I shook the Colonel’s hand. His fully human, and youthful-looking hand. This time, I was wearing my new Mark V ‘light’ suit, with my mask and holodisguise. Yes, the Mark IV was a bit more protective, but when you are talking about nanocircuitry, you can cram a ton of it into even a whisper-thin set of tights if you want to, and the Mark V was a bit thicker than that. I also had my most important stuff crammed into my most important protection. To be honest, while I had thin hardened plates over the most frequently hit or vulnerable areas, the mask itself was a sham… it was my most protected area even if it looked like a typical pullover hood with an exposed lower face. Holographics and translucent alloys are awesome.

It wasn’t like my identity was in doubt, Colonel Moore had made that clear last time we’d met, but I didn’t have anything to prove anymore, at least I hoped. We sat down in a new conference room, next to a new table in a slightly different part of the building. One with windows.

“Is that…” he motioned at my getup.

I nodded, “Yup, the mark five prototype. I already gave it to my team, since, you know, I actually love the superhero aesthetic of showing off great bodies without actually exposing anything. Maybe it makes me a horn dog, but it’s a sign of authority that people respond to.”

He shrugged, “If that’s what you are offering as armors, we might have to do a redesign. Most of our soldiers not only can’t pull the look off, but they wouldn’t want to.”

I shook my head, “Naww, This is the Mark V prototype light. What I plan to make for your boys is what I call the Mark V heavy. Similar electronics, targeting, environmental control, heads-up display, armored storage for ammo, enhanced power supplies, and emergency medical. It looks a lot more like armor, though.”

I held up a flash drive. “I put the full schematics on here. I tried to make as much of it as possible able to either self-repair, or, you know, easily created parts, which I am hoping you can pick up from Dupoint. Still, you are the military, and I spent years in logistics. I have tried to make the logistics as trouble-free as physically possible, even if it impacted the performance a little. No one wants a repeat of the F-35 joint strike piano or M2 Bradley fiasco.”

He nodded, “I get the feeling I am really going to like working with you. Most developers hardly give a damn about logistical issues, especially when they can make a buck.”

I shrugged, “It’s my superpower. Obviously, a lot of core systems simply can’t be produced by others, or manufactured commercially, although I am working to try and fix that, but I gave Dupoint a box full of the same alloys I am using to make the parts that CAN be replaced, like armor plates and material reserves for the self-repair functions.”

“I expect people to get hurt, and for armor to get damaged, maybe even destroyed. You have a dangerous job. My job isn’t to use your job to strip as much money out of the system as I can… heck, I literally charge a million dollars a suit, and my employee base is me, and my team, not a manufacturing production line with tens of thousands of employees. I like eating, and I like having a roof over my head, but I like to think I am not greedy.”

He nodded, “Definitely something we can work with, but you do know it might make you a target for some existing contractors.”

I shrugged, “What are they going to do? Sue me? If they do, that’s your problem, not mine. Send mercenaries after me? I am not that great of a combatant, but I think I can hold my own long enough to disappear. More importantly, if you need to throw them a bone, hand them a schematic and pay them to make it. And do it again when I start making Mark sevens or Mark nines.”

I grinned. “My dream is that when a greater Kaiju decides to make a stink, you guys can go all Pacific Rim on it’s ass.”

“We can go what?”

I sighed. “Old movie. Giant Kaiju would appear, and pairs of twins, for some movie pseudo-scientific reason involving plot complications, would jump into like two-hundred-foot tall robots and meet them for giant monster robot battle fun. The Japanese have been doing that for decades.”

“That brings me to my next question. You mentioned restrictions.”

“Weapons.”

He looked at me narrowly. “Religious reasons?”

I shook my head and laughed, “Are you kidding? I just designed a fifty-foot robot warrior for you that could punch a hole through a Class four Kaiju or stomp a school to the ground. That is practically a weapon of mass destruction all on its own. No. Weapons put a target on my back.”

