Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

[Eman Resu]

Every update time.

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I didn't think it was just me. How long until we can crowd fund more than author's day job and he just writes this full time?

 

[Anaja]

Is everyone here refreshing the page hoping you see a chapter?

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Doing some other stuff too, but turning to this tab to refresh the page at every break point.

 

[LordRoustabout]

104 Loose Ends

Addressing what Aisha had managed to accomplish with her first experiment with Call Beads was not a simple matter. Probably because her decision to erase a meme in a display of multiversal power had been more of a random impulse than a carefully considered application of power. It wasn't that putting the information back was a difficult task for her passenger, it was just difficult to arrive at that particular point through the storm of power that Aisha channeled each time she used a call bead.

I missed a large mote from the Knowledge constellation early in the process, while I was setting up support systems and arcane focuses to help Aisha channel the abilities of her passenger in the very specific direction we needed. It turned out to be much easier to hit that mark on the first attempt than recreate the effect, particularly when you were trying to reverse it.

I suspected that there was a mental aspect to things. When Aisha used a call bead to connect with her passenger there was an incredible level of openness and transparency between them. It was quite encouraging that she seemed to be developing a good relationship with her passenger, but that openness had come with consequences. Aisha hadn't wiped a meme from all mortal memory because she was overly fond of it. If not for the global panic it was likely to set off, I'm fairly certain she would have been happy to leave things the way they were.

And that's where the problem came in. Trying to communicate with her passenger that she should do something that she didn't want to do on account of factors that the passenger saw as completely unimportant. If nothing else Aisha's repeated dives into the connection with her passenger at least provided some enlightening insights into the mindsets that were apparently common among their species.

Aisha was also learning more and more about the nature of her power with each attempt. It wasn't a permanent boost or modification to her abilities, but she was getting more experience with the dynamics of her abilities than even the most seasoned cape could boast. Aspects of her power that she had theorized or made shaky attempts at were becoming rote applications of her abilities. Things quickly reached the point where she was willing to reach beyond even the conventional applications of her powers.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" I asked. The test apparatus was being carefully monitored and had every safeguard that I was capable of building incorporated into it. I would have accepted nothing less, considering the risks involved.

Aisha nodded. "I know it's dangerous, but this really helps feel out the effect of what's happening." She explained. "Passenger has a hard time grasping certain ideas. This kind of thing helps her get what I'm trying to do."

I wouldn't have imagined that any situation could be 'helped' by the addition of the colors of the Prismatic Laboratory. Still, Aisha was confident. The diamonds of her hair clip glowed in impossible hues as droplets of pigment danced across the surface of the most heavily secured canvas in the history of the world.

Aisha guided the paint and pigment with a practiced and steady hand. Specialized brushes had been constructed for her work with the colors of the Prismatic laboratory. The optimization had resulted in something that looked more like a set of surgeon's tools than a painter's kit, but Aisha had taken to them naturally. Additionally, she wasn't limited to what she could accomplish directly with the brushes.

Her extensive practice with water elemental powers and the Infusions that had been added to her armor and equipment allowed her to exercise precise control of the liquid. While she painted, she also mentally directed the movement of the pigments both on her brush and the canvas. Using the impossible colors with that level of precision seemed to help her convey the concepts to her passenger.

Well, part of the concepts. Every aspect of her connection was being scanned. The link between her and her passenger was lighting up even when she wasn't overloading it with a Call Bead, but from the scans I could see that not everything made it through. To be fair, even I wasn't sure what exactly could be conveyed by colors that existed as a direct deviation of the laws of reality.

Tetra nodded as she looked over my analysis. "Aisha's passenger is aware of the effect of the colors and Aisha's interaction with them, but can't perceive them directly."

"Limit of the medium?" I asked. "Like when we try to record them?"

Tetra shook her head, then looked back to Aisha. "It's more than that. The colors represent the universe not working in certain ways without there being any cause. Passengers are so connected to how the universe functions that they can't even process that. They have to understand, and if they can't it comes across like nonsense."

That made sense from what we had learned so far, but it was another thing to see it play out in real time. I watched as Aisha used a medium that her passenger couldn't fully understand to convey concepts that her passenger had no interest in. Her amulet was glowing as she channeled its power without deploying her armor and there was sweat beading on her head.

As for the image she was painting on the canvas, that was probably better left undescribed. I don't think I could get the full impression of that work if only because my Mental Fortress power protected me from some of the more intrusive properties of the colors that were used. All things considered, it was probably for the best that most of that was getting lost in the translation to Aisha's passenger.

The addition of more resources had turned what was a small experiment into something of a group activity. Garment had arrived as soon as she learned that Aisha would be using pigments from the Prismatic Laboratory, while all aspects of Survey were very interested in what was being revealed about passengers. She hadn't left her scrying, but had manifested a hologram to interact with the experimental process. Fleet and the Matrix were observing remotely, though without any form of virtual presence. Tybalt was still helping close things down at the Regency Center, but had requested a report from Survey so that he could conduct a tactical assessment.

"See, memory isn't like a list of facts that you read off a sheet." Aisha said as she continued to work, not even looking up from the canvas. She had been talking through the process as she worked, though I wasn't sure if that was the benefit of us, herself, or her passenger. "It's not something that has a distinct shape. You don't get precise experiences, just the general feelings, connections, points that link you back to a moment, or link to other moments."

Violant lines painted themselves across the canvas at Aisha's command, blending with other impossible colors into a complex design.

"She doesn't see it that way." Aisha explained. "It's just information, not something distinct. For her memory is the consequence of what she influences, what she safeguards against, not something that exists on its own. It's not memory, not even the concept of memory. It's patterns. Ordered information, in any form that can take."

Cosmogone and Viric crossed over each other as Aisha precisely controlled the movements of the pigments in a way that no conventional painter could match.

"There's a fundamental difference between what she thinks of as memory, what normal people consider to be memory, and what memory actually is." Aisha continued. Irrigo and Apocyan traced designs on the divine canvas. "It's not constant, not for people and not for what it really is, but she can't see it that way. Memory isn't just structured information, there's an abstract level to it. She's really good at controlling some parts of it, but can't see the whole. The way it can flow, change, concentrate or dilute."

I chuckled and Aisha paused her work and turned towards me. "What?" She asked.

"Nothing." I said. "You're just leaning pretty hard into the water metaphors."

She shrugged. "I'm working with what's available. And it's easier than using light."

"Because you already have practice with water?" I asked.

"Yeah, easier for me." She said, taking another breath. "This is high level stuff. I'm going to take any shortcut I can."

"And no problems working with the colors?" I asked as Garment took advantage of the brief pause to sneak forward and examine Aisha's work.

"There's nothing but problems when it comes to working with these colors, but I think I have a handle on it." She said, turning back to the largely abstract painting. "They really aren't colors. Not really. You're basically thinning out reality to bring certain parts through. If you know how they work, how they interact, it's safe enough, as long as you don't take everything away."

"Gant." I said, and Aisha nodded.

"Gant." She said, examining her painting. Parts of the canvas where the pigments had merged and blended were creating complex effects, new areas of impossible colors that hadn't been directly placed, only the effect was subtractive rather than additive. I could tell she had been incredibly careful to avoid a blend that would result in complete subtraction.

"This helps you connect?" Tetra asked, moving in to examine the painting herself.

"It conveys concepts better than I can explain." Aisha said. "She doesn't really use words. It's all power and feeling and directed force."

I nodded. My passenger was distinct from what Aisha or any other parahuman dealt with, but I understood the concept of limited communication. And the problems that kind of thing could cause.

"You ready to try again?" I asked.

Aisha looked down at her painting once more before nodding. "I think we're good. I've made it as clear as I can and I think she gets it. Well, mostly gets it."

With a final flourish of a brush and a pulse of elemental control, the last of the unused pigments rose from the canvas and returned to the very sturdy containers that had been built to contain them. She took a breath and carefully began packing up her painting kit, her amulet dimming as the elemental control receded. For the purpose of Infusionist, Aisha's amulet counted as both weapon and armor. Infused with an elemental water nature, it provided both enhanced protection and vastly amplified elemental properties.

Aisha had already been training with similar practice weapons and was familiar with how to use the effects, seemingly in an attempt to lean into the theming of her cape name. While I hadn't anticipated this kind of thing as a natural extension of her earlier training, it had proven useful. And also, the prospect of her using Prismatic Laboratory pigments or Lethe Water as part of her loadout was a whole new level of terrifying.

"Alright, let's give this another try." I said, handing Aisha another Call Gem. The grandeur and reverence she had extended towards the item on her first attempt hadn't survived the dozen subsequent trials. She casually hefted the blue crystal, tossing it lightly in her palm as she aligned herself with the painting and various custom constructed Arcane Focuses.

"Right." She said, and without further ceremony crushed the blue stone in her fist.

