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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 30: 24

Bio Forge Master

The First Domino

Fran Moss/Dr. Patches (Original)

Right from the start Dr. Patches knew that this surgery would be the most scrutinized operation he had ever done. He had to explain the process thoroughly to doctors that Uppercrust had via video call, as well as provide documentation. But those were for insurance reasons, but not in the traditional sense of the word.

In this instant the insurance companies under the employ of the Elite were using him as the insurance, they needed to know if he was legitimate, or their entire business would collapse. Or at least that's from what Dr. Patches could understand.

He certainly had no head for business, so he didn't question it.

Then lawyers were involved, ones under Uppercrusts employ as well as ones he provided Dr. Patches himself. Generously paying their fees for legal counsel, and not some cheap lawyer either, he didn't catch the name of the law firm but what he did know was that they weren't cheap in the slightest.

Truly the sheer amounts of money that Uppercrust brought out was absolutely insane.

Honestly Dr. Patches considered selling him an organism that he had been fiddling with that, in theory, would collect specific isotopes. And just based on the sheer amount of money Uppercrust spent on isotopes, the organism would be well worth its weight in gold!

Of course, he still had to do some adjustments and build some contingencies into the organism in case it ever escaped into the wild.

Outside the hospital the rest of Uppercrusts security detail formed a massive perimeter, every building around the hospital was rented or bought out right just so they could make a checkpoint on the road leading to the hospital itself. And as a possible sign of the Elite deciding to invest in forming a branch in Brockton Bay Uppercrust authorized a sizable donation to the city to cover the work the Elite would put in to build up the infrastructure around the hospital itself.

Dr. Patches had no doubt the mayor was overjoyed, even if the donation was coming from the Elite. Hell, if anything the fact that the money was coming from the Elite made it better, after all wherever they set up shop the Elite have a habit of ensuring the economy and the city itself is prosperous.

Besides best to his knowledge a lot of the buildings surrounding the hospital were abandoned apartment units, or construction sites that were abandoned due to the lack of funding. So really Uppercrust was revitalizing the area around the hospital to give the economy a boost.

It was also a rather effective if blatant strategy the gang often used to great effect, after all look what they could do to a single area! What if they could do that to the rest of the city, all you have to do is just look the other way while we, the Elite, fix up everything that you couldn't due to insufficient funding.

After all there are many reasons, the Elite are a difficult gang to get rid of.

It didn't hurt that Uppercrust's men snatched up the surroundings for cheap, clearly planning on setting up the beginnings of an Elite cell. And also, because he wanted his stay to be as short as possible, though oddly enough the man seemed pleased as punch that the hospital lacked any sort of disinfectant smell that is common for most medical facilities, which no doubt would raise the rating of Dr. Patches hospital for that alone.

He knew it wasn't a waste to experiment with disinfectants to remove that smell! Aisha now owned him ten bucks!

Still the hospital wasn't complete, large sections of it still under reforms, while other places were inspected for explosives and poisons. In fact, the entire area was swarming with capes that were a part of Uppercrust's entourage.

A part of him still felt awkward that through his own actions he was connecting himself to the Elite, and as a hero that was especially troublesome. However, the Elite had a pretty monetary view of things, pay your dues and don't fuck with the enterprise, and they get along. So really, he'd still have plenty of independence, at worst he could be considered a corporate cape.

"I hope you're aware of the consequences of failure?" Uppercrust asked.

"I'm well aware." And he was, "That's why I'm not going to rush anything. This will be time-consuming and difficult, despite all the miracles that have kept you alive." He added in complete sincerity.

Uppercrust just gave a faint chuckle at that, "Scapegoat does good work." He admitted as Dr. Patches looked at a brain scan.

"Never mind Sanguine, the original Lizard Tail, and dozens of other healers over the years." Dr. Patches commented.

By all rights Uppercrust should be brain dead, the fact that he wasn't was credited to the quality of parahuman healing he's been receiving over the years. Honestly people rarely receive this level of healing more than once in their life, never mind multiple healing sessions over the years.

As Dr. Patches carefully looked over the brain scan, he considered the overall preparedness of Uppercrust's security detail, which included regular humans along with parahumans from one of the Elite's many PMCs no doubt. If he wasn't mistaken, they were from the Golden Orioles PMC, who were especially noted for their roles in several European internal conflicts and successfully killing one of the Blasphemies bodies without the use of parahuman abilities.

That feat alone won them a great deal of prestige and fame.

Though why they were called the Golden Orioles when they wore purple was beyond him in all honesty.

