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Bio Forge Master (Rewrite) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 137k+, Favs: 57, Follows: 75, Published: Dec 12, 2023 Updated: Mar 15, 2024

29Chapter 28: 23

Bio Forge Master

Chapter 23

Fran Moss (Puppet)

[Celestial Forge]

Lewd Roll

Rolling

Master of Masters (600 CP) (Generic BDSM)

Success!

Remaining CP: 0

Fran imagined that everyone was curious as to how he paid the dockworkers for their services in having the hospital worked on and brought back up to code after years of neglect? Well, that's rather simple really, they bartered for their services. In fact, he honestly overpaid, but really for the goodwill it garnered it was well worth it.

Their payment being the equivalent of five times what they would make in money in biodiesel from algae that would run in regular diesel engines. Normally this would be counted as a bad deal for Dr. Patches but utilizing the frankly ludicrous knowledge he had in various fields of chemistry, biology, and over a dozen other scientific fields he produced an insane amount of fuel from algae.

His entire workshop is a marvel of energy generation, entirely self-sufficient even if it did not have a GM fusion reactor running in the corner.

The sewage beneath the hospital was tapped and cleaned, providing a near limitless amount of water that could easily be cleaned. That water was in turn used for the algae farm and the electrolysis and after a second round of cleaning it was safe for human and animal consumption and usage. (not that he ever planned to tell the girls where the water came from, honestly, they would find it disgusting regardless)

So, Dr. Patches had potentially millions of gallons of freshwater. Because people produced a lot of sewage, would've thunk it?

He had also made a copy of The Cradle and turned it into a food synthesizer, less accurate but far faster. He was still far away from pulling a Star Trek, but he was determined that he would eventually crack the code! Besides, it made for a fun project in all honesty.

The electricity alone had netted him thousands of dollars through a Tinker energy subsidies program that most cities in Bet America try to implement, the mayor probably would've thanked him if he wasn't constantly inundated with work due to the Wyrm of the Sea being dragged to Maine.

Honestly, Dr. Patches wondered if most Independent Tinkers got their funding through things like the TES program? Or where they just immediately snatched up by either the gangs or PRT?

Regardless, it wasn't something he was going to waste time on. He still had plenty of work to do in the hospital.

Fran always disliked being the 'normal body' (in fact he was starting to consider retiring his 'Fran' body entirely and just jumping from Fran to Dr. Patches like every other cape), not that he truly resented the position, there was value in being a Clark Kent metaphorically speaking anyways. Whenever he left to take the bus to work, he felt the emotions of everyone surrounding him, and he saw through that there was a hope in them no matter how faint it was. He'd taken to reading the minds of people on the bus every time he took it.

He never encountered any parahumans, but he did stop three suicides from happening just today! Which… made being 'normal' (but not really) a little more tolerable actually, after all a hero helps people and well… that's what he did!

Frankly, it was shocking to know how common suicides are in Bet, after all, he had just encountered three people who would've done it had he not nudged them to seek help. He hoped they would make it.

Finally, the bus had reached his stop and he disembarked and headed into the morgue. After clocking in and going through the whole song and dance, he went into a small locker to put his personal items away before dawning what many would think was a simple surgical mask.

It wasn't actually, and it had taken him weeks to finally manage to create it and not have it look like obvious tinkertech or otherwise otherworldly. It had taken him some time actually to realize but Here We Are allowed him to visualize souls, how he didn't realize it sooner he had no explanation for. But he wasn't planning on doing any soul science, he was more interested in what energy was left after the soul departed.

This in turn led to him creating what he called the Mask of Scavenging, which allowed him to harvest the energy left behind in a corpse and make himself stronger.

You see whilst he has been able to create a Soul container, he did know that the mask alone could be used to make a human stronger. And while his soul being stronger would allow him to use more powerful magitech (as well as strengthen his magical affinity), the only cost would be desecrating corpses in ways that not even a tinker could detect.

The abuse of a corpse is a serious crime in New Hampshire, but with no scientific test that could discover what he took, it was smooth sailing. Besides, it's not like he was stealing their entire soul! Just the remnants that would naturally dissipate over the next weeks or months!