“I mean, sure, I could probably design a set of decent weapons that might be marginally better than some of what the military uses now, but it’s only marginal, and unless I design them to take advantage of my own creation capabilities, you have teams of contractors that could probably do a better job.”

“My stuff has hard points, targeting systems and links, ammunition bays, generic linkages, energy boosters capable of handling all but the biggest railguns or lasers, modular weapons assemblers attached to the repair systems, sensor suites, and a hell of an adaptive HUD that can retrofit basically any damned thing you put on it. But if you want to put rocket launchers or nuclear hand grenades on it, be my guest… I am not going into competition with the weapons developers. Not only do they do a good job with manufacturing, they also play a LOT meaner with their competition than the ones whose toes I am stepping on.”

He nodded, “That… makes a lot more sense. It would be a lot easier to push some kind of ethical framework to my superiors though.”

I nodded, “Alright, tell them that if I make a gun and it winds up in a criminal’s hands, I will feel responsible.”

“How about unconventional weaponry?”

I smiled a little, “That’s what alphas are for. What I do for police and rescue workers will be a totally different deal, but let’s just say that I won’t be making battle mechs for firefighters that can take out a tank. I have a pretty good idea for a fire suppression system, though.”

“Anything else you won’t do?”

I nodded, “Probably, but I have no idea what kind of weird ideas are kicking around military think tanks. I won’t be offering up sperm for a super soldier program, although I won’t rule out some ideas I already have for super soldiers, but they aren’t ready for discussion yet, or even on my to-do list. I won’t be putting a military officer on my team or taking orders, and like I said, everything I make and do will be on either a quota basis, or have to be cleared through my secretary before I’ll even look at it.”

“What about…” he brushed his hand over himself, “this? You made me into a flipping Superman in less than a second. The brass is INTENSELY interested in this, enough to make it a priority.”

I shrugged, “I didn’t make you superhuman. You are still thoroughly human, and most of your musculature you already had before you got injured. I am called Blueprint for a reason, I didn’t give you anything you didn’t already have.”

“You made me younger.”

I shook my head, “I rebuilt your body. That includes age-related damage. You are still in your forties, I only set the clock back a little… If you take care of yourself, you should still live to be about eighty, or maybe a hundred. I can’t change that, you aren’t actually younger.”

He nodded, “The interest remains. Even if it’s just to repair skilled men that retired due to age, it could be huge.”

I smiled and tugged out a card. “Case by case basis. And there are already alphas out there that can do that. My secretary will figure out the costs. You were a special case, because you caught me at the right time and I think I can get along with you. Speaking of which, how do you feel? Do you miss your prosthetics?”

He chuckled, “I miss being able to crush an empty beer bottle in my hand, but being able to feel up my wife with that hand more than makes up for it. Other than that, I feel great. Amazing, actually.”

I nodded and smiled, “Which reminds me. Wounded warriors.”

“Hmm?”

“Wounded warriors. I don’t mean officers, you can still be a decent officer if you have a brain and a way to point at a tacmap. But the cream of the crop guys that have been taken out of service for extensive damage fighting Kaiju and stuff. Healing literally strips all of my resources, my energy, more than anything else. Just fixing you took a solid third of my energy, and it takes days or weeks to recover. But if you have guys that are almost unrecoverable, and are in a shape like yours, or can’t accept prosthetics, send a dossier, injury record, and qual sheets to my secretary. I will try to make them a priority, hopefully at least once a week. I also have someone on my team who says she can help them too, so I will make it as high a priority as possible.”

Sabrina had mentioned that with the stuff she gathered and the monster parts from the wave, she could probably create potions that would equal or exceed my efforts… I intended to take advantage of that while I could.

“Okay, now here comes the big drop in the rollercoaster ride. Prices.”

I smiled, “I noticed you didn’t mention the blueprints you absconded with.”

He sighed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t bring it up.”

