A Solitary Biotinker 2 (Patreon)

I heard the sound of at least one helicopter in the distance and sat up, my heart racing. It wasn’t uncommon for the PRT to send a helicopter to check up on me, but it was normally when my base was drifting towards the airspace of New York, Los Angeles, or Houston. I was nowhere near any of the major PRT or Protectorate cities, so it seemed unlikely to be…

Despite what I’d been thinking to myself, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread wash over me as the helicopter grew closer. I stood up, brushing the sand off my clothes as I made my way towards the edge of the beach. As the helicopter came into view, I could see the PRT logo emblazoned on its side.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, quickly making my way back towards my base. I had gone out of my way to make sure that I was off their radar, and yet here they were. I didn’t want to greet my ‘guests’ in a pair of swim trunks.

I managed to get dressed into a shirt and pair of pants just as the helicopter landed near my base, I could see several PRT agents exiting the vehicle. They were heavily armed, and had a look of determination on their faces. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I made my way towards them.

“Excuse me, what’s going on?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

One of the agents stepped forward, his hand on his weapon, “We have reason to believe that you may be in possession of dangerous and unauthorized biotech, and we are here to conduct a search of your base.”

I groaned lightly, this happened every so often, but considering the last time it had happened was a month ago, it normally wouldn’t happen for another three. There had never been anything found, but the fact that I was a biotinker meant that I was always going to be under suspicion.

“Whatever, let’s get this over with,” I grumbled, stepping back and waving a hand towards the main facility.

One of the agents spoke into a shoulder mounted radio, and to my surprise, a blonde girl in white floated up over the rim of my floating base. In a fireman’s carry, she had a short, mousy haired and heavily freckled brunette. I recognized them, Victoria and Amy Dallong AKA Glory Girl and Panacea respectively, but I could have sworn that I was nowhere near Brockton Bay. So either the two of them were called in from quite some ways off, or I needed to start paying a lot more attention to where I was drifting.

“Ooh, private beach, nice,” Glory Girl said with a grin as she settled down onto the sand. Her sister rolled her eyes and simply started walking up the beach, towards my garden. Half a dozen agents stood around me, holding containment foam guns pointing in my general direction.

I watched as Panacea began examining the plants, her eyes and fingers scanning over them in a way that made me uncomfortable. I didn't like the idea of anyone, especially not someone who was actively hostile to me, snooping around in my garden. But I kept my mouth shut, knowing that anything I said could be used against me.

Glory Girl, on the other hand, seemed more interested in my base itself. She walked around it, her hands tracing over the smooth surface as if she was trying to figure out how it had been constructed. I could see the curiosity in her eyes, and a small part of me was glad that at least someone appreciates my work.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, Panacea left my garden saying, “Basic garden plants. Nothing biotinkery about it.”

“Speaking of which,” I said, making the PRT agents return their focus to me, their postures tense. “Anyone want some zucchini? I underestimated just how productive they’d be.”

Glory Girl and one of the agents snorted, briefly pulling the attention off me. The former looked around at the curious gazes and shrugged, “Aunt Sarah tossed a few leftover seeds into her garden and the resulting plants practically took over her back yard.”

The agent who’d snorted nodded in agreement, “Yeah, my neighbor had the same problem last summer. Ended up having to give them out to everyone in the neighborhood just to get rid of them.”

I chuckled, feeling slightly more at ease. It was clear that they weren’t going to find anything of interest in my garden, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. The fact that they had gone to such lengths to investigate me meant that someone was really desperate to find something incriminating.

Panacea, alongside Glory Girl and several PRT agents, made their way from my garden and the beach and headed towards my main living area. She placed a hand on the wall of the structure, and paused. I understood why, her power told her everything biological about whatever she touched, and despite what it may look like, everything on my floating base was biological. Combine that with the fact that everything was interconnected, and just by touching the single wall, she got her brain blasted with a full biological blueprint of everything I had cooking in the base.

Given how the base’s underlying genetics were from the green sea turtle, the walls were carefully organized and structured shell, and the interior of the building was pretty similar. Panacea’s eyes widened as she felt the sheer complexity of the biology behind my base. “This is incredible,” she murmured, her hand still pressed against the wall. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at her words. I had spent years perfecting the biology behind my base, and it was rewarding to see someone of Panacea’s caliber appreciate it.

The search continued, but as expected, nothing incriminating was found. The PRT agents left, grumbling about the wasted time and resources, but I knew that this wouldn’t be the last time they would come knocking on my door.