There were only six of the Golden Orioles, the rest of the security detail pulled from the rank and file of the PMC, and all of them were armed with tinkertech armor and weapons. In fact, they would've warranted a classification of 0 on the PRT threat assessment, which they didn't do all that often for people without powers. Dr. Patches was legitimately tempted to offer them some security work, well at least until he completed the Drone network which would be controlled by the Twins, in exchange for Zoanthrope transformations but held back.

He'd shelve those considerations to consider in the future.

Everything was ready and they had all entered his Workshop to commence the surgery, which Dr. Patches had to explain again the reason behind the operation taking place in a pocket dimension instead of in the perfectly serviceable surgery in the hospital.

And after going over just how sensitive this procedure would be and how he couldn't be distracted for a second the security detail finally started to relax and allow Uppercrust's assistant to begin to remove the tinkertech system that allowed the man to walk before helping him onto the surgery table.

"Okay, now I know you all won't leave so can you please get in the observation booth?" Dr. Patches requested, "I don't need to be crowded."

There was some grumbling from the more fanatical guards but ultimately the operation theater emptied until only Dr. Patches and Uppercrust remained. Breathing a sigh of relief, he put on an oxygen mask onto Uppercrust before moving to the anesthetics.

"Please, count backwards from a hundred." Dr. Patches requested as he started to administer the anesthesia, personally, he would've preferred to use his own stuff, but he decided to use the regular stuff.

Mainly because it had been more well-documented, and he wouldn't be surprised if some of the security detail got pissy if he used unknown drugs on Uppercrust.

The man made it to eighty-seven before falling unconscious, Dr. Patches chuckled faintly before stopping the anesthesia before moving to take position. Uppercrusts head was resting in a rig and without hesitation he started performing the craniectomy, which started with the slow removal of the scalp, and when the skull was fully exposed Dr. Patches grabbed a customized bonesaw and started to open the skull. The hole he made was far smaller than other surgeons would make but it didn't slow Dr. Patches down.

It also helped that his tools were made from psychoactive Protodermis that not only gave even more control over them, but they could change into any other tool he needed at a moment's notice. Combined with his Steady Hands the sheer amount of leverage he had was unheard of. Honestly the idea to make his tools out of Protodermis was the single best investment he had ever made!

According to the methodical medical history provided by Uppercrust the bolt had originated from the Cooper Union building, a foundation building. The first building to have an elevator shaft if Dr. Patches wasn't mistaken, predating the elevator itself by around four years. Uppercrust had been working there when Behemoth attacked, well before the use of air sirens had been standardized so people mostly just panicked back then in every direction.

Which, honestly, hadn't changed much even now.

After some gently moving brain tissue around, he finally found where the bolt had originally settled. The bolt consisted of steel and had been punched by Behemoth a few thousand feet away, exactly at Upercrust's head. Which saved his life as the wounded were evacuated faster by the barge and the rest of the people waiting died to the kill aura long before the ferry could return.

The bolt itself had long since dissolved into a cloud of rust with a small core of solid metal. The problem with the extraction wasn't that removing the bolt would disturb the cloud and shed it in contact with the brain, killing him, it was a problem not even the most ridiculous of tinker tech could solve, a challenge to even his own extraordinary skills.

So, with painstaking slowness Dr. Patches started to work, and this would probably be the most important surgery he'd have done in his life so far!

Taylor Hebert/Rabbit

She'd finally done it; she gave up on that horrible excuse of a school.

Admittedly, it took Fran making her read testimonials of other people (not just teenagers but people of all ages) suffering from bullying. Did she finally realize the sheer magnitude and just how widespread bullying is across the entire country, if not world!

Aside from that realization, it wasn't actually the bullying that made her consider leaving. It was the things that spilled over from bullying that worried her. Sending threats to people's parents, vandalizing their houses, and killing pets. All these things could happen as a result of a bullying campaign.

In all honesty she was still amazing; it never escalated to that point. She knew Sophia could do a lot of shit and probably never get cause due to her bullshit power.

Taylor is many things, some of them not complementary, but the one thing that no one could ever deny is that she loved her father. And while things were difficult between them the thought of putting him in the firing line made her blood run cold, this was her cross to bear, but Fran's insistence had finally broken through that the problem simply wouldn't stop if she ignored them.

Honestly, she was glad Fran finally got through to her, she never shared this with anyone but… there were times when she was home alone in the bathroom that she considered just… ending it. It would be easy; she could hang herself or simply use her dad's razor… the thoughts never went anywhere of course. The effects of that hurting her dad was simply too much for her, if mom's death broke him, what would her death do?

"Sometimes the best way to win is to simply not play the game." Fran told her.

