Do What You Can (Worm x Celestial Forge V3) Chapter 16 - Canberra, a private fanfic

[February 24th, 2011]
[1 Month - Superbolic Space-Time Manufacturing Complex]

With the inclusion of the Do One Thing At a Time perk, my priorities shifted a bit. Why? Well, because a doubling of the quality of whatever I produced meant a doubling of everything. Everything. Strength, durability, power, efficiency, etc, etc. It took what was already super-space age technology and elevated it to a whole different level. However, in order to make the most of this, we ended up having to convert the entirety of the Warehouse into a time dilation zone, and thusly the Superbolic Space-Time Manufacturing Complex was born.

What was interesting to note was that the Hangar was inviolable in the 'Space' portion of the SSTMC- the Skyforge, however? It was not, but before I could begin with expanding the pocket dimension... Ted ended up getting fed up with my desire to expand the area so I could add more storage space, and he ended up presenting me with a Tessaract Labyrinth that contained all of the nanomaterials I had managed to accrue to this point.

We settled for just... making storage shelves in the corner of the storage area.

Tessaract Labyrinth were grey, metallic cubes that were roughly the size of my fist, and while deceptively simple in appearance they were insanely complex pieces of technology that squeezed out every scrap of the Necron's mastery over phase-shifting technologies and hyper-geometry. It essentially folds space in such a fashion that it is an endless labyrinth, though this was primarily done to make sure that powerful beings like the C'tan shards couldn't escape; most of them were too powerful to be held down by the stasis technology built into the cube, so by folding space it essentially meant that the space was too large for them to assert their awesome powers.

The best way I could think about it is this- a C'tan shard is a nuclear device, one of the most powerful, and it has a large blast radius. However, if said nuclear bomb was on the surface of the planet, then even all of its incredible power wouldn't be able to affect the moon (the edges of its prison).

The sheer amount of storage space in a single Tessaract Labyrinth was staggering, though there were some size limitations as to what could be initially shifted into it- you wouldn't be storing any Gloriana Class battleships into it, but my Titans and Globetrotters? I could stuff a hundred million of them in one and still have space- it also was neatly able to categorize what was stored within it, allowing you to search for just exactly what you wanted, and then you could deploy it in a flash of light. With the stasis effect in place, it would be as if no time had passed from the moment whatever was absorbed and put into place.

So, we still built nanomaterial storage tanks, but when they were filled up they went into the NM-V. I built some specialized organic sifting robots that could get sifting down to 1.2 seconds per pound, with a .5 second pour time; that meant I could gather roughly 60,480 pounds of nanomaterials per day, or 22,075,200 pounds per year. That's 11,038 tons of nanomaterials per year, though we had to expand the diameter of the piping and up the pump strength considerably to increase the flow rate enough to supply the ocean water needed to keep up with the demands of 3 years' worth of nanomaterials sifting in a single day; we accomplished this by extending the piping and pumps roughly ten miles into the ocean to prevent the suction from being too concentrated.

The last thing I wanted was to create some sort of whirlpool effect that would suck in small fishing boats and whatnot.

So, all told we were on track to harvest just under 232,000 tons of nanomaterials every week, all of which would be divided into 1t, 5t, 25t, 50t, 100t, 1,000t, 10,000t, and 100,000t sized containers for ease of use.

I had to expand the number of Engineers to one hundred to make sure that there were enough of them to keep up with all of the maintenance; though this was primarily done to make sure that there were plenty of opportunities to perform maintenance in and out of the Time Chambers; I didn't want my pootie bois to get too bored. Ted's Canoptek Scarabs handled the less delicate scutwork, but the Necron Spyder was more than happy to have his minions strip and resurface practically everything within their areas of responsibility.

Subee demanded permission to increase the number of her Lifegivers, but I denied that; there was barely enough biological work for them to do; they were practically having weekly check-ups with us anyways.

I personally think she just wanted more underlings to lord over, but Alpha just bore her responsibility as the primadonna's second with dignity, grace, and boundless patience. She really was best nurse.

I went to the magical research facility, greeting Glados since it had been some time since I'd last interacted with her. We, unfortunately, couldn't get the time dilation to work around or within the facility due to the nature of time warping the results of magical research; if I got any time-based magic it would skew any results even more, so we had to do training and research in real-time.

It had taken the lab quite a long time to properly scan and examine all of the intricacies of Bobbi's skull; the runic make-ups, the nature of her existence as a Spirit of Knowledge, and how best we could go about filling her skull with grey matter if we couldn't crack open the skull itself without disrupting her runes and anchorings. She could just leave the skull and possess things, but I'd rather not have that be her primary mode of transportation; instead, we would just create for her a body using her skull as a base.

The door to the Spirit research lab opened up and Bobbi's eye-like flames grew hot. "Oh, good! You're back! I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me!"

I shook my head as I tapped away at the console, finishing up the scanning and observation procedures and finalizing the data we had collected. Glados and I began running through the information at blistering speeds, with the two of us going back and forth. "Ah, nope. I just needed to wait until we had gathered enough data to work with, Bobbi. In fact, I think that you can really help us with the specific meanings behind these runes-"

The screen on the back wall lit up and began displaying scans and images, and I made sure to turn her around on the pedestal so that she could actually see the screen. Once we figured out how everything worked then we would make her a body.

I spent two hours with Bobbi and Glados in the Lab before I returned to the Superbolic Manufacturing Complex and continued to work with the Engineers and Ted to create the newest model of our MJOLNIR, drones, aircraft, and weapons; with Do One Thing at a Time doubling the quality of everything produced it was a no brainer to remake everything I'd ever produced, and with the time dilation in place around the Skyforge instead of having mere hours before the Simurgh's appearance over the skies of Canberra I had just under four months.

