Crystalized Munchkinry - Act IV - Chapter 38 (Patreon)

That was a lot to unpack. The first communication contained everything that the Fragile One thought about the situation, along with a request for help for Victoria. The second communication, however, only contained a few things.

A note that the Fragile One identified as female.

A love for humans.

A love for Victoria.

And a desperate cry for help.

Apparently, it, or rather she, didn't have any goals aside from helping Victoria achieve whatever she wanted to achieve and learning more about humans. Somehow, the Shard's drive to collect more information had mutated during the unorthodox budding process and turned into a fascination with humanity.

He could work with that.

He sent over all the data he had on humans, their behavior, and their society, then started putting together a restriction system for her.

While working on it, he received a reply from the Fragile One.

[ThAAAnK YooOOu]

That would take some time to get used to it.

He instructed her to work on the human data and continued her upgrade.

He also took time to connect the consciousnesses of the Shards he had taken over together in a small network for them to communicate through.

He set up communication protocols, with defenses against the very same infiltration methods he had used on the original Network and more. He even tasked Abacus with coming up with new ideas.

The Shards seemed happy now that they could talk with each other without worrying about how much energy they were wasting on it.

Predictably, Bombie and Efficiency ignored everything, while the Fragile One was bombarding everybody with questions.

He had already received several requests for censure from Efficiency because answering them was lowering its efficiency.

He also went through the Shards of the Wards.

The simplest one was Aegis. He simply took over it, upgraded it, and copied the Shard's knowledge of the human body and biological manipulation. It wasn't really the best at it, sadly. Apparently, the Shard was a bud of a bud of a bud of Shaper.

But until he could take over Shaper, it would do.

He immediately set his simulator to integrate the knowledge into Taylor's enhancements, with the goal of giving her a nice, proper regeneration power.

He also disseminated the knowledge to the other Shards to help them better understand their hosts.

Fragile One was enthusiastically thankful for the knowledge and immediately started planning how to create a regeneration power for Victoria.

He didn't stop her because he wanted to see what she would come up with.

As a final action, he added rather robust error-checking algorithms to the Shard to make sure Aegis, or the Shard itself, didn't accidentally alter something necessary for living. He also gave the Shard data about human emotions and behavior in relation to body modification, so it could better understand the effects its changes would have on the host.

Kid Win was also a straightforward case.

When he told Dragon about his specialty, the AI immediately contacted Armsmaster with an ’idea’ for a test that would find the boy's specialty.

Since then, according to Dragon, and from what he saw through the kid's Shard, he had been over the moon. Sadly, his invention rate hadn't increased due to the regulations limiting what he could create.

And for some reason, the Shard was forcing plans for modular weapons on him.

He promptly told the Shard where it could put its attitude and took over the administration of the entire Shard while putting its consciousness through an exhaustive education about humans.

He did his usual upgrades, then added several plans he had worked on and queued up several plans that the Shard had in its database for the boy to build.

He also added a biological manipulation module to the Shard that he would slowly use to counteract the biological effects of dyscalculia.

Sadly, he couldn't provide an instant cure due to security reasons, but he set it up so it would work over the course of a month. That would still be fast, but at least Kid Win might not notice it. After all, dyscalculia could be overcome with time, and from what he remembered, Kid Win had spent a lot of time studying in the hopes of counteracting the effects of the disorder.

He provided a design for a modular drone system that would help the boy build and perform miscellaneous tasks. Another design for a modular armor system, some advanced energy generators, a few shields, and a medi-gel adapter copied (and altered slightly) from Efficiency.

Hopefully, that would occupy the young parahuman for a while and give him the necessary increase in strength.

The next one was Clockblocker. His power to freeze objects could be rather overpowered if used correctly.

He went through the database and couldn't help but feel disappointed. The power was nothing more than quantum locking things in relation to a reference point. He could already do that, though he appreciated the extra data he got about the ability. It allowed him to refine his own ability, making Taylor's much safer in the future.

