7

Date:

2005 August 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Day 4092 - Tuesday - Administrator Dimension Time

Newfoundland was gone and with it, Dragon and later the Dragonslayers were born. There were already news if somebody knew to read between the lines of Dragon's activities. He really felt sorry for the AI, living like that, caged and not even seeing the insane Damocles sword hovering over herself. Still, if his plans panned out, she would be the first he would, via Taylor, help to achieve a better and happier future.

He was even having one of his Simulator designing a gynoid body specifically for Dragon to use, which he planned to feed to Taylor as a tinker design.

It would be capable of housing Dragon's entire code and have enough battery life without Shard's intervention that she wouldn't even need to think about recharging for months. He was also careful to make it so that the body would be capable of human biological functions to help Dragon blend in.

It was no way in shape or form because he shipped Dragon and Armsmaster. He was just hoping to help out an AI who had been dealt a bad hand by Fate.

Watching Annette and Danny react to the news was also eye-opening. Fanon and in a sense canon always portrayed them as a happy and perfect couple. But the ensuing argument about moving more inland was big enough that Taylor spent almost every weeknight over at Emma's house.

Danny, being his stubborn self, wanted to hear nothing about abandoning Brockton Bay and his job and the Union. While arguing that even if they move more inland, that wouldn't guarantee the other two Endbringers wouldn't target the place they were living at.

On the other hand, Annette felt that the odds with only two Endbringers were better than with all of them. She also felt that Danny's ridiculous obsession with the revival of the docks was futile, and it was time to give up on it and concentrate on something achievable without killing an Endbringer.

Money matters may have come up, but Taylor wasn't present by that time, so he couldn't be sure.

Whatever may have been said between the two adults, by the time Taylor returned from his extended sleepover, they reconciled.

Analyzing their body language and other clues visible, he determined that reconciliation was thankfully genuine.

It seemed while they were not a picture-perfect couple; they were capable of arguing, listening to each other, and working through their issues. He was hoping that Danny would retain these qualities when dealing with Taylor after she triggers.

A few behavior models said there was a 78.7% chance, so he just filed that away and continued with Taylor's power project.

Continuing with the easier powers, he decided to tackle the Tinker one.

Programming was definitely a go, seeing as Taylor actually liked that one, and he needed Taylor to be capable of it when the time came.

However before he started on the Tinker powerset, he needed to make sure to not include the usual Tinker compulsions, and to add some understanding to it. After all, he didn't want a puppet but a minion capable of learning.

Not that he would actually call Taylor a minion to her face. It would be detrimental to team cohesion.

Apparently, the Tinker compulsion was nothing more than the Shard wanting to make the host innovate and come up with new ideas. The more powerful the Shard the more powerful the compulsion.

The Tinker explosion after the Trigger event was the expression of the accumulated need of the Shard. Like a junky falling into a mountain of cocaine. they just couldn't help themselves.

Their goal was innovation, and they would do anything to achieve that. That was probably why Leet's Shard hated him: his cautious nature slowed down the innovation.

Luckily for Taylor, he was not a simple Shard and could live without the ideas of a human, so he didn't need to worry about it.

The black-boxing part was more complicated.

Some black boxes existed to prevent the Tinker or other people from replicating it and to drive the host forward based on the hope that if they innovate enough they could break the black box.

Others were there because the Tinker didn't have the proper materials. So the Shard just had them slap together an umbrella, a plastic duck, and three feet of copper wire, do the heavy lifting in their dimension, project the result back to the Tinker and then have them use the resulting umbrella gun that fired plastic ducks.

This was also used as a method to speed up the development of a starting Tinker who maybe didn't have the necessary resources to build proper tools.

That would be employed by him for a few projects, but he really wanted to provide mostly tech without black boxes.

It was simply a matter of pride.

Then there were the black boxes that were there because the technology was deemed too advanced or dangerous in human hands or having multiple copies.

He had agreed with that actually, humans (including him) could be really stupid sometimes. There is no need to involve super-advanced technology in that mess.

He started with the basics. All the current computing languages on Earth Bet, their idealized versions courtesy of his Simulator. And a steady stream of improved languages that Taylor could use and learn. He also included how they worked and how to create her own languages.

Of course, naturally, he would provide the necessary libraries at first.

