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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 38: 31

Bio Forge Master

Winding Down

Fran Moss/Dr. Patches

The shard of the comatose [Thinker] stopped squirming and resisting an hour or so ago in this odd space he found himself in (once he returned to the workshop he'd have to check for any cranial bleeding). It certainly made things easier anyway, its screams and cries made his eyes and noise bleed… possibly due to information overload. Aside from that the few remnants of the Shard he hadn't "pruned" reveal many fascinating things.

If you look at it objectively, Shards in essence are fairly simple in that they give a host a power that is a variation of their specialty. While true, it was more than that as the multi-million-year-old life form was incredibly complex, infinitely more so than any human body with it requiring a degree of precision much higher than a human body would require.

It went without saying Xenobiology and Micromanipulators truly came in clutch, and of course, Feel It Out is always reliable.

But it was only when he had subverted the Shard that progress was made. A few tweaks and adjustments as well as an injection of a sample of Protodermis which surprisingly fused with the Shard. This 'simple' act allowed him to bond to the Shard on a spiritual level, something that Shards had no frame of reference, and allowed him to transplant the Shard from its current Passenger space to another one, closer and easier to withstand damage.

It's ironic really, for all they were hyped up as indestructible things that could grant someone unlimited power without restriction, they were severely limited if not outright crippled! They possessed no true ability to act independently (though it depends on the Shard and Host as some bond closer than others). What's worse is their own forms were over-optimized to a degree that is bizarre.

Granted natural selection is like that, it adapts what it has instead of redesigning or trying something new. Even Feel It Out had trouble finding any way to improve the shard, however it did hint at ways that he could use this 'poor and broken' thing to make something new.

It didn't even react as he cut, sliced, and altered it.

The new life form was now made of protodermis, an alien material that it never had access to before. In the desire to experiment like a true mad scientist (or rather doctor in this case) he gave it a soul, or to be more exact connected it to his soul. It was also now using dimensional structures and anatomies that never existed in all its records, the Entities themselves might know of beings with the capabilities but he very much doubted it.

Now its body was in essence a magitech pseudo-crystal, this offset several of its capabilities to utilize magic rather than the incredibly complex science it utilized before, and its coding was largely replaced with a copy of his own mind… no more akin to an impression now that he gave it some thought, in essence making it his fourth body.

In a universe without the hostile concepts taken to flesh that led to complacency, like someone who lived their entire life in a sterile environment the Entities were complacent to many things that creatures from the Mythos were not, could not, be.

One of these things being the existence of psionics in every single creature greater than a man, how the Entities never found them earlier was beyond him. Actually, no he knew exactly why, it was due to how they utilize their own powers.

Their frankly crude stapling of universes together didn't take psionics into account, simply because it diluted a person's psionic potential with an innumerable amount of nearly identical versions of them (ignoring the fact that his own psionics were given a massive kickstart due to the Singularity Event). In essence the Entities succeeded in making themselves blind due to their own bulk!

Which in turn made it the perfect place to hide his latest creation, a human-driven pseudo-shard.

In the end, it used his psionic powers to sublimate itself. Effectively becoming a psionic shard entity in a realm of psionic energy much like Alma would've inhabited. Making it invisible and undetectable to any and all other shards.

Which was a good thing, as he was nearly drained despite Xenobiology teaching him several cheats using the fourth dimension.

Despite all the augmentations and enhancements, he had made to his body, the truth is that it still isn't enough to handle the rigors of existing in the space between dimensions, it was an environment only slightly less harmful to the body than the vacuum of space, and it required him to constantly use his psionics to keep himself alive. Something that would eventually overtax him.

That said Xenobiology combined with all his knowledge of biology was giving him so many amazing ideas. Pity it'd take possibly decades, if not longer, of pure study to actually make them a reality. And until he got the Matrix computer back up and running, he couldn't use the time acceleration, and even when he did his first use of it would be to take Taylor and Aisha on a nice vacation.

As his internal clock marked the third hour, he had finally finished his work with the shard. It had been surgically altered to obey him, modified its identity to a point he doubted it would still count as a shard.

And looking upon his work he knew what he did was an atrocity, a crime against humanity, and the equivalent of turning someone into furniture while they were still alive. Honestly it made him feel like a Drukari honestly, but luckily for him this had never been or ever will be a human.

But the surgery revealed so much fascinating knowledge to him! Such as the truth that despite their crystalline appearance? Shards were never crystal, no they were vitreous, and that is an important distinction to make.

In fact, it made him wonder if Shatterbirds' power wasn't the oldest, it certainly sounded like a power that predated all the others given the composition of shards and its silicon base. It was certainly an interesting possibility to consider if nothing else.

Aside from that it also opened up his own investigations regarding Entity biology. The concept of biological warfare against the Space Worms didn't seem so impossible now. He could actually kill them all if he engineered a contagion that specifically targeted their biology and only theirs.

