12

As it turns out? Yep, Slacking Off even worked on training. Though it was mostly just allowing me to pull more Ethernano in my body during the downtime.

"Well, I'm heading off." I called out as I slid the visor-goggles over my face. I also took the liberty of pulling on Amaya's lab coat and stowing the taser in my waistband. Unfortunately, no protective gear but I don't think my first hand-off should go to absolute shit.

I let out a sigh. Murphy better fucking not take that as a challenge as well!

Amaya was sitting on the couch looking up at the television we had and flicking through it idly. "And bring me my components as well." She called out as I reached the door. "I can't make your gloves or neuraljack without them."

"Right right." I nodded as I stepped out. It felt a little weird, given that this was pretty much the first time I was 'in-costume' so to speak. An idle thought passed through my head. What if I leaned more into browns, tans and beiges? Like Vill-V? It would be hilarious with Amaya being my current Mobius-expy.

Hm. Well, I would see how my cards fell.

Moving to the meeting point, Bauble was the one who met me this time instead of Cranial. She was in her glass suit, shimmering slightly in the evening light. Situated a little further in Captain's Hill, we ducked into the incomplete construction of a gas station. Motioning for me to follow, we entered the staff office before stopping.

"Here." She tossed a small device into my hands. Inspecting it, I immediately recognized it as one of Dodge's portalmakers. Before I could ask, Bauble explained it to me. "That connects you with your lab and the entrance hall. Just be sure to flick the switch on the back in order to pick which portal you wanna open to." Frowning slightly, it felt a little less convenient than my Magic Key. With that I could just think about which portal I wanted to open and it would do so.

Hmm… Actually, if Cranial worked with Dodge, I was sure that they could recreate something similar.

Glancing at Bauble, she crossed her arms. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Oh huh. I pressed the button and a portal was torn open. "Nice. Let's go then."

"So how do I choose where my portal exits from?" I asked while we moved to my Cranial's workshop.

Bauble took a moment to look at me. "You don't. Dodge's portal opens up at the exact same place as it closed, geolocked of course. Wouldn't want to exit 200km in the middle of space, would you?" She smiled slightly. Or at least I think she smiled. It was hard to tell under the shimmering glass face plate.

Entering Cranial workshop, I grabbed my stuff. Strapping the shield onto my sleeve, I tested the deployment system one last time and gave a brief nod. It would be awkward if I couldn't expand the shield if things went to shit. Loading the jammer onto a dolly, we quickly transferred it to my workshop.

My workshop was a bit barren compared to Cranial's. It still had the usual automated machining… machines, though there were clear spots where a large machine once occupied. However, it looked fairly complete for a standard workshop. "I'm guessing those machines had tinkertech in them?" I pointed to one of the clean spots in the room.

Bauble nodded. "Yup." I nodded as we wheeled the jammer to one corner of the room. Most likely the tinker in question improved the device for one reason or another. So it had to be replaced or it would break down sooner or later. Unfortunate since I would like to take a look at more tinkertech.

I glanced at Bauble who was leaning against the wall. Staring at the glass, my eyes widened slightly as I felt Loremaster working on her glass. The glass was enchanted? Not quite. But there was definitely something that was altering the fundamental properties of glass. And that was good enough for Loremaster to start working on it.

Obviously the Shard was the one driving the 'enchantment', that much I could tell even without the perk. However, Loremaster was peeling back the layers to the enchantment with ease. There wasn't any 'mana' or 'magic' that was animating the enchantment, instead Loremaster was sensing a more basic form of energy.

It was hard to describe, but it wasn't like my Ethernano or gun magic. Those two had a sense of… physicality to them in a way. They floated, could be manipulated, absorbed and pushed around, etc. They existed. However, this didn't have anything similar. It was a pure form of energy that encompassed the entire structure of the glass.

