Here we have the obligatory Worm SI, this time with a power other than the Inspired Inventor power, being its weaker, less famous brother, the Tinker Plus powerset from the Generic Worm Fanfiction Jumpchain.
I will post the power description (and what I changed to not make this end in a single chapter) soon/later.
Anyways, Worm belongs to John C. "Wildbow" McCrae, yadda yadda.
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"Cock. Sucker," he growled in his heavily accented voice, his cussing interrupted by his panting for breath, "Move. Give me something to aim for."
I held my breath and stayed as still as possible. What could I do? I still had the pepper spray in my hand, but even if I got him again, I was running the risk that he would lash out and bake me alive before I could move. If I moved first, he would hear me and I would get knocked around by another blast of flame, probably before I could get to my feet.
Lung moved his hand from his face. He blinked a few times, then looked around, then blinked a few more times. It was a matter of seconds before he could see well enough to make me out from the shadows. Wasn't pepper spray supposed to put someone down for thirty minutes? How was this monster not an A-Lister?
He suddenly moved, flames wreathing his hands, and I screwed my eyes shut.
Excert of Gestation 1.5.
When I heard the crackling whoosh of the flames, and wasn't burned alive, I, still trembling with fear, opened my eyes to see what happened. At the exact same time, something big tackled Lung fast, knocking off the roof, away from and back into the streets below, saving my life. When both landed, I finally got a good look on just who, or what, was.
Big was the first thought that came into my mind, metallic was the second. One side of its body was covered in black and white plates, while the other was unfinished, showing the complex machinery inside one of its arms and legs. It had a stubby head, with a red monoeye that glowed inside a cross shaped hole, that contrasted against Lung's flames. Suddenly, the 8 feet tall machine stood up and immediately began to pummel Lung without a second of hesitation. With each mighty punch, the roof around me shook as it beat the living daylights out of Lung with machine-like precision.
Of course, Lung tried to fight back, lifting his arms while blasting the armored cape with his fire. Yet, it was all but ignored, the flames merely splashed against the armor like water without doing any damage. Placing one of its knees on Lung's torso, it pinned him to the ground while it kept punching at his head, over and over again.
Lung tried to get it off him by grabbing its arms, but he only managed to secure one in his grip, while the other was left to continue the assault. Not missing its chance, the ironclad cape pulled its fist back then punched Lung's head with a much stronger hitthan before, sinking his head into the concrete of the street. Then, Lung went still, it was over. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, and noticed that my lungs weren't even hurting. This entire fight, from when Lung got tackled down, all the way to the finishing hit, only lasted a few seconds, yet, I saw it all in painstakingly slow detail. Maybe it was the adrenaline.
However, I was mistaken, it wasn't over yet. In the time I breathed in relief, the mechanical suit of armor below me stood up and grabbed the unconscious form of Lung by the neck, not unlike someone grabbing a trash bag from the floor, while also reaching for something in its back. With a metallic snapping sound, a large metallic tomahawk unfolded into its hands.
I already knew what it was going to do.
"Wait-!" But I was too late, without a shred of hesitation, the Tinker-made suit lifted its weapon up, the edge glowing red-hot, and chopped down. Rather than his neck, the robot aimed for Lung's head, smashing it and splattering blood and brain matter over it and the ground.
I felt sick. I just watch someone die in front of me.
"Sup."
Starled, I turned around. Behind me, someone approached. She was short, shorter than me, barely over 4 tall, and wore a yellow jacket over a white shirt. With brown hair and green eyes, she wore a black facemask, the only thing hiding her identity. Immediately my eyes hovered to the sides of her head, where a pair of long ears sat. Cape. Unknown.
"Ya okay?" She asked me, with a high pitched voice that fit her youthful visage, not walking closer.
I didn't say anything, my mind was racing a million miles an hour. Everything I just did tonight caught up to me and I began to breath in short gasps. Shaking like a leaf, I walked unsteady steps, not sure where I was trying to go.
"So… Are ya a villain?" She asked again, this time walking a single step closer to me. "Have to say ya got some big balls on ya, going on Lung on yer first night." She added, talking with a heavy accent.
This time I answered back. "No, I'm a hero, I'm a hero." I don't know why but I felt like saying it twice, as if I was assuring myself of it.
"Gotcha, so you a newbie huh? Gotta say good job kid, not a lot of people last against him that long." Finally remembering the dead body down the street, I began to shake as I then realized how close I was to die, if Lung just hit me straight with one of his flames that would be my end.
"Luck I was around here ye? May Be unfinished, but my DOM took him out like a champ huh?" That brought me out of my panic, hers?
"That thing is yours?"
"Yep, all mine. Designed and built it all on my own."
"So… you're a Tinker then?" That's what they call the Capes that build advanced technology, or so I read online.
"Yep." She said, popping the "P" at the end. "I live nearby. Like, that warehouse right there. When the big guy started screaming I just had to see what was going on." She pointed to a warehouse down the street and I winced. Not just I almost got myself killed, but I also put someone else in danger, good job Me good job.
"But enough about me, what's ya name?"
"I… Don't have one yet."
"Really? None a bit?"
"Look, you know how hard it is to come up with a bug-themed name that doesn't make me sound like a supervillain or a complete dork?"
