whats this squishy is evolving into.... an Eldritch abomination.
Squishy digivolve to... MegaSquishy.
jokes aside, still enjoying the story. keep up the good work.
Adam can probably create Dust through Faith-Manipulation, throwing Kami at the problem and/or the Matter Furnace thingies from Star Wars at this point. Aura is a function of the soul so unless she gets her soul ripped out that isn't going anywhere. Granted the Planet gave off its' own kinda ambient Aura and that may not exist in other worlds but that doesn't seem to actually do anything on an individual basis y'know? So I'd say she's gonna be just fine.
That's what I thought, and that's what I think it may have started as (Adam at least being a very reduced form of the original Eldritch abomination). But now I'm wondering if it's more like Squishy is the one from which the god-like being will emerge again, while Adam is more of a personality construct designed to make travel and activity decisions, and come up with ideas.
Come to think of it, that is kind of Entity-ish, where Adam in each world are the hosts and Squishy is the Entity.
As I gaze into the stars they tell me the traveler will soon depart this plane and unto another, as I have foretold, he leaves his mark for good or for evil is up to him, I am the star prophet heed my words mortals, there will be a change of a unknown magnitude and I eagerly await the change that comes
That's what I thought, and that's what I think it may have started as (Adam at least being a very reduced form of the original Eldritch abomination). But now I'm wondering if it's more like Squishy is the one from which the god-like being will emerge again, while Adam is more of a personality construct designed to make travel and activity decisions, and come up with ideas.
Come to think of it, that is kind of Entity-ish, where Adam in each world are the hosts and Squishy is the Entity.
But Adam created squishy so it would make more sense for her to be the construct. Could be that squishy is less a construct and more an alternative personality meant to keep Adam from learning/failing into despare when he finds out what he is. The first chapter showed Adam fusing with the fragment of the entity, which even as small as it is, probably is too much for a mortal mind to understand fully. It would also explain a bit of his mentality, early on he didn't feel as human as he currently does which may be squishy taking more of the inhuman parts of him away so he can be more human like. It's not perfect though.
Quick question in he first sentence / paragraph Simmy's thoughts seem to imply that Squishy is now male or at least that's how it appeared to read anyway is that a typo or just a reader error.
The Chieftain cursed. "When did THIS show up!? Adam had nothing to do with this, right!?"
A blue popup appeared... and both men paused. Ghira read aloud, slowly. "Uh... 'We can neither confirm nor deny any accusations that any individuals are...' what is THIS legal garbage!? It's worse than my damn lawyers!"
Seeing the glare continue, Ozpin chuckled again. "Any advancements or breakthroughs must be shared, any product using these designs or derivatives thereof being released external to Atlas, Vale, or Vacuo must undergo a joint approval process to prevent anti-Faunus organizations from abusing it. And so forth."
James blanked out slightly. "What the HELL did Mistral do to piss everyone off this much!?"
The staff/wand/mallet stopped exploding after learning a few key facts.
First, the layers between 'Shells' needed to be pushed further apart. By millimeters, sure, but more distance was required or large Glyphs would rub against each other.
Second, when Adam attempted to add 'mecha-shift' technology to the thing... there were rules. Sure, the spaces didn't intrude into other dimensions, but they DID bulge... and after a few explosions, he figured out that they needed to bulge in the same 'direction'.
Multiple dimensional bulges in one direction would sort of reinforce each other, increasing stability and how much material can be squished away. If one of them was at an odd 'angle' though, it would collapse all of them.
The angle was a fourth dimensional thing, so it was no wonder that Remnant had issues with complicated space expansion tricks. Releasing a sensor to detect the situation and a theory for why some weapons could be tripled in space compression and others couldn't made the network swarm with interest.
Simmy was watching the world test stuff after that, so Adam could focus on his (mostly explosive) testing some more.
The third and most annoying issue: Faith doped materials by default would just absorb or change based on atmospheric faith energies.
Adam had to spend literal hours making new patterns of Dust impregnating patterns, ones that could only accept energy through very restrictive patterns, because his natural Aura could overload the existing stuff at unexpected times.
Thus, more explosions.
Honestly, it might be due to the Planet's Aura. Anything too unstable reacted to the stuff and then 'Boom', another launch into the bay. Maybe he could set up something close to the limit, some sort of grenade scenario?
Anyway, space expansion and material compression. Two separate effects, both used during mechanical transformation by weapons. Passive expansion was done through Dust patterns set into the metals, compression needed Dust patterns that accepted energy.
So storing blades, accessories, and so forth? No upkeep cost. It acted like a bag of holding or undetectable expansion charm, even if it ignored outside forces like gravity or explosions. Mostly.
Converting material into a new shape, compressing parts out of the way? If it ran out of Dust, if the embedded Dust wore out, or if the energy was disrupted it would snap back to the base form.
