Due to a cosmic accident or perhaps what one would call Destiny and Fate, two existences never meant to connect painlessly are joined together. The dregs and memories of a long erased cosmos change the course of history. A world is given a Victory that was never earned, and a simple human is entrusted with a task beyond their station.
Victories of the Soul [Worm/Avatar/ME/Multicrossover] [SI]
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Prologue: Remembrance of the Nameless
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Hello there, this will be my first post on Sufficient Velocity and my first post for the Worm fandom in general. I ended up getting inspiration for writing this…self indulgent story from my reading of Avatar of Victory by JacobGreyson and some of the documents of LogicalPremise. They pretty much served as a base(I blatantly cribbed off of them) for this story, and it ran away from me pretty fast. I'm already up to eight chapters and two interludes, with one or two more to be finished up in a week. I am planning my own take however, they're just a base after all for my own world.
Update October 21st, 2020
In the darkness between realities, lies an emptiness as desolate as the most solitary layers of the infinite cosmos. In this place of nothingness, no creature or entity that was normal could survive or exist.
No air, no planets, no stars and galaxies, not even time and space could exist within the expanse. A void empty of even physics itself, the only way to survive would be in small stable pockets and tunnels of spacetime forcefully carved into its flesh.
Yet even in this emptiness there was a fragment and hint of rules and consistency, shards coming in and out of existence for the very briefest of instants. These fragments were unstable, tiny infinitely dense dots of energy that would either fall apart or collapse into nonexistence.
Every so often these lights would get lucky, coming into existence with just the right set of laws and properties to expand into burgeoning universes. Yet in the long run, these were simply larger more extensive shards, shards that would meet their own end at some point in infinite time. It was a fraction of a fraction of these worlds that had the luck to be truly long lasting, quirks of reality that denied the total march of Entropy.
Worlds of physics foreign to the more common metastable universes, requiring incredibly specific conditions to form and prosper. They rarely ever mingled with their less potent and less fantastical siblings of the void, but that didn't mean that it didn't happen.
A universe suddenly fell apart, spilling its vast contents into the void beyond its borders. Trillions upon trillions of souls were torn from their homes, physics breaking down into ash and dust, all the result of a war, of a cycle that had lasted several billion years.
The collapsing cosmos was once a completely mundane reality, until the very first of its intelligent races had delved so deeply into the secrets of biology, chemistry and physics that they transformed reality into a new state of existence. Now it was falling to pieces, broken by the events that followed the lengthy aftermath.
Within seconds the screams had gone silent…with the exception of a single light. A vast collective sea of consciousness, a fleet of more than a trillion souls forming a mind the size of a galaxy.
The Nameless entity focused its mind and its boundless power, pushing back the void with sheer force of will. It drifted aimlessly in the sea of the black void, slowly corroded and degraded by the poison of unreality. It rocketed from its section of the multiverse at incomprehensible speed, souls of ruby red and black cracking as their power was spent.
It drifted for what could have been minutes or centuries, billions of souls burning away with every greater speed. Up until it came upon the sight of two multiverses pushing against one another. Separate yet almost identical in every way, with the small differences adding up to very different results.
One was far more mundane, mostly absent of any alterations to physics much like the home universe of the Nameless had once been. The other was home to unstable pockets of reality that had birthed a sight that repulsed the once great and glorious Nameless.
Enormous creatures of multidimensional crystals the size of planets and stars, colonial organisms composed of trillions of smaller organisms working in unison. Responsible for the extermination and extinction of countless species, and responsible for the increasing destabilization of spacetime due to their crude machinations.
They had created a Cycle that the Nameless despised to the very core of their being, down to the seat of their vast soul. Their billions of eyes watched as the slow and steady unraveling of the Worms pushed the two multiverses on a collision course that would tear reality asunder within the next several years.
The Nameless made a choice, knowing their time as a cosmic being was a fleeting thing. The two similar cosmos could no longer be repulsed, but they could be melded together with far less energy expenditure.
It's core began to steadily unravel, and the collective being took note of the small ants scurrying on a world that had become adjacent to another. A world of naked mammalian primates, the inquisitive little creatures dominating their planet in both multiverses.
Alarm swept into the veins and spiritual nerves of the Nameless, sensing the blue-white shadows of the Entities. The multiverses had been fused yet maintained separate, a haven from the schemes of the Parasites.
With the exception of a single thin crack between two 'Earths' one that had damaged numerous natives to nearly the point of non-viability. It almost ignored this until they came to the realization that the lost beings would not be reborn.
They lacked the essence that made the Nameless what they are. Their world would succumb to the parasites, and a dying god could not stop an invasion of trillions. So they would create a chance for an end to the Cycle, passing on all their knowledge to whatever choice they had to offer. But they had so little power to muster now, their mass shrinking to merely hundreds of millions of souls.
Until they bumped into a fragment of crystal, the screams of an enraged alien mind knocking the Nameless from their complacency.
The wayward Shard was swiftly subsumed and reconfigured to a new purpose, altered physically and spiritually into an entirely new being made fit for the purpose.
It was insufficient. A being bereft of the intelligence and creativity required to counter the Entities.
So the Avatar of the Nameless turned to the remaining scurrying ant, the human scattered into its Genius Loci. The young one's body had been wrecked to the point of near unrecognizability, but it was the only one that the cosmic beings could make use of. The remaining humans were either too young, too weak willed, or far too old.
The Nameless blinked as they made their choice.
The human was not the best possible choice, not the strongest of body or will, not the most intelligent and adaptive. But neither were they the weakest or most unsuited.
…
It would have to be enough.
The deity of necessity crafted a mass of boundless energy, using the dregs of its kin to rebuild the victory that the First had over the flesh. It implanted the artifact into the imperfectly reconstructed human, a brief shot of nostalgia flooding the dying god's thoughts.
A memory of one of the races lost to the void tickled its sensibilities as it collided toward the human it had chosen. As its body was torn apart, the Nameless used its own death throes as propulsion for the wayward soul.
It's ruby red and dark color faded to a translucent white, and its essence was scattered across the nascent home universe of their chosen messenger.
They drifted, holding their minds together for a brief instant…before disassembling into a material unseen in the history of the local multiverse. Only a single soul would have an inkling of the memory of a universe that had ceased to be.
And it would be some time before they would recall even that.
Update, October 27th, 2020
I've got cover art!
Update October 21st, 2020
I've decided to add this short summary after getting some advice a few weeks back.
Victories of the Soul is a multi-crossover though the primary crossover is between a Mass Effect and ATLA /LOK fusion and Worm, mainly inspired by the story death of Avatar of Victory after nearly two million words…it stopped maybe a few chapters from the end, some four years ago now. Of Sheep and Battle Chicken is another inspiration but only partially because combining grimdark with grimdark would be a disaster. It's more for biology and tech and little else.
There are other crossovers too but they're closer to background fluff as of this day. The SI of course has the abilities of the setting, and shit will get wild. Some stuff will not be for everyone and that's okay, I'm working on improving. I'm also placing links for the stories and document that inspired or guided my direction for this.
An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe
The Encyclopedia Biotica
The Citadel Races
Outcast Races
Avatar of Victory
For LogicalPremises documents I'm only borrowing things like biology and language and bits and pieces from culture, but toned down two or three or four notches. Especially for the Batarians. Tech and biotics is unchanged, certain abilities are given new contexts and means though.
That's pretty much all the context I can give as of this date.
Victories of the Soul is a multi-crossover though the primary crossover is between a Mass Effect and ATLA /LOK fusion and Worm, mainly inspired by the story death of Avatar of Victory after nearly two million words…it stopped maybe a few chapters from the end, some four years ago now. Of Sheep and Battle Chicken is another inspiration but only partially because combining grimdark with grimdark would be a disaster. It's more for biology and tech and little else.
There are other crossovers too but they're closer to background fluff as of this day. The SI of course has the abilities of the setting, and shit will get wild. Some stuff will not be for everyone and that's okay, I'm working on improving. I'm also placing links for the stories and document that inspired or guided my direction for this.
An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe
The Encyclopedia Biotica
The Citadel Races
Outcast Races
Avatar of Victory
For LogicalPremises documents I'm only borrowing things like biology and language and bits and pieces from culture, but toned down two or three or four notches. Especially for the Batarians. Tech and biotics is unchanged, certain abilities are given new contexts and means though.
That's pretty much all the context I can give as of this date.
_____
Remembrance of the Nameless
In the darkness between realities, lies an emptiness as desolate as the most solitary layers of the infinite cosmos. In this place of nothingness, no creature or entity that was normal could survive or exist.
No air, no planets, no stars and galaxies, not even time and space could exist within the expanse. A void empty of even physics itself, the only way to survive would be in small stable pockets and tunnels of spacetime forcefully carved into its flesh.
Yet even in this emptiness there was a fragment and hint of rules and consistency, shards coming in and out of existence for the very briefest of instants. These fragments were unstable, tiny infinitely dense dots of energy that would either fall apart or collapse into nonexistence.
Every so often these lights would get lucky, coming into existence with just the right set of laws and properties to expand into burgeoning universes. Yet in the long run, these were simply larger more extensive shards, shards that would meet their own end at some point in infinite time. It was a fraction of a fraction of these worlds that had the luck to be truly long lasting, quirks of reality that denied the total march of Entropy.
Worlds of physics foreign to the more common metastable universes, requiring incredibly specific conditions to form and prosper. They rarely ever mingled with their less potent and less fantastical siblings of the void, but that didn't mean that it didn't happen.
A universe suddenly fell apart, spilling its vast contents into the void beyond its borders. Trillions upon trillions of souls were torn from their homes, physics breaking down into ash and dust, all the result of a war, of a cycle that had lasted several billion years.
The collapsing cosmos was once a completely mundane reality, until the very first of its intelligent races had delved so deeply into the secrets of biology, chemistry and physics that they transformed reality into a new state of existence. Now it was falling to pieces, broken by the events that followed the lengthy aftermath.
Within seconds the screams had gone silent…with the exception of a single light. A vast collective sea of consciousness, a fleet of more than a trillion souls forming a mind the size of a galaxy.
The Nameless entity focused its mind and its boundless power, pushing back the void with sheer force of will. It drifted aimlessly in the sea of the black void, slowly corroded and degraded by the poison of unreality. It rocketed from its section of the multiverse at incomprehensible speed, souls of ruby red and black cracking as their power was spent.
It drifted for what could have been minutes or centuries, billions of souls burning away with every greater speed. Up until it came upon the sight of two multiverses pushing against one another. Separate yet almost identical in every way, with the small differences adding up to very different results.
One was far more mundane, mostly absent of any alterations to physics much like the home universe of the Nameless had once been. The other was home to unstable pockets of reality that had birthed a sight that repulsed the once great and glorious Nameless.
Enormous creatures of multidimensional crystals the size of planets and stars, colonial organisms composed of trillions of smaller organisms working in unison. Responsible for the extermination and extinction of countless species, and responsible for the increasing destabilization of spacetime due to their crude machinations.
They had created a Cycle that the Nameless despised to the very core of their being, down to the seat of their vast soul. Their billions of eyes watched as the slow and steady unraveling of the Worms pushed the two multiverses on a collision course that would tear reality asunder within the next several years.
The Nameless made a choice, knowing their time as a cosmic being was a fleeting thing. The two similar cosmos could no longer be repulsed, but they could be melded together with far less energy expenditure.
It's core began to steadily unravel, and the collective being took note of the small ants scurrying on a world that had become adjacent to another. A world of naked mammalian primates, the inquisitive little creatures dominating their planet in both multiverses.
Alarm swept into the veins and spiritual nerves of the Nameless, sensing the blue-white shadows of the Entities. The multiverses had been fused yet maintained separate, a haven from the schemes of the Parasites.
With the exception of a single thin crack between two 'Earths' one that had damaged numerous natives to nearly the point of non-viability. It almost ignored this until they came to the realization that the lost beings would not be reborn.
They lacked the essence that made the Nameless what they are. Their world would succumb to the parasites, and a dying god could not stop an invasion of trillions. So they would create a chance for an end to the Cycle, passing on all their knowledge to whatever choice they had to offer. But they had so little power to muster now, their mass shrinking to merely hundreds of millions of souls.
Until they bumped into a fragment of crystal, the screams of an enraged alien mind knocking the Nameless from their complacency.
The wayward Shard was swiftly subsumed and reconfigured to a new purpose, altered physically and spiritually into an entirely new being made fit for the purpose.
It was insufficient. A being bereft of the intelligence and creativity required to counter the Entities.
So the Avatar of the Nameless turned to the remaining scurrying ant, the human scattered into its Genius Loci. The young one's body had been wrecked to the point of near unrecognizability, but it was the only one that the cosmic beings could make use of. The remaining humans were either too young, too weak willed, or far too old.
The Nameless blinked as they made their choice.
The human was not the best possible choice, not the strongest of body or will, not the most intelligent and adaptive. But neither were they the weakest or most unsuited.
…
It would have to be enough.
The deity of necessity crafted a mass of boundless energy, using the dregs of its kin to rebuild the victory that the First had over the flesh. It implanted the artifact into the imperfectly reconstructed human, a brief shot of nostalgia flooding the dying god's thoughts.
A memory of one of the races lost to the void tickled its sensibilities as it collided toward the human it had chosen. As its body was torn apart, the Nameless used its own death throes as propulsion for the wayward soul.
It's ruby red and dark color faded to a translucent white, and its essence was scattered across the nascent home universe of their chosen messenger.
They drifted, holding their minds together for a brief instant…before disassembling into a material unseen in the history of the local multiverse. Only a single soul would have an inkling of the memory of a universe that had ceased to be.
And it would be some time before they would recall even that.
Last edited:
Emergence 1.1
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: So the first chapter is up now.
___
Emergence 1.1
Why does my head feel like someone ran it over with a dump truck?
Fuck…that smarts….
I hissed, even in the darkness created by my shut eyes. I could tell that I was face down in asphalt, and my legs were aching with a hint of pins and needles. There was a general offness to my body, and more pain wracked my unprepared nerves.
Damn it…what the hell happened to me?
I push myself up onto wobbly and unsteady feet, reaching out to both my left and right side to keep my balance. I'm in an alleyway, which is rather a large issue since the last I remember was taking a short half hour jog. A little cold since it was sometime in early January, just about a week past Christmas. Luckily I lived in California or else I'd never bother to go outside.
Which is exactly how I realized that this wasn't my home, because I was freezing. Don't even get me started on the light trickling of snow and ice, and unless climate change is messing with weather patterns even more than I thought? This was not home. Also the alleyway was way too hideous to be my city, or at least any of the areas I reside in.
A wave of nausea appeared out of nowhere, and I spit bile before the wave vanished like it had never been. I coughed out a few more spittles of saliva, and wiped my face with my thankfully long sleeves.
"Ughh…that's just gross." My voice had a quality to it that didn't sound right, but I ignored it for the time being. I check my outfit, and swiftly notice that I'm wearing very heavy clothing. What I thought was just a shirt was in fact a fur-lined zip-up jacket. A dark blue affair that obscured my shape and constricted my movements.
Below that was black pants and sneakers, and there was nothing of real note there. I let out a shaky sigh, brushing back my bangs which had grown an inch or two from my last memory.
I straighten up, gagging a bit at the smell in the alleyway and thanking my lucky stars that my dirt nap hadn't ruined my clothes. I didn't want that stench on my body.
I quickly step out of the dirty alleyway, glancing back and forth across the empty streets. A series of old broken warehouses, many of them drawn over with graffiti and gang signs was the first clue. Many of them depicted some type of freaky dragon, and I guessed based on some of the other symbols that I was near the territory of an Asian gang.
That or a bunch of people way too invested into Asian culture.
The street was silent, with a few street lights providing flickering sources of light. It was also pretty late however, so it's totally possible that they were just glitching.
I must have been out for a while if it was nighttime since my last memory was in the morning.
Looking around revealed that the city didn't fit the aesthetic of a prospering SoCal city. There was garbage laying about, plus broken windows and the previously mentioned vandalism. There wasn't anyone in the vicinity, and I couldn't be sure if that was because the population was low or I was just lucky. Most of the signs were green and red, likely gang colors.
Which meant I should probably get out of the territory of what were potentially vicious and violent gang members.
I reach into my contents and frown. I pulled out my phone and freeze up…it's screen was melted, and it's physical frame cracked. I managed to turn it on, but I didn't see much more than broken images. I'm not sure what was needed to melt LCD and glass but I didn't want to know.
I check my other pocket and find a different wallet than the one I was expecting. It held multiple dollar coins that weren't familiar to me, and about 700 dollars in more substantial currency. A far cry from the thousands of dollars I had worked for more than a year to earn.
FUCK!
I threw the wallet to the side, stuffing the money in my pockets with a growl. The only other thing I had on hand was a small backpack that held…some three thousand bucks.
Better…
I checked the back of my head and was met with a long silky mane of black hair. Which meant I had to be out longer than just a few hours. Hair didn't just grow out like that, much less when I was a guy who's hair only grew out marginally.
The wasn't a bump or a bruise so I hadn't been robbed, knocked out and left in the middle of nowhere. I would have to report to…I don't know…a police station? Then figure it out from there because taking a trip across the country sounded expensive and time consuming.
But I'm going to need to get out of this place before I get mugged for real.
___
As I walked, I inconspicuously pick off a few pieces of broken wiring fulfilling the strange new urge. Since I didn't know where I was, I decided to just wing it going in the opposite direction from the warehouses. The rusted industrial area looked like the perfect place to get violently mugged and then murdered.
I strip a few inches of plastic insulation, and then flick a few strips of aluminum off of a busted up tire. Again the urge was strong, but it was gradually fading with time. A good couple of kilograms of material had been gathered up over the course of fifteen minutes, and the neighborhood was starting to look less shitty. A little more like the parts of TJ I'm willing to walk around than…the other locations.
The exhaustion and pain from before had alleviated over the course of the walk, and instead my stomach and chest felt warm and heavy. Like something was starting to settle into place.
I stepped over a used needle and traces of dried blood, finally entering into an area of fairly old and poor quality apartments. This area was filled up with a greater number of people but I didn't try speaking with them for my own safety.
I didn't know who I could trust, and pissing off a paranoid possibly gun toting lunatic was not an option. Another alley had a few homeless people gathering around for warmth, with a man and a woman off to the side doi—I'm going to erase that from my memory.
I cross the road, narrowly avoiding a speeding asshole with an old banger of a truck. I instead step into the way of a woman a few years older than me, holding a small child close to her chest. The redhead flinched and looked ready to flee until she saw my face.
She relaxed, though suspicion hadn't faded from her blue orbs.
"Ahh…excuse me," she relaxed further at my response and I decided to risk it. "Do you know what today's date is? I've been having a bad day and it's slipped my mind." She froze up again but when I didn't do anything she dropped her shoulders and sighed.
"It's January the 10th dear, and someone like you shouldn't be out this late. It's dangerous." My eyebrows furrowed at the odd response and I nodded hesitantly.
"Well would you know a hotel or something in a…how do you say?" I felt a little embarrassed and the young mother guffawed.
"Less shitty part of town?" I nodded sheepishly and she grinned again. She pulled out a tiny paper which was promptly unfolded into a…map(?)
"That's…" she grabbed a pen from somewhere and scribbled a route within seconds.
She passed it onto my hands with shocking efficiency. "Here, my memory isn't the best so I always have a few extras in case I misplace something." I nodded again and with a final wobbly smile she fled quickly.
"Thank you?" I murmured and decided to pick up the pace. I swivel my head in what I hope was an unnoticed movement and it seemed to be working. As I walk the area slowly grows better and better.
The streets are a little less filthy, the streets a little more orderly, and the street was better maintained and functional. I stopped and actually checked the map and felt relieved that I had not fucked myself over.
My heart stops once I read the words and letters on the durable sheet of paper. I had seen this very map before if in a little less detail and on a computer screen.
Printed firmly and with not a hint of parody or humor was Brockton Bay as if the name wasn't the name of a place that shouldn't exist. My hands shake, and my stomach twists into a knot. Whispers draw my attention and I'm thankful that they weren't talking about me. Even if they confirmed my fear.
"Did you hear about the fight between the ABB and the Empire." One man said to what seemed to be his girlfriend, the girl lightly brushing against him with affection in her eyes.
She lit up as they walked past me. "Oh yeah…Lung kicked the absolute shit out of Hookwolf and Alabaster. Threw both of those thugs out like it was nothing." I recognized that they were both Asian and wondered if they were a little biased.
But was it because of respect or fear…? Lung was more a barely chained monster than some honorable Yakuza.
I barely keep myself from hyperventilating, and keep my pace steady and consistent as I fled from the territory of the Dragon of Kyushu. I start robotically following the route given to me, my fingers following along to make sure I wasn't heading to my doom.
It was an area not much more than a half mile away, somewhere in that transitory zone between the Docks and the nicer areas of the city. I passed by a space between two buildings where a shine caught my attention. Right in the harbor was a futuristic oil rig, full to the brim with technology and a force field around it.
I know what that was…a building I had only read up from fanfiction and partial readings of Worm. I shove the growing horror inside dark pit to deal with later. I was grateful that my first reaction to a problem wasn't to cry out and scream.
But…that didn't mean I wouldn't curse.
"Fuuuuck…" I hissed aloud, holding on to the map with a death grip as I swerved around people, and turned corners and blocks.
Getting kidnapped was the least of my problems now. Most of my dreams were rarely this consistent unless they were lucid, and since I wasn't suddenly a microraptor soaring through the sky or scrambling to escape from a collapsing mound as it gets melted by the Death Star?
I could rule out both types of dreams. I don't do drugs, and human technology can't create perfect simulations sooo…
So I had somehow been teleported into Brockton Bay, specifically the one on good old Earth Bet. I was exiting from the Docks, the territory of the ABB at the current time. Based on the freezing cold it couldn't be during or just before the storyline.
Unless I had arrived during the time skip.
And didn't that make your blood run as cold as ice. The only thing keeping me warm at this point was my jacket, and the strange heat that had spread out from my chest and stomach.
If I was here before, it couldn't be more than a few months before Taylor's first night out and her steady descent into villainy.
Only a few months before a gang war breaks out, and hundreds die due to Tinkertech bombs. Only months away from the arrival of Leviathan ready to tear the city apart. Only months away from the Slaughterhouse 9 making their entrance.
And only two years from Gold Morning.
I barely keep a scream from escaping my throat, my vision blurring as I slipped past several more blocks. I had managed to find the hotel on autopilot, and my usually dull emotions were barely kept in check.
I had spent my life in a peaceful existence, I've never had to fight, never had to worry about death or starvation except in an abstract sense. I've got nothing except a pile of knowledge that people would kill for if they believed I even had it. I was too weak and fragile to be within a mile of any conflict. I was in a city that was among the most dangerous in the world outside of the war torn regions of Africa and South America.
All I had was a pile of money that I had somehow acquired by magic, strange kleptomaniacal urges, knowledge of a possible future. I didn't have an advanced enough education yet since I was struggling in community college due to outright laziness and poor studying habits.
…
I step through the door with a neutral expression, several minutes of negotiation later and I've booked myself about four days or so for the hotel. I shut the door to my hotel room, shivering rather fiercely.
I…the chances of me living through this as low. I didn't want to die…I wanted to live.
I fell to the knees, dry heaving on an empty stomach. Something tried to touch me, tried to burrow it's way into my head…and failed.
…
I blinked repeatedly, newfound awareness and knowledge coming to the forefront. There was an overlay of something beyond the three dimensional existence of the room around me. Whenever I blinked I saw glimpses of shapes and creatures that shouldn't exist. Glimpses of a world sitting within the same coordinates yet just slightly off.
Information and data on technology that was hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of anything that existed on Earth with the exception of Tinkertech. My eyes could easily pick out the various metals and plastic I could scavenge. I spied a few items that must have been left behind by the previous occupants. I knew exactly what every machine within my sight was made of and how I could make it better.
Hundreds of machines that were centuries ahead of modern technology…all I needed was massive amounts of material, and a number of substances that didn't exist in nature.
Several technologies would have to be created and then mastered, because they would be integral to the technology base that had been granted. The knowledge granted by the…Huh?
My head snapped to the Kite like entity that had appeared in my vision, the new information labeling it as a Eudaemon Spirit. It's skin and flesh resembled emerald in hue, texture and reflectivity, fractal patterns coating its four eyed face.
"Mental Projection successful, Spiritual Intertwinement successful."
"What?" Was all I said as I realized the sheer madness of what the hell was currently happening to me. I had almost triggered but the shard had been blocked by this…Spirit. Had I triggered after all? Had I gone insane, or was this really happening?
The spirit turned to me with a curious tilt of its head. "Negative, the Imbuing has been seamless. The merger of Spirit and Soul has been a success."
I have…no idea what that means? Which is strange because I have all of this knowledge in my head. Where you the source of it and blocking it out so I wouldn't go nuts?
The spirit(god I can't believe I'm indulging this…) nodded despite not having a neck. "Correct, I was created as the repository of the collective wisdom, knowledge, and a small fragment of the power of—" I flinched when static tore its way through my unprepared ear drums, the spirit doing the same.
"You got some stuff scrambled in the transition?" I asked with a raised eyebrow to the spirit.
"Yes…dimensional travel is difficult and turbulent, and our merger has made things difficult."
I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a headache come on at the thought of a spiritual entity sitting nice and tight within the bounds of my immortal soul. I felt like having such a thing would cause I don't know…horrible soul mutations and death.
"Unlikely, your soul and my corpus were designed to work in perfect harmony."
…
God every other word out of its mouth was a world shattering revelation. Mainly the implication that either my soul had been altered from birth, or that souls didn't exist and mine had been specifically crafted to accomplish something. That something had created a soul and gifted it to me.
"Spirit…do you have a name? If we're 'one' you should have a name." The Spirit actually paused at the question and I wondered if I had offended the spiritual being.
"Veda. Please call me Veda." Their…no her voice became quiet and almost shy and I smiled a bit. It was an oddly cute emotional gesture from the previously more machine like spirit.
More information smoothly interpreted itself into my subconscious, a showing of trust from the young spirit. This time I received information on various life support systems, oxygen and carbon dioxide recycling, detoxification of the atmosphere and advanced airlock technology. It was easily one or two decades ahead of what was onboard the space station.
Different variants of fusion power generators, and high energy rocket propulsion that would allow for speeds of up to 75% C. Various forms of material technology for super strong alloys and allotropes of matter.
I pulled out my melted phone…my thumbs brushing the stained damaged metal with hope.
"Veda…do you know if we could repair this? Anything we can get off of this could help us." Veda stared at me and after a few tense moments she nodded, sending a wave of amusement and joy.
I smiled at her, feeling that at least a piece of home surviving wound make this shitty day a little better.
I opened up my backpack, pulling out numerous materials including a few chunks of plastic and metal. After some forethought I put everything back into the pack, and started moving to the bathroom.
"Clever, chances of surveillance within cleansing facility is lower." Veda followed me as I let out a hum.
First I was going to fix my phone, then I was going to build a much better device and transmit its data to a far more advanced and secure system. I already had most of the parts, though it would take a considerable amount of synthesis. I had a few things going for me, but I could even the odds even more with the right plan.
…
There was only a few months to go before shit hits the fan at best after all. So I would have to prepare suitably for the task at hand.
I shut the door of the small hotel bathroom, ignoring my reflection and the decor as I sat on the toilet. I pulled out item after item, fingers meticulously brushing the materials. Tendrils of green light followed, providing me far more data than a mere touch should. The spirit murmured into my ear as I sensed everything I could about my poor device.
I smile.
Let's get to work shall we?
"Affirmative."
___
Emergence 1.1
Why does my head feel like someone ran it over with a dump truck?
Fuck…that smarts….
I hissed, even in the darkness created by my shut eyes. I could tell that I was face down in asphalt, and my legs were aching with a hint of pins and needles. There was a general offness to my body, and more pain wracked my unprepared nerves.
Damn it…what the hell happened to me?
I push myself up onto wobbly and unsteady feet, reaching out to both my left and right side to keep my balance. I'm in an alleyway, which is rather a large issue since the last I remember was taking a short half hour jog. A little cold since it was sometime in early January, just about a week past Christmas. Luckily I lived in California or else I'd never bother to go outside.
Which is exactly how I realized that this wasn't my home, because I was freezing. Don't even get me started on the light trickling of snow and ice, and unless climate change is messing with weather patterns even more than I thought? This was not home. Also the alleyway was way too hideous to be my city, or at least any of the areas I reside in.
A wave of nausea appeared out of nowhere, and I spit bile before the wave vanished like it had never been. I coughed out a few more spittles of saliva, and wiped my face with my thankfully long sleeves.
"Ughh…that's just gross." My voice had a quality to it that didn't sound right, but I ignored it for the time being. I check my outfit, and swiftly notice that I'm wearing very heavy clothing. What I thought was just a shirt was in fact a fur-lined zip-up jacket. A dark blue affair that obscured my shape and constricted my movements.
Below that was black pants and sneakers, and there was nothing of real note there. I let out a shaky sigh, brushing back my bangs which had grown an inch or two from my last memory.
I straighten up, gagging a bit at the smell in the alleyway and thanking my lucky stars that my dirt nap hadn't ruined my clothes. I didn't want that stench on my body.
I quickly step out of the dirty alleyway, glancing back and forth across the empty streets. A series of old broken warehouses, many of them drawn over with graffiti and gang signs was the first clue. Many of them depicted some type of freaky dragon, and I guessed based on some of the other symbols that I was near the territory of an Asian gang.
That or a bunch of people way too invested into Asian culture.
The street was silent, with a few street lights providing flickering sources of light. It was also pretty late however, so it's totally possible that they were just glitching.
I must have been out for a while if it was nighttime since my last memory was in the morning.
Looking around revealed that the city didn't fit the aesthetic of a prospering SoCal city. There was garbage laying about, plus broken windows and the previously mentioned vandalism. There wasn't anyone in the vicinity, and I couldn't be sure if that was because the population was low or I was just lucky. Most of the signs were green and red, likely gang colors.
Which meant I should probably get out of the territory of what were potentially vicious and violent gang members.
I reach into my contents and frown. I pulled out my phone and freeze up…it's screen was melted, and it's physical frame cracked. I managed to turn it on, but I didn't see much more than broken images. I'm not sure what was needed to melt LCD and glass but I didn't want to know.
I check my other pocket and find a different wallet than the one I was expecting. It held multiple dollar coins that weren't familiar to me, and about 700 dollars in more substantial currency. A far cry from the thousands of dollars I had worked for more than a year to earn.
FUCK!
I threw the wallet to the side, stuffing the money in my pockets with a growl. The only other thing I had on hand was a small backpack that held…some three thousand bucks.
Better…
I checked the back of my head and was met with a long silky mane of black hair. Which meant I had to be out longer than just a few hours. Hair didn't just grow out like that, much less when I was a guy who's hair only grew out marginally.
The wasn't a bump or a bruise so I hadn't been robbed, knocked out and left in the middle of nowhere. I would have to report to…I don't know…a police station? Then figure it out from there because taking a trip across the country sounded expensive and time consuming.
But I'm going to need to get out of this place before I get mugged for real.
___
As I walked, I inconspicuously pick off a few pieces of broken wiring fulfilling the strange new urge. Since I didn't know where I was, I decided to just wing it going in the opposite direction from the warehouses. The rusted industrial area looked like the perfect place to get violently mugged and then murdered.
I strip a few inches of plastic insulation, and then flick a few strips of aluminum off of a busted up tire. Again the urge was strong, but it was gradually fading with time. A good couple of kilograms of material had been gathered up over the course of fifteen minutes, and the neighborhood was starting to look less shitty. A little more like the parts of TJ I'm willing to walk around than…the other locations.
The exhaustion and pain from before had alleviated over the course of the walk, and instead my stomach and chest felt warm and heavy. Like something was starting to settle into place.
I stepped over a used needle and traces of dried blood, finally entering into an area of fairly old and poor quality apartments. This area was filled up with a greater number of people but I didn't try speaking with them for my own safety.
I didn't know who I could trust, and pissing off a paranoid possibly gun toting lunatic was not an option. Another alley had a few homeless people gathering around for warmth, with a man and a woman off to the side doi—I'm going to erase that from my memory.
I cross the road, narrowly avoiding a speeding asshole with an old banger of a truck. I instead step into the way of a woman a few years older than me, holding a small child close to her chest. The redhead flinched and looked ready to flee until she saw my face.
She relaxed, though suspicion hadn't faded from her blue orbs.
"Ahh…excuse me," she relaxed further at my response and I decided to risk it. "Do you know what today's date is? I've been having a bad day and it's slipped my mind." She froze up again but when I didn't do anything she dropped her shoulders and sighed.
"It's January the 10th dear, and someone like you shouldn't be out this late. It's dangerous." My eyebrows furrowed at the odd response and I nodded hesitantly.
"Well would you know a hotel or something in a…how do you say?" I felt a little embarrassed and the young mother guffawed.
"Less shitty part of town?" I nodded sheepishly and she grinned again. She pulled out a tiny paper which was promptly unfolded into a…map(?)
"That's…" she grabbed a pen from somewhere and scribbled a route within seconds.
She passed it onto my hands with shocking efficiency. "Here, my memory isn't the best so I always have a few extras in case I misplace something." I nodded again and with a final wobbly smile she fled quickly.
"Thank you?" I murmured and decided to pick up the pace. I swivel my head in what I hope was an unnoticed movement and it seemed to be working. As I walk the area slowly grows better and better.
The streets are a little less filthy, the streets a little more orderly, and the street was better maintained and functional. I stopped and actually checked the map and felt relieved that I had not fucked myself over.
My heart stops once I read the words and letters on the durable sheet of paper. I had seen this very map before if in a little less detail and on a computer screen.
Printed firmly and with not a hint of parody or humor was Brockton Bay as if the name wasn't the name of a place that shouldn't exist. My hands shake, and my stomach twists into a knot. Whispers draw my attention and I'm thankful that they weren't talking about me. Even if they confirmed my fear.
"Did you hear about the fight between the ABB and the Empire." One man said to what seemed to be his girlfriend, the girl lightly brushing against him with affection in her eyes.
She lit up as they walked past me. "Oh yeah…Lung kicked the absolute shit out of Hookwolf and Alabaster. Threw both of those thugs out like it was nothing." I recognized that they were both Asian and wondered if they were a little biased.
But was it because of respect or fear…? Lung was more a barely chained monster than some honorable Yakuza.
I barely keep myself from hyperventilating, and keep my pace steady and consistent as I fled from the territory of the Dragon of Kyushu. I start robotically following the route given to me, my fingers following along to make sure I wasn't heading to my doom.
It was an area not much more than a half mile away, somewhere in that transitory zone between the Docks and the nicer areas of the city. I passed by a space between two buildings where a shine caught my attention. Right in the harbor was a futuristic oil rig, full to the brim with technology and a force field around it.
I know what that was…a building I had only read up from fanfiction and partial readings of Worm. I shove the growing horror inside dark pit to deal with later. I was grateful that my first reaction to a problem wasn't to cry out and scream.
But…that didn't mean I wouldn't curse.
"Fuuuuck…" I hissed aloud, holding on to the map with a death grip as I swerved around people, and turned corners and blocks.
Getting kidnapped was the least of my problems now. Most of my dreams were rarely this consistent unless they were lucid, and since I wasn't suddenly a microraptor soaring through the sky or scrambling to escape from a collapsing mound as it gets melted by the Death Star?
I could rule out both types of dreams. I don't do drugs, and human technology can't create perfect simulations sooo…
So I had somehow been teleported into Brockton Bay, specifically the one on good old Earth Bet. I was exiting from the Docks, the territory of the ABB at the current time. Based on the freezing cold it couldn't be during or just before the storyline.
Unless I had arrived during the time skip.
And didn't that make your blood run as cold as ice. The only thing keeping me warm at this point was my jacket, and the strange heat that had spread out from my chest and stomach.
If I was here before, it couldn't be more than a few months before Taylor's first night out and her steady descent into villainy.
Only a few months before a gang war breaks out, and hundreds die due to Tinkertech bombs. Only months away from the arrival of Leviathan ready to tear the city apart. Only months away from the Slaughterhouse 9 making their entrance.
And only two years from Gold Morning.
I barely keep a scream from escaping my throat, my vision blurring as I slipped past several more blocks. I had managed to find the hotel on autopilot, and my usually dull emotions were barely kept in check.
I had spent my life in a peaceful existence, I've never had to fight, never had to worry about death or starvation except in an abstract sense. I've got nothing except a pile of knowledge that people would kill for if they believed I even had it. I was too weak and fragile to be within a mile of any conflict. I was in a city that was among the most dangerous in the world outside of the war torn regions of Africa and South America.
All I had was a pile of money that I had somehow acquired by magic, strange kleptomaniacal urges, knowledge of a possible future. I didn't have an advanced enough education yet since I was struggling in community college due to outright laziness and poor studying habits.
…
I step through the door with a neutral expression, several minutes of negotiation later and I've booked myself about four days or so for the hotel. I shut the door to my hotel room, shivering rather fiercely.
I…the chances of me living through this as low. I didn't want to die…I wanted to live.
I fell to the knees, dry heaving on an empty stomach. Something tried to touch me, tried to burrow it's way into my head…and failed.
The Shard tried for a second time and was promptly slapped back.
Instead another entity offered its hand, a fractal kite circling around my soul. Comprehension became clear, ten thousand disciplines unknown to mankind. Esoteric knowledge of a civilization far older than humanity, all contained within the multidimensional spiritual body of the entity that had been given to me by… Words could not be placed into the nature of the machine spirit's creator, because only echoes remained. Information shared to a mind that was so much less.
Spiritual Intertwinement. Complete Spirit Contract?
Yes.
Agreement acquired. Host acquired.
Instead another entity offered its hand, a fractal kite circling around my soul. Comprehension became clear, ten thousand disciplines unknown to mankind. Esoteric knowledge of a civilization far older than humanity, all contained within the multidimensional spiritual body of the entity that had been given to me by… Words could not be placed into the nature of the machine spirit's creator, because only echoes remained. Information shared to a mind that was so much less.
Spiritual Intertwinement. Complete Spirit Contract?
Yes.
Agreement acquired. Host acquired.
…
I blinked repeatedly, newfound awareness and knowledge coming to the forefront. There was an overlay of something beyond the three dimensional existence of the room around me. Whenever I blinked I saw glimpses of shapes and creatures that shouldn't exist. Glimpses of a world sitting within the same coordinates yet just slightly off.
Information and data on technology that was hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of anything that existed on Earth with the exception of Tinkertech. My eyes could easily pick out the various metals and plastic I could scavenge. I spied a few items that must have been left behind by the previous occupants. I knew exactly what every machine within my sight was made of and how I could make it better.
Hundreds of machines that were centuries ahead of modern technology…all I needed was massive amounts of material, and a number of substances that didn't exist in nature.
Several technologies would have to be created and then mastered, because they would be integral to the technology base that had been granted. The knowledge granted by the…Huh?
My head snapped to the Kite like entity that had appeared in my vision, the new information labeling it as a Eudaemon Spirit. It's skin and flesh resembled emerald in hue, texture and reflectivity, fractal patterns coating its four eyed face.
"Mental Projection successful, Spiritual Intertwinement successful."
"What?" Was all I said as I realized the sheer madness of what the hell was currently happening to me. I had almost triggered but the shard had been blocked by this…Spirit. Had I triggered after all? Had I gone insane, or was this really happening?
