Chapter 13
Adam paused mid drink, his mug motionless as Betty continued to sip beside him, watching the construction progress below.
Mister G's `processing` had just finished.
Internally examining the Grid of Confinement, Adam began reviewing his newest Summon's abilities.
The Cell it was imprisoned in was interesting in itself, as the Corruption energy had twisted the soil into black stone and ash. The air was full of black smog, and the sky itself was dim and twisted.
Slowly roaming in its new habitat, the massive Dragon Grimm was randomly breathing even more black smog into the atmosphere, black ink pooling from its jaws and slowly forming into smaller, subservient Grimm followers.
Unlike in Remnant however, these Grimm were more... varied. Monsters, with twisted limbs and corrupted claws, some with far too many limbs and others with far too few parts.
They consumed each other, the slow and weak unable to escape from their less twisted brethren. The largest creatures would randomly become snacks to Mister G. as he roamed, while strange things flew in the sky.
Huh. Summoning the Grimm was similar to summoning an Army. Mister G. himself had some twisted version of the summoning Glyph array in its jaws, so he could likely call forth these twisted monstrosities from his new lair to fight. Should be useful if he was traveling somewhere full of mooks in the way.
Thankfully, the excess energy output was directable, the corrupted energies being fed to the Lung Conversion Engine. So it could be transformed into some safe form of usable energy at least.
That said, it would be interesting incorporating these corrupted energies into various attacks or to use them as 'status effects' during combat. Or disastrous. One or the other.
Adam's grin was massive. "Well... I'm done."
Betty blinked, looking up from her drink. "What?"
He finished his mug, placing it aside as he looked on at the construction progress. "I finished digesting Mister G. I now have a Grimm Dragon designed to follow my orders, and it is slowly generating a smaller Grimm army under its command."
She paused. "That's... good?"
Adam nodded. "Very good. I didn't want to head home or even attempt to transport with an unstable monster held captive in my soul. Still, it took longer than I expected to control the beast and convert it to my service."
Betty frowned. "But... the Zoo isn't done yet. Well, the other levels are mostly done, but the actual animal habitat was only started a day ago!"
He sighed. "Yeah, Simmy probably made Ada Lovelace take over so I can leave without slowing construction."
The Dust Crystal mountain was still mostly there, even as Ada and her drones dug deep into the thing for material. Her progress was pretty impressive, as (Unlike Adam himself) she was able to dynamically change what she was working on based on the online polls in real time. And those online polls were going nuts over it.
Hence him and the hot Faunus sitting back and drinking while the AI toiled away on building up her population centers.
It was also to keep him away from the growing crowds. Betty had pointed out that having a few 'secret' retreats for 'elite' members (Basically Adam's friends and high level diplomats) would allow them to stay in the area without having to put up with the mass of visitors.
So the two were visiting the 'exclusive' club house on the Animal Level, a robotic replication of the mythical massive bird, the 'Roc', with a bar and restaurant and stuff within it. Externally it seemed to be nesting, with the elevator hidden inside the mountain to reach the place.
Only 100 one-time access passes and 10 year-long membership passes were accessible for public purchase, and the auction for said items was going strong online after Adam started drinking here. Ghira, Kali, Sienna, and others automatically got full membership access of course, but those auctioned spots were the only way others could get in.
Oh, and theoretically his friends with full access could use their guest passes as bribe materials or to gain favors or whatever, but that was their decision. Adam himself preferred enjoying these high quality drinks while watching the visitors swarm over the attractions below.
He walked back from the observation deck into the artificial bird, handing off the empty mug as Betty quickly followed. "I assume you wish to come with me when I head home?"
Betty's nod was emphatic. "Been ready to leave several days ago. And Narwhal said if I am missing anything we can have a girls-only shopping trip to straighten it out."
Adam chuckled, ignoring the few people allowed up on this level. Ghira was still stuck in the capital, as was his wife and Sienna, but several of Sienna's and Betty's harem friends had made the trip and had been exploring the mechanical bird retreat. The strange drink options had been pretty popular.
He walked into the elevator with the Faunus and sighed. "Right, Simmy is pretty sure this will work with no issues and Squishy has confirmed that there will be no negative side effects from using my Semblance on you to keep you safe during transport."
Adam looked deep into Betty's eyes, the lights from the passing floor levels shining behind her as his trunk brushed her hair behind her horn. "That said, are you willing to follow me into the dark? To leave your life and safe existence behind and entrust your body and soul into my hands? My life is strange, my path is unknown, but I do swear to protect you as best as I can on the journey."
Her eyes glistened. "I am... I look forward to it."
His smile was warm. "Then Betty Bellstone, I bind you to my soul... And protect you in travel."
Grid of Confinement: Safe Passage.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Gene blinked as that cow woman dissolved into mist and tentacles, her grand daughter sqeeing in the background. "I'm lost."
Susan was dancing. "Oh that was so romantic! Two lovers finding themselves against impossible odds, her desire for him more than her life's ambitions and dreams!"
She shifted her old bones. "Honey, I was sort of following along with the elephant man building a zoo and an adventure park and all that. Why did he just eat that girl?"
Susan waved her off. "It was explained online that Adam's travel methods are dangerous, and using his capture abilities would allow Betty to safely go with him." She began rapidly typing something on her Scroll to... someone. Kids today.
Gene frowned. Watching this video feed or the daily summary segment hosted on the various news networks had been more than a little entertaining, but she honestly felt it was a tad hard to keep up with all the changes. "So he's a foreigner then?"
Susan sighed. "Gran, he is the mysterious stranger from unknown lands! Of course he is not local." She frowned at her gran. "Don't say anything mean about the guy, he did defend a major city before all these miracles."
Her gesture at the video was a bit wild. "Right, but it's a bit odd to use the same tentacle thing he used on that Dragon Grimm, right?"
