46 Review
The decision to practice magic required relocation to another section of the workshop I had never seen before. I would be impressed with the level of remodeling that had been performed, but I knew that the combination of time saving powers and expanded alchemy abilities made any additions trivial. As such the presence of a dedicated training area for magical and high energy engagements wasn't that surprising. Of course, the previously used arena near the top of the volcano wouldn't do. THAT was limited to sparring matches, and thus totally inappropriate for the act of just throwing around magic. Because of course I needed specialized training facilities inside my volcano workshop.
At least that was the opinion of my duplicates, and considering they were short on time I was inclined to indulge their requests. There was a certain satisfaction that came with showing off your work, and I got the sense that despite the freedom afforded by 20%-time duplicates didn't get to indulge in that particular pleasure that often. I think they were generally happy with the idea that I would eventually stumble on to their work and be shocked or impressed, but still enjoyed spectating first hand when they got the chance.
The training area was somewhat unique in that it was close to the 'ground' level of the workshop. Ever since the volcano had appeared my workshop had gone from a series of rooms that might as well have been floating in a void to a continuous complex built within the small mountain. That meant the vast majority of the space was sitting unused. The amount of volume a mountain contained was insane, and it wasn't like I had any difficulty with expansion through igneous rock or management of utilities within the complex.
The nature of the volcano as an 'extension' to the workshop was unique. When I received the Skyforge it was decidedly limited to the escarpment it sat upon. It was surrounded by scenic mountains, but they seemed to just be there for aesthetic purposes. I couldn't leave the immediate area of the forge. There was like some kind of limiting effect containing things. Almost an invisible wall, but not quite that precisely defined. More like any motion towards the edge didn't actually result in you leaving the area.
The appearance of the volcano had changed things, and not just because I now had a direct lava feed for the Skyforge. Effectively, the volcano took that nebulous boundary around the Skyforge and expanded it dramatically. Instead of just a little workable bubble around the eagle statue of the forge I now had an entire mountain. That meant significant airspace above the summit itself in addition to workable stone that extended below the effective ground level. It was actually possible to descend to the bottom of the slopes of the mountain before you encountered that special kind of barrier.
The interesting thing was that the space that was taken up by other official additions to the workshop was effectively transferred to the space around the volcano. The efforts of my duplicates combined with Survey's commitment to documentation tracked the exact amount of accessible space around the mountain, and noted any changes as they happened. Whatever volume I lost when something like the Prismatic Laboratory was added was made up for by greater access to the land around the volcano. It was miniscule at the moment, but it was an interesting thought that, with enough facilities added to the Workshop inside the volcano, eventually I might have a circling of accessible mountain valleys to work with. That sounded nice if for no other reason than the thematic distinction between 'mountain valley' and 'volcano lair'.
My duplicates had taken advantage of the nature of that nebulous barrier when constructing the training room. It was actually close enough to the edge of the volcano to have one side that could open to the outside air. That meant streaming sunlight and a view of sprawling snowcapped mountains.
It also provided a way to effectively launch anything and everything I could manage into the empty wilderness with no risk to health or property. That element of the 'barrier' was something that my duplicates had discovered during their 20%-time, and I could only imagine the types of activities that would lead to the conclusion of 'you can shoot anything you want in this direction and nothing bad will happen'.
It was an arrangement that was really quite fortunate. The Alchemy constellation passed by as I reflected on exactly how drastically my offensive abilities had grown over the past week. My first big attack… well, it was probably the use of tremor runes to shatter the foundation of the storage yard. But that was still within what you could see from mid to high tier capes. The slash I unleashed at the end of the night was what had really changed things.
That had been a desperate gamble thrown together at the last minute. The culmination of an array of powers being granted right up to the moment I committed to the act. Rune magic combined with enhancement alchemy and a mastery of workmanship that, at the time, seemed unbelievable. It had required the right weapon, the right enhancements, and a considerable charge time, but the attack level was beyond anything I would have imagined.
Since then, I hadn't really focused on how much damage I could do. I had the potential for attacks that would leave any normal cape obliterated down to a molecular level. My focus had been firmly directed on precision, control, and expanding the utility of my abilities. As far as I had been concerned, I had power and was at a point where more of it didn't seem like it would provide any real advantage.
Lung had put that theory to the test, but that fight had been beyond a special case. It was a unique circumstance. An ambush I never could have seen coming combined with a protracted fight while trapped in a mental state that was only barely functional, all with the merest selection of my equipment available. How many times in that fight did I come within a hair's breadth of ending it? One thing different, an extra weapon, or a slightly faster response from my duplicate and things could have swung completely in my favor.
At the same time, how close did things come for the ABB? How close were they to victory? That slight nudging of the balance could have gone in their favor as well. A slightly different pattern of their ambush, less showmanship on their execution, or just a delay from Tetra, any of those things could have cost me the fight.
And my life.
No, it wasn't worth ruminating about what could have happened. Sufficient analysis to prevent a repeat of any mistakes was fine, but I wasn't going to beat myself up about my actions. That wasn't a productive line of thinking, even before I had a well of power tied to my mental state.
The point was I had long had enough power to clear an entire battlefield. If I wanted I could have decimated the container yard the moment I confirmed Oni Lee's presence, killing him and possibly March and Lung as well. That would also have killed dozens of conscripted ABB members. Even if most of them were part of the gang before Bakuda's implant spree, that didn't feel right. It was a call I could agonize over, but the fact was I had saved a lot of their lives. I could get into the exact moral calculations about whether that was worth it, but I felt like it was. If nothing else, feeling like I could do the right thing, like I had the power to save people, it was the kind of feeling that brought back that sense of hope, of determination. It was the kind of thing that brought me closer to the spiral.
It was really incredible. I got to act heroic without regret because my power rewarded me for the feeling of being heroic. It was like the opposite of a Faustian bargain. Rather than needing to turn to the dark side and compromise your morals for power, staying true to your principles and embracing them with determination became the true secret to strength.
Not that I really needed more 'strength'. The sword swing that had devastated the storage facility had been a week and dozens of powers ago. I was actually a little nervous about what the true upper limit of an attack from a handheld weapon could be. Thus, the plan of shooting at the arbitrary barrier around my workshop.
The entire group had moved down from the… whatever the room we had previously met in was going to be called. I really needed to sort out the layout of this place. That room seemed to have been constructed for the purposes of the sea snail tank first with everything else added to complement it. It wasn't really an aquarium, though I could see the potential of it going that way. Right now, it was just some kind of meeting room/seating area with an overly professional vibe.
With the assembled spectators I felt like I was being called upon to conduct a performance, and was a little self-conscious about the affair. I was being flanked by my duplicates, electing to use the last minutes of their duration to participate in this testing. Rather than just being there to gawk they were actually running scanning equipment and interfacing with my computer system to provide documentation based on their own senses.
The Matrix's miniature construct of nanites shaped into the form of a miniature Gun-EZ stood nearby. The nanites composing its body had been copied along with my duplicates. As such it would vanish along with them, leaving only records linked to the nanites in my own system. It was a unique state of existence that you would only see in colony intelligences. The mental complexity of the Matrix was based as much on the volume of nanites composing its body as it was the development of its code. When I created a set of duplicates it effectively tripled its volume, instantly taking it to a much higher level of complexity. The mental development from that period persisted, though couldn't be fully expressed once the copies vanished, taking their cloned nanites with them.
It was an unstable state of existence and something difficult to endure for an intelligence devoted to production and progression. As such my duplicates had made a point of regularly producing additional nanites for the Matrix whenever possible, even sparing a few moments during my treatment to ensure the A.I. saw a continuous progression to offset the sudden growth and loss that came from the use of my potions.
The only parallel experience to what the Matrix experienced was Fleet, who gained additional iterations whenever the motoroid was copied. It wasn't totally equivalent, but Fleet had adjusted surprisingly well to the sudden appearance of copies of himself and was even able to integrate information from the duplicated vehicles seamlessly into his core program. Based on records he had been offering support and advice to the Matrix on how to manage the fluctuations more smoothly and seemed to have made a meaningful difference.
Fleet was 'standing' with Survey in his usual avatar, bedecked in a motorcycle helmet and flight suit. Additionally, a few of his miniature vehicles sat at the edge of the room, occasionally making small movements towards the rest of the group. Fleet remained exceptionally static in his human avatar, but had developed enough nuance through the use of the tiny vehicle fleet that they practically had a character of their own. It really said something about how Fleet viewed the devices he was installed in, and why the loss of the Motoroid had affected him so much.
Fleet may have been significantly better at avoiding malignant loops than either other A.I. was, but he still had his hang-ups. The driving A.I. seemed to have accepted the lion's share of the responsibility for the fight going south. Not to the point of getting caught on the issue, but still an acceptance of the mistake and the respective blame. Specific deficiencies in his modeling programs were highlighted, outlining the errors that lead to excessive focus on ground activity that had allowed Oni Lee to literally get the drop on him. Attempts to reassure him were deemed unnecessary. Fleet had analyzed his mistakes, accepted his responsibility, and put corrections into place without any further issue. It was commendable how quickly he could deal with that kind of issue, but also a little concerning in terms of the amount of blame he put on himself.
Particularly he accepted the blame for the loss of the motoroid, or as Fleet referred to it 'the Alpha Vehicle'. The first duplicated motoroid had been lost in the destruction of Bakuda's lab and the second when Fleet deployed its FTL drive against Lung, but the primary version had vanished after crashing at the container yard.
The container yard was an entirely new set of concerns, and one I'd have to find a way of dealing with. Fleet had been deployed during the night with a new set of drones on search and retrieval. While that action cast a fairly wide net the first point of deployment had been the container yard, and what he found there was troubling.
The ABB had wisely abandoned the place by the time Fleet arrived. Even so, the plan was fairly simple. Confirm March's death. Retrieve the damaged motoroid. Possibly administer medical treatment to Triumph. What greeted his arrival made that set of objectives effectively impossible.
The motoroid was gone. Not just destroyed or shredded, gone. Even if it had been reduced to ash I would have been able to track it with my Built to Last power. Instead, I had nothing. My duplicates had nothing. It was like the machine had vanished off the face of the Earth.
Judging by the rest of the container yard, that might not have been far from the truth.
The entire facility was a mess. Paths of empty space lined with compressed crystalline material had punched through the ground and containers alike in a complicated fractal pattern. The network had extended a frightening distance, effectively creating a tunnel network under the facility and a portion of the Docks. The entire arrangement centered on the location where my motoroid had been downed and was now conspicuously absent.
What exactly had happened was a highly concerning mystery. There was nothing but residual energy readings when Fleet had arrived to scan the place. March's body was absent, but so was the ground she had been laying on. The same was true for Triumph, but at least he was confirmed to be receiving care at the PRT's attached hospital. As for the cause of the devastation, I could only guess, and none of those guesses were particularly pleasant.
The best guess was some kind of large-scale dimensional breach. Considering the power of the call gem in the motoroid's reactor it was at least theoretically possible, but practically there was no way to create such an effect. With the dynamic of the energy in play it would be like trying to push your way through the exhaust of an active rocket engine to access the fuel tank. It was the kind of thing that just shouldn't be possible.
Regardless, something had happened, and it was concerning. Concerning because March could be involved with it. She had been critically injured by my strike and the only reason that hit hadn't instantly pulped her was my own distraction during the act and the fact that her timing power had to be working at the absolute peak of its ability.
Looking back, grabbing someone with that kind of striker power had been stupid. I wasn't exactly in my right mind at the time, but it was still stupid. Once I realized the scale of the threat that was flailing in my grasp I swatted her away immediately. As a consequence, the blow had less force that I would have otherwise put into it. March rolled with it in an impossibly perfect manner. I'm pretty sure she even intentionally dislocated her wrist to loosen my grip. Even with all of that, I could remember the sensation of hitting her, the feeling of things breaking. She was fatally injured to the point where I doubted even one of Bakuda's healing/cancer bombs would save her, if she could even last that long.
But she must have lasted, at least long enough to do something. I just couldn't guess what. There was no way for any level of damage to my motoroid to have caused an effect like what was found at the container yard, but it had happened nonetheless.
In a city with widespread devastation on almost every level, an overstressed administration, a mistrustful PRT and multiple active gangs now separated by a power vacuum, I had to chase down an unrelated mystery and make it one of my top priorities.
Still, it was something I could probably afford to deal with later, or at least after I finished here. The Vehicles constellation passed by as I reviewed the rest of the spectators. Garment was still facilitating Tetra's mobility. I had a feeling that Tetra could probably have managed some level of locomotion with her countless threads, but seemed to be indulging Garment's attention, as well as the persistent styling of her strands. Tetra hadn't been overly talkative, but my thermal sense was able to detect her natural thermal expression being augmented to generate complex arrays of infrared pulses, all directed towards the workshop's sensors.
Life fibers were capable of emulating almost any kind of technology. It was something I hadn't been aware of until my Tailor power granted me an understanding of the principle. It seemed it didn't come naturally to Tetra either, but once she became aware of the idea she embraced it in earnest. IR transmission was amongst the most basic possible application, but it gave her a way to interface with the Workshop's systems. I could also sense that a similar stream of data was being returned in kind. I only needed the barest hint of technokinesis to tell Survey was engaging with the signals. While I could decode the communications easily enough, it was the first time they had been able to openly talk without using my brain as a medium, so I decided to leave them be.
Considering things further, I just hoped it wasn't building to another argument that I would need to step in to resolve.
Aisha was the final person present, and managed to be simultaneously the most excited and most worn down. The girl was actually managing well for having pulled an all-nighter involving active cape work. I had heard about the methods used to gather medical information on various healing abilities. It was a risky decision, and one that was almost certain to come back to bite us, but it wasn't one I regretted. I had been too cautious to attempt anything like that, but it was clear we were beyond caution on a lot of fronts. Already there were articles about the surprisingly low fatality rate, with a few mentioning 'investigations' into certain cases. Whatever trouble this caused, it was worth it for the people who would live to another day. I was proud of Aisha for that, and proud of how hard she worked to make it happen.
