The Conceptual Deck

Chapter 57: Starting slow

Ema and I spent the rest of the day in the apartment, talking about what had happened since I had rushed off. Eventually my hands stopped shaking and I calmed down enough to actually discuss it.

"Showing them how you craft might not have been the best idea." Ema pointed out gently when I was done.

"Yeah in hindsight it wasn't my brightest moment." I admitted, shaking my head and letting out a sigh. "I was focused on making sure it didn't happen again at least until I saw the energy they had. That kinda pulled my focus."

"It's understandable. You weren't exactly thinking clearly." Ema said with a shrug. "I think Fury and Natasha will keep your secret for a while, but preparing for when people know how the Deck works might be a good idea, especially with how you told Tony."

"That was a price I was willing to pay for much faster transport." I said with a shrug. "Not happy about it but"

"Well, at least you sped up the repair tablet." She said. "That's a pretty good step forward I think."

"Yeah It's got me thinking as well." I said, leaning back on the couch and closing my eyes. "I think it's time we take that idea and boost it to the next level."

"What do you mean?"

"Well if repairing something from nothing is possible then what about building?" I hypothetically asked, twirling out the card that contained a Hydra energy cell. "This creation energy would help a lot in making something that makes other things."

"Like what?" She asked.

"Like whatever I need." I said with a shrug. "It would save a lot of time and money shopping. Plus, I'm pretty sure I can find enough things that are about copying stuff that I should be able to make the stuff I make with the Deck."

"Well the armor won't be done for another day or so." Ema pointed out. "Is a day enough time to put together everything you need?"

"If we do some research now and do our shopping as Maker, yes." I explained. "I need a lot of heavy machinery and being able to card what I buy and move on will make it a lot easier."

"Well You've already done some shopping as Maker, what's a bit more?"

Together Ema and I started doing our research, first finding places that sold large machinery. Things like lathes, bandsaws, anvils, drill presses and anything else, doing my best to focus on devices that did most of the work for you. It took the rest of the day but we had a solid plan for what we needed. Eventually though I headed to bed early, mentally exhausted. Sleep eventually came, though it was restless and full of nightmares.

-The Next Morning-

I ended up getting up much earlier than I would have liked. I felt haggard and tired, as what little sleep I had managed to get had been fitful and poor. After my coffee and breakfast I started the day by heading out into the city, going from shop to shop. I bought an obscene amount of machinery, spending almost a hundred eighty thousand dollars before noon. The most expensive things were the two massive CNC machines, each costing forty five grand each.

With the heavy machinery out of the way I started buying up everything else I would need, quickly bouncing between cities to buy a large supply, dropping it off at the quarry when the Deck got a little too full. I did a bunch of shopping in Los Angeles for the first time, buying a few stores out of various supplies. When I was finally down shopping I headed back to the quarry to find that Ema had started organizing everything, getting it all ready to combine.

I started out by making a huge surplus of magic rods, filling a storage bin with them and keeping it near my workstation for easier access. After that I started laying everything together, working in all of the large metal working equipment, the 3D printers, molding equipment, everything I could get my hands on that had concepts of making things, all the while working in magic rods.

When I was done with that amalgamation I started on the second one, combining dozens of different brands of copy machines, scanners, stencils, printers, anything used to copy something, again with copious amounts of magic rods. I even added a dozen books of carbon paper. Lastly I combined it with a bunch of computer parts and upgrades, looking to improve the overall quality and fidelity.

For my final amalgamation I combined fifteen grand worth of materials. Printer ink, metal stock, resin for 3D printers, glass, wood, all sorts of different materials that were conceptually in a raw state. I mixed in plenty of magic rods again, finishing off the entire crate.

With my three amalgamations complete I carded it all together, holding the result in my hands.

"Conceptually it's all there." I said, holding the A ranked card. "Which just leaves the final touch."

I pulled out a card containing an energy cell, about to add it in before stopping. Instead I summoned the final Thor spark and combined that into the card. Then I combined an energy cell and immediately combined in a second one.

"Woah, why the second one?" Ema asked. "And the spark too?"

"Worst case scenario I trade for more from Fury." I said with a shrug, my smile slowly growing. "Besides"

I turned the card to show Ema, the card displaying some sort of machine. It was hard to make out the details exactly from the small image, but the gold embossed S in the corner was impossible to miss.

I flicked the card out, its contents appearing along the far wall of the tent. It was a huge machine, a foot taller than I was and at least seven feet wide and three feet deep. The front right side had a computer screen interface with a large tray next to it which, after a minute of examination, I realized could be extended out of the side of the machine. On the opposite side was a product tray, which seemed to be able to collapse against the machine so that its output could just fall to the floor or out onto another surface. The entire machine was embossed with runes and detailed filigree, a large amount of which softly pulsed with pale blue energy

"I'm pretty sure it was completely worth it."

