"When did you…" Tattletale started and then paused, "You saw what happened… ouch..." She put her hand to her head.

Taylor didn't pause from applying the cream to Tattletale's back and side as she spoke coldly, "I arrived a little before Bakuda executed Park Jihoo."

"Do you know what caused… ohh... That was you."

Grue grunted angrily, "What are you talking about."

Tattletale glanced between Taylor and me, "Lycaeni triggered Bakuda's bombs. That killed Bakuda, but it also destroyed her Deadman's switch. That's why no one else blew up and the rest of her bombs didn't go off. She saved hundreds, maybe thousands." The last was directed directly at Taylor.

Taylor switched to internal comms, "Deadman's switch? Q, did you know about that?"

"Nope. Aria did you know about that?" My voice was a little stiff.

"She announced it whilst you were behind the roof. It was picked up by the Snitch and later transmitted. I wasn't aware of it until the bombs had already gone off. That nothing else blew up would suggest that the triggers were connected via either repurposed or imitation cell phone technology." Aria's voice was all too calm for providing that news.

I noted Tattletale look between us as we communicated. I was sure she couldn't hear us but maybe her thinker power was giving her some hint as her eyes narrowed but she then smiled before answering, "Well it seems we owe you both our thanks. There was a good chance that we would not have escaped if you hadn't arrived when you did."

Grue had been staring at Tattletale since her first announcement. He finally turned to Taylor, "God dammit, yeah. Thanks, Lycaeni. We owe you now. Look, I'm sorry how everything went down between us and yesterday. I have a sister and well, I'm tied into how things are setup now so I can support her but anything that doesn't mess what that you got. Bitch?"

"What?"

"Say something to Lycaeni."

Bitch looked a tad confused as she moved her focus from Grue to Taylor, "Thanks."

She returned her attention to her dogs. She had used the cream on the dogs and herself though I didn't see any injuries on the dogs even before it was applied. She had also saved most of it. I didn't think it'd be a good idea to make a comment about any of that.

Regent laughed, "Smooth. Yeah, thanks Lycaeni. Didn't feel like get my ass shot off by those goons or having my nads melted off by that psycho." He gave her a thumbs up before returning his attention to his arm.

"Did you see much activity when you were out there? I'd like to get out of here before the authorities come along to investigate." Grue asked.

"Done." Taylor stood up from assisting Tattletale, "Looked like they all took off. If there are any around here, they probably hiding scared."

Regent started towards door, "Hey. Before we get out of here, I just gotta say, your gear is slick. Very sci-fi shooter for Mister Quartermaster and extra dark and spooky for Miss Lycaeni."

Bitch followed him out, her two dogs starting to grow as they exited the room. I briefly wondered about interaction between my cream and her power, but the dog didn't seem to have any issues.

"Tattletale?" Grue asked the only one still sitting.

"Give me two minutes. I'll be right behind you."

Grue nodded and headed out.

I noticed them move to the nearest corner to wait.

Lisa struggled to her feet. Taylor gave her a hand.

"I can't say too much." She turned to look at me and paused so I turned to face her.

"I have a thinker power. I pick up things and secrets are my specialty. But my boss can one up me and pick even some of my deepest secrets out of my head. Not everything, but if I plan or act against him, he always knows. I can talk and hint but if I do something or reveal something specific, he'll soon know. I don't know how, just that he will, and it'll be bad for me. Probably won't help you either. I've also got nowhere to hide that he doesn't already know of."

She turned back to Taylor, "But I do owe you both, so anything else you want to know, you just need to ask. Also, if you have more of that cream, I'll pay good money for it. Headache medicine also." She gave me a quick glance as she said that.

Tattletale seemed to want to say something else but after a long pause she just shook her head with a grimace and left the workshop. By the time she had caught up to the others Bitch's two dogs had grown into full sized monstrous beasts.

Regent helped Tattletale climb up behind him and they took off around the corner.

Once I had confirmation that they weren't doubling back I closed the door and then reopened it from the inside using my key.

"Go though. I'll get us somewhere safe and then we can get you to a hospital."

"I can't go to a hospital. They'll have to report it to the police or something." Taylor protested.

I frowned, "I thought that was only for gunshot wounds. Still, I have no idea how bad the damage is internally, it needs to be checked out. That healing agent is designed for external wounds."

Taylor frowned, "Can't you make a better medicine or use one of your other powers?"

