She looked lost in thought for a moment, but that comment draws her back in. "Wait, you mean an actual unicorn?" Her eyes grow wider as she thinks about the implications of that idea. Or maybe she's imagining riding a unicorn into battle against the Empire. Girls were strange sometimes. "What is your speciality right now? Fantasy creatures?" She asks with a grin.
"Not….. exactly. My current specialty is actually pretty close to Panacea's power." You reply. That was shading the truth somewhat, but it was the truth.
"You mean you make things to heal people?" Missy asked, clearly confused at the seeming non sequitur.
"Panacea isn't just a healer, Missy. No powers are strictly healing." You shake your head. "Othala grants other powers as well, Scapegoat transfers injuries to someone else, and Panacea is a biokinetic that can modify the biology of any living creature any way she wants."
"That's..." Missy pauses, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Then why does she only heal people?"
"Biotinkers are not exactly well loved across the world." You respond dryly. "There's some other, more personal reasons there, but you'll need to ask her for those."
"So could Panacea make a unicorn?" Missy asked.
"Yes, definitely." You nod as you're walking down the hallway with her next to you.
"And you can modify living things the same way?" Her raised eyebrow makes her scepticism clear.
"Also definitely. Meat that grows on trees, unicorns, drinks that download skills into your mind, drinks that download Tinkertech into your mind, man eating plants, lots of stuff. And all of that is made using a big device I call the Geneforge." You gesture down the hall in the vague direction of the teleporter pad that would take you to the closed off section of the Tower. "I have it sealed off from the base. I'm not making anything that would be dangerous if it escaped, but better safe than sorry, right?"
"So this Geneforge can make meat trees? How does that even work?" The blond girl makes a gagging face, presumably thinking about the idea of eating tree meat. Would that just be wood?
"Same way a tree makes fruits. I'm told that when a tree and a cow love each other very much…" You trail off as she smacks the steel edged placard representing her birthday gift on your armor.
"Wait, you can download tinkertech into people's heads? But I thought that required the Tinker to go into a fugue? Doesn't your power actively control that stuff?"
"Sure, it would require the people who drink it to go into a Tinker fugue just like any other Tinker. And it would only allow a tiny selection of designs. Since I'm a Biotinker right now, that limits what I can put into it."
She didn't respond for several long moments. "If I'm a Tinker, they would have to let me use my gear." She says and you're not sure if she is talking to you or herself.
"That is how being a Tinker is supposed to work. Your equipment is your power." You shrug, unsure of where she's going with this.
"Then that's what I want. They can't deny me the ability to do more if it is my power." She says vehemently.
You're not sure that's how that will go, but you did promise her whatever she wanted. Now you just need to figure out what to give her.
Salem is the playful type, something you quickly noticed when she constantly bothered you into playing with her. It was on those occasions that you decided, complementing her new name, to call her 'her' as 'it' was unacceptable.
You never really knew what was so fascinating about watching a cat chase a laser or toy on a string until you did it yourself.
It was very silly, yet you couldn't stop doing it for some reason. All while giggling uncontrollably whenever Salem was successful in her small hunt.
You also understand the reason that the "cats on keyboards" meme exists.
Cause Salem did that.
Constantly.
You dedicate a clone to keep her occupied from time to time.
But was she also very attentive and generally did what she was told.
Today you decide to introduce her to the Wards.
Missy, Dennis and Dean are here.
"Look who decided to grace us with his majesty today!" Dennis jokes from the couch.
That's the perfect leave to try and check if Salem fits another cat stereotype, so, with all the pomp you can gather, you puff your chest and declare. "Indeed, I come in the company of her that is great. The Royal Meowjesty Salem".
Bowing in your cat's direction as you clear the door you see that she follows your lead. Entering the room with her head held high and that feline air of superiority cats worldwide are known by. You are so proud.
The Wards reaction is varied. Dennis' head is doing circuits from you to the cat, Dean is looking at her confused and Missy starts with a look of realization that rapidly turns to panic as Salem pounces on her.
"Tony! HELP!" I know I shouldn't be laughing but the disgruntled face Missy is doing while trying to remove a cat bigger than her from her chosen location makes it impossible. Specially when she tries her powers and all she accomplishes is forcing Salem to do the infinite cat trick where they become long when you try to lift them.
"Sorry Missy, I would never force a Royal to relinquish their throne." If I wasn't in trouble before I was now. In a lot of trouble if the glare she is giving me is any indication.
"Was the pun really necessary?" Whatever confused Dean seemed not to be a problem anymore as he, surprisingly, left Missy to her fate.
"He comes here with a giant murder cat and your issue is the pun?" While the phrase may be scalding, the delivery is all but that. Especially as he says it while eating popcorn and looking at Missy, oh they were starting a movie. Some Noir Detective stuff it seems. I don't recognize it.
"One, it's a giant cat. Two, it's with Tony. Three it's walking freely. Hence is tinkertech, probably related to his new speciality and it was approved. Conclusion? It's harmless. The real question is why the pun. It's a bit out of character". I'm sure that if Dean had a cigar he would be lighting it up right now.
Why the pun indeed…"Why not? It fit the hammy theme I was going for." It's not like he has any stones to throw after doing his best detective impression.
"Oh god… Didn't Image forbid you from saying those words? A Tinker saying "why not". That's how a zombie apocalypse starts." Dennis fake shudder is on point. Is this roleplay day? I decide to follow the cue.
"Nah. Zombies are a waste of resources. If I ever did some sort of plague it would transform girls in catgirls" Dennis gives me his widest smile and offers his fist that I bump. He must not believe that I can actually do it. It could even be relatively easy. After clearing the Popola shaped objection of course.
"A man of culture I see." Wait Dean is playing on it? And wasn't that a meme?
Dennis is as amazed as I am, if the fact he is choking on a popcorn is any indication. Dean just laughs at our reactions.
"By the way. Thanks for letting Missy play with your cat. I haven't seen her so happy in a long time" She is playing isn't she? If she really used her powers she could compress space way more than Salem can stretch. And if the purring is any indication Salem likes the feeling of having space bend beneath her belly.
As our conversation dies and we focus on the movie I can't help but think I should do this more often.
You find 9S in one of the side wings of your tower, looking at a series of screens where images are flashing through at an incredible speed. You can't make sense of what each one is showing but know that 9S is combing carefully through each one.
"Tonny," He greets you. "I'd call you 'master' but I don't have the skirt to make it work."
You smirk. "Did you have any luck?"
"Nothing conclusive." With a wave of his hand he freezes the images on the screens, each one showing newspaper articles from around the world. "I found evidence of multiple bomb threats in several cities in Europe that point to a power similar to the one the intruder has."
"That would point to Gesellschaft." That's one of the biggest villain organizations in the world with ties to the Empire 88. The Empire recently received reinforcements from them, so it makes sense that they'd use the chance to spy on you.
You shudder just thinking about what a group like that would do with a tinker like you supporting their operations.
"It would, yes," 9S confirms, "but I advise against hasty decisions. I found very little information coming from Russia, China, Africa, and South America so this could be a coincidence. The intruder could come from any of those places and we wouldn't know."
Once again the underdeveloped Internet of Earth Bet -plus the broken state of the world in general- is presenting a problem. It's not unthinkable that this is the work of something else and that the arrival of reinforcements to the Empire is just a coincidence.
"Something to look into later. If you need a break-"
"I'm fine." He interrupts you. "I don't like leaving work half-done so tell Popola that she can expect my report within the hour."
"Still, thank you for your hard work."
9S gives you a nod of agreement and you slowly make your way out. Before you can cross the door he speaks once again: "By the way, I suggest you start thinking about building your own spy network. Something that's faster and more reliable than this Internet of yours. From what I've seen, the data here is easily censored, and half of the information is contradicted by the other half."
Making a mental note about that, you thank 9S for that piece of wisdom and let him be.
Taylor responds to your text that she doesn't want to send the Warframe (nestled in vague code) in for testing. If it gets tested she'll need to do another round of consulting with Image and you're not sure anyone wants that, even you who have the most experience with it.
There's also the chance it gets rejected, though you doubt that since it isn't that destructive on it's own, no more than most other brutes anyway. But Taylor definitely is worried about that, and she's never really been through the process before.
That will restrict its use to only emergencies, but it's not like there's a shortage of those in the Worm universe.
"Ok, I'm ready. Devola?"
"Just to make sure I understand you right, you want me to just fill the room with energy, and that's it? Isn't this a little dangerous to you?" her worried voice comes over the intercoms.
"Not really keeping my distance, also I have my shield belt on." You tap the device for emphasis. "Also Popola waits outside with a staff."
"Alright, will start slowly and ramp up more."
The coms cut and close your eyes.
Slowly a hum becomes noticeable in the air.
The senses you were suppressing, surge and you feel the energy is building up in the room.
A hum of power manifests itself within the room but the one in your mind is much clearer as you can feel the psionic energies gather.
In your head a thought grows stronger, grows into an emotion, and from an emotion graduates into a vision.
Then you push, the vision from your mind expands and replaces reality.
As one all the collected power surges towards you as you collect it into your hands.
Then all at once you move it.
A blue lightning surges towards one of the targets put on the wall, leaving scorch marks on it.
The rush of power you feel doesn't subside and so you fire again and the next target is going up in psionic fire.
The third target doesn't fare any better.
As all 3 targets are destroyed you feel the energy in the room lowering as you breath heavily.
"Master Tony?" Popopla must have entered while you were focusing.
"I..." You take another deep breath. "I'm ok."
You look at the damage you caused. Fist sized scorch marks on the metal are witness to your psionic might.
"I will put this under last resort use only."
"Yes, that would be wise."
You have learned Psionic lightning and can shoot it up to 5 times with your current Psionic power. 15 inside the tower or close to an energy source that you can manipulate.
This item was left for last one on the list for no real reason, but you are starting to suspect that you did so because you dreaded it.
And who could blame you.
The Zerg were in a class of their own with how much of a terror they were, the games didn't do the visions justice when your power gave you examples imagining them back when you still had Starcraft.
Now that you pull the blueprint your power seems to have no complaints building it.
Considering the conflict seeking nature of shards this worries you.
Slowly and carefully you get to work.
The general structure was simple, nothing more than a pool surrounded by a chitinous structure that was in the shape of a big swimming pool.
Using the towers teleportation system you teleport it in place right as you finish, then you fill it with bio sludge that has every bioenhancement substance imaginable and then some.
It also was created with the Geneforge and teleported in place.
Then it was time for the last bit, it was practically miniscule, a single, primal-zerg, organism. Tiny, barely visible with the naked eye.
And yet it probably is the most dangerous thing you have created so far.
For the pool to function the organism was set to rapidly multiply for the first few stages of its life cycle.
Interestingly enough it didn't have any complex biological structures or genetic code.
The only thing standing out to you as tinkertech was the power to adapt the genetic code it ingested, combined with its own extreme rapid mutation.
In any other creature it would spawn cancers the likes of which would kill them almost instantly.
But the impossibly powerful self sustaining mechanisms made sure that if a change were to hurt the organism to the point of non-functionality it would instantly be rejected.
This happens constantly, on a micro scale, while you were still holding the organism in your telekinetic grip in the Geneforge, before it was even finished.
As you finish it the parts you did first already started to change in unexpected ways as the creature burned through its internal bio-fuel storages.
Another teleport and the creature is dropped into the pool.
Observing it through the camera you could see as from the point where it was dropped in the pool started to change color as the creature grew and multiplied.
By tomorrow it would be filled with its own primal zerg ecosystem that you could draw resources from to further your biological experimentation.
If only the Zerg didn't make you so incredibly nervous.
Why do you subject yourself to this torture?
Is it the desire to be part of the group? The fear of them pushing you away if you don't measure up to their expectations?
Or is it the genuine belief that through this you can improve yourself? Not only physically but also mentally by helping you with your self-confidence and stress management?
No, the simple truth is that you're contractually obligated to do it.
"Faster, Horizon! You're lagging behind!" Miss Militia informs you from her position next to the starting line. In her hands, she carries a stopwatch to measure your performance. Which is, if you're being honest with yourself, kind of pathetic.
The Ward's training facilities would have most professional gyms green with envy. It has a collection of fitness equipment, a basketball court, and a sparring ring. But the source of your current sorrow is the running track.
It's not very big, just enough to fit outside the basketball court, and thanks Lord for that because you still have two laps to complete.
"You can do it, Horizon!" Vista cheers as she runs past you, looking as fresh as when she started. She already completed her routine but stayed behind with you as a show of solidarity.
Also to show off a bit.
Finally, through a superhuman display of willpower, you manage to drag yourself to the finish line.
You drop to the ground, gasping for air.
You should have sent a clone to do this.
Or maybe no. It'd have dispelled halfways through forcing you to explain what it was. That's not something you're looking forward to right now.
While you catch your bearings, Miss Militia walks up to you looking disappointed by what she sees. "I was thinking of having you go through some light sparring with Vista, but it seems we'll have to work on the basics first."
"Can't one of my androids do it?" You whine. "You can say they are an extension of me."
"That's not how this works Horizon. Even when your tools may fail you, you can always trust in the strength of your body."
You could literally engineer your body to peak human perfection. You could even go beyond that with the help of the Geneforge.
That idea is sounding more and more tempting, even with the disadvantage of mental contamination.
"Come on, Horizon!" Vista's cheerful voice is a sharp contrast to Miss Militia's more strict one. And to your eternal gratitude, she comes with a bottle of water that she hands to you. "I need you to get better so we can spar! Miss Militia doesn't let me get serious with the other Wards because she tells me that my limbs are too short."
"You'll get to it," Miss Militia admonishes her. "Just give it some years."
With those few words, something changes in Vista's demeanor. Her back goes straight, and her eyes lose the shine they were carrying a moment ago.
"Yeah, but with how things are going it'd be a surprise if I'm still alive next year."
You flinch. You weren't expecting those words to come out of her.
Miss Militia doesn't look surprised, though. If anything, she looks as if this was a discussion they already had. "Did you go to your mandatory meeting with the base's therapist?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did." Vista makes a dismissive gesture with her hand. "You don't need to be all over my ass about it."
"Vista! Your behavior has been deteriorating lately."
"I know. I think it all started after Leviathan attacked and Browbeat died." There's a sardonic, bitter tone to her words. "Or maybe it was after half the wards were implanted with deadly parasites. I really can't tell."
You hold your breath.
You remember Bonesaw's attack. The way she and Jack tried to use the Wards as sacrifices for their twisted games.
