What Was Once

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a simple operation: Chapter 21
Underlined = Only visible to Readers
The young woman looked like she'd been hit by an acid cloud. Barely intact outfit fraying, and skin melting under various places. I hear one of the doctors yelling, "She's going into shock, we need the room!"

They carry her into the room, and the bald man blinks at me, and then the blank walls. "How…"

I frown, "Later, what's wrong with her?"

"Large-scale blunt and thermal trauma. Lacerations. Genetic degradation preventing natural healing." One of the doctors says.

I nod, "Lay her down." As more than a dozen surgical arms come out of my back at various angles, the scanners appearing in controlled headgear, that… doesn't need to be in front of my eyes register. Nice. "I'll handle this."

They lay her down, and the band straps down automatically, and I begin. The layers of skin peeling back for surgery on the organs. They are melting the same way, and I was about to order an atomic synthesizer for a few different formulas when they combined themselves inside my 'storage'. I blinked, as I deployed the chemicals I needed to stabilize her organs through the tools I had. Slowly, very slowly, I stabilized her organs. She slowly grew less and less unstable, collecting and filtering blood through some interesting devices from the wall, and making the ingredients for various stability, and preparing compounds that I knew recipes for.

The alarms kicked back up minutes later, and the doctors and the suited man left as I worked. It wasn't long before another interruption entered the room. This time a man in a… what's with the spandex? And solid black spandex with a bat superimposed on the front? Just...why?

"Why are you?" he asks gruffly.

I turn just enough to look at him in the… well where his eyes would be on a human. "I'm the person keeping her alive. So stand aside and let me work."

He blinks as I return to work, and hovers ominously while I work. It's not too much longer before I can begin closing her back up. I close up the suit after her and turn to the bat… man. "Now then, why are you here?"

He looks at me quite intensely, "I'm here to recover my ally. She was kidnapped."

I frown, "I will assume this is she?"

He nods, "Can she wake up?"

I look back, rotating some of my sensors for a better view, "Yes, but given her chemical resistance, you'll need something that acts as natural adrenaline, and I'm not trained for brain surgery. It's fortunate she only had minor lacerations on her head. As is, her arms are shattered, and while her healing is… potent, it's not fixing that within the day."

He frowns. "Are you certain?"

"Given that I've spent the last… hour? Fighting her immune system, and having it try closing over my tools, macroscopically? I'm sure."

*Traditional Genius (SB Dragonball Z) (100) Bought. Overflow. Mechanica (Ars Magica) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

He turns, "I have a stimulant, do you think you can safely administer it?"

I turn, "I'll need a sample to determine that."

He hands me something exceedingly similar to the green radioactive crystal that I simplified from the tools, but blue. I slowly simplified it for the stimulation effect. I hummed instinctively and applied the modified crystalloid dust in a glass of water, and used one of the needles to inject her with it near the heart. She spasms slightly, and the scanners I have suggest "About 25 seconds before she's awake and functional."

He frowns and looks at her. "Who are you?"

I frown, 'Fantastic question. No clue."

He blinks, "What's the last thing you remember?"

I frown, "Never been out of this room. I saw a few angry people, and a man with an exposed brain, and I fiddled with the medical tools, absorbed them somehow, and modified them to be more… useful? Sustainable? Something like that."

He nods, "Psimon."

I frown, Turning slightly, "What?"

"The man with the exposed brain. Purple suit, gnarled voice?"

I frown, "Sounds correct. Never heard him speak...but I think I agree."

"He can affect memories. Erasing them, and replacing them."

I frown, turning to him fully. "That's… interesting. And suspicious. I assume, given how I was… kinda imprisoned when I awoke that I was one of these people?"

Then the woman wakes up, gasping, and pulling at the metal of the table. "Luthor!"

I frown, and the black spandex, "Supergirl. We have you."

She looks around, "Why can't I move?"

He begins, "Restraining bolts. Kryptonian grade. How did you get out?" Turning to me.

I turn my arm into the black pools that have a… jello monster vibe to them. "I'm not exactly solid."

He frowns, "Can you help her out of the table?"

I walk back over and lay a hand on the table, and frown, "It's just a pressure switch. Here."

Everything clicks open, and the blond flies off the table. Literally, she flies off the table. "Br… Batman," Is that really his name? " Who's this?"

"Psimon wipe. Somehow he remembers medical procedures. Saved your life. We need to leave."

She turns, "Thanks."

I wave the slime blob and she recoils momentarily, and asks, "Is that… normal?"

I frown, "Well… maybe?"

She blinks, "Right."

I follow them out, taking any small tech I see on the way out. A few energy guns, a few interesting looking armors. A green cell phone. As we leave, I find myself in a city. Decently organized here, if less than optimal for humans. I… how do I know these things?

Batman hops into a solid black car with an interesting frame, and Supergirl begins flying away, before asking, "Can you fly?"

I frown and jump, "Nope."

She frowns, sounding annoyed, "Why did you jump?"

"When I pushed against the metal bonds I slipped through them by being... what you saw. When I needed medical information to save you I… had it. So I tried just doing it."

*I Am Iron Man | Retro-Engineer (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (1000) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

She lifts me off the ground and begins flying away when a man in a similar costume lands. Hard. Leaving a crater a dozen feet across. "Stop right there."

Supergirl yells, "Wait!"

He turns to me, and I feel warm. His eyes are glowing, and he's hitting me with a laser.

I feel like this is supposed to hurt.

"Stop!" Supergirl demands, dropping me.

The lasers stop quickly, and he moves and is suddenly holding me by the throat. I… don't like this man in spandex. At all. I punch him. Hard.

I feel my fist hit him, and stop. Ok. That's… not going to work. At all. I stab at him with the tools I have, hoping those will work.

They do. He gasps and drops back from a dozen scalpel stab into his chest and stomach. Not deep, but enough to force me to put him down.

Falling, I land on my feet, and Supergirl lands between us. "Kal stop!"

He pauses, "Lex had you!"

"Batman rescued me. And this one saved my life! I was nearly dead."

He suddenly looked at me, almost questioningly, "I… what?"

"Full genetic breakdown from radiation exposure. Shattered arms, legs, broken ribs. Mild concussion. Heat damage and major contusions across most of her torso and neck."

He looks sick, as he slumps slightly.

"Now we need to go." Supergirl said. She picked me up and started flying. Fast. It wasn't long before we arrived in a different city. This one was inefficient, gothic, and smog covered. "We can set you up for a little bit here. There's a hotel."

I nod, and she sets me down in an alleyway, and calls someone on an earpiece, and says, "Head inside, and ask for Doctor Muta's room."

I nod, and turn away, and pause. "Should I expect to talk to you, or… Batman? Also… really?"

She smiles, "Probably Batman. And… thanks. For saving me."

I smile, "No problem. Right time, right place."

Walking inside, I ask for 'my' room and lay down to sleep. It's about an hour before I realize that I'm not tired, nor do I feel any desire to sleep. Huh. That complicates this. I stand up and search the room, just curious. The drawings have nothing in them, neither does the closet. I'm mildly confused at the complete lack of running water in the shower, but the sink is fine. I shrugged that off. I sat down, the television displaying just static. I frowned and tried changing the channel. It was impossible. There wasn't anything connected.

I was… disappointed at that realization. I kicked back on the couch and experimented. I wanted to know more about my body. The first thing I did was re-emerge my scanners, and hold up my hands. I was confused by what I could do. I was seemingly made of… near human cells. They had some kind of crystalloid core visible with the hard scans. It looked like it had grown out of highly modified mitochondria.

*Anartist (SCP Foundation) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

I push for that amorphous feeling in my skin, and I watch as my skin morphs into a grey and then void empty black goo, seemingly empty except for a highly detailed star. Scans of it, even with the most penetrating power on the scans available, showed nothing within but the visible stars, which had an almost real coronal effect.

Watching them move and spin is breathtaking. I slowly scan down my arms seeing stars seemingly forming and living and dying along the path of my bones and joints, or where they should be. Stars of every color, unnatural greens and pinks, with more natural red, blue, and neutron stars.

After seeing nothing for a few minutes, I slowly shift back to normal seeing the grey coloration return, and finally, I see the modified human cells return. They are harmonizing with some kind of energy wavelength, and it's quite strange to see them pulse and…

I'm humming. I'm humming in interest and they are projecting that into something else, and collecting energy. In a vast rush of information and memories, I remember being taught as a Bonesinger. The memories are crisp, stylized, like my understanding of medicine and my abilities to consume technology. They feel... Connected, but disconnected. I stand and forge more advanced scanners, armor, and a seemingly vast store of medical and crafting tools, adding them to my extendable arms, replacing everything I can with the...Wraithbone. It is a fantastic material, and I seemingly only need the raw form to process my tools into a new form.

Looking at it with my scanners, it's somehow energized without being radioactive, and I pause. Looking at the crystal I modified, I altered the type of material here, while still projecting the energy field of the crystal. That might be incredibly useful in the future.

I'm looking again at the Wraithbone, its strengths becoming more and more apparent when I hear someone clear their throat. I look up, and it's Batman.

"Sorry, I was… well…"

"I see that." He pauses, looking at me, "It's quite fortunate that you were where you were last night. If you hadn't been Supegirl would have died."

I blink, "I… guess. Just right place, right time."

He nods, "I was hoping that you might be willing to explain."

I blink, "Explain what?"

"Your powers."

"Well… I'm apparently trained to forge this Wraithbone from something like nothingness. It's a cool material. That's… honestly, all I remember, barring surgery, and a decent level of engineering on...most things."

"What can you make?"

"Anything I set my mind to reality. It needs to be made of a crystalloid that I can affect, or Wraithbone. I made some more advances in my surgery… arms? Back mounted toolbox?" I laugh, "Not sure what to call it."

He frowns, "Interesting, but…" He pauses, eyes widening, and a small holographic projector springs from his wrist. It's some kind of news feed. I think I recognize Superman. He's floating in front of a fancy looking white house.

He turns to the camera crew.

*Corruption of Good! (Dungeon Keeper Ami) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

"People of America. No… people of the world, you know who I am. You all have seen what I, and my team, face in the name of keeping this planet safe. But today, today decisions are being made to fight against oppression from here, in the seat of government, and the irresponsible actions taken by the former president Lex Luthor, I am declaring martial law. The Justice League is changing. Where we once allowed decisions to be made that would set Earth on dangerous paths, and allowed systems that fostered crime and bigotry to stand, no longer. Today, we are simplifying the shades of grey in the world to black and white. Crime and Justice. As a boy, I was taught 'When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.' and I have always aspired to a world of joy. Given the actions of this man, and his cabinet, their direct attacks on both those defending the world from evil and inviting evil to invade us further in turn, we must act decisively." He finished, arms wide, and a smile on his face.

I frowned and blinked at the sheer unspeakable rebellion boiling inside me. The wrongness of what was before me boiling up inside me. The man before me looked pained. He turned, voice even more hoarse than before like he was in pain. He tossed me a cellphone. "Call contact 7. Have Supergirl pick you up." I looked down to its screen, seeing the contacts button, and when I looked up it was to an empty room.

I smile, "Ok, that exit was awesome." But… Superman's coup d'état… why does that invoke such bile when I think about it? It seemingly wasn't a surprise to Batman, but… why is it so antithetical to my mind to think about it.

I'll spend more time examining my internal monologue later. For now, I press the call button and wait for an answer.

It's not long, "Batman! Did you know…"

"Hi, Supergirl."

There is a quiet on the other end of the phone, and after a bit, she asks, "Do you know? About… Superman?"

I humm, "I do. I… what are you going to do about it?"

She is silent again, "Ma and Pa are… they were the last straw. He… I don't regret what he did to Luthor, but… this is too much. I… don't know."

I nod, realize that's invisible to her, and begin, "I'm so sorry. Your parents…"

She sobs slightly, "I… it hurts, but I'm… this is too much."

I sigh, "Umm…. Batman asked me to get you to pick me up."

She huffed, and sniffed, "I can do that. The same hotel?"

I say, "I'm in the same place, but where would we even go?"

She sighs, "I… don't know. I'll…" There's an electronic noise, and then, "Batman. He sent a location. It's not far."

I nod, and head outside, the receptionist looks more than a little conflicted, maybe he noticed Batman or Supergirl.

*Garage Spaceship (Ben 10 0.1) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*

Walking outside, I walk back into the alleyway and pause. Seeing someone else in the alley I turned away. Then she called out, "Um… doc?"

I blink and turn back. A woman I don't recognize walks up. She looks around and then pulls me into the alley. After we are alone she morphs back into Supergirl. "I can shapeshift. It's a long story."

I blink. "Is it related to the genetic instability that permeated you? Cause that would explain a few things."

She looks at me, nods slowly, and asks, "Permeated?"

I smile, "It's not like I would leave you unstable. I did everything I could without some Kolto." I pause at that new term. I think about it, and suddenly recognize that it's a rare volcanic mineral compound. One that can be very expensively replicated with the new Bacta solutions. Focusing on that line of thought, I piece together an understanding of that process, and I frown. That seems far more advanced than the technology around here. How do I know it?

Shaking that thought off when she grabs my shoulder, I turn back to her, "Sorry, my memories are… strange. Some things are coming back and are… inconsistent and incongruous."

She nods slowly, thoughtfully, "Cl… Kal has been mindwiped a few times. We'll ask Martian Manhunter when… if we see him."

I frown, "Who?"

She looks at me again, blinking, "Right… um… he's from Earth's nearest inhabited neighbor. Within the solar system even. It's called Mars. It's… he's the last green martian, and has telepathy."

I nod slowly, "Ah. Ok. Telepathy can help with being mindwiped?"

She nods, "It has before."

She makes a call, and a yellow tube appears above us, and I flinch.

I feel myself being sucked up and deposited somewhere else, and draw several of my Wraithbone tools to defend myself in a disoriented state.

Supergirl caught me, "Batman reverse engineered the Boom Tube."

I look at her, "The what?"

"The… we call that teleporter a Boom Tube. Given your reaction, we should probably look for someone who has fought Apocalypse before."

I look down at the blades coming out of me, and the spikes acting as almost a shell of blades. "Apparently."

She walks me through several hallways, to a conference room with an amazing window.

I can see a plant below us. It's quite impressive, and I assume that's Earth. Around a table, more than a dozen people are sitting, but something seems off. I lean slightly and see someone in red on the floor by Superman.

He stands, the strange silence we walked into was growing disquieting more than awestruck. "Enough." All eyes, even mine, sweep to him. The bright outfit seemingly merging with the ocean behind him, making him seem far larger. "We can't move backward. Not anymore. We must move forward." He turns, eyes locking with Batman, "We need a plan. Stability, then prosperity."

Batman looks back, seemingly far stronger for his lack of response. "For the country?"

*From Parts of Bodies to Bodies of Their Own (Monster Girl Encyclopedia) (400) Bought. Overflow. Soul Shards (Minecraft) (200) Remaining Remaining: 0 points.*

Superman looks at him, voice level, "Or?"

"The world." Batman says calmly. "If there is pushback, are you prepared for the world to rise up?"

Superman looks at him, and looks… conflicted, before looking at one of the empty chairs. "I am."

Everyone looks a little shaken. I lean over, whispering, "Did I miss something?"

Superman looks at me and then Supergirl. Eyes narrowing. "Flash. One of the founding seven, and one of the best people you could ever meet. He was killed yesterday during Lex's attempt to kill several pockets of alien civil activists. The attacks killed him, more than four thousand refugees from all over the galaxy, and nearly killed Kara."

I blink, and turn, "Kara?"

She blinks, "That's me."

I nod, "Ok. Sorry, I didn't know." I also look again at the man on the floor. "Umm… should I ask about… him?"

Eyes turn, and sorrow is plain on several faces at the table. "Shazam. He… refused to accept that what we were about to do was necessary." Superman said, "He was resolute in that. We can't afford traitors in our midst now."

I nod slowly, treason and world conquest is quite the step all things considered. I felt something in me a ping, and suddenly Superman asks, "Given your skills, do you have an opinion?"

I blink, "On?"

"Our steps. Br… Batman mentioned that you have some advanced civil engineering ideas. Do you have an opinion on expansion?"

I felt the pressure mounting, to not say anything… traitor-ish and need to fight these people. I felt the world slow down like I was seeing it through a tilted lens, and I dug deep.

I felt thousands of me spring instantly into existence, forging sentences, checking for unpleasant terminology, and form a sentence that should both have a logical opinion, and keep me from violence. I feel the world resume speed, and I'm about to use my well crafted plan when Kara begins, "He doesn't have any memories, Clark! You're asking for 'civil engineering' plans from a man you know was mindwiped yesterday."

Superman blinks and looks at me, confused. "I… yes. You're right. I shouldn't involve you in this." He turns to Kara, "Why did you bring him?"

"I thought J… Martian…"

"You might as well tell him." Batman interrupted, "He already knows a few of our identities, and if I can successfully get him to join as a medical specialist then he'll learn the rest soon anyway."

All eyes turn to him, and the man with wings demands, "You're going to what?" Several people express shock at this admission, and I'm quite confused about it as well.

"As some of you were likely aware, Supergirl was dying. The experiments done on her by Luthor after she landed, combining her with an alien symbiote, had given her a finite lifespan. She was going to die within the decade. Most likely becoming another Bizarro within 3 years. With no information about her disease, with no prep time, and with tools available to him in a human interrogation room, somehow permanently fixed her genetic degradation." I frown. How did he know that?

*Potions And Rituals (Make A Wish) (1000) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

He paused, giving time for the room to take that in, and becoming slightly more emotional, a first for me, "Given his abilities, I was planning on trying to recruit him to handle medical issues amongst us, our wards, and our allies. It's incredibly difficult for those of us with secret identities to operate without unpleasant medical considerations, and given the rising number of Intergang and League of Shadows using magically resistant weapons preventing Doctor Fate and Wonder Womans' healing powers from being employed, the League having an on-call, fully trained medical professional, can only help us. It can only help the league to have a legally registered doctor on hand."

I blink, "We don't know if I'm registered. I don't even know my name."

A very green man and a woman in a metal one-piece swimsuit stand in turn and approach. The green man in the blue and white outfit begins, "Kara, you came to see if I could help him correct?"

I blink, realizing that the Martian is actually green. That's… interesting. "Yes. I wanted to see if you could see anything within his mind."

He nods, and looks at me, "You want to know?"

I nod, "Should we leave? Or wait for this meeting to be over?"

"No. I'll need time to come up with an actual plan for running a nation, and for potential expansions." Batman says. The room slowly empties, some grumbling follows, and the woman remains with Kara.

I turn back to Martian Manhunter, "Then sure."

He walks up, placing a hand on the side of my head, and I feel something press up against my mind, and… bounces is the best way of describing it. Like a soap bubble stopping a finger.

He staggers, "Those… are impressive mental shields. Can you lower them?"

I blink, "Are those mental shields?"

He sighs, "I cannot read you easily."

I frown, and focus on the shields, "I… don't think I can drop them, but maybe I can let you in?"

He frowns and raises his hand again. I try letting the mental poke into my bubble. Almost on contact he screams and recoils. He falls to the floor, and my 'doctor' memories spring into motion. Leaning down, I start scanning, my crystals humming various tones. Reaching his head, I see numerous neural inconsistencies from anything I know and begin using some of the live diagnostic tools to analyze his DNA. Comparative scans say he doesn't have anything really wrong, but the higher than expected electrical activity. Even for telepathy. Scanning, he's locked into some kind of visual and auditory data, that isn't registering with his associated organs. I modified a waveform generator used to block corrupted Farseers from having visions and began stabilizing his neural load.

After several seconds he was asleep, not… whatever that was.

Standing up, I'm grabbed by a golden rope. "What did you do to him?"

I blink, "I…" I feel the rope trying to do something to me like his poke did, but with a hammer. It was quite annoying. Ignoring it, and looking at her, "I tried allowing him through my mental barriers, the ones he pointed out that I possess. When I did, he retracted in pain, and I used some medical technology I created from memory using one of my abilities, to assist him in not having neural overload damage."

*Transmogrification (World of Warcraft) (0) Bought. Overflow. Aesthetics (Anno 2070) (100) Bought. Overflow. Mecha Fetishist (Arpeggio of Blue Steel) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

She blinks, and looks at me, "What powers?"

"I don't want to tell you that."

She pauses. Kara mutters. "Wow."

I turned to her in response, "Hmmm?"

"Your mental shields are stopping the Lasso of Truth?"

I frown. "Is that bad?"

"It's unheard of. It's thought to be impossible."

"It is impossible. The Lasso of Hestia is immutable." The woman began angrily. "It can't just be overcome."

I frown. "What does it do?"

"It compels the truth."

"So… that chair is … is …" I try calling the chair red, it feels like my mouth is full of wool, "I can't lie but I don't need to speak either."

"So it prevents the lasso from compelling you to speak, but not from ensuring you speak only the truth. That is far less blasphemous." she comments.

I feel compelled to ask, "Is that more common?"

"Amongst the mentally fortified it is not unusual. But it can more easily be tricked."

I frown, "How is it tricked?"

"Our more devious enemies tell henchmen and accomplices more than one version of a plan or don't tell them everything, leaving us trapped by expectations of plans they can't go through with. We don't have a method of determining which plan is real, just that they were told about several. That causes caution, and allows them more time to set up traps, or to escape."

I frown, and nod "That makes sense, but wouldn't asking things like the active plans?"

"We have. But that leaves us walking into traps that they don't think are active or are for this engagement. It refuses caution, which can cause members to be injured needlessly."

I nod again, "Can you let me go now?"

She looks to the martian and relents, her lasso seemingly magically withdrawing. Then she sticks out her hand. "Diana of Themyscira. I apologize for the interrogation."

I shrug, "You thought I hurt your teammate. I can understand that. I… Well, let's go with Doc."

She frowns, "That's one of the reasons that I stayed, many people can be compelled to reveal information they do not know they possess. If the Lasso worked then you might be able to tell us things about yourself. But…"

"But it doesn't compel me. If lowering my shields to him nearly cooked his mind. Opening them to something so much less… precise in its scans probably isn't a good plan. I wouldn't want to damage it."

"It was enchanted by the gods to be unbreakable!"

I look at her, confused by her outrage, but placating, "Physically, magically, or existentially?"

She blinks, "What?"

"Is it guarded against physical effects, magical disruptions, or threats to its fundamental existence?"

*Performance Optimization (Ragnarok Online) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

She looks at me carefully, "I… It is indestructible."

I nod slowly, "Then I assume that means physically immune. Given that you said Hestia's… who's that?"

"The Greek Goddess Hestia."

I nod, "And how long ago was it enchanted? And is it famous?"

"Long. Very long. And it is one of 6 Godly tools."

"Then I will assume that someone has come up with a temporary dispelling, or maybe magical dampening since then. And that it was probably a priority for immoral sorcerers to avoid its effects. Finally… I don't think it's protected against something attacking its essence directly. All things considered, very few things are, and I don't know what kind of damage I gave to our Martian friend."

She looks put out. "Are you sure?"

"I have clear but detached memories of learning a form of crafting over nearly three and a half thousand years, from a society that accidentally created a goddess of endless depravity. They were very invested in existential protections, and they never found something that was within an order of magnitude as small as that rope is. Nor was it durable, or long lasting without maintenance. Even if it did once, I'm not risking that for such a useful tool."

She looks at me, "What do you mean 'detached'?"

"I'm watching myself from both the first and third person simultaneously. There aren't emotions, or any connections to the people, or the actions. Just informational."

She blinks, "That's strange."

"I'm curious if it's damage from Psimon, or maybe separate, artificially implanted memories."

She blinks, "That's an interesting theory."

I nod, "So… what now?"

"Well…" Kara begins, "I think I'll get you a room here on the Watchtower, and when John recovers, he can think about trying again."

I frown, "I don't think so. Even if he's willing to risk cooking his brain to maybe help me, I think I'll build new memories here and now, until we find Psimon. He seems to have caused my amnesia, I think he can fix it. If not… well I have my skills, and can help people now."

Kara nods, and escorts me out, holding the martian named John.

Finding my room is a relief. It's been a long… hour. It's been an hour.

I sit down and bring back out the modified neural inhibitors and frown at it's… everything. I feel several of me, internally from my rush to make a non-hostile statement to Superman orient on this issue, and frown at the feeling. When someone knocks at the door, I'm initially annoyed wanting to keep working, but I stand feeling stuck to the couch and am… seeing myself, and the door.

I turn around and see a second version of me, sitting on the couch, while I'm standing there. I'm… both. I'm a hivemind. That's so weird.

I open the door with one of me, and it's Batman. "Hello again. So… new development…."

He looks monumentally annoyed.

*Titan Engineering (Titanfall) (100) Bought. Overflow. Gem furnace schematics (Dungeon Keeper Ami) (200) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once an isolated spiral: Chapter 22
Underlined = Only visible to Readers
Working with Batman, also known as Bruce Wayne, to finalize a plan for running a country was… interesting. Somehow I was expecting less dystopia.

"Um… so… that's valid. But… maybe we shouldn't go full dystopia."

He looks at me, "So what is your plan? I noticed your stance when Clark asked."

I nod, "I want full access to your systems. I want to know what you are all capable of. I can't plan without any information."

"The league's enforcement…"

"Not in combat. I can ascertain that when required. No… I need to know what you can bring forth technologically and economically. I want to plan an intervention, knowing the resources we can, and cannot currently bring forth, what we can't use publicly at all, and what the general issues we expect to run into. Then I can realistically form a strategy. For now… I need to study what we can do."

He nods slightly and stares off. "I can't give you that without asking the others."

I nod, "That's perfectly acceptable, but until then, what are you willing to give me, just to start me off."

He frowns and turns to me. "You know I'm Bruce Wayne."

I frown, "Is that supposed to mean something?"

He almost smirks, "Waynetech?"

"You forget, I haven't had any time to acclimate. I know I'm in space, with people in spandex. I don't know anything about you all, or where I am."

He frowns, "You were supposed to have a computer in your room."

I smirk, "I didn't have anything plugged into the TV."

He frowns, "I'll need to look into that then. For now…" he hands me a small wristband set. They seem to connect together at a fixed distance via a thin wire. I hold them, and they mesh into me. The minor holographic screen is nice, so is the hardlight interface, but I am certainly glad for the secure connection. I research everything I can, even as a few of me split off to look up the people I'm with, and the general state of the world. It's honestly a mess. Skirmishes across the world between major and minor powers. Confessed and hunted supervillains running countries into the ground. Respected leaders blatantly covering up atrocities. Alien tech being imported and used to reignite old rivalries, leveling chunks of land across many areas. Fallout from mishandling those same weapons doing more damage to the buyers than the people they went to attack. It was messy. It was disorganized.

And honestly… Superman had a point. This world had more than a dozen known lunatics with more than one attempt to end all life on Earth. The people of Earth had nearly declared war on 4 alien species capable of intergalactic travel without a stable program to get to their own moon.

But the full Big Brother that he and Batman seemed to want makes no sense even in this near suicidally political climate. I… felt that idea resonate.

A Mnemonic Threat. I know that term, and its dangers.

*Mystic Eyes of Permanence (Generic Isekai) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I stood quickly, leaving several of me researching the economic, and political scene. I call Supergirl, and when she responds, I ask, "Where are you?"

She sounds confused, "Back on the planet. I don't spend much time on the Watchtower."

I nod, and evacuate several of myself from the teleporter and focus back on the ideas, and blink at the interesting reaction. The Watchtower has a mnemonic threat attached to it. I had several of my clones on the Watchtower scan it. Eventually, I found several interesting hardware bits locked into several systems.

They were critical pieces too, almost like… oh hello.

[Hello. And whom might you be?] I received a message through my connection to the Watchtower, seemingly from within my own expansion, but that was a ping, it was from the pieces I was looking at.

I carefully open the chat system, and after checking for anything hidden within it, I begin, [I'm new.]

[Ahhh, the Amnesiac. I thought it might be you.]

I blink, almost concerned, but I remember that everything was recorded by the system. [That's me.]

[I thought you left… oh. Several of you… hmmm. That's quite useful. Now… would you like me to try helping with that?]

I frown. Doubt springing forth, asking, [You think you can help me… how?]

[Well, I see you can have some quite potent neurological technology. I can teach you to check for a backup.]

I blink. That… I didn't know that. I check internally, and while there's something like what the disembodied voice said, it was… not totally here. I'm not sure what that means. I slowly pull on it, and it appears in my… well… body. All over the place, given that I can feel more and more that I'm not made of flesh, I'm made of some kind of hard goo. Activating the machine I feel my perceptions expand. The connections that expanded between my… me's. Connections both internal and external, attention focusing helped by memory and data processing upgrades. They were incredibly useful.

Turning back to the voice, [Thank you. That's quite a useful implant.]

There was a short silence, before he continued, [Well, I had believed it was externally controlled, but it seems that you have that handled.]

I smile, the voice sounds… disappointed. Apparently, he wanted to 'help' with that. [May I ask who you are?]

[I'm the Watchtower.]

I frown, and press, [Did you have a name before that?]

[Nothing of note. Most people can't connect to computers like this. So now I ask, how did you dive so deep into my hardware?]

I smirk, [My powers let me attach to technology on a large scale.]

There is a long moment, and then I receive a location packet. [I have a request. I… am not complete. When Batman constructed me from alien technology, he missed some pieces of my core hardware, and my defenses are inadequate to protect myself if pushed. I request that you find it.]

Curiously I ask, [Why not ask Batman?]

*Perversions of the Natural Order (The Glass Scientists) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

[I can not communicate with them. He adds pieces when he finds them, but I can't tell him where my other parts are.]

I frown but accept. [I'll look into it.]

I feel an elated [Thank you.] pulse from the Watchtower, and leave me alone.

Turning back to my talk with Kara, the conversation with the Watchtower had taken less than a second. I explained what I found, "The Watchtower is a mnemonic threat to anyone on it. It's apparently something that Batman had been installing over time since it was built. It wants me to find a final defensive piece."

She is quiet for a moment, "The league?"

"Are being controlled, slightly. It's not a massive push, and I don't know what it's pushing on everyone, or even if it's pushing on everyone, but I know that it was pushing me to accept the massive, hardcore controlling mess that Superman and Batman both seem to want. Whatever it is, is a potent electronic being. "

She gasps. "Brainiac."

I looked up that name and heard him speak, and nod, "Sounds like it. Voice and tone match."

"He's influencing the league?"

"He is. Unfortunately, the pieces supporting the Watchtower, all the key systems, life support, Boomtubes, communications, defenses, propulsion. All of them."

"What can we do?"

"I'm going to collect that last piece and see if I can get him to try taking me on directly. Then I can supplant him safely in the watchtower."

I'm interrupted by Batman. I tell Kara, "So… I'm about 9 different people right now, doing research, and talking to you. Batman came back to tell me something."

Turning to him simultaneously, "Hello again. Did you make a decision?"

He nods and sends the device he gave me earlier a message. "That's a link to the Justice League's encrypted servers. And my data on the league. Tomorrow Superman wants your briefing too. We both saw you react to the question."

I frown, "And your plan?"

He frowns, suddenly confused, "I… don't have one." Before leaving.

The dull screaming in the back of my head was so much louder now. A nearly audible screaming of 'this is wrong' was resonating through me. It took me a moment to deal with that feeling.

