Grind 4.7
January 13, 2011, Dev's House - Brockton Bay, 11:03 AM
Grinding the NikuBunshin no Jutsu (I was so excited that I accepted the first suggestion from the AI) soon got it up to level 7, where I could maintain one clone body without mana drain even while boosting my mana-capable body and also keeping the permanently meditating mind active. I'd soon get some spare mana as it would keep leveling up. Also got the Swap Primary subskill to switch my main mana conduit between clone bodies.
I tried to make a clone from dada's body, it came out comatose, and I realized that if the neural connections to the spine were not my own - swapping in my multitask brain was a lot of work mapping out the right nerves to connect, unless I had the whole setup pre mapped and saved as an avatar. Made sense, it would be a ridiculously broken ability otherwise.
Amy called me to ask if it was okay to bring her sister with her. Maker had mailed her earlier and wanted to meet at my place (of course I did). I told her it was perfectly understandable, meeting with an unknown cape, good to have some backup. She said she'd be at my place in twenty minutes.
Taylor was already here, both nervous and excited. She soon reported that the two of them had arrived by car and had parked in front of our house. That was nice of them not to draw attention by flying in. I got the door for them, both of them were in costume. I was in my clone body.
"Hi Panacea, Glory Girl, welcome to my humble abode." Glory Girl gave a curt nod as they came in, guess she still resented me for calling her a master. She did have the bracelet that glowed faintly.
Amy smiled and shook my hand, "Hey Aveek, you've gotten even healthier, have you been seeing another healer behind my back?" Well, her general mood had improved much since the last time I saw her.
I gave a sheepish smile and shrug, "Different specialization, you're the only general biokinetic for me." Amy gave a chuckle, Victoria was having a hard time not to smile.
I introduced them to Taylor, "Panacea, Glory Girl, meet Taylor Hebert, my friend and neighbour. And you've already met Dev."
Victoria chimed in, "Well he's looking much better than I last saw him. Hello Taylor, did you guys know you're somewhat famous over the internet?"
I honestly hadn't given much thought to the forums where the Winslow incident was leaked. I facepalmed, "don't tell me they leaked the videos."
Victoria was apparently very satisfied with my discomfort, that was childish of her. Her smile was smug, "of course they did, don't worry, it'll pass. Though it's currently a hot topic once more because Dragon publicly acknowledged you as her inspiration for her newest product."
I sighed and nodded, "Yeah, she did ask me about the glasses soon after the incident, I got her in touch with the tinker who originally made them. I should have told her not to mention me in public." The DragonTech LookaGlasses (TM) (Named after LookaChupi, our Thanda surveillance tinker who collaborated with their design.) were supposed to hit the stores in the next few weeks. Good for the general public. LookaChupi had also contacted me and thanked me for making him rich. Dragon probably thought she was being nice by naming me in public...
Meanwhile Amy was giving Taylor a long once-over, did I see flash of mild arousal there? Huh, didn't know she batted for the other team in general, good for Amy. She turned to me and mock whispered, "this girl has body image issues?"
Taylor was blushing hard, "I, I was much worse earlier, I've been working out with the help of Maker."
Amy extended her hand, "may I?" Taylor nodded and gave her hand, Amy took it and zoned out for a moment, hopefully the anyonymity protocols would hide her corona.
She nodded, "Pretty good work, almost as good as the tune-ups I give, though there are some genetic tendencies for a few common disorders, and some cellular health fixes..."
I interrupted her, "Amy, if you want to work on those, I'd recommend having Maker over. He would want to learn. Also, it would probably help you discuss your work with someone who actually understands it."
Amy nodded, "Call him over then."
I nodded, took out my phone and made a show of typing into it. The primary Maker Avatar was standing right behind clone me in a blank ID. Maker/I just dropped the ID and appeared with reality cracking VFX. Aveek/I made a show of flinching and looking behind, Victoria dropped into a combat stance, Amy was gaping, Taylor and dada both just rolled their eyes - meh, some people had no sense of dramatics.
Maker/I was using a top-half mask for the moment. As the full faceless look was both too inhuman and too intimidating, so I'd opened it up from below the nose. I'd crafted the face to have a wider jaw and ethnicity-neutral features (had to study averaged faces in the internet). I also had to develop my American English skills to a respectable level. Maker/I addressed everyone, "Hello Dev, Ladies, and Nerd."
Aveek/me made a face, "Ha bloody ha, everyone, this is Maker."
