Diatonic 1.4
ensou
Magical G̶i̶r̶l̶ Servant Mordred-chan
- Location
- NEW YORK CITY!??
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I wrote a thing.
Diatonic 1.4
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Waking up the next morning, I noticed I had made a rather significant error in overestimating the speed of my nanomaterial's replication in the Ship Graveyard.
Unlike the first batch of six pounds, which had easily doubled within five hours, replacing the surface they had been on, I'd made the mistake in automatically assuming my nanomaterial was replicating at the theoretical optimal rate. Instead it only replicated on the edges, wherever it was in contact with non-nanomaterial. So, for example, if it replaced a door and then kept replicating, it could only do so at the edges of the door going outwards.
There were two solutions. The first: do nothing. Keep things the way they were. Nanomaterial production would be much slower, but it would keep with my original plan of replacing the ships as they were so that nobody would notice any changes. The second: go balls-to-the-walls, dispersing my nanomaterial as much as possible so they could chew through and utilize every surface on the interior of the ships as much as possible, essentially an ever-expanding thin film dissolving the inside of the ship and leaving only the shell of the hull behind.
The determining factor was that the boats I was converting were primarily underwater, if just barely. I could move the nanomaterial I'd created to ships further under the water-line, which would greatly lower the chance of what I was doing being noticed.
Honestly, I really wanted more nanomaterial. My first project was going to need around fifty tons of the stuff, which was small compared to what I was beginning to contemplate, but everybody has to start somewhere right?
And if I did go with the dispersal method, it would only take fifty-six hours to get to that amount, compared to the likely hundreds if not thousands it would take doing what I was right now.
It might have been a bit arrogant, but I also felt like the Graveyard was mine. It was part of my domain, and all that was there was as well. Yet… that was tempered by the knowledge that if I acted too conspicuously, it would draw a great deal of attention that I didn't necessarily want.
Still, I decided to take the more aggressive route, consuming the interiors of ships so that at least their sonar and thermal profiles would remain the same to anybody who was watching.
Collecting my nanomaterial into vaguely fish-shaped things, I swam out of the holes I'd made when throwing the original seed nanomaterial through the hulls at supersonic speeds. Instead of keeping the two colonies separate, however, I brought it all together. It took some moments of confusion, and for a short while I could scarcely tell which parts were inside and which were out, but shortly a much larger faux-fish swam deeper into the ocean.
My goal was a number of the ships further out, one with a big hole in the side that I could see, or rather feel, through the strange senses I'd had since Sunday night. There wasn't quite any way I could describe it, other than I could just sort of… feel beyond my body, sense all the metal surrounding me and the various objects on the ocean floor, and tell the different temperatures of all the currents I swam through.
Then I continued onwards, a little slower.
Reaching my targets, my vision and senses fuzzed into nothingness as I scattered my fish-self all over the inside of the ships. Bringing my focus back my humanoid body, I blinked and shivered as if waking from a deep sleep. I hadn't been asleep, of course, but in contrast, it had been similar to an extremely lucid dream.
Now that that was done…
Fifty-six hours, I told myself. Nearly two and a half days. But I was patient. I could wait. I had all the time in the world, after all. I was effectively immortal, being what I was. Which… was an extremely sobering thought, and a can of worms I definitely didn't want to get into right after waking up.
No existential crises before breakfast, please.
On that note, I got out of bed and trudged to the bathroom to take a shower.
Like many things I was doing, it wasn't necessary. I was never unclean, anything unwanted simply failing to attach to me. But… it was the small things that made me feel more normal. They kept me sane through routine, providing structure. Plus, Dad would start questioning things if I just stopped. I could get away with not eating lunch at school, but that was about it.
It wasn't like anybody cared about that, anyways.
School… Fuck. School that day.
Ugh. What a mess.
It started off normal enough, for the first couple of periods at least, which I only shared with Madison. In a repeat of yesterday, she didn't try anything. Just left me alone, sitting there. It felt really, really weird. Off. For a year and a half they'd gone after me practically everyday, and now they just… stopped?
It seemed too good to be true.
And God, do I wish I hadn't been right.
Third period was Math. The teacher ran over the bell for class before us, and so the ten-minute gap between classes was spent waiting outside in the hallway, me in particular standing at the back of the group of students milling around outside the door.
Oh, and I shared Math with Emma.
Do you see where this is going?
Let me make it easier for you and explain something about Emma. Emma gets easily flustered. She always has. She has trouble reacting to situations immediately. So she works things over, lets them simmer, plots and plans for later.
And now? Now was no different.
I should have expected it, to be honest. I should have known she wouldn't take what had happened the day before lying down. She had to have the last word.
The moment I saw her walking towards me, with at least one other girl next to her, I knew something was wrong. Her entire body language radiated cold anger, a desire to fight back.
"Oh look, if it isn't Taylor," Emma said, her voice scathing. If looks could kill… Well, I'd probably just absorb it with my Armor. But she definitely looked like she'd like nothing more than to burn me with just her eyesight, the way she was staring at me.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 76%])
I sighed. This was so stupid.
It looked like what had happened yesterday hadn't changed anything between us. Still, it also seemed like she was getting defensive, lashing out because I was getting too close to the mark, and she was afraid I'd find out whatever she was hiding.
Instead of saying anything, I just stared at her, waiting for her to get on with whatever it was she planned.
She began speaking with a sickly-sweet tone. "You know, I've been hearing some rumors about what's been happening with you lately–"
Yeah, okay no. Fuck that.
I turned off my hearing and stopped paying attention to her, instead continuing some of the simulations I'd been working on the night before.
Packing problems. Specifically stuff like wire routing, optimal weapon placement, propulsion requirements, and arbitrary auxiliary systems while considering weight distribution and control. I had a design footprint, and fitting everything was a fun non-trivial problem –even for me–, since everything I had was so fucking configurable but had to be within certain limits, especially in regards to balance.
Yes I could reconfigure everything on-the-fly, but it was more interesting this way, and gave me something to do.
A sudden sharp feeling on the left side of my face shocked me out of my thoughts.
I slowly turned to look at Emma –turning my hearing on at the same time–, who was flushed and scowling at me. Everybody else in the hall had halted their conversations, turning to look at us.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 64%])
I stared at her, raising my hand to my cheek even though I knew there'd be no real physical effects, just the fake blush my surface nanomachines gave me. She'd slapped me. She'd actually slapped me.
Emma smirked at me. "You're just weak, pathetic bug, aren't you Taylor?"
I leveled a half-lidded glare at her. "Fuck off, Emma."
"Cat fight!" somebody down the hall yelled. I ignored them.
Her smirk dissolved into a scowl. She opened her mouth to respond, probably to say something childish and inane, but was interrupted by the previous Math class streaming out of the classroom, allowing us to go in, the teacher holding open the door.
Emma walked away, but not without giving me a withering look that told me she wasn't done with me.
Other classes passed slowly, the trio and their group having returned to their previous tactics, spitballs in my hair, hunting me down after lunch during our break period to try and undoubtedly do something to me, etc.
I solved those problems by tearing them apart on an atomic level as soon as class was over and going to the school library, respectively. It was a shitty library, being Winslow, but it had some things of interest, engineering books and such.
It was the classes after lunch that were annoying. Not because of the continued harassment, which I ignored, but because of the looks I was getting: Madison's almost-cute-but-it's-Madison scowls that were mixed with confusion, like she was only keeping it up as an act. Emma's smoldering glare that said she'd like nothing more than to retaliate, and that she was more than likely thinking up something that she thought would be able to hurt me.
And then there was Sophia.
Sophia's apparent doubt, confusion, and intrigue from the day before had melted away, leaving only hate, loathing, and assured promises of pain.