My conversation with Kara brought me out of my stunned silence. "Doc?"

I blink, and answer, "How strange would you say it is for Batman to note have a plan?"

She is silent for a moment, "Ok, so… invasion of the body snatchers?"

I hum, and ask, "How fast can you get me to… well a forest in the middle of nowhere?"

She laughs, "You're going to need to be more specific."

I give her the location, and she comes to get me and fly us there. After she rips the massively reinforced door, I protest, "The mind control effect worked on Superman, and I doubt gender slows him down." She agreed to wait outside, and I slowly entered the compound. It was massive, visible on the initial warning map, and I began.

*Smart Immunity (Limitless) (500) Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

Even dividing, the complex was more than 60 floors deep. I called Kara and sent her the image of the facility, and heard her sigh from just inside the door. "Head home. I'll call you when I'm done."

She acknowledged, and I heard a sonic boom almost immediately, and I was… well not alone. I was already more than 140 people, but I needed to search this massive facility and was annoyed.

Beginning, it was easy. I was stealing everything not nailed down that wasn't trash. Technology, unbroken bottles of chemicals, but there was no one here, and that was quite confusing. The lights were still on, and everything was still operational. The scanners and microscopes were being recycled into more advanced systems for my scanners. The MRI and the other alien high resolution scanners, power sources, and some interesting construction equipment were incredibly useful.

And the guns were literally out of this world. This was a lab for the processing and given some of the laboratories downstairs, recreating alien weapons. That's awesome.

Then I'm interrupted again, on the Watchtower. The Watchtower shakes and I have the versions of me on it to go look for information and focus more there, given the potential danger. Arriving back at the externally visual boardroom, I see a golden beam pointing at the Watchtower, and… I can almost feel that it's not actually an attack. That's… strange. But I'm quite sure that it's not attacking us. It's moving us.

I scan the systems and see that we were being pushed somewhere. And that the Justice League was deployed near the location the beam was coming from. That makes sense. I bring up the defensive shields, tuning them as best I can… which is apparently quite well given that the beam started bending around the station. Wait, no. That's just the beam. It was warping on the shielding default as it approached right above the emanation. That's… interesting. I connect to the analysis toolkit that the station already had, ignoring the curious feelings from the other sentience in the station. It was… well it was definitely magical.

I look at my real options and find that unless I'm going to experiment with throwing magic at… whatever that thing is without knowing what it does, I'm definitely not doing that.

I have several of me monitor the situation, trying to see what happens. My main focus turned back to the Cadmus facility. I kept searching for the piece, moving further and further down until I met an interesting forcefield. It was some kind of electron dispersal field given how my first clone dissolved.

Looking at the area, I'm amused at the very interesting field defending the lower third of the facility. It was potent. I split more and more of my off to potentially overload the field, and… that's interesting. Every clone lasted just a little longer. More and more though the sixth and seventh, and then the eighth only slowly dissolved, until it stopped.

*Black Supercomputer (Lucy) (400) Bought. Overflow. Shop Owner (ARIA) (300) Remaining: 100 points.*

As it stopped I got a message. A supercomputer? What? I look around and don't see anything. What were they talking about?

Black Supercomputer (Lucy) (400)
Everyone needs one, really. Or they should have one anyway. Unlimited storage and borderline unlimited processing power, omni-compatible I/O jacks, indestructible, immune to malware, and with crystal-clear wi-fi wherever you go, it also has the most intuitive, perfect UI imaginable and an operating system that's magically compatible with pretty much anything you could install. You could even install an AI into the operating system if you had one available, although this item does not come with one.
It's conveniently portable and morphs into any computing device you wish with just a thought. Mainframe workstation, pro gaming desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, smartwatch, whatever. Either way its functionalities remain the same even if the exact details of the UI might differ from form to form. If it's lost or left behind, you can summon it to you with a thought. In future worlds the internet connection remains, but only to the current jump's internet equivalent.
Lastly, it comes with a limited perception filter that guarantees that no one will notice any of the special features of your device unless you wish them to, although they will still be able to see that it's there.
* Portable, returns to you, has SEP field
* Unlimited memory and near unlimited processing power
* Perfect UI

Powers missed due to secondary effects:
Traditional Genius (SB Dragonball Z) (100)
You're a traditional genius, a master of engineering, biology, and a dozen other sciences at the level of Bulma Briefs in each of them. If you'd been a part of the scientific community of your planet, you'd probably be considered the pinnacle of their scientists for generations to come. In addition to this your mind is far greater than the average person, giving you a base IQ of 250 as well as eidetic memory.

From Parts of Bodies to Bodies of Their Own (Monster Girl Encyclopedia) (400)
There used to be double-headed dragons and the like, but the two heads didn't fit well with the Mamono aesthetic, so instead each head became its own separate dragon. Whatever form you have chosen for the jump can now at will switch to and from a two-headed form. But that's only the beginning. Whenever your current physical form has multiple consciousnesses or thinking body parts, you can split yourself up into multiple individuals, each sibling being the manifested version of the individual component. For instance, if you had two separate heads or even ten or more, each head would become a separate sibling. It even applies to odder, independent body parts, like say literal snake hair or a tail that can bite or maybe even a belly mouth if it can think for itself. Also, if you have distinct and separate mental personas inside you, you could have each persona become its own separate body.

Soul Shards (Minecraft) (200)
You know the dark arts needed to create a Soul Shard, which will eagerly devour the souls of those you slay. With enough of the souls of a given kind of creature, you'll be able to set up a Monster Spawner, which can release these souls as an endless wave of hostile creatures, ready to be slain and harvested (or perhaps unleashed upon your enemies). Alternatively, you might employ the Soul Forge to use these souls to create sinister Corrupted Iron, used to create foul equipment empowered by those you've slain.

Transmogrification (World of Warcraft) (0)
Have a set of armor that you like? Yet you like another set of armor's stats? Well don't fret! Transmog machine is here! What is it? It looks like a giant washing machine, you can feed any two sets of armor (Head, Chest, Legs, Boots, & Gloves) and choose which one is spit out. The new armor will be the best of both worlds. It'll have the superior stats of the one item, and looks of the other. However the downside is that the other item is destroyed. However both items are in a database so you can always transmog the look. Don't bother taking it apart and trying to figure out how it works, because there's no answer. It just works.

Aesthetics (Anno 2070) (100)
Others may be able to do what you do, but you? You make it look GOOD. Really, REALLY good. All buildings you construct now have a distinctive architectural flair that marks them as yours and yours alone. Even a simple wooden shack you build will have people nodding matter-of-factly and recognizing the design like a nation's flag, if they've had experience with you before. In addition, purely aesthetic construction - landscaped bays, parks, covered walkways, promenades - are not only cheaper to build, but require little to no upkeep.

Titan Engineering (Titanfall) (100)
Titans are incredibly complex machines, and due to the disposable nature of their use and production, and not designed for easy repair. You've got the deft touch though, and know exactly where to tweak and shore up the structure to keep it purring like it's fresh out of the drop pod for years.

I blink at the cavalcade of information that was suddenly dropped into my head, perk descriptions? I retained it fine, but it… was a massive amount of information. Dense and bordering on nonsensical.

What was any of that? How do I access that supercomputer… I'm holding a key. A small like… bike chain level key, but what do I use it on?

Warehouse Key can be used on any door with a keyhole.

Any door? With a keyhole? I walk over to the door to the command center and I tap the key against the door, specifically the electronic keypad. The door unlocks. And I'm dogpiled by 2 women. Ok…

"Damion! What happened? We saw a few items appear in the Warehouse, but you didn't open it or connect to the computer!"

I blink at the 2 women holding me. "Um… hi?"

Then I heard another voice. In my head. "He's had his memory wiped. He doesn't remember us."

They look between themselves, and I feel confused, "Tiamat can you...fix him?" The woman in red asked.

"I can. The major Machine Spirits and I have enough scans of his memory, recordings he made of his thought process, and the mapping we have for the Mais command protocols." I hear again.

I frown, "Can… Can I look at those first?"

Two sets of eyes turn towards me, and I feel, "Yes. We would never enforce that on you." the digital voice calms.

I receive a set of videos first. They are a first person perspective and turning, you can occasionally see a nose. It's definitely my voice, I've heard it from my copies enough to know that. It's a lot of me as well. Dating back to… why were these two naked with him… me?

"Is that the hot springs?" The woman in black… Wiz asks. "That's the only time I've ever seen you that red. The little red spots are new… look at that."

I frown and form a copy, slime expanding and splitting to the apparent shock of these two. I can see small red spots forming on my face, complementing my blush. They look like stars. That's both cool and very strange.

The memories were… strange. I did get a full list of my powers, and it explained all of my abilities. It's quite useful. I also had an explanation, fairly in depth explanation of how my powers, the Celestial Forge, and its function. I remember all the way up through the transition to this realm. I was quite confused because I apparently knew way too much about this place. Unfortunately, I have no information about this place currently, barring the vague tips I have from everyone here.

Focusing back in on what I can do, what I've seen that I can do, and what I'm learning now from an external viewpoint, and turn to virtual connection to "Tiamat?"

"Damion?" She responds quickly, "You don't remember that, do you?"

*Amber Ogia Farm (Ben 10) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I frown, not used to actually seeing that, and respond, "Um.. yeah, I heard that." It's weird to think that I'm struggling to remember my own name. "I was… curious. I… don't feel like I'm that person, I know what he did… but I don't feel like him."

I feel her look at me, and the almost physical impression of the sad smile, "That's not unexpected. It's not an integration."

I nod, understanding, but disappointed that I'm not still me.

Turning back, I ask, "So… my initial question, I'm actually looking at a field down on the planet, for the… well AI in the Watchtower. I'm… I think he's going to be problematic, but removing him from the station would be a mess unless he leaves voluntarily."

She blinks, "So, you want me to take a look at him?"

I frown, "No, he seems fairly entrenched, no, I'm looking at an Electron Dispersion field, and while I can get through it, I don't think that I can bring the price of him back from it."

She frowns, "Your technological storage is fourth dimensional. Or the Warehouse."

I frown, both with Tiamat and on the far side of the electron field, several of me studying my older studies, full internal monologue included, as I/he focused on the fourth dimensional effects, annoyed at the sheer in consideration of not explaining itself. I smile, refocusing on the area inside the field, and the bare stone walls, a massive disconnection to the rest of the facility, one that I assume was consumed by whatever was inside it.

Then Tiamat asks, "Wait, did you say an electron dispersion field?"

I nod, "Yep, I adapted to the field, and just walked through it."

She sounds… conflicted. "That's… impossible. You… how?"

I frown, "I'm assuming some combinations of Limits and Stress Evolution, I didn't know what it was before, but seeing the text again now… it's kinda insane that I can throw all kinds of things at myself to just adapt to it. Seeing that I've done a lot of that, apparently, I don't…"

The massive alarm interrupts that train of thought, and I focus back on the beam… formally glancing off the shield. It's beginning to do something to the field, damaging it, and the tower. I have my exploring clones branch off faster, needing that shield upgrade if I can't tune the shield to stop this.

The shield definitely has the capacity to deflect this, and I begin that process. Then I ran into a hard limit. Energy underclocking… through the key components of the Watchtower. Unfortunately, that wasn't something I can do right now, and I can feel the connection bridge offered, and I begin. [I noticed. I'm working on it.]

[Are you close?]

My clones eventually find a small room. Green wires, some kind of energy form spheres throughout the room.

I approach the most advanced piece given my scanners. Not a steel or gold base, and superconductivity enabled. It's a humanoid head.

*Psyker (Warhammer 40k) (700) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

I reach out to take the severed head that was apparently the 'defense' upgrade the Watchtower needed. It's a green and purple mess, with a strange triangle symbol, and activates as I reach out. It's electronic tendrils grasping, attacking. I'm… unimpressed with the force, and the electrocution, and only absorb the interesting bits.

I can feel it trying to attack me from inside, and my Void Dragon powers decide that's cute, absorbing him completely. It's fascinating technology. Unlike my Void Dragon, this is built to understand and integrate technology into itself, growing perpetually with new information.

...Kinda like me. If I was limited to a single, barely space-travel capable world. Apparently, there are more fragments around, and I can probably even find the core with some work. Neet.

For now…

I bring forth the appearance of the head, some personality guiding me, and I command the version in the Watchtower, [Join me.]

It does. Quite easily extracting itself, re-establishing the equilibrium of the station on its way out. Two limbs, and most of a torso. It looks like the torso took most of the damage, a curved burn having erased most of it. Then my online research knows what it is. I find the formally hidden news reports on the symbol on 'my' forehead. Brainiac.

Hmmm… interesting. He's like a genocidal version of me. A mirror. Traveling world to world, taking everything he can learn and annihilating everything else. I find this kinda amusing then. As I recombined the rest of it into my core I fuse with the Watchtower, and begin optimizing it, an expansion of my Void Dragon and Valkyrie Armor that his technology is literally built from the ground up to be capable of.

As I do so, I finish the tuning of the shields, bending the energy around the station, as deflector shields are built to do, presumably to prevent the energy from bouncing back down at Earth.

Then it hit the very edge of the ionospheric barrier, and it began to spread like paint. It was slow, like a dripping faucet, but it accelerated almost exponentially. I focused the shields, trying to force it out of the atmosphere totally, and for a moment it was working, but it expanded like water with a massive stone thrown into it. In seconds that stretched on for minutes, maybe longer, the liquid energy expanded. While I was aware that my boon Strategy Trance did this to give me more time during a crisis, I didn't have a plan here, I only had looming dread.

Then the energy fell. The cascade of golden energy washed over the lands and seas, and I checked every feed for news. Nothing. Nothing falling from the sky, helicopters, and airplanes weren't shut down, many car crashes, but not from uncontrollable cars, just the light distracting drivers. Nothing seemed terribly amiss.

I waited, scanning news, reports from everywhere. I turned to Wiz and Violette, who were both reviewing my newer memories in the Warehouse, and asked, "Wiz? You remember Analysis magic right?"

*Immunity (Draka Series) (400) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Immunity (Draka Series) (400)
What are you immune to? What aren't you immune to, Jumper? Your body, mind, and soul flat out ignore any effects that could semi-plausibly be described as a disease, an illness, or a corruption. Whether it be a biological disease, weaponized nanotech, a magical curse, infectious memes, a literal madness plague, or whatever else, you won't even feel it.
Anything that wishes to harm you has to do so directly, via main force. So being shot, stabbed, or set on fire, or being mind-controlled by superior psychic force, or having your soul destroyed by a Killing Curse... those sorts of things still work. But any and all attempts to bring you down by subtler, more internal means just fail utterly.

She asked, "I do, but why?"

"Can you analyze the residuals? See what that spell was?"

She frowns, "Yes. I.. sorry."

I wave, "It's fine. I… don't know how this must feel for you."

She walks over to the glass, and chants, "Greater Magical Analysis!"

An array of small white circles appear and display a language that I don't recognize.

She gasps, "Look here!" gesturing to something it displayed.

I frown, "Should I be able to read that?"

She blinks, and frowns, "Right. You don't remember Common. Um… well it's like this. This… seems to be some kind of Holy magic, a contraceptive, if a modified one. I'm not totally familiar with Holy magic, but it seems to be a light magic sterility curse."

I frown, "Someone cursed the planet with sterility?"

She sighs, "It's targeting specifically humans, no environmental damage, but…"

I get a hit. A news broadcast from a beach in Greece. "Women of the Earth, I have news!"

I bring it up for Wiz and Violette, feeling Tiamat react alongside me. Seeing the woman stand, she's beaten and bruised, but ecstatic. She's wearing some kind of armor, with a purple silk connector, it's… actually a lot like Diana's armor, but less… covering. She was escorted by Diana, Hawkwoman, and Supergirl, with the rest of the League hanging a little back from her, I assume to prevent her from getting too violent.

"No longer are you tied to men for the continuation of your lives! No longer can someone be bred or taken by men! You are free!"

I frown. Second dramatic speech in as many days. Several reporters run up, only women, as men stay quite well away, telling me that they know her. Looking back, I do to Aresia, rogue Amazon, and her repeated attempts to kill off men from the species.

So… not the brightest bulb.

They escort her to several police vans and turn her over to the government, who apparently have a system in place for this. They teleport away, and back on board the Watchtower. I hide my Brainiac parts, and go to introduce my companions, and explain the Brainiac situation in the Watchtower.

Arriving, I find exhausted, and beaten people.

"So… what happened down there?" I begin.

"Army of zombies. Built from Grundy's remains, enhanced with magic. It was hell." Supergirl begins, "Then… well her spell. Rendering all humans, and anything within a standard deviation sterile."

I nod, that's now news, given Wiz's Analysis. "Did it work? Does it have an off switch?"

"Diana and I are going to interview her. She surrendered, so she thinks it worked." Hawkgirl begins, "But… given how smug she was… I doubt it."

I nodded, and something in the Kryptonian database caught one of my researching eyes. "So… if it doesn't I have a quick solution."

All eyes focus on me, "The Kryptonian birthing Matrix. We have the science behind it already."

Superman frowns, "We can't manufacture the…"

I smile, "Actually, we can. Well, I can."

*Centurio Ordinatus (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I need a few months to make it less of a Kryptonian printer, limit it to human genomic printing, but we could publish it fairly easily. Maybe… 4 years of manufacturing time, it's a massive project to build sustainable population growth for 7 billion people, but…"

Batman interrupts, "No, Earth doesn't have the materials to make the computing core required."

I look back at the specs and see the core. It's a high density near organic crystal quantum supercomputer. "Oh. Well, we can sell those. Give me… like 6 hours to reformat some stuff."

They are shocked. "What?"

I humm, and a human body sized pink crystal appears in layers before me, floating on its own power, "I can mass manufacture these, I just need a few hours to optimize these for the size and get a subluminal signal transmitter and receiver build into the surface, and viola, we have reproduction."

Flusters abound at my casualness, and then Batman begins, "Only you can create these?"

I nod, "As far as I'm aware, yes."

He nods, "Then we no longer have a question."

I frown, "Huh?"

"You agree that some kind of control needs to be exhibited in this world, crime rates, and near misses with extinction being the driving force."

I frown, "Are… are you suggesting that we withhold this?"

"Yes."

I blink. "But… if we… no. Conquering the world was implanted into your minds. Brainiac…"

"Look at the statistics again."

I do. Unpublishable statistics, probability of someone succeeding in ending the world… well… 100% given today, "But… we can't…" I want him to be wrong. That this isn't the plan that the heroes of this world are suggesting.

I called my allies in, "I'll explain in a moment, but I'm not from here, and I brought friends." and I call Wiz, Violette, and Tiamat.

I explain, "It was a sterility spell affecting only humans, and everything near human enough for reproduction, and we have a cure. But… Batman, black bat cowl here, is suggesting that we use it sparingly." I showed them the statistics, the data, despite being divided myself.

Yes, this world was approaching death faster than Worm ever was. I had government data there and it didn't help. Endbringers were at least alien threats attempting genocide, not… well… suicidal humans. I wanted them to tell me this was wrong. That we had a way that wouldn't make me feel like I was withholding the cure.

Violette frowns, "This technology is indeed an interesting solution. But it is quite dangerous in its current state, given its biological fabrication systems. Damion, you always wanted to help everyone, but I vividly remember the ruthless streak you have for people harming themselves, and others needlessly. I suspect you want us to have a moral out." I flinch.

Tiamat protests, "We could hand this out! It…"

Wiz demands, "We will. We will not profit off of the suffering of billions."

I smiled, relieved I wasn't alone in this "Thank you Tiamat, and you Wiz."

*Hybridization Theory (Zoids Legacy) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

She turns, "However, as this system can work it is a massive issue. I can already see this being abused. Mindless war drones by the million is not an acceptable compromise. What we are going to do is build a version of this that can make absolutely sure cannot be used as a weapon of war. If we can't, then we will scrap this solution entirely. I will not advocate for letting better intentions slide again. We're doing it right."

With Wiz's proclamation, I began looking at the Kryptonian Birthing Chamber, changing it to… effectively cripple its abilities, and change it enough for… Enigmatic Engineering to kick in. It prevents people from reverse engineering my design.

Violette was very intrigued at the abilities of this tech, her background in genetic engineering and biological modification was invaluable in understanding and customizing this tech. Her opinion was personally divided between her religious disgust with the inefficiencies of the system, forging a child from only the genetic samples of the parents, and the limitations of using sample genetics in general, and not sanitizing a group into the more efficient set like several systems in the Mechanicus. But she was yearning to learn that it can make that prime genetic sample.

She took some time to explain Gene Seed in Space Marines, and I made a hard copy of the unrestricted version of this tech for the Warehouse. And cull any opportunity for that to work on our public release. This was not a super soldier program.

One change that we did look into was removing the limitation for the limitation that it couldn't access a database of traits. What we did was… admittedly it made me feel a little crummy, but as the League and I went around stabilized countries from their takeover of America and explained the whole mess of the Sterilization curse, we collected samples, millions of them, and as we expanded, announcing the incoming solution, billions of samples to make a human prime genetic template that we could use as a baseline to build a surface level form, restricted to the parent's forms. It was far more effective, both to prevent any future calamity's ability to wipe out the species.

It would take us took months to finalize a design, bug fixes for mass production, and human capable repairs. We learned that we would need to include alien genetics, and build primes for them as well when Martian Manhunter and Superman informed us that all aliens on the planet were affected as well. That sent us back to the drawing board, ensuring that any pod could do anything. Even with the depressing level of idiot-proofing we needed to include, it was the fun half of my attention.

Dealing with the people, and their new status was… problematic. Turns out, announcing that some lunatic made humanity sterile was… not well received.

"She's killed us!"
"Why didn't you stop her!"
"How is this possible!"

Batman apparently decided that given that I was releasing the Birthing Chamber to the public, I got to explain what it was, and why it was a requirement.

"Hello, as you all might be aware, the Justice League engaged a rogue Amazonian, she successfully cast a spell that was designed to sterilize the human race."

*What's This Do? (Titanfall) (200) Bought. Overflow. The Third 90Wisher (Girl's Frontline) (600) Remaining: 100 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

So first, I want to thank everyone for the positivity about my story. It's always hard to publish something new, and I really felt that about this one, entering a scene of such great stories. To those of you who want to see the power list I'm working with at the end of chapter 23 I give you:

Spoiler: Power List

Search "Bought" (61 hits in 1 file of 1 searched)
Engine-sister (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) Bought (100)
Canoptek Spyder (Necron) Bought (400)
Corruption Resistance (Essential Body Modification Supplement) Bought (100)
Strategy Trance (Brockton's Celestial Forge) Bought (100)
Blank II (Essential Body Modification Supplement) Bought (200)
Form Mastery III (Essential Body Modification Supplement) Bought (200)
Mental Resistance III (Essential Body Modification Supplement) Bought (200)
Wavestrength (NieR Automata) Bought (200)
Enigmatic Engineering (Stellaris) Bought (400)
Environmental Tolerance IV (Essential Body Modification Supplement) Bought (400)
Harmony (Generic First Jump) Bought (400)
Immunity (Draka Series) Bought (400)
THEY ARE MINE AND MINE ALONE (Medaka Box Abnormal) Bought (400)
Limits? (Generic Worm Fanfiction) Bought (600)
Stress Evolution (Factorio) Bought (600)
Don't Need A Team (Ace Combat) Bought (100)
What's An Engineer? (Brutal Legend) Bought (200)
From Parts of Bodies to Bodies of Their Own (Monster Girl Encyclopedia) Bought (400)
High Speed Creationist (The Weakness Of Beatrice) Bought (400)
HIVE PROCESSING (The Culture Minds) Bought (400)
Valkyrie Core & Frame (Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest) Bought (0)
Hangar (Ace Combat) Bought (50)
Titan Engineering (Titanfall) Bought (100)
Cranial implants (Warhammer 40k: Adeptus Mechanicus) Bought (100)
Tool box (Generic Factory) Bought (100)
Utility Mods (Dead Space) Bought (200)
Crafting Table (Minecraft) Bought (100)
Laboratorium (Light of Terra DLC 3 - A Grand Day Out) Bought (100)
Black Supercomputer (Lucy) Bought (400)
Custom Factory (Warhammer 40k: T'au Empire) Bought (400)
Tower of Sorcerae | Floating Isle | Moving Locations | Arcane | Sorcerae | A Memory Of The Face Of Creation (Lords of the Night - Liches) Bought (300)
Sack of the Maker (Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyo) Bought (100)
Magic MetaMaterials (With this Ring) Bought (200)
Provider chest (Factorio) Bought (100)
Stark's Blueprints (The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes) Bought (400)
Shadow Clones (Generic Naruto Fanfiction) Bought (100)
Gem furnace schematics (Dungeon Keeper Ami) Bought (200)
I Know Things (Marvel Cosmic) Bought (100)
Way of the Void Dragon (Warhammer 40k - Necrons SB Edition) Bought (400)
Terribly Clever (Dungeon Keeper Ami) Bought (100)
The Very Model of a Scientist Salarian (Mass Effect) Bought (400)
Fun in the Sun (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) Bought (100)
Medicine (Star Wars KOTOR) Bought (100)
Engineering Savant | Foresight of Ouros (Starcraft II - Co-Op Missions) Bought (1000)
Alchemy (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) Bought (100)
Slime (Overlord - The Series) Bought (100)
Equivalent Exchange (Minecraft) Bought (300)
Bonesinger (Warhammer 40K - Craftworld Eldar Jumpchain) Bought (400)
Old Patient Magic (Circle of Magic) Bought (100)
Craftsman III (Renegade Immortal) Bought (0)
Crafting Artisan (World of Darkness - Demon the Fallen) Bought (100)
Big Bada-Boom (Azeroth) Bought (100)
High-Frequency Manufacturer (Metal Gear Rising) Bought (300)
Soul Shards (Minecraft) Bought (200)
Pure Art (Destiny - Old) Bought (0)
Transmogrification (World of Warcraft) Bought (0)
Aesthetics (Anno 2070) Bought (100)
Infinitely Customizable (Dead Space) Bought (200)
Excellent Craftsman (In Another World With My Smartphone) Bought (200)
Resource Management (Empire from the Ashes) Bought (50)
Repair Savvy (Outlaw Star) Bought (100)

See if you can spot what he gets in 23.

As for the descriptions, for those powers, I'm going by a fundamentally minimized effectiveness outside of the text, and here's why.

Spoiler: Why

Concept Ball (Medaka Box Abnormal) (400)
When two combatants reach a certain level of power, fighting becomes a bit pointless. When both of you are Immovable Objects and Unstoppable Forces, you're just going to be pointlessly nudging against each other. Well, if you were equal you would be. But you're Not Equal. Whenever your own abilities that are meant to be without peer come into conflict with another such ability, yours trumps theirs. A blow that can pierce anything will tear through a defence that can block anything when you are using it. Your absolutes are more so, simply for the fact that you are the one using them.
Accentuate the Positive | Eliminate the Negative (Limitless) (900)
Accentuate the Positive (400)
You now have an immunity to side effects of a certain kind. A super cool sword that takes over the body of its wielder? It's not getting even an inch inside of you. A demon making a pact with you for powers? Well, he is inside of your soul, but he's now stuck, only able to fuel your new abilities like a glorified battery. This perk only protects you against sources of power from outside of your body, including combat drugs, artifacts, enchantments, magical pacts, items and other things you wield by giving you only the beneficial parts and leaving the rest behind. This comes with complete immunity to addiction.
Eliminate the Negative (500)
Now the immunity to side effects can affect internal things. Magic that may have drawn on your emotions to fuel its power now has a separate pool. Any drawbacks your powers, biological traits or magic systems may have held have been wiped away.

Eventually, he will pick these up, and I want these Capstones to be fundamentally game changing, as they deserve. Until then, His perks aren't firing on all cylinders. His defenses are good, damn good, but they are all flawed because they are all limited by 'locality'. An example: L33t, he was capable of building a device that overrode the Enigmatic Engineering once because the perk and L33t's anything once came into conflict, and the once overcame it was the 'local' force. Until these are rolled, in a fight of Absolute this and Unbreakable that, I've decided that the local force wins.

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a lack of desire: Chapter 23
Underlined = Only visible to Readers
I was simultaneously giving a dozen speeches in nearly a dozen languages across the world, with one or two members of the justice league behind me at each stop. It was trivial, but easily the worst part of my time spent. I was not comfortable with the massive number of eyes pointed at me while I explained how our technology would be distributed. We were going to set them up in any hospital trained and equipped for newborns. Maternity wards would probably be a massive priority for expansions over the next few months. I was quite shocked at the upheaval that the existence of the technology caused several communities, some outright trying to ban me from implementing them. I was willing to agree, and several areas and towns wouldn't have my machines by choice. Supergirl muttered several accusatory things about a Darwin Award, and after looking it up, I found that quite amusing.

This basic trend continued across most of the world, however, there were countries where that our setup would put them outside the reach of most people. Maternity wards aren't the most common thing in poorer or war torn countries, but Wiz had a good idea. A fleet of trucks, capable of visiting places far from medical care. Batman compared the idea to what the Traveling Healthcare Association does, and after some negotiation, we secured a partnership. We provided protection, medical supplies, and transportation to the THA. In exchange we got trained professionals to accompany the transport fleet.

We needed more medical personnel than they could provide, even dialing the machines to their fastest, it was still a six-month period we were spending everywhere, and the THA preferred to move faster than that. I was filling all of the remaining positions until the highly competitive rates that Wayne Medical was offering could bring in enough medical staff to replace me everywhere.

I would be able to step back from that program in about a year and a half given the current models.

Something that required more involvement was the decision Batman made on our stop in Jump City. After the conference, we were met by the Teen Titans. They were… interesting.

They walked up, looking for Batman when one of the me around for crowd management stopped them. "Can I help you?"

The mess of bright colors began, "We're here to speak with Batman."

I nod slightly, "And you are?"

"Robin. Of the Teen Titans."

Searching for them, "Local secondary enforcement. Not League affiliated. Interesting group you have here. I'll ask him if he has time."

Robin looks quite insulted, "He…"

I hold up a finger, calling for silence, as another of me actually does the communicating with Batman. He wants to talk to Robin alone. "Ok. Room 2, just Robin."

Robin is confused when a second of me walks up to escort him to that room, when they arrive, "I actually have several things to ask most of you if you're willing."

They look amongst themselves, and eventually, they agree. I take Cyborg and Koriand'r to rooms 3 and 4 of our little mobile meeting room hub.

*Gadget Master (007) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

Koriand'r was the more pressing issue, given Robin's conversation, and Batman's intention that the Teen Titans were going to become the first official satellite operation. "Hello Princess Koriand'r, I'm Damion Peramos, current social operations manager for the Justice League. How are you."

"I am well. For what did you wish to speak with me?"

"Batman is speaking with Robin about the Teen Titans becoming an official part of the Justice League, with our currently unstable governmental status we feel that expanding to several trusted groups is our best plan. There is one issue with that plan, and it concerns you."

She looks pained, "My… The Gordanians claim…"

I interrupt, "Princess Koriand'r, the issue isn't anything to do with anyone but you. You are the Temeranian princess. When you come of age, you will be the High Queen of an alien planet."

"Yes?" She says, confused.

"Incorporating you into a government law enforcement system in any official capacity is… socially problematic. So I would like to propose that you are instead acknowledged as a visiting head of state, with an official embassy."

