The S.H.I.E.L.D. Base greeted us with its familiar, sterile silence and cleanliness. Who would have told me, a couple of days ago, that I would be glad to return here, to this Hydra lair and this potential haven for space chameleons? I would have twirled my finger at my temple. As it turned out, the outside world was more dangerous for me than being in a cage with lions.
I materialized Elena's body from my inventory. The medics accepted it with silent professionalism. I moved, following the escort agent. Gwen, who was immersed in her own thoughts, walked beside me.
"Convenient." I admitted when I realized that Fury had ordered for Gwen to be placed in the room next to mine.
"True, I don't quite understand why I need to be here at all." Gwen commented when the agent left us alone in the corridor. "That same Peter is in far greater danger than I am."
"Peter is under watch for now, but we'll pull him here, too." I nodded. "As for you, the question isn't so much about protection, as it is about having a relatively safe place where you can catch your breath."
"Yeah, 'safe.'" She snorted. "It's a place where every step is controlled and where my sense constantly hums from all of these secrets. It's terribly annoying."
"It's the price of convenience. Apparently, for the next week, I'll be sitting here without leaving. So, if anything, you'll know where to find me. For now, you can explore the Base, the open, civilian part of it. I need a couple of hours to think everything through."
I left Gwen alone and I entered my room. My magic ore box was already waiting for me. With one movement, I removed it and put it into my inventory. Without undressing, I collapsed onto the bed and stared at the faceless, white ceiling. I was returning to the leitmotif of the recent hours. The outside world was off-limits.
Did this mean that I shouldn't stick my head out at all now? That was nonsense. But Hydra and the CIA had demonstrated that, however nonsensical it might seem, it was safer to be within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s walls. Especially now that a new, unknown variable had appeared. There was the mysterious sniper. Someone had ruthlessly and efficiently liquidated Belova. It was unlikely to have been S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha wouldn't have approved of that. Was it Hydra, making a perverted show of force? Or was it the Soviets, cleaning up loose ends?
There were many options, and each one of them was logical. Why couldn't everything be as simple as it was in the comics, where a throwaway villain is really just a throwaway villain, and the mysterious sniper simply wants to help? By that logic, Frank Castle could have been on that roof. By the way, my conversation with him would have to be postponed. I wondered how he was doing.
As for what I would do when I could freely leave the Base, I would think about that when I was outside of its walls. Right now, a far more important question was looming. It was the question of mind protection.
The lesson from Kilgrave had been brutal. Mind control is terrible. I needed to become immune to it. Armor, strength, and skills all become useless if my brain can be turned into a weapon and used against me. But there was a problem. Mind control is flexible.
There is the telepathy of someone like Emma Frost or Xavier. There is Kilgrave's pheromonal control. There is classical hypnosis and mind-control magic. There are technological artifacts, truth serums, and dozens of other exotic methods. I can't create a universal protection from everything all at once. Perhaps I should focus on protecting the brain as a physical object. In some variations of the story, Magneto proved that a helmet could be an effective protection against mind-breakers.
So, I would create a helmet. But I wouldn't make it from metal. I would create a Spiritual Helmet.
The theory was elegant. A dense, structured array of spiritual particles could serve as an effective barrier to external energy influences, including psionic ones. If I surrounded my brain with a permanent, stable field of Reishi, then any directed psi-stream would be either absorbed, or scattered and distorted beyond recognition. This would be a suppressor.
The task was clear. I needed to create an invisible and intangible, but spiritually dense, construct that would passively surround my brain. This promised to be simpler than creating the Spiritual Sonar had been. That had been a complex, active construct. This would be a passive, structural modification that would require concentration and Reishi manipulation.
I entered a meditative state and I concentrated my spiritual perception in the area of my head. I spent several minutes creating an ideal, three-dimensional mental model of it, sensing the boundaries of my skull. Any mistake here could be fatal.
Using my Reiryoku as an anchor, I collected free Reishi particles from the atmosphere. I drew them into myself and I directed them toward my head. I started weaving a fine, spherical shell that precisely followed the contours of my skull, both on the inside and on the outside. This created a multi-layered, weightless cocoon around my brain. The next stage was densification. With an enormous effort of will, I compressed these particles until they formed a unified, stable, and spiritually dense crystalline lattice. If someone were to look with a spiritual vision, they would see a thin, translucent, vibrating mesh that resembled a helmet, sitting directly on my brain.
