can't wait to read more of it.
Sincerely
John
- Location
- Bradford, PA
I love this!
TCGM
(Unverified God/Space Snek)
- Location
- Avalon
Interesting questions all. I'm gonna pull a River Song and tell you spoilers, though
Ah, so she's A2 from Nier Automata. Good taste.
(My headcanon for Dragon, in general, is actually Lexa Doig as Rommie. Malory Jansen as Aida is a close second.)
Well, it's been a while since the last chapter, so it's nice to have another, though it would be even more nice to have the next one slightly sooner
Funny story about next chapters and sooner... Soon is now.
I wonder indeed? And there's actually a third way.
Okay, not that third way. Or that fourth way. Or the fifth way- you know what, just wait until Chapter 13, Skaifu nerds.
Yup. That's exactly what he did.
That's the normal, appropriate response to most normal situations.
Then again... this is the same day a two day old Ward challenged the Simurgh on the Internet to a sky battle, soooo.....
IIRC she was the default model for all Atlantis-built Asurans. Not necessarily the actual base codes'.
This^
There's always time for that in the future. Weldon's Shard seems rather infatuated with its current host at the moment though.
Strictly speaking Alterans can flat out mate with humans, no matching Alteran required.
They are having conniption fits. Guaranteed. At least one of them has fainted and the other (the Russian, probably) is doing hard drugs and drowning his troubles in vodka.
Oh boy, I can't wait till Weldon hears about the Canary bullshit. That is planned. It is also going to be fantastically hilarious.
"YOUR HONOR! I OBJECT!"
"On what grounds?"
"You are a chode! Also I beat one winged singing hot girl so I'm taking this one."
"But you can't-"
"Mofo I beat the Simurgh, you wanna have a word with my ships?"
Shipyard in Lego Land.
...I have new nightmare fuel now, thanks.
You're welcome! Hope you enjoy today as well!
AND I LOVE YOU, RANDOM READER!
Hold on to your butts people, Chapter incoming.
Chapter 11 - Revelations
TCGM
(Unverified God/Space Snek)
- Location
- Avalon
Ancient Legos
Chapter 11
Revelations
Chapter 11
Revelations
I gulped. That was Alexandria standing there. Glaring at me.
My superior… and one of the scariest women on the planet. "H-hi, Alexa-" I began.
Her glare intensified.
I swallowed and grimaced slightly. Okay, so I wasn't exactly on her Christmas list. "Uh, ma'am. Hello ma'am," I corrected myself. "How's things?"
"Shipyard," she began, and it was most definitely a beginning, "did you fire ten. thousand. NUCLEAR. WEAPONS. ON US SOIL?!"
Yeah. She was mad. I winced and hesitantly answered her. "...Yes?"
Her only response was to silently fume.
"...In my defense, we were way higher than normal airspace and I had to take out the Simurgh somehow," I reasonably spoke up.
"TEN. THOUSAND!"
I crossed my arms and mock glared at the image of my superior. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"
Alexandria looked mad as hell for a few more seconds… and then she wilted, what I could see of her face slackening. I got the feeling I was being shown something she rarely showed anyone.
Those eyes… they held something I'd never seen her display before, except at the very start of her career. All the shows I'd watched after that, all the photoshoots, all the battles, Alexandria was always tough, stern, and resigned.
...Shush, I was a bit of an Alexandria fan. She was the closest my world had to Superman.
You know, the old comic that never lifted off? Beacon of Hope and all that?
...Pun unintended.
Anyways, not this time. Her eyes were different this time.
Not grim acceptance, not dead ends to the world.
No. For the first time she was like her, if not namesake, conceptual predecessor.
Hope.
That's what she was displaying.
A tiny amount of it, sure, but it was present. More in her eyes than anywhere else, and something you could only see if you were looking straight into them. Like I was, right then, across the communications channel between Hyperion and the PRT HQ below me.
And yes, she was wearing her visor. The one that blocked her eyes.
But it only blocked them from normal people vision.
Normal people vision is for suckers. I have a gods damned starship, you really think I'm gonna let myself be stuck with normal people vision?
Hyperion was entirely capable of scanning her face and overlaying it on the screen. In fact, I had it actively doing so.
Only her eyes, though. I respected the unwritten rules enough to not blow her secret identity to kingdom come. Even to one of her underlings who'd just soloed an Endbringer.
It would be her choice, just as it was mine to sign up for the Wards and thus make the PRT higher ups aware of who I was.
All part of the job. Being a hero, that is.
"You're right," she finally continued. "It did. You… Shipyard, how?"
I grinned, winking at her. "Liberal application of sufficient firepower?"
I heard Assault's distinct cackle in the background. And Battery smacking him, if his 'Hey!' was any indicator.
Alexandria smirked, snorting. "We need to debrief you," she began.