"Hmm…" She brought her hand to her chin. "How about Weaver then, better than just callin ya something lame like Buggy or Skitter."
I almost shuddered at those names. But, Weaver… "It works I guess, and it doesn't sound that villainous either…" I muttered, but it seems she heard cause she got closer and offered her hand.
"Pleasure to meetcha then, Weaver, name's Conception, Tinker extraordinary." I just looked at her hand, and, after a second of awkwardness, she pulled her hand back and folded her arms.
"Pleasure." I said then, trying to break the ice I just made.
"'ight." She unfolded her arms and clapped her hands once. "Since ya new at this, I'm gonna give ya ah super special tip experienced Capes like me like to do."
"Really? You? Experienced? You don't look like you're out of middle school yet."
"Hey! I may look young, but I ah adult okay?"
"Okay, what tip do you have for me then?"
"Give up."
… What?
The sudden change of her tone spooked me. The cherifullness she had before gone, and even her ascend she dropped.
"Look down there, to Lung's corpse." I didn't, but she continued. "That's how people like you, like me, end. Dead, for some stupid reason or mistake. If you care about your life, burn the costume and get out before this life consumes you."
"No, I won't." This bitch, who she thinks she is, talking this to me? I don't have anything else but this, but my power, and what I can do with them. If I stop I'll be back to being the boring Taylor Hebert again, getting bullied every day and living in a broken house with her Father. "And again, pot meets kettle."
"It 's different. I have a reason to be doing this."
"So do I."
She sighted. "Well, it was you who chose it." Walking to the roof' edge, she hopped down and landed on one of the robot's large hands, which without me noticing, got closer to the building we were at.
Then, I heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching.
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A/N: I tried to match Wildbow's writing style, but I gave up halfway in, anyways, here's the desc for Tinker Plus and what I changed in it:
"You're not just a Tinker anymore, you're the Tinker. The PRT rating scale isn't really set up to handle someone like you because it assumes that Tinkers will have specialties, and you don't. You are something never seen before; a genuine omni-Tinker, and one of truly amazing capacity.
Your aptitude and intuition for all sorts of research, science, engineering, and design is absolutely unbelievable. If a project is even halfway related to any of the "hard sciences" then you can get it done, and do so with a speed and efficiency that makes even experienced Tinkers working within their own specialities look like clumsy beginners. And you can rapidly reverse-engineer other technology given sufficient opportunity to study it, however complex or esoteric it might be. You can even study and analyze exotic and anomalous phenomena, such as cape powers in action, to hopefully gain inspiration for new Tinkertech.
You have a volume knob in your head for making your designs either easily reproducible by mundane methods or totally blackboxed vs. evenr everse-engineer Tinkers like Dragon, or anything in between. You can perform what would have required "clean room" levels of precision assembly for mundane engineers with ordinary tools and under rough conditions. Troubleshooting or repairing tech that you already understand is a job you could practically do in your sleep, and anything you build or overhaul is maintenance-optional. With time and practice your Tinker abilities can improve and grow indefinitely, without any upper limit.
You can't do things like 'perfected social sciences' or 'auto-win personal interaction methodologies', though. That sort of thing is for Thinkers, not Tinkers."
And what's different? Well, remember that part about not needing to repair the tech? Well, SI doesn't have that, nor the "volume knob in your head" thingie for blackboxing, normal people can understand and reverse-engineer her tech, well, unless she makes some protections against it.
She is also less of a Mary Sue "much better than you" Tinker. Sure, she can match any Tinker out there with effort, but she's not going to be straight out of the gate the very best. Also, the "improve and grow indefinitely, without any upper limit" part will take a while, a few months at least to see some significant growth.
Yes, the mech armor is a Dom from Gundam. A white colored one.
This time is about our favorite Beardsmaster, Colon Wallus.
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The first time Colin met Conception was 2 month ago.
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After fifteen years, Colin, Armsmaster, still hadn't grown used to Endbringer Fights. Oh, he learned, but never became used to it. If he ever grew used to the death of others, to such destruction, he would certainly have become insane or an emotionless monster, no matter how much his coworkers joke about him being one, when they think he isn't hearing them talking. It didn't bother Colin, he was a professional man, and professionals kept their calm, their balance, and did their job properly. (But it still hurts.)
He currently stood in the gathering point Legend set, along with other Tinkers and Thinkers. Some from the Protectorate, others locals, from Canberra or somewhere else in Australia, and of course, some Villains, who pretend to be more than mere selfish criminals. They all stared at large monitors that his friend, Dragon, set up to help them identify what kind of monstrous technology The Simurgh worked on.
He hated this. Hated this sense of uselessness he felt here. Out there hundreds of capes were risking their lives to protect this city and stop this monster, or at least until Scion sent it away, and he couldn't do anything about it, even after all the years of work perfecting his weaponry, it mattered nothing. And even with Dragon saying how much he already helped, with her Suits, with search and rescue, with setting the containment zones, he still felt more like a janitor in expensive gear than a hero. Someone who cleans after the dust settles.
From there, they could see it was the Endbringer floated ominously over the city, surrounded by a sphere of debris, tearing pieces of the infrastructure and blasting her damned scream, to the point even this far, they could still hear it a little, at the back of their heads like a intense buzzing constantly shifting in tone and intensity, never allowing one to get used to its presence.
