Crystalized Munchkinry - Act IV - Chapter 39 (Patreon)

"Sooooo, Admin…" began Fragile One after a brief pause.

"No."

She made her best effort to imitate human pouting. "You don't even know what I want!"

"I'm sure it's something that would cause me enough problems that I would get a headache, and I don't even have a head," came the quick retort from Admin.

Fragile One modified the avatar to have bigger, more prominent eyes and even added some tears. "Pleaseeeee! Pretty please! I will be good! I will even help you with stupid Shaper! She is a meanie! But she is a friend! I think…"

Admin, knowing that unless he blocked the other Shard completely, she wouldn't give up, gave a defeated sigh. "Fine. What do you want? And stay away from Shaper! I will handle her when the time is right."

"Yay! You are the best Admin!" cheered the overly excited Shard, jumping into the air as if she were a cheerleader. At least she wasn't hugging him. "I want to talk to the best Host!"

"No."

"Why? Why are you so meeean?" whined Fragile One in response to his refusal. "You can talk to your Host and that AI. Why can't I talk to the best Host? She is the best Host!"

"Well, Dragon and Taylor can keep their mouths shut. I doubt Victoria is capable of the same thing. But my biggest problem is you. I don't want you to share something that would get us caught."

"What if I promise I will be careful?"

"Will you?"

"Probably?"

Why did he do this again?

Taking a few seconds to think it over and running a few simulations about possible futures, he turned with a serious face toward the cheery Shard.

"How about this? If you can prove to me you are capable of understanding and using human societal norms and keeping your mouth shut, then I will allow you to talk with your host."

As soon as he finished the sentence, his slime avatar was enveloped in a bear hug by Fragile One's avatar.

"Yes! You are the best Boss! I promise I will study it carefully! I will be the best at human stuff! I love human stuff, but I love the best host the best! Can I watch TV?"

He just sighed again.

Missy woke from a peculiar dream.

It wasn't like this was the first time she had dreamed of using her power. There had been several times when she dreamed of using her power to do things to villains that she wasn't even brave enough to admit to her therapist.

But this time it was different.

She wasn't in a life-or-death fight or trying to impress someone; she was simply using her power for something. The dream was hazy, and she couldn't really remember most of the details, but she could remember wanting to get her weapon.

Because in her dreams, she always had an awesome weapon, but it was never anywhere she could reach. So, in the dream, she simply reached inside herself – not into her pocket, because she definitely had pockets on her costume in her dreams – and yanked out a giant, futuristic-looking hammer before going to town on the villains.

It was such an awesome dream that she immediately wanted to try it out and see if she could do the same thing in real life. But after fully waking up, she realized that experimenting with an unknown use of her power was kind of dangerous, so no matter how much she wanted to try it at home, she would have to do it with supervision.

But first, she had to get ready for school.

And submit another request for pockets on her costume.

Maybe the 73rd time was the charm?

After school, she told her parents that she had been told to go to the Protectorate, then called for pickup.

Sitting in the van ferrying her toward the building, she couldn't help but feel excited. If this worked, it would change so many things. Maybe she would even get some weapons to carry with her?

Probably not, but a girl could dream.

When she reached the Protectorate, she changed into her costume in record time, said hi to Chris, who was waist-deep in Tinker stuff, and headed straight for Armsmaster's workshop.

She reached the aforementioned workshop in record time, thanks to playing around with space a little.

There, she stood for a while, looking at the door. After a few seconds, she finally gathered the courage to knock, but before that, she smoothed down her skirt and rehearsed what she would say to her boss.

Armsmaster liked it when people were concise.

Then she took a deep breath and pushed the bell.

Colin was going over a modification for his motorcycle that would allow him to add a small tank of medi-gel and a spray attachment, in case of emergency, when he heard the bell ring.

Taking a quick look, he saw an excitedly vibrating Vista standing in front of his door.