Funny how not 'playing the game' had rekindled her long dead hope to attend a university just like her mom.

Another funny thing though was how her relationship with Fran had changed after what happened in Boston. Logically she knew he wasn't dead, he puppeting two bodies regularly enough for her to know that losing a body would just be an irritation at the most. Between that incident, their prolonged sessions in the Matrix (where they either learned, relaxed, dated, or fucked around) Taylor had finally come to a conclusion that she knew Aisha agreed with fully.

She loved Fran, she loved Aisha too. They came into her life like an unapologetic hurricane that decided that nerdy little Taylor deserved nice things.

But back to her newly revived dream of attending university, honestly with how much time she spent learning from Fran himself and independent study from the massive amounts of information that seemed to grow daily she knew without a hint of doubt that she would easily get her GED (never mind while in the Matrix she could go over seven hundred hours straight), which was actually scheduled for tomorrow… Aisha's would be as well but well it seems that Fran's wonder-drug had thrown a hitch in Aisha's plans.

Apparently, she was hoping her mom would agree with it, but seeing as she was sober and incapable of actually looking at recreational drugs any more well, Aisha's mom decided that she needed to make up for years of neglect and being a shitty parent.

Still despite Aisha's current issues Taylor finally got fed up and let them have their 'victory', she would be getting her GED tomorrow, and she had aced every single mock test she took! Heck she was acing the mock tests for Harvard, Yale, MIT, and the Bar exam! One of her minds (and still the fact she could actually parallel process her thoughts still blew her mind) had been dedicated to nothing but study for an entire month, it still worked while she slept, and it wasn't like it needed distractions like food or going outside.

If anything, if she failed the test itself? It wouldn't be because of a failing on her part, but it would be due being under the suspicion of cheating.

So here she was, on a Sunday without a single worry in her mind, doing a dozen different things due to the bullshit Mind-Machine interface. While she was physically watching Fran's kitten (who was now obviously biotinkered with but still painfully adorable), she was playing Skyrim with Aisha in the Matrix and was venturing in the nude at a dare from Aisha, honestly she didn't think she would've enjoyed naturalism as much as she did, though she did have to do some on the spot coding when she got fed up on the NPCs commenting about her nudity and making other crass remarks.

Honestly, the degree of Fran's programming still startled her, the NPCs honestly seemed so life-like it was something!

But surprisingly walking around naked felt liberating, almost intoxicatingly so, granted it made combat far more difficult, but she found herself enjoying the challenge it provided. (She also wondered if she could get Fran to make her costume even more flattering… as she enjoyed the looks the NPCs gave her, if felt so good to be looked at as something to be admired or lusted over) Her skin could take the cold that would give anyone else frostbite, and the wind and rain barely registered, and honestly… clothes didn't have much of a point unless you weren't wearing armor anyway.

But aside from her gaming and watching the kitten, two parallel minds were doing one final cramming session (which honestly wasn't entirely necessary with all the knowledge crammed in her head from studying in the Matrix along with whatever fuckery that blood transfusion did) and another was surfing the net. But physically she was doing exercise, granted not using the equipment Fran especially designed for her. She found herself enjoying working herself to the point of exhaustion, a rush of pleasurable pain would shoot through her each time, honestly logically she knew she shouldn't enjoy the soreness all over her body, but she did.

A while back she got curious about her reaction to exhaustion so she did some research about it, where she learned that women could actually have small orgasms from exercise, and she was one of them. Especially with the Human augmentations, the small orgasms simply grew stronger, as did the release of endorphins.

Ever since she learned that? She did crunches, squats, push-ups, and sit-ups to the point of failure every single day, increasing the amount as her body grew more and more resilient in response to her exercise. Granted she did less on school days of course, but she still completed her routine.

Much to the sorrow of everyone on the Track team she had dropped out of it, not because it didn't do anything as she still enjoyed the runner's high, but because it was getting progressively harder to manage her speed.

Not for the first time she wondered if she was addicted to exercise, the definition of addiction is something that interferes with your life. But when you're capable of simultaneously running eight parallel minds, she had far more time than anyone else bar Fran and Aisha for everything in her life, since the majority of it didn't necessarily need her to be physically present.

Her thoughts were then interrupted when the kitten, ignoring her exercise completely, jumped up on her waist and padded up onto her chest before curling up into a ball in her cleavage! (And she still can't get over the fact that she actually had proper boobs now, yeah, they aren't the beach balls Emma is so proud of, but they are hers and she loves them!)

