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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 36: 29

Bio Forge Master

Into the Belly of the Beast

Fran Moss/Esper

Esper legitimately felt like fate itself is fucking with him to keep him from getting to Brockton Bay, like some meta-narrative force that worked liked Gotham city forced itself onto this shitty New England city. It would certainly explain why EVERY FUCKING TIME he needs to drop whatever he is doing to come back here.

(In truth he was actually trying to distract himself from the pain he was experiencing as Dr. Patches as well as the paradoxical sensory feedback he was getting)

The possibility of the city being cursed was legitimately starting to seem more reasonable by the second, never mind the fact he had multiple police departments on his ass along with a few thousands of dollars in damages and fines for traveling some sixty-odd miles in ten minutes. If people get to violate speeding laws because their wives were giving birth, then he also should get the same consideration!

After all he was going to save his brother (other body)!

Honestly, he would've crashed on something if it weren't for the recently discovered New-type abilities he gained from the GM particles, letting him dodge traffic in slow motion.

He was annoyed that he had to rebury the gold as it would've weighed him down otherwise, what was worse is that he wasn't even going to go back to Brockton originally except for an Endbringer fight. But noooooo! There just had to be an S-class emergency in that damn city, because of fucking course there had to be one!

Given his vague knowledge of the 'canon' he figured Coil decided to go fuck it and just flip the goddamn script entirely.

The thing he especially hated though? Having to do exactly what the Butcher did and slamming the car into the flying Bizzaro Alexandria!

Taking Echidna into the middle of nowhere just as he was finally arriving at BB was clearly a dick move (was it a dick move, really?). But it was the best option available, and it was the correct choice to make. It let him use his powers and techniques that would get them on the PRT's shit list in short order and keep the casualties smaller than five digits.

The path through the woods required him to use the flying mode, basically projecting wings beside the car and spinning blades on top of it. However those were off, and the wings had been reconfigured into a delta design as he pushed the car to absurd speeds that would've melted it if it wasn't for the force field surrounding it.

Said force field was the shape of a football, which allowed for laminar flow and surprisingly silent flight, which came in handy as PATCHES WAS FUCKING FED TO ECHIDNA BY A CLONE OF ALEXANDRIA! And he had to immediately rescue his ass!

Unfortunately, he arrived at the scene a minute too late as he rammed the rare and expensive limited edition customized tinkertech muscle car into the clone. Which was a sin he would have to flay himself for at a later date, the force of the impact sending the clone and car itself through a few trees as she attempted to stop the vehicle. Which just led to her flying through the tinted front windshield only to hit nothing.

Suddenly the sand around her flew at high speed to her face, she flew upwards too fast to counter, the sheer speed the telekinesis simply couldn't keep up with. Echidna was still buried deeply, but it wouldn't last forever. She would eventually escape her situation and eventually flee the area until she could find a place to collect more parahumans.

She was terrified of Patches, it didn't help that she's actually afraid of spiders, and had been fighting a giant humanoid spider. Not that he felt pity for her, she either killed or her actions led to the deaths of two thousand in casualties in the past three hours, whatever happened to her was beyond him frankly.

"Back in the hole!" She sank again, the ground rose upwards, and any progress she had made was ruined.

He wouldn't commit the same mistake as he did as Patches, the sand in the entire surrounding area rose, especially around the clone. She is the smartest woman on the planet (maybe, honestly the mechanics of the cloning mechanism made that questionable) but she still relied on the same senses as any other human did.

Soil clumps near her face, a near liquid that was incredibly tough regardless, and her attempts at clawing the clumps from her face were unsuccessful as she once more flies' straight into the forest at full speed to lose him, the sand not keeping up due to the drag.

She obviously wanted to play whack-a-mole with him, bet that isn't a frequent thought that comes up regarding Alexandria, but it actually made use of her attributes surprisingly well! As very few people on Earth Bet could compete with in speed even when she had equals in strength. But two people could play this game!

All around Esper the sandy soil rose into the air in a massive area, and she had committed the same mistake to fight him like Patches. He was specifically designed to wield psionic abilities; his very cells were engineered to withstand the powers that would destroy any regular human psychic.

Not to say the backlash for overuse of power wasn't reduced, it simply affected him less.

The ability to make the sand into fluid was a legitimately brilliant idea from Patches (him really), it made him into a canonical Skitter mixed with Leviathan, two opponents that fucked Alexandria up in the original timeline and combining the two abilities nearly perfectly with an easily available resource.

Honestly it was far more intelligent than Patches gave himself credit for, in fact the man is still conscious and fighting inside Echidna. Her power suppression meant nothing for him as he wasn't a parahuman, the sedative produced by the bacteria doing nothing as his psionic power kept it from reaching him, and even if they did, he could clear himself out fairly easily and was resilient to any sedative that would have affected a human non-lethally.

Fran Moss/Dr. Patches

Honestly the fact that the safest place to be in a fight with Echidna is, paradoxically, inside her was a very welcome surprise for Dr. Patches. She was practically incapable of killing something inside her after all. She could kill unconscious humans and animals but that was about it, she could flood you with stomach acids and digest you, but a shield of telekinetic power kept the acid away. She could even try to crush him but lacked the leverage and build up, and he could only be affected by the muscles around him.