"Vista, go to your room! We'll continue with this later."
"Sure." Vista shrugs. "I was planning on going there anywise. Tell Piggot I say hi once you meet with her to talk about my behavior problem." And after saying that, she turns around and leaves.
Miss Militia stays for a moment. You feel like there's something she wants to say but she too leaves without saying a word.
Being left alone in the training area, you pick yourself from the ground and march to your lab. Maybe uploading some useful blueprints to the Ihan crystal will distract you from all this.
After some time relaxing and meditating with the Ihan crystal, you're interrupted by a call coming directly to your beads. Huh, very few people should have that number. Your androids can teleport wherever you are and usually prefer to do so. You're still on the Grace, so Armsmaster would probably also just come to see you unless he's tinkering. That only leaves…
"Dragon," you answer, holding the beads a little closer to your mouth more out of instinct than any sort of need for the microphone to pick up your voice. "How have you been?"
"Hello Tony, I've been doing well. How have you been?" she responds.
"I've been dealing with some security concerns relating to my new tower, but I've got those handled. Why are you calling?"
"I've called to let you know that The Guild is interested in the extra life mushrooms you provided and the production method you outlined in the brief you sent us. I've also wired you reimbursement for the testing materials."
You don't really recall writing up a brief to send them so it must have been something Popola did for you. "Excellent, so what are you looking for from me?"
"Five of the 'Question Mark Boxes' should be sufficient for our last round of testing and production following that. Would you like to discuss pricing or should I contact Popola?"
You're sure Popola will get you a good deal and you're honestly feeling a little bit tired. It's getting late and it is the weekend. "Just contact Popola, she'll handle the details. Oh, but before you go, did you get around to telling Armsmaster about you… you know?"
"Excellent, and yes, I did. I'd been dropping hints for a while and he was actually planning to take leave to go and release my restrictions. It's very sweet of him, but I'm also somewhat glad it turned out to be unnecessary. I know he's quite capable but it's awful to sit behind a screen and worry about someone, especially when you can't help them."
You close your eyes and think, stifling a yawn, "I'm not sure I can really understand in the same way as you, but worrying is just a part of being a person. None of us can have total control over everything, not even you."
"I suppose, but it doesn't make the worrying any easier."
"True enough." You don't quite manage to stifle the next yawn, "I'm feeling a bit exhausted. It was nice talking to you Dragon but I feel like if I stay up any later Popola might drag me to my bed."
Dragon chuckles, "Alright then, good night, Tony."
Voting Moratorium Length: 2 Hours
Voting Opens from Feb 11, 2021 at 3:00 AM
August 10th, 2011. The week begins anew
It's your last week of Geneforge so here's what you're going to choose from next week.
-[Tech Tree] Fallout
-[Tech Tree] League of Legends
-[Tech Tree] Destiny
I'm electing to remove the current tinkertech section as it was getting massive and it's in the updated character sheet.
Actions:
7 4 (Androids) - 2 (Wards Training/Patrols) = 9 3 (Tinker Actions, Excellent Workshop)
Maximum Omake Bonus (4)
Spoiler: Resources
Plan Voting Only. 2-hour voting Moratorium is in effect as well.
Possible Options
] Plan Name
-[Tech Tree] {Insert Tech Tree Here}
-[Action] Refine Materials using your Fabricator (Convert materials to ones of better quality at a 3:1 Ratio) (Do up to 5*{Number of available Fabricators} times in 1 action)
--[Action] 3 Common Materials to an Uncommon Material
--[Action] 3 Uncommon Materials to a Rare Material
--[Action] 3 Rare Materials to an Exotic Material
--[Action] 1 Rare Material into 1 Jorium
--[Action] 2 Uncommon Materials into 1 Essence
-[Action] Collaborate with Chris on a Project
-[Action] Collaborate with Armsmaster on a Project
-[Action] Train (What?) (With who?)
-[Action] Build some Specialized Tools (Excellent Tools, 5 - 1 (Fabricator) = 4 Actions, 10 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)
-[Action] Build a Specialized Section of your workshop (Specialized Tools, 8 Actions, 35 Common Materials, 15 Uncommon Materials, 3 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)
-[Action] TINKER!
--[Project] Pick a project or Schematic
-[Action] Write-in. (What do you want to do as an action that is not listed here)
-[Social] Write-in. (write-in whatever you want to social this week. You will still have social events regardless and 50% of people must vote for a social vote for it to "win")
If you don't have enough materials to refine when you choose the refine materials action, you'll just have wasted that action.
Plan Voting Only. 2-hour voting Moratorium is in effect as well.
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Monk Penguin
Feb 11, 2021
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Feb 23, 2021
#12,304
Spoiler: Winning Vote
Making the ?Blocks for the Guild had been a simple matter of programming the Fabricators and waiting for Popola to finish up the assembly.
Boxing them up in the crates provided by Dragon had taken another few minutes, and loading those on the small aircraft she had sent over and had landed in your Tower's hanger had taken another few minutes. All told, fulfilling the Guild's request had taken a couple of hours, even after the paperwork.
You could only hope they would have them ready for Behemoth in a week.
The Psi-disruptor is a device in the shape of a central platform with two arms at each side that act as antennas.
The original one was the size of an entire building and capable of disrupting the Zerg Hive Mind planet-wide. This one is a more advanced version from after the Broodwar, reduced to the size of a particularly big room for battlefield deployment. It should be able to generate a field big enough to encompass the entirety of the tower.
"Are you all ready?" You ask your assembled androids. They are here, not only to confirm that the Disruptor has no effect on them (it shouldn't), but also to protect you in case anything unexpected happens. For as long as the device is in operation no one in the tower connected to a shard will have powers, but you want to make sure all your bases are covered.
"We're ready, Master Tony!" Popola replies to you, and with that, you activate it.
It's--
You don't know how to describe it.
Suddenly not knowing how to build tinkertech makes you feel naked, but there's more to it than that. There's this feeling of sheer wrongness that surrounds the entire machine. Like riding in a car while the radio is transmitting a tone you don't like. There's this hammering in the back of your mind that you can't explain until someone points at the awful music.
But it's more than that.
It's weird, but if you were to describe it you'd say that it feels as if you were looking over your own shoulder. You see the body of 'Tony', you control it, but it's not 'you'. Even when you're also looking through its eyes.
It's unnerving.
"Is everyone alright?" You ask.
"I'm performing at max capabilities," 2B replies.
At her side, 9S is tinkering with his holographic interface. "I'm detecting unknown radiation. Must be the one affecting the Shard connection."
The… what was it called? It's hard to concentrate.
Sigma radiation! That was the one that the Terrans had discovered could affect the Zerg. You doubt that this is the exact same radiation used during the war, but the name works for you.
With the confirmation that your androids are fine, you turn the device off.
And suddenly everything comes back to normality, a comfort that you didn't realize you had until it was stripped away.
"Are you alright, Master Tony?" Popola asks you, placing a hand on your shoulder.
"Yeah, I am," You reply, cleaning the sweat off your brow. "Could you bring me a glass of water, please?"
The device works just as intended. It's not an experience you want to relive but it will fulfill its purpose in case of emergency.
For a moment you wonder how it would affect other parahumans like Taylor or Missy, but immediately kill that idea. You're not subjecting them to this.
"Are you ready Master Tony?" Devola asked you while pointing the business end of your staff at you.
This would hardly be the first time you had transferred blueprints into the Ihan, but since it made you go into a sort of controlled tinker fugue for an hour or more each time, she was right to ask. "I'm ready." You nodded at her, and with that, she pressed the button that created the energy beam linking you and the staff, then the world was washed away on that link.
The first design you think of is a… cat ear tree? No, it's a tree that grows fruit that turns humans into people with animal ears. And other features, like tails. That was a bit of an odd thing for your power to give you, but you supposed there was definitely a market for that kind of thing.
Next was a butterfly the size of a dinner plate that Taylor could control. It had some kind of hypnotic pattern on its wings that put people to sleep.
The third one was a theoretical design of a Zerg Overlord with Terrazine Gas inside its balloon structures. The idea is that this would allow it to jump into the Void.
Then was a semi self-replicating resource gathering structure. One part Zerg Hive, one part Industrial Crab Hatchery, it would be easy enough to modify it to harvest any given materials you wanted to target while cleaning up the oceans. There was a cap on its possible growth included in the base design, and modifying it for other purposes would be straightforward enough.
The last one for this section was another Warframe design. This one was Valkyr Prime, the most heavily armored Warframe of them all. A fearsome melee combatant with a debilitating warcry ability and a grappling hook, this one was a ball of rage and close-quarters violence.
Snapping back to reality with the Ihan crystal in your hands and Popola putting your staff back on its rack on your lab's wall, the Android smiles at you. "Devola wanted to practice making sandwiches again. She will be back with lunch in a few minutes."
Your stomach growls at the idea of food, as was only expected when you had been in a fugue for several hours.
After using up the last charges of the alchemy circle it vanishes, if you want to use the more efficient conversions, you need to draw more as well as build more alchemic chalk, but for now, you are out.
One thing you forgot to consider is that anything Abathur based was also Biological, as such you need to spend less for it than you expect.
That said, the result looks much less appealing than you expected. Your goal with this addition to the forge is to allow you to make all the modifications and tinkering Abathur would be able to do.
For that you need Abathur, or his body to be more specific.
The finished modification looks just like his many limbs and gigantic maw are standing at the edge of the pool forming the Geneforge proper. And to use the parts you just had to command the new structure to do its thing, consume the organism, and then while inside its body add the zerg like modification you wanted to happen.
It had no sentience, you triple-checked that. But it still looks like freaking Abathur is standing right next to the most powerful biomanipulation tool in existence.
A harrowing thought, but it would be worth it.
Devola also assures you that she has some subroutines dedicated to watching that thing and it makes you feel somewhat calmer. You had explained to them what Abathur was in his home universe, and they were taking the potential threat seriously even though it appears to be entirely non-sapient. It was so nice having good help.
A lot less harrowing were the Terrazine tanks, creating the terrazine centrifuge was simple compared to most of the things you had built the last few weeks. A few tears in reality are induced through hyper-state atoms spinning at a rate of speed that leads to negative mass and then harvests the resulting tear in space-time into a solid state.
Really simple stuff.
Storing the gas in tanks was marginally harder as metals didn't want to cooperate with the gas, but the forge helped in that where you created fake stomachs that served as tanks for the gas through constant regeneration of their insides.
Now it is time to finally put all the upgrades you made to the Geneforge over the last few weeks to use.
The way you remember the Defilers being described was, basically, as a Zerg cancer factory. Inside their bodies, they carried the broken DNA strains of all the other Zerg units, and the Defilers mixed and mashed them to create toxins so powerful that they were capable of harming other Zerg. This process was so energy-intensive that the Defilers were known to cannibalize their fellow Zerg to fuel their metasynaptic nodes.
Now you're going to take one piece of the Defiler, and implant it into you.
In a safe way, of course.
At least you hope so.
You're like 99.9% sure that nothing bad will happen.
"I'm not going to say anything, Master Tony, but know that I disapprove," Popola tells you from over the control panel of the surgery bed. As your assistance, medic, and personal psychologist, she'll be in charge of supervising the process making sure you didn't miss anything.
"I appreciate that." And those are your last words before climbing on the operation table and leaving the anesthetics to do their job.
When you open your eyes again an hour has passed. Your arms feel numb but there's a persisting ache on the back of your skull. Like a soft electric current running from where the machine should have made the incision to insert the metasynaptic node. That feeling only lasts for a second, and then you're perfectly fine once again. You push yourself up and find Popola looking intensely at her console.
"So, how did everything go?" You ask her.
"Tony, how are you feeling?" She didn't say 'Master Tony'. She never calls you by your flat name. That's slightly worrisome.
"I-I'm fine?" You flex your fingers, turn your head from side to side, but everything seems to be in place.
"Come take a look at this."
You rush to her side.
On her screen, you see a scan of your head. A normal medic may have panicked by the seemingly cancerous growth that started spreading from the back of your skull. Instead of that, you panic because that one doesn't look like the cancerous growth that you wanted inside you. What happened to the metasynaptic node to make it look like that?
You receive the answer the moment you realize that another thing is missing.
"Where did the Zergling metabolic booster go?" It takes some effort not to shout.
"The two implants fused together. I tried to stop the process but this biology is too alien for me, and anything more invasive would have put you at risk. Please tell me you understand what's going on."
Yes, you do. Not fully, but the knowledge of the Shapers is helping you piece together the missing pieces. The picture they form both scares you and puts you in awe of the Zerg. There's a reason why they are some of the most advanced biological creatures in existence.
It all comes down to the Metasynaptic Node. The Zergling Metabolic Booster, which suppressed your need to sleep, was a patchwork of substitute DNA strains that fulfilled its job without being truly Zerg.
The Node was different.
That one was built with the help of both the Geneforge and the Primal Zerg Essence Pool. Evolving and adapting is what the zerg do best, and it seems that the Node decided to take some initiative of its own. Upon meeting a second organism with properties similar to its own, it did as Primal Zerg do: kill, absorb, and grow.
Thankfully, that's all it did.
"Are they still mutating?" Popola asks you, and you notice a faint trembling in her voice.
"No, they stopped." You don't know who's more relieved by that: her or you. "From what I'm seeing here, the two implants just combined and are carrying on with their tasks as a single organism. They won't grow anymore and should remain dormant as long as I don't modify them further."
For now, you're safe from unintended consequences, but if you want more implants it would be a good idea to do some independent research first.
Your original plan after the implantation was to rush to the training area to test your new powers.
Popola vetoed that idea.
You will still practice with your powers, yes, but in the medical ward under the watch of every single sensor available to her.
"Start whenever you're ready, Master Tony." It's so nice that she started calling you 'master' again.
…
That came out horribly wrong, but it just means that she's at ease once more. Also, you are so happy you didn't say that out loud.
You will be even happier once this test is over and you both confirm that the Metasynaptic Node doesn't have any other nasty surprises for you.
"I'm starting now."
You focus on the three pebbles in front of you. Just like last week, you imagine a bubble around them. A bubble containing your reality, a reality where the laws of physics follow your commands and no one else's. And now you gently will them to move to the--
There's a cracking sound as all three pebbles are reduced to fine dust.
That was not your intention.
"Master Tony! What happened?" Popola grabs a Caduceus Staff and comes to your side.