Aisha might have become jaded to the use of Call Beads, but the display was no less impressive than the first time she activated one. Spatial pressure spread through the room as the live dimensional breach in Aisha's fist linked itself to Aisha's passenger. The glowing energy from the breach spread through Aisha's body. Her amulet glowed and the diamonds of her headband lit up like miniature stars. Within Passenger Space the Final Frontier observed a similar level of energization from the crystalline structures of Aisha's passenger.

But there was no sense of awe. No impression that what was happening was in any way impressive. Aisha barely registered the level of power she was channeling before refocusing on the painting she had created, speaking softly to herself as she worked to talk her passenger through the specific effect she was attempting to create, rather than dumping the power into the first impulse that jumped into her mind.

In less than the space of an hour we had managed to make the process of channeling unfathomable amounts of energy at the behest of titanic entities from beyond reality into a mundane exercise. The wonder hadn't fully worn off, but after a dozen attempts Aisha was much more focused on securing the result that would allow us to conclude the exercise rather than basking in the awesome power she had at her fingertips.

At least she had managed to avoid a repeat performance. No more memes had been erased, with Aisha instead managing to channel failed attempts into concentrated or overcharged versions of the conventional expression of her power. While the Protectorate was scrambling in the wake of Aisha's earlier actions, the deployment of her typical power shouldn't raise any further concerns.

I watched the scanners as Aisha used a literal structure of memory cast into the fabric of the universe to walk her passenger through the idea of easing off on the earlier expression of its power. It wasn't that this kind of thing was a challenge for the passenger, it's just the concept of restoring patterned information that neither Aisha nor her passenger particularly wanted to restore apparently required some external support. This wasn't a situation where Aisha could fake enthusiasm for the task. For her, the meme was still a genuine annoyance and even though she acknowledged that bringing it back would be a good decision, it wasn't enough to suppress her natural reactions, and those reactions were being directly read by her passenger.

Still, with the benefit of practice and the help of additional focuses and a very carefully drawn 'visual aid' writing on a level that the passenger literally couldn't ignore, she was able to communicate her intent and finally rescind the effect of her first use of a call bead. Actually seeing her power in action was as terrifying as ever. Precise manipulation of any information bearing structure over multiple worlds carried out with the casualness that only a passenger could hope to accomplish.

In terms of physical changes to reality, the passenger was both creating new information and rolling back what had been erased. Shadows of what was removed was stored in a complex dimensional arrangement, effectively allowing the passenger to erase, alter, or restore memories at will. Something could be completely gone from every version of Earth, and then restored in an instant. It was a fascinating mechanism, particularly if it could be emulated somehow. The effect that allowed Aisha's passenger to function without needing an entire universe's worth of storage banks to keep track of its changes.

"Yes!" Aisha declared, shaking out her hand. "Fucking finally!"

"Everything looks good?" I asked Survey's hologram. She transferred her findings through the network as she responded.

"Full restoration of all affected media. The Protectorate is making their own assessments of the event, but appear to be significantly relieved by the perceived brevity of the effect."

"Well, that's good." Aisha said. "Still can't believe how much they're shitting themselves over my power."

"It would be worse if they knew it wasn't limited." Tetra said.

I nodded. The Protectorate and PRT still assumed that Aisha's power could only be used in short bursts, typically no more than half an hour. It wasn't an impression we were looking to disprove since it was one of the few things that seemed to be holding back full-blown panic on their part.

"I mean, they're going to find out eventually." Aisha said.

"And eventually we can deal with it." I said. "The more we can prepare, the better we'll be able to deal with things when they go to hell."

"When, not if." Aisha said. "It's really going to be that bad?"

"Any open action by Apeiron or a member of the Celestial Forge will draw a significant response from global powers." Survey explained. "Regardless of the level of force displayed, a response will be forthcoming from challenged entrenched powers who feel their authority is compromised."

"We're trying to avoid any stupid Hail Mary gambits." I said. "Really, the same reason we're keeping the details of Bakuda's signal under wraps."

"Not the damage they can do to us, but the damage to everyone else." Aisha said with a nod. "Sucks, but better than what could happen."

I smiled. "This isn't exactly what I pictured when I imagined my life as a hero." I admitted. "Way too much politics and image management for my taste."

"Yeah, I know how you feel about that." Aisha shot back. I could only shrug. If I'd been better about that kind of thing earlier on, I probably wouldn't be in this situation. Or at least a less serious version of this situation.

I paused as I felt my power connect to a cluster of motes from the Personal Reality Constellation. One I had received before, but not on this scale.

"What? New power?"" Aisha asked as everyone else reacted to the power's arrival. She and Tybalt were the only ones without a mental link to the Workshop's systems, something that wouldn't change until they got their nanites.

"Repeat of an old addition to the Workshop." I said with a smile. "Good news, you're a latchkey kid."

Aisha didn't find my joke amusing, though the prospect of getting her own key to the Workshop was enough to make up for that. Her own key, from the earlier item, had been provided when she received her own Entrance Hall.

Everyone had received their own Entrance Hall, and a key to go with it. Five-meter cubic rooms had appeared across the Workshop, one for every resident. The "Extra Keys" item had suggested the possibility of additional keys, but apparently the distribution of them was limited to the number of entrances the Workshop had.

The keys weren't actually restricted to only opening a single entrance, but there was something nice about everyone having both their own method of access and their own personal entrance to the Workshop. It created a sense that everyone had their own space within the facility, which was important, particularly in Aisha's case.

Currently we were examining the entrance hall that had been added to her pseudo beach house. After the last overlay from Lord of Light, it was even more like a palace than it had been before, and that opulence extended to the entrance hall. Nobody was specifically calling attention to it, but the aesthetics had more than a little in common with a certain princess cartoon Aisha had a stated fondness for.

By 'we' I meant myself Garment, Tetra, Fleet, Survey's hologram, and armored avatar of the Matrix, who was also present in several other locations and as a distributed mass spread through the workshop and parts of the Regency Center. Tybalt was also at the Regency Center working to wrap things up, though he had gotten a full update on the new additions to the Workshop.

"Shit." Aisha said as she fidgeted with the key in her hands. "And everyone got one of these?"

"Entrance room and key." I said. Survey was still in her scrying chamber, but her hologram called up view screens of the other entrances that had been added to the Workshop. Fleet's stood next to the main Garage while Survey's opened to the Library. The Matrix had their entrance in the middle of the Workshop's industrial center and Tybalt's was at the entrance of the Arena. For some reason Tetra's entrance was near the Magitech laboratory, but that was where she had spent a lot of her time before the previous night's procedure had given her greater mobility. And made things like distance and separation non-issues for her.

There were actually two entrances that had been provided for the Kerbals, one in the Space Center and one in the embassy. It seemed that the pilots and engineering staff were counted separately by my power. The actual keys had gone to Ambassador Kerman for the embassy, while Jebediah had been designated flight lead and keyholder for the pilots.

"This is full access whenever I want, right? Just like Garment?" Aisha asked as Garment held up her own key.

"For you and everyone else." I said.

The way the key manifested for other members of the team was a bit complicated. It would always return if separated, but as to where it would return, that varied. Aisha, Tybalt, and the Kerbals had the same experience as me, with the key returning when separated and lost, but that wasn't exactly the case for the rest of the team.

Tetra was already effectively everywhere, so the access provided by the key was largely symbolic and she couldn't really be separated from it in the first place. Survey had a distributed presence, as did Fleet, though to a much greater extent. Still, the keys had effectively mapped to their main bodies, which did mean that any hope of using this as a shortcut to passenger space was a lost cause. The Matrix existed in a state of superposition across their tier one nanobots and the key was in a similar state of suspension, at least until it was actually needed.

There was a risk inherent to members of my team having their own keys. They couldn't be forced to hand them over, but it was still possible for one of them to be subverted. It had been. As it stood, even Aisha was effectively immune to most master effects thanks to her psionic abilities. Everyone else either had an incomparable well of power at their disposal or nonstandard biology. Or some combination of the two. Something that would have been incredibly risky earlier in my career was now just a pleasant point of convenience.

"Yeah, but this means I'm a real member of the team." I gave her a flat look. "Yeah, I know. But still, this." She said, holding up the key. "It's different. Like, official."

"Because it came from my power?" I asked.

"Maybe?" She said, "It's still weird being included in that. Like there's some force outside all of this that's watching and deciding if I've done well enough to be fully included." She shifted awkwardly. "I know it's stupid…"

"It's not." I assured her, sharing a look with Tetra. "All this, it's big, complicated, and mysterious stuff. Even after all this time I'm not sure how it works." Tetra nodded. "Frankly, I'm just glad this isn't coming across as too forward."

