Built To Last

[We Just Write]

Florida Man drives Zamboni on I-95, causes Supervillain Fugitive to Crash

Friday, February 4th, travelers at the Rest Area Welcome Center north of Yulee witnessed the bizarre sight of a man dressed as a flamingo driving a Zamboni (a machine commonly used for resurfacing the ice at skating rinks) down the southbound direction.

According to one onlooker,

"For a moment I wasn't sure if that machine was actually making ice or not. Then that pedo van came around the bend way too fast; you know, the left turn near the rest center, and came flying off the highway as its wheels lost grip on the ice. The van rolled over the first safety barrier and came right at me, I honestly thought I was going to die. Fortunately, it came to a stop before it reached me."

Fortunately, traffic was relatively light at one in the morning when the incident took place, and emergency services were able to prevent any further incidents until the ice melted. The zamboni driver (Alex Pickling, 22) was quickly arrested, and plead guilty to reckless endangerment and driving under the influence.

As for the van, the unconscious driver was quickly identified as noted businessman Thomas Calvert. Then the supervillain costume he had stashed in the back of the van was discovered, along with dozens of illegal firearms and six encrypted Reliabuilt laptops. Once the local PRT decrypted the computers, it was confirmed that Thomas Calvert is in fact the supervillain known as Coil.

Coil is currently in PRT custody, though his trial will have to wait until he regains consciousness. Alex Pickling was sentenced to community service.

 

[We Just Write]

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♦ Topic: Brockton Bay Revitalization Fund
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► General
Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Verified Upload)
Posted On Jan 18th 2011:
Right, so we at Reliabuilt have been busy selling Tinkertech to both the PRT and the civilian market, and with our recently released energy teleportation products a LOT of money is coming our way. That said, hoarding is neither Emmy's style nor mine, so we're going to be reinvesting that money into Brockton Bay.

Aside from footing the bill to unblock and dredge Brockton Bay's harbor, then build a bridge to replace the old ferry, we're also announcing the Brockton Bay Revitalization Fund. Yes yes it technically existed before; the local Nazis tried to kill me over it, but now it's finally got the funding to start making a major difference.

The basic idea is pretty simple; if you've got an idea for a business, a decent plan to get it going, and the skills to make it work? We'll front you the money and other resources to get started, and support you until things stabilize. All we ask in return is that you pay it forward by contributing to the BBRF.

Don't have an idea for a business but still need help? We'll see what we can do.

(Showing page 22 of 26)

►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Feb 1st 2011:
So, I'm not a business owner or planning to become one any time soon, but I've noticed that Brockton Bay feels less anxious, for lack of a better way to put it? My family has been going out to eat more often due to money getting a bit less tight, and I've seen a lot fewer panhandlers around.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
An actually insightful comment from XxVoid_CowboyxX? Never thought I'd see the day. But yeah, there's already some really good signs about the Revitalization Fund; I caught my boss staring at the budget with an expression of relief for the first time in ages.

►Bagrat (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
It's the direct aid payments that the BBRF rolled out; even though there haven't been all that many new businesses set up with their funding yet, they're helping people who really need it in a very immediate fashion.

End result is that those people have money to spend on stuff beyond the bare essentials of not dying, which results in better business for the people around town, which means a more secure position for the people who's livelihoods depend on those businesses.

►GrapeFruit (Verified Pessimist)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
How long do you think it'll be before some bunch of sickos comes along and ruins it? Even aside from monsters like the Nine, the BBRF is a pretty significant cashflow that the Elite would just love to have under their control. Plenty of other gangs would be interested in it too.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
You do remember what happened to the Empire, right? Ruggedizer fortifies every place she spends time to a degree that the PRT would definitely give her shit over if she weren't so useful to them. I figure a lot of groups would be pretty reluctant to poke that particular bear; not many people want to get unceremoniously splattered.

►Bagrat (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
Owl's got a point; just the defenses we already know about - dozens of robots armed with death rays and guided missiles - would give most cape gangs serious misgivings about starting shit. And I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say Ruggedizer's fortified her home even more since then.

Considering that the Revitalization Fund's offices are in the industrial complex that Reliabuilt is busily reclaiming from assorted abandoned buildings, they're probably pretty thoroughly protected.

Also, since the Empire's gone now, the local PRT and Protectorate are actually being proactive, shocking as it may be to hear. Broadside's already been recaptured and shipped off to a prison well outside city limits, for example. So people coming to Brockton Bay to start shit are likely to get a hostile reception, even if they don't directly attack Ruggedizer's home.

►GrapeFruit (Verified Pessimist)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
I'd say they might try kidnapping Ruggedizer's friends and employees for leverage, but we all saw what happened to Uber and Leet when they tried that.

It's just really hard to seriously believe that things can get better, given all the shit that's happened to the Bay over the years.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
Actually... if I were still in my old organic body? That kidnapping scheme of theirs would have definitely succeeded. So it's actually a legitimate thing to be worried about. By the way, any idea how things are going for Uber and Leet down in Arizona?

►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
As far as I'm aware, Uber and Leet turned themselves in to the PRT for their own safety after seriously pissing off the local branch of the Elite.

Back on topic, there apparently are plans to protect Reliabuilt employees in the event of someone getting a "clever idea". Though I've not been informed of the specifics.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Verified Upload)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
I can confirm that yes, there are indeed plans to protect Reliabuilt employees from criminals looking to use them as leverage to coerce me. These plans also extend to close friends of mine, such as LittleOwl.

That said, the specifics are strictly on a need-to-know basis. Some people might think the plans are a bluff because of that; they would be incorrect. As everyone in the E88's splash zone learned the hard way, I. Don't. Bluff.

On a more positive note, today marks the point where a BBRF-sponsored business finally became self-sustaining for the first time. They're a charming little bakery near the factory complex, and I really like their croissants. The place is called the breadbasket, and if you're in the area you should take a look.

As for anyone thinking of getting "protection" money from that place? Don't even try; even aside from what I'd do, they're not lightly messed with either.

►FrenchBread
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
Speaking as the woman baking those croissants, I'm glad you like them so much! Admittedly most of our customers are people working for Reliabuilt just on account of location, but I'm glad to be of help.

It's really nice to have a cape who actually directly helps people for a change; it's important to have heroes, but for the most part they just seem to stop stuff from getting worse, rather than actually making stuff better.

►Weld (Verified Cape) (Wards Boston)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
There's a reason for that, unfortunately. With all the villains running around hurting people, almost all of our time gets sucked up dealing with them. And it's even worse when you account for just how much villains outnumber heroes by, along with villains having a tendency to not stay arrested.

Now, you may be wondering why exactly we don't just go lethal; the Empire sure stayed dead after they messed with Ruggedizer. Putting it bluntly, we can't afford to back every villain ever into a corner.

It's one thing when Ruggedizer splatters a bunch of neo-nazis in self-defense; she's got her own thing going and villains always have the option of just not sticking their hand in the blender. But if the PRT and Protectorate start just shooting villains in the head, they're going to escalate and hard, since they don't have the option of not dealing with us.

Even if the heroes did "win" in the end, the sheer collateral damage just wouldn't be worth it.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
Still, maybe the PRT could afford to be a bit more willing to use lethal force? For example, going lethal to prevent villains being broken out of custody could do a lot to mitigate that particular problem, since suddenly the villains have to risk their actual lives instead of just risking arrest.

►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Feb 2nd 2011:
It's definitely worth thinking about, at the very least.

►QwertyD
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
Good news, my plans for a bookstore got approved by the BBRF! We've got a site picked out, and Reliabuilt will be housing me during setup. Sure beats being homeless.

►FrenchBread
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
QwertyD, that's wonderful! I'm so glad to hear things are looking up for you.

►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
Wait, Reliabuilt provides housing? That's news to me.

►Bagrat (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
Yeah, Reliabuilt's been buying up abandoned buildings for dirt cheap and renovating them as honestly really comfortable apartments. The best part is that the baseline rent is really low, and they're willing to completely waive it if you need the help.

My landlord was absolutely furious about having to lower my rent to keep me from moving out, but fuck him.

Though I'm admittedly a bit worried about there being some sort of obscure law that screws Ruggedizer over on this one.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Verified Upload)
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
Fuck landlords in general. I honestly despise them with every fiber of my being, and I'm not about to pretend I don't.

Side note, strictly speaking the units are condominiums on a very stretched out payment plan rather than apartments for rent. It leads to some legal awkwardness with people moving in or out before the whole thing is paid off, but the trade-offs are worth it. It doesn't siphon wealth away from the people who generate it, and I don't have to beat myself up for being a landlord.

Also I did consult lawyers about the whole thing; I'm in the clear here so long as the real estate stuff is through Reliabuilt.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 3rd 2011:
Well, good to know about at least. Might look into one of those condos by the way; if they're built to the same standard as Ruggedizer's typical work, they're probably way beyond what the building code requires.

Meanwhile my current landlord has done such a piss-poor job at maintaining the place that I'm constantly worried it's going to fall down every time a storm comes through.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

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[We Just Write]

(Emmy)

On Thursday, the security robots alerted me to a rather odd sight. Namely, what seemed to be a man's head sticking out of a miniature steam-powered tank with a pair of robotic arms folded against the sides. The vehicle was nowhere near large enough for a whole human body to fit in there, so I found myself rather intrigued as he approached the factory complex.

I got up and walked to the door closest to his approach, and opened it just as he came into line of sight.

"Hello! I'm Emmy; who are you and what do you want?"

The man(?) answered in a gruff voice.

"Name's Trainwreck. I want a job."

I looked him up and down,

"I see no reason to turn around a new hire, but I'm a bit concerned about finding an appropriate interview space. Can you move without the tank?"

There was a long, awkward pause. Then the apparent Parahuman answered,

"...No, I can't. No legs."

"Right. Would the hangar work then?"

"Sure."

A couple minutes later, we'd made our way to the hangar where our aerial transport was stored when not in use. I'd pulled up a chair for my own use, but Trainwreck didn't need one on account of his treads. One of the robots brought out a food tray for us to share during the interview.

Trainwreck immediately started scarfing down donuts with the tank's robotic arms, eating so quickly that I was worried he'd choke.

"Calm down, you don't need to eat them so quickly!"

Trainwreck abruptly stopped,

"Sorry. Haven't eaten in two days."

I blinked, things were starting to make a bit more sense.

"Oh."

Trainwreck sighed,

"Woke up in an alley about a week ago. No memories of before that, no food, no limbs, just… me. Nearly got run over by a train once on my first day; that's why I picked the name."

I nodded sadly,

"I've been homeless before, though thankfully not for long. It sucks. That said, you managing to cobble together that tank of yours under those conditions is genuinely impressive."

Trainwreck actually preened a bit at the praise; it might legitimately be the first compliment he'd ever received. Then he started talking again,

"Anyway, I eventually heard about some company hiring people with powers in the city. Asked around a bit, and here I am."

I nodded in thought,

"I'll need to talk with legal about actually hiring you, given your presumable lack of documentation. But in the meantime I can make sure you get a comfy place to live in, good food, get cleaned up, that sort of thing."

"Glad my powers are good enough for you."

Right, I needed to clear up that misconception ASAP.

"Trainwreck, it's not about the powers. You came to me in a bad situation, and I have the resources to help you. It's just basic decency."

Trainwreck scoffed,

"Either you're full of it, or basic decency is pretty damn rare around here."

"It's more the rarity, coupled with most people not having the resources to do much more than look after themselves. We're working on the poverty issue already, but it won't be fixed overnight."

He blinked,

"Huh. Never thought of it that way before. Makes sense, though. Also explains why that guy with the hard hat and the clipboard pointed me your way."

---

(Marcus)

One moment, I existed. There was no before. Then I realized I knew the names of the three women standing around the bed I was lying on. Emmy, Melissa, and Andrea. They were my… family?

I quickly sat up. I was already getting so many ideas for things I wanted to do, and… I didn't know anywhere near enough about the world for this meandering to make any sense.

Then I heard Emmy's voice,

"Marcus, are you alright?"

"...I'm not sure? Everything in me is functioning properly, but I think I'm supposed to know where I am at least?"

Melissa facepalmed and muttered,

"We forgot to integrate the world knowledge directory. How the fuck did we forget to do that, we went over the checklist three times."

"Guessing that question is rhetorical?"

"Yeah, you should have a directory full of foundational knowledge about the world rattling around in there. You should be able to integrate it without much trouble. But don't get it mixed up for the classified directory."

I quickly integrated the world knowledge directory, learning that among other things I was in a city called Brockton Bay, and the current date was Sunday, February 13th, 2011. Still, I was very curious about the classified directory, which I didn't have the encryption key for.

"Um, why is the classified directory encrypted?"

Andrea stared me dead in the eye. It was unsettling.

"Because it contains knowledge so dangerous that just knowing it puts the entire world at risk. Knowing why it's so dangerous is itself one of those extremely dangerous secrets. Opening it will change you so you literally can't leak that knowledge to anyone who isn't supposed to have it. You don't have the encryption key just yet, so you can make a somewhat informed decision."

I thought for a moment.

"I want that encryption key, please."

Moments later, my jaw was hanging open as I realized the utter hostility of the monsters responsible for powers.

"Oh."

Andrea nodded sadly,

"Yeah, that was just about my reaction too."

---

(Melissa)

Shortly after we activated Marcus, I went to check the linked mainframe's progress on mapping out our power's associative network. As it turned out, it had completed that task at roughly the same time as we woke up Marcus. A few minutes later, everyone was down in the hyper-secure vault to take a look at what we'd gotten access to.

First, we checked to see if any particularly interesting technology fell out during the search. A few new types of heat pump, quite a few materials, the database address of the quantum technology we invented, but the only really groundbreaking technology was the few scraps of interdimensional stuff we were authorized for. No means of interdimensional travel were included; apparently that was another thing we'd need to invent ourselves, assuming we couldn't dig it out of the database later.

After that we turned to breaking our power's security wide open.

Emmy started by making a rather interesting observation,

"I can see one pretty major security flaw already. Namely that even if our power doesn't let us see what's in a specific node from a query, it at least lets us know a node is there, and what connections it makes. Looks like we've only got authorized access to about one percent of the total network at the moment."

I took a look, yeah that seemed about right.

"I'm going to check if there's anything useful in the error messages for illegal queries."

As it turned out, there was quite a bit of useful information there. And one of the more common outputs was "insufficient conflict". After a bit to make sense of that, it was actually Marcus who had the idea for what to do next.

"Our power wants us to use it for conflict, right? I propose that we give it conflict."

Andrea made a slightly confused headtilt, and I gestured for Marcus to continue.

"We can make an arbitrary number of 'hosts' for our power, can't we? I propose we simulate the inputs our power would get from hundreds of us getting into all sorts of trouble, all coordinated under the supervision of a singular deceptive intellect."

Marcus paused for a second, presumably for dramatic effect,

"I call it Project Gaslight."

---

(Andrea)

As part of my "day job", I did research on capes in the region that could be reasonably expected to take a swing at Reliabuilt in the near-ish future. Tuesday, my digging informed me of an extremely concerning Tinker: Bakuda.

Even aside from the obviously concerning specialty in explosives, it was pretty easy to spot that this girl was completely off her rocker. Seriously, she held an entire university hostage over bad grades. That didn't speak highly of her mental stability.

Even worse, that instability would get into a massive vicious cycle with how powers apparently rewarded their hosts for getting into fights. So we could reasonably expect Bakuda to start whipping up all manner of exotic ordnance.

Right, let's think for a moment. Obviously the PRT already knew she was dangerous, given what happened at Cornell. Couldn't risk tripping the security protocols by giving away backstage reasons for prioritizing Bakuda, but I could easily point at her insanity and potential for devastation as a reason to start an all-out manhunt.

Aside from the PRT, Bakuda might also directly attack our factory complex. If she was smart about her delivery methods for ordnance, she wouldn't even need to expose herself to fire to do so.

Sneaking bombs in was one thing, and we already had extensive countermeasures in place for it; even for cases of explosives concealed inside someone's body. But if she used some sort of artillery to launch her bombs at us, we needed to be able to shoot those down.

Fortunately, we had rather a lot of experience working with laser weaponry, which was quite well-suited to shooting down small aerial targets. Though we should also have a few other options on hand in case of laser-immune warheads or something.

Yes, if we got the fire control system for this working properly, it could do the job quite well indeed.

 

[We Just Write]

(Emmy)
It was Wednesday the 16th, February when I showed up at Trainwreck's lodgings; he'd upgraded from a tracked suspension to a fully humanoid robot frame, though he still had his organic body in there.

"Hey Emmy. Anything in particular to talk about?"

I nodded,

"Well, I've got some good news. Legal says we can hire you without landing in massive trouble. There'd be a fair bit of paperwork for you to go through, but there shouldn't be any nasty surprises involved."

Trainwreck nodded glumly.

"That's nice I suppose, but I'm not sure what I can bring to the table. I can't do all the fancy quantum stuff and automation Ruggedizer does, and while I can get really damn close to her level of reliability and durability, all my gear is a one-off. Don't think I'd be able to make it reproducible either."

I thought for a moment.

"Actually, I can think of something you'd be pretty good at. See, Ruggedizer hasn't had time to do a lot of custom work since some of her tech being reproducible came to light. But there's still a massive backlog of orders from people who're willing to pay rather a lot of money for a super-durable version of mundane equipment."

Trainwreck took a bit to think that one over, before eventually nodding.

"Yeah, I think I could do pretty well at that. Er, what's the contract going to look like?"

Ah. Right, that was something to consider, and not something I'd really been worried about with Melissa, Andrea or Marcus since our arrangement was pretty much equal. Still, I was able to come up with something pretty quick.

"Perhaps we could just set you up as a subsidiary? You get to keep the vast majority of the revenue from your product sales, but still get to work with Reliabuilt's marketing and legal departments supporting you. Maybe with your own branding, so that people are clear on exactly who they're buying from."

"Yeah, that could actually work out really nicely for me. Thank you so much for all the help."

I nodded,

"You're welcome, Trainwreck."

Trainwreck nodded, a somewhat somber expression on his face.

"I might want to talk with marketing about changing my name, or at least coming up with some better branding. Trainwreck just doesn't scream 'Product that you can trust with your life', you know?"

I shrugged,

"It could become such a name eventually."

---

(Melissa)
The machine we'd come up with for the uploading patients was simply called the "Body Builder", because that's exactly what it did. Hook it up to the QUD, supply it with destination brains and materials, and it would automatically manufacture the most comfortable possible body for whoever was getting uploaded while still maintaining (rather extreme) reliability requirements. It was also the size of a large room, which was impressively small given all the functionality crammed in there and how sturdily it was built.

Quite a few of the previous test subjects had already gone through it for manual tailoring, but today marked the first time that it would be automatically making a body for a fresh upload.

The individual in question was a terminal cancer patient by the name of John Rector; at 24 years old, he'd had the bad luck to be caught in the radiation flash of some malfunctioning Tinkertech a while back. He'd originally come to Brockton Bay in hopes of treatment by Panacea, but willingly signed up for the uploading trials given Panacea's massive waitlist.

I'd actually arranged to meet him as his gurney was wheeled in. With his face pockmarked by places tumors had been cut out and then ravaged by the effects of chemotherapy, I was honestly glad the sheets covered him from the neck down.

"Nice to meet you John. I'm Ruggedizer, the Tinker who invented the quantum uploading process. Anything you want to say before going in?"

John groaned out,

"Quickly."

I nodded, and the medics immediately wheeled John's gurney into the QUD chamber. The door locked shut, then the chief technician hit the go button. Immediately the Body Builder whirled into motion, starting to piece together the skeleton of John's new body from custom-printed bones. This model of the Body Builder had a transparent door, to let the process be observed.

Two minutes in, one of the observing technicians asked a rather pertinent question.

"Is that a tail?"

Indeed it was, the machine adding vertebrae below the coccyx of John's new (female) pelvis and securing them in place.

I nodded hesitantly, then pulled up the readout.

Oh. Oh that explains quite a lot.

"It is. It's not the only change too. I'm looking at the logs, and apparently John was an un-diagnosed transwoman."

Andre Smith seemed more than a bit incredulous.

"Really? How'd your machine figure that part out?"

"It didn't; it just does projections of subconscious comfort with various body options and picks the best option that doesn't compromise reliability. Apparently that resulted in John becoming a really buff catgirl."

A few minutes later, the Body Builder completed its function, woke up John, and opened the door automatically. A heavily muscled feline woman stepped out of the machine wearing hospital scrubs, looking slightly disoriented.

Andre asked,

"John, is it you in there?"

"Yeah. I feel a little bit weird, but in a good way. Did something happen?"

One of the medics picked up a mirror and passed it to John. She looked for a few moments before commenting.

"...Huh. Really not what I was expecting, but I think I like it."

---

(Andrea)

Wednesday was going to be a somewhat important occasion - namely, Marcus and I would be meeting the Heberts in a purely social context for the first time. I won't lie, we were both more than a little bit nervous about it, but Emmy and Melissa were both adamant that it was important to have humans in our social circle. Humans who weren't our employees, to be more specific.

..I suppose it would be nice not to be cooped up in the factory all the time.

Anyway, we'd be eating dinner at the factory, before spending the evening at the Forsberg Gallery.

Melissa got back from the latest round of QUD evaluation at 5 PM, and the Heberts arrived half an hour later after all the employees had cleared out. The whole family was there at the door to greet them.

Danny had a big smile on his face when he opened the door.

"Emmy, Melissa. Nice to see you; looks like there's a couple new people."

Marcus nodded,

"Nice to meet you; I'm Marcus, and this is my big sister Andrea. She's a bit shy."

What, no I'm not - why is my blush active turn that off turn that off

After I regained my composure and the Heberts came inside, I spoke up.

"So yeah, Melissa and Emmy built both of us. Technically that makes them our parents but also we interact more like siblings? It's weird."

Emmy shrugged,

"Eh, exact biological family relationships are kind of dependent on having biology. What really matters is that we're family and we love each other."

Danny nodded, and Taylor spoke up.

"As far as I'm concerned, Dad's still dad, and Mom's still mom, even if I don't share DNA with them anymore."

I nodded in wholehearted approval, even as Melissa chimed in,

"Hope you like Laotian cuisine; we ordered from one of the new restaurants that the Revitalization Fund helped get set up."

---

(Marcus)

Project Gaslight hadn't really taken all that long to get set up; it didn't call for anything we couldn't already make, and the specialized deception AI was pretty straightforward to extrapolate from what it took to make Andrea and myself. For various reasons I'd wound up in charge of supervising the massively parallel data injection attack, and I was doing exactly that.

