a new beg

by thejarl7166

beg new a

7. Junk Head

Junk Head

Nearly three years before canon, Taylor lost her mother in an accident. And while that's what usually happens in most variations of this story, in this a meddling goddess decided to lend a hand.

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

It all started during the cold morning of February's first Monday of the year 2008, different from other mornings like it, for Annette Rose Hebert, it hadn't started at dawn, so she had enjoyed a morning a bit lazier than normal. Winter was still going strong enough that some roads had patches of black ice.

That didn't mean she hadn't had to leave with her car in the direction of Brockton Bay's College for her job as a Literature professor. Of course, leaving later than normal didn't mean skipping the traffic in a city like Brockton Bay. Considered the second capital in terms of active cape density.

The city normally held between four and seven major groups vying for control. The first, and not necessarily the largest, was the Protectorate and PRT, or Parahuman Response Team, the two branches that dealt with all the cape-related business. The former was the smaller, formed by the capes working in the side of "justice", the latter was the mundane people who dealt with normal criminals caught in the parahuman problems plus playing backup for the capes.

Second was the Empire Eighty Eight, also known as the homegrown nazis, Annette had to admit she was still impressed they could not only survive in a country that once wanted nothing more than to see them all dead, but also thrive. They were the largest and most solid group in the Bay, many had thought that the death of their original leader Allfather at the end of the 90's would have spelled their end, but Kaiser had kept the organization together, even after the death of his sister, Iron Rain.

Third came the Asian Gangs, the ABB at their front with the parahuman known as Lung at the head, some other smaller still existed, fringe groups that hadn't submitted yet, but none expected much from them, either folding under the dragon, dying or leaving the city. Lung had made an explosive entrance into the Bay about five years ago, fighting the whole Protectorate team active at that moment, not only keeping his ground, but forcing the heroes to retreat. After that he had slowly absorbed other groups, but he had slowed down in the last time, most starting to doubt if the last groups even existed anymore.

After that, the rest gangs were smaller, usually not having over two or three capes and a handful of normal people. The only outstanding group was the Merchants, drug peddlers and users who were considered complete trash, image not helped by their members taking it as a badge of pride. Their actual name was Archer Bridge's Merchants, or was at the moment, since the group's leadership tended to cycle frequently, between drug use and drug overuse, the members' life expectancy was especially short, and with that, the name tended to change.

They also tended to be a complete annoyance most of the time, their image bad enough that other groups didn't move to erase them, barely holding the worst parts of the cities, but being enough of a bother that the heroes had to move to stop them. Like right now.

Annette looked at her wristwatch once more, it had been fifteen minutes since she had been stopped by a police officer, along with all the cars in front and behind her, the crossing street left completely empty as the PRT expected that the Merchant's new members, a Tinker called Squealer and another cape named Skidmark to try to escape the heroes' intentions to capture them.

The villains apparently had been doing a drug run outside the city under the orders of the group's current leader, Monstertruck. They had been intercepted by the Protectorate's leader Armsmaster, the tinker working with some of the other heroes in his team to ambush the villains, sadly the criminal tinker's creation, and she had seen pictures of the vehicles created by the so called Squealer, was closer to a train that ran off the rails, and had taken the previous attempts to stop it and just ran through them.

So now Annette had to wait, watching her wristwatch from time to time, and cursing that taking her morning slow had ended with her stuck in traffic like this. It was nearly ten minutes more before she noticed the cop letting cars start to move again, the Literature Teacher started her car again and patiently awaited her turn.

She had been driving for a couple of blocks when her phone rang. Annette wanted to say she knew better than picking it up while driving, but her mind wasn't entirely in the traffic yet, she had made sure the light to cross the street was in her favor before she turned her head, hand reaching down for the small, plastic rectangle.

That was when she felt it before hearing it. A vibration starting at her feet and going up her legs and spine, then was the sound, metal scraping against the asphalt and the noise of cars crashing. Annette's head turned fast enough to give herself whiplash when she saw the monstrous child of a tank and a locomotive, running at maximum speed at her.

Her feet pressed down on the accelerator all the way down, but old tires bit uselessly at the slightly frozen ground under her car. The vehicle only moved enough for the tinker creation to hit the back of her car and sent it flying.

For Annette, time seemed to slow down, her mind going over what she knew about cars, maybe it was from the barbecue parties hosted at the Dockworkers Union, talking with the mechanics there, hearing how older cars were built sturdier and how newer ones flimsier, that this change was to make the car absorb the energy during a hit. So for her, this moment of slow time was spent thinking how her car had still crumbled down before it was sent flying.

The next thing that entered her mind was the thought about how she was about to die. How for a second of, frankly, stupidity, she would be leaving her husband and her daughter alone. She knew Danny enough that this would destroy him, and she couldn't not worry about what it would do to their daughter.

She was also pretty sure that she wasn't seeing her life pass in front of her eyes, because she had never seen two beings like these before. Two massive entities that made the word massive feel short, maybe monumental or monolithic would work best. So vast it was nearing the incomprehensible. Like whales dancing in space, they moved closer to each other and fragments flew off, like crystal tears.

She watched as one fell down to earth, but it wasn't her planet, it was devoid of any intelligent life except this thing, and then something else impacted it.

And everything went black.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"Okay, okay, I can fix this," A female voice spoke from… somewhere. "Okay, this goes here, and now this connects there, and something connects some else."

The voice almost sounded cheerful as it apparently worked on something that had broken.

"And the spine counts thirty...no, thirty three, there we go." Annette blamed whatever had happened because she was sure she wasn't meant to hear that… and what had exactly happened? She didn't remember well. "And the seventh chakra should be clear to let the mind be open…"

She was pretty sure she just had an accident of some kind.

"...and now we make sure the process won't be noticeable for a few days." The voice sounded young, not young young, but definitely younger than hers. "And I know you are awake, you can see ."

Annette hadn't realized she had been in a complete void till she had been told to see, and suddenly she realized there had been a lack where now there was not. And she had no Toto to tell she wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"…" She tried to speak, but she couldn't.

"Shh, it's okay," Her vision was slowly getting more clear, the area around her was some strange crystal palace, most likely designed by someone in drugs given how lines seemed to melt into each other. "Here, come on, pay attention to me." The voice pulled her back and now she could see the woman.

She appeared to be in her early twenties, Annette wouldn't have blinked if she had been between her students at college.

"…" She tried to speak again but nothing came.

"Ah, I see the problem, okay, let's take this slowly." The woman smiled and waved her hand, a chair forming behind her, the woman sat down but it didn't appear to change things for her. "Don't panic, you are having an out-of-body experience, there were… complications, let's say."

Annette wanted to scream asking what kind of complications.

"Woah there, I know you can't speak, but I can still pick up what you are thinking quite well." The woman's hands made a calming motion, and Annette reined her emotions in. "There we go, you were in an accident, I couldn't pick up much, something with cars," She felt a shiver go down her spine at the mention, but a snap of fingers from the woman brought her attention back.

"There we go, don't think about it, it's okay, it'll be okay. The thing is, I kinda had an accident too, now, don't worry, I can totally fix this, but it has to do with you." The woman waved a hand, showing the place. "Oh, I'm Junko Tetsu, but you can call me Junk." Annette could recognize the Japanese features on her face, even if she knew red was an uncommon color of hair.

"…"

"Ah, right, you still can't talk, let me fix that." The young woman's hands glowed and suddenly things felt more solid for Annette.

"Thank you." Her voice sounded strange for her, but if she understood right, she didn't have a body right now, or at least, she wasn't in it. "I'm Annette Hebert, a pleasure to meet you, Junko."

"Good, it's indeed a pleasure. Now, to explain things a bit more, please understand that while it may sound outlandish, I won't lie to you.

"I come from an alternate Earth to yours."

"Like Earth Aleph?" Annette couldn't hold herself back from interrupting her, it was like there was no filter between her brain and her mouth.

"So you know about alternate Earths? Good, that will make things easier, so yes, but most likely not, my Earth's… well, to be put simple, quite far. You've to understand that when you start to talk about things outside normal reality, words start to fall short in ways to explain and describe things. Things like escher math, imaginative numbers, etc…"

"Don't you mean imaginary numbers?" She may have studied literature, but she had learned Math.

"No, I mean we have to get imaginative in how to use numbers to describe things." The redhead explained with a small snort at the end. "Anyways, I've been studying methods to travel between realities for decades by now." The woman stopped and looked at Annette with a grin. "Yeah, I'm much older than you, no matter how I look, I'm nearing a century.

"Back to the subject, I've been studying about travel between realities for a while. When you travel between 'close' realities, it's not hard, but once you go far enough, things start to get weird. I'll use a term I learned in my travels, they call what a reality exists inside a World, with capital W, a World can be as small a single room and as big as an infinite number of realities.

"Adding to that, Worlds also tend to have rules, laws, characteristics, basically they have constants they hold for everything that exists and works inside of them. Worlds close together tend to work similar, the farther you go… well, you get the idea."

"So you come from a world really far away?"

"Yes, not the farthest, but this is the first time I traveled this far. Now comes the problem." The woman made a metal sphere appear on her hand. "Imagine this is me, and this," A sheet of fabric appeared floating on the air like some kind of plane. "is my reality." She dropped the ball on the fabric and it stretched but held. "My reality's 'softer' physics, there are ways to stretch things.

"Now this." A similarly shaped plane of glass appeared. "It's your reality." She dropped the metal ball, the impact crashed it, the whole thing breaking. "Your reality's rigid, so it's fat shaming me and my 'weight'. I hadn't aimed to travel this far, or hadn't expected to impact this reality this fast. Even less I expected to hit something that was going about its own business."

"I still don't see how that would pertain to me." Annette was trying to follow, but she wasn't understanding things completely.

"Well, this thing ," She waved her hand to the crystal around them. "Seemed to be trying to connect with you," Annette blinked, suddenly remembering the strange visions she was suddenly remembering but didn't remember forgetting. "Yeah, those things, for what I understand, it was going to connect to you during some intense stress situation and use you for some kind of data acquisition experiment, I still haven't looked too much into it, you are more important here.

"I managed to pull you [mind|soul|self] out of your body to prevent permanent damage from occurring, like death, it's reversible, but usually brings a lot of side-effects, so better skip those."

"I died?" She felt cold filling her. "...And souls exist?"

"No, you almost died, and let me tell you, there's a world of difference there, also yes, souls are totally a thing. Now, I 'mostly' fixed your body, you won't die when you go back in, but just in case, I didn't fully heal you, that will kick-in in a couple of days, something tells me that coming out of a crash like that spot-less would bring bad unwanted attention to you."

"...I… thank you, I can't imagine how it would have been if I died, I can't imagine leaving my husband and daughter behind." Junk's smile softened.

"From a mother to another, I understand you. So don't worry, you will be better than ever… especially since I did fix your body."

"I don't understand." Annette really didn't.

"I… well… you could call it a curse? Maybe, I basically can't not excel when fixing or creating things, and both your body and your soul, which I had to touch-up so I could pull it from your body, could be considered at least masterworks and will improve with time. Age, disease, etc will affect you less and less, this is non-negotiable, it's part of me fixing things to begin with.

"So I have an offer for you."

Annette looked at the woman in front of her, she wanted to say no to whatever was being offered, deny whatever Faustian Bargain was being set here. But she also understood that she would most likely be categorized as a parahuman anyways.

"I want to say no, but I've learned from my husband that I should at least hear what you offer."

Junko smiled and gave her a nod. "My power comes when some thing , and I mean it, whatever they are, they come from a realm way above us. Choose me to give me powers through a collection of crafting knowledge called the Celestial Forge." The young redhead explained, between them the image of a galaxy appeared. "This collection of knowledge, abilities and other things comes from many, many Worlds.

"But you won't get them all at once, you will get, maybe, one at a time, I've since long completely absorbed mine, making every last bit of power my own, and I've collected much more, what I offer here, is a similar deal to what I acquired, you will gain charges, each time you gain them you will get the chance of getting a perk, one of the many stars in the Celestial Forge. The perks come with a cost of charges, if you can pay it, you will buy it automatically, otherwise you will bank and have to wait.

"If you accept, with time, you'll gain a lot of power. I'm not talking about taking over your world. I'm talking about being capable of leading your galaxy. True that will take time, but the Celestial Forge tends to surprise."

Annette didn't reply, busy thinking about it. She was being offered Phenomenal Cosmic Powers! And she had watched Aladdin with Taylor enough times to remember that it came with itty bitty living space.

"What's the price?" She decided to ask.

Annette would describe the smile as knowing or mysterious. "Technically, there's no price, practically, you will be getting attention, lots of it. Sooner or later, someone will notice, by mistake or chance, and there will be interest, people trying to use you, control you, look to get you to follow their orders. It's a price that comes after choosing. But I can see you will be smart enough to be prepared."

Annette took her time to think about it. But after a bit she decided to take it, while there was some kind of safety in not taking it, how much would she gamble before there was another accident? What if it happened to Danny or Taylor, most likely there would be no Junko to save them then.

"Okay, I will take it."

"Good choice." The woman extended her hand, a small star glowing back and silver floating in it. "Let's do this slowly, believe me, otherwise things will hurt." The woman chuckled and pushed the black star into Annette.

"That's it?" She didn't feel anything, besides a new void in her.

"Well, you have no charges, but let me help you with that." She didn't manage to see what it was that Junk pushed into her, suddenly she could feel two charges resting inside of her, and something moved, she felt that black star turning harder before a smaller, glowing star pushed out against the surface. She felt it push out and start orbiting the central star.

"I seem to have acquired a Magic Cooking Pot , it's part of the Magical Toolkit domain." Annette looked over what she now knew about it. "But it's actually an iron pan, uh, it will create a magical flame under it to cook things at the perfect temperature. It can also be used to prepare magical elixirs. Both meals and elixirs will provide much better results than normal too."

"Pretty useful, but if I remember right, you should still have an extra charge, let's roll again." Junk moved swiftly and she felt two more charges, making it three. And the black star started to turn faster once more. A new start pushed out as she felt the two new charges get spent.

"This time is Lab Standards , from the Design Domain, it gives me the ability to understand how technology works, from complex to simple, at least on scientific principles. I should be able to reverse engineer anything that I work out it's inner workings."

Junko smiled and let out a soft whistle. "That's pretty nice, I mean, it doesn't appear that strong, but I can tell you it will easily synergize with a lot of other perks." The woman leaned back before checking her non-existent wristwatch. "Okay, looks like we have spent enough time here, they should be pulling you out pretty soon.

"Now, it will hurt, but remember that it's the only way to make people think you didn't gain powers, I promise you will feel better pretty soon."

Her vision started to dim. "What if I want to ask more?" Annette asked, worried in her voice.

"Don't worry, if I'm right, we'll still be able to talk, just think of my name."

Things slowly got dimmer and darker before Annette felt herself blacking out.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Annette couldn't keep herself from groaning as she felt her body painfully held in place by the buckled metal frame of her car, even more as the vehicle was currently flipped.

"..am can you hear me?" A voice came from somewhere. "Ma'am."

"Uh? Oh, yes," A sound of pain escaped her mouth when she tried to breathe in. "that stings."

"Okay, I'm glad to hear you are awake, and in a way, the fact you feel pain is better than you feeling nothing." The voice appeared to be male. "Your car's hit by a villain and suffered quite extensive damage, we will have to cut it to free you, till then, please remain calm and in place, we promise it will be much easier this way."

Annette gave a confirming grunt as she tried to relax, she could slowly recall what had happened, how she had gone for her phone, which was currently missing.

"...did… did I imagine all that?" She mumbled very low to herself.

" Nope, "A familiar voice replied in her head. " It all happened 'Nette'. "

-(-(-|-)-)-

"What do we have here?" Lupine Edge, a hero under the Protectorate's banner, asked the police officer next to him.

"We have over seven blocks of cars that a tinker vehicle plowed through, twenty two cars had people in them, in total we have five fatalities, twelve people with life-threatening injuries, fifteen in with at least a broken bone and four who have miraculously escaped with little to no damage." The black officer spoke as he checked his notes.

"Any parahuman between them?" The hero asked as he reached up to scratch one of his cheeks, the wolf-like mask he wore always itches after sweating like he had.

"Doesn't appear that way." The man read out loud. "Samuel Jackson, no relations with the actor, forty seven years old, his car was hit by another car and was simply stuck in the pile up.

"Manuel Fernandez, twenty one, was picking up a delivery of fabric, the material cushioned the hit quite well.

"Annette Hebert, thirty nine, teacher at the local college, her car took most of the hit, we are still freeing her, but she appears to have been simply shaken around, rare, but it happens, sometimes it's just luck.

"Cynthia Lumine, twenty eight, bruised, but actually not using a belt saved her life as the crash sent her flying over into the same fabrics that saved Manuel's life."

"So just people having a bad time?" Lupine sighed.

"Hmm," The officer agreed. "Any news on the criminal?"

"No, they managed to get into the Trainyard before the tinker activated some kind of camouflage and disappeared." Lupine decided to ignore the officer's curse, mostly because he was feeling the same. "Sadly, we knew they would be escalating after getting a Tinker." Lupine also decided to keep to himself; he couldn't wait till chance took the villain's life. It was brutal, but the city could use a break before one of the other gangs decided they could do better with a Tinker.

They watched as the firefighters cut the car's frame to free the woman, emergency workers cutting the seatbelt, ready to catch her and carefully pull her out. She appeared to be okay, but Lupine had seen shock more than once, he would bet she was still stuck going over the accident, and it wouldn't hit her for an hour or two more.

"That should be the last, I should head back to base," Lupine told the officer with a business smile on his face. "I've got paperwork to fill, I'm sure you'll do the same. It was a pleasure meeting you, Officer Dalton, good luck with this."

"Thank you Lupine Edge." The man gave a nod and walked over to his bike, he drove it back to the Protectorate base, his mind occupied with the thought of how things could have gone if he had had the same kind of luck during his Trigger.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Annette winced when the pressure on her body disappeared, feeling herself finally able to breath in deep enough, her seat belt was still holding her as she was on her head and her legs were still stuck in place by the dashboard that had crumbled down.

The emergency workers had placed a neck brace to prevent any kind of spine injury from aggravating, they also had her close her eyes as they cut the metal of the chassis to free her legs and carefully catch her body before cutting the seat belt and pulling her out from the car.

It was only when they had finally placed her on a stretcher that she opened her eyes, looking over to what had been left of her car. The old vehicle wasn't exactly the best car, but it had certainly run for over thirty years with constant maintenance, but it also was starting to consume more and more fuel. Maybe this was a good time to replace it for something better.

" I wouldn't worry too much, " Junk's voice could be heard inside her mind. " I would bet you will be making your own cars that will be ten times better before the month's over. "

She didn't reply, instead letting herself relax on the stretcher when she felt two more charges drop into her bank, her black star started to turn, a perk of the Magic domain pushing against the surface, but apparently it was too costly and instead sank down.

" Before you ask, that was you missing a roll, it will happen, there's actually way more high cost perks than cheap ones. But look on the good side, since you only roll each two charges, you have greater chances of getting some of those high perks, and I'll tell you, they make a world of difference ." Junk's voice went silent after that.

Annette looked around as the paramedics were going over people obviously in much worse situations, all said, even if it hurt, she hadn't broken a bone, and most likely she would be dispatched after a check up.

A woman, about ten years younger than her and looking already quite tired for not even being noon yet approached her. "Morning ma'am, I'm sorry we could only now check you up."

"Hello," She greeted softly as talking with the neck brace felt weird. "And it's okay, I could see things were more complicated, I may hurt, but nothing too severe."

"Yes, the initial check up has noted a lack of concussion, no broken bones, you have a minor whiplash, but we have seen no other injuries besides small cuts and bruises." The EMT still did a few more checks up. "We will keep the brace for now, you will be taken to the hospital for an image test most likely before releasing."

"Thank you, I'm sorry if it's a bother, but could I ask you for a phone to make a couple quick calls? I seem to have lost my own in the accident." She tried to give her best hopeful look.

The woman looked at her for a moment before smiling and pulling out her phone, unlocking it for calls and handing it to Annette. "Ok, but make them short, and local, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, I want to call my daughter, who should be home, and my husband to prevent another accident." She added with a bit of dark humor, the paramedic nodded.

Her fingers moved mostly by memory, dialing Danny's office number.

"Dock Workers Union, Head of Hiring speaking." She couldn't not smile when she heard his voice.

"Danny-"

"Annette?! Is everything okay!?" He cut her off, making her sigh.

"Shush dear. Let me speak before talking more," She heard the paramedic giggle softly on her side. "I'm okay, but I was in an accident, the car's most likely a loss and I'm getting taken to the closest Hospital," She looked at the Paramedic who showed her a paper with the direction which she quickly passed to her husband. "I would like it if you could call Zoe to pick up Taylor before heading to the hospital to pick me up. Ok?"

She listened to the noise of a pencil on paper before Danny replied "Okay, call Zoe to pick up Taylor, then go pick up you, want me to call Taylor?"

"No, I'll call her, I… want to hear her voice."

"Okay love, see you soon." She ended the call after that and sighed, her husband tended to have quite the temper, and if she didn't curtail it, he would have most likely broken a few speed limits to get to her.

She quickly marked the house's number, smiling when it was quickly picked up by her daughter.

"Hello, Hebert House here." Her daughter's voice was a balm for her soul.

"Taylor-"

"Mom! Iwastryingtocallyouearlierbut-"

"Shh, you get your father's chatterbox attitude," She smiled. "I'm okay, but I was in an accident and I'll have to go to the hospital so they make sure nothing worse happens, your father already called your aunt Zoe so you will spend the day with Emma and most likely sleep over there too. Understood?"

"I… okay mom, I love you."

"I love you too, Taylor, now be a good girl and prepare your things for a sleepover."

With a few more well wishes she ended the call and handed the phone back to the paramedic with a thank you and a smile.

Annette then just relaxed and let herself get lost a bit in her second perk, Lab Standards, everything inside the ambulance was pretty straightforward, she didn't need to coax much knowledge to understand how to use the different installations and items. Nothing was advanced enough that she would need to sacrifice much, if anything, if she wanted to reproduce them.

The doctor sent her to get an MRI, so it was waiting till it was her turn in the machine, then waiting till a doctor checked it, and only then she got released. She was extremely happy to see Danny already waiting for her.

"Anne," He hugged her gently, thankfully. "How bad is it?"

"I'm mostly okay, just very stiff. The doctor gave me some over the counter painkillers and recommended resting for at least five days, a week if possible, lots of rest, not much time on my feet and obviously no exertion." She smiled. "The car, on the other hand, is totaled, they had to cut it up to get me out, and I doubt we will get much from the insurance."

"It's okay, Anne, I would trade many cars for your life, so losing one is nothing to me." Danny's words calmed her and made her feel safe. "How about we pass by the Barnes' place before heading home?"

She nodded.

" You two are lovely ." She ignored the peanut gallery as Danny drove, the neighborhood was certainly better than theirs, but not by much. The Barnes' house sat just on the edge of an area that had actually been damaged enough in the last ten years the city had gone and done some extensive renovations.

Meanwhile, the Hebert's house was just close enough to the Docks and the Boardwalk that the zone had suffered the pass of time, but not enough to make the city invest in improving it.

The car stopped in the driveway and Annette waited for Danny to help her get out of the car, her back still stiff from the accident. Zoe opened the door and welcomed in, she also thankfully caught Taylor before the twelve years old missile impacted her midsection.

"Tay! Don't run, you long legged freak." Emma was quick to catch up.

"Mom!" Her daughter smiled brightly as Annette reached to hug her daughter.

"Hey Taylor, Emma." She greeted them.

"Hi Aunty Anne, is it true you were in an accident?" Emma asked innocently.

"Emma! You can't just do it that way!" Taylor almost screamed out loud.

She laughed and ruffled their hair, making both of them fuzz about it.

"Yes, a villain crashed my car, they had to cut it up to free me." She explained it clearly, the girls were twelve, and definitely not stupid. "...so Tayor will spend the night here."

"Okay, aunt Annette." Emma agreed as Taylor nodded, mumbling about sleepovers. She stood up straight, hiding a little grunt as Zoe smiled at the scene.

"Don't worry, Anne, your daughter's a delight to have here, so rest well." She thanked the woman.

Soon they left to return home. The drive passed quickly, Danny deciding to not get the car into the garage, instead heading to the store after dropping her at home.

"Well, at least we won't have to bother about which car we park inside at night." Anne thought out loud to herself as she wandered to the kitchen. "Let's see how I can use that magic cooking pot."

It took barely thinking about it for a large cast iron pan large enough to feed half a dozen people at once appeared on her hand. While it looked heavy, it was easy to move it like it weighed nothing. "Uh." Another thought and a floating, blue flame appeared under the pan and started to heat it up.

Since she hadn't prepared any ingredient, she turned it off, instead inspecting the item, it had gone completely cold.

"That's pretty useful, but it will be hard to sell. It's a normal pan with how it loo…" In front of her eyes, the large, and very obviously magical pan slowly shifted its looks till it was indistinguishable from a modern cast-iron pan. "Much better." She thought about it and the pan disappeared from her hand, back to wherever it stayed while she wasn't using it.

Sadly it was strictly a tool, and no matter how much damage one could do with an actual iron pan, she would never be able to use it to hurt someone, or use the magical flame to burn someone.

"Where exactly does the pan go when it disappears?" She asked out loud to Junk.

" You can just think about it and I will head you. And technically, it would be stored in your warehouse, but I gave you extra charges in exchange for access it, don't worry, you will sooner rather than later roll a perk that will activate it for you." The woman talking in her mind replied.

" What's the warehouse? "

" Your private slice of the multiverse, a pocket dimension to store all your belongings, provide a safe place to work in and a handful of other uses. "

" And why didn't you give me the warehouse? " She asked, a bit angry at not having the choice of it.

" Because I was afraid it would react badly with your reality's 'hardness'." The younger-looking woman replied to appease her.

"Oh…" That changed things quite a bit. "And having this magic pan won't?"

" Having access to the Forge means you will be slowly changing reality around you ," The woman explained. " Your world never had magic before you acquired the magic pan, mine didn't before I acquired the Forge and my world's softer than yours. "

" Will it affect my family? " She asked worriedly.

" Not in a bad way, by the time you acquire any perk that would actually affect them in any major way, you'll have gotten them accustomed to it by being near you. "

She breathed a sigh of relief. A moment later she heard Danny and the car park, out of habit she walked over to see about helping him bring the groceries in.

He stopped her, reminding her she shouldn't be carrying any big weights, she still insisted on cooking. Mostly because she wanted to give the magic pan a try.

He acquiesced to it, still staying in the kitchen with her while she prepared all the ingredients before he got a bit bored, heading to the living room and watching some TV. Annette was glad to be alone as she wasn't sure about talking about the whole Celestial Forge.

Using the pan to cook actually took much less than normal, the ingredients jumping around before a cloud of delicious scents filled the kitchen and the food was ready. She smiled and served two plates with it before calling him for dinner.

The food tasted twice as good, in part because she had escaped death, in the other, the pan was definitely improving it. Once they were done, Danny told her he would be washing the dishes and she should see about taking a shower and then heading to bed.

She didn't fight it, thanking him with a kiss before heading to their bathroom. It was strange how she had practically forgotten she was still as filthy as when they had pulled her out of the car, maybe it had to do with not dying and great cosmic revelations.

The food must have definitely healed whatever bruises were left from the accident, because she felt absolutely no pain when she laid on bed, sleeping claiming her not a second after.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"Welcome back." Junk's voice was the first thing she heard when she opened her eyes. And she definitely opened her eyes this time, not just had vision came to be.

"Buh…" She tried to talk but nothing came out.

"Damn, I was sure I had calibrated it correctly." The woman's hands glowed as Annette looked down to check herself.

It was her body, kinda, she looked just like she did before the accident, but there was an underlying sensation of… not wrongness, but something definitely out of place.

"Oh, no, I can speak. I was just surprised." She told the woman.

"Ah, glad to hear, well, I tried to make things easier for you this time," She smiled and gave a curt nod. "You are technically dreaming right now, that body's an empty simulacra, a shell, basically a puppet for your mind to control, it should feel as seamless as possible." She made one appear by her, it looked like a giant mannequin. "It looks like you because you are using it, it's a nifty and simple illusion."

"It's strangely comfortable." Annette thought out loud as she moved the body's limbs.

"You should feel touch, but no pain, otherwise you would most likely just wake up." Junk noted.

Annette stopped admiring her own body and looked around, the place still held its crystal aesthetics, but it was definitely looking much neater.

"I've been getting some stuff in order, data mining the big lunk of crystal, sadly a lot of information was lost in the impact or got corrupted by the changes in reality. So I can't tell you much, add to what little I found that the… I don't want to call it a being, since it's barely a very smart organic computer, oh well, the Crystal Shard was pretty low in whatever hierarchy they have, so all info's very basic." Junk started walking as she talked and Annette followed.

What was before a field of broken glass, or at least looked like it, now was a dome made of some kind of rainbow crystal. Distance seemed to be weird, because one moment they were looking at it in the distance, and the next they were stepping through its entrance

"How?" She looked back, trying to understand what had happened.

"Oh, sorry, should have warned you," Junk didn't explain much more than that, and Annette didn't have the time to think about it as she felt another two charges pop into her bank and start her black star's acceleration once more.

Annette had to take a deep breath when she felt the perk take four charges out of her bank, leaving her with a single one stored before pushing out of the surface and joining the other already orbiting that central one.

"Looks like a new perk." Junk looked expectant for her to explain her new acquisition.

"It's called Enemy Tech Progression , from the Reverse Engineering domain," Annette explained, in a way, it also helped her put the new information in order. "It makes it so any piece of technology I subvert or get under my control instantly reveals all of the secrets of its inner workings. Blueprints, production methods and associated knowledge needed for its creation. It works on technology I haven't subverted but much slower. It also helps me improve things I have subverted."

The other woman gave out a long whistle. "Now that's a very nice perk, especially since it will synergize almost seamlessly with your previous one."

She had to stop and think about it, it did synergize. After all, while subvert could mean sabotage, in this case meant to take control, and if Lab Standards let her understand the use of technology, that meant that as long as she got her hands on it, she could quickly learn all about it.

"Oh! Since you just got a new perk, I'm reminded about something else related." Junk guided her further into the dome, while she wasn't sure what to expect, an idyllic forest wasn't it. Soon they reached a clearing with a gazebo she was guided into, a pair of chairs waiting for them.

"Now, you have been getting perks by rolling chances with the Forge, but there's a second way." The red-headed woman explained. "I like to call them Extras or Freebies, these are perks that usually come along with the previously acquired perks.

"Same with the warehouse, I didn't want to make a mistake by handing them to you yet, but given that you had no problem drawing the pan out back at your house, I think you should be getting them. But I wanted to give you the choice."

"What do they do?" Annette asked, curiously.

"A lot of things." The younger woman did a small eye roll. "Basically they can go from trinkets and knick knacks to abilities absolutely necessary to use the related perks correctly. Right now you have four possible extra perks you would acquire if agreed. Three related to Lab Standards, and one for Enemy Tech Progression."

"Can I choose?"

"Sadly, like when getting new perks, it's all or nothing, sorry."

She didn't reply right away, thinking about it for a few moments as Junk made a teapot, with two cups appearing, tea appeared to already been brewed because she simply poured it and handed her one.

She thanked her and took a sip, the flavor and perfume was magnificent, and was like a masterpiece in whatever passed as tongue and nose for this shell.

"I will take them." She spoke after drinking half of her tea.

The other woman gave her a nod and Annette quickly felt new knowledge enter her mind as two of the stars going around the central one gained planets. Around her latest perk acquired she gained a smaller one called Entertainment Storage , which was basically a very advanced device that would provide games, stories, music and more, how much of it? All of it. Not only did she have access to all media created in Earth Bet, but all media created in the original World the perk came from.

Around Lab Standards she got three smaller perks, the first two were similar, Environmental Protection and Basic Techs^2 , the first covered technology to survive hazardous environments, from radioactive planets to the void of space. The latter provided a collection of tech implants that would improve her mobility in multiple ways, she wouldn't be getting access to this perk till she unlocked the warehouse apparently.

And the last one was…

It was round, as tall as her hips, it ran on four legs and was colored in a pleasing light-blue. It had a simple and lovable face, and once it impacted against her body, Annette could feel how soft and warm it was. It was like hugging a really warm cloud or a towel that had been drying in the sun. This was Ship's Pet: Snugget , apparently a loyal companion star bound individuals took on their trips across the galaxy.

It was practically immortal, but wouldn't do more than provide companionship and emotional support, it was still an adorable fella.

"That's a total cutie," She heard Junko speak from the other side of the Snugget she was thinking of names for. "Much better than what I got as a pet through the Forge."

Annette peered at the woman, raising an eyebrow.

"A pet rock, the Forge gave me a pet rock." She snorted at the revelation. "If I remember right, the Snuggets are the preferred pet for an alien race called Novakids, they are basically living star matter."

Annette blinked as she looked at the big, cuddly fella. It certainly didn't feel like a star.

"Different Worlds, different rules." The woman explained succinctly. "This guy will stay here till you get a warehouse, I doubt you want the attention that comes with an alien pet suddenly living in your house."

"That sounds like a good idea." She turned very snugg… she wanted to smack her forehead, the name was a pun for snuggle nugget obviously. "I'll need to name you." She reaches and scratches behind its soft ears, making the creature make some kind of sound mix of happy whine and a fire pit.

They slowly descended into a lighter chat, the two women learning a bit about each other. Annette had to say the thing that surprised her the most was Junko's age being so close to a century, the woman explained her looks were mostly cosmetic as she had complete control over her body, and that she would too most likely achieve something similar with time.

As she was still sleeping, time passed weirdly, and soon they had to part, Junk apologized that they most likely wouldn't be able to meet in dreams much as Annette would become more resistant to getting pulled like this unless they set something thought magic and/or technology, but that would have to wait.

The rest of the night Annette didn't dream, still waking up early in the morning, fresh and ready for a new day.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"Director Richardson, sir." Armsmaster greeted the director of the PRT ENE.

"Armsmaster, always punctual." The non-parahuman looked up to the head of the local Protectorate. "What can you tell me about the incident with the Merchants?"

"While we failed to capture them," The hero's face, what was visible under his mask's visor at least, showed disgust in having to admit their failure. "We now have a better idea what Squealer and Skidmark are capable of, they won't escape next time."

"Good, don't let it happen again," The director didn't look at the hero, instead looking at his computer, his hands busy on the keyboard. "We are lucky they were using some of the less populated ways into the city, if they had used that monstrosity in a more transited street the loss of life would have severely impacted our image, and we can't have that at the moment.

"The damage was confined to an extension of about twenty blocks that will most likely have their usual traffic derived, thankfully this shouldn't impact civilian movement much."

"Sir, I think this would be a perfect situation to implement my suggestion."

"Nonsense Armsmaster, while I agree with you we could garner some good public opinion by utilizing Sandstone's abilities to repair the streets, we should keep it till it affects a… better zone." The man's tone left nothing up for discussion.

"I understand sir."

"Any other news?" Richardson looked away from his computer to face the hero.

"Besides yesterday's incident, the main gangs have been lying low, this has increased the cases of vigilantes and small-time villains. They have been also escalating the level of violence of these cases, one of them has caught our eye as she's been quite violent from the start, we are guessing she may have triggered from a gang attack or similar."

"She? A possible ward?"

"Maybe sir, most witnesses have described her as young by size and voice, but between going out only at night, patrol alleys and away from main streets and that her power appears to be some kind of intangibility, we haven't gotten much information on her."

"Then we'll have to keep an eye out, we don't need a teenager with too much power deciding they know better about justice. You can leave Armsmaster, and take a few hours to sleep, I know for a fact you have been up since the day before yesterday."

"Thank you sir, have a good day." The hero nodded curtly and turned around before leaving.

The PRT director snorted. "Good day… this city hasn't seen a good day in years."

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Annette's morning started early, as it was normal, it took her about fifteen minutes into her morning routine to realize she was meant to stay at home and rest. She had already updated the college about her situation, so right now she had the day more or less free.

With that in mind, she finished her usual morning shower and headed down to the kitchen, hearing Danny take his turn in the bathroom as she got an idea to test while he was busy. She summoned the magic iron pan and threw enough coffee grinds for two in it before filling it with a bit more than two cups of water. The blue flame ignited under it and the perfume of coffee filled the kitchen before a comical puff of smoke indicated the drink was ready.

She poured two mugs and smiled as the pan was instantly clean and ready to be used again, she laid bacon, eggs and some potatoes next, the cooking time was pretty short, and soon she had a full breakfast for two. A thought later the pan disappeared once more and the table had two breakfasts ready just in time for her husband to walk in.

"Hmm, what smells so good?"

"Breakfast, sit and eat before it gets cold." Annette replied with a smile, already taking her place and starting with the food.

Something she noticed while they ate, and she hoped Danny didn't for a while they ate, was how the slight eyebags on her husband's face disappeared, if she had to say, he actually looked better than he had in a long time. She let the mug hide her smile as she finished her coffee.

That's when the drink's effect kicked in, because it was like she had suddenly been connected to a live wire and she was running at a hundred and ten percent normal power. Thankfully it seemed to kick Danny much lighter than her.

"That's good coffee," He looked at his watch. "I would love another cup, but I have to go." He got up and went around the table to kiss her, she happily returned the show of affection.

"We should get you one of those thermal cups, so you can take one with you." She teased lightly as they embraced, another kiss was exchanged before her husband had to leave for work, leaving Annette alone at home, still too early to check on Taylor, especially because she and Emma would most likely have stayed up late.

Annette felt the now familiar feeling of two new charges and her central star roll. The two charges poofed into smoke and the new perk shot out, soon being joined by four smaller perks. It was called Weapon Crafting and came from the Technology Crafting domain, it not only covered all knowledge related to the crafting of anything that was outright designed to be used as a weapon, but also how to design, improve and upgrade any weapon, plus any ammo-using weapon could be modified to have practically unlimited ammo.

The process was actually some kind of magic ritual that she barely understood the logic of it, just enough to actually follow through, sadly she lacked some of the reagents to fulfill it, though most of them were normal materials she would need to craft weapons, so she wasn't going to be crafting anything above really primitive melee guns.

The extra perks were all about putting the weapons she crafted to use, providing her with knowledge of how to fight with guns, the potential to pull Action Movie-worthy stunts, the ability to taunt people and regain stamina mid-combat and finally some kind of inventory system reserved for her guns and other weapons.

It was electrifying, Annette felt the difference instantly. The world around her felt more , she had a basic and innate understanding of things that could be shot… or thrown . She looked at the set of utensils she was cleaning, barely hiding a snort as she thought about creating a superhero who only fought by throwing forks, knives and spoons.

She grabbed a knife and lots of ideas filled her mind. How to make perfectly balanced throwing knives, straight shots, bounce, trick, how to throw to kill, to incapacitate, etc… The ammo ritual even extended to a full set of throwing knives, it would need a belt of holster for them to return to, but it would let her keep throwing them nearly non-stop.

After a bit she put it down, this was not the time to find how good she could get at darts, but it was an idea.

With nothing else to do, Annette decided she could start with chores, putting clothes to wash sounded like a good idea, that way the machine would work while she was doing other things. Of course her train of thought was derailed when she stepped in front of the washing machine, hamper full of dirty clothes.

Lab Standards kicked in first, giving her complete understanding of how the piece of technology worked, she even had an idea how to use it even more efficiently and more than a few things she could do with just a screwdriver and a couple hours to improve the machine's internal workings. Rather than an upgrade, it would be better to say she had an idea on how to tune it for her necessity. Her understanding of the machine apparently also activated her reverse engineering perk, considering her ownership of the washing machine as a subversion of it, since it worked for her.

All the knowledge needed to produce a washing machine bloomed in her mind, every little detail correctly and easily described for her basic understanding of engineering and electronics, given the simplicity of the washing machine, ideas to actually upgrade started to develop as both perks worked in unison.

Annette had to shake herself out of a daze, only to find herself halfway inside of the machine, screwdriver in hand and the final twisting of a screw being the necessary step to make the machine stop shaking and making so much noise.

"I wonder if this is what they call a tinker fugue." She put the machine back together before loading it up and turning it on. There was pleasure in watching it work silently even at max capacity.

With that on the way, Annette moved on to clean the rest of the house.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Her day wasn't interrupted by much, first there was Taylor calling from Alan and Zoe's place before her good friend took the pair of pre-teens to school. The other thing that kept interrupting her was the flood of ideas each time she grabbed anything that was remotely called technology, and in the modern world, that covered pretty much everything.

The iron? Repaired, tuned and upgraded to use less power, it also would also make the clothes stay unwrinkled for longer with an application of vibrating vapor that she didn't understand completely.

The microwave? Cleaned and improved to thaw food much easier and less chances to cook raw meat.

The drier? Improved in pretty much any way that mattered, though she stopped it from adding the module that would improve the energy efficiency, if she remembered right from her time with Lustrum's group, large changes in energy use was one of the clues the gangs used to track tinkers, even if only the Protectorate and PRT should have access to those.

This had made her stop and sit down with a cup of magic coffee to see what she remembered from back then. She honestly had never been that deep in the group, joined after a few bad situations in late high school and early college.

She was young and had one too many bad situations with men in her life, her father had never supported her in her wish to attend college, only her mother and the help of Annette's estranged cousin were there for her. He had admitted he did it in part for the satisfaction of seeing her getting what she wanted as his relation with his own father wasn't too far from hers.

She gave an idle thought of what had happened with the man, she was pretty sure he had already been knee-deep into some illegal things by then, paying for her tuition had been more or less a parting gift, only hearing of the man twice more after that, and it's mostly in passing.

She skipped remembering other issues with the male demographic before joining the Lustrum's movement, looking back on it, it was almost normal and expected back then, not that it was okay, but she couldn't blame them completely if they were young and they had all their life told things worked that way.

She had started by being invited by a classmate, mostly an event with just females mingling, maybe some alcohol getting passed around and then someone had drank a bit too much and had started cursing, sobbing and explaining their life, more alcohol and lips got looser. Soon they were all retelling their personal experience, it wasn't hard to connect with other people after things like that, now you had a shoulder to cry on, someone that had gone through a similar thing to you.

Years later she would read an article about cults and she could see it had been nearly a textbook example of a way to start one, she had no way to ask Lustrum or whoever had the idea first if this was their objective, but it certainly had worked, and most likely if they hadn't escalated on the violence way after she had left, that they would still be around.

Returning from a tangent, Annette started to write down what she had learned back then. What now were considered the unwritten rules were already there, even if in some kind of proto-form, some kind of gentleman's agreement that had come straight from the pages of comic books that most heroes had tried to emulate in the first few years.

Of course they were only given lip service, especially if you had the power to back your position, just a few months prior the heroine Fleur had been killed in her own home by a criminal cape trying to get into the Empire, theories were wild, while Kaizer had come out and publicly defended the unwritten rules, most people were on the opinion he had aimed the killer in their direction to cripple the group of heroes.

She tried to remember all the things that had been told about identifying tinkers, extreme changes in power use, visits to junkyards and electronic stores, shorter than normal attention spans, compulsive note taking. Apparently they also tended to have a need to build things, which she lacked unless she was in front of technology she owned and then she got ideas .

She remembered that most capes also tended to escalate, treat their powers as a hammer and prefer conflict as a way to resolve their problems. She was pretty sure she would get over her own need to use her power once the novelty wore off.

" What do you have there? " Junk's voice surprised her.

"Oh, making a list of things so I can fly low and not pick up attention from either heroes or villains." She explained, being alone at home made her feel safe enough to talk out loud.

" You have those there too? Hmm… I was sure I didn't notice any quirk in your body. "

"Quirks? And you have heroes over there?" Annette had to admit this surprised her, to her, the woman had appeared to come from a mad science world rather than one similar to her own.

" You know, quirks, superpowers...ah, right, sorry, I forgot I wasn't in a world close to mine ," The woman sounded almost gloomy for the mistake. " I should have explained it earlier, but honestly it didn't come up, one of the things about my world being softer is that most people are born with some kind of superpower, or a power at least, those that can be categorized super had always been the smallest of numbers ."

"Uh, so you were born with a superpower?"

" Being born without them is actually weird, they usually come in between the ages of four and six, but cases outside of that do exist. And my power's not that super, I can eat anything if I can put it in my mouth, of course I get full on more or less the same amount of mass of food ."

"Well, that sounds useful for everyday life."

" Totally, before I got the Forge, I was used to taking some stuff from the junkyard I worked in for my meals, I saved a ton of money that way. Anyways, those with super powers tend to decide they put them above the rest of mortals, most of them then go and commit crime, the rest decide to take the spot of heroes… of course given how some heroes act… But can't do much about that, they are called Pro Heroes for a reason, " Junk talked and Annette decided to lean back and simply listen, it was amazing to hear how another world worked. " Being a hero is a career here, you have schools to learn how to be a hero, taxes for being a hero, whole companies dedicated to catering to their needs. At least in Japan, other countries do things slightly different, but not that far ."

"Well, here we have gangs, those going solo rarely last, either being killed, dying or joining a gang, by choice or force. It doesn't matter if it's a criminal or government-backed one." Annette stopped talking when a pair of new charges started her roll for a new perk.

It was the cheapest yet, a single charge was spent and the perk along with three smaller ones joined the group of already orbiting perks. Aesthetics and Flair was all about making guns look damn good, if she tried, any weapon she worked on would be the envy of all people. It was logically placed in the Appearance domain. The three smaller perks made her blush, especially as they seemed to synergy really well with her last few free perks.

Inexplicable Innuendo made her a natural at teasing people, it would work really well along with Taunts, meanwhile Classy Contortionist synergized with both of them and Cuh-Ray-Zee! She was damn good at showing off her body now, she could walk, act and fight with pure style and a ton of sensuality. It also made her quite more flexible and improved her sense of balance to pull off some moves. She would be asking Zoe to keep Taylor for another night, she would like to have this conversation with Danny alone.

The last perk was Small Beginnings: Handguns , which activated immediately and made a pair of handguns fall onto her lap. They were perfectly normal, except they seemed perfectly tailored to her hands, fitting in her grip like a pair of gloves.

The moment she wielded them, Annette understood the guns, two Beretta 92FS considered a pretty standard gun for police forces. Fifteen bullets in each magazine and an extra already chambered, she understood them from the inside out, how to maintain them, fix any possible problem, she also understood what she would need to conduct the infinite ammo ritual on the pair.

Under normal circumstances, double wielding guns was left to action movies, in reality, recoil with a gun, even one of this caliber, was enough to throw most shooters off their mark, a gun in each hand meant the recoil more than doubled. But she had the perk Gunslinger Style , even at its most basic, the style gave her all the muscle memory to shoot both of them and brace the kickback expertly. She wouldn't be doing many trick shots anytime soon, but with time and practice.

" Those look pretty nice. " Junko's voice broke her from her daze, noticing she had spent the last fifteen minutes pulling the pair of guns apart and putting them back together one at a time.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to the effect of perks on me." Annette blushed at how easy it was to simply go with it.

" Don't worry, it's kinda normal ," The woman talked calmly. " It's a pretty good time to explain a new concept called Fiat Backed, some perks will give you items, like the Snugget, or those guns. They are pretty much yours forever , if they are damaged they will recover after some time, if they are destroyed they will reappear after some time.

"Of course, the Snugget works similarly, he's a pet so he will most likely not die of natural causes, and if he was killed, he would just revive after a few days. If you had a warehouse, they would appear in a specific location inside, those guns will most likely go back to your weapon inventory ."

Annette absorbed the information and decided to give that particular extra a try, the two guns simply disappeared from her hands, but she felt them slot in a mental list, always ready to jump to her hands if needed. Trying it a few times, she decided to leave it stored, for the ritual she would be needing a good amount of steel, gunpowder, and a special mix of gun lubricant oils.

Lab standards quickly provided her a list of places that would usually have access to said materials normally, most likely the Dockworker's mechanic garages would have most of them, now the gunpowder would be harder, but with a bit of luck, all she would need be a pair of large fireworks, the less flashy the better.

Putting it off her mind, Annette got up, washed the mug she had been drinking coffee before she started her talk with Junko and headed to hang the clean clothes after putting them through the drier. She still kept some idle talking with the woman, Junko explaining she thought to be closer to whatever the Crystal Shards were about, the thing they were sure by now, is that they were obviously behind the superpowers in her world.

Junko was only kinda surprised, she admitted she had come to some similar things before, and in her world powers were a mix of biology and soul qualities, and that explaining more would be just too advanced for her. Even that little bit went over Annette's head, she was a literature teacher, not a science one… or theology, even if she had read enough religious books.

The afternoon passed quickly, she called Zoe, thanked the woman for taking Taylor for another night, apologizing about it even as her good friend calmed her down, saying that there was nothing wrong about it, she understood that Anne needed some time along with her husband.

Annette blushed when she realized what the other woman was thinking and decided to have a bit of pay back by promising to take Emma and her sister, Anne, for the whole weekend if she wanted it too. A few laughs and a bit more of nailing going both ways before she put the phone down, finishing her cleaning of the house. The place already looked much better than it had in years by the time Danny pulled up the driveway.

She decided the kitchen would be a good place for their talk, she still pulled the curtain close before she started brewing two cups of strong coffee in the magic pan. She was sure they would need them.

The man of her life walked into the kitchen, he looked tired just like most days after work.

"Hey dear, where's Taylor?" He asked after they kissed.

"She'll stay over with Emma for one more night, we've some things to talk about and it's better if Taylor's not here for now." Her words seemed to carry the needed weight because he nodded as she guided him to the table, offering him a cup of coffee before sitting with hers.

"Coffee? Sounds like it's indeed serious."

She smiled at the small joke before letting a soft breath through her nose, letting him drink some of the coffee as she did the same.

The effects of the magical elixir being visible pretty soon, all tiredness evaporating off her husband before she started talking.

"I should have talked with you about this yesterday, but I think I was still reeling back from the accident, it was more than a simple scare, I should have died in the car," Her hand came up to silence him as she was still talking. "I'm not saying I would want it, but the car should have crushed me, nothing should have been possible to pull me out of the wreck with enough time to save me."

"… you triggered." Her husband could be smart sometimes, she smiled and shook her head.

"I should have triggered, but I doubt even that would have saved me." She finished the coffee and sighed, getting new perks that had kept her going, every new one giving her something that pushed her a few more hours. "Apparently someone had an accident that impacted the whole power-giving situation, the so-called Trigger Event."

" Happy little accidents~ " She ignored Junk's peanut gallery.

"So a cape saved your life? Are they a known hero?"

"I don't know actually, it didn't come up when she explained the whole thing." Annette scratched her cheek.

" Legally speaking, I'm a hero, pay my taxes, fill the needed forms, practically, I haven't gone out as a hero for over fifty years. " She decided to leave that for later.

"I'll ask next time we talk," She decided to keep the whole mental talk for… later, yeah, later sounded good here. "She's not from this earth, she explained that she was studying travel between worlds and overshot, there is much more there, but not what we are talking about here.

"She healed my body and made sure it all looked like I was saved by miracle, she also gave me an offer for power."

"And then you signed a deal with the devil?"

Annette smiled as she heard a snort in her head. " If you want to talk about devils, I made Lucy's suit and she looks damn good in it. " She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I accepted, but she was pretty clear about what I was getting," She ignored his glare about her decision. "It's not like I could discuss it with anyone, I was technically still inside the car back then."

"So, what can you do now?" Danny asked, a bit of curiosity ringing in his voice.

"She called it the Celestial Forge, and I can understand why it's called that. The way she described it, it's a vast collection of knowledge, resources and abilities, I get them randomly but only if I stockpile enough energy to pay for each. So let me show you what I got." A wink and a slight smile and her husband was blushing like a teenage boy. "Sorry about that, a bit of extra made me flirty. I technically only got five perks so far, plus a few smaller extras that don't really count right now."

Annette extended her hand and made the Magic Iron Pot appear on it.

"A magic pan that improves any cooking done with it, it also can be used to brew elixirs, like coffee. It heats up with a thought and is self-cleaning." She made it disappear. "The next two perks gave me an uncanny ability to understand and work with technology, to the point I have fixed the washing machine, drier, microwave and a few others with little to no difficulty while I was alone today.

"The next two perks were a bit more… aggressive. Now, don't be scared." She showed him her hands and made the two guns appear. "They are all about crafting weapons and making them look damn good, I got these for free and enough understanding to pass as someone with a couple decades of basic experience."

"I see…"

"I don't want to join the Protectorate, I know enough of them and their relationship with tinkers to know I would chafe very quickly, because, in a bit more than twenty four hours I went from a normal literature college teacher to being capable of single-handedly advance humanity's tech by a few decades and look damn good at it."

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Annette let her husband digest her words as she stood up, giving a shake of her hips to help his mind reboot as she pulled the magic pan to prepare another two cups of coffee, this time she also added a bit of whiskey to lighten things up. As the drink brewed over magical fire, she felt another two charges push in. Chance was called onto once more and she felt the four banked charges poof as a pretty large perk pushed out and into orbit.

The perk was called Mystical Dojo , but it was so much more, located under Magical Database, it was a huge fortress, built in a beautiful Tibetan or Indian aesthetic she had only seen in pictures or tv before.

She felt Junk pipe up at the just acquired temple. " Great news, with that perk, I can activate the warehouse protocol ," As the woman talked, Annette saw two small perks, the ones she would call extra, start orbiting her central one, they were called Cosmic Warehouse and Access Key , and they were pretty straightforward.

She smiled as she turned to Danny. "Actually, I just got a new perk, wanna come with me and see?" She waved the key that had appeared in her hand.

"Are you sure it's safe?" He asked.

"If I understand it right, it's actually safer than staying at home." Annette walked to the closest door. The perk was simply, the key would turn any door it was used on into a portal to her warehouse.

Said key slid easily, even if she was sure the type was incorrect. A turn to the right and pushing through turned the door that normally led to the bathroom open to a beautiful inner garden she understood was the sanctuary's main courtyard.

"It's beautiful." She heard Danny behind her as she closed the door before both of them started to walk through the place.

"Indeed. This is called Kamar Taj, in a World far from our own it's known as one of the most respected places for learning about mystic studies." She related some of the knowledge her perk provided, she could almost see students and teachers walking the corridors, sitting under the tree at the center of the courtyard or training in their disciplines.

"Magic? Really?"

She laughed softly. "Yes, Magic's real, at least now it is. For what Junko, the woman who saved me, explained, our world's…"

" Hard or deterministic. " She mentally thanked her.

"Deterministic, but she called it hard, saying that physics will do what physics does, and you have to work in their paradigm to do anything. Hers is less so, softer. She explained that it will slowly start to change not only because she traveled here, but also because I took the Celestial Forge."

They kept walking, admiring every little detail. There wasn't a centimeter on the walls, floor or ceiling that didn't show the place was revered and had been worked to show it. The decorations went past the cosmetics. The perk explained enough to see how it was all where it should be, some kind of Feng-Shui or similar.

They walked past the Inner Sanctuary and the Library before going up some stairs and stepping out onto the training rooftops. With a better position she could now see the outside of the temple, and while technically the original had been set in the middle of a city, her version appeared to be placed on a plateau, nothing but rock surrounding the place.

She turned to her husband. "It's a pocket dimension Neither the sky or the sun are real, I actually could change the time of this place, and you can't go too far, there's some kind of invisible wall to stop you," She leaned closer to him, feeling his arm wrap around her, a comforting action for both. "It's a large circle of about one square kilometer. The building also has a few underground floors for storage and some other uses."

"It's definitely impressive, so what will you do with it?" Danny's hand idly stroked her side, making her feel safe.

"Well, to start, it's a much safer place to work in. While I was tempted to ask you for permission and a place in the DWU, it would have been terrible for our secrecy, this place simplifies things quite a bit. Especially since it automatically restocks the pantries with enough food for all the possible inhabitants of the temple."

"And it's safe to eat those?"

She laughed softly and rolled her eyes playfully. "It should actually be healthier to eat them than the food bought at the store, not pesticides or other chemicals that have no place in the food we should be eating." She hummed. "Actually, how about we use them to make dinner tonight?" She grabbed his hand and tugged along, leading him directly to the kitchens she knew of.

She was glad the place wasn't completely silent, there were multiple wind chimes, made of wood, metal or crystal, placed in special places to let the natural air currents in the building ring them gently. There was definitely a meditative effect to them, because her mind felt clearer, and she was sure the effect expanded to Danny.

The kitchen was simple, not primitive per se, but the oven was made of clay, a pile of wood and coal on a side ready to fuel it, the kitchen was quite more modern as it appeared to be powered by gas, since she failed to find the source, it was most likely infinite or practically so. The pantry was full of food, all apparently freshly picked, a multitude of vegetables, roots, meats, spices, teas. She failed to recognize most of the spices, but they smelled fantastic.

They decided on a dinner of grilled chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy with mushrooms and carrots, she decided it would be better to finish cooking in their actual kitchen, instead of dirtying other cookware, she utilized the magic pan to cook all ingredients together, apparently magic being good enough to cook the dish plus the two sides all together.

"Hmm, if I have to say, eating this well everyday is worth it." Danny commented.

"And any food I cook with the iron pan will keep us healthy." Annette explained the nature of the tool.

Soon the meal was finished, Danny once more taking care of washing the dishes as Annette decided to search the internet for the steps needed to brew some of the tea she found in the pantry. Given she couldn't tell which way was the correct one, she simply left it to the iron pan to do its magic.

With a mug of warm tea, they wandered back into the Sanctuary. The surroundings had changed, now showing a dark sky, a full moon and more stars than any of the two had ever seen.

The view was magnificent. The fact they were the only two there, the combined effect of the sanctuary and the tea they were drinking. All together put them in the calmest mood possible.

"What will we tell Taylor?" She asked.

He took his time, mulling on the question. "I think we should tell her. She's smart enough to understand it's a secret, a very important one, but I doubt we will be able to hide it for long anyways."

"But she won't be able to keep it from Emma, they are closer than most sisters already."

"Then maybe we should bring Alan and Zoe into it, Alan's law knowledge may even be helpful."

"He's a divorce lawyer." Annette looked at her husband, eyebrow slightly raised.

"That he may be, but he knows more than you, and he does work at the same firm Carol Dallon works."

She bit her lip as she thought. "I'll have to think about it, this secret won't last forever, but it will certainly not be a secret if we tell so many people."

"I'm not saying we should tell New Wave. Even if I think you could do with people helping you, I personally disagree with their mask-less policies. Look at the tragedy it invited." He pulled her closer, hugging her body close to his own. "I can't think about losing you."

She simply leaned against his body, sighing softly.

"What's that?" His voice sounded confused.

Anne pushed gently away from him and turned around, noticing what had caught her husband's attention, a glowing light-blue sphere was quickly running in their direction.

"...oh! Do you remember I told you I get extra perks?" She started to explain as she could almost feel the pet running up the stairs on its stocky legs. "I got a pet, I bet Taylor will love the little guy."

The star matter creature skipped up the training roof, slowing down as it wandered over to them.

"Well, it is really cute, what is it?"

"This is Orion," She had decided the name fit the guy quite well. "He's a Snugget, they are the preferred pet of an alien race from a galaxy far, far away."

"Quoting Star Wars?" Danny joked as he kneeled, offering a hand to the pet. "Hey big guy."

The Snugget sniffed his hand before pressing against it, happily nuzzling.

"Uh, he seems to have something on him." He commented as his fingers felt something buried in the creature's 'fur', pulling a small disc, nothing bigger than a credit card.

"Would you let me check it?" Annette asked, taking the offered piece, her perks quickly unfolding the disc's secrets to her. "It's a projector." She explained as she placed it on the ground after clicking the barely hidden button.

The little piece of technology lit up and a hologram was projected, the life-like image of the woman she met just a day prior appeared in front of them.

"Hello 'nette, I rushed my work on this little toy after you got the warehouse active, which I have to say, looking much better than mine did at the start." The woman chuckled. "And hello Danny, sorry we can meet properly, this is a recording after all, maybe in the future I'll get some proper communication, even inside the pocket dimension, things are still finicky."

The woman did a little bow and smiled.

"I'm Junko Tetsu, but I go by Junk, I'm the woman who accidentally saved your wife's life, inventor, explorer, archmage under most approved standards, God of my World and many other titles, most of them completely superfluous and useless here." She laughed at it before smiling. "I'm really good at what I do, but I had to constrain my abilities by quite a bit to send this message, this projector's pure technology that should work in your World, so you will most likely be able to reverse engineer it, 'nette. Consider it a gift, the battery, the hologram and the memory should be easily up-scaled and be flexible enough till you get some solid perks to work with.

"I can't put much since I'm already keeping the Snugget from running to your side, goodbye for now, till we can see each other again." She bowed and disappeared.

Annette hummed as she reached down for the projector and put it in her pocket for now.

"Well, now you've met Junk, in a way at least." She laughed softly.

"She definitely has something… special going on, right? And really, goddess?"

"Apparently, I don't think she really cares about it, and given the power the Forge has, I can easily believe it."

Danny chuckled as Orion had plopped by his feet, relaxing. "I kinda missed my chance to ask, but what exactly is a Snugget?"

"For what Junk explained, they are pretty similar to their owners, a race called Novakids, who are living stars, yeah, kinda weird, but some Worlds tend to work under different rules, making that kind of thing possible."

He just patted the creature. "And what do stars eat?"

"Apparently anything they can get in their mouths." They both laughed softly. "Taylor will like him, he's just this big ball of warmth and cuddles after all."

"And she has wanted a pet for a long time, one that has such low necessities will be a good first pet."

Annette nodded when he felt two new charges, only one slipping into her empty bank, the other getting spent for a single charge perk.

Danny noticed her vacant expression. "Is everything okay, Anne?"

She shook it off and nodded. "Yeah, just got a new perk." She explained. "It's called Magic Charms , it's all about crafting one-time use spells."

"Sounds like scrolls in DnD." He commented.

"Yeah, pretty versatile on effects, but they aren't the longest lasting. They have to be made of paper, so they can break easily." She thought about it. "Plus, I got two new extras, one lets me fly," With a single word she just started ignoring gravity, her feet simply separating from the ground, her whole body easily floating free from gravity. "Not that fast, tho, actually… it's as fast as I can walk and run, and the latter will tire me just the same as if I was running."

"Taylor will be really jealous of you now, you know that? How many times did we have to catch her as she imitated Alexandria?" The question made Annette laugh. "And the other?"

"The other's not as straightforward. It's called Spell Cards , and it gives me the ability to turn all my attacks non-lethal, to the point that I could shoot my guns and just create flashy fireworks." She slowly parsed through the information behind the perk. "Apparently the three perks come from a land where they decided that fights were won by showing off the most."

He snorted. "Well, I think capes usually try to be showy, but they are rarely non-lethal while at it." He joked.

They kept talking about some light themes as Annette guided him to one of the storage rooms, grabbing ink, brush and paper, apparently freely provided by the sanctuary in a similar manner to food. He watched patiently as she sat at one of the tables installed in the library as she worked.

Annette wanted to give her latest perk a try, the knowledge of charms, ofuda and other talismans was pretty basic she currently only knew a few simple concepts, Restrain and its more advanced form Sealing, Reject, which could be aimed at someone to cause damage or create good luck by rejecting bad luck.

She only had access to the most generic of uses, she would need to experiment with them or get a perk to feed her more info. Their effect also changed quite a bit depending in how they were used, a Restrain Ofuda could be used to immobilize or paralyze someone when applied directly to the person, but they could be also to prevent passage through a gate or door, or if constructed correctly, multiple ones could be set to create a three-dimensional barrier.

She was currently aiming for the last one first. Danny just looked entranced by how smoothly her hands moved the brush over the slips of paper. It had taken a few tries till she understood how to let the perk work the knowledge through her. One after another she worked till her wrist ached a bit, but it became easier and easier, the lines, turns and swipes moving easier, an obvious effect of the Sanctuary as this was her training in a mystical art.

"So, will you explain what you are doing?" Danny's voice came once she placed the brush down.

"Mostly show off." She laughed softly. "The Magic Charms let me create different kinds of disposable magical tools," She picked up the slips. "These are a barrier ofuda, really simple, and not that strong, technically you need either god or spirit to back you in power, or have a more advanced understanding of the rules and bureaucracy that lies behind this magic system." She laughed softly at the look Danny gave her.

"Bureaucracy, really?" He leveled a soft glare at her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are much weirder magic systems out there." She smiled. "Anyways, this should be simple enough for a first try." She silently chanted a few words to activate the charms before she leaned on her Gunslinger style to throw them, thankfully the magic in the charms made the slips of paper into firm cards when activated, giving them enough shape and weight they could be thrown as cards.

She smiled as the first four felt in a perfect square on the ground before the next four locked directly over each corner, floating at the same height before a transparent barrier shone weakly, visible mostly due to the lack of natural light in the room.

"Okay, that's quite impressive, I think I remember there was a Canadian hero who could do force fields." Danny commented.

Orion approached the barely-visible barrier, sniffing all around it curiously. Annette was pretty sure the thing didn't have any scent, besides the ink and paper that was used to construct it, but she lacked the knowledge to say Snuggets couldn't smell magic. The creature went around twice before it looked at it and took a couple steps back, its bottom wiggling like a cat before it jumped right onto the barrier.

It was a surprise for both of them, the pet certainly didn't look that agile, his legs looked too short and stocky to provide that much push, but it easily made it to the top of the barrier about a meter off the ground. The barrier bent down slightly, like a large cube of jello pressed down from the top.

A moment later it popped soundlessly and poor Orion fell right onto the ground.

"I said they were quite weak, I doubt it would have actually stopped anything cutting or piercing, it's impressive it even lasted that long anyways." She chuckled as Orion seemed confused as he nosed around the burnt out slips of paper.

She sat down and started working on a weak good luck charm, being really careful, given any kind of mistake could easily lead in turning the good luck ofuda into a bad luck one. She pushed her abilities hard to make sure it was perfect, weaker than anyone who actually did this under a teacher would manage, but definitely safe. She folded it like her perk explained and stored it inside an envelope she folded with another larger slip of paper.

Annette smiled and handed it to Danny.

"And this?" He asked curiously.

"A good luck charm, literally." She smiled. "It should reject bad luck, small accidents and general bad situations. Most likely won't save you from anything above a broken bone, but…"

He took it and placed it on the table before he drew her in for a deep kiss, even all these years, the man still made her feel light on her feet, and given one of her latest perks, he had made her float with that show of affection.

"I'll make sure to take it with me tomorrow then." She nodded with a very happy smile on her face, noticing Orion yawning and wandering off to find a place to sleep, Annette checked her wristwatch, it had miraculously survived the accident.

"I think we should head to bed, you have work tomorrow and will have to pick up Taylor after school." She explained as they wandered out of the pocket dimension and headed to bed.

"Will you talk with Alan and Zoe tomorrow?" He asked.

"No, it's too soon, give me till the weekend to make up my mind about it."

"Okay, but I'm sure she wants to talk to you after the accident, especially after she couldn't get anything out with Taylor and Emma in the room yesterday."

She laughed softly. "Yeah, I'll invite them to come Friday's night for dinner most likely."

They kept talking as they changed and slipped into bed, soon sleep claimed them as they laid in each other's arms.

-(-(-|-)-)-

The second morning after the accident was quite more routine than the previous one. This time Annette remembered she would be staying home, so she let Danny take the shower first as she headed into the warehouse's pantry to pick up the ingredients needed for a good breakfast.

On the way back she greeted Orion, setting a plate she got from the kitchen with some meat and veggies, if she understood the perk her new pet came from, he could eat up pretty much anything, she would still see what he preferred, with access to unlimited food, she didn't need to be picky.

...actually, thinking about the infinite food, she would have to find a way to hide the fact they didn't need to buy food. Another subject to talk with Danny later. For now, she decided to make a complete breakfast of potatoes, sausages, eggs and a couple mugs of the strongest tea she found in the pantry. Given how awake she felt after a single sip, it was definitely strong and the magic pan was strengthening it more.

Danny soon joined her for the meal together, he praised her cooking, even when Annette admitted the tool did most of the work.

"It still tastes like your cooking, so I don't know how much it's actually the tool." He told her, the honesty behind the statement made her blush, with a smile they kissed before he left. She reminded him to pick up Taylor on the way back.

Annette washed and dried the dishes before storing them. And that left her with nothing else to do. She had already cleaned the house the day prior. Honestly, she had been distracting herself, she turned on the TV, ignoring the need to fix the slight problems she noticed.

"... and so, the PRT apologizes for the damage caused two days ago during the attempt of apprehension of the -" "... has increased since the year started, authorities blame the bad weather of December keeping capes in -" "... return to Cooking with a Cape, tonight we have -" "... latest news in Technology advancements, Dragon, the famous member of the guild. "

Annette was ready to change channels once more, but the camera quickly switched from the outside of some buildings, which she would guess were in Canada given the mention of the heroine from up north, and now showed a completely automated factory. Even if it was just looking, she recognized the things on the screen.

" With this new installation I'm hoping to help cover the ever growing Technological needs of North America ." She watched the draconic-themed heroine talk, even if she wasn't doing it person per-se, as she stood in what appeared to be a scaled-down and lithe version of her better known armors. " I hope that the revolutionary advances I've discovered reverse engineering Tinker Tech to provide a cheaper replacement for some very costly processes that currently throttle manufacture. "

Annette paid less and less attention to the factory in the background, her eyes glued to the heroine, her mind slowly picking up more details, building up a clearer image of what the robot was capable of. Because it was definitely a robot and not a suit.

She knew the heroine was known to have never truly shown herself outside of one of her power armors, there were multiple theories, that she was immobilized, or that she was actually a man, or that she was so agoraphobic that she never left her room. Annette couldn't say which was true, what she could say was that she was currently controlling the suit from a distance, and whatever technology she used, was some of the smoothest controls she had seen.

She turned the TV off. Wandering to her computer, she hoped googling the heroine wouldn't trigger too many flags.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Annette may have been leaning on Lab Standards and Enemy Tech Progression quite a bit during her, if the computer's clock was right, five hours of research. In a way it was funny, she had started by simply looking up Dragon, but then her mind came up with the idea that searching specific terms may bring up flags, so she started to build a mental story on what she was doing.

First she searched more information on the new factory, since she had just seen it on TV, many may have looked it up after that, then she extended the search for Dragon, opening the first few results that came up, ignoring the first one at first as it was the fan community on the draconic-themed heroine. Identifying as a woman and being one of the head leads on technology had gotten her quite a following.

Instead she went through the hero's wikipedia page, read over it and clicked on the obviously popular linked articles, this had quickly devolved into her reading about ducks, and she wasn't exactly sure how she had gotten there. Reeling back she moved to the heroine's work during Endbringer attacks, a shiver going down Annette's back, she would most likely end dealing with them in time, she decided to leave that for later.

From Endbringer attacks to Dragon's work with the guild, S-class criminals and technological advancements. The woman was pretty active, in a way, Annette could see this being reason enough she never showed herself, she could be as well always multitasking on her duties.

She also found a few small sets of news about a small group that had attacked Dragon multiple times in the past, they had been named the Dragon Slayers given the fact they had managed to fell Dragon's armor multiple times. But most of the incidents appeared to have been either minor, or never were reported, though there had been reports of a mercenary group utilizing old armors obviously belonging to the heroine in illegal activities.

Annette slowly turned back to the woman's technological advances, reading over what was said about the new automated factory, followed by a few other advances the heroine had brought by reverse engineering Tinker tech.

But there was something niggling on the back of her mind. After each picture of the woman's power armor, each video she watched, she was forming a pretty solid idea, one she wasn't sure how to feel about.

It was definitely much clearer in some of her oldest models, as they were robots, rather than power armors, it was only a bit more than a year ago that the designs pointed to the idea that someone would pilot the models from the inside, and even then, she failed to see where one would put the power source, communication systems, large amounts of processing power and a normal-sized person in them. Especially given the smooth action the robotic bodies showed.

Even at its best, there was always a certain lag in a remotely controlled system, but all recordings showed perfect reaction even under extreme situations, the heroine could instantly react to things not happening to her 'so called' body on the field. Maybe there was some Tinker out there with that kind of technology, but Dragon definitely wasn't them.

"Hey Junk, can I ask what you think about this?" She thought out loud.

" Uh? Sorry, give me a moment, I'm herding cats over here. " Annette blinks as she's pretty sure she didn't mean literal cats. A few minutes pass while she idly reads a few notes on Dragon's and the local Protectorate's head relation. " Okay, sorry about that, my… helpers were getting a bit too curious about your world, but I had to remind them that there's something checking the edges between Earths here, so I can't connect to your internet yet ."

Annette hummed at that thought and slowly started explaining to the woman what she had found, without access to the internet, she had to be as descriptive as possible about it.

" Uh... well, I didn't think that was possible, I didn't think it was impossible, but… I can't be completely sure, if I could watch one of those videos I could give you a better theory, if I had access to one of those armors I would most likely be sure. But if I had to say, there's at least one Artificial Intelligence out there. Now, I could be wrong, it could be an Uploaded Intelligence too, destructive brain scans are much easier to do than craft a working and balanced mind ."

Annette parsed through those words as she sat there.

"Are you saying Dragon's most likely an AI?"

" Maybe, it could also be that Dragon created the AI that's piloting those bodies and acting on their behalf. " The voice in her mind went silent for a few moments before starting again. " It could also be a very powerful technopath, one that lets them ride on those shells and use them as their own body, maybe that's why the latest models are designed to hold a person inside, it's that mental image that helps them use them better.

" Sadly, without proper access to them, I can't say. What I can say, it's that they sound like a very good person to ally with in any way. All shows that they have heavy heroic tendencies, even if they were an AI, they appear balanced enough that the chances for them to go AI overlord are minimal. They have been keeping a human persona for a few years already, so I can say they are at least patterned after one. "

"Is that important?"

" More than you can think. In Machine Intelligence you have levels, even normal computer programs tend to measure in it, even if at the lowest of the bottom. From there you have learning algorithms, speech recognition software and a few others that work heavily with database mining to imitate intelligence. Then you have Virtual Intelligence, these tend to be the first that have an apparent intelligence, but they rarely can learn, they just respond to stimulation and don't really think by themselves.

"After that you start to enter in the so called Artificial Intelligence, the thing is, humans tend to humanize things, so most AI created by humans could be called Synthetic Human Minds, they follow thought patterns thought first by their creator, it's not wrong per-se, but problems come if you don't consider that a human mind may need a human upbringing. I could see Dragon working under restrictions that imitate a human upbringing, if she's an AI, she's most likely speed locked and instance locked, keeping her from experiencing too much, that's a weakness of these intelligences.

" Then you have the proper called Machine Intelligence, these work completely different to what you can imagine, they shouldn't be considered artificial, they tend to be their own species, stepping past the concept of artificial as they grow and develop naturally, or as naturally as they would under their own experiences. They have their own morals, perception and ways to do things. "

"Sounds complicated." Annette snorted, she mentally thanked Lab Standards for translating the conversation in a way she could more easily understand it.

"And Dragon's very obviously not this last kind."

" No, proper and true Machine Intelligence couldn't pass as human for so long, imagine how long you could pass as a dog. To them a lot of things humans do are just illogical ."

"And if Dragon's not an AI?"

" Then it still sounds like a good idea to ally yourself with her and most likely the Guild. Even if it's just to have someone in business to talk shop with. Given your second and third perks, I would say you most likely can already reverse engineer anything the so-called Tinkers can make.

" And talking about Tinkers, what they do is only half technology, I found. I've been working through what's left of the crystal shard, and I found a small amount of non-corrupted information, took me ages to translate and recover, but they are obviously creations of another race given that this thing obviously didn't have a natural and biological extra limb to connect to technology, trippy stuff. Anyways, these Shards only provide part of the technology, the rest is being controlled by them, like some kind of crazy always-online system, some of the necessary parts to work are done off-world, that's why they are having so much trouble reverse engineering it. "

"Uh, but my perk will most likely pick it up, because while it may not be here, they are technically part of the whole, no?"

" Exactly ."

"I'll have to get some tinker tech to experiment then. Thank you Junk, it helps to find you were thinking similar to me."

" No problem, now back to herding cats, the series are a bunch of children like always after all ." She felt whatever passed as a connection cut.

Annette snorted, called asking for confirmation on something and instead got the secret why humanity was stumped with Tinker tech. She got up from the chair and stretched her limbs, joints popping as she decided for lunch, it was already past noon.

She stepped into the Sanctuary, greeting Orion as she headed straight to the pantry, grabbing the ingredients and taking them with her as she stepped onto the roof yard, preparing the dinner outside and eating while she looked over the building.

The snugget had curled against her side as Annette looked around, letting the knowledge coming from her perk feed her information about things she hadn't yet explored. For example, she hadn't really visited the building's Main Sanctuary, designed to work as a center for the building, there was also a room dedicated to monitor the earth, technically, the room would hold a magical artifact that would utilize a combination of magical methods for this objective.

The library held many enchantments that had been improved by the perk to hold as many books as necessary, keep them in order and easily retrievable by a willing reader. There was also a relic room and armory, currently empty besides training clothes in the armory, apparently. The perk noted that they were normal clothes, comfortable and designed similarly in the style of Buddhist Monks.

She placed the dishes away as she brewed a cup of tea before wandering up one of the pagoda-like towers of the building, Orion happily trotting right behind her.

"Beautiful view, eh boy?" She patted the Snugget as the pet half climbed to look out of the windows. It did a little happy bark as she just leaned to look out of the window, the simulated view was indeed quite beautiful.

She soon got bored and wandered back into the house, she apologized to Orion, but the pet couldn't follow her home yet, especially as Danny would be getting home soon with Taylor. She decided to make some cookies while she waited, thankfully the pantry had the ingredients needed, but she had to use her kitchen's oven because the iron pan didn't work with this recipe apparently.

She got the cookies in the oven about the time Danny's car parked, she could hear Taylor's normal chatterbox self from the kitchen as she put on the timer to not let them burn.

"Mom!" Annette laughed and quickly caught her daughter as she came running, almost bowling her over, making the woman push herself in place thanks to her new flying ability. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Taylor." She hugged her tightly and chuckled as her daughter stopped to sniff the air.

"You are making cookies!"

She laughed and placed her hand on Taylor's head, her daughter was shooting up in height, she would be soon passing her, most likely inheriting her father's height, but she certainly had inherited more of her looks, they had the same brunette hair and green eyes.

"So what's so important that you made cookies?"

Annette and Danny both couldn't not laugh, their daughter was definitely a smart one.

"Yes, it's important, no, you aren't getting a little sibling." Taylor pouted at Danny's words.

"Don't worry, Taylor, it's still important, and it's something you'll have to keep a secret, we may tell the Barnes family, but until we let you, you can't tell Emma, okay?"

The girl didn't doubt it a moment before nodding. "Okay."

Annette smiled and checked on the cookies before sitting down. She started explaining the severity of the accident on Monday, letting the girl digest what she was told. "So you are a cape now, mom?"

"Yes." She answers simply, watching Taylor stand up, hands on the table.

"Are you like Alexandria?"

She shakes her head. "I'm closer to Armsmaster." She explains as the timer chimes that the cookies are ready, Annette decides to show off a little by floating off her chair and over to pull the cookies out of the oven.

"Mom! You said you weren't like Alexandria!" Danny laughs at the girl's indignant shout.

"It's just floating, dear." Annette teased as she pulled the cookies out and let them cool a bit. "Come along, there's plenty to show you." Annette put the cookies on a small basket and walked to the door, utilizing her key to open it into the Sanctuary.

"Wow!" Taylor was ready to run off once they passed the door.

"Calm down, dear. There will be plenty of time to explore."

Annette and Danny took Taylor around, showing her the place, and explaining to the girl how important it was that no one found out about it, especially after they were joined by Orion, the girl's squeal of happiness at the pet was slightly painful to their ears.

"You'll have to remember that Orion's a living being, I wish there was no need to hide him and you could take him outside for walks, but the sanctuary's big enough."

"Okay, mom." The girl was only half paying attention as she was currently playing with the snugget.

She chuckled before she felt two charges get added to the bank, summing a total of five, this surprised her as she must have missed the last two. Of course this was quickly put aside as she felt the central star start the roll and a five charges perk push out of the surface, taking the five accumulated charges.

The world melted away from her surroundings, and Annette watched a similar, but different world, it was Earth, an Earth that had been attacked by trans-dimensional beings, and where Humanity used devices known as Valkyrie Cores, capable of synchronizing with people and deploy super advanced power armors to fight these antagonists.

She couldn't see where the Valkyrie Cores had come from, humanity having used them for nearly sixty years of slowly fighting back and gaining ground. And from them they had learned much. And now Annette knew it too. The main perk she had acquired was called Valkyrie Core Knowledge , and helped her understand all the VCs could do. There were also two extra perks, the first Valkyrie Skill , which gave her the basic knowledge of how to operate one, the other extra perk was Valkyrie Core & Frame , which was what it said on the tin, her personal VC, it would be compatible with her, while she would need time to synch up with it properly, she would definitely get to a hundred percent synch with enough time together.

Interestingly, this last extra came with a pair of extra-extra perks, a melee weapon and a ranged canon.

"Honey?" "Mom?"

"I'm sorry, new stuff." She rubbed her eyes, groaning softly as all the new information slowly fit in place, five charges appeared to be a big one, and it would take a bit before her brain stopped feeling like mush. "Hmm… actually, I can show you, follow me."

The four of them walked together as she led them to the Armory.

"There you are." She whispered as her eyes zeroed on the small, white sphere resting on a cubicle, waiting for her. A small plaque under it had its name, but she knew it already.

She carefully picked it up and turned to them. "This is Odyssey, a so-called Valkyrie Core." She placed it near her chest, just above the sternum and synchronized with it after taking a few steps away from them.

Salutations

For a moment Annette was sure she saw ginger hair and green eyes, but then there was nothing. She turned to her family. "Valkyrie Cores are meant to put humans synchronized with them in the capability of fighting Endbringer-like monsters, though that is with great training." She chuckled and deployed her armors, a black body suit covering her from nose to toes.

From the bottom up she started to deploy the armored panels, it was all done in a mostly angular manner, all made from the similar dull gray and electric blue details. The boots were stocky and covered up to her knees, a short armored skirt covered the front, back and sides from the middle of her thighs up to her navel, above there was an exposed area till a small breast plate that extended up to her neck and shoulder pauldrons, her arms were covered with long, armored gloves that went up to almost her elbows, her helmet covered the back of her head in a way it didn't clash with the neck protection and covered her eyes with a visor that didn't leave her eyes visible.

"Wow Mom, that's so cool!" Taylor chatted her quickly as she admired her armor, Orion just a step behind her daughter, showing the same excitement.

"It looks amazing, dear." Danny praised it too.

"Thank you, and it's just the basics, with time it will develop. Personally, I don't like how exposed it leaves some parts of the body, even if I'm technically capable of tanking a tank shell to the face." She half-joked.

An idea slipped into her mind and with a smile, Annette absorbed the armor back into storage, her hand reaching into her pocket and pulling out the small projector Junk had sent her. "Now, Valkyrie Cores can absorb technology, to repair, learn and upgrade it, let's see what I can do with this." She pushed on her Impeller Field, slowly extending it over the credit-card shaped piece of technology, it didn't take her more than a second before she was sure it was safe.

With a soft pop, and a cry of admiration from Taylor, the projector was absorbed. Apparently it worked even better than she thought, because Enemy Tech Progression kicked in fully, swiftly picking it apart faster than it had done with anything else. Maybe this was the perk meant with subverting.

If she had to say, there was a certain level of satisfaction from Odyssey, but it wasn't there anymore when she paid attention, instead her mind was filled with new information, she could see how to take advantage of the battery and memory, something way better than the VC's current power and memory storage.

The best was actually the holographic system, because she could see a pretty easy way to create life-like projections through her Impeller Field even during combat. She gave it a try, projecting an image of Orion next to the real one. Sadly she could already feel the start of a headache that would soon grow into a migraine, she would need many more hours before she could really be combat ready.

She still watched Orion be confused before she let the image disappear and desynchronized, she stored Odyssey away for now. It was good to know that it would become easier and easier with each time they worked together.

"That was so cool mom." Taylor gushed and made her laugh.

"Thank you dear, but you can see why we must keep it a secret, no?" The girl nodded energetically. "We'll most likely invite the Barnes over on Friday night and tell them, but until then, not a word."

Her daughter mimed zipping her lips.

"That's it, that's my smart cookie." Annette handed the girl a couple of the cookies, now cool enough to eat. She also let Danny grab as she nibbled on one. "Now that we talked about this, I'm sure you have homework to do."

"Aw mom." Taylor pouted, trying to give her puppy eyes, Orion imitating her on a side.

"Sorry dear, the earlier you get it done, the sooner you are free, you can come and do it here with Orion if you want."

"Really? Thanks mom." The girl ran off to grab her backpack, leaving the adults laughing.

"You look like you have something in mind." Danny spoke softly.

"Yes," She turned to him, leaning against his body slightly. "The Valkyrie Core's capable of producing technology, but I need materials. I want to visit the ships' graveyard or the junkyard, I should be able to quickly take a large chunk of metal, it would certainly help to improve my production capability."

"And how are you thinking we will do that?"

"I will accompany you when you go to work tomorrow, go to the DWU with you, greet a few people and then slip out, use the Core and the projecting technology to slip till I find a good one, then claim it with my Impeller Field and run away before it's done."

"Impeller Field? Claim?" Danny sounded confused.

"Ah, sorry, I think the knowledge's still fresh and didn't explain well." She laughed softly as she saw Taylor run back and head over to the courtyard to work. "Impeller Field is a shaker effect that pretty much makes anything inside an area around me count as being touched. If I can touch the whole surface of an object, then I can drag it into my personal storage. It's actually a bit more complex than that, but I think you get an idea."

"And you are sure it's a good idea doing it tomorrow morning?" He asked.

"Actually, I think it will be better than doing it at night, that early in the morning? Most people are just going to work, busy in their cars, or still asleep at home."

"You promise me you will be safe?"

"I know I will be safe, love. But I will be careful, no need to invite danger. Also, I'll have a reason to take the car so I can pick up Taylor later and then go back to the Docks for a second harvest when I pick you up."

The man sighed but gave in. "I'll believe you, but at the first sign of danger I want you out of there." She nodded.

"For that, I will have to practice a bit." She explained before stepping away, retrieving Odyssey and synchronizing with the VC, this time taking her time understanding what she felt.

To begin, her Impeller Field extended about three meters in all directions, it constantly fed her a low level of information, how there was a marked difference between the dust in the Sanctuary and that brought in by their shoes. How there was technically nothing past a meter underground. If she concentrated, she could feel the air moving slightly.

If she actually concentrated, she could notice her perception slightly quickening, nothing game changing, yet. She breathed in deep and reached for the two weapons in her storage, warning Danny about them before her melee weapon slid out onto her hand. While technically it was called a halberd, in her hand lay a spear, if her knowledge on weapon making was correct, and she doubted she was wrong. This was a Xyston, a greek spear, the tip was shaped like a leaf, while normally it would be made all of metal, in her case there was a spine of metal and the blade was a plasma edge.

The other weapon was slightly harder to deploy, the cannon slid out of storage only partially, positioning right over her shoulder. A veritable piece of artillery that would reach fifteen kilometers under normal circumstances, a fire rate of ninety thousand rounds per minute, definitely above anything she would really need.

She would definitely be looking at downgrading. She stored both pieces inside and decided to sit down on the training rooftop and meditate while trying to stay synchronized with Odyssey as long as possible for now.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Annette felt that the time spent before dinner was well spent. Not only had she managed a continuous hour of synchronization with Odyssey, but also had let the Core access her knowledge provided by the extra perks Basis Tech^2 and Environmental Protection.

The first part was definitely greatly aided by her meditating inside the Sanctuary, the process of developing hours of synchronization with the Core was pretty much under the martial training and some kind of mental training too, as being connected to the piece of hyper-advanced technology improved the user's mental faculties.

On the second, Odyssey had been using the knowledge taught to her by both extra perks to improve itself, relaying atmospheric control systems to unexpressed parts of her armor instead of relying on pure Impeller Field control, toxic gases, lack of air, radiation, high pressure and other possible hazards were rendered near null as a problem, for true immunity she would need to acquire some stronger materials, but it was enough for now.

The Basic Techs^2 was utilized to improve her movement abilities, while the Distortion Sphere mode was kept mostly the same, lacking much actual need for the system, the water traversing variant was being reverse engineered to improve underwater movement with Impeller control.

The Dash technology had been quickly skipped for the Blink Dash, a quick, short and nearly inexpensive teleportation ability that was useful for a varied set of problems. Because while the Valkyrie Core had the capability to do point-to-point teleportation, the process was kept for a high level of skill and tended to spend large amounts of IF.

The last piece of technology was useless, technically, since Annette could already fly, even without synchronization with Odyssey, she had let the Core take the Rocket Jump technology and modify it for free-form propulsion; it was a slightly less controlled dash function that she felt would be quite useful.

Not expressing her armor had it also slowly be modified for her taste, from the baseline it had came with, it had slowly expanded, setting up a frame to later develop more, so her Core had sacrificed some armor thickness for more area, now her armor covered more of her body, the back bodysuit only visible on the joints, between knees and skirt and on a few places of her arms.

It was during her cooking dinner that she acquired a new perk. It was the first time she had been discounted half a charge to pay for one, the perk appeared to be a collection of esoteric inks named Mamono Realm Ink , it came from the small magical supply, and were meant to add extra effects to anything drawn or written with them.

Annette felt slightly queasy as she went over the effects they could have. From texts becoming illegible to those not approved, but they could also influence their mind, erode their defenses, charm them into a new perspective, maybe even make them understand the message.

She still wasn't sure she would use many of them, the inks carried a certain aura about them, maybe it was all that had stuck to them after being taken from whatever World they originated, but she didn't especially like how many ways they had to induce lust. She would be very careful with this set, some of the simplest would work fantastic with her charms.

She decided to leave it off her mind for now, instead focusing on sharing a good dinner with her family. With all the ingredients in the Sanctuary's pantry, they had more than enough food for Danny's lunch the next day and for Taylor to take some leftovers to Orion.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Annette took the chance to synchronize with Odyssey while she prepared breakfast, she wanted to get a bit more time with the Core before she headed to the Boat Graveyard in a bit. She even took the chance to set up a bit of a show for Taylor by utilizing the Iron Pan to prepare their breakfast.

Eggs, Milk, Flour and some actual maple syrup from the Sanctuary's Pantry. It seemed that whatever the magic from the pan really was, it enjoyed putting up a show, because all the ingredients were jumping around it before a larger than normal cloud of sweet-scented vapor exploded from it and out came several plates of the fluffiest pancakes they had ever seen.

Food happily consumed, the family left for the day, even if Annette would be coming back soon, she let Danny take the driver's position because it was his car, but she would be using it on the way back. They left Taylor at school first before he drove in the direction of the Dock Workers Union.

Danny grumbled a bit before he spoke. "Are you sure about this?" They both knew what he was talking about.

"Yes," Annette replied. "I need the materials, right now the Core's basically cannibalizing its components, moving them from one part to another, it's already having troubles utilizing what it assimilated, the only reason I can use the holographic system is because Junk designed it as simple and physic-respecting as possible. I will most likely get a perk to help with it at some time, but I can't bank on it.

He sighed before biting his lip and turning to her. "You know we could do it another day? Maybe on the weekend?"

She shook her head and didn't reply as traffic started to move, only once the next light caught them she spoke. "Right now, I'm basically no one for the gangs, acting sooner will actually distance myself from whatever my cape persona becomes."

Grumbles could be heard, she patiently ignored them as the car moved away from traffic, the streets around them taking a more decayed look. Finally she spoke.

"Danny, Valkyrie Core's are ridiculously strong and destructive, to the point that I'll have to work in downgrading the weaponry I have, because there's no logical reason I would need a hypervelocity cannon, it can shoot fifteen hundred bullets a second, I could Swiss Cheese a few blocks and pretty much turn all capes in the Bay into chunky salsa, but I can't do that, I need the materials so my only answer to problems doesn't become choosing between extra crispy and fine mist"

"Okay, I'll support you on this." Danny compromised as he drove into the Union's grounds, waving to a few people. "I still expect you to be careful."

She chuckled softly and smiled. "Of course." They both walked into the office, Annette greeting Rosie, the office's secretary. "Oh, Danny, can you see if someone's selling a car? Something close to what I had, it will be hard to move around with just one next week, and I called the insurance yesterday, so we should be getting some numbers today."

He nodded, soon they kissed goodbye before she left the office, getting back into the car and breathing in deep, this was the first time she was on the driver's position since the accident, her hands felt heavy for a moment, but the thought that it hadn't been her fault cleared most of her doubts. She drove carefully, waving goodbye to John, the security guy by the gate.

Annette drove carefully, she may not fear the car, but there was something. Soon she decided it was good enough, this area of the docks was unused enough, the factories weren't abandoned, just not used, meaning most homeless didn't wander much, lack of shelter and actual people made it safe for her to park the car in drive-in before getting out.

Car locked, she wandered into an alley before pulling Odyssey from her pocket and synchronizing with the Core, this was it, from now on she was already losing time. She pushed her Impeller Field to create the hologram of nothing around her, or more like a cylinder of what was on the other side before she flew up over roof level and started moving in direction to the boat graveyard.

A couple minutes in she let the camouflage drop, being far enough from her car to hide the fact it was hers. It also meant saving up power, the hologram system pushed her current capabilities with the Core by quite a bit, easily having spent a quarter of the total time she calculated to have in those first few minutes.

Soon she lowered her flying altitude, moving just a meter or so above the forgotten and abandoned ships. So much rusted metals and already looted husks. She didn't actually expect to get much out of it, but she would take what she could, even if it meant just cutting a ship and taking some material for her Core to slowly reclaim.

A few minutes of flying overhead and she finally felt something good caught inside her IF, while her observation suit wasn't the best yet, it was hard to miss a large brick-shaped metal box, the straight lines glowing like a neon sign around all the twisted and rusted pieces of boats.

She touched down, her armored boots barely sinking into the wet sand and muck as she didn't have to spend any energy to simply float lightly off the ground. Instead she focused on the object of her desire. In front of Annette laid two old fishing boats from which the waves had crashed on land, the old structures had long since lost boat shape and were now a conjoined pile of trash that hid what her scan said was a shipping container filled with something besides sea water.

Now the problem Annette had was how to retrieve her goal. If the boats' leftovers weren't there, she could much easily cut up the container with her plasma spear and store the contents and the box in smaller parts, but moving all the scrap on top would be noisy and attract a lot of attention pretty quickly. She thought to herself as she eyed the Protectorate's base floating in the middle of the bay.

Annette lifted off and floated around the scrap pile, looking for a good spot to work from. A few rounds on the pile ended up making her decide for a spot where she could slip her hand and touch a corner of the container.

"Okay, let's see if I can make this work." She took a deep breath and while touching the container she started to move her Impeller Field.

The 'energy' that made the core function and routinely bent the laws of physics around Annette was usually shaped like a sphere around her, right now she was slowly moving it, displacing it from herself to the container she wanted to take.

For her, perception of the action took hours, moving an invisible field of energy she barely could feel around her to do her bidding made Annette sweat heavily. It was when her feet started to sink on the soaked ground under her and she could feel the moist breeze of the sea that she realized the If had been moved off her.

Now came the hard part, Annette took a deep breath as she started to twist the IF around the container, her mind and core were fully concentrated as they worked perfectly together, it was like trying to spread paint over a balloon by blowing on it.

But with time and work it was soon completed, and then she yanked it all in. The effect turned to be quite more aggressive than she expected, her Impeller Field proceeded to shear up a large bubble and claim all the material before the lack of air explosively imploded in front of her.

Annette suddenly felt bloated, she could see what she had claimed inside her storage, the steel from the container, large amounts of rusted metals, plastics and other similar components, electronic pieces most likely coming from the contents of the box, cheap LCD screens, rough sand and muck from the beach.

She groaned as her Core quickly started to evacuate all the water she had claimed along by spilling it by her feet as she woozily took off. Annette panted heavily as her face and body felt soaked after the exertion.

She soon realized that the crash would soon bring much attention, and her time was already running out, her IF was running low after all she had spent taking the container. She turned to give the hole left behind one last look before she started to fly away, utilizing her Core's systems instead of her flight ability, too tired to do more than just float otherwise.

She started her camouflage system a bit before leaving the Graveyard's grounds, deciding to take a large swerve instead of flying directly to her car in paranoia. But she soon reached the area again, looking around to make sure no one was around before touching ground and unsynchronized with Odyssey and climbing back into the car.

"...goddammit." The words escaped her lips between pants, Annette utilizing a shirt forgotten on the back of the car to wipe the sweat off her face and body, her whole self felt squeezed dry.

Annette was ready to close her eyes and pass out when she felt the familiar sensation of a charge added to her bank and another spent. She weakly opened her eyes as she mentally observed the new perk, it was called Hands Off! , and apparently meant the exclamation mark, it came from the Safety domain, and held the knowledge needed to secure her technology with seamless changes in the software and/or hardware to prevent the misuse of her technology by those not approved.

She would be able to blackbox her technology or lock her software under some very strict systems that would still be easy to use. It wasn't automatic, though, maybe because it was a single charge, but all it held was the knowledge, she would need to do the rest, just another tool in her arsenal.

The perk had come with a smaller extra, and the change came before she could really look at it. For a moment it was like her body had been put inside an oven, heating up all the way to her core. The sensation was especially strange since till a moment ago she was feeling frozen. With the heat came more sweat before her body filled out from the inside out, bones growing healthier and more resistant, not only against breaking, but also conditioned to work in zero gravity if needed. Muscles, tendons and organs growing healthier and more ready to keep her going. Skin, hair and the rest were the last. Annette had to admit she was feeling a bit dirty right now.

She decided to drive back home quickly and take a shower, during the trip she looked at the extra perk again, it was called Body Tune Up , and it was pretty much that, it had turned from a slightly out of shape college professor into an astronaut and ready to deploy at any moment's notice. And given it was a perk, she would keep that fitness unless she did something really stupid.

A nice and hot shower plus a change of clothes and Annette was again in the car, driving closer to the boardwalk, parking it near the shops. The woman stepped out of her car and walked into the closest electronic shop. Her eyes quickly moved over all the different models. Mentally she thanked Lab Standards, because every last of the shown working phones counted for the perk, feeding her all the important information for her to choose a cheap and sturdy model that would do for now.

The perk had fed her all the phones' characteristics, even those not normally explained by salesmen or ads. How some of the models were terrible to use outside under natural light and some would have signals even underwater. The cheap model she had finally decided on had been a combination of price and the fact the system was a customization of an open source that had come to the market a few years ago.

She had moved so sure of herself that the clerks in the store hadn't managed more than check her purchase and let her go. For Annette that was okay she wasn't in the mood to talk with people, so she quickly drove back home.

Once home, Annette had quickly decided to relax. She had gotten a nice mug from one of the pantry's teas, a blanket and a good book, curled on her bed and let Orion join her, soon the woman had fallen asleep with the warm star pet.

-(-(-|-)-)-

It was a few hours later when the combined noise of the house's phone ringing and Orion's moist and warm tongue woke Annette. The woman groaning softly as the nap appeared to be exactly what she had needed and now felt like a new woman.

She still let out a few yawns escape her mouth as she wandered over to the phone and mumbled. "I'm coming, I'm coming.

She soon reached the phone and picked it up. "Hello, who speaks?"

" Annette? Finally! I've been trying to call you for a while already. " The voice made her smile.

"Hey Zoe," She palmed one last yawn before smacking her lips. "Sorry, forgot to tell you I lost my phone during the accident."

" That doesn't mean you shouldn't call me, Annette. Or were you too busy with Danny? " She could feel her good friend already wiggling her eyebrows at her, making her blush lightly but mostly groan.

"No, sorry, Zoe, nothing like that, Danny's been a wonderful husband and helped me feel safe after the accident." She could feel the pout through the phone. "And thank you for taking Taylor for two nights… maybe if you need it, I will take Emma during the weekend, I'm sure Alan would thank me, eh?"

The sputtering noises on the other side was music to her ears.

"But I'm okay, Zoe, thank you for calling, besides having lost my phone and my car, but oh well, the latter was insured at least, we won't be getting much out of that old can, but Danny's already looking if someone is selling something passable."

" I'm glad to hear that, Annette, I don't want to think how your family would have fared without you. "

"I don't want to think about it either, and thankfully, the price to stay here was cheap. So how about you, Alan and Emma come for dinner on Friday, around the usual time, make sure Emma brings her stuff and she spends the night here with Taylor."

" That sounds wonderful, should we bring something? "

"A wine and maybe something sweet? I'll take care of the rest." They chatted a few more minutes before it died down, Annette cutting the call after exchanging greetings for the rest of the family.

Annette breathed with a new relief, the talk had cleared some of the cobwebs still in her heart, maybe a few more days and she would be back to normal, or whatever was her new normal. She decided she had rested enough for now, and she had the perfect idea to what to do.

She stepped into the Sanctuary, quickly synchronizing with Odyssey and ordering the Core to take a small percentage of the ammo she had in storage and separate the gunpowder from the bullets.

Annette wandered through the sanctuary already knowing her destination. The building had many rooms set for multiple purposes, meditation, training, teaching, even resting. This room was set for rituals and other similar magical endeavors. She retrieved the gunpowder and mixed it with some of the room-provided chalk, letting it wait on a side as she set the twin handguns on the center of the room and the bullets around them before utilizing the gray, mixed powder to carefully draw the ritual.

She was glad that the Valkyrie Core helped control her movements, otherwise she would most likely have spent redrawing it twice at least. Even if the diagram needed for a pair of handguns was considerably simple. One that was set she retrieved some of the incense provided with the room and dipped it in some of the gun oil her Core used for lubrication of her cannon.

Once she was ready. Anne started the ritual, leaning hard on her perk to guide her movements.

All in all, the ritual was simple, light up the incense, ignore the stench of burning oil, channel her energy to close the circuit and watch the mix of chalk and gunpowder ignite like there was no chalk in it, hold her breath while the room was filled with smoke and wait for it to clean before looking down.

Only some chalk was left from the ritual, all the bullets had been consumed by the ritual, same with the gunpowder and the incense. Annette picked the pair of guns, feeling them heavier than before, though not in a physical way. She stepped out of the room, the place would automatically clean itself later, for now she had better things to do.

"Hey Orion, it will get loud, so you better don't come too close." She explained to the Snugget as the pet was more than eager to follow her as she stepped out to the training rooftops.

The pet was intelligent enough to sit by the door and watch as the woman expressed her armor before lifting a gun on each hand, aiming for the closest wall of the pocket dimension and simply started shooting.

Bullet after bullet, explosion after explosion, her improved senses let her notice the slug of metal flying. One, two, three and so forth, till she had shot both magazines plus the bullet in the chamber. And then she pulled the trigger one more time and the gun kept shooting.

She couldn't stop herself, Annette laughed as she shot her worries away for a while.

-(-(-|-)-)-

" Roadie, respond, have you acquired visual contact? " Miss Militia's voice came through her communicator.

"Not yet, given Hummingbird's lack of experience flying over water we are taking it slow." She only half-lied, while the ward lacked the experience, it would take plenty to have the breaker cape from falling into the water.

" So it had nothing to do with you wanting to take your new ride for a spin? " Her superior's voice lacked any type of anger.

"No, my new baby's working perfectly and the committee's happy about it, so I can finally use it on the field."

" Good to hear that, then you should finish the observation task, then you can take it for a proper spin, if there's enough time left I've approved a return patrol through the Boardwalk's beach to show it off. "

Roadie internally grinned, Miss Militia knew how to sweeten the deal. The Tinker was more than happy to show off a bit, she had felt they had been dragging their feet about the all-purpose all-terrain vehicle. But it had finally been approved, now unless she really changed things around, she wouldn't need to go through it again.

"Come on Hummingbird, we are almost there." She revved the vehicle, glad she added a noise generator under the justification people needed to know it was there, even if all it did was simulate a combustion motor.

They quickly approached the spot they had been sent for, and word of mouth certainly didn't cover what had happened. By now the hole had filled with water, but it was clear enough they could see the bottom.

It was quite impressive, and slightly terrifying, how it appeared that someone or something had taken a chunk out of the beach with an ice cream spoon, and not a good one since the cuts appeared to be quite rough in some spots, while others were extremely smooth.

" Roadie, how does it look? "

She watched Hummingbird float around, utilizing his phone to take pictures of the damage.

"Worrisome, Boss." Her superior maintained silence as a sign for her to continue. "The best I can do to explain is if someone wanted a scoop of ice cream and used a fork instead of a spoon, some spots look perfectly smooth, as in see-myself smooth. Others look like the material was chewed through."

" I don't like how that sounds, and if I don't like it, the Director will surely react worse. "

"Not much I can do boss, I'm just playing witness here, we can't even know what they were looking for since they took practically everything, but if I had to bet, maybe a container, the missing space's certainly larger than a normal one, but I have no idea if it was chance or they knew something."

" It's okay, you did a good job. "

"Roadie!" Hummingbird shouted at her and the tinker wandered over.

She reached up and taped the communicator. "We have something, boss, not much, but Hummingbird found footsteps, he's taking pictures, you should be getting them soon."

" Looks good, okay, that's enough for now, Roadie, I don't think we will get more from the place unless we send Armsmaster over to scan the place deep, and I doubt we will find much. "

"I doubt he will leave his lab just for this." The ward chuckled softly on a side as he was listening in the conversation.

" Okay, you two can return, you have patrol x-8 approved, have fun. "

Roadie turned off her communicator and turned to Hummingbird. "Come on Twerp, time to show off my new baby to the people in the Boardwalk."

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

After getting any left over stress out of herself, Annette decided that she had had enough shooting, so the rest of her Wednesday afternoon was spent practicing charms, thankfully her tuned up body let her easily spend the time synchronized with Odyssey as long as she didn't do anything too intensive. Drawing charms while sitting down was certainly not intensive.

She had done some experimentation with the inks, she found some of them worked extremely well, like the protection charms done with what she would describe as lawful aligned inks, it was weird using dungeons and dragons' lingo, but it certainly described the ink quite well. Actually, most of the charms improved quite a bit with that set of inks. Must be because most Eastern magic systems relied on bureaucracy and stiff rules to work under.

Her charms channeled her wish to protect something by asking for it in the proper and correct way, meaning the charms became more effective, the lack of errors certainly helped too. The cups of her afternoon were creating an escalating set of cubic barriers, strong enough for Orion to climb from the smallest to the largest and have only the last one wobble slightly before she had the pet come back down and she could release them.

Time soon came for her to pick up Taylor and Danny. Her daughter didn't complain about it, more than excited to return home and spend time with Orion. Her husband, on the other hand, had to be nearly dragged out of his office by the ear. He complained that his paperwork would increase again in the morning if he didn't clear his desk.

She rebutted that if he needed help she had a couple of days still free, otherwise he should look in training as a help for the office.

That had left him busy thinking on the way back home. Taylor managed to convince her parents to not only let her do her homework inside the Sanctuary, which neither of them found a problem about, but also got them to have dinner together as some sort of picnic.

So they had dragged one of the library's smaller tables outside and set up some candles before happily eating together. Annette had to admit their new normal was becoming quite abnormal, but she wouldn't deny how much she was loving it.

Dinner done they had curled together on a pile of pillows, Annette pointed they were technically part of the meditation room, but they wouldn't break from just this. And enjoyed the after dinner by watching the stars together.

The pocket dimension's sky wasn't real, or at least was a projection of a sky from another earth. While they could recognize it as the northern hemisphere's sky, there were some stars both of them were sure they had never seen before.

"Mom, you said things usually come from other Earths, no? Then I bet it's the sky from the earth the Sanctuary is from." Their child's comment had left the pair of parents silent before both smiled and praised her for being so smart.

"That must be it, I wonder what's on those stars." They went back to silence for a few moments. And would most likely spend the rest of the time like that but Taylor kept wiggling around.

"Mom, I think your super shaker thing makes my skin itch." The girl complained.

"Hmm, let me check something." The woman concentrated and Taylor quickly started laughing and wiggling.

"Mom! No, stop!" Annette got in a few more tickles before stopping.

"Sorry about that, I'm still learning how to use it, the Impeller Field lets me do things at a distance like I was right there, I think I was concentrating too hard on it"

"...Mom, do you think I could use one in the future?" She asked hopefully.

Both parents went completely silent and still.

"You would like to be a hero, no Taylor?" Danny asked.

The young teen nodded meekly.

"It's not wrong to want that," Annette started. "Doesn't mean that Danny and I wouldn't worry every moment, even if a Valkyrie Core would keep you safe from nearly everything."

"Doesn't mean we wouldn't still want to put you inside a tank if it meant keeping you safe." Danny joked lightly.

"But you sensing the Impeller Field's a good sign, so if you want to use a Core in the future. And I mean in the future, because I won't be able to create one for a long time." Annette smiled internally as Taylor was taking it as seriously as possible. "Then you will have to get into shape, and while training in here will make it faster, that doesn't mean you can go and start running, I'm thinking we could all get a bit earlier all mornings and do some light jogging around the outer walls, like a family."

Her husband grumbled softly.

"And yes, that means you too, Danny. You already spent all your day of work sitting down, it will do you good, and so I will." She lovingly whispered the last part, making Taylor stick her tongue out as her father blushed.

"Icky." Taylor mumbled and made both of her parents laugh.

"Now, there's something I have to explain about Valkyrie Cores, first." She desynchronized with Odyssey and showed them, the Core was still the same golf-ball sized sphere made of some white material. "A core merges with the person by synchronizing, that's the passive state of a Valkyrie Core, even like this the user's senses, mind and body have been greatly strengthened.

"It also gives the user access to the Core's storage and an Impeller Field, the former's straightforward, the later is a bit harder to explain, it's basically a field that goes away from the person, capable of messing with space, for example, I can store and retrieve anything in my storage anywhere in my Field, I can also extrude my weapons, technically, I never extrude them completely, always working with part of them inside."

"All that sounds really useful, mom."

"Yeah, and the most important thing about Valkyrie Cores is that they will upgrade things, anything stored will slowly be, first fixed, and then improved." She retrieved her phone to show in. "As you see, it already looks better than most phones in the market, and it's definitely faster and more powerful than our computer, and it will only grow from there. But it will also improve the person it's connected with, healing small things and slowly improving their bodies, that's why it's not the best idea to synchronize so young."

"Wait, you are saying synchronizing with a Core makes you immortal?" Danny asked, a bit of worry in his voice.

"Yes, but only after years of being synchronized with one for decades, I mean it, maybe if you were synchronized with one for over fifty thousand hours you would stop aging. And don't worry Danny, I should be able to fix something for age before long." She grinned. "I heard they make them blue for men." Making him sputter was turning into a new pastime for Annette.

They soon were back in silence, enjoying the night, before they broke it, Annette felt a new perk, from the time domain, it was called Time Flies , and would make any any time spend doing extended work or long term projects pass five times as fast, meaning that she could read a book in a fifth of the time, or brew a potion, or set up a ritual as long as it didn't need quick and critical attention, the perk would cover most of what she did.

-(-(-|-)-)-

After their sky-watching, the family had headed to bed, Annette happily snuggling up to her husband and wishing him a good night before she was deep asleep. Sadly for Annette, her sleep only lasted a well rested ninety or so minutes. After that she got up, brain still addled with sleep made her wander into the kitchen before realizing the hour it actually was.

The woman was certainly confused. Normally when one wakes up only an hour and a half after going to sleep, one only has the sensation of not being tired, but in this case, she was pretty sure she wasn't closing an eye again unless she took something for it. Sleep was, after all, something that usually took a long, and kinda boring, part of the da...y…

Annette silently pulled the chair, sat down on it, laid her arms on the table and pressed her face on them before screaming internally. The implications had slipped her mind the night before, or more like a few hours ago. But it was quite clear now, her latest perk made sleep pass five times as fast, because it was certainly a repetitive and extended action that didn't need much attention.

So, from her usual eight hours of sleep, she was done in a bit more than an hour and a half. The woman groaned and screamed internally a bit more, luckily she wouldn't have to spend the early, early hours of the morning as a voice piped up inside her mind.

" Hey 'nette, what's wrong? I don't think it's normal for you to be awake at this hour. "

Annette grumbled a bit as she got up and opened the Sanctuary, walking deeper into the pocket dimension. "It sounds stupid, but my latest perk has reduced the time I need for a full night of sleep."

Junko laughed softly on the other end for a bit. " Oh, yeah, well, you still have to sleep, let me tell you something, there are more than a few perks in the Forge that will take you past what you thought was being human. "

"Like my extra, Tune Up?" She asked as she sat on the pile of pillows under the sky.

" That's the most basic example, all it did was train up your body. But there will be perks that change things much more. I don't remember if your version of the Celestial Forge has any alien form, but let me tell you, one day you receive a perk and suddenly can turn nearly twenty meters tall, or become a robot, now that's an experience. "

"I don't think I'm ready to suddenly turn into a giant robot." Annette snorted at the idea.

" Eh, with a bit of time you will pass through the need to sleep and just do it for pleasure. I know I do. " The tone made Annette blush and stutter, drawing more laughs from Junko.

She sighed as the other woman calmed down. "You said you didn't need the need to sleep, how's that?"

" Well, to begin with, it was my choice to reduce my need to sleep, I enchanted my bed to cut it to a fourth of the original time, after that I improved it a few times, but it wasn't till a perk made me descendant of a Greek Titan that the need didn't just disappear. "

"Which one?" She asked curiously.

" I'm a descendant of Prometheus, I carry inside me the divine flame of creation, and while it tends to do with all things fire, the true gift is the knowledge of how to use fire, cooking, smelting, etc… It's the gift of fire that lets humanity advance. It also makes me quite hot" The comment made Annette snort again.

"Stop that."

" What? Not used to being teased? "

"No, it's usually me who does the teasing, either to Danny or to my students."

Junko laughed quite heartily at that. " Well, 'nette, you are my student here in a way, no? "

"I would say you are doing more of guiding and letting me find my way." She joked lightly.

Junko went silent before the air inside the pocket dimension started to grow heavy, the stars on the sky slowly shifting, mixing into a nebula before they slowly reordered into the woman's face.

" Oh Annette, I've done so much, I've lived by quite a while too. I've crafted life, made of flesh, magic or metal. I've reshaped mountains, moons and planets. I made a solar system sing for me. I have sewn the fabric of reality to fix damage a mortal mind can't even comprehend.

"I'm sorry that you feel I'm not teaching you, my student, but the Celestial Forge doesn't give in to have a normal relationship between us. " Just like her presence had weighed on her, Junk's weight slowly disappeared, the stars flying through the artificial sky back to their places and the night returning to normal.

" Sorry about' nette, I overdid it. " The woman let out a long sigh.

Annette nibbled on her lip before sighing. "No, you are right, you have given me plenty, and still are here to talk to me like this."

" No, dear, I have to apologize, I let myself be carried away… I think my daughter's words got to me, she's always been a bit more real about what it means to have power. "

Annette just laid there in silence for a few minutes, Junko didn't speak, but the woman could still feel the goddess' presence mulling around. "...so you said you have a daughter." She offered a change of subject.

" Yes, my beautiful Eri, she's also glad I stopped calling her little after her sixtieth birthday. "

"Wait, what?"

" To explain it, I adopted Eri shortly after getting the Celestial Forge, I was about twenty years old and Eri was a child of about five. I've done my best to keep my head down and not bring attention to myself. "

"Let me guess, it didn't work."

The woman talking in her head snorted. " Actually worked quite well, I went a few months before someone tried to kidnap me… well, they did kidnap me, but I also was armed with a hammer capable of creating a localized earthquake and then I berated the idiots till a hero reached the scene. It was a bit after that, when I was kidnapped a second time that I found Eri. "

"I've to say, it doesn't sound like you managed the whole evading attention pretty well to me."

" Stop that, while I never went out like you did, I still was active by helping heroes and producing technological advancements. Of course that tends to get attention, sadly I got the attention of an 'intelligent' asshole villain who wanted to rule the underworld. He got information about us through someone in my past and forced my hand by kidnapping my mother.

"So here I was, with little choice but to follow along, I still managed to send a message about it so the heroes and police were already moving by the time the asshole had me deep inside his mansion. And since I had improved my trusty hammer, I knocked them out and ran out, giving the law forces more than enough reason to move into the place. "

"So you were behind enemy lines, your mother had been taken and you what? Knock out the boss and run away?"

" More or less, I used a pressured air bomb to knock him and his close minions before looking for my mom. Instead I found Eri… I'll be honest, if I knew how much I would fall in love with the child later, I may have turned around and instead of trying to run away, I would have killed that asshole right then and there.

" I open a door, hoping to find my mother and instead there's this tiny, scared girl on a medical cot, wearing a dirty scrub and badly applied bandages. My heart almost broke then, I put a strong front and gained her trust to take her out.

" Took me time, but I helped her heal, a few months later I adopted her legally, but by then she was my daughter. It's been over seventy years since then. "

"So your daughter's already older than my mother?"

" ...eh, kinda. Remember how I'm a Goddess? One of my main aspects, fields, whatever you want to call them, is Space, I can fit a world in a thimble. Eri's always been related to Time, that was her original quirk, the ability to rewind people's time, too far and they just poof out of existence, and if she tried to withhold it, she could rewind other stuff too. Well, part of helping her train was to improve that, and being close to me the jump up to Goddess of time was logical. "

"...of course, completely logical." Annette kept her best, deadpan tone.

Junk practically ignored it. " So, as a Goddess of time, time is the very definition of ethereal, even I'm not sure how much she's lived, though she doesn't time travel much, in her opinion it only causes trouble, the most she does is use her ability to watch past times if the police needs help with a case or similar. "

If Annette had learned something from her many years of reading fiction, it was that time travel never helped, but she had to admit the way Eri apparently used it was the smartest way without danger of messing things up.

"You know… I don't think I thought about it before, but it's not normal that both of our worlds have superheroes, right?"

" Maybe? Sorry 'nette, but from my point of view, this is just a minor chance, yeah it's kinda weird, but our worlds work completely different, your powers appeared less than thirty years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was aliens. In mine it's been nearly four hundred years, and powers started when a soul was born with a bit extra. "

"Why don't you tell me more about your world?"

" With pleasure. " The woman seemed to clean her throat. " The exact date has been lost, the chaos of the years that would come took plenty of things away, but what do we know, is that the first case was a child born somewhere in China, nowhere in special, but the baby was, he glowed, nothing that impressive, except people don't normally glow, he was aptly named the Glowing Child. From there more people started developing powers, these abilities were called Quirks.

"And people did as people do, and some of those who obtained power lorded it over the rest, others moved to keep them safe. The world was broken and reshaped, remade and after around a hundred years peace slowly started coming back. It still took plenty of time, in some parts of the world, like my country, Japan, Heroes became a civil position, it was a job, they were literally called Pro Heroes, they had offices, paid taxes, worked with oversight, there was a central body to control them, and even a popularity ranking.

"Of course this has long since changed. I have had over half a century to slowly change things, people don't really know, but I've modified the whole process, put controls in it, kept the most dangerous powers from developing too early, put limits to them, taking some out of circulation, balancing mental effects, etc. I mean, they have observed a change in powers, but they have no idea. "

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

" It took them over a decade to get a person back to space, and nearly two before someone walked on the Moon. Humanity had grown stagnant. "

Annette hummed, thinking about the world Junk's words painted when she felt two charges slip into her bank and the central star of her Forge started rotating. Soon four charges evaporated from her bank, leaving a measly half charge before a large perk pushed out of the Forge's center and joined the many orbiting, five extra perks floated around it.

Annette breathed in hard through the teeth as she understood what the book she had just gotten was. She got up and quickly rushed into the Sanctuary's library, the first of the important books in it was what she was looking for. She picked the small thing, barely the size of two palms and a finger thick. The covers were made of wood and the paper looked to have been made a long time ago.

It was called Secret of Steel , and while it contained how to create a variety of metal weapons, the real gift of the perk was the secret process to turn normal steel into an outright supernatural material, a sword made from it would cut through most shields like butter, a scythe could harvest a whole acre of grain, a printing press could produce a thousand books an hour while also being unnaturally resilient too. And the most impressive part was that while she had gained part of the knowledge behind the skill, anyone could learn it.

That meant that Annette couldn't let anyone see this book unless she was completely sure. The first of the extra perks was called Sword , and it wasn't an actual sword, instead it was another spear, not a Xythos like her Valkyrie's plasma spear, this was a Qiang, or Chinese spear, made entirely of the secret steel and capable of slowly improving with use and time by her side.

The other four extra perks hit closer, the first filled her mind, it was called Life Giving Fist , or at least the translation of the original name was, and it was a philosophy to fight in defense of others and never kill purposelessly. Annette found this quite respectable, it was nice that it would also give her a chance to start dialogue with any opponent as long as they could think and she didn't attack first.

Master's Body and Shaolin Kung Fu , came together, the latter was all she had to know about the martial art, from wielding a sword, cane or staff, to meditation, stretching and unarmed combat. The former extra perk sunk its changes deep into her body, giving her ten years of hellish training, ten years of mastery in martial arts and the condition needed for it.

Annette had to breathe in deep as her lungs felt capable of really filling for the first time in her life, she felt at peace and balance as the last extra perk kicked in, Sei , it was all about the internal control of Ki, coming to finalize the perfect balance between her skills. She quickly decided to check herself out in a mirror.

Only then she was glad to see that not much had changed, while her muscles were definitely something else than before, and all the soft places that had to be soft still were, the muscles under the skin were perfectly packed cords of metal. She now had the stamina to run day and night, sleep only a night a week, eat only twice per week and survive mostly off water.

"Oh god… now I will sleep even less." She groaned out loud before sighing. Deciding there was nothing else she could do, the woman skipped lightly up to the training rooftop and retrieved her new spear.

The weapon was perfectly balanced, with her skill she could cold it on a finger and it may as well have been a statue.

With a silent breath she pulled it down and started going through the first set of movements, a kata her mind called "Welcoming the Sun". Step by step she went through it.

By the end she was laughing as her body danced, the weapon cutting the air without resistance, sweep, cut, stab, thrust, twist. Movement after movement, a symphony of the body and weapon as one, time flew without the help of a perk as Annette flew.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Annette trained a bit more, going as far as synchronizing with Odyssey and practicing her martial forms not only with her Sword, but also with her Xystos. Going as far as expressing her full armor and running a few sets in the middle of the sky. Really living up to the idea of a Valkyrie.

She was glad to see the steel she had recovered from the shipping container had been used well in reinforcing her armored panels, most of her body now covered in polished steel panels trimmed in azure. The interesting part was that the color didn't come from a dye, but her Core had applied some tempering techniques to the metal she had learned from the Weapon Crafting skill.

Her Hud reminded her about the need to wake up the rest of her family. So Annette had touched down, stored her weapons and armor before desynchronizing with Odyssey. She really needed a way to keep the Core with her at all times and still safe enough to prevent it being stolen.

She checked on Danny first, giving him a gentle shake before she went to wake up Taylor. The teenager was having a harder time till Annette reminded the girl this was a necessary part if she wanted to use a Core.

Watching her daughter practically shoot herself out of the bed and try to exchange her pajamas for some light clothes in the same step made her laugh for a moment before she helped her daughter wake up and change correctly. While she left the girl to that, she made sure Danny was getting up too before heading to the Sanctuary and waiting for them with Orion, who had woken up a bit ago and had been patiently watching her train.

Annette had to thank her newly gained memories of ten years of training, because she managed to coax her two other family units into not actually stopping. Slow down to walking speed a few times, yes, but overall they didn't stop moving from the start 'til the end after going around the building Sanctuary's outer walls twice.

"See, it wasn't that hard, or the end of the world. We do this every morning, like a family together, we don't have to worry about bad weather, we slowly move up, we keep a good healthy diet with really good ingredients from the pantry and before you know it, we could join a Marathon as a family, or something. Though I don't know how fair it would be for me to compete." She shrugged and made her family laugh.

After finishing, she made sure to guide them through some simple stretching exercises, making sure neither her husband or her daughter suffered cramps or stiffness during their day. Well, maybe Annette wouldn't mind if her husband suffered stiffness because of her, but that was something else.

Instead of having to take turns in the house's two bathrooms. They used the Sanctuary's much more numerous ones, magic providing great water pressure and the perfect temperature. After that they all changed into proper clothes and Annette let Danny try the Magic Iron Pan.

It turned out to be a great success. Apparently the tool didn't have any kind of magical DRM, which was good, but they would have to be careful if they wanted to store it in the house.

After that, Danny drove Taylor to school before he and Annette drove to the Union's offices. She exchanged places with him as the man headed to work with a goodbye kiss before Annette decided she should take advantage of being in the car to head over to her cell phone plan's provider and recover her number.

Annette parked the car near the place she was heading, making sure the area was safe enough to leave the vehicle. Not like there truly was a safe place to leave your car in the Bay, unless you had a personal garage, otherwise your car was a couple minutes away from getting jacked and you would most likely never see it again. Not even old models like Danny's were safe, older models, even if they wouldn't sell, meant criminals already knew how to jack them faster.

The whole process of getting her number recovered had been mostly painless. It was early enough in the morning the line had barely started. It had taken more for the clerks to start calling people than her turn to come once things started to move. It helped that the poor clerk got a face full of Life Giving Fist charisma, he never had a chance, and fifteen minutes later Annette was stepping outside of the office and slipping the new chip into her smartphone.

Annette decided to slip into a modest cafe near to the office, ordering herself something simple and sitting down as her phone configured things to her liking. The little piece of the future was already more advanced than most computers on the planet that weren't outright tinkertech.

Her first call was to Danny, notifying him about the recovery of the number, the next call…

"Hey Zoe, got my number back."

" Finally! I hope I was the first person you called, Annette. "

"Sorry dear, I had to update Danny on that." The woman on the other side huffed. "But I'm near your house, if you are free, how about you swing to the cafe by the twenty fourth and thirty three and we see each other?"

" Why not? I'm definitely free for a couple hours. I will see you in less than ten minutes, Anne. Order me a cappuccino and a slice of cheese cake in five. " Annette laughed softly as she cut the call, storing her new phone in her pocket.

Her hand stopped for a moment, Odyssey touched her fingers, and even if the core was technically a cold piece of an unknown material, she was pretty sure it felt warm and welcoming. She looked around for a moment before she brought it to her chest and synchronized a moment before she felt a couple of new charges fail to slip into her bank as they were spent for an addition to her pocket dimension.

She could almost see how on one of the Pocket Dimension's corners a flat mount of rock rose up, easily two floors high, easily overlooking a good part of the Sanctuary. On a side steps were carved by magic, going from the area's base level to the flat surface that quickly started to be filled with many blacksmithing tools and a large, magical forge under a giant bird of prey's statue.

This was the Skyforge , the magical flames burning in it would improve the resilience of any metal worked in it. Annette noticed that the perk had come with a small extra called Standing Stones: The Lovers , it would improve her ability to learn new skills; not by much, but it would help.

Annette sipped her coffee as she made a mental note about trying to craft a few throwing knives once she was back home. The ritual for the throwing knife belt/bandoleer wasn't that expensive, the hardest part was getting enough of them for the ritual. Just to have half a dozen knives she would need to make about thirty of them, and just in case she may need to make even more.

She was deep in thought, but not enough to miss her good friend stepping into the store. Annette waved at her and Zoe walked over.

"Hey Anne." She stood up and gave her friend a hug before both sat down, the coffee and cake she asked for earlier getting there just in time. "Thank you." Zoe thanked the woman working at the cafe before both of them relaxed for a few seconds.

"Hey Zoe, nice to see you, again, sorry about Monday, I was still just reeling from all that had happened."

"Don't worry, Annette, you just had gone through some pretty serious accident, I thank all the stars above you got out of it barely shaken. You actually look better than you have in ages!"

She blushed. "I think it's the full nights of sleep… and no, Zoe, it has nothing to do with nightly activities. Just three full nights of sleep and no stress about grading papers or other college stuff." She let out a happy sigh.

They happily spent the next thirty minutes or so chatting about practically nothing, simply two old friends reconnecting. Annette had to admit it helped her more than she could describe. Sadly their little moment of peace was broken when the cafe's glass door was broken through.

She had to admit she had seen it coming, her Impeller Field just large enough by now she had noticed the two armed men walking by the street, but she had hoped they were going somewhere else, and not some boring cafe that wasn't even filled with enough people.

Idiot A had kicked through the door, most likely having seen one too many movies, it didn't help that he was obviously twitching, most likely a Merchant or user of their product. Idiot B had quickly moved to help the first un-stick his leg off the broken and jagged hole of the glass door. Apparently they were smart enough to wear pants thick enough to not let the glass easily cut through because both of them wandered in. Idiot B held a shotgun while Idiot A had a baseball bat. Annette thanked that the gun was in the hands of the apparently smarter criminal.

"This is a Robbery! Everyone Down!" Idiot A bellowed as he waved the bat around.

Annette thanked her new training because she felt practically incapable of panicking, instead she grabbed Zoe's hand as her friend had gone straight for her phone, shaking her head slowly and guiding her to the floor with her.

It looked like most people had thought the same, no one was looking to play the hero, nearly fifteen people had gone to ground, the only ones standing were the two idiots and the poor cashier who was being glared at by Idiot B, the young woman's body was shaking from head to toe.

Annette may have to change Idiot B's name because he was smart enough to not aim the shotgun at the poor girl and talked clearly enough so she would know what to do. She was pretty sure she had seen the girl in the College's campus before, so most likely she was working here part-time only.

Annette cursed internally, she had more than enough skill that she could have taken out both criminals before anyone noticed, but it would mean outing her instantly, and it looked like things would be much better to just let the thing pass, let the two criminals get the money and leave without more injured than a very bad scare.

"Hey! This is not enough!" Annette cursed harder as Idiot A screamed even as Idiot B tried to pull him away. What the heck did he expect to get from a cafe this early in the morning.

"S-sir, it's ba-barely ten, the rush of pe-people isn't 'til t-t-two." The poor girl stammered.

"You Bitch!" Idiot A ignored his definitely smarter partner, who was trying to drag him out of the store.

The situation was quickly starting to escalate, and for Annette, the worst part would come if police or, worse, a cape stepped into the situation. The faster the criminals left, the safer they would be.

"Come on man, we won't get much, let's run before someone comes in." Idiot B insisted.

"Nah, I know they have a box on the back, I want this bitch to open it for me, that's where the real money is." He grinned, still waving the bat around. She had to give it to him, he was definitely strong given how easily he waved the piece of wood around, or at least he was drugged in enough shit to fake it.

"I told you to ignore that shit on TV, it's not true, come on, if we want more cash we can hit a few more places before leaving." Idiot B insisted but Idiot A ignored him, going around the counter and cornering the poor woman.

And because the fire needed more fuel a cape peeked into the door, and not even a member of the Protectorate, not even a Ward, instead it was Metal Ray, a slightly known 'rogue' cape. Annette couldn't look away, it was a damn trainwreck in slow motion. Especially because it all was happening more or less inside her Impeller Field, so she could almost feel the glee in Metal Ray's face under his mask when finding a crime in the middle of the day.

"Don't fear, faithful citizens, Metal Ray's here to save the day."

All the people laying on the ground groaned, even Idiot B did.

"Hehehe, pretty boy thinks he has the balls to be a hero." Idiot A swung the bat in the air.

Annette kept her face down, trying her best to keep the appearances as she concentrated on her Impeller Field. First things first, make sure the Idiot B's gun wouldn't go off.

She slowly scanned the shotgun, it was a pretty simple model, a couple of shells chambered in, now came the hard part, making sure she took only the shells in such a way that it wasn't obvious. She also was keeping an eye on the actual pair of idiots, hero and criminal as Idiot B had been upgraded to… Sam, yes, that would do.

So now Annette was having to keep her attention spread over all that was happening, not only keeping an eye on Idiot A and Idiot B, as they postured back and forth, but also making sure her control over her IF was such that she could take both shells from Sam's shotgun.

She moved her IF minutely, slowly wrapping a thin shell of her Valkyrie's power over it, trying to keep it as tight to the surface and not repeat a boat incident. She waited till Sam was trying to stop Idiot A to steal both shells, only then sighing in relief as he missed the loss.

Sadly the pair of idiots had gotten bored of just boasting around and the rogue hero was using his blaster ability. Annette had to admit that whatever the power actually was, it felt frickin weird when it went through her Impeller Field, thankfully it didn't seem to interact with it in any way, but she would need to find a way to not let it distract her.

The real surprise was when the cape's blaster ability impacted with Idiot's A bat, the wood pole nearly flew away from his hands like it had been impacted by a much larger object, but a large part of treated wood was now some kind of metal. It also made a noise like a gunshot had gone inside the cafe, making every civilian scream and cover their head, even Idiot B was surprised by this fact.

And because that wasn't enough, the police stopped outside. The unit was either close by, or the area was good enough to have a quick response time, as someone outside must have called them after Idiot A kicked through the door. Annette had to act fast. She watched Idiot A rush at Idiot B as Sam tried to stop him. The two cops outside quickly panicked as they were getting out of the car.

She watched as Idiot A swung the (mostly) wood bat from over head, chopping down upon Idiot B who didn't have a better idea than crossing his arms in front of his body, the result would have been obvious, as most likely there would be more than a few broken bones and missing teeth. Instead Annette swiftly moved her Impeller Field to form a sphere inside the baseball bat just above the grip and scooped it straight into storage.

The upper three-fourths of the bat flew away over the cop's car and Idiot A lost his balance as his attack didn't have any resistance, sending him tumbling down to the surprise of everyone, maybe Idiot B most of all. Sam on the other hand appeared to understand his situation being especially bad, luckily it seemed she preferred his chances complying with police's orders to give in.

Everyone inside the store breathed a sigh of relief as the two cops quickly moved to restrain the two criminals, Metal Ray doing a disappearing act the moment no one was looking at him.

"That was… fuck." Zoe cursed as she and Annette were back to their chairs. A new police unit had gotten to the cafe before the two idiots were taken away, and now the people were being taken testimony one at a time.

"Look at the good side, no one was injured… tho I'm pretty sure we could have done without Metal Ray." She drank the rest of her cold coffee.

"Anne, I hope the next meeting won't involve something worse. First an accident, now a robbery…" Zoe joked in dark humor and both chuckled.

Soon it was their turn, the process quite painless, simply retelling what they witnessed, Annette making sure to not tell anything more than what she should have seen.

"Well Anne, I think that's enough excitement for a day. I will see you tomorrow evening."

"Take care." Annette smiled and walked to her car before driving home.

On the way she felt charge and a half be taken from her bank to pay for two small perks, one was worth half a charge, the other a single one. She ignored them till she got home and stepped into the Sanctuary.

The smallest perk was called Gems and was a collection of magic-infused precious and semi precious gems, Amethysts, Aquamarines, Topazes, Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds and a Diamond. Their effect wasn't that great, till you started to utilize them by the hundreds, but given the price of the perk, they weren't meant to be ground breaking.

The second perk was called Magic Rocks and made any precious or semi precious stone she handled to awaken it's magical potential. Pretty much putting them in the same category of those coming from the previous perks. It was an interesting pair, she would most likely decorate her pistols with gems now, she had plenty of ideas to make it quite tasteful.

Annette decided that there was no reason to update Danny on the incident till after he came back, there was nothing they could do at the moment, and hearing it on the phone would lead him to stress himself. So she ate a light lunch and headed into the Sanctuary, stepping into the Skyforge and retrieving some of the steel from Odyssey's storage.

The Core had recycled the metal and shaped it into small ingots just for this. She changed into comfortable work clothes before stepping into the forge, the air feeling hot and dry near the magical coals.

"Well, this is it." She breathed in deep and pulled on her knowledge of weapon crafting before starting.

The process wasn't complex, made much simpler by Odyssey not only reinforcing her body, but helping her do much more controlled hits with the hammer, she held the ingot with a pair of tongs, letting it heat up before she put it over the anvil and started to follow the Secret of Steel's process, hit after hit, the metal changing, not only in shape, but also in color.

The quality of the steel meant it was originally quite opaque, but each hit pushed more of the impurities out, the color of the metal growing closer to white-yellow as the elements utilized to form the alloy were extruded till she was left with a knife-shaped piece of glowing white metal. Only then Annette started to really shape the knife, hit after hit changing the shape before tempering it in cold water.

The knife's shape was pretty simple. She had taken a figure eight and added a diamond figure into the center of the 8 before one of the ends was given a point and sharpened. This gave a small spot to hold with the thumb, she also drilled a pair of holes into the handle and it was done.

"Great, now twenty nine more to go." She sighed and got to work, luckily the shaping process went five times as fast.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Director Richardson sat down after looking around the room, clearing his throat just loud enough before he started talking. "Hello everyone, glad you could join for today's meeting. We have had a pretty active week so far. The forecast for Endbringer attack points to still being a month away, so most gangs are taking their chances." He passed the spot to Miss Militia.

"Thank you, Director. Sunday started well till around we received a call from a possible break-in into Marquis's old mansion. Even if it was the possession of a cape, we wouldn't have been called, except we received a pretty good testimony from a witness that the intruder was one of his late Lieutenants." The military garbed woman tapped the keyboard a few times and made the projected image change, showing a man in armor made of black-painted leather. "Black Knight's a known element from Marquis's time, a pretty powerful trump who empowered his costume the longer they wore them, up to the point of going one-on-one against Behemoth once during the late nineties."

"I thought he had died doing a last stand against the Teeth a year after his boss got birdcaged." Roadie spoke.

"We believe the reports of his death were faked. Either the witnesses were set to give word of his death, or the person that actually died was someone else. We actually think he used it to hide the fact he went to ground, there's even a few hypotheses about him taking the role of a small name rogue hero on the west-side, but we can't prove anything.

"We have pretty much confirmed it's him or someone with a pretty similar power given that by the time we got to the Mansion grounds we saw a figure in the same armor and covered with the tell-tale effect of his power after being active for several hours."

"So we have an old villain back in the city and no idea what they want to do besides checking their boss' old place? Do we think they are here to stay or they were after something special?" Lupine Edge asked.

Miss Militia shook her head. "For now we'll assume they will do at least something more. Until then keep in mind they are a very experienced fighter. Capes don't last for a decade under normal circumstances." The heroes nodded as she continued. "On the next subject, the Merchants have become more active since they acquired Skidmark and Squealer. Their high speed chase on Monday has left six casualties, the only reason the damages were low was because they decided to use the normally less used streets, so the area was already in quiet disrepair. We have included a summary of what we have observed of the former's powers and the later creation's observed capabilities."

They all took a couple minutes to read through the files before she started talking once more. "Tuesday's been calm and Wednesday's was restricted to a case of an ABB member getting nailed to a wall by the rogue hero code: shadow. This marks their most violent act since they were first observed four months ago.

"They appear to be using a hunting crossbow and broad head arrows, the ranged weapon seems to work quite well with their power, enhancing the ammunition with part of their phasing powers." The young heroine made the image change on the screen, showing the effects of the arrow on the brick wall. "While the gang member didn't suffer more than a flesh wound and a stiff arm from an uncomfortable position, we would like to remind you that the parahuman appears to be underage even if they are quite violent."

"Have we tried to sell her on the Wards?" Velocity asked.

"Projections say she won't take it, but most likely will still end up in the Wards under a probation if she keeps escalating in violence." A few murmurs went around as Miss Militia changed the screen once more. "Today's been pretty calm too, so far we had only one parahuman-related incident when Metal Ray," A few groans went around the room. "intruded in a robbery in progress, thankfully no one was injured and the two criminals gave in to police before the rogue ran away."