Aisha let out a laugh. "House keys are a big deal, but I think this is a little different than what most people go through." She strolled out from the immaculate crystal and marble chamber to the equally excessive luxury of her house. "This place actually feels like it's mine." She shrugged. "I know it's all from your power, but whether it's the way it came together or just how everyone's been treating it, I don't feel like I'm just crashing at your place anymore."

I nodded. That kind of thing was a big part of why so much work had been put into Aisha's mobile workshop. I just hadn't expected my power to end up taking on a parallel project at the same time.

"Since it's yours, you need to decorate, right?" Tetra asked. She held up the painting of impossible colors Aisha had used to convey her intentions to her passenger. Garment stood behind her expressing her delight at the work. "Are you going to hang the painting up in your house?"

Aisha considered the reality warping artwork, the diamonds of her hairpin flickering with various unnatural hues. "I don't know." She said, "I mean, I'm kind of proud of it, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you put over the mantle."

"It is distinct from the styles you pursued in your previous work, though still stands as a technical achievement and notable progression of your skills." The Matrix said, nodding the helmet of their armored form. "Additionally, while there is a superficial similarity to abstract artworks, the incorporation of the principles of the Prismatic Laboratory's colors adds considerable utility to the piece."

"Yeah, but once again, that's not really the kind of thing you just hang up for guests to see." Aisha said.

I nodded. "I get where you're coming from." I said, examining the piece. "It's not just lines on paper. You're actually dealing with fundamental aspects of reality." I looked closer at not just the combination of colors, but the impact that their very nature had on the universe itself. "It's almost…"

ReEMErgENce oF WhaT wAS InTENtioNaLLy ForGOtTen

I blinked. It wasn't exactly the same, but the general thrust was there. The same language, or intent behind the language that had defined the burning symbols on those letters from Hell.

"What?" Aisha asked, watching my reaction.

"Um, I think this is close to what I've been working out regarding those sigils on the letters." I explained.

Aisha's eyes widened and darted from me to the painting and back. The diamonds in her hair clip flickered like Christmas lights as bursts of the impossible colors danced through them.

"Is that bad?" She asked. "I mean, I wasn't trying to do anything like that. It was just the best way to work things out with my passenger."

I considered the situation as I examined the painting. "Passengers are old, really old for the major ones. They exist across multiple dimensions and have a frighteningly comprehensive understanding of the mechanics of the universe. I think that you were able to come close to the kind of fundamental language those sigils represent." I looked up at her. "It's not exactly there, but it's closer than anything I've been able to do."

Aisha seemed conflicted between embarrassment and pride at my statement. I could understand the conflicting emotions. What she'd accomplished was undeniably impressive, but it was the precise combination of her powers, the developments of her equipment, and the resources at her disposal. Still, if she's been concerned about her role in the group or the value of her contributions, that was well behind her. This was a massive step forward in the understanding of those sigils and no one else in the Celestial Forge could have accomplished it.

"Alright." She said, "You can have it."

"What?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I mean, you'd be free to use it for research or whatever, but this makes it official. An art gift, Aisha Laborn original. I'd sign it, but considering what's going on there…"

"Yeah." I said. "And thank you." I added. It was a small gesture, but it was also a personal one and I really appreciated it.

"So are we going to put it up in our house?" Tetra asked.

"Maybe after we finish examining it." I said.

The language of those sigils functioned differently in this universe than they did in the place they had originated from, to the point where recreating them wouldn't grant anything close to the same level of effect. That influence of reality was still possible, as the colors of the Prismatic Laboratory made clear, but it would need to be worked out from first principles. And Aisha had inadvertently taken the first step towards deciphering the language that defined the very structure of the universe. And then handed it over like it was a housewarming present. Then again, that was kind of par for the course with my team. It was just the first time Aisha had been the one handing out items of cosmic power.

"So the key stuff means we can all do that portal thing, right?" Aisha asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Still can't close the portals from the inside. They're handy if you need to grab something from the Workshop, but for access you're better using the Key Link."

"Got it." She said, "So, what's next? You jumping into Aspect training?"

"Not right away." I said. "I need to head back to the Regency Center. Close out the last of the wind down and pick up my car, then I'll circle back with Tybalt." Aisha nodded. "After that I need to deal with the next batch of duplicates and the synchronization of everything." Which, thanks to the Temporal Controls, would be ten times as much experience as any of the previous sets, which was already a lot to deal with.

"Got it." Aisha said.

I nodded. "Okay if I use your entrance?" I asked.

She grinned. "Go ahead. I mean, I get I'm the only one with an entrance in their house…"

I nodded. It did give it a different feel to the other Entrance Halls. Not in a bad way, just distinctly different. This was Aisha's space and everyone was already treating it as such. "Thanks." I said as I used the podium to key in an isolated door from the Regency Center before slipping back into the outside world.

The slow tapering of the end of the event had managed to reduce things to just the final volunteers and the staff from the Regency Center. I made a show of moving all the equipment I had taken down to the loading bays for pickup and transport. It rather effectively covered the speed at which I'd finished the work and the fact that I was the only one handling what should have been a six-man job, at least for the timescale involved.

After I got that squared away, I went to check on Tybalt, but found him enjoying the company of a group of volunteers from the gym, Regency Center security staff, and even a couple of the officers who had been assigned to the event. He fit in with the group like a glove, despite being half their size and furry. I got a round of introductions and checked if he needed a ride, but was assured that he'd be fine with the security team and would see me at the proper after party that was being held south of the Boardwalk that night.

With that set I said a few goodbyes to the other volunteers before hiking the several blocks to where I'd had to park my car. The area wasn't nearly as bad as it had been that morning, with the traffic lightening to reasonable levels once I got out of Downtown. I enjoyed a somewhat leisurely drive back to the gym as I thought over my tasks for the evening.

Aspect training was still my most pressing objective. Even with the help of the Spiritron Core, there was a limit to how much I could accomplish in a single night. It was a fantastically powerful ability, easily on the level of any of my other major powers. The fact that it was a free addition was only balanced out by how much work it would take to master the effect. Even so, any progress would be massively impactful. I didn't need to be able to constantly manifest my Aspect, just being able to use it when needed and call upon the more advanced uses of my Attribute would be enough.

That was the advantage of having a less combat focused Aspect. I didn't need to be able to use my Aspect in combat for it to make a difference. It could still be devastating if called upon in a fight, but Progress was one of the rare aspects that could be just as valuable when deployed in short bursts under controlled conditions as when it was openly directed at an opponent.

Still, it wasn't like I could drop everything else and just focus on Aspect cultivation. As tempting as it was, just disappearing into the Spiritron core for a week and emerging as the manifestation of an embodiment of one of the forces of creation probably wasn't the best approach, both for the outside situation and my own wellbeing. Mental Fortress would shield me from a lot of adverse effects, but decades of isolation wasn't something I was particularly interested in.

Beyond that, there were further advancements and new projects that needed my attention. I'd have a better understanding of them once I caught up with my duplicates' work, but another duplicate cycle meant another round of improvements for the Glove of the East. With effectively unlimited reserves powering it, we could use its enhancement on Fleet, Survey, and the Matrix's physical bodies.

The boost from the glove made items stronger and more efficient, but also enhanced the way they worked with my spiritual energy. In most cases, my spiritual energy was only used at the lowest level of Elven Crafting to improve the base aspects of an item. In those cases the Glove of the East simply improved the quality of the item. However, the higher levels took things further. Naming took certain characteristics of an item beyond what was possible with even perfect construction, while singing to the unseen bound entirely new properties in a fundamental act of creation.

I had only rarely used naming and singing was such an intense process that it had been entirely reserved for members of my team. It was difficult to predict what would happen when you layered unlimited levels of enhancement onto an effect that was already highly spiritual and abstract. Fleet, Survey, the Matrix, and even Tetra had complicated expressions of their abilities. It was hard to say exactly what would be enhanced and how much.

Which was why it was going to be done one at a time, under controlled conditions, with as much support as could be offered. Like with Tetra, we were entering new territory where even I wasn't sure what would happen. Enhancing their abilities would be incredibly useful, but I needed to make sure they could handle what was being done. This wasn't a matter of performing an upgrade on a piece of equipment, it was introducing a fundamental change into the interplay of effects that made a person who they were. Change wasn't bad, but it wasn't trivial either.

Maybe as the 'God of Progress' I should have been more cavalier about improvements, but if anything my insight into the nature of progress made me all the more aware of the kind of unbalanced and destructive effects it could bring about, and the need for someone to be supported through the process.

I shook my head as I turned into the Gym's parking lot. It was a lot fuller than when I had left that morning, but my space was still open. The deal of repair assistance for free parking was working out pretty well as a plausible explanation for keeping a car that was actually reasonable for me to afford.

Rather than head straight back to my old apartment I took the chance to duck into the gym. Things had calmed down substantially from the time closer to the attacks. It wasn't serving as a shelter or community hub anymore and there were at least signs that some of the space had been returned to operating as a gym.