With that came the creating of tools. At first, only those tools that she could make with what she has around without him needing to add a supporting black box feature.

He also tried to emphasize recycling, so he planned the Tinker tree that she would be able to reuse everything to make the newest tool.

That also included some degree of material sciences and engineering knowledge so that Taylor could even, if not explain, but at least articulate what she was doing to a non-Tinker.

Next, as essential components, were the batteries and power generators.

He of course would provide her with increasingly complex and better versions of these, starting from current Earth Bet tech.

Knowing that one of the ways people found Tinkers was based on power consumption he planned to provide plans for a 'super-advanced' generator and battery that would be a shiny casing with a black box and would be used by him to provide energy for whatever project Taylor wanted to do.

Hopefully, sooner or later she would start using her designs that required no black boxes.

That led to computers, which he would provide plans for too, to go along with the programming part. He hoped Taylor would agree to set up a hidden generator and server in her basement because that would be a really useful setup for her.

And for his plans.

For communication, wanting nothing to do with the father-daughter pair's aversion to mobile phones, he would provide alternatives. He would provide plans on how to update their own system at home, providing better security on their phone and at least a redirect function and a better model for it, while also providing a way to get better security and anonymity on the internet.

Sadly, he couldn't do anything substantial for the internet speed, so they would need to improve that the old-fashioned way.

He would also provide the designs for watch-based phones that at first would be also black-boxed, just to make sure that Danny and Taylor could stay in contact while dealing with the stress of a fresh Trigger and the entire Winslow fiasco.

Those would be impossible to intercept because they wouldn't send out any signals at all and the communication would go through the black box.

This design packet would contain plans for wireless technology, better internet infrastructure, and of course phones. With the required programming already there in the programming design packet.

For fun and added security, he also added a packet for soft and hard light projection. They could be used to watch movies or generate disguises for people or objects.

Plus, on a personal level, he always loved those technologies, and now that he had the opportunity to see them in action, he leaped at the chance.

He wondered if Taylor would be up for some Leia cosplay?

Those were some of the bigger technologies he planned to give her. But there were also some light robotics, mainly simple drones for maintenance and manufacturing purposes, but they could be combined with the projection technologies.

A few self-defense items, like tasers, personal kinetic shields, and trackers and scanners for finding trackers and bugs.

The tech tree would also contain technology dealing with recycling, cleaning up things like radiation, and other stuff like that.

As far as Anti-Endbringer technologies went, he didn't plan to give her anything big. She had Sting, and if that didn't work, it would be far too late to build anything.

He still designed several types of radiation and energy shields, personal and macro versions. Some rebreathers for underwater combat or search and rescue (life scanner included). And as a crowning achievement, he managed to fit in a very crude and small version of the Anti-Thinker field into a headband. That would theoretically stop the Simurgh from affecting the wearer's mind (and as a side effect it would also block other Masters).

Of course, because this wasn't supported by him personally, it would be possible to circumvent it, overwhelm it or just simply destroy it. Sill, it would be a significant item for negotiating with the PRT.

For the last, he used the idea of Medi-gel from his favorite series and re-created it. He even went as far as to design its manufacturing as simple as possible. It could be created by a homemade machine built from junk. Or people could use proper manufacturing to build smaller machines or even create them on an industrial scale.

Naturally, it was just trauma medicine, not a true cure-all. But a lot of lives were lost because they couldn't get the people fast enough to the hospital or a healer, and this would help with that.

He also designed it so that it was understandable by modern Earth Bet standards and included in the packet several scanning technologies for the medical field that weren't really the most advanced, but could be manufactured by them without Tinker intervention.

He hoped that Taylor would be able to release it on the internet to as many people as possible. But seeing as he was not a business expert he left that part up to the future expert that Taylor would contact.

He hoped it would be Dragon, her already established connection and reputation as a new technology provider were hard to beat.

It would also ease Danny's mind if he were to know that his daughter has access to at least some kind of healing if she were to get into a fight with other parahumans.

Not that it would help much with that, Danny would worry no matter what.

Date:

2007 March 3rd - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Day 4649 - Saturday - Administrator Dimension Time

For the main power, he went unapologetically full anime. He liked them, they were creative and he didn't have to create something seriously original.