Many weapons relied on the user's Aura as an emergency energy source, so as long as the Hunter survived their weapon would be there by their side. That said, a badly designed weapon would suck the Aura reserves at critical moments, assuming one could survive a fight long enough for that to be an issue.
Point was, Adam felt confidant enough to consider his wand completed. It now had an expanded space with a double sided hammer heads that would be supported by the stone, so it could transform from a walking stick into a massive war hammer. One that could release magical energy and effects through the rotating floating metallic Glyphs that swirled around the stone. Without blowing Adam up. Probably.
Next, some upgrades to his spinal bone robotic limbs!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The Hunters flinched as Adam was thrown into the ocean again.
They were mostly used to it now though, and got back to work. There were a massive number of new workers that had to learn how to run the recently created facilities and handle the animals that would eventually be raised here for shipment.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Right, the limbs were covered with Aura, and using his limbs to modify his limbs had been... an energetic response.
Absently his trunk wrung out some liquid from his shirt, his mind distracted by the thoughts of alternative options. Extending arms? Easy enough, although he had to partially drop Aura coverage from one single limb while the others worked.
...Huh. Could one selectively drop Aura coverage?
Metal on, metal off. Aura on... slowly? No, it sort of spread everywhere first. Then added layers, which compressed together, since compression and refinement seemed to be the 'flavor' of his Aura in general.
In fact, even 'Off' there was a weak, soap bubble like layer that seemed to swirl along his skin.
So how the heck was he supposed to modify his limbs if the three Endbringers were holding his powers?
Well...
With a frown and a wince, Adam snapped off one of his upper left robotic bone limbs. Harder to do than he expected, even after disabling his Aura to lower the thing's resilience.
It didn't hurt exactly... but he WAS able to feel it missing. The sensors and stuff had been wired into his system, after all.
No, the crap part was forcing the break to not auto-repair. It was a low level stinging.
Adam focused his other limbs on doing the changes, the supports gaining layers so it could extend, the joint a bit more flexibility, and five tool heads that could swap between each other without needing a full redesign of the limb.
Theoretically Adam could put twelve parts on the end, probably, but the stability went up a lot if he held back and he had OTHER limbs to modify anyway. Anything attached to his body should be as stable as possible.
A few minutes later and after several tests, he used his other limbs to carefully connect the broken stump to the detached arm... and they healed together rapidly now that Aura could connect the two.
With a subconscious sigh, he began flexing and testing his modified limb, feeling the new degrees of freedom and rapidly swapping between two emitters, a grappling/manipulation unit, a good sensor, and the high energy laser. Cause lasers rocked.
It was with far LESS enthusiasm that he turned off Aura again and reached for the next arm.
This... was going to be a slow and annoying process.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Betty knocked on the door to Adam's lab, snacks on a tray.
She really felt lucky that years of work helped her avoid daily tasks. She had set up the various industries under herself to work mostly autonomously, albeit because she preferred to have more personal time.
Hearing another loud crackle, she looked up at his work bench... in time to see his massive arm rip one of those thin assisting limbs out by the root.
That... that looked painful.
By the time she saw him reach back and reattach the damn thing, she realized she had been staring in horror for several minutes now. Seriously, this won't be the strangest thing, suck it up girl!
She nodded to herself. "Adam, I brought some sandwiches and some cake, do you have time for a break?"
The massive man twisted, his trunk holding another limb recently torn from his own spine. "Has it been that long? Bring em over here Betty, I want to finish this upgrade process while I still have motivation. I am worried if I took a break it would be hard to keep going."
She cautiously approached... thankfully the bone limbs didn't spurt blood when torn free. "Upgrades?"
One of the far left limbs swung closer, before the claw on the end shifted into some sort of glowing tool, then into a speaker like shape... Adam absently pointed with his trunk, both arms busy repositioning the next detached limb.
The arm continued to mutate. Adam grinned. "Basic changes, but now my tools can reach farther from my back and each one has more than one form and settings. More usefulness with less reconstruction needed if I change jobs or whatever."
Betty watched the limb go through a sort of dance routine, end bits configuring through various forms and the arms stretching an compressing. "It... is very impressive."
Adam sighed. "It is all bare bones stuff, really. The important part is I can use these tools to get things done if my Summons are busy doing stuff. Normally I just reform each one with my powers directly, so this is a bit of a step down."
Looking away from the limbs modifying torn limbs showcase, Betty cleared her throat. "After... whatever this is, do you have any plans for later? We've spent a week or so in this new town as it is."
Adam blinked. "Huh. Time flies when you are exploding." He hummed, looking back at his work. "I was contacted by Squishy and she says my Semblance is available for use now, so I guess I want to go somewhere and practice it."