And I was proud she was still on her feet. Aisha looked ready to sleep for a week, but was adamantly refusing to officially stand down until after I tried out my 'Princess Gwenevere' magic. I was definitely not referring to this power as such, but I was also sure that attempting to correct her on the issue would cement that name until the end of time.
"So, you're starting with projection?" She asked, excitement temporarily overcoming exhaustion.
I nodded as I sorted through the knowledge that had been granted by Thaumaturgical Focus: Transmutation. "That's the biggest application of this power. Reinforcement has potential, but mostly in terms of strength, speed, and durability boosts. I mean personal reinforcement. Reinforcing objects can enhance properties about them, but they have to be fairly complex in the first place, and if you go too far into that you're overlapping into alteration principles, so-"
"No, projection is good." Aisha cut me off. "That's the big one, even if you can't copy Noble Phantasms or whatever."
I looked at her seriously. "Aisha, I get this is exciting, but we have no guarantee that it's going to work exactly like it does in Web of Magic."
"But we also have no guarantee it won't." Said one of the duplicates with a grin. "Now come on, we're on short time here. Make with the magic."
"Alright, alright." I lifted a hand and concentrated.
"What are you going to start with?" Aisha asked.
I considered the question. "Probably a sword?"
She nodded. "Going with the classics. Nice."
I shrugged. "More that I have a lot of powers centered on making weapons. I'm pretty sure this can work for just about anything, but we are looking at combat uses, so weapon creation is pretty important."
I considered my next step. Projection was a complicated type of magecraft. It wasn't particularly advanced, but accomplishing anything more than the absolute basics with it was extremely difficult. It involved sculpting magical energy into the shape and material of the desired item. While rough facsimiles could be created with little skill they would be fragile and horrible underperform in just about any circumstances. A shoddily projected steel sword would be about as effective as one made out of papier-mâché.
This could be countered by an understanding of the item being emulated. The more information you had, the clearer the image in your mind, the better the projection. Technical knowledge was also important. Trying to get mana to emulate steel was a lot more effective when you understood the nature of steel than if you just saw it as a hard gray metal.
The art would have been moderately useful in isolation. It could create items, though the process would be draining and inefficient, though the versatility of the action could make up for that. Additionally, reinforcement and alteration could be used to counter the shortcomings of imperfect projections. Even then, the items created would be small and degrade quickly, probably only lasting a matter of minutes, maybe an hour on the outside for simple items or ones that had been reinforced.
Like everything else, the compounding effect of my powers had taken what would be a 'simple' power to ludicrous heights. Well actually, considering what this was used for in that cartoon maybe what I could do didn't actually count as 'ludicrous', but it was still plenty impressive.
First there was the efficiency of the process. This involved the channeling internal magical energy, of Od, through my magic circuits and shaping it into the desired form. Barring some external source of mana to cover a portion of the cost that could quickly get draining. My circuits could hold an impressive amount of Od, but the recovery was glacial and protracted use would drain my reserves, particularly if I needed to supplement the projections with reinforcement.
The thing was, projection counted as an act of creation. Mana was being formed into a physical object. It wasn't some detached spell effect or a temporary summon with a timer on it like so many items from Evermore Alchemy. It was a real, persistent creation. Exposure to the natural energies of the world would eventually break it down, but that was an active force working against a very real object. And since it was a creation, all my crafting powers applied, starting with the resource conservation ones.
Manufacturing Line cut the amount of energy needed to create the projection in half. More With Less brought that down to a quarter. Providing I was projecting weapons or armor Waste Not activated, dropping the mana cost to one eighth. I could take the reduction from Lack of Materials to drop the cost to one sixteenth, but ignoring that provided a quality boost and capability increase to the final product. Besides, there was still Workaholic. With that power I could either focus on projecting something one twenty-fifth the volume I actually needed and rely on the size increase, or get five copies of the same item. So, depending on if I wanted to go for size or quantity I was paying eiher 2.5% or 0.5% of the mana cost of the projection.
Then there was the question of what I was actually projecting. In isolation this would probably be limited to simple weapons of solid construction. With enough training it might be possible to create material as complicated as firearms, tasers, or explosives. I had no need for that training, and I could take things a lot further than firearms.
I had entire databases of weapons technology in my head. I had mastery of smithing from multiple powers. I had the ability to improve technology in a myriad of ways, miniaturizing, simplifying, and hybridizing it. I could hold blueprints in my mind perfectly with no possibility of error. I had a fundamental understanding of the materials I worked with both through extensive technical backgrounds and powers specific to the exotic nature of materials. I could draw from the strength of all of those abilities to forge a weapon of terrifying power.
And I could enhance it even further. The projection of Mana didn't count as 'handmade' no matter what somatic components were included, so the possibility of creating divine projections was beyond me, but that didn't impact the rest of my enhancement powers. Lack of Materials added quality and new abilities to the item created. The first level of Elven Enchanting was trivially simple to include in every one of my creations. One Thing at a Time doubled the quality of the item, already insanely high considering my literally divine skill. Elemental runes were projected directly onto the item and even the Arcane Craft had the potential to be applied.
I reached out with my mind and called upon the magical knowledge I had been granted through my powers. I felt the power waiting in my magical circuits, the mana in the air around me, and my connection to magic strengthened as my familiar settled over me.
And I heard Aisha snort.
"What?" I turned towards her, feeling the air rustle through the bushy not-ear structures that had appeared on my head.
"Nothing. It's not important." She struggled to get the words out, her eyes clearly focusing on the top of my head.
I huffed. "They are manifestations of my familiar spirit and enhance my magical ability significantly."
"Not nearly as much as they enhance your adorability." Quipped one of my duplicates with a sly grin.
"Hey, you have these too. And won't you need them to monitor the spellcraft?" I countered.
"Oh, we know, and we will. In fact…" There was a slight poofing sound as the pair of tuffs and tail manifested on both of my duplicates. Aisha let out a squeak of excitement that she quickly squashed before I could look at her, while Garment was clearly restraining herself from rushing forward.
I tried to glare at my duplicates, but it fell flat. God damn it, they really were adorable. "Let's just get on with this."
"Hey?" Aisha asked eagerly. "Do you have a mental trigger for how you activate your circuits? Like, something you have to picture for it to work?"
I nodded, remembering the training and procedures that were now an inherent part of my understanding of magecraft. "Yeah. Was that a thing in the show? I never got into it that much."
She nodded in return. "All the characters had different ones. Like the hammer of a gun firing, of a drop of water landing in a pool, a crystal shattering, or a knife going through your heart."
The Magitech constellation passed by as I blinked. "Okay, that last one's horrific. Wasn't the show on Cartoon Network?"
"They're looser with that kind of stuff on the Saturday night blocks. Also, most of the details were from other sources, like the comics and stuff." She leaned in towards me. "So, what's yours?"
I grinned slightly. I don't know if this is what it would have normally been, or if it was another joke of the Forge, but I honestly enjoyed the image. In my mind a heavy metal hammer raised into the air, energy poised to be directed. I could feel the thrum through my circuits, the sensation of them ready to open. The senses and understanding from my familiar granted me better insight for the magical dynamics at play. Better than I could have ever achieved as just a magus. I held the image of the blade I was to create in front of me, scaled down to be enhanced by Workaholic. Scribed with runes and posed to be energized by Elven magic. Intricate technologies from thousands of years of warfare blended with master craftsmanship and an innate understanding of weapons on a level that the world had never seen.
I smiled as Aisha looked to me for my answer.
"Smithing." In my mind the hammed swung down, energy building, ready to be focused. It struck the image of an anvil, sending forth a pure and beautiful tone. Metal singing with the promise of creation. Magic surged through my circuits creating patterns of welcome heat through my body where my soul and flesh intersected. It poured out, mixing with the diffuse mana in the air around me, but directed by currents of ether into a fixed form. Od and mana blending together, binding into shape. A perfect image in my mind guiding the flow, coursing into a glowing blue outline ready to take shape.
And then everything exploded.
The blast would have taken me off my feet without the benefit of my Fashion reinforcement power and the array of modifications I had been granted during my medical treatment. My duplicates weren't as blessed and were sent skidding back along the ground. Both of them took the hit better than Aisha, who had been practically on top of the projection in her excitement to watch.
I had just enough time to see the shockwave send her flying out of my line of sight. I pushed through the worst of the explosion and turned to track her, but before I could there was a white flash and the sound of metal hitting stone. Aisha's armored form skidded backwards, clipping through Survey's hologram and earning concerned… well not exactly concerned 'looks', but concerned demeanors from Garment and Tetra.
There was a tense moment of silence as Aisha slowly climbed to her feet from the three-point stance she had found herself in. She took a moment to appraise herself before turning towards me, her helmet peeling off and folding itself away. "What the fuck was that?" She patted herself down slightly, eyes wide with concern. "Seriously, what just happened?"
Honestly I wasn't in that much of a better situation than she was. I shifted my attention to the source of the explosion. The weight of the projected sword was solid in my hand, but my fingers were tingling from the shockwave that accompanied its creation. The effect was unprecedented. Nothing about projection was supposed to trigger a blast like that, and I was at a loss for the cause.
I lifted the blade to examine it more closely. "I'm not sure what happ-"
"Holy fuck." Aisha muttered. I looked up to see her staring at the blade wide eyed.
The reaction wasn't limited to her. Garment seemed to be evaluating it closely and I even got a sense of appraisal from the Matrix, in so much as a hollow miniature mobile suit constructed from an eggshell thin coat of nanites could emote. I followed their gaze and took a moment to evaluate the fruits of my effort.
The projected weapon was a longsword, carefully balanced and fit for my hand. Subtle engravings had been inlaid to the hilt and guard. Flame runes flowed down the wide blade in an asymmetrical pattern. The celestial bronze used to inscribe the runes glowed and flickered like captured lava, contrasting with the smokey metal of the sword. The blade itself was made of a precise allotrope of adamantium, formed with a mono edge that honed it to a single molecule point. The surface sparked both with the pulses of the blade's high frequency capacitor, vibrating in a way that destabilized material it cut through, and the power field cladding the sword, actively ripping apart molecules before the blade could even reach them. The entirety of the assembly had been crafted with all the skill and art I was capable of and bound with elven enchantment, enhancing the quality of the work beyond what was physically possible. And since it was cast directly from my mind, the sword bore the benefits of all of my style and design powers.
It was stunning. It was also a fairly standard blade by my metrics. Not even particularly impressive, now that I could properly assess it. It wasn't a divine object, lacking the global enhancements and near indestructibility that came from my handmade creations. The materials were the best I could emulate, but they were just emulated materials. The enhancements of my Skyforge and Volcano were absent, including the ability to apply the properties of one material to another. I didn't see the benefits I would have from producing the materials in zero G. Likewise, the Secret of Steel was absent from the work. I could emulate any physical material or magical effect, but I couldn't duplicate the powers of the forge.
On closer examination, feeling the magic that composed the blade, I could identify even more shortcomings. It was a 'good' projection in that it actually held the properties of the material and form it was emulating, but it didn't emulate perfectly. The blade wasn't actually adamantium, it was magic pretending to be adamantium. Formed into a shape that matched the characteristics as closely as possible, but not perfectly. Likewise, the celestial bronze binding the flame runes was just magic trying to do the same thing as that divine metal. The entire assembly was a fake, a good fake, a largely functional fake, but still weaker than a true creation.
"Fuck." Aisha muttered. "I forget how impressive the stuff you make really is." She looked at the sword again. "I mean, it's crazy that you can build that fast, but this is just like out of nowhere." She swallowed.
"Uh, Aisha…" I searched for words, but petered out.
"He was going to try to downplay this because it's not the super special perfect wonder sword he would be able to make up at the volcano." A duplicate quipped. "You know, completely ignoring the fact that we can now churn out works of fucking art that dwarf any other weapon on the planet in a fraction of a second with a miniscule amount of mana."
I glared at him, and swear I felt my ear-like tufts twitch. "Fine, I get it. It's good enough."
"It's 'good enough' to trouble the best brutes on the planet. The fact that it doesn't have EVERYTHING we can throw at it shouldn't be a problem." The other duplicate interjected.
A deep part of me wanted to argue, to point out every flaw in the creation, but he was right. Even if it wasn't as good as it could be it was still incredible by pretty much any metric. Adamantium that was slightly weaker than normal was still effectively invincible for most purposes. Technology that was slightly less than perfect still outstripped all but the most advanced and specialized tinker tech. The sword was great, and more importantly it was easy to create. No effort, no commitment. It's not going to persist, so there's no responsibility to ensure it represents my finest work.
That thought, more than anything else, made it easy to accept.
"Alright, I hear you." I looked down at the shimmering sword. The mana composing it was already being degraded. It had been made as casually as possible with the bare minimum of mana, but even then it would last for hours before it was at risk of fading. Damn impressive for an expression of projection that didn't even use a chant. "You were monitoring things. Any idea why it exploded?"
Aisha rolled her shoulder as she returned to the group. "Yeah, I was wondering that too. Also, didn't know the armor could deploy itself like that."
"It's built to protect you." I looked down at the sword. "The shockwave probably carried some of the HF energy from the blade. Your watch's forcefield might not have been able to handle that, so the armor deployed." And lucky it did. I didn't want to think about what that kind of blast could have done to someone without Aisha's protections. Then again, if Aisha didn't have those protections she wouldn't have been standing anywhere close to a weapons test.
"Huh. Neat." Aisha glanced down at the suit. "So, was that Fleet getting a jump on things?" She asked, looking over to his hologram. He shook his helmeted head. "Survey?" She asked, glancing over at the other projection.
"I was not involved in the deployment of your armor." She answered crisply, then turned towards Tetra. There had been another series of infrared pulses between the life fibers and the workshop's systems. "Though I am entirely capable of monitoring the operation of such systems and maintaining scanner readings and analysis at the same time. There is no risk of malignant cognati-"
"Thank you Survey." I cut her off, deciding that I would probably have to step into that 'conversation' sooner rather than later.
