Immersion 3.4
March 18th, 2011. 5:45 PM
Basilia Rubio
I ruffled my hair, having removed my helmet for the meeting that had been rapidly set up between a certain Director and my partner in business and hero work. A domino mask protected my identity, absolutely filled with a wide range of stealth technology to obscure my face. My eye color was not possible to discern without powers, and the shape of my face was changed by the mask itself and high fidelity photonic projection technology.
A good amount of the time had been spent waiting for slow bureaucracy to turn and M/S protocols to finish to make sure a literal demon monster wasn't possessing us. Once we had gone through all of that nonsense we had eventually been allowed to be in the same room with one Emily Piggot of the PRT. Taylor had not removed anything, clearly preferring her stuffy mask to fresh air. Then again she didn't have a mask using future tech. That made Taylor's reluctance a lot more understandable. Even then the feeling of being able to touch my soft silky hair was worth the practically nonexistent risk.
"Erudition, stop being weird you don't even
brush your hair half the time. So I have to do it for you." I giggled at Taylor's deadpan reply, finding it a little funny.
She wasn't entirely wrong however, being of the male sex and being a bit of a slob made things like self care a little difficult. I
had been getting better though, but long hair was a little out of my field of expertise. Taylor had been teaching me, and the experience had become quite common. I actually found it kind of nice, so even if I knew how now I let Taylor brush my hair anyway. Was that weird? No…I think it's just because I like spending time with Taylor.
Which is not much of a revelation, we were friends.
The door to the 'secure' conference room opened with two heroes I already knew well stepping nearly in sync with each other. Miss Militia strutted with a kind of confidence that I rarely saw in most people. She was weaponless but for her that meant little. Armsmaster's stride was more brusque but every bit her equal in confidence. He held his halberd but it hung tightly to a utility belt, much like my own as well as my many pockets.
Piggot was the last and I was taken aback by how…ordinary her overweight body was. She was exactly as you would have expected from the way she was described in Worm. But to be frank both my uncle and my aunt had more fat on their bones. And I had been around enough patients at my job to see some people with
real weight. The fact she was still working and even
walking was a testament to her stubbornness and willpower.
I tried to put on a smile but I doubt they found it genuine in any way. This had grown beyond my ability to control, I was only a single Shaman and the world was so much larger.
The director looked at me with a surprising lack of distaste, but she still had a bit of a scowl. "You seem quite worried." Both the capes looked at her and I wondered if they expected the PRT leader to play hardball.
My fingers rubbed against the table with an unusual amount of pressure. "It's not every day when a dark spirit manages to take a host. We have an incredibly dangerous entity that can only be killed if we take out the person it's possessing or we placate or damage it's true form."
"True form?" Piggot leaned back a bit as she sat down on a large and comfy chair. I pursed my lips, and purposely darted my eyes back and forth across the private room. They managed to take the hint, and the room shuddered as a number of mechanisms functioned to leave the place as isolated as can be.
"May I?" I tapped my omni-tool, and she frowned but allowed it with the caveat of Armsmaster doing his own sweeping. In the process Armsmaster found six hidden bugs, and I found a
dozen more. The twitching eyebrows of the director made me nervous…
because she was pissed.
Piggot let out a haggard breath. "Now I would like you to explain what is going on or I'll have to believe that you are the cause of this."
I threw my hands up. "Alright just to clear the air here, I am not responsible for creating or provoking the dark spirit currently using Krieg like a meat puppet." Armsmaster nodded very slowly.
"What do you mean by spirits? Are you referencing some form of animism?" That actually surprised me, and I wondered if Collin Wallis had some outside research on that sort of thing.
"That is not…entirely unfitting for what's occurring, that creature likely managed to pass through due to a rift into its native reality. It took a hold of Krieg at some point, and is likely using him as a vessel to express its natural instincts."
"Which are?" Piggot wasn't amused.
"It's a spirit of hatred, fear, ignorance and violence, it's going to lash out exactly as you would expect an insane parahuman would." Taylor stayed silent, and the director asked more necessary questions.
