Second Genesis

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Vessel: Tuned Helm Frame 0HF003

Weight: 24.7kg

Faces: 10,333

Raw Materials:

Crimson-Gold Weather Alloy: 2690 Faces

Tempered Steel (any kind): 120 Faces

Flexweave Mesh: 81 Faces

Fractal Resin: 5,170 Faces

Halo Mesh: 2262 Faces

Woundkind Nullite: 10 Faces

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’I recognize some of these materials from the blueprints that the blood bitch had... interesting...’

Grey cracked his fingers and got to work.

This was the first time he was working with so many materials at once, and he was starting to notice that each one had their own different processing steps and different sorts of care they needed. But there were still big boxes you could put them into.

Meshes tended to be the connecting glue. They could be used to combine, give flexibility, and rigidity. It depended on how, when, and where they were applied.

Alloys and Steels were the most straightforward of the bunch. They were the true backbone of everything.

Resins and Nullites were the most variable. A lot of that was because they could be used in either the structure or the circuitry. Nullite was far more often used in the latter, but Resins could be used in both.

Their insulation properties—or more specifically their polarized insulation and equally polarized conductivity—made them a dream for controlling current flow.

Resin L-Frame Mesh was one of the materials that Grey had words with back when creating the Ball Bearing Eye. It was a combination Mesh and Resin that was highly specialized to perform both roles because of the complexity of a Prosthetic Mech.

When you started to get into combination materials like this, everything only became more complicated.

Grey’s feel for these details was becoming stronger the more he crafted. If he actually had the time, maybe he could have become quite good at this.

He didn’t seem to realize how good he already was.

But Silva certainly did.

The wolf man stood by the door, making himself small so that he didn’t disturb Grey, but he almost immediately realized that what was going on was far beyond his paygrade. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

It wasn’t just the fact that Grey actually seemed more than capable of integrating and manipulating Vector Class Materials, but even though he was relying on the hub heavily, he was doing so with such ease.

The hub was, of course, the egg gaming chair as Grey so liked to call it.

Silva had tried to follow along, he really had. But when he watched Grey slide together two spiralling pieces that looked like thick springs until they clicked into place and formed a perfect rectangular prism piece, he felt his brain break.

What kind of low tolerances was Grey working with that he could accomplish something like that? And the mechs Silva was used to, or at least the ones he had observed from afar, were often blocky and formed in pixels.

Where were all these curved and fancy, complicated edges coming from.

It almost felt like Grey was piecing together fluctuating mirages into real, tangible things and it was breaking his concepts of reality.

Grey’s hands moved across the projected images above the black, gold, and silver Cyber Mat like he had eight of them, a wide grin on his face as though he was having the time of his life.

That was when Silva realized something.

Were Cyber Mats supposed to be this responsive?

Cyber Mats were a lot like keyboards—at least the oldest sort. They had a certain stroke count limit, a number of inputs they could withstand at any given time. This was known as "rollover" back on Earth.

In the world of Cyber Mats, it was simply known as IR, or Input Restriction.

This Cyber Mat didn’t seem to have any at all. Where the hell had Grey gotten his hands on something like that.

Wait... did Grey even have anything that could satisfy such a vessel?

Silva watched, mesmerized as the time ticked by.

Grey’s hands swiped at the air in beautiful arcs. Sometimes his fingers would expand to zoom in, and at other times they would shrink to either collapse something in on itself or to zoom out.

He seamlessly transitioned from one stage to another, seemingly not realizing that keeping your orientation and interacting with a Cyber Mat in the first place was a skill in itself.

Grey, though, just felt like he was having the time of his life.

It was like when he played with Lego as a kid, or after he finally got old enough to start working on cars.

Except this time, all the annoying parts were cut out.

The instructions were downloaded right into his brain, he didn’t need to constantly refer back to them.

The pieces were all here, downloaded into the Cyber Mat, he didn’t need to find them, or pick them up, he just needed to think about them and swipe a hand and they’d be there.

There was no stripped bolt he couldn’t get out, or rust to chip at his fingers, or the fear that a jack might give out and smash him to death.

It was all the fun without any of the hassle, and instead of coming out with an illusory product in the end...

Everything just magically became real.

Grey laughed as he slapped his palms together, beads of sweat pooling down his brows. He had just blazed through it all in just two hours, even less time than he had taken for the Echo Jaw. He didn’t know why, and frankly right now he didn’t actually care.

The Helm Frame took shape and landed heavily in Grey’s hands.

’Fuck it’s heavy.’

However, heavy to Grey now and heavy to him in the past were two very different things. This... this he could handle.

He grinned and placed the Helm Frame on his head.

Its abilities weren’t like any of the other Mechanical Jaws he had faced. It came with three slots, and these three slots were designed to fit helm, helmet, or mask-type treasures into them.

Once this was done, they could be not only elevated by the Helm Frame, but it could integrate all of their abilities into one.

And Grey knew exactly what he wanted to use it on.

His grin widened as the Helm Frame hooked itself into him.

Grey roared out in pain.