During that time the Lifegivers had worked with the Engineers to find a purpose for all of the microbial life that was flowing in through the nanomaterials gathering place, and they started gathering it on the way out. They condensed it, nurtured it within the main Superbolic time complex and began growing fish and cloned a few of the dairy cattle we still had left; we now had a massive fish and dairy farm with thousands of cattle that grew at an accelerated rate for the production of our ration tubes.

Seeds from a seed bank that the girls purchased for Subee on the way out using dirt from all of the excavation we made gave us a very nice vegetable farm to add more variety in our MREs, and with the Tessaract Labyrinths, we could store everything without fear of the foodstuffs deteriorating even though with the preservative formula that the Lifegivers had on hand we could preserve them for one hundred years. Purified water was stored in individual plastic bottles and large water tanks meant to provide water for mobile shower trailers and mobile kitchens; just because we had wonderfully tasty and nutritious tubes didn't mean that people would want to suck down their meals all of the time.

Honestly? It was a fuck load of fun just working with the Bois on creating cool yet practical disaster relief things and just watching the numbers climb up higher and higher; thousands of single and family housing trailers that had their own self-contained propulsion so they could be moved around without needing large cranes and forklifts, shower trailers, kitchen trailers, connex boxes filled with every conceivable supply available including low tech toys and games for children.

I didn't know how bad the destruction of the city was going to be, but we had a hundred Helljumpers that would be flying into the city and evacuating everyone from the Simurgh's psychic scream as quickly as possible; they would fly in groups of five so that we could have only one T-Doll with an amulet per flight while still having enough of them flitting about the battlefield to recover the Capes that were fighting.

I fiddled around with Nitramene explosive rounds, but that was before I got Do One Thing at a Time. Though, to be fair they weren't the best work I was capable of as they were just something we thought up real quick and put into production for the Dolls so that they would have something that packed a punch for the SL9.

This time though?

We went all out, focusing on every single bit of the design with all of our collective noggins put together, and with the improvements to all of the girl's weapons we did some fiddling around with Virbranium molecular coating of a fluted Beskar barrel, which absorbed any sort of barrel harmonics, and these things were accurate to one hole with the atomic-scale beyond-Match Grade ammunition. Barrel velocities were eight times higher, pushing bullets that were anywhere from two to four times larger to accommodate a specially designed Nitramene High Explosive Shape Charged Munition that could at the best least be able to chip away at the Simurgh's outer layers; the 5.56mm Rifles could field 122-grain projectiles that went deep into the casings but kept the overall length the same.

Any damage piled on fast enough and hard enough was what caused the giant angel to flee.

The girls would be deploying with large automated ammunition packs that would replace spent magazines with full ones until the pack's storage was depleted; the Helljumpers would drop off fresh packs while the spent ones were tossed up to be refilled onboard for the next drop off.

I made the very best ammunition I could without dipping into the esoteric effects, and I made a lot of them.

I also made amulets of the Fierce Archer and the Able Archer, two amulets that had their basis in the ritual and runic worship of the Egyptian Goddess Satet, the Goddess of War and Archery. The amulets were not tied to the bow and arrow, but more towards the act of throwing, shooting, or utilizing any ranged weapon; the first caused missiles fired by the user to deal significantly more damage, and the second caused arrows- and by extension bullets- to home in on their targets, evading obstacles by adjusting the flight path. It wasn't exactly fool-proof, but an Egyptian Mage who adored archery used the second amulet to thread an arrow between a dozen densely packed trees to slay his traitorous brother while wearing it, so it would possibly help the bullets avoid whatever debris was in the air.

The amulets and rings were something I remade as well; the rings had become potent enough that any sort of elemental damage would actually heal the user as the resistance had passed into the realm of 230%. The anti-Master, anti-Stranger, anti-Precognitive, healing, and kinetic damage mitigation, had all become so strong that I could survive a drop from orbit without my power armor on. I had passed 100% kinetic damage mitigation mark with both the rings and amulets combined, but I didn't know if that would heal at all or anything because it was impossible to test while wearing it.

We could have injured ourselves and then put them on, but that sort of testing just seemed off to me; self-mutilation in the name of SCIENCE wasn't something I was too keen on.

I didn't have that many magical perks and I was already doing absurd magical shit. The Forge was really something else.

The magic protections were quite strong, but I still had no idea if it would classify Parahuman abilities as magical effects or not, but the rule of thumb was to avoid getting hit by them.

I made a special shoulder-mounted missile launcher for myself with Vibration warheads that should pack more than enough punch to make her shed a layer of her flesh with each missile fired. I could only carry six rockets on my person with how large they were, so I designed two drones that would carry an additional four missiles each, and they would follow me around.

My other primary weapon would be a modified SRS-99S7 that was chambered in the 30x173mm, and boy I had to beef that rifle up; the original model was hardly suited, so it's svelte 34 pounds jumped up to 57 pounds, but I was using every trick in the book to add in every scrap of material science.

A snort escaped my lips as I looked away from the ammunition station and looked at the pile of Super-30 ammunition I had made; much like the other girls, this one was firing a much larger and heavier projectile at a much higher velocity that was packed with the same N-HESC round. This thing would fucking womp, my guy-

I blinked as the Forge spun up and snatched a smaller star from the "Database Mundane", and I felt the Engineers collectively squee in delight while Ted was intrigued.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 13.0060 - N-Ways Fusion Plant - 200CP - Endless Space - Database Mundane]
[Re-Forge Successful]
[Purchased: 0 CP Remaining]

The fuck?

Well, the Necron Pylons were great as they pulled power from the ether, but they were very large and due to their design, they couldn't be shielded, which made them soft targets. You also could put too many pylons in the same space, or the power output would drop out significantly. They were awesome, but you couldn't stick them on the outside of a starship hull and not expect them to get shot the fuck up. The Necrons had something else they used to power their massive starships, but those were incredibly large and stupidly resource-intensive; the N-Ways reactors though? Those were, while also being resource-intensive, much, much smaller and as long as they were owned by me then they would possess infinite energy, and with my other perks they would never fail unless sabotaged; and the best part was that the reactors could be shielded separately without fear!

