50

Convolution 5.4

There was nothing particularly special about this workshop at first glance. A small and inconspicuous power source, clean and tidy yet stocked with a wide array of tools and machinery. There were computers, servers, welding tools, scanners, raw materials, etc. The amount of mundane equipment was in such quantity that one might not suspect it was a Tinker workshop, and that was not to obscure its true nature, but merely reflective of the owner's access to wealth, resources, and mundane manufacturing capabilities.

This wasn't only Offensive Bias' workshop, but actually where Uber, Leet, and Chariot worked on projects I commissioned of them. They'd still do some of the work at their own workshops, but when coordinating together and if they needed access to my state of the art equipment, they'd come here.

They weren't here now because after the first portal tech project, the hack of using Offensive Bias to reverse engineer Leet's tech stopped working.

The problem with finding ways to exploit the shard power interactions was that the shards were alive and they didn't want people to find cheap ways to circumvent their deliberately set restrictions. They'd encourage people to find new ways to use powers as part of the Cycle's experimentation, but wouldn't let us experiment much with the rules they deliberately set.

As a result, any other tech that Leet had a failure chance on also had the same failure chance when Offensive Bias reverse engineered it, rendering Leet more or less useless again.

I went to the console and typed in some commands. Shortly after, a section of the wall was moved and a portal opened. There was another portal like this hidden in a different section of the wall, only much smaller with just wires going through, allowing Offensive Bias to maintain connectivity on both sides.

I went through the man sized portal to inspect our new military-industrial complex on Earth M2, a new humanless and mostly barren dimension that had tons of metal and rock but not much water or life.

How did we suddenly have a "military-industrial complex"? That was because Offensive Bias had copied Dragon's database, and it had a vast number of Tinkertech designs to use from the most basic tools to advanced Dragonsuits. Offensive Bias not only had the database, but also Dragon's shard power as well. In the same way that Case 53s kept their powers after getting their memories wiped, Offensive Bias as a copy of Dragon also kept its power. And because we removed the restrictions on disobeying lawful authority, parallel processing, and building subordinate AI, it was able to make use of various technologies banned by the PRT with exponential growth potential.

On the other side was a fully self sustaining operation including raw material extraction, processing, manufacture, and militarization. The latest map and report from Offensive Bias showed that the industrial area spanned about seven hundred square meters, while the resource extraction had been spread out to various suitable areas with a combined area of more than two square kilometers.

While mass manufacturing Tinkertech on the scale of assembly lines was still impossible because the technology to make the mass manufacturing equipment was also Tinkertech, and nobody would have such designs until Masamune was found, Offensive Bias was perfectly capable of mass manufacturing mundane technology. With parallel processing, Bias could also separately and simultaneously engage in Tinkering up numerous copies of the same Tinkertech, which was for practical purposes the same as small scale mass manufacturing.

The whole complex was manned by drones and administrated by Offensive Bias directly. Big Rig's large scale construction drones were very useful once reverse engineered, and Dragon had production-capable drone designs from seven other Tinkers. Everything was powered by Tinkertech hybrid fission-fusion generators built with the assistance of a Mastered Bakuda.

Agate phased through the ceiling and flew up high in the air, revealing to me the full scope of the expanding facilities. Even now, large teams of drones were moving about, constructing along the boundary spreading out in all directions.

The lack of relay bugs on M2 meant that Taylor's network wasn't present in this dimension except for a small range centred on the permanent portal that connected the wiring to our underground Brockton Bay base.

But I didn't need to hide most of this from her or Amelia. One of them would have to take the reins of CRUCIBLE once I left, and they would need all the firepower they could get. It was a terrible oversight for Cauldron to have allowed Bakuda to die in the Birdcage, with her bombs being one of the only things capable of damaging or even destroying an Endbringer. With Bakuda now under my control through Canary and Offensive Bias to massively boost production, we were amassing an enormous stockpile that already numbered at over three thousand bombs, including 24 with a damage/effect radius comparable to or higher than 100 kilotons of TNT, and the 9-megaton EMP bomb from before.