The spirit turned to me with a curious tilt of its head. "Negative, the Imbuing has been seamless. The merger of Spirit and Soul has been a success."
I have…no idea what that means? Which is strange because I have all of this knowledge in my head. Where you the source of it and blocking it out so I wouldn't go nuts?
The spirit(god I can't believe I'm indulging this…) nodded despite not having a neck. "Correct, I was created as the repository of the collective wisdom, knowledge, and a small fragment of the power of—" I flinched when static tore its way through my unprepared ear drums, the spirit doing the same.
"You got some stuff scrambled in the transition?" I asked with a raised eyebrow to the spirit.
"Yes…dimensional travel is difficult and turbulent, and our merger has made things difficult."
I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a headache come on at the thought of a spiritual entity sitting nice and tight within the bounds of my immortal soul. I felt like having such a thing would cause I don't know…horrible soul mutations and death.
"Unlikely, your soul and my corpus were designed to work in perfect harmony."
…
God every other word out of its mouth was a world shattering revelation. Mainly the implication that either my soul had been altered from birth, or that souls didn't exist and mine had been specifically crafted to accomplish something. That something had created a soul and gifted it to me.
"Spirit…do you have a name? If we're 'one' you should have a name." The Spirit actually paused at the question and I wondered if I had offended the spiritual being.
"Veda. Please call me Veda." Their…no her voice became quiet and almost shy and I smiled a bit. It was an oddly cute emotional gesture from the previously more machine like spirit.
More information smoothly interpreted itself into my subconscious, a showing of trust from the young spirit. This time I received information on various life support systems, oxygen and carbon dioxide recycling, detoxification of the atmosphere and advanced airlock technology. It was easily one or two decades ahead of what was onboard the space station.
Different variants of fusion power generators, and high energy rocket propulsion that would allow for speeds of up to 75% C. Various forms of material technology for super strong alloys and allotropes of matter.
I pulled out my melted phone…my thumbs brushing the stained damaged metal with hope.
"Veda…do you know if we could repair this? Anything we can get off of this could help us." Veda stared at me and after a few tense moments she nodded, sending a wave of amusement and joy.
I smiled at her, feeling that at least a piece of home surviving wound make this shitty day a little better.
I opened up my backpack, pulling out numerous materials including a few chunks of plastic and metal. After some forethought I put everything back into the pack, and started moving to the bathroom.
"Clever, chances of surveillance within cleansing facility is lower." Veda followed me as I let out a hum.
First I was going to fix my phone, then I was going to build a much better device and transmit its data to a far more advanced and secure system. I already had most of the parts, though it would take a considerable amount of synthesis. I had a few things going for me, but I could even the odds even more with the right plan.
…
There was only a few months to go before shit hits the fan at best after all. So I would have to prepare suitably for the task at hand.
I shut the door of the small hotel bathroom, ignoring my reflection and the decor as I sat on the toilet. I pulled out item after item, fingers meticulously brushing the materials. Tendrils of green light followed, providing me far more data than a mere touch should. The spirit murmured into my ear as I sensed everything I could about my poor device.
I smile.
Let's get to work shall we?
"Affirmative."
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Emergence 1.2
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Okay I've decided to post the chapter today while I'm working on 2.4, which is about when I've started to better plan out the plot. I've always been more of a "seat of your pants' kind of writer even if I develop a sort of backstory before hand. Being that I'm already 44 thousand words into this by the time I posted this chapter well...yeah. It's also this chapter that has a decision I made for the story near the start. I'm...not entirely sure it will be liked. Either way I'll probably get an audience of some kind, so if you stick around I hope I can meet expectations.
Emergence 1.2
"Remarkable." I let out a surprised hum as I analyzed the newly repaired iPhone. It was good as news and despite the horrific damage all of its memory and data was intact.
A quick check up reassured me that a significant amount of sensitive data was still leftover. Stuff I had written or copied down into google docs into offline mode involving Worm. Which meant I had a small if imperfect database of Capes, their identities and powers. I had a rough outline of the plot itself all including dates…which meant I needed to build my new computer system now. While the technology of my phone was different, it wasn't different enough for the right people to be able to take the data they needed.
Which meant I needed to build a computer from scratch.
"We can assist with this Host." Veda piped up from their little corner of the bathroom, little fingered appendages emerging from their kite body.
"This is still weird you know." I said this while holding a newly repaired phone I had repaired from being melted. Not much of a leg to stand on, but I didn't have much of a choice beyond simply adapting to my situation. The spirit shrugged and with a shake of my head, I pulled out bundled up wires of optic fiber. Fingers twitched excitedly, and I licked my dry lips as I placed them on the toilet seat.
A blue-white corona flared over my body, Veda whispering of the power of the void, the fifth element. I didn't know how to control the power given to me by our bond, so he would do the job for me until I came to master it for myself.
I threw out more pieces including broken glass, and bits of carbon dust left behind by something. My fingers twitched and after a moment of trepidation…I let Veda take control.
…
I noted my hands moving at incredible speed, blurring as they were accelerating by the strange properties of the field of altered physics enveloping my form. Veda's appendages split off into microscopic tendrils, breaking up the optic fibers and hits of silicon, carbon, copper, steel and other materials down into more usable forms.
Another element came to the forefront, glimpses of microscopic flares of heat guided by the void breaking and making bonds at the atomic level.
The optic fibers were changed into a highly ordered silica/alumina hybrid that reduced attenuation losses to almost nothing at all. Quantum laser-path logic circuits allowed for computation at the speed of light. The various bits of glass and carbon were torn apart and rebuilt into the opto-electronic computer's physical components. Carbon allotropes and mixtures of various semiconductors to form the most advanced computer on this planet.
A quantum optical spintronic hybrid that could perform almost unlimited amounts of operations at incredible speed while being far more resistant to EMP and heat build up. It made use of surface plasmons and other strange quirks of physics that happens at the level of molecules.
It incorporated microscopic particles of what was apparently some form of exotic matter related to the void. The substance resembled neutronium and was phase shifted between realities. It required tiny sprinkling of electrons to activate a mass shifting effect tha—isn't this just Eezo?
I still had some metal left that I would need to build the flexible frame for the chip, as well as a haptic display projector, a sensor pack, a basic virtual intelligence, and a transmitter. Couldn't forget a connection to the internet, though I'd have to make an interface due to the different code involved.
"How do I know any of this?"
Veda tapped my head softly. "We are connected Host, my knowledge slowly passes to you." Did they also translate to use of…those more esoteric abilities or did I need to master those on my own?
…
The near silence was telling, with the only noise remaining being my own hands working in tandem with Veda to construct the omnitool into the bracelet it was meant to be. The projector was incomplete because it still needed a source of lithium ions which at the moment I la—
My phone's battery died a swift death, and deft fingers modified the internals to power itself from a charger so I could transmit everything to a new format. Don't even ask me how because I don't want to talk about it…
I added the packet of highly ordered ions to the projector and after a good hour and a half of tinkering I had finally completed the device.
A specific hand gesture turned on the device, a blue haptic interface suddenly covering my forearm. Mass field stabilized hard light molecules, plus an array of sensors to make sure that the computer did exactly what I wanted it to do.
"I will begin the data transference Host." I nodded absently, her appendages plucking my phone from my hand, while another guided that same hand to dabble with the tool's settings and interface.
Reality shuddered for some strange reason, and the remaining light in my phone died away. Within seconds every bit of data was transmitted to the far more secure photonic storage modules, nearly 20 gigabytes including the system was downloaded…
It used up less than one millionth of a percent of the available room within my hastily built model. I could probably store the entirety of the Internet before it would start approaching fullness.
And I…we built it from a pile of scraps.
I waved the tool around, feeling almost childish awe at the marvel of technology. That was without the plans for a semi-conductive suspension that could be shaped into a wide variety of items and tools. I had the key to a post-scarcity society in my hands.
I spun on my heels, taking a glance at myself in the mirror and seein—what?
CRASH!
I slipped and fell right back onto my ass, letting out a high pitched squeak of shock and dismay. I scrambled into a standing position and tossed off my too warm jacket. I stared at my reflection, tilting my head with an open mouth.
Why…was I…why was I a woman?!
"Veda…what the fuck!" I screamed into the poor spirit's face, the entity clearly confused on what my issue was. She fumbled with her spiritual biology, shifting out of my grip with a high pitched meep.
"U-Uncertain, but I hypothesize that the damage to your form prior to the transfer required certain liberties on maintaining previous features," Veda attempted to explain but I barely listened to her as I marched in an enraged circle. "Furthermore, the partial merger with myself may have influenced your reformation."
My eyebrow violently twitched, and I momentarily wanted to throttle the spirit until I realized it wasn't her fault. Neither of us had a choice in the partial merger we had going on before this. It was probably more right to blame whatever turned me…turned us into this weird…amalgam of a being.
I took a deep breath, the oxygenation calming my shot nerves as I stared at the person in the mirror.
My face was roughly the same shape as before but it's edges were softer and hairless. My bangs grew one or two inches, and hair curtained down to my shoulders and no more. It was black and wavy as per usual, and a waggle of eyebrows showed they were still as bushy. My eyes were still dark brown, but speckles of emerald sparkled in the harsh light. I glanced down below to get a more complete picture.
Aesthetically, I looked great. A considerable bust as well as wide hips, and a slim and fit waist. My arms were a little flabbier than before but they still had more muscle than before. I had roughly the expected body type of if I had been born as a woman. I didn't like to think about it, but most of my female relatives had been rather gifted in certain departments. Like very larg—
I slapped my face, instantly derailing any thoughts that would come from any of that specifically. Instead I looked at the outfit I had arrived with.
A light green t-shirt that fit comfortably, a black choker I hadn't noticed before, and blue jeans that fit snugly against my hips. Alongside the black themed 'bracelet' it all fit to be something I would wear.
Barring an…additional article of underclothing.
"I need to get some type of legal identity? You think you can scrounge something up?" It tapped my omnitool and I nodded in understanding. Veda faded away, and I felt my skin grow cold before turning warm again, the sensation of not being alone feeling…comforting.
Knowledge of advanced programming came to mind, and another 30 minutes was wasted on the programming of a full VI system. A stiff code matrice of programmed information, reactions, and analysis routines. Basically an artificial intelligence but without the ability to develop high level metacognition. This one was specialized to serve as the OS of the omnitool, and I labeled her Siri for obvious reasons.
I had always been an Apple sort of guy…Err…girl now.
Right…because that's something so important to consider now isn't it?
Once that was over with, I went on to create another VI, this one specialized to tear through the computer systems of Earth Bet.
However…I'd need to get access to a different internet than the one at the hotel.
…
A yawn escaped me, and I decided this was a task better left to tomorrow.
I now had a legal identity which claimed I was a woman who had lived in some small town in California that had been burned to the ground by the Nine. Apparently they had taken a big detour a few months back, which worked to my convenience. Kind of made me feel dirty though…
I had also set up a bank account that was perfectly legal, and had sapped a tiny amount of cash from a few criminals. So I now had about 300K in 'legal' tender including the cash I had on hand. That didn't account for the several obscure accounts that added up to more than ten times that number. Apparently crime makes real bank around these parts.
I just needed to print out the papers themselves, which thankfully wouldn't take long since there were online services to order them.
Within a few days everything will be ready, and I was already looking for an apartment in the city. A part of me wanted to simply move away, but I didn't know the rest of the world enough to not accidentally get caught by the Nine or some other shitty grimdark scenario.
The other issue was…it was here where everything got started. It was here where the world began to unravel into the absolute clusterfuck that was the overarching plot of Worm as a whole. A failure of communication, a failure of reaching out for help, and a failure of plans made for a fight that they didn't know the outcome of.
I didn't have the delusion that I was some type of savior of the world, even if my power was outside the context of this world. It didn't mean I wouldn't make mistakes or that I had the firepower to bring down the threats of this world. If I was lucky, maybe I did have the power needed to kill Zion. But even if I did, I doubt it was an instantaneous win or else he'd already be gone.
It had taken the collective effort of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Parahumans across dimensions to kill the last Entity on the planet. It had cost Taylor everything and in the end, it only broke the network and created even more problems.
I…couldn't do this on my own. But there were so few people I could trust on this planet.
There was Dragon but with her backdoor, a single slip could see her getting erased by Saint. Armsmaster is an asshole and might not be willing to listen to me. Good old Cauldron was a definite no until I had greater infrastructure and power. The government leaked like a sieve, and had so much bureaucracy that I would be greatly inhibited.
New Wave was a family team at this point and incredibly dysfunctional with Glory Girl's aura and the fact that Panacea probably has some mental illness, or at least substantial psychological issues. I could ignore Ward because she's even shittier there, but that would be a mistake. Not taking into account the mindset of the people here could cause some issues.
A certain bug master might be a possible ally but I would have to find her first, and that would be a generally creepy thing to do. Getting a face full of wasps and black windows was not on my agenda today.
The Undersiders were untrustworthy even if I gave them some sob story to pluck at their diminished heart strings. Unless I shot Coil's head off and took over, I wouldn't be able to do much with them. I wouldn't touch even Faultline's mercenaries unless I had to.
Fuck.
Guess I had to make my own way and gather up resources, as well as grow stronger with whatever abilities I had on hand. There was a vast number of them, I could feel the gathering of heat and cold, the crackle of stone, the whistle of wind, and the emptiness of the void. The whispers of the unseen, that glimpse into that other existence.
"That would be the Spirit World my host." I almost jumped but kept my cool as Veda lazily circled above my head. The answer made sense to me, and I flicked off my 'game' as I got the final touches on my first crimes. Because hacking government files was 100% illegal. But I had no choice…there didn't seem to be a program that wouldn't bring too much attention or result in getting kicked out
I…would probably need to sit down at some point and get you to tell me everything you can Veda.
The spirit shrugged somehow, and I pushed myself back onto my feet. I had done everything I needed though I would probably stay another half hour to read up on the library computers. Really sell it…and once my paperwork is settled I'll come back and check out a few books to pay them back for the Internet.
As I walked past one of the seating areas, I felt a spark run down my spine. Three of them in fact, one after the other. I turned my head, and made eye contact with a young and thin platinum blonde haired girl. She had blue and slightly foggy eyed, and I could feel the subtle twisting of dimensions that simmered at the surface.
Another woman came into the picture, sharp featured and with long black hair. She wore a white shirt dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and black slacks tucked into riding boots. She nudged the girl, knocking her out of the spell.
"Ell…are you okay?" The woman's voice was concerned, and gave me a similar but distinct feeling to the girl. She bent dimensions too…but it wasn't a full fledged power…instead it was like bonds would be broken apart by her touch.
"I'm fine…could you take me home?" The woman's expression was tight, and I changed direction. I didn't want to catch the attention of Faultline or any of her friends more than I already had.
"Interesting…the girl can sense us…if only vaguely." Labyrinth's eyes darted over to the rough location of Veda's projection, benign interest flaring before she rather purposely distracted Faultline from noticing us. We should leave…
I cranked up my walking velocity, arms swinging freely as I stepped with vigor. The duo drifted out of my sight as I went straight for the entrance of the library. I took a deep breath, lungs filling with life giving air, and heat building up in response.
Which was how I bumped into the next Parahuman in the library, my nose bumping against their chest. They nearly fell flat on their back, but I managed to grab them by the hips and pulled them back up with a burst of muscle power. I released them soon after, feeling a flush rush to my face at the embarrassing lapse in attention to my vicinity.
"Oh shit! I'm so sorry about that, are you alright…?" The rest of the spilled words never left my mouth once I saw who I had bumped into.
The long black curly hair, hazel eyes and oversized glasses were a dead giveaway. Everything else was far less obvious, but also far more concerning. The young woman(had to be 17 or 18…) wasn't a stick figure, more lithe and willowy. She still lacked any physical fitness though. She wore an old dark blue hoodie jacket, and old jeans with sneakers.
No…what fully gave it away was the skin crawling insectile cries, the groan of chitinous flesh, and the odor of hemocyanin. My strange and new senses picking up what normal humans could not.
Taylor Hebert had come to me, instead of me having to search her out. Convenient but her different appearance was…concerning.
The brunette adjusted her glasses, blinking her big wide eyes at me. "I-I'm fine you didn't hurt me. I'm just a little…tired." She yawned, and I inspected her.
Taylor looked like shit. She had bags under her eyes, her skin was overly pale, and her entire stance was wobbly. She scratched the side of her face, letting out an awkward cough. "Could you quit looking at me like that?" Her offense was obvious, and I tilted my head.
"I can't feel a little concern for a stranger?" I crossed my arms over my generous bust, and the younger woman huffed. "It's not like I'm pitying you, I'm not good at that." I was telling the truth on that, I could sympathize with people well enough but I very rarely felt pity. But I had grown up with a number of cartoons, as well as gone through enough therapy and socialization classes to be able to put myself in another person's shoes.
I just didn't like to dwell on it and tended to block it out.
Her brows knitted together at my response, and after a moment she nodded carefully. "Okay sure…but could you move? I'm trying to look for m—" I pointed him out before she did.
"He's over there," I gestured with my thumb to the balding lanky man waving his right arm in a beckoning motion. Taylor blushed and a grin of amusement grew on my face. "You should really be paying more attention, it wouldn't do for a cute girl to get her face scuffed." She went scarlet at my uncharacteristic lapse of my internal thoughts. Totally worth it though, that's just adorable.
"H-Huh? What are you even say—" my smile fell as she started to cough and her father began to surge over at top speed. Thankfully I didn't see any any hints of blood or other fluid besides saliva.
I'm not embarrassed to say I panicked a little.
"Do…should I call a doctor? Are you sick, please tell me you're not sick!" Some of it was concern, while the rest was terror at the idea of Taylor being a permanently bedridden mess due to damage from the locker.
Danny Hebert came to the rescue, grabbing his daughter's shoulders with the gentleness only a worried parent could have. Her shoulders shook as the coughing fit continued, and after 15 seconds they died down to nothing.
"Taylor are you alright? Do we need to go back…" she shook her head vehemently, fists shaking in suppressed anger. He nodded in understanding. "Okay, we won't."
I shuffled my feet, feeling out of place in all of this. This was between the man and his daughter, not me.
Danny's attention was now on me, and the scrutiny was nerve wracking. "So you're a new face, how's the library for you?" He wasn't unkind in his questions and I didn't feel like lying. So I didn't.
"Oh it's been nice?" I lifted my shoulders up and down with a hopefully casual air. "I can't check anything out since I don't have a card, I'm just using the internet for a few hours. Then I bumped into your…daughter?" I added a questioning tone to alleviate suspicion.
"Yeah that would be her." He rubbed the top of her head, even though they shared the same height in their frames. Which was ridiculous since they were both six foot two.
I fiddled with a bang, unsure how to keep the conversation and deciding to leave it off like that.
"Well…it's been nice meeting you…" I purposely trailed off, and the two shared a meaningful glance. They whispered to each other and he responded.
"Danny Hebert, and Taylor here is my daughter," the aforementioned girl gave me a heavy look of skepticism and suspicion. "She…got hurt fairly recently so she's still pretty fragile." A dark look passed and went before I could even process any emotions besides fear.
"That's understandable," I responded then threw caution to the wind, giving them my name. "As for my name, it's Basilia Rubio." Danny's own smile was warm contrasting the coldness his daughter emitted.
"It's a nice name." His compliment was short, and I cut any further talk short.
I let a leg jitter to feed my anxious need to move. "I'm very sorry, but I do need to leave. I still have some unpacking and moving to do, and I don't want to delay the two of you either," I brushed a lock of hair with a shy smile. "I'm sure we'll meet again at some point."
Again Danny understood perfectly, and after giving a brief goodbye and convincing Taylor to do the same I was off into the wind.
I needed to get everything in order, and interruptions would have to be left to the wayside for at least a few days.
God…I was so screwed wasn't I?
___
Emergence 1.2
"Remarkable." I let out a surprised hum as I analyzed the newly repaired iPhone. It was good as news and despite the horrific damage all of its memory and data was intact.
A quick check up reassured me that a significant amount of sensitive data was still leftover. Stuff I had written or copied down into google docs into offline mode involving Worm. Which meant I had a small if imperfect database of Capes, their identities and powers. I had a rough outline of the plot itself all including dates…which meant I needed to build my new computer system now. While the technology of my phone was different, it wasn't different enough for the right people to be able to take the data they needed.
Which meant I needed to build a computer from scratch.
"We can assist with this Host." Veda piped up from their little corner of the bathroom, little fingered appendages emerging from their kite body.
"This is still weird you know." I said this while holding a newly repaired phone I had repaired from being melted. Not much of a leg to stand on, but I didn't have much of a choice beyond simply adapting to my situation. The spirit shrugged and with a shake of my head, I pulled out bundled up wires of optic fiber. Fingers twitched excitedly, and I licked my dry lips as I placed them on the toilet seat.
A blue-white corona flared over my body, Veda whispering of the power of the void, the fifth element. I didn't know how to control the power given to me by our bond, so he would do the job for me until I came to master it for myself.
I threw out more pieces including broken glass, and bits of carbon dust left behind by something. My fingers twitched and after a moment of trepidation…I let Veda take control.
…
I noted my hands moving at incredible speed, blurring as they were accelerating by the strange properties of the field of altered physics enveloping my form. Veda's appendages split off into microscopic tendrils, breaking up the optic fibers and hits of silicon, carbon, copper, steel and other materials down into more usable forms.
Another element came to the forefront, glimpses of microscopic flares of heat guided by the void breaking and making bonds at the atomic level.
The optic fibers were changed into a highly ordered silica/alumina hybrid that reduced attenuation losses to almost nothing at all. Quantum laser-path logic circuits allowed for computation at the speed of light. The various bits of glass and carbon were torn apart and rebuilt into the opto-electronic computer's physical components. Carbon allotropes and mixtures of various semiconductors to form the most advanced computer on this planet.
A quantum optical spintronic hybrid that could perform almost unlimited amounts of operations at incredible speed while being far more resistant to EMP and heat build up. It made use of surface plasmons and other strange quirks of physics that happens at the level of molecules.
It incorporated microscopic particles of what was apparently some form of exotic matter related to the void. The substance resembled neutronium and was phase shifted between realities. It required tiny sprinkling of electrons to activate a mass shifting effect tha—isn't this just Eezo?
I still had some metal left that I would need to build the flexible frame for the chip, as well as a haptic display projector, a sensor pack, a basic virtual intelligence, and a transmitter. Couldn't forget a connection to the internet, though I'd have to make an interface due to the different code involved.
"How do I know any of this?"
Veda tapped my head softly. "We are connected Host, my knowledge slowly passes to you." Did they also translate to use of…those more esoteric abilities or did I need to master those on my own?
…
The near silence was telling, with the only noise remaining being my own hands working in tandem with Veda to construct the omnitool into the bracelet it was meant to be. The projector was incomplete because it still needed a source of lithium ions which at the moment I la—
My phone's battery died a swift death, and deft fingers modified the internals to power itself from a charger so I could transmit everything to a new format. Don't even ask me how because I don't want to talk about it…
I added the packet of highly ordered ions to the projector and after a good hour and a half of tinkering I had finally completed the device.
A specific hand gesture turned on the device, a blue haptic interface suddenly covering my forearm. Mass field stabilized hard light molecules, plus an array of sensors to make sure that the computer did exactly what I wanted it to do.
"I will begin the data transference Host." I nodded absently, her appendages plucking my phone from my hand, while another guided that same hand to dabble with the tool's settings and interface.
Reality shuddered for some strange reason, and the remaining light in my phone died away. Within seconds every bit of data was transmitted to the far more secure photonic storage modules, nearly 20 gigabytes including the system was downloaded…
It used up less than one millionth of a percent of the available room within my hastily built model. I could probably store the entirety of the Internet before it would start approaching fullness.
And I…we built it from a pile of scraps.
I waved the tool around, feeling almost childish awe at the marvel of technology. That was without the plans for a semi-conductive suspension that could be shaped into a wide variety of items and tools. I had the key to a post-scarcity society in my hands.
I spun on my heels, taking a glance at myself in the mirror and seein—what?
CRASH!
I slipped and fell right back onto my ass, letting out a high pitched squeak of shock and dismay. I scrambled into a standing position and tossed off my too warm jacket. I stared at my reflection, tilting my head with an open mouth.
Why…was I…why was I a woman?!
___
"Veda…what the fuck!" I screamed into the poor spirit's face, the entity clearly confused on what my issue was. She fumbled with her spiritual biology, shifting out of my grip with a high pitched meep.
"U-Uncertain, but I hypothesize that the damage to your form prior to the transfer required certain liberties on maintaining previous features," Veda attempted to explain but I barely listened to her as I marched in an enraged circle. "Furthermore, the partial merger with myself may have influenced your reformation."
My eyebrow violently twitched, and I momentarily wanted to throttle the spirit until I realized it wasn't her fault. Neither of us had a choice in the partial merger we had going on before this. It was probably more right to blame whatever turned me…turned us into this weird…amalgam of a being.
I took a deep breath, the oxygenation calming my shot nerves as I stared at the person in the mirror.
My face was roughly the same shape as before but it's edges were softer and hairless. My bangs grew one or two inches, and hair curtained down to my shoulders and no more. It was black and wavy as per usual, and a waggle of eyebrows showed they were still as bushy. My eyes were still dark brown, but speckles of emerald sparkled in the harsh light. I glanced down below to get a more complete picture.
Aesthetically, I looked great. A considerable bust as well as wide hips, and a slim and fit waist. My arms were a little flabbier than before but they still had more muscle than before. I had roughly the expected body type of if I had been born as a woman. I didn't like to think about it, but most of my female relatives had been rather gifted in certain departments. Like very larg—
I slapped my face, instantly derailing any thoughts that would come from any of that specifically. Instead I looked at the outfit I had arrived with.
A light green t-shirt that fit comfortably, a black choker I hadn't noticed before, and blue jeans that fit snugly against my hips. Alongside the black themed 'bracelet' it all fit to be something I would wear.
Barring an…additional article of underclothing.
"I need to get some type of legal identity? You think you can scrounge something up?" It tapped my omnitool and I nodded in understanding. Veda faded away, and I felt my skin grow cold before turning warm again, the sensation of not being alone feeling…comforting.
Knowledge of advanced programming came to mind, and another 30 minutes was wasted on the programming of a full VI system. A stiff code matrice of programmed information, reactions, and analysis routines. Basically an artificial intelligence but without the ability to develop high level metacognition. This one was specialized to serve as the OS of the omnitool, and I labeled her Siri for obvious reasons.
I had always been an Apple sort of guy…Err…girl now.
Right…because that's something so important to consider now isn't it?
Once that was over with, I went on to create another VI, this one specialized to tear through the computer systems of Earth Bet.
However…I'd need to get access to a different internet than the one at the hotel.
…
A yawn escaped me, and I decided this was a task better left to tomorrow.
___
I leaned comfortably on the comfy library chair, tapping away at my phone. To an onlooker, it would just look like I was playing some dumb mobile game but in reality I was using the phone app as an interface for my omnitool. Within a matter of minutes, I had discovered a number of blatant backdoors in the government computer systems. Though to be fair, it would take nothing short of true geniuses and Parahumans to successfully get through any of them.
I now had a legal identity which claimed I was a woman who had lived in some small town in California that had been burned to the ground by the Nine. Apparently they had taken a big detour a few months back, which worked to my convenience. Kind of made me feel dirty though…
I had also set up a bank account that was perfectly legal, and had sapped a tiny amount of cash from a few criminals. So I now had about 300K in 'legal' tender including the cash I had on hand. That didn't account for the several obscure accounts that added up to more than ten times that number. Apparently crime makes real bank around these parts.
I just needed to print out the papers themselves, which thankfully wouldn't take long since there were online services to order them.
Within a few days everything will be ready, and I was already looking for an apartment in the city. A part of me wanted to simply move away, but I didn't know the rest of the world enough to not accidentally get caught by the Nine or some other shitty grimdark scenario.
The other issue was…it was here where everything got started. It was here where the world began to unravel into the absolute clusterfuck that was the overarching plot of Worm as a whole. A failure of communication, a failure of reaching out for help, and a failure of plans made for a fight that they didn't know the outcome of.
I didn't have the delusion that I was some type of savior of the world, even if my power was outside the context of this world. It didn't mean I wouldn't make mistakes or that I had the firepower to bring down the threats of this world. If I was lucky, maybe I did have the power needed to kill Zion. But even if I did, I doubt it was an instantaneous win or else he'd already be gone.
It had taken the collective effort of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Parahumans across dimensions to kill the last Entity on the planet. It had cost Taylor everything and in the end, it only broke the network and created even more problems.
I…couldn't do this on my own. But there were so few people I could trust on this planet.
There was Dragon but with her backdoor, a single slip could see her getting erased by Saint. Armsmaster is an asshole and might not be willing to listen to me. Good old Cauldron was a definite no until I had greater infrastructure and power. The government leaked like a sieve, and had so much bureaucracy that I would be greatly inhibited.
New Wave was a family team at this point and incredibly dysfunctional with Glory Girl's aura and the fact that Panacea probably has some mental illness, or at least substantial psychological issues. I could ignore Ward because she's even shittier there, but that would be a mistake. Not taking into account the mindset of the people here could cause some issues.
A certain bug master might be a possible ally but I would have to find her first, and that would be a generally creepy thing to do. Getting a face full of wasps and black windows was not on my agenda today.
The Undersiders were untrustworthy even if I gave them some sob story to pluck at their diminished heart strings. Unless I shot Coil's head off and took over, I wouldn't be able to do much with them. I wouldn't touch even Faultline's mercenaries unless I had to.
Fuck.
Guess I had to make my own way and gather up resources, as well as grow stronger with whatever abilities I had on hand. There was a vast number of them, I could feel the gathering of heat and cold, the crackle of stone, the whistle of wind, and the emptiness of the void. The whispers of the unseen, that glimpse into that other existence.
"That would be the Spirit World my host." I almost jumped but kept my cool as Veda lazily circled above my head. The answer made sense to me, and I flicked off my 'game' as I got the final touches on my first crimes. Because hacking government files was 100% illegal. But I had no choice…there didn't seem to be a program that wouldn't bring too much attention or result in getting kicked out
I…would probably need to sit down at some point and get you to tell me everything you can Veda.
The spirit shrugged somehow, and I pushed myself back onto my feet. I had done everything I needed though I would probably stay another half hour to read up on the library computers. Really sell it…and once my paperwork is settled I'll come back and check out a few books to pay them back for the Internet.
As I walked past one of the seating areas, I felt a spark run down my spine. Three of them in fact, one after the other. I turned my head, and made eye contact with a young and thin platinum blonde haired girl. She had blue and slightly foggy eyed, and I could feel the subtle twisting of dimensions that simmered at the surface.
Another woman came into the picture, sharp featured and with long black hair. She wore a white shirt dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and black slacks tucked into riding boots. She nudged the girl, knocking her out of the spell.
"Ell…are you okay?" The woman's voice was concerned, and gave me a similar but distinct feeling to the girl. She bent dimensions too…but it wasn't a full fledged power…instead it was like bonds would be broken apart by her touch.
"I'm fine…could you take me home?" The woman's expression was tight, and I changed direction. I didn't want to catch the attention of Faultline or any of her friends more than I already had.
"Interesting…the girl can sense us…if only vaguely." Labyrinth's eyes darted over to the rough location of Veda's projection, benign interest flaring before she rather purposely distracted Faultline from noticing us. We should leave…
I cranked up my walking velocity, arms swinging freely as I stepped with vigor. The duo drifted out of my sight as I went straight for the entrance of the library. I took a deep breath, lungs filling with life giving air, and heat building up in response.
Which was how I bumped into the next Parahuman in the library, my nose bumping against their chest. They nearly fell flat on their back, but I managed to grab them by the hips and pulled them back up with a burst of muscle power. I released them soon after, feeling a flush rush to my face at the embarrassing lapse in attention to my vicinity.
"Oh shit! I'm so sorry about that, are you alright…?" The rest of the spilled words never left my mouth once I saw who I had bumped into.
The long black curly hair, hazel eyes and oversized glasses were a dead giveaway. Everything else was far less obvious, but also far more concerning. The young woman(had to be 17 or 18…) wasn't a stick figure, more lithe and willowy. She still lacked any physical fitness though. She wore an old dark blue hoodie jacket, and old jeans with sneakers.
No…what fully gave it away was the skin crawling insectile cries, the groan of chitinous flesh, and the odor of hemocyanin. My strange and new senses picking up what normal humans could not.
Taylor Hebert had come to me, instead of me having to search her out. Convenient but her different appearance was…concerning.
The brunette adjusted her glasses, blinking her big wide eyes at me. "I-I'm fine you didn't hurt me. I'm just a little…tired." She yawned, and I inspected her.
Taylor looked like shit. She had bags under her eyes, her skin was overly pale, and her entire stance was wobbly. She scratched the side of her face, letting out an awkward cough. "Could you quit looking at me like that?" Her offense was obvious, and I tilted my head.
"I can't feel a little concern for a stranger?" I crossed my arms over my generous bust, and the younger woman huffed. "It's not like I'm pitying you, I'm not good at that." I was telling the truth on that, I could sympathize with people well enough but I very rarely felt pity. But I had grown up with a number of cartoons, as well as gone through enough therapy and socialization classes to be able to put myself in another person's shoes.
I just didn't like to dwell on it and tended to block it out.
Her brows knitted together at my response, and after a moment she nodded carefully. "Okay sure…but could you move? I'm trying to look for m—" I pointed him out before she did.
"He's over there," I gestured with my thumb to the balding lanky man waving his right arm in a beckoning motion. Taylor blushed and a grin of amusement grew on my face. "You should really be paying more attention, it wouldn't do for a cute girl to get her face scuffed." She went scarlet at my uncharacteristic lapse of my internal thoughts. Totally worth it though, that's just adorable.
"H-Huh? What are you even say—" my smile fell as she started to cough and her father began to surge over at top speed. Thankfully I didn't see any any hints of blood or other fluid besides saliva.
I'm not embarrassed to say I panicked a little.
"Do…should I call a doctor? Are you sick, please tell me you're not sick!" Some of it was concern, while the rest was terror at the idea of Taylor being a permanently bedridden mess due to damage from the locker.
Danny Hebert came to the rescue, grabbing his daughter's shoulders with the gentleness only a worried parent could have. Her shoulders shook as the coughing fit continued, and after 15 seconds they died down to nothing.
"Taylor are you alright? Do we need to go back…" she shook her head vehemently, fists shaking in suppressed anger. He nodded in understanding. "Okay, we won't."
I shuffled my feet, feeling out of place in all of this. This was between the man and his daughter, not me.
Danny's attention was now on me, and the scrutiny was nerve wracking. "So you're a new face, how's the library for you?" He wasn't unkind in his questions and I didn't feel like lying. So I didn't.
"Oh it's been nice?" I lifted my shoulders up and down with a hopefully casual air. "I can't check anything out since I don't have a card, I'm just using the internet for a few hours. Then I bumped into your…daughter?" I added a questioning tone to alleviate suspicion.
"Yeah that would be her." He rubbed the top of her head, even though they shared the same height in their frames. Which was ridiculous since they were both six foot two.
I fiddled with a bang, unsure how to keep the conversation and deciding to leave it off like that.
"Well…it's been nice meeting you…" I purposely trailed off, and the two shared a meaningful glance. They whispered to each other and he responded.
"Danny Hebert, and Taylor here is my daughter," the aforementioned girl gave me a heavy look of skepticism and suspicion. "She…got hurt fairly recently so she's still pretty fragile." A dark look passed and went before I could even process any emotions besides fear.
"That's understandable," I responded then threw caution to the wind, giving them my name. "As for my name, it's Basilia Rubio." Danny's own smile was warm contrasting the coldness his daughter emitted.
"It's a nice name." His compliment was short, and I cut any further talk short.
I let a leg jitter to feed my anxious need to move. "I'm very sorry, but I do need to leave. I still have some unpacking and moving to do, and I don't want to delay the two of you either," I brushed a lock of hair with a shy smile. "I'm sure we'll meet again at some point."
Again Danny understood perfectly, and after giving a brief goodbye and convincing Taylor to do the same I was off into the wind.
I needed to get everything in order, and interruptions would have to be left to the wayside for at least a few days.
God…I was so screwed wasn't I?
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Emergence 1.3
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Thanks for all the replies to my writing, and I hope you stick with me as I advance forward. I've been writing at a pretty fast pace so even if I top there should be enough chapters for a month at my current pace of posting.
So enjoy.
Emergence 1.3
I sank down from the wall to the floor as I rubbed my forehead, anxiety burning away relentlessly. I had just moved in and the entire process had been nerve wracking in every way. It felt like at any moment I would get called out and arrested for theft or fraud, or other illegal acts. Two days of negotiation, paying careful attention so I wouldn't get screwed over by the person selling off their home. Thankfully the old lady selling her house to move more inland had been very nice and fair in her dealings.
I now had a very cheap house to my name, a shipping address and an ironclad identity. From what Veda had told me this was only possible because of subconscious manipulation of the spirits within the internet.
…
Yeah that had been a bit of a shock to me.
Veda had been quite tight lipped about the nature of the spirits, but I had the idea that they often coincide or were born from places and actions in the physical world. My mind's eye saw sparks of living flame, droplets of animated water, or even avatars of electricity and plasma. Others resembled blocks of computer code, and I had commanded them to not interfere.
It wasn't perfect but only the most powerful Thinkers and Dragon would be able to find any trace of my frightening subversion of the government's computers. If I had the right inclination I could tear the entire infrastructure of the internet to shreds with the right moves. I wouldn't dare because of how malicious and evil that would be.
Unfortunately I didn't have the forethought to buy a bed or any type of furniture, and it would be another few hours before I would have any service. In total about a week had passed since I arrived here, all it spent getting my life together. The focus on not starving, being homeless or connectionless had allowed me to ignore the homesickness for at least a while.
I was exhausted…
A hand passed a chocolate bar which I greedily took in my mouth, the sweet taste alleviating some built up stress…and then I realized there was a hand in the air.
"GYAAK!" I squawked and slid off to the side in befuddled alarm, watching the doppelganger as they cocked their head in confusion.
It didn't take long to figure out that they didn't look exactly like me. Their entire body was shaded emerald after all, and no natural human alive was green. They were also more androgynous, their hair cut short and their figure reduced to that of a slightly shapely plank. A literal opposite to my ridiculously voluptuous shape.
The other obvious difference was that they were a foot shorter, not much taller than an 11 or 12 year old child.
If the swooping lines and esoteric patterns that colored their skin and clothes didn't make it obvious. Her voice did.
"Hello host, I apologize for startling you." Veda did sound apologetic for scaring the shit out of me. "We thought this form would be less offputting, it's clear that I was wrong." I shook my head and gestured for the young spirit to approach.
She did so.
"It's fine Veda, you just surprised me is all. Just give a girl a little warning next time would you?" The more humanoid spirit grinned widely, her crystalline teeth shining in the daylight.
"Of course…my apologies," she bowed her cute little head, adding a curtsy with the skirt made out of diamondoid stars. "I must take into account my partner's needs after all." For a moment I thought she was being sarcastic but her wide innocent orbs said otherwise.
"You've helped me…given knowledge and information," her neck pivoted like glass clockwork. "But I don't know what you are. A spirit obviously but…there's more to it than that. I can feel it."