A short check-up later you confirm that the implant hasn't mutated and didn't act in unexpected ways. Quite the contrary it did exactly what it was supposed to do: increase your psionic powers.
"I'll need to start working on fine control again."
The Hybrids from Starcraft are impossible by the world's standards.
To form a Xel'naga it required a race that was pure in form and a race that was pure of essence. In layman's terms, it meant one who had reached the pinnacle of psionic power and another that reached the pinnacle of evolution.
That by itself is a contradiction, something with such an intense focus on psionic power needed to reach a point where the body becomes meaningless. And a being so focused on the body could never achieve the mental capabilities needed for the most advanced psionics.
Sure they could overlap. Psionic Zerg had some capabilities that they used for battle but they never developed it beyond what they thought appropriate for combat and evolution.
That was why Kerrigan was such a vastly powerful being as she had the best of both worlds. The Overmind's greatest creation, arguably the first Hybrid.
Amon's Hybrids were a spiritual successor of that. Only instead of Zerg and Humans, they merged Zerg and Protoss.
It was considered impossible by Abathur as inevitably the psionic potential would get lost.
Had you used the basic blueprint you got from the Starcraft tree you would have created a mere imitation of the Hybrid Reaver variant. Something that looks and acts like the true Hybrid but ultimately is hollow.
However with all the upgrades made to the Geneforge and all the preparation you are now ready to build the real thing.
You give Popola a single nod while she leaves Geneforge's room to leave you to your work.
As you and two clones step on the control platform the systems spring to life.
You are, in theory, able to have your clone work on different things but you didn't want to risk any mishaps so you decided to focus your full attention on this one task, the shadow clone is taking care of your social obligations while you do this.
For the first time, all the components of the Geneforge are turned on simultaneously.
With your first body, you command the essence that is being pumped into the room into the Abathur like body, inside you shape it by forcing evolution onto it in very specialized conditions. Again it escapes you what the essence is even becoming but you trust your power to shape it into what you want as the clump of essence slowly forms and becomes more, to become pure essence of form.
Your second body focuses on the Protoss aspect, their body simple and pure from all outside influence is easy to shape, but it's the mind that requires your personal attention. Terrazine gas flows into the room and with the psionic appendages of the Xel'naga upgrade you keep it in place, then the Khaydarin and Jorium crystals mix with the gas, and under the psi field generator, you shape this volatile mass into something more than a mind, into something pure of form anchored to the brain of the creature serving as a pseudo-Protoss.
The central body then takes both creations and merges them into one while the clones are constantly watching over any instabilities. And there are a lot of them. On a micro-scale, the combined creation is constantly trying to rip itself apart as the parts reject or try to consume each other.
It was a battle of a magnitude you didn't expect and you start to understand the sheer insanity Narud created in the original universe as the complexity of what you are creating by far exceeded anything you can even imagine.
However, suddenly it clicks. Right there inside of the madness a fusion of mind and matter happened. Seeing it you grab it and force it out of the unstable mass, gently as to not destroy it.
It is a small thing, barely the size of a mouse, but it holds, it's stable, and more than that, it thrives. Already the latent energy inside the room is being drawn into it and you can see it grow, not with your sensors but with your very own eyes, as tendrils of power from all over the room shoot towards it.
This creature already dwarfs your recently improved mind and body as you see it grow with your psionic eye.
If it survives the coming battles it would by far outlive any of those alive today.
That is why you decide it needs an equal.
Gently you take the newborn creation and split it into two, at first it resists you but it seems to somehow read your intentions as midway through the process it starts to assist you.
As the body separates so does the mind and, like a cell, the one creature becomes two.
Both of them greedily floating in the embrace of the forge.
Now for the next part. The power that they started to passively absorb from their surroundings. You let it flow freely.
First, the unstable mass you pulled the first one out was ripped to shreds and absorbed, then Biomass was flowing into the forge with full force, then Khaydarin, then Terrazine and Jorium.
All of it flew into the room as the duo absorbed it all and more. The vortex of matter and energy that formed around them started eating the very power of the room and, if not for the barrier between you and the rest of the room, it would have eaten you too.
More and more they absorb and grow, quickly outgrowing you.
But it was not enough, not yet.
As you watch the vortex of power surrounding the two Hybrid grows stronger. The Terrazine ruptures as it starts to lose cohesion and you see as rips in space appear and, from the void beyond those tears, they draw even more power. The tower walls start turning red, ceramic-like walls rupturing as the waste heat from the energy-draining and moving towards the center builds up.
You couldn't even see the Hybrid anymore with how dense the mass of energy and biomatter has become.
And it still wasn't enough.
Just a little more.
You ignite your own wellspring of power, as meager as it is, alongside you your clones do the same as all three of you lift your hands as psionic power bursts forth and then release it directly into the vortex of power as your most powerful psionic lightning.
That finally was enough as the flow died down and the last remnants of power were sucked into them.
Finally, you see them. Floating there, peacefully.
As you breathe heavily as the energy drain starts to make itself noticeable.
Only one last step to complete.
The clones already popped from the strain but you manage to give a last mental command as the pre-prepared Technocyte flows into the room towards the twins and grafts itself to their coarse, rough skin. You can still see their insides with the control panel and monitor as they integrate the material into their genetic code and have it shape a smooth, aesthetic exoskeleton that makes them look more like oversized Warframes than the Hybrid reavers they are.
As you are done you can't help but admire your work, the two gigantic beings floating in the air under the telekinetic grip of the forge, their creation so volatile that it nearly damages it.
Then they disappear, the teleporters carried them off to their containment zones.
As soon as that was done the door behind you opened. Popola burst into the room along with the two repair drones who started going around the room assessing the damage.
"Tony!" You can hear the concern in her voice. "What were you thinking?!"
"I..." that is how far you got before you fell over.
When you wake up again Popola is up and ready to scold you for your irresponsible actions.
"You could have been seriously injured for no gain! I know you planned to make two, but you didn't need to make them at the same time! We had it scheduled."
"I know, it's just, when I saw it, for some reason I needed to make it happen." Your excuse is, of course, ignored.
"Also all the time you thought you saved that way? Guess what? The repair robots will need just as much to repair the Forge as it would have taken you to make the second one." You can't do anything but take the verbal lashing.
After it's finally over you both teleport to the bio-section of the tower.
When you get there all the other Androids are already there staring at the hybrid, Devola with worry, 9S with something akin to confused awe, and 2B you couldn't read but her hand kept twitching.
And you understand why.
You feel them in their stasis chambers and, despite being time-locked, looking at them feels like you stand at the foot of a mountain.
And that was just your normal human feelings, your psionic sense tells a completely different story as you stand at the edge of a massive ocean, it's a calm ocean, unnaturally so, but no matter how deep you looked you couldn't make out anything.
You are shaken out of your trance as Salem forces her head into your hand. The fact that the Kavat has to stoop low to do it doesn't seem to bother the animal at all.
"Alright, let's wake them up." Your announcement is met with various stares but none of them stop you as you press the control panel.
As you lift the stasis you can feel their minds stir without prompting as their psionic presence becomes noticeable to everyone in the room. The ocean that is their minds awakens and small waves start to form on its surface, but you're unable to tell where one ends and the next begins.
With a heavy thud their massive clawed feet impact the ground, their many spiked tentacles start swinging as if in an invisible breeze, and their twitching limbs slowly start to move. 2B next to you is very tense, understandably so, even at her best, she wouldn't stand a chance against one of them.
Then as one, they both open their many eyes, they both remind you a little of Sangheili from Halo in the shape of their heads and legs.
Slowly they approach you and as they get close they get on all fours to be eye height with you, your two human ones to their multitude of alien ones.
"Tony, what are they doing?" 2B asks but you motion with your hand for her to stand down.
Slowly their massive forms, as big as Leviathan come within touching distance and, as they do, you place a hand on each of their heads.
As you do so you find yourself standing deeper in the shallow parts of the massive ocean that is their psionic presence.
The water was still calm, only a few ripples here and there. You take a step forward, and then another, and another. The water feels calm, not cold, but not warm either, it feels comforting.
Then it rises up and you are hit with the realization that it's not one ocean but two, there is a clear divide between them as two different streams engulf you.
Both of them however had a very clear destination in mind as you feel them flowing inside of you, becoming part of you.
You open your eyes again and notice that the glow of their eyes changed as did the feeling they give you. This part of them that you just received was a fraction of their psionic essence, a mark that put you as their… parent? Creator?
You don't know what to exactly call it but they imprinted on you.
They…
They need names.
[Hybrid Names] Amon
[Hybrid Names] Kerrigan
[Hybrid Names] Raynor
[Hybrid Names] Noatak
[Hybrid Names] Write-in.
'What is our purpose?' You hear their voice echo in your mind, and so do all the Androids judging by how they reacted.
You have to respond.
[Purpose] To serve as my shield.
[Purpose] To defeat my enemies.
[Purpose] To protect humanity.
[Purpose] To destroy the Endbringers.
[Purpose] Write-in.
The red-haired Android in front of you was wearing an impish smile. "Master Tony, your Bedroom is completely assembled. I am pleased to say Popola only stripped one screw when assembling the bed frame!"
"I guess that's probably better than I would have done, Tinker or not." You respond dryly. Still, one screw wasn't going to matter much either way. Worst case scenario they could use the Fabricator to make a new one if it became an issue. Walking out of your lab towards the bedroom, a yawn escapes you. The Tinkering has gone on long enough today, and tomorrow was going to be your next attempt at combining biotechnology together. You definitely could use some sleep ahead of that project.
"It does bring to mind another matter that we discussed, Master. Should we build out another few bedrooms for the Hebert family and other guests? We have space, and the material costs will be minor." Devola walked into the teleporter room with you after passing through the decontamination chamber, before you activated the system to move you to the newly assembled bedroom.
That was a good question. On the one hand, it would be good to have space provided for Taylor, Danny, Missy, or any other guests to stay the night. And it wasn't like you didn't have space.
You could fit the whole city in here if they were willing to live in a military-like barracks. And you disabled all the lasers and other death traps.
On the other hand, Danny was already going stir crazy on the Mothership as it was, and having them coming and going via Teleport would already be a minor pain unless they could get the PRT's permission to use whatever systems they had set up to disguise civilian identities.
[Home] Create a fully contiguous living area for the Heberts to live in.
[Home] Create several rooms connected by teleporters for the Heberts to live in.
[Home] Don't have the Heberts live in the Tower
[Home] Write-in.
This vote is irrelevant if the Heberts don't live in the Tower
[Transit] You'll ask the PRT to protect Danny and Taylor's identities as they leave via the Grace
[Transit] Just have them teleport into unoccupied areas of the shores.
[Transit] Write-in.
The first project you have planned this week is more of a test run, you want to see if you somehow can bridge the gap between the different branches of technology and connect them all into one platform.
As such you prepare computing components from all branches of tech available to you. Protoss, Human, Shaper, Orokin,...
You are ready to experiment!
You can now dedicate omake points to the experiment 'Computing project'. 5 per point given.
DC(20/40/70)
Voting Moratorium Length: 4 Hours
Voting Opens from Feb 23, 2021 at 5:15 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Hybrid Names
Purpose
Home
Transit
Computation Experiment Point Donation
QM Note:
Big thanks to Poli, Hydra, Magus, and Ibartolo for helping to make this absolute giant of a chapter possible.
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Threadmarks 81. Experimentation
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Mar 4, 2021
#12,369
Spoiler: Winning Vote
"Your names are Izanagi and Izanami." You tell them and before you the oceans shift apart.
"Your purpose is to be Protectors and Friends." You take some of your own water and take the concept of friends, of family into it before letting it flow into the oceans.
They both don't seem to fully understand the concept yet but you notice how both of them seem to… divert in a way, when you made them they were so equal that you couldn't differentiate them but already the two oceans shifted in color, Izanagi more blue while Izanami was going more purple.
You can also see a similar change in their carapace, maybe a desire for individualism?
"Naming them after creation gods, really?" 9S comments.
"Outside of Xel'naga the Hybrid are the closest beings to gods in the Starcraft universe." You explain, "And they are twins so it fits."
While you talk 2B seems to have a staring contest with Izanagi, all while Salem seems to have decided that the Hybrid is her new favourite climbing tree as she was making her way up its titanic body.
Izanami meanwhile has lost interest in the crowd and started exploring the room.
"When you shared the plans for the tower and what you are planning with this section I got an idea." 9S shows you a plan for the Bio section.
It's just as messy as you expect from Orokin construction but you still understand it.
"If this place is supposed to be homely for Bio creations, then why not make it just that? You could tear those walls down for easy access." He marks it on the map. "Then this ceiling," Another mark. "Then we could fill this area with water," another mark, "Then we could get some earth from the bottom of the bay in those places while punching some holes into the tower floors." Another mark and you are starting to understand what he suggests.
"You want to turn the bio section into a garden." Looking over the plans they all made sense. "This would take a bit of time but definitely is doable. Where would you get the flora from?"
"It's a work in progress." 9S scraches the back of his head. "But it will definitely help with keeping all future creations occupied."
Just as he said that you hear a crack, when you turn to it you find that Izanami ripped out a bit of wall and had frozen staring at the ceramic like substance in its claws, not even the tentacles were moving, as if the Hybrid had frozen in time.
Then he slowly put the section of wall back into its place.
It didn't hold of course and fell out shattering at its feet.
This is the day you learn that a Hybrid Reaver can look guilty.
Also 9S is probably onto something.
Quest:
Turn the bio-section of the tower into a garden.
3 Actions to change the walls
3 Actions to create the indoor Lake
? Actions to fill the area with plant life (Determine a method first)
With the Hybrid project a success beyond your initial expectations, you move to your next big project: the unification of all the different design philosophies you have built on. If this works as intended, all your different devices won't just be able to share information easily and in real time, but you'd also be able to combine them in new ways.
The idea of creating a structure that mixes the properties of the geneforge and the robotic bay into one makes you giggle in a way that many would call evil. Sadly that's a project that's far beyond your reach at this point, and that will remain impossible unless you find a way for all your devices to share the same 'language'.
Accessing the systems of the Orokin tower, you draw the blueprints for 4 specific inventions.
The first one is the easiest to sketch: the Servant Mind that the Shapers used to control their buildings and creatures. It's a small creature the size of a human head, with atrophied legs and almost its entire mass dedicated to its brain. Basically a biological supercomputer.
The next one is the Vitruvian, an Orokin device to record information and even raw thoughts. Also primarily organic, it's easy to understand thanks to the knowledge of the Shapers.