I shrugged, “It’s no biggie. I just used it to confirm design elements, it’s sort of my process. To be honest, they are pretty much useless to you and to me, but maybe they got some attention for you.”

He laughed, “You could say that. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?”

“Shoot.”

He nodded, “First, were all the decorations really necessary?”

I nodded, “Yes. As was the ability to transform into a flying APC. The decorations are pure tradition. A giant armored mecha absolutely has to look like a giant Shogun warrior, or I would never hear the end of it. The transforming thing was both a tradition and a way to make sure that a fifty-foot-tall mecha could quickly and efficiently get to an outbreak without stomping a giant path and taking weeks to get there. I know it seems stupid and inefficient, and if I make anything bigger for zone defense I will probably leave it out, but with the systems I was using, it wasn’t as inefficient as you might think.”

“Right. Okay, that covers my questions. I will tell the brass that there are technical considerations for the appearance that I just couldn’t understand, like ablative armoring potential and communications. As Kaiju fighters, they will probably ask the techies to explain it, and those nerds will come up with way better buzzword explanations for why it has a disgustingly high coolness factor.”

I smiled slightly, “If I weren’t in a fugue I probably would have made it more utilitarian, but that’s for future me to worry about. Inspiration strikes when it strikes.”

He nodded, “Now the hard part.”

I smiled, “Would it help if I told you that the hardest part was going to be getting your superiors to believe that I am serious?”

He nodded, “Maybe.”

I tapped the table, “Okay, first, I need a facility for building, testing, and storing anything up to a two-hundred-fifty-foot tall mech. And by need a facility, I’d prefer it to have a decent heavy lifting system, good lighting and air, good power, and preferably be underground with a launch facility for up to five thousand tons. It needs to have full military round-the-clock high security, plus I might need to add a couple more security systems. That means a few techs, maintenance staff, a cafeteria that can make good fried chicken wings, and a cappuccino maker. Both the machine and the barista.”

He snorted, “I can see why they might have trouble accepting that, except that we HAVE worked with alphas before. I have gotten weirder requests, like demands to find boyfriends who are into roleplaying as ponies. But a lift for five thousand tons… I haven’t seen anything like that. Even the Russians don’t have anything like that. It’s a bit on the absurd side, but I can see if we can do it or perhaps come up with an alternative.”

I laughed, “Okay, but that’s just the first demand.”

“If you are going to be building and storing military equipment there, they probably would have demanded something similar, minus the barista.”

“Secondly, people. Technicians and engineers, preferably. Nothing against scientists, but most of them are autists that don’t know how engineering works. Ideally, once you have the prints and a few prototypes, you can outsource some of the parts and get your own people to put them together except for the parts that only I can do.”

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“Wait, you are just going to give us the tech specs?”

I nodded, “Yup, but it’s up to you to find people who can understand and use them. That comes to the third part, materials.”

He nodded. “Of course.”

I smiled slightly, “It’s not as bad as that, you will have a list of what I need in raw materials. I use a lot less energy if you can give me exactly what I need, but conversions up to two places on the periodic table are easy. After that, the scrap? I couldn't give a darn what form it’s in. If I need three thousand tons of iron, I don’t care if it’s old locomotives, I-beams from destroyed skyscrapers, surplus tanks, or even raw tailings from a mine.”

He nodded, “That should actually… that’s a lot better than I was hoping for.”

I nodded, “Some of the stuff is going to need special alloys I can make them myself, but it’s better if you can deliver them, much faster. The same is true of parts. It would be cool if there were a refinery nearby, because delivering something CLOSE to a part is almost as good as the real thing, but whatever. Bear in mind, though, once you guys get the blueprints, most of the work of putting stuff together is on your shoulders, I will rarely spend more than a few hours there.”

He nodded, “So what else? We need some prototypes before I can easily unlock the cash box, as well as a prototype demo, but I need at least a ballpark figure.”