Just a small amount, really. The city was still recovering and nobody had that much time for workouts. I got more of a sense that the punching bags were serving as a place for people to blow off steam and work out their frustrations with the situation rather than actually engage in serious training.

There was one welcome and unexpected sight waiting for me inside. Past the remaining volunteers and people from the neighborhood who were still hanging around, I spotted Mr. Laborn sitting next to Doug near one of the refreshment tables. He was holding a cane somewhat resentfully, but wasn't showing any visual signs from his injuries. I knew he had been recovering, but it was nice to see he was well enough to make it back to the gym.

"Joe!" Doug's voice thundered over the background noise the moment he saw me. I smiled as I closed the last of the distance to the two men.

"Doug." I said with a nod. "Mr. Laborn, it's good to see you back."

A crooked smile crossed his face and he climbed to his feet, covering his discomfort well and doing his best to avoid relying on the cane.

"The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated." He said before offering me a meaty handshake. "Though I've been impressed with how things have come together. I hear we have you to thank for some of that."

I shook my head. "Maybe the generator on the first night, but I've just been helping out where I could."

The man nodded and glanced down at my jacket. "You getting back from the charity show?" He asked.

I nodded. "Helped with packing things up. Was more of a technical gopher during the show itself, but things came together fairly well."

"More than fairly well." Doug said. "We're not even a charity and we've been drowning in donations. I needed Laborn here just to sort through the mess."

"It's that bad?" I asked.

Mr. Laborn just shook his head. "No, it's just more complicated than we thought. Some of it covers what the gym did during the blackout and after the attack, but we've got a lot more coming in. Open donations, memberships for people visiting the city, merchandise deals and more." He shook his head.

"Even got an offer from some historical society in Boston." Doug said. "Want to pay to renovate the building."

"Seriously?" I asked. Survey had been managing all the donations related to the show, but this offer had apparently come outside regular channels.

"Seriously." Mr. Laborn said. "There are a bunch of stipulations about aesthetics and the historical character of the building, but it looks legitimate." He frowned. "They've also pointed out some elements of the gym might be out of code and it would be a good idea for us to allow them to be addressed."

I blinked. It wasn't quite a shakedown, but someone was apparently serious about throwing thousands of dollars towards this project. Somewhat understandable as a tax write-off, and doubly so if they were able to direct that money towards construction companies they had an interest in. Survey was already picking apart the web of interests, but it seemed fairly standard, if a little unexpected.

Doug just shook his head. "Nothing'll happen until the city's back on its feet, so we have time to get a lawyer to look over this stuff. The rest doesn't really concern you, but wanted to give you a heads up if we ended up having to close for the renovations."

"Thanks. I mean, the way things have been going, I haven't really been keeping up with my training."

"No one has." Doug said. Mr. Laborn gave a curt nod. It seemed even his iron discipline was willing to accept civic disasters as an excuse for slacking off. Or maybe for redirecting efforts, since I doubt anyone was really slacking during the recent crises.

"You get back to it when you can." Mr. Laborn said. "You seem to be holding up well enough."

I shrugged, concealing any reaction to the comment. Shapeshifting had gotten my build to a level comparable to when I was actively training at the gym, but there were several other factors that I couldn't suppress even with my best efforts. Aphrodite's blessing, my new demigod body, and a power that was literally called "Perfect Hair" all added up to a rather distinct impression.

"Mostly I've been focused on the show." I said. Playing off any appearance changes as the result of cleaning up for potential camera exposure seemed reasonable enough, and it also gave me a chance to change the subject. "I ran into Aisha when I was helping with set up. She seems to be doing well."

A slight smile appeared on Mr. Laborn's face while Doug grinned widely in amusement.

"Never would have imagined it, but the work's fit her like a glove." Doug left the statement hanging just long enough for Mr. Laborn to roll his eyes and let out a sigh. "But seriously, it's good to have someone who can match that girl's energy. I don't know if anyone but Garment could have managed it, but she's taken to it incredibly well."

Mr. Laborn's amused look briefly flickered with something darker. "It's been a difficult time for a lot of people." His hand tightened around the wood of the cane that he was still doing his best to avoid using, despite the discomfort he was under. "That kind of situation, you either get caught in it, or rise above. There's no telling which way it will go until you find yourself in the thick of it."

I nodded. "I guess. Though I imagine it's a lot easier to ride above if you have someone to help pull you out." I glanced back at the scattered groups still working out of the gym, providing supplies, shelter, or just a quiet place to get away from the chaos of the city.

Mr. Laborn gave me a solemn nod. "We've been lucky. Not in general, but from the aftermath of things, they could have been a lot worse."

"I guess you can't control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it." I said. Both men looked up at me like I'd made some profound statement rather than a borderline platitude to keep the conversation moving.

"Well said." Doug replied. "Now, you going to be at that afterparty they're holding for the volunteers?" He asked.

"I'm planning to stop by later." I said. "It's been kind of a long day, so I'm not going to be staying too late."

"Most people feel that way. Still, anyone involved with that show has earned a break." He hauled himself to his feet. "Speaking of which, I've got to make a few runs. Can't have anyone miss out on account of transportation issues."

"If you need some help…" I offered, but Doug waved me away.

"We've got it covered. You can leave this to the people who sat things out. Enjoy your night off." He said. With a nod to Mr. Laborn he made his way out of the gym.

There was a moment of silence between me and Mr. Laborn before he spoke.

"You've made a good impression on this place." He said, looking from me to the rest of the gym. "That's not easy."

I shrugged. "I was just doing what I could to help. I wasn't trying to impress anyone."

He smiled at that. "Probably helped your case." Through the Dragon's Pulse I could feel the tension and pain that had been building up in his body. He slowly took his seat again, once more covering any sign of his injuries. "Most people don't last. Don't take things seriously. It's good that you stuck things out."

He didn't state whether he meant it was good for me or good for the gym. Or maybe just good in general.

"Sticking things out is something of a talent of mine." I quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood. That earned a small smile.

"I noticed. Not many people would have held out for a full session against Vince." He replied.

I remembered that particular lesson. One that would have been a lot worse if I hadn't had the protection of my Fashion power reinforcing my body, if only to the level of my gloves.

"Yeah, that wasn't easy." I said diplomatically.

Mr. Labron nodded. "No, but you made it. That counts for a lot."

"Vince did say taking a punch is a big part of what boxing is about." I said.

"That's half of it. It's about taking a punch and coming back swinging." He let out a breath. "It's not an easy thing to teach."

I smiled. "I think it's more of the kind of thing you learn for yourself. Usually unintentionally."

That got a flicker of amusement from Mr. Laborn. "I suppose so." He said before looking out across the gym again. "And that's not the kind of lesson you want to draw out. It's good that things are getting back to normal." He smiled softly. "My son will be stopping by tomorrow."

I blinked. Aisha didn't talk much about her brother, but the entire family had the kind of difficult history that made almost everything a touchy subject. All I really knew about him was he used to be a member of the gym, and one with fairly good prospects.

I nodded to Mr. Laborn but I could tell there was a lot more going on here than a simple social call. "I heard it's been a while since he stopped training."

The man nodded and let out a small sigh. "That's… yes, it's been a while. Too long, and probably not on the best terms. He probably thought…" He trailed off and shook his head. "It will be nice to have him back here."

I nodded. "I heard a lot of old members have been showing up to help." There were certainly more than I had ever seen at the gym. Granted I'd only been a member for a couple of weeks before things went to hell, but lapsed members were practically coming out of the woodwork in the aftermath of the attacks.

"I guess with everything that's been happening, people want to focus on what's important to them." I added.

Mr. Laborn nodded thoughtfully. "Probably true on a lot of fronts."

I returned the nod. "I'll be around here tomorrow. Maybe I'll run into him."

"Maybe." Mr. Laborn said. "I think you'd get along."

I didn't want to intrude on what was clearly a complicated family thing, not to mention a part of Aisha's personal life, but Mr. Laborn seemed genuinely interested in the idea. I'd have to check with Aisha if she'd be visiting as well. For some reason this seemed a lot more significant than just an old member showing up for a visit.

I said my goodbyes and slipped out of the gym before making my way back to my cramped and dingy apartment. I wasn't actually using the place for anything more than an access point to my Workshop, but it was a convenient cover. I doubted anyone in the neighborhood cared enough to keep track of me, but having a place I returned to each day was a lot better than just vanishing into the ether.

I once again used my closet to access my workshop, this time linking to the Entrance Hall at the Kerbal Space Center. Or the Kerbal's Space Flight and Endbringer Murder Development Program. Unlike Aisha's entryway, this was decorated in a color palette straight out of NASA, blending in perfectly with the style of the space center itself.