I matched her frown, "I'm not sure. How about we get out of this area, and I'll see what I can do but you think up a backup plan that involves getting proper medical attention if I can't magically heal you."

Taylor looked at me a long moment before nodding and limped into my base. I dropped the snitch inside and then quickly closed it up, put my SEP field back onto full and started heading back east.

The place was a mess and I avoided looking at the occasional dark splatter.

I did deviate slightly from the direct route to investigate one unknown item Aria had marked on the mini map. At a crossroads sitting atop a roughly constructed tripod was a device. It looks like someone had welded two tin cans to an electric motor and then tore apart and wrapped the insides of tape recorder around it.

Taylor's voice came over the comms, "I think that's what was inside one of those fake guards I saw before. My bugs could feel it, but it looked like a guard just standing there. It's probably a bomb."

"Not that interested in the bomb part but if it can make lifelike projections, I'd like to get my hands on that. Aria can you fly over and knock it over with a drone?"

I moved back so I was partially covered by a wall and watched the drone fly over and into the device. It toppled over and landed with a thud, but nothing more happened.

"Be careful Q." Taylor whispered in my ear.

I nodded though wasn't sure that'd translate through the camera view. We were still very close to where bombs went off so I was pretty sure it would have also lost power like Taylor's suit and all the Undersiders phones.

I approached it carefully and spent a few minutes just examining it in detail without touching it. Aria and the suit allowed me to zoom in and examine connections and details both in high resolution that I could have naturally. The technology was unusual, but I was quickly picking it up. Quickly enough that I knew my powers were assisting.

Once I knew enough to be able to differentiate the bomb with the illusion and trigger, I disconnected the useful electronics and left the disabled bomb behind. I'd wrecked the trigger and removed enough parts that I doubted anyone could repair it that didn't already know how to make a similar bomb.

With the useful parts in my left hand, I took off at a much higher speed towards the main body of the docks. After checking my map, I changed course slightly to aim for the excavation site. Might as well get some more materials processing whilst I was working on Taylor.

It took little more than half an hour to get the miner and smelter up and running again and then I turned my attention to Taylor.

Taylor was sitting on a workbench with Fennec in her arms. She had taken off most of her helmet but was still wearing the armor as the leg of the suit was still acting as a splint. She watched quietly as I worked.

I sat down at my new workbench in the forge room. It really was an ideal place to plan and prepare, every tool in the perfect position. Aria easily integrated herself with it allowing her to digitally project plans and pictures and I found the tools that were on hand easily translated to a virtual space.

A tool for scanning was the first requirement. Something that would allow me to see inside Taylor's leg. A device that could do magnetic resonance imaging seemed perfect. I didn't need to build a massive room sized device. Aria using the Null-Space computer could easily handle the processing in real time from a handheld device.

Magnetic resonance imaging was known technology and the theory and even an overview of the components was freely available on the web. This allowed me to use my creative leaps power to come up with a much simpler way to generate the fields. The quickest build was to just create an addon for my integrated biotic amplifier. Instead of creating a biotic field around my fist for combat the new mode would project a constant magnetic field series in front of it and then pulse low powered biotic fields to generate radio waves. Then I'd just need to create a receiver which I would place behind Taylor's leg.

I started work on my biotic amplifier first. I took as many short cuts as I could not worrying about the reduced life span. If this worked out, I'd build a robust version later. I used paper, tape, string, pieces of tin cans and walnut shell to have a working unit in twenty minutes. That was the easy part.

I paused at this point as I felt a new power waiting for my attention. What was the saying, twice is coincidence but three times is enemy action? Each time I had the option to pause I wasn't busy, each time I was busy I was forced into a vision. I let the power come through, but I pushed back at the source and felt it give a little more. I had the feeling I could spend weeks or even months exploring the powers I had and that gaining more would just serve as a distraction. I was hesitant to push back hard though as if this power turned out to be something to do with healing, I'd be quickly apologizing for all my previous thoughts.

The first room was a testing lab with sheets and tools of a dull metallic metal and an assortment of magical wands, glowing weapons, and enchanted armor. Much of the magical items were damaged whilst the dull metallic looked untouched. A metal useful against magic of which the world seemed to lack. I was glad to move to a new room.