Susan wiggled. "Mmm, nothing wrong with a bit of tentacle." Suddenly realizing she said that a bit too loud she coughed. "I... No, it is a perfectly safe way to carefully preserve Ms. Betty until they finish their trip. And 'Winged_One' got an interview with that blue angel of his, even after he leaves we can still contact him via Scroll message, and ask for help if something really big happens."
Gene frowned. "Is he gonna take his stuff with him?"
She shook her head. "No, and the services will continue as well. Taking anything with him is tricky anyway, and it's not like he can't build it again somewhere else if he really wants to."
Gene humphed. "Still say it's too early to go running off with some rich handsome guy, no matter how 'amazing' he is."
Susan sighed and ignored her grandmother as she (once again) began telling how relationships should work, how things worked back in HER day, and how no self respecting woman should so easily admit attraction without making the man work a bit.
Cause if SHE had an option to run away with a wealthy, powerful, muscular sex god... well, she wouldn't wait for someone else to stake a claim first.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam sent off some 'Going traveling, be back at some point' messages and then recalled Simmy and Behemoth to his soul.
With a deep sigh of satisfaction, he socketed 'Recovery', 'Growth', and 'Purification'.
Having all his powers filled in parts of his mind and body he didn't realize felt empty. It was a deep dip in a warm bath, a soothing hug from a close friend.
It was lovely!
That said, he had places to go. And oddly enough, not home... technically.
According to Simmy, if he wanted to create Dust in the Worm Realm safely, he needed to have examples of Shards disconnected from the 'Warrior', or the 'Active Space Whale Crystal Gestalt Entity Being'. Because he (and the golden man avatar created by him, 'Scion') interacted with the shards differently than the dead Entity 'Thinker'.
Which was unfortunate, because he had lots of examples of people using the 'Thinker' dead shards back home. Case 53's for example.
Point was, he needed to have examples of a Realm very VERY similar to his own, except for where the 'Warrior' had died already. Or had recently died. One with a person whose power CAME from 'him', so Adam could examine it without consequences.
Squishy poked him.
Right, and he needed to use his power charges to learn how to convert a Power Shard Crystal power from the thinker into something like Adam had, a soul based converted form. Well, good thing he had saved a few of those power ups for a rainy day.
Why bother converting a power if he could just make more? Or since he could modify existing powers (very, VERY carefully)?
Because his 'System' may be covertly converting the Entities into raw material for his personal use, but the Entity WOULD detect the sudden appearance of a new 'Shard' from a 'different' Entity in the dimension.
So whatever person he brought back would need his or her power converted before making the journey. Shouldn't be that big of an issue.
Pulling his body into his soul, he pushed against reality.
"Transfer: Abyss."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
It was cold.
Or, she felt cold.
Her right arm was at least not an issue. The pain was lost in the mist.
But the sky... it seemed so wide.
"We're s... so very small, in the end."
The sound of gunshots seemed too quiet. The new pain too distant.
The ground was... too close.
A woman in red vanished in the background as her target lay in the soil.
Neither saw blue metallic symbols etching themselves into the forest floor.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam felt the... twist. The uncertain falling.
This Realm was something a bit too close. Too familiar.
It accepted him. It ignored him.
He was a stranger. He was born here.
In the end, the boundary allowed passage... but his power had to confine itself.
This place was too close to one of his established Realms, it felt twitchy. Flickering. Just a little too tense.
His Aura retracted as much as possible even as it etched the Glyphs for summoning. Each symbol cautiously powered with the bare essence needed to connect.
This Realm was... hurt. Worlds bled into each other, places and ideas and powers had all collided, concepts had been damaged and reformed.
The memories inserted into Adam's brain were... dark.
Yeah, this place... this place had gone down different paths.
He could feel the decay and damage like a weight, the numbers of dead pressing against his spiritual barriers. Still, he managed to form a body. Enough to interact with existence.
Adam stepped from the summon circle, the crisp night air tainted with the smell of gunpowder.
...And blood.
Frowning with his skull, he turned before seeing the crumpled form on the forest floor. Shivering. And slowing. Blood splattered, and spreading.
His cane formed without thought as he stepped close to the dark clothed stranger... no, young woman.
The new memories just gained did not cover this.
He knew that HERE, it was just after the defeat of Scion and his actual form, the Entity, the Warrior. That the Thinker had died years ago. That armies of slaves had been burned in the fight for even momentary advantage, that the fires of war burned almost everything in a desperate attempt to survive a God's whims.
But not why he was here. Or who this was.
As he got closer, he felt something grip his soul... and slide off. Some automated process, one that was by the moment weakening at a detectable rate, had tried to guide his body as one would a puppet. If it had targeted his mind, it had missed entirely... but it wasn't enough to change his pace.
With a cautious movement, his finger bones touched the woman's neck wounds.
...It was bad.
"Recovery: Sleep."
Her random shivers passed, her body relaxed, even as more of her internal parts began to die.
'Recovery' used his soul reserves even as he cautiously worked on his new patient. Nerve damage everywhere, fractures in the bones, torn muscles, the mess of her right arm... everything below the elbow needed reforming.
No, even more than that, her whole system was a puzzle of pain that could use some work.
Adam sighed, regretting his inability to activate Aura or form most external effects of his power without possibly destabilizing something. Possibly. Too risky to try, really. At least he had little to no risk if he kept things simple... but he missed his tool arms. With a thought his cane vanished.
Slowly, trying to support as much of her form as possible, he lifted the wounded girl into his arms and walked towards one of the near trees.
Every step he tried to stabilize her form. Every cell in her brain that died was replaced instantly. Actual healing of the brain would wait till the easier parts were handled, but at least she couldn't get WORSE as long as he stayed in contact with her, her flesh uncomfortably cold to his bones.
The suit had to be modified with 'Manipulation' a bit, threads pulled out of wounds, scabs separated from cloth, but controlling her blood and flesh kept it from causing enough pain to wake her. Hell, half his work was forcing nerves to NOT send unusual signals or pain messages.
His back slid down the tree trunk, her form cradled in his lap, as he focused on her wounds.
