Author's note: This chapter ran a bit longer than I expected, I'll have to keep an eye on that. Also I've got a
TvTropes courtesy of a reader on A03. Which is new for me, hopefully more gets added.
Aggregate 5.3
I waited for a few minutes, glancing at the meeting room where Melanie was screaming at a certain Lapis Lazuli. A few days was all it had taken to set everything up for explaining what I had left out on the story of the shards.
On Cauldron, on the Case 53s, and on the Garden of Flesh. It was going to be difficult, it was going to be very painful. It was better explained by someone more equipped for it. So…
I tapped the Transporter Jewel, and moved a few miles away to my home. I was going to be working on a little project, fulfilling another part of our contract with Faultline's Crew.
I entered the lab where a simple device sat within a glass box, one made of sapphire and tough enough to take hits from a Quartz. It looked like an oddly fancy upside down kitchen strainer, with an antenna made of an odd crystal.
This was a device from Doctor Animo, one of his many versions of the DNA Transmodulator. A piece of supertech used by the villain to mutate animals and people. It worked by generating a higher dimensional field energy, modifying DNA through a means similar to something like Panacea's power.
Not that she'll ever
get that power, since we're almost certainly going to grab up Shaper. Probably for the best. The Red Queen didn't give me good vibes for a future with a power like that. It was a complicated machine, and the main reason it had taken years to become approved was…well frankly safety issues.
This was a medical version, one designed for correcting mutations from a number of things, certain supernatural substances, various powers from both shards and otherwise. They were incredibly expensive, though their costs were dropping to affordable within the next couple of months due to improvements in technology.
They also provided mass through the fields, a sort of regeneration field to make the weird increases in size possible. Technology wise, Earth 460'/ is decades more advanced at the bare minimum to centuries on some select technology like gravity manipulation.
There was also things like multidimensional manifold technology, which was pulling energy from Bleed portals to power things. Which turns out to have originated from Stanford Pines' perpetual motion machine. On Earth I mean, and there might be other super inventors who did the same.
It's just what I've looked up so far.
I opened the glass container, and placed the thing on my head. An interface formed as goggles extended down, scrolling through data, and simplifying it into a sort of character creator. Likely used for the genetic engineering of specific animals and plants.
I grabbed a small tobacco plant, and it was a basic and easy several seconds to mutate it into a blooming rose-like plant with bioluminescent petals. This was a basic check, to make sure the device was functional. Most models were much larger, and this was a mobile unit that was…not likely to cause irreparable damage.
Well it seems okay
.
Does it?
Of course it does, we're great. I spoke to myself, rubbing my chin and I missed a step. Oh…right, sometimes I forget I'm a flesh bag and a dumb rock in a trenchcoat.
It's fine, we can test it again if you like.
Just teasing a bit.
We chuffed, and I looked over all the samples of tech we had gathered up. A sample of multidimensional manifold technology. Energy generators use the constant physics flux of the space between dimensions to create free energy. Being able to pick your laws of physics was quite useful there.
Then I examined a sample of Amazo technology, which worked on the basis of a highly complex and mutable combination of subsystems. A method of very efficient energy distribution between the machinery of the broken robot. Matter reconfiguration, using it to shift composition on the fly, some method of kinetic energy manipulation and a way to generate and manipulate electronuclear forces.
It really was closer to power mimicry, analyzing the energies given off by superpowers and manipulating electronuclear physics to pull off similar powers. Though that was more a guess since Amazo's maker was…very dead. And the pieces of tech I had been given to study on my own time were…
Complicated as shit.
I'm 90% sure replicating his electronuclear force generators wasn't something I could manage on my own. Though the energy distribution modules seemed ample for use by the dozens of Cuprites on the planet. With over seven thousand Gems, we had a far greater pool of labor than before to work on new technologies.
I noted someone else was around, and we could feel the odds shift in the slightest of ways. I looked behind me, and raised an eyebrow.
An attractive slender woman with red hair, older than Labyrinth and taller though not by much with her recent growth spurt.
"Shamrock I suppose? I imagine Maddie is somewhere around then?" The redhead missed a step.
"So you're Cauldron's new buddies huh? A nice way to fill out your ranks."
"Unless they're giving us every cape they've ever made, Cauldron isn't doing shit for us. The only thing we've agreed on is not to immediately kill each other or get in each other's way. Plus some aspects of your powers are things we already have."
"Oh really?" She pulled out a pair of dice, and I nodded. She threw them, rolling snake eyes.
I threw them, and both were sixes. I threw them a dozen times, hitting six every time and deflected the micro-telekinetic attempt with my magic. She stared.
"Every Gem can pull that off. Retro-causal intuition is useful like that. You're here because we distracted Cauldron enough for you and your friend to escape." Damn was it lucky though, and her power wasn't responsible for it.
Mostly.
"What, like a favor?"
"Nope. Dumb luck. Your power messes with precogs, and you got a golden opportunity when our own fuckery coincided with your escape." Man that was a trainwreck of a situation.
Sucks for them. I didn't care as long as they didn't collapse and bring down the whole house of cards with them.
"You're not even lying are you?" She seemed stunned.
"The only reason Cauldron still exists is because they're keeping this planet from collapsing into anarchy. And the amount of intervention needed to stop that means everyone dies." Gems could make up for Cauldron but we needed thousands of Gems on Bet, which would be enough to trigger Scion into blowing up continents.
While I had a good chance of surviving that, the other Gems and every human on Earth…did not have good chances. Scion was disgustingly powerful, more so than most of the avatars of Abaddon. He was the Warrior after all, so being able to wipe out continents across hundreds of dimensions at once was needed.
So a Diamond could take his hits as well as a few other species. There were a number of superspecies capable of withstanding the sheer energies.
"This isn't going like I thought it would." I shrugged my shoulders at Shamrock's expression.
"That's something you'll have to get used to with us, things never go quite the way you would expect." I sighed. "At the least it didn't take us long to identify all their kidnapped victim's home dimensions."
"You what?"
"They seemed to have pulled people from a specific two hundred realities, from battlefields, hospitals, people who wouldn't be missed or from locations that would soon stop existing." From what we had stolen from their databases and scanned off their physical papers, some had been from an Earth that had gone nuclear, with seventy percent of the population dying over several days. The rest had scattered about a handful of dimensions leftover from Eden's crash. "The only thing we wanted was access to the counterpart, which will more or less invalidate their needs for…quite a number of their experiments."