Then my direct superior spoke up, reminding me that she was present on this call too. I'd forgotten; Alexandria was kind of an all encompassing presence. "And I'm very interested in where Vista is," she pointedly stated.
I winced. "Uhm, yeah, about her..." I trailed off, worried.
Piggot leaned forward and glared at me. "Shipyard. Where. Is. She."
I held my hands up, frantically waving her off. "She's fine, she's fine!" I insisted. I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head. "But… uh… well she's in the Medbay-"
Piggot cracked her pencil. "WHAT."
"Like I said, she's fine!" I repeated, slightly hysterical. "Better than fine, even!"
Piggot grit her teeth. "SHIPYARD!"
I sighed, collapsing back into the bridge's command throne. "Long story short, my ship has a secondary shielding system which disables Parahuman powers while inside it."
Alexandria's eyes widened. Piggot narrowed hers. "...And?"
I grimaced, rubbing my temples. "Turns out Vista's sense of space is tethered to her power. She was getting sick. My Medbay is equipped to solve the problem, but she needs to rest and recover under observation."
All of that was true. Her sense of space was tethered to her power, she was getting sick, and she was in the Medbay. And she did need further rest and observation, even!
None of these things were necessarily linked, but I'd found that when you absolutely have to fib, it's better to let conclusions be formed on their own. That way you aren't actually fibbing, merely not putting out as much effort as you could to correct someone.
It also helped train people to be more accurate with their questions, a pet peeve of mine.
And I did have to occlude the truth, at least for now. The source of Missy's and Lisa's downward health spiral had been the brain tumors through which the biocrystalline Shardling interfaced with my brain, only in theirs, and they grew out of control once disconnected, unlike mine.
It was likely Missy and Lisa both had a Shardling, but I had no guarantee theirs was anything like mine.
Mine was a friendly puppy.
Theirs might be bloodthirsty conflict junkies.
...Or something similar.
And yes, I had no definitive proof of this. I could very well be wrong, hell, I hoped I was.
But I'd had just as much proof for Dragon's chains, and look how that turned out.
No, until I could examine these things on my own, this would have to remain my secret.
Piggot closed her eyes, sighed, then glared at me pointedly. "Is she safe?"
I nodded decidedly. "Probably safer up here than anywhere on the planet, honestly," I elaborated, "given the whole shields and giant guns thing."
The director grimaced, but accepted it. "We need to debrief you," she declared, repeating Alexandria's previous words.
I nodded my acceptance and stood from my Throne. "Should we do that down there, or do you want to come up?" I asked.
Several people looked surprised. "Come up?" Piggot asked. "Do you have enough shuttles?"
I turned my mental attention to the hangar bay. Let's see… does sixty four shuttles count? I snorted.
"Something funny?" Alexandria deadpanned.
"I have sixty four shuttles in the Hyperion's main hangar alone," I informed her. "Yes, I have enough."
"You are the only one who can operate them, however," Armsmaster pointed out.
I nodded, frowning. "Right." I then shrugged and tilted my head to the side. "Oh well, I'll just have to beam you all up!"
Alexandria's eyebrows really needed to stop attempting to hit escape velocity. "Beam us up?" she asked, clearly amused despite herself.
Assault was snickering in the background, and at the very least so was Dennis… if I was remembering their particular snickering patterns correctly.
I looked to Alexandria and grinned. "Yup. The Hyperion has Asgardian Beam Arrays. They can transport everyone up here."
"Transport," Alexandria repeated. "As in, the theoretical transportation technology imagined by science fiction writers ala Roddenberry?"
My grin widened. The fact that Alexandria even knew of Star Trek was lighting up my nerd circuits brighter than a surge of electricity. "Yep. Just like that. Beam me up, Weldon!"
The reference fell flat on the rest of the room.
Alexandria though… she got it. "I share Doctor McCoy's worries about the safety of such a technology," she declared, crossing her arms. "And the technology has the small issue that it might not be you, or me, who walks out the other side."
My eyes widened and my smile turned positively gleeful. The only way Alexandria knew about that was if she had watched the show. Watched Star Trek.
Alexandria was a Trekkie.
My life was complete.
"Shipyard?" she asked pointedly, smirking at my glee.
I froze, looking like a deer in the headlights. A moment later I shook myself and tried to get my serious face on. "Oh no, it's perfectly safe," I assured her. "Your body is disassembled into its constituent quarks and then transmitted via a subspace pathway up to the ship. There it is assembled back with a 100% accurate recreation. This allows your soul to link back up to it, thereby solving the 'are you actually you' problem."
No words came across the commlink for a few seconds. Many of the people in the office were… understandably quite stunned. The technology was impressive.
"...My soul," Alexandria asked flatly.
"Yes, your actual self on a slightly higher layer of our reality."
More stunned silence.
"...You know that exists for a fact?" she finally managed.
"Sure do! Alterans cracked Soul Science a while ago."
