The Conceptual Deck

Chapter 3: Crafting with concepts

The next morning I woke up much earlier than I usually do. Of course, I hadn't intended to wake up that early, any more than I intended to shoot up gasping for breath. I almost dove for my phone, nearly falling off my bed as I feverishly typed a message.

Please please please I will

never ask for anything ever

again, on my parents graves,

on my own soul, if you just tell

me that I am not in tsome

version of the Marvel

Zombies storyline. .

Please.

There is no way I can enjoy this

adventure if that is hanging over

my head.

I typed, trying my best to appeal to the mysterious messenger from the day before. I slowly caught my breath, my eyes not leaving the screen for a second. I didn't know what I would do if they had stuck me in a universe like that.

"Carson? What's wrong?!" Ema called, floating in quickly from the living room.

I ignored her, the rising panic threatening to swallow me like it almost did in the streets yesterday. Before I could sink any deeper though, my phone dinged.

Do not worry! We have agreed

to confirm that you are indeed

not in that universe or any like it!

Rest assured, this is not a

cosmic joke or punishment!

Before I could respond my messenger app closed out, and upon re-opening the app the mysterious messages were gone. With an exhalation of pure relief I flopped back down on my bed, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my palms.

"Thank you. For answering and for not fucking me over."

"... Who are you talking to?" Ema asked after pausing for a moment, floating over my bed. "Did you get another message"

"No I had a nightmare. About some of the alternate realities that exist for the marvel universe." I explained, eyes still closed. "Some are pretty horrifying. I dreamed I was in one of the more fucked up ones."

I explained, before slowly sitting up on the edge of the bed in my boxers. Yesterday we had spent a long time talking about what Ema knew about our situation. As far as we could tell she knew nothing about the Marvel franchise as a whole but knew plenty of other media from my universe.

"I messaged the people who put me here, begging for confirmation that this wasn't that universe."

"And they confirmed it?"

"They did, even went as far to confirm it wasn't anything like it, that it wasn't a joke or a punishment. Then they cleared my message app. Pretty sure I used up all my life lines with that one."

Ema hummed and flitted around my room, her "face" staying focused on me. A quick look at my alarm clock showed that it was just about eight. Normally I would be asleep for another hour or so before getting up to get ready for work. There was no point in waiting. If I was gonna do this then I needed to put in the time which meant getting up a bit earlier. I stood with a groan, stretching before walking to my closet to get dressed.

When I finally stepped out of my room I was dressed and ready for my shopping run. Ema was already using the computer, searching through news and taking notes in a word processor.

"You sure you don't mind staying here? You could stay in my coat pocket or something?"

"While getting bounced around like a set of keys sounds amazing" She said sarcastically "I don't mind holding down the fort. Besides that, I can always call you. Just keep your phone on."

"Alright, if you're sure. I'll call you if something comes up."

Not long after that I was zipping up my jacket as I kicked my apartment door shut behind me. The air was cool for late May, but I could already tell it would be warming up a bit as the day went on. I checked up and down the street before pushing my bike out of its card and hopping on.

My first stop was a nearby army surplus store that I had found last night during some research. It was only a few minutes away, but I had never seen it before. It was too close to my apartment to not have noticed at some point, so I'm pretty sure it didn't exist in my reality. Either way I got there pretty quick, cutting through an alley and stopping to pull my bike into a card.

The second I stepped in the front door I smiled. I could already see that they had most of what I wanted to get from here. I grabbed a basket and headed to the back of the relatively large shop, where there were three long racks of assorted styles of camouflage uniforms. I grabbed both pants and shirts of every type they had, save for the pink ones. I was pretty sure that style didn't see active service. I brought the now full basket to the front of the shop, getting the attention of the clerk. I dropped the basket near the desk and grabbed another.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked, giving the older gentleman a smile. "I'm going to be buying a bunch of stuff, I'm throwing a military themed party this weekend."

"Uhh alright, I'll ring you up when you're done." He responded in a barely interested voice.