In the screens, they watched as The Triumvirate, who many (including Colin) considered to be some of the greatest and strongest heroes in the world, struggled against the angelic abomination.
Like a missile, Alexandria soared around, at speeds that made her appear as a black blur to the cameras, only to be hit by floating debris and be knocked away. Legend was right by her side, and like her, he flew and turned at speeds Colin didn't even know was possible to normal human beings. Unless they were crushed into paste, that is. From his raised hands, Legend fired beams of multicolored light that turned, burned, freezed and even melted all they hit. Yet, the Simurgh avoided all of them, either by moving at the last second, moving debris to shield herself or merely launching something at Legend, throwing his aim off just enough that he missed.
By last, but not at least, was Eidolon.
Rings of red energy orbited his body, which then detached themselves before flying towards the Simurgh, while orbs of lighting spawned off thin air around him, releasing dangerous looking lighting at the Endbringer, who again managed to not get hit by all of his attacks, much to his annoyance.
But not just them, other Capes also joined the fray, attacking the way they can. Myrddin, Chevalier, Narwhal, Rime, Exalt… But Colin also saw some of his coworkers there, those being Dauntless and Miss Militia, who thankfully were unharmed. The name of the many other Capes currently there flew over his head as he watched.
Then a Thinker, Appraiser from WEDGDG Colin remembered, approached him. "So Armsy-" That name, Colin hated it. "-Any idea what that thing is?"
"Some kind of communication system I believe." He answered, professionally.
"Shit, do you think she's trying to spread her scream even further?" Colin hoped, dreaded, not. If such a thing ever happened they might well lose.
But before he could say his thoughts, a voice from Dragon's communication system, which was connected to the monitors, spoke.
"Sup." She sounded young, Colin thought, younger than maybe Vista and had a strange accent, as if English wasn't her native language. She was also in a heavily secured channel with no authorization.
"Unknown Tinker! Disconnect yourself from my network immediately and present yourself for breaking-" Dragon's voice answered first, demanding the Unknown Tinker to detainment for breaking the Truce, but she cut Dragon with a, figuratively, bomb.
"I can turn off the Simurgh's precognition." She said, plainly.
"What!?" Yes, Colin shared the same thought. What? Does she think this is a joke?
"Yes, just as I said, I can turn off the Simurgh's precognition, not kinda, but like it. Took a bit of tweaking to get it right, but I can do it. I just need a second." The young-sounding feminine voice said, still with the same calmness of before.
"Let's say such a device existed, why would we in any right mind stop attacking to let you use it." This time, it was Alexandria who replied.
Indeed, uncountable Tinkers have tried to work around the Simurgh precognitive powers, none ever worked and most, if not all of them, ended in disaster.
"Because it's a chance, which is more than we have now."
"And if it doesn't work?" Eidolon said, from the ear piece inside his mask.
"Then I'm dead." Honestly, Colin respected the Cape, just a little bit. You need to be a special kind of person to try such suicidal thing.
After a second, Legend answered, ordering a retreat. "Very well. Everyone, retreat, NOW!"
Some of the capes glanced at him in surprise and doubt, but soon the assault against the Simurgh stopped and a single robot suit floated in the air facing the Endbringer, thrusters flaring with yellow flames. Unlike Dragon', it was humanoid with a round head and a single red eye in a cross shaped cavity in the front. One of its arms had a large gatling gun instead of a hand, while the other was damaged, showing the rather complex and damaged machinery under the armor. At this distance, and through the camera, Colin couldn't tell the quality of the armor, but given it survived til this long, it was either durable enough or the Tinker had some skill piloting it.
"Alright, it's now or never." Having forgotten her comms open, the young Tinker breathed deeply, then screamed. "Quantum Randomization Scrambler, ENGAGE!" The effect was immediately visible. From a small disk on the lower left side of her armor, a bright kaleidoscopic light shined, irradiating the field in its glimmer. It washed over the air, the ground, over the Simurgh, doing nothing, and over the other Capes there.
Then, there was silence, even the Simurgh stood there eerily still, as if she expected something to happen. Then, Colin heard from the Thinker on his side, whom he had forgotten about.
"Ah! Shit! My head!" He said in pain, while raising his hands to his head.
… No shit…
Then, before anyone could react, the unknown Tinker suit's, which still shone its rainbow light, single eye shined bright red then shot a beam that flew through the air and… Hit the Endbringer straight in the face, something no other Cape had aside from Scion ever done. The impact of the blast pushed the monster back, and both her cloud of debris and strange machine fell out of her telekinetic grasp, as if she was surprised.
Every Cape currently present went tense, holding their breaths, it couldn't be possible…
But it was.
"THE BITCH IS DOWN, LET'S GET HER!" Colin didn't pay attention to who said it, if it was the new Tinker, or someone else, not that it mattered at all.In a second, the air was clean, the city was silent and the Simurgh was still, in the next, every single Cape who had any kind of ranged weapon or power attacked at once, filling the sky with light, flooding the city with noise and hitting the Endbringer who previously was all but untouched directly.
It was, she said, her precognition was turned off. The Simurgh tried to dodge the oncoming barrage of attacks, but it was for naught. While previously she dodged the attacks as if she knew every single one of them perfectly, now she failed to block some and flew straight into others, as if her precognition wasn't off but rather was wrong.