Honestly, of the three, she was the one I was worried about the least. Practically all of what she did to me was physical. Tripping, hard shoves, shoulder-checking. It had worked when I'd been a bag of flesh and sixty percent water, but now it did absolutely nothing. There was no way in hell she could hurt me, even if she had my Union core, since it was harder than anything else I knew of.
Huh. There was a thought.
I'd resolved to create an actual physical structure for myself, substituting the fluidity and situational flexibility of being made purely of nanomaterial for possibly increasing my strength and durability, but there were things that were going to prove problematic.
For instance, if I made my skeleton out of solid tungsten, or even just tungsten carbide, I was suddenly going to weigh a lot. As in, my previously twenty-one pound human skeleton wholly replicated would weigh more like three-fifty to four-hundred forty pounds.
So I needed something lighter. I could have made do with hollowing the bones the way birds did, but I wanted something better.
…I was going to need to do more research and simulations, but maybe looking at what my Union Core was cased in would help. I wanted it as protected as it could be as soon as possible.
The school day continued, passing by while I vaguely paid attention in class, but I kept running simulations both for my project and for my potential body at the back of my mind. They were very different, one dealing with structure on a macro level, the other on an atomic level, which made each of them interesting from the contrast.
I managed to ignore and avoid Emma, Madison, and Sophia throughout the day, making my way to each class as fast as possible, deliberately avoiding any route they took.
After school, however, it seemed that my luck had been exhausted.
It wasn't immediately obvious, walking towards the bus stop, but I soon noticed that I was being followed. Getting caught the day before by Kid Win and Vista had definitely been a wake-up call.
Anyways. I was being followed. And since I knew it wasn't Madison or Emma –as they got picked up by their parents–, there was only one person who it could be.
I sighed.
I didn't want to deal with this, but I also knew that avoiding it would just make it more annoying to deal with later.
Obligingly slowing down a little as I neared a rather shaded alley, the person behind me sped up. Just as I reached the mouth of it, they pushed me sideways. I allowed the force to act as it would were I still human, even stumbling a little like my old clumsy self.
I was forced along a couple meters until we were no longer easily visible from the street. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled my backpack's strap off my shoulder, spinning me around and making me drop my bag as it swung around my body before pushing me hard enough that I stumbled backwards and then fell, keeping up the charade.
My attacker pounced on the opportunity, landing on me hard enough that had I still been made of flesh and blood, the air would have been driven from my lungs. It still was, I just didn't exactly need air and it didn't hurt.
The one on top of me was, of course, Sophia. Who else do you think it would have been, I mean seriously?
Her hands held my arms down, and I acted as though I was struggling to get away, keeping up the charade.
"Being on the ground suits you, Hebert. Back where you belong."
I stopped struggling, and just stared at her.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 81%])
"What the fuck do you want, Sophia?"
Faster than I expected, she released my left arm and punched me across the face. I moved my head sideways with the force of it so she wouldn't break her hand, and simulated my skin turning dark red and a broken lip from the hit. The punch would have seriously dazed me were I human.
"That was for yesterday, and this," she punched me again, in the solar plexus this time, "is for being such a weak little bitch in the first place."
She grabbed my arm again quicker than I would've been able to react after the blow, holding it down.
I coughed. "Weak?"
"That's all you are. A pathetic little worm. You know you're a nerd, you're flat chested, scrawny." Oh, the irony. I had to keep myself from laughing at her. "Nobody likes you, nobody wants you for a friend, you're not good at anything."
If I hadn't been acting, I would've raised an eyebrow.
"What the fuck are you on, Hess?"
"Nothing. This is just your reminder that everyone has their place in life, Hebert, and you should stick to yours: at the bottom of the pile. This shit you've been pulling lately? Doesn't do anything. You trying to to act better than you are only just embarrasses you and irritates me, get it?"
I coughed again, internally rolling my eyes.
She was completely psychotic. It seemed my feelings about her being fucked in the head had been right all along. Well, at least it felt good to have it proven.
"Nod if you understand, and maybe I'll let you run away and go home."
Okay. No. Fuck this shit. A week ago? I might have put up with this. But with the last few days? No. Just, no.
I brought my left leg up and kneed her harshly in the back, right in the kidney, hard enough that she'd definitely have some internal bruising.
The look on her face as she crumpled over me, eyes wide in pain, was absolutely priceless.
Before she could recover, I rolled my hips to the right, shifting her off of me enough that it would be believable that I could get out from under her. Which I did.
My left arm I got away from her hand, but when I did the same for my right I didn't draw it towards me, instead grabbing her forearm and pulling it back as I stood up, locking it behind her.
Grabbing her left shoulder with my other hand, I pulled her to her feet and pushed her to the side of the alley, slamming into her from behind and using my weight to press her hard against the brick, not allowing her left arm to move either.
She struggled a little, again reacting and recovering faster than I had expected her to, but against me? Against Taylor, against Relentless, who could shear steel like it was tissue paper?
She wasn't going anywhere.
"What were you saying, Hess?"
I could smell blood, and guessed that she'd cut her face or head against the brick from how hard I'd pushed against it.
"I'm weak, right? That's what you were saying? Someone who just runs away, who doesn't fight back? You have no idea what I'm capable of," I hissed, leaning over so that my mouth was closer to her ear. "Or did you just forget what I told you yesterday?"
"Fuck… you," she said weakly, but with a tinge of pure rage behind it.
I could feel her trying to exert more force, and I allowed my arms to move a little from her efforts, as if she was actually affecting me, but ultimately achieving nothing.
"I don't think so. I have questions that I want answers to, and I'm pretty sure you're one of the only ones who's got them."
Sophia spat against the brick, and then laughed.
"What happened to Emma?" I bit out, annoyed.
Her laughing only got worse, until it devolved into coughs after a few seconds.
"I swear to God, Hess. I'll break your fucking arm if I have to." It wasn't an idle threat, my right hand growing a little tighter and barely twisting a bit to show her I was serious.
She coughed once more, and then stopped. "Maybe I was wrong about you."
I scowled. "I don't give a fuck if you were 'wrong' or 'right' about me or whatever fucked-up views you have. What happened with Emma?"
She winced as I increased the pressure just barely a bit more. "Fuck, Hebert. Who knew all you needed was a little more serious push to grow a fucking spine?"
I growled. "Emma, you bitch."
"Emma? You want to know about Emma? Fine, I'll tell you what happened," she said. "One day, a girl and her daddy were out for a ride in their fancy expensive car. Except they weren't in a very nice part of town. Too bad, because a few guys got together, and they stopped the car and pulled the girl and her daddy out, throwing them against the ground and pulling out knives."
What?
"They cut some of her hair off. 'Anything but the face' she said. One of them got on top of her, and the others held her down. Nose, eyes, ears. That's where they put the knife. But they didn't cut her. Yet."
If I'd still had blood, it would have frozen in my veins. This was nothing like what I'd expected. I don't know quite what I had, but it hadn't been this.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 57%])
"It looked like she'd given up, but then she started fighting back. She proved herself, that she wasn't worthless, so someone stepped in and helped out."
Who?
"And so the girl and her father lived to see another day. She wasn't some weak, pathetic bug," Sophia said, almost spitting the words out. "She was a survivor."
Emma…
"The girl didn't need anything weak anymore. So she got rid of it. And when her weak little loser of a friend showed up at her door, she got rid of her too."
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 22%])
Holy fucking shit.
I could remember that. That was the day after I'd gotten home from camp and gone over to Emma's house, worried because I hadn't heard from her since her phone had gone dead in the middle of our conversation.
The first time I'd met Sophia.
I'd been so confused. Emma hadn't acted anything like I expected her to. For a moment, she'd looked like she was wavering on something, like she wanted to reach out but couldn't.