I nodded and waved as I headed back into the shop. I grabbed a set of black combat boots in my size, as well as a pair of black fire resistant gloves. I grabbed two different helmets, an older metal style and a more modern composite style. I grabbed a black beanie before pulling a rolled up sheet of camouflage netting under my arm. My second basket now full, I made my way back to the front counter, passing him the basket before waiting semi patiently for the clerk to ring everything through.

"Have fun with your party." He said, passing me three full bags with the receipt tucked inside.

As I left the store I looked up and down the street, heading down to the same alley as before. Making sure nobody had stopped to see where I was going I pulled the bags into separate cards and kept walking through the alley, pushing my bike out and hopping on half way through.

My next stop was a sporting goods store, where I bought a padded dark blue compression shirt with matching pants, as well as hockey chest, thigh, knee and elbow pads. I ended up carrying those for a while before I found a place where I could get them into my cards without being seen. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise however, as I led me past a music store. The front display was lined with sound baffling foam, which seemed like the perfect addition to a stealth suit. I walked in and walked out fifteen minutes later with two bags full.

After that was my final stop, the hardware store. It didn't take long, as I quickly searched the aisles for a source of thick metal plating. I ended up settling for a stack of some sort of steel reinforcing plate. I breathed a sigh of relief when I exited the store with no one commenting because I had no idea what the plates were actually used for. I picked up a pair of sleek safety glasses as welI.

I rushed back to my apartment, only stopping for a quick lunch and a coffee. By the time I got back it was almost noon. I vanished my bike into a card in the doorway of the apartment, before climbing the stairs with a smile. If nothing else, I was pretty sure being able to do that alone was worth getting sent to another reality.

"I'm back." I called out when I was finally back in my apartment. "I think I got everything I needed."

"Welcome back, I'm glad to hear you were successful" Ema responded, floating in from the living room, greeting me with a bob and a soft flare of green light.

"Took a bit longer than I thought but it all worked out." I said with a smile, walking past her to sit down on my couch.

I quickly had my notepad and the deck on the table, ready to see what I could do with proper planning. I rubbed my hands together and clapped once.

"Alright, let's do this!" I said excitedly, pushing all of my bags out of their cards.

"Perhaps starting small might be the best option?" Ema suggested while scanning the bags.

"Sure, sounds good." I answered with a shrug, pulling most of the bags back into cards "Let's start with the headwear then."

I pushed out the first bag of stuff from the military surplus store, pulling out the two helmets and the beanie. I stood up from the couch and grabbed another beanie from a closet. I carded all four pieces of headwear, combining each of the helmets with a beanie before combining the results together.I pushed the resulting combination into my hands, examining it. It was still a beanie, knitted fabric and all. But when I rapped on it with my knuckles it felt solid. I quickly put it on my head, again rapping my knuckles against it. I couldn't feel the impact, though I could feel the force push against me.

"As usual, my scans can't make heads or tails of it. It somehow registers as being made of metal, fabric, and a composite." Ema said as she scanned the hat while I was still wearing it.

"Should at least keep me from cracking my skull open, right?"

"Without testing it? Maybe?"

"We can test it a in aa bit, I really want to see if my armor idea works."

Done with it for now, I pull it back into a card, noting it was a C rank before pushing all of the bags I got from the sporting goods store, followed by the bag from the hardware store. I pulled all the metal plates into individual cards before combining them together twice into five cards. I took two and combined them together until I had three plates about a quarter of an inch thick, and one plate almost half inch thick. The thicker plate was about the size of a piece of paper, while the thinner plates were about two-thirds of one. Ema flew around the large one while I held it up for her.

"It's denser than normal steel now." She reported, before turning to me. "I believe this one would even stop most pistol caliber weapons. The thinner ones would probably stop an indirect hit."

"Damn, that's that's good to know."

Pulling the hockey pads into cards I combined them with the steel plates, saving the bigger plate for the chest. The result was a full set of pads that looked more like armor. What was once plastic and foam was now articulated steel plating, though the metal was now black and connected by durable looking fabric.

"Think it will still stop a bullet?" I asked, holding the chest piece out for her to scan.