I pushed out the final energy cell and placed it onto the scanning pad before tapping on the c. A model of the cell rotated in the top left of the screen, along with a few simple options. I could print it with the energy inside, without the energy inside, one copy at a time or in any amount of grouping that I wanted. It also displayed a timer, showing ten hours for a single copy of the energy cell.

"That's a bit long." I mumbled, scratching my cheek "I wonder"

In a rush I pulled the cell back into a card, before walking to the Destroyer armor. It was almost done, with everything physically repaired above the knees. I quickly disconnected it and rushed back to the S ranked machine, sliding the tablet into the scanning section and activating the screen. I tapped a few buttons and smiled before clicking enter.

"Four hours and we will have ten tablets." I explained.

"How does that work?" Ema asked, looking incredulously at the screen. "The tablet contains an energy cell, how does it take so much less time?"

"I'm not sure, but the energy cell is pretty incredible and potentially filled from, according to the universal scanner, a one of a kind energy source." I guessed, shrugging while still focusing on the machine. "The tablet holds the concepts of the cell for sure, but it's not the cell anymore."

"That's so broken."

"Well yeah, but no more than the repair tablet."

"Carson, everything you make takes a ton of materials but if that machine only counts the final product when copying it"

"Then everything is going to be incredibly cheap compared to what I put into it." I said, eyes going wide as I looked at her. "Holy fuck, that is broken."

It didn't take long for the first tablet to slide out of the machine and into the tray. I immediately picked it up, grabbed the original and combined them together. By using the Destroyer armor as a measurement I realized that the double stacking had increased its repair speed again, but did not double it. In fact it was only a ten percent increase. Still, extremely noticeable, especially on longer projects.

Over the next four hours I put together one sixtuple stacked repair tablet and one quadruple stacked. I did notice a steep drop off in terms of diminishing returns, but with the ability to literally print more there was no reason to stop when returns diminished, only when they stopped completely. With two extra powerful tablets to work with Ema and I put together a schedule.

"Okay, here's the deal." I said, pulling out my sword. "If the Deck is going to offer such an easy way to power scale, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

I used the sword to carve off three chunks of the repair machine, hooking the sixtuple repair tablet to the original and hitting repair all.

"When this is done Ema, which will be intwo hours." I said, double checking the tablet. "I want you to immediately hook it up to one of the fragments. That will likely take all day to fix, but that's fine. When the universal copy machine-"

"UCM." Ema said, cutting me off.

"When the UCM is working again I want you to print out as many repair tablets as possible." I explained, moving back to the Destroyer armor and hooking up the quadruple stacked tablet. "This is going to be done around three in the morning. When it's done, hook it up to the next carved chunk and get the next set going."

"You're going to combine two destroyer armors?" She asked, looking skeptical.

"Depending on the final repair time for a ten stacked tablet I might even triple or quadruple the stack it." I said with a shrug. "I expect it will have a serious drop in effectiveness per stack, as the more powerful stuff usually does, but it's still worth it since it's basically free."

Ema and I talked a bit more before I left for the night, taking off early since at this point it was a waiting game. When I came back the next morning I was greeted by a stack of fifteen more repair tablets and a 'completed' Destroyer armor.

I quickly stacked the tablets together, settling on two tens and a five as ten seemed to be where the diminishing returns finally stopped being worth it. I hooked up the next set of armor to one of the maxed repair tablets, the timer now reading twenty eight hours. With that going I set up the second maxed tablet to one of the UCM parts, which would take about eight hours to finish. Eventually I finished a third maxed repair tablet, which I immediately used to repair my wings after I cut a chunk off of them, before switching to using that chunk to make a complete second set.

With everything else set up and being used I set the complete UCM to make another ten repair tablets before pushing out my cabinet of tricks and pulling out a set of spare armor. I went for a quick shopping trip to get some materials before using the same method I had for Steve and Peggy's armor to make a set for Bucky. When I was done I picked up the phone and called him.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bucky, it's Maker." I said. "Was calling to let you know I finished your full armor. Where are you guys?"

"We are in Washington." He said simply. "On the Helicarrier."

"Great! I'll head over and we can get it bound to you."

I grabbed a single repair tablet and left the workshop to Ema before traveling to DC. I quickly flew to the Helicarrier and landed on the deck, startling a few agents in the process. Both Steve and Bucky were waiting for me, smoothing things over with the on edge agents.

"Maker, good to see you." Steve said as we shook hands. "Heard you saved the day again."

