The Conceptual Deck

I spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching Star Wars and occasionally writing ideas down in my notebook. Eventually I wanted to try and make a lightsaber, though in reality I would probably end up using it more as a tool for cutting than as a weapon. I also needed to try my hand at shields or some sort of conceptual ablative plating. When the second movie was over I spent a little while going over the guns I had gotten from the last raid I did. While I couldn't give them a proper cleaning without the right tools I could still give them an inspection. I'm glad I did as well, one of the shotguns had a broken receiver and would jam almost every time you tried to feed a shell into it. I set it aside as spare parts.

When it finally got dark I went to bed early, passing time for a while and scrolling through my phone, enjoying a calm night off. I still felt a bit guilty for doing nothing while Ema drove for a day and a half straight, but she had been determined, and she had a point when she said boredom and stress didn't affect her.

When I woke up the next morning I had a text from Ema telling me to check out the next landing pad. It was apparently near an abandoned quarry and mine somewhere near the Texas border. I sent her a confirmation, promising to check it out after I had my coffee. I quickly made myself some breakfast, noted that I needed to go grocery shopping and took a shower before traveling to the quarry.

I landed in a small copse of trees and looked around, immediately noticing a small pattern of stones on the ground, making up an arrow. With a smirk I followed the arrow and soon emerged on the edge of a quarry. When Ema had said "abandoned quarry" my mind went to a small water filled area but with sheer sides with some room to test our stuff in. What it actually was was a massive gravel, rock and boulder strewn area, a massive pit that was half filled with water and a huge flattened area outside that petered out into more natural landscape. The quarry itself was surrounded by hills and lightly wooded areas, mostly with trees I didn't recognize. It was the perfect hidden place for me to experiment. With a smile I pulled out my phone and called Ema, my companion immediately picking up.

"Do you like it?" She asked, beating me out by a second.

"Yeah, this should be perfect, but what happened to leaving the landing pad at the old place and doing a transfer if you found a better place?"

"Well for one, I did the math and it would have been one in the morning. Second, there was an unlisted hiking trail nearby the other location, I spotted it while I was leaving." She explained. "And I had already found this spot on the map so I just went back and grabbed the landing pad."

"And if the quarry hadn't looked like it did online?"

"Then having our own testing site would be delayed a few days." She explained. "Hardly that big of a deal."

"Yeah okay, fair enough, that was probably the right choice." I said, nodding along. "How far away from civilization is this spot?"

"The nearest building is a farm almost six miles away." She said after a pause. "The nearest town is almost ten miles away."

"This is fantastic. The hills will help muffle the sound and hide any light shows we decide to put on. Good find Ema."

"Thanks. I'm about three hours outside of Austin now, so I'll start looking for a place to put down the landing pad in two."

"Okay, Let me know when you're set and I'll come pick you up."

Another minute or so of chatting later and I hung up, traveling back to the apartment, before getting ready to leave. Once I was ready I rode my bike to a random store and bought another prepaid cell phone, the old one having been destroyed a while back by tearing a card. With my new purchase, I rode away in search of an early lunch, ending up eating a small chicken parm sub on a park bench before dialing Coulson's number.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"It's me Coulson, Maker." I answered, leaning back on the bench. "I just wanted to make sure everything was all set for later today."

"We managed to secure everything on your list." Coulson said. "And Clint will be here in a few hours."

"That's good. We will show up some time after four I think." I explained, smirking at how to a passerby it would sound like we were setting up a get together. "Tell Clint he should be excited. They came out better than I could have hoped."

"That is good to hear." Coulson said, his subtle smile audible. "I have a request as well. The next agent we want you to equip is on location. Would you be willing to meet with them while you're making the pick up?"

"Yeah sure, that would be fine."

For a moment Coulson was silent as he digested the easy going attitude I had, which was admittedly much different than the thinly veiled paranoia that they had seen so far. In all honesty not having to worry about the potential for ambush at every single scenario was incredibly freeing. As long as I could talk it would be impossible for them to stop me from escaping with the traveling system I had made.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting you to agree so easily. But alright." He admitted, making me frown. I silently cursed the fact that I wasn't wearing my lie detecting belt on.

"I think I can trust you guys." I responded. "Well, trust you enough not to kill the golden goose. Who is my next customer?"

"You can meet them when you get here." He answered simply before continuing. "An escort will be waiting for you at the secondary parking entrance."

"Alright Coulson, I'll be there."

After confirming our arrival time I carded the phone and left the area, making my way to a nearby clothing shop I knew did alterations. I walked in and talked to the lady, offering way too much money for her to put everything down and cut the left sleeve off of my leather jacket at the elbow. It took a little cajoling but eventually I convinced the lady to do it, taking forty five minutes to sow a professional looking hem around the cut.