On my orders to build a bigger bomb than ever, Bakuda produced a 5-gigaton bomb after an extended Tinker fugue. This last bomb was estimated to be capable of destroying a landmass the size of Texas. Unfortunately it also wound up so large and unwieldy that it couldn't be deployed by anything Offensive Bias currently had access to, and wouldn't fit through any portal we could make either, rendering it useless. I had to dismantle it as the only thing it would be threatening was myself, and perhaps Brockton Bay through the small permanent portal we used to maintain electronic connectivity, if it went off accidentally or by enemy infiltration.

'Can we do another bomb test?' Agate asked.

'Which one?'

'How about one of the 600 kiloton ones?'

"Bias, prepare to test a 600 series bomb."

The console reacted and initiated the launch sequence. A list of potential targets were identified. On this barren planet, it didn't really matter where we targeted, so I chose one close enough for us to see the results of.

A few minutes later, I confirmed the launch, and a missile shot forth at hypersonic speeds from our silo.

Several more minutes later, there was a bright flash and a huge mushroom cloud towered in the distance, as viewed from Agate's perspective.

'Encore! Let's do a test on another dimension where we can scare people!'

'No that's too risky. Maybe just before we leave the plane.'

O O O

Every day, I would visit Paige. Sometimes I did it by myself, other times I went together with Amelia and Taylor, like now.

Paige had her own living space here with simple furniture and basic amenities provided by Offensive Bias.

Using electronic voice transmission, she updated the Master effect on Bakuda periodically to keep her working. Recordings of Canary's voice did not work, unfortunately, only live transmissions.

After the new facilities were built, our prisoners had all been moved over to M2 and kept in dark, isolated prisons with bomb collars attached to them.

Only Bakuda was up and about regularly to Tinker while under Canary's Master effect, and we also applied the additional insurance of a virus that would have debilitating effects on her body if not given a special "signal" shot every day.

Coil was occasionally used for small experiments and non-critical tasks, but I did not want to risk him ending the wrong timeline in anything very important.

I input the password at the security keypad and the door slid open.

The room had a uniformly white colour scheme and no windows or decorations. The bathroom was a secondary room inside, and food was delivered by a robot from time to time. Security cameras monitored the room 24/7, because we needed to ensure that in case her actions in the Birdcage were the result of third-party interference, they wouldn't be able to kidnap or her from under our noses.

Paige was at the desk in front of her computer which had only intranet access. It was hooked up to a microphone and speaker system she could use to transmit her power to other areas of the base, or use for recreational singing.

At my entrance, she stood up and greeted us. She was wearing a custom set of clothes I designed which served as her uniform every day.

I returned her greeting before going to the couch to sit down, waving her over.

"How are you holding up, Paige?" I asked as she sat down beside me. Amelia and Taylor took chairs on the opposite side.

"I'm fine. It's comfortable here. I miss the concerts, but I'm happy that I can sing at least. I didn't have a chance to sing for months when I was waiting for the trial."

"Have you had any more visions?" Taylor asked.

"No! No, definitely not." Paige shook her head vigorously.

"You sound like you don't want to have visions anymore. I thought you believed they were sent by God," Taylor said.

"Th-they are! And I do hope for more guidance."

"Really? Guidance for what? Aren't you happy about being here?"

"N-nothing, just making s-sense of things. I'm very h-happy here."

"You don't sound sure of yourself." Taylor said.

Paige sputtered. "I-I am!"

Taylor frowned. "You really don't want to leave?"

"No! No! Please, I'm very grateful for everything I have here!"

I put a hand on Paige's shoulder. "Please don't misunderstand, Paige, Taylor's not trying to make you leave. She just has a very blunt way of speaking."

Taylor looked sheepish and muttered an apology. I felt Paige's muscles relax slightly.