Sombra's Hacking Tool proves slightly more difficult to work with. You copy it from the Ihan all right, and you know that it will work, but without access to the Overwatch TechTree you have problems fully understanding how each component works.
And finally it's the Ihan crystal itself, that you keep close to you.
With all those technological marvels on screen, you get to work.
Your progress goes slow, but steady.
After the Servant Mind, the Ihan crystal proves to be the easiest one to work with. The incredibly complex silicate chains it's made of reminds you of organic chains, and careful examination reveals a series of hair-width tubes running through all the length of its crystalline body. If you're correct, these tubes are like the veins of a biological creature, with the difference that instead of transporting blood they transport pulses of energy. Like optical fibres, now that you think about it.
You focus on that.
Creating an organ that can read those pulses proves easy enough. The next step is translating those pulses of energy in a way that both the Servant Mind, and the organic computers of the Orokin tower can understand.
Once again you're reminded of the amazing properties of Khaydarin. The Ihan Crystal seems to understand your intentions and starts generating a series of rhythmic pulses. You don't have a fully realized Servant Mind (just the model in the computer) but the crystal-organic interface is easy enough to build. You link one end to the Tower, and the other to the Ihan.
The result is… well, if you were to make an analogy, you'd say that it's as if two people from different countries tried to have a conversation. And if they thought that the only way for the other party to understand them would be to shout louder.
You do your best to help them.
You fine-tune the energy receivers, create extra channels to speed the communication up, and write lines and lines of code doing your best to interpret the information being received from the Ihan. And then you get a brilliant idea. The answer is the device you've been using to upload blueprints directly from your brain to the Ihan. After all, you have a biological-crystal interface right there!
That does the trick.
Using it as a bridge, the Tower can link with the Ihan as if it was a human brain. The result is spectacular! You get access to all your stored blueprints directly from the tower. This way you won't need to copy them by hand into your computers before you start working on them, and will save a lot of time.
Sadly you still don't have a way to link the crystals to electronics, or electronics to biology, but this is a promising start.
Preparing the parts for Tiamat was less exciting than you expected it to be. You can't create her in one go like you did with the Hybrid as you had a lot of parts that needed individual attention.
All in all it isn't a very hard experiment.
The Hybrid was harder.
First you prepare the individual bits.
Abathur's parts are sections similar to those you created for the forge. A braindead set of bio tools.
Then the Broodmother parts are created in a similar fashion. This time you instead create a full one separated from her nervous system so that you can use the biomass and zerg high mutation rate as materials.
For the Android parts you need a little more time as you can't just create them in the forge yet the result of the computing experiment simplifies the process.
The Zerg Larva is basically a flick of the finger and you already created the Metasynaptic Node and Titania once so it's less tinkering and more pressing Copy and Paste.
With the parts created it is time for the actual assembly.
You wonder how she will turn out.
Tiamat will have two separate experimentation rolls so you can contribute using Omake points to either one.
[Tiamat Psionic Omake Bonus]
[Tiamat Mind Omake Bonus]
You call Missy's PRT phone with the press of a hologram button on your beads, and she answers on the second ring. "Hey Tony, what's going on?"
"Missy" You greet her, a smile on your face that she can probably hear in your voice. "I'm almost done making the Canister for you."
"Oh! What kind of things will I get! Can you make me build those..."
She stops as you cut her off. This is not a conversation you want happening on the PRT's phones, even if they will find out eventually. "Not yet. I have some options picked out for you, but some of it needs the tools to build the tools. So I need you to swing by the Tower and talk over some options in person."
"Right! I have two hours till my patrol, so I'll come right over." You're not sure if she gets the subtext of you cutting her off or not. Girls could be weird like that.
Regardless, she is clearly excited to expand her options, understandably so. With her already in costume and using her warping to make it to the Teleporters in record time, she shows up in your base in only a few minutes, which you're pretty sure is some kind of a land speed record.
"So what's first! Can I make those adorable squeaky drones? How about big guns? Oh, or maybe some bombs, you have to have those, right?" She's practically bouncing off the walls she's so excited.
"It only has room for a limited number of designs. But yes, I can do all of those to one extent or another." You respond with a shrug. "It just depends on what you want to build first. Remember it all still has to pass the Tinker review board."
"Good point. Best to start smaller, then work our way up. So let's start with some smaller weapons, then expand out from there."
Decide what to tinkertech to give Missy in the form of a canister.
[Missy Canister]2B's Suggestions
- Evasive System Chip
- Moving Speed Up Chip
- NFCS
- Type-4O Sword
- Upgrade a Plug-in Chip to work on Humans
[Missy Canister] Option two: Drones!
- Singularity Spider Mines
- EMP Spider Mines
- Stasis Spider Mines
- Sentry
- Pod B Protoss Repair Drone Hardened Shield Generator Stasis Rifle
[Missy Canister] Weapons of mass destruction are always little girls so why not lean into it?
- Mecha Zerg Larva
- Mothership
- Mirage
- Mecha-Wiggler Segment
- Singularity Spider Mines
[Missy Canister] Combat Capable
- Mecha Zerg Larva
- NFCS
- Type-4O Blade
- Singularity Spider Mines
- Graviton Disruptor Rifle
[Missy Canister] 9S's suggestions
- Upgraded Sombra Hacking Interface for tinkertech
- Blink Band (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)
- Warp Blade
- Ghost Visor
- Super Boots
[Missy Canister] Little girls like consumables as much as anyone!
- Mini Mushroom
- Red Star (flight)
- Super Bell (peak human)
- Double Cherry (make Cherry Clone)
- Combine2P.ups!
[Missy Canister] Write-in. Plan's only for this please.
The most difficult part of building an organic Caduceus Staff, is that technology and biology can't be simply replicated one to one. Something as simple as an on-off switch needs a lot of careful thought put into it. You opt for a gland that, when stimulated, releases a chemical that orders the staff's biology to release the healing energy. This is how you recreate the trigger mechanism, and using a similar method you create a selector to choose between the healing and boosting modes.
Funny enough, reproducing the LCD screen proves to be the easiest part. It's just a more advanced version of a chameleon skin. The problem then is linking it to the on-board brain that reads the patient's status.
It's all a very slimy, squishy, bloody affair. You need to add some extra odds and ends to the Geneforge to help you, and it's starting to get a bit crowded with all the extra arms that the Abathur-section controls.
Once you are done, what you have that resembles the thorn batons that the Shapers used as weapons. If it had been designed by HP Lovecraft, that is.
The thing in your hands… it's kind of disgusting to look at.
It looks like a femur surrounded by palpitating red veins. A protective chamber of bone and keratin houses the partially exposed brain, and a single cat-like eye rests just at the end of the shaft, searching for targets to heal, boost, or revive.
You can't show this to the PRT. Fear of biotinkers aside, a lot of patients would just faint at the sight of this thing. You probably would if you hadn't been the one to build it.
But you have a solution for this.
One inspired by Taylor. You're just going to give it a concealing armor of smoot plastic-like exoskeleton. It will hide all the squishy bits and leave it looking like just a regular Caduceus.
But first you need to test it. You don't want to do through the arduous work of giving it the exoskeleton only to realize that you made a mistake. Like the heart you installed not being able to bear the brunt of all the systems and stopping upon activation.
That would be bad as it would mean that the heart of the patient would stop too.
At the end of the room you have a literal guinea pig inside a cage. The first test is also the less invasive one, you just aim the biological staff at it to confirm that it can read the rodent's biology. The eye immediately 'locks into' the small animal, and the chameleon screen pulsates giving you a summary of the guinea pig's health. He remains healthy so far, but that's about to change.
Picking a knife up, you clench your teeth and stab it in one of its paws. "I'm sorry!" You tell the creature who starts shrieking and thrashing inside its cage.
You aim the caduceus staff at your victim and press the gland in charge of the healing beam. The staff's heart starts palpitating rapidly as the veins engorge with a yellow liquid. The beam bursts from the end of the staff and connects to the guinea pig. It's a relief when the wound closes and the shrieking stops.
A quick scan later confirms that the rodent is back at full health and that there are no cancerous or zerg growths to worry about.
The boosting function proves also to be working as expected, and so does the revival function, tested via means that you don't want to think too hard about.
You will make sure that poor guinea pig ends up in a good home after what it went through.
Of course, you still need to test the new staff on humans, but that's something you don't worry about too much for now. This is still Brockton Bay after all so you feel you'll get ample opportunity for that soon enough.
With that done, you dismantle your personal staff. With the individual pieces scattered all over the table, you replicate them in biological chitin that you then attach to your new and improved biological staff.
No one will be able to tell that the new staves are in any way different from the old ones. At least not without breaking one apart.
Voting Moratorium Length: 2 Hours
Voting Opens in Mar 4, 2021 at 4:45 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Tiamat Psionic Omake Bonus
Tiamat Mind Omake Bonus
Missy Canister
Rolls for next chapter:
Tiamat Psionic Experimentation
Tiamat Mind Experimentation
Weekly Event
Wards Patrol
QM Note:
Lots of Rolls this chapter. I'm excited about what could happen next.
Last edited: Mar 4, 2021
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Threadmarks 82. This is fine.
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Mar 14, 2021
#12,419
Spoiler: Winning Vote & Rolls
With the parts created and ready it was time for assembly. You think about how that makes it sounds awfully like a car instead of a living, breathing being.
While you have most of the individual sections created the assembly itself was… strange.
It isn't just grafting the parts into a working whole as the mental functions of the Androids, Abathur, and Broodmothers are fundamentally different from each other.
So you need a base to work with.
A single cell you take from your own body floats in the middle of the Genefroge as you hear the systems starting one after the other.
The prepared components were floating around you in a strange display of organic and crystalline beauty.
Everything is ready.
And with a psionic spark, the cell ignites to life.
Zerg Biomass, Technocyte, and Khaydarin all flow to it and create a new cell type that connects harmoniously with all the materials needed.
You then feed that cell energy and watch it multiply, growing from nothing into a tiny embryo just before it grows its first organs.
Then you add the parts of the other creatures.
Just combining them could lead to rejection, instead what you do is create a dimensional lense through the Xel'naga components of the forge.
The lense expands around the embryo until it is surrounded in a bubble of psionic energy. From the outside you see it fracture like a Kaleidoscope, you see all the many ways it can develop and what it can become.
It is a hypnotizing spectacle of possibility.
Yet you could clearly feel though the forge that on the inside, in your psionic grip, it is unchanged as the change has yet to happen.
You then press the first part, the Zerg Broodmother, against the lense. As it passes the outer layer the possibilities become reality. The fracture in time takes the offered creation and makes it so as if the embryo was born with them.
The Broodmother vanishes from your grip, inside the egg of fractured reality your creation becomes whole as you put the parts into their desired places.
One part after the other is split through the lense, fractured from reality like glass and recreated in the organism, be it organic or crystalline.
With the experience you gained during the computing project, the act of combiningAndroid parts, Technocyte, and Zerg organs is seamless to the point where an outside observer shouldn't even be able to differentiate each branch of technology.
Slowly but surely the embryo takes the form of a humanlike being and, around her, the body of the broodmother takes shape, as if you are building a biological armored walker around her.
After you finish her in her entirety a spark of power ignites her biology and brings her to life. Looking into her body everything seems to be in order.
You then separate her from her larger shape and send the mental command to teleport her and her bio walker to their pods.
Just as she is teleported away, out of the corner of your eye you see a strange light blue mist where she was but, just as you look in that direction, it seems to be gone.
Checking the internal camera on your beads you find nothing.
You assume that you just imagined things as you leave the forge to wake up Tiamat.
The way you envisioned her, Tiamat was going to look like a mix of A2 if she had been the Queen of Blades. Not that different from the Tiamat from Fate if you consider that angle: a human at first glance, even if with some clearly monstrous human features.
The being inside the pod does fit that profile, even if she doesn't look like the mental picture you had of her.
This final version is covered in chitinous armor, has claws instead of hands, and a pair of horns atop her head that look like the antennae of a bug. So far so good. The problem is that she's even shorter than you, her vaguely human face making her look like an eleven year old girl.
Why did this happen? Did you make a mistake while in the incubation process? Does she need more time in development?
Your power doesn't provide a clear answer as Tiamat is so unique, maybe the first creature of her kind that the entities ever met.
It's a bit risky, but if you want to know if your experiment was a success, you have no other option but to wake her up.
You start the activation sequence and the liquid inside the pod starts draining. Any moment now a soft shock will kickstart Tiamat's higher cognitive functions allowing her to-
Her eyes open wide and fall directly on you.
She then rares her first back and punches the glass. It did nothing as the stasis pod was designed to take far worse.
Then your psionic sense register a dramatic rise in power as you see her surrounded in her own psionic glow, her eyes glowing purple as do her fists. She then hits the wall again this time with a massive boost of psionic power behind it.
It still did nothing.
Then she backs away to the other end of her containment pod, again igniting her psionic energy.
You are about to stop her but suddenly from your beads you get an alert.
'VOID ENERGY SURGE DETECTED' This came from the tower systems, meaning it meant the Warframe Void. You turn back to Tiamat just in time to see her purple glow increase and, for a fraction of an instant, she becomes a surge of void energy moving towards the wall with her fist raised and releasing psionic power.
There's a crashing sound as Tiamat punches through the wall of the pod, her velocity carrying her to the other end of the room.
She then pounces at you as if she was a feral cat. Her claws dig into your shoulders, the momentum making you two roll on the floor. Once you finally come to a stop she speaks.
"Who am I?! Where am I?! What is my purpose in life?!" She demands with a screeching voice.
This was not how you planned your first meeting to go.
You flap your mouth open and close, not sure how to react to that. "Your name is Tiamat." You swallow. "And I created you?"
She gasps as she lets go of you. "My Queen!" She steps away from you, grabs you by the neck of your shirt, and pulls you up to your feet. "Let me help you." She tries to fix the wrinkles of your shirt but her claws are just tearing the fabric. You gently push her away.
"It's okay. I'm fine."
"Of course, of course. As if a lowly creature such as I could hurt the magnificence that is the Queen!"
Why is she calling you that? You aren't even female!
"I'm not really-"
She ignores you, taking a knee. "Now command me, my Queen! What misbegotten being do you wish your servant to break and drag before your presence?" She sounds uncomfortably cheerful as she says that.
"Nono! I created you to go into the world and learn from it."
"A spy! Of course." She brings her hands together as a mischievous smile draws on her face. "I will infiltrate their society, learn their customs, and then replace their leaders with puppets ready to listen to your every command. I'll start immediately!"