I glanced at Abbey, who had come with me this time in lieu of Mindy since I didn’t expect a hard sell, and she smiled a little, winking at me. She had a briefcase, but she had come dressed entirely differently, wearing an oddly kawaii fluffy dress and jacket, and her briefcase was decorated with old gaming company logo stickers. “Hi, Colonel Moore! I am Abigail Snow, and I am his Secretary.”

I think his eyebrow was going to stay arched in that position. “Hello, Miss Snow. I have a dossier on you, but it’s oddly incomplete. How can I help you?”

She put the briefcase on the table, opened it, and pulled out a tablet and a box. “Well, first, this is for you.”

“What is it?”

She smiled, “That is the first comm package. You said you wanted prototypes, that’s the first. In this box, there are one hundred universal earbuds. The tablet has a battery life of two years, but it can be recharged in any USB port. On the tablet, there is an easy-to-use tutorial for setting up and using the comm programs. They are all open source and heavily documented, so you can have your coders poke at them all you like.”

“Future packages can be linked to this one, and are configured for doing so. They are switching stations for long-range communications. There are all sorts of cool features, like grouping, command channels, nesting channels, and fun stuff like that, some of it I have no idea how to use, but it’s covered in the tutorial.”

“Encryption?”

I shook my head, “No reason. Each and every unit is linked to this base station and only this base station. If a unit gets lost or stolen, you just lock it out of the network. But there is no technology, known or conjectured, that can intercept quantum entanglement. Each base station is filled to the brim with antivirus and anti-hacking software, but if the base station gets stolen, it’s your problem.”

“What’s the range?”

I shrugged, “Magic range.”

“Huh?”

I smiled a little, “Quantum entanglement doesn’t have a range that we know of. It just is. Theoretically, it should even be useful across dimensions, but testing that’s a little difficult. So it’s magic range. Of course, as with all of my stuff, if I catch people using it for nefarious purposes, my rage will be biblical.”

“You are buttering me up. So far everything you have asked for has been entirely in our favor. What is it you really want?”

I thought about it, I had been thinking about it, but it was hard to come up with anything. “Can’t you believe I am just benevolent?”

He shook his head. “I don’t believe in benevolence.”

I sighed, “Okay, believe this then. The more I use my powers, the stronger I get. Some day I want to shut down the hole that is poisoning my world. We are literally in the end times, and to me, this is more like joining a refugee camp and offering to help with cooking. My pay is the technicians you will be sending to help me work, who will be learning to use and make the stuff themselves. My reward is a piece of beachfront property where my friends and I can have a cookout and go swimming without worrying about getting eaten by a great white shark crossed with a prawn. If you want me to, I will be happy to provide a list of weird stuff I want, but that’s just for show.”

“Okay, well, no one will believe that you are actually a legitimate hero. So what weird stuff can you ask for?” he said, without batting an eye.

“Well, I want a cute camouflage bikini and a non-functional AK-47 for Abbey to take a photoshoot as a gun girl, to keep me warm on winter nights when she isn’t there.” Abby blushed.

“I want a copy of X-Men #137, the one where Phoenix dies on the moon, but it doesn’t have to be an original or anything… even the graphic Phoenix novel would work, I haven’t been able to find one for sale anywhere. I want to meet Angelique in person. I don’t want a date or anything, I just want to see if she is as beautiful in person as she is in the movies and pictures. I’d also like to meet Heracles, the original one in a retirement home, not the new one, just so I can shake his hand and tell him that he is the greatest person I have ever heard of and my inspiration. Maybe he’d be willing to let me rejuvenate him, and someone like him shouldn’t be benched just because he got old.”

The Colonel was actually taking notes at this point.

“Umm… I’d like a trip to China so I can do some really important power research, an autographed picture of Dirk Benedict, and a Cal Ripken rookie card, I don’t care if it’s Topps, Fleer, or Donruss, and it doesn’t need to be autographed. I want access to Datawyrm’s arsenal and everything collected by the government in the Serenoid invasion, and permission to meet, and maybe try and recruit a fifth teammate from one of the hermetic academies.