Alexandria stared at me for a long time. Finally, she nodded, slowly, and reached out to some button on the monitor they were using to see me. "Give us a moment to discuss, please."
"Okay!"
The transmission cut off. I pointedly and politely ignored the yelling that erupted in the office that Hyperion picked up.
I also ignored it when the PRT building went on Master/Stranger lockdown.
I even paid no attention when several high level energy blasts, including one kinetic, hit Dragon's new body. She could take care of herself.
I was about to have my ship pull up some classical music to ease the wait when something I couldn't ignore occurred.
A trans reality portal tried to scoop up Dragon. It failed, of course, I'd been smart enough to include anti teleportation systems in her new body, but it was a sign that somebody had decided to escalate.
Welp, no more waiting, I supposed. My friend was in danger.
And if what Lisa had said was correct, that I was the new 800 pound gorilla of my world… I didn't see anybody trying anything too bad on me.
So I could easily go down there and solve whatever misunderstanding was taking place!
They probably just weren't used to Dragon being able to show up in person, that's all.
…Better to be safe than sorry, though. Maybe some villains had missed the fireball that reached across the East Coast.
Low chance, granted, but at least possible.
I had Hyperion beam a Personal Shield, Sidearm, and Porta Disruption Emitter into my hands. The shield went on my chest, activated, and I felt a slight tingle across my skin that indicated it was fully online. The sidearm attached to my hip via the same effect the Shield used to stay on my shirt, and finally the brick like metal cube that was the Emitter went on my left shoulder, like a badge.
I was kitted out like an Alteran security officer. Only thing missing was the uniform.
Should I?
...Nah. Save that for later.
"Hyperion, put me down behind Director Piggot's desk," I commanded my ship out loud.
There really wasn't a reason to do that; I had to give the command mentally anyways.
But it was fun, so bite me.
The musical chime of the Asgardian transporter flared around my body and all I saw for a few moments was light.
Then I was standing behind the wooden desk of my local PRT Director.
Said Director was hiding behind it. She had her back to the desk and her head down. Her pained grimace and the fact she was holding her side informed me that something bad had happened.
I took a glance around the room before I ducked down beside her.
"Director," I greeted my superior, grinning.
Piggot's eyes snapped wide open and focused on me. "Shipyard?" she asked wearily.
"Yeah, it's me." A thunderous BOOM shook the building. "Know why Alexandria is fighting Dragon?"
Piggot shook her head, hissing as pain crossed her features. "Alexandria declared M/S protocols and attacked her."
I frowned. That didn't make sense. I'd told her that Dragon was Dragon, after all. "Okaaay, and why aren't the others backing her up?"
I meant Dragon. Despite how nebulous my question was, the Director understood. "Dragon is supposed to be an invalid," she stated flatly.
I blinked. "She was," I revealed. Well, somewhat revealed. Dragon certainly didn't have a body to use before, so that counted, right? "I healed her."
Piggot winced again, pushing into her side. I was starting to get worried about her. The pale skin and slightly weary look of her didn't help. "She remote pilots her suits. How the hell did you get her on board?"
Ah. I see.
Piggot didn't believe me either. But unlike Alexandria, she wasn't willing to piss off Tattletale's 800 pound gorilla.
Gonna take a long time to get used to that.
"We've gone over how the beaming arrays can beam to and from geosynchronous orbit, right?" I asked rhetorically.
Piggot grunted in affirmation… and what I assumed was disgruntled acceptance. Then she winced, again, in obvious pain.
I'd heard the rumors of Director Piggot. The Unbreakable Lady. Mostly from Dennis' complaints, true, but I knew how she worked.
For her to show pain, it must be excruciating.
"Alright, if we're gonna solve this, we need you in top shape," I declared, raising my hands towards her. "I don't know what happened to make you look like death, but I'm fixing it."
Her eyes, which had momentarily closed as an obvious flare of the pain raced through her, shot wide open. She snarled at me and tried to back away. "No. I refuse Parahuman healing, even if you can do it!"
I smiled sadly at her. "I'm not Panacea, Director. Nor am I Parahuman any more." And before she could respond, I shunted a tide of healing, peace, and repair into my hands.
They erupted in twin fields of glowing, slightly golden white light, and I laid them upon her. Just to sate my curiosity, I also tried to look at her internals.
Holy fuck, what the fuck is this?!
Her entire body was inundated with a foreign organism. It was accelerating the decay of any organs that received any kind of damage. This had the effect of accelerating her aging process and was a death sentence if she ever got significantly injured.
Even worse than that, her liver was the worst off. Namely, it wasn't even present. The tissue around where it should be had become… I think the term is necrotic? Partially due to natural decay and mostly because of that gods damned infection. Said infection almost saturated those dead cells, as if feasting from them.
Well then.
Time to get serious.