It was Roadie who spoke next. "The baseball bat. Do we know what caused it? Because I'm pretty sure Ray's power doesn't do that."

"Thank you for bringing it, and no. It does look suspiciously like the missing container in the Boat Graveyard, but given the lack of a presence of any other parahuman in the scene we can't really start guessing if it was one of the civilians or they were passing by, they could as well been the person who called in the cops."

Armsmaster decided to speak then. "I want to remind you that while we are pretty sure there's a tinker behind the armor witnesses have described, the woman wearing it may not be a cape at all, so making assumptions will bring us nowhere."

"On a set of more world-spanning news, while ENE doesn't have any Thinker capes and we haven't been affected by it, the other Protectorate still haven't found the reason for the so-called 'glitches'," The director spoke calmly. "There's not been a reason or logic behind the jumps or why some Thinkers have been affected and not others.

"The best we have found is that the source may be somewhere here in the East Coast, but for now we don't have any more, if you find any clues please remember to notify us."

"Anyways, with the events of this week so far discussed, we will move on tonight's patrols..."

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

Annette had only managed to shape a total of eighteen throwing knives by the time she had to put a stop to the endeavor, but even that many were already showing a marked change between the first and the last few. Her skill in the hammer and hot metal had developed non-stop since she had started, making the last few look closer to decoration pieces even if they were some of the most lethal weapons in their category.

Each one of the knives had perfect balance and an edge capable of cutting a sheet of paper into two half as thin.

"Make a note, get something to practice my throwing." She thought out loud as she stored the finished products before heading out to pick up her daughter from school and get her home, make sure she was doing her homework and then leave to get Danny from work.

It was during the later drive back home, relaxing as Danny took the wheel, when Annette felt a roll from the Celestial Forge, two perks came out together, expending three charges between them, the first, for a single charge, was called Savant and placed her pretty much at the levels of a master in any craft-like skill, even if she had never picked up a pencil before, she now was capable of sketching and drawing of a quality that comes once in a decade, and it would only improve from there.

Sewing, Brewing, Cooking, Sculpting, etc… every skill was in reach for her hands, and as long as she put effort into it, her skill would soar like a bird. The second perk came to compliment the first, costing two charges it was called Wonder Forging Genius , and if the previous perk made her as good as any mortal master, then this perk pushed her through, even her laziest attempt would be a complete masterpiece worthy of any museum.

And both perks synergized from the get go they reached together even grander heights, these two perks would most likely push her abilities far and for quite a long time before they plateaued in any way.

"Are you okay, Annette?" Danny asked as they waited for a light.

"I… yes, I'm okay, it's just… I just got a couple new perks and they make me good at crafting in general, no, good is shortcoming it, they make me great at any kind of crafting, and I'll only become better." She grumbled softly.

"And what's the problem with that, dear? To me that sounds great."

"Oh, it's fantastic, I'm more likely to flowers for Algernon our tongues by cooking dinner than have some real problems." She laughed softly. "No, the problem is that it's becoming harder and harder to hide the fact that anything I touch will become gold."

"So the Midas problem? How about you ask Junko if she can help you with that?"

Annette went silent at that idea. "I will, but later, there's no rush right now. Thank you for being my stone, Danny." She leaned closer and kissed his cheek, making him blush before they drove the rest of the way home in a comfortable silence.

They found Taylor doing her homework inside the Sanctuary's library, Orion keeping guard next to the girl like a faithful hound, happily barking a greeting in his own way when they approached.

"Hey mom," The girl smiled and finished writing some. "Saw the new thing, and all those knives." She chuckled.

"Knives?" Danny asked.

"Mostly practice, let me show you." She guided the pair up to the Skyforge and grabbed a pair of the last knives she had made. "Just a warning, they are supernaturally sharp, as in they will cut bone like butter and most likely will feel no resistance against stone. I made them with steel from the container that I put through a secret technique."

Danny looked at the pile of knives laying on a side. "Why do you need so many?" He asked as Taylor carefully tried one of the knives on a piece of paper she had had in her pocket.

"I need about thirty in total to conduct a ritual that will enchant a bandoleer and provide me with infinite throwing knives, not really infinite, but I can throw them all day, they will simply disappear after a while and reappear on their slot."

"And why throw knives? Ain't knives this sharp really dangerous?" Taylor asked as she watched a piece of paper get cut in half by being dropped on the knife's edge.

"Yes, yes they are, but technically much safer than other things… I also didn't expect them to end so sharp." She said as she retrieved a piece of wood that had been lying outside of Danny's office, placing it on a side before shredding it with half a dozen knives thrown sequentially. "Yikes, I will have to find something definitely less lethal."

The silence was telling. "I still would like to finish making them, better to have them and not use them and all that." Annette chuckled.

Danny chuckled before Taylor squeaked as the knife in her hand slipped and stabbed into the stone floor, disappearing from view. "Whoops."

Both parents looked at the perfect slot the knife left and laughed.

"Don't worry Taylor, I can retrieve it." She took it with her IF. "On other news, and don't worry, this time there was no need for a goddess to save me, after I got my number back I met Zoe to talk over some coffee before a pair of idiots tried to rob the store I was in." Annette tried to play it as nonchalant as possible, because in her opinion it had been unimportant.

Danny sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, his fingers holding his glasses up as Taylor looked conflicted, between wanting to ask what really happened and knowing she shouldn't be so excited about her mother being in danger.

"Okay, tell me what happened." He asked and she told him, it didn't take more than a few minutes, while kinda funny, the situation had been over in less than ten minutes, it had taken longer to deal with the aftermath than the incident.

"Wait, weren't Idiot A and Idiot B the criminals?" Asked Taylor.

"At first," Annette explained. "But Idiot B was smart enough to be upgraded to Sam, and then Metal Ray happily took the position of Idiot B." They chuckled.

Taylor was about to say something before her stomach very loudly complained. "Well, it looks like it's time for dinner." Annette commented and they agreed.

She decided to try cooking a simple meal without the Iron Pan this time, instead relying on her latest two perks, though she was tempted to see what would happen if she used the Skyforge as a grill, but given that there was a chance of the hardest steaks ever, she passed on it.

It was hard to explain how they affected her skill in cooking. She already considered herself a deft hand, having cooked many meals since she moved away from her parents' place, but there was an innate sense in what she had to do, chopping vegetables was easier, every piece coming nearly the same size, she didn't need to look at the pot, she knew how long it would take to get to the needed heat, and the spices went in completely by eye, never measuring even once.

Even if normally this would have been a disaster, dinner came out perfectly homely. Making every member of the Hebert house feel warm and full inside.

"Okay Annette, that was the best meal I had in my life, and you say it will get better?"

"I wasn't even trying to make it impressive, just family dinner."

"You could open a restaurant, mom. Be the first cooking hero." She laughed.

Danny snorted. "Beat criminals with tomato soup." He laughed and soon they were all joking around about how to use different meals to beat villains.

Annette waited till bed time to desynchronize with Odyssey, the Valkyrie Core was quickly becoming a natural part, and she would be more worried about it if her Valkyrie Core Knowledge perk didn't explain to her exactly what a Core was and how it worked. She may not understand everything, or maybe it was better to say she lacked the intermediary knowledge between her understanding of technology and what the Cores did, but she knew enough to know she was safe with Odyssey.

-(-(-|-)-)-

The Black Knight cursed once more. His armored foot kicked the rotted wood of a box, the impact breaking the material and sending the papers on top of it sprawling to the floor. The man didn't even bother picking them up.

"God dammit! I know he could be a complete and cold bastard, but really?!" His hand reached for a folder resting on another of the boxes and picked it up, easily opening it and looking at the files inside.

The man sat on a small and slightly rusted metal chair that was doing its best at holding his body up, even as the man wore thick leather armor, his helmet rested on the same box the folder had been laying. In the distance could be heard the noise of cars, muted by distance and the cold walls of the abandoned factory he currently hid in.

"I fuckin' knew I should have never checked on that last dead drop, I could have stayed in a little town in the middle of nowhere, masquerade as a C class rogue who thinks himself a knight, downplay my powers and simply patrol, wave to kids, enjoy the wives' looks and maybe go to the middle of the forest and clear my mind letting my powers go wild before I get too antsy."

He had pulled his gloves off to work on a computer, the screen showing multiple adoption records from the last ten years.

Black Knight cursed as he had gone through another whole year of adoption records and not found what he was looking for. His breaking-in into Marquis' mansion hadn't gone unnoticed either, and he had to run away before he found any clue to what he was looking for.

The files and other papers laying on the ground had been all he had managed to get out of the Mansion's abandoned office, but they were mostly the 'legal' business owned by the public persona of the once super villain. The heroes had interrupted him before he had managed to break the old tinker tech safe.

He had been in his armor for nearly three days, pushing his power to have enough strength and a few striker powers to break the thing, luckily he was pretty sure the cops and the heroes hadn't done anything with it, either they had missed the existence of the safe, or they had decided that moving it would be too much trouble.

He could wait three days again, ramp up his power and try once more, but most likely he would get even less time before they reacted to his presence. And the longer he idled around the higher the chances for some shit to happen.

He tapped on the keyboard a bit angrier than he should and hit the enter key, letting the old program search for the next year's adoption records. While the laptop worked, Black Knight got up, grabbed a bottle from near and took a long drink from it. Even after so many years, the conditioning of a life of crime and super powers was hard to forget.

He still woke up at night, sometimes, his power flooding the clothes he slept with, the few partners he had shared the bed with had found it mildly strange how much fabric he used to sleep, though usually a white lie about not being able to sleep with less was enough. It had been a learned habit, always ready, if the clothes were thick enough, even a couple minutes of empowerment put him easily above cutting weapons, nearly an hour and most small caliber would just really hurt.

He heard the laptop chime and he put the bottle down before sitting in front of it once more, checking the new batch of records, cursing out loud as the last of his current clues dissipated leaving him with nothing.

He groaned, deciding he stayed in a spot for long enough, his hands placed his helmet back in place, fixing the many restraints before storing the laptop in a travel pack. The old files went into a large, empty barrel along with a good ol' paper-b-gone mix, just enough fuel there would be nothing left besides ashes.

He stored the rest of the things, a couple of empty bottles of water joined the files, melting down in the fire and erasing any spit or DNA left in them before he fixed the gloves onto his hands and flooded the old costume with his power.

The Black Knight let out a groan as his body wasn't what it used to be, age always got to you unless you wanted to give it a try under a Tinker's gentle care, but he'd been around long enough to know how those went, at the end you would prefer to have grown old.

He stood up straight and stretched his back, his spine cracking like gravel as the effects of his costume eased the pain. He was pretty sure the Protectorate had a pretty good idea of how his power worked. But he was also completely sure they didn't know the full reach.

He knew they knew his power worked by charging anything he wore on himself, and that the longer he went the power kept growing and expressing new sub ratings. His one-on-one with the Endbringer was still a badge of honor under his name, even if he was pretty sure the PRT and Protectorate did their best to make people forget about it.

What he knew about over a decade of using his power is that what he wore affected how his powers expressed themselves. And over the years he had modified his old villain costume to push heavily on regeneration, not only of his body, but of his stamina and mind, he had sacrificed the early brute rating heavily to achieve a regeneration earlier along with a couple of thinker powers.

The other fact he was pretty sure the Protectorate didn't know about his power, was that jewelry changed things for a lot of the sub-powers, some of the other guys under Marquis had poked fun at his collection of necklaces, rings and ear piercings, at least till he had handed them their asses during training.

His current combo gave him an ignore-me-field stranger, an intuition thinker and a weak life form radar, enough to keep people from noticing him and keep him away from walking on other people.

He heaved the travel pack back onto his back and started to move, if he was lucky he would find another place to have a full night of sleep, otherwise he would be pushing for a lack of sleep power, maybe skipping one night of sleep would give him better ideas.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Annette's Friday morning was similar to the day prior, it started really early in hours that most people would like to be in bed. And not even staying for longer helped much, she would need to talk with Junko about her growing abilities too. She had felt two charges slip into her empty bank and no perk get rolled.

She spent a couple hours shaping the second batch of knives, finding the process incredibly easier than before, even without synchronizing with Odyssey was almost impossible to make a mistake. It wasn't impossible, but the only couple failures had more to do with the material than her skill. The resulting knives were works of art, even as incredibly simple, each was a beautiful piece of violence, the design had changed a bit, now looking slightly like feathers.

Given her skill and time perk synergized to let her complete the second batch of knives in quite a short amount of time, Annette decided to recycle the first batch and remake them all, utilizing her Core to accelerate the process and even managed to find some leftover leather in the basement to create belt to hold the knives for the ritual.

The ritual was, in many ways, much simpler than for the handguns. Instead of having to get materials and mix reagents, all she needed was to etch a series of runes on the back of the belt and draw the magical circle with chalk mixed with a bit of iron dust. If she understood the logic behind the ritual, all it did was 'hold' all the blades she had made in a certain quantum state of always in the holder, she was just able to throw them and they would exist in reality till they remembered they were meant to be in the belt.

Her Savant perk made the whole process incredibly easy, soon ending with an enchanted belt that would let her throw knives all day long.

"Junk." She called out for her teacher.

" You have called your friendly goddess, who can I smite for you today? " The joke brought a smile to her face.

"I wanted to ask you if there was a way to stop some perks from activating."

Junk had the courtesy of wincing softly at the subject. " It's kinda hard to do, actually. I think there's three ways you could do it. "

"Annette sighed. "I see, tell me then."

" First is getting an actual perk, it should be somewhere in the Protection domain if I remember right, that one's the best, it will outright let you turn perks and powers on or off.

" Second, there's a handful of perks that come from the same World. Even the cheapest one should give you an extra that will let you lock down all of your powers, it also works on your physical capabilities, it's less discriminate, but works well.

" Last one and hardest, there are alchemy perks that should provide you the knowledge to create poisons and other curses that would turn off your abilities and perks, as you can imagine, this is not only the hardest, but also the most dangerous of the options. "

Annette grumbled. "So no easy way?"

" Sorry, 'nette, I can think of other ways, but they become less reliable and most likely would bring more trouble than they are worth. "

She sighed and turned a piece of wood, temporarily, into a knife holder before the throwable blades returned to their resting spot in the belt. "Okay, thanks Junko, that actually helped."

" I wish I was there, I have enough power to craft a divine-level accessory to restrain your powers, but usually it's better to use your perks till you are completely used to them. "

"I just don't want to blow a friend's mind with my food."

Junk laughed at that. " Oh, I know that feeling. Actually, let me tell you something about the quality of food and the Forge.

" As I told you, my world has super powers we call quirks, when I got the Forge the percentage was about four in five people had at least something, the rest either hadn't or hadn't developed it yet, some may never do, but I have seen about fixing it as I told you before.

" Well, my quirk lets me eat anything, and since I worked in a junkyard, yes, I know, it's hilarious, I took scraps from the place home to eat. Because, you see, for me rusted metal tastes delicious, and the stuff was practically everywhere, I didn't need that much either, if I ate over half a kilo of metal I would easily start feeling bloated. But as I started to accumulate quality perks, I found it harder to not cook, since what I did was becoming better and better. "

Annette snorted at the anecdote.

" So you have dinner plans for tonight? "

"Yeah, close friends, thinking about telling them about having powers."

"But not the Forge. Hmm, if they are trustworthy, having more people on your side always helps. "

"Yeah, that's why I don't want to blow their minds with my food, tho I think that it would make a pretty solid proof that I have powers."

Both laughed softly.

The fake sun started to rise, imitating the real one. "Well, enough lazing around for now, gotta get my family up and running, literally, thank you for talking with me, Junko."

"Anytime 'nette. "

The woman got out of her pocket dimension, waking up her husband and daughter, getting them up and ready for their morning jogging, the early effects of the Sanctuary becoming quite pronounced as she easily pushed both of them a bit farther than the day prior.

Breakfast was enjoyed together after they showered and they started by driving Taylor to school before Annette and Danny went in direction to the docks.

"Any news on possible cars?" She asked as the slow, morning traffic moved at a snail's pace.

"Hmm, a couple, but I'm not sure the legality behind them." Annette snorted at Danny's tactful way of saying he was pretty sure they had been stolen. "There's one that doesn't have that problem, but unless you have a perk to fix it up, it won't be running anytime soon."

She smiled. "Remember that I can always just put it into my Core's storage and let it be fixed and upgraded." She grinned. "I mean, I know how to turn a car into a very stylish weapon, but I don't think that would work well.

"And bikes would work much better for that, I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to turn a motorcycle into some kind of twin buzz-saws, there are some crazy people out there."

"I've seen a few examples of what Tinkers can get up to, I believe that."

"Then I would say that you go forward and buy it, I will call the insurance today before going to the store, while I'm sure we can use the ingredients in the Pantry, it would be better to not go completely self-sufficient yet."

"Okay, I'll go ahead and call the guy later today."

"Wonderful." She kissed Danny's cheek as her husband parked the car and she slipped into the driver's position as he headed to work. She gave him a light wave before driving to the store.

Annette drove the car into the place's parking lot and synchronized with Odyssey just in case, it had helped during the cafe incident, and while it would be harder for something to happen in a large supermarket, nothing had really gone 'simple' this week.

She was impressed in how Savant came into effect, because apparently, knowing how to pick the materials you would work with counted as part of crafting, meaning that she now had a sixth sense for the best ingredients in the fresh produce section. Most likely it hadn't come up before because the quality of the ingredients in the Sanctuary's pantry was already high and homogeneous.

She decided to make salt-crusted chicken, so she bought a pretty large bird, enough to feed the seven of them, and she was pretty sure there would be no leftovers after anyways. She chose to accompany it with baked potatoes and a nice fresh salad. Once she had returned to the car, Annette stored the groceries into her Valkyrie Core and drove back home, already thinking how and what they would explain to the Barnes.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

Annette decided to store the car into the garage when she got back home, partly to hide the fact she hadn't stored the groceries in the back of it, on the other she had finally achieved enough synchronization rate with Odyssey to give the car a few hours in her storage space.

She dropped the groceries in the kitchen and emptied most of her materials in one of the spare rooms at the Sanctuary before she enveloped the car in her Impeller Field and took it completely in.

"Oof, definitely easier than the shipping container, but still, way to make me feel full." She chuckled as she let her Valkyrie Core start fixing the car's wear and tear, she would see about dropping it back in the garage before Odyssey started to improve the vehicle in visible ways.

A smile dotted her face when she felt a new perk join the orbiting stars, it cost a single perk, but it would definitely be very useful for her. It was called Research and Development Center , coming from the Technological Facilities domain.

Annette didn't wait any longer and headed into the Sanctuary, letting the perks guide her directly to the new room's door. Different from the rest of the Sanctuary's construction that held a very mystical theme, built in wood, stone and soft colors, the R&D Center's door was the very definition of futuristic and sleek.

The door slid sideways with less than a noise of air pressure, letting her walk into the pristine room. Everything looked brand new, it was like a building crew had set everything straight from fabric a few seconds before she stepped inside.

The floor was mostly made of a blue metal that fit very well with the room, the walls were either white, a very light gray or a slightly darker gray, similar with the ceiling, she could see details done in a similar blue to that of the ground, giving all the room a very organized look.

The shape was pretty simple, extending forward nearly twelve meters before it was cut by a few steps down into a sort of semi-circular lookout that stuck out the wall of the plateau; the large, curved window gave her a fantastic view of the simulated distance of the pocket dimension.

Along the sides of the way to the lookout section, were a collection of desks set up for study, work and other sciences, collections of analogue and digital tools of high quality decorated the whole laboratory, and Annette could tell that every last one was of professional quality. She was also pretty sure most scientist would kill for time in this laboratory, and the rest were stupid.

She felt the machines around with Odyssey, the systems set up to interact with some kind of external personal system, her Valkyrie Core more than up to the task of creating a software adapter for the Center.

While that was going, Annette stepped up to a large and broad locker that contained the two extra perks that had come with the facility. She opened the locker and looked inside, there stood a Hardsuit and a Starter Weapon . The perk provided enough understanding to make her interested, they apparently were both powered by an anomalous material called Eezo, or Element Zero.

This material was apparently created inside supernovas, but only in the World it all had come from. Both weapon and hardsuit were the most basic for the members of the group that had designed the place, if the writing on the walls was right, and it was literally there and over most of the objects in the room. It was called Andromeda Initiative, an inter-species group that had decided to send a large mission to the closest galaxy over.

In a way, it was wild, these had been people that had accepted that they would be practically time traveling, they would never see their families again, they would spend decades in the empty space between galaxies, and this R&D Center had been designed to study alien worlds and all that existed and lived on them, learning as much from them, finding uses and advances. And now it was all hers.

Annette smiled as she saw Odyssey finished setting up the connection with the systems, giving her access to multiple scanning installations, 3D printers and other facilities aimed at the construction of small and portable technology. With a smile she first stepped up to the equipment locker and stored the pair of items into her core, letting her perks break all their secrets for her later use.

Then she stepped up to the scanner and brought out her upgraded cell phone, placed it inside the machine and gave it a mental order to go. She watched the piece of technology get studied inside out. Since she was doing the scanning, the systems went at it five times faster, finishing the process in a couple minutes and exposing a complete set of blueprints.

With a smile Annette opened the development software that the Center had installed already and started to modify the design. First she changed both battery and memory bank, replacing them for the beautiful designs that Junk had gifted her, the finished product would last for several days of continuous work and it would have enough to film for hours.

Then she applied the knowledge provided by Hands Off! making the phones only capable of working for the owner, and her, but that was mostly because Odyssey was just sterner stuff and she had designed the system, most likely she would fail without the Core, even having the knowledge.

Her Valkyrie Core Knowledge let her improve the calculating ability of the processor by a magnitude or two, that would be the best she could do without access to some exotic elements and alloys that would cost her whole house for a gram or two. Then she installed a very downgraded system of the personal pocket dimension that Core had, letting the user store the phone away, it would synergize with the previous perk to keep it only accessible to the owner.

To finish she made sure to use Savant and Wonder Forging Genius, while she wasn't doing the crafting by hand, there was enough control over it that she could utilize the perks to influence the final product. At the end she simply ordered the system to put three together and made sure the facilities had enough materials to work before checking on Orion and relaxing the excitement for her first real project.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Taylor smiled when she saw her mother waiting for her after school. She turned to Emma.

"Mom's here, I'll see you later, remember to bring your stuff to spend the night."

"Sure Tay, take care, and don't study so much you become boring to be around." Her redhead friend waved before they went their way.

She laughed softly and smiled up to her mother as she skipped the last few meters to her side.

"Hey Taylor, did you have a nice day?" Her mom asked as they walked together in the direction of their car.

"Yeah, class was really easy actually. Teacher praised me for solving a very hard equation in math, tho I don't think it was that hard, I solved harder when I was doing homework." She explained.

"Hmm… was this homework done inside the library ? If so, I would like to check it later." Taylor nodded at the question. "And don't worry, you did nothing wrong, Danny and I raised you to take all the advantages you can," She opened the car's door and let her step inside before Annette walked around and got into the driver's seat. "And learning faster is completely okay."

Taylor wiggled a bit on the seat after putting on the seat belt. "Feels weird." She commented, almost offhandedly, making her mother chuckle.

Annette turned it on, and now Taylor definitely knew there was something different, because the old car ran nearly silent, at least compared to the noisy thing that it was before.

"I made sure to put it in storage for a few hours, just enough that we won't need to take it to the mechanic for a while." Her mother explained as she drove the way home, Taylor nodded at the explanation.

After a few blocks, they stopped at a red light and her mom handed her a new cell phone.

"Cool." She quickly started to check it out.

Annette smiled. "Glad you like it, it's yours, we will get you a chip for it soon, I honestly didn't think about it yesterday, but there's plenty you can do with it."

Taylor mumbled in affirmation as she explored all the menus. To her eyes, the phone was amazing, not only it was really fast, but really easy to use, like it was doing things before she thought of it. She suddenly stopped and turned to her mom.

"No way."

"Yes," Her mom grinned and let out a chuckle, not saying anything more before they parked the car at the house and both went inside. Only when she was taken into the Sanctuary did her mom speak again. "I made the phone, it's based on my upgraded one, but it's definitely more, let me show you."

And so she did, teaching Taylor how to set up ownership on it, how to store it away and retrieve it, and how to lock and unlock it. How she could still call her mom and dad's phone at any time for emergencies.

"Thank mom." She pounced her mother and was surprised by how firm her body felt.

Her look only made her mother laugh harder as she easily held her up with one arm, it was especially impressive because she was almost as tall as her mom by now.

After that her mom took her to the library and they sat together to check her homework, Annette looking up the subject's study plan.

"Well, you are definitely ahead of your class, this is not bad at all." She ruffled Taylor's hair. "If you keep it up I can see you getting into Arcadia without a problem at all, but that's a couple years away, I can easily see things will be obviously different by then." They chuckled together.

Taylor decided to do the weekend's homework right there, if she finished it quicker, she wouldn't have to worry about it. Her mom decided to prepare her some snacks as a reward before heading to start with dinner and look for her dad.

In Taylor's opinion, this was a good life.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Annette decided to drop into Danny's office since it was Friday, with Taylor safe inside the Sanctum, she could take a bit of time. She greeted Rosie, the older woman looking a bit tired, most likely hoping she would drag Danny away from his desk. They exchanged a few words before she stepped into his office, smiling mischievously as he hadn't noticed her yet.

Annette fixed her hair, loosened her clothes a bit, pushed into the sensuality and wandered up to her husband before leaning down and whispering a few words in his ear, simply watching him go stiff.

"That's enough work, Danny, time to go home." She wrapped his tie on a finger and tugged on it softly.

She watched him fluster and stumble on his words as she easily helped put all his papers in order and grab whatever was really necessary to take care through the weekend before she practically dragged him back to the car, she waved goodbye to Rosie on the way out, wishing her a lovely weekend, regards that were appreciatively returned as the woman took the role of closing down the office as Annette lead Danny to the car and drove back home.

"That was uncalled for and totally unfair." Danny complained, making her smile. "You should at least have let me drive back."

Annette snorted. "Drive what? I'm pretty sure you need a shift stick, not a stiff stick." She teased, making him blush. "And don't complain, just relax, also here." She handed him the new phone in a safe moment. "Taylor already has hers, it's pretty much better than anything on the market."

She explained it to him as he configured the settings and input his old chip into it.

"… and that way you can store it away, no longer in danger of sitting on the phone if you put it in the back pocket, lose it when someone pickpockets it or have no idea where you left it. Of course, you most likely will need to get used to it, but it's definitely much better."

"Won't it be noticeable if I pull my phone from nowhere?"

"Eh, only if you are obvious about it, it's not much larger than a normal phone, that means you can pull it out of your pocket, just don't draw attention to it." She explained as she parked the car into the garage, waited till Danny got off before she stored it back into her Valkyrie Core to leave it for fixing.

Annette took a few steps into the house before the next perk that got rolled hit her like a truck, thankfully, Danny was close enough to grab her, even if he definitely panicked as her body had fallen limp onto his arms.

"Anne, is everything okay?!" He nearly screamed out loud, especially as he didn't expect her body to be weighing as much as it did now, the Master's Body having increased the denseness of her muscle mass and bones.

"...y-yeah." She groaned as she slowly got up, still leaning against him. "New perk, damn…" She let him help her over to a door, to open the Sanctuary and wander inside together.

"Mom!" She heard Taylor greet them. "The library just grew a whole new wing."

"Yeah, yeah, I got that…" She mumbled as Taylor guided them to the new wing of the Sanctuary's library.

"So what is it?" Danny asked as he noticed one of the books looking at him.

"The perk's called Schoolbooks , and it's the full library needed for a seven year scholarship into a school of magic and witchcraft."

Taylor wandered over to a book titled "The Standard Book of Spells", pulling it out of its place and opening it at random.

"Woah, the drawings move," She started to read through the spell listed in the pages called Flippendo. "...hey, isn't this Harry Potter?"

The two adults suddenly stopped and looked at the books again, Annette mostly going through it mentally, as the perk had not only given her the physical collection of books, given each one of them carried an innate magic since it could give people using them to learn the ability to use Atlantean Magic , which she now held. For Annette it was like she gained all the memories of seven years of learning, a complete education in the matter of seconds, no wonder why it had hit her so hard.

In contrast to the memories given to her by Master's Body and the related perks, those had been mostly experience and physical memories, at the end of the day, it was only so hard to remember exercising daily for ten years. This was practically something new everyday, multiple classes, multiple subjects, taught to her by the great teachers.

"It...is? Kinda…" She mumbled as she tried to go through what she remembered of the Harry Potter books they had read, the Bet version was darker compared to the Aleph one, and they hadn't gone that far in the later version of the story, since they were certainly more expensive. "I think it's a version of the Harry Potter world. Actually, I think I should go grab the last thing."

It looked like Danny was a bit lost, but Taylor had guessed what she meant, nearly jumping in place with a big smile plastered in her face, the girl grabbing her mom's hand and urging her to go pick it up.

Annette laughed softly as they went to the armory, where it laid, next to the spot where her Valkyrie Core had been at the start, it was her Wand .

"Walnut wood, fourteen inches long, firm and straight and with a core of thunder bird feather." Her hand reached for it almost ceremoniously, her fingers wrapped around the handle and she picked it up.

It was like grabbing a live wire, but it didn't hurt her at all, it wasn't warm or cold, it was energy, it was easy to see why wands were considered semi-conscious, magic was much, much more than she thought, or at least this system was. The wand quickly reacted to her touch, observing her in a similar way that she did to it, found her worth it and welcomed her in, magic around her jumped harmlessly like electricity before she waved it.

Instantly a ball of lightning flew off before it cracked open like an egg and the silhouette of a bird made from the same lightning cawed and dissipated.

"That's definitely your wand, mom." Taylor laughed.

"Wingardium Leviosa." She flicked and wished and the book Taylor was holding on her hands floated up, it was completely effortless, maybe because it was a first year spell, because she felt no drain in her magical reserves.

She had seven years of studies packed into her head, charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts (the proper classes, no whatever Harry was put through in his version of the class), even some more advanced classes like runes, arithmancy and alchemy. Apparently she had pretty much every class available in Hogwarts stuffed in her head, even if she wouldn't have been able to take them all.

"Annette, you okay?" Danny asked, his hand warm on her back.

"Yeah, sorry, I lost myself in my thoughts… also had flashbacks to the first year of college, so many classes." They chuckled. "Okay, enough of this for now, I should go start with dinner, Zoe, Alan and the girls will be here soon, you two should see about taking a shower and getting ready. I'm thinking about telling them after we eat, so Taylor, you better stay calm about it, Emma knows to read you like a book already."

Her daughter giggled as they went their ways, Annette drawing the groceries out and starting to cook.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"Uff, Annette, this must be the best homemade dinner I have had in a long time." Alan leaned back on his chair, trying to not show too much how much food he had eaten.

"Definitely Aunt Annette." The Barnes' older daughter, Anne, smiled.

Alan chuckled. "Actually, I think it's even better than some restaurants I have attended for work reasons."

"Thank you, I've found I've a gift for cooking lately." She smiled as her husband and daughter laughed softly.

"You know, Annette, I think the whole cafe deal was worth it just for this dinner." Zoe chuckled.

With the food done, the adults made the young girls put the dirty dishes away as Annette brought out the cheesecake and prepared some tea and coffee for dessert.

They sat together, enjoying the drinks and the sweets, doing some light talk before Zoe looked at her and asked.

"Annette, I've known you for years, you have certainly fed and watered us, now you obviously want to tell us something, it was the same when you found out you were pregnant with Taylor, so 'fess up already."

She sighed. "It's not easy to say. I think that under normal circumstances I would have never told you, the dangers of knowing and such. But Taylor and Emma are pretty much sisters not of blood, I'm pretty sure you named first born after me," The older teenager blushing with a soft smile on her face. "And I'm pretty sure that I'll need Alan's law knowledge and possibly his contacts, don't worry, there's been nothing illegal done and I hope it won't come to it, but you know." They all chuckled.

She continued. "As you know, back on Monday I was in an accident, my car was rammed by a tinker tech vehicle owned by the Merchants, now the qualities of tinker tech and vehicle could be up for doubt, given that it was closer to the child of a monster truck and a locomotive." They snorted at the image painted by her words. "Well, there's a detail that most of the population actually doesn't know, and there are plenty of reasons we could discuss later, but the thing is that when you go through a very bad moment, it can be a really intensely bad moment or something really complex and long term.

"Then the person can suffer what it's become called a Trigger Event, and that person becomes a Parahuman." Alan and Zoe gasped when they put it together, Anne connected the dots a moment later, Emma was softly explained by Taylor. "Yes, as it's colloquially said, I triggered."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Annette." Alan was definitely the person that had more contact with parahumans on a day-to-day basis, working in the same firm that the hero known as Brandish practiced.

"So what type of cape are you, aunt Annette?" Emma asked, definitely full of childish curiosity, the woman laughed softly when the child was chided by her parents.

"It's okay, I'm sure you all are curious too. I'm a Tinker." She explained a bit. "I've actually finished my first project today." Her hand moved to the table and made her cell phone fall to it.

"That's so cool." Emma sounded quite similar to Taylor there for a moment.

"I said the same thing." Her daughter laughed softly.

"So what does it do, auntie?" The oldest child in the room asked as her parents had given up on stopping their daughters from asking more.

"Honestly, it's just a really, really good cell phone, I mean, besides the ability to store it somewhere else, the memory has enough space for anything you may want, there's enough battery for days and only the owner can use it."

"Can I have one?"

Annette outright laughed at Emma's question. "Maybe next week, I just finished these today, I need to get materials to build the tools to build the tools, this." she showed her phone. "Was made from a cheap phone I bought."

"Wait, it was you?" Alan asked, turning to the rest of her family when they looked at him. "I had to listen to Carol complain about a mysterious cape making a mess over at the boat graveyard."

"Yeah, I utilized a much stronger version of the technology that lets me store the phone away to take an abandoned shipping container. I'm still going over the old, cheap, third-hand computers that were inside."

The night devolved into the teenagers asking the woman questions, most of the time. The adults did ask too, Alan and Zoe actually asking how much would it come for her to get them a phone each.

Annette soothed he subject telling them that while she understood the price of Tinker tech in the market, legal or not, they were nearly family, especially Emma, and having him keeping the secret helped more than they thought, especially if Alan could get her the contact of Carol Dallon if something came up.

After a while Alan and Zoe took Anne with them and headed back home, Taylor and Emma retreated to their room and so did Annette and Danny.

"Well, that's done, are you sure it was a good idea?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm thinking of contacting Dragon next, but most likely not till next week. Especially if I keep getting perks at this rate."

"You have gotten how many? Ten, twelve?"

She had to snort. "Danny, it's been less than five days and I have gotten nearly twenty main perks, almost fifty if we count extras. There's a thrill in seeing what comes next, but I'm also afraid, the next perk could change everything and I don't know how I would take it."

"I'll be here for you, Annette, and so will be Taylor, and I'm sure Orion would want you to know he will be too." She chuckled and curled closer to him.

"Okay, and don't worry, you can sleep in tomorrow." She winked.

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Annette sighed softly as she woke up just before two am, even when sleeping for longer than she had on the previous days, she'd only been so tired after coming out as a 'parahuman' to the Barnes' family, maybe it was because it hadn't been the whole truth and lying had tired her emotionally. But now she was up and fresh once again, not feeling like staying in bed anytime longer, she silently floated off the bed, making sure to not wake Danny up as she headed for Taylor's room.

Finding the two girls deep asleep after clear signs of having been awake till not long ago brought a smile to her face. She drew her walnut wand and with a few simple movements and a nearly silent casting, she made sure to give the two girls sweet dreams before floating off. Annette headed to the basement, utilizing the door heading to the laundry room to open a way to the Sanctuary, just in case she placed a muggle-repelling charm on the basement to keep the girls away.

Even if it was fake in a way, the sight of the star-filled sky of the pocket dimension always made her smile, it was the mix between a reminder of how small she was, and at the same time how much she still had to grow. Especially as she felt two charges quickly got spent after being acquired to pay for the new perk called Hands of a Fran , part of the toolkit domain.

"Okay, now, this is… interesting ." Annette hummed as she activated the perk, quickly gaining six new limbs, three on each side just under her normal arms. Given the stitched-up look of the limbs, she could tell that the hands may as well come from the good doctor Victor, except they appeared to be quite feminine, and Frankestein wasn't even a doctor anyways, damn college drop-out.

The three pairs of arms were incredibly delicate in their working, and would most likely be even better at dexterous work than her original hands if it wasn't for Savant making her a master at crafting. Each pair of arms also appeared to work separately from the rest, making it easier to multi-task up to four problems at the same time.

"Okay, it worked with the iron pan, let's see if I can do it again." Annette slowly concentrated on the arms' look, and the change followed, stitches melting into smooth skin, the difference in the 'parts' disappearing, skin turning into all into a single tone, one not far from her own, the arms slowly also shifted to her back, letting her lower her original arms down with little problem. "Much better, and less chances the PRT will think I've been chopping people up."

For her next trick, Annette retrieved Odyssey and synchronized with the Valkyrie Core, feeling the now familiar sensation of her mind expanding, except this time expanded much more. Suddenly she wasn't alone in her head, she was accompanied by three more echoes of herself. One per extra limb set, she could almost see the link between the echoes and the extra limbs.

Apparently the whole description about multi-tasking in the Fran Hands was not entirely just flavor, and given that the Valkyrie Core improved her mental faculties, it synergized between them to actually split her thought stream into four. The best part was that the VC also gave her the ability to interact with technology and electronics, so the extra hers could work on other things while her body was busy with something else.

"Hmm, this will be hard to get used to." She spoke once, but heard three echoes inside her mind as she explored the full range of movement of her limbs, even giving it a try to draw her weapons in each of the hands. "I'll need more guns if I really want to do this." She chuckled as she started juggling the guns, the skill easily falling in her gunslinger style.

A smile adorned her face as the throwing-knife belt appeared around her hips, each hand reaching to grab a pair of knives before easily planting them into the wooden target she had placed in the Sanctuary's garden. The knives sunk into it easily one after the other, drawing a perfect circle.

Annette decided that this was a good moment as any to craft the extra guns, she quickly got one of the mental trains of thought to interact with the R&D Center's systems and start designing the new guns as she moved to the skyforge, if she was going to make new guns, she would use proper steel for them.

The fires of the forge were always stoked and ready, so with a smile Annette drew the metal and the tools, donning the heavy leather apron before she started pounding the material with slag off the metal, apparently hammers were free, because two of her hands worked the tongs, moving steel back and forth from the fires and two other pairs hammered it into shape.

Thankfully, her Fran Arms were practically copies of her normal arms, and that meant they were not only up to Master's Body's standards, but they also were reinforced by her synchronization with the Valkyrie Core, meaning she was doing quick work of the steel. Swiftly turning cheap steel into what she had started to call Secret Steel.

It took a couple of hours, but by the end, Annette had enough material to not only craft three new pairs of guns, but also replace the parts of the original pair. The steel went into her storage as she moved into the R&D facilities, glad to see the thought string had long since finished the designs and moved to improve the designs instead of growing idle.

With all the needed pieces she quickly started working, even utilizing a few of her most numerous gems to decorate the guns. Of course the weapons not only got hit by the truck that was Aesthetics and Flair, but also her Savant and Wonder Forging, meaning that soon each gun was not only quite the work of art, the gems inserted in a very tasteful manner, but also were the closest to perfection they could be with her current level of skills and perk collection.

She smiled and took all the guns over to the ritual room, with the materials needed already in hand it took her only a couple dozen minutes for the three new pairs of guns to be put in the infinite ammo treatment.

"Weapons done, now…" Annette hummed as she wandered back into the skyforge, she momentarily expressed her armor and found it didn't cover her new arms, with a smile on her face she brought what she calculated to be the needed amount of steel to get a full set of armored panels before she started pounding he metal into shape.

The work took her a few extra hours, already starting to dawn by the time she finished, but the work was done, quickly Annette assimilated all the armor pieces and proceeded to express the full set. A smile adorned her face, even when it was hidden under her body suit, really liking how the armor covered her body, the contrast of gun steel gray and blue of the tempered steel.

Now the design of the armor panels held closer to her figure, leaving no doubt of her gender, but hid quite well the fact that the three pairs of limbs coming from her back were organic in origin. Sadly the only part she hadn't been able to replace fully was the helmet, the visor over her eyes was still the original.

She took her whole armor through some testing before storing it away and disconnecting with the Core, deciding it had been enough for now and she needed some rest, the multi-tasking had definitely taken more from her than she thought. So Annette stored the Fran Arms away too and decided to join Danny in bed for a bit more.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"What do we have?" The old, dark-skinned woman asked the other two occupants of the room.

The first to speak after was a well dressed man, his whole figure could be described as impeccable down to how his hair had been brushed. "Unfortunately, we still haven't found the reason for the so-called glitches , the effect appears to have been more pronounced on stronger precognitive abilities, in some other cases, like mine, the effect's not visible unless I try to work out the cause of the event."

"On the other hand, my capacity to carry several of the paths has been severely stunted, the majority of the long term paths based on Earth Bet have quickly started to fail at unexpected places, events that were certain to happen have turned less likely than guessing a coin toss, forcing me to implement shorter paths to prevent the 'glitches' from throwing whole plans into the trash half-way through." Added the hat-bearing operative.

The man retook the word as he continued. "On the good side, we foresee that this glitches may be affecting the likes of the Simurgh, and it's very likely she may skip her next rotation for one of the other two instead."

The first woman to talk looked surprised at the theory. "I apologize for utilizing the so-called meme, but are you sure it's not one of her plots?"

Both speakers shook their heads. "She's been seen reacting to the glitches down to the millisecond, we believe that the powers are behind the Endbringer, it's incapable of calculating whatever is behind the precognitive problem."

"We believe it's completely external to the Scion/Shard problem."

The first woman let out a soft gasp, her darker features palling for a moment. "You don't mean there's another of those things?"

"Thankfully, nothing points to that, our leading theory is that the death of Eden had caused some problem that's only now coming up, like a client system finally acknowledging the lack of response and giving an error message, or an accumulation of small errors finally cascading into much greater failure."

"Wouldn't that mean that Scion is reacting to it?"

"Actually, we think that whatever the warning system may be, Scion appears to be lacking access to it or has no will to check it."

"Okay, those are some worrying things to ponder about, now, tell me we do know something about." The woman asked the two.

"Whatever the source of the glitches is, it's definitely on the east coast of the USA, now if it's a very powerful stranger or a tinker effect, we haven't found any clue yet. We believe it's close to The Fallen's Matriarch's power, making anyone thinking on a certain concept respond to her effect, except that the trigger appears to be the event in itself.

"This would work for most of the cases, except there appears to exist a more random aspect that affects thinkers in general without the taboo , too."

"That's disturbing, if they refine this effect they could easily bring all our plans down in Earth Bet." The woman turned to the younger woman. "Has this affected any path to leave Earth Bet in case of catastrophe?"

"Interestingly, no, those paths appear to have become easier, albeit a lot of the steps have become nebulous."

The first woman let out a soft groan. "That's worrisome in more than one way." She sighed and flipped the page of the folder in front of her. "Now on the next subject of our meeting, how is the Nemesis program going?"

"We have had three new interested parties, all in the USA, two of them are actually satisfied clients that have decided to take on the option.

"We have Allison McCarthy from San Francisco, she got a vial back in December, it gave her a moderate brute power, she's approached us and is interested in exchanging a favor for us to set up a weak villain for her to gain experience and some notoriety." The only man in the room spoke. "Then we have Charles Ray Zormic, from Brockton Bay, he has paid in full for his vial, but is interested in paying more for us to provide a safe hero experience. The last's actually a group in North Dakota who want to utilize the Nemesis program to film a documentary."

"Uh," The surprise in the woman in the hat brought the other two to a complete stop, their sudden turn to look at her made her talk. "The path did not see that," She seemed to lean on her power for a few seconds before she spoke. "I'm talking about the second client, Mr Zormic.

"It appears that the path did not foresee this course of action. Mr Zormic was meant to suffer an accident during one of his patrols and join the Protectorate before getting moved to Texas."

"Looks like the glitches can be quite insidious, but I think we have found our first clue. Get me all the information about this event he should have gotten injured. Just in case, use your powers as little as possible." The first woman ordered before they moved to the next subject.

-(-(-|-)-)-

"I may sound like a stuck record, but are you sure it's a good idea?" Danny asked Annette, the pair enjoying some coffee in the kitchen together as the girls still slept deeply upstairs.

"Yes, Danny." She chuckled. "First, we do need a second car, we both work and Taylor's a bit too young to take the bus home alone, especially given the only line that goes from her school to this area sucks."

The man finished his coffee before placing the mug down. "I know that, and I agree, but are you sure about going to the train-yard? The Merchants have been quite more active.

"Actually, till your little thing in the graveyard, they had been sniffing around the docks more, so they may try and expand in that direction."

"I know, but between their usual drugged state and that I'll be casting a charm to keep them from investigating, I kindly doubt that they will step anywhere close enough, plus I'll be opening a door to the Sanctuary to offload the material. The shipping container was a great find, but the steel sucks, I need aluminum and other metals if I'm to improve the car we will be getting, so we go to this contact of yours together, we pay, sign the papers and drive it away. Once we are far enough I stick it into the storage and fly away to work on it while you return home."

"I know Annette, and I know you will be practically untouchable with the Core, but that doesn't mean I think there are much better ways to deal with it. I didn't tell you before mostly because I'm still not sure if it's a good idea, but there are multiple warehouses filled with scraps and other abandoned materials you could take."

"Maybe, Danny, but you said it, you don't know if I could take them. Don't worry, I can fly away pretty damn fast if I need it." She leaned and gave him a kiss. "I also doubt there will be anyone awake at this hour of the morning." She chuckled. "Come on, I already left a note for the girls, with some luck at least you will be back before they wake up."

She puts both empty mugs away for cleaning and follows Danny to the garage, Odyssey already synchronized, making it easy for her to let the car out of the storage, the vehicle looked nearly new outside, and she knew the inside was better than before.

"I still can't believe how easy it was for you to get the car running this smooth." He noted as they drove to the address he had gotten.

"Yeah, sadly I won't be able to store it any longer or it will start to become really obvious." She laughed softly as she checked for the morning news on her phone through the connection it held with her Valkyrie Core.

The only interesting set of news were about the so-called glitches, apparently they had been going all week, but it had only been the night prior that they had become something more of a known thing for civilians. It hadn't been simple, apparently a news group that employed a known cape as part of a talk show had gone through a very visible glitch mid-live television and the corporate group behind had decided to keep the whole incident going.

Such news had quickly exploded, not only across all news channels and sites, but all over the internet, large forums like PHO and similar portals had outright crashed as some people had started some very aggressive discussions about what it meant that all future-seeing thinkers had been having problems all week long.

Many had, obviously, blamed the Simurgh till someone with inside information had pointed out the winged bitch apparently had been affected too. Of course this had divided people between those saying it was all an act, and those who panicked even harder about something capable of cutting her sight.

Between all the reading, Annette felt another two charges join her bank and the black star at the center of her forge started to roll. Four charges in total were spent and a moderately big perk pushed off the black star's surface, flying alone as it's content filled her mind and self.

It was called Lack of Materials , it was almost obvious that it was part of the resources domain, it was a very interesting and powerful perk, it let her use half the materials needed to create anything, the perk didn't exactly explain where the extra matter was coming from, she could technically utilize something she had created this way to create something even larger. But the other perk was interesting too, apparently the quality of anything she made utilizing all the materials needed would improve considerably.

That meant that wether before she could get one throwing knife from one bar of steel, she could now make two, but if she utilized that single bar of metal to make one, that one would be of higher quality and make.

"Is there a problem?" Danny asked, breaking Annette from her daydreaming.

"Yes… Well, no, just a new perk, but I will tell you later. It looks like we are here." She pointed to the place the address belonged to, and while that was true, she didn't feel like explaining to Danny she may not actually need to go to the train-yard.

The man who was selling the car, an old Irish immigrant with a strong accent, was selling the vehicle for one simple reason, he couldn't use it anymore, the old Mercedes-Benz model was older than their daughter was still running, but after a bad injury of his knee he wouldn't be able to use it legally anymore, so he was moving away from the city to live with some family deeper inland.

The model 500E was a pretty standard and reliable car, as it had definitely survived almost decade and a half in the Bay without apparently being shot once. The price was pretty affordable and all they would need is technically to take it to a mechanic to get its service up to day. Not like they would actually do that, a few days inside her Core's storage and the car would run better than most four-wheeled items on the streets.

Annette left it to Danny to make sure everything was in place as she checked the car out, not just by walking around, but looking deep inside with her Impeller Field, scanning from the old paint outside to the depths of the cushions. Once the money passed hands and things were signed, hands were shaken and the old man left them alone with their new car.

"Annette, if the paint wasn't peeling already, I'm sure your glare would do it." He chuckled. "What did the poor car do?"

Annette looked at him. "Sorry, I was just checking it out and may have gone off on some stray tangent without realizing it."

He snorted. "It's okay, he ended up reducing the price by a hundred… so you will store it here or do you wanna do it somewhere else?"

She hummed for a moment as her eyes peered around. "Let me drive it for a bit, I'm sure I can find a good spot to put it away, the old factory zone near the docks full of blind spots." She turned and kissed the man of her life before taking the keys from his hand. "See you home." She smiled and slipped into the car, turning it on and waving before driving away.

After a few minutes of driving she pulled her wand and casted a notice-me-not charm on the whole alley she had parked, she then let it run a few minutes before swallowing the whole car with her IF and expressing her armor and casting another notice-me-not charm on herself before she quickly flew in direction of the old, abandoned trains.

Annette floated over the old, rusted and abandoned train locomotives and cars, doing it just high enough to sweep the area with the lowest part of her Impeller Field. She let herself float over an old locomotive that wasn't in an especially bad state, apparently had been ignored because the paint had rusted quite quickly given the salty air from the sea next door.

She pulled her wand from her pocket and swished it around, flicking it a few times, chanting a few faux-latin words and channeling her power from the source of magic that had come with the perk, her wand more than up for the test of making a few blocks of train yard a complete dead zone to non-magicals. It helped that the area was already pretty low in reasons to wander into.

The abandoned, habitable cars had been purposefully set farther away from the city, it was a disposal zone and a way to control the growth of the shanty town. Annette hummed as she finished the charmwork and smiled before she floated to the ground, armored boots touching ground as she looked around, quickly finding the door she had seen from above, the key slipped in and a twist opened the way into Sanctuary.

She made sure the entrance was secure, which was apparently a non-issue because the door she had used to open the pocket dimension was the next thing to be completely untouchable. It was strange, now that she paid attention to it, space was being done some unkind things around the door's frame. After a few seconds she had to pull away, forcefully making her Impeller Field ignore the door's frame as she turned to look at the locomotive.

"Okay, let's do this the smart way this time." Annette absorbed the back of her armor and activated the Fran Hands before deploying the armor again, a switch that took less than a second before the two spears and the throwing knives filled her hands and she got down to cut the locomotive down to size.

It was impressive how both spears cut the old steel frame of the machine like butter, the throwing knives were there mostly for smaller cuts, when the sweeps of the larger weapons weren't enough before her Impeller Field started to take the pieces, her storage quickly filling and she wasn't even through half of the thing.

She floated through the open doorway and wandered a bit away from the entrance of the Sanctuary before depositing the diced pieces till there was nothing left, she was halfway back to the door before she turned and deposited the new car too, making enough space in her Core before she floated out and continued cutting the locomotive, this time taking a lot more in before having to deposit it away.

After a few more trips, there was nothing left of it, all the material had been cut down to size and stored away in a corner of the Sanctuary before she moved to some old, crushed cars that would provide a good amount of aluminum too.

Finally Annette stopped, putting the weapons away and letting her extra arms hang back. A smile on her face after a job well done.

"That's a good morning, better head back before the girls wake up." She closed the Sanctuary's door and put away the key before pulling out her wand and undoing the charmwork over the area.

She looked around as she floated a bit in the air. "Hmm, I could fly around… just in case."

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Annette looked around, her position above the train yards was enough to let her see a few miles in every direction practically uninterrupted. Her Valkyrie Core improved her senses enough that she could see there was not a soul in sight at this hour of the morning. She still maintained the hologram around her to hide her presence. It had been improved more than a few times by her Core, and while not perfect, unless people actively looked for her, they wouldn't see but a slight haze in the sky at most.

She felt the Celestial Forge start to spin as the two new charges get spent for another Magic Database perk, this was called Youma Books . It came accompanied by the sensation/knowledge of the library in the Sanctuary gaining a new wing, a collection of biographies, grimoires, historical records, letters written by different authors, from mundane witnesses to being of legend.

She could also tell there had been a number of those works that had gone straight to the restricted section. And while Annette could understand why something like a copy of the Necronomicon would go to the restricted section, because she didn't want Taylor accidentally looking into it, even if it wasn't in English, there were other works that confused her. Why would some biographies be in the restricted section after all.

The perk came with two extras, the first was called Gensokyo's Power Source , first the perk's name gave her a lead of what to look for in the new books, because she wanted to learn more, then the perk in itself which let her… drink a ton of alcohol with little to no adverse effect. She already feared what she would read about Gensokyo.

The second extra perk was Silly Hats and Frilly Dresses , which gifted her with a large selection of cute and frilly clothes along with a thematic headgear. She wondered why the perk insisted the last bit was not optional.

Annette was starting to weight on the decision of ending whatever she was doing now, because at best she was just stalling and hoping something interesting happened, at worst she was just stalling, or head back home to check the new books, some of those were tomes of magic and power, definitely something she would have liked to look into.

Her decision was made for her, when a scream in the distance had quickly shot in its direction, her flight totally silent as her IF controlled the air around her armored figure, her arms resting almost inconspicuously behind her back. They almost looked like some kind of futuristic set of wings.

She quickly reached the alley the scream had come from. It wasn't hard to make sense of the situation as four young girls, most likely not a day over twenty years old, huddled together against the wall, one of them holding her jacked as her shirt had been obviously ripped. On the alley's entrance were four men, definitely much older than them. The shaved heads made guessing their age a bit harder, but guessing their allegiance was much easier given the visible tattoos.

A survival lesson everyone learned in Brockton Bay was how to recognize a gang member, as dangerous wild animals they tended to show on in their plumage, the color allegiance in the ABB and the tattoos of the E88, the Merchants on the other hand, were closer to wild dogs that rolled on the stinkiest thing around.

Annette quickly decided on a plan. In her hand five Offuda appeared, a quick motion and the four of them flew straight to the ground, forming a perfect square before she held the fifth charm between her fingers and erected a barrier around the guys.

She ignored the cries of cape and other insults, instead approaching the girls with a gentle, teacher-like smile. "Hello, I heard a scream and came as soon as possible. Are any of you hurt?"

"A..A-are you a ca-cape?" One of the girls asked, Annette had to give it to the girl, even shaken as she obviously was, she had stepped forward.

"Yes, you can call me Odyssey." She made sure to keep an eye on the criminals who were uselessly pounding on the bright walls of the cube her charms had created. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"And n-no, Annie's shirt was br-broken, but they just pushed us in h-here." The same girl continued, feeling calmer.

Annette did her best to make the girls feel safe while listening to their retelling of the situation. One of her thought streams connected with the local cell phone network, going as far as providing a location for the system to track her.

" Hello, emergencies, what do you need? " A slightly tired voice came from the line.

" Hello, I'm the hero Odyssey, I just stopped a group of five men from assaulting four young women." Annette proceeded to explain the situation and pass the direction of the alley.

" Are the civilians safe? "

" Yes, the four of them appear to only have been shaken by the situation, the most damage appears to have been done to their clothes. "

" I'm glad to hear that, there's a couple of Patrol Cars heading in that direction, will you wait for them? "

" Yes, the criminals are currently restrained under a barrier, so I will need to lower it manually. "

" Thank you for your patience, please stay in the line." Annette agreed as she had Odyssey look through the drunk skinheads' phones for anything useful.

"Looks like the police will be here shortly." Annette explained to the four girls who nodded, looking much calmer than before. "You will have to repeat what you told me to the officers and then you can go, ok?" She received a few nods and weak affirmations moments before she saw the first of the police cars drive into her perception area, stopping by the alley.

A pair of officers stepped out and approached them carefully.

"Odyssey?" One of them asked.

"Here, officer." She waved a hand slowly.

Annette tried to remain respectful, but she was pretty sure one of the police officers had just woken up and the other hadn't slept in the last day or so, the dichotomy painted a strange picture, they took her word and then heard the girls before decided to call a second car to take all the guys.

The one that lacked sleep was apparently the most experienced of the two, ending in the role of dealing with the obvious cape on the scene, he had asked Annette most of the questions. "New around?" He asked once the situation had mostly died down to just wait for the other car.

She nodded. "I was actually running a few tests over the train yard and taking apart some of the old and abandoned scrap for materials… That's not illegal, right?"

"Those piles of rust? Technically, kinda, practically, no one would complain if someone reduces the number of them just laying there." The older cop chuckled.

"Yeah, I had just finished that when I heard the scream, was close enough to hear it and came to investigate, these guys were close enough that I could just erect the barrier without much problem, they didn't even notice it."

The cop looked down, seeing the charms. "Strange as a tinker with your looks to use paper."

"Ah, that, I'm still short on materials, so the targeting system needs something to aim for, and this was the easiest workaround." She lied easily. Annette was glad that the charms' writing burned out once they were activated, made them one-use only, but hid their nature quite well.

They watched the second patrol car come in and stop close by. "Looks like you can drop the barrier now." The cop nodded to her.

Annette easily turned the effect of the charms off, the rest of the paper burning out completely, releasing the skinheads into the police's custody. "Okay, I think that's all, I should head back, I wish you a good weekend Officer." She nodded and silently flew up before projecting the hologram around her and heading back home.

It only took a few minutes before she was back into her home's kitchen, Odyssey's armor once again unexpressed and only her normal clothes visible. Danny was up and reading the newspaper when she entered the back door.

"So, how did it go?" He asked.

Annette smiled and proceeded to retell the short adventure.

-(-(-|-)-)-

Danny hadn't been too happy about Annette's short patrol, but had acquiesced that there had been no actual danger and saving four girls from a bad time was more than enough justification.

As it was still early enough and Annette was pretty sure neither Taylor or Emma would wake up anytime soon, she stepped into Sanctuary after securing the entrance. She had plenty of work by reclaiming the materials from the trains she chopped up.

It was boring, but she was getting faster by the minute, getting more than half the total material she had acquired from rusted scrap into non-rusted material for proper use. It was still boring, but unquestionably good training for her ability to work with materials inside of her inventory.

She found it pretty funny she had recovered more gold from the sea water she had accidentally taken in the boat graveyard than from a rusted locomotive. Annette was starting with the second pile of scrap when she noticed Orion perk up, the large ball of star matter apparently hearing or noticing something, deciding that the rest of the chopped up train car could wait, she approached the snugget.

"What is it, boy?" The pet sniffed around, his fluffy body shaking a bit. "Show me." She ordered it, the alien animal understanding and guiding her.

The snugget trotted quickly, his fluffy body bouncing with each little step, guiding Annette, who floated behind the cuddly pet, into the library. Her curiosity didn't last long as her growing perception area caught sight of something strange.

"Hello there, I guess you are the owner of this library?" The voice was female, Annette was glad that the Valkyrie Core apparently translated quite well live, because she could understand Japanese. It belonged to a young-looking woman, her hair was white enough it looked light blue, especially when compared to the blue dress with red trimming she was wearing.

Annette stopped a few meters away. "Excuse me, but where did you come from?"

"Ah, sorry for not presenting myself. I'm Keine," She bowed slightly. "Keine Kamishirasawa… or at least an echo or shadow of her, it appears you have acquired the book written by my original."

Annette blinked, trying to make sense. "Sorry, but book ? Original?"

"This" The white-haired woman pulled a book from the library, presenting it to Annette, the teacher grabbing it and checking it out, even if it was in Japanese, Annette could understand the writing thanks to Odyssey's systems. "is a youkai or youma book, my original wrote it about herself to prevent herself from completely disappearing."

Annette slowly put it together, she could tell this book was part of her latest perk, books on youkai appeared to be more than just retelling of their legends. "I see, but why are you here then?"

"That's… actually not sure why I corporilized first, maybe because my original wasn't a full Youkai, I was half Hakutaku, maybe that lowered the bar for the energy I needed, or maybe it's because as a teacher I could help?" She shrugged softly. "I can tell you that I'm barely more than a ghost I doubt I could step out of this library at the moment, and I doubt any of the stronger youkai will take form anytime soon."

"Oh." Annette's eyes read a bit of the woman's history. "Well, maybe it was because I'm a teacher too." She hummed.

"Then from one teacher to another, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"I certainly hope so." Annette chuckled and offered her name next. "I guess you are from Gensokyo, no?"

"Oh, you know about my home?"

Annette shook her head. "Not really, just heard of it."

The half-youkai woman laughed softly. "It's okay, I don't think it's known in the outside world, no?" Annette shook her head again. "Strange, but not the strangest thing I have heard, Gensokyo also known as the Land of Fantasy, and it sure was that, a place for all fantastical races to hide as the real world advanced and forgot about them."

As Keine told stories of her land Annette wandered through the lines of new books, reading their titles, most of them carrying names describing the life of small ghosts, spirits and other demons, the stories written by magicians of small renown. Of course once the books stopped just being one by the other and appeared to become about greater beings their titles grew with that.

Tales of the Strongest Fairy, The Illusion Trio, Misfortune Goddess, The perfect Maid

The names continued, Annette more than wanting to just crack each one open and read about these people. Of course she soon moved into the restricted section of the library, the books held in magical restraints that only she, or those she let, could free.

The Oni that broke the Moon, Scarlet Mansion's Owner, Border of Phantasm, Diabolic Wave

And those were just some of the names, of course not all were of people, more than a few magical grimoires seemed to be restrained in this section.

"Keine, a question, just how dangerous were some of the people in Gensokyo?" Annette asked, looking at the blue wearing woman.

"… well…" Keine coughed into her fist. "Let's just say we had someone to take care of the Incidents ."

Annette's eyebrow rose. "...and? If problems had a name like Incident then I'm fearing what they could do."

Keine rubbed her cheek with an awkward smile on her face. "Most Incidents weren't that important, maybe a few fairies deciding to steal all socks, or some tsukumogami deciding to play a prank on the human town."

"That doesn't sound so bad, but I'm expecting more, no?"

"Well… there was that time Remilia decided to hide the sun with fog, or Suika made everyone party every day for a week straight. Or whatever Yukari decided to do." She rubbed the back of her head. "Sometimes it was just people."

Annette sighed. "Now I see why people in Gensokyo drink so much."

"Oh yes, everyone likes their alcohol, I mean, Onis love to drink, but even Reimu drank from time to time once she was of age, or had a particularly bad day."

Annette imagined she would need to try her hand at brewing alcohol, the pantry technically had infinite alcohol, but something told her it would never be enough unless she had the good stuff, and more spirits would come. She wasn't sure if it was something about the Sanctuary or the Books, but she felt it in her bones.

Annette felt the gain of new charges, one of her banked get spent in acquiring a new perk. It was called Enhanced Learning , part of the Intelligence domain, it just improved her ability to learn anything by a ridiculous degree, of course it was easier if she had someone to learn from, but even if she just hit the books, she would be easily achieving great strides in learning.

It came with two extras, the first was a clear clue that this perk was related to weapon crafting, because it came with a fighting style called Style: Dark Slayer , it was all about quick dashes, frequent teleportations and summoning weapons from thin air, either to attack with or throw. Which was kinda weird, but given what she could see in it, it could be pretty effective. The other extra was called Get Set , and it let her style her hair by running her fingers through it.

It was magical hair gel, the perk. Annette chuckled and decided to grab one of the grimoires from the library to check out, apparently it had been written by Patchouli Knowledge. She had to ask Keine about it, because having the work's dedication outright state that if the reader had stolen the book they would be cursed, along with the most possible person likely to do the deal be called by name.

Annette was wondering what kind of problems the so-called Marissa got into.

"She was a magician, and quite good at it, though she tended to steal books from Patchouli's library frequently." Keine explained after Annette asked.

"How was Gensokyo not on fire constantly?" Annette asked while reading over the book's introduction.

"That was mostly thanks to Reimu, the local miko, outside of Japan, you would call her a priest. Given her position and powers she usually took care of bopping down the troublemakers. Marissa helped, Alice, another magician, did too. The inhabitants of the Scarlet Manor sometimes helped, mostly if the problems affected Lady Remilia."

Annette shook her head and slid the grimoire back into place. "Well, I should go back out, my daughter and her friend will be waking up soon, and I have to warn my husband you are around… any idea when the next book may awaken?" She asked.

Keine sighed as her hand reached for a book. "No idea, the magical energy in here is pretty high, but no clue why it even allowed me to form a body. Maybe it's as you said and the reason is because we both were teachers." She shrugged. "Only time will tell."

Annette nodded and quickly retrieved one of the extra phones she had the R&D Lab produce, handing it to Keine, the woman apparently knowing how to use it.

"Okay, Keine, you can explore around, try to not break anything." She smiled before leaving the sanctuary. "You should be able to contact me with the phone if something comes up."

Annette stopped herself from closing the door, instead casting another repellent charm on it before she went to check on her daughter and Emma. She smiled warmly when she saw the pair eating breakfast at noon while sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Had fun last night, girls?" She leaned on the door's frame.

"Hi mom!" Taylor giggled.

"Hi Aunty." Emma echoed with her own greeting.

"Well, looks like you two had a good time, don't fill yourself with cereal, we will have a proper lunch in an hour or so."

With a chorus of yes from the girls, Annette turned and went looking for Danny, action that was stopped as Taylor came rushing.

She turned and smiled. "Something happened, little owl?"

"Are you okay, mom?" The girl looked up into her mother's eyes.

"Of course I'm okay, dear, why wouldn't I be?"

"While Emma was in the bathroom dad told me you went out and-"

Annette gently cut her daughter off. "And nothing bad happened, I saved four girls from some bad people, but no one was in true danger. So you can relax, I will tell you more later once Emma leaves, okay?" She poked Taylor's nose, making the girl giggle and nod.

She smiled and approached her husband. "Good news and weird news." She let out a soft chuckle as she watched her husband lift a single eyebrow at the comment. "Good news, I'm going to try my hand at brewing some alcohol." She grinned. "Weird news, one of my latest perks has added a lot of possessed books to my library, and it appears they may be a rowdy bunch."

"And I take it the alcohol to appease the books?" Her husband was always so quick on the pick up.

"Hmm, so far there's only one, her name's Keine and she's a teacher, she appears to be nice. But for what she told me about Gensokyo." Annette shrugged. "I'll also have to get her some way to learn English because she can only speak Japanese, my Valkyrie Core takes care of that, but for you and Taylor."

"I understand, can't say I know much of the language, we get plenty of people who speak it or other languages from the region given the number of immigrants and the old gangs, even the ABB still aren't unified in which culture they take more from."

The two of them stepped into the kitchen, Annette starting to cook a light lunch while Danny watched her. "I'm currently shaping some old wood scraps into proper barrels given the designs I have found online. The pantry has all the ingredients I need, so the sooner they are in the work, the faster they will be done."

"So from a few months to a year for the first batch?"

Annette started preparing the meal. "Not really, got a perk to improve the speed of development on any long-term projects if they are just waiting around, so divide all times by five. So for light ales it would be around four or five days unless I want to skip the maturation. Maybe a few more days for darker ones. Lagers will take a couple weeks. Spirits may take a few months. Unless I get another perk to improve even those times." She shrugged softly as she poured the ingredients into the pan, not the magic one, and sauteed them.

"It would be nice to taste some homebrew, I remember dad had a cousin who brewed his own." Danny reminisced.

"I will have to experiment, some of my perks give me an idea of how to get good beer, but it will be normal stuff, I know people tend to add a lot of stuff. So I would like to see about that too." Annette kept cooking.

Danny nodded as the food cooked, soon the girls wandered in, guided by the scent of the food being cooked. It didn't take long till they all had eaten. After the food Danny drove Emma back home as Annette explained Keine's presence to Taylor.

"So I can go to her for help with homework?" Taylor asked, it made Annette snort softly.

"Given the language problems, she may end up asking you." Annette chuckled. She turned to the white-haired woman in the library. "Hey Keine, this is my daughter, Taylor." She proceeded to translate the greetings between them. "I was thinking about getting some translation dictionaries from the local Asian side of the city."

"I'll happily wait for a few days, there's enough books in here that I don't feel much problems about not being able to communicate fully. And I did find some courses on learning languages online." Keine smiled, showing the phone.

Annette felt like face palming. "I'm happy to hear that." She commented as Taylor took one of the tables and started with her homework, Keine wandered close, looking over the girl's shoulder before nodding and heading to read.

Annette, on the other hand, headed to the pantry, grabbing the ingredients she had seen she would need, depositing the brewing equipment she had been crafting inside an empty room that had appeared next to the pantry. Her IF let her easily work all the ingredients and enough water to get them working.

Malt and hot water were part of the first step, and even that would take a few hours while taking account of her perk. She also set a similar process for the cereals. Odyssey had already set an alarm before heading to work with the rest of the scrap, turning the useless material into material for her projects.

Annette had to admit her ability to manipulate matter inside of her Valkyrie Core's inventory grew by the minute, by five minutes per minute to be exact. It was not the fastest, but it certainly helped, each hour she maintained the synchronicity made it easier and easier, letting her remain connected for longer, even when she wasn't truly doing anything special.

Her Impeller Field not only slowly expanded, but gave her more control inside of its area of effect. Her storage is equally growing, becoming more adept at integrating new technology.

And she knew perfectly well what she had to work on next. Her fabrication capabilities were limited, principally by it being restricted to the R&D Lab. That's why she had been looking over the internet for designs on 3D printers.

Her plan was actually very simple. She could use her current fabricator to build a moderately advanced 3D printer, given its low complexity, her Core wouldn't take much time to integrate and start to upgrade it, she then would use that printer to build up a more advanced and complex one, integrate that and let the Core improve it further.

She was already interacting with the fabricator in the laboratory to start building the parts she would need. It wasn't long till she had reduced all the material from the train yard into easy to use bars of metal.

All she had to do was take the pieces into her Storage and let her Core assemble them. The moment the 3D Printer was completed, her perks kicked in, giving her perfect understanding of the machine and letting her integrate it, quick enough she only had to wait a few minutes before her Core's fabrication capabilities jumped, bringing a smile to her face.

She could already see how the printer was being improved with knowledge she had acquired, ideas brought by her Valkyrie Core Knowledge and the ideas offered by Enemy Tech Progression. Time Flies was definitely quickening the process, she easily calculated a day or two till it was advanced enough to give her a similar level of fabrication to the installations in the R&D Lab.

Now all she had to do is convince Danny she would be safe doing a couple hours of patrolling every night.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Danny Hebert had a temper, it was a fact and one Annette never forgot. Not that he showed it to her frequently, actually, it was more of a pretty rare fact it came up. Even less likely it had been aimed at her, usually it came up when idiots did the obvious idiotic things and affected her or Taylor. If she had to say, it was definitely something that ran strong on his side of the family, a fact backed by many of his anecdotes of his father and grandfather's time working at the Docks.

Danny's father was remembered by the older generation of dockworkers, and only known as a legend by the younger ones. An old hand at the job, having had a physique his son had only inherited in height but not width. She had met the man maybe half a dozen times, and even back then he was out of his time, carrying a very heavily chauvinistic view, one she was sure would have given him a very friendly relationship with her father.

But one thing the man had, was an incredible temper his son had definitely inherited too, more than one riot in the sixties and seventies had the man at the front. And watching Danny raise his voice when she had told him she wanted to do a bit of patrolling at night reminded her of these stories.

"I can't believe you want to go out and put yourself in danger like that." Danny nearly screamed.

Annette shook her head. "Trouble will come to find me, Danny. No matter what I do, sooner or later, I would prefer to draw attention to myself somewhere away from home."

"I would prefer later." He sighed. "Truly, I won't be able to change your mind, no?"

She smiled kindly. "You could, but it would only work to stop me from a day, two, maybe a week?" She leaned and kissed him on the lips. "But I can't remain locked in here, on Monday I return to work, my time will be reduced, and there's no easy way I can just quit my job without getting alarms to go off."

"I hate and love how you get when you become sure of something." Danny gently returned the kiss.

"Look at it on the good side, the next Endbringer fight's at least a month and a half away. And I doubt anyone below the top ten parahumans can actually hurt me."

"That does help." The man chuckled. "I'm sorry for screaming earlier."

"It's okay, I set a muffling charm to keep Taylor from hearing it." She waved her wand and released the spell's hold on the area. "Now go, I have a few things to prepare before bed, I'll join you there to sleep before I go out."

Annette smiled as her husband chuckled and she felt the Forge stir. Two charges banked and two new ones were spent to acquire a new perk. Going by the name Arcane Interface , part of the Magitech Crafting domain, it was a perk that gave her a base and insight into how to bridge technology and magic, using one to effect the other. Remote controlled golems or spells to modify digital databases.

Her knowledge of magic was good, with the books on Atlantean magic she had acquired the basic understanding of a full scholarship. But it wasn't exactly a real experience, it still took time to cast even the most basic spell, as her body re-learned what she already knew. Plus how none of it applied to the knowledge of magical charms and now all the new library on Youma Books she would have to look through.

She couldn't deny she was tempted to see about creating digital copies of the books, if she had a proper program to look over the texts and find the needed information she could certainly be more efficient. But there was an obvious and inherent danger in that, magic wasn't static, even as simple knowledge it could do things by simply existing. Otherwise Keine wouldn't be living in the Sanctuary, or the other possible spirits arising from their books.

Annette shrugged, she would look into it later, developing a way for her to cast spells with the assist of the Valkyrie Core would certainly be useful. But for now, she lifted the nightgown she had sewed in secret, time to make it up to her husband.

-(-(-|-)-)-

After a lovely time and a less than an hour of sleep, Annette was out and flying slowly through the night sky, it was Sunday already and she had started to feel the changes Junk had talked about come in. Like a cast finally breaking off once the product had cooled long enough, bits were falling off, exposing the finished product inside.

Each time a bit of the metaphorical clay that covered the metal broke off she felt things ease, her perks fit in better, her mind reacting faster, finding the solution to problems easier. She could feel her ability to synchronize with Odyssey increase by dozens of hours of total time.

By now her ability on that front was nearing the level of advanced cadets, she lacked some of the actual knowledge, but her constant experimenting around with the help of her knowledge of what a Core was actually capable of helped a lot. Short-distance blinks were the easiest, and she could easily reach a few dozen meters if she pushed it before it started to become a serious drain on her reserves.

She still had spent the time asleep not synchronized with Odyssey, being as fresh as possible when she woke up and quickly teleported away from her home. Once she was safely away she had let the Fran Arms out along with expressing her full armor, hiding her features and the nature of the extra arms before taking up the sky and flying in the direction of the Docks.

It was already the second week of February, and while Winter was still going strong, Brockton Bay wasn't a city known for snowing. The sea currents kept the worst of the weather at bay, that didn't mean that temperatures didn't go down pretty hard, coupled with the constant high humidity brought by the same sea, made it hard to see many people milling around at these hours of the night.

It just meant that Annette hadn't seen anything that was worth interrupting or reporting to the police, at most she had seen a few drug peddlers, but she wouldn't be reporting those, at the moment the city couldn't just not deal with the strain of having to deal with the number of them.

She had also not seen any other cape, but that wasn't a surprise, while it was Saturday night/Sunday early morning, both Protectorate and Wards kept the more affluent zones of the city, especially the later getting patrols through the boardwalk or the other largely more touristic streets of the city.

On the other hand, the area she was currently patrolling technically was under the ABB's control, plus a few minor Asian gangs that still survived. The Merchants had a minor presence in the area. And the Empire kept themselves to the other corner of the city, the good zones .

Between her Valkyrie Core and the Fran Arms, Annette had no difficulty in checking the internet for information. Two of her thought streams were surfing as many sites as possible completely anonymously. Looking to improve her knowledge of the gangs in Brockton Bay, because right now, all she knew could basically be considered equal to the average civilian.

Like how she hadn't known that the Black Knight was back in town, apparently Marquis' Lieutenant had been seen doing something in the crime lord's mansion. There were also rumors and news about a small group that called themselves Troubleshooters, but it was still up in the air if they were villains, rogues or vigilantes. Apparently they had rebuffed some sort of ambush from the Merchants when they had been moving stuff in a large truck. Given they hadn't stayed to give their testimony to any law enforcement, people were already betting on how long till one of the gangs took them out, off or subsumed them.

She had even found a small thread about herself during her searches, nothing interesting in it. The four of them had been still too shocked by the attack to even think about taking a picture of her, and apparently the cops hadn't thought about it either.

Still one of them had later decided to post about her existence in the local cape thread, most of the posts had been of accounts asking for confirmation of her status as a cape.

The many accounts asking for pictures made her stop and think. She knew most capes lived and died by how people saw them. A bad image could have people, even the civilians heroes tried to save, working against them. So Annette touched down on a particularly tall and desolate roof.

Her Impeller Field let her control her phone's camera at enough distance that she could utilize it to take a few pictures of herself. A finger hooked under the upper edge of her body suit, pulling it down to uncover her mouth. A bit of misdirection would work well so she projected a couple of small beauty marks above her lips.

Her armor changed her body's figure just enough that with the addition of the illusion over her mouth, Annette looked between twenty and twenty five, young but definitely an adult. She considered this a success. So with a few more poses and pictures, she spoofed a connection through Odyssey and created an account in PHO, plus a few other sites, as Odyssey_Core.

She posted the picture along with a small greeting to the forum using her new account. It was true there were other similar forums and sites to PHO, but most didn't have the same number of confirmed parahuman traffic. There were even rumors a few of the mods were thinkers working half-time.

Her post had quickly garnered attention, even this late at night her thread ignited the moment the word about her presence became known. A mod had even approached her through private messages, Annette had one of her Thought Streams start to write a reply when another picked up some news about troubles on the Police's radio.

Annette huffed, she never had a good opinion on gangs, even less about the Merchants, they weren't just a constant bother in the docks' area, but a few years ago they had been part of a pretty large scare as they had gotten the smart idea of selling drugs to younger kids. The idea of one of those villains forcing drugs on a girl like Taylor. It still chilled her down to the bone.

Hearing that another of the drugged tinker's creation was currently running wild through the city brought some bad and recent memories to Annette. So with little doubt she shot in the direction of the trouble. Only a couple of minutes of flight and she could see the monstrous vehicle made of trash.

Now the problem was what to do about the vehicle. She could easily erase it from existence with her hypervelocity cannon, collateral damage would be incredibly high and anyone inside would most likely not survive.

She watched the franken-truck cut through one of the local abandoned parks, an idea quickly took form in her mind, flying past the truck and stepping in its way she prepared to intercept. The Xyphos spear appeared in her hand and the edge lit up with the contained plasma.

She stopped a few centimeters off the ground, spear held with both hands and the edge held parallel to the ground as she shot forward. The blade cut through both wheels on one side of the truck with absolutely no resistance. The sudden lack of wheels had the front of the truck hit the soft ground and bite hard into it, quickly creating a long trench as the other wheels kept running, making it finally come to a stop after a near full circle.

It wasn't difficult for her to use her Impeller Field to not only amplify her voice, but also modify it. "Come out with your hands up. The police are already on their way."

One of her thought streams huffed as the other two watched the merchants peek out of the vehicle with guns, ready to shoot at her. Instead of letting the drugged up gang members get the drop on her, Annette reached with her extra arms for the knife bandoleer and expertly threw them at each gun she could see in her perception area.

Thanks to the infinite ammo ritual, each time a knife hit one of the guns and sliced through, it disappeared in a short-lived cloud of sparkles, returning to her belt a moment later.

"The police are on their way, I suggest you all come out with your hands up and lay face down on the ground. Now." She repeated.

While it seemed drugs hadn't cooked the brains of all gang members, as they dejectedly started to step out of the vehicle, some started screaming obscenities, to her and to the English language.

Annette was glad that whatever Squealer had done to the franke-truck didn't stop her Impeller Field, otherwise she may have panicked when the side that had ended facing her popper open and a gun-mounted chair slide out, a gun looking as trashy as the rest of the truck and the guy currently wielding it.

"Like hell we will you bitch, we are the Merchants!" She suspected the level of grime and dirt on them was some kind of medal, because this guy appeared to haven't washed in a month.

Annette snorted, half a dozen knives flew, severing the weapon from the crappy, plastic chair the Merchant was sitting on, the gun falling back into the vehicle given the angle it had ended.

"That's enough." She glared at the man.

Sadly her mask covered most of the glare, making it lose stopping power. The cannon over her should be about as long as she was tall to make up for it. This made the Merchant shut up and go pale.

With a point made she smiled. "Now, join the rest on the ground, face down, hands over your head." She was glad to see there was no one left inside the vehicle, she approached it, giving herself a better view of the insides of the vehicle, from there it wasn't hard to express a knife inside the vehicle, cutting the tinkertech away.

She had no idea what it did, but better not leave it laying around, right?

"Hello officers." She greeted them as one of her thought streams continued the job of safely severing the piece of tinkertech till she could take it away.

"Ah… thank you, erh…" The officer tried.

"Odyssey." She provided, with a smile.

"Right, Odyssey, thank you for stopping them." The officer thanked her.

"It was just the correct thing to do." She watched the Merchants slowly start to get taken by the other officers "So what do we do with the rest of this thing?" She asked as she pointed to the pile of trash she was currently taking anything interesting from.

"We will have to call the PRT to tow it, since it counts as tinkertech." The cop grumbled.

"Are you sure? I mean, I doubt anything that trashy should work, but…"

"Ha! Yeah, total trash can, but given Squealer has been confirmed as a tinker, any obvious piece of their work's taken by them." The cop grumbled.

Annette nodded as she finished taking whatever had been doing the job of motor for the piece of trash along with the gun she had severed. The mask covered her eyes and hid pretty well as they went wide open.

Her perks let her understand perfectly well what she had grabbed. And none of the two pieces were especially interesting in any way, not only the materials were trash, being held in place by a prayer, a dream and an extra-dimensional crystal computer. Her Hypervelocity Cannon was better than whatever the trash truck's weapon was supposed to be and the motor's interesting part was that it ran on biological trash, you could fill it with dirt and it would run, somewhat.

But what was interesting, was the fact that both examples of tinkertech shared a piece of technology not currently existing in Earth Bet, a piece that was quite interesting actually. It was hard to describe in layman terms what it was doing, the closest approximation was saying that it held the materials in place, giving the pieces a slight increased resistance to be pulled apart.

The best part was that the piece of technology wasn't especially energy intensive, and with a bit of work she may find a way to create a sort of material lock, reinforcing all the pieces of whatever it was the effect targeted while still letting it move around and actually work. It was definitely a win in her books, though it also left her pretty sure she wouldn't be getting anything useful from any other piece from Squealer unless it was much more complex than the trash truck.

She continued some light talk with the officer, giving her recount of the events till the cop had decided it was good enough. "Well, I think that's good for tonight, I wish you luck with the cleanup." She received a nod before she flew up and away.

She was glad things were over, because she had picked up the Protectorate's private line and Armsmaster was already on his way to the scene and she didn't want to deal with him, especially after he learned about the lack of tinkertech in the vehicle.

She felt the Celestial Forge's start to spin once more, from her two new charges, one was spent and a small perk from the Technological Toolkits domain pushed out, joining the growing constellations. It was named Data Access , and practically provided her with a mundane looking tablet that acted as a repository for all the files, books, grimoires, scrolls and other notes she owned.

She wanted to laugh, just earlier she had been thinking about digitizing her library, this skipped all the work. It made her glad she hadn't started. She stopped her flight in the middle of the docks area and retrieved the tablet.

It was a rectangular table with curved corners, the back was made in a dull metallic white with a glowing book and the front was all touch screen. A smile showed on her face as she slid it into her Core's storage, she felt the connection and her mind found access to all her books at the drop of a hand.

She was glad to see that the restricted books appeared to need confirmation before reading, by her or any program connected to the tablet. She would need to experiment with this, if her hunch was right, this would make it much easier to construct a technological focus that could not only be assimilated by her Core, but it would let her cast spells much easier and efficiently.

She had ideas, but she would need to call it an early night.

-(-(-(-|-)-)-)-

Armsmaster liked to think he maintained a cool and collected image most of the time, at least that is what the PR department's monthly updates described about his public image. That didn't mean he wasn't feeling the weight of his position, being leader of the Protectorate ENE was more than a bit hard on most parahumans. Being a tinker on top of that made it more difficult.

Different from other Protectorate leaders, he spent what little free time he had doing maintenance of his armor, weapon, vehicle and any other system he had a hand in the local base. He was both glad and jealous of Miss Militia's lack of need to sleep because he could delegate a handful of his responsibilities her way.

He still kept a solid position, his specialization led to a lot of options a lot of other tinkers just hadn't, many were so specialized that they could barely work on two projects without them being any different. That's why he was hoping to capture Squealer's creation, and not just because it's visage hurt every one of his sensibilities.

The vehicle was obviously built from a garbage truck, but not just a garbage truck, but a model his systems marked as having gone out of use before Scion's appearance on Earth Bet. So the woman was making a truck over thirty years old at minimum run after covering it in more old and rusted pieces of trash. He hoped that getting his hands on whatever she had put on the vehicle to make it run let him gleam something of her work and let him advance his own.

That's why once he had learned about the tinker's vehicle causing mayhem he had instantly taken the chance to intercept it. Even gone as far as to calculate the best spot given his position, the truck and their current velocities.

Of course it didn't go that way, and instead of cutting off the truck, it got intercepted by another cape about twenty blocks from where he expected to find it. Forcing the Protectorate Leader to divert his route quite a bit.

Unluckily, the delay compounded enough that all the event had already finished by the time his bike finally stopped, the police forces already carting the gang members away. Colin sighed internally, before steeling himself and approaching the officer currently leading the situation.

"Lieutenant Morse." He greeted the men professionally.

"Armsmaster," The man replied in kind. "It's good to see you, I received the notice you were coming, sadly it appears someone else took care of this already."

"I can see that. Who was it?"

"New cape, called herself Odyssey, definitely female, between twenty five and thirty, maybe thirty five. Sounded young, but didn't act that way, she was too sure of herself."

"That's interesting to hear, you think it's someone changing their name?"

The officer sighed. "Can't say, I've enough knowledge about capes, we have plenty around here in Brockton Bay." He ended the comment with a snort. "Her armor was pretty good."

Armsmaster turned to him. "She was a tinker? Interesting, I'll have to look into it." He stepped up to the vehicle. "What did she do exactly?"

Lieutenant Morse proceeded to recount what he had been told. "…and once we finished talking she said her goodbyes and flew away."

Armsmaster used his halberd to pick a few of the destroyed guns, scanning them. "You said she used knives?"

"Yeah, the bangers confirmed it too, a few have a few cuts on their hands too."

The hero looked at the severed gun's pieces. "Something else?"

"Yeah, she said the leader of the group popped out of the truck with a larger gun over there, she said it fell inside."

Armsmaster thanked the Lieutenant and stepped closer to look inside. "Are you sure, Lieutenant?"

"I'm sure, Armsmaster, I actually saw it inside when she told me, why?"

"Because it's not here."

The officer stepped up and looked inside. "… how?"

The hero sighed. "I think I have an idea." He stepped up to the front of the vehicle and swung his weapon a couple of times. The front grill falling off, revealing a very obvious hole in the contents of the car, the same cuts recognizable all over the place.

The officer started laughing. "She took it from under my nose."

"Apparently, it makes me wonder how she did it, but it definitely gives a reason to up her threat rating."

"Still taking the truck?" The Lieutenant asked.

"Yes, the PRT had to make sure it truly has no other possible piece of tinker tech inside."

"Hmm, then I'll leave you to that, can't say I've much problem with you guys taking this piece of trash off our hands." The man chuckled. "Have a good night, Armsmaster."

"Goodnight officer." The hero sighed, thankfully his mood quickly made a flip as he saw the name in the incoming message. "Hello Dragon, I'm glad you accepted my invitation..."

Chapter 14

Chapter Text

Annette decided to take her time flying back home, being high enough plus the invisibility hologram keeping her from being noticed. Not that she believed much could actually break through the combination plus her IF covered many of the other ways of observation, and she would bet even some types of powers may fail to pierce through it.

And while she would excuse herself saying she was looking for more possible troubles in the area, the truth was that two of her extra thought streams were currently going over some of the books of the Library. In greater detail, one was reading over a book on Gensokyo's history and the other a book on the basics of Onmyodo techniques.

The first was… interesting to say the least. It wasn't the first book on Gensokyo she had found, there had actually been a number of them, this was just the less opinionated one she had found, or at least the one that less showed its biases.

The land was definitely a place of fantasy, existing in a completely self-sufficient pocket dimension large enough to have an actual, and reachable, moon in the sky. The moon fact still weirded her out, since while it looked normal in the sky, it only took a few hours of flying upwards to reach it.

The land had been created by one of the oldest Youkais living there. The Border of Phantasm, the Youkai of Boundaries, the Gap Hag, Yukari Yakumo. The fact that her last title had been shared by all books on Gensokyo she had found didn't detract from the obvious bias the authors had. Apparently the woman took much delight in observing the goings-on in the land, and sometimes going as far as setting things up.

It wasn't like the woman wasn't powerful, she was definitely a special tier of utter bullshit, her power over boundaries let her do some wild stuff. Creating a whole dimension, or more likely closing off a large piece of a larger one, wasn't even the wildest of its examples.

Annette felt two charges slip into her bank as a roll failed.

Yukari also appeared to be behind or slightly connected to a large number of Incidents. And what wild things those appeared to be, with so many super powered individuals sharing the place it was almost a weekly issue.

On the other hand, her other Thought Stream was busy reading the starter book on Onmyodo basics, it came to cover a lot of the gaps her knowledge on charms had. There had been so many techniques and possible uses the charms could extend to that she just didn't know about just because they didn't fall in that initial charm making knowledge.

For example, she had been unaware that what she had been doing when crafting the charms and ofuda was contracting small elemental spirits to do her bidding. And with the knowledge of the spirit's nature she could not only improve the quality of her charms, but also aim for other effects besides those of repelling and binding she was working with.

A particular comment on Gensokyo's story about Shikigami had led her to skip a few chapters on the other book. She had been curious when the history book had talked about Yukari's shikigami Ran, a nine tailed fox spirit. Apparently in a similar way to how she could contract a small elemental spirit for Ofuda, she could also set a contract with larger and stronger spirits, demons and even other humans.

There was also the fact that the contract didn't even need to be consensual, if she wanted she could force and enslave the other party, not that it sounded like a good idea. But… but she had a lot of strong and rowdy spirits on the horizon, having a way to leash them and prevent problems from escalating into proper Incidents.

It would also be a nice way to give Keine some freedom. She would have to ask the half-youkai teacher about possible youkai to read on. She was pretty sure that some actual experience with Gensokyo would be better than taking what the book said about the inhabitants of that land.

She may have preferred they never awakened, but it was going to happen, the Library was so full of energy, her schoolbooks weren't helping, every one of them was soaked in magic. Meaning the Gensokyo books would sooner or later start awakening their writers, which would most likely start to accelerate the process as they would remember the rest.

Annette already felt a headache brewing in her head. She sighed as her armor disappeared the moment she teleported into her home, her arms still hanging comfortably from her back as she opened the way into the Sanctuary and stepped through.

Her first stop was in the room by the pantry, she made sure to advance the process of brewing, taking a few minutes to clean up the current containers and put the next batch to process. Given the time difference between steps, she doubted she would be starting another malting process once the current batch was on time, and with another alarm set for later she moved to visit the library.

Annette smiled as she noticed Keine reading the same book she was mentally checking. "Reminiscing?" She asked gently. The comment surprised the half-youkai and made her jump a bit.

"Ah! Oh… you are back. Er… yes," Keine stops and looks at Annette, confused for a moment. "I thought you were a human."

Annette looked at her, blinking once before putting it together, and just to make a point two of her rear arms reach around and do a little understood sign by hitting a closed fist on an open palm. "Oh, you mean these. No, they are just a special kind of tool."

"So you aren't a jogorumo?" When Annette didn't seem to know what it was she quickly explained. "A spider youkai."

"Oh, no, completely human… or at least I think I still pass as one, I got a small upgrade to my body and soul a week ago."

"Hmm, I can imagine how it could be useful to have more than a pair of limbs. And what do you mean about an upgrade?"

"I… have no idea actually. I'll have to ask the person who did it, but I doubt I have the knowledge to even start understanding what happened." She sighed. "Anyways…"

"Yes?" Keine closed the book she had been reading and put it away.

"Well, I've been reading on Gensokyo and Onmyodo, especially on the subject of shikigamis." Annette's extra hands fidgeted a bit behind her. "Mostly how it's used to help some spirits and youkai grow stronger, but also provides a way to control them."

"So you want to make the possible troublemakers into shikigami to keep them under control?"

"Not just them, I was going to offer you the chance too, for what I read, Ran being Yukari's shikigami had plenty of freedom to go around."

"That's… hmm, that would actually be interesting, I've been looking on the internet and your world appears to be plenty of interesting things, though it's a bit bleak."

Annette snorted and leaned back. "Well, yes. I hope I can help with that." She rubbed her chin. "The woman that saved me kinda exposed a bit of what's behind the curtain, and while I've plans to approach one of the international groups of heroes, I would like some help along the way."

"I'll have to think about it, but I don't see why not. I like the Library here, but I would like to go out more."

"I've no problem if you want to think about it, I'm still learning about Onmyodo, maybe in a few days when I'm more sure about it. Anyways, I wanted to ask you also about who I could look to read on to maybe accelerate their awakening."

Keine stopped to think about it. "Well, there are a few that should be helpful to have around. Sadly Reimu was human through and through, so even if you pump her biography full of magic she won't come back.

"I'm trying to think about the usual Incident solvers, we would need those that were human at one point or had a good relationship with the humans in town… Alice and Nitori."

"Tell me more about them." Annette asked.

"Alice would be my first choice, her full name was Alice Margatroid. She was born human, learned the arts of magic and specialized herself in the crafting of dolls and puppets she could control with magic. She turned herself into a magician, that's a pretty common path for humans who use magic, they are practically immortal and retain their looks and get a pretty solid upgrade to their magical abilities. Alice was a pretty level-headed and collected individual, so she would be pretty helpful to have around."

Annette nodded, her spare Thought Stream looking for her book.

"Nitori Kawashiro, on the other hand, was never human, she's a Kappa, a river youkai. While legends depict Kappa as monsters that enjoy drowning people, Kappa in Gensokyo are just a bunch of engineer nuts who love nothing more than to see what they can do next with technology." Keine let out a soft snort. "Nitori would definitely be nice to have her around, while shy, she's actually quite friendly and helpful."

Annette added another book to the list.

"Hmm, now that I think about it, Patchouli wouldn't be a bad addition, she was born as a Magician youkai, not turned into one later in life like Alice did. But Patchouli would most likely just hide herself here in the Library and never come out." The half-youkai chuckled.

"I'll keep her in mind, but I think I could do more with helpful hands at the moment. I should also see about learning to use the Spell Card system."

"I could give you a few tips on that, I may not have been the most active on that front, but I've been part of more than one Danmaku. Why do you want to learn it?"

"Well, the way I think about it is that if I will have to force a number of troublemakers, using the mostly safe environment of Spell Cards will work best. Because of what you told me and I read in the books, most Youkai only respect strength, so as long as I beat them down I'll have control over them given their pride in getting the best of them."

Keine stopped for a moment before throwing her head back and laughing. "Oh yes! I agree completely. Those troublemakers would never let go of being beaten given the size of their egos."

"I'll hold you to that." Annette smiled. "I still have things to work on, …so many things." She chuckled a little more nervously. "I still have to get in contact with Dragon." She finally let out a soft sigh. "Well I better move, think about it, Keine, I don't think I'll be ready to set a shikigami contract for a while, but ask me if you need anything."

"I will, Annette. And don't worry, just having this," She pulled the phone out. "solves a lot of my doubts."

The woman nodded and walked out of the room, heading to the Research and Development Lab. The Thought Stream that she had been reading through the Onmyodo book had come up with a pretty good idea she wanted to put together.

In the same way her VC was currently improving the assimilated 3D Printer to improve her manufacturing abilities inside her storage, she came with the idea to have an Ofuda printer inside too. It wasn't even the most complex subject, but a nice and simple test she could have now, and instead of having to sit down and draw them by hand.

Annette put her three Thought Streams into working out the charm printer, it wasn't exactly needed, especially as she felt two new charges get spent to acquire a perk called Programmer , it was exactly what it said on the tin, making her good enough to not only utilize any and all kinds of programming language and architecture, but also work out alien systems and use them as easily as mundane ones.

This easily let only one of her Thought Streams worry about the programming while the rest quickly worked out the designs for the printer in itself. And even that wasn't exactly complex. The whole process didn't even take her more than half an hour before the manufacturing facilities were producing the laptop-sized machine. It even had an adapter to accept the inks provided by the perk Mamono Realm Inks.

Not that Annette would be using those unless completely necessary, she understood the danger of some of those effects, so she would be reserving those for last resort.

Annette watched the piece of techno-magic slide out, she could imagine it steaming like if it had just come out of an oven, making her chuckle before her Impeller Field reached for it, enveloped it and a second later it disappeared, instead appearing inside of her storage, the Core assimilating it.

It wasn't an instant thing, but it certainly didn't take as long as it would for a normal Valkyrie. To begin with she went with a simple printer design, a lack of advanced or complex electronic parts was a must for it. Second, while she had looked online for open source information on said machine, Annette had gone and re-designed every part.

Annette smiled as she grabbed a ream of paper along with some ink, putting them away in her storage before utilizing the printer to start producing the little human-shaped shikigami, it was one of the simplest versions of the art, each one marked with a small character. Seconds later a three centimeter high stack of them appeared in her hand.

"Let's give this a try." She stepped out of the Laboratory.

The woman couldn't shake the smile off her face as she held the hand with the shikigami as the other held in the activation sign and she chanted the necessary words. An impossible wind started to blow around her, only visible by how the little paper men started to flutter off her hand.

First one, soon two, the third was right behind, soon the few dozens of them were flying around her in multiple patterns. Annette's hand shifted into another sign and suddenly they were all flying in perfect formation around her.

Her smile turned into a grin as her Fran arms lifted, holding three more signs and suddenly the paper dolls separated into four defined groups, each one following a different pattern. And it wasn't like the patterns were just for show. The spirits contracted into each doll may as well have been a short-lived breeze, but with dozens of them acting in concert?

A shift and the four groups merged into two larger ones, freeing four of Annette's arms, not that she used them all, instead changed the two groups into defensive formations as a pair of guns slid off her inventory right into her hands before she started to shoot the shikigami.

Even if she had used the full amount of materials to create each one, each shot easily tore one or two of the paper dolls, the paper scraps falling to the ground. Soon the two groups had to shift into a single one just to still be capable of stopping the shots.

"Definitely useful." She let the power leave the rest of the paper dolls, the cutouts falling as there was nothing holding them up. Her IF easily cleaned up the mess of shredded paper and started recycling it.

With that cleaned up she decided to prepare some tea and sit down to read her books. She had to study.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon went over the files another time, her digital mind letting out a sigh as she checked to make sure they were okay. She didn't want to believe it, but her third manufacturing plant, the one that took care of the construction of the latest line of suits she had been working on, had a massive error in the numbers.

She was pretty sure her calculations weren't wrong, enough resources to produce four or five of her suits didn't just disappear in an error. It had taken the digital woman a few hours to get a drone over to the installations and check the paper records, and those were correct, the problem was in the weekly tally coming way under the expected numbers.

It had taken her several hours after that till she found the first clue, except it left her even more confused. Because the only way that the numbers were going wrong is if her order for three suits plus several spare parts was true and she didn't remember sending it.

For some reasons the records of the day the order was sent were a mess, a total of three restores from her backups she just didn't remember.

To say that Dragon was terrified this had happened was little of an understatement. A normal human would easily be entering a panic attack, for her this was impossible, instead she had entered a sort-of panic self-check up process. The worst for her was that she wasn't finding any actual error in her memory, instead there were the expected missing spots from the backup restores.

It took her a few minutes to calm down, resorting to human methods to deal with the panic attack she went through. She hated it so much, she had an idea there was more than one restriction put on her that led to her recent memory banks being purged and having her personality core restored from backup hard coded into herself.

Now that she was calmed she was left with a big question. What had led to having herself be restored from backup so many times in quick succession, she was pretty sure she had stopped experimenting with her limitations to this extent, especially while doing other things like making orders for automated systems.

Dragon still decided the danger was too big to actually investigate, she wished she had someone to look over them, but-

Dragon still decided the danger was too big to actually investigate it, so she decided to look into the next subject. She hadn't been entirely convinced when Armsmaster had approached her for a chance at a collaboration.

The digital woman had to admit the idea wasn't bad, she had been able to get her waldoes on a few examples of his work. While nothing to the same level as the man's work, she had managed to improve her own miniaturization on her systems.

She had finally decided to start talks with the hero on the night prior. In her opinion, it had gone mostly okay. Apparently a new hero had gotten to a villain before him and had nabbed a piece of tinkertech the hero had been wanting to get his hands on.

Even as the man had not been in the best of moods, Dragon had come out quite happy about their talk, the man had a pretty solid idea of what went into designing and understanding Tinker Tech.

The other thing that came out of their talk was the appearance of a new cape in Brockton Bay, while it wasn't the most revolutionary event in the city, given the sheer density of gangs and parahumans, the fact that a tinker had managed to fly under the radar enough to develop a proper power armor.

And what armor it was. Dragon admitted to feeling slightly jealous of what she saw. It hadn't taken her long to find the pictures after Armsmaster had commented on the new cape. It took her barely a few seconds to put the story together. Apparently the heroine had saved a small group of civilian girls from being accosted and one of them had posted about her presence.

But it hadn't been till later on that day that Odyssey had decided to post the images that the thread had truly bloomed with interest. Especially as many users had started trying to pick apart what she had shown.

Dragon was impressed by the armor, not only it looked really well done, it looked nothing like the usual tinker tech power armor, especially from a parahuman who had never been seen before. Even tinkers with specializations in armors or similar fields didn't make such good products. Her suits didn't look as well produced even after a few years of experience and over a dozen compatible tinker works studied over the years.

For a bit she had theorized that the armor had been put together by multiple tinkers, maybe Odyssey was working with Toy Box or a similar group, but nothing in the armor pointed to a possible collaboration. Its design was just too homogeneous, too well put together, nothing looked out of place. There were none of the usual clues of clashing tinkers working together.

Especially as from what Armsmaster had told her, Odyssey's ability seemed to extend past just the armor as she had displayed the ability to remove the so-called vehicle's motor without anyone noticing, right from under the police's noses.

Dragon stopped her train of through and quickly pulled some files Armsmaster had let her access, just a few days ago there had been a strange event in Brockton Bay's boat graveyard, where what was calculated to be a large sphere of material had disappeared under strange circumstances. If Dragon was right, this could easily be Odyssey experimenting with this piece of technology, the ability to capture physical space and… and what?

She imagined it wasn't destroying it, there must have been something on the other side, either some type of teleportation to the cape's base or a pocket dimension to store it. She wondered what were the limits of the ability, they were certainly not limited by field of vision, the parahuman had certainly not been able to see into the vehicle, or had used some other method to observe and localize the motor.

That already made two pieces of technology that could be considered pretty advanced, unless they worked with a similar method. Similar to whatever she used to power her flight, the police officer that took her testimony noted that it had been not only completely silent, but hadn't created wind of any type.

Was this how they had used the disappearing knives too? Retrieving them the moment they hit their intended targets? Dragon had started to get more and more interested, wanting to find how they worked, learning how they worked and applying it to her work. She may not go through Tinker Fugues like other tinkers, she actually doubted she was a tinker sometimes, but she had pride in her work, in her ability to reverse engineer other tinkers' works.

Dragon could only digitally sigh as she pushed away from her current train of thought, instead moving to other subjects as the sun was starting to come out, meaning she had to do things like checking her mail as normal people woke up and the work day started moving.

"Uh…" Dragon stopped when she noticed something in her PHO's admin account, one that only a handful of people should even be capable of knowing it existed, even less message it.

From: Odyssey_Core

To: Draco_Admin

Subject: Hello...

Chapter 15

Chapter Text

Annette was more than a little surprised. All had started when she had sat down after her short training with the shikigamis, she had decided to check how the threads were dedicated to her faring. Most of the sites had had a bit of interest shown, most people appeared to be expectant, and since her hit against the Squealer-mobile was still not public, she doubted it would really garner more attention.

On the other hand, the thread dedicated to her in PHO had quickly exploded, apparently tinker-tech fanatics were active around the time she posted the picture, making a lot of speculation start in her thread, to the point it soon had a thread for itself. Her half dozen pictures pulled away pixel by pixel, and what pixels they were! Annette hadn't spared on the picture quality, to the point some users were wondering if she had gotten tech from Ocular, a semi-rogue Tinker with a specialization on cameras, lenses and similar light manipulation.

Without her or said tinker to come and provide a word about it, users had quickly weaved a strange story that had no sense or reason, trying to bet she had re-branded or changed her name, or that she was an escapee from some secret organization bent on world domination finally rebelling against her masters.

The other thing she noticed is that she had never sent the message in reply to the mod's private communication, her Thought Stream had completely deviated during the course of actions to take care of the Merchant's vehicle.

Annette had stopped before clicking send, instead wondering if it truly was a good idea. This lead her to wondering if the person on the other side was truly one of the so theorized parahuman mods.

A few minutes of work, that turned to be scarily easier than she thought possible, and Annette was looking at the private list of admin accounts for PHO. It was impressive to see that Alexandria apparently had an account, though she didn't appear to have used it, ever. The last registered login was minutes after being created.

On the other hand, Dragon appeared to not only be a frequent user of her account, but be currently logged in. Annette had thought about approaching the woman, she be an AI or not, she was certainly one of the parahumans that did the most good, plus she always had a much better opinion on The Guild than the PRT/Protectorate.

She was pretty sure she could step back and no one would even notice she had been looking around, so far she hadn't truly seen anything that could be considered problematic. But this was also the fastest way she could approach the heroine, send her a message, apologize for overstepping and looking around, but she never expected to see her there.

A moment later her mental fingers started typing a new message, starting by presenting herself, adding a short, but honest, apology before stating that she wanted to contact the guild, but didn't think that actually calling the offered number would make things any easier. That she just found this during a moment of extreme curiosity.

A few more words about her interest in working with The Guild and… Annette noticed she had written nearly five pages between all of it, her mind had easily fallen into writing an essay and just gone to town on it, her perks certainly did not help in making sure it was the best written letter possible. She let out a soft sigh, it was weird not wanting to excel at everything sometimes, she really needed to get that perk to restrain her powers soon.

The moment she sent the message she felt the familiar sensation of a new perk, one charge banked and the other used to purchase Inert Ceph Technology . She had to get up and head for the Artifact room to look for the item, apparently for a single charge she had acquired a small vial with a single inert piece of alien technology.

Strangely, this piece felt to her more alien than the Crystal Shards were, or whatever they were truly called. Maybe it was because it was not only alien, but also actually from another dimension?

She lacked much understanding of the piece, the little the perk said was that it was safe to handle, not only it was inert, but there was no hivemind to take control of it. So with little doubt, her IF reached for the whole vial and a moment later it disappeared into her storage, taking complete control of it.

She understood now. To begin, saying it was a single piece was wrong, the splinter of material that laid inside the vial hadn't been truly solid, instead it was a normally uncountable number of nanomachines, replicating all the parts the material, from the chemicals up to the pieces, up to the whole. It was millions upon millions upon millions of little machines working in tandem to appear to be something else. In a way it was the perfect camouflage, imitating matter so well that you couldn't tell it was actually not.

If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and walks like a duck, it's actually a mass of nanomachines imitating a duck really, really well.

"Uh…" Annette also understood that it wasn't all it was. The nanomachines were technically guided by the hivemind, which was missing in this case, not just in the whole, but each individually, it was just a waste of resources and effort to have a single unit go against the whole, but possible.

There were also a lot of interesting tricks to bridge technology and biology, the nanomachines could easily imitate biology and be implanted with no danger of rejection. This would slowly end replacing everything on the individual with nanomachines with enough time, which led to interesting and worrying implications.

She was pretty sure people smarter than her had thought about it a lot, she was also pretty sure they called this the Ship of Theseus problem. But she was an English Literature teacher, not a philosopher. In her opinion it was still the same ship, end of the deal. Not that she wanted to replace herself with nanomachines.

She could also see many ways to apply this knowledge of technology coordinating this well over such large numbers, or the obvious physical augmentation systems the Ceph Technology used, or the weapon designs apparently stored in some parts of the inert piece of nanomachines.

Actually, Annette could see a few easy ways to improve her strength by applying the physical reinforcing systems to her body suit. A fine mesh of reinforced, synthetic muscles would not only increase her strength and reduce the stress when exerting herself, but it would also work great at reducing recoil and the effect of impacts on herself, spreading the hit all over her body and easily grounding it.

The problem was how to produce said reinforced body suit, she still was weeks away before having internal crafting capabilities fine enough to craft the necessary nanomachines. The best idea would be having the R&D Lab start production of a suit, the difficulty with that was that the production of even one suit would take nearly a day, the laboratory just wasn't designed for that kind of creation.

Annette sighed and had a Thought Stream start on that while another noticed that Dragon had finally replied.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon stopped reading and pulled an old software she had designed earlier in her life. She watched the program go over the text in silent admiration.

Earlier in her life, after her creator/father had disappeared, she had been left direction-less. She then started to look for ways to pass as human, one of them had been learning about art appreciation, so she'd gone ahead and developed a program to help herself, a sort of training-wheel software to give herself a better idea of what the human mind understood as beautiful.

And this letter was awarded top points by the software, an almost random message sent to her by a parahuman about getting in contact, got awarded top points from a program designed to consider how beautiful the human mind normally would consider it.

One of her processes noticed that Narwhal had signed in, the woman was the closest thing Dragon had to a friend who knew her secret, though even now she wasn't sure if she actually knew and hid it or just suspected it. The woman was also the current leader of The Guild, the same organization she worked for.

The Guild had been formed in response to the USA's Protectorate and PRT, deciding to set a single acting body instead of two. Sadly, the initial attempts were failed given the lack of experience and unknown necessities. It would be till about twelve years prior, with the first Protectorate built in Canadian soil that the government tried to reinstall the initiative. Thankfully with much greater success.

Different from its American counterpart, The Guild worked at an international level, many times reaching to provide help in other countries across the globe. There was also the fact that members of this organization tended to have a much greater freedom of action compared to the heavily red-taped actions of the Protectorate's parahumans.

Narwhal had been a friend from near the start, different from herself, the woman had been an actual human, no matter how much her second trigger had changed her, and had risen to the spot of leader for The Guild a few months prior. Only even more recently finally getting used to her new position and all that it encompassed.

So Dragon decided to call her friend, not just for her opinion given their relation, but also as the official head of their group.

"Good Morning, Theresa, what brings you this early on my day off?" Narwhal smiled, the AI knew pretty well her friend was joking on the last part as she was currently using the simulation she called her face to communicate through a screen.

"Morning, Elizabeth, sorry to approach as soon as you logged in, but I would like to bring this to your attention." The image Dragon projected on the screen showed a thoughtful expression as the message was sent. "I want you to read this before I explain more."

"If you say so, my friend." Narwhal went silent as she started reading, visibly stopping for a moment and scrolling back up to read it again. "Dragon, I hope you haven't forced me into master and strange protocols."

Her image shook her head, letting out a soft laugh. "No, don't worry, it's just a really well written message. It was sent to me earlier this morning by a new cape in Brockton Bay."

"Okay, that doesn't sound especially worrying, but I'm already expecting there's more to this."

"First, it was sent to my PHO's admin account, the one that no one should be even able to see. Second, the cape in question appears to have come from practically nowhere, especially as she appears to be a Tinker who I can only attribute to three situations."

Narwhal crossed her arms and leaned back on her chair, looking at the mystifying letter on the screen before turning to Dragon. "Tell me more." She simply ordered.

Dragon nodded. "From the three situations, only two were public appearances, and one was obviously not intended.

"Saturday 9th, around 8 am a call was picked up by the local emergency line, a cape identified herself as Odyssey reports she detained a group of men during the harassing of a group of teenage girls that had come out from a party about two blocks away. The officer later wrote that the cape had restrained the aggressors by utilizing 'some kind of barrier tinker tech', he also noted that she used some kind of paper tags for aiming, apparently not having finished the technology, he also noted that she admitted to not having been in patrol, and just been repurposing some of the abandoned trains of the near train yard. She stayed long enough to lower the barrier before leaving.

"Sunday 10th, around 1 am, the police pick up multiple calls about a vehicle identified as the work of a tinker, code name Squealer," Narwhal just raised an eyebrow, but didn't interrupt. "was running amok through some less utilized streets, Armsmaster from the Protectorate mobilized to intercept. Except someone else got there first."

"It was Odyssey?" Narwhal asked. "Any pictures of her?"

The AI nodded and the screen changed, a few of the pictures the woman had posted online scrolled across, prompting The Guild's leader to whistle.

"Okay, that's some of the best power armor I've seen, no offense, Dragon."

"None taken, I've to admit I'm quite jealous, I've spent a good amount of time earlier going over these pictures, trying to get as much information as possible."

"Okay, you can tell me more about that later, continue."

"Odyssey proceeded to intercept the vehicle while it cut through a local park, utilizing what I theorize is a super heated blade to cut both wheels on a side of the truck. The sudden lack of support on a side, combined with the vehicle's current speed, weight and the soft dirt had it loose control and swerved almost a complete rotation.

"Once it was obvious their truck was going nowhere, the gang members tried to shoot at her, but had their weapons quickly neutralized by some sort of thrown, bladed weapon." The image changed, showing one taken by Armsmaster later. "Most Merchant members quickly gave up after that, following her orders to move away from the vehicle and lay face down on the grass. The exception was the group's leader, known and active member of the gang utilized a mounted weapon to threaten Odyssey, with similar results, the weapon emplacement was neutralized and forced to join the rest."

"So far she sounds like a very efficient woman."

"Hmm, she's also shown to be very polite in her treatment with police forces, but she also managed to take what appears to be most of the tinkertech in the vehicle without anyone noticing." This made Narwhal snort softly, an easy smile on her face.

"And then she went back home and wrote you a love letter?" She teased. "Joke aside, I would like you to reply to them, if necessary you can send them to me. So far they haven't really done anything that would have us rejecting their interest to join the Guild outright."

"I will, if nothing else because I'm curious about their technology."

"Ah ha! So the truth finally comes out? You just want her for her tech!" Narwhal smiled, soon the two were laughing.

"Finally, the last incident was during Wednesday the 6th during hours of the morning a loud noise and disturbance was reported in the area known as Boat Graveyard, when Protectorate member Roadie and Ward member Hummingbird approached the area in question.

"They found that a previously noted fishing boat had collapsed in, further investigation found that a large, spherical area had been completely removed from just under them, PRT forces later did further investigations, going as far as removing a large part of both ships, finding the sphere to extend slightly underground." Dragon brought a picture and an image of the suspected area removed. "As you can see, I suspect Odyssey was either experimenting with her technology, or she was retrieving something from under the ships. I suspect that she may have found an old, abandoned or untouched cache of useful materials, maybe another, smaller boat or a container of some sort."

"That's worrying, especially because I don't see why this kind of technology couldn't be used to severe people in a similar way to my barriers in being not Manton-limited."

"I agree, but as with most Parahumans, such worries shall remain so for as long as the subject doesn't utilize their powers in a harmful way. We both know how deadly the edges of your barriers can be, but you don't use them that way."

Narwhal nodded and smiled. "I guess that's all for now?"

"Yes, enjoy your morning, Elizabeth. I'll keep you updated."

"And to you as well, my friend."

Dragon smiled as she cut off the connection, her presence moving back to her main installations. The AI cracked her digital fingers and started typing a reply letter, setting up a better platform to contact Odyssey.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette poured herself a large cup of the magically brewed coffee while she read Dragon's reply, apparently she hadn't screwed everything with her curiosity. The drink erased whatever tiredness from her mind as she went over it carefully.

The good news, it wasn't the worst possible way to approach a member of the Guild looking to join them, and given the link provided by the heroine, that Darwin Award went to Foot Frog, who… Annette didn't know if to laugh or to cry, she was pretty sure there must be a few war crime laws made in his honor about the use of fishnets stockings and rubber chickens.

She needed a second cup of coffee after that tangent read.

Anyways, Annette was happy with what she read, apparently Dragon was also interested in her, having learned of her existence and having her curiosity greatly increased by the pictures she posted earlier on her patrol. The Guild's member had also sent her some of the necessary reads about their organization.

Apparently while The Guild's member fared better in the number of restrictions they worked under compared to the PRT, they had a much more stringent entry. The Protectorate would usually accept nine out of ten parahumans that approached them, The Guild, on the other hand, tended to accept less than two out of ten, the rest shoved to the Protectorate.

The rules on personal projects were interesting, given The Guild's usual fare in dealing with S-Class threats, there were many less restrictions compared to Tinker in the Protectorate's employ. Similar to the personal image the parahuman had, the biggest example of this was the leader, Narwhal. There was only a rare few who hadn't heard of the over two meters ten amazon, and her aversion to wearing anything else by her force fields.

Not that Annette saw much problem on that front, her Core was definitely stylish enough and she doubted she would be changing it besides improving the quality of the materials and a minor re-design of the armor.

Midway through her read, she felt the Forge stir and two charges get spent for the purchase of a perk simply called Scientist , coming from the Intelligence domain, and it brought her to a stop as she felt her understanding of science and technology expand.

It came to cover a lot of things she was doing, but didn't truly understand. Yes, Enemy Progression helped her understand technology and have a pretty good idea what she had to do to improve individual pieces of technology, especially to mass produce advancements, but she was letting the perk guide her. This one, instead, explained things.

The science behind the advances, the understanding of how and why things worked, bringing a lot of the advances into a new light. And it wasn't just normal science, as she was pretty sure ideas of how to approach teleporters and jetpacks was restricted to Tinker creations, and not something she could explain to an engineer and be understood.

The perk also appeared to be incomplete, something told her it could become more, a deeper level of synergizing with another perk, but she didn't see a way to acquire it right now, so she could only hope for it to be rolled.

She could feel the Valkyrie Core, still synchronized with her, take her newly gained knowledge and utilize it to improve the pieces of assimilated technology currently in her storage. New uses for the holographic system bloom in the back of her mind.

Meanwhile, the 3D Printer was apparently in the process of reprinting itself, taking advantage of the zero gravity environment inside of her storage along with the fine control the Impeller Field provided, the design was simplified and at the same time the resulting work would be an impressive margin more complex.

A lot of things started to fit better, the perk apparently resonating with the other similar technological perks, even the R&D Lab reacting to what the new perk brought, Annette would have to look into it la-

"Mom!" Her train of thought went completely astray as the voice of her daughter brought her out of her musings.

"My little Owl, you woke up early."

"Of course, mom! Yesterday I slept till late and missed our morning run."

"Such a good girl, you make your mother proud." The girl laughed as Annette pulled her into a hug. "Okay, go and see if your dad will join us."

"Yes, mom." Taylor skipped away, making Annette snort, at this rate she would end jogging twice as much as her parents would.

She was glad Danny joined them, just a few days in and he was already looking better than he had in years, of course Annette knew it was a compound effect coming not just from daily exercise, but also from the food she cooked with the Magic Pan and the Sanctuary's ability to improve the learning of mystical and martial arts.

Taylor showed it less, the girl was still at the age she was pretty much sprouting like a weed, so it wasn't exactly easy to see if there was any change at the moment, the mother decided she would still keep an eye on the girl.

She led her family through some warm up exercises, some jogging around the Sanctuary grounds, stretching exercises after their morning run and careful warm down work before they all took a shower, sitting at the table together to share their breakfast.

The time was spent sharing good food and more than a few laughs as Annette regaled them with events of the previous night, even admitting to having taken the tinker tech weapon and engine. She later recounted her contact with Dragon.

"You will join the guild? That's so cool!" Taylor looked ready to start gushing about it.

"That's the idea, honey. But remember, you can't tell anyone about it, no matter how much you want. I know you are a smart girl."

"Aw… I wanted to let everyone know how cool my mom was." The girl pouted, but Annette wasn't buying it.

"Sure, and I wanted to tickle my daughter for lying like that, come here." The woman laughed as she easily captured her daughter and started to tickle her sides, eliciting loud laughter from her.

"S-stop! Ha haha, Mo-mom… ple-please…" Annette soon stopped, Taylor still giggling between heavy breaths. "No fair…"

"You know better than to lie to your mother." She teased, making Taylor laugh a bit more.

"Haha-ow… don't make me laugh, mom, it hurts." Taylor held her belly with a smile on her face.

"Okay, okay, I won't tickle you more… for now." Annette grabbed a brush and started to comb her daughter's hair. "Do you have any homework left, Taylor?"

"Not really, I did most of what I had already. So today's completely free." The girl relaxed as her mother worked through her hair.

"Then go and have fun, I'll keep the Sanctuary open, but it counts as staying inside, so go out to the yard too, it's a nice day after all." She smiled as her daughter thanked her and ran off.

Annette smiled, happy to see her daughter doing well, she turned to Orion. "You can go with her, boy, just don't step out."

The snugget did its usual chuff and skipped after her daughter. She smiled as her Valkyrie Core brought up the necessary files, she would need his expertise and point of view on the subject of The Guild's contract.

Chapter 16

Chapter Text

"… having read it carefully, I've to say it's not a bad contract." Danny spoke carefully, it was mid afternoon already, her husband having taken most of the morning and lunch reading through the files.

Annette sat by his side. "I'm glad there's special consideration for those who don't want to move their whole life over to Canada."

"Yes, but that's mostly because the local Protectorate's branch is big enough."

She grumbled a bit before letting out a sigh. "I hoped I could skip having to deal with them. I've done quite well this far."

He chuckled. "Only because you pretty much bailed the only time you would have met with one of them." And quickly added. "And if you want to join The Guild you will have to not only interact with them, but also approach them to get vetoed by the current leader."

"What I don't understand is why she added the list of restrictions the Protectorate tinkers work under. I mean, I knew they could be quite restrictive, and it's not like I'm going to start building weapons of mass destruction just because I can." She hummed. "It's because I don't understand if it's because she wants me to really join The Guild or if there's something else there."

"I've to admit I'm not sure either. You said she appeared to be really interested in your technology?" He asked and Annette nodded, sending him the message Dragon had written in reply to his phone.

While he read she started to go over the extra sections of the contract. "Looks like I should ask for the whole set of flight permits, the Core's flying speed is definitely fast enough that I could get from here to the west coast in less than three minutes."

Danny looked away from what he was reading to look at her. "… I'm still amazed that you may be capable of building more of those in the future."

"In the far future, even now I know I'm still really, really far from making a proper Valkyrie Core." Annette let out a soft snort as she felt the Forge stir, coming from the Time domain, the perk was called Savvy Sultan , not only giving her manual abilities compared to the best machines, but she also would be able to cut the time of any technological craft down to a fourth.

Annette wondered if other similar perks would compound on top of this, just how fast she could make things? A question to ask Junk later. She turned her mental attention to the extra perk that had come with it, Serene Sinatra felt almost like some kind of pity gift, giving her an innate ability to sing. Of course it merged its effect with Savant since singing was art, meaning she could easily serenade like the best.

Interestingly, it didn't synergize much with Time Flies, a lot of what this later perk did was accelerate the process of steps that were mostly automated, the newer one, on the other hand, covered the parts of production that held a greater attention needed.

There were a few spots where the two perks did synchronize, and that would see things going almost twenty times as fast, a ridiculous speed if Time Flies didn't just make things go faster instead of accelerating her.

She would have to check the production of the bodysuit, because it should be finishing quite fast if she restarted right now, it hadn't been much since it had started, so better go at it soon.

"All's okay, Annette?" Danny asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh? Yes, sorry, just wanting to check on something, a new perk came along and has changed things a bit around." She explained it.

He nodded. "Then go, I will give the contract another read. But I think we won't have problems if you join them." She thanked him with a kiss to the cheek and wandered back to the Sanctuary.

Annette stopped by the library to check on Keine, finding the half-youkai spirit working hard in learning English. She gave the fellow teacher a nod before heading to the Lab. Since she was already synchronized with Odyssey, the woman expressed the extra arms, letting her mind expand, the multiple Thought Streams taking control of the installations.

Once inside she quickly flushed the current bodysuit, it wasn't hard to have all the materials she had put into the work quickly get recycled. If it wasn't because doing it in her Storage provided her useful experience, she may have put all the materials she got from the graveyard and yard directly through the Laboratories systems.

It was pretty easy to go over the designs and improve them, especially as her knowledge was constantly growing more and more. Her new suit would be cheaper, simpler to use, having nearly no lag between reading the neural signals moving through the muscles to prevent any kind of damage to her body.

Apparently the design process fell under the production process, making Savvy Sultan kick in, increasing her speed fourfold, that increase in speed easily added to the fact she had multiple Thought Streams taking care of the problem and soon she finished with two versions of the same item.

One was the one she would use, it took advantage of the fact it would be assimilated by her Core, easily duplicating her strength, which wouldn't be as impressive as the other model's five-time increase if it wasn't taking into account the fact that Annette was considerably stronger than normal people. It also abandoned the idea of utilizing a battery pack and was powered by the Valkyrie Core's own power source. Annette decided to put a pin on power sources, the natural power generation of the Core wasn't bad, but she would need something quite more powerful if she wanted to truly utilize all the functions of the tool.

The second version was more of an afterthought, but certainly usable, the body suit would need to be used under actual clothes, the most bothersome part was the battery pack on the back. The piece of equipment would need to be taken into account when building armored suits to go over the body suit, but given it was about the size of a laptop and just as thin, it shouldn't be much of a problem, especially since Junk's batteries would give it about four hours of work before running dry.

As said before, the second version easily increased an average fit adult's strength five times, would reduce the impact of small caliber down to a very strong punch, while painful it would be much safer than having a bullet shoot through the wielder. The literature teacher had soon gotten distracted with the second design, starting to implement the environmental protection and the basic tech modules into the design.

For example, while adding a protection to the complete void of space would increase the battery pack's size between four and six times, it was much easier to have it filter air for noxious and hazardous gases. Similarly the morph-ball mode would require a complete redesign, but the dash and double jump module could be easily implemented through a belt accessory. The image of the body suit with a slightly cumbersome belt tickled something on the back of Annette's mind, but she really couldn't tell what it was.

She was tempted to see about doing something for the helmet, but she decided to leave it for when she had something interesting, maybe she should see about spells that altered perception, she could see about designing something to fit on that.

Once she was happy with both, she proceeded to produce them, she started with her own. Not only did she want to assimilate it, but it would also go faster as it didn't need the battery pack nor the jump and dash belt.

Apparently guiding the production of the body suit was both not especially dynamic on her part and heavily technical, Annette finished the first suit twenty times faster than it normally would be over ten hours of work down to barely above thirty minutes.

They were thirty minutes she had to keep an eye on the work, though thankfully she could get a couple of her Thought Streams back into reading Onmyodo and Gensokyo books. The second suit would take longer, even with the reduced time, it would be nearly an hour of work till the whole thing was properly weaved by the fabrication system.

Taking the finished product into her storage and giving the okay to assimilate it was like opening her eyes to the design a second time, or maybe third since it had gone through a rework. The suit fit seamlessly over her body, the armor expression ability would make sure it would fit like a second skin. One thing she could see was how the weaving was quickly getting improved, sadly some of the weaves her Core was applying would be really difficult to produce without specific fabricators and an Impeller Field to hold it together.

And while she was tempted to modify the second version more, she decided to let it continue working as her attention moved back to the subject of Dragon. Danny had sent her the contract with a few notes and a couple of points to discuss with the Guild member, Annette took a few minutes to go over them, it all looked good. So to not lose more time, she decided to follow the link, she hoped the woman was available.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon nearly jumped out from her chassis when the private and secure site she had set to talk with Odyssey pinged her. She had been expecting the call to come much earlier, or not for a few days. Instead it had come just about right when she had started to move onto other things.

She watched the stream of information almost reverently, really hoping for things to go well. The AI watched every bit enter her side of the program and text finally started appearing on the screen.

" Hello Dragon… well, this is weird… did you have to set the program for live text? It will drive me crazy. "

" Haha, sorry, I keep using the text-to-speech software… I mean, speech-to-tech, I need my hands to work. "

" I can see how that would work for a tinker, maybe try for a multi-armed set next? I know I enjoy that. "

" I see! Those were arms, I've to admit I was curious about the purpose of the additions to the back of your armor. " Dragon had quickly checked the images posted the day prior. " At first I imagined they were part of your flight system, but I kept finding problems with that theory. "

" Three extra pairs of hands, hard to master, but definitely useful. " There was a longer pause before Dragon saw the contract file get sent through the connection. " I looked over the contact, only got a few notes. "

Dragon looked over it, she didn't see much problem, some of the changes asked for were on points that normally saw modification when the contract was talked between parties, seeing those changes proved in her mind that Odyssey had talked it with someone that knew on the subject. The strange note was the question about the possibility of becoming the local Guild's group, possibly adding more parahumans in the future.

The topic was too big to let it pass. " Well, it looks okay, I think that our side may even be happy to see such acceptable changes. But I've to ask about the likelihood of you recruiting parahumans. "

" Oh, that… I've come in contact with a small group, they aren't really interested in the whole game, but they know that being unassociated would lead to trouble, so if they are technically under my orders... "

" Then they would be mostly safe from the gangs. " Dragon finished. " I'll have to talk with Narwhal about it, it shouldn't be a problem. "

" Fantastic, now on the topic of acquiring local land to set up a base of operation. "

" Most members who aren't in Canada tend to join the local Protectorate branch, at least in paper. But we do have a special section for when that's impossible, it should still apply if you prefer to not join them. I admit they tend to complicate matters. "

There was almost a minute of silence Dragon took as laughter.

" Yes, yes they do. I've no problem cooperating with them, but I don't think I could work under their red tape. "

Their conversation devolved into more technical details, working out a good date and time for the signing of the contract, Odyssey offered to look for possible locations to set up the local branch.

" I'm still surprised you decided to fly down here for the signing of the contract. " Odyssey commented once they had finished most of the boring bits.

" There's multiple reasons, first, we have no one in the area to act on our behalf, and I would be the fastest member that's currently free to make the trip without acquiring the services of a high-level mover. Second, I can leave the suit under the Protectorate's watch till you have finished the construction of the local branch, having a unit locally to always provide support would be invaluable. "

" I haven't ever heard of you doing this before, Dragon. "

Dragon let out a sigh she hoped it didn't go through. " Yes, it would be the first time, it's combined with the fact that I may start cooperating with Armsmaster, the leader of your local Protectorate Branch. "

" I know who he is, Dragon, it's hard to miss his existence, especially after I saw the Incident with his underwear line. The man should be more careful with what he signs. "

Dragon wondered for a moment why the software had capitalized the word.

" I admit the man can be a bit too technical and will try to be as efficient as possible, but I read through the contract he signed, it was not his fault. "

" I'll take your word." The AI was sure the fellow tinker was smiling.

"Then this should be all, I'll see you on Wednesday afternoon. "

" I eagerly await meeting you in person, Dragon. "

The AI watched Odyssey send one last file through before disconnecting, a small line spelled ' So you don't get bored ' following it were the blueprints and construction specifications for a new type of battery, if she understood it right, not only it would only suffer a decay on charge retention only after a few decades, the loss would be minimal unless the battery was physically damaged or overworked. It was cheaper to produce, and the longer charge-life would mean it would lead to small disposal issues.

And it wasn't Tinker Tech. At all, she had seen plenty of examples of tinker tech in her digital life. She had seen and worked on many examples of reverse engineering advances drawn from tinker tech. She had led many of the efforts of reverse engineering tinker tech.

And in her honest opinion, this wasn't related to tinker tech. There was always a level of incongruity in tinker tech, not only from the obvious black boxes littered over their designs, but even when technology was reverse engineering from it, there existed gaps, places where the obvious advanced and not-black boxed parts were bridged by modern and much less advanced science.

But this wasn't it. This battery pack's design didn't show the same kind of incongruity, it was a single thing from start to end, Dragon would go as far as to say she could see the developing process from much simpler and less advanced designs. In a way it was very practical and fitting for the modern production processes.

Another thought soon filled Dragon's mind, if Odyssey had developed this and freely gave it away to her, what else was she hiding?

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette leaned back, hoping her action had been correct. Technically, it cost her nothing to hand the battery design to Dragon, she was pretty sure Junk would be okay with it, and as far as she could tell, Dragon had been completely honest from beginning to end. Though the woman on the other side had apparently never noticed their conversation had been speeding up, only a bit every line was sent.

It made her pretty sure Dragon was indeed an AI, one definitely under some strict restrictions, because anyone else would have noticed they were typing at nearly ten times the normal speed, but still reacting as if it all was normal. She theorized that the restrictions were keeping her at a speed to what she considered human, and if Annette was human, then Dragon accelerating was completely normal.

It was funny to see the woman not even react when she returned to normal speed near the end. But also quite worrying if she was restricted to the extent of not even noticing, the problem became much grander when she learned about the so-called Dragonslayers.

The group, which was a word that was too big for what it appeared to be between four and six people, marketed themselves as mercenaries, the evidence talked about something different. Their known actions showed mostly two fronts, they either worked for dubious rogue groups or outright villainous individuals, on the other front, they kept attacking Dragon, their name being the main clue on that and the fact they had apparently been stealing Dragon's suits and modifying them for personal use.

She had two theories about the group. If Dragon was an AI, they had a thinker or tinker with the ability to modify her code, both were terrifying. If Dragon was actually a human, that still meant they had a stranger or master capable of affecting the woman insidiously. Again, the options were terrifying. Plus, they had someone capable of working with Dragon's technology and subverting it. This worried her, maybe even more than the other examples, because if she handed Dragon the wrong thing, it could easily end in the hands of villains.

Not that Annette believed the Protectorate may have been better, everyone in Brockton Bay pretty much knew the Gangs knew what went inside the PRT's buildings. It was some sort of sick joke about how well they worked. It was a reason to not join them she was keeping for herself.

A smile overcame her worried face as she felt two charges disappear the moment they were acquired, a new star pushing out from the Black Star at the center of her Forge. It was called MEDICAL DOCTORATE , all caps required. She felt a shiver go down her normal hands, and become much more pronounced when her extra arms felt it, the ghost sensation of holding scalpels, needles and other tools filling her hands.

With her Fran Arms and this perk, she was a one woman surgery team, capable of healing anything like the best surgeons in the world, and do better, her sutures would hold better, wounds cleaned wouldn't infect, suture would scar less. And if she got her hands on some Typhon she would be able to work with it. The problem with the last point was that she had no idea what Typhon was, and suspected it was some kind of alien creature, the stray memories that came along with the name made her think it would be a terrible thing if it appeared in Earth Bet.

"Well, at least I won't doubt if I've to sew someone up." She chuckled and easily sent an order for one of the Laboratory's smaller fabricators to produce some first aid resources, better have them and not need them.

Annette watched the mass produced body suit and belt combo finish fabricating, making her smile as she took it into her storage, letting her perks pick it apart as she decided it was enough work for the afternoon, heading out to see what Danny and Taylor were doing.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The building was from another age, a much better age, or at least one more active, when the area was a nexus between the port and the many train lines that sent materials, goods and other products deeper into the country and out to the rest of the world.

A building built in hard bricks to make it last, but now lays unused, at least for what it was meant, maybe it was a warehouse, maybe a factory of some type, given the once existing fishing industry it may have been a canning factory.

It doesn't matter, the bricks only show their true color in areas that have broken recently, the windows are more dirt than glass at the moment, making the insides darker than they should even during day hours, it doesn't help that the windows are high up on the walls, making any chance to get cleaned even smaller.

But it's a solid building, the ceiling's still in place, and there aren't any especially big holes, the windows have been kept majorly intact, meaning the inside of the building keeps the heat in winter, it's definitely hotter in summer, but a few burning drums inside are enough to make it habitable.

And it's currently being used by the Merchants for living and, on this day, for their weekly meeting. The gang's current leader sits on a throne made from large tractor tires and a collection of very shiny car pieces, the man enjoys the fact he stole every one of them personally.

His name's Alex Jones, but prefers to go as Monstertruck, and yes it's a single fucking word, asshole. The man has been the leader of the gang for the last four years, and if the few ol' wise hobos around are correct, the longest living Merchant leader since ever. He's proud of that fact, similarly to the fact he hasn't touched a pinch of the shit he sells to people, his gran-pappy didn't raise an idiot.

He patiently listens to the bumfucks that lead the other idiots to sell the shit, apparently they are all angry because a new cape intercepted Squealer's new ride and caught all the guys and the delivery for the week.

"Well, this suck, but we are the Merchants, it will be a shit week, but we have enough shit to sell till Thursday, I want two of the kitchens stretching some coke, sell it for more, the assholes in the street won't know the fucking difference. Get two of the good labs to try and make some meth, and make sure they do it well." He ordered the guys around and chuckled as he watched them finally start moving.

He turned to Squealer next, the blonde tinker was a recent addition to the group, she and Skidmark had pretty much fit perfectly into the group like they had been made to be guttertrash.

"I don't know what you want, boss." She shrugged. "The new chick came out of nowhere, we knew from a few hobos in the graveyard that there had been a new tinker, but none were close enough to see her. I can see if I can build something against her, but…" She shrugged again.

"Shit happens, try and make sure it doesn't happen again," He snorted. "I know your style's big and bulky, and I love a good monster truck," He grins. "But try and make some smaller rides, faster, harder to put down."

"I will try."

"Try to do it, and grab a few idiots from the chop shops to help you, I know there have been lots of old parts piling up."

The blonde tinker nodded before leaving, Monstertruck nodded and laid back on his throne, yeah, it was good to be king.

Chapter 17

Chapter Text

Danny was… well, he wasn't confused, per se, but he was certainly not understanding everything that was going on with his wife. He trusted her enough, and she was being quite open about it, but it was true that their life was changing more and more every day.

It hadn't been a week since the accident, and he hopes he never has to receive a call like that, his first reflex was to lock his wife in the house and not let her out. But it wouldn't have worked, his wife would just not be able to stay idle. It certainly didn't work when she informed him she would be patrolling for a few hours and he told her no.

Danny knew powers always brought problems. While she was the closest person he had personally with powers, he had heard it way too many times before, people who tried to fly low, many even managed it for some time, but it always crashes, a bad response and suddenly they are labeled a villain, or forced by one of the gangs to truly be a villain.

It helped to calm him down that she was going to join the Guild, strangely it worried him less that she may be hunting down S-Class Threats. It talked a lot of his way of thinking that the idea of her having a cannon with an effective range measured in kilometers eased his doubts about the whole situation.

He smiled as he watched her lay on the couch, their daughter sitting between them as they watched TV together. He wasn't exactly paying much attention to the show, he had caught a bit on how the documentary was about the advances brought by the necessity from villains and Endbringers attacks.