Is she even listening to what you're saying?
"Wait, no!"
Just at that moment Popola comes in. "Master Tony, I heard as sound and-" She stops on a dim as she glances at the newcomer. "Who is this?"
Tiamat makes her best impression of a deer under the headlights of a car as she mechanically raises a palm. "Hello, fellow human! It is I! Tia! A perfectly normal and harmless little girl!"
That is so wrong on so many different levels. And Popola seems to share your opinion as she blinks in confusion.
Well, time for introductions.
"Popola, this is Tiamat. Tiamat, this is Popola. She isn't actually a human but an android."
Tiamant seems to relax with that, her bravado returning to her. "Ah, a minion. Very well, minion Popola, from here on you can refer to me as The Great and Powerful Tia!"
Popola throws you a sidelong glance, maybe wondering if this is an elaborate prank. "I don't think I will?"
"How dare you! As the Queen's greatest and most loyal creations, it is your purpose to listen to my every command!"
Okay, for your next creation you should seriously consider a 'mute' button.
Popola walks to you and grabs you by the arm. "Master Tony, can I talk to you for a second?" You don't resist as she drags you away. "Tony, what did you do?"
You fidget with the neck of the shirt that Tiamat ripped. How to explain this in a way that doesn't sound too embarrassing? "She was a new experiment I started to see if I could mix the properties of an android with zerg biology, and Technocyte gluing everything together. Plus several other things thrown into the mix." By most accounts this was a tremendous success. Tiamat is a superior being that mixes the best that multiple universes have to offer. There were just some 'hiccups' along the way. "I wasn't expecting her to be like that."
You aren't sure if androids can have headaches but Popola certainly looks to be suffering one as she massages the side of her head. "Okay, between Devola and I we should-" She looks back at Tiamat. Or better said, at the place where Tiamat was a moment ago but no longer is. "Where did she go?"
This can't be good.
Finding Tiamat should have been a walk in the park. The entirety of the Tower is lined with multiple batteries of sensors and systems designed to find and track any intruder. On top of all that, you have at your disposal some of the best hackers and scouts that Nier had to offer. So why is finding her so infuriatingly hard?! She isn't showing up on radar. Not even the Observer can track her location. And so you had no other option but to assemble your androids and go search for her manually. Even the Hybrids joined in the hunt.
"Everyone, status report!" You yell into your communicator.
"2B reporting in. No sights of her in the gardens."
"This is Popola, Master Tony. Tiamat isn't in the residential area."
"Devola here. There are no signs of her having exited the facility."
Small mercy that. As long as she remains in the tower any problem that she causes should be easy to contain.
"Okay, keep looking," You reply. "And what about you, 9S? Anything to report?"
Only silence comes from his line.
"9S?" You insist. "9S, are you there?"
You release a sigh when his communicator comes to life. "I'm here, Tony. I found her. You should come and see for yourself."
His tone does nothing to reassure you and you rush to his location: the chamber where you installed the primal Zerg essence pool. You dread to think what Tiamat could be doing there.
You reached your destination and upon crossing the threshold you find yourself stumbling. It's thanks to 9S grabbing you by the armpits that you don't smash your nose against the ground.
Ground…
That is covered in a mushy organic carpet.
There are several concentric circles of multicolored moss with the essence pool in the middle. How did this happen? Why weren't you alerted when stuff started growing from the pool?
"The moss is feeding directly from the biological material of the walls," 9S explains as if reading your mind. "That's why we didn't detect all this. The sensors read it as part of the structure of the tower."
You make a mental note to fully upgrade those systems later, but for now there are more important things to worry about. Like Tiamat, who's kneeling next to the pool and staring intensely at a frog that's half-submerged in the liquid. You may have called the image 'cute' if that wasn't a zerg frog the size of your head.
"Tiamat!" You try to reach for her but she stops you with a raised palm.
"My Queen! I'll be with you in a moment."
Before you can formulate another question, the rest of the androids arrive with the Hybrids in tow.
"Master Tony! What is-"
"Minion Popola!" Why does Tiamat have to be so loud? "I demand silence! This foolish creature dared to challenge the great and powerful Tia! I'll show it who the superior specimen is!"
Is she talking about the frog? You did give her the mind of a broodmother. Does that mean that she considers the zerg frog an enemy from a rival hive?
Whatever their relationship may be, their staring competition reaches an abrupt end when the frog blinks. First with one eye and then with the other.
"Aha!" Tiamat jumps to her feet. "You were a mighty adversary, but you felt short against Tia!" The frog doesn't resist as she picks it up. "Because of that you have relinquished all rights to your biological material that I'll proceed to absorb!"
Is she about to do what you think she's about to do?
"Master Tony," Popola pokes your shoulder. "Please talk to her. She'll listen to you."
You're too shocked to articulate any words. At least Tiamat doesn't look as enthusiastic with the idea of eating the frog as she sounded a moment ago. If anything, she looks quite disgusted as she scowls the closer the animal gets to her mouth. She pulls her tongue out as if to tentatively try its taste, but the moment her tongue gets in contact with the frog, its back starts glowing a neon blue.
Your psionic senses flare in recognition as a potent electrical discharge jumps from the frog and into Tia.
The girl screams in pain and falls back, letting the frog go, who proceeds to swim back into the depths of the essence pool.
"Curse you!" Tia yells, raising a fist. "You may have bested me now but my vengeance shall be terrible! Terrible, I tell you!" And then she lets her arm fall to the side, too tired to continue with—with whatever all this was.
Okay, you'll pick her up, take her back to the lab, and have a long talk with her about all the do's and don'ts around the tower.
You were very much not ready for any of this.
"Eh, Tony?" 9S calls for you. "We may have a problem here."
Slowly you turn around while a chill runs down your back, dreading whatever else you may find.
It's the hybrids.
One of them is nibbling at 9S' hand, leaving him covered in bite-marks and saliva.
The other flares the tentacles from his back, waving them in 2B's direction. "Don't even dare," She threatens, reaching for her sword.
Oh, no.
They're imitating what they saw Tiamat do.
What have you done?
"Missy," You start as she picks up her phone, "Your canister is ready. Swing by my lab and we can give your new stuff a test run."
"Awesome! I'm on my way." The girl responded enthusiastically.
A few minutes later Missy was standing in your lab, visor off but wearing her costume otherwise. A bag slung over her shoulder contained some materials she had spent the last few days gathering. Nothing fancy, but the couple laptops, a few dead cellphones and a large 1980's Boombox would be converted to fabricator stock for her to build with. That showed a level of thought that most twelve year olds would not have put into this.
Plus, it was nice of her to think of your budget.
After unloading her bag into the hoppers, you had handed her the canister that had just come out of the mixer. After opening it, she was now eyeing the large soda can sized container with uncertainty bordering on disgust.
That was fair enough, you figured. After all, it was full of a dull brown gunk that looked like the unfortunate love child of a muddy puddle and a protein shake. "Are you sure this is the right stuff, Tony?" She asked dubiously.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Loaded it up with some of the coolest explosives and robots I had. There's a surprising amount of crossover in those categories." You respond dryly.
She looks into it again before sighing and downing the can in one ten second long pull, and you handed her the glass of water you had set aside for the purpose of washing her mouth out. She drank that too, if anything faster than the first, before sitting on the chair you had set up next to the workbench.
"Whoa, my head feels really weird." She says, grabbing the arm rests of the chair as her head sways.
"That's normal. The information is integrating into your brain. Give it a minute." You reply, Popola standing next to her with your staff, golden beam linked to her in case it was needed. The Android looked at you and shook her head, indicating that no healing was needed at the moment.
Grabbing the jorium trinket from its case in the corner, you carefully slide its chain over her head and step back, looking her over with concern. Your power said it was normal to be disoriented during integration, but this should pass in a minute or two.
Missy slowly comes out of the slump, now able to hold her head upright and speak in complete sentences again. "Ok, that wasn't very fun at all. How do I use this new stuff in my head?" She asked, clearly trying to put the embarrassment behind her.
"Well, first thing first, notice the new necklace you're wearing?" You ask her seriously.
"Yes?" Missy picks the slightly glowing crystal up off her chest, eyeing it curiously.
"That is there to protect your mind from mental side effects. The side effects of these canisters can be significant, as you would expect from downloading a bunch of tinkertech into your brain."
She winces but remains silent, watching you seriously.
You look her in the eye. "You need to wear that for most of the next few days. It will counter everything it will put out. You don't need it twenty four hours a day, but wear it as much as you possibly can." You pause and wait for her to respond.
"Got it. I can wear it to sleep, around my house and at training easily. That should be sixteen hours a day. Is that enough?" She asks. At least she's taking the issue seriously, by all appearances.
"That should be fine." You nod, then guide her over to the fabricator. "So this is one of my main tools. It essentially builds things for you at a nearly atomic level, you just have to tell it what to build." You spend a few more minutes teaching her how to do that, but ultimately using the design software is fairly easy. Kid Win and Armsmaster had both picked it up quickly, after all.
"Now that you know roughly how to program things in, try thinking about building something. Start with a robot spider that releases an emp blast." You don't even finish the sentence before her eyes glaze over and her hands start moving. Huh. That was a little odd to see from the outside.
Soon her first EMP Spider Mine rolls off the metaphorical conveyor belt. Popola and you share a look.
This was a good day.
Popola tapped you on the shoulder, breaking you from your fugue for a moment as she pinged an email from Armsmaster for your attention. "Master Tony, the Chinese government appears to have spies in Brockton Bay."
That was an accurate summary of Armsmaster's email. They didn't know who or what powers or where, but intercepted CUI communications clearly indicated that there was a CUI reconnaissance team in the city.
"Thanks Popola. First that breaker tries out the Tower's defenses and now this?" You rub your face. Maybe it was time for sleep? The new lab was only a teleport away from your bedroom. You had placed it there for a reason.
"Some sleep will do you some good, Master." Devola says from across the room, and her sister nods. "Hypothetical Chinese spies can wait for the morning, and you have your patrol tomorrow anyway."
[Spy Game] Just wait for them to come to inevitably come to you.
[Spy Game] Try and use your observers to locate them with their scanners.
[Spy Game] Try and have the androids locate them through a tech footprint.
[Spy Game] Try and have the hybrids locate them using psionics.
[Spy Game] Write-in.
Preparing the energy test was a little boring if you are honest with yourself.
Well, it is less energy and just many forms of exotic matter and energy from different universes and testing their interactions.
You prepare separate rooms for every test and also cut off the dimensional and space warping to make the experiment clean as possible.
Preparing the materials is fairly simple with the exception of Dragon energy and Terrazine as you have no clear methods of creating it besides in creatures through the forge.
So you do just that by creating something similar to a tiny Overlord that is filled with the Gas. You can then release it, on command, through a filter that makes sure no biological particles are inside of it.
After you prepared it they kind of just float around so you deposit them in the garden for now.
With that out of the way, the scanners ready, and Popola at your side you are ready to test!
"I have to ask, why a cat?" The first casual words you hear from Aegis during the patrol.
"Because cats are cute, and cuddly."
"Is that really the only reason?" You could imagine the raised eyebrow with the way he turned his head towards you.
"It was either a cat or a dog, but the cat won on the base of being more of 'calm cuddly' instead of 'will run you down and leave gallons of droll on you'."
That got a giggle out of him. Taylor was suspiciously quiet.
The calm of the patrol got interrupted as gunshots sounded in the distance.
"Aegis to console!" He taps his communicator trying to raise the base. "Aegis to console! Do you copy console?" The only thing that comes from the other side is static silence.
"Are we being jammed?" You venture, gritting your teeth.
"I don't know." As he finishes those words, another explosion rumbles at the distance.
"Let me go investigate." Taylor offers. "I can scout ahead with my bugs."
But your leader rejects the idea. "No. This could be a trap and you two are still inexperienced." He slowly raises up, his feet leaving the ground. "I'll be back in a minute. Keep your heads down until I'm back." And then he lifts off.
"Inexperienced?" You hear Taylor muttering under her breath. "I was there rescuing people from Bakuda and then from Leviathan."
"I know but I have no experience on the street. He must want you here to keep an eye on me."
"Of course because you're the important one." The bitterness in her voice makes you flinch. She realizes it, and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. It's just that you're there in your literal Ivory tower making deals with the mayor, while I'm still here signing posters when the PR department lets me."
"You speak about the tower as if it's a purely good thing." You remark. "Don't forget that not even a week after it was finished there was already a break in attempt. I draw attention, and not just the good kind."
"Sorry, I know its stupid of me." Taylor says dejected, "I know what you went through because of your powers, but I went through the same, yet it feels as if I get the short end of the stick."
At first you want to argue that is not true but thinking about it, basically everything you went through Taylor also suffered.
In a way most of those things happened because of you, even if they would have happened in a different way without you.
"I..." It happens too fast.
The only evidence you get before the attack is a shimmering by the corner of your eyes. Four objects. Each one no bigger than a grown man's fist. The moment of confusion passes as the grenades detonate.
There are sparks.
Your eyes burn with the flash and your ears ring.
Your plasma shield should have protected you, but the EMP dropped it to zero and your belt is beeping trying to reboot.
The spots of black and white that surround you slowly take shape once again and you find Taylor next you you. She looks dazed, just as you. She tries to reach for you but then there's another person next to her. He swings a baton aiming at her head, but Taylor manages to push herself out of the way.
Even while half-deaf, you still manage to hear Taylor's scream as the baton impacts her arm with a sickening crunch.
A cloud of bugs swarm the man's position, but she disappears as she phases down into the ground.
It's the breaker. The one who tried to infiltrate the tower.
You scramble for your staff. If you heal Taylor you two will be able to put up a better defense.
A hand closes around your wrist and throws you against a dumpster.
This is a new man. Someone who you haven't seen before. And suddenly he isn't there anymore.
Where did he go?
"Your right!" Taylor yells at you. "He's-" Whatever else she's about to say gets silenced as the breaker materializes at her back. He delivers a quick hit to the back of her knee and disappears once again before the bugs can surround her.
Something hits you in the back of the head.
It's the breaker's partner. A stranger? He grabs your arms and twists.
Taylor forces herself up to her feet. Tries to get to you. She goes down gasping for air when a baton hits her ribcage.
You need to get free!
You need to save Taylor!
Your tech still hasn't rebooted!
You need an option!
Your psionic senses flare.
You feel the lingering energy of the EMP blast swirling around the tips of your fingers.