Just before Glory Girl and Panacea left, the latter walked up to me, looking nervous, and asked, “Would it be alright if I came back to visit, so long as you’re in the area?”

I smiled at her and nodded, “Sure, I admit, it isn’t often I have company, so someone that isn’t looking for an excuse to haul me off will be a pleasant change of pace. I probably won’t be staying in the area for more than a month or two, unless something happens and I have a reason to stay.”

“Oh! Well then, that'll work perfectly,” she replied, relieved. Then she turned to leave, but paused and looked back at me, her eyes filled with curiosity. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” I replied, my interest piqued.

“It’s about your powers,” she said hesitantly. “I’ve never encountered a biotinker before, and well...I’m curious.”

I could see where this was leading, “You want to know how my powers work.”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” she hurriedly said, swallowing thickly as she visibly struggled to find the right words for what she wanted to ask. “And you don't mind talking about it?”

My expression softened, and I gave a nod.

She breathed out in relief, then asked, “Would Saturday be okay?”

“Depends,” I said. “What day is today?”

Panacea blinked, before answering, “Tuesday, you don’t know?”

I gestured to the base surrounding us while mentally counting the days between Tuesday and Saturday, “I’m entirely self sufficient up here, my days are determined by what work needs doing each given day, not a specific calendar schedule. So four days from now? Works for me.”

The smile on her face made her cheeks crinkle, drawing my eyes to the freckles that ran across her face. It was only after she and Glory Girl had left that it dawned on me, and I found myself asking a question out loud.

“Did I just get a date?”

[hr][/hr]

“Damn, Ames! If I had known that you were into biotinkers, I wouldn’t have bothered setting you up on all those blind dates,” Vicky teased her sister as she flew the two of them home.

“Shut up, Vicky!” Amy snapped, her face turning a faint shade of red. “Do you have any idea how fascinating his base is?! I can’t remember the last time I saw anything even a quarter as interesting as it through my power!”

“I’m not judging you, Ames,” Vicky said, a grin stretching across her face. “A self-made man, a homeowner, and said home has the ability to go anywhere in the world? If I wasn’t with Dean I’d have considered making a move!”

[hr][/hr]

Four days of frantic tidying later, and I was weeding my garden as two feminine forms came drifting into my ‘lawn’. I straightened upI straightened up, wiping the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and smiling in greeting as I approached them. Panacea and Glory Girl both looked stunning in their respective outfits, and I couldn't help but feel a slight pang of self-consciousness as I realized I was still in my gardening clothes.

“Hey, welcome back,” I said, gesturing towards the main living area of my base. “Shall we head inside?”

They both nodded, and we made our way towards the entrance. I couldn't help but notice the way Panacea's eyes kept flickering over everything, almost as if she was cataloging every single biological component of my base. It was a little disconcerting, but I knew it was just the way her power worked.

Once inside, I offered them some refreshments, which they both declined, before leading them towards a small seating area. We sat down, and I could feel my nerves starting to get the better of me. I had never really talked about my powers to anyone before, not in any great detail, and the thought of doing so now was making me feel a little uneasy.

“So, uh,” I said, clearing my throat. “What exactly do you want to know?”

Panacea looked up at me, her eyes shining with excitement, her hands clasped in front of her as she said, “Everything. What kind of experiments have you done? How does your power actually work?”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Swallowing, I began, “It isn’t like I can just touch something and have it change, I need samples of genetic material before I can do anything. While it’s true that genetics aren’t like legos, my power needs something to work with before I can grow something. On top of that, I don’t yet know why but my power associates certain genetic samples with various powers.

“This whole floating base, for example,” I said, patting the table. “I don’t know why but my power decided that for whatever reason, growing squid arms in the place of a tail would allow the whole ensemble to fly. Ray wings are how it maneuvers, while green sea turtle genetics provided the base for the rest to grow from.”

“How long did it take to grow?” she asked.

“To a point where I could live on it?” I asked, to which she nodded. “From seed larva to garden capable, about ten months. From then to now, about a year.”

“What did you make before this?” Glory Girl asked.

“I didn’t,” I told them, making both look at me in surprise. “My home is the first project I undertook when I got my powers. I have no desire to be involved in the cops and robbers thing going on, and while I do have some things I’m growing to help in Endbringer battles if I happen to be near them, What I want is to be left alone to live my life.”