"She started it." Tetra called in her inaudible voice. I elected not to take sides at that time.
"No, it was the armor that deployed itself." I explained. She gave me a confused look. "It detected that you were in danger and took steps to help."
"Wait." She looked at her suit in concern. "Is this thing, like, intelligent? Like, beyond Fleet's help program."
"No." I answered quickly, causing a good deal of the concern to leave her, only to quickly be replaced with confusion. "But it is magical. Very magical. That suit is enchanted as far as I could push it." Which was actually a good deal less than what I could manage now. Holding on to the idea of 'good enough' being good enough could be a real challenge.
"Okay. Right." She looked down again. "Magic armor. I mean, yeah, you named it, and did the ritual stuff, and used god metal." She shook her head a few times then turned back to my duplicates. "So, explosion, why?"
My duplicates smiled widely. "Okay, this is actually great."
"Random explosions are great?" I asked, but they waved me off.
"Alright, check this out." A pluse from his implant caused some holographic screens to spring up. Some showed stills from recordings of me projecting the sword. Some showed data sheets or charts, and some were annoyingly showing episodes of Web of Magic. No, wait, that was Mordred, not King Arthur, meaning it was actually Web of Magic: Apocrypha. Really I should have been able to tell from the animation quality.
"Normal projection at our skill level should be able to produce a sword like that in about a quarter of a second." The second duplicate explained.
"Jesus." Aisha muttered, looking at the sword again.
"Normal projection." He continued. "But that discounts the fact that this is crafting, and the item being produced is technological."
I blinked as realization set in. "Crafting speed powers?"
"Exactly. Everything applicable stacked together means the sword formed more than fifty thousand times faster than normal. Add in the effect from Workaholic increasing the volume from the reduced size to normal and…" he gestured at the data.
My eyebrows rose as I read over the data. "Are you telling me that that 'explosion' was just the air being displaced by the creation of the sword?"
"Relatively small volume, and low density of material, but with that creation speed it causes a hypersonic shockwave." He pulled up a display screen. "Just the kinetic energy imparted is like a grenade going off at creation."
Watching the display, I could see all the creative physics that happened when you shoved a tiny amount of air out a small distance at several times the speed of sound. It was a cornucopia of interesting effects, shockwave dynamics, compression heating, and cavitation. All leading to what was essentially a thin film of high energy plasma, that then exploded.
I slowly shook my head. It was insane. Well, by the standards of the Forge it was low level insane. More of an eccentricity really, especially compared to the full-on mental ward that was the Prismatic Laboratory.
"Alright." I took a breath. "So, we're going to need to work around this, right?"
"Well, there are times when it'll probably be great to be setting off grenades whenever we project something, but you know, collateral damage."
I nodded as the other duplicate chimed in. "Plus, a more pronounced effect if we create anything bigger." Another idea occurred to him. "Also, the question of what would happen if we projected something under water."
I could practically see the density, shockwave, and cavitation calculations fly through my duplicate's heads. "Right, we'll need a way to deal with this."
The second thought for a moment. "Well, we could try to slow the projection, but that's more of a staggered creation. Will still probably get a bunch of pops. Might be able to shape the shockwave to control how it forms."
An idea flashed into my head. "Hold on." I handed off the projected sword. Despite its size the mass effect core kept it light and easy to wield, even if someone didn't have our enhanced strength. "I want to try something."
I approached the open end of the training area. It was set up like a shooting range, with natural lines of fire looking out over the rolling fields and rocky peaks. Really the area effectively ended shortly beyond the bottom of the volcano slope, but that still gave a couple hundred feet of distance from our location.
I raised a hand and focused on the same image as before. I could work to specialize the design, but if this was going to work it would need to work for any type of weapon, not just the ones that were ergonomically perfect. As I focused I felt that tension build, the hammer rising as my circuits prepared to open. And I focused more.
Maybe this was only possible because of the quality increase from things like Do One Thing at a Time. Maybe it was the additional perception of magic that came from my familiar. Maybe it was my actually divine crafting skills. Regardless, I paid as much attention to how the weapon would form as I did the shape it would take. Specifically, how portions of the sword would manifest. The outside first, drawn down from the tip but leaving the base open, then the interior filling in after, solidifying is a flow of mana towards the base of the sword with the pommel forming last.
The hammer descended and rang against the anvil in my mind. There was the slightest flash as the mana took shape.
And then a sliver blur was launching out of the room, trailing glowing burning red motes from its runic script. A duplicate let out a whistle as he watched the blade sail out and kind of stick and then hang in the barrier around the workshop. The same effect that meant you couldn't walk past that point but never hit a wall made it so the sword essentially hung in suspended motion until drag and other factors brought it down to the earth.
The crackling power field immediately started disintegrating the surface of the ground, which quickly pulled me out of the spectacle. I dispersed the projection, letting its magical energy fade back into ambient mana. The only sign of its existence was the scarred earth at the edge of the workshop's boundary.
It was my first time seeing something launched into the barrier, but it matched my duplicates' accounts of the interaction. Apparently the effects of the boundary got really interesting when you applied the principle to energy weapons.
"Nice. Direct the displacement and you've basically got a rocket on formation without needing to impart any additional energy." He looked over a recording of the launch. "Mass field?"
I nodded. "Formed with it set to minimum, then amped up once it's picked up speed. Boosts the inertia from the launch and helps keep it on target." I looked over the data myself. "Though we're probably going to need spin if we're going to be accurate for any distance."
"Doesn't really work with swords." The second commented. "We'll probably need spears, or some other design."
I nodded and considered my options. For some reason giant drill-shaped swords kept jumping to mind. I wasn't sure of the practicality, but they seemed to resonate with me for some reason. Probably meant that all the spiral stuff was getting to me.
"So, you're Emiya now?" Aisha asked as her armor faded into white light, then collapsed into her crescent amulet.
I sighed. "Aisha, just because I can shoot magic swords doesn't make me Shawn Emiya."
"Right." She drawled. "I mean, for that you'd need an extradimensional realm full of weapons, a crazy powerful team of supporting characters, and a hero complex the size of the universe." She was smiling insufferably wide as she finished, and my duplicates were grinning along with her.
"Whatever." I huffed, then paused as I felt the Forge make a connection to the Crafting constellation. The ability was a mid-sized mote called Tempered Soul.
On the surface it was a bog-standard crafting power that gave an innate gift for forging high-quality weaponry and improved the appearance of my work. Interestingly, a lot of overlapping powers compounded with each other through their specific applications. I had plenty of weapon production powers covering everything from extensive training to divine skill to the fundamental principles behind the art. They each had a slightly different effect, which helped them combine into a greater whole. This was another of those cases. Having an innate gift for a type of work was different from having training or extensive education. When you combined them, when you took someone innately gifted and gave them lifetimes of training, that was when you got something really extraordinary.
And that was also what probably opened up the less savory aspects of this power. Without more insight, greater skill, and most importantly the abilities from That Undefinable Thing, I would probably have never noticed. Just seen it as one more crafting skill on the pile. Slightly better versions of swords that are already ungodly powerful. Skipping across the implications of the ability, the true foundations it had been constructed on.
Tempered Soul wasn't just a flowery name. It was a literal description of what was possible with the highest levels of the art. Forging weapons from souls. Forging weapons that had souls of their own. Tempering and purifying souls for use in weapons. Making weapons capable of attacking, infecting, or damaging a person's soul. The power had just been 'make pretty weapons'. In my hands it could become a nightmare, the kind of thing capable of unleashing an inferno the likes of which the world had never seen.
"Uh, bad power?" I heard Aisha ask. I took a breath before replying.
"Not terribly, just has some bad applications." She gave me a questioning look. "Stuff from that room that-"
"Got it. Nope on that." She stifled a yawn. "Don't need that, not now. I'm just here for the magic and the fluffy ears."
"They aren't…" I trailed off when I saw the amused look on her face. "So, seen enough? Ready to call it a… late morning?"
"Yeah." She checked the display screen on her watch. "I've been bouncing messages between my dad and brother since I dropped my power, but I should really get back."
"You go. We'll stay here." One of the duplicates called while beginning to manifest five swords around him. With a crack they launched out of the mountain in a deadly arc. I swear I could already see the improvement in the workmanship from Tempered Soul.
"We're down to our last minutes and it freaks him out if he sees us disappear. Plus, we have full mana reserves and an open target range." With a bit of focus an oversized axe manifested and was sent spinning out of the room, burying itself in the ground just before the barrier. "Damn it, we need targets out there or something."
I grinned at the spectacle before escorting Aisha towards the entrance. We left the duplicates to enjoy the last of their time by throwing unfathomably valuable and deadly weapons at a nebulous spatial barrier, creating a barrage of death that could probably level a city in any other circumstance.
"Aisha, I wanted to say, thank you for your help last night." I said as we worked our way through the halls. "You made a huge difference, and not just for me. I'm sorry for putting you through that, but I want you to know I really appreciate it."
"Uh, thanks. I mean, you're welcome." She looked uncertain for a moment, then suddenly grinned slyly. "So, does this mean I get my own super bike?"
"Sure."
She missed a step but caught herself before she could stumble. "What?"
"I said okay." I answered. "I already need to rebuild my motoroid. If you want your own bike that's fine." Hell, thanks to having access to cybertonium I could collapse the bulk of the mass into transwarp space. I could probably build something larger than the motoroid I had used and compress it smaller than the amulet containing Aisha's current armor.
She looked at me suspiciously. "A bike like the one you used? Like the one that took out Lung?" I nodded and she swallowed nervously. "You aren't going to give me some speech about not being old enough to drive, or the bike being dangerous, or any of that shit?"
"Aisha, your armor is space capable with theoretical upper limits of capacity that would be a terrifying prospect for most Protectorate teams to face. On top of that it has the ability to develop independently. If I wanted to make the bike substantially more dangerous than what you're already using it would take some serious work." Her eyebrows rose as she lifted a hand to her crescent amulet. "Besides, hardsuits naturally interface with motoroids. They're from the same technical base. If you really want a flying motorcycle I think you earned it last night."
She dropped her eyes and fell back into pace. "Huh." After a moment she continued. "Uh, thanks? I mean, don't rush it or anything." She stifled another yawn. "I don't think I'm ready for another blitz like this. Not until I sleep for a solid week."
I nodded "Yeah, I wish I could crash myself, but it's still a mess out there."
"Hey." She said seriously. "Remember what you said on the moon." I blinked from lack of context before remembering the simulation she was talking about. "I don't think the world can afford you burning out. Put out your fires or whatever then take some down time, alright?"
I sighed, then nodded at her. "Fine. I have like, a half dozen things that are close to critical. As long as I get some work done on those fronts I can probably kick the rest down the road a bit." Maybe enough to see Dr. Campbell before anything else crazy happened. Normally that would be tempting fate, but I only needed things to last like 32 hours without the city falling apart. If Brockton couldn't at least manage that in the wake of a disaster I would need to revise my attitude towards the maturity of the city in general. I wonder, can you put a municipality in time out? Well, I could probably find a way.
We made our way back to the entrance of the workshop, weirdly located close to the center of the volcano. It was standard stuff with interdimensional dynamics, but it was still strange having an effective 'outside' to my workshop that was mostly for show and an actual outer door buried under tons of volcanic rock.
I barely remembered opening the entrance, being half dead and hauled by Aisha at the time. It was still there, sitting in the back room of Garment's studio. The entire building was eerily quiet in her absence and didn't look like it had been touched since we departed the previous afternoon. All that insanity of the fight and aftermath had been crammed into barely more than half a day.
It was a distant concern, but my mind briefly jumped to how the chaos of that fight would impact Garment's business. She hadn't lost anything or had any customers who were disrupted, but it hardly seemed the time for a high-end fashion boutique to want to open. I still had the extensive skills that came from my Talented: Tailoring power, which included managing a business through a disaster. I'm sure Garment would be fine, especially compared to people who took more severe hits to their livelihoods.
"You going to fly back?" I asked Aisha as we reached the back door of the studio. The sunlight streaming into the alley created the impression of a pleasant day, but I could smell traces of smoke in the air. The damage from the attacks was still being felt. I didn't know if I could fix it. I mean practically. I could obviously manage the repairs, but it was a delicate situation that I didn't want to stir up with careless action. Regardless, I needed to decide on some course of action.
Aisha raised a hand to the amulet holding her collapsed armor, then shook her head. "Think I'll walk. It's close enough, and I could use the time to think through stuff." She stifled another yawn then smiled at me. "Besides, the alternative would probably be conking out and letting Fleet fly me back to my bed."
I returned her smile. "Got it. Thank you again, and give me a call after you've gotten some rest."
"You too." She side eyed me. "The duplicates told me about the stupid decisions you make when you're sleep deprived. For the good of the city, you might need an enforced bedtime."
I cringed at that, but Aisha just giggled and slipped out of the alley. I locked up the back door and returned to the workshop. She wasn't wrong. I needed rest. Probably starting with as much actual sleep as I could get, followed by something that would actually let me unwind from what was an unquestionably horrific experience. I had been managing by pushing forward, but the fact was I had almost died. Pretending that was nothing wouldn't be good for me. Even with all the mindsets and mental reinforcements I had received from my power, traumatic experiences were still traumatic.
In the same respect I couldn't just sequester myself away like I had after Saturday night. That had been a bad idea at the time and was a terrible one now. Back then it had 'just' been a major cape fight with the premier of a powerful tinker capable of insane levels of destruction while also holding healing technology that would be the envy of the world. Letting things sit had cost me the opportunity to control my image in the aftermath, but that was ultimately a local problem. That wasn't the case anymore.
The scale of the ABB attacks had been insane. March combined with Bakuda had been an even deadlier combination than their initial strike had indicated. They had threatened to take out the city if I didn't play along with them, and based on the nature of the attacks that could have easily happened. Media analysis seemed to indicate most people didn't realize how close the city came to being wiped off the map, but I would bet higher level analysts understood what had been building through the bombing effects, what I'd been working to disrupt.