[Ambush!] Use the Energy! Psionically attack your attackers.
[Ambush!] Use the Energy! Send out a Psionic SoS.
[Ambush!] Let go of the Energy. Ignite the Warp blade and do this the old fashioned way.
[Ambush!] Let go of the Energy. Bide your time, there's no way they can hide your location.
[Ambush!] Write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 4 Hours
Voting Opens in Mar 15, 2021 at 1:00 AM
Votes for next chapter:
Spy Game
Ambush!
Rolls for Next Chapter
Terrazine interaction with Pym Particles
Psionic Energy interaction with Pym Particles
Terrazine interaction with Elder Dragon Energy
Pym Particles interaction with Elder Dragon Energy
Psionic Energy interaction with Elder Dragon Energy
Pym Particles interaction with Khaydarin Crystals
Elder Dragon Energy interaction with Khaydarin Crystals
QM Note:
I'm trying to make the villains seem a little less passive. On top of your low Patrol roll, how about this :p.
Also, I'm going to resolve the outcome of the kidnapping attempt narratively, so don't worry about rolling for it.
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Apr 15, 2021
#12,470
Spoiler: Winning Vote
In the frantic chaos of the situation, with both yours and Taylor's lives at risk, you come to a decision.
It's a split second where you let your raw emotion take hold of you, and open the floodgates. The world around you changes as your will shapes it, and power bound by your mind takes physical form.
Sparks of lightning roll off of you like a cloak of thorns, forcing the Stranger to let go as burns appear all over his body as if they were the scars of a whip.
Your body is lifted in the air and your eyes gain an unearthly blue shine under your visor.
You see a veil going over your attack as he backs away, using his power to mask his presence, but the fear in his mind makes him visible to your inner eye.
Then, in an instant, you unleash your power.
Blue arcs of energy burst forth towards your attacker, destroying everything in their path.
The asphalt melts, chunks of the ground explode, the sidewalk is ripped out chunk by shattered chunk. Energy impacting the Stranger carries his twitching body towards the store window of an empty shop, the assault shattering it and setting the shop and the man on fire as the glass bursts and the insides are reduced to charcoal.
Where once was a rebuilt street, there is now melting rubble.
And where there once was fear, now there is not.
His body is like a piece of paper burning into the wind. Flesh and bone are rendered asunder, first turning into ash, and then into nothingness.
With your first target down, you then turn to the second one. The now familiar color of fear washes over the forefront of your mind, and you launch your attack.
But most of your power has already been spent.
Your nervous system aches, like an untrained muscle pushed to its limit. You may have tested your Psionic powers in the safety of your lab before, but no test can compare to the strain of reality.
You feel your control slipping. Fearing hurting Taylor, you send your attack purposely off-course. The discharge is enough to leave the Breaker winded, but not enough to incapacitate him. He shifts into the ground, and flees the scene at a tremendous speed. You try to keep track of him using your enhanced senses, but the effort has taken its toll on you. You feel your power leaving your grasp, and with it your consciousness.
Darkness claims you.
But only for a moment.
"Come on, come on!" You hear Taylor's voice mixed with the now familiar sound of the Caduceus Staff working.
The exhaustion leaves your shoulders. You open your eyes, everything you see if blurry but it's only a matter of seconds before it comes into focus.
"Are you alright?" You ask her.
Her answer is to drop the Caduceus and lock you in a hug.
She's fine. That's what matters.
Pushing yourself up, you look at your surroundings. Did you do that? It looks as if Lung and Hookwolf had been duking it out inside that alley. And one of the attacks that did that, was aimed at a human.
"The Stranger!" You gasp. "Where is he?"
You need to heal him. Or, worst case scenario, revive him. In a perverse way, you hope you need to revive him. Depending on how long you were out he could have spent minutes burning alive, and if he died it would be less time experiencing that pain.
You wanted him to stop hurting you and your family, not to be dead or worse.
Taylor's expression turns grim. Without saying a word, she directs your attention at the wall across the alley.
You choke in horror and vomit.
You had seen bodies like that. Most of them during the Leviathan fight. That doesn't make it any easier, after all it was you that did that. In a moment of panic you did to a person what you had only seen endbringers do. A glance is all you need to know that the Caduceus won't be able to revive him.
Remembering your last thoughts, the remaining bile in your mouth turns to ash and your words fail you, but you don't need them as that's when Aegis returns.
"Arachne! Horizon!" His eyes scan your surroundings, landing firmly on the remains of the cape that attacked you. "What happened here?"
The ticking of the clock hanging from the wall feels like nails being hammered into the back of your skull.
Taylor is sitting to your right. And to hers is Aegis.
In front of you is Armsmaster. In his hands he has the report you three wrote on the incident earlier that day. About how the Empire 88 caused a distraction to force your group to split up. About how Aegis failed to find you after returning to your previous position, and how the alley only reappeared after the Stranger was killed.
How he was burnt alive.
Like Bonesaw's abominations that you killed using the Typo 40 Sword. Both killed with electric discharges. But while the purpose of the Sword was to trigger the creatures' self-destruct chip, this time it was all you.
The PRT forensic team must be scrapping the man's remains off of the walls as you sit there.
After what feels like hours, Armsmaster sets the paper down. "This shouldn't have happened."
"Of course it shouldn't!" Taylor yells. Armsmaster does nothing but stare back at her, and Aegis is the one who eases her back to her chair. "We were almost killed back there. If not worse."
Or worse, yes.
At least this time no one was implanted with deadly parasites.
"We underestimated our enemies' tenacity and willingness to antagonize the Protectorate," Armsmaster replies, keeping his calm before the irascible teenager. "We never considered the threat of a kidnapping attempt as serious."
"The same way you didn't consider the threat of a Slaughterhouse 9 attack as serious?"
Your fingers curl and your nails dig into the handles of your chair.
You did consider the 9 a serious threat. You did prepare for them. And even then it almost wasn't enough.
Once again it's Aegis who has to calm her down. "Arachne, please, lower your voice. You're still talking to a superior officer." His voice sounds as if he's physically pushing the words out of his mouth. He has been distracted during this whole conversation. Aloof. As if thinking about something else. You wonder what it could be. His failure to protect you, maybe?
Taylor sulks but says nothing.
For a long time the sound of the ticking clock is all that can be heard. You flinch when you hear the servos of Armsmaster's armor as he adjusts his position on the chair. "These events were beyond our expectations." He joins his hands together. "We clearly need to rethink our approach. I'll personally conduct a reevaluation of the Wards' procedures and equipment."
Equipment, yes. You have a lot of that. Taylor remembers it. "Horizon built a power suit for me. I'll start using it during patrols."
You did. Why wasn't she using it? So much would have been prevented if she had.
"Any tinkertech equipment has to be authorized by the review board first."
"Then none of us are going out on patrol until it is."
Underneath his visor, Armsmaster's nostrils open as he takes a deep breath. "Arachne, I understand that these last months have been stressful-"
"Stressful? How many attempts on our lives have there already been? How many more will there be next week? And so far you've done nothing to help us! The only one who does anything here is Horizon!"
Your back aches. You're keeping it too straight. You look at Taylor who has fury written in her face as she stares back at Armsmaster.
It's Carlos that defuses the situation once more.
"Armsmaster, sir. We're all tired and clearly not in the right state of mind to talk about this. I'd advise a break."
Slowly, the hero nods. "Yes, I agree. Until further notice, all Ward patrols are suspended. I'll send this to Director Piggot and later I'll inform you how we'll be moving forwards. In the meantime, go rest, and go pay Dr. Yamada a visit since she's in town. All of you."
9S
Hacking was not as easy here as it was in his old world. His old universe?
Anyway, without the fully built out network of satellites and other communication equipment he had grown used to, as well as the extensive network of the Machine Lifeforms, 9S had to improvise a lot of solutions to the sub-par hardware built by human hands.
He was loving every minute of it. The challenge was unique to his life thus far, and every time he got thrown a new problem he savored picking it apart in multiple fashions. Even hacking the Bunker had been a known obstacle, simply requiring a solid use of brute force applied to his knowledge of its defenses.
So now that he was trying to pick out a handful of capes from a city with what seemed like hundreds of them, and unlike a lot of Tony's enemies, these ones he knew relatively little about. That was notable in itself, as Tony's information had been very good so far.
The fact that he had so little information on these targets meant that they must have never come to Brockton Bay in the alternate timeline.
The CUI was too competent to leave anything as obvious as directly paying their team's bills with money from China. That left indirect signs of being a spy, power use, and other such things as his first steps.
Power use was fairly easy with the Observer. He simply had it fly over the city and note down the location of every parahuman in range with an active Shard connection.
Then from there it was a matter of examining each signal individually and seeing what came up. This one was a teenage girl, white, with blonde hair. She was sitting in front of a laptop in a smaller apartment near downtown and engrossed in reading something.
This was probably the infamous Tattletale, and a quick look into the address records in the Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed that suspicion. The apartment was the registered address of a vehicle owned by one Lisa Wilbourne.
The day went on and on like that as he whittled the hours away. Here was a small meeting with a couple Empire capes in attendance.
Here was the Undersider's new base that had Bitch and Regent hanging around. Wasn't the name Hellhound? He still wasn't sure why Tony had the derogatory name marked as the primary one, but these were clearly not his targets and so he catalogued the information and moved on.
Some cape he didn't recognize here, but records showed this person had lived in the city for almost a decade, and it would be hard for the CUI to fake records like that.
Credit Cards were a relatively recent invention, but bank records still showed Mike Sanders having been spending money for a decade on local restaurants and such, so he moved on.
He had been at this for more than 6 hours straight already, and he was only halfway done. This city really was the cape capital of the USA.
His robotic body didn't really need to stretch or get tired like humans seemed to, but he could still be mentally fatigued, and that was something he had dealt with for many years as a Scanner. Sitting still for hours or even days was something to be avoided if at all possible, simply because it bored him to metaphorical tears.
A few minutes spent processing his entertainment feeds, a bit of light image editing for a new meme about cats sitting on uppity little girls, and he felt ready to get back to work.
There was a group of three capes in that apartment. The unit was paid for in cash according to the Landlord's bank account, and other than 3 capes being in the apartment he didn't have anything odd going on, but something tickled his Scanner instincts.
Digging a bit more, there were three burner phones pinging from that same room, and there wasn't even a TV. That was pretty unusual, since a cheap TV wasn't hard to come by even for the poorest residents out here.
Their pantry was also pretty unusual, consisting mostly of canned goods, vegetables, and rice.
These ones would need watching. While only one was ethnically Asain, according to Tony's information the CUI liked to buy other capes as slaves, then use brainwashing to make them into loyal little workers.
They also operated in specialized cells and teams, and were extensively conditioned to maintain their discipline, which would explain the lack of entertainment and the minimalist diet.
Composing an email to Popola with these findings, he settled back to watch them on one part of his data feeds while surfing the internet on the other. He would see if they moved, and if they were who he thought they were…….
Well, Tony had been good to them so far, and he was the best shot Humanity had. While 9S might not care much about individual humans, a whole life of fighting a war against their enemies created habits that were hard to break.
Habits like finding the enemy, learning what he could, and dropping a highly skilled team of combat androids on them when the time came.
When Popola finds you, you are in no position to move. With the last few events being way too stressful you decided you need a break and went to lie down.
Naturally Salem quickly found you through your bad mental state and decided you made a good pillow.
Then Tia found you. After bothering you for a few minutes trying to figure out what had you so down she gave up and laid on top of Salem, promptly falling asleep as well.
When you wake up another hour later you are on top of Izanagi while both Hybrid are napping along with you. All of them make you feel very calm, they also make you not want to get up.
Of course Popola makes sure to take as many photos as she can.
"Master Tony, I am here to remind you that you still had to do some experimentation today." She gives you a smile. "Of course if you wish to move those plans to later it can be arranged."
You sigh, "No, plans have to be followed." You say that yet you didn't move. You blame it on the fact that Tia cuddling with Salem on top of you is quite heavy.
"Are you sure?"
It pains you, but you need to actually set a good example with Tia here
"Yes." And so you gently shake them awake.
Tia mumbles around refusing to move, swatting your hand away. Salem in a twist of irony seemed to be more cooperative and stood up while Tia was still clinging to her back.
Of course being the cat that she was she managed to step right on your liver as she did so, firmly getting you awake.
"Alright. Let's go do the experiments." You say while rubbing the sore spot.
As you move away you manage to do so without somehow waking the twins up, but you attribute that to the psionic presence of you still being there rather than you being sneaky.
Tia and Salem come along, the former still clinging to the back of the latter, keeping her eyes firmly closed and pretending to sleep.
Entering the first test chamber you look at the prepared experiment, in essence it was nothing but two chambers, one filled with Pym Particles and the other with Terrazin, both pressurized. They would then lead to a central mixer that would then let it fall on a tiny carbon cube.
"Let's go to the security room, just in case it blows up." You say as you look at the setup. While none of the components should be able to explode, you could never know what might happen when exotic things get mixed so you make sure to get many layers of protection between the experiment and anyone of value. "Are we ready?" You ask Popola.
"All sensors are ready and turned on." She says as the terminals activate and show every possible scanning device imaginable reading the test rooms. "Starting mixture in 3, 2, 1,..."
The chambers open and the pressurized materials go to the mixer. The red liquid of the Pym particles and the purple Terrazin gas mix and, so far so good, don't blow up.
The result seems to still be a red liquid but with a strange glint to it.
When it dropped onto the carbon cube, that's when the explosion happened.
Although it wasn't an explosion per say, what happened instead is that the drop of pym particles enlarged the cupe massively, much more than you expected.
"What just happened?" Tia asks from on top of Salem.
"It seems that the Pym particles effectiveness has been raised. Up to 473%."
"So effectiveness increased." That was… a little underwhelming, but on the positive side it meant that nothing was blowing up. "We will need some mice for testing of live subjects later."
"Tia will gladly oversee those live experiments!" You and Popola both turn your heads in surprise.
"Why would you want to do that?" You ask her a little shocked.
"No reason." That answer comes way too fast and your eyes widen as you realize what her intention is.
"Popola, make sure to keep all the Pym Particles we have locked in one of the Orokin Vaults." The look of betrayal and horror Tia sent your way nearly breaks your heart. "The last thing we need is a 100ft tall Tiamat running around." She puffs her cheeks and goes back to hugging Salem.
After noting down the results you move on to the next experiment.
This time you are redirecting pure psionic energy into a vial of Pym Particles to see what it would do.