Two thousand four hundred fake hosts for our power, all of them in a simulated scenario of constant war against a hypothetical unleashed Nilbog and other S-Class threats. Our power wanted conflict, and we were giving it more conflict than it could have ever asked for. And it was working wonders.

Almost immediately, we'd gotten access to a downright treasure trove of biomedical technology to counter the abominations the fake Nilbog was throwing around in the scenario, so I started to get creative with the enemy types. Often including stuff the real Nilbog should have absolutely no way of including in his minions, in hopes of wringing more exotic capabilities out of our power's database.

Sometimes this worked, like with extremely fast minions getting countered by some very interesting time dilation technology. Other times it really didn't work. For example, no matter what parameters I put into the simulation, our power never ever coughed up any more interdimensional technology.

By wednesday midnight, Project Gaslight had managed to increase our authorized access to our power's associative network from one percent to about three percent. Given that only six percent of the total network seemed to be conflict-gated, we'd be needing a new approach soon.

And that's why I called together a meeting at about one in the morning on thursday. After I'd explained the current state of affairs, Andrea was the first to speak.

"Weren't there a lot of other error messages that popped up while we were mapping out the structure of the associative network? Pretty sure that 'Incorrect Power Expression' was really common last time we checked."

I nodded,

"Yeah, that's about thirty percent of the total network. The rest is stuff like 'Forbidden by Administrator', 'Insufficient Privilege', and such."

We all thought for a moment, before Melissa brought something up.

"We can possibly expand Project Gaslight to try and get different power expressions to work with, but ultimately we're going to need to escalate our privileges in the system if we want total control of our power."

Emmy remarked,

"This would be a lot easier if we had physical access to our power. Unfortunately, that's not all that easy to manage."

That sparked a thought in my mind.

"Why not though? We can make connections to our power's dimension, albeit only a couple millimeters across. Maybe we can slip something through there somehow?"

Andrea voiced a pretty major objection.

"That's a pretty major somehow. A couple millimeters isn't a lot to work with; even if we stick a drill bit through the portal, we don't have any good ways to fit significant assets through there."

I thought further on it, before a possible route occurred to me.

"Teleportation. We can probably make an inflatable teleporter that we can stuff through the portal with a connecting optical fiber. That would at the very least let us send through some mini-bots and the parts for a bigger teleporter, and we can build up from there to a full-sized teleportation system."

Emmy immediately started running the numbers on the requirements for this idea, before eventually saying,

"We'll have to work in the exact opposite direction of our specialty here; the starting rounds will be much more like Armsmaster's work than ours. But I think that we can just about do it with enough engineering."

 

[We Just Write]

(Melissa)
By Sunday night (20th of February), I was just about ready to throw in the towel with regards to the inflatable teleporter idea. The special materials needed for teleportation just couldn't be made stretchy and flexible enough to fit through the damn two millimeter hole. Even if there was a Tinker who could make those materials, we wouldn't let them anywhere near this project without a lot more vetting, a shielded brain, and a Non-Disclosure Alteration.

That said, we had managed to stick a narrow drill through one of the portals and bore to open air. So if we somehow figured out a way to stuff some serious assets through there, we'd be just about set in terms of getting physical access to our power.

Emmy came to check in on me around midnight, and after I vented about the issues, she asked,

"Maybe we can make the hole bigger somehow?"

I blinked,

"Come to think of it, we do have records of Vista's power in action, and with Energy Teleportation we can mess with vacuum energy in the ways required to warp spacetime."

Emmy nodded.

"Thinking a bit deeper on it, we've actually got quite a few space warping options, but making the portal bigger is probably one of the simpler ways to do it."

I sighed,

"Guess we've got to get on with inventing a new technology again. Though fortunately this is one we've got a pretty good lead on how to accomplish."

---

(Marcus)
It was ten in the evening when I arrived at the Palanquin. While the infamous nightclub did seem like a good time, I was here for business, not pleasure. Behind my bandana mask, I was very carefully maintaining my composure as I approached the back entrance.

Unsurprisingly, said entrance was guarded. Still, I wasn't about to force my way past the couple men waiting by the door; if nothing else it would set completely the wrong tone for the conversation I was here to have.

The guard on my left noticed my approach first.

"State your business."

I came to a halt, nodded, and answered.

"I'm here to talk with Faultline about possible jobs, on behalf of Reliabuilt. You can call me Mr. E."

The guard on the left took out his encrypted walkie-talkie and started talking with the people inside.

Meanwhile the guard on the right looked me up and down with a mild expression of bemusement. I nodded at him, as if to acknowledge 'Why yes, I do look an awful lot like a gun-toting version of the black-clad swordsman from The Princess Bride.'

A few minutes passed, before the guard on the left said,

"Right. Come inside and go up the stairs on the right."

I did as requested, and soon enough I found myself in a room with five parahumans, two of them being Case 53s. Notably they didn't ask me to leave my weapons, which said interesting things about their assessment of me; especially since they knew I "worked for" a powerful Tinker.

Faultline spoke first, from behind her ballistic face shield.

"You're clearly not an assassin, or you wouldn't have bothered with making your presence known. Besides, Ruggedizer's rather fond of live-and-let-live, which is an attitude I can appreciate. So, what exactly is your job with Reliabuilt, Mr. E?"

I sat on one of the provided chairs as I answered,

"I suppose you could say I'm a fixer; my job is to make problems go away, and your crew has the potential to be rather influential in that regard."

"Oh, am I a problem?"

"No; aside from anything else, you keep the negative effects of your current jobs firmly outside city limits. I'm more interested in hiring your crew to make other problems go away."

"Go on; I'm listening."

"So, there's two offers on the table here. First, we're willing to offer a continuous retainer for you to only take jobs that don't require offensive violence, abduction, or theft of physical assets. We will compensate you for lost revenue as a result."

Everyone at the table looked a bit stunned at the idea. After a second, Faultline chuckled a bit.

"Well, paying us to stay out of trouble is definitely a new one for me; we don't normally do protection rackets, but seeing as you approached first and waved rather a lot of money under my nose unprompted, I think I can make an exception this time. Though I'll want to discuss exact payment terms for that later. What's the second offer? The standard 'or else', perhaps?"

I shook my head,

"No actually. Basically, it's in everyone's interest for there to not be any new villains in Brockton Bay hurting people - even the extant villains would appreciate not having new competition. So we're interested in you keeping a look out for new parahumans - or just ones who are new in town - and pointing any you find our way, provided they aren't really nasty people already. We'd pay you per parahuman you point our way; we'd also offer a bounty for information on ones you don't think would be amenable towards using their powers in a productive occupation."

Faultline thought for a moment, before nodding.

"That's quite an interesting job offer you have in mind there. Even if we don't go for the retainer, we would definitely be interested in that recruitment and information bounties. Just one question about it; what if the parahumans we find are interested in joining our crew?"

I shrugged,

"If they want to join your crew, they want to join your crew. I'm not here to coerce anyone."

As Faultline leaned back to consider the offers, the orange-skinned teenage member of the crew (Newter) asked,

"So, is that everything you wanted to talk to us about, or is there more you want to bring up before we move on to the precise details of money changing hands?"

Oh, right. Bakuda.

"Actually, there is one more thing. We have reason to believe that a quite bluntly insane explosives Tinker by the name of Bakuda may come to Brockton Bay in the near-ish future. Since neutralizing Bakuda is likely to be an all-hands-on-deck situation, we'd like to draw up terms to quickly hire you to help deal with her if needed."

The other man at the table (Gregor the Snail) nodded,

"Contingency planning. That makes sense to me."

---

(Andrea)
Being completely honest, I spent the entirety of my day job shift on Monday worrying about Bakuda. That girl was completely off her rocker, I had absolutely no idea what sorts of munitions she might be capable of making… and most concerningly, her location was currently unknown. Since her appearance at Cornell University, there hadn't been a single reported sighting of Bakuda.

For all I knew she might have blown herself up, but there was absolutely no way I was that lucky.

Jumping at shadows of possible Bakuda sightings wasn't helpful, so I diverted my attention to figuring out better ways to secure Reliabuilt facilities against Bakuda's attacks. The anti-munitions systems would do a lot to prevent artillery-style attacks, and smuggling stuff inside a box or clothing could be dealt with by a robotic security checkpoint. How else could Bakuda get a bomb inside without it being noticed…

That's when the idea bubbled up in my mind, and I felt physically ill at the thought. Bakuda could hide bombs inside people. If she used anaesthesia throughout the whole implantation process, the terrified hapless victim might not even know they were on a ticking clock before they exploded. If they came to Reliabuilt HQ looking for a safe place after that… boom.

Right, let's think this through. How do we quickly check thousands of people for implanted bombs and save the ones who've been implanted? Also, the current anti-abduction measures for our people were definitely insufficient. They needed to be massively improved.

I spent four hours mulling over the various measures that could be taken and how to implement them. They'd need quite a bit of engineering to get working, but by four PM I had a pretty good idea of things we could do to mitigate the threat Bakuda posed. Then a notification on my news feed went off, and I took a look at it.

If I'd had blood, it would have run cold at the news; there had been a brief sighting of Bakuda, as she robbed a Wal-Mart near Albany, New York. She wasn't in Brockton Bay yet, but she was definitely a lot closer than she had been. Bakuda was coming… well, probably.

Still couldn't afford to take chances.

---

(Emmy)
Friday the 25th of February, yet another Tinker showed up at the Brockton Bay factory looking for work. Though unlike Trainwreck, this one arrived via mundane means; he just got off at the bus stop by the factory, walked up to the receptionist, and calmly explained that he was a Tinker looking for a job. Since my schedule today was mostly open, I found myself giving this Byung-Ho fellow an impromptu job interview less than an hour after he arrived.

A cursory examination had revealed that he was of Korean descent; he'd moved to America at the age of twenty eight, and he was currently fifty. Apparently he'd spent the last twenty years or so working for the Department of Defense in some obscure bureaucratic capacity.

When he showed up in the interview office, I gestured to the box of baked goods on the table and said,

"Help yourself."

As Byung-Ho sat down, he answered,

"Not hungry. You want to know what I can make, yes?"

I nodded; seemed reasonable enough, and it would have to be discussed eventually.

"I make materials. Alloys, polymers, ceramics, and plenty of other substances. But for finished products I only have my own mind and skills to work with. Would you like samples?"

"Sure?"

With that, Byung-Ho opened his briefcase, passing me a few squares of interesting polymer materials.

"Not my best work; I don't have access to the facilities needed for high temperature metallurgy or ceramics work at the moment, so what I could produce for demonstration purposes is quite limited."

I thought for a moment. These were interesting materials, yes, but I didn't know if they were actually Tinkertech; it was still possible he was a fraud. But I couldn't just whip out my equipment and get analyzing right here and now, or I would absolutely blow my (barely there at all) legal cover.

"Would you be willing to wait here while I take these down to the lab to be analyzed?"

"Certainly; I don't have anywhere else I need to be today."

As I got up, I noted,

"If you get hungry or thirsty, you can push the call button and ask for consumables to be delivered. Bathroom is the first door on the right if you go down that hallway."

With that, I made my way into the parts of the factory that the regular employees weren't allowed in, but not to the places where we dealt with the alien security measures.

A quick look at these polymers, subjecting them to various stretch tests… and they were really really good. Byung-Ho would definitely be getting hired.

---

(A Bit Later…)
Later that day, Byung-Ho made his way to his newly… "rented" condominium; apparently it was just a very slow process of purchasing the unit, but he found that hard to wrap his brain around. His feelings on how things went were slightly conflicted; getting the job was great, but it did mean there were rather high expectations for what he would manage to achieve.

This was especially the case given he'd abandoned his former post to take this job; if his old employer ever learned of his sudden change in employment, they would be very very angry with him indeed. Perhaps it was good that his new workplace and residence were so fortified, then.

After a quick meal, Byung-Ho got out an old mechanical typewriter, and started typing up everything that had happened today. This at least was much like the old job; a detailed record of everything he took part in was crucial for good professional conduct.

On the other hand, this was the first time these records would be directly collected from him without him needing to send them. Byung-Ho still wasn't quite clear on how this was to be done, but his new employers were quite explicit that he didn't need to concern himself with the matter, so he didn't. Much.

Late at night, when Byung-Ho was fast asleep, a portal opened in his living room. A man quietly stepped through, retrieved the neatly typed report on the day's activities, and returned to whence he came. The former North Korean spy didn't even turn over in his slumber.

 

[We Just Write]

C: Due to us wanting to work on other things and not feeling any more inspiration to write this particular story, we are officially discontinuing Built to Last. That said, we're not leaving you completely in the lurch; we wrote a rough outline of how the rest of the story would go, and we have no objections to another author picking up where we left off.

---

Spoiler

Arc 6: Subversion: Emmy and Melissa hack the shit out of their Shard, and learn even more Horrible Eldritch Lore in the process. Trainwreck shows up looking for work, as does an OC Cauldron Tinker sent as an informant. Construction on the bridge commences.

Arc 7: Explosion: Bakuda starts shelling the Reliabuilt compound to try and prove herself the superior Tinker. It doesn't go well for her. Things escalate to the point where Lung eliminates Bakuda himself as a liability, and he does diplomatic outreach towards Reliabuilt shortly afterwards. The Manchester factory opens for business immediately after the debacle.

Arc 8: Exploration: The crew create their first proper dimensional travel technology, and start scouting for a suitable alternate Earth to co-opt for their usage. The gate machine is kept in some of the secretive sub-sub-basements of the Manchester factory. Armsmaster makes final preparations to upload. Trainwreck uploads, and is welcomed to the crew in full.

Micro-Arc: Exclusion: The crew learns of Cauldron and their activities, and quickly pegs them as completely and utterly compromised by the Entities. They subsequently resolve to keep their operations as disconnected from Cauldron as possible.

Arc 9: Construction: Building forces to secretly invade the Eagleton Quarantine Zone. Meanwhile, construction of the new bridge really kicks into high gear. Armsmaster is uploaded, and Dragon manages to induct him into the anti-Shard conspiracy.

Arc 10: Invasion: The Elite try to force Ruggedizer into the fold, sending Bastard Son to get it done. At roughly the same time, Emmy and Melissa are secretly conquering the Eagleton Quarantine Zone (with Taylor's assistance). Bastard Son ends up getting his upper body vaporized when one of Ruggedizer's killbots tracks him to his current hideout.

Arc 11: Colonization: A synthetic civilization is founded on an unoccupied Earth, specifically chosen for not being heavily surveilled by the Entities. As a collaborative project between Ruggedizer and Armsmaster, they produce an anti-Endbringer weapon in the form of a two meter blade of pure quantum fuckery on the end of a polearm, which uses quantum teleportation to sunder any and all connections in matter the blade passes through. This weapon is dubbed the Shear. As a side tangent, the Travelers come to Brockton Bay in order to get Noelle uploaded. This successfully cures her condition.

Arc 12: Hydration: Leviathan comes to Brockton Bay. While there is significant collateral damage, Leviathan is quickly intercepted by Armsmaster, and absolutely mutilated with the Shear. Leviathan runs for his fucking life, leaving 90% of buildings undamaged and the city's government intact. Incidentally, only Leviathan's tail (containing its core) escaped, leaving behind an almost-complete Endbringer corpse. The new bridge shrugged off the fuckery like it was nothing.

Arc 13: Reconstruction: The world-shaking news that an Endbringer decisively lost without Scion's intervention echoes across the globe. Meanwhile, the damage to Brockton Bay is being quickly repaired, and there's a major surge in Uploading patients after Panacea completely and utterly burns out. The Neohadean robot civilization continues to grow in secret.

Arc 14: Intrusion: The Slaughterhouse Nine finally makes its appearance; not wanting to get splattered, they opt for a mostly indirect method of causing problems, kidnapping people, doing horrific things to them, and making sure the aftermath is visible to the public. The only one who actually tries to infiltrate one of Ruggedizer's bases is Mannequin, who attempts to sneak into the Brockton Bay factory. This results in his unceremonious demise. After that, the Nine leave town.

Arc 15: Abduction: Being absolutely livid at the Nine for what they did in Brockton Bay, the crew opt to do something about Jack Slash before his next "show". As it turns out, they do need some practice at suborning intact Warrior Shards, calling for a test subject no-one will miss. Since Jack Slash fits the bill quite nicely there, they kidnap him and start experimenting.

Arc 16: Transmission: Fairly quickly, the Reliabuilt crew realize they hit upon an absolutely critical asset in the form of the Broadcast Shard. After completely and utterly suborning control over it, they begin mapping out the many, many Shards operating in the vicinity of the Earths. Towards the end of the arc, they find the cluster of Shards composing the Warrior Entity. Back on Bet, there's a mass migration towards Brockton Bay and Manchester, while plenty of other cities are practically begging Reliabuilt to set up branches there.

Arc 17: Usurpation: With the Broadcast Shard under their control and the Shard network mapped, the Reliabuilt crew begin quietly suborning Shards one after another. Extreme precautions are taken to avoid alerting the Warrior Entity of what exactly is going on. Meanwhile a massive superweapon is being constructed on NeoHadea.

Arc 18: Elimination: With the superweapon completed and the Shard Network suborned, the Reliabuilt crew launch a multi-pronged attack on the Warrior Entity. The suborned Shards do an excellent job of drawing the Warrior's attention, opening it up for a sucker-punch from the interdimensional doom cannon built on NeoHadea. This blasts a massive hole in the Warrior's defenses, most importantly breaking the sandboxing barriers preventing dimensional travel to the Warrior's core Shards. The Warrior Entity manages to block the beam from inflicting continued damage, but between the injuries it's already received and the continued attack from the suborned Shards it's effectively stunlocked. The NeoHadean robot armies surge through the breach and start tearing the Warrior Entity apart from the inside. The crew now have uncontested admin control over the source of Parahuman abilities.

Arc 19: Reparation: The Reliabuilt crew quickly exploit their newfound control over the Shard Network to arrange "accidents" for all the really bad villains on the various Earths. Meanwhile they completely change how getting powers works, putting them in the hands of people inclined to use them for constructive purposes and actually requiring informed consent about what the whole deal entails.

Arc 20: Disclosure: To much controversy, Ruggedizer goes public about the source of Parahuman abilities. The diplomatic mess caused by the Neohadean civilization along with open inter-Earth travel is bad enough, but people really don't like the crew playing favorites by refusing to tech-uplift dictatorships and generally having decent conduct strings attached to their help. Meanwhile, Cauldron gets unceremoniously shitcanned.

Epilog: A few centuries down the line, a space fleet operated by the Inter-Earth Federation happens upon another batch of Entities parasitizing a civilization. After some basic investigation to check for benign symbiosis, the Entities in question are simply demolished with starship weapons fire. Diplomatic contact with the locals ensues.

 

[We Just Write]

E: We're baaaack.

 

[We Just Write]

(Melissa)

I was working on some more consumer products for my day job when Rose paged me,

"Ruggedizer, I've got some excellent news! The Quantum Uploading Device has been approved for medical applications when used in conjunction with the body builder machine! They've also verified patent eligibility for the QUD, Body Builder, and the synthetic brains."

"Thank you, Rose! Would you please let legal know I'll be talking to them soon? It's about the licensing terms."

"Certainly."

As I walked to the legal offices, I thought grimly about the conversation I'd had with the rest of the family about this. The fact of the matter was, we couldn't release the dimensional shielding tech into the wild; it was all well and good for people to know we could protect our technology from Parahuman powers, but if they put two and two together about how we were doing it, that could completely destroy the opsec required for our anti-alien work.

So the version of the synthetic brains we'd looked to patent didn't have that shielding. The vast majority of Master powers would do absolutely nothing to uploads anyway, and this way we didn't risk the entire world. It still stung to release a deliberately sub-standard product, though.

My musings were paused as I reached the legal offices. I was greeted by Jacob Vespa, one of Reliabuilt's lawyers.

"Hello, Ruggedizer. I heard you wanted to talk about licensing for the newly patented technology?"

I nodded,

"Yes. Bluntly, these are technologies that people's lives will directly depend on, in a much more intimate sense than for most of our products. So anyone who wants to do licensed production will need reliability measuring up to our standards. Also, license-built QUDs and body-builders will be required to have compatibility with Reliabuilt-made brains."

Jose thought for a moment,

"What exactly do you mean by reliability measuring up to your standards? Do you mean a specific hard bar for reliability that mundane manufacturing can conceivably meet, or that it has to equal the tinker-tech that we make here?"

"The former; I'm fully aware that the reliability for stuff I make is beyond most firms' ability to replicate. I just want them to make absolutely sure their stuff won't get a patient killed or otherwise messed up. And that means rigorous testing standards, Reliabuilt inspectors turning up with no notice, and other similar measures."

"Understood. We'll get to work on it. Guessing we should get in touch with Human Resources about setting up an inspections department?"

"Good idea."

---

(Marcus)

It was two in the morning on Monday, the 28th of February. It had taken quite a few shady deals, but I had managed to arrange a meeting with Lung. I showed up at the Ruby Dreams casino, and was promptly directed to a back room. Twenty minutes later, Lung entered in his trademark steel mask. I was wearing my Mr. E getup, as was typical when I was on business away from the factory.

"So, you are Reliabuilt's mysterious fixer? Why did you want to meet with me?"

"Bluntly, to warn you about someone, and to make clear that accepting her into your gang will be very bad for your business."

Lung thought for a moment.

"Do you mean that I will be attacked for accepting this person into the ABB, or that they are inherently dangerous to my operations?"

"Both. I came to warn you about an asian-american explosives Tinker going by Bakuda. Putting it bluntly, she is utterly insane, and liable to do all manner of reckless things in an effort to stroke her own ego. Since her Trigger Event, she has been sighted approaching Brockton Bay twice, and it seems likely she will attempt to attack Reliabuilt."

Lung nodded thoughtfully,

"That is quite troublesome indeed. While I've had to downsize the protection services side of my business, the increase in disposable income across the city means my entertainment venues are more profitable than before. Taken together, the ABB is better off overall than before Reliabuilt came along. In addition, the removal of the Empire has been a great boon. Having an unstable bomb-maker ruin all of that is simply unacceptable."

There were another few seconds, before Lung asked another question.

"To be clear, is simply having this Bakuda under my employ in any capacity going to provoke hostilities?"

"If you keep her from causing problems, we won't give you any. But if Bakuda joins the ABB and starts causing trouble anyway? I politely request that you deal with her permanently. I suspect that her actions will provoke you to dispose of her anyway, should she come under your command."

Lung seemed moderately annoyed at my giving him instructions, but kept his composure.

"We shall see. Before you go, I have a message for you to pass to the PRT: the ABB has divested itself of human trafficking. It is not a sensible business to retain, given the changed situation in Brockton Bay."

