System Supervillain, Chapter 102

Chapter 102 – Fabricated

Next on the list was Fabricator. Real name: Nina Keyserling. One of the female reality manipulators, she was something of an echo to Warpsmith, in some ways. Her powers were mostly focused around the creation of gadgets and machines that should not work, and, in fact, wouldn’t work without her powers being in effect, like throwing out a grenade that increased the coefficient of friction on everything in its radius to the point that simply walking required you to move in heavy stomping motions, while literally dragging the air behind you. Or the ‘gun’ made from a cardboard tube, wooden handle, and four AA batteries that somehow shot lasers. Utterly bonkers, but it worked, because she said it worked.

Pulling up her bio, I could see that she was a fairly standard superheroine. Her powers were funky, but that was the only thing different between her, and any one of dozens of supers that wore the cape and protected their home turf. Fabricator’s home turf happened to be the city of Berlin, and she was part of the Nachtwache, Berlin’s resident super team. They were actually a decent sort of super team, honestly. When they weren’t stopping supervillain crime, they were doing community outreach and other such things. Fabricator, in particular, was often seen going around the country whenever there were natural disasters or super-powered conflicts, since she could whip up just the right device to start clearing rubble or rebuilding houses and all that stuff. Germany had actually been sorely missing her the last couple years.

Putting her back out in the world, not under my direct control, would be a big PR win for me. Sure, I didn’t need to worry about PR as much these days, since I had some of the most powerful supers in the world as my pets, but I’d killed supers who were as powerful as I was, even ones who were more powerful, so I couldn’t let myself get complacent. You had to assume that anything you could do, could be done to you. Even my System Administrator abilities weren’t unique to me, and I had to assume that there was a higher level of Admin out there, which is why I was always careful not to abuse my access too much.

Of course, before I could let the girl back out into the wild, I needed to make sure she didn’t go destabilizing the System again. A few hard limits on her powers here, a couple disadvantages to lock her out of attacking System personnel there… and done. She wouldn’t be causing any problems for me now, but if I was going to make a show of releasing her, then I needed to actually meet her, so that she could tell people what I did.

With that in mind, I loaded up the interview room again. I sat at the table, and touched the interface. A cylinder of static appeared in the room, before resolving itself into Fabricator.

She was wearing her normal costume, which was basically an armored jumpsuit with tool belt, a pair of boots, and some goggles. Her blonde hair was cut short, in a more boyish style, or perhaps more punk? She was cute, but nothing to write home about. Her bio also suggested she cared more about puzzles and making things than social interaction, which was probably why her whole outfit screamed ‘functional’ rather than ‘superheroine’.

“What in the hell?”

Naturally, her first words were surprised. Understandable, given the situation. Her eyes flashed around the room, before settling on me. I saw recognition in her face, which pleased me. After all, if people knew my costumed persona by sight, then they knew not to mess with me, or mine.

“You! You are Iceblade, the American villain, yes? What did you do to me? Where am I?”

“Yes, I am Iceblade,” I nodded, keeping my voice pleasant, as I motioned to the chair across from me. When she was seated, I continued, “As for your other questions, you were put into quarantine by the System when your actions threatened to destabilize things. This room is not a space in the ‘real’ world, as you might have guessed. It is a pocket dimension generated by the System to facilitate conversations like the one we’re having now. And, before you start, I’ll just tell you that your powers won’t work here. After all, this is a place to interview problem children, and see whether they can be let out of ‘time out’, or whether they need more permanent actions taken.”

Her eyes narrowed at my indirectly calling her a problem child, but I could see her mind racing. “Then you must be the ‘local administrator’ that the System announced finding, right? So, what is going to happen now?”

“Well, we’re having this interview because I wanted to see whether you were a reasonable sort, and to inform you of a few things. For instance, it has been almost three years since the System came online. You have been in quarantine all that time, because I frankly did not want to deal with the headaches you reality warpers caused. Quite literally, until I managed to tune the interface to not use psychic messages to relay Administrator alerts.”

She took a breath, and said, “So, why now? And it isn’t just me you’re looking at, right? You’re going to, what, review the cases of all the reality warpers out there?”

“That’s correct. And the ‘why’ is simple. The Guild asked me to review the quarantine cases so that they could properly archive or close individual files. I’ve already conducted reviews of Lady Abstract, Reality Slash, Warpsmith, the Doctor of Time, and the Master of Paradoxes. The last two, while not reality warpers like yourself, were the cause of the System coming online, so were put in Quarantine as part of the initialization process. Out of the other three, Lady Abstract and Reality Slash have been released, though they have some significant limitations, now. Warpsmith has been… deleted from the database, shall we say.”

“You killed him?”