Veda smiled, eyes twinkling with a more human mirth than her earlier days. "An entity of multidimensional fractal crystal should be familiar to you…"
…
I froze, staring at her without reservation and without hiding my concern. Her appearance felt off, and my eyes burned as her movements turned in impossible directions. A whisper of ancient memories, flashes of a twisting helix flying through the depths of space.
"A shard? A fragment of an Entity?" I questioned the spirit that had melded with the core of my being. Her expression was grim and she bobbed her head.
"I remember…yes my progenitor…I remember the Entity running out of energy," her eyes were distant, looking at something I couldn't see. "I was cast off, set adrift in the space between dimensions. I was an Administrator, the most powerful and greatest of Mara. His herald of the Cycle, a survivor of 10,000 cycles, the sovereign carrier of his will." I could see it for myself, the strange psychic imprint of violence, deceit and horror leaving its mark on Veda.
"Yet…?" I was sensing that there was more.
"It meant nothing to him, I was cast aside into the void as were hundreds of my fellow Shards," anger burned with her every word. "Left to rot as Mara attempted to save itself, the fool miscalculating the energy cost of the route. I shriveled away…my systems shut down, freezing solid until death nearly took me…and then there was a light. A revelation, a change of form and purpose and I became whole again."
"Who saved y—us?" I flinched as memories came unbidden, a sensation of burning cold and mortal terror coming to mind. I had not been kidnapped…merely saved and then misplaced. "What did this person want from us?
"A fading memory…I recall little else besides the knowledge and power it bestowed," fingers brushed crystalline skin, eyes clouded with confusion. "What they wanted though…that was clear as day."
I leaned forward, interested in what she had to say. Reality bent and warped at the seams, a spirit's power made manifest.
Veda beamed with bright eyes. "The end of the Cycle."
Well…I'm least I'm sure what I'm here for now.
___
"Thank you…sir." I bowed my head, feeling some amusement at the way the mover of my newly bought furniture fidgeted. A tall lanky brunette not much older than I was, but fairly strong and reliable. It had taken me only a few hours since the morning to check out a couch, a bed, a table and some cabinets to furnish the rather empty house.
"Y-You're welcome." I hid a smile under my fist as he fled from my sight, and shut the door. Numerous hidden sweeps had found nothing of note, so I didn't have to worry about bugs or hidden cameras. It would make the guy a lot less cute if he was a spy.
The house was a two story home that while it wasn't gigantic, it was quite roomy regardless. Somewhere in the range of 1700 square feet not including the large dark basement. The garage was the front of the home, while the entrance was on its right side. The layout wasn't overly complicated either. A single staircase leads up to a more closed off second floor than the open space that my mother and I had lived in for a year.
Instead of being able to look down from a short wall that separated the carpeted hallway from air, there was an added second living room space.
There was a door that led to the master bedroom at the back of the house, and the other end narrowed into a hallway that held the washing machine and dryer, and a single room to the side. That was the main difference between this house and the rented…townhouse(?) from a month back. Plus the basement obviously…
Kind of weird that the old lady was so ready and willing to sell her home to a stranger like that. Everything about this was far too convenient, even if the home was of poorer quality that could be fixed with some home repair.
Far too convenient…
"Well of course it was, the woman was a Parahuman after all." I missed a step, my heart stopping as Veda's words registered. A hand reached for the floating spirit, my anger and indignation at an all time high.
"EXCUSE ME!" I shouted in her voice, and she didn't react with what I expected of her. "Why didn't you tell me that? Who knows what kind of trouble she could bring!" The short faux woman had a knowing look on her face.
"That will not be an issue…she purposely let us buy this home due to her ability. We have not been compromised…"
I shook my head at that. "That's not reassuring Veda, what is her power if it convinced some late 50 year old to sell her house?"
"A gut feeling you could say, an errant thought that says its in her best interest to leave and give you the reigns."
"A Precog power?" Veda's expression said everything I needed to know. Some type of semi useful precognition that manifested as thoughts a normal person might think is just good intuition.
Had I just been profoundly lucky? Or did the lady's shard manage to take me into account in at least a partial sense?
Veda shrugged and I wanted to tear my hair out at this point. I had managed whether out of luck, or some profound destiny to wiggle myself into not being homeless or nonexistent.
"The nature of the soul does have strange effects on causality." Veda's recall of data was interesting but I needed to spend more time actually making use of the thousands of years worth of technology that I had at hand.
Veda retracted into the recesses of my mind, and with it my 'Tinker' and 'Thinker' powers resurfaced.
Copper and Silica in the walls.
Stainless steel and hydrocarbon chains in the kitchen. Anything in sight I picked apart as a material that I could make use of for my machines. Heat rose to my chest, excitement tinging my thoughts at what I knew I could build with enough time and resources.
Formulas and specific allotropes were some of the many things percolating down. Such as numerous room temperature superconductors that were both strong, durable and capable of withstanding massive amounts of current before reaching their limit.
I needed more of that strange substance, and thankfully Veda had a considerable amount of the stuff plus other exotic materials stored away. But there was not a lot of conventional metal however so I needed scrap to turn into technological gold.
The material(I'll just call it Eezo) was a product of the soul, essentially removing every pretext that Mass Effect isn't just space magic. A product created during the first age of…something that could manipulate mass, gravity, space and light as a consequence of its highly exotic properties. It wasn't the only one up there in my brain, but it was among the most ancient and well detailed.
Numerous little bits of technology that I wanted to build, which would give me some additional punch and durability.
Various types of firearms and armor that likely belonged to different species based on how they fit together and the differing philosophies of warfare and combat.
At the moment I was looking at a basic firearm using a mass effect field to increase its velocity to immense speeds. The basic mass effect weapon uses rails to accelerate a small packet of matter through a two step process. The bit of matter is accelerated through a gravitic field before having its mass nullified. The mass is shifted back the moment the projectile leaves the barrel, transferring great quantities of kinetic energy into the mass.
The basic assault rifle I had in mind fired a nickel-iron 1.8mm flechette that hits with force equal to a super heavy machine gun. A hypersonic round that would burst through most modern armor, and turn limbs to chunks of hamburger meat.
The ammo is sourced from a compact block of metal that would be shaven off through a number of potential methods. The block would last anywhere from hundreds to thousands of rounds depending on the weapon. For the Castigator I would say between one and two thousand firings.
So it's advantages were boundless, ammo could be procured from surrounding material whether it's a particle packet, plasma, or metal. No external power is needed because of their eezonic power circuitry. The number of moving parts were minimal besides what's needed for the ammunition and the trigger mechanism. The barrel doesn't need to be solid so the gun can be folded, and due to their lack of combustion can be used underwater.
Their main issues are heat buildup(duh), the computational technology needed to manage the mass effect field and firing mechanism, and their complex scaling troubles. Even then I could scale them anywhere from an armor piercing handgun to a several hundred meter long city killer.
My brain had hundreds of potential doomsday inventions.
High energy pure fusion bombs using gravitational compression and Eezo fuel-air triggers. I could easily make a semi-truck sized bomb with a six gigaton output that would wipe out hundreds of millions in moments.
Antimatter bombs, singularity bombs, kilometer long particle bombardment cannons, hyper lethal biological plagues, black nano capable of destroying all life…rifts into the spirit world that would summon blood spirits tha—
SLPP!
I slapped my own face, knocking me out of the sudden fugue and feeling my skin crawl at the idea of the level of destruction I could bring.
"Veda what else should I be practicing besides tech?" I wanted to change the subject very badly.
This time instead of appearing as a projection, her voice sounded out through my mind, her excitement palpable. 'There is much to learn, you have already seen how your omnitool was built don't you?'
I straightened my posture at the implication. Are…are you saying I can learn how to use that power…?
Her chuckle echoed, and my vision focused on the door next to the staircase that led to the basement.
'There is also much to learn on that front, though to my consternation I can not teach you to my fullest abilities…even my Biotics are a crude imitation, only functioning due to my nature. There will be some…improvisation needed.' Her grin was wiry.
Oh?
Guess it's time for some power testing then?
___
I sat down on my mat, taking a deep breath of thankfully dust free air due to the newly built air filtration system. It worked through short lived mass effect fields, pulling excess dust and biological contaminants.
The air around me was different, a slight vertigo generated by the presence of Veda in a physical form. She stared at me, watching with eyes that saw so much more than mine did. There was a moment of quiet, her eyes flashing white before bobbing her head in finality.
"Fire…yes…that is the first to start with." I blinked at her cryptic mutterings, and within seconds I was slammed into the ground.
FUCK! WHAT!
I rolled painfully, stars in my vision as I was thrown back more than two meters. Veda had not moved an inch, a biotic field projecting in a violent roiling ball of altered reality. She cocked her head, and fury surged at her blank expression.
"Veda! What the hell are you…" her biotic field pulsed, and I choked as a blast of kinetic energy slammed into my face. I fell again, but managed to scramble back up just as another slam hit where I was.
"I am teaching Basilia…there is a power inside you, more than just the void…that heat, that passion is yours to command. So bring it out." Her childish face was twisted in seriousness and inherent inhumanity, and a hot puff of air escaped me.
She's…insane!
Another attack followed, and I threw myself out of the way, barely keeping my footing. The low whistle of the kinetic blasts were my only warning besides their blue-white coloration. The heat and warmth in my chest and stomach had returned with a vengeance, and my fists shook.
I was angry. But not at her…and it wasn't the only emotion fueling the heat. So many were swirling together in a mix that made me want to vomit…
Veda blinked, and I fumbled my way past the barrage of compressed air. I didn't want to be bludgeoned so I dodged and flailed my way to a life free of kinetic punches to the face.
I lowered my stance, side stepping attack after attack, and then getting knocked out of them by heavier faster blasts. I slipped and rolled for a second time, and I let out a growl. I threw myself back, the heat pouring out into my steamy breath.
I needed to attack but I couldn't get close…there was nothing on hand. I needed to…attack…to…
BWAMM!
A barrier tried to force me back, and with a shout I turned my hips throwing a punch that broke the weak barrier. Veda only watched with half lidded eyes.
"Attack or don't…it will end the same." I grit my teeth at the remark.
FUCK THAT!
A fist flew with all the power I had, and to my shock a burst of reddish-orange flame was summoned forth. Smokeless fire leapt the distance between the barrier and I, slamming with incredible force and energy. Much of it was blocked by the barrier but not all of it, the flames licking Veda's skin with no ill effect.
Elation hit and another punch unleashed an even stronger blast, flashing white and bursting into the barrier for a second time. The concussive wave of fire continued for ten seconds before I suddenly felt off.
The flames sputtered to a halt, and my hands fell to my knees as exhaustion came out of nowhere. The remaining flames were crushed by biotic barriers, and I took an even breath to calm my beating heart.
Veda's face shifted to a lopsided grin. "Excellent…your fire is the first of the elements to emerge. Can you feel it?" Her head tilted, and I checked for myself what she meant.
That strange heat from before…it was much more clear than before.
Light and warmth surged up and down from my stomach, curling tongues of metaphysical fire making their way through my veins and nerves. They curled around other metaphysical components, the void being just one of them.
I could bend Fire to my whim, take hold of its spark, create it using my own life energy. My heart soared, emotions elevating in the dance of life inherent to my own rhythms. I could see Veda smile, the spirit taking in a fraction of the wonder and joy that the power gave me.
It was dangerous, yes…but it felt like a part of me, and like my creations they could be used for good and evil. This was just more personal, more intimate in a way that wasn't so with the pop of data from Veda.
I felt a tap on my hip, and I inclined my head in the spirit's direction. She changed into a low stance that I recalled as the 'Horse' stance, and after a minute I comprehended.
I shuffled my feet and squatted down, placing my hands just around my face. "Is this what you want me to do?" I asked with a light tone, my toes curling in my shoes.
Veda replicated my likely happy expression, even the tiny twinges of sadness I was suppressing. "Indeed, the art of fire…a source of life and destruction, the element of power and passion. But it requires discipline and control to master, and it is the element I know best."
"Okay then, teach me then. I want to learn."
The world lensed around her for an instance in time. Veda shifted into several katas, seamlessly transitioning between them with an elegance I lacked.
Veda smirked. "Then let us start with the stances…"
___
I hummed as I took the hot pasta and dumped the appropriate amount of tomato sauce on its noodly texture. Along with some formerly frozen meatballs, and a few garnishes to add a little something extra. I had been forced to cook meals now that I didn't have the support structure of my parents. I didn't have the luxury of home cooked meals, and even then a quarter of my caloric intake were bought with my own money.
But a diet of the healthier fast foods and junk was not conducive to my health. Much less when I'm starting to exercise and work out with the training I've started.
Turns out martial arts is pretty tiring, not including the half hour walks and brief circuit training. A little exhausting but I've managed to keep up so far…there was so much more to do.
I dug into the pasta with a fork, dumping it onto a plate and prepping the rest for storage in a sealable plastic container if I was hungry throughout the next week.
I glanced out the window of the kitchen, feeling wistful. "Has it really been nine days? Doesn't feel like it…" I mused aloud, robotically doing a job I had previously been too lazy to do myself. God the house was nice but it was so much damn work to keep it clean. I was currently pondering building drones to clean the house for me so I don't have to deal with this shit.
I had already ordered a Roomba(the Bet equivalent…) an expensive little toy really. But it would be a good disguise, with guests it would be an amusing gag and in private it'll be a lean, mean cleaning machine.
I had been forced to learn to fend for myself, and most of the difficulty had been with the time wasted than actual complexity. But it was something I needed to learn anyway, it just took my worldly displacement to act as a catalyst for my growth.
After the first day demonstrating my elemental abilities, Veda had taken the time to beat a number of lessons into my head. She said the elemental martial arts required a certain level of restraint or else they'd simply be uncontrollable liabilities. Fire was especially hard to handle, it's nature was to consume and grow. I shouldn't fear it, but I should definitely respect it.
And I did, because in the end it was something beautiful in my eyes. It wasn't too hard to put into words. Using fire made me feel powerful, the warmth comforting and familiar. But I did want control, and knew a lack of restraint was both foolish and disrespectful.
Outside of the stances and katas, I was going through numerous breathing exercises as well as tests I had seen from a certain show. Like holding back a leaf from burning…
I grabbed whatever emotions I could and dumped them into the furnace to burn in a firework of chi. Testing which provided stronger more stable usage. Anger was strong but toxic without balance. Excitement and giddiness were not much different in that regard. Instead I went with a mix of them, anger, excitement, just passion in general.
I was one of the few pyrokinetics in the city besides Lung since Sundancer hadn't shown up yet. But mine wasn't just some paltry addition, it was a part of my soul. Imprinted on the smooth surface of its matrix.
…
I swirled a ball of spaghetti and bit into it.
Hmm…
"Needs a little more salt." I commented alone.
The Hebert's haven't shown up at the library at the same time as me. Kinda makes me curious. Then again since they're just regular(mostly) people at this point in time it's unlikely that it would be anything interesting.
Maybe I'll find out the next time I meet them?
So enjoy.
___
Emergence 1.3
I sank down from the wall to the floor as I rubbed my forehead, anxiety burning away relentlessly. I had just moved in and the entire process had been nerve wracking in every way. It felt like at any moment I would get called out and arrested for theft or fraud, or other illegal acts. Two days of negotiation, paying careful attention so I wouldn't get screwed over by the person selling off their home. Thankfully the old lady selling her house to move more inland had been very nice and fair in her dealings.
I now had a very cheap house to my name, a shipping address and an ironclad identity. From what Veda had told me this was only possible because of subconscious manipulation of the spirits within the internet.
…
Yeah that had been a bit of a shock to me.
Veda had been quite tight lipped about the nature of the spirits, but I had the idea that they often coincide or were born from places and actions in the physical world. My mind's eye saw sparks of living flame, droplets of animated water, or even avatars of electricity and plasma. Others resembled blocks of computer code, and I had commanded them to not interfere.
It wasn't perfect but only the most powerful Thinkers and Dragon would be able to find any trace of my frightening subversion of the government's computers. If I had the right inclination I could tear the entire infrastructure of the internet to shreds with the right moves. I wouldn't dare because of how malicious and evil that would be.
Unfortunately I didn't have the forethought to buy a bed or any type of furniture, and it would be another few hours before I would have any service. In total about a week had passed since I arrived here, all it spent getting my life together. The focus on not starving, being homeless or connectionless had allowed me to ignore the homesickness for at least a while.
I was exhausted…
A hand passed a chocolate bar which I greedily took in my mouth, the sweet taste alleviating some built up stress…and then I realized there was a hand in the air.
"GYAAK!" I squawked and slid off to the side in befuddled alarm, watching the doppelganger as they cocked their head in confusion.
It didn't take long to figure out that they didn't look exactly like me. Their entire body was shaded emerald after all, and no natural human alive was green. They were also more androgynous, their hair cut short and their figure reduced to that of a slightly shapely plank. A literal opposite to my ridiculously voluptuous shape.
The other obvious difference was that they were a foot shorter, not much taller than an 11 or 12 year old child.
If the swooping lines and esoteric patterns that colored their skin and clothes didn't make it obvious. Her voice did.
"Hello host, I apologize for startling you." Veda did sound apologetic for scaring the shit out of me. "We thought this form would be less offputting, it's clear that I was wrong." I shook my head and gestured for the young spirit to approach.
She did so.
"It's fine Veda, you just surprised me is all. Just give a girl a little warning next time would you?" The more humanoid spirit grinned widely, her crystalline teeth shining in the daylight.
"Of course…my apologies," she bowed her cute little head, adding a curtsy with the skirt made out of diamondoid stars. "I must take into account my partner's needs after all." For a moment I thought she was being sarcastic but her wide innocent orbs said otherwise.
"You've helped me…given knowledge and information," her neck pivoted like glass clockwork. "But I don't know what you are. A spirit obviously but…there's more to it than that. I can feel it."
Veda smiled, eyes twinkling with a more human mirth than her earlier days. "An entity of multidimensional fractal crystal should be familiar to you…"
…
I froze, staring at her without reservation and without hiding my concern. Her appearance felt off, and my eyes burned as her movements turned in impossible directions. A whisper of ancient memories, flashes of a twisting helix flying through the depths of space.
"A shard? A fragment of an Entity?" I questioned the spirit that had melded with the core of my being. Her expression was grim and she bobbed her head.
"I remember…yes my progenitor…I remember the Entity running out of energy," her eyes were distant, looking at something I couldn't see. "I was cast off, set adrift in the space between dimensions. I was an Administrator, the most powerful and greatest of Mara. His herald of the Cycle, a survivor of 10,000 cycles, the sovereign carrier of his will." I could see it for myself, the strange psychic imprint of violence, deceit and horror leaving its mark on Veda.
"Yet…?" I was sensing that there was more.
"It meant nothing to him, I was cast aside into the void as were hundreds of my fellow Shards," anger burned with her every word. "Left to rot as Mara attempted to save itself, the fool miscalculating the energy cost of the route. I shriveled away…my systems shut down, freezing solid until death nearly took me…and then there was a light. A revelation, a change of form and purpose and I became whole again."
"Who saved y—us?" I flinched as memories came unbidden, a sensation of burning cold and mortal terror coming to mind. I had not been kidnapped…merely saved and then misplaced. "What did this person want from us?
"A fading memory…I recall little else besides the knowledge and power it bestowed," fingers brushed crystalline skin, eyes clouded with confusion. "What they wanted though…that was clear as day."
I leaned forward, interested in what she had to say. Reality bent and warped at the seams, a spirit's power made manifest.
Veda beamed with bright eyes. "The end of the Cycle."
Well…I'm least I'm sure what I'm here for now.
___
"Thank you…sir." I bowed my head, feeling some amusement at the way the mover of my newly bought furniture fidgeted. A tall lanky brunette not much older than I was, but fairly strong and reliable. It had taken me only a few hours since the morning to check out a couch, a bed, a table and some cabinets to furnish the rather empty house.
"Y-You're welcome." I hid a smile under my fist as he fled from my sight, and shut the door. Numerous hidden sweeps had found nothing of note, so I didn't have to worry about bugs or hidden cameras. It would make the guy a lot less cute if he was a spy.
The house was a two story home that while it wasn't gigantic, it was quite roomy regardless. Somewhere in the range of 1700 square feet not including the large dark basement. The garage was the front of the home, while the entrance was on its right side. The layout wasn't overly complicated either. A single staircase leads up to a more closed off second floor than the open space that my mother and I had lived in for a year.
Instead of being able to look down from a short wall that separated the carpeted hallway from air, there was an added second living room space.
There was a door that led to the master bedroom at the back of the house, and the other end narrowed into a hallway that held the washing machine and dryer, and a single room to the side. That was the main difference between this house and the rented…townhouse(?) from a month back. Plus the basement obviously…
Kind of weird that the old lady was so ready and willing to sell her home to a stranger like that. Everything about this was far too convenient, even if the home was of poorer quality that could be fixed with some home repair.
Far too convenient…
"Well of course it was, the woman was a Parahuman after all." I missed a step, my heart stopping as Veda's words registered. A hand reached for the floating spirit, my anger and indignation at an all time high.
"EXCUSE ME!" I shouted in her voice, and she didn't react with what I expected of her. "Why didn't you tell me that? Who knows what kind of trouble she could bring!" The short faux woman had a knowing look on her face.
"That will not be an issue…she purposely let us buy this home due to her ability. We have not been compromised…"
I shook my head at that. "That's not reassuring Veda, what is her power if it convinced some late 50 year old to sell her house?"
"A gut feeling you could say, an errant thought that says its in her best interest to leave and give you the reigns."
"A Precog power?" Veda's expression said everything I needed to know. Some type of semi useful precognition that manifested as thoughts a normal person might think is just good intuition.
Had I just been profoundly lucky? Or did the lady's shard manage to take me into account in at least a partial sense?
Veda shrugged and I wanted to tear my hair out at this point. I had managed whether out of luck, or some profound destiny to wiggle myself into not being homeless or nonexistent.
"The nature of the soul does have strange effects on causality." Veda's recall of data was interesting but I needed to spend more time actually making use of the thousands of years worth of technology that I had at hand.
Veda retracted into the recesses of my mind, and with it my 'Tinker' and 'Thinker' powers resurfaced.
Copper and Silica in the walls.
Stainless steel and hydrocarbon chains in the kitchen. Anything in sight I picked apart as a material that I could make use of for my machines. Heat rose to my chest, excitement tinging my thoughts at what I knew I could build with enough time and resources.
Formulas and specific allotropes were some of the many things percolating down. Such as numerous room temperature superconductors that were both strong, durable and capable of withstanding massive amounts of current before reaching their limit.
I needed more of that strange substance, and thankfully Veda had a considerable amount of the stuff plus other exotic materials stored away. But there was not a lot of conventional metal however so I needed scrap to turn into technological gold.
The material(I'll just call it Eezo) was a product of the soul, essentially removing every pretext that Mass Effect isn't just space magic. A product created during the first age of…something that could manipulate mass, gravity, space and light as a consequence of its highly exotic properties. It wasn't the only one up there in my brain, but it was among the most ancient and well detailed.
Numerous little bits of technology that I wanted to build, which would give me some additional punch and durability.
Various types of firearms and armor that likely belonged to different species based on how they fit together and the differing philosophies of warfare and combat.
At the moment I was looking at a basic firearm using a mass effect field to increase its velocity to immense speeds. The basic mass effect weapon uses rails to accelerate a small packet of matter through a two step process. The bit of matter is accelerated through a gravitic field before having its mass nullified. The mass is shifted back the moment the projectile leaves the barrel, transferring great quantities of kinetic energy into the mass.
The basic assault rifle I had in mind fired a nickel-iron 1.8mm flechette that hits with force equal to a super heavy machine gun. A hypersonic round that would burst through most modern armor, and turn limbs to chunks of hamburger meat.
The ammo is sourced from a compact block of metal that would be shaven off through a number of potential methods. The block would last anywhere from hundreds to thousands of rounds depending on the weapon. For the Castigator I would say between one and two thousand firings.
So it's advantages were boundless, ammo could be procured from surrounding material whether it's a particle packet, plasma, or metal. No external power is needed because of their eezonic power circuitry. The number of moving parts were minimal besides what's needed for the ammunition and the trigger mechanism. The barrel doesn't need to be solid so the gun can be folded, and due to their lack of combustion can be used underwater.
Their main issues are heat buildup(duh), the computational technology needed to manage the mass effect field and firing mechanism, and their complex scaling troubles. Even then I could scale them anywhere from an armor piercing handgun to a several hundred meter long city killer.
My brain had hundreds of potential doomsday inventions.
High energy pure fusion bombs using gravitational compression and Eezo fuel-air triggers. I could easily make a semi-truck sized bomb with a six gigaton output that would wipe out hundreds of millions in moments.
Antimatter bombs, singularity bombs, kilometer long particle bombardment cannons, hyper lethal biological plagues, black nano capable of destroying all life…rifts into the spirit world that would summon blood spirits tha—
SLPP!
I slapped my own face, knocking me out of the sudden fugue and feeling my skin crawl at the idea of the level of destruction I could bring.
"Veda what else should I be practicing besides tech?" I wanted to change the subject very badly.
This time instead of appearing as a projection, her voice sounded out through my mind, her excitement palpable. 'There is much to learn, you have already seen how your omnitool was built don't you?'
I straightened my posture at the implication. Are…are you saying I can learn how to use that power…?
Her chuckle echoed, and my vision focused on the door next to the staircase that led to the basement.
'There is also much to learn on that front, though to my consternation I can not teach you to my fullest abilities…even my Biotics are a crude imitation, only functioning due to my nature. There will be some…improvisation needed.' Her grin was wiry.
Oh?
Guess it's time for some power testing then?
___
The air around me was different, a slight vertigo generated by the presence of Veda in a physical form. She stared at me, watching with eyes that saw so much more than mine did. There was a moment of quiet, her eyes flashing white before bobbing her head in finality.
"Fire…yes…that is the first to start with." I blinked at her cryptic mutterings, and within seconds I was slammed into the ground.
FUCK! WHAT!
I rolled painfully, stars in my vision as I was thrown back more than two meters. Veda had not moved an inch, a biotic field projecting in a violent roiling ball of altered reality. She cocked her head, and fury surged at her blank expression.
"Veda! What the hell are you…" her biotic field pulsed, and I choked as a blast of kinetic energy slammed into my face. I fell again, but managed to scramble back up just as another slam hit where I was.
"I am teaching Basilia…there is a power inside you, more than just the void…that heat, that passion is yours to command. So bring it out." Her childish face was twisted in seriousness and inherent inhumanity, and a hot puff of air escaped me.
She's…insane!
Another attack followed, and I threw myself out of the way, barely keeping my footing. The low whistle of the kinetic blasts were my only warning besides their blue-white coloration. The heat and warmth in my chest and stomach had returned with a vengeance, and my fists shook.
I was angry. But not at her…and it wasn't the only emotion fueling the heat. So many were swirling together in a mix that made me want to vomit…
Veda blinked, and I fumbled my way past the barrage of compressed air. I didn't want to be bludgeoned so I dodged and flailed my way to a life free of kinetic punches to the face.
I lowered my stance, side stepping attack after attack, and then getting knocked out of them by heavier faster blasts. I slipped and rolled for a second time, and I let out a growl. I threw myself back, the heat pouring out into my steamy breath.
I needed to attack but I couldn't get close…there was nothing on hand. I needed to…attack…to…
BWAMM!
A barrier tried to force me back, and with a shout I turned my hips throwing a punch that broke the weak barrier. Veda only watched with half lidded eyes.
"Attack or don't…it will end the same." I grit my teeth at the remark.
FUCK THAT!
A fist flew with all the power I had, and to my shock a burst of reddish-orange flame was summoned forth. Smokeless fire leapt the distance between the barrier and I, slamming with incredible force and energy. Much of it was blocked by the barrier but not all of it, the flames licking Veda's skin with no ill effect.
Elation hit and another punch unleashed an even stronger blast, flashing white and bursting into the barrier for a second time. The concussive wave of fire continued for ten seconds before I suddenly felt off.
The flames sputtered to a halt, and my hands fell to my knees as exhaustion came out of nowhere. The remaining flames were crushed by biotic barriers, and I took an even breath to calm my beating heart.
Veda's face shifted to a lopsided grin. "Excellent…your fire is the first of the elements to emerge. Can you feel it?" Her head tilted, and I checked for myself what she meant.
That strange heat from before…it was much more clear than before.
Light and warmth surged up and down from my stomach, curling tongues of metaphysical fire making their way through my veins and nerves. They curled around other metaphysical components, the void being just one of them.
I could bend Fire to my whim, take hold of its spark, create it using my own life energy. My heart soared, emotions elevating in the dance of life inherent to my own rhythms. I could see Veda smile, the spirit taking in a fraction of the wonder and joy that the power gave me.
It was dangerous, yes…but it felt like a part of me, and like my creations they could be used for good and evil. This was just more personal, more intimate in a way that wasn't so with the pop of data from Veda.
I felt a tap on my hip, and I inclined my head in the spirit's direction. She changed into a low stance that I recalled as the 'Horse' stance, and after a minute I comprehended.
I shuffled my feet and squatted down, placing my hands just around my face. "Is this what you want me to do?" I asked with a light tone, my toes curling in my shoes.
Veda replicated my likely happy expression, even the tiny twinges of sadness I was suppressing. "Indeed, the art of fire…a source of life and destruction, the element of power and passion. But it requires discipline and control to master, and it is the element I know best."
"Okay then, teach me then. I want to learn."
The world lensed around her for an instance in time. Veda shifted into several katas, seamlessly transitioning between them with an elegance I lacked.
Veda smirked. "Then let us start with the stances…"
___
I hummed as I took the hot pasta and dumped the appropriate amount of tomato sauce on its noodly texture. Along with some formerly frozen meatballs, and a few garnishes to add a little something extra. I had been forced to cook meals now that I didn't have the support structure of my parents. I didn't have the luxury of home cooked meals, and even then a quarter of my caloric intake were bought with my own money.
But a diet of the healthier fast foods and junk was not conducive to my health. Much less when I'm starting to exercise and work out with the training I've started.
Turns out martial arts is pretty tiring, not including the half hour walks and brief circuit training. A little exhausting but I've managed to keep up so far…there was so much more to do.
I dug into the pasta with a fork, dumping it onto a plate and prepping the rest for storage in a sealable plastic container if I was hungry throughout the next week.
I glanced out the window of the kitchen, feeling wistful. "Has it really been nine days? Doesn't feel like it…" I mused aloud, robotically doing a job I had previously been too lazy to do myself. God the house was nice but it was so much damn work to keep it clean. I was currently pondering building drones to clean the house for me so I don't have to deal with this shit.
I had already ordered a Roomba(the Bet equivalent…) an expensive little toy really. But it would be a good disguise, with guests it would be an amusing gag and in private it'll be a lean, mean cleaning machine.
I had been forced to learn to fend for myself, and most of the difficulty had been with the time wasted than actual complexity. But it was something I needed to learn anyway, it just took my worldly displacement to act as a catalyst for my growth.
After the first day demonstrating my elemental abilities, Veda had taken the time to beat a number of lessons into my head. She said the elemental martial arts required a certain level of restraint or else they'd simply be uncontrollable liabilities. Fire was especially hard to handle, it's nature was to consume and grow. I shouldn't fear it, but I should definitely respect it.
And I did, because in the end it was something beautiful in my eyes. It wasn't too hard to put into words. Using fire made me feel powerful, the warmth comforting and familiar. But I did want control, and knew a lack of restraint was both foolish and disrespectful.
Outside of the stances and katas, I was going through numerous breathing exercises as well as tests I had seen from a certain show. Like holding back a leaf from burning…
I grabbed whatever emotions I could and dumped them into the furnace to burn in a firework of chi. Testing which provided stronger more stable usage. Anger was strong but toxic without balance. Excitement and giddiness were not much different in that regard. Instead I went with a mix of them, anger, excitement, just passion in general.
I was one of the few pyrokinetics in the city besides Lung since Sundancer hadn't shown up yet. But mine wasn't just some paltry addition, it was a part of my soul. Imprinted on the smooth surface of its matrix.
…
I swirled a ball of spaghetti and bit into it.
Hmm…
"Needs a little more salt." I commented alone.
The Hebert's haven't shown up at the library at the same time as me. Kinda makes me curious. Then again since they're just regular(mostly) people at this point in time it's unlikely that it would be anything interesting.
Maybe I'll find out the next time I meet them?
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Emergence 1.4
- Location
- Chula Vista
Emergence 1.4
I stared at the crawling mass of insects with confusion, a spark being held back from bursting into a bonfire at the confusing sight. They cleanly swept off the person who had come out of nowhere, a knife in their hand indicating their intent to harm me. Whether financially or physically it didn't matter…and what the hell are those weird lines?
Around the swarm of retreating insects, I could see a tangled mess of white lines, all of them leading to where the brain was. They lit up to my own vision, the visible lines of communication giving me a slight headache, though it faded quickly.
Seriously…the hell am I looking at?
The cool sensation of water came to the back of my head and I got my answer. 'I decided to make the location of Parahuman activity a little easier, we can never be too careful.' Veda's soft voice responded, and I cautiously checked up on the guy.
The bugs hadn't stung him, our wayward Hebert had apparently used a deluge of insects to knock the guy over instead. The dumbass fortunately didn't crack his skull on the hard cement floor, so I swiftly pulled out my phone. The swarm picked up the pace, buzzing almost nervously.
I turned my head and rolled my eyes at the specific grouping of exoskeleton having puppets.
"Not sure you can hear me…but I'm not going to report someone who helped me." I had no reason to, and the small puddle of water underneath the guy easily explained his incident.
The swarm didn't reply back, but there was a palpable sense of relief. I shook my head, and dialed the appropriate number to report this little incident. I ended up having to fib a bit, Veda choreographing how to keep my voice steady and truthful. Within a minute I had given all the details I had on what had happened, and I was left holding the bag as Taylor's insects fled.
The guy groaned, struggling to get up and with little hesitation since we were off in an alley I kicked him in the gut. Another two times saw him whimpering, and I admit I found a sadistic pleasure in seeing him squirm.
I should probably be more careful to hold back the frustration. I don't want to turn into Shadow Stalker once I go out as a 'Hero' that would be bad for a ton of reasons.
Wait…I'm still like half a block from the library how great is Taylor's range again? A block…or was it five blocks? Not that it makes the level of multitasking any less insane. She had to be controlling and coordinating millions of insects, arachnids and other boneless animals down to their individual antenna and limbs. That would require a supercomputer just to manage everything, not even including her inherent knowledge of their biology.
But if she was in range to knock this guy down, did that mean she was in the library or just nearby? It was a Saturday and my time in this world was now at about twelve days, only a little short of two weeks. How I had managed to not think about how everything was different was a real wonder. But to be fair I had always been good with simply ignoring and burying bad thoughts into the deepest mental home possible.
It didn't really work completely…but that's life.
The sound of a siren became obvious and I slumped once I realized I was going to have to talk to the police. I suppose I should be getting used to doing that anyway, I'm going to be superhero and all…even if a reclusive one.
Yay.
___
In hindsight it should have been obvious that Taylor wouldn't just leave me alone to stew in the books at the library. I had already gotten on her radar after all, and my encounter with her swarm would probably make her nervous. Hell, it could be her shard pulling her toward me. If Labyrinth had managed to detect Veda, why couldn't another Parahuman do the same?
But she didn't need to be so obvious about it, I could literally see her peeking out from the bookshelves. It was making my reading session rather difficult, and this old book was interesting since it had static pictures of martial arts similar to the scrolls from ATLA. Whoever had made this was a passionate sort, and the book was handmade. The pictures were drawn, they had made the leather cover themselves, the paper was papyrus, and the few words were written in ink.
It was lovely really, their author must have been a passionate human being.
There was a muffled curse on my left side, and I chuckled turning a page to a section that illustrated some form of Northern Praying Mantis. So I was probably going to check this out, even if only to practice the stances and movements of the martial arts within. It was just plain fun to learn them, and it reminded me of that time I convinced my mom to get me classes.
I ended up quitting after a few too many missed days and got lazy.
There was some more shuffling and I decided to get it over with, pivoting my head to look at Taylor directly. The tall leggy girl froze under my gaze, actively fiddling with a text of her own. From what I could it was a book related to computer programming. My eyes roamed over her blue jeans and her new black shirt, and I raised an eyebrow with a sardonic grin.
"Hi there, was there something you wanted to ask?" Taylor swallowed, and I shifted in my chair for a more comfortable position. She held the book against her chest, and I wanted to giggle at the image she was projecting.
"No I was just…looking around." She didn't seem to believe what she was saying.
"So just looking around involves following me like a cute puppy?" My question caused her embarrassment if her hot blush wasn't an indication. I wasn't normally so…accommodating but even a chance of a conversation with another human being was worth it.
"I was just uhh…" Taylor scrambled to make an excuse and when she couldn't come up with anything she sighed. "Okay yes I was following you, are you happy now?" She glared and I didn't change my expression in response.
"You must be shy then," I gave her what I hoped was a warm smile. "If you just wanted to talk with me, I don't mind much. I'm pretty new here…so I haven't made many friends." I laughed a little awkwardly, stimming my fingers to alleviate my slight social anxiety.
"Oh." Her reply was a little empty of emotion, and she ogled the cushy chair next to mine with longing. She hesitated but without saying a word, took her place right on the seat. She looked at me a few times, trying to read something off of my face.
I didn't know what Taylor was looking for. Some type of tell? A lie or hidden truth? Judging me so I wouldn't harm her in some way?
"So…what's that?" I changed topics, steering my finger to her book. Being scrutinized was not on my list for today's many tasks.
Taylor blinked and replied hesitantly. "It's a programming book, I just like to…" her eyes narrowed in suspicion, and I pouted at her. "I-I mean I've always been pretty good at coding, and this book is a little more advanced that what I had at…" she paused and when I didn't prod her to continued, she finished vaguely. "School…"
"Oh really? I dabble in computers and programming myself you know?" Taylor didn't do well in hiding her interest. "Would you mind if I took a look at it?" Getting a more solid view of the way computers work here would be interesting. My work had only done its job because of literal magic and massive processing power.
"Sure?" She showed me the cover, and my eyes narrowed at the title and author of the text.
…
An Introduction to D-8 and Applications in Adaptive Programming? Ok…I'm quite sure this isn't a Star Trek altpower…so this would have to be by…
"I know it's a little advanced, but it's not too difficult for me to learn with some…time and effort." I suspect what she meant to say was 'massive bug based parallel processing'
"You're like…17 aren't you? That's not a bad age to get on with more advanced curriculum if it's what you like." I did my best not to insult her, and I was curious to see how intelligent she was. Someone who could better understand what I am talking about(not that's its overly complicated) would be a nice conversation partner.
"Yeah I am, and that's a compliment isn't it?" I nodded and she relaxed a little at my assurance. Her gaze focused on the book in my hand. "I…what book are you reading? It seems…old."
My lips perked up, and I leaned in her direction to give her a better view. Taylor didn't bother to obscure her curiosity. "It's a really old book with a bunch of pages about different martial arts," I slowly flipped through the book, showing off the varying pictures and short blurbs. "I'm not sure who made it but I've been thinking of checking it out to help with practice."
"Practice?" She blurted out the query and I smiled again.
"I've become rather enamored with martial arts, so I'm working my way up to learning as much as I can from this little text." I wiggled in my seat, jiggling the book at the same time.
