Outsider Chronicles: Unknown Dictator

I could deal with being reborn as a girl, but I couldn't deal with being reborn in Worm. On the up side, I'm not anyone important. On the down side, my family is from Brockton and my Brother is a Ward. Oh, and I carry a power that goes well beyond any power on Earth Bet. This should be...interesting?

OK, so this idea came from a chat I had with Leechblade about a possible Outsider story with Clockblocker having the power of the Wizard King from Black Clover. It wouldn't have worked, but it did spark another idea that sparked this one in turn. You might be able to guess where this is going since DXD and Worm are practically my bread and butter by this point. I think this is also the first female Outsider who isn't a replacement, so thats something I guess. Should be interesting. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

You know, there are a few ways I imagined dieing, but choking to death and sashimi was not one of them. To make matters worse, my last thought as my brain starved of oxygen was 'I wish I'd told the chef to hold the wasabi'. Not the most poetic last thought, is it? Of course, death was not the end for me or I wouldn't be sat here, dictating this to you, now would I? No, instead, the next thing I became aware of was being pushed out of my Mothers uterus and being convinced that something was very, very wrong. I was proven right a few moments later when my barely mature baby ears picked up the first words of my new life.

"Congratulations, its a girl!"

Welp, this is certainly going to be...interesting, but I could deal. What I couldn't deal with was what my new Mother cooed when I was handed to her.

"Welcome to the world Maple Rose."

Welp, I'm fucked. I spent my first couple of years hoping that I'd been reborn into either a fairly normal world or maybe a fantasy one (I like Isakai, sue me), but by the time I was three, I realized I wasn't that lucky. Oh, I was in a world with powers and crazy shit, but it wasn't one where I could become the worlds most powerful Mage due to poor writing or something cool like that. Oh no, instead I was born into the world of Worm. To make matters worse, my family lived in Brockton Bay. Fuck my life.

Anyway, since theres little I can do about it, I guess I should just get used to it and try to survive. Who knows, maybe I can do something to help. Yeah, and maybe one day pigs will fly!

Urg, my irritation aside, I wasn't actually too bad off. I mean, yes I was living in a death world, but my Parents had decent jobs, with my Mother working at Medhall as a receptionist, while my Father was an engineer working at Fortress Constructions, which brought in decent money as well. I also had an older brother who was a dork, but we got on well enough and, to be fair, I wasn't much better. He also happened to be Kid Win of the Wards, or at least, he was after he Triggered from the stress brought on by his ADD and dyscalculia. That had been a fun week

Moving on, I was also lucky enough to end up in the same class as Vista and ended up befriending her. Then again, that was well before she became Vista since we were in the same school year.

Anyway, other than the obvious, things weren't all that different growing up than last time through. I got up, went to school, did my best to bring a bit of light to my entirely too serious friends and made sure to gush over Vista as much as possible once Missy joined the Wards. Mainly because I found the faces she made entirely too entertaining to stop. I occasionally considered trying to do something to change the future but, well, what could I do? I was a perfectly normal little girl and, even if I Triggered, what the hell could I do to fix anything? Even if I used the inevitable trip to the Wards to out Shadow Stalker somehow, that still left the biggest problem of Zion in play and could potentially doom the planet to actual destruction.

Oh, don't give me that look! I'm not an insert with overwhelming power! I had no broken limiters, no unshackled Shard, no power that could let me win. I'm just a normal person! The only thing I had was a talent for engineering and my memories, neither of which were very helpful because I didn't trust any of the idiots in charge to either believe me or work with my knowledge without blowing it!

Unfortunately, as much as I tried to convince myself that there was nothing I could do, the more guilty I felt. I did my best to distract myself from it, but whenever something happened to remind me of the impending doom of Earth Bet, the guilt returned. It got to the point where I was genuinely worried that I'd end up Triggering, which would have been something of a relief, if only so that I could at least trick myself into thinking that I could do something, but it never happened. Instead, as we got closer to 2011, the unseen pressure and guilt began to weigh me down.