After that, I rode around for a while before sneaking into a parking structure and traveling home. To kill some more time I watched the final episode of the original Star Wars trilogy. It was interesting for sure, seeing a film I thought I knew pretty well and not being able to figure out if something was actually different or if my memory was just a lot worse than I thought. I knew some things were different, for example Chewbacca actually got a medal at the end of New Hope, something I knew didn't happen in my reality.

Putting questions about inter-reality differences and similarities that I would most likely never have the answer to behind me, I spent the rest of my time getting ready for my pick up and delivery. I slowly emptied the deck of anything non essential, adding to the pile of junk stacked over my small apartment. I kept my pistol carded, and added the once again loaded Mossberg 500. I kept Clint's glasses of course as well as the ring case, which now held the fragile insulating ring as well. After that I filled about half the deck with most of the useful stuff I had made. When I was just about done Ema texted me, telling me she was ready for pick up at a small park about thirty minutes out of Austin.

When I traveled to her she was waiting for me, sitting on a rock by the truck. There was no road around and we were surrounded by some scraggly tree's. She was still wearing her maximum coverage disguise.

"Ready to go home?" I asked, reaching and carding the truck as she leaned forward.

"Yes, I want to fly around the apartment for a bit before we have to go visit Clint." She said, pulling off her disguise and collapsing the exosuit.

When she was ready I carded her and the exosuit, traveling home in a flash. I immediately pushed Ema out but kept the exosuit in the Deck.

"That's better." Ema said, doing a little twirl in the air before bobbing at head height. "From Texas to New York in a split second."

"Gonna be hard to travel any other way once we get these spread out all over." I pointed out with a smirk. "We are going to be incredibly spoiled"

"How much do you think Shield would pay for the ability to teleport between just two places?" Ema asked as I put on my deployable armor.

"... A lot." I said, freezing for a moment as I considered the massive advantage that would give them. "I don't know how much my remaining Bifrost cards would do but if they realized my traveling was done with landing pads and my vambrace? They might think twice about how our relationship worked. Especially if they knew I probably couldn't make another one."

"Why can't you make another one?" Ema asked, confused.

"The landing pads took seven double cards of Bifrost energy. I only have seven normal sized cards left." I explained as I made sure everything was on right.

"But the energy is surrounding you when you travel." Ema pointed out. "Especially when you land."

I quirked my eyebrow for a moment, my brain working through what she was telling me. I had never noticed any energy around me, but the arrival was always pretty intense. It wasn't far-fetched at all that I could miss something like that. With a shrug I raised my hand, holding it out before traveling to the quarry, trying to pull in a card the entire time. For the journey nothing happens, I don't feel anything. But when I landed I could feel it successfully pulling energy in. twirling the card in my fingers I couldn't help but smirk. I traveled back to the apartment, doing the same thing, getting another card as I landed.

"What did you do?" Ema asked. "There was hardly any light or noise."

"I absorbed it." I answered, showing off the two cards. "They are very different from the Bifrost cards but should functionally be the same."

"...That doesn't mean you're going to make Shield a teleport system, does it?" Ema asked worriedly.

"No, absolutely not. It would make keeping track of them impossible. The only way I would do that was if I could confirm for myself that they aren't infiltrated by Hydra. All this means is that We will be using all the landing pads we have in the US, I can make more for other countries."

Ema nodded as I pulled on my modified leather jacket, which Ema was seeing for the first time. As she watched I activated my shield, which was now uncovered due to the alterations. The Shield itself was scorched and discolored but for the most part seemed to be in fine shape. I carded it with the shield deployed, and while I could feel some concepts of damaged and improper temper, which weren't there before, they were relatively small and it was still an incredibly strong shield.

"So… I figured something out while I was driving." Ema said after a moment, somewhat hesitantly, her tone catching my attention. "While I was practicing colors."

She flew over to the exosuit, sliding into her exosuit. As her form took shape the colors started to shift. Slowly the metal started to look more and more like skin color. The second she stopped shifting though, and you could focus on one area the illusion faded. While her metal surface was technically a shade of "skin tone" It looked all wrong, like she had tripped and hit every sharp rock on her way to the bottom of the uncanny valley. She looked like a cross between a creepy ceramic doll and a barbie. Her eyes stayed the same, still solid emeralds.

"I started trying to figure this out." She explained. "But it doesn't work, in the slightest. I look creepy at best, nightmarish if you're being honest."

"Yeah… it could be worse but…" I said, trying to be nice. "It's not a good look."

"So I started mixing it up, trying to find something that looked interesting but inhuman enough to stay away from the uncanny valley."

Her color started to shift again, the skin tones of her metal surface shifting to blues and whites. When she was done she looked like a slightly stiff version of the Awoken from Destiny, with her hair pulled back like an Asari from Mass effect. Still her eyes remained the same sparkling emeralds, giving a hollow but dramatic look to her gaze.

"That… that looks good Ema. I would have expected you to go green but this looks good."