The Time constellation passed by as I considered the rest of the fight. People might not have understood the full weight of Bakuda's threat, but they certainly understood the implications of my clash with Lung. That was a bad one, and I was going to have to put some effort into dealing with the aftermath. It wasn't just the fact that I had taken down Lung at a power level where pretty much anyone else would have written off the situation. It was what had been revealed in the process.
I had been trying to keep my technology under wraps. That wasn't just because of the power of it, but because of the implications that came with it. I did not operate like a normal tinker. I'd known that for a while, even before the multiverse origin and possible media links became apparent. The thing was, nobody else knew that. Well, they probably did now. There really wasn't any way you could look at my fight with Lung and attribute that to a 'normal' tinker. And that was the problem.
If I wasn't a normal tinker then that meant I was an abnormal tinker. And abnormal tinkers were terrifying. Abnormal tinkers were how you got things like the Three Blasphemies, the Machine Army, and probably a dozen other threats that had to be smothered in the crib before entire sections of the world needed to be surrendered to them.
I got entire databases, trained skills, unique powers, and complete technology ready to use and delivered by my power. Nobody knew that, and without that knowledge it had to terrify them. Without knowing how my power grew and developed the only explanations were either deliberate development of everything they had seen, chaotic uncontrolled development, or a mess of supporting powers beyond what any single cape should be able to wield.
I could already see them trying to fill in the gaps. The theories, well, the near certainty that the Mobile Suit had been built by some other tinker. It seemed my work was iconic enough that the public could tell the difference between my own creations and machinery delivered from possible alternate universes that happened to partially align with media franchises.
Not perfectly. I didn't know if that made things better or worse, but the mobile suits I received didn't appear in any of the shows or material around the shows. They seemed to work on the same principle to the main show or various spin-offs, but it wasn't like a giant robot had stepped directly out of a cartoon.
Just a set of shared physical principles. God, Aisha's excitement over the magic stuff had helped me ignore the implications, but this was unsettling in a way I couldn't really put into words. That 'infinite monkeys' theory sort of worked, but there was the question of how the connections were made, what the universes that shared features with fictional works were actually like, what exactly was being transferred, and a million other things. This was the fundamental aspect of my power and I had no idea how it worked.
Just like every other parahuman. I guess it's funny that way. Being able to understand the mechanics of how passengers operated, the nature of their connections and the principles of how triggers work had been a source of massive reassurance. I wasn't floundering with the 'why' of my powers like pretty much everyone else on the planet. Given the multidimensional nature of passengers and the shared space they operated through I even had a decent grounding on the operation of powers and the principles behind them. For me, they weren't the blanket mystery everyone else struggled with, they were just another element of the universe.
Then that had been thrown out of the window when the nature of how far from the norm my power actually was. I was getting a measure of reassurance and even sympathy from my passenger regarding that revelation, but no actual insight into the mechanics at play. The best I could tell was he didn't regard it as something to be concerned about. While I wasn't completely onboard with his evaluations of what warranted concern, it was probably best to trust him on this one.
That said, even if I could put my own fears to rest I probably wouldn't be able to do much for everybody else. The type of technology development implied by what I had demonstrated was terrifying, and the truth was only slightly less worrying. Actually sharing the dynamics of my power was a breach I couldn't tolerate and probably would only make things worse. In fact, I was anticipating some fairly awkward questions from the Undersiders. I wasn't exactly obligated to answer them, but there was only so much I could put on them and expect to maintain a healthy relationship.
That was kind of a microcosm of the problem I had to deal with regarding the general public and pretty much every government agency in the country. And maybe a few international ones as well. I had the daunting task of finding a way to stave off any desperate or stupid actions on their part that wouldn't put me under their authority or reveal information that would bring down the Simurgh on my head.
And that was just my image problem. There was also the damage to the city, the active Dust paths that had been released when March damaged the Dust weaving in my costume, the massive I-field created when the Gun-EZ's reactor was breached, the mystery of exactly what happened at the container yard, and the power vacuum created by the effective collapse of the ABB.
Oh, and there was also Chen. Finding out he was safe had been a relief. Finding out my duplicate had somehow managed to give him a soulbound divine mechashift weapon and field improvised life fiber enhanced goku uniform had been concerning. Finding out the duplicate had mastered my Aura power to the point where he could activate it in another person circled all the way to calamitous.
As a small mercy that it looked like Chen was going to keep things under wraps. There were no public reports of his activities over the previous night. At most suggestions that someone was active in ABB territory helping survivors escape or interfering in a few conflicts. A detailed enough analysis might be able to pick out his involvement, but he had kept things non-lethal and used the more exotic aspects of his gear sparingly. If you didn't know exactly what you were looking for, his actions blended into the chaos of the night.
Tracing the scroll Aisha gave him revealed it to be on moving towards Vermont on a common bus route. It was good to know he was headed to his family, even if there were some concerns about what could happen if his abilities were revealed. Sending that much power blindly out into the world was unsettling, but it wasn't like he was screaming details of it to the rooftops.
Because being able to grant that level of power took me from 'national concern' to 'national crisis'. Entire towns were sealed off in cases of contagious powers. I was fairly sure that was because there were serious drawbacks associated with most 'freely' granted powers. I was also sure Aura didn't have any of those side effects, but good luck convincing an already skittish Protectorate of that fact.
Strangely, the fact that one of my powers could apparently be freely granted wasn't as big a deal as it should have been. I probably had a dozen forms of safe, reliable, and permanent enhancement available to me. Even taking out the extensive cybernetics possibilities there was plenty to work with, and most of them had been applied to me during the chimeric fission.
Some of the said enhancements were easier to use than others, but I suppose the same could be said about Aura's accessibility. For instance, the nodes of element zero that had been formed in my nervous system could theoretically allow the creation of precisely controlled mass effect fields. The problem was that it required careful and unintuitive control of your neuroelectric impulses. It was like learning to walk again, only instead of walking you were projecting areas of drastically shifted mass out into the world.
The ragnite augmentation was a very different enhancement with a very similar problem. Ragnite was a high energy power source that was also biologically active. In its most basic form, it could provide instant recovery of minor injuries and be used to speed healing of more serious afflictions. It was also capable of generating huge amounts of mechanical power and even allowed for the creation of energy weapons. But it was possible to take things even further than that.
During my incapacitation my duplicates had worked with Survey to pick apart the full knowledge base of Valkyrian Science along with the secrets hidden in the scattered notes that came with my laboratory. Through that work they were able to break down the principles of creating an artificial Valkyrur, essentially a human with a natural resonance with ragnite energy. The level of compatibility made it possible to utilize ragnite weaponry and equipment on a scale that dwarfed any mechanical application as well as providing greatly enhanced strength, reflexes, and regeneration.
It sounded great; it was actually frustrating. Even with the potential for channeling the energy it required the correct mindset and a potent focus to draw it out. It's possible I might eventually be able to use the ragnite infused into my heart, but I understandably didn't want to start messing around with an unstable energy source by drawing it from the organ that kept me alive. That meant using a ragnite weapon as a training step, which put off the utility of that particular enhancement.
One enhancement that had caused a direct and unquestionable benefit was tied to my Creation of Chimeras power. That was one of the more horrible powers I had access to. Or it had been until all the fun of the Prismatic Laboratory. Now the ability to turn humans into giant monsters was only of comparatively middling horror.
The 'giant monster' aspect had provided the source of the enhancement. I don't know which duplicate thought it up, but it was a brilliant idea and one applied so expertly that I could appreciate it even through my own issues with wet tinkering, as outdated as they seemed to be at this point.
There were very particular requirements that had to be met for a giant monster to be even remotely possible. Particularly a giant bipedal monster. Scaling a humanoid up to twenty times its height without some special power to ignore physical restraints brought plenty of issues, the first and foremost being the old square-cube law. The strength of something is based on its cross section, the square. The weight is based on its volume, the cube.
It's simple. You make something twice as big and it becomes four times as strong, but eight times as heavy. Along with a whole bunch of other concerns, you need your materials to be twice as strong for it to function under its new weight. So, if you are scaling a lifeform up to twenty times its height you need the materials of its body to be twenty times as strong, just to be able to hold itself together.
That was a pipe dream for mechanical engineers, much less biologists. But Creation of Chimeras carried information on artificial proteins, alteration of biological structures, and convenient solutions for every problem that would normally make a giant monster impossible. Take those principles, those material properties, and apply them to someone on a conventional scale, and you got what had been done to me.
Thanks to my duplicates' creativity I was basically a tiny Godzilla. The insane strength, durability, and efficiency of flesh necessary for a giant monster to function had been applied to my human scale body. Meaning I was roughly twenty times as strong and durable as a normal person. It was conventional strength, meaning things like footing and leverage were important, but it was still strength on a monstrous level. The durability didn't really compare to what could come from my Fashion reinforcement power, but it did mean I was effectively bulletproof even if caught completely unprotected.
It was a phenomenal enhancement and had only required the complete rebuild of every organic structure in my body. While I could do that for other people I had a feeling there would probably be some level of apprehension towards it. Not enough to rule it out, but most people would probably be more comfortable with the 'hand on shoulder and chant' process for granting Aura.
Actually, more of the analysis into that process and Aura in general, mostly relating to the search for a way to keep me from dying, suggested there was a better way of granting Aura. Having something be 'better' than a short chant granting super powers was a bit nebulous, but generally a prolonged period of training easing someone into awareness of Aura and the methods of use should result in a less stressful awakening with better control right from the start. It was lucky that Chen got a handle on things so quickly, otherwise he'd probably be lucky to manage any more than the defensive field for the first several months.
The Alchemy constellation passed by as I approached the lower training area, or possibly the shooting range? It really seemed the duplicates had been more focused on building additions to the workshop than coming up with any naming or theming for them. The evidence of enthusiastic experimentation with projection magic was clear across the shooting range portion in the sheer variety of damage to the ground. Around the border there was a faint blue haze of dispersing mana, residue from dismissed projections.
"The cancelation of a projected item results in a return of magical energies to the surrounding environment." Survey reported with her hologram stepping forward. "While the quantity of mana composing an object greatly exceeds the internal energies necessary to produce it, inefficiencies in the dispersal method result in only moderate gain in net mana. Still, analysis of the behaviors of magical energies as well as assorted episodes of Web of Magic suggests continual efforts may be able to generate a mana rich region suitable to fuel high thaumaturgy."
It was just a shame I didn't know any high thaumaturgy. The knowledge I had received with my magus power was comprehensive within its area, but it was no surprise that Thaumaturgical Focus was very focused on a particular type of thaumaturgy. The broader applications of magecraft were currently beyond me. The rest of my magical knowledge was mostly limited to magical effects necessary to functionally operate a striker unit, and a fairly impressive shield spell.
Survey continued with her report, bringing up a set of tables as well as linking the data directly to my implant. "Through the work of both duplicates a thorough analysis of projection mechanics and energy requirements has been produced. Energy cost is proportional to item complexity, material properties, and magical effects."
I nodded as I scanned through the information. Unsurprisingly, the most cost-effective projection in terms of volume was a sphere of mundane material, something like clay or stone. Also, from experiments, non-technical items only formed twelve times faster than normal rather than more than fifty thousand. Still drastically fast but not 'explosive force of displaced air' fast.
I knew that because of one experiment that seemed to be based around maximizing the volume of an object to its power requirements. Adding internal mechanical arrangement to a sphere was enough to make it count as technology, meaning the maximum amount of displacement with the minimum amount of energy.
Effectively one of my duplicates had discovered how to turn projection into an explosion spell, and for bonus points had started experimenting with compositions of the projected sphere that would fragment into shrapnel under the force of the blast. Fortunately, Garment had put an end to that after chunks of improvised grenade almost clipped her dress.
Getting into more complex projections it was largely what I expected. Projection could essentially cheat on cost by creating a shell of material and emulating the internal properties rather than actually forming them. In the case of complex objects you could just create the exterior, but you would end up with inconsistent and underpowered performance from any internal features since they would just have a rough emulation from the magic to draw on.
For reliable operation of anything technological you needed to form every interface between components and materials. The complexity was the reason you didn't see a lot of technology being emulated. A magus would need to have every component held in their mind to ensure their projection could actually function effectively. Of course, that wasn't an issue for me, so I only needed to worry about the mana cost, vastly reduced as it was. Interfaces didn't add substantially to the energy requirements of a projection, but if you were projecting multiple layers of microcircuitry and computer processors then it started to become noticeable.
Though not nearly as noticeable as with materials. The more extraordinary the features of a material were the harder it was to fully emulate. I could make a steel sword that was pretty much perfect steel, but emulating adamantium had some compromises, and probably wouldn't have even been possible without multiple powers granting me exceptional knowledge of exotic materials. Stuff like celestial bronze or bone steel would probably never perfectly measure up to the real thing, and none of them would have the benefits of being forged in my Volcano or Skyforge.
Still, I had to remember 'good enough'. Maybe projected swords couldn't cut through an Endbringer and maybe projected technology would never reach the level of performance my own work could achieve, but I could throw them out like candy, in the field, and at the rate of a rapid-fire weapon. In 99% of situations the versatility would be more important than the power, and I had versatility. Particularly when magic was considered.
Magic had an odd interaction with projections. Trying to project something that was inherently magical was a strenuous process and one that would never quite match up to what you were going for. You were using magic to emulate material that contained magic. It was like running a virtual machine within an active system, then nesting another virtual machine inside that. I could accomplish a lot with my level of projection, but I was measuring it against my own skill in other areas, and understandably coming up short.
But that only applied towards magic inherent to the projections. I could easily just add my own. Elven Enchantments could potentially be emulated, but it was more efficient to just apply the effect directly to the projection, granting a full level of enhancement. Runes on projected items were not as good as the ones personally scribed, but they outstripped any that were mechanically fabricated and could be produced to incredible precision in both design and placement. Their power was based on their form and creation, not any emulated magical effect. Various fiat backed abilities further improved the projection quality and durability, turning a heavily underestimated magical ability into an incredible useful and versatile power.
