String - Fabrication 5.1 (Patreon)

The culmination of my relentless efforts lay before me, its impeccable condition lighting a spark of wonder in my eyes.

I leaned forward in my chair as the center of my focus reformed from its liquid state and unfolded to reveal its newly minted form. I had taken the liberty of working on my suit to ensure I had as much survivability as I could muster. I recalled captured footage I had seen over the years of various fights between gangs led by supers. Things got messy fast and if I had any hope of survival, I’d need the best.

I wouldn’t settle for anything less.

My hands gently touched the chest piece of the suit and my mind was flooded with information. I inhaled as I deciphered the information, my power now reading this item as [Multi-purpose Armored Combat Suit]. The name was a tad long for my tastes but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I was going to go around calling it that. To everyone else, it was just my costume – my armor.

[Charges: 25/25]

[Multi-purpose Armored Combat Suit]

[Materials]

• Neoprene-Steel ★
  • Durability MK VII
  • Insulation MK VII
  • Sturdiness MK VII
  • Flexibility MK VII
    

Improving the base materials was necessary. Neglecting would be the wrong word. Distracted was a better descriptor. There were so many things I wanted to work on that I had forgotten to improve my suit – the main thing that would be keeping me alive. I wanted it to be better than Nanoforge’s tech, but I didn’t want to stop there. No, I couldn’t. I needed it to be better. I had a better scope of my powers now, a proper understanding of its reach and potential.

I wouldn’t just create things that could match Nanoforge’s armor, I’d surpass it. I’d make armor so much better and more sophisticated that she’d preen with jealousy if she ever saw the tech I would have. That was my goal. My armor needed to be unmatched, unrivaled. I knew this now, I could settle for nothing less. My survival depended on it. Sam, Mia, and Liam’s as well. We all needed to be at the top of our game.

As I pulled the suit off the table, I kept observing the changes. I hadn’t just stopped with the [Materials], no. I had gone further. If this suit was going to be better, it needed to be much more than just armor.

[Multi-purpose Armored Combat Suit MK IV]

[Power Systems]

• Jericho Core Intake
  • Efficiency MK IV
  • Safeguards MK IV
  • Durability MK V
    

It had been something I was internally debating until I decided to make the leap a few days ago. My energy needs were getting extensive and batteries were taking up too much space, becoming too heavy to the point where it wasn’t worth the charges to make them safe. To solve this I decided to move to generating energy onboard using disposable cells.

Nuclear energy – while powerful – wasn’t something I wanted inside my combat suit. I didn’t trust it to not go critical if someone got a good hit in, regardless of how much I upgraded the durability or safeguards. Jericho on the other hand provided a much safer alternative. It was an energy source created by a Mechakinetic back in the 70s and provided an alternative to nuclear energy. It was unfortunate that he died only a few years after making it before he could revolutionize the power industry. All the technology he created was still being maintained and kept in frequent use but from what I had read, nothing new from his line of Mechatech had ever been recreated or improved upon.

Until now that is.

It wasn’t as powerful as Nuclear energy, but it was clean and much safer.

Emphasis on the safer part. I wouldn’t be blowing myself to bits if the core was exposed. At most, the core would power down. A problem, sure, but I still had some batteries on board that would let my suit operate for another half hour or so, even if the core was rendered unusable.

There was only a minor issue with my current design and that was the Jericho Core needed to be replaced every three days of full operation. I was able to get 3D printers to the point where they could create a very, very primitive Jericho core, but it was close enough that my power recognized it and I was able to make another one with only a few charges.

“Activate Adjustments.”

The suit began to tighten the moment I had slipped all my limbs inside and given the comment. I could hear the servos and mechanisms begin to work, analyzing my frame and readjusting its size to fit me. The voice activation command was another feature I had debated on. I didn’t want anyone other than me to be able to take my suit off without my permission, so I installed this feature and tuned it to recognize my voice. Voice recognition software was in abundance anyway so it was easy.

“Helmet on.”

One of my more preferred changes. Having everything in one piece just made the process easier. The helmet compartment was split into two pieces; both sitting comfortably behind and in front of my neck. The process was quick and the mechanisms churned as the compartments opened and began clicking into place around my head. I managed to restrain my glee but couldn’t hide my satisfied smile as it all fit together perfectly.