I had been worried that the keys would add to the frustration of not being able to engage with the outside world and wanted to speak with the Kerbals to make sure there wasn't any problem. Ambassador Kerman and Jebediah were pried away from the development hangar and flight pad respectively for a quick conversation.

Both were quite happy with their keys and looking forward to the time when they could begin operation in the outside world proper. For the moment they were satisfied with the arrangements that had been set up, particularly the advantage of accelerated time inside the workshop. There was definitely a sense of disappointment that they couldn't perform full orbital flights, but they had been able to advance from the equivalent of the Mercury program to their own version of the space shuttle in the space of a single day.

Well, a single day of outside time.

Their engineering team was still working their way through the development of the space program, despite the wide array of advanced fuels, materials, and technologies that were open to them. Sure, an element zero enhanced craft could reach orbit on a trivial amount of power, but even I had to admit that there was something innately appealing about strapping yourself to a giant rocket and breaking free of the Earths' gravity on nothing but the force of directed chemical explosions.

Which led to their only real concern about the entrance halls, which they were quick to present to me.

"No, you're right." I said, examining their problem. "There's no way to get a crawler-transporter through that entrance."

The advent of the Kerbal's Shuttle Program had necessitated the construction of Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities for moving the vessels from the assembly centers to the launchpad. There had been some hope that they could simply drive their spacecraft out into the real world, but that wasn't going to happen with a five-meter cube Entrance Hall.

"But it's fine." I assured them. "The keys are compatible with the Garage adaptors. You can use them to access any garage or hangar door to deploy vehicles to the real world." We would definitely need specially constructed doorways for this kind of transport, but both Fleet and the Matrix were very keen on assisting in any way they could, which included using some of the abundant Garage vehicle bays to hold completed vessels ready for launch as soon as the Kerbals were cleared for operation in the outside world.

I happily left the Kerbals to work out the details for themselves. From the look of things, that would involve a rapid-fire procession of every major step in their spacecraft development as soon as they were given the go ahead, with additional time only adding more vessels to the roster. And, thanks to my power, each planned launch was granted its own mission patch for everyone involved.

It was an amusing detail and one that I hoped wouldn't get out of hand before we could put it into action. If things drag on too long, the Kerbals could have hundreds of launches primed and ready to go. Of course, I don't think they'd be particularly bothered by the idea that they had several weeks of constant spaceflights waiting for them once they were cleared to operate openly.

I was getting ready to meet my duplicates for the end of their duration when I felt my power shift again, bringing forth a massive mote from the Resources and Durability constellation, which was also the final mote from the Resources and Durability constellation. As the mote dislodged, I felt the entire movement of the constellations shudder, like I had felt before. The clearing of a constellation resulted in a slowing of the entire rotation, just as it had before, and fundamentally changing the rate at which my power progressed. But not something I had time to consider as that nova of power descended upon me.

In the end, it all comes down to firepower.

Logistics, versatility, utility were all important, but they were important because they facilitated that final step, the delivery of sufficient firepower to remove that problem you were working to address. Without the capacity to do meaningful damage, all the tactics and positioning in the world were for naught. In conflict, everything led up to the delivery of that final blow, and that was an area I now excelled in beyond all conventional limits.

The power was called Firestorm. It was from the same set of powers that had provided my Sabaton single and was about as devoted to the concept of armed combat as was possible. It granted me ultimate mastery of artillery. Of weapons of all kinds, really. Knowledge of how to make any form of modern artillery, and how to apply impossible principles to any offensive weapon that I understood, from any world.

In terms of its placement in the Resources and Durability constellation, it granted an ability that was incredibly common in those powers, but as expected, taken beyond all reasonable limits. Like with Scrapper, Scrapyard Skills, Mauler, Salvager, and Scavenger the power allowed me to use junked and repurposed parts in the construction of weapons, but unlike those powers it functioned beyond the realm of common sense, particularly when applied to advanced weapon systems.

The other abilities were focused on salvaging and repurposing useful components from what would otherwise be considered junked machinery. The powers allowed me to stretch the use and operation of components that really shouldn't work for the purpose they were being applied to. Firestorm made those abilities look quaint in comparison.

Not only could I build advanced weapons systems from literally any junk I had access to, they would outperform comparable devices by ten percent. Anything I built would be one point one times as powerful as it would normally be, all without the need for any special materials, precise components, or advanced manufacturing facilities.

The effect worked on any weapon I understood to a sufficient degree. Even magical or psionic devices were covered by this power, provided they were well enough understood. The only case where things were still limited was in prototypes and experimental weapons. The effect only applied to what I understood, not to what I was actively developing. Still, within that context it was the removal of ALL material limitations, coupled with a ten percent power boost across the board.

Well, not all limitations. The only meaningful holdout was in Superweapons. Unfortunately, they still required the rare and limited components that the power was built around. Everything else could be constructed out of junk and the ten percent boost still applied, but regrettably I couldn't just replace the hope diamond with a chunk of broken bottle and call it a day.

While this was a global boost to my abilities, it was particularly consequential for the Final Frontier. Anything not accessible in passenger space was suddenly a non-issue, at least as far as weapons were concerned. I couldn't integrate this effect into other systems, but I could create weapons that would normally require fold carbon out of nothing but junk. Hell, I could create weapons that would normally require fold QUARTZ.

Needless to say, that was a substantial increase in the capabilities of the ship's armaments. Fleet was almost inordinately excited at the prospect of arming the Passenger Space vessels with Dimension Eater weapons, and that was only the start of what was possible. Weapons that relied on magical or mythical materials could also be produced, providing I had a good enough understanding of them.

Unfortunately, it was limited to weapons. I couldn't bypass the restrictions when it came to propulsion, shields, power generation, or other ship systems. There were some methods of stretching that limit, but effectively every application of the power would have to be primarily offensive in nature.

As the rush of the power began to settle, I took stock of the movement of my constellations. Once again, they had slowed in their rotation. The clearing of the Resources and Durability constellation had caused the rotational energy to drop, further reducing the rate at which new powers would arrive.

And once again, I was fine with the reduction. I had a lot of challenges ahead of me, but lack of power wasn't one of them. If anything the slower rate of power would give me a chance to fully utilize my current abilities before I had to deal with new powers and all the memories and experiences that could come coupled with them.

I took a breath to steady myself before teleporting to the psionic chambers to meet my duplicates. A set of omni-spheres had been arranged in a perfectly attuned workspace, everything optimized for the greatest ease of memory transfer. And with them were my duplicates, but not in the state I had expected.

I had wondered why my duplicates had wanted to handle the update using omni-spheres rather than the telepathic network we had developed. Normally the end of duration updates would be a trivial matter. I had enough training with my telepathy to easily share experiences with my duplicates. Most of the time the update at the end of their duration could be handled without even needing support equipment. However, that had been before Temporal Controls. Seeing my duplicates here, with the full weight of their experiences open to me, I fully understood.

I was looking at ten times the normal amount of information from duplicates that had existed for longer than any of my previous copies. The Temporal Controls had stretched the duration of the potion in a way that clearly wasn't entirely advisable, and not just in terms of the volume of experience I'd have to work through.

"Yeah." My first duplicates said. "This is something else."

Even when my duplicates had spent considerable time in the Spritron Core, there wasn't a sense that anything was being compromised. There was more information to deal with, but not the kind of disjointedness that I was getting.

"Should we have dealt with this earlier?" I asked. "Shouldn't you have said something?"

I hadn't gotten the sense that anything was off, but I had been considerably more isolated from the duplicates than I typically was. The need to stay out of the Workshop had seen to that.

"No." The second duplicate said with grim amusement. "It was worth seeing if we could do this. And we can, if we need to."

"Potion duration is set to you, but it's being run down faster. At the end there's less than there should be, even if it's technically still continuing." The first explained with a shrug. "Those potions are their own set of magic with their own rules. This was worth a try, but I don't think we should push it like this again."

I nodded, feeling the weight of stress that had been concealed from me. From me, but not from Tetra, since that was just not possible, and apparently Survey had been included for the purpose of study and analysis.

"So no more time acceleration?" I asked. I had planned on using the Workshop to train my Aspect, but that was going to be a temporary thing, not a complete rejection of what was one of the most useful upgrades I had received from the Personal Reality constellation.

"No, I think it's fine as long as we don't go over." The second said, "We just limit the cycles to their normal duration, accounting for acceleration."

"You actually want shorter durations?" I asked.

They both shrugged. "Think we're supposed to have shorter durations." The first said.

"Plus, more cycles is better for the Exsphere, and the Glove of the East." The second added.

I nodded. "I mean, if you're okay with it."

The first duplicate snorted. "More like if you're okay showing up every twenty minutes to renew the potion."

I smiled. "Bit of an inconvenience, but it's basically what we were doing before. Back to the early durations of the potion, except not really."