"What exactly is this creature? Are there more like them? Where do they come from and can they be killed?" I stared at her for a moment before giving the answer.
"That creature is as I mentioned a spirit, a native of the Spirit World. Think of it as a plane of existence aligned to our world, where the spirits reside in their home reality. Admittedly a little wishy-washy but you may label them however you see fit." Her expression was disbelieving but it quickly hardened after a solid 30 seconds of watching my face.
"So these 'spirits' are not a result of your power?" Armsmaster sounded a little relieved…maybe he wanted some extra tinker buddies?
"They are not, these entities have been around for far longer, even if not as they are now. I can interact and even communicate with them…but I'm not exactly skilled enough to talk to something made out of pure hatred and violence." I couldn't keep the sassiness from my voice if I tried.
All three members of the government organization joined together in mutual curiosity(and paranoia)
"I see," Piggot spoke carefully. "How many of these…spirits live within this dimensional plane?" It was a good thing that Toybox had their own pocket dimension to make my revelations convincing. Which was how I hoped she maintained her current level headedness.
"How many animals exist on this planet again?" Piggot's expression turned cold, her lips twisting into a half snarl.
"This is
not a joke Erudition." I looked her straight in the eye, with little room for fear.
Which was difficult.
"It's not, there's probably dozens to hundreds of spirits of some variety in this room alone. Thankfully, most of the more intelligent ones would probably be loyal to this place anyway."
"Explain." I'm sure she was only a minute away from blowing her top, and I didn't want to see what she does with her anger.
"Spirits are spontaneously generated from aspects of the physical world. Wildfires beget aspects of flame, rain creates aspects of water, pain creates spirits of…well pain. They operate on a food chain, their interactions balance out including their manifestation in this world. The most basic spirits, Aspects are typically barely sentient and the most easy to fight, manipulate or move around. Their basic behaviors are to gather with more of their kind, or those similar to their kind. An aspect of hate can eat an aspect of pain but not an aspect of love for example. They also have basic survival instincts…" god that seemed like the biggest piece of crock didn't it?
"Can they be killed or contained?" Piggot's knuckles were bone white, and I nearly laughed nervously.
"You can usually kill one if you punch it hard enough," I shrugged, pulling a grimace. "But some of the tougher and smarter spirits don't die when they are killed." Taylor and Piggot gave me an odd look, and I hid my smirk. "The other issue would be that a successful decimation of the spirit world could possibly cause a mass extinction event. Though I
can't be sure…so please don't take my word for it." The switch in tone snapped the capes back into a more serious mode.
"How does that work?" Piggot was still being quite reasonable, and I was starting to wonder if she knew I wasn't Parahuman. In a
biological sense rather than a legal sense I mean.
"The interactions of the spirits also affects events in the physical world, too many water spirits you get unseasonable mass floods in deserts. Too many fire spirits and you burn up the rainforest. That's just with just aspects, many of the more intelligent spirits tend to form from the presence of animal life. I've got no clue what that would do to life and I don't
want to know. Though it might just harm them mentally rather than physically."
I really hoped they weren't as closely linked as I imagined, because spirits born from animals tend to die once their physical partner becomes deceased. Accidentally genociding all sentient life on Earth sounds like a real pain…though I have my doubts that's the case.
Piggot looked ready to burst a gasket and I did not blame her whatsoever. "So you're saying that there is an entirely different world where strange entities can affect and harm us and we can't do anything to stop them? Why did this go unnoticed?"
"The Spirit World wasn't…complete you could say, a machine not yet given its final parts until recently. Now that it's up and running, Pandora's box has opened up." I clenched my fists at the idea. "I've…no idea what kind of insane
bastard would think it was a good idea…"
"Why not mention this to us earlier? A threat of this scale…it's irresponsible to leave it unmentioned." The director's words stung but there were a number of problems as well.
"Because the PRT is completely and utterly compromised." I spoke the truth in one of the few places I could make safe. A plethora of spirits of code and of machinery scoured the room, preventing information leakage in its totality along with brute processing power and elegant programming. "I was also a lot less knowledgeable on the many aspects of my powers. I only started getting a better idea of the implications relatively recently. Which is when I started to mull over the idea of informing your PRT."