Dada made a show of waving at me, Victoria's stance relaxed, Amy gulped and nodded. Before either of me could say anything else, Taylor's emotions suddenly turned volatile and her eyes widened, she schooled her features quickly, I got a message from her 'lone girl, being attacked by gangers, not enough time for me to send pain bugs.' and attached was a marker (we'd practiced this earlier, Taylor's bug sense made for a neat mini-map and after some trial and error she was able to send messages with a location highlighted in a pointillized mental map/thingy).
Maker/I immediately straightened up, "I just got an update from a cape friend, there's a girl being attacked by gangers nearby, Glory Girl, can I count on your assist?" Victoria was all business immediately, hovering a foot in the air. I turned to Amy, "Please go ahead with the cosmetic work, but hold the tuneups, I want to learn." Amy nodded.
I still didn't have enough mana capacity to sustain flight, boost and a clone together indefinitely, but it would be enough to fly this much. I had a tinker's image to maintain, so I constructed some vent-looking things on the back of my armor and made it spew motes of light like some futuristic jet. I too hovered up and headed for the door.
Aveek/me ran to the door and held it open, Maker/me flew out at full speed, Glory Girl right behind me. It was a short flight, about 3 blocks away, towards the docks region. Empire territory edge again, we came upon the alley that Taylor had marked out, two goons were beating up a young black girl viciously, while a third one was pointing a gun at her. Meanwhile Aveek/me had excused himself into the kitchen to make tea. I dropped the clone skill and focused the freed up mana into flight and boost. Before we could land a number of things happened.
Vicky suddenly careened out of her trajectory and slammed into a wall near the three, which startled them sufficiently to let go of the girl, she was in terrible shape, I was inundated with a number of messages.
Transdimensional communication detected. Analysing.
Analysis complete, result saved - TriggerShardPing_genericQuery
Transdimensional communication detected. Analysing.
Analysis complete, result saved - TriggerShardPing_GloryGirl02
Transdimensional effect detected. Analysing.
Analysis complete, result saved - NoticeMeNotStranger01
Response created, NoticeMeNotStranger01 effect negated.
Another darknet rumour proved, when a new cape triggers, nearby capes collapse. And the girl, Aisha Laborn, just triggered. With a stranger effect of all things. The two thugs who were beating her were suddenly looking around disorientedly, the gun-toting goon pointed at Glory Girl and said "Shit! Cape!" and began unloading at her, she was getting up, her bracelet suddenly pulsing bright. I launched taser shots at all three of them. I got the two unarmed ones, but missed the gunner, who was suddenly backpedalling at full force, blind with panic, shooting even faster. The initial shots either missed or had no effect on Glory Girl, who was flying zig-zag towards the thug, but the last two shots were spaced too closely together, the second shot hit her thigh, she collapsed with a cry. I landed on top of the man, disarming him with a chop at his arm, then touch tasering and scanning him.
Glory Girl was panting while hovering. Her leg was bleeding profusely, I reached for her, "May I fix that?" She nodded weakly. I refreshed, cleansed and scanned her, then applied fleshcrafting, the bullet had gone through, it was a flesh wound, I reknit the muscles and skin the best I could, It wasn't a flawless job, but it would hold. I went to the girl now, she was still unconscious. I scanned her too, this was bad, there were several ruptured organs and she was bleeding internally, I patched whatever I could but there were still toxins coursing through her system and she was losing HP steadily, her status was showing poisoned and unconscious. Glory Girl looked at me with a puzzled expression, "what are you doing?!"
Oh, stranger effect, right, I mana boosted the girl, but it didn't negate the effect, made somewhat sense, the effect was on bystanders after all. I got a message from Taylor saying the police were informed and were coming over. I picked up the girl and walked over to Glory Girl. She was still having trouble looking at me, I touched her arm, didn't boost her, just focused on the mana to negate the stranger effect. She immediately looked at the girl and gasped, "she just triggered, didn't she?"
I nodded, "with a stranger power, I can negate it as long as I'm touching you. Listen, I couldn't heal her properly, I need to take her to Panacea. Will you handle the police when they come?"
She nodded, but replied with some confusion, "Won't I just forget about her the moment you let go?"
I nodded, "Possibly, also, freshly triggered cape, I believe the best course of action is not to out her to the police? You can just report it as stopping generic gang activity."
She sighed, "Works, I guess."
I let go of the blocking, she zoned out immediately, then looked at me, "I'll wait for the police, you go back to Amy." Ah, the stranger power was pretty specific in terms of what it wiped.
The girl's HP was critically low, I just healed her with the scan of her when I first patched her up. Her HP jumped up, but started dropping again. I messaged Taylor with an update and she asked me to come via ID, as there were eyes out in the neighbourhood after gunshots were heard. I complied, dropped into an ID with the girl and headed for home, periodically refreshing the girl to her half-healed state.