"And you'll think they'll stop?" She seemed skeptical.
"If they believe it does not detract from their goal, yes. But, well it's perfectly reasonable to have your doubts." I wasn't going to sing Cauldron's praises any time soon. "If not we'll see what we can do." I spoke aloud, and she gave me an odd look.
"What exactly do you mean by…everyone dies?"
"Well…"
I watched Gregor dab some healing water on Shamrock's scuffed fists after I had very bluntly explained why Cauldron did what they did. She had tried and failed to punch me, and since hitting me was like hitting a brick wall…
Mel had a very bitter smile. "I'm very much glad you weren't the one who explained how our entire world is going to die, and the people responsible for every Case 53 are trying to save it."
"Trying and failing, though not for lack of trying." If nothing else they wanted to save the world, but they had been too focused on their idea of the best way of saving the world, and that had cost them dearly.
They were flawed, flawed people who didn't have the tools to create a picture perfect ending. They had only the powers of the enemy, a compromised future sight shard, and a lack of ability to know Scion's motivations. Some of their flaws were worse than others, priming them for self-destruction.
They were cold people, and cold people didn't engender trust. I didn't trust them either, besides wanting to save humanity, I didn't understand them, didn't know their train of thought. Though in the long term at least, we had their shards to subvert rather easily. Or destroy.
"Are you sure you can't remove them?" I stared at her.
"Yes. Their intervention is one of the reasons Bet hasn't collapsed into parahuman feudalism. We'd need to bring in hundreds of Sapphires, and tens of thousands of Gems on the planet." It was a frustrating stalemate. "Which brings in Scion and we have him evaporate North America."
All of them.
We could take it.
I'm not going to tank a moon-buster blast to the face.
But we could.
But I don't want to, you maniac.
"Fuck." Mel cursed. "What does it take to kill one of these creatures?"
"Based on the data of our multidimensional mass sensors, Scion should be just under thirty times the mass of the planet Earth. So a fair amount of force." He was made up of thousands of shards, working collectively to form a single organism.
Though he didn't have the number of powers Eidolon did, since his shard pipeline cluster didn't work in the way Eden's did.
"Is it even possible to
kill monsters like that?" Gregor asked, voice hoarse.
"We've done it before, three times in fact. Though most weren't quite as strong as Scion, they were trickier, and grew stronger as they learned. It's why the remaining avatar has proven so…elusive." The Vermillion Beast had salvaged what she could of her other hubs, integrated bits and pieces, and integrated the powers of some alien species.
She was the most dangerous and the most terrifying, degrading over the years as her fellow hubs fell one by one. The Tuscan Beast had been killed seven months in, the Azure Beast was torn apart by the Reach and Yellow Diamond after she blew up their home planet. The White Beast was destroyed by Steven along with the Galvans with some distant help from the Chronosapiens.
Scion was all about raw power and powers to facilitate that strength. Based on our scans of Eden's Stilling, it was a big shard, spanning three planets, just slightly more massive than the Earth. His flight was likely in fact a massive cluster of shards, hundreds of different methods to make sure there was no one way to negate his power. Gravity manipulation, aerokinetic shifts, light pressure, transmission of force carriers and force information across dimensions.
Hundreds of sensory reception shards, backups upon backups to manifest his clairvoyance across space and dimensions. Hundreds of 'thinkers' shards to network with his path to victory, and likely some forms of postcognition.
Dozens of teleportation and dimensional transportation shards, ones allowing him to lense his attacks across multiple realities. This was based on the physiology of Abaddon, and of our deep scans of Eden.
"Actually. Come with u–
me. There's something I want to show you." I opened a doorway in reality, rimmed with cerise. Shamrock flinched. "We may or may not be studying their portal maker's shard to make refinements. Not that they know or can stop us."
The Case 53s and Melanie followed after me, and onto the craggy grey rock of a dead Earth. There wasn't much oxygen but that was already taken care of by a few Robonoids with aerokinetic cores.
There was a wriggling thing, a small continent of red crystal flesh with Gems scurrying over it, stabbing into it with spectral spears that sprouted with strange whispering roots.
"What the hell is that?" Shamrock was the one asking, mildly concerned.
"
That is your power, a mix of several buds formed by the forced pinging effect of Cauldron vials. A roughly twenty petaton specimen with a mix of precognition and telekinetic elements. Currently being folded from its original half million kilometer surface area into symbiotic deployment mode."
"They connected
that to my head?" Shamrock seemed reasonably unnerved.
"So is every other parahuman, shards provide power from across dimensional boundaries. Cauldron mines out the physical communication bus of the Thinker, forging a direct serial connection to offsite shards." We explained. "Current estimates based on the rate of data transfer and dimensional coordinates indicate Eden landed with about half a million shards." She had been far heavier than she should have been, making the impact more heavy, and more damaging.
Maybe one in twenty shards were from Eden, most of her shards were damaged and broken, or were later vanished with most of Scion's shards.
"How…how many powers have you grabbed like this?" Melanie asked, voice rather low.
"About five percent of the estimated shards connected to the communication bus." About twenty five thousand or so. A fair number, though less than the several million shards the collective galaxies had taken over.
Admittedly scattered across two million light years but still, it was a fair number of shards.
"It puts things in perspective, doesn't make me hate them any less." Shamrock was honest at least. "I just ask how…your people seem so calm about this."
"Because they've done worse." Cauldron had been trying to save the world when they experimented on people, the road to hell paved with good intentions and all that bullshit.
The Diamonds didn't have that as an excuse. There was no common good in the things they had done, to the planet, to the Gems on Earth, and to the hundreds of
millions of Gems that made up the Cluster. It would take them thousands of years to make up for what they had done, or to at least to fix what they had broken.
"I…I'm not sure I want to ask." I gave Shamrock a look.
"Well since we've killed a conversation dead again, I have a way to deal with Gregor and Newter's chimerism."
Melanie perked up.
I adjusted the DNA repair gun, adjusting it's software based on the data from the Transmodulator. Some of its properties worked better for the transdimensional energies most capes were surrounded by.
