Thunder and Webs C116 [Silver + Gold]

Three Chances. The last chance. To build an Implant that can save Isabel Donovick.

Chapter 116: Three Chances

February 12th

Ripley

Entering my house, the sound of my mother’s ventilator was loud. Just two weeks ago, her lungs began to fail and I’d been forced to put her on assisted breathing, since then… I hadn’t talked to her. She laid motionless in her hospital bed, receiving a constant dosage of sedatives and other medicines to prepare her for the Implant.

She was frail, sickly and pale. But I hardened my heart as Starlight poured into being in front of my eyes, a hopeful smile on her. “Three chances, dad! We’ll get it! We’ve learned so much!”

“I know we will.” I pet her head, settling down onto my desk as I tapped it to expose various plates shifting to reveal the reagents necessary for this.

Blood from Quartz and Topaz: they could mute and magnify the intensity of Warp Energy.

The Revenant Serum: a potent blend of mutation that… while dangerous, had the effect of making them Implant extremely malleable to genomic alterations, especially once I used my nanomachines.

Diana’s blood: extremely reactive to Energy and had a synergy with mine, nuclear proteins and RNA extracted from her blood cells proved best in the actual modifications I performed.

I never considered myself a geneticist, but the last month saw my Database Feature stretched to its limit as I devoured all the information I could get on these topics. Alongside those three reagents were a half-dozen of Bronze Implants and another two used Silver Implants I’d taken from the Muramasa Raid. The six fresh ones were all… fucking wasted. And I’d gone through so much, burnt too many bridges, just to get them.

But they’d paved the way for my success today.

Missy had given me an additional five Implants, of which only three would serve me. Three fresh Implants, and four used ones.

I decided I’d absorb one, my first in a long while, to improve Shardweave. It was at V.3.21… while I doubted I could get it to V.4.00 for a new protocol or an adjustment to an old one… I decided it would be worth the slight increase to my abilities.

Fastening my hold over one of Missy’s gifted Implants, my mind immersed into its confines as memories flashed to me through Database’s Consciousness Link.

It belonged to a Metal Heavens Priest named Python, they’d been assigned to maintain a steady flow of ‘workers’ for their operations in the MALterritories. They’d taken over a MALhive, located in Northern Texas, taking advantage of the momentary dormancy that was occurring prior to the Swarm as they farmed the MAL and Warp Materials produced in what were known as Aberrant Regions — environments with abnormal properties due to a high density of Warp Energy — using forced labor trafficked in from New California or the nomadic lands.

The R0N1N put a swift end to his life, Python’s head falling off before he even registered the threat.

So Metal Heavens was active even all the way to the East? My throat tightened and made a sound as I began digesting the code, focusing it to Shardweave.

Manipulation of Implants.

Shardweave V.3.21 has updated to V.3.24

Effects:

Increased precision with nanomachines to manipulate Implants.

Slightly increased ability to utilize Warp Energy in the modification of Mutagenic Material through nanomachines.

Slight increase to understanding of the physical structure of Implants.

Satisfied with that, I began my work. Not with a Silver, but with an unused Bronze.

It had a Compatibility of 76% with my mother, more than enough. But it was of the wrong Grade…

I could increase Compatibility, but that was an unnecessary risk. So instead… it would be more efficient to take a Compatible BUG of a lower Grade and increase it’s Grade to Silver. I’d need to add a new Feature as well, but I’d done it before in front of the Bladedaughter, and that was a half-assed job.

Granted, whoever would use that Implant likely wouldn’t live long. I doubted it would be above 10% compatibility for anyone.

There were two ways of going about it, I could either use Silver Shards and weave their Warpcode into the Bronze BUG, or I could directly transfer Warpcode from a Silver BUG into it. Both had advantages and disadvantages.

Shards were more effective at directly improving Grades, but I couldn’t yet manifest a third Feature through them like how a Silver should have — which would destabilize and significantly damage the Implant.

BUGs could give a new Feature, but were significantly more difficult to weave in. So, I prepped with a signal sent to my Thought Multiplier.

‘My Mother’ X ‘Overwriting Implants’

Every flicker of Warpcode blended my intent with my process into a unified front. I would be working at peak performance.

I sucked Topaz’s blood into my middle finger’s needle, carefully prodding the Bronze BUG with my Gold Energy to wake it up. The copper-shaded orb woke up into a centipede with legs that were just too long, and I steadily injected with precise pricks from the needle. Color seemed to fade from the Implant as it stopped writhing in my grasp, looking like it had fallen asleep.

Next, I grabbed the Revenant Serum, nervous at the thought of its use as I loaded it into my claw as Neolymph from my blood deposited and broke down to expose nanites into the vile Mutagen of Soul Killer’s. The crimson serum tinged black, almost resembling the dull red of venous blood.

Grabbing the BUG, I carefully injected it once more as Starlight synchronized with me to manifest extreme precision over the volatile Mutagen entering the Implant. Infective strands of genetic information immediately began attacking the sedated BUG, but my nanomachines grasped a firm hold, Starlight grunting in my ears as she forced obedience into them.

I frowned as I saw a drop in compatibility.