Even if I decided to sell the reactors to someone else, the reactors came with all sorts of different technologies that allowed me to mine for Heavy Deuterium, an isotope more commonly known as 'Hyperium', that ran the N-Ways fusion reactors. It was actually quite easy to create here in my lap with all of the technology I currently had, and if I ever moved out into another space-faring universe then I could pull Hyperium from practically any gas giant or planet as deuterium was quite commonly found.

Roughly twenty-five years of full operation for a vessel roughly two-kilometers in length, but that was if you were running it at combat levels of power draw; more than likely the reactors would be a half or even less, extending that to forty years or more. Though, if I designed and built those ships myself then it would be even higher with all of the perks working together to create a more durable and efficient ship.

Damn, every piece of equipment we had just had the power plants either replaced or a power plant added; the Titans had the power plants in addition to their batteries, and now I could build super starships without having to worry about power. Ever. Even the Helljumpers and Globetrotters, Duskwalkers, drones, robots, and MRVNs all have these n-Fusion power plants.

Holy shit, the weapons I could make with infinite power was...

I shook my head as Ted and Enbee started going over the schematics and began proposing possible improvements and returned to making my ammunition; twenty-round box magazines were a riot, and it was hella fun to shoot to boot.

[3 Months Later]

I split my remaining time between manufacturing and training- continuing to work on my Ki, Magic, and the Force with the girls.

Though Subee had pulled me off to the side for the last month as we sat down together and completely went over both the Super Soldier Serum and the Heart-Shaped Herb concentrations that she created. While it wasn't technology, I was no longer reliant on only her knowledge to produce anything anymore- with the time dilation, strategy trance, and the implants I was able to learn pretty much everything there was to know about the human body and how it could be improved and manipulated from Subee and Ted's limited knowledge. Considering it was my only Task, D.O.T.A.A.T procced on it and my learning was done very swiftly.

Taking every scrap of technology from the Forerunners, the Necron, the Titanfall universe's Regeneration technology, and every perk at my disposal, we crafted together an updated Super Soldier Serum and a new Heart-Shaped-Herb formula that was double the effectiveness and then some. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 240% better, with the negative side effects of the serum only being elevated by roughly 10%. That meant my libido was going to double, but honestly? I really needed that libido jump to handle all of my girls.

We had the new serums prepared and we took them all; the serums were created in such a way that they would replace the old formulas and blessings without any issue. The Perks ensured that they would work exactly as intended, but we still wore our rings and amulets for the improved healing and regeneration, if only to make sure we weren't laid out for a week and some change again.

Bast rolled her eyes as she saw me appear before her within her Celestial Realm. Her large paw flashed out and knocked me into the dirt, "Fine. You improved your formula. Just... try not to bother me too often, mortal."

We were only asleep for three days, and the improvements were such that Subee wasn't worried about us dying again.

My power level had skyrocketed to roughly 40 Million, which was outside of my expectations; I was expecting 32 Million, or around there, but it seems that the more I try to understand Shounen physics and magic the less I understand it.

We celebrated with an orgy that did not end up in any pregnancies because that was for after the fight.

[135 days after the start of the manufacturing/training trip]

Everything was ready to go. The Globetrotters were all spun up and loaded up with the valuable cargo and the Helljumpers were also folded up and slipped inside of the cargo bays; twenty Globetrotters in all were running with their engines hot and ready to go within the Tessaract Labyrinth. Once the word was received of the Endbringer's encroachment then we could finally begin.

I sat down in a comfortable chair and Qi had her arms wrapped around my shoulders as her teeth played with my earlobe. She was doing an incredible job at keeping me distracted while simultaneously keeping me focused on not popping a boner in my suit; despite all of the advancements I had made that was still a problem that I hadn't solved yet. The armor kept your junk situated in such a way that a suction cup wrapped around the head of my penis so I could urinate without the need of a catheter and without needing to compromise the suit's integrity.

Still no room for an erection though.

I tugged my ear from her teeth and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

Even though I was strong enough to throw the Endbringers around like small children- strong enough to yeet them into deep space- there still was just enough trepidation to get my anxiety up.

We got a ping from Dragon.

The Simurgh was beginning her slow descent from the stratosphere, and thankfully it was still in Canberra; not that it would have made any difference otherwise, but at least with all of our moves we hadn't fucked this particular attack up.

We had been staged and ready to go, and now everyone was moving; the patrol teams that were making their rounds in the city were notified and en route to the Endbringer meeting point located at the base of the PRT's light bridge. The garage door for the Hangar at the cliff was already open, its entrance hidden by illusory projectors, and the gals and I loaded up in our designated aircraft; one of us was staying behind to act as a coordination and command station, and to keep our base hidden from view- Springfield volunteered, mainly so that she could continue to watch over our son. If there was even the slightest chance that one of us could die in the ensuing chaos I didn't want it to be the mother of my child, so I accepted readily.

I wasn't too keen on letting Tattletale stay behind with her, if only because the young woman, even without her power feeding her information, was pretty darn smart, but Spring was a kind woman with a gentle soul. She felt that Lisa could be extended a small measure of trust, and would sit in the communications bunker with her; if anything her power of observation would be useful enough.

I had barely interacted with the teenage Thinker at all the past few days, not since we brought her under our protection, but to be fair it had been months since I last saw her.

GT-01 was lifting off and hovering out of the Hangar, and once we were outside I let the other ten Globetrotters out of the Tessaract Labyrinth and set them into formation; the nine pairs of GT-03 through GT-20 were already moving out into the sky in a pair of Flying-V formations, their large wings unfolding before locking into place.