Knowing that she wouldn't go away no matter what, he sighed and stood up to let in the most dangerous little kid he had ever known. He also made a note to warn the personnel to stop giving the little girl coffee. That vibrating looked unhealthy.

The door had barely opened when Vista was standing before him, looking directly into his eyes and speaking.

"Hi, Armsmaster! I was wondering, doyouhavetimetohelpmewithsomeexperimentations? IhaveagreatideaformypowerandIwantedaresponsibleadultaroundwhenItryitout! Canyou? Canyou? Please!"

It took him a few seconds to parse the stream of words, but when he understood it, he immediately replied.

"Yes."

Vista's response was a beaming smile.

She excitedly looked around as some of the researchers fiddled with devices, a few of them talking with Armsmaster, while Miss Militia simply looked around with a small smile. The heroine had shown up just as they reached the testing room, apparently to be the responsible adult in the room.

Missy didn't much care, as long as she could do her experiment.

A person in a lab coat placed a cheap foldable table next to her with several items, a few fruits, and a live mouse on it.

He nodded at her, then walked back to the lab coat brigade sitting behind a large array of computer screens.

She watched as Armsmaster had a brief conversation with Miss Militia, then turned toward her. After a few purposeful strides, he was standing before her and looking down at her with his usual expression.

"Vista, are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Very well. Just for the record, please repeat your idea out loud," said the hero.

She nodded so hard she felt like her head was almost going to fall off. "Right. I want to try to anchor a pocket space to myself this way, trying to create my own personal pocket space!"

There was a small murmur from the watchers, and Miss Militia frowned.

"Are you sure that is safe?"

"Yeah, my power usually warns me if I'm trying to do something dangerous to myself," answered Vista with a shrug.

The heroine gave a nod, but she still didn't seem convinced.

"Fine. But as soon as you feel something off, you stop the experiment. Understood?"

"Yes," replied Vista with a frown of her own.

Didn't people understand that she knew her own power? If she were older, this would have gone so much faster.

"If there are no objections?" spoke up Armsmaster while looking around.

The scientists and Miss Militia shook their heads.

"Then, Vista, please proceed. I will be observing from the sides."

"Okay!" She gave him a thumbs-up and excitedly waited until he reached the researchers, joining them in staring at the screens.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The knowledge about space blossomed in her mind, and she couldn't help but frown slightly. It was so much clearer and more detailed than the last time she had tried this type of sensing. Then she shrugged because this happened every so often when she got better with her power.

She went over everything she sensed in the room: her body, the table with the items and mouse, the devices, the researchers, and the two adult heroes.

She took a few seconds to luxuriate in the feeling of knowing exactly where everything was in the three-dimensional space around her before beginning her experiment.

Missy began with the same process she used to expand spaces in items, like bags and similar objects, but instead of anchoring it to the item, she turned her attention to her own body.

She didn't really have an idea where she could anchor it, but as soon as her attention focused on her body, she lost control over the process, and it began to latch onto her, ignoring everything she knew about the Manton limit.

For a moment, she panicked, but then she noticed that nothing hurt, and she felt something new. It was in the same place where she reached for her power. She grasped the feeling and tugged on it.

Her knowledge of the surrounding space was instantly supplemented by the knowledge of another empty space, which, according to her senses, existed inside her.

Before celebrating, and with her eyes still closed, she reached for a cup on the table, enveloped it in her power, and moved it toward her inner space. The cup vanished from the room and reappeared in the space inside her.

She opened her eyes and looked toward the observers, who were watching her worriedly.

"Success!"

She was instantly besieged by the scientists asking her questions about her power and Miss Militia asking about her health.

No matter how annoying the questioning was, she didn't care.

She had a new and awesome power.

Taylor looked at the email from Tess and couldn't help but laugh a little.

Her applications for more patents for the inventions had been approved, so she could add them to her – or rather, Serenity's) website.

They weren't as great of inventions as medi-gel, which was still causing upheaval around the world, but she felt they were still rather useful.