Piggot leaned back. "If this was something you lacked knowledge of…then I can not blame you for your lack of…forewarning." Her huff told me she didn't like accepting that I wasn't being uncooperative.
"Right…" I said plainly.
She tapped on her desk with another scowl. "We also know there are at least a few informants from the gang's, we do our best to keep the leakage to a minimum." The frown on her face pointed to just how effective the local security of the local government was.
"It's definitely not enough, your system's are utterly borked to hell and back. Most of the well known gangs are also the ones with the
least inroads into your branch." Taylor was squirming, and I could tell her power was running very strongly. It could have been worse since I had already told her this a while back.
It had been a
bitch of a time getting anything out of Coil's systems, and I had to spend hours placating the spirits within his computers to give me the data I needed. Even then at the current level of progress it would be another few weeks before I'd be at the readiness to really commit to doing anything to the bastard.
Most of my time has been spent trying to keep any assets he
could gain out of his hands. So far the Travelers have vanished off the face of the planet, and Dinah has a few drones(and friendly spirits…) tailing her.
"How dangerous is the information about these spirits that you don't trust it to leak out?" The question from Miss Militia added to the growing tension.
"In the end, spirits are machines, tools to be used, placated to improve your chance of survival. Healthier crops, increased efficiency of your weapons and technology. If you find someone like me capable of talking to them…living warmachines with
horrific potential. The chances of someone experimenting and then killing themselves and everyone within a one mile radius is…not comforting."
"But now that one of those
things is here you don't have a choice anymore." Piggot made a statement rather than a question.
"No wonder you're so stressed all the time." Taylor shrank back, once she realized she had said that out loud.
"So it would be best to keep this information as airtight sealed as possible," Piggot said with a pained expression. "But I also need proof of your statements, I can't have my troops being
misinformed. That would…displease me." I shuddered.
"While I could shift us into the spirit world, I'm not sure how safe that would be," all three looked alarmed and I lifted my hands up in surrender. "The spirit world's physics are quite inconsistent, and I can't guarantee anyone's safety with what I have on hand."
The Director scowled. "Then try a different less dangerous method." I nodded and gestured for Armsmaster to approach. He did so cautiously.
"Do you have anything that can pick up dimensional or spatial anomalies?" The tinker paused, and I could hear his lips move silently.
"Yes. They're effective enough and reliable enough for some basic testing."
I frowned, studying the room for any abnormalities. I tilted my head toward Piggot. "Are you certain about this…while it's not dangerous it can…be disconcerting."
"I need to do my job…" I sighed.
"Good…may I?" The former military woman nodded, and Collin quickly scrambled with his Tinkertech. Reality pulsated, and the many native spirits in the vicinity were illuminated. Piggot hid a choked sound, staring at an air aspect freely floating in the breeze. Armsmaster stared at his halberd, the burning folding being of pure energy within it waving happily at its creator. Miss Militia watched a metal hulk leaned comfortably against its perch, one of the many spirits manifesting from the hull of the Rig.
I shut off this part of my abilities and the glimpse of the spirit world vanished. Armsmaster was analyzing the newly acquired data, and I could
feel the glare the two older women were giving me.
"I imagine you realize how concerning this is?" I nodded meekly. Piggot clasped her hands together. "Now is there a way to combat this dark spirit? I'm not leaving some uncontrollable monster roaming around in
my city." The commanding growl in her voice left a feeling of…wait is that…?
"Yes, we either need to purify the entity or kill it. We'll probably have to settle for the latter since I lack experience in the former. That spirit obviously didn't know what it was doing and broke something inside of itself. It'll be semi-fragile but incredibly unpredictable."
"Would PRT troopers be able to fight this spirit?" I shook my head. "So we'll need capes then…" she didn't look happy about it.
"Do you have any information on if there's been any odd attacks or mysterious disappearances? That might narrow down the thing's location." My data on the Empire's territory was less complete since I had mostly stuck to what one could call my territory. I had unofficially kicked out the Merchants, their unpowered henchmen being among the first of the petty criminal population to fall. They had recruited extra capes, but many of them were either caught within days or got fucked over by the other gangs. Or Taylor
destroyed them.