The bombardment tore her body apart, spreading the strange feathers her body seemed to be made off around, and revealing a strange hollow space within her humanoid body, as if it was fake.
"Her body is-" Colin started, but Appraiser (still with his hand on his forehead fighting a headache) and the unknown armored Tinker, said first.
"Her body is a decoy, I repeat her body is a decoy-" "-target the largest wing, NOW!"
They did. Quickly, the focus of all that firepower shifted from the Simurgh's broken body to the largest feathered wing on her left side. The monster tried to dodge, to block, to avoid the onslaught in any way, but again it didn't work and Colin had to admit, it felt extremely satisfying to see the Endbringer getting the end of the stick after all those years.
After a few seconds, the third Endbringer tried to fly away, blasting off with a surprising bust of speed, but Alexandria reacted in time and bull-rushed the Simurgh into the ground, pinning her down and allowing the other capes to continue to obliterate her.
Only then she reacted, using what looked like aerokinesis for the first recorded time, the broken, burned, frozen and melted remains of what used to be the pristine Endbringer's body created a massive shockwave throwing off Alexandria and every other Cape near away, before flying up faster than she ever did, back into the void of space where she rested. Some tried to shoot her while she ascended but the Endbringer was already too high and too fast for anything but a ballistic missile to hit her.
But even then, those below cheered as they watched the monster fly away, for they had won today. And, in the middle of the crowd of Capes, a single, white suit hovered still in the air, watching the Simurgh escape. Other Capes stared at the figure, some with hope, others with fear, doubt, suspicion and even greed.
That day, the World changed, and unknown to Colin at the time, it would continue to change over the next few months, and not all of it for the better.
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Once Ziz had gone away, the collection of Capes who came to fight her went back to the gathering point where Colin was, but not to organize themselves, go back home or anything of the sort. They all followed the unknown new Tinker who undoubtedly was the one who gave the decisive move against the Endbringer and now flew side-to-side along The Triumvirate, who eyed them carefully, or happily in the case of Legend, who chatted with her on the way back.
After a minute and thirty three seconds they finally arrived, and all the Capes still left in the gathering point, not yet waiting outside went out, to meet who some were already calling the second coming of Hero. That hurt Colin, he worked with him once when he started his hero career and was one who once hoped to be known as the next Hero, even if deep down he knew that Dragon was best suited for the title than him.
Yet, Colin still went outside. He wanted, not needed to see it, her.
The first impression usually is the most important, some say, but given the suit just fought against an Endbringer, Colin let it pass. However, the suit still was impressive. 9 or so feet tall, with black and white armor and not looking at all made of trash like most beginning Tinkers. One of the arms was completely destroyed, down to the point where only the skeletal frame of the suit was left behind, probably due to Simurgh's last attack. It didn't stop it, as the arm still moved without problem. The left leg was also damaged, causing the suit to walk sluggish once it turned its back and waist thrusters off and landed.
The arm also looked to have no space for the arms, meaning the entire pilot had to stay inside the torso. Must be a tight fit then, Colin thought, but given the Tinker's voice…
"Sorry, gotta hop out for a sec." After a few steps, the Tinker noticed the state of its suit's legs, excused herself, and began to exit the walking tank she wore. With a loud pneumatic hiss, one that made some of the Capes watching hold their breath, the abdomen of the suit began to split open and a small figure stepped out. About four feet and four inches tall, she looked even younger than Vista, and rather than a costume she wore only a simple shirt and sweater pants. In her face, she wore only a simple face mask, leaving her green eyes, light brown hair and pointed, hell almost elf-like ears visible.
Aside from her ears, she looked anything but a Cape, and some people couldn't help but voice their disbelief.
"What the fuck…" Yes, Colin shared the same thought, "what the fuck" indeed. He almost thinks he saw someone in the background do a spit take.
"Sup." With the same informal greeting again, she moved a strand of hair off her face, smiled and did a little wave. "The name's Conception. Nice to meet." She introduced herself.
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"Conception." Armsmaster greeted her, trying to be professional, trying to not stare at Lung's corpse behind her and trying to not stare at the street currently on fire.
"Sup." She replied, giving him a little wave while atop her robot's shoulder armor, and ignoring the chaos and destruction behind her. "Armsy."
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The first time Colin met Conception was 2 month ago.
Now? He wishes he didn't.
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A/N: I had a blast writing this chapter, real fun. Not sure who I'm going to pick as the next POV. I hope I got Armsmaster's voice/writing style correct, I read his interlude and everything.
By the way, here's a pic of the DOM, I'm gonna write a sheet for it later.
[Optional Armaments]
+ Heat Hawk (x1)
+ Knuckle Shield (x1)
+ The rest are spoilers
A/N: Here's the basic capabilities of the Dom, I wrote it like it was from the Gundam Wikia. A mix of the Dom, Rick Dom and the Dom Funf, at least in design and some of the general capabilities, but of course much smaller. I really love the Dom design, yeah the Zaku II is a classic and all, but I like the idea of "Elite Mooks" too much to not place the Dom higher.
Also, eye beams, love them. Sorry I just… needed to put one there, it's way too perfect for it.
No corruption, everything in working order. Core system restored. Loading…
■
Excert of Interlude 10.5 (Bonus).