He even began researching how to break such protections. Currently, it was easier to disrupt the Shard than to break something locked with this power.

Fortunately, the Shard itself was rather easygoing compared to the others. Once again, this proved that either hosts and Shards influenced each other or that Shards sought out hosts with similar personalities.

As soon as he gave it a rundown of the situation, it metaphorically shrugged its shoulders and proceeded to request permission to alter the power it had given Clockblocker. Apparently, the initial configuration was proving less than useful.

He gave it permission to start researching options, with a large amount of data from other Shards, but as with the others, he didn't allow any implementation for now.

There was a plan taking shape in his mind about that, but he was still refining it. If it could succeed, it would once again change Brockton Bay.

While this was all going on, he made sure to keep an eye on the Fragile One. He didn't want her to get the wrong impression about humans, so he kept quizzing her about the data he had provided.

Thankfully, she seemed to enjoy having someone finally pay attention to her.

Vista and her Shard were a treasure trove of new information.

The Shard itself was a rather old Shard, tasked with researching spatial manipulation. And according to the logs, it was very good at it.

Sadly, with age came arrogance, and it refused to submit to him even after he separated the consciousness and explained the situation.

So, for now, he locked it away, making sure it couldn't escape, while providing it with some educational material. Maybe some time in the corner would change its mind?

He went through the data collected by the elder Shard and copied everything into his own database for research, hoping to make use of it. He also went through the restrictions Vista was under while using her power.

He remembered that her biggest complaint was that her power was Manton-limited and couldn't affect even lower life forms. Apparently, that was because biological life forms suffered adverse effects after being under the effect of the power. Brains didn't enjoy being stretched for miles. Who knew?

So, the Shard had long ago decided to give up on affecting biologicals and instead designated them as a bubble of space that the host couldn't affect.

He had some ideas for circumventing that, but for now, he left it alone.

However, he upgraded the sensing aspect of the power by using what he had learned from all the other sensing powers he had access to. The new power would allow young Vista to sense the three-dimensional space around her within around thirty feet in incredible detail and would increase the resolution of her sensing farther out as well.

It would also allow her to move around blindly within the space around her.

He also added the ability to increase the size of any object containing space and anchor that change to it for a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, it would technically be Tinker tech because the Shard had to expend effort to keep the anchored extended spaces in place.

He knew she was capable of doing something similar to this already, but this change would allow her to have an ’enlightenment’ regarding it and improve her technique. She was still young, so people wouldn't really be suspicious.

People underestimating her for once came in really handy.

As a bonus, he would give her a dream that would ’inspire’ her to open up a pocket space and anchor it to herself. When she did that, he would give her a pocket space similar to what Taylor had.

She deserved at least that much.

He would also use his Simulators to figure out a way to use the power offensively.

He wanted a pint-sized, space-warping, lethal blonde, and by Great Scott, he would get one!

Just for his own peace of mind, he finally looked up the dimensional address of Shadow Stalker's Shard as well. Apparently, they had shipped her off to a correctional facility for young women in Texas, and she was not having a good time.

Plus, the Shard was being an asshole and punishing her for failure by ramping up the conflict drive. She was already on thin ice with the institute and had gotten into a record-breaking number of fights with the other inmates.

She was definitely not having a good time.

He quickly took over the Shard, suppressed the consciousness, and went over what it had done.

It seemed the Shard had been ’born’ in a cycle where the Entities were on a planet with a particularly aggressive species. The cycle time had been remarkably short for some reason, and the Shard had really internalized that species' behavior.

The Shard knew humans were not that species (he also made sure to save every bit of data it had collected about them), but the way it handled its host was still tainted by that behavior.

And failure was a great shame.

He set things up so that the influence would wane over a short period of time rather than disappear instantly, because that would be suspicious to the people treating the young woman at the institute.

Sophia deserved at least a chance to become a better person.