"Green is two bright, and it was harder to merge and blend with the white to add contrast." She explained. "It's far enough away from human that it doesn't trigger the uncanny valley, but human enough that it's easy to emphasize and no one is going to accuse me of being a terminator. And this is just the first step."

Slowly her body started shifting again, though this time it wasn't just colors. Armor, straps, accessories and bags started to form from her body. Eventually the armor blended through colors as well, shifting until she was dressed in a full suit of armor that looked straight out of a video game. The main plates were a dark forest green and covered the most vulnerable part of her body, or would be if she had any other than her actual frame inside her chest. She had a black underlay that was accented by various straps and layers they even moved when she walked closer. The final transformation was around her head, a simple helmet of burnish metal which covered her face completely.

"Ema, that looks incredible." I said, standing up to walk around her, reaching out and touching the plates. They all felt like metal still, but I could feel the ridges in the armor and underlayer. "This will go a long way to keep people from freaking out about your exosuit. How long did this take?"

"Basically the whole trip after you upgraded the suit."

"Well it's impressive as hell."

"I think I'm going to set it as my default, and have a combat form with the armor designs."

"I agree." I said with a smiled before chuckling. "its going to confuse the fuck out of Shield. Depending on what kind of stuff they have gotten into… they may assume you're an alien."

"Hmm… would that be a good thing?"

"I don't know. It would depend on their experience with aliens, or if they exist at all. For all we know this reality doesn't actually have any outer space stuff going on."

Ema nodded and looked at the clock before looking back at me, her exosuit already shifting down to its cube form. "I think it's time for us to get going. Even if you want to be fashionably late."

I checked the clock as well, nodding in agreement, reaching out and carding the exosuit before holding my hand out for Ema, carding her immediately. I quickly threw on some sweatpants and a shirt over everything before carding my leather jacket and heading out. I rode my bike for a while, much farther than I normally would, before I found a hidden corner and pushed out the super truck. I climbed in and pushed Ema out in the front seat, along with her exosuit.

"Really? The super truck?" She asked as she slid into place and her suit started shifting into its armored form. "You're going to draw a whole lot of attention."

"Yeah, I know." I agreed, carding my sweats and t-shirt, putting on my leather jacket over everything else. "But with an assured escape route it's time to start showing off. The only thing that could protect me more is some sort of danger sense, which I'm currently trying to figure out and is my next big project… other than building myself another weapon… and improving the truck… and setting up a bug out base… and figuring out flight… and making a bunch of knowledge rings just in case…."

I started the truck and couldn't help but smirk as I pulled out into the street. While this wasn't the first time I had driven it around the city, it was the first time I had done it in the middle of the day. As we drove, plenty of people stopped and stared, a few even took pictures with their phones. It took longer than it should have to get to the Shield headquarters as we got stuck behind several curious drivers and staring pedestrians. We did eventually arrive though, pulling down into the same parking structure as before. A Shield agent, dressed in a security uniform immediately spotted me and waved me over to a parking spot. As Ema and I climbed out of the truck the security agent directed us to the same entrance we had used before, where our escort was waiting for us. I tapped my lie detecting belt on, knowing she could see me already.

"Hello Maker." The redhead said before continuing, managing to only pause for a barely noticeable moment on Ema's face. "I'll be your escort. Please, follow me."

"Of course, is Fury in the building by any chance?" I asked as we stepped into the elevator. "I need to return his gloves. He was nice enough to let Ema borrow them."

As I asked I pulled a card from the deck and flourished it, suddenly holding a pair of leather gloves.

"No, Director Fury is currently busy at an offsite location." The woman explained. "But I could hold onto them for you?"

"No, I'll take of it myself." I said, carding them and pushing the card into the deck with another flourish. "But thank you Agent…?"

"Romanoff." She said, flashing me a flirtatious smile that I'm sure would have made my heart flutter if it wasn't already pounding. I was meeting Black Widow!

"Thank you Agent Romanoff."

She nodded and continued leading us as the elevator door opened, guiding us through the relatively empty floor and to what looked like some sort of meeting room. To one side were five large, green weapon crates, each one up to my thigh and around five feet wide. At the table itself sat Coulson, Clint a few glasses and a pitcher of water between them. As we stepped further into the room, Natasha walked around and sat down next to Clint.

"Hey! Good to see you Maker." Clint said with a smile, his hesitation at seeing Ema only slightly more noticeable than Agent Romanov's had been. "Come sit and show me what you made for me. You bragging to Coulson has got us all interested."

"They came out pretty good, Clint." I said with a smile as I sat, Ema sitting right beside me. "But first, I'm afraid I have a few questions for you. This is a bit different from having a few extra arrows."

"Right, your test." Clint said with a nod. "Alright, lay it on me. I've got nothing to hide… Unless it's classified."

"I can't force you to speak, I just know when you're lying." I assured him, getting another nod. "Alright, let's get started…"