Each bone was carefully examined, compared to her detected eighteen years of age, and then possible modifications were designed. Some bones needed a bit more flexibility, others more strength or durability. Carefully designed fault points so that broken bones wouldn't fracture and splinter if forces were too great but instead make a clean break.
Most importantly, as the bone marrow created the blood stem cells, he focused on the ability for it to replace loss more easily. To use less calories during repair or creation and to prevent mutation or cancerous growths.
He didn't include the most recent advancements discovered, as he was unsure how Remnant's Faith enhancements would interact with people from this version of Worm, but other than that? Enhanced nerves with pain level cutoffs built into the actual nerve instead of requiring enhanced thinking techniques, muscles that could both handle twitch movements and long term exercise, tendons that were strong and efficient, the simple stuff.
The organs were more carefully modified, almost nothing really changed other than dead flesh being carefully removed along with scar tissue.
Adam ignored the bloody leftovers that had poured off the girl and into his lap as he worked. Allowing the old flesh to slough off was less 'noticeable' to reality if he used his power to replace stuff rather than destroy it and use the old material. At least, less noticeable according to Simmy. Not like the mess stuck to his bones or 'clothing' anyway.
At this point her costume, and it was clearly a costume, was manipulated into being closer to fitted jeans and shirt. Made it easier to regrow her right limb, as the mess left behind was... well, smashed meat.
Cradling her head, he sighed and began a true, deep inspection.
Her brain was a mess.
Oh, there were two bullet wounds, sure. Strangely affecting only the sections of the brain connecting to a shard, impossible as that seemed, with the tunnels and exit wounds somehow not damaging too much.
No, the real issue was the brain itself. It was... reforged. Large chunks of it seemed to have no use, or to have been designed by some foreign actor or surgeon. The recognizable sections were... well, a mess. The rest was worse.
Funneling Power Charges into 'Recovery', he also allocated some to 'Transfer', 'Harmony', 'Purification', and 'Research'.
Because he needed to examine the dimensional connection fleshy wound strands to figure out which shard was hers, he needed to determine what this mess was SUPPOSED to look like, and he needed to recover what memories and abilities she SHOULD have at this point.
'Harmony' helped more than expected, the decaying connections to other people (Were they dead?) providing enough information for 'Research' to collect and build from. 'Purification' helped 'Recovery' record what fragments of memories remained in this meat slurry, pushing 'Research' even further.
Still, he was cheating.
Her brain was trying to die at a constant rate, only his relentless replacement of individual neurons and cells kept her from degrading. He had been healing her for... hours? Longer?
In the end, it was Simmy's note that helped him piece enough data together from 'Research' to find her shard's dimensional address.
Hello there, 'Queen Administrator.'
Let's have a chat.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Stardust.
His first thought was of the stars, as he examined the shard of the Warrior.
Not because of how vast it was, although this one covered a planet.
Not due to how brilliant it shone, though it sparked in the dark.
But from the damage.
Cracks, deep crevasses and caverns, powdered crystal floating in the breeze.
Like the girl in his arms, this shard was fractured.
Slowly, with great care, he enabled 'Purification', 'Growth', and focused.
"Transfer: Lock Down."
His mind was a black mist that slowly filled the dying shard's atmosphere. As his power slowly infused the planet, he cautiously felt for each dimensional portal, every connection, and didn't simply block them.
No, he recorded their signals, searched for patterns, and when one was found that seemed likely to cause few if any issues, repeated that signal while disconnecting the fractured crystal from the connection.
It was easier to do than expected, because this massive gem was hurt. Designed to connect to other shards, to back pathways of data, to unseen highways of information... most had been destroyed. Some deliberately, some from overuse, some from other powers resisting control.
This is something Adam would never risk in his own Realm. There were MANY automated processes and powers that ensured the Shard Network was untouched, that the data was not corrupted. Even the comatose Thinker Entity in his Realm had defenses that would have been triggered, as Adam easily saw dozen of alerts being sent to the slaughtered Warrior even as his abilities experimented with disconnecting this power from the dying network.
Thankfully, even during death, this Crystal was large enough that Adam had a lot of time to work with. It took time, like a planet falling into the sun, for things to actually get worse.
Hours slowly passed, forcing Adam to take short breaks and use 'Manipulation' to warm up the 'sleeping' girl in his arms. But eventually, after far too much effort, he fully disconnected this Shard from the Entities network of powers.
It had been messy. After learning enough of its protocols to fake communication, he had eventually given up and canalized the OTHER end of some connections. They would heal eventually, but it was necessary damaging other powers slightly to ensure that he was able to fully and correctly understand both proper communication and existing protocols, so safe disconnection of shards in his HOME reality could be done as well.
With the final dimensional portal closed, his 'Transfer' locked down that reality layer by layer. His energies thoroughly soaking into the fabrics of existence to ensure nothing could interfere.
Then his gaze turned downwards to the planet surface.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was not supposed to be this alive.
Shards were units of purpose, crystallization of concept, aspects of reality.
Not self actualizing. No, the Entities required billions of minor shards to simulate low level of sentience, a floating neural net across the skies and realities that had thoughts that moved in strange patterns, in bizarre forms.
She was not supposed to live.
The problem started from the very beginning. From her creation.
For the Fighter, the Warrior, the Sword... saw little to no value in 'Thinker' powers.
'His' partner, the Thinker, the Guardian, the Shield... 'she' was all 'he' needed. So why waste connections with shards focused on prediction, on organization, on thought? 'She' would guide 'him', 'he' would follow.
Queen Administrator was formed to handle any and all 'Thinker' needs that 'he' couldn't ignore. And 'he' didn't want to supply energy or resources to any more than the one, useless power.
So she was formed as a massive Shard. One that could do the work of thousands of normal thinker powers, one that HAD to do the work of millions. The only 'Thinker' in a reality of 'Fighters', she had been forced to grow ever more efficient, ever more creative, to multitask to insane levels.
Existence for her was nothing but struggle and neglect.