I shut out the outside world entirely and focused only on healing her. I poured my immense power reserves down my hands and into her body in an attempt to burn away the foreign pathogen.
I also directed some to eliminate the necrotic tissue, then regrow all of it and her liver too, but most of my power was focused on the pathogen.
My mind screamed through her body, bursting cells and rupturing membranes. Almost literal fire raked her veins, muscles, even the bones where the pathogen had apparently set up factories to produce itself. And I scoured the deadly infection everywhere I could find.
Not even her brain was spared. It had a significant level of infection, especially in the parts dedicated to thought processing, and I was going to burn it all.
Seconds, then minutes passed. Director Piggot was in far too much pain to stop me. I did what I could, but unfortunately it was either make it easy, or eliminate the pathogen before it could fully rally against me.
Oh yeah, this thing was clearly Biotinker Tech.
I didn't know where she could have gotten infected with this thing, but I didn't much care. I was too busy burning it away.
Someone tried to remove me. They met with no purchase on my shield.
Someone fired at me. Hyperion beamed them into a holding cell.
A massive impact registered on my shield, something that would have definitely killed me if I didn't have it on. As it was, the impact did nothing beyond make me flare green all over as the shield absorbed and attenuated the kinetic energy across its surface.
Nothing odd happened after that.
If I hadn't had my mental connection to Hyperion, not only would I be totally unaware of the time it took to heal Piggot, but I also would have lost to the pathogen. It had incredible calculation potential and I had to match that to find every instance of it within her body.
Hyperion and the biocrystalline construct in another reality hooked up to my brain handled that part for me. To put it in RTS terms, I was the macro and they were the micro.
Six minutes, fifty one seconds.
That's how long it took to eradicate every trace of the pathogen.
Now that might not sound very bad, but Alteran Mages are supposed to be able to heal almost anything within seconds, not minutes. That's how robust and dangerous the pathogen was.
When I came out of my pseudo trance, it was to a room full of shocked superheroes, and a Director who was looking at me in frustrated awe.
Can't say I've seen that particular emotion on someone's face before.
"You done fighting?" I asked, getting up and dusting off my hands.
...Huh, there were two people missing. Where were Alexandria and Dauntless?
It took several moments before anyone could speak. Predictably, it was Armsmaster.
"Where did you send Alexandria?" he cautiously asked.
Send? Is that why she isn't here?
I tilted my head to the side and raised my eyebrows. "I did what now?"
After directing Hyperion to beam the two of them down, it turned out that it was Dauntless who had caused the energy weapon impact alert, having fired his spear's lightning generator at me, and Alexandria who'd hit me in the middle of healing Piggot.
At full speed. At least, what she could do inside without pasting everyone else against the walls.
With full strength.
That move was something she shouldn't be deploying against heroes. It was what she used to shear off Endbringer flesh during battles.
I was still here. My personal shield didn't seem any worse for wear, either.
When Alexandria revealed exactly what I'd tanked, everyone in the room took a step back from me. Only the one, though, which told me it was just shock instead of something like fear.
The most surprising thing? She apologized for it.
Alexandria! Apologizing! And to me, no less!
Dauntless' apology didn't faze me that much, he was that kind of guy. But, Alexandria?!
In her defense, she pointed out that I didn't have a scratch on me, I was a brand new Tinker of entirely Bullshit, with a capital B, levels of power, and I was doing something they'd never seen before to the injured Director.
Once she explained that, I didn't have any hard feelings. "Okay, yeah, in that light it did look kinda bad," I admitted, sheepishly rubbing my head.
Alexandria flattened her slight frown. "I still shouldn't have lost my control like that," she reiterated herself.
Dragon spoke up, finally. I was wondering if she was okay given how much she hadn't spoken. "You're damn right," she almost growled, crossing her arms. She gave Alexandria a glare which honestly might've made me cower in terror.
Alexandria just frowned. "I have apologized to him," she pointed out, crossing her own arms. "I don't often do that."
Dragon narrowed her eyes. "You're right. You don't. Which makes me ask why."
Alexandria huffed. "Even if I didn't respect Shipyard, which I do, he…" she let her crossed arms drop and showed a moment of weakness, pushing a hand through her hair. "Dragon, he killed The Simurgh."
Dragon nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Yes, he did." She turned to me and smiled kindly. "Which is why I'm offering you membership in The Guild."
The entire room was silent. Myself included. That… that was one way to force a tone shift, all right.
I blinked multiple times. "Uh, Dragon, this wouldn't be because of that… thing I helped you with, would it?" I hesitantly asked. I might've tripped some kind of loyalty procedure in her and tied it to myself on accident. How the hell would I know? I barely grasped her code as it was, and that was only enough to remove her chains and… the abomination.