75%... 72%...

It was fine, some drop was to be expected. Red veins rippled around the Implant, but my nanomachines quickly worked on devouring anything that was too unstable. Soul Killer’s Mutagen was supposed to reduce Compatibility, but it also had the effect of making the Implant more… susceptible to changes.

I grabbed Diana’s blood next, my nanites breaking down her cells to expose the vital components as I flooded it into the Implant. They’d act as markers, magnetic anchors to which my Warpcode could act upon…

Next came the difficult part. Weaving the Warpcode in, luckily with Elsa’s help, I had a new Module prepared for this purpose. I had it made using brief scans of Elsa’s Unique Dreamweaving Feature.

Warpweaving Module Selected: [3S] [Dataweaving/Energized/Jailbreak]

Effects:

Heightened precision in manipulation of Implant-Coded Data.

Increased ability to interact with Energy within Implants.

Reduction in natural Implant Degradation during manipulation.

“It feels weird using this Module…” Starlight whispered, and I understood her sentiment. Theoretically, it could be used for manipulating memories on an existential level, just like… just like how my memories of Selene had been knotted up.

I gave her a confident smirk. “Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of practice in all the right ways to use it.”

And so, I held the three used Silvers I had, acting as a physical and digital conduit by weaving threads of Dreadfibre out from my Claw-tips to create a complex web of pulsing code with the Bronze in the middle.

I had to be careful. This Bronze held the Accomodation and Sustain Features, so I was trying to add the Technician Feature onto it, which only one Implant possessed. So, instead, I attached more Implants into the black web, Irons and Bronzes with the Technician Feature which I would read to understand the ‘blueprint’ of Warpcode necessary to create one within the Bronze.

Simultaneously, I also had to raise its other two Features from the Bronze Grade to the Silver Grade as well — something easier said than done. You couldn’t just force power into a digital structure as complex as this, you needed to steadily unwound it and find weak points which you could reinforce.

My mind felt like it was being broken as I divided my focus across the various components of code and genetics interweaved with one another, drawing Energy, reading and weaving and unraveling and tightening — sometimes purposefully destabilizing the code to make it more reactive to change, other times reinforcing the parts I needed to remain stable.

Data Mimicry’s reconfiguring into V.4.00 altered the Rewrite Protocol into the Overwrite Protocol. The best way to describe it was… if before, I was sketching on the Implants, now I was painting them. But going from a simple pencil to a full paintbrush and variety of hues added layers of complexity… even if the freedom of creation was much greater.

Theoretically, I could build custom Implants. Start of with an Iron, and build it all the way to a Gold possessing the exact Features I wanted and needed. The cost was great, but the potential profits were… insurmountable. This world lived and died on the value of these alien remnants integrated within your body, and to my knowledge no one had ever managed something like this — not even a Founder.

Blood dripped down my nose, Starlight took control of a drone and dabbed it away, but my eyes never left the complex web in front of my eyes. The first Iron shattered, but I controlled it — destruction was a necessary part of this process of creation. Several more cracked apart into dust, before the other Bronzes began cracking away, while the central Implant’s insectoid body began to glow in waves of Gold and Silver…

Compatibility: 69%... 64%...

I wished to say that this was a step-by-step process, but Implants weren’t designed that way. You needed to do everything at once, adding the new Feature, reinforcing the other two, purging corruptive data, constant editing of its genomic structure… and so many more minute tasks of great importance.

If a single weakness existed, Compatibility would plummet, or worse… the Implant would shatter.

Compatibility: 60%... 57%... 56%...

“Dad… we’re almost done.” Starlight eased my mind, taking over the calculations my human brain was too slow to accommodate while also communicating to the millions of nanites involved in this process.

Compatibility: 54%...

A Silver Implant shattered, then the second.

53%...

I sent an extra pulse of Quartz’s blood to compensate for the sudden lack of pressure, it rippled a sudden wave of instability we had to fight to catch.

50%...

My breath hitched as I felt the threads of code snap into place, barely needing my intervention to remain stable now. A silver gleam rippled on the copper coating, like the Implant couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. But, regardless, I’d done it… I’d changed an Implant’s Grade.

Features: [S] Accommodation; [S] Sustain; [S] Technician

My breath hammered as I looked at the final Compatibility.

Compatibility: 49%

“Starlight…” I clenched my teeth. “It didn’t…”

“Dad! That’s the best we’ve done! It should work!” She appeared in front of my eyes, excited despite her tired heaving.

“You know we need it to be above 50% at the barest minimum, otherwise… she’ll just have another timer.”

“A timer of… years, dad.” Starlight said, holding onto my finger in support.

“I don’t want to go through this again, Star.” I rubbed my eyes. “Just… we have two more chances.”

I grabbed the two fresh Silvers, frowning as I read their Compatibilities.

Compatibility: 27%

Compatibility: 19%

Even then… they didn’t have the important Feature I needed to give her: Technician. “Think we could… Overwrite them?”

“We tried that, dad.” Starlight whispered, frustration building in her voice, but it wasn’t directed to me… it was an aimless hush of frustration attacking the difficulty of this task. “But I’m getting better, I’ve read and learned enough patterns to at least… try.”