So far so good.

“Run startup procedure.”

My eyes were assaulted by lights that streamed across the visor, too fast for me to make out. Shortly after that, the visor went blank and a ping sounded in my ears.

“Core Functions: Online,” a robotic, synthesized voice sounded. “Suit Composition: 100%. Life Support Systems: Offline. Esoteric Systems: Online. Augmented Armor Module: Offline. Camouflage Module: Offline. Vision Modules: Installed. Running diagnostics…”

The visor flashed between various different modes. Thermal, Night-vision, Electrical Detection, and Analytic.

I had made some changes to the electrical detection software, namely that it pointed out where devices were and what they were. Gone were the clusters of red, orange, and green dots that would take up space on my visor, replaced with a much cleaner highlighting system. The Analytical system was just something I had thrown in there. It was simply created to observe an object and scrape the internet for information about it. Though, with Gold around, it might not see any use. Still, probably good to have in a pinch. I couldn’t count on being around her all the time.

The Augmented Armor and Camouflage modules being offline made sense since I hadn’t even installed them yet. They were future projects that I had lined up and had made space for in the suit, so the diagnostics were just seeing the empty placeholder slots as offline. The life support system being offline came as a surprise. A good portion of the tenuous upgrade I had made to the suit was incorporating systems capable of keeping me alive should I get hit with something particularly nasty.

That’s weird. Why aren’t they working?

My esoteric systems were online and functional or at least, that’s what the readout told me. The grapple launcher, impact dispersal, and extendable blade modules were all showing up green. I did a quick check by extending and retracting the blade on my right arm to see if the diagnostic readouts were accurately reading. With each use, the HUD on my visor clearly showed when and when it wasn’t deployed.

At least that’s working.

I’d need to do some more practical testing with the other two esoteric modules to really see how effective they were, but I was in no hurry to scale any walls or jump off any buildings. That could wait an hour or two until I had finished troubleshooting… and until I mustered the courage to actually do those things.

“Diagnostics complete.”

Everything appeared to be running smoothly. The rudimentary voiced diagnostics program was something I had incorporated last minute with the idea that I could eventually evolve it into an intelligent AI. However, the upgrade path for that was very pricey with some of the earlier upgrades pushing triple digits. Right now, this was all I cared to invest in and it seemed to be doing the job just fine.

I hummed thoughtfully. “Life Support System; retrieve status.”

“Life Support Systems: Offline.”

“Configure.”

A window opened up and another readout streamed down my visor. I had to scroll back to actually take in any of the information that it was trying to give me. When I saw the issue, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The inbuilt oxygen tank was empty and needed to be filled and pressurized. The medical systems – while functional – were also all empty and had nothing to actually deliver. It then occurred to me that I hadn’t specified what kind of medicine these systems would be delivering. I’d have to configure them manually and then re-upgrade to top them up, or find the medicine and do it manually. It would be a pain to do it manually, but I also felt like it would be a waste of charges to continuously re-upgrade my systems, just to refill them.

The oxygen tank, however, was easy enough.

A compartment lining my shoulders hissed and opened the moment I selected the option to manually refill. My suit began sucking in the air around me and I watched the progress bar on my visor slowly fill. When it was complete, the compartment hissed again and clicked shut.

“Life Support Systems: Online. Oxygen supply at 100%. Estimated time of use, one hour. Warning, medical systems are depleted.”

That’s so fucking cool.

I had no idea when this was going to come in handy but again, systems like these were always nice to have. Better to be safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

“Whoa.”

I turned my head to find Liam standing at the door with a drink in his hand and a bag of food in the other. I stared at him for a few moments, confused. I had locked the door – or at least I was confident I had – to avoid getting distracted. Sam had a tendency to wander in and strike up conversations, which ultimately ended up distracting me. I started locking the door to give her a hint, which she clearly understood. Liam, it seems, did not.

“How’d you get in here?”

“Under the door,” he replied with a casual unease. “You’ve been here for a while. Thought I could bring you something to eat.”

After a few moments, I nodded. “I did skip breakfast this morning, thanks.”

“It’s four in the afternoon.”

I cringed a little. “It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re busy.”