However, the straw that broke the camel's back didn't have anything to do with Taylor. Instead, it was much closer to home. I didn't know Taylor, not really, so, despite the guilt, I was still able to subconsciously separate myself from her. She was just another face in the crowd and chances are, I wouldn't recognize her if I ran into her on the street.

Dinah Alcott was an entire other story.

I'm not entirely sure how I forgot about her considering I'd been friends with her for nearly as long as Missy, but it wasn't until she started taking more days off and complaining of headaches that I remembered just what horrors lay in her future. I think it was probably due to a mix of my memories naturally fading somewhat and my frustration over Taylor causing tunnel vision. Unfortunately, it also caused me to get even worse, to the point where I ended up making myself sick.

That led to now, barely a month before the start of the story, listening with half an ear to the radio report of the bombing of Cornell while watching the cars go past and stewing in a mix of guilt and frustration over not having any idea of what to do about the incoming shitshow.

Currently, my main worry was Dinah. Taylor would be fine for a bit, or at least, wasn't in any immediate danger while Dinah was. The problem was that there was, if anything, even less I could do about Coil. And that was the biggest problem. Deal with the snake and Dinah could get the protection of the PRT without being disappeared, but with Coils many fingers in every facet of the local branch, any attempt to point them at him, assuming I could convince them to do so, would be doomed to failure and me to a 9mm lobotomy. Or a one way trip to the bed next to Dinah if he thought I was a powerful Thinker too.

And that was completely ignoring the other gold and bug shaped pachyderms in the room.

I groaned and dropped my forehead into my hands, rubbing at my eyes in an attempt to shift the building headache.

"God, Buddah, Vishnu, fuck, Purple Heart and Goddess Hylia, I don't fucking care at this point, someone just give me SOMETHING to work with!" I hissed.

I wasn't expecting a response, but a response I got.

Request acknowledged, system activating.

I jolted upright, looking around for the source of the voice. Instead, I spotted my reflection in the vanity over my makeup table and froze. My eyes were glowing a bright shade of blue.

System activation complete, activating user interface.

I jolted backwards as a brief flare of blue light covered my arms, leaving me holding a silver pocket watch with an eye-like symbol on the front and what appeared to be a twisted depiction of a spiky, serpent-like creature on the back.

"What…"

Activation complete, commencing final set up...complete. Activating virtual assistant...complete.

I nearly jumped out of my skin as the watch snapped open, revealing a transparent face with black hands and numerals covering what appeared to be a pool of glowing blue liquid, and a ball of light jumped out. For a moment, the orb floated in the middle of the room, pulsing faintly, before it expanded into a human shape. Well, sort of. She was humanoid, but most definitely not Human and instantly recognizable to me, but not anyone else since the game she was from would likely never exist thanks to Leviathan.

"Greetings Mistress," said the floating being with a slight bow, "I am the virtual assistant spirit dwelling inside the Unknown Dictator. You may call me Fi."

I stared at the Zelda expi for a moment, then closed my eyes and shook my head as hard as I could and looked again. Nope, still there. Fi tilted her head slightly, examining me with her eerily blank eyes.

"Are you feeling quite alright Mistress?" she asked, "Your heart rate is elevated."

I stared at her, then shook my head again and took a deep breath.

"I'm...fine," I said, "Just...just surprised I guess."

I let myself drop back onto the bench under my window I was sitting on and let my head loll back against the cool glass of the window, not taking my eyes off the floating spirit in front of me. This...wasn't normal. I'm pretty sure I had not Triggered, if only because I couldn't hear any commotions from downstairs from Chris collapsing, but also because I highly doubt that any Shard based power would come with a helper or anything physical like my new gloves.

So the question was, where had they come from? Fortunately, I had someone I could ask for answers.

"You'll answer any questions I have, right?" I asked.

Fi nodded.

"That is one of my functions," she said.

"In that case, what are you and where did you come from?" I asked, "Cus I'm pretty sure this isn't normal for Parahumans."

"I am Fi, the help program of the Child of Machine World: Unknown Dictator," said Fi, "My function is to assist my Master in the use and development of their power, as directed by my creator, Master Da Vinci."

I blinked.

"Wait, as in Leonardo Da Vinci?" I asked.

"Correct."

