September 9th, 2005, Brockton bay
Everything literally passed a hair's breadth away from turning to shit. If I had payed just a bit more attention when sending the portal blueprints to Sphere, both him and Hero would have died. Let me explain.
Earlier this morning, the Simurgh attacked Sphere's facility in Texas. The facility was completely leveled and everyone except Sphere, his family, Hero and some black haired girl with a fedora got killed in the attack. The reason they escaped and everyone else died?
Turns out I forgot to remove the portal link connection codes from the blueprint I sent Sphere a few days ago. Imagine my surprise when six people stumbled through my living room portal just as I was finishing my lunch. I didn't even know an attack was going on at the time so I was quite confused despite Sphere's clarification.
In fact, I wasn't the only one to miss the attack completely. It took about thirty minutes after the group arrived at my house for officials to realize something happened. As far as Simurgh attacks go, this one was quite lucky. Most employees were at another facility at the time and the only other tinker present there besides Sphere and Hero was Euclid but he died early in the attack so the Simurgh wasn't able to create anything using his specialization. It might be a morbid thing to say but his death is the only reason the others are alive.
The guy had a deadman switch set to blow up all his tech when he died so when a piece of falling debris crushed him, half the facility and one of the Simurgh's arms were fussed into each other or simply erased by the weird physics generated by his destroyed tech. That event saved the group just enough time for them to set up the portal link and escape.
It's now been an hour since they arrived and things are just starting to calm down. Sphere's daughters and his wife are being shown around the facility by the miniature brothers and I'm showing my lab to Hero and Sphere. Luckily for me, the space armor just finished printing yesterday so I can get their opinions on it. I don't expect to receive any useful advice from them, their specializations aren't all that compatible with space suits. It's mostly to keep their minds occupied with something other than the attack.
I'm not a professional in psychology and as such, anything I can do to help them comes from personal experience. In this case, my personal experience tells me that if you can't do anything about your situation, thinking about it won't change a god dammed thing. Hero probably doesn't need my meager help, he's already been in enough Endbringer fights that adding another one to the list shouldn't affect him all that much.
Sphere on the other hand. The man never participated in an Endbringer fight before and more importantly, his family was put in danger. I can't claim to know the feeling of almost losing your wife and children but I know how it's like to lose your parents. Thinking about the situation won't do him any good just like it didn't for me. Since I don't know his personal interests, I chose to distract him with a guaranteed common interest, tinkering.
Despite Sphere being my initial reason for going to the lab, Hero seems to be enjoying it a hell of a lot more than him. The man's been hovering above the newly printed freezing staff mark 2 since he entered the lab and he started muttering a few minutes ago so I'm sure we'll lose him to a tinker fugue soon. I'd probably be worried about him dismantling the thing if I hadn't provided him with the blueprints for it.
Sphere on the other hand has only asked a few questions about the space armor since we arrived. I can easily tell his heart isn't into it but I can't fault him. Even my favourite pastimes felt hollow in the weeks after my parents death, it's probably gonna take him a few days to get himself back together. Cinderella's supposed to come see him in fifteen minutes anyway so at least he'll get some good mental help.
There's also that fedora lady, I still don't know why she's here or who she is but she seems to find my workshop interesting for some reason. She's been going around inspecting just about every piece of equipment in my lab from the moment we entered.
Her latest interest seems to be the masterpiece swords displayed on the back wall. I can understand, you don't need to be an expert to appreciate their quality and I think even the most hardcore pacifist would reluctantly acknowledge the workmanship needed to produce them.
I might as well go talk to her since Hero's in his own world and Sphere isn't in the mood to talk about tinkertech. It'll only be for a few minutes anyway. Cinderella's already on her way and I expect Kensei to show up unannounced at any moment. The man's so obsessed with killing the Endbringers that I wouldn't be surprised if he comes to my lab to harass Hero for information on them the minute he learns he's there. I only have to wait until Cinderella arrives before I can go back to my scheduled meetings, she's the only one I trust to manage Kensei's overbearing personality and she might not be a certified psychologist but her tinker powers are the next best thing so she'll be able to help Sphere better than I could.