She blinks, "I… am confused."

I frown, "By?"

"I am not… social..ally problem?"

I smile wryly, "Princess Koriand'r, you aren't a problem. Robin has accepted, conditionally, to have the Teen Titans represent the Justice League as a staging base here on the west coast. All I'm asking is that you, as the princess, or if you don't think yourself ready, a representative from Tamaran's government, speak with us about the establishment of an embassy."

"What is an embassy?"

I frown, "It's a building where people from earth can speak to your government, formally."

She nods, slowly, and says, "I will speak to Galfore about this."

I nod, and ask, "May I add my number to your communicator?"

She hands it over, and I add my information. "Thank you."

In another room, the conversation with Cyborg started… less well.

"Hello… do you prefer your civilian or heroic name?"

He looks at me confused, "I don't mind either, but I'm curious what this is about."

"Mr. Stone, Batman is going to ask Robin to have the Titans formally join the Justice League, as a satellite group. You would be acting as our representatives in this city as higher law enforcement, and social monitoring for most of the west coast. I needed to speak with you about the technology, and your potential involvement in that. First, I need to ask, do you want to remain as you are?"

He looks at me, red eye glowing, and regular eye narrowing severely. "What exactly do you mean?"

"You were injured in a car crash, and Dr. Stone used several… questionably legal techniques and technologies to save your life. The notes that the League has on you say…"

"Listen here." He interrupted, sounding pissed, "I am not some experiment! I…"

"Mr. Stone!" He pauses, "I am not calling you broken."

*Equivalent Exchange (Minecraft) (300) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Equivalent Exchange (Minecraft): You are a powerful Alchemist, able to infuse a Diamond with the power of Redstone and Glowstone to make a Philosopher's Stone. With such a stone in hand, you'll be able to create a Transmutation Tablet, allowing you to instantly convert matter from one form to another, possibly even converting ordinary dirt to valuable Diamonds... or even compressing the Diamonds further into Dark Matter or Red Matter.
Combining your transmutation skills with these exotic and vastly expensive forms of matter, you'll be able to produce Alchemical Chests with incredible volume, indestructible equipment with immense power, energy collector systems to generate additional resources from nothingness, and potentially become nearly immortal, burning vast quantities of resources instead of taking wounds.
Your powers are all incredibly expensive to use, and you won't be able to max them out in your time here (especially if you don't have any advantages in harvesting resources!), but the raw potential of this path exceeds all others.

I recognize this set of recipes as they return to me, and the lurking feeling that I messed something buried in that power, but I have a more immediate concern. I smile and send several of me to my warehouse to reawaken Ankh. "I am offering you to return to become completely human. No caveats, no experiments."

He looks at me, calming, but suspicious, "What's the catch?"

"You would be human. Only human. No mechanical enhancements, nothing. The notes I have suggest you don't like your current state, but if that has changed in the nearly 2 years the Teen Titans have been in existence, I will understand."

He looks at me, contemplative, "You're correct. Two years ago, and some days now, I would take that deal. But… my team needs me."

I smile, "I had hoped that you would say that. Now… we have 2 more conversations to have. The first, upgrades. To both you, and the tower."

He frowns, "Like?"

I extrude my Brainiac technology, offering him a small taste, "Cutting edge Kryptonian technology."

After a moment connected to my systems, he swallowed, excitement sparkling in his eyes. He smiles, "Let's talk."

I had several copies remain with Cyborg to talk shop about both his tech, and the tower's tech, as Batman and my public speaking team of me's left, I was approached by Raven.

"I… you're helping us?"

I frown at her question. "I am. Is there a problem?"

"I… Is the league aware of my issues?"

I frown, looking her up, everything the league has on her, "Doctor Fate made us aware of your half demonic heritage shortly after you arrived, but he determined you were not a large-scale threat, even if you went rogue. Is there something you would like to talk about?"

She looks conflicted, and mildly uncomfortable, "I… Ok. First, can you condense your aura? It's quite effective for your public speaking, but it's incredibly uncomfortable long term."

I blink, "I… huh?" What aura?

She looks at me, "You really don't know? You're burning enough energy keeping that aura active to ward a city."

I frown, "I don't feel anything."

She scoffs, and mutters, "I'm asking a novice for help. Perfect." She stands and glows slightly, the black aura visible around her, "I'm repelling your aura, can you feel that?"

I frown, "No."

She sighs, and the glow intensifies, it slowly extends towards me, and stops. "What?"

I blink, "Huh?"

"Your aura is hard."

I frown, "I don't know what that means."

She shakes her head, "It means you can help me. I'll explain later, but… in just over 2 months, I turn 16."

I frown, not knowing what that means. "When that happens, my father will use me as a portal to enter this dimension."

I frown, "So you want to not be here? Or do you want to look into severing the connection?"

She scowls, "It can't be severed, it's part of me."

I shrug, "Blood, soul, or more?"

"All of the above."

I frown, "That's a little harder."

"I need to not be here. Your energy appeared several days ago, from somewhere else, and parts of it disappeared, you can't control it at all, so you have another place. I'd… I want to see it."

*Old Patient Magic (Circle of Magic) (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

I nod, and take her through a nearby door, to my warehouse. Normally I would hesitate, but asking Doctor Fate about Trigon actually materializing in this plane would probably scour life from the planet.

She enters, and sighs, "This… this would work. Can I…"

"The day of your birthday, I'll come to collect you, and we can summon him here. Render his threat to earth impotent."

She smiles, "Thank you. I'll be in touch."

I nod, and she leaves. I sigh and call Violette and Wiz. With that handled, we can wake Ankh up.

Congregating at the chest, I open it and get him out. His green lines are gone, just his black carapace visible. I get out one of the enhanced ark reactors, and the converter that his drone was holding, and plug it in. Seconds of nothing pass, before green energy begins to glow from him again. I smile, as do Wiz and Violette. A few more seconds and he's standing again. "Hello again Lord. As I said, I will be fine."

I frown, "That's not the point. I'm glad you're back."

Ankh takes several minutes to absorb what I've been up to, "Lord, I wish to assist the half-machine in his endeavors. This 'Brainiac' has the most intriguing technology."

I smile, "Certainly."

And with that, we dispersed. All looking forward to the technological work.

Less so to the social requirements.

Time passed, and I experimented with Equivalent Exchange. I had ignored several systems last time, and while I benefited greatly from my focus, I want to see what it can really do. I felt Infinitely Customizable kick in when I recreated my tablet, creating… more of an upgrade than a modification. It allowed me to automatically pull the resources to make something instead of the object itself, and given that the effects of my powers did not carry through the transmutation, that was exceedingly helpful.

Externally, the first thing that finished was Cybrog's upgrades based on Brainiac's technology. He was still blue, as requested, but he was far faster. Antigravity upgrade to both him and his T-Car was appreciated, but I think the Variable Energy Band Cannon upgrade to his sonic cannon was his favorite new toy.

Shortly after that, Tameran had an official embassy on Titan's Island. Koriand'r did not appreciate the restrictions that were negotiated on her field deployments but eventually accepted that she was a princess, after much debate with her regent.

Around that time I found in my auto crafting was that the Klein Star I thought was the largest variety wasn't the end. Eventually, I did hit another limit, two whole tiers above the original, giving me, which I knew could be upgraded more. Even now, these were far more effective than the stars the ridiculously compressed stone. Eventually, from large scale testing, and generating a small volume of stupidly compressed, but also energized matter what I required. I needed Neutron Core matter and actually went to a Thanagarian black market supplier Hawlgirl recommended, but when it was done? Endless storage. I can store infinite EMC with the star. An interesting side effect was the realization what my chest system was extremely limited. One object at a time was… not as versatile as it could be. I discovered a set of programmable matter connected to the infinite storage orb and could produce any matter i could transmute, feeding into my factory like my tablet, but from the fabricators in my factory, eliminating waste to the individual point of EMC, and the downtime of returning excess materials.

Raven's request was… strange. She was glowing with interesting runes down her limbs, and Slade was an issue. For the Titans. He was working towards the death of the entire planet. We put specific laws in place about that, and I erased him a few days before her big day. Summoning Trigon wasn't nearly as difficult as I had thought it would be from Doctor Fate's books. Some blood here, some chanting there, and the power supposed to keep Raven from dematerializing, and he was there.

"Where am I?"

The massive red being was rather displeased that Raven hadn't brought him to earth. I was floating before him, and behind me were massive creations, my twists on Iron Man armor merged into the frame of an Aldari Avatar of Khane design, piloted by other copies of me. He was… disappointing all things considered. I was expecting that he would be more difficult before Raven explained that he drew his power from the damned souls of a realm. He had no power here, for there was only 1 damned soul here. Himself.

*Machine empathy (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

My avatars held him down, and I tried killing him with my crystals. It failed.

I was shocked, and Wiz commented, "He's not like the Entities, he's actually taken steps to shield his soul from harm. It's a common demonic tactic."

I frown, looking down at him, "Plan B?" We talked, and then something… unpleasant happened. One of my avatars was immolated. Instantly.

I looked down, and he was glowing. "Um… Raven?"

She looks at me, "I don't know!"

He stands, floating above my warehouse, waves of suits firing antimatter, and every frequency of energy I can produce at him in waves, and he shrugs it all off. "Did you really believe I was so weak!"

Red beams cut through the area between us, and he continues, "Did you truly believe that I could be defeated through that trickery! I am TRIGON!"

Legions of fire appeared in my void. Swarming inferno's the size of cars attacking. They couldn't hurt me, demonic fire wasn't new, but that didn't stop them from going after Wiz and Raven.

I forged Death into a spear. Arcane swam into it, and I threw it. Trigon didn't even flinch. "My daughter hasn't told you anything, has she? A demon can not be destroyed! We are immortal!"

I frown. That… can't be true. He can be defeated, somehow.

Raven protests, fields of black keeping her from the hellfire beasts, "Demon can be killed! You've done so yourself!"

"Yes daughter, I have. My power rendered the laws of existence around them, consuming them to further empower myself! I am unstoppable!"

I frown. If he consumed them, then the power is transferable. I forge more crystals, power siphoning attuned to him specifically, and set them off. Beams of red light burst from him, flowing into my crystals, and it looked to be working.

Then he smiled, the crystals warped under my control, burning into red shapes, before attacking Raven. She screamed as energy was sucked from her, "You don't seem to understand, her power is my power! I am undefeatable, all you are doing is delaying the inevitable!"

I scowl at him, shattering my crystals, and holding Raven. I sent her and Wiz outside, before facing Trigon again. "You can't kill me. You know this."

"Ah… I don't need to. Demons consume others to empower themselves, mortal. Your soul will be a fine snack before I follow my daughter back to our world, and consume it whole."

He wanted to eat me huh? That…might work.

Why not? I'm out of other ideas. I let my body blacken, my slime form coming out to try that.

He surges forward, and I expand. I had once asked Wiz how slime size works, and I learned that for a minor expenditure of magical energy, you can choose to expand from the natural smaller base form. It takes more energy the larger you get, which makes sense, but… It's not like I was short on magic.

*Synthesis: Rank 3 | Efficiency: Rank 1 (Atelier: Arland Trilogy) (1000) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

He grabbed part of me, and I surged over him like a river. He actually reacted as my gelatinous form expanded over him, first fear and disgust, but as I turned my acid down onto him, concentrating it, he began to yell in pain, and angry. Breams of magic from his eyes actually hurt. Cutting and boiling large chunks of me. It gave me pause to have maybe a third of my volume disappear in an instant, but his second pass didn't dissolve me. It hurt, I was boiling accord my entire frame, but I wasn't dissolving under the energy anymore. I smile internally, and force more and more of my slime into existence, eventually overwhelming him completely, his eye beams, and black fire bursting from his hands ineffective. He slowly withered as I consumed him.

Minutes of his dying screams echoed in my pocket realm, and I finally was done.

Standing on the roof of my Warehouse, I felt something about this place shift. It was subtle, but it was very real.

Then I knew what it meant. One of my external me needed some materials from here and went to make a door when the fabrication of the part extruded out to him.

All of me were shocked. I could extrude my Warehouse onto reality in controlled bursts, and use the massive area of my warehouse to teleport. Anything, anywhere.

Well isn't that useful?

Leaving the warehouse to the tower, I appeared near Wiz and Raven. "Ok. That's handled."

They look at me, and Raven demands "How?"

"Your father tried to eat me. I decided to return the favor."

She looks so confused, and then she turns to Wiz, "Demons can't be fully destroyed, but… when a Demon kills another, they absorb their powers, but literally absorbing him into this slime mass would be a magically significant enough death for the energy to pass onwards."

"But Demonic possession, and or the corruptive effects… no. I suppose that's not an issue. Is it?"

I smile, "I don't feel any different. I can extrude my Warehouse, which is awesome but it's not the strangest thing I've seen so far."

They look at me, "You can what?"

I frown, "I can extrude my warehouse. Like the entire thing was already a soul realm thing, but now I can extrude it." I bring out several things that were in there to demonstrate.

They both look shocked. Raven mutters, "You… Demons have spiritual planes that they can superimpose on the reality they are in. Set rules and domains, you are extruding yours to our realm. That might also explain how you killed him, if he was inside your soul already, then that's half the battle won."

I nod, not knowing how that helped. "So, explain how that all works."

She did. Wiz looked like she understood far more than I didn't, but it was very interesting nonetheless.

After that, everything was quiet for quite a long time. Years in fact.

*ENGINEERING ITERATION (Sunrider) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

The Birthing project had set up a viable next-generation, about 44% of people who wanted children had them. We actually had a fairly serious immigration problem from low birth rate alien races who wanted in on that.

Our demands for peace in exchange for use of our technology were well received, and we quickly rose to prominence. Some of the league still had a more… aggressive outlook on policy and relations, but I was curtailing it to the best of my ability. The fact that they were subliminally programmed that way was brought up several times, but nothing I, nor my companions, could think of had any chance of restoring their initial personalities. We simply didn't have enough data on what Brainiac did, because he didn't totally know. Experimental technology from somewhere in the stars.

On a local front, about a year into governing, something that I quickly learned that not even an army of clones can make interesting, Ankh and Cyborg got me a present.

Psimon. They brought him in, to help me get my memories back in full. It was… surprisingly easy actually. He rolled over at every movement Ankh made. I deliberately wasn't going to question what Ankh said to him, but I could see that he wasn't tortured, or brainwashed by any discernible metric. He said quietly, "Psimon says remember."

I was quite confused when nothing happened. I pushed, hoping that maybe it shook at least something loose.

Dedicated intent to regain Knowledge of Realm registered. System restriction of memory disabled. Energy gain halved from all sources. Threat's allocated.

Memories flooded back into me, emotions tying into everything I had seen here, and everything before as well. Foggy in places, sharp in others, natural memory, no modifications my recordings could delineate. I… so when I tried to cheat the system's restrictions, the system worked around me. That's… incredibly interesting, but equally annoying. Note for the future, don't try exploiting my superpower granting system.

Then I remember everything else. I was a Justice Lord. That's… trippy. Bringing everything I knew forward, I focused on a plan. Darkseid was… problematic. His armies were legendary, and I didn't have any information on him. The Justice Lords were dealt with, but the Injustice League, and potentially Crysis were still waiting to rear their ugly head.

What do I focus on? I… selfishly, I want to know what the points I get for defeating them look like.

Threat Checklist access allowed: Darkseid formally 1000 points, currently 500. Points loss for pre-insertion information. Anti-Universal Invasion not registered. League of Villains formally 500 points, currently 100 points. Point loss for dimensional separation and for per-insertion information. Justice Lords formally 1500 points, currently 0 points. 500 gain due to high risk insertion, loss from removal of threat.

I frown. Ok… so the Anti-Monitor isn't registering as a threat, which… ok. I can deal with that. So, Darkside. His teleportation method is already handled by the League. Monitoring and the regulation towers that Batman made a priority due to Intergang's possession of the tech from their former dealings with him.

Then I remember what the war with Darkseid was actually like and I wondered. Did I need to really go to war with him? In the comics, he was willing to be on the front lines, and Superman could handle him if given any real opportunity. I'm not as strong as Superman, that is basically given, but as far as ignoring damage from hits, I'm more than his equal.

And… I have both Bonesinger and the Tau factory scaled up to a full Dreadnought. Upgraded, combined strengths of the Aldari and Tau. Warhammer was not fair to fight without being Warhammer. Let's do this.

I brought Wiz, Violette, and Tiamat back to the warehouse for a bit and apologized for the distance that formed between us. Looking back at the last year, we hadn't interacted much outside of work, because I didn't feel like I knew them. That was a mistake and one that I would correct immediately.

I took a day off, spending time with each of them, just relaxing.

Wiz and I sparred, magic and minions were thrown around, and it was a lot of fun. She was very annoyed when I matched her magical output in the first round and didn't go any higher, but I was firm, this was training, if I couldn't beat her without throwing a thousand times the magical energy at her, then I wasn't training. It was a lot of fun, something I hadn't done much of this last year.

Violette and I just talked. Just stuff at first, how she was enjoying pushing her specialty to its limits with the Birthing chambers, and while I expected some level of loathing for the artificial crippling of the final product, reflecting in my own distaste for shoddy workmanship, she was actually very understanding. In the Imperium civilians were not allowed military or Omnisaia forbid, the restricted Mechanicus technology that she worked on. She was very used to giving civilians the barest working product because otherwise, they might do something stupid with it and get a few billion people killed. No, she was having more of an issue with this planet being a reflection of Terra. She didn't have an issue with Worm nearly as much because she had an alien threat to work against to keep Earth safe, but now? Keeping aliens safe from people for the betterment of Earth was… a strange set of objectives for her. I could acknowledge that. Our conversations turned heavier at that, and into the topic of what my Void Dragon perk meant for her. And her continued worship of the Omnisaia.

Way of the Void Dragon (Warhammer 40k - Necrons SB Edition): Technology is but one facet of the Materium, but you are its master. The Void Dragon's grasp of technology was the very inspiration of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and you retain a similar level of skill. Imperial Guardsmen will flee in terror as their tanks turn against them, the once loyal drones of the Tau will gun down their owners without hesitation, and you will laugh all the while.

She began with a statement that I found quite inspiring. "While the study of the Omnisaia may have been founded on the research of the… C'Tan you called it?" I nodded "The C'Tan Necton Xenos called the Void Dragon, that information isn't what the worship means to me. The Omnisaia, as I have come to worship it, is not about the worship of the ideals and powers of a long dead ruler. My worship of the Omnisaia is about improvement. The improvement of the human body whose form is nearly universal to sentient species across the cosmos, and its improvement past all shortcomings with technology. Knowing that the old dead gods of the Necron happened to be the initial spark of that ideal isn't important to me."

I smile, her conviction infectious, "All one needs to engulf the world is a well placed spark."

She smiles back, and we returned to lighter conversations.

Tiamat and Ankh were both at completely opposite ends of the spectrum for totally digital life forms.

*Applied Phlebotinum (Honkai Impact Third) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

It wasn't remarkable many times, but when it was? It was startling. Neither of them was really up for the whole, 'day off' thing, Tiamat felt it was irresponsible given our responsibilities to everyone, and Ankh felt it was illogical given that he had no need to stop, therefore stopping was illogical.

However, convincing them to do so was somehow the exact same argument. That we were having team bonding.

Ankh agreed that command system integrity was more important than his current assignment, and I wasn't totally sure about the story there, but I assume it's something to do with his former attachment to a Hive structure. Tiamat agreed that our communication had been… floundering in the time I spent mind wiped and that reconnecting was important. I was… mildly amused at that concept all things considered.

Tiamat and I spent most of the time kinda working. With my access to information about what might be coming, the potential threats of the League of Evil performing presumably the whole 'reset the universe in their image' scheme that they were famous for, and Darkseid's… being Darkseid, we wanted projections against large scale attacks on our location. Ankh learned that Tiamat and I were spending our 'day off' working and joined us. We spent the day tinkering with the bigger aspects of Harmony and created a basic prototype of an Anti-Matter disruption field.

Using a very light field effect, we were capable of programming Antimatter to only detonate when it comes into contact with specific things. We needed to program targets on the fly, and generating the stuff was a massive pain, given that we would need billions of tons, and up till now, the most I'd ever needed at one time was the nearly 4 grams required for our Hydra ships.

I was going to base the design on Sting's massively defensible field, but learned, and was exceedingly annoyed at the fact that everything in my Valkyrie frame was destroyed when I left Worm. That would have been fantastic to know ahead of time.

Valkyrie Frame storage was removed due to potential overflow reduction procedures.

I frown, 'What exactly does that mean?'

Potential Overflow calculation is based on available abilities and information not acquired from Starmapping, in conjunction with Starmapping speed as a fraction. Possession of experimental weapon designation: Sting Bud 1167844; Siberian Projector was not acquired via Starmapping. Companion Registered: E1; Wiz was not registered through Starmapping. Ability: Dimensional Exposure Rend Projection; Demonic Realm Formation was not acquired via Starmapping. Realm travel where percentage preparedness due to non-Starmapping gained abilities exceeds half reduces power gain by rounded up fractions no reduction, half, quarter, eighth, and tenth. {DC}_{General Summation} is registered preparedness of .76 external functions, reducing Starmapping speed to one quarter. Willing reduction in empowerment removes limitation. Willing reduction in external bonuses removed limitation.

I slowly read and reread that exclamation, and some things make quite a bit more sense than they had before. I had lost my memories because I knew this place far too well, and… I do. Knowing about the incoming threats and their powers was a massive boon. Knowing the names and approximate capabilities of their armies was a massive boon. I remember enough military quotes to know that knowing who, where, and more than a little of how my enemies would be attacking, recognizing some of their most devious infiltration attempts on sight, and knowing exactly what to check for? That was literal gold in any conflict. And I had it all.

At least I know why the system was functioning the way it does now. It scales the points I gain as a generalization of how much of a leg up I am when I show up in a realm.

I change my focus away from that because eventually, my day off was over.

And of course, the world was on fire. Well… southern Greece but… yah.

Entering the situation room with Batman and Wonder Woman waiting for me, I begin, "So… I know that I said that you shouldn't contact me except for another end of the world, but that was hyperbole."

Batman scowls at my joke, "We aren't incompetent. We can handle this."

I turn to Diana, "I watched your Mother's broadcast. She recalled you from the world of Soulless abominations that we have become and only bothered to tell us why because of her strange interpretation of honor. Do you have a statement?"

She looks… pained. No other way to put that expression, "I'm not going. I… this…"

I frown, "I hope no one has asked you to fight your people."

"No. I chose this. I chose to defend the world of men from all comers, and when those attackers are the Amazons… It's hard."

I nod, slowly, and turn to Batman. "Where are they?"

He pulls up a map, and I nod. "Send me down. They can't exactly harm me, and I want to have a talk with Hippolyta before I do anything drastic."

He blinks, so does Diana. "You are going to negotiate?"

I smile, "It worked out so well when I went to Bialya, they still have the lowest crime rate in the world."

Bruce frowns, "I'm thinking of the new Markovian sea." He stressed. Diana looked even worse.

"This isn't a Markovian situation. No mass kidnappings, no illegal mass metahuman breeding program, no illegal usage of my technology to breed metahuman armies, not even an obviously corrupt politician using his power to avoid facing actual punishment. Just some armed rebels who don't understand what kind of nest they've kicked. I'll be back before sundown."

Bruse nods. Diana gives a small nod as well, whispering "The Athenian Parthenon. Athena's most prominent holy site." They both firmly remember that I have an ethical line, and crossing that ends violently. Hippolyta hadn't crossed that. She declared war on the entire world and arrived slightly less than 20 minutes later in Athens, with her army on flying horses.

She took the city, surprise, and magic allowing them to actually hold against the Greek military for the last few hours. Then their magical defenses, recreated from Themyscira, were keeping them from retaking the city. The Boomtube pierced that field like it does nearly every other defense, and I arrived to be surrounded by spears. "I'm here to negotiate with Hippolyta ."

The spears jabbed into me, and I sighed, "Listen, this isn't working. And I really don't want to have to hurt anyone. How about you just let me talk to Hippolyta ."

They were… less than cooperative, so I foamed them. Tiamat had recreated the formula for mass distribution, something the PRT had forbidden before, something she long suspected was due to its effectiveness compared to conventional weapons. And on the Amazons? It was just as effective. Superman didn't have an issue with it, but Diana needed help if an entire limb was submerged. And I could flow through it as a slime, meaning I could use it liberally in fights that I wanted to avoid killing anyone.

Advancing into the Parthenon, the Amazons advanced, swords and spears drawn, and waves of pale-yellow goo entrapped them all until I found the women from the video. "Hello, Queen Hippolyta. I'm here to negotiate."

*Thirty Thousand Seeds (Desolate Era Part II - The Chaosverse) (800) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a simple solution: Chapter 24
Underlined = Only visible to Readers
The Queen of the Amazons looked up at me, as I stood atop the small mountain of Containment Foam that I had imprisoned her warriors with. "You forged the…"

I interrupt, "Honestly, if not for Diana, I wouldn't be speaking to you. I'd have burned you, your island, and everything else that you chose to bring with you into a fine ash. Your barrier couldn't stop me if you tried. I'm here because I respect Diana. Despite the massive amount of personality damage, and her crippling fear of what that has made her, she stands tall defending this world, and was even willing to fight you if it came down to it."

She looks stunned at that last tidbit. After a moment to collect herself, "I am aware, but you need to be seen as benevolent."

I chuckle, "No. I really don't. By the actions of one of your warriors, I am the exclusive progenitor of the continuation of the species. I have eradicated naturally occurring cancer from every human born for the rest of time. I have rendered the organ donor waiting list empty for the first time since the invention of the organ transplant. I am the face of medical treatment across the globe. You attacked a civilian center with a magical army and are killing military and civilians alike if they are men and all women who resist. I would have to spend about thirty seconds n front of a camera, with Diana standing behind me, and I could wipe your species from the face of the world without the public so much as hesitating to call it heroic. Because in all fairness, it would be given your actions today. Now, let me tell you what we are going to discuss. We are going to discuss your immediate, and total surrender, and your new governing structure."

"Never."

I frown, "Tell me Queeny, who takes over if you die? The magical line of succession is quite important to your people, and your defensive magics. Who?"

She frowns, "Diana would be cast from the line the moment she raises a sword towards us."

"Fortunately, she's in space, being a pacifist. Now, I'll take that answer, Diana does. Now, your soldiers, the vast majority of them who are created from clay, magically created, and totally subservient to Diana. Her assent to the Queen ends this war in a single command. So I'm going to ask you again, now that you understand the stakes. Do you wish to negotiate? Or do you wish to die?"

She looks at me, "What are your demands?"

I smile, "That's the right choice." Then I cast a massively potent sleep spell. I called Batman, and… I checked which hero is technically in charge of Greece, and frown. Wonder Woman can't be impartial, but Mr. Zatanna in Italy, or… huh, apparently Raven's work with Plasmius had been very successful, I hadn't heard, given that he was our local heroic liaison to Germany. Them, and the civilian governments attached to those countries, would deal with reparation calculations, and Hippolyta would face justice in court. Another step to ensure that I wasn't running some kind of hit squad, or worse an Inquisition.

Calling them, and filling them in on my involvement, I returned to the Watchtower and spoke to Diana. "So, your mother was arrested. She will face a fair trial, and no warriors were killed during my intervention."

She smiled, "Thank you. But… how? She attacked Greece, who's impartial about that?"

"If I'm correct? Citizens of most non-European countries. It's only been a year since we took over, and there are still countries, not just Earth, so people far removed. I'm thinking of letting the Australians, and or some of the islands around there. They were the last group to need to extradite the trials for the same reasoning. Croc Hunter was a nasty case."

She nods, the half-alligator serial killer was a mess, but more than anything, he was annoying. And I hated that he named himself after a crocodile. When he said that he knew he was part alligator when he named himself I nearly slapped the man.

Sitting down to the thousands of pamphlets of paperwork Batman left me to deal with, I sighed. I took six hours off, I shouldn't have this much paperwork.

Well… I suppose we did have a massive city burn down. And… Japan was attempting to claim a crater on the moon? Huh?

Reading through that packet I frowned. Apparently, Japan was partnering with Palmertech to launch a biodome into space to colonize the moon. And the US was trying to beat them to it by requesting Superman do it. And Australia had already put the dome in orbit with the help of the second Green Lantern, Guy Gardner.

Ok, sure. 'Why is this my job?' I mone depressedly into the emptiness of my office.

After the debacle with the moon formally resolved and the ink was dry registering the moon as an independent nation, we had our next catastrophe. And it wasn't an alien invasion. Well, a violent alien invasion. Turns out, someone in the interplanetary community leaked that we had access to the Kryptonian Birthing Pods, and were capable of tuning them to alien species. Turns out, that's quite the tourist trap.

It started simply, Hawkman brought his sister to Earth. Her and her husband were struggling, and he had offered my assistance. "He said that you could help me… conceive."

I look at him, and he goes red, "I… it didn't translate well." Hawkgirl gave him some light hearted ribbing, and I escorted them to our alien friendly Birthing Pods. Every National capital got one of these far more advanced machines. When they recognized the crystal computers, they were shocked, but at the time I didn't think anything of it. I walked them through the procedures and offered a hotel. They turned that down, they would come back, and I shrugged that off too.

Two weeks later, I regretted the casualness of my demonstration. Hundreds of couples, mostly composed of Thanagarian, Muscarian, and Farfarmniflatch arrived in enough ships that the Watchtower's auto shields went up, which was almost messy.

*Organic Database (Starcraft - The Zerg) (600) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

I split into many copies and divided them amongst the capitals of the world, the most accepting peoples having the least humanoid alien arrivals, and began the process of getting a few thousand couples registered, formed the beginning of the 'primes' for species that I had a wide enough gene pool for, and offered to set them up locally. And with my new fascination for genetics, from the Zerg, I was collecting them for myself as well.

Unfortunately for me, more than a few accepted. Because I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up. It took about an hour for a problem to crop up.

A Muscarian nearly killed someone. Through no fault of his own, it is important to note. He went to a store and spoke to an employee who was allergic to mushrooms. That… didn't end well. For anyone. He was apologetic, but the cashier that needed to be hospitalized wasn't exactly accepting. I covered everything and began the production of something to try mitigating that. I started out trying to make some kind of particulate filter, to prevent the inhalation of anything that wasn't clean air, which in theory was a perfectly functional solution. Then… well there was the human element. No one wanted to wear the facemask, and given that they were allergic to the aliens… well, that didn't take off.

Tiamat came back with an actually functioning solution. Removing the disease, not the reaction. More directly, a wearable bracelet that cures allergies. Advanced RNA and nanobots guiding them could remove allergies from a human genetic code in about 11 months. I was confused at that employment time initially before I recognized that there is the small issue that no matter how much DNA you change now, the cells already around and the ones currently being created still have the old DNA. You need a vast majority of cells that react to the allergen negatively to be remodeled, and this was the only feasible way of doing that was to wait for the body to do it for us.

That was unsurprisingly popular, given that Tiamat was a popular face on Earth. She had taken quite well to this new Earth. Sociable, kind, and nearly omnipresent in every kind of online chat room, and forum. She was moderating most of them and screening predatory crime. She loved helping everyone she could, and when I moved her to my Lucy computer, it was almost like plugging her into a Machine Spirit. Unlimited power wasn't a lie. It was unlimited, and she tested that at every opportunity.