Definitely not a Parahuman power then. And that name seemed oddly familiar…

"OK, so what exactly is...Unknown Dictators powers?" I asked.

"Unknown Dictator is a Sacred Gear…" started Fi, before I cut her off by jolting up right, eyes wide in shock.

"Hold up, did you just say that its a SACRED GEAR?!" I spluttered, "Like the Boosted Gear and Twilight Healing?"

"That is correct Mistress," said Fi, not sounding in the least bit bothered by the interruption.

I dropped back into my seat, staring unseeing at the Spirit in utter shock. This...changed things. Assuming that Fi was telling the truth, and I saw no reason not to believe her, I had just been handed one hell of a trump card. With the power of a Sacred Gear and its ability to evolve and grow, I might actually be able to do something to win!

I took a deep breath and shoved my excitement down. While Sacred Gears had a lot of potential and Fi's existence suggested some...unique abilities, I shouldn't get my hopes up. There was a good chance that its power wouldn't be much use after all.

"Alright, so what are Unknown Dictators powers?" I asked.

"Unknown Dictator, or the Child of Machine World as it is also known, possesses power over technology," said Fi, "It grants its user an intuitive understanding of technology and how to create powerful weapons and equipment."

I stared at her.

"So basically, I'm a Tinker," I deadpanned.

Fi didn't respond as I closed my eyes in thought.

"Can I create things from nothing?" I asked.

"Negative, the creation of devices ex nihilo is not possible in Unknown Dictators current state," she said, "You will require resources to build. However, Unknown Dictator can convert metal into useful resources if needed."

"Well thats something at least," I muttered, "On the other hand, I doubt I'll be mistaken for anything other than a Tinker if I'm caught scavenging for resources. Maybe I should join the Wards…"

I quickly discarded that idea. I didn't have quite the same distaste at the idea as some might and it was an option I might take in the future, but until I dealt with Coil, I couldn't afford to be locked down by rules and regulations. Besides, there were advantages for Tinkers who joined up later since anything they built prior to joining up didn't have as harsh limitations as things built after they signed up.

I sighed and got to my feet.

"Alright, lets see what I can do," I said as I walked over to my desk where I had some old electronics my Dad had got me to play with, along with a few old phones donated by my family after they got upgrades, a couple of old computers and tablets.

Three hours later, I had turned the junk on my workbench into a rather bulky tablet and a small knife that, if Fi's analysis was right, was FUCKING HORRORFYING considering that it had the power to teleport anything stabbed by it to the Dimensonal Gap.

I made a mental note to create something very secure to keep the dagger in and NEVER use it outside of an emergency and turned my attention to the slate. Despite its looks, it was likely one of the most powerful computer systems on the planet. Mainly because it ran, not on electricity or anything so mundane, but on Magic. I really don't feel like going into how it works right now, but Unknown Dictator somehow let me perfectly understand what I had created, how to replicate it and what it would take to mass produce it. I highly doubt anyone on Earth Bet could do so without me first converting it to run on a normal battery (assuming I could find one capable of powering it), but I could do it.

After spending some time playing with the slate, I sat back with a sigh and glanced at the remaining parts I hadn't used, which was actually a fair amount. The problem was, there wasn't anything really that useful there or at least, nothing that would let me make anything useful. No more weapons, no armour, no ray guns, not even an invisibility cloak. If I wanted to make anything, I needed supplies, which I couldn't get without painting a massive target on my back. Suddenly I had a better feeling of how Chris had felt when he first Triggered. On the up side, my power wasn't pushing me to make anything. Benefits of not being a Parahuman I guess…

"Hang on," I muttered as I ran that thought through my head again, "I'm not a Parahuman…"

I groaned and dropped my head to my desk. God DAMMIT, I'd been thinking of my powers like I was a normal Tinker! But I wasn't a Tinker, I was a Sacred Gear user! Theres no way that a power like that would be so limited to letting me build cool stuff! Its power was the MANIPULATION of technology and metal after all. And I knew just the place to get some materials.

I jumped to my feet and ran for the door, grabbing my coat and jamming the slate into my pocket on the way past.

"I'm going out for a bit!" I shouted as I ran past the living room door, struggling to get my jacket on without catching my hair under it.