Very versatile. My duplicates had enjoyed the last of their time with a frightening selection of weapons, including an investigation of whether projecting ammunition could be more efficient that the higher mana cost associated with power sources for energy weapons. Dozens of types of weapons I had received the technical knowledge for but had never taken the time to build had been deployed in an exuberant display or offensive power, but that wasn't even approaching what projection could accomplish.
I wasn't limited to weapons. Any piece of technology I needed, anything I could picture or design I could project. Project in a lesser form with worse materials and a lack of most of my innate enhancements, but still completely functional. The massive database provided by my Fixer power was suddenly at my fingertips, as were power armor options, sensor systems, utility systems, and even advanced tech right out of Star Trek.
Because apparently it was right out of Star Trek. Or a version of Star Trek, at least. Still getting used to that.
Survey had been following my analysis of the data and took a moment to step forward. "With regards to the application of enhancement abilities and the disruptive nature of projection when conducted within atmospheric conditions a solution has been derived."
Survey sounded proud, but I was noticing increased Infrared signaling from Tetra. Whatever she was trying to say was ignored as Survey continued.
"Projected kinetic barriers are able to provide obstacles to atmospheric movement. A properly shaped barrier could allow the creation of any object to be conducted inside a space already excised of any gases that could be disrupted." I reviewed her data, the product of her own analysis with some contributions from the duplicates in their final moments. "Additionally, an internal negative mass field would provide the effective weightless environment necessary for the enhancement properties of ability 195-H-29-Di 'Material Synthesis Science' to be applied to the projected item."
I checked the analysis. It was a nice combination. A zero-G vacuum field. A bit complicated in terms of field interactions, but easy with the right equipment.
"This field could easily be created through biotic activation of the element zero nodes within your nervous system." Survey added.
I blinked, looked at the field specifications, then looked at Survey. "No, it can't."
A perturbed expression appeared on Survey's hologram. "I assure you; the entire arrangement can be projected through the sequenced activation of twenty-three nerve clusters with the corresponding arrangement. Simple modifications will allow the field to be tailored to any object up to the size of a replacement motoroid, with larger volumes possible through the use of implants."
I shook my head and replied as calmly as I could. "Survey, I cannot independently fire specific neurons in the pattern you have outlined here. I appreciate the work you've done, but I'm going to need external equipment to do this."
"That's what I've been saying." Came Tetra's muttered voice. The accompanying IR transmission and the glance from Survey's hologram suggested Tetra had spoken to her as well.
"Biological integration is the most sensible option. Element Zero is capable of interfacing with neuro matter to achieve effects that exceed all expectations in terms of power and control, particularly when considering input energy. It would be wasteful not to utilize this advantage."
"He's not made of programmable protomatter. It takes time for that kind of patterning to develop. You should just go with the mechanical option."
"Mechanical substitutes would provide an unnecessary point of failure and suffer reduced versatility in the field." My mind jumped back to my shredded equipment during my battle with the ABB and a sudden understanding of Survey's stance came into focus.
"You're not going to be able to manage the kind of biotic effects you're hoping for without a moderation implant." At the same time, I wasn't keen to commit to more surgery and development given the active mess playing out in the city.
"A moderation implant would be an ideal option. In addition to improving biotic potential application of support abilities, particularly 110-E-10-Tri 'The Arcane Craft', would allow significant enhancement of the use of such abilities."
I bit back a sigh. Fleet was watching the mix passively, the matrix had been reduced to the nanobots within my own system, and if anything, Garment looked amused by the entire exchange.
"No surgery. No implants. Not right now." I shifted my position so both Survey's hologram and Tetra's cocoon were in my field of vision. "Survey, I appreciate all the work you've done, and this will be a big help, but a mass effect projector can hold until a proper examination of biotics has been considered. The theoretical work you've done is very impressive, but I need to test this before we commit to any modifications."
Survey's hologram looked more than a little disappointed, but quickly rallied and mimed making a note on her holographic clipboard. There was a shifting in Tetra's fibers that managed to look smug and started another infrared transmission that quickly petered out when I gave her a hard look.
I let out a slow breath, wondering how I had ended up in a situation where I felt more like a babysitter than a cape in the aftermath of a world-shaking battle. The mess of communication limitations between everyone in the Workshop really didn't help things, but everything considered we were at least a more functional team than some of the hero groups in the city.
As I felt Survey dive back into biological modeling I got a proper sense of the scope of how much of that she had conducted over the previous night. I could understand why she was suddenly so keen on biological options given that level or commitment. On the same point, after what Tetra had endured I could understand her being keen to distance herself from the wetter aspects of technology for a while.
Suddenly I felt the forge make a connection to a pair of tiny motes from the Quality constellation. Actually four, but three were bundled together, two of which were extremely close. It was like one was there just to facilitate the other.
The first mote was one of the smallest in the forge. It was called My Fashion Sense is Tingling. The name was amusing, but the effect was actually significant. I had the ability to make things that were beautiful, stunning even, but there's a difference between beautiful and fashionable. The fundamental difference between pure aesthetics and the beating zeitgeist driving the complex mix of trends, themes, rising and falling styles, throwbacks and avant-garde offerings, all intermeshing into a conglomeration of impossible complexity that was simply called fashion.
Now I understood fashion. I specifically had an impeccable sense of fashion. Beyond just production of clothing, I could feel the movement of trends, an innate knowledge of what was fashionable in an area, what would work and what would clash. How to tailor a look to a particular region, event, culture, level of formality, anything. It was all as natural as breathing.
It was like working with Garment, but distinct. The same type of information, but my own interpretation of it. I looked over to her and saw her awareness of the significance of the power. With some slight motions she indicated her excitement over the development and eagerness to work on new projects.
"Thanks Garment, and later. I need to deal with the rest of this power." She indicated that she understood but was still looking forward to working with me. I smiled at that.
The second power, well, the next two powers, came bundled even more tightly than motes usually were. The first was a unique offering in terms of my abilities. It was a clothing brand.
The forge had given me an affinity for a specific type of clothing design. Not skill in making it, but the ability to draw tangible benefits from wearing it. The brand was for some unfathomable reason called Natural Puppy. It was composed of fairly clean and simple designs. The bonuses it granted were focused on defense, either direct resistance or preventing debilitating conditions. The first was largely redundant for me. The second was actually highly useful. As tough as I was, there were plenty of exotic parahuman effects that could be highly detrimental.
I would still need to make the clothes. A sharp motion from Garment caught my eye and she communicated her intentions with a few shifts of posture. Okay, I would need to work with Garment to make the clothes, and it could be a little creepy how well she knew my powers, but that would provide another much-needed reinforcement to my defenses.
As useful as the ability was, it wasn't really here for its own sake. The brand existed to facilitate something else. By having an affinity for that brand, by being able to gain enhancements from that clothing, I could also gain attunement to a psych.
That is, the attunement of my soul to a psychic ability bound to a small pin that had just been added to my equipment stores, along with a second pin that prevented mind reading. I didn't know how much I needed to worry about that kind of thing, but if it was real I would welcome the chance to effectively block it.
It didn't take long to retrieve the items and bring them back to the testing area. The pin that blocked mind reading was black with a stylized skull design, while the other pin was in baby blue with a gentle design. Possibly the worst case of false advertising I'd ever encountered. Survey's sensors were fully deployed, Garment and Tetra were spectating, and Fleet was standing by as usual. With one final check I focused on the connection to my soul and activated the entanglement pin.
A rope of barbed wire as thick as my arm surged into existence, stretching across the room. Psychokinetic force concentrated to create a physical object, a barbed chain between two points.
Create. That was the important part. That was the reason for the connection through the brand. This was an act of creation, and all my other powers recognized it.
Four other chains appeared alongside the first, stretching at cross angles creating a jungle of steel barbs. Elven magic infused the chain, enhancing its properties and taking it beyond the levels of perfect craftsmanship that already characterized my work. The deployment would already have been lightning fast, but was amplified by a factor of twelve. Even the draw on my reserves was reduced, allowing the power to recharge faster, ready for another use before the first set had even finished fading.
It was a useful ability, extensive battlefield control and area denial rapidly deployed. The secondary effect was confirmed against target dummies. Contact with the chain caused a condition that reduced the resistance of whatever touched it by half for a brief window. The stronger the defense of the target the more they would lose. Crippling for powerful brutes, game changing against Endbringers.
But that wasn't what made it special. It was special because it was a psych. A psychic ability, specifically defined as such. Sensors confirmed that the energy deploying the effect was completely distinct from magic. It wasn't one of those innate effects drawn through the Forge. It was its own form of energy, one that was unique and completely distinct from magic and any expression of parahuman ability. I didn't know the full implications of that, but based on my passenger's feelings they were probably significant.
Which gave me another thing to practice, develop, and study. I nearly slumped at the thought. There was a lot to do. Too much really, and it seemed like I had to handle almost everything myself. Training and practice with abilities needed my personal focus, and I had barely started to even try out new power sets or recent additions.
Survey had been excited about the prospect of biotics, and it might actually be able to live up to her hopes, but at the moment the best I could manage was not spraying dark energy all over the place whenever I felt a neck twinge. I had been connecting with my familiar well, but hadn't really practiced with that form or magic. I hadn't even tested the shield yet, to say nothing of the enhancement effects of the striker.
There was still my wand. My wand that was probably from something like Harry Potter. I hated thinking about it like that, mostly because something so personal, so resonant and connected, something that was undoubtedly positive and supportive. It felt like it deserved better than just being thought of as a 'Harry Potter Wand'.
Regardless, Survey had a database of possible spells and casting examples from book descriptions, video game adaptations, and depictions in film. I had no idea if any of them would work, but the prospect was at least worth a try. It was just a prospect that was warring for time with every other prospect at the moment.
Even ignoring what Valkyrur powers might be able to manage, I had a bunch of physical training and combat practice I needed to work through. The effects of my Master's Body power hadn't fully set in, but once they did that was effectively infinite possible growth with no real limit. Growth that compounded what I had already received from artificial proteins, natural energy infusions, life fiber hybridization, demigod strength, and the constant source of life energy that was my rebuilt heart. And those were just my 'standard' abilities. They didn't touch what I could manage with enhancement potions, Evermore Alchemy, reinforcement magecraft, or my zoanthrope transformation.
Actual combat skills were probably a bigger priority than raw physical ability. I had been coasting on the experience and skills that came with my powers, skills that I now knew were probably rooted in another universe. Regardless, skills that worked in, for example, a space military didn't naturally adapt themselves to cape combat. I had already paid the price for assuming I could rely on them absolutely. It was clear I needed some actual combat practice if I was going to be able to avoid getting blindsided again.
I was also dealing with disparate fighting styles. Currently I had experience with space military CQC, combat T'ai Chi Chuan, Alkahestry's mastery of basic movement techniques and throwing knives, the combat instincts of my demigod powers, 'Star Trek' close quarters combat, thankfully less cheesy than it looked on TV, the disturbing level of flexibility and coordination that came from my posing power, the fundamentals of Muay Thai, 'novice' level ninjutsu complete with implied ki magic, and actual ki magic that I'm pretty sure could interface with my magic circuits.
And then there were the weapons in play. Some styles specialized in unarmed combat, some had it as nothing but a fall back. Some relied on particular powers or types of technology to function. Some had broad applications to weapons, some could only handle one or two.
Then there were the weird ones. Demigod combat instincts were crap with anything but a hammer in my hands. Alkahestry specialized in throwing knives, but was far more concerned with landing them in position for an alchemy array than any kind of targeting of vital points, or even just moving targets. T'ai Chi Chuan could handle a broader range of weapons than you would expect from something that was typically seen from seniors in parks, but was still limited to the maneuvers of the style in question. The 'Star Trek' combat included use of what I was now certain were actual alien weapons, most of which looked unusable but were actually surprisingly deadly.
That kind of thing was particularly exemplified with the insanity you found in things like my lantern shield. The weapon just wouldn't work without Aura to both protect the wielder and facilitate the use of a very complicated and unwieldy mess of metal. Despite their lack of effective use against the ABB capes my divine stomping boots were still as deadly as they were absurd. But none of those even approached an item that came bundled with That Undefinable Thing. It was literally called Questionably Practical Weapon and certainly lived up to its name.
On top of every other direction my combat skills were being pulled, the forge had added a fiat backed dueling cloak. Not the type of cloak you would wrap around your arm in a knife fight to act as a shield or try to entangle your opponent. A cloak completely intended to be worn on the back and still function as a weapon. And it could, sort of, even if it wasn't being controlled by a spirit of fashion. It was just weird. It was 'questionably practical'. And no matter how much Garment loved the idea, it was just more evidence of the disaster that was my combat situation.
It was a mess. It was the kind of mess that, had it been learned naturally, would probably have left me an unfocused and confused disaster of a fighter. Being granted the abilities by my power at least meant they weren't a detriment, but there was no natural coordination between them. I naturally defaulted to whatever seemed like a good idea at the time, probably sticking with styles past the point where I should have changed tactics and missing opportunities to utilize other techniques. With a combat resumé like that I should be one of the deadliest fighters on the planet, but until I could actually get the styles to work together I just counted as functional.
With a surge of effort, I pulled myself out of the constant worry over the scale of what was ahead of me, both in the Workshop and outside of it. I needed help with this. I might not have any idea how to deal with the situation, but with three versions of me working on the problem then I would at least have company while having no idea how to deal with the situation.
One of Fleet's drones retrieved another duplication potion and I downed it in two gulps. The duplicates stepped out of my body, took in the scene, then turned towards me.
"Alright, we can deal with this." The first said with a grin. I could tell they were already digging into the network, tearing through data on the efforts ahead of us.
I returned a faint smile. "I wish I shared your optimism." Behind the duplicates Garment indicated that she agreed with the duplicates' outlook on the situation and was certain we would be able to manage everything with time to produce a complete fashion line under my new brand, possibly with some modification to improve the reception of the clothing without compromising the effectiveness of the bonuses it granted. "Thanks Garment, I appreciate the sentiment."