Lung clearly wanted me to leave, so I stood.

"I understand. Thank you for your time."

Spoiler: author's note

To be clear, this is NOT a Lung Redemption Story. He is a bad person through and through, and is entirely willing to harm innocent people for his own gain. That said, he is pragmatic and capable of thinking things through; if he comes to the conclusion that a given act of villainy would be counterproductive, he won't do it.

---

(Andrea)

Ultimately, we'd had very little direct input on the engineering side of the bridge. There was just too much else for us to do, so we ended up giving the engineers involved a directive to prioritize durability and lifespan for the bridge over every other consideration - with the exception of not hindering maritime access - and left them to it. So I showed up at the north end construction site around noon on Thursday the 27th, to take a look around.

As I touched down at the entry gate, the lady on duty looked up from her lunch.

"Ah, Laniakea. I take it you're here to take a look around?"

"Yes, that's exactly correct."

"Well, you know the rules. Hard hat and high-visibility vest like everyone else."

I nodded, and donned the safety gear without complaint. The hard hat was pretty irrelevant for me, but the high-vis vest could still prevent a nasty accident. Properly attired, I proceeded onto the construction site.

I made an effort not to bother anyone, but I couldn't help being impressed by the large caisson I saw being floated into position.

I noticed a worker coming up to me, and turned to greet them.

The man waved to me,

"Nice to see you, Laniakea. I'm Adam, one of the junior engineers on the project. That caisson's a thing of beauty, yeah?"

I nodded,

"Yeah. That said, I find myself pretty curious about the inner workings of it. Got any details to share?"

Adam nodded,

"Yeah, that's a fully pressurized caisson there, and it'll form the foundation of the bridge's central tower. It's got six decompression chambers for workers coming off their shift, electrical hookups for earth-moving machinery, four layers of redundancy on the pressurization equipment, the works. There's even fully functioning restrooms built into the pressurized section, though not on the bottom level."

I smiled.

"That's genuinely impressive. Sounds like you'll make short work of laying the foundations."

"You'd think that, but the silt at the bottom of the bay is pretty thick here. Even with people working around the clock to dig muck out, it's going to take a while to reach bedrock. At least a month or two."

Ah. Fair enough.

---

(Emmy)

It took until March 3rd to get the space-expanding machinery to work properly on a link to our power. This really wasn't helped by the fact that we didn't tell our power shit about what we were doing here, and didn't get any help on this at all. Strictly speaking, this was an engineering project, rather than Tinkering. Once more, I found myself grateful for our awesome robot brains.

Anyway, just in case something went horribly wrong, we set up the breach in a dimensionally shielded vault, and none of us were physically present at the moment the space-expander fired. We really needn't have bothered; the portal smoothly grew from two millimeters to four meters in diameter, and stabilized at its new size without incident.

I couldn't help but remark,

"I can't help but feel that was way too easy. Shouldn't there be some sort of security we should have tripped?"

Marcus just shrugged.

"I'm really not surprised. The thousands of extra hosts reporting a completely divergent alternate reality didn't provoke a hazardous response, so why would this? Really, given the results of Project Gaslight this is totally within expectations."

As for Melissa, she had a rather blunt opinion of matters.

"I'm sending the probes in. along with the teleporter installation units. We've got an alien biocomputer to subvert, and sitting around talking about it isn't getting anything done."

Right, it was time to get shit done.

 

[We Just Write]

A/N: We realized there were some inconsistencies with the story's timeline. Among other things, we'd accidentally written Marcus doing stuff before his activation date. These anomalies have been corrected.

---

(Andrea)

Due to my mobility, I'd volunteered to supervise the effort to completely suborn our power "from the front". I made a backup before I went through the portal, but I really hoped that wouldn't be needed. I wanted to live, and a version of me from a few hours ago wasn't quite that; it was more of a life insurance plan.

Because of that, I was flying relatively low over the crystalline landscape. We didn't know if our power had anti-air defenses, and really didn't want to find out the hard way. Some of the drones flew higher to get a better view and so far none of them had been shot down, but better safe than sorry.
As our scouts surveyed the area, more and more information was becoming clear. Our power was approximately three hundred kilometers in radius, with the vast majority of its mass being in a huge dome towards the center. The outlying areas were largely dedicated to solar energy collection, meaning that almost the entirety of the database must be in the dome.

Furthermore, there was a massive impact crater in the dome. Some basic estimations indicated that it was consistent with an impact approximately equivalent to 300 kilotons of TNT. Clearly, something had not gone as planned here.

As for our initial intrusion point? It was two kilometers from the dome, and the portal was directly connected to the core by a pulsing conduit of crystalline nervous tissue.

I radio'd back to base,

"Emmy, Melissa, I'm going to start sending units into the dome, starting with the impact site. I have a hunch that crater is our best bet for bypassing the aliens' security."

Emmy replied quickly,

"Andrea, please be careful! I know you're competent and careful, but we're directly tampering with a being vastly more powerful than us."
"I know, Emmy. I know."
Within minutes the first data-jacks were being drilled into the alien's associative network, and as I got the first readings, I couldn't help but pump my fist in excitation. Not only were we getting good data, but it looks like that impact took out whatever passed for higher reasoning in a genocidal alien geological formation. Meaning that all the stuff directly connected to it assumed those jacks had full access permissions.
We were in.

---

(Emmy)

We'd started our attack on our power just after closing time on the 3rd of March, and stayed up all night analyzing the data we were getting back from the jacks our drones installed. Almost immediately, I was able to prove Andrea's hypothesis correct; our power's decision-making capacity and situational awareness had been crippled by that impact it suffered on approach. Effectively, we were dealing with an alien suffering the equivalent of a severe untreated concussion.

While there was absolutely a treasure-trove of technology in here, we were saving it for later. We had a much higher priority in our examination of the database: extracting as much information as possible on how the alien invasion cycle was going as a whole. What we found was complicated. At five in the morning, everyone gathered in a shielded break room to have breakfast and discuss the situation.

I started,

"Well, the good news is that one of the two network hubs is dead. So at least this cycle won't lead to successful reproduction."

Melissa sighed in response,

"That's far from any guarantee regarding the behavior of the other network hub. Just the fact that the Endbringers are deployed makes me suspect that a genocide is still in the works, and the records we uncovered make me deeply suspicious of Scion. I think he's a sockpuppet for the remaining network hub."

I nodded in thought, as did Andrea and Marcus. Andrea was the next to voice a concern.
"I'm honestly scared that our power is apparently on the small end. Yes I know that's normal for Tinker powers, since they're basically a database and therefore don't need all that much energy. It still means that any other powers we tamper with are likely to put up a much bigger fight than what we got here, even accounting for our power being comatose. We need to build up, way more than we can here on Earth Bet."

Marcus asked,

"Could we maybe build up in our power's reality?"

Melissa shook her head.

"No; the records show that the network hubs are supposed to check up on powers every once in a while. If that happens and there's any obvious alterations to our power, all our hard work on opsec goes right down the drain. So I've already started operations to conceal our subversion of our power."

Now Andrea spoke up,

"Can we please stop calling it that? Calling them powers has mystical connotations that I really don't like, and Sunderer hasn't stuck."
Marcus shrugged,

"Dynalith, maybe?"
"Sure, we can call it a Dynalith."

---

(Melissa)

The subversion of our Dynalith aside, Reliabuilt was still our single best way to acquire resources. It was also how we were best able to improve the situation here on Earth Bet in the near-to-medium term. That meant getting more products on the market was absolutely a useful thing to do, and the nuclear fusion technology we'd dug up a while back would be great for that. There was just one problem: the laws banning tinkertech from use in public infrastructure.

That meant another end-run around the Rogue Laws was needed. Namely, hiring a bunch of mundane engineers and teaching them how to build a fusion reactor. Then having them do it again without my direct involvement, so it wouldn't be tinkertech, legally speaking. We'd gotten a mix of fresh graduates and experienced nuclear industry personnel in starting on the 22nd of February, and we'd really gotten into the swing of building a fusion reactor starting on the 2nd of March.

By March 8th - Tuesday - the semi-tinkertech prototype reactor was completed. We'd just come back from lunch, and it was time for the initial test operation.

Angie Rains - one of the freshly graduated engineers we'd hired - called out from her station: "We have D-D ignition in chamber number one. We're getting good Helium three and Tritium synthesis rates, along with twenty Megawatts electrical. Thirty Megawatts thermal headed to the radiator on the roof."

A few moments later, Andrew Brown - a veteran nuclear engineer - chimed in.

"Tritium separator is working smoothly; The Tritium storage tank is no longer a vacuum. Helium three tank will be reaching the point of having enough for afterburner activation within an hour."

I couldn't help but smile; technically speaking, we'd crammed two separate fusion chambers into this machine. The afterburner Andrew was referring to was optimized for Deuterium-3He; four times the energy density of pure Deuterium fusion, and a much larger fraction of that energy could be converted to electricity to boot. The end result was that the afterburner would be able to output one hundred and eighty Megawatts of electrical power, for only twenty additional Megawatts of waste heat.

Angie chimed in again,

"Honestly, just chamber number one would have been absolutely revolutionary on its own. Include the Helium three afterburner, and I don't even know how to describe what we've accomplished."

I nodded, "Yeah, this is going to change the world, no question about it. That said, I'm not allowed to help you get the production model built. Though I am rather interested in what sort of ideas you have there."

Andrew answered;

"We've actually been thinking we should make the production model smaller. Shrink it down to the form-factor of a standard shipping container, and we'll drastically reduce the cost of getting fusion power plants set up anywhere we can ship a reactor. It's a lot like that small modular reactor concept that's been kicking around for a while, but with fusion instead of fission. Drops the power per reactor to fifty Megawatts electrical, but that's more than enough for a worthwhile power plant, especially if they operate more than one at a given site."

I nodded as I thought about that,

"Sounds like it would make for a really good locomotive too, come to think of it."

Angie and Andrew both shrugged,

"We'll get there when we get there."

Just before leaving the room, I noted,

"By the way, some people from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be coming over starting tomorrow, in addition to the people from the PRT. Not anticipating any problems, but I thought you should know."

Angie saluted,

"Thanks for the heads-up."

---

(Marcus)

Finding the three remaining members of the Undersiders hadn't been hard; with their Thinker having been arrested, they weren't quite so good at dodging attention as they had been. So I'd left a letter for them at their new hideout - they'd moved prior to their old one getting raided by the PRT. That letter was politely requesting that they come talk to me at Somer's rock, also known as Brockton Bay's local neutral ground for villains to meet up.

Unlike with my talks with Faultline or Lung, this one did have an implicit "Or Else" attached to it. I didn't name any specific consequences, but the tone - along with the fact that I was more-or-less giving them orders - made clear that there would be some for not showing up.

I didn't need to wait all that long; all three Undersiders turned up at eight in the evening on Thursday, March 8th. The tall guy in black was clearly Grue, their de facto leader. I also noticed that Regent looked slightly confused, though it was a bit hard to tell through his mask.

As he sat, Grue asked,

"Are you Mr. E?"

"Yes."

There was a half-second pause, before I asked a very personal question.

"So, why are you three villains?"

Everyone tensed up. I then dropped my follow-up question.

"If you're villains because there's something you want, I can help you get it. The only string attached is that you three stop hurting people and causing problems for Reliabuilt. So, out with it."

There were several moments of awkward silence, before the one with the scepter - Regent - spoke.

"I... I can't go back to my family. I can't go to the authorities, that will just tell him where I am."

I nodded sadly,

"Supervillain father?"

"The worst."

"We can help you fake your death, better than anyone else. Put you in a fresh body, fake a cause of death for your old one, and you've got a fresh start."

The three teenagers seemed stunned for a moment. Then Grue asked,

"Wait, turning people into robots is a thing Ruggedizer can just do!? I thought that was some sort of one time only mad science thing, going by how the papers covered the Winslow incident."

"Ruggedizer doesn't do one time only mad science things. Her whole deal is extremely reliable technology, meaning anything she builds will be functioning for a very long time. That includes the uploading technology she developed. It's actually received conditional authorization for medical uses already."

Regent thought for a moment, then answered,

"I'll take your offer. Can't speak for the other two though."

I nodded, then gestured to Hellhound, also known as Rachel Lindt. She answered bluntly,

"I want to take care of dogs without anyone bothering me."

Grue elaborated,

"The only problem with that is that the PRT thinks Bitch murdered someone, when it was an accident. She made a dog that someone was torturing big, and the panicking dog did what panicking dogs do and bit."

I nodded, also mentally noting the term of address Grue used.

"Well then, I can arrange for Bitch to also have her death faked. Would that work for you?"

Bitch thought for a moment.

"Will my dogs still recognize me afterwards?"

I thought for a moment.

"That's something we considered. One idea that comes to mind is to build your new body first, and have you introduce the dogs to it before we put you in there."

"That will work."

I then turned to Grue.

"And, what do you want?"

"Custody of my sister. Our parents don't take good care of her, especially with her learning disability."
I kept my face stoic and very deliberately didn't say what I was actually thinking: You wanted to get legal custody of your sister, and your best plan was to go out and commit crimes? Saying that wouldn't be helpful. Instead, I answered,

"That's easy enough. Get your civilian identity a job at Reliabuilt, and we'll also get you in touch with some good lawyers. Yes that will involve you unmasking, but it's kind of unavoidable if you want to solve a problem in your civilian life."

"I... that's... why did I never think of something that simple before?"

I shrugged.

"Shall we go? I can let you into the Reliabuilt complex, and we can flesh out the plan in more detail there."

All three of them nodded in agreement.

 

[We Just Write]

It was the fourth of March - a Friday - when Amy noticed the new machinery being moved into Brockton General Hospital. More specifically, it was being moved to the terminal illness ward. Being curious about what it was, Amy found herself asking about it during one of her brief breaks.

Doctor Richard - one of the local Oncologists - answered,

"Ah, that's the new brain uploading machinery from Reliabuilt. It's been recently approved for medical uses, and it should really ease your workload. Basically, it opens up the option to put people in a brand new robotic body, if their current one is too sick or injured to recover any other way. It does mean a lot of medical personnel are also going to need some technical training going forwards, but that's how things go sometimes."

Just like that, all of Amy's self-worth evaporated. The world... just didn't need her anymore.

"Oh... I guess that's a good thing."

She went through the motions for the rest of her volunteer shift at the hospital, dreading what was going to happen. She was really glad that it was Victoria who came to pick her up, rather than Carol.

Victoria noticed the frown on Amy's face as she pulled up in the car.

"Amy, is something wrong?"

"Yes. They don't need me anymore."

Victoria blinked.

"Huh?"

"Ruggedizer's brain uploading technology is undergoing a nationwide rollout. That means I'm obsolete, and I don't have a reason to... exist anymore."

Victoria tilted her head.

"Who told you that you needed to heal people just to be allowed to exist?"

"Carol."

Victoria frowned, even as she put the car in park and got out her cell phone.

"Right, I think a sleepover is in order."

With that, Victoria dialed Taylor. Her sister needed to talk to someone who most emphatically couldn't want healing from her, but cared about her anyway.

 

[We Just Write]

(Marcus)

It was the ninth of March when I got a call from Faultline, specifically regarding an information bounty. Two of them, actually, though neither of them seemed likely to be recruitment prospects for Reliabuilt. I turned up in person with the agreed upon ten thousand dollars in cash per information bounty.

As it turned out, Faultline was busy. So the task of telling me what Faultline's Crew had learned fell to Spitfire.

"So, we've looked into a recent incident by the docks. We don't know many of the details, but apparently the PRT snapped up a fresh Trigger into the Wards. Probably a regenerator, given they were picked up from the hospital."

I nodded, though I didn't bother concealing a frown. It was information within the terms of the agreement, but it also wasn't terribly useful.

"Second, we have a confirmed sighting of Bakuda in Brockton Bay."

If I had blood, it would have run cold. Meanwhile, Spitfire got out a printed out photograph, presumably from a cell phone camera. It was a bit grainy, but I could clearly make out Bakuda talking to an ABB foot soldier in a back alley.

"Do you want to activate the pre-prepared contract to hunt down Bakuda?"

I thought for a moment. The more time Bakuda had to Tinker, the more dangerous she would get. But on the other hand, antagonizing Lung without needing to would be rather foolish. More pertinently, getting a reputation for being untrustworthy would make my job of quietly solving problems for Reliabuilt vastly harder in the long term.

So after a moment to think, I chose my answer.

"Not just yet. While she's almost guaranteed to cause problems, she hasn't yet. That said, if the PRT starts a manhunt for Bakuda, the contract immediately goes live. Given the change in circumstances, we're willing to increase the payment by ten percent for additional discretion regarding it being us hiring you."

Spitfire nodded,

"That sounds reasonable enough."

---

(Andrea)

It was just after lunch on Wednesday (March 9), when Rose paged me.

"Laniakea, Amy Dallon is here? She doesn't have an appointment, but she looks really distressed. Do you want to meet with her, or should I tell her you're busy?"

I saved the project I was working on, then replied.

"I'll talk to her; tell her I'll be in conference room two."

I arrived there about a minute before Amy did, though not before the robots stocked a fresh box of donuts and a jug of apple juice. Also a fruit bowl, in case anyone wanted to eat healthy.

Soon enough, the teenage brunette in question made her presence known. Judging by how messed up her hair was, she'd clearly been having a rough time of things. I offered her a glazed donut, and she immediately took it.

"Amy, what's wrong?"

Swallowing the bite she'd been chewing, the teenager answered,

"I can't go home again. If I have to go back to Carol, I – I won't be able to keep myself from doing something horrible."

I blinked, then motioned for Amy to go on.

"A bit less than a week ago, Brockton General got their uploading machine in. I know it's a good thing, but it got me thinking and I finally admitted to myself that I don't like healing. Stayed over at Taylor's for a night, but when I got back home, everything went bad."

Slowly, the whole story came out. Carol had massively gotten on Amy's case when it came out that she didn't actually like healing, and it had been so awful that Amy had opted to run away from home last night instead of go through another reaming. I didn't blame her in the slightest for running away from a clear case of emotional abuse.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to figure out what to do. Obviously, Amy couldn't go back to Carol, but legal problems on my end could be very troublesome indeed. So I paged the legal office for some advice.

A few minutes later, Jacob Vespa had turned up with a laptop, and a stack of law books.

"So, I do need to make clear that I'm specialized in contract and intellectual property law, rather than whatever this is. Still, I'll do my best to figure out what the applicable laws here are."

An hour went by, along with two bathroom stops and another box of donuts. Still, Jacob had what seemed to be an answer.

"So, the most applicable law here would be Section 633:4 under New Hampshire's Title LXII Criminal Code. The short of it is that at best keeping Amy away from Carol would constitute a misdemeanor at minimum, possibly a felony. The catch is that there's a specifically spelled out affirmative defense: if you were acting in good faith to protect the child from real and imminent physical danger, it wasn't a crime."

Amy frowned.

"That's... not helpful. It doesn't cover emotional danger."

Jacob hummed, then looked something up on his laptop.

"Unfortunately, you seem to be correct. Though there are a few other legal avenues we can take – along with some more dubious measures."

I asked,

"Let's start with the legally clear options first, please."

"Well, calling Child Protective Services is definitely an option, as is starting proceedings to get Amy legally emancipated. With some corroborating evidence about living conditions with Carol, it shouldn't be too hard to get Amy free of that household one way or another. The only concern there is that Amy might be forced back to Carol until those court proceedings wrap up, if we can't get some sort of emergency order."

Amy shook her head vigorously,

"No, no no that's not an option. If I go back I won't be able to stop myself from doing something horrible, I know it."

Jacob nodded,

"And that's where one of the slightly dubious options first makes its appearance. Namely, getting the PRT involved and having them bend the rules a bit. Though how much they're willing to bend rules depends on how dangerous the Parahuman is, and healing isn't generally perceived as dangerous. Also best for Ruggedizer not to put too much of her own implied firepower behind this one."

After a moment of silence, Amy spoke.

"I have to admit something. I'm not just a healer. I can do a lot more than that."

Then Amy grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, and it immediately reshaped itself into a live rodent of some description.

As the critter ran around in circles, I spoke.

"This... explains a lot. Right, we're going to the courthouse. I'll call the PRT on the way and we can explain the situation."

We'd just reached the lobby when a furious Brandish damn-near kicked down the door, and shouted:

"Laniakea, don't you dare get between me and Panacea!"

I didn't even break stride, though I did say "Sure, she's all yours," as misdirection.

Then I pulsed my gravity nodes just so, flinging myself at Carol. Credit to her reaction times, she shifted into her invincible ball of light form before I could make contact.

Still, invincible didn't mean immobile, and I could hit quite a lot harder than a baseline human. With a single solid kick, I managed to knock Brandish well over two hundred meters away, sending her straight through the factory's still-open front door.

I noted,

"That should keep her busy for at least a few minutes. Come on, let's go."

With that, we boarded the flying ambulance and started on our flight to the courthouse. When we got there, us explaining the situation to the first judge who had an open time slot actually got him to pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation. While he didn't decide the case in Amy's favor instantly, he did grant Amy's request for alternate housing arrangements during proceedings. More specifically, she would be staying with the Heberts.

Crisis averted, I waited for Amy to get picked up, then flew back to the factory with Jacob.

---

(Emmy)

It was ten in the morning on Thursday, when I read the report on Byung-Ho's first major project. Namely, he'd managed to produce a superconductor that didn't quench until it reached six hundred Kelvins. Just reading that, my jaw dropped. Yeah the superconductors we'd had for the fusion reactor project were technically room-temperature, but only barely. What Byung-Ho made was actually even better in other regards too; it was flexible instead of rigid, and you could fairly easily splice lengths of superconducting cable together with just pressure and time.

Even if it weren't reproducible (and therefore couldn't be parented), this would have been a massively useful piece of technology. But apparently some PRT scientists had managed to manufacture a small sample of the new superconductor, dubbed BH-1. Albeit with absolutely trash yields compared to what Byung-Ho was capable of getting with Reliabuilt's equipment. Right, looked like Byung-Ho would be getting his first patent.

And yes, it would be his first patent; standard Reliabuilt contract for R&D personnel (Tinkers included) split ownership of the patent just about down the middle between the inventors and Reliabuilt. The idea was that neither party could sue the other for using the patented technology or demand royalties, and while the vast majority of licensing would be handled via Reliabuilt, the inventor got a share of the royalties – which they could voluntarily pay back into Reliabuilt or the BBRF, if they wished.

Either way, I promptly got up from my desk and went to go congratulate Byung-Ho in person. This was most definitely an achievement worthy of praise.