"Hey, my eyes are up here." Bauble called out, breaking me out of my trance. I bit back my annoyance at being interrupted. She didn't know so I had no right to be angry. Glancing up, I couldn't exactly see her face, but Loremaster told me she wasn't exactly angry.

"Sorry. Your glass was simply too pretty to look away from." I deflected with a little help from Carnal Artist. "How does it work? I heard from Lloyd that it's an improved version of your bulletproof glass?"

"Mhm." She nodded. "Bulletproof, Shatterbird-proof, and inertia-dampening all in one." She ran her hands down either side. "Can't tell you too much on how it works but if you're interested it would cost you." Her mask shifted as she leaned a little closer.

I pressed my lips together. "Maybe another time. When I'm not spending all my money on building all the equipment I need." I gestured to the two boxes of components that Amaya ordered. Most of it was there, though the wiring she asked for was about 100 meters short. Not sure why she needed so much, but you could never go wrong with more wiring than less.

"Fair." Bauble nodded.

The door slid open and Toy Soldier walked out. It was small, around my height, with two guns fitted into his forearms as well as several noticeable seams that most likely carried a variety of weapons and equipment. Its optics was covered by a red pane of glass that glowed slightly as it locked eyes with me. The 'Adam' armour.

Although the most recognizable suit of Toy Soldier's was affectionately called the 'Kaijubuster', it was far too big and too impractical for most uses. Instead that was kept on the back for specialized jobs that required it. For more regular uses, he had several suits for different occasions, such as the 'Condor' for high speed travel, 'Rhino' for small-scale demolition and battle, and the aforementioned 'Adam' as the all-rounder.

"Is everything set?" His voice was altered by the suit, practically making his voice unrecognizable.

"All's good." Bauble gave him the thumbs-up.

Toy Soldier walked over to the jammer and easily picked it up. Lifting a hand, a portal opened in front of us without any warning. I guess he integrated his portalmaker with his suit? Would make sense, wouldn't it?

Stepping through, we were in the middle of the woods in near complete darkness. The only light source was from the portal behind us. Toy Soldier gave a brief look around, his optics glowing faintly before shaking his head.

"They aren't here yet." He muttered as he set the jammer down. I couldn't quite tell how he was feeling about it. Loremaster generally picked up a sense of annoyance and relief simultaneously. Bauble leaned against one of the trees, her glass glittering slightly.

"Erstein, you'll be handling the handover for tonight. Don't worry about screwing anything up. We'll be here to smooth it over." He spoke as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." I deadpanned as I followed next to him.

Letting out a huff, Toy Soldier shook his head. "I remember my first handover. It was with Pyro and a former Toybox member, Haven. The bastard we were trading with tried to cheat me out of my payment for some bogus reason. Nearly went to blows over that." Toy Soldier reminisced. "And I was a… three month member at that point? Pyro and Haven had to act as mediators. Luckily it was settled peacefully."

"Who were you meeting with anyway?" I frowned. "Don't seem very smart, pissing off Toybox like that."

Toy Soldier shrugged. "Washington Elite." He replied simply. My eyes widened as I nodded. No idea who was in the Washington Elite but from his tone of voice, it sounded pretty important. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this is your first time doing a handover in general right? It's bound to be nerve-racking, especially against a villain team. So don't worry too much about it."

"Why do I have to do the handover in the first place?" I kept my voice neutral so I didn't sound like I was complaining. "Wouldn't it be better if I watched you do it and then took the lead in a later contract?"

Toy Soldier nodded. "Perhaps. If this wasn't your contract, we might have done what you have suggested. But since this is yours, you must be the one to do the handoff. It's a matter of appearance and reputation. You cannot build your name if you only tinker in your workshop all day." It made some amount of sense. I didn't mind it too much anyway.

Toy Soldier suddenly snapped his eyes up. Following his gaze, I zoomed into the woods and saw two pinpricks of light approaching rapidly. I couldn't quite make out what it was but Toy Soldier answered my unspoken question. "Heads up. They're arriving."