"This will return our bodies to being human?" Gregor asked, looking at the red firearm-like device in my hand.
"Yep. They're a creation of Cooper Daniels, a technopathic metahuman. They were built from the basis of Galvan technology." I shrugged, rolling our shoulders. "Designed to restore humans after their DNA was merged with that of a parasite created by the Highbreed."
"Highbreed?" Newter asked, the kid giving me a curiosity filled glance
"Nazi bananas." I explained by not explaining. "They were infiltrating humanity using face tentacle monsters."
"How many times has the Earth been invaded?"
"Dozens at least, most likely hundreds going back to Homo Erectus." Based on fossil records, there has been a notable increase in human-like species since then. Though out of three thousand six hundred species, maybe five percent of them had human-like features. Though a recent update to the Computation Orb went from 3600 species to ten thousand.
The data I had on hand was outdated, and left out some pre-industrial species. About a year or so ago, the Galvans had expanded their database of genetics from across the universe. DNA was a common substrate along with a few dozen others across the galaxies.
We even had Kryptonian DNA, which
was DNA though it had sixteen base pairs and had a triple helix structure. From what I can tell I was one of the few people trusted with access to biological data on Kryptonian DNA. Due to my status as a Diamond, and apparently distanced evaluation from a living Kryptonian.
We didn't ask why it was Kara Zor-El.
I'm not sure we had the right to know…we were afraid to ask.
"Will it work?" Newter was reasonably nervous. "Seems like a long shot."
"I'm about ninety six percent sure this is going to work, it'll remove most of the foreign DNA, while the dimensional shift components from the Transmodulator will modify the initial folding effect that caused your mutations."
Newter rubbed his chin. "Right, you said our forms were supposed to be…like Changer forms, or something like that?"
"In your case yes, but in general…not exactly. All powers break reality to some extent, folding and unfolding dimensions to transfer matter and energy. But inoperable shards are damaged, and mess up that process
badly. The DNA repair gun will fix up your body and the natural neural plasticity of a shard will take care of the rest." If nothing else, shards liked to learn. Which was why active countermeasures were used to form a shroud for any and all Gems.
Those countermeasures extended into subverted shards, as we set up illusion magic across thousands of Earths. Improvements had been made using Mantellum's shard, the guy having been homeless and taken off the streets by Captain Jack. He had joined their crew, using his power to jack shards.
So space pirate Mantellum.
"You are certain this will work?" Gregor seemed determined, as if he was hoping this wouldn't backfire on them.
"Yes. Ninety eight percent chance it'll work, with the other two percent being nothing."
"Then can we start now?" Newter's tail flicked back and forth.
I nodded and shot both of them with the DNA repair gun. They flickered, doubling over in pain as their bodies shifted under the mutagenic properties of the strange energy field. I didn't see the possibilities shift to the negative and relaxed as their features began to recede, their forms pulled back to whence they came.
So it turns out Newter is Asian…or Asian mixed with Caucasian from the looks of him. His skin was a light shade of brown, with more or less the same body type as before. His eyes were a pretty shade of baby blue, and he glanced at himself with awe. He ran his fingers through his dyed hair, lips quivering.
Gregor shockingly didn't change as much as I had expected, he was still pretty overweight, but his skin was no longer so pale and semi-translucent and lacked the hardened sores. He looked nordic, pale with reddish brown hair growing out where he had once been bald and grey wise eyes.
"It worked perfectly. How do you two feel? Any burning sensation, do you taste static, hear colors?" I approached Newter first, prodding and poking him with a vibrating song in my throat.
No bruises, or growths or odd temperature fluxes. His UV stripes were in good health, and there was no excessive dilation of his pupils. I moved on to Gregor.
He was overweight but he had a layer of dense muscle, and was more than tough enough for a guy his size. I lightly massaged his arm, humming absently.
He's retained his durability.
Limited biokinetic Changer power from the looks of it.
"We'll prepare an exercise regime to burn away some of your weight," I worried for his health a bit. "You'll always be big but an Earth 460-AB regime should make you way tougher."
"You do not have the best bedside manner Brenda." I blushed, puffing out my cheeks.
I took my hands off of him. "Well excuse me, I want to make sure there's no side effects from this procedure." I was just expressing my concern in the way I knew how. By being exceedingly blunt and rude with my responses. It was my thing.
"Of course."
That little shit!
"Shut!" I poked him in the rib with narrowed eyes. "You're lucky you've managed to stay in my good graces."
"If you can return Case 53s to a human form, would Cauldron interfere? Since they're supposed to be a smokescreen." There was visible disgust on Mel's face.
"What people see and what Scion sees isn't going to be the same thing." I replied honestly. "We've got your shards in storage already and added a specialized set of hardware and magic to project a psychic illusion. He won't and
can't tell the difference."
"So they won't mess with us?" Newter asked.
"Not if they know what's good for them." There was a throaty air shaking shudder of Gemsong with my reply. "The only cape they have capable of hurting me is Eidolon and Contessa." And damaging and destroying their shards was certainly an option. "And I'll fight
them too if I have to."
The three mercenaries had a silent conversation, one I could have followed along if I didn't want to give them some privacy in their own heads.
Melanie sighed, rubbing her face. "You've been a very good client to us, you kept your word. That's very important in our kind of business." She seemed to be coming to a decision. "You've mentioned your Court, and well…after some deliberation…"
"You've given us answers, it was more than we could have hoped for." Gregor smiled softly, and Newter did the same.
"Are you
sure you want to join my Court?" It was kind of touching really, I hadn't done much. It was the Gems that had done more, it was the Gems who had given them answers.
"Yes." I straightened up, feeling just a tiny bit happy at their willingness.
"Then you'll be my Captain!" I clasped her shoulder, growing a foot taller to do it.
"Captain of what?" Melanie looked and sounded so befuddled it was adorable.
"Captain of my Corsairs, Melanie. You'll continue what you've already been doing, but a little more focused. Scouting, removing capes we consider a particular threat and ones you believe you can handle. Perhaps we can extend your missions to some of the known dimensions like Earth Merlin." That was a dimension with a secret Wizarding World, and a handful of capes from scattered Abaddon shards. "We'll have to get you up to snuff against magic users or other types of enhanced humans and…"
Melanie cleared her throat. "You seem
excited." My cheeks colored a bright red.