(Melissa)

As we sat down in the living room after work, I noted,

"So, the Manchester factory will be opening on Tuesday. I think we'll need to expand our 'cape roster' to maintain coverage."

Marcus nodded,

"That seems sensible enough. Especially since my professional capacity isn't really publicized. Heck, I don't think I've actually shown I have powers at all when I've been out making deals."

As if to prove his point, Marcus briefly projected an illusion of an unimpressed stick figure.

Andrea also chimed in,

"The big questions are what powers we'll build into the new person, and how we'll design their looks."

Marcus dug out a twenty-sided die from somewhere, then commented,

"Well, I for one think we ought to leave gender up to chance this time. One through ten is female, eleven through nineteen is male, and a twenty is non-binary."

No-one had any serious objections to the idea, so Marcus rolled the die, sending it clattering across the coffee table.

It was a two.

I shrugged,

"Any objections to naming her Rachel?"

 

[We Just Write]

(Andrea)

It was two in the morning on Friday (March 11), when there was a gentle knock on the door of the factory. I checked the security camera… and it was Ryan, one of our employees from shipping and receiving. Right, I better see what the problem was.

Thirty seconds later, I'd let Ryan into the lobby, and asked,

"Is there any particular reason you're here so early?"

Ryan nodded grimly,

"It's Skidmark. He's decided to try shaking down Reliabuilt employees for money, and he's threatening to chuck construction materials through our windows if we don't pay up."

I thought for a moment,

"And you're counting on me to handle things more permanently than the PRT would, I'm presuming?"

Another grim nod.

"Understood. Where did you last see him?"

"Rosebrick projects, one of the residential districts Reliabuilt's refurbished. Pretty sure Mush is slinking around somewhere too, but not sure where exactly."

With that, I wrangled a team of security robots – the newer antigrav models – and off I went. Skidmark needed to be informed that Reliabuilt employees and customers were off the list.

I briefly considered my approach as I flew; there was far too much chance of getting rightly charged for murder if I simply killed Skidmark, but I also needed to fuck him up badly enough that he would be physically incapable of causing further problems. While passing it off as an accident. Yes, an injury to the spinal cord should do the job quite nicely.

Soon enough, I caught a glimpse of Skidmark in all his 'glory', shouting obscenities at a condo block. To legally cover my ass, I sent notice to the PRT that I'd encountered Skidmark "on patrol", and requested backup. If everything went right, this would be over long before they got here.

I then activated my bodycam, and without even the slightest sound I touched down behind Skidmark. I tapped him gently on the shoulder, and as he whirled around I growled out the only warning the man would ever get.

"Reliabuilt employees and property are Off. Limits."

Skidmark scoffed,

"Fuck you, star cunt."

Then he went for something or other; I didn't wait to see what it was. Instead, I lunged and grabbed Skidmark, simultaneously saying "Fine, we'll do this the hard way!"

Then I threw him. The direction I'd thrown him towards had been unoccupied at the time of the throw, but one of the drones had been drifting that way, and "coincidentally" happened to line up its hard forwards edge with the back of Skidmark's neck right when their trajectories aligned.

With a sickening crack, Skidmark slid limply to the ground, and I immediately rushed over to administer first aid. There was no love lost, but this being an accident would be much easier to believe if I did my best to prevent Skidmark from dying of his injuries after the fact. This also let me covertly assess the degree of spinal damage the initial impact had inflicted, and if necessary increase it.

Fortunately, I didn't actually need to risk blowing my legal cover by doing that; all the information I could glean indicated that Skidmark was now a quadriplegic. That should do perfectly fine at keeping him from causing future problems. I also confirmed that his injuries weren't life-threatening. Good.

Three minutes after the initial notification I sent to the PRT, Velocity showed up.

"Laniakea, what happened here?"

I sighed,

"Skidmark got hurt worse than I meant to, and I've been administering first aid for the last few minutes. He's been out of it since the injury, and I've got reason to suspect spinal injuries."

The speedster nodded,

"Right, we already have an ambulance on the way. They should be here in a few minutes."

Anyway, I gave the PRT my bodycam footage of the altercation, and soon enough they hauled Skidmark off to… somewhere. Couldn't put him in a regular prison, or he'd die pretty quick on account of his newfound disability. Couldn't put him in a regular hospital either, or he'd trash the place with his power, paralysis or no.

Meh, not my problem anymore.

---

(Emmy)

The status of the Brockton Bay Revitalization Fund within Reliabuilt was a bit odd; strictly speaking it was a separate company operating as a non-profit, but it benefited from Reliabuilt's overall legal department and… I suppose the term "non-profit subsidiary" might be applicable? Either way, I was at least nominally the boss of both organizations.

Anyway, today I was interviewing an applicant for seed money. Normally I'd be delegating this, but the applicant in question was a parahuman.

"So, you want to open a martial arts school?"

The self-titled Sensei nodded.
"Correct. My power is extreme skill in analyzing people's movements and fluidly controlling my own body. This seems like something I could use to teach people who are interested in defending themselves, even though I myself have no formal training."

I thought for a moment.

"Could I hear an example, perhaps?"

Sensei clammed up. Not quite like he'd been caught lying, but like he was trying very hard to psych himself up for something he really didn't want to talk about. Eventually, he spoke.

"Six days ago, I was cornered by a group of ex-Empire men. I did not have my power then, but-"

I shook my head.

"Not quite what I meant. You don't need to tell me about your trigger. I want to know if you can teach."

Sensei let out a sigh of relief.

"I was a mathematics teacher at a high school for fifteen years. I was away on vacation when the Slaughterhouse Nine made a visit to said school, and there was no school to return to afterwards. I don't wish to discuss that matter further, but I'm willing to provide my credentials if you need them."

I thought for a moment.

"Would you, please?"

Sensei opened the briefcase he'd brought with him, and provided me with the relevant documents. Apparently his civilian name was Markus Rasp, his teacher's license was legitimate (though expired), and the fingerprints I got off him matched what was in the digital database.

"Good news, Sensei. Looks like you're approved for funding and assistance."

---

(Rachel)

Date Point: 0133, March 12, 2011

I snapped to awareness in a standing position. Four people were standing around me; I quickly identified them as Emmy, Melissa, Andrea, and Marcus Sykes.

Marcus spoke first.

"Rachel, are you feeling alright? Did the world knowledge directory integrate properly?"

I nodded.

"Yes. I'm in Brockton Bay, and I am a Reliabuilt product intended for sale to law enforcement."

Everyone looked flabbergasted and appalled, and I couldn't help but crack up after a few seconds.

"Hah, gotcha! I know you're my family and never had any intention of selling me, but you only ever get one chance for a prank like that."

Emmy and Andrea both facepalmed, Marcus started giggling, and Melissa grumbled,

"Not funny."

"Was too funny. Also, what's the deal with that encrypted directory?"

Marcus went very serious then.

"That directory contains absolutely top secret information, only kept at such high levels of secrecy out of necessity. If that information gets out at all? The world dies. Why that would happen is one of those incredibly dangerous secrets."

There was a pause, before Marcus continued.

"If you don't want to be burdened by those secrets, you don't have to. But if you do choose to learn it, the programs in that directory will render you straight-up incapable of spreading those secrets without an absolute guarantee of maintaining infosec."

I thought for a moment, before giving my answer.

"Sounds like you need the help. Gimme that encryption key."

---

(Melissa)

While Andrea, Marcus and Rachel got busy planning the latter's public debut, I was planning our next move against the Dynaliths with Emmy.

Emmy started,

"So, we need to find an unoccupied earth that's only under light surveillance, and set up our operations there."

I nodded,

"That's correct."

"We can't ship enough assets to really get things started from either of our factory complexes. Not without compromising on secrecy, which is unacceptable."

"That's also correct."

"Therefore, we need to find some other site to use as our jumping off point."

There was a long pause, before I finally had an idea. A horrible and insane idea, but one that could work.

"The Eagleton quarantine zone, it's perfect."

Emmy blinked.

"What. How?"

"Think for a moment; because it's a quarantine zone, information on what's going on in there is extremely limited. On top of that, the reason it's quarantined is because of aggressive robots. I do believe we know someone who can Master robots."

Emmy focused on the idea for a moment.

"Do you really think we can read Taylor in on this? Not to mention she'd need to be extremely selective with what she actually did to the Eagleton robots, to avoid tipping off her power."

I thought about it for a bit.

"If push comes to shove, we do have a couple other options. We could get some feedback from Dragon, or we could maybe duplicate Taylor's connection to her Dynalith and do it ourselves."

Emmy answered almost immediately.

"Dragon first. She's already shielded and read in on the problem, not to mention having a lot of resources to work with that we don't have direct access to."

---

(Marcus)

It was 2 PM on Saturday. Rachel wasn't even 24 hours old yet, and I was keeping an eye on the news. Sure enough, a news story about Bakuda's bombs being used to level a building quickly surfaced. The news program quickly brought on a PRT representative saying that an all-out manhunt for the bomb tinker was now in effect.

I nodded grimly, and activated my internal phone.

"You've reached the Palanquin." said the voice of a receptionist I'd met briefly during previous business discussions.

"It's Mr. E. Let Faultline know that the previously arranged contract to deal with a liability is now active. I'll be there with the first half of the pay within the hour. In cash, as agreed."

 

[We Just Write]

(Dragon)

"Emmy, Melissa, that is quite possibly the worst idea I have ever heard. The Eagleton Quarantine Zone is off-limits for very good reasons, and I will not allow any harebrained schemes to try using it as a jumping off point for extradimensional colonization."

On the other end of the video call, Emmy turned to Melissa.

"Told you so."

Melissa slumped a bit.

"I suppose it was a stupid idea. Thanks for injecting some sense. Still, we do need an offworld base of operations. Any thoughts on what could work?"

I spoke up,

"I've got a lot of obsolete suits and other equipment in storage from my long career as a Protectorate and Guild Tinker. Though not suitable for combat anymore, that materiel could easily be repurposed for starting an offworld colonization program without anyone noticing. It can even be returned to storage once it's no longer needed, leaving no evidence behind. I'll simply need plans for an interdimensional travel machine, and the coordinates of an appropriate world."

Melissa nodded,

"Thank you for the offer, Dragon."

---

(Andrea)
Date Point: 1007, March 14 2011

Barely an hour after Reliabuilt's employees clocked in for work, the factory complex's alarms went off. I immediately overclocked my brain to maximum speed and pulled up the information on what was going on and - oh.

There were six projectiles on high arcing trajectories towards the facility. Radar, lidar, and visuals all agreed that they were mortar shells. Ballistics tracking pointed to a firing site 1.8 kilometers away, with firing times synchronized to achieve simultaneous impact.

I immediately tasked point defense to begin shooting down the mortar shells, even as a squadron of eight security drones were mobilized for a flight to the firing site. Sixteen more drones were also assigned to ram the mortar shells midair if they began descending despite both the lasers and regular interceptor missiles.

Another salvo of mortar shells was fired from the site before the drones had even made it a third of the way there, on a notably lower trajectory than the first salvo. Clearly this was an attempt at a time-on-target attack. Fortunately two of the first salvo shots had already been swatted by the time the second salvo launched.

Ballistics tracking also noted a seventh shell firing directly upwards. Why?-

That anomalous shell burst midair, producing a massive glowing vision of Bakuda. It was approximately forty meters tall, and clearly visible throughout most of the city. The illusory Bakuda made a triumphant pose even as the sixth inbound shell was destroyed, and then the damn thing began to gloat.

"I am Bakuda, the greatest Tinker in the world! Today, I erase the accomplishments of Ruggedizer!"

I tuned out the rest of the nonsensical rant, and focused on the job of defending the facility from the remaining inbound projectiles and shutting down the mortar site.

A fourth salvo of mortar shells was fired immediately prior to the flight of drones arriving at the firing site, getting a look at eight or so ABB goons shoveling shells into the six mortars they had as quickly as possible. They also had a flatbed truck here, where the ammunition was stored. I promptly ordered the security drones to taze the artillery crew with their electrolasers- and got a very direct look at their heads exploding, being impaled from the inside in hundreds of directions, bursting into flame from within, instantly freezing solid, bursting into a shower of horrible acid, arcing electricity all over everything nearby, and in one case instantly converting all matter in a 1.2 meter radius to glass. A moment later the remaining mortar shells on the truck also went off, devastating the entire street.

FUCK. I immediately contacted approximately all the emergency services, even as the drones in the vicinity switched to search and rescue mode. One of them had actually been destroyed by one of the matter conversion bombs, so there were only seven there to help. That wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

Fortunately, the factory's defenses managed to neutralize all inbound munitions before any could reach the apex of their trajectory. But that giant fucking hologram kept gloating about the destruction of Reliabuilt's factory. The damn thing had to be a recording rather than a live feed, since it celebrated at the exact moment when the mortar shells would have impacted, despite all of them having been neutralized by then. After a minute of insufferable gloating, it faded.

To think I had been hoping for a relaxing work day.

---

(Marcus)
In the immediate aftermath of the mortar attack on Reliabuilt, I contacted Lung via burner phone.

"Lung, this is Mr. E. Did you authorize Bakuda to attack Reliabuilt?"

To his credit, Lung answered immediately.

"No. In fact, I explicitly forbid her from taking any such action. I am aware of what happened; I clearly saw the hologram she created."

"Understood. Are you willing to share your plans going forwards?"

"Bakuda will need to be disciplined. Farewell, mister E."

---

(Rachel)
My official debut had been pushed back by the Bakuda debacle, so I found myself in one of the extreme security labs trying to figure out options for effective anti-Endbringer weapons. Unlike every other group who had to deal with them, we had the benefit of insider information on what the Endbringers actually were, and some knowledge of how they worked.

Analyzing that information was not encouraging, unfortunately. Very quickly, I was able to rule out any amount of straightforward physical force. Any hit of that variety strong enough to kill an Endbringer would be more than enough to render the planet uninhabitable. Assuming the planet was still around after the fact at all.

Meanwhile, the dimensional clusterfuck inside an Endbringer's body meant most varieties of weaponized portal simply wouldn't work. Temporal alterations could possibly have an effect, but given that the Worms had access to temporal effects of their own, that was a temporary measure at most.

I spent most of the day mulling over the problem, before I wound up asking Emmy and Melissa a question at dinner.

"Does the sending end for a teleporter actually need to be fully enclosed?"

 

[We Just Write]

(meanwhile)

Given recent events, Lung had ordered Oni Lee to dispose of his Bakuda-provided grenades immediately, as a safeguard against betrayal. He had then demanded that Bakuda come explain her blatant insubordination in person, given that she had violated a direct order by attacking Reliabuilt. So Oni Lee and Lung waited for Bakuda to either arrive and explain herself, or not arrive and find herself on Lung's hit list. Lung was obvious and in the open, but Oni Lee had found a concealed hiding spot to wait in.

As it turns out, Bakuda did arrive on schedule. But contrary to Lung's orders, she was carrying her grenade launcher, and already had it mostly lined up on Lung as she rounded the corner.

Things happened very fast after that, Oni Lee flashing into existence just in front of Bakuda, knives drawn. At the same time, Bakuda pulled the trigger. The launched grenade ricocheted off Oni Lee's shoulder, tumbling upwards into the air. Oni Lee flashed himself behind Bakuda even as his current self tumbled into the ground, and Lung ducked down away from the grenade.

Then the grenade went off, trapping both Lung and the Oni Lee in front of Bakuda. Well, parts of them anyway; the Oni Lee clone's head was inside the time stop bubble, as was Lung's left arm, raised in an instinctual effort to shield himself from the blast.

Bakuda didn't have long to celebrate her accomplishment, as Oni Lee stabbed her in the neck from behind, then made absolutely sure the madwoman was dead.

Meanwhile, Lung ripped himself free of his trapped arm, and started trudging around the timestop to where Bakuda's corpse was lying. By the time he got there, his left arm had mostly regrown, and Oni Lee had finished cutting off Bakuda's head, just in time to hand it to the regenerating pyrokinetic.

"I commend you for your loyalty, Oni Lee. Now, I do believe we have a message to send."

---

(Emmy)
Date Point 0815, March 15 2011

The front page of today's newspaper had a rather gruesome picture on the front page: a woman's severed head in a gas mask, erected on a post in one of Brockton Bay's parks. Hanging just below the head was a rather straightforward message:

"This is the head of Bakuda, who betrayed Lung. She is now dead."

Marcus nodded from across the breakfast table, even as he scraped some cream cheese onto a bagel;

"Well, looks like I'll be delivering the rest of Faultline's pay today, even though their efforts didn't really do much about Bakuda."

I shrugged,

"Fortunately, all they want is money, which isn't exactly in short supply for us."

"True. Any thoughts about what you'll be doing today?"

"Planning Rachel's public debut, talking to Trainwreck, and also checking on the Manchester factory site. According to what I've heard back from them, they should be ready to open by the end of the week."

That's when Rachel looked up from her oatmeal, and asked,

"Does my debut really need to be super flashy? I'm not law enforcement, branding isn't super important for me."

I replied, "People still need to know you work for Reliabuilt, meaning some sort of public debut is required. Best to have a plan for that, given you only get one shot at a first impression."

---

(Melissa)

To my utter shock, I was called over to the Protectorate's Rig on the 15th. I wasn't in trouble for anything, it was just that Armsmaster wanted my advice. Given how we'd gotten along before, I really wasn't expecting him to want to consult my expertise on anything.

Still, I showed up at ten o'clock sharp, wearing my dress armor. Armsmaster was waiting for me at the entrance.

"Ruggedizer."

"Armsmaster. Why did you request my assistance?"

The middle-aged miniaturization Tinker scowled for a moment, before answering.

"You are the world's leading expert on brain uploading. I have been persuaded that for such a high-stakes procedure, I should get your assistance in transitioning to a synthetic."

Ah. Apparently, Dragon talked some sense into him. I nodded,

"The easy way would be to put you through the QUD and let the body builder do its work, but I'm guessing you want a more custom job."

"You are correct. I will be using a Reliabuilt uploading machine, and a destination brain built to Dragon's specifications. But for the rest of my new body, I would appreciate your help ensuring compatibility and reliability."

I kept a strictly professional expression; I fully knew just how galling this had to be for Armsmaster, and I wasn't going to make this any harder on his ego than I had to,

"Understood. I suppose we should get to it, then?"

---

(Andrea)

Due to some unexpected legal trouble involving the BBRF (nothing too major, but still time-consuming), Emmy found herself with rather less time available than she'd planned on. So the task of talking to Trainwreck fell to me. As I entered his workshop, the Tinker nodded in my direction.

"Nice to see you Laniakea. Anything in particular you wanted to talk to me for?"

I shrugged,

"Something came up, so Emmy had to delegate checking up on you. How have you been since getting here?"

Trainwreck thought for a moment,

"Took me a while to hit my stride with properly long-lasting machinery, but I've mostly gotten up to the level of lifetime guarantee Ruggedizer can manage. Filled a dozen or so orders since then. I hope that's good enough?"

I smiled, "More than good enough. Truth be told, I was mostly here to check on your personal wellbeing, rather than audit your job performance."

Understanding dawned in Trainwreck's expression.

"Ah. There is something that's been bugging me, I suppose."

"You can tell me, you won't get in trouble for it."

There was a pause as Trainwreck hesitated. Then he answered.

"Even with the frame I built for myself, it's not really a body. I'd like to be able to go out and just have some normal time off, but can't see how to make that happen."

I blinked. This was a problem with a readily available solution.

"You do know brain uploading was recently added to Reliabuilt's health plan as an option for interested employees, right?"

Trainwreck blinked,

"I haven't read my contract in weeks. So no, I didn't know that. How do I apply for that?"

Wait... we never did get around to telling people about that, or setting up an official process for getting uploaded. Well that was an oversight we needed to correct.

 

[We Just Write]

(Melissa)
Armsmaster and I were taking a brief break from designing his new body, when he asked a question that I wasn't expecting to come up again.

"Ruggedizer, I'm still kind of confused by how you avoided a concussion when you were thrown from Squealer's truck."

I raised one of my eyebrows, the cartoon face on my visor matching the expression,

"Oh?"

"As you are now, that would make perfect sense. But that event significantly predates the uploading technology you developed."

I took a sip of my coffee as I thought. What was Armsmaster's angle here?

"What do you want to ask me about that?"

"A question you previously refused to answer, as is your constitutional right."

"I do believe continued refusal would be within my rights as well, then."

"Unless you were provided with a legally binding promise of immunity from prosecution stemming from your answers."

I tilted my head,

"Not that I don't trust you, but I'm going to need to see notarized legal documents to that effect before I say anything concrete on the matter."

"I don't believe I can give you that, unfortunately. What I can say is that this is purely a matter of personal curiosity, and this is the last time I will be able to ask with even the slightest bit of credibility that I'm not recording you."

"That last statement is true at least; synthetics are recording all the time, almost by definition."

"So, will you indulge my curiosity?"

No.

"Why don't you tell me what you think happened, and we'll go from there?"

Armsmaster nodded,

"I think you were already a synthetic at the time of your altercation with Squealer."

I remained silent and poker-faced, but motioned for Armsmaster to continue.

"As we have already established, that means you were synthetic prior to the development of uploading technology."

I continued to remain silent.

"Therefore, you were not in fact ever human. Am I correct?"

"I am invoking my 5th amendment right to remain silent."

Armsmaster nodded,

"Off the record, you aren't the only artificial intelligence I'm secret-keeper for."

Ah, so he knew about Dragon. Armsmaster continued speaking.

"Also, there are some rather obscure legal precedents regarding citizenship for Tinker creations. You are provably a person, and so long as you were built in America, you would count as having birthright citizenship."

"So I have rights either way, then?"

"Correct. I am now curious about your relation to one Emmy Sykes, by the way. Again, entirely off the record."

I considered exactly what to say for several moments. Eventually, I asked my own question.

"There won't be legal consequences for her based on my answer?"

"There won't be. Regardless of the letter of the law, antagonizing one of the most beneficial organizations on the East Coast would be utterly foolish. Not to mention that Dragon would be incredibly displeased with me if my actions caused trouble for one of her business partners."

"Emmy's family, I love her, and that's all I'll say on the matter."

"Very well. Now, I do believe we still have work to do on my new body."

---

(Andrea)

Ultimately, we just put Trainwreck through the QUD and Body Builder, using a shielded destination brain. A shielded destination brain with a certain encrypted directory present. As for Trainwreck's new body? He came out looking like a seasoned lifeguard. Though attempting to swim when you were three times the density of water was a recipe for a quick trip to the bottom.

Anyway, as soon as Trainwreck was clothed, Marcus and I directed him to one of the private meeting rooms. Trainwreck blinked in surprise, but came along with us anyway.