Alexandria's eyebrows rose, and her eyes flickered over to Dragon. Huh. Why would she do that? I mean, it's not like she knew what Dragon really was-
Oh shit. I gulped inaudibly, trying to dampen down my reactions. Alexandria wasn't looking at me, she probably wouldn't detect the fact that I knew that she knew.
If that was the case, it explained why she'd attacked Dragon. She must've initially looked like a Rogue AI that had just been released from her chains to anyone in the know. Well, that, and the fact that the Triumvirate heroine seemed rather trigger happy.
I only hoped that Alexandria was just aware of Dragon's status, and hadn't ever taken advantage of it, because if she had… I was going to find a way to remove powers eventually, and she'd be my first target.
You do not get to have the powers we do, call yourself a hero, and exploit others. People you'd nominally call friends. Great power comes with great responsibility, and I'd make sure Alexandria was on board with that.
Dragon laughed, snapping me out of my internal musings. Laughed! Here I was worried for what I may have inadvertently done to her and she just laughed it off. "I'm not going to lie and claim that I'm not eternally, unendingly grateful to you," she honestly revealed, "but if what I'm thinking is what you're worried about, no, that's not why." The first truly sapient synthetic being on the planet sighed. "You have a lot of potential to make the world a better place, and I've experienced firsthand your willingness to do that. I'd be honored to have you as part of The Guild."
I wasn't getting choked up and anyone else who tells you otherwise is a lying liar. A fat one. "T-thanks, Dragon," I smiled, wiping nonexistent water that wasn't dripping down my face from my cheeks.
Nobody seemed willing to interrupt the heartwarming moment. Which is, of course, why Assault spoke up. "Uh, guys, little clue here? You're doing a lotta code speak," he asked.
Heh. Code speak.
Trust me to notice puns at a time like this.
Dragon, Alexandria, and I all spoke at the same time. "Private," we said in unison.
Dragon and Alexandria both looked at me, surprised. For two clearly very different reasons.
The former because she was probably still getting used to someone caring about her so much that I'd risk my career as a hero to protect her. Don't get me wrong, that was what I was doing. Part of the Protectorate/Wards manual mandates that we report any rogue Tinkertech with the capability to self-replicate.
I refused to do that to Dragon.
Alexandria, on the other hand, seemed more shocked than anything else. I met her eyes, straight through her visor, and they widened. I narrowed my own.
She narrowed hers in return, though it seemed much more like a test and less like she meant me harm.
I nodded slightly. Yes, I could see part of her face. It looked rather familiar, but I wasn't really sure where I'd seen her before. Did I know her civilian identity from somewhere?
Oh gods, was she my next door neighbor? That'd be just my luck.
Her frown increased. Her narrowed eyes did contain a threat this time.
I narrowed my own even more thinly and crossed my arms, putting on my own frown.
The Triumvirate member and I continued staring each other down for several long moments, daring the other to crack.
She broke first. Her eyes returned to normal, she slightly smiled, and nodded a little.
Based on my burgeoning telepathy, I'd just won her respect. Personally. 'Killing' Ziz caused her to respect my actions, holding my own in a Thinker battle with her made her respect me.
I let out a shaky breath and grinned.
"Nobody's gonna comment on the little Thinker showdown Alexandria and Shipyard just had?" Dennis asked irreverently.
Chris murmured something under his breath. My telepathy filled in the inaudible blanks to tell me he'd commented on the fact I won.
I sighed, shaking my head. Back to the original topic. Why did Alexandria attack me? Yes, I was doing something possibly bad to a PRT Director, and without explanation, but... still. She should've been more… reticent, at the very least, about employing such ludicrously overkill levels of force on me, regardless of whether I tanked Dauntless' weapon. Her strength and the kinetic energy it was capable of imparting were significantly, exponentially higher level than his power, fantastic as it might have been.
Unless….. Ohhh, that organism was good.
Little known fact about biological organisms. In nature, there are several examples of reactive and active defense systems by microorganisms. At least one fungus will, when attacked, release a cloud of spores which infect nearby organisms and attempt to hormonally influence them towards defending the originating fungus. The spores quickly die off, but the manipulation has hopefully been accomplished by then. Another organism, a virus, will go into a hyper replication mode and become ludicrously contagious in order to prevent demise. So on, so forth, life finds a way.
And that's just in normal, evolutionarily randomized organisms.
Something engineered? By a Biotinker, no less? And capable of fighting off an Alteran Mage? It was entirely possible that it had started an active defense mode and attempted to locate and subvert the closest manipulable being that was capable of harming me in order to save itself.
Twice over, escalating when the first one didn't work.
Ignoring my irreverent teammate's question, I turned back to Alexandria. "Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if you were Mastered into doing it," I nonchalantly commented, bringing the conversation back on topic and revealing my internal conclusions in the same breath.
More dead silence reigned in the conference room.
"...What?" Alexandria finally managed.
"She can't be mastered," Piggot spoke up.
Alexandria nodded, though she seemed curious as to what I was saying.