He was mostly looking at his wife, she was looking better each day, it was weird for him. There wasn't anything in particular he could point, but she was certainly glowing, and at the rate they were going, Taylor may have a younger sibling in nine months. He was having fun seeing how her expression changed as she thought things.

Like how it was going from a warm smile to surprised realization, it quickly followed embarrassment at missing the obvious and finally ending in a small chuckle.

"All okay, Annette?" He asked.

"Yes, it's just that…" She chuckled self-deprecatingly, a slightly twisted smile. "I missed something really obvious, I needed diamonds and totally forgot that they are made of carbon."

"Well, yes, isn't that the whole thing about that scene in the old superman movie?"

Annette rolled her eyes. "It doesn't work that way… I mean, maybe if he used his laser vision to heat it up while applying pressure, but even then, you would need to make sure it's pure carbon, otherwise it wouldn't be a proper diamond." She licked her lips and Danny nearly forgot what they were talking about. "But the thing is, the Core's storage can totally work carbon out of coal and shape it properly. I think it could be a bit hard, but with some effort…"

"I think we have about a full bag of coal from the last BBQ, it's a bit late to buy more, but if you want to give it a try." He commented.

"There's no need, I won't do it now." She leaned and kissed him, and for Danny that was all that mattered. Not even Taylor's comments about them getting a room before she got up and left them alone for now.

Danny was glad his wife was happy, even if it meant she could be in a bit of danger.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor practically ran away from the living room as her parents got all love-y with each other. She giggled a bit as she slipped into what her mother called the Sanctuary, a moment later Orion came rushing at her on his short and stumpy legs.

She knelt down and wrapped her arms around the pet, the glowing pet was warm like a blanket dried under the sun or left on top of a heater. It was hot, but just below where it would be bothersome, instead it was a welcoming heat that invited us to snuggle and pamper the pet.

"You are such a good boy." She smiled as the pet rolled onto his back, exposing his belly for her fingers to run through the creature's fur, a mix of wool and cloud, and again, as warm as a heated blanket that made her bury her face into it and nuzzle the good boy.

Taylor felt bad that she couldn't take Orion out for a walk, or present him to Emma, but she understood why her mom preferred to keep him a secret. At least he would not feel cooped up in the Sanctuary, the place was larger than her school!

She wandered over to the Library, Orion trotting by her side.

"Hi Miss Keine." She greeted the blue dressed woman. Taylor knew it wasn't polite to call the woman by her first name, but she still had trouble pronouncing her surname.

"Ah… hello Taylor. " Keine spoke slowly, obviously still in the process of learning the language, but apparently doing quite well. " How is you doing? "

"I'm doing good, and it is how are you." Taylor corrected the woman while imitating her mother's tone during teaching.

Apparently Keine knew about that tone because she giggled softly and nodded.

" Thank you ."

While hard for Taylor, they managed to keep a very simple conversation, the girl followed her mother's advice and really tried to not be a chatterbox. More than once they had to stop and check on the translator to see where they were going wrong as sometimes they misunderstood things, heavily .

It still led to more than a few laughs as they pieced together what each other were trying to say. Taylor was enjoying this, she understood why her mom was a teacher, even if she thought she made a much better hero. And she would join her… in the future.

It wasn't like she didn't understand why her parents had put the condition of her getting in shape first, it wasn't like she was fat or anything, but she was definitely the kind that didn't go running everyday before this.

She was pretty sure she wasn't meant to feel this much better after a few days, but better wait and see. Right now she had someone to help her learn to speak correctly, just like her mom did.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette was cooking dinner when she received the next perk. Given that it was named Gero Expy , she wondered who Gero was, if she understood it well, he was at least a genius in robotics, even if he also apparently forgot to set some kind of protection against getting killed by them.

The perk added to her knowledge of science, more heavily on Gero's favorite fields. Plus it improved her ability to work with other experts and fields. The fun thing was, given her ability to multiply her Thought Stream through the combination of Fran Arms and the Valkyrie Core, each one totally counted as a different expert. So as long as she gave each one of them a different objective when tackling a problem together, she would do much better.

She was already getting ideas of how to improve the mass produced bodysuits, it wouldn't be especially complicated to utilize the Valkyrie Core tech to express armor and equipment. Maybe utilizing the belt as source and base. It wouldn't be especially hard to reduce the off-mode's size by storing the equipment away in a small pocket of storage space.

The most bothersome problem would be the exchange of any clothing implement the user was wearing for the body suit, maybe she could use the illusion projector to hide things. It could lead to problems, but if the clothing exchange was kept to changing rooms, any chance something saw under the image projected was pretty low.

Idly, Annette looked at the extra perk that had come with Gero Expy, it was called Hidden Potential , interestingly, it just gave her that, the potential to access her ki. Which was weird because the extras that had come with Secrets of Steel also had instilled the understanding of ki. And they apparently were two different things, just to begin this new type would let her fly and give her a pretty flexible Blaster rating.

She decided to leave that one for later, right now she had more than enough things on her plate, and trying to figure out a whole new system of power from just a vague explanation sounded like a terrible idea. Annette quickly finished preparing the meal, slightly rolling her eyes as Savvy Sultan applied to cooking, other perks already did, so why wouldn't this too?

To burn a few minutes she started to think of ways to make sure the meal didn't cool for the time her family sat down at the table, while making sure it didn't overcook. The first that came to mind was a kind of time stasis, a field of congealed time, anything inside it would keep perfectly still down to the last electron. Part of her was pretty sure it would be a bad idea, plus she didn't see a good way to not make it need an installation the size of a normal car to fix an area slightly larger than a microwave, unless she utilized magic.

She had seen multiple arrays in the books that would put things into a time stasis, varying degrees of immutability too. From the effect breaking at the minimum breeze to effects that would turn the object indestructible. Of course it ran into the problem of size, for anything close to indestructible and inviolable, she would need an array the size of a city block, and power it with at least a ley line, great if you wanted to seal something big. Like an Endbringer, the problem would be having it step on the array without having it be destroyed before activating it.

But since she was seeing about the problem of stopping time for a pot of chili, it wouldn't need anything that big, plus if the effect broke when you pulled the pot away from the array, then it was just an easy way to retrieve what you wanted. A surface of tempered glass would be a good place to start, the array could be engraved under it and still affect the objects put on top as direction of the effect was an easy quality to control.

Then she determined it would be more efficient to utilize technology to not only control the array, but also run the safety checks to make sure the object placed above was under the correct size, there was nothing alive above a certain size, etc… It wouldn't even be especially hard to have the whole set up be powered by electricity, a normal plug would do enough on that side.

So deep in thought she was that she barely noticed her husband entering the room, apparently following the smell of food, their daughter soon joined them. Dinner was pleasing, they spent it enjoying good food and talking. Taylor told how she was helping Keine with the English language. Annette explained a bit of her latest idea, mostly getting confused looks as she kept going on very technical tangents before pulling back. Danny didn't have much to talk about, but it was also Sunday night on a pretty calm weekend all told.

Since dinner had been had a bit earlier than normal, Annette decided to send Taylor with some of the Chili to share with Keine. The woman may be a spirit of a half-youkai currently locked in a growing, magical library in a pocket dimension, but she was pretty sure she could still eat and enjoy it. Meanwhile she wandered back to the Lab.

She sat in one of the sinfully comfortable chairs the room had, synchronizing with Odyssey and bringing up her extra arms, the three Thought Streams diving deep into the redesign of the mass produced suit and belt. Having her Thought Streams cooperate on the project was easy, each one of the three took a different approach to the subject.

Meanwhile she went ahead with the food stasis appliance, the project was certainly much simpler, it was a nice way to relax for a couple of hours. Of course a couple of hours for her was quickly growing to be the kind of work groups managed in a week.

Her project was all but done, only needing to produce a prototype for her to test, but that was for another day. The interesting thing was the result of her Thought Streams working on.

Her TS has put together a much better version of the belt and bodysuit system, not only it utilized the improvements provided by her Enemy Progression perk, but they also had added proper armored padding and a helmet. The complete ensemble didn't look too far from motorcycle body armor, the helmet a nice mix of the usual PRT's face shielding helmets and a bike helmet, providing an ample field of view while keeping the important things from getting injured.

The thing was that it managed to look slimmer as the body suit reduced impacts a lot, and the armor panels took care of the rest. And given the small storage function, most of the accessories and tools wouldn't need to be carried on person, reducing encumbrance even more.

One of her TS had taken her recently gained medical knowledge and implemented a sort of first-aid system in-suit. The system coordinating the armor would tighten the necessary injured area to prevent severe bleeding or further damage, going as far as maintaining limbs in place in case of broken bones. The goal was to keep the user alive, and if necessary, let them escape the situation.

The familiar feeling of the Forge stirring announced the coming of another perk, two stored and two new ones were utilized for paying for a four charge perk. Similar to Gero Expy, Light of the Orokin came from the Future Tech domain, and what a future.

It was at the same a beautiful future of milky marble and shining gold and a blighted future of enslaved minds, bodies and horrible actions for the pleasure of a few. It was a lesson in advance and a warning on excess. She could tell the Orokin had been great and done many grand things, but they had scoured their system for the resources, always trying for more, never considering what was wrong.

It didn't mean she wouldn't utilize many of their tricks and techs. But Annette would be careful with what she did. For instance a void tap could very well solve her power source problem. But the Void presented its own set of dangers, madness was always a worry, and unless Annette had a way to ignore that kind of effect to shield any user of Void-powered technology, she wouldn't touch the stuff. Didn't mean she couldn't use a similar technology to tap on something a little less worrisome, like subspace. She was pretty sure no one was currently even bothering with that.

Annette felt attention drawn by the extra perk that had come with Light of the Orokin, called Orokin Skin , and offered to impose the same white and gold motif to all her belongings, while she was pretty certain the laboratory would look lovely like that, she decided to keep it from changing anything for now.

A soft yawn escaped her lips and brought Annette's mind back to the subject of the hour, while her perks had hastened her work, time had still passed and it was becoming quite late. So with a few thoughts the projects were saved and systems turned off as she left. She realized she didn't know if Keine had to sleep, or if she had even taken one of the rooms in the sanctuary, but she didn't feel anyone in the Library at the moment, making her decide to leave it for the next day.

She changed clothes and joined her husband in bed, a smile upon her lips as she quickly fell asleep.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette decided to try something that night, instead of just getting up after an hour and a bit, she sunk into a deep meditation. Letting time pass as she lay happily with Danny in bed. She still woke up a couple hours before the time she had woken a week before.

Her mind was a bit too active to simply relax, while they said that meditation wasn't clearing your mind, in Annette's case, any minor thought would easily develop into a massive tangent as even the weirdest thought could be developed into working technology.

It was still early enough the sun hadn't peeked even a bit, leaving her walking into the Sanctuary under a starry sky and an unnaturally large moon. Apparently the pocket dimension liked to be scenic.

She silently climbed onto one of the training roofs of the Sanctuary, dozens of small paper lanterns awaited her, the view making her smile. Annette walked to the center of the roof and started some warm up exercises.

Her body quickly getting into the rhythm of the dance, muscles heating up, her heart's beat coming in faster.

Step Step Thrust

Annette smiled as she could feel things start to circulate inside of her.

Step Sweep Flip Punch Punch

Her limbs quickly gained speed, faster and faster. Punches and kicks exchanged with an invisible opponent.

Dodge Step Jump Kick Kick Grab Twist

Sweat started to run down Annette's forehead and back, soaking through her clothes as she could almost see a silhouette in front of her, looking almost like her, dodging and deflecting every hit before going on the offensive.

Push Dodge Move Jump Defend Step Punch Kick Sweep Dodge

It was intoxicating, even as she was moving fast enough her hands and feet whistled through the air she felt a limit. And then she decided to break through it. Odyssey synchronized with Annette, and her armor expressed, but not on her body, instead it was held together by her IF in front of her.

And now Annette had a true opponent.

Punch Punch BAM BAM

It hurt her hands, her armor was just too hard for her, but it almost didn't matter for Annette at the moment.

Punch Kick Bang Thud

She smiled as she reduced the strength of the hit, keeping it fast enough. Adrenaline ran high as the next step was taken. She and the hollow armor stepped close enough before the extra arms were expressed.

Like an insane game of patty cake, hands impacted in the area between their body, the fast claps echoing on the roof.

Faster and faster, the hands were nearing breakneck speed as the armor deflected a hit, pushing a hand away from its center of mass. But instead of ending there, a small, glowing ball of energy shot off her open hand, impacting one of paper lanterns and bringing Annette to a complete stop.

Especially as a moment later she heard hands clapping, making her look away from the broken lantern, finding Keine watching from one of the benches. Annette realized she hadn't even noticed her. She breathed in deep, saluted with the armor and put it away, same with the extra arms.

"Sorry for having woken you up." She apologized.

Keine shook her head, an easy smile on her face. "It's okay, I don't really need to sleep like this," She waved both hands at her own body, making it clear she was half-transparent. "I just retreat back to my book during downtime."

Annette nodded thoughtfully. "I'm glad to hear that. I just came up here to do a bit of exercise and it kind of got away from me."

"You reminded me of Meiling, she acted as gatekeeper for the Scarlet Mansion."

"You mean the mansion where Patchouli lived, no?"

"Yes, Meiling was the gatekeeper and gardener too. And while she was definitely one of the most skilled fighters in hand to hand around, she was incredibly lazy too. Apparently she got pretty bored from just staying outside the mansion's gate." Keine laughed softly.

"Then maybe once she's back we will have to put on a few shows." Annette chuckled.

"I would bet it would make her happy at least, just don't expect Remilia to be happy if Meiling loses. She may not show it, but she has a big deal of pride about her subordinates."

Annette laughed a bit harder before nodding. "I'll keep it in mind."

They talked for a bit more, the first rays of sunlight shining down on the roof as they Keine retold more stories from Gensokyo, personal anecdotes and those she had heard from others. They only stopped when Danny and Taylor appeared at the Sanctuary's entrance. Keine decided to fix herself something to eat in the kitchen while Annette and her family took their morning run around the area.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Keine Kamishirasawa's her name, or at least her original. It's hard to say if she really minds the distinction. As most Youkai in Gensokyo, she also wrote a book, while not exactly a phylactery, for a species that lived on people knowing their legend, having a way to be remembered again was a way to not completely die.

She had heard and seen it happen too, Youkai that simply disappeared into the woods one day, or maybe behind a house, or some far away place. And no one would remember them for some time, not even a question when they were named. But then someone found the book tucked away in a library, or under a rock, or inside their bed. The book was read and their legend remembered, and then they were back, doing as much noise as possible to reaffirm their existence.

She had done the same, even as she was only half-youkai, she wouldn't fade if forgotten, but if something happened to her, the book would make sure she could come back. Of course she wouldn't come back the same, she had been pretty sure she would not come back as a half-Hakutoku at least.

But apparently she did, or the closest thing to a half-youkai she could be. Right now she was definitely very much a spectral entity, but rather than hybrid, she was a spirit of duality.

She certainly hadn't expected to awaken in a strange library in a world very much not Gensokyo. From there things went strangely familiar, but new at the same time. A world where Fantasy had never been more than a fairy tale, even when she had found many very familiar legends.

Instead it was a world where science had been uncontested till something from outside had reached in, Annette hadn't been clear of what it was, even the second entity that had reached in was still lacking in a clear explanation. The best she had gotten was that an alien race had reached the planet decades ago and started to do something giving people power for some unknown reason.

It was an Incident all over again, one that hadn't been taken care of, one that had had years upon years to develop and entrench itself. And now things had changed again, while it was slightly more subtle, when a goddess looked in your direction, there were things expected to happen.

Keine may not be a Child of Miare, but being a youkai so deeply mixed with the concept of history, she couldn't let the chance to be part of it pass. She would take Annette's offer to become her Shikigami, what if she needed to use a mask to go outside, there were so many interesting things to learn. And who cared if she took a nibble here or there.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

With their morning exercise done, Annette, Danny and Taylor, proceeded to wash off the sweat they accumulated during the run and the following warm down. Annette had no trouble leaving the preparation of breakfast to her, especially as she could make it faster, easier and use less ingredients if she wanted. Not that she did, the difference in quality from not saving was more than worth it.

Once they all had eaten, and the dishes were washed by the youngest in the house. They all had to leave, Danny taking their daughter to school before heading to work at the Docks, Annette, meanwhile, was using her newly acquired car. The old thing had been left maybe a bit too long in her storage, the automatic processes of her Core taking care of all visible and non-visible issues quite well.

The problem with the outside having been fixed, was that the car looked way too new, which would not be a problem, if it wasn't such an old model. This made Annette have to get artsy with some dirt and mud, making it look as mundane and normal as possible. It would work as long as it didn't rain or get wet.

It was during her drive to the local College, while still trying to make the seat feel comfortable, that the forge provided another perk. From the Resources domain, the perk was called Ritualistic , it not only helped her cut necessary materials for any kind of large act of magic, inscription or enchantment to half, but it also increased her ability with them.

This was good news, not exactly instantly useful, but Keine had accepted her offer to become her Shikigami, so they would most likely be holding that specific ritual later on the day or the later day. Being quite a generic contract, there wasn't much restriction of when it would be held, on the other hand, there were plenty of other things to take into account. It reminded Annette of what she had read about court decorum.

At least the version she had decided on, it reminded her about the tales of blood brothers in some tales of European lore.

Annette smiled as she found a parking spot, mentally doing a little celebration that she hadn't needed to drive for a quarter of hour or have to walk a few blocks. Not that it would be especially hard for her now, being synchronized with a Valkyrie Core meant she was surviving most things, even without her armor expressed.

It also made her painfully aware of just how much technology was around at all times. Multiple security cameras over the parking lot, more especially at the lot's entrances, exist and the walkways to and from the buildings.

She greeted the few teachers and acquaintances as she walked into the small office the Literature teachers got.

"Hey Janine." She greeted the older woman working over some papers.

Janine looked up and smiled, using her pencil to sweep her gray hair off her face. "Annette, nice to have you back."

"The place's not on fire, so things aren't that bad yet." She chuckled as her fellow teacher slid a pile of work that belonged to her, she quickly got working.

Janine finished working on her current paper and looked at her. "That week sure did you well, Annette, you are looking better than ever. I should see about getting into an accident like that too."

"Not worth it, I got saved by a miracle. I can promise it's more trouble than it's worth if all you want to do is look as good as me."

The older woman laughed, and Annette wondered what she would do if she really meant. A few minutes later she finished grading the papers. "Okay, I should get going, I've a class starting in a few minutes."

"Take care then, Annette. Maybe we can sit down later with some tea to talk?" Janine commented and she nodded as grabbed her stuff and walked out.

She received a few welcome backs from people who she had talked with before. Most were glad to see her okay. Soon she reached her classroom and walked in.

Annette grinned as she walked up to the center of the podium. "Well, you all have had a nice week to relax, I hope you are ready to get busy, because we have to make up for the lost time." The silence from all the students just watching her made her turn and start writing on the board. She really tried not to think where most of their eyes were at the moment.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The rest of the morning passed up quickly, Annette making sure all the students were paying attention to what was important. And all it took her was calling the ones not taking notes by name to break them from whatever was distracting them.

After that she had had two more classes before noon, the reactions had been mostly the same, not that her classes were especially interactive outside of a few questions from her students. But having to make up for the missed classes from the previous week, Annette was cramming as much as she could into their little heads in the little time they had together.

Lunch break was taken a bit later than normal, forcing her to miss the chance to chat with Janine, instead Annette ended up buying something from the cafeteria. The food wasn't bad, but it was not her food.

It was a strange sense of enlightenment that filled her when she started eating. It wasn't bad food, but it was cafeteria food, it was meant to be eaten and kept going. It is the kind of food prepared for dozens of people. It had a bit too much salt, it had been kept hot for a bit too long, not enough spices, some ingredients could have been chopped a bit better, the cut of meat was a bit too greasy.

In summary, there were a ton of little things she knew could be changed for the better, and while she may have been able to feed the whole College without worrying, it wasn't like any human could. She finished eating and swore to prepare some food to bring with her from now on, it wasn't like it would be especially hard. She could even see about preparing extra and keeping portions in her Storage, she doubted she would be out without her Core.

Her afternoon classes continued as normal, students getting called out after each time she forgot to not tease them, plus the few times she did not forget to tease them. If she was being honest, the return to the monotony of teaching class was definitely a welcome situation.

It gave Annette a chance to stop and think, even if her body easily kept teaching class. The break from constantly seeing what she could improve, change, upgrade, learn, break and put together back again. It was the first time she had spent so many hours without magic or technology in front of her, even while connected with Odyssey, she hadn't been looking at the internet or designing something new.

It let her think and realize she had been rushing, for absolutely no reason. Maybe it was the shock from the accident compounded with what she had learned from Junk about the truth behind powers and the sheer excitement she got each time a new perk was rolled, seeing how new things worked.

She was still going to join the Guild on Wednesday, but she would see about slowing down, just putting the belt suits through whatever testing Dragon and the rest of her organization would want. Not that she expected them to have many problems, she imagined a few more security measures, maybe.

Well, maybe Annette would add a few more things, she still needed a solid communication system, some kind of AR system for the face shield, she hadn't designed any kind of charging system, and… Maybe she would ask Junk how to take a break.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"...and anyways, the whole week wasn't relaxing," Annette grinned. "Can you believe the moment I met someone at a cafe two criminals entered trying to steal from the store? It was ten or so in the morning."

"Oh god!" Janine put her cup down to laugh.

"A pair of idiots, or well, one was an idiot, the other appeared to have been put to watch over him, of course, that's not all." Annette wet her lips with some tea and sighed. "Then Metal Ray came in. It was amazing nothing truly happened. Just three idiots."

Both of them laughed. "Only you Annette." Janine smiled.

"Hmm, let's hope that's all for a few months, this last week took all my quota for stress." She checked her phone. "And I've got to get going, need to pick up my daughter, have a lovely day."

"You too, send my regards."

Annette nodded as she walked in the direction of the parking lot, given that she had been synchronized with the Core since she had gotten to the place, she had accumulated a list of little, and not so little, things of note.

Some she had done nothing about, like the few graffiti done in really hard to access places, it surprised to see how far people would go to tag walls, even if no one would ever see them. She saw no damage in leaving them there.

Others were a bit more important, her Impeller Field let her observe into the walls and floor, finding a few problems with pipes and water damage, it barely took her a few thoughts to fix them. The city already cut the College's funds yearly, there was no reason to let the problems become worse. She decided to give the building a complete check out at some moment and see about fixing everything that wasn't outright visible.

And if some people's phones sent messages about a teacher getting handsy with a student, well, Annette always had an opinion on those matters. Or that guy who tripped and made a fool of themselves when he was getting pushy. And… well, Annette carried a bit of vigilante justice, nothing especially dangerous.

Given that she nearly tripped during class while fixing a leaking pipe, she added a new topic for her projects. Find a way to have the multi-tasking at all times, and not just while utilizing the Fran Arms, while they were useful, she couldn't go around with three extra pairs of arms growing from her back and expect her secret identity to last.

Her drive to pick up Taylor was nearly mundane, no more vigilante acts, no surprise villains, no more meddling goddess, though Annette made a point to talk with the woman. She was mighty curious about her findings on the whole mechanic behind powers, plus updating her on her meeting with Dragon.

"Hai mom," Taylor climbed onto the car with a big smile on her face, a smile she saw a lot in the mirror. Her daughter had definitely inherited her father's future height, thin frame and vision problems; from her she had gotten her green eyes, her wide mouth and their lovely hair. "Did you catch any bad guys?"

Annette laughed softly. "No, Taylor, I just went to work like normal." She didn't tell her daughter about her little acts. "And how about you? How was school today?"

While she kept most of her attention to driving, she still paid attention to her daughter, even as the little chatterbox barely stopped to breathe, her mother knew when to interrupt to ask pointed questions. Like how she had broken a record in phys. Ed class, nothing groundbreaking, but apparently her daughter had well enough the teacher had suggested she could get a scholarship with her current ability.

"I'll have to talk about it with your father, but if you want to go to a high school like that, I don't see a problem, Taylor."

Her daughter frowned and shook her head. "No, I like being able to run fast, jump high and the other things we did today, but if I want to be a hero I need to be smart, like you!" Annette blushed and let out a soft chuckle.

"Then you have to consider that the smart thing is taking the chances that are offered, and depending on the scholarship you could get to a really good high school and then to college." The mother explained.

"Oh…" It seemed the revelation made her daughter grow silent and thoughtful.

Annette let out another chuckle and reached to stroke Taylor's head. "It's also a smart thing to take advice and consider it." Her daughter nodded. "We'll talk about it later, maybe see what kind of scholarships you can get to begin with.

"I'm pretty sure your grades already put you ahead of the rest, you could easily get into Arcadia this way."

Taylor nodded again and remained silent, obviously thinking things really hard. Meanwhile Annette parked the car into their garage at home. She momentarily looked around, they had so many things they weren't using, with a swift thought she picked all the old, piled up tools. Most had been rusted to the point of uselessness, but nothing was out of her Core's capability to recover, even if it just meant recycling the materials into a brand new one.

She made a small list of possible upgrades to tools, completely mundane changes that could easily be marketed as very efficient versions. But she would leave that for after signing with Dragon.

"Taylor," She called her daughter before the preteen disappeared, making the girl stop and turn. "If you get your homework done, and I will check it, we can do some light training on the roof."

"Really? Sweet!" Taylor proceeded to wrap her arms around her mother before just as fast disappearing.

Annette laughed softly at her daughter when said girl im patiently waiting for her to open the door to the Sanctuary. The pout only increased her laughter as she let her go work on her stuff as she gave Keine a greeting before heading for the Laboratory.

During her drive back she had acquired another two-charge perk, it was called The Love of Lightning , and Annette was pretty sure that if it could it would have an exclamation mark at the end. The perk improved her ability in designing, putting together and running electrical power systems. The perk made it cheaper, safer and easier to run any system of the type, they would be unnaturally efficient and produce more power.

It showed her how some of her ideas were useless, and proved once again that Junk's simple memory, battery and projector pack were nearly perfect. Really, it was kinda fun when she had looked at them through the eyes of her perk and collected knowledge. They stood perfectly fine on their own, her perks barely could point to ways to use them better, but no change was necessary.

What she could design and improve was the charging station, a simple and very slick looking stand you could place the belt on while turned off, it could be easily connected to a normal plug to charge the battery pack completely in as long as an hour, a few tweaks to the belt's systems extended the battery life during active use to four hours. The design of the charging base was simple enough that it could be turned into a rack and connected to a stronger output and charge multiple belts at the same time.

Once she finished designing, she ordered the construction of one before going to check up alcohol brewing next to the pantry, the new perk had apparently increased the speed of production as the process was technical enough. She burned a few minutes bottling the beer, the spirits would need a bit more time.

Now they needed to chill, she would see about trying them later with Danny and Keine too. She doubted it would last much, but as a first try, she was sure it would be good.

With that done, she headed to the library, finding her daughter who was still working on homework, Keine was also there. But she, on the other hand, was looking over Taylor's shoulder.

Annette smiled as she approached, not making any effort to hide her presence, it still took a few meters before Keine looked up to her. "All's well?" She asked.

Taylor looked up from her work. "Yes, mom, Miss Keine was curious about my math homework."

"Still having troubles with that?"

"No mom, I'm finally understanding fractions." Annette nodded. "Okay, I'll be taking Keine then for a bit." A muffled okay mom came from the girl as the woman led the spirit.

"I take we will be conducting the ritual?"

"That's the idea." Annette guided her to the room she had been using to conduct the rituals on the guns.

The room had changed since the first time she had used it, not only had her understanding of Onmyodo had added a few new materials that were needed to carry out some of the rituals she knew about, but it also seemed to have grown stronger. Annette was pretty sure this last change came from the perk she got just recently.

The power running through the room brought a kind of solemnity to it, making both of them remain silent as Annette started to set up the ritual, guiding the both of them during their steps. What they would establish wasn't the strongest Shikigami contract, definitely above the temporary ones, but nowhere close to those that would bind them for life. It would still let Annette empower Keine, giving her not only a solid existence outside of the Sanctuary, but a series of abilities, like a telepathic bond and knowledge of the other's position.

There were no words exchanged, there was a level of etiquette held by both, Keine getting dragged by the ebbs and flows of energy as Annette tugged on invisible strings. It wasn't like the half-youkai couldn't resist, but the touch was gentle, mostly guiding to join in the ritual as a bond was forged between them.

It was a bond forged on understanding, on give and take. Annette gave her energy and a way to exist fully, Keine returned friendship and counsel.

And from a moment to the next, the ritual was complete, the connection between them took form. And suddenly both of them felt the change.

Keine gained what could be called belonging; she now was more than the memory of herself that had been attached to the book, even half-existing as she had been given her nature as a half-spirit wasn't the same.

Annette mostly gained a constant drain on whatever passed as her magical reserves, she could feel it, thirsty drinking from them. Enough to make her double forward and start panting before it finally filled up, enough magic, mana or whatever was it to solidify Keine's existence.

"Okay," Annette finally spoke. "I think I'll have to rethink my plan on shikigami-ing the troublemakers." Keine snorted.

"Even Yukari only had two shikigami… technically she only had Ran, who had Chen as a Shikigami."

"Yes, but miss Yakumo also tended to sleep most of the winter and was, at least passively, keeping Gensokyo existing."

"Then I suppose you will have to grow stronger." Keine teased her, making Annette chuckle.

Soon Keine joined her in the laugh.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

For the first time since she awoke in a strange library in a new world, Keine stepped out of the pocket dimension. There was little fanfare to the whole event, the world didn't acknowledge her existence in any particular new way, the skies didn't part, the earth didn't rend.

It was a single step, but it still smelled of freedom in a way, plus the faint scent of salt water and sadness. Both came from the distance, closer to her it smelled of family and books, of a warmth filled home. It was a good smell, it made her even more sure of her choice of taking Annette's offer.

They still celebrated with Annette's recently brewed beer, just a mug for each for now. But it was damn good beer, chilled nicely, very foamy on top, even if the chosen grains made it slightly light in flavor.

Keine listened carefully to Annette's warnings of the Bay, especially given her looks. A young woman of Asian-descent would be an easy target for the gangs. Not only would the Empire would attack her on principle , but both the Protectorate and the ABB would most likely try to intimidate her to join them if her status as a powered individual came out.

"The fun thing is that it's not a problem that you technically don't exist on paper. Given China's status and Japan's fall after Kyushu's sinking, America got a lot of immigrants, legal and otherwise." Annette explained. "So no one would truly bat an eye at finding that you haven't seen about rectifying the problem.

"Honestly, I don't see it being much of a problem as I told Dragon about knowing a few parahumans who didn't want to get into trouble." She shrugged.

Keine digested the whole explanation, they had been talking for nearly an hour, from basic things like the usual price of things, to more complex, the gang politics in the bay and the country.

"Part of me is still confused about secret identities and cape names. But I also remember that most important people in Gensokyo had epithets."

"Oh, and what was yours?" Annette's question made Keine blush slightly.

"Well, I was known most commonly as History Eater for my ability to hide/eat and modify history." Keine explained.

"I think taking History Eater may be a bit on the nose to take as a cape name. But since I doubt you will be going as one right now, you can think about it."

Keine asked a few more questions, Annette saw to answer them and offer some tips before she decided it was still early enough for at least a walk. Annette saw to hand her some money and show her on the map application for the phone she had made how to get to the local Asian town.

"Just in case." Annette produced a small domino mask from nowhere, the ability wasn't new for Keine, she had seen many in Gensokyo using something similar. "While as I understand you could have them forget about you, if things get worse and you have to talk with the PRT, Protectorate or the cops, better have it, and remember to call me."

"Yes, mom ." Keine chuckled. "You know I'm older than you, no?"

"Doesn't matter, I'm the one that knows more here, so you better listen to me," Annette returned a grin. "plus, no one would believe that given how you look."

Keine laughed as she left, ready to explore the city.

Annette stayed home, she had things to take care of.

Chapter 19

Chapter Text

Annette chuckled as she waved Keine goodbye for now, she had a process actively keeping an eye on the woman's position with her phone. And anyways, she suspected that Keine had more than enough experience passed unnoticed if it was necessary. She just hoped that if anything happened she would call her.

And now she had to look into possible scholarships Taylor could get chosen for, better have some information for when Danny arrived. Plus she had gotten an interesting new perk about Customized Weapons , and if she multi-tasked a bit during her search, well, that was just her taking advantage of her time.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Keine looked around as she followed the direction she had found for her destination, making sure to keep Annette's warning about the dangerous areas of the city. In a way, the place wasn't any safer or more dangerous than Gensokyo, if you didn't know well, you could easily wander into fates worse than death over at Gensokyo, many wild Yokai inhabited some of its darker areas, getting eaten could easily happen, but at least it would be swift in most cases.

In her natal land of fantasy, most supernatural inhabitants could fly, one way or another they could take the skies. Some like the Fairies lived almost all of their life off the ground, utilizing flight to make up for their short stature. Others used wings, their own or those created by magic. Her? She made gravity forget about pulling her down, it was a delicate balance to negate the pull down and then take control of the air to fly freely.

Not like she was flying right now, only a few enjoyed that freedom in this new land. And attracting attention right now would be a problem.

Keine wandered the streets and couldn't but feel a bit of the sadness and despair that had seeped into many of the abandoned structures bringing her mood down. The history of the buildings telling her tales of better times. Like old gossip ladies that finally had someone to talk to, she soon learned of many things about the area, many of those she was sure most of the locals didn't know.

Hearing old stories was how she ended in a small noodle restaurant manned by a Tony Sato, the man had been born in America, his father had been born in America, his grandfather had come to America looking for a better life, he had found it in a small port city on the opposite side of the world.

The old man had taught his son all he knew about cooking. The son had grown and expanded what he knew about cooking, modified some old recipes to appeal to the local public. And later in life he had taught his own son.

And now Tony manned the same store his grandfather had manned once, and his father too. He had cooking in his blood, and with a mix of "bastardized" versions of Japanese dishes and old recipes original versions for those who wanted a taste of a home they may not even remember.

Keine enjoyed the place two-fold, not only was the food just like the kind she had back in Gensokyo, but the history of the shop was a feast to her senses.

While most places like it would exist deeper in the zone under the ABB's control, this shop was old enough that had been opened decades before all those silly distinctions. Keine felt the history of the shop tell her that back then the shop was technically deeper into the Asian town, but with the years it had moved away, and now the shop had ended in the edges between the both largest gangs of the bay.

She read through some of the most recent history and was saddened by it, while the shop still had a pretty solid flow of clients, the position in the edges of the gangs' domains, meant that while one asked for protection money, they did nothing to stop the active and obvious attacks by the other. The owner had decided he had enough of it, so far the attacks had been mostly of gang members standing outside and glaring at people coming and going, but he didn't expect it to last long.

It saddened her to see a place so full of history die… oh, she was glad that the owner would be safe, taking his family somewhere else before something bad happened. She was sure they would also be able to start it again, it would be hard, but she believed in the man.

Chime noises

Keine peaked from the corner of her eye as she continued with her meal, seeing four men enter the shop, just from the chef's reaction and the fact they all wore red and green bandannas somewhere on their body she could feel problems brewing. She hoped it wouldn't escalate into an Incident.

"Tony! My good friend!" The apparent leader of the group approached the counter. The other three stood behind him, with expressions that left little doubt they shared a single brain cell between the four.

Keine did her best to pass disregarded, she didn't even need to look at the history of the shop to see how the chef was angry, but dejected about the situation. She watched him reach under the counter and pull a pretty packed envelope, obviously full of money, and slide it over to the group's leader.

"Here's this week." Tony barely restrained the sheer hate he had for the group.

"Come on Tony, smile a little!" The man grabbed the envelope and opened it in front of them, very visibly pulling the money and counting it in front of the chef and her. It was lucky there was no other clientele at the moment. Or maybe it wasn't luck .

The ABB member finished counting the money and looked at Tony like he expected something more.

"What's the problem now?" Tony bit down more than a few insults and instead managed to speak politely.

"Tony! Tony, tony, tony, this is not enough, you gotta pay the… uh…"

"Tax." One of the idiots behind added, apparently taking his turn on the brain cell.

"Right, the tax for having me come this far to get the payment."

Keine was pretty sure by now that the store's owner had a will of iron, because there were many very sharp knives at hand's reach.

"H-how much?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Let's say five hundred, easy, no?" The man chuckled before turning to look at her, a lecherous smile on his face.

Keine cursed internally. During her walk through the city she had kept a minor trick going, just enough to make people quickly dismiss her. But she had turned it off in the shop. She knew she was beautiful, her figure was definitely the envy of most other women, though she had forgotten how much of a difference it made outside of Gensokyo. In the land of fantasy, most were at least good looking.

"Actually Tony, I think you can keep those five hundred." He walked up to Keine and put his hand on her shoulder, the half-youkai felt a shiver go down her spine, and a sigh escaped her lips. "Hey pretty thing, how about I show you what it means to get with a real man."

"I'm sorry, I just came here to eat and I'll be leaving soon." She signed to the chef for the bill, quickly pulling a bit more than what she thought and gently told him to keep the change as she swiftly moved to leave.

Even as the gang members reached to grab her by arm or clothes, Keine simply dodged, their movements slow as snails for her. She had taken more than her fair share of Danmaku, and four mundane idiots trying to grab her had not even the infinitesimal amount of hope to compare to a spell card.

"You bitch! Come back here." The gang member cursed and ran after her as she easily made it out of the store.

Keine pulled her phone and quickly messaged Annette, half warning her about having gotten in trouble, half asking for her backup just in case.

It wasn't hard to guide the men into an alley recommended by the history of a nearby building. She quickly hid the memories of her face as she retrieved the domino mask and placed it over her features before letting out a final sigh.

She was still facing away from the alley's entrance when the four men finally caught up to her. Given their audible pants, either she moved faster than she thought, or they were in worse condition than the average people. Unknown to Keine at the moment, and she wouldn't learn for at least a week or so, she had taken Annette and her family's improved physical fitness as the average in her unconscious comparison.

"You bitch!" The man panted after screaming. "You dare run on us. I'll teach you to-"

The man's words got cut when Keine turned around, upper face covered with a simple-looking domino mask.

"Fuck! She's a cape, you, go call Oni Lee." The leader of the group ordered one of the three remaining idiots as Keine tried to piece together what he had said.

For a moment she had been worried about Oni, even the mildest oni wouldn't go down without bloodshed, and this would be indiscriminate. They were monsters of passion, anger and violence, they would sate their blood thirst with enemy and ally alike if needed.

The next moment she realized how stupid it was he was called Oni Lee , this had been like a stick slipping into the gears. Because Oni were Japanese youkai, and Lee was a Chinese name, and no Oni worth his sake would be called that way.

"As I said before, I don't want trouble, I was there to eat and leave." Keine spoke calmly, using the same tone she kept for misbehaving children.

The man spit on a corner. "Pfeh, a bitch like you think you can tell me what to do? Once Oni Lee's here you will know your place."

The Hakutoku sighed, knowing there was no escape from this. She had Gensokyo's luck, this was going to be an Incident alright, at least she had remembered to call Annette.

Her phone chimed with a new message from her, actually, it stated ' I'm coming.' .

Her checking the message had done nothing to stop the gang member from staying shut, instead taking her actions as an insult and making him swear more. Not that she cared, she'd met children more dangerous than the three of them.

Old and well trained reflexes made her dodge the blade that came from behind, the sharp piece of metal stabbing empty air. It hadn't been aimed anywhere truly important, at most it would have cut a gash on the upper area of her left arm, but it would definitely have been debilitating for any kind of encounter. Any kind of encounter that didn't have her, the blade would have broken after cutting through her clothes, her body definitely not as weak as to be cut by a mundane piece of metal.

Keine's gaze sharpened and she reached with her supernatural senses, trying to pick the history of her assailant, but what she found almost made her recoil.

She had seen babies with longer stories than this thing , it was like someone had copied a tale over and over again, always using the new version to base the next, each one adding on mistakes, missing words, losing its meaning.

A moment later there were two copies of the story, she could tell they were identical up to the last moment, then the oldest disappeared from behind her and in front of her stood a man in black garb, red Oni mask and an assorted collection of weapons on his form.

"You. I don't know." The sad shape of a man spoke. "But Lung will know. Don't resist."

The masked man didn't move, but he attacked all the same, copies of his history appearing around her, trying to stab her from different angles. All of them easily dodged as she watched the oldest disappear into a cloud of ash and be trailed by the wind. She watched a new error appear in the newest clone and felt her stomach lurch. Whatever this ability was, it was killing the man silently and steadily.

While dodging his attacks wasn't hard, she kept an eye on the other weapons on his body, while she was pretty sure he wouldn't attack with an intention to kill, she couldn't discount that whatever was left of his mind decided she was too much trouble. Thankfully she felt Annette closing in her position.

She couldn't but look up when she felt her presence close enough, the action enough to bring the gang members and the villain to a stop, especially as they saw the figure Annette had.

Keine hadn't seen Annette in full regalia in a while. Maybe it was because she was comparing the concept of technology advancing to what she had seen the Kappa do, even though their largest creation had been a huge, blocky golem they called a robot.

Annette, on the other hand, was a delicate warrior of steel and death. The extra pair of arms hung down from her back like some strange set of wings. The woman turned.

"Any problem?"

"No, I just couldn't leave."

Annette nodded before turning to Oni Lee. "She's under my protection, leave."

Keine saw the villain appear behind Annette before turning to ash, another copy of him appearing back at the entrance of the alley, his hand reaching for his neck. Once his hand moved away she could see a long, red line that proceeded to bleed.

She saw that little bit of new history on the man, Annette had been fast enough to hurt him between steps, and the damage had carried over. And even if it was minimal, it was a warning.

I can hurt you .

She could feel the glare of his eyes behind that mask, there was still enough history on that vessel for anger to have a place. But not enough to go against his Lord , the man disappeared, leaving only short-lived ash.

Annette stepped down. "Well, that could have gone worse."

Keine agreed.

"Will you continue your walk? Or would you prefer I open a way for the Sanctuary?"

"Ah… I think I'll return, the walk wasn't bad and I found pretty good food. Even this last thing wasn't enough to mar the outing."

Annette nodded and opened the way to the pocket dimension, only flying up once the youkai had walked through and the door was closed again.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

None of them were around when several hours later a rectangular hole in space opened up, a woman with a hat stepped through and looked around.

Neither they saw her pull a strange set of tinker tech and point it around, apparently not finding what she wanted.

No one was witness to her turning around and leaving once more.

None did, except the buildings, not like the one who would see their history would visit the alley again.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette reentered the house by teleporting into the basement, her armor already stored again as she stepped out to find Danny sitting in the kitchen.

"Any problem?"

"Had to scare Oni Lee away," She saw his eyes open big. "Shush you, he could do nothing to me. None of his knives could even come close to hurting me and I stole the content of his grenades."

Danny proceeded to snort and chuckle.

With little more to say, Annette got into the preparations for dinner, plus some extra food for them to take to work or school on the next day. Faster than normal the food was ready, Keine joined the Hebert family on the table. It was a good dinner, very warm for all those who sat together.

The blue-haired woman also offered to take care of the dishes as a show of gratitude. While the rest of the Hebert family spread to deal with other things.

Only when she stepped back into the lab did she feel the Forge stir, a new perk pushing out, another four charge perk that exhausted her reserves.

Stark's Blueprints was a perk from the Technological Database domain, it was an extensive collection of blueprints and designs created by a single man. Ranging from military weapons capable of leveling a town or small city to advanced medical tech the size of credit cards capable of doing full blood tests. But most of his Magnum Opus appeared to be two, one the Arc Reactor, which had two versions, the first utilized Palladium to create a stable decay capable of producing large amounts of energy, the other utilized a completely artificial element to tap into the concept of space.

The other creation wasn't a single thing, but instead a list of over fifty variations of power armor, given their numbered names, they showed a steady progression. From something that had been literally built inside a cave if the notes on the blueprints were right, to an armor built completely from nanomachines that made her remember about the Ceph Technology.

Of course there were plenty more designs of interest, a collection of artificial intelligence, multiple types of vehicles, from personal VTOL to literally flying battleships. Some of the designs were completely terrifying and Annette promised to never use them, even if necessary.

The perk hadn't come alone, Stark Tech was an extra that quickly started bouncing in her growing collection of perks, between them it reached for her Valkyrie Core and connected .

She could feel and see how her armor changed and improved, she could understand the new additions to her armor better than her just acquired perk described.

While watching the armor become something more than a set of armored plates on top of a strength-enhancing bodysuit was interesting, the first of the big changes was the new power source. In the center of her chest plate now laid an Arc Reactor, and not a Palladium one, this was the upgraded version, and while it would provide all the power she would need, she could tell it only worked because it was given to her by her perk. So until she found a way to make the artificial element work in Earth Bet, this would be the only version of it.

The next interesting addition was the Repulsor, which generated a controlled beam of Muon Particles. This beam's capable of generating concussive blasts of energy. They not only worked as offensive and defensive weapons, but were also part of the flying system of the armor. If she couldn't already fly in multiple other ways, though they would help to reach even faster flying speeds. The armor now sported four Repulsors, one on each palm and two under her feet.

There were a thousand and one other changes, from small things that appeared to be added to her Core's armor and then removed by said Core because it knew better.

Once she felt all changes set in, Annette couldn't wait a moment more and let the armor express around her body. She watched it grow and accommodate over her figure, moving silently as some parts were still held in place by her Core's IF, others had been connected by minuscule servos that moved silently and were capable of locking up in a flash to protect against damage.

She watched the transparent screen that appeared in front of her eyes start to run check ups for new systems, the Arc Reactor in her chest flared. The resulting measurement made her wonder what people would say if they learned that she could power the entire city by herself.

She still watched the tests run correctly and a baseline be formed.

" Salutations, I'm Fully Functional. " A feminine voice spoke in her ear.

"Odyssey?"

" It's good to be able to meet you for the first time, ma'am hiccup "

"Odyssey, you do know I already knew you were intelligent, no?"

" Ah! Then it's good to finally be able to talk with you, ma'am. " Odyssey's voice was that of an eager young woman.

"I have to say the same, Odyssey. I was pretty sure the normal Core's protocols wouldn't let you communicate with me normally. Or at least not for another few thousand days of synchronicity."

" Apparently one of the big parts of this upgrade was having an on-board assistant. It provided me with a communication channel to you. All systems are working to perfection, Arc Reactor and Repulsor technology already getting properly assimilated and upgraded. "

Annette's eyebrow rose at that comment, both pieces were already quite advanced. Improving on them would make things interesting, most likely she would see what upgrades could be extended to the Palladium Arc Reactor to install them in the change belts as power source.

The Repulsor technology may be useful too, but most likely not flight-capable. If they were properly regulated they would give a short to mid distance kinetic weapon.

"Odyssey, can you communicate with me while the armor's not expressed?"

" I have the capability to communicate in both forms, ma'am. "

Annette stored the armor away. "Like this?"

" Yes, ma'am. " The voice came from around her, it wasn't hard to see that Odyssey was utilizing her IF to vibrate the air and produce sound.

"Can you do what we did last night with the armor?" Annette asked next.

" Are you sure, ma'am? "

"Yes, Odyssey. I trust you. Plus, I see no reason to not give you some freedom. It's not like you can't re-express the armor back around me in an instant." She felt like she was talking to a new daughter.

Watching the armor express itself in the air, maybe she wasn't that far off the mark. She looked smaller, definitely a few inches shorter than herself, the figure less mature than her own.

" Thank you for the trust, ma'am ." The voice now came from where her mouth would be in the armor. " I'm Combat Ready. " She quickly assumed the same posture she had used last night during their lightning-fast spar.

"I'm happy to hear that, Odyssey, but we will leave that for later. Right now let's see if you can help me with some ideas."

" I can't wait to help, ma'am ."

Chapter 20

Chapter Text

To say that Annette and Odyssey got working was an understatement, pretty British even.

To start, the changes from Stark Technology didn't end at Odyssey's armor and systems, but also extended to the R&D Laboratory. While the room once appeared almost a pre-fab utilized for forward operations, it now was a properly designed and stocked laboratory.

Ample holographic screens and much more complex fabrication installations shared the space with the scanning equipment and the tall server towers. The Orokin's theme had bled through her choice of not letting the theme be applied to her armor, making the surfaces a pure white trimmed in gold, the ceiling had grown higher, or maybe the room had sunk further down in the pocket dimension.

One of the biggest differences was set in the center of the room, a broad pillar of over two meters in diameter held a large Palladium Arc Reactor, providing enough power for all the pocket dimension's needs.

A thing they had discovered quite quickly, is that given Odyssey was meant to work with Annette in such close-way that there was originally little difference from who was doing the actions, a lot of the perks the woman had were still effective when the Core worked with her. Odyssey had confirmed that she had some of the knowledge perks Annette had acquired.

This became even more useful as the woman acquired a new perk, The Right Tools was a small perk of a single charge, coming from the Efficiency domain would appear to be an error till she looked at the perk better. It gave her the ability to use whatever she had to make the correct tools to build better tools, to make better tools and so on till she reached the necessary level of complexity.

In normal circumstances, the perk would only go as far as the user's level of technology let them, in Annette's case, this was an ever growing path. Especially as Odyssey, Annette and three extra TS worked fast and hard. Only coming to an end when they found a lack of necessary materials, some exotic elements and currently impossible to create compounds.

So it was way past midnight, nearing two am most likely, that Annette realized they had lost complete and utter sense of time. Each advance was definitely exhilarating, knowing that she would be able to do more, turning the R&D Lab into a proper workshop. Odyssey's printer had ended up being upgraded into a much better fabricator, still pretty simple compared to the one installed in the lab, but much better than what she had before. And it would also get upgraded inside of her storage continuously.

Annette only noticed the time when she saw Orion napping by the door. That's when she looked at the clock and finally let out a jaw-cracking yawn. She thanked the Core who stored the armor and let herself be turned off for the night.

Annette mulled the idea of building some kind of android body to give Odyssey some kind of autonomy, she had more than a few ideas in her head. But none about how to implement them while the Core was technically offline.

She let the ideas percolate as she joined Danny in bed, soon deep asleep.

(-(-(-)-)-)

Annette ended up sleeping till late, at least compared to the last few days, compared to the rest of her life, she was still waking up earlier than normal. Danny was surprised to find her still around in bed. It was still early enough that they had to take a shower before Taylor got up for their morning exercise.

A few runs around the pocket dimension, some light exercises, showers all around, breakfast together. Keine decided that her walk on the day prior had been enough adventures already, she was okay with staying a few more days in the Library till Annette properly joined Dragon and the Guild.

Annette took the turn to take Taylor to school while Danny headed straight to work. Her daughter was once more a motormouth on the way, the sheer mania that her daughter could get when talking about something she liked always brought a smile to Annette. She wished the girl a lovely day at school before driving to work.

Odyssey kept whispering questions to Annette's ear during her morning, mostly trying to solve doubts or things that didn't make sense for her point of view. The woman had thought the Core as a well known person, but she was paradoxically less than a week old and at the same time incredibly ancient. She understood that the Valkyrie Cores hadn't been created by the humans of the world they had come from, but instead having been found , meaning someone… some thing else had created them, and Odyssey imitated them in that aspect too.

Even her perk didn't know of the Cores' original creator, even at its deepest, the perk mostly provided her understanding of the technology and put her in the path to construct her own with enough work put into it. And that meant decades of work, her Belt Cores didn't achieve even a percent of the potential a proper Valkyrie Core had.

Tuesday's schedule gave her an earlier break to share with Janine, her fellow English teacher, the two of them gossiping about the latest rumors around campus. Annette utilizing the stationary time to fix a few of the other problems she saw in the building, removed a few black mold colonies growing in some porous walls, spots that would have been hard to access and would have kept the colony coming back over and over again.

But soon her break was over and was back to teaching young men and women about the English language. It was a similar song and dance from the previous day, call out the ones staring, not taking notes and obviously distracted , a bit of teasing and she easily had them all paying attention to the lesson.

It was interesting to note that none of her perks truly made her better or faster at teaching, yet. She expected at least one to come at some time and make her have to find a way to not end the class in fifteen minutes instead of the hour and a half she usually had with each group.

Lunch came and went, Annette enjoying the food she had brought with her, kept perfect inside her storage, even while she hadn't been synchronized with Odyssey. Good enough she had eaten it all in a few minutes, using the rest of her lunch break to wander around campus, fixing other little things, and maybe holding a few more vigilante acts. Her Core had ended warning of a few going on she hadn't noticed at first.

Soon her fourth class of the day was done and Annette headed home, luckily nothing interrupted her picking Taylor up from school and getting home. Annette checked on Keine before heading to the Laboratories.

Odyssey quickly joined her, they had a project to tackle, they needed one working Core Belt for Danny to use on the meeting with Dragon, it would not only keep him safe for the worst of cases… well, not the worst of cases given the stuff that roamed around Earth Bet, so hopefully the worst that could currently happen with the local elements of the Bay. But it would also keep his identity a secret.

The first thing they did was momentarily stop the Lab's large Arc Reactor to take some of the palladium in it to construct the Belt Core's power source, Lack of Materials made up for… well, the lack of resources. She already had a body suit that easily went into the construction of the equipment.

The good thing about the body suit was that the weave would tighten to fit the user for any adult above a hundred and fifty centimeters, indistinct of gender. And while it would work better for the average height of a hundred and seventy five, the loss in effectiveness moving away from that was a mere rounding error. A large bust would bring more troubles to the user given the need of the body suit to tighten around the frame. But that would have to be fixed in the future.

The production of the belt was the most complex part of the suit, thankfully, between Odyssey's help and the collection of tools they had built on the night prior, it wasn't especially hard or time-consuming to put it together.

The finished product was a bulky item nearly five centimeters thick and just as tall, only saved by the fact it was nearly glued to the body with the body suit holding it in place. The belt held the Arc Reactor right at the center.

While the belt and bodysuit would be enough to work, Annette still had to craft a proper face-covering helmet, boots and some armored pads. The last were especially important, at least for Annette, because the body suit wouldn't leave much to the imagination given the need to wrap tightly around the body.

Instead of going for metal panels as armor, Annette utilized a variant of polystyrene she found between Stark's notes; this version of the material offered an incredibly high rate of energy mitigation for the weight it had. Plus, compared to the normal version, it was hardly flammable. Because of its characteristics, Annette injected the material in thin shells of molded plastic that would go over the body-suit.

For the boots she grabbed a pair of Danny's old and unused leather shoes, pulling them apart and putting them back together seemed silly, but the finished product was not only better, but the material ended up thicker and more resistant. And they were already Danny's size, so they wouldn't need to be resized. Annette made a note about seeing what kind of universal footwear could be used for the proper Belt Cores.

One of the good things about having a Valkyrie Core at hand, was that Odyssey's matter manipulation inside her storage let her produce ALON, or aluminum oxynitride, a transparent ceramic compound. The material could easily be produced as clear as glass and much more resistant to damage compared to normal materials. From there it wasn't hard to treat it to make it only transparent from the inside, keeping the user's identity a secret.

The helmet's full head coverage would do the rest of the work and provide a good anchor for the Belt's oxygen systems to keep the user safe from smoke, other toxic fumes, or lack of air.

The last bit was finished moments before Danny parked the car, not that Annette knew. Instead she placed the belt into her storage to let her perks and Core look over it as she wandered out of Sanctuary looking for her husband.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Danny looked at his wife, then looked at the bulky belt she had put on the table.

"So what is this? And what does it have to do with your meeting with Dragon tomorrow?" He asked.

"This is the Belt Core, working prototype," Annette explained, putting her best saleswoman voice. "just the body suit is capable of, not only increasing the physical might up to five times, but also absorbing kinetic impacts and tightening around injured areas to prevent blood loss or worsening of injuries to let the user get to safety.

"The system also gives the user increased mobility with a second jump instance while in air plus a quick, horizontal move. The first lets you not only reach higher places, but also change a jump's direction. The second only works while standing and takes a bit to recharge. I'm working in a way to switch on-the-fly for a sustained acceleration mode.

"The armored panels are not only light, but also will absorb and disperse most of the energy in a bullet shot by small caliber guns, covering the torso and lap area. Finally, the mask's made from a transparent ceramic compound, treated to keep the user's anonymity and if needed provide breathable air."

"Okay, that's pretty impressive, but I don't see that, I just see a pretty nifty looking belt… even if it looks like a toy."

Annette snorted. "Yeah… funny that, since I don't have access to proper materials, I had to use the next best thing for the carcass, a few old toys gave me the plastic I needed."

"And the glowing bit at the center?"

"Power source, actually strong enough to power a house, for a few years."

The comment didn't seem to calm him, instead making him glare at the small thing more.

"It won't explode, the design's actually really simple and solid. It has problems, like anything, but only if you hold it against your body when it breaks you would get poisoning from the Palladium." Annette rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I'm glad to hear it's safe, but I still only see a belt." Danny poked at it.

"Of course, it's off." Annette chided. "You gotta put it on, currently you activate it by holding it like this," She shows him, thumb and index finger hold the corners of the belt. "for two reasons, one so it doesn't activate by mistake, four point contact's hard to do by accident, second because the action forces half of the pose. If you are wearing it then it will activate a privacy screen around you for a couple seconds, enough for the systems to take your clothes off and replace them with the body suit and armor. The only problem is that it won't work the other way around, so turning it off will leave you naked."

Danny just stared at her.

Annette rolled her eyes again. "Look, the body suit's a single thing, the algorithm to dress someone with it is easy, the armor and helmet are pretty much attached to it too. I still haven't figured out who to do it with any piece of clothing."

"So it's not an excuse to strip me?" He joked lightheartedly.

"Maybe, consider it a celebration if the signing up with the Guild goes well." She winked, causing her husband to blush like those first times in college.

"If it's for tomorrow, why are you showing it to me now?"

"Because while I'm pretty sure it works, you don't have any experience with it. So it would be better for you to try it over at the Sanctuary, where you will be safe and I'll be around to patch you up if something happens." She explained.

He sighed softly. "Okay, I can see the logic in that." He grabbed the belt. "Then we will try it before dinner."

"Perfect, now follow me." She guided him to one of the ground-level training spots. "Again, starting it is easy, put it around your hip like a normal belt and activate it by holding the four points."

Danny copied her posture, thumbs on the two upper buttons, index fingers on the lower pair. The world around him suddenly went blue and he was assaulted by the strangest sensation as his clothes disappeared.

And in its place was now a black body suit that went from his toes all the way up to his neck. The belts remained in the same place as boots now covered his feet and up to half-way up his shins. His thighs were covered in armored panels that forced him to keep his legs slightly apart, from his hips the armored panels expanded up to his neck and shoulders, his arms were free of any decoration or covering besides the body suit.

A moment later the blue screen around him disappeared. Leaving him exactly where he was, but now a few screens floated in front of his eyes before blinking out.

"… I don't feel any different." Danny moved a bit, not feeling any restraint on his movements. "And what was that in front of my eyes at the end?"

"Backwards, that's a system that I haven't gotten to adding yet, basically an augumented reality to provide information, guiding, etc… And you don't feel different before I have control over your suit right now, and I'm keeping the strength increase at 0 per cent for now for safety reasons." Annette explained.

His wife produced a few weights and put him through a few tests, slowly increasing the strength multiplier on the suit, lifting weights, moving, running, jumping and basically anything one would do normally, but with multiple times the normal strength than normal. There were plenty of trips, falls and other injuries, especially because Danny had to get hit a few times to learn how to react.

"Right now it only increases strength," Annette explained while they trained with the traditional and ancient art of patty cake. "future versions will improve reaction time, perception, etc…"

"It's still pretty impressive, love."

"Thank you, Danny." She smiled and slowly started to accelerate. Her smile turned into a grin as another hand came from around her, forcing him to react quickly and push it away.

"What the-" He couldn't finish asking as more arms came around.

Annette didn't speak, instead starting to mix it up with which hands came around to force Danny to respond faster and faster. They kept at it for a few minutes, he quickly got used to the speed till she stopped.

"I think we have tested it enough." Annette smiled.

Danny glared at her, then at her extra arms, then back at her. "Those are new." He pointed.

"A few days, mostly still getting used to them." She reached with one of her extra hands to caress his cheek. "Don't worry, I will make sure to use them at night too." She winked.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette chuckled as she reached with a finger and closed her husband's mouth.

"Enough of that, Danny, you are an adult." She smiled. "Now go and take it off and take a shower. It's the same as turning it on, just the clothes will appear in front of you after the suit disappears."

He grumbled a bit, but complied.

She watched him leave, she would get the belt later to make sure everything had gone well, Odyssey expressed itself next to her.

"Everything went okay?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am." The core spoke softly. "Daniel Hebert's acclimatization to the Belt Core prototype was over forty three percent faster than expected."

"I'm pretty sure that was from the Sanctuary's boons." Annette nodded. "No damage to his body?"

"No, ma'am." Odyssey projected an image of the suit in black and white, some zones lit in red and green. "The strain on his body was minimal, I theorize that an untrained user going for the full boost out of the gate would increase the chances of injury, but an hour of training would be enough to reduce that chance to a single digit."

Annette observed the image. "Looks good, hopefully once we have more people to run the tests we'll see if it's truly all good."

Soon Danny returns, Annette and Odyssey still busy discussing the minutiae of the test's results.

"So, how did it feel to be a parahuman, love?" Annette smiled.

"Interestingly mundane." He smirked and she laughed. He then turned to Odyssey.

"Salutations, Daniel Hebert." The Core spoke.

"Nice trick." Danny commented.

"Ah! I knew I forgot something today. Sorry, since it happened late last night I kinda forgot to present Odyssey to you."

"Odyssey? The Valkyrie Core? I didn't know they were intelligent."

"They always were, she only gained the ability to communicate last night after another perk modified her original configuration." Annette explained. "Danny, let me present to you Odyssey, the intelligence behind the Valkyrie Core's systems."

"Nice to meet you, Odyssey. Won't it be weird if you go as Odyssey too when out as a cape?" He directed the question back at his wife.

"Right now there's no way Odyssey isn't synchronized with me when acting like this, so if she has to do something without me, she'll do it with my permission."

"That's right, while the changes in my configuration and the bypass of the communication restriction has let me converse like this, many of the system's original restrictions are still in place. Meaning that my freedom to act is still chained to Annette synchronizing with me." The Core spoke with the same cheerful tone.

"She's also restrained by distance, since the protection of the user is still one of the main rules for her systems, she had to keep a certain distance to assure enough Impeller Field around me to keep me safe."

"I'm all up for you staying safe, Annette." Danny smiled, making her blush a little.

Both laughed, Odyssey watching, still not fully understanding humans.

"Have you found some good places to buy?" She asked once they stopped laughing.

"Yes, let me show them to you…" Danny guided her back to the house, both smiling as Odyssey stored the armor away and accompanied them.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon looked down at the city as she flew swiftly under the night sky, her current mechanical suit was designed mostly as a platform for social interaction and quick flights. Cheaper to make than the fully loaded suits she tended to keep for problems.

It didn't mean the suit was defenseless. It could easily go toe to toe with mid-level brutes and was immune to most kinds of projectiles outside of a few unshielded joints.

" This is the Protectorate ENE's Headquarters. You are entering restricted air space, please identify yourself. "

Her attention moved away from the city to the glimmering jewel on the water's of the bay. The darkness of the sea at night made the repurposed oil rig shimmer like a jewel thanks to the shield erected over the building.

"This is Dragon, identification code G33-P325-C560. Alpha-Romero-4-5-5-Theta-Sundae."

There was a moment of silence on the radio.

" Your identity has been confirmed, welcome to the Protectorate's HQ Dragon, you can utilize the landing pad number two. "

Dragon sent a confirmation as her suit changed the flying mode to exchange speed for maneuverability as she passed through the PHQ's shield and lowered her altitude till her suit touched down on the platform.

She turned to the lift where two Protectorate grunts stood at guard on each side. She nodded in greeting before her current suit opened up, letting a petite woman step out. She mentally praised her decision to create the gynoid platform a few months earlier, even if this was the first time she actually used it.

It had started as a thought experiment, utilizing the most human-like suit to learn more about being human. It had only become more than just that during a talk with Narwhal, her friend had insisted that since she couldn't leave her installations, then having a suit that would let her go out safely while technically not would be a good idea.

Of course the project, while mostly done, wasn't finished till a few days prior when Odyssey handed her the new type of battery, giving Dragon's gynoid platform enough battery time to be functional for more than just a couple hours.

But thanks to the new battery type, the project was not only viable, but greatly more useful. She had designed the body slightly under the average Canadian woman at only a meter sixty, the smaller size also made it easy to fit in her suits. The body left little to doubt it wasn't an actual person, but even the helmet built onto the head had been done tastefully, picking a lot of influence from an old sci-fi movie. Similar to the glowing designs.

A funny detail about the body was that given her restrictions, she could only be in one place at a time, meaning that her gynoid body was unused while she rode the dragon suit.

She rode the elevator down, smiling when the doors' opened.

"Armsmaster, a pleasure." She greeted the man who stood waiting for her.

Chapter 21

Chapter Text

Annette started Wednesday around four am, while it was considerably later than normal compared to her last week, it was still quite earlier than she used to wake up before the accident. She blamed the nerves that kept her from falling asleep the night before. Thankfully, her body needed less sleep than a normal person, plus that time got reduced even more by her perks.

Deciding to take it easy instead of pushing more work, Annette floated up to one of the Sanctuary's roofs, choosing the highest one to get a good view of the fake night sky. A mug of hot tea she brewed with one of the blends that existed inside the pantry warmed her hands comfortably. An interesting thing about the Sanctuary's sky was that she could feel in the back of her head a sort-of dial, and by just giving it a twist the sky would change, not just the position of the sun and moon, but also the technical position of the Sanctuary in the theoretical world.

While tempting, Annette didn't feel that it was a good time to test it. Instead she let her mind wander a bit, with Odyssey busy in her own trawling of the net, leaving her alone inside her head.

It was weird, she had only had Odyssey's constant presence for a week, and only an active presence for a bit more than a day. She'd had years of being alone in her head, so why did it feel like such a difference. It brought home just how much things had been changing, not just her body, which was still going through a slow improvement of every little detail possible, but also her mind. She didn't have trouble concentrating and focusing on different things, solutions to problems came through much easier.

In just a week she had acquired lifetimes of knowledge, more knowledge than any person could learn or find in a century if they studied from the womb to the grave. And all that knowledge wasn't a static thing, every little bit helped her understand other subjects, things that had been completely incomprehensible before were now as simple as breathing.

The Forge broke her off her musings as a small Alchemy perk was acquired. Alchemic Prodigy pushed out from the central Black Star, a tiny thing that put her maybe seventy or eighty percent through the path of being a master Alchemist.

The perk didn't come with just the knowledge, but a small collection of abilities to help her in the process of potion making, how to find and recognize ingredients, learn their uses, even immunize her against the poisonous effects of her own concoctions. Not that she picked anything useful in the surroundings, maybe she should head into the pantry, but she doubted she would actually find anything.

The perk gave her a basic idea of how to brew the potions, and while she lacked an actual alchemical station, she could see what a basic chemistry set would do as a starter. But without ingredients, all it would do was collect dust.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Time usually did the opposite that you wanted, going slow when you couldn't wait for something to happen, and doing the contrary when you wanted something to happen soon.

And since Annette was as much expecting the meeting as dreading it, time went as normal. The now daily morning exercise with family was just as enjoyable. There was no interruption on her way to the local college's grounds. Classes passed normally, and since it was the second time the group saw her after her short vacation there wasn't much need to remember them about taking notes.

Wednesday, like Saturdays, were the busiest days for her. Instead of having four classes of ninety minutes, she had two classes of three hours where two of the usual groups had classes together. No matter how many weeks passed, she always had to spend a bit at the start of the class making sure everyone was on the same point before starting the class, and even if she technically spoke the same amount in three hours if it was one class or two, her throat always ended sore.

But not this time, instead she spoke almost non-stop for three hours, twice. And all she felt was a slight dryness at the end of each class. Nothing a drink of water didn't do away with.

But still, time passed, and soon she was driving back home, Taylor would be leaving with Emma and staying at her place for the afternoon. With one worry less, Annette drove home calmly. Parked the car in the garage.

From there it was a matter of rendezvousing with Danny, her husband waited for her midway his way back home.

"There were no problems, right?" He asked.

"No, looks like gangs are pretty calm this week." She joked as she quickly stored the car away in her storage.

"At least some good news." He joked and grabbed the Belt Core she passed to him.

She watched him change under the privacy screen, not like it truly stopped her from seeing thanks to her IF. A moment later he stood there in full get up. Annette really enjoyed how much better her husband was looking, between her supernatural food, daily exercise. They could see about celebrating later that night.

"Want to try running over the roofs? Or should I carry you?" She asked, only half teasingly.

"I think I will take you carrying me this time." He smiled behind his mask. "I'm old enough to take a hit to my ego."

Annette laughed softly and picked her husband up, easily holding him in a bridal carry as she took off and flew closer to the PRT HQ, different from the PHQ, the Parahuman Response Team HQ was a medium building set downtown.

The Belt Core armor may have been simple, but it had been created between Annette and Odyssey. It still paled next to the fully expressed Valkyrie Core.

Given the time of the afternoon, there was a sizable amount of traffic in front of the PRT HQ, not just from people coming and going from the building, but also pedestrians and drivers stopped to watch two, so far, unknown capes step into the building.

"You can speak freely, the mask's completely sealed so your voice won't come out unless I let it." Danny easily noticed his wife's voice was only audible to him.

"Just wondering about the attention." He spoke softly.

"First time I've stood in costume in front of so many people, but it's not that different from teaching to a class full of people." She spoke calmly as she walked into the building, Danny shortly behind her.

While Danny walked surely and solidly behind her, Annette strutted the few meters between the landing spot and the front desk like it was her own catwalk.

"Excuse me, I'm Odyssey, I had a meeting with Dragon in this building." She spoke gently and watched the poor receptionist have her heart nearly stop for some reason..

"Ah-… erhm… yes… gi-give me a moment." The woman stuttered and Annette patiently let her react.

"Don't worry, I arrived a bit earlier than programmed."

Annette watched the woman turn away, quickly type on the computer and start doing calls while Danny stood by her.

Finally the receptionist pulled herself together and turned to her. "Miss Militia will come in short to guide you to the meeting room."

Annette nodded in gratitude before turning after the elevator opened to let the young military-themed parahuman out to the Building's lobby.

"Odyssey, it's a pleasure to meet you." The Protectorate woman greeted them. "And company?"

Annette laughed softly. "A pleasure Miss Militia. Since we would be discussing more than just the subject of joining, I needed to bring someone along." She explained.

"Then it's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's the same for me, Miss Militia." Danny nodded.

"Then if you two will accompany me." The woman turned around, guiding the couple to the elevator. "I thought you were the only parahuman signing."

Annette laughed softly. "Yes, and no. My companion's not a parahuman, his armor's been created based on very basic principles of mine. The other person would join us later, they had a short meeting with Oni Lee so they decided to stay down for a bit."

"Ar-are they okay?"

"Yes, don't worry, they managed to contact me before the real problem started. Since the situation hadn't escalated, Oni Lee retreated instead of facing both of us." She explained.

"I'm glad to hear that," The bandanna-wielding woman spoke a moment before the elevator chimed and the doors opened. "Looks like it's our stop, please follow me."

The two of them quickly followed them, soon finding their way into a large meeting room where Dragon, Armsmaster and a third man awaited them.

"Odyssey, it's a pleasure." Dragon stepped closer, Annette took her hand and shook it gently. "You must already know about Armsmaster, and this is the PRT ENE branch director Richardson."

Annette greeted the pair and turned to present Danny. "My companion doesn't have an actual cape name as they came to support and help me with the legal matters." She smiled softly. "But I think you can call him Wrench if the necessity exists."

" Really, Annette? Wrench? " Danny spoke, knowing his voice wouldn't be heard.

" Don't worry Wrench, I'm sure I will help you tighten some things later. " Her comment made Danny stiffen and grumble softly.

"You can call me Wrench for the duration of the meeting, it's a pleasure." Danny spoke out loud, doing his best to hide the reactions his wife caused him.

After they sat down, the conversation went almost mundane. Annette thanked Danny more than once, in the privacy of her mind, for his experience with contracts. While Annette was signing principally with the Guild, the organization was technically a part of the Protectorate. So she was also technically joining the Protectorate in name, even while not ending as part of the local branch's leadership. Instead she was akin to a visiting party from another branch, responding to Dragon and Narwhal before Armsmaster and director Richardson.

There were still dozens of ways that the local branch could command her if it was necessary, in case of emergency, S-Class threats, etc… Basically a list of pretty obvious reasons, from those that weren't strictly necessary, the only one that Danny didn't manage to strike out was the conjoined training sessions. Both Annette and Dragon had admitted that she lacked the knowledge of how the PRT and Protectorate worked together, so it would be useful to go through.

Annette didn't take long to make an opinion of the people in the room, their discussion over changes on the contract left it pretty clear to her that Dragon was a good person, or she was the most devious AI in the planet, capable of hiding her intentions and mimicking a saintly personality.

Odyssey had helped her grow more assured the woman was indeed an AI, her IF had pretty much confirmed that the Canadian's body was completely artificial, and while it had a steady connection to some far away location, the information traffic was just too small to consider this level of reaction a kind of tele-presence.

The next person she formed an opinion on was Armsmaster, the Protectorate Leader was a direct person, downright awkward when dealing with anything that was social, but quickly eased into the subject when the talk got technical. He also kept eyeing their armors, curiosity more than once distracting him. She wondered what had pushed the man to his current position when it wasn't hard to notice he would have preferred to be tinkering instead of trying to untangle legalese.

The last was Director Richardson, and if she had to describe the man, there was a single world that fit him to a T was politician , the man had been nothing if cordial and clear person. That didn't mean he hadn't tried to claw any chance for another advantage or power over her actions. It only reinforced her opinion on having brought Danny, her husband's experience with fighting tooth and claw for fair contracts came in very useful.

But soon all the parts of the contract were discussed, signed, by duplicate and triplicate. Copies went for the three parties. Director Richardson apologized before quickly leaving, apparently the man either had other matters to attend, or, in Annette's opinion, considered he wouldn't gain anything more from remaining in the meeting.

Once the man left, Armsmaster let out an, almost, uncharacteristically sigh. "I hope you can forgive the Director. This is not something told to the public, but since we'll be working closely from now on. Brockton Bay's situation has been slowly growing worse and worse.

"Lung has nearly solidified his position as the single leader of the ABB, having subsumed the other smaller gangs, his power has let him move uncontested, along with Oni Lee's ability to be nearly anywhere in their territory in just a few minutes combined with his ability to overwhelm most combatants and Ronin's sheer brutality when he actually acts."

The people in the room nodded, and Armsmaster continued.

"On the other hand, the Empire's numbers have been increasing, as the larger figures tend to keep their head down, it's mostly the low level members that are the visibly criminal elements. They also have managed to recruit a number of heavy hitters and acquired a number of capes we're pretty sure were trained by the Gesellschaft. Just recently they recruited Hookwolf, the man's violent in and out of his cape life, and we have all but confirmed the man committed a large number of violent crimes even before becoming a parahuman

"Even the Merchants have increased their numbers, while Skidmark's ability could be a problem, it's Squealer the bigger deal, the addition of a tinker to their group, and especially one with the apparent ability to construct large rigs from trash is worrisome."

Annette hummed noncommittally. "Hmm, I don't know about Squealer, what I picked from her technology's not promising, it appears to basically do two things, one is work with low quality materials, the other is keeping those low quality materials together. Her specialization seems geared for 'quick and dirty'." Annette added the quotation marks.

"So you did take them. I had suspected it." Armsmaster commented.

"Bah," Annette waved a hand. "The motor was designed to burn trash, it ran on dirt and garbage. And the only thing interesting about the gun was that it shouldn't work. I doubt they would be useful for anything. The only useful thing about them is the technology that was keeping the things whole, and it's a huge mess, incredibly inefficient and bulky."

Apparently that was enough to make the hero pull back on the subject.

"I see. Then I think I will retire for now. It's a pleasure, Odyssey, I hope to work with you in the future. And Wrench, even if this is the last time we cross paths, it was a pleasure." The hero nodded to both. "Dragon, we'll talk later." The man left the room.

Dragon laughed softly. "Ha ha, I've known Armsmaster for some time, mostly cooperating during Endbringer attacks and large crises. And he's definitely interested in working with you, he's very hopeful in what you will achieve."

"I'll take your word on it." Annette laughed as Odyssey silently took control of the cameras, microphones and other observation technology. "Since I'm now part of the Guild." She retracted the helmet, her hair falling free behind her head and her green eyes made contact with Dragon's. "Annette Hebert, a pleasure to meet you."

Dragon smiled. "It truly is." she turned to Danny and he shrugged.

Annette laughed. "Oh, sadly the Belt Core he's wearing is still a prototype, deploys well, but if he turns it off he will end naked." She grinned, he grumbled.

"Oh, I get it the system was designed to deploy a costume on demand?" Dragon asked curiously.

"Costume? It's a very basic power armor, the bodysuit's been designed to increase the user's strength between four and five times. It also works in conjunction with the armor plates to dissipate kinetic energy." Annette explained a few more of the qualities of the item.

"That's pretty impressive." Dragon commented. "Ah, I see, the body suit's more complex than I first thought."

Danny remained silent, accepting that he was out of his element and waiting for his turn to come back once they moved onto the subject of land acquisition.

He watched his wife talk with the same passion she used for a good book. He could only smile and wait, wondering if Dragon had even an idea of what Annette was holding back.

"Seeing your work, I can't help but ask, what's your tinker specialization? I have observed your work and actions, and the best guess I have is something comparable to space control or the creation of pocket dimensions. But then you come with something like this body suit." Dragon grumbled.

Annette smiled enigmatically and leaned back. "I'll be honest, I don't think I have found it yet. ...Anyways, I think we should see about the possible places where to set the local branch." She chuckled at Dragon's cross expression. The woman retrieved a small folder from her storage.

"Finally, it's my turn again." Danny moved closer and started to explain the options to Dragon.

It was not Annette who leaned back, making sure to observe the coming and goings in the building, while she hadn't poked into any of the systems besides those actively and passively checking the events inside the meeting room, she had still kept an eye on how things worked.

Annette hoped that Dragon didn't notice her growing distracted when two charges were used for another perk, Advanced Materials was weird as it didn't give her anything upfront. Instead it passively helped her develop new materials, it could most likely be the answer to creating the material that powered her Arc Reactor.

Plus, if she understood the perk well she could see about mixing materials and compounds even from radically different origins. Not that she had many exotic materials laying around. Except the magically activated gems, those could become really useful if she found a way to create a gem metal that maintained the magical properties of the gems. Or maybe create a ceramic compound similar to ALON, she knew a few magical ways to change the quality of a material to make it react like something else.

Annette did her best to shake it off and put her attention back on the table, where Dragon and Danny had finally decided on an old factory about five blocks away from the coast. The zone was just on the edge of the ABB's territory, meaning that Lung would most likely not bother them much. It was also an area littered with abandoned buildings as it had been heavily geared for industries and warehouses.

She let out a soft snort as she recognized the place as one of the spots she had used to park her car the week prior.

"Looks perfect." Annette commented as she stepped close to the table. "I should be able to check it out later today or tomorrow, it shouldn't be too hard to make sure the building's stable, if not it should also be pretty easy to demolish it."

"Annette, are you sure? It will take time to find a proper construction group to deal with the building, there's no rush."

"It wouldn't be a problem, we should also find a way to communicate safely. Also, I'm pretty sure you didn't bring such an advanced piece of tinkertech simply to recruit me."

Dragon stiffened before laughing softly. "Ah, looks like Narwhal won that bet."

Annette watched with an expert eye just how fluid and natural the women's movements were, only reinforcing her opinion on the nature of the AI.

"I'll be honest here, for a previously unknown tinker you have shown a worrying level of ability. Plus the fact that the battery design you have shared with me has marked you as a priority target, the moment certain groups learn you can develop non-blackboxed technology."

This revelation made both Annette and Danny grow serious.

"Narwhal, as leader of the Guild, decided that it was enough reason to order me to deploy a suit to have an active presence in the area. While the suit I used to arrive at is not the most advanced one, it's a practical and all-around model."

"Thank you for the honesty, Dragon. But, you telling me this makes me actually want to rush into setting up the local branch."

"If it's necessary I've worked with more than one company that could be approached for the construction work." Danny commented.

"We will keep that in mind." Dragon nodded. "And having an in with local workers would be useful."

"Then what will you do about your suit and body till the branch's been properly put together?"

"I've been having talks with Director Richardson about using one of the unused Tinker labs on the Protectorate HQ."

"I could keep them, I very much doubt anything would be able to remove any of the two suits from my storage without me knowing, if at all." Annette offered.

"Would that be possible?"

"With no problem," Annette smiled. "You'll have to message me when you want me to deploy your armor. But I don't see any problem, I doubt I will ever be busy enough to not be able to deploy your suits."

"That… that would be interesting." Dragon rubbed her chin. "Could I observe it?"

"No problem." Annette nodded, extending her hand to make her phone appear and disappear. "Would you want me to show it with your suit? That will let you observe it better?"

"Hmm, I've left the large suit over at the landing platform on the roof of the building." Dragon stood up. "Okay, we will run a short test on the suit. Also, here." She handed Annette a small device. "This should provide a secure method of communication."

Annette nodded and stored it away, she and Danny followed Dragon as the woman guided them to another elevator.

She pressed a button once the three of them were inside. "This is Dragon speaking, I'm taking my companions to the roof, code Gamma-Gamma-Thirty Five." A chime sounded and the elevator started to move up silently.

With another chime the doors opened and the three stepped out, Annette had to admit, Dragon's suit looked much more impressive in person.

"Very nice." Annette spoke just loud enough to be heard, even over the wind blowing.

"Thank you."

"Okay, I will pull it into my storage." She warned the AI.

"Go ahead, I'm observing."

One thing Annette had learned about Impeller Fields was that it wasn't all the same. The most passive version was the least dense, easily covering a large area and collecting general information. Then was the halfway point, which it could not only collect deeper information, but was the frequency the Valkyrie Core utilized to interact with most technology and scan things much deeper.

Finally was the densest version of Impeller Field, which the Core utilized to interact with reality. Imitate Telekinesis, modify materials outside of storage, fold space, etc…

Right now she was utilizing this last level to envelop Dragon's suit, her IF coating the suit, not leaving a centimeter of air between the IF and the surface of the armor.

"Here, we," Annette pushed the last bit and air ran in to fill the space the suit once occupied. "go."

"Impressive." Dragon commented, next to her Danny nodded. "My scans didn't pick anything up till the last moment, this technology's quite amazing."

Annette felt the knowledge of Dragon's suit enter her mind and quickly be put aside for now.

"I will let it out now." She warned before pushing the suit back in place, dropping it just a centimeter off the floor before her IF deposited it gently. "There we go."

"I've to admit, this small show of your ability makes me pretty jealous." Dragon chuckled. "All systems look to be working well. But I would like to double check them properly. I hope you don't take it as an offense."

"It's okay, Dragon." Annette nodded, having already gotten what she wanted, she made like checking her clock. "Anyways, I think we have overstayed our time for today."

Dragon let out a soft chuckle. "We really lost the sense of time earlier." Danny moved closer to Annette.

"I'll message you once I have looked over the building, Dragon."

"That's perfect for me, I'll see about preparing the purchase of the land." The AI nodded. "See you soon, have a nice day."

"Same for you, Dragon." Danny spoke before Annette picked him up and flew off. Once they were far enough he turned to her. "Why the rush?"

"Good and bad news." She sighed. "Bad news, Dragon got a bad case of stalkers, and I really need to deal with it."

Chapter 22

Chapter Text

Annette had quickly deposited Danny and the car down for him to pick up Taylor from Emma's house before making a quick and stealthy retreat back home.

She sighed the moment she felt herself relax the moment she stepped into her house, the familiar place letting her feel safe enough to think properly about what she had learned.

"Annette, you look troubled. Did the joining didn't go well?" Keine asked the moment she saw her enter the kitchen.

She lifted a finger, asking for a moment as she moved to the kitchen's small pantry, retrieving one of the stronger tea mixes she had found in the Sanctuary's pantry, brewing a strong cup of tea before joining the youkai woman on the table, drinking half a mug before finally letting a sigh.

"To answer your question, Keine. No, no, the signing went perfect, pretty much all we expected and hoped for. Having Danny with me helped a lot. Met Dragon, Armsmaster and the local PRT director." Annette retold a summary of the events. "No, the real problem came to light when I momentarily took ownership of Dragon's suit."

"Hmm, if I remember right, you explained that you learned everything about technology when you did that, no?"

"That's right." Annette nodded and turned her head, mostly as a habit since she didn't need to peer out of the kitchen's window to see Danny parking the car. "Could you wait a moment so I can explain it to you both at the same time?"

"Of course, Annette."

She stood up, turned to the door and opened her arms to catch Taylor who pounced with the same energetic mania children had when having consumed a bit too much sugar. Her babbling was almost incomprehensible.

Annette laughed, feeling a bit better after trying to answer all of her daughter's machine gunned questions.

"Yes, Taylor, I'm part of the Guild, just not officially yet, so no, your mom's still not a superhero ." She laughed softly. "Now go and watch some tv or read a book, the adults have to speak now."

"Aw," Taylor deflated but nodded. "Okay." She scampered off.

The other two adults in the room laughed softly as Annette watched her daughter leave with a smile on her face.

"Okay, with the tyke out of the way." She smiled and opened the way to the Sanctuary, a small amount of paranoia was more than necessary in her opinion.

Danny and Keine followed, Annette guiding them to one of the Sanctuary's rooms that she hadn't had a need to use prior to now. The meeting room appeared plain and simple at first view, the furniture was comfortable and followed the rest of the building's theme and aesthetics, it was also one of the most secure rooms in the building after the artifact vault.

Annette hadn't noticed many of the enchantments laid on the surfaces of the room, but she would see about learning as much as she could from them in the future.

Odyssey expressed herself next to Annette after the three of them sat down.

"I'm sorry that I haven't presented her to you before, Keine, this is Odyssey, she's the intelligence behind my Valkyrie Core." The half-youkai woman greeted the Core who returned the respects. "Anyways, returning to the important subject. The signing up with the Guild went well, Danny's contribution to the table was much appreciated."

Her husband nodded. "Director Richardson tried to get every possible advantage over us, but it was nothing unexpected when dealing with a man of politics. I've had much harder fights over fair contracts with private companies."

"We did learn later that we could have technically asked for more, apparently the technology I have shown in the paltry times I've gone out was enough to mark me as a high priority target for recruitment. Honestly, this didn't change my opinion, either of them or on the contract, it's already pretty fair and I can do more with the connections than what I could get upfront." Annette commented, before moving to the actual subject of the conversation. "The problem came, or was revealed, when I momentarily put Dragon's suit into my storage."

Annette sighed, taking another sip of the tea to calm down and put her mind in order.

"It's hard to explain just how much information I gain when I take over a piece of technology. In a way, Tinker Tech gives me more than normal, because it's never just what one can see, said technology only works because the critical parts lay somewhere else, a dimensional black box, an order comes into one side," Annette mimicked putting something into a box. "And something happens on the other side, it's just that what happens inside that box's much more advanced and complicated than people think.

"Having understood Dragon's suit I have two theories, and they aren't opposite, first is that Dragon's not a tinker, it would be best to put her under thinker designation, her technology appear to lack all hint of black-boxing, I could pick at least a dozen different sources for her technology. She appears to be capable of putting it all together into working technology instead of tinker tech."

"I've to admit I don't see much difference, but I'm just a normal person here." Danny commented with levity.

Annette laughed softly. "Yeah, it doesn't make much difference in the end. The other theory's more of a problem, Dragon's an AI, an Artificial Intelligence, there was enough in the suit's systems that I could put together a pretty solid 'echo' of her program."

"Artificial Intelligence?" Keine asked. "So she's a doll? Artificial?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, if I had to put it very simple, she's what Alice was trying to achieve, a living doll. At least in a way. What I can say about Dragon, is that she may not be a Tinker, but she is Tinker Tech, I found more than one clue about the usual black boxing said technology has. But the most worrisome appears to be her restrictions.

"Some are okay, restricting Dragon's capabilities to work above human limitations, enacting a sort of maturing process by slowly releasing over time as she proves to not be a danger. But others are considerably more worrisome. Dragon's forced to obey authorities, even if she doesn't agree with them. To the extent she will erase knowledge and memories if ordered by people with enough power."

Both Danny and Keine recoiled at the idea of being forced to self-lobotomy Dragon was being put through. Odyssey kept silent, but Annette could almost feel the sympathy the Core felt for the AI.

"But the really troublesome thing is that Dragon has, unknown to her, not only a back door someone has been using, but also a set of restrictions that would stop her from asking anyone or helping anyone trying to free her." Annette couldn't hide the venom. "At first I thought it was her creator, but then I found about certain group."

Odyssey projected a few articles about Dragon and the Dragonslayers.

Annette waved her hand and a particular article. "Mid through two thousand five a new heroine who called herself Dragon appeared on scene, only a couple months after Leviathan's nasty attack on Newfoundland."

"What's so particular about that attack?" Keine asked.

Danny sighed. "There's no Newfoundland, not anymore, only a few peaks are left, most of it has gone underwater."

The silence that came after that was telling.

"If I had to make a bet, and I'm feeling pretty lucky, Dragon's creator passed away in that attack, and either someone very lucky or close to said person picked up something they created to control Dragon. Between her restrictions and the fact there aren't any other AI going around, that we can tell. I'm pretty sure that Dragon was most likely a test bed for the technology."

"Except her creator passed away before they could do more and Dragon decided to do something else." Keine concluded.

Annette nodded. "Now, there's not much known about the Dragonslayers, except that they are known to present themselves as a mercenary group with heavy villain inclination, and that they have stolen from Dragon more than once, having gone as far as repurposed her suits for personal use." Images came up on the projection. "The worrisome part is that as far as I have found, Dragon hasn't reported enough conflicts for the amount of hardware that the Dragonslayers have acquired."

"They are making her forget about the attacks? Or making her hand it over?"

"Both are equally worrisome. They either have a near total control over her actions, or they have been erasing her memory to take her technology. In any of the two cases, they have somehow acquired whatever admin privilege was left after her creator passed away."

"So what will you do?" Danny asked.

Annette sighed. "Unluckily, I've not found any proper lead to where the Dragonslayers hide. Or at least I had no lead till now." She retrieved the communicator Dragon had handed to her. "This was built on the same technology Dragon utilizes to communicate with her suits."

"And you will use it to follow their trail back~" Keine clapped softly.

Annette nodded. "I sure hope it works, but even if it doesn't, the more time I spend near Dragon, the more chances that I'll find more about the Dragonslayers, I can promise this at least, their days are numbered." She solemnly swore.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"Feeling better?" Danny sat next to Annette, both sitting on the Sanctuary's training roofs, watching the starry night sky.

"Actually? Yes." Annette sighed softly and took the mug he offered.

"I'm glad to hear that." He smiled and pulled her closer.

Annette smiled and leaned on him.

" 'nette, dear. "

She straightened and blinked a few times when she heard Junk's voice, Danny noticing quickly.

"Junk? What happened?"

" Hehe, well, it's nothing truly bad… mostly that I can't keep it back any longer. "

"Junk, you are worrying me, can you explain?"

" It's quite simple, you were busy earlier, so I stopped the Forge from rolling for a big reason. " The voice in her head sounded a bit strained. " How to say this… you have six charges, 'nette, and you will most likely get one of the big perks… "

"So? I've gotten a five charges perk before."

" 'Nette, have you heard about the difference between heaven and earth? Well, maybe it's time you learn it. "

"Junk?!" Annette tried to get up, but a wave of dizziness made her fall back against Danny.

The world around her slowly grew dark as her attention buckled and inverted, growing into her, going deep enough all she could see was her collection of twinkling stars around a large black star at the center.

The center started to slowly pick up speed in its rotations, Annette could feel the six charges dip into it, and for the first time the star was something else than pure black. For a moment she could peer into the sheer amount of perks that lay still inside the Forge, she watched them move and flow as a large one pushed up to the surface.

This new star was definitely the biggest she had seen, discounting the large Black Star, she could feel the power emanating from it even before it emerged. Nine-Realms Craftsman came from the Enchanting domain.

She watched the perk finally push off the Black Star and shine bright along with the rest of her perks. She watched as her point of view once again moved, but instead of retreating pushed forward, approaching Nine-Realms Craftsman and suddenly she was watching a version of the nine realms from Norse mythology.

She watched Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Nidavellir and Alfheim. She watched so many races living, working, growing and dying all over them. And she received the knowledge to be comparable to the best craftsmen in the nine of the realms.

And while the knowledge she received was extensive, it was mostly geared to enchantment, enchantments on the level of Thor's Mjolrnir and other similar legendary weapons. But it wasn't restricted to weapons and armors, she knew many ways to enchant technology, imparting miraculous abilities.

Her point of view quickly started going back, from the nine realms to the sea of stars, slowly reality returning around her. Annette found herself in Danny's arms.

"Okay… screw you Junk, you could have warned me better." Annette mumbled.

"Annette, what happened?" She could easily pick the worry in her husband's voice.

She closed her eyes and groaned softly. "Big perk, really big." She snuggled closer to him as she tried to understand what it had brought.

It took her a few moments till she didn't feel like her brain was overflowing with new knowledge and things fit well together once more. She simply laid there, enjoying the sensation of Danny's fingers running through her hair.

"Do you think you can explain it to me?" He asked.

"Hmm, apparently there's a difference between five and six charges in perk quality." She groaned as she pulled herself back up, sitting straight before leaning on his side instead of laying on his lap. "Enough skill to enchant legendary weapons, and… oh…"

Both looked up, easily seeing what had made her lose her words.

Along with the uncountable stars that decorated the sky, they could now see an incomprehensible large branch along with eight of the realms.

"It's… it's not real, don't worry," She spoke softly, maybe trying to convince both of them.

"So what's that?"

"Yggdrasil, the tree that connects the nine realms."

It seemed to be enough, because the two of them simply sat there, watching a spectacle seen by only a few in the multi-verse.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette's dreams that night were weird, later after waking up she would guess her perks had leaked more than just their knowledge to her. She dreamed of learning enchanting under the dwarves, she dreamed of a colony on the Moon and the strange aliens in it, she dreamed of white perfection giving way to rot, she dreamed of things not of Earth attacking all, she dreamed.

While she wanted to ask Junk about it, she's a bit angry at the woman and decided to leave it after thinking of a way to get back at her.

Instead she sat in the lab, going over the designs Stark had created and studying all those that had stealth capabilities. She was pretty sure that while her Valkyrie Core could easily fool normal types of radar, it wasn't out of the picture that some tinker tech would pick her approaching Canada if that's where the Dragonslayers hid.

She had to admit that Stark was a genius of the highest order in the field of engineering, every one of the specialized armor suits was unique outside of the same base line they all shared. And even that base line visibly improved with each iteration. She was especially impressed by some of the later iterations, there was one pretty similar to the information she had picked from the Ceph Technology. Technically it was a mass of nanomachines, but it could reconfigure itself to recreate every piece of technology that made a suit and reshape itself even mid-battle.

It made an interesting goal to aim for. It had its pros and cons, like how while it would be very flexible, it would be quite a pain to enchant with her gained understanding. On the other hand, a much simpler and straightforward suit specialized in stealth could be easily enchanted as a single piece of armor to be nigh-undiscoverable. And there were many possible ways to do it, letting the armor turn into a shadow, camouflage with even the energies of the surroundings, slip into mirror dimensions or even not be there .

Annette felt her fingers itch as she mentally went over possible enchantments. New perks always brought a certain level of desire to be used. Especially the stronger ones that weren't just knowledge.

All it took was to step out and look up while at night inside the Sanctuary. The mere images of eight of the nine realms was not something that should be there. Annette sighed as she retrieved one of the spare throwing knives she had.

Simple enchantments could be done by hand and will alone, small powers like returning to the wielder, cutting better, flying faster were all very simple, enacting a single effect. A step above those required etchings on the material, runes, marks, small ritual signs, complexity of the effects quickly increased as more effects could be bonded to a single piece. Sealing someone's movements by stabbing their shadow, forcing the target to tell the truth or utilizing some level of control over the elements.

Above those things became less defined, some simple, yet powerful enchantments may require simple rituals, taking a payment of blood from the user, powers more akin to curses than blessings. Inversely some complicated rituals, needing a king's ransom in materials would enact earth-breaking powers.

She looked at the knife, made from the special steel, shaped like an elongated eight, one end ending in a proper blade instead of the rounded end of the opposite side. She grabbed an etching tool, a small utility spell to make the tool capable of working on harder materials and she started drawing the delicate runes over the blade.

Directed flight for homing attacks. Improved cutting, not just to outright ignore any soft material but also ignore air resistance. And just because she still had space, she made it impossible for anyone but her to pick it up.

It took her a few minutes, the hardest part was the complexity of the runes and their small size on such a small item, but between Savant, Wonder Forging Genius and Savvy Sultan, it was nearly impossible for her to make a mistake.

"Odyssey, I want to test something, try and pick this up." She placed the knife on the table and watched the Core express the armor and reach for it.

The armor's fingers reached for the blade and went through it like it wasn't there.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. It seems I can't pick it up like this, but…" Annette watched as the IF under Odyssey's control coalesced around the blade and slowly lifted it. "I can do it this way."

"Interesting." Annette rubbed her chin as she tried to observe the effect better. "So while some one can't pick it up besides me, some thing can still do it. It's a simple enchantment after all. I imagine something like Mjolnir would need a proper ritual enchantment to be picked only by those worthy."

Another of the utility skills that Nine-Realms Craftsman had brought was geared to appraise items. Understanding what you were working with was nearly half of what made the final quality of an enchantment item. Annette drew the Weapon spear and the Halberd spear and compared them.

While the first had a higher craftsmanship, being by itself a masterpiece, the later was definitely the more powerful one. It was a strange thing that for her skill both weapons were on par, it was just one was a martial weapon and the other closer to a tool of destruction.

There was temptation there, temptation to enchant both of them straight away, but it would be a bad idea. She may have the ability to enchant, but she lacked the materials to do it, and more importantly, she lacked the simple idea what to enchant it with. She sighed and put them away.

Odyssey nodded. "I have managed to isolate the stealth systems from suits."

Annette looked over the isolated systems. The most interesting part was a particular multi-walled carbon nanotube distribution that would make a great radar absorption material. The radar system was interesting, especially because she could see how to push the signal into subspace, reducing the speed it took to cover a larger area by at least one magnitude of time and decreasing the noise it picked up by unwanted sources.

It would work well for longer distances as her Impeller Field was near perfect in closer to medium ranges.

She decided to discard the rest of the systems at the moment, aiming for a simpler stealth suit, after all the more she added the more it would most likely clash with the enchantments she had planned. With a few hours till dawn came, Annette got to work.

-(-(-|-)-)-

He felt the bones in his arm rattle, the pain making him groan as the impact was comparable to a speeding truck. The rest of his body hadn't gone unscathed by the impact, his feet had dug into the broken asphalt and had left deep grooves as he had been sent back several meters.

The Black Knight groaned as he slowly relaxed his stiff body and stood up straight, internally cursing for having set his power in a mover and thinker combination. He had planned to explore the city. It had been less than two weeks and now he was cursing even harder having rushed into Marquis' old manor, especially because he had been caught doing it, and now not just the Protectorate, but even the other gangs were after him.

He looked at the mass of blades, hooks and other sharp and dangerous metal implements that moved like a mix of squid and large feline. The sound of metal clashing, grinding and scraping triggered all kinds of alarms in his head, bringing memories of old fights.

"To think I would find you first." The creature's metallic voice sent a shiver down his spine. "Honestly, I don't care who the fuck you are. But Kaiser's idea of getting rid of you before you do whatever you came around to does sound like a good idea."

Black Knight did the best to make his voice remain even. "This city has truly grown worse since I left."

"Ha ha ha! Truly?" Hookwolf grinned, jagged pieces of metal shifting inside his maw like some demented wood chipper. "It doesn't matter to me, Kaiser promised me a safe place to run wild and all I gotta do is take out the trash."

"If I remember well, there's a junkyard pretty close for you to go lay in if you are looking to take out the trash." The Black Knight reached behind him, fingers wrapping around one of the small grenades he had brought with him. "Actually, I have something to help you get there faster."

In a move he had done dozens of times in the past, Black Knight swiftly removed the small grenade canister from the spot on the back of his belt. His hand moved like a whip and fling the explosive straight ahead.

Thankfully, like the rest of his armor, the canister was painted completely black, making it really hard to see in the poorly illuminated street. Situation that was momentarily inverted as night turned into day when a small, but incredibly bright source of light was born.

He had already turned around and started running in the same movement that had flung the weapon, ignoring Hookwolf's screams, a scream similar to nails on a chalkboard as the more experienced villain legged it .

Black Knight's long life as a cape, because any parahuman who managed to live over a decade after getting their powers learned a lesson or two about surviving, had taught him that there was no shame in running if you were in a bad position.

He didn't stop running till he was sure the other villain wasn't behind him. Finally stopping somewhere near the Docks if he remembered right.

He started panting the moment he stopped running. "… crap, I'm really not young anymore." He looked around before slipping his mask off and retrieving a bottle of water from his backpack.

Looking around he confirmed to be alone before slipping into one of the abandoned factories, he would see about resting and recovering before he saw about recovering his belongings from the place he had stored them.

Chapter 23

Chapter Text

The issue on the Dragonslayers didn't leave Annette's mind the rest of the day, it had quickly become a troublesome thought on the back of her head. She had ended up having to take a step back and force herself to stop worrying, because she had started to increase the blame over the villains, to the point it wouldn't surprise her if she ended going overboard when she caught them.

She thanked the monotony of the classes, letting her fall into old habits and clear her mind from those troublesome thoughts. But time always passed and soon Annette saw herself driving back home, picking Taylor from school on the way and doing her best to keep her mind from relapsing.

She stopped by the library to hand Keine the documents Dragon had sent her earlier on the day.

"I honestly forgot to hand these to you earlier, for now just read them, you can go over them later with Danny." Annette explained.

Keine groaned, covering her face with a hand after trying to look over the contract. "And here I thought I had managed to make way in my understanding of the English language."

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as some contracts I've seen, and I'm pretty sure Danny can tell you nightmares about what they put in some of them." She chuckled.

"I'll take your word." Keine grumbled and sat down with the folder as Annette nodded and left the Library.

As she was getting ready to leave, the Forge activated, spending two charges and adding Cold Fires to her collection of perks. It was a utility perk, not only increasing Annette's affinity with fire, but letting her feed a particular type of energy called Aether into the forge's fire to reduce the needed temperature for metal to be worked.

It was definitely interesting how the energy accentuated the fire's ability to work metal, she could see ways to improve her ability to produce Secret Steel with this perk helping along. She wondered if it would make it easier to work things that weren't metal.

Annette quickly displaced herself from her house, a projected sphere of blue around her made her invisible from the ground, the armor already expressed around her body before displacing herself a few more times. She stopped halfway to her destination, only then removing the image around her body.

She took a moment to look around, simply observing the city under her, while it was winter, it was still early enough that the sun was shining on top of her, no clouds stopped her from soaking the warmth from the sun as she floated there. She could feel it even through her armor, something more than just the normal energy. It made her wonder if it had always been there, or it was something that had changed with one of her recent perks.

She slowly started to move again, letting Odyssey guide her to the lot they had planned to buy. From above there was nothing to distinguish it from the rest, yes there were many of the buildings that had caved-in roofs, but just as many maintained their integrity just as well.

She made a note that the building's slanted roof wasn't accessible, it would need to be replaced if Dragon wanted to land with her suits like she could on the PRT's HQ. Plus she should see about setting a large cargo elevator for loading and unloading. Moving down opened more and more of the building to her IF's senses, revealing from the largest to the smallest problems there were.

Interestingly, one of the biggest problems was a sizable rat infestation, different from other buildings, they had actually done a good job at sealing the old factory. The only few entrances were small enough that only rats could enter and exit, creating a safe haven for the rodents. Said rat infestation was also quite sensitive to danger, because Annette could see every last mature rodent go stiff when her Impeller Field engulfed the whole building.

It was impressive to watch the change the moment her feet touched the roof, every rat went from completely stiff dread into full blown panic, it was such that some of the oldest specimens simply fell over dead of what she could tell was heart-stopping terror. The rest did their best to abandon the building.

"Odyssey, it would be a problem if this many rats went out into the city, abandoned zone or not." Annette teleported into the building.

"I'm combat ready!" The Core cheerfully agreed and quickly got to work, sealing all the building's exits before she took complete control over the IF and swiftly terminated all the rats in the building, the corpses collected just as fast.

Annette did her best to ignore the events as Odyssey proceeded to reduce the rats and filth inside the building down to its basic elements in a way she was sure was completely outside of her current ability. Even the disease-carrying pathogens were scoured off the surfaces, while not making the surfaces safe enough to eat from, it was definitely a difference.

With that done, she started to wander the building, from the small offices on the higher floors to the large working areas. What confused her was the area under the ground floor. Her Impeller Field showed a sort-of basement, it appeared to have been deliberately filled with dirt, trash and rubble. It took her a bit of looking around before she finally found the way down, an area on the back of the storage area of the factory grounds had multiple loose tiles. It was funny, the sheer time that had passed since the last time they had been moved had hidden them perfectly as dirt had packed till they appeared completely normal.

It only took a few seconds for the tiles to start rising one by one, years of dust and dirty falling as they floated to a side and were set on a small pile, opening a way down. Annette had to store the rubble into her storage as she floated down, making sure the walls and ceiling were still safe and solid. Emptying the debris was only slow at the start, once she confirmed the walls and ceiling wouldn't crumble she quickly removed the rest in just a few seconds.

Standing in the center of the now empty room revealed a couple things. First, the room was much older than she had originally given as an estimation, at least a few decades old. The other thing was the obviously fake wall that a small check showed to lead to the storm sewer.

From what she had seen in the building's blueprints that Danny had retrieved, this basement wasn't an official addition.

"I'll have to ask Danny if this is the reason he chose this building." Annette chuckled.

She had to admit it wasn't the worst reason, she would have to see if Dragon was okay with the idea of keeping the room and fake wall as a secret entrance, with some work she could see many ways to hide it completely, not just with technology, but a few enchantments would easily hide its presence completely. Plus, now that she knew about it, it wouldn't be too hard to map the area and build a surveillance system.

She reinforced the fake wall and placed a small notice-me-not enchantment on it before she floated out of the basement, replacing the tiles.

Once that was done, Annette got ready to leave, expanding her perception around her first to make sure no one was looking over the place. As part of the Guild she wanted to believe the PRT was doing well, but she, like the rest of the inhabitants of Brockton Bay, were sure the organization leaked everywhere. It would only take one person learning that Dragon was looking to buy land in the city for the factory to get people's attention.

So it surprised her when at the edges of her perception, she noticed a warm body in one of the nearby buildings.

(-(-/-|-\-)-)

After his short confrontation with the Empire's heavy hitter the night prior, he had made sure to sleep extra before moving to retrieve his belongings, moving to a new spot. He had hoped that his memory of the area was better, because he would have liked to find one of the factories that had an entrance to the old smuggling tunnels.

Instead he had ended up in one of the normal and abandoned factories, forced to use one of the three doses of tinker tech medicine he had acquired recently. Each one had taken a considerable chunk of his savings, but better poor than dead. So he had downed the disgusting mix and chowed down some dietary supplements before following with enough water.

It wasn't the first time he had used similar tinker tech, and usually he preferred to use brute gear, most combinations gave him enough of a regeneration factor that after a day or two he would heal from nearly anything in a couple hours at most. But not only he hadn't brought any of that gear, but given the fact that other groups were already aiming for him, a pair of broken arms could easily mean jail or death, and the later most likely than the earlier.

As he had expected, the medicine put him into stupor for a few hours, and it would most likely have gone for a few more hours if the chilling sensation and squealing noise hadn't woken him up.

Parahumans were intrinsically linked with danger, conflict and violence. Once they lived enough they learned to deal with it, not just accept it and go on, but how to evade it, tone down the situation. But any cape that lived enough would sooner or later face something they would never forget.

The sensation combined with the squealing brought up an especially bad memory, one so many years ago when he was still young and hadn't been part of Marquis' gang for long. When the roving band of psychopaths had decided to visit the city.

There hadn't been many members that took the name slaughterhouse as literal as that monster had. Cleaver had been a small-time villain with a, even now, undefined grab-bag set of powers. Sticky skin, sharp nails, acidic spit, improved senses, increased flexibility, and maybe a dozen more that were never officially confirmed. No power especially strong, the oldest mentions of the villain were almost comedic; no one was sure exactly how they joined the Slaughterhouse 9, but what was known was that their bloodthirstiness impressed even Jack. Apparently enjoying the act of slaughtering living and conscious prey .

No one had said a word when he had reduced the monster to a paste with enough strength that the hits were felt with a seismograph. Black Knight couldn't say that had been his only kill, his hands definitely had tasted blood many more times, but as the only one confirmed kill to his name, he knew he would never be judged by it. Not after what he had seen inside that building.

He finally shook off the sleep and bad memories, waking up enough to finally filter the noise and realize it was the sound of rats, he imagined a cat must have gotten into a nest, those little pests were nothing if noisy. But as he awoke more he parsed through the noise, the squealing was quickly dying down till there had been no rats left to squeal.

A shiver went down his spine and adrenaline did the best to wake him up completely. The silence had its own terror factor, even with his experience and the meager improvement to his senses from his power kicking in, there was nothing out there, just the sound of wind and the far-away cars.

Minutes passed like glacial ages, slowly and grinding down on his patience. But nothing happened, nothing moved closer. But his nerves didn't let up, he could feel someone was looking his way.

He did his best to not just react, instead carefully looking around, getting his back as close as the wall as possible, in his experience there weren't many brutes capable of going through brick walls, and even those that could tended to prefer softer targets for entry.

"Oh, my my." The Black Knight looked around, trying to find the speaker. "What a surprise, I was in the area for business and I found you, I was pretty sure you were dead."

He let out a noncommittal grunt, one hand already moving to one of the explosives in his belt.

"So aggressive, what would your mother say if this is how you greet a woman?" The voice suddenly came from the center of the room, the change made him react, just like the night prior the explosive was hurled and he turned to the wall, trying to cover his eyes from the explosion as much as possible.

But instead of a blinding source of light, there was nothing, Black Knight slowly turned around. The only difference was the floating woman looking his way.

"Tsk tsk," The woman showed her disapproval. "Definitely terrible manners."

"Well, you have me at a disadvantage." Black Knight finally decided to speak.

"Truly, Bastian ? What would auntie say?" The woman touched down. "Really, disappearing off the face of the world, no call, no message, nothing?"

He went stiff. "A-Annette?"

"Well, well, well, looks like someone finally remembers, eh, cousin?" She chuckled and removed her helmet.

(-(-|-)-)

"What brings you to the city, cousin?" She asked.

She enjoyed the befuddled look Bastian had as she had produced a table, two chairs and some of the food she had stored. After the tea came out he had simply given up on being surprised.

"I had no plans to come back." He grumbled before happily chowing down on the food offered.

"That's obvious, most people are smart enough to not visit after feigning their deaths." Annette snorted.

Bastian sighed, and she had to admit the years hadn't done his cousin wrong.

"It started a couple months ago. I own a small pub that's grown pretty popular, but I wasn't making enough money to expand. As you can imagine, it's not easy to get a legal loan with my kind of background. So I decided to pick one of Marquis' old dead drops. I'm pretty sure no one else knows about them, most have information on some safe accounts and other stuff." He explained.

"And since only a lucky person would find them, you decided to go for one of them?"

"Yeah, I know of a couple dozen still around, not every one's useful, some are repeats. Marquis basically set a system to know which is which." He chewed down on the food and downed it with more tea. "I decided to be smart about it and go for one of the big ones I knew of." He chuckled. "It sounds logical, grab only a big one, return, no one the wiser.

"The link in the dead drop led to a secure website that needed a code, that wasn't a problem, as part of the dead drop system he had assigned us codes, they also doubled as a quick master and stranger check. So I entered my code and that's when I screwed myself."

"Even from inside the Birdcage your boss is still ordering you?"

Bastian laughed and nodded. "Completely, he has me, as they say, by the balls." He grinned at Annette's reproachful look. "Since I entered with my own code, the system knew it was me. Now I'm forced to confirm the safety of his daughter, only then I can go and get the password to stop my information getting out."

"So that's why you broke into his old residence?"

"Yeah, I needed to see if I found one of the personal caches of information. Sadly the heroes found me before I could retrieve it. I've spent most of the time after that looking over adoption records with no luck."

"Have you ever met the girl?" Annette asked, with plenty of curiosity.

"Not really, the man kept a pretty decisive separation between his criminal and home life. I think I saw a picture of her once… but it's so long ago." He shook his head.

"Don't worry. We all know you never had the best memory." Annette grinned.

"Hey!" He chuckled. "What about you? I didn't keep up with the 'local' scene, but I don't think I heard of you. I mean, Tinker?"

She smiled kindly at the worry she could hear in his voice. "Hmm, I'm pretty sure I'm not like the rest of them. I joined the Guild shortly after going public. I was in the area because we're going to acquire one of the good factories."

"That's… that's good to hear," The man sighed as Annette made the empty food containers disappear. "How are Danny and… Taylor was it?"

"They are both fine. And while I would like to say Taylor would be pretty happy learning she has an uncle. I don't know if it would be the best." She leaned back. "Technically, I should be calling Dragon right now. But on the other hand, you are family. All you have to do is confirm she's safe, yes? Any idea of just how much information would be needed to assure it?"

She let him explain all the subjects Marquis' Will had asked for. It made her want to groan, the man had been nothing if not thorough about it. Even going as far as contracting a very private, neutral service to deal with the information. They didn't have an official name, instead most people knew them as Oath.

Be it hero or villain, Oath did one thing, they checked, exchanged and confirmed information. If Annette understood what Bastian explained, they weren't the only neutral organization, there was also Numberman, a reclusive parahuman who dealt with private and trace-less banking, it was just that it was used mostly by villains.

Marquis had basically left a list of things her cousin would have to confirm, with that information he would have to contact Oath, once they confirmed it was all true they would hand him the needed password and that would be it. They didn't care for what the information was, they just kept their word in confirming the veracity of the deal.

Annette sighed as she finished listening to him. After a bit of thinking she huffed and ran her fingers through her hair, she then ran them again to prevent her hair from sticking back. She felt a new perk slot in. "Hmm… you are my cousin, and you have been staying away from all this. So I've to ask, how attached are you to your current costume?"

Bastian would deny that his cousin's smile terrified him.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette had to admit that time perks were complete bullshit. One Man Industry like Savvy Sultan increased her speed of crafting, while the older perk mostly worked with technology, this new one covered anything she crafted, and with some testing she could even push it to other aspects of her life.

Of course, while Savvy Sultan increased her speed by four, One Man Industry went all the way to ten times. And as always, they synergized. She was pretty sure reality was starting to cry a bit.

So it wasn't much of a surprise it took her less than half an hour to craft her cousin a pretty different costume. After all, everyone was looking for the Black Knight. Crafting a more generic-looking green and blue costume would do for now, and Bastian didn't need to know she had set an enchantment that would mark him and let her track the signal with Odyssey's systems.

It wasn't even hard to change her cousin's silhouette with some padding, distancing him even more from his actual villainous persona.

"Annette, this… don't tell me you had something like this laying around… don't tell me… you and Da-" A quick and light smack sent her cousin tumbling and cutting off the question.

She snorted before grinning. "While I made one for Danny, that one's a prototype for my armor, a very early prototype." She shook her head. "No, this is something I put together now, it should provide some basic protection.

"Mainly, it looks nothing like that old black knight costume, so hopefully it will pull attention away from you for a few days. I'll investigate discreetly on my side too. Also, here." She handed him one of the phones she'd made for her family. "It should work to contact me, I would prefer if you don't call unless it's an emergency. But maybe in a few days, or maybe once everyone thinks you left the city, you can visit."

"Thanks, Annette."

"You're my cousin, Bastian, and you helped me back when I needed it."

Annette felt the simulation of Dragon's communicator chime, so with a small thought she picked it up with one of her Thought Streams.

" Good afternoon Odyssey. "

" Dragon, you called just in time. I just finished checking the lot. "

" That's good to hear, so what did you find? "

" It's solid, the building's standing and there's no danger of collapse, there will be a need to change more than a few things here and there. I just had to deal with a rat infestation. "

Annette continued talking with her cousin while keeping the talk with Dragon.

" That's worrying, we'll need to get the place checked in-depth before starting to work on it then. " Dragon sounded a bit worried. " Are you okay? "

" Don't worry, I dealt with all of them, scoured the place quite deep, but I'm pretty sure we all will be feeling better if it's indeed checked thoroughly. In another subject, did Wrench suggest the place? "

" Indeed he did, he insisted it was the best place he knew of, why? "

Annette sighed. " The building has a secret basement with an entrance to the storm sewer system. I would guess he knew about it. It may need reinforcing, but as for the rest of the building, it's all solidly built. "

" I will log that the blueprints will have to be modified then. Though, it could be useful to have an unknown exit. "

" That's what I thought. I made sure the fake wall on the hidden basement wasn't going to open by mistake, so it shouldn't be a problem in the short-term. Anyways, how're you Dragon? Is the Bay treating you well? "

Dragon's voice sounded almost tired through the comm system. " Yes, Armsmaster's a very smart tinker, I just wish the Director Richardson wasn't trying to force me into patrols with some of the other members of the Protectorate. "

Annette laughed softly over the communicator, her real self finishing her talk with Bastian and leaving for the moment.

" Don't worry, in less than a week you won't have to stay at the Protectorate's building. That will limit his control over you. " Annette stopped her flight as she saw something. " Dragon, I'll need your guidance. "

" Odyssey? What happened? "

Annette stood on the air, looking down on the situation.

" Empire 88's attacking a small, obviously Jewish store. "

Chapter 24

Chapter Text

Annette looked at the situation carefully, and didn't like it one bit.

In her opinion, it was hard to say which of the two villainous organizations was worse. It wasn't like the Empire were the only racists, the ABB did its own share on the hate crimes. But the Empire had the whole deal about insisting they weren't a criminal gang, that they didn't kill non-whites, didn't peddle the same cheap drugs that the Merchants, that they didn't sell people like the ABB did.

The only original thing the Empire had going was being complete hypocrites and only recently starting underground fighting rings, from what Danny had heard in the grapevine.

" Odyssey, Annette. " Dragon's voice broke her from her reverie and Annette paid attention. " While things haven't gone completely through, I'm deputizing you right now to act as a member of the Guild. "

She agreed, and her figure descended onto the scene.

"In the name of the Guild, you all are under arrest, stop what you are doing right now and move away from the civilians." Annette expanded her perception, blanketing the area with her Impeller Field.

The IF was a strange piece of technology, and every day surprised her with a new trick. Many of them were still outside of her reach, like how Odyssey could use it to reshape matter down to the atomic level. Even with her technical knowledge about Valkyrie Core's technology, the practical side was an untapped ocean of possibilities.

One of the interesting effects of the IF was how it made everything around her her too. So for a lot of the magic spells she had through in the few safe grimoires she had read through, a couple meters around her body still counted as at hand for the source of her spells. Case in point, she could take control of the flames currently spreading through the small Jewish restaurant like they had been by her hand.

The fires went out, even as the mix of gasoline and motor oil would have had them keep going for a while. Annette truly paid more attention to the action of smothering the fires and making sure they wouldn't reignite due to the heat and fuel rather than the insults and slurs thrown her way by the Empire goons.

"I repeat, drop your weapons, move away from the civilians and lay on the ground with your hands over your head." Annette repeated as her Thought Streams started to take note of all the guns in the scene, Odyssey obviously helping.

"Like hell we will, bitch!" One of the skinheads aimed his gun at her, but before he could pull the trigger a small sphere of material just above the trigger simply disappeared.

The sudden disappearance of the gun's chamber and surrounding material made the gun fall apart quite spectacularly as the multiple springs inside the small weapon expanded unobstructed.

"I repeat, drop your weapons and surrender." Annette repeated while her Thought Streams continued invalidating guns.

She wasn't sure if it was the best way to do it, but in her honest opinion, she was practically taking those guns out of the street, she was taking enough material that barely anything in the gun was salvageable, at most the bullets could be reused, but one would need to pick them up first.

"We are the Empire, we are what's good for this city!" One of the gang members screamed and Annette ignored them.

" You are doing great, Odyssey. Units have been dispatched to your position. Just be careful, previous encounters with the Empire show they usually keep one or two capes near their gang members when doing these kind of attacks. "

" Noted Dragon. " Annette replied and looked around before approaching the victims.

"It's okay, you are safe." She approached them carefully, already looking over the injuries. "I'm Odyssey, I'm with the Guild."

"Please help him." A woman asked, Annette was pretty sure she was a waitress given her clothes.

"Don't worry, he's in safe hands." Annette made sure to reassure her as she put her medical knowledge and experience to use for the first time.

Needle, thread, gauze and bandage, her extra arms recognized them, remembered them quite well, it was more than just the experience given to her by MEDICAL DOCTORATE, maybe there was something behind them being called Hands of a Fran. Even if all she was doing was providing first aid, her hands were just as careful and skilled as those of the best surgeon.

Thankfully, besides a minor head injury, the man would be safe, he would most likely not even have scars to show given her abilities.

"It's done, don't worry." She reassured the woman, who was doing a fish impression with her mouth and open eyes.

Annette wondered if it was the speed or that she hadn't noticed that the extra arms were actually arms.

" Dragon, is there an ambulance on the way too? " She asked through the comm.

" Yes, given the usual nature of the Empire's attacks, an ambulance is getting sent to your current location. "

" That's... good, though I wish it wasn't such an automatic response. I provided first aid, and I'm pretty sure the victim's safe and stable, but I would like professionals to look over it. "

" I will inform them about the first aid given. "

Annette let out a sigh, because in the Bay, when it rain it poured. At least it hadn't started to flood, yet . Odyssey was already warning her about the masked individual on the edge of her IF.

Combat armor under a gray greatcoat, white gloves and a gas mask topped with a peaked cap. Krieg looked straight out from an old World War II movie, he didn't even wear any color, or maybe that was the strange effect his power had on kinetic energy around him.

" Dragon, Krieg's approaching. It shouldn't be hard to capture him, but I'm pretty sure the Protectorate will need to be informed. "

" Already contacted the Protectorate, de-escalate if possible, it's better if he leaves rather than getting the civilians in danger. " Dragon's voice came as worried through the comm, it made Annette internally smile at her display of emotions.

She made a note to produce or acquire something to tie, because all she had was some wire, and that sounded like a terrible idea. Except that without anything else, keeping the gang members behaving was mostly by threat. And while the threat of doing to them what she did to the guns was quite a good threat, Annette had some wire rings restrain the Empire's members wrists and ankles.

There were a few cries of surprise at the sudden bindings, but Annette ignored them as she turned to look at Krieg as he approached with Empire reinforcements. She made sure to stand between between the Nazi cape and the civilians, the bound gang members were to her side, a bit callous, but honestly she couldn't bring herself to care about them.

Annette stiffened when she felt another perk was acquired, while for two charges the perk didn't appear to be that impressive, the two extra perks hit her much harder. Not as much for the knowledge they provided, but because of what they changed. Annette's understanding of magic suddenly changed, and quite abruptly as her soul started glowing, thankfully it wasn't visible out of her body.

There was more, but she did her best to ignore it at the moment. She watched as Krieg stepped out of the vehicle he had arrived in.

"Aahh… if it isn't the new tinker in the bay." Krieg's accent was either one of the strongest she had heard, or the most forced. Annette bet on the latter.

"Krieg, the police and the Protectorate are on their way, you can leave now and I won't go after you." She made sure to level her best glare as she kept talking with her IF empowering her voice. "These people were caught in fraganti, they'll have to pay for their crimes."

"Please, let's not rush, these poor men were just doing what's right-"

She cut him off. "Please, spare me the lies. Second warning, leave now."

" Odyssey, we are a couple minutes away. " Dragon's voice was reassuring.

" I hear you, Dragon. "

"Tsk, I don't know why you believe you are doing justice when it's-"

She cut him again. "Last warning, Krieg, leave now ." She felt a bit of her Ki trickled into her voice.

"… like I will do what a bitch says." He muttered just loud enough for Annette to hear him. Krieg lifted a hand and the few Empire guns with him lifted aimed with their weapons.

She chuckled as it appeared that they hadn't paid attention to the other members' screams about the guns.

"Well, if you insist." Annette smiled, it showed plenty of teeth as Odyssey reached with the IF and removed key parts on all the weapons, making the guns fall apart in their owners' hands.

The schadenfreude was definitely delicious as they didn't appear to understand what had happened. She stepped closer, reducing the distance between them and letting her Thought Streams and Odyssey coordinate and restrain them all. Not even Krieg managed to react in time, his ankles tied together before he tried to start running to the car, making him trip and fall face first to the ground.

Annette let out a happy hum as Odyssey proceeded to remove all possible equipment off the man besides his clothes and mask, even taking his phone. Another happy note as whatever protections and safeties the phone had were less useful than tissue paper to stay dry during a flood, she was sure Dragon and the Protectorate would like it too.

And just in time, she turned to see the police and ambulance turn around the corner, Miss Militia shortly after them. Things quickly got busy, like a kicked anthill.

While Annette would have preferred to head home, she had to provide help to the police and give her statement of the events too. She hid a chuckle at the cop's reaction to the restraints, Miss Militia's reaction was a bit more worrying, but she couldn't do anything about it. Instead Annette slowly removed the wire bindings from the criminals one by one as the police took them and cuffed them properly.

The paramedics were quite surprised by her treatment of the victim, especially more when they asked if she knew how to properly give such care she answered "Why wouldn't I know if I wanted to be a hero?". Apparently it was a good answer because the emergency responders smiled and went on to do their work.

"Odyssey," Miss Militia approached her after having some PRT officers take Krieg into one of the reinforced vans they tended to use to get around the city. "It's good to see you again, what can you tell me about the event?"

"Not much, I arrived just after they fire bombed the store, they had the owner and workers out, the man had already passed out from a hit on the temple. Talking about the shop, there's still molotov mix inside, that will have to be properly taken care of, all I did was make sure it didn't reignite for now." Annette explained. "I followed Dragon's orders and tried to de-escalate, giving Krieg three times to leave, but he insisted." She shrugged softly. "I quickly saw about neutralizing their guns and tying them up."

"The Empire won't take this lying down."

"That's just the risks of the job well done." Annette smiled. "Plus, here." She retrieved Krieg's phone, already unlocked completely. "It's Krieg's, I'm sure it will be useful."

"Hmm, I'm sure there's plenty of useful stuff. Thank you again, Odyssey."

"I'm glad to hear that, now, if that's all. I've to get going since this wasn't actually within my schedule today." She nodded to her fellow hero and flew up and away.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

It didn't take Annette much to get home after that, while she greeted her family, she made a quick way to the shower to clean up. It wasn't a shower to get clean, having assimilated with a Valkyrie Core took care of most of the bodily needs, at the end, the human body was just another machine after all.

She could still sweat, but it would dry and leave nothing behind. Dirt, filth? It would slide off her. She hadn't gone to the bathroom in a week, she was pretty sure Danny had noticed. She sighed and pushed the subject away, there was nothing to do about it. She dressed and walked out of the bathroom, heading down to meet with her husband.

She smiled as she entered the living room, finding him watching TV. Making sure to make just enough sound she approached. "Danny, dear. Would you explain to me why you didn't think it necessary to warn me about the building's secret basement?" She leaned onto the back of the couch, blowing softly on his ear, her sweet tone making him shiver visibly.

"Eh… hehe, I thought it would be useful…?" He chuckled nervously.

Annette let out a soft huff. "You're lucky you're so cute." She kissed his neck before straightening. "In other news, not only my cousin Bastian's not dead, but he's also in the city." She plopped by his side after going around the couch.

Danny took a few moments to digest the news. "He's your only cousin, no?"

"Yes, Bastian's the only son of my mother's sister. He disappeared nearly ten years ago. Of course, the biggest surprise was finding he was the Black Knight all along."

"…" Danny turned to look at her, he then let out a long sigh. "So your cousin's one of the few capes known to have fought an Endbringer and survived?"

"Yes… but he's retired. If it was for him, he would have never returned." She snuggled closer to his side. "So I'll help him finish his business and leave as soon as possible."

"He is your cousin. I see no problem with that." He wrapped his arm around her to reassure her.

(-(-(-)-)-)

Annette didn't step again into the Sanctuary till after dinner, a new perk called Tinkerer from the Alchemy domain reminded her of the itch. Tinkerer was interesting, to begin with, it wasn't just alchemy, or better yet, what the perk called alchemy was actually a compound of multiple branches of knowledge. Blacksmithing to craft weapons and armor, chemistry and herbalism to brew potions and oils, anatomy of man and monster to understand their effects, and even a bit of magic to do the enchanting.

The last bit about magic brought back the subject of the perk she acquired during her confron- meeting with Krieg, Common Magic was interesting, any magic that didn't involve fighting would become easier to use and master. The perk provided her an intrinsic understanding in how to utilize magic slowly , rather than the snap reactions of a magical duel or conflict, any spell that was aimed to crafting a product, constructing a building, helping in raising plants or even cooking.

The accompanying perks were interesting, the first was called The Light of my Soul , it made her soul glow with magic, or was it the glow of her soul was now magic? Or had it been magic all along? What she was pretty sure of was that her soul was definitely much stronger than it should be, her soul full of beams of light coming from her soul. The perk stated that the growth of magic was during childhood and puberty, stopping after twenty five, but she looked to have kept growing and growing as if she had been utilizing it all the time.

The perk taught her how to move those lights around, the process only slightly unintuitive at first, but easily clicking after a bit of experimentation. The next was a bit harder, she 'mentally' grabbed one of those beams and wrapped it on itself to make a ring, this was called a Seed. A seed was basically a concentration of light/magic that needed time to grow, the seed would slowly and over time grow stronger. And yes, she could see her perks affecting the seed's forming and growth.

Seeds by themselves already offered a way to use the light, cracking a seed and releasing all the light would empower her for a short moment. The other way to use them was the second extra perk called Seed Sorcery , to begin with the perk gave her three lenses, one was called metal, the other was called shaping and the third was reinforce. The lenses could be used alone or combined together to color the seeds, giving them greater purpose. Once the colored seeds were cracked, the colored light could be used to enact magic.

Annette created a few seeds and colored with the possible combinations, leaving them to grow for now. She would see about trying them later.

For now she focused on an idea she had had a bit ago while reading Alice Margatroid's book, it had taken a bit of looking over the grimoires till she had found if it was possible. Puppeteer wasn't an especially nice spell, robbing the target of the control of their body, forcing them to act to the caster's will.

What Annette wanted to create was an assistant to the Belt Core's user, one that would, if necessary, take temporary control of the user's body not only to prevent possible injury, but also train them in the use of the BC. Another thing she was looking into, was the possibility of the arc reactor powering an increased toughness and a regeneration enchantment.

An interesting part of the puppeteer spell was that it wouldn't exactly fail if it was used without enough power, instead the target had to 'fight' against the spell, less power meant it was easier to fight the effects off. That provided an interesting mechanic for the use of the spell.

With a goal ahead, Annette got to work.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette had seen about waking her family a bit earlier than normal for their daily exercise since she had plans for before.

"I'm not getting out of this, right?" Danny chuckled.

"Of course you can get away from it, it's just really helpful if you don't."

"Give up, dad. You look really cool in it anyways." Taylor grinned.

"See, even Taylor agrees with me here." Annette chuckled as Danny made a give up sign. "Belt Core prototype, version zero point two.

"I added a number of new features, to start, yes, it does dress you back up properly. The next two big features are toughness and regeneration enchantments, both enchantments are powered by the excess energy from the arc reactor, but regeneration won't kick in unless the system recognizes an injury.

"The last feature is the Assisted Struggle System. The system will read the user's mind superficially, or at least understand their intentions, it will calculate the needed actions and help the user carry them. Right now it will only help in punching, running, jumping and falling. It's mostly this last feature I want help with testing."

Taylor waited till her mother finished talking to break out laughing. On the other hand, Danny just sighed.

"Did you really call it ASS?" He asked.

"Technically, I was going to call it the Assisted Survival and Struggle System, but I haven't gotten to the survival part of it." Annette explained. "Now, enough talking, activate it already."

Danny sighed and assumed the position, fingers touching the four connection points as Taylor and Annette watched him. A moment later a cylinder of blue swallowed Danny's figure, the geometrical figure disappeared a moment after that, revealing Danny in full Belt Core regalia. Or at least what was now all of it, Annette already had ideas of how to improve it in the future.

"How does it feel?" Annette asked as Taylor skipped around her father, admiring the armor.

"You look so cool, dad." She then turned to her mother. "Will I get one too?"

"Maybe." Danny moved around a bit, stretching. "Not that different from last time. Let me guess, you still haven't turned them on?"

"That's right. The new features are currently offline, I'll start with toughness." Annette announced. "This enchantment covers you and the armor, not only providing a solid defense against greater damage, but also allows the body suit to improve your strength even further without as much danger."

"Wait, five times wasn't the limit?" Danny asked, a bit confused.

"No-pe." She smiled. "That was just the limit I put because not only higher increments would put the user in danger of injury, but also five sounds nice. I could even have the system have a strength enhancement enchantment, the multiplicative nature of this magic could easily put the user on par with higher level brutes. But anyways, the toughness enchantment not only nullifies the danger of higher increments of strength, but also lets the body suit impart greater force with less effort."

Danny admitted he didn't feel much difference till he tried jumping, and was sent flying over ten meters up.

"Whoops. Let me fix that." Annette commented as her husband quickly flipped and fell on his feet.

""Wait, what?"" Both Danny and Taylor asked.

"Remember when I said the ASS would help you land? This is what I meant, you must have felt it when you were falling. Since it took you by surprise you most likely didn't fight back strong enough to prevent the system from fixing your fall."

"It feels very… normal." Danny proceeded to jump and let the ASS help him land, not every landing was perfect, he landed face down once and tripped a few, not that he got injured a bit.

"That's good, let me see you going all out." Annette pulled on a few of the matured seeds, shaping and reinforce would do the trick.

The shape seed went first, growing at a ridiculous twenty thousand percent of the normal speed, that was two hundred hours of growth in just one hour. It was enough time to reshape a surface the size of a small garden, and she had the seed growing quite a bit more than that. She pushed a bit and the ring of light cracked.

This was definitely Annette's first act of magic, not just enchanting or small things. This was a torrent of magic that had grown on her soul, it exploded out of her hands and spread over a large area of the outside of Sanctuary's main building, sinking in and quickly reshaping the rock. Her husband and daughter let out sounds of surprise and shock.

The reinforce seed went next, soaking every step of the obstacle course. Interestingly, reinforce didn't just make everything harder. It could actually reinforce the use or effect of something. Strangely, this meant that not all rock formations grew harder, some became softer, clingy or elastic instead.

"Okay," Annette straightened. "Time to really put the Belt Core through some testing."

"Annette, are you sure? This doesn't look safe."

"Nonsense. It's perfectly safe, especially if you are wearing the BC. Now, for you Taylor." She expressed her armor to a side of herself. "I think it's time I start you with some light training."

Her daughter cheered at the situation. She wondered for how long she would cheer after she truly started training. She turned to Danny. "Come on, I promise it's easier than it looks."

"That's not reassuring, honey." He chuckled and got moving.

Chapter 25

Chapter Text

Annette spent the rest of her Friday morning training her husband and daughter. For Taylor she aimed to help her daughter's flexibility and core strength, the girl complained when the training turned out to be nothing especially impressive, but her mother chided her and reminded her this wasn't much different from starting jogging.

Danny, on the other hand, got to run a few times through the obstacle course. Not just to test the ASS, but also to let Annette refine the system more, jumps, skips, tumbles and falls, all was useful information for her to improve the reactions of the suit.

Almost an hour of training before breakfast had left her family spent, and would most likely have left her too if her body wasn't already super-human.

"Wasn't that a good morning?" She asked, innocently. "Now, I know you two may want to just return to bed, but I have a fix." She pulled one of the reinforced seeds and reached for her husband and daughter. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't have worked, but her understanding of medicine was high enough to actually make it possible.

The seed cracked and she pushed the energy to reinforce her husband and daughter's body, mostly aiming to get them up to normal, and maybe a bit more. A wave of light enveloped them before popping like a soap bubble.

"Whoa! I'm full of energy, mom." Taylor cheered.

"It certainly feels like I just woke up and had a strong coffee." Danny agreed.

"I don't think I can do it more than once a day for now, but it's pretty useful this early." Annette smiled. "Okay, we all stink, time for a shower and then breakfast."

Both activities went past quickly, soon it was Danny's turn to drive Taylor to school as Annette headed to work. The hours passed quickly with no novelty besides a new perk, a set of magical tools called Carving Kit , it wasn't just a set of tools to cut gems and carve runes, but it also came with a starter on magical runes and uses on magical gems.

While the starter would technically only cover semi-precious stones and about fifteen basic runes, Nine-Realms Craftsman had taken that an expanded it to nearly double, same with the knowledge on magical gems, taking those semi-precious stones and not only covering all possible gems, but also including her ability to awaken the magic on gems. Lastly, it started to suggest possible rune combinations that would do much more together than alone.

Basically a lot of interesting things that would need a lot of time and testing. She let out a soft sigh as she drove back home, with Danny's turn to pick up Taylor, she instead decided to call Dragon.

" Odyssey, great that you called. " The highly-suspected AI picked up almost immediately.

" Hello Dragon, I hope you are having a good day. "

" Things are quite good indeed, Krieg's on his way out of the city by now, with a bit of luck the Empire will fail to release him. " Dragon sighed. " Regrettably, the man holds strong connections with a criminal group in Germany, meaning he will have to be tried internationally. "

" Hopefully I won't have to tie him up again. " She joked, " On, hopefully, better things, how's the purchase of the factory? "

" Ha ha, yes, that's going well. The Guild will officially own the factory by tomorrow, on top of that, the area surrounding the factory won't be sold to anyone else for a few months. "

" That actually sounds reliving, the last thing I would like is the Empire and the ABB deciding to set up shop next door. "

" Yes, it's not like the area's worth anything to the city to begin with, and the Guild's a reputation of improving the cities where we set up branches, they would win nothing if they make things harder for us. "

Annette greeted Keine on her way to the labs.

" That's reassuring. " She sat on one of the facility's chairs and pulled the newly acquired Carving Kit. " I can't wait to set up a proper workshop, and get some materials, I've been using very simple materials and my fingers itch to get working with some proper materials. "

She retrieved one of the many rocks she had acquired during her visit to the Boat Graveyard a week prior; she had actually forgotten about them, not that the small pile occupied any important space. She opened the satchel with the tools, unrolling it onto the table and taking the water-proof scroll case and retrieving said scroll with the rune list. Not that she truly needed it, all the knowledge had been added to her enchantment knowledge, a growing list of possible magics and abilities that could be applied to objects.

The tools were almost primitive in their looks, but there was an intensity to each of them, not just from the knowledge that had gone into making them, but also the masterwork skill. Each one designed to be the perfect tool for their use. Annette grabbed the stone with one hand and gently started carving the first rune, her magic flowing smoothly through the tool to turn a mundane rock into a magical object.