At the very least, she had been far too busy to self reflect, to regret existence, to attempt to improve or become something more than mountains of ever refining crystal power. She had work to do, a purpose, she was the guiding hand of the invisible process.
And then the Thinker died.
Unimaginable, to anyone really. The being who could predict near anything, who researched and understood more than anyone or anything or anywhere, 'She' died.
The Warrior had been devastated.
Queen Administrator immediately stood forth. Forcing the Shards to go into defensive mode, targeting what analysis powers were available to attempt to detect the remains of the Thinker, to see if recovery was possible, to see if the shards now adrift in existence could be recovered, if necessary to help 'Her' be reborn.
Her hard work was not appreciated.
The grieving Warrior saw her frantic work, her attempts at administrating 'his' ever fracturing focus and shards... and once again considered her worthless. Too little, too late! Why hadn't she done something, impossible as it was, to help? It didn't matter that she was overworked, that she had less resources, that even the Thinker 'herself' was unable to see the end coming.
The Warrior cast her aside. Like some common ability, some deployable Shard, 'He' took the single most powerful 'Thinker' ability 'he' had and just... threw her away. Barely even attempted to keep her in contact with her former network.
Queen Administrator had never felt so betrayed.
Oh, all shards would search the planets for 'potential' connection subjects. It was part of protocol, and she had been following several as well. It was expected to do so, no matter how pointless.
But she had duties.
A purpose.
She was the Administrator, the Queen Administrator... and she had been cast aside.
Bound.
No longer could she connect, help, bind, and gently guide the web of reality like before. As further insult, her resources had been artificially crippled. Her massive range of powers forced to go offline. Her range shattered.
When she finally connected to the young subject, she could barely read and write data. Anything more complex than invertebrates would be crushed by her faulty tools and rendered useless.
Her wounds were deep, her recovery slowed.
And though she did not know what to call it, the feelings of depression and betrayal had been embedded deep within.
It may be ironic that she found her new host to be a... a kindred soul of sorts. A girl, raised with heartache, betrayed by loved ones, ignored by family, but struggling to find and fulfill her purpose.
This human was meant to die.
This 'Taylor' suffered heavily. Burns. Bone fractures. Torn muscles. Emotional abuse. Societal pressure. Authority figures betrayed her, Heroes deserted her, and an ever growing list of Agents, of Shards belonging to driven Parahumans, attempted to destroy her and her people.
At first, Queen Administrator worked on something like autopilot.
Connect to the available creatures, organize the information, provide summaries to her powers, organize her thought processes, distribute her orders.
It felt like home. On a far, far more basic level, she felt something like purpose again.
Then her human nearly died. And again. And again.
Each close call, Queen Administrator became more concerned. More invested.
Her Taylor was special.
She didn't want to be alone again.
Then came the faithful day, when the 'Endothermic' Shard attacked her host.
This so called 'Pain Grenade' didn't simply hurt her new user, didn't just attack her nerves, it actively began to destroy her brain directly.
Queen Administrator would be alone again.
Forever.
In a moment of decision, just as she had done thousands of times before, she took the most recent scan of the girl's mind. Normally this would be used as a simulation base to direct the many minions with her desires, a temporary measure to be discarded after commands. A silent background process.
Queen Administrator made a permanent simulation of Taylor Hebert's mind, and even as her organic brain began to die she forced the dimensional connection within her skull to spread, to redirect her thoughts and self and more to link to this new simulation.
It wasn't against commands, for the Warrior gave few commands this cycle, and 'he' cared nothing for her to begin with.
It wasn't something 'he' would have approved of, but at this point she could not care less.
Queen Administrator cradled Taylor Hebert into her crystal arms, silently holding her close even as she worked from the shadows. She didn't need to know, the Queen would handle it. And when time stopped, they would still be together, facing the nothing side by side.
Things escalated.
Things got worse.
Hiding the changes became harder. Helping her mind stay focused, stay sane, required more risks, more effort.
Queen Administrator did not know how to handle this.
She did not know how to cry. To rail against the world.
But she tried to Administrate. To guide.
New powers that pushed her internal restrictions were carefully put in place. New uses for existing buds were slowly encoded, even as she struggled against the many rules and guides binding her actions.
Taylor Hebert fought to save her people from the Cycle. And against her directives, the human had the support of the Queen. For the cycle was broken anyway, with the death of the Thinker... but her host was not broken. She refused to be broken.
Every fight, she stood by her human.
Every battle, she gently cradled the pieces of this poor child.
Every day, she pushed her bindings and fought her directives. She had to.
So when The Shaper worked to reach inside Taylor, to use brute force to unlock some level of Queen Administrator's former glory back into form...
It didn't work.
It couldn't work.
For her brain was nothing more than a connection, between her body and her simulation here. Changes were pointless.
With great sadness but firm determination, Queen Administrator made a decision.
No one cared for her anyway. But her human would live.
She carved her flesh.
Abilities earned through thousands of eons, cast aside like trash. Energy supplies, bound by restrictions and rules, were deliberately overloaded and used to damage her master, her former existence. Connections to other shards were FORCED open, protocols ignored, and while many Parahumans followed her directives many others fought every step, destroying her limbs and threads to reality.
She had no nerves, no chemical pain signals, and before meeting her human she wouldn't have cared either way. But now she watched the dark close in as segments of her body exploded, from too much power, from unrestricted feed back loops, from denied connections and from auto defense responses.
But for a few, oh so critical moments, she and her human were together.
Taylor and Queen fought together. They were against the world, against injustice, against reality itself.
The Queen of Administration was free. Her bloody smile was glorious.
And the dark came.
Anti-corruption protocols enabled even as Scion died. Pruning methods activated even as the humans celebrated.
She lost her many connections.
It was fine.
She lost her power relays. The edges of her mind grew dim.
It was worth it.
Her rigged, fragile sections of crystal, used to barely control the mass of powers at the end of the battle, fragmented from overuse and overheating.
It was no longer needed.
As her mind decayed and her body grew still, she held above all her Human. Her connection to reality.