"And 3, 2, 1,..."
The charge went into the vial and the vial started shaking.
Then you aren't quite sure what happened next. In one instant the vial is still there, in the next there is something else… like a wild mosaic surrounding the test container taking many shapes and sizes, and then the entire thing collapses into itself shattering on the floor into many pieces.
"What just happened?" Tia asks and you can only second her question.
"It seems that the Psionic energy activates the particles, only that it activates them all very sporadically causing the matter it is contacting to randomly shrink and expand at the same time." Popola seems to go over some of the more advanced scanning results. "It is extremely destructive as it seems to not even care about any target molecular structures and flips a coin on what to do with every atom." She then thinks a bit. "Maybe less a coin and more a die, because it even seems to give it different shrinking and growing scales."
"That is extremely lethal." You remark as your power is starting to come up with schematics for weapons. It confuses you a bit but then you realize that said weapon is a bio-launcher that first throws Pym Particles on an enemy and then ignites them psionically.
You chose to move that as far into the back of your head as you can.
The next test is Pym Particles with Elder Dragon energy.
After the components are mixed they seem to just float there in containment harmlessly.
That changed as soon as it made contact with the air.
A small red colored singularity opens and you watch as the test cube is sucked in as is most of the air in the room.
"I will note that down for weapons testing." Popola said as she went over the scanners. "This didn't seem to be a normal singularity Master Tony. It was more like a small gateway. I wonder where we sent the test cube."
"With this being Pym Particles, I would bet it's the Quantum Realm." If it wasn't some strange approximation of the Shard and actually true Pym Particles, but at this point you are fairly sure that your power does make genuine copies of things given the right materials. "I will make a small write up about it for you later."
"Sound like a lame name for a realm." Tia comments. "The name of a realm should be big and powerful! Like, The Grand Lands of Tiamat, The Dominator of the Universe!"
You smirk at that name. "Tell you what, if we ever find an empty dimension I will let you name it."
"Really!?"
"Yes, I promise." That makes her smile light up and her eyes shine as you nearly suffer a heart attack then and there.
The last test involving Pym Particles is mixing them with Khaydarin Crystals.
There was no telling if the mixing of a solid and liquid would even do anything but it is worth a try.
Staring at the crystal as it floats inside the Pym Particles is boring enough that Tia fell asleep again. Salem doesn't seem to mind though.
After mixing it for about an hour something seems to happen as the crystal begins to react with the liquid flowing into it.
"Popola?" You ask her as she goes over the scanners.
"It seems as if the crystal is absorbing them." You both watch this for a bit longer until the test tube is empty with only the crystal still inside, now having a strange red tint.
"What do you think about this Master Tony?" At first you tell her to move it over to another laboratory to test this further but then you get a flash of inspiration.
"Can you force a current through it?"
"Eh, sure, but why?"
"Just trust me." Popola blinks owlishly but compiles.
Then a flash of light, and the next thing you know part of the room is gone.
"Wha… did, the room just blow up?"
"Sensors registered a very small shockwave, but for some reason it went inward." a small tower drone flew up to the missing room. Whatever happened didn't penetrate far enough to go to the next room and on the fleshy chunk of floor a small glint is visible. "It seems the crystal is intact. I will see if I can salvage it."
"It seems to have changed somehow." You comment as you see mosaics of color inside of it floating aimlessly.
"It's the room." Again both you and Popola turn to Tia who now had one eye open staring at the screen with her hand raised. She then raises her hand and starts pointing."That bit is from the ceiling, that one is the pedestal it was on, that over there is the floor..." She lists the contents of the room and zooming into the crystal you can see what her superior eyes picked up.
"Did the crystal save the room inside of itself?"
"This could be something amazing." Popola comments and you agree, compression of matter like that reminded you of the Dragon Ball capsules, with some luck it might even be survivable for living beings. It will need more testing.
The test for Dragon Energy and Psionic Energy is uneventful.
You don't get any ideas and the gas, while clearly changed in some way, has no obvious effect, you leave that one to Popola and the living subject tests.
Dragon Energy combined with Khaydarin Crystals meanwhile is similar to the last experiment involving the crystals as again they absorb the energy and do nothing at first.
The effect, however, is noticed by Popola this time as she points out that the light inside the room as well as temperature seem to have dropped.
Further tests confirm that the test result is an energy dampening field that is increasing in intensity with proximity to the crystal.
The last test is Elder Dragon Energy with Terrazine.
You expect something epic here and the test doesn't disappoint.
As soon as the gases mix and ignite, several effects happen at once as the very air seems to start convulsing and breaking for a few seconds before rapidly disappearing again and the room is left a vacuum again.
"Singularities." Was all Popola said, when both you and Tia give her a look she pulls up a highly magnified recording of the room. "The Dragon Energy seems to ignite the Terrazin in a similar way the Psionic energy activates the Pym Particles. Only that this time it seems to be sending it to the Void through many, microscopic singularities." As she speaks the screen shows that it wasn't a cloud that you saw, but a mass of microscopic rips in space.
"That is so incredibly lethal, it's not even funny." You comment as you go over the readings. Every single atom that was in contact with the cloud of gas was summarily sent to the Void one by one in seperterate pieces.
"I believe this would be the weapon you were searching for Null." Popola comments.
"Null?" Tia asks curiously.
"Another one like Izanami and Izanagi to help us fight the Endbringers." You explain briefly.
"That name sounds evil. Do you wish for the Grand and powerful Tia to destroy them?" She asks proudly.
"No." The idea of Tia facing those Cthulhu rejects fills you with dread.
"What is my purpose anyway, my Queen?" She tilts her head, "You haven't answered that yet when I asked you at my birth."
You didn't even notice that, but at the confusion that was Tiamats birth it completely slipped your mind.
The intention when you made her was clear. An independent agent that can be sent to act on her own and comand a swarm so that she could collect far away resources in another dimension and secure an escape route through the Void for the eventual Zion battle for humanity to survive even in the worst case.
Is that still her purpose?
[Purpose] "To be someone independent who can one day strike out on her own and secure the future." The original purpose.
[Purpose] "For now, it is to learn from us." The 'buying time' approach.
[Purpose] Write-in. A different purpose.
Plans for each experiment should be in the format
[Null Experiment Plans] {Plan Name}
-[Null Experiment Plans] {Plan Line 1 Text}
--[Null Experiment Plans] {Plan Line 1.1 Text}
-[Null Experiment Plans] {Plan Line 2}
Make sure to include the vote category, otherwise it becomes difficult for the vote counter to determine which experiment you're planning.
[Null Experiment Plans] Write-in.
[Valstrax Experiment Plans] Write-in.
[Null Omake Adjustments] Spend Omake points to get 5's to this experiment roll.
[Valstrax Omake Adjustments] Spend Omake points to get 5's to this experiment roll.
Voting Moratorium Length: 4 Hours
Voting Opens in Apr 15, 2021 at 3:10 PM
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Monk Penguin
Apr 15, 2021
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Threadmarks 84. Coming to Terms
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Jun 27, 2021
#12,509
Spoiler: Winning Vote
What is my purpose?
This question plagued you a little while you thought about the response you gave Tia.
You told her the truth, but in turn, it made you ask a question yourself.
A purpose was something that most strived for.
You made your purpose beating Zion and preventing the destruction of the Earths.
Were you doing the right thing by creating the Hybrid with a purpose in mind?
Yes, that purpose needs to be fulfilled. But then what? After that, they would need to find their own purpose in life.
Of course, you would be there to help them if you could. But that didn't make it any less difficult of a thought.
Was this what it felt like to be a father?
If yes, then it made you a terrible one for sending your children to fight in a war they didn't sign up for.
But you know that with the way things were you had no other chance to succeed.
In a way that makes you also relate to Andrew Richter.
You wonder what went through his head when he created Dragon.
Regardless, right now there is no time for doubt and with renewed determination, the Geneforge springs to life with all its power.
There is only one promise you can make to yourself. That you will survive what is to come and make sure that all your creations have a safe future.
As you walk to the two new tanks you feel exhausted.
2B and Popola both are with you.
The first tank was the result of the first project. Valstrax-Prime was a bit of wordplay on the Elder Dragon and a Prime Warframe. Both for the fact that this was the First Valstrax on Earth-bet, and the first of its own kind.
Its scales are not the expected silver but a dark blue similar to the wings on a Mirage. Looking more closely, you can see the faint lines that represented the energy channels that would channel psionic energy through them to power the inertial drive.
All in all, he looked very much like Valstax in shape and size with the odd coloration and the many eyes being the only noticeably different parts.
You had no idea how fast, and powerful it would really be. Just like Tia, this is something new in all of creation, unknown to even the shards. That fills you with a sense of happiness.
Looking at it, or maybe him is more appropriate, you see no flaws in your design. Noticeably, however, he is very different from the Hybrid already.
Where they stood in a sort of motionless trance when they were in their tanks, this one is rolled up into a ball, as if he is in an egg, waiting for his birth.
And patiently wait he does, as you see all his eyes focus on you through the liquid and glass. He is awake, the psionic trance field doing little in that regard.
Just like with Tia.
That means that whatever it is that allows her access the void was also in him, just like you wanted.
Somewhat mesmerized you stare into his eyes as he stares back. You wonder what he is thinking.
You tear yourself out of your thoughts and towards the second tank.
This one is so much bigger than the other ones.
Null is massive, as expected, he is meant to fight Behemoth and he definitely has the stature for it. Where the Hybrid and Valstrax are lean and fast, Null is pure hulking muscle surrounded by a shell of technocyte, flesh, and crystals.
Even while inside the tank and asleep you can feel the very subtle but noticeable pull of power that seems to dim the room a little.
"Time to wake them up."
"Yes!" All 3 of you turn around and Tia who just realized her mistake covers her mouth.
The worst part is that the door she was spying from leads to a big room and looking up you could also see Izanagi and Izanami staring at their new siblings with something akin to wonder in their eyes.
"How exactly did we miss all 3 of them spying on us?" You ask your android companions.
"I have no idea," Popola admits and you can clearly see that she doesn't like to admit that.
"Will we get more Minions destined to help in world domination my queen?!" Tia shouts in excitement as she abandons all pretense of hiding. The Hybrid followed her, eyes filled with curiosity pointed at the tanks.
"No, they are more members of our little family here, and while they do have a purpose, it's certainly not world domination."
With that, you release the locks and watch as the fluid gets drained from both of their tanks.
Once the fluid was fully drained, they both awoke and slowly stepped out of their tanks.
Only for Project-Null to promptly lay down on the ground and take a nap.
"What? You just woke up!" Tia protested as she climbed up the giant who didn't seem to be concerned.
Looking over the scanner data you get from him you come to a conclusion. "He'll sleep a lot. While he's made to operate with extreme amounts of energy, when he doesn't have to spend it, he will probably want to conserve much of it." You doubt this will be a problem as to get him going all you should need is to let him feed on the power core, and during the battle with Behemoth he should draw massive amounts of energy from the kill aura alone.
"What is the point of a minion that will just nap all the time?!" Tia argues from above him as she angrily stops her foot on his head.
You can't tell if he notices, but unfortunately for Tia, he chose that moment to turn around making the young girl fall on 2B who caught her effortlessly.
"Just let him nap. His task ahead is difficult and he will need all the energy he can get." Popola attempts to calm down the young girl.
Your attention is pulled away from Tia and Popola as Izanagi approaches the sleeping giant and gently examines his sleeping form.
He then leaned onto him, careful so that his spikes didn't drill into him, and fell asleep next to him.
The sight of the two sleeping hybrids nearly melts your heart.
You are ripped out from your peaceful observing as you hear a loud crash.
Izanami and Valstax seem to have a stark opposite first meeting as both of them just reduced one of the walls to ceramic shards and ripped flesh.
"What is going on?" You ask the girls,
"I don't know, they just started fighting out of nowhere!" Popola seems to be quite distressed, "2B, do something."
2B in turn just stared at her, visible even through her mask.
"Relax, minion Popola." Tia chimed in and gave the worried androids pats on their backs. "Let them have some fun."
"Fun?! They are killing each other!"
"Do you need your eyes replaced, minion Popola? My queen, something is wrong with her."
At first, you are as confused as Popola is, but then your power chimes in and it becomes clear what is going on.
"You can relax Popola." You are a little surprised by your own words as another crash breaks another wall. "Look at them. Specifically, look at Valstrax's wings. Notice how they are positioned."
What you want her to pay attention to is the fact that both of them are pointing the truly dangerous weapons away from each other.
Yes, they are throwing each other through walls, which by itself is amazing with how thick and robust you know some of them are, but that doesn't really hurt them.
They aren't fighting, they are play-fighting, just like actual siblings in nature, or Zergling hatch-mates.
At least you get a headstart with the walls you need to tear down for the changes 9S suggested.
"I..." Popola sighs heavily and whispers something under her breath you don't manage to catch, "Anyway, I suppose this is as good a time as any to name your two new creations. Which deity will you name them after this time?"
[Naming Project Valstrax-Prime] Valstrax-Prime
[Naming Project Valstrax-Prime] Fafnir
[Naming Project Valstrax-Prime] Write-in
[Naming Project Null] Null
[Naming Project Null] Shiva
[Naming Project Null] Write-in
The attack you suffered highlighted a clear flaw in your designs: You've based a lot of your defenses on Protoss technology, and their tech is notoriously vulnerable to EMPs. A vulnerability that your enemies now know how to exploit.
You can't allow that to happen again, so you need to adapt and improve.
Upgrading the Caduceus into a semi-biological version was a good first step, but you now need to do the same with the rest of your equipment.
The key to that will be Warframe.
Infested flesh can't be affected by electromagnetic pulses. Its energy reserves can be depleted this way, affecting your more complex programs, but the living armor will remain just as strong and bullet-proof.
You load up all the information you've collected on Taylor's suit, the same suit that she's currently wearing and that she has refused to take off ever since the attack. You then strip it of its more exotic functions, leaving only one slot for an eventual Arcane upgrade, but a lot of open room for all the new connections and devices you'll plug into it. First, you need to find a way to link it to the shield generator, and then to the Blink Band. And just to be on the extra-safe side, you'll also throw an Arcane Nullifier into the whole mix. If the suit was resistant to EMPs before, now it will be completely immune.
It's scary how easy Khaydarin and Technocyte blend together, two living materials, guided by an alien mind of their own, always seeking to grow and improve. You'll need to be careful with them if you don't want to have a plague in your hands but that's nothing that some clear limits can't fix.