"There's been a rash of attacks that have left many people within Empire territory with injuries, many of them have marks resembling claw marks…" some would have thought a new cape instead of a vicious monster. I had thought so. "Many have spoken about a sudden lack of energy." Armmaster's answer left me cold.
"It's feeding off human beings…" there was a sharp intake of breath throughout the room. "This will need to be delicate, we'll have to act fast if we want to prevent this from spiraling out of control." At this point…I'll just roll with the sudden authority I had managed to develop. Taylor was still better at it though, even if the gap had narrowed.
I pulled out the data disc, zealously protected by controlled spirits as well as encryption beyond anything in the modern day.
"Does that contain the dossier you mentioned?" Miss Militia piped up from her position.
"It also elaborates on some of the holes in your security if you want it…keep it off your systems and prepare accordingly." I crossed my legs, anxiety churning my stomach.
The three shared a meaningful glance. Piggot smirked for a moment.
"Then if that's everything you're willing to say, we'll have to talk about what comes next." There was a glint in her eyes. "This meeting will take a lot of time, are you willing to commit?"
…
I've made a horrible mistake.
Again.
___
March 19th, 2011. 8:35 AM
Basilia Rubio
"This city has been cursed…it just
has to be." I whined, placing my forehead down on the table. Taylor smiled but the bright sight did little to improve my shitty mood. Not that it was as bad as I was hamming it up to be, but it was leaving me on the back foot and I
did not like that.
I waited at the dinner table, watching Taylor cook while humming a happy tune. This was another activity we had started together because Taylor was apparently fairly adept in comparison to my own paltry cooking skills. The skill was something the master cape had learned and then expanded her knowledge once she broke free from Winslow. She had been kind enough to teach me some of what she was learning and like the hair brushing it was fun…more so even.
There had been well over an hour of time spent on the meeting, and we also had to go through the general run around for the Empire fight. At the same time, I had been enlisted by Armsmaster to help plug some of the holes in their security. He hadn't told me what, but they had developed a plan for moving the Empire capes without losing them. Apparently taking down
4 Empire capes had given a huge kick to the rear of the PRT. But there's been uplifted activity from the ABB at the same time. So far they had kept the probing to a minimum, but eventually they would become cocky enough to try to muscle in on the area my company was operating in.
Taylor and I weren't liable for what would happen to them once that occurred.
There was also a growing interest in my Tinkertech, and the local police departments were clamoring for new armor plating. Some of them were also finding some amount of fascination with my drones. Not an uncommon sentiment, though whether I'd be allowed to bring a basic model to the market…was another story. Overall the business was going through what one would call a steady amount of growth.
The income was actually
quite sizable once the kinks got worked out. While the company
probably wouldn't grow into a multi billion dollar giant overnight, it might get there within about a year. I was actually supposed to meet up with a few steel manufacturing companies, they had purchased licenses from Athena. The money would probably add up to at least tens of millions per year, but the corporations themselves would easily make billions with stronger, tougher, cheaper and longer lasting alloys.
I could see most of Athena's revenue being from licensing like certain smaller corporations back on Earth…Prime? There was a headphones company that made
several hundred million dollars on their patents. Which made we wonder how much could I make with what
I could license?
There was also some scouting out for using a specialized VI to focus on certain lines of research to advance. Most of them involved electronics, small little refinements that would take them up higher to the limits of modern silicon architecture. Unfortunately my optotronic computing would be limited to my own stuff and small production lines. The sheer disruption would destroy the electronics industry, though I could at least boost the rate of advancement by a wide margin.
I mean…I was funding optotronic research, but it would be at least half a year before they could become a mass market product. As in…several million units per year instead of hundreds…so they'd be for specialty niches.
My nose twitched at the smell of home cooked pasta, and my mouth watered. Taylor sauntered out from the kitchen with a smug look, and I propped myself up onto my elbows. My mom would probably say it's rude but this is my table so it's my rules.