I continued. "We just want you to know that you have the option."

"Yeah. We can set you up with everything you need to live normally again. You could go back to Earth Bet, or we could bring you to another Earth. I can change your face and try to develop a way to keep your feathers and powers under tighter control so that singing won't activate it unless you want it to," Amelia said.

"B-but my power's useful to you, isn't it? I want to repay you for everything you've done for me," Paige said, tensing again with wide eyes and looking between me and Amelia.

"You don't have to worry about that. We only asked you to use your powers on Bakuda and Coil so you would have something to do," Amelia said, giving me a look as if warning me not to deny it. "My power works on brains, so I can just permanently reform them with a touch. Your power is actually less convenient and riskier for us to use long term."

"Oh." Paige shrunk in on herself. "I'm sorry."

Over the week, I'd deliberately spent less time with Amelia with the excuse of focusing on building up the military complex, which caused her to become increasingly annoyed with my extended stays on Earth M2 where Paige was also housed, and that annoyance translated into dislike for Paige.

Shortly after I praised Paige for putting Bakuda to work efficiently during our last group visit, Amelia told me she was ready to use her powers to convert villains to our cause, and that we didn't need Paige to do it anymore. We already successfully practiced a few times on the E88 mooks I captured before.

"I can also help you forget your trauma in the Birdcage. You can have a fresh start," Amelia added.

"F-forget? Y-you mean…!"

Amelia nodded seriously.

"No, please! I don't want to forget anything!" Paige pleaded in a desperate tone.

Amelia crossed her arms and retorted with an undercurrent of frustration. "Stop acting like I suggested something awful. I'm just trying to put it in a nice way. We can't let anybody know that CRUCIBLE rescued a convicted criminal—"

Paige visibly flinched.

"—from the Birdcage, so you can't keep those memories. It's also to protect you from any opportunistic group that would take credit for it if we only erased the part where you met us and they could use that to take advantage of you. It's for your own good, get it?"

"S-sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Paige said in a weak voice.

Paige certainly wouldn't want to forget her pact with her "God", and most likely panicked as she felt the hostility from Amelia. I had to support Amelia's claim of it being for Paige's own good, to ensure that she understood that there was no escaping the memory erasure, if she made the unwise decision to leave.

"It's alright Paige. You've been in a bad place for a long time, caused by a lot of terrible people with bad intentions. It's not strange to think the worst of everyone you meet, when previously everyone you knew was evil. We won't hold it against you. Just remember that we're all on your side, and we'll get through this together," I said, squeezing her shoulder. It was important for Paige to feel that she wanted to stay of her own volition, that staying would further indebt her to us, that any doubt of our noble intentions was a result of her own issues and she was lucky that we were so tolerant.

"I'm sorry." she said again. "I didn't mean it like that. I know you're good to me."

"And you can stay as long as you want. We're completely fine with having you with us, and we're happy that you want to help us fight for justice. Right, Taylor, Amelia?"

Taylor nodded while Amelia gave a non-committal grunt.

"T-thank you! Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"Well, not yet, but soon I think we will have something for you."

O O O

"Are you really going to let her stay with us? What if her 'God' tells her to kill us next?" Amelia said heatedly as we returned back to the office. "Taylor, you agree with me don't you? She's crazy and dangerous."

"She's not that bad." Taylor said. "She did everything we told her to do and never complained about our security measures."

"She prays for hours each day. Instead of being grateful to us for rescuing her, she thinks it's all the work of her 'God'!"

"Uhm…but what if she really did get a divine vision?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah right. You're the one who said It was probably some other cape trying to take advantage of our rescue op."

"But we can't just force her to leave," said Taylor.

"So you agree that you don't want to keep her here?"

"I didn't say that…"

Amelia huffed and crossed her arms again.

"Taylor, why don't you go home and get some rest? There's nothing else planned for tonight," I said. "Amelia and I will head home too. Bias and Heroux can handle things here."