We got to work once more, the initial premise was the same of inhibiting the Implant with Quartz’s blood, using the Revenant Serum to initate the Implant to further modification, then Diana’s blood to bind it to my control. Overwrite and my nanites began to work their way across the Implant, but the truth was… raising Compatibility was far more of a randomized procedure relating to chance — there was no pattern to what improved or decreased Compatibility.

You just had to change the Implant, from Warpcode to genetics, over and over again — maintaining what worked and reverting what didn’t. It was a mind-numbing task where slow and steady was the king, but…

If you took the changes too far, you’d set off a chain reaction you couldn’t control.

Case-in-point, the dust in my hands. My fists slammed on the table, mist in my eyes keeping my focus blurred and my head throbbed. Taking a glance at my mother, trapped in that pitiful coffin of machinery keeping her alive, I forced my thoughts into-

Personality Editor: 65%

I… I’d just reset it back down to 40% before coming here, yet… it silenced the parts of me that were panicking, aligning my thoughts into pure efficiency.

“Dad… I know what you’re thinking…” Starlight scrubbed the controls of the Personality Editor away from me, her arms tightening behind her back as she shuffled in the air nervously. “I know you think that… it’ll help. It could. But if it does, for something like that, I’m worried you’ll begin to think of it as something… you should be grateful for. Don’t forget what its done to you.”

“I know, Star.” I took a deep breath, rubbing her head. “Thank you for keeping me in check.”

Taking a moment to relax, I closed my eyes for a moment, resting my head on the table of my workbench. When was the last time I slept? The last time I wasn’t… running calculations, trapped in my own head, feeling sorry for myself.

Rudely, music started thumping through the thin walls of my house, and it irked me. Maybe I wasn’t noticing it before because of the Editor, but I was so much more… agitable than normal. The rattling of my tools, the thin crawl of vibrations up my legs, the annoying and gaudy lyrics about drugs and bitches. Memories of the Toxin Club came back to me, of the procedures I’d done to the workers there… god, I’d been perpetuating this cycle of ruining others lives for so long.

“I can’t focus…” I muttered, my voice cracking. “Just… give me a moment, I’ll tell them to quiet down.”

“Are you sure… I could just… tune down your eardrums?” Starlight offered, but I shook my head.

“People deserve some fucking peace and qui…” I seethed. “Sorry for swearing, I just… you’re right that I shouldn’t have to modify my own mind just to get through this city with more efficiency, so let me to talk to them with some… civility.”

Stepping outside the apartment, the labyrinthine halls of my underground living space wailed at me, this forsaken place my family had been dumped in. Across from me, another door blasted with music, and I knocked. They didn’t answer, so I knocked again. “Care to keep it a bit quieter?!”

It opened, a half-naked man stumbling out and I could see several more people inside, drinking and shouting to the music’s rhythm — one was poking a needle in their arms, another few were passed out and mumbling. The man who opened the door leaned on it lazily, scoffing. “The fuck you were sayin’?”

“Could you lower the music a little bit?” My eyes narrowed.

“Why should I?” He laughed. “The fuck are you supposed to be? The cops?”

“Want me to call them?” I clenched my hands, I could crush his head without even thinking…

“Bah!” He stepped up closer to me, putting his hands on my chest. “Want to fuckin’ test what we’ll do if you do? Don’t want to mess with Interflame, do you?”

Interflame? They were the lowest-of-the-low in the criminal hierarchy… pitiful compared to what I’d recently dealt with. I shouldn’t have to deal with this…

I could end it so easily, lists upon lists in my head were building of ways I could end them. At a glance, I calculated 2,476…

My nanites could kill them from the inside, slowly.

My hand could punch through his skull.

I could turn his entire apartment against him, light a fire through a microwave and lock his door so he suffocates…

Fuck, I bet I could make his own Implant kill him through Overwrite if I wanted to.

But those were just thoughts. I silenced them. My body remained unmovable as he tried to shove, so I just sighed and walked away — back into my apartment.

“Starlight, tune down my ears.” I muttered, not paying any attention to the laughs behind me and the fact that they made the music louder.

———

I’d done it over the course of nine hours. I’d turned an Integration Feature into Technician, while also raising Compatibility, but it was barely a drop of what my mother needed.

Compatibility: 36%

It was by far the most progress I’d ever made on an Implant, and Starlight wouldn’t stop shouting to me about how impossible what we’d done was. We truly were making groundbreaking developments, and yet I felt hollow.

Lifting the Implant Skeleton had given... doubts dripped through my head like acid. No matter how much I tested it… I’d never found anything wrong. No suspicious genomic alterations, no hidden traps of Warpcode, no secret modifications done to it. It had an 87% Compatibility to my mother, and even a Unique Feature at that: Technopath.

Fuck, it even possessed a 96% compatibility to me… reading its code had been so easy and comfortable, but that only concerned me.

“Starlight… I’ve made my decision.” I tightened my hand around the Implant. “Tomorrow… we’ll do it.”

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Next chapter is titled: Every Step Led To This... and Ripley implants his mother.