Bauble and Toy Soldier positioned themselves on my flanks, standing slightly behind so I was clearly at the forefront. As the jeep approached, Toy Soldier spoke slightly softer. "Some words of advice, try to act like you've been active for longer than you look." I shot a glance at him before nodding.

Coming to a stop, the doors popped open and the members of Iron Fist stepped out. And they were really pushing the theme of mobsters. All of them wore similar clothing to everyone else. A tailored grey suit and tie, long trousers and leather shoes, fedoras and matte black full-face masks. Honestly, outside of a few tiny differences in their appearance and build, it was hard to tell who was who.

Stepping forward, the person that I assumed was Steelstrike took the lead. "I presume you have the device ready?" His voice rumbled out, slightly muffled by the mask. He made it a point to look past me, and towards Toy Soldier and Bauble. The bastard… Was he doing this on purpose? Loremaster seemed to think so.

The Celestial Forge shot out its newly generated energy out to the Lewd Magic Constellation and failed as expected.

Steelstrike's power was a Brute with a Mover subcomponent. He could 'snap' his body into a certain position, going from a standing position into a haymaker in an instant, and transferring all that force straight into your body. These 'snaps' allowed him to throw much stronger hits than any person should reasonably do as well as giving him some amount of durability when the 'snap' occurs so he didn't shatter every bone in his hand on impact.

His Mover rating was when his 'snap' also displaced him ever so slightly. By linking several snaps all at once, he could zip around the battlefield in an instant and land heavy blows. He could even do a rudimentary 'flight' effect by having his displacement go upwards.

Out of every member of Iron Fist, Steelstrike was the most dangerous here. The Thinker, according to PRT files, was support Thinker, coordinating their strikes. However, they nearly never took to the field themselves. The Shaker was a telekinetic, though only capable of large-scale force application. And the Blaster was a laser blaster but with finer control in exchange for power.

Stepping forward, I crossed my arms. "Exactly according to your specifications." I gestured to the folded up device. "Everything in a 1 mile radius won't be able to send anything in or out."

"How do I know it works?" He spoke with no small amount of arrogance.

I shot a glance at Toy Soldier out of the corner of my eye. He didn't move a finger so I guess he was trusting me to take the lead. "Toybox guarantee. Or if you would prefer, you can test it yourself." I turned to look at Toy fully. Nodding his head, he walked over and pressed the clearly marked button to activate the machinery. Motors whirred to life and panels and gears slid over each other as the jammer was deployed.

A low whistle came from one of the Iron Fist members. And Steelstrike snapped his head towards them. Literally. One moment he was looking at me, the next he was staring at his team. I could sense Toy Soldier and Bauble tense up slightly as he did so. Turning back to the jammer, he walked around it before fiddling with the controls. "Intuitive design…" He muttered as the machine came to life. Pulling out a phone, he checked the signal. "Good. It works." He nodded in approval before deactivating it.

Walking back in front of me, he crossed his arms. "I have something else to add before we move on to your payment." Weird… I shot a glance to my seniors before giving my signal to continue. "Iron Fist will be moving against the gangs in Charleston soon. We would like Toybox to decline any contract requests from the Right Hand, and Unity Hall."

"You're talking about an exclusivity contract." Toy Soldier rumbled. Stepping forward, he extended a hand out. "Unfortunately, this is outside the realm of a simple contract. We will need to discuss with the rest of the Toybox's tinkers before a decision can be made."

Steelstrike shook his head. "I would prefer it if we could come to an agreement now."

"Impossible. Like I said, we will need to discuss this with the rest of Toybox beforehand." Toy Soldier crossed his arms, his optics flashed red in the darkness.

Steelstrike frowned slightly. "How much would it cost for an exclusivity contract with Toybox?"

"Far more than you can afford with your dinky little gang." Bauble called out. Glancing behind me, she pulled out two grenade-looking objects and took a step forward. "Pay up. Now." Somehow I got the feeling that this wasn't going to end well. For any of us here.