And then I complimented her on her new haircut.
The one that she'd gotten from being fucking assaulted. I'd honestly thought it looked good, too.
But now… now I knew how that had been the complete worst thing I could have said. The reminder of what she'd gone through.
She'd immediately clammed up, her posture stiffening, eyes hardening slightly.
"Go home, Taylor. I didn't ask you to come over."
"This was just an excuse to cut a cord I've been wanting to cut for a long time."
"Do you think it was fun? Spending time with you, this past year? I wanted to break off our friendship a long while back, even before your mom kicked the bucket, but I couldn't find the chance. Then you got that call, and you were so down in the dumps that I thought you'd hurt yourself if I told you the truth, and I didn't want to get saddled with that kind of guilt."
Lies.
All lies.
I couldn't tell at the time, but now, looking back, detached from the situation and viewing it less emotionally, I could see the lies.
Because I knew Emma, and she couldn't hide shit from me. Hell, she practically went out of her way to tell me everything, and that's not how someone looking to "break off a friendship a long while back" would act.
"You know, she thought you might be strong. That you'd fight back if you were pushed. But you never did. I didn't really care at first, but you were just so fucking weak, you deserved it."
No wonder she'd reacted so badly when I'd started bringing up what'd happened and old memories yesterday.
"Now I think she doesn't even care," Sophia said. "We just do it because you're fun to fuck with."
I pressed her harder against the brick. "That ends now."
"If you aren't such a spineless pussy anymore, sure," she said, and I was almost stunned at how quickly she acquiesced. "You've messed up the status quo, and I can respect that." I was honestly surprised she knew what the term even meant. "But you better watch your back, 'cause the moment you slip up, you're dead meat, Hebert."
"Fine." Not much else I could say. "I'm going to leave now. If you tell anybody–"
She gave a short laugh, cutting me off. "Why the fuck would I do that? I'm not some weak bitch that needs someone else to handle my shit."
Ugh. "Whatever."
I pushed her against the wall one more time and then stepped back, letting her go. She whipped around, and I tensed, preparing myself for anything she did. But instead, she just rotated her arm in its socket.
Her face had a couple cuts on her cheeks, and one on her forehead and another on her nose as well. She was well and truly banged up. And she'd probably be pissing blood for the next week, too, with how I hit her kidney.
"Shit, Hebert. When the hell did you learn how to do that?"
"Self-defense class," I said flatly, lying through my metal teeth.
Sophia's eyes held a bit of anger and annoyance, like usual, but they also had something new: a hint of grudging respect.
I didn't even want to think about that right then, so I just put off dealing with it for later.
I rolled my eyes and reached down to grab my bag off of the ground, slinging it onto my back before slowly walking backwards towards the mouth of the alley. Sophia smirked slightly, but I didn't give her the pleasure of a reaction and just turned to the left and walked away once I reached the sidewalk proper.
I had been planning on taking the bus home, but now… now I didn't want to.
([Emotion emulation processes restored to 76%])
I wanted to fight something. Get rid of the slight anger I felt about what Sophia had told me.
It was like an itch, and I wasn't particularly against scratching it anyways.
So instead of going home, I walked sixteen blocks, making sure nobody was following me by moving through different streets, and then went in an alley and with a few jumps scaled up to the top of a three-story building.
I hid my backpack behind an AC unit and then altered my body and shifted my clothes and a bit of extra nanomaterial into my costume.
Instead of intentionally seeking out anything that was going on, I just wandered around Brockton, going from rooftop to rooftop. I wasn't particularly slow, either, I had to be doing at least forty-five or fifty miles an hour. And this time, I kept my focus on my surroundings, unlike what had happened the day before with Kid Win and Vista.
I ran around for about an hour, and then…
Well, and then I ran into her.
Her being Squealer.
Now, before I get into this, let me explain something.
The Merchants? Not the smartest people. They're too busy being high or pushing drugs to be smart. Squealer is an excellent example of this.
Squealer is a Tinker. Specifically, a Tinker specializing in vehicles, which… was actually rather ironic considering my projects. Anyways. She made vehicles. And she made them as in-your-face as possible. Take that asshole with the "tuned" muffler and spinning rims and weird undercarriage lighting that's sitting at a red light, and then takes off with squealing tires and the annoyingly loud ripping sound and multiply that by 4,000.
That's Squealer.
She had the potential to be an amazing Tinker, supposedly. But she couldn't think past her next fix, so her planning was practically nonexistent, ending with constructions that looked like Frankenstein's monster in monster-truck form.
So when I say I saw her latest… thing, I mean I saw it in the sense that it visually assaulted my eyeballs with extreme prejudice.
But, this was perfect for what I wanted. My first parahuman since Lung, which had been more desperate flailing around if I'm being completely honest.
There weren't any people in the area other than what appeared to be other Merchants, likely because they had enough sense to stay away from anything that involved capes, which was good news for me because it meant I didn't have to worry as much about collateral damage, even if I would try to keep it to a minimum.
…Fighting a high Tinker with a giant car-truck-panel-van-thing was probably going to involve unavoidable damage, though.
I crouched on the edge of the building, looking down on the street and trying to form at least something resembling a plan before I engaged them.
Well, first off, it would be best if I could separate Squealer from her construct. It had some serious armor plating, which might make things trickier, but not by much. It was the other hidden tricks she probably had built into that thing that I was more wary of.
Unfortunately, I had no idea what those were. Which meant that I'd likely have to improvise as I went on.
Squealer sat there, in the front of the thing, while two doors on the rear were open and Merchants were transferring some stuff. Likely drugs, knowing the Merchants. I wouldn't have been surprised if some of it had come from the lab I'd taken down the day before.
Even as I watched, the Merchants closed the doors up, which meant they were finishing up and I had to move in.
Squealer, then the rest of them, I reminded myself.
Taking a deep breath, I backed away from the edge a few feet and then ran forward, leaping off of the building's edge and out towards where Squealer sat.
The engine began turning over as soon as I landed.
Damn.
Drawing my fist back, I punched the roof of the vehicle as hard as I could, my sigils manifesting on my arm.
Surprisingly, it didn't break, though it did bend quite a bit. That meant that the armor was really thick.
The other Merchants had noticed me, and were starting to draw weapons as I prepared myself for another strike.
And then the construct beneath me moved.
Not forwards, either, but in reverse.
I didn't have any handholds, nothing to grip, and even as I tried to dig my fingers into the metal, I was thrown towards the front of the vehicle, sliding onto the hood where I finally managed to drive my fingers into the metal and grasp it, holding me where I was.
I looked up, and saw surprise written on Squealer's face through the windshield. And then there was a flicker of recognition.
"YOU!" she mouthed. There was no way any sound was escaping the cab of this thing, but I could read her lips well enough. "You're the fucking bitch that messed with our guys yesterday!"
Her expression twisted into anger so fast it almost gave me whiplash. "You'll fuckin' pay for that!"
With sharp motions, she reached to the side, simultaneously halting the vehicle and making me slide around a little. And then we started moving forwards, accelerating quickly.
Um.
I looked up again.
Something hit my back. I tried to absorb as much of the impact through my nanomachines as possible, but still. Ow.
…Was that a wall we just went through? Is she trying to kill me or something?
We went through another. And then another.
She was just driving me through a building. Literally through the building.
I got my armor up around me before the second wall, but it was just plain annoying.
After five impacts, we finally stopped, the truck-thing's tires screeching on pavement. Probably because we were outside and she wanted to see if she'd done anything.
I just looked up at her.
"Nothing, huh!? Well I bet you'll feel this!" she yelled, still silent behind the glass. In any other situation it might actually have been a bit funny.
