40

Date

2011 January 31st - Monday - Earth Bet Time

Day 6080 - Monday - Administrator Dimension Time

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

"No."

She made the 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 fully, 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 by jumping in 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 mouth 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 the future, he turned with a serious face towards the cheery Shard.

"How about this? If you can prove to me you are capable of understanding and using human societal norms AND keep 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 the 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.

Date

2011 February 2nd - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time

Missy woke from a peculiar dream. It wasn't like this was the first time she dreamed of using her power. There were several times where she dreamed of using her power to do things to the villains that she wasn't even brave to admit to the 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 wasn't anywhere where she could reach it, so in the dream, she simply reached inside her (not into her pocket, because she definitely had pockets on her costume in her dreams) and yanked a giant futuristic looking hammer and went to town on the villains.

It was such an awesome dream that she immediately wanted to try it out to see if she could do the same in real life, but after waking up fully she realized that experimenting with unknown use of power was kinda dangerous, so no matter how much she would have liked to do 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 73rd time's the charm?

After school, she told her parents that she was told to go to the Protectorate, then called for pickup. Sitting in the van ferrying her towards the building, she couldn't help be excited. If this worked, this 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 speed, 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 a little with space.

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 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 spray attachment, in case of emergency, when he heard the bell ring.

Taking a quick look, he saw it was 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.

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

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

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

"Yes."

The reply from Vista was a beaming smile.

She excitedly looked around as some of the researchers fiddled with some devices, a few of them talking with Armsmaster, while Miss Militia was simply looking around with a small smile.

The heroine showed up just as they reached the testing room, apparently to be a responsible adult in the room.

She 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 that was sitting behind a big array of computer screens.

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

"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 her head almost fell 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 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 scientist and Miss Militia shook their head. "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 at staring at screens.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The knowledge about the space blossomed in her mind, and she couldn't help but frown a little.

It was so much clearer and more detailed than the last time she tried this type of sensing. Then she shrugged her shoulders because this happened every so often when she got better with her power.

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

She took a few seconds to luxuriate in the feeling of knowing where exactly everything was in the 3D space around her before she began her experiment.

She began with the same process she used to expand spaces in items, like bags and such, 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 was on her body she lost control over the process and it began to latch onto her, ignoring everything she knew about the Manton limit.

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

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

Before celebrating, with her eyes still closed, she reached for a cup on the table and 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 towards the observers, who were watching her worriedly.

"Success!"

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

No matter how annoying the questioning was, she didn't care. She had a new and awesome power.

Date

2011 February 2nd - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time

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

Her application for more patents for the inventions was approved, so she could add them to her (or rather Serenity's) website.

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

She designed a portable and 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) that could allow it to work as a gas mask.

She even created a version where both of them were in one device, allowing the user to change between the two modes as they wished. Unfortunately, it had an increased resource and manufacturing requirement compared to the simpler version.

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

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

She had several other inventions that could be used at Endbringer battles, but a lot of them were Tinker black-boxed, or needed such technology to manufacture that wasn't found anywhere on Earth.

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

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

She simply uploaded the plans to the website and added a straightforward explanation and a heartfelt thanks to those who expressed thanks for the medi-gel, then turned towards her next task.

She spent most of her days at home, only going out for her morning exercise routine, or for 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 to rebuild the house.

Currently, the walls were extremely insulated; the windows were some sort of tinker glass that was extremely resistant to impact, 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 would allow her to project anything she wanted in 3D.

She mostly used it to watch TV.

She also built a computer for her father, though that was much more simple, because of her father's request.

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

She glanced at it, then sighed. It was Vicky.

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

She didn't really understand why, but she felt she could give it at least 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 she suspected that other extroverted people would count as introverted next to her. She would tell her every single thing that happened that day to her, 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 she would go get something to drink or snack, and when she came back she had around twenty messages from the blond.

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

The current message was a little different.

It was an invitation for a day on 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 a little haltingly in a small voice.

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

She 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, bewildered.