"Sorry. Sometimes my brain gets away from us." She didn't question my slip up. "I just, I'm not sure what your plans are. Though I did expect you to want to stay in a similar business. Gut feeling." I explained as I babbled and she snorted.
"You're not wrong, we've grown used to…mercenary work." Melanie's eyes shined, just a little brighter. "I'm not a very moral person, I've made my share of mistakes. But I don't think this is one of them."
"So since you're now under my aegis as
My Corsairs, I think I can let my hair down a bit." She gave me a puzzled look.
I
released and found myself back as Brandon, clothing shifting to my new shape.
Her aura was smug. "Knew it."
What?
How?
"Come again?"
Melanie smiled, expression light. "You seem a bit ignorant to what most women should know, which isn't impossible. But…well, a few of your Gems called you a Brandon every so often when I was out of sight. That or you were on the spectrum." She seemed a little apologetic.
"You're double right then, I'm a guy,"
I guess? "And I do have autism, high functioning aspergers." More or less. "You've got good instincts
my captain." I rolled back and forth on my heels, rubbing my chin. "So what exactly are your plans now?"
"We'll be gathering more Case 53s, to see if your solution is applicable for them. Especially with Case 53s who suffered more crippling mutations…" There were a few that came to mind, Sveta with her alien body and Egg with his…
everything. "Restoring our memories will also be a mission to work on."
There was a twinge of guilt. "I might be able to help with that, I've gotten some better control over my healing ichor." I frowned. "A kiss on the head should pull back the memories depending on the nature of their erasure." The question wasn't on whether we could fix it, it was on whether they
wanted those memories back.
They weren't good ones I was sure, and I didn't think it was a good idea. But I wasn't going to dictate to them on what was best. It was their memories,
their life, their forgotten past.
"Can you truly restore our memories?" There was something decidedly more
vulnerable in Gregor's voice.
"Yes. I couldn't before because my abilities were more unrefined, but I've learned how to better focus the effects of my ichor." I could
feel the shape of the life giving fluid flowing where blood once had, solid magical matter, denser and deeper, and more
fundamental than the light-based essence within chromatic Gem bodies.
…
I breathed.
"Do you want those memories back? Is that something you desire, truly?" I asked, song refined, kept in check. "There are things you might not like in those memories, and not what Cauldron did to you…" I preempted what they were going to say. "They chose people that wouldn't be missed for one reason or another, it could be…
unpleasant. "
"Our choice." Newter said with a serious look that was patently ridiculous on his youthful face.
Looks like our brother.
I smiled sadly, nodding. I kissed my hand, looking within myself to shape the purpose of the ichor within. Gregor stepped first, and I placed my hand. I pressed it against his temple. I focused my intent, and then used my Aura to connect to
his. I could see the ragged seals, where the Slug had worn away at the memories.
In a purely physical world, the damage would be almost impossible to unravel, but this wasn't such a world. I pulled out the memories, forming a barrier, he could tap into the memories freely without being overwhelmed, having his identity distorted.
He stumbled, eyes wide. His reaction settled slowly, as he grew used to what he remembered, to what had returned to you.
"You good?" I was concerned for the person I hoped to call a friend.
"
Vinur. Ég sé at hverju þú hafðir áhyggjur." He spoke in his native tongue.
Friend. I see why you were worried. I understood him perfectly no matter what language he spoke. "My old name…I remember, Gregor. Gregor Greseth."
Watchful-vigilant-farmstead-stone.
He was an attentive person, and he was steady, a rock in the chaos of a dangerous world.
"How do you feel?"
"They are memories of a man I no longer am." He simply said, a sad look in his eyes. "I remember…that vision of serpents in the sky, and lethargic frog-like creatures.
Screaming. "
Trigger Vision.
"I imagine it's disturbing." I was careful to not say too much.
"You created gates in my mind, to regulate the flow." He spoke with equal care, and I nodded. "Thank you for that Brandon." He clasped my shoulder firmly, and I smiled hesitantly.
Newter sounded nervous. "Is it my turn?"
"If it's what you want." He didn't change his mind, so I touched his temple once more, healing both physically and metaphysically. I pulled out the memories, tapped into the tendrils and connections.
He reared back in surprise. "
Gwarra Engel." There was a bitter tilt to his smile. He looked angry, and yet…it was a despondency, a disappointment in his eyes.
"Newter?" I tapped my foot nervously.
"Bakonawa Brouwer." It was distorted to
lizard-god-underworld-ruler-brewer by my Gem sensibilities. "It was…Alexandria who fished me out of where I was, and I don't…" He choked. "I don't really have anything left do I?"
I wanted to hug him but I wasn't sure it was my place. Melanie moved swiftly where I was paralyzed by indecision.
She pulled the boy(he was just a boy…) into a tight firm hug. She whispered sweet affections into his ear, eyes turning soft and her aura pulsing with a love so strong it almost brought a tear.
Damn
empathetic powers making me into a crybaby.
"So I should probably…" I backed away and to my surprise I was picked up by Gregor. I flailed, face flushing.
"There's no reason for you to leave my friend, you made this possible." I, what? I didn't do…anything. "You did not have to help us, you did not even need to hire us. We were,
are criminals, we put Elle in harm's way because of our mistakes and yet…"
I accepted them anyway.
Had that really convinced them?
Apparently we earned their loyalty.
"Umm…" I felt embarrassed, face heating up. "I…I'm surprised you feel like that." It…it felt nice to have friends, even if some of them were…former criminals.
Then again Steven is technically a war criminal.
Fair.
Gregor put me down and I shrunk myself back to standard height.
"Well I should probably get going. I have to attend a meeting with a PRT liaison."
Melanie rolled her eyes, and I let out a chirp when she patted my head. "Well we have to plan for our mission to New York. Don't be a stranger."
I pushed her off, puffing my cheeks. "Meh!"
Fucking Stars, give them a little leeway and they walk all over you.
I leaned back in a chair, inspecting my nails again while glancing at a PRT van. Some of the agents were watching me, their aura doused in wariness and unease. I didn't care, since it didn't really matter that much. They had assigned us a few liaisons, including a special agent of some type who never stayed in one place.