At some unknown cue, electricity began snapping and arcing over the armor of the vehicle.
I would have laughed if she could hear me.
Electricity couldn't hurt me. It was my fucking best friend. The power that touched me ran up my arms and legs, crackling over my entire body and causing me to feel like I'd touched a live power-line, the energy dancing through me like lightning distilled and given liquid form.
I didn't let it go to waste.
Faster than she could react, I was in front of the windshield window in front of Squealer, glowing symbols running all over my body. I had to look like some sort of demon.
Stopping had been the worst thing she could do right now.
I drew my left hand back and in a blink, pounded it into what appeared to be glass.
Except it didn't break.
Oh, it shattered somewhat, there were spiderweb cracks from the impact, but I'd fully expected my arm to be through the window and up to my elbow in the compartment.
Tinkertech is bullshit.
Squealer's eyes were wide, and frantically she moved around, looking for something on one of the panels as I began hammering on the glass, trying to get it to the point I would break.
And then something hit me off of the vehicle.
And it hurt.
God damn. She'd somehow fried at least 6% of the nanomachines in my body with that thing.
I looked up, trying to find the threat. It wasn't hard to spot. Sitting atop the vehicle was a giant barrel-shaped device, the light inside of it getting brighter again as a loud whining sound built up.
Squealer had a fucking tactical laser on her truck.
I mean, okay, it had nothing on the ones I had blueprints for and could build out of my nanomaterial, but it was still pretty impressive for a human.
The laser fired again, but I just barely get my Armor up before it hit, translucent hexagonal panels manifesting halfway between me and the vehicle.
Except this time, the beam didn't cut off, it just kept firing.
[Klein field status: 11% of current total capacity]
[24%]
[46%]
[61%]
[78%]
Yeah, okay, this needed to stop. It wasn't funny anymore.
[89%]
I dumped all the energy in my field into my core power systems.
And then I moved.
I'm pretty sure I broke the sound barrier, considering how the windows on buildings around us rattled in their casings.
Instead of aiming for the windshield, I went for the driver's-side door.
There was barely a seam there, but barely was all I needed to shove my fingers in, grip the metal, and pull it away from the main body with the ear-piercing squeal of metal being deformed by force.
Props to Squealer, it took a couple seconds, but considering the door was designed to open and less than a foot thick? Even if it had had bank-vault quality bolts I still would have been able to pull it open in under a minute.
With a final screech, I tore the door off of the frame. It had to weigh at least a quarter-ton.
For a moment, I had a glimpse of Squealer's face, a mixture of rage and fear, before another metal panel dropped down and blocked my view.
But before I could do anything about it to get to her, something beeped and then roared as what I figured was the entire driver's seat launched into the air like an escape pod with solid rocket boosters, except having way too fast an initial velocity to actually be that. Maybe some sort of rail-gun-like launch mechanism.
The point is, she got away. And was moving far faster than I had the ability to keep up with at that point.
Damn.
Her disappearance had clearly caused the entire vehicle to shut down, with no signs of power, and my glowing sigils faded as well.
I paused.
Could I…?
Hm.
I looked back at the numerous holes in a building behind the truck-thing, trying to see any Merchants, but I couldn't, and likely they'd all gotten away at that point.
…Leaving me with a giant tinker-tech vehicle that clearly had some serious power behind it.
Why yes, yes I did think I was going to try and scavenge a Tinkertech vehicle with unknown capabilities for parts and components to make eating the whole Boat Graveyard easier.
She had to put some kind of generator in this thing, considering the amount of power that would have been needed to run that laser.
I stared at the console littered with gauges and buttons and switches. How the fuck did I pop the hood on this thing?
If I even could considering Squealer was gone and had appeared to take something with her that allowed the thing to run at all.
With that thought in mind, I backed out of the compartment and went back to the front of the vehicle and looked for the seams. Finding them wasn't hard. Pulling them apart wasn't either, significantly easier than the door, which I mean, I guess made sense? Except if this thing used something volatile for energy and had less shielding on the powerplant compartment than the cabin, that was just stupid.
The guts of the thing looked like nothing I'd ever seen before.
Then again, this was Tinkertech.
At first glance, it seemed haphazard, bits of wires and cables running between places, metal struts and gears and axles at random places.
Staring at it for a few minutes, though, it began to make sense, if just barely. This was for the brakes, and that was for the steering system, and that over there was part of the drivetrain.
And finally, nestled in the center and a bit to the left, was some sort of contained object that was significantly more partitioned off than anything else and radiating more heat as well.
I had a hunch that was what I wanted.
Looking around and making sure I was alone (I was, though I didn't expect that to last for long with how much of a mess we'd made, meaning I needed to hurry up), I stuck my arm next to the giant module and let my nanomaterial flow around it, mapping it and all the connections it had out.
There was surprisingly little, which meant this was probably something Squealer used that could be easily swapped out and replaced or used in something different. Which made it all the easier for me.
At the connector ports found on the device –which surprisingly appeared to be completely sealed– I disconnected everything attached to it, cataloged the connections and where they ran off to, and then had my nanomaterial eat through the supports and bolts that held it in place before lifting it out.
It was lighter than I expected, but then again, I guess nearly everything was light to me.
Keeping my attention split so I knew when other people started arriving and I had to split, I poked around a bit more.
Oooh, is that anti-grav?
Yeah, I couldn't pass that up. I really wanted to see what sort of methods Tinkers used to manipulate gravity, though it was probably nowhere near as elegant as what I did.
You can't get much better than twisting gravitons and forcing space-time to bend to your will.
Repeating the process I'd gone through with the… thing I had on the ground next to me, I pulled out the strange module that had significantly more wires and weird bits attached to it. Much more like what I expected of Tinkertech.
Well, at least I'd have something to try and reverse-engineer in my free time.
Sirens and engines sounded at the edge of my hearing, which was my cue to leave. Grabbing the two parts I'd successfully extracted, I made stairs out of my Klein field and ran up to the roof of the building next to me, and then took off in a random direction.
I'd take the parts to the Graveyard, make sure they were sufficiently hidden, and then head home, dealing with the Tinkertech through the nanomaterial I had in the Graveyard.
Sounded like a plan.
Unfortunately, dealing with the Tinkertech was much easier said than done.
I'd gotten home around five-thirty, dumping my bag and doing my homework before starting dinner for my dad.
In the back of my head, though, I'd been poking around the anti-grav unit I'd left behind with some of the nanomaterial I had in the Graveyard. I'd also purged the nanomachines Squealer had destroyed while I was there, replacing them with functional ones and leaving the remains of what there was left of the originals to be recycled.
Never let it be said that I didn't mind my environmental impact.
Despite my best efforts, however the anti-gravity system worked continued to elude me. It was like… there was an outline of functionality there, something that could make sense, but it just… didn't.
I had a feeling I was missing something fundamental.
Well, it wasn't anything I particularly needed immediately, more a fun project to keep me interested while everything else was waiting for my nanomaterial to replicate.
The power supply I'd gotten, on the other hand, worked perfectly. I had an inkling it was a fusion generator of some sort, and the power output ranges I got from testing matched that. It was nowhere near enough for my graviton engines, but it would be sufficient to help make the antimatter I'd be using.
I just had to keep in mind that Tinkertech had the annoying tendency to break down randomly.
It would work for at least a couple weeks, though, I hoped. By then I should be bootstrapped far enough that I could build something more efficient on my own.
I couldn't wait.
…It really didn't hurt that all of this kept my mind off of Emma and what I'd have to deal with the next day.
A/N: Tungsten is heavy.
Sophia was surprisingly fun to write.
The chapter's a bit monologue-y. Taylor seriously needs some friends. Or at least someone she can talk to about things. Hopefully that'll get resolved soonish.