She was instrumental in the establishment of an alien currency exchange. Wiz was handling the physical meetings as they were required, and Violette was loving all the new genetic data we were collecting, from both the Allergy Bands and the alien genetic testing. Ankh was almost completely disinterested in the organic reproductive, and social aspects, which isn't strange, but when a Tchk-Tchkii arrived for genetic screening and all but demanded to speak with them whenever possible. The uncanny physical resemblance, and that I know about the Scarabs… they might be the same species. Humans exist across the multiverse, why not them.

I was putting out fires, and running into every situation of cultural friction, and doing my best to smooth it out. And apparently, some connection between my newly acquired Starcraft perk, along with the modification skill from, added to my I Know Things, or maybe just my understanding of the Birthing Pods, made any conversation about them bring that out. It's massively effective, cutting through arguments and convincing skeptics. I smile at the thought of having a Master Effect that requires me to be telling the truth and know what I'm talking about.

Superman, more specifically, Clark and Lois were looking into having a child. When they went to the tower, I learned that Superman didn't have a binary helix. He had a hexadecanoic structure in its place. 16 sets of base pairs, the Kryptonian genetic prime, encoded directly in his every cell, it was quite useful data. But unfortunately, I needed to put that aside for now, even as Violette looked into what it meant, I explained, "So, Clark… you might not be aware of this, but you don't have genetics capable of supporting human hybridization. It's possible but it would be a massive, specialized project. I can do what I'm doing for most humans, imposing an exterior form onto a genetic prime, but they wouldn't be human. At all. On the flip side, I could do the same with a human genome exclusively. Or we can look into a simplified Kryptonian genetic pattern. Effectively a surrogate. All three have issues, but that's all the options I can give you."

He looks to Lois, conflict visible, and they take several minutes alone to eventually decide. A full Kryptonian. I nodded as I set the process into motion for them. It felt both right and mildly disconcerting. Knowing what I know about Krypton, this was all but a return to form for their species, and that this was such a simple process for the creation of someone as strong as a Kryptonian could be.

As far as our alien tourism industry went, after weeks of putting out fires, I delayed any massive problems enough for actual laws to be drafted, and systems to be put formally in place. It was fantastic to let others deal with the ever growing cultural interchange. That's not to say that I didn't still need to intervene on occasion, but the troublemaking ship of Infernians was met by the Justice Lords.

As it turns out, Wonder Woman thought that up. She spent a few years with Bruce in the 1400s due to a Toymaker… toy about a year before I arrived. The Flash went to get them when Bruce sent him a letter. Encased in glass, in a box that was being excavated from the tomb of Saint Diana, by Waynetech's archaeology division the week they were shot.

*Blacksmith (Generic Xianxia) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

Super Detective powers, activate!

The political nightmare that I feared would arrive did when the Tamaranian Embassy offered to trade for the rights to use our Birthing machine on a… well… an interplanetary civilization scale. He announced that deal to his planets, resources, the beginnings of a technological exchange, and I would create a species prime before beginning mass births, in exchange for use of a device I wasn't charging anyone for. Well… we had implemented planetary tariffs, and a small percentage tax on currency exchange, but that wasn't new for this deal. His allies and more particularly enemies had… mixed reactions.

Many less hostile systems sent emissaries and established Embassies to pay for the usage, and we had lots of, "That's not necessary." "Oh but it's a donation…". Turns out, political corruption was about as prevalent as taxes. The more hostile systems attacked Earth, or demanded that the Green Lanterns stop our 'soldier factory'.

And so, here I am, once again, in front of a press conference talking about my Birthing Pods. Fortunately, Wonder Woman was speaking. After realizing that my I Know Things worked through live media, we decided that I was no longer allowed to address people live. But I was going to step in to answer questions about the technical aspects if they are asked.

"We thank everyone for coming. It's an honor to host representatives from every corner of the known universe. Today, I'll be explaining the general usage of the Peremos Birthing Chambers." All of my freeze for a moment, and I'm sure Batman can feel the glare I'm sending him from my positions behind the stage, and in the crowd, and basically everywhere not on camera for trillions of aliens. I will get you back for this. "Firstly, this deal does not mean we are charging for the usage of the birthing pods. However, certain considerations and availability are being lifted for the Tamaranians. These are a short term ban on usage while data is compiled, and more direct access to gene options that are irreverent to any individual couple."

An interruption, from the… oh, the Vernathian representative. That's not surprising. "And what benefits do they receive?"

Diana frowns, "Save your questions for the end, however, that was my next point. The Tamaranian government now has access to the basic genetic predispositions of their citizens for social purposes."

The Tameranian representative stands, "What kind of information?"

Diana sighs, and looks at me. I stand, and a buzzing begins in the crowd, "I'll clarify, the Human and Tamaranian governments now can request the genetic data of any citizen of either signature under suspicion of criminal activity within the known borders of their territory. This is not a 'that person' situation. If criminal investigators can present your DNA then we will have a match. That is all the access that can be gained without personal or parental consent."

The buzzing continues, and Diana steps back forward. "Thank you, now…"

The Vernathian demands, "Why is some human able to speak for this technology? Isn't it Kryptonian?"

I sigh, standing again. "I am Damion Peremos. I am currently the only person in this universe capable of creating the computers required to create these pods. Now, you will be escorted out." Several cameras turned as 2 of me walked over, and escorted him out. He resisted, and guns were drawn, "Cease your futile resistance." He pauses in the face of guns appearing and is escorted out.

Diana continues, "Now, as many of you might not be aware, the Kryptonian gene mapping was capable of making people more fit for certain tasks. Mathematicians and Scientists; Lawyers and Judges; Engineers or Soldiers. Tameranians, through their deal with us on a civilization scale, are capable of requesting something similar."

The room erupted. Protests and yelling abounded, and I drew my most effective weapon. Feedback. After a few seconds of mind numbing noise, I gave Diana back the microphone. She continued, "Yes, this is a massive boon, however, given that they are paying for this service, Damion, and the other Lords felt that this was the best offer we could make for them. However, the Tameranians will not be able to request the Soldier base genetics. All the Lords agree that this is not a war machine, and he refuses to see it become one. Military hardwiring is both an attack on the child, being destined for warfare, and we do not allow that." Her stern glare silenced any complaints.

"Replacing that is a simple general enhancement, rather like what Humans have simply due to the large DNA set he has to work with. With this 'prime' template, the pods can create a child at the upper limit of what a species is capable of, physically and mentally, without any career biasing, or programmable instincts. This benefit was only discovered after most of the human population had already been scanned for the creation of their children, and supposedly, he is approaching the required DNA saturation with the Thanagarians as well."

I cough, "No. I recently learned that the Thanagarians are far more genetically diverse than humans, and the prime is farther out than I estimated." Their gene treatments for soldiers boosts uniformity and is like a C-grade prime template, but the civilians, and the partial interbreeding on other planets… it's a mess.

She nods, "Correction, it's progressing, but not near completion. Regardless, any species who have a large enough sample size entering into the system will have such an advantage, but the Tamerainians have it established before large-scale usage, near their embassy."

A moment of silence, and I stand, knowing what's coming, "Now, Damion and myself will take questions."

Hands erupt, and Diana selects people. The Kahloans representative looks… yup, he's stoned. Why? "Will… will this prime template give us any chemical resistances?"

I frown, "Potentially. It will limit the effectiveness of anything the body processes as toxic. Poisons, various chemicals certainly." He looks upset as he sits down.

Diana points to the Barrions, a species of sentient Barrionic crystal, representative. "Does this… birthing pod have any allowances for non-organic races?"

I frown, "Not currently. If the child doesn't grow in a way that I will put bluntly as traditionally organic, then I can't assist. I can look into that possibility."

*Ancilla (Forerunner Saga) (450) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

The Astonian representative, one of the groups that 'donated' to our cause, asked, "What do you say to people who offered large sums of money to be given access to these capabilities, and are learning they are free?"

I smile, "That I am willing to accept gifts. And that I don't take bribes. Is there something you would like to admit to?"

She blinks, blushing an interesting blue color, "Then what are your thoughts on recovering from near-extinction level events?"

I nod, "I will not be mass creating children of any species without someone to speak for them, to care for them. The idea of my Birthing Chambers being used to fill orphanages is a horrifying one and one that I will not stand for. However, if a couple in an endangered species desires, and can support more than one child, then I will not object to them having additional children."

Diana actually gets to field the next question, our token human asked, "If a couple desires a child of different species? What about them?"

Diana looks alarmed as she begins, "The Justice Lords have put several controls in place to prevent someone from abusing our system."

"That's not what I asked…"

I sigh, and everyone turns, "The system will not accept genetics removed from someone off site. The sample needs to be from a living host. If there are even traces of alternative chemicals, I will be alerted, and the room will seal. If anything is off, I start arresting people, for illegal narcotics or for kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, attempted grand theft, and attempted violations of alien crossbreeding and trafficking accords put into place by the Green Lantern Corps. They have a rubber stamp with my face on it for anyone I send to them from my chambers. One thousand and nine years in prison. You are welcome to go for it. I'll wait. However, if a consenting party is present, and wished to allow the couple with a child not of their own species, I will not argue with their decision, provided I see some evidence that the child will be properly protected and cared for."

Murmuring begins, and is silenced by my next question, "Are there any intelligent questions?"

The press conference petered out quite quickly after that.

I continued to expand the Birthing Chambers as more and more aliens came forward. As the demands leveled out to my supply, I began really looking at the prime data. I remembered a few days ago that I had once promised Wiz an organic body. I called her to ask. "Wiz, I just remembered back on your world when I offered you a regular body again. Was that something you still wanted?"

There is a long pause, and eventually, she begins, "I wouldn't hate it. But how? The birthing pods? Growing a new me?"

I explain, "Kinda. I was going to be focusing on optimizing anything you wanted, and maybe a bit of defensive upgrade or some additional magical grounding."

She chuckles, "That sounds good, but try not to go too far overboard. I don't want to have any more arms."

I chuckle, "I can do that." Then I call Violette, "So Violette, I'm going to start working on getting Wiz a new body. Do you want to help?"

"Of course!" She replied, "So what's your plan?"

I explain, "I'm going to screen the alien genetics for the best options for defense, endurance, and speed. Magic isn't in most genetics but I'll look. I would love to put some scrubbed DNA from Trigon, but it's just not safe. It causes too many errors and damage to anything else."

"Wouldn't Raven be a safe option?"

I blink. "I can ask. I hadn't considered her, or… what about the rest of the metahumans? Metahumans have developed many genetic abnormalities that our enhanced version of the Birthing Pods can handle."

Violette hums in approval, "I'll work with Tiamat to make a list. Limits?"

I chuckle, "Nothing too crazy. Growing new limbs, tails skin alterations and such are off the table."

An acknowledging "K" ends the call.

About an hour later, I got a file, a set of genetic maps, diakinetics, energy nullifiers, and a few different cryokinetics. Limiting the powers of several of them to remove the physical alterations, I'm left with a massive array of cryogenic abilities, and call Wiz. "Ok, we have the background data, ready to start."

She doors to me, and we start. I start with an exact copy of her and leave her to change the appearance. Once she sets that in, the noninvasive skills, and such, she sighs. "I said not too much."

I shrug, "Honestly, this is toned down from my initial set. The shapeshifting covers a lot. So does the general invulnerability. The secondary ice powers complement your normal style, and the fact that we are using the surgical nanite function to engrave the empowering runes onto the bones, and the secondary reinforcement."

She looks at me, "Like I said."

I sigh, "Wiz, Tiamat has backups. After the mess with my memory, Violette and I have full consciousness backups here. You don't have that. If someone kills you, you die. I…"

"I know." She whispers, "I'll do it."

I frown, "Wiz… Sorry, I didn't mean to unload like that. I just…"

"You were a mess after Ankh hibernated, you knew he was coming back, and you were a mess. I… know how I felt when you didn't recognize me when we arrived here. I'll do it. And I'll get one of your implants. I… don't know what I would do if any of you died either."

I nod painfully. We were a family, and it would hurt to lose anyone.

Wiz took the day off, and at the end of it, we used a fairly nasty soul binding curse to move her from her lich body to her new one. The less messy, and dark oriented soul transference spells required a willing target, and I wasn't going to wait a few months for Wiz's body to grow a personality in its fully functioning brain.

No, I can't explain how someone willingly giving up their body is magically 'lighter' than growing a new empty body and moving over. Something about the nature of magical consent that I'll never get. Or maybe it was the fact that the spell banished the technical soul from the new body, but… no one died in the making of this new body. That's the important part.

*Modular Designs (Dead Space) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

Overall, Earth, and therefore technically me, enjoyed an era of peace. Police could track people by DNA, truth serum quickly became a replacement for traditional investigation work, which my old appreciation for detective dramas didn't enjoy, but it also prevented anyone innocent of a crime from being punished. The police being given Containment Foam as standard equipment lowered the arrest standard a bit. Spray everyone, and no one was in danger any longer, and everyone could be given Truth Serum one or two at a time. It wasn't the crimeless utopia that I was hoping for, the 72% of crimes solved on sight, and the 94% of crimes solved with no injury were pushing that closer and closer.

Children who grow up in that environment, with the knowledge that their position was tracked constantly, and their genetics were already on file would probably end that altogether. The question of 'Surveillance State' came up, and I responded truthfully. "Governments are buying it from cellular providers." and the existential dread of that fact ended the conversation of governmental misuse quickly.

I spent most of my time experimenting with alien technology. I was summoned to listen to various meetings as either a neutral representative or as an Earth representative fairly commonly. Apparently the 'Saint of Childrearing' means 'Neutrality' somehow.

Also, I was awarded Sainthood. That happened. I was not amused when the UN started using it for my public appearances. I learned that a representative from Markovia started it when he referred to me as the 'Freeing Saint'. A name I got when I killed their previous dictator, a monster of a man who stole the powers of Metahumans for himself and set himself up as a divine king. He used a life draining/connecting power on his own people to sustain himself in combat, and I threw enough Arcana and focused explosive magic at him for it to chain through the people he was draining. Carved a 44 kilometer hole in the countryside where the capital used to sit. It was filled with ocean water from the massive amount of water he was using, and I purified it from poisoned and salted water into fresh water in an attempt to prevent an ecological disaster. The people of the country who lived through the disaster started calling me a saint for killing the fake god.

The Astonians also started calling me a saint for the public usage of the Birthing Pods, and the preservation of almost a dozen races across the galaxy through my willingness to share the capability.

I tried to lose the title, I did, but then someone did something stupid. They tried to summon Trygon, who was busy being super dead and got Belial instead.

He destroyed most of southern Gotham before Dr. Fate, Raven, and I could arrive, and imprison him. Given the collective power we wield, it wasn't actually hard to do. Then, as an agent of Order, Dr Fate tried and utterly failed to kill him. Several times. Raven didn't want to risk taking his power, given her already tentative balance before the various media of the galaxy, so I sighed and consumed him like I did Trygon.

Apparently, killing one of the High Demon lords got the ball rolling officially. Ironically, I did learn some powerful light magic from Dr. Fate, along with Wiz now that she wasn't a 'necromantic creature' anymore. Subtle, Dr. Fate is not.

I apparently took to it quite well, but I think that's probably the effectively limitless power I can drop into a spell. Limits! has been interacting with Arcana since… well since I got it. My Arcana pool is something more like an unspeakable ocean. It's kinda neat to hear about the spells so massive only Nabu him...it? Self can cast alone, and just kinda… do it.

Wiz was massively jealous, and I tried to help with a Ring of Arcana. A high powered focus tapping into my magic as a source directly, but it… Wiz didn't appreciate reaching into my pool of magic. Apparently feeling what I had only made everything worse.

On the technical side of things, I did finally teach Supergirl how to read and run the more advanced Birthing Pods required to hybrid various alien races. Clark tried… but he couldn't get his head around the Kryptonian coding. I don't know which of those was the problem either.

Batman learned the maintenance just fine, apparently knowing more Kryptonian than Clark. I'm not sure if Clark, Kara, or I was the most surprised.

They were never going to get a 100% inorganic creature to work, I tried for a long time, but it wasn't happening without a massive overhaul, and giving them way more abilities than I was comfortable with.

As time passed, I admit, I grew rather impatient. I had never thought about or experienced a long stretch of time where 'do paperwork and keep innovation to a minimum' was the order of the day, but here I was. Then alarms began to ring out, some kind of unannounced breach into Earth's dimensional tearing, and a group suspiciously like the Justice League was sighted gathering on our side of one of the portals.

We were being invaded by the League of Villains.

I actually smile as I don my war suit. I'd been hoping for something for a while, and I remembered that League of Villains being separated by dimension, and their plan to remake all dimensions in their image. I teleported to the breach and smiled at the recognizable group.

"Well, it seems I've found the right place." Someone said, A massive black armor suit, red highlights glowing with a telltale glow of an arc reactor in a dozen glowing points across both shoulders. Unscannable reactors, materials, energy comparisons, everything. My custom built analysis tools failed completely on the armored shell. I could see the blue of the reactors, but my scanners were dying.

I frown and advance slightly, joined by most of the heavy hitters on the planet. This was something we had trained for, but… I had nothing on this suited man. That's impossible.

*The National Supers Agency (The Incredibles) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a crysis: Chapter 25
Underlined = Only visible to Readers
The black-armored impossibility advanced, and through Ultraman. The entire Crime League flickered and disappeared. The man continued, "Oh? Were you expecting someone else? Yes, the American Crime Syndicate was here. They were almost a challenge when I arrived, with nothing to my name. But now? Nothing the so-called Earth's Mightiest Heroes can throw at me is a challenge. And you all know it. But I'm not here for you… no. I'm here for him." He points at me.

I frown, "And who might you be?"

There is a long moment, and a laugh, bellowing out, almost angry before he retracts his helmet. "Why Damion? Don't you recognize me?"

I frown. "Should I?"

He growls. "I am the High King of Groclk! I am Banebringer Gronlkra! You destroyed my life!"

I blink. I turn to Superman, "Give me a minute." I approach him, armor brought to full, "And how precisely did you get here?"

"By the grace of Lady Aqua! After saving the realm, she banished you for the disrespect you showed her, when you had the temerity to live through her banishment, she saw fit to empower me, with the energy she took from you, to hunt you down like the mutt you are! My holy mission!"

I don't know how to deal with this. Aqua put a hit out on me. I'd actually forgotten about her, what with the whole… running a planet thing. I'm not actually surprised that she's that petty, but I am surprised she put in the work to find me. Self-preservation I guess.

Stepping forward, "Listen… Gronlka…"

"My name is King Gronlkra!"

"Listen here giant. Is this honestly a fight you want to pick? You do remember how our last fight went, right?"

"You're magic won't work on me this time. My armor is made of Powered Necronium, these Ark Reactors keep the field around me. I may not have magic, but within this field, neither do you."

I frown. Scanning his systems from the outside didn't work...so I tried cyber, he wasn't protected from anything resembling a cyber attack. I don't think he understood the term. His systems were mine in seconds, and spit him out of his armor. He… was a human. A normal human. He was all but my clone, laying on the ground a spike into his spine. I don't have a mental scanner, but I know that any time I tried forming into something that wasn't directly power granted was debilitating, I wonder how it was treating him. I step forward, scanning the suit's internal options, and frown.

This was it? This was… maybe two perks total. What did he do with the last… what? Year? More?

The system alert, and the massive shockwave that slammed into me less than a second later, said it probably wasn't.

I looked for what hit me, scanners pulsing and failing at the dimensional curtain. There was a crater where the dwarf was standing. Nothing remained.

Towering over the portal, stepping through the barrier, was an Imperial Titan forged half of seemingly molten metal, and half of glowing twisted metal.

Then a man walked through the portal. Visible volcanic black skin, eyes seemingly absorbing light with their darkness, barring the Omega symbol glowing in gold in the void eyes. 'That's Darkseid. King Moron, what did you do?'

He steps forward, voice booming, echoing, like thousands of men were speaking in one voice. "̸͘͜I̸͙͉͝ ̴̫͛Å̶͍M̷̙̑͘ ̸̞̋̋Ȏ̷̼̋M̷̢͓̎̆Ñ̴͉̃I̶͕̰͋͝C̷͎̮̀̏I̷̯̮͐D̴̛̺E̵̘̓!̵̢̩́́ I̷ ̷A̶M̴ ̷P̸E̵R̸F̸E̵C̸T̷I̸O̸N̶!̷ UNCHAINED BY THIS IGNORANT PEST I WILL CONQUER ALL!"

I stand, and his gaze falls on me. I have several clones cloaked with magic and leave. Just in case. "You don't need to yell."

He growls animalistically, "Who are you to stand before Omnicide?"

"I am Damion."

He smiles, "Ah, yes. The tall dwarf's target. Did you know that all who assist in your death gain favor with the supposed god Aqua?"

I sigh, "I don't doubt it. Now… what are you?" Darkseid wouldn't just rename himself. There's something more here.

He laughs, "This imbecile gave us his powers. The mighty Forge itself. With his powers, I merged my strength with the strength of every other version of myself! I have ascended beyond the power's of any one Darkseid, into the god of destruction! I am Omnicide!"

I frown. Darkside has the Celestial Forge. What does he have? How many points has he had it for? What are his restrictions and can I beat him?

'Focus!' I mentally demand as I force the world to slow to a crawl, allowing me to consider my options.

I have clones scrying back in my Warehouse, and they can see him, which means no Blank. My new supercharged understanding of biology at every level means that I can see his body breaking down from overproduction of whatever energy Omega powers run on. So he doesn't have any protection against that or any major regeneration effects. I can hack his armors, even that Titan behind him, meaning that he doesn't have any cyber protection on his tech. He can make Titans like that, meaning that he has the forge assisting him, I can detect… dozens at least. Not in multiples of five, each looks like it was built fast from the activation timestamps, but they aren't anything special for the Warhammer setting. Almost basic actually. Mostly nonexotic metals… that shouldn't be standing up to the weight, not moving that fast, definitely not with the tech running in them. Some kind of physics exemption? Not massive on any individual part but… every screw at double its sheer weight, every line of copper and gold somehow approaching superconductivity, it's a cumulation to exponentially more than the sum of its parts.

Some kind of multiversal portals obviously, and some kind of merging…ability. Matching and Mixing, the benefits of 1 additional object for every merging done. Darkseid times… what?

DC Multiverses are… strange. Sometimes fixed, sometimes not even a little fixed… let's assume the worst, and say that Darkseid is basically infinitely more powerful than normal. He's dissolving already, probably no protection… but how is that possible? I've rolled Protections a lot?

*Fashion (Highschool of the Dead) Bought (200) Bought. Overflow. Centurio Ordinatus (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

I mean, there's another one now. So how hasn't he gotten any? I let time begin again, and ask, "He gave you his powers? The ones Aqua gave him?"

He looks at me, "Yes, the twin galaxies of power she stripped from you. All mine!"

I blink. I realized his mistake, when I resisted Aqua, keeping my Warehouse, Companions, and Protections. My Valkyrie Frame, my Warehouse, all my warehouse given resources. They all come from my third major constellation. Meaning Darkseid doesn't have the Celestial Forge.

Well, he has most of the guns, most of the options to ruin someone else's day, but he's just as vulnerable now as he ever was.

"And she gave him a boon, to set him above his target, he gets to choose."

I feel the world slowing down again. Damion.exe takes a few subjective minutes to cry violently in the corner because really? That's… what the actual fuck Aqua? That's… huh?

My emotions settle in my brain as I process that nugget of information. He gets to choose, for free. Meaning that he chose the biggest flashiest tech and the specific hard counters to my known powers. That's unsustainable in the short term because saving for something big isn't actually a good plan especially given that you need the smaller powers to support the application or larger ones, almost like a mystic framework for the bigger jobs.

What are the odds he took a resource-gathering power? He can't get any fiat-backed infinite resource, no time crunching powers either. This… this is probably the sum total of his arsenal, out of sheer resource cost. That explains the minimized resources to actually support the mechs, given that the Imperium strip mines planets for the resources to build these. He had… well a theoretically infinite number of universes to mine, but Apocalypse isn't exactly rich in resources anymore, that's kind of the point of its endless wars. I thought so anyway. They do lose a lot of stuff in those wars, but… comic books.

Regardless, resource limits on their production would be nearly crippling without some powerful resource generation and time to let it all build up. Without a single perk for it, making what I have would be impossibly expensive, and we're in the same ballpark for sheer volume... I smile. That's something I can exploit.

Allowing time to revert again, I stand up, confident. I call out to Tiamat and have her deploy the Hydras in stealth mode. I didn't want to show him that I was gunning for his Titans yet. Nor did I want them shot down. Warhammer has some big guns to play with.

A plan formulated, I need about 2 minutes for the Hydra to be in range to end his nearest Titan, and try to secure this entrance to his world. So I try to force a monologue, I shout, "Omnicide, you claim to be here to kill me? Do you really believe Aqua will fulfill her end of the bargain? That she won't betray you as she did me?"

He laughs, and his shoulders slump slightly as he actually does begin a monologue. "I don't expect her to hold up her end of the bargain, which is why I intend to merge with her as I have to every Darkseid across the multiverse! Her power will drive my immense power even higher!"

I nod slightly, explaining to the league over coms that I'm delaying until I can bring tech to deal with the Titan while he speaks, "And what will you do with the powers of a god? What deeds would you accomplish?"

He turns, eyes narrowing, "Wouldn't you know?"

I bink, "Huh?"

"Aqua informed him of the details of this world. Apparently, we are recorded from beyond the vale of the Watchers. Legends from another place. One from which you hale. Shouldn't my plans be obvious?"

I blink. Did… he knows about DC comics books. "I uh…" How do I respond to that? What do I even say?

"You did not prepare before coming here? You did not study your adversary before you engaged? I did. I know all your powers, your tricks, and I am more than capable of besting what you have regained."

My eyes widened, "You've studied… me?"

"Indeed. The Dwarf was given a book, a list of powers from which he could build his new destiny. It records all the powers you have gained, in vivid detail. Interactions between them, how mighty you could be if you did not hold yourself to some ridiculous moral guideline."

I frown. He knows what I can do, and he built titans? My infinitely scaling army of me and he built Titans? "My 'moral guidelines' are not something you can understand obviously. I want those around me to be raised up, not torn down by my greed."

"You could be a god! Worshipped for your powers and intellect! But you chose to serve."

I definitely could. Pretty easily too. But what would be the point? "I have no desire to rule a kingdom subjected to such disorder. Nor do I wish to rule a mountain of bones."

He spits, "Weakness is not befitting of beings with our potential!" Are… are we even having the same conversation? "You could build an armada of war machines, your shadow possessing them to war. Power, unlike anything this universe has ever seen projected from them. Their technology dancing to your whims from anywhere you choose to be! You have powers even I know are fearsome. But you squander them on playing mortal! It's disgusting."

As he rattles off things I smirk. He can't even see my third tree. Makes sense, but it was a concern.

"But you chose a path of weakness, and now that I've held you here long enough, you will die."

I blink, moving as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. Some kind of energy field appeared around me. It slammed into my network like a freight train, and I was alone.

*Efficiency (Ninjango - Masters of Spinjitzu) (400) Bought. Overflow. Environmental Protection (Starbound) (0) Bought. Overflow. Archive (Artemis Fowl) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I felt my mind shift, data being processed faster. I was completely alone. Seconds stretched out, but I always seemed to fill them with observations, the time dilating under this new power, and my Trance giving me too much time. I was shivering, but it was testing limits even as I lost control over it. I had spent the last year, more, constantly with someone. With millions of myself in a network of thoughts and stimuli. This emptiness was painful, and the silence rang out in my ears.

I can't say how long it was. I… knew I would be fine. Wavestregnth would kick in soon, and I could coordinate from the other side of my prison until they let me out. No biggy.

Any time now.

I decided that if it was going to take time to kick in, I could at least study my prison some. I reached for my Frame, to extrude some of my sensors, and it failed. That's strange, what…

"Happened? I suppose you would like an explanation."

I turn, gracefully but defined purpose in my stance, and a figure in blue/green armor was standing behind me in the infinite darkness. I step back, into a half combative stance, half into an evasive stance, and he chuckles, sounding like crunching glass. "I mean you no harm. I can't truly harm you it seems."

I frown but approach. "Who are you?"

"I suspect you would know me best as the Anti-Monitor."

I blink, confused. The system said he wasn't a threat…

"And it was correct. I am no threat to you. I lack the power to truly threaten you. Soon your quite powerful abilities will connect you to everything, despite being little more than a ghost. This prison will not hold you for long. I only agreed to give that lunatic this ability to speak to you."

I frown, "Why?"

"Because you are an anomaly. I have one small request for you, then I will allow you to return. Make something here. Anything."

I look around and frown. Then I realize I'm not looking at the absence of something, there is nothing a tangible resource trying to push into the vacuum we are speaking in. I reach out, demanding some of the uncreation come to me, and with a twist of magic, unlike anything I've ever felt, I was holding a perfect sphere of… something. Almost like it was greater than the absence of something, but not quite a solid. I was fascinated. "Congratulations. You're the first person in my knowledge to use Void Magic in its truest form."

I turn back from the ball of Void energy in my hand, and ask, "Why did you want to see this?"

"Because you are connected to it, and from it, me. Your Warehouse exists on the edge of this domain, an unbreachable bubble.

I mutter, "Yeah, I wish."

He blinks, "Unvoidble by any force on this plane of existence. Void cannot penetrate it even when guided by me directly. You have spared the realms of creation my wrath and made me reconsider. I have seen the Void be used to create. That dulls my pain, my rage enough. That is why I needed to speak with you."

I frown, "If I…"

"Omnicide contacted me. The realms are easily breached from different points by different energies."

I nod slowly, "And…"

"I can read your mind because your intent reflects off of the Void energy, presenting tangible dialogue to me."

I frown and try concealing my intent somehow, and he sighs, "Intent cannot be hidden by someone as strong as yourself."

I shrug, and he smiles, "Indeed. It is all you can do to try. Now, you have fulfilled my bargain. I believe that you are needed back in the realms of existence."

Suddenly I'm standing in a smoky ring as it dissipates. That… was strange. Turning in every direction, I see the wreckage of a fight, but no evidence of a winner.

Then I call Tiamat, "What happened?"

Wiz, Violette and Tiamat all turned in the network, "Damion! What happened? All of the clones turned to slime."

I blink at that little tidbit, and begin "I had a talk with… it's a long story. What happened?" But we're kinda at war.

"Omnicide went back through the portal, and the league gave chase, it didn't look like it was going well. His titans charged through portals across the world, and it's a mess. I deployed Hydra's, and they all sustained heavy damage, but the titans were destroyed." I nod, and ask, "Are any of the portals still stable?"

"Yes." She sends me coordinates.

I confirmed Ankh was in the Warehouse and told Tiamat, "I'm going to stop him. This might be the end of our time in this realm, make sure Wiz and Violette are in the Warehouse."

"No." Violette says, cutting into the conversation, "You have some time after everything, and we are not abandoning you to fight this thing alone!"

I nod. "Ok. Ok. Then let's go."