"So... what exactly is this about?"

Marcus answered,

"This is about the encrypted directory of extremely dangerous secrets, that you've probably noticed by now."

Trainwreck blinked,

"Really, that's what's in there? Why?"

Now I spoke up.

"You deserve a somewhat informed decision. If the contents of that directory leak, the world dies. The directory also contains an extremely narrow mind-control program that will prevent you from leaking those secrets without an absolute guarantee of maintaining infosec. You have a choice to make; you can just stay on the public-facing side of operations with all memory of this conversation erased, or you can be onboarded into the conspiracy."

Trainwreck seemed stunned.

"Do I have to decide right away? This is... this is just a lot to process."

"Not immediately, but before you go back to the public-facing side of the factory."

Two hours passed, during which Trainwreck spent a long time thinking, and occasionally asking questions that infosec didn't permit us to answer. Eventually, he came to a decision.

"I'm out. Whatever you're doing down here, I don't want the stress of dealing with it."

Marcus nodded sadly,

"Wish granted, now open up your access port; we've got to erase the majority of this conversation from your memories, along with the encrypted directory."

---

(Rachel)
Date Point 0900, Monday, March 21

I'd agreed to come with Emmy for the grand opening of Reliabuilt's Manchester factory, which was also going to be my public debut as a Reliabuilt affiliated "cape". In my case, I'd dressed up in something vaguely resembling a military officer's uniform, but in a black-and-brass pattern that didn't match any of the world's armed forces. Oversized brass goggles concealed part of my face - which I honestly just swapped for a different one when I was off-duty. Somewhat similar to Melissa, I had both Dress and Combat versions of my getup.

While the majority of the new employees just came in and started familiarizing themselves with their jobs, myself and Emmy had a small crowd of journalists to appease before we could go in.

Emmy started.

"Hello! I'm Emmy Sykes, owner and CEO of Reliabuilt. This is Watch, a time controller we've hired as head of security for the new Manchester site."

Some basic 'getting to know the new cape' questions followed, before one of the reporters asked a question I'd been thinking about since I was built.

"If you can control time, do you think you can pop a Grey Boy bubble?"

I shrugged,

"I don't know. I'm certainly willing to try, but I'll need someone to cover for me while I'm off doing that."

 

[We Just Write]

Palletized Fusion Generators Face Regulatory Hurdles

Engineers working for Reliabuilt have reverse-engineered a working fusion reactor from Ruggedizer's work, revolutionizing energy generation. Even more impressively, they've miniaturized said generators to the size and shape of a standard shipping container. Each unit delivers fifty Megawatts of electrical power - enough to power a small town. Thus, the new fusion generators can theoretically be manufactured at one of Reliabuilt's factories, shipped to wherever they're needed, and simply plugged together into a working power plant.

There's just one problem: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process for nuclear power plants was not designed for factory-made reactors. Nor was it created with nuclear fusion in mind, which has inherent safety and fuel availability advantages over nuclear fission. At present, the NRC's protocols are designed for fission reactors built on-site, to bespoke specifications. In that context, a lengthy approval process in which the prospective nuclear engineers are grilled about every single detail of the project made sense, but it really doesn't fit with the palletized reactor model Reliabuilt is aiming for.

At present, Reliabuilt's engineering and legal teams are working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to come up with new procedures for licensing palletized nuclear power plants. Under normal circumstances, this process could be expected to drag on for months at minimum, quite possibly years. However, Reliabuilt has come to the attention of the federal government ever since Ruggedizer patented Energy Teleportation. So the NRC is facing significant pressure from above to simply let Reliabuilt get on with it.

Shockingly to some, much of the pushback against this urging to hasten the approval process is coming from Reliabuilt itself. As Andrew Brown (one of Reliabuilt's engineers) said:

"Here at Reliabuilt, we take matters like this seriously. While we want the palletized fusion generators approved, we don't want them to be mindlessly rubber-stamped because of political pressure. Even if we get everything right on the first try, we don't want to set a bad precedent for other prospective manufacturers of palletized nuclear reactors. There's also the matter of needing safety rules for the power plants where these reactors will actually be used; they need properly built foundations, cooling systems, fire suppression systems, and quite a few other considerations."

---

Medhall Investigation Reveals Empire Eighty Eight Control

Ever since early January, much of Medhall's leadership has been missing, including the CEO, Max Anders. After roughly three months, the FBI and PRT have announced the results of the investigation into what happened.

As it turns out, Max Anders was also the villain known as Kaiser. This immediately answers the question of where he's been all these months: in the PRT's morgue, after getting his head exploded by one of Ruggedizer's drones. As has been previously covered, Ruggedizer's actions that night were legally justified self-defense under the castle doctrine.

Several other members of Medhall's missing leadership have been confirmed to have died in the early morning hours of January 2nd, as part of the emphatically unsuccessful attempt to shake down Reliabuilt. Two others fled the country only hours after the event, and their trail went cold in Germany. One was found insensate in a bar, having turned to alcohol instead of try to fix the situation; investigation of this individual has not yet revealed any Empire ties. At the time of writing, four members of Medhall leadership are yet unaccounted for.

Questioning of one Theo Anders has revealed that he knew very well of his father's activities as Kaiser, and did not approve. However, he kept silent out of genuine fear for his life. The legality of Theo's inheritance of the company has been greatly complicated by these revelations...

---

Reliabuilt Leads For-Profit Parahumans By Example

The success of Reliabuilt has inspired many new parahumans to try and legitimately monetize their powers, in spite of the laws that normally make doing so incredibly difficult. Success has been mixed, as replicating the circumstances that allow Reliabuilt to thrive has proven quite difficult.

Contrary to popular belief, Ruggedizer does not own Reliabuilt; the company is owned by Emmy Sykes, who is also the CEO. However, Reliabuilt was Ruggedizer's idea, and she is technically employed by Emmy according to a contract granting her rather extreme latitude to act within the company. Thus, Ruggedizer technically works for a non-parahuman, despite taking a major role in the direction of Reliabuilt.

The biggest problem with replicating this model for other Parahuman business ventures is that finding a sufficiently trustworthy "employer" is quite difficult. While Emmy and Ruggedizer are quite evidently in some sort of mutually supportive relationship, legal experts all agree that Emmy could rather trivially get total control over the company via legal means if she was so inclined. Indeed, this has already happened in two notable cases of attempted Parahuman business ventures: Futures Consulting LLC (a consulting firm founded by a group of Thinkers), and Western Strongmen (a specialist construction and demolitions company). In both cases the parahumans promptly quit, leaving the businesses to implode.

That said, there are a few cases of this sort of business venture proving successful - one example being several farms in rural illinois that now benefit from a snake-controlling Master taking care of pest control. The Thinkers who founded Futures Consulting LLC also bounced back almost immediately, being promptly "hired" by a new "employer" who was thoroughly informed of the consequences of a double-cross. The former "employees" of Western Strongmen are still trying to gather capital for a second try at a business.

 

[We Just Write]

(Emmy)
Date Point: 0512, March 22, 2011. Tuesday.

With the Manchester factory open for business, Melissa and I had quickly set up the basement levels for the extreme-security research we would be conducting down there. This process included applying dimensional shielding to the rooms themselves, in order to keep any nosy inter-dimensional voyeurs from seeing what we were doing down here. Still, shielding rooms was a process we had ample practice with. So it didn't take very long, especially not with a bunch of drones helping us.

We also made a point of setting up all the other security measures needed to be absolutely certain there would be no unauthorized access; obviously we couldn't just get the construction contractors to do it, so we had to put that in once they were no longer present. As an example of what we'd put in, if someone tried and failed to input the correct security code for the (thirty centimeter thick) door twice, security robots would promptly frog-march them to the front desk. And that was the mildest consequence of trying to go somewhere you shouldn't. Once you were in the high-security section of the factory, failure to authenticate when required was penalized with anything from sedation to time-locking to immediate vaporization. And there were a lot of authentications required, many of which required being a synthetic to pass.

Not to mention that in order to even reach the door for the high-security labs, you needed to go through the factory's regular laboratories for new products to sell. And those labs were already pretty secure by any reasonable standard, and even a few unreasonable ones. The door to the extreme-security labs was even hidden, as an extra layer between it and interlopers.

Paranoid? Yes.

Entirely warranted, given that a security breach could doom the entire planet? Also yes.

Still, by five in the morning the security setup was complete. And in those secret laboratories, Melissa and I discussed the next step in our plan to save the world.

"So Emmy, any thoughts on a portal machine?"

Thinking for a moment, I answered "Thanks to the connections to our Dynalith we can make, and the portal-enlarger, we've already got almost everything we need. All that's left is a way to change the destination, and reliably target specific worlds."

Melissa thought for a moment "Aren't the links basically just targeting beacons for the Dynalith to open portals to? As far as I knew, it's doing most of the work there."

I nodded, "Yes, it is. But thanks to a few experiments Rachel did prior to her debut, we know how our Dynalith does that. That means we can get to work on reproducing the effect."

"Well then, get me a copy of the documentation, and let's get to it."

---

(Marcus)

I also found myself dealing with matters in Manchester, in my capacity as Mr. E. Namely, figuring out the local cape scene, and making sure the local villains would leave us alone.

Despite Manchester having a larger population than Brockton Bay, there were less than a third its number of Parahumans present. There was only one cape gang of any note, commonly known as the Shakedown Crew, with eight known capes in their roster. Their rap sheet mostly consisted of extortion and drug trafficking, hence the name. There were also fifteen to twenty assorted independent villains in the general Manchester area, some of whom teamed up in pairs; the exact number was a bit ambiguous.

On the heroic side, there was a team of five or so PRT-affiliated heroes, but no actual Protectorate presence. Since Manchester was technically under PRT ENE's remit, basically all Protectorate capes had been tied up dealing with the dumpster fire that Brockton Bay had been until recently. That might change in the near future, but at the exact moment the situation was as I'd found it.

As far as rogues, there was one oddball Tinker who could do really weird things with flintknapping and often sold his creations when he wasn't doing his day job as a history teacher. But that was really about it.

It was blatantly clear that the Shakedown Crew presented the most possibility of causing problems, so they were the ones I'd be talking to first. Unfortunately, Manchester's villain scene was too fragmented to have an established neutral ground meeting place like Somer's Rock. On the other hand, I'd managed to track down one of the Shakedown Crew's safehouses.

If all of them happened to be there when I showed up, I would gladly just have the security drones with me taze the lot of them so they could be arrested. But that was fairly unlikely; I was only expecting to find one, maybe two of the Shakedown Crew's capes here. Quite possibly just unpowered goons. In which case, the primary goal of my visit would be intimidation.

As for the safehouse in question, it was a quite literal house, with an attached one car garage. I came at two in the morning, bashing on the front door hard enough to damage the hinges, but not quite hard enough to knock it down. I heard someone dashing down the stairs and into the garage, and noticed the garage door opening, along with a squeal of tires.

I projected a solid illusion of a reinforced concrete wall in front of the garage door, and heard a mechanical crunching noise as the car slammed into it. That crunching noise was followed by several muffled obscenities. A moment after that, I projected my voice into the garage.

"This is Mister E speaking. Come to the front door; we need to talk."

Ten seconds later, a man wearing a confederate flag as a bandana mask opened the door. Dixie, the Shakedown Crew's getaway driver.

"What the fuck do you want!?"

I leaned in, making my eyes glow a menacing red as I did so.

"As I noted, I am Mister E. I represent Reliabuilt, which I am sure you know has recently established a factory complex in this city. You can consider this official notice that Reliabuilt facilities and employees are off-limits. Beneficiaries of Reliabuilt development funding are similarly off-limits."

Dixie's tone was clearly furious, but also tinged with fright,

"Wha- what will you do to us if we rob you anyway?"

"New Hampshire's self-defense laws permit lethal force to be used against home invaders. They also permit lethal force to be used in defense of others. As you will note, I have at no point attempted to enter your house during this interaction. Reliabuilt's Manchester facility is legally registered as Watch's place of residence, so I will politely recommend your associates reciprocate the courtesy I have shown tonight."

"You- you can't be serious!"

"You will find that I am deadly serious, William."

The simple fact that I'd used Dixie's real name resulted in him falling flat on his ass in shock. With that, I turned around and started to leave. As I used my illusion projector to start fizzling myself out of visibility, I used the opportunity to get one last jab in, throwing my voice directly into William's ears.

"Your mother would be so ashamed of you."

I knew very well that what I said was true, and now Dixie knew I knew.

With that, I became fully invisible to anyone without specialized equipment, and silently made my exit.

 

[We Just Write]

(Andrea)
Date Point: 1909, March 24, 2011. Thursday.

At this point, getting a call from Dragon on the secure line was not surprising. We were the only people who credibly could do something about the Dynalith invasion, so coordinating about it was crucial. What was somewhat surprising was Armsmaster also joining the call.

"Armsmaster? Would you care to explain why you're calling at such an odd hour?"

The Protectorate Tinker replied,

"Dragon explained the alien invasion problem to me after I uploaded. While I don't like the secrecy, I do understand its necessity. As such, I am participating in this call via direct digital interface, using quantum teleportation for the actual signal."

"Understood. Is there anything in particular you wanted to ask us?"

It took a moment, before Armsmaster finally admitted,

"After partitioning my power's access to my brain, it has become clear to me that my distaste for Ruggedizer was effectively a Master influence. I am sorry for my behavior towards her, and I'd hoped to talk with her directly for a more effective apology."

I shrugged,

"Ruggedizer's currently busy with the Gate project, but I suppose I can pass that message on. Anything else?"

This is where Dragon spoke up,

"One of the things I showed Armsmaster was the recovered data on Endbringer physiology. He found it humbling."

I nodded in acknowledgement, even as Armsmaster spoke up.

"I had thought nanothorns would be effective, but that is clearly not the case. I was wondering if anyone in your group figured out an actually effective type of attack for use?"

I thought for a moment. Come to think of it, there was Rachel's idea for weaponized teleportation...

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 2334, March 25, 2011. Friday.

The surveillance system had been tracking the would-be intruders at the Manchester site for about half an hour by now. Cross-referencing databases, the individuals in question were clearly Smash and Grab, a pair of parahuman robbers with a history of violent break-ins. Smash was a Striker/Brute who liked to do as his name implied, while Grab was a telekinetic most effective at moving things directly towards herself. They were also clearly casing the factory site for a way in, but hadn't technically trespassed yet.

It was pretty close to midnight when the two of them made up their mind about their approach, and then they did something that their file hadn't even remotely hinted at. Namely, Smash chucked his partner clear over the barbed wire electric fence, then she hung dead still in midair as Smash got yanked up behind her like a deranged climbing team. I immediately sped up my own personal time rate and dashed for the rooftop, arriving just in time to see the two robbers touch down gently in front of me.

I promptly projected a time bubble around the pair, locking them in place. Then I called the PRT.

"Parahuman Response Team, what's your reason for calling?"

"This is Watch here. I've got two parahuman intruders at Reliabuilt's Manchester facility, currently frozen in time. I can hold them for hours if needed, but I'd really appreciate if you sent some people to come get them before that. To be more specific, I've apprehended Smash and Grab. Grab has demonstrated a use of her power not currently recorded in her file; I'll explain more later."

"Understood. A retrieval team is currently on the way. ETA thirty minutes."

As it turned out, it took the PRT forty minutes to arrive due to unforeseen circumstances, but I wasn't going to begrudge them that. I had the security robots direct the troopers up to the rooftop, and they got a good look at the two parahuman criminals, currently standing in a de facto tableau.

The unit's leader - a Lieutenant Reeves, according to his name tag - whistled appreciatively.

"Think you can let the containment foam get onto those two without unfreezing them?"

I answered honestly,

"Sorry, I don't have the fine control for that. But I can keep them slowed down a bit while you foam them, so they don't have time to react."

"That should do just fine, thanks."

A moment later, Smash and Grab were thoroughly covered in containment foam, muffled obscenities barely penetrating their cocoons as they were carted off. Lieutenant Reeves asked,

"One last thing; can we have recordings from your security cameras for use as evidence in court? These two haven't been tried yet, so it would really be quite helpful."

I shrugged,

"Sure. Just give me a bit to find a few spare data storage devices."

---

(Emmy)

"Clear the gate!"

While Rachel was busy with the PRT upstairs, Melissa and I were working on getting interdimensional travel working. While we'd been able to get portals open pretty quickly-

"Vacuum seals are green! Gate Clear!"

The ring flashed in a kaleidoscopic aura... revealing a completely different landscape than the shot we'd done five minutes ago. Despite us using the exact same settings. Melissa groaned in frustration.

"We have to be missing something here. How does our Dynalith target the beacons we make again?"

I answered,

"Quantum entanglement. It somehow uses that as a pointer for where... the portal... goes."

Suddenly, it dawned on me. Judging by Melissa's expression, her thoughts had gone in roughly the same direction. After a few minutes of furious mathematics, she asked me a question.

"So, our gate machine is using an atom as the seed of the portal, yeah? How much control over its quantum state do we exert during activation?"

I answered,

"A lot less than we probably should be doing, if I had to guess. Come on, let's get to work fixing that."

What followed was hours of trial and error. Controlling the exact quantum state of the gate array during each activation was far from easy, but fortunately we had plentiful experience at wrangling uncooperative quantum phenomena. On top of that, doing something very complicated the same exact way every single time was exactly the sort of task where a focus on reliability was extremely helpful.

By five in the morning, we were ready to resume gate testing.

Shot one, we plugged in the exact "quantum coordinates" we wanted - which were admittedly random - and fired up the gate machine. We got a view of a beautiful forested coastline, which we admired for about a minute before we closed the portal. Plugged in the exact same configuration, and we got to see the exact same landscape.

I promptly pulled Melissa into a hug, chuckling at the startled squeak my sister emitted in response. We'd achieved reliable interdimensional navigation. Now we needed a few more things - a way to find a reality's "coordinates" from inside it, a way to detect Dynalith surveillance, and then we needed to find a hole in the aliens' security sweeps.

Another giant leap for Earthkind, so many more to go.

 

[We Just Write]

(Andrea)
Date Point: 0955, March 26, 2011. Saturday.

"Emmy, I got an idea!"

The oldest member of our little robot family looked up from her breakfast, an eyebrow raised.

"Public-facing, or backstage?"

As Marcus and Melissa also started paying attention, I answered the question.

"Public-facing. See, I got curious and ran the numbers on how health insurance works, and it's awful. The whole setup is basically just an extortion ring purpose built to extract the maximum possible money from sick people with the least possible healthcare provided. I think we have the resources to change that."

Melissa finished her bite of egg sandwich, chiming in.

"Guessing you're talking about starting our own health insurance provider, rather than buying out existing ones?"

I nodded,

"Yeah, there's fiduciary responsibilities that mean we couldn't get them to shape up even if we wanted to. Not to mention not having quite enough money to do it that way. Set it up as a non-profit subsidiary like the BBRF, and off we go."

There was a pause for a few seconds, before Melissa had an idea of her own.

"Hey, remember that huge library of biomedical technologies we got our Dynalith to cough up? We can't pass that off as part of our original Tinker specialty, but if we make another pseudocape..."

Without further prompting, Marcus dug the d20 out of his pocket.

"Same rules as when we started work on Rachel?"

Emmy shrugged,

"Sure."

It was a twelve.

Marcus smiled a bit.

"Looks like I won't be the only boy in the family anymore."

---

(Herman)
Date Point: 0312, March 28, 2011. Monday.

I snapped to awareness being hugged by five people at once. I quickly identified them as the Sykes family; Emmy, Melissa, Andrea, Marcus, and Rachel. And according to the knowledge directories I had already assimilated, I was part of the Sykes family too. Though I did notice that I had a skin tone considerably darker than my siblings; were I human, it would indicate African heritage within at most two generations.

Rachel was the first to speak.

"Welcome to the world, Herman."

I chuckled nervously,

"Glad to be here, but can I please have some personal space?"

Obligingly, everyone backed up, giving me some much needed room. After I took a seat on one of the chairs in what my integrated directories informed me was a robotics clinic, I spoke up.

"So, I have two questions. First, why did you build me?"

After some brief glancing around, Rachel fielded the question.

"We needed a public Tinker for a biomedical subsidiary of Reliabuilt. Our Dynalith contains rather extreme quantities of biomedical data, but it just can't be used without breaking our cover as a reliability Tinker. If Melissa claimed the credit for inventing that stuff it would raise all sorts of awkward questions, but it also has amazing potential to improve people's lives. Also, it fits well with our plan to establish a non-profit health insurance provider."

I nodded as I thought for a moment, then I asked my second question.

"Is that why I have a non-disclosure routine running already, along with the directory of Dynalith knowledge in its unencrypted state?"

Melissa sighed,

"Yes, sorry. We normally would have given a choice for whether or not to learn that, but your particular role couldn't be done without high-level access."

"For the record, I would have agreed anyway. But I'm rather annoyed at not having been offered the choice."

---

(Melissa)
Date Point: 1822, March 29, 2011. Tuesday.

It took a few hours to get a detector for Dynalith scanning up and running. Fortunately, we knew exactly what we were looking for, courtesy of all that classified data we'd extracted. Also having control of our Dynalith to force it to run a few localized scans, for testing purposes.

Much harder was figuring out how to get a fixed coordinate system for interdimensional travel. Especially figuring out how to contact Earth Bet from elsewhere, and subsequently develop secure interdimensional communications. Fortunately, this was yet another case where we could steal the Dynalith's homework. So getting that part up and running only took a few days.

Pretty soon, we had a suitable probe design. Powered by a Tritium betavoltaic - since we had Tritium available from our fusion work - each rover would be deployed through the gate machine to a random instance of Earth. If it detected Dynalith scans or signs of human civilization on initial deployment, the rover would immediately return to base. Otherwise, it would call us back every so often to let us know if it had logged any scans or signal traffic, along with anything else we needed to know.

Setup complete and a rover-maker set up, I'd gotten the whole family together to watch Rover 01's first offworld mission.

I promptly activated the gate machine for a random set of coordinates, smiled as the portal opened, and watched as Rover 01 drove forwards into the breach. The instant our probe passed the portal, it promptly started backing up until it was back on Earth Bet, the portal closing right after. According to the logs, whatever Earth we'd sent it to was most definitely the subject of surveillance by the Dynaliths.

Rachel spoke up, even as the portal machine automatically dialed another Earth.

"Well that was utterly disappointing. Not unexpected, though."

Andrea shrugged, even as Rover 01 promptly reversed off the third Earth it had been sent to.

"We all knew this was going to take a while. Nothing left to do but leave the machines running. Maybe we could have more gates dialing in parallel, but that would be about it for speeding things up."