This protection needed one basic property. I decided to make my mental shield unbearably noisy. I poured a microscopic amount of my Reiatsu into the created structure, and I forced the particles in the lattice to constantly and chaotically vibrate. This created a continuous spiritual white noise. For a telepath who was attempting to read my thoughts, it would now be the equivalent of trying to hear a whisper next to a working fighter jet engine. As for a biological control like Kilgrave's, this protection was unlikely to help. But Kilgrave was dead, and there were many telepaths in this world.
[Personal spiritual artifact "Anti-Psionic Helmet" created. Complexity: Simple. Received +200 OP!]
A spiritual artifact created using the art of spiritual energy manipulation. It was capable of protecting against psionic influence of a low and, partially, a medium level, and it was also capable of warning the user about a stronger intrusion.
"Warning," yes. The helmet would dissipate if a telepathy titan, like Xavier, applied enough effort. But that dissipation would become an instant alarm signal for me. It would be a sign that it was time to stop holding back. For now, I couldn't oppose someone like Emma Frost or Xavier. Telepathy is imbalanced. I wanted it, too. For now, I could only imagine it.
I noted a light sluggishness in my thoughts. It wasn't critical, but it was noticeable, especially against my usual intelligence buff. The reason for it was a constant, light pressure in my head. It felt like wearing a hat that was too tight. It was a side effect from the Anti-Psionic Helmet. It was livable. It would just require a couple of days for my brain to adapt to it. Far more importantly, with this helmet, I felt more confident.
I decided to spin the Forge of Creation. My account currently held 950 OP. I spent eight hundred of them on one roll.
It was an information package. And it was Rare.
My heart skipped a beat. This was my first rare position from the Forge. With an incredible enthusiasm, I read the description.
[Received information package (Rare) - From Trinitite to Power Stones (GURPS Technomancer). (Information package unlock cost: 4000 OP)]
It was a complete academic course that opened access to a new scientific paradigm, one where magic and its manifestations are considered to be measurable, controllable, and reproducible metaphysical processes. I would receive a fundamental knowledge on which technomancy is based. It was a discipline that allowed for the application of a strict scientific method to the study and reproduction of magical phenomena.
This package introduced the three pillars of applied thaumaturgy.
Observation: This was the systematic collection of empirical data about magical phenomena. I would learn to record, measure, and catalog parameters, from an energy signature to the effects on matter and spirit.
Deconstruction: This was the analysis of the collected data in order to derive the fundamental metaphysical laws that underlie the observed effect. I would learn to hack magic, decomposing a miracle into a sequence of logical principles.
Synthesis: This was the creation of a structured spell. It was a reproducible algorithm, made from mental commands and energy manipulations, that could recreate the studied phenomenon.
Metaphysical Empirics: The Science of Miracles.
This was a research discipline that was focused on the study and cataloging of metaphysical phenomena. I would receive a theoretical basis for.
Phenomenology: This was the classification of metaphysical effects by their source, power, and operating principle.
Signature Analysis: This was the recognition of the unique fingerprints of magical traditions.
Reverse Engineering: This was a methodology for the breakdown of magical effects in order to understand their internal structure.
Applied Thaumaturgy: Spell Engineering.
This was an engineering discipline that considered spell creation to be a high-precision technological process. Over time, I would master.
Formulation: This was the creation of magical algorithms.
Optimization: This was the improvement of existing spells in order to reduce energy costs, to increase power, or to shorten cast time.
Automation: This was the imprinting of spells into physical objects. This was the creation of artifacts and complex magical devices.
For some time, I simply lay there, not breathing. In my consciousness, there unfolded not just a text, but a whole manifesto of a new reality.
Holy shit.
This wasn't just an information package. This was the reverse engineering of all of the magic in this world. It was a cheat that surpassed an Infinity Stone that had been found on the street. A Stone was a tool. This was the assembly instructions for the Universe itself.
So, I already had engineering skills that could potentially surpass Stark's. Soon, thanks to this package, I would have a magical knowledge that was more fundamental than Strange's. The System, or the Universe, seemed to be pushing me onto the path of a technomage. I was a kind of Doctor Doom, on minimum settings.