I had GT-01 and GT-02 fly towards the Endbringer staging area, pinging Dragon to let her know that we would be picking the Brockton Bay Capes up and taking them in so Strider could head elsewhere.

It was finally showtime.

[Remaining 100 CP]

[Armsmaster]

"Is this everyone?" Assault chirped as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

Armsmaster shook his head as he surveyed the Capes in attendance- all of New Wave was there, but they were mainly there to protect and escort Panacea; Manpower, Laserdream, and Lady Photon would engage the Simurgh for the fifteen minutes of combat that each Cape was allotted when faced with the Endbringer's psychic scream, but Glory Girl, Flashbang, and Brandish would be there to escort the healer and watch over her. She had been attacked by a few civilians at the last Simurgh fight, and New Wave wasn't too keen on leaving her unprotected. "We still have five more minutes before Strider comes in for pick-up, now settle down."

He shifted his gaze over towards the Patrol Teams of Frontline, noting that their armors had visibly improved once more; they were still sleek and imposing, but there was an added bulkiness that was hard to describe. They were without helmets, but they had informed him that they would receive their combat armors en route.

"Colin," Dragon's slightly accented voice spoke into his helmet's speakers, "I've been informed that Strider will not be making an appearance here in Brockton Bay, and instead will be heading elsewhere."

Before he could open his mouth the Canadian Tinker continued, "Frontline has a craft capable of making it to Australia just before the Simurgh's projected fall, though we don't quite know yet if it is actually Canberra or Sydney. We're splitting the difference by staging closer to Canberra around Lake George; it will mean that response times to evacuate Capes will be longer, but as far as staging areas go it is the best we have."

It was a hard thing to hope for it to be Canberra, as Sydney had already been destroyed by Leviathan back in 1998, and it took them almost a decade to finish rebuilding; being hit with another Endbringer just a few short years after recovering from the last attack would be a crushing blow. Canberra was also significantly smaller population-wise; it was cold math that dictated that the smaller city be the primary target.

Regardless of that...

"Frontline has an aircraft capable of cross-continental flight?" He asked incredulously.

Armsmaster knew that they had those Helljumper aircraft, they were shown on the Frontline webpage along with a list of innocuous details; having been used in most of their recent heroic endeavors, and used in the evacuation of the women the ABB had captured, it was only natural for the public to be curious about the aircraft. LTLX7000 was credited with designing them, as the team's resident aircraft-related Tinker, and her work was improved upon by the other undisclosed Tinkers in their group. Seeing that the craft weren't armed, at least visibly, he doubted that the weapons Tinker, G41, had anything to do with it, but Horizon's aesthetic fingerprints were all over it; modern yet futuristic, with a militaristic edge and color scheme that evoked a subconscious parallel to Law and Order.

"Yes, we do," The Leader of the Patrol Teams spoke up, stepping forward. Python was certainly a beautiful woman, with her dark, tousled hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that was artfully messy, "It will be here in just a few moments... ah, you can see it coming in now. That's Globetrotter-01."

Armsmaster followed her gaze to see a pristine silvery-white flying wing with a central hump that ran both dorsally and ventrally from the front of the aircraft to the rear; it was incredibly wide, with a wingspan of nearly one hundred meters in width- it was closer to 90, not quite as wide as a Football field was long but certainly close enough. The other "Globetrotter" was taking a long, lazy turn and would probably circle around the city while they were busy loading up.

The aircraft slowed its forward airspeed until it was moving along at merely a fast walking speed, the long wings creaking as they began to fold over the top of the vehicle's fuselage; the left wing folding over the right as it slowly rotated in place and nestled into an empty parking lot across from them. The Protectorate Tinker noted that there was no buffering of the engines, and the aircraft settled onto the ground with a smooth efficiency that sort of reminded him of the way Dragon piloted her larger Dragonsuits. He hummed under his breath. Possible anti-gravity device?

"Alright everyone, you've already heard the breifings, so you know what you're getting into. Strider will not be coming to pick us up as Frontline has volunteered to take us to the staging area," He tapped the end of his halberd onto the ground, and the gaggle of Protectorate Capes and New Wave made their way towards the Globetrotter; it was nice to see that there weren't any Villains left in the Bay to show up- seeing Kaiser's smug armored form as the E88 showed up to fight the Endbringers was always grating. The Merchants and ABB never showed.

The seamless rear end of the long hup proved itself to be not so seamless as it opened up downwards in a hatch, and a long metal ramp extended down. Horizon was there waiting to greet them as they came on board, "Welcome, everyone. Come on in and find a seat, and please try not to touch any of the riggings for the containers; we'll be flying at just under Mach 45, so any shifting weight could be catastrophic."

The Cape turned his head towards his fellow Frontline members as they strode up the ramp, "Go ahead and enter the bay and get changed; I was able to finish the tune-ups on your combat armors before we got the call."

New Wave followed after the Frontline Patrol Team up the ramp, and the Protectorate followed up right behind them. The interior of the bay was dominated by six 40-foot-long connex shipping containers that were in pairs leading from the front to the back. Twelve other smaller, 20-foot shipping containers were situated in what appeared to be pre-loaded bays; it wasn't a tight squeeze to walk down the small grip-tape-lined walkway between them, but it wasn't exactly roomy.

The walkway slide up into the aircraft before the hatch sealed behind them with a pressurized hiss, and the only hint that they began taking off was the slight shift. Armsmaster arched an eyebrow. Intertial dampeners as well?

The Protectorate Tinker followed the Frontline Cape to a fairly small common area where twelve power armors were set up on stands at the back wall; the Cape that Armsmaster recognized as Five-Seven seemed to flounce a little bit as she walked over to her armor. Her long, silvery-white ponytail shook as she looked back with a mocking grin on her face, "No peeking, okay? You naughty boys."