He had come in from Houston, since that was one of the places we had designated as interaction zones along with Boston, Brockton Bay, New York, Los Angeles, Geneva, Ottawa, Paris, Mexico City, Canberra, and New Delhi.
Europe had a number of interesting capes, like the Queen of Swords and her Trump/Blaster power. She could gather power effects into a blob to empower her bullets with the effect. Brockton Bay had a confirmed high level of 'noble' shards or at least powerful ones.
Shaper, Administrator, a fragment of Scion's PtV in Dinah, the shard used to block memories, a large fraction of the shard used to draw upon other shards in Dauntless. He was Eidolon's reflection.
Eidolon's shard was a
big boy, most vital and noble shards were. They were more powerful, though that had more to do with their use in the cycle, the before, the during, the after. On average they massed at around twelve zetatons, twice the mass of the Earth. Based on scans they had taken, Eidolon's shard was spread out over about four Earths, burrowing some thirty kilometers into the planet.
Using an Incursean superweapon could wipe it out in one shot, though only if it didn't draw upon inviolable powers to protect itself. Though with my Sting breakthrough, maybe even that wouldn't protect them anymore. The main issue was scaling it up from decorative machetes to ship energy weapons.
Which was going to take a bit, and we likely needed to borrow more data from Scion's Sting for that.
"Your contact, Mr. Simmons shouldn't be much longer." A cape I didn't know informed me, and I continued to ignore their existence while we daydreamed.
Capes are squishy.
Not all of them…
I stepped into the conference room and sat down, waiting for the liaison since we couldn't be talking with the Director all the time. There was a soft knocking on the door, and my eyebrows raised when I felt the
distinct aura of the mguyan as he came in. He was a middle aged man with thick eyebrows, thinning hair and heavy cheeks. A big nose and ears, rather unattractive even with a fancy dress shirt and dark slacks.
Are they fucking serious?
I think they are.
There was a jade green aura coming from the man, and I could see the colorless aura of his shard. It was a multitudinous assembly of minds, resembling fractal crystal as all powers did. It was holding onto three smaller auras, and a more tenuous link went through the wall, splitting into three pathways beforehand.
I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole. So instead I'm going to read the aura of the major shard in front of me. I expanded my power, reaching
mentally towards the agent.
There was a rush of dull emotions, simple, mostly animalistic in complexity. Fear, rage, simple emotions, basic algorithms used to fuel their survival instincts. I read surface thoughts, micro-broadcasts of information. I pulled something simple, a name, a designation.
Distribution Administrator.
Curious.
So David here had the Distribution Administrator, a core governing shard on a macro-level. Specialized toward both networking and emulation of powers, performing executive functions. Shards used to draw and distribute energy and power. It also had the function of activating and disabling shards as a matter of course as a networker.
It shaped and activated the Endbringers using extant resources, shard clusters collected for the role of chaos engine. So much interesting data had been plucked really quite easily.
"So you're one of our liaisons then? Mr. Simmons?" I didn't bother being subtle, raising an eyebrow at the holder of a vital piece of Eden.
He didn't take the bait, crossing his arms. "They thought I was an optimal choice due to my skills and my own nomadic tendencies. As well as having high enough clearance to negotiate with your world."
"Worlds would be more accurate," I replied honestly. "Having over a hundred thousand colonies and millions of outposts shouldn't be underestimated." There were only a few species capable of matching the collective might of Gemkind. Either through having thousands of worlds of their own, or technology equal to our own.
There weren't many, but there were enough.
I shook my head. "But that's not relevant for our negotiations. I believe you've been authorized to speak with the Gem Empire, while some others are working on possible technology transfer programs."
"My main role is to keep tabs on the local branch called Atlas, sharing information and providing research in a pinch."
"Can we be honest for a minute here
David? " I asked, song curling with my power. He almost smiled, a twinkle in his eyes.
He snapped his fingers, and we were surrounded by a strange field of mirrors, expressing realistic illusions of us talking like normal. Kind of hurt my eyes that saw a greater range of wavelengths.
"We expected you were capable of identifying capes on sight, though we aren't sure how."
"Literal psychic powers, I see auras, even the
shards aren't outside the influence of the Diamonds. And I've got galactic range on that, and by Stars is it annoying." I complained, not really feeling a need to be formal.
What was even the point?
"You have telepathy on a galactic scale?" His aura was shrinking away, pulsing with distrust.
"
Range. I've contacted a few alien species across thousands of light years. The main issue is that feeling the trace emotions of everyone around me is…not what one could consider…comfortable." Not with humans anyway, Gems were nicer. "That's not important though, what exactly did you need to speak to
me about?"
I might be a Diamond but I wasn't some perfect being who needed to be talked to by important people all the time. I admittingly learned more quickly with my advanced processing. Having a divine god computer for a brain was really helpful.
"Your people, they predicted the aftermath of destroying the Fallen didn't they? Are they willing to deal with the consequences?"
"Far more than I am, that's for sure. They're the ones used to juggling a war where thousands of planets have been destroyed, and chasing down monsters the size of continents." We had about a dozen Sapphires, mapping out locations for colonization and improving our knowledge of Earth Bet. "They're prepared for consequences on the scale of millions, no billions of lives if not more."
It was more. So much more.
Eidolon crossed his arms, surprisingly he didn't act like much of an arrogant prick. Though maybe it was because I was closer to his level. Technically speaking anyway. As I matured my durability would rise to the point a planet exploding while I was on it wouldn't kill me.
Then however high my energy projection could scale up, three Diamonds managed to outshine the sun with an attack right past the moon, enveloping the world and disrupting it enough to part clouds for the corruption blast. Could I blow up a city with the all-encompassing destruction I could invoke, destroy a country even?
No Gem could disrupt a Diamond's form much less kill them. And when that included mass hydrokinetics capable of moving oceans that said a lot. Even the shards had a hard time, and it had gotten harder as the Gems figured out their powers and how to unravel them.
Attacks that would have killed them no longer worked as well, and were now being used against shards who couldn't adapt quick enough.
"What are your plans for this planet then?"
"Keep it from being eaten by monsters from beyond the stars," I bluntly replied. "It's why the Deimos Sphere is being constructed, a massive space station built to punch through the defenses of the enemy." It wasn't complete but once it was, we'd be able to destroy moons. Luna-sized moons. "Our enemy is more than capable of replicating powers with enough time. You have half a million delectable morsels up for grabs."
