Yabusa, for the Phase Binder

Pulling up outside Yabusa Robotics' headquarters--located in a city conveniently near to where Hideki was based--you smiled as you confirmed that your virus had done its work. You had full mental control of Yabusa's electronic systems, and that made it easy to prevent the security cameras from detecting you, or your actions, as you slipped in past the card locks without needing any ID.

You'd given some thought on the ride over about what to do with the records of the project you were there to steal--and, for that matter, what to do about the engineers' memories of it. You'd thought about leaving a replica behind that would appear to function identically but fail upon testing, but ultimately you were going to stick with your original plan--take the Phase Binder, wipe all notes from the computers (including a little nanite-slime to get into the tape backups), and leave behind a few small "presents" to tweak memories as necessary to make everyone who worked on the project conclude that it had failed before they'd built a prototype.

That, you figured, should cover all your bases with regard to not risking having Yabusa build another one.

You'd also found notes about various things Yabusa had in the works to use with the Phase Binder should it prove successful. On their own, none of them were especially concerning, and in fact with a few modifications would be perfectly serviceable for their intended purposes without needing a human conjoined to them. So to make up for the loss of their most revolutionary breakthrough, you altered the schematics to make them suitable for ordinary operation, which also had the benefit of ensuring that nobody would ask questions about why they'd design a device that couldn't be used by normal people.

Reaching the lab where the prototype Phase Binder was stored, more security systems deactivated at your approach, until you were holding the device in your hands. Injecting it with a little nanite-slime, you smiled as you processed the data on this model.

It wasn't quite like what the schematics had indicated. As it turned out, limiting certain aspects of its effectiveness was proving a sticking point in development, so that the prototype, produced entirely as proof of concept, was substantially more versatile than anything intended for production.

The production model, for instance, was intended only to conjoin two objects and/or people located side by side, in a relatively small area of effect. The prototype Phase Binder that you held, on the other hand, had no such limitation, and while its range was hardly infinite, it could pull objects at least as far away as the opposite corners of the lab you were in and place the resulting single object anywhere near either where it was or where either of its targets had been.

You did appreciate the menus, though--or, rather, the lack thereof. If the Phase Binder had been a Hideki invention, its user interface would have allowed you to specify every minute detail of where on each object the merge was to take place, what orientation the final product should appear in, if a person were involved how much control that person should have over the object they were being bound to--or, if two people were involved, how much control each should have, and so on. Just doing a simple test would have taken a good two minutes of tapping through menus just to select all the defaults.

Yabusa, on the other hand, only intended the Phase Binder for use with objects specifically designed for binding with humans, with those objects communicating their preset merge points to the device, and the device selecting the merge spot on the person accordingly. While it could be used with other things, it could only do a best-guess analysis, with the result being something of a mystery until it was actually used.

But with, as you now had, direct mental control over the device, it didn't matter what sorts of options were ordinarily available, since you could dictate every minute detail of its operation.

Looking around the lab, you spotted two simple objects: a piece of paper, and a ballpoint pen. Directing the Phase Binder to merge them, you observed the result after thin tendrils that reminded you very strongly of Chloe's slime shot out from the device to encase the two items: a piece of paper that, when traced on with a finger, would produce neat ink strokes, and when shaken, would turn blank again. Some of Emily's childhood memories bubbled to the surface, and you smiled.

One substantial benefit to being Juno Ternion, rather than five separate beings, was that nobody could turn you against yourself. Someone like Zoe Hildebrand in particular could well have been stolen and controlled by someone for whatever purpose, with Zoe's life in danger if any attempt was made to rescue her. So too, you knew, with the Phase Binder: so long as it was separate from you, it could be taken away.

You weren't entirely sure what would happen, as you mentally set the Phase Binder to merge itself with you. It was possible you could end up permanently out of phase with the rest of reality. It was possible you'd simply lose the device altogether. You wouldn't be too surprised if it ended up looking like some sort of wrist-mounted cannon. If you just stored it inside yourself, you'd still have to take it out whenever you wanted to use it. The best way, you concluded, to make sure nobody else ever had use of it was to make it a part of yourself.

Taking a deep breath, you sent the necessary commands, double-checked the settings, and activated the Phase Binder.