The Cape with aviator sunglasses on her head, Armsmaster knew her as Grizzley, flicked the young woman's ear before she slapped a button on the wall and a white curtain on a track slipped closed, segregating the common area's seating from the changing area. The Tinker heard the whirring of mechanical limbs, and saw them, as there was enough light on the opposite side to cast a shadow and silhouette their forms; while the young Shielder was staring in awe, likely at the tantalizing flesh being barely obscured on the opposite side.

They were certainly curvaceous, but Armsmaster was more interested in the speed and efficiency in which the mechanical tools removed the armor plating and helped the girls strip out of their bodysuits. The process was done the exact same way, except in reverse, though the armor was certainly more bulky and imposing; it was difficult to make some of the shorter women look more intimidating, but the armor certainly did an excellent job.

He blinked and looked over to the side to see Lady Photon smacking Shielder in the back of the head, a small complaint on his lips; his father and Assault shared a well hidden but wry grin. Manpower reached over and squeezed the back of the young teen's neck before leaning in to whisper; it would have been too low to hear with the background noise with his ears, but Armsmaster's suit microphones caught it. "Look, son, its fine to look if a girl wants to put on a little show, but there is a difference between appreciating and staring like a buffoon. You got to take little glances, Shielder. That way every women in the family doesn't treat you like a paraiah for the next few days."

Shielder winced at the pressure applied to his neck but nodded; this appeared to mollify Lady Photon, though Brandish was muttering under her breath that Armsmaster found rather uncharitable. These women were upstanding heroes, not 'harlots and skanks' walking around trying to 'seduce' underaged boys.

Horizon seemed to be unaffected, and when the curtain was drawn back a mechanical voice spoke out, "We have reached cruising altitude and are engaging maximum thrust. Please take a seat or engage magnetic clamps if you have any."

Armsmaster did just that, as did the other power armor wearing members of Frontline, their centers of gravity lowering just slightly as a chorus of 'thunks' echoed throughout the cabin. The Globetrotter lurched forward, and the Cape felt his suit's mechanisms tighten up to handle the change in momentum, though it wasn't nearly as drastic as he would have thought; another point to his theory of inertial dampeners. Within thirty seconds the rapid acceleration had ceased and the voice spoke out once more, "We have reached Mach 45, hull integrity is at 100%. All systems are green, Commander."

"Very good, Echo-435, keep us posted," Horizon spoke out, and a quartet of panel televisions slid down from the ceiling and flickered on. The first panel showed a map of the globe along with a flight path and estimated time of arrival that was ticking down very quickly- very similar to what one might find on any commercial airline. The second panel was split in half, with an exterior camera view of the port and starboard sides of the aircraft; off to port Armsmaster could see the second Globetrotter flying in formation just slightly to the rear about fifty meters away. The third panel was split horizontally, showing a view of the sky and the earth below that was rapidly flying by. The final panel flicked between other cameras, likely on the other aircraft that were flying ahead.

Armsmaster blinked. "There are more Globetrotters besides these two, Horizon?"

"Yup, we've got twenty in total; those went on ahead of us while we swung by and picked you guys up. Since they're about five minutes ahead of us we'll get to see the magic happen," A smiling emoji flickered across his helmet's visor.

"What's 'The Magic'?" Shielder asked as Panacea unclipped herself from the chair and stood up to walk over towards one of the smaller connexes off to the side; Armsmaster noted that the sides were all painted white with a large red cross. The healer grabbed the door handle and tugged at it, and when it didn't budge she looked back with a frown on her face.

Horizon turned his attention to her, "Yes?"

"I'd like to take the time to familiarize myself with where I'm going to be working from, that is if you don't mind," The teen course-corrected, her frown disappearing into something more neutral, "These seems to be sturdy and will likely be where all of the Doctors and nurses set up shop."

The Cape nodded his head, "Sensible, just don't let MRV-N startle you, she's one of our medical robots."

"Robots?" Glory Girl spoke up as she hovered out of her seat.

"Well, contrary to popular belief, I am not a Power Armor Tinker, or at least not exclusively; my primary focus is Robotics and everything else that stems from. Power Armor is merely a small step to the left, if you think about it; place a person inside of a robotic suit, and bam, Power Armor." He shook his head, "I'm the reason we were able to scale up as fast as we have, with automated assembly lines and robots to help with the menial labor. In fact, one of the robots I designed is currently flying the plane right now."

"You have a robot flying this aircraft?" Brandish asked incredulously.

Armsmaster frowned, "I do not see an issue with a robot flying this aircraft; they are incredibly precise machines by their very nature, and considering the quality of Frontline's work I would say that they are some of the best Tinker work that you can find outside of Dragon and myself in today's era."

His fellow Tinker nodded before he turned back to Brandish, "They are all FAA certified pilots, well, at least for ground school. Getting them official flight certifications would be a touch messy considering they can't really attend a formal flight school. Though they are more than-"

A small squeak came from Panacea's direction, and Armsmaster turned to see the door swing open on the medical connex and a white and red robotic figure stepped out. The arms and legs where painted white while the torso and head were painted red; in the center of the torso was a LCD panel with a smiley face emoji on it. The head was wedge-shaped with a single large, softly glowing blue eye in the center; amusingly enough there was a white nurse's hat from the WWII era secured to its head with a bit of steel wire. "Greetings, Panacea. I am MRV-N 01 and I will be your primary assistant during this crisis, provided a human does not wish to be your adjutant."

The head tilted to the side, before pointing to a letter and a number painted on her left and right pauldrons. "Though, to ease the communications process, you may refer to me as N-1."

Another robot stepped out right after, this one the same except it had a stethoscope around its neck, secured in place by a magnet, and it was wearing hospital scrubs with a small paper mask humorously taped around the bottom of its ocular node. A S-1 was stenciled onto the shoulders, chest, and back of the scrubs in black. "Greetings, Panacea. I am MRV-S 01, and I will be the lead surgeon handling the non-critical cases that do not require your immediate attention. To ease the communications process, you may refer to me as S-1."