"How strange I've become since landing in Bet. Prevented three suicides and drinking the remnant souls of the dead in the same day." He's pretty sure that his initial perks did something to his head to make him more flexible morally speaking.

Still, as he started making his usual rounds, helping out with this or that, Fran allowed his mind to wander.

Magitech worked in three forms the disposable, the powered, and the self-powered.

'Disposables' doesn't mean weak or cheap, usually being referred to as disposable dictates the function of the object in question. Disposables usually come in two categories, either multi-use or single-use. Power varies between low-power but can be used multiple times or high-powered but single-use items.

Of course, the 'Disposable' camp included things such as Force fields, Pocket dimension, Magical Flight, and other static and semi-static forms of environmental manipulation.

'Powered' indicated that the item has an external power source, one which is consumed after use such as the teleport integrated into Esper's bike and eventual car. They can perform far more energy intensive operations than Disposable ones.

Actually, Disposable and Powered magitech could be compared to Electric and Gasoline now that he thought about it. Both had their benefits, but each had their specific areas where they outperform the other.

'Self-Powered' is actually a subset of the Powered category, it consists of the energy being drawn from the user. Cursed objects, Enchanted items are considered Self-Powered, along with foci and magic rings, and they all generally require attunement to the user. The downside of this category is obvious, it's powered by the user, so excessive use could and potentially will have severe consequences.

For the life of him, he can't work out the process to turn regular energy into magical energy, even the methods he had that could do it didn't work well in Bet. Possibly due to either the Shards drinking up all magic (doubtful but possible) or magic simply doesn't exist in this dimension (decently possible) and converting mundane energy into mystical energy was for more of a pain than he had ever anticipated.

Unfortunately, magitech despite its name is a rather poor container for magic itself, it could store massive amounts of energy but other than letting the magitech operate longer or be used more often it doesn't strengthen the device itself. Even if he did make a magitech car that ran on gasoline or biofuel he couldn't convert it into a magic generator because the conversion of energies doesn't fucking work!

It would be like… plugging a hybrid car into the grid and expecting it to make more gasoline! Utterly impossible.

However, protodermis has made the entire process easier, allowing him to make organic magitech just as the Mask of Scavenging and other power masks. They were solidly in the Self-Powered category but at the lower end with far fewer downsides than almost other forms of Self-Powered magitech he could make.

Even then you'd still need to be at Human levels minimum to actually use it, if Fran gave it to any average joe off the streets, they would be dead within an hour of use. While the power draw is significantly lower, you'd still need to be significantly stronger than what is possible for entirely mundane humans. And he definitely had no plans of letting his Power Masks out into the wild, so to say, as parahumans barely scrapped the bare minimum of requirements.

And the thought of the Rage Dragon using one of his Power Masks is genuinely terrifying, some of the Power Masks he could create? They would never see the outside of his workshop no matter how beneficial they would be towards helping the city or fighting crime!

In fact, the Mask of Scavenging initially was a deep crimson color and had protrusions along the lower half, its eyes narrowed in constant fury. In fact, it was almost comical if he didn't know it held such a terrifying concept.

Brockton Bay had around ten thousand deaths per year (with some fluctuation of course), the vast majority of the corpses were retrieved for funerals. Even then he still dealt with a dozen of them a day even on good days, and those were dozens of remnants the Mask of Scavenging harvested and fed into his own soul.

It made him feel rather nostalgic, even after all this time he came back to stealing from the dead.

In truth the mask would've been impossible to recreate if he hadn't had We Are Here and the ability to visualize, interact, and manipulate souls. Which also came with the ability to extract them, which would generally create undead but not if the body was already dead to begin with.

But as stated earlier the energy harvested varies from corpse to corpse, there is no set amount to be recovered. So, some weeks he came away with barely any soul growth, and other times his soul would grow by a fact or ten. And while it didn't make him immediately stronger, it did allow him to use magitech far longer and safer than others as well as strengthen his own magical affinity… not that it was of any use as magic didn't seem to exist on Bet at all.