Noelle had very little actual combat experience, she may be a good leader but knew almost nothing of fighting itself, and she was vulnerable to the same things all trumps were. A person that doesn't lose their powers, she had no plans to kill him beyond beating and eating him, which would've worked on any other parahuman in the world, just not him.

She was still trying to kill him, but it was like trying to crush something inside your biceps, you only have the strength of that muscle, and it will hurt you if you crush it. If you try to dig it out, you're hurting yourself, and if you try to punch yourself, you're hurting yourself.

It was rather funny truth be told, Dr. Patches victory came by becoming a medical issue instead of a martial issue.

It's good advice actually; always play to your own strengths.

It wasn't victory, he was still trapped inside a monster that was trapped under a small skyscraper's worth of sand.

Well, he was trapped as he began to rise up.

Fran Moss/Esper

Whack-a-mole where both players are moles is a very frustrating and tense situation, any noise and movement were usually followed by long moments of waiting for superhuman bursts of extreme violence. Much like underground fighting now that Esper thought about it, the clone could wait in the sand zone, can't see inside, but all she needs to do is take him out to help Echidna.

"Talk about a Rock and a Hard place."

It left them at an impasse, however unlike Patches, waiting wouldn't increase his chances as more people showing up now would have very little effect on the situation. Even making things worse due to the increase in people making the fight difficult to coordinate, not to mention the possibility of them being absorbed by Echidna making the fight even more difficult!

Dragon had already pledged that support was inbound for the next three hours, but additional clones of other parahumans would just make things more tedious. Not to mention there were very few parahumans, either Hero or Villain, that could take on Alexandria, and what was worse this was a clone of her that cared even less about optics and being heroic, meaning she would be even more brutal than the original.

Besides there was very little Dragon could really do to even help, her anti-Endbringer suits were still meant to be for long range and her weaponry simply wasn't designed for a small flier like the clone.

He had a plan, but it required time however, so he would get time.

A missile in white shot through the sand again, the sand melting into glass from the friction her passing generated. She had figured out another method, by rotating her body at high speed she melted the sand and kept it out of her body, most of her costume had been shredded even though the original Alexandria didn't care about fighting naked.

Which was odd considering how the clones were the reverse, "I would've thought she would've been super prudish about being seen naked?"

He didn't have much time to spare the thought (well, he did but it wasn't worth it) as the passes the clone made became almost constant and at random directions. The spinning destroyed large swathes of the surrounding area with each pass.

His control over the sand still cost him, even if the cost was minor, but the amount of force required to keep the sand up while dodging the clone was too costly. So, he used it as a distraction, and from the wreck of his care a new massive object appeared from it.

The Butcher's own minigun started flying, before it opened fire at the clone.

The bullets wouldn't do anything to the clone, but what it did was attract her attention, only for the gun to dodge. She kept trying to hit it as the only thing she could find before stopping and realizing it was a distraction.

"Shit, really was hoping that'd last longer." Esper thought as he barely dodged, said dodge had taken enough energy that the area of flying sand diminished, and the flying missile of a woman returned and successfully tackled him out of the sand and into the sky.

Instantly activating his Trans-Am module he managed to keep himself unapproachable even as the clone by pushing against her every time she tried to approach. Even now as she hoisted high into the clouds her hands were inches away from his skin.

She capitalized on that by punching him higher and higher, in a very similar way as how he had done to Echidna before.

As his body wasn't designed for close quarters combat, especially against the strength of an Alexandria clone, his precognition allowed him to 'roll' with the punches without suffering too much damage, but still having to bleed the momentum that she imparted with each punch was causing a strain to his body.

He really hoped Patches could cut the connection between the original and the clone soon!

Fran Moss/Patches

Whilst Esper struggled in the sky, he kept doing the only thing he could do, digging. Echidna had lost consciousness due to the low oxygen, when disproven his earlier thoughts that her regeneration circumvented her oxygen issue it just staved it off. However, that would change at any moment, if the Alexandria clone simply pulled her out of the sand pit.

So, he tried to help the fight in the only way he could given his current circumstances, all he needed to do was find the original Alexandria and terminate the connection which should summarily destroy the clone. Well, it should honestly, he didn't know how her cloning worked as he never read Worm proper, only the fanfiction, the original story was simply too long and depressing for him to read.

He dug around, and after several minutes looking at the structure he could say that they were definitely homogeneous, with small clumps of pre-pared pseudo-fetuses that would duplicate into the clones. Observing he realized they were set up for a precisely timed release, they were far weaker than the rest of Echidna, so they could have been targeted before the fight.

No use fighting over spilled milk, however.

"God, this entire experience just enforces my dislike of vore even more!" Seriously, what is so sexy about getting devoured in the first place!?

Shaking his head to dismiss that very irrelevant thought, he resumed digging around also realizing that there was some form of dimensional fuckery occurring as Echidna was significantly bigger on the inside than her overall size suggested. Either that or he was theorizing to distract himself from the nightmare fuel that is his overall situation.