A tense silence hung in the air as Bauble made the first move towards escalation. Taking a deep breath, I tensed up my legs to launch myself backwards if anything went horribly wrong. Nodding, Steelstrike took a step back and motioned to one of the others. "There's no need to be so rude. Flare?" The one named Flare nodded and took out his phone. Typing something into it, I got a notification a few seconds later from an unknown number. The rest of the money had been deposited into my Toybox bank account using Number Man's services.

"We don't want Toybox as our enemy so how about we part ways here. Please, contact us once you've made your decision." Steelstrike took a step back. Oh? Common sense? In Worm? Well colour me surprised. I was completely expecting for us to come to blows.

We watched as they deactivated and moved the jammer back to the jeep and quickly drove off. Letting out a sigh, Bauble and I returned to the Toybox dimension while Toy Soldier relocated the portal. Collapsing onto a chair in my workshop, I pulled off my visor and tossed it aside. Bauble removed her mask as well and set it on the table while she hopped on.

"Not bad. You did well." She cocked her head. "All the way until they decided to spring an exclusivity with us, but that's pretty rare. Most of the time, they would send it through the proper channels and won't simply bring it up out of the blue."

I let out a sigh as I leaned back in my chair. "God. What the hell was that? I thought we would come to blows in a moment!" I gave an astonished look at Bauble.

Mariebelle nodded. "Well, sometimes you need a good threat to get villains going." I swear you could have worded that a lot better. "And it seems like that Steelstrike has a good head on his shoulders. His team might actually go farther than just a small-time antihero team with aspirations." She shot a glance at me. "Were you nervous?"

Nervous? I blew out some air. I didn't really feel… nervous? Well I still did, but my Solar memories gave me enough of a buffer that such emotions didn't dominate my thoughts. "Kinda. Not entirely though. There was no way that they were foolish enough to betray Toybox. Not with the two of you there I suppose." I shot a look at the glassware tinker.

"What a charmer." Marie joked, eliciting an amused huff from me. "Anyway, before you go spending all your newfound wealth on more components, do keep in mind that $25,000 will be deducted for Toybox operations." I nodded, though the sting of losing that much money annoyed me slightly.

"Gotcha." I nodded. "Don't worry about it. I'll budget my shopping list accordingly." I paused for a moment. "Say, are you going to even consider Steelstrike's offer?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Firstly, it's 'we', not 'you'." Oh right, I was part of Toybox. Whoops. Marie continued. "The exclusivity contract?" I nodded my head. "Nah. Highly unlikely. One of those contracts will run you about easily anywhere from $500,000 to over a million dollars in cost depending on the size of the contract."

My eyes suddenly got very big. "And it isn't really an exclusivity contract but rather an 'excluding' contract. You tell us which group you want us to not trade with, and we'll 'blacklist' them." She put 'blacklist' in heavy quotations. "And we normally charge through the nose for such contracts so bigger groups can't just throw money at us until we become effectively another tinker group. Opportunity costs, it's called." Marie gave a short bark of laughter.

"For a small group like Iron Fist, there is no way that they were getting enough money to buy the other groups' exclusion." Marie shook her head. "Anyway, I have some other things to do now. See ya, Nate." She said as she shot a glance at her phone. Waving goodbye, I watched as she left my workshop.

Her mask was left on my table. Was that on purpose…? I glanced at the door, waiting for a moment for her to return. After a few minutes, I decided that it was fair game, walking over to pick it up. It was rigid, and entirely made from glass. The inner side had no visible mechanism that would attach it securely to the face. Running my finger on the edge, there wasn't any suction or static pad that would hold it in place. Interesting but not really important right now.