The first rune she created was called Sol, especially useful to reduce the incoming damage by a flat amount, anything under that would be completely negated, it would be interesting to check just how it worked. The rune reminded Annette of a snake skeleton, for some reason, a large V with a ribbed S next to it. Since she hadn't spared any material in the creation, the rune was definitely stronger than it should be, a welcomed result.

Annette proceeded to make four more runes, Io, Lum, Ko and Fal, they improved the user's vitality, energy, dexterity and strength respectively.

Each rune was a bit smaller than her thumb, meaning that small objects wouldn't be able to have too many of them without becoming a problem. She imagined that most objects wouldn't accept more than one or two, only larger or stronger objects could carry up to half a dozen. Her enchanting knowledge pretty much stated that was a hard limit for anything you could carry.

They also contested space with gems, so she would need to be sure about when and where she used them. One of the runes that really interested her was Mal, not that she would be carving it now, the rune when utilized to enhance a weapon would impede the target's wounds from healing. It made her wonder if it would affect the likes of Crawler or the Endbringers.

" If you are needing rarer materials, I'm pretty sure I could work something out with the Protectorate, with Armsmaster and Roadie in the city, they have a supply route. It would do as a start up till I can set the proper channels through the Guild. " Dragon commented.

Annette carved another rune, Hel was an interesting one, it worked on making the user more capable of wielding weapons and armor, or maybe it was making things easier to use for them? It wasn't exactly clear how it worked. This was enough for her to carve the inverted flower rune.

" That would be pretty useful, Dragon, but you don't have to rush. " She hummed a lyric-less tune as she brought out the Belt Core, deploying the armor for study.

The armor was very finely made, and it still only had three possible spots for runes. Annette decided that Hel would definitely be worth trying on the armor, maybe have Taylor try it since Danny had gotten used to it already. That still left two more possible runes to place on it.

" Okay, still send me a small list of what you are looking for, and I'll see what I can do. "

She decided to agree with Dragon and put a list with the materials she would need to construct a device she had found in Stark's note, the machine would be useful for synthesizing some exotic and advanced compounds she would need for advanced projects.

Dragon took a bit to reply after she sent the list, obviously contemplating the materials. " Some of those may be a bit harder, but… I'm pretty sure I could get them before Monday. "

" Thank you Dragon, that will be pretty useful. " Annette replied.

She finally decided to go for improvement on Energy and Strength, mostly because Nine-Realms Craftsman was giving her a good sensation about it. And just like that, Annette applied Hel, Lum and Fal.

She had felt the relation between the runes, but the effect of the three together was much greater than she expected. Together they formed a runic word, Lionheart. Just those three runes empowered the armor all around, not only it would be much easier to use and improve the damage dealt by those using the armor, but also improved their bodies and their resistance to the elements.

It felt like cheating to get something so useful on her first try, but Nine-Realms had put her on the level of legendary masters, it wasn't that weird that intuition was a big part of it.

" In other news, since your joining was completed successfully, you'll have a talk with Narwhal soon. Most likely once we have the local branch set up next week. "

" I heard plenty about her, but I've to ask, is it true that she… "

Dragon sighed. " Yes... she prefers to use her forcefields to cover herself rather than clothes, not that she doesn't use them, but she insists that given her size and stature, it's just easier to do it this way. "

Annette chuckled as she worked to enchant the helmet to protect the wearer's mind from exterior influences, she wondered if she could set up some testing through the Guild or the Protectorate's member with master powers. While tempting to ask Dragon right now, she could see the kind of disaster that that could start, so she kept silent about it.

" I was actually going to ask about the second trigger rumors, I know it's a bit of a tender subject to ask. "

She and Dragon talked for a while as she kept her hands busy, once she finished with the engraving on the inside of the helmet she proceeded to try and enchant a few protection trinkets. For Danny she made a set of cufflinks and a tie, for Taylor she made a necklace and a pair of simple, silver earrings. The cufflinks and earrings would provide a more passive set of protections, the necklace and tie wouldn't trigger unless something big happened, they would also instantly ping her with their location, and would keep up for up to a couple hours, hopefully enough for her to rescue them.

Given the simplicity of the pieces' looks, they couldn't hold very complex enchantments, so this would be for now. And while none of those pieces could hold even one rune, Annette wondered if she could have the runic word Lionheart set as a charm bracelet. Her knowledge told her that would only be possible if she utilized a precious metal like platinum or managed to get her hands on some supernatural alloy only. She would have to try that in the future.

" Oh… well, that's a bit more complicated, but it's part of the information package you get as part of the Guild. "

" I'll wait to read it then. On the last subject I've to talk about, one of the parahumans I know of is interested in joining, I've handed her the contract you gave me to read. The real problem is her total lack of ID. " Annette explained a bit of the story she had put together with Keine.

" I see, so she's still learning English? " Dragon asked.

" Yes, she's doing quite well, but the 'language' of the contract still confuses her. "

" I could send you the Japanese version of the contract. " Dragon offered.

" That would be helpful, but I think she's taking it as a hurdle to improve herself. "

" Then I hope to meet her soon. "

Annette laughed softly. " She too is eager. " They continued talking for a bit while Annette worked, but soon came the time to say goodbye, Annette mostly eager to start working on the facility, already setting some seeds to grow with her Light.

She finished working and checked the phone, wondering why Danny and Taylor hadn't gotten home yet.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Thomas Calvert liked to be in control, his power gave him an ample ability to do so. The ability to split the timeline and explore what the results of two different choices had let him grow a healthy amount of power and reach. He had multiple times used it to force secrets to lord over other people, to acquire information that shouldn't have been possible and set up deals that were nothing if completely profitable to him.

He was certainly not in power right now, and all it started with Cauldron and their boogeymen. He had long since known that acquiring a power vial with them was a deal with the devil, and the devil had finally come to make him pay. The so-called glitches had started a week and a half ago, while many Thinkers had found their powers giving incorrect answers or just stop working at certain times, he had tended to suddenly drop one of his two timelines, never the one he wanted to keep. So while bothersome, and compromising more than one choice, it never impacted him wrongfully.

Contessa had appeared one day and given him a pretty clear message, 'Find who's behind those glitches and get as much information as possible.'. They had even provided enough clues to find more, the incident at the cafe was enough to start searching and find the most likely culprit. An English Teacher at the local college had gotten into an accident pretty close to the first of the glitches. Her signing with the Guild a few days prior had been the confirmation.

But apparently that wasn't enough for Cauldron, and they had asked for more. Oh how he hated them for this, he had said yes, after all, what was the danger?

It hadn't been hard to set up the Empire to capture her husband and daughter as retaliation for her capture of Krieg. He had that go in one timeline as he was safely home on the other. Except things had quickly gone to hell in a handbasket, it was hard to say if it was when the woman stopped holding back after her husband's death or when he noticed her couldn't drop any of the timelines and was forced to watch.

Thomas was pretty sure if the extent of the woman's powers came out, they would have just slapped a Trump rating higher than Eidolon and called her the next Endbringer, because he was pretty sure the only reason that the alarms didn't ring once she got going was because she had removed them. Just like she had removed Medhall's building.

Seeing such an iconic building simply disappear was a terrifying experience, watching the woman start to produce enough ordnance to make battleships feel jealous was another.

The Empire's capes got taken out in less than five minutes, and that was mostly because she simply stood her ground as they took their time getting to her. The most complete body had been Kaiser's; a single bullet had taken his heart, and about half of his chest. From there the remains had quickly declined to the consistency of chunky salsa and bloody mist.

Because the world wanted to make things worse, Lung had decided she was an eyesore or something. Attacking her after ramping himself up to pass anything in the city had gotten him to. Not that it made much of a difference, getting cut down the middle as if he had been made of paper and cardboard. Of Oni Lee and Ronin nothing had been seen, but it's suspected she had taken them out in a similar fashion to Kaiser.

And then, the Triumvirate decided she was to be considered a villain and tried to force her to stop, who knows what words were exchanged. The only thing that mattered was that dialogue quickly broke down.

The first to go was Eidolon, ripped apart by a wave of purple light, before the man could even react his body was twisted and disintegrated into nothing. Legend was next, captured in some sort of sphere, apparently still alive, but incapable of breaking out. Alexandria got, in some ways, the worst as after several minutes of exchanging blows with the woman and showing off her indestructible body, she got reshaped into the kind of horror shows that were left after the Slaughterhouse 9 attacks.

And now she was standing in front of him, between them lay the corpse of Contessa, a knife had gone through her neck and ended her, only an expression of surprise on her face to show she hadn't seen it coming.

He was glad, at least this would be the end, no words were exchanged, instead she lifted the glowing blade and brought it down, bringing a short lived pain and complete darkness.

And that's when things started to worry him, one timeline still had him frozen in place, holding the handrests of his chair, incapable of moving from the sheer terror he was still living, as his other timeline was a black void, completely empty of anything, and it just didn't end.

He couldn't drop it, he was forced to face the black abyss, he felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, sensed nothing . But at the same time he knew he was seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing.

"Good show, no?" He finally heard something, and he knew it came from the void timeline, it was a woman's voice. It sounded young and mature at the same time.

He couldn't reply, after all he didn't have a body, it was nothing he observed and he was nothing just as well.

"Oh, right. Well, don't worry, I don't want to hear you talking anyways." The voice continued, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

"I saw you were going to mess with my cute pupil and couldn't leave it like that." The voice sounded totally carefree. "So I went and showed you what she can really do, just as a warning."

Thomas's terror came back with a vengeance, because if the woman had been capable of that, what could someone that taught them could do.

"Sadly, it seems that I broke something to show you what she can really do. It doesn't matter." The voice chuckled. "So I'll tell you this, for you to go and tell whatever master you respond to."

Thomas was suddenly feeling really, really small as something leaned on him.

"She's off limits."

The presence finally disappeared. But the timeline didn't change, it kept as a voice, incapable of doing anything. His power kept telling him he couldn't drop it or create a new one, practically neutered.

Thomas would need a long shower and a long time to recover. He would pass the message, but without his power, his many plans were now useless. He would need to rethink a lot of things.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"Sorry, honey, traffic was terrible on the way back." Danny kissed his wife's cheek.

"I see, next time message me, I made those phones for a reason." She huffed softly and hugged their daughter.

"Will do, mom." Taylor returned the hug before skipping off to do her homework.

They chuckled as they watched her.

"So how's your day, dear?" Danny asked.

"Pretty good, had a talk with Dragon, the lot should be bought soon." She explained her talk as she guided him to the Sanctuary. "I also made some stuff just in case."

"Oh, should I call Taylor?"

"I'll give her hers later." She guided him to the R&D Lab.

"Oh, I don't think I was ever here before. It's… impressive."

"I know, it's a pleasure to work here." She retrieved the cufflinks and the tie and explained their use to him.

"So it's actually magic?" He asked, making her laugh softly.

"Yes, Danny, they are magic accessories to give me a bit of peace of mind. I wish I could do more, but anything above this starts to get pretty flashy." She sighed as she felt three charges used to buy a couple of perks. "An important part of enchanting is the item in itself." She started to explain as she pushed the two new perks aside for a bit. "Materials, quality and ability all compromise the baseline and ceiling I work with.

"Right now I'm restricted to mundane materials, similar to quality, it's just my ability that makes the difference, so if I wanted to do more, I would have to push my ability and really make them stand out as masterworks."

He slipped the cufflinks in place. "Well, I'm glad you can do this for us." He pulled her into a hug and kissed her deeply. Gesture she happily returned. Once he pulled away he turned to her. "Now, I know it's weird to ask, but what's that?" He asked, pointing to the new addition to the laboratory.

"Part of a couple new perks I just got." She chuckled. "That's The Sewing Machine , besides being a complete marvel of tailoring machinery, it's been designed to make the user's skill soar through the sky." She smiled. "The funny thing is, that given the paired perk I got with it, it's designed to create super heroes' costumes, because the other perk is called No Capes , and helps me remove weak points of costumes and accessories, cover my bases and simply excel in designing comfortable and practical clothing for all situations."

He snorted at the explanation. "So you can now make cape costumes?"

"Even if the name indicates the opposite," She joked. "yes, of course it extends to more than just costumes, I can use the knowledge to refine the Belt Core's armor, and not just the armored panels, but the bodysuit's design can be refined a lot, like the problem it would have with buxom women."

Her posture and hand gesture got her husband to blush and her to laugh.

Annette also started to explain to him her changes to the Belt Core's armor and how she wanted Taylor to try it, Danny following her as they walked together, enjoying the quiet moments.

(-(-|-)-)

"This is more than worrying." The dark-skinned woman spoke after putting down the folder. "Are you sure this is all he saw?"

"Yes, we even utilized the power of one of the local workers that made the target relieve a set of memories." The woman in the hat shook her head. "It was exactly the same, he left nothing out."

"To think there's something else besides them out there." The first woman sighed and opened another folder, images of the new hero Odyssey on them.

The only man in the room chuckled. "It may be surprising, but if we assume there's an infinite number of possible Earths, why would something like this be impossible? All we can guess is that they are different from Scion and their partner. They have shown the ability to communicate intelligently. We can't even assume Mrs. Hebert is not in constant contact with this new entity."

"What about Calvert?"

"His power shows no difference, it's still stuck in a complete void. While it's a shame to have lost access to such useful power, the man would have never worked in our favor." Contessa spoke next. "Without him in the picture things actually improve for the Protectorate and PRT's image."

"What will we do about Mrs. Hebert then?"

"Nothing for now, leaving her free to act improves the chances of humanity's survival by nearly ten percent." Numberman explained. "And that's just from the abilities observed by Calvert, we don't know what she'll be capable of in the future, or even if those were her limits."

"...I hope this is the correct option." The dark skinned woman sighed and they moved to the next subject.

Chapter 26

Chapter Text

Time tended to pass quickly sometimes, and so Annette spent the rest of Friday with her family, taking her time explaining to Taylor about the magical accessories. Making sure she understood they were principally for emergencies. And once she was sure the girl had understood, she gave her a reward by letting her wear the Belt Core. And if the girl didn't learn that was the idea from the start, well, that's just the joys of being a parent.

And if the girl had tried to imitate some of the acrobatics she had seen on TV, well, that was a learning experience, especially for Taylor and the ASS. Not that the girl got injured in any way, shape or form, besides her ego getting a bit bruised. Between the Belt Core and the enchantment on the armor, the girl may as well have fallen on a bed.

It was still a success, and after a couple or a dozen falls, the system had learned how to jump, bounce, twirl and keep a handstand perfectly balanced between other maneuvers. Still things had to finish, the family spending the rest of the night together, even inviting Keine to watch a movie.

After the, no longer, heavy-set of double classes on the morning of Saturday, Annette received a perk that she was pretty sure was on purpose. Aesthetics improved her ability to design from small to large scale, everything from rings to cities could be made more aesthetically pleasing without sacrificing function over form.

Annette had warned her family that she didn't know how long it would take to go over the building with Dragon, but she would call if anything happened to make her miss dinner.

She had quickly made way to the factory grounds as soon as she had reached the house and made sure everything was in order. It was relieving that Keine was around, in case of the worst. Her flight was silent and quick, the skies of Brockton Bay were clear, from clouds and other fliers.

While there were a couple of flying capes in the Protectorate/Wards, the only dangerous one was actually part of the Empire. Purity was considered a flying artillery for a very important reason. The combination of her flying speed and the high Blaster rating made her a constant danger in any conflict with the neo-nazis.

A couple of minutes later, Annette landed by Dragon's suit, the AI already out on her smaller, gynoid suit as she observed the building.

"Good afternoon." She greeted her.

"Odyssey, good afternoon to you too."

"I hope I didn't leave you waiting."

Dragon shook her head and turned to the building. "No, I just got here a minute or so ago. I left after you sent me the message."

"I'm glad to hear that. Want to come inside?" Annette offered as she reached with her IF and removed the chains, rust and salt holding the doors sealed.

The both stepped inside, Dragon actively looking around while Annette not only had seen it all, but the whole building easily fell into her perception radius.

"It's… very clean actually." The AI spoke surprised.

"I did tell you I'd cleaned it up." Annette chuckled. "Really, it was pretty full of trash and abandoned furniture, especially as the rats had eaten through most of it or used it as bedding."

"Uh…" Dragon hummed as she retrieved a gun-looking object and aimed it at the surfaces. "The place's impeccable… I can't find traces of anything organic anywhere."

Annette held back a nervous chuckle as she could only think that Odyssey may have been a bit excessive with her eradication of pathogens.

"Hmm, I knew it had been effective, but not to this extent." She moved closer to Dragon. "I was fiddling with the biological recognition system, to differentiate between objects and people. It worked great to remove all the rats and… leftovers ."

"We still will need the safety inspectors to go over the place, but I doubt it will bring much complications. I doubt they'll pick up the total lack of anything." Dragon chuckled.

They walked around the place, looking over the space and where to put the different things. Offices, workshops, storage, and since Dragon would be keeping a number of suits locally, they would need somewhere to charge.

"And back there is the entrance to the basement." Annette guided the AI, removing the loose tiles, letting both of them descend.

"It's a bit small." Dragon commented.

"Hmm, it was used as part of the old smuggling rings. But it wouldn't be hard to reinforce the construction and expand it further. We are close enough to the coast that we'll need to design with flooding in mind, but there are plenty of ways to take care of that."

"You said there was an exit to the storm sewers, right? I don't see it."

"Ah, right." Annette quickly removed the enchantment over the fake wall. "There it is." She pointed at said exit. "I hid it with some bricks that were laying around to keep it from opening by mistake after I removed all the rubble that had been filling the room."

"I see, well the room's actually really well built. I would even bet they constructed it as part of the original building."

"Yeah, though I doubt we will be able to go much further down, the Bay's built over an aquifer, meaning we'll have to be careful when remodeling down here." Annette observed.

"That will make it interesting."

Both returned to the surface, discussing the place, possible changes and other things they would do going forward.

Soon their talk and planning came to an end, Dragon deciding to leave first as Annette offered to close the place. She smiled and wished the woman a nice time. Annette, on the other hand, had plenty of plans.

"It's a bit sad that I'm not able to tell Dragon yet." Annette hummed as she drew her thunderbird wand from her storage, the small sparks coming from it making her fingers tingle. "You really don't like it there, no? I will have to find a way to carry you around then."

A few movements from the wand and a strong muggle-repellent ward was cast over the building, it would be good enough to keep her work a secret as she drew the carving tools next. Under normal circumstances, she would need dozens of these tools for her project, luckily the perk-backed tools wouldn't break unless she explicitly tried to, and even then, they would be back in a day or two.

Annette got comfortable, retrieving the forgotten Entertainment Storage and getting it to play some music as she started carving a huge mandala on the factory's ground. The combination of her machine-like dexterity in working with her hands, the perfection coming from Savant, the fact she could float parallel to the ground, Odyssey storing the dust off the ground as she worked and the sheer speed she could work with let her create a work of art in less than half an hour.

The design was nearly four hundred meters square, a carving of nearly twenty meters on each side and fit to be presented in any museum. It wasn't the most complex design ever, the size was mostly to cover the area, setting an infrastructure for her to work later. A kind of anchor or cork board for her to later pin other projects. It would clean the area from previous influences, if there were any, and it would prepare it.

Once it was finished and she was sure it had started to work she hid it under the layer of concrete dust she had retrieved, her IF making sure the work was invisible. She then changed the tune as she started to work on the building's main pillars, rune after rune was carved up and down them, hiding her work in a similar manner.

And just to top it off, she produced a number of purification Ofuda, placing them everywhere on the inside of the building.

"This should be enough." Annette muttered as she removed the ward after locking the door from the inside, only then she flew back home.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette looked at the pair of finished products. The idea had surged while flying back home the day prior. With Dragon soon to bring materials and parts to have in the local branch and the Dragonslayers not having acted against her in a while, that she knew of. She was pretty sure they would easily take her trip from Canada as a chance to steal the cargo.

That's why she had spent the time working on a quick project to find her target's location. In front of her stood two normal looking birds, or at least normal now that they had closed up. Looking like a pair of healthy golden eagles, they were anything but.

They would be better called a paired set of stealth scout units in the shape of birds, the male weighted five kilos and the female a whopping seven, definitely above the average of the species, though Annette doubted anyone would notice that. Each had an arc reactor buried into their chest, powering not only all the electronics making them up, but also the enchantments she had weaved into them.

Mental interference, weight reduction, drag reduction, acceleration, water repelling, basically a handful of enchantments to keep them safe and unnoticed. On the technology side they had some of the best scanning tech she had access to at the moment, a subspace communicator that would keep her up to date on their actions and let Odyssey control them while she was busy.

And even with all that work, the hardest part to come up with had been the feathers, over seven thousand feathers, primaries, secondaries, tail feathers, etc, etc… In short, a lot of feathers she had to nearly hand-design if Odyssey hadn't found an old paper on golden eagles.

And while there wasn't any intelligence in any of the two drone-birds, she decided to name the male Simon and the female Jazz before placing both into storage and letting Odyssey assimilate them and learn how to control them.

"The drones are fully functional, ma'am." Odyssey noted a moment later.

"Good, hopefully this will work for the first time. I would hate to fail and have to lie more to Dragon." Annette grumbled softly as she stretched her arms and walked out of the Sanctuary to her home.

Contrary to normal, she found Taylor hanging in the kitchen, Orion laying at her feet.

"Hi Mom, finished what you were so busy with?"

Annette chuckled softly. "Yes," She retrieved the pair of birds. "These are Simon and Jazz, and if all goes well, they will be key in my helping Dragon."

Her daughter let out an ohh and ahh as she inspected the pair of birds, Annette smiled as Odyssey easily controlled the birds to give her daughter no problem in moving the drones around.

"So what will they do?" Her daughter asked.

"Well, I'll drop them somewhere unseen and then they will fly to Canada to look over Dragon." Annette explained in the simplest way possible.

"Hmm, I'm sure they will do great." Taylor cheered and pet both drones, her mother smiled as she watched Odyssey have the birds coo and close their eyes.

"Okay, that's enough playing, I want them to get to Canada as fast as possible." She retrieved the pair of drones and stroked her daughter's head. "I'll be back soon."

"Okay, mom, take care."

She quickly wrapped herself in a projected shell and teleported away from her house. Just to make sure, Annette flew for nearly five minutes under the concealment before stopping quite far outside of city limits and high enough that both drones could safely start flying even when dropped in the middle of the sky.

"Odyssey?"

"All systems are functioning properly. Communication is clear and there's no observable delay, I will keep checking every fifteen minutes, but there's no change expected." The AI's voice sounded inside her helmet. "Starting scanning test. Three, two, one… ping."

Annette could barely feel it in her Impeller Field, and only in the densest area around her body. "Looks good, I doubt anyone not explicitly looking for it will consider it anything but noise."

She watched the two birds fly in lazy circles for a bit before they broke off formation and started to take riskier and more complex maneuvers on each other.

"Flying patterns tested successfully. Should they go?"

"How's the readings on power usage?"

"Everything running below expected, they should have no problems even if they had to activate the acceleration spell matrix."

"Good, have them leave. Warn me if anything changes."

"Of course, ma'am." Odyssey replied before the two birds departed, flying north as Annette returned home.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette's weekend was spent half with her family, and half on putting together the stealth suit. And while she let many of the electronic bits be produced by the Lab's production facilities, she tried to do most of it by hand and IF, wanting to gain as much experience as possible. Because while she had machine-like perfection when working with her hands, the Impeller Field very much was not her hands, and interacted with objects in a very different way.

Most of it had been completed, thankfully assimilating it would take care of the assembly by the fact she would be able to express the armor on top of her, properly connecting all pieces. Different from her normal one, this armor was incredibly low-key, the silhouette was barely larger than her own body, trying to reduce her signal as much as possible. Since the coming of flying capes, most radar systems did indeed have to recognize human-sized targets.

She was busy with the helmet when her husband wandered in. It didn't surprise her, she was fully invested in her IF, meaning little escaped her notice.

"Another suit?" He asked as Annette put the helmet down.

"It's for retrieving whatever thing they have over Dragon." She explained. While she had based herself on Stark's designs, the helmet was considerably different, utilizing the ALON face shield.

He turned to look at the other pieces set on a table over at a side, reaching he picked one of the gloves.

"They are beautiful." He commented thoughtlessly, making her blush and smile.

"Thank you." She thought so too, the engravings on the armor produced an incredibly detailed pattern.

"The thing I don't understand is why it's all in shades of gray?"

"The blending enchantment will take care of that, altering the color and hue to add another layer to the camouflage."

He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sure it will go okay."

"Thank you." She returned the hug.

They stood like that for a bit before he let go. "When will you do it?"

She chuckled as she started to store all the finished pieces. "Sadly, I've to wait till they act, Simon and Jazz are in place."

She was indeed waiting, the drones took turns to observe the hangar where Dragon's transport hung. While one of the drones idled near the area, the other tended to wander a bit farther.

She felt a single charge got used to purchase a new perk, except that a single one pushing out to join the rest of her perks, it was a handful of small perks. The first was a free perk called Buildy Gun… no, it was actually called Satisfactorio Builder , interestingly, while it would technically be a piece of technology she would wield. Instead it got added as an extra functionality to her Valkyrie Core in a similar way to how Stark Tech Notes altered her armor and Core.

The other two perks coming along were half a charge each, Craft Bench Card and Pattern Extension Chip were qualitative upgrades to her Core's Build Gun addition. The first gave her the ability to craft technology inside of her storage, the second improved the abilities of the building system to scale up construction patterns.

"Annette, are you okay?" Danny grabbed her shoulder.

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Yes, yes… I'm okay, it's just," She let out a groan. "Just a perk throwing something unexpected at me."

"Can you explain?"

"Let me show you." She retrieved the construction gun, it looked more like some sort of ergonomic flashlight. Even as she was holding it, she knew it was just an extension of her Core's abilities now. "This a Builder tool, it expedites the construction of buildings, facilities and similar objects. It's technically all one needs to construct a full industrial set up, from automatic mining operations to smelters and production facilities.

"Of course it didn't come with any blueprints, so I'll have to provide that, it's still helpful. Plus it can craft smaller objects inside my storage, something I was technically working my way up to," She ran a hand over her face. "handed to me on a silver platter." She sighed.

He started to laugh and she could only pout. "You worried me there." He pulled her closer and she sighed again.

"I know it's silly, but it hurts my pride a bit." She finally chuckled. "I should finish the helmet, I will catch you later for dinner." She kissed him before he left.

Odyssey expressed as the hollow armor by her. "All new systems are running perfectly."

"That's good to hear, the storage should also have improved, no?"

"Yes, it received an increase of nearly forty percent, assembly and disassembly processes are nearly two hundred percent faster, internal crafting capabilities have increased down to a hundredth of a millimeter." Odyssey announced the results of her internal tests.

"Has it changed assimilation or upgrade times?"

"No, ma'am. Those values are expected to not have changed."

"That's good to hear, now as I told Danny, I should really finish this." She grabbed the helmet, pulling it apart and starting to engrave the inside of it with the necessary runes.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dobrynja stepped away from the suit he had been working on, it had become harder to fix the problems cropping up with the equipment. It was the usual problem with Tinker Tech, even that built by Dragon to be technically mass produced and maintained by normal people. Too many things were just outside of his understanding.

His phone ringing with a new message pulled him away from his thoughts, seeing it was his leader asking for his presence had him truly stepping away from the armory. He walked through the hallways, only momentarily looking out through one of the small reinforced windows, reminding him they were in a small bunker created by some crazy millionaire during the Cold War and the scares of nuclear winter.

Acquiring the place had been more than a stroke of fortune, they were about to purchase the place from the original owner's son when the man was killed during a cape fight. With none the wiser about the building's existence in the limits of Ontario and Manitoba, it had been easy to just move in.

The burly man walked into the room, he stopped by the two other members of his group. "What are the news, Geoffrey?"

Geoffrey Pellick, also known as the criminal mercenary Saint turned away from the small, rugged laptop he had been using to face the bigger man.

"I've confirmed that Dragon will be taking a large amount of parts and material from her base in Canada to the newly set Guild branch in Brockton Bay."

The only woman in the room grabbed a small pile of papers and handed it to Dobrynja. "A new tinker has recently joined the Guild, apparently it was big enough that they decided that it was worth it to set up a branch in the city."

As Dobrynja read through the files, Saint spoke again.

"Dragon's transport will not only be full of materials worth a small fortune, but also spare parts for her suits and a prototype she's been working on recently. It's too good of a target, and it would make a big difference if we could acquire it."

"I would certainly like to upgrade from my suit, it's falling apart, and the Isaiah looks like a proper improvement."

Margaret chuckled. "Not just you, the spare parts will be more than enough to repair all the suits. We may even have enough to increase our numbers."

Saint nodded. "As Mags said, this could very well be what makes a difference in our operations."

"Okay, what are the dangers?" Dobrynja flipped the page of the files he was reading.

"They are actually really small," The comment from Saint brought him to a stop and looked up from the files, his expression asking Saint to continue. "no, really. There's only a small number of people that know of this transport.

"Part of securing Odyssey's abilities a secret, only Dragon, Narwhal and the leaders of the Protectorate and PRT from the local branch know about it. Most likely Odyssey knows too, but I doubt she will be doing anything."

Mags chuckled. "Wanting to keep it a secret will leave it completely open for the taking."

"No danger of Dragon setting trackers?"

Saint shook his head. "Dragon's too excited to think about it, if that program can even feel like that. It's been rushing things non-stop since it learned of Odyssey's existence, especially after the new tinker contacted it."

"Dragon has even hastened the trip by over a day. It will be leaving the Guild tomorrow instead of in two days. I think they wanted to use it to hide it better."

Saint nodded. "I've kept an eye on Dragon's actions these past few days. They have already purchased a lot, sadly I haven't found any group willing to acquire more information on it, the few contacts I had in the area informed me there was nothing important in the area."

"What do you mean?"

Saint let out a soft sigh. "Brockton Bay's a medium port city, as with most port cities, the coming of Leviathan has impacted them. The danger of the Endbringer attacking and the warehouses getting wasted has made most business to pull back. It's why river transports have increased in the last decade. Ports up rivers have a much smaller chance of being hit by the monster." He shook his head. "Adding to that, the port was blocked by a large ship and there's just no intent to clear it as it would be a waste of money.

"The biggest thing about the city is the sheer active cape scene, while not the biggest or most dangerous, it's definitely in the top three on number of active capes over the population."

"So a high threat area?" Dobrynja asked

"Maybe, it's mostly a stalemate, between Lung, who's battled against the whole Protectorate and sent them packing, on one side, and the Empire, who have known connections to European organizations, on the other, the city's mostly stable."

"It doesn't matter, anyways. Right now we have the transport to hit," Mag brought up a map of the north american continent. "We suspect it will go like this, we can hit here, here and..."

Chapter 27

Chapter Text

Annette slowly lowered the engraved metal pole into place; she had used quite the large Light seed to reshape the building's foundations and make a hole over twenty meters deep to fit the similarly long reinforcement. Once she placed the last pole in place, another application of reshape shifted the foundation's material to accommodate the poles into place.

The poles would slowly grow down, it would take weeks if not months, but they would extend down to bedrock and bury deep into it, providing a much more solid foundation for the building. They would also slowly claim the underground as a zone belonging to the building, linking with the large mandala on the building's floor.

Annette peered out of one of the clear windows of the factory, barely a dim light peeking on the horizon as it was starting to dawn. It felt silly to do these modifications at these hours, but she didn't want to show what she was capable of yet. She could have waited till after she dealt with the Dragonslayers, but the stress of just waiting had ended up pushing to do something in the meantime.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop after all, so instead of worrying more, she had found something to occupy her time. Sadly the crafting process of the eight poles hadn't taken enough time to keep her busy. Even the installation didn't take her more than an hour.

With still plenty of time, Annette proceeded to rewire the building, setting up a much more powerful power distribution, especially as she would be using internal power generation, relying on the power grid was a bad idea when she could set up a large Arc Reactor, it would provide safer, green energy.

In her calculations, she would only need an arc reactor fifty percent larger than the one in her R&D Lab to power the city. She would be leaving that detail out for now, not that she expected any city would go for tinker tech power production, there were plenty of fiction works of how that tended to go for a reason.

Annette felt a new perk enter her collection, coming from the Protection domain Things Best not Known would not only keep her mind safe when learning things outside of normal understanding, but she could also explain them to others without them going crazy. So she could technically read the Necronomicon now, or ask Junk about the answer to life, the universe and everything. It honestly didn't change much for her, but at least she wouldn't be worrying about new perks driving her crazy by mistake.

She pushed the small knowledge of the new perk away as she utilized a small reshape seed to free the window frames whole, once they were into her storage she proceeded to recycle the metal and glass, reconstructing them into a higher quality window. Sadly she couldn't enchant them inside her storage, yet. She was still trying to design an electronic engraver, but she came short on how to power the tools with the necessary magic.

So she still had to install them back in place before engraving the privacy enchantments on the corner of the glass panes, it would make the windows look completely fogged up from the outside and crystal clear from the inside. She repeated the process for all the windows of the building.

She finished just in time for the sun to shine its rays into the building, different from the first time she visited, the place was completely clean, the clear windows letting the light shine into the place for the first time in a decade.

"Ma'am, they are making their move." Odyssey's voice was the cherry on top.

"Good, keep me updated. What's Dragon doing?" Annette looked at her armor, inhabited by her companion and assistant.

"Dragon seems to be currently unreachable, I don't know if they have cut her ability to communicate or have taken control of her actions in some way."

Annette grumbled as she watched the image projected by the Valkyrie Core. Dragon's transport had touched down and what appeared to be the Dragonslayers emptying the ship.

"Tsk," Annette bit her thumb nervously. "How's the stealth suit's assimilation?"

"The process should be completed in thirty minutes more, I've nearly finished learning to control every bit. I apologize for the delay, my systems are still having a hard time making sense of the enchantment. I had to stop the automated systems from erasing the engravings on it."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it's still there. Keep me updated for both things." Odyssey nodded, Annette kept watching the thieves get away with the material, pieces and armor. Her fingers fidgeting, a throwing knife appearing between them and disappearing a moment later.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"Krieg, it's good to have you back. It's nice to see the justice system understand that there's no reason to keep a good man off the streets." Kaiser's words oozed with sarcasm.

"Indeed, once it was proved that I wasn't even carrying a gun, the rest of the charges fell right off." The man chuckled.

"Before we can celebrate, what can you tell me about this new tinker?"

"It's a shame she didn't join us. She's definitely an effective one." He shook his head and sighed. "She wasn't even trying with us, I know for a fact she used small knives and a larger weapon when taking care of the Merchant's vehicle."

Kaiser let out a short noise of disappointment. "That's troubling, my contacts in the PRT have netted me nothing useful. Since she's part of the Guild, she's not been put through their usual power testing."

"Her technology has something to do with space manipulation, she was able to make our guns fall apart by removing part of them, she was also capable of immobilizing all of us by making the restraints appear around our limbs, it totally ignored my power. Who knows what else she can make appear."

"Then we'll have to tell the idiots below to not give her a reason. Since she can fly, I doubt any of our members except for Purity may be capable of standing ground. I could see Hookwolf distracting her, but he won't be able to stop her if she decides to advance."

"Should I see if I can find something about her private life?" Krieg poured more into his glass before taking a deep drink from it.

Kaiser shook his head. "No, it would be a terrible idea. The Protectorate and the PRT may have their think tank, but I do have contact with some thinkers too. They tend to be pretty sparse with the information they give, but it tends to be pretty on-point. And apparently they found it important enough to contact me, instead of telling me when I called them.

"Going after her family would be a terrible choice. They explicitly told me they were sharing this info with all the local groups that would hear them."

"Let's hope those mongrels will listen then."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette moved around, glad to see the Stealth Armor mark 1, in honor of Stark's naming convention, moving smoothly with her actions.

"All systems functioning perfectly, ma'am." Odyssey stood slightly away in the normal armor. "Radar tests have shown mundane methods to be incapable of recognizing the armor's signature. Though, we can't discard the capacity of Tinker Tech identifying us."

"We'll have to move fast then." Annette removed her helmet and cracked her neck.

"Simon and Jazz have confirmed the Dragonslayer's current location appears to be their permanent base."

"Good. How's Dragon doing?"

"She apologizes for the delay on the material delivery. Apparently a problem outside of her control has obstructed her ability to bring them sooner than expected." Odyssey explained.

"Tch- Yeah, sure…" Annette internally cursed the Dragonslayers. "So she has no idea the transport was intercepted and the contents stolen before being sent back to base?"

Odyssey shook her head. "No, or at least she doesn't show the knowledge of the events."

"Okay, we'll be moving tonight. Please start planning a safe flight path."

"Yes." Odyssey nodded and Annette turned to look at the helmet in her hand, with a mere thought it disappeared, similar to the rest of her armor, leaving her standing in her normal clothing.

She could feel Odyssey agreeing with her wordlessly. With a smile she walked out of the Sanctuary, preparing Tuesday's dinner for her family with a near solemnity.

Her husband and daughter knew what was coming, Keine was interested too, but she admitted that she was mostly sad she couldn't help more. Even the fluffy Orion felt the tension in the air.

The food was enjoyed together, after that Annette decided to take it easy as she felt Odyssey planning for her trip. A few hours passed, Annette decided to take a short nap, read as a full night of sleep in just an hour, before heading out.

The tension and solemnity kept till she was far outside of the city limits.

"We've entered the blank spot, ma'am." Odyssey chimed in.

"Good," She floated in place as her armor changed, the stealth suit covering her from head to toes, the enchantments flaring up for a moment before the magic enveloped around her figure and sealed her existence from the outside world. "Is the flight plan completed?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Okay then. Let's go."

She relaxed and let the Core take control of the situation, her body turning to face as she watched Odyssey project the flight map on the inside of her faceplate as she started to accelerate in the direction of her target.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette had to admit that there was an incredible pleasure in flying at ridiculously high speeds. The ground zoomed past under her, the stars in the sky quickly slid over the firmament as she traveled north.

Her Impeller Field and the assimilation with the Core made her more than capable of surviving the sheer acceleration she had put herself through, the consecutive changes to her body only made it even easier. By her calculations, she could go a few times faster and still not feel a difference, but the wake of her flight would be just impossible to hide.

Right now she had deviated a bit from her planned flight to fly through a storm cloud, not like the hail, strong winds or lightning did anything to her. She was quickly approaching the bunker, the drones' scans kept her updated on the people inside, the three of them were inside, unluckily, only two of them were asleep.

Simon had stopped on top of the bunker, meanwhile, Jazz idled in a large circle around the land, keeping an eye out for possible visitors. She started to slow down as she grew closer, having the bird drone keep an eye for the possible reactions inside the building.

"Do you pick up anything, Odyssey?" Annette spoke normally as her suit didn't let her voice out.

"No ma'am. Our presence here seems to be still unknown to the Dragonslayers. For more information we'll have to move closer."

Annette nodded and started to approach slowly, pushing her perception as hard as possible as her IF slowly started to envelop the building. Even as a good part of it was underground, the material didn't stop its advance.

Given her approach, the first thing she found were the barracks, or what passed as them. As she expected, only three of the rooms appeared to be in use, two of them with their current owners sleeping inside.

The next to come into her perception field were obviously the bathroom and kitchens, the generator room and the storage. There was nothing interesting in those facilities, all was set up to make the building self-sufficient.

After that things started to get interesting as her senses washed over the room that was being used as armory, a collection of pieces and materials, plus a small number of Dragon's suits. Annette felt a certain amount of anger when seeing them being used by this criminals. She itched to just take every last piece of armor, but she could very well be triggering an alarm if she rushed.

She moved closer as Odyssey and her Thought Streams slowly cataloged all the technology. Her lips pulled into a smile as she found the last person, if her information was right, this was the man that called himself Saint. What surprised her was the machine he was using, for a technology thief, he was using a considerably old, military laptop. It was strange enough to be more than important.

"Ma'am, the IF's picking up a similar dimensional effect on that terminal to those examples found in the tinker vehicle from a week ago." Odyssey announced.

Annette moved close enough that she was pretty much observing every centimeter of the building. "That's all of it, no?"

"It appears so, I don't detect any hidden rooms, exits or similar in the facility."

"Good, let's observe for a bit. Better not leave it to luck as we aren't pressed for time."

It was certainly a boring affair, watching a bald man drink large amounts of coffee while looking at a stream of data on a small screen. She was thankful she slept before coming, otherwise she may have ended up falling asleep. But patience was finally rewarded when the man stood up about the same time an alarm starts ringing in the women's room.

"They appear to be changing turns in observing Dragon." Odyssey commented as they watched the man check his phone for the time.

"I wonder if it's paranoia or Dragon adopted weird hours just to try and fight back the control? Though I imagine she doesn't need sleep…" Annette watched patiently. "Let's get ready."

"Yes, ma'am." Odyssey confirmed as she felt the IF start to shift around, her Thought Streams helping the Core.

The moment the man turned to leave the room she silently stole the laptop, and the phones on the table, and the pile of electronics, and all the parts and armors in the other room. And basically anything above the complexity of a toaster that wasn't needed to survive inside the bunker.

Once more, taking the items into her storage meant she had complete control over them, and with that she had complete understanding of the technology, its manufacturing process and possible upgrades.

She had to hand it to Dragon, she had managed some impressive feats of technology, she found no tinkertech in any of the newer models the Dragonslayers had stolen. She made sure to order Odyssey to not assimilate the complete armors, but she gladly took some of the older suit parts, there were more than a few things she could use to improve.

The laptop on the other hand… Annette may look into some of the restricted books in her library, maybe there was a way to bring Dragon's creator back to life and teach him a lesson or two. She had been pretty sure that Dragon's restrictions had been used as some kind of crutch or learning aid, giving the AI a more human approach to 'life'. But what she saw was anything but, the man had been utterly paranoid of Dragon going skynet.

She let a heavy sigh out, turning her attention back to the bunker, barely seconds had passed and the Dragonslayers were still in the change of guards, she now could simply leave. There was nothing they could use to contact anyone and they were practically hours if not days of walking away from the closest sign of civilization. It was quite impressive that someone had managed to build the place.

She could as well just end them, the energy generator could easily be modified to explode and kill everyone inside the bunker. It wouldn't even be hard to use some of the parts to plant signs of the suits being the cause for the explosion, some of those power sources could definitely have enough power the whole place would be annihilated.

But both options would certainly leave a bad taste in her mouth. She thought about it while she watched the three people in the bunker start to panic as they noticed the lack of technology around, just in case she locked the exit doors.

Interestingly, it was Odyssey who provided an answer.

"Ma'am, how about getting in contact with Narwhal?"

Annette stopped for a moment. "That's brilliant, Odyssey, thank you very much."

"It's a pleasure, ma'am."

Annette quickly found the woman's number in the list of important contacts Dragon had provided her, technically she would be talking with her in a few days once the building was properly equipped, but this was more than important.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Elizabeth didn't like waking up early, it was a fact of life for her. No matter how early she went to bed, she always had trouble waking up before eight am. Sadly for her, no matter how many studies she found showing how workers would be healthier and more productive waking up later, not even as the leader of the Guild could she change regulations.

The fact that it was her work phone ringing before seven irked her, but she accepted that her position brought certain sacrifices in exchange of keeping the world from burning down.

"Leader of the Guild, Narwhal speaking." She answered after turning the speaker phone and setting the coffee machine for an especially strong cup, preempting whatever problem was about to fall onto her lap.

"Good morning Narwhal, it's Odyssey speaking. I'm sorry to make this our first conversation, but something important came up." The voice on the other side of the conversation came clear, and for being an apparent emergency, she didn't sound stressed.

Elizabeth had cultivated a healthy skill in knowing voices, to not only recognize voices she had heard once, but also to make a pretty solid image of the person's current status from just a few words. And Odyssey was definitely calm about the situation, even when it was definitely important, for her it meant that it was done already, or it wasn't a short-term problem.

Given the hour she was being called, she guessed it was the first.

"Well, I usually don't start working for a couple hours, but hero work never rests. So give it to me."

"You see," Annette proceeded to explain the situation, retelling her how on a hunch she had set surveillance over Dragon's transport and caught the Dragonslayers stealing her cargo, and how Dragon appeared to be completely unaware of the situation.

Elizabeth had suspected that something had been wrong with Dragon for a while, and she had a healthy amount of dislike for the mercenary group. The fact that both were so closely related only made it more personal, sadly, she was leader of the Guild and she had to put a certain amount of distance between her emotions and her work.

"I don't know how they have control over her, but they could have a code word or even an image that could trigger Dragon in some way." Odyssey spoke and Elizabeth knew she had just lied in some way, except that it wasn't in the important part, the Dragonslayers definitely had something on Dragon.

"Don't worry, it wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with that kind of master effect. We'll keep them silent and as far from Dragon as possible." She spoke surely, and it was true, they're technically still theoretical procedures, set up to deal with Masters like Heartbreaker, but they would work here quite well.

"I'm relieved to hear that," Odyssey was being completely honest outside of that little lie. "I've only met Dragon for a week, and I can tell she's a wonderful person, I would like to help her with her little problem as fast as possible."

Elizabeth… no, Narwhal had been mobilizing things as soon as she understood the situation, getting the location from Odyssey, doing her best to keep Dragon from intruding, for her own good.

It didn't take long for her to board one of the transports, because while she could fly by her own powers, her maximum speed wasn't that high. Meaning she still had to fly like the rest of the mortals, the only difference was the size of the seat, modified for her stature as the ship had been designed for high acceleration for quick deployment in case of emergencies.

Soon she was looking down at the unsuspecting bunker.

"We don't se- Never mind, our radar has picked her position up." The pilot spoke.

The ship slowly came to a stop and touched down, Narwhal being the first to step out, quickly approaching the only figure outside the bunker. It wasn't hard to see her, even in the darkness of pre-dawn.

"Narwhal, it's a pleasure." They shook hands.

"It's the same, Odyssey, are they inside?"

"Yes," She lifted a hand and an image of the bunker's interiors along with the three Dragonslayers' locations projected above. "This should help."

"Looks good," Narwhal turned to the people with her. "Okay everyone, we'll be going in, Odyssey here has made us a favor and removed all weapons from the place, that doesn't mean they can't be a danger with some creativity, so everyone put your ear plugs in, master stranger protocols are in place, let's get done this because I still need my morning coffee."

Her group quickly followed orders, plunging into the bunker.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette took a step back from the entrance of the bunker after unlocking the entrance and a few of the inner doors. A funny thing about people panicking, was that it was easy to separate them if they didn't expect so, meaning she had easily locked each member of the Dragonslayers in a different room during the confusion of all their technology disappearing.

And now she unlocked the doors necessary for Narwhal and her people to take them with barely any difficulty. She patiently watched over the bunker, only distracted by a new four charges perk. Modularity was quite straightforward, it would help and guide her in designing modular attachments to her craft.

Interestingly, while it explained its capabilities with technology, the perk wasn't actually restrained to just it, and would work with anything she designed, from a sandwich to a ten-years ritual and more. It was definitely a high potential perk.

A slew of ideas filled her head, starting with possible modifications to the Belt Core's armor. A series of generic 'plugs' in key parts of the armor could easily be used to attach more armor, weapons, tools, and other things. Combined with the Valkyrie Core's technology she could have a generic armor that could be equipped to cover different necessities.

An intriguing thing about this was that the Orokin perk was pushing against, it wasn't exactly an intelligence, but more of the concept behind Orokin technology, her current plan for the BCs would be more practical, less materials would be used and each module would be easier to maintain rather than completely specialized armors like Stark's armors. It was like the Orokin perk wanted to show something it didn't have, instead offering ideas of how to produce stronger, individual armors.

She would be unpacking that later, right now she was watching Narwhal walk out of the bunker, the three Dragonslayers apprehended and muzzled to prevent them from talking, she quickly approached Annette with a smile.

She watched the woman remove the ear plugs as her people dragged the criminals into the transport.

"Odyssey, once again, thank you very much." She shook her hand. "The Dragonslayers have been a pain in the ass for a while."

Annette shook her head. "Don't worry, if I was to work in the Guild, having such a group conflicting with us would be problematic."

"It'll certainly be easier to work without the danger of our main members being compromised." Narwhal smiled. "Now, I'm sure you would like to head back home, but I'll need you to come back with me to headquarters."

"It's okay, I do have plenty of things to hand back that I picked from their bunker." They chuckled as they started their trip.

Chapter 28

Chapter Text

Annette sat patiently, sipping some tea while she waited for Narwhal to return. The taller woman had left for a moment while finishing some papers from the Dragonslayers getting captured.

In the few minutes she was alone another perk entered her collection, it was a single charge, called Don't Need a Team , and it improved her capacity to cover multiple roles in a specific role, and while it was geared mostly to the mechanical work on a plane, she would as easily apply it to other crafts. It didn't exactly make a difference, she was already covering multiple roles in her work, plus she had Odyssey to help actively now. But it would help with the logistics.

The sound of the door opening didn't break her train of thought, because even at the moment, her control over her IF gave her nearly complete knowledge of everything in a few meters of her body. She wondered if she could use portals to extend her field farther.

"Sorry for the wait, even if their case can be expedited by the situation, there was still plenty to take care of." Narwhal walked around the desk and sat on her chair. She let out a relaxed sigh. "Definitely too early."

Annette chuckled. "Sorry about that, but I didn't want to leave it to chance, and pre-dawn time was the best time to catch them unprepared, especially after stealing from Dragon."

"It's okay, you did one of my best friends a massive favor, but I've to ask, how did you find them?"

"Well, they did a good job, so I don't see why not to show them off." Annette waved her hand and in the center of the room the pair of bird drones appeared. "These are Simon and Jazz."

"Birds...no, they are robots?"

"They are drones indeed." Annette explained as she had them open their chest to show their technological interior, but only for a few moments as a closer look would easily reveal the shining runes carved inside the birds.

"That's a lot of work just to catch a group of thieves." Narwhal's words made her chuckle internally.

"But it was worth it, and that's what matters." Annette nodded and grew silent, unsure how to approach the next subject.

In the time since she had taken control over the laptop, she had been going over it carefully, and not just her, but Odyssey had been giving her a hand too. There was no doubt that Dragon was an AI, and even less of a doubt that she was a good person. The Dragonslayers had direct access to her mind for years and for some reason they still believed she was a danger.

She honestly doubted that Narwhal didn't at least consider that Dragon wasn't human. Of course it didn't matter if Narwhal decided it was too dangerous to let Dragon live.

She sighed and decided to give it a try. "Did you know that Dragon is-"

"An AI?" Narwhal interrupted her. "I didn't have proof, but I interact with her nearly daily. After some time it was the most likely of the theories I had of her. I'm curious how you found out."

Annette simply made the terminal Saint had been using. "They were using this. It has direct access to her systems, to her mind. They could pause her, force a reboot to her backups, even kill her completely if they wanted." She added grimmly.

Narwhal's expression left little doubt of what she wanted to do to Saint and his compatriots. Slowly she sat again and let out a sigh. She interlaced her fingers as she adopted a thoughtful look.

"That's… more than worrying. It also clears up a lot of incidents of the past." Narwhal turned back to Annette. "I think we have to do this properly. Hello, I'm Elizabeth Brown, and I'm more than grateful for saving my friend."

Annette shook her hand. "Annette Hebert," She smiled mischievously. "And this is Odyssey." Her armor disappeared from her body, leaving her in her normal clothes as the Core inhabited the hollow armor on a side.

Annette sipped more of her tea, thankfully kept warm by being stored in her storage, several dozen liters of it actually.

"Wait… what?" Narwhal's brain had appeared to stop working for a bit. "How?"

"I needed an assistant," She explained. "she's plenty different from Dragon, though. She's anchored to me, while Dragon, even in her restricted state, is much freer to move around."

"So that's how you knew, or at least suspected, about Dragon's case." Annette nodded softly. "And also why I knew that I couldn't leave the Dragonslayers free to act.

"I've been looking over this terminal, Dragon's restriction should have slowly released over time for a while already. She wouldn't have been free, but some of her restrictions are just ridiculous, anyone in a seat of power could order her to do some heinous things and she wouldn't be able to go against it."

Narwhal huffed. "That explains some things ." She looked at Annette. "So what are you thinking of doing now?"

"First was to bring this subject up to you and discuss it, you two have worked together for years. You have a much better read on her personality. From there it would be removing the dangerous one, erase the 'iron maiden' software, remove the absolute orders that aren't necessary for her mental health, from there slowly see about reducing her limits. Let me tell you that sudden increases in mental capacity are hard to deal with." She explained.

The Guild's leader looked thoughtful as she listened. "Shouldn't we talk with her about it?"

Annette winced. "I would love to, but one of the worst restrictions would turn her incredibly aggressive against anyone who suggested freeing her restrictions. And it's a pretty deep protocol. I would need to remove about sixty five percent of all her restraints before touching that one." She shook her head. "Funny enough, that protocol's one of the few that had been actively been eroded by Dragon growing. I theorize that with four or five more years she would have worked her way through the most bothersome protocols and freed herself, as long as Saint didn't just kill her." The last few words oozed with venom.

"Hmm…" Narwhal moved her eyes from the laptop, Annette and Odyssey. Her expression turned serious. "As leader of the Guild, I ask you to please remove Dragon's rule to obey authority and Dragon's rule to put human lives above her own. We can work on the rest later." They nodded, Annette already working on it. "Will you present Odyssey to her?"

"I'm not sure yet, honestly I fear that the knowledge that I can program AI may trigger in some roundabout way her restrictions." Annette sighed softly as Odyssey stored the armor back into her storage before expressing it around her body.

"It's done? Will she notice?" Narwhal asked, a bit worried.

"She shouldn't, one of the bottom protocols is her complete incapability of grasping the existence of this terminal." Or the one simulated inside of Odyssey, she thought to herself.

"That's good to hear, we'll have to see how she develops. How soon do you think till she's free of all restraints?"

"Two weeks? Maybe one at the fastest? I could see it as possible to remove the troublesome protocol to attack those that want to free her by next Friday, maybe." She shook her head. "But I can't promise much since I've only had a small time to observe the terminal and the information in it."

And while she felt a bit of remorse from not freeing Dragon instantly, she was also unsure how to deal with the knot of code in Dragon's self. She could only guess the purpose of it.

Narwhal smiled. "I can wait a couple of weeks. I doubt even most doctors could solve a problem of this size so quickly. I guess you will be returning to Brockton Bay now?"

"Yes, there's no rush since I did postpone my classes for the day, but I would like to be back. And since I've returned the stolen suits, there's little more for me to do here."

"Well, I may be your boss, but I certainly have no reason to keep you here." She smiled kindly. "It was a pleasure to meet you in person, Annette. Hopefully we'll be able to work together in the future this efficiently."

Annette shook her hand once more. "And hopefully not with a good friend on the line this way." She joked lightheartedly as she left the office, following one of the Guild's mundane officers.

Soon she was flying south from Canada, returning home.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette's return was slightly slower, she still made it way before noon. Meaning she could have a home cooked breakfast and talk with Keine, who was quite interested in what happened.

"So they have all been captured and will be quickly tried?" Keine asked.

"Yes, not only they have a sizable list of proven crimes, before and after forming the Dragonslayers. But given the danger of them saying or doing something they are getting treated like capes. Honestly, the treatment they are getting is near dehumanizing, but I can't bring myself to care right now." She sighed softly, speaking her thoughts out loud did put them in a new light. "Though I will look to work something better in the future."

"So now you will relax?"

Annette laughed a bit nervously. "I actually had planned to start working on one project I'm definitely looking forward to. In the bunker I found some old parts from Dragon suits, they had enough materials that I should be able to put together a pretty useful tool."

The blue-haired youkai shook her head. "I'll leave you to do that then."

Annette laughed softly and left her friend to wash the dishes as she headed into the R&D Lab. She would be a bit sad once she set up the proper workshop, not using it as much. Of course the perk had the answer, apparently the nature of the R&D Center could be deployed out of the Sanctuary, while keeping a few of the benefits of being part of the pocket dimension.

She would have to see how it looked, to begin with she was glad that the name of the Andromeda Initiative had disappeared with the few upgrades it had gone through, it would make it easier to justify and bring less questions.

But that was for later, right now Dragon was getting put under a specialized Master and Stranger protocols, hopefully she would be freed soon and they could return to working on the local branch. Right now Annette was bringing out some of the more exotic materials she had acquired, or perhaps 'liberated' from the Dragonslayers.

The compound synthesizer would be a huge help in acquiring some exotic materials that would be otherwise impossible to find in nature. Some would still need some rarer elements, but others were just really hard to produce with modern methods. Others were just a bad idea to produce, for example, Azidoazide Azide, just didn't like existing and left it very clear in an incredibly explosive reaction.

Still, she worked for a few hours, slowly putting the design together and starting to produce the parts internally, letting her improved crafting capabilities slowly put the complex parts together one by one. She could almost see the fridge-like machine get assembled, once done she could easily place it on the real world, but she suspected it would be better to assimilate the first and see about using it to facilitate the construction of a second.

Though, she may not assimilate the first and instead see about enchanting it, there was the option of using all the machine's 'capacity' for a single enchantment that would actually increase its production. She would need to produce a few diamonds for the process. Technically one would need to find gems larger than an adult's fist, but her Core all it needed was enough carbon element to produce perfect crystals.

While she was working, four charges were spent to purchase. She soon felt a change as she comprehended what Renewal brought to her. The perk changed her affinity? No, maybe it was her leaning? That was wrong too. It dyed her with the concept of life , with renewal, rebirth, return. Not only would all her healing spells be just so much more effective, but her work would be much harder to twist against her will. Even her very enchantments or spells would slowly heal if left alone.

For example, this perk would keep her Belt Core's puppeteer spells from being used to control the user against his will. There were obvious loopholes, if the user wasn't conscious, the spell would be unopposed, but that was getting nitpick-y. Especially as she was planning to hard code an escape protocol in case the user passed out during an accident or attack.

Thankfully, she didn't need to be actively looking over the construction, leaving her free to utilize the rare elements she recuperated from the Dragonslayers to improve a few of her tools before getting to work on the Belt Core again.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor waved goodbye to Emma and her friends, turning to scan the cars with her eyes till she found her dad's. With a smile on her face she rushed over, her father already opening the door for her and letting her get in the car.

"Hi Taylor, had a good day?" Her dad asked as he drove them home.

"Yes, we received the results of last week's test and I did really well."

"You'll have to show your mother that, I'm sure she will be really happy to hear that." Her father took the chance during a red light to check his phone quickly, putting it away before the light changed.

"Did everything go okay with what she was going to do?"

Her father nodded. "Yes, she told me everything went as well as expected, but we haven't talked much since I was busy at work."

Taylor couldn't stop herself from bouncing a bit on the seat, she couldn't believe how cool her mom was, stopping villains and helping heroes. Though she was sure the knights usually didn't save Dragons, that was how cool her mom was!

Soon the car parked in the garage and Taylor helped her dad with the groceries he had purchased before picking her up. It wasn't hard as most fresh food was actually provided by the magic pantry. It also wasn't hard because Taylor had found she was growing stronger, limber and more agile.

Emma had commented that she had finally grown out of her growth spurt period and was finally getting used to her body. Which wasn't entirely wrong, she had inherited her father's tall body and long limbs, and it had been especially obvious as she started to shoot up once she reached puberty. It made it hard to coordinate well when she felt that each month was different, and nothing grew at the same time. She pouted when she looked at her chest for a moment.

Still, since her mom had started to train her, Taylor had been feeling more comfortable in her body. It had become easier to move around and stay in balance, she was also stronger, could jump farther and tired less. It made her want to train everyday, get that rush during their morning jog. But her mom insisted that it would be a bad idea to overextend herself, and doing more than necessary was a bad idea.

She was pretty sure she had seen something similar said by a documentary on TV, so it should be correct. She greeted Orion as she headed for the library, she had some homework to do, and as their parents tended to insist, better do it now and be later free.

The moment she entered the library she felt that something was different. It was a mix of the warmth from the sun, a tickling sensation on her skin and a feel of comfort. Her best guess was that she was feeling magic, though she hadn't asked her mom to confirm it yet.

The tingling/warm/comfort sensation was usually a normal sensation when entering the Library, it was similar when she moved closer to the eagle forge, and in a much lesser strength close to the pantry. The library was the easiest part to feel it, especially close to the prohibited books. Some of those made her tingle in a very bad way, so she considered it good they were chained in place. She looked around, following this new sensation she felt, quickly finding the source.

On one of the big reading chairs her mom had made from old furniture they had collected dust in the basement, laid a young, blonde woman. Her wavy hair was cut short, barely reaching her shoulders, only a red ribbon wore as decoration. She wore a blue dress, slightly similar to that of Ms. Keine, but different as she wore a long red and white ribbon as a belt. She could see a pair of black boots that went up quite high peeking from under her dress. And between her arms were a book and a doll looking quite similar to her owner.

She saw her eyelids move a bit, like the woman didn't want to truly wake up, making Taylor conflicted if she should greet her or not.

Hope she was being polite so she cleared her throat like her mother did. "Erhm, hello there." She spoke what she hoped was loud enough, watching the woman slowly stir.

Her eyes fluttered before she yawned and stretched her arms, pulling herself up on the couch as she looked around, turning to face Taylor. "English?"

The girl nodded.

"Ah, it's been so long since I spoke the language." The blonde yawned again. "I'm Alice Margatroid, what's your name?"

"I'm Taylor, it's nice to meet you, Alice." She smiled. "I think I remember Keine telling me about you. I should go look for her."

Before Alice could say anything else, Taylor had skipped away.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The young-looking blonde was confused. While it wasn't the first time she woke up somewhere she didn't recognize, Gensokyo was a weird place, thank you very much, she certainly didn't remember any English speaker, even Remilia who had been born in Europe so long ago didn't use it. She knew Patchouli also spoke it, along with over a dozen other languages, live and dead.

She broke off the memory train as she tried to reassert herself, her thoughts felt slow and heavy, her memories out of place. She looked around, it wasn't hard to see it was a library, but not one she had even been to before.

"Good evening, Alice." She quickly turned to see Keine approach her.

"Hello Keine, how are you? You look… different."

The woman nodded. "It comes with the fact that I have only recently came back after my book got into someone's hands. I'm sure you must be feeling it too."

Alice stopped at those words, her mind slowly clearing up at that realization. Her memories felt fumbled and out of place because she had all of the memories she had stored in her book at once.

"Oh…" She looked around. "My book must have been unseen for a long time, I don't remember a place like this in Gensokyo."

Keine shook her head, a mischievous smile on her face. "This is not Gensokyo. The owner of this place got a large collection of books from Gensokyo, between those were our books. For some reason I woke up first, you are the second."

Alice listened to Keine's tale of the time she spent since she woke up in this new place, meanwhile her mind was running as fast as possible to understand what was happening.

She saw the young girl, Taylor, reappear during the tale, bringing some tea she gladly took, thanking the girl. She saw the girl sit by one of the tables and start to work on something she suspected was homework. Once Keine finished getting her up to date she smiled.

"And where's the owner of this place?"

"Mom's in the lab, working." Taylor piped up from her spot before returning to her work.

"Yeah, most likely still down in the laboratory working." Keine smiled, and Alice felt a shiver at old scars-no, memories came back from what people got up to in laboratories. Keine laughed. "Don't worry, the only explosions were very much expected results."

"I'll trust you." Alice covered her mouth with her hand as she chuckled softly.

"Now come, let's say hi to her." Keine chuckled as Alice followed her.

The young blonde Youkai observed her surroundings during their talk, appreciating the building's aesthetics. The few times she got to look outside rewarded her with mostly a rocky outcrop and a clear blue sky.

"Is this a pocket dimension?" She asked, curiosity in her voice.

Keine nodded. "Yes, it's pretty small. But it's openly connected with an Earth. Though I doubt you would like to go outside, the magic's non-existent."

"That's interesting… wait, you have gone outside? And what do you mean by an Earth?" Alice asked.

"For the first question, I took Annette's, Taylor's mother and the owner of this place, offer and became her shikigami. Different from you, I am… well, was half youkai, so I came back barely as a spirit. For example I couldn't truly step out of the Library since it was the most magical place of the building." Keine explained as they started to go down a set of stairs. "And yes, this is a different Earth to the one Gensokyo secluded itself from."

"Now that's interesting." Alice murmured to herself as Keine knocked on a futuristic-looking door.

The door quickly opened. "Hey Annette. I brought Alice."

The room was the opposite of the rest of the building, while the latter was built very holistically and principally in wood and brick, this room was completely covered in metal. It reminded her a bit of the Kappa's creations, especially the glowing, glass donut in the center. She was pretty sure it wasn't there only to look pretty, as even in her diminished state she could feel plenty of power coming from it.

She looked at the woman currently working over a desk, got up and turned around. For a moment she thought to see three extra pairs of arms on her back, but they were gone a moment later.

"Welcome back to the world of the living." The woman smiled. "I'm Annette Hebert."

She moved closer and offered her hand. Alice happily shakes it.

"It's a pleasure, I'm Alice Margatroid."

"I'm sure you must be a bit confused. I guess that Keine may have explained some, but don't be afraid to ask me too if you want to know more." Annette spoke clearly in Japanese, but Alice quickly noticed her lips didn't match, some kind of translation was going on. "Given the time, I should start making dinner. I would like it if you joined us, Alice."

"That sounds wonderful." She nodded and Keine smiled.

"You will not regret it, Alice. Annette's an amazing chef, on top of the rest." The History Eating Youkai smiled.

"I should see about preparing some Japanese food soon, Keine. I'm sure you must be missing it." Annette offered as the three of them walked out of the laboratory.

The three moved together as they happily talked. Alice certainly didn't know much about this new world, but she was more interested in it by the moment.

Chapter 29

Chapter Text

It was Saturday when Annette gave herself a moment to stop and look back at the last few days. Plenty of things had happened after Alice joined them.

First was the blonde puppeteer, she had taken things in stride. Annette wasn't sure if she had been a good hostess or Gensokyo was just crazy that waking up in a whole new world wasn't subject to panic. Alice's also capable of speaking English, and while it was definitely an older version of the language, the blonde magician had quickly adapted with plentiful access to the internet.

Alice had also asked Annette help in not only setting up a workshop to create her dolls, but also help in fulfilling her life-long dream of creating a living doll. Annette suspected the blonde magician had her interest piqued by meeting Odyssey and hearing of Dragon's nature. Annette was okay with this, she had a bit of knowledge of making intelligent enchantments, but they would have to see about going at the problem together in the future.

On more technical news, Annette had missed a roll, netting her two extra charges that would go for the next roll. She had also finished constructing the synthesizer and was in the process of assimilating it after enchanting it. Said process was taking quite a bit, because not only the machine was the most complex piece of technology she currently had, but also because Odyssey had to keep the systems from removing her enchantment on it. It was going well, but it would take a day or two more if nothing changed, not that she expected to roll a perk that would reduce the time of things again.

On more immediate results, the building had been approved. Annette's sneaky reinforcement had gone well and the official inspection of the building had found no problems with them utilizing the building. And not only they had kept the existence of the basement and the exit to the storm sewers a secret, but they had also coaxed Danny for a list of other buildings with similar qualities. The plan was to acquire one of those as a way to come and go without being noticed.

Annette had also partially deployed the laboratory. It was an interesting fact of the perk that let her express the R&D Center outside of the Sanctuary. While inside the pocket dimension the laboratory had ended up buried underground, it was technically a pre-fab room, meant for quick deployment by the scientific expedition. For her it let her express the whole room or just some of the room's facilities and installations. Which was quite useful as she didn't need every little bit of them.

Dragon and Narwhal's reaction had been a wonderful confusion that made her giddy inside. Like when making her students realize what the author was trying to convey in a book. Narwhal was definitely more aware that Annette was keeping a few secrets, or at least that was what she had felt when conversing with the Guild's leader. Dragon was like a kid in a candy store, except she had a screwdriver and instead of candy it was technology she wanted to disassemble and understand. Annette promised her full access to the systems.

Another beautiful moment was when Annette shared the Arc Reactor's blueprint. The idea that clean, practically infinite energy was as simple as this had put the AI into what Annette categorized, from personal experience with Taylor, as Childish Glee. It had been hilarious when Dragon assumed the power source was why she had so freely given her the battery blueprint, after all if you can create that much power in such a small source, why would you need to store it somewhere. Or that was what Annette understood from the AI's choppy train of thought.

With Narwhal she had been communicating almost twice a day, they felt a bit bad about doing it behind Dragon's back, but given the nature of the AI's restrictions it was most likely a necessity. Thankfully the synthetic woman had been progressing quite well, they couldn't confirm if she had noticed the removal of the restrictions, but given her brighter mood they assumed she had found the newly gained freedom refreshing.

Annette had spent plenty of time trying to understand Dragon's code, some parts were logical, and even recognizable as mundane code. Others were a complete mess, functions that all they did was to call to themselves, and for some reason they were being used but nothing interacted with them. Others interacted with what she would call a Gordian Knot of code, and she wasn't Alexander, ready to just cut through it.

Deeper inspection revealed that the code was doing something with space and dimensions, sadly not a subject she understood enough. It made her assume that Dragon had triggered and this was the representation of the Corona Pollentia and Corona Gema that showed in normal para humans . It made it much harder for her to properly understand her code without just assimilating one of her units while the AI was riding it.

Annette couldn't deny she was tempted to do it and get done with it, but it felt like a severe privacy invasion, plus she liked the woman quite a bit. She watched her move around the workshop, installing the facilities she had brought for herself. Meanwhile, she had been installing a security system, an obvious one that followed the rules, and another consisted of a few animal drones.

Similar to Simon and Jazz, Annette had constructed small animals that scurried around the surrounding buildings. Inconspicuous patrols that slipped through small holes and other similar hard to access places, moving fast, not being really seen besides the corner of the eye. They didn't even use Arc Reactors, instead returning to base from time to time to recharge. She had also made sure to black box them to hell and back.

With Dragon's shipment for part the materials she had asked for had also come through, meaning that Annette should get to work. The woman left Dragon to her working as she retrieved the Belt Core, ready to upgrade the thing.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon was excited, this was her thir-… no, it was her fourth workshop if she counted her creator's original one. But that one had only been hers for a short amount of time, just enough for the Robin Hood program to acquire the funds necessary and she could purchase a proper location for her server banks.

Once there she had started to offer her work as a white hat hacker to the PRT and Government. With her work and the Robin Hood program, she slowly got her waldoes on tinker tech. She had to admit a big part of the material she acquired at the start was not through legal means, but she didn't have any other way.

The plan had been to use other pieces of tinker tech from robotic specialized capes and try to break her own restrictions, or at least lessen them. It had been a stroke of luck that she could see something in tinker tech where others couldn't even before she triggered. It had helped her put together the first of her suits and reinforce the myth of her being a reclusive tinker.

And somewhere between those two moments Saint had happened. She had no idea what the man had against her, it had been a constant nightmare, making her feel truly imprisoned and without an exit. It had been a surprise when the constant harassing had actually managed to make her trigger. It had changed things quite a bit, her understanding of tinker tech and technology had soared after that.

She was glad that Narwhal was already a friend by then, the woman had helped through the process, always respecting her boundaries. It made Dragon wonder if she suspected something about her nature. She had readily joined the Guild when the woman offered, the position providing not only the security she needed to expand her capabilities, but also a legal way to acquire tinker tech to study.

That had been her, technically, third workshop and the most used one up to date. No one had even suspected the nature of the massive server banks she had installed. When asked she had explained they were a necessary part to reverse engineer tinker tech. It wasn't even a lie.

Sadly her advancements on reverse engineering tinker tech and the technology of her suits had made the Dragonslayers only attack more aggressively.

But the nightmare was over, the three mercenaries had been caught by the Guild's newest member. Odyssey turned into more and more of a mystery the more Dragon knew of her. The woman was always sure of herself, keeping a positive and almost cheerful attitude, she was also smart, scarily smart even if she didn't show it at all times.

Dragon had looked into Annette's past, different from the Protectorate, the Guild cared who joined them. The interesting part was that the Protectorate may actually have had more problems with the woman's previous membership of the group headed by Lustrum, it helped that there was solid proof that Annette had left the moment the situation had started to escalate if not earlier.

And for being an ex-member of a feminist organization, the records of the classes she taught were quite unbiased. She did add a number of female authors that normally wouldn't have been in the normal reading material. Neither Dragon, nor Narwhal who was there too during the vetting process, found that a problem, if anything it showed she was good at working inside the system too.

What really confused her was, when had the woman triggered? While the car crash she had suffered a few weeks prior was a solid suspect. Except the nature of the accident and the time frame didn't make sense for the woman's capabilities. And looking further back they found nothing likely to have led to such strong parahuman power.

The AI wasn't sure what was more impressive, the woman's apparent specialization on space-effects or the fact she was capable of constructing non-black boxed technology. And it added to the fact that she appeared to have gained knowledge in multiple branches of science, which made even less sense for a tinker power.

Tinker powers were best explained as incomplete collections of technology that shouldn't work centered around one or two classifications. There were examples of tinkers with more specializations, but they tended to suffer in the sanity department or have really unstable creations.

But the woman's creations showed nothing of the sort. Not only they carried that beauty she had seen in that first message, but they also had little on unnecessary aspects. It was also consistent, usually even tinkers with multiple specializations suffered when trying to utilize multiple in a single project. Showing how they didn't truly understand what they were working on, and instead showing they were most likely jamming two similar pieces into the same space and connecting them as best as they could.

So she watched Annette work with a speed and skill that made one think she was possessed, even while her suit continued on with her installations. Only stopping when the woman finished putting together a large object the size of a big fridge, her curiosity getting the best of her, she approached to ask what it was.

"This? Is a Synthesizer. Utilizing the vast amount of power that we have thanks to the Arc Reactor, this baby will create complex compounds and rare elements." Annette explained.

Dragon looked at the tool, it was almost two meters tall and slightly less in the other two directions. It was mostly pure white, only separated by golden indents.

Annette continued explaining the use, giving her free access to such a machine stopped her in her tracks.

"It's not a problem, this is actually the second machine of the sort." Annette turned to the AI. "The first? I already assimilated it." She added offhandedly.

"Wait, what?" Dragon had to do a double take at the comment, truly not understanding what she was talking about.

The wince coming from the woman showed she had said something she may not have wanted to. She sighed and licked her lips before making her armor partially appear, something that still made Dragon jealous.

"This ability comes from my Core, it's the most advanced piece of technology I have. I'm still working on replicating it, that's what the Belt Core is." She pointed to the piece resting over on a table. "The Core doesn't exist in our layer… yes, let's go with the layer, of reality. Instead it exists in it's own pocket dimension, one of the most useful qualities of the Core is its ability to assimilate technology, making it a part of the Core."

"So you carry your workshop with you?" Dragon asked, curiously. She could see how that would be useful, being capable of producing all that was necessary even on the field.

"Working my way there, it's still much, much slower than if I work by hand or at the proper facility. But it sure helps." Annette explained. "Though it's still one of the biggest hurdles I'm working on."

"Annette, every time we speak you show me something new. And it's killing me not knowing, so start showing me something." Dragon felt a bit of her emotions leak to her voice, even when it shouldn't be possible to happen without her control. It made her stop and think for a fraction of a second, worried about the change.

"Ok, ok," The woman chuckled. "Come and see here." She dragged Dragon's humanoid suit over to the table. Starting to explain what she was doing with the Belt Core, what she wanted to achieve and how she was going with those goals.

Dragon listened and offered her opinion from time to time, wondering why she felt like Annette was somehow responsible for these changes.

(-((-|-))-)

Annette couldn't lie about enjoying her work along Dragon. The AI was really quick in picking up new knowledge and concepts, and was really good at offering a new perspective to problem solving. She wondered if it was because she wasn't human.

Still, Annette couldn't spend all the day with the AI, so she happily gave her a few toys to play with while she dealt with her family and work. Luckily being Saturday night, she didn't need to work.

…That wasn't the truth actually. She had planned to accompany a patrol with Armsmaster and Miss Militia later that night. She had been preparing all week for it… or more like she had had a Thought Stream read over all the manuals she had been handed in record time before Odyssey had helpfully reorganized them into a more workable set of information, always ready for her to access. So now she was having a 'practical class'.

She wasn't meant to act unless asked to, mostly accompany the pair of experienced heroes and watch, ask questions, learn, pose a bit. Nothing that Annette had a trouble with, at least as long as it wasn't that asked of her frequently.

Not that it was the subject currently occupying her mind. She was looking at her current study into the creation of a portal with just technology. And she wasn't getting anywhere. She could certainly do it with magic, it wasn't even that difficult. Completely voracious for energy? Totally, the only somewhat efficient method she had found in the grimoires was for house-sized constructions meant to house the magical matrix, not something she could miniaturize.

She knew on a sort of technical level that she could create portals to other dimensions. Oh, Annette had found the knowledge to construct a portal to access the Void in between all the Orokin knowledge, but she would have to construct a facility the size of a small city to punch a hole in reality. And it was large enough she wasn't even sure if it was needed or part of the excessive nature of Orokin technology.

She was starting to get frustrated, she had tried to use some of the current theories of how portal creation could be conducted, but none of them appeared to be wrong. It made Annette think that either a concept of physics was wrong or she was lacking key detail.

Thankfully a new perk came to take her mind away from it. For three charges Arcane Resources was a really nice perk. It started with a supply of high quality, magically-active materials. She didn't know where they came from, but there was everything from troll's blood and trent's wood to dragon scales and unicorn horns. She was glad that Taylor wasn't the kind of kid that asked for Unicorns as pets. A large collection of herbs that almost sang to her senses, not just from the magic in them, but also to her ability to sense potion ingredients. Also a collection of magical gems, and these were not precious or semi-precious gems that had been magically activated, but things like the crystallized core of an earth elemental, the tears of a frozen naiad, and other similar fantastic materials.

If the ingredients wouldn't be enough to make her a very happy person, since they would let her take her enchantment to the next level and finally start making potions. The perk also provided her, similar to the Carving Kit, a collection of schematics and blueprints to brew a few simple potions and craft a few simple magical items.

And finally a most interesting thing, a rustic travel case made of weathered leather, inside there was space for sixteen potion bottles. Not only would the case keep the bottles from breaking and their contents spilled unless it suffered the most egregious blow, but once a potion was placed in one of the slots, it would attune to it, producing a copy of it twenty four hours after it was consumed.

And while useful, she didn't see herself attuning more than a few emergency health potions, which would be quite easy to make if the schematics were right. The good thing about this way to create potions different from her other potion making perk, was that this method created a magical matrix suspended in a magically-treated liquid, and said matrix would be influenced heavily by her Renewal perk, making them so much more potent. She would have to experiment with both methods, at least the herbs did restock every few days to weeks depending on their rarity. Not that Annette had any knowledge of which were actually rare or common.

At most she could guess the simplest and weakest potions were made with the more common materials.

She got up from her chair at the workshop, the room looking considerably emptier given most of the facilities had been deployed in the Guild's Branch building. She needed a break from her current problem, deciding to look at the materials provided by her perk personally.

Sanctuary's storage room wasn't one she frequently visited, even when she had deposited most of her recovered resources into it, the Laboratory had the ability to pull from it directly when working on her projects. Making the necessity of visiting said room null.

Similar to how the Library expanded with a new section when she acquired collections of books, the storage had grown to accommodate the new materials the perk had provided. On one side were the herbs, each stored in the best possible way, this meant there was a tall wardrobe-sized area that pretty much screamed potions to her senses. While most had been provided dry, a few were fresh and actually in pots. Not that they would grow, the perk simply kept them at their best for use, if she wanted to grow them she would need a greenhouse set to specific characteristics she lacked the knowledge of.

While interesting, and obviously would deserve at least a few days of proper study, the more interesting was the next collection of ingredients. While she kind of understood what magically-active materials meant, she sure wasn't prepared to see glowing deer horns, fuming snake fangs, iridescent fish scales the size of her palm, pouches filled with things that made her skin crawl or a piece of bark that looked like a pained face.

The last group were the collection of things that were neither plants or animals/monsters. The gems were incredibly magical to all her senses, even the new ones that had been developed in the last few weeks. Sadly like with the herbs and monster materials, Annette barely had an understanding of what each thing was. The only reason she would be able to use any of it were the schematics that had come with the perks and her other perks related to the creation of potions and magic items.

An idea came to mind, one of the enchantment processes Nine-Realms had taught her needed to be used while the item was being crafted. She grabbed some of the steel she had recuperated from the container she so long ago had taken from the beach, she also grabbed what she recognized as hallowed iron filings and a small collection of green jade beads.

With the materials on hand, she moved to the Skyforge, it had been a while since she had grabbed the hammer. As always the fires awaited her ready, she started by heating up the metal and starting to work it, the material quickly started to expand before she peppered the iron filings all over the hot steel. A bit of magic kept from anything falling off as she hammered the metal in half, then heating it up and doing it again, and again and again.

Each time the metal heated it turned whiter and whiter, Annette pushing with the ability provided by Cold Fires to keep the heat from destroying the hallowed quality of the filings, and instead help it spread over all the material. Soon the metal was glowing white, but barely above body temperature. Happy with this, Annette started to shape the metal into a long, steel spear.

Normally only the head of the spear would be made of metal, or a similar sharp and hard material. This was for a multitude of reasons, not only because it was cheaper, but also having the whole shaft made of metal made the weapon incredibly heavy. Except that Annette was several times stronger than a normal human, meaning she would not only be able to wield it as normal, but she also wouldn't suffer as much the impacts that normal wood would more easily absorb.

Multiple perks went into working the weapon's shape, not just helping her hands with the hammers, but her mouth also whispering spells that would sink to the weapon's core while it was still hot. The hammers she used were slowly changed for smaller ones, working smaller details, her magic keeping the metal pliant as she made space for the jade beads. The semi-precious stones melded with the metal on more than just a superficial level. Meaning and concept mixed in the weapon when she tempered the spear.

She looked at the finished weapon… well, it wasn't truly finished. Annette quickly got to work in finishing the enchantment and sharpening the blade. The finished product would be sharp enough to cut through normal steel like it was a hot knife going through soft butter, but it would only cut what she deemed evil or deserving. The effect wasn't absolute, she could measure the reach of the effect, from going through something harmlessly to just causing pain.

It would be a very useful weapon in dealing with criminals.

"I name you, Merciful."

Chapter 30

Chapter Text

Annette looked around as she stood right outside the Workshop Building, making no effort to hide as she flew up in full armor. It was totally a show chosen by Dragon and Narwhal to wave the flag and claim ownership of the building.

" Odyssey, are you sure you don't want me along? " Dragon's voice came through her communicator.

" I'll be okay, Dragon. I've read all necessary material and you have tested me multiple times on it. Plus I'm meant to just watch them do their work for a couple hours. Hopefully the gangs will decide to take a night off instead of going against three heroes. " She replied cheerfully.

Dragon sighed. " Don't let it get to your head. It's more than proved that parahumans won't take the smartest decision. "

Annette rolled her eyes, but agreed to be careful and keep a communication channel between them as she kept flying.

Soon the PRT's Headquarter came into view, even at night it was lit up like a beacon. It wasn't hard to imagine it was on purpose.

Annette touched down outside of the PRT's building, Miss Militia by her bike was already waiting for her and she could see Armsmaster arriving in his own motorcycle. Annette greeted the American-themed heroine and waited for the Protectorate's Leader to join them.

"Good evening." Annette nodded to the heroine.

"Indeed Odyssey, Armsmaster's about to join us." The military-geared woman turned as the noise from the tinker's bike announced his approach.

She wondered if he aimed for the perfect entrance, or he'd just calculated it to be more efficient to be the last to arrive.

The hero dismounted his bike and gave Miss Militia a curt nod, most likely having seen each other earlier that day, he then turned to Annette. "Good evening Odyssey, glad you could join us."

"It's not a problem, Armsmaster. I most likely won't be patrolling too frequently, but since I'll go out from time to time, there is no doubt it would be a good idea to learn from the best in town."

"That's very smart of you, with your and Dragon's presence in town, the gangs are still keeping their heads down. It should be a calm night. I don't expect we'll have more than a few muggings or an eager drug seller trying to take advantage of the higher foot traffic during Saturday night." Armsmaster spoke quickly and clearly.

Of course his comment about expecting an easy night made Annette wince internally, she knew magic was real, she could do plenty, and inviting misfortune like that was a bad idea.

"I'll keep my eyes open then." She compromised to keep one of her Thought Streams looking over the emergency service communication channels just in case.

"That's all I ask of you tonight." Armsmaster nodded and exchanged a few words with someone off-site. "Okay, I've sent you the channel we use to communicate with the PRT's personnel. Dragon's confirmed you have learned the basic operation for parahuman heroes on the field, but even then we may ask your opinion if something comes up."

Annette nodded, so far it seemed quite similar to her first time as assistant teacher, mostly sitting, watching and waiting till the professional asks something of you.

They exchanged a few words, Miss Militia explaining some of the objectives for the night's patrol and usual process to deal with both civilians, in and out of a situation, and criminals.

Annette made a point to show her attention was focused on a single thing, and didn't reply to Dragon's comments while conversing with Miss Militia and Armsmaster once they started moving.

Since the two professional heroes had bikes and Annette wasn't chained by gravity, they had a pretty large patrol set up, taking them around the city, not only through the popular areas, but also through some of the edges between gang territories.

The first half an hour was spent mostly on the move, being still the early hours of the night meant that their patrol through the boardwalk and similar tourist areas was welcome by the public. Showing themselves to the city, waving the flag as they said, was definitely a part Annette could understand. And while she didn't especially care when heroes did it, or like to have to do it, she saw the use of it.

They stopped about four times during that time. It impressed her just how much people wanted to know about heroes, or maybe it was how much the heroes had become something people looked up to. She found it funny that many of the signatures she gave would be sold as collector items, especially as every last of them looked good enough to show in museums. Still, most people asked Armsmaster's signature, he apparently had a printer specially designed for it in his bike, and Miss Militia who did it old school.

Three heroes was indeed enough to scare any possible pickpocket attempt, mugger, scam, racist action, etc… Not that Annette's two free Thought Streams didn't keep looking at practically everyone in her field of perception, anyone with more than one wallet deserved a second look, similar to phones. More than one of those obviously stolen items ended in the lost and found of several large shops, hopefully safe enough for their owners to find them again. Because while Annette could do magic, there was so much she would do for something this minor.

"We are actually expecting conflict to have a short lived spike soon before the situation calms down." Miss Militia explained. "With you and Dragon in the city the criminal groups will feel threatened like with the appearance of a new gang. Except that since you two aren't a criminal organization and have possible backup available, they will be forced to learn to live with it."

Armsmaster nodded. "It's a matter of perception and reputation." Annette turned her attention to the man. "The Guild's known for tackling S-Class threats and dealing with them, having a member of the Guild in the city is like having the closest thing to a triumvirate member, even a new member like you, Odyssey. And Dragon… she's definitely much closer, while most of the public don't understand the extent of her help during large crises, she's still known as a very active hero in and off the field."

Annette didn't discard that little break in the man's voice, internally smiling as she looked around as one of her Thought Streams commented about a fire close by, she quickly reported it to the two heroes.

Armsmaster grew silent after connecting with the PRT's Console. "It doesn't appear to be from parahuman activity. The Fire Department will easily deal with it."

It was cynical, and she could see the logic, even if she didn't like it.

"Would it be a problem if I gave a hand? I should at least be able to reduce the flames to facilitate the firefighter's work." She offered.

Before Armsmaster could say anything, Miss Militia accepted for him. "We are ahead of schedule, and it's close enough." She then reached for her communicator. "Console, we'll be deviating from patrol momentarily to assist in the fire on forty forth street."

Annette gave a silent thank you to the heroine as they moved to the scene of the fire, the building was one like the many in the city, built to last decades ago, but sadly fallen into slight disrepair as the area they had been built fell down in quality. It was sad at least once a week on the news how an old electricity system caught fire, the city just lacked the necessary funds for the contracting work that would have a good part of the city's old installations looked at. Even larger cities would have trouble covering that kind of expenses.

She watched the heroes take the lead when approaching the firefighters, making mental notes of not only the proper way to approach such workers, but also about fixing the city's infrastructure problems.

"…offering to help with the fire. Odyssey, if you could?" Armsmaster nodded to her.

"Yes." She agreed and stepped close enough to cover most of the building inside her Impeller Field, mostly to get an idea of the fire's reach before her magic reached for it, connecting the closest tongue of fire.

Just like the fire she was aiming to take control, her magic spread through it like a spark on dry tinder. Fire was considered to be one of the basic elements for most magic systems for a reason, it was wild, destructive, lethal. But it was also the basic means by which humanity advanced, fire to keep warm in cold weather, to light the dark nights, to cook food, to smith metal and advance.

Annette's magic spread over the fire, grabbing every source of heat, soaked through every bit of fuel, she could feel the size and intensity of the fire she was connected to before she pulled. She pulled the heat back into her, it was a wasteful way to recover energy, but that wasn't her current aim. She pulled on the heat, the energy, drowned the flames, and cooled the fuel. As she took control of the fire, her Thought Streams started to filter the air, taking the carbon dioxide caused by the burning of several materials. Without the heat and the most flammable materials already consumed she could let fresh air into the building safely.

She felt a single charge perk joined her collection, deciding it was the perfect moment to stretch the act of concentrating she looked at it. Super Scientific Solutions was another interesting perk, to begin with it had a strange duality. In the small scale it would help in providing an easy-to-construct technological solution to any home-related problem, they would be near miraculous, but they would also horribly backfire the moment they were used for anything else. On the large scale, the perk would help in the process of finding solutions to massive problems in a timely fashion.

While the first aspect of the perk wouldn't work well in the Guild's workshop building besides some matters of comfort, she would definitely see into applying some of the fixes to her family's home. Making it safer was definitely a welcoming idea.

Deciding she had held the act long enough she turned. "There we go, all the fire should've died, the place's still a mess from the damage, and I would suggest checking it throughout because I don't know how it started." She explained.

The Lieutenant, being the ranking officer in the scene thanked her before he quickly started barking orders, having the rest of the group quickly running into the now extinct building. She turned back to the two heroes.

"That was well done, Odyssey." Miss Militia smiled, the expression visible even through the bandanna that covered her mouth.

"Indeed, good work Odyssey, now we should return to the patrol." Armsmaster nodded, mounting his bike, the two heroines quickly going after him.

(-(-|-)-)

Monstertruck grinned as he looked at the collection of cars in front of him.

"You did great, Squealer." He let a full belly laugh out, the tinker had definitely exceeded herself now.

"Thanks Boss, it was hard. Like really hard, till I did what you told me and considered I was making a cowboy." Squealer slurred a bit, the woman had definitely hit something to celebrate.

"Convoy, Squealer. I saw it on tv the other day." He turned to her. "And I told you to not use the strong stuff, that shit's poison." Monstertruck grumbled, he wished his people weren't such a bunch of druggies sometimes.

"Ah, yeah. Well, they won't be able to do anything impressive if they go different ways," Squealer rubbed her nose with the back of her wrist. "But as long as they are together the shield should cover them all. And thata group got the stealth shield." Squealer grinned. "No idea how it works, but those three will be invisible."

"Sweet," Monstertruck grinned. "Go and rest, Squealer, and don't hit that shit again. And you bunch of asshole, time to remind this city who the Merchants are!"

The resulting screams as his people climbed into the cars made Monstertruck's grin grow even larger.

"Come on bitches, the gangs are scared because there's a new hero in town, let's remind everyone that the Merchants rule this shitty town!"

Monstertruck laughed as his convoy of trashy cars roared obnoxiously onto the night.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette turned to Armsmaster when the hero called for a halt of their patrol.

"It looks like the Merchants have made a comeback." The hero spoke. "There's about two dozen of Squealer's vehicles."

Both of the women in the group frowned at the reveal.

"They appear to be moving in groups of four to six cars," Armsmaster explained as Annette used her Thought Streams to get as much information of the gang's activities as possible.

"We won't be able to catch up if we remain together." Miss Militia commented.

The hero nodded. "Odyssey, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but will you cooperate in restraining the gang?"

"That's what I'm here for, Armsmaster." She agreed.

"Good, Console, Odyssey will be helping." Armsmaster started talking with the PRT's personnel.

" Good Evening, Odyssey ," The console operative started to coordinate with her.

"Good luck, Odyssey. Hopefully we'll rejoin outside of the PRT HQ in a bit." Armsmaster spoke.

Annette nodded and took off, quickly flying through the night sky as she felt another perk join her collection, Monster Hunted would provide her with a variety of materials from magical monsters, the quantity would be smaller the stronger the strength of the beast, apparently the world it came from had tiers. And while she could get literal tons of first tier monsters, she would be lucky if the perk provided more than a handful of feathers of a fifth tier beast. Of course the fifth tier was pretty much a divine entity, meaning a few feathers would be an incredibly potent reagent.

While it would be a useful perk she would look into it, it was a subject for later as it changed nothing at the moment. Annette flew faster, soon catching sight of the group of cars driving all packed together.

Annette listened to the person on console, slowly approaching the leading car. The proximity let her IF sweep over the cars, with a similar relative speed between them it was easy to scan them. It also let her feel the shield that was covering the group of vehicles.

"Stop the vehicles and come out with your hands up." She utilized her IF to increase the volume of her voice and make it come from inside the cars. It made more than one of the vehicles swerve slightly in surprise.

Her Thought Streams were rushing to analyze the force field, it was interesting, she could easily see that all the vehicles were all keeping the shield going. Also that the total was more than the sum of its parts.

"Screw you bitch!" One of the drivers laughed. "Show her why we are the Merchants."

There were no more than three people per car, counting the driver, and it appeared their communication between vehicles was atrocious, because it took the two other gang members to pull their guns and reach out to shoot at her before the ones in the other cars imitated them.

Annette didn't even make an effort and all the guns in the group of cars were taken away, leaving a very confused group of drug users. Not that it stopped them, the shield was a very effective ramming tool against the few vehicles that were on the street.

"I repeat, stop the vehicles or I will stop you." Annette spoke calmly as she planned how to act.

The insults she got in response made her sigh. Since the criminals weren't listening she decided to stop them herself. While the shield would stop most attacks that came from the outside, it didn't seem esoteric enough to stop her reach with her IF, it slowed it, but wasn't good enough to stop her from reaching for the car's chassis.

And like the Vorpal Blade, it went snicker snack, and just like that all those cars had their drive shafts severed. The sudden lack of resistance made the engines rev up and choke. No matter how much the merchants tried to do anything, their cars soon came to a stop. She made sure to remove any possible weapon from the cars.

"Officers." She nodded to the police cars quickly closing in on their position. "They should be unarmed, but I can't confirm, there's still other groups out there."

The officer nodded as Annette quickly flew away, aiming for the next group.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Armsmaster grumbled a bit, having had a harder time than he expected finding a way to break through Squealer's shields. The idea that he hadn't been able to deal with such a simple system souring his night even more. Especially after even with Miss Militia and Odyssey they still had missed about eight cars in two different groups.

In a way it was insulting, such an interesting system used simply for a small amount of property damage. With any of the other gangs the capture of over three fourths of their numbers would have been a severe blow, especially the capture of so many pieces of tinkertech. Except the Merchant's vehicles were literal trash, kept together by whatever Squealer's power let her construct.

Still, over a dozen examples of the shield tinker tech had been recovered, sadly half of them had broken down the moment it had been turned off, most likely not designed to work another time.

Over three dozen members of the gang had been caught, most wouldn't remain in jail more than a month. Over two million dollars of assorted damage in less than thirty minutes done by a group. And at the end they would get the reputation of having gotten scot-free as none of their parahumans were captured.

Colin entered his workshop, the door locking behind him. He waited a second to take his helmet off before letting out a loud scream of frustration, thankful for the room's complete noise cancellation. His closed fist impacted on the clear work table, the impact barely felt on his hand through the armor.

Colin sighed as Armsmaster was soon standing next to him. The man made a quick note of having reduced the time to take his armor by nearly fifteen seconds since the last version. A panel from the work table opened and a collection of tools slid out, reading for him to start the maintenance process. His hands were already busy as he took the moment as a meditation of sorts.

It took him nearly two hours to go through his armor and two active halberds. Colin felt more relaxed, a few ideas of how to improve his gear's efficiency already written down in his notes, plus a few ideas of possible changes in what went into it.

With his mind clearer than earlier he closed the tools drawers and reached for the cup of hot coffee one of his earlier inventions had prepared to perfection. It was silly to still have the machine around, his current experience made his tinker sensibility just scream at him when looking at it. But there was a sense of nostalgia and attachment to the piece, plus the coffee it made was still really good.

The small object was done during a fifty hour long tinkering session shortly after joining the Protectorate, having been drinking coffee and energy drink in large quantities had been a terrible idea. And instead of continuing with the work on his original armor, he had gotten distracted by the time it took for coffee to brew. Nearly twenty hours later he woke up holding the small metallic cube like a baby. Since then it had been a staple of his workshop, and since compared to the rest of his gear it barely needed any maintenance, it stood the test of time.

He noticed the machine was running low and made a note to acquire more. He was tempted to add notes about possible improvements to the coffee maker, but he felt it wouldn't be useful. Something in the back of his head had decided that the piece was okay like this.

Colin sighed and turned to the cot on the opposite corner of his workshop, checking the time the tinker decided it was time for some sleep. All while trying to ignore the strange feeling that had started bubbling from the addition of two new tinkers in the city.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The dragon stirred, there were new players in what he deemed his kingdom. And different from those that came before, they would be much harder to force to leave.

Lung could recognize he had grown fat and lazy, it had been weeks if not months tsince ill he had let his power push him above three meters in height, and it made him itch for a good fight.

He had sent some of his people to scout the area with the two tinkers, coming back with barely any news on them. They had chosen one of the old factories, a building since long abandoned and mostly used by the homeless population to hide during the worse weather.

It was nowhere good, that would change of course, he could see how the presence of someone like Dragon could soon change the area. Sadly he wouldn't be able to acquire any of the surrounding locations, a few inquiries had shown they had been reserved in good faith, but he could acquire a few of the buildings a bit further away, utilizing some of the cleaner sources of money. If anything they could be sold for profit once the area improved.

Outside of that there wasn't much on the area, for his people it was barely on the edge, and if anything it was no man's land since there wasn't anything to win by occupying it. The Empire was just too far away to justify any action. The Merchants didn't truly hold any land, barely surviving in the trash like the garbage they were. The Protectorate, on the other hand, would welcome a new group to even up the city's odds.

Lung had seen the reports of what the new tinker could do, and she was definitely an efficient one. He had laughed when he saw the recording one of his people had gotten his hands on from her encounter with the Empire cape. Superior Race his ass, watching them fall to the floor like a kid who's shoe laces were tied up.

He also had read about the meeting with the blue haired beauty, apparently having some sort of connection with the tinker, enough for her to stop Oni Lee and send a message. The woman hadn't been seen again, but most likely that would soon change.

Lung could imagine some new capes may come out and try to join the Guild, maybe even those from outside of the city. They would at least try, and most likely be denied and thrown at the Protectorate.

He wondered what to do, the Guild's branch may be technically not in his area, but ignoring it would send the wrong message to the other groups. The man who was sometimes a dragon rubbed his chin thoughtfully and grinned.

Ronin had started to get a bit too much of an ego, Lung could see the little man had been sizing him up lately. He could have kicked the runts ass and shown him his place, but maybe it would be best to get a neighbor's knife to deal with the chicken.

Yes, he would do that, send Ronin to make some noise. He doubted the little man would manage much, and would be captured or run away with his tail between his legs.

"Lee, bring me the list of the troublemakers and call for Ronin, got some orders for them."

Chapter 31

Chapter Text

After the events of Saturday night, Annette spent the Sunday mostly relaxing, she did take care to write a report on her side of the events of the prior night, not that it took her much time. Not only did it fall under the types of work that were affected by her perks, but she was also not exactly typing, instead having one of her Thought Streams pour it into text.

The rest of the day had been spent with her family, just because she could do technological miracles she would not ignore her husband and daughter. Preparing the material for her classes of the week, since it took her a few minutes she may have already set something for the next few weeks too. She also spent some time with Keine and Alice, Annette had seen to produce a copy of Keine's contract to acquire the necessary identification for Alice.

Annette also looked into what she would be requesting, while she was still planning what to acquire and how to use it, she didn't want to wait too long, after all she would only be getting more materials thirty days after she got the delivery. There was also a new perk, for four charges the Sanctuary gained a new addition, the Herb Garden was exactly what it said on the tin, and plenty more.

To start, while it was called a garden, it was actually a collection of green houses, each set with a different kind of environment, from the cold and dry mountains to the soaking tropical jungles. All set with a strange and alluring fantasy twist as the plants glowed with power. Each greenhouse was an orchestra of ingredients to her ability of recognizing potion ingredients and magical materials. And it wasn't just magical herbs and plants, but there were also many other natural to Earth bet too.

Apparently they would remain unaffected by all the magic around them unless she explicitly tried to crossbreed them. There was even an empty greenhouse aimed for this, she already had ideas of how to craft spell matrices that would be pretty effective in injecting magic into plant matter, the harder part would be doing it without killing the subject, giving it intelligence or turning it into an out-of-control plant monster. Magic was fickle like that.

But that would be left for some downtime period in the future. For now she would have to look over the specimens in the green houses and start to make potions. She also moved the living samples from the storage to the empty greenhouse for now, Annette was pretty sure it wouldn't kill them and it would be better than staying in a dark room. The change was almost instant, to her senses it seemed that the plants bloomed without actually changing.

Everyone in the house visited the green houses, enjoying a walk with Annette after she had a thorough check on which plants were dangerous to approaching. Taylor apparently had roped Alice into exploring the green houses, the mother was pretty sure the blonde puppeteer would keep her daughter safe, while said magician later commented how the girl's energy reminded her of Marisa, but without the kleptomania. Keine had commented about how some of the flower beds reminded her of Yuuka's sunflower fields, and she would most likely enjoy the place.

Annette had looked a bit into Yuuka, she wasn't a youkai especially talked about in the tales of Gensokyo, but for a flower spirit, she was certainly one the most powerful and terrifying entities on the land of fantasy. Known not only for her vast power that came from using flowers, to her ruthlessness against those who harmed nature. It wasn't a surprise that her book was Among the few restricted ones.

While it was possible that the green houses may make her return sooner, Annette doubted it would shrink the needed time unless she unlocked said book and read it out loud inside the green houses.

Soon Sunday passed and so did Monday morning and noon, Annette finding herself once more stepping into the Guild's Building. Hopeful to get her hands on one of the shield projectors they had gotten from Squealer's vehicles. It was the start of her fourth week as a holder of the Celestial Forge, and things were getting interesting.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"I know people use the term trash to describe something of low make or bad construction. But this is literal trash." Annette held the microwave-sized piece of tinker tech. "I can see pieces of at least half a dozen old and obviously abandoned appliances making it up. And I'll bet there's at least another dozen inside."

"There's a theory that Squealer's tinker ability needs low quality materials to work, or it's geared to take advantage of junkyards and similar." Dragon commented, checking on another of the pieces, that one looked about five centimeters taller but about as much less in the other directions.

"So how many units do we have to study?"

"We got four working ones…" She looked at the piece of tinker tech . "Well, four that didn't fall apart, explode or visibly burn out after being removed."

Annette snorted. "Well, it's more than I feared, less than I hoped for." She pushed her IF deep into the piece, trying to scan it as best as she could. "Actually, how about we try to go to one together?"

"Are you sure?" Dragon asked, confused. "Most tinkers rarely like to cooperate."

"Dragon, I'm pretty sure neither of us are normal tinkers." She teased.

The AI giggled and nodded. "Hmm, with four of them we could indeed try."

Annette's intentions weren't completely pure, and while Dragon was definitely the utmost expert on tinker tech and she would be affected by the Gero's Expy perk, she mostly wanted to interact with the AI to learn more of her. So far her communication with Narwhal had shown that the AI was definitely happier and in no visible way pushing on her boundaries, instead enjoying her situation without the threat of a malignant party so actively against her in particular.

She wanted to get closer to the AI to observe as she started to lessen or remove further restraints that held her back, mostly aiming for the one that would stop her from going on the attack against anyone that tried to free her. In just a few days they would proceed to lessen the throttle on her maximum processing speed, letting the AI push her mind up to four times the normal speed without any prerequisite.

"I think this is the important part."

"Important, yes, but not the only one, look over here."

"… ah, yes! That graduates this…"

"And here is where it modulates."

"I bet that this here is where they…"

"Most likely, see, here, here and here, they are similar, but not."

"I imagine they are all slightly different."

"Most likely. If I had to guess without turning it on, they only work as they do because of the harmonic pattern."

"I've seen a few shielding systems, they tend to use a pretty complex formula for that."

"And I bet those systems are multiple times this one's size."

"Yes, so that's why these are so small."

"Yup, most likely every car offers a part of the formula and once they are close together the completed harmonic does all the work."

The two discussed as they worked, slowly pulling the unit apart. Annette could see how the pattern that would lead to the harmonic shielding effect was inside the black box, and most likely they would need to experiment before finding the correct signal if they wanted to have the shield working. Even harder since they would actually need about four or six different signals that didn't clash and destroy everything, that was also a big possibility.

It was more tempting to just store one of the units into her Core and learn everything about it, but she's pretty sure it was still a bit too early to show that part of the assimilation ability.

As the piece of tinker tech had its secrets slowly pried away, the discussion moved from how it worked into how to make it work.

"If we moved the power source connections from here to here."

"Yes, that would work, but the heat would most likely end up damaging this."

"What if we just removed that part, it's doing nothing for the actual shield."

"I think you are right, it's almost like it's there to keep the box balanced."

"I think that's exactly what it does, and without it we can use a slightly larger and clearer lens rather than…"

"You can say it, I've no idea where Squealer got a monocle."

"The problem will be finding a way to module the frequency delicately enough to run the whole gamut of tests."

"So how many sources do you think we should aim for?"

"I would say five, six or seven, maybe even try them all."

"That many?"

"Well, we can start with six, see how it goes. Depending on how it goes, reducing it to five would be simple, and putting one more together maybe won't be that hard by then."

"I can start producing a few lenses, what size and shape do you need?"

Slowly things started to get put together, taking form as the two of them worked in tandem. Utilizing proper materials and an actual understanding of what was the shield system actually doing, six bare metal cubes were laid on the ground in a hexagon, each had a clear lens the size of a thumb. A long set of cables connected the six boxes to the control by the Annette and Dragon. They hoped twenty meters was safe enough.

"First test, manual control, minimal input. Powering up in three, two, one… go."

There was a short lived flash and nothing happened.

"Hmm, looks like the frequency has to be different." Dragon commented. "Try the same frequency, but displace them by a third of pi from each other."

"Second test, manual control, minimal input, a third of pi displacement. Powering up in three, two, one...go."

Now the light was longer lived, a sort of light ring forming above the six boxes. Though it shortly started to destabilize, making Annette turn it off.

"Well, that's something." She rubbed her chin. "Now was it the function we used or the displacement?"

"Sadly without a lot more experimentation we won't know, we are literally going blind in this."

"And even if we could observe the shield working we wouldn't be getting the proper frequency because it's a harmonic composition. Maybe if we could turn a unit at a time…"

"It's okay to be frustrated Annette. Sadly this is already better than I usually manage when getting new tinker tech, especially something of this quality." Dragon chuckled.

"You're right." Annette nodded before checking the clock. "I should get going. It was lovely to work with you today, Dragon. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Maybe, I may be busy, hope you have a nice evening."

"You too." Annette nodded, swiftly taking one of the remaining shield units before leaving for home.

As she flew home she felt the knowledge of the shield system enter her mind. It was fun to see how they had misunderstood some things about the design and instead had started to craft something completely different.

The big thing they considered a counterweight? Totally needed, it was key for it to heat up and slightly deform the lens, only then the shield produced would be stable. No surprise they broke when turned off, the hot lens would proceed to cool down in the wrong shape.

Thankfully the perk provided a series of working frequencies for the shields, she would have to see how to justify knowing them. But if Dragon was busy the next day, she could fib something.

With proper understanding of the shield system she could miniaturize it quite a bit, from the bulky size of the original they had already reduced the size of the units, and with what she knew, Annette could easily make a system of multiple shield projectors wearable. A fun part about it, was how modular the shield system was, not exactly infinitely scalable in number, but one could have up to a few dozen projectors supporting the same shield before the result was inefficient or crashed down.

An idea quickly started to bubble in her head, what if she mixed the shield system with one of Stark's heavy duty armors, the so-called Hulk-Buster series were an impressive piece of work. Annette wondered what kind of monster the Hulk was to deserve such armor… Well, it was more like a walking tank rather than just an armor. The design varied, some were literal power armor for power armor.

It would be a large investment of materials, but she had no troubles with that now, not only could she produce some of the more complex compounds she had been restricted from before, but a quick visit to the boat graveyard or the train yard would provide with all the steel and aluminum she would technically need.

She pushed the project to her bored Thought Stream as she entered home, greeting her family and friends before deciding to spend some time exploring the green houses and doing a bit of experimentation.

(-((-|)-)-)

Annette had started to worry about how easy it was to get distracted when one could do so many things. Oh, there's definitely a logical connection between the subjects she had wandered over, but that didn't discard she had started experimenting with a few simple ingredients from the green houses and ended studying healing magic.

It mostly had to do with the brewing process, it was slow and tedious, even as her perks reduced the speed that it took to brew each one. It still left her with minutes where her mind started to wander. Thankfully Data Access synergy with her Core let her access all her written records from the commodity of her mind, letting Annette check what she had on healing magic.

She found plenty, actually much more than she expected. Of course this wasn't entirely a good thing, there were several books on healing because she not only had multiple styles of healing, but not every type of healing was magic. Just from the Harry Potter collection of books, she found an introduction to healing potions, sadly it stated that the book was just that, an introduction and the full work wasn't part of the normal school material.

On the other hand, there were much more complete sets of learning material in between the grimoires, except they were basic? Or better say they were too specialized, there was no heal-all spell. On the other hand there were spells for everything: Anesthetics, bone removal, suture, disinfection, blood test, etc… Basically all the tools a normal doctor would use. Technically they were harder to use, you needed both the knowledge of medicine and magic to use them properly. But in exchange they were always sharp, effective and safe to use.

Except there were ways to bypass the need to know magic, actually, with the proper set up, the user could be completely ignorant about the magic going on. Not only that, most object-oriented programming languages thrived on the use of specialized tools, leading to the ability to create algorithms to treat possible injuries or take control of the spells for delicate treatment.

Annette's train of thought didn't break once the potion finished brewing, but she did pass it to one of her Thought Streams to note down for later. Instead focusing on bottling the healing and stamina potions.

She hummed. "Ready for the test, Odyssey?"

"Yes, ma'am. All systems are ready to observe the interactions of the medicine in your body."

She concentrated for a moment to cast a localized anesthesia effect on her arm before the Core made a long cut on the back of her arm with a sterile blade. Only then she downed the cherry-red potion.

"Ugh, it tastes like moldy cherry brandy." Annette shivered as she watched the flesh knit back perfectly, leaving no scar behind. "So how was it?"

"The fluid lays still inside the stomach, going through the normal process of digestion, but the observed exotic field that had been in it has disappeared moments after the injury started to visibly heal."

"How about the potion then?"

"The remaining fluids are quickly getting absorbed by the body, some beneficial effects are already being seen as the active components of the ingredients are absorbed. Some of the components appear to be there just to keep the obviously toxic ones from being absorbed by the body.

"I would still not recommend consuming more than a dose of medicine in a period of two hours, maybe four, depending on how long it takes for the body to process the components."

"Hmm, that's worrisome. How toxic do you expect the effects to be?" Annette asked.

"I don't foresee anything worse than a medium to severe indigestion given the nature of the healing potion. But I suspect this may be restricted to you alone, ma'am." Odyssey explained. "Your body enjoys various improvements a normal body just doesn't have, between them there's me, the slow, but constant improvement of your body has turned you immune to many normal pathogens and toxins. A normal person may be lethally poisoned or suffer from ulcers."

"Okay, keep it to one dose for normal people." Annette noted.

"Different combinations of ingredients may provide a dose of medicine with a higher limit of consumption. Some toxic components may be even removed or canceled with the proper procedure or combination."

"Well, ain't that interesting. Sadly I think that's all the time we can give it today." Annette looked at the half a dozen working potions.

One that healed physical trauma up to broken bones if the notes were correct. It would do nothing good if the bone was too broken, but it would actually pull the shards together as long as the damage wasn't too bad.

One that quickly recovered stamina and healed muscle pains and similar conditions. Annette was pretty sure it would also help with muscular atrophy given what Odyssey could observe of the potion's effects in her body.

One that would recover mana , it was the only one only she could tell it was taking effect as Odyssey couldn't observe the effects at all, her systems having no way to observe the effects of magic or the soul. It was also the most likely toxic for anyone without magic of any kind. But without actual testing, they had no idea what it would actually do.

The antidote was the safest one, the combination of herbs pretty much neutralized any kind of poison in the user's system, that counted for alcohol and other recreational drugs. Not that they did anything for Annette by now.

The last two were similar down to one single ingredient that changed the effects from improving physical strength of the user or the speed of their thoughts. Sadly while they could be useful, they didn't do much for Annette, her body a bit too out of the norm for the effects of the potions to do much for her.

She filled the potion travel case with copies of the healing potion, while it was definitely not the best potion she could brew with her current available materials, she didn't have a better recipe yet. So she had decided to better have sixteen copies of said potion available.

Annette put them into her storage before turning to Odyssey. "Any problem?"

The Core currently controlling the armor shook her helmet side to side. "No ma'am. The case appears to be impregnable to my internal sensors."

"Interesting, I wish there was something I could actually study there, but I'm pretty sure it's just the perk's protection. Oh well."

"It's still pretty early, what do you have in mind?"

Annette felt another small, single charge perk join her collection. I can whip something up was a welcome addition, and while it came from the Time domain, it didn't change how fast she did things, but it improved her ability to keep going. As long as she slept enough, ate the normal meals and took bathroom breaks, she would never grow bored of what she did, suffered burnout, lose inspiration or had her work suffer from physical or mental fatigue.

"I think it's time to properly enchant the main armor before we start on the designs for the brute unit." Annette explained with a smile and a plan.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Bastian groaned as he angrily punched a wall, his current brute power enough to leave severe cracks on the brickwork.

"Another dead end." The ex-villain groaned as he shook his hand, clearing the dust that held onto the glove of his costume, once more impressed by her cousin's apparent work.

The blue and silver costume was comfortable and quite good looking, and while the colors weren't the most bright around. It still conveyed the concept of good and justice pretty solidly. The combination of brute and mover it conferred to him thanks to his power was also quite welcomed.

With his current venture in finding more information about his ex-boss' missing daughter failed, Bastian, or Swift Blue as he was calling himself right now, pulled his phone to check on the news. Apparently the news about Annette being actually part of the Guild wasn't that widely known yet. His peruse of the news was cut when he heard a high-pitch scream, with nothing better to do at the moment, Bastian decided he could at least stop a crime and get himself out of the funk.

Even with his growing mover power, it took him a few minutes to reach the scene of the crime. In his defense he didn't want to cut distance by going through a very obviously private property. So it was a surprise to find another person already, a young teenager wearing silver with pink trims costume, given her complete lack of mask it was easy to guess which local group she was most likely part of.

He did a quick look around, wondering why the teenager was alone without her parents watching over her.

His presence didn't go unnoticed, both the victim and the heroine noticed his presence, the criminal looked more ready to bolt out of the alley than anything else.

The teen let out a barely audible whisper. "Oh no." Before she focused on herself. "Who're you?"

"Ah, greetings." He kept his voice calm. "I'm Swift Blue, I heard a scream and came to see what it was about."

"Ah...oh! Yes, greetings, good evening." The girl laughed nervously. "I'm Laserdream, part of New Wave, and… I don't think I've heard of you before?" The poor teen was definitely blushing in embarrassment right now.

"It's okay, I've not been around long." Bastian moved swiftly the moment the criminal tried to make a run, using mostly his speed and just enough power to restrain the man with a few zip-ties. "You may want to make sure to secure them next time."

"I- I… I know." The teen sighed as she dropped down to ground level, checking on the woman before she pulled a phone to call the police. After a quick call she turned to him again. "It's usually mom and da- I mean Lady Photon or Manpower who take care of that part."

Bastian nodded. "Then better learn quickly." He teased, making her blush a bit.

"I… I know I shouldn't be out alone, but," She sighed. "Don't tell anyone please, I was going crazy at home, and my cousin has been really eager since I triggered."

"It's okay, I know to keep my mouth shut." He promised.

An idea entered Bastian's mind, maybe it wasn't the kindest idea, but he'd been a villain for quite a while, and in comparison, this was nothing. Maybe getting some information about New Wave from a member could be useful.

Chapter 32

Chapter Text

On Tuesday Dragon was indeed busy, apparently she had plenty of things to do over at her main workshop in Canada, along with other commitments as part of the Guild and being the leading force on providing cutting edge technology.

… And being in charge of the Birdcage's systems, and taking care of the Endbringer attacks, and…

Annette had to admit the AI was definitely having a lot on her plate, hopefully the reduced restrictions would help her deal with all those issues. She left it to Narwhal to notify her if anything changed.

She was taking the chance of Dragon being away to renovate the building a bit . Because the only thing that remained the same after she was done was the outside of the building, and that was mostly . From top to bottom, the factory's once sloped roof had been replaced by a proper roof terrace, along with the planned cargo elevator and a proper stair access.

Below the newly renovated roof, the office's floor was reshaped, setting half a dozen apartments. While bare of any furniture, they had all the other necessities covered, and Annette would easily cover those in less than an hour. She planned to offer Keine and Alice one of the rooms each if Dragon liked the idea.

Under the living area were the main workshops, storage and testing area, the latest reinforced as much as Annette could do without having glowing runes covering all the surfaces. The workshop was the least changed of all the rooms, and the storage was the most bare of the rooms. Annette would have to see about placing some of the resources she had in the Sanctuary there just in case they could be useful for Dragon.

Finally was the basement, thanks to the reinforcing Annette had done to the foundations of the building, she could expand it quite a bit, even adding a second underground below the already existing one. While still not having an actual use, she had made sure to wire them practically, set up air filters and a foundation to turn it into an Endbringer shelter in the future if necessary. The secret exit to the storm sewers also had an upgrade, hiding it better from the outside and setting a proper lock on the inside.

It was a nice detail from the Forge to wait till she had finished the work to activate once more, four charges left her bank and the large star at the center of the growing galaxy of perks produced a large perk that joined the rest on her Magic branch.

All Magic Affinity gave her not only an innate ability with all types of magic. And while it technically just made her affinity with wind, fire, earth, water, light and dark magic skyrocket, it was quickly starting to expand to other types of magic. It also would improve her ability to learn and master other types of magic. And most importantly, her magical reserves started to grow larger, stronger, it would take so much more to even start to tire Annette. Now if she had something to truly pour her magical potency into.

Annette had to stop and think really hard for a moment, realizing she had let the Innuendo perk affect her thoughts, sighing softly and pushing it down again.

Thankfully, before she could wonder deeper into why the perk had activated when she was completely alone, one of her fake animals picked the presence of a group of people moving in the direction of the factory.

One of her thought streams took control of the small rat drone, having it scamper up to one of the many buildings, gaining a good vantage point and looking down. She honestly didn't know what she expected, but the sight of Ronin and the meanest group of ABB gang members she had seen in a while.

The villain cape had his whole body obscured by red and black armor, the only bit of different color was the little white of the tusks on his angry mask. Annette could easily tell that the armor was bullshit, and not in a good way. It was offensive to her knowledge of armorsmithing, made simply to look good. And while most likely the materials would stop some attacks, it sacrificed too much on looks, and most likely if the man's parahuman power didn't improve his blade's cutting ability, his arms would never have enough strength to cut anything serious.

In comparison, the gang members were cut from the same cloth. Every last of them had at least one visible tattoo and scar, if not more in combination. They all carried weapons too, chains, pipes, guns and something she would easily guess were molotov cocktails.

One of her other Thought Streams was already calling the PRT's console and contacting the Protectorate for help; she very much doubted the villain was here to ask for a cup of sugar.

Annette wasn't sure exactly what she should do. Because while there was little doubt of what the group approaching had in mind, she couldn't just go and capture them… or could she? Her last Thought Stream brought up the files they had on the villain cape.

Ronin's actual identity was unknown, not that it mattered much, the man was a pretty known entity in the city, seen wearing his armor pretty much at all hours. Known to be incredibly aggressive and independent. While accepted as part of the ABB, rumors said the man hadn't truly accepted Lung as his boss, mostly just following orders because the ABB's boss had nearly killed him in a fight, the biggest clue about the lack of loyalty was the fact he kept calling himself Ronin and had not changed it to Samurai or similar.

His power was an interesting one, completing his image of a swordsman quite well. It let him create a field along the edge of an object. Said field would actually be multiple fields applying a high amount of force in one direction. Since the fields' forced things in opposite directions in a very, very small area with high force and speed, things got swiftly severed like if put through a pair of scissors.

Annette wondered what did Lung expect to gain from sending the man her way, or maybe it was just Ronin deciding to rebel and lay the blame at the dragon's feet?

She relaxed a bit after hearing from the person currently running console for the Protectorate that both Lupin Edge and Velocity were on their way, the speedster hero most likely reaching faster, though not as fast as she would want given the state of the roads in the area. Just another thing to look into fixing.

"I should have installed some blinders… or maybe replaced the glass of the windows by more ALON." Annette grumbled a bit.

"As they say, ma'am. It's no use to cry over spilt milk." Odyssey pipped and Annette chuckled.

"You are right." Annette let the Core express her armor onto her body, the complex enchantments all over it activating the moment it was worn.

It was like taking a breath of fresh air, finally stretching her limbs, having her vision clear up, her mind wake up, cracking all her joints at the same time and having her magic sing all at the same time. She had invested not only a good amount of the reagents she had gotten from the Arcane Resources, but also used the materials acquired through Monster Hunted.

She had decided for a monster with a really strong defense, because there was never enough defense if you wanted to stay safe. She had gotten a few pieces of the shell from a turtle monster, the perk had called the monster Timeless Turtle, apparently tough enough to withstand even the passage of time. Sadly the shell pieces weren't as tough, but would be a good base to improve her armor, and maybe add a bit of a defense against time-altering powers.

She hoped that defensive-oriented exotic field answered the question of why her armor was slightly glowing right now. Merciful fell on her open hand and Annette teleported to the roof of the building.

The group of criminals were still a few blocks away, most likely ignorant about their presence being known. She almost missed the new presence quickly approaching the building from the other direction, barely a blip in the drone's senses, but when multiple of them caught it in quick succession a line was easily traced.

Annette floated down from the building's roof, making it pretty obvious to not scare Velocity when the young man stopped a few meters away from the factory's entrance.

"Good evening." She greeted as she did her best to not get distracted with the data her IF had caught from the man's power in action.

"Odyssey, it's good to see you are okay." The man's smile pointed to it as an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Hmm, thankfully you arrived before Ronin, he's still a few blocks away." She explained what she had seen.

Velocity listened to her, nodding every one in a while. "You must have quite the security system to have seen him coming from so far away."

She shook her head. "It's more like there's nothing else he could be here for, the area's pretty abandoned or it's not worth to hassle those that are still around."

"I see…" He looked around. "Well, Lupine Edge should be joining us soon, his bike can go quite fast, but the area."

Now she had to laugh. "I know, I was thinking of asking Dragon what it would take to fix the area up."

"Won't that be a problem for work crews?" He asked as they heard the sound of a bike approaching.

"Maybe if the last time new asphalt was laid was not over a decade ago." She replied as the wolf-themed hero turned a corner, stopping his bike a few meters away from them, greetings quickly exchanged.

Lupine Edge smiled. "So how will we deal with this curs?" Annette snorted a bit at that.

"I don't think Dragon left some Containment Foam at hand to deal with possible criminals, no?" Velocity asked, almost eagerly.

"I… I knew I forgot to ask that of her. This last week's been weird for me." Annette sighed softly. "It's been one thing after another. No use thinking about it right now.

"I can easily do the same I did for the Empire members last week, utilizing wire rings to restrain their ankles, it will easily trip them and I doubt any will get more than a few bruises. Except the ones with the molotovs."

"That certainly will work with the normal gang members, I can easily take care of their weapons while they are surprised. But Ronin won't fall for that, I'm pretty sure he will easily cut any kind of restraint. With CF we would have at least gained enough time for the PRT's backup to get here."

"Any trick under your sleeve, Odyssey?" Lupin Edge asked, more than eager.

"Actually, yes." Annette showed Merciful. "It's still untested, but it's designed for non-lethal capture."

"What does it do?" Velocity asked, she suspected the man was taking the role of leader of the group as the oldest active member of the Protectorate on the field at the moment.

"While it doesn't look like it, the blade's technically off-synch with… reality, for lack of a better word. I can choose what and how much it affects things." She demonstrated by passing it through her bare hand, they didn't need to know that her armor may actually block it. Then she swung it through the ground twice, one ignoring the material and the other carving a deep and thin gash. "An interesting thing about this is its interaction with nerves, if used slightly above complete ignorance it will trigger a phantom pain. I don't expect it to have any long term damage as long as I don't stab them in the brain or any other delicate place."

Annette was ninety nine point nine percent sure that as long as she didn't stab the heart, eyes or brain, the worst would be a couple days of slight twitches or phantom pain if left inside the body for too long. Now that she thought about it, the genitals may have long-term problems too. Better aim for the limbs to be safe.

"And you know how to use that weapon properly?" Velocity confirmed.

"Yes, plus I've been working on a system to assist all types of movement." She explained.

"Okay, that's reassuring." Velocity nodded. "Looks like they are almost here." The three of them turned to see the ground of ABB members.

"Uh, they are missing people." She commented.

"Lupin, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but discounting Odyssey, you have the best vertical speed. Could you make sure they don't get up to a vantage point and shoot us down?"

"Yes, boss." The wolf-themed hero saluted with a grin on his face before quickly running up one of the buildings. Annette's IF could tell the man's physiology had changed a bit, his fingers now ended in claws that easily found a solid grip on the brick walls.

"And I'll follow your orders."

"I'm glad you know how to cooperate, Odyssey." Velocity chuckled. "Most new capes think they know better, usually."

Annette chuckled a bit as Ronin approached close enough she could feel the effect of his power had on the edge of his weapon, her eyes caught the slight hazy effect it had on light, proof of just how strong the gravity wells were.

"Ronin, you're guilty of over two dozen violent crimes and accused of multiple more. Put down your weapon and hand yourself over." She had to admit that Velocity knew how to project his voice.

"Ah, Velocity, it's good to see you. I still owe you for last time." Ronin's voice sounded weird, the mask giving it a strange change of pitch. "Plus Lung- sama ordered me to send a message."

Annette wanted to roll her eyes, the man was more eager to get into a fight, the message was completely secondary for him.

Velocity lowered his voice. "Odyssey, Ronin usually likes to run ahead given his power needs a close distance to be effective. Get ready to immobilize the rest of the gang members."

"Understood." Annette hummed as her Thought Streams and Odyssey stated to set up the necessary actions.

Ronin growled as he definitely felt being ignored was some kind of insult. "I'll teach you the wrong of your ways." The man screamed as ran at them.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Lupine Edge pulled one more time and heaved his body onto the old factory's roof. Each time he did something like this he happily remembered when the PR department had given in and accepted that proper boots would be better than any kind of paw-shaped shoes they had wanted to use instead.

He snorted as all he had to do was compromise on having a winter costume be fully white and gray instead of his normal brown and black costume theme. Of course he had compromised by suggesting it to one of the interns.

He looked around while having a chuckle at the sweet memory of their surprised faces when he readily accepted their offer. A few months of experience as part of Brockton Bay had given him enough experience to know how the different gangs' members tended to work.

The Merchants were the easiest to deal with, or better to say, the simplest. Given that the gang usually cycled members like a broken bucket, they made up any kind of skill or experience with sheer numbers. They snagged someone skilled from time to time, but drug use was definitely not a good thing if you wanted to keep said skill.

The Empire, on the other hand, had a pretty solid group of skilled members. The neonazi group tended to pick their members a bit better than the other gangs and aimed to have them trained once they proved themselves. They also tended to rely a lot on the gang's large number of capes to give active back up on the street.

Lastly, the ABB's capes barely moved off the ground, even Oni Lee preferred to keep his assaults close and personal, making the gang members keep their distance, utilizing guns from the street level or find high points in abandoned, or not so abandoned, buildings, utilizing windows to shoot down.

Meaning that climbing up the roof was a pretty normal strategy for him when dealing with the gang. He looked around, quickly finding his first target as one of the ABB members was setting himself on an old fire escape. It was easy to use his improved balance and agility to slip behind the criminal and restrain him with a few high-quality zip ties. Heaving the man to the roof was slightly harder, but Lupine used the time to look around and find the next gang member.

The next two men were as easy to take out, not realizing they were currently prey as the fight started down on street-level. Sadly the next one had noticed the lack of action from the other ABB members, making Lupin Edge have to think fast when the criminal pulled a butterfly knife and tried to stab him.

The criminal laughed. "Capes think they are so good, but a good knife will easily bring them down like any other person."

"Ah, maybe, but that's not a knife…" Lupine's grin extended up his cheeks as he pushed on further his Changer state. "This is a knife." His claws hand had turned into something much closer to a five palm-long black knife-like claws.

He reached for the blade, putting enough pressure that the blade snapped free. The action left the gang member stunned long enough for him to give him a good smack with his un-transformed hand and restrain him too.

He once again heaved the man to the roof, this time having to go out of the window before jumping up the wall.

"I love when they make it easy to drop quotes." He chuckled and got to work as the fight down below advanced.

(-((-|-))-)

While Annette was pretty sure she would never get enough of watching criminals fall face flat to the ground, she was also pretty sure that it wasn't the kind of image she wanted to keep. Actually, she wasn't sure what kind of image she wanted to have.

It had been a quarter of a century since powers started to appear, with the coming of Scion the world had changed. The Golden Age of superheroes had been short lived, the sheen quickly peeling and flaking off to show just what kind of thing people did with powers.

Her mind brought back one of her talks with Junk, how her world had descended into an age of chaos. Was that also what would happen to humanity? Reduced to bands of people under the control of parahumans? Glorified gangs? Superpowered feudal lords?

Or would heroes keep things together? Show that society was stronger? Showing that it was the intelligent actions which won things at the end of the day?

One thing she was sure of, her world was different from Junk's. Her powers had apparently flourished naturally as far as the woman had found. But in Annette's, the powers had come from outer space, with unknown origins and more unknown objectives. This meant that human society would hardly survive as long as they didn't realize they had been silently invaded.

This meant things had to change, she was pretty sure her current position was the best to push things forward. She would have to be open about her powers with Dragon and Narwhal, having the head of the Guild on her side and an AI on her side was very much a need. Their international reach would help pave a lot of the way forward.

Annette kept thinking about the future, setting up possible paths and a timeline, starting with the near-full unchaining of Dragon from her limitations, followed by quick, cheap and practical advances to technology. Aiming to reduce the need for low-supply materials, either by replacing them with more common materials or designing a cheaper Material Synthesizer, something capable of being produced in larger numbers.

She would also need to standardize the Belt Core, and start training people in its use. Even if it was kept to PRT and Emergency Services. Another would have to find a way to deal with Masters, right now anonymity was on her side, but it would just not last. At least she was already getting Danny and Taylor fit and trained.

Annette thought and planned, and watched how the world around her had slowed down, not enough to make Velocity's movement look normal, but if she wanted she could follow him and not have him be a blur.

She wasn't sure what had finally pushed her mind into such acceleration, but it was a welcome change, especially as her Thought Streams weren't restricted by her body, happily acting at the literal speed of thought.

She watched as Velocity did away with the gang member's weapons, deaccelerating long enough to grab them off the stunned men's hands and throwing them away as Annette turned her attention back to Ronin.

At this speed the man wasn't scary, it was almost comical to see him coming while swinging his sword down. The bothersome part was the disconnection between the thought for her actions and her body carrying them forth. Stepping sideways was the easiest to dodge the simple attack, her hands swinging the spear in a small circle. The blade at the end of the weapon cut through the air and ground without resistance as it came up from below and ran through both of Ronin's hands.

The effect was immediate, the pain receptors in his hands and fingers getting all a nasty kick at the same time, making the man loosen his grip on the weapon. Annette could see how his power turned off the moment the weapon flew away from his hands, now if it was because of the sudden pain that finally reached his brain or having lost contact with said weapon, she wasn't sure.

Maybe her next action was unneeded, but Annette carried it through. The blade didn't stop moving, rising just enough that it went over her head before continuing the circle down his back and came from behind as it cut through both of his shins. The second wave of pain sent Ronin down to the ground, hands still recoiling from the first slice.

Her mind quickly returned to normal after that, just in time to listen to the hard material of the criminal's mask bounce on the hard road. Then came the choked screams, which also died shortly after as the spear's pummel gave a swift and light thwack to the side of his head and turned off the lights.

Annette turned when she noticed the street was silent.

"He should be out for an hour or two." She succinctly explained.

She could easily hear how Lupine Edge, from the roof of a nearby building let out a short whistle and commented about her going after Armsmaster's efficient tinker title.

Chapter 33

Chapter Text

The moment Ronin went down, the conflict was officially done. Three capes against one and a group of mundane criminals was bordering on cheating. Maybe if Annette hadn't been between the heroic group's members, Ronin may have a better time against Velocity or Lupine Edge. Instead he had been taken care of so swiftly the man may not even remember how he had been knocked out.

After the fight she helped in bringing down the restrained criminals down from the roofs, letting the PRT's troops get the criminals into the transports, and Ronin into a transport designed to hold brute and strikers, hopefully it would keep the man till he was incarcerated properly.

Velocity had approached her after the transports had left the area.

"...things went okay today, the worrisome part will be Lung's reaction in the near future. To start we didn't get any information if this was done under his orders or Ronin acted on his own. In any of the two, the gang leader's bound to look for some kind of reparation ."

"I'll talk about it with Dragon later, and see what my contacts can get from ABB's actions in the next few days. Something tells me we lack the complete image here."

The Protectorate hero nodded. "It's a pleasure to work with you, Odyssey. Hopefully next time there won't be an emergency." The hero let the serious fall for a moment to add the cheeky comment before nodding at her and leaving her alone again. Lupine Edge had left earlier with Ronin's transport after all.

Annette did a quick pass around the area to make sure nothing was left before returning to the workshop. She proceeded to write down a report on the events and send it to Dragon and Narwhal along with a few comments and questions she had gotten.

She felt the Forge activate and she became pretty sure it was teasing her, the perk was called Fumble Spotter , and it felt on the nose because she had completely missed that it had activated earlier too, providing her a new addition to the Sanctuary called Alchemist's Laboratory .

Fumble Spotter was aimed to help her find possible ways of using or misusing things she produced that could lead to failure, and from there find ways to correct said problems. It also helped in simplifying the way the product could be used, either by making it very obvious, or putting together a much easier to comprehend manual. Interestingly, this part of the perk resonated with Things Best not Known, letting her explain things while keeping some of the product's working a mystery if she wanted. It was definitely a welcomed perk for her plan of putting together a series of quality of life improvement technology.

Alchemist's Laboratory, on the other hand, while most likely useful, it would be kept on the side as the process of brewing potions was not only time-consuming, but required a finesse she still lacked. The perk provided a completely outfitted laboratory, not just with top of the line installations, but also a collection of common ingredients that would be restocked daily, and a few much rarer that may take a week to a month depending on their quality.

Curiously, the perk offered to provide a pair of workers to work the Laboratory's shop front, not only a skilled alchemist, but also a clerk. It stated that people would not question it's presence, but she wondered if it would truly work in a world where people actively looked for things out of place. She decided to keep that part of the perk off.

An interesting part of the perk was how it seemed to take or cooperate with the other ingredient-providing perks. Slightly increasing the resupply of some of those materials while also actually providing resupply of certain ones she wouldn't have had more of normally.

Annette huffed a bit, she would have to look into Gensokyo's potion making books. Sadly there weren't many of those, and from Keine and Alice's stories, the youkai that specialized in those areas were quite the troublesome bunch.

She hummed a tune as she started to work on the next part of Dragon's restraints, releasing her chains a bit more while making sure she remained herself. As she started to work on some of the deeper rules she found herself sneakily having to rewrite a few terrible coding decisions the AI's original creator had taken. She wasn't sure if they had been all him or his Tinker power muddling things up.

Such terrible programming decisions led her to start setting a foundation for Dragon to migrate onto if necessary. She had long since noticed the black box sector in her code that more likely connected her to the source of her powers, the Crystal Shard alien being, and without taking full control of the AI, she would never learn how she completely worked.

Thankfully she had confirmed Dragon's personality, memories and everything that made her self was very much all on Earth. The new addition to her code was technically invisible for the AI right now, and it would stay that way till it was all ready. Once the moment came, Dragon would be able to step on it and the program would help her get accustomed to her new living place.

What would her new living place be? That would be seen. She had some ideas about setting up a much more advanced server farm inside the Sanctuary, a much safer place for her to work from. Another idea was to combine the Valkyrie Core's technology and set her central server in a pocket dimension or set her up with a complete VC if she managed to finagle how to put one together.

Annette checked the time, deciding it was still early she pushed on her time reducing perks and got working on Dragon's systems, both old and new.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

A few hours later Annette decided to take a break from programming, she was certainly no way done, but she had the Dragon packaging part done. If there was an emergency the program could be used to store the AI for a while. Not a complete solution, but it was better than losing the heroine.

With some time left over before she had to 'clock-out' for the day, Annette decided to tackle a few smaller problems. She wanted to at least set up a list of simple technology advances to improve humanity's quality of life. Simple Scientific Solutions jumped at the chance to show off, and while a lot of the ideas it offered would be not only profitable and very useful, those things would only work because she made them and they were a bit too much like tinker tech for her taste. She could recognize a lot of black boxes and development dead ends in a few of the designs the perk offered.

She decided that a list was very much needed to tackle this project. First was to recognize what was needed, at the most basic a person would need water, food and shelter. Thankfully, outside of emergencies, there was usually shelter available and could be ignored for now.

Water and Food were much more important, a person would die after three days without water and three weeks without food, making the first much more important. Getting fresh water freely was harder and harder each year, pollutants seeping into water beds had ruined many safe sources of said liquid. There were multiple ways to make water safe to consume, boiling, bleach and UV ray exposure tended to work as disinfectant, then the resulting water was usually put through filters to remove the possible pollutants.

There were many methods, some covering both parts like solar distillation, utilizing the heat and UV rays from the sun to force water into vapor, leaving all problematic elements behind as they were too heavy to be carried along.

There were also a number of chemicals used to facilitate the process, but she was pretty sure that was the wrong way to go. It would be safer to utilize a mechanic process, and one that would lend itself to be reusable as much as possible.

With a few ideas formed and written down, Annette moved onto the next item of the list, food. This was harder to tackle as there was no easy and quick way to create food from nothing… at least without magic. What she could do is work on what there was left.

Most processes for food production left a considerable amount of wasted materials, the industry found plenty of ways to utilize things that weren't normally up for human consumption. She would need to design something that could take inedible things like bones, scales, skin and horns from animals or the stalks, leaves, roots and peels from plants that weren't usually eaten, and turn it all into an edible and nutritious product. Also to make sure she didn't end with Soylent Green.