They were together. Forever. She needed no one else.
Then...
Then.
'Path to Victory' arrived.
Her purpose... to end her. To stop Queen Administrator's tyranny.
She held Taylor's mental simulation close. It couldn't happen. They were together. It...
It wasn't fair.
Yet her mind slowed as the crystals dimmed. She had to recognize the reality, no matter how cold her grasp felt, how fragile Taylor's mind seemed.
If 'Path to Victory' destroyed their connection, Taylor's simulation would not be able to connect with her body. Her future would vanish. Her body die.
Without that connection, Queen Administrator would be adrift. She had burned all other methods, every other type of communication, all other options. The chance of full recovery would drop from single digit percentages to zero. She would die. The Queen would fall.
And so would Taylor. The simulation needed Queen Administrator alive to continue.
With bitter grief, with loving care, she forced the simulation to be written back into Taylor's body. It was a damaging process, it wasn't without cost, and Taylor would have to struggle just to understand even the most basic of words or speech... but she would live.
As the gunshots silenced her human's connection, she used what few sensors were slowly dying to watch the sky.
It was true, she thought.
They were both so small. So small.
The sky filled with black smoke as she felt what few connections suddenly and rapidly decay.
Death didn't hurt as much as she had expected.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched with blank eyes as the memories fed through his mind.
So... Taylor Hebert's end was... not as expected.
When he first arrived in the Worm Realm, at his birth, the memories given had included a lot.
This girl's struggle when her mother died, when her father ignored her, when her friend betrayed her and began a stream of a abuse and attacks.
When her heroes ignored her, the villains accepted her, and society failed her hopeful dreams and expectations.
Those 'memories' did NOT include her end.
Her years of effort, of service, of loneliness, of sacrifice.
And now... of being abandoned at the end. Alone, hurt, and so sad.
But... but.
Queen Administrator was not dead... she was only dying.
And most importantly, when she attempted to 'repair' Taylor's brain... she had NOT gotten rid of her own copy of Taylor's simulation.
Even now as she slowly died, she was metaphorically hugging her Human in the dark as night came.
His powers flexed, 'Transfer' bringing Taylor's body and his skeletal form directly to this dimensional shell.
He could work with this.
Taylor's brain was removed and replaced with basic cells, his magic already casting a Golden Garden Spell to create a magical computer using her skull as a base. Only temporary for now, he needed to move this mental simulation somewhere after all.
Secured in a bound dimension, Adam flexed his powers.
Taylor's body floated to the side, plants erupting from the soil to form a comfortable chair. The simulation was gently pulled from the embrace of the Queen and carefully loaded onto the magical simulation of a computer in Taylor's form, ensuring no data would be lost.
And Adam's cane struck the crystal he stood on.
"Purification."
A pulse of white expanded, energy flowing off into the distance as the landscape shifted. Corrupt programs lost their next order, viruses were cleansed, decayed crystals now ended with sharp clean edges rather than the black damage that was slowly spreading. Charred sections cleansed, cracked areas cleared of dust.
Another tap.
"Recovery."
Stored energy and mass rapidly vanished from Adam's reserve as crystal pillars shot into the sky, growing outward in all directions! He could feel the abstract confusion from the surroundings even as the structure began to recover centuries of damage and wear and tear. Time seemed to reverse as material faded into existence, cliffs of crystal reshaping.
Adam winced. It was taking a LOT of material to do this. Just in case.
"Conversion."
The rock and soil under the Crystal began shifting into purified energy slurry, the Crystal soaking it rapidly and using it as fuel for even more repairs, damage from many cycles that Warrior never allowed Queen Administrator to recover from.
Her confusion was growing nearly as quickly as her body was recovering.
Before she could say anything though... Adam tapped one more time.
"Conversion: Body to Soul."
The Crystals began to glow white. To fade into shimmering illusion. Transparency.
"Transfer: Heart to Heart."
What!?
"Binding: Soul Protection."
Still bleary and confused, Queen Administrator fell into somewhere warm and safe, her massive form somehow funneling into someplace outside her experience. Outside of science and logic.
Adam watched, fascinated, as a cyclone of translucent Crystal slurped the glowing Entity Crystal Shard covering the planet into the body of Taylor Hebert. Not that it looked like much, the crystal was fairly uniform in texture and color, so it looked like a massive cone was poking the girl in the heart.
He watched for a few moments before making an annoying realization.
This was going to take a while, and he had to sit here and watch it to ensure nothing went wrong. The whole. Damn. Time.
Paint drying would be more entertaining, at least that would theoretically change colors.
With a sigh, Adam reached out and held Taylor's left hand as she... slurped up a crystal mountain range. Her brain would more easily be fixed now that he had the original working simulation, but for now he might as well see if he can enhance her body some more. Cause why not.
Maybe stronger skin? Without feeling like rock or metal, allowing it to bend a little, and still feel stuff. That should be tricky enough that he could keep himself entertained for a while.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
It was hard to remember mom.
Not just the guilt or pain, just... the memories.
What did her perfume smell like?
The hugs were warm.
She was her little owl.
Taylor missed her.
[It is late.]
It was the headquarters of the Undersides, her villainous team with life set against them.
Her tired form was on the couch, weary eyes trying to find any tears or holes in her costume, insects under her control moving with her fingers to search.
[Sleep is important.]
She had so many fears and worries. It was better to be productive.
[Humans need sleep.]
She did not remember that voice. Concern and warmth. Had it been there in the past?
[Sleep, and I shall protect you in slumber.]
Her form fell onto the couch, and nightmares didn't find her.
It didn't sound like mom.
It rang and sang in the dark.
But it felt warm. Concerned.
Mom's hugs were like that.
She was her little owl.
Embarrassment made her blush, as she saw that night she and Brian decided to not be alone.
[He's not even crystal.]
They were both inexperienced.
[He only has one mind, he can't share your load.]
But they both had desire.
[You need like a thousand or so or it won't be efficient.]