Abbey whispered, “You know, most of this stuff I could get.”

I nodded, “Yeah, but the point is to get the military to do it so they feel like they have a handle on me. Is there anything you want?”

She nodded, “Yes, A copy of Marilyn Monroe’s dress from gentlemen prefer blondes, and my sister would like a copy of the Quake mod that the army used to train recruits before the split.”

“Anything else?” Moore asked, rolling his eyes. “Some of this, there’s no chance, but I guess the brass will be happy to have some things they can say no to. Heracles passed away two months ago. The Serenoid stuff is going to be tough, and why do you want access to Datawyrm’s arsenal?”

“Kendra.”

“Huh?”

I smiled a little, “Kendra. Yes, Datawyrm’s stuff all shut down when Wrench died and all of his Widgeteer power supplies died with him, but Kendra was the closest thing to a real artificial intelligence that ever existed. I want to see how Datawyrm made her, whether she was a real AI, an alpha ghost in the machine, a digital copy of a real person, or something else. Call it a close, personal interest. The rest of the stuff is antiquated junk or captured widgeteer garbage, but Kendra was special.”

He nodded, “Anything else?”

I smiled, “Sure, I could make up more weird stuff to make the brass feel useful, but that can wait until they try to raise the quota. Otherwise, make up a number for the equipment. Let them compete for how much cash they are willing to throw my way for each suit, communit, and mech, and then I will underbid it… Not because I need the money, but if I don’t charge anything, they might not think it’s worth anything. Make it sound serious but affordable.”

He chuckled, “Smart. I will do what I can.

***

“You know, even playing the ‘I don’t need money’ game, you are going to be stupidly rich.”

I shrugged, we were walking back from the ops building, arm-in-arm, and I was feeling pretty good about myself for a change. “If there’s too much, I will ask you to start up a charity for homeless cats or a wounded warrior fund or something. Heh, imagine how much the chiefs would freak out if they found out that all the money they were spending on defense was getting sent back into the veteran’s association and the policeman’s widow fund.”

Abbey smiled, “You really are a hero, aren’t you?”

I shook my head, “Not even remotely. What I said about a refugee camp was serious. There are barely four billion humans left on Earth, from a high of almost eleven billion. The days when money could buy happiness ended in the seventies. Now I am just a survivor. Money isn’t power anymore, it’s all about fun and status, and you and my team are all the fun and status I need.”

I thought about it for a moment, “Okay, there’s even more fun I could have, but that has to wait.”

“What fun is that?”

I gave her the look.

“Oh, that. Were you really serious about wanting to meet the angel?”

I chuckled, “Yeah, I wanted to see if she’s real. She’s too impossible. I am half convinced she was created with CG to be impossibly perfect, like… Lara Croft, or Yvonne Strahovski.”

“Do you want her?”

I heard that one coming. “Not even slightly. Remember what I said about impossibly perfect? Well, you are possibly perfect. And you have better boobs. Why, were you created with CG?”

She snorted. “Ariel would love that.”

I shrugged, “Probably, but now you got me thinking about twins. I don’t even have that kink, or at least I didn’t. I blame you.”

She laughed, “Oh, Ariel would love that even more. If you brought it up, I bet she’d disappear the studs and have her hair fixed before you could blink.”

I looked at her startled, “Wait, why, does SHE have that kink? From the other angle?”

She shook her head, “No. But I told her what happened. Kali told her it was the best of all possible worlds, even though to her, it was sort of a form of demonic cultivation because of its potential to be abused. My power has already started expanding, and I think hers could too, but I most assuredly do NOT want to be the ‘other sister’. I’ve been that all my life and it has gotten so old. So umm… please don’t sleep with her?”

I grinned, “I can make that promise.”

She changed the subject, “Oh, umm… Christine tried to contact you again. And no, she didn’t run afoul of the identity law. Your contact information is tied to your normal identity, and she used that.”

