Grind 4.5

January 12, 2011, Brockton Bay, 6:35 PM

The bug-collection run was a huge success all over. We had lots of gains even apart from the bugs and physical statpoints. Running, Jumping, Parkour, all got major boosts. We even had an impromptu training session in the woods with high level (20-25) mooks - they were heavily armed, armored and organised mercs. We got a very good workout of all our powers, strategy and tactics.

Just that two hour session netted me a level and Taylor two, we also got some INT and WIS points. I gave field command to Taylor, of course, because her primary power was Administration after all! She seemingly danced through a hail of sniper-fire just because she could! She later told me that she had awareness of where all the guns were pointing and when triggers were squeezed... Yes she was a monster.

She pointed out the snipers to me and I force sniped them right back, taser-sniping armored targets was too mana-expensive. Then I went full mana boost and disarmed all the nearby gunners while Taylor took out her aluminium baseball bat and engaged them three or four at a time. She even took a few shots willingly just to level up kinetic resistance, with her 300+ HP tanking a bullet or three was perfectly alright.

Her Administration finally leveled up to 20 and crustaceans were added as targets, apparently freshwater crabs and shrimps could survive a trip through the inventory with the mental equivalent of a mild concussion so she collected quite a few varieties of those too. The new upgrade slot wasn't like the previous one. She was given two options, either to allow her multitasking to function independent of the number of bugs she had or to allow her to give her targets chained orders which lasted a while even after they dropped out of her range. Obviously she chose the second one, because at the rate her range was increasing, sterilizing her full range would become next to impossible. Also, fleshcrafting a pouch inside her body which could sustain a small colony of bioengineered mites would not be that big a deal once I had enough levels in biology.

Speaking of Biology, I scanned a host of organisms, hopefully going through the scans would give me both some XP and levels in Biology. I also found quite a few dead animal carcasses with Taylor's help, fleshcrafted them into bio-sludge and poured it into my inventory, added mulched dead trees and fungi to it for protein variety. By the time we were done I had an inventory slot labeled 'Biomass - 137Kg', would come in handy while healing and experimenting, much better than expensive hunks of beef.

We came back to Brockton Bay in a single non-stop run during which Taylor needed a Refresh only once. Did a lot of good for both her VIT and pushed her Gamer's Body to level 30, when she finally gained the basic anonymity protocols that made her appear like a normal, fit teen if any parahuman powers would scan her.

After coming back, we mostly shut ourselves in for the next two days in Taylor's Basement, making our first set of costumes. We experimented with a lot of different ways for armor, colors, shapes and textures. Taylor worked out a lot with heavy weights, it spurred a final round of STR gains for her. Her current figure would give any supermodel a complex. When we were working on how to layer the chest armor, I noticed she was extremely flustered about something. A bit of prodding revealed the cause:

Taylor stood there in the basement, wearing her prototype undersuit, flexing and stretching as I fitted the experimental construct parts. I constructed them out of diamond plates layered with an anti-shrapnel coating (like bulletproof glass) arranged in hexagons on a thin titanium base to hold shape where necessary. When it was time to test the breastplate ensemble, Taylor was squirming like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, exuding embarrassment and consternation.

This was odd, she'd been very proud of her recently svelte figure, and she hadn't been uncomfortable at all discussing it with me earlier, was I behaving oddly somehow? No, I wasn't even embarrassed or aroused at all that I'd even need control. I asked her, "Is something wrong? Am I making you uncomfortable in any way?"

She was well used to my blunt way of speaking by now, she shook her head, "No, no, not at all, it's nothing like that!"

"Then?"

"Um, uh..."

"Come on Taylor, I've never given you cause to feel uncomfortable about anything."

"No. Uh. It's, uh... Canyoufleshcraftmeabiggerbust?"

"Huh?"

She waved her hands around her chest area, her cheeks flaming red.

"Oh. Oh, I got it, say no more. Of course I can, but I think I can do you one better, give me a few minutes."

She nodded and let out a breath she was holding for too long. Relief pouring out of her. I'd exchanged numbers with Amy in a recent mail conversation where she was gushing how nicely Victoria's aura-bracelet worked out. I gave her a call, she picked up in a few rings.

"Hello? Aveek?"

"Hey Amy, good time to talk?"

"Yes, sure, I was just doing homework. Nothing important."

"Great, so, have you considered doing cosmetic enhancements?"

"Yes, it's actually much easier than healing, I'm still considering how to put word out in the market without causing a furore."

"Indeed, any announcement you'll make will result in brouhaha. Meanwhile, I have two pieces of news for you."

"More ideas?"

"Not really, firstly, I've recently come in contact with a new cape who's basically a tinker, but can do wetwork. He wants to try out healing and as far as I think his powerset complements yours in a very interesting way."

"Hero or villain?"

"You know how I feel about that classification system Amy. He's new, wants to be on the straight side of the law, consider him a rogue with altruistic but profitable intentions."

"Hmm, and he just met you out of the blue?"

"Come on Amy, don't ask questions you don't really want answers to."

"I get it, I get it. Anyway, yes, healers are always welcome. If you vouch for him, I'll meet him."