Betty paused. "..Any hints on what it is, exactly?"
He chuckled. "It is an extension of my Aura, which is now entwined with my Grid of Confinement, I am pretty sure that influenced Squishy's choice of self modification so..."
Seeing her confusion, he sighed. "Let's just say my Semblance helps me capture creatures or foes, to use as new summoning options or to transport things/people into my soul. No point in being able to summon if you have only three choices... ever."
She blinked. That sounded handy. Betty had seen something similar, a Semblance that allowed a guy to store tiny stuff inside his Aura like a secret pocket, but this sounded more useful... or at least, more flexible.
Betty shrugged. "Sounds neat... want to go try it out?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked, the sunlight bright after all that time stuck indoors. A flex had his robotic limbs fold back into themselves, a thin backpack of bones melding mostly into his outfit.
Right. "Simmy? We need a bus. Send us to the largest, most powerful Grimm you've detected so far. Kill any other Grimm nearby though, I just want to try out my Semblance."
The bus had already landed, ready for passengers, as Adam led the way. "I'm curious how far we will have to go for this, but if you guys get bored..."
He looked at the thirty or so Hunters and Huntresses that had gotten on board following Betty. What a strange group. "Well, the consoles on the outer edges control some energy based weaponry. Unlimited ammo, so feel free to fire at stuff as we travel."
Yep, that seemed to keep everyone happy. Betty however seemed concerned. "Adam, Grimm grow larger the older they get, the longer they live the more abilities they gain... Maybe you should just get something like a Goliath? You handled them easily enough, no reason to look for something more dangerous."
Adam chuckled. "Simmy, will it be a threat to us?"
He read the blue slip of paper... and frowned. "Right, get the bus close enough then have them pull back the rest." Seeing Betty's VERY unhappy look he sighed. "I won't even be inconvenienced, but you guys would uh... well. It would be a bad time."
He glanced at the slip. "Yeah, this thing doesn't have fire or lightning or whatever, it specializes in Gravity attacks only. Not quite black holes, but... yeah, I better try this without anyone nearby."
This led to a bit of an argument.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam nodded, cutting Betty and two of the guards off. "Right, we are almost too close to my new friend at this point, and I don't want this ship getting closer."
Betty's exasperation was clear, but she knew that her abilities weren't strong enough to solo fight a Goliath, much less something so strong that it could bash such creatures around.
She looked out the window, the guns on the side still randomly sniping flying Grimm. "Is it close?"
Adam opened the side door, wind whipping past as he stared downwards. "A bit, yeah."
Without another word he lept into space, falling rapidly towards the ridged mountain surface without a care.
Even as the armed air-bus began to pull away, Betty strained her eyes to see the cave or valley hiding the foe. Surely these Grimm minions were no threat, it had to be something bigger.
As Adam smacked into the ground...
The mountain opened, exposing a single eye.
The bus fell silent as the air began to rumble.
Apparently, something had started to draw breath.
The world... seemed to move.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched the exposed wet surface vanish into the distance.
At this range, the eye was too large and too close to really observe. Without satellite imagery, he wouldn't even known which direction the main body was!
The surface under his feet, below the crater he made, was stone. This beast had been asleep for so long it was basically part of the landmass now, ever so slowly spawning more Grimm from the residue that seeped to the surface.
This... this was the sole reason over half of Menagerie was desert. Because in the past, this... dragon? It looked like one. This beast just... consumed most of the continent. At least, that was Simmy's best guess.
Even as he felt Simmy continue to shift wind and water currents to help this land flourish again one day, he felt so... small.
If this beast had an eyelash, it would make trees look tiny. Skyscrapers like ants.
Even the massive crater from Adam's landing wasn't really enough. This beast, this Ancient Grimm, probably didn't even feel the actual impact from his fall.
No, it was reacting to the sense of danger. Of the unknown.
Adam glared at the ground, still covering so many layers of dirt before one reached the Grimm far below that was even now slowly awakening. His Aura flashed into blue metal over his skin... then grew layer by layer. Ridge after ridge of solidified faith... that would crumple through compression back to a single ever darkening material over his being. Slowly, a blue eye made of circuitry began to open on his forehead.
Tentacles reached from the sky. Too many to count.
Twisted limbs pulled from the ground. An unheard of amount.
A Grimm size unseen... was soon no longer found.
And deep in that darkness...
Two blue eyes glowed true...
For Confinement of Self can be confinement of you.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The flying sky vehicle was dead silent. The few Hunters who had been recording forgot to end their video capture, though several men and women had dropped their Scrolls somewhere between reality opening up and the limbs of a corrupted octopus reaching forth.
Betty watched the raw power displayed, breathing a bit quickly.
She TOTALLY called dibs.
Hush, little baby...
Don't say a word...
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