I wanted to crack how the glass worked, pun not intended. The formless energy was much clearer now that I had it in my hands and could physically inspect it as well. Grabbing my visor, I used the lens to get a close-up view of the glass. Scientific Specialization told me that, visually at least, this glass had no discernible difference to normal tempered glass. Yea, it was structured differently, but that difference shouldn't make it bulletproof.

Not entirely unexpected, given that it was Shard bullshit that made tinkertech work in the first place. A thought bubbled up to the surface of my mind. If this was just regular glass, then… didn't that mean Bauble basically ran around in see-through clothes? Well I guess not entirely transparent given how it was either too bright or too dark to see what was underneath.

Something that I guessed was on purpose.

Anyway, this weird energy that Loremaster was picking up on was useful for the phone analyser thingy. I paused for a moment as I tried to think of a good name for it… The… Portable Shard… Fluctuations… Sensor… Array. The PSFSA!

I would have to work on that, I think.

I grabbed the components from my workshop and started working on a possible prototype for such a device. Hammer Jammer worked well enough to try and figure it out but it wasn't entirely in its wheelhouse, like designing a device that could sense dimensional fluctuations. And Machine Madness wasn't helping at all for rather obvious reasons.

I let out a sigh and I racked my brain, poking and prodding all my design perks to try and tease out a principle or insight that I could use. I was pretty sure I could ask Amaya to work on it, but I didn't think it was worth it. Her talents could be put to better use than asking her to create a sensor for an energy that she herself couldn't even detect.

Which reminded me to deposit her components. Using my key, I opened a door to the living room and tossed the components onto the table and knocked on her bedroom door before returning.

With that done, I continued bashing my head against the wall. The weight of the mask was the same as what one would expect from normal glass so this energy wasn't exerting any form of force on it. Or all its extra resultant forces ended with a zero. Picking up a hammer, I hesitated for a moment on whether I should smash it.

It was Marie's and not mine after all…

But I decided for it. If it couldn't take a simple hammer blow, I was doing her a favour.

I swung the hammer down and a loud bang echoed through the room. With Loremaster, I could 'see' the fluctuations in the enchantment as it activated to handle the sudden impact. Touching it immediately after, I couldn't feel any difference on the impact site or on the mask at all. Was it shunting the energy into a separate dimension?

Frowning, I swung the hammer down a few more times in rapid succession. And stumbled back as my arm was sent flying back on the third swing. Massaging my hand, I could feel the shock being transmitted back through my arm. Was that how it worked?

I rested another tool on the forehead of the mask. Lining up my hit, I raised my hammer up and struck it squarely on the nose. And saw as the tool bounced up higher than expected from such a fall and fell over off the table.

So those fluctuations were the Shard redirecting kinetic energy outwards. I nodded in understanding. Testing a few more strikes, I kept a close eye on how the fluctuations rippled out from the impact site. So as long as I struck the mask in the same way, the fluctuations would always ripple out the same way which made my life so much easier. Using that with Loremaster, I could see how the 'enchantment' worked to create such an effect.

And I could then cross-reference that with how the glass was structured to figure out how it was supposed to work. The glass was supposed to reflect any kinetic energy that impacted it. When struck, the energy would be split and then reflected out bit by bit back out towards the 'front'. Which was the 'front' was up to how the glass was structured in the first place. The enchantment simply altered the physical properties of the glass itself to create the effect.

The Celestial Forge spun up. This time hitting the Breeding Constellation. 'Ready to Pop' cut down on pregnancy times down to a single month as well as removing any penalties for fighting while pregnant. Not sure how… useful that is but I guess it was better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Anyway, moving on, back to the glass. This meant that not only was the impact prevented from reaching the surface underneath, the previous impact could be used to dissipate the next impact, making each successive hit weaker as more energy rebounded back.

With the effect and the basic outline of how the enchantment was structured using Loremaster, there were three questions that immediately came to mind. First was 'Could I replicate this effect with my own Enchantment perk?' and the answer was a definitive maybe. I would probably need a few tests and experiments but my gut feeling was a 'yes'.