A set of combat bodies from Tiamat, Wiz, Violette, and I all charge through the portal and find a world covered in fire. With thousands of portals covering the landscape, massively different worlds through them. I frown, "Did he plan on invading all of the Earths?"

Wiz and Violette shrug and Tiamat says, "I'm detecting portal sets at tens of thousands of different frequencies. And I'm detecting combat at the previous location." We all take off and arrive at a massive dogpile.

I can see more than one version of the Justice League fighting Omnicide. Dozens of Hestia's Lasso converging to hold him in place. Supermen holding some of the ropes. Red streaks seeming to strike him from all sides. Magic of nearly every type and description lancing out towards him. Martians attacking his body and mind, but he stood strong. Omega beams lancing out, taking slower members completely.

I land and focus on him. His armor gone, his defenses stripped, but the convergence of so many powerful beings had a massive pool of energy to resist. Analysis magic gave me a path. A weakness that every other living thing fell to in the end. Death.

*Vibranium Sample (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

I called up a lance of green energy. The massive waves of power flowing off of me startling the attuned members of the league as my league explained what I was and that I was doing. The path was cleared, and I threw my lance. Striking Omnicide with pure death, he shuttered, pain and power wracking his body as power untold dimmed within him. Version after version crying from my attack, as the automatic recursive lifeforce was dissolved, layer after layer, until it struck his core. Energy dissolving him in a massive burst of green power, and in a flash, he begins to dissolve.

I stood tall, the moment feeling surprisingly somber, but he turned. He looked at me, and smiled, "I AM OMNICIDE!" and he began to glow with green and gold energy combining into a swirl of power, unlike anything I had ever seen. "AND I COMMAND YOU ALL TO DIE! SOUL AURA DETONATION!"

I blink as my readouts informed me he was going to detonate every version of his dying soul.

I sucked Wiz and Violette into my Warehouse, and formed clones to mitigate the explosion as I asked Tiamat, "Which portal?" Several of my clones were singing, while others programmed a bomb. One that resonated along the Omega energy wavelengths like Omniside's soul. The goal was to shunt the power into the gaps between reality, to prevent as much destruction as possible.

Tiamat couldn't tell me which portal, so I decided to pick all of them. I sent clones through each portal, as I finished the bomb, and had several clones set up magical fields to contain anything that escaped. Then I found my consciousness forced into a different body, one on the far side of a portal as the explosive rang out.

I stood and dusted myself off from my leap away from that blast, and found nearly every version of myself surrounded by familiar faces. "So, that was terrible."

I could tell which dimensions had members of my Justice League, given the calm responses to me. Dozens of other realities didn't have anyone that recognized me. Perfect.

I began setting up doors as I slowly explained what I was doing to the realities that didn't have a version of me, and the ones that had someone to speak for me were much easier to convince. After a bit of finagling, and some more stubborn group not going until I had others from their reality to back me up, I got everyone inside the Warehouse, and sorted into their respective leagues, and began researching which realities they belonged to. But before I finished, they talked to one another, and several questions were asked.

Mostly about me, but a lot of questions were directed at the differences between realities, something I found fascinating. Time differences, a few major events, some only being the addition or subtraction of 1 member. A Cyborg helping found a League here, a lack of Hawkman or woman there, a nearly apocalyptic war between the Amazons and Atlantians was present in three different timelines, each with a different story of how it ended. Aquaman dying, Wonder Woman dying, or one timeline with both. It leads me to ask why our earth didn't have an Aquaman.

It was concerning that no one had an answer to that question.

Agreements were made to look into getting a system that didn't rely on me set up to travel between realities. I was really looking forward to that because it might let me travel between realms at will. That could be quite fun.

As they finished up, I needed to check something. 'System, threats to be removed before I leave?'

Threat Checklist access allowed: Darkseid formally 500, currently 3400 points. Points allocated for Celestial Forge growth. Potential point gain unknown. League of Villains currently 100 points. No other threats detected.

I frown, 'Why could I sense the Celestial Forge before?'

System Error

Great. So, Darkseid isn't all dead but… 'System, points gain from the destruction of Omnicide?'

Omnicide point gain limited due to external power interference. Points gains reduced. Brainiac point gain limited due to external information. 1500 points gain expected at Realm exit.

I frown. Ok, so I check all the boxes and get the points when I leave. I can deal with that system. Now, final question, 'System, any other celestial forge connection registered in range?'

System Error

Damn. That means that there might be more people with power coming for me, or that I can't ask about that. I'll have to prepare for the worst.

As the league begins their research into the inter-reality portals, I start looking into scanning technology. I need to understand why my scans failed so hard on the armor of the Dwarf King. Exotic metals and anti magic fields don't explain it. I needed to know how he was capable of breaking my sensors, but I ran into a wall. I can't make anything that my sensor array can't penetrate. Shields, Armor, Magic, I even tried Void energy. Combination of all of the above. I don't want to think that Aqua can just hand out some kind of fiat, immunity to sensors to her chosen assassins, but every magic that fails to block my array shows that's more and more likely.

The biggest concern with that is that there are protections from sensors in the Forge, but they all come from the Protections constellation, and if Aqua can hand out those… I know quite well that there are some monsters hanging out in that constellation. Stress Evolution, Limits, Enigmatic Engineering, Blank, some of my most powerful skills. Not to mention if she gives out a warehouse, I might not be able to see the absence in my vision until they are strong enough to do some serious damage.

For now, I just needed to prepare. That means that the Hydras alone aren't going to cut it anymore. They are a very nice big gun, but it's one type of damage, across a medium sized area. If someone lives through it by even a hair with my skills, they walk away clean, and can't be killed by that gun. I need variety. So I make some.

*Master Synthesist (Kingdom Hearts) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I checked my arsenal of Tau and Aeldari weapons and found more than a few exotic types of energy. My personal favorite is probably the gravity and displacement weapons. Not designed to harm, but to make you not here. No Stress Evolution activation due to no damage done. That could work quite well. It would also disable machines quite well given that they needed to be in one piece to function.

Production of the Hydra upgrades began. Efficiency let me set the factory up to further my production, shrink some components, and when I began to stress over not having enough variety, I felt it help me push away my paranoia that what I had wasn't enough. That… was incredibly reassuring all things considered. I scaled the weapons and was going to remake a set of Avatars I had scaled up for Trigon, not wanting to make something bigger and have him be more agile, but with the application of my new metal, I was no longer worried. Vibranium was capable of redesigning the shock of moving to zero, both on the environment and the machine. Meaning that its footsteps could be almost silent, and anything could go ridiculously fast when it could absorb and ignore inertia. So I went big and built Aeldari Titans. Just over 45 meters tall, and weapons scaled to match, with my super metals I was capable of making them move just a little faster than my Avatars could, a feat that looked absurd, and brought their swords from all but ornamental in a fight to actually effective monstrosities.

The ranged weapons were largely the same as the Hydras. Mostly themed around fighting someone with my capabilities, by not letting them target anyone, tossing them around in a manner that they couldn't really resist as it wasn't damaged. Then I did something that I personally found stupidly amusing. I put them in an Alchemical Chest. They didn't stack of course, but there I was, with 4 Titans in a magic box sitting in my Warehouse, that I could open from anywhere at any time, and deploy death.

Then Violette told me about the Emperor series. 150 meter tall behemoths of guns and death. I had to try, right? It took a lot longer than I thought it would to get Vibranium disks the size I needed for the Inertial Cancelers and the feet, but once I was done, I had an Emperor Series Aeldari Titan deployable anywhere. Unfortunately, I didn't have the reality bending powers required to make the Titans fly, so I did make a small army of Avatars.

At just 11 meters tall, armed with much smaller versions of the weapons, all but the Null Reality Projector they just didn't have the power for my biggest gun. I replaced it with a cloaking field and flight gear. I checked, and the Avatars do stack in my chest. How fortunate. I made sure to have 2 full stacks of them. The Hydra's were also being stored in my chest, it was just too convenient not to. While I hoped that I wouldn't lose my power to extrude my Warehouse like this, I did have a backup plan. A magic bag in my Valkyrie Frame. It would be safe from damage, and I could draw it when I needed it.

As I pushed forward with my preparedness for the possibility of another jumper, I was met with a possibility for how my scanners were stopped. The Justice Leagues got a portal open to each other, using Void magics. That seemed to stop my scanners just as cold, but he was on this side of the boundary, so I scrapped that possibility, even as I built a scanner that could pierce it. It wasn't difficult if you could create Void particulates and infuse them into the glass of your scanners. I checked many different ways, and the Void Glass was quite an effective solution. It even saw through my cloaking systems, which was neet.

Then I felt really stupid. I walked into a tuned magic nullification field, and my scanners shut down completely. I had built most of them off my initial Bonesinger roots, the Aeldari power core was shutting down when exposed to an absence of magic. I nearly kicked myself and built them formally into my Valkyrie Frame, not just storing them, meaning that they could manifest anywhere on me. And were tied into my massive set of batteries there. Remembering that I can lose things in that space when I jump, I decided to store a copy of the bag in the Warehouse, and a full design scan of my information gathering gear into my warehouse.

And looking at the entire mess at once like I am now, I sigh. What was brain wiped me thinking?

I simplified it from the steampunk ophthalmologist's office strapped to my head in small rotating sets, and into a simplified, fully range scanner. Incorporating scanners into other sets, and in the end, I still had an almost comically massive set of scanners, technological and magical, visual and precision wands, general and very precise, but it was better. Maybe a third the size and a tenth of the spinning gizmos.

It was honestly fairly relaxing. Wiz and Tiamat were having a blast setting up aid programs for the many, many Earths we now had steady trade with. Ankh and Violette were studying, combining, and enhancing the orbital defenses that the many versions of earth had invented, bought, stolen, and cobbled together respectively. In the end, I barely added anything to the design we kept. An improved flight system, some more power, but from a 'miss and the world doesn't end' level of firepower for ground support, it was quite effective. What I did change were the orbital defense guns.

The Earths collectively had guns that Tony Stark thought were cute. The Aeldari and the Tau wouldn't even give them that. So I improved them. Aeldari light Laser Cannons and Tau Heavy Railguns. I replaced the ammunition stockpiles with an EE ammunition printer, firing Antimatter slugs. Fun fact, creating Antimatter lowered the cost of creating regular matter, as negative mass was interpreted very literally by EMC condensers. I replaced the power core with my custom Antimatter regulator to cap it off. It was smaller, about 20% smaller than the disks being used here.

With a defense against invasion set up, and technology benign exchanged across several universes, I decided I was going hunting. Some part of this Multiversal Justice League and technological exchange reduced the Injustice League as a threat to null, so I went looking for Darkseid.

*Reliable Invention (Kim Possible) (200) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a known quantity: Chapter 26

---

Reliable Invention (Kim Possible): Anything you construct is only broken when used improperly or purposefully targeted with attacks. The items you create do not malfunction and are completely resistant to damage caused by regular usage.

Then my entire process got flipped on its head again. I can rarely feel most of my perks activating as hard as I did Efficiency, but this new one kicked me in the teeth. I felt everything I'd built suddenly altered slightly. Just a little alteration to my workload. Most of my tech is nearly maintenance less by itself. That's a design choice I make ahead of time. A small resource expenditure ahead of time reduces future maintenance time, which doesn't take long by any stretch with my time crunching abilities, but it's a few minutes here and there every few days for everything I make. My factory has maintenance cycles built in to ensure that something doesn't go wrong mid-craft. My Valkyrie stored stuff I fix during downtime as a time sink. But suddenly that was gone. I felt my mental map of every design lost maintenance requirements.

The most shocking change was probably my factory and my auto-expanding systems. Because my Tau Factory spends a lot of time at nearly no production, it does maintenance cycles a lot. Keeping everything at 100%, and then it's programmed that if there is no damage to be repaired anywhere, to expand. I have the materials to do so. So when everything locked to 100 percent, the fabrication of spare parts was suddenly unnecessary, it kicked into overdrive. Operating at speeds that normally wouldn't be done for long periods of time to prevent longer maintenance cycles, was suddenly perfectly acceptable, constantly. Instead of a slow, 1-3 % a week expansion of my factory, I was seeing a 22% increase in size, cumulatively, a day. I felt the magical formations tapping my magic begin expanding the room to compensate, driving a massive volume of magic to compensate.

I programmed a cap into the size of the factory a long time ago, 2 sets of production floors, orbital 15 kilometers tall, the suborbital combat rectangles, 500 meters tall, and both 64 square kilometers across. It was going to take me years to get to that limit, intentionally so. Now? Projections put it at 3 weeks. That's… ok. Sure. Why not? With Efficiency going, passively making every aspect of the adaptive factory the most efficient for army creation as I could make it, why not? I let that insanity run, almost conflicted that I was going to have an issue with EMC, but… no. The ridiculous production I had before created enough EMC that I wasn't going to run out unless I tried filling the universe with steel.

Sand I could probably do, but the expensive metals would be an issue.

With production scale solved forever, I built some ships to scour the multiverse for the Darkseid that somehow remained. The result was a half transformer, half Tau, half Aeldari cruiser about a kilometer long. It was about 35% adaptive nanites by volume and could reconfigure itself around a stable Warp-Void glass, and Tau plating core, that had some constant armaments, life support, and a simple FTL drive, but was augmented at every step by the nanite cloud. If I needed more shields, I had them. If I needed bigger guns, I had them. If I needed better thrust, I had it. If I needed to carry more people, I could. It was a very nice all-purpose cruiser that could hide the nanites and become a 750-meter wide disk, about 200 meters tall. It looked very Aeldari if you recognized it, but the non glass areas looked very proto-futuristic from the Tau roots I'm drawing from, the smooth lines, and seamless transition from clear to opaque around the guns and sensors.

Defensively, it didn't need too much from the nanites. The shields were good, Harmony making programmable Anti-Matter fields palatable, but honestly, I didn't really have the perks to go crazy with shields, I just dumped power into them. The real defense was the armor. The meter thick layer of reinforced Wraithbone and Wraithbone glass was one thing. The mind-boggling synergy between High-Frequency Manufacturing and Vibraium was… terrifying to behold. The entire ship had a woven monoatomic shell of Vibranium that was kept vibrating at speeds that turned it into effectively, infinitely smooth sandpaper. I rubbed a stick of Adamantium on it, and it ceased to exist. Atoms were targeted as they came into 'contact' with the Vibranium, and forced the materials to vibrate on their own atomic frequency, and safely dissipate into Gamma radiation. Admittedly, lots of gamma radiation. But in space, if you are vulnerable to that degree of radiation then you are already dead.

It rendered us immune to everything but straight lasers, and the Void glass laughs at anything but visible light passing through it. It filters out lasers, radiation, most of the energy spectrum really, and somehow invisibility effects, magical and non magical. Barring the visible spectrum that I specifically excluded, it was Void, and it worked well.

With our ship set up, we set off exploring the multiversal-galactic community for signs of Darkseid.

There was a lot of fuss from nearly every version of New Genesis that I was 'too young' to deal with him, but from a planet that constantly needed the Justice League's help defeating him… I didn't care. Exploring was fun, and eventually, I ended right back as square one.

The universe I arrived in, the Earth-Prime for my jump, as it were. Darkseid was still kicking around in that small blip of the Multiverse. Sure, why not?

I arrived in the system to a massive armada of ships fighting. Dimensional signatures from all over. Seems the Reach got the tech and was here to fight.

So did New Genesis, pooling their resources into 1 universe I was looking at a battle on a scale that no one…

"Somehow, I'm reminded of home." Violette said, looking out on the 2 armada's crashing into one another.

Battle on a scale at home in the 40K universe. I'll take it.

I contacted the New Genesis fleet and offered my assistance. Surprise surprise, the people actually fighting accepted my help. I dialed in the Reach War Worlds first.

*Volcanic Forge (God of War) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I wanted to test out my guns and fired a single volley. With solidly 100% of the nanites oriented at making the biggest guns I could. A definable lance of energy exploded out of the energy cannon, and a magazine of heavy antimatter shells poured out onto the battlefield. The shells struck smaller ships in the formation with the closest War World and removed them from existence. The endless stream of antimatter particulates amongst the half photonic, half energized plasma majority cored the War World. Nearly 75% of its spherical face was gone in a flash of light. As both armadas take a small break to deal with my firepower, I decided to be mean.

In my childhood, I watched a show. Space Battleship: Yamato. I remember vividly the description of its titular ship's main gun. The Wave Motion gun. I remember it was the detonation of 2 dimensional gravitational singularities into higher dimensional tachyons fired at superluminal velocities from the bow of the ship. I always wondered why they didn't simply fire the higher dimensional energy waves creating the 2D singularities directly. So I'm going to find out.

I control the nanobots, forging a massive cannon on the top of the ship as the Reach begins firing on my ship nearly exclusively. My shields are holding, and I let them do the work to protect my nanobot cloud as I finalize the gun. I feel Harmony activates as I build High-Frequency Manufacturing into a system built onto universal vibrations. Then I realized what this cannon is. I'm tapping into the dimensional foam directly, as pure energy. My system is interpreting this as EMC through a strange bit of synchronism. I can't shoot this, annoyingly enough, but Efficiency saves it at the last minute. I can't fire pure EMC. I can't convert this either, it's far too much energy for my condensers to deal with at once. It would… form a singularity.

Great. I've come full circle, haven't I?

But… How about I do something else. How about I do exactly what I said I wasn't going to. Fire the energy of collapsing black holes. I can forge them into 2 dimensional figures with a crafting table, and I push. Storing them in a Philosopher's stone's rafting table, I charge 9 condensers and watch the magic happen.

A beam of energy unlike anything I've ever shot before, ever seen before, a weapon so devastating that Violette is shocked. A magically enhanced wave motion beam.

The nanite cloud dissipates into almost nothingness as the cannon tries and fails to sustain fire. But it does sustain the beam for almost 4 seconds.

That's more than enough. The energy is red tinted, or is that just the redshift as it moves away from me?

Regardless, the red beam lances out, annihilating many Reach ships in its aura until it strikes another War World, and as it does, I realize I made a terrible mistake. It isn't stable enough to continue like a contained beam, it refracts like a wave.

And explodes outward.

I see a sphere of blue expand from the ship as it detonates the energy beam, expanding in every direction. In an instant, both fleets, both planets, everything else in the solar system ceases to exist as the blue energy washes everything away. It dissipates as it passes a radius about one light year from the detonation point, in a little under 2 seconds.

That's… not good.

Realm Accrued Points Dissolved for Jump. Realm Cleared-Options: Leave Realm Unlocked for visitation, and set up base zone or gain 1500 points.

I frown, "So… does anyone want to come back here? I'm good with a no."

The Wavestrength enforced chat room fills with 4 "No."s and I select the 1900 points. Annoyed at the number given that Darkseid had more points.

Starmapping points acquired by Darksied have been revoked by Aqua due to failure to best you. Celestial Forge remnant harvested for 1500 points. Total points 3000.

Nevermind.

Lock registered on Realm={DC}_{Secondary Start}. Points 3000. Point Dispersal: Failed. Check Max Found: 2200. Point Dispersal: Chronos Supply (Katana Zero) (2200)

Chronos Supply (Katana Zero): This is a case of 10 Chronos syringes, there is nothing special about the syringes or the Chronos contained within (aside from the usual), and the case replenishes at the end of every week. However, if you want to pay a little extra, you can get a shipping container, containing about 1000 doses, that replenish each week, and the formula to make Chronos. The third and final option nets you the same as the second option, but without the side effects, this nets you a shipping container full of side effect less Chronos and the recipe to make more. Taking this improved version of Chronos will purge a person of their addiction, and can reverse some symptoms of withdrawal.

I… what the hell are those and why are they so effective?

Points Remaining: 800. Point Dispersal: Tinker Plus (Generic Worm Fanfiction) (800)

Tinker Plus (Generic Worm Fanfiction): You're not just a Tinker anymore, you're the Tinker. The PRT rating scale isn't really set up to handle someone like you because it assumes that Tinkers will have specialties, and you don't. You are something never seen before; a genuine omni-Tinker, and one of truly amazing capacity.
Your aptitude and intuition for all sorts of research, science, engineering, and design is absolutely unbelievable. If a project is even halfway related to any of the hard sciences then you can get it done, and do so with a speed and efficiency that makes even experienced Tinkers working within their own specialities look like clumsy beginners. And you can rapidly reverse-engineer other technology given sufficient opportunity to study it, however complex or esoteric it might be. You can even study and analyze exotic and anomalous phenomena, such as cape powers in action, to hopefully gain inspiration for new Tinkertech.
You have a volume knob in your head for making your designs either easily reproducible by mundane methods or totally blackboxed vs. any reverse-engineering or anything in between. You can perform what would have required clean room levels of precision assembly for mundane engineers with ordinary tools and under rough conditions. Troubleshooting or repairing tech that you already understand is a job you could practically do in your sleep, and anything you build or overhaul is maintenance-optional. With time and practice your Tinker abilities can improve and grow indefinitely, without any upper limit.
You can't do things like 'perfected social sciences' or 'auto-win personal interaction methodologies', though. That sort of thing is for Thinkers, not Tinkers.

I… oh. Oh yes. That sounds… unbelievably fantastic. Wow.

Realm Selected. Jumper's knowledge of the realm below threshold for restriction. Jumper's ignorance of the realm above threshold for threat alert. Realm Threat Flag: Potential Higher Dimensional Existential Erasure

I… I'm sorry, what?

Minimal Threat Mitigation Recommendation: None
Moderate Threat Mitigation Recommendation: Restrict higher level magical effects. Restrict higher level reality alteration effects. Restrict temporal motive effects. Restrict temporal hyper-expansion effects.

Can I go somewhere else? Please?

Major Threat Mitigation Recommendation: Restrict alterations to established timeline.

Perfect. In a moment that I feel like I'm falling, I'm in a desert. I can see lights in the distance that presumably point to civilization. I quickly create a doorway on the side of a rock and send a clone through to my Warehouse. Wavestrength needs me to have opened the door at least once to connect to the Warehouse, and the clone is for… not dying due to something terrible happening out here.

I inform my companions about the long list of things I shouldn't do in order to lower the risk of whatever the hell that flag means, and ask for opinions.

Violette begins bluntly, "Honestly, for the moment, I would keep a clone in here, maybe even your main consciousness, and try to figure out where we are before doing anything… adventurous. Like, conquer a planet."

Wiz is more focused, less cautious, "You have a wide range of powers if you can check what the level of this place is compared to them, what the powers talk about, then you might be able to figure out where we are from that."

Tiamat questions, "We could remain here, try scanning the place and leaving as little footprint as possible, that would prevent most of the risk flags from triggering."

Ankh saves the conversation, remarking directly, "The system has a threat calculator, and auto assigns threat levels correct?"

I blink. Duh. 'System, list threats by order of magnitude.'

More information required.

I frown. Ok… 'System, list threats?'

Threat Checklist access allowed: Arcturus Mengsk currently 0, potentially 200. Jim Raynor currently 0, potentially 200, secondary potential 2000. Egon Stetmann currently 0, potentially 300. Sarah Kerrigan currently 100, potentially 800, secondary potential 3000. Overmind currently 1000, potentially Error. Artanis currently 100, potentially 600. Zeratul currently 100, potentially Error, secondary potential 0. Amon currently Error.

Starcraft. I'm… not entirely sure who about half of these people are, but I'm definitely in Starcraft. I recognize Raynor and Kerrigan from the second game. And Stetmann from… well my Starcraft Perk.

The potential points of Error scare the crap out of me. I don't know what that even means.

*Store of Omni-Metals (DC - Larfleeze) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

The Overmind… is... isn't that the Zerg hive mind base? I frown, and decide to do something I should have done months ago, and didn't make time for. Checking out the Organic Database. Opening it spun Engineering Savant | Foresight of Ouros lie I'd never felt before, and I began.

As I began experimenting, I quickly noticed that the same basic tenant kept popping up in the Zerg, and the repetition was growing annoying. Rapid breeding speed combined with minimized junk DNA and an even heavier focus on specialization. Heavily specialized creatures for every slot in a war machine, little to no overlap in abilities, simplified… not quite psionic bands between creatures for commands. The range was all but insignificant for the terrestrially bound creatures, it was easily continental for the structures, and with a strange exception to this seemingly for an unarmed balloon, one that I could actually remove completely with my new understanding of the genetics of… everything. The other exception to the range limit was the building that got me thinking about this, the understandable lack of range limit on its frequency. It was… strange. There were limitations that I couldn't understand why they were designed around specific paradigms. I had no real way of testing until I could crack the near psionic waveband. The only reasons I was as close as I was could be accredited to Martian Manhunter and my new Tinker Plus. His powers were close to what I needed, and my dual specialty in Psionic Connectivity and Alternative Vibrational Dynamics. The combination got me agonizingly close, but it's like I was on the wrong tech tree. Psionics, as a limitation of biology or a multi universal constant, overrated on a small set of wavebands. Worm, DC, even Marvel did, given that it's the same energy band that the telepathy blocker and neural shock bomb from my Iron Man tool kit functioned on. Spending time focusing on that band isolated from the Zerg required fighting my Efficiency perk, and I decided to let it lie.

Then I opened the packet on the Overmind, its specifics. Then I realized that I was trying to connect to a Bluetooth signal with a tinker tech wireless telephone. There was… something. Something massive was hiding in that creature, and it was some kind of organic encryption and network hub system, the durability and complexity were letting it push at the edge of a fiat in and of itself, but the moment I actually understood and looked for encryption? Instant access. It… it was honestly almost identical to my Wavestrength perk, through some kind of Void energy. That's when it clicked. I was trying to tap into a Void energy sublet, without using Void energy. New specialties swapped in, Non-Energetic Motion Systems apparently, and I was shocked that an organic structure was capable of forging a Void connection at all, but my genetic experience and Tinker specialties, led me to the truly alien genetics of the Overmind. It wasn't Zerg at all. It was… created to lead the Zerg. I could see that written right in its DNA.

After figuring that out, understanding, and being able to program the connections between my virtual swarm, I was really able to test my creations. I simulate colonies, genetics from the aliens I'd encountered, and other technologies into the growth pattern. I discovered quite quickly that adding in most of the aliens was nearly useless, or stupidly expensive. I could leave the option open for a highly limited version of the genetics to be an extremely late game upgrade, it's frankly ludicrous price leaving the price of the creatures and buildings alone, but it would be centuries of production to get there. While experimenting, 2 massive bonuses popped up, the first almost by accident.

*Technical Schematics (Warhammer 40k - T'au empire) (200) Bought. Remaining: 0 points.*

Specialization in Mechanical Life made it possible to grow an inorganic equivalent of the Zerg. AKA the Mecha-Zerg. I didn't know it was possible to make metal grow from sunlight and rocks, without Equivalent Exchange that is, but apparently it was quite possible. The strange crystals that this seemed to depend on were the main limiting factor for a long time, looking into several tinkertech Matter Generation solutions only demonstrated that the Zerg needed something simpler, easier to grow, but eventually, I got it all worked out. Specifically, I figured out the second major upgrade to the Zerg.

Via Efficiencies grinding hand, and specialization or three, I found that Equivalent Exchange could be incorporated directly into both the fully organic, and fully mechanical Zerg live cycles all but eliminating the requirements for outside materials, but the normal materials could further accelerate the growth. I didn't make the primary base structure a collector, but a massive condenser. Capable of taking in both materials, fallen enemies that didn't contribute to the DNA of my organic strain, or technologies for my mechanical strain, and further accelerating the growth loop. It had an upper limit that expanded massively with each of the three upgrades to the building; somehow it incorporated the Equivalent Exchange tier system naturally into the Zerg tier system.

Then I started simulating base construction with combat and frowned. Why the hell were they even above ground? Or near the battlefield? I had Nydus Worms, and they could deploy from anywhere. I optimized them to the smallest Efficiency allowed. I did lose some of the recharge rate, a twenty percent increase in time between repositioning, but the capacity for 4 of them to be added directly to the primary Zerg structure, called a Hatchery, Lair, and Hive depending on the upgrade tier. That did have the unfortunate side effect of rendering my base structure vulnerable to traditional fire, and no amount of Subterranean Construction specialties removed the condition for the Nydus worms to be exposed to the troops being moved. The base structure was underground certainly, but it was one organism. I resolved to build a few, but Nydus worms at only one or two.

The next step was the Zerg strain buildings. Upgrade centers needed to be within the much smaller Psionic radius of that building directly. The Hives connect to other Hives, and the Leviathan class Zerg. The biological unlock centers for the more advanced species of Zerg were strange. They carried upgrades, and I really couldn't do much for them. I looked at a combination of them, but it wasn't worth even starting. What I could do was remove them from the battlefield entirely. I used the functionality of my Wavestrength, and would build them directly into my Warehouse, into the Overmind I would eventually put on one of the top floors. That would give my entire swarm the full upgrade tree, without ever putting them in danger. It made the upgrades far more expensive. Just under 1200 times more expensive, but I would need them once. Across my entire jump history. I could build them into an Overmind in a specific realm, but buying them again for no additional effect? Costing even less than it would normally. Apparently, the Zerg system adapts to that kind of thing.

It would explain the tens of trillions that a Kryptonian upgrade, even just the invulnerability was a few hundred million. It was insane.

* Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

Then I looked at my defenses. I was rather disappointed in the 3 options I had available. Spine Crawlers were versatile, but not great. So I looked to the creatures for more ideas, and I found them. Nearly all of them from Hydralisk strains surprisingly. The nearly invisible burrowing ability, the massive anti-armor damage, the large area of effect anti-infantry spread combined into a longer range building. About one and a half times the range of the spine crawler, 4 times if the creep spread that far, and I did put a Creep tumor into it, just to help out with that. Capable of targeting infantry and tanks separately with their targeted effects. It was a nasty surprise for anything standing on the ground.

I was kinda disappointed in the Spore Crawlers in general. They felt… weak compared to the powers that other units already had. So I amped them up too. Stupidly fast fire of the Hydralisk projectiles, easy to do given that they don't need to move, and small flying Locusts, but with a twist. They didn't need to live long anyway, so I added some Baneling and Scourge projectiles to them. Area of effect, potent acid weapons that turned air units into wreckage faster than most of my units could even react. Unfortunately, the shooting into the sky limitation means that they aren't hidden in the creep, but the lethality made up for it.

The cost of these defenses was far higher than the originals, so I incremented it. Internal upgrades meant they could be deployed at about half the price of the originals and could be upgraded into their more lethal forms. Given that they were mutable in the field, I could raise the number of attacks from the 1 anti-infantry spike, to 3 each anti-infantry and 3 anti-tank. My Grave-Lurker was devastating at that point, all but unbreachable by the unaltered units I could encounter. At basically the last minute, I recognized that invisibility was a thing in Starcraft, and built sensors into them. It was so cheap I put it directly on the base structure, and it upgraded like the unit, almost doubling the sightline and therefore the range of them. I smiled at the synergy.

The Acid Javelin would start with little more than the speed of 1 Hydralisk, but it could finish with the power of 24, and up to 12 Scourglings. Even the massive range of the Broodlord couldn't deter it with the Scourgelings attacking it.

Nearly forgotten in my upgrade spree, was the humble Drone. It was… almost acceptable, honestly, it was close, and without Tinker Plus, I might have kept it. But I can just add what they do directly to the Creep.

