Hatch 1.1

AN: First Story that I'm actually posting, as such, I'd appreciate any & all constructive criticism. Please bear with me.

I woke up to the impact of falling.

Did I fall out of bed? I wondered briefly, before noticing my location. I was under the window to the opposite of my bed, meaning that I'd either fallen - or had been dropped - from the window, or I'd somehow rolled off the foot of my bed and only noticed when I was under the window. Needless to say, I jumped to my feet, looking around for any intruders. There was nobody visible.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I said, as if I'd be able to get somebody to reveal themselves just because I'd asked. Yet again, no avail. I flipped on the lights and looked around, glancing at my alarm clock. "April 8th, 1:34", it read. Perhaps I could disassemble it & design something to allow me to just know the time, I thought, ideas entering my mind unbidden. I'd need to insert it into- What!? My skull? Why did I even think of that?

I tried to discern the source of these ideas, and I felt something, it was like a sound, an echo of concepts and technology that were far more advanced than anything on Earth Bet, yet felt like they were from a distant past. The ideas seemed to be of two distinct types, cybernetics and surveillance. I tried to make sense of what had happened.

Considering that I had probably been dropped from around the window, and I now had ideas for futuristic technology that came from the past, what most likely had happened was that some Cauldron operative had kidnapped me, force-fed me a vial, and then had Doormaker create a portal under the me of then to where I was now. I wonder why they did it. Maybe it was part of one of Contessa's Paths… My thoughts trailed off as I realized the most important question: How do I even know any of this!?

I knew about Cauldron, the Entities, Shards, and the Golden Morning. I knew the civilian names of Armsmaster, Alexandria, Coil, and countless others. I'd only just realized that I knew this, and it was horrifying. The world could very well end in two years, and it was up to me to stop it, or, at the very least, make sure that Cauldron doesn't fuck things up as badly as they would've. In order to do that, I needed to figure out my capabilities. Conveniently, now that I was actually thinking about things, I knew what I could do, the actual source of my powers, and the most likely reason I had fallen from the window.

I was a Binary Tinker, specializing in "Technology Integrated with Natural Intelligences" and "Localized Surveillance". I was a Noctis Cape, and I also had a bullshit Mover Teleportation ability with a loose definition of "Line of Sight". My powers had apparently came from the Third Entity, due to it apparently trying to kill the Warrior and Thinker, for some reason. The whole "falling out the window" deal was probably due to my Shard trying to get my attention, so I could get on with… whatever I was doing.

My operations would need to begin with gathering allies. I had two followers: a Case 53 that I'd find that would be very useful for reconnaissance and assassination, and my… younger brother. I'd need to protect him from all of this baggage brought by my knowledge. He was an Alexandria Package, with the strength coming from his peak physical condition, and the invulnerability coming from an ability that made things he touched indestructible, and an immunity to extreme temperatures, acid, and disease. He'd ideally be safe in combat, as he could create shadow clones capable of interacting with the world & using his powers. Beyond those two, my brother and I could join the Wards, me for the resources and him for the protection; however, I didn't know how I'd manage to join up with them without unduly risking my civ identity, so I'd need to go where I knew a hero would be: the Lung fight. There, I could hopefully convince Taylor to join the Wards as well, probably by noting that she could probably be fast-tracked to Arcadia. Shadow Stalker would need to be dealt with, and I knew that if Taylor told Piggot about the bullying, she'd be essentially told to suck it up. Well, if I got her to tell Miss Militia instead, then while things may go more slowly, there'd definitely be a higher chance of the situation being resolved in a satisfying manner.

I didn't know when I'd meet the Case 53 that would follow me, so I decided to leave that thought be. As for my brother, I didn't want to wake him, so I resolved to speak to him about his new powers in the morning. Now, all I needed to do was to start preparing. First, I picked up my phone -which could be so much better, I could miniaturize- No! Stop, brain-shard, whatever, no tinkering right now- and took a picture of my room before pocketing it: I could use it to Blink back to my room if I ever needed to. I had a secret base, apparently, and I knew where it was, somehow. Knowing this, I put a bandana on around my face, as well as clothes - including a hoodie - and reflective goggles. I turned off the light, waited for my pupils to dilate enough for me to see out the window, teleported outside, and began to head to my lair.

The night air was cool, encroaching, with the mist from the bay obscuring most things that the darkness didn't. We lived above my dad's Karate Dojo on the Boardwalk, where the enforcers gave us sufficient protection from the ABB, trying to recruit us, and the E88, trying to kill us. We'd immigrated from Japan in the wake of the turmoil caused by Leviathan's sinking of Kyushu, I was six at the time, Daishi was three. I hadn't fit in much as a kid, what with learning a new language and all, so I'd mostly retreated into learning whatever practical skills I could, thinking that I could be the first actual unpowered hero, like in those old Batman comics. Needless to say, when my parents found out about my ambition, they gave me a reality check. I also really got into Aleph anime and games, especially sci-fi.

I followed the path my "memories" laid to my base, going towards the downtown area, making sure to stay as far from the docks - and ABB territory - as I could. The walk was uneventful, surprisingly, and I made it to the base in roughly twenty minutes, not in part due to my copious "blinks".

It was a hidden door in an alleyway, looking like an oddly patterned set of bricks. If I hadn't known it was there, I'd had disregarded it entirely. I pushed one inwards easily, felt around the place it was in, found a handhold, and pulled the wall towards me.

I heard the sound of gears clunking as the section slid forwards on invisible tracks, until it was roughly a foot from the rest of the wall. It then split down the middle, each half swinging out to reveal a staircase. That was strange, there weren't any hinges, and there was no fissure in that part before… Tinker Bullshit, I sighed. Well, at least I'll be able to join the bullshit squad now.

As I began to descend, lights flickered on, meaning that either A) Only the door was Tinkertech, due to the person who owned this place not being one, B) the Tinker didn't bother with fancy lights, or C) this place hadn't been used in a very long time. I was betting on that last one.

When I reached the bottom of the staircase, the first thing I saw was a rack of costumes of the bodysuit variety, designed to look like the spandex stereotypically worn by capes, and in roughly every size and variety you could think of. Past that, there was a row of thirty-odd machines that each had a different variety of fabric protruding from it, as well as a couple that seemed to be designed for assembling a costume around a mannequin, even a machine that, based on the set up, seemed to be for designing a mannequin for a person that stepped into what looked like a kolto tank, minus the kolto. Another part of the main room had a bunch of tables of tools tech that was in varying states of development. A closed door led to another part of the base.

I knew what this was. It was a Tinker's workshop, a fabric or clothing Tinker, by the looks of it...

And everything was caked in dust.

As I drifted towards the workbenches, my legs seemingly moving of their own volition, I began to plan what I needed: A whole lot of surveillance systems, I'll need to be able to see anything in the city if I want to take my Mover ability to function optimally. Maybe I could disassemble that mannequin machine to see if anything in it would help. From there, I'll need a way to transmit those images to my vision. I could just make a HUD, or I could construct a neural link to make it so that I can sense everything my tech does… but then I'd need to do personal brain surgery, and I can't trust myself to miss the visual and auditory cortexes when I can't see what I'm doing. I could repurpose those costume-assemblers into mechanical brain surgeons…

My thoughts trailed off as I sat down and began to tinker.