Diatonic 1.4
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Waking up the next morning, I noticed I had made a rather significant error in overestimating the speed of my nanomaterial's replication in the Ship Graveyard.
Unlike the first batch of six pounds, which had easily doubled within five hours, replacing the surface they had been on, I'd made the mistake in automatically assuming my nanomaterial was replicating at the theoretical optimal rate. Instead it only replicated on the edges, wherever it was in contact with non-nanomaterial. So, for example, if it replaced a door and then kept replicating, it could only do so at the edges of the door going outwards.
There were two solutions. The first: do nothing. Keep things the way they were. Nanomaterial production would be much slower, but it would keep with my original plan of replacing the ships as they were so that nobody would notice any changes. The second: go balls-to-the-walls, dispersing my nanomaterial as much as possible so they could chew through and utilize every surface on the interior of the ships as much as possible, essentially an ever-expanding thin film dissolving the inside of the ship and leaving only the shell of the hull behind.
The determining factor was that the boats I was converting were primarily underwater, if just barely. I could move the nanomaterial I'd created to ships further under the water-line, which would greatly lower the chance of what I was doing being noticed.
Honestly, I really wanted more nanomaterial. My first project was going to need around fifty tons of the stuff, which was small compared to what I was beginning to contemplate, but everybody has to start somewhere right?
And if I did go with the dispersal method, it would only take fifty-six hours to get to that amount, compared to the likely hundreds if not thousands it would take doing what I was right now.
It might have been a bit arrogant, but I also felt like the Graveyard was mine. It was part of my domain, and all that was there was as well. Yet… that was tempered by the knowledge that if I acted too conspicuously, it would draw a great deal of attention that I didn't necessarily want.
Still, I decided to take the more aggressive route, consuming the interiors of ships so that at least their sonar and thermal profiles would remain the same to anybody who was watching.
Collecting my nanomaterial into vaguely fish-shaped things, I swam out of the holes I'd made when throwing the original seed nanomaterial through the hulls at supersonic speeds. Instead of keeping the two colonies separate, however, I brought it all together. It took some moments of confusion, and for a short while I could scarcely tell which parts were inside and which were out, but shortly a much larger faux-fish swam deeper into the ocean.
My goal was a number of the ships further out, one with a big hole in the side that I could see, or rather feel, through the strange senses I'd had since Sunday night. There wasn't quite any way I could describe it, other than I could just sort of… feel beyond my body, sense all the metal surrounding me and the various objects on the ocean floor, and tell the different temperatures of all the currents I swam through.
Then I continued onwards, a little slower.
Reaching my targets, my vision and senses fuzzed into nothingness as I scattered my fish-self all over the inside of the ships. Bringing my focus back my humanoid body, I blinked and shivered as if waking from a deep sleep. I hadn't been asleep, of course, but in contrast, it had been similar to an extremely lucid dream.
Now that that was done…
Fifty-six hours, I told myself. Nearly two and a half days. But I was patient. I could wait. I had all the time in the world, after all. I was effectively immortal, being what I was. Which… was an extremely sobering thought, and a can of worms I definitely didn't want to get into right after waking up.
No existential crises before breakfast, please.
On that note, I got out of bed and trudged to the bathroom to take a shower.
Like many things I was doing, it wasn't necessary. I was never unclean, anything unwanted simply failing to attach to me. But… it was the small things that made me feel more normal. They kept me sane through routine, providing structure. Plus, Dad would start questioning things if I just stopped. I could get away with not eating lunch at school, but that was about it.
It wasn't like anybody cared about that, anyways.
School… Fuck. School that day.
Ugh. What a mess.
It started off normal enough, for the first couple of periods at least, which I only shared with Madison. In a repeat of yesterday, she didn't try anything. Just left me alone, sitting there. It felt really, really weird. Off. For a year and a half they'd gone after me practically everyday, and now they just… stopped?
It seemed too good to be true.
And God, do I wish I hadn't been right.
Third period was Math. The teacher ran over the bell for class before us, and so the ten-minute gap between classes was spent waiting outside in the hallway, me in particular standing at the back of the group of students milling around outside the door.
Oh, and I shared Math with Emma.
Do you see where this is going?
Let me make it easier for you and explain something about Emma. Emma gets easily flustered. She always has. She has trouble reacting to situations immediately. So she works things over, lets them simmer, plots and plans for later.
And now? Now was no different.
I should have expected it, to be honest. I should have known she wouldn't take what had happened the day before lying down. She had to have the last word.
The moment I saw her walking towards me, with at least one other girl next to her, I knew something was wrong. Her entire body language radiated cold anger, a desire to fight back.
"Oh look, if it isn't Taylor," Emma said, her voice scathing. If looks could kill… Well, I'd probably just absorb it with my Armor. But she definitely looked like she'd like nothing more than to burn me with just her eyesight, the way she was staring at me.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 76%])
I sighed. This was so stupid.
It looked like what had happened yesterday hadn't changed anything between us. Still, it also seemed like she was getting defensive, lashing out because I was getting too close to the mark, and she was afraid I'd find out whatever she was hiding.
Instead of saying anything, I just stared at her, waiting for her to get on with whatever it was she planned.
She began speaking with a sickly-sweet tone. "You know, I've been hearing some rumors about what's been happening with you lately–"
Yeah, okay no. Fuck that.
I turned off my hearing and stopped paying attention to her, instead continuing some of the simulations I'd been working on the night before.
Packing problems. Specifically stuff like wire routing, optimal weapon placement, propulsion requirements, and arbitrary auxiliary systems while considering weight distribution and control. I had a design footprint, and fitting everything was a fun non-trivial problem –even for me–, since everything I had was so fucking configurable but had to be within certain limits, especially in regards to balance.
Yes I could reconfigure everything on-the-fly, but it was more interesting this way, and gave me something to do.
A sudden sharp feeling on the left side of my face shocked me out of my thoughts.
I slowly turned to look at Emma –turning my hearing on at the same time–, who was flushed and scowling at me. Everybody else in the hall had halted their conversations, turning to look at us.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 64%])
I stared at her, raising my hand to my cheek even though I knew there'd be no real physical effects, just the fake blush my surface nanomachines gave me. She'd slapped me. She'd actually slapped me.
Emma smirked at me. "You're just weak, pathetic bug, aren't you Taylor?"
I leveled a half-lidded glare at her. "Fuck off, Emma."
"Cat fight!" somebody down the hall yelled. I ignored them.
Her smirk dissolved into a scowl. She opened her mouth to respond, probably to say something childish and inane, but was interrupted by the previous Math class streaming out of the classroom, allowing us to go in, the teacher holding open the door.
Emma walked away, but not without giving me a withering look that told me she wasn't done with me.
Other classes passed slowly, the trio and their group having returned to their previous tactics, spitballs in my hair, hunting me down after lunch during our break period to try and undoubtedly do something to me, etc.
I solved those problems by tearing them apart on an atomic level as soon as class was over and going to the school library, respectively. It was a shitty library, being Winslow, but it had some things of interest, engineering books and such.
It was the classes after lunch that were annoying. Not because of the continued harassment, which I ignored, but because of the looks I was getting: Madison's almost-cute-but-it's-Madison scowls that were mixed with confusion, like she was only keeping it up as an act. Emma's smoldering glare that said she'd like nothing more than to retaliate, and that she was more than likely thinking up something that she thought would be able to hurt me.
And then there was Sophia.
Sophia's apparent doubt, confusion, and intrigue from the day before had melted away, leaving only hate, loathing, and assured promises of pain.