“Not directly. The System purged him from existence. Unlike you, or the others I have dealt with so far, he was quite insane, and would have taken far more work than it was worth to ensure he didn’t cause problems in the future. I would have basically had to reconfigure him from the ground up, or completely neuter his abilities to make him not be a problem.”

Fabricator took a breath, clearly thinking things through before speaking. “So, you have the ability to make fundamental changes in people, thanks to this System? The ability to basically rewrite people’s, what, minds? Souls?”

“Yes, and no. If I use my official access, I could turn you from female to male change everything about you, down to the languages you speak and the skills you know, strip all your powers and turn them into something like ‘Nacho Cheese Control’, and give you a crippling addiction to children’s cartoons. However, all those changes would be noted, and logged, and there is a real possibility that some senior administrator would come in, and start asking questions, especially if I changed point totals and the like. And since I would rather not give up the power I have, I am forced to restrain myself somewhat. In general, I don’t make any alterations unless I have some legitimate cause. Such as processing individuals in quarantine so that they no longer pose a problem to the System, or existence as a whole. I have significant leeway in this instance, but not an infinite amount of it. Which is why I am talking to you now, to see how much I need to change you.”

I decided that she didn’t really need to know that I had already changed her. Leaving it as a potential for something that could happen when she wasn’t looking ought to keep her from getting any funny ideas. Keeping her respectful would make this easier on all of us.

“I won’t bother asking what gives you the right. Clearly, this System gave you the ability. What changes are you going to make to me?”

“Analysis to keep from worrying about things outside your control. Interesting. That was not something mentioned in your overview. Well, the reports are more concerned with data points than processes, so it makes sense that there would be gaps.”

I could see her eyes widen slightly as I spoke out loud to myself. She was trying to get as much information as possible, and I knew it. However, that meant that I was still in control, because I was the arbiter of what information I let slip to her.

“At any rate,” I continued, “the first thing I am going to do is put some hard limits on your powers, and behaviors. Nothing too egregious, but you will not be able to take any actions that threaten the System, or could possibly destabilize it, and you will be physically unable to harm anyone with Administrator access, even indirectly. Even if someone mind controls you, your body will simply refuse to carry out the action.”

Fabricator’s breath was sharp, and fearful. With an undertone of dread, she said, “You said that too quickly. You’ve done this before. How many?”

“Oh, I’ve only used my system access to nonconsensually edit a few people. The only one who wasn’t in Quarantine like you was a naughty boy who thought that attempting to use a Nigerian prince scam on the new Local Administrator for Earth was a smart idea. So, I conducted a ‘random audit’ of his abilities. He hasn’t tried anything like that since.”

“You’re being very careful with your words,” she said, eyes narrowing.

“Being a System Administrator doesn’t preclude me from the System’s strictures. Including the need to have Disadvantages to balance some of my powers. One, in particular, can be problematic. It is extremely difficult for me to tell a lie. Not impossible, but extremely difficult all the same. So, you can rely on everything I say to be a truth.”

“A truth? Not the truth?”

“Some things are true, or untrue, depending on one’s point of view. What is order for the spider is chaos for the fly, after all. Still, it has the benefit of meaning that people cannot call me a liar. Not truthfully, anyways.”

“So, what now? You let me go? Threaten me if I don’t behave? And what do you get out of this? You have to have a reason beyond the Guild just asking you.”

“Well, yes, I was planning on letting you go. You’re one of the more respectable heroines, from what I’ve seen. No self-righteous bullshit, and you work hard to help Germany recover from any disasters or major fight. Something that I believe you will find appreciating even more, once you return. The last couple years have made them realize just how much they relied on you, after all.”

“Hmph. Well, getting appreciated isn’t a bad thing.”

“As for what I get out of this? That is simple. The Guild is paying me a fee per account either returned to active status or permanently archived, so that they can keep any annoying vulnerabilities from creeping into their systems. But if you’re asking about my treatment of you, in particular? I buy myself a substantial amount of good press, and possibly even goodwill, since you’ll now be going back to doing your normal thing.”

I held my hand up to keep her from speaking as I took a breath. “As for any further ‘administration’ issues with you? I would say it is a promise more than a threat. If you should find yourself in quarantine again, I am afraid that I will not be able to be so merciful in how you are treated. At the very least, you will find your life so severely limited that you may as well say that you were a slave, forced to do whatever the one holding your leash told you to do. At worst, well, Warpsmith is already not coming back. It would be a shame for you to join him.”

Fabricator sighed. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice, then?”

I chuckled as I opened the System interface again. “There’s always a choice. But choices have consequences. Hopefully, the next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances.” With a press of a key, Fabricator disappeared, returning to Berlin.