"You know that martial arts isn't real self defense right?" With no hint of emotion, I flipped the page and pointed her to a passage.
"Take a look then Taylor." She squinted, adjusting her big glasses as she read.
"Aim for the eyes, solar plexus, inflict maximum damage…a move like the…will tear off a man's sc—the hell that's…?"
I chortled. "Whoever wrote this book was absolutely vicious, and strangely enlightened," I shut the text and bundled it up with the other books I planned to check out. "They'll go from discussing philosophy and haikus to dismemberment and breaking bones in seconds. Strange book really…"
"Yeah…" Taylor sounded disturbed yet also intrigued by the mystery of who had written the text. It was probably just a nobody but with the world's narrative it could end up being someone of great importance.
Well…since the current topic was used up…I'll move on to the next.
"So what have you been coming to the library for? If you…don't mind me asking?" Taylor's body language tightened up, and stared at her some more waiting for her to either not answer or to cave in.
She pursed her lips, and responded slowly and uncertainty. "I've been studying up for a GED. The library here is pretty big and comprehensive so I thought studying here would be good." Taylor smoothly turned the question on me, folding her arms over her shoulders. "And I could ask the same question about you…"
"I was mostly just cribbing off the Internet of this place until I could get everything at home in order. Now I'm checking out books to prepare myself for my courses."
"Courses?" Her inquisitive gaze met my own.
"I'm 19, so I'm taking some online college courses…going to be a little too busy to go in person." I shrugged, Taylor reclining back a bit.
"I get it." She said even while her eyes darted left to right and back again. She was a little jumpy and paranoid.
"Hey…if I'm making you uncomfortable we can stop." I raised my hands, my stomach churning at the way she acted. It was scarily familiar and it was distinctly disagreeable to my sensibilities. I had managed to keep up my friendliness, but I didn't know how long it would be before I would choke on my foot.
"No I'm good, I don't mind talking to you." The surprise in her tone was equally surprising for myself. I wouldn't call myself remotely charismatic, but then again maybe that was not what Taylor needed.
I put the books in my lap, switching it up for a book detailing on Parahuman law, then switched it again for a treatise on mechanical devices.
"Well if we're sharing books, I have a few I'm reading up on. You have any besides that little gem?"
She shifted a bag I hadn't noticed before, her grin imperceptibly small but bright. "As a matter of fact I do." Taylor opened the bag, revealing three library books she had put her stamp of approval for checking out.
I reciprocated her expression of excitement.
___SMACK!
A fist thumped on wood, and I switched to an open palm on the following strike.
THUMP!
This time I threw a kick, and my bones reverberated with the impact of smashing wood. Burns were left whenever I hit, my heated fire barely contained by my own willpower. Veda gave an approving nod, easily following my rapid movements as I cracked the wood with sheer force.
"Stop." I followed her orders, sweat dripping from my brow. I grabbed the end of my loose tank top and swept off the build up.
After that day in the Brockton Bay Central Library, I had kept in semi consistent contact with Taylor. Each day I went to the library, and each day she was there. That would be a total of three days that we had met up and talked as…I think acquaintances would be the optimum word. So this was officially two weeks in another world…I probably wouldn't stop commenting on that until I grew used to this.
When I wasn't buying stuff from hardware stores in a manner that didn't resemble a woman buying for home repair(the house did need a little TLC) I was getting my physical condition up. Now while this body was a little more fit than my old one, it wasn't up to par yet for what I needed.
I had planned out a routine, studying numerous videos and whatever Veda recommended. Tons of squats, crunches and sprints along with a wide variety of stretches to warm up the various parts of my body. I had exercises for my chest, arms, legs, abdominals and back. Some of it I was familiar with, some of it was not. All of that should help with removing the tiny amounts of pudge that I did have but went unnoticed due to inattentiveness.
A lot of it was tiring as hell, but completely worth it. I already felt like I was making improvement but that could just be in my head. Either way that took around an hour of time out of my day, plus another half hour with the rather vicious training Veda taught.
It was the same ridiculous use of biotics to bombard me with attacks that would hurt or even bruise my skin. This time they were shaped more deliberately, making use of newly built holographic projectors like a mini Armax arena. The simulation was potent, and mainly focused on the different unpowered mooks that the gangs would have to their disposal.
Luckily most of the bruises could be easily covered up, and I seemed to be healing pretty fast. Hopefully all of this would be worth the pai—
"Beginning combat simulation: Oni Lee." Within seconds an aggressive punch slammed into my cheek, a squeak escaping me as I flew back several a quarter of a meter. The blue-white ghostly hologram said nothing, the rendition of the asian teleporter being rather accurate.
I dodged a knife, the blade whistling through the air despite lacking mass. A small grenade flew, and I threw a quivering ball of flame prematurely detonating the fake weapon. But that didn't make getting thrown back by the muffled shockwave any less painful.
The hologram shattered and the fake Oni Lee emerged from behind, another blade aimed for my neck. I tilted back, and launched a flaming fist knocking him out of his trajectory with my chi fueled combustion attack.
Another grenade was flung down, and I kicked off the ground narrowly dodging a grenade. It exploded with a cute sounding puff of mass effect field held air. My proud cry was cut off when the hologram emerged once more, throwing a punch straight into my gut. With a roar, I threw flames once more and in an instant my opponent was forced to fling away his grenade lest he explode.
The fight devolved into a flurry of punches, kicks, blades and fire blasts. It became obvious that while I was stronger, the hologram was faster. For every harried strike, the Lee lashed out with two. His teleportation more than doubled that rate of attacks, and I was getting tired.
I'm not stopping…I might not be able to fight the real thing but I wasn't giving up that easily.
I kicked off the ground again, leaping more than a meter in a single bound and with a barely controlled burst of fire propelled myself forward. My foot met the holgram's face and cracked and I was then dropped out of the simulation.
"Hah!" I celebrated until my stomach lurched as gravity did its job and I hit the ground with a smack of flesh against hard cement.
OWWWW!
I grumbled into the floor, glaring at Veda as she giggled at my misfortune.
"Not bad but perhaps you should be a little more attentive to your surroundings hmm?" I blew an errant bang from my face and sighed.
I need a shower.
___
I tightened my towel over my dripping body, a yawn escaping me once I realized I was so late. Mist drifted from the shower, and I wrapped a towel around my hair just so I could have the image of a woman just out of the shower. A weird urge but not weird enough for me not to indulge it.
I sauntered down the room, watching my reflection mimic my movements from the lengthy mirror. I placed a hip on my fist, while an arm covered the mountain range that emerged that took up my bust. I freely roamed the shapely form that had become my own, whether out of chance, a bad joke, or some rather incidental consequence of my salvation from…whatever had hurt me so badly.
"I'm going to have to go back to weekly therapy aren't I?" If asking that question wasn't a sign then talking to myself was even worse for my unfortunate mental health.
The past two weeks had been productive so far, even if my mind still blocked out the full comprehension of everything that was occurring. So I was going to run everything by, right before falling asleep.
I had developed a routine to improve my physical conditioning, and was trying to get into fighting shape. A healthy body, and a healthy sharp mind means a strong and healthy bender. So that was going well…but two days was not much to go on.
My technology was where everything was going a fair bit faster and with less complications.
I had reduced the power usage of the house, switching to LED lights by scavenging the old lights and mixing them with a packet of ones I had gotten from a hardware store. Wiring had been upgraded to a superconductive network, reducing energy wastage down to almost nothing. The limited internet connection was replaced with a modern modem and fiber connection, which was secretly enhanced by a multitude of optronic computers spread out throughout the house.
The sheer internet connection was in the hundreds of exabits per second, while the data storage was in the Zettabytes. Computing power was in the Zettaflops, and I could easily construct a program capable of accurate weather prediction. Though to be fair my omnitool was already able to do that on its own, my house's server was basically two dozen optronic computers hooked together into a mini network.
I had more collective processing power in my room than most of the planet, only Tinkertech would be able to equal my computers.
I had also started working on making some Omni-gel because boy is that shit useful far and above anything you could even begin to imagine. The suspension of common material, from light metals to plastic and ceramics could be shaped by hardlight fields into a variety of three dimensional shapes.
Everything from clothes, parts of weapons, tools, and even furniture. Larger Omni-foundries would essentially be 3D printers on steroids, able to meet the hype and even go beyond it. A single forge with downloaded schematics could arm and outfit a small army, a force multiplier on the logistics level that would destroy the status quo with its mere existence.
I had managed to make about a kilogram of the stuff, and was currently on my way to synthesizing another 20 kilograms from some of the junk left in the basement. Pieces of scrap metal, broken pottery, long strips of plastic, all of it was good base material to remake into Omni-gel.
One of my smaller projects was a 160 centimeter robot that moved through the use of hydraulic muscles using a type of strong rubber wrapped in synthetic fibers. The electro-hydraulic system was strong, durable, and moderately efficient. They were about three to five times stronger than organic muscle pound for pound, and react faster due to their electrical systems.
The internal skeleton was made from basic scrap iron altered into a stronger mass effect field compressed steel alloy and actuated by the hydraulics implanted throughout the armored skeleton, its steel easily able to bounce heavy fire. I was mostly figuring out what to make the outer frame out of. Maybe titanium, aluminum or ceramic, or a mix of all three.
The little guy wouldn't be finished for at least a few days to a week, and he was a 50 kilogram lightweight. So he could lift around half a ton, and once I got the silicone myomer bundles ready I could probably double their strength.
Fast too…current calculations were around a top speed of 40-45 miles an hour. A little army of VI-run automatons ready to defend my home and base. The largest rattling around in my head stood four to six meters tall and were armed with railguns, particle guns, plasma cannons, and ion beam heavy rifles. War machines capable of cracking tanks open and swatting fighter jets out of the sky.
Powered by gravity well catalyzed protium fusion reactors, or through the matter-antimatter annihilation reactions contained by gravitic fields. Weapons of mass destruction…
The slight sliding of my towel returned me to reality, and I sighed as I came back to myself. I had to be careful when sinking into the data stream of a thousand dead civilizations, I tended to slip into a fugue state that was…mildly nerve wracking.
I glanced over to the pajamas I had set aside, excluding a bra since I was going to bed afterwards. I sat down on the bed, not caring if it got a little wet, slapping aside a few wayward spirits that had drifted close. A new phenomenon that made it awkward to sleep every now and then.
I rubbed my face, feeling very exhausted out of nowhere. I started to get dressed as quickly as possible, doing my best to ignore certain new realities and not succeeding whatsoever. Within minutes I was dressed in a white bunny shirt, and long black pajama pants. A single clap shut down the lights, and I was plunged into darkness. The only light accompanying me was raining down from the moon, the stars and the city itself.
I could see little rainbow sprites dance together, simple aspects freely mingling in the confines of the beams. The day fully set in, and my eyelids slid shut, my breathing slowed.
Sleep swiftly claimed me, the day officially coming to a close.
___
AN: I managed to get this chapter out once I made a few corrections, and finished most of Arc 2. I'm up to 60K words written down, and I see no signs of my muse failing me. The story so far will start a little slow, but my plot is growing more coherent as I write and form a better outline, with at least 9 Arcs having a basic idea and plot to them.
That should hopefully keep the story from being too affected by my general wanderings. I'll continue writing regardless though.
I stared at the crawling mass of insects with confusion, a spark being held back from bursting into a bonfire at the confusing sight. They cleanly swept off the person who had come out of nowhere, a knife in their hand indicating their intent to harm me. Whether financially or physically it didn't matter…and what the hell are those weird lines?
Around the swarm of retreating insects, I could see a tangled mess of white lines, all of them leading to where the brain was. They lit up to my own vision, the visible lines of communication giving me a slight headache, though it faded quickly.
Seriously…the hell am I looking at?
The cool sensation of water came to the back of my head and I got my answer. 'I decided to make the location of Parahuman activity a little easier, we can never be too careful.' Veda's soft voice responded, and I cautiously checked up on the guy.
The bugs hadn't stung him, our wayward Hebert had apparently used a deluge of insects to knock the guy over instead. The dumbass fortunately didn't crack his skull on the hard cement floor, so I swiftly pulled out my phone. The swarm picked up the pace, buzzing almost nervously.
I turned my head and rolled my eyes at the specific grouping of exoskeleton having puppets.
"Not sure you can hear me…but I'm not going to report someone who helped me." I had no reason to, and the small puddle of water underneath the guy easily explained his incident.
The swarm didn't reply back, but there was a palpable sense of relief. I shook my head, and dialed the appropriate number to report this little incident. I ended up having to fib a bit, Veda choreographing how to keep my voice steady and truthful. Within a minute I had given all the details I had on what had happened, and I was left holding the bag as Taylor's insects fled.
The guy groaned, struggling to get up and with little hesitation since we were off in an alley I kicked him in the gut. Another two times saw him whimpering, and I admit I found a sadistic pleasure in seeing him squirm.
I should probably be more careful to hold back the frustration. I don't want to turn into Shadow Stalker once I go out as a 'Hero' that would be bad for a ton of reasons.
Wait…I'm still like half a block from the library how great is Taylor's range again? A block…or was it five blocks? Not that it makes the level of multitasking any less insane. She had to be controlling and coordinating millions of insects, arachnids and other boneless animals down to their individual antenna and limbs. That would require a supercomputer just to manage everything, not even including her inherent knowledge of their biology.
But if she was in range to knock this guy down, did that mean she was in the library or just nearby? It was a Saturday and my time in this world was now at about twelve days, only a little short of two weeks. How I had managed to not think about how everything was different was a real wonder. But to be fair I had always been good with simply ignoring and burying bad thoughts into the deepest mental home possible.
It didn't really work completely…but that's life.
The sound of a siren became obvious and I slumped once I realized I was going to have to talk to the police. I suppose I should be getting used to doing that anyway, I'm going to be superhero and all…even if a reclusive one.
Yay.
___
But she didn't need to be so obvious about it, I could literally see her peeking out from the bookshelves. It was making my reading session rather difficult, and this old book was interesting since it had static pictures of martial arts similar to the scrolls from ATLA. Whoever had made this was a passionate sort, and the book was handmade. The pictures were drawn, they had made the leather cover themselves, the paper was papyrus, and the few words were written in ink.
It was lovely really, their author must have been a passionate human being.
There was a muffled curse on my left side, and I chuckled turning a page to a section that illustrated some form of Northern Praying Mantis. So I was probably going to check this out, even if only to practice the stances and movements of the martial arts within. It was just plain fun to learn them, and it reminded me of that time I convinced my mom to get me classes.
I ended up quitting after a few too many missed days and got lazy.
There was some more shuffling and I decided to get it over with, pivoting my head to look at Taylor directly. The tall leggy girl froze under my gaze, actively fiddling with a text of her own. From what I could it was a book related to computer programming. My eyes roamed over her blue jeans and her new black shirt, and I raised an eyebrow with a sardonic grin.
"Hi there, was there something you wanted to ask?" Taylor swallowed, and I shifted in my chair for a more comfortable position. She held the book against her chest, and I wanted to giggle at the image she was projecting.
"No I was just…looking around." She didn't seem to believe what she was saying.
"So just looking around involves following me like a cute puppy?" My question caused her embarrassment if her hot blush wasn't an indication. I wasn't normally so…accommodating but even a chance of a conversation with another human being was worth it.
"I was just uhh…" Taylor scrambled to make an excuse and when she couldn't come up with anything she sighed. "Okay yes I was following you, are you happy now?" She glared and I didn't change my expression in response.
"You must be shy then," I gave her what I hoped was a warm smile. "If you just wanted to talk with me, I don't mind much. I'm pretty new here…so I haven't made many friends." I laughed a little awkwardly, stimming my fingers to alleviate my slight social anxiety.
"Oh." Her reply was a little empty of emotion, and she ogled the cushy chair next to mine with longing. She hesitated but without saying a word, took her place right on the seat. She looked at me a few times, trying to read something off of my face.
I didn't know what Taylor was looking for. Some type of tell? A lie or hidden truth? Judging me so I wouldn't harm her in some way?
"So…what's that?" I changed topics, steering my finger to her book. Being scrutinized was not on my list for today's many tasks.
Taylor blinked and replied hesitantly. "It's a programming book, I just like to…" her eyes narrowed in suspicion, and I pouted at her. "I-I mean I've always been pretty good at coding, and this book is a little more advanced that what I had at…" she paused and when I didn't prod her to continued, she finished vaguely. "School…"
"Oh really? I dabble in computers and programming myself you know?" Taylor didn't do well in hiding her interest. "Would you mind if I took a look at it?" Getting a more solid view of the way computers work here would be interesting. My work had only done its job because of literal magic and massive processing power.
"Sure?" She showed me the cover, and my eyes narrowed at the title and author of the text.
…
An Introduction to D-8 and Applications in Adaptive Programming? Ok…I'm quite sure this isn't a Star Trek altpower…so this would have to be by…
"I know it's a little advanced, but it's not too difficult for me to learn with some…time and effort." I suspect what she meant to say was 'massive bug based parallel processing'
"You're like…17 aren't you? That's not a bad age to get on with more advanced curriculum if it's what you like." I did my best not to insult her, and I was curious to see how intelligent she was. Someone who could better understand what I am talking about(not that's its overly complicated) would be a nice conversation partner.
"Yeah I am, and that's a compliment isn't it?" I nodded and she relaxed a little at my assurance. Her gaze focused on the book in my hand. "I…what book are you reading? It seems…old."
My lips perked up, and I leaned in her direction to give her a better view. Taylor didn't bother to obscure her curiosity. "It's a really old book with a bunch of pages about different martial arts," I slowly flipped through the book, showing off the varying pictures and short blurbs. "I'm not sure who made it but I've been thinking of checking it out to help with practice."
"Practice?" She blurted out the query and I smiled again.
"I've become rather enamored with martial arts, so I'm working my way up to learning as much as I can from this little text." I wiggled in my seat, jiggling the book at the same time.
"You know that martial arts isn't real self defense right?" With no hint of emotion, I flipped the page and pointed her to a passage.
"Take a look then Taylor." She squinted, adjusting her big glasses as she read.
"Aim for the eyes, solar plexus, inflict maximum damage…a move like the…will tear off a man's sc—the hell that's…?"
I chortled. "Whoever wrote this book was absolutely vicious, and strangely enlightened," I shut the text and bundled it up with the other books I planned to check out. "They'll go from discussing philosophy and haikus to dismemberment and breaking bones in seconds. Strange book really…"
"Yeah…" Taylor sounded disturbed yet also intrigued by the mystery of who had written the text. It was probably just a nobody but with the world's narrative it could end up being someone of great importance.
Well…since the current topic was used up…I'll move on to the next.
"So what have you been coming to the library for? If you…don't mind me asking?" Taylor's body language tightened up, and stared at her some more waiting for her to either not answer or to cave in.
She pursed her lips, and responded slowly and uncertainty. "I've been studying up for a GED. The library here is pretty big and comprehensive so I thought studying here would be good." Taylor smoothly turned the question on me, folding her arms over her shoulders. "And I could ask the same question about you…"
"I was mostly just cribbing off the Internet of this place until I could get everything at home in order. Now I'm checking out books to prepare myself for my courses."
"Courses?" Her inquisitive gaze met my own.
"I'm 19, so I'm taking some online college courses…going to be a little too busy to go in person." I shrugged, Taylor reclining back a bit.
"I get it." She said even while her eyes darted left to right and back again. She was a little jumpy and paranoid.
"Hey…if I'm making you uncomfortable we can stop." I raised my hands, my stomach churning at the way she acted. It was scarily familiar and it was distinctly disagreeable to my sensibilities. I had managed to keep up my friendliness, but I didn't know how long it would be before I would choke on my foot.
"No I'm good, I don't mind talking to you." The surprise in her tone was equally surprising for myself. I wouldn't call myself remotely charismatic, but then again maybe that was not what Taylor needed.
I put the books in my lap, switching it up for a book detailing on Parahuman law, then switched it again for a treatise on mechanical devices.
"Well if we're sharing books, I have a few I'm reading up on. You have any besides that little gem?"
She shifted a bag I hadn't noticed before, her grin imperceptibly small but bright. "As a matter of fact I do." Taylor opened the bag, revealing three library books she had put her stamp of approval for checking out.
I reciprocated her expression of excitement.
___
A fist thumped on wood, and I switched to an open palm on the following strike.
THUMP!
This time I threw a kick, and my bones reverberated with the impact of smashing wood. Burns were left whenever I hit, my heated fire barely contained by my own willpower. Veda gave an approving nod, easily following my rapid movements as I cracked the wood with sheer force.
"Stop." I followed her orders, sweat dripping from my brow. I grabbed the end of my loose tank top and swept off the build up.
After that day in the Brockton Bay Central Library, I had kept in semi consistent contact with Taylor. Each day I went to the library, and each day she was there. That would be a total of three days that we had met up and talked as…I think acquaintances would be the optimum word. So this was officially two weeks in another world…I probably wouldn't stop commenting on that until I grew used to this.
When I wasn't buying stuff from hardware stores in a manner that didn't resemble a woman buying for home repair(the house did need a little TLC) I was getting my physical condition up. Now while this body was a little more fit than my old one, it wasn't up to par yet for what I needed.
I had planned out a routine, studying numerous videos and whatever Veda recommended. Tons of squats, crunches and sprints along with a wide variety of stretches to warm up the various parts of my body. I had exercises for my chest, arms, legs, abdominals and back. Some of it I was familiar with, some of it was not. All of that should help with removing the tiny amounts of pudge that I did have but went unnoticed due to inattentiveness.
A lot of it was tiring as hell, but completely worth it. I already felt like I was making improvement but that could just be in my head. Either way that took around an hour of time out of my day, plus another half hour with the rather vicious training Veda taught.
It was the same ridiculous use of biotics to bombard me with attacks that would hurt or even bruise my skin. This time they were shaped more deliberately, making use of newly built holographic projectors like a mini Armax arena. The simulation was potent, and mainly focused on the different unpowered mooks that the gangs would have to their disposal.
Luckily most of the bruises could be easily covered up, and I seemed to be healing pretty fast. Hopefully all of this would be worth the pai—
"Beginning combat simulation: Oni Lee." Within seconds an aggressive punch slammed into my cheek, a squeak escaping me as I flew back several a quarter of a meter. The blue-white ghostly hologram said nothing, the rendition of the asian teleporter being rather accurate.
I dodged a knife, the blade whistling through the air despite lacking mass. A small grenade flew, and I threw a quivering ball of flame prematurely detonating the fake weapon. But that didn't make getting thrown back by the muffled shockwave any less painful.
The hologram shattered and the fake Oni Lee emerged from behind, another blade aimed for my neck. I tilted back, and launched a flaming fist knocking him out of his trajectory with my chi fueled combustion attack.
Another grenade was flung down, and I kicked off the ground narrowly dodging a grenade. It exploded with a cute sounding puff of mass effect field held air. My proud cry was cut off when the hologram emerged once more, throwing a punch straight into my gut. With a roar, I threw flames once more and in an instant my opponent was forced to fling away his grenade lest he explode.
The fight devolved into a flurry of punches, kicks, blades and fire blasts. It became obvious that while I was stronger, the hologram was faster. For every harried strike, the Lee lashed out with two. His teleportation more than doubled that rate of attacks, and I was getting tired.
I'm not stopping…I might not be able to fight the real thing but I wasn't giving up that easily.
I kicked off the ground again, leaping more than a meter in a single bound and with a barely controlled burst of fire propelled myself forward. My foot met the holgram's face and cracked and I was then dropped out of the simulation.
"Hah!" I celebrated until my stomach lurched as gravity did its job and I hit the ground with a smack of flesh against hard cement.
OWWWW!
I grumbled into the floor, glaring at Veda as she giggled at my misfortune.
"Not bad but perhaps you should be a little more attentive to your surroundings hmm?" I blew an errant bang from my face and sighed.
I need a shower.
___
I tightened my towel over my dripping body, a yawn escaping me once I realized I was so late. Mist drifted from the shower, and I wrapped a towel around my hair just so I could have the image of a woman just out of the shower. A weird urge but not weird enough for me not to indulge it.
I sauntered down the room, watching my reflection mimic my movements from the lengthy mirror. I placed a hip on my fist, while an arm covered the mountain range that emerged that took up my bust. I freely roamed the shapely form that had become my own, whether out of chance, a bad joke, or some rather incidental consequence of my salvation from…whatever had hurt me so badly.
"I'm going to have to go back to weekly therapy aren't I?" If asking that question wasn't a sign then talking to myself was even worse for my unfortunate mental health.
The past two weeks had been productive so far, even if my mind still blocked out the full comprehension of everything that was occurring. So I was going to run everything by, right before falling asleep.
I had developed a routine to improve my physical conditioning, and was trying to get into fighting shape. A healthy body, and a healthy sharp mind means a strong and healthy bender. So that was going well…but two days was not much to go on.
My technology was where everything was going a fair bit faster and with less complications.
I had reduced the power usage of the house, switching to LED lights by scavenging the old lights and mixing them with a packet of ones I had gotten from a hardware store. Wiring had been upgraded to a superconductive network, reducing energy wastage down to almost nothing. The limited internet connection was replaced with a modern modem and fiber connection, which was secretly enhanced by a multitude of optronic computers spread out throughout the house.
The sheer internet connection was in the hundreds of exabits per second, while the data storage was in the Zettabytes. Computing power was in the Zettaflops, and I could easily construct a program capable of accurate weather prediction. Though to be fair my omnitool was already able to do that on its own, my house's server was basically two dozen optronic computers hooked together into a mini network.
I had more collective processing power in my room than most of the planet, only Tinkertech would be able to equal my computers.
I had also started working on making some Omni-gel because boy is that shit useful far and above anything you could even begin to imagine. The suspension of common material, from light metals to plastic and ceramics could be shaped by hardlight fields into a variety of three dimensional shapes.
Everything from clothes, parts of weapons, tools, and even furniture. Larger Omni-foundries would essentially be 3D printers on steroids, able to meet the hype and even go beyond it. A single forge with downloaded schematics could arm and outfit a small army, a force multiplier on the logistics level that would destroy the status quo with its mere existence.
I had managed to make about a kilogram of the stuff, and was currently on my way to synthesizing another 20 kilograms from some of the junk left in the basement. Pieces of scrap metal, broken pottery, long strips of plastic, all of it was good base material to remake into Omni-gel.
One of my smaller projects was a 160 centimeter robot that moved through the use of hydraulic muscles using a type of strong rubber wrapped in synthetic fibers. The electro-hydraulic system was strong, durable, and moderately efficient. They were about three to five times stronger than organic muscle pound for pound, and react faster due to their electrical systems.
The internal skeleton was made from basic scrap iron altered into a stronger mass effect field compressed steel alloy and actuated by the hydraulics implanted throughout the armored skeleton, its steel easily able to bounce heavy fire. I was mostly figuring out what to make the outer frame out of. Maybe titanium, aluminum or ceramic, or a mix of all three.
The little guy wouldn't be finished for at least a few days to a week, and he was a 50 kilogram lightweight. So he could lift around half a ton, and once I got the silicone myomer bundles ready I could probably double their strength.
Fast too…current calculations were around a top speed of 40-45 miles an hour. A little army of VI-run automatons ready to defend my home and base. The largest rattling around in my head stood four to six meters tall and were armed with railguns, particle guns, plasma cannons, and ion beam heavy rifles. War machines capable of cracking tanks open and swatting fighter jets out of the sky.
Powered by gravity well catalyzed protium fusion reactors, or through the matter-antimatter annihilation reactions contained by gravitic fields. Weapons of mass destruction…
The slight sliding of my towel returned me to reality, and I sighed as I came back to myself. I had to be careful when sinking into the data stream of a thousand dead civilizations, I tended to slip into a fugue state that was…mildly nerve wracking.
I glanced over to the pajamas I had set aside, excluding a bra since I was going to bed afterwards. I sat down on the bed, not caring if it got a little wet, slapping aside a few wayward spirits that had drifted close. A new phenomenon that made it awkward to sleep every now and then.
I rubbed my face, feeling very exhausted out of nowhere. I started to get dressed as quickly as possible, doing my best to ignore certain new realities and not succeeding whatsoever. Within minutes I was dressed in a white bunny shirt, and long black pajama pants. A single clap shut down the lights, and I was plunged into darkness. The only light accompanying me was raining down from the moon, the stars and the city itself.
I could see little rainbow sprites dance together, simple aspects freely mingling in the confines of the beams. The day fully set in, and my eyelids slid shut, my breathing slowed.
Sleep swiftly claimed me, the day officially coming to a close.
___
AN: I managed to get this chapter out once I made a few corrections, and finished most of Arc 2. I'm up to 60K words written down, and I see no signs of my muse failing me. The story so far will start a little slow, but my plot is growing more coherent as I write and form a better outline, with at least 9 Arcs having a basic idea and plot to them.
That should hopefully keep the story from being too affected by my general wanderings. I'll continue writing regardless though.
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Emergence 1.5
- Location
- Chula Vista
Emergence 1.5
I stomped around the library, my face actively twitching and contorting in an odd mix of anger, annoyance and embarrassment. Taylor wasn't much help in my predicament, only periodically popping up to check on me and my…pursuer.
The young skinny foggy eyed platinum blonde from just over two weeks…since it was the 27th of January now. I could still feel the way that the dimensions crossed and bent around her form, an aura of twisted reality causing shivers through even the spirit world. She was lucky the local entities were so understanding or knew what she was doing or else they'd have torn her apart for the insult.
Spirits were capricious and violent little guys…girls…spiritual life forms.
Elle hadn't been around since the first day I had visited, and this time she seemed intent on getting to know me. Faultline always attempted to drag her away but the little girl managed to escape from her grasp with strange ease. Each time I heard the spirits hiss in anger, and she flinched each and every time they let their anger be known.
Yet the high level Shaker seemed to be steadily adapting, her twisting of space less intrusive, less insulting to the spirits of knowledge, air, paper, words, and concepts swirling in the atmosphere. With each improvement the aggression of the entities flying around us died down to a low simmer, and the girl's vision became less clouded.
That's…not normal right?
I lost sight of her…then collided when she reappeared out of nowhere, my scream choked back down into the abyss. And holy shit Faultline looked pissed…
I glanced down to the girl who had made the last hour an incredibly annoying experience. She was younger than I expected, at most she was eleven or twelve years old but she was very tall for her age. Standing about two inches taller than my own 5'6 stature. She wore a green hoodie and jeans, and her unclouded eyes stared at me with a shining intensity.
"Hello." Her strangely lucid response had clearly put Faultline on edge, and I gave the Parahuman girl a weak grin.
"Hello there, is there any reason you're following me?" I asked the young cape, noting how a grin of her own was forming.
"Clear." I didn't understand what she meant.
"What?" Labyrinth looked up at me with rounded eyes, dimensions warping and the motes of lights following the waves with enthusiasm. It was…trippy.
"You…are clear…you…help me focus," I bit my lip, analyzing her reply. "I can be…more myself around you…your presence stains this library." Faultline held a breath, and Taylor was far less calm than before. Rather uneasy in fact, though it wasn't against me.
Stains the library…does my presence somehow change the vicinity around me in a way I didn't understand? But my powers were limited to myself, and besides the emergence of the Spirits there was little else that could be the reason.
Veda re-emerged from my back, returning to her intricate kite like form, whispering in my ear.
"Basilia…feel more closely, is there not something lacking in this place?" Her voice was low, her eyes shining in different shades of green. "What could irreparably affect the nature of the World?"
I didn't shut my eyes, instead reaching out with my own energy. Instead of what I instinctively expected, my energy bouncing off with the energy of another. I felt nothing. Despite the people around me there was nothing to bounce off of…
But…no…it wasn't completely empty, simply very faint and very restricted. Even then…
They lack Souls don't they Veda? My world was much the same in that regard…
"Indeed but even then…there is a spark of life, a burgeoning precursor to the victory over the flesh." I didn't nod to her explanations, quickly returning my focus to the girl affected by my mere existence.
"Alright that's…Err…nice but you shouldn't be following random strangers kid." Was kid the best word? I wasn't going to call her girlie or by her name. "That's not exactly what someone would call safe." Labyrinth smiled, her eyes shining with uncharacteristic happiness.
"It's Elle…" Faultline was staring at me now, and I gave her a shrug. Luckily Veda was still coaching me on keeping my emotions from messing with my lies.
"I suppose it's nice to meet you? I'm Basilia." I decided to give her the common courtesy of my name, even if it feels like a mistake. Being evasive about giving a name sounded a little more suspicious.
It was at this point that Faultline began to make our way toward us, her pace only a little above normal speed. Within seconds she had her hand on Elle's shoulder, and she leaned down to whisper in the girl's ear.
The blonde precariously tilted her head. She whispered back, and the older woman froze at the apparently cohesive response. The Parahuman glared though it softened once she picked something up in my visage.
The mercenary backed away, taking a spot on one of the shelves and taking care to not tip it over as she leaned on the structure. Elle grinned mildly.
"Thank you." Her eyes were staring behind me and to the left, Veda chuckling at the intuitive nature of the Shaker 12. Elle retreated, remaining intensely focused and awake as she gently grabbed her caretaker's wrist. The mercenary gave me a final glance, and the two walked out of sight as they weaved between lanes.
Footsteps alerted me to Taylor, and I craned my neck up as the tall brunette analyzed my face.
"What was that about?" There was a low hiss and buzz in the air, insects hiding in the shadows and seeing the world for their master.
Eyebrows pressed together, tensing at the question from Taylor. I shrugged my shoulders, questions rising at what was happening.
"I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself," distant flashes of ancient memory arose. "Strange girl was a little off, but my…presence apparently helped her."
"That's odd." She said, fingering a book on Entomology.
…
It was…
After that debacle I spent more time tinkering in the basement, setting up the basic manufacturing infrastructure for small end mass production. The difference between Henry Ford and a modern Toyota plant essentially. Two days of work and rather simple obscuring of my activities had led to the gigantic cylindrical structure glowing with an eerie blue light.
A frame almost entirely composed of high strength metal alloys and plastic composites. Omni-projectors were evenly dispersed throughout the inner chamber, with reservoirs of Omni-gel adding up to about 220 kilograms. This was only possible because of the amount of junk the lady had left behind. God I wanted to hug her, I'd probably be dead or under the 'employ' of a local gang if it wasn't for her.
I had already created a number of basic templates including any type of physical tool, basic armor plating, wheels, rotors, and the housings of mechanical devices. I could probably use the forge to build this entire house from scratch if the need ever came. I had at least a hundred more templates ready to submit, some of my own and others dig out from the memory of Veda.
The Omni-forge wasn't the largest possible or even the most advanced though it was only a little behind. With this I was no longer reliant on making tools and technology with my hands. I could build weapons, armor, engines, and other advanced technology. More…precise work was still a little ways away so I couldn't craft advanced cybernetics, but I already had some ideas for that.
Veda had the precision to build nanoelectronics, and that had been derived from her former existence as a Shard. From what she had shared with me, the Entities used pieces of microscopic and nanoscopic biocrystal to mess with materials and output their powers into this reality. All that was needed was a small sample of the stuff, and some feedstock to grow a solution of Shard juice.
Well…kind of but not really? It was closer to nanotech since it couldn't pull off dimensional things
Which…might actually make me a target for Cauldron or even Scion if they catch wind of it. But upon a second though…definitely not.
"I will still do what I can to obscure the truth about the fragments." Veda understood my mild trepidation, and I decided to test the advanced 3D printer by building some basic armor.
At my command Omni-gel was shaped and warped into the four layers of a basic armor set. A basic lining environmentally sealed the segments of the suit, split into helmet, shoulders, chest, arms and legs, and boots. Some combination of strong composite plastic and light metallic alloys. It was firmly attached to the outer lining, a carbon-tube weave to resist splinters and shrapnel. Overall it was a form fitting bodysuit resistant to light firearms, and with significant ranges of motion and flexibility.
The top layer was full armor plating, usually an ultra hard metal or ceramic plates and scales. The fourth covering was more variable, customized to the environment and job the armor suit was built for.
The machine whirred away as it did it's job, rapidly and accurately reproducing all the individual components of my new armor like magic. It also constructed the lightweight exoskeleton that was hidden away by the first layer to increase strength and endurance.
It was a TALOS suit built with the technology of the distant future, and with its kinetic barrier and magnetic field projectors, the suit would take little damage from most infantry weaponry and would have some small manner of resistance to plasma. It also had a tiny Eezo power core, the initial charge provided by batteries with twenty times the energy density of modern batteries, and with a lifespan fifty times higher.
The suit's generator would be useful for powering the projectors for Omni-armor, a projected energy field that while temporary is basically impervious to damage. Not even Lung could get through the stuff, though some esoteric powers stood a better chance than brute strength.
I shook my head of my thoughts, tapping the haptic screen and reading out the information given. The reserves had been reduced to about 75% which meant the suit weighed in the vicinity of 30 kilograms. Far heavier than the full weight and mass of armor that a modern soldier has. The suit wouldn't be finished for another few minutes which meant I had time to get ready for the fit-test.
"Alright Veda, could you tell me when the suit is done? I want to get a quick snack, and then I need to change into something a little more suitable." I called out to Veda, the spirit giving a silent thumbs up as she sat on a workbench, dangling her little legs in the air.
This won't take long…
I admired myself in the mirror with a wide grin. "Hmm…the flexibility is excellent." I rolled my arms in their sockets, the weight supporting exoskeleton following my movements with minimal friction and energy usage. The skeleton was wrapped in plastic, so I wouldn't have to feel the sensation of cool metal wherever it touched my clothes and skin. But wearing a jumpsuit tended to minimize skin exposure so it couldn't be a problem anyhow.
The body mirror reflected my beautiful self with little difficulty, the shiny new armor going well with my hair. Mainly because it wasn't shiny to begin with, the armor plating was a nanometric steel alloy compressed by lasers, and the upper lining was a shade of black.
The armor itself had a strong resemblance to Mjolnir armor if slimmer, though the proportions more closely resembled some TALOS concepts before the program was broken up. The helmet was a little different in shape as well, but I hadn't placed it on yet.
The armor would augment human strength between two and three times for a normal human. Which while a force multiplier for a normal human society didn't do much for me. I pretty much ran on anime physics, and would probably have a natural Brute rating. The main advantage was the kinetic barriers, and the armor itself. Though to be fair it managed to double my strength anyway…some type of chi bullshit…
I smacked the chestplate, my hand resounding off a barrier calibrated to slow movements. I adjusted it and my hand made contact this time, feeling the smooth plate of laser steel.
The steel was the invention of a species that I had a vague recollection of, some type of amphibian race of immoral scientists and spies. The steel was designed down to a nanoscopic level, using precision lasers to indicate spots where biotic warps weaken its molecular bonds. A moment later the steel is then forcefully compressed by a high G mass effect field. It was more than seven times stronger than maraging steel, yet retained considerable ductility. The armor would bounce everything up to heavy machine gun fire without breaking my ribs.
It wasn't the strongest material I could make it out of, but the other option was some diamondoid carbon nanotube plating that required even more specialized gravity field compression. It was both insanely expensive and energy intensive…not at all ready for prime time.
Those races…they have to the Sal—
BANG!
I flinched when my barrier flickered, as a tiny pellet was accelerated to just beneath the speed of sound. It was stopped by the potent barrier, and a short check indicated a reduction of one twelve thousandths of its barrier.
So thirty hits from an M2 Browning.
Huh…where would that be on the scale of the PRT…Brute 5…maybe even a 6?