Honestly? He'd been terrified to use the mask before, he feared it would drive him to kill to harvest the power of the dead.

That wasn't a concern now that his willpower is unbreakable thanks to the Master of Masters perk.

Still the increase in magical affinity was a plus despite not actually knowing any 'proper' magic, it allowed him to create more powerful forms of magitech. Magitech in itself wasn't negentropic but eventually he would have the ability to create devices that could operate for centuries, but it would need to have power supplied by the creator, and by making himself stronger he could make everything he creates stronger.

He even considered other methods before choosing this such as vampire and werewolf transformations and even trying to use Lungs DNA and Feel It Out to blindly try in Marco Polo his own genetic structure (which had to be an utter hodgepodge at this point) to the point he could produce Dragon Crystals, but he considered those to be too dangerous compared to the passive ability of the mask...

It was a trade he felt was worth it, even if using the Mask of Scavenging had questionable ethical dilemmas attached to it.

In fact, now that he thought about his magical affinity his thoughts immediately went to his first foray into… basically magical tattooing. The process was… surprisingly simple actually, especially when you can apply runes microscopically without a drop in quality due to unsteady hands or other such issues.

In fact, said tattoos were the basis of Aisha's hydrokinetic power! Granted the… area and design of the tattoo was both distracting and embarrassing in equal measure. However, it essentially allowed her to use magic to either conjure or manipulate preexisting water through use of her body's own bioelectric current, granted it wasn't something she could use heavily without severe repercussions, but Fran was still refining the process and improving.

And now he finally turned his attention to his latest perk, Master of Masters. To be fair… he didn't actually know why he got a lewd roll. Actually, he didn't understand how the Forge decided on what was worth a lewd roll and why others weren't worth a lewd roll. Seriously, how can Fran while controlling both his 'civilian' and Dr. Patches bodies double teaming Aisha and indulging her in this newly discovered raceplay kink of hers not register when the dirty talk got absolutely filthy?

Seriously, he said he was going to 'breed the black out of her' and Fran was fairly certain if he was a regular man Aisha would've ripped his dick off with her vaginal muscles alone!

Still, the fickle nature of the Forge aside, the perk itself was fairly straightforward. It essentially made his willpower unbreakable and unlimited, no amount of torture, gaslighting, brainwashing, or anything else would ever break him. In fact, he suspected it gave him a resistance to most Mastering effects, though hopefully it was more like an immunity in all honesty.

Not to mention since it affects his willpower it in turn influenced his psionic abilities! While it didn't necessarily make them stronger (honestly, they didn't need to be strengthened really) they did increase how efficiently he can use them. Now he could perform telekinetic surgery on himself and anyone with no actual errors or accidents!

Honestly, he wished he got the perk even earlier! It would've made performing surgery on himself so much simpler! Hell, he wouldn't have needed to suppress his pain… maybe, but it doesn't matter now.

Shaking his head, he hummed a little tune to himself as he continued making his rounds, all the while passively increasing his own power with the disguised Mask of Scavenging.

Fran Moss/Dr. Patches (Original)

Finally, today was the day, the official inauguration of his hospital! And what better way to make the day memorable than to welcome his first official client, Uppercrust of the Elite! He didn't care in the slightest about the man's affiliations to the villainous organization, if anything he sympathized towards them. There was nothing wrong with trying to make a living with your power outside of joining a government-sanctioned organization in his honest opinion. Not to say he doesn't vaguely understand the purpose of NEPEA-5, but the scope of it is simply too broad, which in turn led to the creation of the Elite in the first place.

Still, with his operation he would provide healing to anyone regardless of affiliations, including the Butcher if only so they don't bodyjack himself or some random parahuman. Better yet it wouldn't be running afoul of the bill in question as he isn't handing out enhancements and limits his operations to healing and cosmetic.

"Welcome to… hmm Patches Clinic, having really given a thought to a better name." Dr. Patches said with a smile, "Please tell me about what exactly you're wanting me to do for you."

"You're the Super Doctor, I thought you could figure stuff out just from a look?" Uppercrust retorted, not upset but rather curious.