Staring at the small fluffy tyrant that lived in her house part-time (Aisha's mom was allergic to cats), she quickly reached over to her cell as well as a selfie-stick to take a picture of the sight. One of the fringe benefits of the Mind-Machine interface was the ability to take selfies without having to navigate to the camera app. After activating the necessary filters to ensure she wouldn't out herself as well as ensure there was nothing in the picture to give away her location, she decided to share the picture on PHO.

She was pretty sure her workout clothes didn't violate TOS.

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Topic: Behold, your new Fluffy Overlord!

In: Boards Eye Bleach

Rabbit (Original Poster) (Verified Bunny) (Mangler of Hookwolf) (Verified Cape)

Posted On Jan 1st 2011:

Look at this cutie!

[PIC]

Her name is Cringer, apparently, the name is a reference of some kind.

I don't know, but Dr. Patches is a dork, but I love him regardless.

I was just in the middle of an intense workout when this little tyrant decided that I had done enough and wasn't paying enough attention to her. So, I figured while showing off this adorable kitten, I'd share my work-out clothes! Don't mind the sweat, I'd been exercising at the time.

Pretty sure my workout clothes don't violate TOS, I don't think it's particularly risqué, but I suppose some mods can be particularly anal-retentive about that sort of thing.

God, it's hard to believe Dr. Patches found this sweetie wandering the streets. She was blind, starving, her fur was horribly dirty and matted! But as you can see now, she's possibly the healthiest kitten alive now!

And she's so smart, seriously you guys have no damn idea! I wouldn't be surprised if she started shitposting on PHO when she's a little older!

"I get no respect in this house." She thought as the kitten kneaded her breasts, she mused as she looked at her post for a moment, she knew it would attract weirdos, but she was fine with that. The sheer perverseness of PHO didn't really bother her anymore, and the compliments were sometimes endearing, not to mention the moderation was excellent for female capes posting pictures.

She is damn proud of her body; she knew for a fact that her physique was better than others. Something that she would have never considered before, but the transformation from an upright frog to a mini amazon certainly did her self-confidence a world of good! All those digs from Emma and the other girls about her appearance honestly didn't even register now, if anything they seemed so petty now. Their words had gone from nails to raindrops, they just bounced right off.

Though Aisha often joked about it being due to her literal thicker skin, Taylor got back at her by squeezing her head between her thighs, which in turn led to rather… intimate shenanigans between them.

But it went beyond being comfortable really, between spending figurative years in the Matrix combined with her ability to parallel process she started thinking more about her relationship with her dad. She'd never stop loving him, she's her dad after all, but she had started to simply… not consider his opinion. If anything, she found herself more upset at anything. She knew he didn't have the same advantages as him, and that mom's death was hard on him, but it was hard on her too! She wasn't asking for him to make her his number one priority (which it realistically should be. Seeing as she's his daughter, after all), but would it be so hard to at least engage in some small talk?

Her dad didn't need to oversee the hospital rework, he's the Head of Hiring, not construction oversight. She would love for her dad to just come home from work one day, and they could have a simple dinner and not him buying her favorite pizza as a bribe and apology because he was exhausted.

Honestly, she didn't like thinking about her dad's lackadaisicalness towards her, he was better but… still, he wasn't the man she remembered. It hurt her in her heart to acknowledge it, but the dad she remembered died with her mom.

The only other time she felt so angry, no when she felt truly furious, was when Fran nearly got himself killed in Boston! The sheer fury she felt almost paralyzed her, it was a good thing she wasn't at school, or she would've launched the first person to mess with her through a wall! It was only when Fran was back safe did her emotions finally settle, leaving her feeling oddly numb for days afterward.

Emotional exhaustion, Fran had called it. He went on to explain that due to her altered brain she experiences emotions much more intensely than normal, and after prolonged periods of emotional intensity her brain's emotional centers shut down for the most part to recover.

She knew she should be scared by just how different her body and mind were, but she wasn't, if anything she was glad her body was.

If anything, Taylor found herself imagining the day she, Aisha, and Fran all got married. Would their families be there? Or would they elope? Though the thought of Aisha's brother trying to intimidate Fran amused her greatly.

Emily Piggot

Emily knew she let her emotions get the better of her, she knew logically that even though Dr. Patches was a Biotinker; he wasn't a monster villain. He had gone out of his way to help people regardless of where they landed on either side of the law, she found that sort of attitude laudable honestly.

Even though she was itching to throw the book at him for administering untested tinkertech drugs to Armsmaster, the only reason she was barely holding back was because the drug stabilized him long enough to get him to the hospital and for Panacea to treat him.