The duplicates shared a grin before turning back to me. "Alright, so training is important for the next time we head out, but we've got some time sensitive stuff first. So, get a handle on that, then focus on developing new abilities and skills?"
I nodded as the second jumped in. "Tech and crafting as well." There was the familiar flash of mana, and puff as the not-ears and tail appeared, and a small disk appeared in his hands. From the lack of explosive force, it apparently wasn't technical enough to trigger the serious speed powers. "Projection means easy prototyping. Not important for most tech, but it'll make designing focuses from The Arcane Craft a lot easier."
The first nodded and the physical signs of his own familiar appeared with a little poof. With both duplicates standing there with their twitching ear-tufts and fluffy tails… yeah, I couldn't deny it. Damn it, they really were obscenely adorable.
There was a considerable flash of light followed by a thrum of power and suddenly a large sliver of pinkish crystal appeared before him. Even if I didn't recognize it on sight, the amplified pulse in the room's energy circuits gave it away.
"Mantic shard?" I asked.
The duplicate swayed slightly and steadied himself. "Yeah. Uh, you can manifest materials with projection, so we can start experimenting with stuff we haven't been able to transmute yet." He looked nervously at the three-foot-high sliver of crystal. "You do have to cover energy costs of any power sources you create, and for something like a shard…"
"I can imagine." I replied, thinking of the amount of power those things could contain, and the full potential of their abilities. "Good thing you didn't try for a core."
That got a nervous laugh as the Crafting constellation passed by without a connection. "Oh yeah. This thing probably won't last an hour, and without all the efficiency powers we have I doubt I could have even managed that." He rested a hand on the surface of the crystal and I could see the mantic energy send a ripple through his clothing and hair. "Really wouldn't recommend trying that again. Not without a full ten count aria backing you up, and maybe some secondary mana sources."
I nodded in agreement and turned to the other duplicate. "What was that focus for?"
He lifted up the disk and there was a shimmer as his other arm expanded to a familiar bulky and clawed form. "Zoanthrope energy." He said, examining the transformed hand. "Another thing we researched last night. There's a wavelength that the gene responds to along with the natural energy of the transformation. You can interface with either of them through a focus, but projection lets us try out variants. In general, we can just do trial and error rather than needing to perfect the design before we start work and relying on quality enhancements to fix everything."
Arcane Craft was incredibly powerful, but it was also a difficult power to fully utilize. The potency of what I could create was based on my own skill, knowledge, and power. Other abilities that normally allowed the automatic perfection of craft couldn't carry me when it came to arcane focuses. My work could be enhanced, but the core item would always be based on my own abilities and understanding of the effects being augmented. That took work, development, and time. The design and construction of focus items was the most significant time sink I had.
Only now I could bypass the crafting time. It was another strong case for speed over perfection. Ideas for foci could be instantly prototyped. They wouldn't be perfect, but seeing them in action, even if they were fundamentally flawed, would help address those flaws in a way all the theory craft in the world couldn't match. I could greatly accelerate the development of one of my strongest abilities, an ability that could enhance every other power at my disposal, just by accepting the production of subpar products.
That was important. Move forward, don't look back. It could easily get caught up in perfectionism, but that wasn't important. Not with abilities like this, not with the prospect of the spiral. With that I had assurances. I could move forward and build on my own effort. Mistakes and triumphs both drove you forward. As long as you could keep going you would make progress. Having that guaranteed, set in stone with absolute conviction, it made a world of difference.
"Right." I agreed. "Huge potential, plenty of development, and I guess with the research and development…"
"Yeah, you can hand that off to us." One of the duplicates agreed, setting down the mantic shard. It floated slightly above the ground, holding its perfect alignment and casting off waves of energy into the room. "If it's not personal training we can handle it."
I let out a breath. "Which just leaves the mess out there." I vaguely gestured towards the Workshop's entrance. Even through the encouragement they were trying to convey I could feel the apprehension my duplicates had regarding the situation. Literally feel it. My sense of the Dragon's Pulse had expanded substantially after the boost from Unnatural Skill: Alchemy and a full night of needing to use it to perceive the world around my helpless body.
"Okay." One of the duplicates began pulling up reports and scan data from the city, compiling it to holographic screens as well as directly accessible databases. "We have damage from Bakuda's bombs, including some effects that are still in play. The guidelines we posted to the web have let emergency workers deal with most of them, but a few of the exotic ones are going to need specialist attention. The city seems to be leaning towards just cordoning off those effects. So, who knows, maybe persistent fires and lightning storms will turn into tourist attractions?"
The second duplicate continued the explanation. "On a related note, we have dust incursion spread through the city, and a good way into the bay." A map pulled up what honestly looked like a technicolor starburst centered on the point of March's ambush. "There aren't many actively dangerous effects in the city, which is something of a lucky break, but even at best they're still a barrier to the recovery efforts. More concerningly, Material enhancements, divine craftsmanship, and Heretical Adaptation have combined to cause something we're not really sure of."
I checked over the data myself. "It's not dispersing. No, more than that, it never should have spread this far in the first place."
"Probably Master Craftsman's fault." The first duplicate explained. "It enhances everything about an item, including other enhancements. Everything amplified by quality and capability powers got jacked up. The adaptation powers work faster with less input required." Scanned properties of the various Dust trails started being listed on the screens and streamed to my implant. "We've basically got stable persistent effects in place because of it. I mean, great find in terms of what we could do if used, you know, intentionally, but a bit awkward now."
"And speaking of which…" The second continued. "We have a stable I-field stretching from the mouth of the bay to nearly the western edge of the city." The data that could be scanned from the effect was quickly conveyed. "The portion over the bay is a threat to boating and any shipping the city still has, but it's probably going to break down in less than a week from interactions with the water."
I nodded. "Conductivity of salt water is a blessing for that." Normally an I-field would persist for nearly a month, but that was in vacuum conditions. In atmosphere, any interaction with charged or conductive materials could accelerate its deterioration. Water was effective, and salt water's higher conductivity broke it down on two fronts. "What about the city?"
I could see the results of the analysis for myself, but the duplicate explained it anyway, possibly for the benefits of discussing a problem, possibly for the benefit of Garment and Tetra. Garment seemed at least moderately interested in the information, but I could tell it was less from a technical perspective and more with respect to how it would affect the actions we would have to take and how it would impact the people of the city.
"Weather dependent. We get a calm dry period and it could last nearly a month. We get a couple of rainstorms strong enough to churn up the bay and that could be it for the field." He explained looking over to the other duplicate.
"Outside of that the only remaining property damage is from the waves that hit most of Downtown and the Beaches. Docks were mostly sheltered by Dust effects, but it caught some of the Boat Graveyard." Screens flicked through footage of the waves, both from cameras and security cameras as well as pictures of the aftermath from news reports. "That damage is really secondary to concern over what caused the wave."
I winced but nodded. This was something I hadn't been looking forward to getting into. Public reaction to the fight. What little I'd skimmed had been like the worst of the post-Saturday reactions turned up to eleven. Frankly, even if there had been zero damage to the city, the near panic over my performance would have been enough to make this a critical situation.
As usual my duplicates were more willing and able to dive into the mess of public relations and provide me with the key points. Most of it was Survey's analysis, but she was happy to hand off the explanation to my duplicates and spectate. From what I could tell it was a combination of furthering social development and enjoying a secondary assessment of her work.
"Aside from general concerns over power, escalation, and technology there are a few specific points that are being treated particularly seriously." A few screens popped up with scenes from the fight or specific portions of the aftermath. "First up, we killed Lung."
"They haven't declared him dead yet, but that's based on the lack of a body and the regeneration abilities he demonstrated at that size. From what we can tell people are mostly going forward as if he was dead, there's just not an official ruling." The second clarified.
The first continued the presentation. "We know he's dead. Scans from the motoroid to the point of destruction confirm it, thank you Fleet." There was a slight nod from Fleet's hologram and the sound of tiny engines revving from the edges of the room. "The real concern is over the effect we used. You've had experts chipping in with analysis, everyone from Protectorate tinkers to researchers at astronomy stations." The display shifted again. "The astronomers are the ones who figured out the effect dispersed at 'what appears to be superluminal speeds', in their own words."
"People are actually assuming some kind of teleport weapon or dimensional shenanigans rather than actual FTL, but it's still got them spooked. People are freaking over both from the scale of the blast and the technology involved."
"Technology is the main concern for the rest of the points." The duplicate advanced the screens. "Dust tech, Tetra, the zoanthrope transformation, the mobile suit, and the Minovsky particles are all big concerns."
"Some people have tracked down references to Gundam and the Minovsky particles." The other explained. "But mostly they think they're looking at another Leet situation, tinker building to pop culture."
"Makes sense." I replied. It was the kind of comforting explanation I wished I could have accepted for my own power. I scanned the reports myself. "Not everyone buys that explanation?"
The first duplicate shook his head. "Too close to the show. Some people say it can't be a coincidence, but they don't have any better explanation, so they're going with what they can accept."
Well, wasn't that a harsh light on my own situation.
The second continued moving through the presentation. "Biggest concern, after the ramming attack, is Calling Card."
My stomach lurched at the mention of that ability. My reaction wasn't any better now than the first time I'd found out it had been activated. Calling Card was the kind of power that blessedly came with an off switch. Normally I kept it restrained. Unfortunately, when zonked out of your mind on active Dust, life fiber energy, and zoanthrope instincts 'restraint' pretty much went out the window. When I hit Lung, I had hit him with everything I could, and that included any abilities I'd been holding back. The fact that Rockin' Music had kicked in as well was clear evidence of that. Now the scenes of my 'super moves' were flying around the internet eliciting equal parts excitement and fear.
"So, broad strokes." The first duplicate began, taking a deep breath. "People are scared. Potential master power bound to media. All tests for influence show negative, people are still scared. Online fandom starts mixing samples of broadcast, so meme culture makes everything worse. Effect can be carried by anything with both video and audio above a lower threshold of quality that was determined remarkably quickly. Some people still convinced it's a master effect, some people just annoyed at it being posted everywhere by trolls. Multiple social media sites have specific bans or labeling requirements on it. Concerns over whether it's a type of technology or innate power. Concerns over what else could be done with that kind of technology. Concerns over why technology like that could be developed."
"Concerns significant enough that it's starting to overshadow the fact that we blasted Lung hard enough that the blast could be seen in Africa." The second quipped.
I took a deep breath and let the scale of the problem sink in. In my mind I felt the Resources and Durability constellation approach and my power connect to a midsized mote. The power was simply called Efficiency and had a simple but profound effect. Perfect efficiency in every action. From crafting to combat I'd never unintentionally use more energy, material, or flourish than I needed to. It was perfect efficiency of action backed by the strength of my power.
I could already see the effects in my duplicates. Subtle changes in stances and movement. The profound ideal of a clarity of purpose, an effective use of time and energy that was sought after was suddenly mine, persistently and freely. Just the lack of wasted movement in combat was a game changer, but this provided an amplification of every act I could carry out. From time to material use. Even spellcasting saw the benefit. Even training.
I was entering into a phase where I had to develop a score of abilities and, rather than throwing another task on the pile, my power had given me the means to progress through my tasks literally as efficiently as physically possible.
"Well, that's one ray of light we really needed right now." A duplicate quipped. Garment signaled her agreement with his statement and her interest in the crafting potential of the ability, specifically with respect to designs.
I nodded. "Big help, but what do we do about the city?"
"Well…" the second duplicate drawled. "We could load up and pour out into the city with an army or robots, clear the I-field, collect the dust, repair every building, upgrade everything we don't like, scan everyone for matches to active villains…" He glanced at the first and I could already tell where this was going.
"Then watch them wall off the city and wait for the Simurgh to show up." The first duplicate concluded.
I let out a dry laugh. "Yeah, probably." That was the other side to this power. Even with all that I'd accumulated, even with everything that I'd demonstrated, I had to be extremely careful in how I used it. I was confident in my ability to face almost anything, but the other side of that 'almost' had some terrifying prospects.
Also, I wasn't just dealing with repercussions for myself. The Undersiders were still entangled with my actions, and were in a far more vulnerable position, particularly with their boss in the mix. I really didn't want to take any drastic actions before I learned how he was responding to this. The last thing I wanted was for him to decide to cut ties and resolve loose ends.
The watches I gave them would help, and make taking any serious action against Taylor or a member of the team extremely difficult, but I had the sense I couldn't rely on half measures with this situation. Not with what was on the line. Taylor in particular had somehow found herself embroiled in a critical situation completely independent of the whole 'fate of the world' crisis. I really didn't want Professor Hebert's daughter to end up getting herself hurt over whatever she had gotten caught up in.
The watches had been something of a half measure. I could have made better ones, but I was afraid of what would happen if I gave them shields that granted effective invincibility. Okay, really I was afraid about what Taylor would do if she had a shield that granted her effective invincibility. The image of a train of dismembered capes popped into my head and I had a difficult time getting it to leave.
"Whatever we plan, we need to consider how it's going to impact people." I couldn't just blunder in like I'd done with Panacea. "That includes the Undersiders."
They nodded in reply. "I get where the reluctance comes from, but with the scale of everything and how things might be heating up, it could be a good idea to get them some more equipment."
I felt apprehension at the idea, but nodded. Nobody was going to be coming at me with anything less than an A list cape. Because of their association the Undersiders could probably expect the same level of response, and they weren't nearly as able to handle it. The shields were good, but not 'Purity Blast' good.
"We might be able to spin it as a bonus for their work last night." I said, thinking out loud. An idea occurred to me and I turned to Garment. "Do you still have those costume redesigns you were working on?"
She quickly indicated that she did and had expanded on the initial designs with consideration for recent actions and better power symmetry.
"That's great Garment. Maybe we can…" I trailed off as I saw the grinning faces of my duplicates. "What?" I asked.
"You seriously haven't realized it yet?" One asked.
"Realized what?" I glanced between them and Garment in confusion. Garment's gestures suggested that I was missing something fairly obvious. "What am I missing?" She indicated I would probably get it soon. "Garment, I don't know what you're talking abou…" I trailed off as the penny finally dropped.