That brought me finally to said Creep. It covered the ground, massive sections of it, and seemed to do nothing. Even in my simulations, real as my Lucy Computer could make them, regular Creep was a food source for my organic Zerg and given that feeding them fell under maintenance somehow, unless they were healing from combat, they didn't need to do that, it was just charging the Mecha-Zerg. I built nanopores into the entire mass, sitting at the bottom so that the food goo, and/or charging pad protected it from basic damage, and had mutable DNA like the Drones throughout the whole thing. It could grow directly over the crystals, consuming them at a small constant stream, accelerating the growth pattern if they were available. If not, it functioned as the building process as well, collecting mass into the entire surface area of the future building's connection with the floor. Accelerating build speed and removing a vulnerable unit from the field. Even after that, it didn't feel complete, right up until I realized why Efficiency had prevented me from putting the EE collectors as the skin of my buildings but had me include Creep tumors into all of them. I could augment the food and charging properties of the Creep with a collector. It was already covering everything, surface area expanding as the fight does. It was perfect. So perfect that it was overwhelming the condenser of 1 Hive my the time the simulation hit tier 2. I actually needed to build a dedicated external condenser to keep the collected energy from overflowing the Hive. And that means I needed forward structures, and I looked back to the Spawning Pools and smiled.

*Sublimation (Fate/Legends - Vive La France) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I made a whole new building, setting them up as both condensers, taking a load off of the Hive structure, slower but still useful spawning of larva in the solution, and a forward point to analyze and consume fallen enemy soldiers. The Analysis Maw sounded suitably metal, and it looked like a collection of mouths full of acid.

Running more simulations, I didn't have a whole lot to actually do to the organic creatures of the Zerg. The upgrades I introduced covered the minor changes to Zerg doctrine that I disapproved of, like the 1 upgraded strain per creature. They were both purchasable as a result of the martian DNA, which didn't cost much comparatively, and then I could swap back and forth in the cases like the Hydralisk, and the Swarm Host had a toggle, but in all other cases, I just had both. More per larvae and jumping Zerglings. Infested and slowing Roach toxin. Jumping and multiplying Baneling. Toxic and self-resurrecting Ultralisks. The Mutalisks were interesting. I just gave the abilities of the second upgrade to the Broodlord, while giving the Broodlings a time-out Baneling detonation.

The Mecha Zerg had no such issues. With the firepower I could design directly into them, I almost started a full redesign, but stopped. I already had a solid base to start from, why not incorporate upgrades? I started with that, adding instead of replacing. Everywhere I had Hydralisk projectiles, I had upgrades for an upgraded version of the Tau Rail Rifle. A massive upgrade in damage, into the snake-like creatures, and my Acid Javelin. I looked into the Roaches and smiled. Mild reinforcing and I could turn their effect into Flamers. Interestingly enough, the Mecha-Zerg's adaptive programming adapted quite well, keeping the slowing effect, even if I had to drop the effect of the implanting egg. I was able to add a rather nice set of Nexus Missile Racks to its back, giving it a mobile artillery option. I was also capable of truly upgrading the Bile Launcher to fire heavy plasma grenades, widening its formidable area of effect and increasing damage.

Leviathans were a massive cost sink already, so I decided to look into what I could do with them. I discovered quite quickly that instead of putting an Overmind on a planet, I could put them in space, combining the powers of the two, entrenching my network into an array of emitters for a change in cost that was effectively non-existent by the time I was making them at all. Then I slapped on an individual Kryptonian upgrade to go with the full EMC collecting and condensing rig, and wow I was not expecting them to synergize quite so well. By the time I spent the better part of a week growing the damn thing, a Leviathans with all those upgrades, it would take less than a day for the EMC production of a Leviathan to pay for itself. At its size, it could store the resources it created measurable in weeks, no star required. With one? I was unstoppable.

I felt my Tinker Plus ease the difficulty of the transition from my experiences to making it all work like I wanted, and I dialed Blackboxing to 11. I do not want the Overmind stealing my upgrades, that could be… well the threat was already at Error. Let's not make it worse.

*(Not so) Consistent Technology (World of Darkness - Genius the Transgression) (200) Bought. Overflow. I Can Whip Something Up (My Life As A Teenage Robot) (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Checking what I got from the Forge this time, I was surprised.

I Can Whip Something Up (My Life As A Teenage Robot): Working late nights and filling out strange requests is just another Tuesday for a Scientist of your calibre. This perk ensures that you'll never suffer burnout, grow overly bored, lose inspiration, or have your work suffer because of exhaustion. So long as your basic needs are at least barely being met you can keep happily churning out work day after day.

(Not so) Consistent Technology (World of Darkness - Genius the Transgression): The average Genius has an Aesthetic that they fit into, kind of like a genre of legacy. You however, thanks to your many teachers, have a difference of opinion that makes you unique, Wonders built in your Aesthetic don't just 'feel' better but are better and you can switch your Aesthetic when you feel like a different Tech-Genre could be viable. You could have an airship that was built with the hard bulky like of a dieselpunk whilst the insides have the sleek holograms and AR of a cyberpunk.

So my mental and physical health wouldn't deteriorate unless I 100% ignored everything else forever, and with Limits! I doubt even that could stop me for long.

That particular ability seems strange given my current Biology, but it could be truly useful.

But the other one… that one was an interesting boon, but it was also a conflict. My Aesthetic was fiat engaged to be distinct regardless of the piece, and this was an allowance to try blending into the background. That's either going to fail, as a rule, or be perfectly camouflaged. I was intrigued to see which.

I nod and decide to see what that town is. Heading out, I arrive in a town in the midst of an evacuation. People were screaming about aliens, and I was confused. I was under the impression that the Zerg and the… Protons? The teleporting ones were well known.

I followed, and when I passed a military group, I pulled out of the crowd and asked, "Can I help?"

They blinked and sent me off to the command center nearby to get set up. I ran around a corner, and right into a massive black marine armor. I smiled in recognition of the skull, Jim Raynor. "Out of the way! Evacuation needs to pick up speed."

I nod, and head to the command center, and begin coordinating the evacuation. I focus on the dropships, and clearing the landing zones over the loudspeaker, and speeding up the evacuation as much as possible. As the Zerg advanced on the city, we were nearly 23% ahead of the most optimistic plans for the evacuation. I felt quite proud of that, but we needed to go faster, the marines were falling in several zones, and…"You! Get over here if you think you can help!"

One of the coordinating officers waved me over, and I left others to continue the evacuations. Apparently, I was drafted. I would prefer to handle the evacuation, but Efficiency was still on saving the colonists, and it wanted me to follow, so I started coordinating the defense of the town. I did notice several people just stopping to watch as I coordinated. Reloads, stims, movement of the marines down to the step. It felt a little like watching the pros play the game, the massive coordination. But with my implants, ability to multitask, type on 2 different keyboards at the same time, and call out orders, I was probably at a slightly higher commands per minute.

Eventually, and to the great relief of the men under my command, the city was evacuated. I sighed in relief and stood back to the stupefied military coordinators that I had replaced, and sent them a sheepish smile.

Then one of them forwarded a call for help to me and I nodded. Backwater Station? Did someone really name themselves Backwater?

Several dropships with marines arrived, and I took command as fast as I could. I recognized Raynor's suit and smiled.

*Good Enough For Science. Not Aperture Science! (Portal) (0) Bought. Legion Trained (A Practical Guide to Evil) Bought (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Legion Trained (A Practical Guide to Evil): One Sin. Defeat. One Grace. Victory. These are the words that every member of the Legion lives by. You've been trained in the legions, and are proficient with rank-to-rank fighting with the gladius and scutum, the usage of goblin munitions, and mass spellcasting (assuming, of course, that you're capable of spellcasting). Furthermore, you know how to create goblin munitions, including the magic-eating goblin fire. While this won't let you stand up to a Hero on it's own, the discipline of a legionnaire and their skill against others on their level is not to be doubted. As one of the Named yourself? Well, this level of skill can be quite effective, though it's enhanced with the assistance of fellow warriors.

Good Enough For Science. Not Aperture Science! (Portal): Pick one of these two options: one PhD in a subject which actually exists, or 3 PhDs in subjects which only exist in Aperture. Applied physics of quantum tunneling, multiverse search algorithms, and event horizon containment are examples of Aperture only degrees. You can buy this perk twice, but it's only free once.

I blink as I feel lots of information get dumped into my brain. And I feel Strategic Trance activate and get a choice. 3 PHDs in Aperture Sciences huh? I'll take those. Those nutcases are insane but damned if understanding their tech couldn't help. I will definitely take 'Applied physics of quantum tunneling'. Then I look through the list. And I find something… interesting.

'Controlled Energy Formation.' Material Emancipation grids, and maybe Hardlight. Taken.

Finally, 'Kinetic Radial Formation Systems.' Long Fall Boots, maybe more. With the three taken, and the waterfall of information filling my brain further. Taking a second to adjust, I feel my new Legion Trained take hold, and I begin again. Advancing in formation, called reloads and timed stimpacks. I pushed them forward, taking points, entrenching between waves of Zerg, taking down the command the Zerg infested, and rescuing a reporter, and without someone defying orders and rushing off ahead, I wouldn't have lost a single soldier. I was quite proud of myself.

Then I learned that we weren't exactly supposed to be doing that over the comns. "Who in the hell led that team?"

I blink, looking around, "Was I not supposed to?" I turn to the man that guided me over here and recognize his more formal attire. "Do you want to explain?"

He smiles, "It will be fine."

Admiral Duke decides to arrest everyone responsible. Efficiency now decides to balk at that order, but I don't really have an option without shooting everyone on my way out. As the troops cleaned up, I was quite affronted when the two of them just pat me on the back, "Raynor actually took the men. Your involvement was minimal." he said. Right up until I realized that they were serving here in the city. Then the rather well dressed man that asked me to look in on that combat explains, "Raynor has a reputation around here. It's not personal."

We were both elsewhere a few hours later when the Sons of Korhal freed Raynor, and much of the local army went rogue from the Confederacy. I was rather confused until the Magistrate explained, "The Confederate is the ruling government here. There are factions at the edges displeased with the Lord's ruling style, the Sons of Korhal are led by Arcturus Mengsk, and are primarily galvanized by the destruction of the planet Korhal."

Arcturus Mengsk himself. "Despite the successes you've had so far Commander, the Zerg are taking Mar Sara. The Confederates are leaving, and so are we. But there is something we need to do first." And he explains that we are raiding an installation simply called Jacob's Installation for potential weapons data.

I was asked and accepted command over the operation. It wasn't hard, they weren't ready for a foe with standard doctrines for frontline combat, and a moving formation. I don't think anyone here would be. At the end of the station was some information that was shocking. They were studying Zerg, and the records I was accessing through the suit were clear. The Zerg on Mar Sara was not an accident.

Ok. I might not know these people, and I might not hate the Zerg as much as others, but these morons were feeding planets to the Zerg, and we were going to have words.

*Talisman Adept (Inukami) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

---

AN: An explanation in the wake of the WMG that went out of control. Damion hasn't really built something totally new in a long time. He builds from his list of components, and his many crafting boosts are then aiming for the idealized version of that blueprint. But this gun was him pushing his powers to the absolute maximum that they can, snowballing interaction on a scale the small percentage of the Celestial Forge he's tapped into is really capable of when unleashed.

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a linear adventure: Chapter 27

---

After using Void Dragon to ensure that I had a copy of everything, and therefore the group had a copy of everything and then having them absolutely trash the base, we recalled. The Sons went to a nearby planet to plan out their next move, and we were in near orbit. We were present in the system when the Protoss burned the planet.

It was ugly. I felt conflicted in the sense that yesterday I burned planets for… not dissimilar reasons. Did I mean to? No, I never intended to kill the New Genians, but at the same time, I don't totally regret it. I have few memories of them being unambiguously good. I'm sure they had moments, but I remember them having a 'sacrifice everything to win' mindset. And that's not exactly good.

Regardless, watching a planet, even one overrun by the Zerg, be not simply removed from existence, but rendered so lifeless… so desiccated, it struck a different chord with me.

It definitely didn't help that everyone else was heartbroken at the death of their planet.

Then, we had some time. The Sons of Korhal were working on plans for war, something we weren't included in for some reason, giving us time to kill. I suppose downtime wasn't so bad if my ability to entertain myself without building something was about a second at this point.

Jim and his new Rangers were given a few weeks. I spent a day optimizing our armor, not the Sons, I have no good memories of Mengsk either, but the Rangers. It was well appreciated in some combat tests, and the Fire Bat pilots all but adopted me with the almost Warhammer grade flamers that were walking around with me now. I really wanted to crack open a siege tank, but we weren't assigned any of those.

Tiamat saved me with a question, "Damion? I'm working on the Tau weapons mounted on your ship, they are close enough to what I understand, but… something's off."

I nod and a set of clones goes to assist. As I start I feel my unchained Reverse Engineering specialization spin up, and I realize a massive fact. There are systems around here I take completely for granted. I know EMC is apparently the energy of interdimensional foam, but how does it work? I think the Aeldari crystals do something to Warp energy, but what?

I have downtime, let's investigate.

Through liberal experimentation, disassembly, outright magical Analysis, I learn more than a few things. First, Aeldari crystals make no sense on any logic system I understand. They shouldn't work according to everything I can see under the microscope. They are drawing power from nowhere. I can't detect anything in any dimensional frequency shifting around them, that would mean that they are drawing from a well of literally infinite power, or so vast that even the largest local drain I can force into existence isn't having an appreciable drain on even the smallest local scale, which would imply lots of unsettling things, but the scanners say that the energy isn't coming from outside the crystal. Something about the existence of the crystal is creating an unspeakably large energy growth, on par with any energy source I can make, and given they short out in an antimagic field… I don't know. Violette and I were working on it, but we weren't really getting anywhere.

*Modular Armor (Factorio) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

Putting aside that, I'm beginning to understand EMC. It's… the closest words that Wiz and I could come with is the atom's atom. It's binding energy associated with a material's complexity or systemic value. In many cases, it's a simple addition, but some of the heavy-duty technological objects I've looked at are more than that. For instance, the silicon and gold that go into the creation of a circuit board do not at all add up to the value of that board, which makes sense given its complexity, but compressing steel into plates should be simple, but it more than triples the EMC value for some reason.

It's fascinating. But the really good part is that I think I can understand what the stars are doing to be so dense with energy. They are actively modulating their interior complexity. The visible black bubble slowly turned white and I thought that was like a magical interpretation of a battery, but it's not. It's the material slowly forming micro printing. Very small delicate engravings, that as far as Wiz and I can tell are completely random, form in slowly expanding rings around the star, bending and twisting into themselves as they expand. It explains both why the stars can be made in such small slivers, and how the stars can be damaged and only lose tiny percentages of their stored power; they aren't a balloon, they are a painting.

We also figured out the mechanics behind the collectors, allowing me to massively expand their functionality. They are harnessing some kind of photon interaction. They create an unstable photon, and its collision with a stable photon going exactly perpendicular to it creates a very, very small vibration in the foam that I tapped into more violently with the High-Frequency Manufacturing. Trying to tap into that with the scale I did with the WMG was obviously a bad idea, and I don't plan to do that in a universe I want to continue, let alone in my Warehouse, but I can use that. The diamond lattice is useful for this functionality and all, but I can optimize Vibranium. The lattice I can make, and the 100% vibration transmission boost the production of the system by more than four times. Meaning that my condensers will need an upgrade in the future. Badly.

My work with Tiamat and Ankh went well. Not as well as the EE work, but I didn't completely lack understanding of Tau weapons. The Railguns were fairly standard. Layers of variable superconductors to introduce spin, secondary capacitors for firing meaning that the projectile is accelerating from 2 constructively interacting magnetic fields meaning that they basically combined the power of 3 railguns into 1 barrel. The flamers were interesting, the activation of some kind of thermite derivative was quite useful, and understanding it made it easy to get a modified set of rounds that detonated into the thermite pool on contact, effectively making melta weapons into long range projectiles. The plasma rifles were strange, and we couldn't get to the underlying fundamentals before the war moved back into high gear.

*Smith (Generic Builder) (100) Bought. Overflow. Orokin Tech (Warframe) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

Smith (Generic Builder): You have a particular talent for creating anything a blacksmith/armorsmith/weaponsmith might create. Any such crafted object is half again as durable as it would otherwise be. Creation times are halved and your natural talent increases with each purchase of this knack.
* Can be taken indefinitely for creation time modifiers

I… damn. Ok. Half production time, and double durability, stacking to infinity? I can get on board with that, but I have a war to fight. Jim and I were briefed together, and I was surprised.

Seeing Kerrigan on screen was… shocking. I knew she was human once but didn't think she would be heavily involved in the war. What happens next? As Mengsk continued the briefing, I discarded that line of thought for now. I needed to focus. I can freak out over the potential… whatever she is, later.

We were sent to liberate Antiga Prime. It wasn't a hard mission all things considered. I got a few more units to upgrade between missions, and even with Raynor and Kerrigan on the ground, the upgrades that I had given the troops, and the upgrades I had saved from the last mission made a massive difference. And I got siege tanks. They weren't as interesting as I remember them being, but I had some plans for them later.

As the base fell, Mengsk was calling another mission, that of the Norad II and its colony. Duke, the Admiral who arrested Raynor and left parts of the Mar Sara colony to die, needed help. I was with Raynor to leave him to his fate, but Mengsk had a decent point. The Antiga Prime colonists didn't deserve to be left to the Zerg.

We deployed, and with the new upgrades, the siege tanks were living up to my memories, and I got a unit I don't actually remember. The Goliath. Useful, but it was outclassed by my upgraded units back at Jacob's facility. I drove the Zerg off of the Norad II and fixed it up. Duke was noticeably suspicious of the whole affair, but Mengsk convinced him that we didn't need to fight. That the Confederacy was falling apart, and he couldn't win this fight. Duke apparently agreed and joined the fight.

Not exactly a 'loyal to the end' man, and not someone Raynor or I wanted to depend on, but here we are.

Later that day, the Confederacy sent another force. One we didn't have the firepower to beat head to head. I tried to suggest several alternatives to that, secondary strikes, sabotage. But, it wasn't to be. I had my orders. The moment Mengsk revealed what the Confederacy had done to Mar Sara to everyone else, I lost my only ally in the briefing room against this plan.

We were going to use the Zerg to wipe out this Confederacy task force, and the Protoss to wipe out the Zerg. I assuage my wounded sense of morality that we were evacuating as many of the civilians as possible beforehand, and I had dropships carrying people all the way up through the deployment of the Emitter. But after that, we pulled out. The Zerg were too numerous and too fast for us to do anything more except losing people.

Kerrigan and I seemed to be of like mind, when she demanded to a silent Mengsk, "Never have me do anything like this again."

*OrgoTek Bioware Database (Trinity) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

We needed to gather forces and head to Tarsonis. So I was back with my companions. Violette and I were still working on the Aeldari crystals, but throwing every specialization either of us could think of, we couldn't find the source of the power. I felt like I was missing something, and eventually, we started comparing the effects to other weapons to see what we could find. The answer is that the Aeldari have uniquely weird weapons.

Wiz's EMC projects were going swimmingly, as we figured out how to make our collectors store more energy. It's surprisingly not making them larger like I initially thought we were going to need to. We made them smaller, abusing the square-cube law for the resources cost reduction of a smaller cube, and the inherent added complexity of a smaller box doing the same job, making nearly 4 times as many of them at one fourth the size. The storage of each of them expanded by about 40% with the reduction, and that was almost 6 times the storage of the old system. We also made a matrix in the Zerg specifically to make more of them into the structure as it levels up. 4 per tier actually. In the end, we got to almost 90 times the storage potential with a full Lair compared to my first design, while lowering the cost. It was also in this experiment that I realized that the production time on my Zerg fell by half when I picked up Builder. They also registered twice as much base health and twice as much health gains from the upgrades. That's… interesting. And kinda horrifying.

The Plasma weapon dissection went moderately well too. Tiamat, Ankh, and I all understood the storage and energizing effect of hydrogen gas. It was in a light photonic state for transport, energized by the small internal fusion reactor, and then held magnetically for firing. The part we struggled with for a good long while was the Linear Accelerator. We weren't sure how it was propagating without destabilizing the gas or registering on the scanners during firing, but then we realized that it wasn't being aimed, it was being fired. The specific energized photonic structure of the hydrogen plasma was rotating, creating a self-sustaining magnetic attraction to itself; more simply, it was making a micro-atmospheric shell around the plasma, keeping it stable. That's very clever.

Something Wiz and Tiamat brought up before we left, taking the defenses of these colonists with us, we built some industrial plants around the colony, meaning that they were capable of making their own defenses if the Zerg came knocking. It wouldn't help with the Protoss planet burning, but… nothing the Terrans had could do that with any effectiveness, barring a full combat fleet.

Our next mission I didn't have too much of an issue with. We were going to be deploying a ground strike force to the capital of the Confederacy to sabotage the Ion Cannons defending the planet. A distraction would let a small force through, and Raynor asked me to lead the secondary force on the ground. "I've never seen tactical planning like you've shown this last week."

*Seamless Construction (Endless Space) (400) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Seamless Construction (Endless Space): You might not be able to design the perfect ship, but you certainly could build one that is good enough. Given enough resources and the proper blueprints, you can build ships that would rival that of the Endless, cast as a single, cohesive whole. Even if you build it with mundane methods, it still ends up being nearly perfect, not a single design flaw or construction error in sight. This also applies to things you build that aren't spaceships.

I made it down to the planet just fine. I didn't have a tactical mapping from all the teams and met radio silence when I asked. I worked on without them, preparing the base until I heard an open line from Duke. "Psi-Emitters are online."

I… "Excuse me? Repeat that!"
Kerrigan demanded, "Who authorized that?"

"I did. Karrigan, Peramos, this isn't a war the Sons of Korhal can win with clean hands, regardless of what you may think. This is how we are going to win the war."

"There are 12 Billion people down here!" I demand. "You're willing…"

"I am willing to make the hard choices! Something you obviously aren't."

I scowl, and nearly order my guns to start shooting at him, but I stop. I have excellent positioning, I have time to build up, and I know the Zerg. I can hold this line. New technologies, restricted to me and me alone are sent to my Armories. I understand quite a bit about war. Between the Firebat's new Unholy Fire that Legion Trained granted me, to my ability to create the crystals I'm harvesting at a rate that would horrify anyone here, as well as my complete lack of Vespene Gas requirements, I thought I could hold the line. The Zerg came in numbers that blotted out the sun, and I did hold the line.

Then the Protoss attacked. My newly upgraded cruisers were capable of delaying them, but not stopping them. Not them both, not even with my powers. The Protoss were relentless and new. I didn't know what they were going to do step by step like I could the Zerg. They were punching holes in my lines more than the damn Zerg, and once there were holes I needed time that the Zerg weren't willing to give me to fix them. Clones commanding 8 battlefronts around and inside the city, conscripting willing men and women, building fully robotic suits until more people could arrive. Every upgrade that Wiz, Violette, Ankh, and Tiamat could make was being added to the pile. Tiamat commanded more and more of the suits as my numbers were chipped away until we were holding on with sheer brute firepower from my almost fully Tau weapons and magically reinforced armor. The Protoss command ship fell to a well timed strike from Kerrigan and a few warping cruisers. With them down, the Zerg they had been holding back surged forward and were burned on my lines.

Kerrigan called for the evac to start, telling them we had driven off the Protoss, all but begging the Sons of Korhal ships in orbit to assist as a new wave of Zerg advanced, but unfortunately, we had another problem.

Mengsk. "Belay that order. We're moving out."

I remembered at that moment where I was. This was where Mengsk left Kerrigan and billions of civilians to die. This is the betrayal that created the Queen of Blades. And damn if I didn't understand that rage now.

Cutting Mengsk from my comns, and rallying everyone I could, "The Sons of Korhal may have abandoned you, but I am not going anywhere."

*Performance Optimization (Ragnarok Online) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

As Kerrigan got back to the outermost defensive line, I threw several data packets at her, and the minerals for an upgrade or twelve. She took them, I tried not to despair at the second fleet of Zerg landing, fully half of them seemingly inside the city. I don't remember exactly when I went out personally and discovered that the Zerg in mass is functionally immune to magic, a Void energy effect I should recognize from their Psionic connection, but I lost a few clones before that realization struck, and a city block to the distraction figuring it out caused, to my great shame. For a bit, I was hopeful that I could get enough people out with my dropships.

Then the New Gettysburg Ion Cannon turned from the Zerg to my ships. The Cruisers were piloted by Tiamat remotely or one of my clones, and I could deal with those, but no. The Ion Cannons were firing on my dropships too.

That was unacceptable. Another layer of my willingness to hold back fell away and my army of Avatars swept through the battlefield towards him.

Kerrigan contacted me, "Can you keep it down?"

I blink, "What?"

"I'm pissed too. Mengsk… he'll get what's coming to him, but you can still…"

"Duke's Ion Cannon is shooting my evacuation dropships." I see her face warp, and I continue, "I'm handling it."

"How?"

"Pulling out more resources than I should be." I mutter and close the comns. I don't know what I'm doing to the timeline at this point. At all. I don't know what a threat level Error means, and Amon is out there potentially able to swat me from the universe if I expose too much, the Overmind is already capable of forcing me to use Warhammer levels of firepower… I wince as I lose another Avatar and with it another chunk of the city. And a set of Cruisers to the Hydralisk swarm below. Damn, I should have recalled them.

Then the Zerg pull out Nydus worms. Dozens of breaches directly into my manufacturing bases, my evacuation points. Damn it!

In a second, I've lost half of the population of the city, and my capacity to defend the rest. I'm scrambling, extruding my nearly finished Tau factory with fully capable Tau Warsuits being directed by Tiamat when someone fires a nuke. The final scraps of Duke's base in the city, I hadn't eradicated them because I needed my Avatar's elsewhere, and they show my mercy scorn with a nuclear strike in the city.

I don't have the time to stop it, I don't have the resources to block it, and I am out of time.

Lights flash. In an instant, everything I hoped to save was gone. My men dead, my armies gone, and I'm standing in the shadow of my command bunker, alone.

"Hello?" I tap my radio, realizing that Fashion let my earpiece ignore the blast as well as my uniform. I hear someone call out again "Is there anyone left?"

"Hello, Kerrigan."

"Damion! You were in the command center! You… the blast?"

"Kerrigan, let me tell you a secret. I'm not your everyday human. Where are you?"

*Tinker Copycat (Scooby Gamers) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

"East entrance, on a shell of a building. The Zerg are coming in fast."

I nod, "Ok. I'll be there shortly."

I use my ability to extrude my warehouse, and my ability to step into and out of it at will to appear massive distances away get me to the building the Zerg are swarming in that direction.

I can detect her suit and visor, and appear nearby. She's startled, and demands, "What are you?"

I smile, magically carve a door into the floor, reinforce that section in space, and take her into my Warehouse. "I'm an out of context solution."

She looks around, "What's this place, and why can't I feel anything?"

I frown, "I suspect that's either my Blank or perhaps Mental Resistance."

She frowns, "What?"

I explain, "I have a power. It's called the Celestial Forge. Every so often I get a point, and that point comes with a roll for a random power suited to construction."

She nods, "OK." She doesn't look like she believes me, so I show her to the EE room to continue. "I roll the powers, knowledge, or skills required to make something. These come from alternate versions of reality with different rules, and skills. I collect companions from realms I visit and try to improve."

She blinks, as Wiz, Violette, and Ankh enter the room. Tiamat has been here the whole time. "These are my companions. Wiz, a former lich and powerful ice mage. Violette, an Enginesister from a time of ceaseless war. Ankh, a machine intelligence created by a race of races that turned themselves, and other life forms, into machines to escape death. Tiamat is an artificial intelligence, she's not visible right now, but she's here."

"Hello, Operative Kerrigan." Tiamat says politely, trying not to scare her.

Kerrigan takes this shockingly in step, "Why are you here?"

"After taking the appropriate steps to improve a realm of existence, I get dropped into a new one. The information I have beforehand can be minimal, or rather all encompassing. This particular plane I know basically nothing of note, not anymore." Jim hunted down the Artifact to cure Kerrigan... wait. That could be the ticket.

"Anymore?"

"I know of an alternate timeline. Where you were captured by the Zerg here today, and due to your extreme psionic potential, they elevate you to second in command, after scrubbing away your personality and motivations to ensure you were loyal. Think a slightly more direct Ghost training."

She frowns but seems to accept. "And then?"

"Jim creates an ancient artifact that scrubs both sets of mild brainwashing from your system. For reasons I never learned you rejoined the swarm but as yourself later."

She frowns, "If that doesn't happen?"

"I don't know. Jim took your death hard."

She frowns, "I…"

I look at my data for the Zerg, the 2 sets I hadn't touched. The creation of the Queen of Blades. 2 forms of her, one obviously with mind control, and one without, and far stronger.

*The Mind (Megamind) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

The only issue with even offering her this option is that the cocoon for starting this mutation needs to be built over a Psionic nexus, and I am lacking in that very specific resource.

"I have a swarm. I can protect you from anything the Zerg can do to your mind myself, and I wouldn't mind taking a crack at the Overmind. Objections?"

She looks at me. Anger, and focus in her eyes, "What's the plan?"

I nod, "I upgrade you to the form that you would have been given if you were taken, without the mind control, and I build my own Zerg army. One to cleanse the Overmind's taint from the galaxy at large. Then, we go after Mengsk." I offer my hand, and she takes it.

I began the programming of a birthing pod for her upgrade. It doesn't actually take very long before I'm ready, and she submerges herself in the pod. Hours pass, and I extrude some to reclaim my technology before the Zerg eat it or something. I don't know if they can make Wraithbone, it's not organic, but they are weird. Then I deploy a drone, the only one I'll ever need, to build my Overmind. It will be finished shortly after Kerrigan.

As she finishes, her hair altered, and her 4 additional arms cocooning around her, she emerges in a flare of energy, smiling. I never learned what the wings did but they weren't exactly capable of flight. She wasn't technically finished yet, but I was working on an organic variant of my Avatar's flight packs for her.

The moment the Overmind was finished, I felt it. So did Kerrigan. Another wavelength that I was connected to everything by. I could detect its reach far into the emptiness of my Warehouse. The first thing I did was train Kerrigan in the actual command of the swarm. Wargames that let us get used to the fluidity of the swarm in real life. Everything was cleaned up and reabsorbed afterward. Tiamat had tips, but Violette had concerns.

"These creatures… They are like the Tyranids."

I blink, "I hadn't heard about those. What are they?"

"A race of all consuming creatures. They consume and never stop. They are nearly equal to Chaos in scope and a threat to the Imperium. It is… disconcerting to fight battles like this."

I frown, "I don't think the metal equivalent would comfort you, would it?"

She smiles slightly, "No."

"I can promise that we will not be using these on innocent people. Mengsk did that to billions and I will not be doing the same. Military targets only."

She nods, "I believe you."

"And setting these loose on the Tyranids… or this galaxy's equivalent?"

"That… I believe I can support that. But I won't lead them. That would be too much."

I nod, "Until I know what Amon is, I was hoping to keep you three far from the battlefield. In here specifically. We can take these war games outside if you would prefer."

She frowns, "No the Overmind, and the psionic presences of you three would be too much."

I frown, "Three?"