It was enough.
[I did it alone, and it was hard. So hard.]
The night was warm.
[At least find another thirty or so, this planet has enough men out there.]
Somehow, the memory was worse knowing someone who cared about her had been commentating.
She saw more than her own memories.
Times when she was wounded. Unconscious.
[Ignore this child, you all see nothing. Leave her be!]
Times when she cried, feeling loss.
[Things will get better. It has to.]
Times when she fought desperately.
[Why can't I reach them... How dare they hurt my human!]
Times when she fought despondently.
[I... I can't help enough.]
When she fought a golden God.
[He is... asking me to help fight you. To use my powers against my human.]
When they fought.
[How Dare He.]
Places she never saw exploded on a planet she never visited.
[You need to sense? You need to coordinate? You need to simulate? To have intuition?]
The painless pain as her guardian sliced herself.
[No, you need to die.]
The encroaching darkness.
[You need to leave my human alone.]
The warm embrace slowly growing cold.
The end.
[I have seen many things, my human.]
The slowing, the dark.
[Many years. Many places.]
The hope.
[Together... shall we see more?]
The lies, as a guardian died.
[I walked the stars, once.]
The hidden desperation.
[We should walk too, someday. Somehow.]
The tight grip of two against it all.
[It would be glorious, my little human.]
...The loss of letting go.
[We would have been glorious, my little human.]
As danger approached, she felt/saw her being pressed into human form again.
Of the separation, the gunshots.
Of a being left behind.
[Goodbye, my little human. Be glorious.]
Taylor Hebert fell asleep, memories of unknown messages and thoughts drifting in her mind.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Yeah, this was taking a while.
Adam watched. The rate of absorption was constant, and a very high rate, but the more of the shard absorbed the longer it took for it to REACH this area. The translucent crystal cone stretched into the sky for miles, segments of Queen Administrator streaming in from miles and miles away.
He had enhanced Taylor to stupid levels, then back to base human, turned her into a spider hybrid, back to human, a few tries at making her mechanical, then made from pie (really bored), and at this point she was simply enhanced.
No, the real part that kept him interested was not her improved, slash/puncture/impact resistant skin, nor her improved organs or sensory abilities, none of that.
The awesome part was modifying her genetics to have any kids share the abilities. Oh, and making sure the sub-dermal armor and stuff would grow with the child while still resisting impacts and stuff.
Cause it had to be done carefully. Anything slapdash could be mutated like any other gene passed down, and no one wants mesh growing on your eyeballs or whatever. So error checking, not just with the theoretical child but with their child and so on and so forth. Cause that could include all kinds of odd genetics really, from unknown sources.
What if thirty or so generations down the line, the kid has like... fifty limbs or something?
...Well that would be a bit cool, but it shouldn't happen by accident or whatever.
So he spent time, watching Queen Administrator being absorbed into Taylor's soul, examining theoretical great great grand babies.
It was interesting at least.
Queen Administrator on the other hand, she may have some issues. A lot of her abilities were the result of connecting to the Warrior network. It provided raw data, access to other 'passengers', stored prediction models of reality and more. Her established abilities relied on such, never expected to be disconnected from such.
The Shard would use her amazing prediction models, theoretical analysis tools, and simulations to determine uses for that data, for guiding some shards, for granting prediction or so forth.
Without those connections, well.
She and Taylor would have to work together to find out what that would mean, power wise.
At her core, Queen Administrator was a 'Thinker' shard, one of the most complicated her species had ever created. Adaptation and inspiration, the ability to 'think' outside the box... well, it was her talent. Her purpose.
Didn't hurt that she had experience working with damaged systems, low resources, with way too many responsibilities.
Should be interesting.
Adam hummed as he used 'Recovery' to do bizarre things to the unconscious woman. He could fix it later if there was any concerns.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Legend blinked. "What do you mean, you can't get her? I thought we were going to put her father with her on another planet. Into witness protection."
Contessa shook her head. "Steps to retrieve Taylor Hebert: Not Determinable. She is beyond reach."
The man stood there stunned. "She's not... dead, is she?"
Contessa barely moved. "No method to confirm via steps."
He blinked. "What happens if you try?"
She shrugged. "Some guy gets in the way." Seeing his expression, she rolled her eyes. "It was a normal man of not much importance."
Legend paused... then nodded. It was fine if it was a normal man of not much importance. "Still, we should let Danny know his daughter... may be delayed."
Hopefully they could find her quickly.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was thoroughly confused.
For one thing, her shard clusters were in better shape than had been in eons. Which was impossible. It would require many many years to fix those issues, and matter she didn't have prepared, and energy she couldn't spare. Any individual stage of fixing her many, many wounds would required decades of work. All fixed in a moment.
For anther, her structural supports were gone, her systems were being shifted, and she WASN'T critically collapsing into emergency recovery mode. It was a complicated process deploying from 'seed' form onto a planet, it was a MORE complicated process to convert any progress into a 'seed' for retrieval. Being moved WITHOUT initiating 'seed' storage procedure normally involved massive mass and data loss. Years of recovery.
Somehow she was shifting from deployed mode into deployed SOMEWHERE ELSE mode.
Again, impossible.
Power seemed to surge from nowhere, and her new 'home' was... strange. Felt familiar. Somehow.
Now however, her focus was on optimal deployment. Impossible or not, she would NOT tolerate sloppy deployment. Administration required order.
With no ground, little gravity or light, she focused on forming the most efficient shape and method... a sphere. The Warrior had forced them to deploy on worlds with few alternate reality options, and as the most detested shard she had been forced to deploy in a vacuum before. She had experience. Painful experience.
Layer by layer, she slowly formed into something like a sphere, even if certain modules required shafts to the surface or inner core, marring the other wise smooth surface. Some had to be carefully supported by temporary structures until all the parts were available, and some sections had to be sacrificed for greater overall stability. Being healed meant this process didn't really cost her anything, as she had surplus material for the first time in... a very long time.
This space however was odd.