Taylor caught the hint and nodded with one last glance at Amelia. "Okay. Bye guys."

I looked at Amelia who gave me a glare. With a sigh, I opened a portal to our apartment that I rented after acquiring the first portion of Coil's funds.

I tilted my head back through the portal when I saw that she didn't follow. "Are you just going to stand there all night? Come on."

She grumbled but followed.

O O O

A/N: Just going to take the time to respond to some of the recent reviews since Interlude 4.x. This turned out surprisingly long, so next time I'll be responding the chapter after a review.

Kaiya Azure: It's actually impressive that you caught on to the plan to get rid of Teacher during 4.x. A lot of other readers thought the plan was to get Canary to team up with Teacher, as per the act Canary put on during the first part of 4.y. Someone like Teacher would have been extremely useful for his Trump power, but he's really still quite dangerous and risky if used that way, as you say.

TheOnlyKing (4.y review): Yeah. Though, as you can see from this chapter, she is still devoted. It's not like Agate can't appear to her again at some point.

Dragonfang1917: I'm glad you liked the execution. I put a lot of effort in getting the details right.

Father Chaos: There are some cult fics, but I don't know of any based on an SI.

duckie288: That was the Geas curse.

steelblade883: Well I hope I don't disappoint. And your username is getting messed up by the anti-link parser.

Eluvian Camaris: I agree with the sentiment. I'm not a fan of stories that use other characters' stupidity to make the main character look smart either.

ZhaWarudo: Haha. Our MC loves what he does, for better or worse. He might have a chance to find a hobby in a more relaxing world.

PsylentFox: Kaleidus is quite genre savvy. He believes himself to be the true main character, as noted in the first chapter, therefore he doesn't need to follow the plot. From a Doylist perspective, I think part of the appeal of multiverse as a whole is exploring and doing your own thing-at least that's one reason I like writing this, and you don't really get to explore if you stick with the main characters.

OrigamiGuyII: They do retain powers.

sanjiyanunkara: I won't deny it. But some would argue that all authors are SIing into their stories as a Gary Stu/Mary Sue.

TheOnlyKing (5-2 review): It's a matter of their personalities. While Amelia is more dependent on Kaleidus, Taylor naturally has fewer doubts about her morality. Also the relationship between Amelia and Kaleidus was more personal from the start before they started CRUCIBLE, whereas Taylor first joined in the context of a hero team, and thus defers to Kaleidus' leadership.

superpierce: Luckily they have Ascalon to keep Dragon in the dark. Still, they've avoided being too active on Earth Bet for exactly that reason.

vequest: I toyed around with that idea, but ultimately Agate and Kaleidus think together too much for that to really make sense within the story.

victorsan12345: Not really. If Coil's simulation is perfect, then it doesn't make any practical difference. The Kaleidus in the simulated timeline would also be able to think.

babiloniaolimpo: I'm afraid my Spanish isn't good enough to respond in Spanish, but thanks for your comments. Worm powers are indeed confusing, especially to those who haven't read the source material. The first time I saw the rating categories, I didn't find them intuitive to understand at all, without an explanation, despite their supposed intuitiveness in-story.

CD123505: The mechanics of shard powers aren't fully explained. Wormvoid as a concept certainly exists in the source, but not named or well described. The canon is that shard powers do indeed derive most of their exotic effects from manipulating dimensions, from the connection in the brain, to "generating matter/energy", to building Tinkertech out of junk. The range limit of Earth's atmosphere or sometimes to the moon is an observation that is true but never explained, so I came up with my own explanation, based on the fact that the shards don't seem to have FTL tech or any way to move between star systems other than blowing up every version of a planet simultaneously.

BuddhaBuddha: ^_^ Is it really so strange to act hammy when you find yourself in fiction?

Lord All Bright: Wow, top 5? That's very flattering.

And thanks to everyone else who reviewed!