I sighed deeply as we stepped into the dorm. “I am going to have to deal with that, aren’t I?”

She shrugged, “You could start a motion for a restraining order. Not that I think that would be a good idea.”

I nodded, “Yeah if we wind up working together, the whole five hundred feet thing wouldn’t work, especially if she gets hurt.”

“Would you heal her?”

I raised an eyebrow at her, “Of course. I may despise everything about her now, but I am not a complete monster. She messed up the life I had, which might have been a good thing because I have a much better one now, but she didn’t try to kill me, she was mostly just rude and selfish, which I should have expected if I hadn’t been such a simp.”

We scanned and entered the suite, and I flopped on one of the stools at the kitchenette bar, near the hard comm. “I am not looking forward to this.”

She smiled a little, “Do you want me to stay for moral support?”

I shook my head, “Naww. If I have to be an asshole I want you to still thinking of me as your strong, dominant, and utterly sexy hero. I do need her number, though.”

She laughed, “It’s in the comm. Look up ‘That bitch’. And if you do unload on her, I promise I will still think of you like I do now.”

I chuckled, “Alright, go for it.” I looked up the comm. She wasn’t kidding, it was ‘That bitch’ and it already had three new messages attached to it. Weird, I had never seen her act this… needy.

I finally hit the call-out button. Yes, it was an old-fashioned handset, but since the radio blackout, that was what we used.

“Hello?” yes, it was her voice. She did have a really sweet voice, it was sort of what attracted me in the first place. That and certain physical attributes helped me forget the rotten personality behind them.

“What do you want?” I said.

“Jake? Oh wow, Jake, is that you?”

I growled, “You have called me twenty-three times in the last two weeks. Who else would it be? What do you want?”

“Did you hear my messages?”

I glared at the handset, really? She was pulling this ‘were you listening to me?’ crap now? “No. I had my secretary screen you. She heard them, though. Again, what do you want?” By the bar, Abbey rolled her eyes and then made fisting motions towards her mouth in an ‘o’ shape. I knew she was telling me what Christine had probably left in messages since that kind of suggestion had worked in the past when we fought, but watching Abbey do it was… stimulating.

“That… you… we need to talk!”

I sighed, “We are talking. If I have to say ‘what do you want’ again, I am hanging up. I have a lot of work to do, and you are wasting my time.”

“Jake, sweety, I really love you. This experience was not what I expected… I think we should get back together, what we had was amazing. You know how hard this is for me, but I forgive you.”

I started laughing, and then put on my best indulgent grandmother's voice. “Aww… bless your heart, I can see you strugglin’ to understand, Maybe you should go back to James, or Trojan, and whoever you are railing this week can help you figure it out while he fills your mouth up. Get…. Over… Yourself… I already did.”

“You don’t understand, I am not a slut, James is… I mean, we need to talk about this!”

I hung up, laughing.

“What?” asked Abbey.

“She forgives me. And I think she was about to tell me that James is Titan.”

“Magnum?”

I nodded, “Yeah, him. That does explain a lot, though. Thanks, Abbey, that was some really great closure.”

She smiled, “You shouldn’t have hung up on her. If she had actually told you that he was Magnum, that would have been a federal violation, since the academy calls are recorded. It would be hard to pester you if she had to move out of the city or face jail time for doxxing.”

I nodded, “That’s why I hung up. I don’t care about her anymore, but she was at the wall, fighting. I care about this city, and she’s one of its defenders.”

She immediately slid over and gave me a hug. Unexpected, but cool. “I told you, you really are a hero, if not a superhero. Almost no one would think about it that way.”

I smiled and kissed the top of her head, “Does that mean I can start pushing?”

She chuckled, “I sort of expect you to keep pushing anyway, as long as we know where to stop.”

I nodded, “So, is now a good time to talk about what you said, a ring around your neck?”

She shook her head, “No.”

I grinned, “Fair enough.”