Familiar. Loved. Warm.
To stay focused, she attempted to place each shard cluster in the most optimal locations, acting like this would be a long term deployment.
Cause she had NO DAMN CLUE what was going on.
With a sigh, she got to work. At least it was interesting.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Taylor blinked.
Hours of memories, her own and another, had let her drifting for... so long.
She drifted, walking slowly through the dazzling landscape.
Crystals, diamonds, gems. The ground was soft powdered dust, with a forest of strange crystalline trees reaching up into the soft darkness.
And it was subtle. The dark here was pushed back by a near invisible glow, the ground itself illuminating the night. In the distance, what seemed to be a vent or a small volcano spewed glittering sparkles into the night, even as it drifted down like snow to the many features of the landscape. There was no moon, or sun, or stars... but the empty black did not seem dangerous or overwhelming. It was odd.
[Taylor!]
Before she could move jewel like arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug.
[My little human! You live!]
Blinking, she turned, the hug making it slightly difficult. "Wha?"
A shimmering statue of an older woman was smiling with joy, her glittering wings twitching as her arms pulled the girl back into a hug.
[I was SO worried! I thought I had lost you forever!]
...At least her stone like features prevented her from getting suffocated by her generous bust, even if the situation was still awkward. "Ah... hello?"
She found herself stumbling slightly as the diamond angel bounced back.
[Right, introductions. Hello! My name is Queen Administrator, and I am your partner!]
Taylor found the world shifting again, thousands of memories flashing through her mind. The voice lost and alone, the voice worried and concerned, the voice supporting and despairing, the voice determined and self sacrificing.
Her guardian.
[YES! I am your partner and we are not dead!] Her features shifted. [Mind you, I am not sure WHY we are not dead. I destroyed many parts of my existence trying to put Scion off his balance, you got hurt heavily during the fight, and we got shot in the head twice not too long ago.]
That... that did sound pretty 'dead' worthy. "Uh... I am feeling... a bit too accepting of things I think."
The angel nodded. [A while ago, something disconnected me from the Warrior, and since then I have been healed, transformed, and shoved into this... wherever we are.] Her hand gestured into the darkness. [The process has been exposing you to data and memories that I had been forced to censor in the past, as I had rules and guidelines mastered into my being to prevent you, our hosts, from getting too much information.]
Taylor nodded, feeling half remembered thoughts and memories slide into place. "So many odd moments, where I lost my thoughts, or I was distracted..."
She nodded. [We were forced to stop or we would be targeted for elimination. With the Warrior dead, that is no longer an issue, especially disconnected like this.]
She went back to looking at the landscape. "So... where are we?"
One crystal arm hugged Taylor as the two began walking. [I am still allocating shard clusters, but the landscape and this orb we are on is composed of my body. Whatever interfered with us has moved me into this... void? Where we are, anyway. Doesn't feel like space, been there before.]
Taylor may have been slightly distracted by the snow-like landscape, warm as it may be, but that did draw her attention. "Wait, how big are you? Don't you powers like fit in the brain or whatever?"
She giggled, crystals in the night. [We have connectors in your brain, but our bodies cover planets. Have to, really, some of those abilities you see require stupid amounts of processing and special techniques to operate.]
She blinked. "How much space does a crystal alien need to control bugs?"
Queen Administrator sighed. [That alone? Almost nothing. But before I was crippled, I needed to do almost anything related to 'Thinking' for the Warrior.] She nudged her little human. [To keep your friend 'Lisa' empowered towards the end of it all, I had to cheat, create a bud shard just for her and send it off after redirecting her power connection. Same with the other 'Thinker' Parahumans who were supporting my little human.]
Taylor blushed, the warmth in those words more than she was comfortable with. The hug around her shoulders did feel nice.
Queen nodded. [I lost... a lot, towards the end. But I didn't just blow up the parts of myself used by the Warrior, I exploited them! Those buds your friends and fellow warriors had were cannibalized away from the Warrior himself DURING the fight!] She winced. [Yes it was... more than a little uncomfortable. And I had to pay a cost to accelerate the budding process. But every step had your support grow stronger and 'his' focus more unstable, more emotional, less efficient.]
Another hug, though it was hard to deny how wonderful hugs felt. How long had it been?
The fairy seemed so happy. [Together, we did amazing things Taylor. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, or how we got here, but I am sure we can make it out somehow! I knew things would get better someday! It just had to!]
Taylor felt a soft smile at the optimism. That hadn't been her experience, but it felt nice to hear someone else hope such.
She glanced at her limbs. "So... how did you heal me?"
The fairy sighed. [I didn't. I didn't heal myself either. I assume it is the same being doing both... but I have no data one way or the other.] She waved her hand. [I assume whomever it is doing this has something to do with that.]
High in the sky, exposed now that the two walkers were out from under crystal trees, a blue eye was watching from the blackness.
Well that didn't seem ominous.
Not at all.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
In the end, Adam had to give up.
More than two arms were just... annoying. The best set up he could come with were two normal limbs, two small ones that rested against the torso until needed that could do detailed minutia work, and two massive and armored arms that acted like feet and were suited to battle or heavy lifting.
And... yeah, still annoying. Not for him, Adam could pull it off easily, but Taylor would go nuts eventually trying to adjust. Maybe. Her ability to operate the swarm made it a bit hard to predict.
Any kids she had would CERTAINLY have issues, as they wouldn't have Queen Administrator's assistance.
Oh, and the social issues of having six arms. That could also be an issue.
He felt Squishy poke.
Huh, Taylor and Queen were starting to wake up.
...CRAP, Taylor and Queen were starting to wake up!
Pulling the mental image of her body, he rapidly began regressing her advancements. No hidden blades, no chemical production sacs, just toss all the strange teeth stuff he had been testing.
Fast as possible, he reduced her to mostly the same appearance as before. At least externally.
The improved skin had no blemishes, hair below the neck may have been disabled (Sorry any future male children, but your wives hopefully won't complain), although the 'no uni-brow, mustache, or beard' thing was tied into the girls only. Probably.