The second was 'Could I replicate this effect with Machine Madness?' and the answer was a definitive yes. I had a full(ish) understanding of how the enchantment worked, with Loremaster and Savant working in tandem to figure it out. And that was enough. If I could incorporate it into the armour, my defensive capability would skyrocket in strength.

The third was 'Could I now replicate this glass specifically?' and it was another 'maybe'. Machine Madness could help with portions of it, but since it was a material rather than a device or being, I would need a perk that specifically dealt with the creation of new material or armour before I could start properly. However… Since 'being' wasn't out of the question, any artificial robot could also share a similar effect.

Well… even if I couldn't I could just keep it in my back pocket. When I get a material crafting perk, I would love to have a vibranium substitute.

I leaned back and nodded in contentment. I should look at tinkertech more often if I could derive this much benefit from it.

"Are you done with my mask?" Marie called out from behind me, making me jump in my seat.

Whirling around, the glass tinker had changed into a more comfortable loungewear, with lounge pants and a loose and oversized shirt. Glancing at the mask, I set down my tools and gingerly handed the mask back to her. "Um… sorry. I got a little too interested in the material."

A slight smile seemed to dance across her face. "Hm. What did you manage to get from it?"

"Well…" I considered for a moment to tell her everything I managed to get from it but decided against it. I don't think she would be able to use most of it anyway. Especially the information around 'energy structures' and magic enchantments. "It's reflecting and dissipating kinetic impacts so it becomes incredibly durable…" I recited my findings without touching on the metaphysical stuff from Shards. "Though, I thought it was bulletproof glass? I was expecting some sort of enhanced durability or something similar." I muttered as I stared at it.

"Well, it was safer to create something that reflects and refracts kinetic energy rather than improving the durability of glass. For enhanced durability, I did make something with the principles of a Prince Rupert's Drop, but the sheer pressure and forces acting on the glass made it impossible to scale up. Even a slight failure in its construction would cause it to explode in your face." Marie shrugged. "Though I did get it to work in the end. It's actually the main glass I use for the front armour paneling."

Huh. "So… you can combo the kinetic redirection with Prince Rupert's armour to safely take blows?"

She grinned slightly as she shrugged her shoulders again. "Pretty much. The defensive properties of both make it near impossible to shatter." Marie spun on her heel and started making her way to the door. "Anyway, don't make it a habit. Ask first before messing with another tinker's stuff." She twirled the mask on her finger as she glanced back at me. "Never know what little tricks they put in to prevent people from messing with them."

"Gotcha." I nodded as she left. Letting out a sigh, I wanted to get to work on my new insights but held myself back. Now that I had access to a workshop, and all my stuff… Let's implement Qu-It It 'blackboxing' onto all my gear. Then perhaps we could work on some other things on my to-do list…

A/N: Nathan gets cash now. And finally something to use Machine Madness on without needing that overly complex piece of machine he calls a sensor array...

Thinking what type of 'tech' Bauble should be able to make was a fun exercise. Sort of moving away from the literal idea of a 'glass cannon' and giving her a robust costume instead. Though her entire existence still gets nerfed by the mere presence of Shatterbird.

Perks gained:

-Ready To Pop (Fate/Whore Order) (100 CP)

◦ The members of the mafia and yakuza seem to have a minor obsession with breeding Scathach and the other female Servants. If Scathach is to be believed, then in the year and change that she's been doing this, she's had over 600 kids. Even accounting for the time loop that Luluhawa was in for a while, that's still somewhere between one and two kids per day, every day of the jump. And then you realize that this probably didn't start one day one, something like six months in is more accurate. Due to a couple of different things overlapping on themselves, you (or the women you impregnant) now have a very accelerated pregnancy, a mere month instead of nine. Additionally, said pregnancy lacks a great deal of the drawbacks a normal one would come with. You could even go onto the battlefield while heavily pregnant and the kid would be fine.