I held up my hand and tilted it back and forth to demonstrate the solidity of their belief. "Ehhh, yes and no. Most Masters, from what little I've seen, attempt to override the brain. This?" I pointed over to the Director, "this was biological. It might've been capable of hijacking nervous systems, playing with hormones, who knows."
Alexandria looked even more thoughtful at that, her brow furrowing. "If that's true, that is a large vulnerability," she denoted.
I shrugged. "No larger than your need to breathe," I nonchalantly mentioned.
More dead silence. Even Alexandria looked surprised.
...Huh.
"Wait, none of you knew that?" I asked, looking around.
Head shakes, including from the woman in question herself.
"Okay, well, this is kind of important," I stressed. After another check with my ship I turned directly to Alexandria and adopted the most serious look I could. "Even now my sensors show you breathing. Or at least inhaling and exhaling; your body is kind of hard for Hyperion to scan."
She frowned, clenching her fists. "So that's why he kept doing it," she said.
"Who?" Dragon asked.
"Leviathan."
"That one definitely needs explaining," Velocity piped up.
Alexandria opened her mouth to respond, but Armsmaster beat her to it.
"Underwater," he stated flatly. He sounded very unamused. Almost angry.
But he can't be angry, he's just a robot after all. I would forever deny the struggle necessary to keep my smile off my face at that thought.
Dragon's eyes widened. "That's right. He keeps trying to drag you underwater."
Alexandria closed her mouth, settling on a grimace. She motioned to the both of them with a nod.
"So Shipyard is… correct?" Piggot asked carefully.
"Seems that way," Assault agreed.
Miss Militia raised her head and crossed her fingers. "No offense, Alexandria," she calmly suggested, "but we need to be sure."
Alexandria crossed her arms again. "I'm not taking a dip in your Bay," she refuted.
I couldn't help myself; I scoffed.
Alexandria and Piggot's gazes turned on me. "Have something to add, Shipyard?" Piggot asked testily.
"Um, yeah?" I shot back, using my best 'no shit Sherlock' voice. "Just hold your breath."
The two of them stared at me, surprised.
Seeing I had their attention, I continued my reasoning. "If you feel like you need to breathe, even if it turns out you don't actually have to and it's just psychosomatic, you'll still know that you have an at least momentary weakness that can be exploited."
The faces of my fellow heroes showed a mix of surprise, mostly, and on the part of my teammates, astonished awe.
"Bare minimum diagnostics, guys," I continued. I gestured over my shoulder at where the near constant stack of PRT Manuals lay on a table at the side of the room. "Page 56, subsection B."
More silence. Piggot looked downright dumbstruck, staring at me like I was something she'd never seen before. Armsmaster hung his head onto the shaft of his halberd, his helmet meeting it with a metallic tink. Alexandria and Miss Militia just looked impressed and proud, respectively.
"That's actually a really good idea," Battery finally commented, saving everyone the embarrassment of admitting the obvious fact that they apparently hadn't read the damn thing as thoroughly as I did.
"Indeed," Alexandria said, nodding.
I grinned, shrugged, and put my hands in my pants pockets. "I do have those occasionally."
"Yet another rarity," Piggot fired off dryly. A couple of my teammates sent her dirty looks, but for the most part all the capes in the room looked decently accepting of her statement.
Alexandria nodded one more time and stood up straight. "No time like the present." One closed mouth and a moment later, Hyperion notified me that she wasn't attempting to breathe anymore.
Another dozen seconds went by with us all just waiting on the Triumvirate heroine before her eyes widened and she looked panicked. Briefly, momentarily, but her gasp of inhaled air answered the question we'd all had.
A tense air draped across the conference room.
"I'll need to be more careful," Alexandria declared, breathing hard. "Especially if breathing is not my only weakness." She nodded in my direction at that.
Piggot leaned back in her chair. "Well, this has been enlightening." Her gaze locked on mine and she pursed her lips. "Now what were you saying about the… biological Mastering?"
I sobered up quickly and faced her. I couldn't manage to smile, much less have a neutral expression. What I'd found was pretty damn horrifying. "Director, you were infected, systemically, with a Biotinker organism. Massive processing capability. It had necrotized the tissue around your previously missing liver and set up what honestly resembled a factory floor. I barely beat the thing, and I had the Hyperion and my power backing me up. It was nasty, strong, and I'm pretty sure you know where you got it from."
I didn't know. I had a couple of guesses, but nothing concrete. That didn't mean I couldn't look like I knew, and being vague like that would get her to answer my question herself!
Piggot snarled. "Ellisburg."
Nilbog's domain. That stupid goblin.
It made sense, in a horrifying way. You'd need a very powerful Biotinker to pull off what I'd fought within her. I nodded along with her in agreement. "Yep." She moved to the lockdown button in order to put the building on… well, lockdown again, but I just held up a hand and shook my head. "Don't worry. There's no more of it anywhere. I burned it all."