"These are very advanced robotics," Dragon spoke to him, which was a small surprise, as he was certain they'd left the range of the standard communications a short while ago, "I'm piggybacking off of the communications that Horizon is providing. This is... quite incredible. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before."

"Indeed, I agree. Frontline has been gearing up for quite some time, though to think that they would be this far along? They must have backers, ones capable of getting premium materials," Armsmaster sub-vocalized before he turned towards Horizon and pointed towards the caged ladder that lead presumably to the cockpit, "May I?"

Horizon turned to regard Armsmaster as he was deep in a conversation with Brandish, the woman speaking at length about using untested Tinker tech in an emergency situation and how that could possibly open him up to great deal of liability lawsuits. "Ah, sure. Go ahead, just don't touch anything, though I'm sure you already knew that."

The leader of Frontline moved his attention back to Brandish, "I understand what you're saying, however, my robots are the best doctors and nurses out there, bar none. They have the tools, they have the training, and unlike human doctors, they won't misdiagnose or make mistakes. We were planning on performing a trial run at Brockton General and other hospitals but obviously, this happened, and saving lives is more important than trying to satisfy some medical board and government bureaucrats-"

Armsmaster bit back a wince of sympathy as he turned and strode away from the conversation; as a Tinker with multiple oversight boards and committees he knew full well the pain of trying to explain and get approval for technologies that a layperson wouldn't understand. The cage slid to the side automatically and the man nodded in appreciation before climbing the rungs of the ladder to the very top of the cargo bay. A pair of 'thunks' caused him to turn his head, and he saw two of the sides of the medical connex lower down to create a pair of ramps as a very advanced looking medical bay was revealed; the Surgeon and Nurse robots were walking the healer through everything inside, pausing to give general explanations.

He shook his head and walked into the cockpit, which revealed two large aviation chairs that were surrounded by a panoply of buttons, knobs, switches, and diagnostic panels. The view screen was currently tinted, but eight small LCD monitors were in front of the dual, redundant flight yokes; the screens displaying various camera views. The right chair, what Armsmaster knew was the co-pilot's chair, was filled with a more advanced-looking robot; it wore a pilot's hat and regarded him with a small wave. "Welcome, Protectorate Hero Armsmaster, how may we be of service?"

"Nothing, I am just observing." He spoke, and the co-pilot nodded its head.

"Understood. If you have any questions I will answer them to the best of my abilities, however, we will be landing in approximately three minutes."

That wasn't much time, but Colin had a few burning questions.

"In that case-."

[Amy Dallon - Panacea]

While her mother tried to nag Horizon about liability, something that Amy rolled her eyes at, she hunted and pecked through the medical connex, looking at the available resources and medical supplies, and asking the robots a few choice questions about some procedures she did know about and how they would handle them. She only had an Honorary Medical Degree from Harvard, but after working in the hospital for so long she picked up a thing or two- mainly when some of the doctors were complaining about a particularly tough surgery they had just completed while she had been busy at school.

They never failed to have her check over their work, and while she was looking over the results she made sure to ask questions about what they did, why they did it, and how. Considering she was healing their patient, cutting down the amount of time the patient filled one of their hospital beds, and still getting them a nice fat check from whatever health insurance provider the patient had they were more than happy to oblige most of the time while sucking down coffee.

In fact, S1 and N1 were going above and beyond, showing 3-D animations of which ever procedure they had described.

"-and that is what we would to perform an emergency tracheotomy in order to properly intubate a patient with a collapsed trachea."

It was, as far as Amy could tell, on the up and up, but considering this was Tinker tech there was a possibility that these robots could fail, though she had been following Frontline's progress for a while now. Not that she could tell Vicky about it- the girl was still pissed at Horizon, but at least she was taking actual steps to improve her control over her aura. The ass-chewing Carol had given combined with the ass-chewing Aunt Sarah had given her seemed to have jarred her a little bit.

Assault with a Parahuman Power was a Class B non-violent felony, and Vicky knows that. Amy knows that Vicky knows that because they were in the same PRT-Sponsored classes together. The fact that Vicky decided to get defensive about it and try to posture on him in front of hundreds of people just irked her to hell and back; she loved her sister dearly, but sometimes she needed to think less with her -perfect- boobs and more with her head. It was probably wrong to direct her ire towards Horizon in that situation, especially when Vicky was clearly in the wrong, but no one likes having their sibling threatened with arrest.

It took some time to work through everything that was bubbling in her gut, mainly the teen flipping through PHO and the Frontline web pages during her breaks. Amy smoked a lot of cigarettes while working through the backlog of women kidnapped by the ABB, and she had just finished up the last of them when word came that Frontline had slaughtered the Slaughterhouse Nine.

She had to jump to more than a few links on PHO to find one that showed everything in raw detail, and it was... nothing short of a work of art, in her opinion at least. Other than that little perv of a Cape, ART556, playing around with Crawler, the SL9 had been effectively dismantled in less than three minutes. Like it was child's play to them.

The body count of Capes the Slaughterhouse Nine had under their belts was incredibly high, from the Protectorate, to the Independents, and to those who freshly triggered in the wakes of their attacks. They had killed even Hero, the greatest Tinker in the world, and injured Alexandria.

As far as most people in the country were concerned they were an unstoppable force that had finally met another unstoppable force.

The Nine crumpled while Frontline stood tall.

The most sobering part about it was that they had made it look easy.

It was very annoying to admit that they were doing a great deal of good in the Bay area, but that mainly stemmed from Horizon's initial interaction with Vicky. The worst part about it was that with Vicky on a tight leash Amy had come to a sort of realization that her shameful love for her sister might not exactly be what she thought it was. It was still there, ever-present, but it just wasn't hammering her in the face as much; Victoria was still a very attractive and beautiful girl, but the lust and desire had lessened to something not as extreme.