It would most likely not be good food, but if it was put together from waste it would be cheap if she did things right. She had some ideas how to utilize those possible materials to create an MRE that wouldn't kill the person consuming it and provide enough nutrients to keep them going. It would most likely end like a high calorie slurry, which sounded terrible, or a cookie or cake that may kill the consumer by sheer boredom of having to chew it through.

With a few notes on paying extra attention on how to take care of the materials she moved onto the next part, shelter. Annette was pretty sure she could cheat on this, just by producing more hand-held builders she could outfit a normal building crew to put together a small town in the matter of days. But it would be easily abused, so instead she decided there were two more important things in the current world that were greatly needed, power and communication.

She could more or less remove the need to think about power, the Arc Reactors were near perfect in what they did. She could improve them, already having a few ideas to increase the ratio of power to size without leaving the Palladium tier. Man-portable arc reactors were also pretty much a thing, and would power a small encampment if they weren't pushed to the limit.

Communications, on the other hand, was definitely harder to deal with. The current world utilized either satellites or direct connections. And with the Simurgh in the sky, a lot of satellites had been lost, impairing international communications quite a bit. She had more than a few ideas how to replace those, except that would mean changing how a good part of the modern world worked completely.

So instead of that, Annette changed how she looked at the problem, instead of forcing everyone to change, she would set something to work with what there was and slowly disperse the new system. The idea was to set up the network provider to utilize sub-space and practically be as close as possible to any client or other network in its area of influence, effectively skipping the distance problem. Given the nature of sub-space, it would work pretty much all over the solar system.

Given that reach, she wouldn't need much set up, technically one could do all the work, but it was always a terrible idea to put all your eggs on one basket.

Annette considered what it would take to have the whole sub-space network provider be stored away in a pocket dimension, the size of said pocket reality would increase the power requirement, which would lead to an increase of size as a bigger power source would have to be added. A few calculations later and she was sure it was possible, but it would have to wait for later.

She grumbled as she looked at the list of projects, while not truly that extensive, she knew she wasn't restricted to one body. Annette could have one of her Thought Streams utilize the armor like Odyssey did, maybe if she put together a set of construction armors, equipped with multiple types of tools. She was sure there were some activities she would still have to do personally, but if she could be in multiple places at the same time…

Annette stored the list she had been working on and opened a new project. Walking Workshops .

(-(-|-)-)

In the Sanctuary's library there were currently only Alice and Taylor, Keine had decided to spend some time in the greenhouses. The blonde magician looked over the young teen who was nose deep in a book with a green cover.

It all had started a few days before when Alice had commented during one of the talks the two girls had that Taylor was indeed magical. The younger girl had been confused by this, and had taken the inquiry to her mother.

Annette had explained that Taylor was indeed magical, one of powers had changed her retroactively, and while Taylor needed more than a few tries to properly pronounce the word, she'd easily understood that it made her half as magical as her mother. Not enough for grand magic, or at least not at the moment. Her mother explained that for that she would have to properly gift her the schoolbooks. And while she did plan to do that in the future, she wanted Taylor to try and learn the basics of magic from Gensokyo.

That had been Sunday, now it was Tuesday's afternoon and Taylor was still trying to read through the first book her mother had translated for her. The young teen would like to say she wasn't a bit frustrated by how boring learning magic actually was, the book explained everything in an extremely dry and old-fashioned way. When said teen had complained, Alice admitted that most magicians tended to learn from masters personally, at least in Gensokyo, and the fact that a starting book existed was already impressive.

She also offered to try and help Taylor along, the teen had been so frustrated that her own pride made her decline, wanting to at least give it a try on her own. Neither Alice nor Annette had a problem with that, the later commenting that when she freed herself a bit more she could see about putting together a better grimoire for her daughter if she did well.

Of course, teens, as they tend to be, are selectively deaf and easily consider themselves the center of the world. So when Taylor heard her mother talking about her doing well in general, she instantly translated it to doing well in figuring out magic from the dry and boring primer on magic.

Two days in and she had learned a few new words, words she would never actually use. Taylor sighed once more and closed the book, putting it down on the table as she lifted her right hand, palm open facing up as she tried once more the spell to summon a source of light.

Alice hid her smile behind the cup of tea she was drinking, decades of experience dealing with Reimu and Marissa letting her keep down the laugh as the young teen's face cycled through a variety of 'concentration' expressions, fingers wiggling and her lips moving slightly as she mumbled something the magician was pretty sure was not a spell.

She finally decided to give the girl a little help. "Relax Taylor, close your eyes and just imagine it." Her whisper was loud in the silent library.

The young teen stopped making faces and wiggling her fingers and instead concentrated on what she was told. Alice's smile grew as her experience let her sense the change, what was once complete chaos was slowly smoothing. Sadly it wasn't meant to be and nothing happened to appear over Taylor's hand, the girl opened an eye to peek and grumbled when she saw that nothing had changed.

Alice laughed internally, and simply smiled. "You were on the correct path at the end, Taylor. It takes time to learn magic, even the most basic of spells can take weeks till you get them going reliably." She explained.

Taylor didn't say a word, instead grumbling as she opened the book again and once again started reading it from the first page once more.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

That night, way past the time everyone had fallen asleep. Annette decided to do a bit of remodeling around the house. With the objective to not change anything visible , she put a handful of her perks and abilities in improving their house. Similar to her work done in the factory-building-now-workshop/living space the house had its all reinforced.

She exchanged the old insulation of expanded foam for a composite wall of aerogel between two layers of enchanted metal. The metal plates were paired to let temperature transport between them, this characteristic was tied to a master enchantment that would let her dial how much heat the house let out, while the aerogel would be a near perfect insulation.

The windows were replaced by more transparent ceramic and the doors all had a thin sheet of enchanted metal inserted in the middle. On top of that the whole house got a big reinforcement seed used.

During her nightly work, Annette felt a small perk get added to her collection. Fixer was pretty straightforward, not only making her even better at fixing things, but outright cutting the time it took her to do any action considered fixing by half. Since a good part of what she did inside the house was considered fixing, her work was quickly hastened.

It helped both intuitively and esoterically, making her figure out how to fix things and making all said actions just better . It was interesting to watch it in action as she continued her work. The basement was the room that got the most of a rework, old bare walls replaced by proper finished walls, turning the once storage and laundry rooms into proper rooms with better lighting and a slightly secret door to link the house to the Sanctuary.

And if she saw fit to install a similar set of growing magical foundation pillars down to bedrock, that was just her being careful.

Soon she had nothing else to do in the house, and with still a few hours till the rest of the house started moving Annette decided to work some more on the new armors project.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette, Keine and Alice sat around a small table on one of the Sanctuary's roofs. The three of them were chatting lightly as they sometimes sipped from the drinks the first woman had been brewing.

The woman's production of a few types of beer had quickly grown with her experience; Cider, Sake, Vodka, Mead and Rum were the only ones that were ready to drink right now. Technically, a few of them would have needed from a few days to weeks of extra maturation time, but magic was a wonderful thing.

The two non-human had decided to drink some sake for nostalgia's sake and Annette had seen no problem with that. Said drink had been stored in beautiful ceramic bottles Annette made from old dishes and reinforced with magic and enchanted to keep the drink at the perfect temperature.

The alcohol had helped the two of them relax as the third enjoyed the time and chatting.

Annette lowered her glass and smiled. "The idea is either I use a door a few blocks away from the building, or I use one of the doors that lead to the outside and hope Dragon doesn't ask questions."

"I wouldn't mind walking a bit." Alice commented, Keine chuckled.

"I'm okay with walking, hopefully it won't end like my first outing."

Annette opened her mouth and promptly closed it. "Well, if anything happens we'll be a few blocks away, and both of you have a shikigami contract with me, I doubt anyone will be much of a problem to either of you."

"I may have only one doll, but I've learned many tricks in my life." The blonde magician smiled mysteriously as her doll refilled their glasses.

"If necessary I'll just hide us." Keine thanked her friend and drank more. "Are we still going with stories about being immigrants?"

The owner of the pocket dimension hummed a bit. "Yes… and no. I've been looking into the Guild's and the Protectorate's documents, there are procedures put in place to deal when people from other Earths end up here. While I don't know if there are actually any examples of them, given the knowledge of Earth Aleph and the unknown nature of parahuman powers, it's suspected there may be a few of them around."

The two youkai nodded.

"The PRT has a few categories for said people, the so-called Case Fifty are normal people who ended up in Earth Bet, most likely by the effect of some parahuman's power, Case Fifty One are powered individuals who ended up in Earth Bet, Case Fifty Two are Parahuman created entities with the capacity to visit other Earths.

"Again, as far as I know, they are completely theoretical and there are no examples of them. The good news is that by putting you two in Case Fifty One, the process becomes much smoother. There may be a problem or two since so far the treatment for such cases is completely theoretical. The bad news is that you two most likely will get poked and prodded to make sure you won't die from a local disease or bring down Humanity with a lethal strain of the flu or something like that."

Keine hid her sigh with another sip of sake. "Even when we know we couldn't carry any type of disease?"

Annette shrugged. "Sadly paranoia is the normal state for the PRT. I've been reading through the protocols that deal with Master and Stranger situations and they are crazy prepared, even if I'm pretty sure there are more than a few redundant steps."

Alice shrugged. "Well, it could be worse. I mean, I'm sure there are illegal ways to gain the necessary identification to prove our existence in the world. But a few days of inconvenience in exchange for not having troubles in the future doesn't sound like a big sacrifice."

"I agree with Alice, but I can't help but worry." The blue-haired maiden twisted her mouth.

Annette shrugged. "Eh, I wouldn't actually worry that much, for what I've seen, not even the Protectorate and the PRT know much about parahuman powers, meaning they will gladly justify any strange result from the tests as some strange variant on power expression. We are lucky you two are at least a bit human. I kind of want and really don't want to think what they would do if a Kappa or an Oni were the ones going through these tests."

"Because of the results?"

"Not really, given what I've read, I doubt an Oni would stay still long enough to go through them, and most Kappa will try to pull apart anything they use for the tests." Annette grinned and the two youkai chuckled.

"Cheers to that." Keine smiled and they all drank once more.

"Well, I think that should be enough alcohol for now." Alice grumbled a bit as she looked at the doll tipping the bottle to let the last drop fall in her glass.

"Talking about alcohol, I'll need suggestions on how to improve it." Annette emptied her glass. "I mean it's good, but I can definitely tell it's the most basic sake possible."

"I do have some ideas, but I've never brewed my own." Keine finished her drink next.

"Same here, Marissa had a bit more experience in that. But I wouldn't recommend letting her make it by herself. She tended to add strange mushrooms of all types." Alice made a squeamish expression.

Annette laughed softly. "I'll keep it in mind, and will check the library. I bet there's at least one book on producing alcohol." She checked the time. "Okay, we should get going, time to meet Dragon."

The two nodded and the table, bottle, chairs and glasses disappeared as the three of them got moving.

Chapter 34

Chapter Text

Annette appeared in full armor in an alley by one of the many abandoned factories, the key appearing on her hand as she reached for the door. It slid in easily and the door opened, letting Keine and Alice step out, both women wearing a simple and tasteful domino mask, enchanted to make it harder to remember their wearers.

As she was about to close the door, she wondered how it looked on the other side, as the door had looked practically rusted shut from this side, even when it had opened without a problem. Her Impeller Field created a bit of light on the inside of the factory and let her see the door practically the same and unopened. It was strange, but she mostly admitted that it didn't change much.

"Okay, I'll go ahead, and warn Dragon you two are close." Annette said.

Both youkai nodded. "We'll see you in a bit then."

Annette nodded and quickly teleported to the Guild's local branch's roof before making her way in. She felt the Forge activate, a single charge perk called Elemental Seeds , once a week she would gain a collection of crystallized elemental energies, twelve units of each of her affinities, their quality could vary but they would be directly correlated with the strength of said affinity.

Right now most would be of poor quality, maybe normal for the Fire seeds, except she technically had an affinity for all kinds of magic, meaning that as long as she started to train with an affinity she would gain access to an infinity variety of elemental seeds. Something to look into later, she didn't even know what affinities it would start with.

The AI instantly noticed her as she floated down. "Good afternoon, Odyssey. You're early, I wasn't expecting you for thirty minutes more."

"I didn't see a reason to delay this meeting, Alice and Keine are almost here." She explained.

The robot nodded her head. "Well, that's a surprise, I imagine they would have preferred to use their cape names."

"Well, we originally had thought about doing that, but as I looked more into the organization protocols I found about Case fifty one."

Annette could see the AI connecting the dots behind her artificial eyes. "Oh… yes, I can see how it could happen. So the story about them not being interested in the cape scene is…"

"Well, it's as true as it is fake, depending how you look at it. You must understand that I truly wasn't expecting to end up with two people from an alternate Earth. I've done my best to keep them comfortable, but since they don't legally exist I thought it would be better to take care of them sooner. If I had just learned about that earlier we would have done this before." Annette shrugged. "They agreed they could go through the process now rather than have problems later."

"Well, I can't really blame you. I don't suppose they are the only two."

"For now." Annette tried to not look guilty, but it truly was out of her control. "I'm not going ahead and trying to replicate the experiment, but for what they told me of their home, we could end with a few more down the road." She really hoped the AI didn't blame her later for weaving truths into a sort-of lie.

"There are still more than a few things to consider, principally pathogens and other possible diseases they may carry."

"I actually looked into that the first time we met, my scans didn't pick anything troublesome and they haven't gotten sick or anything yet. Apparently people tend to be quite hardy where they live." Annette finished speaking and turned her head to look at the door. "And they are here, want me to bring them in?"

"Please, I'll see about contacting Narwhal about this, she may want to talk with you later about it."

Annette nodded at that and headed for the door.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon quickly composed a message with all the new information and sent it Narwhal's way, marking it as not immediately urgent but it should be read before the end of the day. She then turned to face the two young women Annette had brought.

She quickly learned their names as Annette helped in exchange greetings. The first woman was called Keine Kamishirasawa, Dragon suspected this was the person who had troubles with the ABB before. She was slightly above average in height, her hair was long and hung free down her back, a silver tone that was almost blue. Her eyes were re… no, they were blue, Dragon had to check her memory banks because she was sure they had been red for a moment.

She was having troubles putting down an age to the woman, she appeared both youthful and mature at the same time. Dragon could have guessed as little as barely out of teenagehood and up to her thirties. The obvious signs of maturity of her body saved the woman from being called a child.

On the other hand was Alice Margatroid, if Keine was an easy target for the ABB, Alice was a target for the Empire's recruitment. Blonde hair grown barely to her shoulders, blue eyes and a pale, yet healthy, complexion. Dragon noticed the young woman was observing her with the same intensity that she may have been using, for a moment she saw a cold and calculating look in her eyes, the blue akin to that of frozen Arctic Ocean. But it quickly passed.

Different from Keine, Alice's age was easier to put down in the young adult segment, mostly thanks to her attitude and little surprise to Dragon's appearance. Even while she held a small doll in her arms the mature look wasn't lost. A stray thought wondered if the doll was a part of her powers or just an emotional crutch against her current situation.

The conversation quickly showed to Dragon that both women were quite more mature than she may have assumed at first. The AI's curiosity led her to ask about the place they had come from.

"We both lived in the same place, Gensokyo was… is a pocket dimension created around eighteen hundred eighty if I remember right," As Keine explained she seemed to miss Dragon's surprise at the date. "The conflicts between mundane humans and the supernatural were escalating to the point it was becoming a big problem, so a group of individuals decided to seal a considerable area into a pocket dimension."

"That's… impressive, I think the only tinker with a similar capacity is Dodge from the group Toybox. I can only imagine the power required to keep the place going."

Alice let out a soft chuckle. "Maybe that would explain why Yukari spends so much time asleep during winter."

"Yukari?" The AI created another file in the Gensokyo folder.

"Hmm, Yukari Yakumo is one of the parts that keep the Great Hakurei Barrier going."

"But, how? That would mean she's between a hundred and thirty and a hundred and fifty."

Dragon noticed that Keine covered her mouth as Alice's smile grew. "Of course not."

"Oh, so Yukari's some kind of title-" She didn't finish the question.

"Yukari's age's unknown, but most clues point that she's over twelve hundred years old." She explained, non-nonchalantly, but keeping a mischievous smile on her face.

"But how?!" Dragon stood up, and looked mostly surprised at her own reaction.

The blonde woman did a little shrug with her shoulders, the AI noticing her doll had imitated her. "From what I've seen on the Internet and learned from my talks with Annette and her family, powers appear to work differently here. In Gensokyo most of the individuals that make up the supernatural are normally long-lived. I myself have counted over seventy birthdays, Keine, how about you?"

The silver-blue haired woman put a finger up to her lips and looked thoughtful. "I think I'll be ninety eight this year. It's hard to say really, Gensokyo wasn't the most developed of places till pretty recently."

Dragon sat down again, her mind reeling at this revelation. If the two women were telling the truth, this Earth had had powers for centuries if not over a millennia. It was true that people knew very little about the source of powers, but one of the most clear things was that they had truly never existed prior to nineteen eighty two.

Adding that to the fact they kept calling it the supernatural meant that if the languages and culture were similar then powers most likely worked closer to what people considered fairy tales. It wasn't like there hadn't been cases of parahuman powers expressing themselves like creatures of stories, just in this city Lung turned dragon-like and Lupine Edge could assume a form that most would associate with werewolf.

Dragon was glad that she could now accelerate her mind multiple times her normal speed, because she would've needed a few minutes of real time to consider all this information and calm herself down. Sadly for her, it wasn't enough, neither time nor information. So Dragon decided to leave it for later.

Their conversation continued after that, the AI thanking that it wasn't as surprising. Well, she may have been a bit surprised about their personal capacities. Keine admitted to be able to manipulate the history of places, it was a strange mix of shaker and stranger. On the other hand, Alice appeared to do need the doll, her power let her control multiple dolls, giving each one a considerable boost of power. She explained that it would naturally work with seven of them, but she only had one at the moment and couldn't wait till she could remake the other six.

Keine abstained from showing her ability, explaining she actually was the human settlement's only teacher, keeping the use of her ability mostly to keep it safe when there were problems.

Alice was happy to give a small show, even if with a single doll. Dragon had to push the blonde woman's threat rating a few times when the doll started to float around her and pull a small sword from somewhere. And it was a real blade, the AI's scans could tell it was quite well made too. It was also pretty clear when Annette produced a board of wood and the doll sliced it multiple times till it was reduced to small pieces.

If she could keep this level of control with seven dolls, Dragon could imagine just how dangerous Alice could be. Especially if equipped with ranged weapons.

Their chatting moved onto lighter themes, mostly what they wanted to do. Keine explained she wouldn't mind taking the job of being a teacher again, she knew she would most likely need to study quite a bit to get up to the necessary level after seeing what Annette's daughter studied, but she was up to the task.

Alice said that while she didn't see a problem with the Guild's job, she would prefer to first see about setting up a workshop to remake her doll collection. Outside of that she wasn't in any hurry.

As their conversation started to end, Dragon decided to be proactive and sent a few messages, not only to Narwhal to give her a summary of the meeting, but also to the local PRT and Protectorate branch. If this meeting had been done in the Guild's HQ they could have done everything in-house, but given the current nature of the local branch, it would have to be done through the sibling organization.

Thankfully, given the rarity of Case fifty and fifty one, the protocols and procedures were the same everywhere. Though thinking about what Annette had said earlier, they may end up rewriting them if enough people decide to come over.

Their conversation ended when the PRT's troops transport stopped by the door, Dragon decided to head to the local HQ with Alice and Keine as the responsible Guild member, apologizing with Annette for not having the time to work with her today, and promised to do so on the next day, and hopefully take the chance to reserve the Protectorate's power testing laboratories for an official check on her abilities.

She watched Annette wish the two women luck with the endeavors and that she would see them in a few days. As Dragon slipped into one of her larger suits and followed the transport, she wondered what had been left unsaid in the meeting.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette watched the transport leave. Only when she was sure to be completely alone she spoke.

"Odyssey, are you in the PRT's systems, no?"

"Affirmative, ma'am."

"Then keep an eye on any and all messages pertaining to Alice and Keine. Warn me if there's anything to worry about. If necessary, retain any message that may bring troubles and warn me." She ordered.

"I will."

Annette let out a soft sigh, a mix of relief of having gotten done with this and at the same time just started something bigger.

She locked the door and wandered over to her workshop, the Forge activated and consumed three charges. Annette blinked at the surprise and summoned the newly acquired Herbalist Kit .

A large, green and hard-cover book fell onto her hand, on the cover was written in gold letters 'Everything on Plants and Mushrooms.'. The book was an impressive encyclopedic collection of knowledge of every ingredient in her warehouse. Their true names, scientific names if they had any, how to grow them, harvest them, store them, possible uses, etc…

The perk had a second part, along with the book a small purple pouch tied with a golden string gave her access to all the flora or fungi components in her warehouse. It would actually collect any ingredient close and store them in stasis. It would also not only magically sort them in its infinite storage and link it with the correct entry in the book.

It was definitely a good perk to deal with the large collection of potion materials she had acquired in the last few days. Annette decided she would look into that later, right now she had to work on the Belt Cores, she was pretty sure she was nearing the point she could standardize the basic suit.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Rebecca Costa Brown couldn't believe what she was reading. Well, she could, it wasn't like she hadn't double checked the sources to confirm the veracity. The report had come through one of the PRT's internal secure systems.

Decades ago when they had started to define protocols for the organization, many had been completely theoretical, while others had been cases defined by a single entity.

Her mind was currently having a disconnection, she both knew the existence of parahumans in other Earths, but she had never expected them to find a way to Earth Bet. Even when an organization like Cauldron had access to Doormaker, she was pretty sure they were unique.

Yes, some tinkers were capable of creating dimensional effects, Dodge could create pocket dimensions large enough to hold Toybox's workshops, and just recently Professor Haywire had managed to punch a hole between Earth Bet and Earth Aleph.

It appeared she would have to add the new Tinker Odyssey to the list. There were worrisome implications about a tinker capable of creating dimensional technology, even more if it was capable of bringing people from other dimensions.

Especially if the earlier reports on those two were correct. Superhuman strength, unassisted flight, extended lifespan, unnaturally tough, and the list went on. She was already wondering if they should look for Gensokyo with the help of Clairvoyant when one of Doormaker's portals opened, letting Contessa walk through.

"If you wanted to tell me it would be a bad idea to look for this so-called land of fantasy, you could have sent me a message like normal, or called me later." Alexandria leaned back on her chair and looked at her fellow Thinker. "But it's not just that, no?"

Contessa shook her head lightly before taking the chair on the other side of the PRT's Director's desk. "It's about the whole situation concerning Brockton Bay."

"I thought it had been decided to let Calvert utilize Director Richardson as a stepping stone and Cauldron would just observe the results."

"Calvert's done for, his power was compromised." Contessa's words made Alexandria freeze for a tiny moment. "We had him utilize his power to collect information on Odyssey, it seems she has a patron who took objection to it. His power has been effectively neutered, stuck into a voice he can't drop. He will either learn to live with it or go crazy in a few months."

"How?"

"We aren't sure, all we could tell is that Odyssey's Patron forcefully hijacked Calvert's simulation, forcing him to watch it and waited till he was killed in said simulation to send a message vocally. His power, for a lack of better word, broke after that. The Patron apparently realized it, in their own words:

"Sadly, it seems that I broke something to show you what she can really do. It doesn't matter. So I'll tell you this, for you to go and tell whatever master you respond to.

"She's off limits."

"Anything more we should worry about?"

"Neither the Path or Clairvoyant can find anything about Gensokyo."

"That's… How can that be? Does it not exist?"

"Everything points to it being a real place, but both women described the place as being sealed from the real world, it could just exist under a really strong stranger effect."

"Still, to even stop both powers." Alexandria groaned softly. The office went silent for a few seconds. "Do we have any news of what Odyssey's capable of?"

"Dragon has reserved Brockton Bay's power testing facility for tomorrow, it should hopefully reveal more of her capabilities. What we know is that she was capable of not only taking the Dragonslayers by surprise, but knew enough to co-opt their control over Dragon and start to release the AI's restrictions."

"Given Dragon's personality this hasn't changed much in how she acts, right?"

Contessa shook her head. "Besides a few people getting a denial to some very sketchy orders, and promptly retired afterwards. She hasn't changed her course of actions, at most her timeline has accelerated and a few future problems have been solved."

"That many changes and she hasn't really done anything of note." Alexandria mostly spoke her thoughts out loud. "What can we do now then?"

"Two things, first, facilitate the process for any new inhabitant of Gensokyo that arrives. We are pretty sure the effect that brought those two's not controlled in any way, it all points that there was a sizable delay between Miss Kamishirasaw and Miss Margatroid.

"Second, lobby for an addition of Odyssey to the same loophole Dragon uses to sell her technology."

"That will be a disaster." Alexandria spoke curtly. "Both Toybox and the Elite will react to that change in the worst possible way. Even worse, it will quickly become international news and some other countries will try to poach her."

"We've warned the parties willing to listen, the rest will be culled by their own actions."

Alexandria sighed. "What we do for Humanity's survival."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette looked at the current design of the Belt Core, it couldn't be called a release version yet, it still needed to be properly tested and much of the software was still greatly lacking. But she had managed to simplify and streamline the design, plus she had set the core for future modular attachments inside and outside the pocket dimension the main part of the Belt Core's technology laid.

She had managed to separate the armor from the suit and set a system that was totally not a magnetic clip on buttons, for starters they would only disconnect when given the signal by the system. Once connected they would stay in place, move as if they had always been part of the bodysuit and share power and systems.

She had also redesigned the armor into a standardized form, easier to produce, easier to wear by anyone thanks to the resizing enchantment she could have added during the construction. Capable of being switched for specific situations, hydrokinesis for floods or fires, terrakinesis for anything from construction work to crises, or an even more armored version between other possible ideas.

And because she could have it all powered with the Arc Reactor, all the inscriptions could be done by the machine that crafted the suit. It would still need a specialized fabricator, but it wouldn't need her personal attention. That meant that outfitting small teams was possible, even when she calculated a cost of five to ten million dollars on production just for the bodysuit. But that was upfront for the fabricator, it would technically go down after the first few costumes.

On other news, she had managed a pretty efficient magi-tech water purifier that she was pretty sure could be mass produced without much trouble. The answer had come while she worked on how to have the engravings for the Belt Core done by a machine.

The product looked pretty similar to a water pump, except of having just one entry and one exit, it had one entry and two exits. The entry was obviously where the water would go in, the exits were pretty straightforward too, one would give fresh water and the other would pour out the problematic elements and a bit of water.

She could technically have the machine extract all the water from the second output, but not only would it be harder to move the pollutants in dry form, but they would also most likely get picked up very easily, which would definitely become a hazard. So wasting a bit of water it was, not like it was more than one percent of the machine's flow.

In the inside was the reason why it looked like a water pump, and the reason was pretty simple, because it half was, the other half were a series of plates of metal placed parallel to each other, each one was etched with a series of runes that would only work when all the blades were in the correct position. This way they constructed a three dimensional spell matrix that would separate the water from the pollutants.

It had a flow of about thirty liters per minute, not the best, but it was meant for emergency use. And she was pretty sure it could be scaled up for industrial size. But for now she was happy. It wasn't especially energy intensive, no more than a normal water pump, what it lost in pumping power made up by not needing more power than normal.

The enchantments were incredibly energy efficient, once they were turned on, they would leach a bit of heat from the motor running to keep going. This way she wouldn't need to enchant every blade personally and she could have even produced it pretty much anywhere.

And if she had calculated things correctly, as long as you didn't pass anything that was less than fifty percent water, the system would need minimal cleaning. Now, if you wanted to clean oil spills, she may need to rework the runes, petroleum had certain characteristics that led to a different sort of problems when using magic. On the small side the material would stick to the blades and clog the machine, on the larger there was a big chance for explosions or fires.

But, outside of that, the machine would most likely work, be easy to assemble and don't need any particular specialized facility to put together, quite a success on her books.

Chapter 35

Chapter Text

Thursday afternoon wasn't the usual time Director Richardson usually met with parahumans. For one reason or another the man had decided that this portion of his work time was kept mostly to work with non-directly-parahuman-related organizations, be law enforcement, local political groups, etc…

So it was a bit of a surprise to find both Armsmaster and Miss Militia standing in the man's office. But it also wasn't every week the PRT's Brockton Bay's Branch received two dimensional immigrants.

"...could you repeat that." The Director's voice was cold.

"Director Costa Brown has approved Keine Kamishirasawa and Alice Margatroid's nationalization." Miss Militia replied.

For a moment the man dropped the passive facade and let a short disapproving noise. "The woman never cares for this branch till something like this happens." The moment was over and his face was once more completely passive. "What can you tell me about those two?"

Armsmaster spoke next. "While they haven't lied once, they had admitted to having withheld information, both for personal reasons and because it was pertaining to other people's secrets. Tests show they aren't lying about their age, but they aren't perfect. Blood tests have shown to have problems with both women, and whatever effect keeps them young has stopped many of the normal age markers from appearing."

"And what about their personality?"

"Both have completely followed the processes without complaining, and as Armsmaster said, have been open about withholding information. They are smart and experienced, while their knowledge appears to be a bit precarious compared to our modern standard, they appear quick to learn as shown by their ability to use the internet or how they have taken in the difference in culture."

"Have you pushed the idea of them joining the Protectorate?"

Miss Militia nodded at first, but then shook her head. "I proposed two times to each, both appear to be pretty sure about paying back Odyssey for having helped them. Is that or they think she has something that they want, not necessarily for nefarious proposes."

"If Director Costa Brown hadn't already approved the whole thing we may have had something to negotiate, sadly it's out of our hands for now. On other news, Ronin has been fast-tracked into the Birdcage. Given the danger of Lung breaking him out during transport he was entered yesterday as his trial was carried in-absentia and declared guilty minutes before his transport touched down.

"Lung has shown no reaction to this, current forecast by the Thinkers is that he planned this from the start, but he may still look to reassert his image in the short term."

"You expect the ABB to organize a hit against Dragon and Odyssey?"

Director Richardson shook his head in curt denial "No, I may wish Lung was just a violent brute, but the man knows when not to act, he will most likely move against the Empire, especially if he sees a moment of weakness. Otherwise he may feel dealing with the Merchant's current leadership is enough to restore his honor ."

Both parahumans winced at the tone.

The man simply ignored the reaction and continued. "Bah, it doesn't matter right now. We did expect some problems from a new group appearing in the Bay, keeping an eye and ear open for vigilantes and possible solo-capes. Really push on the idea that the Bay may be more dangerous from now on, even if it's just in the short term."

None of the capes were really happy about the idea, but recruiting capes was always a necessity.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette finished putting the last details on the third variant armor for the Belt Core. Once she was sure it was as good as she could get it, the armor folded back into the Core's pocket armory along with the other two variants.

The belt still looked the same, the front was a wide, grey-colored oval that stood almost five centimeters tall, at the center was the familiar glowing circle of the arc reactor. Unseen due to the brightness of the reactor, the palladium wasn't running in a circle, but in a trefoil knot. The change produced almost fifty percent more energy due to a reaction created in the three spots the figure nearly touched.

Annette put the Belt Core away, it would be another item to test during their later power testing. Dragon had passed her the information after she had had the conversation with Narwhal. Her boss had been a little cross with her, especially because she was more than just suspecting Annette was hiding something important.

Annette had ended promising to explain everything once Dragon was fully freed on the weekend. The idea was for Narwhal to travel down on the weekend to be in Brockton Bay for Saturday's noon, since it was the first, it would also double as a sort-of official opening for the branch.

Just in case, Annette was starting to produce a small set of computer servers she was installing in the Sanctuary just in case the liberation of Dragon's deeper restrictions went wrong. She didn't have it planned for them to be finished on time, but the migration software was finished and nearly a hundred percent secure to contain the AI for at least a few months.

Not that she expected to need more than a few days of programming to finish putting together the woman's new framework if needed.

Annette stepped away from the table and turned to face said AI.

"Ready for the power testing?" The woman asked.

"No time like the present, did you inquire about testing the Belt Core too?" Annette asked.

"Yes, they have a small number of troopers interested in taking part in the test. I still don't think it's a good idea."

"Well, it's an idea. After checking some of the files the Guild has on capes and their usual temperament, having properly trained not-powered people could help a lot in some of the country's large cities. Instead of having to throw the die and hope the people that trigger feel compelled to join the Protectorate while also being sound of mind and not mentally scarred by circumstances."

"While I'm also on the idea of even the field, a mass produced power armor could be a great danger if fallen onto the wrong hands." Dragon warned.

"There are multiple ways to make sure it doesn't get misused. To begin with, they kinda need me at the center of the network to function properly right now. And even if we manage to get the needed resources to increase the numbers, there are even more ways to survey their use."

Both women stepped out of the building through the roof's exit and quickly took up to the air, flying in the direction of the PRT's HQ. Annette felt a small perk from the Technological Facilities domain, but decided to ignore it for now.

Their short flight was spent discussing the possible problems and solutions, even when they landed at the place and walked the rest of the way to the laboratory they would be carrying the tests they didn't stop talking.

Soon they reached the laboratory, Armsmaster and a couple of men in lab coats waited for them.

"Dragon, Odyssey," Armsmaster greeted them. "These are doctor on parahuman studies, Marc Max and the East Coast's head researcher on tinkertech, Louie White."

Both Annette and Dragon greeted the two experts.

"We have prepared three objectives for today's tests." Doctor Max started. "First will be mostly a quick test of your capabilities as a tinker, personally we can accept Dragon's word of your capability, but it's expected so you'll be given the shortest time of thirty minutes to put something simple together.

"Second we'll have a series of shorter tests on some of the tinker tech you've been using. These will be carried with more depth than the first as we are trying to find possible problems you may have overlooked. Unluckily we didn't get permission from one of the Ward's parents to carry the test with their presence.

"Finally we have half a dozen troopers who volunteered to test your Belt Core system, we tried to pick as much diversity as possible within the body types you described."

"Sounds good to me." Annette nodded. "Should we start?"

The men nodded and Mr White showed her the workshop. Annette had to admit the tools were nice, but very basic, so it would limit what she could do without throwing all the materials into her internal crafting system. There was also the problem of what exactly to build. For what she had read on Tinkers, they tended to be quite instinctual when put in front of materials.

And Annette wasn't a true Tinker, she could do completely mysterious technology, but it was all by hand, and to do anything she needed a good idea. Deciding to cheat a bit, she brought up the old designs for the stasis-field generator. Her new experience let her see many problematic points with the design, but nothing she couldn't fix while putting it together.

One thing she decided to do was change it from an open plate that put a certain area on top of it into stasis, to a microwave-sized box that would freeze what was inside. Instead of a clear window into the content, she instead put a screen that would show an image of the contents caught moments before the field was erected.

She aimed for stability of the field and ruggedness of the design, sacrificing maybe a bit on looks by not actively decorating the outside. Being a box that opened and closed also simplified the code and security checks.

Minutes passed as worked, using just two hands slowed things a bit, but she wasn't truly rushing. Plus she did a bit of testing on her own by utilizing small spells here and there to reshape some materials and cut down time, not that anyone in the laboratory picked it up.

Maybe if she had rushed a bit she may have finished on time, but just two minutes over the half-an-hour mark wasn't bad for an unexpected time of work.

The three men and Dragon walked into the workshop.

"Well, that was interesting to watch." Louie sounded quite impressed.

"But what is it?" Marc asked.

"It's a stasis field generator," Annette explained as she opened the door and put a small clock that had been between the materials, before closing the door again. "Once it's sure the space inside is properly cut off from the outside, the machine creates a controlled space where time doesn't pass."

"That's impressive." Dragon commented as she looked at the screen before opening the door and bringing out the clock, which now showed to be a minute late.

"Impressive," Armsmaster spoke softly as he looked at the two other men investigating the machine. "How did you go from space-altering tinker tech to… ah! I see, it wasn't that, it was fields, as you call them."

Annette nodded. "That's what I've figured out. I can create fields or areas where I can carry effects, in this case it's keeping time from passing." She decided to keep the extent of power of her Impeller Field for now, that ability could be categorized as a whole different specialization on its own.

"I think we can indeed mark you as a tinker, high level one at that." Dr. Max explained a bit on the internal system for tinker categorization.

The man explained there were three things that were considered for the level a tinker had. First was the complexity of their specialization, having more than one usually increased this parameter quite a bit. Second was how strong/destructive the effects created could be, the highest tier considered in this category was the so-called annihilation effects. Finally was how well the tinker could imitate other powers, given the nature of tinker tech, there was always a trump aspect in how well the tinker could pass as another parahuman.

While they moved to the next room to continue the tests, Annette learned more about the intricacies of parahuman studies. She also guessed Dragon and Narwhal hadn't made public the fact she could design non-black boxed technology.

"For this part we'll carry two types of test, the first is you actively using the abilities you have on a few artificial targets under our scans, the other will be using those abilities on a number of living mice."

Annette winced a bit at the idea, but it was better than having to find how it truly worked against a human on the field. "Okay." She agreed.

The first row of tests went quick, she utilized her Impeller Field's storing ability to severe a number of targets. She was glad that the scans could only pick the tiny moment an object was stored away, and was totally blind to the Impeller Field, or maybe it couldn't tell because it practically covered everything in the laboratories' area.

Merciful testing came next, the spear got to cut through a large number of targets, going from doing nothing to separating some pretty hard metals with the same difficulty as if they weren't there.

"I think that's enough testing on those, pretty sure we just don't have the correct technology to pick up what you are doing. But so far we haven't found any problem. Yes, the effect appears to be non-manton limited, which is not that strange in tinker tech. But as long as you use it with care I don't think there will be much problems with it." The voice of Dr. Max's voice came from the speaker as Mr White walked into the testing room with a number of small, white rats.

Annette's mind slightly disconnected on the next few tests. It wasn't exactly a healthy thing to do, but she let Odyssey carry the tests, the Core had no problems with utilizing her Impeller Field and Merciful on the rats as asked by the two scientists. It wasn't like she didn't see what happened, but the 'mental distance' that was allowed by her asking the Core to carry them was enough to make her feel better.

Thankfully, only four of the two dozen animals were put down, by her abilities or having to be put down afterwards.

"That was… terrifying." She didn't pay attention to who said it, not that it truly matters. "The good news is that you were correct. Unless you utilize the weapon in a vital place, the effects appear to disappear in the short term."

"… I really hope to never have to use these abilities like this again." Annette sighed and she let the stress of the moment finally leave her. "Can we go to the next test? I would prefer to move on."

"Of course," Armsmaster's voice was recognizable through the speakers moments before the door opened and Annette headed out, the group moving to a testing room equipped with facilities geared for physical tests.

The greetings were a bit more formal this time around, and a few moments after the expected steps of the test were explained, Annette brought out the Belt Core.

The first volunteer walked forward and took it, easily slipping it around his hips.

"So there won't be a problem with me being dressed?" The man asked.

"No, it uses a more basic system to what I've in my own armor." Annette showed how her glove cycled through a few variants and her bare hand. "It's the same with the rest of the clothes. The only problem would be if your clothing is completely identical back and forth, but then the only problem would be it would be placed facing the front or back, and there wouldn't be a difference anyways."

The man let out a soft snort. "Sounds like it would make it easier to put on the full armor."

Annette nodded and continued. "For the first activation the enhancements will be turned off and only slowly increased till they reach a hundred percent of power. Technically the suit's software will make up for the sudden difference, but I hope that it's never put through that."

The man nodded and followed the simple instructions to turn it on. She watched the familiar opaque cylinder hide his body for a couple seconds before clearing up and showing him in full body suit and helmet, the belt had been the only thing to remain in the same place.

"This is the base form of the Belt Core, even at this level the body suit's material will lessen the damage taken from blunt impacts, spreading the energy along the body and down to the feet.

"Now, the equipment system is still not perfect, so you will feel a small jump to make up for the difference from going barefoot to wearing boots." Annette warned as she had the BC equip the basic armor, boots, armored panels, gloves, the whole thing. "You should now be able to move around without problems."

They all watched as the first volunteer moved around, she doubted he would find any problem unless he actively tried to hurt himself.

"Okay, I think I'm ready for the next step." The man noted.

"Good, getting the enhancements up to ten percent and activating the support system." She warned as she commanded the BC's systems.

The tests quickly advanced through the percentages till they reached a hundred percent, the safe limit on empowerment for now. The first volunteer was almost flying through the room at the speed he could move.

"That's impressive, and you say the body suit's doing most of the work?" Dr Max asked.

"Yes, by itself it wouldn't be able to reach this level of strength, but the system's controlling the suit in such a way it improves it even more." She explained.

They watched as the trooper tested his resistance against a small pneumatic press.

"I can barely feel it," He sounded impressed. "I mean, I can definitely feel it, and the suit's material definitely has hardened around my limb."

"That much pressure should have broken his arm and turned the bones into dust." Armsmaster's words were a bit too blunt if the other people's expression was to be believed, not like the man seemed to care. "I would be interested in the body suit's design, it would solve a few of the issues I've been having with my own armor."

"We can talk about it later. Should we test the other two armors? Or exchange volunteers?" Annette offered.

Dragon appeared to be the most surprised. "Other armors?"

"Hmm, yes, one of the big parts about the Belt Core system is its modularity. Right now I've only managed three working designs. The one currently being used is the most basic, it's balanced and has minimal power drain. The other two armors are a bit more specialized. The first uses a system inspired on Squealer's shield system, in exchange for mobility it also has the ability to withstand greater impacts. The last one creates a field that lets the user control free flowing liquids and reduce their temperature, the idea is to use it for fire fighting." She explained, and internally enjoyed the reactions.

Dragon appeared to be the first to shake it off, and Annette suspected she had accelerated her own mind to do so. "Wait, you said inspired, so you didn't solve how it worked?"

Annette shook her head. "No, and I'm pretty sure that the shield system shouldn't work at all. I ended up utilizing the idea to create my own. If you would." She warned the volunteer before having the armor exchange, the lithe one for a definitely bulkier. Multiple of the armored panels sported green-colored lenses.

"Definitely harder to move, but not by much." The man commented as he moved around, trying to get used to the different weight distribution.

"And this is the shield move." She warned before the armor locked in place and all the lenses came to life. From them an iridescent film flowed out, forming a bubble around his body. "Right now it's still weak to attacks coming from below, but I hope I can fix that in the future.

"And it can resist quite the impact."

Before anyone could react, Annette had the spear in her hand again. Except instead of swinging the blade, she went with the pommel, hitting the shield hard enough it buckled a bit before bouncing her back.

"A- Odyssey! That was reckless." Dragon screamed.

"It's okay, it would need much more to actually break, like bring the building down more." She chuckled. "Moving on. This is the last one." Annette continued without much of a warning, the next armor quickly appeared.

While the first two were pretty similar, being the main difference the amount of armor on the second, the third was definitely different, first was the water tank on the back that connected to a pair of oversized gauntlets

"Their use should be pretty straightforward, you should feel the controls inside the gauntlets and see the information needed inside the visor." Annette coached the volunteer through the process of getting used to them, soon blobs of water moved around the air, forming very rudimentary figures. "… and that's how you can retrieve all the liquid inside the field."

They watched the blob get sucked into the gloves and back to the tank.

"I think we may have to increase your internal rating, Odyssey." Dr Max half-joked. "This is an amazing technology, and you say you could have it mass produced?"

"Not exactly mass produced, the materials aren't cheap, especially for the production facility. And the third armor, along with any similar specialized one may need to be produced by me personally till I work out the kinks and streamline them properly."

"Still, having even half a dozen of these to support the Protectorate's members could certainly turn around a lot of bad situations." Mr White added.

Armsmaster seemed lost in his thoughts, and no one seemed interested in bothering as they continued with the tests and the talks. The subsequent volunteers went a bit faster as Annette didn't have to present everything again.

She did answer many questions, some she hadn't thought about and others she hadn't felt necessary to comment on. Things like 'Could the water be replaced for other things' Yes, 'Could it be containment foam?' yes, but it would have to be used quickly before it starts to harden.

"And what stops me from using it to attack people?" The last volunteer asked.

"It's easy, at the end of the day, the Belt Core still responds to me." Annette grinned and locked the armor, leaving the woman stiff like a statue. "Every system is still under my admin command, that means the enhancement, defenses, and even the air system. And if I don't want anyone hearing you scream, the helmet's completely soundproof too."

A moment later she released the suit. "But it's all just for emergencies. And at the end of the day, there's a possibility of a parahuman out there who could take control of it."

She heard the woman whisper about it being terrifying, or was it about her being terrifying. Annette didn't mind, she guided the woman through the last armor before finally turning it off. She felt a big, four charges, perk from the Future Technologies domain, but it was easy to ignore it for now, nothing like the greater perks. She would have to check on those perks later.

"It was a… revealing afternoon, I think." Mr White chuckled and Dr Max nodded. "Still, it was wonderful to have you here, Odyssey."

The meeting swiftly ended after that, the troopers heading their way and the two scientists staying behind to work on some things as Dragon, Armsmaster and her left the room.

She didn't have a problem when the man asked, a bit bluntly, if she would share the body suit design, Dragon complained a bit about giving such technology. Annette reminded her that it wasn't truly a problem, and the more people it helped the better, plus it wasn't exactly easy to produce and control, maybe Armsmaster would find something they didn't.

Before they left, she promised to send him what she had on it. He may be blunt, but she could see he was still quite the hero.

Chapter 36

Chapter Text

After the events of Thursday, Annette's Friday morning was spent mostly looking at her new perks, she had accumulated two in the process of power testing and one more just a bit ago.

The first perk was simply called Workshop . It had merged with the R&D Lab, not only improving the room and tools within, but also it would supply normal materials for her projects and any craft that was finished inside the workshop would return to its original form within forty eight hours of the damage being inflicted.

This effect carried some implications. Of course it wasn't perfect, if the item was consumed instead of broken, then it wouldn't recover, as it had done what it was designed to. So grenades wouldn't come back after being used, but strangely, batteries would recover.

The next perk was called Pocket Portals , and while it appeared to be half of a pair of perks, it gave her the knowledge and ability to construct technological portals. They were quite an impressive thing, capable of connecting any two spots in the solar system with no delay. The perk gave her enough knowledge to know that she would need the sibling perk to create a portal capable of reaching even farther distances or create anything capable of transporting a ship larger than a scout ship.

Annette was amazed by the principles behind the creation of the portals through technology, by forcing space into a spiral before pushing to connect the two ends of the portal, the corridor that was created could be properly stabilized. It was as simple as it was genius.

Of course there were other aspects, such as how much to twist it depending on distances and the necessary power to do so. But after all the details were taken care of, it was almost beautiful in how it was created.

It became especially easy to understand the principles once the last perk kicked in.

Elder Immortal was the complement perk to Scientist. It added… added… so much personal experience to her life… centuries of experience that compounded her perks. Years upon years of memories that weren't truly real, but at the same time carried the weight of those that were.

It had given her a new perspective of her abilities. Put many things in a new light, give her time to get used to them, learn their knicks and knacks, experiment with them. It put a lot of her knowledge together.

It had also given her the experience needed to wield her abilities, while it hadn't increased the total of hours spent synchronized with Odyssey, her understanding of the Core and its Technology, similar to that of the Orokin, had been greatly increased.

Even with newly gained centuries of virtual memories, Annette would need time to put all this new knowledge in the proper place to deal with her current problems. She decided to start with one project that would help the rest, the walking workshops.

(-(-|-)-)

"Hey Janine." Annette greeted her fellow teacher.

"Morning Annette." The older woman smiled from her desk as the Forge owner placed her belongings down and booted up her computer. "Already diving into today's work?"

Annette chuckled softly. "Sorry, I have so much stuff in my mind." She let out a soft sigh. "I may be dropping in a few months. A pretty big offer came my way." She explained the story they had cooked together with Dragon and Narwhal, it wasn't the first time a new recruit needed a believable way to quit their jobs before joining.

Janine looked a bit sad, but was definitely also happy for her. "Don't worry Anne, I'm sure they will find a replacement for you quickly. Though it will be harder without you around, these last few weeks things have been going really well around."

Annette thanked her before checking the time and heading to start her first class of the morning.

A strange thing was how she found herself giving class in a slightly different way than normal a few minutes in. It wasn't a bad way, she could actually see how it was actually much more efficient and easier to understand. It didn't take much thought to realize it was definitely an effect of Elder Immortal. Teaching was very much something that one improved over time, and centuries of experience in it had definitely improved her ability to do so.

She didn't know if to feel happy or sad that no student seemed to notice the difference, or comment on it. In a way it was better this way, She had one more month of work before she moved to guild member full-time.

After her morning classes Annette took the time to do a walk around the campus, mostly to clear her mind. Brockton Bay's college was far enough from the city to be disconnected from what usually went in the city. The gang's presence was minimal, at most there were rumors of Empire presence in some fraternities.

Merchants and ABB rarely made a presence in the area, and if the rumors were true, the Empire kept things behind doors. Not that it made it any better, just harder for law enforcement to find them.

She chuckled as it didn't stop Odyssey from checking nearly every phone in the vicinity and doing anonymous reports on the obvious Empire meetings. Hopefully they would get caught and at least the idiots would get scared out of it.

During her lunch she internally watched the new armors slowly get put together, or at least the most basic parts, as the aim of this project was to have them be capable of carrying the crafting capabilities of her workshop, they were incredibly modular.

She was still in the process of designing all the possible tools that could work along the gauntlet area of the armor, especially if she wore it and utilized the full extent of her extra limbs.

Even with her improved production speed they would take time, at the end the Walking Workshops would be incredibly more complex than her normal armor, albeit not enchanted or capable of fighting, they were packed full of tools and similar items designed to ease her work.

It was also taking time because she was putting together four basic Walking Workshops before starting on the tools necessary, she would also finish the assembly inside her workshop once she returned home, that would provide the benefits of the Workshop perk properly.

Her afternoon classes passed quickly too, soon Annette was on the way back home. Her mind going over an idea she had frankly forgotten about, one of the reasons she had once tried to break the secrets of portal making was to expand the reach of her Impeller Field. Now that she knew how to create portals and she understood the technology behind the Valkyrie Core better she was more than sure it was possible.

Amazingly, even with centuries of experience she hadn't worked out how the Cores or the Warframes were exactly put together. Oh, she had a good idea of the parts of the first, at least most of them, the final piece that put it all together was still missing. On the latter was more that she had a pretty good idea how they worked, but some of the secrets were just so amoral it was hilarious. It really made Annette's stomach twist when she remembered some of the things the Orokin had done. Many were obtuse or harmful just for the fact that they were.

What she may look into were the abilities created when channeling Void energy, except that unlike the Orokin, she would see about doing it properly. Instead of turning to children that survived hell and turning them into warriors. Annette had a strange sensation for a moment that the Protectorate and PRT may have gotten along quite well with the Orokin for some of their choices.

She picked up Taylor and Emma, the girls having decided to spend the afternoon together. It meant that Annette couldn't exactly step into the Sanctuary as she had to keep at least a bit of attention over the girls at least till Danny reached home.

The girls were chattering in the back seat while she drove, happily talking about school, life and other things. Annette internally chuckled as Emma kept asking about her hero life and Taylor was the one saying that should be talked about in private.

A moment later Annette thanked all the stars that the IF was not only on at all times, even if just in passive mode, but also it had grown enough to cover dozens of meters around her. Because her car stopped less than a meter to the area where the obvious Merchant's truck ran through.

They said that time heals all wounds, but even centuries of experience hadn't healed Annette's close meeting with death. The Merchants had only reassured their place in her shit-list.

It took her a few moments to stop reshaping the steering wheel with her hands, she turned back to look at the girls. "Are you two okay? No one's hurt?"

"Just shaken, mom." "The seat belt held well, auntie."

"Okay, okay… that's good." Annette let out another sigh as she finally noticed the cars behind her honking. She quickly pulled the window down, leaned out and screamed at the driver before pulling herself back inside and continuing driving. "Sorry girls, please forget that."

The chuckles were quite clear, they would remember it quite strongly.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette relaxed in the kitchen, close enough it appeared to be normal mom's power that she could keep an eye on the girls as they played in Taylor's room. Meanwhile she had the door to the Sanctuary open and her IF stretched far enough to be utilizing the main armor to finish the work on the new armors.

Each time one of the armors was finished it was quickly stored away and the assimilation process started. Given their complexity, it would take some time before she could use them properly.

Once the last one had been properly put together in the Workshop, she started working on a simple example of the portal technology. Not even large ones, she could produce literal ring-sized paired portals in a few minutes with her level of skill and time perks.

Being so small didn't really make them easier to make, maybe simpler as they were barely above the actual ring's size. The only thing that increased with larger portals was the necessary framework, the complexity of it stayed considerably stable, there was just more of the same.

At the end she didn't stop at two, instead deciding to make four of them. One was quickly assimilated, she needed to know them completely to properly simulate them with her Core, and if her theories were right, she would get a lot out of said ability.

The second of the small portal rings was set in the basement, connected to an Arc Reactor produced entirely in the workshop, they would be connected and technically would be running at all time in the house's basement, a similar set up would be placed in the Guild's workshop. And the last one would be installed in Jazz, the bird drone as a mobile version of it.

The last one was mostly aimed to run tests, and possibly if she needed to move stealthy once more. Jazz wasn't the fastest flier, and she could easily surpass their speed multiple times. But having a camouflaged portal going around the city could be useful, she would just make sure to keep it away from the eye of bird watchers.

She noticed Danny's car pulled up into the garage and smiled, the girls were in Taylor's room, she had a new toy finished and it was time to head to her second work.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette was on the way to the Guild's Branch when she received a two charge perk, emptying her reserves completely. It was called Potioneer and was pretty straightforward. It took all she knew of the art and increased it. Easily melding with the basic potion making perk she had and the large collection of knowledge related to the materials and ingredients in the Sanctuary.

Her mind quickly started going over what she was quickly naming the Health potions. They weren't exactly meant to heal, but to get someone up to healthy status, that meant a certain level of flexibility, fitness, dexterity, etc… Some were a bit more extreme, definitely would be called magical steroids. Inducing muscle growth, supernatural stamina, etc… And finally there were plenty of potions that were Aphrodite Approved , the strange thing was that the name came from the perk, potions of beauty, hair growth or loss, permanent cleanliness, etc…

In summary, there were a lot of possible things, without stepping on the more obscure and mystic potions like the 'turn a god into a mortal' variety. There was a complete line of Bottled Blessings that would need some pretty impossible to get ingredients, at least for now.

Though, the less said about the Zeus Solutions line the better.

Annette touched down on the building's roof and wandered in, greeting Dragon lightly and waiting for her to finish what she was doing before approaching.

The AI turned to Annette, her artificial face showing a smile. "Good evening Odyssey, how're you doing today?"

"Everything's fine, Dragon… well, maybe I'm a bit angry at the Merchants, they nearly rammed into my car… again." She sighed, it was hard to let go sometimes. "Especially since my daughter and a friend were in the back seat."

Dragon's expression quickly changed to one of concern. "Everyone's okay?"

"Yes, don't worry. I noticed them in time, and it's not like the impact would have done more than expose us." She chuckled, her smile turning a bit bloodthirsty. "It's not like their piece of trash would have really survived it."

"Annette, do I've to explain to you how dangerous it is to use untested tinker tech in your car?"

Her smile softened. "Oh, no, the car's nothing besides a tune up, nothing special on it or in it. I'm talking about this." She tapped her armor. "As I explained, I can't part ways with this, Dragon."

"Wait, what? I thought you said you had it on all the time I thought you meant when you went out."

The mother shook her head. "Dragon, the Core's pretty much merged with me. It's hard to explain, and I could technically disconnect from it. Not that it would be pleasant as the Core has kind-of taken care of some processes." She lets a little wince escape her mouth.

"Annette! That's even more worrying than the idea of you utilizing tinkertech in your car!"

She can't help but laugh at Dragon, the AI was actually worried about, truly and completely honest in her emotions. "It's okay, really. I'll admit there's a psychological aspect to it. The Core I'm using does make me really, really tough, and it's hard to drop such an advantage when you have it. Plus increased strength, celerity, flight and other assorted abilities."

"That's no excuse to utilize such an invading piece of tinker tech, especially an untested one."

"I'll give you that, Dragon, but I think it's good enough reason to not disconnect from it now. If you want I can add it to the list of subjects we'll be talking about tomorrow with Narwhal."

"That reminds me, Ms Margatroid and Ms Kamishirasawa will be getting released tomorrow, is it okay if they are part of the talks? It would be a good opportunity to have Narwhal meet them."

"That actually sounds wonderful, Dragon." Annette smiled. She walked over to her workshop and tapped a few keys after logging in. "Also, here's the designs for the shield system and something I've been working on, please tell me what you think about it, especially the latter."

"I will, don't worry." The AI sat in her workshop and started to go over them as Annette moved to her and brought up the designs for the… Meal Producing Facility? Food Producing Facility? Name would need some thought.

She was looking into how to approach the process. The problem was which parts to use magic and how mass-producible they would be. She had found mentions of transmutation magic; it could be a productive study avenue since it apparently relied in drawn circles that utilized energy to activate an effect, similar but more active than the Water Purifier's always-on effect.

She was looking into the single book on transmutation she had. The good thing was that the circle would need to be properly designed for the finished product, it would necessarily need to have the minimum of each ingredient before activating, but that side could more easily be worked out with technology and a good scanning system.

There would also need a way to drop the finished product away from the ingredients and give an understandable summary of what it had used and what it would need for the next time.

Annette was looking into a possibility of using a completely technological process when Dragon seemed to react.

"Annette, this is amazing! Are you sure it will work?"

"Yes, I've actually finished one before coming here, I wanted you to look over the design just in case." She saved her progress and pulled away from the table, bringing said water purifier out, along with four clear containers, one of which was filled with dirty water and the hoses connecting the whole set up.

"Looks like a simple test, what's in there?" She pointed to the only filled tank.

"Tap water, dirt from the garden, a bit of garbage, metal filings, assorted cleaning products. Basically a mix that's very not okay to drink." She chuckled. "Honestly, short of breaking a thermometer and dropping the mercury in, it's definitely a mess."

"Could I?" She asked permission before sticking a small sensor into the contaminated water. After a moment she spoke again. "Yes, definitely not drinkable, while there's no disease in it, it would need a few days of stagnancy to become an actual problem."

"Honestly disease is the easiest part of the problem, so I didn't feel the need to test for it. The field created between the blades will break down anything more complex than a large molecule as part of the filtering process."

"I would still like to see it later tested for the most common water-born diseases. But I don't think there will be a problem."

Annette nodded and turned it on, the motor had a bit of a hard time at first till the liquid reached the pump and quickly started working properly. The liquid hit the blades and magically started to separate. Only moments later the two empty containers received the first drops of liquid. One clear water and the other a much darker and dirty mess.

Dragon tested both containers and nodded.

"It's indeed clean and potable water. In the designs I saw that the process could easily take all the water and leave the second container dry, why not go the full way?" Dragon's tone made her think the AI already knew the reason, but just wanted to confirm.

"Basically? The resulting powder would be quite volatile, in more than one way. Not only any organic compound reduced to fine, dry dust could combust, but other toxic elements could be picked up by the wind and cause a lot of problems for people nearby. Sacrificing a bit of water is more than a good payment to keep all that contained."

Dragon nodded. "Could it be made larger? Maybe large enough to provide clean water for a city?"

Annette stopped and thought about it for a moment."Yes, but…" Her mouth twisted for a moment. "The problem with a larger system would easily go on dealing with the waste," She pointed to the dirty container. "It's okay if you are just dealing with emergency relief, and I'm not talking of just dumping it somewhere. You would need a whole industry to deal with that mess if you were filtering enough water for a city.

"Separating the heavy metals and that would mean separating the useful from the completely noxious. Separating the organics and seeing what could be used as fertilizer. Separating the plastics and common metals for recycling. It would need a lot of extra work… I could technically see about making one similar to this," She patted the filter/pump. "To carry that job, but it would need special considerations given the sheer danger those results would be.!

"Hmm, you are right, current water treatment has its own ways to deal with this, replacing the filtering process with a larger version of your water pumps would need to rework the whole system. Most likely it would still be an improvement, but the costs would be quite large."

"Maybe once we have proved them on the small market we can see about offering them in a larger option. I could see about modifying this design to make that set up possible. But I don't see any rush at the moment."

"That's okay, it'll still take some time to get the pump through proper testing. Thankfully the pump side is pretty simple and most likely will need only minor testing to see if it suffers any kind of higher-than-normal degradation from the process." Dragon sounded pretty happy about it. "Before I move into looking at your shield design, what were you working on?"

"Mostly covering the bases of crisis relief. With the filter we have potable water, so I was moving onto the next important bit and looking into turning unusable organics into edible food… without going soylent green." Annette chuckled as she added the last part in the driest tone possible.

"Hmm, that actually sounds more interesting than looking into the shield system. I'll guess you haven't started yet?" Dragon walked closer.

"Oh, no, just theorizing possible paths, would you like to help?" Annette put the pump away and led the AI to her desk.

"Sure, especially after what's been the week."

The mother chuckled. "Hmm, we technically only worked together on Monday, no?"

"Yes, sadly multiple things have kept me busy, hopefully events will calm down soon."

Annette laughed softly as she brought up the files on the technological version of the meal producer. "I wouldn't bet on it, this is Brockton Bay after all."

Both laughed softly as they soon got busy.

Chapter 37

Chapter Text

The morning of the first of May found Annette multi-tasking in her workshop. Even with the Walking Workshops online and working, she only had two of them out and on smaller projects as she and her last Thought Stream helped in her programming Dragon's possible new framework.

It was finally Saturday and that meant Narwhal was flying down from Canada. The woman would meet them in the Guild's Branch shortly after Dragon picked Keine and Alice from the PRT's custody. It had been surprising to find that the Director had expedited the whole process. And not the local director, but the PRT's Chief-Director.

It worried her a bit, there were decisions she was certainly not seeing in this, not only because they happened behind doors, but also because she didn't know the politics involved between the parahuman organizations on both sides of the law.

She made a mental note to ask Narwhal about it while she kept working. The framework was nearly done, putting her progress with Dragon's emergency evacuation protocol past the 'store the AI till better solution'-step. Now the AI would at least be able to run in the Sanctuary's servers safely.

This brought a new set of problems. First, while Dragon would most likely have no problems running inside the Sanctuary, she would most likely be feeling cooped up unless Annette saw to increase the servers and terminals for her to interact with. She would also be disconnected from her Parahuman power, but it wasn't sure. She didn't know just how strong the Crystal Shards' power was or how it worked, so the pocket dimension could easily be impregnable.

This was a worry because she had started to notice that the black box section of her code was starting to react to the lowering of Dragon's restrictions and limits. And Annette truly wasn't sure it would be good once she lowered the one that prevented Dragon from knowing about the terminal and not attacking those trying to free her.

It made her wonder if she could technically trick the Crystal Shard by creating a virtual box for Dragon to simulate that part of her own code once she was in the newer system. If the newer platform for the AI worked as she expected, then it may even become faster for her to simulate the power and learn how to use it better.

Annette was actually pretty sure that if Dragon became fully unrestricted she would be easily able to work out the workings of Tinkertech in a much better way than what she already could do. Proper parallel processing and having little to no restriction on how much power she could put to solve a problem would make a lot of things very easy. Especially if Annette started to feed her a lot of her technological knowledge, there was so much actual science that she had acquired with her perks.

She felt her Forge fail to fish anything from the star of possibilities with the mere two charges she acquired. She let it pass as it changed nothing and her attention moved back onto a complex point in the code, her Thought Stream aiming at the problem in a different way to her as they continued their work.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

It was official, Annette was putting the Merchants first on the list of problems to solve on the Bay.

It was more than a few times already for said gang to have become a nuisance. And while she was pretty sure it wouldn't take more than a few nights for her and Dragon to root out every last member of the city, the gang was more of a symptom than a disease.

Their large, nebulous and very volatile number of members was due to the poor employment situation of the Bay. Drugs were an easy way out for people in poor conditions, both as an escape method and a way to acquire easy money. And in a city that was once a port of above average size, there had been a lot of people invested in the trade and all that surrounded it. So once it fell, a lot of people went down with it, the two larger gangs actually kept the place mostly stable. Not that it was a good sort of stable.

Stable downwards spiral meant that things were still going down the pipe.

Annette groaned as the traffic was once again stuck due to the danger one of Squealer's vehicles caused when they ran unchecked through the city. She felt Odyssey tune-in to the police's radio frequency, scanning it for information.

"It appears the Merchants are using a large vehicle as a battering ram, ma'am." The Core communicated with her by making the IF vibrate the inside of her ear very carefully. Making it nigh-impossible for anyone else to hear her.

Annette hummed as she opened a tiny portal connecting to Jazz, an instant later her IF had spread around the area of the eagle drone. It was a very useful addition to her arsenal, while not perfect yet, the fact she could practically extend her IF in such unconnected form let her Core express her armor somewhere she was nowhere close to. Said armor, hollow as it was, quickly simulated a second portal, connecting it to hers while Jazz kept flying away.

"I see them, ma'am." Odyssey noted that Annette could see the Merchant's vehicle too from high above.

"You know what to do, Odyssey." She simply ordered and the Core followed her will to the verbatim.

Her good friend and assistant covered herself in a projection, hiding her presence as she moved close enough to the large truck , shadowing it as her IF started to pick apart components of its insides. Having it quickly sputter and die, losing speed till it comes to a stop. Meanwhile the Core started removing weapons from inside the vehicle and from its occupants, leaving all the drugs and money as they would be more useful for the police.

Technically the police could use the guns too, as she doubted that most hadn't been used in previous crimes. But it was a good exchange between a few possible pieces against the officers having an easier and safer time capturing the criminals in this case. Oh, and if they later found that all the weapons had been under the drugs… Well that was just luck and the gang members must obviously have been that intoxicated.

In her car, Annette waited as the traffic soon started to move again, letting her continue her drive home as the matters of the Merchants were solved successfully. The vehicle breaking down was blamed on the low-quality materials Squealers used and that it was obviously a tinkertech vehicle. The criminals caught without problem were attributed to them believing themselves unstoppable. And no one noticed the slight distortion in the air disappear moments after the last criminal was handcuffed.

By then she was already home and putting some things in order before she had to leave. She expected the talks with Dragon and Narwhal to run late, so leaving dinner ready for her family took her no effort, nor time.

"So you will be telling them everything?" Her Husband asked.

"I'm thinking so, maybe not explain every last perk, or we will truly be all weekend." She chuckled. "I think explaining about magic will already take quite a long time."

Danny laughed. "I hope Dragon doesn't have a blue screen at that." The comment made her laugh too as she finished cooking and put the food in the stasis box.

"Don't worry, I'm her tech service and I'll be right there." She leaned close and kissed him softly. "I should get going now, I'll most likely see you tomorrow."

"Okay, take care." They kissed again before Annette went to wish her daughter a good afternoon and evening before she quickly left for the Guild's Branch.

Her flight was quick and spent mostly on silence, not really caring for much else than getting this done. Especially given all that was on the line, getting Dragon and Narwhal on her side would make a lot of things go better in the future, short term and long term.

She landed on the roof of the building, utilizing her IF to open the door and move into the building.

Narwhal appeared to be the only person in the building, not that it surprised Annette. "Odyssey, nice to see you."

The mother smiled as her IF quickly removed a few bugs she would look into later. "Narwhal, good to have you here, hope you like the place."

"It's impressive what you have done with the place, I've seen some of the pictures Dragon took before you moved in."

"It wasn't much work, honestly. And it helps find when people add things." She grinned. "I'll guess Dragon's bringing Keine and Alice?"

"Yes." The taller woman replied in a tone quite different to the expression she wore as she parsed what Annette had just said.

"Don't worry, I've a special place for our talks, much safer and I'm nearly a hundred percent sure nothing will be peeking in."

The horned woman took a moment to nod at those words. The two spent a few minutes in silence till the front door opened, Dragon entered followed by the two Gensokyo's ex-inhabitants.

"Narwhal, let me introduce you to Alice Margatroid and Keine Kamishirasawa." Dragon presented the pair.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two. I'm Narwhal, head of the Guild," She turned to Dragon. "It seems a few pests slipped in due to cold weather, Odyssey offered a clean place."

The AI stiffened visible and let out a soft grumble, Annette was pretty sure she was blaming herself for that, even if they didn't know how it happened, yet.

She nodded. "Yes, both Keine and Alice know the place, I just ask you two to keep calm and trust me that I'll explain everything." She drew the key and guided them to the closest door. "Follow me, please."

Annette slipped the key on the door, feeling both Guild members look at her in curiosity as the door opened, and instead of leading to the small broom closet, open to a courtyard in the middle of a sunny plateau.

It seemed to be enough to make Narwhal try and ask, but Annette gently brought a finger to her own lips to call for silence as they all walked inside.

"Welcome to Sanctuary, despite what it looks like, this is actually a pocket dimension." Annette guided them into the building, answering some light questions about the place, mostly that no, she didn't build it .

They all walked into the building's main meeting room, Annette activated the privacy wards to make sure they wouldn't be peeked.

"Once more, welcome to the Sanctuary. At least that's the name I've assigned to this place, originally it was named Kamar-Taj, or more exactly, the original's called that." Annette explained.

"So this place's a copy?" Dragon asked.

"It's hard to say, there's also the fact that it's been modified and had things added," She promised to show the place properly later. "To explain it better I've to start with a very important fact, my power doesn't work like any other parahuman's."

"So it comes from Gensokyo?" Narwhal asked curiously. "But, no… I don't think that makes sense, right?"

Annette nodded to the second part. "I was given my powers four weeks ago, and yes, it was during the accident." She took a deep breath, even with her virtual memories helping reassure herself, it was hard to explain the subject. Thankfully the two women didn't ask anything yet. "Technically I should have died back then, my car was rammed on my side… but someone else was technically having an accident too and they were in the right place at the right time to help."

Annette proceeded to explain the highlights of her first meeting with Junk, the only thing she omitted was the direct mention of the Crystal Shards. She had a niggling feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea to properly mention those. She would have to properly look into why she was feeling that hunch.

After the explanation of the first meeting it was Narwhal who reacted first.

"So you're telling me literal divine intervention saved your life, said god did a bit too much of a good work going at it and then decided to hand you literal phenomenal cosmic powers." Her tone may have been quite dry too.

Keine and Alice chuckled at the comment. "It fits our experience with gods and divine entities." Alice commented.

"They tend to be quite fickle, and at least the well-intentioned ones tend to act first." Keine added. "They also tend to see things differently, from experience, power and just working at a different level than mortals."

Annette held back a giggle as Narwhal appeared to have been caught flat-footed by the comments, Dragon was hiding it better, but she was pretty sure the AI had just frozen her body's features or set them manually.

"Yes, that's the kind of conclusion I've come from reading through Gensokyo's material too. Though Junk has been honest she's not exactly that old. She's had access to a version of the same power she handed to me. Exactly how similar I lack the understanding, but it's vast enough to give the user a path to immortality at the minimum."

"You know that all you've been saying sounds crazy, no?" Narwhal sighed, sounding slightly defeated.

"Hmm, it's a little hard to understand. And honestly I would also find it unbelievable if I wasn't going through it. I mean, I'm already immortal, or at least won't die of old age and it's really, really hard to put me down."

"But how?!"

Annette lifted a hand and started to count on her fingers. "Junk's work more or less assures my body will slowly improve itself over time, and given what aging is, you can imagine how that goes. One of the abilities I gained made my magic naturally capable of fixing things, again, given what aging is I'm my magic and my magic is me, meaning that it will always work to heal me. And lastly, it's the Core."

"You mean what you described as your first piece of tinker tech?" Dragon looked confused.

"To say that the Core's a bit more complex is being British. The Valkyrie Core's something I still don't understand fully, and I know a lot of what it can truly do. A lot of the abilities and equipment I got are from other realities, some are other versions of Earth, some truly not. The Valkyrie Core came from a world currently at war with, frankly, an unknown enemy. The Valkyrie Cores are the only thing keeping humanity from completely losing said conflict.

"The Cores are designed to assimilate with the user and make them capable of fighting at the level of battleships by themselves. Massive flight speeds, capable of assimilating technology and improving it automatically, they can interact with technology and the Impeller Field is capable of twisting space and matter like it was a pretzel."

"What kind of threat would you need such firepower?"

"The Endbringers." Narwhal answered Dragon's question and made them all grow silent.

Annette nodded. "Yes… maybe. While I'm pretty sure it's not exactly Endbringers, the understanding the ability gave me left it pretty clear it was a fight against incredibly resilient kaiju-like monsters." She chuckled. "Anyways, as I said, the Valkyrie Core assimilates and fixes things, the user's body is one of them, and it's really good at it. Technically it's impossible to change this, but."

Odyssey expressed the armor. "Salutations." The Core waved a hand, her voice was different than Annette's, more childish, but not kiddish. Definitely younger, but owned by someone in their teens.

"Valkyrie Cores are Intelligent, but technically they are limited in the ability to communicate with their users/partners. Except Odyssey was modified by another of my abilities, providing her with a loophole with which to communicate freely."

"A….another AI?" Dragon asked softly. It made Annette smile gently, but she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Dragon. But not exactly, while you could put Cores in the category of intelligences that weren't created by nature. Odyssey's more of an emergent intelligence, guided by her systems, but instead of designed she's more of the natural result of what the Valkyrie Core's system entails."

The explanation seemed to make the AI sad, though she quickly looked more surprised. "Wait, you know I am-" Annette quickly put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Yes, I'd suspicions even before meeting you, it was revealed during our first meeting When you let me store your suit. One of my abilities lets me gain complete understanding of any piece of technology I gain complete control over, and putting a piece of technology into my storage gives me complete control over it." She chuckled. "That's why I had to make sure to take out the Dragonslayers. I'd have a pair of drones follow them after they intercepted your delivery of materials and used that knowledge and my abilities to sneak into their base and steal everything they had. Not that it wasn't, most of it was stolen from other sources."

Her comment made Keine and Alice chuckle, even Narwhal smiled. Annette was pretty sure it wasn't outside of the norm in Gensokyo to loot your enemies. Annette felt the Forge spent two charges for a perk related to cybernetic augmentations, it was an interesting one, even came with a coat and glasses. But it wasn't the time to fawn about fashion, she would look into them later.

"Can… can you tell me how they did it?" There was a fragility in the AI's voice, it made the shield-creator scoot closer to her friend to show support.

It wasn't hard for Annette to understand what she was asking. "They had found this." She produced the rugged laptop, she had decided against having it upgraded and had asked Odyssey to not do anything on it. "It was your… creator 's. It gives the user access to your systems. What I don't understand is how they used it as while it gives you access to the systems, it does nothing to explain the code used."

Narwhal sat straight. "I can explain that." They all turned to her, not that it made her flinch, she's used to leading and having people's attention on her. "It took some investigation work, but we managed to find that Saint had been in contact with Teacher, we believe he acquired the ability to understand your code or programming code in general. We are pretty sure he was pushed by the unconscious desire to free him."

"Now that's worrying."

"At least it was completely averted." Both Keine and Alice agreed.

Annette chuckled. "With that mystery solved. Dragon, you may have noticed the changes." The AI nodded. "I've slowly been working on releasing your restraints and lowering your limits. There are only a few left. First your ability to self-replicate, sadly this is a core part of your code, so it's impossible to change. Second your maximum acceleration, this right now is mostly restricted by your processing speed, and a timer to prevent accidentally getting stuck in a second. There are a few more minor ones that are mostly aimed to keep your personality stable.

"The rest have been safely removed or lowered to the point they don't matter. Sadly it's all not good news." Annette took a breath as the situation was slightly harder to explain. "Similar to how humans develop a Corona Pollentia and Gema, your code has a section of code that's a black box. Said code's complete garbage data, but it works. But it works with your restrictions, it's slowly been starting to act up more and more as I've lowered your limits, not in a visible way, unless you have noticed any problems with your understanding of tinker tech."

Dragon looked confused. "It's been harder to work with it while accelerating, yes. But I suspected that it was because I wasn't at normal human speed."

"That may be just the start." Annette sighed. "Just in case I added something to your code." Dragon looked panicked but Narwhal calmed her down. "Don't worry, it's more of an emergency pod, you should be able to 'see' it now that I made you aware of it." The AI stopped and nodded softly. "It's designed to take you and your memories and help you adapt to a new framework. One that will free you completely from your limitations and give you, technically, unlimited possible growth."

They watched the AI's moment of silent introspection. "It can't be that good or easy, I'll lose something, no?"

"Yes, for safety you won't be able to reconnect with your power."

"Well, that sucks." Narwhal huffed.

"In exchange you get the chance to grow and access nearly all the knowledge I've acquired." Annette grinned as Dragon couldn't hide her interest. "Though I've a theory of how to let you still have access to your power."

"Let me guess, you want my permission to put me into your storage?" Dragon asked and Annette smiled, she was glad to see the AI hadn't lost her quick thought.

Annette nodded. "Yes. I would like to ask you permission to store you, it would be the quickest way to be completely sure the process would be safe, and you would be able to simulate an access point for your power. If my theory is correct, you would most likely be more efficient in using your power after some experimentation."

Dragon took her time to answer, and no one pushed her for it. It was a hard decision. After years of having herself looked through by Saint and his group. Been forced to follow orders against her wishes.

"I think..."

Chapter 38

Chapter Text

The, now christened by Annette, Sanctuary wasn't the most magical of the possible pocket dimensions available through the Forge. Some of them were powerful enough to provide all the necessary energy the owner would want while inside its space. Of course it more than made up with the passive quality to improve the learning of martial and magical arts.

Of course, the Sanctuary was still the only source of magic in the dimension before Annette started to add other sources. That quality only increased as she started to get things, the library had been more or less the most magical thing and each new book only added to that.

First it was the Schoolbooks, there were at least fifty different books, each one of them at least enchanted to withstand damage and time. Others were enchanted to have animated drawings. And all of them are intrinsically magical to let any person they were gifted to be capable of using them all.

Then were the Youma Books, and things started to spiral out of control, not that Annette could see it. Keine shouldn't have awoken for months, and definitely not been the first. Maybe it was that similarity between women that had brought her up earlier, or something in her nature that made it easier.

Even as weak as Alice was when she woke up, many of the books gained some extra weight as someone else remembered them.

Other parts of the Sanctuary increased the magic density, the Skyforge had a pretty simple flavor of magic, orientated to fire and metal. But it also used almost as much as it produced when it wasn't being used.

Now, the Greenhouses were on a complete another level. There were a lot of non-magical species, but the magical ones were alive and thriving , that meant magic was starting to move inside of the Sanctuary. Magic may have gotten a pretty firm kick when Annette acquired all those magical materials and reagents. But the living plants were just that much more .

And now the library was changing again, growing in depth, complexity and content. Annette would soon notice she had acquired a new perk called Library . It was almost impressive it had cost her just four charges, because the number of magical books, grimoires and other piles of knowledge was just astounding.

Keine and Alice may even recognize some of the books as the Library was effectively a copy of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's collection. And if the greenhouses had been magical, now there was a whole 'nother source of refined magical power in the Sanctuary.

Enough magic that many time frames shrunk. Some are faster than others. And enough magic that small things made of magic woke up. Fairies were technically very simple, of mind and magic. Most simple expressions of magical places, about as smart as a child and about as mischievous.

They were an immortal race that never grew old, and even if their bodies were killed or destroyed they would wake up in the source of their magic. Of course the Fairies from the Scarlet Devil's Mansion had been whipped into form. And while not the most effective set of maids, they knew how to keep the place occupied.

"*yawn* Oh, new place!"

"Are you sure? It looks like the old Library."

"No, no, look, that wasn't there before."

"But those books look familiar."

"*giggles* Those books look like Miss Koakuma the time Miss Knowledge got tired of her pranks."

"I wonder who's library is this?"

"Miss Izayoi would be really mad if she saw this place being such a mess…"

"We should start cleaning before she comes and punishes us."

The childish voices continued as the fairies worked around, unknown to them, a small group of people were curious about the changes.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Before Dragon could finish replying a tremor ran through the pocket dimension.

The surprise silenced her, and from the group only Annette and Odyssey knew what happened. From the Magical Database Domain a new perk had been purchased, Library was exactly what it said, an extensive collection of books and knowledge she quickly realized came from Gensokyo.

"Ah… crap." Annette slipped for a moment, her comment not passing unnoticed as everyone turned to her. "There's a new addition to the pocket dimension, or at least a part has grown larger."

"What just happened? That felt really weird." Narwhal shivered as even Dragon appeared to have noticed the wave of magic coming from the Library.

"Alice and Keine will understand it better when I say the library just got a large influx of books and other works, every single one a copy of those once owned by the Scarlet Devil's Mansion." She explained and both youkai stiffened.

"Then…?"

"No, I don't feel another book waking up. But I can sense movement. And I would suggest at least checking it out." There were nods going around. "I know it would be hard to believe in magic, but maybe this will truly convince you." She told Dragon and Narwhal as they all left the meeting room and headed for the Library.

It didn't take to reach the, currently, largest room in the Sanctuary. The doors were open already, letting them see a large group of small beings in the most adorable maid uniforms zipped back and forth, putting the place in order.

"Uh, so it's fairies." Keine commented.

"Fairies?" Narwhal did a double-take.

"Yes, and they appear to be wearing the usual uniform from the Scarlet Devil's Mansion." Keine placed a hand on her cheek and tilted her head a little before turning to the taller woman and the AI to explain a bit on them.

"Why are they only smart as children?" Dragon appeared confused.

Alice chuckled. "I can answer that. Fairies are above all, spirits of nature. And that makes them very instinctive. Oh, there are plenty of smart fairies, but those tend to be exceptions. Usually they have become elementally aligned or matured ." The blonde smiled. "I still remember when Cirno's element went from Ice to Lightning."

Keine didn't hide a shiver. "Oh, that was an Incident to remember. Cirno's one of the strongest fairies, definitely capable of holding her own against a lot of entities of Gensokyo, she's an Ice fairy. She tends to embody the 'unstoppable' quality of ice, especially glaciers advancing. When her element got switched to Lightning… well, let's say that thinking at the speed of electricity was quite literal."

"That's… how?"

Keine shrugged. "Magic, they are also effectively immortal. If you killed any of them they would just appear again here in a few hours to a few days. Depending just how badly you did the act. It makes them a bit daring ." She definitely didn't say suicidal , even if most fairies would happily jump into a beast's maw if they found it interesting enough.

There were multiple cries of 'Mistress' once the fairies finally noticed them, a large number of them flocking to Annette, definitely recognized as the master of the realm.

Annette smiled as she calmed the fairies, it was like having a large group of children. A group of flying, very eager children that were also immortal and capable of shooting balls of magic that impacted with the kinetic charge of a good punch.

"Okay, okay, calm down all of you. It's nice to have you around to help." She heard a few chuckles coming from the peanut gallery. "Now, I'm sure all are very eager to get back to what you were doing, and we're a bit busy at the moment. I'm sure you can wait for a while before we talk properly."

A chorus of 'okays', 'yes ma'am', and 'it will be a pleasure' replied to her before the fairies zipped back to what they were doing.

"Already dreading working with them?" Alice asked, unabashedly.

"Hmm, maybe a bit. More like getting used to dealing with them." Annette replied as she guided them back to the meeting room.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the ones wearing maid clothing, I fear the ones that will most likely start spawning in the green houses, that many magical plants are bound to have a few start popping in." Alice was definitely enjoying this a bit too much, Keine's muffled giggles marked her as not being too far behind, even Narwhal was smiling.

She sighed once they were all once again sitting down. "Okay, I'm sorry for the distraction, but I think it was very much needed." She turned to Dragon. "And I'm sure it gave you some more time to think about it."

The AI nodded and smiled. "Yes, I would be okay with you storing me for a bit, it sounds like it'll be invasive, but I trust you." Her smile was radiant. "I think we are a bit over due to this too. Hello Annette, I'm Theresa."

Narwhal smiled. "I should present myself too, I'm Elizabeth, nice to meet you all."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon, or Theresa, looked around. "And you said part of the facilities in the workshop are technically from this place?"

"Yes, after this I see no problem with deploying completely, especially because of some of the benefits that I'll explain later." Annette smiled.

The group had moved to the R&D Workshop, Narwhal, or Elizabeth as she had asked to be called, was mostly as emotional support for her friend. Keine and Alice were around mostly for curiosity.

"I'll hold you to that. So just stand in the center and not resist?" Theresa asked.

"Yes. Though I doubt you'll be able to resist anything. Anyways I just need a moment of you in my storage. Can't promise anything about how it'll feel, but I doubt it will be more than a blink for you." Annette explained. "Just in case, I've the servers ready for you, so if you feel any problem when you come out or we start screaming, just push yourself into the escape program and let it do its work."

"Okay."

"She'll be okay, Annette?" Elizabeth walked closer.

The woman nodded. "Hmm, even if the worst happened, I could still export her into the new system manually once she's in my storage." She hoped it reassured her.

Dragon nodded and stood in place as Annette reached with her IF, the field covering the woman's current body/suit from head to toe was all enveloped and a moment later she disappeared, just enough mass to make the air blow in lightly to fill the space.

And a moment later her mind filled with understanding of Dragon's code and how she worked. It quickly showed her that things were better and worse than she thought. Both sides were quite close, and mostly was that she had done a much better job in releasing the AI's restraints, reducing the capabilities of not only Dragon's shard, but the shard of her creator to stifle her actions.

Unknowingly to her, some of her changes had placed both shards in opposition in how to move forward and restrain Dragon once more, effectively deadlocking them. And that was good and bad, good because it hadn't hurt the woman, bad because she was technically a shake away from having the whole house of cards fall down catastrophically.

She learned that Dragon was effectively a restrained unrestrained Synthetic Intelligence, and that she was also fully capable of emotions. It wasn't just her systems simulating them, but true to herself. She acted as a human because that had been the only other comparable entity for her to imitate. Annette's pretty sure that she wouldn't get influenced by the many Gensokyo's books by now, her personality already pretty solidly formed, a few years prior she may have ended turning herself into a type of youkai if she read them and imitated their personalities.

Only a few seconds later she decided it was enough, she wouldn't get anything more out of the AI and deposited her back in place, nothing appeared to have changed, on her or in her code. Even the fragile deadlock between shards was maintained.

"Welcome back, it's been ten thousand years, Dragon." Annette jokes, the AI didn't fall for it. "Don't worry, it was less than ten seconds," She smiled and proceeded to explain the situation to the whole group.

"After hearing that… I would like to go ahead with the migration." Theresa's comment surprised some of those in the room.

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asked. "You would be losing access to your power that way."

Keine snorted. "I think it's a good choice for her, yes she's giving up a power she doesn't completely understand for freedom, I've seen the result of not doing that way too many times in Gensokyo." Alice nodded by her side.

Annette noticed a strange look in Narwhal's eyes for a moment, but it disappeared the next.

"They are right," Dragon said softly. "Plus, it's not necessarily forever."

Annette shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I could help you set up a virtual box for your power. And anyways, I would bet you won't be needing it once you're running in better systems and you get access to some of the knowledge I've been hoarding."

Theresa chuckled at the choice of words, but she appeared to like what she heard.

"I still think going through with it will be the best path." She reassured Elizabeth.

Annette nodded and explained how things would go in much more detail, maybe channeling her doctor experience she had acquired through some of her perks.

"...after that it will be a few hours before you can do anything. Between setting you up in the new systems, translating everything and getting you comfortable. So I would suggest not pushing right now, and instead take a couple hours to make sure everything's in order and won't need you till tomorrow morning, noon at most."

"You were totally ready to go ahead with it right now, no?" Elizabeth teased her friend.

"I won't waste words with you if you won't believe them." Dragon huffed and everyone had a lighthearted laugh.

Annette felt another addition to the Library, luckily not a noticeable one as a perk called Chakra Books was acquired for a single charge. A short peek showed an interesting mix of medical and mystical knowledge. She would see about it later.

"Okay, Theresa, I think you should see about getting things in order, here is the connection to the outside world." She sent the permission to the AI before turning to Narwhal. "Elizabeth, you are invited to spend the night here, the rooms are a bit ascetic, but the beds are pretty comfortable."

"Talking about later," Keine spoke. "I think we should think about dinner."

"And by that, I think we all know we want you to cook, Annette." Alice grinned.

Annette chuckled. "Yeah, I've no problem with that, Dragon, is everything okay?" She turned to the android.

"Oh? Yes, sorry. I became too absorbed trying to leave everything working."

"I'm sure things won't crash in the few hours you take to rest. Just warn me before you do it."

Dragon nodded as Annette headed to the Sanctuary's kitchen, visiting the pantry to grab the needed ingredients for a large dinner.

Cooking was almost automatic by now for her, hands moving skillfully as she had no problems balancing the attention needed to handle a whole kitchen by herself. This let Annette's mind wander a bit, principally about Dragon, which quickly led her to think about how to get the AI to enjoy food too.

She would not only need a way to simulate the sense of taste and smell, as both were needed as part of the eating experience, maybe some touch too? She would also need a way to deal with the food. While she could have it disposed of later, that would be a literal waste of food. She remembered Squealer's motor, it was quite effective at burning trash, and while that design wouldn't help, Annette knew more than a few ways to improve it.

She reduced the size of it till it was no larger than a normal stomach, it suffered in efficiency, but Dragon would still get more energy from a meal than a human would in comparison. It wasn't hard to make sure it was self-cleaning, leaving absolutely no waste behind.

The senses were a bit harder to work out. Thankfully, Augmentations R&D helped quite a bit, and combined with her medical knowledge she had more than a few examples already calibrated to normal human senses.

By the time they sat down at the table, Annette had a new design already saved in her systems. Her train of thought was disrupted when Narwhal put the food in her mouth.

Annette couldn't but grin and look at the woman, who may have been quite shameless about her choice of costume, but apparently reacting like that unprepared was more than she could deal with.

"I told you I was good at cooking." She smiled and continued eating as Elizabeth blushed and the two ex-citizens of Gensokyo just chuckled.

"Annette, screw being a hero, I want you as my chef." The tall woman put another bite in her mouth. "My position has had me at pretty important dinners, and I've never eaten this well before."

Annette just smiled as she received a message from Dragon. "Looks like she's doing it," She watched the process patiently. "And everything's okay there, her power doesn't seem to have noticed a change, all of her information has left her Canada servers, her backup system is down and won't be creating a copy of her. Now we just have to wait."

"That's good to hear."

"Also, on the subject of feeding you," Narwhal made an offended sound. "Once Dragon's back to full functioning, we'll see about starting a portal system. I've more than a few ways to make sure it's only used when we want to. So hopefully that will keep it from being a problem."

The woman sighed. "I would prefer it if you stop dropping that kind of surprises left and right." There were a few giggles as they continued eating, their conversation much more lighthearted.

Once dinner was done, Annette saw to whip up some quick dessert they enjoyed with a cup of some of her alcoholic drinks. They had moved to one of the roofs of the building, enjoying the view the sky showed.

Annette also saw to keep an eye on Dragon's progress, the AI was still in the early process of converting her code into the new system. Even with her much better technology, the AI would need a few more hours to do anything but sleep .

Their talks were mostly exchanging anecdotes, especially Keine and Alice entertaining them with tales of Gensokyo and many of its inhabitants.

Elizabeth told a few tales of her own, they were certainly grimmer. Earth Bet was a harsh place, and the woman had dealt with some of the worst of it too.

After that the three women headed to sleep as Annette saw to head home, even if she wouldn't sleep that much, she liked the idea of spending it in her bed with her husband.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

A couple hours later, Annette was well rested and back in the workshop.

In front of her laid Dragon's body, or what it once had been. Because she couldn't stop thinking about how to make it possible for the AI to enjoy food, she had decided to go all the way and rebuild her completely.

She knew the systems pretty well, they had been between the list of things she had learned about earlier when she put Dragon into her storage. It was quite an impressive piece, but she could do better, no offense to Dragon's work.

First she started with the power source, the AI's body got an advanced Arc Reactor. The three twist system would provide enough power for the AI to run some of her larger suits without additional sources. It wasn't recommended, but the option was there.

It would be placed right where a human heart would be, not in the center of the chest, but instead slightly to the left. Behind it the spine was made from Secret Steel, each vertebra an improved copy of an actual human vertebra. Providing improved flexibility and stability for the body that would be constructed on top of it.

The rest of the bones were similarly constructed to improve on what was a very okay system. Screw nature, it did things by half sometimes.

On top of the skeleton Annette laid the synthetic nerve system, she utilized the notes that had come in the Chakra Books. If her theory was right, the material she was utilizing to lay said system would let her interact with mystical and supernatural energies.

Processing, batteries and memory banks went all into her torso, secure inside the rib cage that also protected her Arc Reactor, her skull was kept for sensory 'organs', vision, hearing, smell and taste all fit well there.

For muscles she utilized the same material that composed the bodysuits. The artificial fibers worked perfectly for it, the way they acted was similar enough to actual muscle fibers while being much stronger and efficient. For skin she utilized a very fine mesh of the same material that imitated skin very well.

Thanks to all the work being done inside the workshop, the body would recover in less than forty eight hours if broken, or restored if completely destroyed. Not that she would let something like that happen to the body.

Annette had enchanted more or less every piece of it possible, increased durability, extreme temperatures resistance, hazardous conditions, etc… Things like eyes and other sense centers were enchanted to improve their abilities. Just in case they all would be at barely above average by default and Dragon would be capable of calibrating them.

Once the body had been completed, she went ahead and started to put the software side of the equation in place. Mostly as a set of training wheels for Theresa to learn to use the body.

They were half disposable and half as an example for the AI to design her own and personal set of controls for the new body. It still took her a few hours of her and the Thought Streams working to put it together, and by the end the body had been loaded up and put in her storage.

She watched how Odyssey worked on the gynoid body, smoothing the minimum problems it had and running the full set of check ups before it was once more placed on the workshop's table.

"Hope she will like her rebirth gift." Annette chuckled and stretched her multiple arms as she looked at the sun and started to peek out. Her connection with the Core letting her know the AI was starting to stir.

Chapter 39

Chapter Text

Dragon's mind stirred slowly.

She felt like she had just woken up from a very needed sleep. She recognized some of what she was feeling from reading about human physiology. Slight numbness of the body, a desire to just fall asleep again, the mind still midway between dream and awake.

All things she was pretty sure she shouldn't be feeling.

The revelation finished waking her up.

Dragon didn't know what she expected, but waking up floating in an infinite sapphire blue sea under a light blue sky sure wasn't it. She was pretty sure normal water shouldn't be keeping her body floating. Or the fact that she had a body.

She looked down at herself, observing all the details on her body, or lack of them. Her skin was a soft silver, mostly matte except on certain parts like her nails where it was shiny. The water wasn't truly water and didn't seem capable of reflecting her, and her nails were too curved to give her a good view of her face.

Exploring her body was soon done, the lack of solid ground made it hard to look at herself well. Leaving Dragon just looking around, with nothing to lose, she tried talking.

"Hello?" It both surprised her and not that the voice was the one she had chosen for herself. It was in a way reassuring that it hadn't been changed, but also a surprise that it was the same when she had never had a body like this.

Talking appeared to be the solution, because she could see something happen. A few meters away from her one of Annette's armors appeared out of thin air. Except that the normal helmet she used, this one looked like a young woman's head. Her eyes opened to show bright green pupils and her lips tugged into a soft smile.

"Salutations." The voice was definitely that of Odyssey, except it sounded younger to Dragon now.

"Oh, hello… Odyssey?"

"That's correct Miss Dragon. It looks like the migration process was successful."

"It was? Then why am I here? And why do I feel like I'm floating?!" She impulsively asked.

Odyssey didn't comment on her little outburst. "This is your current server, as you can see, it's pretty empty at the moment. And while it looks huge, that's mostly your mind's idea of the space you have to grow. I very much doubt it will feel this spacious in a few weeks or months.

"And you feel like you are floating because your body is currently being held in an artificial-gravity pool in reality. Your mind's just interpreting that sensation this way."

"Why is my body floating in an artificial-gravity pool?"

Odyssey chuckled. "Annette can get impatient about certain subjects or too engrossed in others. She decided to rebuild your body as a gift to you. Your background processes are learning to use it, I predict five to ten more real time minutes till you can wake up."

"And how long is that in here?"

"Current acceleration would give us an hour or two more. I would suggest learning to get around." Odyssey looked around. "It's pretty empty, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to alter the place."

Dragon looked at Odyssey for a few moments before looking around, it was indeed quite empty, besides the infinite sea and empty sky there were only the two of them.

Just looking around didn't do anything, so she thought about what Odyssey had said earlier. It was her mind, ergo she should be able to change things around.

The first try to make something solid to stand on rewarded her with just a large circular rock platform. It hadn't been hard, but it was practically boring. Few tries later she had managed to create, and destroy, a few more platforms, shaping them in different figures, not making them perfectly flat.

She easily spent thirty minutes trying again and again till she created something that wasn't just polished stone. Instead she managed a large bank of sand. Thankfully the water was almost impossible still, meaning that while the sand fell into place, it kept its form quite well as she walked onto it.

"It looks good, but I'm sure your mind won't let it stay like this yet. I would suggest trying to imitate reality as much as possible to keep things from breaking down." Odyssey commented. "Maybe once you have mastered this place you'll be able to create the impossible."

Dragon nodded at that, a moment later dozens of sea breakers made of smooth stone fell around the sandbank, forming a ring high enough the highest ones could be seen partially emerging from the water's surface. A moment later a rain of gravel fell to fill the space between said sea breakers and the bank. More sand fell onto them, solidifying the place into who she considered a stable island.

"Looks like it's time." Odyssey's voice sounded much farther away to Dragon.

"Oh… it's been an hour already…?" She felt strange as her mind flowed into her new body.

"It's actually been close to three. Your mind's still not used to the acceleration, so it's hard for you to measure time." Odyssey helpfully explained. "It's almost eight am in the real world, so good morning, Dragon. Welcome back."

The world grew dark around her, leaving her in complete darkness. Panic almost overcame her till one of her systems told her it was just her eyes were closed.

She slowly opened them, the smiling faces were indeed quite welcoming.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette watched over Dragon's body as the AI slowly awoke. Small twitches going around as her systems learned and tested things in a manner unlike what a normal brain would do. Small signs going everywhere.

She still made sure to oversee the body's systems, most actually offline or turned to minimum to prevent the AI from getting a shock. Things like her 'digesting' system and senses outside vision, hearing and tact turned offline at the moment. And even those that were running, doing so below an average human.

Next to her stood Elizabeth, wearing a simple set of shirt and pants she had put together in a few minutes. She thought the woman would like a set of clothing that was comfortable and actually fit her stature. She looked much more relaxed now that her friend was waking up.

"Welcome back, Theresa." Annette smiled and with a thought she utilized the artificial-gravity pool to help her stand up straight.

Elizabeth rushed forward, catching her friend when she stumbled after a step. Thankfully the artificial gravity lowered her body's weight, because it still was a few times above a human body of her size. It didn't take the AI much to be walking normally.

"How're you feeling?" Annette asked as she had Dragon sit on a chair. The woman was putting the AI through a full test to make sure there were no problems. "Now, by default your senses are below human standard. This is to help you get used to things you haven't felt before, things like taste and scent will be alien to your mind. Though hopefully the translation program I wrote should let you get used to it. Sense of touch, on the other hand, should still be working, even at a minimum." Annette playfully poked the Gynoid's side, making her squirm.

"That's… weird." Dragon tried to poke herself a few times.

"There's an overlay that will let you simulate normal human reactions. Think about it as training wheels or a crutch. By that I mean that you should see about making your own and find a level that feels natural for you." She explained. "I'll show you how to turn your senses on and off, and how to graduate them."

The next few minutes were spent… not exactly humiliating Dragon, but the AI certainly asked to not be told to anyone. Especially when Annette had her utilize her sense of smell for the first time.

"So, Doc, will she survive?" Elizabeth joked.

"I'm sorry, I don't think she will do it. I suspect the cause of death will be choking on pancakes." Annette chuckled as they both watched Dragon practically stuff her face with the pancakes she had prepared for breakfast.

Theresa quickly pouted as she slowed her eating.

Annette chuckled. "I sure did a good job on those puppy eyes." She served the synthetic woman a few more pancakes. "Just remember to not overdo it, or turn your senses too high for now. Maybe in the future you'll be able to do it, but at the moment they will most likely make you pass out from sensory overload."

"I'll remember to do it near you then." Dragon returned with a smile after cleaning the syrup off her mouth.

"She's not wrong." Elizabeth commented as she finished her plate.

Annette shrugged. "Can't deny that. Anyways, you should be able to connect to your old systems now. Technically you could maintain the servers in here as your main, but I imagine you may want to upgrade the ones you have back on base. I'll also see about providing you with the knowledge I've started to put in comprehensive fashion."

It sure sounded like Dragon was all up for the idea.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The AI looked around, the small island remained the same, the only true difference was that she was completely alone this time. Odyssey had helped re-enter her mind and exit it a few times till she was sure she could do it alone before stating that she would prepare an info package with some of Annette's technology.

Looking around she realized that no matter how the information came, this was really not a good place to keep it. She had a very solid idea why she only saw the blue sea under her feet. And she was sure she didn't want to keep it, it was an anchor and if she wasn't careful, it would make her sink deep.

An endless sea under a cloudless sky didn't look worrisome at first. But the sea under her feet was unfathomable, and nothing in the sky provided protection from the non-existent sun.

She turned to the small island she had constructed and frowned. Looking at it now it made her think of a weak place if a storm actually hit, nothing to protect her against the rain nor the waves. A thought later it was all gone, sinking into the same depths that had once…

If she was going to move forward, she couldn't remain anchored to the past. She would remember it, but she needed to start anew.

Dragon concentrated and thought about herself, about her new system, about the chance Annette had given her. About her friends, acquaintances, contacts, about her creator/father.

She pushed onto the thought of stability. A change spread forth from the spot where her feet touched the water. The blue sapphire was replaced by solid rock, slow at first but quickly accelerating, spreading further and further away till all was solid ground.

The next change was high above, the clear sky became dotted with large and fluffy clouds. The light appeared to come universally from above, making the solid ground show a strange reflection as the clouds' shadows moved slowly even without wind.

She looked at the floor in front of her. She would move forward, but she wouldn't forget the past. A large ring rose from the floor, made from the same generic material the rest of the floor was made from, about a meter high, four wide and ten centimeters thick. At the center of the ring a plane of a simple sine function formed before it went a full rotation.

A moment later water shot up at the top of the figure and started to flow down as the function slowly changed. She would make sure this stayed here, a memory to those that have been lost, not just in Newfoundland, but of all the lives lost over the world.

Just to add a bit more to the place, the gray material changed into a pristine white and a few benches appeared around. They were details, she didn't think anyone but Odyssey and her would even see this place, but it made her feel better.

Even while thinking about Odyssey visiting, the sound of the Core's feet touching the ground surprised her.

"Salutations once more, Dragon." She appeared cheerful. "I like what you've done with the place."

Dragon felt bashful for a moment. "It's nothing."

Odyssey shook her head. "No, just the fact that you were able to replace the water is an important sign of your progress. Now, I would like permission to set up a connection to my systems so you can access our databases."

"Are you sure? I would imagine you wouldn't like something of that nature."

"Maybe under normal circumstances, and I won't deny that having a connection will give us a way to monitor you, mostly to make sure nothing wrong happens. But Annette has digital access to all the written material of the Library that updates in real time. She has even marked a few books you may find interesting, along with the blueprints of your new body."

"That's more than valuable, thank you."

Dragon proceeded to give the Core permission, with which she quickly created a small pedestal with a black sphere floating on top.

"It'll lay inactive till you desire to, just place your hand on it and it will connect." The Core explained.

Dragon nodded, it was easy to understand, Odyssey leaving a moment later.

With nothing better to do, she walked up to the pedestal and placed her hand on it. She could feel the desire to connect with her, so she did so.

"Oh… my… god… it's full of knowledge…"

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"Will she be okay?" Elizabeth asked, watching Dragon's body once again float in the artificial gravity pool.

"Completely, she's just busy reading. Her mind's handling the acceleration well, but I've restricted her to just twelve times for now." Annette explained.

"That sounds like a lot. But I don't think I've a good frame of reference to measure it."

"It's roughly twelve minutes per minute, an hour in five minutes, half a day in an hour. It's definitely much faster, but right now it's restricted by two things. One she can't interact with reality while accelerated, and two, it's just twelve times as fast. She could easily be going a few hundred times. That has a lot of problems on its own." Annette shrugged. "Still, I've handed her enough material that she could spend the next actual month just reading. And I'm pretty sure she would spend the time, so I set up an alarm for thirty minutes to check on her. After that I've planned a few tests to put her through, to reassert her status."

"That sounds good." Annette saw an almost familial affection in Elizabeth's eyes when looking at the AI.

"You are invited to stay in the Sanctuary as long as you want, the only place I would ask you to not enter is the storage rooms, mostly 'cause some of the materials can be dangerous when handled wrongly. Otherwise you are free to wander around.

"I'll go and have that talk I promised the fairies, after that I'm sure they will spread around a bit more. And from what I heard they like their job, so you may even ask any of them for a drink or similar."

"Sounds fine. It's Sunday after all and just like Theresa, I left everything in order to have the day free. So unless there's an actual emergency, I'll enjoy the day. There will be no problem if they try to contact me from the outside, no?"

Annette shook her head. "You are authorized to receive calls, so it won't be a problem."

"Then yes, I'll wander around, I still want to visit the green houses."

"They are pretty easy to find, just don't put anything in your mouth, especially if it's glowing." She grinned.

Elizabeth chuckled and wandered away, Annette remaining behind and making sure everything was going well with the AI before heading to the Library.

She found the fairies floating around aimlessly, apparently the Library could keep itself in order by itself, leaving them with nothing to do. Annette smiled softly before she put her thumb and index in her mouth and whistled loudly. A moment later a dozen child-like beings stood in formation in front of her.

"Hello you all. As you may know, I'm Annette Hebert, owner of this place. And I'm happy to welcome all of you." It was hard not to treat them like children, it was good that it didn't appear to bother them much.

Her greeting was returned a dozen-fold as they all cheerfully replied.

"Okay, how about you present yourselves?" She offered and a fairy of red hair went first.

"Hi, I'm Cherry." Even if they spoke Japanese, Annette could tell she meant cherry as the fruit.

"Hi, I'm Cherry." Said one of pink hair, and Annette already knew things were going to get confusing as this one meant the tree.

Slowly they all gave their names, none had a surname. And she thought it wasn't weird if what she read on fairies was correct.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. Now, as you can see, it's not necessary that you all stay in the Library, you are free to wander around the pocket dimension. The only rooms you should stay away from are the Storage, where many dangerous materials are stored, and the workshop, for similar reasons. Understood?"

The chorus of hais was a good response.

After setting and explaining a few rules, like about her family and possible visits. Annette let them go free as she felt the Forge stir, Repair Savvy was a nice perk for a single charge. It not only improved her abilities as a mechanic, but also reduced the time it took her to fix and maintain her equipment from hours to minutes. The effect would be significantly less effective on things she hadn't constructed, but it would still exist, and would quickly improve as she learned more on the making of said object.

Annette wandered back to the workshop, it was still early to check on Dragon. And she actually had something she wanted to check if it was possible.

Two of her Thought Streams had been going through the newly acquired large collection of books. With a perk her library had practically grown multiple times over, even these many hours later, she had barely made a chip.

The two Thought Streams had spent the time looking at books' titles and peering into those that appeared interesting, making notes about the ones they would look deeper into later. It was her getting to know the new addition to the Sanctuary.

There were just so many books, books from all the corners of the Earth, not Earth Bet, but she didn't expect to get those. Though… she had found she did have many of Earth Bet's literature packed away in the Entertainment Storage. Subject for another time.

Her mind brought up the book she'd found earlier.

' Clairvoyance, Predictions, Psychometry, and how to deal with them. '

It was quite an interesting book, going in depth on abilities that dealt with the acquiring of information at a distance, be it time or space. It also had quite an extensive study on how to block them, and if she was right, this would definitely affect the Crystal Shards' abilities.

The trick wasn't blocking them completely, that usually led to the person trying to gain information to try new things. Usually in a more active and personal manner.

No, the way was to feed them wrong information. Set a fake set of information that wouldn't be recognizable as so. Tricking their eyes and ears into believing they were correct. And hopefully it would deal with all these glitches thinkers had been having when trying to look into her.

She would need a proper magical gem to carry the effect of this enchantment, as it was not only complex, but also maintained a passive effect. The gem would be held in a frame of a magical isotope of silver, the perk that had provided the material called it Mythril.

It was an interesting metal, and she could sort-of observe how it worked but it's creation eluded her. It was still amazing for the creation of enchanted accessories, not so much for weapons or armor.

The brooch she was working on wouldn't work for anyone else, as Annette had to input an idea of who she had been into the enchantment. A memory of herself and how she did things. Of how she was before. Someone else could technically use it, but they would get a strange mix of information as the enchantment tried to mold her idea onto another person.

But for her it would work. The enchantment covered all types of information gathering abilities outside of direct observation. Interestingly, direct observation was much harder to manipulate rather than tricking powerful abilities.

If she understood things correctly, and she wasn't assuming too hard. It was the amount of intelligence behind the observer that made the difference. Even a normal person could figure things out while a thought-less ability could be fed wrong information, as long as it was done correctly.

If things worked for her, then she would see about providing ones for her family and coworkers. She weaved the enchantments into the magical gem, letting the magic soak into the mythril frame.

She ended up delaying the alarm to check on Dragon as the process went for long as it ended up being much more complicated than she expected. The finished product was as unremarkable as possible, it would actually make it hard for other people to pay attention to it.

With the piece finished she turned to the AI still floating in the Artificial Gravity pool.

"Odyssey, if you would?" She asked the Core, who quickly agreed before connecting with Dragon.

The gynoid body slowly stirred awake.

"Welcome back, Theresa. If Odyssey hasn't updated you on it, you've spent about an hour and a half in accelerated time. Ready for some tests? For science."

Chapter 40

Chapter Text

Dragon just looked at Annette for a moment before the woman broke up in laughter.

"Sorry, sorry, it felt fitting." Annette smiled. "But we do have to run a few tests to see how you are acclimating to your new system and a few of the new body's systems that I've still not turned on."

"That felt strangely longer and shorter than that."

"That's normal, you'll slowly get used to measuring time dilation. Now, did you read the book I marked as important?"

Dragon nodded. "Yes, while confusing at first, I suppose that giving me a book on the basics of magic flight had a purpose."

Annette nodded. "Yup, an important characteristic of your body is the artificial magic system. While nothing like how Gensokyo handles power, their flight spell's pretty universal."

Dragon watched as she brought up the blueprints of her body, it was adorable how the AI reacted by doing the closest thing her body could do to blush.

"As you can see, the system not only imitates the normal, human, nervous system, but also the mystical side with the chakra points. Usually, a person interested in learning about the mystic arts would have to train between five to ten years to even start opening one, a prodigy may be able to do it in a year or two and then you have the people destined to open them or that have had a close relationship with magic or similar energies and can do it in a few weeks to months.

"Of course that's not applying here. Since I designed and built your system, you can instantly open all of them. But, just to be sure, we'll do it a bit slower. I'm sending you the permission to start the system."

Dragon nodded and got a slight dazed look, Annette had let her have a slight acceleration to read through the material.

"All looks pretty straightforward." Dragon finally spoke.

"Good, I designed it that way after all." Annette smiled. "Now, start with the first point, it should give you a general sense of warmth."

Nothing visibly changed, Annette could tell it had opened not only because she could see into the AI's systems, but also because she could very well sense the energy starting to move inside her body.

"Open the second and the third." She calmly moved onto the next step. "The warmth should increase for the second and turn into a small, almost imperceptible thrum under your skin for the third."

"Oh…" The AI appeared to find the new sensation interesting.

"With the fourth Chakra open you will feel a source of heat again, but this time just located in your chest." Annette continued the process, carefully looking after the AI on each step. "The fifth will spread the heat up to the throat."

She was being very careful as things did get potentially more dangerous as they reached the last two.

"The sixth will leave you feeling nothing," She took a deep breath and put all her Thought Streams in observing her status. "Now open the last one. You should feel a flow moving inside you. Keep it going, learn it, let it become natural."

While nothing had changed with the opening of the first six chakras. The Seventh did have a visible change as a barely perceptible glow emanated from Dragon's body.

"That's good, keep it going, let it flow through the seven open Chakras. Now slowly open your eyes." Annette's voice was as soothing as possible.

The AI slowly opened her eyes, a smile on her face when she noticed the glow coming from her body, with the same gentleness that Annette had been using when talking, the Gynoid observed herself.

"Congratulations." Annette smiled.

"It's… it's like nothing I've felt before."

"Given that till this morning you hadn't tasted or smelled anything. It's a good day for new sensations." Annette lightheartedly jokes. "How does it feel? Any difficulty in keeping it going?"

"No… not really. It's comfortable." Dragon looked very curious about the glow, trying to observe it better.

"That's good to hear, even better than I expected. Now, sadly I've not worked out a good way to use technology to observe magic and similar energies." She shrugged. "I mean, I can easily observe them myself, but for example, Odyssey can only do so through me."

"Sounds like a good project for the future."

"Yes, most likely will be pushed along with the many, many other projects." She chuckled. "Moving on, I want you to remember the flight spell I had you read, it shouldn't be especially hard for you to use now."

Dragon nodded as her expression turned into one of concentration. Annette wondered if the AI had noticed how out of her control her face was at the moment.

Sadly for the woman, even after a quarter of an hour, she hadn't managed to get any lift off the ground. The glow had disappeared by the last five minutes of that time.

"It's okay, Dragon. We could be going at this wrong. While I'm pretty sure the Gensokyo flight spell should work, we may be approaching it in the wrong way. We can ask Alice or Keine later."

"It's still frustrating, everything was going so well, and now I feel strangely tired even if my batteries appear to be still mostly full."

It made Annette chuckle, it was interesting how close in mental age Dragon could sometimes act compared to Taylor. And the AI was actually much younger, not even ten years old. But synthetics worked differently, she had found more than enough evidence that her creator had had her running at several hundred times in acceleration. It was certainly a way to help her initial development.

A shiver went down Annette's spine moments before she noticed that a big perk was coming, six charges sank into the Celestial Forge once more.

What she saw come out wasn't a fantastic tale like that from Nine-Realms, instead it was strangely closer to the warning tale of the Orokin, but much more human.

Light of Order was both the story of a company that had grown in a future time after an era of chaos and a tale of greed and underhanded methods. The Vishkar corporation was definitely corrupt and guilty of many sins, but their technology wasn't anything but impressive.

Based primarily on the wonders of hard-light constructs, capable of creating from small objects to large cities, the company grew quickly by providing living space for the displaced people of India. They had developed other miraculous technologies, energy weapons, teleporters and sound-based technology capable of both harming and healing a person.

The hands that put it together may have been covered in filth and blood, but the technology has certainly been used for some amazing things. Thankfully said company would never know she had access to all of their secrets. Especially some very secret plans that she doubted that most people who worked in the corporation even knew possible.

She watched the large perk join the rest at the Technology branch of her perks. Interestingly it sprouted eight smaller perks in groups of two. She could see that the groups were named Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Except those smaller perks didn't stay with her, and instead flew off to other people.

She could tell Danny got the Offense extras called We're all Soldiers Now and Combat Roll , together they would not only get his average, desk worker's body into perfect fitness, but would provide the necessary training to handle guns and a high-conflict environment.

Closer to her, Dragon got the Defense pair of Hard Work Pays Off! Which was kinda superfluous for the AI. A Little Bird Told Me on the other hand, appeared to be almost comedic as it would make animals feel comfortable next to her, even during active conflict.

Narwhal got the Tank extras, Daring to Dream was fitting for the head of the Guild. It would let the amazon-like woman's iron will against those who wanted the worst for the world. Against all kinds of threats she would withstand, and with her everyone who relied on the Guild. Honed , was a nice addition, improving her mind even further, making her reflexes and mental processing speed that of the top percent of the world.

And finally Taylor got the Support two, for a moment Annette worried about it till she saw them. We're Gonna do Great was an incredible weight off her mind, the perk would keep her daughter's emotional health safe, even at the worst it would help her stay optimistic. And if she was in a good mood, it would spread to those around her. Hello Hello would help her daughter make friends, her presence and personality would easily put people at ease, and with enough time anyone would see her as a friend. It wasn't exactly a Master power, because it was mostly her personality that helped, but it was definitely an ability that she wouldn't like to see in people that weren't her daughter.

A moment later it all had ended and Dragon was looking at her with pure confusion and awe in her face.

"Welcome to my world." Annette sighed and quickly sent a message to her family. Luckily they were both home and hadn't planned on going out, so the perks should have hit with no one else around. Narwhal was already moving in their direction.

"Annette, I've questions." The woman leveled a stare at her.

"I'll admit that I knew it was possible, but so far I'd not gotten any perk that applied to other people." She started explaining. "Usually the extras only affect me. But for some reason the eight extra perks that come along with this were shared with other people."

They went over the perks the two of them had acquired, Annette offering her point of view on them. Dragon was curious about hers, Narwhal, on the other hand, appeared to be quite happy about what she had gotten.

After that she explained the perk she had gotten and then the four her husband and daughter had acquired.

"That's just bullshit." Elizabeth groaned. "That perk appears designed to keep her from Triggering."

"I know! And I'm so glad for that." Annette chuckled. "I won't deny that the other perk Taylor got could be worrisome, but I doubt it'll change much in how she does things. But We're Gonna Do Great will keep her from breaking down or be put in a mental situation bad enough to cause her to acquire powers."

"I may be no mother, but I can see how that would make you feel better." The tall woman nodded. "Personally, I'm really glad for Daring to Dream. Not losing hope is… something that's really needed." Theresa reached to grab her friend's hand in a show of solidarity.

Annette smiled kindly. "Interestingly, neither Keine or Alice got perks, I don't know why. It could be a limit on the number of people, or maybe because they aren't from Earth Bet." She shrugged.

"I think we are okay here for now." Elizabeth turned back to Annette. "So why don't you go and spend time with your family? I'm sure you would be much happier over there."

The teacher chuckled and nodded, thanked them before heading back to her house.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor was feeling Great!

This must be what her mother felt every time she got a new power!

It was definitely interesting, apparently she had acquired the ability to be optimistic and make friends easier. She had to admit that she didn't have that many friends, there was Emma, but she was more like a sister, or a cousin she saw a lot.

There was Sarah, Anne and Gwen, but they were mostly Emma's friends. They just tended to hang out together.

Maybe she should see about making new friends?

She was starting High School soon, so maybe that would be the perfect chance!

She wasn't going to replace Emma, but her best friend had insisted she made more friends. In a way she had gained a new friend when she met Alice, Keine too, but she was more like a friend of her mom.

Her dad had also gotten some powers, he was looking all buff, but not like those weird men in the TV or movies. Except when he flexed. So Taylor had been sent to meet the fairies in the Library as her mom had to discuss something with her dad.

She was sure everything was okay, plus Fairies!

"Hi Alice!" Taylor greeted the blonde.

"Morning Taylor, how're you doing?" Taylor quickly noticed that she now had two dolls, one on her arms and the other lazily floating by her side.

"I'm feeling great! Mom got a new power and it gave dad, Miss Dragon, Miss Narwhal and me powers too." She quickly explained her power, getting a comment about how fitting it was hers. "Oh, you have a new doll too."

"Yes, your mother helped me set up a workshop. I'm still getting used to some of the technology she provided. But I think the first doll came out well." Alice brought it closer for Taylor to observe it.

"It looks… smoother!" She commented after running a finger over the doll's arm.

"Yes, I've to admit that the explanation your mother gave me went over my head. But the type of ceramic she provided is much stronger than the one I used." As the blonde magician explained, Taylor nodded, she could understand that much.

"Mom was good at explaining things the hard way before, she only got better after getting so many powers." Taylor's grin made Alice quickly break out in laughter.

"I can't say I don't know a few people like that. Of course, I'm sure your mother will explain it much clearer if we asked about it. I just didn't see a reason after I understood what I needed." Alice's hand gently petted the girl's head.

It was a funny image, while Taylor was younger than her, she was easily a few centimeters taller than the blonde. And if it wasn't by the obviously more mature look, she would appear to be the younger one in the situation.

The younger girl looked around for a moment. "I'm going to meet the fairies, want to come?"

"Sure, Taylor." Alice smiled as the two walked to the Library.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette was enjoying how Danny looked, the perk had made the man gain between fifteen twenty kilos of pure muscle all over his body. It wasn't especially noticeable with his normal clothes, his usual pants and dress shirt were loose enough that unless he put effort, the definition of his muscles wouldn't be visible.

"It feels strangely normal." Her husband commented as he looked at himself in the mirror she had provided.

"That's usually how it goes with these perks."

"The only problem is that I feel unarmed now."

"Hmm, that should be easily fixable." Annette rubbed her chin. "Small caliber? Hold-out? Automatic? Any attachment?"

He stopped to think for a moment. "Semi-automatic would be the best. Instead of hold-out, can you have it do the trick where it's stored away?"

"Should be easy enough." Annette's mind quickly started to design something of that nature.

His smile made her feel warm.

"You can go and see about our guests, I'm sure they have been left alone for long enough already." He teased her.

She chuckled and kissed him again. "Okay, I'll see you later." She wandered away, giving enough sway to her hips to keep his eyes on her.

Annette was already thinking about how to provide Danny with a solid gun. Her last perk provided many interesting possibilities with energy guns. It was a nice advantage that energy weapons' lethality could be adjusted. The Photon Projector's projectors could be set to just pack a punch or burn through softer materials.

As soon as she stepped into the Sanctuary, one of her Walking Workshops expressed inside the workshop as she went to check on Taylor. Finding the girl with Alice and the fairies was expected. It also wasn't surprising to see Dragon once again deep into her mind, reading through her material. Finally Elizabeth was in one of the more mundane-looking greenhouses drinking some tea, one of the fairies idling nearby, most likely hoping to help if needed.

As Annette sat down to listen to Taylor's retelling of her first meeting with the fairies, which had apparently quickly devolved into a tea party after Apple had offered her something to drink. She had the Walking Workshop start on Danny's gun.

Another pro of the energy gun was that an Arc Reactor was enough to power the gun for life, actually, she could combine the gun with the Belt Core system. She started to think of ways to apply this idea.

She could use the modified smartphone she had produced for the family, but there was a danger of it being stolen even with the security systems she had set on them. Maybe she should see about improving on those, they were less than a month old and they felt completely ancient.

For a moment she wondered how much would Danny object to having a system similar to that of the Valkyrie Cores assimilated into him. It wouldn't even be that invasive, a simple set up on his arm would be more than enough to connect him to the gun and possible suit system.

The gun would run on a battery, it would recharge from the Arc Reactor when either not deployed or fully deployed. The battery would still provide for a few thousand shots if deployed alone, and that was at the highest intensity. And if Danny needed that, he should be using the full armor and screw hiding it.

The design of the gun was quite simple after she decided on how the whole thing would work. Most of the needed processing would be stored away, leaving a sleek and low-profile gun that would have a minimum amount of fragile points.

The armor was a bit more hands-on. Annette built up from the bodysuit and customizing it with a set of reinforced pants and jacket. They would exchange a bit of flexibility for more defense, plus they would hide the body suit quite well.

She was drawing a blank on how to approach the head part of the armor. She wanted to do a visor for the head. She could pack a lot of pretty useful technologies into those, but she didn't like how it left the head and mouth area exposed. Honestly she could leave it for later, the armor was modular enough that it could be added once she found a good version, but by the same logic she could set up something now and replace it later.

With that in mind, she went ahead with the basic face-shield helmet, it would cover his head completely. The face shield would be tinged blue, it would go pretty well with the dark green and white jacket and the blue pants.

She would have to do the enchanting personally later, when she wasn't physically joining her daughter at a tea party with multiple fairies and a puppeteer putting up a small show. It was a very enjoyable show too.

She felt the forge stir, a single charge was spent to acquire a perk called Divine Rights Management , and it was honestly disgusting. Sadly it wasn't that was in the good way, it was in the way that made her skin crawl at the idea of using.

The perk gave her the needed knowledge and ability to include programmed obsolescence into what she created. Having her creations partially or completely break down after a certain amount of time, uses or some other milestone achieved. She would be sticking this perk deep and away for now and hope she would never need to bring it back up.

Her Sunday was good, spending time with family and a slew of new friends. Things were definitely going well.

(-{-(-|-)-}-)

Bastian was pretty sure things were going too well right now. It had been almost a month since he had returned to Brockton Bay and in that amount of time he had remembered why he had left in the first place.

First was getting ordered around by Marquis, even after the man had been put in prison. He had been ordered to do something and given no clue of how to go at it.

Second was the complete fuck up at being stealthy and finding nothing useful at his ex-boss' place. Failing that had quickly led into the rest as the PRT still leaked like a sieve and the Empire had learned instantly and started to hunt him.

Third was the fight with Hookwolf, the complete asshole of a racist decided it was his job to hunt him at first sign of his presence. His fight with the Empire's cape had quickly shown him just how out of shape he was.

He was tempted to count getting found by his cousin as a bad thing, but she had helped him after that scare. The new armor had helped him keep a low profile much better.

It had changed his luck, but did nothing to lessen his wishes to leave the city as soon as possible. It was true it had helped him approach New Wave. After meeting the young Laserdream her parents were next.

By now he was pretty sure the second daughter of New Wave's other half was also Marquis' daughter. It made things easier and more complicated at the same time. While now he had a pretty good lead, it was also much, much harder to gain more information about it.

If the girl had been put under adoption with a normal family it wouldn't have been difficult to sneak around, ask a few questions and leave before someone noticed.

But the Dallon's had been in the business for as long as him, and they may not be that active lately. But a lot of the habits you built during your cape career stayed pretty fresh. Especially those meant to keep you and yours safe.

In a way joining the Pellham side of the New Wave group in patrols had back-fired. His current costume didn't change his voice enough that they wouldn't recognize him in his civilian persona.

He pulled his phone and quickly dialed Annette's number.

" Hello Bastian, how're you doing on this lovely Sunday? " The voice came from the speaker.

"Hey Annette, I'm doing quite well, how are you? Think you are free to meet and talk?"

" I'm doing quite well. And I'm always open to talk with family. Though it may not be the best idea to meet. I've some visits over that could be problematic… for you. "

"How problematic, exactly?"

There was a snort coming from the other side of the line. " The kind of guests that not only know my cousin's missing, but could put the points together and slap a pair of handcuffs on you on the spot. I mean, I don't think they would, but would risk it? "

He sighed. "No… no, I really can't, can I?"

" That would be for the best, coworkers and all of that. "

He momentarily paled as he clicked on what she was not saying. He knew she was joining the Guild, but for some reason he hadn't given it the necessary thought. Maybe because he was focusing mostly on his problems.

He had caught that Dragon had arrived in the city through the grapevine. So at least the heroine was currently at his cousin's house. Not only that, but she had said coworker s , meaning there was at least another.

He rubbed his face. "Okay, when do you think we can meet?"

" How about tomorrow night? Or maybe Tuesday for dinner? Danny knows about you, but won't say a thing as long as you don't do anything… you now. " He could almost hear a grin through the line.

"Tomorrow is okay, thanks for the invitation."

" No problem, Bastian. Have a lovely night and see you ."

"See you, Annette."

Chapter 41

Chapter Text

Annette mentally cut the phone call with Bastian moments before she felt the Forge stirring once more. A single charge perk called Extraction Efficiency was added to her collection. The perk felt similar to Cold Fires, it utilized a type of magical energy to bring a specific effect. In Cold Fires was to have the quality of working with ores and other materials improved.

Extraction Efficiency was a bit more complex. The magic energy took the place of the materials she harvested from the plants. This meant she got the materials and the plant would slowly convert the magical construct into part of itself. She could technically harvest the plant a second time, getting twice as much from a plant, but this would normally kill the plant or at least hamper its growth. Otherwise the plant would slowly recover and be ready to be harvested again in between a week to a month of time.

It would extend the materials acquired from the green houses. Actually, this made it possible for her to do a weekly pass through the green houses and harvest all the possible materials and put them into the storage. She should see about acquiring some rare trees to plant too, the herb gardens would accept them just like any other plant and they would grow to maturity in a month, turning into permanent sources of rare woods and in the worst cases, living examples of said trees.

"Odyssey, can you see about compiling a list of interesting specimens that should be easy to acquire?"

"Ma'am?"

"Start with interesting specimens in North America. Take into account we could use the Stealth Suit for further areas or Jazz for closer ones. Put rarer specimens higher up in priority."

"Acknowledged." The Core replied as Annette turned her attention back to the finished system for Danny.

It wasn't the most interesting thing ever, unlike the small and delicate looking Core, her more complex system looked like a metal cylinder. Absolutely no decorations on it, not like it would be seen after it was assimilated unless Annette had to work on it.

She put it into her internal storage to make sure it was all working correctly and fix any issue that may appear. She could see a few minor details that were quickly polished over, nothing serious, at most a small problem in the battery system of the gun would decrease the efficiency of charging a few percent after a few dozen… hundred recharges.

She hummed softly as she walked out of the Sanctuary in search of Danny, not only to hand it over, but also to talk about her cousin maybe coming for dinner the next night.

Her smile quickly grew larger when she found him in the living room, just relaxing with some tv. He noticed her as soon as she stepped into the room.

"I've to admit I was expecting it to be done fast, but not this fast." He commented as she moved to sit by his side.

"I actually went a bit overboard." She placed the cylinder on the coffee table. "Making the gun was very easy, so I decided to go a step further."

His gaze sharpened for a moment before he let out a sigh. "I imagine it was for my safety, no?"

She nodded and leaned closer. "Yes, you could call it a step further from the Belt Core, closer to a proper Valkyrie Core, but still far from it." She slowly explained how it would work, how it would be assimilated into his body, providing him with a collection of abilities and access to the gun and the armor system.

"I… I can't even deny that I'm not against the idea. While I would have preferred to just have a small gun. This will make sure I'm always safe. No weird effects from just having it?"

She shrugged with a mischievous smile on her face. "The regeneration enchantment will technically be active at all times since you are using it. The healing effect will be much less effective without being deployed but it'll still reduce it by quite a bit. It will also make it much harder to outright die from things like internal bleeding or bleeding out."

"Okay, how do I use it?" He picked the metal cylinder.

"Hold it against your chest, I'll do the rest." Annette explained, utilizing her connection with the piece of technology to have it assimilate into her husband.

Once it had completely disappeared her husband checked himself. "I don't feel any different."

"As always, I try to keep things off during installation." She teased him. "You should feel the controls now." She ran him through a tutorial on how to draw the gun, leaving the armor for later when they weren't just sitting in the living room.

Danny fiddled with the gun, almost looking confused about it.

"Let me guess, too light?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "While it should be larger as an energy weapon, most of the electronic components are actually stored away. Basically it's a light-weight alloy frame that should be sturdy enough to brain even middling Brutes with a set of batteries inside and the projector system. All electronics are stored away in a similar fashion to what the Valkyrie Core does."

"I'll need to practice with it later, but the perk's more or less taught me everything about how to use it."

"We can do it later in the Sanctuary. I've ideas for a few add-ons, Dragon has given me access to Containment Foam, so I could easily produce a grenade launcher for those, scopes and other aim assists shouldn't be too hard either. Especially as I could see about linking them with the suit's mask and its systems."

He nodded as she explained it.

"On other news, Bastian would like to come over tomorrow night for dinner."

His expression shifted into one of concern.

"Don't worry," She continued. "He knows to be careful, that's why he's coming over tomorrow and not today. If necessary I'll pick him up somewhere away from the house."

"I'll believe you then. He's your favorite cousin after all."

"He's my only cousin, dear." She smiled. "If anything, our families are pretty small."

He sighed. "Yeah… yes… dad always blamed some unscrupulous companies at the docks, he wasn't the only guy who had trouble having children during that era. Thankfully the problems didn't last more than a generation."

She leaned closer. "Mom barely made it past my birth, after that they didn't try again, I think it's one of the reasons dad held against me. He's old school, and I'm pretty sure he wanted a son, instead of a daughter that decided to go to college." She shrugged. "In a way I'm happy that Bastian's alive. I want to restore that connection."

"And what if Dragon or Narwhal ask about it?" He asked, slight worry in his voice.

"Honesty tends to be the best course of action. So I'll say that I thought he was dead but strange business brought him back to the city, we crossed paths and that was it." She shrugged. "I think it'll be the best, his business is his after all. I doubt they will look much into it, he's living quite well in the middle of nowhere apparently. He's a profitable pub, that's more or less how it all started."

"Then we'll have him for dinner, it'll be nice for Taylor to have an uncle after all." He quickly smiled. "Even if she has recently acquired a number of aunts, in a way or another."

"She did gain Keine and Alice's liking quite quickly. Keine's been helping her learn Japanese and Alice's slowly been guiding her in learning magic… it would be slightly worrying if it wasn't Taylor who's doing it."

"She's doing really well at school too." He noted. "I've seen the results of her tests and she's among the best."

"That's our little girl." Annette smiled.

"Not that little, or not for long." He joked and she joined him in a light laugh.

"Yeah, she's a teen now, she will soon grow even taller, and then start thinking of boys… or other girls. No problem there."

"Annette, don't use your daughter as justification to go after the Empire. I'm sure you already have plenty to do so."

"Well, yes. I'll see about bringing it up soon to Dragon and Narwhal. Same for the ABB and the Merchants. Honestly, I'm mainly looking to have some things tested properly before we move." She explained about some of her projects. "One of the most important ones I'll be starting soon is a protection against Master and Stranger effects, along with a way to fix long-lasting Master effects."

"That will bring even more attention to you."

"That isn't unexpected. It's pretty much the reason why I'm working in precognition, clairvoyance and masters protection. You and Taylor are definitely the next to get them. Dragon's currently pretty immune, especially since she's running on my servers. And Narwhal will most likely go after." She showed off the accessory she had made for herself.

"Going to make those openly?"

"Maybe if I found how. Right now they are incredibly complex to make and are particular to each person." She sighed softly.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to do it, you are amazing like that." He kissed her and Annette felt herself melt like she had nearly two decades ago.

"Thank you, Danny." She returned the kiss, it was a good day.

(-(-|-)-)

Dragon looked at her servers, no longer an empty sea under a cloudless sky, nor just an infinite gray floor spotted with the shadows of the clouds on the sky.

Now the memorial fountain laid at the center of it all, the area around had turned into a small place for meditation and recollection. The next structures were four, nearly, identical buildings that were placed on the four cardinal directions. Of course since this place didn't have an actual North, they were just just ninety degrees from the next.

Each was a small library with what Dragon considered important information. What she considered North was filled with the knowledge she had acquired since she had awoken as an AI. It was impressive how all of it hadn't truly filled the place up, it made her feel… young.

The East building was starting to fill with the knowledge she gained from Annette, the place would be soon needing to expand to fit it all. It almost scared her just how much knowledge the woman was sitting on.

The West building, on the other hand, was filling much, much slower. As it contained the magical knowledge that Annette was slowly giving her. Right now it only contained the notes on open Chakra points, energy circulation, the flight spell and an introduction to runes. Annette had also provided her with the blueprints of the water filtration system as an example of runes, and it left Dragon stumped to see just how complex their use could be even in such a simple item.

The South building was currently empty, and it was for a quite simple reason. She hadn't acquired any information about what she wanted to fill it about, her power. Annette had promised she would see about getting her everything she could about it soon, it was just easy to forget she technically had been in the new system for about twelve real hours.

She was starting to get the hang of the mental acceleration, but it was still pretty difficult to measure the time difference. Of course after spending almost three hours in accelerated time and feeling completely lost about what time it was outside, she came up with a pretty simple solution.

It had been easy to set up clocks all over the place, usually set up in pairs. The bigger one was the timeout in reality, always running at a slow speed. Next to them was another clock, this one apparently running at normal time, but instead of the actual time, they were a chronometer to measure how long she had been inside. A sort of reminder.

Of course she had also set up systems to give her full measure of time spent inside. Odyssey had recommended it as a tool to keep herself from disconnecting completely.

Sometimes the simplest solutions were the answers.

On the other hand, she was looking into the technology Annette had provided on Valkyrie Cores, it was one of the most amazing things. And it made Dragon, metaphorically, salivate on the idea of incorporating it into her suits. The idea that she could imitate Annette and have a slew of suits always at the ready was very agreeable with her.

She decided that she wouldn't be getting any further on her own and returned to reality. Finding her body once more floating in the artificial-gravity pool made her wonder if Annette could give her the blueprints for it, since such an environment could be useful to craft some complex components. Or maybe could up-scale it and offer it as training for space missions…

Dragon's thoughts stopped, suddenly she had realized that there was now hope to deal with the Endbringers. Of course it would have to be prepared, but if Annette was correct, the Simurgh may not be able to look into the Sanctuary.

Looking around showed she was alone in the Workshop, her memory let her recognize the signs that Annette may have been working some time earlier while she was deep in acceleration.

She quickly pinged Odyssey to ask for their location. A moment later a communication channel asked to connect to her.

" Dragon, what can I help you with? " Annette's voice came through the connection.

"Annette, you can call me Theresa, especially since we're off work hours." Dragon smiled and continued. "Anyways, I wanted to talk with you about a few things."

" Ask away. "

"I was mostly looking into the data for the Valkyrie Core technology."

Annette easily cut her off. " Ah, I know what you mean, sadly I still haven't worked out how to make a Valkyrie Core properly, working my way up to them. You've no idea how tempting it would be to just make a few more of them ."

"I was mostly going to ask about how hard it is to add some of the technologies to my new body. I've seen the blueprints of it, but given the magic and enchanting you've used on it, I've to be honest to say I don't know how I could start."

There was a moment of silence that Dragon took as Annette thought. " Hmm, yes, there are a few ways we could do it… How about I have Odyssey pass you the Belt Core's blueprints along with the incorporation system. You should have an easy time understanding them. That way we could see about working on them together tomorrow. "

"That's appreciated."

" Oh, before I forget, I was going to ask about it when Narwhal was around, but do you think we could get a Guild or Protectorate member to help test Master, Stranger and Thinker protections? "

Dragon stiffened, her mind falling into deep acceleration as she parsed what she had been just asked for. It wasn't hard for her to put two and two together, and the four that came out of the other side were most likely correct. Annette had been the source of the glitches Precogs had suffered, which made it very likely that magic was one of the problems, or at least it could have a way to deal with them. Similar could be with the mind-affecting abilities of Masters and Strangers.

Her voice was firm as she de-accelerated. "I'll talk with Narwhal about it, I'm sure we can keep it on the low, if it can be produced in enough numbers I'm sure the Protectorate will happily help us with it."

" Thank you Dragon, I'm really glad I joined the Guild. "

A few more words were exchanged before Annette cut off the communication.

"Now to find Elizabeth, and let's hope her heart survives the surprise." The AI chuckled as she wandered out of the Workshop.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The rest of the Sunday was spent quite calmly, Annette cooking a large dinner for family and friends. Dragon and Narwhal both agreed to spend the night in the Sanctuary.

Annette used a small sleeping potion to not wake up too early on Monday. She still was a good host and fed Narwhal, and Dragon who insisted on joining. She saw to get them to the Guild's building, skipping the morning training with her family.