"Yep. Finally gets it." The second duplicate quipped. "Took him damn long enough." Garment gestured in a way that conveyed the idea that he was being too hard on me over something he would have an equal amount of trouble with in my situation.
That is to say, Garment gestured the way she always used to. I just could understand it better. Much better. Fashion. Specifically, My Fashion Sense is Tingling, and it was, with respect to Garment.
I thought I had gotten quite good at reading Garment. Maybe I had, but the sheer volume of what I'd been missing was suddenly clear to me. Fashion was a language of its own. I don't know if I'd call it a universal language, but it was certainly a distinct one. At the higher levels everything had meaning. And I mean everything. Nothing was accidental, nothing was left to chance. Every color, every fold of cloth, every movement of the fabric was designed to communicate something. Garment had been doing that this whole time. Every seeming overt gesture held a mountain's worth of nuanced information. I could have worked for years and only gotten the barest hints of her meaning. With My Fashion Sense, with the power to actively detect, interpret, and understand fashion suddenly I could understand. Perfectly.
I could talk to Garment. And she could talk to me.
It was a joyful occasion that went completely over the heads of the other residents of the workshop, needing to be explained to them. At that point Survey began demanding a series of present and historic translations and started accessing every fashion-based resource that could be found through the workshop network connections and internal databanks.
I had a feeling that was going to turn into something of a project for her.
"Okay, great news and congratulations for figuring it out, but we still need to make a decision on what we're going to do about this situation." The first duplicate said as the Toolkits constellation missed a connection.
I sighed. "I know. Updating the website with the information on the I-field's expected duration would probably be a good idea, and reasonably safe. If people know it's not forever it will probably settle things a bit more." I used my own implant to check the status of the site. "Are we still good for using that?"
"No problem." The second replied. "Simple Scientific Solution can cover basic web hosting. As long as things stay conventional to what you'd find online the tech we put in place can cover the site and keep our location completely untraceable. Same with web access and phone calls. As long as they stay within normal ranges of access we're fine. Won't help us in a hacking battle, but with that in place it's not likely to come to that."
"Though not for lack of trying on Dragon's part." The first added. "Three dozen separate attempts since the site went up. I almost feel bad for her, but, you know."
I nodded, the reality of the situation weighing on me. It was a reminder of another thing I needed to deal with. Something that should be critical, but was buried under all the rest of the post-disaster crap. Garment moved forward and put a glove on my shoulder, indicating her understanding of the importance of the work I was doing and how it needed to be prioritized even above collaborative fashion projects. I couldn't help but smile at that.
"Dust is going to be trickier to deal with." The second duplicate commented. "Alchemy is dicey when it comes to Dust, so there's no easy cleanup, plus the complicated effects we're looking at." There was a pulse from his implant as he accessed more data records. "Frankly our best bet is probably to wait until the forty-eight-hour restore of the costume happens and hope it pulls out the active dust to kill the effects. If there's anything left or any residual effects it will probably be easier to clear than the current mess."
"So put it off to Saturday night?" I asked. "Probably not the worst idea. Should we update the site?"
The first shook his head. "Considering we don't know what will happen? No. Maybe a statement about 'expected to diminish', but we've never dealt with this kind of effect before."
"Nobody's dealt with this kind of effect before." I countered, but nodded. "Okay, web statements should help with concerns about persistent tinker effects. That just leaves… everything else." The surge of enthusiasm at making progress was quickly dwindling under the weight of the obstacles before me.
"Settling those two issues will still go a long way." The first duplicate assured me. "For the rest of it, it's really just a matter of information. We get an update on the Undersiders to make sure things aren't going to blow back on them and find a way to get info out to the Protectorate without somehow making things worse."
I took a breath and nodded. It was easy to get overwhelmed, but really any steps forward, just the knowledge that I was being active in my response to this, would probably moderate things. After Saturday I had let people run with any idea they wanted. Even a hint that I would be a participant in the conversation rather than just a subject of it would change that dynamic dramatically.
I reviewed the status of the Undersiders' watches. "Tattletale is specifically unavailable. Regent has a 'do not disturb' active. Rachel and Brian haven't set anything up, but sensors show they're sleeping." Which was the limit of my active scanning of their state. Everything else was still saved, but not specifically monitored by me. It put me at a disadvantage, but was the only way to ensure they were comfortable wearing the watches continuously. I'd rather be blind to their circumstances than have them get caught defenseless for the sake of privacy. 'No calls while asleep' was a level of intrusion that I doubted anyone would have a problem with.
"So, call to Taylor?" The second duplicate suggested. I nodded.
"Still need to get some contact with the Protectorate." The first added. "Options range from an anonymous note to marching down there in person, but we need to keep things at a level that's not going to kick the hornet's nest with the Undersiders' boss or the gangs."
"Yeah." I noted. "Really, the only contact I've had on that front that didn't immediately blow up on me was Weld."
"That's probably a good idea." Offered the second duplicate after a brief period of consideration. "We have a completely secure line, it would be easy enough to get his personal number, he's not going to freak out on us, and assuming they don't have his phone tapped already he would relay everything to the Protectorate."
I thought it over and nodded. "Should work. At least for the moment. It's not the kind of contact Tattletale could raise issue with, and we really just need a point of contact." I paused as I considered things. "After all that, did we really decide to do nothing but make two phone calls?"
"Hey, we DECIDED to do nothing but make two phone calls. The deciding is the important part. Plus, don't tell me you aren't dead on your feet. We are intimately aware of your exact state. If you try to run out there and fix the city now it's going to be nothing but 3 a.m. thinking, and I don't think Brockton can take any more 3 a.m. thinking at this point."
I nodded. "I get you." My body was burning with energy, but I was mentally exhausted. Between my heart and the effects of Master's Body I might be completely beyond physical exhaustion, but that didn't apply to my mind. It just meant I wasn't getting the usual signals that would normally tell me it was time to turn in. That might not have been such a problem if I was better about downtime, but as it stood I would basically run until the bad ideas became obvious, then run in an attempt to correct them.
"Right." The duplicate responded. "So, call Taylor to make sure the Undersiders aren't going to self-destruct. Call Weld to make sure the Protectorate isn't going to do the same thing. Provided we don't get any nightmare scenarios playing out during the calls you can get some rest, take some down time, and deal with the damage after it settles on Saturday night. There's more than enough training and side projects to hold until…"
He trailed off as his eves drifted towards Tetra. The bundle of life fibers had floated forward along with Garment, but had been quietly observing the conversation with only the occasional IR based argument with Survey happening in the background.
She wasn't doing that anymore.
The bundle of fibers was still floating in Garment's telekinetic embrace, but Tetra had begun extending strands away from the central mass. Wisps of red thread were billowing out and reaching towards my second duplicate, who was watching the entire process while standing stock still.
"Tetra?" I asked, trying to keep any hint of uncertainty out of my voice.
"I'm not sure." Came her silent voice. "I think there's something, but…" The red tendrils continued to drift forward as the rest of the group watched. Slowly they started to concentrate towards one location. A flash or realization came over my duplicate's face and he shifted his hand slightly. The entire mass of threads followed it perfectly. A few more movements were mirrored before it was seemingly confirmed enough for him to crack a smile.
"What?" I asked as he started raising a hand towards the extended threads.
"Oh, this is going to be great." He said with a wide grin. "No, better. This is going to be fantastic."
"Seriously, what's going on?" I asked, stepping forward.
"Remember how we were wondering how much Tetra got during the chimeric fission?" I glanced at the other, equally confused duplicate and nodded. "Well," He brandished the focus talisman he had projected earlier. "Guess who has the zoanthrope gene?"
There was a ripple as he partially activated his own transformation, just enough to shift his arm, but enough to charge the focus. The Transformation wavelength resonated through the talisman, surging from it into Tetra's threads and down towards her core body. There was a brilliant flash as transformative energy clashed with the pulse of life fibers. The cocoon pulsed, twisted, and glowed like a miniature sun.
And then it was over. The energy diminished, the shifting stopped, and we were greeted by the sight of the world's first life fiber zoanthrope.
Okay, it was the world's second total zoanthrope, but that didn't diminish the scale of the accomplishment. In place of a buoyant immobile cocoon Tetra stood in a slightly anthropomorphic form, one definitely blended more towards animal than a 'normal' zoanthrope. Hardly any human characteristics were present. My guess was the lack of a base human form was responsible, with the partial genetic transfer making enough difference to prevent a total animal form or some kind of pure animal/life fiber blend.
Really, it was rather cute, if you got past the fact that it was entirely composed of parasitic fibers balefully glowing in every angry shade from blood red to molten gold. Two big blinking eyes that looked like the gates of hell took in the room with a sense of wonder. A head tilted slightly as Tetra worked to adjust herself to the new form.
The Magic constellation passed by as I examined the change. She was about four feet tall, not counting her tail. Life fibers blended into fur or solidified into more solid portions of her body. Despite the highly energetic appearance of the fibers, she still managed to look fluffy, even a little cute. That was probably due to the animal type.
The zoanthrope gene was a complicated thing. It wasn't tied to a specific animal, but still emulated creatures found on earth. Rather than have consistent expression from a single gene it instead acted as a catalyst, connecting with the wavelength of its activation to select an animal form through an incredibly complex process. As such, even though we shared the same gene we didn't have the same animal form.
"A mink?" The first duplicate asked.
"Huh." I said, looking at Tetra's animal form. Cute little ears, big eyes, and a giant fluffy tail, all composed of arranged or solidified life fibers. "Not to stereotype, but given, you know, life fibers, I would have expected something more predatory."
The three of us were promptly supplied with a comprehensive analysis of the nature and general demeanor of the American mink, including hunt success rate and aggression profiles.
"Okay." I said. "Thank you Survey, noted. Tetra, are you okay?"
"I think so." The words were still directed inaudibly towards me and my duplicates. Despite the transformation she didn't really have the capacity to speak. There were a couple of experimental tries that only produced squeaks. It would have been very cute if not for the attempt also displaying the type of teeth found on a mink zoanthrope. Not quite at sabretooth level, but Survey's predatory analysis made a lot more sense.
"This feels strange." She continued. There were a couple of awkward experimental steps, then she dropped to all fours and scampered in a tight circle, her glowing tail billowing behind her like a red comet. The stride length started to increase, taking her from scampering to bounding to a full on barely controlled mad dash. I could vaguely recognize the behavior from my own experience with zoanthrope instinct, though it seemed without pain, rage, and the prospect of dire combat zoanthropes were a lot more prone to scampering.
Very energetic scampering, by the looks of it. The 'barely controlled' element became a lot more prominent as Tetra built up speed beyond what any living thing should be able to manage. She quickly shifted to a red blur bouncing around the cavernous room, marking sharper and sharper turns until one seemed to be too much for her. There was a teetering, quickly followed by the sight of a molten red mink tumbling off balance, then just tumbling end over end until she impacted the far wall with a flash that saw her transform back into her usual bundle of fibers.
"Tetra?" I asked, rushing over. "Are you alright?" I had no doubt about her physical state. It would take a lot more than a tumble to even temporarily set back a life fiber entity. Mentally, that was another story, and mixing in the new and apparently unstable transformation complicated things.
"I'm okay." She responded. There was movement in the fibers, but she kept her normal shape. "It got away from me, but I'll do better next time." There was another exchange of infrared pulses with the Workshops systems followed by a sense of smugness from Tetra.
I wondered if they knew how unsecure that transmission method was, or if they were just enjoying my policy of respecting their privacy? Anyway, as long as Survey and Tetra kept things mostly civil I was alright with them having… I don't know what to call it. A whisper connection?
"Here." I reached down and lifted Tetra up. The threads of her body wrapped around my limbs, but in a much less crushing way than I was used to. Or maybe I was just ungodly tough at this point and any normal person would have been pulped. I was still getting used to the upgrades, so my calibrations were a bit off.
For instance, despite the familiar feeling of drain and the clear bloom of energy radiating from Tetra as a result, I barely felt it. Not like from when I became a demigod and could endure the drain. More like it took concentration to actually notice the waves of power pulsing from Tetra were the result of her connection with me. The loss just wasn't noticeable.
What was noticeable was the lack of feedback. Every contact I'd had with Tetra had been characterized by a mixture of depletion and empowerment. The depletion was barely noticeable. The empowerment was completely absent. It was jarring to the point where we both froze in place. I could feel the uncertainty radiation from Tetra as she tried to piece together what was happening.
"It's the hybridization." One of the duplicates offered, checking scanner readings from the Workshop sensors. "Too much overlap. We've got constantly advancing life-fiber-based evolution, but the saturation is at the point where there's no spike in performance from an incremental increase in exposure."
"So, we're never going to be able to fight together, ever again?" Tetra asked in a shaky voice. There were pulses of IR light being exchanged with the workshop systems and I could see a concerned look appear on Survey's face.
"Documented aspects of ability 160-F-8-Tri suggest a high enough concentration of aligned life fibers absent of any inert material would be able to interface with an organism regardless of the concentration of life fiber composition in the subject's tissue." She offered in a surprisingly reassuring voice, with more information apparently being transmitted in infrared pulses from the workshop's systems.
There was a surge of hope from Tetra that I probably would have been able to detect from halfway across the Workshop. I looked down at her as I reviewed my own understanding of the principles in play. "It's possible, but you should probably get used to this first. Anything we do, it's going to be serious and probably permanent." Serious was right. Pure life fiber clothing was a terrifying concept, and not something to take lightly. "We can discuss it later."
"Come on." The second duplicate called, holding up the zoanthrope focus. "Now that you're mobile we need to get you set up. That means your own room, furniture choices, weapon selection, mantic alignment, custom foci, you know, the works."
Garment indicated that she would clearly also need her own wardrobe in a variety of styles. I felt my mouth quirk up at the idea. Clothes for clothes. Well, I guess that counted as an overcoat.
"Yeah, this guy has calls to make, then has some enforced nap time coming." The first duplicate offered in support.