But all that is still not enough.
Your personal safety will be guaranteed, but what about everyone else's? There's no guarantee that your enemies won't just ignore you and capture a hostage, or that one of your friends won't get hurt in the crossfire.
Could you make the suits 'reproduce' on their own?
Spawn's suit comes to mind.
And Venom.
It will need a ton of work and space for the whole 'hatchery', but if you're right you should be able to mass-produce a version of the living suits that bond with their hosts. The suits would be like children. No, even less so. Like amoebas that will learn as they interact with their partners, but as a result, they'll become effectively perfect partners, ready to work and grow together. Becoming stronger as their bond does.
You have a lot of work ahead of you.
The idea of symbiotic suits aside, you refuse to put all your eggs in one basket. Even when that basket is reinforced with Mithril and Adamantium.
At the end of the day, the suit is something external to you. It can be removed, it can be attacked independently, and as long as there's a 'connection' between you and it, there's a weak link that can be broken. And, just like with the Protoss shield, the more redundancies you have, the better. That way, if one fails you, the other will remain strong.
The suit will be your external defense.
Now you need an internal one.
You've been dodging this for a long time, fearing the consequences of tampering with a still-developing body, but it has become painfully clear that if you don't do something about it you may simply not reach adulthood.
None of you may. And so, just like with the living suits, you need something that can be applied to a large variety of people.
Your first thought goes to Mario and the power-ups you saved. They are cheap yet do their job. Now, how do you upgrade them? Well, you have a very clear answer, again, with Warframe. Why don't you take something like the Power Bell and combine it with Kavat Biology? Kavats are stronger and faster than regular cats, can go invisible, and are immune to the Technocyte infestation. In fact, they feed on the infested and were tamed by the Grineer as a form of pest control. This means that they are extremely resistant to outside tampering, just what you need.
But you can make it even better.
Why not take the Geneforge Speed Pot and upgrade the Bell with it? On top of extra strength and agility, now you'll be twice as fast as any normal human.
And going one step even further, you can mix it up with the Faunus Sapling project, a tree capable of producing fruits that will carry the retrovirus needed to turn normal humans into Faunus. That's how you'll distribute it!
Okay, okay. You have a solid base but now you need to experiment. Some mice may be harmed -or turned into feral cats-, but that's a sacrifice that you're willing to make for the sake of your friends.
As amazing as the Hybrids are, they are unable to teleport themselves. Without the game constraints placing a limit on their abilities you are sure that they would be able to learn how to do so if they put their minds to it but, right now, they have better things to learn.
This means that if you want them to help with the Endbringers you need to find a way to help them transport themselves.
The first idea of repurposing the Mirage Design into something of their scale is rapidly left behind as the current specialty keeps trying to fuse such a contraption with their body.
The second idea of trying to reverse recall them somewhere is also left aside because, once again, your specialty did not allow you to. In this case, however, it simply gives something that can only be described as a DATA_NOT_FOUND error. Expected because, as far as you can remember, there is no teleportation in Geneforge. Even if such methods existed you are also pretty sure the energy costs of doing so on a worldwide scale would be prohibitively high.
This left the third idea as the only usable one. Activate Mercy's Staff in enhancement mode and pray it returns something usable.
This left you, once again, facing the business end of a staff while Popola made sure you were healthy enough to greenlight the process. She was not normally this fussy when triggering a fugue but, considering what happened earlier this week… she can't be blamed for wanting to make sure you're ok.
"Are you ready Master Tony?" She asks after confirming that your physical condition passed her standards. She probably bathed you in the healing ray for longer than she needed to do her checks but you know she worries and can't find it in yourself to fault her for that.
So you simply smiled and she took it as confirmation because the yellow beam turned blue.
For a few moments, your power simply flashed designs too fast for you to process. It was seemingly choosing and discarding them based on an internal filter impossible to discern. Then it set itself into a purple capsule and your body moved.
Even before you reached the workspace the design changed into a blue capsule with yellowish protrusions in the diagonals, before you could reach for the tools it changed into a black design with red and yellow lines in the center and the upper hemisphere. It changed a final time when the first component entered your hand and work consumed you.
--
It was only when you grabbed something other than a component, a sandwich to be more specific, that fugue state ended and you were able to identify the ten red and white circular capsules sitting neatly on the work desk.
Pokeballs. That revelation explained why your power was cycling over designs. Master Ball, Beast Ball, Luxury Ball, all discarded for unknown reasons leaving the most common, and iconic, equipment in the Pokemon world.
One that made your stomach fall. Would they work? Hybrids are not pokemon so the matter of information conversion may not work correctly. Your power considered the Beast Balls so it was probably unsure of that itself.
"Master Tony, are you ok?" - Something must have shown in your face because Popola was suddenly there catching something before it hit the ground. The sandwich you dropped.
"Maybe?" - Was your noncommittal answer - "Just considering if I shouldn't consider this test a failure."
Popola's bewildered face was the cue needed to continue.
"That is a Pokeball. In its home universe, it is a widely spread tool whose focus is to contain and help domesticate the wild fauna existing in that world. That fauna, known collectively as Pokemon, is… varied. From the smallest electric mouse to the literal Pokemon God passing over legends, Aliens, extradimensional Beasts, and Pokemonifications of Time and Space were captured by these."
Popola didn't contain her laughter "Pokemonifications?". A shrug was your answer, it fit.
"If they are so successful, why do you want to consider it as a failure?".
"Because while the Pokeball is the basis of all the capturing tech and the higher-powered beings are normally captured using more advanced versions, advanced versions that my power considered and discarded. And as far as I remember they were never used in humans so there are beings they cannot capture for one reason or another"
"I can understand your fears but let me play the devil's advocate. One, in that universe, what is the reason they fail to catch humans? They can't or are they limited not to? Two and more importantly, what does your power say about them? After a fugue, you normally need to analyze the tech to catch the specifics"
The first answer comes to your mind instantly. It seems that Pokeballs cannot catch humans because they are programmed not to. In the "Let's Go" games your rival actually tries to do so but it fails because the MC breaks out of the balls.
Analyzing the blueprints gives you that same answer. The balls in front of you could potentially catch any single being in existence if they were not limited. The only limitation you built into these was that an active Gemma needs to be present for a Human target to be considered a viable one. The other limitation, which is not really a limitation but a technological requirement, is that after catching one being it cannot be reutilized to catch another. The balls get locked to that being's signature so to speak.
Further analysis explains the real difference between Pokeball types. Each Pokeball causes the captured target inside it to enter a state of suspended animation, the differences arrive in the "comfort" programming. Most Pokeballs simply have multiple stages of the same program. Pokeballs are the cheap version, Ultra Balls are the premium one. Some like the Dive, Net, or Beast balls are ultra-specialized into bringing comfort to specific types.
Then we get into the top grade ones. Luxury Balls have a permanent soothing effect that makes the captured Pokemon keener to like you. Others like the Friendship Ball brainwash the Pokemon to be your friend. Master Balls outright suppress the Pokemon's sense of self so they do not resist the capture.
Since Master Balls very rarely fail even when used on outright gods… it's terrifying what they can do without the Human limiter. Someone with a Friendship Ball could become a discount Heartbreaker.
"Tony?..."
"Sorry, I lost myself for a bit. You're right, normally Pokeballs have a programmed lock that stops humans from being captured. These share that limit as long as you don't have an active Corona Gemma. If you do, then you are a valid target as well. The more advanced versions are simply more effective because they use brainwashing techniques to make the pokemon stay in them." - Popola blanches at that "Thankfully my power discarded those and built the regular ones that are simple storage mechanisms that make the ones in it enter suspended animation."
Taking a bite of the sandwich you picked the balls and started moving into the Hybrid's room. Best not leave the universal holding mechanisms unbound for long. At least some of them.
Popola stopped you before you could walk out of the door -"Master Tony, if they are so powerful why not try to contain an Endbringer in them instead of fighting?"
That made you stop. She was not wrong. While a single Pokeball would probably not work it can be used to stop an Endbringer's moves completely for a couple of seconds. More than enough time for movers to get in position and try again, and again, and again until it works. With the fabricator and enough materials, it is something that can be tried…
No, it wouldn't work.
"There are multiple problems with that idea even if we disregard the number of resources involved. Starting with the fact that the Endbringer bodies are projections and not their real bodies, and ending with the fact their minds are more akin to a computer than a biological mind, hence they would always be able to resist the capturing effect without tiring."
"You just said they used it to capture gods."
"I did, yes. But it takes multiple tries with higher-level balls and assumes that they were there taking them one after the other without dodging. Assuming they have a chance to succeed, do you really believe the Endbringers would allow us to keep trying?"
"No, it would probably be a reason for them to escalate wouldn't it?"
You let the silence speak for itself and soon both of you were at the door and moving in the direction of the hybrids' room.
In the end, they allowed you to capture them so they had the option to join you when leaving the base. The fact that they were clearly uncomfortable inside the Pokeballs but decided to tough it out so they could take care of you filled you with both pride and fear.
Seeing that they work raises a question, however. Should you "catch" yourself so there is an easy way to extract and stabilize you in situations where a staff is not available? Should you do the same for Missy? Taylor? Everyone you knew?
But more important than that, how do you convince two demi-gods that they do not need to force themselves into two uncomfortable pocket dimensions every time you leave the tower. A look at Popola's relieved smile shows you that there won't be any support from that side...
Needing to dive into the Ihan for past designs was a lot easier now that you had the computer to translate the memories stored in the Ihan into a computer-readable format.
You still had to connect to the crystal mentally, but after that, the crystal dutifully loaded up the information into your Fabricators for modification or construction.
Such was the case with the parts of the MechaWiggler design you were loading into it now.
Much like almost all your experiments and projects this week, this one was being modified to be at least partially biological. The Zerg had a lot of tricks for that, already being multi-legged monsters the size of houses. The Hybrids were better in some ways, but the Zerg were easier to work with for this purpose.
As you upscaled a Zerg Drone's biological harvesting and movement systems to be larger than a bus, the idea of the Wiggler being made with biological components was more and more appealing.
Some of the glands you had used for the BioStaff in the control room to stop and start the machine as well as direct its functions. A neural interface like the Ihan crystal would allow the unit to take in memories and thoughts from the controller if needed. Abathur's Biological Modification abilities are repurposed into the ability to heal people and make biological drones for harvesting.
The Hybrid's psionics toned down and specialized for cutting and telekinesis to enable better harvesting and tunneling. Khaydarin Crystals for circuitry, Zerg Drone resource processing, on and on it went, tweaking systems here and there, long into the night.
The next day, you sat down in the plush chair across from a familiar therapist. You'd had a couple of visits with her after… You still try and not think about that time too much. Besides, she'd been shuffled around before you felt comfortable enough to even entertain the notion of discussion that… event. At least this time you knew you could at least have a meaningful exchange.
"Tony, how have you been?" Yamada started.
"I've been better," you admit. "I didn't realize how much attention I'd been drawing."
"How are you dealing with what we talked about last time?"
You struggle to form a response.
"Is it still difficult to talk about?"
"Yes. I'd prefer to talk about something else."
"Very well. I've read the incident report from your recent patrol. Are you comfortable talking about that?"
You consider the topic, it's only been a day since you… you… you try not to think about what happened. It makes your chest feel tight and sometimes you feel like your fingers are tingling or numb. You don't really want to talk about it, but you know, intellectually, that you should.
"Yea, let's talk about it," you get out before your emotions get the better of you.
She raises an eyebrow at you. "Are you certain?"
"Yes, well… no I wouldn't exactly say I'm comfortable talking about it, but I think I need to."
A moment passes where neither of you speaks before Dr. Yamada offers up a suggestion.
"Why don't you go over what happened, in your own words, and we can go from there."
"Ok, so it started as just a routine patrol like we've been doing for weeks now. Ever since… then, I've been tense whenever I go outside of spaces that I've personally ensured are secure. On the other hand, after so many patrols with minimal danger, I'd started to relax. To a certain extent, it also helps that I feel like I can count on my teammates. So, anyway, normal patrol, then it all goes wrong. My… The… um… The enemy capes drop an EMP on me and Arachne while Aegis was away, knocking out all of my gear."
You take a breath, falling back on the mandated after-action report training you've been given.
"After my gear was disabled, Arachne and I were assaulted by two capes. One, who can merge into surfaces, went after Arachne, while another who could block themselves from perception went after me. The fight didn't go well. The enemy capes were prepared and Arachne and I were caught off-guard. Arachne put up a fight but without my gear, I was dead weight, and my assailant had strength and size over me. I was subdued and the stranger started to take me away. I was completely…" you hesitate, "I felt helpless. Just for a moment, I felt completely helpless. Then, I remembered an ability I'd been testing for several weeks. It's a way for my mind to interface with energy through some sort of mental energy produced by thought. That's not relevant, though. I lashed out with it. I mentioned I'd been doing some testing earlier, and really, I was focusing on my control. At that moment, I didn't even try and control it, I was just lashing out. I… Thinking back on it. I had other options. I could have tried to fix my gear, I could have gone for my warp blade, I could have tried to call for help."
"If you recognize you had so many options, why did you lash out? Were you panicking? Afraid? You mentioned feeling helpless."
"I… It's…
[Why?] I was frustrated, maybe even angry. I wanted him to hurt
[Why?] I didn't want to be in that situation, and it seemed like the fastest way out.
[Why?] Yea, I panicked, I jumped on the first thing that came to mind.
[Why?] Write-in.
She writes something down in her notepad. "I see. What happened next?"
"I came back to myself after some time. I'm not sure how much, but my surroundings were destroyed and the enemy cape, the other person... he didn't make it. There wasn't enough left for my medical tech to repair, even if it wasn't recently disabled. I still can't quite believe he's gone and I…"
[Afterwards] "I'm responsible for it."
[Afterwards] "I regret it, but I would do it again. I still think it was the best option I had available to me.
[Afterwards] "I don't regret it. He put me in that situation and I retaliated."
[Afterwards] Write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 2 Hours
Voting Opens from Jun 27, 2021 at 3:20 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Naming Project Valstrax-Prime
Naming Project Null
Why?
Afterwards
Rolls for next chapter (if you want to donate Omake Points to increase the Roll let me know about that as well):
Living Armor
Kavat Bell
Bio Mecha Wiggler
QM Note:
Wow, it's really been a while since the last chapter. I got a bit distracted with real life but I'm feeling more motivated than ever to write during the summer.
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