"While technically true." Dr. Patches admitted, "It doesn't mean I can do a perfect diagnostic all the time. Also, while I might know what you're experiencing after some investigation, what I want to know is how You are being affected. How has this condition impacted your quality of life to such a degree that you would reach out to a still relatively unknown Biotinker?" He explained.

"Bolt to the brain after Behemoth arrived in New York." Uppercrust said bluntly but Dr. Patches could hear the anger behind the exhaustion, "Inoperable through conventional means, probably some Heavy Metal poisoning and other stuff. I've been shunting off everything to Scapegoat, but visits are getting less and less effective. So, not to be cliche, doc you're my last hope." He added with a very bitter chuckle.

Dr. Patches hummed as a prototype of an assistant automaton walked over with some coffee for each of them before returning to its original duties. They had been a recent idea, still fairly bare bones, he actually already had an idea for aesthetics but he wanted to refine the mechanical side before he fully committed.

Also a shielded micro GM reactor was being a fickle bitch, and charging the automatons was exhausting.

Uppercrust took the coffee gladly and sipped it as he waited for Dr. Patches' decision, which honestly was fairly obvious really.

"I'll help you." He said, "And I don't care if you're a villain or not."

"All that's left is price." Uppercrust said and Dr. Patches nodded.

Honestly, Dr. Patches would've done it for free but he didn't want people to start thinking he would heal anything for a pittance! Besides, if a service is free then it's not given the respect it deserves, and his services demand respect given what he is capable of!

After a few seconds thought Dr. Patches said, "Well, I'll be completely frank with you. I'm not really good at pricing. However, seeing as the Wyrm is gone I could waive any fees for one of your Costal Force Fields to further help the city itself. And… maybe you can arrange for Canary to get a lawyer that actually does their job? Honesty the trial is a sham and railroading, and they're not even trying to be subtle about it."

Uppercrust blinked, here was a guy that had him over the table metaphorically speaking… and he's asking for one thing he was planning to do anyway and for something he would agree with on principle! This man is clearly not made for negotiations, either because he's a bleeding heart or he's one of those geniuses that doesn't actually understand how much his skills are worth.

Honestly, Uppercrust was considering having one of his underlings stay with the man on retainer to make sure people don't swindle the guy!

"Also a quarter million per month for so long as we both live, the destruction of the Empire, and your material stocks." he added quickly as he sensed the pity the guy was feeling towards him.

Uppercrust immediately calmed, no doubt thinking he was some sort of thinker as well. Which… well he is now technically now that he thought about it.

"Hmm, I can do that." Uppercrust said, "Though the Empire… well, they're dug in deep around here. That would take some time."

"Well, as long as some of the more… disruptive members of the Elite… one gang is well on its way to collapse. So I think the city has room for another gang." Dr. Patches said, "And with the Wyrm out of the way well, the city will only get better."

Uppercrust faintly smirked at just how pragmatic Dr. Patches was sounding, he knew the threat of a power vacuum, he chuckled before shaking his head genuinely amused at the doctor before him.

"Rather pragmatic aren't you?" He asked with a chuckle.

Dr. Patches shrugged, "Well better the Elite than the Teeth. I already threw hands with the abomination of a parahuman, would not recommend." He said honestly, "But do we have a deal then, Uppercrust?"

"I do believe we do, Dr. Patches!" Uppercrust said with a laugh, "It's like a breath of fresh air to talk to a pragmatic hero." He added.

Dr. Patches shrugged, "Less pragmatic and more knowing that if that vacuum isn't filled another gang or worse the Teeth will come wandering in." He said, "Gangs are simply a part of life in the Bay, simply put the Elite are more palatable than the ABB and definitely better than the Teeth. At least you all don't abduct women off the street, drug them, and turn them into whores."

"We ain't saints either." Uppercrust retorted.

"Never said you were." Dr. Patches said, "Now let's say we get that bolt out of your brain so you can get back to enjoying life, eh?"

[Celestial Forge]

Acquired CP: 150 CP

Available CP: 150 CP

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