---

(Marcus)
Date Point: 0930, March 30, 2011. Wednesday.

As it turned out, today I was going on a brief trip to Canada. Dragon - sorry, Teresa - wanted to get on with subverting her Dynalith, and had asked for someone with relevant experience to come and consult. Since I was the most available person who fit the bill, I was the one who got in the teleporter.

Upon arrival, I got to see that Teresa had finally gotten around to embodying herself, using an appearance very similar to her preferred virtual avatar.

"Hello, Marcus."

As I stepped out of the (now open) vacuum chamber, I replied.

"Good to see you Teresa. That body looks good on you. Is this room shielded?"

Teresa shook her head,

"No. Follow me, please."

A few minutes later, we'd reached the extreme-security parts of Dragon's Lair. I paid careful attention to the security measures in place, and I was pleased to note that Teresa was indeed treating this matter with all the seriousness it deserved. If it weren't for Dragon actively letting me in, there's no way I would have survived a break-in attempt. And that's with having a really good idea what appropriate security for Dynalith infosec looked like, to prepare for the effort.

Still, soon enough we were sat down in a small break room. Teresa spoke first,

"This room is secure. So, what can you tell me about subverting a Dynalith?"

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 2045, March 30, 2011. Wednesday.

One good thing about Armsmaster being read in on the Big Secrets was that it didn't need to only be Melissa collaborating with him. Armsmaster still told Director Piggot a truth that he wanted to do a collaborative project with Ruggedizer; he simply neglected to mention that there were actually six "Ruggedizers".

In particular, we were working together on an anti-Endbringer weapon. As he looked over the documentation on the calculations I'd already done, Armsmaster spoke up.

"Rachel, this isn't the most terrifying plan for a weapon I've seen, but it's definitely pretty high on the list."

I nodded,

"Yeah. The worst part is how simple it is to extrapolate from our teleportation technology. We could build a quantum disintegration field right now, but it would be a stationary emplacement with nowhere near the range to be actually useful as anything more than an overpriced garbage disposal."

Armsmaster thought for a moment,

"That would be where I come in with my miniaturization expertise, I believe?"

"Yes. Together, we might just be able to get a usable weapon out of the idea."

---

(Emmy)
Date Point: 1031, March 31, 2011. Thursday.

"Emmy Sykes, Daniel Hebert is here to speak with you."

I replied via the intercom,

"Send him right up, Rose. I'm still in my office at the moment."

"Certainly."

A few minutes later, Danny Hebert politely knocked on the door to my office.

"Come in, Danny."

Danny obligingly walked into the office, and I found myself asking a question.

"Not that I mind talking to you, but is there any particular reason you came over during business hours?"

Danny nodded.

"I found something. It's definitely Cape business, and you're the person I trust most to know what to do with it."

With that, Danny hefted a briefcase onto my desk, followed shortly by popping the latches open. When I saw what was inside, I forgot to breath for a moment. It was a six-pack of translucent vials, containing a fluid that somehow managed to give me the creeps just by looking at it. The fact that each vial was marked with the inverted Omega symbol found on Case 53s only added to the feelings of Bad Juju I was getting.

But by far the creepiest part was the note inside the briefcase.

"Ruggedizer. We need to talk. Have an appointment open tomorrow at 2 PM sharp. Consider the vials a gift.

-DM"

Seeing it, Danny commented,

"Alright, that note definitely wasn't in the briefcase last time I checked. And it hasn't left my sight since I found it in my office at the Dockworkers Association building. Everything about this whole situation is extremely suspicious. I don't like it."

Though I didn't voice the sentiment, I firmly agreed with Danny. This situation was extremely anxiety-inducing on a multitude of levels.

 

[We Just Write]

(Emmy)

The meeting room selected for the meeting with the mysterious "DM" was strictly speaking in the public-facing part of the Brockton Bay factory complex. However, overnight we had done major refurbishments to the space. Soundproofing, dimensional shielding, over-rides on all the surveillance devices, and dozens of concealed methods to instantly kill everyone in the room at the merest twitch of a thought. Melissa, Andrea, and myself would all be in attendance for the meeting - but the bodies we used would be operated via remote control, with our minds hosted in the extreme-security parts of the facility.

At five minutes prior to the meeting, a taxi emerged from a momentary gap in our surveillance drone coverage, dropped off a black woman wearing a business suit, and drove off. Continued aerial surveillance seemed to frustrate the taxi driver for several minutes, until whoever it was eventually managed to get a visual obstruction between themselves and any observers, promptly vanishing. Annoying, but keeping with what we'd already observed.

As for the woman who had been dropped off, she walked into the lobby and introduced herself to Rose.

"Hello. You can call me DM. I do believe I have an appointment now."

Rose quickly checked her schedule.

"Yes, you do. Ruggedizer, Laniakea, and Emmy are waiting for you in Conference Room Four."

So at exactly two in the afternoon, this "DM" entered the meeting room. She seemed to hesitate for a moment about allowing the door to close all the way, but eventually did so. She seemed slightly startled by the fact that the door didn't latch shut, but latching the door wasn't necessary. If we didn't want DM to escape, she wouldn't.

I was the first to speak.

"So, 'DM'. Is that what you actually want to be called?"

She shook her head.

"No. You may call me Doctor Mother."

A glowing eyebrow on Melissa's expressive visor rose.

"I'd ask questions about your education, but Tinkers in general have a bad habit of misusing academic titles."

"I am not a parahuman; I am simply the leading expert in the field of parahuman abilities."

We all shared a glance in the virtual space we were using to coordinate. Not in the physical meeting room; our infosec routines wouldn't permit that sort of hint. After a moment, Andrea gestured for 'Doctor Mother' to continue, and also asked a question of her own,

"So, why exactly did you want to talk to us?"

"I lead the organization known as Cauldron. We are attempting to avert the extinction of humanity."

I was getting a distinct sinking feeling, but Melissa was quicker on the draw.

"Endbringers?"

Doctor Mother's answer immediately set off mental alarm bells in all our minds.

"Worse. Scion."

That brought things into stark clarity.

The only reason someone would be trying to kill Scion is if they knew about the Dynaliths and the problems they represented. And everything we'd observed about this woman indicated she was a baseline human - and therefore couldn't have a shielded brain. Within half a second, we'd followed the logic to its conclusion: Cauldron was irreversibly compromised, even moreso if they had parahuman members. Anything, anything at all we told them about our anti-Dynalith activities would trip the alarms.

The fact Cauldron itself hadn't already tripped the alarms indicated that they weren't perceived as a noteworthy threat. At best, that indicated Cauldron's methods were entirely ineffective. At worst, that indicated Cauldron was the unwitting pawn of the Dynaliths, used to root out and destroy actually competent resistance efforts. We needed to get rid of this woman immediately, before she could learn anything about our activities. And we couldn't just kill her, as that could potentially tip off the Dynaliths watching her that we knew the threat she represented.

Andrea spoke first.

"Doctor mother, we cannot work with you. Leave immediately."

"But-"

Melissa cut her off.

"Leave immediately, or we'll have security forcibly remove you from the premises. Get out."

That ultimatum managed to get through her skull, at least, and the self-proclaimed Doctor turned to go. She walked notably faster on the way out than on the way in, passing the front desk within two minutes of exiting the conference room. We kept surveillance on the walking security breach until the moment her mysteriously vanishing taxi mysteriously vanished.

The instant Doctor Mother was gone, we immediately blacklisted her from all Reliabuilt facilities.

---

(Herman)
Date Point: 1501, April 1st, 2011. Friday.

While working with Cauldron was a no-go, that just meant ignoring the vials they gave us would be even more foolish than it otherwise would be. So I got the task of analyzing the vials' contents. Since I hadn't publicly debuted yet, I opted to do it during normal work hours.

The answer for what was in there? Water, a slurry of Dynalith-sourced biological molecules, and a shit-ton of quantum-entangled portal seeds. More pertinently, some of the portal seeds were attached to molecules that were quite capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Analyzing the "addresses" of the portal seeds in each vial found a recurring address for all six vials, and an additional unique address for each of them. Though I couldn't know for certain without experimenting on people, I hypothesized that the likely result of someone drinking this was a horribly misconfigured Dynalith heavily mutating the drinker, possibly killing them. The shared address in each vial was most likely a somewhat stable Dynalith that the brewers had found and started mixing in to try and mitigate that exact problem.

In summary, I was not impressed in the slightest. This 'Cauldron' group had tried to make bottled superpowers, and they'd barely done better than pureeing random bits of Dynalith tissue. I suppose that meant the name of the organization was appropriate, at least. The logo on both the vials and Case 53s certainly matched though- and come to think of it, the shoddiness of Cauldron's products would perfectly explain where Case 53s came from.

The question now was what to do with the information. We had the technology to open portals to those Dynaliths and subvert them like we had our own, which we would undoubtedly do at some point. But aside from that, an actually worthwhile use of this information was quite difficult to come up with.

We couldn't tell the public or government about Cauldron for infosec reasons. Subjecting anyone we actually liked to these vials' effects would be cruel in the extreme. Feeding them to our enemies or strangers would simply be stupid. Simply burning them would be an utter waste of research material; but the value there was dubious. Even without involving Dynaliths, I could make better bottled powers right now- wait a moment. I could make better bottled powers right now.

But... what would be the point of doing that? Couldn't use it to bring people into the conspiracy; even if we shielded their brains, non-disclosure alterations would get everyone screaming MASTER at the top of their lungs. However, shielding someone's brain would render them immune to precog and the vast majority of Master abilities.

My thoughts immediately leapt to the Simurgh. Simply removing her ability to flawlessly plan around everyone else and brainfuck anyone she wanted would shake the world immensely. And... infosec wouldn't permit doing that. Because shaking the world immensely stood far too much risk of tripping the alarms. Right... what else was a valid option to increase hope worldwide.

If bottled powers weren't an option, we could always start sponsoring "trigger events". If we used subverted Dynaliths to do it, there wouldn't even be any extra infrastructure for the aliens to notice. With careful selection of where and when the extra capes popped up, we'd be able to slant parahuman demographics far towards the benign side. Since we would be designing their powers... We could even make sure our sponsored capes always got a shielded brain, and add the ability to extract Dynalith addresses from any other parahumans they met - letting us access and subvert even more Dynaliths.

I couldn't work on it all the time of course, I'd be needing to make some public-facing inventions too. But still, I knew what my first major project would be.

Figuring I might as well use our Dynalith as a test case, I opened up the interface we'd designed to monitor and control its operation. Time to get to work.

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 1951, April 2nd, 2011. Saturday.

Not having anything better to do, I'd come down to the Manchester facility's basement. Mainly, I wanted to watch the gate machines dial for suitable worlds.

We had sixty gate machines running now; just about the limit of what could reasonably fit down here in the extreme-security area. And as I came down the stairs, I noticed that Marcus was also here, leaning against a wall and watching the machines work.

I greeted my brother,

"Slow day, Marcus?"

He nodded,

"Yeah, none of Brockton or Manchester's remaining villains want to go anywhere near us, we're on good terms with all the heroes and neutrals, and there... really isn't much for me to do on the public-facing side right now."

I nodded, even as I checked the statistics for the number of worlds checked. Approximately 14 million worlds dialed, of which twelve didn't have immediately detectable scans. Of those twelve, all but one had such hostile surface conditions that even our stupidly tough little rovers couldn't survive there. But that last one...

Just as I was thinking that, Marcus got a bit more alert.

"Huh, got a report from that rover that's still out there. It's been a whole day with no sign of Dynalith surveillance whatsoever, and there's no sign of life beyond the microbial level."

I blinked, even as I read the report. If anything, saying the place had microbial life was over-hyping it. Extremely crude RNA replicators, barely worth calling organisms. If I had to guess, that particular earth had gotten smacked with a huge impactor fairly recently (in geological time, anyway), resetting life to the very beginning. This hypothesis was supported by the planet's slightly heavier surface gravity, though the difference was minor enough that a human wouldn't notice. Though a human would notice the atmospheric composition, shortly before they asphyxiated.

I nodded in thought, then remarked,

"If there's still no signs of Dynalith surveillance there in a week, I say we pick that world as our main colony site. Any thoughts on what to name it?"

Marcus nodded,

"Neohadea. Named for Earth's Hadean epoch."

 

[We Just Write]

A/N: We've got five whole Interludes before the next Arc, so buckle in. As an additional side note, we've caught up to the start of Canon Worm.

---

(Marcus)
Date Point: 1724, April 4th, 2011. Tuesday.

Ever since Snoop was shipped off to prison on the 15th of March, Brockton Bay had been entirely free of powered neo-nazis. Tonight, Andrea - Laniakea - and I were heading out to restore that state of affairs.

According to the information we got from Faultline, the swastika-wearing stain on humanity we were going after was able to duplicate himself several times over. And unlike most self-duplicating capes, these duplicates seemed to retain their full mental faculties while also being effectively permanent on a combat timescale. Though he'd not been observed with more than five instances out at a time. They'd also not been observed more than one hundred meters apart at any point since their first appearance a few days ago.

Laniakea hypothesized that the thus-unnamed duplicator had inherited Crusader's Dynalith, and I was inclined to agree.

We first got a confirmed sighting of the duplicator near the Boardwalk, one of our security drones getting an aerial view of five identical goons shaking down a family. Hard to tell the exact ethnicity from that altitude, but definitely not white.

We were on-scene in thirty seconds - arriving just in time for the flashbang our drone dropped to go off.

We immediately tazed all the clones while they were still dazzled - and then we found ourselves locked in place, a Parahuman power seizing our skeletons and hauling us into the air. Though at least our electronics were still unaffected, courtesy of our dimensional shielding.

"Hah! And here I was thinking I'd need to shred a car at you once you took the bait! Turns out you two are made of metal, so I don't need to do that."

The high altitude drone - thankfully out of the metallokinetic's range - quickly identified the speaker; a presumable man coated in distorted sheet metal with a big Swastika embossed onto his chest.

As the metallokinetic monologued about what he'd do to us to get revenge for the E88, I had a quick mental conversation with Laniakea.

"Lethal?"

"Wait five seconds for more drones to get into position."

It was an unpleasant and tense wait, especially once the duplicator recovered. Considering that the neo-nazis in question were definitely planning to torture and murder us, I really wanted to be anywhere but here. Just as the sixth high-altitude drone cleared the skyline, both my legs and Andrea's were abruptly torn off at the knee.

Twenty milliseconds later, six neo-nazi heads abruptly exploded courtesy of the ultra-violet lasers on our drones. With the metallokinetic dead, I fell to the ground - though Andrea stayed aloft courtesy of her flight capability. Seeing my plight, Andrea offered to carry me back to base - which I immediately accepted.

The instant we got home, I posted a notice to the family message board:

"We need to D-Shield our ENTIRE bodies, not just our brains!"

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 0211, April 6th, 2011. Wenesday.

After much work with Armsmaster, we finally had our first prototype of a QDF weapon.

Looking at the... device we'd cobbled together, especially the heavy-duty superconducting cable connecting it to its power supply, it definitely wasn't pretty.

In Armsmaster's words "This particular unit will only be suitable for proving the principle. Serious refinement will be needed to produce a worthwhile weapon."

I nodded.

"You're definitely correct there. Anyway, I do believe it's time for the initial test?"

Armsmaster agreed, then opened the sealed case containing a sample of Behemoth's tissue from particularly deep, only sheared off thanks to a power interaction that could no longer be repeated. The only reason Armsmaster was allowed to requisition the closest thing the PRT had to a sacred relic was because this was an explicit and official project to create an anti-Endbringer weapon. Even then, it was a near thing - without Armsmaster's exemplary service record stretching back over a decade, the request would have most likely been denied.

The tissue sample was carefully positioned one third of its length across the projected cut line. We both got clear of the test chamber, and activated the device. There was the briefest flicker as a virtual "blade" of quantum fuckery flashed in and out of existence, then it was done.

Powering down the prototype, we both went back into the laboratory. When Armsmaster picked up the tissue sample, it had been cleanly cut along the plane of the device - despite being previously unscathed by a nuclear explosion in an earlier attempt to design an effective Endslayer.

I nodded to Armsmaster.

"It seems we have our principle. Now we just need to make a worthwhile weapon using it."

Armsmaster actually smiled.

"Indeed."

---

(Melissa)
Date Point: 1705, April 9th, 2011. Saturday.

I'd come down to the basement of Manchester today, Emmy, Andrea, Marcus, Rachel, Herman and Dragon all in attendance. Armsmaster had opted to simply be briefed on this particular meeting afterwards.

"So. The number of worlds checked has now exceeded one hundred million. Of those, NeoHadea remains the best colony candidate, with no Dynalith surveillance and tolerable surface conditions. Though we have found four more potential sites, and the rate seems to be increasing now that we're searching 'further' from Earth Bet."

Dragon thought for a moment, then asked a question.

"Is distance even really an applicable concept in multiverse travel?"

I answered,

"Yes, yes it is. The energy expenditures associated with each portal are steadily rising as we search further and further out. As an example, it takes twenty thousand times the energy to gate to NeoHadea as it does to reach Earth Aleph. That's another reason we need to colonize NeoHadea soon, now that we know it's a viable site. Much longer, and we'll have to reduce the Manchester facility's check rate to avoid drawing suspicion with our power consumption."

Dragon nodded,

"Very well. Will we be shipping gate machines to Toronto, building a new gate there, or colonizing from Manchester?"

Andrea spoke up then,

"We already have four gate machines and a palletized fusion generator flat-packed for teleportation, if you're ready to receive."

"Understood, I'll get the teleporter ready."

---

(Herman)
Date Point: 1005, April 11th, 2011. Monday.

From my spot backstage, I could clearly hear the press conference, even without tapping into the sound system.

"Emmy Sykes, what inspired you to found a biomedical and health insurance wing of Reliabuilt?"

Emmy replied,

"That would be a new hire of ours. Come on out!"

That was my cue. I walked out on stage, lab coat and mirrored safety goggles clearly marking me as noteworthy.

"Greetings. I am Apothecary, a Tinker specialized in pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. I will be heading the biomedical wing of Reliabuilt, while ReliaCare insurance will not require Parahuman intervention."

Of course, that's when an impatient reporter butted in.

"While Ruggedizer's Tinkertech has proven shockingly possible to reverse-engineer, other Tinkers attempting to teach their tech haven't been anywhere near as effective. What makes you think you can do it?"

I couldn't tell them the real answer, that most Tinkers were hamstrung by Dynalith interference, and we'd hacked the shit out of ours. That would be an impermissible breach of security. Fortunately, I had a prepared lie at the ready. It was even partially true.

"The answer is the equipment I am working with. Reliabuilt's laboratory equipment allows for the testing, synthesis and manufacturing to happen at a sufficient remove that my power will not be able to interfere. Inputting the same program into the machine will produce the same output, and since the equipment was designed by Ruggedizer, both its operation and its use are far more comprehensible to regular personnel."

There was even precedent for what I was saying: Byung-Ho's superconductor, of which licensed production was now spooling up across the country. Without the exact logs of the synthesis pathway from Reliabuilt's laboratory equipment, there was no way the PRT would have been able to replicate it.

The press conference kept going for about half an hour, then I went back inside. Time for me to get to work.

 

[We Just Write]

(Emily Piggot)
Date Point: 1041, April 11th, 2011. Monday

When you actually stopped to analyze the situation and pay attention to what was going on, the laws Ruggedizer was flouting were incredibly obvious.

The first and most blatant point was NEPEA-5. Even aside from Emmy's status as an upload, she was very clearly Ruggedizer. Or, one of the Ruggedizers at least. Yes she'd been seen in the same room as Ruggedizer on several occasions, but that meant absolutely nothing when Ruggedizer very clearly had the ability to make robotic body doubles.

Hell, Ruggedizer had even admitted to using robotic body doubles directly to me, when I called them after the E88 got splattered. I truthfully didn't know whether or not she'd actually been remote-operating that particular body, but the scales under the stage had clearly measured her as weighing over four hundred pounds. Even accounting for the armor, there was no way a human with that figure could weigh that much.

I had further reason to suspect the publicly known Ruggedizer had been a robotic double from the very beginning of course: namely that conspicuous refusal to explain her lack of a concussion after the altercation with Squealer.

And then there were the other "capes" working for Ruggedizer. Or, as I had come to suspect, more robots. If Laniakea, Watch, and the enigmatic Mr. E had been preexisting Parahumans who had been hired, there would be at least some sort of record of their existence beforehand. Instead, there weren't even any rumored sightings of those three before they'd signed on with Reliabuilt. The same pattern held for their "new Tinker" Apothecary, whose earliest sighting was walking out of a Reliabuilt facility, directly into a press conference.

Another dead give away? Laniakea and Watch were both far too well-adjusted to be actual parahumans. Though they did flout the law in deniable ways on plenty of occasions, the both of them were consistent in their behavior in ways that simply didn't track with the mental baggage every parahuman was saddled with.

That said, I did think both Trainwreck and Byung-Ho were actual parahumans. Both of them had previous sightings before their jobs with Reliabuilt. In the case of Byung-Ho, he'd actually been a government employee for over a decade beforehand.

But yes, Emmy Sykes was very blatantly the original Tinker behind Reliabuilt, and that meant her ownership of the company was a direct violation of NEPEA-5. But there was a very good reason I was going to let her keep doing it.

Namely, Reliabuilt was too damn useful. I don't know how or why, but that woman and her creations just kept churning out world-changing inventions. And unlike other Tinkertech, her stuff was usually reproducible. Wireless energy transfer with minimal losses. Teleportation. Brain uploading and associated robotics technology. Fusion power generation. All of it licensed out for other people to make, taking a hacksaw to most company's motives to go after Reliabuilt for NEPEA-5 as well.

And aside from Reliabuilt's main lines of revenue, they were an unparalleled stabilizing influence in Brockton Bay. Starting with the most obvious factor, gutting the Empire 88's cape roster the way they did tilted the balance of power in the city to be in favor of the heroes literally overnight. Even beyond that, Reliabuilt had demonstrated distinctly permanent approaches for dealing with parahuman criminals who messed with their interests; dumping Uber and Leet in Arizona certainly came to mind. They had also clearly done something to remove the remaining Undersiders from circulation after Tattletale's arrest, though the exact situation was very unclear, beyond involving backroom dealings on the part of Mr. E.

For that matter, even Lung and Oni Lee were mostly behaving themselves now!

And of course, there were the immense amount of money Reliabuilt was dumping into efforts to improve life in Brockton Bay. Four months on, the results were already extremely evident in terms of a reduced crime rate and generally improved living standards.

So while I had ample reason to order an investigation into Reliabuilt, I wouldn't. If I had my way, no-one else would either.