Honestly, of the three, she was the one I was worried about the least. Practically all of what she did to me was physical. Tripping, hard shoves, shoulder-checking. It had worked when I'd been a bag of flesh and sixty percent water, but now it did absolutely nothing. There was no way in hell she could hurt me, even if she had my Union core, since it was harder than anything else I knew of.
Huh. There was a thought.
I'd resolved to create an actual physical structure for myself, substituting the fluidity and situational flexibility of being made purely of nanomaterial for possibly increasing my strength and durability, but there were things that were going to prove problematic.
For instance, if I made my skeleton out of solid tungsten, or even just tungsten carbide, I was suddenly going to weigh a lot. As in, my previously twenty-one pound human skeleton wholly replicated would weigh more like three-fifty to four-hundred forty pounds.
So I needed something lighter. I could have made do with hollowing the bones the way birds did, but I wanted something better.
…I was going to need to do more research and simulations, but maybe looking at what my Union Core was cased in would help. I wanted it as protected as it could be as soon as possible.
The school day continued, passing by while I vaguely paid attention in class, but I kept running simulations both for my project and for my potential body at the back of my mind. They were very different, one dealing with structure on a macro level, the other on an atomic level, which made each of them interesting from the contrast.
I managed to ignore and avoid Emma, Madison, and Sophia throughout the day, making my way to each class as fast as possible, deliberately avoiding any route they took.
After school, however, it seemed that my luck had been exhausted.
It wasn't immediately obvious, walking towards the bus stop, but I soon noticed that I was being followed. Getting caught the day before by Kid Win and Vista had definitely been a wake-up call.
Anyways. I was being followed. And since I knew it wasn't Madison or Emma –as they got picked up by their parents–, there was only one person who it could be.
I sighed.
I didn't want to deal with this, but I also knew that avoiding it would just make it more annoying to deal with later.
Obligingly slowing down a little as I neared a rather shaded alley, the person behind me sped up. Just as I reached the mouth of it, they pushed me sideways. I allowed the force to act as it would were I still human, even stumbling a little like my old clumsy self.
I was forced along a couple meters until we were no longer easily visible from the street. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled my backpack's strap off my shoulder, spinning me around and making me drop my bag as it swung around my body before pushing me hard enough that I stumbled backwards and then fell, keeping up the charade.
My attacker pounced on the opportunity, landing on me hard enough that had I still been made of flesh and blood, the air would have been driven from my lungs. It still was, I just didn't exactly need air and it didn't hurt.
The one on top of me was, of course, Sophia. Who else do you think it would have been, I mean seriously?
Her hands held my arms down, and I acted as though I was struggling to get away, keeping up the charade.
"Being on the ground suits you, Hebert. Back where you belong."
I stopped struggling, and just stared at her.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 81%])
"What the fuck do you want, Sophia?"
Faster than I expected, she released my left arm and punched me across the face. I moved my head sideways with the force of it so she wouldn't break her hand, and simulated my skin turning dark red and a broken lip from the hit. The punch would have seriously dazed me were I human.
"That was for yesterday, and this," she punched me again, in the solar plexus this time, "is for being such a weak little bitch in the first place."
She grabbed my arm again quicker than I would've been able to react after the blow, holding it down.
I coughed. "Weak?"
"That's all you are. A pathetic little worm. You know you're a nerd, you're flat chested, scrawny." Oh, the irony. I had to keep myself from laughing at her. "Nobody likes you, nobody wants you for a friend, you're not good at anything."
If I hadn't been acting, I would've raised an eyebrow.
"What the fuck are you on, Hess?"
"Nothing. This is just your reminder that everyone has their place in life, Hebert, and you should stick to yours: at the bottom of the pile. This shit you've been pulling lately? Doesn't do anything. You trying to to act better than you are only just embarrasses you and irritates me, get it?"
I coughed again, internally rolling my eyes.
She was completely psychotic. It seemed my feelings about her being fucked in the head had been right all along. Well, at least it felt good to have it proven.
"Nod if you understand, and maybe I'll let you run away and go home."
Okay. No. Fuck this shit. A week ago? I might have put up with this. But with the last few days? No. Just, no.
I brought my left leg up and kneed her harshly in the back, right in the kidney, hard enough that she'd definitely have some internal bruising.
The look on her face as she crumpled over me, eyes wide in pain, was absolutely priceless.
Before she could recover, I rolled my hips to the right, shifting her off of me enough that it would be believable that I could get out from under her. Which I did.
My left arm I got away from her hand, but when I did the same for my right I didn't draw it towards me, instead grabbing her forearm and pulling it back as I stood up, locking it behind her.
Grabbing her left shoulder with my other hand, I pulled her to her feet and pushed her to the side of the alley, slamming into her from behind and using my weight to press her hard against the brick, not allowing her left arm to move either.
She struggled a little, again reacting and recovering faster than I had expected her to, but against me? Against Taylor, against Relentless, who could shear steel like it was tissue paper?
She wasn't going anywhere.
"What were you saying, Hess?"
I could smell blood, and guessed that she'd cut her face or head against the brick from how hard I'd pushed against it.
"I'm weak, right? That's what you were saying? Someone who just runs away, who doesn't fight back? You have no idea what I'm capable of," I hissed, leaning over so that my mouth was closer to her ear. "Or did you just forget what I told you yesterday?"
"Fuck… you," she said weakly, but with a tinge of pure rage behind it.
I could feel her trying to exert more force, and I allowed my arms to move a little from her efforts, as if she was actually affecting me, but ultimately achieving nothing.
"I don't think so. I have questions that I want answers to, and I'm pretty sure you're one of the only ones who's got them."
Sophia spat against the brick, and then laughed.
"What happened to Emma?" I bit out, annoyed.
Her laughing only got worse, until it devolved into coughs after a few seconds.
"I swear to God, Hess. I'll break your fucking arm if I have to." It wasn't an idle threat, my right hand growing a little tighter and barely twisting a bit to show her I was serious.
She coughed once more, and then stopped. "Maybe I was wrong about you."
I scowled. "I don't give a fuck if you were 'wrong' or 'right' about me or whatever fucked-up views you have. What happened with Emma?"
She winced as I increased the pressure just barely a bit more. "Fuck, Hebert. Who knew all you needed was a little more serious push to grow a fucking spine?"
I growled. "Emma, you bitch."
"Emma? You want to know about Emma? Fine, I'll tell you what happened," she said. "One day, a girl and her daddy were out for a ride in their fancy expensive car. Except they weren't in a very nice part of town. Too bad, because a few guys got together, and they stopped the car and pulled the girl and her daddy out, throwing them against the ground and pulling out knives."
What?
"They cut some of her hair off. 'Anything but the face' she said. One of them got on top of her, and the others held her down. Nose, eyes, ears. That's where they put the knife. But they didn't cut her. Yet."
If I'd still had blood, it would have frozen in my veins. This was nothing like what I'd expected. I don't know quite what I had, but it hadn't been this.
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 57%])
"It looked like she'd given up, but then she started fighting back. She proved herself, that she wasn't worthless, so someone stepped in and helped out."
Who?
"And so the girl and her father lived to see another day. She wasn't some weak, pathetic bug," Sophia said, almost spitting the words out. "She was a survivor."
Emma…
"The girl didn't need anything weak anymore. So she got rid of it. And when her weak little loser of a friend showed up at her door, she got rid of her too."
([Emotion emulation processes reduced to 22%])
Holy fucking shit.
I could remember that. That was the day after I'd gotten home from camp and gone over to Emma's house, worried because I hadn't heard from her since her phone had gone dead in the middle of our conversation.
The first time I'd met Sophia.
I'd been so confused. Emma hadn't acted anything like I expected her to. For a moment, she'd looked like she was wavering on something, like she wanted to reach out but couldn't.