It also brought to his attention that this knowledge is horrifically dangerous, and that's not even mentioning what his COMP brought to the table! The thing is quite frankly ridiculous for this world and possibly many others, as is evident by the Fairy Queen being one of the five strongest parahumans on the planet.

Shaking his head, these thoughts were largely pointless now, he'd need to go to ground after this whole shit shot. The government needed to be treated like a fragile wounded animal, it would lash out to prove it wasn't as powerless as it really is… but like an angry child. It would need to be given toys, complemented, and let to have a nap.

Emerging from the space between dimensions and into cool sand around him it was that exact second Alexandria regained consciousness and violently burst out of her fleshy prison and spiraled through the sand upwards.

"Exactly like Diana…" He thought with a faint chuckle as he watched her land.

Truly getting the clone in his corner had been an unexpected but welcomed boon, obviously anyone would want a Triumvirate cape on the team. Though he had no doubt it would be a tremendous headache going forward, he never really planned on building a harem. They were cool in fiction but in real life, they were stressful and required a severe amount of time and effort to maintain, and they were the most emotionally draining affairs possible.

In fact, most harems in fiction were actually polycules that had a single guy in it, simply because otherwise it would be full of back stabbings, internal politics, and jockeying for superiority.

He had absolutely no idea how Diana would interact with the girls despite spending thirty years with her, honestly the entire thing was a complete shot in the dark. He had no idea what to do with a loyal wife that he had been with for longer than he had lived in real life.

That was another concern actually, the extra memories weren't something that casually affected him. He was (is?) twenty-five when he started the simulation and now, he was subjectively in his fifties. Which makes his relationship with Taylor and Aisha, two fifteen-year-olds, a little more icky in all honesty.

He'd probably have to go with them on a simulated vacation for a few years until their ages matched up better. Well figuratively matched anyways, but only after he rebuilds the Matrix computer and reuploads all the data and files.

Shaking his head he reached down into the sandy pit and stored Noelle in a little neat pocket dimension he made for himself, a Klein bottle molded by his psionics. A neat little trick he just worked out before this whole shitshow happened.

He wasn't sure if he'd save Noelle or let her go, he'd need to give it a good think on the subject.

Quite frankly the control over dimensions that his powers gave him were both exceptionally useful and useless, they could technically be used by anyone with psychic abilities and enough understanding, but it was simultaneously nearly impossible to affect the conventional three dimensions with others. Humans have been aware of the possibility of a fourth dimension since the sixteenth century, but since it didn't apply to people's lives because they couldn't interact with space in any fashion.

If there was a way to interact with it easily, then creatures would've evolved to do so, and if that was possible there would also be defenses and senses that affect it as well.

It's why so many lifeforms in the Mythos were aquatic, spindly or tentacular, firm strong legs don't really make sense with additional dimensions in play after all. You can do better with a simple endoskeleton without sacrificing flexibility.

"Goddamn, I wasn't so easily distracted before…" He thought as he finally noticed there were people around, none of which were touching the ground and some were trying to talk down a very pissed off Alexandria, "Hmm, I should probably deal with that…" Hmm, was he always so… well not apathetic but indifferent towards people?

After a few picoseconds of consideration, he decided to resume his train of thought regarding the interactions between dimensions, which took a lot of focus and energy to maintain. Far more than what any biological creature could use on its own, the Entities themselves were proof of that, and there was no evidence that any other species developed (or could develop) a similar stratagem to them, and if there were they had long since been destroyed.

Honestly the words simply didn't exist in any language that would adequately describe the effect of Xenobiology, the knowledge of Mythos biology was impressive but… if felt incomplete? Like pages had been removed from a book, he knew the knowledge existed, but he had no actual reference to it. So, he wouldn't be using his knowledge of dimensional mechanics to get infinite energy, he couldn't use it to legitimately teleport, hell he could barely make a bag to stuff someone in really.

Honestly, the only reason this is useful is because there are no Mythos creatures here, if there were he would've already been consumed by some impossibly large filter feeder, much like krill to a whale.

This was against every instinct that the knowledge gave to him, other dimensions are like a microbial soup of the sea. Filled with an uncountable number of small creatures, medium creatures, and creatures so immense they dwarf planets!

But there they were… absent, segregated. He was like a hunter-gatherer observing industrial farming, an incomprehension at the convenient scene, only to be replaced by suspicion and fear.

It stirred his fear of the 'farmer' coming around.

With that thought, he decided he would keep his dimensional knowledge contained, he didn't actually know how much control over the fabric of the universe Scion actually had. He had observed his effects in three dimensions, but he had no idea what he would do to something in between the layers.

Could he even do anything? Would it be like a human trying to observe their own insides? Would it lead to symptoms? Would Scion crush him instantly by flexing the layer of reality he was in? There were simply too many unanswered questions for him to even consider risking it.

Eventually he decided to return his focus away from his thoughts and towards the present, though he did chuckle faintly at how Eidolon, the most powerful parahuman on the planet (that wasn't the [Warrior] anyway) looking rather lost.