"Morsels?" He sounded faint.
"They already
know you're here, it's one of the reasons their Earth is so heavily defended to begin with. To keep any of the fragments of the enemy from
crushing your world flat. Then coming back and destroying their world with a new array of powers." I shrugged at his expression. "Sorry but it's the truth."
"So you're trying to save the world, keep it from being destroyed by your enemy?" He asked, his expression uncertain.
"Yes we are, but we have to be careful to not
break things. Destroying the Fallen has consequences, ones we had to personally deal with, and one your Watchdog had to be informed of." I hoped he could read between the lines, that we were keeping it low key and out of Scion's view.
Thank the skies for illusion magic.
"Then perhaps we should move on to the next steps, what kind of relationship does the Gem Empire want with Earth Bet?"
I felt my lips lift into a smirk, and I leaned forward with a tilted head. He was blunt, and I preferred that to political bullshit.
If he continued perhaps this was going to be a productive meeting?
I kicked away a building sized fragment of shard flesh, shadowy energies encompassed the shard though establishing size was difficult, when they warped space and time as heavily as they did. They could be continent sized or building size all at the same time, layered over multiple dimensions, the alien lense of Shardspace encompassing the entire network was vast and unknowable.
Of course subverted shards folded their mass into higher dimensions then unfolded them into normal four dimensional space to draw upon ambient energies like solar, geothermal, or breaking up of matter into energy from the planet. Most of their energy was from the detonation of worlds from a previous cycle, a sort of battery.
This was the planet that Seir's shard had all to it's lonesome. It wasn't a particularly large shard, maybe about the size of a small city by mass. Most shards were on
average about two petatons. But that was skewed by a ton of larger, greater shards. A typical shard outside the big ones was about twenty five teratons, maybe a quarter the mass of Mauna Loa including her base volume.
Their density varied a lot depending on when and where they distributed their mass through spatial warping, higher dimensional folding and transuniversal matter-energy transference.
I moved along, floating from step to step. Then I
reacted.
A light pink fist slammed against my arm, my shield flickering around my entire body. Starry had enacted a spontaneous sparring match, and when I stepped back I narrowly avoided tumbling off a cracked section leading to a cliff.
"Faultline is part of this too isn't she?" The Rose Quartz laughed it off.
"Well she's not picking a fight with you directly, that much I can tell you." I looked around, and couldn't pick out the traps Mel had left behind. Clever girl.
There was a reason I considered her
my, her smart tactical brain was one of them. Her ability to command capes was another of them. She had been helpful, she was all about dissecting powers, studying them, studying the people behind them. Where was it best to place them, what could you learn from them?
Her power was limited by range, so she used her power strategically. Fissures, cracks in the wall to trip people up. Attacking structural components in unique specific ways. Making handholds, even creating dust clouds to obscure the sight of enemies.
Tunnels as well, a creative use of her power.
Three monstrous dogs ambushed me from behind and from the left, and I twirled around them. A single kick knocked away Brutus, the dog howling with a calm fury. To my surprise a wall formed from the ground, and I felt the danger spread across the landscape.
My sharp eyes caught Elle in her costume, kept out of sight due to dust clouds created by Faultline beforehand. Which when I realized I was now caught in a thousand foot diameter maze, the land twisting and folding under her influence.
I tried to grab one dog by the scruff of their neck, and it charged
through a wall while I slammed right through a solid foot of stone. The landscape continued to twist and fold, the 1.5 space distorting reality apart. Then I received a fireball to the face, then a barrage. I noted a projectile within the fireball. It was a dull crossbow bolt with a fire glyph.
Fired at five hundred feet per second, which might work well with a human but so well with a Gem. I twisted out of the way of another bolt, but it exploded into a pillar of ice and trapped me within it's confines.
Ooo. Better.
Even then she was aiming where I would be, aiming with a foresight inherent only to the greatest human fighters and any common Gem. There was a reason aim dodging was super common, on Earth 460-AB their best fighters tapped into a deeper sense of the universe.
That plus their bodies being reinforced by…different physics, partial access to higher realities made them…way tougher. A solid Brute 3. Maybe 4 with the whole kicking through steel doors thing. Plus the Charles Atlas Superpower thing. Some studies believed it related to the nature of the soul in their realities.
In 'mundane' realities souls lacked the mechanisms to interface with physical existence, making them both immeasurable and useless for anything. Their world didn't lack that esoteric machinery, so there was a resilience to their flesh most people on Bet and Mundanus
used to lack. The door had been cracked open, and my reality was forever changed. As was theirs.
I stopped distracting myself, and breathed out a blast of rose red fire to burn down the walls. Another bolt exploded into a barrage of hard light which unfolded into spires of exploding energy. They
hit hard but got blocked by a spontaneous shield.
I danced out of the way of a strange goopy creature, purplish substance given purpose and mind by a series of glyphs forming an invocation circle. An Abomination, riding one of Rachel's dogs before trying to tackle me. It attacked with a loud moan, and fire flickered out before—
I exploded as the thing rushed me and blew itself up in an explosion of precisely timed magic. Starry emerged from the explosion, fists lighting with energy. I ducked beneath her strikes, and I made use of my skill in shapeshifting.
My skin crystallized, hardening to a layer of interlocking scales. In a matter of moments I had twisted flesh and light into an inhuman form. I dropped to all fours, becoming a reptilian-like creature. I opened my jaw and bit down to punish Starry.
She kicked me off, and I shifted back to human, though I maintained a scaled tail which ended in a curving spike. I breathed deep, and reached for a power. My spine shifted, and bone and muscle and skin lensed out in a burst of light. Leathery wings sprouted from my back, and I shook off some shivers from the sensory input.
With a single beat of my wings I took flight where my energy field
couldn't. Which was annoying because I
had flown as Druzy Quartz. Either way, wings plus magic and reptile tail made me a dragon boy from now on. I hummed and pulled out my newest weapon, and right as my hands gripped the handle, it unfolded under the influence of Sting.
Friction was told to take a hike, and I cut my way through the walls as they rose up to a hundred meters in the air, slicing through matter and obliterating structures where they stood. I followed the danger, a ringing wave of song.