And then I complimented her on her new haircut.
The one that she'd gotten from being fucking assaulted. I'd honestly thought it looked good, too.
But now… now I knew how that had been the complete worst thing I could have said. The reminder of what she'd gone through.
She'd immediately clammed up, her posture stiffening, eyes hardening slightly.
"Go home, Taylor. I didn't ask you to come over."
"This was just an excuse to cut a cord I've been wanting to cut for a long time."
"Do you think it was fun? Spending time with you, this past year? I wanted to break off our friendship a long while back, even before your mom kicked the bucket, but I couldn't find the chance. Then you got that call, and you were so down in the dumps that I thought you'd hurt yourself if I told you the truth, and I didn't want to get saddled with that kind of guilt."
Lies.
All lies.
I couldn't tell at the time, but now, looking back, detached from the situation and viewing it less emotionally, I could see the lies.
Because I knew Emma, and she couldn't hide shit from me. Hell, she practically went out of her way to tell me everything, and that's not how someone looking to "break off a friendship a long while back" would act.
"You know, she thought you might be strong. That you'd fight back if you were pushed. But you never did. I didn't really care at first, but you were just so fucking weak, you deserved it."
No wonder she'd reacted so badly when I'd started bringing up what'd happened and old memories yesterday.
"Now I think she doesn't even care," Sophia said. "We just do it because you're fun to fuck with."
I pressed her harder against the brick. "That ends now."
"If you aren't such a spineless pussy anymore, sure," she said, and I was almost stunned at how quickly she acquiesced. "You've messed up the status quo, and I can respect that." I was honestly surprised she knew what the term even meant. "But you better watch your back, 'cause the moment you slip up, you're dead meat, Hebert."
"Fine." Not much else I could say. "I'm going to leave now. If you tell anybody–"
She gave a short laugh, cutting me off. "Why the fuck would I do that? I'm not some weak bitch that needs someone else to handle my shit."
Ugh. "Whatever."
I pushed her against the wall one more time and then stepped back, letting her go. She whipped around, and I tensed, preparing myself for anything she did. But instead, she just rotated her arm in its socket.
Her face had a couple cuts on her cheeks, and one on her forehead and another on her nose as well. She was well and truly banged up. And she'd probably be pissing blood for the next week, too, with how I hit her kidney.
"Shit, Hebert. When the hell did you learn how to do that?"
"Self-defense class," I said flatly, lying through my metal teeth.
Sophia's eyes held a bit of anger and annoyance, like usual, but they also had something new: a hint of grudging respect.
I didn't even want to think about that right then, so I just put off dealing with it for later.
I rolled my eyes and reached down to grab my bag off of the ground, slinging it onto my back before slowly walking backwards towards the mouth of the alley. Sophia smirked slightly, but I didn't give her the pleasure of a reaction and just turned to the left and walked away once I reached the sidewalk proper.
I had been planning on taking the bus home, but now… now I didn't want to.
([Emotion emulation processes restored to 76%])
I wanted to fight something. Get rid of the slight anger I felt about what Sophia had told me.
It was like an itch, and I wasn't particularly against scratching it anyways.
So instead of going home, I walked sixteen blocks, making sure nobody was following me by moving through different streets, and then went in an alley and with a few jumps scaled up to the top of a three-story building.
I hid my backpack behind an AC unit and then altered my body and shifted my clothes and a bit of extra nanomaterial into my costume.
Instead of intentionally seeking out anything that was going on, I just wandered around Brockton, going from rooftop to rooftop. I wasn't particularly slow, either, I had to be doing at least forty-five or fifty miles an hour. And this time, I kept my focus on my surroundings, unlike what had happened the day before with Kid Win and Vista.
I ran around for about an hour, and then…
Well, and then I ran into her.
Her being Squealer.
Now, before I get into this, let me explain something.
The Merchants? Not the smartest people. They're too busy being high or pushing drugs to be smart. Squealer is an excellent example of this.
Squealer is a Tinker. Specifically, a Tinker specializing in vehicles, which… was actually rather ironic considering my projects. Anyways. She made vehicles. And she made them as in-your-face as possible. Take that asshole with the "tuned" muffler and spinning rims and weird undercarriage lighting that's sitting at a red light, and then takes off with squealing tires and the annoyingly loud ripping sound and multiply that by 4,000.
That's Squealer.
She had the potential to be an amazing Tinker, supposedly. But she couldn't think past her next fix, so her planning was practically nonexistent, ending with constructions that looked like Frankenstein's monster in monster-truck form.
So when I say I saw her latest… thing, I mean I saw it in the sense that it visually assaulted my eyeballs with extreme prejudice.
But, this was perfect for what I wanted. My first parahuman since Lung, which had been more desperate flailing around if I'm being completely honest.
There weren't any people in the area other than what appeared to be other Merchants, likely because they had enough sense to stay away from anything that involved capes, which was good news for me because it meant I didn't have to worry as much about collateral damage, even if I would try to keep it to a minimum.
…Fighting a high Tinker with a giant car-truck-panel-van-thing was probably going to involve unavoidable damage, though.
I crouched on the edge of the building, looking down on the street and trying to form at least something resembling a plan before I engaged them.
Well, first off, it would be best if I could separate Squealer from her construct. It had some serious armor plating, which might make things trickier, but not by much. It was the other hidden tricks she probably had built into that thing that I was more wary of.
Unfortunately, I had no idea what those were. Which meant that I'd likely have to improvise as I went on.
Squealer sat there, in the front of the thing, while two doors on the rear were open and Merchants were transferring some stuff. Likely drugs, knowing the Merchants. I wouldn't have been surprised if some of it had come from the lab I'd taken down the day before.
Even as I watched, the Merchants closed the doors up, which meant they were finishing up and I had to move in.
Squealer, then the rest of them, I reminded myself.
Taking a deep breath, I backed away from the edge a few feet and then ran forward, leaping off of the building's edge and out towards where Squealer sat.
The engine began turning over as soon as I landed.
Damn.
Drawing my fist back, I punched the roof of the vehicle as hard as I could, my sigils manifesting on my arm.
Surprisingly, it didn't break, though it did bend quite a bit. That meant that the armor was really thick.
The other Merchants had noticed me, and were starting to draw weapons as I prepared myself for another strike.
And then the construct beneath me moved.
Not forwards, either, but in reverse.
I didn't have any handholds, nothing to grip, and even as I tried to dig my fingers into the metal, I was thrown towards the front of the vehicle, sliding onto the hood where I finally managed to drive my fingers into the metal and grasp it, holding me where I was.
I looked up, and saw surprise written on Squealer's face through the windshield. And then there was a flicker of recognition.
"YOU!" she mouthed. There was no way any sound was escaping the cab of this thing, but I could read her lips well enough. "You're the fucking bitch that messed with our guys yesterday!"
Her expression twisted into anger so fast it almost gave me whiplash. "You'll fuckin' pay for that!"
With sharp motions, she reached to the side, simultaneously halting the vehicle and making me slide around a little. And then we started moving forwards, accelerating quickly.
Um.
I looked up again.
Something hit my back. I tried to absorb as much of the impact through my nanomachines as possible, but still. Ow.
…Was that a wall we just went through? Is she trying to kill me or something?
We went through another. And then another.
She was just driving me through a building. Literally through the building.
I got my armor up around me before the second wall, but it was just plain annoying.
After five impacts, we finally stopped, the truck-thing's tires screeching on pavement. Probably because we were outside and she wanted to see if she'd done anything.
I just looked up at her.
"Nothing, huh!? Well I bet you'll feel this!" she yelled, still silent behind the glass. In any other situation it might actually have been a bit funny.
At some unknown cue, electricity began snapping and arcing over the armor of the vehicle.