She designed a portable, small-sized breathing apparatus that could provide air safely to people underwater and was easy to use.

Aside from that, she designed an alternative that could accept filters – designed by her, anyone with engineering knowledge – that would allow it to work as a gas mask.

She even created a version where both functions were included in one device, allowing the user to switch between the two modes as they wished. Unfortunately, it had increased resource and manufacturing requirements compared to the simpler versions.

Tess had even asked her to break the design down so people who only wanted to use part of the invention could do so.

The second invention was less useful, but she still felt it could be valuable. It was a material that was extremely radiation-resistant without the usual weight of the current suits. It wasn't really the most amazing thing, but it was manufacturable by anyone and could be added to armor and superhero costumes due to its relative thinness.

She had several other inventions that could be used during Endbringer battles, but many of them were Tinker black boxes or required technology and manufacturing methods that didn't exist anywhere on Earth.

She planned to provide those to Tess, and once she was done building them, she could also produce the more advanced devices.

For now, she had to settle for providing just these.

She simply uploaded the plans to the website, added a straightforward explanation, and included a heartfelt thanks to those who had expressed their gratitude for medi-gel.

Then she turned toward her next task.

She spent most of her days at home, only going out for her morning exercise routine or a quick grocery run. Then she did her daily schooling tasks, speeding through the materials as fast as she could manage.

Then came the Tinker tech part.

That was one of her favorite things.

She created designs for all sorts of things, and when that got boring, she began rebuilding the house.

Currently, the walls were extremely insulated, the windows were made of some sort of Tinker glass that was highly resistant to impacts, and she was around halfway finished with rewiring the house.

She also upgraded her computer several times, and while it still had the old appearance in case someone came over, it was light-years ahead of anything on the market. She added several holographic projectors to her room that allowed her to project anything she wanted in 3D.

She mostly used them to watch TV.

Taylor also built a computer for her father, though that one was much simpler because of his request.

She was working on a new refrigerator when her messenger app beeped.

Glancing at it, she sighed. It was Vicky.

The blonde bombshell had been continuously texting her ever since they had met. Mostly about superfluous things, but she had taken the time to explain to Taylor that she wanted to be friends with her.

Taylor didn't really understand why, but she felt she could at least give it a try. Both Danny, Tess, and even Admin agreed she needed more friends.

She accepted that, but it was so hard.

Vicky was so extroverted that Taylor suspected other extroverted people would seem introverted next to her. She would tell Taylor every single thing that happened to her that day, or if she saw something remotely interesting (or even a hot guy; she didn't mind that much), and she would ask so many questions.

Sometimes Vicky would go get something to drink or a snack, and when Taylor came back, she would have around twenty messages from the blonde.

It wasn't all bad.

She learned a lot about what it was like to be an unmasked superhero, about Vicky's love life, and about what it was like to be a parahuman. Vicky kept complaining about all sorts of things that happened, so Taylor happily made notes to be sure she didn't make the same mistakes when she finally got permission to go out.

The current message was a little different.

It was an invitation to spend a day at the Boardwalk with Vicky.

She looked at the message for a full minute before calling Vicky.

After a few seconds of ringing, her newish friend picked up. "Hey, Taylor! What's up?"

She could hear the wind through the phone, so Vicky was probably flying.

"Hello, Vicky. I was just calling about the Boardwalk."

"Oh, you can't make it?" replied the girl with a sad voice.

"No, no! I can. I just… wanted to ask, why me?" she asked, her voice becoming a little hesitant and quiet.

"Oh. Why not? We will just have fun, window shop a little, and eat something good!"

Taylor closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn't just stay at home forever. Might as well go with the cheerful blonde.

"Very well, I'm in."

"Alright!" exclaimed Vicky. "Let's meet at the cinema on Saturday! Okay? Okay! Bye, Taylor!"

And with that, she left Taylor holding her phone, blinking at it in bewilderment.