Piggot stared at me for several more seconds, then returned to leaning back in her chair. "Fine. Speaking of that," she began, "how did you do it? Why do I feel like a young woman again, and more importantly, why did you say you weren't human anymore?"
I winced, but prepared to answer eloquently. "In order; I can do that now, because I healed you completely as a side effect of removing the organism from your body and your mind, and finally… because I'm not," I succinctly explained.
Piggot pursed her lips. "Do I have to order you to explain, or are you going to do it of your own free will?"
I screwed up my face in mock concentration while I 'made' my decision.
I already had my decision made, of course. There were a few things that I needed to know before I was willing to reveal any more secrets.
"I'll explain, but only after I get some answers," I offered.
Piggot sighed and rolled her eyes. "Shipyard's learned to compromise," she mock complained, smiling slightly.
"Run for the hills!" Assault chimed in.
"Dibs on first hill," Velocity spoke up, grinning.
I sighed and rolled my own eyes. "Hah hah." I pointed at Dragon and got serious. "First thing; Who thought it was a good idea to try and transport my friend here," Dragon smiled at that, "one of the best Tinkers on the planet," and now she's blushing, "through a trans-reality portal?" I frowned and put my hands on my hips. "Did whoever did that really think I wouldn't give her a spacetime distortion blocker?"
Several people were staring at me, confused. Including Dragon.
The only person who wasn't was looking… not quite afraid, but concerned, definitely.
That person was Alexandria.
I turned on her and crossed my arms. "So it was you," I accused her.
Dragon's eyes widened and she shot a betrayed look at the Triumvirate heroine.
Alexandria crossed her arms again, scowling. "I'd never seen Dragon in person before," technically true, "it was a valid decision. Master/Stranger guidelines are very clear, and I am one of the few parahumans not vulnerable to their effects." She winced and shook her head. "Or at least, that was what we thought."
I blinked, letting my arms drop. Huh.
I mean… I guess she was right. Stung to admit that though.
"...That said," she continued, turning to Dragon with a somewhat ashamed look on her face. "I apologize for overreacting." She spared me a glance. "Again. To both of you."
I sighed, pleased. My worries were solved.
Dragon maintained her narrow eyed glare for a few moments before she too relaxed. "I understand," she said, sighing. She ran her hand through her hair almost automatically, not even noticing the action. My subroutines are good. "I don't like it, but I understand. You're forgiven."
Alexandria nodded.
Dauntless had watched the entire exchange, his mouth slightly open.
It was Dennis, sitting next to him, who said it though. "Did that really just happen?"
Miss Militia interrupted Assault's incoming humor. "And more importantly, the Triumvirate has access to, if Shipyard's assessment is accurate, reality spanning travel technology?"
"That is so classified not even the Director can reveal it on her own," Alexandria flatly declared.
Piggot frowned, but nodded. "I'll need to be read in on that along with Shipyard if he actually has the capability to detect this thing that's so classified you can't even tell us it exists... unless we find out on accident," she flatly declared.
Alexandria didn't look very happy about that, but she must've figured that if I could detect such an event there was no way to keep their super secret super sauce secret from me for very long. "Fine." Oh yeah, she decidedly didn't like the idea. She turned and glared at me. "Your turn."
I nodded, momentarily closing my eyes. When I looked back up, I was certain a determined light shone from them. "Okay."
"Do we need to leave for this?" Dean spoke up.
I glanced over at him, pondered his question for a few seconds, then decided. "No, I trust everyone here," I said, eyeing Alexandria pointedly, "but the room's sensors need to be disabled. While I'm confident in my own counter-surveillance technology, it's better to be safe than sorry."
Piggot sighed, but acquiesced. She waved to Armsmaster. He stood straighter and proceeded to start messing when his halberd. Piggot pressed a couple of buttons on her desk, and one under it, in several seemingly random patterns. They were obviously intended to throw off any observers as to the true sequence, because while the Director always touched a button, only sometimes did she actually press it.
It got so boring I actually started twiddling my thumbs.
Finally the two of them seemed to come to a consensus, because Piggot stopped 'pressing' buttons and Armsmaster allowed his arm to return to his side.
"Room sensors disabled," Armsmaster reported.
Dragon looked like she was focusing on something far away for a few moments. Likely testing out the disabling herself. "I confirm, sensor feeds offline," she reported.
Piggot glanced at her monitor and nodded decidedly. "And the anti surveillance and anti Thinker countermeasures are online," she amended. Her piercing gaze turned on me. "Whenever you're ready, Shipyard?"
I made a show of looking around the room as if checking it for myself before nodding. "One moment," I requested, reaching for the silver brick on my left arm. Glowing subsurface touch sensors lit up at my fingers' approach and I began entering commands.