A man so lost in his own insecurities he unwittingly condemned countless amounts of people to death just so he would have a 'worthy opponent' in a flailing desire to restore his waning power.

Deciding to join the Trimultive floating, Dr. Patches floated up and cleared his throat, "Yo." He said in a blase tone.

The only other man, no doubt legend, turned to face him as did the other two. Alexandria looked still keyed up for a fight and pissed while he couldn't tell much about Eidolon's expression. However, Dr. Patches didn't feel intimidated in the slightest, not when he could see/not see the connections to their Dead/Not-Dead shards.

If they even considered getting violent all it would take was a single snip and he could terminate their connection to the alien lifeforms completely.

Legend decided to start out, "We received an S-class alarm, but following the Protocols Alexandria invoked the alarms were ignored, which… we'll need to update actually." He trailed off for a second before focusing back on Dr. Patches, "Anyway, we came here since Dragon directed us to a destroyed patch of dirt where the cape was, and all we got was that was there was a giant monster in the city, it flew away, and someone asked Dragon about exceedingly sof sandy soil… so care to expand our knowledge?" Though it was phrased as a question Dr. Patches knew it was anything but.

He shrugged, "Not much I can tell you." He answered with the most honesty he could muster, his attention was split, and he had to focus on surviving fighting Diana as well as adapting to the bizarre sensory input from being devoured; he didn't have a complete picture himself.

Alexandria decided to cut in and flew into his face, "What did you do to me!?" She demanded… and Dr. Patches suddenly remembered that she's mostly naked and he tried not to stare… honestly, he felt more human than he had in the past few hours.

Is it odd that he found the feeling so novel?

It could've been due to having his understand of the universe and his place in it drastically altered but for whatever reason he felt oddly… impish suddenly, "Well, it started when I was doing surgery on Upp-"

"Wait, you're Patches?" She asked.

"Yeah…." Dr. Patches trailed off as he looked at his hands, double-checking to see if he hadn't slipped into his Spider Zoanthorpe form, "Oh… this is unexpected…"

His hand was blending in with shadows, dissolving in and out of reality, its shape indescribable hallucinations that Lovecraft spoke of. Fingers fusing and separating, the skin developing spikes and small writhing tendrils, and the numbers of phalanges constantly changing on each finger along their location, ever flowing.

He could only imagine what his face looked like, and he focused on the effects in hopes to stop or calm them down. Only to realize that he didn't really know how to begin, he was both visible and invisible, and he suspected his appearance would cause some rather serious mental distress if not worse if people looked at him.

"Well, this is embarrassing." Dr. Patches said as he further examined the odd effect, "You wouldn't have anything I can use to cover up with?" He added as he found the downside of the Xenobiology perk, however it was rather interesting that parahumans weren't affected by the possible mental contamination or corruption.

Still, it was a downside that he found to be rather troubling, every other perk he got didn't come with a downside that couldn't be hidden away. He can simply shift from his human and Zoanthrope form, and his psionic abilities weren't obvious unless he used them. This however was the first time that a perk affected him in an obvious way.

His form reflected his new disconnect with humanity as a whole, but would the disconnect grow? He didn't know.

Still it was annoying, he had no doubt he could hide many of his new alien features with surgery, but those would take time and patience he simply didn't have at the moment. Honestly all he wanted was to lay down and sleep for a week, or get started on repairing everything that was damaged.

He was pulled from his musing when Eidolon raised his hand and with a flick of his wrist, Dr. Patches could see his 'cycling' through his powers, and the plants and wood surrounding them started to dissolve into cellulose and were telekinetically loomed into a thick cloak, identical to the hero's own actually but entirely white. The material was of surprisingly high quality for something made on the spoke.

Dr. Patches accepted the cloak easily and hid away his new appearance, it even came with a deep hood which he was grateful for.

"So, can you guys give me a ride back to the city? I need to sleep for… thirty hours at the very least." Dr. Patches said.

Legend gave a good natured chuckle, whereas Eidolon remained silent and Alexandria still looked pissed. Which made Dr. Patches sigh as he really didn't want to deal with the world's premiere Flying Brick being all pissy so he decided to be blunt with her.

"The cape had the ability to suppress the powers of anyone she touched and consumed, you blacked out right?" She tersely nodded, "You were consumed and all your powers were suppressed. And the manner I relocated the cape was rather brutal, when your clone fed me to the cape I was able to find you in very bad condition, so I opted to heal you. Even gave you one of my eyes, and dealt with that leukemia you'd been suffering from." He explained in a clinical and detached voice.

Alexandria's expression showed she didn't know how to exactly take the news, while Legend looked grateful that Dr. Patches helped his friend. Whereas Eidolon largely seemed indifferent but Dr. Patches could sense he was grateful in his own way.

"So can someone give me a lift?" Dr. Patches asked again, "I can make my way from there, and yeah I'll come to give a report, but right now? I'm exhausted and I still need to address my current problem before I can even consider resting."

[Celestial Forge]

CP Acquired= 150

CP Available= 600

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