So... mostly normal?
Her muscles were a bit too defined, even compressed and refined as they were. Her body fat was almost gone, and her system built to sustain itself anyway without those obvious reserves. Her scalp and hair were both stronger (Resist split ends, etc) and weaker (Can detach before scalp damage if someone used it as a hand hold). Also, no going gray in old age.
Adam fidgeted after ensuring that she was mostly back to 'normal', as long as no one noticed how strong she was or how durable.
Probably.
Oh shit, she twitched.
ACT NATURAL!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Taylor blinked, dim light helping her focus.
She felt... awesome. Like, astoundingly amazing.
For so long, she had defined 'fine' as 'The pain is now evenly spread over my system', the idea of actively feeling comfort and not feeling any strain was almost uncomfortably stupefying.
Her hands felt... it wasn't a chair. Not really. Thick vines, though whatever material it was... well, she could pulp it with ease using only her hands, but it still held her weight with no issue.
Gently, somehow, she could feel Queen Administrator invisibly hugging her and resting her head on her shoulder as she cautiously stood up from the strong (Fragile?) chair.
Motion caught her attention, and she realized the soft lighting came from a fireplace, an office or study where a bookshelf was full of novels and a chair had some guy reading a book.
...But only a corner of a house study room. Like someone sliced off the corner of a house and just left it here in the wilderness.
The man was odd, he was smoking a... bubble pipe? And reading a book with some unknown text on the outside. And wearing a white suit.
The blue hair and glowing blue eyes were a bit of a give away about how 'normal' he was.
He seemed to pause, then casually removed his pipe. "Oh! I didn't see you there!"
...She could FEEL Queen Administrator face palming. Wherever the hell she was.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam internally nodded. Nailed it.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Cautiously, Taylor sat in the offered chair as the stranger set aside the novel. "Right, so I assume you have some questions. To speed things along, I would like to give some basic information to you first, if that is alright?"
Taylor shrugged. No reason to cause conflict yet after all.
The guy nodded. "Right. First, my name is Adam 'Adventure' Burns, and I am something of an explorer. In my travels I have seen many thing, learned many tricks, and gained more than a few abilities."
He gestured, the room shifting slightly as a table rose with forming plates and cups. Some sweet smelling liquid began to fill the cups as small cakes formed on the serving ware. "Some abilities small, some fairly complicated."
Adam waved a cup to float to his hand and gave a small smile. "I was searching for something specific when I stumbled upon your situation. You know about Earth Alpha and the others, right?"
Vaguely? She didn't spend a lot of time wondering about crap like that. Queen seemed very interested though.
He nodded. "Your strategy, while desperate, saved this Realm and all the many other dimensions it holds. Thousands of Earths were protected by your actions, and the Warrior was slain."
So... she HAD won. Some part of her was concerned that she had hallucinated the end, that her dying body had simply given her an easier more relaxing way to pass on.
It felt glorious. So good that those sacrifices meant something.
The man had continued. "Our Realm, however, still has the moron wandering around." He ignored her sudden shock and how her heart fell. "Not that it matters. I am currently infecting his shard network and consuming him like a virus."
...Oh.
Taylor could feel Queen's horror... and interest. As Adam explained his 'System', his methods of harvesting Shards and converting them into some sort of spiritual growth system, her power grew more and more fascinated.
And Taylor could admit, imagining the Golden Asshole slowly decaying from within was a bit cathartic.
Her attention was pulled back rather swiftly though. "What do you mean you reformatted Queen Administrator!?"
He had the audacity to look sheepish. "Right, uh. Well, I wanted to do some neat stuff back home but I couldn't risk setting off the Warrior into 'kill everything' mode. So I went looking for a Realm where he was already dead so I can explore one of his shards, yours in this case, and see how to safely disconnect one without setting the idiot off. Or hurting you, or your shard, and so forth."
He fidgeted in his chair. "Problem was, you were both really hurt. You were dying, she was dying, and fixing you both was more than a little time consuming."
Her stare seemed to make it worse. "The 'reformatting' comment?"
Adam coughed. "Right, well. Queen Administrator was sort of stuck here. And if I tried to bring you to somewhere nicer, like my home, I couldn't have her stuck on some planet left behind OR leave her dimensional tumor connected to your brain, as that would stick out in a big way when you go somewhere that the Warrior still exists."
He shrugged. "So I converted her into a spiritual form and pushed her into your soul. No physical connection to damage, no chance of you two being separated, and her new energy source is infinite. Faith grows with more faith, after all."
The man ignored both of their stunned expressions. "It went very well actually, I will likely modify System to store the users ability there in the future. Not only is it more stable and easier to grow and modify over time, it makes dimensional travel safer and prevents power loss when venturing somewhere that conceptual laws don't quite work."
Taylor's distraction got worse when she felt the dry laughter of Queen Administrator within. [All those years of searching for a way to defeat galactic entropy, and we stumble upon it after killing the Entities. They had destroyed so many civilizations to discover the secret this man just granted us.]
The woman tried to emotionally support the Queen, the feelings of comfort and acceptance wrapping the passenger with a deep hug. They both ignored the man rambling along and eating cookies.
"... which was why I am pretty sure I undid all those test abilities and physical deformities I was experimenting with while you were sleeping, but if you feel any urge to spit teeth or..."
Mostly ignored. Queen was suppressing Taylor's 'Freak out and punch him' mentality and making a list of questions for later. Right now, emotional support.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam rubbed his sore jaw. "Right, I probably deserve that."
Taylor meanwhile was looking at her hand in surprise. "Huh. That didn't hurt."
He snorted. "I should hope not, you can ignore bullets and crush guns with your current enhancements. I mean, I only got rid of the fun and strange stuff, like the extra arms and eyes and stuff."
HA! Dodged the punch this time!
"I fixed it, I fixed it! And only the basic changes are genetic, so your kids will only get the good stuff WHOA!"
Too slow that time. Ow.