Taylor had chosen a loose white tank top and blue gym shorts. My eyes wandered. for a moment, warmth settling in my chest. Her eyes gleamed with pride, and two plates were placed down on the table. She had also grabbed two forks, and I felt my hunger spike higher. I had spent a lot of energy and time tracking the general whereabouts of the dark spirit, as well as slowly reinforcing the areas I desired in with pacified spirits. Fortunately the spirits of the Docks were as stubborn and protective of their homes as the human residents. They didn't like the idea of a vicious mad spirit trying to muscle in on their turf.
"So…are you going to try it or not?" Taylor smiled, and I was still a little flustered since I wasn't used to it.
"U-Umm yeah…okay." I twirled the spaghetti into a ball with my fork, and very rapidly took the pasta into my mouth. Taylor looked expectantly, and the taste of the food was great. But…but…
Taylor's eyes dimmed. "Is it that bad?" I denied the question, the rare sting of sadness in my eyes leaving me feeling…
"I-It's fine…it just…reminds me of…of my mom." There was a deep pit in my stomach, and I took slow meticulous bites to savor the flavor. The taste wasn't the same but the reminder was enough to make it
hurt. It always hurt…and the only time it didn't was when I was tinkering, and when I was dealing with problems that I shouldn't be with my age and experience. The only distraction from my own…
I think…I need to stop.
The despondency was getting exhausting and I really just wanted…something. What did I want? I barely cared about this place at all, beyond not wanting to die when the world ends. It all started here, and my own home could be in terrible danger because of it.
If it even still exists…if it's even still in a range I could find.
"Basilia?" Taylor picked a chair next to mine, inclining her back and resting on her forearms for more even eye contact. I felt myself retracting back, my lungs suddenly lacking oxygen. "Just…breath okay? Just…breath."
I shut my eyes, letting my mind open up, letting it spread out to an infinite number of topics. I let the knowledge of past stellar empires flow past me, hints of their culture imprinted onto the spiritual matrix storing their technology.
The technological sophistication and experimental technology of the salarians. The elegant and insanely advanced understanding of biotics and of the mass effect of the Asari. The brute force of the Turians, their bulky vessels built for the maximum outloading of firepower. The near magical machinery and tools of the Hanar, their understanding of Prothean technology accelerating past even the Asari. For a brief instance I connected to even older civilizations, the shadow of the Protheans…the ashes of the Inusannon.
Sorry…
Veda had gone silent for a while now, and conversations between us were growing shorter. I knew she was working on a project involving the bans still placed on herself, small restrictions designed to loosen as time goes on. It was…obviously time consuming.
"Sorry Taylor…I'm just not feeling…at my best." I picked at the meal, feeling only mildly happy to have someone willing to cook for me. "I think this is the first time I've actually overworked myself." I had always been a pretty lazy guy…now I was working hard to the point of slowly killing myself. The exact opposite of what I used to be.
Progress.
"There's nothing wrong with that but…do you want to talk about it?" Taylor's looked lost, and I opened and closed my mouth in a cyclical fashion.
"Yes." My words moved ahead of my thoughts.
Taylor nodded, and waited for me to collect my scattered thoughts. I began to inhale the pasta more readily, my taste buds registering the
heaven that Taylor has created on this planet with mortal hands.
"He…Ahem." The brunette coughed behind a fist, and I let my natural pout form. Even now she was laughing at me…which would've been great since her laughter is nice.
I got serious. "I…miss them. I've never been someone to be super social…even with family but…" I swallowed saliva, my eyes burning for a moment. "That doesn't mean I can't miss them right?" The question was left out in the open, and I fidgeted under Taylor's gaze.
"I…get it." A quick check of my memory made me realize I was an idiot. Of
course she would understand, her own mother is…gone. If in a more permanent fashion.
"I…" I wasn't sure why I wanted to apologize. There was nothing I had done wrong, besides maybe bringing up a topic she was uncomfortable about.
"I'm not really sure what to say…you say I'm good at talking with people but…" I smiled sadly.