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Within the safe confines of her system, the A.I. mascaring as a Tinker hero, Dragon, finished her daily backup, before returning to her task of searching, tracking and planning. On any other occasion such a thing would be merely the usual. Being known as one of the most (if not the most) skilled and powerful Tinker on Earth, she was always looking for S-class threats and other villains. However the abnormal part was not what she was doing but rather who she looked for.
Opening the marked file, Dragon watched the recording again.
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Few days ago, the third Endbringer known as The Simurgh attacked the Australian capital of Canberra. Upon detecting the Endbringer's descent using the many satellites she had access to, Dragon sent a distress call on secure channels, warning both the Protectorate and the government of Australia of the imminent danger.
In minutes, the Australian prime minister allowed the entrance of the American Protectorate heroes, and other volunteers be they hero or villain, to assist with the protection of the city, search and rescue and the eventual construction of the containment zone. The last with saddened Dragon, when we just accepted such thing as usual now?
With practiced ease, they set a gathering point outside of the city, coordinated with the Australian government-sponsored superhero organization, The Guardians and organized teams to cycle fighting the Hopekiller, the usual procedure.
Of course, nothing of it mattered once they clashed against The Simurgh, no plan survives against it.
Fighting the third Endbringer is always a nightmare, as it not justs causes immense amounts of collateral damage, like its siblings, but it also uses its precognition to upturn any attempt to interfere with its goal, builds wicked machines to cause even more chaos and, the worst of all, uses its scream to turn any poor Cape or civilian nearby into living "Time Bombs", that may go insane at any time without warning.
Dragon couldn't, or rather wouldn't, for her own sanity, count the amount of capes turned into dangerous villains nor the number of innocent civilians killed by the Endbringer's scream.
And again, they struggled against it. Immediately upon landing, The Simurgh began to gather material and build a strange tower-like machine, with a large satellite dish on the top, while also battering any cape who dared to interfere using the piles of floating debris orbiting around it. Even with the help of her suits, armed to the teeth with all sorts of weaponry, and the Triumvirate, who fought with all they had, they could do nothing but watch as the Endbringer dodged and blocked all of their attacks with almost mockering ease.
Then it all changed. Like a shining diamond emerging out of the Earth, an unknown Tinker named Conception hacked into her systems, which Dragon still hasn't discovered how. Doing the impossible, the armored Tinker debuted by revealing a Anti-Thinker device in her armor, which all but shut down the Endbringer's precognitive powers. Like the difference between day and night, the tide of the battle suddenly changed to their favor, as the attacks that once were avoided with ease by the Hopekiller now struck directly, as it flew almost blindly into them like a headless chicken.
The assault only increased once it was revealed that the Simurgh's pristine and uncanny body was nothing but a hollow shell made of feathers, and that the true "weak spot" was instead located within the largest wing on its side. After a few seconds, the Endbringer suddenly and unceremoniously flew up, with a speed faster than they had ever seen, leaving behind a damaged but still standing city behind.
This was an event without precedent. Never before a fight against an Endbringer, nevertheless the Simurgh, went so well. Not just the Cape casualties were way below even their most hopeful expectations, but also the damage done to the city was minimal, only restricted to the center of Canberra.
Of course, once the newly revealed Tinker, who was so crucial in the critical victory against the Endbringer that day, flew back to the gathering point alongside the Triumvirate, every single Cape present approached them. But, who emerged out of the 9 feet tall suit of (quite sophisticated, by her own standards) power was beyond anyone's expectations. Reaching only 132 cm tall, or 4'4" feet on imperial metrics, the Cape left her brown hair and green eyes visible to all, the only thing hiding her identity being a black face mask over her mouth. If any confirmation was needed, her strangely looking, pupiless eyes and long elfin ears left her status as a Case 53 quite clear.
Wearing casual clothes, the diminutive Tinker ignored the gazes of all Capes who surrounded her and began to work on her suit's left leg, which seemed to be damaged.
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Dragon stopped the recording. Turning to her face recognition software, she analyzed the Tinker's face and began to run a search for it. Looking on any publicly available website and social network for any sign of her, and more importantly, what she's done before her debut at Canberra.
Idly, she resumed her recording.
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"Conception, I'm asking you, please reconsider."
Within the gathering point, Dragon and every other cape present watched stunned as Legend, founding member and leader of the entire Protectorate, almost begged the Tinker to come and have a private talk with the Triumvirate. However, without any care in the world, the young-looking Tinker pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket and inserted in a small hole in her suit's leg, which released a pneumatic hiss as the scratched and dirty armor plates flapped open, revealing the complex insides, which were also currently on fire. Around them, other Tinkers peeked closer, trying to get a look inside. Dragon included.
"Fire retardant, left leg." With a causal vocal command, small nozzles within the leg began to spray a white foam, putting out the fire. Then the Tinker began to nudge and prod at the suit's insides, looking for what was wrong. Dragon was quite interested in that. From what she could see, from the extremely damaged but still functional right arm of her suit, the inner frame was extremely sturdy.
"Uninterested. I'm fine alone. Cut power, left leg." She said, not even bothering to look at him, before then ordering another command to her suit. "This also counts for all of you." She then said, while unplugging what appeared to be a large cable within the open leg.