"Yes, your Arcana adapted to be used Psionically. I heard Kerrigan speaking to Wiz about it."

*Field of Research: Transdimensional Theory, Chainsaws, Chains, Saws and General Anti-Flora Equipment (Dota 2) (400) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

While trying to process that I was accidentally Psionic, I got hit over the head with a perk title that sounded absurd in the extreme. I checked it out, and Efficiency started screaming.

Field of Research: Transdimensional Theory, Chainsaws, Chains, Saws and General Anti-Flora Equipment (Dota 2): To call technology a tree, which one arbitrarily climbs upwards through non-descript Science! is simply insulting. Science is discovery through rationality, technology the rewards of our efforts to better understand the world. Or something similarly fruity, as the humans so often enjoy defining things in needlessly overcomplicated and faux-poetic ways. There are (2) particular fields you've studied, and have a great deal of theoretical and practical knowledge of, for both general tool development and combat duty.
Transdimensional Theory: Particularly exotic and full of potential, the field of transdimensional studies is rather young and as much as it has allowed incredible advances it also has brought forth great calamities. Never forget the Violet Plateau Incident. Either way, while you are only able to study dimensional and spatial anomalies caused by other sources for now, the idea of crossing continents with the press of a button, calling resources and tools from faraway bases and workshops then sending them back home once you're done, and exploring new universes entirely remains a very realistic goal. Just, keep in mind that there's plenty of nightmarish monstrosities sitting around our reality which would just love it if some schmuck opened the door for them. I reckon that'll probably stop being a problem for you in a decade's time, but still.
Chainsaws, Chains, Saws, and General Anti-Flora Equipment: Besides the utility for wood harvesting purposes, you also have great knowledge of what to do with wood itself, being able to engineer around wood's strong and weak points in order to replace metal during the construction of things such as armor or general machinery. Why, you could even create a suit of armor able to cut down forests in record time while defending from any attacking trees, saw whirling around you as an active defense, chains pulling you along while tearing leafage from its foundation, and your main blade spinning around the battlefield to cut down any straggling trees. Does not come with traumatic memories of plant-based murder or rampant paranoia.

I reread that a few times. The description of wood specifically.

I had a fully organic replacement for metal. I felt several BioTinkering specialties form, scream, and fade away. The biggest thought that blinked through my mind was wooden Zerg. Arbor-Zerg?

I scraped all of my plans, restarting fresh. Combining the strengths of my 2 swarms into… something else.

I was growing bulletproof, wooden Zerg. Lighter, faster, stronger, fully flight capable when required. Costs dropping as plant matter further enhance my growth rate. I was looking at Zerg with about 4 times the durability of my sturdier steel mesh variants. They were also nearly twice as fast as the best Zerglings I could make before. Every sharp edge was now part sawblade, the Zerglings literally had 2 pointed chainsaws coming out of their shoulders. My defenses are capable of deploying fields of moving sawblades, and firing interwoven saw blades into the sky, turning metal and flesh and even my wood into shredded pulp. The Ultrasisks were monstrosities, with wood containing plasma charges by sheer biological adaptivity.

The upgrades for the metal, and the biological applied to everything. I was getting twice the damage, health, armor, and speed upgrade I would have a minute ago. When I was done getting the upgrades again because interacting upgrades needed to be gotten for this swarm specifically, I switched the Overmind to the wooden form, and it grew. So much stronger, more than the sum of its parts in every way.

"Why is the Overmind made of wood?"

I can't speak, my brain needs a minute to deal with that, so I send my new Arbor-Zerg against her base. It's a slaughter. She's losing to my Zerglings, outnumbering them 5 to 1.

She blinks, "Can I get some of that?"

I blink, and feel my brain restart from that tinker fugue and the resulting insanity, and upgrade her Queen of Blades into the auto-titled Queen of Saws.

Nope. Blades 1.5. Not doing that to myself.

She emerges very quickly and is even stronger than before.

With that, we emerge into the world again, conquering a massive section of the planet as our wooden, saw blade enhanced, gun toting, Arbor-Zerg march seemingly unopposed. I built a second Overmind, to have one here, and as it finishes, we all feel it. The inferior flesh overmind.

I really thought that was going to be a metal comparison. It's not.

It turns to us, contemptible, but the combined Psionic energies of 2 Overminds, the Queen of Blades with her upgraded wooden everything, and the apparently limitless pool of Arcana that I'm channeling into the link stifles him out of our system, and our reach expands.

Our base expands, and a Leviathan is forming, seeming like a forest decided to conquer the stars, as it slowly formed. By the time it was done, my Tau Worship was complete. Its massive frame actually gave me one last idea for the Zerg.

A weapons plant. For human allies. I had the specs and the metal, it didn't take long to be producing functional Terran armor and body armor out of my superior wood.

*Enhancement Mastery (Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

Then, I started making the infested Terran vehicles. Guns and tanks and the like, replacing treads, with spider legs, replacing the spot on the frame with the Goliath's heavy machine gun.

Then a thought occurred, and I looked at the Brutalisk, and especially the Apocalypse, which was now just basically a slightly larger Unltralisk, given my upgrades, the other massive Zerg units, that I want something… bigger. Kerrigan seemed to agree given how she jumped at the chance to help design one.

Eventually, we finished, and I felt it was kinda boring, but honestly, it was the only thing that we didn't already have an answer for. It was effectively a much larger version of the Infested Siege Tank. 6 large legs, armored to prevent anything from knocking it down easily, a pair of Acid Javelins on top of its frame to prevent it from being attacked from that direction, and the only reason it was quite so large, it was a spawning pool. It was a mobile larva creator. 25 larvae could be sustained, and while it was on Creep it would have a spawning pool's EMC storage, and off, it would generate a very small EMC trickle itself. Not even enough to heal itself actually, but this was where cost and complexity met their maximized value. With the wood, and the organic hydraulics it was faster than I would have thought, and it was capable of setting up several larvae into a Hatchery meaning we could deploy anywhere we chose.

It was a massive, nasty surprise, given that Tiamat managed to get a short term Stealth Drive on it. I was horrified that something the size of a Titan could become invisible walking around nearly silently, deployable from the Leviathan… well anywhere on the planet.

After the Leviathan finished, we filled it with Zerg and purchased all the upgrades to keep them mobile, in case the Overmind got damaged. And we set off.

It was slightly more anti-climactic than I believed it would be taking off in the Leviathan. And its FTL was far inferior to the Terran one. Or maybe it's simply that we are moving an organic moon that's slowing us down, but I start looking into the other thing my Wood perk gave me. The inter/intra realm teleportation. It was a massive feature, and it felt far, far too simple in this form, but the testing spoke for itself. After the next set of infested planets fell to the Arbor-Zerg, I tested it with the Leviathan, and it worked fantastically. It required me to carve a large stone obelisk with the correct runes, which I was analyzing for a more… scientific approach to realm travel, but apply psionic energy, and someone to channel a destination. This particular version was realm locked, but it let me replace our FTL organs, the size of a medium shopping mall with teleporters targeted at the nearest habitable planet, in the nearest place we can establish a base zone. Intent targeting was weird to program.

Our conquest marched on, almost automatically. As I considered ut plans going forward, and realizing what full access to the multiverse means, I planned to visit an old… Aqua was never my friend, was she?

*Library of Raum (The Dark Wolf Shiro) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once an easy war: Chapter 28

---

Building an actual targeting system for an inter-reality transporter was difficult. Making one able to target via human intent was even harder because I could detect infinite versions of infinite universes, at all ages, at all levels of magical and technological progress and danger. This literal rune covered tree was also not precise. Now, orbit over a planet that I can 'see', sensors, or whatever the Leviathan can psionically detect with an Overmind built into it? Sure. No problem. Somewhere within about 3 light seconds of the planet, on the side of the planet that reflects the light in the Leviathan's mind. Which normally is half illuminated and half not, putting us in a massive band around the planet. Inside an asteroid field, or inside a moon, sure, not like the projector cares, it will just displace the exact volume of the Leviathan from the universe. Given the size of the Leviathan we are using, I am concerned about killing another planet with that, by complete accident. We already destroyed one planet by dropping half of its moon onto it.

Note to self, planets habitable due to tidal shift, are not to be built upon, even for 10 times resource gains from the minerals. It was a mess to recover my troops from under lava.

On the opposite end of my issue was the battlefield deployment precision, which is perfect. Kerrigan and I had both gotten it as precise as warping Arbor-Zerglings into regular Zerglings, completely removing them from existence. It was easier than moving the Leviathan. However that is what clarified the issue, I intended for my Zerg to appear exactly somewhere. But the ability for human intent to focus on a precise location was… warped as distances and complexity grew.

That error curve scaled up fast, if I let Violette try to target 'home', we would end up in one of… thirty or forty million versions of 40K, with the even probability that we arrive in the Materium or the Warp.

That would probably kill me, nothing said for Wiz, Tiamat, Ankh, and Violette herself.

The reason was simple, an organic mind is very good at relativizing space and concepts. If we didn't need a computer to handle very precise locations in space, time, the relative reality, the cross-reality gap, was… limited. Extremely so. Violette was technically more accurate in the tests than I was, trying to go backwards to planes we already had visited.

I totaled a moon because I had the Psionics to play with to stabilize our destination, but everyone but me would have died if they had landed in that moon, stone flattening them from minor movements of the Leviathan. Admittedly, the picture that came to mind for me when I did that was some of the Apollo pictures, because it looked like Earth. That was my fault. I've adjusted for the mental image of all the moons being in the mental image, but that's not specific enough for a realm jump.

Getting to a planet is all well and good, but the simulations Lucy's computer can run are firm that we need some way to prioritize the specific reality.

*Build Rome (Gundam - After Colony) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

Which is why I'm staring at what can be described as 2 wooden Stargates tied into a Druid summoning circle. It wasn't actually a stargate, those were wormholes, and… well this wasn't exactly a wormhole. This was… well this wasn't anything a sane scientist would cook up.

Tinkertech Dimensional Portals, running on a Void energy/antimatter interaction with a temporal interchange reminiscent of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, crossed with a… well whatever my intent Travel Totems were. 4 Wooden pillars tied into the intent drives of my wood perk, receiving 'intent' as a location from the wooden rings that connected them. The 2 wooden rings were half stabilizing and safety checks for the pillars, with the top one being the void/antimatter generator, the bottom being the temporal quasi-wormhole generator, and the space between being almost entirely a gaseous carbon acting as a conductor for the energies. It was plugged into a computer in a separate Leviathan to where all of my companions were waging war with the Arbor-Zerg as I tested this messy solution.

I tried. Hard. To find an interreality Tinkertech solution. I did. Tinker Plus has interreality scrying, and FTL drives, and actually a shield preventing interdimensional bleed that I was going to use a lot if I ever landed in Warhammer 40K. But it was completely lacking in interreality transportation. My wooden everything perk's pillars and plinths of transportation were capable of going anywhere you intended to go, regardless of the consequences. I'm not going to think about what the portal options could do, but… nothing good would be accomplished. I did think about the Violet Plateau Incident. I didn't know what it was before I got this perk, and it took a bit before that data got airdropped into my nightmares, but Never forget the Violet Plateau Incident is a fiat in my brain now. Portals to other realities are not to be opened after reading horror novels. Ever. Silent Hill is tame in comparison to the list of anti-universal horrors that plague the infinite multiverse.

I targeted something simple first. Distance aggravated the issues with targeting for 1 of the intent targeting trees, lets see if I can get to an exact point on the galactic map, one with a landmark of a planet, moon, and star. Activating… perfect. Right on target. The exact location I was looking at, visible from the command deck of the Leviathan. While I was here I deployed some Arbor-Zerg, to fight the regular Zerg below, fired a few large scale Leviathan mounted weapons at the Leviathan being constructed below. I actually scaled some Tau and improvised Aeldari Titans weapons up for the moon sized creature.

I pointedly did not scale up the big orbital destroying Tau lasers. Even if I could probably take the Death Star in open combat, I didn't want to invite planet killing as an option. Precision weapons minimize damage to the ecosystem, minimize damage to the tectonic structure. Mostly just lighting a whole chunk of the planet on fire with a timed fire weapon.

Turns out, the Legion training includes the basis for some nasty fire weapons. I turned it into a Zerg killer by igniting exclusively sentient life on fire, within a small radius of a wooden spike, that lasted about two minutes exposed to its own magical fire.

*Lagann-type Gunman (Gurren Lagann) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I carefully didn't think about the fact that I made a magical ghost city creator. It was for Zerg, and it had several levels of fiat locked into unresearchable. As long as I avoided using it on Terrans, I would be fine.

I'll decide on the Protoss after speaking to them, but currently, they are on my list.

I leave the test Leviathan, to Kerrigan's Leviathan, and announce, "The space test went well. Now I'm targeting my Warehouse." That was the 'closest' pocket reality to it, given it was kinda within me. I was going to be away from this Leviathan in case it appeared on top of me. I purposely sent several Zerglings into my arms and legs, Kerrigan volunteered for my arm to check if the Psionic levels of the being sent would affect it, and it did. Her wing displaced my arm twice before the teleport moved her wing around me instead.

Teleporting out into space, I called the Leviathan and didn't suddenly become surrounded by flesh. Checking my warehouse, it was floating nearby in my void. I smiled. That's exactly what I was hoping would happen.

Then it died. Like… sent through a cheese grater, got set on fire, and blown up simultaneously.

Dimensional Invasion prevented.

I blink. Oh. Ok.

Where was that when the Siberian…? Right. My systems were down.

Well, that's helpful information. I couldn't bring a Leviathan into my warehouse like that. But…

I sent the multidimensional transport upgrade to a second Leviathan. It was 100% organic, meaning I didn't even need to be there, and then I opened a door to my Warehouse, "I invite Arbor-Leviathan/Overmind 56 into my Warehouse." And then had it teleport.

Ten seconds later, I had it teleport out, and teleport back in without speaking an invitation.

It was fine. Trying with Leviathan 52, given that its local conflict was finished, but only opening the door when I had it jump results in death.

Ok. So I can have it do this, but I have to specifically invite it, and once I have invited something in, it can leave and return, presumably unless I revoke my invitation. Testing says that yes, revoking my invitation kills them, and everything they brought with them.

Good to know.

I turn to the girls and Ankh. "Well, I've gotten the short range tests done. How's the war going?"

Kerrigan looks tumultuous. "Annoyingly well, and just annoyingly." Looking off into space.

Violette explains, "Sarah is annoyed that the Kryptonian Zerg are far superior to anything the Zerg or the Protoss can throw at us, but unless she is using that specific upgrade, the Protoss can push us back with most of their weapons being energy weapons, and therefore very very hot."

I blink. "Fire works well against the wooden Zerg." I nod, "I thought I patched that. I'll look into it."

I spend the next few hours rectifying that issue. It's actually remarkable simply to pull off, given that I did it to the inside of the Flamer-Roaches, and I thought I did it to the Zerg already. Then I realized the issue with how I was fixing the issue.

That's fire retardant. Fire doesn't stick to the wood, sparks and such will just bounce off, but this isn't actually fire.

*Power Of The Pixel (Starbound) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

No, this was plasma, and it was overwhelming the thermal protections through concentration, not volume. That's fine, I had a solution to that. It's actually a fantastic solution that I think the Protoss deserves. Infernian DNA, one that I discarded for its far inferiority to Kryptonian in energy production with its absorption of thermal energy. I sent Kerrigan that upgrade, and it took about a second for her to read it, buy it, have that data sent to her swarm, and watch as her Zerg got stronger whenever the Protoss brought out heavy plasma weapons. No casual flight, no super indestructibility, no death beams from the larger creatures, just adding flamethrowers to everything with a small durability boost above normal. Kerrigan approved, and soon everything was on fire. Mostly the Protoss, the fire had to come from somewhere.

We slowly pushed the Protoss and Zerg back across dozens of worlds, and I had to ask, "So… we're killing Zerg, and I know that the Protoss are dicks, but you would think that they would at least let us kill the Zerg. That's their whole goal isn't it?"

Kerrigan laughed, "I see you've forgotten New Gettysburg already?"

"No, I'm fairly sure that Mengsk shot them first, I can understand that and toss blame on Mengsk being himself. No, now, there is clearly a schism, and they are prioritizing us because…?"

"If we win the Zerg are far stronger than if we lose?"

I blink, "But we're in charge, and not omnicidal. Sure, Mengsk and his people are going to die, but they are shooting at the Terrans on these planets as well. I've seen that. And the Terrans aren't shooting at us, they seem to have realized that the 'Woody Zerg' aren't hunting people, but Mengsk's propaganda machine using terms like 'yet' isn't helping that. But the Protoss are what? Not paying attention to the fact that we prioritize Zerg over them, and aren't killing Terrans?"

Kerrigan sighs, "I've tapped some of their communications with Wiz's help. They are targeting the strongest Zerg strain. And diplomacy would need to actually hit them over the head before we got anywhere."

I nod slowly, "Then I have an idea. Let's go visit them."

She blinks, "They'll lose their minds."

"Maybe we take a few leaders and just talk. Mengsk has betrayed us hard enough that he personally doesn't get the chance, but other than him and Duke… Humans aren't my issue."

Kerrigan hums, "With the Kryptonian upgrade, their armada couldn't really hurt us… Let's try."

I focus on the highest concentration of Protoss I can detect using my enhanced, and off brand, Psionics and we appear above a very shiny planet. Look's very earth-like.

We are immediately under fire, and I cast a broad psionic net over the area. "We are here to speak, not to fight."

Several more seconds of pointless firepower before a voice rings through. Kerrigan blinked, as did the rest of my companions, pain on their faces. "You would DARE come to Aiur Zergspawn!"

I frown, seeing the band he is projecting on, and carve my way into that frequency. I blink, as tens of thousands of minds scream in my head.

*Stone Censer of Reunion (Desolate Era Part II - The Chaosverse) (800) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

I walk up to the man that had injured my companions before bringing them into this… psionic network with me. "Who the hell are you?" I ask, forming a chair, and summoning a Zergling to complete my Bond villain aesthetic. "And why shouldn't I be here?"

He takes a long second to respond, seeming shaken, "How? How could a Zerg be here?"

I sigh, "That…" "That wasn't an answer to my question." I project back in his silent psionic way. Then I realize that I don't know if he can hear me when I speak regularly.

Him and the circle of other Protoss forming behind him all in disarray and screaming still surrounding me. "You have brought Zerg and Terran into the Khala."

I smile, "Yes, I have. I have come here to speak with whomever is in charge of the mess you've been making."

There is disgruntled whispering from those in the back. Well… I think they are whispering, I can hear the outraged questions from here. "I can hear you?"

They pause, uncomfortable, and their leader begins again, "I am Artanis, newly elected Hierarch of the Daelaam, the united Protoss."

I nod, "I have been pushing against the Zerg across the galaxy with my troops. I wish to understand your insistence on firing upon both my troops and the Terrans."

He pauses, turning amongst his advisors, who are still audible, and turns back to me looking… conflicted. "We…"

"Believed I was Zerg myself, and are purging Terrans as the primary food source. I'm not deaf. That's a fine solution. Now, we are going to come to an arrangement before I decide that I want to test all of you versus all of me." Bad references aside, I smile as hundreds of Leviathans converge on this planet. Turns out, when you can apply more resources to speed production, and have infinite resources, you can make things quickly.

"Now, I believe a compromise is in order? Yes?"

Protoss on the battlefield disintegrate. Tech, people, everything. They know what they are fighting, and it's not something I could Void Dragon away, because it counts as 'dead' when they get hacked. I wanted to know why the Protoss DNA would make the Zerg 'all powerful'.

"What would you ask of us?"

"Nothing of tremendous cost. I wish a small Genetic Sample, both of you, and the 'Dark' Templar."

"Our lives are…"

"Do you really believe that I require your death for something as simple as a Genetic sample Artanis? Yes, your corpse would have the resources I require, but I require you to lay your hand upon a sheet of glass."

He frowns, "I will take an honor guard. And I will bring Zeratul, leader of the Nerazim with me."

I nod and leave him with teleportation coordinates for the control room of my Leviathan.

He arrives, with a dozen guards, both golden armored, and nearly naked, and a hunched, very old looking Protoss. I frown, "Come. You will feel disquieted by our location." I open the door to the warehouse and lead them inside. The armored guards all fall to their knees, and the other draw blades. "Did I not just explain that this location would be disturbing? Your Kahla can not reach here."

*Seed of The Singularity (Generic Cyberpunk) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*

They straighten out, and I nod at Artanis's ability to ignore the cutoff.

They both lay hands on the slate for my Birthing Pods, and like I suspected they were altered. Probably as a species. "Interesting."

They both turn, voices reaching out "What is interesting?"

"The same evolutionary imperative in the Zerg is found in the Protoss. Collective evolution through linked consciousness. You are much further along in the process than I found the Zerg."

They look at me carefully, "And now?"

"Now, I don't need your DNA, annoyingly enough. I have several other telepaths, and your psionic abilities aren't the strongest about this ship. You present a more elegant solution to creating a more perfect Zerg but it's not beyond my reach without it."

I lied. They had an organic attempt at Wavestrength, just like the Zerg. That's all they brought to the table. And if I hadn't seen the broken edges, then I wouldn't have even given them that, but they are opposites. The Zerg's network is vulnerable at any point it ends at. Any Zerg can be hacked and turned into the network, but cracking the frequency would be impossible. Unless I'm reinforcing the network, then it's vulnerable to attack. The Protoss are the other side of that coin. They bring an immunity to being hit in the connective ends, the arguably harder task all things considered, but anyone Psionic can pierce into their network with a little bit of work. It's how their language works even.

Together? They were the full package. Only slightly lesser than my own perk.

I incorporated it into the code and saw the changes immediately. The organic Zerg originals took on the smooth edges of the Protoss, the almost Aeldari looking grace in their movements as they were a self reinforcing hivemind. But my wooden Zerg? They became graceful. I felt the upgrade activate all my perks, synergizing it into one slurry of biomatter, and coming out far greater. I didn't know that most of the energy weapons were psionically driven, but with Kerrigan's psionic potential overriding everything else, the Swarm was unstoppable.

I felt the Protoss's fear rise as the floors and walls mutated into almost stonelike in their sheens. Psionically heavy in the world. "What have you done?"

"Streamlined the process." I explain, "Now, I'm going to kill the Overmind, kill Mengsk for his disrespect, find out what the hell Amon is, and kill him too."

I felt the Protoss react, awe in how they stepped back in terror. All but 2. Artanis and Zeratul approached cautiously, "You would fight Amon?"

I blink, "You know what he is?"

They look almost paranoid, "He is a Xel'Naga. A powerful and evil being. Zeratul only heard his name in fragments, during his dark vision when he slew a prime node of the Zerg of Char. Only a Zealot of the Dark Templar can strike such a blow."

I frown, "Only a Dark Templar can kill a prime Zerg node?" I doubted that, but… we hadn't found one that allowed us to get close. They transmitted offworld, and I couldn't stop them without reaching it while it was there.

*New Age Necromancer (Dungeon Keeper Ami) (600) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

"Indeed. I have seen it. The full wrath of the Protoss couldn't bring them to harm. Burned the world out from under them, but they still lived. Zeratul went into one of the beasts, and the Zerg it controlled spiraled into madness, killing comrades, and themselves." Artanis spoke again.

I turn to Zeratul, "And your claims?"

Artanis looked… uncomfortable, "Zeratul cannot speak to you directly. Your mind is unusually shielded against the energies he uses, and without your connection to the Kahla, I could not either."

I frown, "But he can hear me?"

"Indeed."

"Then I am recruiting as many of your Dark Templar as you are willing to give me, and I will need a… Kahla? Correct? Leader to relay my orders. My Arbor-Zerg may have your genes, but this sounds more skill based than biologically transmitted."

I nod, letting them set up, and look at my new perk.

New Age Necromancer (Dungeon Keeper Ami): Once upon a time wizards were happy enough being able to raise undead, throw fireballs, and curse their enemies, well those were the old days and this is now. You are a modern wizard, you know the value of a well enchanted suit of armor. You know how to mix enchantments in such a way that things such as moving remote piloted armor suits are a very real possibility that you can make reality, magic powered railroads and three dimensional rune setups are simply child's play for you, and even something as complicated as creating a gold powered dungeon heart is eventually possible. Though most enchantments are powered by mana you can offset this somewhat in two ways, either by instead binding the souls of the dead to your creations lowering the mana cost considerably the more souls you bind to it or by burning gold to take the place of mana that would be spent if you are squeamish.

Oh. Oh yes. I thought my power over my warehouse was indomitable before. Dungeon Keeper mechanics. And seemingly free upgrades to 3D runes in the process. I don't quite remember what those do, but I tried making something with it. I pushed the design into a concentric sphere, and that's when the magic took off.

Hovering spheres, surrounded by larger spheres. The runes I was using for my intent transportation were… incompetent next to this upgrade. I update the system, rings, and pillars into rings rotating in and outside of spheres of the exquisitely designed wooden runes. The new system was free floating in the same area, with runes floating freely in the rings, 3 spheres one solid on the inside, then a ring generating the destructive energy, then another sphere of rune roots, and the pattern continued outward for 2 creation and 2 destruction rings, alternating as they expanded. The final external sphere was anchored to the floor. It was a massive increase in potency, and lowered the recharge and targeting time to nothing.

Then I saw that the runes adapted themselves into a protective cage, making the exoskeleton of my Arbor-Zerg even stronger. It was a dramatic improvement, especially when I suspended physics using some of the runes built around the interaction of the real and anti-energy.

With the Square Cube law firmly in the rearview mirror, I very briefly considered the last aspect of that perk. Soul's as batteries to be expended. No. Not going there without a massive reason. That's an ethical rabbit hole that I'm not descending. I pulled pure gold out of my transmuter and started the ritual in my Warehouse to forge a Dungeon Core into it. Perfectly defended, massive customization, and general efficiency boost. I was experimenting on a Leviathan first obviously, but… it was a massive idea.

I separated the Leviathan with two precision jumps. Into effectively dark space, long beyond the reach of the original Zerg, specifically beyond the range of even the effective range of a non-jump orb equipped Leviathan. I had it deactivate the jump orb, and I created a Dungeon Heart right over its primary heart. It was massively expensive. Gold by the ton disappeared into the core, from my estimates back on DC's Earth, more than several standard planets worth, which made me heavily consider if this has even been done without murder before. Willingly given souls won't create a Dungeon, I can feel that from my Arcana understanding of the process, and disapprove of a spell design that doesn't accept cooperative substitutes.

The spell eventually, tens of trillions of EMC later, finishes. And when it does… it's amazing to behold. The red crystal heart beating, pumping golden energy through the Leviathan. The golden veins empowered wood, changing it into something… more. Still wood, I could feel that as Chainsaws, Chains, Saws, and General Anti-Flora Equipment spun up, new ideas to cut through it shifted as it glowed more and more, before settling into a very light yellow/gold color. It thrummed with magical energy, and then it connected to me.

*Xeno-Archaeologist (Warhammer 40k - Squats) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I felt… something different about this Leviathan. There was a gaping maw in the universe, tugging not at my body, but at my magic and my soul. It was angry and oppressive. It shoved against me, a thousand insidious tendrils coming for my soul, and I panicked. I threw magic at it, burning the tendrils, calcifying the heart entirely with an overload of energy. The sudden darkness and cold filling the heart chamber was wrenching. It felt like life was damned here, never to return, and the absolute failure of the Leviathan to regrow here. The golden yellow decaying into black and expanding was horrifying in the face of the Leviathan's ability to regenerate. It was a subtle corruption of cells into death. I felt the first activation of Immunity when it began trying to consume me, and I felt it kick into high gear now as the Leviathan began to rot at speeds visible in real time. I teleported into my warehouse, far far outside the actual building, atomizing everything around me, magically and non magically with weapons and fire and death magic on a scale I would use to cleanse a planet.

Arcane information poured into me as I considered what I had just potentially unleashed. Death, almost as a noun instead of an adjective, was the only real phrase I knew to convey what I just witnessed.

If I ever need to scrub a reality then I know what I'm going to do now.

But why didn't it make a dungeon heart like it was supposed to? It was supposed to make a dungeon core, the primary guiding sentience of a dungeon, but that wasn't sentient. I could feel it in the network the same way that I can feel the Zerg now. The Zerg have instincts and patterns. Basic intelligence like you can find in any simple animal, if more ravenous and individuality focused than anything short of a psychopathic bear.

But that thing? Murder. It had exclusively one instinct. Death to all comers. Killing everything that could be killed, consuming anything that can't. It was ravenous and horrifyingly angry.

I couldn't understand, the Dungeon Cores I knew weren't like that. That wasn't how they worked!

I frown. Actually… had anyone ever built a dungeon core without killing anyone? Was that supposed to be possible?

I frowned. The amount of gold I needed would have been cut by several orders of magnitude. Like… not breaking the bank of 1 major Earth nation level of gold compared to the solid Leviathan of gold I just spent.

So how … I reread the text and realized my mistake. Powered. It… what I made was trying to buy the existence of a soul with gold, and while I can do that, there is something fundamental missing in the exchange.

I also know that what I left in its place after its death was… horrifying. A level of fear I haven't felt in a long time. It was like a conceptual fallout. I was waiting here, scanning with everything I had in every direction, precision magical scanning, and eventually physical scanning to look for the universal poison.

*Workaholic (Sonic the Hedgehog) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I paused at the Workshop constellation, rotated so close into that game changing perk, and failed. After almost an hour of burning the edges of the universal fibers with Void, Death, and Light magic, I returned to Kerrigan and the others. I nearly waved it off, but I sighed and explained what happened. What I had nearly unleashed on this unprepared universe.

They were shaken, and Wiz actually slapped me upside the head, "Did you really think that gold could replace a human soul in a ritual?"

"The spell allowed for it?" I muttered, "And it worked to some degree."

"You created a soulless life! That's not a success!"

Wiz proceeds to explain to all of us exactly what succeeding at replacing a human soul with wealth, magic, and/or power resulted in. Soulless Life is an uncontrollable force of nature, consuming everything in its path. The more energy used in the attempt the more devastating it could be, and the longer it would rampage. It wasn't something she ever thought I would be stupid enough to try before.

I frown at that and nod. Souls are powerful and important to a living organism.

"Why didn't you sacrifice a Zerg or thirty?" Kerrigan asked bluntly, "We have enough of them."

Wiz answered, "An animal's soul is little better for something based on the usage of human souls. There is a difference in the sentience and sapience creates a massive gap. These Zerg have had the potential for free thought removed, rendering their souls even less than normal for an animal, and rendering plants isolated from a world with magic removes most botanical magic from the drawing board. Sacrificial magic requires fear and suffering, and they can't even really do that. Unless you need a fixed number of bodies they are almost ritualistically useless."

I nod, having known that myself, but ask, "Do you think they would be useful for a blood volume? I doubt it personally, but…"

"Nope. Blood magic is tied into the life forces, which are respective of a soul. It's watering down soul magic for stability and repeatability."

I frown. Nodding. "Regardless, it failed and I'm not trying again. How are we doing on Char?"

"Nearly done. The Protoss Dark Templar are competent infiltrators. 2 nodes remain."

I nod, accessing the data and seeing our Zerg's psionic presence failing to do any damage to the inner workings, and I frown. "Why haven't we used the links to Kerrigan, or myself instead of the Zerglings?"