Pinching her nose, she really wasn't looking forward to her next appointment with her therapist. He's been so happy with how much progress she had been making as well, but the knowledge that she had a Biotinker in her city no doubt planning to create monsters just threw her all the way back to the metaphorical starting line.

Undoing nearly two years' worth of therapy!

Grumbling, she opened PHO and saw a new post on the Eye Bleach board. She immediately started navigating to it.

(Hey, you try working a stressful job as PRT Director and see if you don't need some soothing eye bleach to try and forget the nightmares the job inspired!)

Seeing a new subject thread, she clicked on before immediately clicking the picture and whatever good feelings she felt about seeing an adorable kitten disappeared. The sensations the picture elicited were almost indescribable, like a pit in your stomach opening up alongside the type of fear that both paralyzed you and made you want to run.

Though it was clearly a kitten, the fur was unnatural, and she could only imagine what further alterations Dr. Patches the Monster had made to it.

She knew this sensation, she felt the exact same thing back in Elisburg, as the ACP they arrived in was eaten alive by a cute and cuddly-looking creature. It lulled her into lowering her guard before it attacked.

The screams haunted Emily's dreams ever since, the screams and the hideous laughter of those monsters and their psychotic creator that fancies itself as God-King.

Emily closed her eyes as memories she hated to think came up.

It was a car, it looked like a kid's toy, something they would get in and pretend to drive. It had bit her CO's head clean off! Sprouting tentacles from its mouth and grabbed him by his head and just… swallowed! The head first but then the rest of his body disappeared!

Emily shook herself, "No, no. Patches hadn't made any monsters! The kitten's fur just changed color as a side effect of however he saved her! Yeah… just slow down, Patches isn't a monster. He isn't like Rinkle!" She refused to call that monster by its chosen moniker.

It was a petty form of spite, but it helped her all the same.

But the idea of arresting him lingered, she knew it would cost her job, she may even be arrested. But she couldn't bring herself to care too much, maybe if she put Patches in the Cage the nightmares would stop? Would she get a momentary reprieve from them?

She wasn't alone in these thoughts; she wasn't the only survivor of that fairy tale horror that Rinkle had created. Calvert was there as well, he knew the horrors that haunted Emily, though he got away from that nightmare relatively unscathed.

Why? Why were the monsters made to look adorable? Like something out of a cartoon, people think that his fairy tale land was some sort of horror made of meat. But the truth, it was so much worse, it was the most Disneyland looking place on earth before Disney went bankrupt!

The disgusting saccharine nature of his little monsters, that was where the true abhorrence came from. On the surface they looked like a kiddie mascot you could trust to keep an eye on your own kids, and then they opened their mouths revealing rotating layers of teeth that shredded soldiers!

Their eyes, so cute and adorable, hiding the absolute desire to kill and destroy everything she and her team loved and fought to protect!

She put her face in her hands and took a long shuddering breath as she wrestled with her emotions. She couldn't… she couldn't keep this up. This position already was killing her by inches. Panacea stressed her out, but she stuck firmly to healing so she was a non-issue, but Patches!

She didn't care how illogical it was, she didn't care how 'genuinely' nice Dr. Patches the Monster seemed, but she refused to let this city become another Elisburg! Using the picture and post, she compiled her orders. The Monster would be arrested, she didn't know if the charges would stick but his workshop was to be raided. He already created one minion; she wouldn't wait for him to create another! She would not let this city she swore an oath to protect be turned into the largest slaughterhouse in the country!

To ensure her orders were followed she implemented the Bioterror contingency, which had only been used twice before in the history of the PRT. Both resulted in the caging of the persons in question. It had a high bar for acceptance, but the PRT won roughly ninety-five percent of judicial cases they prosecuted. The contingency was used for exactly this situation, there was absolutely no way that multi-limbed monstrosity was getting away!

As the order was sent, and a company of PRT shocktroopers, men she personally picked from Elisburg and others she knew would keep following orders, were assembled, Emily immediately started to work on her resignation letter. Either her last order would be seen as enough, or she would escape with a dishonorable discharge.

The order would be carried out by two companies; one of standard PRT agents and another of her hand selected troops, two APCs with Containment Foam launchers and mounted machine guns, each agent would be armed with FAL rifles with a Stinger missile in case of emergency. Standard anti-brute protocols were to be enacted, along with M/S protocols.

They were the best men she had for the job, and they would follow through. They would either arrest the Monster or put him down.

Either way… she would do her best to protect this cesspit of a city even if she had to drag away from what it thought it was best, and though her actions were guided by raw emotion instead of pragmatism and logic… she felt that she would hopefully find some sort of peace in what was about to occur.

[Celestial Forge]

CP Gained: 250

Available CP: 400

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