“It’s also Friday,” Liam replied. “Sam mentioned that you might be a bit… behind. She said Mechakinetics get a bit tunnel-visioned when they get working so I thought I’d pick something up for you,” he lifted the bag and looked around for where to put it. Most of the tables in here were packed with electronics so there really wasn’t any place to set it down. Besides, I wasn’t too keen on eating in this space. I didn’t want it to get dirty. “So, busy huh?”

“Something like that,” I said, walking over to one of the tables. I picked up my laser pistol, my power picking apart the pieces and feeding information. “Gotta be ready.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” Liam placed the bag of food next to the door and found the nearest chair, dropping into it and slouching down. “I’m really not looking forward to this whole ‘war’ thing that’s gonna break out. Feels like a lot of people are gonna die.”

“People die everyday,” I replied absently, immediately feeling like a horrible person for saying it. I tried to think of a nicer way to rephrase it but nothing was really coming to mind. I was reminded of the horror I felt watching those ECU soldiers get consumed by Grim’s darkness. At the time, all I felt was the adrenaline pumping through my body to give me the energy to escape. Upon reflection, the ordeal was complete nightmare fuel. “You just… don’t see it.”

“I’ve seen it,” Liam replied, perhaps a little too quickly. I turned to see the uncomfortable look in his eyes as he sipped from his straw. “I mean, it’s freaky. I try not to think about it. Like I said, I’ve had my powers for a while now. I’ve been out and seen some things.”

“The gangs?” I asked.

Liam nodded. “Other people too. Sometimes people just get caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Especially at night,” he shuddered. “Ya know, I don’t know why normal people even bother going out at night in a city like this. In any city really. Maybe it’s better outside of Bayside? We could just have it really bad here.”

I couldn’t really say. I had been out of New Elpis twice in my life and I was young so I could scarcely recall any major details. I had never been further than Australia and the longest I had been somewhere else was in New Zealand when Mom had taken me to visit her hometown.

“I doubt that. It’s probably just as bad everywhere else.”

“Yeah… you’re probably right.”

The pistol in my hand had shrunk by a fraction. Its model was more compact and I could almost feel the power source humming with energy. Like the suit, I had invested some more charges over the last few days and really turned it into something worthwhile. Although, now I had reached the inevitable crossroads. Further upgrades were starting to become costly, with almost everything breaking double digits. Naturally, I could underpay and wait out the time for completion but there was always the nagging question of whether those charges I spent could be useful somewhere else.

[Laser Pistol MK V]

[Operating Mechanisms]

• Laser Weapon Mechanisms MK III
• Compact-shifting MK I

[Ammunition]

• Laser Round MK IV

[Attachments]

• Grip MK III
• Suppressor MK I (Redundant/Disabled)
• Coolant System MK II
• Holographic Sight
• Lethal / Non-lethal Setting

[Power Generation]

• Energy CellsCapacity MK V
  Efficiency MK VI
  

Before, the design had been archaic by Mechatech standards. While it put modern weaponry to shame, it was still weaker than the kind of firepower the ECU employed. Now… not so much. I had yet to test it but I could confidently say that this thing packed enough punch to put even some of the strongest supers out cold if I landed enough direct hits.

“That looks different,” Liam pointed out, staring at the weapon in my hand.

“It is,” I retorted lamely. “I improved it. Like everything else in here.”

“Can I shoot it?”

I gave him a pointed look, one he completely missed with my face being concealed by my helmet. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him with the gun – although that was certainly part of it – but because I had just finished syncing up the pistol’s electrical systems with my suit, meaning the only way to actually fire the gun now was by wearing the suit.

“No.”

Liam frowned. “Oh, come on. Why not? I’ve always wanted to try Mechatech but there’s always so much bullshit built into the stuff I’ve tried to use that it never works for me!”

“Good. That probably means whoever built that stuff was smart enough to build in fail safes and security measures,” I replied. “If you have any brains, it's one of the first things you do, which is why it took me a whole week when I started out to even consider it,” I chuckled lightly. “The security I put in won’t even let you fire the gun. You can still hold it if you want.”

“Nah, that’s lame,” Liam grumbled, waving me off. “What’s the point in holding it if I don’t even get to use it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Even if you could shoot it, I haven’t exactly set up a range to test any new stuff out yet.”