"Great, I'll put the two of you in touch via mail."

"And the second thing?"

"Yes, a friend of mine was asking about cosmetic modifications when she learned about Maker, the new cape I mentioned. But I immediately thought of you. She's a good kid. Has a bit of unnecessary body image issues."

"Let me guess, boobs?"

"Got it in one."

"Might as well start somewhere. Okay, you sure you don't want any such enhancements?"

"Hah! I'm good for now, thanks for asking. How's everything else going?"

"Quite well, my schedule's still hectic, Vicky's putting an effort now that she can see her aura flaring wantonly. I still don't have a cure for the addiction issue, but the drug regimen plan you mentioned is working nicely on a case of depression I've been treating."

"Excellent. And the new cape may be able to help you with your brain problem."

"What do you mean?" Her voice took a sharper tone.

"Stop panicking randomly girl! You know I understand your power fully well, and I've a ton of respect for you. This guy Maker can save biological snapshots and restore them at will. Do the math."

"Uh. How?... Wait. Wait... It means I can try different things on live subjects and he can simply revert the changes if I fuck up!"

"Precisely."

"Wow. Okay, yes I'm actually very interested in meeting him. Wait, this has so many uses! Why does he even want to work with me?"

"His power doesn't come with the intrinsic biological knowledge that yours comes with. He wants to learn to heal without having saved snapshots."

"Ah, I see. Cool. I'll definitely meet him! And also, I've already created quite a few retrovirus strains to cure a number of genetic and infectious diseases, also most common types of cancer!"

"Brilliant! I'm sure Mrs. Dallon can help you with the contracts. But if you want any help with negotiating finances, my cousin would love to help. Have I mentioned that he's a hotshot finance Guru?"

"Quite a few times, you have. I'll probably take him up on that offer sometime soon. Thanks a lot for your help, really, giving your friend a boob job is the least I can do to pay you back." I could hear the levity in her voice.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

"Th..thanks. I'll look forward to meeting you guys."

"Same here. I'll set up a time and mail you. And Maker will probably get in touch soon enough. You get back to homework. Catch you later."

"Cool. Bye then."

"Bye bye. Have a good night."

As I hung up, Taylor was looking at me like I'd grown two heads, "You didn't tell me you were that close with freaking Panacea!"

"What? I told you I got fleshcrafting from her."

She just shook her head. "Never mind, so I'm going to be given cosmetic surgery by THE Panacea?!"

I nodded, "Yep, painless, embarrassment-less surgery."

She just bounced up, gave a whoop and then glomped me with enough force to break a few baseline bones.

Heh, things went pretty smoothly after that, we did the breastplate sections with some extra padding in place. The armor pieces fit pretty neatly into their pockets. It was overall a very sleek ensemble. As we had discussed earlier, she'd ideally never be in physical presence of the action; the whole costume was a fallback measure, so it had to be something that could be worn under normal clothes.

Her first draft of the retractable helmet was terrifying, we worked to smooth the edges and turn it into somewhat adorrifying instead. The eyes were made of 5mm thick curved optically neutral diamond with yellow shatterproof film coating on the insides, I couldn't even scratch it hitting full force with a mallet. The mandibles were made of Titanium. The face pieces slid nicely into four parts and retracted to the sides so she could wear a hoodie and there'd be no sign of costume other than gloves. Overall the costume was intimidating in its black dyed silk and silvery armor edges peeking out at places, but suitably neutral.

It took her quite a while to wear the costume in full. Took her even longer to use bugs to individually draw locks of her hair out through the perforated scalp of the helmet (she was adamant about having her hair out!). Once she wore it fully, I showed her how to save it as a set, then wear a hoodie and jeans over it, save it as another set and voila! Instant change costume, with or without camouflage.

My costume was simpler. It was more of a form fitting segmented armour above the double layer spidersilk suit, made fully of mana construct Tungsten Carbide with a faceless helmet (I'd discovered earlier that seeing through my constructs was just a matter of willing it). I was undecided whether to use light construct facial features or not. Once I saved the whole set with my superheroic avatar, it just deducted the mana cost for construction once and equipping/unequipping was free. Much cheaper to repair or modify because it's just construct and not real matter. And it glowed blue.

Anyway, this evening was my first proper date with Lisa. This time I took a big fashion step and wore a white turtleneck with denims! These turtlenecks were ridiculously tight fits by now, but Taylor assured me they looked fine. The satisfaction and excitement in Lisa's demeanour when we met outside the movie theater proved it. Though it could also have been for the news she was going to give me. There was also an undercurrent of nervousness though, well, I was feeling slightly nervous too.

After exchanging generic greetings, we went into the theatre, got popcorn and sat down. Lisa casually grabbed my hand and started tapping. Morse code was a part of enough military and emergency manuals which I'd absorbed, so it took no time to decode the taps.

'EYES ON US. COIL HENCH'

I controlled my emotions and tapped right back, 'LOCATION'

She started tapping back before I was halfway done, '8 CLOCK. 2 ROWS'

I replayed my memories and caught the guy's face. My habit of keeping a multitask stream just to keep observing everyone and saving the results came in handy, level 18, easy to miss. Jim Howard, trained more for infiltration than combat, employed by Coil. Hmm. I tapped a query to Lisa. 'HOSTILE?'