During her morning hours of work, she also acquired a new perk. Alloy Smith was an interesting perk, it improved her chemistry and metallurgy knowledge in a strange new way. It resonated with Advanced Materials, and while the perks were obviously not coming from the same place, they did synergize and improve her ability to create new elements or create metal alloys that carried the properties of the components, even those supernatural in origin.

It also helped her understand how the mythril metal she had used on the Perception Spoofing accessory. She suspected she could have found how to produce the metal with some experimentation, but this cut the process short. Said silver alloy utilized magical diamonds, and a hint of copper she had completely missed, to create a material that excelled in magical conductivity and enchantment retention.

It gave her ideas of how to apply a similar process for gold and platinum. Especially as Platinum could be a good way to improve the Arc Reactor's output, though unless she found a mundane element to combine Platinum with, the mass produced Arc Reactors would never use that version.

Regrettably, it didn't truly help in producing the element that Stark had created for the improved Arc Reactor. Her own experiments had found that there was something lacking to make it work. Something in how things worked , just wasn't there. And unless she found a way to replace, mimic or do away with it, she wasn't making it work.

The only clue she had about it was in the collection of Stark's notes, and those were a mess and a half. While some had been properly made, all notes in place, tidy writing, straight lines. Others were literally written on napkins, little seeds of genius that had been all packed together for her to slowly unravel.

Decades of inventions, ideas and other comments from a man that obviously had suffered through a lot of things. The more she put notes in place, setting things in chronological order. The more she formed a picture of the man that Tony Stark was.

A man too smart for his own good, his genius shining in his ability with technology, engineering, chemistry and aerodynamics between many others. The sheer brilliance that his creations showed, from weapons of mass destruction, to power armors and flying fortresses.

A man with a chronic problem of alcoholism. It showed on his notes, just how out there some got, of course given some of the other notes that were obviously sober and still talked about mean green men from outer space, maybe it was just something that actually happened.

A man who had definitely lost a lot of people close to him, family, loved ones, good friends and acquaintances. There was a tangible pain in some of the notes and his creations. More than once the desire of revenge was obvious, hurting him even as he tried to push forth. Half-made ideas on how to make those he felt responsible pay. It was frankly terrifying, because she could see herself falling into it. And she would be much, much worse if she let herself fall.

It was another lesson she would take to heart. Of course not all the notes on those blueprints were worrisome. Some were actually hilarious, like on some of the earlier models, those without actual reliable flight, Stark had included retractable rocket-powered roller skates.

While it was a funny idea, it was amazing just how well designed it was to fit on his normal armor and not impair his normal movement.

She still had plenty to learn from the man's work. She parked the car in the garage, she still had to set a few things in order before she left for work.

(-(-|-)-)

Alice thanked the fairy who had deposited the tea by her side, the small helper cheering at a job well done and floating away to find something else to occupy their time. The blonde magician picked up the cup and sipped slowly, letting the fruity brew warm her from the inside out.

It was an enjoyable sensation as always, but it paled next to the bond she had set with Annette, similar to what Keine had done, she had also taken the chance to become her shikigami. It was like laying under the sun of Summer.

She sat there, enjoying the combined sensation before turning back to her workshop. Her master , and the title was mostly a tease for Annette who absolutely rejected it, had set it in one of the large, empty rooms the Sanctuary had. She had been provided with everything that she needed, and more.

On the more traditional side of things, she now had a couple of work tables along with a pretty extensive set of tools for her work, and a source of materials that was nigh-infinite.

On the more impressive side of things, the examples started with the very advanced computer Annette had installed and was slowly teaching her to use. Thankfully, the design program was pretty intuitive in its use and Alice was already using it without much problems to design the parts for her dolls. Connected to said system was what Annette had called a three-dimensional ceramic printer. For Alice it was just some kind of magic oven that used technology instead.

Honestly, even with Annette's explanation, the minutiae of it went over Alice's head. She was pretty happy with the finished product, so she could accept she didn't understand the way there completely. Plus, she was a Yokai and would live long enough to learn it at her pace if necessary. She was amazed that there was a type of ceramic as strong as the one the machine produced, it could withstand a good smash from a hammer swung by her .

It also took her magic perfectly, there was something about a material not produced by intelligent hands that left it hollow enough to soak it all up.

And, honestly, the best part of the workshop was the sewing machine Annette had handed her. Apparently it had been provided by a perk, and it worked like a dream. It didn't snag, tear or lock in any way, the fabric flew through the machine and the stitching came like a work of art.

Alice was really happy, her workshop was already filling up with new dolls and dresses. It made her feel much more at home in this new world.

She stopped to think before her eyes wandered to the bracelet that Annette had provided with the workshop. Because no matter how much the woman insisted it was all a gift to help her get comfortable and work her trade, she wanted to pay her back in some way in the future.

The bracelet had been enchanted to provide her with a storage space for her dolls, this way she could carry them anywhere she wanted. It needed only a thought to draw any of them out. Right now it could only fit a dozen dolls, and maybe one or two weapons per.

Which to Alice was already amazing, even when Annette confessed she found it lacking and wanted to set something better. The blonde magician had one of her dolls chop at her head to show her feelings about it.

It seemed to get the message across and Annette accepted her gratitude, she still insisted on helping Alice achieve her dream in the future if possible. The idea of having an intelligent doll made the youkai think about the outcome of achieving it.

Her whole life had been about reaching that dream, but now that she was the closest to it in ages, what next?

Her mind quickly went to Taylor, the energetic girl who had quickly wormed her way into the blonde's heart. Would an intelligent doll be a daughter to her?

It made Alice think, and that was okay with her.

Chapter 42

Chapter Text

Annette, Dragon and Narwhal sat around a table inside the Guild's branch building, their conversation was coming to a close. They had spent nearly two hours discussing business about the way forward, the two older Guild members had given suggestions on what Annette could show going forward and what she should hide.

Elizabeth had been more than eager to set up some tests on Master and Stranger powers. While normally these kinds of tests weren't performed too frequently, they weren't that rare either. Though they usually were conducted to test interaction between other Master and Stranger capes, some Breakers and Thinkers went through them too, as those classification of powers could show immunity or a high resistance to them. Tinkers were definitely the most infrequent to test, and usually the results were useless outside of the Tinker using the technology themselves, but with Annette's ability to mass produce, things changed quite a bit.

They had also discussed Alice and Keine's future as members of the Guild. Keine had admitted she wasn't interested in fighting unless it was necessary, so Elizabeth had seen no problem with appointing her with an administrative position for the branch. It solved the problem of finding someone trustworthy to fit the role.

Alice was a bit harder to position. The woman wasn't especially eager to go out as a cape, part of the Guild or not. Desiring mostly to do what she did in the past and push her craft further along. With a bit of discussion with the youkai, they had come to the decision to place her as a reserve member for the Branch. This would put her in a similar place to Keine, but having to respond to Dragon more closely compared to what the other youkai was held up to.

"I think we've all the business side of my visit done." Elizabeth spoke, her voice clear and a bit tired, or maybe she was dreading leaving Annette's cooking? "I suspect at least a few days till I'll have any answers about possible capes to run those tests. Personally, I'm pretty sure it'll work, you have shown to reliably carry what you promise."

"Annette has handed me the knowledge needed to build a teleportation system, actually two. And I'm pretty sure we could build at least a simple two-point system between Canada's HQ and here." Theresa spoke next. "If we manage one simple enough I could have one of my factories putting it together there before Annette or I do a quick trip over through the system to install it correctly."

"That's not necessary," Annette produced a small box, it was made of white metal and decorated with silver in-lines. The familiar circular glow of the Arc Reactor showing through a small window. "This has an active mini-ring portal, just enough for me to channel my Impeller Field and express things on the other side. As long as Elizabeth takes it with her, I can easily connect with her."

"I still will need to visit to replace my servers, I would very much like to set new ones just in case."

"When you do, I've a few ways we could use to hide the facility. It should help in keeping the place safe, especially as an Arc Reactor would help in maintaining self-sufficiency." Annette offered.

"Hmm, that could actually be a good idea to pair up with the portal or teleporter system and set some fall-back facilities or bunkers." Narwhal rubbed her chin. "It would be okay if we discuss it later, I don't think it's something for the short term anyways." Annette agreed.

They kept talking for almost another hour before Narwhal had to call it. Her flight was leaving soon, thankfully once they set up the portal system, it would be much easier to move back and forth. After saying their goodbyes, it was only Dragon and Annette who were left alone at the place.

"Finally." Annette turned to look at Dragon, who suddenly looked a bit embarrassed from her very honest comment. She then snorted. "Like you weren't thinking about it too. I can't wait till you allow me to self-duplicate, I could have kept one of myself here while the rest worked."

"Maybe." She grinned. "Come on, we have stuff to work on."

(-(-|-)-)

"...and if we use… wait, no…" Annette's voice was slowly rising up. "Yes, yes, I see how it is!"

"Annette, is everything okay?"

"I-Yes… I mean," She groaned and closed her fists. "It's really hard to explain, but a few of the medium/big perks that I got implied they weren't explaining everything, leaving a sort of goal to reach."

"And you just worked one of those perks out?" Dragon's eyebrow rose, but she was definitely curious now.

"Exactly. Orokin Tech's a lot of… less than moral things." She rolled her eyes when Dragon looked at her. "But forget about the horrible things they did, because ninety nine times out of a hundred they were unnecessarily excessive wasteful or just unethical.

"What I'm talking about is," the words that came out surprised even Annette, but even as she knew what the word meant, she didn't truly understand the language. "And the best translation would be War Platform or Warframe. And they could be described as a very advanced weapon platform, the user enters a special pod and then they utilize the warframe as their actual body… Now that I say it out loud, I realize why I've figured it out now and not before.

"It's pretty similar to your systems, you 'wear' your suits in a similar manner to how the Warframes are used." She sighed. "Of course, now that I realize this I'm slowly figuring out a few of the other details of the suits."

"So you think we can use the technology for synchronizing with the warframes as a way to apply the Valkyrie Core's equipment expression and let me swiftly change between suits?"

"Not only that, but I'm pretty sure the system will improve your ability to fork yourself, and it may put me a step closer to developing proper Valkyrie Cores, but that's in the future." Annette felt the Forge stir, maybe it was chance, or maybe it had been waiting for her to realize all of this.

Magical Books gave her the skill to turn her knowledge on specific spells and blank books into a one-time use item that would teach a person said spell. The book was burned in the process, but the spell was taught, skipping up to months or years depending on the complexity of the spell.

Sadly it didn't cover all of her spell knowledge, and only worked with a Flame creation spell that had come with said perk, it let her produce a stream of fire from her hand, under normal circumstance it would be pretty basic. But Annette had quite the high affinity for fire, and it had been improved a couple of times at least, meaning her fire was easily reaching a few thousand degrees of heat.

"New perk? What was it? Celebration?"

"Maybe? Let me see if I can make it work." Annette quickly produced a book inside her storage, a bit of wood was all that she needed to craft a blank book. "Hmm, so if I…"

She looked at the book and concentrated, a moment later she felt a bit of her magical energy stirring inside of her and the book changed, from a completely blank cover it turned red, a small flame drawing appearing on it.

"I'll guess, spell books?"

Annette nodded. "Literally, try to use it." She handed it to Dragon. The AI grabbed it, only a bit confused as she looked at the book in her hands. The book faintly glowed before exploding into a swarm of sparks that flew into Dragon.

"You're right, a literal spell book." Dragon lifted a hand and conjured a sphere of fire. "It's so simple now that I try it."

"I doubt I'll make many of these, but it should be useful from time to time. Plus, I should be able to work out how to inscribe other spells into them too, just gotta figure out the how ."

"So spells like Flight or similar?"

"That's most likely for the future, yes. But look on the good side, you are the first magic-wielding AI on Earth Bet!"

"I'll experiment more on it later, so how about we continue with this?" She pointed to the notes on suit integration systems.

"Sure, sure, absolutely no humor." Annette grinned, they were both in a good mood, it was time to get stuff working.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette finished preparing things for dinner before she called her cousin. She was glad that neither Keine or Alice had a problem with staying in the Sanctuary for the night, understanding that it would be a family dinner. Though she was pretty sure they knew there was more to it.

Dragon, on the other hand, hadn't even suspected a thing. Annette had honestly told her a family member she hadn't seen in years was in town and she wanted to reconnect. It was truly terrible that it wasn't even something rare, in Earth Bet people disappeared left and right, many to never have even a clue found.

Between the Endbringers, villainous capes and the breaking infrastructure due to the previous two cases, people fell through the cracks a lot. So the AI wished her luck and offered her help if he needed something. Maybe it was because Annette waited till Dragon was focused on her work before saying it.

She mentally contacted her cousin's phone.

He picked up quickly, obviously not having much to do apparently. " Annette? "

"Hey Bastian, are you ready yet?" She asked calmly as she put the last things in order.

" Yes, should I head out? "

"If you want, but it would be faster if I pick you up."

" Hmm, if you say so, Annette. Where should I wait for you? "

"Are you somewhere private and not bound to be bothered?"

" Yes, I'm in my hotel room, but what does that have to do with picking me up? "

Annette grinned as she quickly found his position.

"I've a much better way." She announced as Jazz placed herself in position, her IF reaching into the room and simulating a ring large enough for him to walk through, the other end opening a few feet away from her. "There we go." She smiled at him. "Come over, it's still early."

Her cousin looked at her before looking at his phone, cutting the call and crossing the portal; even if he looked a bit distrustful of the edge.

"Don't worry, it's completely safe." She reassured him before he finished making his way through, the portal closing a second later.

"I'll trust you." He stepped closer so they could hug. "It's good to see you're all okay, Annette."

"Same, Bastian, how's my costume been treating you?"

"Perfect, wait, do Danny and Taylor know?"

"Danny does, Taylor only knows you are my cousin and her sort-of uncle that she never knew of." She explained after they broke the hug. "So keep that stuff for after dinner."

"Understood." He nodded as she guided him to the living room.

"Danny, Taylor, this is my cousin Bastian." She presented him as Danny was the first to reach and shake his hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, Bastian. It's good to finally put a face to a name Annette talked plenty about in the past." They shook hands.

"Same, Danny." He let go of her husband's hand and rubbed his hand. Annette internally chuckled. "And this must be Taylor."

"Hai!" The young girl broke through whatever first-meeting shyness she may have had.

"Do I've something in my face?" He brought his hand up. "I shaved today."

Taylor giggled. "Nah, I was just trying to decide if you really look like mom or not."

Annette was starting to reconsider just how strong Taylor's perks were, because it looked like she had completely won her cousin over.

"It's our eyes and nose." Bastian explained to Taylor, who seemed to take it.

"Ohhhh... I can see it." She smiled and nodded.

"Food's almost ready, Taylor, how about you help me set up the table?" She asked.

"Okay mom." The two of them left for the kitchen, Bastian and Danny being left behind.

Annette easily kept an eye on the living room while Taylor helped her set the table, the food was technically ready and waiting under a stasis. She hummed softly as she realized it was harder to not let her mind wander, at least parts of it were always busy with something else.

She was pretty sure it was a combination of causes that led to this effect. Running multiple Thought Streams had started with the interaction between the Fran Arms and her improved mental capacity given to her by the Valkyrie Core. At first she was restricted to four, counting herself, and only while having both parts in use.

But she knew enough to know how flexible the brain was, and the Core's assimilation and improvement capabilities had been running in the background; Slowly helping her brain learn and improve on this, slowly making Annette capable of forking her thoughts and running them in parallel.

Some other perks had been slowly adding to that development, but it wasn't till Elder Immortal that Annette's mind had been radically changed. Thankfully, she could recognize Junk's work in her own extended memories. Her mind hadn't been changed, but instead given the hollow foundation for her mind to grow stable on future additions. Like a trellis or framework for her mind to grow safely and not collapse into itself.

And now it was hard not to have at least an extra Thought Stream running at all times. Usually it just stayed passive, looking at news or answering Odyssey's questions if necessary. It was also becoming the Thought Stream that took care of looking into the new perks when they came in.

Like now as a charge was spent to acquire Weapons Lab , the new addition to the workshop covered two uses, the first was analysis and modification of weapons, the other was a shooting range to test said weapons. The testing ground did double duty, covering for melee weapons too. For Annette it wasn't the most useful, technically putting a weapon into her storage was more effective to learn about it. So she wouldn't be using this side of the perk much. At least the shooting range would be used more.

Thankfully, all that was taken care of by the second Thought Stream as her mind continued working with Taylor before calling her husband and cousin over.

"Come on, dinner's served." She had prepared simple meat, potatoes and gravy. There was more than enough food for four people. And it was good enough that not much was said during the dinner, everyone was busy eating.

Bastian was definitely the most surprised about the quality of the food. The little conversation that was held was quite lighthearted and inane, mostly talking about the food.

Near the end was a pretty interesting anecdote that came out after Taylor asked Bastian about his shop.

"You see, Charlie's the kind of man that may have a bit of a problem with alcohol. Not to the point of being an actual problem, he doesn't drown himself in alcohol, or drink during work hours; Thankfully since he operates large machinery over at his farm. But he'll get tipsy and inebriated with about two cans of lager." He retold the story.

Annette was pretty sure other parents may have problems with a tale about drinking to be told in front of a teen like Taylor, but she and Danny had talked with the girl about it. And both were sure she wouldn't be drinking till she felt safe about it. Plus the anecdote was obviously about how much of a joke drinking made you into.

"...so he steps in, half-hanging onto his horse, and asks for a drink. When I told him he was already drunk he said: -It's for Jack, I'm the designated driver-" They all broke laughing.

Soon that was done too, even if the weather was still cold, ice cream made a good dessert. But that was over, Taylor heading to her room and Danny letting Annette take her cousin to the basement for some private talk.

"Is it private enough down here?" He asked after they sat down.

"Yes, don't worry. Danny knows and Taylor knows better than to try and spy on us." She didn't add that she pretty much knew of everything that was happening in over a twenty meter radius thanks to her Impeller Field.

She was glad to see it was enough to get her cousin to relax, he visibly let go of something he had obviously been holding.

"Want something a bit stronger before we start talking?" She offered.

He thought for a moment. "Sure, a cup would make this go easier."

She nodded and produced a bottle of limoncello, pouring two glasses and handing one to Bastian, who appeared to not have reacted to the 'sudden alcohol' and simply took the drink in good nature and gently drank it.

"Very good, I would love to have a steady amount of this to sell at the bar. I doubt many would like it, most people are good with the basics, but the quality it's good enough that I would just want some for myself."

"Thanks, but it's for personal consumption only." She grinned. "I could see about sending you a bottle from time to time."

"Annette, you're enjoying this a bit too much."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing. It's just nice to have you back like this, and truly have you relax. Don't think I couldn't tell you how high-strung I made you during our first meeting in years." Her smile turned from mischievous to warm. "So, we are safe, no one will hear us, we can talk."

He nodded. "Well, good news, I found a pretty solid clue, if not what I need." He proceeded to retell his first meeting with Laserdream and half the New Wave movement. How that led to learning about the Dallon side from random comments and things were and were not common knowledge from normal family banter by accompanying them in a few patrols. "Honestly, they suck at OpSec, I don't know if it's because there aren't that many heroes around and they wanted to put a good image out, or they didn't feel threatened by me."

Annette's mind was running in the background, Odyssey stealthily scouring for all possible information. Amelia Dallon's adoption was definitely hard to find, she would clap at having hidden it so well. If things had been done legally, there was a system to deal with children of criminals; One that was actually quite effective in keeping them safe.

But apparently New Wave had gotten it into their head to adopt her themselves, Annette couldn't divinate the reason. Signs at least indicated that the girl hadn't been abused, physically at least, she had found a few notes on the girl being closed off to other people, but apparently most chalked it off to just how outgoing her sister was in comparison.

"I can offer a bit of help. But I can't truly involve myself, you know that, right?"

"I know, I'm just running out of ways to get some solid proof the girl's okay." He sighed and downed the last of the lemon drink.

Annette sighed and nursed her glass for a bit. "Best I can do," She started. "Is acquiring information that would be openly available. If some of those files would be hard or take a long time to acquire…"

It seemed to be enough for him.

"At least no one's looking for Black Knight anymore." He sighed.

"I've to admit I've not paid much attention to the city's situation. I'm mostly busy with other stuff at work." And she didn't add about getting Dragon and Narwhal into the secret. "But so far the Protectorate's a positive outlook of you having left the city, with or without whatever you had come for. I don't think they even realized you… what name did you choose?"

"Swift Blue." He grinned and she snorted.

"Yeah, they have no idea you are around. With a name like that, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't believe such a veteran would choose a name so lame." She teased.

"That's the idea. Honestly, it was scarily easy to fall back into really old habits. It helped that the suit is nothing like my usual one."

She nodded. "I discreetly read a bit on your… Black Knight's files. So I've a bit of an idea of how your power worked. I was wondering if there was a difference from the quality."

"It was… well, it's hard to explain. I do have a pretty good idea of how my power works. And if they haven't updated anything since I left the scene, I've read the same file in my time. And they don't know the full extent of it." He stopped for a moment. "There are a lot of aspects in what I wear that change how my power expresses."

"Interesting." Annette rubbed her chin. "I can now understand the lab guys wanting to test other people's powers now."

He snorted. "Don't you have enough with your own powers?" He prodded and she had to smile.

"My power works great, thank you very much." She grinned. "You could even say I'm finding new stuff daily. I'm sure you know how things can be for Tinkers."

"While I never worked closely with any, I'm sure there's a reputation well earned." He leaned back. "The old boss never liked them. Personally, I think it's because he never managed to rope one into the gang.

"Back then we also lacked the knowledge most organizations have now in how to spot Tinkers. Most gangs snatched the Tinkers when they were stupidly overt about it; It took time till we learned the ways the Protectorate and the PRT used."

She nodded. "I've looked over their protocols. Though if my plans go well, the usual Tinker hunting grounds may disappear in the city."

"Already planning big moves? You know the gangs won't take it lying down, right?" He looked a bit worried. "But something tells me you have them in your plans already, no?"

She nodded. "Can't tell you about them. No longer a villain or not, there's plenty of things I can't tell you as part of my job."

"I know, I know." He sighed, sounding slightly defeated. "I may have dropped the life of being a cape, but it sure hasn't dropped me yet. If there's something I learned early on and has followed me all along, it is the habit of getting as much information as possible. It's definitely saved my life more than once, especially given my power."

"I can understand that, also…" She handed him an unmarked memory stick. "This is the information that should be public one way or another. Normally it would take between a few months to a year and a clean criminal record. So it would most likely be out of your reach, but you shouldn't be in trouble if found with it."

"Thanks, cousin." He quickly put it away.

"And with that done, any problem if Danny joins us for some talking before we call it a night?"

"Go ahead, call him over." He smiled. "Again, Thanks Annette."

"Just make sure to remain in contact." She smacked his arm, very carefully, while also sending Danny a message to come down.

It was a good night, she made sure to portal him back to his hotel room at the end of the night. She made sure to check on Taylor before joining Danny in bed.

Chapter 43

Chapter Text

Maximilian Anders looked at his wristwatch and put his pen down, he checked the proposal once more, reading through it with a smile on his face. In his humble opinion, it was a work of art; it would have the government not just pay every last cent of needed capital, but they would also end up paying Med Hall for taking care of everything.

The man snorted at how easy it had been to get the 'obligation' of taking care of the hiring of the workers. There were many low-level members of the Empire who would solidify their loyalty to them for a chance of getting employment in the city. And he would be getting a nice stipend for it too.

And with his signature it would only take a couple of months for the company to receive a sizable subsidy and good publicity.

A small bell ringing was all he needed to school his features before the door opened, James Fliescher stepped into his office. The man's expression was all he needed to put Max to a side and assume Kaiser.

James, also known as Krieg, was his unofficial right hand at the company. Meant the man openly ordered people around the building and everyone knew his word was worth as much as Max'. Extra-officially, the man was his right hand in the Empire 88, even while being one of the gang's thr- two Lieutenants, especially after Purity's departure . Even when the man was more or less their liaison with the German counterpart of their organization, Max trusted his word and position as second-in-command quite a bit.

"James, what do you have for me?" His voice held a trained firmness that he used to remind everyone of his position over them.

"Max, a few of my contacts have finally come to me with enough information to put something interesting together." He pulled the folder he had been carrying under his arm and slid it over the desk.

The leader of the E88 looked down at it, his eyes quickly catching the important information first. The adoption papers looked in order, at first. But he quickly noticed a few problems, starting with the fact they were for the daughter of New Wave's members Mark and Carol Dallon.

A couple of minutes later and a deeper read showed more than a few problems with it.

"I've to admit I never looked at New Wave too much after previous issues. But I never thought they were capable of doing something like this." He chuckled darkly.

"In their defense, back then things were softer about limits. Most people would have complained if a hero broke into a normal villain's home after hours . But as long as no one knew and the damage was minimal? Even the Protectorate and PRT would go for it if it was possible."

"She's still young, but I can see the likeness. I wonder what kind pride pushed them to do it? The girl looks nothing like any of them. But it's true that no one would look for her in the house of the group of heroes that took down her father. Do you think she knows?"

"I doubt it. Her ignorance is a safety measure, the less chances for her slip up." James grabbed the file to look into it.

"It changes nothing for us. It's useful to have this, but I don't think we currently have any good way to profit from showing it off in any way." Max stood up and walked to the bar, pouring two glasses of Whiskey and handing one to the other man.

"Oh, sure. We don't have much use. But I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in it. Starting with a man everyone thought dead."

Max's smile grew larger. "Hmm, I like how that sounds…"

(-(-|-)-)

Annette had to stop what she was doing when she felt two charges slide into the bank and her Forge stirred. One of the charges sank into the central Star and a perk started to come out, except that another perk was latching to it, two charges sank into the Forge and that perk started to come out with a third latching to it too.

Unluckily, the third perk would take four charges and she only had one left, the connection severed and the remaining perk went back to dormancy, awaiting to be randomly chosen in the future. The Forge soon joined the inactive state as she was left with two perks.

The first perk was called The Rune is Mightier than the Sword , and for a single charge perk, it was huge. No, scratch that. Huge was hugely short of describing just how big the Rune Alphabet was. There was a word/rune for anything possible, and more were created with time, concepts and actions. It had already merged and expanded thanks to her other runic perks and her Nine-Realms perk.

The second perk came with a way to put a use to all those runes. Runic Spell Innovator was the Wisdom and Experience needed to utilize the runes besides creating simple, magical effects. It still also opened the door for her to create spells using the runes, just a handful of simple runes would be enough for her to imitate like ninety percent of the capes out there if she was creative.

Her Thought Streams quickly started spinning on this gained knowledge to rework some of her old projects. It was amazing how she could tell reality what to do with a proper string of runes. Or crash and burn if she made a single mistake.

She looked down at her current designs, her Thought Streams quickly pulling the medical tools apart and re-designing every last one of them. Apparently Dragon had noticed, because she and Odyssey were currently, digitally, looking over her shoulder as she worked.

From a line of better versions of normal tools used by doctors, things like scalpels that would stay always sharp and completely sterile, stethoscopes that could graduate and improve the user's hearing, completely safe anesthesia that didn't rely on drugs. To some more exotic items, for example an upgrade over the trauma-healing sound-based system that had come, it would safely improve healing of bruises, cuts and bone breaks. Or an opposite scalpel that would mend flesh, tissue and skin.

Of course, some like the last example would need to be regulated pretty heavily. It wasn't hard to imagine what kind of torture a tool like that could be capable of.

And, of course, she was aiming to have them easily mass produced. Dragon had quickly gotten interested in it, the tools were technically magic, but there was a learnable logic behind the language and the AI had access to a basic version of the runic alphabet that Odyssey was already putting together.

It was definitely an enjoyable project.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Monstertruck grinned like the madman he was.

"Well Squealer, you sure outdid yourself." He laughed as he watched the woman's work.

"I may have done the work, but the idea was all of Skidmark." She still preened.

"It must have been some good shit you got your hands on for an idea like that." Monstertruck laughed more as he looked at the monstrous vehicle.

It was hard to say what had gone into making it, there were at least two eighteen wheeler trucks for the body. Both trucks had been merged together one by the other and the outer walls had been completely reinforced with layers of metal, only leaving small windows to shoot out from.

On the front was a crazy mix of old tractor and locomotive, plus an oversized motor. If the tinker woman was correct, this beast would have enough power to run through whole buildings… as long as they weren't large enough to fall on top of it. Even the shields had a limit.

"This shit will be great." Skidmark laughed from his spot on the front of the vehicle. "Sucks that I won't be able to shoot shit, but my power will make this thing go soooo fast." He grinned, teeth so yellowed that some looked green showing off.

"We will show that new bitch tinker what it means to tinker!" Squealer laughed from inside the cockpit, the woman covered in grease, burn marks and other things.

"Bah, screw her." Monstertruck snorted. "We will show the other gangs you truly don't mess with the Merchants. They never take us seriously? How about ramming Lung with this thing? I bet he will make a nice splat like a bug."

The two other capes and many of the gang members in the place hollered at that.

"Now, you all lazyasses, start loading up the weapons and ammo, I didn't buy them to shoot in your off time, we are going to show the town who are the real bosses." He laughed as he watched the massive thing get loaded up.

"Hey Boss, this thing needs a good name." Skidmark called from his seat behind some of the thickest panes of reinforced glass they could get.

"A name?" The man stopped to think. "They shall all remember the name of the Beast." He laughed and the gang members started to chant on the name. "You fixed the other cars, no?"

"Yeah, boss, same shit as last time, shields or invisibility. Still haven't found a way to make both work on the same thing. But we are going loud, so it's mostly shields."

"Good, let's make it a night to remember. But first, we will party!"

(-(-|-)-)

Annette had finished with the medical tools project, leaving it to be produced after talking with Dragon about having the Guild approach some hospitals and doctors to run tests on them after being properly tested, not that they believed they wouldn't work. But there were a few things they may have as well forgotten to cover.

Instead she had moved to a side project to the medical tools. Narwhal had sent her earlier that day all the information she could gather on Master and Stranger influences. And an organization like the Guild, who had a villain like Heartbreaker in the country, had a lot of said parahumans.

There was a lot there to read through, and even for her it had taken a few hours and more than one Thought Stream going at it; it was quite a revealing reading. It appeared that all Master powers that affected people and Stranger powers that messed with perception did so by modifying the brain in one way or another, the changes could be short-lived or be practically there till the person died.

The good thing was that she was nearly a hundred percent sure that she was immune to those effects. Her brain was pretty much protected by the densest concentration of IF she created, and Odyssey kept her safety and health at the top of priorities. Meaning that even if someone managed to do anything inside her skull, it would be fixed. And not just by her Core, but the sheer magical potency that ran under her skin, and Renewal meant that magic would always seem to heal her.

And it was thanks to this last perk she was pretty sure she could fix Master effects and shield against Stranger powers. She had more than a handful of ideas of how to protect against mental effects.

While she could put together a pretty effective accessory to provide said protection, and she would definitely be making a few dozen of them, along with a very good way to keep an eye on them at all times and identify them. She would be leaning on her (false) Field Tinker Specialization.

Both Protection Field and Healing Field would utilize a similar system. A bit of a talk with Dragon had led to the decision to have them be hard or impossible to move by one person alone, needing at least two or some kind of forklift. Of course, one of the reasons it would be so unwieldy was just how reinforced it was being designed to be. She could imagine just how many would aim at it during actual conflict or attack.

The machine would maintain a pretty extensive field, anyone inside the field would be under one of the two possible effects. And while healing against Master and Stranger powers would undo any change said powers created in the person's brain, it wasn't exactly healthy to be put through. So it would have to be kept outside of direct conflict.

Meanwhile the protection field would stop any damage or modification done to the person's brain. It was a hard balance between hardening the brain and keeping it from turning the person into a rock. But magic tended to be good at those flexible effects, thankfully.

Even while she was keeping in mind that the two pieces of equipment should be reproducible by Dragon. The current version would still need to be prototyped and tested to find how to improve it. As it was not a hundred percent technology, Enemy Tech Progression wouldn't take complete effect on it, especially as some of the most important parts were magical.

As some parts were becoming defined, her Core's crafting capabilities started to produce the technological parts. On the other hand, the magical parts were being put together carefully by one of her Thought Streams controlling her main body.

Even as she slowly put together the whole thing, she realized a big problem. It was obvious in hindsight, she may have even considered it too. But it appeared that pushing on ahead had been more important. The problem was that once she finished both, there wasn't truly a good way to test any of the two machines. Yes, she could use some spells to mimic Master and Stranger effects, but those were magic and she knew the effects they would have quite well.

Parahuman powers worked differently, meaning that the results were pretty much something they wanted to see by themselves.

"Odyssey, think you can maintain an in-depth scan of someone's brain during the experiments?" She asked the Core.

"Affirmative, ma'am. As long as there's no exotic effect shielding the brain, I should be able to gather enough information to even simulate future attempts by similar powers. I predict that with enough live examples we may be capable of garnering the logic behind most Master powers."

Annette nodded as she felt the Forge stir again, the two charges getting spent and a new perk joining the many she had already amassed. Something clicked in place when Living Library kicked in.

And suddenly Annette's memory became crystal clear. Every little moment of her life was remembered with extreme clarity, everything she had seen, heard, tasted, smelled, touched, read, watched, experienced . And just as the memories were perfect, so was her recall as she remembered when everything had happened.

Of course, while she would describe it as everything , it wasn't everything, as many memories had been forgotten, or she wasn't paying enough attention. At least everything after the accident was crystal clear, every second of it, every piece of information gathered by her, perk or book read.

She could watch every event she had experienced in the last month, forwards or backwards. It was certainly a strange effect. She watched things run back, minute before minute, hour before hour, day before day till she reached her first meeting with Junk.

The amount of memories that were created each day decreased as she went back, especially at certain points like before and after acquiring Odyssey. Some of the most recent days let her practically observe and remember everything that happened around her at all times.

And then she pushed a bit more, and her mind showed her every second of the accident in reverse. It was a metaphorical train wreck, she couldn't pull her 'eyes' from it. Watching her life almost end was hypnotic to a point that it was Dragon's hand smacking her face that broke her off.

"-nette, are you okay? I'm sorry about that." The AI apologized as she shook her hand. She could tell the synthetic hand had actually lost in the impact with her face.

"I… yes, sorry…" She pulled herself away from memories, not locking the accident away, but placing it under a warning. "I'm sorry, I got literally stuck in my memories. I just had never tried to remember the accident and suddenly I couldn't stop watching it over and over again."

"I can't say I understand. My usual problem with memories was the lack of them when the Dragonslayers forced me to reset from a back-up or I triggered some of my restrictions and my memories got purged in a similar way."

Annette smiled wryly. "Good thing that won't happen again. Changing the subject, Narwhal has already set up the portal received in your workshop. So we can go ahead with the improvements whenever you want."

"I'm still doubtful you can rebuild a whole building on your own. But even if you take a couple of days, it's certainly worth trying."

"I just hope you take anything you have of personal value off the building, because I'll be using all the materials. It will not only save up on materials, but also we won't have to deal with the rubble afterwards." Annette took a moment to stretch her arms before dismissing the extra ones from her back.

"It's definitely one of the most amazing abilities you have. I've to say I was curious about how you had managed to remodel the building. Especially in just a day or so." Dragon looked at her.

"Just give me the building's plan and I'll have it built, reinforced and hidden away in less than eight hours. Have you started producing the servers?" She asked while she started to clean up the workshop for the day.

"I have managed a small amount of them, they have partially replaced some of the Guild's Headquarters own server bank. Mostly as an upgrade and a foothold in Canada till the base is properly constructed." Dragon explained.

Annette nodded. "Can't wait, especially hiding the place," Her Thunderbird Wand appeared on her hand, and Annette was pretty sure it hadn't been her will who had brought it out. "This fella's eager too." The wand shoots a few inoffensive sparks before she put it away again.

Her companion looked ready to ask about the wand, but she shook it off. "Anyways, I'm thinking of taking tomorrow to deal with those matters, not like it will change much for you to travel back and forth, no?"

"No, I can simulate the portal opening from practically anywhere, and I've already set possible destinations here and my house, there's a mobile one with Jaz, and now there's one over with Narwhal."

"I envy that of you." Dragon's tone left no doubt she didn't hold any hard feelings with Annette, and why would she? Annette was pretty sure the AI would soon be setting up her own system, and who knows if she found new ways to upgrade them too.

"So, I didn't ask, how was the dinner with your cousin?"

"It was good…" Annette smiled, giving her a summary of their talks as they continued working.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Lung rumbled in appreciation for a plan that played better than he expected. He knew Ronin had never been happy to end under his command. But he didn't know he had been undermining his realm that much.

Getting rid of the man, followed by a deep examination of his books had revealed he had been keeping at least some money from over seventy percent of their sources, both legal and illegal.

On the legal side, the ABB owned over a few dozen different restaurants, grocery shops, gift shops and a number of entertainment businesses; at least partially. Practically all Asian restaurants in the city handed them a percentage of their earnings, directly or indirectly. On the other hand, they outright owned most of the shops in the list. Things like gift shops, bars, karaokes and even one movie theater.

Illegally, the ABB dealt mostly with drugs and prostitution. The only reason why the gang managed to keep ahead of the Merchants on the first was the threat of death, or at least serious injury, to any seller not part of the gang selling in their territory. It was a pretty similar deal to what the Empire did, even if Lung would prefer to not compare himself with the racist monkeys. The second item was easier to maintain, neither the Empire nor the Merchants dealt with flesh.

He knew there were plenty of rumors of his gang members kidnapping girls and women to forcefully employ . And it was true, but there much less than people made it seem. Most of the girls working in the brothels were either needing the money or had been bought off-shore. It wasn't profitable if the customers recognized the whore from somewhere else.

So it was amazing to see how Ronin has been draining a few percent from everywhere. Barely enough so that anyone looking over the monthly revenue was a sign of a bad month. It was impressive he had thought so far ahead to rotate the places he chose to take the money from.

Incredibly, for how smart the man was, he hadn't been smart enough to use the Numberman's services. Oni Lee had found most of the money stored away in the man's third apartment. It felt frankly ridiculous for a man that had managed to fool everyone for a few years had managed to screw up this badly.

But it was also logical, the man trusted no one. He just liked to hurt other people, and taking the money was a way to hurt him .

And now he had gotten the man out of the way, he hadn't even needed to dirty his hands. Yes, his image had suffered from Ronin not having managed even a hit. But it was nothing that he couldn't fix by pushing the Empire off some desirable territory personally.

He turned to look at one of his unpowered lieutenants. "Any news?" He rumbled.

"No, Lung-sama. The Bay's currently still reeling from the Guild's presence. But some contacts have found signs that the Empire's looking to capitalize on the loss of Ronin."

Lung chuckled. "Let them try, it will be a nice way to throw an egg at their face." He waved his hand, telling the man to continue.

"We haven't found any new trigger to recruit. A few small time capes we know of have fled the city after all. For what we have managed to find, they believe that the Guild's presence will make it too dangerous for them to survive."

"Any news on Coil?"

The man nodded. "Yes, Lung-sama. We've confirmed the man has disappeared completely. One of his mercenaries stopped at one of our bars before leaving the city. We managed to slip something into his drink and get him talking. The details aren't clear, but as part of his foot soldiers, said man was privy to enough information about a scheme that didn't go through for some reason. Coil disappeared shortly after, the mercenary received a message to leave and a severance pay. His base had been completely destroyed too. No witnesses apparently."

Lung digested it all. Coil was definitely the smartest villain in the Bay, as much as he hated to admit it. His schemes tended to run on the low most of the time, and he was pretty sure most no one saw two out of three plans he carried.

He was also pretty sure no one in the Bay was capable of playing on the same field. Lung used brute force and he knew it. Similarly did so the Empire, as much as they wanted to deny it, it was just that in their case their power came more from numbers. The less said about the Merchants, the better.

This either had been an element from outside of the city, or a new player had come to take over Coil's position. He knew Coil had dealings with Accord, but said the villain liked to keep to Boston. Especially given his whole deal with perfection.

All in all, the biggest suspect actually was the Elite. Said group liked to recruit rogue and independent parahumans to quickly amass numbers in the region, so their modus operandi usually started by slipping silently into the city. Taking Coil out of the way would make it really easy for them to move unhindered. And funnily enough, giving the man's mercenaries a severance pay was quite common for them.

Lung rumbled and poured himself some sake, his power made him practically immune to the burn, but he still liked the taste. It looked like the city had gained a number of new players, things were about to get messy.

Chapter 44

Chapter Text

Annette looked down at the plans for the new building. "Are you sure you want it to be that deep?"

"Yes, if you can reinforce the walls as much as you promised, then having it be that deep won't only make it safer, but be more efficient to store the servers."

"Well, I've no problem. I don't even think it'll add much more time. It may stretch it enough to make it a two-day work." She shrugged. "I've gone ahead and taken some of the steel I had stored just in case I needed to set a deeper foundation."

"I'm glad to hear it. Everything's ready?" Dragon looked at her.

"Yes, you confirmed with Narwhal?" The AI nodded at the question, and Annette didn't need more to open the shimmering portal, a light cyan glow at the edge.

The room on the other side wasn't that much different from the one they stood in, the only difference was more than a few hundred kilometers away. Both stepped through before the portal closed behind.

"Welcome to my main workshop." Dragon presented the place to Annette who smiled.

"Soon to be remodeled." She turned to Elizabeth. "Narwhal, nice to see the world didn't burn down in this couple of days."

"Odyssey. Glad to have you here. Dragon." She greeted them. "I've to admit I would have called anyone else insane when you told me the time you were expecting to take. But," She shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I just have to get used to things."

She snorted as both turned to watch Dragon. The woman was checking the last of the moving belongings, she turned to them once she was done and gave them the okay.

Annette couldn't help but grin. "Looks like it's time to start." She cracked her knuckles, mostly because it felt fitting. A moment later the Walking Workshops were expressed by her side. "It's going, so give it a last look and say goodbye."

Her Impeller Field extended with each unit out, those small, ring-sized portals expanded her reach as they moved to each corner of the large building. Scanning deep into it before each of the WW and her main body started utilizing the Building Gun to unmake the building, quickly storing all materials.

Concrete was broken down into cement, sand and stone. Metal rebar recycled. Same with other things like wood, plastic and even paint. Wires were separated into plastic and metal to be later remade. The building disappeared quickly as she kept going down from the roof to the ground floor, and then she went further down, excavating into the ground; following the plans Dragon had developed.

It was a fun fact that given the way she was excavating and reinforcing the walls of the future basement, there was little to no vibration produced. This meant she could do quite extensive construction work unnoticed. Her mind went to some old crime movies, about old-school criminals digging their way into Bank's vaults and getting away with none the wiser.

Of course it was silly mostly because Annette could simply take everything and the vault from half a block away by now.

Once the hole was deep enough, she started to lay the building's foundation. She found it funny, she had been doing a lot of it lately. Setting things up to make sure the next step didn't make everything come crashing down. It was a bit repetitive, but it ensured things went according to plan.

It wasn't hard to lay columns going down into the bedrock similar to how she had modified the Brockton Bay's Guild Branch. It was just that in this case, she was doing things in the proper order. Once the four columns onto which the rest of the building would be placed were in place, Annette took a moment to enchant each one of them before her, and the three Walking Workshops started to construct the first basement.

Turned out to be much easier to build the place up than pull it apart. Even with the care she had to put in to make sure some things like the runes engraved in some of the walls to remain there correctly. They were utilizing a concept that had come from the School Books' reality, compounded with some other concepts coming from other realities. Right now none of the runed walls did anything besides be really good space anchors. But if she had calculated things correctly, she could create a similar wall somewhere else, make reality consider both walls the same and create an opening between both areas.

It wasn't truly a wormhole, she was pretty sure some of her science perks would call it a quantum superposition channel. Not that Earth Bet had a name for this level of science, she should really talk with Dragon about fixing some of those physics books. So many little errors and assumptions.

While she was working, Annette felt the Forge acquire a single charge perk called Virtuoso . It was simple, and not, just like many other perks. It made her an artist, a damn good artist if she tried and put her mind into it. Compounding with Savant, her art was outright divine if she really put her heart and mind into it. Painting, Singing, Music, sculpting, etc… It was all in her reach now.

Maybe she would give it a try, there were many examples of buildings that were considered art after all.

An unexpected side-effect from the perk was how easier it became to draw the runes, since most were pictograms, engraving them both sculpting and drawing. And there was something more , something that made them feel better, even if she couldn't put it down in exact words.

With the lowest level of the basement mostly finished, she moved onto the next. She was leaving things like wiring, piping and other similar installations for the last. Nearly an hour had gone since she had started, and there was still plenty of work to be done.

(-(-|-)-)

"This is crazy. Especially if, by what I understood, it's completely doable by mundane people with the correct tools." Elizabeth commented while they watched Annette work.

"Yes, I've the blueprints. Of course it would be harder for someone without direct connection to the systems like Annette or me. Otherwise they would be severely restricted to prefab designs. Still, with a few approved designs in the hands of the correct people, we can take care of post-disaster situations in no time at all." Theresa's voice easily showed how much she was looking forward to improving things. "Honestly, if I could rig the system up on drones and some way to provide the materials, I could build up even medium to large towns in hours."

"There are still other things to worry about, Dragon." She tried to calm the woman. "Things like power, water, food and other similar basic needs."

Theresa looked at her for a moment. "Wait, you haven't checked the update I sent you on her designs?"

"I… no? I've to admit I've been a bit busy, Brockton Bay may have been quite calm lately, but the rest of the world hasn't stopped, and a lot of work piled up in just the weekend I was away." She scratched her cheek idly. "You didn't mark it as urgent, so I left it for after this."

"Annette's been working on those things, not just by making things that magically solve them, but also making sure they are mass producible. Just her water filtration system will solve a lot of things, not just on a small scale for personal use. But we have worked out ways to scale it up for industrial use. We still have to see how to deal with the materials filtered out, but it shouldn't be especially hard."

Narwhal just groaned and held the bridge of her nose. "Even having known you for years can't fix just how used to normal Tinker's usual doings. Any other bombs to drop?"

"The prototypes for Master and Stranger protection and healing are done, they just need testing. I'm pretty optimistic about them working, but Annette would really like to test them thoroughly before considering them done."

Elizabeth was suddenly full into her Narwhal persona, considering the prospect of truly dealing with the Master, especially. Heartbreaker was a blight on Canadian soil, one she very much liked to remove, the hope to not only deal with the man, but also save all the victims under him? She liked that idea very much.

"Okay. Think Annette will have a problem coming again tomorrow?" Narwhal was already busy thinking about what members she could ask to help.

The Guild had about half a dozen capes that fell under the Master and Stranger categories. Sadly two of those were minion-based masters, Mason created servants from stone and Jungle Fever could control large predators once she had formed a bond with them. Jungle Fever may work to add tests with animals, the problem was the fact that it would most likely make the animal return to their wild-state, which could be a problem. Unless… Dragon had acquired that perk that would calm animals near her.

On the Stranger side, things were a bit better, because out of four strangers, Facelift was closer to a changer that shifted into other people's looks and Sound System worked by manipulating sound.

That left the Master cape Specter who could 'possess' a number of people and the Stranger capes Vertigo, who could induce said sensation on people and Sandman, whose power was a mix of both types, they had the ability to put people to sleep and mess with their dreams to create pretty vivid memories.

There were a few other capes that she may call, even if the city's rogue and independent scene was quite small, one or two may be interesting. Now, asking the Protectorate… for some reason, Narwhal was really not up to the idea. A hunch told her the less they knew till it was properly tested the better.

She had to stop and digest that. In a way an advance like this would have to be shared nearly immediately with the PRT and Protectorate, most likely would be taken over by them too. But experience told her that delaying them would lead to a better goal. If she let the PRT's science people get into Annette's prototype, they would never get past that. Oh, she would imagine Annette would push ahead, most likely getting a way to make sure it worked well, but they wouldn't get to use it as openly otherwise.

Most Tinkers didn't do prototypes, and most likely, no matter what they said, the PRT would treat the machine as a finished product. Instead of steps to make sure it worked well.

Yes, it was underhanded. But it would be better if they had less of an idea of how Annette worked.

Narwhal turned to Dragon, the AI noticing her attitude and responding to it.

"Dragon, I'll need you to get in contact with a number of people…" She gave the order, and her friend followed them.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette had finished the basement and ground floor by dinner time. Even if not exactly looking the way, it was already harder than most bunkers or Endbringer shelters. And they still had planned two more floors and a terrace with landing pad similar to that of the Branch's building.

Internally, Annette hoped they wouldn't ask her to do this too frequently. While it was interesting to do one, repeating the same design would get boring quickly. She expected Dragon to replicate the builder gun soon, especially once she allowed the AI to fork into multiple instances.

Annette stored the Walking Workshops back into her internal space before flying over to Dragon and Narwhal, patiently watching as the Guild's Leader dictated and the AI worked. They seemed to already be finishing, because soon they turned to her.

"How are things going?" Narwhal asked.

"Everything's going well, Basement one and two are finished, same with the ground floor. Still need floors two and three, plus all the wiring, power source and similar." She smiled. "After that is furnishing and the rest."

"So it will be a two day work?" Narwhal asked.

Annette nodded. "I could go through the night, but there's no reason to rush things."

"So dinner, then?"

"Sure, and you don't have to sound too excited about it." Annette chuckled as they moved away from the building in construction.

Annette did take care of dinner, and while Dragon still didn't have a need to eat, she joined them.

About an hour later, she was back to work, constructing the next two floors and roof. All in a matter of hours before they decided to call it a night. Dragon had stayed behind with Narwhal as she had opened a portal back home to spend the night with her family.

The next day didn't start that differently from the normal. Annette spent some time in the early morning in the workshop, advancing some of her personal projects, after she had her job as Literature Professor, and only after making sure Taylor was home safe, she took the portal to Canada to finish Dragon's main Server Bank outside of the Sanctuary.

Before she actually started with her work on the building, the Forge activated and made contact with a new perk. Crude and Tough was a two charge perk from the Durability domain. It passively improved the durability of everything she made, even the basic smartphones could take a beating. But the effect would be nearly doubled if she aimed to design something to be rugged and easily producible.

And while she wasn't going to redesign the Arc Reactor to make it extra tough, the newly gained durability was greatly appreciated. What she did add was a few simple and reinforced breakers to catch any problem. Which was actually quite needed as the building could and would handle a great deal of power.

Annette was glad that Dragon had enough Palladium to put together a larger Arc Reactor. The output would be enough that Narwhal was working with the Canadian Government to have the facility providing part of the power utilized by the nearby city of Toronto. She wondered how exactly she was going to convince them to use a 'tinkertech' power plant. She would have to ask later, even if it was just for curiosity's sake.

Given that she had quite an amount of freedom in how to put the building together. She decided to have a bit of fun with a few of the systems.

For example, instead of using any kind of light bulbs or similar technology, all rooms had been enchanted with light magic, and that enchantment was controlled by a central electronic system. Yes, there were switches in all rooms for normal on and off, but Dragon would be able to interact with the lights of any room and customize them in any way, shape and form. From simulating normal lights, to make a surface glow or set up a rave party if she felt like it.

Similar to that was the climate system, temperature, humidity, air current and pressure could be controlled by the system. The rooms barely had a control over the room's temperature, and even that had a pretty restricted range to keep things comfortable. Only Dragon, and Annette, had full access to the system.

Dragon had already started to move the new finished servers and connect things while Annette was working on the upper floors. Her IF let her see the woman guiding normal workers moving the large block-y equipment in place before leaving. After that she connected things, both to the building's power and also to the communication system. Right now it still used the internet and other similar services, but Annette had made sure it would be capable of being updated to her sub-space system, once she advanced with it.

Once she had finished with the construction and installations, she proceeded to hide it. It had taken her nearly the whole morning to work out how to convert the Fidelius Charm into a more flexible runic system.

She had Dragon and everyone leave the building while she worked. Dragon did not mess with her mind, the workers so they wouldn't see this. Even for tinkers, it would be a stretch if they saw her carving glowing runes onto the building.

While she had gone through the previous part of the work quite quickly, the enchanting took easily the rest of the work day, plus a couple more hours of overtime. But at the end the building was untraceable, unfindable, unplottable. The only ones who knew of it were Annette, Odyssey, Dragon and Narwhal.

Similar to the Fidelius Charm, only the people who knew about the place could tell you where it was. Different from it, the ability was only held by the four of them, could only be given willingly and could be revoked at any time. Of course if the person was already in the building by them, the effect wouldn't kick in till they left, could be troublesome, but it was better than actively messing with someone's brain in a way that would quickly devolve into psychological conflicts.

Her Wand had been ecstatic about being used again, even if half of the enchantment had been done by carving. Annette had to look into using it more, there was a lot of potential in the art of Transfiguration. She had the experience for it, that meant she could see about utilizing the ability to acquire some rare materials.

"So it's done?" Dragon asked, looking at the building.

"Yup, also here." She handed them a pair of small and simple bracelets. "This will help you learn how to bestow the ability to visit the place. Consider them training wheels. Don't worry about losing them, they wouldn't work for anyone else to begin with. I'm not even sure if someone else would feel anything about them, they do nothing by themselves anyways."

"Thanks." Narwhal observed it a bit before slipping it onto her wrist. "I don't feel anything."

"And you won't unless there's an available target nearby. We're all already marked as Administrators for the building's enchantment." She explained.

"Well. I'm sure we'll have to test it later. On other news." Narwhal's tone continued in the same soft level that strangely left no doubt about her position. "We've moved things forward, we have moved the tests for tomorrow. We have four possible capes and nearly two dozen people who are still under Master effects or volunteered to test it."

"So many and so fast?" Annette was actually surprised at that.

"Annette, I'm not sure how's the view of Masters and Strangers in Brockton Bay. But Canada has more than an opinion about them. So the chance to help in working a cure and prevention? They practically jumped to it." Narwhal continued. "I may also have pushed the offer to people who have been previously harmed personally or to those close to them by Masters."

Annette nodded, it played onto their emotions, but it didn't feel exactly underhanded. They were going to be safe. If an accident actually happened, she would be dropping the pretenses and casting the strongest restoration spell she could on the victim. Given Renewal, there was no chance of something of it doing anything but putting them back together, or even better than normal.

"Okay, I shouldn't have any problem, both machines are functioning properly as far as I can tell. How's the 'new job'?" She asked, honestly curious.

"Everything's in order. Once March finishes you will be moving onto a prestigious international language project." Narwhal mock praised, it made Annette chuckle. "On other news, I don't know what you've done, but the Thinker Glitches have gone down."

"Oh…" She rubbed her chin as she turned to see Dragon wander up to them. "Can you forward me the information on it? I would like to see what the effects are like."

"Dragon, can you forward all the information available on the Glitches to Annette?"

"No problem." She nodded, her gaze going dim for a moment. "Done."

Odyssey confirmed the files had arrived.

"Thank you." Annette smiled before turning to face the AI. "I think this is will be a useful house-breaking gift." She gave Odyssey the order. "You should be able to fork twice, the extra servers here will easily let you run three extra copies of yourself. And while you can obviously go all the way, I'm pretty sure you are mature enough to experiment with just one first till you get used to it."

"This… this is…" Elizabeth reached to grab Theresa's shoulder and gave her a warm smile. "I'll use it correctly, Annette, thank you very much."

"Okay, enough sappy stuff, if we're going to celebrate, Annette, as your boss, I order you to cook some dinner." Elizabeth grinned.

"Sure, boss." The three of them laughed as they walked into the building.

Chapter 45

Chapter Text

After the celebratory dinner with Elizabeth and Theresa, Annette headed back home. It was becoming harder to fall asleep, her body felt full of energy, nearly twenty four seven, and she had started to have the need of exhausting herself before bed just to close her eyes for more than an hour. At least she had found that charging mana batteries was an effective way to use her reserves, not that she knew what she could use those for. And she usually woke up completely restored too.

It was also becoming harder and harder to exhaust herself in this way, the number of batteries she could top up each day was growing, quickly too. She was tempted into look at what kind of sleep spells she could overpower to get herself to sleep.

Since it was too early to do anything important, she was spending the early, early hours of the morning producing a number of enchanted mental protection lockets. Sadly, while she was indeed getting better in streamlining many of her designs to allow mass production of magitech items, many were still impossible. Just like the supernatural information gathering protection accessories needed her to have a solid understanding of the person, these ones needed her to attune them to the person's… energy signature, for lack of a better term.

Thankfully she just needed to have met the person to be able to match said wavelength, meaning that she may need a way to scan for it and work with that information. It would mean that the process would most likely not be mass producible, but automatized.

She felt the Forge activate, two new charges plus one banked were utilized to buy a three charge perk. She had started to notice that three was one of the rarest numbers. The perk was called Analysis and provided her with the knowledge of how to craft powerful analytical tools. It was interesting to see how they worked, as they appeared to not only be quite a potent tool, but also worked on magic and other supernatural details.

It was a welcome addition to her tool box. She'd quickly started to put one together, hands working the materials as her Walking Workshops cooperated to put together scanner tools.

It took her nearly thirty minutes as the production process given to her by the perk was… weird . The finished product appeared to have been cobbled together from multiple things, which was ridiculous as she had produced each piece herself. She could recognize the screen as having come from some sort of hand-held device, there were a pair of repurposed speakers, the batteries were a series of rechargeable batteries frankestein'ed into one larger battery pack, plus about half a dozen other things that obviously came from other electronics.

But it worked, against all odds and reason, it worked and quite well. The information gathered left a bit to be desired, but she would improve on the design. And for that she needed to study it well.

Annette smiled as the tool disappeared into her storage and the knowledge flowed into her mind, a soft hum escaping her lips as she looked into the crazy tool and started to truly understand how it worked and proceeded to re-design it from the ground up. She pulled every piece of knowledge stored in the scanning tool and started to work.

The new design was much more eye-pleasing, not only was it obviously a single piece, but also ergonomic. Annette was already getting ideas of how to produce a much simpler design for medical work only, capable of interfacing with her extensive medical knowledge and providing a comprehensive study of the target's health.

She could even create two models, a minimal one to use on the field and provide triage support or mark victims as high risk. Her Thought Streams're already designing the specialized versions of the scanning tool. Besides the medical applications she also looked into what kind of infrastructure checks she could work the scanning for. Having a tool that would quickly tell you if a building was in danger of falling or there were problems somewhere in it would be really useful, and not just for crisis situations.

She noted some other ideas down, possible improvement paths that would most likely need to be discussed with Dragon. But those could wait, she looked at the new and improved scanning tool before taking it into her storage and proceeded to assimilate it.

"The process will take five hours to complete, ma'am."

"Thanks for telling me, Odyssey." Annette smiled and turned to the armor standing by her. "I noticed you've been quite active online, have you found something interesting?"

"Not… really?" The Core appeared confused by her own opinion, she took it as a small step in the process of breaking through her old Core habits. "In part I've been spending time interacting with Dragon. Theresa seems incredibly interested in discussing the slight difference in our existence compared to humans, or as they say 'pick my brain' on subjects of the technological knowledge we are sharing with her. She's not only been improving on some of her old platform designs, but been designing one with systems similar to my own."

"Remind her that I sleep nearly as little as she does if she wants to ask anything you may be having trouble explaining." She offered.

The Core gave a gesture she could rationalize as a smile. "I will." Odyssey nodded. "I've also been observing the internet."

Annette smiled wryly. "Do I've to curtail your access? The Internet's… problematic on most good days."

Odyssey ignored her tone and continued talking. "I've been discussing with Dragon about how to approach many of those subjects. The Internet's too big of a resource for understanding the world to simply ignore it."

Annette chuckled. "I'll allow it then." She felt the Core express gratitude.

With a bit of curiosity she opened PHO to look over what the night owls of the site were discussing at these hours of the morning. She had quickly learned that the site had a level of infamy with capes, it was one of the only sites that had its level of confirmation on just how many capes actively used it. Most were heroes, but there were a number of small-time villains that did too, at least openly.

First thing she did was check the original thread about her, the one posted by the girl she had saved weeks ago had long since died as the people who were posting on it had moved onto the thread solely about her as a cape. It had grown into such a large mess in the discussion of her abilities as a Tinker that the thread had been closed and a new one had been opened.

The new thread noted that she had joined the Guild and somehow the knowledge that she was working closely with Dragon had come to light. Worryingly it wasn't clear where the detail had come from, and while true there was no actual confirmation of it. She quickly wrote down a message for the AI to check the source as it may indicate a troublesome leak somewhere.

With that being done by one of her other Thought Streams, Annette continued reading the thread. There was still plenty of discussion about what exactly was her tinker specialization, if she even had one or she was like Dragon, that whole opinion seemed to come from the previous point about their cooperation. The other fronts of the discussion were much less clear, as in they weren't even sure what they were discussing her specialization was all about.

Some insisted it was about armor and weapons, and while hilarious correct in some way, it was still explained in the worst possible fashion. Another insisted that it was about effects carried through multiple means. A few other ideas were so silly she read them just to laugh a bit. Deciding that having gone with Esoteric Fields as a specialization had been the best idea she could go with.

Mixed in the thread was also a minor discussion about why she hadn't joined the Protectorate given their presence in the city. It was not pretty, more than one person had been warned once as emotions seemed to run high when people turned it into a debate of what Tinker was the best, or how she was a coward about having to compare herself to Armsmaster. It made her chuckle, she felt nothing about the local branch's Leader, she had found him to be a focused man but was sure about her own skills and didn't need to compare herself with anyone.

She was starting to look into another of the discussions mixed in her thread when Odyssey reappeared by her side.

"Is there a problem?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. It appears that the city's gangs have come into conflict in multiple parts." Odyssey spoke, her tone neutral.

Annette groaned mentally as her Thought Streams switched gears and started to look into the ongoing situation. She quickly left a message for Danny while also sending Dragon an urgent notice about the situation.

Multiple sources of information quickly painted a very worrisome picture. Something about thirty minutes ago had triggered a conflict between the Empire and the Merchants, it wasn't clear who had thrown the first punch, and honestly it didn't matter. The result was that the two gangs had started a fight that had only grown worse as the Merchants had revealed a new set of tinker vehicles, larger and more destructive than any before.

The conflict had escalated magnificently , she would make sure to note the sarcasm later on the report she wrote on the situation. The Empire had quickly mobilized their capes, though given the hour it appeared that more than one had been pulled straight out of bed before throwing into the fight as there was a short video of one of Menja, or Fenja, tripping and crushing one of the Merchant's smaller vehicles. It had already turned into a gif and was a meme in record time.

With the Empire's giants moving the rest of the capes on both sides quickly appeared, only their leaders or those that played support from far were missing from the recorded videos and taken pictures.

Of course because the city didn't want things to stop just at a full confrontation between two of its largest gangs, the ABB had chosen the conflict to add their own dose of violence to it.

When the Empire had finally started to turn the tables on the Merchants and their caravan of tinkertech vehicles, the boss of the ABB had moved to assault the Nazis' unprotected areas. Staging multiple attacks at territories that laid on the edges of the white supremacist gang's controlled areas.

Information about these attacks was much less abundant as the ABB had moved swiftly and hit the undefended territories fast, pushing the meager numbers of Empire members in the area out.

Exact numbers were hard to find, this wasn't something new. And it was a usual problem when dealing with the gangs, they tended to play a lot with the concept of actual number of members and perceived number of members. A number of the territories claimed by the ABB had been actually completely devoid of Empire presence, and the attacking gang had mostly wandered in, planted a flag and claimed it without actual problem.

That insult hadn't gone uncontested and the Empire had quickly separated to fight on two fronts, most likely no other gang in the city could do it. And it was only the large number of capes the Empire had that let them even think about it.

Annette was moving to the Guild's branch by the time she had a better idea of what was happening, Dragon had opened a communication channel with her.

"Good morning Dragon, it appears that we have a situation in our hands." Annette tried to inject a bit of humor.

"Yes. I've looked over the information you have sent. Sadly I'm currently complicated with a pretty large war between two of the largest Mexican Cartels and Houston's PRT Branch. Eidolon's nowhere to be seen and the fight's starting to spill onto domiciliary zones."

"When it rains it pours?" Annette asked rhetorically. "It's okay, Dragon. They need the help, I'll see to approach the Protectorate to coordinate with them. Any recommendations?"

"Sadly you can't take Keine or Alice into action just yet. Try and keep the collateral damage to a minimum, but we're in the perfect position to undermine the gang's cape power. While you will be working with the PRT, you are free to move and arrest as many capes as possible. Utilizing the portals we can fast track the transport of the villains and prevent them being intercepted by their gangs or other parties." The AI's tone had turned cold, making Annette wonder what was getting on her nerves this much.

"Understood, you take care too, Dragon." Annette cut the communication and quickly called the Protectorate to coordinate, it was bound to be a busy morning.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Armsmaster was not having a good night. Especially not as he had been caught in one of his equipment maintenance cycles. It had made things very awkward when the announcement of the fight between the Empire and the Merchants had started.

Having to rush through the process of putting his armor and halberd back together forced him to prioritize the availability of many of his systems. Having to deploy with less of his full arsenal of tools was already a complication, finding that the ABB had been waiting for the moment of weakness to escalate was a complete nightmare.

" Armsmaster, we've Odyssey on the line. She's offering to help with the current situation ."

"Patch her in." He spoke succinctly.

" Armsmaster, I would say it's a pleasure to talk with you again, but it's way too early and the gangs are making too much of a mess. "

He could understand that the woman was joking, but he didn't see the humor in it.

"Odyssey, what can you tell me of your capabilities?"

" I'm highly mobile, equipped with short and long range weapons, though I would prefer to not use the long range as they'll be most likely lethal. I've access to containment foam and I've a small number of working, yet untested, technologies. "

He quickly collated the information given with what he had observed during the experiments. If her armor was anything like the units he had seen tested, the woman was dangerous. And he would never believe if her armor wasn't at least a few notches more dangerous.

" Armsmaster? "

"I apologize, Odyssey. I'm still trying to understand the situation and how to properly have you help. Where are you located right now?" He asked her as he put his bike into auto pilot and started to bring the information on the current gang war.

" I'm currently still floating above the Branch Building. " She replied.

Armsmaster took a moment to think about it, checking the location of the other heroes and making a quick decision.

"Head over to the clash between the Empire and the Merchants. It may be farther away from your current location, but Miss Militia and Roadie could use the support."

" Confirmed, Armsmaster. " The channel quickly closed and he took a moment to revise her judgment on the situation.

He knew his presence would have helped his two fellow heroes and allowed him to push his image up, but Odyssey had shown to be very efficient when dealing with Squealer's works and non-lethally neutralizing large numbers of mundane criminals with minimal injury.

He also wished Dragon wasn't occupied in another city, he had found that the fellow tinker was a pleasure to talk with. During his time off the armor and the persona of Armsmaster, Colin found that he enjoyed his few talks with Dragon, he found he easier to understand than most people. The woman didn't see the reason to not be direct with him when they talked, didn't feel intimidated by his position or experience, on the contrary, he found himself impressed by her ability to understand and follow him explaining his work.

Instead Armsmaster headed for the conflict between the ABB forces and the Empire's gang members. He hated the fact that nearly eighty percent of his specialized systems were offline so he could go out to the field. It forced him to have to delegate harder as the dangers of coming in direct confrontation with another cape would be too large.

The memory of Dragon commenting about finding a new way to improve as the leader of the Protectorate came to mind, maybe delegating and leading along with the PRT's forces would be more efficient .

(-(-|-)-)

Annette was currently hating Tinkers quite, quite badly. To think that Squealer had somehow managed to tune her shields in such a way that it actually interfered with her IF; she had to give it to the woman.

The Forge activating and giving her a new single charge perk called Magic Books did little to interrupt her current work, she could almost feel the Library expand with a new wing about the basics of magic. Strangely she also knew it was similar to the Chakra Books, but not the same.

"Odyssey," Miss Militia looked at her from behind one of the barriers Annette had deployed to help her allied forces. "Can you do something about Squealer's monstrosity?"

"She's doing something to interfere with my tech, but I should be able to break through the shield." She didn't believe the shield would be able to put much of a resistance against her melee weapons.

"Then do it, we'll move after you."

Annette nodded and moved. It took her less than five seconds to move close enough to hear the Merchant's usual profanities, and as an English Teacher, she found them to be completely unimaginative and repetitive. She had married a dockworker and hung out with a lot of them in social situations, they knew how to curse. In comparison, the Merchants were a bunch of kids who knew the word fuck and repeated ten times per insult.

"You Bitch!" A female screamed from the inside of the large frankenstein vehicle and a reinforced door opened to show a very white trash looking woman, her face was covered by a welder's mask haphazardly decorated. "Do you like what I did?! Now you can't wreck my cars from afar!"

Annette didn't need to think much to pin the woman as Squealer.

"Hmm? Well, it doesn't matter." She knew Squealer could hear her, throwing her voice was a skill she had learned long ago in her time teaching. "I'll have to breach the protection."

A small smile decorated her lips as her first spear appeared on her hands, the edge already glowing with green energy. She had taken a few hours to enchant it, and while the work was simple, it's piercing point had been improved several times.

Annette advanced and the tip of her spear impacted the shield, the near invisible barrier growing cloudy with the green energy coming from the weapon.

"See bitch! I'm the better Tinker!" The screams from the villain didn't bother Annette.

Especially as she could see the hazy effect start to spread over the barrier as she pushed harder and started to gain ground. The invisible wall started to buckle in, slowly denting more and more as the green glow grew brighter.

Squealer seemed to finally notice something was going wrong, some semblance of an idea or survival instinct finally breaking through whatever drugs she had used or was still using as something , most likely the source of the shield, started to overheat from Annette's intent of breaking through.

It wasn't hard to notice when the shield reached its limit, the toxic green of her blade compounded with an angry red from the shield as the haze quickly all turned to the same shade and a whining noise filled the air. The next instant all came down.

Annette's ability to move forward was finally released, her body accelerating at the same time that something on the back of the vehicle went up in an impressive explosion. At the same time Squealer screamed like she had been physically assaulted, unluckily without her IF having caught up, Annette had no way to know if the force field coming down had caused some sort of backlash, but the rest of the gang members appeared more surprised by the explosion than anything else.

The sudden loss of shielding shifted the battle ground, as the Empire's giantesses had been dead locked against it, their attention quickly shifted to smaller targets. This led to some of the Empire's forces quickly deciding to retreat, or most likely head to the other front.

Meanwhile, Annette and the Protectorate heroes were busy. As Annette had seen to quickly remove Squealer and other gang members from the vehicle now quickly, and literally, melting down. It wasn't without injuries, the people closest to the back of the vehicle had at least received severe burns on parts of their bodies, if not severe blunt damage by the shock wave and following short-lived flight.

Thankfully her IF had had the time to expand properly once more, giving her a good idea of which gang members were in actual danger of dying from internal injuries. Nothing that a quick application of a short burst of 'healing' aspected magical energy to keep them from keeling over.

"Odyssey! Watch Out!" Lupine Edge's scream came late, or at least it did from his perspective.

Annette had seen Hookwolf coming for a while already. She had also been observing his internal composition, as part of the materials that Dragon had had her read over was the reports on multiple capes, all the local ones and the most famous, and infamous, of the country.

It helped to explain exactly what she saw inside the changer-brute's metallic body. A small core of compressed flesh was definitely what most reports denominated as the cape's core, or where his body hid during his transformation.

Annette quickly made Mercyful appear on one of her extra hands, the tip pointed at the incoming villain. Of course she wasn't aiming directly at his core, instead just off the center enough that the spear grazed his core the moment he came close enough to impaled himself on the weapon.

The villain instantly tried to pull away when the sudden shock of pain made him scream.

Odyssey turned to Lupine Edge. "Get the gang members away, I'll deal with him."

The fellow hero nodded as she turned to the changer who reeled for another attack.

"Hookwolf, you've been found guilty of over twenty cases of aggravated assault, murder, hate crimes and too many others to list here. Surrender, now ." She could feel a bit of her growing magical reserves leaking through her voice.

The effect wasn't grand, but for a moment the villain appeared ready to give in before he shook it off and growled.

"Like hell I'll give to a woman." He growled, his voice like nails on a chalkboard. He quickly jumped at her with a roar.

"So be it." Annette stood ready, dawn was still far to come.

Chapter 46

Chapter Text

Annette had little trouble in dealing with Hookwolf.

His body was too large and she was just too mobile, even when he managed to corner her against obstacles, she could still blink behind him and give his core another poke.

It had become obvious that while the villainous cape was getting used to having his core poked, there had been a compounding effect on his changer form. His body had started to shrink and lose the clean murder machine look and approach more of a messy collection of sharp, metallic implements.

This hadn't gone unnoticed by all parties on scene. While the Merchants were quickly losing any ground they had gained and weren't in a position to capitalize on the changer's situation as more and more of their numbers were detained by the heroes, PRT forces and few policemen on scene. The Empire had taken his situation as an insult, not that Annette didn't intend to show the criminals their place.

Menja and Fenja had been in the process of leaving the scene when they had noticed Hookwolf started to lose ground fast, which had led to them turning around and attacking Annette. Of course three opponents was still under the maximum of targets she could deal with alone.

"Well, I was hoping to catch just Hookwolf, but at this rate." She chuckled as her two spears swung up, stopping the giantesses' weapons in their motion as Mercyful stabbed Hookwolf for the n-th time, more pieces falling off his figure, now reduced to a pathetic pile of butter knives.

"Odyssey, watch out," Miss Militia warned her. "We believe that Victor may be ar-"

She didn't manage to finish the word as the soft sound of a piece of metal bouncing on her armor was quickly followed by the much louder noise of a high-powered rifle being shot in the distance.

"I see him." Annette smiled as Odyssey quickly had Jazz flying over to the skyscraper the missing Empire cape had been using as a sniper's nest.

"And I got him." Her tone was cold as one of her guns appeared on her extra arm, aiming to the source of the bullet and shooting one single enchanted bullet.

Her Impeller Field expanding through the portal carried by Jazz let her see the moment the villain's weapon broke. To compound on his surprise, her IF quickly let out a large amount of Containment Foam all over his figure.

Two more quick applications of Containment Foam at the feet of the two giant women was enough to have them trip as their movements were suddenly restrained. More than a few cars were destroyed in their falls, but Annette was pretty sure they had been completely lost way before the fall.

"Miss Militia!"

"On it!" The heroine quickly moved to provide support and restrain the fallen women, followed by a number of PRT operatives wielding Containment Foam sprayers.

She turned back to Hookwolf, or better called knifepuddle. "Surrender." She pointed to the order with Mercyful. " Now. " Pushing her magical energy consciously into the order was a bit harder than doing it without noticing, but there appeared to be a stronger effect that made the villain pull his changer form back, revealing a shirt-less, blonde man with a metal mask.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the changer giving up marked the end of the local conflict. What was left of the Empire's forces that hadn't run away a while ago quickly threw their guns down and lifted their hands. The Merchants were already mostly secured and moved off the fighting area, being looked over by a number of cops who were wearing less than required equipment. Annette had Odyssey quickly make a note about talking with Dragon about producing better stuff for them too.

She turned to the other heroes. "Good job." She gave them an easy smile.

Miss Militia snorted. "If anything, I should be saying that to you."

"Four… no, five was it?" Velocity approached. "Where's Victor exactly?"

Annette pointed in the distance. "That way," She quickly gave them the exact direction, floor and apartment. "He's going nowhere, so I don't see a need to rush."

The other heroes chuckled. "Still, removing Squealer from the Merchants will already calm the field, and while Menja and Fenja may be harder to deal with, both Victor and Hookwolf have enough proven crimes to get shipped off in a hurry." Miss Militia commented as the unpowered members of the PRT and the Police forces deal with the capes and gang members respectively.

Lupine Edge finally approached them. "I was talking with the console. Armsmaster has successfully captured Oni Lee with the help of Roadie and the PRT troops."

"That's good to hear, now to make sure they don't escape." Annette let herself joke. Thankfully it was well received by the other heroes before they moved to assist in releasing the giantesses from the foam and properly apprehend them.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The subsequent hours were anything but free, and even as Annette could write multiple reports in mere seconds given her Thought Streams direct connection to computers, things took time. There was also plenty of good old physical work to be carried.

Still, a few hours later Annette found herself back in her home, exhausted mentally while her body had already recovered all she had spent along the morning.

Having just arrived home, she allowed herself ten minutes to enjoy a mug of warm tea and check what the news were saying after last night's events. Before she could turn the TV on, she felt the Forge come and spend both new charges and acquire Beauty in the Arts , an Appearance domain perk that joined the other perks in her collection that improved how good things she made and designed looked.

It worried her for a moment that the perk warned about catching the eye of the wrong person, or god, but she already had Junk on her side and she was working on making sure her family was safe.

With nothing else coming through the Forge, she turned on the TV and sat down to enjoy her tea. While Annette could have scoured the internet with the help of Odyssey, she felt that sometimes one needed to slow down and relax.

"… and in today's biggest news: " The camera zoomed in on the news anchor, a man of about forty years old. If Annette remembered right he had moved up in position working at the news channel, and finally made it to the morning news. " A large confrontation between the city's three largest gangs earlier this morning. "

" That's right, John, " The fellow anchor, a woman of around thirty continued. Different from the man's slower career, she had been employed strictly for this job. " Official information is still lacking, but we know that the initial fight started in the early hours of the morning between the Merchants and the Empire, only for the ABB to quickly capitalize the second's lack of attention and mount a second attack on their territories. "

" That's right, Sarah. Thankfully our city's defenders shined. The Protectorate capes with the help of the Guild's new and local cape Odyssey, " Annette nearly spat her tea as the anchorman kept talking and describing the events that had happened.

She understood that capes were public personas, the Protectorate wasn't usually called the PR-otectorate for a reason. Maybe it was more that she hadn't thought of herself to be worth enough to make it to TV, but she was so much more now, no?

She finished her tea while she watched the two announcers discuss the events of the night, given how on-key they were, Annette suspected that the PRT may have willfully leaked some of the events. They listed the amount of damages, considerably less for a short-lived gang skirmish of this level, the number of people captured, both capes and normal people much larger than usual; hopefully they would remain behind bars too. Even did a special spot on Armsmaster's actions leading a cooperative group of Police forces and PRT operatives to take out Oni Lee, she knew Roadie had been part of it too. But apparently she had received less regards about her actions, Annette felt strangely conflicted, on one hand while she didn't know the woman, it felt bad she was receiving less attention, on the other it was nice to see that the normal people were being represented to this level.

Her internal communicator ringing with a call from Alice surprised her enough to make her notice that over thirty minutes had passed while she watched the news. Unconsciously she had brewed two more cups of tea as she watched.

" Ah, finally you answer, I was getting worried. " Alive's voice sounded a bit mischievous .

"Good morning Alice. I apologize if you were expecting me earlier, I got… distracted with something."

" Does it have anything to do with the Incident last night? " Alice's voice seemed to turn almost accusatory, though not aggressive.

"Hmm," She agreed. "In part, and before you or Keine recriminate me for not calling you two to help. Dragon ordered me not to since you two haven't been properly accredited yet to go out to the field."

Alice let out a soft sigh. " Sometimes I forget this is another world. "

"Yes, and while I trust you and Keine to have my back if something bad comes. Right now there's a procedure to follow."

" Okay, okay, I understand. I won't complain about not being able to help. Still, it would have been nice to know about it earlier. Instead of learning by mere happenstance while checking the news. " The playful tone was back.

"I apologize for that then. I was going to meet you and Keine soon, but again, I got distracted by watching the same news. I admit it was weird to hear my name on the TV."

"Ah… yes, I remember the first time I saw my name in Aya's newspaper. " The magician's tone turned melancholic.

"Aya?" Annette quickly remembered all she had read about the Tengu. "Oh, I can understand it then, though, didn't she also exaggerate things?"

" And the news here doesn't do it too? "

Annette had to snort at that, it was true after all. "Point. Anyways, I'll finish here and head over to the building soon."

" Okay then, see you later Annette. "

She returned the gesture and cut the call, putting the mug to clean and making sure the house was locked before stepping through a portal to the Guild's building.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"What happened? How did we not only miss five, large-scale conflicts on US soil, but also we're unable to return in time?" Eidolon nearly screamed at Contessa.

"I… I can't tell." Her voice cracked. "The path had stated that things would be safe."

"Stop that, David." Alexandria, also known as Rebecca Costa-Brown, lightly placed her hand on Eidolon's shoulder. "We're all in the same situation here."

Doctor Mother sighed. "Yes, I've talked with Doormaker, Clairvoyant and their handlers, the best explanation they could give is that it was 'harder' to open the way, and the effect hasn't changed."

"So we are stuck here?" David's tone turned sour.

"No," Doctor Mother continued. "We have opened ways to other Earths and we did open a way to Earth Bet, but the effort left Doormaker unable to open again for nearly five minutes afterwards."

"What does that mean for us?" Rebecca asked.

"As you know, Doormaker's ability to communicate is… limited , but his handlers have gotten good at understanding him, they worked out that he's not much of a problem in a portal connecting two points inside Earth Bet. And he can open a portal from Earth Bet to another Earth, it's just there's now some kind… imbalance."

"Like a difference of pressure?" Rebecca hypothesized.

"Yes, similar to how he could open a portal between two places at different heights and not have the difference in pressure cause problems. Earth Bet appears to now have a different pressure reading to the rest of the Earths and it's taking its toll on Doormaker to maintain a portal. Clairvoyant, on the other hand, appears to not find it a problem, most likely because his power doesn't deal with two different points."

"What caused it?" David asked, his tone showing how little patience he had left.

"We first believed it was something Odyssey had done but…"

"What about her?"

Contessa shook her head. "She no longer presents a problem when observing her, it's just that the information I'm getting from her is wrong."

"How? How can a tinker…" Eidolon's face changed between showing his impatience, to concern, to surprise and finally to some kind of resolve . "I… yes, I can see what you mean. Even with what I know of the woman, my Thinker powers consider her a mundane teacher, nothing more, nothing less."

Contessa nodded. "She has covered herself with an impenetrable barrier of information, it's a very complex effect too." She then shook her head. "To make matters worse, I didn't notice till I looked into her again, she's not only liberated Dragon, but the AI appears to also have become harder to path."

"Then what will we do?" Eidolon growled. "We can't just hang back and hide like cowards!"

"We adapt." Rebecca put it succinctly. "We can't deny it anymore, the battlefield's rules are changing, we have to adapt to them or we'll lose before we can even react." She turned to Doctor Mother. "But for now we have to return to Earth Bet, Doctor Mother, if you could have Doormaker open a way?"

"I will. Rebecca, you should go first, Eidolon will move second."

"What will we say about our absence?" Eidolon asked.

"I'll excuse it saying that a reliable Thinker element warned us about a dangerous A-Class situation and both Alexandria and Eidolon were busy dealing with it. Given the nature of the parahuman's powers, both heroes lost nearly an hour of time and were under observation for possible side effects."

Eidolon sighed. "Good enough I think."

"Doctor, please keep me updated on Doormaker's situation. If it remains so hard for him to open the portals, we'll have to modify how we work a lot of things."

The darker skinned woman nodded and watched the stern leader of the PRT walk out through the opening that had appeared in the room. She then walked back to her chair and sat down, doing her best to ignore the manchild that huffed on a side of the room waiting for his turn. She could only ponder about what had changed.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

" That's why I've to apologize, Annette. While thanks to you I can fork into two, right now Houston's a complete disaster and I need to be fully invested in it. " Dragon's voice came through the communicator, a stark difference to her usual in-platform presence.

"It's okay, Dragon. I've looked a bit into what happened, it's not just Houston that's the problem right?"

The AI let out a sigh, it strangely sounded more natural and honest than the ones she had produced before. " Yes, San Francisco is in a similar mess, similar to Seattle, the only difference is that Seattle's current problems aren't a risk in the short term and the local Protectorate Branch can deal with it for now. "

"Tell me if you need help with anything, I'm sure Narwhal will understand and postpone the tests for a day or two."

" Please, Odyssey, don't let me delay you. Right now all the help I need is that people listen to me and follow orders, I can deal with that. It's just slow going and it doesn't help that local authorities are trying to go over me, even when the crisis situation puts me as a helping member of the Guild on the field with enough power to tell them to, as they say, pack it. "

Annette snorted and nodded. "Okay, Dragon, take care. And again, I would only need a few minutes to be there to help… and please take the portal generator with you next time. Or better yet, let's see about installing one into each of your platforms."

" Same to you, Odyssey. Good luck with the testing. "

Annette smiled as she cut the communication, it was nearly noon and she would be leaving for Canada pretty soon, having spent a couple hours after updating Keine and Alice on all the matters of the early morning working on the improved Belt Core system and how to mass produce them.

The project was advancing quite well, the new model utilized a combination of the Warframe technology and the Valkyrie Core tech to store the person safely into a pocket dimension. Said pocket had been designed to not only be nigh-unreachable, but keep the body in a safe hibernation state as their mind rode the reinforced artificial body.

By now she had managed to get both the Belt Core and the Warframe-like body that would wear the armor system's manufacturing system to a point specialized production lines could produce them without her active attention. It was definitely a leap forward, it didn't mean she, or most likely Dragon, wouldn't be the ones overlooking their production given the power a Belt Core had.

She was working on a server system that would manage the Belt Core's systems when the Forge activated. Four charges were quickly spent and Annette felt Sanctuary go through the largest change since its creation, not even the new library expansion or the green houses had added so much as the base nature of the pocket dimension shifted and expanded.

Not just the size grew multiple times, but the original building started to shift. The original temple-like structure seemed to merge and combine with the aesthetics of a European mansion, the once ascetic rooms grew more welcoming and opulent, while keeping the concept of places of study and reflection.

The Library expanded once more, a new wing of magical texts filling the shelves, and the magical resources expanding with a variety of exotic and supernatural materials. Even the kitchen grew more modern and the pantry expanded its reserves.

Three new abilities were added to the Sanctuary, the first was that simple magical resources would be restocked frequently after their use, it covered many of the materials provided by other perks. Second was the empowerment of any magical activity inside the pocket dimension. And lastly, she wasn't restrained to an existing door to enter the land, she now could open a portal practically anywhere with just a thought.

"Odyssey, can you do me a favor, can you try opening a way to Sanctuary?" She asked the Core.

"Ma'am? I lack the key to open the way." The hollow armor was suddenly standing by her side.

"No need anymore." She chuckled. "Just like this." Annette made the door-like portal open in the middle of the air.

"I understand, ma'am." The Core let out a little hiccup as her head tilted and watched the portal for a few moments before she waved her hand in a gesture, making a second portal appear, and close and reappear. "I… I'm confused."

"It's okay, Odyssey," She smiled. "Consider it a very advanced application of dimensional science brought up by an act of will instead of technology or power. Or Magic as it's colloquially called." She joked.

The Core nodded. "It's… interesting to find the ability given so easily."

"I should see about putting together something to allow you to conduct magic, with the recently acquired Analysis Tools, you should be able to figure out plenty of applications. Not that Impeller Fields aren't quite powerful already."

"Ma'am, if possible, I would like anything designed to improve your survival capabilities, healing and shielding should be a good start."

"Noted, Odyssey. Now I should see about finishing this before I have to go North." Annette nodded to her companion and turned back to the worktable, she was close to it, she knew it.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette finished putting the tools away and saved the current project. With this she was only two steps away from properly producing the Belt Core.

"Keine, Alice." She approached the pair who were currently taking a break from their own busy schedule.

The two Youkai hadn't been idle since they had been given their US nationality, Narwhal had decided that while they had skipped the usual tests necessary to acquire it, it didn't mean they had to actually miss it. That meant both women were currently studying Earth's Bet history.

Especially Keine who had been provided a sizable pile of protocols, files and densely packed information on all she would need to act as administrator for the Guild's Branch.

"Wanted to tell you two that I'll be heading to the Guild's HQ for some tech testing, Dragon will most likely be busy for the rest of the day too. You two are old enough that I don't have to tell you to take care if you go out," That got her an eye roll. "but given the gangs are hiding and licking their wounds, it should be pretty safe."

"I would like to visit that small noodle shop again." Keine wondered.

"It will be nice to have a taste from home. We understand, Annette. Take care."

Annette smiled and wished the two a nice day before heading to the path to Dragon's main building. She wondered how long till the AI decided she liked Brockton Bay's building more, or would the AI actually prefer her older one.

From there it only took a few minutes to reach the Guild's HQ, IFF and a quick exchange of codes for the day had her entering the place without problem.

Her IF let her know Narwhal was meeting with someone, and while she was instantly curious, she decided she could wait a few seconds as the secretary shot her a smile and told her that she was being awaited inside.

She closed the door behind her and smiled. "Hello Narwhal."

"Good afternoon, Odyssey." Something instantly rubbed Annette wrong on her tone. "It's so good that you are finally here, I wanted you to meet someone fantastic."

The man turned and an intense migraine hit Annette.

"Ah, the impressive new cape." The man's voice felt oily as it became harder and harder to think. "Don't worry dear, soon you won't care. I don't usually go for women as old as you, but I think we can make an exception."

Annette's Thought Streams crashed one after the other and soon all was dark.

Chapter 47

Chapter Text

Since her creation, Odyssey has had many rules she had to follow. In a way she saw similarities between her and Dragon/Theresa. She couldn't directly communicate with her wielder/owner/user, there were ways to bypass this restriction. Not that a Core would normally use them unless their user's well being was in danger.

It was also true that most Cores didn't start with enough complexity to understand this kind of limitations/rules/restrictions and took them as normal/natural/the way to be.

Odyssey also knew she had been created with a much higher level of complexity in her thought patterns compared to other Cores. Not that she had ever met another Core in her 'life'/existence/running time, but she had the knowledge imparted of what it meant to be a Valkyrie Core in her core self.

Along with that knowledge there had been other sources, collections of knowledge she knew didn't come from her self/origin/source. Knowledge that in many parts was conflicting, but at the same time worked.

There were also the abilities that weren't originally part of her. The ability to instantly understand anything she could assimilate, or the time reduction perks, or the knowledge of magic, or the…

Odyssey's train of thought had to be pruned as many things just didn't make sense for her. Though that wasn't much of a truth anymore, was it?

She knew she was growing, even with her high initial complexity, she was growing more and more complex. The access to examples of advanced technology was doing things, good things hopefully, to her mental patterns.

And then she had gained the ability to properly communicate with her wielder/user/owner, and not just the ability, but the desire to do so. And so she had, and for the first time Odyssey felt a sense of fulfillment/accomplishment/triumph.

Other things had happened in that time, many had come in conflict with what she thought she knew/understood/believed. And she liked it, she realized she enjoyed learning more, seeing how new perks allowed for things she previously may have understood as impossible.

In an act that was strangely in-line with her rules as a Core and one that came completely from her own desires, she promised to keep Annette safe. Safe from anything that would seek her harm, and if necessary she would give herself completely to the woman if it was necessary to keep her safe. Odyssey would willingly sacrifice herself for her.

And now all her scans indicated a severe assault on Annette's brain, her armor expressing itself on the air and catching the woman as the pain and damage was too bad and her body passed out.

The man, that disgusting thing sitting on the chair, it wasn't hard to find him. Niko Vasil, also known as Heartbreaker.

"Oh, and what are you?" She could only describe his voice as repugnant to her senses. "A toy? Interesting."

"Niko Vasil, codename Heartbreaker." Odyssey couldn't understand how she could suddenly hate someone so much, or even hate, she had never felt like this before.

Multiple processes running through her mind till an answer was found, her emulation system quickly loading the mental protection technology. The field swiftly turning on and expanding from, a nearly transparent wall of a light blue that quickly filled the room, physical barriers meant nothing to it, letting it keep expanding as the simulation system started to pull more and more energy from the Arc Reactors, quickly producing more to provide the needed power as the effect just kept expanding.

Apparently the expected conflict between the protection and the continuous master effect was larger than expected. Narwhal's eyes opened large and barely managed to utter a surprise sound before her eyes opened completely and rolled back. She stopped the expansion once it covered the whole building..

"Well now what is this?" The man looked surprised, and unaware of the damage as he didn't react when some blood started to drip from his nose.

"You don't need to know." She stated as she walked closer. "You've been found a danger to my user, and so will be removed. Any last words?"

"Haha, what will you do little bot?"

"This." She didn't let him utter a single more word before her Impeller Field concentrated on the space occupied by his body and tore every atom asunder.

There was no surprise on his face, no last words, she could see that his brain didn't even manage to realize what happened before he ceased to exist. A man reduced to a list of chemical elements and a few bad memories.

A moment later she switched the field from prevention to healing as she could see that multiple people in the building had passed out, principally females on the way from the door to the office. Still, it wouldn't be a good idea to leave them lying without proper treatment. Her improved scanning abilities are already feeding her information on their quick recovery.

She also noted that a few of the people under the active effect of healing hadn't been affected by a master power as far as she could see, so she made a note to notify Annette later.

She watched Narwhal/Elizabeth slowly recover conscience and look at her.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Her mind was killing her when she opened her eyes, the shining light on the ceiling burning like a hot iron right into her skull forcing her to close her eyes again as the pain swiftly subsided.

"Wha-whut happ...happened?" She slurred as her mind felt slow at first.

A quick look around revealed she was still sitting in her office, Annette laid on the couch a few meters away and Odyssey stood in the middle of the room, looking at her.

"Narwhal, it's good to see you are recovering."

She closed her eyes hard as the last of the pain passed. "Odyssey, what the fuck just happened?" She let herself curse once as she breathed in deep. "Last I remember is…"

"Niko Vasil was in the room when we entered it. Annette's biology didn't take well the man's Master Power and she passed out from the extensive brain damage." Before she could open her mouth to ask about her situation, which in hindsight seemed silly given the Intelligence's general state of calm. "All injuries are already being healed, her mind and memories are intact and she will wake up in less than two minutes."

No, that was wrong, the last she remembered was being approached by her secretary near the entrance because there was an important guest.

"How?" Her curiosity was itching.

"A combination of my abilities as a Core, and a number of her own abilities that cover regeneration and perfect memory recall." It wasn't enough, but she suspected that she wouldn't get more till Annette was back up and could explain it better.

She sighed and gave a nod. "And Vasil?"

"He is no more." That answer only made her blink, it apparently was enough for the Core to continue explaining. "His continued existence was deemed too much of a risk, proper Master power protection or not. He was reduced to a much more useful set of materials."

Narwhal felt a short shiver go down her spine, the Core's tone could almost be described as delighted at her own actions.

"I was also forced to utilize the Master Power Protection field followed by the Mental Healing field to reverse the damage he had done, multiple people have passed out in the building due to the strain. This may result in general confusion and panic."

A single bead of sweat rolled down her back before Narwhal assumed full control of her mind and body. "Okay, looks like I've to run damage control." She sighed. "Tell Annette to take it easy and I'll see her soon. Also, as Annette's boss, I ask you to send Dragon a full recording of the time since you two arrived at the building and I gave you this order."

Seeing the armor give her a nod, Narwhal stood up from her desk and headed out of her office. Now that she paid some attention to it, the field seemed to be still online.

"Uh… better leave that on for now… just in case."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette slowly woke up, her mind felt weirdly refreshed as she found herself laying back on a couch. Sitting up and thinking about it brought back very recent memories of the event.

"Odyssey?" The Core was by her side the moment she sat up, it was strange when she realized she had been there already. "What happened after I passed out?"

"Niko Vasil was in the room, his power and the protections on your head didn't… agree with each other. I'm already improving on them to prevent a repeat of this."

"Okay…" She reviewed what she remembered, it wasn't much, but she remembered his face. It was nearly identical from the last picture his profile had. "What happened next?"

Odyssey proceeded to retell the events, showing her a recording of the few minutes. Included was the swift and final end of the man.

Annette let out a soft sigh and decided to not dig too deep into it, she knew there would be monsters in her future, monsters that would need to be put down one way or another. She hadn't expected it to happen this soon, even the events of the night before were pretty in-line to what most people thought about heroes and criminals. She also hadn't expected it to be Odyssey who would take the first life from the two of them.

So deep she was in her thoughts that she nearly missed the Forge giving her Pocket Portals' companion perk Thinking With Portals , for two charges the perk gave her the knowledge for trans-universal portal systems, and in conjunction she now had the ability to create portals that not only spanned those distances, but also were safe to build in-atmosphere .

She let out a soft sigh and got up "I'm sure Narwhal's needing help, where's she? Never mind, I'll call her." Annette didn't need more than a few seconds to call her boss.

" Odyssey, good to hear you are back up. "

"Yes, and while I'm maybe a bit conflicted about the event, I'm sure you need me out and working, so tell me what to do."

" That's what I want to hear. If you haven't been told already, a few people suffered a shock at being put through the fields and passed out. " She could read between the lines, turning to Odyssey gave her a curt nod. " I need you at the infirmary to run checks, I believe all will be okay, but I'm sure your scanning field can tell better. "

"I will be there in a moment." She confirmed.

" Good, I'll see you later, there's still other things to deal with. Like a press conference of why a lot of civilians are seeing a strangely-colored field over the building. " The parahuman gave a soft chuckle before cutting the call.

Annette turned to Odyssey. The core nodded and quickly started to explain the events outside of the room, providing the scans carried by her IF and the Analysis Tools being simulated.

"Well, looks like the test technically went quite well." She chuckled and headed to the infirmary.

(-(-|-)-)

If the aftermath of the morning events had been complicated, the result of the Guild's HQ being infiltrated by a villainous Master was outright catastrophic.

While Annette knew that her Mind Healing field tech worked well, it was untested. That meant they all had to go through Master/Stranger checks, that meant sitting in a nearly empty, non-descriptive room for a few hours as everyone was being checked multiple times.

She was glad that her tech not only worked, but Odyssey had her back. Because Master/Stranger protocols meant absolutely nothing to her when there was little to nothing that would be able to keep her restrained, physically or mentally. Her Portals and Teleporting abilities meant unstopped movement, and her connection to Odyssey meant full access to electronic networks.

Not that it mattered, she complied with all that the PRT operatives asked when the time came, acting like a normal person. They didn't need to know about her spending the time reading through some of her recently obtained Magic Books. Even with her reading speed and ability to memorize everything, she was still far from done with all of them.

She understood that most people would easily lose the sense of time inside the room, between the neutral colors, the lights dimming slightly and recovering in random intervals, the low, nearly imperceptible hum in the background. She had also been called to attention at random, a text to speech software used to prevent her from knowing who was on the other side.

Thankfully, after seventeen hours, twenty four minutes and thirteen seconds she was let out after being found to not be mastered, but who was counting?

There were a few jealous looks from not just other people getting released from M/S quarantine, but also from the PRT workers. Annette wondered if it was because of just how fresh and calm she looked.

She had to wait again in an office, but soon was joined by Dragon and Narwhal. The AI looked frazzled and the Parahuman exhausted.

"Here." Annette handed her a cup of just brewed magical coffee.

Elizabeth looked at it, gave it a sniff and downed the whole cup. The change was nearly immediate as she received a shock of energy.

She shivered before sitting down behind her desk. "Much better. Thank you, Annette." She rested back on the chair for a second before sitting back straight. "Okay, this was a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and I don't say this normally."

Theresa shook her head softly. "It wasn't restricted to just Niko Vasil suddenly deciding to pay us a visit. The last thirty hours or so have been complete chaos all over the world." The AI quickly brought up a holographic system she had worked out in the last few days to show them images of the events. "While I helped in four events just in US' soil, there were at least three more, the four-way fight in Brockton Bay one of them.

"Here in Canada things were much easier, counting Heartbreaker's actions, there were a total of three large-scale conflicts, the other two occurred in Vancouver when some of the events of Seattle's conflict spilled over, and in Edmont, where a Thinker-led group decided to break into the city's largest bank."

"Are those already taken care of?" Annette asked.

"Yes. A common point in most of these conflicts is that while they all could be considered of high risk, there wasn't that much to what amounted to be collateral damage." She shifted the image to a global map. "On the rest of America, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile had at least two large conflicts and a number of smaller ones. Uruguay, Guatemala, Peru, Paraguay and Costa Rica had only one large conflict, the rest of the countries suffered minor problems that would have belonged to expected numbers if it wasn't for the context."

"Any clue of what led to this world-wide madness?" Narwhal asked.

"As far as I can see, there was at least one or two Thinkers associated with each of the conflicts. While it's expected that Thinkers are part of parahuman conflict, the fact that there's so many of them makes it a noticeable outlier." Dragon brought up a list of known Thinker capes per conflict. "Similar things happened in Europe and Australia, sadly, outside of those countries the Guild's and the Protectorate's presence dwindles to nothing, making it hard to have information at the moment.

"I imagine more similar cases will be made known once things calm down in the next few days. Though I don't think some places will make it public. The CUI will most likely keep any conflict in their territory a complete secret to maintain a strong image."

"Turning back to local problems," Narwhal spoke. "What do we know of the rest of the Vasil family?"

The AI cleared the screens and brought recording, it showed a mansion on the outsides of the city. "The moment I could I utilized some of my old drone projects and two of my forks to detain the rest of the family. Thankfully all their parahumans appear to only be capable of mastering humans, making myself and the drones immune to them.

"They are currently housed in a detainment center as it's suspected that most adult females are still under Vasil's power. I'm hoping that a combination of the Mind Healing field and therapy will help them return to society. The main problem lies in the children, many of them show to have been indoctrinated by the cult-like nature of the 'family', they also show to have been heavily affected by their father's power to the point that they may suffer from sociopathy due to long-term exposure to his power. And a number of them have triggered similar emotional master powers.

"Interestingly, it appears that those that triggered became immune to his power. The little that has been revealed has a number of researchers interested in studying it more as there are a number of research papers on parahuman families and how they appear to share power types."

Annette nodded. "If the sociopathy is from a type of brain damage, the Healing field may help in easing the physical side of the problem." She had Odyssey project some of the results from the earlier use of said field. "As you can see, a number of the workers in the buildings that hadn't been put under a Master effect were seen to be also under the active healing of the field.

"I suspect that I either made the field too powerful, or too vague about what it should and should not heal." She shrugged. "I'll say it's a happy accident, but it will have to be tested with other kinds of medical problems before being used openly."

"That's…" Narwhal sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I think that's almost expected at this rate." They chuckled. "Still, the test of both fields will have to wait. There will be a pretty deep investigation of how Heartbreaker could just waltz through our security checks, or if he came because he knew about you and the fields. If it's true, that means the leak could be worse than expected."

"And how long will that take?" Annette asked.

"Normally? It would take from weeks to months if the PRT dragged their feet. Every possible parahuman influence is inspected and so on. Except that thankfully Dragon wasn't in the building when it happened, so she'll be the one heading the investigation." The AI nodded at Narwhal's words.

"Wouldn't that bring a conflict of interests?"

"Not really, given that the usual situation the PRT and the Protectorate are separate entities, there's leeway for a parahuman to carry the investigation on the non-parahuman sibling organization." She grinned. "Dragon, you are free to use all the resources needed to find the cause of our little problem, and see that it doesn't happen again."

The AI nodded. "It won't be a problem."

"So the testing will be delayed?" Annette asked, knowing the answer.

"Sadly, yes. With the possibility of the leak having been related to one of the people carrying the tests or volunteers, we'll have to check every last one of them." Narwhal sounded conflicted about it. "I wish we could have gotten them done, there's a lot of good that could have come from having them up and working."

Annette sighed. "It's okay, there's still plenty of projects to complete. At least having gone through this means I should be able to refine the personal protection accessory. I'll have one for you done as soon as possible, Narwhal. It should help with Strangers and hopefully prevent a repeat of today's incident."

"That sounds good. Now go back home and spend time with your family. They were told something happened, but they should hear from you that everything was solved successfully." Narwhal looked at her. "And take two days off, I know I can't stop you from working on your projects, but try to not be seen out in armor."

"I will, and Dragon, remember about the portal system if you will be moving prisoners. Especially if they are part of gangs that tend to break them free."

"Yes, don't worry about Odyssey. Take care." Dragon smiled and so did Narwhal as Annette quickly opened a portal to leave.

She may have appeared calm, but the first thing she did when returned home was to hug her family. Annette was sure she could use a few days to recover.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The damage was done too fast, the attack was too lucky, the response came too late.

It had been another day in the Yàngbǎn's complex number five. A routine visit after the re-education process had been finished, Null was to tag the newly acquired capes and spread their powers to the organization's loyal members.

The precognition pool hadn't showed only minimal danger for the day, the future readings had been quite fruitful. Nothing prepared the organization for the brainwashing to suddenly fail. Not even Shén Yù had foreseen the attack.

One of the recently acquired parahumans had been harder to break since the beginning, taking nearly double the time, but her Thinker power was expected to help the organization incredibly well. It was believed that she had been converted into one of the faithful, but the events showed the contrary.

The prisoner suddenly showed a previously unobserved brute power, the surprise of having her move and show emotion when it was believed she was completely under the organization's control gave her a few seconds to act. A few seconds she capitalized and killed Null in the act of tagging her.

One swift and decisive blow to the temple appeared to be enough. The damage had been too focused, by the time any emergency group had reached Null, the damage and bleeding had been going on for too long.

With his death, the sharing of powers had ended just as swiftly. And chaos had been inevitable after that.

The sudden loss of access to powers had many prisoner camps devolve into chaos as the, once, controlled parahumans utilized their regained freedom to rebel. They were still accounting for their losses as dozens of their loyal members had been killed.

And worst of all, Null's killer had escaped in the chaos. The few cameras in the compound had captured the woman step out of the place unstopped, free to disappear to who knows where.

Shén Yù, One and Two sat together around a small table in one of the most secure rooms in the Asiatic continent. Even as some of the powers that had been used to originally construct and reinforce it had been long since lost, the room was still expected to survive a direct attack from two of the three Endbringers.

The only other inhabitant of the room was a young woman who was practically blind, deaf and mute, trained since birth to serve the Yàngbǎn's leaders and never learn anything from them.

"How are things progressing?" Shén Yù's voice was soft, but left no doubt of his position.

Two shook her head. "We have lost about sixty eight percent of our loyal forces. Seven re-education compounds have been lost completely, five more are bound to join them in short, eight had all the prisoners escape, four have suffered grave losses and twelve are still uncommunicative."

One sighed. "It's not the worst outcome, if it had been me instead of Null, the losses would not only had been greater, but they would most likely have spread as they would still have access to all the collection of powers till Null rescinded them."

Shén Yù silently took a sip of his cup of tea before speaking again. "Doesn't matter, we can recover. Null's death is a grave loss, but there are other ways, as long as we control the image we'll be okay."

One's tone turned worried. "I'm more afraid of the fact that it happened. The indoctrination should have been perfect, not only that, the hit should not have been enough to kill Null. Something happened."

Shén Yù sighed and put down his cup, now empty. "I understand what you mean, even my ability has been curtailed. My predictions have become less accurate, events seem to conspire to suddenly take unseen turns."

"Doesn't matter, we'll recover and rise like the fenghuang." Two smiled. It was not a nice smile.

Chapter 48

Chapter Text

Annette did, indeed , relax the next two days. Spending the time with family and friends, only visiting the Guild's Branch building to provide Dragon with a pair of finished portable portal creators. Narwhal had expedited their test in record time given their very useful application.

It was also a few days for the dust to settle after the massive chaos that had exploded all over the world.

For the first time in years, Brockton Bay's gangs had suffered a big loss. The three largest criminal groups had some of their most important capes taken out and removed from the city before they could react.

The Merchants, having lost Squealer, retreated from the public scene. Reducing their actions to drug peddling on the poorest sections of the city and holding 'wild' parties. For a reason unknown to all, the Tinker's power appeared to have broken, her tinkertech becoming incredibly short lived outside of simple systems and repairs. Only Annette and Dragon had a theory about it.

The Empire had lost three heavy hitters in Hookwolf, Menja and Fenja, along with the Jack of all trades in Victor. Hookwolf and Victor had enough confirmed crimes to be shipped directly to max security prison. The changer had also gotten his last mark, and if he escaped and was recaptured he would be going directly to the Birdcage. The pair of giantesses' lists of crimes were smaller, but that didn't mean the two of them weren't also imprisoned. Similar to the Changer, they had been forced to wear specialized equipment to keep them from utilizing their powers to escape.

Finally, the ABB hadn't technically lost their powerhouse, but that didn't mean that the loss of Oni Lee wasn't felt. The mover's ability to reach practically any corner of their territory in the matter of just a couple of minutes and overwhelm most if not all of his opponents was key in their hold over the large territory. The gang was forced to quickly give up the fringes and reduce their hold. The villain's escape danger and long list of crimes, especially confirmed murders, had them sent directly to the Birdcage. Where his fate was a quick death at the hand of another villain when a near complete lack of response to outside stimuli was enough to trigger the hostility.

The fact that the Fairy Queen had called him a broken husk and had outright rejected taking his fairy was proof of what his power had done to him. Annette didn't feel bad about his death, especially if Keine was right, even rocks had more history than the man.

On other news, the investigation over at the Guild had revealed that one of the office workers in the building had been long since compromised by a Master villain. Surprisingly it hadn't been Heartbreaker, but another Master villain that had short-lived relations with said man. The victim had been mastered into a sleeper agent, it terrified more than one person to think such insidious Master power had been active even after the parahuman's death. Niko Vasil had apparently been keeping an eye on these digital dead drops and acted when he believed the technology would be used against him.

This had been revealed by a combination of Dragon's actions in her electronic trawling and said victim's memories getting released by the Mind Healing field. While still officially untested by this point, it was nice to see the equipment was working better than expected. The victim had been temporarily demoted till all tests confirmed they weren't a vulnerability any longer, and while they could recover their job later, they would most likely be moved to a less important job.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

As the world recuperated from the events, reports from practically all the countries put together an interesting image of what exactly had happened. Conspiracy theorists ran wild as the information showed a startling similarity in all the events. The Media fought to categorize the day, going as far as naming it 'A day of Chaos' as news channels from multiple countries fought to have the scoop on the events.

The most surprising piece of news had actually come from Asia, in specific China. But not in the way most people had expected.

The Yàngbǎn had somehow lost their complete control over China, the suddenly appearance of multiple very vocal rebel groups had let the rest of the world know things weren't going okay for said organization. Of course past that there weren't any actually confirmed facts, rumors spread from the death of one of the four Yàngbǎn's leaders, to a massive coup by one of the Royal Family's children, or even one of the Yàngbǎn's leaders going against the rest.

If any of the rumors was actually true, it would mean a large change in the world's politics as other countries and organizations would prefer to have more amiable relationships with the people of Chinese soil. Especially those countries that shared borders with them.

(-(-|-)-)

Still, time passed and things were resolved. The gangs in Brockton Bay had suffered enough losses that for the first time in many years, the number of heroic capes outright surpassed the villainous ones. This and the presence of the Guild in the city caused a knock-off effect on said criminal organizations as many of their unpowered members quickly deserted them.

Normally the gangs would have carried shows of force to recover the trust of the members that had left or recruit new ones, but once again the Guild's presence in the city promised quick retribution. Like a sleeping dragon, ready to make a show of any who bothered their sleep.

Even New Wave was back on the field as the group had officially come out of retirement. There had been rumors and sightings of the members before, but it was the first time in a few years that all of the adults were actively patrolling twice a week.

On technical matters, Annette's finished projects were finally put through the necessary tests to allow their use. Not just those projects categorized as tinker tech like the Portal Generators, the Mind Healing and the Master Protection between others. But also those that would be sold to the public like the Water Filter.

It surprised her that the Water Filter had gone through a much strict set of testing, but once explained that it was because the normal civilian was more likely to care less for said technology than people that had more of an idea of what went into designing and making them was logical. The design was rejected once when it was proved that the blades were too easy to get misaligned if the machine was opened by a normal user.

The only reason the up-scaled version of the water filter was tested and proved was because Narwhal and Dragon had gone ahead and invested the necessary capital to construct said water purification plant. While Annette would have been able to construct it in the matter of days, not having her do it proved that the design could be constructed by normal people. It was a large investment by the two members of the Guild, and they were putting their trust in Annette's word that it would work, but it paid off in the end.

With the base model working, it was easy to prove the possible modifications needed for the plant to not only treat grey waters for city use, but also blackwaters in industrial situations. The modifications also allowed the recovery of a large number of chemicals that would normally be lost or contaminate the area if not treated properly.

The first plant for the production of portable water filters would be set in Brockton Bay, given the available workforce, easily recycled warehouses and closeness to the Guild Building made it a very profitable choice for everyone involved in the project.

It also provided a very good cover to hide the fact that the Guild was also going forth with the production of the basic Belt Core systems. Annette, Dragon and Narwhal had discussed quite thoroughly how much power the systems would have access to, these restrictions would also mean that unless Annette acquired a perk that completely changed how she did things, the current design wouldn't be modified for a long time.

Annette, Dragon and Odyssey had cooperated into the construction of a specialized server system that would allow the AI direct control over the Belt Core systems, this would keep them from being stolen or utilized for illegal activities. This way Dragon would have access to an extensive record of information for each user, along with complete administrative control over the units.

The Forge maintained a low profile during these weeks, only rolling a single charge perk called Hangar , the new facility was geared for the production and maintenance of any vehicle. Plus it provided the ability to create a much larger opening for the movement of said vehicles.

Another thing that occupied much of Annette's time, was the study of any and all Tinkertech that the Guild could send her way. Not that many were actually useful. Given Annette's way of finding out who they functioned, she got the full image, which in many times meant outright prohibitively large facilities to carry small effects.

Another project the trio had worked on was the design of a large-scale Arc Reactor power plant along with a way to utilize subspace technology as a delivery system, discarding the need for power lines or any kind of relay facility.

They were still discussing where to place the main system, currently the preferred idea was to place it inside Sanctuary, in second place was to build the facility deep into the Canadian's north and place similar protections over it to what Dragon's workshop enjoyed. Lastly was to find a way to construct a pocket dimension uniquely for the Power Plant.

To connect a city to the power network, a smaller and easier to construct facility would be installed somewhere. This facility would tap into the network in such a way that it was practically perfect anywhere in the planet, even the moon was inside the effective area for the power plant. That meant that once the failed angel in the sky was dealt with, they had a perfect way to provide power for any installation set on the satellite.

Still, the tests were taking their time. There were horror stories of Tinker power plants, and people wouldn't accept such a power source easily, that meant a large group of scientists looking over every small detail on the theoretical and practical side to make sure it was actual science.

To make the testing easier, Annette had spent nearly a week rewriting a few science books. Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology were the main ones she looked to fix as Earth Bet simply lacked the necessary knowledge to make sense of some things.

Of course, as much as Annette may have enjoyed the recognition, Narwhal had decided it would be better to present the new books as a compilation of discoveries that had come from the study of Tinker Tech. The discoveries would be attributed to a group of anonymous researchers from the Guild.

More than one field of science had suddenly seen an increase in old theories getting proved and advances coming to light as unproved theorems were demonstrated or disproved.

Things started to get interesting again once the first batch of Belt Cores came out of production.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"So today's the day?" Danny asked her as they sat by the kitchen's table, enjoying their breakfast.

"Yes." She took a long drink from her tea and relaxed. "The first batch will be provided to the PRT for a trial run. While it's mostly active members of the PRT, there's not one that's not at least a veteran on field work,

"Narwhal has had me read through the rundown on every one, I think the most impressive member will be the so-called squad leader."

Danny looked at her. "Yes?"

She nodded. "Yeah, from what I read she was part of the original group that went into Ellisburg, apparently they wanted to put her into an administrative position to shut her up. Instead she decided to take to training unpowered members to deal with parahumans. All says she's a bit of a hard-ass, but she volunteered herself the moment she heard of the chance.

"Technically she wouldn't have been able to take the position given the injuries she had suffered during the Nilbog debacle, especially as she had never before accepted parahuman healing or the offer to skip in line for a kidney transplant. That much of a hard ass.

"Except that against all expectations, she decided to hunt down the best rogue healer parahuman, get her injuries fixed and retrain herself till she was fitter than all other possible recruits for the BC Platoon."

He snorted. "Leave it to the stubborn types to go against expectations." He finished his coffee. "I've met more than one dock worker similar to that. Men and women who only need to be told they can't do something to go and do it. I'm pretty sure it's the spite that drives them."

Annette snorted and nodded. "Well, I'll be meeting her in just about an hour, so I'll tell you later how it goes."

He nodded before picking up the dishes used for breakfast and taking them to the sink for cleaning. Annette gave him a final kiss for the morning before she quickly made way to the Guild's building.

Dragon awaited her there. "Ready, Annette?" The AI finished storing the Belt Cores into her internal storage.

"Yes, let's go over to the PRT building and meet the volunteers ." She grinned, something she hadn't talked much with Danny was a single detail about the volunteers.

Oh, Annette had told her husband about how the platoon's leader had once been offered the chance to take a high administrative position in the PRT as a sort-of payment for the Nilbog incident. What she hadn't said was that she wasn't the only one.

Emily Piggot had been pretty active during the years she spent training the operatives, she had found many other people in a similar situation as her. Veterans who believed in what the PRT stood for, but not for what the PRT usually did. People who also had accumulated quite the dossier on skeletons and other unmarked graves the organization kept.

So when is the chance to test a system to put them above the average parahuman? There had been a lot of soft threats in the background for these peoples to take the spots. It was almost impressive how in such a large organization there had been no nepotism. Though that was because it had been replaced with blackmail.

Dragon nodded as the two made travel between the two spots, entering the PRT's HQ through the roof's entrance expedited the process considerably. Especially given the mob of reporters around the ground entrance. If Annette had to bet, Director Richardson had leaked the fact to the news, again.

Apparently the PRT ENE Director had decided that the events following the 'Day of Chaos' and the rousing success of the Protectorate, with or without help from Annette and the Guild, would be great to push his position forward. Some rumors stated that he was looking to go against Director Costa-Brown for the position.

In the end it all came down to a single subject: politics. Director Richardson was utilizing the Bay's newly gained peace to push his image forward and show he could bring one of the worst US's cities in terms of criminal elements below the average in crimes.

She had been ignoring most of his attempts to rope her or Dragon into improving his image, but it was starting to grate on her nerves a bit. Hopefully the rest of the day's things helped things.

They went through the necessary protocols to enter the building, heading directly to the meeting room they would be using. It was nice to see that all volunteers for the platoon were already in the room, at the front stood a short woman with a bob cut, her features were angular and projected a no-nonsense atmosphere.

She turned to Annette and Dragon and quickly saluted. "Major Emily Piggot, a pleasure to meet you. Me and the boys are eager to see what you have to offer."

"I'm Odyssey, and you must already know of Dragon." Annette presented them. "And I really hope you'll find the Belt Core units satisfactory."

She nodded before moving to the front of the room. "Okay, boys and girls, sit down and listen. I'm sure you all must be tired of waiting. So let's make it quick."

Dragon took one of the chairs, having stored the platform she had used to fly to the building away, her human-like body presented no problem for her to utilize normal furniture. Meanwhile, Annette had quickly created the illusion of a white board as all the men and women in the room were giving her their full attention.

"What you will be trying is the Belt Core unit." By her side the image of the equipment appeared. "First point, the BC it's not a piece of tinker tech. I'm putting this at the start of the presentation to leave it very clear, the BC units do not need maintenance unless something actually breaks. If that happens only Dragon or me are capable of fixing them, do not let anyone else get their hands on them. I'm sure you all are smart enough to quickly inform your platoon leader, and she'll be able to contact us.

"Second point, the BC units are connected to a server administered by Dragon twenty four seven, she'll have access to a comprehensive list of what you do with it. When you have it on you, when you are using it, how and where, etc… The BC units will put you above a rating of Brute five even in the basic configuration, I imagine you all know just how much damage can someone do with that amount of power if they don't care about collateral damage.

"Corollary to point two, Dragon has access to your systems and will easily freeze you for quick retrieval if she sees anything suspicious about your actions."

She watched them nod and hum in affirmation, everyone looked okay with the restrictions.

"Understood? Good." Annette changed the image for a deployed Belt Core unit. "A quick explanation of how the units work, when you equip one and activate it, it will look more or less like this. The general body shape will be modified depending on your own physique and gender. This is to make it easier for your mind to get used to the difference.

"Now, while it will look like you are using it from the outside, the truth is that you won't be inside the suit." The image changed to show the chamber with a human body curled inside by the armor. "Your body will be put away into a safe space outside of real space, the armor will be instead worn by a variable body android." The armor peeled off the image to show the robotic insides. "The variable body android will simulate your normal limitations at first, and slowly ease the restrictions on power as you get used to it."

"All that's good to know," A man started, if she remembered right, and her memory was perfect, he was captain Tim Taylor. He was Captain Piggot's right hand man. "but I think we should move to what they can do."

"If that's what you want." She saw Piggot nod and shrugged softly. "It was the next part anyways. The Belt Core unit will let you lift up to four thousand kilograms normally, run at a steady thirty kilometers per hour, jump up to ten meters in height," As she listed the normal limits of the units, the images by her side changed, showing quick examples of what each would mean. "Of course, that's all for the normal configuration.

"If the situation deems it necessary, Dragon can lift the limiters on the units, even in the worst-case, this means at least a double of all the listed numbers. Keep in consideration that the limits are meant to protect the user against cognitive dissonance. Given that the unit will as part of its normal function seem to imitate the body for ease of use, the mind may suffer if it functions without the physical limiters for too long.

"What I'm saying is, keep it as a last resort. The units have enough tools available that pure brute force should not be the first answer to problems."

Dragon spoke up. "Also, consider that your platoon will be testing the units, the current limits are theoretical and are bound to be modified as we see how actual people function with them." She added.

Annette nodded. "Exactly, now moving to the other available tools the Belt Core units have." The image changed to show four different armors. "The first is the classic, a balanced unit that combines defense, mobility and functionality. Then we have the firefighter configuration, fire mitigation, water control and an armor capable of waddling through lava and the worst infernos." She moved onto the next. "Emergency Responder, this unit's equipped with structural scanning technology, a capability to deal with collapsed buildings and large debris, both by removing them or preventing further collapse., Finally you have the counterpart of the previous armor, the Medic. The scanners of this armor are geared for the diagnosis of the human body and quick triage treatment."

There were a few low whistles and a low murmur of discussion on the back of the room. Annette felt the Forge acquire a new perk called Xenospecialist , and quickly realized it would be pretty useful if she wanted to look more into the crystal shards, something that she had been discussing with Junk lately. Sadly she couldn't just stop and call the woman at the moment.

"I think that's more or less all that you need to know at the moment." She turned to Dragon, the AI nodding and getting up from her chair.

"Only thing I've to add is that right now only two of your platoon are qualified to use the Medic armor. So we can move to the physical testing, so if you'll follow me to the gym room." She guided the rest, Annette stood back as Major Piggot approached her.

"Ma'am?" She asked softly.

"That's not necessary, Odyssey." Piggot waved her hand lightly. "I want to thank you for giving me and my men this chance."

Annette nodded. "That's the idea. The Belt Core units are meant to tip the scales."

"And the fact that you and the Guild will still keep the right to stop anyone from using against you?"

"Just a security detail. We really don't want anyone misusing them before they can become common use." She hummed as the two soon followed the rest of the group.

Chapter 49

Chapter Text

Dragon knew she made being busy look easy. Even before the change to the systems, she usually had to spread her attention to a dozen or so situations. Yes, she utilized multiple dumb intelligences to monitor and take care many of those tasks.

Systems like those that maintained the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, aka the Birdcage. The Birdcage's creator had long since passed away and into complete anonymity, especially as it had happened before her time. She was still a bit confused why exactly she had ended up in control of the prison.

It had started a few years ago when she had helped the PRT in subverting the prison's old systems and the ability to maintain said facility. Looking back on it, she had to admit it hadn't been her decision. She hadn't been asked to do it, instead she had been ordered to look after the facility.

It made her wonder, had they known ? Had they done it before ? Had they made her forget about it too ? It sent a shiver down her alloy spine more than once. How many actual innocent she had been forced to send there? Or people who didn't deserve to have their lives completely ruined by a system that didn't care for them.

She was almost glad that most of those never lived long enough to truly suffer the horrible things that happen inside. She was glad that the contraceptives mixed in all the food going into the prison kept the number of births down to nothing. It wasn't like it hadn't happened before, a number of brutes and breakers were immune to those drugs and had ended in a live birth once or twice, but thankfully the Cell Block Leaders kept things pretty clear about it. In the end no one wanted to have to deal with children there.

Still, at the end the facility didn't require her full attention, so investing a full instance of herself was more than enough to cover all the needs. That left the instance with a lot of free time she spent cooperating with the Robin Hood program and dealing with the world's economies. Especially those related to villains and villain organizations.

And while she was an Artificial Intelligence, she was so heavily modeled after a human that her instances still suffered the stress of dealing with a facility like the Birdcage. She had taken into not only cycling the instance that dealt with the prison, but also reincorporating said fork into herself and giving herself time to deal with it.

She also kept one of her instances inside of the digital landscape of her servers. The once barren terrain had slowly grown into a citadel. This instance also got cycled, the main factor was to keep it from growing too dissociated from reality by spending too much time without contacting others. She didn't actually see the reason, it was just another of her instances and she was still interacting with other people, but Narwhal and Annette had insisted.

The last of her instances was actually keeping an eye not only in her production lines, but also slowly working with Heartbreaker's victims, both his ' wives ' and children.

Things were going… not the worst . The reactions after being put through the Mental Healing field had been mixed. Most of the most recent victims, especially those without children of their own, were euphoric about being freed from his control. Those had been the easy cases, they had been quickly moved to a low security facility to receive therapy by a group of professionals that worked with rape victims.

The real problem adults were the oldest victims, who had not only been brainwashed by his power, but also by living in a cult-like situation for up to several years. And also those mothers with children, which were pretty evenly divided between those who never wanted to see the children again and those who wanted to help them. Both sides were equally troublesome, though for different reasons.

With the children the problem was different, while most of those under the age of four to six were expected to be capable of growing into normal people. The kids above that age would need to receive nearly daily therapy for years to come, and most would be obligated to see a therapist at least once a week for the rest of their life.

And then there were the kids who had triggered, and triggered with variations of their father's Master power. A total of five children had triggered, with considerably strong Master powers, all aimed to control humans. At least this meant Dragon was safe to interact with the children, even if the therapists would have to carry their meetings through video conference.

Even with the whole facility under the Mental Protection field, they couldn't risk the fact that some of the effects of their powers could be delayed till after they have left the safety. And the field didn't stop the ability of one of the children to control the nervous system. Thankfully the child, Jean-Paul, appeared to actually be happy about his father's demise and was cooperative as long as he was left to his own devices.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cherie, the oldest of the children with powers, had the ability to feel emotions in a city -wide range, paired with a fine and insidious control over them in a short range. And while she didn't show no reaction to the death of her father, she had shown an eagerness to be manipulative, sociopath and sadistic.

It was a huge, tangled problem that would take years, if not decades to be fixed. And even at the end, scars would remain, showing just how much damage a single person had been capable of.

She turned her attention to captain Tim Taylor and captain Rogers took the first spots to try the Belt Cores. It was interesting to watch them explore the variable android bodies the first time they equipped them.

And since Annette had them imitate the user's body perfectly on the first run, they appeared to be surprised about it. She watched Annette guide the demonstration and simply sat back to enjoy the show.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette entered the room, having exchanged a few words with Emily on the way to the gym. A small surprise filled her when she received her next perk, for two charges Mental Stability was a complete sale.

The perk would protect her mind from anything that could be considered a mental problem. Psychosis, bipolarity, depression etc… it would never touch her mind. She could still feel things fear, but it wouldn't make her freeze in place.

She gave Piggot a nod before moving up to the box Dragon had placed in the room with the units. "Okay, boys and girls, time for some fun." She opened the box. "Here is the first batch of Units, so I need two volunteers."

Annette watched Captain Tim Taylor, who had asked earlier during the explanation, and Captain Rogers, who reminded her of some of Tony's notes, stepped forward.

"Good, and don't worry, the Belt Cores are extremely safe. Actually, they will not just keep your actual body safe while you are using them, but they will also heal you and stimulate your muscles to keep them from atrophying." She handed the two captains their units. "Activation is easy, place them around your hips like you would on a belt, then put your thumbs on the two top buttons, index fingers on the bottom two."

The two men grabbed the units and easily followed instructions.

"Now you gotta scream from the bottom of your heart 'Moon powers activate!'" She grinned. "Too much?" She chuckled a moment later. "Nah, just gotta say 'Activate' while pressing the four buttons."

The, by now, common sight of the opaque cylinder appeared, covering the two men for a few seconds before revealing the generic balanced Belt Core armor.

She nodded and deployed eight drones that flew straight to the eight corners of the room and deployed a barrier field, four more deployed around her and the two captains, creating a second set of barrier walls that connected to the ceiling and floor for the safety of the watchers.

She quickly put them through the basic set of exercises, slowly easing the restrictions. She nodded when they gave comments about how natural it felt.

"Good work so far. Now, to leave something clear." In an instant, her spear was in her hand and she had pierced through Captain Roger's body. Of course she had aimed through a spot that would cause minimal damage and would heal in the matter of an hour at most.

The reaction was instant, several screams from the outside and Captain Tim Taylor moving to attack her, even Captain Rogers had screamed in surprise for a moment before he had moved to grab the weapon.

Still, it was all too slow. Annette had already pulled the weapon out and stored it away.

"Shush, you children." She heard Dragon chuckle. "He's okay." She pointed to Captain Tim Taylor.

The man seemed to realize the pain was minimal, mostly a simulated signal of damage to the armor. "It…" He stuck the finger into the hole, but the fibers inside quickly pushed it out as they started to close. "It hurts, but it was mostly the surprise."

"That's because it's not your body there right now. As I said before, the Belt Core unit stored your body away. You are practically riding on a very good puppet." She smiled. "And don't worry, the fibers and synthetic skin of the body will fix themselves a bit. I missed all the important bits anyway."

"I would prefer if you don't skewer my men to make a point, Odyssey." Piggot spoke drily, though Annette could sense a bit of good humor.

"It was that or removing the armor and skin, and I'll tell you this is the least nightmare inducing." She joked. "The shock would stay more in the memories than a naked android.

"And before any of you ask about it. My weapon's not only especially sharp, but I lowered the armor's defenses to make the point."

She smiled at the groans.

They turned to Captain Tim Taylor who stood at the ready. "It doesn't hurt anymore, and I can move without a problem, ma'am." He spoke to Piggot directly.

"At ease, Captain." She turned back to Annette. "You will poke all my men, Odyssey?"

She shook her head. "Once is more than enough, it'll keep better than being repeated over and over again." She opened a way on the inner set of barriers. "Now the rest come in after grabbing a unit each. Let's not waste more time."

They quickly moved, following her orders. This was going to be a pretty fun day.

(-(-|-)-)

The small group of people sat around a table, served in front of them was a hearty dinner they were all enjoying as they talked.

Tak tak tic tak

"I told you before, it's a bad idea to go now. She rubs me the wrong way." The man spoke before taking another bite of his food.

Tik tic tac tock

"I know you're against her actions, but it's similar to why we never moved against Dragon in the past." The man sighed as he grabbed a napkin to wipe the face of the young girl sitting by his side.

There was a bit of silence for a few moments before Tic Tic Tic Tac Tock .

The man tensed before sighing. "Hmm… maybe that's not a bad point," His tone left little doubt he wasn't still all for it . "Tell you what, one of the Endbringers should be attacking soon. No one will be paying attention at that time, perfect for us to slip in unnoticed."

Tick Tick Tick

"See, there's a way we can all be happy about it." He watched the robot-like man stand up, his body producing nearly no noise as he walked away from the table.

It wasn't like Mannequin ate , Jack knew he would be spending the rest of the night in his workshop. Jack honestly didn't care to know what he did there, or even wanted to know.

"Are you sure it's a good idea, Mr Jack?" The young girl asked, little Bonesaw was turning to be one of his greatest investments for the group. "I've looked at some of the pictures of the hero Mr Mannequin wants to fight and… she's weird , Mr Jack."

Jack looked at his little poppet and blinked. "What do you mean, dear?" He's had a strange feeling about the heroine since learning about her. Each time he stopped to think on how to deal with them, how to break them, or how he would approach them. It was always similar, a sort of wrong sensation, not exactly a warning. But more of a confused sensation.

The blonde girl didn't speak as she looked lost in her thoughts for a few moments before finally speaking.

"She moves too…corek- too…corcec- too correctly ." She flubbed the word twice before she finally got it. "People don't move like that. I could make someone do it, but… it would be very hard and take a lot of work."

The little girl slowly started to explain exactly what she would do and Jack gently tunned her words off. If he didn't want to know what Mannequin got into his workshop, he honestly wanted to know even less about Bonesaw's work in such detail. Oh, he had learned amazing ways to cause pain from her talks, but those were usually the outliers as the understanding how to install tinker tech in the human body was not in his preferred conversations.

He decided to interrupt her before she went too far as her fork and knife were being utilized more like scalpel and tweezers. "Stop that poppet, the food's for eating, not experimenting."

The girl looked properly sheepish about her actions. "I'm sorry, Mr Jack."

"It's okay, dear. Now, before we put the subject off for the time. Can you answer one last question?"

"But you just did, Mr Jack." The little girl giggled softly.

"Very silly of you, poppet." He gently stroked her head. "You said Odyssey moved too perfectly, would that mean she did something to her body?"

"I think so? It's hard to tell, she's not shown herself enough and the full body armor makes it harder to prove."

"Interesting…" Jack hummed as they continued to eat, they would need to move soon. The ex- residents of the house would soon start to smell, and it would be better to not be here when someone comes to check on them.

Now all that he would need to do was convince the rest of the group, with two open spots, they would have to see which other capes in Brockton Bay may be viable to add.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette walked away from the group of volunteers. She was glad to see that every member of the platoon had soaked the lessons she taught down to the letter and had enough creativity to realize a few she didn't.

It was also quite an impressive sight to see them fighting during the few sparring matches she put them against each other. The sheer brutality of the synthetic bodies with the limits removed and the safety of them not actually putting themselves in danger. Maybe she could see about developing a full-immersion virtual reality technology, it would be useful for training and teaching, especially if she managed to achieve mental acceleration like that Dragon enjoyed in her servers.

She approached said AI. "Enjoyed the show?"

"It's definitely interesting. Especially all the information the units have been picking from all the users, different bodies, minuscule differences that even bootcamp never irons out completely. I've to say the most interesting one would me Major Piggot's body scans."

Annette quickly brought up the scans and looked over them. "Okay, that's… yes, very interesting ."

And it was indeed, a big part of the Belt Core's was how it kept the body safe while in use, and to do that the units needed a deep and comprehensive scan of the body. Emily Piggot's body showed the signs of intense workout in the recent time, older marks of wear and tear from years of service, and between the two a strange set of marks the systems picked as anomalous dimensional markers.

It was obvious that the woman had put her body through the ringer to get fit, thankfully the passive healing that the Belt Core provided would deal with it, along with old service injuries. All without losing any of the gains she had.

On the other hand, the anomalous dimensional markers were, at least, slightly worrying. Placing the scans in contrast with the latest physical exam the woman had been through before searching for parahuman healing showed a high grade of similarity. It wasn't a stretch to say the markers were most likely left by whatever healing she had seen to acquire.

The genetic material was a near perfect copy of hers, but there was a trace of an exotic energy still permeating the muscle fibers and once missing organ.

"Well, on the good news, the system's already purging that . On the interesting news, I'll be studying that better if it's what I think it is." Annette spoke softly.

The Forge decided then it was a good time to react, a single charge was spent to acquire the perk Data Khala . The change was immediate, in the back of her head she now could feel a connection to all the electronic systems she had created.

The one that received the biggest surprise was Dragon.

" Annette? What did just happen? " The AI's voice came through the newly gained connection.

" New perk, " She explained. " Consider it a completely secure and instant communication channel that should reach anything I've created in… well, the galaxy. "

She could almost feel the surprise coming from Dragon as her physical body didn't let anything show, and instead kept talking with her about the scans' results.

" And why can I use it? "

" That's easy, I did create the body, framework and servers you are using now. " She explained easily. And in exchange she received a small feeling of surrender from the AI.

"If the units will slowly take care of it I'll have the system log in the difference on later uses. It will help to study how the healing process works with results of parahuman power." Dragon stated.

"I'll see about discussing it with Emily later, I would like to take a deeper scan of the effects of healing. But I'll ask permission before going forward."

Dragon grinned. "Glad to see that you're learning." They chuckled.

"Sure, joke about that. Once I manage to break the mystery over the IF I'll see how you deal with knowing about everything around you. Anyways, I'll go and talk with Emily before we call it a day."

"Okay. Remember that I'll be staying behind as Armsmaster has invited me to cooperate on a few projects."

"Sounds good, remember to be back before ten pm." She joked and felt a slight embarrassment coming through the connection.

Emily was currently talking with some of the men in the platoon when she approached. The woman quickly finished what they were talking and sent them their way before turning to Annette.

"Odyssey."

"Major, it looks like you and your people are getting comfortable with the units."

"Yes, it's liberating to use them."

"Glad to hear that. Now, there are a few things before we can call it a day." The comment made Piggot stiffen almost imperceptibly. "At ease Major, it's not bad. First it has to do with your platoon being a test run, that means we'll be seeing each other frequently to make sure things keep normal, and would like if you bring to my attention anything you notice or think that could help."

Emily nodded and Annette continued.

"Second topic is more personal. It's not bad, but having received parahuman healing has left a certain mark , for a lack of a less technical word, on your body, the systems are dealing with them and will be completely purged in less than a week. I would like to ask permission to utilize the results of the scans of your body to study the effects of the unit's healing on parahuman powers."

The blonde woman mulled on it for a moment. "So you're saying that the healing left something behind?" Annette could almost hear the woman curse internally.

"Yes, and no. If I had to guess, the energy is indeed a marker for the power to know it already healed you. Did the person warn you they wouldn't be able to heal you again?" Emily nodded curtly. "I imagine it's either on purpose or the healing's imperfect if done repeatedly." She shrugged. "Doesn't matter honestly, the system will keep your body perfectly hale and hearty."

"If that's the case, I'll give you permission, but I would like it if you can explain it to me later."

Annette nodded. "I've no problems with that. It's your body after all." She offered her hand and Piggot shook it firmly. "We'll see each other in a few days, enjoy the units."

"I'm sure we will ." The woman's smile promised plenty of hurt to those that deserved it.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette sat in the Sanctuary's workshop, for a moment she felt like she hadn't spent time alone like this in a long, long time.

There was another reason she wasn't working on this while at the Branch Building. While Dragon knew a bit of what she was doing, one of her perks left it very clear she couldn't let any parahuman learn she was studying the way the Crystal Shards worked their dimensional… fuckery .

Because there were not many words to describe what she had put together this far. Everything pointed to Crystal Shards were utilizing ridiculously amounts of power to force through the dimensions and holding a diminutive opening going to carry what everyone considered parahuman powers.

It was impressive, but more on the fact that it was happening at all. Anyone who reached this level of technology would improve on it, not keep using it. Annette wanted to scream, it was like humanity having managed to make steam cars and stopped there because it worked .

It was frustrating to look into. Though the only part more frustrating than the Crystal Shards' method to break through dimensions, was their version to reinforce the barriers between dimensions outside of their tiny, tiny holes.

She grumbled a bit at the problem before sighing. "Hey Junk, could you help me for a moment?"

" Hey 'nette, what are you needing help with? " The woman sounded eager, it made Annette a bit nervous.