My attention is brought back by a small cough coming from the fedora wearing women, she quickly began speaking once she had my focus. "How much for this one." She said while pointing at one of the swords displayed on the wall. I already know how much I want for each sword so my response comes without delay.
"I'd be willing to sell it for twenty thousand as long as it's used in field work, more if you only want it as a showpiece." I said.
"I'll give you two hundred." She responds instantly. For a second, I almost think I misheard. I can't help but respond angrily despite my momentary doubt. The anger isn't only coming from me, I can feel the echoes of the blacksmiths who forged the blade raging inside my head. "Are you trying to insult me. What makes you think I'd sell a blade of that quality for a price like that?" I angrily say. Her response calms me down.
"Thousand. I meant two hundred thousand. I'm used to high-end transactions so I forgot average people don't use abbreviated price tags. I'm planning on using the sword for field work but I feel twenty thousand is too low of a price for something of this quality, sorry for the misunderstanding." She said in an even tone of voice. Not only do I feel stupid, I'm pretty sure the echoes do too judging by how silent they are.
Now I feel the need to justify myself in order to lower my embarrassment. "I'd also like to apologize for the way I reacted, my tinker power has a tendency to make me irrationally angry against perceived slights to my creations." I say with a sigh before continuing.
"Anyway, two hundred thousand is too much to pay for a sword no matter the quality. Considering what you've said, I'd be willing to sell it to you for one hundred thousand. Any repairs needed in the future are free of charge and I'm also open to custom orders in the future." I say as I pull her chosen sword from the display to present it to her.
"Here, I have a testing range behind the house. Go test the sword before you buy it, I can make a few adjustments afterwards if needed." I say as I hand her the sword.
I receive a message from Calamity Jane just as I'm about to continue, seems like she made another piece of equipment with unforeseen effects. I'll need to go check on her soon. "For now though, I have other projects going on that require my presence. A trusted association member is on her way to be your guide if you want to have a look around the facility. I also trust her to handle the transaction in my absence so don't hesitate to discuss it with her." I say as I walk out of the workshop.
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September 10th, 2005, Brockton Bay
The last few days have been quite productive but the stress kept me from making as much progress as I wanted, I couldn't afford to half-ass any important project so I had to delay them until the Simurgh's attack. Now that that isn't a problem anymore, I can start doing important joint projects with the newly settled association members.
It also means I get to finally deal with the problem named Kensei. Unlike the planned members of the association, the guy just showed up at my doorstep four days ago and all but ordered me to let him join. I didn't want to let him join at first due to how rude he was, that was until I learned who he was.
The second I heard his name, I realized just how good and bad my situation was. On one hand, the guy is one of the most powerful known tinkers and having him as a member is an incredible opportunity. On the other hand, Kensei is an incredibly dangerous man with an obsession bordering insanity on the Endbringers. A man skilled enough to kill a high level brute with only a tinkertech sword as equipment and insane enough to swim fifteen miles at sea trying to chase after a retreating Leviathan.
I made a gamble that day, I let him in hoping Cinderella would be able to at least partially handle him and I was right. The problem is that even if he's not a physical danger to the people here, he's still extremely annoying to deal with. He spends at least twelve hours a day between training and tinkering and that's okay with me. The problem with him is that he spends the rest of his time harassing the other members for ideas.
Not all of them mind his presence but some of the members have social anxiety and his personality is quite forceful so they have a hard time dealing with him. Luckily for them, the upcoming Behemoth fight is a golden opportunity to distract him and to try anti-Endbringer weaponry months ahead of schedule. I just need to make a second set of custom armor for Kensei to engage Behemoth in close quarters.
I didn't think I could make an armor that good before and I still can't, at least not by myself. That's why I won't be the one designing everything. His armor will be a joint project between me and seven other tinkers. Not only that, it'll be seven tinkers with somewhat good synergy in their specialization. Fable, Enigma and me will provide the base design and Upgrade, Toymaker, Calamity Jane, Simpleton and Kensei will make modifications.