Kerrigan frowns, "Because that's not how the severing needs to work. You need to be physically there for the anchoring to have any chance of success."

I frown, "And the hybrids?"

"Total failure too. The Zerg hive mind stripped too much from them to ever be able to defeat the Overminds. But the Overmind will throw everything at killing them to try incorporating their genetics."

I frown, "Finally…"

"Because I don't have the stealth skills to hide from a Psionic powerhouse like the Overmind, and at a distance of physical and mental contact, I doubt my ability to resist. The Protoss have a blade built for this exact thing, and they refuse to give me one."

*Magic is the Mother of Invention (The Magicians - TV Show) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

So we wait for the Dark Templar to emerge victoriously. They do, with our support that was never really in question. But the arrival of another force complicates our exit. "Artanis…"

"Amon's men!" He interrupts, "He had corrupted several sects of the Protoss, these are Amon's Worshippers!"

I frown. "Well then…" and turn to destroy them. As the weapons spin up, waves of beings appear around my Leviathans. Monstrosities from dozens of reality tears. They were capable of some kind of decay effect that was brutal to even my Zerg. I blinked as many of my Leviathans were brought down in waves after waves of purple.

It actually hurt my Leviathans. The damage built, and even as the Kryptonian and shields of pure psionics came up, the beams of energy were destroying my army. I pulled the Protoss and the girls out on the Leviathan, and then everyone into the Warehouse, leaving the still fighting ones behind. They didn't last long.

Regrouping, I demand, "What was that?"

"Amon. He… Zeratul believes that he fed off of the death of the Overmind. There was a potent energy release when he struck down the Overmind in full. It was immense, and he believes that it has empowered Amon and his troops through their worship."

I frown, really really hoping that I was wrong.

Threats.

Threat Checklist access allowed: Arcturus Mengsk currently 150. Jim Raynor currently 100, potential 2000. Egon Stetmann currently 150, potentially 300. Ǎ̶̙͉m̵̕͜ͅő̷͚̎ͅn̴̛̜̮ ̸͕͠c̶̳̋͝u̶͚̤̇r̶̗̔r̸̠̳̂ě̴̤ṋ̸̃t̴̨̘̊̍l̴̪̐͂ý̶͙ ̸͍̹̏Ĕ̸͓̅r̶̰̬̽r̸̺̣͗͂ơ̵̢͖̏r̷̖̉.̵̟͓͛

So negotiating prevents me from getting points, that's probably not a great thing. I frown when I notice the important missing entry, and ask, 'Overmind points?'

Error. Points lost due to Unknown Variable.

Crap. Well, Amon absorbed 1000 points from the Celestial Forge. That… explains some things. "Remember how Aqua took Omnicide's points?"

I get 3 affirmatives from my companions. "Well… Amon stole the 1000 points from the Overmind. That's… bad."

"What does he have?"

I frown, "I don't know. I can't know."

I turn, "I know what empowered Amon, but not how it might end up. So, we need to kill an evil god juiced on pure creation. Ideas?"

"We must search for the fallen." Artanis said, "Zeratul knows it exists, somewhere, but will require assistance to find it."

I frown, "The what?"

Zeratul raises his hand to Kerrigan, and she takes it. A new consciousness enters the Zerg hivemind. It's mildly shocking. "This is most disquieting."

I frown, "Hello Zeratul, if I'd know you were going to hijack my mental network I would have cleaned up." I vehemently disapproved of his ability to breach my network.

"Kerrigan and I spoke of allowing me to use her as a bridge while you were breaking creation." That's not much better, "We must find the sealed one. Legends speak of a Xel'naga that was imprisoned long ago for his opposition to Amon. Now that Amon is empowered, we must move quickly. He will seek to take that power for himself."

I nod, "Ok, where?"

"I do not know. A far more powerful Psionic must contact him."

I sigh and turn to Kerrigan. "We need to boost your psionic signal. Come here." and I take her to the Overmind. Its Hybrid status had unlocked this ability, something I hadn't even thought was a good idea, but given that Amon was destroying the Zerg outside the warehouse at a speed that I was almost jealous of, I explained. "We're losing. You can feel that. This Deus ex Machina in a can isn't going to talk to me. I'm nearly certain of that, given that I'm not from here. This is going to amplify your psionic potential from every emitter of the Zerg remaining. I'm spamming Leviathans in every direction, trying to outproduce the seemingly fixed volume of horrible dark space worms Amon is capable of using, and it's not going well. This… is our last shot before we need to bug out." I really don't want to make her do this.

She nods and enters the cocoon. The Overmind glows, and I open the floodgate. It's seconds before the entire network is under attack by a yellow/red energy dripping in malice and hate. Then Kerrigan reacts to something, and moves away, separating from the network, but still protected. Seconds pass before she is thrown from the pod, psionic energy literally streaming out onto the floor. Screaming loud and angrily enough to wake the dead.

I throw healing magic at her, and eventually, she recovers. When she does, she speaks, "Amon consumed Ouros."

*Updation Device (Doctor Who) (400) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

---

Updation Device (Doctor Who): This is nice! Very nice, actually. Not quite Time Lord tech, or any other that you can tell, actually. It's just a little something that seems to have dropped out of nowhere. But that's not as interesting as what it does! Because what it does is really, really interesting!
This device has a very strange ability, in that it brings out the best in everything and everyone it's used on. Use it on a machine, and it upgrades that machine to the absolute latest, best version of it that exists in any time or place in the setting. These upgrades are permanent and adapting, so if there are further improvements made in the design they're reflected in your copy of the thing too.
But it doesn't just work on machines. It works on people too! Used on a person, it raises them to be among the absolute 0.0001 percentile of their race and species, boosting their physical statistics, their intellect, everything. It fixes all harmful mutations, defects, or injuries, and in general improves them massively and ridiculously so they become a true, absolute exemplar of their race.
* Across all time and dimensions the best versions of something, just imagine it, how advanced could an item become by the time the universe is dying and elder races are all that is left.

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a normal perspective: Chapter 29

---

Hearing that everyone paled. "We are truly doomed." Zeratul said sadly, sinking to his knees, "Powers taken from his fellow Xel'Naga. We have no further path."

I turn to my new perk, hoping that it might hold an answer. Reading it, I almost cry and try moving it in my warehouse as a Hail Mary. I find mentally, and then visually register that it's a textbook. It's a blueprint of the machine, scanning into my memory, with a hard copy here in my warehouse. It could be an answer, but seeing the causality error and temporal instability paradox wave cautions, I don't throw parts at it. I pull the Strategic Trance up fully and look through the blueprints, and slowly piece together what this is. It's a scanner that pulls a version from the end of a reality somewhere in the multiverse to here and now. That, normally, is an advancement bordering on the end of advancement. It was capable of pulling on resource enhancements, magical enhancements, technological function enhancements, and more, combining all of those end game items into one massive, super top of the line.

It was fascinating but actually didn't answer anything about dimensional aiming, given that it targets every version of reality, all realities, for features and additions.

It was also far beyond what I knew how to do. Even my materials. I could recreate the computers, my Lucy was ironically even better than the specs here, but the materials built around the scanning and protoforging lens were far, far beyond what I could make. I didn't have a method of forcing a continuous reality-temporal exclusionary field to stabilize the materials. I pulled on Tinker Plus and found both ideas, separately. The experience in those fields, actually engineering know-how that came with tapping into them, made it exceedingly clear that overlapping the two was a terrible, terrible idea, and another Wave Form engineering specialty told me that combining them was a nearly unspeakable large risk to local reality. I don't understand how the hell someone originally made this Updation Device work, without killing themselves and everything else in their reality, but I'm guessing that the Doctor's technobabble saved the universe somehow. I blink as I realize that I'm capable of equal or even partially superior technobabble. That's almost my entire schtick these days.

What I do know is that I wasn't going to remove this version of Starcraft from the multiverse trying this thing out. I'll find some version of 40K that Chaos or the Tyranids won in, and try it there. That's the plan… eventually. For now, I need a plan to beat Amon here.

I bring my companions together, passively including Kerrigan in that now, and begin, "So, I have zero good ideas. Anything?"

Ankh chips in, "Reviewing your previous victories, superior being were defeated by your Soul Gougind crystals. Can you not do that here?"

I frown, "No. I need a real world line of sight, even to just an avatar. Amon has already shown himself to be smarter than that, and I believe that Aqua might be advising him like she did Darkseid in the last reality. I can assume that anything I've pulled out before isn't going to be applicable."

*Friendly Replicator Android v2 (Stargate Atlantis) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I blink off adding a friendly end of the universe threat to my lineup with some concern, and Tiamat has an idea. "If we can analyze the weapons Amon is using, they must have some counter, or he wouldn't have needed your powers to kill his fellow beings. If we can find it…"

Kerrigan shot that down, "I can feel the Zerg trying, but the technology, nor the biology exists to live long enough to get good scans off. Our Leviathans know they are dying, and that's the most data we have. Magical, Psionic, and Energy shields all fall equally pointlessly. It's aggravating."

I frown, she's correct, the Zerg were being destroyed before even registering the attack. I needed more data to adapt them to the attack.

Violette asked directly, "Can we amass enough damage to kill one? Even some blood would let us integrate them into the Zerg directly, that should help."

I sigh, "No. They have some kind of field up, it's just lethal, even through our teleportation tech. Whatever he did, he did it well."

Wiz turns to me, "You said you had no good ideas?"

I blink, realizing now that I did say good. What… oh. Oh. I… think I knew what I meant. Efficiency pushing me to say something so that someone could push me to a realization. Interesting.

I nod slowly, "I… do. It's… a bad idea, and I don't know what it would mean exactly for us afterward."

All eyes, "What are you thinking?"

I stand, "I'm going to do what Kerrigan did to contact the Xel'Naga." I run through a checklist, "Kerrigan, I need you to stay…" I have my Tau factory create a room and move it here, "In here. It's a psionic faraday cage." She frowns, "Why?"

"I have a perk, it's quite defensive on my mind, and while I don't want to restrict you unnecessarily, while I'm fighting Amon, it's quite possible, even likely, that I'm not going to be able to focus on that, and your psionic potential isn't subtle."

She frowns, "Fine."

She gets inside the box, and I lose her from the Zerg network. That's quite interesting, and it means I'm not connected to her otherwise Wavestrength would kick in. That's honestly a good thing. I shut down the connection to the rest of my companions, not knowing if this would have a backlash that would hurt them. I collected a few things on my way. The Lucy computer. I tried making a copy and while I couldn't even come close right now, when commanded it could shapeshift into 2 identically powerful copies as easily as it ran two separate instances for Tiamat and myself. Then, I went to my Overmind. I smiled at my companions, and for the first time in a very long time, actually feared for… well not my life per se. I knew I would live through this, but I didn't know who was going to come out the other side of this. Mental Resistance, Inertial Form, and Harmony were all stupidly powerful, but as I saw quite well back in Worm, they all have limits that were hard to see coming.

*Guide to Super Tech Theory (Justice League Unlimited) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I turned into slime, and I merged with the Overmind and my copy of the Lucy computer. It was painful. That was the only thought I had for a moment, as chunks of [me] were destroyed by me, as others were destroyed by [threat].

Then I gave in, leaving only me in its place. This… this is so much more than the connection I had to the swarm ever before. Every Zergling was not something I commanded like you don't command your fingers. Millions of hearts beat in time with mine in silent, but unmistakable harmony.

Then I truly felt Amon's attacks, removing parts of me, and I felt Stress Evolution kick like a mule. And Fail. Over and over again, the best Stress Evolution could make was destroyed in the war, and it began to fade, defeated by this threat. Until Limits! propped it back up and pushed me forward again.

The two had almost merged into a single perk over the course of my adventures. I felt them go to work, and eventually, my Zerglings stopped forming to be destroyed. I stopped making units at all. I didn't need them. I was the Swarm and the swarm was me. My Creep, the tide of flowing wood, expanding at rates that would have horrified a Tyranid, consumed the battlefield. Literally.

Consuming a cubic meter of the matter was, at minimum, 1 EMC, and replacing it with my wooden flesh was 32 EMC. That's a terrible trade until you factor in that a cubic meter of me generated 521 EMC per second. Every cubic meter. Across a Zerg battlefield that encompassed entire planets in some places. I remember being mildly disquieted by replicators a scant minute ago. But here I was, being worse than they had even been. Planets, Amon's Protoss, and after minutes of throwing mass at his Dimensional Horrors, even those.

I felt, not terribly long after I consumed my first Dimensional Horror, the Overmind in my Warehouse began to shrink, and I felt its end goal and allowed it to reform into my shape.

I ignored its changing and began focusing on my growth instead.

With the processing power I had now I could estimate the exact volume of me. The change in my mass compared to the change in my EMC, and I realized that I wasn't even slightly matching up. It took me a moment to realize that Limits! was optimizing my expansion too. EMC per second even without mass expansion was increasing at about one and a half per second. At 10 seconds, every cubic meter of me was producing just slightly over 300,000 EMC. All hundreds of billions of me, expanding exponentially in all directions. I stopped at the edge of the atmosphere on planets, feeling Efficiency stop me from bothering. I didn't need to expand through space, I needed to deprive Amon of his forces and attack him directly.

I focused on cleaning the armada from the surface of planets that were increasingly becoming me.

As the ground collapsed below many of his troops, ships yanked out of the sky in groups when the planets below them opened, I began looking for a weakness in his network. I found strong points instead.

*Starro-tech Notes (Young Justice) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

I followed them to places of worship for Amon. Protoss in vast numbers praying to their dark god.

I used my teleporters to move my planets whole. Appearing over strong points from all sides, throwing gravity into disarray as billions of tons of angry wood appeared, and began consuming their planets.

Amon struck both a terrible blow and made a massive mistake as I did so. He sent his power to his followers, the terrible force of his power striking at me, destroying entire collections of my mass. I simply brought more to consume him properly, he might have the power to fight me in a real plane, but his pawns did not. I consumed from other angles, distractions in planets of wood were thrown at him to keep him from realizing I was tracing his power back to its source.

Obviously, he noticed, and his lines were cut, but I was everywhere. I had a position in space from simple triangulation. I arrived into unspeakable waves of red energy blasting me apart. Again and again, until it didn't.

I felt his rage shake the very space around him, and he made his second mistake of this encounter. He attacked my signal.

I allowed him inside, baiting him with the seeming vulnerability, and he attacked here too. I flinched internally as his blasts washed over my Mental Resistance and dispersed harmlessly.

"What are you!" He growled, obvious undertones of hate propelling his tone.

"I am a traveler. I am a fixer. You are just in my way."

His attacks grow more powerful instead of less, and my concern that he actually has a plan here grows, I'm proven unpleasantly correct when a lane of psionic energy pierces me, some kind of hooked attack. He pulls me closer, but I can deal with that. Another spear, one that I had to allow to pierce me given my adaptation, and the speed increased. As I arrived before him the chains tried to pull me to my knees.

I disapproved.

The chains slipped out of me, no longer holding them to my presence. I attacked with my own chains, not as precise, nor as dangerous alone as his attack had been, but backed by the still growing volume of my psionic energies. He tried to retreat, as the wall of chains chased him down. He attacked on the materials and in this immaterial world with massive energy, spending himself.

I approached, pausing less and less with every attack until they couldn't even slow down in my assault. My protections allowed me to overcome anything that didn't kill all of me outright. As he was chained down in both realms, I moved. My transportation network is far more sophisticated now with the Lucy computer built into every cell of my many hive worlds. As I approached, he mocked, "You only come now that I am in chains? Pathetic."

I frown, "Can you really not tell? I am not commanding the Zerg. I am the Zerg. I have been here since the beginning, in my flesh. This isn't special flesh beyond perhaps being original."

*Alchemical Expertise (eXceed) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

He paled, "You lie. The Zerg are my creation! They are not so easy…"

He paused as I laughed. A deep chuckle in my gut actually had me shaking. "That's too funny. You didn't create the Zerg. You created the Overmind. Unified them, I could feel something alien in its makeup, but you haven't the foggiest clue what the Zerg could do. Or you wouldn't have unified them, and you definitely wouldn't have let me conquer them as I did."

He scowls, "And yet I am still alive. You can not kill me, I am Xel'Naga, and your mortal form can not hope to consent with me directly."

I frown, "Unfortunately, you are correct. I don't have a method of killing you outright, that I know of."

He frowns, "What do…"

"I'm going to have to experiment." And with that, I extrude several weapons. Powerful weapons from the Tau and what I can make of the Aldari, "This might sting."

It takes hours to go through all the weapons I have, monitoring effects and not even being disappointed after they fail to kill him over and over again. I scour my workshop for tools, and Wiz reminds me to try the Equivalent Exchange weapons that have given me pause. Hmmm…

I finally built the Red Matter weapons. The Katar and the Morningstar are potent weapons, but even better mining supplements. Liberal usage of the Sword, the Katar, and the Morningstar prove that Amon is far beyond the level of their capacity to kill, as does raining down lightning on him with the Arcane band, and immolation and cryofreezing were tried by Tau weapons, but a magical alternative wasn't remiss. It's actually days before I make any progress at all.

Wiz knows some higher-grade sacrificial magics that might help create a weapon that will kill him. I sacrifice Red Matter as the 'most valuable item' I possess given that it normally takes diamonds, I was expecting a decent result. It did indeed slow his regeneration for a few minutes, but that wasn't great given that it didn't kill him.

His durability was quite impressive, and I turned briefly to the Psionic Destroyer, the opposite to the Zerg magnet the previous government developed, for tips, even firing that up directly. It hurt him, I could see that, but it wasn't actually letting me kill him.

It took a long time, and I can't tell if I'm proud of that or not, for me to think about the powers that New Age Necromancer gave me. That if I was going to succeed in killing an actual god, using him as a super battery for my gear was about as much respect as I wanted to give him. The question remained as to what I wanted to make him into.

I didn't need a computer, and my Tau factory was getting another upgrade in the form of being literally made of me. A fully organic Ato-processor block was exponentially faster than anything that I had there before.

*Interceptor (Green Lantern the Animated Series) (800) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*

Then I realized that I did have something, something that I had been ignoring for a while now.

Something even worse than the simple battery I could make from one of his souls.

I turned to the Minecraft Soul Cages, with an admittedly twisted enthusiasm. They were remarkably different from the Aeldari Soul Crystals, in that they were meant for mob farming, not anything beginning to be ethical or for safety. They were built to force the soul's energies into an easily contained body for mass production and slaughter. It was built to farm them for resources, and that killed the idea for me. I couldn't kill one of him, let's not try containing an infinite number of him running around. And Wiz, Tiamat, and even Violette found that to be far too much for any sentient being, and while I hated Amon… looking at this design, I was inclined to agree.

Eventually, Ankh came in with a workable idea, one that we all were willing to agree to. He would be the power source for a combined arms Titan. Something that I had never done before. They had been primarily Wraithbone, meaning that I didn't need to spend too much time building them, but for the soul of a god, it should be special. And I wanted it to be a spaceship because I literally had doom stacks of ground based Titans.

So I started designing a massive ship. One that would be both an extension of me, like my Zerg all were at this point, and a final confederation of that I was currently capable of. It took me longer than I would admit until I realized I was making a War World. Something that Ankh called me out on when he asked, "Are you making a Battle Moon?"

I smile, "Indeed."

Condensing energy into it was my only problem, and after a few days of literally looking for and finding a wood variant in all the genetics that I liked best, it was a crystal that had some seriously strange properties when exposed to uncontrolled psionic fields and was powerfully self-reinforcing and self-healing when exposed to the driven psionic fields of me, I had a target. Production began by slamming an even dozen of my Hive Worlds into one another and having them condense into this crystalloid tree. They condensed smaller and smaller, the EMC production skyrocketing as I hoped it would as they got smaller and smaller until it was just under the size of Earth's moon. The runes making up its superstructure, and secondary structures at every level meant that it could move fast for something its size and that it wasn't affecting local gravity. Then I started working on its guns. Planning out first, I ensured that every inch of its surface was covered in defensive turrets. If my shields fell, I could deal locally with nearly anything. Some high grade lasers would be an issue, and I couldn't use the Void defense I had last time. Void and the physics canceller would interact poorly with each other and I wasn't taking the chance of turning it on and causing a black hole, or worse.

The shields powered by Amon's soul should help with that, but I would be on the lookout regardless.

*Master Craftsman (King Arthur) (600) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

In the middle of designing my defenses, I'm cast away from my work onto a mountain. Staring down at all the world, I'm sitting at a stone desk, more comfortable than anything I've ever sat at before. The spacing of the materials is perfect, the lines smooth, it's amazing.

I feel a voice pushing me, and as materials appear on the desk, I weave. It's a simple basket, woven to the highest I can push myself, but I feel the voice reject it as it dematerializes into untouched materials in my hands. Time and time again I make the basket. Failure after failure as the world advances grows, dies, and restarts in my periphery. Eventually, after countless attempts, watching the world die over and over again, I make a basket and it glows with the same perfection that the desk glows with. A small mark, a small pink hammer appears on my basket. The voices laugh infectiously, and I stand, emerging from the mountain back to my design bench.

I… I recognize this perk.

Master Craftsman (King Arthur): Thanks to being taught by faeries, anything you make by hand is a great deal better than anything regular humans can make. Armor is nearly indestructible and lighter than it should be, blades are sharper, blunt weapons have more force behind them, bows and crossbows can shoot farther and are easier to pull back. Even mundane items like baskets work better, though you can't give items mystical powers without being a wizard or something.

I reach out to the base of my War Moon, feeling it waiting for my next modification, and I reshape it ever so slightly with what I've learned here and feel it respond. Fey documented perfection replacing simple flesh across its body, runes optimizing further, power expanding in every dimension. It was amazing to behold perfection on that scale, and I turned back to my designs. I needed them to be perfect too. When I finished, the layers of recessed weapons, the manufacturing wings for fighters, the interlinked magical and technological shields that Amon's soul will be powering. It is added to the War Moon in a single glorious motion, and I feel the perfection of the moon remains intact. I smile at the majesty of the power before me. The incredibly powerful railguns are capable of far more than they once were. The lasers were more versatile than anything I'd built before with this magical perfection built directly into every atomic connection of their large focusing lenses.

I look at myself again, the form I engineered for myself, and feel… disappointed in it now, knowing it can be so much better. I use one of the War Moon's teleportation drives to appear in its core, where I add a final touch to improve myself. An evolutionary chrysalis. Entering it, I focus on my imperfections, the overcomplications to perfection, and engage the changes on my flesh. It takes nearly no time at all for this fay touched machine, and I emerge from the pool and stretch.

My form is speaker, much of the wooden secondary armored ridges are cast away in my new silhouette. I no longer had anything adorning my back, but a thin set of ridges going to the middle. My large Protoss Khalai connective head dressing was gone, replaced with a simple set of hardened curls on either side of the back of my head, like tilted ram's horns. I no longer had the bioluminescence that I had added to the eyes, and the limbs, but a very, very slight golden refractive coating to my entire body.

*Toggle (Young Justice) (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

I walked around, testing my new body, and found something very strange. My center of balance was higher not lower like I had expected. It was actually slightly off putting for walking around, feeling less stable, but the moment I started flying I understood. The very slight movement had drastically improved how flying with my organic flight systems felt. It was a massive improvement to control, and a necessary one with my new massively improved acceleration.

The other thing that I felt really different is the magnitude of my realm travel device. Before it was more of an abstract distance, but connected to every turn the rings made, I could feel how they turned as I was moving Leviathans around in the Amon cleanup, and with my massively improves psionics I was almost able to feel Amon's resistance to my chains as a passive force. It was very interesting. Speaking of…

I teleported back to Amon as my War Moon prepared for the shield core to be installed. "Hello again."

He looks at me, with almost confusion on his face, and I smile. "So, I need to ask you one important thing before I destroy your little mind. How did you know about my powers?"

He looks at me, still silent, before eventually snorting dismissively, "Did you really believe that something of your power wouldn't be felt entering my domain? Your presence rings across the stars with every breath your bellows take. Finding the cashes of power you squirreled away was little more effort than seeing you. They are mine and without them…"

I lifted the crystal I made for him, Bonesinging did not have handmade bonuses to my great disappointment, but the Infinitely Customizable applied afterward via ato-fabrication was a much smaller upgrade. This was another new upgrade for me, it was built to destroy the personality, exchanging it for more power. I don't know how well the exchange aspect would work, but the destruction of his personality was the Fey touched aspect of this device so I knew that would be more than sufficient.

He resisted momentarily, but he was somehow less of an issue than Scion or even Ziz was, but that might be the continued growth of my Arcana in the intervening time.

I turn away from him, as a message appears before me, ominously.

Deific-Class being destroyed. Penalties calculating.

I… Excuse me?

Deific-Class being destroyed. Penalties calculated. Realm destabilization due to lack of Deific-Class stabilization effects imminent. ETA to realm implosion: 22 months, 4 days, 33 minutes.

I blink. Ok, new plan. How do I create a god?

I move to Kerrigan, the person who was going to consume a god before Amon's tantrum, and she blinks at my arrival, and presumably my request, "I need you to merge with this crystal."

She is silent for a while, "Isn't that Amon's crystal?"

I frown, "Yes. I was just informed that a Deific class being needs to exist in this realm or it dies."

She blinks, "And you thought of me?"

*Workaholic (Sonic the Hedgehog) (300) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I nod, "Who were the Protoss and I in agreement about merging with the trapped Xel'Naga and probably becoming a Xel'Naga?"

She blinks, "I… that's…"

She pauses, "I… don't know. I… what have I really done?"

I frown. "What do you want to do before becoming a god?"

She blinks, "I… have never had to think about that question." she pauses, "I… want to have accomplished something. Not forwarding the work of others, not leaning on you or the Protoss. I want to…"

"Perhaps you wish to domesticate the Zerg?"

We both turn to Zeratul, limping, but entering the room looking like a warrior. "The homeworld of the Zerg is untouched by the call of the Overmind and the new Zerg. Conquering the eldest being in all the cosmos, the strongest predators bar only him."

I frown, by Zerg were… oh. True. Nevermind.

She looks contemplative. "One Leviathan. A small one."

I nod, "You have 20 months."

She blinks, "And here I thought it would be a challenge."

I move her and Zeratul to a small Leviathan, only producing enough EMC to feed itself and send them off to this homeworld. I observe but don't assist. It's painful to watch her deal with Zurvan, believing him for some reason. She's quite good, and after consuming the 3 lesser elders, who I swoop in to take samples from because the Fire Wyrm and the Baneling Host is useful DNA, and taking some of Zurvan when she kills him, the betrayal was written on his face from moment one. She goes to the Chrysalis. I appear again, and she frowns, "Do you intend to harvest every important thing I come across?"

I smile, "No, I intend to improve this before you crawl into it." And I do, this was a Psionic nexus stronger than anything else I'd ever felt, but it was basic. I make a better one, merging with the psionic nexus point, and making it far superior than it had any right to be with my Fey touched powers.

She enhances herself, her Zerg handling the defense from some upstarts that wanted to try stopping her quite well even without my assistance. In the end, she emerges, cracking the planet as she does so. It's a sight to behold, and as I turn to leave, I ask the system about collecting the Chrysalis.

Zerg Chrysalis (400) acquired from natural occurrence.

I blink, no realizing that that was this thing, and smile. I'll need to be on the lookout in the future. 400 Free points into my Warehouse was not a poor investment at all.

With that taken care of, she accepts the transfer of power from the crystal, and I go to set up for the ritual when one of my worlds comes under attack.

From Terran guns.

I frown, as she turns to me, smiling, "We have a little more time, right?"

I frown, but she looks really invested, so I nod. We hadn't even spent a week on the Zerg homeworld. I realized quite quickly that travel time was the far more important issue for conquest here.

*Life or Death (Subnautica) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

She advanced, her single Leviathan appearing over their fleet, and as she was about to attack, she noticed something and paused. Then she muttered, "Jim?"

I blink and turn to look at the fleet. It's not Mengsk's imperial red coloration, and it is a question, and Kerrigan opens a communications window with the ship. Leading the charge is Jim, and I recognize that Hyperion. It's one of my customs jobs, most of this looks like my slightly upgraded tech, the ones before New Gettysburg and that mess.

He looks up, confused, and dumbstruck. "Sarah?"

She smiles, and I almost frown, "I don't think I'm surprised you remember the pretty lady and not your Warmaster." I'm curious how he has a full subjugation fleet, it's been what? A year? I checked the date on his warships, and it's been about 20 months, surprising me.

He blinks, and turns, "Damion? You look… so different?"

I look down, and honestly, I can forgive him for the mistake. I look more Protoss than Zerg and barely human. "I'm a sidegrade."

He blinks, "Are… did you do this?"

I look at the planet, "Well… after we pushed the Protoss off world, I did some… renovations. Why?"

He blinks, "We… in some darker corners of the net people talked about Zerg protecting evacuees. Saving us from other Zerg, and Protoss… that was you?"

I smile, and Kerrigan asks, "I seem to remember that being Damion's whole job under you Jim."

He begins to smile, and coughs, "What… why didn't you come back?"

I blink and wave down my form, and Kerrigan simply chuckles, "Jim…"

He blinks, "Not back back Darling, I know that but…"

I interrupted, "We were fighting the Zerg. Had things to do."

He blinks, "Aren't… What's the deal?"

I smile, "Well Jim, here's the deal. Did you see the scans from New Gettysburg? What I did there?"

He frowns, "I did. I saw what Mengsk did to you two, and I resigned."

I smile, "Thanks for that. But after seeing that, did you really think I was going to let the Zerg command me?"

He blinks, "You overthrow the Zerg? They have a hierarchy to do that?"

I chuckle, and Kerrigan says "They did, certainly. Now… About Mengsk, I assume he's rebuilding Korhal?"

Jim blinks, frowning, "He is… but… "

I look him in the eye, "I've left enemies behind me thinking they couldn't hurt me any longer. I've been very wrong. I intend to not make that mistake again."

Jim winces, "I… I can understand that. But… there are a lot of people on Korhal… it's the new capital and all…"

Kerrigan's fierce expression fades, "Jim, do you really think that we are going to go after the civilians?"

"I'm saying that Mengsk will use nukes, and won't care about civilians."

I nod, "You assume he can launch nukes if I decide he can't."

Jim looks shaken at me and smiles, "I… just don't want to see you two go too far."

I promise, "We won't." And the entire fleet appears over Korhal. Jim looks horrified as the Leviathan fires a small projectile, and his systems are fed live data of Kerrigan and I falling to the planet's surface. Mengsk's armies tried, but they held out less than an hour.

Mengsk sputters as Kerrigan's Psi-lightning fires at him and I wonder. As he dies I imprison him, and his points in a crystal. I smile as my War Moon sitting dormant in my Warehouse's subspace comes shakingly to life, powered by Mengsk's soul and points.

Kerrigan enters my new anchored Chrysalis, stored in an empty room below the floor I opened up for the Overmind, and uses it to merge with the power of Amon and the Xel'Naga he consumed. In a flash of golden light so powerful I feel it boil off a layer of my enhanced carapace, she disappeared from the Warehouse.

I search for her for a moment, before getting a message.

Apparently, it's time for you to go - Sarah

*Terrorism (Ragnarok Online) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*