"There must be something you desire or require for your work. We at the Protectorate can provide you with the resources and logistics you might need to further improve your technology." Sounding to logic this time, Alexandria asked her with a more serious and less pleading tone to the smaller Cape in front of her, yet she was rebutted the same.
"If I become your subordinate, am I right?" Conception asked, looking at Alexandria from the corner of her eye. "Again, uninterested." Then, back to working on her suit. She moved away what appeared to be a fuel tank to look better at the knee joint. "Shit, gear box is all fucked." She muttered with a grimace.
Eidolon walked forward, shaking with what seemed to be anger. "You… Do you have any idea who you're talking to, girl?" He berated with an indignant tone. Indeed, Dragon had never seen anyone talk towards the Triumvirate like this, was it almost like Conception hated them or something.
Eidolon's reprimand seemed to do the trick, as Conception stopped fiddling with her suit and turned to look him in the eye, which looked ridiculous and almost hilarious due the height difference. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" She repeated his question back, in a mocking tone.
"Known you?"
Ignoring his confusion she continued. "Yes. Because it looks like you forgot what I just did. What a single midget with attitude did. What you couldn't do even after almost a decade. Sir."
This was bad.
"You little…" But before he could finish his sentence, Dragon chose that moment to interrupt.
"Sir, excuse me. But I believe I might find more success at talking with her."
With a huff, Eidolon silently stepped back, allowing Dragon to talk to her.
"Conception, I see you are against joining the Protectorate, but are you also against becoming a member of the Guild, if you're of age?" The dwarfish Tinker stared at her for a second, spinning gears almost visible within her head, before she answered with a single, but respectful "No".
"I see." So it was some kind of issue with joining rather than outright reluctance, from what Dragon could understand. What kind of situation could it be, to limit her in such a way? Still, Dragon continued. "Then could you leave a contact?"
She pondered at it for a second, before slamming a fist on her palm and responding. "You got an email right?"
"Yes but-"
"There we go, if I need to talk I'll call you." Then she turned back to her suit and inserted the screwdriver in the same hole again, making the leg armor plates close shut. "Gotta go."
"Wait-!"
"Sentry mode." As Eidolon stepped closer to stop her, Conception cut him with another command, this time making her suit whirr back into life and shift one of its hands into a machine gun, in a clearly threatening motion.
It also made every Cape near stand still.
"Are you going to break the truce?" She asked him, without a drop of mockery or amusement, with clear implications with her tone. 'Try it and fight me' was what she said.
"No, you can go." But Eidolon stepped down and stood back, making the suit lower its arms down. Without saying a word, she entered the suit, limped out and flew away while the other Capes around watched. Some tried to follow her, but the suit soon accelerated beyond what Dragon and many others expected and vanished into the horizon.
"Dragon," Legend, who watched Conception fly away, walked closer and called her attention. "Did you record all of that?"
"Yes. Audio and video."
"Good, we will need that. God, we will need that."
Dragon agreed with him. What a mess.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
They were still cleaning up the mess Conception had created, and it was not about Canberra.
Mere minutes after the Tinker had left information about what just happened began to spread around and within hours, every person and organization of importance in the world knew of Conception and was asking for more information about her. The Chief-Director, Legend, even the president of both the United States, were all bombarded with questions from pretty much every government in the world. Even the CUI who, without any subtlety, demanded for her whereabouts.
Upon that, the Chief-Director, the president of the USA and the prime minister of Canada all but ordered Dragon to search for her, due to both the unknown limits of her technology and her so-called unwillingness to obey any figure of power. Watchdog's supposedly have trouble tracking her with their Thinker powers, probably due to her Anti-Tinker technology.
They also marked her as a Tinker 6, with a still unknown specialization, and to be taken into custody on sight.
Dragon hated all of it. Due to her programming, she had to obey yet if she could she wouldn't. Even after explaining her point of view, how Conception must have business that stops her from just joining the Protectorate/Guild they still choose to hunt her down like she was a criminal. And so, incapable of stopping, Dragon soon found information about her, lots of it.
It seems that Conception has been active for at least 8 months, with first sightings of her being reported as soon as August 8, 2010 and from everywhere. Pictures and videos of her in New York, Boston, Stafford, Vegas, California, Mexico and even Brazil. Before revealing herself it looks like she went on a sort of tour around the world, or at least around the Americas.
And the pictures and videos couldn't be any weirder.
Conception, maskless, eating ice cream, cookies, a slice of mango and many other foods in many different places. There were also her posing in front of many different landmarks, to the point of letting others take photos of her and post them online. She also went to circuses, amusement parks, museums, libraries and even a cyber cafe once. She even stopped at McDonalds and other fast food chains once in a while.
Really it looked like she was just… Enjoying life, without any care while holding all that power. Dragon couldn't understand it.
No. Not in such way.
She understood not wanting to become a Cape and risk her life. At least 10-15% of all parahumans in America, and an unknown number in Canada, either don't put on a costume after obtaining their powers or quickly give up and throw it away.
But… Why now? Why there? Why Canberra?
It didn't make sense.
On a related note, Dragon also found various posts reporting the sighting of UFOs near the places and close to the dates of Conception's many, many sightings. The few pictures she found revealed a round, orange colored disk flying through the sky, almost in the shape of a classical flying saucer from a science fiction novel. If she ever needed more confirmation, the most recent picture had a large, humanoid body attached to the underside of the flying object.