No. I corrected myself. This was only a Rare position. I was scared to even imagine what was hidden at the Epic or Legendary level. Compared to me, a cheater with such a toolset, Doom would look like a child in a sandbox. He would be a child who had learned a couple of tricks without understanding their essence. I would be getting access to the fundamental laws that underlie all of the magic in this world.
I began to feverishly sort through the possibilities in my head. There was classical magic. There was divine magic. There was demonic magic. And the cherry on top was chaos magic, Wanda's power. As I remembered it, that was connected to an ancient entity named Chthon. In theory, I could study reality-warping effects.
It was reality sculpting. It was so close, and yet it was so infinitely far away. This information package was the key. I knew exactly what I would be spending my next 4000 OP on.
It was enough to float around in the clouds. It was time to get to work. It was time for some OP farming. It was a shame that I couldn't really accelerate things in the S.H.I.E.L.D. labs, but it was possible to implement a number of safe, non-suspicious projects. I would also close a couple of gestalts. First, there was the suit for Gwen. Considering the absence of any complex technological stuffing, this would be a foundation for a future masterpiece.
I approached the door of the neighboring room. I pinged it with my spiritual sonar, and I made sure that the girl was inside. She barely flinched at the moment of the scan. I knocked, and I didn't invent anything for when I spoke.
"Let's go." I said when she opened the door. "We're going to create a suit for you."
"This isn't a date, but in some ways, it's even better." Gwen smiled as she entered the corridor.
"Oh, the spider's chelicerae have finally cut through? And here I thought that I was the only one who was allowed to joke about our bright, romantic future."
We reached my allocated laboratory complex. I explained the basic safety rules to her, and I entered first. As I waited for her inside, I caught myself thinking. Ideally, I should fully study her body from a scientific point of view. I should conduct the same comprehensive research on her as I had with Kraven. I should find the nature of her powers and check for compatibility with Peter. But trusting data like that to S.H.I.E.L.D., and potentially to Hydra, was out of the question.
"Any ideas for a new design?" I asked as Gwen entered the engineering laboratory.
"I like my current suit."
"Yeah, the white and black is a classic. Nothing is preventing us from making it slightly more functional and a little prettier, though. You're still a girl, after all."
"I'll trust your taste." She shrugged. "The main thing is that it doesn't restrict my movement, that it isn't heavy, and that it doesn't look repulsive."
"Noted. Let's begin."
We started by creating an ideal digital model. Gwen went through a full 3D scanning process. The equipment recorded her static parameters and her biomechanics while she was in motion. I loaded all of the data into the holographic workstation and, after putting a virtual base layer of Proteus fabric onto a virtual Gwen, I began designing a suit that would be a second skin.
Over the base layer, I placed segmented armor plates that were made from a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer with ceramic inserts. These would protect her vital zones. Each plate was segmented in order to allow for flexibility. I ran simulations of her most complex movements thousands of times. I integrated web-shooters into the armored glove-bracers.
The laser cutting station cut the suit details from the Proteus fabric. The industrial 3D printer printed the armor plates from a composite powder. The robotic assembly station stitched the base layer together with a super-strong aramid thread. All of the seams were glued and sealed. The armor was installed using magnetic-mechanical locks. This allowed the plates to float on the fabric and it enabled modularity. In the lining, I left channels for the future routing of electronics.
The output was a full combat suit that provided a high level of protection without limiting her agility. It turned out to be cute. The XCOM design philosophy in me couldn't allow me to create something ugly.
[Light armor "Proteus Suit S" created. Complexity: Normal. Received +400 OP!]
A light, modular suit made from Proteus fabric and reinforced with composite plates. The suit provided full joint mobility and a high level of protection.
Not bad. It was six hours of work, and I had earned 400 OP. It wasn't the most efficient farming method, but the gestalt of Gwen's enhancement was partially closed. At the very least, I could now focus on routine tasks. I sent the satisfied and tired girl off to sleep, and then I returned to the laboratory. I started creating simple, modular constructions that wouldn't raise any special interest at S.H.I.E.L.D., but that would bring me OP.
//==============//
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