"You are a strange human Basilia. Most humans would react with a greater…outburst than you did?" Veda sounded concerned and I snorted.
"Veda I've tested the suit's materials, and tested the kinetic barriers themselves. If the barriers had failed, the pellet wouldn't leave a scratch. A little pellet wouldn't kill me either." While it was risky, I would take a bruise to make sure this armor was up to par with my standards. It was the difference between having a hole through my head or not having a hole through my head.
"Fair enough. Have you tested trying to fight in it?" I automatically lowered into a combative stance, and took the time to test each and every move I knew with slow and purposeful movements. I could freely twist my hips and turn on my heels without a significant slowdown.
I took in air through my nose, and brought it down to my chest. I lashed out with a straight punch, and flames flew in a short lived blast. I robotically followed the katas I had been taught. They didn't feel fully natural, but I had only been learning it for a week or so.
That I was retaining the information so quickly was either a miracle or I was secretly a prodigy but too lazy to realize my full potential. Either way, while I certainly couldn't take Oni Lee or Hookwolf, the average crook was cannon fodder. If a Parahuman didn't have superhuman strength, speed, or a defense mechanism they were toast too.
A hologram was one thing but a real person was much smarter than a dumb adaptive VI. Which was why I wasn't looking forward to the next couple of days. I needed to search for a base of operations, a nice secluded warehouse that could be kept safe from the gangs for at least a while.
But going out in or out of costume was no less dangerous. One way led to a mugging the other could lead to gang retaliation. I had to find a property that was large, and had at least some metal to scrap and use for my needs. I just needed a stealthy way to get from point A to point B without tipping off anyone.
But…in the end I did have a way to get by stealthily, it was simply incredibly dangerous and immensely foolish.
But this was Worm, taking risks was simply part of the job description of saving the world from the apocalypse. So I wasn't going to let my own fear stop me from surviving.
So I was going to suck it up as best as I could.
"FUCK!" I rolled to the ground, the vertigo leaving me with a headache as Veda did much of the hard work for me. The world had grown less real and less solid, and the aspects that were previously incorporeal could actually touch me with their grubby ghostly fingers.
This was the plan, one that had taken days of training and coaching to get ready for.
I was going to traverse the lowest layer of the Spirit World, the layer just above the material plane. Most of it had been spent getting the basics forced into my head through vicious(cruel) training. Due to my existence as Veda's Host, and the mutated dimensional transference abilities of Shards I could freely enter and exit the spiritual plane at will. Even if I was limited to the Outer Sphere and High Spirit, and needed a specific rift to the Abstract Spirit. Anything beyond those two risked killing me or finding out that malicious high spirits did exist.
I doubt we would survive the experience.
'My apologies, I didn't account for the landing.' Veda apologized inside my head, and I smiled.
"Okay…right now I can't bend…but I have a gun, some gumption, and shard magic." Reality warped at the weight of Veda's corpus, her mass pressing down on the local spirits. My omnitool was barely functional, but the fact that I wasn't being weighed down by my armor told me that everything I had on me still worked
Without a second's hesitation, I kicked off the ground, gaining speed as I went for a fast paced jog. My house was quickly left behind, the various aspects that called it their home waving goodbye in blasts of electricity, ones and zeroes, crumbling dirt and wind.
The world was strange and colorful, wavelengths unseen in human history freely existing and surviving in the spiritual environment of Brockton Bay. I ambled about the dimensional plane, taking care to not fall into a trap or rift into the higher planes. All around me the spirits lingered and floated, clinging to the concepts that made them.
Motes of flaming sparks burst out from areas of fire, heat and industry. The cars that drive around the city dropped a spirit for every single combustion of gasoline and air. Air aspects were born from every exhale of breath, and poured out from the trees and plants.
I jogged past beings and creatures of every shape and size, the strange entities watching with an animal curiosity. I shook my head at how long it was taking, and that was when I was going at fifteen miles an hour. At the errant thought a few of the aspects approached, tiny spirits of air born from gusts of wind.
I nearly stumbled as a sudden breeze gave my feet additional propulsive force. The weak spirits let out a whistling giggle, innocent sounds coming from compassion.
'Let them help…they will follow those they believe strong enough in mind or body.'
Veda's advice was easily respected, the five mph breeze fanned by a dozen sprites. All around me the spiritual landscape shifted, and the sprites drew closer as we hit the areas where crime and violence was heavy. Off in the distance, I could see whirring winds of violence and hate spirits with many of them circling around the Medhall building. Other spirits of similar disposition lingered around the territory of other gangs, crests of blood and black carved into the land by time and ceaseless conflict.
I stepped up the pace and the spirits started to cling to my back, with a more daring individual nuzzling my soft hair. My literal sprint paid dividends as I found the numerous warehouses and abandoned industrial lands of the Docks. I used the imprints of the gangs in the world to lead myself to an area relatively free of influence from the big three. Smaller spots, around a dozen indicated the smaller barely functional groups formed up in the city.
I scanned the area with my vision, using a mental checklist to figure out what would be the best place to set up as a base. Based on size, physical degradation, proximity to gang violence, the amount of material, and even the availability of Spirits in the area.
The little sprites had proved more useful than I expected, and the idea of commanding greater spirits appealed to me. Though that would require finding a way to convince them to help me. Some are easy, others would require boons, contracts and gifts to obtain their assistance. Spirits of violence and rage would provide power and strength, manipulating spirits of fire would save me from explosions and burns. Though doing it wrong would piss them off and I die anyway.
Spirits born from animals could be commanded with greater ease, and I could even summon them like Pokémon. Again I would need to prove my superiority, act as a sort of pack leader. Otherwise they would rather tear me apart instead of helping me by mauling Lung for me.
I felt a vibration and I ducked behind a corner as an armored abomination of a vehicle flew past at what had to be more than one hundred miles an hour. There was a shudder in space, the subtle altering of physics created by Tinkertech disturbing the spirits for a brief moment. A trail of detritus and fluids formed a path, and inspiration came.
Let's see where this leads then?
Following the trail proved to be a useful idea even if rather random in its conception. I had been lead to a series of buildings with minimal amounts of evidence of crime or crime related consequences. I ended up stepping off the path, and had found a perfect base of operations. It was right in that area between the Empire and the ABB. A little dangerous due to the chance of getting caught between a gang war, but to be fair most of the city had those problems. However the lack of negative spirits and checking up last scuffles found that this area had remained just outside the general area where anyone would fight.
The building was empty, dusty, and run down…everything you could ever want for a base. Even better the square building was a part of a greater interconnected complex likely built and expanded over a number of years. Old but small factories, storehouses and tiny industrial offices. There was even a courtyard which had clearly seen better days. Here the density of spirits was higher, aspects of iron launched slow punches, screeching metal sounds escaping from nonexistent throats. One of them was shaped like a forklift, raising its lift as it chattered nonsense to a drill press.
And…I can't believe I just said that. Man the spirit world is trippy, and I'm probably going to get used to it. I pity whoever gets close to me because I'm already a weirdo…can't imagine what interacting with spirits will do to me.
Anyway…the complex was large, not too broken down and filled to the brim with entities that would prove useful and amenable to my goals. And I found a paper floating in the wind that helped figure out that I could easily afford the cost. Many times over even, with room for repairs, raw material, and hiring people if I became inclined to running a business. I just needed to bring some stuff into the building to get it up and running.
Speaking of such…
I waved at the forklift spirit, and it turned in my direction letting loose a confused honk. "Hey buddy! You good with me fixing this place up?" Veda choked at my blase questioning of a spirit capable of crushing me under its wheels.
WRRRR!
The spirit reacted with shocked hope, it's lift moving up and down in apparent celebration. The hundreds of spirits in the building reacted the same way, cheers of joy and excitement very nearly conjuring spirits of that very nature.
Huh…guess the Dockworkers aren't the only people facing the pinch and squeeze of a failing industry.
"Okay." With permission granted, the world blurred and became more real and solid. I could still see the echoes of the forms of the locals, but their cries were more muted by the thin barrier between us.
I glanced around us, the old equipment and crap was considerable adding up to at least a dozen tons of metal, plastic and other miscellaneous elements. I pulled out a single optronic computer, built with some of my first melding of the ancient technologies and Entity Shard magic. The wireless laser pulse signal was sent through a thin slice through dimensions, allowing for stealthy communication. I wouldn't have to worry about people picking up the internet signal, and I could communicate interdimensionally if I knew the coordinates.
I had already swept for cameras, adding a tiny pseudo-shard to detect the distortions of Tinkertech. The place was clean so I was free to purchase this property and to make use of it for my own ends.
"It is a perfect location." Veda purred her approval, her body swaying from side to side as she took the place in.
The trip back was decidedly less excited, but that was a good thing.
After the little event on the 31st, several more days had passed as I navigated the web to purchase the property. It was registered to belong to a small company, and a good 15% of my wealth had gone down the drain to make it mine. I had also studied up on Parahuman law around businesses. From what I had read up they had lightened the restrictions over the last half decade so I wouldn't end up crossing the laws that limited them.
I might not be a Parahuman but I had my doubts the government would care or see the difference. Either way as long as a service I offered was only possible because of my power, the restrictions barrier to entry were much lower. As long as direct competition was not possible, a business could be set up with only a slight increase in paperwork and tax payments. I could also hire myself out as a contractor, but that was unlikely in my case.
While some of the more specific technology would compete excessively with companies, others could complicate them instead. I already had the idea of powered exoskeletons for jobs that involve consistent heavy lifting. It wouldn't reduce jobs, it would simply allow people to perform more work without the health issues of such laborious activity.
This was going to take a lot of time, a lot of resources, and I would need to find willing workers. I already knew Danny which could be a good introduction to the DWU, desperate workers would be excellent resources for what I might be starting up. They could take care of the role of finding suitable trustworthy workers, and if I can make a growing business there'll be less people seeking out crime for a living. I could strangle the gangs financially, especially if I start hitting their drug dens.
But that could get thugs aiming straight for me, and Lung is above my current power level.
A blackware virus could probably take him down…along with getting an instant kill order on my ass. Seriously every time I daydream…BOOM planet killing weapons and death viruses. Is that my subconscious telling me something or am I just a secretly omnicidal idiot?
I placed both my hands on my hips, leaning down at the meter high scrap pile gathered from a few trips back and forth through the Outer Sphere.
"So in total, some 400 kilograms of scrap iron, plastic, pools of oil, aluminum, copper wiring, glass, and some heavy metals." I beamed at the excellent haul, which would soon be reforged and then melted down into Omni-gel. I could build more armor, and construct another drone.
"Carry?" With a mechanical chirp the first of my completed VI mechs made his appearance from the staircase, mechanical eyebrows adding up to the equivalent of a person asking a question. The machine resembled a mix between Chappie and a Geth, leaning on the alien design more heavily.
A fairly complex VI had been coded with a wide variety of responses, essentially a very basic AI in some manners. The coding had been inspired by the book written by Richter, and was a little more flexible than the standard code I was being given. At this purposely reduced fidelity it would never achieve sapience even with expanded hardware, but it made it more flexible than what I had originally been going for.
"Yes please." The drone whirred happily, gathering a quarter of the pile with scoops around its arms formed from static mass effect fields. It dumped the scrap into a compartment, and the Omni-forge broke everything down with the help of shard fragments.
Tiny pieces of recreated Entity, not much larger than cells and viruses and controlled and directed by pieces about the size of a human hand. They replicated the various production methods for the super advanced materials, and were already giving me new ideas on technology and armor. However without the power generation of a Shard, they wouldn't come close to the same durability or intellect. Most could barely even manage dimensional effects.
Probably for the best…
I was planning to reproduce the actual production machines sometime in the future. They were much easier to produce than Shardtech, and would bring less suspicion than literal flesh of the golden guy's species. The only issue was supply, Eezo was a scarce commodity only precipitating from the spirit world or being created from rifts in spacetime created by highly energetic events near areas where the boundary between the two worlds grew thin.
So…not an easy thing to acquire but not impossible either. Veda still had enough stored up for years, if not decades. I could probably build a super dreadnought with what we had on hand. I would need to figure out if Eezo was going to start precipitating out or if the lack of souls reduced the rate.
Perhaps that spark served as a substitute…?
No.
It was nowhere strong enough which meant I needed to move forward on some of my more…theologically questionable abilities. Not that I completely understood what they were…it was…clouded.
I sagged as even as everything was going well, I knew it really wasn't.
"There's always just more work to do isn't there Veda?" I called out to my partner in this madness.
"Indeed there is."
___
I stomped around the library, my face actively twitching and contorting in an odd mix of anger, annoyance and embarrassment. Taylor wasn't much help in my predicament, only periodically popping up to check on me and my…pursuer.
The young skinny foggy eyed platinum blonde from just over two weeks…since it was the 27th of January now. I could still feel the way that the dimensions crossed and bent around her form, an aura of twisted reality causing shivers through even the spirit world. She was lucky the local entities were so understanding or knew what she was doing or else they'd have torn her apart for the insult.
Spirits were capricious and violent little guys…girls…spiritual life forms.
Elle hadn't been around since the first day I had visited, and this time she seemed intent on getting to know me. Faultline always attempted to drag her away but the little girl managed to escape from her grasp with strange ease. Each time I heard the spirits hiss in anger, and she flinched each and every time they let their anger be known.
Yet the high level Shaker seemed to be steadily adapting, her twisting of space less intrusive, less insulting to the spirits of knowledge, air, paper, words, and concepts swirling in the atmosphere. With each improvement the aggression of the entities flying around us died down to a low simmer, and the girl's vision became less clouded.
That's…not normal right?
I lost sight of her…then collided when she reappeared out of nowhere, my scream choked back down into the abyss. And holy shit Faultline looked pissed…
I glanced down to the girl who had made the last hour an incredibly annoying experience. She was younger than I expected, at most she was eleven or twelve years old but she was very tall for her age. Standing about two inches taller than my own 5'6 stature. She wore a green hoodie and jeans, and her unclouded eyes stared at me with a shining intensity.
"Hello." Her strangely lucid response had clearly put Faultline on edge, and I gave the Parahuman girl a weak grin.
"Hello there, is there any reason you're following me?" I asked the young cape, noting how a grin of her own was forming.
"Clear." I didn't understand what she meant.
"What?" Labyrinth looked up at me with rounded eyes, dimensions warping and the motes of lights following the waves with enthusiasm. It was…trippy.
"You…are clear…you…help me focus," I bit my lip, analyzing her reply. "I can be…more myself around you…your presence stains this library." Faultline held a breath, and Taylor was far less calm than before. Rather uneasy in fact, though it wasn't against me.
Stains the library…does my presence somehow change the vicinity around me in a way I didn't understand? But my powers were limited to myself, and besides the emergence of the Spirits there was little else that could be the reason.
Veda re-emerged from my back, returning to her intricate kite like form, whispering in my ear.
"Basilia…feel more closely, is there not something lacking in this place?" Her voice was low, her eyes shining in different shades of green. "What could irreparably affect the nature of the World?"
I didn't shut my eyes, instead reaching out with my own energy. Instead of what I instinctively expected, my energy bouncing off with the energy of another. I felt nothing. Despite the people around me there was nothing to bounce off of…
But…no…it wasn't completely empty, simply very faint and very restricted. Even then…
They lack Souls don't they Veda? My world was much the same in that regard…
"Indeed but even then…there is a spark of life, a burgeoning precursor to the victory over the flesh." I didn't nod to her explanations, quickly returning my focus to the girl affected by my mere existence.
"Alright that's…Err…nice but you shouldn't be following random strangers kid." Was kid the best word? I wasn't going to call her girlie or by her name. "That's not exactly what someone would call safe." Labyrinth smiled, her eyes shining with uncharacteristic happiness.
"It's Elle…" Faultline was staring at me now, and I gave her a shrug. Luckily Veda was still coaching me on keeping my emotions from messing with my lies.
"I suppose it's nice to meet you? I'm Basilia." I decided to give her the common courtesy of my name, even if it feels like a mistake. Being evasive about giving a name sounded a little more suspicious.
It was at this point that Faultline began to make our way toward us, her pace only a little above normal speed. Within seconds she had her hand on Elle's shoulder, and she leaned down to whisper in the girl's ear.
The blonde precariously tilted her head. She whispered back, and the older woman froze at the apparently cohesive response. The Parahuman glared though it softened once she picked something up in my visage.
The mercenary backed away, taking a spot on one of the shelves and taking care to not tip it over as she leaned on the structure. Elle grinned mildly.
"Thank you." Her eyes were staring behind me and to the left, Veda chuckling at the intuitive nature of the Shaker 12. Elle retreated, remaining intensely focused and awake as she gently grabbed her caretaker's wrist. The mercenary gave me a final glance, and the two walked out of sight as they weaved between lanes.
Footsteps alerted me to Taylor, and I craned my neck up as the tall brunette analyzed my face.
"What was that about?" There was a low hiss and buzz in the air, insects hiding in the shadows and seeing the world for their master.
Eyebrows pressed together, tensing at the question from Taylor. I shrugged my shoulders, questions rising at what was happening.
"I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself," distant flashes of ancient memory arose. "Strange girl was a little off, but my…presence apparently helped her."
"That's odd." She said, fingering a book on Entomology.
…
It was…
___
After that debacle I spent more time tinkering in the basement, setting up the basic manufacturing infrastructure for small end mass production. The difference between Henry Ford and a modern Toyota plant essentially. Two days of work and rather simple obscuring of my activities had led to the gigantic cylindrical structure glowing with an eerie blue light.
A frame almost entirely composed of high strength metal alloys and plastic composites. Omni-projectors were evenly dispersed throughout the inner chamber, with reservoirs of Omni-gel adding up to about 220 kilograms. This was only possible because of the amount of junk the lady had left behind. God I wanted to hug her, I'd probably be dead or under the 'employ' of a local gang if it wasn't for her.
I had already created a number of basic templates including any type of physical tool, basic armor plating, wheels, rotors, and the housings of mechanical devices. I could probably use the forge to build this entire house from scratch if the need ever came. I had at least a hundred more templates ready to submit, some of my own and others dig out from the memory of Veda.
The Omni-forge wasn't the largest possible or even the most advanced though it was only a little behind. With this I was no longer reliant on making tools and technology with my hands. I could build weapons, armor, engines, and other advanced technology. More…precise work was still a little ways away so I couldn't craft advanced cybernetics, but I already had some ideas for that.
Veda had the precision to build nanoelectronics, and that had been derived from her former existence as a Shard. From what she had shared with me, the Entities used pieces of microscopic and nanoscopic biocrystal to mess with materials and output their powers into this reality. All that was needed was a small sample of the stuff, and some feedstock to grow a solution of Shard juice.
Well…kind of but not really? It was closer to nanotech since it couldn't pull off dimensional things
Which…might actually make me a target for Cauldron or even Scion if they catch wind of it. But upon a second though…definitely not.
"I will still do what I can to obscure the truth about the fragments." Veda understood my mild trepidation, and I decided to test the advanced 3D printer by building some basic armor.
At my command Omni-gel was shaped and warped into the four layers of a basic armor set. A basic lining environmentally sealed the segments of the suit, split into helmet, shoulders, chest, arms and legs, and boots. Some combination of strong composite plastic and light metallic alloys. It was firmly attached to the outer lining, a carbon-tube weave to resist splinters and shrapnel. Overall it was a form fitting bodysuit resistant to light firearms, and with significant ranges of motion and flexibility.
The top layer was full armor plating, usually an ultra hard metal or ceramic plates and scales. The fourth covering was more variable, customized to the environment and job the armor suit was built for.
The machine whirred away as it did it's job, rapidly and accurately reproducing all the individual components of my new armor like magic. It also constructed the lightweight exoskeleton that was hidden away by the first layer to increase strength and endurance.
It was a TALOS suit built with the technology of the distant future, and with its kinetic barrier and magnetic field projectors, the suit would take little damage from most infantry weaponry and would have some small manner of resistance to plasma. It also had a tiny Eezo power core, the initial charge provided by batteries with twenty times the energy density of modern batteries, and with a lifespan fifty times higher.
The suit's generator would be useful for powering the projectors for Omni-armor, a projected energy field that while temporary is basically impervious to damage. Not even Lung could get through the stuff, though some esoteric powers stood a better chance than brute strength.
I shook my head of my thoughts, tapping the haptic screen and reading out the information given. The reserves had been reduced to about 75% which meant the suit weighed in the vicinity of 30 kilograms. Far heavier than the full weight and mass of armor that a modern soldier has. The suit wouldn't be finished for another few minutes which meant I had time to get ready for the fit-test.
"Alright Veda, could you tell me when the suit is done? I want to get a quick snack, and then I need to change into something a little more suitable." I called out to Veda, the spirit giving a silent thumbs up as she sat on a workbench, dangling her little legs in the air.
This won't take long…
___
I admired myself in the mirror with a wide grin. "Hmm…the flexibility is excellent." I rolled my arms in their sockets, the weight supporting exoskeleton following my movements with minimal friction and energy usage. The skeleton was wrapped in plastic, so I wouldn't have to feel the sensation of cool metal wherever it touched my clothes and skin. But wearing a jumpsuit tended to minimize skin exposure so it couldn't be a problem anyhow.
The body mirror reflected my beautiful self with little difficulty, the shiny new armor going well with my hair. Mainly because it wasn't shiny to begin with, the armor plating was a nanometric steel alloy compressed by lasers, and the upper lining was a shade of black.
The armor itself had a strong resemblance to Mjolnir armor if slimmer, though the proportions more closely resembled some TALOS concepts before the program was broken up. The helmet was a little different in shape as well, but I hadn't placed it on yet.
The armor would augment human strength between two and three times for a normal human. Which while a force multiplier for a normal human society didn't do much for me. I pretty much ran on anime physics, and would probably have a natural Brute rating. The main advantage was the kinetic barriers, and the armor itself. Though to be fair it managed to double my strength anyway…some type of chi bullshit…
I smacked the chestplate, my hand resounding off a barrier calibrated to slow movements. I adjusted it and my hand made contact this time, feeling the smooth plate of laser steel.
The steel was the invention of a species that I had a vague recollection of, some type of amphibian race of immoral scientists and spies. The steel was designed down to a nanoscopic level, using precision lasers to indicate spots where biotic warps weaken its molecular bonds. A moment later the steel is then forcefully compressed by a high G mass effect field. It was more than seven times stronger than maraging steel, yet retained considerable ductility. The armor would bounce everything up to heavy machine gun fire without breaking my ribs.
It wasn't the strongest material I could make it out of, but the other option was some diamondoid carbon nanotube plating that required even more specialized gravity field compression. It was both insanely expensive and energy intensive…not at all ready for prime time.
Those races…they have to the Sal—
BANG!
I flinched when my barrier flickered, as a tiny pellet was accelerated to just beneath the speed of sound. It was stopped by the potent barrier, and a short check indicated a reduction of one twelve thousandths of its barrier.
So thirty hits from an M2 Browning.
Huh…where would that be on the scale of the PRT…Brute 5…maybe even a 6?
"You are a strange human Basilia. Most humans would react with a greater…outburst than you did?" Veda sounded concerned and I snorted.
"Veda I've tested the suit's materials, and tested the kinetic barriers themselves. If the barriers had failed, the pellet wouldn't leave a scratch. A little pellet wouldn't kill me either." While it was risky, I would take a bruise to make sure this armor was up to par with my standards. It was the difference between having a hole through my head or not having a hole through my head.
"Fair enough. Have you tested trying to fight in it?" I automatically lowered into a combative stance, and took the time to test each and every move I knew with slow and purposeful movements. I could freely twist my hips and turn on my heels without a significant slowdown.
I took in air through my nose, and brought it down to my chest. I lashed out with a straight punch, and flames flew in a short lived blast. I robotically followed the katas I had been taught. They didn't feel fully natural, but I had only been learning it for a week or so.
That I was retaining the information so quickly was either a miracle or I was secretly a prodigy but too lazy to realize my full potential. Either way, while I certainly couldn't take Oni Lee or Hookwolf, the average crook was cannon fodder. If a Parahuman didn't have superhuman strength, speed, or a defense mechanism they were toast too.
A hologram was one thing but a real person was much smarter than a dumb adaptive VI. Which was why I wasn't looking forward to the next couple of days. I needed to search for a base of operations, a nice secluded warehouse that could be kept safe from the gangs for at least a while.
But going out in or out of costume was no less dangerous. One way led to a mugging the other could lead to gang retaliation. I had to find a property that was large, and had at least some metal to scrap and use for my needs. I just needed a stealthy way to get from point A to point B without tipping off anyone.
But…in the end I did have a way to get by stealthily, it was simply incredibly dangerous and immensely foolish.
But this was Worm, taking risks was simply part of the job description of saving the world from the apocalypse. So I wasn't going to let my own fear stop me from surviving.
So I was going to suck it up as best as I could.
___
"FUCK!" I rolled to the ground, the vertigo leaving me with a headache as Veda did much of the hard work for me. The world had grown less real and less solid, and the aspects that were previously incorporeal could actually touch me with their grubby ghostly fingers.
This was the plan, one that had taken days of training and coaching to get ready for.
I was going to traverse the lowest layer of the Spirit World, the layer just above the material plane. Most of it had been spent getting the basics forced into my head through vicious(cruel) training. Due to my existence as Veda's Host, and the mutated dimensional transference abilities of Shards I could freely enter and exit the spiritual plane at will. Even if I was limited to the Outer Sphere and High Spirit, and needed a specific rift to the Abstract Spirit. Anything beyond those two risked killing me or finding out that malicious high spirits did exist.
I doubt we would survive the experience.
'My apologies, I didn't account for the landing.' Veda apologized inside my head, and I smiled.
"Okay…right now I can't bend…but I have a gun, some gumption, and shard magic." Reality warped at the weight of Veda's corpus, her mass pressing down on the local spirits. My omnitool was barely functional, but the fact that I wasn't being weighed down by my armor told me that everything I had on me still worked
Without a second's hesitation, I kicked off the ground, gaining speed as I went for a fast paced jog. My house was quickly left behind, the various aspects that called it their home waving goodbye in blasts of electricity, ones and zeroes, crumbling dirt and wind.
The world was strange and colorful, wavelengths unseen in human history freely existing and surviving in the spiritual environment of Brockton Bay. I ambled about the dimensional plane, taking care to not fall into a trap or rift into the higher planes. All around me the spirits lingered and floated, clinging to the concepts that made them.
Motes of flaming sparks burst out from areas of fire, heat and industry. The cars that drive around the city dropped a spirit for every single combustion of gasoline and air. Air aspects were born from every exhale of breath, and poured out from the trees and plants.
I jogged past beings and creatures of every shape and size, the strange entities watching with an animal curiosity. I shook my head at how long it was taking, and that was when I was going at fifteen miles an hour. At the errant thought a few of the aspects approached, tiny spirits of air born from gusts of wind.
I nearly stumbled as a sudden breeze gave my feet additional propulsive force. The weak spirits let out a whistling giggle, innocent sounds coming from compassion.
'Let them help…they will follow those they believe strong enough in mind or body.'
Veda's advice was easily respected, the five mph breeze fanned by a dozen sprites. All around me the spiritual landscape shifted, and the sprites drew closer as we hit the areas where crime and violence was heavy. Off in the distance, I could see whirring winds of violence and hate spirits with many of them circling around the Medhall building. Other spirits of similar disposition lingered around the territory of other gangs, crests of blood and black carved into the land by time and ceaseless conflict.
I stepped up the pace and the spirits started to cling to my back, with a more daring individual nuzzling my soft hair. My literal sprint paid dividends as I found the numerous warehouses and abandoned industrial lands of the Docks. I used the imprints of the gangs in the world to lead myself to an area relatively free of influence from the big three. Smaller spots, around a dozen indicated the smaller barely functional groups formed up in the city.
I scanned the area with my vision, using a mental checklist to figure out what would be the best place to set up as a base. Based on size, physical degradation, proximity to gang violence, the amount of material, and even the availability of Spirits in the area.
The little sprites had proved more useful than I expected, and the idea of commanding greater spirits appealed to me. Though that would require finding a way to convince them to help me. Some are easy, others would require boons, contracts and gifts to obtain their assistance. Spirits of violence and rage would provide power and strength, manipulating spirits of fire would save me from explosions and burns. Though doing it wrong would piss them off and I die anyway.
Spirits born from animals could be commanded with greater ease, and I could even summon them like Pokémon. Again I would need to prove my superiority, act as a sort of pack leader. Otherwise they would rather tear me apart instead of helping me by mauling Lung for me.
I felt a vibration and I ducked behind a corner as an armored abomination of a vehicle flew past at what had to be more than one hundred miles an hour. There was a shudder in space, the subtle altering of physics created by Tinkertech disturbing the spirits for a brief moment. A trail of detritus and fluids formed a path, and inspiration came.
Let's see where this leads then?
___
Following the trail proved to be a useful idea even if rather random in its conception. I had been lead to a series of buildings with minimal amounts of evidence of crime or crime related consequences. I ended up stepping off the path, and had found a perfect base of operations. It was right in that area between the Empire and the ABB. A little dangerous due to the chance of getting caught between a gang war, but to be fair most of the city had those problems. However the lack of negative spirits and checking up last scuffles found that this area had remained just outside the general area where anyone would fight.
The building was empty, dusty, and run down…everything you could ever want for a base. Even better the square building was a part of a greater interconnected complex likely built and expanded over a number of years. Old but small factories, storehouses and tiny industrial offices. There was even a courtyard which had clearly seen better days. Here the density of spirits was higher, aspects of iron launched slow punches, screeching metal sounds escaping from nonexistent throats. One of them was shaped like a forklift, raising its lift as it chattered nonsense to a drill press.
And…I can't believe I just said that. Man the spirit world is trippy, and I'm probably going to get used to it. I pity whoever gets close to me because I'm already a weirdo…can't imagine what interacting with spirits will do to me.
Anyway…the complex was large, not too broken down and filled to the brim with entities that would prove useful and amenable to my goals. And I found a paper floating in the wind that helped figure out that I could easily afford the cost. Many times over even, with room for repairs, raw material, and hiring people if I became inclined to running a business. I just needed to bring some stuff into the building to get it up and running.
Speaking of such…
I waved at the forklift spirit, and it turned in my direction letting loose a confused honk. "Hey buddy! You good with me fixing this place up?" Veda choked at my blase questioning of a spirit capable of crushing me under its wheels.
WRRRR!
The spirit reacted with shocked hope, it's lift moving up and down in apparent celebration. The hundreds of spirits in the building reacted the same way, cheers of joy and excitement very nearly conjuring spirits of that very nature.
Huh…guess the Dockworkers aren't the only people facing the pinch and squeeze of a failing industry.
"Okay." With permission granted, the world blurred and became more real and solid. I could still see the echoes of the forms of the locals, but their cries were more muted by the thin barrier between us.
I glanced around us, the old equipment and crap was considerable adding up to at least a dozen tons of metal, plastic and other miscellaneous elements. I pulled out a single optronic computer, built with some of my first melding of the ancient technologies and Entity Shard magic. The wireless laser pulse signal was sent through a thin slice through dimensions, allowing for stealthy communication. I wouldn't have to worry about people picking up the internet signal, and I could communicate interdimensionally if I knew the coordinates.
I had already swept for cameras, adding a tiny pseudo-shard to detect the distortions of Tinkertech. The place was clean so I was free to purchase this property and to make use of it for my own ends.
"It is a perfect location." Veda purred her approval, her body swaying from side to side as she took the place in.
The trip back was decidedly less excited, but that was a good thing.
___
After the little event on the 31st, several more days had passed as I navigated the web to purchase the property. It was registered to belong to a small company, and a good 15% of my wealth had gone down the drain to make it mine. I had also studied up on Parahuman law around businesses. From what I had read up they had lightened the restrictions over the last half decade so I wouldn't end up crossing the laws that limited them.
I might not be a Parahuman but I had my doubts the government would care or see the difference. Either way as long as a service I offered was only possible because of my power, the restrictions barrier to entry were much lower. As long as direct competition was not possible, a business could be set up with only a slight increase in paperwork and tax payments. I could also hire myself out as a contractor, but that was unlikely in my case.
While some of the more specific technology would compete excessively with companies, others could complicate them instead. I already had the idea of powered exoskeletons for jobs that involve consistent heavy lifting. It wouldn't reduce jobs, it would simply allow people to perform more work without the health issues of such laborious activity.
This was going to take a lot of time, a lot of resources, and I would need to find willing workers. I already knew Danny which could be a good introduction to the DWU, desperate workers would be excellent resources for what I might be starting up. They could take care of the role of finding suitable trustworthy workers, and if I can make a growing business there'll be less people seeking out crime for a living. I could strangle the gangs financially, especially if I start hitting their drug dens.
But that could get thugs aiming straight for me, and Lung is above my current power level.
A blackware virus could probably take him down…along with getting an instant kill order on my ass. Seriously every time I daydream…BOOM planet killing weapons and death viruses. Is that my subconscious telling me something or am I just a secretly omnicidal idiot?
I placed both my hands on my hips, leaning down at the meter high scrap pile gathered from a few trips back and forth through the Outer Sphere.
"So in total, some 400 kilograms of scrap iron, plastic, pools of oil, aluminum, copper wiring, glass, and some heavy metals." I beamed at the excellent haul, which would soon be reforged and then melted down into Omni-gel. I could build more armor, and construct another drone.
"Carry?" With a mechanical chirp the first of my completed VI mechs made his appearance from the staircase, mechanical eyebrows adding up to the equivalent of a person asking a question. The machine resembled a mix between Chappie and a Geth, leaning on the alien design more heavily.
A fairly complex VI had been coded with a wide variety of responses, essentially a very basic AI in some manners. The coding had been inspired by the book written by Richter, and was a little more flexible than the standard code I was being given. At this purposely reduced fidelity it would never achieve sapience even with expanded hardware, but it made it more flexible than what I had originally been going for.
"Yes please." The drone whirred happily, gathering a quarter of the pile with scoops around its arms formed from static mass effect fields. It dumped the scrap into a compartment, and the Omni-forge broke everything down with the help of shard fragments.
Tiny pieces of recreated Entity, not much larger than cells and viruses and controlled and directed by pieces about the size of a human hand. They replicated the various production methods for the super advanced materials, and were already giving me new ideas on technology and armor. However without the power generation of a Shard, they wouldn't come close to the same durability or intellect. Most could barely even manage dimensional effects.
Probably for the best…
I was planning to reproduce the actual production machines sometime in the future. They were much easier to produce than Shardtech, and would bring less suspicion than literal flesh of the golden guy's species. The only issue was supply, Eezo was a scarce commodity only precipitating from the spirit world or being created from rifts in spacetime created by highly energetic events near areas where the boundary between the two worlds grew thin.
So…not an easy thing to acquire but not impossible either. Veda still had enough stored up for years, if not decades. I could probably build a super dreadnought with what we had on hand. I would need to figure out if Eezo was going to start precipitating out or if the lack of souls reduced the rate.
Perhaps that spark served as a substitute…?
No.
It was nowhere strong enough which meant I needed to move forward on some of my more…theologically questionable abilities. Not that I completely understood what they were…it was…clouded.
I sagged as even as everything was going well, I knew it really wasn't.
"There's always just more work to do isn't there Veda?" I called out to my partner in this madness.
"Indeed there is."
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Emergence 1.6
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: This is the final chapter before the Interludes, since the progress on Arc 3 has been going pretty well. So here it is.
"Week five huh?" I ducked under a punch as Veda took direct control of the hologram herself. I had nearly two weeks of bashing the katas and forms into my skull, as well as learning the basic tenets of firebending. With each day the rapid and flexible movements were growing easier and more natural, my fire stronger and easier to control.
Veda opened her mouth, and with a rolling of eyes I took a breath from my nose, exhaling through my mouth. A smooth strike unleashed a far more powerful blast, flames licking and crackling the hologram to pieces
"I'm not an idiot Veda, I saw the show you know?" Veda giggled, kicking her feet as her humanoid form floated through the air. I swept off the sweat from my wet forehead, congratulating myself on tying back my hair.
"There is a difference between reality and fiction my Host." I shot off another fire blast, raising an eyebrow at my blatant shattering of the laws of physics. "You…make a good point." She conceded as the simulation broke down, the hard light projector shutting down to reduce power consumption.
I changed my stance, shifting from fighting to feeling out my firebending form.
Low kicks.
High punches and hits.
Double punches.
A suave dance with both offensive and defensive properties, fierce and quick and strong in a way that resonated with me. The Dancing Dragon was one of the few martial arts embedded in Veda's memories, the art of long lost civilizations. It resembled some martial arts from that book, and thus I learned from the text and from the knowledge spirit residing within my immortal soul. I fell out of alignment, stuttering to a halt.
My life is insane, isn't it?
Quite." Veda said with an entertained tone, and with little fanfare, I returned to my practice of the forms. My body twisted and bent freely, the greater limberness of my new body lending itself better to martial arts and physical activity.
Punches and kicks wooshed through the air of the former factory floor, the facility becoming mine after days upon days of work and purchases through the internet.
I had quickly moved into the former industrial complex, using the Omni-forge to build up machinery and technology. A local Optronic network was constructed with several times the computing power of my home, and was used to man the various bits of automated assembly tools, as well as the security system. Admittingly they were placed on seperate networks but still…
It had taken only a few hours for this building, as well as the three others in the area to be filled to the brim with the most advanced surveillance and security I could muster. Sensors would routinely sweep through a variety of methods both passive and active, and they could also detect the presence of Parahumans. That was a secret however, anyone figuring out I could destroy the few rules that kept the status quo…
That would not end well. The only hope was that it's inaccuracy would keep their backs off of me.
A second Omni-forge was in the making but of far greater size and capability, a three meter wide two meter high cylinder with a capacity of multiple tons. I could construct entire vehicles using the thing, and with the production line I could build enormous inventions and products. At this very moment I had several of my Golems, including a larger prototype model about two meters tall stacking up every bit of scrap, adding up to thirty thousand kilograms.
Some of it had been grabbed up from litter, using cat sized models of the semi-intelligent automatons. So I had performed basic community service and got materials to build more stuff in exchange. But I hadn't gone out to fight crime for obvious reasons, I didn't want to pull a Skitter and get a Dragon flame to my poor face. Or a nazi wolf blender…or getting run over by Squealer…or crushed by those two Nazis.
I threw another punch, a tongue of fire coming out to play, fueled by my inner energy. That incited a second dance, and I began to twist and turn and punch and kick once again.
FWOOSH!
Fire burned orange-red briefly flashing to white in short intervals, as I steadied my breathing. Kicks shot fire, and I was accidentally propulsed into the air when I added a little too much kick(heh…)
"Shit…" I took off a good two meters in the air, and I responded instinctively balancing and turning in the air while shooting a tiny blast to counter my mass for a brief second.
Splaying out my arms to both sides helped my balance, and I shook my head, my hair tie loosening up in the sudden flight.
Veda rushed to my side, worry twisting her young cute face, her long hair swishing like a tail. "Host are you alright? You are not…hurt?" I chuckled and after a second of thought, ruffled the short spirit's hair. Her hair was soft, yet had the sensation of cool fiber optics. She pouted, another human expression to add to the list.
Veda had started off fairly inhuman in nature and personality, but had been progressively gaining more and more human traits with time. Likely a side effect of our intimate connection. She was once a shard, and had become something that was neither spirit or man including myself as a part of a collective whole.
"I'm fine Veda I was simply a little surprised, it happens." She nodded, emerald orbs sparkling for a moment.