"Well the thickness is the same." She stated, scanning the armor. "Plus, your power likes to enforce concepts, and the pads did embody that concept."

"Right, so probably, but don't rely on it until we can get it tested"

I combined the chest armor with the gauntlet like elbow pads, before combining that with the padded compression shirt. The final result was an impressive looking armor plated under shirt. It was thin and clearly lined with black metal plates that somehow flexed and articulated with my movement. The undershirt had somehow influenced the armored plates into fully covering my arms, chest, neck and back. It was lighter than it looked and it fit like a glove.

"That came out really well." I stated, clearly surprised.

"It did. It looks like professionally made armor." Ema admitted, circling me as I stood. "We should test its resilience

"Alright, let me get something to hit myself with." I relented, standing up and heading to the kitchen.

A few moments later I was back in the living room, a hammer in one hand and holding my arm out. With some hesitation I hit my arm a few times with increasing harshness. Eventually I did manage to dent one of the small metal segments with some wild heavy swings, but the force barely transferred to my arm. What should have been bone rattling hit was instead a heavy thump.

"Holy hell"

"Try the hat." Ema suggested, still examining the bent metal section.

I nod and push the hat out of my head and quickly put it on. I hit myself again, this time with a little more confidence. The hits definitely shoved me around but the beanie protected me significantly.

"Damn, this is going really well."

"Don't jinx it yet" Ema pointed out, bumping against the wooden coffee table twice.

With a smirk I pulled the undershirt off of me and into a card without taking it off. It was a B ranked card, the highest I had seen save for the gem and it gave off some seriously protective vibes, though I had no way of knowing if it was truly still bullet proof.

Tossing the card into my deck, I combined the padded compression pants and armored pads together. The result was the same rank and looked just like its counterpart. With a satisfied smile I put my new armor into my deck before taking everything I had bought from the army surplus store out and onto the table. I took the boots and double checked that they fit me, before combining them with the amalgamation of a dozen sound baffling squares. The result was a C ranked pair of black boots that you had to purposely stomp in to make any noise. They felt a little squisher than they did before, but the steel toe still seemed strong so I decided it was a fair trade.

"I can hardly detect you walking in those." Ema confirmed as I walked around in the boots.

"Not bad for picking the sound baffling stuff on a whim." I said, pulling the boots off and into a card. "Though I have to admit walking in them is a bit weird. I'll get used to it though."

With that done I moved on to what I hoped would be the real stealth part of my suit. I quickly pulled the camouflaged uniforms into individual cards, ending up with sixteen pairs of pants and sixteen shirts. I got that down to eight each by combining them together once, then adding a single square of sound baffling foam to each. After combining them together again I stood up and went to my closet, grabbing a green rain coat and a hooded sweater. Both were pretty basic but in good shape.

"What are those for?"

"I'm hoping they will take the military edge off." I explained as I carded them both and added some baffling foam to each before combining them into two random camouflaged jackets.

Quickly, before I could lose my nerve, I combined it all down to a single pair of pants and a single shirt, holding each card out in front of me, just absorbing what I had made. Ema flew around my head to read the cards.

"B ranked isn't bad, how do they feel?" she asked

"They feel like they are just what I was trying to do." I answered. "I don't think I could have hoped for better with my budget to be honest"

They were indeed both B rank, and I could feel that they were everything I needed them to be. I quickly stripped, put on my armored underlayer, then the new suit on around it. Between my boots and outfit I made almost no noise, even when I jumped, spun and danced about. As I did Ema circled around me.

"That is incredible, I'm detecting almost know sound. The camouflage is also a very interesting effect. It won't help much in direct light, but you will blend into shadows almost perfectly."

Wanting to hear the effect myself I pulled out my phone and opened my camera app, recording a video. It was bizarre how quiet the suit made me, to the point that I could softly talk and my phone couldn't pick me up in the slightest. I grabbed my keychain, threw it and some change into my pocket and jumped about again. I could barely pick up the sound of change bouncing in my pocket.