It made her mind itch a little bit, she felt irritable, with more than a few mood swings coming in; she kept a tight lid on them, but so far they weren't too bad. They were, however, easily recognizeable symptoms of withdrawl- as for what her addiction was? Well, she knew the answer to it, she just didn't want to admit it, at least not right now. Vicky was getting the 3rd degree over her power use, and was at least making serious attempts to keep her aura under control.

It was a surprise to her when Carol had actually asked her to keep on Vicky, even when they were at school, and the woman never asked her to do anything. It was always a demand, with a stern frown and a callous air, as if her words should be heeded because Amy would rue the day she didn't.

Whatever PR and possible Legal trouble New Wave could have suffered at the hands of Horizon and Frontline must have been pretty damn serious if it made Carol Dallon ask.

The cynic in her did admit that it was quite nice being the one who got to playfully needle her sister over the past few weeks; casually reminding her about her sister's aura whenever they were in class together. Vicky hated it and was incredibly petulant about it, but she listened at least; it was rather thrilling to be on the opposite side of Carol's ire. The fact that their- Victoria's- circle of friends were less inclined to automatically agree with everything she said while her aura was suppressed made it all the more sweeter.

Not that she wanted Vicky to suddenly find out that not everyone was in love with her simply because of her sparkling personality, but the loner in Amy was quite delighted in sampling her sister's slow cascade of realizations; it would still take more time, but maybe Amy would finally stop getting invited to double-dates that she had no desire to go to?

Not that they could go on any double-dates considering Vicky was grounded, Dean could still come over, but their frequent dinner-dates and shopping sprees on Stansfield's dime were over until Carol and Aunt Sarah were certain that Vicky had learned to control her powers (and her lesson about instigating a fight with a powerful cape in front of the public).

Dean's wallet was surely thanking Horizon and Frontline right now.

A snort escaped her nose and she shook her head before placing her hands on her hips, "Well, I think this is as good of an inspection as I'll get."

"Indeed, Panacea," S1 intoned, "We will be arriving in Canberra in approximately sixty seconds. We will close up and return to our stations, please move back to your seat."

She nodded and spun on her heel before stepping out of the medical suite and down the steel ramp; thankfully it didn't rattle, something that she would have thought would happen considering how thin the metal was.

"Beginning deceleration in ten seconds. Please be seated or engage magnetic locks." The pilot spoke robotically just as Amy plopped herself in her chair and wrapped the straps over her shoulders; the belts wormed around her automatically and clicked into place before tightening and securing her to her seat.

Vicky was pouting as she sat in her own seat.

The screens flickered and she was treated to the sight of the second aircraft's rear bay opening up as they began a very abrupt drop in speed; they had dropped from Mach 45 (how fast was that in miles per hour?) down to Mach 35, then 25, then 15, then 5, and finally down to Mach 2. Out of the rear bay four of the Helljumper aircraft were kicked out of the rear, and her eyes widened in shock. Her surprise was only undercut when the wings of the smaller planes unfolded and they immediately stabilized in the air with nary a wobble. The rear bay of the second Globetrotter closed back up as the Helljumpers peeled off and flew towards the city, the cameras effortlessly tracking them as they sped away.

Then she felt her insides shift to the side as the plane they were currently in banked and began a spiraling descent; through the cameras on the screens she could see eighteen of those aircraft were already on the ground on the far side of the lake and arranged in a grid formation. The closer they got the more she could see, and it was... quite astounding to see just what Frontline had waiting in the wings for an emergency like this.

As their aircraft flattened out its flight path it began to ascend slowly down to the ground, and she could see dozens of shipping containers already disgorged from the aircraft; it looked like they were on wheels? Amy could see the containers being driven around by other robots similar to the S1 and N1, the robots quickly moving the containers into some sense of fashion. It tickled her memories, from previous Endbringer fights; there was a standard layout for supplies and stuff like that, right?

Her eyes were drawn away towards the camera displaying the bottom of the Globetrotter and she felt the craft jostle slightly as they nestled the ship in between two low hills. The moment they were on the ground Frontline was already lined up and waiting for the hatch and lift to drop down, and then they were streaming off; where? She didn't know, but they seemed to pick different directions to go in.

There was a small hiss as panels in the ceiling slid out and two dozen of the same design of robots were lowered from the ceiling into the bay, and funnily enough they were all wearing those cheap orange and yellow construction vests with small yellow hard hats on top of their head; on the front of their vest was a designation MRVN-01 through MRVN-12, and from what she could see on the back across the thick yellow strip was their designations along with the word "FRONTLINE - USA" stenciled in bold.

"Alright boys, you know where these containers need to go," Horizon spoke up, and the robots gave him a quick salute while their LCDs displayed a determined face emoji. MRVN-01 walked over to the wall and began pressing a number of buttons in a specific order, and there were more hisses as a dozen or more hatches opened simultaneously and the shorter medical connex boxes along with the larger 40-foot boxes were all lowered down to the ground underneath the aircraft.

None of New Wave made a move to leave, and Amy was more than content to take a moment and observe large ATV tires slide out from the undersides of the boxes and right themselves, the hydraulics had enough force to get the containers fourteen inches above the ground; a MRVN walked in front with a pair of flashlights with orange and yellow cones on the end while a second MRVN controlled the box's movement with some sort of joystick. A close look showed an LCD panel that had the screen between four different cameras, with a view from the front, left, right, and rear of the connex.

There was a small hill, but the connex was able to climb the steep grade without any issue, and instead of getting stuck at the crest of the hill the heavy steel just plowed the sparsely grassed sand dune and kept on trucking.