"Go on. I'll catch up with you later." I said. There was a sense of agreement conveyed through the Dragon's Pulse, then Tetra unwound from my arms and launched at my second duplicate in a manner disturbingly reminiscent of a face hugger.
Despite the terrifying launch my duplicate caught Tetra with open arms and a wide smile on his face. There was a pulse of energy from the focus item and suddenly both he and Tetra were transformed. An eight-foot-tall dinosaur wolf with a molten red mink person clinging to his shoulders. He gave me one last smile that provided a full display of saber teeth, then energetically bounded away Tetra clinging to his back. The entire display was done with such enthusiasm that I cynically wondered if I should count it against his 20% time.
"Right." The other duplicate stated. "We've got a lot of research, documentation, and development that needs to happen. I can get started on that. You're probably going to agonize unnecessarily over the two phone calls you need to make, so you might as well get started on that."
I was heavily offended and also had no way of refuting his statement. With a sigh I turned towards the exit. "Alright. Keep me up to date on anything that develops with the city. I'll take care of these calls."
"Then sleep." He called after me. "You might be able to manage one more set of duplicates with this level of exhaustion, but I'm pretty sure the third ones would forcibly knock you out the second they form."
I nodded and the amusing and disturbing image played through my mind. I was terrible about sleep. I guess it made sense my duplicates would be terrible about spending their limited durations sleep deprived. I focused on the unpleasant task before me.
Really, it shouldn't be that bad. I had spoken with Taylor several times before, including one-on-one. I had met her father. Hell, I knew her mother. There was no good reason to be nervous about this call.
So that left all the not-good reasons that were still active obstacles to the call. I didn't want to have to explain my actions the previous night. I didn't want to have to explain my technology, or my power, or any aspect of my cape identity. I didn't want to have to face someone who had met me out of costume who also saw how I acted on the call with Bakuda. I didn't want to need to justify my tactics during the fight or explain away my many mistakes. I didn't want to have responsibility for the state of the city dumped on my head. I didn't want the actions I took after my previous conflicts to be traced to the mess that caused such destruction and suffering.
The vast majority of those concerns weren't reasonable. Taylor was unlikely to press me for answers and would probably be at least willing to accept half answers or token explanations of the more outlandish acts I had demonstrated. I knew I would probably be fine. It wasn't like last time when we had that stupid rumor hanging over our heads.
No, my anxiety over the call was due to old hang ups, not anything relevant to the current situation. It was something I needed to move past, both in general and for the sake of my powers.
I just really didn't want to. The Quality constellation moved past as I considered my next action. I knew half of this was about delaying things, but there were still some things I needed to work out.
A video call would be a much better idea than just a voice call. My duplicates had been coordinating things through text messages, mostly to keep as much information from Tattletale as possible. A normal call might provide some reassurance, but to really make an impression I would need to appear on screen, particularly with the capacity built into the watches.
The problem was my current appearance wasn't likely to put her at ease so much as raise significant questions. I wasn't sure if my pupils would be noticeable through the screen, but the red highlight in my hair, my shifted build, and the general demeanor that resulted from Efficiency combined with my posing power was a little too striking to avoid notice. The behavior I could probably moderate with some effort, but everything else needed a solution, and not just for this call. If I wanted to go out and interact with anyone I knew before my powers started piling up I needed a credible disguise.
The fact that the development of a way to conceal my appearance would let me kick this problem down the road a bit was just a happy coincidence.
I wasn't short on options. It was just a matter of what direction I wanted to go. I could do everything from holograms to shapeshifting to illusion effects, all possible through a range of technological or magical abilities.
I took some time to pick through my options, but ended up going with one of my more versatile abilities. Projection had incredible potential, but it wasn't the broadest form of magic I had access to. While I could work to build a piece of technology or enchanted item that would conceal my appearance, really all I needed was the right talisman.
Talisman magic might not be able to do everything, but it was still one of my broadest powers. Furthermore, it was based on the creation of items, meaning all support powers worked to directly enhance the spellcasting. A talisman might have a moderately powerful effect, but when that talisman became masterwork, rune inscribed, Olympian wrought, elven enchanted, and fey crafted suddenly you were looking at profound magical effects from even middling applications.
Talisman magic was capable of creating illusions. Simple illusions, things like foxfire, obscured paths, or hiding details of your appearance. I might have been able to conceal the changes to my body with just the base use of the system, but with my enhancements I could probably appear convincingly as a completely different person.
Not that I needed to. Some shift in minor details was more than enough. A bit of carving and workmanship combined with the infusion of a discounted amount of spiritual energy and I had a talisman capable of completely altering my appearance. And four spare ones, thanks to the wonder of Workaholic.
I held the immaculately carved animal statue, examining the impeccable workmanship for a moment before lifting the talisman and calling out the activation phrase. "In the name of the cunning trickster of shadows… Fox, transform!"
The carving exploded into a vaguely fox-shaped blur of spiritual energy. It swept around me and I could feel the shift. Superficial, but entirely convincing. It flowed over me, altering eyes, hair color, muscle definition and build. In an instant I could pass as ordinary. Maybe a hair bulkier than when I last hit the gym, but entirely believable. A convincing enough illusion that I could probably even make it through a boxing lesson.
Of course, there were about a dozen things that would give me away, even without my altered appearance. No, that was something I was going to have to leave behind. At least I could still spend some time at the gym, and I had both the civic disaster and Aisha's father's condition as an excuse for skipping sessions. The main thing was I could go back, in person, without needing a poncho to have any hope of concealing my build.
Which also meant I needed to call Taylor. Damn it, I was not looking forward to this. Still, nothing to do but push forward. Hopefully I could keep it short.
I looked around for a nondescript background, then remembered who I was and fabricated one using alchemical transmutation. Sitting in front of what could pass for any apartment wall with what looked like interior normal lighting I took a breath, made a conscious effort to suppress the more aggressive aspects of my posing power and the unnatural smoothness of my Efficiency power and called Taylor.
The projected screen showed the call connecting, even though the data was mirrored to my implant and processed through the computer core. That, of course, meant the conversation would be accessible by anyone in the workshop, but hopefully they'd just review the recordings rather than be an anxiety-inducing real time audience.
It didn't take long for Taylor to answer the call. I recognized the background as her living room, so either her father was out of the house or she had become extremely cavalier about the use of her technology. Either way, it was a good thing I built failsafes against detection into the systems of the watches.
"Joe?" She asked in clear concern.
"Hi Taylor. Good morning."
"Uh, right. Good morning." She seemed at a temporary loss for words, then seemed to latch on to something. "It's good to see that you're okay. Um, you are okay, right?"
"Fine." I assured her. "Last night was…" Images from the fight flashed into my head, compounded with the horror of my recovery, and every issue that had cropped up since then. "It was rough." The understatement brought a dry smile to her face. "Rough for everyone. I wanted to thank you and the rest of the team for stepping up when I called."
"Oh, right. No problem. I mean, Brian will still want everything to be tallied and accounted, and Alec and Rachel were complaining the whole time, but we didn't have any problems last night." She assured me.
"That's good to hear." When I heard they'd been called out I was worried Taylor would get into some crazy cape battle or gang war. It was a relief to know the recovery had gone smoothly. "I'm mainly following up to make sure the Undersiders are alright in the aftermath. I know the blackout missed the base and your house, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any other problems.
"No." She replied. "Everyone was exhausted from last night, so I think they're resting for the day. Except Lisa. She had a meeting with the boss she couldn't miss."
I blinked, but otherwise kept my expression neutral. "Did she say what it was about?" I asked as nonchalantly as possible.
"Something about what's coming up in the city, and for the team." She sounded a little apprehensive about the subject, and alarm bells were ringing in my head. The sense I was getting from my passenger advised serious caution, and I was suddenly very glad I hadn't rushed out to 'fix' the city.
It also occurred to me that, thanks to Tattletale's watch, I had the location of their boss. Well, at least the location of one of his meeting places, but that was something. If he was careless enough it might be the location of his base of operations, but with how dangerous he sounded I didn't want to get my hopes up. The information was locked away on files specific to Tattletale's watch, and would remain so until it was safe to act. That was the higher level of thinker protection, where it wasn't enough to just limit what they knew, you had to limit what you knew. Still, as long as she had her watch I had a link to the situation.
"Um, about Lisa's watch?"
My heart lurched as Taylor spoke. I steadied myself and replied. "What about it?"
Taylor looked exceptionally nervous about this. "She said she was trying to access some features on the system and… well, it got stuck in safe mode? Or something like that?"
I blinked, mentally accessed a diagnostic from her watch, then dropped my head and raised a hand to my forehead.
"Joe?"
I sighed. "Yes Taylor, she set off tamper protection trying to directly access the watch sensors. Based on our agreement she was supposed to come to me if she wanted new technology, which good faith would dictate includes off market modification of existing equipment." I was equally frustrated and impressed. So far Tattletale's thinker power hadn't been much to write home about, but somehow in the course of a single night she had worked her way through dozens of layers of obscure command structures to nearly get root access to the wide band EMF and fiat backed Analysis sensors of the watch. The feat made her claims about having backdoor access to the PRT systems a lot more credible.
"Is it okay? She said she'd need to talk to you about it."
"Yeah, we probably have a lot to talk about." I sighed. "If she wanted a sensor system she should have asked for a sensor system, not tried to backdoor the…" I trailed off, aware that I was still on a video call. "Anyway, we can sort it out later."
"Right, um, I just…" She didn't seem sure how to respond.
"You have a million questions, don't you?" I asked, exhaustion creeping into my voice.
Taylor's expression turned sympathetic as she replied. "Yeah, obviously. I mean, the fight, the healing, the transformation, the robot, the blackout, what happened to Lung, the other robot, the attack names…" I felt myself slump as each item was added to the list.
"Look Taylor, a lot happened and it was pretty hard to deal with, both at the time and in the aftermath. I'll be straight with you about what I can, but honestly I'm not in the best state for a lengthy discussion right now." Not with the next call ahead of me. I was fairly certain that would be significantly worse. "I can promise, I have things under control on my end, finally." I may have muttered that last part. Taylor gave a slight nod as I let out a breath. "If you're alright, if there's nothing critical right now, then I'd really appreciate coming back to this once I've been able to get some sleep."
"Oh, right." She quickly replied. "Lisa will want to talk to you after her meeting, but she hasn't slept either."
I found myself balancing the urgency of the situation with the prospect of dealing with a sleep deprived thinker who would probably be nursing a power headache. "If you talk to her, tell her to call me when she's up for it. Unless there's something urgent."
"Right. Uh, Joe? Glad you're alright."
"Yeah, me too." I answered honestly. "The next few days are probably going to be hectic. I'll check in later, probably after I speak with Tattletale."
"Right." She replied. "I'll talk to you later. Glad you're doing better."
The call disconnected and I collapsed back against the wall I had constructed solely for the purpose of appearances. That wasn't as bad as I feared. Honestly, it rarely is, but that doesn't really help with the anxiety. Still, one call down, one to go, and this was the big one. The one with political consequences.
Finding Weld's cell phone number wasn't anything of a challenge for someone with my technical abilities. I was even able to confirm the location from triangulation. He was in the PRT headquarters, meaning there was a decent chance of the call being sniped by someone higher up. At the very least I could count on them listening in on it, but that was part of the game.
My duplicates sent messages of encouragement through the network, which were echoed by Fleet, Survey, and even the Matrix, who had formed a new Gun-EZ form out of duplicated nanites. I thanked them for their support, and turned back to the task at hand. Direct call, no video, and made directly to his phone from behind an untraceable connection.
It was time to call Weld. It was time to talk to the Protectorate.
(Author's Note: Firstly, I would like to congratulate Sterlyn, long time reader and supporter of this story and, on his graduation. This is a big step and a major achievement that I wanted to recognize.
Secondly, a few notes in relation to this chapter. I ended up needing to cut an addendum, which was intended to allow this day of the story to be closed out. It will be moved to the next chapter, possibly as a preamble, or possibly as another interlude. If it is an interlude Joe will be earning points through at least a portion of the chapter. In its truncated form this feels like something of a housekeeping chapter, but I felt it was necessary to review the current state of Joe's abilities, options, workshop, and allies.
Finally, with regards to the abilities of this chapter, I made an alternation to my usual purchasing strategy for The World Ends With You. That jump came with a free psych, but most options required the purchase of a brand to function. I debated my decision, which was mostly driven by the fact that My Fashion Sense is Tingling was an odd 50-point perk. The decision came down to either selecting a random psychic ability, or making an additional purchase for one that aligned with the creation nature of the Forge. I decided to take the second option.)
Jumpchain abilities this chapter:
Tempered Soul (Soul Calibur) 300:
You gain an innate gift for forging high-quality weaponry. The weapons you create do not appear crude in any sense of the word, and in time your skill might cause your functional weaponry to be confused for elaborate display items.
My Fashion Sense is Tingling (The World Ends With You) 50:
You have an impeccable sense of fashion. You can make an appealing outfit out of just about anything. In addition, you will always have an innate knowledge of what is fashionable in the area wherever you go, allowing you to remain on top of your game no matter where you are. In fact, you'll usually be a trendsetter.
Natural Puppy (The World Ends With You) 100:
Natural Puppy is a brand full of clean and simple clothing with soft colors and modest designs. Their clothing offers good resistances to status ailments and defensive bonuses. Works best for those with the Doormat flaw.
Natural Puppy offers a lot of ranged options for Players, and has the best Force Rounds pins available as well as the exclusive Entanglement psych.
Entanglement (The World Ends With You) Free:
Allows the user to create a chain between two designated points. Enemies hit by the chain (or who run into it) take damage and suffer Defense Break.
Player Pin (The World Ends With You) Free:
Everyone gets a Player Pin for free, which lets them scan the surface thoughts of people in the RG. Protects against thought-reading.
Efficiency (Lego: Ninjango) 400:
Waste not, want not! Not with this, anyway – whether building machines or making quick moves in combat, you'll never unintentionally use more energy, materials, or flourish than you need to.