"Short from your perspective, normal for us." The second duplicate said. "Better than a setup that's normal for you and overly long for us."

I nodded. I didn't like the idea of cutting any of their durations short, but this was something we had never prepared for. While physically they were fine, the extra time definitely had a mental and spiritual effect on them. Not actually harmful, just… irritable. Like they had both forced themselves to stay awake way too long and ended up in a sour mood because of it.

No wonder they had no hope with my Aspect. Even if their mindset hadn't been fundamentally different, I doubt anyone would be able to get into the right frame of mind in that state. It was basically magically enforced three am thinking.

And they had both had their twenty percent time in that state. Thankfully, from my awareness they hadn't done anything too crazy, their independent research period was definitely more focused on why using time warps to stretch the potion duration was a bad idea, with extensive supporting evidence.

And as an added bonus, I would get to deal with all of the memories from that mindset being channeled directly into my head. From both of their expressions, I could tell that they knew this was likely to be unpleasant on all fronts.

Once I connected to the Omni-sphere it actually wasn't that bad, but that was more on account of the quality of the support equipment and the benefits of my Mental Fortress power. The harsh edge also didn't build up until later in the duplicates' duration. The early portion was what I had come to expect, the experiences of both mundane tasks and the development of abilities, shared from the perspective of a different mindset. Then, in the back ninety percent of their durations, that mindset began to draw thin.

There was less of the exuberance of experience and more contemplation of the effect was sustaining them. It wasn't something that had happened when improvements to the potion had granted a longer duration. Apparently that problem only occurred when there was an outside force artificially extending things. It wasn't clear what exactly was happening, but there was a definite sense that whatever the natural state of their existence was, it was being influenced in an adverse way.

That led to frustration, but also something I hadn't expected. My duplicates didn't normally get frustrated, at least not in this way. There was a fundamental aspect to their existence that sustained itself beyond the limits of typical concerns. It meant they were completely content with their existence, but people who were completely content tended to stay focused on more positive things. It was the first time I had felt this kind of irritation from them, and the development of abilities and skills that were tied to that experience.

My duplicates were as psionically powerful as I was. We all had the benefit of Synchronicity Event and the overpowered psychic growth that came coupled with that power. At that level of psionic ability, even a slight change in mindset could have serious results.

In short, through their frustration, my duplicates had inadvertently trained towards some of the more aggressive and destructive schools of psionics that were available to me. Given the near complete lack of attention that had received from prior iterations, the pooling of energy and knowledge resulted in a substantial advancement. It was a meaningful step towards Manifestation, one of the most powerful psychic disciplines available as well as the signature ability of Alma.

Alma, whose entire perception of the world was based on the interaction of psionic forces. Psionic forces that were nearly completely absent outside of my own team. Forces that had been somewhat aggressively cultivated over the bulk of my duplicate's duration, and in a matter that specifically aligned with the psionic discipline they had been embracing.

It was possible that the full sum of my duplicates' bad mood hadn't been due to their extended duration. There was definitely a level of resonance between their psionic development and Alma's presence. She had been relatively quiet since the previous night, but there was no question as to whether there had been a connection. Thanks to what my duplicates had developed, that was now transferred to me.

In a severely fucked up way, this could be considered a shortcut to power. Create copies of yourself, subject them to conditions they were incapable of dealing with, and then absorb their experience to fuel your dark mental abilities. I was very glad that I wasn't desperate enough to need to attempt that kind of thing, because with anything less than Mental Fortress it was a recipe for mental instability, which was pretty much the last thing you needed from someone with rapidly expanding psionic powers.

No, I had the luxury of being a decent and ethical person about this and not taking the evil scientist route. Given that was pretty much the exact kind of thinking that had resulted in Alma's current situation, I was happy to stay well away from it, but there was no question that I would need to deal with Alma again, and probably soon.

My duplicates ran out the last of their duration through the link, breaking contact just before the end to spare me that particular experience of them vanishing. After absorbing the full sum of their memories from the period in accelerated time, I was completely onboard with the idea of regulated durations, even if it would mean having to renew the potion three times an hour.

Speaking of which, a new potion was waiting for me upon exiting the omni-sphere. Crafted with the full benefit of all of my powers, it was a work of art, the absolute peak of what that particular eccentric style of alchemy could accomplish.

And I could make it better.

I held up the vial and concentrated, calling upon my attribute. The vial in my hand began to shift slightly, the physical design being easier to affect than the magical chemicals inside it. I focused and saw the effect of my power extend to the liquid inside the vial, causing it to shift and change as the inherent potential of any human creation was drawn forth.

For an item of this caliber lateral improvements were easier to achieve compared to further refining an already excessively powerful formula. I did accomplish something in that direction, but most of the improvements were directed towards less overt aspects.

Before the effects of my attribute could dissipate, I downed the potion. Unlike in previous instances, I didn't instantly spawn a duplicate with each gulp. Instead, I could feel the effects of the advanced potion holding ready. It wasn't until I intentionally triggered the activation that my duplicates stepped forth one after another.

"Not bad." The first said. "Delayed deployment, awareness of duration, and control of the effect."

"That's my favorite." The second said, "If we're going to be calling things earlier, I'd rather it be a dispel than the kind of damage we'd need to actually dissipate."

I nodded. "I guess we're kind of past the point where you can end the effect by just punching yourself."

"At this level I doubt open surgery would be enough." The first said. "If it doesn't put us down, it's not knocking us out."

"Right." I said. "And just checking, you're good with calling things early?"

"Given what happened last time, I'm going to say definitely." The second duplicate said. "We can stick around in an emergency, but it's not like we're short on potions."

"Plus it's better for a lot of effects." Said the first. "More generations for the Exsphere, more upgrades for the Glove of the East."

"More twenty percent times." The second said with a grin.

"Yeah, I get it." I said. "You're okay for tonight's projects?"

"Group projects are nanites after you get a final top up from the party and the controlled rollout of upgrades from the Glove of the East. Other than that, there's the usual practice and development and experimentation." The first said.

"We'll cover that while you work on your Aspect. Or look into Alma." The second added.

I let out a breath. "Yeah, that needs to be dealt with. We should probably set something up for…"

I paused as an alert came through from Survey. She had been monitoring the situation surrounding the video of Emma's attack. Mr. Hebert had provided a copy to the police, which was something that significantly complicated the statements she had made both prior to her father's arrival and while acting under his advice. I hadn't taken any further action regarding the footage, either in terms of releasing it or concealing it. Survey had been monitoring the gradual spread of the video, slowly extending out from the classmates it had been shared with to their friends to some sites that they frequented and finally to a general release.

It was inevitable, really. Fight videos were practically clickbait and that one had the 'fortune' of being unusually well framed with good focus and excellent sound quality. Quality good enough to make out every word Taylor said before Emma attacked her, something that apparently struck something of a chord with a city that had recently seen more than its share of personal loss. And of course the entire thing ended with someone flipping out and trying to claw another person's face off, so of course it would spread like wildfire once it got released into any public forum.

The actual progression for the breach went from the person who recorded it sending it to a close friend who sent it to a less close friend with a promise not to share it further who shared it with their friends with no promise not to share it, and then a progressively expanding web of friends, siblings, teammates, online acquaintances, and borderline strangers until it ended up on a PHO discussion thread regarding Brockton Bay where it was quickly taken down by a moderator but not before it was saved and re-shared to several other threads, finally ending up on both twitter and YouTube, but which point the main players in the clip had been identified, largely on account of Emma's arrest and her planned involvement in the charity show. The police hadn't released any statement regarding her identity or what happened in the school, but apparently being marched through the halls in handcuffs leaves an impression. The kind of impression that led to several videos of her perp walk through the school that were gradually making their way online as well.

"Um, yeah. We'll leave this to you." My first duplicate said. I nodded as they teleported away, leaving me to figure out what to do next.

It was a mess. A complicated mess that would get a lot messier as time went on. My first instinct was to ignore it to whatever extent I could, but I had enough insight to recognize that for the bad idea it was. It would be best to give Taylor a heads up on the situation, even if there wasn't much that could be done at this point. A potentially awkward conversation wasn't worth letting things get out of hand.

That wasn't the product of space age diplomacy training, it was just common sense. Of course, it was also what my space age diplomacy training recommended, so maybe a lot of that space age diplomacy training was just codified common sense. It probably said something that it apparently took the diplomatic efforts of a future civilization to make common sense actually common.

I teleported up to my office and placed a call to Taylor. I used her watch, rather than the office phone, both for the better security it offered and because it meant I didn't need to kick Survey off the line. Pretty much the instant I had finished my call with Director Armstrong she had reopened her connection to the Final Frontier and was practically basking in the improved communication bandwidth.

'Video call to Taylor.' I mentally keyed in. A quick check with Survey confirmed that she had made it home from the hospital. She was downstairs with her father while he got things ready for dinner. At the alert from the call she excused herself and slipped upstairs, waiting until she was in her room with the door closed before she answered.