"What's that?" Carlos asked.
I finished my tasks and pressed the activation button. The device glowed for a moment, then an almost visible wave of distortion swept out and away from my arm and through the entire room. It ended about an inch from the boundaries of the large conference room, the relatively huge field input barely within this rather small device's projection capacity.
"My countermeasure system," I informed the room, answering Carlos' question. "We are out of phase with the rest of the universe." I lowered my arms to my side and breathed out in order to calm my nerves. "Now I can talk."
Piggot just sighed and shook her head. "I'm not even surprised anymore," she grumbled.
Oh man, she had no idea just what I was about to reveal.
"On topic, you look pretty human to me, Shipyard," Miss Militia began in an attempt to get us to focus.
I sighed. "I'm not. I only look like it," I answered her. I felt slightly guilty, yet no matter how hard I tried I was unable to tell why. "I'm technically an alien race now. An Alteran."
"Isn't that the alien race you said your technology comes from?" Dragon asked.
"Yes," I confirmed with a nod to the warrior themed Protectorate member.
Several eyebrows went up at that. "They were human?" Alexandria queried. Huh, she sounded genuinely curious.
"More like we're…," I began to correct them, abruptly realizing I didn't actually qualify anymore, "you're Alteran. They came first. Humans are the second evolution of life in this form."
Stunned silence.
"What." That was Armsmaster.
"That is a very long story spanning hundreds of millions of years," I cautioned them. "I'm willing to tell you afterwards, but right now I'd like to stay on the original topic. The fact I'm not human anymore, and more importantly-"
"How?" Dennis interrupted me.
I nodded. "Exactly."
Piggot waved at me, telling me to get on with it.
I drew in and breathed out one last time to try and relax. "Okay, what I have to reveal is kind of… uh..." I trailed off, looking at my hand.
"...Kind of… what?" Battery prompted me.
I looked up at her and grimaced. "So you all know how my technology is ridiculously powerful, and how most of it we'd consider dangerous, but the Alterans didn't?"
Nods and various methods of assent echoed from around the room.
"The technology I'm about to reveal, they did think was dangerous."
Dead silence. Piggot paled, most likely because she understood the implications perfectly fine.
Alexandria's eyebrows rose. That was her only reaction. Her crossed arms stayed crossed.
"On the Hyperion, my ship," I began, giving the assembled heroes a glance over, "is a Medbay. Inside that medbay is one of the most potent devices of the Alteran civilization." I breathed in and let it go, then grinned. "A Genetic Manipulator. Full spectrum utility. Flawless splicing and editing. Virtually no time needed to perform modifications. The works."
Piggot scowled. Alexandria remained… stoic? Is that the word? Armsmaster seemed rather offput, while Miss Militia was frowning worriedly. Assault and Battery looked bored and slightly alarmed respectively, while Dauntless and Velocity glanced at each other in a silent query as to whether either of them knew what I'd just said. My entire team… well, my entire team minus Vista, who was still on my ship, and still missing Shadow Stalker and Browbeat (where the hell were they?), shared similar glances.
Dragon also seemed worried, but not about the topic of our conversation. Instead she was monitoring Alexandria. The entire time.
I guess she was just being careful. Not everyone was as forgiving as me. Clearly.
Oh well, she'd learn.
"Is it a safe assumption to guess that this device does what it says on the tin?" Piggot asked.
I nodded, bringing up my hand. "I accidentally went in. It had been programmed by my power to convert me to an Alteran Mage." I demonstrated this by gesturing upwards and telekinetically pulling the entire stack of PRT manuals I'd pointed out earlier towards me. "Telekinesis, as you can see. Telepathy. Healing, as I used to save you, Director," I explained, my grin increasing in direct reverse of the entire room's jaws continuing to extend to the floor. My little magic show even managed to snag Dragon's attention away from Alexandria. "Genius almost unparalleled, Energy Manipulation," to show that, I summoned a very crude shield on my other arm. A gaseous white curve formed from nothing. "And finally, biological immortality. With a side order of possible metamorphosis into a nearly all powerful energy being."
Not a single soul managed to say a thing. I wasn't sure whether they were even breathing. Well, Dragon still was, but hey, that's my subroutines for you.
My next words were accompanied by a full on shit eating grin. "Any questions?"
None came.
At least, not before my still lackluster telekinetic skills made a manual smack me in the face.
"Oww."
The books didn't really hurt. I still had my Shield on and functioning. More of an automatic response to anticipated pain than anything else.
That seemed to break the spell, and the room erupted.
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PyroTechno
The Procrastination Pokemon
I see your full disclosure strategy was inspired by the Macross Missile Massacre.
- Location
- The Void
Yes Yes Yes, its time. this was my fav fic and now it is back I feel joy.
also, is he going to have a face-off against zion with a body of energy
also, is he going to have a face-off against zion with a body of energy
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