“The garage has a lot of concrete walls,” Liam offered. “Isn’t that good enough?”

“The garage isn’t exactly concealed from street view. I’d rather not, if I could help it,” I said, filing away the suggestion in the back of my mind. The garage was a large open space and we weren’t about to be filling it with any cars. If I could put some sort of protective door at the front, I might be able to follow through with the idea. Sam had asked me to consider doing that if only to protect the car. “The best option is repurposing one of the floors or the roof. That isn’t a priority right now though.”

“Right,” he muttered under his breath, swirling the remnants of his drink. “Grim, Splicer, and all that stuff.”

I noted his disinterested tone.

“You’ve been pretty ‘hands off’ since we saved Mia. Does it not bother you that these guys are still out there, doing the same shit that they did to her?”

He thought for a moment before shrugging. “Does it bother you?”

My thoughts drifted to Pete and the vat I had seen him in. I had no idea what had happened to him after we left. I had skipped out of school this week but I doubted that he’d be back given his condition. That was assuming he was even alive in the first place. I did care, only a little. He was an asshole but we were all kids. We all did stupid things, right? That’s not any reason to wish death on someone.

But as I stood there, I couldn’t deny there was this lingering sense of apathy about what I had seen. Other than Pete, who I associated negatively with, I didn’t know anyone down there. They were all faceless strangers I had never met and would probably never meet. I wasn’t going to kid myself, I knew it was wrong and on a moral scale, it did bother me. I remembered at that moment, I didn’t want to leave them. I wanted to do the right thing and save all of them and it was Sam who had been the one to remind me that we were there to only get Mia.

If I had pursued those noble compulsions, things probably would’ve ended up much worse for us.

“A little bit. I know it’s fucked up and I feel for those people stuck down there. It’s pretty easy to tell how that shit affected Mia,” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “But if you’re asking me if I would rush in there again to risk my life for a bunch of people I don’t know, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t.”

“Neither,” Liam agreed evenly. “But ya know, if I had the chance to save more. I would’ve.”

I met his gaze and I could tell he was just saying that to make himself feel better. In truth, he wasn’t sure. Those minutes down in the bunker had been brief and there hadn’t been that much time to really take it all in.

“By the way,” he started up again. “Just reminding you that I did buy you food,” he pointed to the brown bag by the door. “Feel free to like, eat. Whenever.”

“Almost forgot,” I admitted sheepishly. “Helmet off.”

There were a series of clicks as the pieces came apart and slid back into their compartments. I grabbed the bag and sat down on the edge of a table before plunging my hand into it to find a delectable range of bakery foods, both savory and sweet. My stomach rumbled painfully and I was suddenly aware of the fact that I couldn’t remember the last meal I had.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. You’ve been cooped up in here so I doubled up. Thought you’d be hungry.”

He was right.

I retreated into silence as I devoured two sandwiches, all the while Liam got up and started pacing my workshop, looking intently at all the devices. Despite my descent into a hermit-esque lifestyle, I wasn’t even close to turning this place into the technomancy dream that I envisioned it to be. It would take weeks, maybe even months to get to where I wanted, and even then, I wasn’t sure I’d be satisfied. With a power like mine, I don’t think I could ever reach a point where I could label something as ‘complete’. There was always something more, another step to take, another route to consider.

Liam was sensible enough not to touch anything. He looked at all the 3D printers that were running, busy going through the motions to create the things I had set them up to do. He peered at my laptop – which now didn’t really appear like a traditional modern-day laptop. It was slimmer, and bigger, with the screen being deceptively holographic. The webcam could project images in holographic form and I was looking to improve its interactivity.

Tables were covered in papers that I had scribbled on, designs that I still wasn’t certain about. Scattered haphazardly were circuit boards and other broken tech that Sam had dumped in the room, all piled in together in trash bags. Where she had gotten them from, I didn’t know, but I didn’t particularly care. I was able to repair them easily with my power and repurpose them for integration. They made for excellent module templates.

“Maaaaan,” Liam ran a hand through his messy hair. “I don’t understand any of this shit,” he picked up one of the sheets of paper that happened to be on the top of the pile. He squinted his eyes as if he were trying to understand it. He rotated the paper, trying to look at it from a different angle like it would aid in his understanding. “What is this supposed to be?”