"Joe?" She asked as the screen bloomed to life. "Is everything alright?" She refocused on me. "Are you alright?"

"It's fine. I just have an update on your situation." I said. "Is everything alright on your end?"

"I think so." She said, "No change from our last call. What's this update about?"

"The video of the attack has leaked." I said. "One of the people it was shared with ended up posting it on a forum and it spread from there. There's a lot of discussion, including comments from kids at your school. Both you and Emma have been identified."

Taylor slumped. "Fuck." She muttered. "How bad is it?"

"What, for you?" I asked. Taylor gave me a blank look. "Generally people are taking your side. And coming down pretty hard on Emma." In some cases excessively hard, but she really didn't cast herself in the best light.

I did my best to hold back from inappropriate levels of satisfaction, given what she had said about Taylor's mother.

"You're serious?" She asked.

"Yeah. You can probably find it if you look, I just wanted to give you a heads up so you or your father didn't stumble across it." I paused as I got another alert from Survey. "Oh, and Parian's just denounced Emma and disavowed her work."

Taylor's face twisted in confusion. "What? Parian? How?"

It seemed I needed to walk through things from the start. "Well, Emma was going to be part of Parian's show at the charity event that was held this afternoon. They've worked together before on the same routine. Since Emma missed the show, a new model filled in for her part, but she was still listed as on the event page. Someone tweeted Parian about it with a clip from the video. She's posted a response denouncing Emma's behavior and bullying in general as well as stating that she has no plans to associate with her in the future."

That was largely thanks to Survey, or Delphine. As soon as the video began to pick up traction she contacted Parian about the situation and helped workshop a response. By the time someone actually pinged her about the association she had a reply ready to go and had pulled all of the pictures from Emma's previous shows and photo shoots from her website and social media accounts.

It turned what could have been a serious liability into a net positive for Parian, at the cost of a significant negative for Emma Barnes.

"Emma just got called out by a cape?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah." I said, calling up a subsection of the video feed to show the twitter interactions. Taylor's eyes widened as she saw the response, then began scrolling through the other responses. "Actually, not just Parian." I said, calling up more tweets.

Most of the companies Emma had worked with were being tweeted or flagged in some way. Some of them had already issued hasty statements, but nothing as comprehensive as Parian's. It was safe to say that Emma's modeling career was over, at least for any business that cared about their online reputation.

Taylor took a breath. "This is… I mean…" She kept scrolling and seemed to fold into herself as she read some of the comments. They weren't negative, but they were getting rather personal. Having that level of trauma splashed across the internet couldn't be a good experience.

"This was going to get out at some point." I said. "I could have worked to contain it, but the interference would be obvious if I kept it up for too long."

"I knew people were going to see it." She muttered. "It happened with other pictures and some videos. It's just, nobody cared. Not like this. The stuff people are saying…"

"A lot of people in the city have lost someone close to them in the past couple of weeks." I said. "A video like this was going to touch a nerve."

Taylor took a breath. "Thank you for letting me know. I figured there might be something, but I didn't expect…" She scrolled through the comments some more, her eyes wide. "How big is this going to get?" She asked.

"I don't know." I said. "It's mostly circulating around Brockton Bay topics, but it's also connected to the charity show, and that's getting national attention. You might want to watch out for people trying to contact you over the next couple of days. It might have happened anyway with Emma's arrest, but this could accelerate things."

"Right. Right." Taylor said, mostly to herself. "What's happening with Emma, anyway?"

"Nothing good." Once again, I managed to keep the satisfaction out of my voice. "Processing the Teeth's henchmen has tied up the courts, and with the video out things are looking worse for Emma, especially considering her earlier statements. Her father is still working on her case, but she's probably going to end up spending the night in police custody."

Taylor seemed more amazed than amused by that fact. She just shook her head before looking back at the screen. "Um, thanks for telling me about this. It's a lot. A lot a lot, but thanks."

I nodded. "I'll reach out about the meeting tomorrow. You might want to let your dad know about this, but a quiet night would probably do you some good."

"Probably. Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow." She said softly.

I nodded and ended the call. Not nearly as awkward as I had imagined, even given the subject matter. Parian had managed to get ahead of the storm and I was grateful to Survey for that. Whatever concerns anyone on the team had over the previous mess, Parian did not deserve to be dragged down by Emma. Instead she had gotten the chance to be the first one to throw the girl under the bus, starting something of a trend from Emma's previous modeling employers.

The shitstorm brewing online was mostly being propelled by broader interest in the charity event. Clips and images from the show were circulating widely and racking up views, with portions of WKMP-6's footage being rebroadcast on national news channels. It was driving interest in anything related to the event, and this was thankfully the closest thing to a scandal that we had.

It was hard to say how big this was going to get before it died down. We could probably shift things one way or another, but I had the sense that Taylor would prefer me to stay hands off in this situation. My luck might have had something to do with the existence of the video and the specific way it was framed, but I was pretty sure it wasn't involved in the spread. Frankly it didn't need to be. There was a high quality but still believably shot piece of drama involving teenage girls ending in a nasty fight and an arrest, all connected to a major topic of interest. Depending on how this played out, there was a decent chance Taylor's situation could end up national news.

Which would probably involve dredging up whatever had happened back in January that I was specifically avoiding. If I wanted Taylor to be able to tell me about that herself, I pretty much needed to stay hands off, just to avoid accidentally stumbling across the information.

Things were probably as well managed as I could hope for, so it was as good a time as any to hand the subject off to Survey. I was comfortable trusting her judgment on this. It meant we weren't blind to any developments that came up, but I was still able to insulate myself from the details, at least for the next twenty-four hours.

Besides, we had a much more important matter to attend to. It was time for movie night.

"My turn!" Tetra cheered as we connected to the Spiritron Core. "It's my turn to pick the movie!" She repeated from inside the digital environment.

I grinned at her excitement. The random selection had eliminated everyone but her and the Matrix and she was excessively happy to win that coin flip. The Matrix took their loss with usual good humor, noting that they had additional time to consider their ultimate selection.

"Yep." I said a little indulgently. "Have you decided what you want to watch?"

She nodded excitedly. "I have. I wanted to pick something different from what we watched before, so not like the murder mystery, heist movie, animated musical, drama, or adventure film."

"Okay." I could understand her logic. We had covered a fairly wide variety of genres. She might feel obligated to keep the pattern going. What would be the next in the progression? Documentary? Romance? Comedy?

"Here's my pick!" She said, presenting her choice. It was not a comedy.

"What, seriously?" Aisha asked. She looked around, gauging the reactions of the rest of the group. Fleet was mildly interested, while Survey was assessing things. Garment was largely impartial, but happy that Tetra had been able to make a choice, while Tybalt looked genuinely intrigued. Technically he was still having an after-work drink with the rest of the security team before they headed to the after-party, but he had ducked out for the handful of seconds it took to watch a movie in the Spiritron Computer.

Invitations HAD been extended to the Kerbals, but they politely declined. Though if they knew what the choice was going to be, maybe they would have reconsidered.

"Yep." She said, "No one else picked a horror movie. Or science fiction."

"Well, yeah. We live science fiction in here. But seriously, are you sure you want this?" Aisha asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Tetra asked. Aisha was at a loss for a response. In fact, no one seemed to be able to come up with a reason against Tetra picking John Carpenter's The Thing for movie night."

"I would be interested in viewing this film." The Matrix stated.

"Well, of course. The S-class threats need to stick together." Aisha joked.

"Aisha, let's not kid ourselves. We're all S-class threats. Even you." I said. That threshold had probably been passed back when she got the entire Protectorate and PRT to set up monitoring stations to obsessively document her power.

"Fine. Sorry for that." She said to the Matrix. They were as unmoved by the apology as they had been by the insinuation.

"I was referring to the use of practical effects through the film, which were considered to be a substantial technical accomplishment." They said.

"And I have not had the opportunity to observe reactions to media intended to invoke feelings of dread and suspense." Survey added. "This has the potential to be quite illuminating."

"Yeah, but we're all S-class threats, remember?" Aisha asked. "It's not like a movie's going to scare us."

I smiled and remembered the first time I had watched this particular film. "I guess we'll see."

"Fine." Aisha said with a shrug. "The movie's nearly thirty years old. How bad could it be?"