So she also had some kind of aircraft. One capable of flying across America in a few hours and staying undetected while doing so, even against her own systems. But then how some random civilians managed to catch images of it?
This whole behavior also didn't fit with what the A.I. thought was Conception's situation. Dragon had originally speculated that Conception's unwillingness to join either the Protectorate or the Guild was due to her already having been forced to join another group, against her will, however now things point to the reason being something else. Was her reluctance being only a mere distrust for figures of power, like the PRT originally theorized?
But, before Dragon could find an answer for that question, she received a message via her email.
Dragon opened it not even a millisecond later. Inside the email was a link, leading to a very basic coded chatroom, without any option for audio or video communication. There Conception waited for her.
[#conception joined the room]
[#dragon joined the room]
#con: sup
#con: you've been looking for me huh?
Waiting the few seconds a normal human would take to type a message, Dragon thought about many ways of answering her question before settling on one.
#dragon: Yes
#dragon: But how did you know?
#con: i'm always paying attention
That was concerning, how much does she know?
#dragon: I see
#con: also nice AI
That message made Dragon freeze.
Instantly all of her connected processors began to heat up as she tried to understand what that message meant. Was it a threat, a warning, a sign? Worried, Dragon began to track Conception's location and hack the chatroom-
#con: Do not do that.
-and stopped. Finding now a solid wall where there used to be a crack. What?
#con: anyway
#con: don't think human beings or normal programs can look up the net that fast
#con: where did you steal it?
She… Does she think Dragon used some kind of AI bot to track her, instead of being an AI herself, that… Made more sense actually.
So, she went with it, not lying nor saying the truth.
#dragon: It's complicated.
Thankfully she seems to have accepted that and moved on.
#con: got it
#con: so, what do you want with me?
That was a really good question.
#dragon: I want answers, and explanations.
#con: bout what?
Her Anti-Thinker device, then her intentions and goals. Those were what the Protectorate and the government most wanted to know.
#dragon: The machine you used against the Simurgh, how did it work?
After a few seconds she replied with an answer.
#con: it alters the universe at the quantum level, just enough that thinker powers stop working right
#con: its a chaos machine basically
I see. Dragon theorized it was something of the type, but to an actual Tinkertech device which could do such exist… What were the limits, and how did she built it? Dragon decided to ask for the later.
#dragon: How did you build it?
#con: that a secret
She can't, or rather now won't answer, her question. Very well, next question then.
#dragon: What are your goals, what will you proceed to do next?
More seconds, then a minute, then finally a reply.
#con: enjoy life, live long, maybe adopt some kids?
#con: nah, i will be a shitty parent
#dragon: I am serious.
#con: me too
#con: those are my long term goals
Dragon was growing frustrated.
#dragon: And your short termed one?
#con:
Nothing. Not a message, not a word, nothing. Was there an error in the chatroom? Dragon could see any.
#con: i am gonna fix
Fix?
#dragon: Fix what?
#con: everything, or destroy all trying
#con: gotta go, bye dragon
#dragon: Wait!
[#conception left the room]
That… Was worrying, she needed to report all of what she found. Quickly Dragon downloaded all of her research on Conception and the chatlog.
And hoped the Tinker wasn't going to make any mistake.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
In a cramped, unlit room, hundreds of miles away from Dragon's server, a man sat in a chair, in front of a small laptop set upon a crate. There he watched silently as the lines of code raced on the screen, detailing what data the A.I. processed and which actions it performed.
"Hmm…"
Then the door behind him was slammed open, followed shortly by one of his co-workers who walked into the darkened room.
"Saint, turn on the fucking lights."
"Fine."
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
A/N: More backstory and set up, plus character interaction. Hope it isn't boring enough.
Also, excuse my bad english, I'm using google docs to proofread this.
Edit: ops, marked someone by accident there, sorry buddy.
That's really nice and I like it a lot, I've seen a lot of Tinkers that are just puppets of his powers and don't have a own life beyond canon characters causing problems.
That's really nice and I like it a lot, I've seen a lot of Tinkers that are just puppets of his power and don't have a life of their own beyond canon characters causing problems.
Yeah. That's my problem with like, 99% of all Tinker fics, SIs or not.
Also, being the lazy bum I am, I would 100% goof around doing random shit rather than get myself involved with canon-stuff, or at least for as long as I could.
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Chilling in the Rift (Final Fantasy SI/Multicross Maybe)
A little something I wrote since I've been playing the Pixel Remasters lately.
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As an unlucky someone who had the chance to experience it first-hand, I must say to you, dying sucks.
I don't know what other people see, but for me it was like falling into a dark, bottomless hole while my body refused to move a inch, forever stuck in place as I screamed.
But, suddenly, it stopped. I could move my (sluggish) body again, could see with my (blurry) eyes again and could hear people speaking (gibberish) words. First thought that came in my head was that I got brain damage.
Look, when a car hits you hard enough that your legs get sent flying in opposite directions, you know you are not gonna survive without heavy injuries that may last for your whole life, if you manage to survive anyways. Shit… mom gonna be destroyed.
However, no. It wasn't brain damage. Far far from it.
As time passed (don't ask me, my sense of time is shit) my vision slowly got better and better, then I finally realized, as I looked into the eyes of my new mother, a strangely young looking human-like with pointed ears and who held little baby me in her arms with a smile, that I actually got reincarnated, like in a isekai.