He turned the paper to me.

I idly waved my half-eaten mince and cheese pie at it. “Speed module.”

“Speed module?”

“For my suit,” I took another bite and savored the delicious taste. I really must have skipped a few meals because I had never wanted to eat so fast before. “When I find something I particularly like with my power, I try to draw out the blueprint for it. There’s so much shit that it’s easy to forget some of the stuff I actually see. Once I draw it out, well,” I gestured to the 3D printers, “I see if I can first create the base design of it. Saves on me having to spend charges.”

Liam frowned and nodded slowly but I knew he barely understood a word I said. “Right.”

“If I can, the next step would be to integrate it into the suit. With the speed module, I could maybe run as fast as Alice when she’s Pink.”

“Wait, really?”

Again, I shrugged. “I don’t know. Hopefully. I’ll probably need to make a proper exo-skeleton before I do that, otherwise I’d probably just end up ripping my body to pieces. My powers don’t provide me with any physical enhancements like hers does, so without proper prep, I’d just die trying if I wasn’t careful. There’s also something else to consider.”

“What’s that?”

“Perception,” I grumbled. “Even if I built that exo-skeleton, there’s no way my mind will be able to process moving at the speeds Pink moves at, so unless I figure out that, I’d probably only design the speed module to increase my movement up to a hundred, or maybe even a hundred and thirty kilometers an hour.”

He blinked slowly before putting the paper back down on the table. He sifted through a lot more sheets of paper before putting everything back the way it was.

“You got a lot of stuff here.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about things,” I replied. “This week has been productive.”

“Shit, you must have like a dozen scholarships or something at school with the amount of stuff you got here. Seriously, you’ve got enough stuff here to put a whole design class to shame,” he dropped back into his chair and propped a leg up on his knee. “Mechakinetic’s really are something else.”

“My school life is pretty average. My grades are actually kinda—” I felt my world suddenly tilt when a realization struck me. “Fuck.”

The Social Studies assignment!

I rushed to my laptop and minimized a bunch of design programs before pulling up Entropy. I flicked through my DMs until I found Lucy. There was a cold sense of dread that crawled up my spine when I read our most recent exchange. It was older than a week. She hadn’t even tried to contact me. She’d said nothing, no reminders or anything.

“Uh, you good?”

I didn’t answer him. I checked my phone next. No text messages either.

She hasn’t said anything to me. Why?

My hands dropped to the keyboard to type out a message. I wasn’t really thinking when I typed it out but it was as heartfelt as I could make it. She knew I had powers now, so she’d understand what’s been going on, especially with the news. I kept my message vague and full of code-speak that only she’d understand, just in case the Entropy servers were bugged by authorities. Again, better safe than sorry.

“Max?”

“Sorry,” I replied, looking at Liam over my shoulder. “Just remembered something.”

I sent the message to Lucy and kept an eye on the chat out of the corner of my eye.

“I know the feeling,” Liam said coolly. “Don’t have the best memory. So, did you want to test out your new gear? I don’t know if I can be of much help but since I survived Grim’s darkness cloud… thing, I could be a target dummy for you or something.”

I felt my brow raise at his suggestion.

“You want to be shot at?”

“Not really, but I don’t feel pain when I’m transformed,” he countered. “Plus, if Grim didn’t kill me, do you think anything you’ve got would even get close?”

I scoffed. “Maybe not yet.”

I recalled the device the ECU had used to incapacitate his transformed state. It was like some sort of flash freeze grenade that broke him down into millions of little solid bits. Sure, he might be indestructible but the ECU proved fairly easily they had the technology to beat and contain him.

“Just one thing though.”

I gave him a blank stare. “What?”

“Can I at least try on the suit after you're done? I’ve always wanted to wear power armor.”

“It’s not power—” I stopped myself and shrugged. I think there was a possibility what I had now could actually be considered power armor. “You know what, why not? I don’t see an issue.”

A smile stretched across his face. “Fuck yeah!”

I couldn’t help but wonder why with a transformation like his, he’d be so interested in power armor. Then again, I had the same sort of fantasy when I was younger. To the eyes of a child, some of the power armor the ECU had looked more cool than scary.

I glanced back at the laptop.

Still no response from Lucy.

That – unfortunately for me – was never a good sign.