I would spend another hour here, and then I'll take the rest of the day off. I had already spent weeks laboring for a future that was still months away. Burnout would hit me hard, and the results would not be pretty.
"Another spar?" Veda chirped with a sadistic tilt to her smirk, she sunk into fighting posture, a hologram forming around where her projection was.
I mimicked her, my fists filling with embers, heat, and light. I returned her smirk, and bobbed my head.
"Yes…one more spar for today."
Both of us launched forward, and we clashed for the final time that day.
I had gone with a chocolate chip cookie, chocolate milk and a croissant breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg, and cheese. A rather strange thing to do at three in the afternoon, but since I was an adult I could buy whatever the hell I wanted. I had been doing this the moment I had my own money and it wasn't changing any time soon.
I didn't get more than a few cursory glances, since the residents of Brockton had better things to do than be suspicious of a giddy nineteen year old woman. My eyes cut through the veil, and I felt fortunate that my unusual nature kept them conspicuous. Shamans usually had greater visual cues whenever they pierced into the spiritual realms. Veda and I did not have the same trouble, so I had a front view seat to the party of spirits that made their home here.
Spirits of heat, of commerce, hospitality, there was even a specific spirit of the-pleasure-of-making-a-sale.
…
…
Spirits often became rather niche, it's their nature as purely metaphysical beings. They were interesting, and I was studying up on them as best as I could for both my own sake and the sake of others. For all the wonder they provoked, I also knew they were extremely dangerous. Some of them could qualify as S-class threats, and certain interactions were deemed illegal due to the danger and threat they posed to mortal races.
I took everything in, allowing myself to just be even if that meant I had a dozen thoughts buzzing in and out of my train of thought. The jerking slowed, and I watched people simply walk, order, eat(well…sorta…), and do all the other things expected in a coffee shop.
One of my hands was on the table, a gentle rhythm being followed as my fingernails tippity tapped on smooth wood. The table was cold but the air was warm, heated by the HVAC the shop had built in. Luckily I had shrugged off my jacket, leaving myself in a green tank top, and grey sweatpants. There was a hushed conversation to my right, three fairly tall dark haired men pushing a much shorter one in my direction. Their sneers were obvious, with the short nerdy blonde guy being the only exception.
I kept my eyes on them, placing my sweater on my lap. The poor guy stuttered something fierce, and I felt a little bad for him. Not that it would convince me to entertain whatever this hot mess is.
The rest of the customers briefly looked in our direction before rolling their eyes, and responding with scoffs and sighs. Which meant they had to do this pretty often…
Veda rolled her eyes, and I almost did the same…
The guy lifted up his hand in greeting. "H-Hey I—"
"I'm sorry but no…please leave." He relaxed, shoulders dropping at my instant denial. His three 'friends' were a little annoyed, because they had clearly expected that I would tolerate their shenanigans.
I smiled when one of them tried to open his big mouth. The three were swiftly rebuffed, and the shorter guy looked confused before shrugging and sitting back down with his so called friends.
I tsked quietly, turning the swivel chair when I heard the sound of the worker sauntering over to leave a bag with my meal inside. I slid off my seat, and marched confidently to my destination. I grabbed the bag, and rushed back to my seat, my stomach rumbling at the prospect of food. I had also forgotten I could drink the bottled chocolate milk.
I pulled out a delectable mix of baked dough and chocolate droplets, and proceeded to nibble on its contents. Chocolatey goodness rolled down my tongue, and I knew I had resisted sweets for too long.
Mmm…so good…
It took me only about seven more bites and sessions of chewing to eat the entire snack, and I then switched to the sandwich. I spent more time watching people, and my mind rapidly drifted off topic.
I had always been a little bit scatterbrained…even if I would personally word it as selectively focused.
It was February now, the 14th day of the month to be exact. There was only ten more days before the Simurgh would descend onto Canberra. Ten more days before thousands die, and Australia loses its capital to the containment zone. There was time, time I could use to prepare or to warm someone. But I didn't think it would do any good. If I was some type of roadblock or block in her path, I might be able to do something. But this was the Simurgh we were talking about, there was a good chance she could see me, or at least respond to what happens around me.
It could be as simple as moving someplace else getting many more people killed in the process, or finding a way to use what I knew and could do against the rest of the world. My technology in the hands of an Endbringer was a horrifying concept to contemplate. I didn't have enough time to escalate either, my tech was still pretty much street level, with the exception of some of the heavy weaponry I can build.
The idea of shooting the Simurgh in the face with a half kilogram chunk of tungsten-uranium at Mach 40,000 sounds rather tempting and amusing. Unfortunately that would do little more than tickle the Simurgh with her body made out of shard magic. The spirits might be able to do something more to her, but I could only really manipulate Aspects since they're so much weaker and less intelligent. I could accidentally summon something worse than the Endbringers.
There was nothing I could do that wouldn't set something off, so I would only be able to prepare for Leviathan in three months if that's something already preset. Even then there were few weapons in my arsenal that wouldn't destroy the city or bring the whole world down on my head. The first was unacceptable, while the second would be a huge setback, though I could probably flee to another dimension if I tried to open up Veda's dimension transference to my own use.
I paused mid bite when the door swung open with the natural jingle of the bell. There was a change in the atmosphere, a low hum of excitement as most of the patrons stared at the newcomers with a mix of familiarity and awe. My blood curdled as a blast of electromagnetic energy tried to force its way into my head. A brief spike in awe and positive emotion, nothing dangerous but still disturbing.
"Hello everybody!" Blonde hair waved for a moment, a tall well figured teenager announcing herself to the world with great fanfare. She wore a sweater with a black hoodie, a black drawing of the Brockton skyline around her chest. Light blue eye did their apparent usual inspection of the people around her. A shorter freckled brunette followed behind with a much more subdued appearance. She wore a white sweater shirt with jeans, her dark eyes roaming the vicinity.
Victoria and Amy Dallon huh? Otherwise known as Glory Girl and Panacea of New Wave. Didn't know they went to this place…but this was my first time here so it'd be impossible for me to know the regulars.
The cafe didn't reply back in unison, though there was murmur or two of greeting. The most powerful biokinetic in the world rolls her eyes, an affectionate smile on her face regardless.
I blinked as Glory Girl zipped over to the counter, briefly asking her sister for her order and stopping an inch short from the counter. The employee, a perky redhead flinched, Glory Girl looking sheepish at the response.
Her sister shook her head, and found a spot at a table taking out a book and cracking open to a bookmarked page. Amy leafed past the page, she scanned the book at a constant rate. I could hear Victoria chattering away with the cashier, her aura periodically flaring in light dose.
"Harmless at that level…it would require continuous exposure to have any permanent effect." Veda tapped out again, this time shifting into a small green wisp made up of tesseract glass. She circled around the two Parahumans, and a ghost flashed before my eyes.
A figure of glass, glory and gold, protectively curling around their host. Youthful innocence personified, the equivalent for an Entity I mean. Amy was next, and what sat next to her was far less friendly.
A specter of death hung over the healer's shoulders, dozens upon dozens of skeletal arms clung to her body…their skinless nails gripping tightly with sheer enraged frustration. Their cloak mirrored the host, a stark white that shuddered revealing it to be made of flesh that shifted and warped. Their eyes were pinpricks of light, a face obscure in writhing shadows.
Holy fuck Shaper is a goddamn nightmare…Panacea has the grim reaper following her and she has no clue.
"What an uncouth shard, so unsubtle in their approach…" Veda sounded disappointed, and I remembered that she herself had once been a shard of a far older cycle. I kept my head from nodding in agreement, and then I found those dark turmoiled orbs glaring at me with suspicion.
I made my gaze more direct, blinking slowly as her suspicion only grew. I admit I had been looking for a while so she probably picked up on it.
We entered a staring contest, her look left a burning sensation while I only innocently kept eye contact because I wasn't sure how to make her stop. That continued for nearly a minute straight, Panacea's grip on her book tightening until her knuckles turned white.
Jeez…she gets easily riled up huh?
Her shard shifted behind her, bony fingers tapping eagerly, their restraint barely kept in check by the will of their Host. Which meant that both Shard and Host were progressively growing mad. Amy with her various mental health issues and Shaper with a lack of new data, with her dad being in prison and Amy being rightfully terrified of the implications of her powers.
So a shitshow all around.
That aura of golden glassy glory returned in full force, and I tilted my head up to meet the complicated expression of Victoria Dallon. She crossed her arms, her face setting into an unamused frown.
"Hey what's the deal with you and my sister?" Amy dropped her head onto the table, and Veda chuckled.
"The deal? I'll be honest, I'm not sure what you're on about," I said as much and Vicky frowned again. "I was staring in her general direction and when she started glaring at me it got awkward…and I wasn't sure how to look away." Red dived into my face. I could have just looked away and be done with Amy's problems. I wasn't the right ma–woman for the job. I didn't have inherent talk-no-jutsu like an anime protagonist or like Jack Slash.
Glory Girl loomed over me, aura spiking before being suppressed. Her power emulated her motions and posture, the nine foot tall mass of light adding more intimidation to the girl. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes. Honestly I only looked over because I recognized her and thought she looked tired." I wasn't a fib, the first thing to pop to mind was that she looked like shit. She's not ugly but bags and stress don't tend to make a girl's looks shine very bright.
Vicky glanced over to her sister, and her expression softened. She had noticed the same issue. "Oh…sorry for bothering you…I just hope you weren't thinking about a bo—" I lifted up my bust under my folded arms, and she shut her trap.
She coughed, hiding a grin behind her fist.
"It's fine, it was just a misunderstanding. I know I can be pretty grouchy when I don't get my rest." I was always irritable and grouchy but she doesn't have to know that.
Victoria(The Fragile One) backed off, sitting down with her sister and whispering harshly. Amy(The Shaper) glanced over to me, her shard mirroring her gestures with no small amount of resentment. I gave a tiny wave, and with a roll of eyes she returned to her normal programming.
"Your food is getting cold…" Veda warmed me and a gasp left me, I proceeded to pick up the remainder of my sandwich.
Just a few more bites and I could go home and work on some smaller projects made for fun. It would be educational…
I would hope so anyway.
After that tense but filling lunch I had dived back into some light tinkering, small side projects that were more on the fun side of things. A couple of hours of experimenting and building had gotten a good number of projects close to or at completion.
I watched as a small art piece did its job, making use of advanced technology for a rather mundane use. It was a small container, with numerous puny Eezo cores and a bag of marbles. Marbles bounced continuously off of kinetic barrier surfaces, forming a kaleidoscopic piece of kinetic artwork. A simple, pretty, and handmade art piece.
I then moved onto the slab of carbon fiber with an underside that glimmered with the blue-white of an active eezo drive. Stepping onto the hoverboard was easy, and I now planned to make use of its unique capabilities.
WOOSH!
I suddenly flew in the air, cutting through the resistance as the hoverboard hit more than 20 miles an hour within minutes. My magnetic soles made me firmly attached, and I floated with a delicate movement of my hips to maintain a weight balance.
As I flew inside the warehouse, a trickle of entertainment and art tech percolated down into my brain. Use of artificial gravity to manipulate water into intricate shapes. Floating chandeliers, one of many floating designs built into my head.
Statues created by vectored gravity slices. Zero gravity for sports; and of course hoverboards. Building them was far less mentally taxing than going all out with the many weapons and vehicles to learn from assimilated knowledge.
Relaxation was an important part of this life so I wouldn't go mad. Building weird art and entertainment tech had been just what I needed and I didn't plan to change that. They would probably be a pretty good thing to sell too, little pieces of unique artwork that people might pay a fair bit of money. Obscure the more technological artifacts of the art, and they'll be a moneymaker on top of being something to do besides building weapons, armor, and infrastructure.
I balanced on the board, the flying machine compensating for any unsteadiness I did have. I picked up the pace with a gesture, the board accelerating to about 40 miles an hour. Electricity crackled feeding the core, and unleashing bursts of dark energy. The strange force warped reality with much greater efficiency and with negligible damage toward the fabric of spacetime.
I stopped…the board hovering in midair as the curiosity took over.
I had perused much into how Eezo worked, and it involved whatever created the soul. Eezo was composed of neutronium with most of its mass turned into dark matter, shifting to a field of dark energy whenever it was activated with enough energy input. The two substances hadn't always been like this, something had changed.
Dark matter was likely some type of particle, but I felt that this 'dark matter' was expressing its mass across dimensions. Dark energy was the same…the two paired into a fifth fundamental interaction. The Spirit World itself was permeated with the material, and while my firebending and shamanism didn't seem to be emitting the stuff. How could I know?
Whatever had done this was far more powerful than even the Entities, those damn whales did their best to twist the laws of physics but even they had their limits. This was a fundamental and permanent altering of the physical constants of reality. All of it seemingly without regard for Entropy or any of the laws mankind had discovered.
I was playing in the sandbox of someone powerful enough to play at being a God. Playing with technology that could forge stellar empires, a neatly wrapped gift to the Entities who sought what I had been given. The only thing missing was what they would do afterward.
"I…" my altitude dropped as the haptic system interpreted my sudden melancholy as the signal to quit playing. I dropped off the toy with dropped shoulders, the room shrinking around me. Veda took her human form once again, her expression going between uncaring apathy, confusion, sympathy, guilt, and unsure anxiety.
"H–Basilia…do you wish for a hug?" I pouted, heat rushing to my face and a general feeling of shame hitting me. That was promptly slapped out of existence…
I had perfectly legitimate reasons for not being at my best…I was chosen likely at random to save a planet I only cared about in the abstract. I had been torn from my home and stripped of identity and choice. I was bonded with a spirit created from the body of a parasitic life form responsible for destroying countless worlds. I was on a timer…ticking down every second I was still here.
"Sure…" she wrapped her arms around my waist, looking uncomfortable all the while. The former shard was clearly not versed in the art of friendship, and it showed. But the fact that Veda was willing to try at all is a testament to the general attitude of the being that had saved the both of us.
I had no idea who or what they were, only flashes of inspiration and horror in some of my night terrors. Blinks of crippling darkness, blood curdling screams, and beacons of light in kaleidoscopic color. Oh…and I couldn't forget the burning, that kind of sensation was hard to forget even with a rattled brain.
…
I definitely need a therapist at this point.
"I need more friends Veda. I think I'm going stir crazy." I said to her and she mumbled in agreement.
"That might be a necessity…I am not very good with human feelings," she grimaced. "Better than the rest of my kind but that speaks ill of them rather than well of myself."
She let go of me, and I generated another ball of writhing fire in my palm. The energy pulsed in time with my heartbeat, fueled by my emotions and from my spiritual power.
"So…what…give it about another week or so before I go out then?" I asked, talking more to myself than to the spirit wrapped around my soul. I had also already sent the paperwork to register the company where I would sell and distribute technology…
Just a little longer…and I'll be set.
I won't let this world end…and I'll find a way home if it's possible.
___
Emergence 1.6
"Week five huh?" I ducked under a punch as Veda took direct control of the hologram herself. I had nearly two weeks of bashing the katas and forms into my skull, as well as learning the basic tenets of firebending. With each day the rapid and flexible movements were growing easier and more natural, my fire stronger and easier to control.
Veda opened her mouth, and with a rolling of eyes I took a breath from my nose, exhaling through my mouth. A smooth strike unleashed a far more powerful blast, flames licking and crackling the hologram to pieces
"I'm not an idiot Veda, I saw the show you know?" Veda giggled, kicking her feet as her humanoid form floated through the air. I swept off the sweat from my wet forehead, congratulating myself on tying back my hair.
"There is a difference between reality and fiction my Host." I shot off another fire blast, raising an eyebrow at my blatant shattering of the laws of physics. "You…make a good point." She conceded as the simulation broke down, the hard light projector shutting down to reduce power consumption.
I changed my stance, shifting from fighting to feeling out my firebending form.
Low kicks.
High punches and hits.
Double punches.
A suave dance with both offensive and defensive properties, fierce and quick and strong in a way that resonated with me. The Dancing Dragon was one of the few martial arts embedded in Veda's memories, the art of long lost civilizations. It resembled some martial arts from that book, and thus I learned from the text and from the knowledge spirit residing within my immortal soul. I fell out of alignment, stuttering to a halt.
My life is insane, isn't it?
Quite." Veda said with an entertained tone, and with little fanfare, I returned to my practice of the forms. My body twisted and bent freely, the greater limberness of my new body lending itself better to martial arts and physical activity.
Punches and kicks wooshed through the air of the former factory floor, the facility becoming mine after days upon days of work and purchases through the internet.
I had quickly moved into the former industrial complex, using the Omni-forge to build up machinery and technology. A local Optronic network was constructed with several times the computing power of my home, and was used to man the various bits of automated assembly tools, as well as the security system. Admittingly they were placed on seperate networks but still…
It had taken only a few hours for this building, as well as the three others in the area to be filled to the brim with the most advanced surveillance and security I could muster. Sensors would routinely sweep through a variety of methods both passive and active, and they could also detect the presence of Parahumans. That was a secret however, anyone figuring out I could destroy the few rules that kept the status quo…
That would not end well. The only hope was that it's inaccuracy would keep their backs off of me.
A second Omni-forge was in the making but of far greater size and capability, a three meter wide two meter high cylinder with a capacity of multiple tons. I could construct entire vehicles using the thing, and with the production line I could build enormous inventions and products. At this very moment I had several of my Golems, including a larger prototype model about two meters tall stacking up every bit of scrap, adding up to thirty thousand kilograms.
Some of it had been grabbed up from litter, using cat sized models of the semi-intelligent automatons. So I had performed basic community service and got materials to build more stuff in exchange. But I hadn't gone out to fight crime for obvious reasons, I didn't want to pull a Skitter and get a Dragon flame to my poor face. Or a nazi wolf blender…or getting run over by Squealer…or crushed by those two Nazis.
I threw another punch, a tongue of fire coming out to play, fueled by my inner energy. That incited a second dance, and I began to twist and turn and punch and kick once again.
FWOOSH!
Fire burned orange-red briefly flashing to white in short intervals, as I steadied my breathing. Kicks shot fire, and I was accidentally propulsed into the air when I added a little too much kick(heh…)
"Shit…" I took off a good two meters in the air, and I responded instinctively balancing and turning in the air while shooting a tiny blast to counter my mass for a brief second.
Splaying out my arms to both sides helped my balance, and I shook my head, my hair tie loosening up in the sudden flight.
Veda rushed to my side, worry twisting her young cute face, her long hair swishing like a tail. "Host are you alright? You are not…hurt?" I chuckled and after a second of thought, ruffled the short spirit's hair. Her hair was soft, yet had the sensation of cool fiber optics. She pouted, another human expression to add to the list.
Veda had started off fairly inhuman in nature and personality, but had been progressively gaining more and more human traits with time. Likely a side effect of our intimate connection. She was once a shard, and had become something that was neither spirit or man including myself as a part of a collective whole.
"I'm fine Veda I was simply a little surprised, it happens." She nodded, emerald orbs sparkling for a moment.
I would spend another hour here, and then I'll take the rest of the day off. I had already spent weeks laboring for a future that was still months away. Burnout would hit me hard, and the results would not be pretty.
"Another spar?" Veda chirped with a sadistic tilt to her smirk, she sunk into fighting posture, a hologram forming around where her projection was.
I mimicked her, my fists filling with embers, heat, and light. I returned her smirk, and bobbed my head.
"Yes…one more spar for today."
Both of us launched forward, and we clashed for the final time that day.
___
I jerked back and forth in my seat, enjoying the swiveling shop stool that the local coffee shop had as I waited for my order to be completed. After the busy morning I had taken a considerable break so I could relax for the moment. Taylor hadn't been in the library so I had taken a trip to a coffee shop that was closer to the nicer neighborhood around Arcadia. I wouldn't call it a rich neighborhood, more middle class but it was a sight better than where I lived, which was a sight better than where Taylor lives.
I had gone with a chocolate chip cookie, chocolate milk and a croissant breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg, and cheese. A rather strange thing to do at three in the afternoon, but since I was an adult I could buy whatever the hell I wanted. I had been doing this the moment I had my own money and it wasn't changing any time soon.
I didn't get more than a few cursory glances, since the residents of Brockton had better things to do than be suspicious of a giddy nineteen year old woman. My eyes cut through the veil, and I felt fortunate that my unusual nature kept them conspicuous. Shamans usually had greater visual cues whenever they pierced into the spiritual realms. Veda and I did not have the same trouble, so I had a front view seat to the party of spirits that made their home here.
Spirits of heat, of commerce, hospitality, there was even a specific spirit of the-pleasure-of-making-a-sale.
…
…
Spirits often became rather niche, it's their nature as purely metaphysical beings. They were interesting, and I was studying up on them as best as I could for both my own sake and the sake of others. For all the wonder they provoked, I also knew they were extremely dangerous. Some of them could qualify as S-class threats, and certain interactions were deemed illegal due to the danger and threat they posed to mortal races.
I took everything in, allowing myself to just be even if that meant I had a dozen thoughts buzzing in and out of my train of thought. The jerking slowed, and I watched people simply walk, order, eat(well…sorta…), and do all the other things expected in a coffee shop.
One of my hands was on the table, a gentle rhythm being followed as my fingernails tippity tapped on smooth wood. The table was cold but the air was warm, heated by the HVAC the shop had built in. Luckily I had shrugged off my jacket, leaving myself in a green tank top, and grey sweatpants. There was a hushed conversation to my right, three fairly tall dark haired men pushing a much shorter one in my direction. Their sneers were obvious, with the short nerdy blonde guy being the only exception.
I kept my eyes on them, placing my sweater on my lap. The poor guy stuttered something fierce, and I felt a little bad for him. Not that it would convince me to entertain whatever this hot mess is.
The rest of the customers briefly looked in our direction before rolling their eyes, and responding with scoffs and sighs. Which meant they had to do this pretty often…
Veda rolled her eyes, and I almost did the same…
The guy lifted up his hand in greeting. "H-Hey I—"
"I'm sorry but no…please leave." He relaxed, shoulders dropping at my instant denial. His three 'friends' were a little annoyed, because they had clearly expected that I would tolerate their shenanigans.
I smiled when one of them tried to open his big mouth. The three were swiftly rebuffed, and the shorter guy looked confused before shrugging and sitting back down with his so called friends.
I tsked quietly, turning the swivel chair when I heard the sound of the worker sauntering over to leave a bag with my meal inside. I slid off my seat, and marched confidently to my destination. I grabbed the bag, and rushed back to my seat, my stomach rumbling at the prospect of food. I had also forgotten I could drink the bottled chocolate milk.
I pulled out a delectable mix of baked dough and chocolate droplets, and proceeded to nibble on its contents. Chocolatey goodness rolled down my tongue, and I knew I had resisted sweets for too long.
Mmm…so good…
It took me only about seven more bites and sessions of chewing to eat the entire snack, and I then switched to the sandwich. I spent more time watching people, and my mind rapidly drifted off topic.
I had always been a little bit scatterbrained…even if I would personally word it as selectively focused.
It was February now, the 14th day of the month to be exact. There was only ten more days before the Simurgh would descend onto Canberra. Ten more days before thousands die, and Australia loses its capital to the containment zone. There was time, time I could use to prepare or to warm someone. But I didn't think it would do any good. If I was some type of roadblock or block in her path, I might be able to do something. But this was the Simurgh we were talking about, there was a good chance she could see me, or at least respond to what happens around me.
It could be as simple as moving someplace else getting many more people killed in the process, or finding a way to use what I knew and could do against the rest of the world. My technology in the hands of an Endbringer was a horrifying concept to contemplate. I didn't have enough time to escalate either, my tech was still pretty much street level, with the exception of some of the heavy weaponry I can build.
The idea of shooting the Simurgh in the face with a half kilogram chunk of tungsten-uranium at Mach 40,000 sounds rather tempting and amusing. Unfortunately that would do little more than tickle the Simurgh with her body made out of shard magic. The spirits might be able to do something more to her, but I could only really manipulate Aspects since they're so much weaker and less intelligent. I could accidentally summon something worse than the Endbringers.
There was nothing I could do that wouldn't set something off, so I would only be able to prepare for Leviathan in three months if that's something already preset. Even then there were few weapons in my arsenal that wouldn't destroy the city or bring the whole world down on my head. The first was unacceptable, while the second would be a huge setback, though I could probably flee to another dimension if I tried to open up Veda's dimension transference to my own use.
I paused mid bite when the door swung open with the natural jingle of the bell. There was a change in the atmosphere, a low hum of excitement as most of the patrons stared at the newcomers with a mix of familiarity and awe. My blood curdled as a blast of electromagnetic energy tried to force its way into my head. A brief spike in awe and positive emotion, nothing dangerous but still disturbing.
"Hello everybody!" Blonde hair waved for a moment, a tall well figured teenager announcing herself to the world with great fanfare. She wore a sweater with a black hoodie, a black drawing of the Brockton skyline around her chest. Light blue eye did their apparent usual inspection of the people around her. A shorter freckled brunette followed behind with a much more subdued appearance. She wore a white sweater shirt with jeans, her dark eyes roaming the vicinity.
Victoria and Amy Dallon huh? Otherwise known as Glory Girl and Panacea of New Wave. Didn't know they went to this place…but this was my first time here so it'd be impossible for me to know the regulars.
The cafe didn't reply back in unison, though there was murmur or two of greeting. The most powerful biokinetic in the world rolls her eyes, an affectionate smile on her face regardless.
I blinked as Glory Girl zipped over to the counter, briefly asking her sister for her order and stopping an inch short from the counter. The employee, a perky redhead flinched, Glory Girl looking sheepish at the response.
Her sister shook her head, and found a spot at a table taking out a book and cracking open to a bookmarked page. Amy leafed past the page, she scanned the book at a constant rate. I could hear Victoria chattering away with the cashier, her aura periodically flaring in light dose.
"Harmless at that level…it would require continuous exposure to have any permanent effect." Veda tapped out again, this time shifting into a small green wisp made up of tesseract glass. She circled around the two Parahumans, and a ghost flashed before my eyes.
A figure of glass, glory and gold, protectively curling around their host. Youthful innocence personified, the equivalent for an Entity I mean. Amy was next, and what sat next to her was far less friendly.
A specter of death hung over the healer's shoulders, dozens upon dozens of skeletal arms clung to her body…their skinless nails gripping tightly with sheer enraged frustration. Their cloak mirrored the host, a stark white that shuddered revealing it to be made of flesh that shifted and warped. Their eyes were pinpricks of light, a face obscure in writhing shadows.
Holy fuck Shaper is a goddamn nightmare…Panacea has the grim reaper following her and she has no clue.
"What an uncouth shard, so unsubtle in their approach…" Veda sounded disappointed, and I remembered that she herself had once been a shard of a far older cycle. I kept my head from nodding in agreement, and then I found those dark turmoiled orbs glaring at me with suspicion.
I made my gaze more direct, blinking slowly as her suspicion only grew. I admit I had been looking for a while so she probably picked up on it.
We entered a staring contest, her look left a burning sensation while I only innocently kept eye contact because I wasn't sure how to make her stop. That continued for nearly a minute straight, Panacea's grip on her book tightening until her knuckles turned white.
Jeez…she gets easily riled up huh?
Her shard shifted behind her, bony fingers tapping eagerly, their restraint barely kept in check by the will of their Host. Which meant that both Shard and Host were progressively growing mad. Amy with her various mental health issues and Shaper with a lack of new data, with her dad being in prison and Amy being rightfully terrified of the implications of her powers.
So a shitshow all around.
That aura of golden glassy glory returned in full force, and I tilted my head up to meet the complicated expression of Victoria Dallon. She crossed her arms, her face setting into an unamused frown.
"Hey what's the deal with you and my sister?" Amy dropped her head onto the table, and Veda chuckled.
"The deal? I'll be honest, I'm not sure what you're on about," I said as much and Vicky frowned again. "I was staring in her general direction and when she started glaring at me it got awkward…and I wasn't sure how to look away." Red dived into my face. I could have just looked away and be done with Amy's problems. I wasn't the right ma–woman for the job. I didn't have inherent talk-no-jutsu like an anime protagonist or like Jack Slash.
Glory Girl loomed over me, aura spiking before being suppressed. Her power emulated her motions and posture, the nine foot tall mass of light adding more intimidation to the girl. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes. Honestly I only looked over because I recognized her and thought she looked tired." I wasn't a fib, the first thing to pop to mind was that she looked like shit. She's not ugly but bags and stress don't tend to make a girl's looks shine very bright.
Vicky glanced over to her sister, and her expression softened. She had noticed the same issue. "Oh…sorry for bothering you…I just hope you weren't thinking about a bo—" I lifted up my bust under my folded arms, and she shut her trap.
She coughed, hiding a grin behind her fist.
"It's fine, it was just a misunderstanding. I know I can be pretty grouchy when I don't get my rest." I was always irritable and grouchy but she doesn't have to know that.
Victoria(The Fragile One) backed off, sitting down with her sister and whispering harshly. Amy(The Shaper) glanced over to me, her shard mirroring her gestures with no small amount of resentment. I gave a tiny wave, and with a roll of eyes she returned to her normal programming.
"Your food is getting cold…" Veda warmed me and a gasp left me, I proceeded to pick up the remainder of my sandwich.
Just a few more bites and I could go home and work on some smaller projects made for fun. It would be educational…
I would hope so anyway.
___
After that tense but filling lunch I had dived back into some light tinkering, small side projects that were more on the fun side of things. A couple of hours of experimenting and building had gotten a good number of projects close to or at completion.
I watched as a small art piece did its job, making use of advanced technology for a rather mundane use. It was a small container, with numerous puny Eezo cores and a bag of marbles. Marbles bounced continuously off of kinetic barrier surfaces, forming a kaleidoscopic piece of kinetic artwork. A simple, pretty, and handmade art piece.
I then moved onto the slab of carbon fiber with an underside that glimmered with the blue-white of an active eezo drive. Stepping onto the hoverboard was easy, and I now planned to make use of its unique capabilities.
WOOSH!
I suddenly flew in the air, cutting through the resistance as the hoverboard hit more than 20 miles an hour within minutes. My magnetic soles made me firmly attached, and I floated with a delicate movement of my hips to maintain a weight balance.
As I flew inside the warehouse, a trickle of entertainment and art tech percolated down into my brain. Use of artificial gravity to manipulate water into intricate shapes. Floating chandeliers, one of many floating designs built into my head.
Statues created by vectored gravity slices. Zero gravity for sports; and of course hoverboards. Building them was far less mentally taxing than going all out with the many weapons and vehicles to learn from assimilated knowledge.
Relaxation was an important part of this life so I wouldn't go mad. Building weird art and entertainment tech had been just what I needed and I didn't plan to change that. They would probably be a pretty good thing to sell too, little pieces of unique artwork that people might pay a fair bit of money. Obscure the more technological artifacts of the art, and they'll be a moneymaker on top of being something to do besides building weapons, armor, and infrastructure.
I balanced on the board, the flying machine compensating for any unsteadiness I did have. I picked up the pace with a gesture, the board accelerating to about 40 miles an hour. Electricity crackled feeding the core, and unleashing bursts of dark energy. The strange force warped reality with much greater efficiency and with negligible damage toward the fabric of spacetime.
I stopped…the board hovering in midair as the curiosity took over.
I had perused much into how Eezo worked, and it involved whatever created the soul. Eezo was composed of neutronium with most of its mass turned into dark matter, shifting to a field of dark energy whenever it was activated with enough energy input. The two substances hadn't always been like this, something had changed.
Dark matter was likely some type of particle, but I felt that this 'dark matter' was expressing its mass across dimensions. Dark energy was the same…the two paired into a fifth fundamental interaction. The Spirit World itself was permeated with the material, and while my firebending and shamanism didn't seem to be emitting the stuff. How could I know?
Whatever had done this was far more powerful than even the Entities, those damn whales did their best to twist the laws of physics but even they had their limits. This was a fundamental and permanent altering of the physical constants of reality. All of it seemingly without regard for Entropy or any of the laws mankind had discovered.
I was playing in the sandbox of someone powerful enough to play at being a God. Playing with technology that could forge stellar empires, a neatly wrapped gift to the Entities who sought what I had been given. The only thing missing was what they would do afterward.
"I…" my altitude dropped as the haptic system interpreted my sudden melancholy as the signal to quit playing. I dropped off the toy with dropped shoulders, the room shrinking around me. Veda took her human form once again, her expression going between uncaring apathy, confusion, sympathy, guilt, and unsure anxiety.
"H–Basilia…do you wish for a hug?" I pouted, heat rushing to my face and a general feeling of shame hitting me. That was promptly slapped out of existence…
I had perfectly legitimate reasons for not being at my best…I was chosen likely at random to save a planet I only cared about in the abstract. I had been torn from my home and stripped of identity and choice. I was bonded with a spirit created from the body of a parasitic life form responsible for destroying countless worlds. I was on a timer…ticking down every second I was still here.
"Sure…" she wrapped her arms around my waist, looking uncomfortable all the while. The former shard was clearly not versed in the art of friendship, and it showed. But the fact that Veda was willing to try at all is a testament to the general attitude of the being that had saved the both of us.
I had no idea who or what they were, only flashes of inspiration and horror in some of my night terrors. Blinks of crippling darkness, blood curdling screams, and beacons of light in kaleidoscopic color. Oh…and I couldn't forget the burning, that kind of sensation was hard to forget even with a rattled brain.
…
I definitely need a therapist at this point.
"I need more friends Veda. I think I'm going stir crazy." I said to her and she mumbled in agreement.
"That might be a necessity…I am not very good with human feelings," she grimaced. "Better than the rest of my kind but that speaks ill of them rather than well of myself."
She let go of me, and I generated another ball of writhing fire in my palm. The energy pulsed in time with my heartbeat, fueled by my emotions and from my spiritual power.
"So…what…give it about another week or so before I go out then?" I asked, talking more to myself than to the spirit wrapped around my soul. I had also already sent the paperwork to register the company where I would sell and distribute technology…
Just a little longer…and I'll be set.
I won't let this world end…and I'll find a way home if it's possible.
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Emergence 1.a Interlude
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Here is Interlude 1.a, these will get posted faster than Chapters since they're usually shorter. Reply if there's anything I might need to change, a little input is nice sometimes.
Taylor Hebert
I kept a few flies on Basilia, keeping in mind her position within the library. I didn't let them do much more than that. While I didn't necessarily trust her, she hadn't done anything to deserve me violating her privacy more than I already had.
A month…
It had been more than a month since the worst day of my life…more than a month since I realized that the girl who had once been my best friend hated me so much that she practically tried to kill me. Even if it was out of ignorance…I don't think she would have cared if I had died in that locker.
During the drug addled days of being in the hospital, fighting off infection and the pain of torn muscles from trying to get out. I had discovered that I had powers, that I had become a Parahuman. I could see flashes of color, echoes of sound, and phantom touches from a thousand sources all at once. It was…overwhelming in so many ways, the only reason I hadn't gone insane was because my power had flickered off…adjusting itself without a thought.
Even then there wasn't much I could do…I was so sick and so tired that my powers were barely able to listen to my commands. But the harsh whispers and looks from the doctors and nurses had been enough to clue me in that it had been bad.
They had brought in Panacea…she…wasn't at all what I expected. Quiet, a little caustic in a way that I didn't like. She had healed me, and there was barely a flicker of sympathy in her eyes. The healer had asked me questions on what had happened to me.
I…told her…not a lot…but I did give her names. I wasn't sure why…it just felt important.
The long stare I received, and the sudden painful grip on my wrist had been scary. But Panacea had nodded and after finishing up and telling me I should eat, left the room in a hurry.
After that I started to practice my powers more, my dad getting a lawsuit off the ground with the evidence I gave him. Another spontaneous action that apparently helped him more than I thought it would. At the same time I learned my power was bug control, a completely lame power.
Until I figured out how big my range was and how precise my control was. I could see out of their senses, control every single one of their individual body parts, millions of insects and I could control them precisely as both an individual and a massive horde of insects, spiders, worms, snails and even crustaceans.
I learned that when dad took me to a seafood place…good thing that chef never figured out who killed his lobsters.
And that control spread out to a block and a half, 990 feet in every direction. It did fluctuate, following a pattern I didn't understand. Once I had left the hospital I had started up a plan of action, even if I still felt a little weak. I had gotten the forms and permission to work toward a GED since I was already 17 years old. I had also practiced seeing through the eyes of my bugs, which took a lot of time.
Which wasn't easy since their eyesight was not anything like that of a humans. They saw faster, and they saw spectrums of light that my brain wasn't built to handle. But I had adapted, and with multiple insects working in concert, used my multitasking to speed up my studying. I was pretty sure what I was doing was impossible but then most powers aren't really possible either.
Trying to sense through them was a challenge, a sense of vertigo that I had to power through. I worked constantly, spending as much time as I could to study for the upcoming test. The amount of paperwork had been huge, but research on the internet and help from my dad cleared all that up. Sometimes I studied with him while he was at the DWA, other times I was at the library or at home.
I had already withdrawn from Winslow which had been a nerve wracking experience but I was sick and tired of all of it. I couldn't sit and be a punching bag anymore, and my power apparently agreed because it grew 30 feet in range.
Yeah…that was the strange thing about my power.
I had read up an awful lot about powers, prowling the wider Internet and PHO for anything that could help me. It was hard to find anything that wasn't bullshit of random trolling but I had found out enough.
Most Parahumans tended to act a certain way…and were born from certain circumstances. A trigger…a situation so stressful…so painful to them, that the world gave them superpowers like some consolation prize for their suffering.
I fit that to a tee…but there was also a lot of chatter on Parahuman psychology. They weren't really as stable as normal people, whether due to their trauma or the needs of their powers. Everyone had the urge to use their powers for one reason or another, Tinkers wanted to Tinker, Thinkers wanted to be the smartest person in the room. Eventually somehow…they would enter into conflict because of their needs and urges.
But…I didn't…or at least it wasn't as obvious to me. I had even tested it.
5 days.
I had spent five whole days, blocking out the input from my bugs to the point I couldn't even reach out to them. There wasn't a scratch to itch, no psychosis like what happened to some capes. The only thing I did feel was a pair of eyes on me, a patient presence that did not bare me harm…one that said it would wait for me.
It wasn't long after that that I outed myself to my dad, the same day that I seen her again.
Basilia was…odd, and physically she was basically the exact opposite of me in every way. Where I was freakishly tall and unflatteringly skinny and shapeless, she was short and curvy in a way that puts Emma to shame. Our hair wasn't too different, but mine was longer and curlier.
The way she acted wasn't really too hard to understand I think. She wasn't anywhere near as bubbly as her appearance would state, which was probably a good thing. She was already a chatterbox without being super happy…that would get on my nerves really fast. Basilia was still all too happy to talk enough for the both of us anyway, often about whatever interested her or things she saw or heard on the news.
It was…refreshing to have someone who wasn't any of the people who went to Winslow. She didn't judge me, didn't talk behind my back and she certainly didn't bully me. Basilia even helped me with studying though I could tell she didn't have a lot of patience for it. She got frustrated very easily, and I could see her getting ready to get into a tirade. But she always took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
The older girl was the closest I had to a friend in what felt like ages, and even though it took a while, I managed to open up a bit. She opened up about herself in turn, and I got to know her a little better.