"Oh, are you feeling better?" asked Mom as she poked her head around the door.

"Yeah, much," I said as I put my shoes on, "I think it was just one of those 24 hour bugs."

"Hmm, well, you do look better," she said, "Alright, just be back before dinner."

"K!"

I waved and sprinted off down the street in the direction of the bus stop.

Under normal circumstances, any Tinker who decided to go scavenging in the Boat Graveyard would be considered an idiot. There was a lot of metal there, but unless you could get to the wrecks out in the Bay itself, not much else since the ships had already mostly been stripped by scavengers. Not only that, but everyone with even a passing interest in new Capes kept an eye on the place as it was a popular place to test powers.

I, however, didn't need electronic components, exotic materials or even really tools to build wonders. Instead, my Sacred Gear could transform simple iron into weapons and armour that would give Armsmasters equipment a run for its money. The only downside was that it needed a LOT of metal to work with, hence my trip to the Boat Graveyard.

Getting to the Graveyard was a bit of a pain because the bus didn't go anywhere near it and I had to avoid anyone on the way. Considering the area, I didn't fancy meeting any of the residents. Being a little girl offered some protection, but I didn't fancy risking it. Fortunately, I had added a life sign tracker to my slate, which helped in avoiding people.

Once I arrived at the Graveyard, I made my way to where a number of mid sized ships were beached, activated my Sacred Gear and reached out with my power. Instantly, the area lit up with everything that was useful to my powers and my mind was filled with ideas. I grinned and went to work.

Armsmaster pulled up on the potholed road that provided access to the Boat Graveyard and stared. When he'd responded to a report of unknown Parahuman activity at the Graveyard, he'd expected to find a new Trigger engaged in some ill advised testing.

He hadn't expected to find a massive ball of swirling metal that looked like something the Simurgh would whip up.

He quickly shrugged that thought off and dismounted from his bike, grabbing his iconic Halberd as he did so, and cautiously approached the metallic orb. As he did, his cameras managed to catch a glimpse of the person inside and concluded that it was a preteen girl, possibly around Vista's age, with long, black hair tied in twin tails, glowing blue eyes and either dark skin or wearing a full body black costume. The mass of metal and strange energy holding the orb together made it impossible to get anything more concrete than that.

Armsmaster cleared his throat and activated his crowd addressing systems.

"This is Armsmaster of the Protectorate!" he shouted with as much gravitas as he could, "Please cease all power use and identify yourself!"

For a moment, there was no reaction, before the orb suddenly began to collapse. For a moment, Armsmaster was afraid that the girl had lost control of her powers, but that thought was quickly proven wrong as the metal began to combine and reshape itself as it swirled into the girls body. Most of it vanished, but some of it began to snap onto the girls body, forming armoured boots with a slight heel, gauntlets with sharp looking fingers and diamond shaped gems on the back, a breastplate, a set of armour around her hips, a dark blue, polarized visor and, for some strange reason, a pair of horn like decorations holding up her twintails. The entire set was worn over a black bodysuit lined with glowing blue lines forming circuit like patterns and was black with white around the shin, forearm and chest plates. Half of her hair decorations was white with the gap between the two colours glowing a faint blue. A pair of short extensions protrude from the back of the armour around her hips and her shoulders.

Once the armour had finished forming, the girl opened her eyes and dropped back to the ground. She shifted, twisting and stretching in a manner that was clearly intended to test the armours fit while completely ignoring Armsmasters presence.

"Huh, that worked better than I thought it would," she said, "Although the focus required was...YEEK!"

She cut herself off with a yelp of surprise as she turned around and spotted Armsmaster standing there with a look of annoyance clear on the visible half of his face.

"Um, hi?" said the girl.

"Identify yourself," growled Armsmaster, "Hero or Villain?"

The girl hesitated.

"Um, neither?" she said, then hurried to clarify, "I mean, I'm not ready to be going out at all! This armour is just a prototype I slapped together to give me something to work with as a base."