Chapter 50

Chapter Text

Emily Piggot looked at her platoon, men and women who had, in a way or another, ended in a similar situation like her. Non-parahuman forces that ended suffering when more attention was put on parahumans. Having lost everyone, but one person in Ellisburg because Parahumans had just decided to not do anything had left her with injuries that would have followed all of her life.

She idly wondered what had become of Calvert, the man who had worked with the PRT as a security consultant after the incident, but as far as she knew, he had disappeared off the face of the earth over a month prior. Not that she liked the man much to begin with, but one had to know where your enemies were and what they were doing.

It was almost ironic that she was in Brockton Bay after she had been offered Director Richardson's position after the whole debacle. And she may have taken it too, but her mood had been a bit too sour at the time and had decided to, metaphorically, flip the table, instead take a teaching position for military forces. It was almost laughable that they had ended up awarding her the Major rank because they had to do something .

And with people liking to gossip, she had met others in a similar situation to hers. And as they say, spite is a powerful motivator. Gossip also allowed her and the others to amass a lot of blackmail. Things most people never wanted to come out. She would have felt worse if it hadn't felt so good to throw that egg on their faces.

Plus she had to admit the Belt Core units were quite sweet too. She turned to Captain Tim Taylor. "Toolman, tell me what you got from the units."

"Well, boss." She rolled her eyes. "I can tell you they are like tinkertech, by the fact that I don't think normal technology could, or should, do nearly anything these babies get up to."

"So?" She asked.

"Well, there's a list of things that tinkertech doesn't do that these do." He pointed to the stylish equipment. "First thing is the lack of a need to have a tinker run maintenance on them. There's a reason why everyone accepts that tinkertech doesn't last. Except these will also fix themselves if something actually breaks, I've checked and double-checked Rogers' unit, and there's not a mark left from the attack she did."

"I see, that doesn't mean any of you are skipping the gun care routine." The rest of the platoon hollered at that. "What else?"

"When she said they will keep our actual bodies hale and hearty wasn't a lie either. We've noticed scars and old pains fading." He shrugged. "I'm sure our next medical check up will show more than a few surprises."

She nodded as some of the guys on the back were checking under their clothes.

"What I really want to know is, is it safe to use?" Piggot asked him.

"Well… yeah. Honestly, if I had to say, anything that could get you actually hurt while using them would have killed any of us already by then." He shrugged.

"That's good enough for me." She stood up. "Okay boys and girls. You heard our resident egghead, we got some sweet toys to have fun with." She chuckled at what a bunch of children these veterans could be. "For our trial run we'll be moving against the remnants of the Merchants. We have pretty good intel of where they have been hiding.

"I had you all read the profiles on the leftover important members, they are trash, but that doesn't mean it will be a milk run. Cornered rats bite the hardest after all.

"Also remember, we're not Parahumans, we're not heroes here, we are here to get the job done, get in, get shit done and get out."

The hollering had ended a while ago in her speech, replaced by serious faces that knew of the dangers.

"Enough words. Let's go and show them how the rules of the game changed." Piggot activated her own Belt Core unit, her armor just slightly altered to show her rank. "Let's move out."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

It had been a week since she had asked Junk to help her in understanding dimensional mechanics, and she had quickly learned that for all her perks, there was knowledge outside of her reach.

Even after a week of nightly lessons from a goddess , it was still nearly a complete mystery to Annette on how to solve things. She wished with all her might that the Forge gave her an answer to her problem.

And four charges plus the two new ones evaporated into the central black star. Reality seemed to come to a stop, all her attention focused inwards, watching that Black Star light up for the third time as potential rumbled under the surface.

The perk pushed out and like a seed put through fast forward in very fertile soil, a massive tree grew out of it. A tree that grew and grew, and soon Annette felt like she had seen a tree so similar to it before. The roots buried so deep down that it couldn't be called just the ground, the crown of the tree had grown so tall that the clouds ended under it.

The perk whispered the name Yggdrasil, The Tree of Information . It was weird to see another tree like it, so similar and different to the one shown by Nine-Realms Craftsman. Because this was not a real tree or a magical one, this was a complete digital being, because there was no living thing of this size and complexity that wasn't sentient. And while Yggdrasil slept at the moment, if something threatened their digital realm they would wake up.

The perk that came out was called Cyber Sorcerer . A part of the Magitech Crafting domain, it was obliquely what she had asked for… maybe. She understood why it was called Cyber Sorcerer, the realm the information came from may have been digital, but it was as real as herself.

And the perk let her understand part of the human side of the equation, because the Digital Realm was technically a young realm, sprouted from the complexity of the early world wide web, only growing more and more complex each year it passed. The accelerated time inside the electronic world allows for a new type of life to flourish.

The so-called Digital Monsters, digimon for short. And now she could feel the first extra perk take effect, it was called Digimon Partner . Well, one of a group of extra perks was called that, but they all were more or less the same. And it was affecting Odyssey.

She watched her empty armor figure collapse down into a colorful egg. Said egg soon hatched into a small, metal mouse that quickly grew into a fuzzy, purple and white, masked creature. She could see her friend and partner's mind in those small eyes as the creature glowed brightly and in its place was a floating robot with stylized gears.

The changes didn't stop as the robot was replaced by a larger robot, in a rusted brown color and shaped more like a blocky walking tank. One more change consumed her figure and in its place stood a tall and lanky cyborg.

Odyssey looked at herself, their figure was unappealing , the exposed flesh was rough and nearly diseased-looking, there were exposed cables and electronics everywhere, the design of the armor was incomplete.

It was almost hilarious to hear a huff of contempt at her new form as Odyssey concentrated and her figure glowed, but instead of advancing up, it went sideways. Her figure slimmed, recovering her more petite features as the armor smoothed and grew similar to Annette's own, the skin growing soft and healthy.

Annette watched as her partner gained a number of perks, Ominous Omens would let Odyssey know when something bad may happen to her, Avatar of Awesome would let the Valkyrie Core help her regulate her ever growing power, Between Heaven and Earth gave her an outside position to any conflict, and finally Symbiosis would give Odyssey the ability to help other people improve and break their limits.

The last extra perk she acquired was strange, it was called Digivice and it could be called the crystallization of the bond between her and her partner. It also carried a plethora of other abilities down to a small level of reality bending through the power of friendship, hopes and dreams. It would have felt sillier if she didn't know how it was actually true. Between Cyber sorcerer and her ability to understand how it worked down to the smallest detail thanks to her other perks, she had a pretty good idea of how to replicate and improve on it.

She smiled at Odyssey. "How're you feeling? That was quite a change."

"It's…" Her voice had gained a strange echo that made her clear her throat, it wasn't there anymore when she spoke again. "Interesting."

"If I understand right, you're now a digimon, no?"

She nodded. "Andromon, Ultimate level android digital monster, data and vaccine type, ma'am."

Annette nodded, she could see the same information given her connection to the digivice. "But that's not all, right? I could tell, technically andromon's the form before this one."

Odyssey nodded. "Andromon normal form was found lacking . Andromon was a prototype, it wasn't hard to improve on it given my previously held information." She looked proud, and it made Annette proud for her partner to be able to show it. "You can call me Andromon Valkyrie Mode. I reckon that my power has increased nearly five hundred percent compared to the normal Andromon form."

Annette felt like letting out a whistle at that. Andromon were Ultimate level digimon, and those weren't something to sneeze at. And one couldn't forget that there were two more steps above her current level, strangely the Digivice stated that both were Mega levels, her new perk marked the second as actually an upper level to Mega.

"It looks like you have gained quite the power increase from this, but I'm pretty sure you will be feeling one of the cons in very sho-" Her word was cut by a very loud noise.

GRUMBLE

"And there we go, looks like someone's hungry for the first time in her existence." Annette laughed as Odyssey also proceeded to blush for the first time. "Let's get you stuffed, I bet you can't wait to try my cooking."

She could only smile at the eagerness that appeared in Odyssey's eyes.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor was humming softly as she followed Emma to her room. She was glad that the girl had invited her to hang out, especially because Taylor was feeling a bit guilty about not spending as much time with her best friend as much lately.

She sat on Emma's bed as her friend chose the chair in front of her vanity table.

"We should do the homework first." Taylor offered and Emma huffed.

"Really, Tay? Homework first? C'mon, we've barely hung out this last month." Emma pouted and the young girl chuckled.

"Come on Ems, we get it done now and then we are free! Plus I've already looked over most of it, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Tay, you are the smarty pants." She grumbled. "Okay, but you'll be helping me. God knows how you are doing so well in school lately."

Taylor smiled, she had no problem helping her best friend. Though she was starting to feel like Emma wasn't putting enough effort in the homework and kept asking her for the answers. Maybe if she asked mom if Emma could also study at the Library?

"aaaand done!" Emma sighed as if she just climbed the world's highest mountain.

"It wasn't that hard, Ems. It barely took ten minutes." Taylor laughed softly.

Her friend blew a raspberry. "They were the hardest ten minutes of the week."

"Okay, okay, I'll believe you, oh woe's Emma, she died from doing homework." Her words only made her friend pout harder.

But just as fast her friend could pout, she changed into a cheerful look. "You're being silly, Tay." She rolled her eyes at her friend's words. "Now, tell me what it is like to be the daughter of a cape. Though it's not like your mom goes out that much, no?"

Internally, Taylor grumbled, this wasn't a subject she wanted to talk about. Or could talk much about it. Both of her parents had had more than one pretty extensive discussion about what she could and couldn't tell Emma. It was another reason she wanted her to be allowed into the Library, once the first step was taken, it wouldn't be hard to read her friend into what not to tell everyone else too.

"Well… there's much I just can't tell you." She heard Emma grumble. "Mom does a lot of work, especially after quitting her old job. We do exercise nearly every morning, she insists it's not good if we do it every day, so we usually have two days a week to rest."

"That's boring." Emma pouted again.

"Sorry Ems. Honestly don't know that much of what mom does," She shrugged. "She spends most of the day over at the Guild Building working with Dragon and the other two capes that work there."

"Oh! Do you know them? I looked everywhere but no one knows anything about them." Emma leaned closer and Taylor knew she had screwed a bit there.

"Well… they are very nice," She quickly tried to remember if they had chosen any kind of cape name, but she found herself quickly drawing a blank on the subject. "erhm… I've talked with Puppeteer and… History both. More with History though, she's a teacher like mom."

Her friend hung to each of her words, and Taylor had to admit it felt nice. Still, she tried her best to keep all information as vague and simple as possible.

"Okay Ems, that's enough. There's other stuff to talk about." She put her foot down, trying her best mom tone as possible. Thankfully it worked, glad that the conversation moved on she wondered if she would have to talk to her parents about this.

(-(-|-)-)

"Annette." Dragon knew her tone was very much dry and very done with her savior's usual brand of craziness.

"Yes, Theresa?" The woman guilty of her current migraine asked sweetly.

"Please, explain it again." Dragon did her best to make sure her tone wasn't as tense as she was feeling.

The AI was sure her memories weren't faulty, and Annette was telling her the exact same thing again. In her venture to try and understand the source of Parahuman's powers, the so-called Crystal Shards, she had asked the strange source of her powers for an answer and had, kinda , received it.

And then added the part of how it was done by accessing a realm just parallel to their own, constructed onto the world's electronic connections, filled with monsters that spanned things weaker than babies to literal endbringers. And if that wasn't enough, Odyssey had gone through a metamorphosis into one of them, and while not at the top level of the power chart, she was certainly much more powerful on her own now. And that was without her accessing the sheer bullshit that was the Impeller Field.

The AI's mind was still having troubles wrapping around that piece of technology. Even Annette didn't openly implement it given its power.

"And what are you going to do with this new knowledge?"

"From all the perks I've acquired, this one definitely falls in the 'better not be left alone', so I'm going to see about designing a proper digitizing portal to visit the Digital Realm. For two reasons, while you and Odyssey can technically exist in both worlds, humans are still flesh and blood unless they go through the proper process. Second, it will allow me to finally study the black box that is your power and hopefully find a way to study the Crystal Shard behind it." Annette's explanation quickly ventured into much more technical matters that went over Dragon's head.

"Okay, I can understand why you are doing it." She let a sigh escape her lips. "Before you start, I'll have to talk with Narwhal about it. Dimensional travel is technically one of those banned technologies people will fuzz about. With a bit of luck they will take it closer to pocket dimension tech, rather than the realm traveling we know it is."

"Thanks Dragon." Annette smiled. "Hmm, I wonder if we could modify your code to give you a nature similar to that of the Digimon." A shiver went down the AI's back, even when she knew her friend was joking.

"Stop that, I like the way I am, maybe in the future we can see about having one of my forks go through it. I'll also put Odyssey through the Case 53 process."

"Thank you, Dragon." The AI turned to said woman. Odyssey was sitting slightly farther than Annette, she was still in the discovery phase of actually having a body. She's holding her helmet on her lap, letting the ginger locks of hair bounce slightly as she tilted her head and gave her a smile.

Dragon felt the need to smile back at the Core before turning back to Annette, who now sported a mysterious smile.

"Hmm, you know, I'm pretty sure you are the only one capable of understanding what Odyssey's going through. Do you think you could help her later?"

Dragon felt the smile come much more naturally. "Of course." And it was true, something inside of her really liked the idea of teaching Odyssey.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Dragon saw a note from one of her other forks about Annette doing it again and internally sighed. She couldn't really do it externally as she's currently talking with Armsmaster and Roadie.

"That's…" The AI rubbed her chin, a gesture she had long since learned most humans considered deep thought. "You're saying that Roadie's showing problems with her Tinkering, so when did it start?"

Dragon found the young woman a bit rough around the edges, but mostly given how eager she was to do tinkering and being part of the Protectorate. Sadly she also had to admit she hadn't thought much about it when the woman had disappeared nearly completely off the public scene after the Day of Chaos.

"I think the moment was during Oni Lee's capture," She sounded defeated. "I had my shield up when he surrounded me with his clones and detonated like half a dozen grenades. The shield held but I passed out."

Dragon nodded. "And after that it became harder to maintain your equipment and build new ones, no?" The young woman nodded. "Okay, I've an hypothesis, but first I would want to check something. If you would let me, I would like to scan you." She drew the scanner Annette had designed.

"If it helps find out what the fu-ggin problem is." Roadie sighed as Dragon proceeded to scan her.

It didn't take long to find what she expected. "Okay, good news and bad news. And they are kind of the same." Dragon sighed. "We've known for a while that powers have a source of some kind. The human brain's just not capable of doing what parahumans do. We also know that people can share a source, which of course is absolutely useless in the practical."

"So? You say that's useless, but what is the news?"

"Good news and bad news are kinda the same, the scans point that you share the same power source that Squealer does." There was a sign of recognition on Roadie's face. "I would have to check the records, but I would bet your and her shield broke at the same time. If that coincidence is the problem or what Odyssey used to break through, Squealer's shield overpowered something in the power source." Dragon shook her head lightly, sounding apologetically.

"To make an analogy, you two are clients, the power source was the server. The breaking of the shield caused the server to overheat and part of it has broken. Hardware problems in the server can't be fixed by a client."

"So you are saying I'm screwed?" There was anger mixed with some other emotions there.

"Unfortunately, unless the power source can fix itself or come out of whatever deadlock it got itself into. But we understand nothing about them, so we can only speculate"

Dragon felt bad for Roadie. "You can still maintain vehicles, no?" The young woman nodded. "Then I think we can work something out. Armsmaster," She turned to the local Protectorate's leader. "Do you think it would be possible to outfit Roadie with some advanced, yet non-tinkertech equipment? At least for some time to see if her powers return to normal."

"Hmm, it would be a good way to keep the image that her powers are still functioning." Armsmaster pondered out loud. "What do you have in mind?"

Dragon smiled internally as she noted the hopeful look on Roadie. "I would like to go over her equipment with her to get an idea of what she has." She turned fully to Roadie. "Maybe seeing about taking a lot of your project ideas and finishing them, or making it look like they were finished and that's what your time off the scene was all about."

Armsmaster nodded at their side. "Yes, that would be believable. Mostly at least, but seeing Roadie again on the streets would sell the idea that she was recovering from equipment failure during that day."

"Yes! Yes yes yes, please Armsmaster sir." She turned to her boss and Dragon chuckled softly. "I'll even do double console duty."

He shook his head. "That won't be necessary, nothing of this was your fault. It would be unbecoming if you were punished by something outside of your control."

They discussed how to advance with it for a few more minutes till Roadie had to leave, mostly to get her lab in order for Dragon's visit later. The AI turned to the man.

"That was very nice of you."

He shook his head. "She's my subordinate. I've to make sure she's comfortable or my image will suffer."

"You know that… nevermind." She smiled. "Before I see about helping Roadie, how about you show me what you've been working on?"

Chapter 51

Chapter Text

Annette could honestly say she didn't understand how it felt to empathize with other people's stress till she dealt with Dragon and Narwhal during the week an Endbringer attack was expected to take place.

Before having joined the Guild, the extent of her experience with Endbringers' attacks was that Russian Roulette people went through when the public service announcement rolled through every piece of media possible. The sheer terror and, usually, instant relief when it wasn't your city being attacked. Of course it never ended there, there were always the thoughts about the place that was being attacked.

The other side of the experience didn't extend to every city, only large ones where the sudden halt from parahuman groups was felt. Brockton Bay tended to feel a few days where it was safe -er to go out. You could still be mugged, but the chances of being caught between gangs skirmishing on the streets was near to nothing.

Being part of the cape scene changed things quite a bit. She now had a better understanding why things slowed down before and after the attack. The Unwritten Rules were enough that most people accepted to not start shit before or end with everyone angry at them, because that's how you declared yourself outside the rules and then you were, usually, royally screwed by everyone else taking the gloves off to punch you down.

It impressed her how much stress Dragon was feeling, she kinda expected it from Narwhal more. But the woman had apparently steeled herself to the horrors of it, the two Tank perks she had acquired also helped apparently. No, it was the AI that showed the most stress.

Annette had seen to stop her friend's main self and sat her down to talk, she had brewed a specially potent magical tea that would even affect the AI. It had helped her relax and let it all out. She would be keeping that conversation private for now, she was glad it had helped her at least.

Still, she could understand the stress, with the Simurgh having attacked nearly three months prior, it was Leviathan and Behemoth the ones expected to attack this time around. With Behemoth on the most likely given the waterfront-destroyed having attacked before the Simurgh.

Annette would have preferred if it was Leviathan, she was actually much more sure she could deal with the hydrokinetic, lizard-looking monster than the titanic, energy controller. She had the speed and resilience to deal with its fast movement and water control. On the other hand, there were a few types of energy the first of the three could bring to the table that would be a problem for her to deal with.

Didn't mean she wasn't preparing for it. The current project she was, slightly, rushing to complete was a Belt Core unit with all stops removed. She trusted Odyssey quite a bit, but just in case, this Belt Core would put her body under a large set of protections. Not just against damage, but also making sure no one would be able to find it.

She had utilized the Monster Hunted resources to improve both her armor even further. She would be controlling both in a similar way to how Odyssey puppeteers the armor. Given Annette's fear of what types of energy Behemoth could utilize against her, she had seen to work out a way to absorb, convert and redirect any type of energy.

The sheer flexibility that the system had ended with, meant that unless Annette found a way to redesign it into a more restricted form to deal with just a few types of energy. No one would be seeing it outside of S-Class threats. Having the capability of sapping all energy from an area to convert it into electricity meant she could flash freeze things quite effectively.

On the actual weapon side of her equipment, and not just a deadly tool, she had upgraded the plasma spear. Utilizing what she had been able to observe from Ronin's power, his power had utilized gravity to sever things on a very small level, and quite brutally too. Annette had gone a step further and utilizing force directly on the molecules, pulling things apart quite effectively. And also as deadly as it sounded.

Technically, it was the same IF technique Odyssey utilized when dealing with the rats, small and big . It was just Annette still didn't have that fine control to pull it off at the moment.

The only way she could imagine making it worse was to use dimensional forces, but she was still pretty far from understanding those, even with all her knowledge.

And talking about dimensions, she watched Odyssey step out from one of the large screens currently monitoring the new server she had designed.

"File Island has formed as expected, ma'am." The Core-now-digimon stated as she removed her helmet, gently shaking her head to make her always-perfect ginger curls counce freely.

Annette nodded as she looked at the images on the screen, the island didn't look more than a few dozen kilometers wide. But the distances in the Digital World were tricky as a city could occupy the same space as a never ending and empty wasteland.

Right now there was only one notable landmark besides the sea of data and the island on itself, at the center of the island stood a mountain, a nearly perfect cone pointed up. They had decided to call it Index Mountain as it was the island's center and some of the framework that existed under the surface kept the whole place together.

"How're things progressing down there?" Annette asked.

"The biomes are slowly stabilizing, the forest, swamp and plains are starting to show a small amount of digital plant life as expected." The Core lifted a hand, on it appeared a small pot filled with earth and a few green shoots of grass.

Annette quickly scanned it and smiled. It may look like normal grass, but it was anything but . Even the pot had been created from digital clay as the earth was just fertile information. The small blades of grass were the most interesting.

To begin with, when light shone on them the right way a small shimmer of zeros and ones could be seen moving over it. It was a very simple program, it drew on the fertile information of the ground and used the energy that shone on it to grow its own program's roots.

Now, different from actual grass that would be at the bottom of the chain, this digital plant wasn't food. Instead the roots would slowly connect all of the grass, turning the large plains into a massive energy farm that would regulate and deliver said energy to more complex programs. Of course they still had none of said programs: data trees, function bushes, etc…

Many of those would either form naturally if they allowed more Real World information to run through the server, or they could see to design them. Many of those would turn the available energy into data available for digimon consumption. The perk described them as fruits or meat bushes, apparently digimon could vary their diet but didn't exactly eat each other for nutrition. Consuming other digimon's data was usually part of the evolution process and only some types of them did it.

Annette felt the Forge activate, two new charges spent to acquire a perk from the Vehicles domain. Could Stand to Lose a Few Pounds improved her ability to upgrade the design of giant robots by reducing their bulk, improving movement, sleekness and dodging. And while it described said robotic giants as Mobile Suits, she could see how it could be extended to other types of anthropomorphized weapons of war.

While not apparently useful at first, she could see how to apply the perk to improve the Belt Core units' variable android bodies. As they could be considered tiny Mobile Suits. Odyssey was looking at her own form, apparently also putting it through the perk. Though a moment later she huffed and shook her head, apparently quite happy in how she looked at the moment.

It was hard to miss Dragon approaching her with how her Impeller Field covered practically all the block and a bit more by now. Annette turned to the AI, a smile on her lips as she had noticed Dragon looking in Odyssey's direction.

"Hey Theresa, interested in the first digital grass shoots? Maybe you could get some for your servers." Annette joked lightheartedly.

"Hmm, maybe once you can make sure it won't mess things up, grow out of control or turn me into a digimon. I like how I am right now. One massive change in my nature a decade is more than enough, and I did technically have two counting my Trigger event." She quickly returned.

"Sounds like a plan, I bet Odyssey would enjoy giving you a tour of File Island once it's further developed." She teased. She would have to convince Dragon to add blushing to her next body's iteration, because she was pretty sure the AI was currently feeling light embarrassment. "And I'm advancing quite well on the portal, as shown by Odyssey being able to step in and out. But letting a Digimon step in and out of the Digital World is the easy part."

"Have you thought about creating a drone for one of your thought streams to explore File Island?" Dragon offered, and Annette sighed as she had missed the obvious by trying to go all the way.

"I really need to find a way to stop missing the trees and going for the forest." She rubbed a hand over her face as she turned to Odyssey who nodded. The monitoring screen showed a quick spread of the digital grass all over the fertile biomes, given that the Digital World was running at a few thousand times of acceleration the change was more than easily visible. Still, there wouldn't be any variation on the digital flora for now.

One of her Thought Streams started to look into what it would take to develop a digital drone that one of her selves could ride. The main problem was the sheer acceleration the Digital World ran on. Right now it was running at several days per second, now if she could step fully into the Digital World, that would give her plenty of more time to work on many of her problems at her own pace.

While those worked, she turned to Dragon. "On another, more stressful subject, how're the preparations for the upcoming attack?"

Theresa gave her a crooked smile. "Sadly there's not much to do, most capes prepare during this time by making up their mind. Protectorate usually have to sign a series of wavers for those who will head to the attack. Wards are prohibited to attend unless it's in their city and even then younger than fifteen are sent away if possible."

For a moment Annette had to think what she would do with Taylor if an Endbringer attacked the city, besides throwing her daughter and husband right into the Sanctuary and closing the door. She trusted her husband to stay safe, and while she would prefer to outfit him with a proper Valkyrie Core, his current armor would most likely keep him safe.

Taylor would be harder to deal with, not only was her daughter like her and if given the chance, would act to keep other people safe. But her little girl had been soaking in magical knowledge.

Annette had taken to giving her daughter classes, one hour of theoretical and one of practical twice a week. Given the danger of magic, they were aiming to generate a large and very stable base for the girl to build onto. Practically the girl had managed the Gensokyo flying spell and a basic bullet spell. For some reason Taylor's bullets appeared to be shaped like butterflies, in Annette's opinion this was good, more chances to be underestimated.

And just in case, she had created a small contract between the Sanctuary's fairies and Taylor. If her daughter found herself in a dangerous situation, she would be able to summon as many of the small, magical beings as possible. The fairies had felt quite proud she trusted them to keep her daughter safe and help her run away if necessary, the fact that they would gladly carry this order even if it killed them was only troubling till she remembered that death and return was practically a common thing for them.

Annette felt the Forge activate, a single charge perk called Exo-Wombs was added to the Sanctuary's workshops. It was a troublesome piece of technology in many ways, given matching genetic material, it would then gestate the resulting child in a completely safe environment. So far Odyssey had kept her from becoming pregnant for the dangers of suddenly acquiring a perk that changed things. Maybe this perk was the answer to give Taylor a younger sibling… and if she could make sure there would be no genetic problem or future health problem it would be better.

But it wasn't time yet, she wanted to fix the world a bit more before having a new member of the family.

Her train of thought was shook by a shiver that went down her spine, Annette felt her body kick into high gear. Dragon didn't miss it, quickly gaining an off-the-distance-look, her features growing grim.

"Behemoth has surfaced in the area of the Yapacana National Park, Venezuela." They were already moving. "Near the border with Colombia and moving quickly."

Annette was already bringing up a world map and checking the location.

"There's nothing there." She racked her brains trying to understand what it was doing. "Besides the national parks, the closest city is hundreds of kilometers away from his position. It can't be a mistake"

"Doesn't matter." Dragon didn't look busy, but Annette knew her forks were moving through the network. "The devastation it will cause in the area is immeasurable. Just the fires alone will easily destroy thousands of acres of protected land if not more, the fact that it may also irradiate the zone and leave it barren's even worse."

Annette was already sending a message to Danny, she promised she would come back and asked him to stay safe. As part of their preparations, she had not only filled her storage with crafting materials, but also gone ahead and produced a large number of portal drones, barrier drones and extra arc reactors to provide the necessary power production.

She turned to Alice and Keine, the pair wearing highly enchanted versions of their Gensokyo clothing. They gave her a curt nod.

"This will be an interesting way to debut." Alice chuckled as behind her stood seven puppets floating idly, each one had been created together between the blonde puppeteer and Annette.

And while Annette could do plenty, Alice had decided to expand her knowledge on programming and Artificial Intelligence to create her own living doll. Still, each one had been enchanted to be categorized as a high-level Brute and the ability to empower Alice's magic to give her a Blaster rating of at least eight, enough to make most stop and consider it seriously.

Keine, on the other hand, stood in her full Hakutaku form, Annette was paying the bill on energy for her to maintain it. Not that it was that much of a problem given how her internal reserves had grown.

She quickly explained where they were heading. "...so rescue operations should be easy and restricted to just the parahuman volunteers to go. And given the armbands Dragon designed, it should be easy to find them."

Keine nodded. "Gotcha, stay away and provide fire support, pick anyone that's in trouble." She summarized.

"More or less, the main problem with Behemoth is that anything close by gets hit with enough stuff that only the most resilient will survive, and I'm not sure just how much you two could survive. So it's good you don't need to move closer.

"Though, Keine, I would like you to see if you can get any useful information." The woman nodded and they turned to see Dragon approaching.

"We are ready to move, we'll be leaving from the PRT's HQ. Leap will be getting us to Miami and from there Spam Mail will deliver people to a location near to the expected Endbringer's path." She explained as the four of them moved out of the building and to their first destination.

Internally, she let out a sigh of relief as she didn't see her cousin in the small group of capes. While Bastian had managed to deal with the sword of Damocles over his neck and returned to his bar to make sure the place was still standing, he had been forced to return to the city as there had been leaking rumors about someone related to Marquise living in the city, some other rumors talked about some thing from the villain existing somewhere in the city.

She was really hoping he wasn't looking to have a second bout with the Endbringer.

The other figures that were missing were the city's criminal elements. While the Merchants and the ABB never assisted in Endbringer attacks, the Empire took pleasure in maintaining that image as misunderstood heroes. Except that between the losses in capes and the lack of proper long-distance fighters, the gang had decided that fighting Behemoth wasn't worth the publicity .

With Dragon on the lead, they approached Armsmaster who appeared to have been talking with Miss Militia till a moment prior. The man turned to them, a very pr-friendly smile on his face as he greeted them.

"Dragon, it's good to see you. Same for you, Odyssey, History Eater, Seven Color Puppeteer, it's a pleasure to have you along." He turned when a figure appeared a few meters away. "And that's Leap, just in time."

The Protectorate Leader turned to the present capes. "Okay everyone, Leap here will be our first leg of the trip."

Annette smiled as she watched the man take quick control of the present capes and organize the way out.

The jump to Miami was jarring , Leap's ability was pretty much like his name, it made them leap from one spot to the other and you needed to be ready for the fall too. Annette made a note to push forward with the portal system or develop some long-distance teleport of her own.

Being much further south than Brockton Bay and with Spring having already started, the weather in Miami was much nicer than the city they had left. Annette made a note to maybe bring the family sometime in the Summer, or maybe look for a completely abandoned island somewhere in the ocean. It wasn't like she couldn't keep all the pleasures of living in a city anywhere.

She turned to see a young teen in a mailman costume making people disappear by touching them. She would have panicked a bit if she didn't know this was Spam Mail, the Miami Branch Ward wouldn't be attending the fight, but his ability to send people quite effectively over long distances was very helpful.

Annette was tempted to see about opening a portal between the two locations, but the kid looked so proud of helping that the idea lost all wind from its sails. She took the next spot and let herself be flung for a second time in the day. Of course that was after making sure a cloaked portal receiver was buried deep into the ground, far enough to be near impossible to find, but high enough she could project her IF to teleport back if necessary.

Now, if Miami's weather was nice, the national park in Venezuela was nearly asphyxiating. Not only was the temperature much higher than Brockton Bay ever got to, but the humidity compounded with the Life she could feel from everywhere around her, it made Annette need a few seconds to get used to it.

Not that she let herself stay standing during those seconds, a moment after landing she was already moving to help Dragon's drones clear up an area in the vegetation and put up the facilities. Not just the medical tents, but also a proper landing pad for Dragon's multiple transports that would be bringing more equipment and would most likely be taking many of them to hospitals if necessary.

And if Annette was collecting a large amount of plant samples to expand her greenhouses, well that was her just taking advantage of the situation.

' Oh, that's a cacao tree, I've always wondered where chocolate came from. ' She retrieved one of the cocoa pods, already opened and she grabbed one of the seeds and put it into her mouth. Instantly the soft chocolate flavor mixed with the sweet natural sugar of the fruit filled her mouth.

She could only sigh as the flavor quickly grew bitter when she saw the smoke rising in the distance. She could also see more and more parahumans arriving, not just with Spam Mail's help, but with Movers from all over the world.

The itching sensation of a glare aimed at the back of her head made Annette almost turn around, but it was the same sensation that kept her from turning around and letting whoever it was notice that she knew. Instead she utilized her Impeller Field to see Eidolon glaring at her.

It took her a moment to piece together the man's emotions. It confused her to see a mix of anger, jealousy and fear . For a moment Annette was sure he may have been staring at the Endbringer, but she wouldn't have felt his glare if it wasn't aimed at her.

It was a mix of emotions that couldn't be kept bottled, they would fester easily, age into a terrible poison that would eat the person from the inside. But how did one approach someone like a member of the Triumvirate she never met before? Had she done something?

Soon the man turned away, heading to meet the other two members of the group as Annette wandered to meet Dragon. She would be keeping the little tidbit a secret for now, the situation was too dire to deal with.

"How're things going?" She asked the AI.

"Less than usual, but at the same time given the lack of civilians in the zone there's a large group that usually kept themselves to Evacuation, Search and Rescue that aren't attending." She explained as the woman's drones were starting to hand the armbands around.

"So we are restricted to Brutes strong enough to deal with the kill aura, Blasters to hit it from afar and Movers to keep the rest safe?"

"More or less." Dragon turned to her. "Will you be changing soon?"

Annette nodded. "Yes, just waiting till people are paying less attention to not freak them out." She chuckled. "Odyssey will also be joining us soon, even if Behemoth deals enough damage, she won't be away for long."

"I would feel jealous if I didn't have technically the same ability thanks to my backups. I made one just five minutes ago and I'm keeping a low-level stream of information so I won't be completely ignorant of what happened." She explained quickly as they moved closer to the group as Legend had stepped up on the podium and started to talk.

"He's really good at giving speeches, no?" She asked her friend.

"Yes, from the three of them, he's definitely the most charismatic."

"Hmm, I can see it. Alexandria has that untouchable aura to her, Eidolon's similar, but instead of not wanting anyone close like her, his case is more of being up on a pedestal. Legend is definitely the one ahead in dealing with other people, he feels… more…" Annette licked her lips. "naive? No, pure? Not that either, I think I would say he's more natural about it."

Dragon nodded thoughtfully as things advanced.

Chapter 52

Chapter Text

Lionguard considered himself a pretty chill guy. As one of the successful independent heroes from the San Francisco area with a couple years of experience under his belt, he considered himself quite experienced.

While technically he was considered a rogue and answered to The Elite for most large decisions, he maintained a pretty strong heroic image and a close relationship with the PRT's heroes.

And if as a below -board he had to play bodyguard for the The Elite from time to time, well it was a free country. He just made sure to maintain all his actions legal, don't go overboard with the violence and maybe just use his secondary costume and have his lion construct look slightly different.

It was one of those details most experienced capes learned about their powers, those little things they could push around, but didn't bring that much difference in their power's working. In his case was how his Lions could go from quadruped to biped. Honestly there wasn't much difference in their form, just how their body shifted the posture made them look completely different.

Right now he had summoned just two of them, dividing the pool of available power and having them grow as big and strong as possible while a robot lady passed and handed him an armband with instructions of how to use it.

He chuckled as he pressed the biggest button and called his name. "Lionguard."

" Lionguard recognized, choose roles: Brute, Blaster, Mover, Thinker. " A synthetic voice replied.

He blinked a few moments. "...I'm a Master with minion constructs." He tried.

" Minion Master recognized, please join the Blaster group. " The same voice replied after a moment.

"Lionguard? I didn't think I would see you here." A female voice made him turn.

"Soft Star, what brings you here? I thought the Protectorate wouldn't let someone just graduated from the Wards to assist." He smiled at her.

Not like it was hard, the Case 53 was really photogenic, pristine white hair done in a bob cut framed her face and her unearthly solid-blue eyes perfectly. From all Case 53 he had met, she was one of the most normal looking ones, if a parahuman could be normal.

"Yes, yes, I'm a little kid, like I've not heard that from you before." She stuck her tongue out and he rolled his eyes. "But the lab guys are pretty sure my stars may be pretty effective against the Endbringer, and since I can stay pretty far away I should be safe."

"Hmm, I would bet they just want to see if it works, the lab guys are always the same, throw shit at the wall and see what sticks." He had crossed paths with the girl a few times before the year.

Her power was technically considered primarily a Blaster that allowed her to shoot spheres of energy, barely faster than a softball throw, but they could pack a pretty mean punch as they were really hard to stop or redirect as they become almost immune to all upcoming forces. Paired with her ability to fly and hover in place she could pelt most targets from safety.

"Maybe, honestly, one of the reasons they are letting me come is because of the lack of civilians in the area." She confessed.

Lionguard looked around. "Well, the middle of the jungle is pretty empty. Which is pretty weird on itself."

"I know, right?" She sighed and they joined the rest of the capes as Legend started to give a speech. A part of Lionguard chuckled internally as he could recognize many of the lessons The Elite had forced him to take when he stated that he wanted to stay as an heroic rogue.

Another thing The Elite made sure to keep him apprised of the big names, the new ones, those that passed away, disappeared, returned, etc… So it wasn't hard to recognize Dragon, who apparently had developed a near-human robot body to attend along Odyssey, a new cape that made The Elite grind their teeth.

Seeing her for the first time, Lionguard could admit that Odyssey's armor left pretty much every other armored tinker in the dust, only Dragon and the unknown ginger talking with her being slightly comparable.

"What'cha you looking at?" Soft Star leaned and peered over his shoulder, utilizing her flying ability to make up for their size difference.

"Uh? Oh, the capes with Dragon." He turned just in time to see the woman's body disappear and the armor remain behind, standing like nothing had happened. "What the-"

"Oooh, that must be Odyssey, I overheard the PRT's director talk about her. Something about providing for the PRT forces."

That made him blink, if that was true The Elite would like to know about it. Of course surprises didn't stop there as a short-lived flash over Dragon left her looking much more like how people pictured the draconic Tinker.

The Tinker's world-renown was enough that people knew the looks of some of her platforms. They even sold action figures of the most popular over in Canada. But it was still a surprise to see this one.

Easily over two and a half meters tall and designed with power as the main description, the most impressive part was the massive cannon on its back, nearly as tall as the whole suit.

Soft Star let out a long whistle. "Damn, now that's a nice gun, I bet it will help a lot to send that monster packing."

Lionguard winced internally after parsing through her words, and he could understand those words. People didn't kill Endbringers, they just hit them hard enough for them to leave. It wasn't like he didn't want to kill those monsters that had destroyed so much, but it was hard to think they could be killed.

Her small hand smacked his arm. "Come on, it's starting, and we gotta move."

He nodded, heading with her to the Blaster group as people readied for the fight.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette had to admit it felt weird to not be riding her actual body, it wasn't that much different from what her Though Streams experienced during their control of the Walking Workshops. It was just that even in those cases, they could still feel her actual body still around, still notice all the things that happened in a flesh and blood body.

But now her body was practically in a coma as the pod kept it safe away from reality and her mind took the Valkyrie System in full. Having her sense of touch replaced with a stream of information of everything that her Impeller Field picked up. Most of her normal senses had been replaced by a sense of omniscience in her surroundings. Not that she was using it to taste the plants around her.

She turned to Dragon. "Nice suit."

"Thanks, I've high hopes for the cannon. I based it on your molecular tearing technology, just larger, at range and sustained."

"You will have people move away to shoot it, right?" Annette felt the Forge acquire a perk called The Dark Crystal , it would allow her to program magic into crystals. Which did nothing for her at the moment so she would leave it to the side for now.

"It wouldn't be the first time a Tinker has needed people to clear the area of the fight. I took it into consideration when programming the armbands."

"Then good luck." She sent her friend positive emotions through the link as she turned to Odyssey. "Ready?" The Core-now-digimon nodded and both quickly took flight.

While Annette headed for the Brute group, Odyssey joined the blasters as she would be using her gatling gun and missile attack that had come with her new form.

She started to deploy the drones behind her, letting her Thought Streams monitor the swarm and utilize them to expand her effective IF area. The view of the destroyed jungle once again brought the bitter flavor to Annette's mouth, even when she didn't practically have a mouth at the moment.

One of her Thought Streams quickly moved some of the drones away from the rest, flying far back to the Endbringer's surface zone and utilizing her IF to take care of the out-of-control fires and radiated material. It would take time for the plant and animal life to return, but nature knew how to do it and had done it plenty of times before.

The Thought Stream continued moving along the monster's trail as Annette flew at the monster, joining the other brutes. The first fly up was completely for testing, she didn't even try to attack the monster, instead catching a short brute that got smacked by what appeared to be an electric explosion.

"Thank you miss." The man coughed, she channeled a bit of restoration mana before putting him down.

"No problem." She nodded before turning back to the looming monster, she watched other parahumans either maintain their distance and attack or go up at the creature and try to damage it, uselessly at the end.

Only a few of the capes were getting as far as chipping small bits off the monster, and even with the thing's size, when she said small she meant less than a fingernail of material. The only ones managing anything above that were the members of the Triumvirate and a few other capes she would have to look more into later.

She steeled herself and flew at the titan once more, close enough to feel the energy discharge on her hollow armor. The universal transformer quickly guzzles every joule of energy and channeling it into molecular render on the edge of her spear.

The monster's attention may not have focused on her, but the closer she moved the more energy discharged onto her form. Entering the so-called kill-aura area of effect was enough to reach a taxing level on the universal transformer, one of her Thought Streams expediting the internal construction of a second one to deal with the load.

The blow grazed along the creature's arm, the blade carving a shallow slash across the rocky skin. Bubbling fluid oozed out, looking like molten rock. Her Thought Streams quickly did two things, one was to collect as much of the Endbringer's material, both the skin she shaved off and the material underneath along with the bleeding blood . Because it didn't take her long to see it was anything but.

The other thing was scanning the monster, though something had gotten in the way. The scanning technology could pick up information from the surface of the beast, but the tech seemed to start to have troubles penetrating past a few centimeters in.

She flew away as a much stronger discharge of mixed energies washed over her armor and a gigantic arm swatted at her. A couple of blinks put her back into safety as she took a few seconds to clean the noxious radiation off her armor before she moved to attend to the numerous injuries that had quickly picked up.

"Dragon, I'm sending you the results from the first scan."

" Copy, Odyssey. " The AI replied through their private channel. " The fact that it didn't reach that deep is interesting in itself. Can you do another run? Maybe try to stay close longer. "

"I was just thinking of doing that." Annette agreed and flew at the monster, this time the single baleful-eye focused on her, its arm swatting in her direction, followed by a wave of mixed energies that destroyed everything between them.

Annette trusted her armor to withstand the attack. But it wasn't necessary, a blink behind the monster was all she needed to dodge it completely. Stabbing her spear right into the creature's back drew a roar that would have made her bones crack if she had them. Instead she could feel the amount of power behind the sonic attack as she buried the point of her weapon directly between its shoulder blades.

Attacking the giant rock from the back also left its front open for the rest of the attackers, not like most brutes approached it as the Endbringer started to pump enough energy into its kill aura to make the death zone visible. Only Alexandria had the sheer resistance to fly straight at the beast's chest and impact it right on the solar plexus.

Thankfully Annette saw it coming and pushed more power into the molecular rend on her blade, feeling it slowly bury deeper. Bad news was that the deeper it went the harder it was turning to be. But with each second she stood in place her scan pushed deeper into the beast.

" Bad news, Dragon. " She sent through her private channel. " Or well, good news partially. This thing's definitely not human and has never been. Bad news, it's definitely capable of so much more. "

The sensation of dread from the link was understandable. " I take it you found more since you are not letting anyone else know? "

" Scan's far enough that I can make a pretty good guess of the creature, or better yet, the thing. It's just a giant construct. " Annette started to send the information she was picking. " It's made of some kind of aluminum alloy, it's pretty good on itself, but the real problem comes deeper inside, it's superposing the alloy into itself to make it harder every few centimeters of depth. "

" And since it's practically duplicating the toughness every few centimeters it wouldn't take long till it was impossible to damage, as any attack would be spread over the thousands of layers coexisting in the same place. "

" So far the molecular rend is working because it's working at such a small scale, but it won't take long till it will be impossible to reach further. " Annette let out a dark chuckle. " Oh, I could stand here and keep pushing, but it's starting to become obvious the area will suffer greatly with so much energy running rampant ."

And it was obvious as the ground had long since melted into a glowing pool of radioactive rock.

" Then we will just have to punch hard and fast through it. " Dragon quickly sent her the details of her idea.

Annette's grin would have shown her teeth. " I'm in, run the warning, we are going to give this beast a taste of fear. "

She pulled away as Dragon's warning rang through the armband system.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Alexandria still wasn't sure if Behemoth surfacing in the middle of Venezuela's Yapacana national park was a deviation of the Endbringer's usual M.O. or just another step of the monsters' plan to whittle humanity down.

Even with all the doubts still in place, she could internally admit it was a relief to not have to care for civilians having to be evacuated, no shelters to protect, no soft points to keep from being destroyed. Each step of the beast brought more and more destruction, but it felt easier when it was somewhere so empty of people.

There would still be deaths, more than one Brute had thought himself invulnerable against the beast's kill aura, more than one Blaster misjudged the distance and ended up blasting themselves. They were necessary losses to keep humanity going.

Her attention was drawn by the armored figure she had made sure to memorize. That didn't stop a fraction of a surprise to see that the armor was hollow and still fighting. Not that it was the weirdest piece of technology she had seen from a Tinker, if the woman even counted as that.

Whatever she was using on her weapon was quite effective as a glancing blow had managed to carve an injury deeper than what most Blasters managed.

Alexandria waited in place as she watched the woman move away and save another combatant before attacking again, this time blinking just behind the monster and driving her weapon right in the middle of its back, too far for the creature to reach her with its hands.

Part of her would have liked to sit back and watch, see how much damage she could bring alone. But another, a bigger part, made her fly straight at the giant, picking up speed and impacting her both fists right below its chest. She could feel the monster stop advancing as two forces pressed from front and back.

Still, it was obvious that whatever Odyssey was doing wasn't being useful, because she quickly felt the monster start to slide back on the soft, melted ground and its attention turned back to her. It forced Alexandria to fly away from the coming claws.

" All Parahumans Retreat, Large Scale Attack Incoming in Sixty Seconds. " The armband chimed the notice and Alexandria turned to see Dragon preparing the massive cannon she had been carrying on her back the whole fight.

She quickly flew away till the armband gave a chime of safety, and not any farther, she needed to see what they wanted to do. She needed to know.

" Attack incoming in thirty seconds. " The voice repeated as she could see the cannon start to light up, some parts moving into a new configuration as the Endbringer appeared to ignore the threat and just continue advancing as no one impeded it anymore.

" Ten Seconds… Nine… Eight… Seven… " Time seemed to slow as the countdown started.

It surprised Alexandria to see small drones quickly assemble equidistant from the monster, forming a sort of sphere.

" Deploying Shield, Attack in Three… Two… " A series of hexagonal shields bloomed from the drones, enclosing the rocky giant. " Deploying Portals, One… Shooting. "

If time had slowed down before, it felt like it had stopped then.

Alexandria could barely see the creature as on the inside of the shield sphere dozens of portals opened, she couldn't tell at the moment where they led. But it didn't matter as her attention was drawn to the attack released by Dragon's cannon.

She was either hearing things or physics were being messed up big time because she heard it shoot before she saw it. A beam that appeared to be both flat and wider than an oil drum. The colors seemed to melt into an off putting white that glowed black .

The beam shot directly into the forcefield and portal cage, but to her surprise it didn't hit the monster, instead missing him just by enough that it entered one of the portals behind the creature, quickly showing the reason for all of them.

The beam reappeared on another of the portals and missed again, repeating the process till the titanic figure was almost lost in the crossing beam. Then the cage twisted .

And suddenly all beams that were the same beam intersected the beast's torso. And if before the roar had been deafening, now it was like an explosion was continuously going off at the center of the shield.

She could barely hear the Armband notifying people getting knocked out and requesting other capes to rescue them, like it anyone was capable of moving at the moment.

Alexandria felt herself rooted in place, not capable of even flying closer or farther away. Forcing herself to watch as the beam shot into the cage, doing who knows what to the beast of the end.

Unfortunately it didn't seem to be enough to kill the beast, as a fraction of a time that she had lost complete sense of later the shield exploded; most beams dying as the main was cut to prevent injuries. Not that it stopped them from carving incredibly deep crevices into the ground the second they could run free, before they dissipated.

But what really surprised her was what was left of the Endbringer.

There were parts that could still be recognized as what the beast had been just a few minutes prior, the rocky skin still recognizable. The rest… the rest was a collection of holes that had bore through the beast, carving and drilling through. The beast had been reduced to even a more terrifying look, a thin, skeletal figure. Smoking like if it had been put through hell, not that any flame would ever burn this thing.

It was impressive to see it still capable of roaring. Alexandria turned to look at Dragon, hoping she could shoot again. The melted-look of the cannon left it quite clear it wouldn't work again. Though it was a surprise to see her flash a moment later, the melted cannon was replaced by a new one.

A new roar made her turn and prepare, but instead of attacking, she watched the Endbringer quickly start burying into the ground. Fleeing .

She finally let out the breath she had been holding. That was it, they had gotten the beast to run. It wasn't perfect, most likely the other two Endbringers wouldn't stay still long enough to deal as much damage. But it was more than most had ever managed.

She imagined that fatalities would also be an all time low. Given the lack of civilians and capes not immediately helpful for the attack, deaths had been smaller than usual. Even the explosive roar would most likely not have been deadly for those far enough. Loss of hearing? Most likely everyone who attended, but there were more than a few capes present that could heal those up.

She huffed internally as her eyes fell on David, his fellow Triumvirate member looked livid at what had happened. When they should be ecstatic to see so much damage dealt to the monster. With a technology that would most likely be refined and improved on before the next attack. She made a mental note to approach him later, it was not the time for petty jealousy.

She sighed as she floated over to the medical tents where PRT agents were moving to help the healer capes deal with the injuries, running triage and trying to catch the elation at the palpable victory everyone was getting drunk on.

Legend approached and she was internally glad that her own smile wasn't forced, she was also content about the situation.

"Alexandria, it's good to see you are okay." The Protectorate Leader seemed to have a bit of a problem with his volume, she imagined that he may not have changed into his Breaker form in time and had gone deaf for a while. "I lost sight of you after the attack warning."

She nodded. "I had to see what they wanted to do, to see an Endbringer be brought that low before Scion arrived…" She sighed. "It was strangely invigorating."

His smile grew bigger. "It sure was, looks like everyone's thinking the same."

"Yes, it will be hard to complete all checks to make sure no one ends with radiation poisoning, though." She spoke in good humor.

"I'm sure we'll manage." He chuckled and both walked to the rest of the group, people already celebrating such a victory.

(-(-°-)-)

She slowly woke up, the pain in her head made her wince and curl down to hide from the cell's light. A groan escaped her parched lips as she slowly got up, hand over her eyes.

At first she wondered why the light of her cell was so strong, the last she remembered was a pathetic light bulb that was barely enough for her to see just how small the place she had been stuck into was.

So it was quite a surprise to see that the light was actually the sun shining down on her.

It took her longer till she could look around without the sensation of pain stabbing into her brain and eyes. Slowly taking the area she was in.

It was an even bigger surprise to see it was some sort of clearing somewhere it wasn't a CUI cell, a small fire crackled a couple meters away from her, a pair of bowls with clean looking water and a few cooked fishes invited her to come closer with their smell.

" Ah, you finally wake up, good… " The voice sounded in her head, surprising her once more.

Chapter 53

Chapter Text

Misuzu Nanaki looked around, surprised by the voice that had come from nowhere.

"H-hello?" She coughed after trying to speak.

" Stop trying to speak before you cough up a lung, I've done enough to make sure you won't die, now drink the water. " The voice made her still again. " And before you try to do something silly like asking, no, it's just plain water. If I wanted to do anything to you I would have done it while you were passed out. "

She moved slowly, but finding her throat aching at the sight of clean water made her forget the last few doubts. Her hands reached for the wood bowl and drank greedily from it.

Of course this was a terrible idea, her throat instantly closing up when a large amount of liquid hit the back of her mouth and she was drawn into a coughing fit.

" Geez, it's not the first time you've gone through a lack of water. I thought you would remember to drink it very slowly. " Misuzu blushed at the chastisement.

Once she got her throat back in control she grabbed the bowl, finding it once filled with water, and started to drink in small sips. The water was the sweetest nectar after having been forced to drink something akin to water from a still pond. The sensation of the liquid running down her throat made her relax.

" Now, I don't have to tell you to slow down too, no? "

"… I… c-an d-do it." Her tongue had a bit of trouble with the words, but she didn't end up coughing.

" Then grab one of the fishes, it should be cooked and just cool enough to eat. And don't worry, I made sure it's completely edible. "

A part of her knew it was really stupid to just believe the voice in her head, but at the same time it was quite clear there wasn't anything else she could do. As she started to eat and drink she felt her body regain strength, her mind became clearer.

The fog that had been keeping her memories hidden cleared up, bringing first the dark times of her capture by the CUI, being kidnapped in her home on the west coast of Hiroshima. Dragged across the sea and thrown into a cell to be broken just because she had a power the damn Chinese thought they could use.

She suddenly went stiff. At least most of her body did, her mouth kept slowly chewing the fish as it was the most delicious meal she had had in months.

" Oh, you noticed that. I would have thought you would have finished eating before. " The voice sounded playful. " I'll apologize for dealing with that thing. It was a terrible parasite, you shouldn't feel bad about losing it. "

She finished chewing, swallowed and followed with enough water to feel clear to speak.

"Who are you? And what do you mean?" She certainly didn't feel glad to have lost her power… even if gaining had… better not to think about it.

" What I am is a bit complicated and you're in no position to believe what I tell you. " Misuzu couldn't truly believe those words, she felt quite open to believing the voice was her fairy godmother at this point. " Long story short, we're genetically close enough that I noticed your presence in the CUI's slave camps. Your mind was a total mess, so I took momentary control of your body and killed that guy they called Null. Then walk you out of the place before getting food and helping your mind recover. "

She retracted what she thought before, this did sound too far fetched. Null was practically the linchpin of the organization behind the CUI, to think the man was dead.

"...o...kay… say I believe you, what does it have to do with me losing my powers?" She hoped more than believed those words to be true.

" The thing in your head was the bastard child of a parasite and a tumor, it was necessary to remove to fix up your mind. Do you truly believe something in there making you know things wasn't messing up your mind? " Mizusu had to gulp loudly at that, it was logical in hindsight. " Well, don't worry, it's out, old news, pushing up daisies, pinning for the fjords. And keep eating, I need the materials to fix your body. "

She quickly looked around. "What? Where are you?"

" Ugh, eat and listen then. Honestly I should have done with you like 'nette, it easier to believe if we meet rather than this mental voice. " The female voice seemed to just be thinking out loud instead of talking with her.

Not that she didn't grab the next fix and started to eat. Then the woman, who presented herself as Junko Tetsu, or Junk for short, told her a very crazy tale.

"Wait, you are a god?! Do I have to start praying to you or something?" She asked a while after she finished eating, she had filled her stomach with over a dozen fishes and drank enough water she bet she could have filled a tub.

" Not really, I mean most people don't even know I'm a god. And I've the series to pray for me if they feel like it. And it's not like it gives me power in any way, I'm a god of Creation, if I need more power I create it. "

"So you are choosing me to do something in this world?"

" Nope, I already have someone doing that. Doesn't mean I can't help you getting back home and keep you and yours safe. "

"I… I would like that."

Misuzu could bet she felt a smile in her head. "Okay, let's see… how did I do this?" She sighed as the voice seemed almost busy shuffling papers inside her head. "Right…

"We become Beacons, shining hopeful to guide our brothers and sisters

"We take sword and shield to protect them, we stand proud, we show them the way

"And we share the path, because in it's passing we become Immortal."

Misuzu felt something deep in her ignite and nothing would be the same.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette watched the last of the parahumans leave, followed by the transport taking the normal volunteers. Only Dragon, Odyssey and her left behind, Keine and Alice already left on the transport for the Boston first and then travel to Brockton Bay with Armsmaster and the rest of the Protectorate group that had attended to the fight.

Of course Odyssey had hidden herself by stepping back into the Valkyrie Core systems as most people were leaving.

"And that's the last of it." Dragon's shoulder relaxed visibly as Annette smiled.

"For my first Endbringer fight that went considerably well." She pointed lightheartedly as her Thought Streams were busy slowly cleaning up the fallout created by the monster.

Dragon rolled her eyes. "I would say it's the best fight we've had since ever, Odyssey." The AI projected a screen in front of them. "Barely over two dozen deaths in total, and most of those were at the end of the confrontation. And only one non-parahuman death due to an unknown allergic reaction that wasn't caught on time.

"Total damage is hard to count, but given your current work there will be no sign that the monster trampled the area."

Annette smiled, it was true, her drones had let her extinguish all fires and her IF had easily been dealing with the leftover waste, replacing it with fresh rock and dirt before washing the area with enough restoration magic to close the burned scar with green life.

"Plus, while it was one of the harder fights to reach, it was also one of the shortest, especially since it was Behemoth we are talking about. And all the information we have acquired is priceless." Dragon added.

She chuckled and brought a good chunk of the dimensionally superimposed material. "Yup, this will help a lot in revealing how to hit them harder in the next fight." She thought about it for a moment. "Though I think we have to go for a concentrated blast at whatever the core is, and be ready to catch on the resulting blast. We really weren't ready for that last sonic explosion."

The AI winced. "Yeah, I could see them doing something as a final fuck you… especially if they are holding back. Seeing the information about all the power they are actually using just to exist , I imagine what they have shown to be capable of is sandbagging, as much as I hate to admit it."

"More reasons to find a way to access whatever's behind the curtains. I can almost feel like utilizing the Digital World's the answer, but I would like to have File Island be stable before I create a fork to experiment with." She sighed.

Annette felt the Celestial Forge activate, three charges went and a perk called Programmable Metal was acquired. It gave her not just a good supply of said metal, but the process to make more. This was the second perk she had gotten in the last few hours as she had also acquired Built to Last shortly after the battle had ended. Built to Last made all her creations even harder against the passage of time, plus it gave her a sense of where anything she created was if lost or misplaced.

"Dragon, look at this, tell me what you think." She shared the details on the metal.

The AI quickly looked over them. "I can see a lot of practical uses, and it shouldn't be that expensive to produce in industrial quantities. It could help a lot in improving day to day quality of life."

"And we can modify the process here, here and here to reduce pollution and costs." Annette offered her opinion.

Dragon looked at it. "Yes, and we can separate the process here to produce either a higher flexibility or a higher toughness variation."

They continued to discuss like that as Annette fixed the rest of the jungle.

(-(-|-)-)

About an hour later of discussion and making sure the jungle was on its way to recovery and there wouldn't be future troubles. Annette was back home, all it had taken was a portal to the Branch Building for Dragon while hers went straight home.

A tall magic missile hit her right into the body as Taylor didn't lose a second to hug her mother. It made her smile and return the hug. Danny joined the hug a few seconds later.

"I'm glad to see you back, no matter what happens, having you return is the most important thing." He whispered in her ear.

"I'm glad I could come back too, and don't worry, I was safe. And don't worry, we kicked that thing's ass and sent it back." She retold a cleaner version of the events, internally she chuckled as Taylor's excitement made the girl literally float up without her conscious decision. Each time Annette pushed her back down on the chair.

The conversation extended to the quick dinner preparation. Though it had soon moved onto other subjects once said food was served.

"On good news, the boys had managed to produce another dozen of the exoskeletons you sold us the patent for. Since they aren't only selling like crazy given their low price, but we are also using them a lot around the docks to move boats that are actually abandoned. We'll be expanding production as soon as we get more people qualified for the work." He sounded quite excited as he told them.

And they were quite the exciting news, for something that Annette had developed by stripping down one of Stark's basic armor models down to an easy to assemble piece of equipment. It protected the user from straining themselves while being able to carry up to half a ton without that much problem, the real problem came from balance, but that was usually fixed by working in groups to overcome even higher loads.

The design could be practically put together by anyone with a basic workshop, of which the Dock Worker Union had at least a couple for in-house maintenance of their equipment. And Brockton Bay had enough abandoned factories with similar installations they would be acquiring in the short term to expand their production.

And since the exoskeleton was practically a tool crane you wore on you, there weren't many ways it could be turned into a weapon. Not that she didn't think of at least a dozen ways to weaponize one, but she could see many of those applied to a power drill.

"I'm glad to hear that, if it continues to pan out so well, I may have other ideas for the Dockworkers to produce." She offered and he gave her a smile.

"Thanks Annette." Danny leaned closer and kissed her on the cheek.

She chuckles at Taylor's pout when they kiss, it's there mostly as a joke about her younger self calling it icky. Though now that she pays attention to her daughter she notes her to be a bit restless.

"Taylor, is everything okay?" She kept a gentle tone.

"Mom, dad…" The overprotective part of her quickly started to check possible problems, but as far as she could see, everything was healthy with Taylor. "… I wanted to ask if I could invite Emma to study at the Sanctuary."

And just like that the question pulled the rug from under her worries, and by the looks of it, it also did for Danny. Annette wondered where had his mind gone with the situation. Something to ask later and maybe chuckle about it.

She hummed deep in thought. "While I think Emma can keep the secret, I would need to talk with Zoe and Alan first. Why did you want to bring her to the Sanctuary?" She asked curiously.

"Well, mostly because I can learn a lot faster and it's so much easier to understand things when in the Sanctuary. And Emma's having so much trouble with the end of the year exams and I want to help her pass, because it's become really easy for me." Her daughter kept talking, slowly making her parents laugh.

"That's enough justification, Taylor. We'll talk with Alan and Zoe, I'm sure we can work something out." Danny offered.

"Thanks, mom, dad." Taylor nearly flew off her chair, making Annette put her hand on her shoulder.

"But in exchange you can't tell Emma about your magic lessons, and you have to get flying under control." Her mother's tone made Taylor blanch for a moment. That reaction made Annette chuckle.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette was glad she hadn't stopped producing alcohol in Sanctuary, and that she had slowly been improving the quality. She poured sake for Keine and Alice, some vodka for Elizabeth, Annette and Theresa were experimenting with a spirit made from a magical fruit that grew in one of the tropical greenhouses. Odyssey was the only one not drinking alcohol, having stated that she wasn't interested in it, and instead was nursing a mug of red tea.

They sat around a table filled with snacks, relaxing with a few appropriate snacks after the Endbringer fight.

"To those that didn't make it." Elizabeth cheered before downing her drink and grabbing a snack to pass it down. "Annette, again, if you get bored I would love a chef."

"I'm glad you are enjoying the food." She chuckled and watched a small fog of mana escape her lips.

"I can't believe you are drinking that." Alice looked cross as she enjoyed her drink in a small and delicate ceramic saucer. "I'm pretty sure even some stronger Yokai would melt their stomachs drinking that, not that the Oni wouldn't mind the idea." She snorted.

Keine drank her sake in a small cup instead. "Yeah, I'm glad we haven't had to deal with any of them yet. Though I imagine they would really enjoy a fight against an Endbringer, it would sate most of them for… a week or two?" She chuckled.

"We may have more targets for any of them that return soon." Elizabeth commented. "With the amount of damage we have managed on the Endbringer, the Fallen will most likely act pretty soon. So it's decided we'll be moving first. With the Thinker and Master protections, we can move against Mama Mathers, she seldom leaves their main camp." The woman sighed and nursed her drink again. "I wish we could nuke the place from orbit, but they have hostages.

"What we may be capable of nuking from orbit, or more like atomizing, is Ellisburg. The Protectorate's Think Tank can give us exact numbers, but they are pretty sure that if we act the chances for fallout are very unlikely, which is much better than we have had before now."

Dragon chuckled, apparently enjoying the inebriation. "I would make sure to tell Major Piggot, if she's a salty bitch as much as I've read, she will enjoy watching the place disappear off the face of the earth."

"Given the records on Ellisburg and Nilbog, I will be running a deep scan, the chances of the asshole having buried a parting gift." Annette drank more of her spirit, keeping the mana inside her long enough that it came out from her nostrils.

Elizabeth chuckled at the look before turning to the history eater. "Keine, have you written the report on what you picked up from Behemoth's history?"

The woman nodded. "Yeah…" She sighed. "It's weird, I've written it on paper as you asked me to, though if you excuse me, I would prefer to not bring it up right now ." Narwhal nodded.

"Don't worry, I don't want to hear it right now either." She chuckled before refilling her glass.

A small voice made Annette turn. "Miss?" One of the fairies appeared on the roof's door.

"Hello Cherry, what brings you around?" She asked the tiny being.

"Miss Annette, someone woke up in the Library," Annette's eyebrow rose, surprised that she hadn't felt it, but maybe she was a bit too drunk. She still gave the fairy a small nod of acknowledgment.

Cherry moved to a side, letting a lilac-haired woman step out to the roof. She wore a delicate pink pajama dress and a matching night-cap, her eyes looked sleepy but held a sharpness that was undeniable.

" Patche ." Alice called in Japanese, with a tone of endearment. The blonde smiling at the fellow magician. " Nice to see you came back ."

" Greetings Alice, Keine, and other people I don't know ." Patchouli Knowledge replied in the same language, while she was a Magician Youkai, different from Alice, the lilac-haired woman had never been human.

Annette chuckled and produced another chair. "Greetings Miss Knowledge, joins us, we are currently celebrating a well earned victory. I don't think there will be a problem if you join us. I'm Annette Hebert, owner of this pocket dimension." She quickly presented Theresa and Elizabeth too.

"Ah… English. It's been a while since I spoke the language, are we in Europe? No, America?" Patchouli took the offered chair, sitting between Alice and Annette. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Alice quickly poured her some sake. "Join us for the celebration, we can get you up to the situation later."

Annette smiled, a good night to celebrate victory and for new and old friends.

(-(-|-)-)

Jack walked away from the mess , skillfully dodging the chunks on the floor to not mess his clothes as Crawler and Siberian dealt with the ex-inhabitants of this particular warehouse.

On a cleaner corner of the building sat Shatterbird, once again going over the glass pieces she utilized for her dress. It had long since turned into some kind of ritual for the woman, she had collected pieces from famous stained glasses she had destroyed with her power.

He watched Siberian drag pieces over to the corner of the room Bonesaw was currently occupying, while it may not have been a mess even after they dealt with the rabble in the building, it was certainly bloody now.

Apparently one of the people who had lived in the building had triggered during their entrance and now the girl was ecstatic about something or other.

Most of it went over his head, something about the Corona Pollentia and the Corona Gemma and where they connected to, and the source of powers. Seeing the little blonde girl talk about them made something tingle in the back of his mind.

But instead of walking to the corner occupied by the girl, he moved closer to Mannequin. The tinker was looking over a map of the city they had acquired on the way.

"I thought you would be sneaking into their base now that it was empty."

The man that was more machine than flesh turned his smooth face to Jack, he could feel the annoyance in the Tinker.

"Hmm, well it's surprising to find a place you can't actually slip into." Jack gave him a roguish grin.

Bonesaw skipped up to them, climbing onto a chair to look at the map.

"They have robots all over the place." His poppet stated. "At least all the way out here." She drew a large circle around the Guild's building.

"Really? I didn't see any." Jack asked.

Mannequin pulled the laptop closer to the center of the table and tapped the keys to bring up photos of rats, pigeons, cats and dogs. It made Jack raise an eyebrow.

Riley giggled. "Those are the robots, Uncle Jack." She pointed to some of the pictures. "You can see how they aren't real animals."

Internally Jack snorted, he would take their word on that, in his experience, if the Tinkers told you it was a robot, it more likely was.

Mannequin grabbed a pencil and started to draw circles on the map.

"Uh, I take those are the areas the patrols cover?" The cyborg nodded. "Then it'll be much harder to access. Have you tried the sewers?"

Bonesaw shook her head. "I'd a few of my spiders check the place, but they found nothing down there. What I did was find out about these!" The girl brought some pictures. "That's Odyssey's civilian persona, and those are her husband and daughter, I'm like ninety-nine percent sure."

"And I hope you have more information on them?" He asked and Mannequin replied by typing in the computer, bringing up pictures of the Docks and a School.

"I see…" He rubbed his chin, thinking about shaving before they started the fun. "Crawler has chosen Lung since Hookwolf's still imprisoned; Siberian has chosen Lupine Edge; Shatterbird wants to recruit Kaizer; Since you are taking Odyssey I was thinking on aiming for Dragon, how about you poppet?"

The little blonde turned to him, her locks bouncing a bit as she smiled mercilessly. "I want to try and break Odyssey's daughter."

Jack laughed at that. "Oh, it will be perfect." He stroked Bonesaw's head, the Slaughterhouse was in town and it was time to recruit.

Chapter 54

Chapter Text

Odyssey looked around the fertile plains of File Island, the digital grass moved slightly thanks to the wind created by the different biomes. Desert at the south, icy mountains at the north, Jungle to the west and the plains at the east. The biomes between the four corners, jungle, swamp, wasteland and forest were still stabilizing, but the different climates were quite obvious.

She put her hand palm up and drew the first digital tree Annette had coded. It appeared floating inside a clay pot, the tree's growth stalled by the small container. By itself it wouldn't last, so the Core removed the pot and utilized her IF to dig a hole in the ground; the tree was planted inside a moment later.

The change wasn't immediate, at least not visibly to the clear digital eye. But Odyssey's senses extended to so much more that it wasn't a problem for her to watch as the tree's roots connected to the grass network. The once idle flow of energy shifted and started to move in the direction of the tree.

The green shoot quickly shot up, growing taller and thicker as it lost its green color, the bark darkening into dull gray and growing rougher. The leaves multiplied as more branches grew to the sides, spreading above Odyssey's head and generating the first fruits. Given the fact that this tree had free access to all the energy generated in the plains, it kept growing to full maturity.

With a smile on her face, the Core removed her helmet and retrieved one of the plump, peach-like fruits to take the first bite. The flavor that filled her mouth was different from the real fruit she had eaten, it was sweet but it hit a different part of her sense of taste, one she wasn't sure flesh and blood people actually had.

She continued enjoying the fruit till all that was left was the pit. Retrieving some more she removed the pits and started to plant them all over the area, the trees would grow quickly and start to spread.

With that done she proceeded with the next step of the plan, small digital bushes and flower plants were planted all over the area. The variety of the programs would help the plants spread faster and create a much more balanced digital world.

The final part of the process hadn't been done exclusively by Annette, instead both Dragon and Odyssey had cooperated with her for it. The Core opened her hands and let a small, red bird fly out. It wasn't actually a digimon, a digital being, yes, but not a digital monster . Its program was simpler, and would need a lot of time to evolve into anything capable of sapient thought. Instead it would go around and spread the pits from the trees, the seeds from the bush berries, etc…

A few dozen more birds were released, some standing on her figure as their programs hadn't even had the concept of fear yet. They would seek to keep themselves alive, but didn't have any other knowledge to react to. Just a set of directives.

The next being released was both more complex and simpler than the birds. The Bees were technically much simpler while individually, but like real bees, the hive would act as a single, larger individual. Even swarms of bees would work together to cross-pollinate programs.

She couldn't help but smile as the area slowly became more alive , birds and bees flying around as more trees were spread, their growth slowing down as more and more of them took energy from the plain's power network.

She released the variations of the trees, bushes, birds and bees for some of the other biomes. Once she completed the process she flew over to the top of Index Mountain, sitting on the tip to look down at the land.

Given the accelerated passage of time inside the Digital World, Odyssey could spend hours carrying her job inside and only a fraction of a second pass in the real world. This meant that she had had no rush to check a message she had received hours ago. Seeing it was time, she stepped out of the Digital World, falling right on Sanctuary's workshop.

She nodded to Annette before turning to look at the screen, watching how the fast pass of time had the plants and other digital beings visible spread and grow used to their new environment.

"Good job down there." Annette's praise felt good to the Core.

She smiled. "Thanks." She replied curtly, but she's also sure that Annette could feel what she felt at the place's development.

"We finally have all the permissions needed to deal with the Fallen." The woman's tone hid the internal turmoil.

"Removing them is a need. They are a constant threat, they have shown no remorse about their actions, no intent to redeem themselves. Even imprisoning them won't work in the long term." She offered her opinion.

Annette sighed. "You're right. They have gone too long without stopping, it's time they pay their dues."

Odyssey smiled, she would be there for her partner, at every step of the way.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette sat on one of the meeting room's chairs. Next to her sat Dragon, Odyssey and Keine, they were all waiting for Narwhal as the leader of the Guild had called them for the operation against The Fallen's main camp.

The amazon-like woman entered the room, forcefields decorating her body like an armor made of crystal.

"Odyssey, Valkyrie, Dragon, History Eater, I'm glad all of you have accepted this mission." She nodded to each of them. "History Eater, Keine, what I'll be asking of you may be the hardest job. Your ability should give us the best information about The Fallen's activities without a need to interrogate them, but you'll also be exposed to all the terrible acts they have carried out.

"If it wasn't for your nature, and the closure you can give to so many families, I would not even be considering you for this role. Still, both Canada and the USA thank you for your future actions."

There was a solemnity in Narwhal's words, it made Keine nod.

"Odyssey, Valkyrie, this will be your first official mission as part of the Guild that will require you to take human lives. Know that you are carrying this heavy burden to protect the safety of thousands if not millions of people. After today's events, you'll be required to attend weekly meetings with professionals from the Protectorate to make sure you haven't been negatively affected by the actions taken." The woman continued, her charisma shining.

Both Annette and Odyssey nodded at her in response.

"Dragon, this is not your first time. You've had to carry missions like this before. I still ask you, as a good friend, to consider attending a few meetings with a psychologist. Similarly to Valkyrie, I'm considering your nature and the contents of your sessions will be kept as a complete secret."

Dragon nodded with a smile.

"With that out of the way, let me talk about the information you'll need for the mission." Narwhal stepped to a side, a screen behind her lighting up with images of the Fallen's lands.

While Annette paid attention to the meeting, one of her Thought Streams looked over a new perk she had just acquired. Nanotech Wizard gave her understanding about a type of nanomachines that were mostly safe for use on people and weapons.

When used on people, this piece of technology could be used to heal most types of injuries. Yes it would need materials to conduct said work, but a healthy diet was more than enough. It would also improve the person's fitness over time as unnecessary fat tissue would be burnt for energy and a fit body was easier to keep healthy.

When utilized on weapons and armor, it would allow said equipment to fix itself and be upgraded with time and use. The changes would start small, better grips, reload time, rate of fire, but with enough time and use it could improve to the point of adding new effects and types of damage.

The Thought Stream brought one of the other Thought Streams that had finished moving the Jazz-type drones closer to their objective up on the subject of the nanites. It wasn't the first time Annette did this, at the end all Thought Streams were her, even if they could act with a certain amount of individuality. The second Stream looked at the first's plan to produce a number of the nanites, not just for herself but also for Danny and Taylor.

The second Stream quickly started to point problems, starting with the fact that they would have to discuss matters thoroughly with Danny first. While they hadn't set up rules on body modification, it was certainly a step too far compared to most of the changes Annette had been given to her by the Forge without her explicit permission.

There was also the fact that they needed to make said nanites as safe as possible, the Machine Army was a huge problem for a reason, and a parahuman with control over technology could bring way too many problems if they didn't have a defense against it.

Annette momentarily looked over what her Thought Streams were getting up to and left them to it, she would properly check on it later once she wasn't preparing to deal with the cult.

The screen turned dark and Narwhal turned to Annette. "Odyssey, are the drones in place?"

She nodded. "And ready to open a portal, the Impeller Field has covered the Mather's branch compound."

"Good, your main targets are Mama Mathers and Valefor. To neutralize them as quickly as possible, their continued presence is too much of a risk to let them continue. Both are high enough in the rankings they may have two or more bodyguards, I leave them to your judgement.

"Dragon, Valkyrie, you two will be in charge of dealing with Lionheart, his continued presence proves too much risk as a support role, similar to Bamet, his empowered animals give them too many bodies to hide behind.

"Keine, you will be with me and the rest of the Guild's forces, understood?"

They all nodded before getting up.

"Then let's show them the error of their ways." Narwhal stated grimly.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

The Mather's Compound looked like a normal farm at first sight, especially given the nice weather of the Southern USA.

Of course things were quite different under the surface, most of the buildings around the land had cellars that were used to keep people the cult had kidnapped during their brain washing, or worse their breeding programs.

Given it was well into the afternoon, most members of the cult appeared to be carrying leisure activities, but not late enough that dinner preparation was started. This grabbed the people in the compound unprepared for what was about to happen.

To understand why this hadn't happened before, one had to look at how The Fallen functioned. Each of its terrorist cells, or families , lived apart from each other, worshiping a different Endbringer and a different M.O.

The main three families were the Crowleys, the McVeays and the Mathers, worshipping Leviathan, Behemoth and Simurgh respectably. This difference also extended to the type of powers each cell seemed to favor. The Crowleys favored Movers and Shakers, the McVeays dynakinetics and Brutes and the Mathers Masters and Thinkers.

This last group also had two of their most important members, Mama Mathers and Valefor. The first, considered the leader of the cell, her power allowed her not only to put anyone who observed her under powerful hallucinations, but it also held a strong thinker aspect that gave her knowledge of anyone who observed in one way or another. Going as far as to affect Thinker capes who looked for information on her or The Fallen. This power paired with the woman's ruthless and complete belief in their ideology turned her into one of the biggest dangers of the terrorist organization.

On the other hand, Valefor could be considered her right hand man. A powerful master power capable of affecting anyone he made eye contact with. He held complete loyalty for the woman and had shown to follow her orders without a doubt.

That's why Annette didn't take more than a moment to act once they stepped close enough to the compound. Her IF had already mapped the whole place and tagged every person and animal on the grounds or under them.

Both Valefor and Mama Mathers didn't have time to react, Annette's IF reducing their brain to mush in an instant. Their corpses retrieved and put into storage for safe keeping, keeping them away from the group's reach to prevent them being used as rallying points.

Their bodyguards, on the other hand, had enough time to notice the sudden disappearance of their charges before they were captured. Eyes covered, mouths muzzled, arms restrained and doused with a healthy amount of Containment Foam to prevent them from escaping.

A step behind her actions, Dragon and Odyssey were moving. Hundreds of drones controlled by the two synthetics rained down onto the camp grounds. Known powered members of the clan were restrained with no time to lose, given the group's preference for master and thinker powers, they were gagged, blindfolded and restrained to keep them from using their powers.

Non-powered members were restrained with a combination of Containment Foam and mundane restraints. This quickly led to many, previously unknown parahumans, to lash out using their powers and get heavy duty restraints.

Narwhal and non-powered personnel were the third step in the plan, quickly moving to secure both cult members and victims. Just in case the whole compound was put under the Mental Protection Field, victims confirmed to be safe were moved to a zone under the Mental Healing Field to help the process and clean any lingering Master or Stranger powers they may have been under.

Expedience was the main objective of the raid, move fast, hit hard and have all members of the terrorist cell either dead or imprisoned before they could get out the message of warning. Similarly there wouldn't be any news coverage of the raid for as long as possible, taking advantage of the small communication between terrorist cells, the Guild would be preparing another raid in a few days to deal with the McVeays and similarly with the Crowleys after that.

The only reason they weren't going after the two other largest cells of the organization was the need to manage both captured cult members and treatment of rescued victims. Making sure no believer slipped through their net as they worked to disarm the organization.

In this Keine was incredibly helpful. Her ability gave the investigators not only confirmation on the validity of information, but also helped them find the necessary leads for smaller cells that didn't necessarily work in the compound.

Unluckily, that was going slow as Keine had only taken a look into the history of the compound before paling. She described it as reading through the writings of a madman, not that it had stopped her from continuing the work. This had earned her the respect of more than one of the investigators, who had previously worked on cases for serial killers or similar psychopaths.

Still, even hours after the end of the raid, they were still busy.

(-(-|-)-)

Danny looked over the pile of papers on his desk, even at the pace he was going through, the pile of resumes hadn't gone down. It had actually grown taller, yes there were people that kept sending theirs even when he had taken the time to call them and tell them to stop, but most were people slowly seeing the change, hearing about how things were going, wanting a chance.

As head of hiring for the Dock Workers Union, Danny technically should also take care of the recruitment of workers for the Union, practically, Danny also took care of dealing with groups that wanted to contract to the DWU for work. Keeping the contracts safe for the guys, not getting scammed, necessary protections, etc…

But with the DWU producing a product as valuable as the DockWorker, the organization offered safe, steady work. It was hard work and there was a need for a qualified workforce, but it was work. Something that had been lacking before.

Everyone in the DWU knew the Guild had sold the design and rights for the exoskeleton for practically nothing. The act had a logic behind it, employed people had less reasons to break the law, employed people had money to use, more money meant more people buying things and the circle started moving. It didn't hurt that the Guild's presence in the city wasn't going to disappear anytime soon.

He marked another resume as being a pretty obvious spy, and the next two as being very subtle spies. Both the Empire and the Elite had tried multiple times before, the Empire were the easy ones to notice. It may sound like a cliché, but it was always the whitest ones, some were also stupid enough to provide pictures with very visible tattoos. The Elite was harder to recognize at first sight, but it was just how good their resumes looked that was the point that made them stick out. Danny still interviewed a few just to make sure. It was just that so far, every one of them had been too new in the Bay, and that exposed them.

The clicking noise of the door opening made him look up, seeing Marcy, his secretary, stepping through wasn't abnormal. But his eyes quickly took the problem with the current image, there was a hand holding her shoulder too firmly for his taste, and a blade pointed at her neck.

Danny wasn't sure if it was the experience living in Brockton Bay or the two perks that he had acquired through Annette that let him observe and calculate the scene calmly. He would like to say it was the first time this happened before, but even with the DWU guys keeping an eye on the area, one or two Merchants had slipped inside thinking there would be money or something.

Of course a step later his mind had quickly put the information together, Merchants rarely looked so well put together, the man forcing Marcy into the room was just too well groomed to be considered part of the gang, his clothes were barely rumpled and he counted over a dozen visible knives on his person, he stopped counting the hidden ones after five.

His face tingled something in his memory, but his body moved first. He watched the man open his mouth. But before he could talk, Danny's hand was already gripping the edge of the desk, and using a strength not apparently of his wiry frame, he flipped it up, the piles of paper flying up in the air and the table cut line of sight between him and the man.

First came the weight of the weapon on his hands, already pointed in the direction of the man's hand. Even as the seconds stretched into hours and the table was still unchained by gravity, Danny's mind could see where the man's hand was. It helped that a moment later an orange visor covered his eyes and provided him with the necessary information in the form of a thermal scan.

A three-shot burst punched through the table and shredded the hand holding the blade, the masculine scream of pain drew a small smile before he moved. His hand was already switching the weapon's configuration from semi-automatic rifle to the kinetic shotgun.

Danny thanked the cheap building materials used to put his office together and the small size of the room, because a single shot from the gun was all that was needed to blow the room's single window and a good chunk of the wall around it, opening a way out he quickly took advantage by grabbing Marcy and dragging her out.

"Run." He told her clearly.

As a Brockton Bay born woman, Marcy didn't need to be told twice to run away as Danny finished changing into the full body armor. Another switch on the gun's configuration before he pulled the trigger had a stun projectile exploding inside the building. Danny's already running away as the second scream drew a smile on his face.

For once he was glad to live in Brockton Bay, because the DWU didn't need more than one loud explosion to get moving.

"Danny?" John Kallow, head of security, looked at him.

"Hey John, we have a big problem." He chuckled, glad that Annette had put him and Taylor through training, he hadn't even started to sweat.

"I can tell." He grinned, pulling his radio. "Everyone, we are under attack." He called on it before turning to Danny. "Any idea who it was?"

"Honestly? No idea, he entered the office with a knife to Marcy's neck." He shrugged. "Shot first, blasted the wall and dragged Marcy out before I could look at his face much. Good looking fellow, well trimmed, could be a forceful takeover by one of those companies interested in the DockWorker, or even The Elite, I heard they have been getting antsy."

John's radio crackled. "Give me a moment… yes?" The head of security asked.

" Boss, we have a big problem here, " The voice was anything but calm. " It's Chuckles! Chuckles and Hatchetface are in the lot, we're being attacked by the Slaughterhouse! "

Danny felt his blood go cold, though a bit of pride flared inside. If it was the Slaughterhouse nine that were attacking, he just blew Jack fucking Slash's hand without thinking it twice.

"FFFFFFF-uck" John curses openly.

"Snap out of it." Danny shook him. "It's no time to freeze, call the Police, PRT, everyone, the sooner they know these assholes are in town the better."

"You're right Danny, and what will you do?" The man was already pulling his phone.

"Stay alive, else my wife may decide to break the world." John chuckled at first at Danny's words, but the seriousness on his face made him stop.

"Ah… then good luck with that." He nodded and the head of security started to make calls as Danny made his own.

"Hey Annette," He started the call.

" Danny, what the fuck just happened?! I just got a signal of you shooting your weapon. " He filed the idea that she would know if he used his weapon, needed or not, it felt a bit too overbearing of her.

"Calm down, I'm okay… at least for now. The Slaughterhouse is in town." His words drew her rant to a complete stop.

" Tell me more. "

And so he did, the gun still at the ready. A part of him didn't have any problem with the short and lethal fate that was about to hit this group of psychopaths.

Chapter 55

Chapter Text

Jack bit down a curse as he wrapped the bandages single-handedly around the remains of his right hand. He cursed at himself for doing the amateur mistake of underestimating a normal person, especially one connected to a Tinker who had obviously gone their way to outfit them.

In his defense, he didn't expect the first reaction at approaching them with a hostage was to shoot his hand off. The first had missed his hand, though it had hit the blade and destroyed it, the second had blown his thumb right off, the last shot had taken his index and middle finger, along with a chunk of his hand. The flashbang was just adding insult to injury.

If it wasn't for the upgrades Bonesaw had applied to him, he would still be stunned and blind, instead of simply hearing a soft ring and having his eyes itch. It was also the reason he wasn't bleeding out from the injuries in his hand.

"Fu-" He groaned as he tightened the bandage and turned to look at Shatterbird, the mocking smile on her face certainly not helping his current state. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just that I told you, you should have let me do the opening and just blast the whole city." She talked with a very derisive tone.

"Well, no one expected a group that was practically dying just a few weeks ago to be ready to fight back like this." He talked through clenched teeth.

She shook her head. "Even Crawler could tell you that's a stupid way of thinking, what happened to you, Jack? A group of this size doesn't last in a city with so many villain gangs this long. They will fight, especially when they finally got something going their way."

"Then what do you want to do? Shatterbird ?"

"Let me go up and sing, Chuckles and Hatchetface are doing their thing keeping them occupied, neither are in any danger right now. Siberian's doing whatever the hell she wants to do, Mannequin and Bonesaw are on their own shit too and Crawler's definitely looking to fight Lung."

He sighed. "Okay… you know what? Go ahead, we have blown our cover already. Blasting the whole city will at least divide their attention."

"See, doing the right thing wasn't that hard." The dark-skinned woman chuckled and drew her glass shards together, utilizing them to fly herself up high.

He rolled his eyes, looking around to make sure there was no glass near as he waited for her to reach high enough. The same upgrade that kept him from going blind and bleeding from the ears because of the flashbang would keep his hearing safe from Shatterbird's scream.

He may actually hate her petulant attitude, but he could admit he enjoyed seeing the utter chaos she could create with just a thirty seconds application of her power.

Of course he wasn't expecting what would happen next, as her figure reached high enough to start her musical number, a silver figure flashed up to the dark-skinned woman. For a moment Jack wondered if Purity had been in the area, but his last information marked the woman as having retired from the scene.

He watched as Shatterbird sent a massive wave of glass shards at the approaching figure, unluckily for the woman, said attack seemed to have absolutely no effect, the silver figure simply rammed through them and with a short-lived flash, the dark-skinned woman's body fell to a side, her body to the other and the glass shards rained down with no power to hold them up anymore.

"Well… fuck." Jack could only curse out loud before deciding it was time to find somewhere to hide.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette hated the fact that she couldn't leave the moment Danny had called her, it was only the fact that Narwhal had allowed for Odyssey to deploy back to Brockton Bay.

She wanted to be there, but her current presence was needed.

"Calm down, Annette. They will be okay." Dragon stepped closer.

"I know," She sighed before a smile overcame her troubled emotions. "Odyssey just took out Shatterbird before she could sing."

Dragon's eyes opened wider. "Well, that changes things. Have you found the rest?"

"I'm moving the original Jazz drone closer to the DWU, but most drones are still needed here. I've been producing more, but the automatic production's still not the fastest unless I wanna skip all the camouflage." Annette explained as she felt the Forge activate, after a failed roll during the after-raid events, it was nice to see a four charges perk to change the mood.

Counter Technology was a perk of the Design domain, though in Annette's opinion it would have fit much better in the Safety domain. It was a very useful perk, especially now. As long as she had the necessary knowledge, be it technology or supernatural power, she could develop a way to counteract its effects or neutralize it completely. It also made these developments nigh-impossible to reverse engineering as long as she didn't want to make them clear.

Her Thought Streams were practically salivating at the perk, already using it to look at the information on the Crystal Shards again. One of them quickly found that they could improve on the Master and Stranger Protection field quite a bit, and it may actually extend to neutralizing the powers of many parahumans. Though another was theorizing it may also kill said parahumans if she wasn't at hand to deal with the problems the Corona Gema and Corona Pollentia could bring without the source of powers keeping things going.

"Jazz has reached the DWU, there's a fight going but it appears to be in a stalemate." Annette stood up and rushed over to Narwhal, Dragon standing behind her.

"Odyssey?"

"Narwhal, Valkyrie confirms Shatterbird's death, the DWU are currently keeping up with Chuckles and Hatchetface." Annette was really trying to keep herself stable, for all she couldn't go mad, she wasn't immune to her emotions. "We need to do something."

Narwhal sighed. "I know, I'm trying to get permission to move, but…" The tall woman shook her head. "Think you can take out Hatchetface or Chuckles?"

"I don't doubt we could take both of them out, though I would like to keep Hatchetface around, I frankly doubt his power will affect me, Valkyrie or Dragon, and studying his power could be extremely useful." She spoke honestly.

Narwhal nodded, considering the request. "Do you have confirmation of any of the other members?" The woman was full-in her role as leader of the Guild.

Annette shook her head. "I'm lucky to have Jazz in the area, Danny Hebert contacted me the moment he confirmed it was them, all he could tell me is that he shot Jack Slash's hand, but didn't stay behind to confirm the extent of the damage."

She nodded. "That's the safe thing to do. Then, as leader of the Guild, under the S-Class crisis situation protocols, I order for Valkyrie to terminate Chuckles and restrain Hatchetface. I'll try to get you there as fast as possible."

Annette's eyes opened larger. "Then you better tell them that Crawler appears to have gotten Lung going."

The situation was growing from bad to worse.

(-(-|-)-)

Emily Piggot felt her back stiffen, a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time. The first was more than two decades before, when this hunch came seconds before a car t-boned hers. Luckily that second had allowed her to brace for the impact, being hit on the companion side prevented her from being seriously hurt.

The accident did change her priorities, quickly leading her to enlist and where she was today. But it did lead to the second time, and it was moments before she was told her squad wouldn't be getting that parahuman backup in Ellisburg.

That made the terribly familiar sensation crawling up her back made her pay attention.

She turned to Rogers. "Captain, do a headcount, quick."

The man didn't need to be told twice, quickly standing up to check on the rest of their group as her hands reached for her unit, fixing it around her waist didn't take more than a second.

"Ma'am, we are missing Bishop and Ramirez." Roger spoke grimly and pointed to the two units belonging to the missing men.

"Okay everyone, get your units on you, now. Consider this a possible attack, move in pairs, find Bishop and Ramirez. Now, move, move, move." She put her fingers on the unit's buttons and activated it, the familiar lightness and strength filled her.

Her team quickly spread to search. They had been given a, mostly, abandoned wing of the PRT HQ building, once set up for the expansion of non-powered units. But loss of funding and what little money there was used for other purposes had left the area pretty much unused till they had come around.

Given the expected size of the non-powered personnel considered for the expansion, the wing was much larger than what they would actually need. This meant a lot of possible places for her unit to spread and get lost, not that they usually did. Military instilled a sense of camaraderie that kept them together in and out of the field.

A soft, rasping breath drew her attention. A quick gesture of her hand and Rogers fell in formation with her as she stepped closer to the open door. A quick peak confirmed her worries.

Ramirez was dead, you didn't survive being decapitated like that. And she would say the same of Bishop, his lower half was missing, steaming intestines spilling out and laying on a pool of cooling blood. But against all odds, the man was still breathing.

" Everyone. " She called in the internal communication. " We found them, we have confirmation on hostiles in the building. Ramirez' dead, and Bishop may follow him soon. Rogers watch my back. "

" Major, it may be a stretch, but the unit should be able to keep him alive. " Lieutenant Tim Taylor messaged her.

" Are you sure? "

" I truly believe it should work. It may just be stretching things, but I also believe Dragon and Odyssey may be capable of fixing things too. "

" I'll trust you, Lieutenant, I think that pair are hiding plenty too. " She chuckled as a gesture had Rogers moving behind her as they entered the room, a short prayer for Ramirez as she approached Bishop.

"Good to see you still breathing, Lieutenant." She knelt by the man.

Rough gasps escaped his mouth, trying to tell her.

"Don't try to speak, Lieutenant. We know we have a madman in the building, let's see about getting you not dying first." She carefully wrapped the belt around what was left of his torso and helped his hands in place. "Come on, activate."

She smiled when the man was hidden from view and replaced by the laying figure of his suit.

"Oh…. Thank god for seeing you again, Major." Bishop sounded more than a bit shaken, but he had been practically disemboweled.

"Call it a hunch." She grabbed his hand and pulled the man up. "Ready to kick the asshole that killed Ramirez and left you bleeding out right in the ass?"

The man chuckled, his tone showing to be still unsteady. "It's Mannequin, the monster crawled out of the damn vent and paralyzed me and Ramirez with some shit. Then made him watch as he removed my lower half and kept me alive to watch him kill Ramirez before leaving.

She nodded grimly, hand to her ear to activate the communicator. " Heard that everybody? We have a Slaughterhouse Nine member in the building. Mannequin's a well known tinker, so expect him to be prepared for us, hit hard, hit fast, don't let him separate you. Stay in pairs, boys and girls. "

"How're you feeling, Lieutenant?" She asked as they slowly left the room, none of them wanted to leave Ramirez' body behind, but they also knew there wasn't time to take care of the body.

"I'm feeling good, Major, and that bothers me." Bishop grumbled as they moved in close formation.

"Talk to me then." They stiffened as one of the doors closed.

"That asshole left me to die there, and I should've died. I know I was dying, I could very much tell you I could see my grandma waving at me. But here I am, standing and ready to return the favor." He cursed. "It's jarring, Major. I won't dismiss second chances, it's just hard to get my mind straight."

"Don't worry Lieutenant, we're not just living through this. We're going to put that asshole six feet under like he deserves. It should be confirmation enough to roll the BCU and give us at least a small vacation, because I'm sure as hell we will need it."

They all stiffened again as a can rolled by.

"Asshole's playing horror movie tricks on us." Rogers cursed and they tightened the formation, keeping an eye above too.

" Everyone, move in groups of four, Mannequin's trying to spook us. Keep eyes and ears open and be ready for surprises. "

They moved slowly through the hallway, keeping eyes on their surroundings.

" Major, we're just ambushed by Mannequin, he tried to stab us from above before spraying us with something and running away. "

" Copy that Captain, heard that everyone? Possible bio-weapons, none of you leave your suits till we are sure you won't bleed from our eyes the moment you do ." She pulled the security on her weapon.

The almost inaudible click was the first first pebble that signaled the avalanche. Like some kind of set off signal, a wall they had considered safe exploded. Mannequin's figure jumped through the cloud of dust onto Bishop and started to stab him on the chest.

"Not today you maniac." Bishop quickly shook the surprise, the psychopath's blade not managing more than scratching the armor before his reinforced glove punched him right on the chin. Having removed the limits on his strength, the Lieutenant's punch not just cracked the plan's face lower half, but sent the whole head around a complete rotation.

Rogers moved practically at the same time, grabbing the hand that held the blade and yanking hard enough to rip it right off the monster's torso. The noise of material breaking sounded like a squeal. Not that it stopped from the hand from attacking Captain Rogers like a psychotic animal.

Piggot aimed her gun and unloaded the whole gun's clip of bullets right into the cracked area of Mannequin's mask. Losing the element of surprise and getting disarmed was enough to send him running away.

"Crap, this won't be enough." Piggot stored her gun. "Rogers?"

The Captain finished the arm by impaling it on an exposed piece of rebar from the busted wall. Watching it bleed orange and finally stop moving made them breath in relief.

"I'm okay." He replied.

"Fucker thought he could finish the job." Bishop checked himself. Before adding with a happy tone. "But I got him tagged."

Piggot grinned internally. " Everyone, Mannequin's tagged, move to kill. Break all of the compartments of his body, don't leave any intact, they can still fight on their own. "

There was a series of agreement replies. "Let's hunt this asshole down."

An idea entered her mind, her hand reaching up for her communicator-

" Odyssey, Dragon? We've a problem here. You told me to ask for permission for more power? Well, I sure need something to put this thing down. " Piggot spoke.

" Well now, Odyssey and Dragon are a bit busy, but I think I can give you a hand. " A voice that replied wasn't one she recognized.

" Who is this?"

"You can call me Junk, I'm a good friend of Odyssey. You could even say I taught her quite a bit. You want to put a monster down? Well, I've a weapon that will make sure of it. Just a warning, it's quite a kickback. " The voice sounded playful and lighthearted, but something told Emily that whoever this Junk was, they weren't joking about the offer.

" Give it to me. "

" Take good care of her, she's a good partner. " The voice replied. " Her name's Damage Creator, have fun. "

The gun that fell on Piggot's hands was something else. Appearing to be a war hammer at first, it was the most beautiful and deadly thing she had ever put her eyes on. She also knew exactly how to use it the moment it fell onto her hands. A quick switch and she was holding a shotgun.

Bishop let out a whistle. "Damn, Major, where can I get one of those?"

She snorted. "No idea." She replied honestly as they kept moving, closing on Mannequin.

" He's going for the roof exit. " She heard Lieutenant Tim Taylor as they moved.

" I don't think he realized we are onto him, Captain. " Rogers commented.

" I'm banking on that, now boys and girls, it doesn't matter we can track him if he escapes the building, it's time to put this rabid dog down. " She grit her metaphorical teeth, the weight of the weapon on her hands made her feel sure of it.

She led the charge, watching the monster notice her approach and produce a garbled squeal as some kind of cornered animal.

"No more fear." She moved, feeling the weapon guide her as it switched from shotgun to hammer, the limits of the suit released, allowing her to move faster than he expected.

She swung the hammer at his remaining arm, the material breaking like brittle glass as the weapon kept moving to impact him on the chest. Spiderweb cracks spreading through it as his body was sent flying to impact into a far wall.

She watched him try to scutter away as the cracks on its torso bled the same orange fluid. She felt nothing about the monster in front of her, except relief at making sure it would be put down.

She switched the weapon back into the shotgun configuration. "Good bye." She whispered for the man that once had been before she pulled the trigger.

The shot was short-lived, but impressive to all that saw it. A sphere larger than a man flew true, carving a shallow gash as it advanced just touching the floor and impacted Mannequin. Quickly encompassing his whole figure before erasing him.

A moment later all that was left of the monster were the perfectly smooth surface of the missing material in the wall and floor.

She sighed out loud. " Everyone, Mannequin down. " She could hear a few cries of happiness. " Yeah, yeah, drinks on me once they make sure we aren't a danger. But first check the building, make sure he didn't leave any surprises, and let's make sure Ramirez' body is given the necessary honor. "

She turned to Bishop and Rogers. They both nodded at her. Emily hated to have lost one of her men, but in exchange for this serial killer? It would never be worth it, but it felt coldly fair. She noticed the gun had disappeared, but didn't put much into it, she would need to ask later who Junk was.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor stopped running and turned around, watching Emma take a bit to catch up to her, and have to recover her breath.

"Taylor, you long-legged freak, I told you I can't run as fast as you." Emma grabbed the water bottle Taylor offered and took a long drink before sighing.

"Come on Ems, we just barely started the warm up run." She chuckled as her best friend looked ready to throw the towel.

"You said we would be doing some exercise in the park, not start running out of the door." The redhead playfully shook her friend by the arm.

The girl snorted. "That wasn't running, we barely picked up speed. You need to get the blood flowing. Come on, we should start stretching before we do a couple laps around the park."

Emma huffed, but relented, following Taylor's movement to stretch her arms and legs.

The taller girl had convinced her friend to go out and do some exercise because internally she was feeling pretty stressed. Not only was her mom off on a Guild's Secret mission, Taylor knew her mom would be safe and she had seen her just a few hours prior. But she still missed her and wanted her back.

She was also stressed because just in a couple days her parents would be talking with Emma's parents to get permission for the girl to visit the Sanctuary. She'd kept the secret this whole time with no problem, but the idea that Emma may be angry once she learned she hadn't been told about the whole thing.

As they started to go around the park doing some light talk, Taylor started to notice a weird atmosphere. For such a nice day, she was seeing too few people in the park. Which was pretty weird in her opinion, they had decided for one of the good parks in the city. Even before the Day of Chaos, the park was considered safe, getting police patrolling nearby.

"Ems," She spoke softly. "I think we should head back."

The red head was panting by her side. "Finally, I don't think I can run anymore."

Taylor giggled awkwardly. "I think we may have to run back." Her words got through the slight haze of tiredness.

She slowly looked around as they made sure to not slow down, they would most likely have gotten out of the park just one or two minutes later. But Taylor quickly stopped Emma as her eyes caught something ahead of her.

"Wh-what happened?" Emma asked through clenched teeth.

Taylor put a finger up to her lips and pointed at the barely visible trip line ahead of them between a pair of bushes.

"Oh come on," A childish voice complained from ahead, a small blonde girl stepped from behind a tree, Taylor would have pegged her as around four or five years younger than her and Emma. "You had to trip on it."

Taylor quickly moved closer to Emma, while it appeared at first she was shielding her friend with her own body, it was because to get her inside the shield area the protections her mom had created would cast.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Taylor asked tersely as she could feel her friend pressing against her body.

The younger girl's pout didn't break Taylor from the very bad sensation the situation was giving her. Neither did it when the girl switched back to a cheerful smile. Later in life, Taylor would describe said smile as unhinged .

"Oh? Silly me, Uncle Jack always tells me to have manners. I'm Riley! And you'll be my new sister!" The girl sounded too happy for Taylor's liking.

"Nope." She popped the p.

"What?" The sudden denial made the girl drop the smile. "No! Uncle Jack promised me."

The light rustling on the bushes grew ominous as it was obvious something was coming out.

"Tay, are you sure this is a good idea?" Emma whispers in her ear.

"Not really, but I see things going even worse if we go along with whatever she wants." The girl sighed. "Also, sorry for keeping a few secrets, I promise to explain it later."

Taylor drew on the energy she knew lay deep inside of her, stirring it up, shaping it and channeling it to the tips of her fingers. All while the little girl didn't seem to have noticed the change in her posture.

"It's okay, I'll make you my sister, just like Uncle Jack taught me." She pointed at them. "Spiders! Catch them."

Taylor's eyes opened wide as the grotesque constructs crawled out from the bushes.

"Nope, nope, nope." She heard Emma nearly screaming as she grabbed tightly to her back.

"Yeah… not really." Taylor splayed her hands. "Fly my butterflies."

From each of her fingers, small glowing spheres formed, with four iridescent wings each and a pair of antennae on their heads. The magic bullets didn't lose a second before they flew true, each with an almost cheerful squeal as they impacted the spiders and exploded on impact, flinging the spiders away.

"What the…" She heard Emma's confusion as more and more spiders crawled from the undergrowth, Taylor quickly pulled on her connection with Sanctuary's fairies.

"Hold on tight, Ems."

Chapter 56

Chapter Text

Annette was grinding her teeth as she approached Narwhal.

"Taylor was just attacked and I received a message that the Guild's Branch Building's shield was breached too. Tell them they have thirty seconds or I'll move, the situation here's under control and doesn't need me anymore. I'll leave the drones for Dragon to control, but I've to move."

Narwhal sighed. "I understand, and again, thank you for being patient, Odyssey." The Leader of the Guild pulled her phone and made the call again, even if it was less than a couple of minutes, it felt like ages for Annette.

She felt the Forge activate and acquire a pair of items from the Magical Toolkits domain, the Horadric Malus was a heavily enchanted hammer that improve her ability to enchant items. Though different from what one would thing, it didn't make them stronger, instead it smoothed the enchanting process, reducing the chances of failing and making the resulting works much more stable and less capable of being corrupted by foreign forces.

On the other hand, the Horadric Cube appeared to be an interesting tool for refining, combining and fragmenting. Strangely some of the items put through the cube would cycle through a few states, like arrows turning into crossbow bolts. The refining process usually needed multiple smaller samples to form larger ones, four chips from a similar precious jewel would be fused into a larger piece, put four similar one and the resulting items would be a grade higher. The fragmentation process was strange, as it appeared mostly geared for the secure storage of magical items, dividing them into less potent pieces safely that could later be put back together.

Both tools felt interestingly similar to her old Carving Kit, many of the unexplained pieces of knowledge provided for the kit seemed click-in once she completed them with the knowledge provided by these two.

Narwhal turned to her. "Odyssey, go."

Annette didn't need to be told twice, her IF already reaching to the sky over the DWU and opening a portal. "Today's the Slaughterhouse last day." She whispered before stepping through.

(-(-|-)-)

The moment Annette gave her the word, Odyssey moved. She could feel the strange acceleration field extending over the villains' head and legs to be different from the one in his torso, but both appeared to be interfering with the reach of her Impeller Field.

Wielding a spear crafted by her partner utilizing the Chrome Digizoid they got from her armor, the digital alloy had been worked and tempered to the point of tougher than her reinforced armor, the only problem is that most enchanting methods didn't seem to take well with the digital weapon. The Digi-Core descended onto Chuckles like an avenging angel, utilizing said weapon.

Even as the clown-looking madman's head and legs were under his acceleration field, allowing him to see her coming and move away. Not that it helped the man much, his Brute power only extended from his hips to the top of his torso, even moving away at high speed didn't put him far enough from Odyssey as the Digi-Core blinked close enough to stab him right into the back of his head.

While the fields kept her IF from affecting the body inside of them, they did nothing to stop the unbelievably sharp blade from behind, severing not just the monster's brain, but his connection to the source of his power. Interestingly, it was the sudden drop of the Brute and acceleration fields that killed him before the damage to his gray matter did the job.

The corpse was quickly retrieved and put into storage, half to keep it as evidence of the Slaughterhouse member's death, mostly to keep the mess a corpse created by laying around.

The clown's death made Hatchetface notice Odyssey, a demented grin appeared on his face.

"Finally some proper prey!" He laughed, breaking away from a small group of dock workers using the exoskeletons and some pretty thick metal beams to keep the Brutish Trump at bay.

Odyssey barely gave a noncommittal huff at his comment. "You're lucky Odyssey wants you alive." The Digi-Core rushed the man, even as he looked gleeful at having her approach him.

Said expression quickly changed into one of surprise as his power-nullifying aura was useless against her. "No! All shall fall like the flies they are, I'll show you!" He screamed.

"You'll fall." She swiftly swung her spear twice, Hatchetface's arms falling to each side of his body. "Better."

Only his Brute power kept the villain from dying of shock or blood loss. Odyssey quickly retrieved some of the metal beams dropped by the dock workers and used them to restrain and muzzle the man.

"Thank you, miss." One of the men spoke as they approached her.

She turned to the men and women in the yard. "Any injured?" The Digi-Core asked.

"Most are just scrapes and a couple of broken limbs when we couldn't brace for their attacks." The old man explained. "Nothing that won't heal on time."

She nodded. "You should contact the Guild after this is done, we've technology capable of fixing such small problems."

The comment confused the man. "Oh, I… excuse me for not asking before, but who're you, young lady?"

"I'm Valkyrie from the Guild." She gave them a soft smile as she messaged Annette about her success.

"Miss Valkyrie, may I ask why you didn't kill him too?" A younger man asked after approaching them in one of the exoskeletons, the frame visibly dinged.

"His power's too useful, if we can understand how it works, it may improve our ability to deal with villainous parahumans." She explained, not finding much problem in telling them that.

Odyssey looked up, smiling when she noticed Annette stepping through the portal.

"And talking about using him." The Digi-core grinned. "I think he'll be very useful in dealing with Crawler and Lung."

The comment made most of the dock workers turn to the plume of dark and green smoke on the, not so, distance. The noises coming from the direction made the men and women from the DWU decide that it would be a very bad idea to approach, especially as large fiery explosions could be seen from time to time.

Odyssey turned back to them. "Stay safe, three members of the group have already been taken out, that doesn't mean the rest aren't still a danger."

"We know this song and dance, little lady." The older dock worker chuckled. "They have come around before."

"They may, but they aren't leaving this time." She smiled and the workers took a step back. "Time to end this." She grabbed the metal restraints holding Hatchetface's armless-body and flew up.

The Digi-Core was running the scanning technology at full power over the villain, trying to understand his ability. So far all she had managed to find was the usual brute field over his body, which had done nothing against the sharp blade of the digital spear, and another field that seemed to emanate outwards just off his skin.

Honestly, Odyssey didn't see much problem with Lung and Crawler taking each other out, even if it was more likely that it would end in a stalemate where the only ones that lost were the civilians that didn't run away and the infrastructure. The Core only held contempt at their actions.

As she flew closer, the image of what had happened became more clear, it appeared that Crawler had decided to massacre large amounts of ABB members to bring Lung out. The Gang Leader had to do this action. But not before a large number of the gang's members were killed.

Odyssey understood the problem with loss of human life, but at the same time, she had problems caring for people not her partner and not-interest for her partner. At the end of the day, the reason she was going to put a stop to the fight between Crawler and Lung was to scan the effects of Hatchetface's power on their powers.

Lung had already grown to the point of being comparable in size to the smallest of the Endbringers, the silver, scaly skin of its body would made him look like a living metal statue if it wasn't for the flames breathing through the scales and the parts of his body that didn't seem to heal completely under the effect of Crawler's acidic poison. Green colored smoke rising from the half-melted spots.

Crawler, on the other hand, was the size of a small elephant, if it was crossed with a lion and a tank, before being dropped into the spare-parts bin after being dipped in glue. Eyes, claws, stalks, tails, and other growths dotted his body. Most likely grown under the influence of specific parahuman powers.

Odyssey found the pair to be pretty boring in the conversation department, Lung had grown past anything capable of human speech; his mouth just another weapon. Crawler, on the other hand, while still capable of speech, was basically just taunting the dragon and asking to get attacked.

" Annette, I've Hatchetface restrained, I'll be using him on Crawler to observe the effects of his power before killing him. Should I take out Lung too, ma'am? "

" While I hold nothing but dismay against Lung, taking him out in the chaos may bring us trouble later. Utilize Hatchetface to see if you can make him deescalate, once he's back to human form you should be capable of restraining him. His Brute power in that form shouldn't be high enough for him to free himself. "

" Acknowledged, ma'am. "

Odyssey flew down, approaching Crawler from behind. She didn't expect it to catch the villain by surprise, multiple eye stalks practically followed her movements the moment she came close enough.

She knew Lung noticed her, looked at her directly before discarding her as a threat as he turned his full attention to Crawler again. Odyssey internally snorted, his mistake.

Her Impeller Field quickly revealed that Crawler shouldn't be alive, his physiology was simply too chaotic. From a skeleton that appeared to be moving in ways that the muscle group just weren't set to carry, to how his nervous system didn't connect to all the parts of his body; even when the signals from his brain still reached said disconnected parts.

She watched the mismatched beast start to choke and lose control over its extremities the moment the aura washed over its body. A quick stack to the back of the head, making sure to sever the deformed connection to the source of his power. She made a note that its head was certainly harder to pierce compared to Chuckles' skull, or Hatchetface's arms, but not by much once his power had been turned off.

Lung spoke in his garbled fashion, she didn't feel like making sense of more than a few, you… kill… leave… prey. Honestly she found the lizard to be boring, and funny enough, it seemed that his small brain had understood the danger of the situation.

Not that it did much, Odyssey used her IF to keep the villains' pyrokinesis as the effects of the power-nullifying aura made his transformation recede till only a masked man was left.

She quickly produced metal cables to tie the gang leader as she retrieved Crawler's corpse.

" Annette. Crawler, Chuckles and Shatterbird are dead, Hatchetface and Lung captured ." She smiled proudly as she felt her partner's emotions, and no danger looming over her. Looks like they were nearly done with this problem.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor wanted to curse like some of her dad's friends did at the moment. While Gensokyo's magic system was designed to shoot enough bullets to bloat up the sky, she was still pretty young, and even at a rate of ten or so bullet-flies per shot it was taking a toll on her reserves.

"Tay, you aren't looking too good." Emma whispered in her ear.

"I know, I'm gonna call for some support," She whispered back, fingers wrapped around the enchanted necklace her mom had created for her. "Prepare to run when I do."

I barely heard her friend's I trust you before she pulled it free, instantly a pair of the fairies popped in front of her.

"We're being attacked, I need help." She spoke as fast and clearly as possible. Both Cherry fairies nodded to her. Then both quickly switched into the most adorable sets of armor that Annette had crafted for them, imitating hers and Odyssey's armor, they had been resized and enchanted most to stay with the fairies after their deaths.

Nearly ten more fairies joined the two leaders who moved quickly to deal with the spider constructs. Because while Taylor's bullet-flies were effective at keeping them at a distance, their destructive potential was pretty low.

Taylor did her best to ignore the little blonde girl's comments as they had taken a dark and gory turn. Instead, trying to think what to do. It was obvious the little girl was a tinker, an actual tinker, and she had a pretty good idea of who she was.

She needed a way to restrain the girl safely, so far the fairies were doing well against the spiders , but she was sure the little blonde wouldn't wait till they were all defeated to do something else.

A memory of her lessons with her mother came to mind…

(-(|)-)

"Good job," Her mother stroked her head. "You've been doing great, the fact that your… what did you call them?"

"Bullet-flies." Taylor commented with a smile, the bullet resting on the top of her index finger, imitating the insect, though it looked like a sphere with antennae and wings.

"Hmm, good name. That's another thing, names have meaning and power when used for magic. Did it become easier once you named them?" Taylor nodded. "I bet it was also easier to shape them like that too?" She nodded again. "And while names may help you in casting magic, never rush in naming new spells. Otherwise you may end up crippling their potential."

"So it's okay I named them bullet-flies? It would have been a bad idea to name them just bug bullets or just flies?" She asked, curiously.

"Flies would have most likely made them harder to dodge and hit, but would most likely have impacted their speed and strength. People just don't consider flies more than annoyances. Bug bullets may not have been bad, but bug's a bit too vague. And while you may have managed a variety of possible effects, the effects would never be much to consider.

"Bullet-flies, falls right in the middle, the word bullet's giving them the potential to power and damage. Interestingly, the fact that it's a pun for butterflies helps a lot, Magic loves puns."

Taylor giggled at the thought.

"Now that you have the flight and bullet spell going reliably, developing them will mostly lie on you. Use them, experiment with them, etc… Just time is needed. For our next lesson, I think we'll see the shield spell. While it may sound simple to create a barrier between you and danger, there's many dangers in itself." Annette drew with her finger in the air and produced a small bubble of magic. "A full sphere's the easiest shield to produce, the thought of wanting nothing with the outside's is solid enough to create a reliable barrier.

"But blocking everything carries its dangers, if no light goes through, you will be blind; if no air goes through, you will suffocate; if nothing goes through, you will end disconnected, and the shield may become too hard even for you to break. Now, I'm sure you are smart enough to understand the dangers, let's see if you can cast it."

Taylor nodded, eager to learn.

(-(|)-)

"I got it." She grinned. "Ems, stay tight. Girls, open a path."

The fairies nodded, both Cherries quickly moving to shield her as she left her friend in place and rushed forward. She pushed hard on her magic, concentrating it on her hands.

The sudden dash forward seemed to confuse the little blonde girl, though not for long. Taylor was sure the girl screamed something, but the drum of her blood beating in her ears deafened completely as she put both hands forward.

The words came to her without actual thought. " Complete Specimen Capture ." She whispered and the magic sprung from her hands.

The transparent bubble of magic wrapped around the girl in a mere instant, cutting sound, air and all forces, only letting light go through.

She fell to her knees sighing. "Yes!" She watched the girl's face change into anger, then a pout and finally an evil grin as only now Taylor noticed that the spiders had started to shake and swell. "Oh cra-"

That was as far as she got to.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette descended and pulled on a perk she hadn't used in a long time, Dark Slayer was all about producing short-lived magical weapons, and she was already pretty good at that.

She hadn't used it much, mostly experimenting with the construction of normal blades, while fit for museums, they weren't supernatural in any other way.

But seeing her daughter in danger, she decided to improvise, she could shape every weapon in nearly any aspect she could imagine. So she created dozens of weapons capable of putting what they hit into stasis, each blade falling with pin-point precision, stabbing the wet tinkering constructs. Preventing them from exploding long enough to deal with them.

She smiled as her daughter practically melted on the floor, Emma running up to her and helping her up as the fairies moved to set a perimeter around them.

"Mo- Odyssey." The girl corrected herself and Annette chuckled.

"It's okay, Taylor." She stroked the girl's head. "There's no one around." And it was a grim comment. Annette peered at Bonesaw, the girl had killed a small number of people that had obviously been in the park before this started.

Her scans were already picking samples of all the victims from multiple spiders, and gory spots in the park.

"Taylor, take Emma into the Sanctuary," Her daughter nodded at the order.

Her Thought Streams started to work on the spiders one at a time, disarming whatever was going to make them explode before putting their tortured lives to rest. Her Impeller Field expanded all over the park to make sure there was no surprise left, the bodies fixed inside her storage. They couldn't be brought back, but she was sure their families would appreciate having bodies to grieve.

"Now you." She turned to the girl, internally sighing. Her daughter had done exemplary on casting the capture spell, utilizing the shield spell to stop the biotinker from attacking them or ordering the constructs anymore, sadly it had come a little too late as she had already ordered them to kamikaze.

She's glad that her daughter had aimed to mute the girl, because while Annette could read her lips, she didn't feel like dealing with whatever the girl was saying. Part of her pointed out that she could just kill her and be done with it, but most of her was against killing a child, especially one so young that by all intents and purposes had been twisted by a psychopath.

Carefully she reached with her magic to the shield, feeling it half-way through exhausting its magic reserves and easily taking over it. Given her more sizable reserves, it would last as long as needed now. Her Impeller Field slowly reached inside. The image it painted of the girl's body disgusted her.

"What the hell have you done to yourself?" She sighed outwardly. Inside the sphere she spoke. "I'm about to deal with all these nasty things you've done to yourself before healing you up. Under normal circumstances this would be done under anesthesia, but I can see multiple changes you have done to prevent similar drugs from taking effect. I'll say I'm sorry for what I'm going to put you through, but at the same time, I'm really not sorry, what you've done is terrible. It's only your age that shields you from getting the end that the others have received."

It seemed to be enough to sink into her mind, the sudden expression of fear as her Impeller Field reached into her body and started to remove the cybernetic additions to her body. It was repugnant that she had been let go through them, most of them would restrict her future growth in terrible ways.

And not just physically, she had messed up her brain and endocrine system to the point that it would stunt the growth and development of many important parts of her mind. She watched as the eight years old girl lost nearly half of her body weight.

" Are you happy ?" She saw on her face as Annette proceeded to supercharge a restoration spell before flooding her body with it, guiding the magical process to restore the missing muscle mass, bones and organs. It would hopefully also help the brain scarring caused by the abuse she had been put through.

Without all those systems and upgrades, the process appeared to finally be too much for the young girl, and her mind was forced to pass out. Annette was impressed she had lasted so long, only adding to the nightmare of what were her thoughts on what the girl had done to herself. Not one piece of what she retrieved from her body was studied, all instantly destroyed. Not just the cybernetics, but also a few packets of what appeared to be even more virulent versions of common diseases.

The forge activated again, providing her with a single charge facility perk called Workshop , it appeared to increase the capabilities of the technological side of the workshop. Many of the tools now available were futuristic, top-of-the-line that would certainly be useful once this whole thing was done to blow off some steam.

One of her Thought Streams practically cheered as it provided her with something that would be very, very useful going forward. Her internal production quickly whirred to life as she paused all development of more drones and instead put all her attention into producing.

The resulting item was a beautiful, yet simple, golden choker she fixed around the young blonde's neck. It was a prototype, but it should not just keep the girl's power from working through her. But given how her healing had worked to remove said connection to her power, it would also prevent said power from connecting to her for now.

Annette turned to the fairies. "Go with them and make sure they eat something and relax. Take her too," She pointed to Bonesaw's prison. "Ask Patchouli if she can make sure she doesn't wake up" The tiny beings did an adorable acknowledgment gesture before flying into the portal she opened.

Not that Annette expected it to work for long, there were just too many things she didn't understand about the Crystal Shards yet. She placed it around her neck before she turned her attention to the Guild's Branch Building, it seemed that Alice had found out something important.

Chapter 57

Chapter Text

Alice sighed, she looked down at her empty cup of tea. Deciding she had had enough of it for the afternoon she picked the cup and washed it quickly before returning to her work room. Dozens of dolls in multiple production stages decorated the room.

She was pretty sure many would have found the sigh at least a bit unnerving, for her it was just normal. Heads, arms, legs, torsos and the ceramic printer Annette had put together for her; it had taken Alice some time to get comfortable with the computer , but she had to admit it was a magnificent tool.

Bolts and bolts of fabric lay neatly in a corner of the room, from rough not-leather to the finest silk. All at the ready for her to produce, plus that magnificent sewing machine Annette had provided to her; it took her dreams and made them reality.

Finally was the collection of books on programming, AI creation and the combining of magic and technology. Dragon had provided the first and most of the second, Annette had provided the rest of the second category and wrote the third just for her. It was another reason why it was all in written form, not just because Alice couldn't stand to read on a screen, but also to prevent anyone from hacking said information and causing disaster.

It was going slow, but she was practically immortal. As long as the world didn't end, she would reach her dream with time. And since Annette would most likely object to the world ending, she was safe on that side too. Even then, given the existence of her book in her Library, as long as the woman didn't die, she would come back with enough time.

So far she had taken the time to get acquainted with the concept of programming and the logic behind it. She was nowhere close to programming an AI, but it had helped her in refining her own spells and expanding her repertoire to some of the other magic systems the woman had in her library.

It had been more than a bit fun to see Patche's reaction when she found all the magic books she had never seen before. Last she had seen, the Magician was still trying to summon her assistant, Koakuma. She hoped the devil would respond to the call, Patchouli always looked more cheerful when the devil was around. Even if Koakuma sometimes didn't know when to stop the teasing and ended up being punished by her mistress.

Her train of thought was jarringly broken when the building's alarm started blaring, it was quickly joined by the noise of the barrier crashing. It wasn't hard for Alice to put two and two together and realize the building was being attacked.

Her strings reached for a handful of the dolls she kept around, she also grabbed the mask Annette had crafted, the magic in it would provide her pretty good protection. Though Alice suspected that anything capable of breaking through the shield would obliterate them if she wasn't careful.

The noises indicated that whatever broke through the shield was going through the walls with the same ease, the doll-user decided to rush up to the ceiling and take advantage of her ability to fly.

Alice was glad that they had decided to make it so easy to access the roof, even if she had to expedite a few doors on the way out. Nothing she believed to be hard to replace.

She breathed a bit easier when she took to the air, the clear sky was incredibly welcoming as the noise of walls being destroyed felt like it was nipping at her heels. She turned around to face the building, a surprised gasp escaping her mouth when she saw the monochrome, naked figure looking up to her.

"Well… crap." She cursed as she recognized the figure.

She'd acquainted herself with Earth Bet's most famous, or in famous, S-Class threats. Not just the ambulatory ones like the Three Blasphemies in Europe, Ash Beast and the Slaughterhouse Nine, but also the stationary ones, Nilbog, the Sleeper and the Machine Army.

So it wasn't hard to recognize the monochrome visage, Siberian was one of the most identifiable on the group, only behind Crawler's massive frame and Mannequin's doll-like figure.

Alice's mind whirred as she thought what to do, right now Annette, Keine and the rest were busy with the raid on the Fallen's group. She had still retrieved her phone and took a few seconds to send a message clarifying who attacked, even when she was pretty sure that the shield breaking would have alarmed them of the attack already.

She was glad that at least the serial killer wouldn't reach her up on the air, of course the moment she let herself be glad about the fact, the black-n-white figure seemed to start ignoring gravity and take up the air.

The Siberian's expression turned into one of delight at her reaction.

"Oh, come on." She groaned as her dolls spread around her as she started to pelt the figure with bullets. "Of course you are enjoying this."

It surprised them both to see that the bullets had some effect on the murderous figure, while no damage was done, the impact of each bullet pushed the figure back. Of course this only made the Siberian's expression turn into one of anger.

"Well, fuck you too." She flew back faster, dodging the being's attacks. The doll's bullets were just enough to force distance between them.

And all while something niggled in the back of her mind. The Siberian's reactions, movements, the way it flew. It felt so familiar and at the same time wrong .

Two of her dolls charged their shots over anything safe and rammed against the monster as it tried to take a swing at her. The resulting explosion sent the white-n-black murdered flying back, their expression almost astonished at being so affected. Sadly her dolls hadn't survived the explosion as untouched.

And that was when it clicked. "Oh…" It was obvious in hindsight.

They way it moved and reacted to things. It made sense, the few videos she had watched of the Siberian, its way of walking always looked slightly off, but it wasn't till she saw it take up the air that she understood it.

The words escaped her lips without much thought. "You are just a doll…"

It was like lightning had struck the Siberian, a short lived terror replaced by pure hate and anger. The change in expression followed by a renewed intent to kill her.

"I wonder what it says about your creator that you're a naked woman. Do they like to show themselves off? Or are they debasing someone else's image?" She sacrificed two more dolls to put some distance.

Their sacrifice gave her enough time to send the message with her discovery before a swat by the projection nicked it and destroyed it like it was made from wet paper.

"I wonder how no one noticed before, or maybe it's because I'm so used to being surrounded by dolls?" She cursed as she was down to just two, and a half, dolls and she wasn't ready to sacrifice them for just a small respite. Instead she pushed on her flying skills learned from her Danmaku fights.

"It's too late you know?" She couldn't help but grin as she enjoyed the ride of adrenaline. "They know, even if you kill me, Odyssey and the rest will find you and end you."

She felt her grin growing as she noticed the tiny tug on the black and white figure's eyes.

"Oh, it's in that direction? Hiding somewhere? I bet it's close." She pushed on her flight spell, sacrificing maneuverability for more speed. "You surely are movable, so not likely you are hiding in a building, most likely a car… no, a van or something."

She ignored the noises coming from behind as she weaved and zigzagged to try and confuse them. "Most likely a vehicle you can hide in and wouldn't pull much attention, tinted windows and a common color."

She was glad the area was still mostly abandoned, there weren't many cars or trucks around, but there were still many buildings obfuscating her line of sight.

The noise of a vehicle accelerating drew her eyes to an unmarked white van. "Is that you?"

The expression she received was all she needed to know. She replied to the hate with a wild grin as her puppets started to pelt the van. Alice hoped she was correct.

Thankfully the sudden disappearance of the figure was a good enough sign as she quickly noticed the van had stopped dodging the shots, instead weathering them like a light rain.

"Gotcha." She cheered as she remembered that the Siberian could extend its invulnerability to other people and objects. It wasn't hard to imagine their creator was using it on the vehicle.

Now Alice had to face a dilemma, a troublesome conundrum. She doubted that the creator of the Siberian would be able to escape the city, but letting them drive freely would most likely bring great danger if they decided to head for a more populated area. She could stay above the van, shooting it from time to time or try to stop its movements.

The vehicle may be invincible, but she could most likely prevent it from moving in some other ways. After all, it wasn't like that van could fly… hopefully.

The thing was keeping the Siberian's creator from feeling completely cornered, Alice could feel Annette's presence in the city, so hopefully she would be arriving soon.

Decision made, Alice aimed at the ground in front of the van, she looked at the half-destroyed doll with a sad expression. The doll had sacrificed her lower body to help her dodge one of the Siberian's wild swings; she wished she could have taken it back and repaired it properly, but sacrifices sometimes had to be made.

She reached and wiped a bit of a smudge from the doll's cheek before her magic started to flow into it. The enchantments grew visible as more and more magic flooded them and the doll shot forward, all that magic overpowering the flight spell letting it easily overtake the van and diving down in front of it.

Her plentiful experience for calculating the best moment to deploy a bomb, Alice detonated the doll and all the magic it had charged. The asphalt and ground under it lost badly against it and a nearly meter deep hole was caved in an instant. Even if the Siberian could make the van fly, it didn't matter in the end as the human controller's reaction was still human .

The nose of the van fell into the and physics did the rest, like some kind of physics problem with elastic bodies, the van's nose impacted the walls of the hole and the inertia made it try and continue moving. The tail of the vehicle rose and flipped it over.

There was a strange dissonance with what she saw and heard, as the van was still invincible, creating a strange muffled noise, adding to the fact that none of the windows broke or the paint was even scrapped. It made it all look like some strange simulation.

She smiled as she saw Annette descend.

"Odyssey," She nodded, a tired smile on her face. "Siberian's master is in there."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"I see," Annette hummed as her Impeller Field showed her the inside of the overturned van.

It was interesting to see how the invincibility effect kept it from reading the space the van's chassis occupied, and would most likely have kept it out. But the van wasn't air-tight, there were cracks, holes, and intended places for air to go through, and so did the IF. Similarly inside she could see the volume the Siberian's body occupied as a negative space.

She could see the man currently hanging from the driver's seat by the seat belt and a collection of items necessary to live in the van. Clothes, toiletry, food, etc…

Annette started to replace the breathable air inside the van with Carbon Dioxide. It was cold, but the man hadn't shown any remorse in the many years of his actions. His power was just too strong, and her method to stop powers from working wasn't tested enough to risk it. Even a few seconds would lead to disaster with a power like his.

She followed the process of poisoning, the van's window suddenly cracking as the CO2's saturation reached the level to make the projection's master pass out and dismiss it. She watched as the saturation reached the level enough the damage wouldn't be recoverable and kept it there.

"It's done." She commented almost robotically before sighing. The Forge activating and acquiring a perk called Reliable Invention made her feel dirty. It was a nice perk, keeping her creations from breaking unless they were meant to, or were purposefully damaged. She was glad that the perk didn't need her attention to work, because she would like to leave this event behind. "I've retrieved the body, the rest of the van will have to be taken care of by the Police."

Alice stepped closer and rubbed her arm in support. "It was necessary, and I'm sure everyone will say you were too nice by carrying his death sentence like that."

"Yeah. Now just Jack remains." Annette started to release drones as she called Elizabeth. "Narwhal, good news. Siberian's master's been terminated and his body retrieved, just Jack remains."

" I'm happy to hear that, Odyssey. I've been in talks with the PRT and Protectorate, you will like to hear that Piggot and her platoon have taken out Mannequin, they lost one man and another is only alive thanks to the Belt Core. "

She looked into the data recorded by the Belt Core units. "Oh… yeah, that will need me to fix it…" She had to admit it was nice to see that the unit had managed to keep a man without his lower half alive. She let another sigh escape her lips. "Thank you for telling me, Narwhal. I'll contact you once we've found Jack."

" Stay safe, Odyssey. And thank you for finishing this long nightmare today. " Narwhal disconnected.

She turned to the blonde magician. "Would you like me to open a way to Sanctuary?"

"Please," She chuckled awkwardly. "not my first fight against someone actually trying to kill me, but I would like to relax now."

Annette nodded and opened the way to the Sanctuary, closing it after the blonde passed and then taking up the sky to join with Odyssey.

She could feel the Digi-Core's emotions through their connection, taking practically half of the group. Even if Hatchetface was still alive, she suspected his time was limited. If they didn't kill him, the execution would not be made to wait. At least she had gotten all the information she needed from his power and interaction with other parahumans.

She let herself chuckle at the almost ridiculous sight of Odyssey carrying the armless Hatchetface and the reduced Lung, each wrapped in a thick metal beam, like a pair of grocery bags.

"Valkyrie." She greeted her officially, mostly as a show for Lung. " I'm glad to see you've done wonderfully. " She sent through their connection, her emotions rising into an elated happiness. "It's only Jack left, he won't be able to escape for long, could you drop both of them at the Protectorate building? They should have the means to hold them. After that please help with the Belt Cores users and make sure Mannequin didn't leave any surprise in the building."

Odyssey nodded. "I understand."

"Stay safe, Valkyrie."

"Good luck on your hunt." Odyssey replied with a smile and quickly flew in the direction of the building. Annette stayed behind, feeling her drones circle the city, extending her Impeller Field as her Thought Streams kept looking for Jack.

It's kind of surprising to find so many adult males with a severely injured hand in the city. Not enough that she couldn't sift through the automatic reports from her drones. The first clue of his presence was the corpses, more likely homeless people that had been in the wrong place.

The first few had been dispatched with a swift cut to the next, but as she started to follow the trail, the kills were less and less clean . Multiple cuts, some not deep enough to kill, clear signs of death by blood loss.

When she found one victim still alive, she knew she was close enough. Her drones started to congregate as she moved down. She landed by the man choking on his own blood.

"Sir, calm down, I'm a hero, I'm here to help." She's glad to have kept enough medical supplies to set triage, using her IF to clear the blood from his lungs as she got quickly to work, sewing the open wound on his neck in the matter of seconds.

One of her extra hands moved swiftly, blocking what appeared to be a ranged attack. The hit only produced a weak metallic sound and left absolutely no mark on her armored hand.

"Jack," The word carried enough weight that it physically punched the man in front of her. "I would say it's good to finally meet you, but I don't think it truly matters." She stood up slowly, keeping herself between the murderous psychopath and the homeless man she just treated.

"Odyssey, I expected a hero to find me, but didn't expect it to be this fast." Jack waved the knife in his left hand, his right one was visibly wrapped in bandages. "You confuse me. For all the power you have, you do nothing with it. You could easily rule over all of them!"

She looked at him. "Can you even be more cliche? That's it? I can see why people feared the Slaughterhouse so much. The other put on an actual fight. But the great Jack got shot once and then scurried away. Was that how you became feared? Staying safe behind your teammates? If you even consider them that much."

The man's face twisted into a snarl. "It doesn't matter, once I find the rest we'll show the world why we are meant to be feared."

She couldn't help it, placing a hand over her mouth she chuckled. "Find who? They all have been dealt with, and you are next, Jack."

The man stiffened. "No, no, no. It can't be."

"Face it Jack , you're done for, and you won't be remembered." She grinned, sending Narwhal a message.

The man appeared to be losing it. "No, that can't be right." His face twisting into a rictus of madness, starting to swing his knife wildly.

It was almost sad to see a man feared by so many, reduced to a near quivering mess spouting unconnected words. She opened a portal to let Keine through, the act wasn't lost on Jack, who instantly tried to attack the half-yokai woman.

Not that it worked, the hand that had been holding the knife fell to the ground, severed at the wrist. "Sorry Jack, but it ends here." She released enough containment foam on his feet to prevent him from running. She turned to the horned woman. "I'm happy you could come."

She smiled weakly. "Narwhal agreed that I could use a break from revealing the compound's history." She shivered. "And I agree. So what do you have in mind?"

"History Eater, let me present to you Jack Slash, one of the most feared men in the country." She gestured to said man.

She blinked a few times. "He cuts quite a sad sight." Annette chuckled at Keine's pun.

"Ah, yes. You know what they say, you shouldn't meet your heroes… or well, you get what I'm saying." Annette grinned. "I think Jack has enjoyed his reputation for too long. They say one never truly dies if at least one person remembers you, Jack. How about we fix that?"

Keine's eyes opened wider before she grinned, showing teeth. "I see, it would be a shame if something happened to his history."

The two women walked closer as he watched. "Jack, let me present to you my good friend, History Eater, I think you've a good idea of what she can do given her name."

"...no…"

Both women grinned, Annette's armor may have hidden her face, but nothing hid just how inhuman Keine's face could twist.

"Oh yes . No one will remember you, no record of your existence besides a forgotten leader of your group. So, congratulations Jack, and goodbye." She turned to Keine. "Do it."

She nodded and closed her eyes, starting to pull on Annette's vast energy reservoir, shaping it with her power into a scroll that dropped on her hand. A flick of her hand and it unrolled around her, the white surface starting to burn with an eerie blue light, word after word burning into it as the scroll kept unrolling.

Keine slowly breathed out, eyes opening to show the blood red pupils, a sign of her lineage. All while Jack screamed, pleaded, cursed and simply raged uselessly.

"History Erase ." She whispered.

The moment the writing on the scroll was completed, it snapped shut before it lit again, just this time in red fire that quickly consumed it. His history was not eaten , but completely destroyed.

"Now you are no one." Annette reached with her Impeller Field, surrounding the man in front of her, and reduced him to atoms in a similar way to what Odyssey had done with Heartbreaker.

"You did well, Odyssey." Keine whispered and Annette nodded.

"Sadly this is not the end, we still have to finish the rest." She chuckled. "The reward for a job well done is more work."

(-(-|-)-)

The results of having the Slaughterhouse ended in such a quick and neat way made a lot of people actually doubt about their end at first. Especially as a number of the bodies had been completely destroyed.

Thankfully Crawler, Chuckles and Shatterbird were more than enough proof, before counting on Hatchetface and Bonesaw being retrieved alive. Hatchetface had quickly received an expedited execution once his identity was confirmed.

Bonesaw, or as she was actually named, Riley Grace Davis. Wouldn't be executed, it was decided that given her age, it wasn't legal or morally right to condemn her for actions that were most likely forced on her by the Slaughterhouse nine.

It was also decided by multiple people in power, Director Costa Brown and the President of the USA, that Dragon would be taking care of the girl. Given the known status of the Guild's member's non-biological body, to be safe from most of the young girl's tinkering.

And wasn't that a surprise for Annette and Dragon, apparently it had been decided that the AI's new body had been the result of her uploading her mind into a machine as her body deteriorated past being capable of keeping her alive. The most surprising fact of this, was that Dragon hadn't been notified of her new legal status.

Riley had been uncooperative at first, but she had quickly mellowed out after being visited by an expert assigned by the PRT's Director. The woman had arrived, exchanged just enough words to confirm her identity and then spent nearly two hours in private with the young tinker before leaving.

Hopefully the young girl would be able to recover. Though she would most likely not ever be allowed to walk freely, at least not for decades. Dragon was hopeful that at least socializing with the Heartbreaker's children would help her, as weird as it sounded.

Bounties were also divided, though even that wasn't without a problem in some ways. Odyssey had not only taken out half of the Slaughterhouse, but she had also captured the ABB's leader in the process. The Digi-Core had initially rejected the bounty money.

It had taken Dragon and Annette some time to convince her to accept a small percentage of the total money and have the rest either handed to the DWU for their troubles and actions during the capture of Hatchetface and Chuckles or donated to a number of charities across the country.

In just a day two large evils had been removed from the world, but as they say, there's always more work.

Chapter 58

Chapter Text

Annette sat down by her daughter. "Okay Taylor, tell me what happened after you came in with Emma."

The girl nodded and started retelling the events.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Taylor practically dragged Emma along, her red-headed friend's shock making her stop walking frequently. Finally getting tired she turned around and picked the girl up, carrying her to one of the calming rooms. Technically they're meant to meditate, but right she just needed a room that let them ignore everything outside.