Toymaker and Simpleton have great synergy and their end result can be made better by Upgrade. Calamity Jane will be there mostly to see if she can get one of her random breakthroughs and Kensei's only role will be to advise on what's needed in a power armor whose intended user is a master swordsman. Enigma will help to make the armor sufficiently maneuverable and I'll be there to provide anything else that's missing.
The most important factor to consider is having Fable create the right equipment for us to study. With the right legendary item selected, he has the potential to rival the world's greatest tinkers in their own fields. The first piece of equipment he ever built, the Svalinn shield, is leagues ahead of any HAF generator I can currently make. In fact, the shield should be able to protect from the initial heat of a nuke if my calculations are correct.
If we manage to figure out exactly how it works and manage to incorporate the tech into a set of armor, we'll be able to essentially negate any fire based blaster on earth. For now though, I need to do some research online for legendary armors or shields. Kensei has swords strong enough to damage an Endbringer, we just need him to survive long enough to do something. While he's attacking and trying his best to kill Behemoth, I'll be trying to mitigate the damage and save lives. Property damage can be dealt with using repair once the battle is over.
Besides all of that, the next month is also going to be extremely busy. I need to send the space armor on its way towards mars tomorrow and I'm scheduled to install a portal at the PRT HQ next week. They gave me permission as long as Armsmaster's there to supervise the whole thing. It's not exactly necessary but it'll save me a few minutes everyday since I won't need to fly to get to the healing sessions. A few minutes everyday might not seem like a lot but it'll save me over twelve hours every year, Armsmaster seemed to agree when I explained my reasoning to the director.
I also need to decide on a way to store all the dirt I'm going to dig out for my earthscraper project. I don't have nearly enough space on my property to store everything, the materials from the boat wreck are already hard enough to deal with. My plan for now is to create a massive storage facility on mars but that'll take a lot of time and resources to set up so I'm not sure if that's the best idea. I'll probably have to go with that plan anyway since I don't have any better option.
On top of all that, I also have to help with at least ten association member's projects and I'll have to do the same for the other ten that have yet to arrive. Repairing equipment and nullifying the need for upkeep isn't all that hard compared to that, I just have everyone gather their chosen piece of equipment in one room and use a wide range repair. That usually happens once every one to two days.
The virtual room has been extremely useful in saving time, I probably wouldn't have any time left for myself if I didn't have it. With it, I just have to spend one virtual hour with each member for a total of two hours and thirty minutes of real world time. It's not as bad as it could be but the mental strain is still a problem. I can't do much about it, I just need more time.
Unfortunately for me, time is a limited resource and I always seem to be running out of I these days. If things pan out well, that won't be a problem in the future.
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List of association members currently present at the facility, their specialization and their hypothetical threat ratings:
Cinderella: pattern analysis and body language decoding dual specialization. Tinker four, thinker seven.
Simpleton: simplification of accessible technology. Tinker two.
Upgrade: daily charge based upgrade of mental tech trees. Tinker three.
Kensei: general blade tinker whose specialization narrowed down to swords after a second trigger. Tinker ten, brute zero, thinker zero.
Toymaker: creation of miniature versions of available technology. Tinker seven.
Minime: creation of miniature versions of available biology. Tinker seven.
Mansa: matter creation. Tinker eight, blaster seven.
Commander: matter manipulation. Tinker eight, blaster seven.
Calamity Jane: reproducing an observed effect in a different way than the original but in a random manner. Tinker six.
Fable: replication of legendary items through tinkertech. Tinker nine, brute seven.
Enigma: drones with no apparent thrusting mechanisms. Tinker six, master five.
A.N: I'm really sorry for the lack of chapters in the last few weeks. I had a massive writer's block and I also have motivation problems around winter time so this chapter was extremely hard for me to write. I'll try to get back to a better schedule in the next few days. Now back to the story, things are progressing and events have been set in motion. What I aim to create with this story is something different, I want to create situations that are original yet have a possibility of happening storywise. Things that I see as wasted possibilities that I'm sad no writer more competent then me has written about before. I also seek to push the limits of what people imagine for tinkertech, lasers and anti gravity are good but I want people to see the hidden potential in things. A portal can transport and it can also cut but is there some unforeseen use for them? You'll just have to find out in the next few chapters. Hope you enjoyed, till next time.