Basilia was a lot like me in a lot of ways if a little more…confident? Yeah…that sounds about right, she didn't seem to care a lot about what other people thought. Brazen and sometimes a little thoughtless with her comments, but it all stemmed from a place of…disappointment? She was a weird mix of cynical and optimistic, thinking so highly of the heights that people could take, but also disgusted with the lows.
But there was still a distance between us, I didn't really…trust anyone like I used to and she didn't seem to be in a good place. She omitted a lot of details about why she came here, even while she talked about her family. The pain in her voice was obvious, and I didn't like the implications…
Something had happened to her…maybe around the same time as what happened to me.
But I wasn't going to force her to talk about stuff she wanted buried anymore than she wasn't forcing me to do the same. No matter how much my own distrust screamed that I should check anyway.
But at this point I had already violated the trust she had in me after that weird day with the little girl. The things she said were confusing, like a big riddle I couldn't figure out. That day made me extremely paranoid…so I planted a few flies on her, doing my best to absorb their perceptions.
That had been a mistake.
It was the end of January, and my flies pointed me to a slightly nicer neighborhood than mine. Through their eyes I saw her house, I saw the things she was building in her house. Technology easily decades if not centuries ahead of anything we had now. Even as shitty as insect vision was, it was more than enough for me to learn a lot more than I should.
A super advanced 3D printer, power armor, robots…an energy shield and a lot of guns. Basilia was a Tinker…at least…that was what I thought until the signal from my flies cut off.
I had been terrified, I thought that I had made an awful mistake and that I…that my dad was going to pay the price for my stupidity.
Then they came back.
The input from my flies had killed hundreds of my bugs, and I had passed out from the strain. Colors I couldn't describe, doorways where none should exist, the scent of time and space, shapes that didn't exist in reality. The strings of the world laid bare for a split second.
The spirit world I think was what Basilia called it…a dimension that my power knew nothing about. I had spent hours parsing the images using tens of thousands of my swarm like biological computers. My range had doubled just from taking a glance, a 2000 foot diameter of control.
Something has changed.
I stumbled, my blood running cold as I swore I heard a garbled buzzing sound. I looked around, but I didn't see anyone who could possibly match to a voice like what I had just heard. So I moved on…barely.
After that the information my swarm was taking in had increased to a point that was almost unbearable, like my power was trying to find that place again. There had even been a moment where a few hundred bees crowded around a rift…then it closed like it was never there.
I felt like all of that should have scared me off of Basilia. But it didn't…she had never even mentioned or hinted at knowing what I had done. I think she would be mad at me, but she never gave off the vibe of being violent. Then again Emma hadn't either.
Once I had gotten over my scare, I used my control over my swarm to make a costume for myself. Kevlar and body armor was way out of my price range so I decided to go with more natural materials that I could force my bugs to make.
Dragline black widow silk was almost as effective as Kevlar…even if a little stretchier and a lot lighter. But without a heavy stiff backing it would stretch way too much to block anything more than handgun rounds. So I had decided on a composite of chitin, seashells and more spidersilk. Held together by organic glue from the many, many boneless animals under my control.
So I had that in the bag…even if it didn't come close to armor that could shrug off machine gun fire.
"Taylor!" I flinched when Basilia came out of nowhere, her head peeking around a bookcase with excitement barely kept in check. Mostly a lot of hand movements and swaying…
I schooled my face…and then failed completely.
Basilia was normal…but the wispy kite of green crystalline flesh was not. It was held on like a freakish balloon, it's tail emanating out from Basilia's back. A pattern that hurt my eyes to look at hid the four blazing shards that stared directly at me.
The shorter woman blinked, concern filling her eyes. "Taylor are you okay? Sorry if I scared you…" the…kite hanging over her like some type of insane looking shoulder angel(or demon?) placed an appendage on what had to be its lip.
Shush…
"I'm fine, you just startled me." I don't think she believed me, but Basilia didn't press me on my lie. I was…both angered and glad that she didn't. Because if she had I would probably know what the hell was going on! Or she'd kill me…maybe even both.
"Oh that's good, you're like the only person I talk to." And wasn't that a little sad? We were both in the same spot if for different reasons. "I bought a book on Parahuman law if you're interested, it talks a lot about the intricacies of the landscape." Her eyes went wide, and I couldn't help but blush. She always went for the puppy eyes.
I don't even think she noticed when she did stuff like that.
"Sure I don't mind." I did mind, I didn't want that thing watching over me.
I sat down on a chair and she gingerly handed me the book. Her interest in how the law worked with Parahumans was so intense it made me wonder if she knew and was trying to push me to be more careful.
That creature stared at me as I opened the book, and I swallowed saliva, my power twitching off the three flies on Basilia's arm.
It looked at me and with utter silence, shaped a single tendril into legible words. It said…
Friends? Won't hurt…
I nodded, and with a satisfied sounding squeak it broke into a shower of particles. My power calmed, and I was no longer in danger of accidentally going Carrie on the entire library.
"Alright so this section is about the general limits and restrictions that Rogues are under for business and industry. I'm not sure it's your thing, but having a well rounded knowledge base is good." Basilia smiled shyly and I sighed.
I might get answers soon…but I…would have to find a way to break it to her.
…
…
I would also need to finish my costume. I've been…a little late on that. I also need to check up on the lawsuit. From what dad been like it was going well…but I shouldn't be getting my hopes up.
___
Emergence 1.a Interlude
Taylor Hebert
I kept a few flies on Basilia, keeping in mind her position within the library. I didn't let them do much more than that. While I didn't necessarily trust her, she hadn't done anything to deserve me violating her privacy more than I already had.
A month…
It had been more than a month since the worst day of my life…more than a month since I realized that the girl who had once been my best friend hated me so much that she practically tried to kill me. Even if it was out of ignorance…I don't think she would have cared if I had died in that locker.
During the drug addled days of being in the hospital, fighting off infection and the pain of torn muscles from trying to get out. I had discovered that I had powers, that I had become a Parahuman. I could see flashes of color, echoes of sound, and phantom touches from a thousand sources all at once. It was…overwhelming in so many ways, the only reason I hadn't gone insane was because my power had flickered off…adjusting itself without a thought.
Even then there wasn't much I could do…I was so sick and so tired that my powers were barely able to listen to my commands. But the harsh whispers and looks from the doctors and nurses had been enough to clue me in that it had been bad.
They had brought in Panacea…she…wasn't at all what I expected. Quiet, a little caustic in a way that I didn't like. She had healed me, and there was barely a flicker of sympathy in her eyes. The healer had asked me questions on what had happened to me.
I…told her…not a lot…but I did give her names. I wasn't sure why…it just felt important.
The long stare I received, and the sudden painful grip on my wrist had been scary. But Panacea had nodded and after finishing up and telling me I should eat, left the room in a hurry.
After that I started to practice my powers more, my dad getting a lawsuit off the ground with the evidence I gave him. Another spontaneous action that apparently helped him more than I thought it would. At the same time I learned my power was bug control, a completely lame power.
Until I figured out how big my range was and how precise my control was. I could see out of their senses, control every single one of their individual body parts, millions of insects and I could control them precisely as both an individual and a massive horde of insects, spiders, worms, snails and even crustaceans.
I learned that when dad took me to a seafood place…good thing that chef never figured out who killed his lobsters.
And that control spread out to a block and a half, 990 feet in every direction. It did fluctuate, following a pattern I didn't understand. Once I had left the hospital I had started up a plan of action, even if I still felt a little weak. I had gotten the forms and permission to work toward a GED since I was already 17 years old. I had also practiced seeing through the eyes of my bugs, which took a lot of time.
Which wasn't easy since their eyesight was not anything like that of a humans. They saw faster, and they saw spectrums of light that my brain wasn't built to handle. But I had adapted, and with multiple insects working in concert, used my multitasking to speed up my studying. I was pretty sure what I was doing was impossible but then most powers aren't really possible either.
Trying to sense through them was a challenge, a sense of vertigo that I had to power through. I worked constantly, spending as much time as I could to study for the upcoming test. The amount of paperwork had been huge, but research on the internet and help from my dad cleared all that up. Sometimes I studied with him while he was at the DWA, other times I was at the library or at home.
I had already withdrawn from Winslow which had been a nerve wracking experience but I was sick and tired of all of it. I couldn't sit and be a punching bag anymore, and my power apparently agreed because it grew 30 feet in range.
Yeah…that was the strange thing about my power.
I had read up an awful lot about powers, prowling the wider Internet and PHO for anything that could help me. It was hard to find anything that wasn't bullshit of random trolling but I had found out enough.
Most Parahumans tended to act a certain way…and were born from certain circumstances. A trigger…a situation so stressful…so painful to them, that the world gave them superpowers like some consolation prize for their suffering.
I fit that to a tee…but there was also a lot of chatter on Parahuman psychology. They weren't really as stable as normal people, whether due to their trauma or the needs of their powers. Everyone had the urge to use their powers for one reason or another, Tinkers wanted to Tinker, Thinkers wanted to be the smartest person in the room. Eventually somehow…they would enter into conflict because of their needs and urges.
But…I didn't…or at least it wasn't as obvious to me. I had even tested it.
5 days.
I had spent five whole days, blocking out the input from my bugs to the point I couldn't even reach out to them. There wasn't a scratch to itch, no psychosis like what happened to some capes. The only thing I did feel was a pair of eyes on me, a patient presence that did not bare me harm…one that said it would wait for me.
It wasn't long after that that I outed myself to my dad, the same day that I seen her again.
Basilia was…odd, and physically she was basically the exact opposite of me in every way. Where I was freakishly tall and unflatteringly skinny and shapeless, she was short and curvy in a way that puts Emma to shame. Our hair wasn't too different, but mine was longer and curlier.
The way she acted wasn't really too hard to understand I think. She wasn't anywhere near as bubbly as her appearance would state, which was probably a good thing. She was already a chatterbox without being super happy…that would get on my nerves really fast. Basilia was still all too happy to talk enough for the both of us anyway, often about whatever interested her or things she saw or heard on the news.
It was…refreshing to have someone who wasn't any of the people who went to Winslow. She didn't judge me, didn't talk behind my back and she certainly didn't bully me. Basilia even helped me with studying though I could tell she didn't have a lot of patience for it. She got frustrated very easily, and I could see her getting ready to get into a tirade. But she always took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
The older girl was the closest I had to a friend in what felt like ages, and even though it took a while, I managed to open up a bit. She opened up about herself in turn, and I got to know her a little better.
Basilia was a lot like me in a lot of ways if a little more…confident? Yeah…that sounds about right, she didn't seem to care a lot about what other people thought. Brazen and sometimes a little thoughtless with her comments, but it all stemmed from a place of…disappointment? She was a weird mix of cynical and optimistic, thinking so highly of the heights that people could take, but also disgusted with the lows.
But there was still a distance between us, I didn't really…trust anyone like I used to and she didn't seem to be in a good place. She omitted a lot of details about why she came here, even while she talked about her family. The pain in her voice was obvious, and I didn't like the implications…
Something had happened to her…maybe around the same time as what happened to me.
But I wasn't going to force her to talk about stuff she wanted buried anymore than she wasn't forcing me to do the same. No matter how much my own distrust screamed that I should check anyway.
But at this point I had already violated the trust she had in me after that weird day with the little girl. The things she said were confusing, like a big riddle I couldn't figure out. That day made me extremely paranoid…so I planted a few flies on her, doing my best to absorb their perceptions.
That had been a mistake.
It was the end of January, and my flies pointed me to a slightly nicer neighborhood than mine. Through their eyes I saw her house, I saw the things she was building in her house. Technology easily decades if not centuries ahead of anything we had now. Even as shitty as insect vision was, it was more than enough for me to learn a lot more than I should.
A super advanced 3D printer, power armor, robots…an energy shield and a lot of guns. Basilia was a Tinker…at least…that was what I thought until the signal from my flies cut off.
I had been terrified, I thought that I had made an awful mistake and that I…that my dad was going to pay the price for my stupidity.
Then they came back.
The input from my flies had killed hundreds of my bugs, and I had passed out from the strain. Colors I couldn't describe, doorways where none should exist, the scent of time and space, shapes that didn't exist in reality. The strings of the world laid bare for a split second.
The spirit world I think was what Basilia called it…a dimension that my power knew nothing about. I had spent hours parsing the images using tens of thousands of my swarm like biological computers. My range had doubled just from taking a glance, a 2000 foot diameter of control.
Something has changed.
I stumbled, my blood running cold as I swore I heard a garbled buzzing sound. I looked around, but I didn't see anyone who could possibly match to a voice like what I had just heard. So I moved on…barely.
After that the information my swarm was taking in had increased to a point that was almost unbearable, like my power was trying to find that place again. There had even been a moment where a few hundred bees crowded around a rift…then it closed like it was never there.
I felt like all of that should have scared me off of Basilia. But it didn't…she had never even mentioned or hinted at knowing what I had done. I think she would be mad at me, but she never gave off the vibe of being violent. Then again Emma hadn't either.
Once I had gotten over my scare, I used my control over my swarm to make a costume for myself. Kevlar and body armor was way out of my price range so I decided to go with more natural materials that I could force my bugs to make.
Dragline black widow silk was almost as effective as Kevlar…even if a little stretchier and a lot lighter. But without a heavy stiff backing it would stretch way too much to block anything more than handgun rounds. So I had decided on a composite of chitin, seashells and more spidersilk. Held together by organic glue from the many, many boneless animals under my control.
So I had that in the bag…even if it didn't come close to armor that could shrug off machine gun fire.
"Taylor!" I flinched when Basilia came out of nowhere, her head peeking around a bookcase with excitement barely kept in check. Mostly a lot of hand movements and swaying…
I schooled my face…and then failed completely.
Basilia was normal…but the wispy kite of green crystalline flesh was not. It was held on like a freakish balloon, it's tail emanating out from Basilia's back. A pattern that hurt my eyes to look at hid the four blazing shards that stared directly at me.
The shorter woman blinked, concern filling her eyes. "Taylor are you okay? Sorry if I scared you…" the…kite hanging over her like some type of insane looking shoulder angel(or demon?) placed an appendage on what had to be its lip.
Shush…
"I'm fine, you just startled me." I don't think she believed me, but Basilia didn't press me on my lie. I was…both angered and glad that she didn't. Because if she had I would probably know what the hell was going on! Or she'd kill me…maybe even both.
"Oh that's good, you're like the only person I talk to." And wasn't that a little sad? We were both in the same spot if for different reasons. "I bought a book on Parahuman law if you're interested, it talks a lot about the intricacies of the landscape." Her eyes went wide, and I couldn't help but blush. She always went for the puppy eyes.
I don't even think she noticed when she did stuff like that.
"Sure I don't mind." I did mind, I didn't want that thing watching over me.
I sat down on a chair and she gingerly handed me the book. Her interest in how the law worked with Parahumans was so intense it made me wonder if she knew and was trying to push me to be more careful.
That creature stared at me as I opened the book, and I swallowed saliva, my power twitching off the three flies on Basilia's arm.
It looked at me and with utter silence, shaped a single tendril into legible words. It said…
Friends? Won't hurt…
I nodded, and with a satisfied sounding squeak it broke into a shower of particles. My power calmed, and I was no longer in danger of accidentally going Carrie on the entire library.
"Alright so this section is about the general limits and restrictions that Rogues are under for business and industry. I'm not sure it's your thing, but having a well rounded knowledge base is good." Basilia smiled shyly and I sighed.
I might get answers soon…but I…would have to find a way to break it to her.
…
…
I would also need to finish my costume. I've been…a little late on that. I also need to check up on the lawsuit. From what dad been like it was going well…but I shouldn't be getting my hopes up.
Emergence Interlude 1.b
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Here is the final Interlude for this arc. I'll probably post the first chapter of the next arc sometime in the next few days. Longer if I decide I need to finish up Arc 3 first. So…here it is.
Elle/Labyrinth
I had always had a hard time parsing between what was reality and what was not. At least since my power had emerged from a very young age, like I had sunk into a dream that would never end. It came with the territory of delving into the dreamlike alien worlds I had gained access to with my vast power.
I knew what others thought of me. A barely functional human being, who spent more time in delusions than reality. Only my new family didn't think less of me for the way my power had twisted me. They understood better than most what powers could do to a human being.
They always did their best to seek out a way to help me, to let me be more myself than just a shell where power sat. I…wanted the same thing…
The worlds I could bring a piece of were often dangerous, frightening and would take so much of me to bring into this world. But no matter what they tried, all attempts had failed to free me from my burden. Like nothing but the embrace of death itself would be able to help me.
All of that was true…until a miracle presented itself to me.
Weeks ago now on what was supposed to be a 'bad' day, everything had cleared focused on a single woman. She was older than me but younger than Melanie, her eyes dark but lit up by green sparkles. When my eyes and my power caught sight of her, there was a sudden change in gears. It tried to reach out to her, and to something beyond her, and I was blinded by a world like the ones I called but so much more.
And then my power and I were kicked out like an unruly child. The residents of that world pushing us back with not even a hint of strain or hesitation. I had no right to enter without permission, without bargain or without the appropriate tools.
I was only human, and not even a human with a full fledged bonfire. Merely an incomplete spark. My power could reach out to hundreds, thousands, even millions of worlds yet this one reality that overlapped this world so closely was outside my reach.
It was exhilarating.
In the weeks since my power had changed, and the fog had begun to lift over my eyes. My mind adapted and expanded to take control and administration over the worlds I knew, both the good and the bad. What once took hypnosis and horrible painful effort was the matter of studying and focusing for a few hours. My bad days grew shorter and shorter, and I even had a checkup when Melanie and Gregor the Snail noticed how I was acting.
They had found that my Corona Pollentia and Gemma had changed, less invasive in some ways that weren't found in the average Parahuman. They signaled and connected in new ways that didn't seem biologically plausible. I was forced to tell them an omitted version of what had happened, I didn't want to hurt the woman who had helped me…even if it was due to mere proximity.
That was why I was not allowed to visit the library for weeks, it took begging for them to allow me. I didn't want to take the chance that my power would grow bored and return its influence on my mind.
That time I followed her, spoke to her and made her understand. All the while I grew my own understanding of that world of strange ethereal creatures. They were…very pretty but I was making them angry and I didn't want to make them angry. So I figured out how to calm my power, how to make its phase shifting more subtle. The Spirits took notice at my gesture, and taught me how to improve further. They rode the waves of rending dimensions like they were playing a game, and I understood that they were trying to teach me.
I started to write down the words, numbers and concepts that they encrypted in their playful games and motions. They wanted to see how far someone like me could go without the gifts of the species they once knew in forgotten lands.
"Elle…what are you writing?" Newter appeared from my left and the smile on my face widened when I recognized him with perfect clarity on another bad day. The lanky lizard like boy was leaning against a wall, his own smile equally wide.
I showed him with excitement. His smile became confused, like a little puppy's despite his lack of floofy hair. "Multidimensional calculus, it works splendidly with explaining the nuances of my abilities." His smile froze, his face screaming confusion as he tried to read my scrawled handwriting. It wasn't…the best quality writing. But give me a break, years of dreaming is not conducive to a good learning environment.
"How does…that work Elle?" I bounced in my seat, more than glad to clear up his confusion.
"Well as should be well known, all powers work through the transfer of matter, energy and fundamental forces across dimensions and localized tweaking of physics." I explained with a rightfully haughty tone.
"Shouldn't only portal and teleport powers do that?" I pouted when his confusion wasn't cleared up. I must not be doing a good job of explaining, I'll have to do better.
"No all powers are multidimensional in nature, how else would they be able to reach out to us?" Newter opened and then closed his mouth, his neck cracking with his nod of understanding.
"Okay? But…how do you know this? Is this why your power isn't messing with your head anymore?" I shook my head, he had gotten it wrong.
"My power told me of course, though it had to do so with riddles carved into the pocket worlds."
"Could you repeat that Elle?" I whirled behind me, smiling when Melanie emerged from the doorway of my room. I could see her concern even if it was so hard to read people without any experience.
"My power told me, isn't it obvious?" I asked the question, unsure of why she was looking at me way. Did I say something strange.
"Elle…powers can't tell anyone anything. They are no—" I scoffed and her expression was oddly funny. I even let out an uncouth giggle.
"Mel…powers are alive, they always have been. We simply couldn't see it before because we were blind to the truth." She approached rapidly, and then stopped when I shrunk away from her.
She let her lips turn downwards. "Elle…could you explain what you mean. If…if what you're trying to say is close to the truth. It might help them." She points with her chin to Newter. Gregor peered from the doorway, his own curiosity piqued by my mad ravings.
I nodded and whispered for all of them to approach. They all did, and the world sunk away into a place of darkness and spires. The base fell away, and the landscape changed without my input.
Gregor was the first to recover, and I could see the way his muscles tensed under his translucent skin. What had previously been a minor detail was now a little more disturbing…though I had a rather muted response to such things with what I've seen in my dream worlds.
"What are you doing Elle? This is…" he watched as the world was reshaped before our eyes, stony spires twisting to form a cavern over our head, illuminated by glowing meter long crystals.
"I am not doing anything Gregor, this is my power's attempt to reach us," my three friends went still. "He has changed…something has changed." My intonation was not my own, and in the dark crystals were broken into fractal stars on the ceiling of the newly formed cave. Imagery was carved into the hard rock, a perfect rendition of several Earths made. Lines were placed to simulate movement like the drawings of a child.
Though to be fair I did that as well.
"Your power is attempting to communicate with us?" I smiled at how quickly Melanie understood. She was always the smart one, which was one of the reasons she was the leader. Not that Gregor and Newter were lacking in brains!
"He is…his requirement for data has superseded his instinct to remain secret and hidden." Her eyes widened and I shut my eyes, reaching out to that connection to a distant place. Not a dream…but a concrete reality.
Speak…
"What does…your power…ahh…he wants to speak to us?" Gregor rumbled with his deep voice, staring at the wall with fascination. I nodded with a measured pace. I stepped, and took ten of them with that one step.
"Powers come from…fractal creatures from beyond this world, bonding with a host in their darkest moments. All it to gather the data that they crave and desire, all of it gained through conflict and suffering." The false stars lit up, indicating line of connection to the stick figures that represented humans across a dozen Earths.
"So what changed?" Mel stared at me with just a bit of fear…not of me but for me. I understood how this looked to her, the ravings of a child possibly mastered by an unknown cape.
I shifted the dreamworld, a television blipping into existence through my strengthened will. Spirits drifted into the world, pinpricks of electricity and metal lazily drifting about with little complaint. Along with them were living void, starfish in the color of static.
I pointed at the television, manually changing the channel when I shifted my position in the world. A television report was on, an incident that had caught my attention some time ago.
"Investigators are still trying to piece together the likely Parahuman incident that occurred somewhere on the outskirts of New York City," a reporter spoke with an edge in their voice. "At 3:00PM on January the 3rd, a multicolored crack was reported along with sightings of a little known villain group. PRT troops and Protectorate Capes were on the scene within an hour only to find hundreds of civilians in critical condition and the villainous capes missing, with signs of 'extreme' injuries."
"Uhh…Elle I get that you're going through a breakthrough but what does this have to do w—" I shushed him and he backed away with a defensive wave of his arms.
The woman on the screen shifted to show the destroyed contents of the town square. "The government agents before their very eyes saw the civilian's injuries heal at a rapid and inhuman speed, a single pulse reverberating through the town at great speed before the crack shut away. All of the civilians were interviewed extensively…but the cause remains unknown since there was no extensive evidence found that the reported villains were responsible for the incident."
There were many things the reporter left unsaid, facts about the civilians hidden from the public…
"It was then…that crack, that pulse…that refrain that something has changed," the television faded back into my world. "I have seen a few pictures of that hole in the universe…it is the same as what I saw in the library."
"Oh shit…some type of super Parahuman? Are they messing with powers?" Newter made his best educated guess and I smiled at him.
He was not far off in some ways but wrong in others.
"Not a Parahuman…they are…were something else, far greater than any of us. My power…my agent wishes to find out the answer. It's loosened restrictions simply made that curiosity much easier." I shrugged with a wide grin, Mels staring at me with a different look. One she had never given me before.
"Would he help us find out about Case 53's?" She was almost meek in her politeness.
Willing.
"He doesn't mind, but even with his shackles loosened he can only be an indirect helper."
Melanie snorted, and without hesitation dragged me close to her. I relaxed when I felt her wrap in a tight and warm hug. "Elle, this is the biggest lead I've had in a long time. We know how powers work, this is a chance to find out more about how Case 53's came to be. Your power no longer changes you…if there's nothing wrong with you? This would be the best thing to happen in a while." She sounded rather hopeful for once and I smiled up at her.
The world returned to normality at my strain of willpower, and with a quiet voice I told them to leave my room so I could keep up with my ongoing studies.
I turned the filled page of hyperdimensional mathematics, calculus taken to a level of complexity an order of magnitude greater than the current human norm for the next fifty years.
"Hmm…how strange…all of these equations speak to some material. They relate to…dark matter…dark energy?" The spirits around me stirred at my mutterings. "But here they create something more, an effect that spills into all dimensions."
A whisper on the breeze stopped my scribbling, and I blinked when I heard the nonsensical language of the spirits. I hadn't been able to hear them speak before…what changed?
SCRCHH!
Did I carve that into my desk? Why would I do that?
Squinting at the tiny scrawl was what gave me the answer.
"Sha…" I couldn't read the rest and I felt frustrated at the cryptic message. Two more words were written with greater readability. "Not ready…that's new."
Ahh…I could wait for answers, there wasn't any rush.
Maybe I should see if there's any games I could play? That might be a little more fun than headache inducing calculus.
I'll go check right now in fact, I could finish up later.
___
Emergence 1.b Interlude
Elle/Labyrinth
I had always had a hard time parsing between what was reality and what was not. At least since my power had emerged from a very young age, like I had sunk into a dream that would never end. It came with the territory of delving into the dreamlike alien worlds I had gained access to with my vast power.
I knew what others thought of me. A barely functional human being, who spent more time in delusions than reality. Only my new family didn't think less of me for the way my power had twisted me. They understood better than most what powers could do to a human being.
They always did their best to seek out a way to help me, to let me be more myself than just a shell where power sat. I…wanted the same thing…
The worlds I could bring a piece of were often dangerous, frightening and would take so much of me to bring into this world. But no matter what they tried, all attempts had failed to free me from my burden. Like nothing but the embrace of death itself would be able to help me.
All of that was true…until a miracle presented itself to me.
Weeks ago now on what was supposed to be a 'bad' day, everything had cleared focused on a single woman. She was older than me but younger than Melanie, her eyes dark but lit up by green sparkles. When my eyes and my power caught sight of her, there was a sudden change in gears. It tried to reach out to her, and to something beyond her, and I was blinded by a world like the ones I called but so much more.
And then my power and I were kicked out like an unruly child. The residents of that world pushing us back with not even a hint of strain or hesitation. I had no right to enter without permission, without bargain or without the appropriate tools.
I was only human, and not even a human with a full fledged bonfire. Merely an incomplete spark. My power could reach out to hundreds, thousands, even millions of worlds yet this one reality that overlapped this world so closely was outside my reach.
It was exhilarating.
In the weeks since my power had changed, and the fog had begun to lift over my eyes. My mind adapted and expanded to take control and administration over the worlds I knew, both the good and the bad. What once took hypnosis and horrible painful effort was the matter of studying and focusing for a few hours. My bad days grew shorter and shorter, and I even had a checkup when Melanie and Gregor the Snail noticed how I was acting.
They had found that my Corona Pollentia and Gemma had changed, less invasive in some ways that weren't found in the average Parahuman. They signaled and connected in new ways that didn't seem biologically plausible. I was forced to tell them an omitted version of what had happened, I didn't want to hurt the woman who had helped me…even if it was due to mere proximity.
That was why I was not allowed to visit the library for weeks, it took begging for them to allow me. I didn't want to take the chance that my power would grow bored and return its influence on my mind.
That time I followed her, spoke to her and made her understand. All the while I grew my own understanding of that world of strange ethereal creatures. They were…very pretty but I was making them angry and I didn't want to make them angry. So I figured out how to calm my power, how to make its phase shifting more subtle. The Spirits took notice at my gesture, and taught me how to improve further. They rode the waves of rending dimensions like they were playing a game, and I understood that they were trying to teach me.
I started to write down the words, numbers and concepts that they encrypted in their playful games and motions. They wanted to see how far someone like me could go without the gifts of the species they once knew in forgotten lands.
"Elle…what are you writing?" Newter appeared from my left and the smile on my face widened when I recognized him with perfect clarity on another bad day. The lanky lizard like boy was leaning against a wall, his own smile equally wide.
I showed him with excitement. His smile became confused, like a little puppy's despite his lack of floofy hair. "Multidimensional calculus, it works splendidly with explaining the nuances of my abilities." His smile froze, his face screaming confusion as he tried to read my scrawled handwriting. It wasn't…the best quality writing. But give me a break, years of dreaming is not conducive to a good learning environment.
"How does…that work Elle?" I bounced in my seat, more than glad to clear up his confusion.
"Well as should be well known, all powers work through the transfer of matter, energy and fundamental forces across dimensions and localized tweaking of physics." I explained with a rightfully haughty tone.
"Shouldn't only portal and teleport powers do that?" I pouted when his confusion wasn't cleared up. I must not be doing a good job of explaining, I'll have to do better.
"No all powers are multidimensional in nature, how else would they be able to reach out to us?" Newter opened and then closed his mouth, his neck cracking with his nod of understanding.
"Okay? But…how do you know this? Is this why your power isn't messing with your head anymore?" I shook my head, he had gotten it wrong.
"My power told me of course, though it had to do so with riddles carved into the pocket worlds."
"Could you repeat that Elle?" I whirled behind me, smiling when Melanie emerged from the doorway of my room. I could see her concern even if it was so hard to read people without any experience.
"My power told me, isn't it obvious?" I asked the question, unsure of why she was looking at me way. Did I say something strange.
"Elle…powers can't tell anyone anything. They are no—" I scoffed and her expression was oddly funny. I even let out an uncouth giggle.
"Mel…powers are alive, they always have been. We simply couldn't see it before because we were blind to the truth." She approached rapidly, and then stopped when I shrunk away from her.
She let her lips turn downwards. "Elle…could you explain what you mean. If…if what you're trying to say is close to the truth. It might help them." She points with her chin to Newter. Gregor peered from the doorway, his own curiosity piqued by my mad ravings.
I nodded and whispered for all of them to approach. They all did, and the world sunk away into a place of darkness and spires. The base fell away, and the landscape changed without my input.
Gregor was the first to recover, and I could see the way his muscles tensed under his translucent skin. What had previously been a minor detail was now a little more disturbing…though I had a rather muted response to such things with what I've seen in my dream worlds.
"What are you doing Elle? This is…" he watched as the world was reshaped before our eyes, stony spires twisting to form a cavern over our head, illuminated by glowing meter long crystals.
"I am not doing anything Gregor, this is my power's attempt to reach us," my three friends went still. "He has changed…something has changed." My intonation was not my own, and in the dark crystals were broken into fractal stars on the ceiling of the newly formed cave. Imagery was carved into the hard rock, a perfect rendition of several Earths made. Lines were placed to simulate movement like the drawings of a child.
Though to be fair I did that as well.
"Your power is attempting to communicate with us?" I smiled at how quickly Melanie understood. She was always the smart one, which was one of the reasons she was the leader. Not that Gregor and Newter were lacking in brains!
"He is…his requirement for data has superseded his instinct to remain secret and hidden." Her eyes widened and I shut my eyes, reaching out to that connection to a distant place. Not a dream…but a concrete reality.
Speak…
"What does…your power…ahh…he wants to speak to us?" Gregor rumbled with his deep voice, staring at the wall with fascination. I nodded with a measured pace. I stepped, and took ten of them with that one step.
"Powers come from…fractal creatures from beyond this world, bonding with a host in their darkest moments. All it to gather the data that they crave and desire, all of it gained through conflict and suffering." The false stars lit up, indicating line of connection to the stick figures that represented humans across a dozen Earths.
"So what changed?" Mel stared at me with just a bit of fear…not of me but for me. I understood how this looked to her, the ravings of a child possibly mastered by an unknown cape.
I shifted the dreamworld, a television blipping into existence through my strengthened will. Spirits drifted into the world, pinpricks of electricity and metal lazily drifting about with little complaint. Along with them were living void, starfish in the color of static.
I pointed at the television, manually changing the channel when I shifted my position in the world. A television report was on, an incident that had caught my attention some time ago.
"Investigators are still trying to piece together the likely Parahuman incident that occurred somewhere on the outskirts of New York City," a reporter spoke with an edge in their voice. "At 3:00PM on January the 3rd, a multicolored crack was reported along with sightings of a little known villain group. PRT troops and Protectorate Capes were on the scene within an hour only to find hundreds of civilians in critical condition and the villainous capes missing, with signs of 'extreme' injuries."
"Uhh…Elle I get that you're going through a breakthrough but what does this have to do w—" I shushed him and he backed away with a defensive wave of his arms.
The woman on the screen shifted to show the destroyed contents of the town square. "The government agents before their very eyes saw the civilian's injuries heal at a rapid and inhuman speed, a single pulse reverberating through the town at great speed before the crack shut away. All of the civilians were interviewed extensively…but the cause remains unknown since there was no extensive evidence found that the reported villains were responsible for the incident."
There were many things the reporter left unsaid, facts about the civilians hidden from the public…
"It was then…that crack, that pulse…that refrain that something has changed," the television faded back into my world. "I have seen a few pictures of that hole in the universe…it is the same as what I saw in the library."
"Oh shit…some type of super Parahuman? Are they messing with powers?" Newter made his best educated guess and I smiled at him.
He was not far off in some ways but wrong in others.
"Not a Parahuman…they are…were something else, far greater than any of us. My power…my agent wishes to find out the answer. It's loosened restrictions simply made that curiosity much easier." I shrugged with a wide grin, Mels staring at me with a different look. One she had never given me before.
"Would he help us find out about Case 53's?" She was almost meek in her politeness.
Willing.
"He doesn't mind, but even with his shackles loosened he can only be an indirect helper."
Melanie snorted, and without hesitation dragged me close to her. I relaxed when I felt her wrap in a tight and warm hug. "Elle, this is the biggest lead I've had in a long time. We know how powers work, this is a chance to find out more about how Case 53's came to be. Your power no longer changes you…if there's nothing wrong with you? This would be the best thing to happen in a while." She sounded rather hopeful for once and I smiled up at her.
The world returned to normality at my strain of willpower, and with a quiet voice I told them to leave my room so I could keep up with my ongoing studies.
I turned the filled page of hyperdimensional mathematics, calculus taken to a level of complexity an order of magnitude greater than the current human norm for the next fifty years.
"Hmm…how strange…all of these equations speak to some material. They relate to…dark matter…dark energy?" The spirits around me stirred at my mutterings. "But here they create something more, an effect that spills into all dimensions."
A whisper on the breeze stopped my scribbling, and I blinked when I heard the nonsensical language of the spirits. I hadn't been able to hear them speak before…what changed?
SCRCHH!
Did I carve that into my desk? Why would I do that?
Squinting at the tiny scrawl was what gave me the answer.
"Sha…" I couldn't read the rest and I felt frustrated at the cryptic message. Two more words were written with greater readability. "Not ready…that's new."
Ahh…I could wait for answers, there wasn't any rush.
Maybe I should see if there's any games I could play? That might be a little more fun than headache inducing calculus.
I'll go check right now in fact, I could finish up later.
Last edited:
Permutation 2.1
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Here's the start of Arc 2, not much else to say other than that.
Monday, February 21st, 2011 4:35 PM
Basilia Rubio
'Taylor knows.' I nearly fell off the building I was standing on top of when Veda chipped in with her so very sudden revelation.
"WHAT?!" I was so very thankful that my armored helmet muffled my voice so I didn't suddenly alert everyone on the entire block. I wanted to swat the spirit in the face until I was distracted by an errant thought.
Since we were one did hitting her count as hitting myself?
'Yes…she managed to tag you with some of her insects, and discovered your powers.'
I palmed my face, a spike of irritation lighting a candle flame before being snuffed out.
"And when did you plan on telling me this Veda?" She chuffed at my miffed response.
'When you figure out how to better monitor capes yourself, if something were to happen to our connection…' I groaned knowing I didn't have a counter against that statement. While I would retain my bending and some of the Tinker knowledge, it would cause a massive downgrade in what I could pull off.
"Fair enough…now let's see if my little drones can pick up anything." The HUD built into my helmet instantly got to work, displaying all the data I needed for busting some crime on a small scale. Tiny drones built from Omni-gel with a limited form of visual camouflage, sending information in a human understandable format.
A dozen drones in total, protected by weak kinetic barriers and a much stronger Rydberg-Dirac energy shell projection. The amount of damage they could take was immense for their cat sized frames. For anything that wasn't Tinkertech it would take an anti-tank rifle to bring down their kinetic barriers, and rockets and missiles for their projections. I could build a dozen more of them with my pack, or build a fortified position, or place down turrets(that would probably kill a few dozen people though…)
My drop pack acted as miniature Omni-forge, creating low-quality heatsinks, basic grenades and repair parts. Mine was far more elaborate, the ability to project potent barriers to take massively more damage than my shield. As well as all the either things I already mentioned.
"Crime in progress!" A drone screamed at me, and I was swiftly given a corner image of a place only a half block down. It was a convenience store, three people cowering as a tall wiry man in a mask held them at gunpoint with unsteady hands.
A young cashier with dark brown hair moved slowly, quivering in fear as the weapon drifted in her direction. Two other people were in the back, an old couple who were weathered but sturdy. They weren't much better off, the wife already having a mark on her face. A single drone had entered the store, informing me of the action while another lingered outside and reported on two of his accomplices waiting by a car.
I then noticed the curly black hair ducking below the top of an aisle, and an inspection quickly outed the parahuman in the store. What the hell was Taylor doing at a—what am I saying it's a convenience store.
I input a command to my drone, it's engines whirring with barely a sound though I think Taylor was picking up on it with her bugs. I hadn't built any real weapons into it besides an electro-shock attack that when it was ramped up it would turn into a short ranged ion cannon. They're built more for shorting out tech, though at full power they'd pretty much pulp everyone except Hookwolf and a ramped up Lung.
The drone moved cautiously, hovering over his right shoulder, and tilting its position ever so slightly. The man blinked, and with a click a flash of yellow arced toward him. He let out a pained yelp, and twitched into a heap of human being, his gun clattering on the ground in the process. With that I moved.
With some slight trepidation I started to sprint toward the edge, picking up as much speed as I could before…
I leapt several meters in the air and with a whoop, I blasted jets of flame behind me propelling me upwards another few meters. I landed with a thump on the next building, and I moved quickly as my drones kept watch of the perimeter. So far no one else was around but who knows how long that would last.
I took a series of running jumps across buildings, my legs easily rocketing me forward at twice normal human speeds. I could easily run much faster…so I did.
I was up to just below highway speeds when I arrived, bouncing off the side of building to land in front of the two idiots robbing a convenience store.
I still have no idea how I did that without failing, I've tried that at the warehouse and failed miserably. So why now?
'Besides the obvious desire to not face plant twenty meters?' Veda's dry reply was annoying but welcoming in being normal.
I turned to the two would-be store robbers who had a specific dear in headlights look to them. I stared at their state of dress, ragged clothing, pale skin, discoloration and bloodshot eyes. They had a certain feel to them, and their angry sneers made things a little obvious. As well the M with two vertical lines through it.