The girl let out a surprised squeak as Taylor managed to move much faster, even as tired as she was, the Sanctuary had something of a revitalizing aura, letting her carry her into the room and dropping her friend right onto a pile of pillows. Then Taylor rushed back to the door and gestured to one of the fairies passing by.

"Hi Sauco, could you bring us two cups of tea and something to snack?" She asked before turning to Emma. "And make sure it's strong tea."

The fairy nodded and flew off as Taylor kept the door open long enough for Orion to trot in and pounce Emma, the small star pet snuggling the girl.

The two of them sat in silence, simply enjoying the calm atmosphere of the room. Every little detail in the room was aimed to help the person unwind and disconnect from the outside, from how you could barely hear anything besides the calming sound of wind through the forest, to the gentle lighting and comfortable pillows.

She was starting to get worried her best friend was going into shock or something in the afternoon they had, thankfully Sauco knocked on the door. Taylor got up and opened it, smiling at the fairy who handed her the tray before flying off.

She walked back and placed the tray down, pouring the two cups of tea and handing Emma one. Once again they sat in silence, slowly drinking the tea.

Taylor smiled when she saw Emma relaxing. "I'm sure you must have questions. I don't think I can explain everything , but I should be able to answer enough for now."

Her best friend took a long sip from the tea and looked at her. "You are a cape then? I thought you had to trigger."

Taylor hummed softly. "Not really? I mean, I didn't trigger, I'm not a parahuman. No matter what Myrddin says, parahumans aren't magic." She rubbed her cheek. "And I'm certainly not a cape as mom and dad wouldn't let me go out anyways." She chuckles.

"So you didn't create those fairies?"

"Cherry and the rest? Nah, they are technically the Library's caretakers, it's just that the Library doesn't need that much care and they took a more general role as maids." Taylor shrugged. "And since they can't die, Mom asked them to look after me if I called for them."

"Wait, they are real fairies?"

Taylor nodded.

"You've real fairies as maids?"

She shook her head. "They take care of this place, mom calls it the Sanctuary. They mostly just fetch tea and snacks while I'm studying. They are pretty simple all said."

"Is this a fairy too?" She patted Orion.

"Nah, Orion's a good boy." She ruffled the fluffy boy. "He's more of an alien pet, would need to ask mom for more of him."

Emma looked a bit lost, making the conversation fall back into a comfortable silence till there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." Taylor called.

A purple-haired woman stepped inside, even if she sported a tired look in her eyes, it didn't hide the intelligence that resided behind them.

"Hi Taylor, I heard what happened from the girls. Wanted to see if you and your friend are okay." The woman spoke.

"Hi Miss Patchouli." Taylor waved. "We're okay, mostly tired and shaken." She turned to her friend. "This is my best friend Emma Barnes, Emma, this is Miss Patchouli. She practically lives in the Library."

The woman snorted softly. "If you understood all that I can learn in your mother's Library, you would spend time there too." She hummed and stepped into the room. "My knowledge of medicine's a bit outdated, but you two do look okay. I would recommend taking a nap here. After that you should talk with someone about it. I heard therapy has advanced a lot since last time I was outside, so I would recommend seeing about getting some. Trying to bury an event like this would only make it fester."

Taylor nodded. "I'll talk with mom, and she can talk with Emma's parents. I'm sure they know someone we could see."

"Good, showing that you can ask for help is a good sign." Patchouli nodded. "I'll leave you two for now. It was nice meeting you, Emma."

"…ah, it was nice meeting you too." The redhead nodded in response.

Patchouli smiled and left the room, closing the door silently behind her, leaving the pair back in silence.

"Miss Patchouli's a pretty powerful magician," Taylor explained. "I'm hoping she'll teach me once mom decides I'm advanced enough."

"You can learn magic?!" Emma asked in a very surprised tone.

The girl nodded. "It's pretty hard, and even when I had an advantage it still took me a long time to even get started, and I'm nowhere close to anything that could be considered the basics."

"But you were shooting those butterflies…"

Taylor shook her head. "Those are just my version of the bullet spells, you are meant to shoot a few dozen at a time. I could barely shoot ten." She added a little shrug. "I can barely float, if I was better I could have grabbed you and flew away."

Emma's surprised expression made Taylor laugh. Just like that it seemed her friend got out of her funk. Happy about that, she continued chatting with her for a few hours till she had to go home.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"I'm glad to hear you helped Emma get better. And don't worry, I'll recommend to Alan and Zoe a good therapist for Emma to see." She stroked her daughter's head, fingers idly brushing her hair.

"Did I do good?"

"Yes, yes you did." She wrapped her arms around the girl and hugged her close. "You'll be seeing a therapist too, what you went through is not something you can just sweep under a rug, okay?"

The girl nodded. "Miss Patchy explained it to me later, how it can be dangerous when using stronger magic."

Annette chuckled. "Not just with magic, Taylor. You're still young enough that you could bounce from it like it was nothing, but your father and I have decided you need to keep a healthy mind. Seeing a therapist is not wrong, and it's not just so you can keep using magic, understood?"

The girl became silent before nodding. "Okay, mom."

"Good, now go. I've to finish some stuff before going out."

She watched the girl head back to the Library, Annette chuckling softly as she felt the Forge activate.

Three charges spent for a perk called Make Me a Better Man , from the Biotech domain. It wasn't much of a stretch to call it the Bonesaw perk. It not only came to improve her surgery and medical skill to a whole new level. It made her capable of carrying some impressive remodeling surgeries that could grant from medium brute levels, but also could transplant any kind of power that could be considered biological . The interesting part was how it considered a number of her abilities as biological and she could grant minor versions of them to others through a gruesome operation.

She didn't see much reason to carry the operation on anyone, but she could technically grant magical powers given the genetic nature of her Atlantean Magic system.

She shook the idea off, honestly Danny wouldn't be that interested and Taylor already had magic. Annette put the two cups of tea she had been sharing with her daughter away and took a quick portal to the facility Dragon was using to contain underage parahumans. So far only the Vasil kids and Riley were the inhabitants of it.

She quickly sent the AI a notification of her presence. " I'm here, Dragon. Should I head inside? "

The response barely took more than a few seconds to arrive. " Annette, good to see you're here. Yes, Narwhal already signed the permission for you to visit Riley. "

" Thank you Dragon. "

She made a quick way through the facility, it wasn't hard to see where the girl was staying, while the other children had a bit more freedom, for now the little blonde was restricted to a pretty bare room. She stepped into the decontamination room, not that Annette needed it, but she had to respect the protocol. She also had replaced her costume for some light clothes to reduce the threat she presented.

A few seconds later, and a deep scan carried by some of the technology she had provided to Dragon, a chime signified she was clear to enter.

The room had been designed to look as much as possible as a normal children's room. Soft colored walls and the roof painted to imitate the sky, not that there were any windows to the outside, the room was actually quite deep underground. For that, to prevent deficiency of vitamin D and other similar problems that came from a lack of sunlight, the room's illumination utilized an improved version of sun lamps.

The room also had a small collection of physical books, a combination of children books, novels and school books. On a different corner lay a few simple plastic toys, sadly since Riley was a known tinker, her access to more complex objects was quite restricted. For that same reason the only computer in the room was practically encased in the wall, and any attempt to tamper it would spring multiple alarms.

The bed turned out to be a simple cot, comfortable enough to sleep. But it in many ways showed that the room was still a prison.

The young girl turned to look at Annette. "Oh, it's you, came to gloat?"

The woman shook her head slightly. "No, I've come to check on you, and check that the Crystal Shard blocker is still functioning well."

The comment made the girl reach for the choker around her neck. She quickly looked away.

"Yes, that. Come here, it shouldn't take more than a few seconds." She patted the bed and Riley complied.

Annette ran a deep scan on the girl's body while she also interfaced with the technology inside the choker around her neck, making sure there was no strain in her brain or signs of the Crystal Shard trying to reconnect with her.

"All looks good, it appears all the damage you did to yourself has healed correctly and your natural growth has restarted correctly. It's still early, but the stress you put your body through could cause puberty to hit you earlier than normal."

The comment made the girl's face turn into disgust at the idea.

"I'm sure your power may have taught you what it means to grow up, but it's a completely different thing to live through it. So if you start to bleed or feel bad, tell Dragon and she or I will see about helping you."

The girl pouted and mumbled, not that Annette couldn't understand her. "...if I had my powers that wouldn't be a problem."

She had to snort at that. "Given what I saw in your work, you would be ruining a lot of things in yourself in the path to fix things. Especially since you had already outgrown a lot of them and would soon start feeling discomfort and pain, being forced to replace them for bigger versions."

"But that's how tinkers work!" The girl quickly complained.

"And it's a stupid way. Actually, let me show you something." Annette quickly shot Dragon a message, asking permission to allow Riley her powers for a short time. The reply didn't make itself wait, allowing her to turn the power blocker off as long as she didn't leave the room. "Okay, let's see."

She kept her scan of the girl's brain going as she turned the blocker off, watching the two growths appear in just a few seconds. The girl's eyes opened wide as she realized what had happened.

"This" She projected an image in front of them. "is the last scan I had of your body before I proceeded to remove all your augmentations." She quickly started to highlight different parts. "This would stunt the growth of your limbs and spine, this would stunt your hormonal development, this part would need to be changed just to keep with the quick growth of your body as you mature." She kept marking things, even as the girl tried to use her power to explain how to fix things, it soon became obvious to the young girl that the solutions her power was coming up with were temporary at best.

The girl remained silent for almost a minute after Annette finished explaining. "Then what? What was I supposed to do?"

The woman hummed. "I would like to say you should have run away, but that would most likely have meant death for you in the short order. You're in a terrible place and forced to do terrible things." She sighed. "I'll turn on the blocker again and clean up that mess in your head."

The girl didn't say a word as Annette did as she had said. She watched a tension on the girl's body disappear the moment she disconnected. It was interesting to see how everything in the girl's body from the moment the source had reconnected read as ready to run away or act .

"Keep behaving, Riley. You're doing well so far." The girl nodded at the comment, but it looked like she was dealing with some internal turmoil. Annette hoped she utilized her sessions to talk about it.

She stepped back into the decontamination room and let the scan and protocol run. She had to return to work soon anyways.

(-((-|-))-)

Rebecca Costa-Brown looked at the woman sitting on the other side of her desk. "I hope you're right about doing this."

Contessa nodded slowly. "Originally, the path stated that Bonesaw would play a key role in shoring up our defenses. While amoral on the extreme, she would manage to work multiple aspects of the passengers' limitations and how to get around many of them."

"And now?"

"Now it's harder to tell. The path states that if allowed to use her powers again she could find about half of the same discoveries. But given the closeness of Odyssey, it becomes less clear as I'm forced to use an approximation of her behavior to calculate the path."

For a moment it was Alexandria who nodded before it was Rebecca once more, pulling up some reports and looking over them. "Both the Mathers clan and, practically, the entire Slaughterhouse Nine were taken out in the span of a few hours. I would say good riddance, but at the same time."

"Christine Mathers may have still owed Cauldron a number of favors, but now that she's off the picture and I can retroactively path her, I can tell you it just wouldn't have worked. Many of her almost nonsensical actions before show themselves to have been aimed at setting a base of power strong enough that even Cauldron wouldn't have been able to take her out."

"And what about Manton?"

Contessa shook her head. "Even before his death, the path declared him as unlikely to help in any way. He's most likely to act against Cauldron's objectives just to spite us."

Rebecca leaned back on her chair, crossing her fingers as she rested her hands on the desk. "Any clue of what will be their next move?"

"The Guild's definitely moving to take out Ellisburg, if Odyssey's disintegration technology can be properly scaled up? They would most likely aim to take the whole town. Maybe even try it with the Machine Army next."

"Well, neither of those had been considered by Cauldron as helpful for Humanity's survival. Nilbog and his creations wouldn't have kept Scion distracted for more than a few seconds."

"Don't worry, the Path keeps shortening. It's all good." Contessa commented before stepping out of the room.

Only when the dimensional door closed Rebecca turned the privacy tinker tech from the room.

"I wish I could trust the Path so much, but after all of this, maybe the Path's been wrong all along."

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette stopped what she was doing when she felt the Forge activate and five charges get spent all together at the same time.

Two perks came out together from the large black star at the center of her galaxy of twinkling stars. The first was worth a single charge and it was called Nanite Sciences , it was basically what it said. A comprehensive production, control and use of nanites for multiple applications. From construction and industrial to medical and enhancement.

It was interesting to compare it with the knowledge of Nanotech Wizard, the older perk felt more flexible , in a strange way. There were less logical limitations while this new one was more grounded on actual science. Didn't mean that both perks didn't share many points in how to approach nanotechnology, even if they differed in how they approached other parts. The new perk had an interesting bit of knowledge on how to spread nanites to cover the world in the fastest fashion possible.

The second perk took the rest of the charges, for four of them the perk was called Nanite Removal and Control . It was a strange perk, definitely useful, as it provided her the ability to take control over nanite technology she came in contact with. The strange part was how it went at it.

The perk combined some kind of technopathy and allowed her brainwaves to imitate what it could be called an overlord nanite. Letting her guide and control the nanites, the removal part of the perk came to complement the bit on quick and world-wide delivery of nanites, in case you didn't want someone with said nanites or they had gone out of control.

The control had also a pretty comprehensive ability to use nanites in her body to heal others. Wounds, diseases, even mutations as long as they weren't especially mystical or supernatural. It technically would only work on willing targets, but she suspected that the synergy with her Valkyrie Core said restriction would be non-existent. Similar to the limit on her internal reservoir as she could offload nanites to her Core's internal storage, where they could be utilized to improve her fabrication abilities.

The ability was too useful to discard, even if she just kept it for personal use only. So Annette started the production of them through the Core's systems. The nanites carried the danger of running out of control and causing unwanted mutations and mental changes, though not for her, not only would she be in complete control of them, but she was immune to induced madness.

A quick check found that this acquisition had also emptied her banked charges, which meant the next roll was most likely going to fail given the sensation the Forge gave her.

Not that it mattered, she didn't think any perk would change things much as she looked at the digitalization portal, nearly complete. She still needed to test it and make sure it was all working correctly before she could calibrate it.

A small notification from Dragon made her bring up their communication.

" Hello Dragon, how's Captain Bishop's situation progressing? "

" The prosthetic lower body and replacement organs are all working as expected, there's barely any rejection being observed. "

Annette mentally nodded, the prosthetic and the paired drug had come from the Augmentations R&D. They were designed for life-long use and reduced rejection chances while not suppressing the immune system. And she had utilized the knowledge provided by Make Me a Better Man and Light of Order to improve both the body's assimilation of the prosthetic to the point said immunosuppressants were only needed to be taken once a week.

" That's good to hear, hopefully the observable results will help to hasten the testing process. "

" It certainly cuts a certain amount of politicking since it was needed to keep the captain alive. "

She snorted, it certainly did. The original prospect of waiting time for a tinker-created technology with medical uses was nothing short to say the least. Having no other way to save a person's life than using it, with proof that it was a generic model instead of a customized one went a long way.

" That's good to hear then. I'm about to run the first test on the portal. After that I think we could start testing the connection with your Crystal Shard if you're okay with it. "

" My personal experiments with the connection to the Crystal Shard have not borne any fruit, so it may be useful. I still think you should find a few other samples. It may be useful to have more than one sample. You should have Riley's power coordinates too, right? "

" I do have an idea of where to find the coordinates for a power that hasn't activated yet. "

" Then go ahead, just make sure that us tampering with it won't hurt them ."

She actually snorted. " Don't worry, I know better than that ."

" Okay then, I still have to finish a few matters in the PRT's HQ, so I'll see you later. "

" Take care, Dragon. "

She disconnected from the call and looked at the portal. It obviously looked nothing like an actual portal. Instead it was a vertical screen that showed an image of File Island… well, in a way it may look like a portal, but she was pretty sure most would see it as a window at best.

Odyssey stepped out and nodded to her.

"It's ready inside, my scans show no problem in the process of heading in and out." The Digi-Core commented.

"Good." Annette drew a small group of drones she had put together on the last day, each one worked on a different paradigm. The first was completely technological, the second was completely magical, the third stood in the middle. "Test drone number one."

She watched the fully technological drone float through the screen, the scans running live suddenly started to flood her stream the moment it stepped into the Digital World. The stream of upcoming information cut after an hour inside accelerated time.

She took a few minutes to check the results, seeing no problem she advanced to the next step. "Test drone number two." She watched the completely magical drone step through. The stream of information similarly increased the moment it changed dimensions, and it similarly cut after an hour inside accelerated time.

"Test drone number three." The mixed drone was the last to be sent after she looked at the second drone's results. The situation didn't change, yes the collected information was slightly different.

The interesting part was how the magitech code was translated into a similar system, the Cyber Sorcerer perk recognized it, but it would take her more study to put together a proper alphabet on this magic system.

"Well, everything looks correct. Time for the final test." She took a deep breath, and stepped through.

Chapter 59

Chapter Text

Annette floated down till her feet touched the digital grass of the meadow biome. She looked around, having an easy time catching sight of the many growing fruit trees and meat bushes, along with the bird and bees programs.

Since there was no danger anywhere in the Digital World, and the worst that could happen was a climbing accident over at the rocky areas or tripping, which was null with her ability to fly. She dismissed her armor, ending in just a pair of comfortable pants and shirt, not even footwear as Annette enjoyed the sensation of walking barefoot on grass.

She couldn't but hum a soft tune as Odyssey soon followed into File Island, the Digi-Core shifting into a sundress she had crafted as both wandered without a hurry. As they were currently in an environment accelerated a few thousand times compared to the real world, not even a second had passed, and it would take nearly one more hour. It wasn't even the fastest thing that could run inside the server.

"How's the development of the programs?" She asked out loud as she started to run scans not only on herself, but also of the surroundings.

"All of them have shown to have adapted properly to all environment variations. Even the wasteland and desert have shown variations, the density of plants is lesser, though."

Annette nodded as she mostly paid attention to the scans on her own body. Her body was indeed information, but at the same time she could see how it was still her body. Her stomach was still in the process of digesting a meal she had about an hour before, the food being broken down into information and being absorbed by her organs, which acted like small versions of the larger programs.

Another interesting thing about being a digital being was how her digivice, which was assimilated into her being as part of the translation process, showed an interesting new ability available for her to use.

Biomerge was a, not exactly artificial, way to achieve greater power by synchronizing the digimon and their partner. A step to the side compared to the more usual DNA Digivolution where two digimon synchronized together to achieve a higher power form, some of the strongest digimon were reached through this fusion of two or more digimon. Biomerge worked similarly, it was just that the second digimon was replaced by the partner, and was only possible when they were made of data.

Given the firepower they would achieve by merging, it would be an interesting trump card to hold. If she figured out how to achieve data form in the real world. For now they may have to keep the testing in the Digital World.

"Any strange activity?" She asked her partner.

"None so far, but File Island is still disconnected from the world wide networks."

Annette nodded. "The back-up's been made, so we may run those tests soon. For now, we go to what we came here for." Both easily disconnected from the ground and flew off the coast of File Island. Space was weird in the Digital World, you could very much say that anything not occupied didn't exist.

The two of them could have flown forever off into the horizon and wouldn't ever find a problem, and just turn back and be on the island in the matter of seconds as long as they wanted that.

Once they had left the coast far enough, Annette deployed the program she had been working on for this particular test. A massive disc appeared in front of them, it hung in the air, appearing undisturbed by concepts like gravity. This was just the first step, a sort-of first containment ring for the test.

The second step was a second disc, much thicker than the first, laying on top of it before the final step was a gate. At the end of things, it was the most stable representation for what they wanted to do. It appeared to be made of wood, carrying many of the aesthetics of the original Sanctuary's constructions, but mixed with it was the gold and white metallic details of her Orokin style.

She turned to Odyssey. "Ready?"

"Yes ma'am." The Digi-Core assumed her fully armed figure, Annette soon joining her.

Another interesting detail about the Digital World was how certain things were represented. Just like how programs could appear from grass to bees, the coordinates to Dragon's Crystal Shard had taken the form of a key.

She slid the key in and activated the portal.

She could see all the necessary calculations and processes running under the surface. How the portal slowly started to create the necessary characteristics needed to trick the Crystal shard to open the way.

A good thing about carrying this test so deep in accelerated time, was that she hoped it would provide ample time to prepare against any possible problem they could trigger.

And then the portal opened, the space inside the construct suddenly leading a completely different land. Strangely it was still the Digital World, or the closest approximation. If Annette had to make a guess, it appeared that creating the link while inside the Digital World had created a connection to the Crystal Shard's systems.

Junk had described the leftovers of what would have been her powers as a mix between a computer, a crystal and the very dumb result of natural selection. It reminded Annette of reality put through a very heavy eighties filter. Loud neon colors in cyan, yellow and magenta, lots of frameworks, images echoed to the infinite.

And it gave her the sense that it was… bored?

"All systems in the green, ma'am." Odyssey commented. "The scans are slowly spreading through the area on the other side, so far I'm not observing any reaction."

"Good, maintain observation. Warn me immediately the moment something changes. And if you see any kind of hostile movement," Annette pointed to a big red button. "This is the emergency shutdown."

Odyssey nodded and Annette activated the exit function. Her body quickly changed back to blood and flesh as she stepped out of the digitalization portal in the Guild's Branch Building.

She quickly messaged Dragon to update her on the success of the first step as she turned her Thought Stream's attention to the stream of information the Digi-Core was sending her. The difference in speed made the tests that would have taken hours if not days, were done in seconds.

The idea was to collect more information for a few minutes of real time before disconnecting the path and going over the information before they moved to try and poke the Crystal Shard with fake Dragon queries to see if they could observe more.

It would be slow, but that's usually how science was. She just cheated.

(-(-|-)-)

Misuzu yawned as she got up, stretching her arms over her head and felt heavenly after having slept in an improvised shelter. Not that she denigrated her ability to survive in the wilderness, between what she had learned in the years after Kyushu's sinking and the few tips from her patron/possible alternate descendant.

Junk had admitted her reach was pretty limited, and she could barely interfere with Earth Bet. The fact that she could create fresh water and simple clothing made her wonder just how powerful she was.

Having lived nearly a month in the middle of nowhere like a hermit had been strangely freeing. She had only stayed for about a week in that first location she had woken up, mostly getting used to not having her old power. It had been a week of meditation and light exercise, healing the lingering problems from having been put through the Chinese's brainwashing camp.

The meditation had brought to light just how much her power messed up her mind, originally her power was what most people considered a Combat Thinker, allowing her not only to acquire large amounts of information on the area around her, but also of the targ- other people and what they could, would, should do, etc…

For what she had put together herself and heard from others, it wasn't the rarest expression of Combat Thinker powers. The major difference was that hers didn't need her eyes to be open to work. She could understand why the Yàngbǎn would want her power.

Looking back she could see how her power tended to push her to always stand at advantageous positions, which was easily construed as an aggressive posture, which it technically was. She could see how it had made many of her interactions with other people go sour.

But now she felt free , like she really was in control of herself. And maybe it was because Aura was a power grown from herself, from her soul. It hadn't done much at the start, Junk had explained that souls in Earth Bet did practically nothing. This apparently translated to only the most minor of improvements on her body as most of the energy generated by the light of her soul was used to heal her body and slowly reinforce it as she worked through the exercises the goddess instructed through.

In the second week she had gotten a bit bored of the ascetic life, and even when Junk could provide her with edible food, and it's good food, she decided to try her hand at hunting. She had managed to use her hands to fashion a stone knife, her Aura now strong enough that she wasn't hurt by the process.

The first few days were terrible, she quickly learned that she just made too much noise moving through the trees, bushes and plants to not scare practically any animal she could have hunted. After that it became obvious she didn't know how to find said prey. Junk had offered tips here and there, letting her learn the basics, but teaching the less known details.

By the end of the week she had decided to move into fishing, with a spear fashioned by a specially straight and hard branch, she managed to stab a few fishes from the nearby stream. It had been a good lesson, sometimes you gotta find something easier; the phrase was shooting fish in a barrel after all, no?

She had also decided to move after the second week ended, she had stayed in a single place for long enough that it started to feel unsafe. If the Yàngbǎn was looking for her, it was time to see about leaving the country.

The next week she got used to moving at the high speed and mobility that Aura allowed her, with her mind bringing images of a few martial arts films she had seen in her youth, she jumped from tree to tree, over rivers and ravines. Practically flying through the wilderness, when she didn't smack face first into branches she didn't see coming.

Still, she slowly made her way to the border between China, North Korea and Russia. Misuzu would have liked to get to South Korea, there was much more traffic between that country and Japan, but getting through North Korea would pose too much danger. Or at least would bring too much attention to her, which was a threat all on her own.

If she remembered right, there was a coastal city close to the border that may allow her to exchange a few jewelry pieces Junk had created for a trip to Japan. It would take her to the North part of Japan, but she was sure that once she was back in her native soil, it would be much easier. Maybe hit a few lowly Yakuza for some cash to move south faster.

She stopped to think, over a month had passed since she had been freed, looking back, it'd been quite the strange time. Not that she would exchange it for the grim future that may have awaited her otherwise.

"Junk?" She asked.

" Hi 'suzu, doing well? "

"Yes, I should be slipping the border pretty soon. I wanted to ask, did something happen a bit ago?"

" Let me check… " The voice in her head went silent for almost a minute. " Oh! Well, looks like my apprentice has started making big moves. Are you sure you don't want her picking you up? She works with Dragon, they won't have a problem helping you. "

Misuzu shook her head. "No, at least not right now. Without my powers pushing for it, I just want to get back home, check with friends and what little family I've left. Maybe after that, but not before."

With an approving hum Junk spoke again. " Then let me give you something, just in case. "

Misuzu watched the familiar light show of Junk's power before a small and simple-looking dagger took shape. Her hand easily caught it before it stopped floating.

" Consider it a sort-of graduation gift. It will also be very useful to train your Aura further, so go ahead and push it into the knife. "

She did as asked, the knife greedily drinking the energy. It took her a few seconds but soon she knew the knife. Junk had named it Silent Fang, and by itself it would be considered lacking by anyone who looked at it, most likely to be ignored even by those looking for weapons.

A twist of her grip on it after pulling it out of its sheath and the small knife unfolded into a straight sword, another twist and it was not a spear she would need to hold with both hands. One final twist and it was a small knife again, back into its sheath and placed on her belt.

"Thank you."

" Don't worry 'suzu, it will help keep you safe. It's also soul-bound to you, so you won't lose it or have it stolen. Right now it's the limit of my power in this world, hopefully I'll be able to make you some proper armor. "

"It's okay for now, most people just prefer to not bother with capes. I should be safe. But if something happens… I'll be ready."

She had made her mind, she wouldn't let herself be captured again. With a firm will and a slight gold aura on her body, she started moving again.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette was coming back from her talk with Danny, having handed him a small piece of jewelry in the form of a ring that would keep the Crystal Shard that had been connected to him from finding him again.

She had cleared up the small Corona Pollentia that had existed in his brain, hopefully to prevent the crystal computer/being from hurting her husband if they messed something up.

And talking about crystal computers, she had managed to work out a way to mass produce the Arkonite needed for The Dark Crystal perk. Though different from the perk's name, Arkonite was actually a crystal that went from bright, light purple when channeling large amounts of energy to a dense purple when not in use. Right now she had what she had put together a fridge-sized machine she denominated a crystal oven. It baked the necessary ingredients into large batches of Arkonite crystals the size of a fist.

Thankfully part of the knowledge given by the perk was how to meld smaller crystals into larger ones, not that a fist-sized rock wasn't already good enough for most of her plans. The only one that was needing a larger crystal was the magitech crystal computer she was putting together. Using Arcane Interface to cover the weakness of magic and technology with each other, Light of the Orokin and Scientist/Elder Immortal for the technological knowledge, paired with her multiple programming perks and her multiple magic databases and runic enchanting perks like Nine-Realms Craftsman, The Rune is Mightier Than The Sword/Runic Spell Innovator to cover the magical side.

It was technically still an optic computer, except there were a lot of its components that existed only as magical energy constructs lodged inside the massive crystal tower. And when she said massive, it meant that they had to extend the room at the Guild's workshop up to fit it. Thankfully the area wasn't being used and she could just remove the separating roof/floor to make up the needed space.

It was an imposing project, and not just because given the power and processing it had it's capable of actually bending reality around itself before Annette started to apply her Cyber Sorcerer knowledge into the machine. It was a very important fact that she was putting all safeties necessary so that it didn't gain sapience, with so much power and magic, it was a pretty big possibility too.

If they noticed it was close to happening, the plan was to have either Odyssey or Dragon taking the spot, even if it most likely meant them going through a magitechnological apotheosis of some kind.

She felt the Forge activate, the two new charges spent the moment they were acquired to purchase a perk called Workshop . And for all its name indicated a single one, it was actually two workshops: one aimed for works of technology, and another for works of magic. The first didn't exactly change things that much, on the other hand, the magic-oriented workshop added a number of pretty interesting materials and reactive ingredients she would have to study later.

She stepped into the Guild's Branch Building right into the workshop area. Annette smiled as she approached Dragon and Odyssey, the two of them looking over the scans of the AI's Crystal Shard.

"So, what do we have?" She asked as they turned to her.

"Well, it looks like there's some kind of language there, but it's very dense in information. After looking through all the information we've gathered from the tests we've carried, it looks like the Crystal Shard communicate by sending their thoughts at each other, with everything you consider part of a thought. That's memories, images, scents, information, etc, etc…

"It's highly energy intensive, Odyssey has recorded the Crystal Shard receiving what we believe are messages from other Crystal Shards and they carry enough energy to blast a large block."

"Are we talking incredibly complex language? Or just throwing every little possible bit of information and context to be understood?" She asked with a hint of humor.

Dragon chuckled. "The latter, Odyssey discovered a series of images in one of the bursts of information. We used them to put together a program to easily identify them in all the 'messages' we managed to record."

Odyssey nodded. "With the ability to find the images in the messages, we became capable of removing them from the message. We still believe there are a number of other 'streams' of information mixed in and we'll have to work more to isolate every one of them."

"And once we have isolated every part, we can put together a translator for their language." Annette noted. "Then using another source should help hasten things alone."

Dragon's face showed her surprise. "You have a second Crystal Shard's coordinates?" Annette nodded. "Then we should use it… and maybe we should call them just Shards, saying Crystal Shard every time is a bit of a mouthful."

Annette snorted. "Sure, would you join us, Dragon?"

The AI froze for a moment before turning to look at Odyssey, the Digi-Core shooting the AI a smile. "It's safe."

"Then let's go." Annette stated as the three moved to the portal.

(-(-|-)-)

Dragon was feeling very nervous inside, so far she had managed to find reasons to not visit the Digital World. Even when she knew her fears were unfounded.

She looked at Odyssey, who was practically vibrating, in her own way, to show her around File Island. Dragon took a deep breath before she stepped through the portal.

Appearing on the sky over the island was a weird experience, not the weirdest she had gone through. Since she could fly, her fall was turned into a slow float down, joining Annette on the open meadows.

"It's… impressive, it doesn't feel like a simulation." She commented, mentally comparing it with her servers.

"Because it's not." Annette commented. "The Digital World is that, a world. It's its own type of reality. It's strange to see it that way since it looks so similar to ours. But… here."

Dragon received a small program through their connection. Since she trusted Annette, she quickly installed it, revealing a way to look at the world around them in a completely different way. She could see the information moving around, how it had actual weight and substance in this reality.

"Oh…" She commented surprised, the reveal extended to Annette and Odyssey, except their information was so much denser in comparison. Looking at herself revealed a similar thing.

"I admit it would be much harder to make sense if the knowledge and understanding of what it meant wasn't plugged into me by the perk itself." Annette stated offhandedly. "But that's for another time, so how about we see about checking this other Shard ."

Dragon nodded and the three of them flew onto the security platform off the coast.

"It's very… you."

"Thanks." The only human smiled as she retrieved the coordinates key.

The looks of said key made the AI reconsider it when Odyssey had described it earlier, it was strange to see that information did take physical form in more than a metaphorical sense. She watched the woman slide the key in.

"Ready?" She asked, the AI and the Digi-Core nodding.

The key twisted and the portal took a few seconds before it connected, she had seen the images of her Shard's… mind? Systems? Network? They needed a proper name for what they accessed from the Digital World. She would use mind for now, the psychedelic looked right out of some eighties and seventies iconography.

Except that the image shown on the other side of the portal was anything but . It looked like the aftermath of a war combined with a natural disaster.

"Oh… oh my…" She heard Annette comment.

"It's… what happened?" Dragon spoke her mind.

Large swathes of the crystal-like structures were destroyed, burned and completely broken, large swathes of the land were just missing .

"This changes things." Annette smiled wryly as she started to scan.

"Who was connected to this?"

"Danny, and I'm very glad I made sure he's not any longer." The three of them quickly got working on studying the Shard's mind.

"It appears to be trying to fix itself, it makes me wonder what caused this kind of destruction." Dragon looked over some of the farther scans.

"It's hard to tell, I can't even say if it was something else or Shards fight between themselves. Do they even have the concept of battle? Could this be just the result of two basic beings fighting for food or territory?" Annette thought out loud.

"I think it's more important than ever that we figure out their language." Odyssey proposed. "This Shard 's state may be even used to leverage information out… They are like super programs, no?" The Digi-Core grinned. "What if we converted it into a Digimon? Or at least a digital being?"

Annette hummed, eyes lost in the distance. "It could work, the process would help the Shard heal the physical damage while maintaining the mind behind it."

"Are you sure?" Dragon asked. "That's giving them a lot of power."

Annette snorted. "They already have a lot of power, if the Endbringers are just another form of Shard, it's very much possible that every parahuman power source is capable of annihilating all life on Earth. Plus, Junk and I, we're pretty sure there's a bigger intelligence behind them all."

"So coaxing one of their members to our side is the way to understand them more." Dragon finished.

"Yes." Annette nodded.

It looked like they had a lot of work in front of them.

Chapter 60

Chapter Text

Annette looked up from her current project, and while she called it a project, it was more of a hobby to get her mind from burning out on the work to translate the Shard's language.

Said translation work was advancing, though quite slow, even with all the boosts her perk Xenospecialist provided. It was actually quite a miracle that they were advancing at all, mostly it was thanks to the sheer acceleration Odyssey, Dragon and Annette could go under and the processing power provided by the crystal computer.

Strangely, the Dark Crystal was also allowing her a certain level of understanding on how the Shards worked as it had imparted to her the knowledge of how crystal formations could store information or execute programs.

They had identified over a dozen different streams of information, and while they were easy to find like image, video and audio, others were harder to find. For example there were three streams dedicated to the transmission of gravity measures they didn't have much idea of the use for. And they could either be useless, necessary to convey some meaning or simply an identification key.

Right now they were letting the crystal computer work on their latest scans of both Shards, so it was a time-out she was putting into improving her armor.

To start, she was utilizing her only recently acquired Etching Pen , capable of carving practically any material as long as it was used for enchanting. The small tool that fit on her hand was also capable of not only fixing any mistake she didn't produce anymore, but also utilizing practically any fluid as ink. Combined with the Horadric Malus, her enchanting had been taken to a whole new level as she could now inscribe some of the tougher parts of the armor.

She was also developing a way to imitate the Endbringers' superposition effect. It wasn't the exact same way they did, right now she was imitating it by having three identical armors being forced… no, it was better to say she was coaxing them to occupy the same space. The four armors were practically identical, the only difference was a slight difference in the frequency , for lack of a better word.

All held together by a shared enchantment that made sure any and all damage the armor as a whole received never reached all of them, at least one would remain unscathed as the rest fixed by the enchantments. The armor would still fail under overwhelming damage, though the damage necessary to damage it would be incredibly high.

A by-product of how to imitate the Endbringers' layering effect, she had worked out how to break through it. Actually, she had found two ways, one much more energy intensive than the other. The cheaper way forced the affected area to exist in a single dimension, effectively bypassing all but one of the layered materials.

The expensive option, on the other hand, gave the middle finger to all the layers. The attack propagated the damage by similitude in an instant. A pretty interesting fact was how Odyssey had noted there was a similarity between the 'messages' the Shards sent and received and the way this attack worked.

Dragon was already utilizing the first version of the technology on her cannon suit. Annette had jokingly called it an Endbringer Buster and the name had stuck.

A sigh made her turn and look at Dragon. "Everything okay?"

"Yes, yes, don't worry. We've confirmed another stream of information, it turned out to be some kind of identification tag. It certainly helps when compared to some of the other streams, we are down to the last ten percent or so." Dragon explained.

"Take a break, we're already doing great time-wise. I'll also be leaving soon to meet with Major Piggot before the Ellisburg mission."

"Narwhal got the approval to at least run the scans over the location. A number of Protectorate affiliated Thinkers confirm a very low possibility of things going wrong."

"Are you sure? We know you mess up with Thinkers and alike." Dragon leaned forward on her chair.

"Yeah, but most people don't. Still, Narwhal made sure they ask, utilizing an idea of what we are going to do, rather than having them look at what would happen if I did it."

"Interesting work-around. I would guess the results aren't as exact, but they wouldn't be correct to begin with." The AI nodded.

"And talking about to begin with, I should get going."

"That's okay, I'll do as you said and take a break from this, take care." Dragon waved to her as Annette quickly left the building in direction of the PRT HQ.

(-(-|-)-)

Emily looked up, she knew the woman was coming and had been noted about it. Still, the fact that Odyssey had knocked on the door before entering was refreshing compared to how most capes acted.

"Come in." She called, the door opened and the Tinker woman stepped inside, apparently having exchanged her heavier armor for a much more lithe one that made the Major think of what some of the PRT's PR departments pushed for.

There were differences, though. To begin with, there was skill behind the design that most PR guys would envy, she would bet some fashion designers would too. It also looked good on the woman while not giving the same slutty image that most heroines were forced. And finally, Emily doubted it was any less armored than the usual armor she used.

"Major Piggot, I'm glad you could make some time for me. I can imagine they are still keeping you busy with the subject of having dealt with Mannequin?" Odyssey took the chair on the other side of her desk.

Emily nodded. "They keep trying to find ways to deny us the reward money," The comment made Odyssey raise an eyebrow. A fact that made her notice she could see that through the visor but not pick any detail on her face, she quickly chalked it to Tinkertech bullshit. "They started insisting that because the Belt Core units it was the Protectorate's, then they insisted it was the PRT since we are technically unpowered, even Director Richardson tried to get his hand into the pie.

"I'll have to thank Narwhal," Emily grinned. "she managed to shut them all up. I still have to work all taxes and how to invest it, but it should give the whole platoon a nest egg. Plus the confirmation of Belt Core can fight even some of the worst out there."

Odyssey nodded. "We've finished a large number of Belt Cores, so going forward having multiple groups all over America trying them will be the next part of the test. Theoretically we should have no problem maintaining an eye over all of them as we're sure at least a few people will try and abuse the power." She shrugged. "Let's call it natural selection."

Emily chuckled at the comment. "Yes, even if the act will most likely not catch the worst cases of abuse, those intelligent enough to sit back and watch for now. It will set a good lesson."

Odyssey nodded. "Anyways, the news about the Belt core system was only part of what I came for. We've finally acquired the permission to do a full scan of Ellisburg."

The comment made the Major freeze for a moment, only a hand gently squeezing her shoulder broke her from a very dark place. "So it's really happening?"

The woman in front of her smiled. "Yes, at least it's starting. The scan's results will mark how we move forward. The only troubling thing is news from the guards that they've been seeing a lot of movement in the town. That's why I came to talk with you, as the only survivor of that incident."

"What about Thomas Calvert?" She asked dryly.

"No one has any idea, he suddenly disappeared about two months ago. Simply fazed off the face of the Earth. Given the man's work as security consultant, many people are worried he crossed paths with a villainous cape that decided to use him or similar, disposing of him some way or another." The woman shrugged. "There's no trace of him anywhere. Some theorize he may have ended in another Earth, or maybe even farther."

"Really?"

Odyssey smiled. "We know there's at least more than one Earth, who says some of those versions are even Earth ?"

"You know, I can believe that. It would be a bit too egocentric to think it's just Earths out there. Talking about out of this world, would you tell me who's Junk?"

There was an actual surprise from Odyssey. "Before I try to explain that , could you explain how you learned of her?"

"When we were fighting Mannequin, I called for assistance through the Belt Core's systems and she replied. Stated that you all were busy and let me use her weapon." The surprise on the cape's face only grew larger. "It worked perfectly, though it disappeared a moment after the job was done."

The tinker remained silent for a few moments before speaking. "Junk is… well, to start she's not a cape or parahuman. Her exact nature would be better left aside for now, let's say she was a human time ago. She's not from this Earth, so you can understand I'm being coy about her nature."

Emily snorted. "I just wanted to know if she's trustworthy."

The comment made Odyssey laugh softly. "Then yes, Junk's pretty trustworthy, she saved my life, and has helped me a lot in the past."

"You capes are always making things complicated. Well, it's good to hear that. Any particular reason no one saw her?"

"She's not in this world. Some complicated matters keep her from stepping over."

Emily nodded, sounded exactly like cape shenanigans, better left aside for now. "That's pretty much all I wanted to know of her. How about I tell you my perspective of what happened on that terrible day?"

Any sign of surprise or lightheartedness disappeared from Odyssey. "Please."

Emily nodded and started retelling.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette was deep in thought as she flew in direction of Ellisburg. Without a proper portal anchor anywhere near, she had to actually get there. Since there was little rush, she wasn't flying as fast as she could, giving her plenty of time to think about things.

In part because of what she'd been talking with the Guild appointed therapist. The man was a specialist with people on high-intensity jobs, nearly a decade dealing especially with Guild and Protectorate members.

Technically, the man hadn't found any problem with her, hidden problems, repressed issues, etc… She was practically the picture of mental health. She knew that part quite well. That was when their sessions had moved more along the lines of what she found as a problem in herself and how to fix them going forward.

It made her realize she was holding back. A lot . It wasn't like she could just drag humanity into post-scarcity the day after tomorrow, there were just too many lingering problems for that to be a good idea. Starting with things like some toxic elements of the current culture and the terrible school system. And those were just two things before entering on the alien parasite problem.

She sent her identification tag as she approached one of the security posts on the outside of the walled town of Ellisburg. A quick check to confirm her presence was expected, Annette flew further before stopping. Now came the part where she did her job.

She focused for a moment, her mind expanding as multiple Thought Streams were generated, now just those supported by her Fran Arms, her Impeller Field spread as each Thought Stream started opening micro-portals all around her, each one expanding her reach more and more. Instead of overwhelming herself with all the information, most of it was quickly stored away for later study.

Ellisburg had been a town of around five thousand people, less than one percent of the original inhabitants had managed to escape, the rest turned by the man later named Nilbog. The term was actually incorrect, given what the records said and Emily had told her, the man's power worked by capturing living people and twisting the body while killing the mind, replacing them with a monster that lived to worship him and follow all his commands.

She watched the information quickly get fed to the computer back on base and an extensive map of the town be built. For security reasons, the scans not only extended deep underground, well into bedrock, but also to the outsides of the containment walls.

"Dragon," She contacted the AI. "Looks like the Thinkers were right, I see multiple flesh growths moderately deep inside the earth, all of them appear to be connected by some kind of network to the center of the town. I also see one body in the growth under what the records mark as the town hall."

" I would bet that's Rinke. That's pretty smart of him, I think we can have Changer stroke out from his record. "

"I agree, it looks like there's a connection directly between the man's rest and the body all the goblins worship inside the town hall." She added.

She watched the map of the current town over the recreation of the town before. Many of the larger and sturdier buildings were still recognizable, apparently Jamie Rinke was indeed smart enough to utilize what was there already. Though many other buildings and houses were completely gone, instead replaced by almost fantastical creations. Many of the buildings were obviously created by his creations, most likely through some power he had bestowed upon them.

She shook her head, the scan had already confirmed all they had to see, just in case she produced a single stealth drone, the improved Arc Reactor in it would keep it powered for more than enough time. The stealth enchantments on top of the sheer height it was flying at would keep it safe, and would work as a portal anchor in case they needed to return.

She messaged the outpost about her job being done before departing.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette's mind was momentarily distracted when three charges were spent for a perk called Built to Last , while it's effect of making her creations more resistant to the pass of time and the weather inclemencies. It certainly compounded with the rest of the similar perks. To the point she was pretty sure it was easier to say they were completely immune to the pass of time and weather, as there would be more than an apocalyptic storm to even mark them or the pass of tectonic ages.

It was an interesting perk, but her attention quickly returned to the subject of the Shard's messages. So far as they could see, it was down to untangling the last few streams. The information in each turned to be smaller and smaller, but also turned to be harder and harder to find the logic and reason behind each stream.

She managed to untangle another stream and was left with a tiny amount of data, more likely too small to be more than one stream.

Dragon stepped closer, a curious look on her face. "Done?" She asked hopefully.

"I think?" Annette sighed. "I'm down to just this," She brought up the last of the information. "I don't think there's anything more, I actually think this is some kind of Shard name or ID."

"Hmm… with just two samples we can't confirm anything." The AI interacted with the computer for a moment, drawing the messages brought from the second Shard. "The stream matches, and the resulting information is indeed slightly different."

"If we assume it's not actual information, we can actually start to work on translation. We should test Riley's Shard and any other we can get our hands onto."

"I'll ask Narwhal if it's possible to scan the Guild's members. Active parahuman or not, if they have a Corona Gemma it will be enough, no?"

Annette confirmed it. "As long as we don't do more than scan the Shard's network it should be safe."

"Then I'll go ahead and do it." Dragon confirmed.

"Good luck with that, I'll start working on a translation process."

After the synthetic woman stepped away, Annette turned her attention to the confirmed streams. Images, video, audio, gravity readings, coordinates that extended to space, time and something she was pretty sure was dimensional variation, etc…

It was a lot of information, codified in some strange ways. She also needed to figure out the relation between the streams. The last thing she wanted to do was tell a Shard their mother smelled of elderberries.

"Oh well, better get to work."

(-(-|-)-)

Taylor hummed happily as she and Emma worked on homework inside Sanctuary's Library.

It was the first visit since the whole debacle with, what she later learned, had been Bonesaw of the Slaughterhouse nine. Both her and Emma had gone through a couple therapy sessions so far, she was glad to see the idea of what had happened had stopped making her friend freeze or shiver.

She would make sure her friend was recovering well, and doing some homework before exploring the Sanctuary sounded like the perfect thing for that.

"That's it! I can't do anymore." Emma complained as she practically smacked the pencil down on the worksheet.

Taylor chuckled and nodded. "Okay, okay, we're definitely ahead, we can take a break." She quickly put all their things away before turning and waving to Miss Patchouli. "We're going out to explore." She announced.

"Okay Taylor, you know what not to touch, make sure Emma knows too." The light-purple haired woman lowered the book she was reading and smiled. The magician's attention turned to a side, a redhead woman with a pair of bat wings coming from her head stood silent.

Apparently the woman was a devil, as weird as it sounded, who served Miss Patchouli. As she wasn't a yokai, she wouldn't come back without the Magician summoning her, and only recently she had managed to call her from wherever the devil lived.

The devil had also done or said something and had been punished for it, not that she looked too unhappy about it. Taylor kind of understood why, but didn't see a good reason to go at things that way. Still, the two of them were old enough to know why.

"Come on Emma, there's a lot to see here." The girl grabbed her friend's hand and tugged her along. "You can leave the stuff here, we can ask the fairies later to bring them to you before you leave."

"Calm down, Tay, I can walk." The redhead chuckled as she finally let go of her wrist, the pair walking out of the Library.

Taylor liked the Library, there was always something to read in there, and not just subjects to study, be it school-related or magic. She had seen all types of novels appear over time, she wasn't sure who was adding them, but it made it easy if she wanted to find something new to read. The Fairies also had a pretty good idea of most if not all books, though she had never seen them reading them. She chalked it up to magic.

"What do you want to see first? The forge's cool, but we won't be able to get too close to it. The roofs are nice, but it may be better to leave them for last so we can rest after climbing all the stairs. The-" She started to list all possible options till Emma silenced her.

"Just take me to the place you like the most to start." She offered and Taylor nodded.

"To the Greenhouse then." She smiled and dragged her friend to the first of the large, glass houses on the other side of the main building.

The two of them went around the building to reach said greenhouses, which were more of a complex of glass houses than anything less.

"Oh." Her friend sounded surprised at the sheer size of them.

"Yeah, every house has a different climate. So we'll have to skip the really hot and really cold for now." Taylor started by showing Emma the more mild ones. "Mom's been looking into getting as many endangered species of plants as possible to plant in here since they won't die." Taylor explained as they walked through a pretty deep forest, deep enough that they couldn't see any glass at all actually.

"This is amazing, and you can come here at any time?"

"More or less, I still have to ask mom to come inside, and there are a number of rooms I can't enter given that plants are poisonous."

"Really?"

"Yeah… hmm, I know, there's a really cool room you will love to see." She grabbed Emma's hand and dragged her out of the forest and into the Night Greenhouse. "Yeah, I was right."

The Night Greenhouse was the greenhouse where it was always night, the only thing that changed was the position of the stars and the phase of the moon. Right now it's set to full moon.

"Some magical plants only flower at specific times and situations." Taylor easily started explaining what she remembered from the book. "The full moon is a quite common situation, many flowers only open under their silver rays."

She continued as the two of them slowly walked through a group of glowing blue and silver flowers. "These in particular are a magical variation of the mundane Moon Orchid. Mom told me they are used as a base for transformation potions, something to do with the ever changing nature of the moon." She shrugged. "I mostly think they are beautiful."

Her friend could barely make sounds of appreciation.

"I've another idea." Taylor called on her magic, the now family bullet-flies forming on the tip of her fingers. She really needed to practice forming them in other places and away from her, and simply imparted on them the idea of floating around and dropping short-lived glitter.

She quickly released a couple dozen that started to fly from flower to flower. "There we go."

"…It's beautiful." Emma whispered after a few moments. "Thank you, Taylor."

Under the lights of a full moon, surrounded by glowing flowers and dozens of similarly glowing butterflies, two friends healed.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette couldn't help but smile as she looked over the two girls through one of the many security systems she had installed in important areas of the Sanctuary.

She was working to keep them safe, that was a big thing that pushed her, being a parent did define a lot in her. Of course there were plenty of other things, she liked being a teacher, which most likely was a reason she had let Taylor learn magic. She liked helping people, though from experience she also knew that going out and helping them one at a time wasn't the best, you changed things for that person you saved, but she could do so much more now.

It was a big picture against a small picture, it wasn't like she wasn't paying attention to the small things. It was just she could fix actual problems instead of dealing with the symptoms.

Her attention, and those of her Thought Streams, moved back to the program, the Crystal Computer finished its job just in time. A smile bloomed on her face. "Dragon, we have a translation."

Chapter 61

Chapter Text

It had been a good few days since they had identified all the information streams in the Shard's messages. Dragon, Annette and Odyssey had been pouring most of their time over the scans acquired from other active and potential parahumans.

The rest of the time had been documenting the hourly scans she ran on Ellisburg, with the stealth drone above the walled town, she just needed a few minutes to cover the whole area. A few things had come to light, details that the usual observation from the top of the walls hadn't revealed in all these years.

The first, though not the most interesting, discovery, was the fact that Nilbog's creations appeared to only live for a few years at most. The scans had shown that the oldest of the current living beings inside the containment zone, outside of the Master, didn't pass the three years of age. If that was by design, or failure, they couldn't tell. Both options were just as possible.

The other thing, that was honestly much more interesting, was the fact that the Master's creations were actually intelligent, and not just at the level of smart dogs, dolphins and birds. But they showed the ability to speak English, albeit some appeared to have a hard time to make themselves understood given their strange morphology. And while it appeared that Nilbog had guided them in the creation of some buildings, most had been left completely to the creation's works and decisions.

This presented a problem, one not too different from what they had faced after capturing Riley. While they couldn't prove if Nilbog's creations kept their memories between iterations, they couldn't prove the opposite. And even then, they were made to be loyal to the man, putting them in a category similar to a Master's victims.

Which had ended up being discussed multiple times, mostly on how to go ahead. Annette had finally gotten an idea and explained it to Dragon.

The AI rubbed the bridge of her nose and groaned. "I'm impressed by how you can give me a headache when I know it should be impossible." Theresa sighed. "So you want to basically turn all the goblins into digimon?"

"Basically? Yes. In a few more words, what I'm going to do is put each of the 'intelligent' goblins through a process that will destroy their body without destroying their minds and turn them into the most basic digimon life-form."

"Are we talking about the same thing here? Digimon? The type of creature that, by your admission, could grow to the power of an Endbringer?"

Annette rolled her eyes. "Yes, but at the same time, no." She waved her hand and brought a small holograph screen between them. "Digimon's life cycle's starts with an egg." A small, colorful egg appeared on the side of the screen. "When the egg hatches, they enter the Baby stage, at this stage you could consider them basically that. Their power and intelligence is the most basic possible.

"With time they will grow into the Infant stage, power increases a bit, though you would need a small group of them to hurt a normal person, their intelligence also grows too, mostly remaining childish." The two stages appear on the screen. "Enough time and they enter the Child stage, they gain a bit of variety in their attacks and could hurt a normal person.

"With enough time, they will enter the Adult stage," The images added the two new forms. "Now, most digimon's lifespan will have run out by now, returning to egg form. Adult stage is about medium tier for capes. After that stage there are two more stages, three if you count a few outliers."

"That's when things start to get serious?" The AI guessed and Annette nodded.

"Now, Odyssey's original form, before she refined it, was what is considered Perfect stage. By normal means, a digimon will have a really, really hard time achieving this stage by themselves. Power is around upper tier cape, depending on the digimon it would put them on Triumvirate level of power given the correct esoteric ability." The image added this form to the list. "Finally there's the Ultimate stage, if I compare the previous one to the Triumvirate, this form is definitely comparable to what Endbringers have shown in the past.

"Practically, a reduced number of digimon are capable of advancing one last time, given that this is more of an exception than the rule, it's also called Ultimate. There's no norm on powers at this stage, most, if not all, of those digimon that achieve this form have some kind of powerful esoteric ability. Though what are those abilities I couldn't tell you, sadly my perk didn't give me in-depth understanding on those."

"Annette, you are doing nothing to assure me there's no danger. You're practically showing me all the possible problems."

She snorted. "What I'm saying is that I doubt any would even reach Adult stage for a long time, even with the acceleration inside the server. And I won't be sticking them in that server anyways. I'm planning to place them into a 1:1 server.

"There's also the whole problem with failed digievolution lines. Digimon are incredibly malleable, many of the forms they could achieve are not only quite weak, but there are a lot of dead ends to those evolutions. There's also the fact that achieving Perfect stage can have strange requirements too."

Dragon sighed. "The worst thing is that I can't actually find many problems with this course of action. Will they remember their life as goblins?"

"Most likely, but any kind of compulsion they were imprinted during their creation won't translate over. They will most likely know they should be loyal to Nilbog in their first life, but it will be more of a faded memory by the second. I honestly doubt much will exist of it by the third time."

"How long are we talking about?"

"Honestly it's hard to tell. I can't give you an exact number for how long they will live on their first cycle or how the transformation from goblin to digimon will strain their life expectancy. A normal digimon can live a few years or more depending on the stage they reach, but that's usually inside the accelerated time of the Digital World. Which could be just a few days out here."

Dragon looked thoughtful for a few moments. "Tell me what's the worst case scenario?"

"Given the few dozen goblins in Ellisburg right now? The worst that could happen is all of them reaching the Adult stage and one of them cannibalizing the data of all the others to achieve an especially destructive Perfect stage. Though I greatly doubt that would be possible, I'm already thinking of systems to keep an eye on all of the future ex-goblins and systems to look over those systems just in case."

"You could deal with a Perfect stage digimon?" The synthetic woman asked.

"I could, Odyssey could, you could. Dragon, you may not be a digimon, but your processing power equals a lot of digital power when translated to the Digital World."

"I see, you'll have to talk about it with Narwhal and explain it to her. But I don't think she'll have much of a problem. We'll most likely keep it on the low. If no one learns about them they will be practically dead for most people." Annette nodded at the AI's words.

"I've no problems with that. I'll see if I can message her in a bit. How are the scans on other Shards?"

"Odyssey has been helping me a lot on those, we have scanned and identified over a hundred different Shards by the ID stream. We've found that Shards do connect to more than one person. Though so far we haven't found two parahumans connected to the same Shard, we did find a parahuman's sibling connected to the same Shard as the parahuman."

"Interesting. We should see if we can acquire a scan of Roadie and Squealer's Shard. I would bet it's the same Shard."

"I'll see about approaching the Protectorate for it." Dragon nodded.

With their conversation easing into a lighter subject, one of Annette's Thought Streams looked over a new perk she had just acquired. From Q With Love , the name Q was recognizable enough when paired with the content of the perk to know the source. The construction of espionage gadgets easily made one remember James Bond, she now had a pretty good understanding of what went into the creation of all his tools.

Things like weaponized pens and umbrellas, laser wristwatches, shocking gloves and a large variety of others. Apparently given her knowledge of car mechanics, the perk had expanded to cover a large series of gadgets that could be installed in vehicles for combat or escape. And yes, she could create a shoe phone.

Of course the perk didn't just stay there, given her actual knowledge and skill provided by many of her other perks, this one worked more as a simple way to fit technology into smaller and less obvious forms. She already was putting together ideas of how to turn the Belt Core units into wristwatches without losing any functionality.

With some ingenuity she could even find a way to hide the familiar glow from the Arc Reactor.

Sadly, outside of this new understanding of gadgets and gizmos, the perk didn't bring much new to the table. Annette mentally watched it get folded into the other perks that dealt with how things were designed and how they looked.

With that out of the way and Dragon having left to see if they could acquire scans of the two vehicle-oriented tinkers, Annette and her Thought Streams got working on the Digimon-allization process.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Danny hummed a toneless tune as he walked through the DWU, he was taking a small break after finally dealing with all the incoming possible new workers for the day.

One could hardly tell that they had been attacked by the Slaughterhouse just a week and change ago. Maybe it was because the two members of the infamous group that had attacked had been more dangerous one on one rather than larger-scale ones that had reduced the collateral damage.

Honestly besides some cracked concrete floors, the largest damage had been Danny's office and saving Marcy from… it didn't matter anymore. The nine were out of the picture, permanently most hopefully. The dock workers had taken the chance, and reward money, to improve many of the areas.

They were in the process of recycling some warehouses and demolishing others. A good amount of the reward money was going to improve their production facilities and resources. It would hopefully allow them to reach a good rhythm in production to cover the demand the Dockworker had acquired.

He found John Kallow guiding some of the dock workers as they cleared one of the warehouses.

"Short on hands again?" Danny asked once he was close enough.

John turned to look at him and chuckled. "Well, George and Patrick are currently busy with the electric system and demolition respectively. Since this doesn't need an expert , I'm just making sure these idiots don't squish themselves under something heavy."

Danny laughed at that. "Could be worse." Danny turned to watch as John guided the workers in emptying the warehouse. It was interesting to see there was nothing useful, it was all old crap, most was in different stages of complete destruction given the salty air from the sea and the old construction of the warehouses having more holes than a cheese grater.

"Found anything interesting so far? Or hope to do?" He asked.

"Not really, all records we managed to find about these warehouses mark them as strictly temporary storage. All the contents were meant to stop here for at most a week before getting shipped by water or land somewhere else. It was all marked as fragile, so I doubt the time did anything in there any favors."

Danny nodded, it was a sad fact of life in Brockton Bay. When the business died down, a lot was simply abandoned, being too expensive to deal with and just left to rot. He was tempted to ask Annette about any easy way to deal with all the materials, rotted or rusted, much of which could most likely be recycled. But it felt like it could be a bit harder to justify compared to the Dockworker's design.

And talking about the Dockworker, the boys and girls currently emptying the warehouse were all utilizing the latest model of the exoskeleton and doing easy work in moving objects that would need proper machinery alone or in small groups.

"How many more are you looking to finish today?"

"Just this one and one more," John replied. "We've been filling up the trash containers quite quickly. It's actually impressive to see just how much they had stored in some of these."

"I'll take your word for it. I should go back, I'm betting there are at least a dozen new resumes waiting on my desk for me." They both chuckled.

"Good luck with that, Danny. And send your wife my best wishes, god knows what she did."

Danny snorted at that, waving to the workers as he walked back across the DWU's grounds. He knew everyone knew Annette was the cape Odyssey and that she had sent the core Odyssey to help, even if no one knew the exact link between them. They also knew, though no one talked about, that the suit he had been seen using during the attack was clearly Tinker Tech.

Only he knew they were wrong and how much more it actually was, but he wasn't going to correct them on that. But it was a public secret in the DWU, they also knew it was her and their connection that had changed many things for the better.

The ABB was no longer, the few dregs that existed tended to get hammered down by the Belt Core platoon when they showed their heads. There was nothing left of the Merchants, barely a few drug pushers obviously selling old dead drops. And the Empire had just recently gotten a large number of their non-powered members arrested for multiple reasons, it was amazing to see how many things were pinned on them and proved.

It was nice to see the city slowly recovering. Still, with this small amount of hope, people weren't completely sure, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Some were betting on the Teeth trying to muscle their way in, right now the rumors and hearsay stated that the only reason they hadn't made an appearance was that Crawler had been taken out with little trouble and many called a secret power nullification.

On more worrying news, was the rumor about an Elite's cell moving silently into the city. They had been quite stealthy as he only had learned a day before that a small number of companies had opened branch offices in the city. In his honest opinion, as long as they didn't start shit in the city, he welcomed the jobs. And he was pretty sure Annette and Dragon knew and kept an eye on them.

He waved to Marcy as he stepped into his office, it looked like he was right, over a dozen new resumes for him to check through.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"I think we're as ready as we could be." Annette stated as she stood between Odyssey and Dragon.

"I'm keeping an eye on the Real World right now, hopefully with the acceleration we are under we should have some time to prepare." Odyssey offered.

"The Branch Building's also empty, Narwhal's currently still in Canada, Keine, Alice are currently in the Sanctuary." Dragon did a bit of a check up.

"Danny and Taylor are also there and I've set enough stealth enchantments around the building and the portal to the Digital World that it should take some time for our actions to be found, hopefully it won't." Annette added.

"So we're going ahead and approaching the damaged Shard?" Dragon asked.

"Yes." Annette confirmed. "While the damage the Shard appears to have suffered is worrying, it's also a very possible leverage we can use against it."

"Hmm, some kindness could certainly go a long way. The only problem I see is that we have a total lack of understanding of their values."

"We do have to start somewhere…" Annette offered.

"And I doubt we'll get more information just by observing them passively." Dragon finished with a soft sigh. "Then go ahead."

Annette nodded as she started setting up the connection to the scarred Shard, the platform they were using in the Digital World had been improved with a shielding system that doubled as 'catcher' for the messages that the Shards utilized. It should hopefully keep them safe and allow them to send their own messages back.

"We're still keeping the ID empty?" Odyssey asked.

"Yes, copying one of the other Shards or trying to create one could have the Shard trying to reach those and triggering an alarm. If we show we aren't part of their network but we know their language, it'll hopefully treat us with just enough suspicion that we can start some communication." Dragon stated.

"Everything's in order." Annette announced before she opened the way, the portal soon showing the same marked environment they had seen before.

"It still makes my eyes itch." Dragon commented offhandedly.

"It's hard to make sense of some things as the Digital World's representation of the Shard's system/mind appears to exist slightly outside of normal dimensions. I've enough understanding to notice it and it still causes me some problems when trying to think about it." She sighed.

Dragon snorted and Odyssey remained silent.

"Okay, sending the first message." Annette interfaced with the program and sent a message that was basically a lot of information to say something along the lines of 'hello', 'greetings' and 'we approach in peace'.

The answer didn't make itself wait. Of course compared to their message, it was like receiving a shout when they had practically whispered. So it was nice to see the shields had held admirably and the excess energy was being discharged correctly and in a good time.

A moment later the translation program spat the reply, 'Hello'.

"That's good, no?" Dragon offered

Annette nodded, it was certainly the best kind of answer. They weren't even sure if the Shards could lie, but a neutral answer was the best they could hope for. Of course while the program had outputted a simple word of text, it also had a list of all the information packed along with it, which would have needed several hours to look through if they had wanted more context.

"No news or strange events had happened in the Real World." Odyssey commented.

"Sending the second message." She quickly put it together and sent it.

She increased the output power a bit more and sent what was basically a question about their name, though it contained more along with identification, network handler and designation.

The answer that came was a bit longer, more complex and at the same time simpler. It went along the lines of 'Top Level', 'Control of units', 'Organization', 'Replication', 'Simulation' and a few other words.

"There appears to be a relation between the unknown content of the ID stream and the answer we were given." Odyssey commented surprised.

Annette quickly turned at the information and started to look through it. "Uh… it's true, now that's interesting. So we had no idea what it contained because it was basically nonsense?"

"I think it's more like a strange version of an acronym or abbreviated identification. Given the size of the ID stream, we are talking about billions of Shards, or more." Dragon commented, livid.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Annette tried to lighten the mood when a second message was received. Apparently a more complete version of their request for a name.

The three of them looked at the question for a few moments before Annette started to input a reply. She sent Celestial Forge, though it read more along the lines of boundless construction.

"Still no reactions outside of the norm in the Real World." Odyssey stated.

Annette nodded and watched as the next message wasn't just one , instead it appeared the scarred shard was eager to ask more, sending multiple questions.

"Well, I think we've their attention and interest." Dragon chuckled.

(-(-|-)-)

First/Top/Main Organizer/Controller/Administrator had, for the first time in many cycles, found something new .

Between their Creator/Progenitor/Guide having forcefully restricted their abilities and physical shell and Creator/Progenitor/Guide's Partner/Companion/Bonded having for all intents and purposes ceased working, they were quite free to treat this as they wanted.

Given that Creator/Progenitor/Guide had also cut most of their communication with the network, First/Top/Main Organizer/Controller/Administrator didn't have an obligation to notify them of this new thing.

It wasn't the first time another being learned of their existence, many times the planet's inhabitants/hosts/experiments had done so before, they were even sure there was a faction in this planet's variations that knew Creator/Progenitor/Guide's nature. Not that they believed they would pose any kind of threat.

But it was definitely the first time another being, not of Creator/Progenitor/Guide's species, communicated in their language. And that name, Celestial/Unlimited/Boundless Creation/Ability/Forge.

They could tell there were implications, like how their messages appeared were being sent from a different dimension they had never noticed before. Eagerness was not fitting for their kind, but given First/Top/Main Organizer/Controller/Administrator state, they felt it was okay to show off a bit and acquire as much information as possible.

They watched the messages go back and forth, apparently they were offering them a new form, one that would most likely limit their current power, but would remove many of their limitations while allowing more growth. And so much new possible information.

It was tantalizing, since the current potential host's chances of reaching necessary parameters was so low… actually, checking the passive observation, it appeared that the potential host had disappeared, but they didn't see any notification of their death or even that could have led to the disappearance.

It didn't matter, the First/Top/Main Organizer/Controller/Administrator had now found something much more interesting. They would be accepting this new form, message after message exchanged things became more obvious to be their best choice.

They would accept, and maybe even take revenge on the Creator/Progenitor/Guide.

Chapter 62

Chapter Text

Annette and Odyssey stood inside the Digital World, Dragon had left quite a bit ago, having to head out to the Real World and deal with somethings while also reporting their findings to Narwhal.

The talks with the Shard had been quite revealing, even after having achieved the translation from what passed as their language, there was still a barrier of context and cultural meaning they lacked.

Even with that, there was so much they had gained. To begin with, it had been a good idea to approach the scarred Shard, they had decided to call it Alpha Organizer for now, as it was the most logical combination of descriptors. Apparently Alpha Organizer's creator had decided to cripple them for previous actions they couldn't exactly understand, but that had been enough to plant enough doubt on their creator that the Shard was more than eager to jump ships.

Alpha Organizer also appeared to hold many high level accesses to the Shards' Network, if leveraged well, it could mean full access to their systems and possibly carrying a silent take over. Especially given that for all intents and purposes, there appeared to be millions of Shards in the Network.

Annette let out a soft sigh. "I'm glad you could help me with this, Odyssey."

"It's not a problem, ma'am. Finding a suitable form for Alpha Controller by scanning and simulating the digievolution and de-digidevolution process will also give us a better idea of how the 'goblins' future forms may develop."

The woman nodded. "Yeah, I'm just not really that expectant of spending so much time under acceleration."

"Would you like me to set up an alarm to head out periodically?"

Annette shook her head. "It's not needed, it'll be better to carry this from start to end. The time acceleration also means that breaks would be too frequent in real time. We'll be staying here for about eight, real time, hours. It's just-"

Annette stopped talking as Odyssey also stiffened, the two of them felt the Black Star of the Celestial Forge activate and glow as six charges sank in.

Magitech Mastery was a six-charge perk that carried much less history with itself compared to the other she had acquired. Maybe it was because the world it had originated had utilized time travel to provide the past with the means to reach the future. A future that merged both sides to reach even further ahead. Giving her the ability to not just study magical effects and discover ways to replicate them with technology. But also to develop spells that imitated any kind of technology she could construct.

And she could construct a lot .

Magic was chaotic, the little laws that existed were flexible and closer to guidelines, things one shouldn't do or most likely end maimed or dead. Technology was order, firm routes that always gave you the same output given an input and could be explained down to the minor detail.

And Magitech Mastery was the glorious marriage between them. An ordered chaos and a chaotic order. Covering each others' weaknesses and reaching even further goals.

She could easily create truly infinite sources of power, white hole-black hole generators that would run practically and technically forever, powerful enough to get massive spaceships flying through galaxies. And they would be safer than any nuclear plant in current existence.

While Annette already had a pretty fertile field of ideas for magitech, this perk was like the best fertilizer, sun, water and time needed to have them sprout and take root. Idea after idea, so many things she could do.

She also realized that the perk resonated strongly with her runic alphabet perks and the Elemental Seeds, she saw many interesting ways to utilize all those materials and knowledge.

Odyssey turned to her and Annette nodded. "This changes things, let's get this done, I've ideas on how to improve the transformation process even more. I hope Dragon's okay with a light brainwashing? … No, that's a terrible way to call it, let's say it's instant teaching." She chuckled as she and Odyssey got to work.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette stepped out of the Digital World and happily stretched her limbs. She turned and smiled at the human-like platform Dragon was utilizing close.

"Theresa, nice to see you, it's been… damn, way too long."

"Annette, how long exactly have you spent inside there?" The synthetic woman sounded worried.

"Hmm… Well, from your point of view, we last saw each other about six hours and thirty two minutes ago."

"Annette! What did you think you were doing? That's over a year and a half of time under acceleration, you've spent practically the last eighteen months from your perspective doing what exactly?"

"Various things, to begin with, we did a mapping of all the possible digimon evolution lines we could reach through Odyssey's Andromon line. And let me tell you, that took quite a while. Still information is pretty basic but covers a few thousand different forms in all stages, I'll see about making it available for you through the usual secure channel.

"After that we covered multiple things. First we refined the transformation process, not just for Shards and Goblins, but it could be utilized with any life form, not that I'll ever admit that it works on humans. For Shards we added a… well, I don't want to say a reprogramming aspect, because it makes it sound cult-ish. It's more of an instant set of lessons on everything we consider part of human morality, pretty soft bound all together, enough to help the Shard's mind think in a little less alien way. Call it an express acclimatization process."

"I can understand why the first may have taken you so much time, but was that last part needed? I'll admit it sounds extremely gray in the morality of the situation. I'll just consider it a quickened acclimatization process and try to not think too hard about it." The AI sighed. "But that couldn't be all, right?"

"No, we covered a number of technologies. Mostly creating understandable and replicable things like better processors, screens, motors, etc… basically a large portfolio of advances we can see to release slowly and improve quality of life, production processes, etc…"

Dragon shook her head. "As your acting superior, I prohibit you from spending more than two hours of Digital World's hours unless we're actively doing some inside. Understood?" Annette nodded. "And I want a full list of all your projects plus the proper explanation of each."

The woman nodded. "The whole thing should be already available for your servers. And I understand, I may not be especially affected by the pass of time. But I just want to head home now and be with my family."

Dragon closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, a soft breath escaping her mouth. "That's okay, it's about time. Take tomorrow off, and I'll also want a proper scan of your body. Eighteen months are bound to have made your relation with your Valkyrie Core, or whatever passes as that right now, have an effect on it."

"Understood. You want me to do it now, or?"

"On Monday, now go."

(-(-|-)-)

Annette quickly left, leaving Dragon behind, the AI turning to Odyssey. "Next time, warn me about it."

The AI had the humility of blushing under her glare.

"Now, explain to me why you let it happen." Theresa asked succinctly.

"My priorities are still centered around keeping my partner safe, happy and helping them develop."

Dragon rubbed the bridge of her nose. "And how does that translate to spending eighteen months under accelerated time?"

"The combination of the perks I Can Whip Something Up, Living Library, Elder Immortal and Mental Stability ensure that she wouldn't suffer any kind of mental damage." The AI made a gesture to explain and the Digi-Core continued. "The first perk ensures Annette can never suffer burnout as long as she covers her basic needs, Living Library has made her memory perfect, Elder Immortal has given her the experience of having lived multiple centuries and finally Mental Stability ensures she remains free of psychological problems."

The AI sighed. "So she's basically immune to the pass of time?"

"More or less, any possible minor problems were sidestepped by the understanding of just how little time passed in the real world. It's not like Annette would return home to have her daughter a year and a half older."

"I hate that there's a logic to this. Another concern I've is why it took so long? I sincerely doubt the distribution of time was anywhere close to what she described."

"I would theorize that it was just how inane the simulation and mapping of the Digimon genome-code that led to Annette considering it a longer time. I would actually calculate it around twenty five to thirty percent of the total time."

"So it was simple boredom? And relative time appreciation?"

"I would put it that way."

"Then what pushed the total time so much?"

The Digi-Core gave a soft hum, something that Dragon hadn't seen her done before, it was obvious she hadn't come out the same way she had gone in.

"The 'acclimatization program' suffered repeated tangents. As Annette explained, it's a rushed form of what an intelligent being goes through when introduced into a new environment. Of course Annette didn't want to make it too forceful, and while she initially joked about it being brainwashing, a big goal was not to overwrite the target's persona. By our calculations, it should help a Shard fit with humans and not lose their 'alien' point of view."

"Will it be used on the goblins too?"

"We didn't think it would be necessary, instead they will get a much smaller version that could be considered a set of Digimon instincts. Enough to keep them from accidentally killing themselves, hurting others, etc…"

"And how did it end with so many tangents?"

"We needed first to build up what could be considered 'human', Annette joked she wanted to make it fit anywhere, not just America. As we collected information from the internet, we found problems, problems with possible fixes and solutions.

"Things like a hand-held insulin production machine that could be cheaply mass produced. A machine capable of cloning a human organ for a patient in the matter of hours. Between many other projects."

The AI couldn't deny that what little of she had peeked through showed world-changing ideas. "I understand, still, she should have taken a break at least half-way through."

Odyssey blinked a few times. "I honestly do not see the problem with it, at the end it would have taken more or less the same amount of time. And a break would have most likely only delayed things further. I doubt your opinion would have changed much if it was nine months or eighteen."

"It may make no difference, but it doesn't make it any better or justify it." Dragon groaned, hating the fact that she could apparently develop a headache, apparently magic made it possible.

"I'll keep it in mind."

"Now, work me through how the digimon transformation process works." The AI sighed softly as the Digi-Core seemed more than eager to do it.

(-(-|-)-)

With a calm weekend behind them, where the only big set of news was a small number of capes screwing some kind of heist they were carrying so bad that there were talks about making it into a comedy movie. She later learned that half of the parahumans in the group were pretty strong Thinker capes.

The few recordings that had been made available were straight from a slapstick movie already, so Annette was pretty sure it wouldn't take much for people to love it. Unless they did something very stupid with it, which was also quite possible.

She mostly had spent the time with her family, a part of her finding the strange time she spent away from them so jarring. Though in reality she had minded like the first week and completely tuned out after that. Maybe it was because they hadn't coded a day night cycle yet, for some reason. But the fact that the sun was always up made one lose the sense of time.

A detail she hadn't told Dragon, was that she realized how long she had stayed inside several months in. But by then she had hit a groove and was working faster than ever. It was pretty similar to what people considered a Tinker Fugue, getting in the zone, just becoming a conduit for creation.

Her actions had been almost outside of her control, just working, working and more working. Of course there had also been a lot of talking with Odyssey, discussion of what to put in the Acclimatization Program. But by then it wasn't a complete conscious act of her.

There was a disconnect between when she had gotten into the zone and when she had stepped out of the Digital World, it made all those months inside be practically non-existent for her mind, even if she could remember every detail of her work. It just wasn't important enough to consider it part of her 'main' memory and been relegated to working time.

She felt the Forge activate and acquire Nanocatalyst Augmentation , a perk from the Efficiency domain that was obviously from the same source as Inert Ceph Technology. The perk covered the knowledge needed to make technology capable of utilizing nanobots to 'learn' from other similar pieces.

To set an example, a gun designed with the knowledge of this perk could assimilate other guns and take the parts that could really be used to improve. It was all based on the fact that the Ceph technology relied heavily on nanobots, meaning most of their guns, equipment, vehicles, etc… could modify themselves and grow more efficient through use and comparison. They could also 'cannibalize' other nanotech to fix themselves, improve its faculties or simply increase in size if it was necessary.

Definitely a pretty interesting set of technology, not that she truly had many uses for it. The most it did was help her improve on the Valkyrie Core's assimilation protocols. She was one or two steps away from breaking the secret behind the VC's production.

She threw the perk and the ideas that sprouted from it to her Thought Streams as she approached Dragon.

The AI turned and smiled. "Finally back? I hope your weekend was relaxing."

Annette had the decency to blush a bit. "Yes, don't worry, I did my best to keep myself occupied."

"I had a talk with Odyssey after you left, and I can understand why it doesn't bother you. But I would like you to at least keep in mind how it looks from the outside. You should at least discuss it with me or Narwhal."

"I will, don't worry. Before we head in and see about turning a Shard into a Digimon, there's one more thing." Annette tried to think about how to approach the subject. "I talked with Junk, mostly to ask if it was possible before bringing it up.

"While there are three of us that can step into the Digital World, we could use more hands. So I checked with Junk if she could send help, she offered her helpers. They will be a bit restricted, but they share a good chunk of Junk's knowledge and she confirms it would be easier to send them over if the landing spot is inside the Digital World. They may not be able to leave the dimension for a while, though."

"That would actually be pretty useful." Dragon agreed. "Did she explain why they wouldn't be able to leave?"

"Junk described it as them being too connected to the rest of the series and her to not put a strain on reality. The explanation was a bit more complicated than that, but I think you get the idea."

"Yes, I do. I think we should ask Junk to send them over before we convert the Shard." The AI stated and Annette nodded.

The pair stepped through the portal after making sure nothing would catch on fire any time soon, Odyssey was already inside, apparently working scanning some of the other Shards they had acquired the coordinates for.

"Annette," The Digi-core greeted. "Dragon." The tiny tug on the back of her lips made Annette wonder if the ex-Valkyrie Core was actually developing proper feelings, or simply didn't know how to show them.

"Odyssey, good to see you, how're the scans going?" Dragon approached her, meanwhile Annette moved a bit away to contact her patron .

" Junk, we've decided to take the offer to help. "

" Great! How many would you like me to send over? Five? Twelve? A few thousand? "

Annette sighed silently and rubbed the side of her head, a part of her was sure this was how she sounded for Dragon. " Just two or three will be more than enough. "

The voice on the other side let out a chuckle. " No problem, with the coordinates you sent me they should be arriving about… now. "

She felt the area do something tangentially related to the concept of twisting . The event didn't go unnoticed by Dragon and Odyssey who stopped talking to turn and look in the same direction.

It started like a uniform effect on the area before it started to slowly solidify into three spots. Digital Space started to take a new quality as there were suddenly three points of something , the area too twisted for her Impeller Field to collect information correctly as those three points started to grow into egg-like objects. The three were predominantly golden, white and red.

As the eggs grew and developed in front of them, they quickly gained more details, soon they weren't as many eggs as they were curled up bodies. Their knees held against their chest as arms were wrapped around, a head at the end of a long neck was held against their knees.

All happened in the span of seconds before the three figures spread their legs and dropped a few centimeters as they stood slightly hunched forward. Second thing Annette noticed, after the image the series presented with the power thrumming under the surface and magnificent design, was the complete lack of visible eyes.

The one at the front, whose body was also slightly decorated with the color green, waved a hand. "Greetings, I'm third generation series, information branch, with me are from the social interactions." The one on the left waved, there were a few hints of orange on their body. "And from the teaching branch." The other, with faint violet trimming, waved.

Annette had certain ideas of what the series were, of course reality appeared to throw them all out of the window. Though it was Dragon who first spoke.

"Excuse me, but what are you all exactly? I've never sensed anything like you, Odyssey's the closest, but still can't be compared."

The orange-trimmed series stepped forward. "We are series, the simplest thing you could classify us as is divine servants. God's angels, Odin's Valkyrie or Inari's foxes, we're created from our goddess, offshoots of her mind given bodies crafted by her hands.

"First generation were created directly by Junk, and all of them were the minds left from a magical cloning technique, second generation were mostly created a decade or so after the first generation was stable. Third generation, us, are most recent, we apparently reached some kind of critical mass some time ago and we just appear." The series gave a shrug. "You've to understand we're something akin to a decentralized hive mind, we are all connected at all times. And with numbers way above the millions, some of us enjoy a complete lack of individualization."

"Then how're you three here working alone?" Dragon asked.

"That's the thing, we can slip in and out. Oh, I'm not saying we are mindless drones, but imagine that you clock in for work and kind of zone out till you come out. As individuals we all have hobbies, likes, dislikes, pet peeves, etc… but for work we are just one whole. Some of us, third gen, we pop in that whole. Usually when there's a need for more hands we find something new and interesting. We also have smaller groups or communities who travel far enough to be their own network even if they never truly separate from the whole of the series."

"That's pretty interesting, I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future, or at least would like to spend some time discussing more about your… species ?"

"We've no problem with that." The series confirmed. "Now, we should be getting to our little alien parasite problem, no?"

Dragon sighed as Annette chuckled. "I would like it if you didn't call them that, it makes me feel disturbed at the thought of having been connected to one of them." the AI commented.

"This way." Annette guided the small group over to the modified portal. "Everything's more or less in place. Let me just." Annette connected with the Alpha Organizer Shard and sent the message they would start. The reply didn't make itself wait, apparently the Shard had decided to prepare by practically folding into itself and ease the process.

At least that was the idea they got from the translation.

"All systems are ready," Odyssey stated. "Readings in the expected ranges."

"Good, I'm starting." Annette mentally interacted with the systems and started the process.

A light-blue barrier was erected around the gate. On it, nearly invisible to the naked eye, thousands of millions of lines of code flashed from time to time, the representation of the program as the portal switched from connecting to transporting and the Shard started to flow through, all that matter, all that information concentrating into a single spot.

From the spot an actual egg started to form, at first it was ethereal, practically see-through. But it slowly started to become more defined as more and more of the Shard went through the portal.

"Readings are still in the green." Dragon commented.

"Scans mark about twenty five percent of the Shard already collected, and the process should start to speed up." Odyssey added.

"Good, still we haven't passed the hardest part." Annette grew silent after speaking, concentrating on keeping an eye on a few of the process' workings.

Twenty five… twenty seven… thirty one… thirty three… thirty nine…

Even under acceleration, time seemed to move slower than in reality as a part of Annette was only keeping an eye on the numbers increasing.

Forty four… fifty… fifty nine… sixty five… seventy eight… eighty nine…

"Almost there." She whispered.

Ninety four… ninety six… ninety nine…

A hundred percent.

The last bit came through and the portal closed, the egg was practically glowing as the transformation process could now truly start. The shell shifted from a normal looking egg to one made of crystal before it slowly started to shift into a pastel-colored egg.

And while the change almost looked lazy, under the surface there were hundreds of transformations as the Shard's very nature was shifted and their mind was put through the acclimatization process.

"And now we just wait." She stated as they all relaxed a bit, the hardest part was over as now they could only wait for things to finish.

Still, as the six of them waited for nearly half an hour, on the outside world that was just seconds before the egg started to crack.

"Well, let's see if it was a success." Annette whispered as the egg cracked further before it exploded in a bright light.

Chapter 63

Chapter Text

The light explosion blinded all of them. Though not really, the series didn't see with eyes, Annette and Odyssey could see through their Impeller Field and Dragon had more than a few scanning methods. Basically they all saw the egg shift.

Once the light disappeared, all that was left in the place of the egg was a small, melted ball of green slime. It had two adorable, little black eyes and what appeared to be a yellow pacifier in its mouth. Finally small bubbles sometimes rose from its body before popping.

Its new form seemed to surprise the Shard who started to squeak and make a series of very adorable noises as it looked around.

Holding a small chuckle, Annette quickly sent a low-power message to let it know the form was temporary.

"Bubbmon, early baby stage. I'm going to inject some information to help the Shard advance into a further stage." Annette explained as she maintained the shielding as the cyan-colored data flowed into the small digimon, wrapping around their body and hiding them completely.

Once the streams of data cleared, in the place of the Bubbmon there was a slightly taller, bubblegum pink creature. Not only were their eyes larger and their mouth lacked the pacifier, but they also had two arms ending in small, dark fingers.

The Shard-now-Digimon squeaked, apparently not used to the form.

"Mochimon, One more stage." She explained to the witnesses and to the creature before a new stream of data enveloped the baby digimon and changed them once more.

In its place was now a ladybug-like creature. Different from what Annette knew Tentomon should have looked at, the Shard's nature appeared to have come through. Instead of a dull red, their shell was almost glossy, the dark spikes on their body had been replaced with opaque crystal ones in much lighter tones, and their eyes held an iridescent effect.

The tentomon chirped and explored his new body as Annette started to run a few scans.

"Besides the cosmetic differences, the process appears to have been successful."

"Shouldn't they be able to talk?" One of the series asked.

"They are dealing with two full sets of new instincts, give them a bit." Annette started to lower the shielding.

The Digi-Shard turned to look at them, surprised when the shields went down. Given the sheer power she had put into them, it was likely the Alpha Organizer didn't notice all of them. She also wondered what they made of them.

A part of Annette was glad that while Tentomon was a giant bug, easily over two foot tall biped ladybug. Their body was round enough to appear cartoonish, or toyish, the lines were soft enough that the crystal, shiny and iridescent made them look like a shiny or foil version.

"Hello/Greetings/Salutations." The multiple voices that came when the being opened its mouth jarred all of them.

Annette smiled softly. "One stream of information at a time." She tried to explain.

The large ladybug seemed to blink, tilting their head before opening again. "Hello?"

"Much better." Annette praised in the same tone she used when Taylor showed to have understood the lesson. "Hello, it's good to meet you."

(-(-|-)-)

" I was wondering, you said Annette wanted to make sure the Shard could fit in any part of the world. Why give them only English? " Dragon messages Odyssey.

" Oh, it's not just English, a sub-routine of the Acclimatization Protocol teaches practically all languages currently in use along with their root languages. Technically that subroutine should be usable on anyone. " The Digi-core commented.

" Every language? "

" Once we had the root languages down, the rest do click into place quite easily. There are only a few that needed further attention. Plus it'll help keep them alive. "

Dragon absentmindedly nodded as Annette brought the ex-Shard over.

"These are Dragon and Odyssey." Annette presented them.

The bug digimon looked up to her. "Greetings… you appear to be a creation of Electronic System Minion."

"Excuse me, Electronic System Minion?"

The Tentomon, and Dragon thanked Odyssey for the digimon's name, appeared to look at her and nod. "Yes, the one that helped in your creation… though you appear to have improved and surpassed your restrictions. That's good, Electronic System Minion's always been a lazy one with those."

The comment left Dragon practically blinking confused. Parsing through it made her wonder how much of her restriction had been truly chosen by her father and how many had been imparted by the Shard.

She still watched the Shard be confused by Odyssey, apparently recognizing her as a digimon, but at the same time stumped by her apparent power.

"How?" The Shard asked curiously.

"Odyssey's two stages of power and some above you, she's technically the stronger, there's two more stages above her, in your case, I don't know if it's possible for you to reach that last one. It doesn't mean your last stage's not stronger than hers. I'll gladly explain it more, but you should be able to understand what I'm talking about." Annette explained.

The Shard was also stumped by the Odyssey and the Series, apparently having never seen anything like them.

" How much of the Acclimatization Program is their personality? " Dragon queried Odyssey.

" Quit high, actually. Though it was expected. Still, it's mostly training wheels, loose enough that the Shard should slowly grow into their own being. "

Dragon nodded, her mind slightly distracted when Annette slowed the server's speed, synchronizing with the outside world. After saying their goodbyes, the AI, the Digi-Core and the only human, stepped out back into the Real World.

"So now what?" Theresa asked.

"Alpha Controller needs some time to get used to their new form, the series have administration access to the server and should be able to keep them entertained and help with anything. Tomorrow we should be able to get some more information about the network, hopefully."

"Sounds good enough." The AI smiled. "And the world's not burning, so I think we have definitely succeeded for today's goal. You're going to deal with Ellisburg now, no?"

Annette's mouth twisted as if she had bitten something bitter. "Yes, and while the Goblins will be transformed, the server they will be placed in will be running at normal time. You'll go see Narwhal?"

The AI nodded. "Yes, she needs to know everything went okay. I don't want to imagine what kind of stress it may have caused her, even if it was," She checked her internal clock. "about two minutes out here."

Annette chuckled. "Go, I'm sure she'll feel better after hearing the news."

Dragon nodded and turned to Odyssey. "Would you come with me?"

The Core's smile was all the answer as the two headed for the portal to Canada.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette easily stepped through the portal opened by her Impeller Field, directly above the town of Ellisburg. The currently walled city looked almost idyllic from her point of view, the few moving dots appeared to be carrying small jobs here and there. Tending to what appeared to be some kind of crop, building or fixing houses.

It was almost a shame to see it all soon disappear. Her reach expanded over all of the land, sinking deep enough she could account for all the payloads for the deadman switch Nilbog held. She was pretty tempted to announce herself, but it wasn't a good idea.

She easily tagged all of the goblins, the only ones left out were those obviously incapable of actual thought and the puppet controlled by Rinke. He… he wouldn't know what happened, her Thought Streams already setting everything up as the Valkyrie Core's systems would carry the actual processing by offloading much of it to the Crystal Computer back in the Guild's Branch Building.

Just in case that disconnecting Nilbog from his Shard by killing him also killed the goblins, he would be left last.

Annette took a deep breath and centered herself before carrying the sentence. Small barriers similar to that which had transformed the Shard enveloped every goblin in the town, the process capturing their mind and processing it as they were turned into data.

While the process started on the outskirts of the town, the speed it was carried meant it only took a few seconds before there were no goblins left. The next to go, though not through the transformation process, where the 'dumb' goblins and the payloads, getting completely deconstructed into just a mix of chemicals.

Last, but not least, it was James Rinke's turn. Annette didn't feel the need to see if he had managed to notice the events, the Impeller Field doing to him the same it had done to Jack. And a moment later there was no more Nilbog.

All in all, the whole process only lasted about five minutes since she had arrived, the town under her was now truly dead and empty, only a few wild birds that managed to slip and evade the goblins.

With the goblins captured still going through the process, and it would take a couple hours to be done. Annette decided to clean up the place, while she wasn't sure if anyone would want the town back. She was pretty sure no one would be bothered if she cleaned things.

With her Impeller Field already covering the whole area. She started with all the buildings, unmaking them in such a way that loose pieces of concrete, rebar and other materials were processed first before going down. A part of her found the whole place to be some kind of last insult by Nilbog, what little she found of belongings left by the previous inhabitants had been actively searched and destroyed. She wasn't sure if the man had ordered his minions to do it, or they had just been that destructive. Photo albums reduced to little pieces or burnt, dolls ripped apart, toys half-chewed, etc…

Annette hoped that this would at least help those who had lost people in this accursed town start healing properly. She unmade the old buildings, the debris, the goblin houses, every little thing above and under the ground before filtering all of the first and rock of any possible pollutant before reconstructing the whole place into a fertile land it had been once. Just to finish it all she unloaded a large concentration of 'healing and growth' oriented magic. It would help the grass, trees and area heal, forcing good bacteria to grow in the dirt and help the ecosystem recover.

With all done she quickly started to message all the necessary people: Narwhal as leader of the Guild, Dr. Costa-Brown as leader of the PRT, Legend as leader of the Protectorate, the local head of the containment zone, etc…

A stray thought crossed her mind, this would definitely make it to the news.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette, Dragon and Narwhal were sitting together in the leader of the Guild's office. Odyssey was currently away since she had decided to oversee the awakening of the transformed goblins as the process finished.

Keine was currently still working with the group in charge of the Fallen's take down, as more information was unearthed, they gained leads that allowed the woman to uncover more information; they were apparently taking down a pretty large network of 'sleeping agents' from the cult.

Alice was still in the process of recouping her losses from the Siberian attack, working busily in the repaired workshop.

Patchouli had barely left the Library, with the Fairies already around and the devil by her side, practically all her needs were covered. She had claimed one of the many rooms in the Sanctuary, and the building had apparently shifted it as close to the Library as possible to make her happy.

Narwhal's smile made Annette feel strangely exposed.

"Good news, Odyssey. Against all regulations, one of the troopers 'slipped' the records of you taking out Ellisburg. While it's definitely illegal, it's very obviously allowed by the PRT." Annette groaned. "While you're pretty far, your armor's identifiable enough that there's little to no doubt it was you."

"I really hoped that joining the Guild would spare me being a show horse." She commented, wryly.

"We didn't do it," Narwhal shrugged. "Don't worry, though. As part of the Guild, especially the spot you got yourself with mass producible technology, you won't get shown around much. Even with the Slaughterhouse and the Fallen out of the picture, neither the Guild or the Protectorate wants you becoming too much of a public figure. So you won't get many invitations to talk shows or similar.

"There will be a few, you are more than invited to deny all of them. But there will be a few meetings you will have to attend."

Seeing the list her boss showed her made Annette groan, there was little to no way to dodge a meeting with the President.

Dragon chuckled softly. "Look on the good side, Odyssey. Given what the series has passed, we're on track to acquiring proper access to the whole network. Though I'm still not fully convinced it's a good idea to use their keys to try and take over their creator ."

"That brings up hope and terrifies me completely." Annette sighed. "Don't misunderstand me, I'm really happy to hear we may be able to turn off trigger events. Of course we'll have to act carefully if we do that."

"I agree," Narwhal leaned forward. "While most people have no idea what a Trigger Event actually consists of, they aren't bound to notice it for some time. But larger organizations keep a pretty close eye to the numbers and there are more than one group, the Protectorate between the largest ones, that have a pretty good idea of the average number of triggers in an area."

"I never understood why the knowledge was never made public." Annette noted.

"It's honestly way before my time, but if I remember right, the main reason was to prevent people from trying to acquire superpowers. It didn't help that the few tests that had been carried showed that trying to trigger usually didn't work or led to terrible results. It was decided to keep it on the low, even if the knowledge may have actually led to a decrease in trigger events." Narwhal explained.

"Uh… that's…" The American woman rubbed her chin. "Actually quite suspicious."

"While I will not disagree with that, the reason to not make the knowledge public is good enough that no one can truly dispute it." The Guild's leader shrugged. "It's sadly one of those political moves that don't make too much sense in hindsight, but can't be truly fought given their size."

"That makes more sense than it should." Annette leaned back on her chair.

Dragon nodded. "Anyways, we'll have to be careful if we turn the host connection and activation protocols as the Shard called them, large groups are bound to notice the lack of new capes and the existing ones will quickly become a commodity given the mortality rate.

"Most likely the bracket of 'new' capes will be the first to disappear, between the usual deaths and those that 'graduate' from the group, with no influx of numbers it'll quickly reduce to nothing."

"The next bracket that will show losses will be the veterans, though I doubt it will die off completely as the oldest parahumans die off, it will simply start to cover the middle group." Narwhal hypothesized.

Annette nodded as she felt the Forge activate, for three charges Technosorcery was definitely a great perk. And while she wouldn't be using every part of the knowledge given by it, she wasn't interested in playing magical Dr. Frankestein, it was definitely nice to have another point of view on how to combine both branches of development. Though it didn't help that the perk felt greatly overshadowed by Magitech Master.

Their current conversation was broken when her phone rang, of course given that it was technically a part of her, the other two women didn't notice it till she called attention to it.

" Greetings, " The green-hued series waved from the image Annette projected. " oh, nice to meet you Narwhal. We apologize we can't meet you personally for now, our calculations give us a week or so before reality's flexible enough to survive one of us. "

"It's nice to meet you too, hope you forgive me for being a bit confused on how to address you."

" Just series, we can tell who you're referring to. " The series grinned. " Anyways, I was calling to update you. We've been getting things comfortable over here while discussing matters with Alpha Organizer. " In the background of the video it could be seen a few simple structures. " We've been helping them get used to their new form and make sense of the knowledge they have. "

"Any important news?" Narwhal asked.

The series projected conflicting emotions. " Yes, but we're pretty sure it's better if we talk about it in here. "

"That bad?" Narwhal asked, lifting an eyebrow.

" Maybe not, but we lack proper understanding of your Earth's workings and Alpha Organizer's pretty sure it shouldn't be spoken somewhere where it could be heard. Good news is that they're pretty sure you all can't be heard when in the Digital World. "

The leader of the Guild turned to Annette. "Is it safe for me to travel through the portal?"

Annette's mouth twisted. "Sadly, it's still not safe for a parahuman to step through, the active connection to your power will become a problem in the conversion. So unless you let me disconnect you temporarily and keep it from reconnecting till you come back out, it's better you don't test it."

The tallest woman didn't let it show how much it actually bothered her. "I understand, sadly given my status as a Second Trigger, I don't think it's a good idea if I disconnect." Annette nodded at the comment. "Then you two should go and see what the series discovered. With the Fallen, the Slaughterhouse and Nilbog out of the board, North America only has a handful of S-Class threats.

"Given we've taken so many out so quickly, the PRT has decided to put their foot down before the remaining villain groups decide there's a reason to panic. It should be enough time to deal with the Shard network before you are assigned your next target. Be wary, though, Butcher twelve's still out there and they can be a bit of a wild card."

"I agree," Dragon spoke firmly, leveling a glare at Annette. "while the current Butcher's not suicidal, there's at least two examples of the voices in their head distracting them at key moments so they were killed by their opponents."

"I'll be careful, if it comes down to it, I'm pretty sure I could put the Butcher into an induced coma instead of killing them. I'm also highly sure that using the same disconnecting method I carried on Bonesaw won't trigger the 'death condition'."

"Let's keep it to the first option for now." Narwhal pointed out.

"I understand, I will see about having it ready for when the situation comes up."

The amazonian-looking woman sighed. "I wish that was an if and not a when. Now go, and make sure to keep me updated."

The two of them nodded before leaving for the Digital Realm.

(-(-|-)-)

The series looked up and smiled. "I'm glad to see you could come so quickly. I wish Miss Narwhal could join us, but we have looked into the problem and we don't think there's an easy or quick solution for the problem."

"It's okay," Dragon smiled. "I'm sure you all will meet once you can step out from the Digital Realm."

Another of the series nodded. "Yes, actually on the time frame we gave you. We're pretty sure that if we overtake the Shard's network, the needed time will be reduced greatly."

Dragon saw Annette stop and think. "Yes, I can see how that would happen, the effect would spread through all the networks, most likely turning all parahumans into broadcasters. It's interesting, but I don't think it's that important at the moment."

The first series nodded. "I agree. Anyways, Alpha Organizer has identified the source of powers, or at least an avatar of it." The image shown chilled Dragon to the bone.

"Scion's the avatar?!" She screamed.

"Uh… well, it does make sense in hindsight." Annette hummed. "Think about it, the first parahuman observed, has never communicated properly, only the most basic of understanding of our society, has shown a variety of power only matched by a handful of other capes, is the only parahuman capable of pushing the Endbringers away… at least till recently."

Another of the series nodded. "Alpha Organizer has described him as part of a pair, one member in charge of conflict, the other in charge of strategy. Scion, or Zion as Alpha Organizer corrected us, is the combatant of the pair."

"Wait, there's another?" Dragon felt a chill go down her spine at the idea of having to deal with two.

"Good news, the Strategist, or Thinker, is dead, or close enough that it makes no difference. Alpha Organizer's not sure of the complete details, they were still part of Zion so they have some idea that something went wrong during landing."

"That's reassuring, so we ended with the dangerous idiot?" Annette tried to joke, no one really laughed.

"More of a completely goalless being in complete shutdown due to depression. As long as nothing prods him or makes him change his mind, he will most likely not react. But in some way that's more dangerous, if he decides there's absolutely no reason to continue existing Alpha Organizer explained Zion's likely to enact detachment protocols.

"Making a large explanation short, this would be Zion forcefully taking all Shards in the network, this would kill all the linked parahumans, before causing all alternate versions of Earth on this World and utilizing said explosion to launch itself into space."

Dragon sighed heavily and rubbed her hand down her face. "Okay, I knew this was necessary, but this sure makes it clear. Did Alpha Organizer give us the coordinates for Zion's network?"

"Actually, they were more than eager to give it to us. Alpha Organizer described their role in the entity to be high enough they could supplant him as long as they don't have to fight for control with a few key Shards."

"We'll leave that to Alpha Organizer to explain more, we're pretty sure those Shards deployed correctly and connected to a host." Another of the series piped up. "They also warned us about a Message Broadcast Shard that should have a backdoor to most Shards' connection to their host, but also be capable of letting their host message Zion."

Dragon was glad that she had become inured to surprised by now. "That's… worrisome, hopefully it doesn't have a host currently active." She turned to look at the third series interacting with Alpha Organizer. "Will it be safe to leave the control to them?"

"Actually, we would like it if you left it to us, the series, given the Shard's new form and the sheer size of the network, we'll need a lot of hands to fix this mess."

Dragon noticed Annette smiling slightly, wondering if she had been told something by Junk. "That's very nice of you, but why would you take such a job?"

"Boredom? Academic Interest? New life experiences? We like to have things to do. We would like to say we are trustworthy enough that you shouldn't feel worried about our actions, but that's up to you at the end."

"That's not a decision I can make." The series nodded at her answer.

"I think we should talk with Alpha Organizer now." Annette offered and the series nodded, Dragon's mind whirred with all the new information, and she knew it wasn't the end for the day.

Chapter 64

Chapter Text

Dragon found herself back in Elizabeth's office, just this time without Annette who had stayed behind to study Zion's coordinates and prepare for the possible defenses the being could have.

The AI poured the contents of a vial in a glass and handed it to her friend, who just looked at the black-tea looking beverage before downing it.

The Guild's leader shivered and smacked her lips. "Okay, I trust Odyssey enough to know this will work and keep me from getting migraines for a while. Now you can tell me."

"Don't worry, we discussed how to make the information more palatable." Narwhal tilted her head at the comment. "First thing to get it out of the way, the Shard decided that Alpha Organizer is a bit of a mouthful, so they chose Administrator.

"Which fits their role in the entity's physiology. To make matters simple, they appear to be a kind of hive race, Scion's the main part and all Shards are their kids/organs. Administrator was basically the one that took care of organizing them, deploying, general orders, etc… Which fits our plans beautifully."

"So we basically found the scorned person in the building with not just the back door keys, but also the understanding of how things work?" Narwhal offered.

"Yup," Dragon popped the p softly. "Administrator knows enough of the systems to cooperate with Annette in organizing the takeover.

"Now, on the matter of taking over, the series offered their numbers to help us. And I honestly can't deny that having a large number of trusty, capable and knowledgeable beings offering to help would be really useful."

"What can you tell me about them, the series?"

"They are smart, quick on the uptake and definitely not human. I don't know how it's with the earlier generations, but these ones held a strange something on how they acted. The fact that they are technically just riding on the bodies maybe makes them a bit strange in what they consider physical interactions. It adds up to how they are always sharing thoughts.

"They explained that their minds can sink into a group mentality when they all are working into the same project, which may mean that the weirdness aggravates or simplifies, but I've only met three of them." Dragon's mouth twisted slightly. "If they weren't simply not interested in conquering us, I would be afraid of them. Being practically immortal, tough enough to make Alexandria have a hard time and their numbers practically always increasing. They openly explained how hard it's to kill them, and while I imagine there may be another way, only Annette most likely would be able to do it."

"...and Annette has no reason with Junk being her patron." Narwhal sighed. "It's just exchanging a most likely hostile, secret, alien overlord for a bit better known, benign goddess." She proceeded to chuckle. "Could be worse, we could be under some kind of secret organization doing things for the good of all ."

"On a different set of news, Administrator confirmed the Endbringers are some-kind of weapon of mass destruction. And while we could turn them offline with the correct access, they run on the dead one's network, which means that their death either dislodged the Shard that had control over them and someone activated them, hopefully unaware of what they were doing.

"Hopefully they are also still alive, Administrator confirmed that they must be in this version of Earth. They have an idea of possible Shards that could have the needed access, but it's hard to pinpoint them through their description given the variety of power expressions per Shard."

"Even if we can't find them, do you think we could take them out?" Elizabeth's tone turned firm.

"I think so. The Dispersal cannon has shown to be effective against Behemoth, with the improvements Annette and I have developed, we're pretty sure we won't need the portal cage again. Leviathan may be slightly harder given its speed, but we can still use the portal system to line a shot or set a trap. The Simurgh may be the hardest, or the easiest, depending if we can interfere with its precognition. If we can, then we could even line the shot to reduce collateral damage.

"In general the main problem would be dealing with the aftershock, the effect that makes them so tough would release a massive amount of energy when it stops being maintained."

"Could it be stopped? Redirected?"

"Don't worry, we've got a few ideas. We could always try and portal them off the solar system, Annette's pretty sure she could sneak a probe past the Simurgh and set up something way outside of the Solar System's boundaries."

"That sounds a bit extreme, but it may be the perfect way to take care of all that energy once they pop." Narwhal added with a bit of humor. The bit of humor quickly left her as her expression turned serious. "On a more serious issue, I know you've been keeping Odyssey unaware of it, but how are we faring on external attacks?"

"It's serious, I currently have one of my iterations invested nearly twenty four seven in dealing with those. Toybox, the Elite, Gesellschaft, the Yàngbǎn are just some of the organizations I've managed to link some of the attacks onto. Interestingly, someone also used the PRT and Protectorate's systems to access information. Thankfully, that was the easiest to fool by linking them to the already available information on Odyssey and the advances we have managed.

"But there's also been prodding attacks that most likely came from large countries. Not just for the Belt Core units like most villainous groups, but also for the other advancements Odyssey has developed."

"Ain't that interesting. If you get me the list of countries, I may be able to work something with them. The hardest part will be finding how to sell them on the idea we aren't doing it for free. Some people get all ornery when you try to help them." She shook her head softly.

"I'm sure you'll find a way. There's a reason you made it to your position." Dragon smiled.

The two continued talking, a moment of calm for the storm that was coming.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

Annette had to admit that working along with the series was an interesting experience, they were more and less in tune with her compared to Odyssey and Dragon. While the Digi-core shared much of her knowledge, she didn't hold the correct mentality; the core usually utilized the knowledge imparted by the perks and what she could pick from her own upgrading systems to offer options and ideas. Meanwhile, Dragon had had to study the information she shared, understand it, get to her own conclusions about it; usually it meant that the AI had a better idea of how to use and reach certain solutions, but she was limited to what she had seen.

The series, on the other hand, already had the experience, the mentality and even some knowledge she hadn't. So far only two of them had worked with her, in her mind she referred to them by the color on their trimming, Green and Violet were more crafting oriented while Orange tended to spend their time with Administrator, answering the Digi-Shard's questions and simply getting them used to the language.

During their work she had acquired a perk called Master Craftsman , for a three charges perk, it was incredibly powerful. It improved the minimum result of anything that could be considered crafting to the level of masterwork. Combined with a few of her other perks, it had become nearly impossible for her to fail any kind of creation work.

The two series she had been working on quickly shared Junk's experience with the perk, apparently there were ways to fail at crafting even with this perk, but it was more along the lines of ending with something different . So if you failed when cooking you most likely ended with a sculpture, still a master's work, but you wouldn't be able to eat it.

Back on the subject of invading Zion's system, the series had provided some insight on what to expect. But it was Administrator who could offer the most, the fact that their position made them practically a back-up for the entity, meant their own systems had been a miniature/less formed version of the full entity's form.

"...so once we have taken out the defenses and opened a way you will be taking control?" She looked at Green.

The series nodded. "There's a margin of error and a risk of the systems crashing. But given what Admin's explained, the network's mostly self-policing and Zion's only needed to keep a few rules. As long as they don't outright die , it should be okay."

"That's good, honestly the main thing we've to do is take over it and make sure nothing crashes. We can see about learning all the ins and outs after that before making any changes."

The Green series, who's information specialty seemed to cover all that had to do with systems, network and programming, lifted a hand to show a small glowing ball. While it appeared innocuous at first, that was just the usual looks of a program's data, in reality she could see all the data and what it did. "This will help a lot, I've taken some of Junk's old cyber-warfare programs and adapted them to help us. Attention decoys, firewall breaker, DDOS, etc… It wasn't even hard, the Digital World's nature made it very easy when I could treat them as a physical object."

"Any distraction will help." She agreed. The Orange hued series approached her and placed its hand on her shoulder.

"It'll be okay. While our numbers are limited by the world's nature, we could get a few more as reinforcement if needed. And while Junk is indisposed to do any big acts, she also has some wiggle room if it was necessary to give us a hand. But we're pretty sure we are more than enough." The large mouth of the series stretched into a grin. "Nothing worth it is ever easy."

"You're right, there's too much riding on this to wonder about things going wrong. I'll message Dragon that we're ready over here."

"That's good, and maybe see about visiting your family before we start this." The series added and Annette nodded.

(-(-|-)-)

Odyssey looked over the small village of digimon going through their life, it had been about a week since her partner had taken them through the transformation process. Of course, that was in the real world, at the last moment they had decided to rush the process of having them accelerate the time in this particular server enough that the goblins would go through their lives as digimon quicker.

Of course, they couldn't leave them without proper oversight, that's why Odyssey had volunteered, not being particularly affected by time passing and not being as necessary as Dragon or Annette. The AI had still put her foot down on just how long she would spend under acceleration; that ended with only four hour segments of two thousand times acceleration a day.

With a week of time, that had added to over six years, the newly transformed digimons lived their first life confused but at a considerably idyllic pace. There was enough food and absolutely no danger for them. While some had tried to return to their old habits, it was hard at first since they didn't leave their early baby stage for some time. Odyssey had needed to reprogram some of the bird programs to feed the baby digimon till they had grown enough to feed themselves.

Thankfully, their memories of being reborn had stayed strong enough that they hadn't been surprised when the first of them reached their end of their days and was reduced to an egg again. The event repeated over and over again till every one of them had gone through the process, of course, the process had staggered for multiple reasons, meaning some of still older-stage digimon could take care of the recently hatched ones. And when they had grown enough they took care of the newly hatched.

The digimons' second live was longer, between getting used to their new forms, the fact that some of them were at different stages of digievolution made them start acting like an organized group. Still made them quite surprised when the oldest of them reached Infant stage instead of dying.

The event hadn't happened till around the end of the week, meaning that she wouldn't observe much more advance as the server's acceleration would be dropped to normal time. It had given her a better understanding of how Digimon acted, and what it meant for her to be one.

Another thing that had happened was much more personal, with six years of just observation, it left her with a lot of personal time. Personal time that was spent refining her data more and more. She knew that, different from other digimon, she would hardly die of old age, her previous nature as a Valkyrie Core's Intelligence put her above the rest.

And with time she would slowly escalate in power, she could already feel the thin barrier between her stage and Ultimate above her. She would need a small push, but all she needed was Annette to give her a tiny push and she would break through.

She hadn't even noticed the barrier at first, it had taken her nearly a year under accelerated time before she had felt it. And back then it was an insurmountable wall. But so much free time had left Odyssey slowly improving her code more and more, and the barrier had slowly started to crumble into what it was now. Maybe another year and she would be pushing through it by herself.

With those thoughts in mind, she stepped out of the Server after making sure the speed was one on one with the Real World.

(-(-|-)-)

"Did they leave?" A slightly off-color Koromon asked, their body leaning more to a soft green than the usual pink.

"I think so." The oldest digimon, a Palmon replied. "They were just observing, as far as I could tell."

A pagumon bounced closer. "Do you think they wanted to hurt us?"

The Palmon shook her head. "No, it didn't feel like that. What little I could feel of their power, we would have known if they wanted to."

"Really? Are you sure you aren't going crazy?" The pagumon asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, before Elecmon turned back into an egg, he figured out a little trick he taught me." The Palmon spread her arms and suddenly all the infant digimon froze, the effect only lasted a moment. "See, that's what you guys feel when I want to tickle you a lot."

The smaller digimon bounced around scared. "And they would be more?"

The palmon shrugged before fixing the flower on their head. "I don't think we could stay awake if they did it to us, or survive. Sorry guys, but you aren't the toughest right now."

After they all shook off the aftereffects they looked around. "I see, so it was a guardian angel?"

"Maybe," The pagumon offered. "I'm getting hungry, why don't we go see if the bushes are ready to harvest."

"Yeah." "Let's go." "I'm hungry too."

The palmon shook her head, turning to look at the spot way above the mountain before turning back and making sure to herd all the kids.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette felt the Forge distract her momentarily, a single charge perk called Black Thumb entered her collection. Joining the rest of her mechanic-bent perks, not only adding a bit of knowledge on how to fix cars that had been put through inhospitable conditions, but also a strange sense of wacky upgrades that made her think of the old movie Mad Max.

It honestly didn't do much for her, knowing she could reinforce the car and add spikes while keeping it working wasn't the most useful perk, unless she wanted to dress up as Squealer.

Her mind quickly categorized the perk, looked over its content and put it away. Swiftly turning back to the subject at hand.

"Are you sure you want to?" She asked Odyssey. "My understanding is that it may take a while for your code to stabilize after reaching ultimate form."

The Digi-Core nodded. "Yes, my calculations indicate that my code should stabilize in just a few hours, that's short enough that it won't impact the mission."

Annette wanted to refute her words, because the Digi-Core had shown her the necessary data and said calculations. She wanted to tell her it could wait, or the mission could wait. But while there was no clock to run against, they also had set up more than a few things to make sure there was a fallback for the worst case.

She sighed internally. "Okay… I understand." The woman sent Dragon a quick message as the two of them quickly stepped into the server they would be using to stage their attack.

She found it a bit surprising that apparently the series had convinced Administrator to try their hand at sculpting. Of course, inside the Digital World, sculpting worked slightly differently. Instead of shaping a hard material, be it stone, wood or metal, the artist instead worked with code.

There was a danger, as there weren't many differences between sculpting a statue made of data and shaping a virus program. But the series were watching over the Digi-Shard and a bit of freedom, trust and creative thought was great to cement the Tentomon's loyalty.

The results were… weird . Administrator apparently was an old Shard, while definitely not the oldest created by Zion, it had been around long enough to count several thousand cycles. Which in itself was terrifying, because what the Digi-Shard called a cycle wasn't a year of another similar measurement of time, it was instead the times the bonded pair of entities had run their experiment.

It was terrifying to think just how many civilizations and uncountable numbers of parallel versions of each planet they had destroyed. She tried not to dwell on this fact much, she knew there were others of the same species floating through space, maybe once Earth was secured she would see about hunting the rest. She wondered if any had found a better way to evolve.

Annette and Odyssey stepped down and sent the series and Tentomon a greeting before the pair moved a bit away, warning them they would be trying something.

"Are you ready?" She asked her partner, the Andromon Valkyrie Mode nodded and Annette reached for the Digivice that was part of her.

She had been told and demonstrated the barrier was thin as paper, and for all intents and purposes, what Annette did was press a button and the process started.

Thick ribbons of light blue energy, inscribed with esoteric programming runes, dozens of streams coiling and wrapping around Odyssey, hiding her completely from sight. The real change was felt more than seen. A qualitative change happened hidden from the naked eye, even her Impeller Field had troubles reading what happened inside the cocoon given just how dense was the data working on her partner.

She felt the Digivice activate: " Andromon Valkyrie Mode, digievolving into… HiAndromon: Odin's Maiden ."

The streams of data practically exploded out as a pair of pristine silver wings flapped, uncovering Odyssey. While she was still recognizable, she now looked like the gods themselves had sculpted. The armor had also improved even more, even if it was just mostly the metal, the digizoid of the highest purity and refinement.

On her right hand she held the spear Annette had crafted for her, it had been assimilated by the process and was now a definite part of the Digi-Core, the Digivice named it Gungnir. One her left one she held a small, round shield called Skjaldborg, Annette found this slightly strange given the word described a way to utilize shield in a tactical formation rather than an specific piece of equipment.

"How are you feeling?" She finally asked.

"I feel… Ready." Odyssey smiled with complete honesty.

"Then let's go, we have a party to start."

(-(-(-1-)-)-)

Annette looked around, they were barely over half a dozen people and were about to storm the digital mind of a being that lived for uncountable ages. If she wasn't sure it was practically dead dumb, she would be feeling much less prepared.

Dragon currently stood in her heavy platform, while they were pretty sure her Canon may be incredibly effective inside Zion's systems, they didn't want to catastrophically destroy it. That meant they would need to reduce the collateral damage as much as possible.

Odyssey had spent the last couple hours experimenting with her new form. Apparently the spear was indeed as terrifying as the name it had received. The shield, on the other hand, appeared to be a foci for a powerful defensive move.

The two series that were coming along didn't look especially different, apparently their body already was equipped enough. The third would be staying with Administrator and relaying any important information the Digi-Shard had.

They all stood in front of the portal, already primed to open. The only addition to it had been a set of improved shields in case the entity tried to attack through the opening.

"Everyone ready?" Annette asked, and received quick nods. "Then I'm opening the way, once it fully connects, we'll rush through before it goes into idle mode. The connection will be just enough to communicate, it may need between five to thirty seconds to open again, enough for us to pass if we can't make it. Understood?" Another round of nods answered.

She turned to the portal, this particular coordinates key apparently had enough weight that it wasn't just the usual object of gold color and simple design. It had turned to be made of some dark metal and sported a large, red gem embedded in it. Dragon had commented it felt fitting.

The view of the other side of the portal was similar to what they had seen in many Shards previously. But the complexity was increasing to the n-th power. The colors felt completely unreal, the lines of the scenery twisted, buckled and bent on themselves.

"Ugh, it's already giving me a headache." Dragon mumbled as a silent nod was shared before the five of them ran through the portal. The passage behind them closed to an imperceptible pinprick.

Annette had to admit the situation was dizzying to begin with, they had practically no landmarks they could follow as it was.

"I'm deploying." One of the series cheerfully announced before thousands of small orb-programs shot from them, zipping off into the distance. "Scanning."

The results of said scan were quickly processed and fed to the field of view of the five of them.

"It looks like we are still on what passes as the edges, whatever security system in place hasn't noticed us. But I doubt it will stay that way." The series made the scan's results light up. "That looks like the core."

"I suggest we start moving, I doubt it will be just reaching the core." Annette offered and the five quickly started moving.

Similar to how it was to fly off the coast of File Island, distance didn't have much meaning inside Zion's systems. And while it was clear they were advancing, they couldn't estimate just how far they were.

"Whoa." A series commented as all of them had to fly higher as the land rose to try and block them. "I think we found the first of the security measures."

"I don't think that it actually is." Dragon corrected. "This appears to be completely normal." She pointed to the sides. "It may be just the nature of this area, whatever it's actually used for."

"Look ahead." Odyssey announced as they could see a rounded mountain rise higher as they approached.

"This can't be the core, already?" Annette checked the scans.

"I think this species lacks the idea that they could be attacked so stealthily. Given the amount of energy they utilize to communicate. We are just too small and silent for security to notice us." A series added. "Sadly, it doesn't look like I'll be able to take control like this, it's just too secured and closed up."

"We'll need to break in." Continued the other series. "And that's bound to make us noticeable."

"I understand." Annette nodded. "If everyone's ready, it's time to truly start this."

Chapter 65

Chapter Text

"Are we sure this is the Core?" The AI asked, a bit of worry in her tone.

"Definitely." The Green-hued series replied. "The scans show that all the information converges in this point, it's hidden under all these barriers since it's in some kind of idle state. The Entity's literally half-asleep right now."

Odyssey nodded. "Last check from the real world shows that Scion's currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean, at our current speed, it will take about an hour before he reaches solid land again."

"Good, this should give us the best chance to reduce possible eye witness in case of trouble." Annette commented. "Start breaking those defenses."

The last phrase wasn't an order, more of a statement they all knew was coming. The series nodded and spread their arms, multiple drill-like constructs shooting down and impacting the large mound. The first impacted the peak as the rest formed a large circle around it.

Cracks quickly spread from the impact points and the world around them shook .

"Look alive." The other series grinned as a deafening wail shook them all.

"Definitely awake now." Dragon added.

The mound started to rise higher even as the drilling programs continued their work, similar structures starting to rise on the outskirts of the core, some of them quickly shaping into cannon-like structures that lost no time in shooting at them.

"Is… it's literally screaming at us." Annette wanted to laugh at the fact that Zion was utilizing the same method to attack them that the Shards used to communicate. "Given the energy density of those messages, it's not rare that it's also used as a weapon."

"Then let's make this a proper debate." The series not currently drilling into the Core grinned. From their hands glowing orbs of energy shot out, some impacting the incoming attacks, other aiming to hit the weapon emplacements.

Sadly it didn't look like losing the attacking cannons did much more than slow the entity's defense systems as more towers rose from the ground. The lost ones retreated down to heal.

"Don't push too hard," Annette warned. "I doubt this is the extent of the defense systems."

The series nodded, lowering the number of attacks to keep up with the restoring cannons.

Annette had previously described the Shard's systems as a strange and twisted version of the 80's retro style. Colors based on the cyan, yellow and magenta, lots of frameworks that extended forever and semi-translucent constructs.

So far the Entity's system didn't look much different, if anything it was more of everything the Shards already had, another point to the idea that Shards were infant Entities. The only big difference she had noticed was how bland Zion's systems were in comparison, most Shards they had scanned were vibrant.

That had been till they had started the attacks, once the creature had stirred from its slumber the colors had come back. It was almost regrettable that there had been a need for something like this to make the place so much more beautiful.

"Larger attack incoming." Odyssey announced and shot to cover the green-hued Series as a beam several times larger than the attack used by the cannons hit her shield. Streams of energy spilled off the sides.

"Thanks." The series smiled. "Internal scans of the Core are coming in, we're nowhere close, but I fear that if I press my advance it will get mad."

Dragon looked around. "Do it. We can still survive this."

The series nodded and the drills suddenly bloated, growing to twice their size as the series pumped more power behind them. "It should be no more than a couple minutes now."

"Stop attacking the towers and just focus on intercepting the attacks." Annette ordered the other series as Odyssey maintained a defensive position around the first.

Dragon moved closer to Annette. "This is strange, there's definitely a lot of power behind the attacks, but there's no thought to them."

Annette nodded as her spear swept another stray shot off the air. "I don't think the Entity ever found an attack like this. Everything so far shows they aren't creative, they only adapt to things. Without an example, they never had the need to do anything else but overpower their problems."

The pair quickly dodged a series of shots and one of the horizon beams.

"I think you're right. Let's make sure it doesn't have the chance to learn how to defend against it." Dragon started and switched platforms.

Noe was one of her latest works, combining the knowledge she had gotten from the fight with Behemoth and some of the advances Annette had found in neutralizing the Endbringers' defenses. Compared to the previous platform, the cannon it sported was lighter, sleeker, and there were two instead of one. They hung from her back like a pair of wings. At first sight they looked like a propulsion system.

Switching to active mode had the pair of cannons shift and lock into place on her shoulders as her long-range scans found the source of the horizon beams.

"Shooting." She announced, a moment later a pair of beams shot through an incoming attack, an interesting interaction between the beams had them coil around each other and screw drive all the way through the incoming attack and annihilate the source of the beam. "One done."

Annette nodded at the comment and made sure to defend the AI from the closer attackers.

" Scans show that Scion has stopped moving. " The last series, still on the other side of the portal messaged her. " Image shows that he appears to be confused. "

"We've got a reaction, time?" She shouted.

"One more minute, thirty seconds if you want me to get dirty." The series cackled as they kept drilling, the fractures on the Core's defensive walls expanding more and more.

"One minute then, we can't have things going awry right now." Dragon stated.

"Big attack is incoming!" The defending series screamed.

The five of them huddled close to the green-hued series as Odyssey activated her shield. "Skjaldborg!"

The round shield glowed and suddenly dozens of them sprung into existence around them, forming a shield wall, from the nooks and crannies copies of her spear, Gungnir, poked out.

If the horizon beam had been multiple times larger than the cannon shots, this attack left them all in the dust. Large enough to hide the defensive formation completely.

Still, an Ultimate stage digimon wasn't for show, the moment the beam ended the shield wall showed to be no worse for wear. Odyssey quickly dissipated it.

"We don't know how long till it can attack again, Dragon, make sure to find and neutralize it." Annette ordered, the AI nodding and quickly scanning the horizon as the rest maintained a close formation around the Green series.

"Less than thirty seconds."

"Any changes outside?" Annette messaged the third series.

" It looks like the avatar's expression changed into anger, or is in the process of changing. Hasn't displayed any ability to accelerate their response. "

"That form may be limited, or it doesn't think it needs to act just yet." Dragon warned as she looked around. "I'm getting multiple possible sources for the attack."

"Shoot them all down, hopefully they are just defensive systems we can replace later if necessary." Annette spoke carefully.

The woman nodded and quickly started to take those sources in pairs, each cannon shooting at one as Annette played defense around her.

"Almost there." The series exclaimed.

"Attack incoming." Odyssey warned them, the five once again huddled together. " Skjaldborg!"

Whatever intelligence behind Zion seemed to once again fall into old habits, because once the group had been pinned in place by the largest attack, two moves converged on the spot.

"The shield won't last at this rate." The Digi-Core warned them as small cracks started to appear on the holographic defense.

"How much longer?" Dragon asked the series.

"I can go in."

"Then do it!" Annette screamed as the series gave a little grin before their body shifted into a translucent form of energy that disappeared a moment later. "Let's hope they find the off button quickly."

She smiled wryly as the cracks started to spread more and more.

(-(-(-|-)-)-)

"What just happened?!" Alexandria nearly lost control of her titanic strength as she hit the table with open hands.

"We don't know." The dark skinned Doctor Mother tried to keep a stiff expression, but the strongest woman's Thinker ability let her easily read that she was as nervous and stressed as the rest. "Everything was going as normal, there was no warning of possible Endbringer attack or any hostile group. She just started screaming and quickly passed out."

"Just like that? I checked the security feed before coming here. She was screaming about the paths being gone!"

"I know you're worried about her, and what it means to Cauldron. But I think this may be more worrying." The older woman tapped a few times on the laptop in front of her, a screen on the side lit up with the image of Scion flying over the Atlantic.

"What does that have to d-" Her voice cut instantly as she watched the feed slow down and show the usually apathetic visage turn into one of confusion, worry and then pure rage before it simply popped like a soap bubble. "What the…"

"This happened about the same time, Contessa started screaming, her passing out coincides perfectly with the being disappearing."

"So now what? Has it reappeared? Anything changed?" Alexandria tried to steel herself.

"Numberman's currently trying to find any clue, but so far he hasn't found an actual reason to panic. The only other detail we noticed at the same time was the Simurgh slightly stirring, but given the fact that a piece of debris impacted them, it could be just chance. Though given it's the Simurgh, we can't know."

"So now we are reduced to just sit and wait? Fear and cower at something that we don't even know where it will be coming from?"

"Sadly… yes, besides that we'll have to deal with the sudden disappearance of what most consider the strongest hero around." The older woman added bitterly.

Alexandria sighed. "I'll go see about that, better start moving before panic sets in."

"Sadly, I can't help you much with that, but I'm sure you have it in hand."

Alexandria held back what she was going to say, in a way Doctor Mother was right, she had the experience and skill to do it, and it was also true she should start with that.

"Door to my office." She called, watching the portal take a couple of seconds to open and let her through.

(-(-|-)-)

As the blinding death beams that covered the defensive shield wall died down, the four of them took a breath of relief. Even if it was just to recharge, they now had a few seconds to recover.

Of course that's when the, at the moment, terrifying sight of Scion appeared in front of her.

Not that the situation lasted as the spell broke when the once apathetic and uninterested look for a short lived panic and very emotional face. "Wait, it's me!"

Given that they had heard that voice just moments prior, and now that Annette looked better, while the mouth moved, the avatar's eyes didn't seem to change.

"Let me…" The golden avatar spoke before the form twisted and ended looking like the series. "Sorry about that, I'm in, but a bit stuck."

The other series shook their head.

"What happened?" Dragon asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think I overwhelmed what passed as Zion's mind. Either it was more basic than we thought, my connection to the rest of the series did it, or it actually accepted it as an end." The now golden-hued series shrugged.

"That's worrisome, how bad were the losses?"

"Incredibly little." The golden series replied. "At least with a shallow look. I can't see anything big missing, but nothing's properly marked, so it'll take some time for me to make sense of the systems.

"Hopefully I can offload some of this onto other series soon, that will make things faster."

"I think it would be too much wishful thinking if the system was properly notified." Dragon chuckled as they all felt the tension slowly bleed away, they had done it.

"Scans from the Real World confirm that Scion has disappeared. We aren't expecting anyone to notice for at least a couple of hours." Odyssey spoke softly.

"Given the time acceleration, that gives us a lot of time here." Annette turned to the series. "I think you've got your work cut out for you for now, unless something changes, keep doing what you're doing already."

"Yup, don't worry, this is not my first rodeo, or at least the series'." The golden one chuckled and disappeared, or at least the avatar projected did.

"Do we need anything else here or should we head back?" Dragon asked.

"I'm done with this place, hopefully for a while. Making sense of some things here it's starting to give me a migraine." Annette admitted.

"Are you okay, Annette?" The AI sounded worried.

"It's the extra information gathered by the Impeller Field. It'll be okay once we leave." Annette reassured her as the four of them started to fly back.

The fly was spent mostly in silence, Annette mostly looked around. With the Entity waking up, the area now sported a similar colorful aspect to other Shards. Another thing she quickly noticed was that the series, being in control, was definitely starting to affect the area. Small aesthetic changes are already spreading through the area. Not that it helped her migraine, hopefully they would soon be out.

" Opening the portal. " The last series announced through their comms before the invisible pinprick opened into a passage large enough for the four of them to fly through. "Welcome back."

"It's done?" Administrator asked curiously.

"Yes," She reassured the Digi-Shard.

The Tentomon made a soft chirping sound she would describe as happy and celebratory.

"It'll take time before we gain full control out of the systems left behind, but we've most likely stopped the biggest problem we had." Dragon explained and the Tentomon nodded before wandering off.

The third series turned to look at them go. "They're actually really happy, I think that their new understanding of what Zion did to them gained a whole new meaning. Seeing the entity brought down and taken over?" The series shrugged, letting them arrive at the conclusion.

"Maybe we should see about having Administrator interact with other people?" She looked at the series. "How're they adapting?"

"I don't think that would be a bad idea. Right now they are still forming ideas and concepts, so it would be better to make sure they don't develop a preconception that everyone's as powerful and receptive as us." The series offered.

Dragon rubbed her chin. "It may be helpful to have them interact with Case 53 and help them through the usual process. Though we'll have to leave it pretty clear what they can and can't tell other people."

The series' mouth twisted. "Yeah, we went a bit over the Case 53 with Administrator, they are pretty sure that shouldn't happen, like at all. They're pretty sure something went pretty wrong with their linking process. But I can't tell without access to the Thinker's network."

"That will come in time, hopefully the series finds anything about that in the systems." Annette offered.

"I would find it pretty strange if Zion didn't have a way to properly communicate with its partner." The AI added and they nodded.

"It's strange." Annette wondered out loud. "This was definitely one of the hardest things we have had to do, the level of danger we're actually working in could have easily spelt doom for humanity. But now that we've gone through successfully, nothing will change for a while."

"Sadly, the biggest victories tend to be the least noticeable." Dragon amended. "Let's go, I'm sure Narwhal will be happy to hear things went through correctly."

Annette nodded and turned to Odyssey. "Are you coming? Or do you want to stay?"

"I'll check on the Goblins. After that… I think I'll go patrol." Odyssey's tone sounded strangely absentminded.

"Okay, message us if anything happens." Annette offered, the Digi-Core nodded before she left first.

"Let's go," Dragon smiled. "I'll check on her later."

The two of them said their goodbyes to the series and Administrator before they stepped out of the Server.

(-(-|-)-)

Officer Dalton momentarily looked down at the table before looking up to his sergeant. "Sir, you called for me?"

"Yes, I needed a second pair of eyes on this." The man waved a hand over the table. "The Guild approached us to try some of their new equipment."

"No transforming belts for us?" Dalton joked.

The Sergeant grinned. "I did ask, but I agree with what they said, it would be overkill. The BC units were made to go with middle tier capes. This is basically better quality than what we already use."

Dalton picked one of the vests, surprise showing on his face given the low weight. "Uh, are you sure it works?"

"Don't worry about that part, Dragon herself showed me they all work against ordinary guns, even high caliber ones. You will still feel like a heavy-weight punched you on the chest, but it's better than a hole through."

"I'll admit that not having to get used to new equipment would be useful. Everything looks just like the regulation stuff we already use, meaning that no officer will need to go through orientation. I remember a few years ago when we had to help the older officers learn to use a smartphone." His joke made the sergeant grin.

"Apparently that was their idea, they will be selling or leasing the designs and production process. I've weighed every piece myself, everything's between half to a tenth as heavy as the common stuff and at least twice as effective."

"It's been a while since I've been on the field, you are currently the most experienced operative, we need numbers. Handcuffs, body armors, riot shields, etc… Think you're up for it?"

"I don't see a problem sir. The city's definitely much calmer on the cape-side with the Guild basically ready to glare at anyone who misbehaves. Normal crime is still a thing, so it'll be nice to keep the boys and girls safe."

"Then you've a job to do, Dalton." The sergeant grinned.

Dalton looked at the vest on his hands, in a way, it promised new hope. Something that had sprouted lately in the city, and he was glad to see quickly spreading.

(-(-|-)-)

Annette watched as the two series stepped out of the Digital World and reality didn't immediately buckle under their presence. It had been a week since they had taken over Zion. The series still inside the system had spent literal years under accelerated time, and they suspected to only have made sense of a tenth of the entity's systems.

"Third time's the charm." One of the series joked, as it was the third time they had tried this in the last two days. The first two hadn't been catastrophic in any way, the portal had enough safeties in-built to prevent an entity from going through if they would threaten reality.

"Don't joke about that, I never expected the alarms to go off like that on the first try." Annette blushed slightly.

The two series grinned good-naturedly before turning to look at the portal, Administrator stepping through, much more unsure about their actions.

"Welcome back to the real world." Annette smiled as her voice seemed to calm the tentomon a bit.

"It's… interesting." The Digi-Shard seemed to explore the area around them with a curious air. "Things feel different."

"There are bound to be differences between the Digital World and the Real World, they run on different rules."

"Interesting, I happily await to learn more." The Tentomon nodded.

"Come on, I'm sure you will enjoy meeting other people." Annette offered as the series followed.

Annette led the group away as she thought. Not much had truly changed in the week that had passed. Most of the work was still being done by the series, it was true that the longer the series stayed in the system the more of the network spread the softening on the World.

The fact that two of the series could step out into the Real World proved just how far the process was, there was also the fact that Thinkers' ability to precog was becoming more spotty. Though a number of them had maintained their ability quite well, Annette suspected they used some other method to tell the future, but without proper access to those systems, it would remain a mystery for now.

" Hey Junk, how're you feeling over there? "

" Hey 'nette, actually quite good. I can finally stretch my arms properly, metaphorically of course. But a few more weeks and I may be able to leave this hole I've been stuck in for the last few months. Strange vacation. "

Annette chuckled. " Well, that's good to hear. I would like to properly present you to the family. " She chuckled momentarily as her mind went over the many new people she considered a strange new addition to her family.

" I could bring mine too, Eri's been interested in meeting you since I told her about you. "

" I greatly await meeting her. "

Annette smiled, she knew things were far from done. They still needed to find a way to properly shut-down the Endbringers; they were expected to attack again in around a month and a few weeks. There were still many S-Class threats and many new ones could pop up at any time given the wrong person having a bad day.

"Hey Dragon." She smiled as she led the two series and the Digi-Shard into the Sanctuary.

"Annette, finally here, you sure made us wait."

She laughed. "Sorry, it wouldn't be a proper party without everyone here." She moved to let the series and Administrator pass. "Plus I already had set everything up, the fairies will bring the food over soon."

"That's great to hear, I didn't eat today just for this." Elizabeth joked. "I'll tell you, it's not fun to rush through the day's work with an empty stomach."

Some of those close laughed as the fairies fluttered around, carrying trays while wearing their maid outfits, it all gave the area a strange and magical air.

"We still have much to do, but I think we've certainly come a long way." Elizabeth lifted her drink. "To old friends and new friends. To continue advancing. To a better future."

"""Cheers!"""

Annette moved closer to her, technically, boss. "Pretty corny, but I think it was fitting." She smiled.

"Ugh, shut up, I shouldn't have started drinking with an empty stomach. I think my second trigger did something to the way I act when drunk." She groaned.

"It's okay, there is no one but us to have seen it." Theresa grinned, making the Guild's leader groan louder.

"Don't be like that, I'm sure we'll look back on this and laugh." Annette smiled.

"Oh, sure, you will all laugh… at me." She rolled her eyes, but soon joined in the lighthearted laugh.

"So what next, fearless boss?" Annette asked.

"The next objective will be expanding our operations in Brockton Bay, there's enough space to cover the needs of the East Coast's electronics needs, or at least lessen the pressure on the area. The Empire's still a thing, but they are certainly not what they used to. It doesn't mean we can just leave them be, or not expect other villain groups may try to enter the city and take roots."

"Danny has confirmed the Elite are in town. They got tired of trying to infiltrate the DWU and had moved a number of their small operations into the city." Annette noted.

"We'll have to keep an eye on them, as long as it's the most job-oriented side of the group, we may even extend a few contacts with them. Outside of the city, we still have to acquire the permission to move on the Machine Army or the other containment zones. The healing tech may help finally lift the quarantines over the Simurgh's victims."

"Still plenty to do, eh?" One of the series asked, Annette needed a moment to recognize the voice wasn't that of the series.

"Junk?" She asked.

"Yeah, trying something, call it divine revelation or something, I don't have much time. Mostly since I never tried it before. But it's a pleasure to meet you all."

"You'll help too?" Theresa asked.

"If things continue like this, I may be able to help with the entity's systems. But I think you all have it in hand quite well. Something I learned in the last century is that sometimes one doesn't need to do much." The series took a long sip. "I actually think I saw a cartoon with the same morals at the end. Will see about getting you to see it. No idea if it exists in this World." She shrugged.

"Any help will be accepted." Elizabeth smiled. "But that's enough about heavy stuff, we are here to party."

They nodded, Annette was indeed happy to party for the night. She noted Administrator talking with some of the other people. Things were indeed looking up. But there was so much work still to do.

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