"Yeah it was intense." I said with a shrug. I must have been pretty transparent because Steve quickly changed the topic.

"So you have Bucky's armor?"

"Yeah I do. Let's find somewhere private and we can get it bound to him."

It took a minute to find an empty space but eventually we did, quickly binding the armor. It shifted quickly to a dark navy blue accented with dark reds. For all intents and purposes it was very similar to Steve's armor, but darker and much more simple. When it was done I leaned against a table and looked at Steve. I was feeling a bit off about asking for this, but it represented a step that could change a lot, giving me access to a material I had been dying to work with.

"Steve, could I ask you a favor?" I asked as Bucky experimented with his armor, checking its flexibility.

"Of course Maker." He answered immediately. "What do you need?"

"This is a repair tablet. It cost a lot to make but essentially it fixes anything with enough time." I explained, instead of answering him directly. "With your permission I'd like to take a sample of your shield. Just a sliver from the inside rim would be enough, and we could immediately repair it with the tablet, good as new."

"My shield?" He asked, looking down at the disk of metal he was carrying. "Are you sure the tablet can fix it?"

"Let's find out."

I motion for him to get closer before hooking up the shield to the tablet. It had several smaller issues, the largest being a slightly worn grip. I showed him the tablet, scrolling through. I offered to fix the grip to prove it but he stopped me.

"No the grip is perfect, it took a bit to get it worn in properly" he assured me, getting a chuckle from Bucky.

"He complained for days when Howard replaced it one time without asking." He joked before suddenly getting somber. Steve reached over and patted his shoulder before turning back to me.

"I don't mind you taking a sample, as long as you promise to not let it fall into the wrong hands." He said after a moment, handing me his shield. "The metal is pretty unique, and Peggy pointed out that if people knew what it was made out of, they would try and take it."

I took the shield from him and held it in my hands, looking down at it for a few seconds. I was holding Captain America's shield. It took a minute for me to recover from the blast of wonder and bafflement at the idea. When I did I looked up at Steve and nodded.

"Thanks, I'll be careful with it." I assured him before laying the shield down upside down on the table. "The sample and the shield."

I pulled my pocket knife out and adjusted its intensity before slowly slicing off a sliver of the shield. It was hardly noticeable but I could practically feel Steve worrying from behind me, so I quickly set up the repair tablet. It was only going to take about a minute to repair the tiny sliver I took, which I immediately carded, doing my best to stay calm.

After a few minutes the shield was fixed and Steve eagerly took it back.

"Thank you Steve, I really appreciate this." I said, shaking his and Bucky's hand again. "I will put this to good use."

"What do you need it for?" He asked as we stepped out of the smaller room, heading back to the flight deck.

"To enhance my armor." I explained with a shiver. "Getting stuck with my own arrow has really inspired me to up my armor game."

"Well I hope it works." Steve said as we made our way through the interior of the shield ship, eventually stepping back out into the sun.

"There you three are."

Peggy, dressed in a basic Shield agent uniform, made her way to us from a little ways away, having been looking around the flight deck.

"I got word you were here Maker, I wanted to make sure you were all right." She said as she got to us, before reaching out and giving my arm a squeeze. "Situations like that are never easy, even for those of us who are trained for it."

As she mentioned training Steve rocked back slightly, as if realizing that no, I had no idea how to handle that sort of situation and that I was in fact a civilian. One with powerful abilities, but a civilian nonetheless. I held back from flicking my childhood hero in the nose for not realizing sooner.

"I I managed to hold myself together until I was with Ema." I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. "But I'm doing okay. Tired, but okay. I'm alive and Dover is still intact, I just need to focus on that."

I had to clench my hand a bit to keep it from shaking, but I managed to smile at the concerned woman.

"I can imagine sleep was hard to come by." She said with a sympathetic nod. "Well I won't ask you to bear your soul here, but if you need someone to talk to we are here."

Steve nodded his head emphatically, giving me a sympathetic look. Even Bucky managed to give me a subtle nod.

"Thank you. I would stay longer but I'm guessing you're leaving for Sokovia soon?"

"We are scheduled to lift off later tonight." Steve confirmed. "Thank you for that data by the way. Peggy explained why Shield was keeping and studying the weapons, but knowing that Hydra could still be experimenting with the energy? Even if they can't make more, it's still worrying."

"Well, good luck on your mission." I said, giving the three a nod before extending my wings. "When you get back let me know. Might be nice to just spend some time hanging out while not getting shot at."

"That sounds wonderful, Maker." Peggy agreed with a smile. "Good luck with your projects!"

I lifted off the deck and flew into the air, heading towards the city to find a place to hide. I needed to get back to the quarry.

I had a shield to rebuild.