After several more minutes of digging around he finally found the pseudo-stomach where Alexandria was kept.

And truly the suppressing ability of Echidna worked on Alexandria as the iconic Flying Bricks body was almost entirely destroyed no doubt due to the g-forces Echidna had been subjected to. Honestly if she were outside, she wouldn't be viable, her skeletal system was completely compromised, and she was practically dead except for her brain.

He had to help her; Alexandria is a hero to millions. Even with all the crimes she's committed against humanity under the purview of Cauldron she had saved hundreds of thousands of people personally and potentially millions.

Strangely enough the circumstances were as close to perfect as was logistically possible, her power was suppressed, and she was currently sedated. She's being contained in a strangely sterile probiotic environment where every bacteria has been directed to help keep her alive and unconscious.

Which was a blessing given her current state, if she was conscious, she'd be in constant pain and suffering. So, he took it upon himself to heal her regardless of the fact she couldn't give consent. She'd probably be a little irritated, but he firmly believed she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Or in this case a 'man-sized humanoid part time spider' but those are semantics! Now the operation commences!

"Huh, that felt oddly satisfying… I'll figure it out later."

A small mass of protodermis that was still attached to him in the form of rings started liquifying and shifting around into surgical tools. Heh, Aisha thought he was paranoid by carrying protodermis everywhere well the joke is on her! Chuckling faintly, he began the surgery, making sure to keep the incisions and the materials as clean as possible.

Any of the bacteria that existed on her skin would've long since been eaten by the very fleshy environment they now shared, so he didn't have to worry about any pre or post op infections.

The main source of Alexandria's injuries was related to the impact at terminal velocity, however the explosive forces utilized to get Echidna into the sky didn't help either.

Whilst all this was happening, he was healing himself as much as possible, though not through his own bodies natural healing. Cannibalizing his own charred flesh and creating new tissue, it wasn't a method that was applicable in the middle of a fight, but it did mean the damage due to psionic backlash was easier to heal as it was entirely internal as it didn't remove any mass but simply destroyed cells. And even in his first body, he could already recycle cells at an accelerated rate, allowing his body to 'cool off' as he used his psionics to shield himself from the surrounding environment.

Using some harvested veins from the surrounding flesh Dr. Patches created a siphon to allow his own blood to filter into Alexandria to keep her brain to be properly oxygenated. Hopefully he arrived before there was any permanent damage to her cerebellum as he didn't have the time or means to reverse any brain damage. Regardless however any amount of time the brain was starved of oxygen would leave consequences that varied from utterly mundane to the dramatic and it's impossible to really predict.

And that's before even taking parahuman powers into consideration!

He would've used his psionic power on her but knew he'd get nothing, if he wasn't directly 'plugged' into her he'd already assume she was dead. Rather interestingly she was biologically alive with no discernible brain activity, it was truly a most paradoxical state of affairs. One in which he could deal with, at least it meant he didn't have to be as careful as usual.

However he did establish a psionic connection to her (much to his surprise), but only through touch, and even then only to send and read information. Nothing about control, but it was still useful information to have.

"I wonder if Alexandria's mind is simulated by the shard?" He mused, having recalled seeing debates on that on Worm threads, before he had an idea which he transmitted to Esper before focusing on his current situation.

Alexandria was in a poor state; four broken limbs, a shattered spine with fifteen compromised vertebrae, almost all of her ribs shattered! It was pure luck that not a single one had caused a hemithorax or pneumohemothorax!

Actually it made him wonder if this was a preservation tactic by the organism that surrounded them, keeping her alive as much as possible with minimal care for the other unnecessary part.

The fact that her heart and circulatory systems were working was still a goddamn miracle!

Healing bone through surgery is something he had long since mastered, but that wasn't something he would recommend to anyone. The process is painful and more taxing on the body, a body he was now having to heal. But it was the only option available to her, she wouldn't be able to heal after this and would suffer from the consequences for years to come.

Dr. Patches refused to let that happen, so ultimately Alexandria was going to be healed! Ethics be damned!

The cancer would be stored in his own body, basically filtering all of her leukemia and storing it within himself. The cancer wouldn't kill him as his own immune system would eliminate it with extreme prejudice. Preventing it from infecting his cells and spreading.

Besides, problems for later.

The surgery continued regardless; bones were set back in place and glued together with silk, muscle restructuring was easier given all the organic material he had to work with surrounding them. He even gave her one of his eyeballs, he couldn't exactly make her a new one currently so she'd just have to deal with heterochromia. But it was easy to correct it with a simple colored contact but on the other hand she has some benefits!

She now could see in infra-red and UV! He was sure she'd see the silver linings!

He took great care to nurse her back to health, going slow and steady. The mountain of flesh around them was unwilling to let him get a knife in the only body it had but it didn't get a chance to really complain about it either.

Eventually she was as healthy as someone can be after being eaten and riding inside a meteor both up and down, and she would be able to function just as well if not better than she was able to before!

Well, at least he hoped so.

[Celestial Forge]

Gained CP:150

Available CP= 900

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