'NO. GEN. SURV.'

'COIL SUSPICIOUS?'

'NO. KEEPING TABS'

'COIL ID?'

'NUM 4'

'CALVERT'

'YES'

'OK. NORMAL DATE?'

'YES. TAKE ME HOME AFTER'

I didn't reply, just smirked. She blushed and slapped my shoulder. The movie was starting, we fell into casual banter about the movie. It was a pretty good one, Aleph VFX always had that authentic feel to it, cool plot too. I'd already made reservations at a decent Italian place. We ate dinner, bantered and flirted. Our lookout switched to a different person between the theater and the restaurant. This time I caught the guy immediately, level 22, still infiltration specialist.

After dinner I theatrically asked her to drop me home. She agreed equally theatrically and we went to her car. Once inside the car, she tapped 'CAR BUGGED' and again we exchanged inconsequential chitchat. As we were nearing my block, I messaged Taylor and asked her to keep a track of anyone tailing us. She messaged right back that there was a van going parallel to us on an adjacent street. I tapped the info to Lisa and she just nodded. We kept chatting and flirting.

When we arrived, I invited Lisa in for coffee. Dada opened the door, I introduced them. We went in to the living room and sat down for some casual chitchat. Dada chatted cordially for a while and then excused himself with a surreptitious wink at me. Lisa blushed again. Taylor messaged me and said that the van had parked a bit away from our place, 4 men armed with MP4s with strange attachments had surrounded our house in a typical ambush pattern. Coil's men alright.

I whispered to Lisa, "T says 4 men around the house in ambush pattern."

She frowned and whispered back, "Uncharacteristic, this should not be happening - are you ready for combat if they make a move?" I messaged Taylor, she replied that she had enough painful and venomous bugs on them to drop them at a moment's notice.

I nodded at Lisa, "they won't reach the door." Her eyes widened in understanding, mental gears spinning, she nodded shakily. Yep, Taylor was scary as fuck.

Lisa immediately had some realization, "Precog scenario! Ask her to not engage whatsoever!"

I instantly transferred Lisa's words to her, she confirmed. We had discussed the value of intents and decisions in precog scenarios.

At that moment I was flooded with AI assist messages.

Dimensional Scan Detected - Analysing.

Analysis completed - Results saved: GenericPrecog01

Anonymity Protocols Engaged - Result Prepared: AveekUnpowered03

Result Transmitted.

Within seconds, Taylor messaged me telling that the men were leaving. Huh, did he remove his men because his precog told him it'd be a bad idea or because his precog told him there's nothing to worry about?

I told Lisa, "the guys just left, and I was apparently scanned by a precog moments before."

Lisa seemed pensive, "he often sends his men to situations where they're given go/no go messages on the fly. This must be his precog telling him to give a no go. But why?"

I nodded, "that's what I thought. His scan would find me a powerless baseline, with some basic combat training and good fitness, that's all." The police report on the attack on dada was public domain, so I'd prepared that default anonymity protocol as a person who conforms to that report. Suddenly becoming a weakling would raise alarm bells instead.

She nodded, "his precog told him that torturing us for info will reveal nothing new. Damn, I guess he does this with us all the time. Even if there was some info revealed, he'd just know the info without doing anything in reality! Damn that's a scary power."

I let out a breath, "good thing I told Taylor to stand down. Don't worry, between the two of us, he won't get any info out of the ordinary. I'll know the details of his power soon enough, once I get a look at him. But really, Calvert? Are you sure? He seemed the cleanest of them all, apart from the Nilbog case! I expected Coil to be number 2 or 7."

She scoffed, "Number 2 is a stooge specifically kept for that purpose, even the body type is a close match! Number 7 is more subtle, he's an Empire double agent that Coil surreptitiously feeds info. Calvert is a very, very paranoid man."

I sighed, "This guy is going to be tough to handle. So, anyway, coffee?"

She smirked, she was sitting very close to me, still holding my hand, "Forward, aren't we?"

I shrugged again, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Tell me something, if you don't mind, how are you asexual anyway?"

She sighed, "I got my powers at a young age, puberty was spent getting all sorts of squicky information about any guy I even tried to get close to. My power works on focus, and to be intimate with someone, a lot of focus falls on the person. If I don't distract myself when close to other people, my power immediately starts counting germs on them, when they last puked, whether they washed their hands after peeing... It keeps getting grosser. I can even sit close to you because I've been practising keeping my power in check and thankfully you don't ring the squick bells much."

Oh, wow, that was a simple problem. "Huh. Wait." I stood up and cleansed myself.

She immediately grabbed my hand again, and started looking intently at it. Then pulled me into a hug, I could feel her trepidation turn again into excitement, and for the first time I'd noticed in her, mild arousal.

She nuzzled my neck a bit, then looked up at me, our faces only an inch apart, her arousal intensified.

Looking at me with a fierce intensity in her eyes, she uttered three words.

"Do me now."

I knew exactly what she meant. I cleansed her, and got an exceptional reward for correct interpretation.