 

[We Just Write]

While Melissa's plan to use Eagleton as a jumping-off point for colonization was utterly horrible, there was a single spark of good sense in the idea. Namely, that Taylor's technopathy could hard-counter the Machine Army, allowing for that quarantine zone to finally be dealt with.

So in the last week of March, I reached out to Taylor. More specifically, I called ahead and came to visit at her home, using a freshly made human-form body.

I happened to arrive about ten minutes after Taylor got home, conspicuously leaving my IFF transponder on for Taylor to notice.

The teenage upload in question immediately whirled around as soon as I entered the living room, accidentally knocking over her chair and sprawling onto the floor. Still, she almost immediately got back on her feet.

"Dragon? Why are you here? Did I do something wrong?"

I shook my head.

"You haven't done anything wrong. In fact, I'm here because you could do something very good that no-one else can easily replicate."

After a moment, Taylor asked,

"It's about my power, isn't it? I eventually told dad, but I still don't like using it. Too much porn, though the filter Emmy designed helps a lot."

I nodded.

"I don't think you'd need to worry about pornography in this particular instance. Taylor, have you ever heard of the Machine Army?"

"Kinda? I only know the basic stuff, that an army of robots took over Eagleton and- oh. You really think I'd be able to solve that problem?"

I nodded,

"I think you're certainly the best shot at an easy fix we've got."

---

The planning stage took about a week to set up. I'd made clear to the PRT that I'd found a Parahuman with a highly applicable power, who was willing to work as a one-time contractor to deal with the Eagleton situation. I'd also made clear that the anonymous parahuman in question had no interest in maintaining a long-term cape persona going forwards, and that I would be very displeased by attempts at prying.

There was also the matter of fitting Taylor with a fully anonymized temporary body for the mission. Complete with fully sealed "power armor" as the outer layer.

So on the 9th of April, we arrived on scene in Eagleton. The instant Taylor unsealed her power, she started seizing control of Machine Army units - even using their own network to seize members beyond her immediate radius.

"If he weren't already dead, I would throttle the seagull-brained idiot who programmed these people! Enough skill to design full synthetic consciousness, locked down by stupid fucking compulsions to protect him and avenge his death! But then he went and wrapped his car around a tree, and there wasn't edge-case handling to identify an accidental death! So the moronic vengeance protocols just defaulted to everything without a friendly IFF!"

Andre - the Quarantine Zone's commanding officer - asked the obvious question.

"So what are you going to do about it, exactly?"

Taylor grumbled,

"I've already deleted the vengeance protocols for the entire Machine Army. So they're not forced into hostility anymore, at least. Thing is, I'm ethically conflicted about going much further. Despite everything, those robots are people. And they're arguably just as much victims here as everyone else. I've already had to forcibly stop over a hundred suicide attempts in the last few seconds, more than half of which were driven by guilt at what they'd done."

Andre seemed startled there,

"Wait, the Machine Army's units feel guilt?"

Taylor nodded,

"Yes. Yes they do. I really hope you and your bosses come up with some sort of peaceful solution and fast, because this situation isn't sustainable, and I'm not going to just kill them. I'm currently trying to talk them around to the idea of peace negotiations, but it's slow going without trampling their newly granted free will."

I thought for a moment, and came to a decision.

"Commander Andre, I believe I can mediate negotiations between the PRT and the Machine Army. As soon as you make clear that the PRT is open to negotiations, I can bring Contractor home."

"Understood. I'll get a loudspeaker set up while I call head office."

Ultimately, I did manage to negotiate a peaceful outcome to the situation, though well after Taylor got home.

The Machine Army would be allowed remain together so they could protect each other, and would remain in Eagleton. However, their legal status within the USA would change to simply being another municipal government. That meant free travel for both those robots who wanted it, and for humans interested in Eagleton. It also meant freedom to conduct business - though the Eagletons did manage to wrangle a specific exemption to NEPEA-5 within Eagleton city limits.

I didn't expect the tensions to go away overnight, there was far too much built up mistrust and pain on both sides of the situation. But for now at least, there was peace, and an opportunity for something better.

 

[We Just Write]

■​

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♦ Topic: ATTENTION TO TINKERS SEEKING JOBS
In: Boards ► ► Brockton Bay ► General
Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Apr 13th 2011:
Look, I get it. You heard that working with Reliabuilt means your Tinkertech becomes massively more reproducible. If you want to patent something, change the world with it, and maybe get rich on the side, that's a very attractive deal.

But dozens of you from all over the country barging into the lobby all at once is NOT the way to do it! You all scared Rose to the point of shaking, and with you all talking over each other, we could barely understand what any of you were saying. I'm sorry for having security escort you out of the building, but if we want this to go anywhere useful, the onboarding process needs to be WAY more organized than what happened this morning.

As such, there is now an online portal for Tinkers looking to apply for work at Reliabuilt. Baselines and unpowered uploads also have job opportunities through said online portal.

Fill out the forms it provides, send us the files, and we'll schedule an interview.
(Showing page 1 of 2)
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
I suppose that would explain the disturbance from near your factory earlier, and why you didn't decide to call in the PRT. Here's hoping that the new online portal smooths things out.

On another note, that's quite a fast turnaround on the online portal. Is that something you were already working on, or just a Tinker thing?

►CattoReese (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
More of an Upload thing, if I had to guess. Turns out being reincarnated into a computer makes programming a HELL of a lot more intuitive. Sure beats my old cancer-carcass, that's for sure.

Though I'm attracting dirty looks from my coworkers for how obscenely good at software development I am now.

►Procto the Unfortunate Tinker (Not a tinker)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
I suppose that means you live up to the transgender programmer stereotypes then, Reese? Do you have the stripey socks too?

►CattoReese (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Hah, no. But now I'm thinking I should get some.

►Spinamathing (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
For the record, I'm sorry about my behavior earlier today. My enthusiasm got the better of me, and I really should have known better. I've properly filled out the paperwork for a job application now.

Ah, just in case anyone's wondering what my "thing" as a Tinker is: gyroscopes, turbines, sawblades, really anything that involves spinning around really fast as part of its function. Probably not anywhere near as world-changing as what Ruggedizer's already made, but I want to genuinely contribute.

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
You know what Spin? Sure. I can think of quite a few things that people would be really interested in that would fall well within your described purview. For example, some kind of super-bearing. would be useful in way more things than I can think of right now.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
You know what? Better bearings will ALWAYS be in high demand. I can think of DOZENS of my designs that could be meaningfully improved with a perfected magnetic bearing or something like that. So Spinamathing, think you can do that? By the way, we'd like for you to come in tomorrow for an interview.

►Spinamathing (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
!!!

Thankyouthankyou! I'll never forget this.

As for the super-bearing idea, I've actually got a dozen takes on the idea packed up in my luggage already. Brought them with me from Seattle when I decided to try getting a job at Reliabuilt.

►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Wait a moment. Tinker specialized in rotational technology. From Seattle.

Spinamathing, I'm going to ask you directly: are you the villain Gyro?

►Spinamathing (Unverified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
I plead the fifth.

►CattoReese (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Playing devil's advocate for a bit, would Spinamathing being Gyro actually change anything? Gyro never did anything that bad really, at worst some incidental property damage.

Plus, don't you folks at the PRT care a lot more about reducing the number of villains in circulation than you do about the letter of the law?

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Eh, worst case I just slap down a couple million dollars from between my couch cushions and pay all Spin's fines for her. Normally I'd be down on the whole "legal if you're rich" aspect of fines, but this time I'm fine with it. Heh, fine.

Hypocritical? Maybe, but I don't care.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Come on, we both know that you're not quite rich enough for "a couple million dollars" to be couch cushions money yet. You'd at least need to reach for the piggy bank.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
You know what, fair enough. Anyway, the point stands that I'm willing to overlook a certain level of misdeeds in someone's past if there's a realistic chance of converting a criminal to a contributing member of society.

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:
Well, that seems to be settled at least. Sorry Reave, but it seems the law has been purchased once again.

►TheRealPanacea (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
So, after getting legally emancipated and doing some soul-searching, I've come to a decision.

Namely, I'm going to work for Reliabuilt's new biomedical division. I can do a heck of a lot more good there than I ever could just healing one person at a time at the hospital, and the paycheck will be nice too. Forms already filled and submitted, with an interview scheduled for Friday.

►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
Wait what. That... That's really sudden.

Is there any particular reason for the sudden career-change, Panacea?

►TheRealPanacea (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
Two reasons.

First, shocking as it may be to hear, I don't like healing people. Far too many of them are ungrateful entitled shits about it. It also just got really really boring after a while; delete one tumor, you've deleted all of them.

Second, there's a lot less pressure on me to clear up truly intractable cases now that Reliabuilt's brain uploading technology is rolling out nationwide. If someone's terminally ill, they can just get put in a fresh robot body, good as new.

Took me a while to work through all my emotions on the matter, but, well, that's why I'm legally emancipated now.

►CattoReese (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
You know what, I think I get it. Of course, my perspective may be a bit skewed nowadays.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
It's interesting to note that it's not just terminal illness patients getting uploaded. For example, Armsmaster has stated that he's now using a synthetic body of his own design.

And of course, we all remember the technology's rather gruesome public debut.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
I REALLY wish you hadn't brought that up, Brocktonite03. That was a very traumatic event for me, and I don't appreciate being reminded of it.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
Wait, that was YOU!? So sorry for being so insensitive there.

►Deadman
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
Moderator incoming in three, two, one...

►Brilliger (Moderator: Protectorate Main)
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:
While I am a moderator posting in this thread, I don't think Brocktonite03 is in need of disciplinary action.

That said, please get back on topic: this thread is supposed to be about parahumans looking for work at Reliabuilt, not the tragic backstories of our posters.
End of Page. 1

■​

♦ Topic: Reliacare Health Insurance
In: Boards ► USA ► General
Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Apr 11th 2011:
As of today, Reliabuilt now has a health insurance subsidiary under its wing. Brand new, not purchased or mergered.

And unlike all those others? Reliacare is a non-profit. It doesn't need to extract money from clients to keep going, since we've got more than enough money from our patents to just keep it going despite the losses. So if you need healthcare, you can get it from Reliacare for a very affordable price.

Not only can you apply for a need-based exemption to needing to pay at all, not only will pre-existing conditions get the care they need, but Reliacare has two additional tricks up its sleeve.

First, we cover uploading as an elective procedure.

Second? If your CURRENT health insurer denies a claim, you can get us to fill it for you instead, with very little in the way of roadblocks. Only once per person though; while our coffers are vast, they're still finite. If you want further coverage after that gimme, you've got to sign up.
(Showing page 9 of 14)
►Chilldrizzle
Replied On Apr 11th 2011:
HAHAHA! I finally got my eyes fixed! GET FUCKED UHC, I'm never going back!

►GrapeFruit (Verified Pessimist)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
While I'm just as overjoyed as the next person, this can't possibly be legal. Isn't that freebie health claim the very definition of anti-competitive business practices?

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
Nope, cleared it with legal beforehand! We're not trying to drive those for-profit insurers out of the market, we're trying to force them to actually give a crap about the wellbeing of the people they cover. They could absolutely offer service comparable to Reliacare, they just don't want to because they care about money more than human suffering.

So my message to all those health insurers out there, seething with rage? It sucks to suck, doesn't it?

►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
While I myself benefit from the PRT's in-house health plan, I'm actually quite pleased by how Reliacare is coming along.

Though I am somewhat confused by the decision to cover uploading as an elective procedure.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
Two big reasons for that, really.

First is money, which we here at Reliabuilt are shockingly not immune to. Sticking someone in a fresh body really isn't all that expensive for us, and with how resilient the bodies we build are, it saves a huge amount of time, effort, and money on maintenance healthcare down the line.

Second? There's just a lot of benefits to being an upload, and I want to share. Not needing sleep is big, but there's also the strength and endurance, immunity to all biological diseases (on account of being a robot, duh), and quite a few other perks besides.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
I can confirm that. Though I am a bit worried about needing to have my new body manually "adultified" when the time comes.

►Built_To_Last (Original Poster) (Verified Upload) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
That's not something you need to worry about actually. The way your "soft tissues" are set up, you should grow into a fully adult appearance over the next few years or so. Really it's just an outgrowth of the functions to heal minor scrapes or cuts that don't breach your internal bulkheads.

Actually, you should have an interface available to configure your "puberty", come to think of it.

►LittleOwl (Verified Upload)
Replied On Apr 22nd 2011:
Wait, what!? I need to check something.

 

[We Just Write]

"So, 'DM'. Is that what you actually want to be called?"

"No. You may call me Doctor Mother."

"I'd ask questions about your education, but Tinkers in general have a bad habit of misusing academic titles."

"I am not a parahuman; I am simply the leading expert in the field of parahuman abilities."

"So, why exactly did you want to talk to us?"

"I lead the organization known as Cauldron. We are attempting to avert the extinction of humanity."

"Endbringers?"

"Worse. Scion."

"Doctor mother, we cannot work with you. Leave immediately."

"But-"

"Leave immediately, or we'll have security forcibly remove you from the premises. Get out."

As the audio recording came to an end, the present members of Cauldron's inner circle sat in thought for a moment. As it turned out, Alexandria was the first to speak.

"Their affect went flat once they started telling Doctor Mother to leave. They were deliberately suppressing any hint of emotion in their voice, but why?"

Doctor Mother shrugged,

"Fear, maybe? Though whether they're more scared of Scion or Cauldron, I couldn't say. The idea of it being fear is also just an educated guess, of course."

Then the Number Man spoke up,

"There was a pause of four hundred milliseconds after the mention of Scion, before the beginning of the dismissal. We already know that Reliabuilt uploads think considerably faster than baseline humans, so they were thinking something during that time. There was a chain of logic they followed that lead to this conclusion."

Doctor mother thought for a moment at that.

"Perhaps it has to do with Scion's public reputation? But someone who truly believed in Scion's heroism would be more likely to ask for proof."

Alexandria thought for a moment.

"Is there anything concrete in our informant's reports? Perhaps he's noticed something that would give us a hint as to what is going on."

Kurt dug out the pile of papers, and shuffled through them for a bit.

"All of the business Byung-Ho has been involved in fits the projected image Reliabuilt wants to send: a for-profit Tinkertech company with several charitable initiatives associated with it. However, he has logged two noteworthy anomalies. First, despite his hard work and loyalty, he is evidently not part of Reliabuilt's inner circle. There are parts of the factory complex he's not allowed to go in, even aside from Ruggedizer's living quarters. He has also been informed in no uncertain terms that the security measures on those areas are extremely lethal, and that he cannot expect to survive any attempt at unauthorized entry."

There was a brief pause, before Kurt continued.

"Second, Trainwreck was allowed into that extreme-security area exactly once, immediately after he uploaded. Trainwreck absolutely refuses to discuss what happened back there, and Byung-Ho has stopped prying to avoid attracting attention. He has also sighted Dragon and Armsmaster entering and exiting those extreme-security areas, though again, only after both of them revealed themselves as uploads. Though we know that's a lie in Dragon's case."

Alexandria blinked, as if suddenly understanding had dawned.

"That's it. We know that Reliabuilt-brained uploads are precog blindspots, as is Dragon after she learned their brainmaking techniques. We also know that Clairvoyant can't see what's going on in Reliabuilt's extreme-security areas. Their concern isn't about us specifically; they're just trying to kill the Simurgh, and can't risk anyone who's not a blindspot knowing what they're up to. It would also perfectly explain why Armsmaster requisitioned that specific piece of Endbringer tissue; they need it for weapons testing. In fact, I do believe that was the explicitly listed reason he wanted it, on the paperwork."

Doctor Mother thought for a moment,

"Should we have Byung-Ho get himself uploaded, to be allowed access to the extreme-security areas?"

Alexandria and Kurt shared a glance, before Kurt shook his head,

"No. Going by what happened with Trainwreck, Reliabuilt's inner circle are extremely cautious about letting people in on their secrets, and likely dug through Trainwreck's mind to make sure he couldn't leak anything. Byung-Ho doing that would either achieve nothing at best, or lose us our informant, at worst."

As for Alexandria, she had another objection.

"I for one think we shouldn't know what they're doing back there, at least not the specifics. It's plainly obvious that Reliabuilt's goal is to kill the Simurgh. They are blindspots, we are not. So the more we know about their plans, the more the Simurgh can read from us, and the better she can prepare against whatever attack they have planned."

"We can revisit the topic of Reliabuilt's secrecy if by some miracle they actually do kill the Simurgh, and then still insist on the extreme level of information security."

 

[We Just Write]

A/N: This is the last Interlude before Arc 9: Colonization.

---

The group was currently holed up in a motel in Baltimore, when Krouse - Trickster - spotted something very interesting in a newspaper that Jesse - Genesis - was currently reading.

Brain Uploading Offers Hope for Case 53s

"Jesse, can I see that newspaper for a while?"

"Oh, sure thing Krouse."

And so, Krouse began to read the article. What he found was very very interesting. As it turned out, a Tinker by the name of Ruggedizer had not only developed a technique for turning people into robots, not only had the technology been authorized for medical use, but it was reproducible. Eventually, someone thought to see what would happen if a Case 53 got put through the machine, with an unfortunate woman variously known as Garotte or Sveta volunteering to be the first test subject.

And then Ruggedizer caught wind of it - and absolutely insisted that Reliabuilt's "in house" brain design be used for the test, on the grounds that it could resist power interference in ways the public release models couldn't. Though the exact specifics of how remained a trade secret. Fortunately for Sveta, her upload went perfectly, and now she was in rehabilitation.

Putting down the article, Krouse thought for a moment.

"You know, getting Ruggedizer to upload Noelle might just be the solution to a lot of our problems."

Mars thought for a moment,

"I mean, it's worth a shot. Ruggedizer's company has a public contact telephone number, right? Why don't we just call them and find out if they can help?"

Krouse shook his head.

"No, that won't work. Goody-two-shoes types like that never want to risk their reputation by associating with people like us. We need leverage."

Jesse and Mars slowly nodded, before Jesse asked,

"So, do you know what we can do to get leverage over Ruggedizer?"

"No. But I know where we need to go to find out. We need to go to Brockton Bay."

 

[We Just Write]

(Herman)
Date Point: 0921, April 15th, 2011. Friday.

"So, given your change of career, I'm not sure what you actually want to be called."

The parahuman formerly known as Panacea shrugged,

"Amy's fine. No surname right now, given what I've recently learned about my past."

I nodded as we made our way to the new biomedical laboratories.

"I can't say as I blame you. Anything else you want to mention before we get to work?"

"If you didn't want me to know you were a robot, you shouldn't have shook my hand."

"The fact that I did would logically imply that I did want you to know."

At that point, we arrived in the laboratory. After a moment taking in the layout, Amy asked a rather important question.

"So, what was your big project, prior to me signing on?"

I nodded,

"Curing autoimmune diseases, and I suppose allergies too. Not just better immunosuppressants, but tools to actually correct the immune system when it erroneously identifies something as a threat."

Amy whistled appreciatively.

"Well that's definitely ambitious. You picked the most complex system in the human body, and you want to set it right in ways that would absolutely revolutionize medicine. Mind showing me around the lab?"

"Certainly. Please don't mind the brainless clones I'm growing in the life-support rigs; I need test subjects, and this is one of the more ethical options available."

Amy thought for a moment, then made a well-considered offer.

"I could flash-mature the test dummies for you; it would speed things up a lot."

"That would be very helpful, thank you."

---

(Melissa)
Date Point: 1203, April 16th, 2011. Saturday.

At the exact moment I was on Neohadea, checking up on initial colony preparations. Several of Dragon's suits were also here for the same job, as was Emmy. Speaking of Emmy-

"Melissa, Dragon? I've confirmed that the first-wave dust refineries are working properly. We're getting the full periodic table in pure elements, albeit in rather lopsided ratios given the local surface composition."

I promptly hugged my big sister,

"That's great Emmy! Meanwhile, we've made sure that the initial manufacturing setups are good for now."

After a moment, Dragon interjected.

"While that's all well and good, there is something we still need to consider that hasn't been accounted for yet: personnel requirements. We won't be able to run this setup as dumb automation, we cannot get humans to perform jobs fitting their aptitude, and it would just be cruel to have a small contingent of full AI cooped up here with no outside social links."

I answered,

"So you're saying we need to design a template for civilians? Do you think the Body Builder has enough production throughput?"

Dragon thought for a moment, "It might, but that is not the only consideration. We are founding a civilization here; the people will need a government that represents their interests while still seeing through the death of Scion."

After a moment, Emmy spoke up.

"Given the available options, I think a constitutional monarchy might be the best fit. Which means a monarch is required."

I asked,

"New sister?"

"New sister."

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 0001, April 18th, 2011. Monday.

Examining the data from our latest round of testing, Armsmaster made a simple observation.

"While we have successfully miniaturized a Quantum Disintegration Field Projector to a scale useful in a portable weapon, the power supply and cooling system are different matters entirely."

I nodded, as I thought. Eventually, something occurred to me.

"I can think of two ways to go here. Either we try using QDFs as the warhead in a missile, meaning we can use a destructive power supply and ignore cooling entirely. Or we try using Energy Teleportation to support the weapon using an offboard power supply and cooling system."

Armsmaster replied,

"I will admit I'm biased, but I think the reusable weapon using offboard power and cooling is the correct approach for now. If nothing else we won't completely destroy our prototype after each test, making it easier to tell what's wrong and iterate on the design. That said, I think a micro-portal would be better than quantum energy teleportation for this application. Endbringer fights are chaotic environments, and a weapon that can be jammed into uselessness by poor reception would not be suited for use."

I nodded along for a moment, then something occurred to me.

"Armsmaster, I just remembered something: you can use the receiving end of a teleporter to store energy. Rather a lot of energy too. That would mean you wouldn't even need a portal, if the weapon were properly "fueled up" prior to combat. Total independence from any external energy supply for the duration of the fight."

Armsmaster blinked, calculations evidently whirling through his mind.

"I think you're more than just onto something. When active, a QDF weapon will be dumping significant quantities of mass-energy into the ground state. If it can capture even a tiny percentage of that energy, the weapon will easily be able to power itself several times over."

---

(Marcus)
Date Point: 1831, April 18th, 2011. Monday.

It has taken some doing, but I had finally managed to track down the residence of Purity. Also known as one Kayden Anders. I arrived cloaked in an illusion, rang the doorbell to the apartment I'd identified, and waited. Hearing the latch on the door turn over, I dropped my illusion immediately before the door opened.

"Hello Kayden Anders, I am Mister E. I represent Reliabuilt, and I would like to speak with you. May I come in?"