I swung my tail, lighting it with Diamond's fire. I released an arc of destructive energy, one that Starry blocked with her shield. It cracked but otherwise continued to exist.
I shifted my hips, hopping away from a barrage of fireballs and icicle spears from Elle, and I hissed when she brought in a hellscape, obsidian pillars and lava flows. Instead of boiling the water in my body, I walked
through the plain, the heat flickering around my skin.
I absorbed it, fueling myself off of infrared radiation. I built up my own energies, compressing my Aura down, shaping it into what I needed. When I breathed, it came with a vibrating orchestra of Gemsong.
Matter died, a wave of plasma shattering the ground while avoiding my opponents. I was clearing the field, not clearing their lives.
I'd rather not hurt what's mine.
True.
For thirty meters around, the field was turned to glass, melted down by my power. I had released enough force to destroy a small city block, and had hurt no one in the process.
"Thank you Steven." His psychic forehead kisses had been very helpful for data patching. He had helped with my Diamond powers when he wasn't doing his duties as an alien god-king. He was a very…dadding-type person, it was kind of nice, like having an older brother or uncle.
Walls and spikes, trees a hundred meters high were brought out from their worlds, and then exploded out with glyphs. It was a maze, and I smiled at Elle's talent.
Baby.
I ducked behind a karate chop from Starry which sliced through a three foot thick oak like a saw blade. I twisted in midair, and formed a bubbling barrier around me, a shield bash from Starry making a nice metallic sound.
"C'mon. Is that all ya got Stardust?" Starry mocked me, floating past branches with a toothy grin.
I snarled and snapped, claws flexing out. "No it's not."
Fuck her up.
Of course I will.
I sent myself rocketing forward, propelling myself on my energy field, wings steering me. I slammed into a shocked Starry, bashing my machete into her skull, her body ringing with the impact. Since I didn't want to kill her, the Sting field was limited to being unbound from the laws of physics. Gravity, friction, and a far sharper edge.
I swung the weapon, and let it fly from my hand, calculating the angles. It twisted in the air, and sent Starry through multiple trees.
I carved a fire glyph into a tree, and set it aflame. The magical fire burned nice and hot, and I spun up into a charge. Starry couldn't get out of the way as I followed the possibilities, and extended my arm into a whip-like appendage. I gripped tightly onto her neck, and swung her like a bat.
I sent out a telekinetic push, and smiled when she knocked over Rachel and her dogs like bowling pins. I pulled my weapon back into my hand, directing my energy field to drag my fancy machete back.
I lifted up and away from the trees, hundreds of meters crossed in seconds, my leathery wings folding up for…a
free dive. I pushed my Aura, and broke the sound barrier, forming a bubble and giving it a rounded aerodynamic shape.
There was an explosion as I hit the ground, and Rachel was out as were her dogs, flesh armor cracking under the force. Elle kept trying, firing a barrage of elemental bolts from her crossbow.
I formed my shield…and made it
vibrate. The magic fizzled out, and I trapped Elle in a bubble, sending out more vibrations. I burst forward, kicking her bubble a hundred meters away and her power snapped back. It gently bobbed up in the air under my influence, and I landed…on a massive glyph circuit—
It was like stepping on an MOAB of magic, an explosion of power, glyphs empowering each other with the right sequence of worlds. Pity I already had my body-tight shield nullifying the force.
I stepped forward, and there was a gun placed to the back of my head. And not a normal gun by any means, with the aura of magic in it.
"Clever girl." I complimented
my captain, pushing away the gun with my Aura. Melanie's lips were pulled into a grin. "If that had been anything other than a trinket I'd be pretty badly hurt." Getting dead was unlikely but Entities could be pretty innovative.
"Teleportation glyphs.
Very useful."
I smiled back, teeth flicking forward in a very
Gem type of smile.
I expanded a hologram of the Destiny Unbound, the two hundred fifty meter ship was a marvel of engineering, and further upgrades were in the works based on parahuman powers. I moved the file away, and found registries of ships, tens of millions of ships spread out across galaxies, bubbles representing frontlines.
Tens of millions of shards were openly dangerous, though only a fraction were in space, most were powering Paired abilities or were corrupted Titans. Just like what I had seen from Flowers, giant monsters easily thousands of meters tall, almost unrestricted…
Almost being the right turn, they didn't have the greater reserves available to shards newly blasted off from planets. When they had enough energy to send out broadcasts comparable to novas. At that point they were capable of destroying solar systems, but it wasn't sustainable. The same applies to the super-Entities they became at the end of the cycle, when they created countless offspring.
Surprisingly they didn't destroy all 'Earths', though they still destroyed a fair number of them. Because there are 10^81 universes in their domain but not all of them had Earths or even solar systems in the way. In fact Earths were a tiny,
insignificant fraction of the worlds, thousands of quintillions certainly, a number beyond reason.
But most didn't have Earths, and most lacked human life, perhaps trillions of Earths with them at one point at another. The shards rested on uninhabited Earths to reduce energy costs, and used some of the more alternate universes to pull out materials and energy. For example Sundancer's shard is on an Earth and pulls out a fraction of solar plasma from a universe where a red giant is in Earth's place.
Actually I imagined they pulled energy from such worlds, using them as power distribution stations for the network. Suns were much better energy sources than scattered sunlight from planets.
I was building a modified Infinity Core, using an advanced Shard-stone to open channels between dimensions. Specifically I was working with transmitting force information. Catching gravity assists and fields from nearby universes to augment the ship's ability to warp and fold space. Entities used it during FTL travel to augment their speed, moving at tens of millions of times the speed of light.
Diamond Ships can travel at billions of times the speed of light so…you can imagine the
zoom. Only the most modern ships had the new cores, and other ships had to ride their wake for the transit into other realities. Or use large scale portals.
Olly had let me work on a new core for the ship, due to my apparent talent with integrating shard abilities into our technology. They suspected I had inherited
something eating a hundred billion shards, breaking them down into pure energy. Data had remained from that, even if it was just a unique talent for making use of their powers.
While the ship could already open channels to allow the main gun to hit multiple realities, I was taking into account recent improvements. It operated similarly to Scion's Stilling, able to open multiple pathways into alternate realities at once.