Armsmaster relaxed slightly, although he didn't lower his halberd. While people with that response didn't tend to be villainous in his experience, that didn't mean that he was stupid enough to let his guard down around an unknown Parahuman, especially not one capable of the show the girl had been putting on when he arrived.

That said, he was rather curious as to how she'd done that. She was clearly a Tinker of some kind, but Tinkers with obvious secondary powers were incredibly rare.

"The Wards can provide assistance in figuring out your powers," he said, "Along with tools and resources for Tinkers."

The girl hesitated again, making Armsmaster narrow his eyes under his helmet.

"I-I'm sorry, but I can't join the Wards yet," she said.

Armsmaster frowned.

"You are aware of the risks inherent in being independent, correct?" he asked, "They are even worse for Tinkers."

"I know, but theres something I need to do first," she said, "See...I have a friend who Triggered recently. Shes a powerful Precog and apparently someone either is or will be targeting her very soon. Someone with enough power and influence that she wouldn't be safe going to the PRT. At the moment, I'm pretty much the only person who can help her and I doubt I'll be able to if I joined up with the Wards."

The joints in Armsmasters gauntlets creaked as his fist tightened. He was well aware of the issues with moles of course, but the issues must be far greater than anyone suspected if a Villain could grab someone under the PRTs protection. Assuming the new Cape was telling the truth of course. Unfortunately, his plans for a lie detector were still in the beta stage, so he couldn't check.

"I see," he said, "I suppose I can understand your reasoning."

He thought for a moment, then twisted the shaft of his halberd just so and grabbed the business card that popped out of a small slot on the weapons haft.

"I understand if you're hesitant considering what your friend told you, but if you need help, don't hesitate to call," he said, handing the girl the card, "I'll bring this to the attention of my superiors and see if we can lower the risks. For reference, do you know who it is who is targeting your friend?"

"Its most likely Coil," said the girl as she took the card, "She can't be sure, but says its the only one who makes sense. The Empire try to keep as decent reputation as they can for being Nazis, shes not Asian, so the ABB is out and the Merchants...well, I doubt the Merchants could infiltrate the PRT to the level required."

Armsmaster frowned slightly as he brought up the file on Coil. There wasn't much, but it did make a certain amount of sense. Coil appeared small time, but was able to maintain a consistent amount of territory without much issue, despite not apparently having any Parahumans in his employ. He'd take the suggestion with a pinch of salt, but it gave him a place to start from at least.

"Um, if thats everything, am I alright to go?" asked the girl, drawing the older Tinker out of his thoughts.

"Yes, of course," said Armsmaster, a little distracted by his thoughts, "I just need a name for the report."

The girl hesitated, then smiled slightly.

"Call me Machina."

And that'll do for now. I could go on, but this is fine. So, anyone want to guess why I picked the name I did?

I'm...not entirely sure how likely it is that Maple completely forgot about Dinah until she Triggered, but I blame it on her dying and getting reborn screwing with some of her memories. Plus, she spent a lot of time agonizing over what she should do about the crapsack of a world she found herself in and nearly driving herself crazy, so the idea isn't completely out there.

I rather like Fi, hence my choice to use her as the AI assistant for UD. Its power is to manipulate technology, so the idea isn't completely insane. Other ideas toyed with were Cortana, Neptune and Midna.

Ah, don't worry, shes done with her angst for now. After all, she has enough power to take on a God, not that shes aware that her Sacred Gear is (or will be) a Longinus yet.

I dare say that my depiction of Unknown Dictator isn't accurate, but considering it doesn't even have a page on the wiki and its only description is that it controls iron and technology, I decided to exercise some creative license and go nuts with it. End result? Maple is a Tinker on steroids who can outdo Dragon with literal scraps. In theory anyway. In practice, it'll take a lot more time to reach the point where she'll feel safe enough to go out.

I'm drawing inspiration for Maples tech from a few places, primarily the Sheikah tech from BotW and I'm basing the design of her outfit on a few of the more armoured Magical Girl outfits and the Goddesses from Neptuna.

Anyway, I'm done now, so I'm gonna sign off. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!

EDIT: Changed the design of the true form of Unknown Dictator to a watch. Gloves felt a little to lazy. Side note, I wonder if anyone can figure out what the design indicates?