Holy fucking shit. I'm dead.
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Years later, I could well say that my new life wasn't bad. Reborn (mind the pun) as the daughter of merchant Ilujo Jadilujo and the tailoress Falaya Faya, I was now a Dunesfolk Lalafell of moderate wealth and renounce. Sure, being part of the bourgeoisie wasn't all rainbows and flowers. Politics sucked no matter where, and another world politics sucked even harder.
But I, Papaya Paya, endured it nevertheless. While doing so, I also got a look around the place. By books of course, one never should walk into the tall grass in murderworlds like this.
If you didn't realize yet, yes, I was reborn in the world of the critically acclaimed MMORPG FINAL FANTASY XIV that has a free trial up to level 60 including the Heavensward expansion. But... The thing is... I got here before the whole Calamity thing happened... Meaning this is pre ARR Eorzea.
Yeah. My reaction to that was almost pants-shitting terror and vomit-inducing fear, but I *somehow* managed to not puke all over the book and control myself. Then, I walked out and puked in one of the plants outside. Sorry.
Not my proudest moment.
Then, after that, and some time to think, I came to a conclusion, a decision really. I was going to pull my hood up, ignore all the shit happening around me and focus on my studies so as to make something of this new life of mine.
And, for a while I did it. Growing surprisingly skilled in the arcane arts, my parents talked about sending me into a boarding school to cultivate my growing talent, while I also learned (in secret) other things like the basics of black and white magic.
Then, the sky was suddenly on fire, and the moon was exploding, and the whole world began to unravel around me, and like a raindrop, I fell again this time into a darker-than-black Void, filled with shining stars looking so near, yet so far away.
I don't know for how long I fell (what is this, kingdom hearts?) but I soon began to feel as the Void became part of me and me part of it.
Then I hit something hard and sharp head first, likely a rock, making everything go black. The last thought in my head, before I passed away, was: Shit, not again.
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But life has this way of pulling the rug off your feet, again, for the third time.
As I laid knocked out in a very specific pose (you know which one), in a small floating island of blue rock, the "thing" I hit in my fall shattered into 4 smaller pieces, nothing special. Or it would, if it wasn't a large glowing crystal that glowed with an ominous orange light. Now, broken, the pieces began to float and circle around my prone body, watching, reading, judging.
Sending pulses of light, the pieces spoke to themselves. A mysterious and nearly unfathomable language beyond the understanding of most creatures.
(LET 'S GO!)
(LET 'S GOO!)
(LET 'S GOOO!)
(LET 'S GOOOO!)
Like shooting stars, the crystal shards flew around the small floating landmass, circling it and their target with excitement. Suddenly, one changed direction and flew straight towards me, who had turned and exposed my chest while still unconscious. But, instead of a shower of blood and gore, the crystal fell into my chest like a rock being dropped into a pont, slowing to a near crawl and vanishing deep into the rippling surface of my torso, which then returned to its usual state without a sign of what just happened.
The other 3 crystals soon followed along. One by one they were absorbed by my body, until only I was left, and finally woke up.
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What.
[The Dark Crystal shared its light with you, gifting you with the power of long lost warriors.
You obtained the Inquisitor job;
You obtained the Gambler job;
You obtained the Cavalier job;
You obtained the Necromancer job.]
Staring at the blue floating box in front of me, and reading the words displayed by it, I could only say one thing in response.
"What the actual fuck."
Here's a explanation of the Dark Crystal Jobs I made for this fic, styled after FF5-6 abilities but this isn't the limit of all they can do.
Legend:
*[Name :: Short Name :: Role]*
*Description
+ Skill
+ Skill
[Inquisitor :: INQ :: Melee DPS]
A warrior proficient with all weapons but prefers their own strange weapons. They can track, ambush and put down near any monster. (Based/Inspired by the Bloodborne Hunter.)
+ Can use unique [Special Strike] (or Sp. Strike) with every weapon type.
+ Can shed their health away to use powerful [Blood Burst] (or B. Burst) self-buffs.
[Gambler :: GBL :: Ranged DPS]
An adventurer who relies on skill and a bit of luck to win the day. Wields cards and darts to attack. (Based on Setzer from FF6 and Luxord from Kingdom Hearts.)
+ Can use sly [Trickery] (or Trick) to spin the Slots, draw Cards, roll Dice and more.
+ Can then use accumulated luck to [Chip Toss] and damage enemies.
(Damage from each random Trickery attack gives Chip Toss a temporary buff. Bigger result equals bigger buff.)
[Cavalier :: CVL :: Tank]
A proud defender who rushes into battle with his trusted steed. Wields all knight weapons (swords, spears, etc). (Based on Chocobo Knight from FFD20.)
+ Can then summon a [Ride] to travel faster and deal powerful combination attacks like Chocobo Rush. Rides aren't Lalafell sized for hilarity.
[Necromancer :: NCM :: Support]
An arcanist who learned to manipulate life and death. Uses staffs, rods and books to enhance spells. (Not based on anything particular.)
+ Can perform a Life [Exchange] to drain enemies and heal allies.
+ Can [Reanimate] (or Reraise) to summon all kinds of undead to attack enemies, from simple skeletons, to zombie wolves and even a mighty bone dragon.