The record was about three dozen at a time, this prototype could hit hundreds. It was expensive but it was a notable increase in efficiency. Once mass production was achieved, this ship should be able to one-shot non-major shards. Which based on what I could tell were themselves made of sub-shards, with average units being around a ton.
Car sized or island sized…bite my shiny ass.
Dawn please…
Bran let me have this.
I paused my progress on the Infinity Core, huffing as I moved on to study of the various parahuman powers under my aegis. For example, Rachel's power was the extrusion of biological matter from a 'meat' dimension of sorts.' It's something like a mech-suit, not quite alive. There was some type of semi-biological neural interface, allowing them to operate the meat-suit on their own.
It had very few biological functions though, and was self-sustaining, gifted stores of energy that were separate from the shard. Which meant power nullifiers didn't work on her dogs.
It gave me a few ideas, though it wouldn't amount to much yet.
I was studying the mechanisms of Labyrinth and her power, the way fifth dimensional tentacles perturbed quantum layers to have them phase into each other. I saw some of the hints of how powers like Shadow Stalker and Chevalier worked. I
think I might be able to copy it, though it'll take some time.
Faultline was neat too, her power generated a dimensional disruption field, severing molecular bonds by disrupting electron motion. The greater power specialized in disruption of bonds of various kinds, from molecular to even nuclear.
It was a good way to generate energy, precise bond breaking could trigger matter to energy conversion. There was nothing special from Bakonawa and Gregor, it was just a new way to synthesize a few chemicals and compounds. The research on helping Case 53s was much more useful.
Shamrock's precognition algorithms were useful though, her shard's simulations reduced their energy usage by actively tweaking the local environment in the favor of the host. Precise micro-telekinesis had its uses, and it gave me some ideas in using my powers to nudge things in my favor.
Matryoshka…her power was some type of biological dimensional field manipulation. Her body contained them in a compressed away pocket, suspended in a fluid capable of interfacing with neural structures. It absorbed memories and integrated them into her at a cost to both her and her victim.
Mantellum was the most fascinating, his power generated transdimensional wavelengths, disrupting any and all forms of senses. Shards weren't immune to it, blinding even the Path to Victory. Only Scion would be immune due to the brute force he had to unravel his power.
Though on a general basis he wouldn't notice Mantellum until use of his power proved obvious. But if we combined it with our methods of blocking out Entity senses, we could actively blind Scion, unraveling his scanning, directing viral code broadcasts to cause errors in the direct algorithms.
As well as breaking their ability to view quantum possibilities, and possible timelines. Neither of those methods were perfect on their own, time bullshit was expensive and caused ripples they couldn't perfectly predict. Most of their future sight powers were simulations improved by those more esoteric forms of future sight, improving their accuracy without requiring multiple Earths to simulate even a single planet.
Even then, those powers were
expensive.
But with each new shard under our aegis, the better we understood the physiology of Warrior and Thinker shards. We had about five percent of Eden shards that landed with her impact. So some twenty five thousand shards. Most were pretty small, about twenty five teratons but there were a number that covered continents under their crystal flesh.
Based on logs my Gems had decoded, a number of shards had gone into stasis after being drained by a vital shard, power pulled out by their connections. One shard generated exotic matter, tapping into a neutron star as a source. An Eidolon power from the looks of it, generating hyperdense objects.
There was another power, one that drew upon the alternates of Bet that were collapsed away and…destroyed and used to run simulations. It was a flickering power that relied on 1.5 spaces like Elle, healing capes and even providing clothing. Another Eidolon power we were hacking into.
It was intriguing as a form of healing bodies and rejuvenating people, as well as shifting effects to other people. We estimated Eidolon had a direct connection to most of the shards Eden landed with. Which meant he was losing power by a combination of network damage, lack of use of his true power with his inability to tap into various recharge powers and Cauldron capes.
We had located a dozen different solar recharge powers, all of them using minor spatial folding to gather sunlight. Easily enough to absorb petawatts worth of energy in a day. One had a damaged bridge to a yellow dwarf star, if we repaired it he could probably charge up all his shards rather quickly.
Might take a while.
Definitely.
"Okay. What else can we work on?" I sang to myself, and glanced at the file on Captain Cold. He had been fighting on the side of…to be frank 'living' for a while now along with the other Rogues. His technology was less ice and more the elimination of movement, a
stilling force. He generated and harnessed strange esoteric transdimensional energies to stop the movement of matter without causing collapse of atoms with absolute zero-like temperatures.
His costume generated a wide field effect that targeted Flash and speedsters of his type. He had even innovated a way to use it into a shield, kind of like Scion's own Space Whale magic. He had even frozen a cluster of shards to death…which was a testament to how much Flash's Rogue Gallery held back.
Either way I had no samples of his tech, so I looked at something else instead. Files on incomplete scans of nth metal, which isn't made of any known element, closer to a form of exotic matter from a higher, greater reality.
Oricalchum is a little easier to acquire with the Atlanteans though it's still quite a rare metal. Another unique substance was a form of superpower granting body paint, a form of programmable matter based on Amazo technology. It was even more complex, and was under the control of a bloody teenager.
I'm not British but…it's really annoying, she has access to thirty three different regenerating paints, each offering a different superpower. Teleportation, invulnerability, superstrength, flight, hyper speed, power nullification, mind control, and
power mimicry for any power she's missed.
Funnily enough, she can only use three at a time, and it takes time for her paint to regenerate for further use. Primer is basically paint-based Eidolon, and the only one compatible enough and with a supply of the stuff.
The data on it was destroyed, and the government institution shut down for breaking numerous ethical and legal boundaries. Though there were thoughts of starting up the project again…with greater care taken to things like human rights and
consent.
"Way too much to think about. Perhaps we can work on examining Damsel of Distress. Her ability to warp space and time can be emulated using Gem machinery…it shouldn't be too hard for us." I turned.
Rachel was in the lab, and I tilted my head.
"Ichor bottles on the T-shaped table to your left Rachel." I pointed out, forming a bubble in my hand and practicing shaping it while I took a break.
She made a wordless grunt of thanks, and stopped just short of the entrance with the healing bottle in hand.
"You should go fucking talk to her." I flushed when she stared at me, and turned, the door shutting behind her.
"I'll have to find her first…"