I quickly walked to my bedroom, with Ema right behind me. I shut the door once we were inside, so I could use the mirror I had glued to the back. The suit itself was green, a bit lighter than the rain coat had been, with a large hood that easily hung over my forehead. It was tighter than most of the camouflage uniforms had been, but far from skin tight. While it did look high quality, it still looked relatively normal, probably due to the influence of the raincoat and hoodie.

What was really important though, was how difficult it was to see those things. Despite being green the cloth seemed to want to fade into the background, even when I was moving. Once I stopped moving I could feel my eyes wandering away from myself. My eyes would drift to the wall behind me, to my alarm clock or to Ema. I had to really focus to keep my eyes on my new outfit. It was a bit sensitive, the effect broke the second I moved significantly, but it was still potent.

"A perception filter. Fantastic."

"It will make surveillance easier, though it's unfortunate that the effect breaks when you move and that it doesn't seem to work on cameras."

"I'm just glad the fading does. Maybe when I have enough resources I can find a way to force it into camera feeds as well."

After a bit more examining my stealth suit I pulled it and my under armor off into cards. Surprisingly my boots, pants, and shirt all pulled off together.

"Huh, I guess they got grouped together as a stealth outfit." I surmised. "Which means my hat, top armor and leg armor should"

I pulled my armor into a card, smiling in satisfaction as all three settled into a single card. I made my way back to the living room, getting dressed in my normal clothes while Ema buzzed around the room, focusing on the TV.

"Alright, I have one final idea but I'm not sure how it will go. I came up with it while I was at the military surplus shop."

I took the fire resistant gloves from the last bag, tossing them on the coffee table before heading into the kitchen, grabbing the largest cooking pot I had, bringing it back to the couch and resting it on the table next to the gloves.

"Any hints?" Ema asked, not entirely sure where I was going with this.

"Well, I was thinking about what I would do if I was caught." I explained. "And you can't walk around with a toothpick in New york without getting thrown in jail for carrying a weapon. Not to mention I know fuck all about fighting."

As I talked I wadded up a ball of paper towels and threw them into the pot before grabbing the crappy lighter I had been using the day before. With a click I lit the paper towels on fire, quickly putting the cover over it before continuing.

"But I still need something to help get the heck out at least." I explained, watching the fire in the pot. "And that's when I walked past these gloves."

The fire spread fast before slowly losing steam and fading, filling the pot with a light smoke. Both me and Ema peered into the glass cover as I let the last embers fade. I lifted the lid just enough for me to fit my finger inside, pulling the smoke into a card.

"Your gonna make a smoke bomb?" Ema guessed as.

"I'm going to try and make something even better Hopefully. It would be a shame to break the streak on the last thing."

After confirming it was a F ranked card, I quickly re-ignited the paper towel and repeated the process. For twenty minutes I made smoke cards, immediately combining them into one card, not stopping even when the card reached D rank.

Eventually I returned the smoke card to the deck, grabbed the dry fire extinguisher from the kitchen and headed to the bathroom. With the door closed, I pulled the shower curtain all the way shut and pointed the fire extinguisher inside. I tapped the trigger for a moment, pulling the massive white cloud that came out into a card. It was already a D rank, but grabbed three more clouds and combined them together anyway.

I headed back to the living room, returning to my "workspace", pulling both of the new cards into my hands as I sat. I combined them together before pulling out the roll of camouflage netting and combining it with the resulting card. It was C ranked now, and was clearly an irritating and dense cloud of smoke and powder that would easily hide me if I sprayed it out around me. It would even stifle a fire to a degree. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and after a moment's pause combined it with the new card. Now I had a container full of the same thick cloud, though it was even better at putting out fires. I carded the gloves from the table and combined them together. The result was a C ranked card, a pair of fire resistant gloves that would spew a dense fire smothering smokescreen out of its palm on command. It had a limited use, but would recharge slowly over time.

"I can't believe that worked." Ema commented after I finished describing the gloves to her.

"Honestly, I'm just as shocked. I'm guessing the fact that they are fire resistant gloves mixed with fire extinguishers helped smooth it out."

I flicked the card into the deck before lounging back on the couch. I was by no means a heavy hitter, but this this was a good start.