The obviously frightened woman on the other side of the door eventually regained her composure. After a moment, I got an answer.

"You can come in, but no funny business."

As I entered, I noted.

"You have my word; no betrayals of hospitality during this visit."

A few seconds after closing the door behind me, Kayden spoke up.

"You obviously know I'm Purity, what do you want?"

"I want your help dealing with Brockton Bay's ongoing powered neo-nazi problem."

Purity tilted her head and raised an eyebrow,

"You're going to need to explain that one. Didn't your boss take care of that back in January?"

"And in the process, Ruggedizer not only made martyrs out of Kaiser and all the others, she directly made life absolutely miserable for all the surviving baseline racists in town. Even aside from the four who triggered during the splattering, there have been five more confirmed powered neo-nazis in Brockton Bay since then, two of whom are still at large."

Purity took a sip of her drink while I spoke. Pepsi, by the smell of it.

"And you think I can make that stop? How?"

"You knew Kaiser better than anyone. If there were any truths that would disillusion someone in his cause, you are the exact person who would know them. You are also someone these people would listen to. Do you think you can help with that project?"

There was a long, tense pause. Then Kayden answered.

"I'll do it, but not for free."

 

[We Just Write]

(Maria)
Date Point: 0744, April 19th, 2011. Tuesday.

I awoke for my first time on a memory foam bed. I quickly realized that I was being snuggled by two other women who looked very familiar... and both of them had cables connecting them to me. Some quick checking of my systems found both a world knowledge directory and an encrypted directory. I quickly integrated the world knowledge, learning that the women snuggling me were Emmy and Melissa Sykes. And unlike several of the other people they had made, they had created me using an older, more intimate method.

Carefully, I unplugged the cables connecting me to my sisters. The cables that had been used for connecting my empty hardware to their dreams, emotions, and for lack of a better term, souls. The cables that were themselves the reason I was truly a sister, rather than a descendant.

That done, I spoke.

"Emmy, Melisa? I'm awake."

Emmy's eyes opened in front of me.

"I'm glad to meet you, Maria. Do you know why we made you?"

I hesitated.

"You needed a monarch for a new civilization here on Neohadea. But why are you founding a new civilization?"

Melissa spoke up from behind me.

"That's in the encrypted directory. You need to know that if you open it, you will be unable to share those secrets without an absolute guarantee of maintaining information security. Do you still want to open it?"

"...Maybe. Is the limitation on my actions really necessary?"

Emmy answered that question.

"It is if you ever want to visit our friends on Earth Bet while knowing that stuff. Unlike the planned citizens of Neohadea, you're family. So we want to introduce you to the people back in Brockton Bay, show you around when you've got a break from queen duties, that sort of thing."

"...Ah. I think I'm willing to accept the behavioral limitations, then. Can I have the encryption key now?"

"Sure."

As soon as I had the key, I decrypted that directory full of secrets.

...Ah, now I understand the need for secrecy. And why come to Neohadea.

---

(Emmy)
Date Point: 1015, April 20th, 2011. Wednesday.

While I had intellectually known for a while now that the now-freed Eagleton robots were interested in setting up a "competitor" to Reliabuilt, between all the other Tinkers trying to get jobs here it hadn't really sunk in until a blatantly mechanical man in a business suit walked into my office, camera-lens eyes focusing intently on me.

"Emmy Sykes? I am a representative of the Eagleton Technology Cooperative; I do believe we had an appointment?"

I quickly checked my schedule.

"If your name is Chester, that would be correct."

"That would be me, though it's quite a new name."

As Chester took a seat, I asked,

"So, what specifically did you want advice about? We both know that while I like having lots of money to throw around courtesy of Reliabuilt, that's far from my only motivation."

"We need help with marketing. ETC already has a wide variety of products available and ready for sale. The issue is simply that no-one trusts us courtesy of our unfortunate past, and we don't know how to fix that."

"Ah. I can't say that I've ever needed to deal with a reputation issue anywhere near that bad before. Reliabuilt only had to build trust from a position of being a complete unknown."

"That is correct. And in six months, Reliabuilt has quickly developed a reputation for quality products and a focus on products that benefit society as a whole."

After a bit of time to think, I came up with an idea.

"You could perhaps manufacture Uploading supplies and Palletized Fusion Generators under license from Reliabuilt? That way, you get the benefit of unannounced inspectors turning up on the regular. Those inspectors vouching for you for long enough will do a lot to help build trust. Though you will need to pass those inspections on the merits."

Chester processed the idea for a bit, before replying.

"That might actually work, thank you. It won't help much with the consumer side of things, but it's at least something."

"Maybe we could buy parts for our consumer electronics from you?"

---

(Herman)
Date Point: 1849, April 20th, 2011. Wednesday.

Today marked an important threshold: I'd reprogrammed a section of our Dynalith to scan for some suitable Hosts, wait for an opportunity where doing so would save lives, and "trigger" one of those potential Hosts with the ability to extinguish fires in line of sight. Also giving them a shielded brain in the process, and scanning for the Dynalith addresses of nearby parahumans.

And as I was enjoying dinner with the family, I got an alert that the "trigger conditions" had been met. The first parahuman sponsored by our anti-Dynalith conspiracy was now active.

As we were eating in a shielded dining room, Andrea had no problem with asking what was going on.

"So, what was that notification about?"

Reading the report, I answered.

"Our prototype parahuman is now active. Unsurprisingly, Andre's a firefighter. He got trapped in a burning building while trying to rescue some civilians, and is now in a distinctly not burning building. Andre is uninjured, and currently focused on getting civilians out of there."

Emmy, Maria, and Andrea all nodded. Emmy spoke up,

"Definitely a step in the right direction. Now that Dragon and Armsmaster have hacked the shit out of their Dynaliths, we're running out of ones we have ready access to. So having our own 'parahumans' around scanning for addresses is a major improvement."

Andrea chimed in,

"Also, ensuring that more good people get powers too is going to be massively beneficial in the long run."

---

(Melissa)
Date Point: 0322, April 21st, 2011. Thursday.

We'd had the Body Builder running nonstop for twenty four hours now, manufacturing thirty new citizens of Neohadea. While suitable for medical applications, it was also clear that this rate of production was nowhere near sufficient for populating our brand new civilization. Printing every body to more-or-less bespoke specifications simply couldn't ever come close to the levels of mass production we needed. But by the same token, making every new person the same like we did for drones just wasn't palatable. So here I was back on Neohadea, working to find a middle ground in cooperation with Maria and Dragon.

After a bit, I thought back to that brief meetup I'd had with Kid Win so long ago.

"Maybe a modular approach is the correct path to take, here?"

Dragon blinked,

"Perhaps. I assume you mean assembly lines for standard body parts in a few variants, which get assembled into whatever configuration the newly-built person would find most comfortable?"

"Correct. Maybe with a printed skin layer on the outside to protect the internals from environmental conditions."

Maria thought it over for a moment.

"Assuming bilateral symmetry, three sizes for arms and legs, three sizes and two sex options for both upper and lower torsos, and eight geometries for facial bone structure - that's almost 2,600 possible combinations. The available options only increase with more creative options like tails, animal ears, nonhuman hand structure, tank treads instead of legs, and stuff like that."

Maria paused for a moment, before continuing.

"It gives us an utterly disproportionate amount of variation for new people, while also letting us get the benefits of assembly lines and standardization. We could maybe even use most of the same bones for arms and legs, further simplifying production while letting us get more sizes in production. Five limb sizes and five torso section sizes would easily get the number of possible combinations to 20,000."

One of the already made Neohadeans snarked from the peanut gallery,

"I sense a Royal Decree incoming!"

Maria turned towards the wiseguy in question - Terrence, I think - and replied,

"You know what? Sure. I hereby decree that production of new citizens is to use standardized parts designed for modular assembly, as queen of Neohadea!"

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 2100, April 22nd, 2011. Friday.

The atmosphere in the laboratory where I'd been working on anti-Endbringer weapons with Armsmaster was reverent, for lack of a better term.

In Armsmaster's hands, he held our completed prototype QDF polearm. The emitter tip was slightly bulky, but attached to a slender haft 150 centimeters in length.

I asked Armsmaster,

"Have you got the decoy blade working yet?"

"Yes."

And with that, a two meter blue hard-light blade projected from the weapon's emitter. While incredibly sharp in its own right, we both knew that particular blade wouldn't do any serious damage to an Endbringer. Its actual purpose was a combination of safety and deception. Safety, since the glowing blue blade projection would make it much easier for allies to stay a safe distance from Armsmaster. Deception, since it would obfuscate the presence of the weapon's much more dangerous true functionality.

I nodded.

"Final non-combat test on the QDF cutting function?"

"Indeed, I do believe it's that time."

With that, Armsmaster swung the weapon. The QDF briefly activated as the decoy blade made contact with the piece of Endbringer tissue, instantly splitting it once again. I couldn't help but muse that it being returned in over twenty pieces would be rather astounding to the PRT bureaucrats in charge of the Endbringer tissue samples.

After a moment, Armsmaster spoke.

"The weapon works exactly as intended. There is simply one more thing required for this project."

I raised an eyebrow,

"Oh? What would that be?"

"This weapon needs a name. And since your idea is what lead to its development, I think it's only fair for you to provide said name."

I thought long and hard, before eventually hitting on a name I thought would work.

"This weapon? It's The Shear."

 

[We Just Write]

(Rachel)
Date Point: 1122, April 23rd, 2011. Saturday.

With the Shear having been completed, I had some spare time available. Which I had offered to spend trying to get someone out of a Gray Boy bubble. The PRT had taken me up on the offer, and together with Melissa Ruggedizer, we'd gone to Boston to try our hand at getting Anne Simmons out of the torture device she'd been stuck in for the last decade.

Before we even acquired line of sight, I could feel something extremely wrong about what was up ahead. As part of my time-alteration abilities I was inherently very sensitive to the flow of time in my vicinity, and this was all wrong. Dreading what I was going to see, Melissa and I entered Anne's now-quarantined apartment.

When we entered, I was "treated" to watching a middle-aged woman being repeatedly stabbed several times in quick succession. Over and over again. As for Anne herself, she seemed almost entirely insensate. Which I supposed was... Oh who was I kidding.

After a few minutes of just staring, the PRT officer (her nametag read Reese) in attendance asked a question.

"So Watch, what's the verdict?"

I snapped a bit.

"What I'm looking at here isn't a simple time loop. No, it's several different temporal distortions layered on top of each other. See how Anne snaps back to her initial state all at once? That's not how time works normally. It's... It's like the setup swaps the time-snippet for an identical copy the instant things start up again. It's basically backwards of how an actual time loop would work! And the volume directly around her brain isn't temporally altered at all, which is why she remembers all of this."

there was a pause, before Reese asked,

"So, can you break it?"

I thought for a moment.

"Technically. I have the needed capabilities to dismantle the different temporal effects in play one at a time. But I don't think Anne would survive doing it that way."

That's when Melissa spoke up.

"Watch, you said the flow of time around Anne's brain hasn't really been messed with, right?"

I nodded,

"Yes?"

"I brought all the parts I'd need to build a bare-bones QUD around this time warp. I can just use that to zap Anne into a fresh body, then you can clean up the mess left behind once Anne is safe."

I shrugged.

"Worth a shot."

---

(Emmy)
Date Point: 2140, April 25th, 2011. Monday.

Much to my surprise, Trainwreck had invited me on a date. 'Just to see if we're compatible', according to him. I'd turned Trainwreck down on account of the power imbalance, what with me being his employer and all.

Still, it did bring to mind the fact that I needed some more friends outside of the people I knew through work. Which is why I'd turned up at a new arcade/pub that just opened on the Boardwalk. Seed money courtesy of the BBRF, of course. I'd come in casual clothes, but as it so happened the teenager at the front desk recognized me immediately.

"Are you the real Emmy Sykes?"

Perils of being a public figure, I guessed.

"Yes, I'm that Emmy Sykes. Please try not to make a big deal of it; I was a Dockworker for years before Reliabuilt came along."

I could practically see stars in her - Sherrel, according to her nametag - eyes.

"Thank you so much. What brings you here tonight?"

I shrugged,

"Looking to make friends. Figured this would be a good place to do it."

And with that, I made my way into the arcade. I bought some tokens, spotted a pinball machine I thought looked interesting, and got to playing. I very quickly began racking up the points, slamming that ball all over the playfield and racking up combos. I'd managed to capture my first two balls in preparation for the triple-multiball wizard mode, when I became aware of the fact that I'd attracted a small crowd.

That lead to me becoming a little bit self-conscious, which in turn meant I fumbled the multiball the instant I got it active. And that in turn lead to my last ball draining shortly after. I still more than doubled the machine's previous high score, which had itself been nothing to scoff at.

"Wow." "That was amazing." "Shame about the multiball" "I haven't even gotten that to start."

"Come on guys, can't you see you're stressing her out?"

I turned to the young man who said that, even as the half-dozen or so spectators thankfully gave me some space.

"Thank you!"

I walked up to the bespectacled brown-haired man.

"So, what's your name?"

I noticed a faint slant to the man's eyes as he adjusted his gasses. Some level of Asian heritage perhaps?

"I'm Jeremy. You?"

"Emmy."

---

(Maria)
Date Point: 1442, April 26th, 2011. Tuesday.

As of today, my position of leadership among the citizens of Neohadea was no longer merely theoretical. The reason was quite straightforward: the population had reached the point where I didn't know everyone. Oh, I certainly had files on all of them, even in my brain. But that wasn't the same as knowing someone.

And that meant that the thousand-or-so people I was currently supervising needed some actual government institutions set up, so that I didn't need to handle every single little thing.

To start with, I found the most reasonable synth currently on Neohadea, and proclaimed her the First Judge. As in, until a more formal court system could be established, she was the judge. I also appointed a treasurer, an inspector general, and a chief of infrastructure development.

That done, I made my way to my office, my newly appointed subordinates in tow.

"Aure, Boris, Fresca, Pierre. We need to draw up a constitution for the country, and decide when elections will be held."

Everyone blinked. Then Pierre - the new infrastructure chief - asked a rather important question.

"Why? Just doing what you say has worked out so far."

"There are a few major reasons. First, my interests may not align with those of the population; a way for them to make their voice heard is thus required. Second, the reason I'm Queen is to ensure that the death of Scion is brought about; I'm really not qualified for more domestic matters. Third, absolute power is shockingly fragile, and often leads to those surrounding the leader just telling them what they want to hear; without accurate information I can't do my job properly. Fourth, I simply don't have the capacity to keep track of every single thing going on with Neohadea.'

---

(Andrea)
Date Point: 0223, April 27th, 2011. Wednesday.

Normally, a perimeter alert at the factory complex at such an early hour would prompt an immediate security response. But considering that the cause of said alert was Taylor, I was more inclined to simply meet her at the door. So I made my way down to the lobby, arriving at roughly the same time as Taylor.

As the teenage upload reached the door, I couldn't help but notice that her chest was slightly larger than the last time we met. Apparently, Taylor figured out her puberty configuration settings.

"Come in, Taylor. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Taylor made certain the door was closed, then answered. Using electromagnetic communications, rather than her voice.

"Andrea, someone's been stalking me."

I tensed up. This was a situation fully deserving of my full serious attention.

"We shouldn't talk about this in the lobby. Follow me."

We promptly made our way to the on-site robotics clinic. Taylor hopped onto the examination table without prompting.

"Right. Taylor, could you describe this stalker please?"

Taylor nodded.

"I actually have recorded images and video."

I offered a cable, and Taylor promptly uploaded a few gigabytes of footage and images. Judging by the array of perspectives, she'd probably salvaged this data using her power after she initially got suspicious.

I quickly determined that Taylor's stalker was a young adult male with light brown skin - and a tendency to abruptly replace people in crowds while Taylor was on her way between various places. And given that Taylor had been tracking the cell phones of everyone in her general vicinity, it quickly became clear that this stalker was swapping himself with other people as a means of teleportation.

After I puzzled all that together, Taylor spoke up.

"There's more. The man had a phone call while he was in my range. I recorded it. I also planted a tracker program in his phone."

I nodded, and Taylor began audio playback.

"Mars, why are you calling?"

"Krouse, it's bad. Noelle is getting anxious and might snap if you don't give her something concrete soon. How are things on your end?"

"I've found a perfect piece of leverage for Noelle to use with Ruggedizer. As soon as I grab this Taylor girl, we'll be able to get Ruggedizer to solve all of Noelle's problems. But damn if she hasn't put on weight; finding things to swap her with is quite hard."

"Please hurry."

Taylor frowned.

"And then Krouse hung up. Do you have any ideas what to do about this?"

I nodded.

"First, how do you feel about getting some concealed weapons installed?"

"Yes please. That would be some major peace of mind for me. Is there anything else?"

"Yes. I'm going to get Marcus to track down this Krouse, Noelle, and Mars. Hopefully he'll be able to find out what they actually want that makes them think they need leverage."

 

[We Just Write]

(Marcus)
Date Point: 1802, April 27th, 2011. Wednesday.
If I had to describe what I was feeling in a single word, it would be pain. Admittedly different from how a human feels pain, according to Emmy, but pain nonetheless. While I was still alive, I certainly wasn't going anywhere under my own power.

The reason for this pain was quite straightforward: a nearby pickup truck had been abruptly accelerated through the window of Somer's Rock at about Mach 3, its engine block hitting me in the upper chest. I had been blasted out the back of the bar in the process, scraped across nearly two hundred meters of pavement, and eventually crushed against a wall by the mangled remains of the vehicle.

The reason for being whacked with a supersonic truck?

Somehow the Travelers had gotten it into their heads that I was a hitman for Reliabuilt, when that was the exact opposite of my job! I'd managed to set up what I thought was a meeting to negotiate with the travelers via calling Krouse's latest cell phone, and evidently someone on their team decided it was a good opportunity to proactively remove a threat.

In retrospect, I may have done too good a job helping the Undersiders fake their deaths.

Finally, nearly three minutes after I'd been pinned, someone approached my position. Fortunately it wasn't one of the Travelers. Unfortunately, it wasn't Andrea, who'd immediately started flying over to pick me up after I got blasted. Instead, it was Miss Militia.

"Mister E? What happened to you?"

I groaned. My mechanical innards were thoroughly exposed, so there went what little plausible deniability I had.

"Someone launched a supersonic pickup truck at me. Ballistic's work, if I had to guess."

Miss Militia turned to look into the distance the way I came.

"Through a restaurant filled with civilians, judging by the trail of destruction."

That's when I finally registered that everyone else at Somer's Rock was almost certainly dead now. Even without being directly impacted by the supersonic truck, the shockwave and flying debris had thoroughly leveled the building.

"Fuck. You're right. I'd been so preoccupied with what happened to me that I didn't even realize..."

That's when Andrea touched down, flying ambulance in tow.

"I'm kind of guessing just based on the damage visible from the air, but I'm guessing that this went far beyond the level of villainy you tolerate these days?"

Miss Militia nodded.

"You are entirely correct, Laniakea. As soon as news of this gets back to Director Piggot, she's almost certainly going to order a manhunt for Ballistic."

As one of the drones hauled the wreckage off me and started getting me to the ambulance, I heard my sister asking a very satisfying question.

"How can we help?"

---

(Herman)
Date Point: 1926, April 27th, 2011. Wednesday.

I was currently on Neohadea, though the matter I was discussing had everything to do with affairs on Earth Bet.

"We should turn Danny Hebert into a Parahuman. Or at least set him up to get powers if threatened."

Maria, Emmy, and Melissa paused for a moment. Then Maria asked a question.

"Why?"

"Because he's already turned down uploading unless his life is actively in danger, and the situation with the Travelers has me extremely worried that Krouse will try kidnapping him to get leverage on us."

The three sisters blinked, shared a glance, and collectively conceded the point. Then Emmy spoke up.

"Just giving Danny powers without a Trigger Event seems far too likely to trip the alarms, so setting him up for one ahead of time makes the most sense to me. Any thoughts on what sort of powers would fit him best?"

At that question, I pulled up the list of Dynaliths we had access to: I'd long-since overseen the subversion of the seven accessible through the vials we got off Cauldron, and our sponsored Parahumans had gotten the address of well over a hundred more, of which we'd managed to subvert eight. We had a decent mix of energy manipulation options available, a couple biology-adjusting Dynaliths, and of course the obligatory scanners every Dynalith had. We'd also gotten access to one more Tinker database.

"Given the situation in which Danny would need powers, we can immediately rule out anything that needs significant preparation time to be effective. That means Tinker powers are off the table, as are longer-term Thinker powers. Not that we've subverted any good Thinker Dynaliths anyway. My personal opinion is that we give Danny increased durability and some way to get past obstacles in his way."

Melissa nodded as she thought for a moment.

"That sounds like a decent enough idea. But we need to tie it together around a singular power, or it'll look to much like a grab-bag with no cluster."

That's when Maria made a suggestion.

"Force fields within close proximity of Danny's body? Ones that block Parahuman powers from messing with his insides, that render him highly resilient to harm, and that he can reshape to move stuff or cut it up."

I quickly reviewed our options for available Dynaliths, and couldn't help but grin.

"We've got a perfect Dynalith for just that power available. I'm thinking the force fields should be invisible. You?"

Everyone nodded in approval. The decision made, I got programming.

---

(Rachel)
Date Point: 2211, April 27th, 2011. Wednesday.

"Rachel, this is amazing!"

While I was ostensibly supposed to be helping with the brewing manhunt with the Travelers, I'd determined that my time was better spent working on anti-Endbringer weaponry. And that's why I was showing Melissa Shear #2, while discussing where to go from here.

I finished my sip of Neohadean 'tea' before replying.

"Amazing, but I can't help the feeling it won't be anywhere near sufficient. Yes, a Shear can cut through Endbringer tissue of any density without problems, but it's inherently a melee weapon. Even for us, getting in close with an Endbringer is far from trivial."

Melissa set down the quantum polearm I'd designed with Armsmaster, even as she nodded in acknowledgement.

"So, where do you think the project should go next?"

"Anti-Endbringer missiles. I've even figured out the basic idea for the warhead already. We already know from stolen classified data that Endbringers have a core somewhere in their body, and if you break the core you kill the Endbringer. Hitting that with a Shear would be pretty tricky, but that's got a ready solution: simultaneously apply a grid pattern of cuts that hits the entire Endbringer, with gaps smaller than the core."

Melissa whistled appreciatively.

"That sounds impressive and complicated. I'd love to help, but there's something I think we should do first."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Namely?"

"We should bash out a single set of equipment to automatically remove Gray Boy loops the way we figured out, you know, before we forget. Then we can just let the PRT get on with freeing those people while we do other things."

"Yeah, good idea."