She snorted as a memory of one of the blind dates Vicky set them up on flowed to the front of her mind; one of the Arcadia defensive linemen had a jacked up truck, and they thought it would be a cool idea to take it up one of the few off-road trails in the state. It got stuck on the first hill and they had to have Vicky lift the front end and turn it around.

This grade was worse than what that hill had been, and a connex box piloted by a dweeby Star Wars-looking robot just plowed through it like it was no big deal.

Her snort turned into a small giggle, but she quickly quashed it as everyone looked at her funny; Horizon didn't say anything but that smirking emoji on his helmet was enough to get her to roll her eyes and walk carefully down the walkway- without the connexes or the platforms there it would be a fifteen-foot drop down to the sand below, and she didn't fancy breaking her ankles.

The rest of them followed her out, Shielder blathering on about something Amy decided to tune out; Horizon was a saint for patiently dealing with his nerdgasm- her cousin tried to act cool with the dyed hair and clothing he wore out of costume, but it was hard to be taken seriously when your hair was blue.

At the bottom of the ramp was a very common sight at Endbringer fights. Alexandria needed no introduction- her black and grey uniform and helmet cut an imposing, commanding, and yet inspiring figure; the Library of Alexandria emblem sitting proudly on her chest as she floated past Amy with a professional nod, "Panacea, New Wave. I'm glad you could make it, no doubt your services will be vital in this coming fight."

"Alexandria," Aunt Sarah- Lady Photon spoke with a polite smile on her face, "The Dallon branch will be watching over Panacea, but the Pelhams will go wherever we are needed."

"You'll be on the combat teams; Search and Rescue has more than enough members with Frontline filling the numbers out," Alexandria handed out the armbands Dragon designed, and the New Wave family all took on, when she handed one to Horizon he shook his head but took it anyway.

"Don't really need it, but sure I'll take it."

"Why don't you need it?" Victoria asked archly, her fists going to her hips once the armband cinched itself to her arm.

"Immune to Masters, Strangers, and most forms of Thinkers," He said nonchalantly tugging the band up before pressing both of the buttons, "Horizon, Frontline. Note: Immune to Masters, Strangers, and Thinkers. Will confirm if this holds for the Simurgh's scream as well."

"Noted, Horizon," Dragon's voice came through the armband.

Alexandria tilted her head, "I did not know this."

Horizon shook his head and reached into a pouch before pulling out a shining gold six-sided dice and handing it to Alexandria, "I only have one spare. Also, I sent your secretary and your accounts manager a catalog of what we could make, I would have thought that you of all people would have read through it."

The woman's mouth firmed into a thin line, "We had just finalized testing to see if your claims were true, and we were going to contact you today, actually, but the Simurgh has seen fit to attack."

"Well, if you hand this over to someone, give it to someone invaluable, someone we could not afford to lose; this one is some of the best we have to offer- the aforementioned Master, Stranger, and Thinker protections, but also a function that reduces physical damage taken from kinetic attacks by 53% as well as giving the person wearing it a Brute 1 healing factor."

The Triumvirate member peered at the small... amulet closely. Amulet? She... supposed that it worked; what else did you call jewelry that gave as many varied protections? Ugh, she never should have read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Amulet, but peer pressure was a bitch, and peer pressure from Vicky was virtually impossible to withstand; those damn puppy dog eyes of hers.

"Very well then," Alexandria turned towards Amy and handed the necklace over, "Here, Panacea. You match that criteria."

Amy felt her cheeks flush just a touch as her head swam momentarily; it's one thing to know that you're important because you're the healer, but it's another thing entirely to be told that you were indispensable by Alexandria of all people. Her fingers closed around the gold cube and she held it up in front of her eyes.

"Alexandria, I hope you aren't telling my daughter to wear untested Tinker Tech," Carol began, and Amy felt her blood turn to ice.

Carol wasn't saying that because she was legitimately worried, she was saying that because she didn't like the idea of Amy being the one who everyone relied on.

Of Amy being the one who was considered invaluable.

The healer knew it wasn't just jealousy over the matter, but it was also because Carol spent so much time trying to keep Amy tied down and doubting herself that getting so much validation from Alexandria would probably give her a 'big head' or some such other tripe. Carol treated her like a violent offender who'd been let out of prison on parole- the woman acting like it was only a matter of time until she showed her 'true colors' and did... something. Commit a crime of some such nonsense.

"Brandish, we've already tested a great deal of Horizon and Frontline's tech to see if the claims were true, and as far as we can tell they are; my personal Tech Shed worked on his products. They work, so you don't have anything to fear," Alexandria's tone was firm but reassuring, and the Cape turned her head to regard Horizon, "Once this is all over we will sit down and discuss your entire catalog..."

She looked at the Globetrotter and the MRVNs driving the containers around, "At length."

"Well, as long as we can be helpful while still maintaining solvency then that is what we'll do," Horizon nodded.

"You're doing this for profit?" Carol hissed disapprovingly, and Amy rolled her eyes as she pulled the amulet over her neck and settled it underneath her robes; the gold felt cool against her flesh, which was a welcome feeling because the sun in Australia was putting out a lot of heat. She twitched when she felt a knocking at the front of her mind.

"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"
"Query: Adore Host?"

"No, not profit," Horizon shook his head, "We try to break even; our organization has become flush with the funds we've liberated from the gangs, but the vast majority of that is going back into rebuilding the Bay area. A good portion goes back into our Tinkering budgets, and another much smaller portion is for the rest of the team, so they can go out and actually enjoy the city they're protecting. So, profit? No. But hero teams don't run on goodwill and well wishes."

Amy was focusing on the words, but she could see the Armored Cape's head turn to look down at Brandish slowly, "Or do you take the funds from your donation page and give it all to charity?"

The healer winced, ouch. Shot fired across the bow.

The words repeated themselves, like on a timer, but they were... gentle and not very imposing? Like someone timidly knocking on the door to her mind.