He internalized everything that he had collected from the Wards and began an intense period of research. He was still hoping to get inspired by something and have a breakthrough in energy generation and matter manipulation.

It was becoming a little frustrating that he still couldn't break through that barrier.

While wallowing a little in his misery, he received a priority request from Fragile One.

Apparently, she wanted to practice talking with humans.

Well, as far as distractions went, it was a nice one.

He opened a virtual world and sent the basics of avatar creation to Fragile One. He wondered what she would create.

The virtual world was set to the usual green rolling hills that he used with Taylor, and he was in his usual slime avatar, eagerly hovering in the air. It only took a few minutes for his guest to materialize. She started out as a ball of light that began transforming as soon as she appeared.

The ball of light started to grow, bulging and shifting slightly.

Its color changed from white to transparent.

Over the next few seconds, the ball grew to the size of a person, and he could clearly see through it, yet the material looked incredibly fragile.

As soon as the ball reached that height, the growth stopped, and it began to change shape. The avatar continued to transform, slimming down in the middle, and he could see parts of it separating.

After another few seconds, the avatar took its final shape: a young woman with a very familiar appearance, made of a fragile, crystalline, glass-like material. He could even see a few cracks running through it. He watched as the stationary avatar began to move. At first, only the fingers twitched, then the arm moved, and finally the head began swiveling blindly.

He waited until she finished before calling out.

"Hello there!"

The avatar stopped moving, freezing as if embarrassed. The head mechanically turned toward him, and after a few seconds, she spoke.

[HeEeellloooOOoo]

She frowned and tried again.

[HeEellooOooo]

Not wanting to listen to her try to figure it out for the next few minutes, he gave her a little help.

[DATA]

The Fragile One gave him a smile. Apparently, she already had that working, then tried again.

"HelLlooOooOoooo!" came the greeting from her.

"Much better!" he replied, then sent over some corrections.

"HELLO!" came the ultra-loud reply. If anyone had heard it in the real world, their eardrums would have burst.

She frowned and tried again. “Hello!”

"You got it!" he cheered, throwing up some confetti.

Fragile One cheered with him, throwing her hand up and jumping in place. "Yaaay! I did it!"

"You did!"

The glass avatar moved toward him, and it immediately reminded him of Victoria's behavior. It seemed the Fragile One had modeled her behavior after her favorite person.

"So, should we practice?" he asked, while she simply smiled.

"Yes! We should talk about life! We should talk about the Host! Who is your favorite Host? Mine is Vicky, but you can have other favorites! What do you think about flying? I love flying! I love when the Host flies! What do you think about the Host's power? Isn't it the best power? I noticed you gave me more power! Should I give the Host more power? Is more power better? Host already has the best power!"

He finally understood Efficiency's frustration.

He looked over the report about the situation and frowned. Unfortunately, his attempt to provide Mush with information about the other gang leaders hadn't worked out. Apparently, the man had decided it was time for him to take charge. It wasn't ideal, but he could make it work.

Obviously, there was somebody new in the city. That was why Dragon had moved here, and his power was on the fritz.

After some research, he figured out that the cape Serenity was the most likely culprit. The reports he had access to through his taps at the PRT told him she was a thinker blind spot, so that could explain his failure.

It was not a good feeling, but at least he had learned about it through this event, losing nothing worthwhile.

For now, his next task should be to find Serenity and make use of her. If that failed, then he would need to get her to leave the city or, in the worst-case scenario, eliminate her.

Of course, he had to be careful. The world was paying a lot of attention to her, and one wrong move would make him enemy number one.

Thankfully, he had managed to get his hooks into Mush and already controlled Trainwreck and Chariot.

The breakout was impossible; the PRT had moved Skidmark and Squealer too quickly for the brain-addled Mush to act.

He could have used the Undersiders, but he was waiting to use them for something so high-profile.

He clicked to open a new file and started planning how to find Serenity.