The next room was one I recognized. It was the art studio from yesterday and I felt my ability to create master works increase as to the speed at which I created them. The emotion ability also increased but what really would make a difference was the realization that if I could classify as item as a work of, I would be able to create it in a quarter of the time. This resonated with me quite well now that I understood it, just like my programming at school. When I was interested, I worked harder and faster, when it was boring make work, I did the bare minimum as the slowest speed possible. It made sense for my power to be related to my own attitudes and I wondered if this would help me understand my other powers more.

"Are you okay Sparky?" Taylor's voice broke through my thoughts. She sounded a little concerned and I realized I'd been sitting there not moving for several minutes.

I looked up to smile at Taylor. "Yeah, fine. Sorry. Discovered something a little interesting about one of my powers as it got stronger. It'll help me build a lot faster. Might seem a little silly but the results will be worth it."

She raised her eyebrows in question, but I just smiled, "You'll see."

I got to work on the receiver. Rather than the flat panel I had originally planned to make I used the 3d lathe and 3d printer to make delicate and curved components as I hand assembled the required coils and electromagnets. After the prints finished it took mere moments to assemble an elegant frame to hold the structure that resembled a cross between bone cell lattice and a Mandelbrot plot. The printed threads twisted and wove around each other in complicated patterns using both shadows and reflections to generate extra layers of complexity.

I had also imbued it with a sense of calm as I thought it would be useful when examining an injury and, since I had no intention of taking it out of my base, I wasn't worried about it triggering any master stranger alerts.

"Okay. Wow. That's… very impressive and a lot different than your blueprint version."

I nodded, "Yep, turns out if I make things into an artwork, I can make them quicker. An artwork takes more design work but overall unless I go too crazy, I should be able build things at between two and four times the speed."

"And that makes sense how?" Taylor raised her eyebrows.

I laughed, "Beats me. Let's get your leg scanned."

It turned out that I had almost got the bones in the right position, but one was misaligned slightly and had already started healing in that position. I was looking at the image that Aria was projecting wondering if there was anything I could create to realign the bone when Taylor reached forward and with a thump rebroke it. I hadn't even noticed her put her suit arm back on.

She grabbed her leg and manipulated it until the bones were lined up correctly, "Can you apply the cream again?"

I blinked a few times. Whilst I knew she couldn't feel much from the leg due to the painkiller cream I was still a little shocked.

Wordlessly I grabbed one of the large jars of the topical cream and held it out to her.

"No. I need to hold the bones in place. Can you apply it."

I mutely nodded and applied the cream. My attention was soon grabbed by the display showing her leg as displayed the cream soaking in through the skin, muscle and down to the bone. We were able to watch in real time as the bones slowly started fusing.

We both watched it silently for a few minutes.

Taylor broke the silence, "That's kinda cool, but also a little freaky. How long do you think it'll be before it's fully healed?"

I shrugged and Aria spoke up, "From the progress seen so far I estimate that if another application of the cream is given in forty minutes it could support your weight walking within another seventy to eighty minutes. With regular reapplication it will be fully healed in about three hours."

"I didn't know it was that good," I said. "I wish my powers came with an instruction manual."

"Didn't you develop the medicine?" Taylor asked as she shifted a little to get comfortable.

"No, when I decided I needed to make a medicine that could heal bruises and cuts a number of possible recipes came to mind. For each I got a rough idea of what it would do and if there were any side effects. Had to make a few substitutions that means it isn't active for as long, but it still works just as well as long as you keep reapplying it."

"So, you could know a whole lot more recipes for things but until you have a need for them you won't actually know it?"

I nodded and was about to respond when another power vision took overlayed itself over Taylor. I growled a little as a small plain room appeared. In the middle sat a simple wooden table and on that was a small blue cube no bigger than a golf ball.

A little frustrated I pushed against the power harder than before. After a few moments I felt it give somewhat. I hoped this meant that I would have more of a pause between powers in future, but I didn't have too much hope that it would improve the timing.

As the office disappeared Taylor asked, "Another power?"

I nodded as I noted the small blue cube sitting on my workbench.

Taylor noticed a moment after me. "What's that?"

"Computer upgrade I think." I picked it up, "Aria can you access it?"

"Yes. Connecting now." Aria responded. "Oh my…" she said in surprise.

That was the most expressive that she had been since the time I turned met her.

"I have transferred most of my processing to the cube. My capabilities and speed have expanded over a thousand-fold, and I am currently rewriting my core to take full advantage of the processing power now available to me. Using this I have the ability to invisibly hack all the systems I have encountered so far and just need your permission to vastly improve upon all the previous data search and summary reports."

"Ohh…" I stated numbly.