Using control over matter and energy, he would grant electrokinesis, albeit with some modifications and additions.

The first nonsensical change was making everything a shade of cheerful, sunshine yellow; much like the portal edge.

He liked the color and felt that yellow suited Taylor.

As a small addition, he would use his control over gravity to grant Taylor the ability to fly.

At first, she would be able to hover, but the more she practiced, the faster and higher she would be able to go.

There were two reasons for not immediately granting the full control of her parahuman ability. First and foremost, if she were to receive all these powers as soon as she leaves the hospital, he feared she'd immediately go and do something with it.

Maybe something bad, but more than likely, something stupid.

Secondary reasoning was related to skill. If she started small and adapted to her powers, she'd become more proficient with it. Learn exactly how it works and its kinks, and perhaps appreciate it more.

The base of her powers was electricity discharge. She could emit electricity from any part of her body, even from multiple points simultaneously.

He would set up certain presets beforehand. All Taylor had to do was pull the trigger and aim.

To list, she would control the exact voltage and power of the discharged electricity (to a certain extent and after some measure of training). This would allow her to do lethal and non-lethal attacks using the same techniques.

She could strengthen and weaken the bonds between atoms and molecules, a means of strengthening her own body to never before seen levels or destroy non-living matter, a superficial Manton-limit of sorts to stave off inquiring minds - the actual limit had an on and off switch that he could flick in a heartbeat. She would also be capable of heating up and cooling down materials; not to the extent of pyrokinesis or cryokinesis, but to act as an additional tool for her Tinker powers.

Why use a kiln when you have handy-dandy electricity power?

The body-strengthening part would come with a basic mastery of martial arts. At higher levels, it could be reinforced by quantum locking her body.

Using magnetism, she could attract and deflect magnetic materials. Protect herself from bullets, sense the magnetic north, and with some training sense strong magnetic fields.

She would be also capable of sensing at first the very strong electric fields and with training smaller and weaker ones. And even bioelectricity if she were to train for it.

At last, she would be able to use these powers and Shard magic to increase her neural responses, speeding up her reflexes and thinking speed. He would probably only allow her to use these after she got in some training for controlling electricity.

Best to make sure that the Host didn't fry herself off the bat.

Then for techniques, she could activate a lightning armor that would envelop her in lovely sunshine yellow electricity, increase all her parameters, and would apply electricity to her attack be it by hand or by a weapon.

Her touch could cause paralysis; lock up a person's nervous system. Every use would be perfectly calibrated by him to prevent collateral damage.

Per tradition, she would be also capable of firing lightning bullets and spears and even create a spear out of electricity for close combat. It would also come with a measure of knowledge about the staff and spear fighting.

Against multiple opponents, she could create hovering balls of lightning that she could shoot out on command. At first, she would be only capable of creating three of them and firing only one, but with training and experience, she would be making a lot more. As an alternative, they could be used as a reading light.

Restraining people would be done by her via a lightning cage. This would be an electric cage that Taylor could set to be any size she wanted. And was capable of staying wherever she activated it until she canceled. For starters, the cage would be two cubic meters, which would at least hold one person.

Creating a flash would be child's play, and Taylor could use it to blind people if she wanted, by quickly discharging electricity. To be safe, he created a template for it, to make sure no eyeballs would melt.

A template for EMP would be also included. That would be fired off by him and wouldn't affect anything biological, just the non-shielded technology.

And at last his favorite power, the Lightning Clone.

He would create a paper-thin projection of Taylor (including wounds and such) and fill it with electricity. This projection would only be able to follow the pre-set commands that Taylor gave it during creation. It would last around 90 seconds, a game-changer in a fight, but otherwise useless.

Taylor also could choose to explode it upon expiry or have it simply vanish. However, if it were to receive enough damage (one hit at first, then would improve) it would vanish or explode depending on Taylor before the time expired.

She could also summon it for non-fight-related tasks, for example: helping with cleaning. After she reached a certain amount of experience with them, they would even be able to react to a certain extent.

Sadly he couldn't replicate the anime-like memory transfer of clones, but he hoped he would figure that out within the remaining time.

With these powers, he hoped that Taylor would enjoy herself without worrying about dying. And would be capable of stopping Zion and other dangers that lurk in the darkness.