"Well…there's a difference between commanding and
comforting people." I shrugged, stuffing my mouth so I wouldn't say something stupid.
"It's not fair though…you helped me so I should be able to help you." There was a self conscious lilt to her voice.
"I didn't do much really…literally all I did was talk to you. Everything else only happened because you…invaded my privacy." Taylor winced and I knew I should have kept my mouth shut.
"Sorry…" she mumbled before steeling herself, turning slightly to face me a little better. Her arms moved as if to wrap around me, and I blinked at the gesture. I had never figured Taylor for being affectionate in any matter, but then Taylor had been a different person once. Even so I hadn't received anything beyond small gestures, nothing that one would call dramatic.
"Umm." I hummed, and after a minute of awkward shuffling I nodded in acceptance.
I squeaked when Taylor took me into a bone-crushing hug, and I gradually wrapped my arms around her. I leaned my head against her shoulder, a sigh escaping me. A part of me thought it was pathetic that I needed the comfort of someone who was
younger than me but I crushed that idea. This wasn't bad…it was rather nice actually.
"We'll figure something out, I wanted to be a hero and you helped me with that dream. I can at least help you with this…" she shrugged her shoulders, and a smile formed on my face.
"Right…thank you." Taylor nodded, and my train of thought wandered.
I had told the PRT more than I should have really…but I couldn't leave them in the dark. The chances of misunderstanding were big, and I would rather not have to deal with Worm's brand of incompetence and general human maliciousness. This was just going to be the first of
many incidents, I could feel it in my bones.
I just needed to narrow down that spirit's location…then I would remove it from my presence and from my current home.
A finger poked me in the forehead, and I smoothed out my expression. Taylor raised an amused eyebrow. I grinned and didn't elaborate on my mental machinations until later.
I had been avoiding a part of my abilities, only using them for myself…it was time to start acting like it.
To start acting like a
Shaman.
___
March 20th, 2011. 2:00 PM
Collin Wallis
I sank into the seat of my chair, frowning as I evaluated my halberd. I knew full well how obsessive I could be with improving the efficiency and capability of my equipment. It was one of my faults but also one of my strengths, Dragon had told me as such. I wasn't ignorant to what I was like…but I knew enough to realize that my halberd was working at an
impossible efficiency. A more than twenty percent improvement in every category I could imagine. I had tested everything I had built into it, and found that there was almost a
pulse to the weapon.
Like it was alive.
"Collin?" I felt a smile when Dragon's avatar appeared, the holographic image smiling back. She was one of the reasons I had progressed so much over the past few years. Her knowledge, her patience and willingness to work with me had boosted how much work, and how well I worked at the same time. Despite her agoraphobia and thus her inability to meet with me personally I would consider her my closest companion.
"Dragon. How well has the testing of the range of this 'Spirit World' gone?" That had been one of the biggest topics on my mind for the past 24 hours. An entire plane of existence filled with life forms unlike any seen on this planet that weren't projections or Biotinker creations. Or at least…weren't anything like the conventional creations of Parahuman powers.
The dossier has been kept under seal, the director not trusting the information to not leak out. She has been seeking outside help to clean up the broken system.
Have we really become so complacent…? The trawl had found that the entire PRT and Protectorate was compromised from top to bottom, far beyond the expectations of anyone. The records stated that the clean up would be beyond enormous, villains and gang members
coincidentally ferreting out the location of weapons shipments, interrupting raids or the numerous successful attempts to break out Parahuman convoys. With information leakage like this there was no chance no matter how many villains and criminals we captured to fix the city.
Dragon spoke. "It took some time to parse the data you received, it often damaged equipment even attempting it." I frowned as the experience was not my own, all of my equipment could easily perceive the presence of the parallel world.
"What did you find?" But I was eager for the response, the confirmation of denial of the document was well needed.
Dragon grimaced. "This dimensional plane likely spans the entirety of the planet," I gripped the handle of my weapon. "I've sent the new sensors on my machines to every corner of the Earth including the Antarctic. In every instance without fail they sensed the very subtle distortions of this Spirit World. It's actually…" I moved forward, Dragon's hesitation catching my attention.