I would have laughed if she could hear me.
Electricity couldn't hurt me. It was my fucking best friend. The power that touched me ran up my arms and legs, crackling over my entire body and causing me to feel like I'd touched a live power-line, the energy dancing through me like lightning distilled and given liquid form.
I didn't let it go to waste.
Faster than she could react, I was in front of the windshield window in front of Squealer, glowing symbols running all over my body. I had to look like some sort of demon.
Stopping had been the worst thing she could do right now.
I drew my left hand back and in a blink, pounded it into what appeared to be glass.
Except it didn't break.
Oh, it shattered somewhat, there were spiderweb cracks from the impact, but I'd fully expected my arm to be through the window and up to my elbow in the compartment.
Tinkertech is bullshit.
Squealer's eyes were wide, and frantically she moved around, looking for something on one of the panels as I began hammering on the glass, trying to get it to the point I would break.
And then something hit me off of the vehicle.
And it hurt.
God damn. She'd somehow fried at least 6% of the nanomachines in my body with that thing.
I looked up, trying to find the threat. It wasn't hard to spot. Sitting atop the vehicle was a giant barrel-shaped device, the light inside of it getting brighter again as a loud whining sound built up.
Squealer had a fucking tactical laser on her truck.
I mean, okay, it had nothing on the ones I had blueprints for and could build out of my nanomaterial, but it was still pretty impressive for a human.
The laser fired again, but I just barely get my Armor up before it hit, translucent hexagonal panels manifesting halfway between me and the vehicle.
Except this time, the beam didn't cut off, it just kept firing.
[Klein field status: 11% of current total capacity]
[24%]
[46%]
[61%]
[78%]
Yeah, okay, this needed to stop. It wasn't funny anymore.
[89%]
I dumped all the energy in my field into my core power systems.
And then I moved.
I'm pretty sure I broke the sound barrier, considering how the windows on buildings around us rattled in their casings.
Instead of aiming for the windshield, I went for the driver's-side door.
There was barely a seam there, but barely was all I needed to shove my fingers in, grip the metal, and pull it away from the main body with the ear-piercing squeal of metal being deformed by force.
Props to Squealer, it took a couple seconds, but considering the door was designed to open and less than a foot thick? Even if it had had bank-vault quality bolts I still would have been able to pull it open in under a minute.
With a final screech, I tore the door off of the frame. It had to weigh at least a quarter-ton.
For a moment, I had a glimpse of Squealer's face, a mixture of rage and fear, before another metal panel dropped down and blocked my view.
But before I could do anything about it to get to her, something beeped and then roared as what I figured was the entire driver's seat launched into the air like an escape pod with solid rocket boosters, except having way too fast an initial velocity to actually be that. Maybe some sort of rail-gun-like launch mechanism.
The point is, she got away. And was moving far faster than I had the ability to keep up with at that point.
Damn.
Her disappearance had clearly caused the entire vehicle to shut down, with no signs of power, and my glowing sigils faded as well.
I paused.
Could I…?
Hm.
I looked back at the numerous holes in a building behind the truck-thing, trying to see any Merchants, but I couldn't, and likely they'd all gotten away at that point.
…Leaving me with a giant tinker-tech vehicle that clearly had some serious power behind it.
Why yes, yes I did think I was going to try and scavenge a Tinkertech vehicle with unknown capabilities for parts and components to make eating the whole Boat Graveyard easier.
She had to put some kind of generator in this thing, considering the amount of power that would have been needed to run that laser.
I stared at the console littered with gauges and buttons and switches. How the fuck did I pop the hood on this thing?
If I even could considering Squealer was gone and had appeared to take something with her that allowed the thing to run at all.
With that thought in mind, I backed out of the compartment and went back to the front of the vehicle and looked for the seams. Finding them wasn't hard. Pulling them apart wasn't either, significantly easier than the door, which I mean, I guess made sense? Except if this thing used something volatile for energy and had less shielding on the powerplant compartment than the cabin, that was just stupid.
The guts of the thing looked like nothing I'd ever seen before.
Then again, this was Tinkertech.
At first glance, it seemed haphazard, bits of wires and cables running between places, metal struts and gears and axles at random places.
Staring at it for a few minutes, though, it began to make sense, if just barely. This was for the brakes, and that was for the steering system, and that over there was part of the drivetrain.
And finally, nestled in the center and a bit to the left, was some sort of contained object that was significantly more partitioned off than anything else and radiating more heat as well.
I had a hunch that was what I wanted.
Looking around and making sure I was alone (I was, though I didn't expect that to last for long with how much of a mess we'd made, meaning I needed to hurry up), I stuck my arm next to the giant module and let my nanomaterial flow around it, mapping it and all the connections it had out.
There was surprisingly little, which meant this was probably something Squealer used that could be easily swapped out and replaced or used in something different. Which made it all the easier for me.
At the connector ports found on the device –which surprisingly appeared to be completely sealed– I disconnected everything attached to it, cataloged the connections and where they ran off to, and then had my nanomaterial eat through the supports and bolts that held it in place before lifting it out.
It was lighter than I expected, but then again, I guess nearly everything was light to me.
Keeping my attention split so I knew when other people started arriving and I had to split, I poked around a bit more.
Oooh, is that anti-grav?
Yeah, I couldn't pass that up. I really wanted to see what sort of methods Tinkers used to manipulate gravity, though it was probably nowhere near as elegant as what I did.
You can't get much better than twisting gravitons and forcing space-time to bend to your will.
Repeating the process I'd gone through with the… thing I had on the ground next to me, I pulled out the strange module that had significantly more wires and weird bits attached to it. Much more like what I expected of Tinkertech.
Well, at least I'd have something to try and reverse-engineer in my free time.
Sirens and engines sounded at the edge of my hearing, which was my cue to leave. Grabbing the two parts I'd successfully extracted, I made stairs out of my Klein field and ran up to the roof of the building next to me, and then took off in a random direction.
I'd take the parts to the Graveyard, make sure they were sufficiently hidden, and then head home, dealing with the Tinkertech through the nanomaterial I had in the Graveyard.
Sounded like a plan.
Unfortunately, dealing with the Tinkertech was much easier said than done.
I'd gotten home around five-thirty, dumping my bag and doing my homework before starting dinner for my dad.
In the back of my head, though, I'd been poking around the anti-grav unit I'd left behind with some of the nanomaterial I had in the Graveyard. I'd also purged the nanomachines Squealer had destroyed while I was there, replacing them with functional ones and leaving the remains of what there was left of the originals to be recycled.
Never let it be said that I didn't mind my environmental impact.
Despite my best efforts, however the anti-gravity system worked continued to elude me. It was like… there was an outline of functionality there, something that could make sense, but it just… didn't.
I had a feeling I was missing something fundamental.
Well, it wasn't anything I particularly needed immediately, more a fun project to keep me interested while everything else was waiting for my nanomaterial to replicate.
The power supply I'd gotten, on the other hand, worked perfectly. I had an inkling it was a fusion generator of some sort, and the power output ranges I got from testing matched that. It was nowhere near enough for my graviton engines, but it would be sufficient to help make the antimatter I'd be using.
I just had to keep in mind that Tinkertech had the annoying tendency to break down randomly.
It would work for at least a couple weeks, though, I hoped. By then I should be bootstrapped far enough that I could build something more efficient on my own.
I couldn't wait.
…It really didn't hurt that all of this kept my mind off of Emma and what I'd have to deal with the next day.
A/N: Tungsten is heavy.
Sophia was surprisingly fun to write.
The chapter's a bit monologue-y. Taylor seriously needs some friends. Or at least someone she can talk to about things. Hopefully that'll get resolved soonish.
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