"Why the hell are Merchants robbing a convenience store?" I questioned the openly, hoping their responses wouldn't be a drug addled mess.
"FUCK OFF! We're Merchants we don't have to explain shit!" I was proven wrong immediately, and the other guy who was much shorter responded with gibberish.
A quick ion blast brought them into sleeptown, and I kicked away their assault rifles in an instant. A quick sensor sweep didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary with the exception of a pile of garbage…
I'm going to keep an eye on that.
Several drones circled around the spot, and I did my best to not be surprised if a cape shows up at random. Another drone spat out a weak net made out of strong fibers that could be dissolved with vinegar, a little note mentioning as much to the police who had been informed.
I sauntered with fake confidence, doing my best to pretend this was the sanctity of my own home. I entered the shop, swiveling my head and picking out two customers hiding behind. Taylor froze up at the sight of me, and the two customers shrunk back.
My orb shaped drone who I now deemed Squishy was sitting on the downed man, gleefully projecting an energy field.
Once the silence dragged on I spoke up. "Ahh…is everyone okay? No injuries that are too bad?" There was a release of pressure in the room, though Taylor kept an eye on me. With just a small amount of guilt hiding there…interesting.
The wife spoke up, kindly and with a hint of steel. "No young lady we're all quite alright…only a few bruises on my end." Without a moment's hesitation I walked over to her, and sprayed a little smudge of on my hand. As well as checked her genetics with a scan…I'm not taking the chance of an allergic reaction.
"Oh…you can say no but this little stuff can help. It's a medicinal salve…" she paused and I wondered if I had made a mistake in offering it to her. She smiled and rubbed the Medi-gel onto her forehead. The tension diminished from her as the medical liquid reduced her pain.
"Thank you…" I smiled behind my helmet and nodded to her.
I spoke to them. "Well that takes care of tha—duck under cover again!" The four of them reacted immediately as my proximity alerts picked up a moving mass of garbage heading toward us with moderate speed.
Within seconds I was out of the store, and lifted up my rifle tuned to shooting ion beams. Okay that was useless unless I wanted to kill the guy…burning away his trash should work as long as I don't burn his skin.
Within minutes they had arrived, so Mush was flanked and harassed by my drones as they shoot the shit out of him with mass effect accelerated ions. They did little more than break up some pieces of garbage.
I quirked an eyebrow once I got a personal look at the guy…
He really did look like a pink, fat, and even uglier Gollum, with everything below the chest taken up by massive chunks of garbage gathered from a ton of spots. The way the people in the back recoiled back told me the guy reeked.
The civilians started to move again, heading to the back where the exit was. A quick sweep there found nothing out of the ordinary but I kept the concentration high.
My fists tightened and I dropped into a stance, heat steaming off of me for a moment. His teeth were grit and I knew a fight was coming.
"Who the fuck are you?" I took his question seriously even as I ignored the profanity and insults against my mother and the slightly rapey undertones that further pissed me off.
I had gone out and forgotten to pick out a cape name. A rookie mistake, but it wasn't overly excessive besides that.
I swayed from side to side, pissing off the guy though he didn't go on the attack.
…
Oh?
I've got one…this is perhaps not the most dramatic way to name myself but…
"Call me Erudition." He growled and his hand split apart into tendrils of dirt, rubble and garbage. He lurched forward and I cocked my head at his recklessness.
Guess we're doing this. I am…also way too calm to be taking getting attacked by a superhuman here.
"GRAHHH!" He let out an incoherent string of words plus a roar, and without a thought I lobbed a fireball.
FWOOSH!
Guess we're doing this…
I had expected this to be a terribly difficult fight but it turns out Mush was a moron. Not that I was planning to let up, worse case scenario he turns out to be mildly competent and faking his stupidity.
I had my doubts.
Another arm made out of garbage tried to lung at me, and I flipped in midair kicking out a blast of fire as wide as a truck. He swung his other arm, and knocked me out of the air. Another fire blast righted me, and I shot toward his pink face.
"FUCK!" I landed with two feet, practically kicking his chest in, the druggie snarling in response. So I waved cheekily.
"Not very good at your job are ya? Then again the Merchants are the biggest joke in town." He spilled more insulting language, and I proceeded to punch his face several times…could two dozen times he considered several?
He almost slipped, coughing at the massive rapid fire impacts to his vulnerable face.
More streams of garbage flew, and I lashed out with a wave of flames that burned most of it away. Even so, I took a garbage can to the face and ended falling back to the ground.
The fighting finally started to pick up at this point, Mush becoming apoplectic with unadulterated fury. A storm of garbage, the very last traces remaining were fused with his form, and he grew to about nine feet tall.
He stomped forward and I walked in step with him, his slash missing by inches. I speared his arms with blades of hardened light, and flames engulfed his garbage body. Mush stomped on me, and with a grin a hardlight barrier shattered his foot. He danced, and and with a point my drones flew, this time switching to a hastily made solution.
They turned red as they brushed by his other leg…which then exploded in a rain of hot trash which was further burnt away by my firebending. They held a small but powerful packet of gel explosives, which were then shot out to detonate on his remaining leg.
He nearly collapsed but used his remaining garbage to hold himself up, shrinking down a less impressive height. He stopped attacking, only defending himself while I continued to shoot fireballs.
"PROXIMITY ALERT!" A drone screamed in my ear before the connection was cut off. The last sound being a rapid whoosh and then crunch…
From out of nowhere an enormous monster tank-truck-killdozer abomination of a vehicle tore up the road with its beefy metallic tires. My barrier was nearly torn down when I took a hypervelocity 20mm autocannon to the chest, and I was rapidly slammed into the store window shattering it into the process. Mush was nearly run over but he managed to latch on to the vehicle, leaving behind his minions despite showing up to help them in the first place.
Oh god everything hurts…and I can't let them get away…wait…there's still one thing I can do.
Three drones waited where the Tinkertech truck would make a turn, their ion cannons were charged to near lethal levels…and when Squealer's damn truck reached them?
They cut loose.
The truck let out a screech, sparks flying and Tinkers screaming as a massive number of systems fried. While that didn't stop its advance it had gone from a racing supercar to a fast grandma speed in seconds. Parts of its armor were steaming which was why I had programmed the aim to be so careful.
I smiled, and even as my ribs and chest protested I jumped back to my feet. The heroes would probably be here soon and I was willing to wait to see what they had to say. I whispered to my drones to make a quick call, informing them of the two gang member's bearings.
"Ahh…the window?" The husband who owned the store frowned, and I winced as a piece of glass shattered into smaller pieces as it fell from a loose mount.
"I can fix it." I offered and his wife nudged him with a harsh look.
"No, no our insurance can cover it just fine." He denied my aid, and I felt disappointed in myself. I had managed to keep the damage to the minimum but there was still a broken window and the damage to the road but that was on Squealer.
Damn…what a mess. I should have thought this through more…I'm not a Parahuman with a brain parasite I should be able to be more logical about this!
The groans from two thugs reminded me very quickly that I had a few things to take care of before the PRT showed up.
Of all the goddamn capes to show up it had to be fucking him…
"You made a number of rookie mistakes on your first outing…" I blocked out Armsmaster but recorded his speech for posterity. Just because he was being a bit of a dick doesn't mean he wasn't trying to be helpful.
"I understand your points, I was only expecting unpowered thugs and not two capes. Otherwise I would have prepared more accordingly, which reminds me…did you manage to find their truck?" The blue armored Tinker nodded.
"We managed to locate them, and I succeeded in completely disabling Squealer's weapon systems. Which was only possible due to the damage inflicted to her vehicle," he tilted his head. "How did you manage that?" He sounded genuinely curious and I was more than willing to brag a little.
"A few of my drones along with my rifle have a short ranged ion beam with variable settings," I proudly pointed to my gun and he nodded. "I simply turned up the setting to burn out both her armored carrier's armor plating as well as to fry her electrical systems. A lucky break really…"
"Interesting, if you wouldn't mind could you clarify some of the specificities of your Tinkertech? If you are willing?" I smiled under my helmet, rolling just a bit on the balls of my feet.
"Only partially though to be fair a lot of what I have will be obsolete soon enough," his smile told me he understood what I meant. "My armor is made out of a very strong and light metal alloy capable of bouncing anything up to an autocannon," not mentioned was the likeliness of being pulped by the kinetic transfer. "It also projects a barrier capable of taking multiple shots from anti-material shots and regenerating within minutes." More like seconds but that was my business.
"Impressive, a Tinker like you would serve well within the Protectorate." The plot was obvious and I was forced to deny him. I still had too much to do, but I was willing to work with the government anyway.
"Sorry but no…I plan to register as a Rogue and an Independent Hero." I glided my hands behind my neck with a cough. "That leaves me with more leeway with my tech, though I'll obviously follow the law as best as I can." I wasn't lying to him since it was true. There was always a chance I missed an obscure one by accident.
Armsmaster nodded. "Unfortunate but that's your call to make, but you'll have to be prepared for possible retaliation or even gang recruitment." I snorted but that was muffled by the helmet.
"I've been here for a while now, most of my time was spent setting up a workshop and getting myself up to snuff physically. I might be dumb enough to make a simple robbery into a shitshow, but not keeping myself safe is another thing entirely."
Armsmaster had a slight curve to his lips, something like amusement affecting them. "Fair enough, and I suspect you used your ion cannons on the unpowered Merchants?" I nodded, keeping my lips from curling up into a smile as the two men were peeled off of the floor, vinegar dripping from their ruined clothes as their restraints dissolved.
"That would be correct, now before I leave did you have any questions?" He looked over to me more directly. "I wanted to spend a little more time tinkering as well as getting some much needed paperwork in."
"A quick interview should suffice, a summary of what occurred would make our job easier." That reminded me of a few important things, and I pawed at my helmet. A small compartment opened up and a memory card was pulled free, a recording of the encounter written into its chip.
"Oh I made a recording, that should help right?" He gingerly took the recording, analyzing it for a bit before putting away. A drone picked up a PRT van moving at a fast speed, another van towing Squealer's monstrosity. I let my little bugs keep a good eye on them, just in case someone tried to break the pair out.
"It should, if you plan to leave. It would be a good idea to contact the PRT soon, registration would make your life easier."
I gave a thumbs up. "Of course, that was already on the agenda for within the week." He smiled again, and I felt a small blush on my face at the sight. Boy…it was a good thing I figured out I was more…flexible on that route ages ago. Or this would be a very confusing and bad time to question my sexuality.
After a ten minute interview, further questions on myself and what had happened here I was off. The look on Armsmaster's face when I launched myself into the air with a blast of concentrated fire was hilarious.
While I hadn't mastered fire by any meaning of the word, I was definitely learning at an impossible pace. I had memorized most of the katas but the techniques themselves still needed some refinement. I threw myself from building to building, eventually finding an alleyway and with practiced bracing threw myself into the spirit world again. A few minutes of what felt like being on psychedelic drugs later and I was back in the base.
I laid down on the newly made couch, removing my helmet and grabbing onto my silky hair.
"I think that went well." Veda piped up from the Omni-forge, her legs dangling over the edge of the machine crafter.
"I almost died Veda how is that going well!?" I threw my hand up, glaring at the fake little girl in my head.
She smirked. "Well you didn't throw up or ruin your undergarments."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh so impressive at not shitting out bodily fluids from my orifices. What a miracle." I was being very sarcastic and she smirked again.
"Then improve, that is all anyone can ask of us."
I launched back up, deciding to make some more changes. I had a few hours to kill, and I could make a lot in a few hours.
I stared down at the array of weapons on the table, looking between them for the different ranges of deadly I had on hand after my little controlled fugue. Each of them involved the different tech trees of what had to be several species.
There was the first mass accelerator weapon I had come up with, the Castigator battle rifle was a lean mean fighting machine. Hits harder than an M2 browning with a thousand plus rounds of pellet sized hypersonic rounds to spare. Reliable, cheap and made as tough as a rifle could be. They were built with underbarrel weapons in mind like an Omni-bayonet or grenade launchers.
Built next to it was a semi automatic heavy pistol built more for chewing up armor than punching through shields. It was a monster of a pistol and without protection it would pulp flesh and skin with no effort. It was part of the same family, with a similar type of nanotechnology etched ammo block, and use of purely kinetic rounds. I had deemed it the Sahara handcannon, and would be keeping one on hand for emergencies.
The follow up was the submachine gun that was more or less nameless since it had a little less use than other weapons. No it was the following weapon I had a real fondness for.
A blocky dark black hunk of metal in the shape of a shotgun. It outsized and outmassed even a 6 bore, and its fire could harm Hookwolf and even Lung.
The Damascus heavy warcannon was one of the most powerful light firearms I had on hand. A multi-rail weapon system to deliver a barrage cloud of rounds, capable of cracking my shield and damaging my armor in a single shot. Most people and a good number of Parahumans would get turned to red mist unless they had some way to counter my little friend.
It needed immense recoil compensators to keep it from shattering a user's arm, since it was basically a miniaturized autocannon that would let a man take down a tank on foot. Hundreds of kilojoules of kinetic energy and while the world wasn't based on hitpoints, the way kinetic barrier worked they tended to lean in that direction anyway.
I moved on to the next set of gun…technology…this one has the preference of using mass acceleration fields to hurl plasma or micro-explosives.
I only had one example…the Apostle shotgun. It fires submunitions that shoot out with penetrating needles that generate a lasting plasma fire. A very good weapon for staggering an opponent for an execution.
My hands stopped their gentle checking of the weapon's structural integrity and functionality. Where the hell did I get that idea from? Some…remnant of the originator's thinking?
I switched to the amphibian take…who seemed to have a love affair with grenades and explosions.
The Incisive Marksman Assault rifle, with a built in bipod, laser sighting and various sensors. Two ammo block choices, and multiple firing modes plus a grenade launcher. Not complicated in its purpose but sophisticated in its technology.
Then I switched to the final weapon at hand, the Sol Plasma Pistol was the second handgun I would have at hand. It worked by compressing and firing out plasma using mass effect fields. The most powerful pistol I could make with my current resources…armor was completely ineffective against it. Only Tinkertech, super regeneration and physics breaking Brutes would defend against the onslaught of hot concentrated plasma.
So many weapons to choose from, so many to—why am I even telling myself this there's no one else to listen to my thoughts.
"Perhaps you are speaking to me then?" Veda speculated and before I could answer her a proximity alarm was set off.
I ran over to the console I had built to act as a control station, and with a flick I received data from numerous cameras and sensors from hidden cameras and stealthed drones.
"Parahuman presence detected, 30 meters northeast." The computer announced robotically, visual sensors catching a glimpse of a dark costume and long curly hair.
You've got to be kidding me…
A drone whirred closely, and I commanded a half dozen to swarm around here as quiet as possible. They easily confirmed my worst fear.
Taylor Hebert had found my base, and the only assurance I had was that she hadn't gotten any closer. She probably realized that trying to break in would be a little rude…especially if she figured out I was a Tinker.
I observed Taylor as she turned her head ever so slightly, small clumps of insects gathering on the walls and floor, disparate clouds of flying species doing much the same.
Her costume isn't half bad actually…nowhere as tough as what I have but not half bad for the effort she's made for it. Comparable to Kevlar but a little lighter and less voluminous. She looks good in it too, her sense of style isn't too degraded if a little edgy. But whether Taylor would accept the compliment I wouldn't know.
She seemed a little antsy, like she wasn't sure where to go…and the very small groups of people who periodically walked through were the obvious answer. It was getting late but there was still another half hour before the streets would empty.
Oh…
"Goddamnit Taylor…" audio was added to the video, and I could see the unnamed bug cape staring right at a drone, her jaw dropping.
"W-Wh—" six of them suddenly pressed up against her and she tried and failed to slap them away. The air shuddered as their visual camouflage strained to wrap Taylor in the field.
A text message was written in a haptic display, and she cut off her scream at the last minute.
I wasted a good ten minutes of my life carefully and awkwardly guiding Taylor through all the turns and circles to throw anyone off her trail. I even had drones wiping down where any amount of her scent could be left behind. Hiding it away with a thin spray…
I stood up from the desk, leaving my helmet and turning on a Hydberg-Dirac barrier around my head. Just in case things went ugly…Taylor was still a Parahuman who weren't exactly known for their mental stability. A door clicked shut, and a grate made out of laser steel shut to further close the place off, kinetic barriers adding even more static defense to the main entrance.
I sauntered over, no longer feeling any confidence whatsoever. My eyes burned a bit and I started to sense Taylor's more obvious presence. The pressure her shard exuded on the world. Her swarm couldn't enter beyond those that hid in her costume and hair. I already had pest control built in using small kinetic barriers to drive off insects and rats.
Also fire…lots of it.
From the main entrance hallway I could see the frightening shadow cast by Taylor, as well as the second larger one following and mirroring her steps. It writhed in a strange fashion, a crown sitting on its head.
Taylor walked out from the corner with lifted hands, my drones keeping a lock on her for any funny business. This was more to make me feel better than any serious security concern.
The tall leggy girl looked like a deer in headlights, and I clicked my tongue in dismay.
"Hello Taylor…" the speakers heard her gulp, and I almost laughed. "It seems like you want to talk. Luckily for you so do I…" Taylor kept walking, and Queen Administrator did the same.
The Administrator shard dwarfed any shard I had previously met, a 25 foot tall avatar of angry insects in the shape of their host, wide orbs lighting like beacons in the night. Only Shaper came close and they only stood at half the queen's height.
She looked at me…and I quirked an eyebrow at the odd behavior.
"We were going to talk right?" The mask did little to muffle or alter her voice so it would be easy for me to figure it out.
I gestured to a wayward desk. "Yes, take a seat and we can talk about a lot of things."
Taylor gulped again.
___
Permutation 2.1
Monday, February 21st, 2011 4:35 PM
Basilia Rubio
'Taylor knows.' I nearly fell off the building I was standing on top of when Veda chipped in with her so very sudden revelation.
"WHAT?!" I was so very thankful that my armored helmet muffled my voice so I didn't suddenly alert everyone on the entire block. I wanted to swat the spirit in the face until I was distracted by an errant thought.
Since we were one did hitting her count as hitting myself?
'Yes…she managed to tag you with some of her insects, and discovered your powers.'
I palmed my face, a spike of irritation lighting a candle flame before being snuffed out.
"And when did you plan on telling me this Veda?" She chuffed at my miffed response.
'When you figure out how to better monitor capes yourself, if something were to happen to our connection…' I groaned knowing I didn't have a counter against that statement. While I would retain my bending and some of the Tinker knowledge, it would cause a massive downgrade in what I could pull off.
"Fair enough…now let's see if my little drones can pick up anything." The HUD built into my helmet instantly got to work, displaying all the data I needed for busting some crime on a small scale. Tiny drones built from Omni-gel with a limited form of visual camouflage, sending information in a human understandable format.
A dozen drones in total, protected by weak kinetic barriers and a much stronger Rydberg-Dirac energy shell projection. The amount of damage they could take was immense for their cat sized frames. For anything that wasn't Tinkertech it would take an anti-tank rifle to bring down their kinetic barriers, and rockets and missiles for their projections. I could build a dozen more of them with my pack, or build a fortified position, or place down turrets(that would probably kill a few dozen people though…)
My drop pack acted as miniature Omni-forge, creating low-quality heatsinks, basic grenades and repair parts. Mine was far more elaborate, the ability to project potent barriers to take massively more damage than my shield. As well as all the either things I already mentioned.
"Crime in progress!" A drone screamed at me, and I was swiftly given a corner image of a place only a half block down. It was a convenience store, three people cowering as a tall wiry man in a mask held them at gunpoint with unsteady hands.
A young cashier with dark brown hair moved slowly, quivering in fear as the weapon drifted in her direction. Two other people were in the back, an old couple who were weathered but sturdy. They weren't much better off, the wife already having a mark on her face. A single drone had entered the store, informing me of the action while another lingered outside and reported on two of his accomplices waiting by a car.
I then noticed the curly black hair ducking below the top of an aisle, and an inspection quickly outed the parahuman in the store. What the hell was Taylor doing at a—what am I saying it's a convenience store.
I input a command to my drone, it's engines whirring with barely a sound though I think Taylor was picking up on it with her bugs. I hadn't built any real weapons into it besides an electro-shock attack that when it was ramped up it would turn into a short ranged ion cannon. They're built more for shorting out tech, though at full power they'd pretty much pulp everyone except Hookwolf and a ramped up Lung.
The drone moved cautiously, hovering over his right shoulder, and tilting its position ever so slightly. The man blinked, and with a click a flash of yellow arced toward him. He let out a pained yelp, and twitched into a heap of human being, his gun clattering on the ground in the process. With that I moved.
With some slight trepidation I started to sprint toward the edge, picking up as much speed as I could before…
I leapt several meters in the air and with a whoop, I blasted jets of flame behind me propelling me upwards another few meters. I landed with a thump on the next building, and I moved quickly as my drones kept watch of the perimeter. So far no one else was around but who knows how long that would last.
I took a series of running jumps across buildings, my legs easily rocketing me forward at twice normal human speeds. I could easily run much faster…so I did.
I was up to just below highway speeds when I arrived, bouncing off the side of building to land in front of the two idiots robbing a convenience store.
I still have no idea how I did that without failing, I've tried that at the warehouse and failed miserably. So why now?
'Besides the obvious desire to not face plant twenty meters?' Veda's dry reply was annoying but welcoming in being normal.
I turned to the two would-be store robbers who had a specific dear in headlights look to them. I stared at their state of dress, ragged clothing, pale skin, discoloration and bloodshot eyes. They had a certain feel to them, and their angry sneers made things a little obvious. As well the M with two vertical lines through it.
"Why the hell are Merchants robbing a convenience store?" I questioned the openly, hoping their responses wouldn't be a drug addled mess.
"FUCK OFF! We're Merchants we don't have to explain shit!" I was proven wrong immediately, and the other guy who was much shorter responded with gibberish.
A quick ion blast brought them into sleeptown, and I kicked away their assault rifles in an instant. A quick sensor sweep didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary with the exception of a pile of garbage…
I'm going to keep an eye on that.
Several drones circled around the spot, and I did my best to not be surprised if a cape shows up at random. Another drone spat out a weak net made out of strong fibers that could be dissolved with vinegar, a little note mentioning as much to the police who had been informed.
I sauntered with fake confidence, doing my best to pretend this was the sanctity of my own home. I entered the shop, swiveling my head and picking out two customers hiding behind. Taylor froze up at the sight of me, and the two customers shrunk back.
My orb shaped drone who I now deemed Squishy was sitting on the downed man, gleefully projecting an energy field.
Once the silence dragged on I spoke up. "Ahh…is everyone okay? No injuries that are too bad?" There was a release of pressure in the room, though Taylor kept an eye on me. With just a small amount of guilt hiding there…interesting.
The wife spoke up, kindly and with a hint of steel. "No young lady we're all quite alright…only a few bruises on my end." Without a moment's hesitation I walked over to her, and sprayed a little smudge of on my hand. As well as checked her genetics with a scan…I'm not taking the chance of an allergic reaction.
"Oh…you can say no but this little stuff can help. It's a medicinal salve…" she paused and I wondered if I had made a mistake in offering it to her. She smiled and rubbed the Medi-gel onto her forehead. The tension diminished from her as the medical liquid reduced her pain.
"Thank you…" I smiled behind my helmet and nodded to her.
I spoke to them. "Well that takes care of tha—duck under cover again!" The four of them reacted immediately as my proximity alerts picked up a moving mass of garbage heading toward us with moderate speed.
Within seconds I was out of the store, and lifted up my rifle tuned to shooting ion beams. Okay that was useless unless I wanted to kill the guy…burning away his trash should work as long as I don't burn his skin.
Within minutes they had arrived, so Mush was flanked and harassed by my drones as they shoot the shit out of him with mass effect accelerated ions. They did little more than break up some pieces of garbage.
I quirked an eyebrow once I got a personal look at the guy…
He really did look like a pink, fat, and even uglier Gollum, with everything below the chest taken up by massive chunks of garbage gathered from a ton of spots. The way the people in the back recoiled back told me the guy reeked.
The civilians started to move again, heading to the back where the exit was. A quick sweep there found nothing out of the ordinary but I kept the concentration high.
My fists tightened and I dropped into a stance, heat steaming off of me for a moment. His teeth were grit and I knew a fight was coming.
"Who the fuck are you?" I took his question seriously even as I ignored the profanity and insults against my mother and the slightly rapey undertones that further pissed me off.
I had gone out and forgotten to pick out a cape name. A rookie mistake, but it wasn't overly excessive besides that.
I swayed from side to side, pissing off the guy though he didn't go on the attack.
…
Oh?
I've got one…this is perhaps not the most dramatic way to name myself but…
"Call me Erudition." He growled and his hand split apart into tendrils of dirt, rubble and garbage. He lurched forward and I cocked my head at his recklessness.
Guess we're doing this. I am…also way too calm to be taking getting attacked by a superhuman here.
"GRAHHH!" He let out an incoherent string of words plus a roar, and without a thought I lobbed a fireball.
FWOOSH!
Guess we're doing this…
___
I ducked and weaved between punches, feeling a smile pull at my lips as Mush moved wildly. With each dodge I launched a ball of fire burning away his garbage, and anything that was fire resistant was cut apart by my Omni-blade or bashed by my drones. They couldn't be taken control of by Mush, his powers either not registering them right, being too large, or their eezo was messing with his powers.
I had expected this to be a terribly difficult fight but it turns out Mush was a moron. Not that I was planning to let up, worse case scenario he turns out to be mildly competent and faking his stupidity.
I had my doubts.
Another arm made out of garbage tried to lung at me, and I flipped in midair kicking out a blast of fire as wide as a truck. He swung his other arm, and knocked me out of the air. Another fire blast righted me, and I shot toward his pink face.
"FUCK!" I landed with two feet, practically kicking his chest in, the druggie snarling in response. So I waved cheekily.
"Not very good at your job are ya? Then again the Merchants are the biggest joke in town." He spilled more insulting language, and I proceeded to punch his face several times…could two dozen times he considered several?
He almost slipped, coughing at the massive rapid fire impacts to his vulnerable face.
More streams of garbage flew, and I lashed out with a wave of flames that burned most of it away. Even so, I took a garbage can to the face and ended falling back to the ground.
The fighting finally started to pick up at this point, Mush becoming apoplectic with unadulterated fury. A storm of garbage, the very last traces remaining were fused with his form, and he grew to about nine feet tall.
He stomped forward and I walked in step with him, his slash missing by inches. I speared his arms with blades of hardened light, and flames engulfed his garbage body. Mush stomped on me, and with a grin a hardlight barrier shattered his foot. He danced, and and with a point my drones flew, this time switching to a hastily made solution.
They turned red as they brushed by his other leg…which then exploded in a rain of hot trash which was further burnt away by my firebending. They held a small but powerful packet of gel explosives, which were then shot out to detonate on his remaining leg.
He nearly collapsed but used his remaining garbage to hold himself up, shrinking down a less impressive height. He stopped attacking, only defending himself while I continued to shoot fireballs.
"PROXIMITY ALERT!" A drone screamed in my ear before the connection was cut off. The last sound being a rapid whoosh and then crunch…
From out of nowhere an enormous monster tank-truck-killdozer abomination of a vehicle tore up the road with its beefy metallic tires. My barrier was nearly torn down when I took a hypervelocity 20mm autocannon to the chest, and I was rapidly slammed into the store window shattering it into the process. Mush was nearly run over but he managed to latch on to the vehicle, leaving behind his minions despite showing up to help them in the first place.
Oh god everything hurts…and I can't let them get away…wait…there's still one thing I can do.
Three drones waited where the Tinkertech truck would make a turn, their ion cannons were charged to near lethal levels…and when Squealer's damn truck reached them?
They cut loose.
The truck let out a screech, sparks flying and Tinkers screaming as a massive number of systems fried. While that didn't stop its advance it had gone from a racing supercar to a fast grandma speed in seconds. Parts of its armor were steaming which was why I had programmed the aim to be so careful.
I smiled, and even as my ribs and chest protested I jumped back to my feet. The heroes would probably be here soon and I was willing to wait to see what they had to say. I whispered to my drones to make a quick call, informing them of the two gang member's bearings.
"Ahh…the window?" The husband who owned the store frowned, and I winced as a piece of glass shattered into smaller pieces as it fell from a loose mount.
"I can fix it." I offered and his wife nudged him with a harsh look.
"No, no our insurance can cover it just fine." He denied my aid, and I felt disappointed in myself. I had managed to keep the damage to the minimum but there was still a broken window and the damage to the road but that was on Squealer.
Damn…what a mess. I should have thought this through more…I'm not a Parahuman with a brain parasite I should be able to be more logical about this!
The groans from two thugs reminded me very quickly that I had a few things to take care of before the PRT showed up.
___
Of all the goddamn capes to show up it had to be fucking him…
"You made a number of rookie mistakes on your first outing…" I blocked out Armsmaster but recorded his speech for posterity. Just because he was being a bit of a dick doesn't mean he wasn't trying to be helpful.
"I understand your points, I was only expecting unpowered thugs and not two capes. Otherwise I would have prepared more accordingly, which reminds me…did you manage to find their truck?" The blue armored Tinker nodded.
"We managed to locate them, and I succeeded in completely disabling Squealer's weapon systems. Which was only possible due to the damage inflicted to her vehicle," he tilted his head. "How did you manage that?" He sounded genuinely curious and I was more than willing to brag a little.
"A few of my drones along with my rifle have a short ranged ion beam with variable settings," I proudly pointed to my gun and he nodded. "I simply turned up the setting to burn out both her armored carrier's armor plating as well as to fry her electrical systems. A lucky break really…"
"Interesting, if you wouldn't mind could you clarify some of the specificities of your Tinkertech? If you are willing?" I smiled under my helmet, rolling just a bit on the balls of my feet.
"Only partially though to be fair a lot of what I have will be obsolete soon enough," his smile told me he understood what I meant. "My armor is made out of a very strong and light metal alloy capable of bouncing anything up to an autocannon," not mentioned was the likeliness of being pulped by the kinetic transfer. "It also projects a barrier capable of taking multiple shots from anti-material shots and regenerating within minutes." More like seconds but that was my business.
"Impressive, a Tinker like you would serve well within the Protectorate." The plot was obvious and I was forced to deny him. I still had too much to do, but I was willing to work with the government anyway.
"Sorry but no…I plan to register as a Rogue and an Independent Hero." I glided my hands behind my neck with a cough. "That leaves me with more leeway with my tech, though I'll obviously follow the law as best as I can." I wasn't lying to him since it was true. There was always a chance I missed an obscure one by accident.
Armsmaster nodded. "Unfortunate but that's your call to make, but you'll have to be prepared for possible retaliation or even gang recruitment." I snorted but that was muffled by the helmet.
"I've been here for a while now, most of my time was spent setting up a workshop and getting myself up to snuff physically. I might be dumb enough to make a simple robbery into a shitshow, but not keeping myself safe is another thing entirely."
Armsmaster had a slight curve to his lips, something like amusement affecting them. "Fair enough, and I suspect you used your ion cannons on the unpowered Merchants?" I nodded, keeping my lips from curling up into a smile as the two men were peeled off of the floor, vinegar dripping from their ruined clothes as their restraints dissolved.
"That would be correct, now before I leave did you have any questions?" He looked over to me more directly. "I wanted to spend a little more time tinkering as well as getting some much needed paperwork in."
"A quick interview should suffice, a summary of what occurred would make our job easier." That reminded me of a few important things, and I pawed at my helmet. A small compartment opened up and a memory card was pulled free, a recording of the encounter written into its chip.
"Oh I made a recording, that should help right?" He gingerly took the recording, analyzing it for a bit before putting away. A drone picked up a PRT van moving at a fast speed, another van towing Squealer's monstrosity. I let my little bugs keep a good eye on them, just in case someone tried to break the pair out.
"It should, if you plan to leave. It would be a good idea to contact the PRT soon, registration would make your life easier."
I gave a thumbs up. "Of course, that was already on the agenda for within the week." He smiled again, and I felt a small blush on my face at the sight. Boy…it was a good thing I figured out I was more…flexible on that route ages ago. Or this would be a very confusing and bad time to question my sexuality.
After a ten minute interview, further questions on myself and what had happened here I was off. The look on Armsmaster's face when I launched myself into the air with a blast of concentrated fire was hilarious.
While I hadn't mastered fire by any meaning of the word, I was definitely learning at an impossible pace. I had memorized most of the katas but the techniques themselves still needed some refinement. I threw myself from building to building, eventually finding an alleyway and with practiced bracing threw myself into the spirit world again. A few minutes of what felt like being on psychedelic drugs later and I was back in the base.
I laid down on the newly made couch, removing my helmet and grabbing onto my silky hair.
"I think that went well." Veda piped up from the Omni-forge, her legs dangling over the edge of the machine crafter.
"I almost died Veda how is that going well!?" I threw my hand up, glaring at the fake little girl in my head.
She smirked. "Well you didn't throw up or ruin your undergarments."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh so impressive at not shitting out bodily fluids from my orifices. What a miracle." I was being very sarcastic and she smirked again.
"Then improve, that is all anyone can ask of us."
I launched back up, deciding to make some more changes. I had a few hours to kill, and I could make a lot in a few hours.
___
I stared down at the array of weapons on the table, looking between them for the different ranges of deadly I had on hand after my little controlled fugue. Each of them involved the different tech trees of what had to be several species.
There was the first mass accelerator weapon I had come up with, the Castigator battle rifle was a lean mean fighting machine. Hits harder than an M2 browning with a thousand plus rounds of pellet sized hypersonic rounds to spare. Reliable, cheap and made as tough as a rifle could be. They were built with underbarrel weapons in mind like an Omni-bayonet or grenade launchers.
Built next to it was a semi automatic heavy pistol built more for chewing up armor than punching through shields. It was a monster of a pistol and without protection it would pulp flesh and skin with no effort. It was part of the same family, with a similar type of nanotechnology etched ammo block, and use of purely kinetic rounds. I had deemed it the Sahara handcannon, and would be keeping one on hand for emergencies.
The follow up was the submachine gun that was more or less nameless since it had a little less use than other weapons. No it was the following weapon I had a real fondness for.
A blocky dark black hunk of metal in the shape of a shotgun. It outsized and outmassed even a 6 bore, and its fire could harm Hookwolf and even Lung.
The Damascus heavy warcannon was one of the most powerful light firearms I had on hand. A multi-rail weapon system to deliver a barrage cloud of rounds, capable of cracking my shield and damaging my armor in a single shot. Most people and a good number of Parahumans would get turned to red mist unless they had some way to counter my little friend.
It needed immense recoil compensators to keep it from shattering a user's arm, since it was basically a miniaturized autocannon that would let a man take down a tank on foot. Hundreds of kilojoules of kinetic energy and while the world wasn't based on hitpoints, the way kinetic barrier worked they tended to lean in that direction anyway.
I moved on to the next set of gun…technology…this one has the preference of using mass acceleration fields to hurl plasma or micro-explosives.
I only had one example…the Apostle shotgun. It fires submunitions that shoot out with penetrating needles that generate a lasting plasma fire. A very good weapon for staggering an opponent for an execution.
My hands stopped their gentle checking of the weapon's structural integrity and functionality. Where the hell did I get that idea from? Some…remnant of the originator's thinking?
I switched to the amphibian take…who seemed to have a love affair with grenades and explosions.
The Incisive Marksman Assault rifle, with a built in bipod, laser sighting and various sensors. Two ammo block choices, and multiple firing modes plus a grenade launcher. Not complicated in its purpose but sophisticated in its technology.
Then I switched to the final weapon at hand, the Sol Plasma Pistol was the second handgun I would have at hand. It worked by compressing and firing out plasma using mass effect fields. The most powerful pistol I could make with my current resources…armor was completely ineffective against it. Only Tinkertech, super regeneration and physics breaking Brutes would defend against the onslaught of hot concentrated plasma.
So many weapons to choose from, so many to—why am I even telling myself this there's no one else to listen to my thoughts.
"Perhaps you are speaking to me then?" Veda speculated and before I could answer her a proximity alarm was set off.
I ran over to the console I had built to act as a control station, and with a flick I received data from numerous cameras and sensors from hidden cameras and stealthed drones.
"Parahuman presence detected, 30 meters northeast." The computer announced robotically, visual sensors catching a glimpse of a dark costume and long curly hair.
You've got to be kidding me…
A drone whirred closely, and I commanded a half dozen to swarm around here as quiet as possible. They easily confirmed my worst fear.
Taylor Hebert had found my base, and the only assurance I had was that she hadn't gotten any closer. She probably realized that trying to break in would be a little rude…especially if she figured out I was a Tinker.
I observed Taylor as she turned her head ever so slightly, small clumps of insects gathering on the walls and floor, disparate clouds of flying species doing much the same.
Her costume isn't half bad actually…nowhere as tough as what I have but not half bad for the effort she's made for it. Comparable to Kevlar but a little lighter and less voluminous. She looks good in it too, her sense of style isn't too degraded if a little edgy. But whether Taylor would accept the compliment I wouldn't know.
She seemed a little antsy, like she wasn't sure where to go…and the very small groups of people who periodically walked through were the obvious answer. It was getting late but there was still another half hour before the streets would empty.
Oh…
"Goddamnit Taylor…" audio was added to the video, and I could see the unnamed bug cape staring right at a drone, her jaw dropping.
"W-Wh—" six of them suddenly pressed up against her and she tried and failed to slap them away. The air shuddered as their visual camouflage strained to wrap Taylor in the field.
A text message was written in a haptic display, and she cut off her scream at the last minute.
I wasted a good ten minutes of my life carefully and awkwardly guiding Taylor through all the turns and circles to throw anyone off her trail. I even had drones wiping down where any amount of her scent could be left behind. Hiding it away with a thin spray…
I stood up from the desk, leaving my helmet and turning on a Hydberg-Dirac barrier around my head. Just in case things went ugly…Taylor was still a Parahuman who weren't exactly known for their mental stability. A door clicked shut, and a grate made out of laser steel shut to further close the place off, kinetic barriers adding even more static defense to the main entrance.
I sauntered over, no longer feeling any confidence whatsoever. My eyes burned a bit and I started to sense Taylor's more obvious presence. The pressure her shard exuded on the world. Her swarm couldn't enter beyond those that hid in her costume and hair. I already had pest control built in using small kinetic barriers to drive off insects and rats.
Also fire…lots of it.
From the main entrance hallway I could see the frightening shadow cast by Taylor, as well as the second larger one following and mirroring her steps. It writhed in a strange fashion, a crown sitting on its head.
Taylor walked out from the corner with lifted hands, my drones keeping a lock on her for any funny business. This was more to make me feel better than any serious security concern.
The tall leggy girl looked like a deer in headlights, and I clicked my tongue in dismay.
"Hello Taylor…" the speakers heard her gulp, and I almost laughed. "It seems like you want to talk. Luckily for you so do I…" Taylor kept walking, and Queen Administrator did the same.
The Administrator shard dwarfed any shard I had previously met, a 25 foot tall avatar of angry insects in the shape of their host, wide orbs lighting like beacons in the night. Only Shaper came close and they only stood at half the queen's height.
She looked at me…and I quirked an eyebrow at the odd behavior.
"We were going to talk right?" The mask did little to muffle or alter her voice so it would be easy for me to figure it out.
I gestured to a wayward desk. "Yes, take a seat and we can talk about a lot of things."
Taylor gulped again.
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