"What is it?"
"I've launched a few new satellites…they found the same phenomena extending outwards into deep space." I released my halberd, my mouth suddenly feeling dry.
"How much…?" One of the monitors changed, and I saw an image of the planet. It was surrounded by a coat of light, a visual depiction of the alien realm. I could see lines, tunnels that extended out from the bubble in every which direction, leading off to the moon, leading off into farther beyond.
"These…roads appear to be extensions of the dimensional plane, and many of them seem pointed in the direction of the other planets in the solar system. The exact range is unknown…with my satellites limited to low earth orbit I can only gain so much data." She sounded apologetic.
"It's more than acceptable, now we have a better idea of what we're dealing with." But even then there were further questions than answers. Erudition had reported that the Spirit World was limited to the planet, though she speculated that it may be more widespread than she knew.
If this was the effect of a Parahuman…it was far beyond any ability that had ever been seen. Most powers had trouble just beyond the Earth's atmosphere, yet this plane extended for hundreds of millions of miles into the emptiness of space.
"These spirits…Erudition mentioned they could be manipulated?" Dragon provided a query, and I nodded as I began a fifth inspection of my weapon.
"At first I thought she was like Myrddin, painting her abilities in a mystic light." The man was strange, but he was a good hero and a good man if nothing else. "But she spoke of these spirits in a more…scientific capacity. Like intelligent machines rather than entities beyond our understanding." Dragon's expression went blank, and I frowned.
Had I said something wrong?
"Yes…but she also said they were potentially dangerous, and that some would act with malicious intent if they have the opportunity." She was not wrong, if their abilities were accurate, it would be quite tempting to make deals with them. The new tinker said that without the appropriate type of person, and without the right experience attempting to make one would end poorly.
…
"Dragon? You've seen and read the dossier, yes?" I ventured with the question, glancing over at my prone weapon.
"I have…There was a passage on how spirits can reside within weapons, with many sharing a deep loyalty to their users."
A
20% increase in effectiveness without performing even a minor change or update of my halberd. Erudition likely did something similar for her own equipment, and she could certainly make offers on improving equipment through such a method.
"How likely do you think of the chances of my hypothesis on the potency of her tinker ability being found correct?" It was a rare feat for any tinker with her level of diversity. So far I have seen no indication of what her speciality was, and what that meant I could not be sure about.
"Truthfully, I believe you're right Colin. But I'll have to evaluate her for myself, so I'll likely have to come down to the Bay."
"Physically?" Dragon laughed.
"No…there's a new suit I've been wanting to make use of. I'm sure Erudition and Monarch will be surprised." I almost smiled, though an alert soon came from my computer. Some of my newly made code was being compiled into a new format, one of the first prototypes to clean up the security of the PRT ENE.
I was no investigator but Dragon and I could certainly work together to fix as many leaks as possible. The Director was the one taking care of the leaks that involved people rather than faulty code and backdoors.
Five capes had been captured and Erudition's information was sealing their fate. If we could move them out of the city, the Empire and the Merchants would be weakened. Even if the ABB would grow more active they only had so many men. My new increase in productivity also meant I could accelerate my project on countering Brutes. The Merchants were reduced in power without Squealer, this was a chance.
A chance to change the city. A chance to break the back of crime and violence that I had barely been able to staunch in all my time here.
"Are you alright Colin?" Dragon's worry was…noticeable even to me.
"I'm fine Dragon…I'm simply feeling…" What was the word? It was on the tip of my tongue…
"Feeling?" Dragon responded.
"Hopeful. I'm feeling…
hopeful."
___
AN: Here is 3.4, I've been working on making some minor changes here and there to make it fit a little better with the previous chapter. As you should also be able to tell my chapters have progressively gotten longer with time, as it's gotten easier to write quickly, or at least to keep a constant pace of writing. I'm about one and a half Arcs ahead of this chapter for example.
Hopefully you've enjoyed this chapter.
It's pretty rare to find a hospital that's got a 'hopeful' or 'upbeat' feel to it, after all.