(Author's Note: The last reduction in the rate at which points were gained has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the story, though it's clear that things can still get out of hand even with the reduced point gain and break period after major perks. As such, with the clearing of another constellation, I have taken the opportunity for another reduction. Points will now be gained at a rate of 200 points for every 8,000 words, with any 600-point perks now introducing a delay of 12,000 words before points will begin accumulating again.
This change will allow more time to be spent on the use and development of Joe's current abilities and the advancement of the story's plot, rather than the constant introduction of new powers. The previous modification has been a considerable help with the problems that had built up, and I am hoping this change to the point system will yield similar improvements. I'm not sure if the clearing of additional constellations will result in similar reductions, but I'm keeping the option open.
This does mean that powers will become less frequent and some of the abilities that people have been looking forward to seeing will take longer to arrive. It may mean that we see chapters without successful rolls, but believe that will be good for the story overall and allow the proper respect and attention to be paid to the abilities when they do arrive.)

Jumpchain abilities this chapter:

Entrance Hall - Fleet (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall – Survey (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall – Aisha (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall – Tetra (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall - The Matrix (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall – Tybalt (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall - Espirit de Kerbal (Personal Reality) 50:
Entrance Hall - Some Old Friends (Personal Reality) 50:
This is the room your Access Key opens a door to. It starts off as a 5 meter cube with blank white walls, floor, and ceiling, as some doors, one leading to the current Host Reality, the other into your Cosmic Warehouse, with additional doors leading to other extensions as these get added to your Personal Reality. Feel free to customize this Entrance Hall as you see fit. Additional Halls can, at your discretion, be linked only to certain keys or only to certain extensions. This allows you to have an entry hall just for skiing if you want.

Firestorm (Sabaton) 600:
When someone absolutely, positively needs artillery good enough to reduce the greatest castle to rubble, they come to you and accept no substitutes. You can throw a cannon together from scraps and it will still outperform the best mortars of the age. Moreover, in other worlds, if you can understand the weapon, you can produce something 1.1 times as strong with the items you would find in a rubbish heap, provided they're of equal size to the device they're replicating.

 

[AnaqiX]

First
time to read

Edit: Nice nice, Firestorm looks fun.

 

[Rem Freeman]

I'm happy to see the Downfall of Emma continuing and becoming more public, though I'm curious to see what that does to Taylor's confidence levels and how she interacts with people moving forward. Also, kudos to Tetra for her wonderful movie choice! I can already see her watching The Thing and asking Joe for some new friends to play with/have emergency food reserves for later

@LordRoustabout Thanks for the update on how the points system is changing, though I'm one of the people who actually like drowning in points so I'm nervous about having so much time between rolls now. Also, if possible, could you please post the current number of available points at the end of the chapters? It would be very helpful in keeping track of what perks would be available for upcoming rolls! Thanks again for all that you do and keep up the great work!!!

 

[Shirt]

Entrance Hall - Some Old Friends (Personal Reality)

Click to shrink...

Sorry if this is explained in chapter, but who is this entrance hall for? Just "some old friends" is rather menacing.

 

[Chaos341]

Sorry if this is explained in chapter, but who is this entrance hall for? Just "some old friends" is rather menacing.

Click to shrink...

Its the perk name for the Kerbal pilot companions. Espirit de Kerbal is for the ground team.

 

[BelligerentGnu]

The only thing I really wish had been in this chapter is Survey identifying Accord's thumb on the scale. Aside from that, a lovely chapter that gently progresses a number of things. Also:

Any open action by Apeiron or a member of the Celestial Forge will draw a significant response from global powers." Survey explained. "Regardless of the level of force displayed, a response will be forthcoming from challenged entrenched powers who feel their authority is compromised."

Click to shrink...

Pinky, it's time to conquer the world.

 

[Daniel14541]

To be fair that perk can be used for propulsion. Just make sure that the weapon you make has all the knockback that you could possibly apply to it!

 

[Dracovictorious]

I love that everyone has a key now, and the kerbals bemoaning the lack of properly sized doors gave me a chuckle. Especially considering some of the monstrosities I've built in that game.

 

[Astoria_Varanus]

Honestly, I hope when the matrix chooses the movie, they choose pacific rim.

 

[___]

At this point it is safe to say that even the most exotic material limitations can be met. Fold Carbon which was giving Joe the most trouble before is now a non-issue.

Hope the rest have fun 'Chasing Apeiron' after the S9 reveal.

 

[Spidey_phd]

Honestly, I hope when the matrix chooses the movie, they choose pacific rim.

Click to shrink...

Predictions for when Alma gets to pick the movie?

I'm imaging something like the Ring. Artists look at other artists' work for inspiration.

 

[Lord_Sanguinius]

Meeseeks ass clones, love 'em.

 

[novorek]

"Fine." Aisha said with a shrug. "The movie's nearly thirty years old. How bad could it be?"

Click to shrink...

Sounds like next chapter will be opening with scared Aisha.

I do like the point reduction. While it means that it will be longer before some anticipated constellations show up, it also means that each new constellation will likely end up with more time in focus before another new one shows up and supplants it. That means major constellations will have more of a distinct identity before getting subsumed into the technological singularity that is all of Aperion's abilities combined.

 

[tfesmo]

Points will now be gained at a rate of 200 points for every 8,000 words, with any 600-point perks not introducing a delay of 12,000 words before points will begin accumulating again.

Click to shrink...

Should that be "now"?

I like the chapter, the point changes are definitely helping.

 

[Tyrell]

1810 pages in, 2.1 million words in and several years of writing. We have reached?

 

[Anaja]

That got a flicker of amusement from Mr. Laborn. "I suppose so." He said before looking out across the gym again. "And that's not the kind of lesson you want to draw out. It's good that things are getting back to normal." He smiled softly. "My son will be stopping by tomorrow."

Click to shrink...

Hopefully they get to meet.

 

[MagnificentMind]

(Author's Note: The last reduction in the rate at which points were gained has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the story, though it's clear that things can still get out of hand even with the reduced point gain and break period after major perks. As such, with the clearing of another constellation, I have taken the opportunity for another reduction. Points will now be gained at a rate of 200 points for every 8,000 words, with any 600-point perks not introducing a delay of 12,000 words before points will begin accumulating again.
This change will allow more time to be spent on the use and development of Joe's current abilities and the advancement of the story's plot, rather than the constant introduction of new powers. The previous modification has been a considerable help with the problems that had built up, and I am hoping this change to the point system will yield similar improvements. I'm not sure if the clearing of additional constellations will result in similar reductions, but I'm keeping the option open.
This does mean that powers will become less frequent and some of the abilities that people have been looking forward to seeing will take longer to arrive. It may mean that we see chapters without successful rolls, but believe that will be good for the story overall and allow the proper respect and attention to be paid to the abilities when they do arrive.)

Click to shrink...

This is very much a welcome update to the power mechanics, at this point Joe doesn't really need the new powers and most that do come out end up not being utilized all that much outside of the bigger/important ones. Which makes writing them a bit of waste of word count and time. At least, that's my opinion on the matter

 

[KSn5Ynoh]

Something that would have been incredibly risky earlier in my career was not just a pleasant point of convenience.

Click to shrink...

Seems like a pretty pleasant convenience to me. Should probably be 'now'.

with any 600-point perks not introducing a delay of 12,000 words before points will begin accumulating again.

Click to shrink...

It's a bit odd telling us what's not happening. Should also probably be 'now'.

 

[RogerDodger123]

At this point, Glory to Me is going to be the absolute last non-repeatable perk in the entire Celestial Forge that Joe gains.

 

[Gooey]

The actual keys had gone to Ambassador Kerman for the embassy, while Jebediah had been designated flight lead and keyholder for the pilots.

Click to shrink...

JEBEDIAH!!!

 

[Brainstorm813]

including comments from kids at your school

Click to shrink...

Guess Void is having a field day.

 

[MDK]

Aisha guided the paint and pigment without a practiced and steady hand.

Click to shrink...

Given the rest of that paragraph and the following ones as well as that year in the spiritron computer that Aisha spent practicing her new hobby, that should probably be a "with".

"The movie's nearly thirty years old. How bad could it be?"

Click to shrink...

Well, if Aisha is like my cousin then she will likely fall asleep 20min in. If an the other hand she's able to appreciate the slow buildup of tension then "The Thing" holds up remarkably well.

Entrance Hall - Some Old Friends (Personal Reality) 50:

Click to shrink...

Is that truly for the Kerbal Pilots or does that refer to the Devils and Rubbery Man from Fallen London?

To be fair that perk can be used for propulsion. Just make sure that the weapon you make has all the knockback that you could possibly apply to it!

Click to shrink...

Indeed.
Anti-matter torches/flame-throwers are a splendid way of scorching a city down to the bedrock and make for decent directional thrusters and/or boosters.

 

[HandleWithCare]

It's amusing to think that people are totally impressed by Joe just because he seems so unruffled and nice.
Everyone is hanging on by their teeth and he just wanders around, looking pristine and being friendly.

I now have a mental image of SmolAlma scurrying around in mental space, sticking to Joe's heels, unsure if that new person is nice or not and watching

Also, Emma's ruin is still sad. Yeah she was an S-class bitch but she was also a broken teen.